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. Hello everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette. I
Speaker 1: am an editor at how stuff Works dot com and
Speaker 1: sitting across from me as he always does when we
Speaker 1: record this podcast, as senior writer Jonathan Strickland, I'll probably
Speaker 1: be some kind of scientists building inventions in my space lab.
Speaker 1: In space, yeah, but will you be blinded with science? Maybe?
Speaker 1: This entire episode comes as a part of an experiment.
Speaker 1: I went on to Google Plus and I posted there
Speaker 1: saying that we were going to record an episode and
Speaker 1: that we were hoping to get some suggestions. And we've
Speaker 1: got lots and lots and lots of suggestions, many of
Speaker 1: which we hope to tackle in future episodes. But today
Speaker 1: this Google Plus first, So I guess we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to come up with a new sound effect. Here's our
Speaker 1: Google Plus suggestion. This comes from Keegan, who says, what
Speaker 1: about a look at how we will interact with the
Speaker 1: Internet five years from now? So Chris and I are
Speaker 1: putting on our press digitator prognostication hats and we're gonna
Speaker 1: stare into the future until our eyes get all blurry,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna tell you what we see. So, um,
Speaker 1: Internet five years, how are we gonna interact with it? Go?
Speaker 1: Uh that's a good question, now, um it would it
Speaker 1: would be easy for me to say that that tablets
Speaker 1: are going to be there simply because they're so hot
Speaker 1: right now. I definitely think mobile is is primarily the
Speaker 1: way people are going now. UM, don't get the impression that, um,
Speaker 1: I've given up on uh computers, specifically desktop peters, because
Speaker 1: I still enjoy not having to haul around a lot
Speaker 1: of technology with me and and having just a small device. Um,
Speaker 1: but I enjoy having the uh the real estate of
Speaker 1: a nice giant screen now. Um. You know. But I
Speaker 1: think mobile is is the way I think people want
Speaker 1: to be able to get stuff anywhere and everywhere. So
Speaker 1: people are going to be designing content, um to fit
Speaker 1: multiple needs. Yeah, we're already seeing a lot of that today,
Speaker 1: where you see a lot of websites that have a
Speaker 1: mobile version and a full version, and then we're seeing
Speaker 1: more and more smartphones that just bypass the mobile version
Speaker 1: goes straight to the full version because they are capable
Speaker 1: of displaying an entire web page upon their you know,
Speaker 1: their screens, and of course tablets same sort of thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: I agree. I think that the Internet in five years
Speaker 1: will be much more pervasive in the sense that, uh,
Speaker 1: mostly from the stuff that we tend to carry with us,
Speaker 1: but that will be able to go from place to
Speaker 1: place and be able to tag it tap into the
Speaker 1: Internet pretty much anywhere we go. I mean, that's almost
Speaker 1: the case now as it is, but it should be
Speaker 1: even more so in the future. That we'll get to
Speaker 1: a point where it will be really unusual when you're
Speaker 1: in a space where you cannot access the Internet at
Speaker 1: least any place when you're on land, and maybe when
Speaker 1: you're like out at sea or something, that might still
Speaker 1: be kind of unusual unless you have to have some
Speaker 1: sort of satellite modem. But um, otherwise, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: you pretty much have the Internet at your fingertips um
Speaker 1: from a variety of devices. And we're talking about five
Speaker 1: years from now. So if you think about it, the
Speaker 1: iPhone came out in two thousand seven, so as the
Speaker 1: recording of this podcast, that was four years ago, and
Speaker 1: already I think you could argue that the iPhone has
Speaker 1: had a huge impact on at least the way we
Speaker 1: consume the Internet and and also how developers create applications
Speaker 1: for the Internet. Some of the a lot of the
Speaker 1: things that are on the iPhone and on Android and
Speaker 1: on other smartphone operating systems as well. Um, they aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily a web browser, but they do tie into the
Speaker 1: Internet in some way, right, Like like, for example, with Google,
Speaker 1: I have Google Navigator and that uses Google Maps, and
Speaker 1: it uses GPS in order to help me navigate through
Speaker 1: to a destination. Um, you know, that's something that we
Speaker 1: wouldn't have really thought about, you know, ten years ago.
Speaker 1: Then we started getting GPS units to really hit the market,
Speaker 1: and now smartphones are kind of displacing those. So five
Speaker 1: years from now, I imagine that, um, smartphones will be
Speaker 1: pretty much the the the most common kind of mobile
Speaker 1: device that people will be carrying around with them. Capable
Speaker 1: of that, we may finally start seeing some things like
Speaker 1: some smart watches that are actually worth purchasing. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's been smart watches in the past that have been
Speaker 1: kind of interesting but just haven't quite worked. And I
Speaker 1: think part of that is, you know, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of issues you gotta work around like how how
Speaker 1: do you minute tourize the components to that size where
Speaker 1: it's still a compelling product, right right, And and I
Speaker 1: think that's one of those things too, where years ago
Speaker 1: people were talking about how everything was going miniaturized, and
Speaker 1: now that we have smartphones, we won't need laptops and
Speaker 1: I and I know I'm not the only person who
Speaker 1: likes a nice big screen when you're actually doing work,
Speaker 1: not to mention a nice big keyboard. Yes, And and
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is, I think that, um,
Speaker 1: there's a certain practical point. It's not that we can't
Speaker 1: make a smart watch that would do those kinds of things.
Speaker 1: I think the practical reality is that at a certain point,
Speaker 1: it's kind of difficult to use, especially with fat fingers
Speaker 1: like mine. Uh, something that has a touch screen that's
Speaker 1: that small. And voice input still isn't quite there yet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's close. Google has done a really good job with
Speaker 1: voice input. I mean, I'm very impressed with what they've
Speaker 1: done so far, and I'm sure that five years from
Speaker 1: now it'll probably be really phenomenal where uh, navigating by
Speaker 1: voice will be quite easy. It's it's hard for us
Speaker 1: to make that leap right now, because it's so it
Speaker 1: seems so foreign to to think about talking to a computer,
Speaker 1: especially if you're talking about any sort of you're in
Speaker 1: a public place, or you're say in an office at
Speaker 1: work or whatever, or you have an accent that may
Speaker 1: be unreadable too, or you want to look up something
Speaker 1: that is really um personal, like some sort of medical issue,
Speaker 1: you know, that sort of stuff. You don't want to
Speaker 1: be talking out loud to your machine. So clearly, the
Speaker 1: physical input is never going to completely go away unless
Speaker 1: we finally get to a point where we can just
Speaker 1: telepathically interact with our devices, which is not going to
Speaker 1: happen in five years. There's one of my solid predictions there.
Speaker 1: We are not going to have a point where you
Speaker 1: have mind controlled devices in five years. Um. So it's
Speaker 1: more pervasive, we've got more access. I actually see some
Speaker 1: more overlapping technologies coming in possibly possibly some new technologies.
Speaker 1: But really there's the stuff that I'm imagining is we're
Speaker 1: totally capable of doing right now, and that is having
Speaker 1: um context specific Internet uh well uh, attractions or or
Speaker 1: situations or circumstances. What I mean by that is that
Speaker 1: you could create an application, let's say that reacts to
Speaker 1: UM signals spent sent on a specific wavelength, and then
Speaker 1: you create transmitters that transmit things on that wavelength, so
Speaker 1: that when you come into the proximity of that transmitter,
Speaker 1: then your device begins to interact with it in whatever
Speaker 1: way you had designed. And and here's an easy example
Speaker 1: of this, because these things exist already. Uh. An example
Speaker 1: of this is pal Mickey. Have you heard about pal
Speaker 1: Mickey at Disney World. I've I've heard about it, but
Speaker 1: I don't know a lot about it. Okay, So pal
Speaker 1: Mickey is this idea that Disney came up with a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago where they have the Mickey Mouse
Speaker 1: doll and inside there is a receiver and the receiver
Speaker 1: picks up radio signals as you get close enough. You know,
Speaker 1: when you get within range, the receiver picks up the
Speaker 1: signal and makes pal Mickey tell you something. And let's
Speaker 1: say that you're at one of the Disney parks and
Speaker 1: you're walking around, Well, they make the transmitters um they
Speaker 1: only give him enough power to transmit within a certain range,
Speaker 1: so that way you're not getting all these transmissions all
Speaker 1: you know, Mickey doesn't go into seizures as soon as
Speaker 1: you walk through the Magic Kingdom gates. Um. But when
Speaker 1: you get close enough, Mickey will make a little noise
Speaker 1: you press press, I think one of his hands and
Speaker 1: then he says, uh. The information like he might tell
Speaker 1: you how long the weight is for the Pirates of
Speaker 1: the Caribbean ride, or he might give you a little
Speaker 1: bit of trivia information about one of the buildings you're passing.
Speaker 1: And it's all based upon just radio waves. There's no
Speaker 1: no real Internet involved here, but there's no reason why
Speaker 1: you couldn't have that connected with the Internet, where you
Speaker 1: have these transmitters that are not necessarily meant to transmit
Speaker 1: signals across an entire city, but maybe just like a
Speaker 1: general area around the building that they are attached to,
Speaker 1: and that it can give you updated information about stuff.
Speaker 1: Let's say a store sale goes on and you've got
Speaker 1: this app that alerts alerts you when a sale starts,
Speaker 1: and you could even have specific sales happening within oh
Speaker 1: like a two hour range, and it's just if you
Speaker 1: happen to be in the area that you find out
Speaker 1: about it. And this is a way of of kind
Speaker 1: of adding more of that sort of engagement thing. We
Speaker 1: talked about in previous episodes, like I see that as
Speaker 1: being a possibility where we have not just a pervasive Internet,
Speaker 1: but a contextual Internet as well. So it's it's timely.
Speaker 1: A lot of the stuff we see on the Internet
Speaker 1: is designed to be what we call evergreen. We call
Speaker 1: it that here and how stuff works all the time,
Speaker 1: and evergreen piece of content is something that should be
Speaker 1: relevant today, and it should be relevant five years from now,
Speaker 1: It should be relevant ten years from now. You should
Speaker 1: be always able to go back to that piece of
Speaker 1: content and it means exactly what needs to mean. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then there's other content that we create that is
Speaker 1: very timely that you know, after after a few months,
Speaker 1: it may not have the impact that it once had,
Speaker 1: or it might need to be updated on a near
Speaker 1: constant basis, like most of this stuff that is in
Speaker 1: the tech cha cha. Because here's the funny thing about technology,
Speaker 1: it keeps on changing. Now I think, UM, I think
Speaker 1: location based services to UM. You know, there there are
Speaker 1: millions of people with smartphones, but it's really only scratching
Speaker 1: the surface of the population in general. I think now
Speaker 1: that they're starting to become more affordable. UM, there's real
Speaker 1: competition in the smartphone market for consumers, um, and the
Speaker 1: cost of providing data goes down. Um. You know, I
Speaker 1: think it'll be more compelling for people to sign onto
Speaker 1: location based services and uh you know, get offers as
Speaker 1: they're walking by and subscribe to that too. I don't
Speaker 1: know some of about augmented reality UM personally because I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it will become more popular, but I still
Speaker 1: don't think it's going to become dominant, simply because it
Speaker 1: requires you to look around with your phone and you
Speaker 1: could trip and fall. Yeah, I mean, if if we
Speaker 1: if we ever do get to a point where you
Speaker 1: can have those glasses that do the that do the
Speaker 1: transparent display where you can see the display of information
Speaker 1: on your glasses like a heads up display. Yeah, essentially
Speaker 1: a heads up display for you know, just the exactly
Speaker 1: just looking around and seeing what that their restaurants raty
Speaker 1: today is. Um, you know, it's uh, we've been promised
Speaker 1: that for a while. It's almost because it's almost starting
Speaker 1: to enter the realm of jet packs and flying cars. Uh.
Speaker 1: I know, I know that there are jet packs and
Speaker 1: flying cars, but they're not predominant, right, They're not everywhere.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm talking about UM also. I just
Speaker 1: think that again, you know, unless it's something that could
Speaker 1: be built into your or existing eye wear, I just
Speaker 1: don't see it being that compelling, just because it means
Speaker 1: more people are like, well, great, now there's another thing
Speaker 1: I gotta buy and wear. You know, I wish I
Speaker 1: could have a show of hands that I can't and
Speaker 1: and you don't need to email. But I was just
Speaker 1: thinking how many people heard you say I wear and thought, I, well,
Speaker 1: you know, if Apple does come out with with glasses,
Speaker 1: they will call it I wear UM and they should
Speaker 1: pay me. It's trademarked Jonathan Strickland, not really trademarked UM.
Speaker 1: The Yeah. So I think I think we might actually
Speaker 1: see other Internet capable devices really starting to to to
Speaker 1: play a part. I mean, we've at CS ofleven there
Speaker 1: were a lot of of appliances that were Internet capable,
Speaker 1: the Internet of Things. Yeah, so this this would be
Speaker 1: the case of having other things on the Internet besides computers,
Speaker 1: mobile devices and that kind of thing. It would be
Speaker 1: more like things like refridge raiders and um washers and
Speaker 1: dryers and a lot of this is you know, goes
Speaker 1: into home automation. Some of it is is just information management.
Speaker 1: Like let's say you want to manage the list of
Speaker 1: things that are in your refrigerator so that when you
Speaker 1: go shopping, you know, you know what you need to
Speaker 1: pick up that sort of stuff. Uh. I think within
Speaker 1: five years we'll probably see a lot more of that. UM.
Speaker 1: I don't know that it will again be the dominant
Speaker 1: kind of appliance on the market. I think that will
Speaker 1: still be sort of a I think it will still
Speaker 1: be somewhat of a niche market, maybe maybe a larger
Speaker 1: niche than it is right now. But I don't think
Speaker 1: of it. I don't think that will be I don't
Speaker 1: think you would walk into an appliance store and and
Speaker 1: ninety percent of the stuff you see would be Internet capable. Well,
Speaker 1: here's here's a thought on that. They've been predicting this
Speaker 1: for years. We were all going to have radio frequency
Speaker 1: identification tags r f i D tags inside all of
Speaker 1: our products. So you can have all your stuff in
Speaker 1: the free and the fridge is able to identify what's
Speaker 1: in there and when you bought it, and when you
Speaker 1: bought it, and there would be a screen up on
Speaker 1: the on the front of the fridge that says, hey,
Speaker 1: you know what, you could make this for dinner because
Speaker 1: you have all the ingredients you need to make this,
Speaker 1: or you can make that and it will give you
Speaker 1: recipes and things, which is a really neat idea. But
Speaker 1: they've been again predicting this for years. It hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 1: I also say, the peaches are restless. You need to
Speaker 1: throw them out. The peaches restless. One of them growled
Speaker 1: at me. Yeah, that's when potato salad goes bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the technology to do this isn't It hasn't been out
Speaker 1: of the realm of possibility for for several years. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is doable, but we're not doing it. It's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's adopt It's an adoption thing. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: in some cases, you've got companies that are trying to
Speaker 1: create products for which there is no demand and then
Speaker 1: they're trying to generate the demand for that product, and
Speaker 1: sometimes that works. Like you know, you could argue that
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs does that all the time. Well he You know,
Speaker 1: the the iPad as a clear example of this, and
Speaker 1: I still um. When it first came out, I saw
Speaker 1: a lot of criticism that it was a product that
Speaker 1: that no one needed and which is still technically true.
Speaker 1: Nobody needs a tablet. Well, okay, few people need a tablet.
Speaker 1: Let's say that. Um, there are there are some some
Speaker 1: roles that really could use a small computing device like that.
Speaker 1: So but for a lot of people, it's a it's
Speaker 1: something they want. And uh, you know, now that it's
Speaker 1: been a year later. As of the time we've recorded
Speaker 1: this is almost a year and a half after the
Speaker 1: iPads released, there are lots of different kinds of tablets
Speaker 1: in the market. The tablet market is taking off, sort
Speaker 1: of like the netbook market did, um a few years ago.
Speaker 1: And I saw criticism, Uh probably about two or three
Speaker 1: months before we recorded this, we were saying, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I still don't think there's any reason why anyone needs
Speaker 1: a tablet. Most of the people I see who say
Speaker 1: they they have really integrated tablet into their lifestyle bought
Speaker 1: one and then found a use for it. But I
Speaker 1: would argue that's the way it was with personal computers
Speaker 1: back in the day. And I think I don't think
Speaker 1: tablets are going away simply because I think people who
Speaker 1: buy them, you know, now that there is a market
Speaker 1: for it, people are going to start creating more useful
Speaker 1: software for it, and I think people will start using
Speaker 1: their tablets to do more creative work than they used
Speaker 1: to be able to do, simply because there wasn't software
Speaker 1: for it on the on the initial release of these devices,
Speaker 1: and there will be now that now that that's coming out,
Speaker 1: there already is quite a bit of creative software, and
Speaker 1: I think they're just going to be more. It's just
Speaker 1: gonna be another tier of products in between smartphones and computers.
Speaker 1: I think that there's also the potential that we could
Speaker 1: see even more products introduced into that space that don't
Speaker 1: fit the tablet model or the smartphone model. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say, because it's five years from now.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of smart people working on these things,
Speaker 1: and who knows who could come up with the next
Speaker 1: big thing. I mean, I mentioned smart watches, which could
Speaker 1: fit into that category. But for example, here's here's just
Speaker 1: something just out of the blue. Let's say that someone
Speaker 1: decides to create a device that is uh similar to
Speaker 1: a smartphone but is essentially a kind of the the
Speaker 1: the step between smartphone and a MP three players, so
Speaker 1: not that not an iPod touch, which you could argue
Speaker 1: is kind of in that realm too. But more about
Speaker 1: it's more focused just on the music. So in other words,
Speaker 1: you create a device that is um specifically designed to
Speaker 1: help you tap into the streaming music services that are
Speaker 1: out there. So you know, there's smartphones that can do
Speaker 1: this as well. So you could argue, well, maybe there's
Speaker 1: not a market for this, but then you could say, well,
Speaker 1: you might want to have one of these devices that
Speaker 1: doesn't run quite as many applications, is not as process
Speaker 1: or intensive, doesn't run down the battery as quickly, doesn't
Speaker 1: doesn't tax your smartphones battery at all, that would let
Speaker 1: you tap into these massive cloud storage services things like
Speaker 1: Google Music or Amazon or iTunes, the iCloud um or Spotify,
Speaker 1: any of these sort of services where you could stream
Speaker 1: or or otherwise consume the music on this device without
Speaker 1: it affecting your other devices, Because I mean, I have
Speaker 1: a smartphone that's capable of doing these sort of things,
Speaker 1: but I rarely use those capabilities because it runs down
Speaker 1: the battery and I don't want, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to have my phone available in case I want to
Speaker 1: for some reason make a phone call. So I could
Speaker 1: see that sort of thing becoming thing where the next
Speaker 1: MP three player isn't necessarily focused on how many songs
Speaker 1: it can store, but rather it's access to various streaming
Speaker 1: services or or cloud storage services. Uh, that's a possibility. Um.
Speaker 1: So we've talked about mobility, We've talked about a lot
Speaker 1: more of uh appliances that would be connected to the Internet.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can you're starting to see that already
Speaker 1: with cars as well. Whether you have cars that don't
Speaker 1: necessarily connect directly to the Internet, but when you park
Speaker 1: them in your garage, they can sync up via Bluetooth
Speaker 1: or some other method to your home network and you
Speaker 1: can transfer data back and forth across um, usually music,
Speaker 1: but you can do other things as well well. You
Speaker 1: can also have equipment put in your car to make
Speaker 1: a hot spot too. Yeah, so we're probably gonna see
Speaker 1: a lot more of that as well. You know, again,
Speaker 1: the ubiquitous access. So that's that's kind of like the shiny,
Speaker 1: happy version of what the Internet could be like in
Speaker 1: five years and how we would access the Internet. I
Speaker 1: don't see it as necessarily being a total revolution from
Speaker 1: the way we're doing it now, but probably um, a
Speaker 1: much more pervasive way of what we do now. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about some possible dark side elements to what the
Speaker 1: Internet could be like in five years. So dark side
Speaker 1: number one, and this is a big one, is that
Speaker 1: we could see Internet service providers I s p s
Speaker 1: start to um limit the kinds of of sir pervices
Speaker 1: and content you have access to. In other words, let's
Speaker 1: say that this is essentially the scenario where net neutrality
Speaker 1: is no longer even a concept. It's gone. In this case,
Speaker 1: you have I s p s that are able to
Speaker 1: strike up partnerships, let's say, with various content providers and
Speaker 1: service providers in theory, not that I would ever expect
Speaker 1: this to happen, but in theory, lets you could have
Speaker 1: a particular Internet service provider partner with say Facebook, and
Speaker 1: then anyone who is a customer of that I s
Speaker 1: P has access to Facebook, anyone who is not a
Speaker 1: customer with that I s P doesn't. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's an extreme example that I don't think could ever happen,
Speaker 1: because Facebook, of course is so huge, it's got you know,
Speaker 1: way more subscribers than you would ever see be tied
Speaker 1: to a specific provider. But I could easily see that
Speaker 1: from for emerging services and content. So or let's say
Speaker 1: that the Internet service providers that are also cable companies
Speaker 1: limited so that you can only access their content they
Speaker 1: create through their I s P. So if you are
Speaker 1: on I s P B and you want to see
Speaker 1: the content that I s P A creates through its
Speaker 1: cable company, uh part of its corporation, you're on the lock.
Speaker 1: At least you can't see it online. Um, we're starting
Speaker 1: to see some of that emerge right now. Now. Whether
Speaker 1: or not that continues is another question, but it could
Speaker 1: very well be that within five years your experience on
Speaker 1: the Internet is completely dictated by the Internet service provider
Speaker 1: you belong to, or cell phone carrier in that case,
Speaker 1: because it may be that you have one kind of
Speaker 1: Internet when you get home because you are your a
Speaker 1: customer of one I s P, and you have a
Speaker 1: different kind of Internet when you access it on your
Speaker 1: phone because you belong you know, you've got a contract
Speaker 1: with a specific cell phone area. And that would be
Speaker 1: crazy really because you could think like, oh, this video
Speaker 1: is great, but I'll watch it when I get home,
Speaker 1: and then you realize, oh, I can't access it at
Speaker 1: home because my I s P doesn't have a deal
Speaker 1: with that particular content provider. Yeah, I think it's more
Speaker 1: likely that you'll see throttling. UM. Like if you have
Speaker 1: if you want to use a particular streaming radio radio
Speaker 1: service and you are on a cable company that doesn't
Speaker 1: have a deal with that provider, and perhaps they have
Speaker 1: a deal with the DSL provider in your area, Well,
Speaker 1: that means that they're going to give the you know,
Speaker 1: per of the agreement. They're going to give priority to
Speaker 1: their own customers, and then you may experience hiccupping or
Speaker 1: delays or or problems with the service. You might see
Speaker 1: that that sign saying Netflix is adjusting your buffering rate
Speaker 1: because your Internet connection is slower. Yes, UM, And that's
Speaker 1: another that's another issue too. I think that is possible
Speaker 1: to see UM talking about depending on your I s
Speaker 1: P or your your provider. UM. For cell phone services,
Speaker 1: uh so many of them now for both are instituting
Speaker 1: data caps. So I think it is very possible that
Speaker 1: in the future. UM. You know, it's it's funny because
Speaker 1: the services are all working toward unlimited models, like, uh,
Speaker 1: if you subscribe to Netflix streaming, UM, you have unlimited
Speaker 1: you can watch as many movies as you can pack
Speaker 1: in during each month. Yep, and that goes for a
Speaker 1: lot of the other services to UM. You know, you
Speaker 1: can you can stream unlimited music from a lot of places, UM.
Speaker 1: And there's of course plenty of other ways to use
Speaker 1: lots of bandwidth. UM. So you know, they're they're opening
Speaker 1: those services up to an unlimited all you can eat
Speaker 1: model for you know, a set price, and people who
Speaker 1: really use them, save families, you know, who have multiple
Speaker 1: people watching multiple shows in multiple rooms. You know, that's
Speaker 1: a great way to use a ton of bandwidth. You know.
Speaker 1: Of course they're they're arguments that say, it's really just
Speaker 1: the people who are downloading lots of stuff illegally. UM.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of there's so many legitimate
Speaker 1: ways to use a lot of bandwidth. Now, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean before before there were these these venues where you
Speaker 1: could get to this content in a legal way, maybe
Speaker 1: you could make the argument that the people who are
Speaker 1: eating up all the bandwidth, we're pirates. But I don't
Speaker 1: think that's the case today. Well, a lot of them
Speaker 1: say right now, the people who are using the bandwidth
Speaker 1: that gets them into trouble are they're they're a small
Speaker 1: minority of people, like only I'm making up a number
Speaker 1: because I haven't seen it in a while, but the
Speaker 1: last time I looked it was they were saying something
Speaker 1: like three to five percent if their customers. They're saying, oh, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, these bandwidth caps don't affect the majority
Speaker 1: of our customers. But the thing is, the services themselves
Speaker 1: are encouraging us to use as much data as we
Speaker 1: can take, and the brought the providers are all starting
Speaker 1: to cap their services. Not all of them, but a
Speaker 1: lot of them are. And uh, in some cases they're
Speaker 1: not making it clear to subscribers exactly how much data
Speaker 1: they're using and how much it's going to put them
Speaker 1: in trouble. So I think it within the next five
Speaker 1: years you're going to start to see that clash, especially
Speaker 1: because broadband penetration is still somewhat limited in the United States.
Speaker 1: Speeds are somewhat slower here than in other places, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think as these things ratchet up and
Speaker 1: people are encouraging us to use more data, this is
Speaker 1: going to come into conflict and the providers are going
Speaker 1: to hear from their customers how unhappy they are with
Speaker 1: the service because you know, hey, you say, I can
Speaker 1: use you know, all this data and it's and it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be such a fast network, and when I
Speaker 1: actually try to use it, I can't. It'd also be
Speaker 1: interesting to see if I s p s, if they
Speaker 1: do create this this sort of compartmentalized UH Internet, and
Speaker 1: in which case, really we can't even call it the
Speaker 1: Internet anymore, because the Internet is supposed to be the
Speaker 1: global network of networks. And if we're talking about I
Speaker 1: s p s each creating their own, then they all
Speaker 1: just become networks. You might become Internet with a lowercase I,
Speaker 1: as opposed to Internet Internet with the upper case I.
Speaker 1: So instead of being a joke, we will we will
Speaker 1: really be talking about the internets. Yeah, it really will
Speaker 1: be the internets. Which one do you have? UM? There's
Speaker 1: also the possibility that some of these I s p s,
Speaker 1: and they a lot of these companies have tried this already,
Speaker 1: will try to make their own services that that mimic
Speaker 1: or replace the services from other UH providers out there,
Speaker 1: not just I s p s, but other companies as well.
Speaker 1: So let's say that you know, I s p A
Speaker 1: decides to come up with its own version of Twitter
Speaker 1: and UH and then and then doesn't allow you to
Speaker 1: access Twitter on its on its services. UM. And instead
Speaker 1: encourages you to use this other one. That's another way
Speaker 1: that this stuff can get further fragmented. I don't think
Speaker 1: it would ever happen, but it's possible. Um, another thing
Speaker 1: we might see our we've scene already. I'm curious to
Speaker 1: find out if within five years, if it's proven to
Speaker 1: be a successful campaign or not. Or are paywalls and
Speaker 1: of course the paywall is where you, uh, you can't
Speaker 1: have access to a particular sites content until after you
Speaker 1: pay a subscription fee. Right, so if you want to read,
Speaker 1: as an example, a current example the New York Times,
Speaker 1: there are a certain amount of there's a certain number
Speaker 1: of articles that you can read for free per month,
Speaker 1: per month, and then after that you are asked to
Speaker 1: go ahead and subscribe. The Wall Street Journal on the
Speaker 1: other hand, Yeah, I mean there there's certain content that
Speaker 1: you can get depending on how you're you're doing it,
Speaker 1: but um, for the most part, you have to pay
Speaker 1: if you're if you're going to do that now some
Speaker 1: I think it will be more common, um paywall or no,
Speaker 1: I mean I think or whether they succeed in in
Speaker 1: in general, I would say I think you're going to
Speaker 1: see a lot of um, maybe hybrid subscriptions, like for example,
Speaker 1: Wired magazine. Right now, if you are a print subscriber,
Speaker 1: I've been a print subscriber for many years. Um, you
Speaker 1: can also UH and this is a fairly recent development
Speaker 1: as of the time of recording this. You can also
Speaker 1: if you have an iPad, as I do, you can
Speaker 1: download the issues you have been subscribing to. So now
Speaker 1: I get all the the digital issues free because I
Speaker 1: am a print subscriber, and I think they're like getting
Speaker 1: them free, They're just included in your subscription. Right Well,
Speaker 1: I'm getting them a new extra cost because at one point, Wired,
Speaker 1: the online app required you to pay regardless of whether
Speaker 1: or not you are a print subscriber. So I'm getting
Speaker 1: it as a benefit of my subscription. I get both
Speaker 1: versions of of that, and I think that's probably going
Speaker 1: to become more common because I think the tablet was
Speaker 1: at one point considered the uh, you know, the saving
Speaker 1: grace for magazines and newspapers, and I think people do
Speaker 1: enjoy reading some of that content in that format. However,
Speaker 1: people who are I've seen it pretty much with regard
Speaker 1: to just about every magazine that has a subscription available. Hey,
Speaker 1: why are you charging me? For this digital version. I'm
Speaker 1: already a subscriber to the print version. Can't I have both?
Speaker 1: You know, I think there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: will be willing to say, yeah, okay, I'll give you
Speaker 1: an extra two bucks or five bucks, give me both
Speaker 1: because I like both. UM and you know, so I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think what will be interesting to see
Speaker 1: two is within the next five years if there's a
Speaker 1: related model that I think it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 1: if it survives or not. Which is the model that
Speaker 1: companies like HBO where you know, you can get HBO
Speaker 1: content online but only if you are a customer of
Speaker 1: a cable company and you have HBO as part of
Speaker 1: your service. Yeah, CNN does that too, now, yeah, see
Speaker 1: does it? I think interesting to look that up. It
Speaker 1: just surprised me because I mean, it's been a while
Speaker 1: since I've into that site. But really, the last time
Speaker 1: I went to a CNN dot com they had updated
Speaker 1: their but and this is again very recent, I think
Speaker 1: within the last two or three weeks before we recorded this.
Speaker 1: If you want to access the video, UM, you sign
Speaker 1: in as a you know, to your your provider and
Speaker 1: they will say okay, now now you have access to
Speaker 1: the video online because you're already a subscriber, right, So
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting interesting to see if that works or
Speaker 1: if HBO decides to open it up a little bit
Speaker 1: where I mean, I would imagine it will always be
Speaker 1: a subscription service. It's never gonna be free necessarily, but
Speaker 1: that you will not you won't have to be a
Speaker 1: cable company customer in order to, um, to get access
Speaker 1: to that that that content. I know there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who have cut the cord who would
Speaker 1: love to have access to things like HBO original programming.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're all screaming for Game of Thrones, but
Speaker 1: they can't watch it because they don't have a subscription.
Speaker 1: You know, they don't they don't have a cable company. Um,
Speaker 1: they're not. They don't have a cable TV subscription, they
Speaker 1: don't have HBO. So therefore they cannot access that material
Speaker 1: even if they wanted, you know, had some online method. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's unavailable to them because they have to be a
Speaker 1: pre existing customer before they can also get it online. Uh.
Speaker 1: It'll be interesting interesting to see if that lives for
Speaker 1: five years or if that if that model goes away. UM.
Speaker 1: I can imagine a lot of cable companies trying very
Speaker 1: very hard to keep that model going because it's an
Speaker 1: incentive for customers to remain with cable companies. Um. If
Speaker 1: that if that were gone, if you could subscribe to
Speaker 1: say Game of Thrones and you know, you pay a
Speaker 1: certain subscription fee and that was it, um, I think
Speaker 1: that you'd see even more people cutting the cord, which
Speaker 1: would upset cable companies quite a bit. Yeah, I verified
Speaker 1: that as of mid July. Like, if you want to
Speaker 1: use cn CNN video on your iOS device, um that
Speaker 1: you have to basically prove that you're a subscriber to
Speaker 1: certain pay TV providers and that's you know, there are
Speaker 1: a certain list of them that they're some of the
Speaker 1: big ease UM. But yeah, I think that model would
Speaker 1: be more um palatable to people to say, you know, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm already paying you something, you know, so that that's
Speaker 1: a little bit more tolerable that it's behind the wall.
Speaker 1: But it's still still an issue for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: And there's still a lot of people who don't have uh,
Speaker 1: you know, access to the service at home or can't
Speaker 1: get it and you know, still have to come in somehow.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so I mean it'll be interesting to see,
Speaker 1: I think. Um, I'm hoping that the shiny, happy version
Speaker 1: of the Internet will be the one that we have.
Speaker 1: It'll probably be somewhere in between, like this this crazy
Speaker 1: pervasive internet where we everything's at our fingertips and this
Speaker 1: walled off internet where everything is behind a a gate
Speaker 1: and we have to pay to get in. I'm sure
Speaker 1: it'll be some combination of the two. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: be one or the other. Yeah, yeah, Well, it's the
Speaker 1: Internet is an evolving thing, you know. It's it's earliest
Speaker 1: incarnations were something the public were completely unaware of. I
Speaker 1: think I think a lot of people still get the
Speaker 1: idea of my relatives are still completely unaware of it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I think a lot of Yahoo
Speaker 1: think I keep hearing about, are still unaware that there
Speaker 1: was life before Yahoo, you know, for the Internet. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's trademarked. Yeah whatever. Um so, anyhow, it's free advertising
Speaker 1: until they sue us for free advertising. Come on, alright,
Speaker 1: fine Google, al Right, there we go. Now we're now
Speaker 1: we're clear. I totally feel better now okay, good, alright,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna wrap up this conversation. Um yeah, So guys,
Speaker 1: let us know what you're what you think the Internet
Speaker 1: is going to be like in five years, Like, how
Speaker 1: are we going to interact with the Internet? Um? Are
Speaker 1: you thinking that we're thinking too small? Should we be
Speaker 1: talking about cybernetic implants and uh and bionic eyes and
Speaker 1: probably not five years? Well, I don't know, maybe we
Speaker 1: Maybe we just are too conservative. That's why I'm asking you.
Speaker 1: Guys can let us know. You can find us on
Speaker 1: Facebook and Twitter are handled. There is Text Stuff hs W,
Speaker 1: or you can send us an email. That address is
Speaker 1: tech stuff at how stuff Works dot com and Chris
Speaker 1: and I will talk to you again in the future.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
Speaker 1: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The
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