Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi, everybody,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Polette. I'm
Speaker 1: an editor here at How Stuff Works, and sitting in
Speaker 1: the chair next to me as always his senior writer
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I predict this will be our second best
Speaker 1: podcast of all time. I had a feeling you were
Speaker 1: going to say that. Yeah, so this is our obligatory
Speaker 1: predictions for two thousand nine nine nine. Yeah, and uh,
Speaker 1: we have a whole list of things. I feel compelled
Speaker 1: to point out that these may or may not come true,
Speaker 1: and some of them might be a little far fetched.
Speaker 1: I think what we'll have to do is, at the
Speaker 1: end of two thousand nine, listen to this podcast and
Speaker 1: see how many of them we got absolutely completely wrong.
Speaker 1: Deal awesome? All right? You want to start? You want
Speaker 1: me to you go ahead? All right? I want to
Speaker 1: start with Apple. Okay. I think we're gonna find out
Speaker 1: who Steve jobs is successor is in two thousand nine.
Speaker 1: Maybe he won't leave the company, but I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna start hearing names of people who might be poised
Speaker 1: to take over the reins if for some reason, as
Speaker 1: many predict, he will be stepping down. Interesting, I can
Speaker 1: see Jobs resisting that as much as he recently can. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't. I can't imagine why he would say that.
Speaker 1: So my Apple prediction is that we are going to
Speaker 1: see I think two thousand nine will be possibly the
Speaker 1: swan song for the Mac desktop computer. Really yeah. Does
Speaker 1: that include the iMac or the power Mac only? I
Speaker 1: think um, I think it will include both. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is that's going out on a big limb there, I know,
Speaker 1: but but I just see that. You know, McIntosh desktop
Speaker 1: sales have been going kind of low for the last
Speaker 1: couple of quarters. Uh, in comparison to what they used
Speaker 1: to be. They're they're not growing as fast as they
Speaker 1: think they should. And I think with the current economic climate,
Speaker 1: we are looking at consumers who are going to be
Speaker 1: concerned more about getting the most for their money. And uh.
Speaker 1: And Mac computers are beautiful. They work really, really well,
Speaker 1: but they're also really expensive, especially when you compare it
Speaker 1: to a machine of similar power. Maybe not the best,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they're not as capable, but they're just
Speaker 1: as powerful. On the PC side for significantly less money.
Speaker 1: So do you think we'll see an Apple netbook this year? Oh?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I mean you think people will
Speaker 1: take if you take jobs At his word, he says
Speaker 1: that there's no way they would build a machine for
Speaker 1: under five dollars. That wasn't crap. That was where his words,
Speaker 1: not mine. So I would be very surprised if we
Speaker 1: saw something besides the MacBook Air hit the netbooks range.
Speaker 1: I have another little Apple projection. I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: start hearing about the next gadget, uh, the iPod, the iPhone,
Speaker 1: and I think they're I think we're gonna start hearing
Speaker 1: if if we don't even see it, I think people
Speaker 1: are gonna start conjecturing. And you know how we knew
Speaker 1: the iPhone was coming out before it came out, sort
Speaker 1: of like we did with a Google Phone. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna hear. We'll start hearing about the thing,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, it'll be rumored if nothing else going
Speaker 1: with the car I car. Yeah, Well, actually they were
Speaker 1: going to partner with v W from and it happened.
Speaker 1: I love that article that we have on that. It's
Speaker 1: still a good article. Okay, so, uh, let's move over
Speaker 1: to Microsoft. Then, yeah, I'm not a prediction for Windows seven.
Speaker 1: I grouped mind by company too, and then I have
Speaker 1: some general stuff. Most of mine's general, so I but
Speaker 1: for for Windows seven, my prediction, and this is so easy,
Speaker 1: it's it's a GIMMI but that Windows seven is gonna
Speaker 1: have an uphill battle because it has to erase all
Speaker 1: the bad blood that was generated by Windows Vista. And
Speaker 1: we should point out that a lot of that bad
Speaker 1: blood is probably, you know, completely unnecessary because although Windows
Speaker 1: Vista did have some problems early on, Microsoft addressed a
Speaker 1: lot of those issues and fixed all of those problems.
Speaker 1: And people who use Windows Vista without knowing what it
Speaker 1: is is when they're using the new patched version seem
Speaker 1: to think it's a great system and it's really good
Speaker 1: for things like you're a media center, that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and things where you have eighty billion gigabytes and memory. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to have a powerful machine, granted, but that's
Speaker 1: not what I'm getting at. Ok. So, I just think
Speaker 1: that Windows seven is going to uh have a rough
Speaker 1: time for the first few months that it's out. But
Speaker 1: if enterprises are eager to to upgrade because now they
Speaker 1: they're going to be running on a Windows system that's,
Speaker 1: you know, ten years old. Then I think that's where're
Speaker 1: going to see Windows seven flourish. Right as soon as
Speaker 1: businesses say okay, we can trust this operating system and
Speaker 1: they move to it, they're they're sitting pretty I have
Speaker 1: two Microsoft One of them is a guinea and one
Speaker 1: is a little bit more far fetched. One the gimme
Speaker 1: is that Web Office is going to launch the web
Speaker 1: version of Office. It's totally it's going to be out
Speaker 1: there and it's gonna have all the functionality and it's
Speaker 1: gonna go a head to head with Google Docs. Um.
Speaker 1: The other is this is my actual Uh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put a date in here. We're not a date, but
Speaker 1: I think at E three you're gonna hear about the Xbox. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the next generation of Xbox generation, whether it's the
Speaker 1: seven twenty or not. Well, they're ahead of the other
Speaker 1: two their head of of Nintendo, in their head of
Speaker 1: Sony as far as the Xbox release date, because they
Speaker 1: pushed the three sixty out the door pretty quickly after
Speaker 1: the original Xbox which released. So I think they're going
Speaker 1: to try to stay ahead of the game, and go
Speaker 1: ahead and and announce the seven twenty and give you
Speaker 1: a release date and may even be on the shelves
Speaker 1: by next Christmas. And you think so, Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: the typical console tends to be out between three and
Speaker 1: five years before the next generation, so it's about time,
Speaker 1: you're right, Okay, I can not that far fetch, but
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna hear about it at E three. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can. I can dig that, okay. Um, how about
Speaker 1: a Google rumor? Okay, okay. So I think that by
Speaker 1: the end of two thousand nine we will finally see
Speaker 1: a full fledged Google operate system. Yeah, web based operating system,
Speaker 1: it's almost there now. Chrome and the Google Docs suite
Speaker 1: together worked pretty well um as as a very kind
Speaker 1: of limited operating system. But I think we're gonna see
Speaker 1: the real thing before the end of two thousand nine.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, I mean they've already got a head start.
Speaker 1: They've got Android, right. I think they're going to see
Speaker 1: a huge boost and Android too, because there's going to
Speaker 1: be a bunch of new Android phones coming out in
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, and I think that will encourage developers
Speaker 1: to develop more. Um. Programs for Android, and so by
Speaker 1: the end of two thousand nine, Android is going to
Speaker 1: be a major player as well. All right, then, so
Speaker 1: there you go. I was going to leave the googling
Speaker 1: to you, since you're Mr Google. Yeah, but I was.
Speaker 1: I was going to touch on the game systems again. Um, Nintendo,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to have a quiet year. I
Speaker 1: don't think you're going to see a new system from them.
Speaker 1: I think you might see a new peripheral or two,
Speaker 1: because I think they're figuring out that that's a good
Speaker 1: way to to keep the system going and add more
Speaker 1: function any to it and sell more We's considering they're
Speaker 1: going nuts doing that now. But I think I think
Speaker 1: they're going to concentrate on rolling out more games, and
Speaker 1: I don't think you're gonna hear anything about the next
Speaker 1: the WE two, whatever it is. I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be quiet and stick with games and perfectly. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're still out. They're still outselling the other consoles by
Speaker 1: a significant margin. And uh um, it's interesting because I
Speaker 1: don't I think a lot of people who buy We's
Speaker 1: kind of get tired of the games that they have
Speaker 1: fairly quickly, and so we Nintendo has to has to
Speaker 1: try and figure out a way to re energize that
Speaker 1: customer base and keep them interested. I think that we
Speaker 1: Fit was a perfect thing for them to come out with,
Speaker 1: because that really did get people excited about the we
Speaker 1: Even people who had bought it thought it was really cool,
Speaker 1: played it for a couple of months and then just
Speaker 1: sort of set the side and didn't think about it again.
Speaker 1: Do we Fit managed to bring them back into it? Um?
Speaker 1: So yeah, I agree with you. I think the peripherals
Speaker 1: is probably the way they're gonna go. Well. Looking at
Speaker 1: Sony in the play station to the PlayStation two has
Speaker 1: extended its life considerably, um, you know, for selling more
Speaker 1: than any console ever. I think I think that's safe
Speaker 1: to say without researching that that they pretty much have.
Speaker 1: They've certainly been around forever. Speaking of Sony, I think
Speaker 1: that it that they're going to start working on the
Speaker 1: PS four because sale sales have the PS three have
Speaker 1: stagnated so much that the next PlayStation. I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna end of life the PlayStation three very early, and
Speaker 1: you may start hearing about the PlayStation four before the
Speaker 1: end of the year. Here's the thing about the PlayStation three,
Speaker 1: I think Um, I think that's death is premature. I
Speaker 1: agree with you that it's not doing as well as
Speaker 1: it needs to do. I think that's mainly because of
Speaker 1: the price. It's it's the highest priced console on the
Speaker 1: market right now, right and they, you know, Sony before
Speaker 1: Christmas two thousand and eight, they said they were not
Speaker 1: going to cut the price of the the PS three. Um,
Speaker 1: they weren't gonna bring it down for the holidays, and
Speaker 1: I think that really really hurt them. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that comeing out with a new console will help, because
Speaker 1: I don't think it's the fact that the PS three.
Speaker 1: I think the PS three is as great specs and
Speaker 1: it's perfect for the time that's in right now, it's
Speaker 1: just at the wrong price. But that that does bring
Speaker 1: me to something else that's somewhere though. Okay, I was
Speaker 1: going to say that I don't know if the developers
Speaker 1: are going to stay on board three if they're not
Speaker 1: selling machine. Well, I can yeah, I can definitely see
Speaker 1: that because there's no money in it for them to
Speaker 1: do that. Why why developed for that when they can
Speaker 1: just concentrate on just say the Xbox so um Blu
Speaker 1: Ray Blue Ray. Oh this is the make or break
Speaker 1: year for Blu Ray. I say, um, the prices for
Speaker 1: Blu Ray machines dropped dramatically for the holiday season in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, and uh, and so if we
Speaker 1: see people adopt it and then start buying movies, then
Speaker 1: sure Blu ray will stick around. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. I just don't think that the improvement between
Speaker 1: regular DVDs and Blue Ray DVDs is enough for most
Speaker 1: people to switch and adopt the Blu Ray technology and
Speaker 1: just concentrate on Blu Ray movies. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful format, but most people just don't see
Speaker 1: the value in that kind of incremental important in uh,
Speaker 1: you know, improvement in performance. So I think two thousand
Speaker 1: nine maybe the death of Blu Ray, maybe a long,
Speaker 1: slow death. I don't think it's gonna be like the
Speaker 1: h D d v D where it was like, oh
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling so good. I'm not feeling so good.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm dead. That was as HD d D
Speaker 1: for early eight. Sorry Toshiba. Yeah, um, okay, I was
Speaker 1: trying to I was looking at my notes and trying
Speaker 1: to figure where I want to go next. Um, I'll
Speaker 1: just keep going chronologically and where I wrote it down. Um,
Speaker 1: I think the Linux community is gonna start taking shots
Speaker 1: at Microsoft. I think they're working right now. Actually I
Speaker 1: know they're working right now on getting people to make
Speaker 1: prettier software for Linux. I think you're gonna see Lennox
Speaker 1: starting to make in roads. I think with cloud computing
Speaker 1: and some of the and and the success of things
Speaker 1: like open Office. Um, there are basically you can download
Speaker 1: a copy of well various different flavors of Lenox and
Speaker 1: install it on your computer and have a productivity suite
Speaker 1: and an instant messaging client. Uh, you can use gemp
Speaker 1: to do your your images. You know what. It may
Speaker 1: be time for Lennox to start making a move as
Speaker 1: a community want the different developers now, I mean it's
Speaker 1: a confederation of people, so who knows, But especially when
Speaker 1: you made like Microsoft is moving more and more towards
Speaker 1: the cloud. That's cloud computing. By the way, that's one
Speaker 1: of my other predictions will be a household term before
Speaker 1: the two thousand nine is over right now. It's something
Speaker 1: that we in the tech industry talk about a lot,
Speaker 1: but you wouldn't necessarily hear anyone like the average Joe
Speaker 1: who's not in the tech industry wouldn't normally know that
Speaker 1: that term. I think that will change by the end
Speaker 1: of two thousand nine. Um, so you beat me to that.
Speaker 1: I was page two of my n Yeah, and Microsoft
Speaker 1: is really moving towards that that model, I think you know,
Speaker 1: but there there is still a value to having a
Speaker 1: machine that can run things locally, and some people recognize
Speaker 1: that and some people kind of dismiss it. Um, And
Speaker 1: I think the Linux community community can totally jump on
Speaker 1: that and you'll see things like again like the Android platform,
Speaker 1: which is based off of the Linux kernel. When you
Speaker 1: see the success of these kind of platforms, that also
Speaker 1: lends credence to Linux being a an operating system that's
Speaker 1: worthy of competition with these other established companies. Yea yea. Um.
Speaker 1: That's actually a good segue to something else that I
Speaker 1: had on my list, which was I think two thousand
Speaker 1: nine is going to be the year in the netbook
Speaker 1: in general, and m I'm contrary to your thinking on
Speaker 1: Apple because I think that it may it may actually
Speaker 1: go the other way. Now it's been going people have
Speaker 1: been buying more notebooks than desktops for a while. A
Speaker 1: couple of years, I guess, and netbooks are certainly super popular.
Speaker 1: But I think people are gonna get tired of lugging
Speaker 1: their laptops around and they're gonna say, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is all in the cloud. I can get a
Speaker 1: nice desktop at home and have one at work and
Speaker 1: not even mess with it. I don't even want to
Speaker 1: carry my briefcase or my backpack with me. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna have this on the cloud. Interesting, So I think
Speaker 1: that it it may actually go the other way, and
Speaker 1: that would be totally going out on the lamb. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna you're gonna enjoy picking me apart of because
Speaker 1: laptops are going to be up. I have written down
Speaker 1: right here. Mobile devices will take over the computer world.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. You've got the iPhone, You've got hey,
Speaker 1: the iPod Touch, You've got other smartphones, you've got netbooks.
Speaker 1: Why carry around a full size laptop computer? Sure? Okay,
Speaker 1: no desktops at smaller device. Yeah, I'm I just here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I think that for most people's computing needs,
Speaker 1: the smartphones, the netbooks, the cloud, computing takes care of
Speaker 1: almost everything they need. Yeah, for the average consumer, the
Speaker 1: people that are that this obviously does not apply to
Speaker 1: our people like power gamers who need a powerful machine
Speaker 1: on this stuff. Um, those are the people. So I
Speaker 1: think desktop computers will go to those niche markets, So
Speaker 1: the gamers and the enterprise people who will still need
Speaker 1: a desktop machine or you know a lot of places
Speaker 1: still use desktop machines. We don't. We use laptops for
Speaker 1: most of our machines. We do have a few desktops
Speaker 1: in the house. Stuff works universe. Um, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: would be shocked if the desktop computer has as strong
Speaker 1: a foothold in the consumer market as you seem to suggest.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the year, we'll listen to
Speaker 1: this and find out who's right, because that's a good,
Speaker 1: good one. We we we have two different takes on
Speaker 1: this well, and and that's part of the fun of
Speaker 1: doing this podcast is we're playing around with ideas that
Speaker 1: might happen. So we'll see, we'll see what happens. So, um,
Speaker 1: you got one, Yeah, okay, Facebook will put the finishing
Speaker 1: move on my Space, the tombstone pile driver, the atomic
Speaker 1: leg drop, whatever you wanna call it. I think, uh,
Speaker 1: I think my space is busy shoveling the dirt in
Speaker 1: around itself now, so my Facebook will really just have
Speaker 1: to show up and put the tombstone. And I think
Speaker 1: one of the things that's really going to to uh
Speaker 1: contribute to this as Facebook Connect, yeah, which of course
Speaker 1: is their open I d U kind of approach where
Speaker 1: you can use the Facebook profile information you have to
Speaker 1: log into other services, which automatically ports the information into
Speaker 1: those services so you don't have to create a new profile. Um.
Speaker 1: More and more sites are gonna start using this sort
Speaker 1: of stuff, and I think a lot of them are
Speaker 1: going to look at Facebook as being the preferable vendor
Speaker 1: because you've got, like the Google has its open source
Speaker 1: I d and that's a very powerful name as well.
Speaker 1: But you look at Facebook's user base and they have
Speaker 1: hundreds of you know, like a hundred million people using
Speaker 1: it on a regular basis, not just users, but people
Speaker 1: who go there sometimes multiple times a day. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: a big user base to to grab to get your
Speaker 1: people to you know, let's let's use that that way
Speaker 1: that it gives them the incident to make a profile
Speaker 1: on our page and we've got them. In a related note, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, uh, I think Twitter is going to either
Speaker 1: go down or get really perilously close to it unless
Speaker 1: they come up with some kind of business model. They
Speaker 1: need to partner with somebody that they need a business model.
Speaker 1: Come on, they don't need a business model. Well, tell
Speaker 1: me how they're getting income in this economy, and maybe
Speaker 1: you can convince me venture capital, which I have predicted
Speaker 1: will dry up in two thousand nine. Um okay, I
Speaker 1: see your point. I hope that Twitter finds a business
Speaker 1: model because I've become increasingly reliant upon it. So but
Speaker 1: now I can I can see where you're going there.
Speaker 1: I don't like that story. I don't either. Let's get it.
Speaker 1: Let's get us something else that's better. Well, I've got
Speaker 1: I've got a lot of little ideas we don't have
Speaker 1: to get into in great detail. I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: see um Echo Star finally build since they acquired Sling Media,
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna start seeing integrated machines that have
Speaker 1: the Sling technology built in. And I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: see place shifting become more prevalent. I also think you're
Speaker 1: gonna see ti Vo either get acquired or go under,
Speaker 1: because they're at a point now where you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: they're fighting Dish and a lot of other people off
Speaker 1: with lawsuits for infringement of of technology. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think they're at the point and they're too good
Speaker 1: to go under because the the operating system on that
Speaker 1: machine is amazing. UM. So I'm just saying, alright, I've
Speaker 1: got the last mile problem. It's gonna come to a head,
Speaker 1: all right, because we've got more and more people going online,
Speaker 1: getting the broadband connections to the internet, uh, and they
Speaker 1: expect to have that lightning fast service. And if enough
Speaker 1: people connect to that last mile, the last mile being
Speaker 1: the space between the backbone of the Internet and your house. Essentially,
Speaker 1: if enough people are clogging up those tubes to use
Speaker 1: a serially inappropriate phrase, um, then the slower your service
Speaker 1: is going to be. And as customers get more and
Speaker 1: more savvy of this, they're going to demand their I
Speaker 1: s p s upgrade the system and address this last
Speaker 1: mile problem, especially as you see companies embrace the Internet
Speaker 1: as a way of distributing media even more than they
Speaker 1: already have. As that continues to increase and people begin
Speaker 1: to consume more and more of their media through the Internet,
Speaker 1: they're going to need that problem fixed or there will
Speaker 1: be hell to pay I had a feeling you're going
Speaker 1: to say that, Yeah, it was a prediction. Um, okay.
Speaker 1: I a long time ago we bought a really cheap
Speaker 1: TV by this UH company called Samsung, and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, for the longest time that they were a
Speaker 1: lobe and player. Well they reinvented themselves to take on
Speaker 1: Sony and another company, gold Star came. I don't know LG.
Speaker 1: So I have a prediction. Is who that the next
Speaker 1: company is going to be. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a SUS Yes, yeah, Well see the thing is they
Speaker 1: have an aries smart fountain that they just introduced not
Speaker 1: too long ago, so they're not just producing netbooks. And
Speaker 1: that's the way that these other guys, you know, they
Speaker 1: worked up. They at the low end electronics and then
Speaker 1: they built themselves up and you never know who's that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's certainly the Chinese electronics manufacturers in general. I
Speaker 1: think we're going to see a lot more of Well
Speaker 1: I have I have only one more? Okay, why okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so here's my last one. Okay, it's also a gimme. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Green technology will be huge. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: a SUS has some very green technologies. They have some
Speaker 1: I think grass laptops. Yeah, so you know, well, and
Speaker 1: it's just becomes it's become the word your really, I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole still have to do it now because it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's not just an environmental it's also economical
Speaker 1: and marketing and marketing. Yeah, they're all these different reasons
Speaker 1: why people are embracing the whole green movement. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it's it's it started off as kind of a niche thing.
Speaker 1: You know, you'd be like, oh, those hippies with the
Speaker 1: green movement. Well, no, it's no I'm one of those hippies. Now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's gonna be even bigger, I think in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine, and I think we're gonna probably see several
Speaker 1: scandals as well, or at least interesting stories about companies
Speaker 1: that are claiming to be really green. But if you
Speaker 1: dig a little deeper, you'll see that maybe those claims
Speaker 1: are not all accurate. They're greenwashing. Yeah you might say, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, well I had a few, but they can
Speaker 1: all be shortish. Um. I think that HDTV prices have
Speaker 1: hit their peak. I think they're gonna start stagnating in
Speaker 1: a big way and maybe even come down. Since prices
Speaker 1: have been deflating anyway. Um, I think we're gonna hear
Speaker 1: something serious from Amazon on the kindle too, but not
Speaker 1: from serious. Yeah, no, it can too. Okay, that makes sense. Um,
Speaker 1: I think best Buy is gonna go in chapter eleven,
Speaker 1: Oh because I think best by You think you think
Speaker 1: that this brick and mortar is gonna go? Yeah? I think, well,
Speaker 1: I think they're they're hurting. I think it's possible that
Speaker 1: both Circuit City and Best Buy may survive. But the
Speaker 1: only way they're going to do it is by you know,
Speaker 1: hauling themselves out of the mud. Uh. I mean Radio
Speaker 1: Shack preceded the two of them. Um, and they may
Speaker 1: have to close a bunch of stores, you know, comp
Speaker 1: us a. Uh So it's it's entirely possible. You know,
Speaker 1: best Buy is not the soul company to be unaffected.
Speaker 1: I think they may also drop into chapter eleven. Um,
Speaker 1: I think y'all who's gonna gonna stay independent? Whereas I
Speaker 1: think that y'all who will either be bought or will collapse.
Speaker 1: Speaking of collapse, I think A O L may completely
Speaker 1: go away. I mean you you just may hear them disappear.
Speaker 1: You know, they'll be there's their services and things may
Speaker 1: still carry the name. But I think it's going to
Speaker 1: be basically it's funny because they were they absorbed another company,
Speaker 1: a giant old media company, and that's the part that's
Speaker 1: actually still surviving to some extent. Speaking of old media,
Speaker 1: I think more books and or magazines and newspapers are
Speaker 1: going to go only like the Christian Science Monitor, PC Magazine,
Speaker 1: US News and World War Poort. They all did that
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. I think you're going to
Speaker 1: see a lot more of those in two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: especially since these these companies are staying afloat. You know,
Speaker 1: they're they're still surviving, they're still doing good work. Um,
Speaker 1: they're sort of paving the way. Actually, I think DRM
Speaker 1: may go start. People are going to start saying, you
Speaker 1: know what, this DRM thing is just not working for us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean that's one of those rumors that comes
Speaker 1: around and then nothing happens. I'm starting a new one, yeah,
Speaker 1: because because just recently there was one about iTunes getting
Speaker 1: rid of all DRM and that didn't pan out. Since
Speaker 1: I am a recent purchaser of the game Spore, which
Speaker 1: on the previous podcast I said may never come out.
Speaker 1: They they have had some DRM issues with secure UM,
Speaker 1: and they are doing what iTunes does where you can
Speaker 1: decommission a computer if you need to to open up
Speaker 1: a license spot. I think that the secure ONM thing
Speaker 1: is a big headache for e A. I think uh
Speaker 1: iTunes and Apple they've had problems with dr M. I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be one of those things we're
Speaker 1: gonna say, you know what, We're going to get more
Speaker 1: customers by not encoding this stuff. Sure, UM and I
Speaker 1: think trade shows like c S, I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: start seeing huge declines and then amount of traffic two
Speaker 1: shows like like that. I'll let you know when I
Speaker 1: get back. All right, Yeah, if it's a waste land
Speaker 1: tumbleweeds across the show fuel a lot easier to get
Speaker 1: across the floor that it would be. Maybe I'll be
Speaker 1: able to keep Alton on my toes this time. There
Speaker 1: you go. I'm tapped. I don't have any more good
Speaker 1: because I'm done too. Okay, all right, Well that was
Speaker 1: an interesting discussion. We will see in a year's time
Speaker 1: how accurate we were, how close to the truth, and
Speaker 1: if we were way off, then we'll know better when
Speaker 1: we're doing our predictions. For two I guess that's true.
Speaker 1: We'll still have to come up with some some wild
Speaker 1: and crazy yeah, because it's no fun exactly. The economy
Speaker 1: will be bad, yeah, so we'll avoid doing that. But
Speaker 1: we have many of these topics covered on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. You can read everything from Facebook, yeah,
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