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There was a lot of hype around the jailbreak community when the evasi0n iOS 6.1 jailbreak was released on Monday. It saw 1.7 million downloads on the first day alone. This jailbreak works by exploiting "bugs" in Apple's iOS code to allow users to write data to the kernel. This article relates to the legal tag because over the past decade, jailbreaking has become a very controversial topic and some people consider jailbreaking unethical or illegal. This article also relates to the economics tag because jailbreakers are pirating App Store apps which digs into Apple's and app developers' profits. I was once a jailbreaker myself, but have recently learned that developers work hard to make their apps and they deserve the credit and money for them. Overall, this article shows that the jailbreak community is still going strong and there are still those people who like pirating apps and taking profit away from developers 

This is  just another way to hold our electronics when we are "occupied".  This toilet paper holding iPad  stand allows you to view things on your iPad while in the bathroom because the stand holds it. This makes you have your iPad with you at all times. A negative effect would be the stand breaking or falling and the iPad drops into the toilet but it's positive because it will do what it's supposed to do which is hold up your iPad when you are occupied. Although it doesn't make sense as to why you would want to bring something like a tablet to the bathroom, it is something to hold it up when you can't hold the tablet. This may seem efficient for some people but I think it would be more efficient for other use like putting it as a stand but without the toilet paper holder to hold the tablet, but there is no reason why you should bring a tablet of some sort into the bathroom. Some people would like this invention but personally, I find it unnecessary.  

Many countries recently blocked access to The Pirate Bay, a torrenting website, in order to prevent the illegal downloading of films, music, programs, and more. However, these efforts were futile, as many users are simply turning to proxy servers to allow them to bypass their countries censorship. Torrenting sites have always been risky territory for users, and as of late, more and more sites have been taking down in order to prevent pirating. The Pirate Bay has an insanely high volume of traffic, and it hasn't slowed down in recent times. It is noted in this article that the only way to rid of TPB is to physically shut down the servers, but even if that were to happen, users are simply going to move to the next site. Whether or not piracy negatively affects the income of the producers of the material being distributed is debatable, however the fact remains true that this process is completely illegal.  As a frequent torrenter, I hope that TPB will continue to thrive at it's current level. My hope is that all these pushes against torrenting will make the industries behind said files realize that users refuse to pay the ridiculous prices and taxes on content. This realization will hopefully lead to cheaper costs on retail products in the media industry, thus removing the need for pirating and torrenting. It will take awhile, but as long as the high price industry standards are in place, torrenting will continue to occur, and no legal matter will be able to stop it. If the internet is to truly be 'free', than laws and limitations should not be placed on content provided. #BarbieJXoXo

This is the greatest article of all time.

I am not the same guy as this poster, but I think he is beautiful

With the advancement in technology, the human race is slowly headed in the opposite direction. With internet access on almost every electronic device, it has become our main source of communication. This advancement in communication are making people less dependent on social interaction. With the ability to order food online we are allowed to order necessities without leaving the comfort of our homes. This is crucial because without the need to leave your home, many people would take advantage of this and not be active both socially and physically. This can lead to many medical problems as people wont have the need to get off their couch and workout. Some positive aspects of being able to order food and other necessities online is the fact that is efficient and easy to do. Another bonus is the fact that the order will be sent immediately and I find that there is less room for error when you are able to type what ever it is you want and not have a language barrier with the people on the other side of the order. 

This article discusses the relationship between Apple and Samsung, who are fierce competitors in mobile device market. In very simple terms, Apple's handheld designs were at the least partially copied by Samsung, but suing them is difficult since they supply many of the hardware components, primarily processor chips, for Apple products themselves. Should Apple sue and win a lawsuit against the sale of Samsung products anywhere, Samsung would cut off their shipments, leaving room for other competitors to take the scene. This touches on the legal aspect of things because Apple has a right to the products they made and clearly copying them should not be allowed. The problem is that it would be lost money for both businesses because Samsung would cut off parts being supplied to Apple. This brings the need for cooperation between the two companies because if they both take a serious loss in the mobile device market other companies like LG, Nokia and Microsoft would take the lead and dominate the market.

This article is about how the next generation consoles will have the ability to interact with smartphones and tablets so that players can always stay connected to their games. Large publisher Electronic Arts has decided to share a few details about the next gen consoles. Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgenson quoted; "I do think once again without describing the new consoles, you've got to assume they're going to be highly integrated into peoples homes, and there will be a lot of capability for interaction."He also went on to explain that the new consoles will allow the players to interact with them not just through their controllers but also through tablets and smartphones. He quoted; "I think it's going to be an extension of moving from whats in the living room, to whats outside of the house. Even though it might not be playing on the console, it's connected to the console in some way.

A Taiwanese company, Polytron Technologies, has developed a new smart phone that is completely transparent. Although this device is a mere prototype, it is a promising look into the future of smartphone technology. It consists of all the features of current smartphones, such as SD card support, speakers, a microphone and battery, but the clear display is what has many people in awe. Polytron calls this new technology Switchable Glass technology which allows the phone to look completely opaque when not in use and transparent when powered on. This technology functions based on the behaviour and properties of liquid crystal molecules in certain conditions. In the coming years we will most likely see this technology being introduced into smart devices if it proves to be a success. No longer will smartphones be thin, black or white rectangles, but rather they will be transparent works of art. In the coming future we may be thanking Polytron Technologies for their brilliant advancement in smartphone technology.  

Google is facing a privacy policy problem in Europe. Just last year Google was on 60 separate occasions about privacy notices. This brought the attention from the European privacy regulators. They told Google to give users "more control over their data." The European authorities found that Google had ignored their recommendations and requests. The European Commission stated that in order to strengthen national data, the authorities wanted to be able to give companies a fine up o 1 million euros, or  2% of their annual turnover.  Right now Google Now which is a mobile product in Android 4.1 which can access data on the phone through data points and it allows the phones physical location to be known. Google is having complete access to everyone's personal data which can be extremely unsafe

CISPA (cyber intelligence sharing and protection act) is back into congress and threatens to internet privacy if passed. The bill allows the government, private security agencies, and private companies to access about a "cyber threat". These cyber threats are defined by any attack on government systems and networks, and the "Theft or misappropriation of private or government information, intellectual property, or personally identifiable information." This can mean things such as music, programs, games, etc. With this bill, the government and companies can anonymously take your information without any legal consequences. Your information can then be shared or sold. This is a direct violation of the 4th amendment, as it is similar to a search without a warrant. In summary, this bill grants the government and companies access to your information without any cost or legal risk.

This article is about having too many emails, messages, etc. on your gmail, this prevents you from having space to receive or to send messages to other people. You will need more storage for you to receive more emails. But its not just emails that take up space. Its also your junk, and your spams. There are a couple of solutions for this. You can delete the emails that are not important to you anymore. You can also buy storage, so that you can have more space on your gmail. And you can also Archive your gmails to Google Drive. This would be the most helpful way of doing it. A group of people thought of the idea of making a script that archives old gmails to Google Drive. They also made a website called jellybend.com that shows you a tutorial video and useful scripts that work on Gmail and goggle apps. By archiving your emails, you can free up your inbox space, allowing you to receive and send emails to other people. Even though those emails arent relevant to you anymore, it might be useful to someone else. To do this: you have to make a copy of a Google Spreadsheet that has the script built-in. It makes a special label in Gmail. You add things to that label, then you return to the spreadsheet, click a button and those messages are archived to Google Drive.

This article is about how Apple was hacked on Tuesday February the 19th, 2013. Basically, unknown hackers infected some Apple workers computers when they visited a website for software developers This website had been infected with malicious software that was designed to target Mac computers. Some people are saying that the malware could have originated from China, but there is no proof. Some of the malware was distributed through a site aimed at iPhone developers. It might still be infecting visitors who haven't disabled Java in their browser. F-Secure a security firm wrote that the hackers might have been trying to get access to codes for apps on smartphones which would allow them to infect millions of app users. Hackers recently found out a sophisticated way to attack Macs by exploiting a flaw in Adobe Systems Inc's Flash software. What I find very interesting is that the breaches described by Apple mark the highest-profile cyber-attacks to date on businesses running Mac computers. This shows that we should make an effort to protect our information especially since one of the largest technology companies has been breached. With cyber security attacks on the rise, we should all be aware and careful of the sites that we are visiting. Apple workers simply visited a website for software developers and became infected with the virus. The hackers are breaking many laws by hacking Apple, Apple intents to find the hackers with the help of the police.

Codeacademy upgraded its website because it has partnered with a number of established web companies to offer a host of new lessons that concentrate on the basics of building with their specific APIs. An API is an application porgramming interfaces that allows developers to build applications with sophisticated feature more quickly and easy. Codeacademy now has lessons for building APIs from twitter, evernote, box and grit. The twitter API lesson teaches users how to read twitter from the code editor and make their own tweets from there. While WePay and Dwolla (codeacademys API partners) lets the learners send money from the code ediotr and create invoices, for only some examples. This update isnt only just for beginners, but it can also be for people that are a bit more experience that just want to learn new things.

First off, I do not agree with this article. This article talks about the ever changing English language of texting. As some of us do this, when you send a text message you might send a super long 'hey' like this: "heeeeeeeeyyyyyyy". What is wrong with that you may ask? Well in the article the author, Sam Biddle, says we are doing it constantly, ruining the English language. I quote "Have a little discipline." Sam Biddle thinks that we are purposely texting the way we are in a way to make ourselves look foolish, but I can assure you we are not. When texting "heeeeeyyy" gives our text messages more emotion, and allows us as humans to express our feelings more than by just sounding like a robot. What sounds more human like: "heeeeeey, wanna go to Wendys or something?" or this: "Hello, want to go to a resturant?". Exactly, the first one does. This way of texting helps show our emotion. For example if you are really excited to talk to someone you might add in the few extra Es to show that. Now, just because we talk this way doesnt mean our life with always be like that. On a resume you must be 'robotic' and formal, so you will use proper terminology.

Tetris is a popular game in today's society.  Almost everyone plays Tetris.  Why are people so hooked on this game though?  BBC published a report that states that it's the game's ability to continually provide a frustrating piece for the players to deal with, followed by the gratification of putting a piece in the right spot that is so appealing and makes the player wants to continue playing.  As well, once the game is started, the player is compelled to complete it.   The reason why I chose the tag of Portable Computing is because many companies are creating apps which allows people to play Tetris via their mobile devices.  The reason why they create this is because so many people enjoy playing Tetris, so the companies create apps for people to play Tetris on the go. 

This new tab syncing feature that google provides, allows the user coordinate the tabs between their mobile device and home laptop/desktop. This relates to Portable Computing because you are able to access tabs on your home computer through a mobile device while outside. This could also connect to the Privacy and Security tag because if someone has access your devices they are able to change your info or documents. This is extremely helpful during your day to day lifestyle since a large portion of the population uses mobile devices. The positive aspect would be that you're able to  continue work. The negative aspect could be that an outside source could access your info. With an Android phone with the new Chrome beta installed, you have the power of  being able to access any open tab any on your desktop from any location.

As a social generation, we use various online 'social networks' to connect with others and share information (e.g. photos, text, videos.) But has anyone ever considered integrating one of these networks into a scholastic environment? This is exactly what Assistant professor of education at Michigan State University, Christina Greenhow has found in a recent study. While most say that social networks like Twitter are poisoning the minds of our youth, destroying their grammar and face-to-face skills, Greenhow finds that using Twitter in her class has allowed for more engaged students proven to attain higher grades. By integrating Twitter into some of the class' exercises, Greenhow was able to contextualize the material into something the students could relate to, "The students get more engaged because they feel it is connected to something real, that it's not just learning for the sake of learning." Twitter; something bored students would initially hide from teachers in class is now seeing some valid and practical applications in the classroom. This article relates to the tag "eLifestyle" because teachers are constantly trying to integrate web-based teaching into their classrooms in this constantly evolving technological age. This relates to ICS20 because we are one of the classes in the school on the forefront of technology, integrating web services such as Codeacademy, Diigo and even Twitter to enhance our learning experience. This article is not meant to give students excuses to wander off to Twitter during class, but to show teachers the validity in using a web-based social network to improve their teaching methods in the classroom.

Love this post. I've been thinking about this stuff for a while, as in - how do I work twitter into class activity? Any ideas?

This article talks about a new tablet line from Microsoft called "Surface". It is supposed to go with the new Windows 8 operating system which is supposed to be a more touch and mobile friendly system. At an event in LA Steve Ballmer showed 2 versions of Surface.  One is running Windows 8 Pro the other Windows RT. Each tablet comes with a stand and magnetically attachable covers to allow the tablet to be like a laptop. The type cover has a keyboard and trackpad, while the touch cover is a thinner keyboard cover that comes in many colours and has an accelerometer to let the system know when it's folded to deactivate the keyboard. Both have a 10.6-inch display. The RT version is 9.3mm thick and weights 673g while the Windows 8 Pro is 13.55mm thick and weighs 903g. Only the RT comes with productivity software like Office Home and Student pre-loaded. This release ties in with portable computing because it is an all new portable tablet that is from Microsoft. It also ties in with their new operating system that goes hand in hand with this tablet. It is something with a new innovative style and can be used in various ways as a laptop or tablet. It also ties in with economics and the whole Apple vs. Microsoft competition. Microsoft has created an "even better" version of the iPad. Now instead of going for the iPad people that like PC's and working with them can make the choice to use the Surface tablet which once again puts Microsoft and Apple in competition with one another for sales. All in all this is a great new tablet and I think it is great for all those Windows users that can get their hands on a new tablet from Microsoft.  It will be interesting to see if this new technology will blow up compared to the iPad and now the iPad Mini.

This post is on cracking Wi-Fi WPA passwords with "Reaver." Many people know that cracking a WEP password is fairly easy, so they use the more bulletproof WPA security protocol. Reaver is a program that exploits a security hole in wireless routers and can crack most routers' passwords with relative ease. First off, you will need the BackTrack 5 Live DVD. Download the Live DVD from BackTrack's download page and burn it to a DVD. Next, you need a computer with Wi-Fi and a DVD drive. Lastly, you need a nearby WPA-secured Wi-Fi Network. Using four steps you can hack into a WPA Wi-Fi Network. Step 1: Boot into BackTrack, Step 2: Install Reaver, Step 3: Gather the Router's information, and Step 4: Crack the WPA password to the Wi-Fi Network. Now I will explain how you can protect against Reaver attacks. Since the vulnerability lies in the implementation of WPS, your network should be safe if you can simply turn off WPS (or, even better, if your router doesn't support it in the first place), however Reaver may still be able to crack your password, even with WPS manually turned off. You could also set up MAC address filtering on your router (which only allows specifically whitelisted devices to connect to your network), but a sufficiently savvy hacker could detect the MAC address of a whitelisted device and use MAC address spoofing to imitate that computer. The good news is that there is a way to surely protect against Reaver. You can get the open-source router firmware DD-WRT installed on your router. Reaver has been tested on routers with this firmware and it was not able to crack the password. As it turns out, DD-WRT does not support WPS, so there's yet another reason to love the free router-booster.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed to help protect digital rights, but allowed the Librarian of Congress to make exceptions to the act that would otherwise not follow the act. Today (October 28), four new exemptions to the DMCA were put into effect most notably the legalizing of jailbreaking on iPhones but not iPads. The other exemptions to the DMCA are the requirement of disabled people to own multiple devices in order to access e-books, the illegalizing of unlocking a cell phone purchased after January 2013 at a new carrier without permission from your old carrier, and the legalizing of ripping some content of a DVD only for specific purposes. The new exemptions put into effect could have a serious impact on the technology market. The number of e-book reader sold to disabled customers will decrease drastically since they will have to buy other devices so they can legally read e-books. Apple and app developers would also lose a lot of revenue from the App Store since more users will be motivated to jailbreak their iPhones and get pirated apps instead of actually buying apps since they can do so legally. The new exemptions could cause some providers to lose some money though not a significant amount should the provider refuse to unlock cell phones when consumers go to other countries since in the foreign country, consumers will be paying and using service from a local provider instead of their original provider causing them to miss out on some money. Finally, the DMCA exemptions could cause a decrease in DVD sales not just because they are losing popularity already but also because if someone wants to rip a part of a DVD, they can just borrow it from someone else instead of buying and ripping the needed content. I think these new exemptions are very silly and could end up being more harmful than useful. Making disabled customers buy multiple devices just to access e-books is very discouraging to potential e-book reader customers. I also wonder th

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.