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It's been less than 200 years since the birth of photography and in those years it has evolved a lot from the first camera to the smart phones that we so often use to take pictures today. This article maps out the evolution of photography throughout the years, and what it has come to be today. Cameras and photos have come a long way from what they first were. Even the digital camera, has become a smaller part of our lives as the phones with built in cameras had been introduced to our society. In fact, about 741 million mobile phones worldwide now have some photo capability. We no longer look to digital cameras or computers to edit and share our photos. All of those capabilities have been added to our smart phones. It has now become very easy to simply snap a photo and share it on a social networking site like instagram or facebook. In fact, Facebook has 10, 000 times more photos than the Library of Congress. Many of us have lost the need for digital cameras. Mobile photography is the latest evolution and many are experiencing the shift. Our phones are always with us and it provides us with the perfect camera when a picture perfect opportunity is right in front of us. 91% of smartphone owners take a picture at least once a month while only 73% of digital camera owners do the same. Personally, I've also experienced this shift. I used to have a digital camera and would bring it with me on field trips and special occasions. It was great to have, but now that I think about it before I had my smartphone and only used the camera I missed out on all the photo opportunities that I had in my day to day life. I only captured the big events and even when I took those photos, I always got a little lazy when it came to transferring them to my computer and sharing them with friends and family. It usually sat on my camera for a while before I finally got around to doing it. With my smart phone, I am simply able to snap a photo and share it without losing a mome

nt. I find it very convenient. Our lifestyle with technology has made our day to day life easier for us and now it is making it possible to capture our day to day life, wherever we are. To me, this move to mobile photography hasn't killed photography, but transformed it.

We should all probably know that when technology starts upgrading as time goes by, we always want to get the new products. Our generation is getting more and more into technology and in this article, it explains a study of how we are digitally getting distracted in our academics. This study shows that 47% of teachers should make courses and content in digital literacy into a school's curriculum. I agree with this because as our generation spends our days mainly on our phones or on computers, we wouldn't be distracted on the technology if we have our work finished with it. The only back draw to this is that many students would just go on Google or Wikipedia for their answers as the Internet has a huge amount of information displayed for us to use. This article relates to portable computing because it's starting to affect how we do in our education. In addition, it relates to eLifestyle because we're using this technology as a daily part of our lives and if we start to use it as a method of education, we can use it as a form of gaining new information.

The article, by Neha Prakash, is about a study on the effects of technology on the current generation of students. The study concluded with 87% of teachers saying students were easily distracted and had short attention spans. This is most likely due to the internet providing such quick and easy access within a keystroke in search engines such as Wikipedia and Google. Students are used to having things accomplished and out of the way so quickly that they no longer have the attention span to complete more complicated and time consuming tasks. Due to this, students lack time management and also do not check if their sources are reputable. A solution to this problem could be to incorporate digital literacy and technology into schools' curriculum. With this additional knowledge, methods of education can be improved in today's technological environment. This relates to elifestyle in that we use technology so much that we can take it for granted. Normally, we do not acknowledge the consequences of repetitive and prolonged use of social media, search engines, cell phones, and so on. As the class of ICS2O, we learn to use technology in a healthy balance in our lives. We are at the forefront of electronic education, using sites such as diigo, Google Drive, and Google Reader to complete assignments and engage in the events of the outside world. While there are negative impacts to the overuse of technology, like most other things, technology, used in balance with other aspects of life, can be beneficial.

This article states that a new study has shown that more and more kids/teenagers are distracted by technologies which affect their learning.  87% of the teachers in this study have said that "technology is creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans."  Other teachers also claim that "technologies do more to distract students than to help them academically."  Teachers, though, remained somewhat optimistic about digital impact, with 77% saying Internet search tools have had a "mostly positive" impact on their students' work. I think that technologies help out a lot in kids learning however it could still distract them. A lot of kids use the internet with homework and study help which could in some cases is a very beneficial thing. They would learn and find out more about the subject they are studying. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project, says that maybe it is not the problem with tech, but the lack of digital literacy training in students that creates the problem. I agree with this also. 

        It is being reported that the newest Xbox console will have online DRM (Digital Restrictions Management). DRM is technology that puts restrictions on media such as software, games, music, etc. that limits how the buyer is able to use and share the media that he or she bought. This means that the Xbox will always need to have an active internet connection to be able to use the games that you buy, even if the game itself does not require internet connection. The point of this is to prevent to prevent the resale of used games. However, this will mean that people can not share games with eachother, play if the internet goes out or they they do not have the internet at all. This will increase the sale of new games giving the companies more profits. However, this may backfire on Microsoft, as many gamers may not purchase the new console as a form of boycott, reducing Microsoft's profit until the DRM is removed. 

This is a very great report, keep up the great work Spider Man

Uncle Ben would be proud

This article (by Emily Price) details a few interesting facts surrounding the social media giant 'Facebook', particularly around gaming. We are all familiar with social games, such as Mafia Wars and Farmville, and Facebook has been recently seeing most of their income from in-game advertisements and in-app purchases. Facebook has seen a 13% growth in gaming users since September 2011 (226 million - 251 million.) Facebook now has over 900 million users, and over 500 million users are utilizing Facebook via a mobile platform. Facebook says that games grow on the network in five different ways: App Center, Notifications, News Feed, Timeline, and games users have Bookmarked. 8 out of the 10 top iOS games have Facebook integrated, and the top two categories of games users play on Facebook are 'Simulation' and 'Games and Puzzles.' This relates to Portable Computing because Facebook has recently taken large steps to improve the user's mobile experience, understanding that most of their core audience is on smart devices. This relates to eLifestyle because we see these social networks like Facebook integrating gaming into the user's social feed, allowing them to spend more time on the site. This relates to Economics because as games become cheaper and more accesible, we see that most of the gaming market is taken by mobile games; no longer do we have to go to an electronics boutique to purchase a $60 triple-A game, when we can buy the $0.99 version of said game or another digitally. Mobile games are the consumer conscious choice because you get the most "bang for your buck." This relates to ICS20 because although most of us say that our time on Facebook is deteriorating, we still are entrenched in the social gaming environment; this is demonstrated by Facebook's 65 million user growth in 2012 alone.

As the title of the article says, Harry Potter is now available to read on e-books for those that are interested. Since e-books are being advertised quite often on TV and in the media, it is understandable that the Harry Potter series should go on e-book as well. On a personal level, I would rather stick to the paperback and hardcover books instead of the e-book versions because, while it is definitely saving trees needed to make the books in stores, I've definitely become accustomed to having a book preference instead of a digital one since that is the way I've always seen it.

Simply, there are creepers on the internet that will steal whatever image you think yourself to be without hesitation and then commit mysterious, illegal, dangerous, suspicious activity under your name which could unfortunately get you into jail even though you are innocent. This is a fact. And you know what helps them create this problem of identity theft? It is the information people freely and openly decide to share on their social media accounts like Facebook. Just one insignificant status allows bad people to assume your identity - all they even need is a vague birth date and birth place, and you are basically done for. YOU COULD BE FRAMED. This goes beyond security issues and transcends what illegal is defined as. Say goodbye to your privacy laws and hello to a never ending game of pretend. Identity fraud is swarming on this site and people don't even realize the massive extent it goes to. People are oblivious and frankly don't care if someone is unfortunate enough to fall victim to identity theft.

This is sooooo cool! It's going to be awesome to wear glasses that have all the functions of a smartphone without having to actually take a smartphone out! It allows for stuff like a HUD when you're walking around, so it can point you to a location that you specified. The only problem with this is that you may look a little dumb trying to navigate the interface out in public. (You have to tilt your head to scroll and stuff)