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This article touches on a very important topic about whether technology is helping the economy and job markets more or if it is in fact hurting it. The answer is they do both. The New York Times among others write that tech companies have created relatively few jobs compared to industries such as GM. However TechCrunch argues that technology has created a lot more indirect jobs due to technology. There are in fact new jobs created such as social media marketers online. Most of these jobs are part-time because they are online and connect employers and workers with no hassle. Their conclusion is that there are millions of jobs created with a high demand but an unprepared workforce. The jobs that are needed now are more technology based than ever before and our economy is moving so fast in that direction that some skills that were needed in the past are no longer needed now. Therefore people are losing jobs not because there are not enough jobs produced but because our job market is drastically changing.  Some companies are allowing people to step into job positions with just a bit of online training or courses. Startups like General assembly are creating programs that are accessible to everyone and helps address the needs of the labor market. The final verdict is we need better training tools to quickly acquire high demanded skills and help workers adapt to the change that technology brings to the labour market. This article relates to economics and eLifestyle mostly because it has to do with how our economy is growing from the jobs created by technology but also how our workers have to respond to this change. This article deals with the changes that the labour market is going through now and how the increase in technology is now changing our lives. Some of our old jobs are being replaced by new jobs that not enough people are qualified for, so certain careers are feeling a job decline making it seem like technology is replacing workers. But in fact these new tools a

Daylight saving time might say that it helps make our lives nicer and help us save energy, but in reality it is completely pointless. Daylight Saving Time was actually first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 but the idea was shot down by everyone stating that it was pointless. The Germans then used it the First World War to save coal during war time. After that everyone started using it and didn't think to change back. Today, people state that this change of time helps to save energy, promotes a healthy lifestyle, and reduces traffic accidents. First off, Daylight saving time does not in fact save energy. Recent studies show that it might reduce the US electricity usage during March and April, but only by 1%. Secondly, this does not help us to become any healthier. In fact, the clock shifts disrupt our circadian rhythms and actually spike the suicide rates and increases the number of recorded heart attacks. Daylight saving time also does not reduce traffic. Some studies show that the time change makes no difference at all while others suggest that traffic is reduced by 0.7 which is pathetic and makes no difference. I personally do not like Daylight saving time only because I loose an hour of sleep and it screws up my whole schedule because everything is off by one hour. I much prefer the clocks changing an hour behind so I get an extra hour of sleep.

With each new generation of smartphones, dropped calls and battery life issues are still an issue, the reason is partly because antenna technology has not changed very much. Scottish scientists have changed this. They spent 7 years to create a cellphone antenna quite smaller than a coin. The Sofant Technologies team claims that this new antenna is more efficient, finding signals faster and using up less battery life. The smaller something is in technology the less it has to travel therefore speeding the device up. The antenna also takes advantage of the full potential of LTE and 4G connectivity. Sofant plans on licensing its designs to smartphone manufacturers all over the world.  I chose the tag of portable computing because this article is about antennas, a vital part of a cellphone. This new antenna will affect people who use cellphones, which is a large amount of people in North America. In my opinion I think this new antenna is long overdue. The fact that antenna technology hasn't changed much over the years is pretty surprising. This new antenna is a step in the right direction for smartphones. 

This article is introducing a new product that could possibly be put on the market soon. It is called AdTrap. You buy this device for $120 and it sits between your modem and router and blocks all kind of ads on the internet for all kind of devices. This device is in its working prototype stage and is on a crowd-funding site Kickstarter. If $150,000 worth of devices are pre-ordered by December 8th they will start shipping the device. It is like a small computer running the Linux OS and can be easily updated to black new kinds of ads. You can also have a list of websites where you do not want the ads blocked. This device is great for those who despise ads and just 10 hours after being launched they raised just over 10 percent of its goal.  This advertisement has to do with eLifestyle because this device can possibly change the way we spend time on our computers. Those who hate ads in front of videos and other side and popping up have an alternative for $120. Most people that use technology have at one point complained about advertisements and constant bombardment with these ads this is a way to protect yourself and possibly your kids from advertisements at least on the web. This also has to do with eLifestyle because if enough people buy this device and it becomes huge it can change the way websites make money or not make money because most websites rely on ads in order to be able to give people their services and posts.  If this device is shipped for those who pre-order it may be a big fail in the market because ads just may not be as annoying to some as they are to others or this can be a big success but in the long term be devastating for web sites because they will not be making money from ads anymore. I personally would not buy this device for $120 dollars because ads do not make me that mad and I have gone long enough without this device I can continue this way for a while. Also can change the websites that run because of ads and I wouldn't want that. 

This article is about how the Apple Company is not paying the laborers enough and how the conditions in the working area are not safe.  They work with many hazardous chemicals in producing Apple products for long hours. Apple has already made some efforts in changing the conditions of the work area. Other electronic companies are also in the same situation as Apple where they have laborers working in a harmful area. People have made a petition demanding that the labor practices would be more sincere. In my opinion I think that the Apple Company should change the labor practices because it is unfair to those who are working, even though they would need those labor conditions to produce their products efficiently. 

This article is about how Best Buy will close 50 box stores and open 100 mobile shops. I found this really interesting how our society has changed so much. Now our most used devices are being replaced with newer, better, faster and smaller devices. It is interesting to see how times change. Best Buy will now change its merchandise to better suit the market. I cant imagine Best Buy without TV's.  

On the 13th of February, Facebook made a change to their gender identity on profiles. You can now choose from the existing "male" and "female" option, but now there are also 56 different gender identities. Some options include agender, cis, gender fluid, transgender, and neither. Not only did Facebook change the identity, you can now also control what your friends can refer you as- male, female or neutral (they/their). Facebook worked with a group of leading LGBT organizations to help select the new genders in the option, now the only thing people ask for in the comments of this official announcement is for Facebook to change the "Interested in" option.

thoughts & opinions?

Twitter could potentially change our politics in multiple countries for better or for worse. This article describes how twitter has changed the landscape of voting for a president, party, or prime minister. Many countries have adopted twitter as a means of reaching and interacting with their voters. Some examples could be Barack Obama, who has a group of 100 people working on social media for his campaign. Mr. Pinera, the president of Chile has also made it mandatory for all of his cabinet members to get twitter so everyone can interact. Politicians though, have also abused this system by making either very rude tweets to anti-party members or making bland tweets to not offend anyone (causing less followers towards the party.) I would like to call this e-politics, and I believe it is change towards the better. Expanding into the internet for new voters is a genius idea that all parties should add to their campaign.

This sensor lets you make music with tables, chairs, and pretty much everything. This device connects to your phone and senses vibration of the object attached to it and sends a electric signal to the phone according to the vibration. You can change the vibration to tunes and create music with the beat you created using this device. It comes with a app that changes your beat into music. You can connect you device with your phone and the object you want to make beats on, tap the object in a beat and the app will record your beat and you can change it into music. It is in kick starter right now.

The title may sound a bit on the good side but if you ever got a look at the comments you would understand on how change could be back at some times. I have recently started using google reader myself and had found the old user interface much effective and this sudden change is not a change i think i can adapt to.

Steve Wozniak likes to be the first person in line to buy the latest Apple products. This evening, the Apple co-founder and designer of the Apple I and II, was #1 on line outside the Apple store in Los Gatos, California to get the iPhone 4S. He tweeted about it and he'll be staying up all night. TechCrunch TV caught up with Woz and asked him why he does it. He explains what feature the new phone has that will change his life. Woz also tells us why "search engines should be replaced by answer engines."

This article is about the ranks on YouTube videos. The Google-owned video-streaming platform is changing the way it ranks the results when you search something that you want to watch. It is looking to reward videos that receive the most watched time. Recently, YouTube added ''Time Watched'', so if you like to create videos, you can better evaluate the performance of your videos and channel. YouTube was already making moves in this direction, and back in August, it announced that it was updating it's discovery features with a view towards surfacing videos with the most time-spent on them, rather than the most clicks. The results is leading to bigger change, as it looks to keep people on it's videos for longer. This article can relate to many people because a lot of people upload videos to YouTube and even more watch videos on Youtube.

The article, by Anita Li, is an infographic on the evolution of Windows Operating Systems from 1985 and Windows users, as well as popular technology and software at the time of each release. The 1985 description depicts a generic male figure hunching over the machine-block Windows 1.0, with the subtext "Won't it explode if I press this button?" This highlights what a large impact the first computers and operating systems might have had - people possibly were afraid of pressing any buttons in fear that the the hulking brick might explode. But as we know, technology advances, and people adapt. The infographic shows the housings becoming smaller as hardware becomes more compact, and OSs become more advanced. It also illustrates the "first Internet experience" along with Windows 98, Google with Windows 2000, Skype and Solitaire with Windows XP, Facebook and the XBox for Windows Vista, and Twitter for Windows 7. The users also change, where Windows was generally used by adults in offices, it is presently used by a younger age group of teenagers for social networking and the like. As it was made out to be, I find this infographic very interesting. It shows a stark contrast between the first computers and computers today. Not only does it show the evolution of Windows OSs and its  users, it also illustrates the evolution of technology and how society has developed around it. Computers have become much more portable with the laptop, and their versatility is unmatched. Ultimately this infographic is an advertisement for the 2012 release of Windows 8 (dubbed "Thinner. Lighter. Faster."), but it does generate some thought, letting the mind ponder about past, present, and future technologies, and how society has and will adapt to the constant change. 

In a sort of infographic craze.. : http://visual.ly/

JavaScript is a well known programming tool that has been around for quite awhile. Many up and coming programmers start out with JavaScript based on it being flexible, maintainable, powerful, and very easy to use. However, once these startups start becoming larger and larger, many lines of coding are needed, and this is where the issue arrives. When being used on a larger scale, JavaScript is in no way the main performer as it is on the smaller scale. JavaScript's features previously stated are what attract programmers to using the engine. However, now that larger companies are using it, the limitations are becoming evident. Being described as an 'iron triangle', JavaScript's issues lie in the fact with an improvement in one area. another area suffers. If you want high flexibility and performance, it's going to be harder to maintain the code. If you want great performance and maintainability,  the flexibility and ability to adapt to change will be reduced. Big budget companies don't have time to be messing around with JavaScript's shortcomings, which is keeping them attracted to lesser engines, such as Flash. The article then continues to discuss whether or not JavaScript is on it's death bed. Some argue that a total revamp is required to keep JavaScript afloat, while others believe that the death of JavaScript will allow newer, more optimized engines to be developed and brought to the world's attention. I tagged this article as economics simply for that last point. Browser engines such as JavaScript and Flash have been around for quite awhile, with no threats to their status in sight. JavaScript is in no way broken, and it is still a very viable tool for web development. However, it may take the death of JavaScript and perhaps Flash for companies to be inspired to build from the ground up a new engine that will pick up all the short comings of the past years and completely rid of them. At the end of the article, JavaScript variants and languages are seen a

Social news website Reddit may soon have a feature where ads may be downvoted or upvoted, much like the content shared by users. This is one of few websites to currently have this approach with advertisements.  This is rather significant because if people are able to downvote advertisements that they feel are intrusive, ugly and downright annoying, and upvote advertisements that are funny, interesting and better, then we can see advertising companies change their tactics to make better ads for all of us. This can result in a win/win situation where companies generate real views on their ads and people are more inclined to buy their products, as opposed to being annoying by these companies and skipping over and trying to find ways around these ads by using extensions such as AdBlock.  If more websites use this feature then maybe people will start to like ads again, as they will see ads that they want to see, there may be a change in the advertising market where we will see an influx of more creative and interesting advertisements instead of the boring and tedious ones we mostly have today.

Microsoft has recently announced Windows 8.1, an update that will attempt to win back all those disgruntled Windows 8 users. A main feature that is being added is the world renown start button, a feature that caused a lot of dissatisfaction among users who upgraded from previous versions of Windows. A big note however behind this announced change is that Microsoft is staying with it's word of actually using user feedback to improve their system, and by doing this, admitting that they were wrong. Another author comments that Microsoft NEEDS Windows 8.1 to have positive feedback, or else Microsoft could be in trouble in the ever changing OS market.  In the end, hearing of this news is VERY good for the average user, as Microsoft is trying their best to fix an error in direction that might have resulted in huge loses for the market dominating company. Let's just hope that Microsoft continues the support of their brand, and turns Windows 8 into the best OS in the PC world.

This article i found is very interesting. It explains to us how people will begin to see many jobs being taken by machines and robots. An example of this given in the article is that Google is making self driven cars which may seem good but many jobs need people driving the cars themselves, like truck drivers and taxis. If vehicles could drive themselves many if not all of the people that drive vehicles will be out of work. Another example is the car insurance companies will charge more for vehicles that are driven manually which will make other companies either have this new technology on there cars or risk going out of business. The article also states that Moore's Law is now going faster and we can see these changes happening sooner. This new change will be great for many computer programmers or similar jobs but other people will have trouble finding a jobs

Many of us think of Apple as this giant in electronics. Over the past decade, Apple set the market for smartphones, ultrabooks, and tablets. However, in the past couple of years, Apple has begun to fall off. Rather than being the huge 'juggernaut,' Apple has become a follower, forced to play catch up to other companies including Google and Amazon. Evidence of this are tied to the recent releases of the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7. Apple's response was the iPad Mini, when they realized consumers enjoyed smaller tablets. Before that was the iPhone 5, in response to people wanting larger phone displays. Apple Maps is a blunder that both iOS 6 users and Apple pays for. Apple was slow on the draw to join in on changes to the market specifications. Having controlled the market for the past decade with the popularization of smartphones, tablets, and retina display, Apple was simply unprepared to react to these changes. Apple still has their innovation and secrets hidden in R&D, but the fact of the matter is their most recent releases contain ideas from other companies' progress. This relates to elifestyle because our generation uses these products in our daily lives. Most of us do not remember a time when electronics did not make up a substantial part of our lives; when Apple was not a prominent consumer electronics company. This reminds us that power does not last indefinitely; innovators become followers, and companies fall. The next big thing in electronics may not even exist yet. 

This article talks about a new samsung galaxy player. This player looks very similar to android smartphone but has latest media player. This can send messages and calls through bluetooth as well as receiving them. This player would be very useful for those who want to avoid paying for another phone and adding to monthly bills. you just have to be connected to bluetooth to receive and send calls or messages. This player is cheaper than the IpodTouch but has tons of useful features that includes, clean sound, camera, whole collections of apps. This relates to our course because our course focus on the technology and this player represents the improvement in technology and changes in generation of players and how they improved and changed. 

this allows us to capture a picture, but at the same time capture multiple pictures because there is no focus.  This changes how we look at photography and at the world, we will no more have a focus, but an open space of limitless opportunity.