Google Warns the Internet Will Disappear, the Future of Cyanogen
Google predicts that the Internet will disappear, the future of Cyanogen, Malaysia Airlines gets hacked, Expedia buys Travelocity, and the 1995 Facebook TV commercial that never was.
Schmidt: “The Internet Will Disappear”
The Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, thinks “the Internet will disappear,” but don’t panic, as his words shouldn’t be taken too literally. Schmidt was speaking at the World Economic Forum is Davos, Switzerland when he made the prediction which has spawned countless misleading headlines, including our own.
Rather than suggesting the Internet will one day go the way of the dinosaurs, Schmidt was predicting that the Internet will “become so ubiquitous that you won’t even notice it.” How? By way of the Internet of Things, and how more devices are becoming “smart” every day.
Schmidt further explained, “It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room. A highly personalized, highly interactive and very, very interesting world emerges.”
Indeed it does, and at that point the Internet is likely to become less of a service we connect to and more of an omnipresence punctuating every part of our lives. And Google plans to be right at the center of this new reality.
So, if you’re worried about privacy, security, and anonymity now just wait until Schmidt’s future comes to pass.
Cyanogen Moving Away from Android
Fans of Cyanogen OS will be interested to hear the direction in which the CEO of Cyanogen Inc. sees the mobile operating system heading in the future. According to The Information (via Android Authority), Kirt McMaster wants to “take Android away from Google.”
McMaster explained, “We’ve barely scratched the surface in regards to what mobile can be. Today, Cyanogen has some dependence on Google. Tomorrow, it will not. We will not be based on some derivative of Google in three to five years. There will be services that are doing the same old bullshit with Android, and then there will be something different. That is where we’re going here.”
He continued, “We’re making a version of Android that is more open so we can integrate with more partners so their services can be tier one services, so startups working on [artificial intelligence] or other problems don’t get stuck having you have to launch a stupid little application that inevitably gets acquired by Google or Apple. These companies can thrive on non-Google Android.”
McMaster is an outspoken individual, once accusing Google of having a tyrannical hold on Android. These recent comments regarding the future of Cyanogen OS should, therefore, come as no great surprise.
Lizard Squad Hacks Malaysia Airlines
Lizard Squad, the hacking group which took down the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live over the holidays, has claimed credit for hacking the website of Malaysia Airlines. The website displayed an image of a lizard wearing a top hat and monocle, with text describing Lizard Squad as the “Official Cyber Caliphate.”
Malaysia Airlines issued a statement maintaining that its “servers are intact,” and assured customers that “its website was not hacked and this temporary glitch does not affect their bookings and that user data remains secured.”
The company lost two aircraft in 2014, one which disappeared over the South China Sea, and one which was shot down while flying over Ukraine. Which seems to be the only reason it was targeted ahead and instead of any other airline.
Expedia Acquires Travelocity for $280m
Expedia has acquired Travelocity for $280 million in a straight cash deal. For that underwhelming sum of money, Expedia will get Travelocity’s North American websites. Lastminute.com, which is Travelocity Europe, will be sold to Bravofly for $120 million.
If Facebook Had Made Ads in 1995
And finally, we now know what a Facebook commercial would have looked like had the social networking service been a thing in 1995. This is according to Brent Weinbach, who designed the faux television spot to mimic early spots for AOL, Yahoo, and others.
It’s keenly observed, and should remind us all how far the Internet and its services have come in the past 20 years. [H/T The Verge]
Your Views On Today’s Tech News
Do you think Eric Schmidt’s prediction about the Internet disappearing is correct? Are you interested in Cyanogen and how it will evolve in the future? Would you have used Facebook if it had existed in 1995?
Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.
Image Credit: Yuhei Kuratomi via Flickr Source: www.makeuseof.com
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