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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"

This article got my attention because i have followers who are from different places around the world, because of the language barrier i cannot understand their tweets so i feel that with this new add on to twitter it will help others as well as me understand other peoples tweets.Twitter is said to be working with bing translator to have a new feature that can automatically translate tweets.  Twitter is still testing this new feature and is unsure if they will provide all members to this feature.

Google, being the innovators and marketers that they are, are working on a new feature which will put Chrome ahead of the pack in the mobile browsing world. Google is using a new data compressing tool to make browsing faster and more reliable. The new technique involves forcing websites to be loaded to Google's proxies. Rather then having the user connect to the individual websites protocols, the user connects to Google's lighting fast server, allowing them to few the web page at a much faster rate. In addition, Google's servers will be made to compress the data of the website, allowing an even faster connection. The Opera browser has a similar feature to this called "Turbo" and it works in a similar way. However, Google may have the upper hand here, as Opera can't compete with Google's size, market, and staying power.

I found that this article was very interesting because Facebook is getting more advanced over the years. Facebook has created a new feature that lets you verify your account. This feature also allows you to also give you the option to show an alternate/nickname to facebook. This new feature is said to have already been made and some people have already been giving the option to verify their account. if you want your account verified you have to wait to be given the option by facebook. 

Google has been keeping quiet about their latest tech, but a leak has hinted toward a google smart watch with certain features that will compel you to purchase the new wave of wearable tech. The google watch will allow you to get ambient notifications between your phone and watch through Blue tooth LE. This connectivity will allow you to awnser calls, and see who is texting you. The watch will take a "Pebble" like design, but it will have a less masculine plastic wristband instead. The watch though, will either be released with less features or fully released at a later date due to time constraints. In my opinion, wearable tech is interesting but I believe its still in a beta-phase due to the fact of limited battery life and actual applicable features in real life.

The future is now, and that future is wearable tech. Yet another big player has announced its release date of its 'smart watch', and this time its time for the gaming crowd to be excited. Sony has just announced the release time of their new wearable tech, the SmartBand SWR10, and (in a rare instance), both athletes and smartphone geeks have something to look forward to. The SmartBand is a sleek wrist bracelet that offers features for athletes, Xperia users, and pretty much everyone else with its three major features. The band acts as notifier for phone activity, as well as having non-tech applications, namely various kinds of health monitoring, and something called Lifelog (basically just a facebook feed of your phone... which you can already do with facebook) .While it is good to see a new player enter the smartwatch arena, nothing in this release is new, I would argue the main selling point may be its selling point; price that is. All of the bands features have been done before or can be accomplished by separate 3rd party applications, and you gain nothing by collapsing them to one item. Save its rumoured cheap price of $150, the SmartBand is nothing special, nothing new.

Do you ever want to know the way your cars works or how your driving habits affects your fuel economy? Then Dash is the app for you. However, it is only available for Android and in the US for now. For the app to work, Dash connects with an on board diagnostic that plugs to a dedicated port in your car and uses bluetooth to send data to your phone. Every car made after 1996 can use this app. The app requires an account and a diagnostics dongle. Once Dash is all set up, it will gather data about your car and your driving habits. Every time you start the car, drive around and turn off the car, it counts as a trip. For each trip, you will get a score which measures how safe you drive, and habits such as sticking to the speed limit. When you finish a trip, you get a breakdown of your starting and ending points, the total distance you drove, how long it took you, the amount of fuel used in dollars, and your average fuel economy. Dash also helps with repairs, and has many social features as added extras. New features that are on their way include a way to alert emergency crews that an accident has happened when the airbags are triggered. In my opinion, this app is a must have for drivers especially those who are still learning. With this app, your driving habits can improve a lot with its cool features.

The new iPhone IOS'6 update includes Do Not Disturb and VIP attributes that allow consumers to enable features that suit their personal needs. With the Do Not Disturb aspect you are able to customise your phone so that incoming calls are received while your device is locked; giving you the option of able to avoid the call or accept it, with just a "simple text." And a bunch of other features that are supposedly supposed to make your life easier. People who constantly use apple products would be more comfortable when upgrading their systems because they actually use these attributes. Although to the average teen, it seems pointless and contradictory. With the Do Not Disturb feature, if someone can access your password then, they could change your settings. Therefore you wouldn't receive any calls! Apple entices people to keep upgrading their systems because they are a cooperate business.

Three interesting and user friendly features that are relatively new to facebook. The first feature is sharing posts with a selected group of people. You can create a list of your closest friends that only shares their posts with you and you only share your posts with them. The next feature is having top news posts and most recent posts on the same home page. This way you don't have to switch between the tabs. The final feature is called ticker. This lets you see what your friends are up to and lets you communicate with them.

Last November, Google has removed the feature and option of people personalizing their backgrounds when they use the search engine on Goggle. But now personalized backgrounds are back! You can do this by just simply specifying that you want a certain picture to be your background.  This feature makes Google feel like your own and it's fun to do. Plus it adds a bit of flare onto the page instead of looking at a boring Google search page. You can also upload a photo if you chose for it to be your personalized background. 

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.

Facebook heads have launched a new 'search engine' for those using Facebook. Entitled 'Graph Search', this engine allows users to type in specific tags to find users that fall under a specific group. The tags include things such as age, location, relationship status, and other similar traits. The Facebook developers should have seen this as an issue from the very start of the project. Many executives and onlookers anticipated that this engine will cause issues, especially with youth. The main concern being privacy. Facebook claims that only users who opt into this feature will show up on the results, but for mindless teenagers who click accept on anything simply out of haste, this could cause an issue. Although there has been no recorded cases yet, this engine opens the door for sexual predators on Facebook, allowing them to easily search for 'Women under 18 in my area' and similar search options. CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself claimed that they are heightening privacy settings for this engine, but there are still concerns to be had. This new feature is obviously a ploy to send more information to advertising companies and other Facebook partners. Facebook is renown for sending information and demographics of it's users to paying companies, but with Graph Search, anyone can do it themselves, including said companies. Facebook is finding new ways to sell out their user base, while still looking like the 'good guy'. Although it has it's benefits for the honest users that want to use it for social purposes, Graph Search is a very bad decision. If it wasn't apparent to you before, now is the time to get off Facebook.

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.

Youtube now has a new feature to let viewers watch videos in 3D format using a pair of 3D glasses for a full on HD effect. So far there are a few videos on the site today that serve as a  beta-test for the new feature and since Youtube is constantly improving its ways to watch videos, this'll be just another new and interesting thing for us viewers to look forward to.

This article explains how the tablet is becoming increasingly popular and the sales have nearly doubled from last year. The tablet offers quite a lot of features and the design of it appeals to many people. If i had the money to get one, I would definitely buy a tablet. It is no doubt that Apple dominates with the sales of the tablet. The portablilty and the uniqueness of the tablet results in high sales. As more features begin to be added to the newer versions of the tablet the sales will also increase too

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. 

This article is about how Facebook created a new feature to their website. They allow many students to collaborate with other students and faculty members to share documents that aren't copyrighted. Since, many have left Facebook for other social networking sites and have become bored of it Facebook this new group will attract them to come back. I think that this new feature they added will attract many more users, especially those who are in colleges and universities because it is an easy way to communicate to those in your classes and it is user friendly. 

This article is about how Samsung is not coming out with a 3D smartphone any time soon. Samsung told Engadget that they have no immediate plans to include displays featuring 3D technology in their upcoming smartphones. I found this interesting because I wonder how many people would enjoy a 3D phone. I think that for movies and games on your phone it would look really good. I also found this interesting because I wonder why Samsung is not coming out with smartphones that have 3D features. 

This article explains how Microsoft is attempting to attract users to the browser IE9 (internet explorer 9) by mocking the previous versions of IE. I think that if they must promote any of the browsers they might as well promote the latest and most updated version of it. Since internet explorer has another browser that has more features and is more useful than IE9 they should focus on attracting users to that browser. Also, IE10 has features that can compete with google chrome, firefox, and safari, whereas IE9 does not. In my opinion I find this is a very poor marketing strategy on Microsoft's part and it will not get them any further in terms of higher user rates for internet explorer.