Not Review 2008: Predictions

That Day Older readers (and even older readers) will remember that every year I offer five predictions and then twelve months later find out how wrong I was. I decided on a technology theme last year:

The HD-DVD/Blue-Ray thing will be won by someone and the price of dvds is going to drop like a stone.
Blu-Ray won a resounding victory over HD-DVD as early as February when Toshiba announced they would stop manufacturing the players and the Wikipedia page now lists it as "an obsolete high-density optical disc format." Amazon are selling off their disc stock at prices that are often cheaper than DVD. I've decided to hold off investing in a Blu-Ray player just yet -- I don't have a television that can make the most of it, and even then I'm not yet convinced that the leap from dvd to the format is as significant as when VHS was replaced, especially with upscaling. I'd much rather have one of these.

Broadband will get sorted out in the UK and it'll be much cheaper.
I've seen some very cheap prices lately, especially as part of some kind of joint TV and landline telephone package. I think my 3 mobile service is very good value, and even with the odd service outage is fast enough for my needs and far better than the dial-up I began last year with.

As will technology overall. A consumer laptop costing less than a hundred pounds will go on sale in supermarkets.
Not yet. Currys are selling an Acer netbook for £175 on their website (though I've seen it selling for a couple of pounds cheaper in store).

A UK blogger will break the biggest news scandal of the year.
I can't think of one off the top of my head, but my head is still full of blah from last night so ... I've asked Twitter and Metafilter and I'll get back to you.

RSS feeds will really go mainstream ...
Yes! Though hold on, I need to do a parent test. If my parents know what one is, then it's really gone mainstream ... [later] nope, never heard of them. Oh well.

So on to this year's predictions. Let's be very, very specific shall we?

The Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes film will turn to be good.

Gallifrey will be resurrected in Doctor Who but the Tenth Doctor will end up regenerating in the process. The next Doctor will be Patterson Joseph.

Keisha will leave the Sugababes

The Independent will close or merge properly with another newspaper

A lost or previously unknown work by Leonardo da Vinci will be discovered

Good luck, 2009.