2022’s top 10 tech stories embrace a huge variety of disciplines, from books about brilliant designs old and new, to insight into how Swedish superstars ABBA made a triumphant digital comeback. Enduring design was top of the class, as was anything that approached our tech-saturated lives with a different twist. Read on for our technology top 10.
TOP 10 TECH STORIES OF 2022
01. Analogue Pocket puts gaming nostalgia in the palm of your hand
Tech Top Ten 2022: Analogue Pocket
Analogue’s Pocket finally arrived to acclaim and adoration from the growing ranks of retro gamers. The beautifully designed device continues to be updated, with support for more systems and better functionality being added all the time.
02. Hands on with new Nothing Phone (1): a clearly different smartphone
Tech Top Ten 2022: Nothing Phone (1)
Another long-awaited new arrival was Nothing’s debut smartphone, the Phone (1). We previewed the defiantly different Android device and then welcomed the finished device into our lives.
03. Wallpaper* wants... avant-garde audio systems that sound as good as they look
Tech Top Ten 2022: Hi-Fi Rose RA180
At the high end of the market, manufacturers continued to build bespoke audio systems that stood out for their appearance as well as their acoustic properties. Back in the summer, we rounded up five of the best avant-garde audio systems.
04. Prodrive’s new racing simulator is shaped by Callum to be front of the grid
Tech Top Ten 2022: Prodrive Racing Simulator by Callum Designs
Acclaimed automotive designer Ian Callum turned his consultancy’s focus on the digital realm with a new high-tech driving simulator for motorsport specialists Prodrive.
05. Six minimal devices designed to take the stress out of tech
Tech Top Ten 2022: ReMarkable 2 Tablet
Our round-up of technological minimalism struck a chord with readers, indicating there’s a strong desire for devices that aren’t constantly connected, needlessly nagging, or endlessly showcasing the very latest in processing power or graphical greatness.
06. ABBA Voyage director Baillie Walsh on songs, sequins, and virtual spaces
Tech Top Ten 2022: ABBA Voyage
Director Baillie Walsh gave us behind the scenes insights into the year’s most sparkling entertainment event, ABBA Voyage. This blend of digital performance with live music and out-of-this-world lightshows continues to entrance.
07. Love Hultén’s eccentric electronics projects chronicled in new book
Tech Top Ten 2022: Love Hultén's Monograph
A new self-published monograph from electronics designer Love Hultén gave a welcome insight into his creative process and elaborate bespoke musical projects.
08. Yamaha Design Laboratory creates experimental interactive musical devices
Tech Top Ten 2022: Rhythmbot concepts by Yamaha Design Laboratory
More music, this time courtesy of Yamaha’s Design Laboratory. The line between sculpture, performance and playfulness was ably captured by these four conceptual devices.
09. Jony Ive and Apple: three decades that changed design
Jony Ive's cover for Wallpaper* December 2017
A retrospective look at Jony Ive’s Apple years, perhaps the most significant period of industrial design innovation in the modern era
10. Teenage Engineering announces OP-1 Field, the ultimate new musical device
Tech Top Ten 2022: Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field
Swedish synthesiser wizards Teenage Engineering took their ten-year-old icon, the OP-1, and gave it an update for the new decade. Compact, expensive and meticulously designed, the OP-1 Field keeps this cult object at the forefront of musicians’ wish lists.
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The Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II glides into the DMs of the world’s 1 per centThe Series II version of the ‘Baby Rolls’ has slight but sophisticated revisions to keep this hefty saloon in the targets of an increasingly idiosyncratic and individualist buyer
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The 24 best photographs of 2024, shot for the pages of Wallpaper*Photography editor, Sophie Gladstone, completes her year in review, with some personal highlights from Wallpaper* photographers in 2024
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Time, beauty, history – all are written into trees in Karimoku Research Center's debut Tokyo exhibitionThe layered world of forests – and their evolving relationship with humans – is excavated and reimagined in 'The Age of Wood', a Tokyo exhibition at Karimoku Research Center
