Group items tagged

This post is about an idea that Facebook is testing slowly in more and more countries as time goes by. Facebook is considering introducing "Promotions" to personal posts. What this means is basically that you can pay $7 to move your posts on facebook higher up in the news feed. This increases the chance of your friends seeing your post as it will be higher up in the news feed for a longer period of time. This is a test that is being used on facebook users with less than 5000 friends in the U.S. I find this strange, wouldn't it make more sense for facebook to test this feature on people with a higher number of friends? Moreover, I think that this is a bad idea coming from Facebook, because $7 dollars is likely more than the average annual revenue per individual user. For a multi-billion dollar company such as facebook, I think this is a greedy and unnecessary move on their behalf. They have more money than they could ever need, yet they want to charge $7 dollars to promote a post...This could work for business posts, however, to me it seems absurd for an individual to pay $7 dollars  to promote their post on facebook, which will likely only last near the top of the news feed for a couple of hours maximum.

Bitcoin, a wildly popular virtual currency has reached the status of a billion dollar market. For those unaware, Bitcoin in an online currency and market, somewhat like Paypal. What makes it different is that it strives under no rules or government regulations. It works on a peer to peer basis, where a database journals transactions and ensure security among it's users. Created in 2009, Bitcoin hasn't been able to hit the mainstream market, that is, until now. Up until this point, Bitcoin has been seen as a shady form of currency, used mainly to conceal illegal transactions over the internet. However, due to the support it has been given by large networks such as Reddit, Bitcoin has been able to access a mainstream market, where it continues to grow and prosper today. It is clear that virtual currency will have a chunk of market space in the future, but how long until the government tries to shut it down or bare down regulations? And if these regulations are in place, will online markets such as Bitcoin be able to remain popular? Only time will tell.

In this article, Apple's current CEO, Tim Cook expresses his opinion on the suing of South Korean company, Samsung. Although, Steve Jobs was very clear with his intentions to take out Samsung as a major source of competition, Tim Cook was opposed to suing Samsung because the company was a major supplier of parts for Apple. However, Jobs suspected Samsung was abusing the supplier relationship to shield it from any legal claims and his fears were confirmed with the early release of the Galaxy Tab which was very much like the iPad. Apple's dependency on Samsung is displayed by the nearly $8 billion dollars worth of components bought from Samsung last year. For this reason, Tim Cook has made several moves to wean Apple's dependence on Samsung products, including hiring away a top chip designer formerly working for Samsung. This and the $1.17 billion dollars apple was given from the jurisdiction between the two rivals was a big win for them. This article fits under the legal category because it touches upon the legal issues between the two rivaling companies, and the opinions of stakeholders such as Jobs and Cook. Also, this article is related to economics because it predicts the future of major companies like Samsung and Apple. With these two companies at the top, changes in consumer behaviour can easily result if one of the companies falls behind.

Google has bought Nest Labs, buying it for 3.2 billion dollars about a month ago. Though Nest was bought by Google, it will still be somewhat independent. Nest will most likely be much more emphasized now with Google, though what Nest does is much different than Google. This topic relates to the tags of "Legal" and "Economics" due to the fact that Google has now bought Nest. Legally, Nest is now under Google who bought it for 3.2 billion dollars. Questions that I ask are, what things will Nest do now that it is under Google, and what new possibilities do both companies have? My opinion on this entire occurrence is that Google is becoming much bigger than ever, with so many new things appearing. Now that Nest is under Google's wing, it can accomplish many more things, though unknown what may happen.

The smartphone wars are taking a turn for the worse. Last week both apple and Samsung companies made patent infringement lawsuits against each other. Apples lawsuit of 2 billion dollars against Samsung is for use of the slide-to-unlock feature, auto word correction, universal search of the phone, and Internet and background syncing of data. While Samsung's 7 million dollar lawsuit against Apple is for the use of remote video transmission and on digital imaging. I believe that apples case is a little childish compared to Samsung's especially with the part about the slide to unlock future. Samsung's case seems to be about more important matters like using its camera and the remote control patents. I personally would like Samsung to win because I prefer their products and customer service over Apple's.

An android smartphone called the Alcatel One Touch Idol X has been released in Canada on February 11th. It has average specs compared to the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s while costing a lot less. Without a contract the Idol costs 250 dollars while with a Bell 2 year plan it has a price tag of 0 dollars. The operating system of the Idol X is a modified version of jellybean 4.2.2 giving the phone noticeable difference but still keeping the android feel. Also the Alcatel smartphone has a beautiful design. It looks a cross between an iPhone and the Samsung galaxy S4. Finally, on paper this phone is near perfect but the next couple months will put it to the test in real life situations.

thoughts/opinions?

Ds Lite has just been lowered down to the price of $45 dollars while the 3DS has been $170 dollars. More or less the prices of new gaming systems, phones(especially), and ipods usually are the most expensive than the old versions. 

The article that I have chosen to share for week 4 is about IBM and their new services to help eliminate fraud and financial crime. The article interested be because around 3.5 trillion dollars are lost per year to financial crime and fraud through technology. While the software is being marketed to big companies it also directly involves us, the consumers. For example when Sony's PSN was down thousands of peoples accounts were hacked and had money taken from their accounts. This new software interested me because now people can feel a little more secure using online programs knowing that their information can be safer. It is a new time where many things are bought through the internet and with better security people won't feel as worried about their security

The article that I have chosen to share for week 4 is about IBM and their new services to help eliminate fraud and financial crime. The article interested be because around 3.5 trillion dollars are lost per year to financial crime and fraud through technology. While the software is being marketed to big companies it also directly involves us, the consumers. For example when Sony's PSN was down thousands of peoples accounts were hacked and had money taken from their accounts. This new software interested me because now people can feel a little more secure using online programs knowing that their information can be safer. It is a new time where many things are bought through the internet and with better security people won't feel as worried about their security

Kodak is worth almost nothing now and the people in it's company are close to giving up. It kinda makes me wonder what happened because I remember kodak used to be popular, or at least kinda. Plus pitbull mentiones it in that song.

This post is about the price Americans paid over the past 5 years to fix their broken iPhones. With such a thin, glass design, the iphone has not been a very durable phone so far. Many Americans found this out the hard way by dropping it from their hand, plunging it into a body of water such as a toilet or a tub, or dropping it from their laps. The cost of all these accidents adds up to a whopping 5.9 billion dollars over the past five years in the United States. This issue relates back to the "Portable Computing" tag, because no matter how advanced the iPhone is or how it can improve you daily life in hundreds of different ways, it is not able to accomplish anything if it is broken. Reliability when it comes to withstanding drops is a major factor required in order to positively affect our lives. In my opinion, this is disappointing coming from such a prestigious company such as Apple. I think that for iPhone 5, they should build a more robust phone, without sacrificing its slim, thin design that everybody loves so much. You should not have to buy an expensive case in order to keep your phone protected, especially with a price like the iPhone's.

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. 

As 5 year old Danny Kitchen was playing on his parents iPad one afternoon he discovered that in his game "Zombie v Ninja" he could buy more weapons and add on items for a cost. Now, Danny didn't know that it cost money to have these items so he just kept clicking on  the items until he had a stock pile of weapons in the game. After only 10 minutes, Danny had collectively spent $2500 on the bundles offered in the game. He thought that if the game was free then the items would be free too.  Many people are angered over these options of purchasing these $100 bundles in games geared towards children. The publisher's of these games add these options so that children like Danny will be intrigued to buy these insane bundles that cost hundreds of dollars and offer items in mass amounts. 

In Thailand, e-book has been spreading according to local books and magazines "Ookbee". It is Thailand's biggest e-bookstore with a claimed 88% market share. It has 3 million users so far and is adding new subscribers at a rate of 6,000 each day. Last year, delivered about 8 million books free and paid and ranked in revenues of about "several million dollars" in the year.

Apple is the wealthiest company in the world possessing more money than the US government. With this being said, it is no surprise that four of the top five best paid executives in America are employed by Apple. It was reported by Bloomberg that they each receive a base salary of $805,400, but also get paid in stock options. At the top of the list, Bob Mansfield, Senior VP of Technologies makes a huge equivalent of $85.5 million a year. Next on the list is Bruce Sewell, Apple's lead lawyer, who makes $69 million a year. After that is Jeffrey Williams, Senior VP of Operations, who makes $68.7 million a year, and Peter Oppenheimer, Chief Financial Officer, who makes $68.6 million a year. I gave this article the economics tag because it deals with the salaries of highly paid apple employees. Personally, I think it is outrageous that these people make multi-million dollar salaries, and this kind of thing should be regulated.     

This article is about how Apple's stock prices have decreased by 2.7%. In fact, $290 billion has been wiped off Apple's value since September. The article explains that the last time, Apple's stock was so low was when Steve Jobs had passed away. The article also talks about how investors will only pay about $9 for a dollar profit, whereas for a different company such as Standard & Poor's 500 company, they will pay $15. This shows that Apple's investor loyalty is falling. Investors no longer see Apple as a "safe" investment, which is why they are no longer willing to invest in Apple. Investors are not sure of the direction that Apple is going, which is why they are reluctant to invest and take a risk.

Bogomil Shopov, a Bulgarian blogger and digital rights activist, bought 1.1 million Facebook names, user IDs and e-mails for the ridiculously low price of 5 dollars. Luckly for us, he was not trying to spam people, or use this info in a negative way. Instead he wanted to see how bad the facebook security really is. And it turns out to be really bad. According to the seller of the information, a Gigbucks user with the handle "mertem," the data was collected from Facebook applications."The information in this list has been collected through our Facebook apps and consists only of active Facebook users, mostly from the US, Canada, UK and Europe," reads the Gigbucks post. This can affect us a lot because there are a lot of teenager (our age) facebook users. If instead of person who was trying to prove a point was a spammer, the information that we have on facebook can be in danger.  Facebook is currently looking into the breach of user data but they haven't yet come to a resolution.

This article tells us about how riding a bike in the city will soon be easier than ever courtesy of two wheels and AT&T's wireless network for many big cities across the US. The bicycles will have built-in GPS using AT&T's wireless network to make the basic part of public bicycle renting possible-making sure they don't get stolen or abandoned in some unknown place. Also, smartphone users will be able to use an app to locate Social Bicycle racks nearby, as well as reserve bikes and unlock them from racks. Riders will then be capable to bike around the city and return the Social Bicycle at any rack located in the city. You can also rent a bicycle by using the smartphone app to reserve one. The app will automatically send your personalized pin to the rack, which will unlock the bicycle, checking out the bicycle in your name. It also has a cool feature where you can use the app to track stats like calories burned, emissions reduced, and dollars saved. There isn't any information yet on how much the bike rentals will cost. Social Bicycles will hit more cities at the beginning of 2013.

Facebook acquired Instagram for one billion dollars. Instagram for Android is currently the third most popular free app on Google Play and the most popular app that isn't made by Google. The app came out on October 2010, and seven months later they reached 4 million downloads.

Instagram has been sold to Facebook for a billion dollars. Instagram has been out-doing both Facebook and Google. There had been much money tossed around to buy Instagram, fortunately for Facebook, they bought them out. Instagram is an App that adds effects to any picture you have taken. It allows you to change the way the picture looks with a quick edit and doesn't take long at all. Also, you are able to upload this picture to the server and various amounts of people can view it, if you wish. In addition, you may also follow people too to see what they post. This is relevant to the things learned so far because the creators of this app have are now millionaires due to their extensive knowledge of building App programs and knowing how they work. The app is quick and easy, it is a free download and because of the many free downloads around the world, the developers are now rewarded.

It just seemed like yesterday that the iPad 2 was released but now it's been confirmed that the iPad 3, the newest edition of the iPad in technology, is in the process of creation and has officially released onto the market. The iPad 3 officially made it's first appearance on March 7th, when Apple introduced it's newest creation to the world at a media event in San Francisco. This notable information is relatable not only to our course, but also to society, and our world because it truly demonstrates how our world is constantly evolving and developing with new gadgets and technology being produced and used at our every use everyday. As consumers, we should also be aware that once the iPad 3 makes its way onto the market, the value our iPads and iPad 2s will significally drop, so it is advised that if you are interested in making a purchase and investment towards the iPad 3, to make a extra couple hundred dollars, try selling your older iPads while they are still valuable and worth an acceptable amount of money. Overall, tablets and iPads have definitely taken our world by storm as they have made a huge impact both economically and socially and Apple hopes to continue to make more and more designs and productions to further the success and effectiveness of their products.