 So what you're about to listen to our watch is our predictions episode now. We made a mistake Kind of because we recorded it at the end of November Oftentimes that doesn't matter you make predictions for the next year in your you're not very good So they don't come true anyway, and they certainly don't come true in December except for this year, right? Yeah, um, you may have some fun picking out during the show which predictions we really didn't think would come true by December 15th, but At the time of recording if you have so yeah like a where's Waldo of predictions. Hey, that one's true We always joke around with the idea that that we're that we're doing these things live But we never make a secret that they're pre-recorded. Yeah, and I would say save some of that eggnog And you can make a game out of it with some friends and family with that enjoy our 2018 predictions episode. Happy New Year Daily Tech news show is powered by you to find out more head to Daily Tech news show comm slash support Welcome to our end of year Daily Tech news 2018 predictions episode from DTNS headquarters in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio feelin at the beach. I am Sarah Lane Joining us. Mr. Justin Robert Young. Where are you? Oh Back here in Oakland, California the news capital of the world And we also have from the far north Jen Cutter. Where are you? I'm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and in the mountains the beautiful mountains or at least near them Scott Johnson we have snow there, but not down here and it's great to be here Tom And from lovely Burbank, California It's Roger Chang. That's right. I live in Burbank Yeah So, hey, we are it's the end of the year what a year 2017 has been especially December I can't believe all the crazy things that happened in December, but we're not here to talk about the past We are here to talk about the future. This is our prognostication episode Sarah Did you miss doing this? Did you miss laying your reputation online every year with predictions? Yeah Well, the fun thing about predictions is like You you take them as seriously as you can But nothing bad happens to you if you're wrong because who can predict anything really? Yeah, exactly Like I used to we used to do this when we all did TNT and And yeah, it was always fun and like you kind of get wild and crazy sometimes But sometimes you're right even the stuff where you're like that's a bit of a long shot So I'm I'm I'm excited and I'm excited to hear everybody else's do All right, well, let's get down to the predicting And and don't forget you folks as you heard yesterday on the predictions results show every year We go back and check and we don't even we don't even let you forget what you predicted five years ago If you haven't checked in on it Depending on who you are. All right, let's start with you Sarah Lane. Let's kick right into your predictions What is your first one for 2018? Okay, first prediction and this has a lot to do with the fact that I'm really into the HQ app right now and When I say that I've been into it for approximately one week because I only really knew about it a week or back in November So weeks. Yeah, right. Yeah, seven weeks now and if anybody is not familiar with it, it's like a live trivia game that gets pushed to your phone if you have notifications on I always use is only for now and it's hosted by a real guy and From everything I can tell he's really Hosting this whole thing live a couple times a day on the weekdays and once on the weekends and It's really fun and it's the at first I was like, you know, this app is you know It's not gonna be around much longer and I still actually believe that which is where my prediction comes in but I think that Facebook is going to build its own HQ app version because Facebook is Couple things going on like trying to get into video as much as possible Experimenting with original content not sort of seems like a soft launch I'm not totally sure how that rollout is working but a lot of us know folks who are who are making original content for the Facebook platform specifically and Facebook, you know loves the live Facebook also has billions and billions of users now the HQ app the last Round of trivia that I played yesterday had 200,000 concurrent viewers playing of Those and they ask you 12 questions and then you know, you get eliminated when you get them wrong You know, they have like a few seconds. So it goes really quick of those 200,000 players including myself 99 people won meaning that they got all of them, right? I was not one of those people because the questions got really weird and hard at the end So you think okay, that is crazy engagement and like such a good opportunity for brands to like, you know Let's ask a question about Taco Bell, right and then talk about sponsors that question, right and and and people answer because they love trivia This seems perfect for the Facebook platform possibly more than any other platform. I could think of so that's my prediction. I Love this. I think this is a great prediction I think this is fantastic because where Facebook has gone now is where YouTube is going now and and having With great consternation the idea of monetizing things that aren't Add safe or add valuable and so you would think that something kind of one camera fairly low rent or low Production value would not be what they want and yet. There is the old stand by ever add friendly trivia since the 50s trivia has been so non There's no clause you every all the stuff is approving ahead of time and if it doesn't have any kind of randomness of Contestants saying stuff. I think this is great. I'm so jealous that I did not have this idea That was it. That's a brilliant brilliant brilliant Here's the only thing I would say that I worry about with Facebook or other large platforms getting in on this often times what happens is the best new ideas come from small places and HQ is a good example of this Even though these are these are former vine founder guys They've they've had their hands and sort of viral successful Happy things before this is yet another one of those and that's great and all But the concern would be that now the big 900 pound gorilla named Facebook would swoop in and go Oh, that's a cool idea. We'll go ahead and do that and it will immediately lose its charm Now that doesn't mean they wouldn't be successful with it and by sheer numbers clearly they would be But it would bum me out a little bit So your predictions I think your predictions dead on and I think it's a great prediction But it bums me out that they will yet again somebody huge will swoop in and say take something something small And turn it into their own thing and well and yet Facebook there are there's a lot of evidence of Facebook doing that copying smaller apps with with a lot of times not much success at all Although you could look at something like Instagram stories, which if you look at numbers is trouncing snap And that was a direct ripoff. I at first was like, you know, because the the host of HQ Scott Can't remember his last name off the top of my head, but he's very beloved and so I was like Yeah, so they can't really recreate it They'd have to buy the app because they need him, but I don't really think that's true I think Facebook cares less about that and more about just sheer numbers of people who like the concept of HQ rather than I'm gonna go ahead and give you partial credit ahead of time if they buy HQ Like you're you're basically hedging there and I think that's fine to say they'll either buy it Will you get half credit? But you you're making a you're making a claim and I appreciate that I appreciate you being bold and saying but I don't think that's what's gonna happen. Yeah, no, no I don't think they will I don't think they will this is where my whole thought process started But I have done a different place all together. I wonder if somebody else doesn't buy Well, that's a funny thing is that you would think Twitter would be the place that makes a little bit more sense In in that they have a platform that plugs directly more into that idea I definitely see live video as their future, right? But these guys already sold to do Twitter once and we don't know exactly how happy they were with how all that Went or actually I could work the other way too. It'd be like, oh, we have a relationship We know these guys, right? Yeah, maybe Jen do you have any thoughts on this? I'm kind of interested in the Facebook angle because the Facebook would be less cool So you might lose all the young hip people playing now But then you also get all of the moms and moms have money so it could still work out for the brands. Yeah All right, Sarah. What is prediction number two prediction number two? This is actually I'm kind of dredging up something that was that was a big rumor back in the summer back in June And that was the idea that slack was going to get gobbled up by Somebody that was a bigger company than slack But who was it going to be and the big rumor was Amazon and then there were a lot of think pieces people saying well I don't know, you know, does Amazon really care about that? And is it really good fit and maybe it's Google So then I got to thinking you know what because I use slack so much and from the from day one As my slack channels have grown, you know, sometimes it's work related and sometimes it's just sort of You know futzing around related with friends and sending each other silly memes and that sort of thing. I Still find the service. It's very dear to me. It's a big part of my day every day It's just one of my favorite places to be even though it's kind of buggy at times We all know that but and I mostly use my desktop Use it as a Mac app But anyway slack is I've been terrified for a while now that it's going to get bought and it's going to change Rather than get better. It's going to get worse I'm going to go ahead and say that Amazon will buy slack in 2018 And the reason is not so much that I think Amazon wants this so badly But there are just a few things that I could see working really well For example, you know when you load up slack and it has those funny quotes, you know Like sometimes the bear eats you for your friends at slack or whatever and you can customize them It's like, okay. Well, what if you just get like a little, you know, like flash sale on Amazon type thing There's like lots of different ways that Amazon could could could kind of push its Onto people that are using it in many in in many ways, you know kind of on the development side Which Amazon could also be interested in but I but I I weighed this based on Okay, if I had to choose between Amazon and Google, you know Why wouldn't it be Google and I just think that if Google really wanted to take hangout seriously and it does But really take it seriously. It would just make hangouts behave More like slack than hangouts already does even though they have a lot of similar features right now So I know it's a long shot because this was already a rumor that didn't happen, but I'm resurrecting it Yeah, I mean that it's not like that hasn't happened before Well, I did did buy yahoo at eventually here's here's a thought so Amazon bought twitch and Everybody and I mean everyone I knew that used twitch at the time Was terrified that this meant a big corporate takeover and it meant all sorts of changes and it meant the the Amazon nation of the service and The opposite happened what instead we got were more stable servers Better bandwidth deeper pockets way better way more money to spend on the service itself And they've been ramping up additional stuff the prime sub thing was genius if you have Amazon Prime You have a single sub you can give it to anybody you want on twitch that helps streamers that helps twitch And it helps Amazon everybody wins across the board. So they've shown themselves to be good stewards there It hasn't been very long. So I don't know if we can make the full ruling yet It's only been what a year or something maybe a little more. So I'm all for this I think Amazon has at least shown a propensity to make things better not worse when they get them under their wing And I would look at audible. I would look at comic solid. Yeah, I would look at a handful of other properties They purchased IMDB is another great one. They've leveraged it for their own services Like their own prime video and you being able to pause and read up on everything that's happening It's pulling all that data from IMDB, but they haven't Done the thing IMDB everybody was worried about which was change it or ruin it or whatever your definition of it is So of all of the big wigs I would prefer to see do it so far the track record for me is best example over there at Amazon So I'm all with all with her on this And they've shown that they've got their buying pants on, you know, not only twitch But also a bigger acquisition with Whole Foods last year. I would say This is a great idea and I would think that they would angle it more toward their AWS clients than they would their Store clients that You know, it is already a free service. Maybe you could do an ad enriched version that gets you some of the Stuff but I think for them they basically just want to tack have another reason why you're buying Server space through AWS and here's another way that you can sync up your whole team Yeah, it's part of the enterprise package and that is something Amazon needs to bolster So that's another point in the in the favor of this and I think to you know For anybody who's sort of like yeah, but is that gonna happen in 2018? Well, the reason that I feel like You know, it's not So much a shot in the dark is that slack has raised a lot of venture capital And anytime a company is sitting on a huge valuation potential valuation based on a bunch of investors who really want their money back and then some You know, usually this isn't far off. So yeah, I mean, we're at the end of 2017. I Don't I don't think it's it's that far fetched to say that that That slack is gonna have to go whether they want to or not go to go to you know, go to a nice high bid Yeah, it's either it's either time to marry them off or let them Send them on their way to set up their own little tree Yeah, and make my prime subscription a benefit to me using slack in other words That's one of the things I like about the Amazon deal is I feel like my prime thing goes further Sometimes it goes up too But it goes further and maybe nice further with slack would be some of the premium slack for Features because I'm a prime subscriber without me having to go all in on a slack subscription Absolutely Justin Robert young you are up now on the hot seat. What is your prediction for 2018? I believe That a driverless self-driving car meaning a car that is allowed to operate without a human in it Will be approved and run in Pickford, Pennsylvania in 2018 Well, I mean We've you got to get a little more specific because there are driverless cars approved and running in Pittsburgh right now as a test Uber without a driver right now. They all have to have a driver in that episode So you said nobody will be in these things nobody will be anybody to call. I Believe that in this year. I don't know if they'll be callable I'm not saying that that you'll be able to get one I think that they will be approved to run without a driver on board without a driver to prove that this is a Possible. I think that this is the year. We've seen enough cities run tests with drivers in them at some point And why not this year you have to start acclimating the roadways to have no way Way most says they're gonna do this this year in Tempe, Arizona Hmm that could be your place. Well, all right about my mice my my my prediction is specifically with Pittsburgh. All right I think I think that that's gonna happen. I think Uber will be the company to do it But wait, all right, so so Waymo says that they're gonna do it in Tempe. I mean, they say a lot of things. Yeah And what do you think is Justin lost his night mind here? No, this is the year everyone says 2020 But I think 2018 is the year that at least a city. I don't know if it's Pittsburgh But it makes sense because of the testing that's going on there now But 2018 is the year that some city somewhere has free roaming robot cars. We're not free roaming Somewhat untethered to a man robot cars and that will be this year. Why not 2018? Let's do it. Let's embrace it I know you didn't hear me, but I said Jen So I predict Scott may be changing because they've been dead pretty soon. It's a great name. Let's be honest There's there's a lot of us, but it's still a great name This doesn't make the news a lot up here are there cities in the states that are offering incentives and that's why places like Tempe in Pittsburgh are In your predictions for this. Uh, no, but my prediction is based around the idea that Pittsburgh has a very good relationship with the Carnegie Mellon School Which is specifically on the east coast a good engineering institution the mayor and state legislature has been More welcoming that they have they have wanted to continue to rebrand themselves is not just a Rust Belt city and and they are leaning heavily into the kind of technology sector to do it so that that's my my prediction is it may be almost nothing more than a a Trial that literally gets let let's it run around once a day You know so they can continue to get a more testing, but at some point somebody's got to do it and that Climate seems right to me to make a prediction. I Was going to predict and I didn't end up doing it I was going to predict someone will launch a non-test version of autonomous car services and be pressured into suspending it Because they didn't get approval Yeah, I mean you never know maybe they're already running them and they've paid their employees $10,000 to delete all the data Shall we move on to number two number two. All right this one It's a triple decker. Are you ready? I'm ready Fox 21st century Fox is bought by Disney of course that the deal reported by CNBC So this would not be the television stations. This would be the movie studio in the IP Disney oh next year is bought by Apple what? What in the heck and that's only part two of three double-decker Disney buys Fox Disney gets bought by Apple. There's another thing that's kind of out there periodically specifically with the fact that Disney is facing some real problems in terms of Their like television stations ESPN not the least of which has become at once They're heavy hitter now a major Albatross for them They are gonna launch another service, but you know Apple has kind of pussy footed around the content game for a little while This would be them stepping in in a real major way Obviously, they have a close relationship with Disney ever since the Pixar acquisition was Steve Jobs and then I said triple decker Here it is Wolverine will appear in a Marvel movie next year three Marvel movies coming out Infinity War black panther and Ant-Man and the Wasp I think that with this Fox deal done We see some kind of cameo or after the credits sting with Wolverine Different go all the way and say it's Hugh Jackman or a different. Yeah, I don't know what I feel like I'm Leverage within an inch of my life. I want to give myself I want to give myself some leeway of them casting Wolverine, although I think that would be kind of a bummer Yeah, I don't think Hugh Jackman does it But maybe you get some young guy that's set up to be the new Wolverine and it gives obviously Disney back control of their IP in a way that they haven't had so great time to reboot him put him on the The Avengers have him be your carry-through character to the next generation of Marvel heroes I don't think this is that crazy and to your point about Apple Who else has the cash to do it? I'm not saying they will and I think you're probably wrong But Apple has the cash to do it. I don't think they'd ever do it, but they could do it if they wanted to Sarah Would you like to explain to Justin why he's crazy or shall I? Well, I mean, you know, we could flip for it, but since you asked it all I'll take a stab So, all right, so let me get this straight. So 20 such 24 century Fox get spot by Disney. Yes You're saying in that 12 month period Yeah, you know where you know these deals have to get approved and and there's a lot a lot of complicated things going behind the scenes and Board seats and and all sorts of financial stuff that in the same 12 months I'm less than that really Then Disney will get gobbled up by Apple. Yes, and You find that all that time period To to be at all possible Given the fact of how business works aggressive though It might be and maybe this would make more sense if I had made this proclamation a month ago As opposed to now at the end of the year, so we have no idea what's happening in December But it is my I granted extraordinarily aggressive and it is predicated on the concept that these Ideas if not frameworks for these deals are closer than we know now to being Being done the fact that Bob Iger has stayed on as the CEO of Disney despite a saying he was going to retire I think three or four years ago and and forcing out some of his his underlings who would be the next CEO Seems to me and if you're gonna get conspiratorial to say that maybe there are Larger acquisitions that are taking time. We've heard rumors about Disney and Fox for two years now and and the CNBC report was kind of looked at widely as them putting a final Word out there that that hey, they are going to sell all this off if anybody else wants to Stop the wedding before it goes down with Disney. Now is the time to do it So that to me suggests that the 20th century Fox and the Disney thing is close that they are talking there more along the lines of Numbers and those finalization points then Something else then then it being out there the Disney Apple thing. Yeah, you're right listen It would it is it is absolutely bonkers to suggest that this result could all happen within a calendar year But go big or go home. Yeah Fox buying Disney is a reasonable prediction or I'm sorry Disney buying Fox is a reasonable prediction Wolverine appearing in a Marvel movie is an aggressive prediction just because the logistics But if if your first one happens then that one could happen Apple's never buying Disney Disney's not a content company. Disney is is a megalith. They own theme parks They own financial arms like this is not something Apple wants to get into Apple might buy Part of Fox they might buy a content piece of somebody else Maybe they'd even buy a content piece of Disney although I can't see Disney parting with it But Apple loves to sit on its cash. They don't like to spend it Yeah, that's true. That's why they have so much damn cash. They're just why their butts are uncomfortable, too Oh, I do just just even though I know it's I know it's crazy But it's like there is a weird part of me that likes the idea of Apple owning Disneyland And I don't know why Disney people would vehemently disagree with me But it's like if Disneyland and Disney World to and you know, I don't know Disney Theme perks around the world If it had to go to anybody Somehow I like the idea of it going to out a lot of beats headphones on the riots and stuff. I don't know Yes Apple is likes to sit on its cash, but what if it likes to sit on its cash so it can Make deals like this deal that it uses its cash to buy startups to buy technology Maybe it buys beats. Sure. Maybe it buys a content arm. I don't think it buys all of Disney I just okay. Well the content arm is interesting. It is possible that the entire streaming bit the entire Effort on the outside of what they're doing with Marvel and Disney and theaters and what they're doing with all their other properties ESPN and everything else maybe a piece of this just a piece of it could be Disney doesn't part with that though I don't they don't do they You would you would have to buy Disney and look Disney Disney has been on the block before I'm not against that that part of your your your prediction is not unbelievable that that someone could potentially buy Disney All right, Jen you are on Prediction number one. Oh, man. This is gonna seem so tame comparatively But I'm going to start with the gaming prediction because of course I have to So I'm gonna do a quick summary of where we are right now with the Xbox one so far. They've ditched the connect It's really dead this time. They swear. It's not coming back. Thankfully It's been years now since they've publicly distanced themselves from their initial DRM scheme, which was terrible It involved constant online checks They were gonna kind of limit how you could play pre-owned games if you could play them at all They've added two hardware revisions there is the Xbox one s and the one X which was out in November and They've added the service called play anywhere basically cross by so you can you know You buy it once you can play it on your Windows 10 PC You can play it on your console. You have the same save states. You have the same gamer score. It's kind of handy that way Everybody got that got it up to date. Excellent. All right only exists in my iPhone 10 got it So I think the one X is the last Xbox I Think that That's my big swing. I think they're gonna just push everybody to the PC. They were all in on Windows 10 With Windows 10 they get the stuff that they gave up earlier to get the play anywhere benefit You have to buy their digital copies. You have to buy it from the Windows 10 store, which eliminates steam as a competitor and I think that's part of their endgame here and now Anyone who wants an Xbox one? They've got three options to choose from but that's not gonna be their main focus They're not gonna be sad if you decide Oh, I'm just gonna buy a gaming PC and run Windows 10 and buy things from the Windows 10 store Now interestingly, this is one of your predictions Scott Johnson. Is it not it is it's mine slightly different in that I think 2018 is the year they just they have to make the decision I think that the Xbox one X launching launching with no discernible mega-seller launch title is Weird and somebody even say disgraceful and a bit of a failure As the X is kind of their their big last stab at this generation to say look We we need to be back to where we were or get in the good graces of our core gamers again They haven't been able to do it so far so my thinking is this is the year where Sacha Nadella sits down with people on the Xbox team and says alright look We can either go all in and make this a really important part of Microsoft and if we do you've got to convince me Why we should why this should be a giant profit arm for us moving forward or Why we shouldn't roll this away and do something else and by that I don't think they can do it all at once I don't think they can just make an announcement. I think it takes them a Number of years to sort of phase things out or change things, but I do not think that we're looking at another 1015 years of Xbox unless they decide to go all in because it right now it feels half-aid It feels like they're not really in it to win it there are people on the Xbox team that are and that are super stoked about what's happening and doing the best that they can but the Corporate culture around that device has changed and I don't think from the top down there is interested in seeing that thing succeed So yes similar prediction, but I just think this is the year they make that decision and we may not even hear about it I think this is an internal thing where they'll finally make that choice and let it either die on the vine or go all in and I'm actually kind of Both ways on that they've got the money to get behind it if they want to and really take it by the horns But I'm not sure they will because up till now they've shown that they you know can kind of give a crap So so I don't know but that's where I'm that's where my head's on that when you say go all in you mean go all in on gaming specific or Get to a place Get basically just get back to where they were with the 360 get back to a place I don't just mean it's acceptance or its popularity but them innovating and creating an interface and a user base Or a user access to that device that is not Hamstrung by poor visit poor design decisions and some other things Invest in real development so that actual big first-party not available on other platform games come out on it exclusively Quit relying on just making sure there's a halo every three years and and really go in that in the direction that Sony has They're just not gonna they're not gonna make it right now They're just treading water and they're doing it feels intentional because they just aren't putting everything behind it They clearly have the resources. They have really smart people They have the ability to hire the best people in the industry, but they're not doing it And I think it's because they might be getting out Well, then this was the rumor with with Sachin and Della when he first came on right But that he was gonna spin off Xbox because he didn't see Xbox as as a huge a future player player for Microsoft Sure, a spin-off could be interesting. It's a whole different Conversation They're gonna turn it into a platform like that's integrated into a larger Microsoft ecosystem, but like You know Xbox as a platform won't necessarily mean a physical box. It just will be whatever gaming entertainment Asset that they do They may be yeah smart glass. What was the other one for Windows? Live or whatever They've tried to yeah But all of so this is the thing that the Xbox has above all those is that has a built-in audience that they can carry over Smaller and smaller and more dwindling of audience every day Well, and you pointed out at the beginning of all of this that they are pushing these things into Windows So they don't have to give up on Xbox What what could make all this true is they just stop making the machines I mean Jen do you think they will make a surface gaming device to sort of carry on the torch for people? I'm not sure. I am predominantly a console gamer But with the play anywhere thing when I eventually upgrade my editing system, it will be Windows 10 I will probably start buying play anywhere games to get those exclusives that aren't on my ps4 that aren't on the switch That doesn't buy me an Xbox that that keeps me in the Microsoft ecosystem and it makes the console irrelevant Yeah, and I think they might still want to make a Console like device at which point do you call it surface? Do you call it Xbox? Do you call it the Xbox surface? Well, what what was the Xbox woman? It was announced point the point of that device was to be what you're saying It was supposed to be this connected to their ecosystem Music was on there all this other stuff was attached to it It had connect support voice support it ran through to your cable box. So it was a it was a nice compliment to that It had snap out sketch Skype chat with people like they were going for this Crazy online all the time voice activated thing and gamers didn't want it So part part of the problem is you're selling it to the wrong audience, right? You don't go to You know, you don't go to an organization where everyone just needs a commuter car Then try to unload a bunch of you know oversize SUVs and pickup trucks because that's not what they want now If you were taking those exact same products and say oh you work in oil and gas or you're working for sure You work in construction and you need a truck or an SUV. That's a more receptive I think that was what they wanted to do and they were pitching it to the wrong audience. Yeah, I mean we So Oh, all right, let's move on to your second prediction Jen. What do you got for us? My second prediction because I have to just oblige to wave the flag every once in a while I think that Canada will take a stronger stance in 2018 on net neutrality I don't know whether this will be the year we finally pass a bill whether it's private member or not or whether we give the CRTC more teeth to In shrine it but they have already spoken out saying We're on this we're gonna we're gonna take a look at this. We're gonna keep doing what we're doing I'm a little nervous because the CRTC back in 2011 also Agreed that okay zero rating is bad, but we're gonna let you start charging like usage tears Shame on them for that But it also depends a lot on how the new NAFTA Negotiations go because we could get a lot of pushback from the Americans on this as We've kind of already seen out in the news Well, you know, it's funny you look at India India has one of the strongest government led net neutrality Pushes saying you you can't do paid prior prioritization. You can't do blocking period Canada could try to copy that but you're right. Are they going to be pressured by the US or is it better for Canada to hold off on this and kind of kick the can down the road to see if a different FCC comes into office for two eight years from now because there are parties in Canada who want kind of Zero ratings the wrong word, but it's kind of that idea a fast lane for Canadian content Which so far the CRTC has said, ah, it's not a good idea Equivalent of making a radio station play a certain percentage of Canadian content you'd give a fast lane to that And then with that whole weird Netflix deal earlier in 2017 about oh, yeah We're gonna spend this much money on Canadian content, even though they're not taxed for that But there's no real Specifics on how they will spend that money on Canadian content So as all these promises in the air and I think 2018 they're finally gonna put some stuff on paper or net neutrality in Canada Well, the one thing that you can say both in the can in Canada and the United States is that you're starting to see these issues become more and more to the forefront and As a rule politicians don't do anything until it imperils their their phony baloney job. So As soon as people start saying I am voting against you because you are doing that are these kinds of things and people mean it then I will say This very dented can will continue to be down this long and lonesome road Well, and and honestly, you know what I would love to see Canada do is take some steps towards opening up The ISP market which which is opened up more than it used to be it used to be, you know, your Rogers or your Shaw That's it. Thanks. Bye. You know, maybe you got some DSL. Good luck with that Do you foresee anything like that coming along? Oh, like Rogers Shaw Bell Those are are like three main names Like tech savvy is pretty good, but they're by from Rogers and all these smaller ones they buy from Bell So thankfully CRTC said you guys have to knock it off with a deep packet inspection and this shaping thing because otherwise What's the difference of buying from these wholesalers? But it's really tough. We are not a large population. We are very spread out I live in Toronto and it is only by moving that I went somewhere where I could get more than like 20 megabit upload and it was only by moving I was able to like get off DSL and get onto cable just because it's not in every area and Companies are not gonna spend that money on not a lot of people Yeah, all right Well, if we are ready for Scott's second prediction Since you guys had a merged first prediction No, it's totally good. I'm glad you brought it up. It was fun thing to talk about. So here's my take We've all got some sort of voice-activated device in our homes now that mean people around us in this Episode, but there's also plenty of people out there in the world who are finally doing it We've all started to adopt this idea that we want to talk to our technology and have it take care of some things for us Whether that be echoes or you know, Google homes or whatever it may be I Think we're getting into a weird place Where once again format wars are gonna start to be a thing and it happens with you know Everything else operating systems on desktops on mobile It doesn't matter. Everybody wants you in their little place and that's no different here I think 2018 is the year for a very disruptive loud and seemingly out of nowhere we'll get some sort of Arduino based or some kind of simple hardware based voice assistant device that will be using open source software and Will end up just making everything else look bad and create kind of a a Choice that we don't have right now Which is for something that isn't necessarily tied or so tied to the companies that currently have them It won't be so wrapped up like the echo is in Amazon's ecosystem or Apple's upcoming device with its stuff obviously and even Google with its you know Well a little bit more open still kind of locked down this the thing will be open to everybody It'll be hackable it'll be tweakable You'll be able to do all kinds of stuff There'll be a big group of people working on it and we can all Have this new choice now may not be the most consumer-friendly or front-facing But I think a lot of us meaning people like us the tech savvy out there would jump on such a thing And it will get us closer to the ultimate idea, which is the Star Trek computer isn't branded It's just a computer and you get stuff done with it And I don't have to worry about loyalty to any particular brand So this is my Star Trek hope not my Blade Runner hope. I mean, yeah, you know Except the Federation. That's a brand Where loyalty to that? Sure, but they're the utopian ideals of Star Trek are they're not making money on it There is no currency being It's just loyalty to the military and everything will be fine Okay, I realize this has some political holes in it. I'm just saying of those two options I would I rather have like a giant Blade Runner style mega corporation that runs everything or this more open style thing I'm absolutely moving toward the open thing So I just think 2018 is the year where we start to at least hear about it because up till now It's been like mum from that part of the community. Let me let me ask you a question So you're looking at more of a Linux a Linux for voice operating system. Sure. Sure I fire Fox it sounds like more what he's talking about because because it's not an operating system. It's cross-platform And it and it's open forever. It's it's developed in order to make a good thing Yeah, apps on every every phone would have apps every computer would have a you know ways to do it browser-based stuff like it there wouldn't be anything like well, sorry if you if you have the The echo you can't do Apple music or sorry if you have the Apple thing You can't do Spotify or or whatever all the current limitations are because everyone's got their loyalties in different places Those would just disappear because we would not only have a more open approach to what services that support it But even those that don't We would come up with cool open-source technology to get around those hoops So instead of it being hard to pull in Apple music the way it kind of is On your echo there would be better ways of doing that I don't know what those are but those would be some of the benefits and advantages So you could still have the services you love and like and are loyal to but you would have this More omnipotent You know voice-controlled thing that worked in your car and your house and your everything and she was everywhere or he Whichever one you choose will be everywhere you want them to be all the time What about the corporations though that have a vested interest in you not being able to do things like this? like give me an example Samsung Apple Yeah, like like Any big company who was like well hold on a second like if you can get all that stuff like we're you know you know Apple for example is is You know Apple music is a direct competitor Spotify So you know neither company really wants everybody to you know have the two services play nicely They want you to choose of course the operating system that decides whether you get the hooks into it So being open source isn't I mean maybe you're right somebody will figure out a workaround for that But I would imagine that Samsung and Apple and Google will all figure out how to block that workaround Probably but by workaround I don't mean okay imagine this imagine if we thought of Bluetooth from my phone to my echo as a workaround That's playing my Apple music account. No problem all day long whatever I needed to do it works now That's not the device that's not me talking to the echo and saying hey Please play me this this playlist on my Apple music account. So it is limited But there's still that kind of workaround and I'm not saying that's limited to that. I'm just saying Something that would just fence it all in more so that everybody could do something whether it was limited or not Just less of this like like Amazon will has a Spotify app for the echo or Amazon doesn't Spotify has an app for the echo Ecosystem because right now those two companies can benefit each other But they don't have an apple one because Apple doesn't benefit from having this competition even though Amazon's got their own music service They're not they don't feel like they're competing with Spotify or the other way around It feels beneficial for whatever reason for them, but not for Apple and Amazon or not Apple's not going to let somebody else's voice service do the same thing and take and get hooks into their operating system That's that's I completely agree. I just think there's ways around it I think that the coming revolution of hackery business will will Something will happen. We'll figure out a way. I don't know what it is. I don't have a good answers for this But there's going to be there's going to be some better middle ground with like superior voice activation and superior recognition And translation and all the other things that we think we're getting good service from right now That stuff will be so much better that we'll be okay with a few of these workarounds even if it's Launch morc and then then do you just launch morc and morc has all of the open source voice stuff? Yeah So here's my only thing I have no doubt that as the As these devices both get a more popular and be more siloed There will be a want for a true open source version Where I fall away Is that it will be either easy or popular Like I think that those two leaps to me are Are are are too far specifically in this market where yes, there is siloing But by and large people have been more willing to play with each other at this stage of the game Then I would expect like uh sarah you got the the the new sonos one, right? And that currently has uh the amazon voice assistant and will apparently soon have other voice home And then sonos sort of vaguely said and probably seri to um, but yeah, no, it's uh, it's It's it's definitely if you think of it in terms of what what it has now and the potential rather than being connected To one of these services sonos was like we're not even going to compete. We're just going to like hook into as many as possible I like this bold prediction scott's making in the sense of We all want to cross-platform whether it's open source or not Open source is just a method of getting to it We want a cross-platform voice assistant that we can get used to And have all of our settings on and not have to think well wait a minute Am I talking to a google a device or an amazon device or an apple device? Uh cortana is that you just can't Launch it by default On most devices you you can do it on some android devices actually, but you certainly can't do it on ios And you can't do it on a lot of other things. So yeah, it's a it's a bit. I will admit It's a bit of a pipe dream. It's more like what it's more of a way of thinking about it that I wish would change because Nobody's saying that the internet should be controlled by anyone in particular. Well Yeah, but uh, but you know It's not like we're in aol's internet anymore And I want to jump over to apple's internet or somebody else's internet. I wish voice activated data Pulling type technology was more ubiquitous like that that that it was like the internet in that We can just tap into that thing And it isn't branded. It doesn't have to have some loyalty attached to it It's just a way to access stuff And then it opens up so many cool possibilities and and nobody's complaining that I well, maybe they're complaining But I can use google chrome to open apple.com and not safari if I want to and I can use edge to open up firefox Make it the default browser. But yeah, I can do that across the board On all these different things. They all want me in their stuff, but they can't well Why well because the mindset is that was never cool to do and when you did try all of us fought back I think we're going to get to a place where that voice stuff will get so good Partially propelled by the proprietary systems because they're going to get better and better But we're going to get to that that breaking point and go well Why are we why am I have to swear allegiance to you or you or you? When really I just want this to be like The thing this is the internet. This is a service and quit trying to break it up like that That is a great example of the kind of predictions that I historically make Grand movements that I think are going to happen and what happens to me I'm not saying this is going to happen to you scott But what happens to me by way of transitioning into my own prediction Is that I end up predicting something that if it happens doesn't happen for five years So my first prediction for 2018 Is going to be short. It's going to be sweet It's going to be easily measurable and it's going to happen by the end of 2018 bitcoin's going to pass $15,000 Didn't it just pass 10? Yep. Okay. All right So it's not going to double. Yeah, you can call me a coward if you want sarah. It's fine Make it an easy prediction for once in my life I just just clarifying just clarifying so 15,000 but but uh Would you say that there there would be a sharp correction or a downturn sometime Immediately after I'm not even immediately but sometime in 2018 prediction wrong No, no, what I'm saying is it could totally pass 15,000 and then totally like everyone's No, you're right. It doesn't have to stay at 15,000 for the rest of the year once it passes it It could go down to zero but at some point in 2018 It's going to pass $15,000 And then I'm going to buy a house Nice It all serious Let me put some stakes on my prediction. I think bitcoin's going to keep going up I think it really is going to keep marching forward and and and it could probably end well beyond 15,000 in a year from now You know, it's funny. So a friend of mine who shall remain nameless Uh has eight and he or she was like, so how do I like cash out of this? I was like I don't know one of the exchanges. There's a lot of them and just give them to me. I'll take care of it Yeah, I just just hand them over. I'll launder them for you. No, but but but they but they were like, yeah But I mean, I don't want, you know, uncle sam to know about it and I was like Well, that's breaking the law. Yeah I was like you got these bitcoins like a million years ago when it meant nothing to you like take your free money and Shut up. Yeah Yeah, it's like saying, uh, so how are you gonna pay me salary? I I don't want uncle sam to find out I don't want to pay taxes though I mean, come on now that bitcoin has reached 10 grand per I don't know. It's funny, but I mean honestly, tom. It sounds crazy, but $10,000 sounded real crazy to me and it happened. Oh, yeah. No, absolutely Um, and here's my I'm gonna fall into my more typical trap than on my second prediction By the end of 2018, this is more of a hope I think than a prediction But I'm gonna predict that a viable replacement for passwords will be launched by major tech companies So in other words like the fido alliance, it's going to be more than one tech company Combining on a on a major launch that a push to get people to say, hey, we no more passwords use this Not saying whether it'll be successful in that Uh, but we will finally get that big push Beyond just the launch of an alliance like fido that says we're looking into it. We've we've got some options We've got you know, ube keys and this is going to be like, all right sites adopt this now Uh, maybe while you're there and they're making that alliance make them align for the voice activated thing Like a little a little pork billy uh something in the in your bill there. That's all Just add that alongside Yeah, yeah, the idea though of a unified strategy across the industry regarding security Should be a priority. So if your prediction doesn't come true This year and then not the next year and then the next year I think the industry is doing itself a huge disservice Considering where we are today in terms of security And the mishmash that is Too factor and not too factor and my stuff's encrypted this way But their stuff's encrypted that way and all the problems and breaches we've had lately Like now is the time to make that a priority. I'm totally with Tom on this The final alliance was launched in February 2013. It's been almost five years now too long Yeah, they got to come with something So bubble yet. Yes, and Uh, it's the polite way of disagreeing these days. Uh, uh, who wants to Make sure that they're the the ones that make this happen like like Where is beyond the fact that I think we all agree that it's probably better if we have a new baseline Way of interacting with our data Where who makes the money from it? Well, and and that's why it's taken so long, right? I mean, you're absolutely right is Who came out with with a one login a long time ago But everybody's like, yeah, sure all the data goes through yahoo servers No, thank you facebook fate with with with the facebook login has been fairly successful But at the same time only with sites who are like, well, I guess we don't mind sharing a bunch of data with facebook So this is where the pressure a final alliance was launched with this idea of like Let's try to take that out of it and make a system that anybody can implement That works well for everybody Because we know we're all losing money if we don't do something better than passwords Yeah, I think listen it's uh, uh It's needed I think that it would be a tremendous amount of goodwill For these companies if they were able to come together the question is now that I mean like look apple apple just sold a thousand dollar phone That reports that you know, hey look use this new technology To serve your passwords and they could very easily say Hey use this new technology to do this new thing, right and we want to have Everybody who uses a new apple computer Uh use face ID and and that yeah, but then then you got to have face ID on windows then You got to have face ID on everything like it has to be a universal system where people Something like steve gibson's squirrel where it's like it doesn't matter what device or os you're using this will work for you My argument is is exactly that that this is counter to that and apple's selling products based on it That he well Secure yeah, but if websites and apps are using this other system to log in apple won't it won't matter I Sure, I mean, but but we want this to be a big Like a a a industry apple doesn't run two factor authentication and you can use it on ios Sure. Oh, yeah. No, I'm all right. All right. I agree. I'm just saying listen But but my my larger question here uh is and and we will see how it plays out because I do think that it is something That will we are at a fork in the road is is security a necessity or is it a feature? And and I think that it will be a more archaic way of looking at it over the next 10 years to say Oh, yeah, we have a new fancy way for security to happen. We do need the the tide to rise Everywhere on security immediately when you look at how common these breaches are Yeah, but also what common good is there from uniting on this particular front I think there's a lot to be argued In favor of that, you know Maybe studying why the industry decides that yeah, see your arms are cool. We'll go with that The bluetooth cool will stick with that wi-fi standards are pretty good. We'll stick with that But hey, we got this weird facial recognition thing for our new phone. It's our own It's proprietary. Nobody can touch it. Well, we've got a cable nobody else uses which is all very apple stuff that i'm mentioning um Coming together on something as ubiquitous and important across the board of security seems like a new brainer to me Jen you seemed a little bit skeptical perhaps when I was describing my prediction Oh, we can't hear you now either So skeptical in fact She can't say anything. Yeah, but it was such a ridiculous prediction She's speechless now All right. Well, uh We'll try to we'll try to get this fixed in a second. Uh, but uh Any wild card predictions that you want to throw out one liners before we wrap this up An autonomous vehicle get we'll get in a major accident and put a lot of the self-driving self-piloting everything on hold Yeah, yeah, Len Len made that last year I was actually when uh when uh Justin was talking about um The trial in Pittsburgh just because I know Pittsburgh has a lot of bridges. So I was like maybe A car and it'll be in it. So it'll be self-driving car. But all completely uh by itself We'll just like go rogue and jump off a bridge And then we'll be like it's the singularity like this all has to stop like these cars don't want to do this and I mean look A self-driving trolley in vegas that got into an accident within five minutes of it launching right and it was yeah But it was not definitely it got backed into by another truck while I was sitting there. So that's what I'm that's what I'm saying even even now We are changing the way we look at accidents with with self-driving cars. Yeah, that's true All right, uh, well scott johnson. Thank you for joining us. Uh, we're very quickly. Uh, where can people find you in the new year? Well, uh, I'll be hoarding my bitcoins and getting ready for the voice assistant revolution that's surely to come right over there at frogpants.com and uh, lots of fun goofy stuff happening before or in the early part of uh, 2018 before Uh, we really truly get into the best prediction year ever which should be 2020 Given that everything you you ever mentioned on dts seems to be tied to 2020 for some reason I don't know why but every time some ceo comes out and says we're doing a thing By 2020 seems to always be in the paragraph of text. So amazing year 20 very excited for that all the things They're going to happen. It's just it's the new year 2000 Is that it really is in the just a robber young where will people be able to find you in the new year? You can find me at uh twitter.com slash justin are young. Uh, it's it's a great place to follow my dumb writings Excellent, I would call them the smartest dumb writings you can follow online There we go Uh, and jen can we hear you yet? I don't know. Can you yes? Okay, great Uh, two places. Uh twitter gen cutter that is gen with two ends and at open alpha dot tv Uh, folks, this is a bit of an anniversary. Uh, we are closing out the fourth year of daily tech news show With this episode the next episode we do will will will be bringing us into our fifth year of existence And it's because you want us to keep doing it and I Was ridiculously thrilled when we first got back four years ago I am stunned that people not only continue to support the show but increase their support to make it better Uh, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Yeah, you've changed the way I think things can be done Uh, and and people look at our show and say, oh, well, hey, that's interesting. Look at what they're doing over there And that's because of you. Uh, so thank you to everyone who supports us on patreon dot com slash dts Sarah take us out This is a weird show Our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com The regular show is live monday through friday at 4 30 p.m. Eastern 21 30 utc at alpha geek radio dot com And diamond club dot tv on our website, of course is daily tech news show dot com That's it daily tech news show in 2017. See you next year This show is part of the frog pants network Get more at frog pants dot com club. Hope you have enjoyed this bro Happy new year Boom. I was just like, hey, we're done All right, all right, I love you Good show, Justin Thanks, Scott You're welcome. Yeah, scott. That was awesome They're good. I had fun as always and actually you and gen having Uh combined predictions worked out great because then we had could have a little longer beefier conversation about that Yeah, that worked out good. I think I also think of all the predictions today It's the one that it could potentially be the biggest deal like the biggest noisy thing in 2018 So we'll see it's the hardest one to prove if they don't admit it. Yeah But They might they might we have to look at other stuff like Zunes and things and look at their pattern and how do they get out of stuff like that and whatever that is They'll probably do here All right, uh Goodbye people watching on video. Have a happy new year. We'll see you tomorrow None Tuesday