Technology: 6 tech toys to buy in 2017

Nintendo SwitchThe big bad boy of 90rsquos gaming will be entering the gaming space once again in 2017 with its flagship product ldquoNintendo Switchrdquo This time Nintendo has filled in the gaming niches like single player party gaming and even esports There are at least five different ways to use the Switch It can even be connected to a TV and dismantled and put in a pocket Games will be available on cartridgelike game cards and will include Mario Kart a brand new super Mario game as well as an unspecified NBA gameLaunch date March 2017 Price 300Xbox ScorpioAlthough the new Xbox Scorpio will be sitting alongside the Xbox One and Xbox Sim donrsquot expect it to be anything like the others While the console remains an Xbox at heart the device comes with a huge jump in power performance and multitasking The Scorpio is capable of transferring 320GBsec meaning it is most likely equipped with 12GB of GDDR5 RAM unlike the PS4 and Xbox One which are capable of hitting speeds of 176GBsec and 68Gbsec respectively Although most of the prior Xbox games will be able to run on Scorpio donrsquot expect Scorpio specific games to work on previous versions of the consoles such as the OnePrice TBALaunch date Winter 2017Microsoft may soon launch 200 VR headsets for Windows 10VR headsets for Windows 10Up until now virtual reality gaming for PCs had been limited unlike the mobile platform where the Gear VR and Daydream View have been going strong Although the latter can track your head movement but not its position in space the gaming becomes a stationary experience Enter Microsoftrsquos Windows 10 Virtual Reality Headsets a wholly unique platform for VR gaming While HTCrsquos Vive and Oculusrsquo Rift use their own customised software Microsoft is attempting to create its own VR platforms with Windows Holographic The headset can be controlled by voice commands and hand gestures as well and are tethered unlike most other VR headsets Price 300Launch date First half of 2017Blackberryrsquos new devicesIn September 2016 Blackberry had announced that it would stop manufacturing smartphones so as to focus on services and software business However two new phones ie DTEK50 and DTEK60 were launched by the company this year in India officially The company has signed a longterm licensing deal with Chinese manufacturer TCL allowing the latter to build Blackberrybranded smartphones and these are the ones you should look forward to in 2017Launch date Not specifiedPrice Not specifiedGoogle AndromedaIn October 2016 Google revealed its plans of merging its Android and Chrome OS Called ldquoAndromedardquo according to reports by Android Police and 9to5 Google it is expected to become the singular platform through which Google is accessed Some reports claim that Andromeda is the result of Google introducing Chrome features to Android and not the other way around other sources point to a device internally named ldquoBisonrdquo a hybrid computing gander thatrsquos apparently already been nicknamed the ldquoPixel 3rdquoPrice Not disclosedLaunch date Mid 2017Google smartwatchesGoogle is expected to launch two of its new flagship Android Wear 20 smartwatches in Q1 of 2017 and will be the first ones to launch with the new platform Following the launch of the new devices most existing Android Wear watches will get the update to Android Wear 20 The new platform includes standalone apps that donrsquot require a phone It will also have support for Android Pay as well as support for Allo Googlersquos voicecontrolled assistant which was recently launched on the Pixel smartphones and Home SpeakerPrice TBALaunch date Q1 2017