Gadgetory

welcome to a very very special holiday episode a Yuletide episode of the 404 show on cnet I'm Jeff Bakalar I'm Justin you I'm Bridget Carey I mariela nunez today we're going to be talking about our tech predictions and overall tech enthusiasm predictions for the year 2013 this is when we gaze into our crystal ball and trying to figure out just what the hell's gonna happen next year looking at our score sheet from 2011 Oh went 0 4 130 so we're not doing too well yeah hopefully they can help you out with say so we so this year hopefully we can do a little bit of a better job because Bridget carries here and she's going to hopefully help us out and maybe help us break 500 so no I am a little psychic yeah that's what I've heard about you so you're gonna be able to do this for us I'm hoping mm-hmm all right brilliant um but let's really get down to it what what are we looking forward to next year I feel like CES sorta is a good indicator of what's coming down the pike arm and the word already is that I feel like televisions are going to be again one of the bigger things this year just because and I know everyone's heard me say it a bunch but just because 4k is finally starting to not necessarily come down in price but enter some realm of practicality or what about the vocabulary of it all and getting people to even know why they would need it or want it or or you know everything was always 1080p HD now I think about a 4k what's a 4k that's going to be whole hurdle yeah I feel like uh they they should really just stick to saying super HD is that something everyone can HD + HD exactly that but that's seriously something that every one can swallow and they'd be like I can wrap my head around this 4k I don't really own it it's really like four TVs in one right just asking for trouble I'm still not really clear on the differences between LCDs and LEDs still I'm still really confused about the terminology with TVs to add another one is not sure you should be mitting that is the TV guy I'm just saying that you know well look at blu-rays a simpler technology we can get our head around and they're still selling movies with both the DVD and blu-ray in it because we're still on that point where we're not really fully committed to jump in yeah um so you know I'm rethinking samsung is gonna have a really big announcement with 4k TVs they might I feel like the thing this year's going to be like who can bring the first 4k TV that's affordable yeah and you know who can have the first one under ten thousand dollars where it is but is it a matter of who has the better image or is it the matter of who can do more with their TV I I know it seems that what maybe strikes consumers more is what can I do with it now you know and not so much what you're I can barely perceive unless you have you know special you know tech to really see what's a better screen well you got imagine they're all going to come with the I guess basic set of features that we've come to take for granted and TVs now all these smart TVs these internet connected TVs but then going ahead and being like all right here's this amazing picture quality thing that we're that we're doing who can bring it down to a price that's that's realistic you had a bunch of things that you're Justin looking forward to a really quick with tears though I wanted to bring up the apple TV rumors that have kind of come back into the mix recently yeah again and again yeah I know it keeps popping up this latest news came after Tim Cook talked about the made in America imax and people are speculating that maybe those new displays could mean 2013 will see the year of the apple TV finally coming out we kind of thought that 2012 might be that um but it ended up just being an ipad for do you think we'll see an apple TV later on this year so good question I have to get their act together to make it something different than what they already offer on that thing that's called Apple TV the box so it's about like can they break through its i'm going to say no i'm going to vote no because it's too hard to break through to that cable operator madness of how it already exists with making profits from you know the commercial licenses of everything I think what you'll see is pressure to improve what you can do maybe with an add-on box but an actual television may be the best it will be is probably an apple TV built in the current Apple TV product built into a television maybe that mean you won't well that's what I thought it would be anyway yeah I know I think what they want to do is really shake things up like to do with music like offer something a little bit more than just an app to watch Netflix and some some shows to buy wood you can do now right so there's no incentive without something more innovative maybe it'll be a nomenclature thing maybe instead of calling it the apple TV it'll just be the ipad XL and it'll be a 30 inch screen that you can carry around with you that also happens to be with the TV where you can touch right your portable 30 and 30 it's going to have facetime probably some sort of weight I mean what we saw at CES last time were these add-ons that you just put on you clip on top of your television to give yourself a way to video chat in a living room which is what we all want to do so I think you're asleep IDEO chatting things it'll be it'll be like exactly giant iPad yeah I really do think there will be an apple proper television next year yeah just because and the only real you know I guess glimmer of doubt i have is because they seem to not necessarily be botching this whole thing but it is the one consistently unreliable apple product that's been you know floating around for the last two years um I feel like I'll if you told a lot of people by the end of 2012 there is still no official TV you know if you told them that three years ago they'd be like they'd be shocked but I I do think you know this is probably the year it's going to happen just because I think apple is starting to get a little too fragmented and they're going to continue this this sort of trip and make a lot of products that you know we all necessarily don't want or need and I think they will come out with a television and bridges right they have you know if it's just a TV just like any other TV what's so special about a while I'm I buying it'll probably overpriced anyway uh maybe if they build in something that's indispensable that something people really find themselves not being able to live without right or something weldon with with with their game systems that makes you think differently about how you're getting content what are they gonna build into this television the Apple roadmap has gotten a little bit easier to predict I feel like as well you know in years past maybe roadmap mid 2000s yeah it was starting to get a little difficult people were predicting that iphones would have keyboard like physical keyboards attached to it in twenty twelve people predicted the ipad mini almost to the T all the rumors came true oh I'm getting better at this Apple needs to put all its resources into fixing maps yeah you said roadmap I was like they have a bad road by the end of 2013 will people still continue to die as a result of relying on Apple maps yes or no I think yes if so if they put on apple TV before they fix or at least clean up to an extreme measure their their map situation that they don't have their priorities straight yeah there's I do find a tiny sliver of the light in knowing that how screwed up that map thing is yes but we don't want anyone to die course not being clear on that course now we are endorsing death map related death no we are not so ipad 5 think that's a safe bet six seven eight nine ten ipad all releasing in 2013 ipad mini uh I think they'll call like ipad mini HD something stupid like that over the ren display retina display ipad mini a new ipad mini right the new iPad Mini 3 s HD iphone iphone 5s iPhone this could be hard to read write 500 s is that one I would say the trend would be say yes yeah yeah they might I just totally mix up because it's too hard to just say 5s focus focus so maybe they'll do the iphone 5 tea or something even more ridiculous more letters yeah I just bring on the letters I don't think you think they're gonna change the form factor anytime soon though I feel like this was a slightly major update it's every other one this is not gonna be it's going with the same yeah I'm excited to see where android phones go I'm excited to see the next evolution of ang beyond jelly bean and all that good stuff I want to see where we go with key lime pie wherever the hell it's calm all that good stuff I'm excited about that samsung galaxy s4 I'm sure we'll be hitting sometime soon do you think the next iPhones gonna have mobile payments NFC something that like actually mobile payment cuz the whole thing is that mobile payments Google Wallet can't even get successful when you girls behind it well it's so does it have to have iphone behind it to have any success in the marketplace or people to go I'm gonna pay with my phone now people don't do that yet I think I think the next iPhone will probably have I take it back i think it will have some sort of mobile payment think it'll be NFC arm but you're right it you know but there are more people who have android phones and have iphones so but not all of them have NFC technology so I think that Apple needs to shake it up everyone's beating them on the technology and there have been kind of cool like it's okay where Apple we don't need it right now yeah but maybe that's going to change up over the years maybe they do need to be cutting-edge more like Android is I totally agree they are definitely not what they were a year ago and it's amazing what can change in it and look no one's worried about Apple I am not worried about them if I own stock in apple I'm not worried about that they are just not really where they were maybe 18 months ago they were everyone yawns now at press conferences welcomed it because it's the novelty is over as far as I'm concerned those keynotes they're just not doing it for people anymore maybe it's steve jobs not being there I don't know and you know a lot of its psychological maybe I i don't know i don't want to say they go Steve Jobs duds no apples in the crap no it's not how that's not that again just to get back to the mobile payments thing do you think that the concept of mobile payments is even take off I mean you need to have the concept as a foundation there and you need to have a lot of people adopting that concept before the hard way it comes out if there's one thing that I've learned from self checkouts at the grocery store it's that people really aren't good at doing things themselves and you can see that in taxi cabs in New York to you can pay with your own card just by pressing against the machine people take forever to do that it also doesn't cash may just be a better faster solution and simple too it's about the tech not working i go to i go check out a self-checkout it's beeping because i brought my own bag to have someone come over right approve that I didn't steal something you know it or the taxi doesn't register it as the internet connections off you know so yeah everything's always gonna be faster if you just take out a credit card still right I don't know it their hat what's the motivation it's got to have a point system rewards system i can i can get more you know credit for my 10th purchase that might get me to do it but i'll tell you one thing cash is definitively not the future okay so uh it's got to be there needs to be some sort of universal solution right you have all this fragmentation with NFC with google wallet with passbook that's the problem everyone has to get their freaking slice and their cut of this stuff and we can't all agree on one universal format right it's in every facet of technology there is dock connectors and proprietary cards and flash mayer and stuff like that if we could all just shut up for five minutes and get on board with the same sort of mobile payment system things would move a lot almost got to be a leader in that and someone's gotta drink drag others into it you look at my wallet my wallet is like this thick right now because if my phone had everything i needed in it than that may be right but what the answer to that though who has to step in you're gonna see the government has to step in and formalize some sort of thing they formalize the the internet now you have a leader like apple or google no but i don't think that's necessarily the answer because google is not a leader in that and Apple is not a leader in that it's to fret and then you have all the carriers who want their cut on the entire people looking at music as the example how did that get changed up on a unified way because Apple got in before anyone else even thought to do it and it's not a few chefs name for music right if you want to buy an mp3 can get that but you can get it from so many different source course all these different lockers now but that seems to work out okay I think a physical like the tangible idea of giving your phone to someone or scanning something that's the thing that needs to be streamlined maybe it's the register companies I don't know but someone's got to figure it out because I am so sick of having this competition impeding progress yeah and everyone trying to sue each other over crap how about this no more suing yeah they go no more suing let's get to making some more stuff mama I don't want to care about these lawsuits it's what you you said than done but it's getting a little ridiculous yeah obviously referring to the patent suits with apple and samsung that's gonna happen more it's gotta be fixed though man patent patent law must be reformed in my opinion so let's get to your list of stuff before we have to go because I we you know we wanted to make this as a yes or something that we've kind of talked about in the second half of this year life monitors I think are going to be really huge in 2013 in 2012 we saw the emergence of Nike FuelBand and things like the Jawbone Up that kind of monitor your fitness they track your steps as a pedometer and then you can go online and look at your progression and your health in that way you know they even track your nutrition if you want to write that information and I think that with things like Google glass coming out because name times invention best invention of 2012 today so I think those life trackers are going to be really really big I read something about the memento kickstarter campaign that's basically a box that clips to any part of your clothing and that snaps a photo at increments that you choose and then will stitch together um basically a time lapse of your life that you'll take with you and you can upload it whenever you want you can do on a daily basis or look at your month and video snapshots to kind of cool stuff like that I think is gonna be very very big in this next you people actually physically and digitally tracking their lives so you have to clip this thing on somewhere you do yeah I it's kind of like a snapshot version of a GoPro and that's that's another thing that I've been seeing too is like people just digitize in their lives seeing a lot of uh bike riders on the street with GoPros attached to their helmets I'm sure you've seen it in your hockey team stuff too um yeah people just really really want to take their entire life online so they not mean so they can do what that I still don't get that yeah I still don't get documenting every last thing you did just so you can look at it again temos later you know we'll look at the the Paleo diet we talked about it with that anytime that you're you have a representation of something on the computer you're able to look at it more just the idea of uh being the details on something of your life and having that once your prediction is that we don't backer be with that we become even more self-obsessed hundred percent they were getting more comfortable with that concept to be able to buy you do because it's been out for what to some years now well like I have a scale where I walk on it and it and we've ever want to see the trend oh like I get the number in front of me but if ever want to see the trend it's on a nap with the little wiggly line in right things that can maybe make it easier to to monitor if you want to but yeah you got the chart when you have more gadgets to recharge you start getting into a messy territory I've been trying to use like 11 pedometer that lets me how active I am yeah and the reward is that I get points in a game this is a new thing by strife and I don't always have the motivation to recharge it and then it kind of just falls by the wayside so everyone is trying to find what's what's the motivation to get you to wear it and charge it right right but the gamification thing I'm sure is going to be really big dude this year I started using a cycling app called stiva it's basically a social network you can download this app for iPhones or androids and you can post your route your favorite routes in your city and then the gamification comes in where you try to beat everyone's time and so they have leaderboards to wear all these are like the fastest people that have done this route that's really cool i think we're going to start seeing more that too creepy well well for squares getting rid of their gamification maybe there's no really well there's trying to be more of a useful tool like yelp and less focus about being mayor of somewhere so you have that trend where they go it only lasts for so long then you have to actually have a real use right it's like how long can we just float on on venture capitalist money before someone's going to ask for a little bit in return yeah is its it is scary though because it brings up the idea of just giving away your privacy people are volunteering this information is right and then at the same time they'll get paranoid because up someone installed a camera on a bus that can listen in to conversation how is that not the same thing it's the line between opt-in and and your own personal privacy is getting really blurred well yeah i think we kissed privacy in which people 30 years ago understood it we kiss that goodbye yeah about five years ago smartphone um once once you had your Instagram yeah and a GPS tie to your hip every day yeah that's true that's it's a it's a creepy new world to that we must all brave what else do you think is going to show up what are one of us up that you know that's not really an evolution of anything like brand new you know new stuff brand new stuff what about driverless cars that was something that was big this year I believe google got it approved and in California Governor Jerry Brown actually said that he's going to allow licenses to be given out to these cars in two years so we're not going to see it in 2013 but the DMV is in California are definitely going to be starting to pave those roads so they're giving out licenses to robots understand well that uh jbrown approved a bill that let the DMV get two years to figure out how they're gonna issue licenses to drivers that want to operate driverless cars you say the driver seat yourself to be in the drivers have to be so response you can't sit shotgun and just sort of be like make a left just do something yeah I would like that it'd be nice all right so speaking of stuff that you you'd want to see I think in terms of traffic is I think Google is soon going to figure out traffic I think they've been collecting data for what feels like a decade mm-hmm people figuring out I think they're really going to get down to it and do something fixed traffic yes traffic is one of these problems that we've had in this country for decades and no one there's never really been anything besides widening roads right or what I mean that's really all we can do right is it isn't traffic just a symptom of small incremental mistakes that build up across really big distances so the way you get rid of that is driverless cars it's human error right so i think that combined with some sort of app or some sort of service that google is i mean think about it there's I understand they're collecting data to help people navigate and tell people be aware of where maybe not to go but I think then taking a next step is inevitable of curbing traffic getting people more in the know and to eliminate traffic time I just think they're they're definitely working on something and I hope 2013's the year they debut something Google carpool maybe or whatever it is or like Google fast route ever whatever it will be they are working on something yeah and hopefully 2013 we find out what it is alright closing thoughts what uh what do you really is there something that you personally selfishly perhaps I really looking forward to uh yeah I want to see more activism and I know we hate that word it's it's really annoying for men to whatever but uh in 2013 i'm hoping that activists set their sights on North Korea and that's a problem that's been going on for decades now it's a little under the radar I don't feel like government has given enough attention but we're starting to see cell phones getting smuggled into North Korea from parts of China now so that tiny tiny little exposure is getting wider and I don't think that 2013 is going to be the year of the Arab Spring for North Korea but I'm hoping that hacktivists anonymous and otherwise really really focus on that Wow Justin on the show right here has declared a call for arms yes call to arms hey we need it no it's uh it's not out of the realm possibility i think uh anonymous is up four times person of the year yeah an honest a lot this year and good guy anonymous too good guy anonymous I feel like they definitely improved their PR in 20 they did they did I think I feel like the thing with Israel may be sent set him back a little bit yeah yeah a lot of people were upset with how they were approaching the Israel situation but uh yeah we'll see what happens with them I think they are you know and and in the most amazing thing is that they still are not being compromised in any capacity that we're aware of so it'll be interesting to see where they go luckily for us they seem to be on the good side of me yeah and they seem to mean well so that'll be interesting what about you Bridget what are you specifically perhaps selfishly looking forward to my selfish wish will never come true because of business and business must grow and and it's it's just it's this problem you come across when you got a Samsung television and and ipad mini and a google phone it's it's this I just don't make me buy all of your same product to live a happy life because it's not going to happen I just wish sinking got easier without a million different hiccups and roadblocks in the way because I think the one you know complaint I have one when you have those moments like oh why can't I get this on that yeah that happens still too much and too often than it should it doesn't have to be I'm sure you're definitely not alone in that struggle and there is a possibility someone could come along with a third party thing to make another box to make another thing and then and then that box only works with this box yeah for me I'm look it's getting better it's getting better just not right we're just not there yet for me selfishly I'm looking forward to the next generation of games mmm you can have a new xbox most likely you're most likely gonna review PlayStation let's see where that goes you know it's a lot of movement lately yeah 2013 I mean physical gaming oh yeah I hope we completely stray away from that nonsense and get back to what matters and that's good compelling unique unique refreshing ideas for brand new games I read a rumor today that Nintendo may be thinking about buying Sega I think that could be a possibility of happening in 23 that one do anything it's a software acquisition right Sega doesn't make any hardware yeah so that would just be a software thing it'd be good yeah i don't know i think what needs to happen is I think the antenna needs to make a phone mm I think Justine we'll see we will see these are our predictions for the year 2013 in tech please check out the show notes for links to all the topics we talked about that's at cnet com / the 404 we hope you're having an awesome holiday season so happy holiday to you in a very happy new year we'll be back in 2013 the first live show of 2013 is wednesday january second make sure you tune in for that three days and then we're off to las vegas for CES 2013 or none of our predictions will come true and we will continue this terrible streak that we're on I predict you'll be very tired yes that's building on predicting sickness and being very tired and very hungover Bridget Carey thank you so much for joining us in our prediction it's good to be show here today appreciate that we will be back soon again everyone have a great holiday and a happy new year I will see in 2013 I'm Jeff Bakalar I'm Justin you I'm Bridget Carey I mario new it's the 404 show high tech lowbrow see in 2013 you