Big Technology Predictions for 2017

What will survive and thrive this year?

By Alain StephensJanuary 12, 2017 12:34 pm,

Y2K, the MiniDisc, the flying car – all predictions that ended up being more like science fiction in the end. But what if there was a way we could accurately predict the future of technology? Well luckily we can, thanks to futurologist Omar Gallaga, of the Austin-American Statesman’s 512 tech.

His first prediction: the decline of Twitter. Gallaga cites major harassment and trolling issues with the controversial site.

“Twitter has been really slow to respond to problems that have been inherent in the platform,” he says. “It’s been around for about 10 years…it’s still a platform that attracts really bad elements, and they’ve not figured out a good way to deal with it. Facebook has made a lot of moves in the direction, pretty much every major social media platform has figured out ways to deal with it – Twitter has not.”

Gallaga says that verified account users are starting to publicly complain to the company about the lack of anti-harassment solutions and if they don’t respond, it could be a nail in Twitter’s coffin.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

-Uber and Lyft’s possible return to Austin

-Whether Amazon’s Alexa AI assistant will continue to win the hearts of consumers

-A turning point for Apple devices and laptops given recent changes