10 Types Of People

Now, it’s about this time of the year that I decide to ramble on about what I think will be the big tech news over the next 12 months. Most of the time, I get it wrong, and actually more recently I’ve gotten incredibly boring and pointless with my predictions. So, this will hopefully be a bit more interesting, a bit more interesting, probably completely wrong still (I don’t have an issue with that) but just a bit fun as well.

The problem with predictions, is that people tend to predict the obvious. Like the BBC “prediction” that the comet next year may show up, or may not. That isn’t a prediction, that’s just stating a fact. The other ones are just extrapolation. Eg…a new iPhone next year. I admit that this has mainly been my issue in the past as well. But this time it shall hopefully be a bit more interesting, but this will also mean that it will be incredibly wrong. Probably. We shall revisit these this time next year.

• A new xBox will be announced at E3.

Ok, I immediately broke my own rule. This one really is pretty obvious. Sony and Microsoft have been playing chicken for the last 12-18 months. They both already have their current ideal console ready to announce, tweak a bit, and then release. The issue is that they want to wait until the other one announces first. Because then they can tweak theirs, make it slightly better than the other and they have the best console on the market. The issue is, that with this strategy, they will very quickly be obsolete, as it is probably 2012′s technology released in 2014. The issue with consoles yet again…

• Amazon open physical store

I’ve said this one before. And I’ll say it again. I may have the year wrong, but this *will* happen. And I mean very soon. I think it’ll be sooner than most of you think. It’ll be in the US, and it’ll be a cross between an Apple shop and a car showroom. It’ll have a number of products that you can go in to physically look at. I’m not sure what will be in it. Probably the more popular items. Maybe focusing on electronics? I’m not sure. But, mark my words, this *will* happen.

• Microsoft will buy Nokia.

Ok, this one is probably a bit far-fetched. For this year anyway. But this is what will happen with these guys. Nokia will continue to lose value, Microsoft will buy Nokia, Ballmer will retire, Stephen Elop will be the new Microsoft CEO, and Microsoft begin to do an “Apple”. They realise they need the hardware of Nokia, and want to own it all. In fact, they have already realised this. It’s been said before, but it’s funny that it’s an ex-Microsofty that took over Nokia right before they went Microsoft and started nose diving. Ok, that’s unfair, they were nose diving before he took over. But he didn’t help.

Just remember this…Nokia’s market cap is $14M. Microsoft have about $50M in cash/cash equivalents.

• The first waterproof phone

That’s right. Waterproof. Not just water-resistant. Or splash-proof. Waterproof. The first waterproof smart phone will be released in 2013. Probably near the end of the year, and either by Samsung or LG. It’ll be the biggest feature they talk about with it, and it’ll be basically like this year’s phones but waterproof. We know this technology exists, we saw it last year at CES, but there have been no hints since then about anything including it. I think 2013 is the year.

• Colour Kindle
  

When Amazon released the Kindle Fire, and Barnes and Noble released their tablet as well…people seemed to forget about colour e-readers. I think 2013 is the year of the colour e-reader. We shall have at least 1 released. I think tablets from e-reader companies are just a stop-gap. I think they want a colour, high-refresh rate e-ink device, and I think someone will release one this year. It may not be Amazon, and it won’t be high refresh rate enough to watch videos yet, but it’ll come.

• Intel announce first ARM device

Not a crazy prediction. It’s been predicted before, or should I say rumoured. But I think there is a lot of interest in this. Especially as their own phone processors have gone nowhere so far.

• A new social network

Someone will announce a new social network. It will be free, but not have ads. How will they make money? By corporate sponsors. Basically, individuals (and charities) will get free accounts, but companies will have to pay to get onto it. Yes, they will have to pay for your nice free social network to get access to you. And what do you get in return? A nice, free, social network with no ads. Sound nice? Well, it’s a shame it’ll fail pretty badly. It won’t last till 2015.

• Yahoo build new search engine

Yahoo need a big thing. This is it. Not just a rehashing of Google, Bing, or old Yahoo. But a completely new way to search. I don’t know what this will look like, but that’s why I’m not building it. I just think they will release it this year to massive fanfair. It’ll be integrated into Flickr quite heavily, and together they will be heralded as the rebirth of Yahoo.

• Blackberry OS 10 isn’t a fail

Ok, it looks exactly like Android or iOS, but it finally catches up to the times and this stems the blockage of people going away from it. Don’t believe me? Just talk to a Blackberry fan. They are the most loyal customers I’ve ever seen. Even more loyal than Apple’s. Apple’s are sticking around because it keeps getting better. Blackberries are pretty much the same as they were 5 years ago. They are all staying around because they want something to believe in from RIM. They are begging for something new to buy with the blackberry logo on it.

It may not create much growth in their company, but it’ll stop the shrinkage, which is all the can hope for just now.

• Google Glassless

This one is part extrapolation, part wild speculation, part repeating what I’ve said for a while. I’ve been wanting this for ages. Augmented Reality contact lenses. It’s the next step, I just never realised there would be a step before it. I didn’t see Google Glass coming. But I have been saying for ages that the contact lenses will be coming. The main reason I think they’ll come quite quickly? People don’t want to wear something ridiculous looking like Google Glass.

p.s I never realised how hard it would be to think of my predictions without extrapolation. Most of what I thought of technically was. And even after all that work, I failed as a few did include it.

Now, it’s about this time of the year that I decide to ramble on about what I think will be the big tech news over the next 12 months. Most...

So, you may have noticed that the Nexus Q, Google’s answer to Airplay, has been announced and, in America at least, it costs $299. Compared to Apple TV, that looks like a ridiculous price. Over 3 times more. What makes it so special? Well, in general…nothing. It has a death star look, and has a bunch of leds, but apart from that, nothing.

The main problem appears to be that it is made almost entirely in the US. This obviously meaning that labour costs are a lot higher than if it had been made in China and this appears to have rocketed the cost sky-high.

Now we are approached with a problem. I highly commend Google for doing this and holding their standards above everything else. Or, maybe it’s just that they have had issues with China, who knows. Either way, it still comes down to 1 problem for normal users.

Cheap, or fair?

$99 for something made by Chinese workers who have almost no rights and get very little pay, or $299 for something made by a company in another country who pay a “decent” wage, or at least have higher standards of working conditions.

I honestly do not thing the capitalist system we are living in is going to give room for something 3x as much just so we can feel good about where it comes from. I mean, look at fair trade chocolate. Pay 20p more on a chocolate bar? No way! I don’t care that it means the farmer gets more money, I can’t afford that.

Especially with the fact that we have spent the last 20/30 years with technology getting cheaper and cheaper. Now we pay more?

I just don’t think it’s going to happen. What do you think?

So, you may have noticed that the Nexus Q, Google’s answer to Airplay, has been announced and, in America at least, it costs $299. Compared to Apple TV, that looks...

Time for my review of 2011′s tech predictions. Wide range of predictions, from gaming to phones to…well snarkiness. And I think I did not too bad last year. Let’s have a look.

• There will be at least 1 upgrade to either ps3, 360 or wii at E3. Most likely will be the wii, as I think it is the 1 most needing an upgrade. We haven’t heard any rumours yet, but that makes this one more fun. PS3 will hopefully not, as it should have a long time left in it as we haven’t reached its potential yet (and I’ve only had 1 for a year…) 360 will probably get 1 next year.

Wii U was announced. Wasn’t released, but I think that counts

• Google TV will have its Hero moment (arguably the point when android on phones became properly usable for everyday users). It will have a couple of upgrades, and actually start to be usable by normal people. This will then cause people to buy it, and make it useful and fun.

Well, I was right about the update. It was quite late in the year, but the Honeycomb update for Google TV made it really nice and useful and fun, and people are starting to like it. But still…not many people are buying it.

• We will drown in tablets and e-readers. The first colour e-reader will be released, and this will be kinda rubbish, cause the refresh rate will still be pretty crap. Better devices will not be released until 2012 (probably until after an Apple colour eReader, an i-nk-pad perhaps?).

Hmmmm. Ok partly right about the first bit. Wrong about the second bit. But technically probably will be right about the last bit? (not the Apple bit though…).

• The Notion Ink Adam will be released?

It was. And what an anti-climax that was. I never ended up getting one. Got a transformer instead.

• New iPad, iPhone and iPod touch (pretty obvious…) No MacBooks this year though. They seem to be going off MacBooks and releasing them with more than 1 year gap. They will slowly be turned into the iPad with a keyboard.

I was right, right and right. But then I was wrong. There was a Macbook refresh. Maybe even 2…can’t quite remember.

• Windows 8 will be announced, but will not be released till either the end of 2012, or beginning of 2013, but they will say beginning of 2012. It will look exactly the same, but will have great “security” features. Including, but not limited to, something “unhackable” and also a new “uncrackable” activation code system, that they seem to spend a lot of time on…

Right to start with, but then very wrong. It is nothing similar in look and feel…hello Metro interface.

• Commercially available 4K tv. People start to hear about it, forget about 3D. Although, people will continue to say that the number of pixels I have just now is fine, thank you very much. But they will buy one eventually anyways…

Nope. Sad times. Sometime though.

• Android 2.4 and 3.0 will be released within the year.

Hmmmm. Well, I was wrong about the numbers…but 3.0 and 4.0 should count I’d imagine. Who would have known exactly what would have happened with all this crazy tablet only version of Android and stuff. But I’ll take that as a win.

• Canonical will continue alienating people and projects, and will continue on its mission to mac-ify the Linux desktop.

Hmmmm wow, I was feeling snarky that day wasn’t I. I’ll just leave this one at the side for just now.

• Hulu will get off their backside and start their UK service. People celebrate…

Nope, and we didn’t even get Netflix last year In fact, apparently, Hulu just gave up. This is weird, and I wonder whether Netflix got some of these deals and managed to make them exclusive first? Who knows what actually happened. I guess we never will. The whole industry seems to be giving up on Hulu anyway.

All in all, a reasonable year. Lets just look forward to another year of awesome technical innovations. I’m excited. I hope you are too

Time for my review of 2011′s tech predictions. Wide range of predictions, from gaming to phones to…well snarkiness. And I think I did not too bad last year. Let’s have...

I understand that the Google people have many more important things to be doing, but personally I feel this is part of Google’s problem. I have been trying to find out about the “history” of android. About when previous android releases were announced, and the source code was released, the gaps between them, and trying to figure out when we could possibly see 2.3/3.0 because of that. I know this isn’t a science, but it is fun anyway.

As far as I can see, there is no “History” page, and the only page dedicated to android releases hasn’t been updated since 1.5 (android.com/releases). The easiest way for me to find this information is using wikipedia:

1.0: 21/10/2008

1.1: 09/02/2009

1.5: 30/04/2009

1.6: 15/09/2009

2.0: 26/10/2009

2.1: 12/01/2010

2.2: 20/05/2010

By my calculations, this would set 2.3 to be released …goodness knows. There seems to be no pattern at all. Thats rubbish. It should be between tomorrow and january.

This is not the point of this post however, the point is that Google need to keep their webpages up to date. Need to have a “history of android” page or something. But noone at Google would ever think about this as they are a company of engineers, as many people have said before.

This is Google’s main problem, thinking about the normal things, the simple things, the little things.

I understand that the Google people have many more important things to be doing, but personally I feel this is part of Google’s problem. I have been trying to find...

Ok, this weeks video of the week is not actually called “but…freecell”, but it is my favourite quote from the video. This is a fantastic video. Yeah, ok, I don’t agree with everything in the video, but its still hilarous.

Oh, btw, there is quite a bit of swearing at the end. So, technically NSFW. Its only one word, just repeated quite a few times.

[edit] I forgot to say…don’t let Windows make you feel sorry for it. It had its day [edit]

Enjoy!!!

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Ok, this weeks video of the week is not actually called “but…freecell”, but it is my favourite quote from the video. This is a fantastic video. Yeah, ok, I don’t...

I recently watched the Google Wave developer preview video, that is on http://wave.google.com. I had heard about it, but really only heard that it was “Email if it had been invented today”. So I was like “yeah…alright…sounds like a farse”. But, I can tell you, it really will be amazing.

I am embedding the video so you can have a look at it before you read the rest of the post. However, I understand many of you may not want to watch 1:20 of video, but to see the full extent of it you need to. However, to get a small idea of how cool this is gonna be, I would recommend watching maybe half an hour of it. Seriously…do it, you will not regret it. Think of it as being a TV program.

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Right, so, I would like to talk about some of the things that were shown in the video, and also a few of my own ideas about how this could be used.

• Message editing.

I couldn’t quite word the title to this section how I wanted to do it. Basically it is about the way you can edit the “waves”. So, recently, I was sent an email from a person in my church about something they are thinking about doing soon, and he wanted my opinion on what we could do with a server. So, I got this email that had about 10 emails in the previously bits. So I had to scroll through pages and pages of writing from about 4 different people (Pastor, deacon, website guy and another guy) that seemed to be all about the place, just to get an idea about what was actually happening.

I did not enjoy this, but in Google wave, I would see it all in a much more sensible way. I would see the original email, with the comments everyone had put in it, and I would have to scroll down past “So and so wrote” and “On this date, so and so wrote, to so and so”. It makes so much more sense, saves so much time, and looks so much nicer. This leads on to the next feature.

• Playback

Instead of trying to figure out what is happening and in what order, I could have used the playback feature. This would show me in what order things will have happened. I really love this feature. It is so cool.

It also shows potential in other areas – if you watched far into the video, you would see that they played a chess game, and showed you the full game through playback. Not very useful, but still a cool way of showing what could be done

• Spell Checker

Isn’t this the best spell checker you have ever seen? I would just tell it to do its job. I think it is amazing that they managed to get such an advanced spell checker that knows what you want to say because of the context. Very very amazing.

And, if it isn’t “confident” about what you are saying, it allows you to change the word yourself. This is just so cool, and I want this in everything else that I use as well.

• Contacts

I’m not sure whether this happens, but it looks like it from the preview. It seems like it works in such a way like social networks. Unlike email, where you have to maintain your contacts yourself, I think each person maintains their contact details, avatar, etc, and you just add them as a contact. This means no more using a phone number, but realising they changed it 3 weeks ago. Again, I’m not 100% sure this is what happens, but I think it is.

• API/Protocol

Completely open, has a nice API, and is an actual protocol. This opens so many things. From setting up your own “wave” on your server, to creating desktop clients (like thunderbird and outlook are to email) to creating extensions, to integrating it with other products. It is just such a clever move by google that means we can use the Wave but without using Google.

Obviously, there are so many things you could use this for. From email, to IM, to document collaboration, to coding in groups, to monitoring twitter and identi.ca.

I also had an idea that incorporates with their “Bloggy” extension. They only used it to send photos to their blog, but you could use it as a full blog editing client. This is cool.

I’d love to see how the Wave would work with RSS feeds as well.

I’m sorry guys, I think this is well over the 1000 character limit, but hopefully that didn’t put you off reading this because I think Google Wave has sooo much potential, and I cannot wait until I can ride the wave. Lets hope it makes my surfing so much more exciting.

p.s If anyone gets into Google Wave, and you have invites…I would LOVE one.

I recently watched the Google Wave developer preview video, that is on http://wave.google.com. I had heard about it, but really only heard that it was “Email if it had been...

Ok, some of you may remember I put down my 10 predictions for the coming year. Well, a few of them have come true. Lets see…

2. Apple won’t wait till Christmas to release their new Iphone, which is what they said they will do. – Turns out I was right with this one. They have released the iPhone 3Gs already, halfway through the year
5. I will get my computer working again. – This one did happen, but I didn’t update you with it. I got my money back for my old motherboard, and bought a new one.
6.Google will release 2 more versions of their G range of phones, taking as long to release the source code as they did with the first version. – Turns out this one is right as well, with the release today of the HTC Hero
7. Canonical will make an increasingly stupid name for version 9.10 of Ubuntu. Kranky Kangaroo or something. – This one happened as well. As we all know, it is called Karmic Koala
10. Thunderbird 3.0 might get released…that would be nice…taking long enough. – This one might happen soon, as we currently have the Beta 2 of Thunderbird, and mozilla don’t do many betas (ha…)

So, looks like a very successful year for me so far in predictions. More to come people…

Ok, some of you may remember I put down my 10 predictions for the coming year. Well, a few of them have come true. Lets see… 2. Apple won’t wait...

Ok, the predictions first. I predicted 2 things earlier in the year.

1. That there would be 2 HTC android-based phones released this year
2. That I would get my computer fixed.

Let me first of all say that number 2 should come true this week. I sent a letter to the company that is “fixing” my motherboard, and I recieved a phone call today saying they would refund me the money within the next 2 days. For anyone who doesn’t know, this company has had my motherboard for 2 months now, and have been saying it is being fixed everytime I email them. This is a great thing, because it finally means I can get my computer up and running soon.

Second of all, my prediction about the android-based HTC phones is going to be half true in May. In May they will release the HTC Magic. It is basically the G1 without a physical keyboard. I have not found anything else new about it. And nothing good new about it. Ach well…such is life.

Last of all…my news. I have recently come into possession of a Sega Megadrive, and when I get a few of my old games back, I will be rocking the retro. Woop! This leads me on to say that I am now going to try and build up a collection of lots of retro gaming systems (NES, atari, n64, gamecube, whatever) so if you happen to have one that you don’t use anymore…I’ll be happy to take it off your hands . Currently I only have the PS2 and the megadrive…but you have to start somewhere eh .

Now I’m off to study for my Physical and Organic Chemistry test on Friday. Yes, I was studying, I’m just having a wee break.

Ok, the predictions first. I predicted 2 things earlier in the year. That there would be 2 HTC android-based phones released this year That I would get my computer fixed....

Right, ok, so its that time of year when everyone tries to say what they think will happen with tech in the next year/few years.

Now, I don’t know why people keep doing this…because they are almost always wrong. Let me give you a few examples.

Bill Gates 1982 – “640K is more memory than anyone will ever need”
PC World in 2000 – “Within 3 years we will have PDA and phone batteries that last a year, like watch batteries.”
Alan Sugar 2005 – “Next Christmas, the ipod will be kaput”

If you want more you can go here http://listverse.com/history/top-30-failed-technology-predictions/

So…the question we all ask is…why on earth do we do it?
I have an answer…because its fun.

I am not expecting anything I say to be correct…but at this point in time this is how I feel it will go this year.

1. Microsoft will postpone their deadline for Windows 7. (Currently at 3rd quarter of this year)
2. Apple won’t wait till Christmas to release their new Iphone, which is what they said they will do.
3. 10000 people will once again say that this is the year of linux.
4. This will be the year of linux.
5. I will get my computer working again.
6. Google will release 2 more versions of their G range of phones, taking as long to release the source code as they did with the first version.
7. Canonical will make an increasingly stupid name for version 9.10 of Ubuntu. Kranky Kangaroo or something.
8. We will see the start of the silicon -> something else switchover, near the end of the year.
9. Google will release a desktop OS, because they don’t have one yet.
10. Thunderbird 3.0 might get released…that would be nice…taking long enough.
11. 3d desktops will become all the rage, and noone will believe linux users when they say we’ve had the cube for 6 years.

Ok, these are my predictions. If I think of anymore, I will put them in, but I will post one at the end of the year discussing what was right, and what was wrong.

Maybe I’ll be quoted as one of the top 30 worst predictions ever. Nah…that crown belongs to the people in the link above.

Right, ok, so its that time of year when everyone tries to say what they think will happen with tech in the next year/few years. Now, I don’t know why...

Yaaaaargh, ok, today be international talk like a pirate day. Yaaaargh. In tha spirit of International Talk like a Pirate day Google be adding a new language to its already interesting collection of languages.

Pirate now be alongside the likes of Elmer Fudd, Klingon, Bork Bork Bork (Swedish Chef) and Hacker (l337). On the right ye be seeing a list of all languages and below ye be seeing google in Pirate. Yaaaargh It be good that Google being so international and sooooo good with other languages.

Now all we Pirates can be searching google in our native langauge. Not having to be conform ta tha other language.

All ye be having a good International Talk like a Pirate day?

Yaaaaargh, ok, today be international talk like a pirate day. Yaaaargh. In tha spirit of International Talk like a Pirate day Google be adding a new language to its already...