I'm clearly late but happy new year! I hope you ended and started your year peacefully. This is like a full transparency and prediction post so here we go\... Certs ----- Yea so\...I didn't accomplish shit like I was supposed to last quarter. My excuses? I moved and then slept away my off days (really struggle with that at the moment), BUT excuses don't matter here. Solution? Gonna take some test. Lol there are a few fed holidays the next two months so wish me luck! Predictions ----------- Ok so I thought it would be "fun" to post some predictions about tech and the world and stuff. All opinions are my own and you can disagree. So lets talk global\...I really don't think the virus is going away soon in the US. I think it won't be under control until mid-2022 and even if we do get a decent vaccine going there will still be many who can't or won't take it. That being said I feel like more players will jump into this vaccine thing and thus there will be a generic and premium version until the numbers are verified. I also think this means countries will star requiring proof of the vaccine. By countries I mean everyone but the US. This will allow for business and tourism to pick back up. Now on to tech and such\...everyone sees how bitcoin is doing and falling for fomo. Also notice that more places are really into NFC payments (thankfully). I think there will be a big sift to digital currency over the next 3ish years. Crypto is still growing but NFC payments only could definitely be a thing. The reason I can't say the same about crypto is bc people still don't really understand what it is or how it works. Its also not a common payment source like swiping your card. As "we" break down what crypto is, how to use it, and allow more payments I do believe it is possible for it to be a side-by-side form of payment. Phones on the other hand are not exciting. Google would be idiots not to do an online conference this year. Regardless don't expect anything exciting to drop on Android or iOS. I truly believe we have maxed on features people actually use and idk if you notice but people are basically just bringing back old phone designs. IF this is the year apple talks flip phones I'm on to mobile tooling by summer. I also don't think phone cameras need to be beefed up anymore. If anything stop making it seem like my phone got hole punched. Lastly and most near and dear to my heart\...I need blackberry to make a come back!!! I swear we will hold you down. Before imessage was a thing there was blackberry messenger or whatever and it had its on seemingly encrypted network on top of the phone network. It was just love. Please Blackberry, hear my cry and bring back your devices. Just give us a lil palm pilot option and a flip phone option. Consumers didn't take blackberry out, they took themselves out by not iterating as Android and iOS grew. Oh fr fr this the last phone thought\...Google should stop making phones. You fucking up the pixel line. Something that was great is now just meh. If they want to continue to thrive I think they need to let companies bid on doing the phone design again AND figure out what the hell the future of android is going to look like. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well thats all I got really. I hope this year is prosperous and you find where the money resides in your talents. Be safe online and practice good operational security(opsec) 🙂