Tag Archives | Predictions

What the Future Looked Like

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 3, 2010 at 10:44 pm

The world is still busy making technology predictions for 2010. How about some predictions made more than sixty years ago–in magazine ads for hard liquor?

In the mid-1940s, Seagram’s VO Canadian whiskey ads depicted technology miracles which were supposed to arrive in the postwar era. Some did come to change the world, eventually; others, we’re still waiting for. (That’s a TV that prints its own newspapers at right,) In both cases, the art commissioned by Seagram’s is more entertaining today than when these ads first ran.

View Men Who Think Beyond Tomorrow slideshow.

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Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow!

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 3, 2010 at 8:33 am

Back in the mid-1940s, Seagram’s advertised its VO Canadian whiskey with a series of extremely manly magazine ads about “Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow”–unspecified futuristic thinkers who liked the fact that Seagram’s was patient enough to age VO for six years. No, it doesn’t make much sense to me, either. But the ads, each of which depicted a different miracle that would transform postwar America, are glorious. They’re entertaining when they sort-of-accurately predict scenarios that eventually came to be, such as the rise of the cell phone. And they’re even more so when they marvel at wonders-to-be such as coin-operated streetcorner fax machines. Herewith, some highlights as they appeared in LIFE magazine–click the dates to see the issues with the ads at Google Books.

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Technologizer Predicts: The 2010 Edition

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 28, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Once again, I’ve cleverly avoided making any predictions for the coming year by asking you to do the job instead. Dozens of you responded to my call for prognostications earlier this month; I enjoyed reading ’em all and have selected some highlights for this post. (A year from now, we can see how many came true, as we did with last year’s crop.)

First, an announcement: We have a winner for the Olive 4 Hi-Fi Music Server that we offered to tempt you to submit your predictions. We picked Aaron Neyer (whose fearless forecasts you’ll find below) in a random drawing as explained in our original post. Congratulations, Aaron!

The Olive folks, incidentally, have a limited-time special offer that Technologizer readers qualify for: If you buy an Olive 4 by December 31st, they’ll throw in the recent 17-CD set of remastered Beatles albums for free. Here’s a special page to visit if you want to take advantage of the deal.

Okay, end of announcement. Prediction highlights follow after the jump (you can read all the submissions here). Once you’ve read them, feel free to add some last-minute forecasts of your own. And happy 2010!

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Technologizer’s 2009 Predictions: Hey, a Lot of This Stuff Really Did Happen!

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 24, 2009 at 2:19 am

A year ago, I asked the Technologizer community to make tech predictions for 2009. Lots of you chimed in–and with 2009 wrapping up, it’s time to revisit your forecasts and see whether they were eerily accurate, in the ballpark, or bizarrely off-base. Here we go…

Digital Entertainment

Prediction: “I think what’s going to be the big news story of 2009 is the further personalization of entertainment. Apple has been on the cutting edge of this with such items as the iPod and iTunes, but I see a dark horse coming up that is going to change the game. But mass-communication as we know it is going to begin a steady decline, with people preferring to listen to their own portable video and audio libraries, on their own schedule and terms, and eschewing the old model of “I must be home at 9 pm to watch Desperate Housewives”. Broadcast television, which is already slated to go all-digital in February, is going to soon become as quaint as 78 rpm records.”–Dave Mackey

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More 2010 Predictions Needed

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 14, 2009 at 10:15 am

We’re still seeking your tech-related predictions for the year ahead–and one lucky predictor is going to win Olive’s Olive 4 Hi-Fi Music Server, a cool product and a $1499 value. Head here to make your predictions and enter the contest–it’s easy and fun. Just be sure and do it before this Wednesday, December 16th at 5pm PT, since that’s when the contest closes and we start work on a story based on your 2010 forecasts.

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Make Predictions for 2010, Get a Shot at an Olive Digital Music Server

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 10, 2009 at 7:48 am

Good grief, it’s almost 2010! For the second year, we’re asking you to make bold predictions about where tech-related products, companies, technologies, and people will go in the coming year–and are offering a prize to encourage your contributions.

This year, the prize is a biggie: It’s Olive’s Olive 4 Hi-Fi Music Server, which lets you convert your entire collection of CDs into high-quality digital form for listening over your stereo or across your network.The Olive has a color touchscreen; a 500GB hard drive and a built-in CD drive; and Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and digital and analog audio outputs. It’s a $1499 value and is provided courtesy of Olive.

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Technologizer Predictions: What Could Be in 2009

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 12, 2009 at 10:11 am

Technologizer PredictionsBack on December 31st, I asked the Technologizer community to make technology-related predictions for the year ahead. You made scads of them–from ones that seem like sure bets for 2009 to ones that might never come to be. Highlights follow after the jump–thanks to everyone who contributed. Once 2010 rolls around, let’s rate the accuracy of these predictions, then start prognosticating all over again. 

Oh, and we have a winner for the Seagate FreeAgent XTreme external desktop hard drive I promised to give away in a random drawing. It goes to Dave Moyer–congratulations!

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We Need Your Predictions, You Need a Big Hard Drive

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 4, 2009 at 10:41 am

Technologizer PredictionsQuick reminder: We’re still looking for tech-related predictions for 2009 from members of the Technologizer community. And we’ll give away a cool Seagate 1TB external drive at random to one person who submits a prediction. We need ’em by 12pm PT on this coming Wednesday, and will compile the best predictions into a story we’ll publish soon thereafter. Full details and a submission form here. Thanks, and hope that 2009 is treating you well so far…

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Make a Tech Prediction or Two, Get a Chance at a Seagate 1TB Hard Drive

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 31, 2008 at 3:01 am

Technologizer PredictionsConfession time: I like reading tech predictions, but I don’t much like making them…mainly because I’m just not that good at it. So I’m putting the burden on you guys: I’m rounding up predictions for 2009, and will publish highlights much as we did with our Whaddaya Want? wishlist project. You can guess at cool products and services that we’ll see, corporate mergers that’ll happen, embarrassments that will be suffered by major companies–anything, really, as long as it relates to technology.

Seagate Xtreme DriveHow will I induce you to chime in? With a prize, of course. We’ll pick one community member who contributes at random and give that person Seagate’s FreeAgent XTreme external desktop hard drive, a Cadillac of a drive with 1TB of storage and FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSata ports. If you’ve got a Mac, you can choose to receive the FreeAgent Desk Mac drive, which is designed for Macs and bundled with OS X software tools, instead. (Prize courtesy of Seagate.)

You can submit predictions until 12pm noon PT on Wednesday, January 7th; we’ll draw a winner and notify that person by midnight on Friday, January 8th.

Please use the handy-dandy form below to submit predictions–more than one is fine, but won’t increase your chances at winning the drive, so just include ’em all in one message. Please give your real name and be sure to provide a working e-mail address, so we can e-mail you with any good news (if you’re logged into WordPress.com, we’ll get your e-mail automatically). Thanks in advance! And remind me to follow up a year from now to see how well we (er, you) did at guessing what 2009 would bring.

[UPDATE: Submissions are now closed–thanks to all who contributed.]

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