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Best Buy is having a sale on the HP's TouchPad tjhat barley survived the first month of putting their product out to the public. But now if you buy a HP computer for only $149 you can get a TouchPad. What I don't understand is if it barley made a month of sales what makes anyone think that they will be able to sell the HP TouchPad's? 

The future of gaming is set and Sony has clearly decided to be apart of it. At a recent conference, the company displayed a sleek prototype of a headset that will give players a high definition, panoramic view of the game as if they were present in the server, all in 3D. Sony has already sold thousands of headsets to developers and is inspired and encouraged to make their own virtual reality game and are looking forward to working with new technology. I think that this new format of gaming would be really interesting and futuristic. Certainly, the game play would be more realistic as I don't think there would be as much restrictions to pressing a sequence of buttons, when technically using the headset would allow you to act out exactly what you want to happen. Although I am aware of the dangers of virtual reality due to a specific anime, the fact that technology has made it so far is purely amazing.

When people decide they have no use for old technology and do not think twice before throwing it out, they probably do not realize that their outdated piece of hardware finds its grave half way across the world. Possibly even in Guiyu, China where the largest electronic waste or "E-waste" dump site exists. People are oblivious to the fact that this is a recurring problem, not just a small matter of sorting and recycling through a few pieces of plastic, metal and wires. This black hole of scrapped computers, television sets, air conditioners and even refrigerators is toxic towards the environment, and is contaminating the growth of crops all around the area, such as rice, from the gases of the poisonous elements contained within the gadgets to make them work. The consuming pile of E-waste is not just environmentally deadly but also causes health hazards, along with the expensive and dangerous recycling operations that are needed. If people continue to neglect this issue, E-waste will continue to grow, swallow the earth with a blanket of harmful bi-products and affect everyone's lives, which is something we do not want. E-waste is hazardous and will eventually kill the planet with the path that it seems to be following without any real rise against the issue. This is such a nice way to give back to the environment don't you think? Polluting the earth and by proxy ourselves with technological garbage is obviously a smart thing to do, as if we aren't destroying the world enough already.

Game of Thrones, the fantasy series that came out of a series of novels written by George R. R. Martin and adapted by HBO has just recently aired its third season with a bunch of people watching it during its premiere. The bad news is that the amount of people pirating the show is more then half the amount of people who actually watched it on HBO. With the premiere having around 6.7 million viewers and the amount of pirate viewers at 4.4 million. These stats are quite impressive but HBO can expect a lot more views when it counts on-demand, DVR, online streams with a gross audience of 11.6 million viewers when counting non-live viewers. On the other hand, TorrentFreak claims that GoT has been the most-pirated show over the past year and that the pirated audience is growing even faster. A few hours after the first torrent of the show was uploaded, it had around 110,303 leechers and 52,786 seeders, a total of 163,088 people. This number actually broke the previous record with 144,663 peers for another show called "Heroes".

It's no secret that the countries such as North Korea (obviously), China, and Iran have filtered the internet via censorship to within a couple of breathes of its life. But now there is a new country passing censorship policies: Russia. According to the New York Times, the Russian government has

This article is about a man in Tokyo who sent many mass killing threats to a comic book event and many schools. Each threat would be followed by a riddle. The man hacked computers and sent messages to newspapers and broadcasters saying that details of a computer virus used to send the threats were strapped to a cat living on an island near Tokyo. Police found the cat and with it found a message that said that no more messages will be sent. Police analyzed the memory card and footage taken by security cameras and suspect that Katayama -a resident of Tokyo- was responsible for the hacking campaign. This article is a prime example of the dangers of computing and shows that the security of our computers is still not perfect and can be breached. I see this man's act as a childish call for attention and believe that this man should grow up and "get a life" as some would say. I don't understand how a grown man could have the heart to threaten the lives of many innocent children; I hope that there is retribution for such an offense.

my first bookamrk

Anglophone= English speaking person Francophone= French speaking person Technology has become a large part of our everyday lives. This article talks about how Canadians are purchasing more and more electronics. (Cell phones, iPads, tablets) The article also talks about how Canadians are also signing up for Netflix, a service that allows users to watch movies in the comfort of their own home. The Media Technology Monitor states that 28 % of English speaking Canadians owned a tablet at the time of the survey which was 7 times the amount in 2010. I think this this is a result of society and the services that businesses now offer that they hadn't previously. EX: Now, we can watch movies on our tablets, but let's say 10 years ago, we would have to go to a movie theater. I believe that portable devices have positively affected our lives. These devices make everything we do more convenient, for example, cell phones allow me to contact my friends anywhere in the world and they also provide me with help in an emergency. I strongly believe that portable devices have positive effects in our lives, and judging from the increasing amount of technology users, many others think so as well.

6/10 would read again

Don't be fooled by this imposter, I am the real spider man.

This article mentions the fact that Twitter now plans to update its mobile applications to introduce filters for photos allowing people to share altered images without having to use another source such as Instagram. Since most phones come with high-resolution cameras and many of the Twitter users use their phones this will be an easy way for people to edit and upload their photos. Especially with people or famous celebrities that use Instagram then share them on Twitter where more people follow them it will be easier and faster to just use Twitter for it all. This new idea has been hastened when Facebook bought Instagram. Twitter was thinking of buying a different photo service or application but when weighing out the cost they decided to just build their own filters. Twitter is also exploring the ability to upload and edit videos without using a third-party application like YouTube. This article has a lot to do with economics and the battle between two companies trying to get people to use their site and apps and not the other. In this case Twitter is really trying to become the most popular and important social networking site where people will be able to do anything on and it will be instant. They are changing what they once were to try to morph into Facebook because of the increasing popularity of Instagram and the fact that Facebook bought it.  I think personally that Twitter is making a good decision about the filter but i don't think twitter should add their own video player because it would change twitter and its purpose of being instant statements and pictures. YouTube is good at what they do and twitter should stay out of it. However with the whole idea of adding filters to Twitter you get the benefits of Instagram with the benefits of Twitter which might just keep them on top of Instagram.

Following Facebook's purchase of Instagram for almost $1 Billion in April 2012, it seems appropriate that Twitter would integrate something similar into their users' experience. 'Inside sources' say that Twitter is working on a photo-filter system that will be integrated directly in the site and mobile apps that hopes to bypass third-party services (such as Instagram.) While Instagram is a social network that focuses on social images with limited text, Twitter is renowned for its 140 character text-based updates with occasional images. An advantage of Twitter's supposed photo filtering system would be that there would most likely be a website equivalent to the mobile app, a problem that has plagued Instagram users who want a PC experience. As of now, there have been no official confirmations by Twitter, but the idea of a Twitter-exclusive photo sharing system seems interesting; although the market is currently saturated by Instagram, which can export images to other social networks, including Twitter. Legally, Facebook and Instagram may be able to take action against Twitter, depending on how similar their filtering system will be. This relates to eLifestyle and ICS20 because as social network users, we are always searching for ways to monetize our networks to one cohesive experience; another photo-sharing application seems arbitrary when there is already a capable system (Instagram.)

The new OS; Windows 8, is bringing on a lot of excitement, but many people are not too happy with the changes made, myself included. Many people miss the desktop screen, and dislike the new start screen. Others don't like the tiled look and are more used to that of windows 7. There are many other problems and this article describes how to fix all of them. First of all, There is the desktop screen problem. Many of us used to place all our most used programs on our desktop screen so that when you log on, you will have quick access to all you needs, but now all of that is gone and replaced by the start screen. Fortunately, you can bring them back with Start8 (which is easier to use but costs $5) or Classic Shell (which is harder to use but is more customizable and is free). The cool thing about Classic Shell is that it can fix many other things, such as turning your windows explorer from a ribon-ified mess into a usable file browser. you can also fix this problem with Xplorer2. Another problem is that you cant view your videos without buying an attachment to windows media player, but you can fix this with free programs such as VLC There are many other peeves i n widnows 8 that this article helps solve. In conclusion, I feel that knowing that these problems can be fixed will lean alot more people towards windows 8

The iPad 4 is already coming out. You know what that means.  Another Apple product to buy and add to your collection.  Apple completely ditched the iPad 3 because it used the old adapter.  The iPad 4 uses the lightning connector just like the iPhone 5. Therefore the iPad 4 is impractical to buy if you are an iPad or iPad 2 user.  However if you are just starting out with the iPad then feel free to buy the iPad 4.  The difference between the iPad "3" and the iPad 4 is that iPad is that iPad "3" uses the A5X processor and iPad 4 uses the A6X.  A6X is twice as fast as A5X but the A5X has longer battery life.  Who needs speed when you have battery? So is it smart to upgrade?

This article talks about how they are thinking of making ATM machines that can read your palm. It can access your account just by scanning your hand. Then you can easily take out money without scrambling for your credit card. Now you don't need to worry about losing your credit card or even forgetting your pin number. I believe this is a good idea because it can make it easier for everyone to just scan their hands and get the proper amount of money out. I personally like this method better than using credit cards. This relates to the course because it takes a lot of programming to get these ATM machines to work, and also the actual ATM machine is a hardware.

Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank in Japan has revealed that it will introduce the nation's first ATM that lets you withdraw money just by scanning your palm. You wouldn't even need your credit card to verify that you can withdraw money from your account. I think this is a great idea. In Canada, we already have the device where it scans your chip, but it doesn't always work. For example, my dad had to send back his credit card 3 times before he finally got the chip to work. This is also very safe because every person has a different hand shape and "design" on their palms, no one would be able to imitate it. I hope that they come out with this machine in Canada soon, i'm sure it would be less stressful for many people.

This article talks about how in Japan they will soon have ATMs that let you withdraw money just by scanning your palm. This will come in handy when you have lost your card. Customers would first have to show identification for verification then they would scan your palm and can easily withdraw money from the bank. This new type of technology can be convenient because there would be less people stealing credit cards from other, and can withdraw anytime even when you forget your card.

Facebook is finally going back to its roots. They have now decided to enable students to have groups on facebook with their school. According to the article, when facebook was only for college students, it used to have this feature and it was very useful for students. They were able to see who was in their classes and communicate with their teacher. It is very hard to believe that this actually used to happen. Now facebook is used to mainly post pictures and chat with your friends. Many people have begun to lose interest in facbeook because they don't see it as something that is useful for them anymore. With this new feature, i'm sure facebook expects to bring back their old users and also make facebook more useful and purposeful for their users. I can't wait to see what it will look like!

Facebook launches groups for schools page, this page is for students and faculty members to share and exchange files, create events, and message each other.I believe that this new feature will make it easier for students to communicate. 

Now that Facebook has bought instagram, fans are concerned that like other bought apps Instagram is going to be ruined by Facebook. For Facebook buying instagram is a great investment. I think that instagram will not only remain popular but also grow in it's popularity.

New York City has decided on replacing most of their pay phones with 32 inch touchscreen phones. These phones would be used for anything like Skype and other video services, email, wi-fi access, and *11 numbers. Most people don't know how to react to this change. Tourists would find it very helpful, but regular pay phone users would be very confused. Something that they had been used to using for so many years would now be replaced by something more high-tech. Also, many people in nyc have smartphones, so they wouldn't have any use for them. If anything, one could say that this new installation would be more for the tourists than the residents of the city.

This article is about the 10 mistake not to do when designing a mobile app. 1. Don't Begin Wireframes or Designs Without a Flow map 2. Don't Disregard the Development Budget. 3. Don't Start With Low Resolutions & Avoid Bitmaps. 4. Don't Undersize The Hit Area. 5. Don't Gratuitously Use Intro Animations. 6. Don't Leave Users Hanging. 7. Don't Blindly Copy Style From Other Operating Systems. 8. Don't Overstuff Pixel-Dense Screens. 9. Don't Assume Everyone Will Use Your App The Same Way You Do. 10. Don't Forget About Gestures, But Don't Abuse Them Either.

This article tells the readers about 7 apps that were released this week. The seven apps are Pair, Bump Pay, Fuze HD, Babbel forAndroid, MTA or Merifian, Paper, and Wonders of the Universe.   Pair is an app for many of those who are in a long distance relationship. They allow couples to create a private timeline, swap photos, share videos, and their location. The app also has "thumb kiss" feature that vibrates the phone when they both touch the same part of the phone. This app is available for iPhones. Bump Pay is an app that allows you to pay others by simply "bumping" your phones together. You would pay them using PayPal. Fuze HD is an video conference app that allows others to have a video chat with up to ten people on at once. You could  also send text, images, and other media during the presentation. Babble for Android is a language app. It has over 3000 vocabulary words, sounds, images, speech recognition and a personalized review manager for multiple languages. MTA on Meridian is a app that you can use to browse art of particular line or plan your own transit system art tour. Paper is a new app that allows people to draw diagrams and sketches and shared them with others on the web. Wonders of the universe is an app that lets you explore space with graphics and visuals.  I think that this article is interesting because it tells me many of the apps that I didn't know about.

you know when you wanna post a story on twitter, but ya can't because the post limit is no longer than 140? well now you sort of can by using TwitLonger, which will post the first 100 characters along with a shortened URL to the TwitLonger webapp. Many think this is a great idea, though others like me think it's useless because i don't have twitter .

This article is about being able to tweet more than 140 characters on twitter. I think this is very helpful because when i want to tweet an embarrassing moment or a new experience i am always limited because of the 140 characters restrictions. With this app it can increase the number, and people like me can tweet more about there life experiences..  

This article is about  spherical solar cells that can collect light from any direction. It can also collect light energy that is bouncing off in their surrounding. Compared to the traditional flat solar panels, this gizmo can work at its optimal performance any time of the day, leaving the old fashioned solar panels a thing in the past. 

"You can always opt out," said the fellow at the other end of the table. "If you don't want to share anything with anyone, why would you join a social network at all?"