3×42: That High Level of Unlikeliness

Explicit content warning

03/03/22 • 67 min

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia return, after a couple of months of trials and tribulations, to reveal our predictions for (the rest of) 2022! Prepare to find out What Comes Next in our roles as Cassandras:

[00:06:20] Jono:
- VR bonanza: Apple will release their VR headset this year, and PSVR2 will be released, both purchasable by real people. Both will experience critical acclaim (although we won’t have good sales figures)
- Tesla won’t release a phone, Neuralink will launch in beta this year
- Truth Social will experience significant growth (but nowhere near as much as Twitter etc) but will be plagued with (1) stability issues, and (2) extremist content
- Bonus 1: Canonical will not be acquired
- Meta’s VR services will actually not be terrible
[00:28:35] Jeremy:
- Apple will, for the first time in a long time, release a completely new product line. It will be AR/VR, and it will be panned by critics
- At least one very large (think FAANG size but does not have to be a FAANG) will walk back their remote work policy
- both the US and EU pass sweeping tech related laws that have broad impact on the industry (part of the “techlash”)
- Bonus 1: Gamestop stock price still above $100
- Inflation for the year below five percent
- Truth Social will shut down
- Mark Zuckerberg will not be CEO of Meta
[00:49:40] Stuart:
- Apple will either allow sideloading or allow third-party browser engines on iOS
- Matter (the common protocol for IoT stuff) will see first devices released, people will not care (they should, but they won’t, of course) and it won’t actually work
- Meta’s share price a third at end of year what it is at start: under $100 at end of 2022.
- Bonus 1: Some company will leak private customer data onto a blockchain so it’s there forever
- Someone buys Twitter (likely to not happen because of the regulatory environment, as Jeremy points out!)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×42-that-high-level-of-unlikeliness/12447

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

[00:06:20] Jono:
- VR bonanza: Apple will release their VR headset this year, and PSVR2 will be released, both purchasable by real people. Both will experience critical acclaim (although we won’t have good sales figures)
- Tesla won’t release a phone, Neuralink will launch in beta this year
- Truth Social will experience significant growth (but nowhere near as much as Twitter etc) but will be plagued with (1) stability issues, and (2) extremist content
- Bonus 1: Canonical will not be acquired
- Meta’s VR services will actually not be terrible
[00:28:35] Jeremy:
- Apple will, for the first time in a long time, release a completely new product line. It will be AR/VR, and it will be panned by critics
- At least one very large (think FAANG size but does not have to be a FAANG) will walk back their remote work policy
- both the US and EU pass sweeping tech related laws that have broad impact on the industry (part of the “techlash”)
- Bonus 1: Gamestop stock price still above $100
- Inflation for the year below five percent
- Truth Social will shut down
- Mark Zuckerberg will not be CEO of Meta
[00:49:40] Stuart:
- Apple will either allow sideloading or allow third-party browser engines on iOS
- Matter (the common protocol for IoT stuff) will see first devices released, people will not care (they should, but they won’t, of course) and it won’t actually work
- Meta’s share price a third at end of year what it is at start: under $100 at end of 2022.
- Bonus 1: Some company will leak private customer data onto a blockchain so it’s there forever
- Someone buys Twitter (likely to not happen because of the regulatory environment, as Jeremy points out!)

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×42-that-high-level-of-unlikeliness/12447

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Previous Episode

3×41: By A Hair Or Two

Stuart Langridge, Jono Bacon, and Jeremy Garcia are in your ears for the last time in 2021, as we look back on what we thought this year would be back in January, and then how it’s actually been now that we’ve lived through it. Yes, it’s prediction review time! Did you do better than us?

We will do better next year. And we plan to do so, live and on camera! Keep an eye out for our first live stream of a show recording, January 13th 2022!

Have great holidays, and see you all in the new year!

[00:01:35] SIL: Remote work starts to hollow out cities
[00:05:44] SIL: Social media credibility checker
[00:09:37] SIL: Amazon buy Zoom
[00:10:58] SIL: Bonuses – Canonical, Vaccinations, Apple
[00:16:42] JG: Jeff Bezos richest man ever
[00:18:09] JG: Google makes largest acquisition in history of company
[00:19:20] JG: BTC below $5,000 or above $55,000
[00:22:05] JG: Facebook loses 15%-20% of active user count
[00:23:26] JG: Bonus – Amazon search engine, security breach larger than Solarwinds
[00:27:29] JB: Sony releases PSVR headset V2
[00:29:21] JB: vaccine passport required by airlines
[00:34:45] JB: Donald Trump’s Twitter account disabled but not banned
[00:35:52] JB: Zoom remote-working offering
[00:37:48] JB: Bonuses – Facebook spaces, Canonical not getting acquired
[00:41:12] Outro

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×41-by-a-hair-or-two/12445

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!

Next Episode

3×43: Self Assembly

Stuart Langridge, Jeremy Garcia, and special guest star Jorge Castro present Bad Voltage, in which we in theory want to talk about loads of news but actually we spend all our discussion time on one topic:

[00:02:00] Jorge is into Flatpak. And there’s quite a lot to talk about here. This is very much about the Linux desktop, distribution of applications, and how things have changed; stuff has certainly happened since the last time we looked at this, and it’s worth getting into. Let’s talk about what flatpak means today.

Come chat with us and the community in our Slack channel via https://badvoltage-slack.herokuapp.com/!

https://community.badvoltage.org/t/3×43-self-assembly/12449

News music: Long Live Blind Joe by Robbero, used with attribution.

Thank you to Marius Quabeck and NerdZoom Media for being our audio producers!