Will one of these drivers from Uber or Lyft, shown at a City Council Mobility Committee hearing in September, run for a Council seat in 2016? Omarstradamus thinks so. Credit: Laura Skelding / AMERICAN-STATESMAn
Another year another 365 days of forward movement for the tech industry! Except when it’s taking dumb steps backward and making things more complicated and frustrating.
My soothsayer alter ego Omarstadamus watches it all and makes prognostications every year on what's ahead. In Tuesday's American-Statesman print edition and on MyStatesman.com you can find my take on what's ahead for 2016 and how the 2015 predictions turned out.
Here’s an excerpt:
The "Internet of Things" will become a punchline. Increasing frustration with "smart" products that seem anything but, more interoperability headaches for early adopters and high-profile hacking incidents and downtime for services that are supposed to just work will uglify the rosy picture tech companies have painted about the smart home and connected Crock-Pots. Despite a few promising new products, the term "Internet of Things" will come to be associated with devices that don't work like they should and are more trouble than they're worth.
Read the rest of the column here, which includes predictions about Netflix, Uber and city government, self-driving cars and Apple Music.
Got your own predictions about the year in tech? Got an issue with the wisdom of Omarstradamus? Let us know by posting a comment.
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