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The US has a skilled developer shortage and it's one of its own making.While Silicon Valley wrings its hands over H1B visa caps onto skilled foreign workers, the bigger issues remains in the US because they are unable to educate its own citizens. While they try to educate a surplus of Science,Technology, Engineering and Math students for STEM roles we seems to fail to entice enough of them to get into technology. since 1980, STEM grads increased 60%.

Facebook is now offering the option to disallow all applications from sharing and/or accessing your information. Currently, there is a lot of talk about privacy on the internet and how a lot of people don't like having advertisements and notifications shoved into their face every time they use social networking sites or play games.  Nowadays a lot of games have 'share' options built into them that allows you to share useless achievements such as how many cows you bought or how much wheat you need to feed them. This annoys many people who use social networking sites to just talk with friends and get up-to-date information from pages they liked.  The 'nuclear' option will allow people who do not want to be bothered by friends' status updates on games and also people who don't want applications to share what they are doing to others without them knowing or without their consent. This may cause many game developers to change tactics on how they want to attract users from sites such as Facebook because they don't want to risk getting blocked by everyone. 

This article is about a new super-material that is very strong, super light and eats greenhouse gases. The material is made just from algae. Many scientists are saying that this nanocellulose  is a "wonder material" and can possibly become the raw material for sustainable production of biofuels and many other products. While producing the nanocellulose  the algae will absorb carbon dioxide and also is an abundant and inexpensive resource. Some people believe that this material will one day be used for super-light body armor and for replacement organs for transplants. In the beginning of production nanocellulose involved huge breeding tanks of bacteria which required food but recent advancements have helped groom new blue-green algae, which unlike normal bacteria, can make its own food from the sun, and devour greenhouse gases in the process. Nanocellulose research has been decades in the making and well worth it for the new discoveries scientists have found. I think that this is a very interesting new type of material and will one day be used to help many people.

This article is about a new substance called "Nanocellulose". This materiel is said to be as strong as Kevlar as well as light and can turn greenhouse gases into air, something scientist were trying to do with algae. There is so much possibility with this new material, at first it was very difficult to make it because you needed a certain type of bacteria and a lot of food, but now with advancements in technology it can use any bacteria and can get food from the sun. We can use this material for so much more right now we have only just discovered its potential. scientist say it may be able to be used as a bio fuel, super light body armor, thin displays, and even grow replacement organs later on.

Cedars-Sinai hospital in LA provides a service called "Baby Time". This allows mothers who have had difficult births to stay connected to their new born child. This is possible because an iPad is linked to another iPad which is placed by the baby's incubator. The hospital allows mothers to use "Baby Time" twice a day. The iPad's foreshadow the video monitors and plan to be accessible by cell phone .

Evan Atherton created a pair of speakers that provide a customized light show for the music that is being played out of them. The interesting part about these speakers is that they were made using a 3-D printer. He created each individual cube with a hard plastic and a flexible rubber. He also added an addressable RGB LED strip that is operated by a microcontroller from the company Lumigeek. The speakers will not be for sale since it costs around $2000 and over 60 hours to make. 

Online services such as cloud may be convenient, but there is always a risk of such services that your locally installed software won't. Unfortunately, what could happen is that your cloud service could abandon you at any moment. OfficeDrop users were facing just about the same scenario. After receiving a notice that last Friday that the online service of OfficeDrop stopped its service on May 5. This left collaboration and service no longer available to its users. Many people have come to depend on OfficeDrop to store and share your files in the cloud. Unfortunately, OfficeDrop is not longer able to offer OfficeDrop as a standalone service anymore and also discontinued it permanently as of May 5th, 2013. OfficeDrop as a company did not go away, just the service to its users. OfficeDrop signed an agreement to sell OfficeDrop to another Cloud Storage player. Also, the acquirer has decided to not continue offering the OfficeDrop service and instead will combine the product, technology and team with theirs and market it through their channels. According to the notice sent to OfficeDrop users, billing for OfficeDrop has stopped, and refunds are being issues when applicable. The notice urges all files be downloaded as soon as possible, because they will be securely and permanently deleted as of May 6th, 2013. This is a negative impact when you use the cloud.

The "Bitcoin rush" is very similar to what the gold rush was in the 1800s. Only a virtual version. BitCoins are a form of digital currency that  Driven by the Bitcoins value of around 256.00 USD, people have set up rooms with high-tech PC's dedicated to mining BitCoin.

Photojojo has pulled off another feature: making iPad telephoto lens is useful by bringing 10x zoom to iPad 3 and 4, and 12x to the iPad mini giving you un-pixelated closeups along with "slight vignetting, a lo-fi look and all around interest to your photos." You can grad the wee lens for $25 at the source.

This article is about an App that prevents incest in Iceland. Since Iceland is so small, many people find that they are starting relationships with their second cousins. This app uses Íslendingabók, which is an online genealogical database. This database contains records of more than 720,000 Icelanders going back 1,200 years using as many records (church documents, census information, and so on) as possible. When two Icelanders meet each other, they bump phones and will be told if they are related or not. This new app already has 5000 downloads and has made life easier for Icelanders by and revamping the dating scene.

Yahoo had just made a new app for weather which is catching to the eyes.  Everyone checks on their phone once in a while to see the weather and yahoo has one if not the prettiest app for weather.  With the help of photographers and the Flickr community, Yahoo! Weather screams simplicity. Just look at it.By pulling in your exact coordinates, the time of day and general weather conditions, Yahoo! Weather selects and displays an appropriate image taken in your town to match the forecast. So at night, you'll see night time shots and so on. And by scrolling up, you have access to an hourly forecast, five day forecast, the ever important "feels like," wind and pressure, chance of precipitation and it'll even tell you when the sun is rising and setting. There's also a map mode that offers a wider area of coverage in case you're traveling. Also, by turning your iPhone horizontal, the app goes into full display mode with just images from your city of choice.

Apple is starting to test their "budget" phone. Whether it will reach stores or not, the "budget" phone will make it a lot easier for many froogle customers to be able to afford an Apple iPhone without trying to take out a loan. This phone is believed to have a 0.4-0.6 mm thick plastic shell, with a 5MP camera, and 3.5- inch retina display. The phone will also contain an A5 chip and have the colour options varying from black, white, blue, yellow, and blue variety.

This article is about a new company chosen by FIFA called GoalControl. This company's goal is to clarify goals and prevent incorrect judging of offside rules.This company plans to use cameras to capture the goals so that an assistant coach won't be relied on. Their camera and software system, will be used to judge goal line decisions at this summer's Confederations Cup in Brazil and,maybe next year's World Cup. GoalControl's system involves 14 cameras with seven trained on each goal. In Brazil, the cameras will be attached to the catwalks beneath each stadium's lights and will constantly take full frame,color pictures( 500 per minute) to determine the ball's location at every point in the game. Computers will continually scan the images, and when the ball is seen to have crossed the goal line, a signal will be sent to the referee's watch causing it to vibrate and alert him that a goal should be awarded.GoalControl will cost roughly $260,000 per stadium to install in Brazil. This new technology is positive influence to the soccer world. It will provide teams with their rightful goals and prevent confusion and false calls. It will also be more accurate since assistant referees and referees will not have to determine the situation, but can refer back to the tapings. This new technology is also a negative influence because two different referees may interpret the tapings differently causing more confusion.

This article is about how Twitter has introduced a music service to it's 200 million users. Twitter recently bought We Are Hunted,which is a service that recommends music based on social media, changed the service, and incorporated it into Twitter. This music service gives the user suggestions for songs to listen to. It does this by scanning the service's posts for music references. After signing up, a user is sent to a page with many charts of artists and songs. The #NowPlaying list/hashtag collects songs that have appeared in Twitter posts among the people that a user follows.Other lists/hashtags show what music is popular everywhere on Twitter. Artists' accounts highlight the music they follow, allowing their followers to see the type of music they listen to. This new services influences our lives in a positive way because now we as users are exposed to different types of music that we may not know existed. Also, we could share our music and show the world what songs that we like and which we don't. This service influences our lives in a negative way because some people may not like a certain type of music, and may find a certain type of musician offensive. For example an anti- feminist group found Rick Ross an offensive spokesperson for Reebok because of his songs. If a person in politics decided he/she liked Rick Ross's music and shared it on Twitter, this may spark an uproar with the media and this anti-feminist group

This article is about new apps that help disabled people. Many computer science researchers have been looking for an app that would help the disabled, and now they have created a few. One is called VizWiz. This is an app that helps the visually impaired. The user takes a picture of what he/she has a question about, asks a question, and receives an answer by a worker at Mechanical Turk. Mechanical Turk is a service, featuring many people that answer questions. Another app is Scribe. This app helps the deaf and hearing-impaired. Users send an audio stream to many of the Scribe workers who provide real time transcription. Since only highly trained transcribers with special equipment can transcribe all of the words in a live stream, Scribe coordinates a group of six or seven amateurs to transcribe the stream.

Google's strategy to free itself from Apple and Microsoft using their search engine, android for mobile, aspiring glass experiment, and now the Chromebook.  The Chromebook was well thought out and was constructed just as well as any laptop on the market. $1,400 may be a high asking price, yet majority of people would rather purchase a Windows PC or Mac over a high priced Chromebook

This article ponders the question "Will 2013 be the year of the smartwatch?" It begins by describing some of the failed attempts by companies at wearable tech. In 2004, Microsoft created the SPOT watch which used FM radio waves to display information such as stock quotations, weather forecasts, and news. At launch this device was $800 which was a huge turnoff for many consumers, and was proven when the device died in 2008. In 2009, Samsung also had an attempt at wearable technology with their S9910 which debuted in Europe. At a 450 Euro price tag, this was also too expensive for consumers, and along with limited functionality this device was destined to be a flop. Now with more functionality possibilities and low cost production, companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, LG, and Samsung are able to create modern, functional smartwatches. It is also encouraging that Pebble recently funded over $10 million for their smartwatch on Kickstarter. So will 2013 be the year of the smartwatch?

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.

Google has recently implemented a feature known as "Inactive Account Manager" which will allow users to control what will happen to their data after inactivity for a predetermined amount of time. The option gives users the option of deleting their data, or sending the account information such as passwords to another user or email address. Besides the use of this feature for alive users that just wish to remove their information if they don't use the services after a certain amount of time, Inactive Account Manager is one of the first mainstream Google features that will allow people to control what happens to their information after they're six feet under. With the way technology has become more and more involved in our every day lives, this new implementation is not surprising to me at all. What surprises me is that it took this long for there to be a service such as this. A quick Google search shows that on Facebook alone, there is over 30 million accounts of dead users still on the Facebook servers. It won't be long until other social websites implement such features, and it wouldn't be surprising if some even allow you to write a message or status update after their untimely doom. Imagine that, "John Smith is now dea! Like or Comment"