August 10, 2011 • 34 mins
In a relatively short amount of time, the internet has expanded across the globe and quickly evolved into a world-changing force. But what will it be like in the future? Join Jonathan and Chris as they explore the possible future of the internet.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone,
Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette. I
(00:20):
am an editor at how stuff Works dot com and
sitting across from me as he always does when we
record this podcast, as senior writer Jonathan Strickland, I'll probably
be some kind of scientists building inventions in my space lab.
In space, yeah, but will you be blinded with science? Maybe?
This entire episode comes as a part of an experiment.
(00:43):
I went on to Google Plus and I posted there
saying that we were going to record an episode and
that we were hoping to get some suggestions. And we've
got lots and lots and lots of suggestions, many of
which we hope to tackle in future episodes. But today
this Google Plus first, So I guess we're gonna have
to come up with a new sound effect. Here's our
(01:03):
Google Plus suggestion. This comes from Keegan, who says, what
about a look at how we will interact with the
Internet five years from now? So Chris and I are
putting on our press digitator prognostication hats and we're gonna
(01:24):
stare into the future until our eyes get all blurry,
and we're gonna tell you what we see. So, um,
Internet five years, how are we gonna interact with it? Go?
Uh that's a good question, now, um it would it
would be easy for me to say that that tablets
are going to be there simply because they're so hot
(01:46):
right now. I definitely think mobile is is primarily the
way people are going now. UM, don't get the impression that, um,
I've given up on uh computers, specifically desktop peters, because
I still enjoy not having to haul around a lot
of technology with me and and having just a small device. Um,
(02:07):
but I enjoy having the uh the real estate of
a nice giant screen now. Um. You know. But I
think mobile is is the way I think people want
to be able to get stuff anywhere and everywhere. So
people are going to be designing content, um to fit
multiple needs. Yeah, we're already seeing a lot of that today,
where you see a lot of websites that have a
(02:27):
mobile version and a full version, and then we're seeing
more and more smartphones that just bypass the mobile version
goes straight to the full version because they are capable
of displaying an entire web page upon their you know,
their screens, and of course tablets same sort of thing. Uh.
I agree. I think that the Internet in five years
will be much more pervasive in the sense that, uh,
(02:51):
mostly from the stuff that we tend to carry with us,
but that will be able to go from place to
place and be able to tag it tap into the
Internet pretty much anywhere we go. I mean, that's almost
the case now as it is, but it should be
even more so in the future. That we'll get to
a point where it will be really unusual when you're
in a space where you cannot access the Internet at
(03:11):
least any place when you're on land, and maybe when
you're like out at sea or something, that might still
be kind of unusual unless you have to have some
sort of satellite modem. But um, otherwise, I think, yeah,
you pretty much have the Internet at your fingertips um
from a variety of devices. And we're talking about five
years from now. So if you think about it, the
(03:33):
iPhone came out in two thousand seven, so as the
recording of this podcast, that was four years ago, and
already I think you could argue that the iPhone has
had a huge impact on at least the way we
consume the Internet and and also how developers create applications
for the Internet. Some of the a lot of the
(03:53):
things that are on the iPhone and on Android and
on other smartphone operating systems as well. Um, they aren't
necessarily a web browser, but they do tie into the
Internet in some way, right, Like like, for example, with Google,
I have Google Navigator and that uses Google Maps, and
it uses GPS in order to help me navigate through
(04:16):
to a destination. Um, you know, that's something that we
wouldn't have really thought about, you know, ten years ago.
Then we started getting GPS units to really hit the market,
and now smartphones are kind of displacing those. So five
years from now, I imagine that, um, smartphones will be
pretty much the the the most common kind of mobile
(04:39):
device that people will be carrying around with them. Capable
of that, we may finally start seeing some things like
some smart watches that are actually worth purchasing. I mean,
there's been smart watches in the past that have been
kind of interesting but just haven't quite worked. And I
think part of that is, you know, there are a
lot of issues you gotta work around like how how
do you minute tourize the components to that size where
(05:03):
it's still a compelling product, right right, And and I
think that's one of those things too, where years ago
people were talking about how everything was going miniaturized, and
now that we have smartphones, we won't need laptops and
I and I know I'm not the only person who
likes a nice big screen when you're actually doing work,
not to mention a nice big keyboard. Yes, And and
(05:24):
the truth of the matter is, I think that, um,
there's a certain practical point. It's not that we can't
make a smart watch that would do those kinds of things.
I think the practical reality is that at a certain point,
it's kind of difficult to use, especially with fat fingers
like mine. Uh, something that has a touch screen that's
(05:45):
that small. And voice input still isn't quite there yet. Yeah,
it's close. Google has done a really good job with
voice input. I mean, I'm very impressed with what they've
done so far, and I'm sure that five years from
now it'll probably be really phenomenal where uh, navigating by
voice will be quite easy. It's it's hard for us
(06:05):
to make that leap right now, because it's so it
seems so foreign to to think about talking to a computer,
especially if you're talking about any sort of you're in
a public place, or you're say in an office at
work or whatever, or you have an accent that may
be unreadable too, or you want to look up something
that is really um personal, like some sort of medical issue,
(06:28):
you know, that sort of stuff. You don't want to
be talking out loud to your machine. So clearly, the
physical input is never going to completely go away unless
we finally get to a point where we can just
telepathically interact with our devices, which is not going to
happen in five years. There's one of my solid predictions there.
We are not going to have a point where you
have mind controlled devices in five years. Um. So it's
(06:52):
more pervasive, we've got more access. I actually see some
more overlapping technologies coming in possibly possibly some new technologies.
But really there's the stuff that I'm imagining is we're
totally capable of doing right now, and that is having
um context specific Internet uh well uh, attractions or or
(07:17):
situations or circumstances. What I mean by that is that
you could create an application, let's say that reacts to
UM signals spent sent on a specific wavelength, and then
you create transmitters that transmit things on that wavelength, so
that when you come into the proximity of that transmitter,
(07:39):
then your device begins to interact with it in whatever
way you had designed. And and here's an easy example
of this, because these things exist already. Uh. An example
of this is pal Mickey. Have you heard about pal
Mickey at Disney World. I've I've heard about it, but
I don't know a lot about it. Okay, So pal
Mickey is this idea that Disney came up with a
couple of years ago where they have the Mickey Mouse
(08:01):
doll and inside there is a receiver and the receiver
picks up radio signals as you get close enough. You know,
when you get within range, the receiver picks up the
signal and makes pal Mickey tell you something. And let's
say that you're at one of the Disney parks and
you're walking around, Well, they make the transmitters um they
only give him enough power to transmit within a certain range,
(08:24):
so that way you're not getting all these transmissions all
you know, Mickey doesn't go into seizures as soon as
you walk through the Magic Kingdom gates. Um. But when
you get close enough, Mickey will make a little noise
you press press, I think one of his hands and
then he says, uh. The information like he might tell
you how long the weight is for the Pirates of
the Caribbean ride, or he might give you a little
(08:44):
bit of trivia information about one of the buildings you're passing.
And it's all based upon just radio waves. There's no
no real Internet involved here, but there's no reason why
you couldn't have that connected with the Internet, where you
have these transmitters that are not necessarily meant to transmit
signals across an entire city, but maybe just like a
(09:05):
general area around the building that they are attached to,
and that it can give you updated information about stuff.
Let's say a store sale goes on and you've got
this app that alerts alerts you when a sale starts,
and you could even have specific sales happening within oh
like a two hour range, and it's just if you
happen to be in the area that you find out
(09:27):
about it. And this is a way of of kind
of adding more of that sort of engagement thing. We
talked about in previous episodes, like I see that as
being a possibility where we have not just a pervasive Internet,
but a contextual Internet as well. So it's it's timely.
A lot of the stuff we see on the Internet
is designed to be what we call evergreen. We call
(09:48):
it that here and how stuff works all the time,
and evergreen piece of content is something that should be
relevant today, and it should be relevant five years from now,
It should be relevant ten years from now. You should
be always able to go back to that piece of
content and it means exactly what needs to mean. Uh.
And then there's other content that we create that is
very timely that you know, after after a few months,
(10:10):
it may not have the impact that it once had,
or it might need to be updated on a near
constant basis, like most of this stuff that is in
the tech cha cha. Because here's the funny thing about technology,
it keeps on changing. Now I think, UM, I think
location based services to UM. You know, there there are
(10:31):
millions of people with smartphones, but it's really only scratching
the surface of the population in general. I think now
that they're starting to become more affordable. UM, there's real
competition in the smartphone market for consumers, um, and the
cost of providing data goes down. Um. You know, I
think it'll be more compelling for people to sign onto
(10:53):
location based services and uh you know, get offers as
they're walking by and subscribe to that too. I don't
know some of about augmented reality UM personally because I mean,
I think it will become more popular, but I still
don't think it's going to become dominant, simply because it
requires you to look around with your phone and you
could trip and fall. Yeah, I mean, if if we
(11:15):
if we ever do get to a point where you
can have those glasses that do the that do the
transparent display where you can see the display of information
on your glasses like a heads up display. Yeah, essentially
a heads up display for you know, just the exactly
just looking around and seeing what that their restaurants raty
today is. Um, you know, it's uh, we've been promised
(11:39):
that for a while. It's almost because it's almost starting
to enter the realm of jet packs and flying cars. Uh.
I know, I know that there are jet packs and
flying cars, but they're not predominant, right, They're not everywhere.
So that's what I'm talking about UM also. I just
think that again, you know, unless it's something that could
be built into your or existing eye wear, I just
(12:01):
don't see it being that compelling, just because it means
more people are like, well, great, now there's another thing
I gotta buy and wear. You know, I wish I
could have a show of hands that I can't and
and you don't need to email. But I was just
thinking how many people heard you say I wear and thought, I, well,
you know, if Apple does come out with with glasses,
(12:24):
they will call it I wear UM and they should
pay me. It's trademarked Jonathan Strickland, not really trademarked UM.
The Yeah. So I think I think we might actually
see other Internet capable devices really starting to to to
play a part. I mean, we've at CS ofleven there
were a lot of of appliances that were Internet capable,
(12:48):
the Internet of Things. Yeah, so this this would be
the case of having other things on the Internet besides computers,
mobile devices and that kind of thing. It would be
more like things like refridge raiders and um washers and
dryers and a lot of this is you know, goes
into home automation. Some of it is is just information management.
(13:10):
Like let's say you want to manage the list of
things that are in your refrigerator so that when you
go shopping, you know, you know what you need to
pick up that sort of stuff. Uh. I think within
five years we'll probably see a lot more of that. UM.
I don't know that it will again be the dominant
kind of appliance on the market. I think that will
still be sort of a I think it will still
(13:33):
be somewhat of a niche market, maybe maybe a larger
niche than it is right now. But I don't think
of it. I don't think that will be I don't
think you would walk into an appliance store and and
ninety percent of the stuff you see would be Internet capable. Well,
here's here's a thought on that. They've been predicting this
for years. We were all going to have radio frequency
identification tags r f i D tags inside all of
(13:55):
our products. So you can have all your stuff in
the free and the fridge is able to identify what's
in there and when you bought it, and when you
bought it, and there would be a screen up on
the on the front of the fridge that says, hey,
you know what, you could make this for dinner because
you have all the ingredients you need to make this,
or you can make that and it will give you
(14:16):
recipes and things, which is a really neat idea. But
they've been again predicting this for years. It hasn't happened yet.
I also say, the peaches are restless. You need to
throw them out. The peaches restless. One of them growled
at me. Yeah, that's when potato salad goes bad. Yeah,
the technology to do this isn't It hasn't been out
(14:39):
of the realm of possibility for for several years. I mean,
this is doable, but we're not doing it. It's yeah,
it's adopt It's an adoption thing. I mean, you know,
in some cases, you've got companies that are trying to
create products for which there is no demand and then
they're trying to generate the demand for that product, and
sometimes that works. Like you know, you could argue that
Steve Jobs does that all the time. Well he You know,
(14:59):
the the iPad as a clear example of this, and
I still um. When it first came out, I saw
a lot of criticism that it was a product that
that no one needed and which is still technically true.
Nobody needs a tablet. Well, okay, few people need a tablet.
Let's say that. Um, there are there are some some
roles that really could use a small computing device like that.
(15:21):
So but for a lot of people, it's a it's
something they want. And uh, you know, now that it's
been a year later. As of the time we've recorded
this is almost a year and a half after the
iPads released, there are lots of different kinds of tablets
in the market. The tablet market is taking off, sort
of like the netbook market did, um a few years ago.
And I saw criticism, Uh probably about two or three
(15:44):
months before we recorded this, we were saying, well, you know,
I still don't think there's any reason why anyone needs
a tablet. Most of the people I see who say
they they have really integrated tablet into their lifestyle bought
one and then found a use for it. But I
would argue that's the way it was with personal computers
back in the day. And I think I don't think
(16:04):
tablets are going away simply because I think people who
buy them, you know, now that there is a market
for it, people are going to start creating more useful
software for it, and I think people will start using
their tablets to do more creative work than they used
to be able to do, simply because there wasn't software
for it on the on the initial release of these devices,
and there will be now that now that that's coming out,
(16:27):
there already is quite a bit of creative software, and
I think they're just going to be more. It's just
gonna be another tier of products in between smartphones and computers.
I think that there's also the potential that we could
see even more products introduced into that space that don't
fit the tablet model or the smartphone model. I mean,
it's hard to say, because it's five years from now.
(16:48):
There's a lot of smart people working on these things,
and who knows who could come up with the next
big thing. I mean, I mentioned smart watches, which could
fit into that category. But for example, here's here's just
something just out of the blue. Let's say that someone
decides to create a device that is uh similar to
a smartphone but is essentially a kind of the the
(17:10):
the step between smartphone and a MP three players, so
not that not an iPod touch, which you could argue
is kind of in that realm too. But more about
it's more focused just on the music. So in other words,
you create a device that is um specifically designed to
help you tap into the streaming music services that are
out there. So you know, there's smartphones that can do
(17:32):
this as well. So you could argue, well, maybe there's
not a market for this, but then you could say, well,
you might want to have one of these devices that
doesn't run quite as many applications, is not as process
or intensive, doesn't run down the battery as quickly, doesn't
doesn't tax your smartphones battery at all, that would let
you tap into these massive cloud storage services things like
(17:55):
Google Music or Amazon or iTunes, the iCloud um or Spotify,
any of these sort of services where you could stream
or or otherwise consume the music on this device without
it affecting your other devices, Because I mean, I have
a smartphone that's capable of doing these sort of things,
but I rarely use those capabilities because it runs down
(18:17):
the battery and I don't want, you know, I want
to have my phone available in case I want to
for some reason make a phone call. So I could
see that sort of thing becoming thing where the next
MP three player isn't necessarily focused on how many songs
it can store, but rather it's access to various streaming
services or or cloud storage services. Uh, that's a possibility. Um.
(18:42):
So we've talked about mobility, We've talked about a lot
more of uh appliances that would be connected to the Internet.
I mean, you can you're starting to see that already
with cars as well. Whether you have cars that don't
necessarily connect directly to the Internet, but when you park
them in your garage, they can sync up via Bluetooth
(19:03):
or some other method to your home network and you
can transfer data back and forth across um, usually music,
but you can do other things as well well. You
can also have equipment put in your car to make
a hot spot too. Yeah, so we're probably gonna see
a lot more of that as well. You know, again,
the ubiquitous access. So that's that's kind of like the shiny,
happy version of what the Internet could be like in
(19:26):
five years and how we would access the Internet. I
don't see it as necessarily being a total revolution from
the way we're doing it now, but probably um, a
much more pervasive way of what we do now. Let's
talk about some possible dark side elements to what the
Internet could be like in five years. So dark side
(19:46):
number one, and this is a big one, is that
we could see Internet service providers I s p s
start to um limit the kinds of of sir pervices
and content you have access to. In other words, let's
say that this is essentially the scenario where net neutrality
(20:09):
is no longer even a concept. It's gone. In this case,
you have I s p s that are able to
strike up partnerships, let's say, with various content providers and
service providers in theory, not that I would ever expect
this to happen, but in theory, lets you could have
a particular Internet service provider partner with say Facebook, and
(20:32):
then anyone who is a customer of that I s
P has access to Facebook, anyone who is not a
customer with that I s P doesn't. I mean, that's
that's an extreme example that I don't think could ever happen,
because Facebook, of course is so huge, it's got you know,
way more subscribers than you would ever see be tied
(20:53):
to a specific provider. But I could easily see that
from for emerging services and content. So or let's say
that the Internet service providers that are also cable companies
limited so that you can only access their content they
create through their I s P. So if you are
(21:14):
on I s P B and you want to see
the content that I s P A creates through its
cable company, uh part of its corporation, you're on the lock.
At least you can't see it online. Um, we're starting
to see some of that emerge right now. Now. Whether
or not that continues is another question, but it could
(21:37):
very well be that within five years your experience on
the Internet is completely dictated by the Internet service provider
you belong to, or cell phone carrier in that case,
because it may be that you have one kind of
Internet when you get home because you are your a
customer of one I s P, and you have a
different kind of Internet when you access it on your
phone because you belong you know, you've got a contract
(21:58):
with a specific cell phone area. And that would be
crazy really because you could think like, oh, this video
is great, but I'll watch it when I get home,
and then you realize, oh, I can't access it at
home because my I s P doesn't have a deal
with that particular content provider. Yeah, I think it's more
likely that you'll see throttling. UM. Like if you have
if you want to use a particular streaming radio radio
(22:21):
service and you are on a cable company that doesn't
have a deal with that provider, and perhaps they have
a deal with the DSL provider in your area, Well,
that means that they're going to give the you know,
per of the agreement. They're going to give priority to
their own customers, and then you may experience hiccupping or
(22:42):
delays or or problems with the service. You might see
that that sign saying Netflix is adjusting your buffering rate
because your Internet connection is slower. Yes, UM, And that's
another that's another issue too. I think that is possible
to see UM talking about depending on your I s
P or your your provider. UM. For cell phone services,
(23:05):
uh so many of them now for both are instituting
data caps. So I think it is very possible that
in the future. UM. You know, it's it's funny because
the services are all working toward unlimited models, like, uh,
if you subscribe to Netflix streaming, UM, you have unlimited
(23:27):
you can watch as many movies as you can pack
in during each month. Yep, and that goes for a
lot of the other services to UM. You know, you
can you can stream unlimited music from a lot of places, UM.
And there's of course plenty of other ways to use
lots of bandwidth. UM. So you know, they're they're opening
(23:47):
those services up to an unlimited all you can eat
model for you know, a set price, and people who
really use them, save families, you know, who have multiple
people watching multiple shows in multiple rooms. You know, that's
a great way to use a ton of bandwidth. You know.
Of course they're they're arguments that say, it's really just
the people who are downloading lots of stuff illegally. UM.
(24:09):
But there are a lot of there's so many legitimate
ways to use a lot of bandwidth. Now, Yeah, I
mean before before there were these these venues where you
could get to this content in a legal way, maybe
you could make the argument that the people who are
eating up all the bandwidth, we're pirates. But I don't
think that's the case today. Well, a lot of them
say right now, the people who are using the bandwidth
(24:32):
that gets them into trouble are they're they're a small
minority of people, like only I'm making up a number
because I haven't seen it in a while, but the
last time I looked it was they were saying something
like three to five percent if their customers. They're saying, oh, no,
no, no no, no, these bandwidth caps don't affect the majority
of our customers. But the thing is, the services themselves
(24:52):
are encouraging us to use as much data as we
can take, and the brought the providers are all starting
to cap their services. Not all of them, but a
lot of them are. And uh, in some cases they're
not making it clear to subscribers exactly how much data
they're using and how much it's going to put them
(25:13):
in trouble. So I think it within the next five
years you're going to start to see that clash, especially
because broadband penetration is still somewhat limited in the United States.
Speeds are somewhat slower here than in other places, and um,
you know, I think as these things ratchet up and
people are encouraging us to use more data, this is
going to come into conflict and the providers are going
(25:35):
to hear from their customers how unhappy they are with
the service because you know, hey, you say, I can
use you know, all this data and it's and it's
supposed to be such a fast network, and when I
actually try to use it, I can't. It'd also be
interesting to see if I s p s, if they
do create this this sort of compartmentalized UH Internet, and
in which case, really we can't even call it the
(25:56):
Internet anymore, because the Internet is supposed to be the
global network of networks. And if we're talking about I
s p s each creating their own, then they all
just become networks. You might become Internet with a lowercase I,
as opposed to Internet Internet with the upper case I.
So instead of being a joke, we will we will
really be talking about the internets. Yeah, it really will
be the internets. Which one do you have? UM? There's
(26:19):
also the possibility that some of these I s p s,
and they a lot of these companies have tried this already,
will try to make their own services that that mimic
or replace the services from other UH providers out there,
not just I s p s, but other companies as well.
So let's say that you know, I s p A
decides to come up with its own version of Twitter
(26:40):
and UH and then and then doesn't allow you to
access Twitter on its on its services. UM. And instead
encourages you to use this other one. That's another way
that this stuff can get further fragmented. I don't think
it would ever happen, but it's possible. Um, another thing
we might see our we've scene already. I'm curious to
(27:01):
find out if within five years, if it's proven to
be a successful campaign or not. Or are paywalls and
of course the paywall is where you, uh, you can't
have access to a particular sites content until after you
pay a subscription fee. Right, so if you want to read,
as an example, a current example the New York Times,
(27:24):
there are a certain amount of there's a certain number
of articles that you can read for free per month,
per month, and then after that you are asked to
go ahead and subscribe. The Wall Street Journal on the
other hand, Yeah, I mean there there's certain content that
you can get depending on how you're you're doing it,
but um, for the most part, you have to pay
if you're if you're going to do that now some
I think it will be more common, um paywall or no,
(27:47):
I mean I think or whether they succeed in in
in general, I would say I think you're going to
see a lot of um, maybe hybrid subscriptions, like for example,
Wired magazine. Right now, if you are a print subscriber,
I've been a print subscriber for many years. Um, you
can also UH and this is a fairly recent development
(28:09):
as of the time of recording this. You can also
if you have an iPad, as I do, you can
download the issues you have been subscribing to. So now
I get all the the digital issues free because I
am a print subscriber, and I think they're like getting
them free, They're just included in your subscription. Right Well,
I'm getting them a new extra cost because at one point, Wired,
(28:31):
the online app required you to pay regardless of whether
or not you are a print subscriber. So I'm getting
it as a benefit of my subscription. I get both
versions of of that, and I think that's probably going
to become more common because I think the tablet was
at one point considered the uh, you know, the saving
grace for magazines and newspapers, and I think people do
(28:55):
enjoy reading some of that content in that format. However,
people who are I've seen it pretty much with regard
to just about every magazine that has a subscription available. Hey,
why are you charging me? For this digital version. I'm
already a subscriber to the print version. Can't I have both?
You know, I think there are a lot of people
(29:15):
will be willing to say, yeah, okay, I'll give you
an extra two bucks or five bucks, give me both
because I like both. UM and you know, so I think,
you know, I think what will be interesting to see
two is within the next five years if there's a
related model that I think it'll be interesting to see
if it survives or not. Which is the model that
(29:37):
companies like HBO where you know, you can get HBO
content online but only if you are a customer of
a cable company and you have HBO as part of
your service. Yeah, CNN does that too, now, yeah, see
does it? I think interesting to look that up. It
(29:57):
just surprised me because I mean, it's been a while
since I've into that site. But really, the last time
I went to a CNN dot com they had updated
their but and this is again very recent, I think
within the last two or three weeks before we recorded this.
If you want to access the video, UM, you sign
in as a you know, to your your provider and
they will say okay, now now you have access to
(30:18):
the video online because you're already a subscriber, right, So
it'll be interesting interesting to see if that works or
if HBO decides to open it up a little bit
where I mean, I would imagine it will always be
a subscription service. It's never gonna be free necessarily, but
that you will not you won't have to be a
cable company customer in order to, um, to get access
(30:40):
to that that that content. I know there are a
lot of people who have cut the cord who would
love to have access to things like HBO original programming.
I mean, they're all screaming for Game of Thrones, but
they can't watch it because they don't have a subscription.
You know, they don't they don't have a cable company. Um,
they're not. They don't have a cable TV subscription, they
don't have HBO. So therefore they cannot access that material
(31:02):
even if they wanted, you know, had some online method. Uh,
it's unavailable to them because they have to be a
pre existing customer before they can also get it online. Uh.
It'll be interesting interesting to see if that lives for
five years or if that if that model goes away. UM.
I can imagine a lot of cable companies trying very
(31:24):
very hard to keep that model going because it's an
incentive for customers to remain with cable companies. Um. If
that if that were gone, if you could subscribe to
say Game of Thrones and you know, you pay a
certain subscription fee and that was it, um, I think
that you'd see even more people cutting the cord, which
(31:45):
would upset cable companies quite a bit. Yeah, I verified
that as of mid July. Like, if you want to
use cn CNN video on your iOS device, um that
you have to basically prove that you're a subscriber to
certain pay TV providers and that's you know, there are
(32:07):
a certain list of them that they're some of the
big ease UM. But yeah, I think that model would
be more um palatable to people to say, you know, hey, yeah,
I'm already paying you something, you know, so that that's
a little bit more tolerable that it's behind the wall.
But it's still still an issue for a lot of people.
And there's still a lot of people who don't have uh,
(32:27):
you know, access to the service at home or can't
get it and you know, still have to come in somehow.
So yeah, so I mean it'll be interesting to see,
I think. Um, I'm hoping that the shiny, happy version
of the Internet will be the one that we have.
It'll probably be somewhere in between, like this this crazy
pervasive internet where we everything's at our fingertips and this
(32:48):
walled off internet where everything is behind a a gate
and we have to pay to get in. I'm sure
it'll be some combination of the two. It's not gonna
be one or the other. Yeah, yeah, Well, it's the
Internet is an evolving thing, you know. It's it's earliest
incarnations were something the public were completely unaware of. I
think I think a lot of people still get the
(33:08):
idea of my relatives are still completely unaware of it.
But yeah, I mean I think a lot of Yahoo
think I keep hearing about, are still unaware that there
was life before Yahoo, you know, for the Internet. Okay, yeah,
that's trademarked. Yeah whatever. Um so, anyhow, it's free advertising
(33:30):
until they sue us for free advertising. Come on, alright,
fine Google, al Right, there we go. Now we're now
we're clear. I totally feel better now okay, good, alright,
so we're gonna wrap up this conversation. Um yeah, So guys,
let us know what you're what you think the Internet
is going to be like in five years, Like, how
are we going to interact with the Internet? Um? Are
(33:52):
you thinking that we're thinking too small? Should we be
talking about cybernetic implants and uh and bionic eyes and
probably not five years? Well, I don't know, maybe we
Maybe we just are too conservative. That's why I'm asking you.
Guys can let us know. You can find us on
Facebook and Twitter are handled. There is Text Stuff hs W,
or you can send us an email. That address is
(34:14):
tech stuff at how stuff Works dot com and Chris
and I will talk to you again in the future.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The
house Stuff Works. I fine app has arrived. Download it
(34:35):
today on iTunes, brought to you by the reinvented two
thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone,
Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette. I
(00:20):
am an editor at how stuff Works dot com and
sitting across from me as he always does when we
record this podcast, as senior writer Jonathan Strickland, I'll probably
be some kind of scientists building inventions in my space lab.
In space, yeah, but will you be blinded with science? Maybe?
This entire episode comes as a part of an experiment.
(00:43):
I went on to Google Plus and I posted there
saying that we were going to record an episode and
that we were hoping to get some suggestions. And we've
got lots and lots and lots of suggestions, many of
which we hope to tackle in future episodes. But today
this Google Plus first, So I guess we're gonna have
to come up with a new sound effect. Here's our
(01:03):
Google Plus suggestion. This comes from Keegan, who says, what
about a look at how we will interact with the
Internet five years from now? So Chris and I are
putting on our press digitator prognostication hats and we're gonna
(01:24):
stare into the future until our eyes get all blurry,
and we're gonna tell you what we see. So, um,
Internet five years, how are we gonna interact with it? Go?
Uh that's a good question, now, um it would it
would be easy for me to say that that tablets
are going to be there simply because they're so hot
(01:46):
right now. I definitely think mobile is is primarily the
way people are going now. UM, don't get the impression that, um,
I've given up on uh computers, specifically desktop peters, because
I still enjoy not having to haul around a lot
of technology with me and and having just a small device. Um,
(02:07):
but I enjoy having the uh the real estate of
a nice giant screen now. Um. You know. But I
think mobile is is the way I think people want
to be able to get stuff anywhere and everywhere. So
people are going to be designing content, um to fit
multiple needs. Yeah, we're already seeing a lot of that today,
where you see a lot of websites that have a
(02:27):
mobile version and a full version, and then we're seeing
more and more smartphones that just bypass the mobile version
goes straight to the full version because they are capable
of displaying an entire web page upon their you know,
their screens, and of course tablets same sort of thing. Uh.
I agree. I think that the Internet in five years
will be much more pervasive in the sense that, uh,
(02:51):
mostly from the stuff that we tend to carry with us,
but that will be able to go from place to
place and be able to tag it tap into the
Internet pretty much anywhere we go. I mean, that's almost
the case now as it is, but it should be
even more so in the future. That we'll get to
a point where it will be really unusual when you're
in a space where you cannot access the Internet at
(03:11):
least any place when you're on land, and maybe when
you're like out at sea or something, that might still
be kind of unusual unless you have to have some
sort of satellite modem. But um, otherwise, I think, yeah,
you pretty much have the Internet at your fingertips um
from a variety of devices. And we're talking about five
years from now. So if you think about it, the
(03:33):
iPhone came out in two thousand seven, so as the
recording of this podcast, that was four years ago, and
already I think you could argue that the iPhone has
had a huge impact on at least the way we
consume the Internet and and also how developers create applications
for the Internet. Some of the a lot of the
(03:53):
things that are on the iPhone and on Android and
on other smartphone operating systems as well. Um, they aren't
necessarily a web browser, but they do tie into the
Internet in some way, right, Like like, for example, with Google,
I have Google Navigator and that uses Google Maps, and
it uses GPS in order to help me navigate through
(04:16):
to a destination. Um, you know, that's something that we
wouldn't have really thought about, you know, ten years ago.
Then we started getting GPS units to really hit the market,
and now smartphones are kind of displacing those. So five
years from now, I imagine that, um, smartphones will be
pretty much the the the most common kind of mobile
(04:39):
device that people will be carrying around with them. Capable
of that, we may finally start seeing some things like
some smart watches that are actually worth purchasing. I mean,
there's been smart watches in the past that have been
kind of interesting but just haven't quite worked. And I
think part of that is, you know, there are a
lot of issues you gotta work around like how how
do you minute tourize the components to that size where
(05:03):
it's still a compelling product, right right, And and I
think that's one of those things too, where years ago
people were talking about how everything was going miniaturized, and
now that we have smartphones, we won't need laptops and
I and I know I'm not the only person who
likes a nice big screen when you're actually doing work,
not to mention a nice big keyboard. Yes, And and
(05:24):
the truth of the matter is, I think that, um,
there's a certain practical point. It's not that we can't
make a smart watch that would do those kinds of things.
I think the practical reality is that at a certain point,
it's kind of difficult to use, especially with fat fingers
like mine. Uh, something that has a touch screen that's
(05:45):
that small. And voice input still isn't quite there yet. Yeah,
it's close. Google has done a really good job with
voice input. I mean, I'm very impressed with what they've
done so far, and I'm sure that five years from
now it'll probably be really phenomenal where uh, navigating by
voice will be quite easy. It's it's hard for us
(06:05):
to make that leap right now, because it's so it
seems so foreign to to think about talking to a computer,
especially if you're talking about any sort of you're in
a public place, or you're say in an office at
work or whatever, or you have an accent that may
be unreadable too, or you want to look up something
that is really um personal, like some sort of medical issue,
(06:28):
you know, that sort of stuff. You don't want to
be talking out loud to your machine. So clearly, the
physical input is never going to completely go away unless
we finally get to a point where we can just
telepathically interact with our devices, which is not going to
happen in five years. There's one of my solid predictions there.
We are not going to have a point where you
have mind controlled devices in five years. Um. So it's
(06:52):
more pervasive, we've got more access. I actually see some
more overlapping technologies coming in possibly possibly some new technologies.
But really there's the stuff that I'm imagining is we're
totally capable of doing right now, and that is having
um context specific Internet uh well uh, attractions or or
(07:17):
situations or circumstances. What I mean by that is that
you could create an application, let's say that reacts to
UM signals spent sent on a specific wavelength, and then
you create transmitters that transmit things on that wavelength, so
that when you come into the proximity of that transmitter,
(07:39):
then your device begins to interact with it in whatever
way you had designed. And and here's an easy example
of this, because these things exist already. Uh. An example
of this is pal Mickey. Have you heard about pal
Mickey at Disney World. I've I've heard about it, but
I don't know a lot about it. Okay, So pal
Mickey is this idea that Disney came up with a
couple of years ago where they have the Mickey Mouse
(08:01):
doll and inside there is a receiver and the receiver
picks up radio signals as you get close enough. You know,
when you get within range, the receiver picks up the
signal and makes pal Mickey tell you something. And let's
say that you're at one of the Disney parks and
you're walking around, Well, they make the transmitters um they
only give him enough power to transmit within a certain range,
(08:24):
so that way you're not getting all these transmissions all
you know, Mickey doesn't go into seizures as soon as
you walk through the Magic Kingdom gates. Um. But when
you get close enough, Mickey will make a little noise
you press press, I think one of his hands and
then he says, uh. The information like he might tell
you how long the weight is for the Pirates of
the Caribbean ride, or he might give you a little
(08:44):
bit of trivia information about one of the buildings you're passing.
And it's all based upon just radio waves. There's no
no real Internet involved here, but there's no reason why
you couldn't have that connected with the Internet, where you
have these transmitters that are not necessarily meant to transmit
signals across an entire city, but maybe just like a
(09:05):
general area around the building that they are attached to,
and that it can give you updated information about stuff.
Let's say a store sale goes on and you've got
this app that alerts alerts you when a sale starts,
and you could even have specific sales happening within oh
like a two hour range, and it's just if you
happen to be in the area that you find out
(09:27):
about it. And this is a way of of kind
of adding more of that sort of engagement thing. We
talked about in previous episodes, like I see that as
being a possibility where we have not just a pervasive Internet,
but a contextual Internet as well. So it's it's timely.
A lot of the stuff we see on the Internet
is designed to be what we call evergreen. We call
(09:48):
it that here and how stuff works all the time,
and evergreen piece of content is something that should be
relevant today, and it should be relevant five years from now,
It should be relevant ten years from now. You should
be always able to go back to that piece of
content and it means exactly what needs to mean. Uh.
And then there's other content that we create that is
very timely that you know, after after a few months,
(10:10):
it may not have the impact that it once had,
or it might need to be updated on a near
constant basis, like most of this stuff that is in
the tech cha cha. Because here's the funny thing about technology,
it keeps on changing. Now I think, UM, I think
location based services to UM. You know, there there are
(10:31):
millions of people with smartphones, but it's really only scratching
the surface of the population in general. I think now
that they're starting to become more affordable. UM, there's real
competition in the smartphone market for consumers, um, and the
cost of providing data goes down. Um. You know, I
think it'll be more compelling for people to sign onto
(10:53):
location based services and uh you know, get offers as
they're walking by and subscribe to that too. I don't
know some of about augmented reality UM personally because I mean,
I think it will become more popular, but I still
don't think it's going to become dominant, simply because it
requires you to look around with your phone and you
could trip and fall. Yeah, I mean, if if we
(11:15):
if we ever do get to a point where you
can have those glasses that do the that do the
transparent display where you can see the display of information
on your glasses like a heads up display. Yeah, essentially
a heads up display for you know, just the exactly
just looking around and seeing what that their restaurants raty
today is. Um, you know, it's uh, we've been promised
(11:39):
that for a while. It's almost because it's almost starting
to enter the realm of jet packs and flying cars. Uh.
I know, I know that there are jet packs and
flying cars, but they're not predominant, right, They're not everywhere.
So that's what I'm talking about UM also. I just
think that again, you know, unless it's something that could
be built into your or existing eye wear, I just
(12:01):
don't see it being that compelling, just because it means
more people are like, well, great, now there's another thing
I gotta buy and wear. You know, I wish I
could have a show of hands that I can't and
and you don't need to email. But I was just
thinking how many people heard you say I wear and thought, I, well,
you know, if Apple does come out with with glasses,
(12:24):
they will call it I wear UM and they should
pay me. It's trademarked Jonathan Strickland, not really trademarked UM.
The Yeah. So I think I think we might actually
see other Internet capable devices really starting to to to
play a part. I mean, we've at CS ofleven there
were a lot of of appliances that were Internet capable,
(12:48):
the Internet of Things. Yeah, so this this would be
the case of having other things on the Internet besides computers,
mobile devices and that kind of thing. It would be
more like things like refridge raiders and um washers and
dryers and a lot of this is you know, goes
into home automation. Some of it is is just information management.
(13:10):
Like let's say you want to manage the list of
things that are in your refrigerator so that when you
go shopping, you know, you know what you need to
pick up that sort of stuff. Uh. I think within
five years we'll probably see a lot more of that. UM.
I don't know that it will again be the dominant
kind of appliance on the market. I think that will
still be sort of a I think it will still
(13:33):
be somewhat of a niche market, maybe maybe a larger
niche than it is right now. But I don't think
of it. I don't think that will be I don't
think you would walk into an appliance store and and
ninety percent of the stuff you see would be Internet capable. Well,
here's here's a thought on that. They've been predicting this
for years. We were all going to have radio frequency
identification tags r f i D tags inside all of
(13:55):
our products. So you can have all your stuff in
the free and the fridge is able to identify what's
in there and when you bought it, and when you
bought it, and there would be a screen up on
the on the front of the fridge that says, hey,
you know what, you could make this for dinner because
you have all the ingredients you need to make this,
or you can make that and it will give you
(14:16):
recipes and things, which is a really neat idea. But
they've been again predicting this for years. It hasn't happened yet.
I also say, the peaches are restless. You need to
throw them out. The peaches restless. One of them growled
at me. Yeah, that's when potato salad goes bad. Yeah,
the technology to do this isn't It hasn't been out
(14:39):
of the realm of possibility for for several years. I mean,
this is doable, but we're not doing it. It's yeah,
it's adopt It's an adoption thing. I mean, you know,
in some cases, you've got companies that are trying to
create products for which there is no demand and then
they're trying to generate the demand for that product, and
sometimes that works. Like you know, you could argue that
Steve Jobs does that all the time. Well he You know,
(14:59):
the the iPad as a clear example of this, and
I still um. When it first came out, I saw
a lot of criticism that it was a product that
that no one needed and which is still technically true.
Nobody needs a tablet. Well, okay, few people need a tablet.
Let's say that. Um, there are there are some some
roles that really could use a small computing device like that.
(15:21):
So but for a lot of people, it's a it's
something they want. And uh, you know, now that it's
been a year later. As of the time we've recorded
this is almost a year and a half after the
iPads released, there are lots of different kinds of tablets
in the market. The tablet market is taking off, sort
of like the netbook market did, um a few years ago.
And I saw criticism, Uh probably about two or three
(15:44):
months before we recorded this, we were saying, well, you know,
I still don't think there's any reason why anyone needs
a tablet. Most of the people I see who say
they they have really integrated tablet into their lifestyle bought
one and then found a use for it. But I
would argue that's the way it was with personal computers
back in the day. And I think I don't think
(16:04):
tablets are going away simply because I think people who
buy them, you know, now that there is a market
for it, people are going to start creating more useful
software for it, and I think people will start using
their tablets to do more creative work than they used
to be able to do, simply because there wasn't software
for it on the on the initial release of these devices,
and there will be now that now that that's coming out,
(16:27):
there already is quite a bit of creative software, and
I think they're just going to be more. It's just
gonna be another tier of products in between smartphones and computers.
I think that there's also the potential that we could
see even more products introduced into that space that don't
fit the tablet model or the smartphone model. I mean,
it's hard to say, because it's five years from now.
(16:48):
There's a lot of smart people working on these things,
and who knows who could come up with the next
big thing. I mean, I mentioned smart watches, which could
fit into that category. But for example, here's here's just
something just out of the blue. Let's say that someone
decides to create a device that is uh similar to
a smartphone but is essentially a kind of the the
(17:10):
the step between smartphone and a MP three players, so
not that not an iPod touch, which you could argue
is kind of in that realm too. But more about
it's more focused just on the music. So in other words,
you create a device that is um specifically designed to
help you tap into the streaming music services that are
out there. So you know, there's smartphones that can do
(17:32):
this as well. So you could argue, well, maybe there's
not a market for this, but then you could say, well,
you might want to have one of these devices that
doesn't run quite as many applications, is not as process
or intensive, doesn't run down the battery as quickly, doesn't
doesn't tax your smartphones battery at all, that would let
you tap into these massive cloud storage services things like
(17:55):
Google Music or Amazon or iTunes, the iCloud um or Spotify,
any of these sort of services where you could stream
or or otherwise consume the music on this device without
it affecting your other devices, Because I mean, I have
a smartphone that's capable of doing these sort of things,
but I rarely use those capabilities because it runs down
(18:17):
the battery and I don't want, you know, I want
to have my phone available in case I want to
for some reason make a phone call. So I could
see that sort of thing becoming thing where the next
MP three player isn't necessarily focused on how many songs
it can store, but rather it's access to various streaming
services or or cloud storage services. Uh, that's a possibility. Um.
(18:42):
So we've talked about mobility, We've talked about a lot
more of uh appliances that would be connected to the Internet.
I mean, you can you're starting to see that already
with cars as well. Whether you have cars that don't
necessarily connect directly to the Internet, but when you park
them in your garage, they can sync up via Bluetooth
(19:03):
or some other method to your home network and you
can transfer data back and forth across um, usually music,
but you can do other things as well well. You
can also have equipment put in your car to make
a hot spot too. Yeah, so we're probably gonna see
a lot more of that as well. You know, again,
the ubiquitous access. So that's that's kind of like the shiny,
happy version of what the Internet could be like in
(19:26):
five years and how we would access the Internet. I
don't see it as necessarily being a total revolution from
the way we're doing it now, but probably um, a
much more pervasive way of what we do now. Let's
talk about some possible dark side elements to what the
Internet could be like in five years. So dark side
(19:46):
number one, and this is a big one, is that
we could see Internet service providers I s p s
start to um limit the kinds of of sir pervices
and content you have access to. In other words, let's
say that this is essentially the scenario where net neutrality
(20:09):
is no longer even a concept. It's gone. In this case,
you have I s p s that are able to
strike up partnerships, let's say, with various content providers and
service providers in theory, not that I would ever expect
this to happen, but in theory, lets you could have
a particular Internet service provider partner with say Facebook, and
(20:32):
then anyone who is a customer of that I s
P has access to Facebook, anyone who is not a
customer with that I s P doesn't. I mean, that's
that's an extreme example that I don't think could ever happen,
because Facebook, of course is so huge, it's got you know,
way more subscribers than you would ever see be tied
(20:53):
to a specific provider. But I could easily see that
from for emerging services and content. So or let's say
that the Internet service providers that are also cable companies
limited so that you can only access their content they
create through their I s P. So if you are
(21:14):
on I s P B and you want to see
the content that I s P A creates through its
cable company, uh part of its corporation, you're on the lock.
At least you can't see it online. Um, we're starting
to see some of that emerge right now. Now. Whether
or not that continues is another question, but it could
(21:37):
very well be that within five years your experience on
the Internet is completely dictated by the Internet service provider
you belong to, or cell phone carrier in that case,
because it may be that you have one kind of
Internet when you get home because you are your a
customer of one I s P, and you have a
different kind of Internet when you access it on your
phone because you belong you know, you've got a contract
(21:58):
with a specific cell phone area. And that would be
crazy really because you could think like, oh, this video
is great, but I'll watch it when I get home,
and then you realize, oh, I can't access it at
home because my I s P doesn't have a deal
with that particular content provider. Yeah, I think it's more
likely that you'll see throttling. UM. Like if you have
if you want to use a particular streaming radio radio
(22:21):
service and you are on a cable company that doesn't
have a deal with that provider, and perhaps they have
a deal with the DSL provider in your area, Well,
that means that they're going to give the you know,
per of the agreement. They're going to give priority to
their own customers, and then you may experience hiccupping or
(22:42):
delays or or problems with the service. You might see
that that sign saying Netflix is adjusting your buffering rate
because your Internet connection is slower. Yes, UM, And that's
another that's another issue too. I think that is possible
to see UM talking about depending on your I s
P or your your provider. UM. For cell phone services,
(23:05):
uh so many of them now for both are instituting
data caps. So I think it is very possible that
in the future. UM. You know, it's it's funny because
the services are all working toward unlimited models, like, uh,
if you subscribe to Netflix streaming, UM, you have unlimited
(23:27):
you can watch as many movies as you can pack
in during each month. Yep, and that goes for a
lot of the other services to UM. You know, you
can you can stream unlimited music from a lot of places, UM.
And there's of course plenty of other ways to use
lots of bandwidth. UM. So you know, they're they're opening
(23:47):
those services up to an unlimited all you can eat
model for you know, a set price, and people who
really use them, save families, you know, who have multiple
people watching multiple shows in multiple rooms. You know, that's
a great way to use a ton of bandwidth. You know.
Of course they're they're arguments that say, it's really just
the people who are downloading lots of stuff illegally. UM.
(24:09):
But there are a lot of there's so many legitimate
ways to use a lot of bandwidth. Now, Yeah, I
mean before before there were these these venues where you
could get to this content in a legal way, maybe
you could make the argument that the people who are
eating up all the bandwidth, we're pirates. But I don't
think that's the case today. Well, a lot of them
say right now, the people who are using the bandwidth
(24:32):
that gets them into trouble are they're they're a small
minority of people, like only I'm making up a number
because I haven't seen it in a while, but the
last time I looked it was they were saying something
like three to five percent if their customers. They're saying, oh, no,
no, no no, no, these bandwidth caps don't affect the majority
of our customers. But the thing is, the services themselves
(24:52):
are encouraging us to use as much data as we
can take, and the brought the providers are all starting
to cap their services. Not all of them, but a
lot of them are. And uh, in some cases they're
not making it clear to subscribers exactly how much data
they're using and how much it's going to put them
(25:13):
in trouble. So I think it within the next five
years you're going to start to see that clash, especially
because broadband penetration is still somewhat limited in the United States.
Speeds are somewhat slower here than in other places, and um,
you know, I think as these things ratchet up and
people are encouraging us to use more data, this is
going to come into conflict and the providers are going
(25:35):
to hear from their customers how unhappy they are with
the service because you know, hey, you say, I can
use you know, all this data and it's and it's
supposed to be such a fast network, and when I
actually try to use it, I can't. It'd also be
interesting to see if I s p s, if they
do create this this sort of compartmentalized UH Internet, and
in which case, really we can't even call it the
(25:56):
Internet anymore, because the Internet is supposed to be the
global network of networks. And if we're talking about I
s p s each creating their own, then they all
just become networks. You might become Internet with a lowercase I,
as opposed to Internet Internet with the upper case I.
So instead of being a joke, we will we will
really be talking about the internets. Yeah, it really will
be the internets. Which one do you have? UM? There's
(26:19):
also the possibility that some of these I s p s,
and they a lot of these companies have tried this already,
will try to make their own services that that mimic
or replace the services from other UH providers out there,
not just I s p s, but other companies as well.
So let's say that you know, I s p A
decides to come up with its own version of Twitter
(26:40):
and UH and then and then doesn't allow you to
access Twitter on its on its services. UM. And instead
encourages you to use this other one. That's another way
that this stuff can get further fragmented. I don't think
it would ever happen, but it's possible. Um, another thing
we might see our we've scene already. I'm curious to
(27:01):
find out if within five years, if it's proven to
be a successful campaign or not. Or are paywalls and
of course the paywall is where you, uh, you can't
have access to a particular sites content until after you
pay a subscription fee. Right, so if you want to read,
as an example, a current example the New York Times,
(27:24):
there are a certain amount of there's a certain number
of articles that you can read for free per month,
per month, and then after that you are asked to
go ahead and subscribe. The Wall Street Journal on the
other hand, Yeah, I mean there there's certain content that
you can get depending on how you're you're doing it,
but um, for the most part, you have to pay
if you're if you're going to do that now some
I think it will be more common, um paywall or no,
(27:47):
I mean I think or whether they succeed in in
in general, I would say I think you're going to
see a lot of um, maybe hybrid subscriptions, like for example,
Wired magazine. Right now, if you are a print subscriber,
I've been a print subscriber for many years. Um, you
can also UH and this is a fairly recent development
(28:09):
as of the time of recording this. You can also
if you have an iPad, as I do, you can
download the issues you have been subscribing to. So now
I get all the the digital issues free because I
am a print subscriber, and I think they're like getting
them free, They're just included in your subscription. Right Well,
I'm getting them a new extra cost because at one point, Wired,
(28:31):
the online app required you to pay regardless of whether
or not you are a print subscriber. So I'm getting
it as a benefit of my subscription. I get both
versions of of that, and I think that's probably going
to become more common because I think the tablet was
at one point considered the uh, you know, the saving
grace for magazines and newspapers, and I think people do
(28:55):
enjoy reading some of that content in that format. However,
people who are I've seen it pretty much with regard
to just about every magazine that has a subscription available. Hey,
why are you charging me? For this digital version. I'm
already a subscriber to the print version. Can't I have both?
You know, I think there are a lot of people
(29:15):
will be willing to say, yeah, okay, I'll give you
an extra two bucks or five bucks, give me both
because I like both. UM and you know, so I think,
you know, I think what will be interesting to see
two is within the next five years if there's a
related model that I think it'll be interesting to see
if it survives or not. Which is the model that
(29:37):
companies like HBO where you know, you can get HBO
content online but only if you are a customer of
a cable company and you have HBO as part of
your service. Yeah, CNN does that too, now, yeah, see
does it? I think interesting to look that up. It
(29:57):
just surprised me because I mean, it's been a while
since I've into that site. But really, the last time
I went to a CNN dot com they had updated
their but and this is again very recent, I think
within the last two or three weeks before we recorded this.
If you want to access the video, UM, you sign
in as a you know, to your your provider and
they will say okay, now now you have access to
(30:18):
the video online because you're already a subscriber, right, So
it'll be interesting interesting to see if that works or
if HBO decides to open it up a little bit
where I mean, I would imagine it will always be
a subscription service. It's never gonna be free necessarily, but
that you will not you won't have to be a
cable company customer in order to, um, to get access
(30:40):
to that that that content. I know there are a
lot of people who have cut the cord who would
love to have access to things like HBO original programming.
I mean, they're all screaming for Game of Thrones, but
they can't watch it because they don't have a subscription.
You know, they don't they don't have a cable company. Um,
they're not. They don't have a cable TV subscription, they
don't have HBO. So therefore they cannot access that material
(31:02):
even if they wanted, you know, had some online method. Uh,
it's unavailable to them because they have to be a
pre existing customer before they can also get it online. Uh.
It'll be interesting interesting to see if that lives for
five years or if that if that model goes away. UM.
I can imagine a lot of cable companies trying very
(31:24):
very hard to keep that model going because it's an
incentive for customers to remain with cable companies. Um. If
that if that were gone, if you could subscribe to
say Game of Thrones and you know, you pay a
certain subscription fee and that was it, um, I think
that you'd see even more people cutting the cord, which
(31:45):
would upset cable companies quite a bit. Yeah, I verified
that as of mid July. Like, if you want to
use cn CNN video on your iOS device, um that
you have to basically prove that you're a subscriber to
certain pay TV providers and that's you know, there are
(32:07):
a certain list of them that they're some of the
big ease UM. But yeah, I think that model would
be more um palatable to people to say, you know, hey, yeah,
I'm already paying you something, you know, so that that's
a little bit more tolerable that it's behind the wall.
But it's still still an issue for a lot of people.
And there's still a lot of people who don't have uh,
(32:27):
you know, access to the service at home or can't
get it and you know, still have to come in somehow.
So yeah, so I mean it'll be interesting to see,
I think. Um, I'm hoping that the shiny, happy version
of the Internet will be the one that we have.
It'll probably be somewhere in between, like this this crazy
pervasive internet where we everything's at our fingertips and this
(32:48):
walled off internet where everything is behind a a gate
and we have to pay to get in. I'm sure
it'll be some combination of the two. It's not gonna
be one or the other. Yeah, yeah, Well, it's the
Internet is an evolving thing, you know. It's it's earliest
incarnations were something the public were completely unaware of. I
think I think a lot of people still get the
(33:08):
idea of my relatives are still completely unaware of it.
But yeah, I mean I think a lot of Yahoo
think I keep hearing about, are still unaware that there
was life before Yahoo, you know, for the Internet. Okay, yeah,
that's trademarked. Yeah whatever. Um so, anyhow, it's free advertising
(33:30):
until they sue us for free advertising. Come on, alright,
fine Google, al Right, there we go. Now we're now
we're clear. I totally feel better now okay, good, alright,
so we're gonna wrap up this conversation. Um yeah, So guys,
let us know what you're what you think the Internet
is going to be like in five years, Like, how
are we going to interact with the Internet? Um? Are
(33:52):
you thinking that we're thinking too small? Should we be
talking about cybernetic implants and uh and bionic eyes and
probably not five years? Well, I don't know, maybe we
Maybe we just are too conservative. That's why I'm asking you.
Guys can let us know. You can find us on
Facebook and Twitter are handled. There is Text Stuff hs W,
or you can send us an email. That address is
(34:14):
tech stuff at how stuff Works dot com and Chris
and I will talk to you again in the future.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The
house Stuff Works. I fine app has arrived. Download it
(34:35):
today on iTunes, brought to you by the reinvented two
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