WEBVTT - 2011 Year In Review 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.919 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.480 and welcome to tech Stuff for one of the last times. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.720 In My name is Chris Poulette, and I am an 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.560 editor at how stuff work dot Com. Sitting across from me, 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:30.680 as always, or at least throughout this year, is senior 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.960 writer Jonathan Strickland. It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday, 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.920 and today we're gonna do it. Yeah, We're going to 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:45.440 do an episode about the year of eleven in technology 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:47.559 news and kind of to give a roundup of some 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:49.600 of the big stories that happened some of them. Some 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.519 of the stories may not be that huge, but I 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.959 think are fairly impactful. Um and and also I want 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:58.120 to point out we're recording this in early December, which 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.240 means that isn't over yet, So when we get to December, 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.520 things is gonna get crazy. Uh Yeah. As a matter 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.560 of fact, uh, I think the idea behind this episode 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:15.000 was stemmed from our annual predictions and predictions recaps because 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.080 a lot of this stuff we didn't we didn't even 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.040 come close to predicting because some of it was pretty 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.640 darn huge um and other things we didn't get on 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:27.040 the nose. But you'll find that those sort of ended 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.160 up in January and February because those are the things 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:30.679 we were talking about in December, and those are the 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.280 easy predictions to me. Yeah, it's yeah, the further out 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.040 you go, the harder it is to predict accurately. I mean, 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.040 there's there's no shock there right right, Yeah, none of 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:43.399 us are, you know, Prometheus or anything. Yeah, so let's 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:48.080 start with January of eleven. So my January started off 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:52.000 with my annual trek out to the deserts of Las 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.800 Vegas to cover the Consumer Electronics Show or or the 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.400 the show formerly known as the Consumer Electronic Show that 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.920 is so popular now that they think everybody can know 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.800 what ce S means. Yeah, so it's just c officially. 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:07.960 They asked us to call it there and uh yeah. 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.520 I went all over the place and got to have 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.440 a good time hanging out with folks like the Molly 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.720 Wood and Brian Tom from c NE net, Tom Mari 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.320 and Leo Laport from uh This Weekend Tech, and um 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.200 Nicolee who was at c NET and is now at 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.720 This Weekend Tech. Uh so yeah, so yeah, a lot 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:30.760 of the folks out there, Iz Actar, who at the 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:32.760 time was not working for This Week in Tech, but 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.960 just a couple of weeks months later joined This Weekend Tech, 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.520 so yeah, a lot of the tech journalists and everything. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:40.320 We just kind of hung out and chatted and everything 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:42.280 that made it That made it a very enjoyable event 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:44.560 for me. Um And on top of that, I got 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.440 to see a lot of really cool technology unveiled. Now, 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:51.400 some of that we still haven't seen truly rollout in 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:58.000 in wide uh draw distribution today. So for instance, three 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.960 D television again three D television for the last three 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:02.880 years that c S has been a big thing, but 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.320 we still haven't really seen that breakthrough. In the consumer market. 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:08.880 I saw a lot of tablets, lots and lots and 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:11.799 lots of tablets, mostly Android tablets, not all of them. 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.960 Saw the playbook that's the es Blackberries, which it had 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.919 been unveiled at the end of but but January was 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.000 the first time I got to get my hands on one, 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.799 uh and that one sort of underwhelmed in the market, 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.959 I think you could say, Uh, the BlackBerry still has 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.720 said that they are committed to supporting the playbook form 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.600 factor and they can they plan to continue producing playbooks, 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.640 So they're not backing down yet, at least publicly. They're 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.080 not backing down. No idea what's going on behind the 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.520 scenes over BlackBerry over at RIM. But that's almost always 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.120 the case, right uh. But we also saw things like 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.680 about the role of Zoom, and even saw that Lenovo tablet, 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.160 the one that that I liked so much from the 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.640 previous year, where it was it looks like, yeah, the 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.240 U one where it looks like a notebook computer and 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.200 then you pop the screen outside out of the case 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.320 and it becomes a tablet, so it would actually have 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:10.120 two operating systems. Now, originally it had Windows I think 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:13.760 it was Windows seven and um Lenox, and then the 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.760 one they had at CS was Windows seven and Android. 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.039 But again they kept on holding off on that. We 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:22.760 still haven't seen that in the United States. I think 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:28.400 they launched a product in China, but not in the US. Also, 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.160 in our internet connected televisions were everywhere and other appliances 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.039 as well. Because this was the idea of the whole 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.880 tech ecosystem where your entire home is wired up and 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.120 uses the same sort of operating system so that you 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:44.360 have this seamless experience just maneuvering around your home, which 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.000 is a kind of a neat idea, but something that 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.640 we've now. I remember the old cartoons that had like 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.880 the Home of the future. Y, Yeah, it's very much that. 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.320 That's what that is, except with fewer arms coming out 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.839 of the walls and dressing you and things. Weren't as 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.039 many of those, which for my part, I protest I 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.000 want more of those, like accordion arms coming out and 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:08.200 taking your hat off your head as you walk in 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.200 the door and storing it in a closet somewhere and 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:18.920 then Rosie comes up and goes and it has to go. Yeah. 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.000 So uh so, yeah, that was c e S back 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.160 in January. There were some other kind of cool things 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:30.840 on display, um, but in general that was those were 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.599 the things that we're making the news. There was also 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.679 the Nintendo brought down the three d S and showed 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.119 it and sort of closed door meetings and a couple 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.359 of on screen interviews, but they didn't have like a 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:43.159 space on the floor where they were showing it off. 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.120 But yeah, the three DS was making some news because 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:51.600 it hadn't come out yet. Yea. And in Google news, 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.279 Um boy, you know, it's funny looking back at some 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.000 of the stuff, it seems like it didn't even happen 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.640 in when when Eric Schmidt decided to leave the company, Yeah, 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.599 well leave a CEO role. Yes, he stepped down as 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.480 CEO of Google and Larry Page took over. And Larry 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.360 Page is one of the co founders of Google brand, 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:12.880 so he is now the CEO of Google. That happened 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.600 in January. Um and look how badly that turned out. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.640 I mean, I can't even remember what happened when Google. 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:21.480 Now they seem to do it, seems to be doing 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.640 all right. Our next story is part of one of 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.120 the more tragic tales of eleven and and it begins 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.920 really in January. That was when Steve Jobs announced that 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.279 he was well. He didn't evenally announced, he announced to 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:35.320 the Apple in place he was taking a medical leave 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.800 of absence. And this would be the last time that 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:43.279 Steve Jobs was actively the the CEO of Apple, although 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.720 he did appear at certain Apple events in eleven and 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.280 of course, uh you know it was was still very 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.440 much involved in the day to day business dealings, to 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.719 the point where people now even now feel like for 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.159 the next few years, there will still be Steve Job's 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.080 hand in the in the everyday business dealings because he 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.840 had a roadmap from the company and and you know, 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.360 it's I'm wondering if Steve Jobs this idea of medical 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.800 leave was the same as most people's idea of going 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.840 to work every day, because really, from everything I could hear, 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.600 it sounded to me like he was as involved with 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.240 the process at Apple as any CEO of any other 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:28.280 major company would be on a normal basis. I think, yeah, 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.400 So at any rate, that was that was when the 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.400 rumor mill popped up again about his health and knowing 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:37.680 that was a medical leave of absence. And of course 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:41.120 that story is goes throughout the year and and we'll 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.160 touch back on it again in a little while. But 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.920 then Verizon, this was one of my predictions for announced 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.280 that was getting the iPhone. However, unlike my prediction, they 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.960 were getting it in But we didn't know how how 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.640 long the A T and T contract was. That that 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:58.480 had not been disclosed. There was a lot of people 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.440 thought it was five years, five year exclusive contract between 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:03.880 A T and T and Apple for the United States. 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:05.560 We should also add, we know we have a lot 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.920 of listeners throughout the world, and Apple does appear on 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.720 other carriers, but in the US it was exclusive a 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:16.000 T and T prior to Yeah, that's sorry, no go ahead. 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.320 As one of the mystifying things about UH the United 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:23.360 States UM and the iPhone is that, uh, you know, 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.800 the other carriers have it, and T Mobile doesn't in 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.280 the United States, but they do in Europe. Yeah. Anyway, 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:31.360 but then a T T is trying to buy T Mobile. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.360 We'll get into that too. Uh. And then something that 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.560 I thought we should touch on throughout this year, this 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.800 is not a really a tech story truly, but tech 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.520 plays a large part in what is going on. UM. 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.000 I think in eleven we saw more stories about technology 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:52.239 playing a role in various uprisings and disturbances and movements 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:57.440 than we have any year prior to agree. And in 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:02.640 in January, the Arabs Spring revolutions really start to kick 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.880 off when the Tunisian president resigned. UM. That was the 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:12.040 first major UH, major event within the Arabs Spring, although 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:17.440 that technically began late in the resignation of the Tunisian 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.319 president was the first major event of and UH, and 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:25.600 social networking and mobile phones played a huge part in 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.959 being and people being able to organize so that they 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.960 could bring out social change. So that was a big 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.040 story and that again is one of those that will 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.840 continue throughout the year. Yeah. Yeah. As a matter of fact, 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.960 it really really hit in February with the resignation of 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.360 the Egyptian president UM and yeah. I you know, people 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.120 were talking, UH, there were there were groups on Facebook. 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.040 I remember that making headlines here in the United States 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.200 about how there are groups on Facebook where people were 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.599 having discussions and coordinating activities UM and UH and the 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.960 egypt And government kept trying to control the flow of 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.360 information and the access to technology, and that was another 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.360 example of how you know, that's that's like trying to 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.760 hold back water that's flowing downhill. I mean it's you can, 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.320 you can deflects things and you can slow things down, 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.000 but ultimately people can get at that technology. It's just 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.000 it's it's very robust and very fluid. I think that 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:30.640 was one of the great stories, though, UH are under 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:37.640 underlying questions for things like this, from which is UM 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.200 related but not it's more of a worldwide question. Is 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.720 the internet human right at this point? I mean, the 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:50.440 the ability to communicate and the ability to share information freely, 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.080 and that's one of the questions that I you know, 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:55.520 I think is going to become more and more prominent 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.880 now that so many people are using the Internet. But 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.320 that's that's one of these things. I mean, it's is 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.680 it okay for a government to censor this information or not? Um? 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:06.680 And you know, as the years worn on and these 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.440 events have happened, you hear that that question being discussed 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:14.280 more openly. Um. Yeah. And then we had some media news. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.280 we've got I mean, we'll just glance over these because 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:19.640 it's just kind of interesting. A O. L bought Huffington's 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.400 Post for million dollars and Arianna Huffington became the editor 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.120 in chief. We've then saw some folks women Gadgets start 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.640 to leave and Gadget several of them have gone on 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:33.280 to form a new group, a new site called The Verge, 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.520 and Gadget still exists as well. But yeah, we saw 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.120 a shake up and media from that. We also saw 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.920 in February the Motorola Zoom debut, which was the first 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:47.560 Honeycomb Android tablet, Honeycomb being the Android builds specifically designed 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:50.240 with tablets in mind. Now, of course, we're having ice 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.920 Cream Sandwich coming out, which kind of combines the advances 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.440 of honeycomb with the the technologies of the previous like 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.640 gingerbread builds of Androids. So the two point builds of 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.319 Android and the three point oh builds of Android are 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:05.800 going to be combined for the four point oh builds 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.040 starting with ice cream sandwich. Suddenly, I'm I'm hungry for 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:16.400 for breakfast, cereal and frozen confectionery. What is so our 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.720 next story is IBM s Watson one on Jeopardy. Yeah, 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.720 this is this is sort of a twofold thing because 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.840 in in in an overarching sense for the entire year, 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:34.240 IBM is celebrating its hundredth anniversary, which, as Jonathan and 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.520 I covered in three episodes of tech stuff, Uh, kind 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:42.400 of kind of not exactly right, IBM, doesn't. It all 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.160 depends on where you're starting point is. Yeah, and IBM 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.360 traces its starting point to a hundred years ago in 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:52.080 in in nineteen eleven, although uh, it's roots really go 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:56.800 deeper than that by you know, several decades actually, um, 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.719 but it's sort of a showcasing. Uh. This would be uh, 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:05.200 the massive um networked computer known as Watson, which took 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:12.280 on two very able challenger human challengers, former Jeopardy champions. Yes, 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:16.760 that would be Brad Rudder and Ken Jennings and UH 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.760 and ibms was Watson showed off things like a natural 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:25.480 language recognition and UH and and measuring the likelihood of 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.520 one answer being correct versus another and which you could 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.640 see if you watch the show. Yeah, they displayed that 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.960 for all of us to see, so so you know, 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.760 it was actually trying to make judgments on what was 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.520 the most appropriate response based upon whatever the clue was 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.640 and did quite well. So that was really exciting. We 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.000 also saw in February that light Peak debut as Thunderbolt, 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.920 And if you listen to our Predictions wrap up show, 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.839 you heard that. That's, you know, the light Peak that 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:55.680 has debut. The Thunderbolt technology isn't exactly what Intel was 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.560 promising with light Peak, but that's supposedly still on its way. Yeah. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.800 Moving on into March yees, something that had happened a 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.120 lot earlier than I thought it would the debut of 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.040 the iPad two. Yeah, that actually debuted while I was 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.040 in Austin, Texas for south By Southwest and my wife 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.079 got in line at the special Apple store that opened 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.520 up in downtown Austin and bought an iPad too. That 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:18.720 was that was a pop up Apple store that was 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.960 not an Apple store before, and it ceased to be 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:23.960 an Apple store as soon as the event was over. 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.120 So it's it's back to being whatever it was before 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.760 or something else, I guess um. Also in March one 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.160 of the one of another sad story, Paul Barron, who 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.080 was the inventor of packet switching technology dies. Packet switching 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.280 technology we've talked about a lot in this podcast. It's 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.000 one of the things that makes the Internet so robust 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:48.040 and so UH useful, and it's where you the protocol 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.440 split files up into little packets and send those packets 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.320 across the network. And the packets don't all necessarily follow 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.720 the same route from one machine to another. They may 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.760 go several different routes. And this optimize a speed so 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.200 that when you're transmitting large files across a network, UH, 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.640 you can do so without having to worry about a 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.560 certain pathway breaking down and then your file only only 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.280 your file is loaded, because the pathway that that the 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.840 information had been taking UH is no longer viable. It's 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.640 also redundant. It's also redundant and has the ability to 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.480 send multiple packets of the same information, so if one 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.840 doesn't make it, another will get there, and UH, all 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.080 of these chunks of data are reassembled on the other 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.920 side to form UH the whole file, which is a 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:40.400 very elegant way of dealing with a complex problem. You know, 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.040 the the computers that join and leave the Internet on 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.040 a moment by moment basis, files still get where they're 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.880 supposed to go, and that all is invisible more or 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.200 less to the user, which is which is really amazing, 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.240 and it's it's very sad. We had a number of 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.280 important tech passings this year, which we'll get to later 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.680 in the episode. So in March we also first heard 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.920 about a T and T s plan to purchase T 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.760 Mobile USA for thirty nine billion dollars. Now this would 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.400 a T and T was the second largest carrier in 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.600 the United States, Verizon being the largest T Mobile USA 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.400 behind Sprint, UM and and the struggling unit of the 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:25.720 dominant Dewitsch a telecom. I mean T mobile worldwide is 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.320 if I haven't done the research on it, but it 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.800 was number one in the world for a while there 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:36.400 and UM probably still is. But in the United States floundering, 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.720 and they decided Twitch Telecom said, you know, we're we're 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:41.520 kind of done with this, we want to get out 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.120 a T and T agreed to buy it. As of 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.000 this recording, that is still in limbo. The the federal 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.200 government has several agencies reviewing the deal and it looks 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.720 like it might be in jeopardy. But yeah, at least 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:57.680 it's gonna have to alter dramatically from what it is 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:02.080 right now before it can clear those hurdles, I think, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:04.840 but it may still go through. Actually, it'll be a 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:06.959 fun thing to talk about in our predictions episode. We'll 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.600 see if we get into some discussion in that. Yeah, 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.400 and this next story also we follow into our predictions episode. 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:15.360 So there was kind of a there were a few 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.320 companies that sort of seemed to have a comedy of 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.960 errors all throughout eleven and one of those companies was HP, 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:25.520 I mean, the dominant PC manufacturer. Yeah, So in March 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.520 of Let's not jump ahead of ourselves, HP announced that 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.320 it would start to ship all PCs with the ability 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.840 to duel boot into either Windows or web Os. Yes, 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.280 webOS being the operating system that was designed by Palm 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.879 was designed by Palem, which HP acquired. Um, Yeah, and 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.560 we were all anticipating the Webbos tablet on slot. Yeah, 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:48.760 that was gonna be the next it was gonna be 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.680 It's gonna weigh in against Android and iPhone. It would 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.840 be like the real competitor. Uh, you know, whereas the 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:58.199 BlackBerry Playbook would really be more for enterprise users, So 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.480 this would be like the consumer showdown. Well, at this point, 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.159 HP had said that they were really dedicated to pushing 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.240 that web Os platform and they were going to push 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.680 it onto their PC business. And we'll get back into 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.560 that in a couple of months in this podcast. Actually 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.200 uh and then uh, we had a massive earthquake hit 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.280 Japan in March that caused huge amounts of damage, including 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.719 damage to nuclear power facility That brought a lot of 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.160 concern into the picture about whether or not that facility 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.639 was was breached and whether or not radio activity was 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.399 leaking into the area. But beyond that, and that, I 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.360 mean that's huge. Beyond that, we also had massive amounts 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.280 of of loss of life, of injury. All of this 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.280 in incredibly tragic on a tiny scale compared to that, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.880 I want to stress this uh nowhere near nowe near 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.600 is important, but it did affect the tech world because 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.159 a lot of manufacturing facilities are in Japan, and a 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.800 lot of the the elements that go into our tech 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.560 come out of Japan manufacturing it. So bits and pieces 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:06.080 that together we are assembled into tech come out of there. Yeah, 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:10.600 specifically memory. Um, there are memory plants in that area, 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.760 UM which were destroyed in the in the earthquake, and 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.359 that directly affected um, the computer world for a while, 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.199 even even you know, in a in a in a 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.480 corporate way of course. Uh. You know, I don't think pete, 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:26.639 I didn't really hear people complaining about that. I think 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.679 the the event itself was tragic enough that yeah, I 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.400 think it mostly probably pushed back plans to debut certain 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.920 kinds of technology because the supply chain just wasn't there. 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:43.640 Moving on, Microsoft debuted Internet Explorer nine, which got pretty 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.000 good reviews when it came out, and Firefox four came 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.320 out as well. Of course, Firefox four is not from Microsoft. Yeah, 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:54.440 the the long anticipated Firefox four coming out from uh, 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.879 from Mozilla. UM. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was waited. 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.520 We have been waiting quite some time for the next 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:04.240 bill of Firefox. I just got it on my computer 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.439 yesterday because I've been using Chrome. I was just pointing 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.320 out though you didn't get Firefox for yesterday. Um, I 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:14.479 was just pointing out how long we had been waiting 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.080 in the early part of two thousand eleven for the 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.800 next level browser to come out, more than say, ten 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.760 minutes or so. Um. Well, and then uh hint, we 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.840 also saw the beginning of another well something what an 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:33.000 event that was part of of an overall story that 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.880 kind of stretched through most of the second half eleven. Uh. 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:38.879 So there was a guy named George hots still is 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.760 a guy named George hots Uh in fact who he 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.960 was known as a hacker you like to heck hardware 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.960 and uh. He had videos and things like jailbreaking iPhones 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.720 and other devices. He decided to take on the PlayStation three, 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:55.920 and he figured out a way to jail break the 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.240 PlayStation three so you could run other all braking systems 0:20:58.240 --> 0:20:59.719 on it and you can do other stuff with your 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:04.000 place station three. And Sony did not like this at all. 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:06.240 In fact, part of the reason why, for the reason 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.200 why Sonny, if he had done it on his own, 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.320 Sonny would have probably not cared so much. It was 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.399 that he showed people how to do it. He had 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.120 information on his site showing people how they could also 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:19.320 jail break their PlayStation threes and so Sony sued him. 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.960 Uh and he at first he kind of did a 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:25.680 little trip down to South America, supposedly just for spring break, 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.119 but some people were suggesting that perhaps he was trying 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:32.080 to flee the wrath of Sony. Uh. He did eventually 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.960 come back and um, this kind of launched this whole 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:42.960 um lawsuit about him altering the PlayStation three and uh, 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.840 Sonny even got permission from a judge to uh to 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.120 look at the IP addresses of anyone who had ever 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:55.040 visited Hots's website in an attempt to try and discourage 0:21:55.080 --> 0:22:00.000 people from modifying their PlayStation threes. Now, Hots eventually would 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.960 get out of hots water, and uh, we'll we'll touch 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.680 on what happened to him in a little bit didn't. 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.760 But also in March, we saw Amazon launched the Cloud 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.960 Player and Cloud Drive products. Yes, that was one of 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.399 your predictions for the year two, was that everything was 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:19.600 gonna a cloudier. Yeah. Yeah. The thing was uh uh, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.120 you know, we had been talking for a long time 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.280 about the possibility that Apple was going to come out 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.160 with a streaming music service. The Google was looking at 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.000 coming out with a streaming music service or some other 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.320 kind of music service. So Amazon kind of rushed out 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:37.040 the door before securing agreements um with a lot of 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:39.359 the major music publishers, and I think at the time 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.280