THE SIGNS IN THE STARS ARE CLEAR

This is my first ever “predictions” article. I plan to revisit this article one year from now. Like any good psychic, my predictions will mostly be wrong but I will get one or two right by pure accident and toot my own horn profusely. Unlike a psychic, I won’t get rich for being wrong.

This will finally be the breakout year for wearable computing devices such as watches, headsets and bracelets. Like it or not, Google Glass will finally hit the store shelves. You’ve surely heard of Glass; It’s “eyewear” that sports some computing power, a camera and a small screen that essentially beams information straight into your eyeball. Glass will have lukewarm success this year but this kind of technology will soon become ubiquitous. Cool thing: You’ll be able to download an app that will replace a car’s dashboard (or my future airplane’s instrument panel!) by beaming a virtual dashboard straight to your retina. We will all have to get used to talking to a friend wondering if we are being recorded.

Back on 2006, Apple released a phone that made the rest of the world say, “Oh. THATS how you make a smart phone.” Apple will accomplish the same thing this year when they release a smart watch that people will actually want to wear (It will not be called “iWatch” as even Apple is getting tired of “i” everything). I’ve been dying for one for a while now but I’m not gonna wear on my wrist a cinderblock that has to be charged every day. The device will also make all your credit cards obsolete. Most chicks will not be impressed.

Microsoft stock is currently trading at about $36 per share. It will be less than $30 per share by the end of the year. By that time, they will finally admit defeat and release an update to Windows 8 that will look more like Windows 7. Apple ($543) and Google ($1,133) stocks will increase by at least 25%. Bitcoin is worth about $1000 now (it was worth $200 when I last wrote about it). It will be worthless by the end of the year at which time I will finally stop kicking myself for not buying some.

Apple, Microsoft, Google, Sony and others have been battling for control of your living room for a decade. They will not succeed this year or next. Instead, new technology will slowly evolve so that when it finally does happen, you won’t even notice that your TV is now your computer - or vice versa.

More and more people will spend more and more money on fitness devices like Fitbit and Fuelband yet will still sit on the sofa wondering why they are getting fat.

Sometime in 2014, you’ll be able to use your sub-$1,000 Hewlett Packard 3D printer to print your own Legos and the tupperware containers in which to store them.
Happy New YEar, everyone!
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