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- - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K Did you shop on the Web this holiday season? Share your experiences in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk ___________________ Search barnesandnoble.com for
books about technology
R E C E N T L Y Microsoft über alles The 21st Challenge No. 17: The e-mail lifeline Are we having high-tech fun yet? The science of selfishness Let's Get This Straight - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE - - - - - - - - - -
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BY JANELLE BROWN, ANDREW LEONARD AND SCOTT ROSENBERG | The technology industry is celebrated for its ceaseless innovation, its lightning speed and its endless taste for novelty. The new year will no doubt bring its share of high-five triumphs and crash-and-burn disasters for the dreamers and doers of Silicon Valley. Herewith, a few scenarios to chew on. It's the Palmagotchi! Your PalmPilot doesn't have much personality. Your Tamagotchi isn't exactly productive. Put them together, though, and you've got one killer app that we fully expect to see next year: a personal digital assistant with an attitude. Forget to feed it and, well, it just might "forget" the appointments on your calendar -- or swap the e-mail addresses of your current lover and your ex. Once Palmagotchi takes off, you can see the next step in its evolution: Add the wireless signaling capabilities of the Lovegety and you've got a Palmagotchi-gety. Keep it happy and it will summon attractive strangers; neglect it and it will pass copies of sensitive e-mails to the precise people who should never, ever see them. The Jenni files In 1998, Jenni of JenniCam fame will astonish the world when she reveals that she has been receiving e-mail messages from sentient beings from Alpha Centauri who have been studying her as a "typical human" for several years (the Centaurians log in, Jenni will inform us, via their own advanced satellite modems). After these revelations, Jenni will be swiftly "disappeared" by government agents; her rabid followers, however, will believe that she was taken off-planet by her new intergalactic friends, and will establish the JenniChurch while they anxiously await her new OuterspaceCam. The Wildfire defense In 1999, a Silicon Valley marketing executive, driven to the brink of madness by the demands of an incipient IPO, will murder his boss -- then plead in his defense that his Wildfire "personal assistant" told him to do it: "That voice! Every day -- over and over in my head! I couldn't take it anymore ... She said she was my servant. Then she took over my mind!" After listening to a Wildfire demo played maddeningly over and over, the jury will vote to acquit. Son of iMac In 1998, Apple's iMac made a big splash by putting the familiar Macintosh into a sleek new avant-garde package -- and removing the floppy drive. The strategy was so successful that in 1999 Apple plans to expand -- and reduce -- the iMac line as follows: In March, the iMac II will feature a fancier case but will leave out the keyboard. "The mouse is a superior input device -- keyboards are a tired old 19th century technology," Apple interim CEO Steve Jobs will explain. In June, the iMac Deluxe will leave out the monitor. "Video displays have outworn their welcome -- we want to lead the way toward the future of direct machine-mind interfaces," Jobs will declare. Finally, for the all-important fall shopping season, Apple will unveil the Ultimate iMac, with no keyboard or monitor -- and no CPU, either. "In the future all real computing will be done over the network, anyway," Jobs will tell the press. The Ultimate iMac may not do much -- but it will look great in its limited-edition, artist's-signature case that, Apple promises, will be suitable for museum display. N E X T_ P A G E .|. Trademarked keywords, the merge surge, open-source ownership and more |
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