BoomTown Is Once Again 100 Percent Prediction-Free for 2010–on CES, Apple's iSlate and Whatever Tech-tonic Shift Looms Ahead

One good thing about taking a break between Christmas and New Year’s is getting to miss all the 2010 prediction stories out there about the tech world.

You know the tedious drill: The Consumer Electronics Show’s products this year indicate cloud computing has finally arrived; the Apple (AAPL) iSlate will bring world peace; it will be revealed that Google’s co-founders are aliens (wait, that one is true).

Oh, BoomTown will admit that I used to do them too–or, more precisely, was dragooned into doing them by weary editors when I was writing for The Wall Street Journal.

But, to be honest, they were mostly off-base in some significant way or, if by some chance I got one right, it was definitely a very lucky guess.

So, last year, I made a resolution I am keeping this year: No predictions.

As I wrote a year ago:

“But the real reason I am not inclined to go all Miss Cleo is simple: I have no idea what is going to happen and neither does anyone, even in their heedless guessing.”

Thus, I will only speak of certainties, and here is what I can absolutely promise for this column and All Things Digital in general in 2010:

* Breaking news of digital and media companies, including lots and lots of accurate scoops, such as a heap we managed to ferret out last year.

* Cogent and enlightening analysis of key trends in the online sector.

* Major interviews with important players in the industries we cover.

* More streaming video–including this Friday’s live onstage interviews with Palm (PALM) CEO Jon Rubinstein, Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings and Google (GOOG) Android guru Andy Rubin, all at our special event in Las Vegas during CES.

* An effort to get out of the tech-centric Silicon Valley weeds more and attempt to do longer reported pieces that take on big topics, showing that blogs can take up the banner of long-form investigative journalism from print publications and do this important work in new and innovative ways.

* The same strong commitment to the high standards and ethics in doing all of the above, which is perhaps the greatest and most critical compact we need to keep with readers.

* We also hope to grow our coverage, as well as produce a crackerjack eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June, and much more.

This site grew strongly in 2009, in terms of both traffic and engagement, and we hope to do even better in 2010 by providing readers with the highest-quality and most accurate tech and media coverage we can.

And while I cannot predict we will reach that goal, I can promise you that we will try our best.