Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: Stuff looks dot com. Hey there, everyone in Welcome to
Speaker 1: text Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland, I am a host extraordinaire,
Speaker 1: and I'm Lauren voge Obam and I'm here. That's true.
Speaker 1: So every year, tech Stuff is known for making wild
Speaker 1: and inaccurate predictions about what's to come in the following
Speaker 1: twelve months, and this year is no exception. But it's
Speaker 1: the first time that Lauren voge Obam has ever had
Speaker 1: the honor of participating in our prediction. O rama and Lauren,
Speaker 1: because your brand spanking new to the podcast, you get
Speaker 1: to go first. Excellent. I have a long history of
Speaker 1: being inaccurate. Since this is going to be great, Um,
Speaker 1: I think that in two thousand thirteen, laptops are going
Speaker 1: to make a comeback and desktops are going to continue
Speaker 1: decline in sales. Okay, so your prediction essentially is that
Speaker 1: laptops are gonna be fine. They're actually which is great
Speaker 1: news for companies that are really putting it all in
Speaker 1: for ultra books. But yeah, but the traditional desktop, the
Speaker 1: tower and monitor is kind of not so much a thing,
Speaker 1: not so much a thing anymore. And I mean, the
Speaker 1: tablets have been have been really big over the past
Speaker 1: few years, and everyone's kind of going like, oh, tablets, tablets,
Speaker 1: tablet sales, more tablets for everybody, seven tablets per child.
Speaker 1: She's doing jazz hands, people, it's not not spired fingers,
Speaker 1: jazz hands. And and uh, I think I think, I
Speaker 1: think that that that trend. I think that that really
Speaker 1: people are not ready to give up laptops yet they
Speaker 1: are too functional. I mean, tablets are sexy and cool,
Speaker 1: but their toys nice. That's a bold statement. I my
Speaker 1: head is off to you. But no, I I agree,
Speaker 1: I agree. I think, uh, particularly these days when you know,
Speaker 1: I used to be that hardcore gamers would look down
Speaker 1: there knows at laptops and say, you know, nothing replaces
Speaker 1: a desktop. And and it's still true that if you
Speaker 1: want a top of the line, highest performing machine, you're
Speaker 1: gonna go with a desktop. And there are gonna be
Speaker 1: gamers who do that. But there are a lot of
Speaker 1: gaming laptops out there that are monsters, monsters and just
Speaker 1: as expensive as your your high end desktop and and
Speaker 1: just as functional. Yeah, so I I think I'm with
Speaker 1: you on this one. The laptop sales bouncing back it's interesting,
Speaker 1: you know, based on some of the other predictions we have,
Speaker 1: I can see that happening. Uh, I'll be really curious
Speaker 1: to see what the numbers are at the end of
Speaker 1: the year. Similar to that, I actually have a prediction
Speaker 1: where I said, and this is kind of this is
Speaker 1: one of my gimmes. You know, after doing this for
Speaker 1: a few years, you start going for the easy, the
Speaker 1: easy hits. But one of mine was that mobile web
Speaker 1: browsing will completely outpaced desktop and laptop browsing. So if
Speaker 1: you were to look at the metrics for any given
Speaker 1: webs you would see that the majority of traffic was
Speaker 1: going to come in over mobile devices rather than your
Speaker 1: traditional computers. And for some websites that's already true, but
Speaker 1: I think it's going to become more more or less
Speaker 1: a universal truth across the web. Yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think that's obvious. I think that enough people are are yeah,
Speaker 1: just on their tablets, on their mobile phones. That's not
Speaker 1: gonna who who has time to turn on a whole computer?
Speaker 1: And I know it can take upwards of fourteen seconds
Speaker 1: with some of my computers. Ridiculous, I know, all right,
Speaker 1: So what's your like, We're not even living in the
Speaker 1: incredible future. Speaking of the incredible future, touch screen party,
Speaker 1: touch screens for everybody. Um, yeah, I think that, especially
Speaker 1: with Windows eight, um, which Jonathan has some things to
Speaker 1: say about. I have heard um that, yeah, everyone's dual screen.
Speaker 1: If those of us who have dual screens, which is people,
Speaker 1: from what I understand, Um, it's it's going to be
Speaker 1: a touch screen and and stuff like Windows eight is
Speaker 1: going to make that easier and more into graded and
Speaker 1: so so. Even though perhaps tablets are not going to
Speaker 1: be the biggest, biggest, biggest thing to ever big um yeah, yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: technology is gonna be there. Beyond the fact that Windows
Speaker 1: eight makes it useful, it makes it necessary. I mean
Speaker 1: Windows eight is a great operating system. I genuinely like it.
Speaker 1: I mean I've used it, and I genuinely like it. However, uh,
Speaker 1: I much prefer it with something that has a touch
Speaker 1: screen interface because because when you're yeah, when you're in
Speaker 1: that tiled when you're in that tiled interface, you want
Speaker 1: to touch those tiles. I mean, that's why it's designed
Speaker 1: the way it is. And uh, and so I agree
Speaker 1: with you. I think we're going to see touch screens
Speaker 1: integrated into more products. I mean, obviously, with things like
Speaker 1: tablets and smartphones, that's the that's the user interface that's
Speaker 1: accepted at this point. I mean, we've got some voice
Speaker 1: interaction too, but the majority of our commands are going
Speaker 1: to be through touch. But I think I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see that as kind of
Speaker 1: a standard in other products too. I mean, we already
Speaker 1: have lap tops that have touch screens, but I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna become essentially a standard feature in laptops within
Speaker 1: And I'm about to, uh head off to the Consumer
Speaker 1: Electronic Show. I mean not right now, but in the
Speaker 1: near future, and uh it would shock me. In fact,
Speaker 1: I think this episode will air while I'm there. But
Speaker 1: it would shock me if I don't see a ton
Speaker 1: of laptops that have touch screens integrated directly into them.
Speaker 1: It just makes sense, all right, Well, then here we go.
Speaker 1: Here's a here's a Windows eight. You were alluding to
Speaker 1: the fact that I had something to say about it.
Speaker 1: I think that enterprises are going to resist adopting Windows
Speaker 1: eight quickly. I think it's going to be very similar
Speaker 1: to the way both consumers and enterprises resisted Windows Vista.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of them stuck with XP for
Speaker 1: a really long time. I mean that that operating system
Speaker 1: was ten years old before a lot of businesses begin
Speaker 1: to look into migrating to something else. We actually just
Speaker 1: got on Twindows seven like a week ago, behind the
Speaker 1: curtain something. Some people were lucky and had been on
Speaker 1: it for a while. Not not your tech stuff posts.
Speaker 1: No no, no, we we um. We were just upgraded
Speaker 1: from stone tablets to a computer that can run an
Speaker 1: operating system. And that's just me being catty. But no, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree, and I think Window sevens. But see,
Speaker 1: this is another thing. One I don't think consumers are
Speaker 1: going to be as reluctant. I think consumers as a
Speaker 1: whole will be a little more adventurous. And it makes
Speaker 1: sense because when you're an enterprise, you know, that's a
Speaker 1: huge expense to upgrade a ton of computers. And although
Speaker 1: the economy is getting better, it has not gotten so
Speaker 1: much better that I think that people are going to
Speaker 1: business their businesses are really going to want to spend
Speaker 1: the money and time upgrading from something that that a
Speaker 1: lot of us have really only just started to play with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's questions of whether or not all of an
Speaker 1: enterprises native UH programs will run on Windows eight. You
Speaker 1: never know until you until you migrate. Stuff you don't
Speaker 1: know because there's legacy programs that may only run in
Speaker 1: earlier versus versions of Windows. I'm sure that some of
Speaker 1: our listeners are familiar with either institutions or companies or
Speaker 1: organizations that have specific programs that will not run on
Speaker 1: anything older than Windows XP, for example. So that's that's
Speaker 1: an issue. On top of that, not only is it
Speaker 1: expensive to upgrade across a fleet of computers, you also
Speaker 1: have to train people on how to use it, and
Speaker 1: that takes time and more money. So even if we
Speaker 1: were to say that the Windows eight experience was absolutely
Speaker 1: perfect for enterprises across the board, even then this is
Speaker 1: a gimme because most companies are going to say, let's
Speaker 1: wait a while longer until we can be absolutely certain
Speaker 1: that we can do business as we are accustomed to
Speaker 1: doing before we migrate to Windows eight. So this is
Speaker 1: not a knock against the operating system. It's more of, hey,
Speaker 1: guess what obvious trend I have noticed since I have
Speaker 1: been alive, So again, kind of a kind of shooting
Speaker 1: fish in a barrel. I've been on the internet, I
Speaker 1: read the news. It must be true speaking speaking of
Speaker 1: things that are that are on the internet, in fact,
Speaker 1: the Internet of Things. This is exciting. This, This is
Speaker 1: really exciting. It It basically I mean, if you guys,
Speaker 1: if you guys haven't heard of this, it basically means
Speaker 1: that all of our devices are going to be connected
Speaker 1: and talking to each other. Um and which is I mean,
Speaker 1: we can already do most lots of I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say most things, many things, a bunch of stuff from
Speaker 1: our cell phones. But but I but I think that
Speaker 1: we're going to start getting the kind of functionality where
Speaker 1: we can interact with our other even appliances. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean things like like like security systems and lighting systems,
Speaker 1: and and I mean hvac like if you're on vacation
Speaker 1: and you forget to set your air conditioning down, some
Speaker 1: very basic stuff like that. Yeah. No, we've been seeing
Speaker 1: little incremental steps towards this, and people who are like
Speaker 1: the the bleeding edge adopters of home automation are probably
Speaker 1: rolling their eyes. Of course, yes, apologies to all of
Speaker 1: you guys. This is all completely old hat as of
Speaker 1: like march for you right right, But but for the
Speaker 1: general public, I mean home automation is one of those
Speaker 1: things that are like, oh, that's what Bill Gates has,
Speaker 1: but it's not something that you would necessarily think of,
Speaker 1: like I've I've got friends who are uh, you know,
Speaker 1: early adopters. I am not an early adopter. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a tech stuff host, and I love technology,
Speaker 1: but I do not adopt technology as soon as it
Speaker 1: comes out for a couple of different years behind the
Speaker 1: kind of honestly one, I'm not filthy rich and to
Speaker 1: uh too. I like my technology to work, and so
Speaker 1: while I'm excited by new things, I often don't adopt
Speaker 1: them because I don't want to deal with a frustration
Speaker 1: for when those new things don't work out exactly as
Speaker 1: they were intended, because sometimes that happens. But the past
Speaker 1: few years, we started to see some some technologies that
Speaker 1: really are bringing us closer to this, and they're not
Speaker 1: necessarily all integrated together from the get go, but they
Speaker 1: work together. So the nest thermostat is a perfect example.
Speaker 1: Or the fact that I have a Nexus seven tablet
Speaker 1: and I've got Xbox smart glass on my tablet which
Speaker 1: lets me control my Xbox from the tablet. It also
Speaker 1: displays extra information based on whatever happens to be playing
Speaker 1: on my Xbox. I can get more information, sometimes a
Speaker 1: lot more information, depending on you know, how well the
Speaker 1: developer has worked with smart glass. Um, those are just
Speaker 1: tiny examples. Now the true Internet of Things is going
Speaker 1: to encompass way more than that, where we'll get to
Speaker 1: a point where we are going to have sensors that
Speaker 1: are connected to the Internet and they are taking measurements
Speaker 1: of all sorts of stuff, so temperature, humidity, what motion sensors,
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff, and they're going to be
Speaker 1: incorporated into practically everything we come into contact with and uh,
Speaker 1: and it will send information and it will be able
Speaker 1: to let us not only control our environment, but have
Speaker 1: our environment predict what it should do based on what
Speaker 1: user is in the room exactly. Which is I've used
Speaker 1: this argument once before, but if you if you were
Speaker 1: to extend this to the science fiction extreme, it essentially
Speaker 1: means that one day every single person will have the
Speaker 1: ability to define his or her reality because their environment
Speaker 1: is going to react to their needs, wants, desires, so
Speaker 1: that we're all going to be moving through a technologically
Speaker 1: idealized version of reality. Now that's not to say everything's
Speaker 1: gonna be awesome, because if you remember every single holiday
Speaker 1: episode of Star Trek the Next Generation, you know, stuff
Speaker 1: goes wrong. Sometimes technology doesn't work the way that we
Speaker 1: want it to. Sometimes Moriarty comes to life, escapes the
Speaker 1: Holidack and takes over the enterprise. That's all I'm saying metaphorically. Luckily,
Speaker 1: usually Dixon, Hell or somebody is around to take care.
Speaker 1: See uh impressing me. All right, okay, well let me
Speaker 1: let me go ahead and um let me do another prediction.
Speaker 1: Then here's here's a prediction. So NFC near field communication,
Speaker 1: that's the technology that lets us have devices that can
Speaker 1: talk to each other when you tap them together. Frequently
Speaker 1: we talk about it when you have like a cell
Speaker 1: phone and a program like Google Wallet that lets you
Speaker 1: pay for stuff. So like there's a special uh pad
Speaker 1: that's next to a cash register, and when you tap
Speaker 1: your phone to the pad, just this bump the pad
Speaker 1: and it makes it go exactly, Yeah, you've got that's nice.
Speaker 1: I like that with this bump and you pay, and
Speaker 1: then you've got you know, the added bonuses of things
Speaker 1: like coupons or customer rewards programs all integrated into that,
Speaker 1: so that you know, just by paying using that method,
Speaker 1: you reap the benefits so that you don't have to
Speaker 1: if you forget you all at home, you have your
Speaker 1: smartphone on you, it doesn't matter because a your your
Speaker 1: lords card and be your money is with you right
Speaker 1: right exactly and you don't have to keep track of anything.
Speaker 1: It's all digital. It's awesome. Yea, everyone's happy. Here's the problem.
Speaker 1: I do not think two thousand thirteen is going to
Speaker 1: be the year where we see NFC widely adopted yet
Speaker 1: in the United States. Um, it's it's it's popular in
Speaker 1: other parts of the world, but in the United States
Speaker 1: we're still seeing a very slow adoption rate to this technology,
Speaker 1: partly because it does require installing a new kind of infrastructure.
Speaker 1: Usually it's not that huge but for an individual store.
Speaker 1: But if you're talking about a franchise of stores across
Speaker 1: an entire country, that mounts up pretty quickly, of course,
Speaker 1: So I don't think uh. And also the other side
Speaker 1: of this is that NFC would need to be incorporated
Speaker 1: into weigh more handsets for it to become an attractive
Speaker 1: thing for vendors to support and UH. And part of
Speaker 1: the problem is that Apple has not jumped on the
Speaker 1: NFC train. Yet it may very well be that the
Speaker 1: next iPhone has NFC. I have not predicted that it
Speaker 1: would actually surprise me, but it could happen. But without
Speaker 1: Apple getting on board, I don't think there's quite enough
Speaker 1: of a tipping point there for us to see NFC
Speaker 1: getting rolled out on a broad spectrum across the United States.
Speaker 1: Might see a few stores incorporated, especially like forward thinking stores,
Speaker 1: but places where it makes sense. Yeah, I think that
Speaker 1: the other I know, I absolutely think you're right, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be enough resistance from enough sectors that yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I mean, I would love to see it get further
Speaker 1: adoption because I would not mind it if it meant
Speaker 1: that I could carry fewer things. Maybe maybe that's the
Speaker 1: thing that if I do you this is not something
Speaker 1: we have talked about before him. But do you think
Speaker 1: if Apple is going to release a new phone next year? Yeah,
Speaker 1: considering that they've released two iPads this past year, um,
Speaker 1: they might release two phones this year at least. Okay,
Speaker 1: I do I think I think there will be a
Speaker 1: new iPhone. I think there has to be a new iPhone,
Speaker 1: and just like an S or a like a like
Speaker 1: a five s or actual facts holding my feet to
Speaker 1: the fire. Um, we asked a hard questions that textiles
Speaker 1: really don't let me off the hook. Good question. You
Speaker 1: know what I think. I think it would be an incremental,
Speaker 1: incremental improvement. The five I think was about as dramatic
Speaker 1: a departure as far as design goes as we are
Speaker 1: likely to see this in this year. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you've got Johnny Ives up there, sir, Johnny. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: john thank you, sir. Johnny is uh definitely, um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's he's behind the wheel and design, so it could
Speaker 1: very well be that he completely revamps it. But it
Speaker 1: would that would shock me. So I do think there
Speaker 1: will be another iPhone. I don't think it will be
Speaker 1: a dramatic departure from what we have right now. It'll
Speaker 1: probably have things like, you know, again, a faster process
Speaker 1: or uh, it'll have maybe even maybe an even higher
Speaker 1: resolution screen. Um, it'll and and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the improvements will come from the iOS side, the
Speaker 1: operating system, as opposed to the hardware. But uh, we'll see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a good question. I did not write
Speaker 1: it down, so that was all on the fly, folks,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna hide under the table now. Well while
Speaker 1: we're um, while we're talking about Apple. UM, uh, let's
Speaker 1: let's do. Let's do I'll do an Apple prediction. Uh
Speaker 1: all of my prediction. I'm sorry. I wrote everything down
Speaker 1: very vaguely, so I'm like, I have words, I can
Speaker 1: read them. Um. I think the Apple is going to
Speaker 1: hold onto its market share in the cell phone segment,
Speaker 1: which which in its market share right at this current
Speaker 1: moment as of October, Android had been earlier in the
Speaker 1: year at of the market share for smartphones UM as
Speaker 1: of October to drop and Apple with the five had
Speaker 1: had come up to and UM. And I think I
Speaker 1: think that Apple is going to maintain that. I'm going
Speaker 1: to It might be I could be completely wrong on
Speaker 1: this one. I feel like this is a strangely bold statement.
Speaker 1: It is so small, but I think I think I
Speaker 1: agree that's bold. It's a bold statement. The reason why
Speaker 1: I think that is, I think those numbers definitely got
Speaker 1: a huge boost because there was a new iPhone, and
Speaker 1: every time there's a new iPhone, we're gonna see a
Speaker 1: spike adoption. UM. I think the fact that there are
Speaker 1: so many handset manufacturers out there that are making Android,
Speaker 1: although we've got something to say about handset manufacturers a
Speaker 1: little while. Um, but because there are so many, uh,
Speaker 1: Android will probably bounce back. But so I'm disagreeing with
Speaker 1: you a little bit. I think that Android will regain
Speaker 1: market dominance before before much more time passes in two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen. However, assuming that an iPhone six or five
Speaker 1: S or whatever comes out, that's going to change again, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, it's incredible that in the United States,
Speaker 1: where we usually signed two year agreements, that people will
Speaker 1: break them just to get the new iPhone rather than
Speaker 1: skip a generation and wait for the next one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or or even or even wait three months to wait
Speaker 1: for the next one because because it's here and it's
Speaker 1: new and it's now. Yeah, it's It's worse for US
Speaker 1: Android users though, folks, I mean, yeah, you you iPhone users. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's bad because yeah, you well I'm looking at you, Lauren,
Speaker 1: so you iPhone users, and I'm looking at my wife too,
Speaker 1: not not literally literally, which is not in the room.
Speaker 1: But but you know, they they complain about how not
Speaker 1: they Okay, some iPhone users complain and pick them all together.
Speaker 1: Some iPhone users complain about alike, Yeah, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't never mind. So some iPhone users complain about
Speaker 1: the fact that they that a new phone comes out
Speaker 1: each year, right, She's like, oh, but I just bought
Speaker 1: one last year. Okay, look at it from the Android
Speaker 1: user perspective, where a new phone comes out every week, right,
Speaker 1: So you go out and you buy the newest brand
Speaker 1: spanking awesome shine and then uh, something comes out the
Speaker 1: following week, possibly from the same manufacturer as the one
Speaker 1: that made the one that you bought just now, uh,
Speaker 1: and it makes it obsolete. And so we live with
Speaker 1: that day by day. So look, it's not our fault
Speaker 1: if you would, if you would drink. Also, I wish
Speaker 1: that we had pop filters in front of these microphones
Speaker 1: because now I feel really badly about what I just did. Sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: josh Of if you should know, because I know this
Speaker 1: is the one you sit at. Um all right, so
Speaker 1: let me let me go onto this one. Uh, while
Speaker 1: Lauren recovers. Uh. So I said that the next version
Speaker 1: of the Mac operating system and the next version of
Speaker 1: iOS will bring the two operating systems even closer together.
Speaker 1: We've already started to see them start to kind of
Speaker 1: creep in on each other in that in that awesome
Speaker 1: but not creepy way creep right, Yeah, most mostly in
Speaker 1: just the integrated device and desktop laptop experience. I think
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna see continuation of that, but I
Speaker 1: think it will be yet another generation before they become
Speaker 1: practically identical. So and and this is kind of like
Speaker 1: Apple is taking an approach that's a little bit different
Speaker 1: from Microsoft, but the end result is the same, which
Speaker 1: is that you have an operating system that is easily
Speaker 1: identifiable across a suite of platforms, whether that's a smartphone,
Speaker 1: a tab it a or a laptop or even a desktop. So, uh,
Speaker 1: so Apple's going about it this way where they're just
Speaker 1: slowly getting closer and closer. Microsoft introduced a new operating
Speaker 1: system and then just applied it across the boarders like
Speaker 1: ma'am flat gone to the two different approaches, but otherwise, uh,
Speaker 1: it's going to the same goal. Okay, Laurence. So what's
Speaker 1: your next prediction? My next prediction? Um, So, we've got
Speaker 1: we've got a bunch of next generation consoles coming out.
Speaker 1: We're We've we've got rumors that the Xbox seven twenty
Speaker 1: or Durango as it's currently codenamed, is going to be
Speaker 1: coming out, and also a PS four or the Orbits
Speaker 1: as it's currently codenamed. UM. Of course the the we
Speaker 1: you already came out this year, UM what it's code
Speaker 1: named all will come on. The sales have not been
Speaker 1: as good as they had hoped. They have not, but
Speaker 1: I think I don't know. UM. I do think that
Speaker 1: it might perk up a little bit for the holiday season,
Speaker 1: but I'm not But I'm not that people are are
Speaker 1: prepared for another another new console just right this very second,
Speaker 1: especially when UM Xbox and PS three prices are so
Speaker 1: I think I think I think an Xbox owner, as
Speaker 1: an Xbox owner who has had the Xbox three six
Speaker 1: since it debuted, I think a lot of us are
Speaker 1: really ready for a new console. But I don't know
Speaker 1: what the new console would have to have to make
Speaker 1: it a must buy. Okay. And the reason why I
Speaker 1: say that is because, yes, you're going to get faster
Speaker 1: processors and you're going to get better graphics. But um,
Speaker 1: and this has said every single time there's a new console.
Speaker 1: But really, I mean, you're like, there's a point where
Speaker 1: you like, how much better does it need to be?
Speaker 1: Like for me, the graphics aren't really the reason why
Speaker 1: you play the games right now. If it's if the
Speaker 1: graphics are bad, that's bad. But but if the graphics
Speaker 1: are you know, are are decent, then I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: that's that's good. But pretty much pretty soon that kind
Speaker 1: of disappears for me. Every now and then you wake
Speaker 1: up and you're like, whoa, that's a really awesome uh
Speaker 1: screen right there, Like I'm looking at something really amazing
Speaker 1: where the cut scene was really effective. But most of
Speaker 1: the time, I just it just kind of fades into
Speaker 1: the background and I'm really concentrating on gameplay. But um,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think there are a lot of
Speaker 1: gamers out there who might really want to get their
Speaker 1: hands on a new console, especially for the PlayStation folks. Sure, sure,
Speaker 1: I mean I think that come next year especially, And
Speaker 1: I've I also don't think that Nintendo is necessarily holding
Speaker 1: the sector of gaming that are the people who are
Speaker 1: going to run out and buy something immediately when it's
Speaker 1: brand new and shiny, right right right, So so it's
Speaker 1: appealing to people who enjoy games, but they aren't they
Speaker 1: don't identify themselves necessarily as a gamer and quote unquote
Speaker 1: casual gamer. Right right right, um, but but but so,
Speaker 1: my my prediction for next year is that um xbox
Speaker 1: is going to continue to sell more than than PlayStation
Speaker 1: um in in in fact, that when the seventh twenty
Speaker 1: comes out, that it will sell more than the PS four,
Speaker 1: and and that that both both of those new consoles
Speaker 1: are going to cannibalize the best awesome bits of We
Speaker 1: You and just kind of beat the pants off of it.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we do. I want to love you.
Speaker 1: I love I love that, I love the pad pad
Speaker 1: is terrific. I got a chance to play with that
Speaker 1: before the We You came out. Brag a lot, brag much. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got to play with that at ce Has two
Speaker 1: thousand twelve, and it was it was yeah, no, it
Speaker 1: was a neat way of playing. It made me think
Speaker 1: of the old Dreamcast where it used to have the
Speaker 1: LED memory card that you could play a game on,
Speaker 1: except of course, way more advanced I mean, but still
Speaker 1: same sort of principle that you have this additional screen
Speaker 1: that can have more information, like your your heads up
Speaker 1: display could be on your controller as opposed to the
Speaker 1: taking up screen landscape. That kind of stuff or or
Speaker 1: innovative uses like I think it's Zombie You where you
Speaker 1: can use it as like a scope, like you lift up,
Speaker 1: you lift up the controller to the screen. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it's Zombie You that lets you do that. Listeners
Speaker 1: feel free to correct me if I am as I
Speaker 1: am likely to be wrong about that, please do tell
Speaker 1: us how wrong we are. But but building on top
Speaker 1: and I agree, I think I think the Xbox whatever
Speaker 1: it's called, will out sell whatever the Sony one is called.
Speaker 1: I think I think it's gonna be true both for
Speaker 1: the current generation until we get to the next generation
Speaker 1: and then moving forward, especially in the United States and
Speaker 1: the in Japan, it's probably gonna be the flip flop
Speaker 1: because we're talking about just traditionally that's the way it
Speaker 1: is um and just just the range of titles that
Speaker 1: are are released for American versus Japanese cats. Although there's
Speaker 1: fewer and fewer exclusive titles. I mean there there are some,
Speaker 1: but like you know, Halo's like that, but although you
Speaker 1: can find that on PC as well. But but we
Speaker 1: also are going to see other consoles jump into competition
Speaker 1: and curious to see how this changes things up. Like Valves,
Speaker 1: Steambox is likely to debut and their team. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the steam Box can bring PC gaming to the TV,
Speaker 1: and they've already started laying the groundwork with the big
Speaker 1: screen uh app that they have right now where you
Speaker 1: can hook up a computer to your television and use
Speaker 1: the TV screen as your as your display. This would
Speaker 1: be the steam Box would be an out of the
Speaker 1: box kind of simplified computer, so that the average consumer
Speaker 1: who doesn't want to fiddle with settings or drivers or
Speaker 1: any of that stuff that PC gaming things that PC
Speaker 1: gamers door. Yeah, console gamers are kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want to hook it up and have it go,
Speaker 1: make it go exactly. So I think Steambox is going
Speaker 1: to appeal to the plug and play gamer and the
Speaker 1: big advantage they have as they say, well, yeah, these
Speaker 1: other consoles do stuff well, but this is a gaming PC.
Speaker 1: It's just the game PC made to work on your television.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious to see how big a dentt it
Speaker 1: can make in the gaming market, um and whether or
Speaker 1: not it starts taking away market share from the other
Speaker 1: the leaders, the legacy consoles. UM. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it'll if it will really take a chunk out because
Speaker 1: console gamers can be really devoted to their particular brands. Um,
Speaker 1: but then we also have the the o u y A.
Speaker 1: It's it was a big success story on Kickstarter. They
Speaker 1: had a kick started campaign to raise money. They ended
Speaker 1: up raising way more money than they needed to be
Speaker 1: able to, Like I forget what their goal was, but
Speaker 1: it was something like, you know, a hundred something, this
Speaker 1: is these this I'm just talking h random numbers here,
Speaker 1: but it was like it was one of those crazy
Speaker 1: kickstarters success stories where you make you know, like five
Speaker 1: timest exactly thousand times as much as you have. You said,
Speaker 1: like I want a hundred thousand, you get three point
Speaker 1: five million, Well then I'm going to make it that
Speaker 1: much more of fom. But yeah, the uya should be
Speaker 1: debuting as well. And uh, it reminds me more of
Speaker 1: a simple streaming service. So I'm curious to see how well.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean that as a knock, but that
Speaker 1: it does seem to be more about downloading games or
Speaker 1: streaming games to a console as opposed to going out
Speaker 1: and buying games and then putting them into your console
Speaker 1: and playing them. How many people are really buying games?
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, are you have you heard any
Speaker 1: numbers about how many people are downloading games these days
Speaker 1: versus buying physical discs. I don't have the numbers. Anecdotally,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people who are starting to
Speaker 1: do the whole digital thing because they went ahead and
Speaker 1: bought xboxes that had those ridiculous, ridiculous hard drives. I
Speaker 1: don't see. I have the hard drive that has like
Speaker 1: two gigabytes, spaces goes up to four. Mind goes up
Speaker 1: to ludicrous. Yeah. Yes, that's the problem. Is that I'm
Speaker 1: actually looking at buying a new hard drive for Mind
Speaker 1: so that I can I can take advantage of that
Speaker 1: because I know people who do do that, and they
Speaker 1: do it for multiple reasons. One it means less clutter.
Speaker 1: They don't have to worry about having a box someplace
Speaker 1: that's taking up space. Too, it usually means that the
Speaker 1: load times are decreased significantly because everyone's on the device
Speaker 1: arrange to read the disc um But I don't know
Speaker 1: the figures, so, but I do expect that will that
Speaker 1: number will grow in two thousand thirteen. It would surprise
Speaker 1: me if it didn't. Okay, uh so let's see we
Speaker 1: talked about that was that was kind of both of us.
Speaker 1: Do you want me to go, let me go again,
Speaker 1: because I think I've got a few more than you do.
Speaker 1: And uh, I here's one. I said that Intel will
Speaker 1: begin to struggle a bit because and this is related
Speaker 1: to something we talked about earlier, because mobile is becoming
Speaker 1: increasingly important. Uh. And Intel is really in the business
Speaker 1: of making chips for desktop and laptop computers as well
Speaker 1: as for larger computers for other purposes. But but because yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: but because the the importance of desktops and laptops is
Speaker 1: is declining, or at least desktops definitely declining. In laptops,
Speaker 1: I think you said I was gonna speed up. I'm
Speaker 1: back and forth on that one. But I think Intel
Speaker 1: is gonna see things get a little more tight for
Speaker 1: it in two thousand thirteen, and so, uh, it would
Speaker 1: not surprise me to see Until explore creating something along
Speaker 1: the lines of ARM based micro processors, either licensing out
Speaker 1: the ARM architecture or building something from the ground up
Speaker 1: to compete against ARM in a more aggressive way so
Speaker 1: that it can go after that mobile market. Because right now,
Speaker 1: if if the mobile market is what everyone's moving towards
Speaker 1: until gets left behind. Okay, next turn, sorry, don't. I
Speaker 1: don't have a whole lot to say. I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go breathe into a paper bag. He see
Speaker 1: I come into this. I'm I'm like, I get to
Speaker 1: say ridiculous things. It's so exciting. I feel like I
Speaker 1: feel like you're genuinely a little bit. I maybe I
Speaker 1: just haven't gotten the emails yet, so I haven't. So
Speaker 1: I don't know how scary it can be to make
Speaker 1: these kind of predictions at all. It's not scary at all.
Speaker 1: If you look at my record, I'm probably batting around
Speaker 1: three hundred, which you know in baseball is not so bad.
Speaker 1: In tech predictions not great. What else? What else have
Speaker 1: I got here? Um? Uh oh? Another Apple thing? Apple TV.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to happen next year. I think
Speaker 1: that Apple is going to market a television UM that
Speaker 1: that has all kinds of crazy integrated stuff in it. Um.
Speaker 1: This has been a prediction. I'm glad you're here to
Speaker 1: make that prediction since Chris is not here, because that's
Speaker 1: that's like Chris is annual prediction is that Apple TV
Speaker 1: will come out. But I think this year, more than
Speaker 1: any other, it's likely to happen yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think I'm making it from like I'm saying it, It's
Speaker 1: a pretty safe bet. That's what basically everyone on the
Speaker 1: internet is saying is going to happen. And well, we'll
Speaker 1: Tim Cook seems to slowly be going from this is
Speaker 1: a hobby for us to to look at, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole TV space. Two, this is interesting and we're
Speaker 1: not going to ignore it, and and and those. And
Speaker 1: it's been subtle. It's not been like that dramatic of
Speaker 1: a change in stance, but those subtle changes in the
Speaker 1: way things are worded suggests that this is becoming more
Speaker 1: and more of an actual thing. Yes, uh yeah, So
Speaker 1: let me ask you this just personally, Lauren, No no
Speaker 1: shock here, but uh, would you, assuming that you had
Speaker 1: the budget for it, would you want to get something
Speaker 1: like an Apple TV or even a Google TV, like
Speaker 1: any kind of net connected TV, but specifically, I think
Speaker 1: Apple and Google would be the two that are the major,
Speaker 1: uh companies in that space. Um, if if it were me,
Speaker 1: I would probably go for go for a Google personally,
Speaker 1: just because, um, it would probably be way cheaper, very
Speaker 1: very I mean, I wouldn't be as pretty a TV
Speaker 1: though it would. No, no, it would not UM. But
Speaker 1: but you'll have to understand that the television that I
Speaker 1: currently have in my living room has tubes in it.
Speaker 1: This is I just heard the internet crop No no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I know you know you know what I mean. Though, No,
Speaker 1: I do know what you mean. I vaguely remember TVs
Speaker 1: that had two uses it. I don't think I even know.
Speaker 1: That's not true. I do own one. I just it's
Speaker 1: just not plugged into anything. It's sitting in a corner
Speaker 1: waiting for Samara to come crawling out of it and
Speaker 1: minds on wheels. Actually it really is because better no,
Speaker 1: no enormous rear projection TV. That's that's terrific. No, no,
Speaker 1: so so so this is I mean, I'm just that
Speaker 1: that is the kind of tech adopter I am. I
Speaker 1: until until this thing breaks or somebody emails me five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, that is what I'm going to use. But
Speaker 1: but if I had the Apple tunity and the money
Speaker 1: to UM, I absolutely would want something that connects up
Speaker 1: to the Internet, because that's what that's what I use
Speaker 1: my Xbox for essentially, So if I could kind of
Speaker 1: integrate that into a single thing, not that I would
Speaker 1: want to give up my Xbox because Halo is critical.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, no, there's let's not talk crazy talk. But
Speaker 1: but here's the thing is that any like, if you
Speaker 1: get a TV where there's a big company that can
Speaker 1: make huge deals with various providers, then you get a
Speaker 1: lot more options than you would through something like Xbox,
Speaker 1: where you know, I I love my Xbox and I
Speaker 1: use I use the connectivity stuff all the time. That's
Speaker 1: how I access Netflix to my main TV. I've got
Speaker 1: a Roku for my other TV, and um, just name
Speaker 1: dropping stuff now, But but but I used, I don't
Speaker 1: say yeah, I do the same thing, and I mean
Speaker 1: I really enjoy the services. But yeah, something that's deeply
Speaker 1: integrated into a television could be really interesting. Now. Granted,
Speaker 1: uh it sometimes worries me too because if it's like
Speaker 1: a partnership thing words and integrated partnership, Um, you always
Speaker 1: have to worry about what happens if one of these
Speaker 1: entities goes away. But that's true of any technology. So
Speaker 1: it's not like I can't just point a TVs and
Speaker 1: say that's the flaw. That's just the way. That's just
Speaker 1: the way things work. From how stuff works dot com
Speaker 1: and uh okay, so here's one of mine. E books
Speaker 1: and e publishing will become even more important in two
Speaker 1: pals in their team, and electronic books sales will uh
Speaker 1: completely outpace hard copy books. So if you look at
Speaker 1: the sales figures of books, um, then the sales figures
Speaker 1: for electronics are going to to go beyond the sales
Speaker 1: figures for hard copy books. And for those of us
Speaker 1: out there who are literature major's former literature majors like myself,
Speaker 1: this is yeah, sad, but but also kind of awesome.
Speaker 1: I think it's exciting. I'm I'm kind of in the
Speaker 1: anti Rad Bradberry camp on that one. I think that
Speaker 1: it's it's really terrific to be able to have a
Speaker 1: thing that you can carry with you and download new
Speaker 1: books too. At any given point, I agree. I mean,
Speaker 1: nothing for me replaces the physical pleasure of holding a
Speaker 1: book and reading it. That smell, the feel of the page,
Speaker 1: the tactile experiences that you're never going to get out of.
Speaker 1: I mean, even even if you have a really nice
Speaker 1: like I've got a like a disingorgeous leather and wood
Speaker 1: cover for my for my kindle, and and it's it's
Speaker 1: it's great to hold I mean, it makes you feel
Speaker 1: like you're holding a book. But but but on the
Speaker 1: other hand, nothing replaces the feeling of being able to
Speaker 1: carry two volumes of Game of Thrones with you on
Speaker 1: vacation and not throw your back out. So so yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's a trade off. Um and yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: especially with the with the sales of the Kindle and
Speaker 1: the Nook in the past year, it's I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: that everyone has access to it. Sure, that's the only
Speaker 1: ones I make Lauren, Yeah, all right, next, do you
Speaker 1: have any more? I've got, I've got a couple more.
Speaker 1: But I've got I've got a couple more. Well. Uh.
Speaker 1: Prediction um medical tech. I think that this is going
Speaker 1: to be the year that a great number of people
Speaker 1: get their genetic sequencing done um and uh. And furthermore,
Speaker 1: that health records are going to be going digital and
Speaker 1: people are going to be interacting more with them uh
Speaker 1: and and and more with their doctors. As a result,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a gorgeous new future
Speaker 1: of not understanding what your doctor is saying and still
Speaker 1: googling what what what the heck they mean? The nice thing, though,
Speaker 1: is we might be able to actually read the digital
Speaker 1: signatures of our doctors. Unlikely. I don't even know what
Speaker 1: this prescriptions for. I think they're all going to be
Speaker 1: scrawling on tablets. That part's going to be the same.
Speaker 1: So I hold out hope. Yeah, that that's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that makes a handwritten writing recognition software go,
Speaker 1: oh give up. All right, So here here's one totally
Speaker 1: unrelated to that. So Zinga, the game company that's been
Speaker 1: having had a real hard time in two thousand twelve. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a rough year for for all the they're
Speaker 1: the kids who created of course where with Friends and
Speaker 1: um they had the all the vill um. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: Zinga had a meteoric rise and then and almost as
Speaker 1: meteoric fall like it just we and we did a
Speaker 1: whole episode about Zinga, so I won't rehash everything. But
Speaker 1: Zinga has been having some real problems with uh, you know,
Speaker 1: maintaining revenues. They've done some layoffs, uh a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of that's been in the news. And one thing
Speaker 1: I think is a possibility, and and this is my prediction,
Speaker 1: is that the board of directors for Zinga very well
Speaker 1: may explore and then execute an option to buy up
Speaker 1: as much stock as possible to convert Zinga back into
Speaker 1: a private company because as a publicly traded entity, Zinga
Speaker 1: has to answer to shareholders, and sometimes sometimes that can
Speaker 1: be very difficult to do and ensure the long term
Speaker 1: success of your company because shareholders can and this is
Speaker 1: not always the case, but it's often the case, shareholders
Speaker 1: can ignore long term growth uh in order to get
Speaker 1: short term benefit of trends or the immediate, like they
Speaker 1: just want a quick fix which might in the long
Speaker 1: term hurt the company, rather than watch these slow investments
Speaker 1: be made so that you know they might be the
Speaker 1: right choices, but it could take to three years for
Speaker 1: it to really turn around. For shareholders, that can be
Speaker 1: a long long time, and so some companies it benefits
Speaker 1: them to remain a private company because then they can
Speaker 1: make these decisions and it's a smaller group of shareholders
Speaker 1: and you don't have to worry about catering to everyone's needs.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's a possibility we might see
Speaker 1: Zinga go back to being a private company in two
Speaker 1: I like it. Um My, the last one that I
Speaker 1: have written down um is is basically a non prediction.
Speaker 1: Um My prediction is that nothing will happen with HTML
Speaker 1: five right, So just just just essentially, it's that like
Speaker 1: a plateau of development. So it's not that not that
Speaker 1: no one nothing, nothing is going to happen with it.
Speaker 1: Lots of things are going to be happening. Nothing is
Speaker 1: going to happen in the public, No one is going
Speaker 1: to be right, We're not going to have integrating it
Speaker 1: and adopting it. Yeah, it's not gonna be it's not
Speaker 1: gonna be finished essentially. Yeah, I I can agree with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, there have been some problems with HTML five
Speaker 1: and I don't I don't see that changing really in Alright,
Speaker 1: so I've got two more than I want to go over. Um,
Speaker 1: I had three, but cyber warfare is a gimme, so
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that one. So this is
Speaker 1: one that I thought of, and it kind of plays
Speaker 1: into some of the other stuff we talked about. I
Speaker 1: think there's gonna be some companies that look into designing
Speaker 1: technology that is specifically intended to be a set can
Speaker 1: screen experience, meaning that when we're watching television, that's our
Speaker 1: primary screen, and then a lot of us, myself included,
Speaker 1: will have a secondary screen open, whether it's a laptop
Speaker 1: or a tablet or even a smartphone. We tend a
Speaker 1: lot of us tend to have most of us while
Speaker 1: we are watching TV. These days, it's not enough to
Speaker 1: watch TV, but which means that I can often miss
Speaker 1: in incredibly important parts of whatever it is I'm watching,
Speaker 1: and then look up and say, where's that guy? What
Speaker 1: do you mean he's dead? When did he die? What
Speaker 1: do you mean two minutes ago? You shouldn't watch during
Speaker 1: I'm assuming you're talking about Walking Dead. I was talking
Speaker 1: about Supernatural, which really one of the one of the
Speaker 1: two brothers is perpetually spoiler alert either dead or or
Speaker 1: in hell. That's really your two options. Or or about
Speaker 1: to die or about to go to hell. That's you know,
Speaker 1: one of those things are definitely happening to one of
Speaker 1: the two brothers in that show. Shows all Jonathan, by
Speaker 1: the way, I have not watched any of it. Enjoy
Speaker 1: it anyway. Yeah, yeah, we we won't won't talk about
Speaker 1: the documentary series Spatial. Uh so, Yeah. I think they're
Speaker 1: going to be companies that make technology specifically with the
Speaker 1: intent of making it a second screen. Now a lot
Speaker 1: of people are using existing technology to do this, and
Speaker 1: a lot of apps are coming out that are helping
Speaker 1: out with this helping to integrate the two experiences. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like smart glass. Again, that's another example. But there are
Speaker 1: other apps out there. I mean Netflix has apps. I
Speaker 1: mean there's there's tons of apps out there. But I
Speaker 1: think they are going to be companies that say, this
Speaker 1: is something that people are really interested in. What if
Speaker 1: we designed from the ground up a product that's intended
Speaker 1: immediately to be a second screen and that could take
Speaker 1: any form factor. I'm not predicting the form factor. I'm
Speaker 1: not predicting the operating system. I'm just saying there's going
Speaker 1: to be companies out there that say, let's build the
Speaker 1: definitive second screen. Because everyone's doing this, so let's make
Speaker 1: a specialized product. It makes perfect sense to me. If
Speaker 1: I had a capital, I would totally have gone into
Speaker 1: that because it'd be like I can build this company,
Speaker 1: up sell it to someone else, and grave and train.
Speaker 1: So that's my prediction for that, and then um my
Speaker 1: final prediction. This is one that that I believe Lauren
Speaker 1: might disagree with me on because of something we said
Speaker 1: in our pre show. I said that two thirteen is
Speaker 1: going to mark the peak and then decline and into
Speaker 1: a plateau of crowd funding and Uh, crowdfunding. We saw
Speaker 1: a lot of crowdfunding in two thousand twelve. I think
Speaker 1: two thousand and thirteen we're gonna see even more of it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna see startup companies appealed directly to average citizens
Speaker 1: saying this is something that this is an idea I had.
Speaker 1: So for example, I might say I have this idea
Speaker 1: for the perfect second screen device, and but I need
Speaker 1: starting capital, so I start up or whatever, um and
Speaker 1: I put it up there and then ask for funds.
Speaker 1: We've already seen companies like we've seen the U Yeah,
Speaker 1: we saw the Pebble smart watch thing. Lots of tech
Speaker 1: has come through Kickstarter and receive successful funding through it. Uh,
Speaker 1: some of them we haven't necessarily seen the outcome yet.
Speaker 1: We're kind of still waiting on it. But I think
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen is we're going to see that continue
Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen, hit a peak, and then I
Speaker 1: think people are going to start getting a little burnt
Speaker 1: out by it just from the idea. Well, you know what,
Speaker 1: I've very funded like five of these things. I am
Speaker 1: done for now, and even if something really cool comes along,
Speaker 1: I think that people will get burnt out by funding
Speaker 1: various projects, especially if these projects are slow to uh
Speaker 1: come to completion. I mean a lot of this is
Speaker 1: a lot of this will depend upon how well companies
Speaker 1: can Absolutely no, I think I think people are not
Speaker 1: done with done with crowdsourcing it, and I think that
Speaker 1: enough people are excepted. I mean, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it's right for everything, but I don't think
Speaker 1: it's going anywhere in I mean, I'm I'm currently looking
Speaker 1: at uh at a book project that some web comic
Speaker 1: artists put together, UM, the to Be or Not to Be?
Speaker 1: That is the Adventure to Choose your Own Adventure book
Speaker 1: that Ran North of Dinosaur Comics put together. UM does
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean you can be Hamlet and not die. Yes,
Speaker 1: it means you can be Ophelia and not die. It
Speaker 1: means you can be Ophelia and like ride velociraptors, Canelia
Speaker 1: and get to a nunnery. I can only assume that
Speaker 1: that's going to be an option. UM. But this they
Speaker 1: had a goal and have raised half a million at
Speaker 1: this point, and and it is it is. I mean,
Speaker 1: I do think that there's a terrible divide in UM
Speaker 1: these crowdfunding sources where you're either Amanda Palmer and you
Speaker 1: make a million dollars or you and your project doesn't
Speaker 1: fund and your project is fund And that's not bitterness,
Speaker 1: by the way, I truly am not. Maybe maybe maybe
Speaker 1: this prediction of yours is coming from a place of
Speaker 1: bitterness and sorrow. I mean, you know, everything subjective, right,
Speaker 1: I mean we we view the world through our own
Speaker 1: individual lenses. I would like to think I'm objective, but
Speaker 1: so would everybody else. And I don't know that's not true. No,
Speaker 1: I am, that's a fair point. I am, I am.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that people will start paying more attention to
Speaker 1: the people who genuinely need startup capital. I think I
Speaker 1: would really love to see places like Kickstarter revised their contracts,
Speaker 1: their um their user contracts to to make it more
Speaker 1: possible for the little guy to actually get funding, and
Speaker 1: maybe maybe make it a little harder for something like
Speaker 1: penny Arcade too, because no, no offense against the penny
Speaker 1: Arcade guys, absolutely none. We love you, please don't kill us.
Speaker 1: But to use Kickstarter so that you don't have to
Speaker 1: run ads on your site for a year based upon
Speaker 1: what Kickstarter was founded upon, just seems like it's a mismatch, right,
Speaker 1: because Kickstarter was really about kickstarting projects. Now, ultimately Kickstarter
Speaker 1: approved that project. So I don't fault the penny arcade
Speaker 1: guys at all. I mean, they were trying something new,
Speaker 1: and they're trying and they're trying to reward their their
Speaker 1: loyal audience. All of that is awesome. They just seemed
Speaker 1: like Kickstarter was the wrong tool for the job based
Speaker 1: upon kickstarters founding found founding statement and so, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it just seems to be a disconnect there. So it
Speaker 1: wasn't that I objected to the fact that they were
Speaker 1: trying to get away from running ads. I object to
Speaker 1: using a tool. Uh. And I really this really falls
Speaker 1: again more on Kickstarter than anything else, using a tool
Speaker 1: in a way that it was not necessarily intended or
Speaker 1: at least the way it was projected out to the public,
Speaker 1: you know, So that that was the biggest But I
Speaker 1: would like to see more grassroots projects get that kind
Speaker 1: of funding. And and again no slide against the Amanda
Speaker 1: Palmer's and in the world, every every bit of success
Speaker 1: that they have gotten, but you do worry that that
Speaker 1: might kind of burnout, right, and you could take away
Speaker 1: from from projects that have no way of making it,
Speaker 1: you know, and there's no avenue of success for the
Speaker 1: person who is trying. And it could be that's something
Speaker 1: that we would all benefit from, least to enjoy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I'm just maybe I am just the optimist
Speaker 1: and Jonathan is the pessimist, and that is what is
Speaker 1: going on on opposite sides of this table right now.
Speaker 1: I don't think the glass is half full or half empty.
Speaker 1: I think it's dirty. The dirty glass. Well, I think
Speaker 1: that wraps up this discussion. So in order to conclude,
Speaker 1: let's just say we will revisit these predictions at the
Speaker 1: end of and see how we did and definitely how
Speaker 1: wrong we were. Yeah. Yeah, and you guys can can
Speaker 1: tune in then and hear us keep score and uh,
Speaker 1: if you guys have any suggestions for future episode topics,
Speaker 1: I highly recommend you write us. You can send us
Speaker 1: an email. Our address is tech stuff at Discovery dot com.
Speaker 1: Where you can get in touch with us over Facebook
Speaker 1: or Twitter or handle at both those locations is text
Speaker 1: stuff H. S. W and Lauren and I will talk
Speaker 1: to you again in really soon for more on this
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how Stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com