Predictions

Review Predictions for 2006:
-The music industry will continue to cut it's own throat by treating customers like the enemy. Artists will eventually circumvent them and embrace the internet individually.
Inconclusive; no mass exedos
-DRM will continue to piss us all off
affirmative
-2006 will be the year empires will begin to crumble; telephone, record labels, even internet wires companies will look to refocus their companies or for someone to sue for their loses
Correct; VOIP companies are steadily stealing customers from traditional analogue
-consumers will discover that VOIP is cheap & POTS is not
Yes and no; VOIP companies have kept startup prices artificially high, VOIP is only a deal if you do a lot of long distance calling.
-the tiny voice of the FCC will try and regulate the vastness of the internet. The internet will laugh and think the FCC is amusing.
I can't prove this
-potential internet content providers such as movies, television, music will be so afraid of 20% losses due to piracy that they will totally over look the +200% profits due to volume.
-Internet Access providers that don't play nicely will find out that WiMax will leech all their customers.
Incorrect; WiMax adoption is slow due to conflicting standards
-a major encryption algorithm will be rendered useless; possibly MD5
Correct; MD5 broken link
-global regulators will think that the great firewall of china is a good idea
-citywide wireless networks will become normal
Correct; more cities announcing plans to build wireless networks
-Sony PSP will become a versatile communication device... despite Sony's $ leeching efforts
inconclusive; camera released but no voip client

Predictions for 2007:
-Vista will be lukewarm, carrying DRM baggage and pretty looks, M$ will eventually backport the security advances to XP.
-The music industry will start to notice that DRM annoys legal customers, but has NO effect on illegal consumers who get DRM free music.
-various startups will try to sell drm free music from gifted startup bands; and fail.
-HD market will be soft, with competing standards HDDVD & BlueRay, expensive equipment, and DRM hell; most ppl will stick with DVD.
-Apple will make a huge impact on the cell phone market; not by iPhone dominance but by setting the standard to which all others must exceed or expire.
-wind farms = free energy
-Internet TV via Bittorrent will become reality; and broadcast networks will relize transmitting radio waves via a tower is less efficient than broadcasting on the internet.
-the big 3 North American auto producers will loose more ground to non-unionized, nimble, efficent Japanese & Korean car companies. GM may even fall from #1 seller to #3 by eoy.