Three Tips for Staying on Top of Tech Trends

PROVEIT  |  September 1, 2018

Twenty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine. That’s the number of patents assigned in 2017 … to only the top-five technology companies in the U.S.

That’s more than 7 percent of total domestic patents issued last year. If that isn’t a mind-blowing proxy for the breakneck pace of global innovation and development, you just might be too absorbed in posting your latest Instagram Story or listening to Spotify’s newest recommendation to notice (which kind of illustrates the point).

With emergent technologies like autonomous vehicles, augmented reality, and bioengineering multiplying faster than the proverbial rabbits from your high school algebra class, you need a way of staying current without drowning in a sea of technological bunnies. Here are three tips for riding the crest of the information wave when it comes to cutting-edge tech:

Read TechCrunch

Since its birth in 2005, TechCrunch has become the stalwart of hyper-current tech news. From startups working on disruptive ideas to behemoths innovating outside the traditional corporate mold, TC’s articles are pithy, bite-sized brain snacks that keep you in the know better that virtually any source out there.

For quick updates on the day’s top stories, subscribe to The Daily Crunch email newsletter.

Keep tabs on the Five Horsemen

Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, and Elon Musk. It might sound grossly cliché, but sometimes the obvious things are the best things.

These titans of tech are pushing the boundaries so hard and have their fingers in so many next-gen pies that you can get a great picture of where the world is heading just by checking in on their exploits. You can follow their social feeds, read their press releases, and listen to their interviews and annual meetings. You’ll be a better — er, at least more enlightened — person for it.

Test drive the Top Apps

This is where tech gets personal. It’s not as if most of us can take a spin in a self-driving car or throw on a pair of Magic Leap’s (controversial) AR goggles, but virtually all of us can — and do — spend a couple of hours a week using a wide variety of apps on our smartphones.

So instead of going on autopilot with the same few applications for months on end, take a few minutes each week to download and test out the top trending apps in the App Store or Play Store. If this feels too much like jumping on the much-abhorred bandwagon, just remind yourself that it’s imperative to have good understanding of what’s influencing the masses. And don’t hate yourself too much if you end up having fun in the process (sidebar: you will).

The world of tech is racing into the future at an unprecedented rate, so use these three simple tricks to shortcut the learning curve and at least keep the dust cloud in view.