Competition between the world's electronics manufacturers seems to be getting ever more intense - which is good news for gadget lovers.
From phones to cameras to set-top boxes, every device seems to get smarter every few months, thanks no doubt to Moore's Law. And now it seems any new product has got to have something else - an internet connection. I've been looking at two new gadgets whose appeal could be transformed by the addition of connectivity.
The last time I met a Blackberry boss it ended rather badly. Eighteen months ago Mike Lazaridis, then co-CEO of RIM, took exception to a question and terminated our encounter. So I was very grateful that Thorsten Heins, now in sole charge, agreed to meet me this week and give me so much of his time.
He took over in January, after Mr Lazaridis and his co-CEO Jim Balsillie stepped down, battered by the crisis at the Blackberry company which probably explained the tensions of our interview the previous spring.
Steve Ballmer's controversial time as Microsoft's boss has seen the company eclipsed by competitors such as Apple. Will Windows 8 and a new tablet be enough to reverse the trend?
To his Microsoft colleagues he's the forceful, slightly scary leader who has kept his company moving ahead through challenging times and is now about to wow consumers with innovative new products.
In a hectic year, the tectonic plates of technology are shifting again. In the space of a few days, three giants of this industry - Apple, Microsoft and Google - are holding major product launches, and it is tablets which are centre stage.
Apple kicked things off last night with what had been billed the iPad mini event, but turned out to be a rather larger scale "refresh" of the range than expected, with updated desktop and laptop computers, and a fourth version of the full-size iPad.
The EE 4G service goes live next week giving the owners of Orange and T-Mobile a unique opportunity to take business away from their rivals.
We were missing one vital piece of information about the service - but now we have the tariffs and the whole industry is examining what amounts to a huge gamble on customer behaviour.
Now I'm sure that Joanna Shields is relishing the challenge of her new job as a standard-bearer for British technology firms. But it must be easier to leave Facebook now than it was just a few months ago when the social network was the hottest, fastest growing, most exciting company on the planet. And if more of its top talent decides that there are now more interesting challenges elsewhere, that could be a big problem.
Make no mistake - the appointment of Joanna Shields as the new boss of London's Tech City cluster is a big coup for No 10. Getting one of Europe's most high profile technology leaders to take on what has been a relatively low profile job should do wonders for the image of London as a hot place for hi-tech.
Ms Shields is the European boss of Facebook, and has overseen a big expansion of the business since arriving in 2010. Prior to that, she was chief executive of another social network Bebo, where she helped to pull off one of the best deals in web history, selling the company to AOL for $850m - only for the buyer to sell it on for $10 a couple of years later.
Can the government run one decent and cost-effective website, which gives customers speedy access to vital information and services? Unlikely, you might think given a track record of over spending on far too many sites that deliver a poor user experience at a hefty cost.
But today sees the launch of www.gov.uk which seeks to change all that. The vision is of one website to rule them all - or rather a single destination for the government's customers rather than more than 400 different addresses spread across the various Whitehall departments.
Live in a remote part of Britain and want superfast broadband? Well you could wait until BT, Virgin or some government-funded scheme hooks you up - or you could just do it yourself.
That's what a project called Tegola has done, beaming broadband from a college on the Isle of Skye to a number of remote communities which would otherwise be left without a decent internet connection.
Now that Steve Jobs has gone, who is the most powerful and influential CEO in the technology world? My nomination is Jeff Bezos, founder of the first e-commerce business to make a real splash, and still running Amazon 18 years on.
Not only has he shown real tenacity and long-term vision in repeatedly starting risky ventures amid investor disquiet, he is also a charming and interesting man - not something you can say of every tech CEO. Kind enough too, when we met him in London, to warn us about his explosive laugh which can rattle windows, and send the needles on recording equipment into the red zone.
As I predicted, peace has broken out in the 4G wars that have pitched the operators against Ofcom. The deal unveiled by the Culture Secretary Maria Miller on Tuesday night should see all the operators offering 4G by next summer.
But in the short term, EE - the owner of Orange and T-Mobile - will have the field to itself.
It's a crucial meeting at which Britain's hi-tech future could be decided. Later on Tuesday, the new Culture Secretary Maria Miller presides over peace talks between the chief executives of the major mobile phone operators and Ofcom's boss Ed Richards.
The issue at stake - can the 4G auction be accelerated enough to convince O2 and Vodafone not to go to war with Ofcom over what they see as favouritism towards their rival Everything Everywhere?
The e-reader and tablet markets are sorted, right? Amazon owns the e-reader business with its Kindle, Apple's iPad dominates in tablets, with a bit of room at the cheaper end for Google's Nexus and the Kindle Fire. But a giant US book chain begs to differ.
Barnes and Noble has unveiled its plans for an assault on the UK market this morning. It will be offering British customers its Nook range of e-readers, along with new colour tablet computers, the Nook HD and the Nook HD+.
Where are we going to find new jobs and growth in the British economy? Software, social media and mobile phone app development? Not according to Sir James Dyson - he says the government is ignoring the importance of hardware and engineering, which provide far more jobs.
When I spoke to Sir James at the opening of the Royal College of Art's Dyson Building, he seemed mightily irritated about the UK's attitude to product design and engineering. He has put his money into a building which will, among other things, provide a home for start-up firms, mostly producing tangible products rather than software.
Apple and Google used to be very close, with YouTube and Google Maps given pride of place on every iPhone, iPad and iPod. But since the launch of Android, which saw Google become a rival force in the mobile market, they have been increasingly at odds.
Now Apple's new mobile operating system iOS6 has arrived without a YouTube app and, far more controversially, a new mapping system.
Take two industries trying to adapt to the digital era, music and publishing. One is packed with bright young ruthlessly ambitious people who have to be aware of the latest trends - the other is, well, publishing. So which is coping better? Publishing, believe it or not.
The latest figures from the Publishers Association make surprisingly positive reading for anyone in the book trade. For some years, readers of specialist, technical and academic titles have been going digital - now the general reader is embracing e-books.
Such has been the build-up, that I suspect you've already heard quite enough about the iPhone 5. So, apart from saying that it looks to me like a respectable upgrade that does enough to satisfy the Apple community, without winning over the larger Android fanbase, let's leave it there. What is more interesting is where it leaves the row over 4G in Britain.
From the moment Apple's Phil Schiller put up a map of the UK with the new EE logo on it, the cat was among the pigeons. He was describing which companies around the world would be able to offer the new iPhone's fast 4G networking, and in Britain that is the owner of Orange and T-Mobile.
For Apple, the latest version of the phone which supplies the lion's share of its enormous profits was always going to be crucial to its financial future.
For the rest of the mobile phone industry, today's launch was something to worry about - how would it change this fast-shifting landscape?
It didn't start too well. For the first 20 minutes of Everything Everywhere's big 4G launch at the Science Museum we were treated to a lecture on the brilliance of its new brand, EE, and the strategy behind it. When we were told to sit through a "short mood film" about the brand, I fully expected Siobhan from Perfect Curve in the BBC comedy Twenty Twelve to take to the stage.
But when it came to 4G itself, there was plenty to get your teeth into. By Christmas, the new fast network, already operational in four cities, would be available to 20 million people in urban areas across the UK, from Belfast to Derby, from Glasgow to Southampton.
Rory has been watching the technology scene like a hawk for the last 15 years.
From the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s to the rise of Google and Facebook, from the Psion organiser to the iPad, he's covered all the big gadget and business stories, and interviewed just about everyone who's played a part in the story of the web.
Dot.Rory, his previous blog, was named among the Top 100 blogs by the Sunday Times
He aims to look at the impact of the internet and digital technology on our lives and businesses. Rory has been described as "the non-geek's geek", and freely admits that he came late to technology - but he aims to explain its significance to anyone with an interest in the subject.
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