Other than Windows 8, better tablets and better TV's there isn't much too look forward to.

BTW what is Facebook doing that would make the US government tell it to settle down?

Information farming and privacy issues. The usual.

Doesn't Google do that as well?

SOPA was actually defeated in committee. Fortunately there was enough internet freakout to swamp the Representatives involved, and given that Reps are in perpetual election mode, they couldn't afford it

The Senate version, PIPA, survives, but PIPA is the milder version, and the Senate has bigger fish to fry

I believe the inquiry involves Google as well.

What are some of the intriuging ideas of Windows 8? And where is the market going instead of those ideas?

I too believe Microsoft is in a permanent state of stagnation.

What is Apple TV predicted to be? Is it like Xbox TV, that you get a bunch of channels and a movie service through a box that is connected to the internet?

Well, the idea of a tablet OS integrated into a full OS is intriguing. It leads to some really cool possibilities with fluid tablet workspaces that actually create instead of just consume. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPad. But it's not a creation device. It's a consumption device. I need a full computer alongside it to draw, color, and do design work. Windows 8 probably won't cure the need for two devices but if done well, it could be a step in the right direction. Plus, it is the first step to real tabletop computing, which is an idea I still want to see happen.

Apple TV (or iTV) will be a streaming/cloud device pulling from all sources. Not that fantastic as-is but still a worthwhile device (I own two of the current model). But add in Siri and that could change entirely. The idea of being able to talk to the device and have it pull from 5-6 sources to deliver all the content you want in mere moments is drool-worthy.

Siri is really a game-changer. It's fucking brilliant and I don't use that kind of praise often. Shit, it will probably be the main reason I go back to iPhone next time my contract is up (unless Android really wows me in the next 8 months and convinces me to stick with the platform).

I look forward to the US election in 2012, it will determine whether the US survives or goes bankrupt.

Interesting stuff. As an Apple hater I am sad to hear that Siri is a game-changer. Siri is some kind of voice recognition function, right? Is it more advanced than Kinect (or Microsofts vision for a nexgen Kinect)?

Now what about the bandwidth and iTV? Here in Sweden we have comparatively strong internet connections but with all the problems with my ISP (the biggest in the country) I dont think I could watch TV with good quality (10Mb, which may sound decent, but it's not a stable 10Mb and it disconnects quite often) and from what I've heard fast broadband to the masses in USA is even weaker. I don't know, maybe I'm from the stone age but it just sounds like internet-TV on a mass market basis is still a few years in the future.

I've said a million times but hating a company and wishing ill on them is folly, particularly a company like Apple. They have driven the smartphone market to where it is today. Everyone else has been playing catch-up. All they're doing is making Google, Microsoft, and RIM (lulz) work harder to release better products. Siri is merely an extension of that continuing trend. Within a year, we'll see everyone pushing to release a competitor for it, making all smartphones just a little bit smarter and easier to use. We're just getting to the point where Google is starting to push back, forcing Apple to improve in areas of iOS that they've let stagnate for far too long.

With compression and h264 codecs, you can have have a relatively slow internet connection and still stream 720p content. Here in the US, I have a 16Mb connection (real speeds of about 2MB) and I can stream high definition content just fine... in fact, I can stream two sources of HD content simultaneously (but just barely). Most people don't care about 1080p and can't tell the difference between it and 720p (outside of animation, I often struggle to see the difference). Internet connections are good enough now where most of the public can take advantage of hosting little or no local content in favor of streaming everything from an outside source.

PS. Note the difference between Megabyte (MB) and Megabit (Mb) in connections. A Megabit is 1/8th of a Megabyte.