WEBVTT - What will the Internet be like in 5 years? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.720 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.720 Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette. I 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.000 am an editor at how stuff Works dot com and 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:24.919 sitting across from me as he always does when we 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:28.440 record this podcast, as senior writer Jonathan Strickland, I'll probably 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.240 be some kind of scientists building inventions in my space lab. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:39.040 In space, yeah, but will you be blinded with science? Maybe? 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.000 This entire episode comes as a part of an experiment. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.200 I went on to Google Plus and I posted there 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.000 saying that we were going to record an episode and 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.720 that we were hoping to get some suggestions. And we've 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.160 got lots and lots and lots of suggestions, many of 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.680 which we hope to tackle in future episodes. But today 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.600 this Google Plus first, So I guess we're gonna have 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.319 to come up with a new sound effect. Here's our 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:14.080 Google Plus suggestion. This comes from Keegan, who says, what 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:16.200 about a look at how we will interact with the 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.360 Internet five years from now? So Chris and I are 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:24.680 putting on our press digitator prognostication hats and we're gonna 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.280 stare into the future until our eyes get all blurry, 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.480 and we're gonna tell you what we see. So, um, 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.280 Internet five years, how are we gonna interact with it? Go? 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.960 Uh that's a good question, now, um it would it 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.640 would be easy for me to say that that tablets 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.560 are going to be there simply because they're so hot 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.800 right now. I definitely think mobile is is primarily the 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:55.720 way people are going now. UM, don't get the impression that, um, 0:01:55.760 --> 0:02:00.640 I've given up on uh computers, specifically desktop peters, because 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.320 I still enjoy not having to haul around a lot 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:07.320 of technology with me and and having just a small device. Um, 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.080 but I enjoy having the uh the real estate of 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:13.519 a nice giant screen now. Um. You know. But I 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:15.679 think mobile is is the way I think people want 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.360 to be able to get stuff anywhere and everywhere. So 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.000 people are going to be designing content, um to fit 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.880 multiple needs. Yeah, we're already seeing a lot of that today, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:27.560 where you see a lot of websites that have a 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.120 mobile version and a full version, and then we're seeing 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.400 more and more smartphones that just bypass the mobile version 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:36.680 goes straight to the full version because they are capable 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.560 of displaying an entire web page upon their you know, 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.280 their screens, and of course tablets same sort of thing. Uh. 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.600 I agree. I think that the Internet in five years 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.400 will be much more pervasive in the sense that, uh, 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.880 mostly from the stuff that we tend to carry with us, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.000 but that will be able to go from place to 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:58.880 place and be able to tag it tap into the 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.120 Internet pretty much anywhere we go. I mean, that's almost 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:03.919 the case now as it is, but it should be 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:05.920 even more so in the future. That we'll get to 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.639 a point where it will be really unusual when you're 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.440 in a space where you cannot access the Internet at 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.680 least any place when you're on land, and maybe when 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.160 you're like out at sea or something, that might still 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.280 be kind of unusual unless you have to have some 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.400 sort of satellite modem. But um, otherwise, I think, yeah, 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.919 you pretty much have the Internet at your fingertips um 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:30.160 from a variety of devices. And we're talking about five 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:32.959 years from now. So if you think about it, the 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.160 iPhone came out in two thousand seven, so as the 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.760 recording of this podcast, that was four years ago, and 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:40.760 already I think you could argue that the iPhone has 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.400 had a huge impact on at least the way we 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:50.800 consume the Internet and and also how developers create applications 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.200 for the Internet. Some of the a lot of the 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:55.360 things that are on the iPhone and on Android and 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:59.920 on other smartphone operating systems as well. Um, they aren't 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.960 necessarily a web browser, but they do tie into the 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:08.600 Internet in some way, right, Like like, for example, with Google, 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.760 I have Google Navigator and that uses Google Maps, and 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.560 it uses GPS in order to help me navigate through 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:20.159 to a destination. Um, you know, that's something that we 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:22.960 wouldn't have really thought about, you know, ten years ago. 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:26.960 Then we started getting GPS units to really hit the market, 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.240 and now smartphones are kind of displacing those. So five 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.720 years from now, I imagine that, um, smartphones will be 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:39.400 pretty much the the the most common kind of mobile 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.200 device that people will be carrying around with them. Capable 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.080 of that, we may finally start seeing some things like 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:49.120 some smart watches that are actually worth purchasing. I mean, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:51.800 there's been smart watches in the past that have been 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.960 kind of interesting but just haven't quite worked. And I 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.720 think part of that is, you know, there are a 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.480 lot of issues you gotta work around like how how 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.080 do you minute tourize the components to that size where 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:07.719 it's still a compelling product, right right, And and I 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.640 think that's one of those things too, where years ago 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.640 people were talking about how everything was going miniaturized, and 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.080 now that we have smartphones, we won't need laptops and 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.560 I and I know I'm not the only person who 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.680 likes a nice big screen when you're actually doing work, 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.520 not to mention a nice big keyboard. Yes, And and 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.000 the truth of the matter is, I think that, um, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.400 there's a certain practical point. It's not that we can't 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.200 make a smart watch that would do those kinds of things. 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.919 I think the practical reality is that at a certain point, 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.039 it's kind of difficult to use, especially with fat fingers 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:45.000 like mine. Uh, something that has a touch screen that's 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:50.080 that small. And voice input still isn't quite there yet. Yeah, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.359 it's close. Google has done a really good job with 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:54.680 voice input. I mean, I'm very impressed with what they've 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.840 done so far, and I'm sure that five years from 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.440 now it'll probably be really phenomenal where uh, navigating by 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.400 voice will be quite easy. It's it's hard for us 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:07.839 to make that leap right now, because it's so it 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.719 seems so foreign to to think about talking to a computer, 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.120 especially if you're talking about any sort of you're in 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.320 a public place, or you're say in an office at 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:19.600 work or whatever, or you have an accent that may 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.040 be unreadable too, or you want to look up something 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:28.000 that is really um personal, like some sort of medical issue, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:29.600 you know, that sort of stuff. You don't want to 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.880 be talking out loud to your machine. So clearly, the 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.040 physical input is never going to completely go away unless 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:37.520 we finally get to a point where we can just 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.840 telepathically interact with our devices, which is not going to 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.160 happen in five years. There's one of my solid predictions there. 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:46.080 We are not going to have a point where you 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:52.039 have mind controlled devices in five years. Um. So it's 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.560 more pervasive, we've got more access. I actually see some 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:01.839 more overlapping technologies coming in possibly possibly some new technologies. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.640 But really there's the stuff that I'm imagining is we're 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.839 totally capable of doing right now, and that is having 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:17.760 um context specific Internet uh well uh, attractions or or 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.720 situations or circumstances. What I mean by that is that 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:25.440 you could create an application, let's say that reacts to 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:31.080 UM signals spent sent on a specific wavelength, and then 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:35.880 you create transmitters that transmit things on that wavelength, so 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.840 that when you come into the proximity of that transmitter, 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.040 then your device begins to interact with it in whatever 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:47.000 way you had designed. And and here's an easy example 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.160 of this, because these things exist already. Uh. An example 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:52.560 of this is pal Mickey. Have you heard about pal 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.040 Mickey at Disney World. I've I've heard about it, but 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:56.680 I don't know a lot about it. Okay, So pal 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:58.960 Mickey is this idea that Disney came up with a 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.440 couple of years ago where they have the Mickey Mouse 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.600 doll and inside there is a receiver and the receiver 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:09.080 picks up radio signals as you get close enough. You know, 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.040 when you get within range, the receiver picks up the 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.160 signal and makes pal Mickey tell you something. And let's 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.520 say that you're at one of the Disney parks and 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.000 you're walking around, Well, they make the transmitters um they 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.960 only give him enough power to transmit within a certain range, 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.240 so that way you're not getting all these transmissions all 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.360 you know, Mickey doesn't go into seizures as soon as 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:32.480 you walk through the Magic Kingdom gates. Um. But when 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.360 you get close enough, Mickey will make a little noise 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.320 you press press, I think one of his hands and 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.079 then he says, uh. The information like he might tell 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.040 you how long the weight is for the Pirates of 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.199 the Caribbean ride, or he might give you a little 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.360 bit of trivia information about one of the buildings you're passing. 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.760 And it's all based upon just radio waves. There's no 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.160 no real Internet involved here, but there's no reason why 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.080 you couldn't have that connected with the Internet, where you 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.559 have these transmitters that are not necessarily meant to transmit 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.480 signals across an entire city, but maybe just like a 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:08.320 general area around the building that they are attached to, 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.640 and that it can give you updated information about stuff. 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.480 Let's say a store sale goes on and you've got 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.400 this app that alerts alerts you when a sale starts, 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:22.320 and you could even have specific sales happening within oh 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.400 like a two hour range, and it's just if you 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:27.079 happen to be in the area that you find out 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.880 about it. And this is a way of of kind 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.360 of adding more of that sort of engagement thing. We 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.440 talked about in previous episodes, like I see that as 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.360 being a possibility where we have not just a pervasive Internet, 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.439 but a contextual Internet as well. So it's it's timely. 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:45.199 A lot of the stuff we see on the Internet 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.959 is designed to be what we call evergreen. We call 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:49.840 it that here and how stuff works all the time, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.480 and evergreen piece of content is something that should be 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.360 relevant today, and it should be relevant five years from now, 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.360 It should be relevant ten years from now. You should 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.120 be always able to go back to that piece of 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.760 content and it means exactly what needs to mean. Uh. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.679 And then there's other content that we create that is 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.480 very timely that you know, after after a few months, 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:12.320 it may not have the impact that it once had, 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.640 or it might need to be updated on a near 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.360 constant basis, like most of this stuff that is in 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:23.240 the tech cha cha. Because here's the funny thing about technology, 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.800 it keeps on changing. Now I think, UM, I think 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.600 location based services to UM. You know, there there are 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.360 millions of people with smartphones, but it's really only scratching 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.840 the surface of the population in general. I think now 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.400 that they're starting to become more affordable. UM, there's real 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:45.200 competition in the smartphone market for consumers, um, and the 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.360 cost of providing data goes down. Um. You know, I 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.959 think it'll be more compelling for people to sign onto 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:56.679 location based services and uh you know, get offers as 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.560 they're walking by and subscribe to that too. I don't 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.280 know some of about augmented reality UM personally because I mean, 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.520 I think it will become more popular, but I still 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.760 don't think it's going to become dominant, simply because it 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.839 requires you to look around with your phone and you 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:15.520 could trip and fall. Yeah, I mean, if if we 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.320 if we ever do get to a point where you 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.520 can have those glasses that do the that do the 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:24.720 transparent display where you can see the display of information 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.760 on your glasses like a heads up display. Yeah, essentially 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.400 a heads up display for you know, just the exactly 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.360 just looking around and seeing what that their restaurants raty 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:39.480 today is. Um, you know, it's uh, we've been promised 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.360 that for a while. It's almost because it's almost starting 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.280 to enter the realm of jet packs and flying cars. Uh. 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:47.600 I know, I know that there are jet packs and 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.359 flying cars, but they're not predominant, right, They're not everywhere. 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.400 So that's what I'm talking about UM also. I just 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.400 think that again, you know, unless it's something that could 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.440 be built into your or existing eye wear, I just 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:04.920 don't see it being that compelling, just because it means 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:06.920 more people are like, well, great, now there's another thing 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.599 I gotta buy and wear. You know, I wish I 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.480 could have a show of hands that I can't and 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.160 and you don't need to email. But I was just 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:21.360 thinking how many people heard you say I wear and thought, I, well, 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.720 you know, if Apple does come out with with glasses, 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.840 they will call it I wear UM and they should 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:32.000 pay me. It's trademarked Jonathan Strickland, not really trademarked UM. 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.199 The Yeah. So I think I think we might actually 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.000 see other Internet capable devices really starting to to to 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.360 play a part. I mean, we've at CS ofleven there 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.040 were a lot of of appliances that were Internet capable, 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.240 the Internet of Things. Yeah, so this this would be 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.640 the case of having other things on the Internet besides computers, 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.520 mobile devices and that kind of thing. It would be 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.080 more like things like refridge raiders and um washers and 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.640 dryers and a lot of this is you know, goes 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:10.880 into home automation. Some of it is is just information management. 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.520 Like let's say you want to manage the list of 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.920 things that are in your refrigerator so that when you 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.320 go shopping, you know, you know what you need to 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.560 pick up that sort of stuff. Uh. I think within 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.880 five years we'll probably see a lot more of that. UM. 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.200 I don't know that it will again be the dominant 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:30.559 kind of appliance on the market. I think that will 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.120 still be sort of a I think it will still 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.120 be somewhat of a niche market, maybe maybe a larger 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.880 niche than it is right now. But I don't think 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:40.800 of it. I don't think that will be I don't 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.240 think you would walk into an appliance store and and 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.600 ninety percent of the stuff you see would be Internet capable. Well, 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.400 here's here's a thought on that. They've been predicting this 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.920 for years. We were all going to have radio frequency 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.720 identification tags r f i D tags inside all of 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.480 our products. So you can have all your stuff in 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.440 the free and the fridge is able to identify what's 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.320 in there and when you bought it, and when you 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:07.200 bought it, and there would be a screen up on 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.960 the on the front of the fridge that says, hey, 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.760 you know what, you could make this for dinner because 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:14.880 you have all the ingredients you need to make this, 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:16.560 or you can make that and it will give you 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.840 recipes and things, which is a really neat idea. But 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.840 they've been again predicting this for years. It hasn't happened yet. 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:27.200 I also say, the peaches are restless. You need to 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.280 throw them out. The peaches restless. One of them growled 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.440 at me. Yeah, that's when potato salad goes bad. Yeah, 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:39.200 the technology to do this isn't It hasn't been out 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.960 of the realm of possibility for for several years. I mean, 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:44.400 this is doable, but we're not doing it. It's yeah, 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:46.640 it's adopt It's an adoption thing. I mean, you know, 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:48.880 in some cases, you've got companies that are trying to 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.440 create products for which there is no demand and then 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.240 they're trying to generate the demand for that product, and 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.800 sometimes that works. Like you know, you could argue that 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.760 Steve Jobs does that all the time. Well he You know, 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.680 the the iPad as a clear example of this, and 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.640 I still um. When it first came out, I saw 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.920 a lot of criticism that it was a product that 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.160 that no one needed and which is still technically true. 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.920 Nobody needs a tablet. Well, okay, few people need a tablet. 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.600 Let's say that. Um, there are there are some some 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.680 roles that really could use a small computing device like that. 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.160 So but for a lot of people, it's a it's 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.760 something they want. And uh, you know, now that it's 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:29.480 been a year later. As of the time we've recorded 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:31.080 this is almost a year and a half after the 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.720 iPads released, there are lots of different kinds of tablets 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.160 in the market. The tablet market is taking off, sort 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.320 of like the netbook market did, um a few years ago. 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:44.240 And I saw criticism, Uh probably about two or three 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.000 months before we recorded this, we were saying, well, you know, 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.640 I still don't think there's any reason why anyone needs 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:53.000 a tablet. Most of the people I see who say 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.680 they they have really integrated tablet into their lifestyle bought 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:58.680 one and then found a use for it. But I 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:03.120 would argue that's the way it was with personal computers 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:04.960 back in the day. And I think I don't think 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.760 tablets are going away simply because I think people who 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.200 buy them, you know, now that there is a market 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.240 for it, people are going to start creating more useful 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.880 software for it, and I think people will start using 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:19.000 their tablets to do more creative work than they used 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.160 to be able to do, simply because there wasn't software 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.080 for it on the on the initial release of these devices, 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.240 and there will be now that now that that's coming out, 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.640 there already is quite a bit of creative software, and 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:31.960 I think they're just going to be more. It's just 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.400 gonna be another tier of products in between smartphones and computers. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.080 I think that there's also the potential that we could 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:43.480 see even more products introduced into that space that don't 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.880 fit the tablet model or the smartphone model. I mean, 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:48.920 it's hard to say, because it's five years from now. 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:50.800 There's a lot of smart people working on these things, 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:52.320 and who knows who could come up with the next 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.440 big thing. I mean, I mentioned smart watches, which could 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.800 fit into that category. But for example, here's here's just 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.560 something just out of the blue. Let's say that someone 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:05.119 decides to create a device that is uh similar to 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:10.040 a smartphone but is essentially a kind of the the 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:14.159 the step between smartphone and a MP three players, so 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:16.399 not that not an iPod touch, which you could argue 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.520 is kind of in that realm too. But more about 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.240 it's more focused just on the music. So in other words, 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:25.639 you create a device that is um specifically designed to 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.640 help you tap into the streaming music services that are 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.919 out there. So you know, there's smartphones that can do 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.560 this as well. So you could argue, well, maybe there's 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.000 not a market for this, but then you could say, well, 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:39.760 you might want to have one of these devices that 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.760 doesn't run quite as many applications, is not as process 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.240 or intensive, doesn't run down the battery as quickly, doesn't 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.399 doesn't tax your smartphones battery at all, that would let 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:54.919 you tap into these massive cloud storage services things like 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:59.960 Google Music or Amazon or iTunes, the iCloud um or Spotify, 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.640 any of these sort of services where you could stream 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:08.359 or or otherwise consume the music on this device without 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.080 it affecting your other devices, Because I mean, I have 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.560 a smartphone that's capable of doing these sort of things, 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.920 but I rarely use those capabilities because it runs down 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.640 the battery and I don't want, you know, I want 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:22.399 to have my phone available in case I want to 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:27.320 for some reason make a phone call. So I could 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:29.560 see that sort of thing becoming thing where the next 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:33.280 MP three player isn't necessarily focused on how many songs 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:37.240 it can store, but rather it's access to various streaming 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:42.680 services or or cloud storage services. Uh, that's a possibility. Um. 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.520 So we've talked about mobility, We've talked about a lot 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:51.000 more of uh appliances that would be connected to the Internet. 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.320 I mean, you can you're starting to see that already 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.879 with cars as well. Whether you have cars that don't 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.640 necessarily connect directly to the Internet, but when you park 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.359 them in your garage, they can sync up via Bluetooth 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.199 or some other method to your home network and you 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.159 can transfer data back and forth across um, usually music, 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:12.480 but you can do other things as well well. You 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:14.640 can also have equipment put in your car to make 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.400 a hot spot too. Yeah, so we're probably gonna see 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.320 a lot more of that as well. You know, again, 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.440 the ubiquitous access. So that's that's kind of like the shiny, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.080 happy version of what the Internet could be like in 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:28.359 five years and how we would access the Internet. I 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.200 don't see it as necessarily being a total revolution from 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.679 the way we're doing it now, but probably um, a 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.480 much more pervasive way of what we do now. Let's 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:42.960 talk about some possible dark side elements to what the 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.720 Internet could be like in five years. So dark side 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.200 number one, and this is a big one, is that 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.960 we could see Internet service providers I s p s 0:19:53.960 --> 0:20:00.359 start to um limit the kinds of of sir pervices 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.880 and content you have access to. In other words, let's 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.959 say that this is essentially the scenario where net neutrality 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:14.040 is no longer even a concept. It's gone. In this case, 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.240 you have I s p s that are able to 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:20.240 strike up partnerships, let's say, with various content providers and 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:25.840 service providers in theory, not that I would ever expect 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.040 this to happen, but in theory, lets you could have 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.159 a particular Internet service provider partner with say Facebook, and 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.280 then anyone who is a customer of that I s 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.040 P has access to Facebook, anyone who is not a 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.719 customer with that I s P doesn't. I mean, that's 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.600 that's an extreme example that I don't think could ever happen, 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.280 because Facebook, of course is so huge, it's got you know, 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:53.160 way more subscribers than you would ever see be tied 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:56.000 to a specific provider. But I could easily see that 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:01.680 from for emerging services and content. So or let's say 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.440 that the Internet service providers that are also cable companies 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.120 limited so that you can only access their content they 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.080 create through their I s P. So if you are 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.680 on I s P B and you want to see 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.120 the content that I s P A creates through its 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.840 cable company, uh part of its corporation, you're on the lock. 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.200 At least you can't see it online. Um, we're starting 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.400 to see some of that emerge right now. Now. Whether 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:37.160 or not that continues is another question, but it could 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:40.320 very well be that within five years your experience on 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.600 the Internet is completely dictated by the Internet service provider 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:46.960 you belong to, or cell phone carrier in that case, 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.960 because it may be that you have one kind of 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.560 Internet when you get home because you are your a 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.760 customer of one I s P, and you have a 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:56.639 different kind of Internet when you access it on your 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.800 phone because you belong you know, you've got a contract 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:02.000 with a specific cell phone area. And that would be 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.080