 Welcome to our end of the year daily tech news show 2019 predictions episode in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio feline I'm Sarah Lane So I'm Roger It's like we never missed a beat We're joined today by Justin Robert young Yes, that's me. Hi friends Also with us Shannon Morse Hey everybody and Allison Sheridan. Hello everybody This is a tradition dating back to the ancient times of buzz out loud Where we do our last podcast of the year predicting what we think is going to happen in the next year and as you heard yesterday in a year from now, we will follow up and We will find out if we predicted anything good Everybody got their crystal balls out got their prognostication talents ready I'm ready Got it ready Hey, just a general mood. How you feeling about 2019? I Feel like everything is going to be a lot better. It's got to be better Please please Lord I'm gonna take that as positivity Sarah Lane, let's start with you. What's your first prediction? All right So I know that these predictions tend to be it's hard to predict that some something, you know Sort of catastrophic might happen Within a year's time, but I'm gonna go ahead and do that in the spirit of Christmas and I'm gonna start with Apple will stop selling a home pod and choose instead to focus on adding Siri and two speakers that Continue to sell a lot better than Apple's own home pot does because it's expensive and it's nice but it doesn't do a lot of things that that that more affordable speakers do and The market has kind of run away from it now Apple Getting rid of a large product category that obviously the company has spent a lot of time on that is a pretty far-fetched prediction But I'm sticking with it. Well, and also there's certainly a fairly full graveyard of Apple Apple Speakers already, right, you know, like that's a hi-fi. We'll go sit on the shelf with the hi-fi And the thing is is I certainly don't want to make I don't hope that the home pod Point these are predictions not not wishes Exactly. These are predictions. Um, I I know a lot of folks who have got, you know, a variety of echo speakers or the Google home I myself went with the Sonos ones and they continue to have all of the assistance As time goes on kind of get baked in and the features are better than ever And I don't really know that many folks who have home pods and some of these are die-hard Apple folks I am one of them and It just feels like a product that is not It's just not where Apple should be going particularly get rid of it because it's not catching on Yeah, because it's because it fails. Well, and and look either too early or too late Apple has made their brand on waiting until products have stabilized the markets for products have stabilized and then doing the thing that The stable market couldn't right and yeah, either you're going to look at the home speaker situation as okay Well, then they were waiting until speakers had kind of commoditized. Everybody wanted to buy a speaker They wanted some other for a functionality to it What Apple could bring in was amazing sound and integration into your Apple ecosystem Problem is that while they were sleeping You know the the echo took over and then Google very quickly made themselves a competitor there and built a very robust Ecosystem for what you could do with those assistants So by the time that that the home pod came out It wasn't a good assistant and it was kind of comparable to the sound quality that you could get from other high-end speakers If you wanted to drop a lot of money. Yeah, Apple's notorious for Reinventing a category that already exists and then sort of making it seem like they invented the category I mean look at the iPhone sure there were smart lots of smartphones by the time the iPhone came around But it was new and cool and did things differently and change the category the home pod Yes, you might say it has exemplary sound better than all the rest But it's also more expensive and I just don't know that many folks you could even I don't know compared to something like titles music service Some folks care some folks care about having the best audio quality period and we'll pay a premium for it But I don't think enough people will miss in this situation Well, I think another thing they did well Well, Apple was sleeping was Amazon was putting the echo dot into like cracker jacks boxes, right? But that I guess is half of Sarah's prediction right is that Apple would will want to put Siri in more cracker jack boxes and And that that I don't know whether or not they go there They have been very weirdly proprietary with Siri considering the fact that she's maybe not the best really the best thing that you can Say about Siri is that she plugs directly into your Apple Apple ecosystem But in terms of voice recognition in terms of a lot of that kind of stuff the places where Siri is Like Apple TV and some other stuff I don't know if she's really used all that much or at least used in the same kind of way that You know the echo is or the Google home is Yeah, I know Sarah's Prediction is on solid ground. My instinct is that Apple won't want to allow anyone else to have Siri You're right and and I think you might be right that they get rid of the home pod and come out with something else They reinvent it And and say oh the home pod forget about that never existed We've always been at war with East Asia and the new Siri pod is of course the the best thing I I don't know something like that might be happened I almost think that they're gonna set out the entire voice assistant thing at this point. We are we are at a point We're now Like like was pointed out They're gonna be in the the industry leader is going to be in a $30 microwave I don't know if anything of that value is what Apple wants to get into Nor do I think that Siri is quite as beefy as it needs to be to Play alongside those other two assistants and Apple music being on the echo now I think is a sign that Sarah's pointed in the right direction here. Yeah Yeah, I mean the most excited I got about Siri recently was hearing that I could use Siri to launch Google's assistant Which is better? All right Your second prediction Sarah. All right, so not to get to you know, it's gadget It's gadget prediction heavy in the old Lane household this holiday season, but I Continue to not totally understand the video smart devices the Echo show for example the Facebook portal Specifically because I've been watching Facebook's video efforts With lots of curiosity trying to figure out what the heck's going on over there I do not think that the Facebook portal will be a hit either and I believe that in general the category Will fade I don't I don't I don't know enough people again And who knows maybe I just have all the wrong friends But I don't know enough people who want these in their homes who want to do that much of video chatting or look at I Pictures of food when you know, they're they're they're looking up recipes in their kitchen And I know Tom you're probably willing to rise because this is actually something that you do do Echo show, but I don't think I'm not your friend. Is that what? No, I'm just saying you're like you're you're you're just cooler than all my other friends Perhaps but but I I predict that this category will sputter will sputter out and ultimately We're gonna stop. We're not gonna be talking about them this time next year. Certainly not the Facebook portal I'll go go that far with you that one. Yeah, specifically. That's my prediction is the portals dead But I but I believe it's part of a larger category that this whole kind of but you can video chat with this thing That sits somewhere in your house just it makes no sense to me Well, I I thought the same thing like my answer to that would be yeah You've got one in your hand. You've already got your phone right there. You can video chat Why do you need this dedicated device? But that's what I said to all the people who said that Alexa was amazing because they could walk into a room where a Device was and talk to it and I said but you have a device in your hand You can talk to and yet that one did work. So I don't know Right that a lot of these video type of devices that just kind of sit somewhere in your household They're a lot more of a niche market like I could see myself using one of these when I'm getting ready in the morning And I don't want to deal with my phone I want to have something that I can look at like right next to the sink while I'm doing my makeup and be able to watch YouTube videos while I'm getting ready and putting on my lipstick or something But on the other hand, I could see them failing if they don't get out of this Proprietary movement for example Some of them don't allow you to play like Netflix or Hulu on them And if they don't open up to allow a lot more of those libraries for video integrations I I couldn't see myself buying one and I don't currently have one except for an echo Spot the one that you sit next to you like your bed, but that's a completely different one in itself So I think they need to open up before they'll actually sell better. I Agree I think that right now. There's a very limited use case to go to some unsolicited Portal criticism Finally, they came out with an ad That was just an elder enjoying a moment with his grandchild Which I think should be the only genre of advertisement for this kind of device Instead of the previous ads that were all about awkward moments with your family that you can now experience in live HD video Which is the most baffling is almost Facebook advertisement of all time. Hey, you can forget your sister's birthday awkwardly Thank God to the Facebook portal for that moment I think they're all doing the wrong thing by focusing on this as video colleague It's it's more about what Shannon said, which is like I can see when I ask for the weather and scan the weather I can see a video of a trailer. I can see things It's just a screen that supports the things that are good about a voice assistant I think that's what my if anything keeps the category alive. That'll be it I think for that but I do think the video calling lives and here's where I think it lives televisions Right, that's why I feel like this is a category. It's like we as Allison said it's like we already have it Okay, maybe you don't want it on your phone, but your team my TV is mounted in the room already I don't need another screen in there. Yeah Maybe I think video calling stays on the phone myself But since Justin is feeling in a prediction mode, let's move over to you Justin. What are your predictions for 2019? I look out onto my tea leaves and I see great change great up Even great pain throughout 2019. I have miserable predictions in store for the coming year. Yeah, you will take a long trip I Finally going to have to give up the ghost. Yes snap will sell Sell to whom now this was don't bait me Lane. This was my problem with last year's prediction I needed to make 15 different qualifiers. I'm going for the hits this year I don't know although you would certainly think that either Facebook air or you know integration into Instagram or something like that Would be a possible way to do it or they sell to some other VC firm that wants to try to reintegrate them or reshuffle their business model. Here's the problem for snap Advertisement in general is falling off a cliff They've never been able to figure out how to integrate their very unique product into advertising on a way that scales They they wanted to sell these big packages where they would have you know These gigantic advertising companies come in and buy and spend a bunch of money and they'd integrate and make all their little things That doesn't scale AdWords scales Facebook words in terms of scales Amazon advertising scales This doesn't they tried to pivot into devices and they wound up making a set of glasses that point the wrong way in terms of how much Their Users really want to use their product in that it faced out and not as a selfie So I think that that their their market cap is shrinking enough that they are going to be ripe for the picking And since they're a photography company, obviously cannon will buy them What you mentioned Facebook and Instagram is to possible suitors Right and the I think that you know the main if you look at Instagram It's like Instagram just did what snapchat did which is something that Facebook and all of its entities do on a regular basis with varying Varying degrees of success degrees of success. Yes. Thank you Tom. Sorry. My dog is trying to get on the show right now But he has really bad predictions, so we'll just go ahead and skip his segment But I but I think it's what Instagram even want with snap at this point You still read all of the you know the polls of like, you know 90% of tea and still use snapchat more than and then Instagram's the second But I think that those numbers are probably so overlapped I don't know what what Instagram and You know to maybe it's slightly lesser extent, you know Facebook itself would even want with snapchats Userbase even though it's still really big no Facebook has Instagram. They don't want snap I don't I don't think it makes sense for them to buy snap Apple doesn't want snap because they're not good enough for Apple or cheap enough to be an aqua hire Google maybe Look, I mean whoever is going to do it snapchat needs a new coat of paint And they got to figure out a way that they can make advertising work for them in a way that they really haven't been able to Sarah you were absolutely right part of the story of 2018 was the fact that Instagram totally stole snapchats thunder and The reason why is because they built a better version They did things that that frustrated snapchat fans wanted to do easy tagging easy ways that you could communicate and send between The people that they wanted to do it It was just and then snapchat responded by making a complicated UI even more complicated. I know I know where snap fits perfectly Where Verizon Oh You mean why? Why not why not buy it buy by snapchat so that yeah, that is that is my prediction snapchat sells All right, let's go to your next prediction. What what what other misery will accompany us in 2019 more dark clouds moving around I see a premonition as a lightning bolt strikes From Washington DC To Seattle, Washington. I think that Amazon gets hit with an anti-trust suit in 2019 Anywhere worldwide right it could be Russia China Europe US wherever Well, see I said I said the US so I'll stick with the US but you did. Oh, I didn't hear you say the US I apologize. Yeah, so I'll stick with that although. I should have just said very blanketly Almost assuredly that will happen in Europe is I feel like it's more likely in Europe than it is in the US We will allow you to amend at this point if you wish No, I won't go for the layup. All right, all right, I think Washington the three-pointer I will go for the three-pointer. Here's why there is Amazon has played the game very much. They have learned All of Silicon Valley companies or tech companies in general have kind of learned the lesson of Microsoft in the 90s They were not going to be left undefended in Washington DC in terms of lobbyists They were not going to be left undefended when it came to understanding where the political headwinds are they are appearing at all of these Senate hearings, you know as much as they mean maybe it's not as much as some observers would like but in general They have been conciliatory and then duly showed up in DC to eat their poop on live television, but I Think that Amazon has put themselves in a very uniquely actionable position as we discussed on this show many times That they are running a mall With a flea market in the flea market in the middle of it as a wise man Tom Merritt once once once said metaphorically they have put themselves in enough position and They have been aggressive enough in how they've tried to you know in their mind enforce ban evasion If they say okay, well, you can't sell to us using these kinds of practices and then they're like oh fine Well, then we'll sell in your flea market. Oh, no, no, you can't do that Somebody is going to I don't know whether or not it will be successful But I believe that some kind of antitrust thing will be brought up even if it is settled in short order So you're going with only it'll come up But not that it'll success that it'll actually go through Well, no because I think that it'll be something that Amazon is deft enough that they can settle right like they you know Charges can be filed and then they can figure out a way to they can figure out a way to get around it or mitigate some business Practice or or say that from here on out. We won't do this and we'll pay this kind of fine But they might my prediction is that there will be some kind of complication Considering that they are such a gigantic player and we are now moving into the political viability of prosecuting tech companies from a political point of view not even to say that it's something that is right to do I'm just saying that right now when specifically has moved into a presidential year as a lot of people who are in sitting office are now looking to show that they will be tough on Tech if they were in the White House, this might be awaited That's actually may hard for them because they want to be seen as tough on tech, but they love big business, right? Well, I mean look it's it's it's Again, there is a tremendous amount that can be done for You know saying you screwed up here now settle with us and we can move on That that is that is the the the way that everybody wins actually it's a revenue stream. That's what they'll do it for Hey, I think That you will get this right in Europe. I'll be curious to see if it happens in the US. I'm I think it's possible So I appreciate the high difficulty level well number one saying that any company will face an antitrust suit I know it's kind of too easy. I know what you're saying. Yeah Let's move away from the death and destruction of Justin's predictions. Shannon. Can you bring us any light? Well It depends on how you feel about governments So my first one has two parts to it kind of similar to one of Sarah's as well And this one actually kind of coincides with one of Justin's too. So I think that first off We're gonna see major tech companies get hit with very large-scale fines from GDPR finally And if you remember the GDPR the fines for that are 4% of annual global turnover or 20 million Euros I believe that is in So it's pretty major fines. Of course, those could be seen as Rather small for a large company But that's why they have those two options the 4% or 20 million whichever is which are require. Yeah Yeah, whichever is great So I feel like given we've seen so many security breaches with companies like Facebook and you know all sorts of other companies that did have to do with European citizens, we're gonna finally start seeing those fines start to occur and to go along with this one I also think that we're gonna start seeing privacy Regulations for the tech sector that sweep across more countries than just the EU's GDPR I think that that's going to create a lot more regulations across more more countries, especially since we're seeing a lot more Maybe paranoia as far as cyber security is concerned and a lot more of that Butting heads between companies too, which we've seen this year So I think that that's really going to be something that we see a lot of is regulatory powers with cyber security happening next year We're seeing the seeds of a US law already being planted in these these most recent congressional hearings I think that's that's a good bet and Facebook looks to be first on the chopping block for a jar fine, right? So you it's not impossible That that that happens pretty fast out of the gate, although we'll see I think this is a There's a pretty I wouldn't say a safe bet because that makes it sound like it's it's too easy But I think it's a good call Yeah, I think it's a good call to and it is kind of a lighter prediction, but I don't know Everyone except the part the tech company that gets it with a fine The only thing is like I don't know how long those Regulations would come to pass and I don't know how long it'll take for fines to actually occur Of course, we'll see it in the tech news, but it might take months or it could take a couple of years I mean who knows yeah I'm not familiar with the appeal process there, right and that's what could drag it out Yeah, exactly credit. I would think if they get hit with the fine They don't have to go through the whole Get out in appeals. Okay. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah, I think yeah, I agree Otherwise this is your 2027 prediction, right? And I think you're I think you're you're your prediction about more of these rules again Maybe not coming into place because legislation takes a long time But bills starting to come out of committee and be actually debated informed I certainly think we'll see that in the US this year is coming here as well And whether you see that as positive or a negative thing I mean, it's it really is a personal opinion as far as that happens for me personally I think when it comes to certain things regulating is a good thing especially if it comes to like consumer tech products and I think the GDPR is a good things because the more We enact for cyber security that protects consumers. I think that makes it better overall Now my second prediction is kind of out there But it's totally possible or maybe it's just plausible I don't know, but I think that we're going to see a I start to be used in cyber espionage campaigns and social engineering campaigns for hacks online and I think that this will Most likely happen from state-sponsored actors and people that have a lot of money behind their belts The reason why I came up with this is because this year We've seen a lot of artificial intelligence start to be used in actual forms We have seen a little bit of that in the past, but I think there's been a lot of confusion as far as like what AI can Be used for and what AI is I think it's entirely possible that Maybe we aren't quite there as far as technology is concerned but I think that we're building upon the possibility of a scenario happening in the real world where Attackers could use artificial intelligence to make malware or to make like ransomware for example Learn on its own and continue to attack at a growing pace Yeah Which can be very scary to think about but it's something that I think that we need to think about Since we need to be able to protect ourselves against that. Can we also predict that? Security software will start using AI Shannon let me ask you a question. Do we know that this isn't already happening? Not a hundred percent We don't have evidence of it that we know of yet We don't have evidence. We don't have public evidence of something like that happening yet But but given AI has been growing at such a fast pace this year I think that it would be entirely possible next year There's a lot of open service open source machine learning Which could pave the way to the script kitties of the future being able to not have to know anything about AI to be able to implement it there's also The AI as a service out there that you know Hopefully they'll they'll secure well enough that it can't be used for foul purposes But you never know and the other thing that comes to mind is fishing attempts Having you know something like Google duplex call you on the phone and ask for your password You know starts to make some of the traditional advice about when to give information Become even more important Totally totally. Yeah, so all good things to think about so hopefully we can protect ourselves if that does happen So so what you're saying is no you don't have a lot of hope and light for Thanks for your uphill look there You know if you if you out there wanted to make this into a more general positive prediction It would be that AI would be used in in more and more places They it'll be used in more and more good places as well It's just that sadly when you know like anything if it starts to be used for good it also gets used for bad. Yep And I actually kind of think that Shannon's prediction that in 2019 We will understand how AI is already being used in state sponsored More likely than not that specifically in some of the very developed cyber security Countries like the United States China Israel But I would not be shocked if that is already so can I get a quarter of a point if it's proven in 2020 or 2019 that we it was Happening now. We just didn't know about it Yeah You'll need to note that because I mean honestly I would be I would actually be very surprised if generative adversarial networks weren't being used to help develop software Maybe not in the actual implementation of malware but but to generate hack-proof Software so that it's not using AI when it's out in the wild But it's hardened against detection and prevention by going through a GAN That that beats up on it. I mean that that seems like something you could easily do right now. Yeah All right, Allison, you want more than a quarter point though, right? You want you want some full points What do you got to predict for 2019 any any hope for us? Well, this one's actually just sad But I hope this is measurable enough because I wanted something measurable But my prediction is that Google will finally come out with a single Unified messaging service it will completely work It'll be awesome and it will fail to get immediate adoption because nobody's gonna trust him Drop it immediately and but the other half of it is it will become widely adopted But not until the following year. I find this to be a very hopeful prediction You're saying that that the five messaging systems that they've narrowed things down to will be unified as one Well, not necessarily those five they could go through eight or ten more between now and when they End up with one right it'll be a I'm not saying all the others will necessarily disappear But there will be one unified that does everything that people want they'll be super it'll it should be super excited about but Nobody trusts them anymore. That's it, you know, the line is pulling and Lucy pulling the football out from okay So wait, all right, but let's let's quantify that because I think that that I would understand the prediction It's okay. They flatten it out and they only have one right, but you're saying that they won't flatten it out They'll still have all the other ones out there, but they will launch a like they will brand it as Finally all these other things You don't have to worry about them. We have the one that doesn't well keep all the other products But you don't have to worry about them anymore, which is a very Google thing to do Or some will dribble along I mean, you know Google plus is dead, but they've still got it sitting out there in life support So I don't want to have to count that they're all gone is what I'm trying to say sure sure You're not you're not making a prediction one way or another whether they sweep the floor clean But they'll least have have a brand-new jewel to hold up in front of you, right? Right, and it'll be awesome and we will be afraid to try it Well, but the thing is if they if they put it in Android then everybody uses it, right? Yeah, and that's probably part of the use of the best necessarily I Would say like I never used alo And that was in the Android, but if but do you use messages? No, I use signal. Oh, okay. Well, I think a lot I think the majority of users use messages and so if they if they made messages that thing then immediately they turn the lights on Which may be to Allison's prediction is they won't do that and they won't get rid of messages They'll make it like alo and then not everybody takes it up Yeah, I'd be willing to even say though if they made it into the devices It still won't get widespread adoption. I'd be willing to go that bold I mean the only way they did I think Shannon's right the only way you do that is you replace Messages with this new thing and I doubt they do that Hmm, I just don't understand that this is nothing to do with predictions But I don't understand when you have what's up when you have we check when you have line and those are the successful messaging platforms out there that have everything not just messages and video and voice but Shopping and calling ride hailing and ordering food Why would you take a splintered approach to a messaging service and say, you know, it's a great idea Segmenting the features out into separate apps like that. Just I mean if you're if you're going to imitate and be coming from behind You want to imitate the successful models? Don't you? Yeah, you would have thought I mean to me that that's what Facebook did fairly successfully with the product of Facebook messenger Oh, yeah problem was it was just Facebook which I had very little interest in having more of Hook into and also people that reach me on there tend to be annoying well And the Facebook messenger mess messenger is a very popular platform because they did it that way. Yeah All right, Allison. What's your second one? All right, this one is more it more interesting and it sort of goes Passing Sarah in the other direction. I believe that Apple's TV app will come to another service like Roku or Amazon Prime Whoa Huh, so that's what you're saying Siri Well wacky no Like a when you say Amazon Prime you mean the fire fire TV, right? Well, I was I wasn't exactly sure how to say that so it could come to the to the Roku devices and all the Roku TVs And that would make sense, but the fire TV stick. I don't think is a What I don't know is it even a big enough market to be there trouble to do that It's a pretty good market when you say Amazon Prime though What were you thinking it would be an add-on subscription to Prime video? Well, it could be yeah, that's kind of what I was going So can I have either one? Well, I held on pretty out there You kind of capture everything is that Apple will Allow that Apple all of the Apple TV app stuff will be free if you have an Apple device, right? I didn't say that Okay That's that's the rumor, right? I don't right. I've heard that I had a whole one about that But I didn't put that in okay. Well, then let's follow me here That it will be whatever it will be for Apple devices native Apple devices But then instead of making it a lure to get people into Into their their ecosystem. They will also allow it to be a Subscription service on non-Apple devices. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good description of it Remember the definition of their ecosystem changes over time I mean the Apple TV is a great device and everything, but I don't know that it's setting the world on fire. So If their their real ecosystem is services now, right? So maybe that is sucking them into their ecosystem if you get them into one of their services Yeah, and you know the precedent here is Apple music Apple music came to Android because Apple wanted to get people in the tent With the idea that you know, maybe if they love Apple music enough eventually They'll switch over to using an Apple device as well And as you say as the emphasis becomes on services not just devices There's a little less pressure for the device to be the endgame You can say hey, you know what if Roku people are subscribed to Apple TV, you know, then That'll be the thing and maybe Apple music is even part of a subscription like that on a rocu So you get it all well and remember the Apple music is on the Amazon Echo Now. Mm-hmm another example. Yeah, right exactly. So not as out there as it sounded at first. Is it I don't It's it's really hard to imagine a world where Apple just puts a device out for a Non-dominant competing service and by non-dominant I mean they they did iTunes for Windows because 90% of Computers had Windows they're doing Apple music for Android because 90% of phones have Android Roku is not quite in that same position, you know, it's certainly not as dominant in the space and the space itself is still kind of small So that those are my my natural objections is like, oh, but would they I think you make a good case that as They are changing. Yeah, maybe they would the here's the only thing and this might be me just prioritizing my own headcanon when it comes to what Apple's strategy is But I really think it feels like an Apple plan Specifically once you read those rumors about Them wanting to tone down the super objectionable content of some of their original Programming that it was going to be a loss leader to get people into their ecosystem and bolster Them selling their Apple TV even if like so, here's here's my thought What does putting it on Roku for a price get them that releasing a $99 Apple TV stick doesn't Like like the Roku it gets the same thing that Apple music on Android or Apple music on Echo gets them Revealing streams if sure. I mean yes, but would they rather sell a bunch of $99 Sticks that then get them you get people into that ecosystem and used to that ecosystem and now gets them all the money that they'll ever spend on video rentals and You know other stuff like that and any kind of subscriptions that they want to buy while they have the stick Or do they want to get that? you know, let's just say 999 a month and Do we know whether or not they're going to have the kind of horses that make that 999 and yet another recurring Subscription worth it for people So does my prediction only count if it's smart though Justin? No, no, no because mine almost historically universally crash and burn. So I have I have no credibility You try to save me for myself. Yeah, but but I do I think it's interesting because in my mind That's where I think they will go but you know Yours if it does not happen like that then I would almost assuredly think that you were totally right I'd almost see them do Amazon and not Roku even Where they say hey, you know what? You know, we're we're building relationship with Amazon and Amazon has a high quality enough interface that we don't feel bad about it Whereas Roku's kind of your bargain basement interface. Yeah, if you're an Apple person, right? So I don't know if we want to spend developer time creating for that We can't make it look good enough. I could see that being the Apple objection to Roku I mean for something like the Apple music app, it's like some album art and some song titles I mean it wouldn't you're still gonna rack up a bunch of money offering it to Roku users, I don't see why yeah, maybe if there's something about Roku's Kind of style and that bargain basement feel that that is just to beneath Apple You know ten bucks a month, you know that that pays for itself pretty quick But you gotta you gotta pay the developers to make that app and then it's got to look good enough for Johnny Ive to say yes That's oh, that's where it'll stop is the way it looks on Roku because Roku's a key looking Yeah, right and won't be pretty enough. So before we close out this section though Should we I think I want to change it can I change it from the service to saying the device because I think that's kind of Where we went with it. Oh No, I Let me you can if you want I would say make it Amazon Prime video because if it if it Maybe just say it'll come to an Amazon product and then you're covered in both. Okay, and I said Roku or Amazon product Yeah, okay, so we'll we'll change that for the record. We have an authorized change. Okay. Yeah, all right. That's fair All right, I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is My first prediction is that this will be the year that we start to hear fretting moaning and worrying that Restaurants are dying that physical brick-and-mortar restaurants are going the way of borders books and Circuit City and it's a tragedy because not only are Millennials not eating at the casual dining Establishments like Applebee's but this damn delivery economy is Driving out the need for physical locations all the hot new restaurants don't even have seats They're all delivered through Postmates and Uber eats and and it's killing the restaurant industry And we've got to do something about it will be a a refrain. We will have heard by the end of 2019 That's a pretty good one You don't I don't know if you're hearing so much hand-wringing yet, but you're definitely hearing what you described people saying Hey, you know, there's this there's this restaurant. That's it. You don't even sit inside. It's only Uber eats delivery I mean they exist not everywhere, but um That said there's also a premium for getting that's that kind of stuff delivered, which is why I've cut down a lot on my My my nightly ramen delivery that I was getting out of hand for a while But yeah, I don't I don't I don't this is a pretty good prediction And I think that any sort of bustling fun Main Street Square downtown area where there's restaurants and you start seeing them close The the delivery economy is going to be what gets pointed at where people say you see you see what we've done We've ruined the town my local diner is no more because of postmates Hey, tell me how we get a measure whether you're right on this. I mean, they're not all gonna be gone Yeah, no, I mean basically I mean what we do on the predictions results We come to a consensus like is this something we're hearing, you know Then and everybody agrees then then then yeah, but but it will be it will be columns in tech crunch It'll be articles on the verge, you know talking about the the closing of iconic restaurants or or it's you know, if a big chain like It goes out of business Like a circuit city or a borders did for for books and electronics. That would be another indicator Okay, so we'll begin to kill maybe. Yeah We'll kill edge of the wave and like Sarah said we're already starting to hear about this be a thing like oh some restaurants are opening up with Either limited seating or no seating and just just being a delivery organization You to build this year. Yeah, well don't look at the Bay Area to be Your your analysis of this prediction because all the restaurants here are closing anyway Well, but I think that that could drive this story effect. I was thinking of that The fact that you can't you can't hire waiters in San Francisco at some restaurants because it's too expensive for people who would work for waiter wages To live and so that's gonna push people to do this kind of thing and say, you know what? Maybe we'll just go with it without seats We'll go delivery only and that might actually start the ball roll I have seen a lot of these kind of restaurants overseas for example in Tokyo They have like limited seating type of places where they have bicycle deliveries to And that's I think that's because of how like busy that city is and how people don't have necessarily have time to go out to eat Or they get out of they get out really really late and they don't have time to you know Go to a nice date night or anything like that. So a lot of people do just do like the really Really quick ramen dinner or they get it delivered to their household in the inside the city limits of Tokyo So it could be possible that we would see something like that Happening here in the United States But maybe not necessarily because of just the applications but because of how busy we are getting as as humans Yeah, on the flip side you Shannon you mentioned high rental prices in the Bay Area And there are a lot of a lot of places around the world that that share that problem Imagine if you were world's greatest cook, you know, you were just gonna make the best food ever You wanted to feed as many people as possible But there's just no way that you were gonna have a nice little corner shop down, you know in in the town square again So you could just get something that was Functional where you could make a lot of food at high volume figure out how to get it delivered I don't know buy some robots and then all of a sudden you've got this business that never would have been possible Otherwise, so there's no they're there, but the food's still good. Yeah I think we're gonna hear more and more stories about this for sure and my final prediction for 2019 is that this will be the year of wearables not just watches not just fitness trackers, but wearables will now become a Successful category in the past all of the Gartner analysis all the cannulus estimates are all like well You know, it's pretty much dominated by Fitbit and a few others then it became well It's pretty much dominated by Apple Watch Fitbit's doing okay and a few others We're gonna see an explosion in this arena in 2019. We're gonna see a lot more brands getting into it We're gonna see a lot more form factors being tried Things that are wearable and and tie into Internet of Things with the promise of 5g connectivity even though 5g connectivity will just start to be taking off and and we'll see a lot of Unpredictable uses of this so wearables Rising as a trend finally like ah, okay You know looking at the wearable numbers is is legitimate now And as I as phones start to stabilize wearables will be rising But also the types of wearables will start to multiply as well Well, yeah, so when you when you say wearable that was gonna be my first question Okay, we're talking about the watch form factor and if we're if we're talking about expanding beyond that We're going back to the face that doesn't seem to work very well. None of that is a graveyard I Want my wearable iPad But yeah, but it's like what is the other form factor? Is it a necklace of some kind where you're picking up something and looking at it? What what does it look like if it's something that is beyond what we think of as a wristwatch? Well, I like that Tom said they will be unpredictable as and we are unable to see right now what they would be I'm right. What else is there not? No, I would I'll take I'll take some wild guesses, okay? But certainly other wrist stuff. So like we've already seen like bracelets and stuff or like sleep tracking I think necklaces. How about this one? if we can get beyond the connotations of This form factor being almost exclusively used for people on probation and home arrest Thing that goes around the ankle Well, what kind of dates can you do in a very lightweight form factor that we can now kind of do that? Maybe wasn't really possible a few years ago That can go under a sock and be totally out of out of sight out of mind, you know, we haven't done horns yet Right. I mean just some horns Here is I'd be down. I was gonna say some Sailor Moon ears, you know, yeah up there and those are great antennas right there You know rings. I think we'll start to see some some smart rings that will help you maybe do authentication and stuff There's there there's been versions of that touted before I think we'll see glasses With with smart stuff built-in and we'll get past the Google glass Stigma and have glasses that do less than AR glasses, but what they do they do really well and they look good I think apparel things like shoes Jeans coats will start to have more smarts built into them as well So we'll be on the quantified self part of what wearables are today, right? It's gonna move past that There are things you can do now that you couldn't do before because you've got these smart wearables I do think that the limited idea if you could take the idea of Google glass and Put them into sunglasses That was pretty much only not even like the live stuff from your Alerts from your phone and everything but just the weather Just to like touch a button and the weather pops up in some kind of display that doesn't look like a weird CRT television from 1988 like the Google glass solution was I Think that might be something that it's like Okay, look if it works every time and I don't have to think about it And I have to charge it once every three months and the worst thing that happens when it goes away Is that it just turns into glasses that look good that I like then? That's that that is that is interesting the question is what you can do that price wise Well, and Canada's north is trying to do that But the price point is nine hundred ninety nine dollars and people debate whether they actually look that good But that's where they're trying to go. Yeah Well folks, this is the fun part where we get to now start the new year and see how right we are Because I'm sure we're all going to be perfectly right. Thanks everybody for joining us Let's go around the horn now Justin Robert young working people find more of you in the new year You can find me at Justin are young and I expect on Twitter and I expect everybody to be tweeting at me as my year of pain commences Excellent Shannon morse in 2019 where should folks look for you? You can find me. I'm at snubbs Snuby and also tech thing.com where I recently reviewed a gimbal But also over at Threatwire, which is always my security and privacy show that's all about the news Excellent. Thank you Shannon Allison share it in in 2019. You're gonna be at the same place I think I probably will you can find all of the pod feet podcast tech podcast with an ever so slight Apple bias Over at pod feet comm and you can find me on Twitter at pod feet Sarah Lane, we never get to ask each other where we're gonna be where you gonna be in the new year We'll be right here We'll be we'll be doing DTNS Tom and Roger and everybody on our panel today because you're all regulars on the show Yeah, besides that I'm also on Twitter at Sarah Lane I'm everywhere at Sarah Lane. That's where I am except you're there. Yeah, except for a Couple networks that some other Sarah Lane got first and so whenever it's not that it's Sarah Lane Rocks Pinterest is one of them and I'm still annoyed about it Roger Chang, what about you? You can find me at DTS or you can go to twitter.com slash at Jolly Roger And you'll find me over there as well. I'm at ace detect. Good luck spelling it It's on Twitter. You can find me the same place at Instagram practice anywhere There's an ace detect. It's me because nobody else would be silly enough to take that user name And you will find us all at CES in a week and a Few days, so January 6th 7th 8th 9th will be there Covering what's going on at CES and also in just a few days January 2nd We will be celebrating five years of Daily Tech news show our very first guest five years ago will be back on the show to celebrate five years and So let's finish this year by thanking every single one of you. There have been Almost 10,000 people who have supported the show at one time or another on patreon over the years There's several thousand who have supported it in other ways. It's by merchandise or PayPal I'm just telling their friends about it So literally tens of thousands of people have made this show possible and to each and every one of you Thank you. Thank you so much five years ago. I didn't know that I would be doing this Successfully at all. I didn't know if it would make it out of the year I didn't know what I was going to be doing and thanks to you We're still doing it and hopefully getting better and better at it all the time. So Congratulations Tom five years. That's awesome. Thank you very much And uh, if you want to be part of that club or even come back to the club If you if you had to leave for a little while now's the time to get back We got some special stuff coming patreon.com slash dtns Your feedback keeps us alive Literally our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com We are also live monday through friday at 4 30 p.m. eastern 21 30 utc And uh, you can learn more at daily tech news show dot com slash live Our 2018 is over. Happy new year everybody talk to you next year This show is part of the frog pants network Get more at frogpants.com Ironman club hopes you have enjoyed this bro