Wired offers a list. "They're exploring the deep sea and distant planets. They're saving lives in the operating room and on the battlefield. They're transforming factory floors and filmmaking."

Los Angeles Times writes about one of the things to expect from Google in 2006:

Google will unveil its own low-price personal computer or other device that connects to the Internet.

Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars.

Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called "Google Cubes" — a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets.

Guy Kawasaki writes:

a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.
...
The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

John Battelle writes about a mash-up RSS, IM and publishing services: "What really blows my mind is how simple and obvious MakeBot is. In short, MakeBot is an IM chat bot - it looks like any other IM buddy. You can open a chat with it, and ask it things (based on any number of simple commands that the publisher sets up), or perhaps send it a magazine content search (powered by Google). You can also set up alerts for new items on the Make blog, for example (that's what the shot at left is showing). To showcase what it can do, Phil has even set up a BoingBoing feed through the MakeBot, so you can get Boing Boing posts in an IM window."

WSJ writes:

The consumer-investing craze is being driven, in part, by the widespread availability of high-speed Internet connections in today's homes. That's opened up a low-cost delivery channel for Web services, such as photo-sharing sites, and inspired the creation of gizmos for handling digital music and video.

Another factor pushing the venture capitalists: Business has slowed at start-ups that focus on selling old-style, licensed software, semiconductors and telecommunications equipment to businesses. These industries traditionally have delivered big returns to venture investors, but over the past few years, many big companies have reduced their technology budgets and aren't buying as much fancy software or telecom gear.

2. The Internet is becoming computing’s centre.

The Internet has gone through the hype circle – and it is now clear that our current and future life revolves around it. It is not that the desktops are becoming less powerful. It is just that the Internet’s true potential is now coming to the fore at the centre of our digital and connected lives. From mail to search, from writing to reading, from IMing to (social) networking, the Internet is now at the centre of our lives. In part, it is because the physical networks have become faster and more reliable. At the same time, there has been, over the past couple years, a proliferation of useful services which are starting to make a big difference. Rich maps, blogs and podcasts are just a few examples. As APIs start becoming available to databases and platforms, we are going to see a lot more innovation which will embed the Internet even more into our daily life.

JD Lasica on 2005 Transformations: “The rise of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is not just a nickname for all the new stuff happening on the Web these days. It's a catchphrase for the Web as a platform, with dozens of startups and more mature companies getting into the act of creating Web services that let you accomplish things online instead of depending on old-fashioned software loaded onto your hard drive. It's all moving online, baby.”

Eric Lundquist: “Google, Yahoo and Skype, among others, built big companies using proprietary technology running on top of the open Internet. This was a great idea, as it allowed these companies to concentrate on building world-spanning applications without the cost of building a world-spanning network. But now, with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all matching one another feature for feature, it's hard to differentiate when your application doesn't differ all that much from that of your competitors. As this year ends, I have seen the emergence of those proprietary technologies being opened. A prime example was Amazon.com opening its Alexa search engines to developers. Even Google, with all its billions, can't hire all the developers it needs to stay ahead of the game. The next round of new Internet applications will be from developers working on newly opened technologies running on top of the Internet.”

Baekdal.com: The Internet as a pipeline is getting started. In the second half of 2006 we are going to see the start of the thing to replace web applications. The ‘internet as a platform’ is going to be replaced by the ‘internet as a pipeline’. We are already seeing the start of this with RSS (e.g. NewsGator), Google Earth, MsOffice Research Bar, Mac OS X's Dashboards, EarthDesk and Adobe Stock Photos. To use the internet as a pipeline means that your desktop applications rely on the servers and information stored on the internet. It is combination of the best elements of both worlds. This has two very big advantages: you can still access and work with data from anywhere, and you get the speed and flexibility of the desktop world.”

Tomorrow Mobiles as Next Platform