Some years, it would be nice just to get some normal Christmas presents, but instead I am doomed to see the future as the tech soothsayer Omarstradamus!
Chocolates and new shoes in shiny gift wrap? No! Instead, I receive visions of 2015 as my holiday gift (some would say curse). I guess when you go around calling yourself a seer named “Omarstradamus,” you’re kind of asking for that.
So what does the future hold for tech geeks and everyone else?
Bring on the VR celebrities: There are YouTube celebrities and even selfie-shooting Instagram photo celebrities. But 2015 will be the year when the emerging field of virtual-reality filmmaking, the kind you would view with a headset like the Oculus Rift, will begin to take off. And in that space, you'll need a human touch, especially actors up to the challenge of performing in a 360-degree field of view. Reese Witherspoon is appearing in such a short, based on her film "Wild," and you can expect a new generation of unknown performers to quickly draw fans in this medium.
Cyberhacks get worse: The recent online leaks and threats against Sony Pictures are just the beginning of much worse illegal activity that could bring major companies, and even governments of some countries, to their knees. The next big targets for hackers will likely be making the health records of political leaders and celebrities public or hacking into Internet-connected devices, from laptops to power grids, to make our lives unpredictably miserable.
Podcasting gets experimental: Maybe I'm biased because I love podcasting, but I think the success of "This American Life" spinoff "Serial" will bring not only another season of that show but many attempts to replicate its formula of journalism and compelling episodic audio storytelling. At the very least, you'll see the podcast spotlight shift from comedy and pop culture to areas such as true crime and serialized fiction.
Apple faithful will snap up its Watch: Everyone else will wait and see: The Apple Watch, a fitness device due out early next year, will be too expensive to be a huge hit at first, and most will wait to see what's in the next version. But Apple fans will snap up the devices until they sell out and are hard to find in stores, then go around trying to convince everyone else that it's the greatest thing since the introduction of the iPhone. It won't be, but it will have enough Apple magic to keep everyone intrigued until Apple irons out all the inevitable first-version glitches and quirks.
Uber will unleash autonomous cars sooner than anyone expected: With billions of dollars to spend and no apparent regard for rules and expectations that other people have set, the on-demand ride company will begin replacing human-driven cars with autonomous vehicles, perhaps with the help of Google. If Uber can brush aside safety concerns long enough to pull it off successfully even in just a handful of cities, it will quickly become one of the most valuable tech companies in the world.
And that could just be the darkest timeline possible for 2015. But, hey, don’t worry, there will be lots of cool, amazing stuff in 2015. That stuff, however, works better when you’re surprised, so just trust that there’s plenty of sunshine on the horizon.
