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This article states how the Kindle E-reader has evolved over the years, how Amazon has lowered its book prices so much so people would buy e-readers and book buyers would go to Amazon.com and get books instead of going to a book store, and how people try to destroy Amazon for almost having a monopoly of it. Many people like this because new Kindle E-readers cost from $69 to about $100 and many of their book cost from about $1 and up. Also Amazon helped self publishing authors sell their books. The Kindle E-reader has evolved from being a big electronic book with many books in it and having pages flipping crazy if your hand was in the place. Now it has evolved to be a slim e-reader with a brighter screen and having cheap books to buy and not as clunky. A few years ago Apple and five big publishing companies made a contract to stop Amazon from selling books so cheap. The publishing companies would only sell books on apple products. In April of this year the Department of Justice sued Apple and the five publishing companies to stop Apple from trying to get the monopoly on selling books on their products. It is portable computing because people know can have hundreds of books in a device the size of a small book and you don't need to keep buying bookshelves that take a lot of space and the books it has are cheap. It is very light and people can take it anywhere they want to. It is eLifestyle because you a many people in the bus or subway reading away on their e-reader comfortably without having a big book to carry. Many people use it because they can't carry that much weight.    

My article is on Google's recent announcement that they will discontinue Google Reader, among other services. There was a strong response to this because there are many people who use it on a daily basis.  Google Reader is a RSS feed, or Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. Basically it is a technology that tracks websites for updates. Imagine you love to get your news from the Internet, and you like to go on The Verge, Wired, Lifehacker and Gawker. You visit all of those sites daily to get the news. But when you frequent a lot of websites, going to them all separately may start to take a lot of time. So here comes Google Reader, where you subscribe to all the various sites and get direct updates sent to just this one place, making it easier to absorb information. There are several different RSS feeds, but Google Reader is one of the more popular ones, and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people use this service daily. Google stated that over the years Google Reader's usage has declined, but that still means there are many people who rely on it go get all their information.  When Google announced its plan to discontinue the service, many people were lost as to why they would stop such a seemingly successful service and this has now lost the trust of Google by many people.  Regardless, it is clear that many people will have to find a new RSS feed or go back to visiting every website manually.

The smartphone market has been dominated by Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices, but with this dominance many people think they do not have any other options when it comes to smartphones other than Apple and Android. Yes, there have been other companies that have tried to combat the powerful hold of Apple and Android but they have faltered and ultimately could not dethrone these smartphone giants. Now the Finnish company Jolla plans on competing against Apple and Android with its new OS, Sailfish which they claim is an alternative to Apple and Android. Jolla also partnered itself with Chinese phone retailer D.Phone so Jolla would have phones that will run Sailfish. For many of us, we are stuck with the decision of buying either an Android or an iPhone since any other phone trying to appear differently was simply forgotten. But the release of Sailfish phones would completely change the smartphone market by giving consumers another option when considering buying a new phone and releasing some of the control that Apple and Android have. It could also be possible that Sailfish phones will be more revolutionary and better looking than Androids and iPhones but still cost less which would attract many consumers who want an innovative but low-cost phone. I think Sailfish will have a large impact on the smartphone market since it uses many gestures that makes the OS unique. Whereas Apple's iPhone and Google's Android will eventually lose their popularity due to Apple and Android's lack of innovation, the Sailfish phones could possibly have the same effect the first iPhone had on the world and become the new dominant smartphone. 

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

This article is very interesting and informative to people who has mac. Many students bring mac to school for projects and homework and it is embarrassing for many students for their laptop to make sound in the middle of class. Many of them find it difficult to silence up because of its long, drawn out process but with this program called start ninja, it becomes very easy to silence up the mac with just one click. I think this is very helpful because i have this problem too and i bring my laptop often to the library and it is very embarrassing for my laptop to make sound in the middle of silence and it must be very annoying for other people around me too.   This program is free for any people who has mac and this is great for many people who can't afford to buy program.

this is a problem because people are demanding more computers and phones now because life without them is hard, now you can only apply for jobs on computers or do homework on computers now, so more people need them. This is affecting the environment because to make all these devices are harming the environment, for example the pollution from the factory making the products and the precious metals and supply's we are using to make the devices are non-renewable. So we should find a way to make computers and phones without effecting the environment as much as we are now. this is how computers and phones are affecting the environment, and the demand on computers are just gonna get higher and higher, so we should find a way to build the computer without effecting the environment as much fast.

This is an article about how computers affect our environment, how we can help, and what computers can do to actually benefit us in the world. Some examples of computers ruining the environment could be usage of valuable resources and pollution due to computer waste. Some examples of how we can help would be sanitizing our hard drive, donating our mobile device, raising funds from techno trash, and re-using ink cartridges. Technology can help the environment by helping us develop and produce sustainable practices in the environment. It also allows for paperless communication which limits the taking down of trees. In my opinion I completely agree with what this article has to say. It expands on computers issues but also its strengths.

Many people do not know that just throwing away your old electronics can build up and create a lot of air and water pollution, as well as heat and noise pollution. In our electronics there are many different types of non-renewable resources, also many precious metals are used such as gold, and silver. All electronics contain hazardous  materials that can have a negative impact on our environment, this materials have to be disposed using special methods. You can help the environment by buying more energy efficient products, as well and products that have less hazardous materials inside of them. Also you can dispose your electronics properly and safely. But on the other side using computers can help the environment, because less trees will be cut down for paper. When disposing of electronics improperly can increase the amount of carbon emissions that are the main cause to global warming, also known as greenhouse gases.    

The hugely anticipated Windows 8 operating system by Microsoft has aired its first ad today. Microsoft is reportedly spending a huge amount of money on advertising Windows 8 along with the new Microsoft Tablet, called the "Surface." Microsoft is holding a special media launch for Surface and Windows 8 on October 25. Furthermore, a number of stores will open at midnight October 26 to sell Windows 8 PCs and Tablets. I think that in order for the new tablet Microsoft is releasing to be successful and sell out to customers, they should start advertising it way more. I haven't even heard of it until reading this article, and with so many other tablets on the market, what makes this one so special? The fact that it runs on Windows 8 is simply not enough to sell the "Surface" in large amounts. Windows 8 will probably become very successful, as Microsoft is a trusted company when it comes to operating systems, and many people worldwide use different versions of Windows. In conclusion, i would focus more on advertising the new tablet rather than Windows 8, and airing these advertisements in as many places around the world as possible to attract worldwide customers.

This article (written by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai) is an interesting analysis of a general trend in the tech industry and demand for people with coding experience. The article states that now is the best time to dive in to coding because it has never been cheaper/easier to do so, with the introduction of Codeacademy - used in ICS20 - in early 2012. In less than 5 months, Codeacademy had stated that it reached over 1 million registered accounts, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Many web-based companies, even the titans that are Facebook and Google, are always looking for people with coding experience. Jobs in programming are also more lucrative than most jobs, even at entry level positions (15 of 21 San Fransisco Developer Bootcamp students were offered jobs in coding, with an average annual pay of $79 000.) The industry is severely lacking in female programmers as well, with only 1:10 ratio of women to men in the industry. This relates to Economics, eLifestyle and ultimately the ISC20 class because as the industry develops, there will be a higher demand for people with experience in coding; 2012 has been widely concerned as the best year for coding because many people who start coding now will most likely be secured for a positon right out of University, which can be very securing to young people who may not be sure of their future. Evidentally, the title says it all; if you are looking for a job, it would be wise to pick up coding because this a newly establihed market; most jobs in computers didn't exist twenty years ago so many people believe that coding will eventually become a societal necessary education, like math or grammar skills. This article shows how we are in a somewhat technological revolution, where we are creating new jobs where all the others are already full.

Wouldn't it be great to communicate with almost anyone in the world without having to learn a new language?  Microsoft has created a software that can analyze your speech, translate it, then play a new recording of your own voice speaking in a different language.  There are some downfalls however.  To reach a stage where the software is able to copy the user's speech and translate it, it would require the software to be trained with said person's voice for hours.  As well, the software may misinterpret the word, and could translate the wrong word, throwing the entire sentence off.  This software gets around one word in eight wrong. Regardless of the flaws, this software will benefit almost everyone worldwide.  People from all over the world will be able to communicate with each other no matter what language they speak.  This will help many companies worldwide as they do business with one another, due to the fact of how easy it will be to communicate with global companies. As well, it will be easier for people to look for jobs since they communicate with almost anyone, which means they can look for a job almost anywhere.   This software seems like it could potentially change the world as we know it today.  Once this software is perfected, it would be an amazing breakthrough in technology, seeing as how many companies would want to buy it.  Many people who don't work for big companies may also want to purchase this software to communicate with people on a global scale, and just to say that they can speak a different language.  To me this software would've been useful long ago, so I would not have to worry about taking international language classes.  Nonetheless, it will be exciting to see this software in the future.

With Christmas slowly approaching, many of us will be shopping for presents online. For scammers, this means there will be more unsuspecting victims to scam. McAfee knows the risk of being scammed is present and has set up a list of 12 scams seen during the holiday season. These include fake charities, malicious mobile apps, too-good-to-be-true offers, and fake gift cards. As online shopping gets more popular, the threat from scammers increases as well so we have to know how to protect ourselves and keep our information secure. While shopping online is more convenient and cheaper in some cases, it isn't as secure as shopping in person at a store. Despite the lesser security in shopping online, people still would prefer it because of its convenience. I think it is good that McAfee released this list of scams to look out for because it will make sure more consumers during the Christmas season and everyday will have knowledge of what to look out for when shopping online. Though I doubt many people will see the list, McAfee has possibly saved many people from having to deal with being scammed, besides even if you can't help everyone you should help anyway.

Many with Google accounts have noticed that their homepage no longer has the nice background they picked, why? Once again, Google is eliminating another one of its least used service: iGoogle. At first iGoogle was a service with many features that are similar to those of other services, but Google also included additional gadgets to make it more Google-like. However, as time goes on, iGoogle's purpose became obsolete since many other apps, whether it is from Google or other services, of the same purpose became more popular. Less people used iGoogle and this forced the company to consider shutting down the service. Those who are upset about the company's decision still have a little less than a year to use the service since the company announced that they will completely shut down the service on November first in 2013. Although Google+, UStart, and ProtoPage, are services that can also serve as replacements, this is a disadvantage to those who prefer iGoogle. The company cannot make decisions that pleases everyone, so they make choices that appeal to the majority instead. For those who do not support the decision, will eventually have to adjust to using other services besides iGoogle.   

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 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.

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.

This article is very interesting in many ways. Many people admire the movie Spider-Man and people would love to have something like this so called spider-sense robot suit. The suit is really cool because it uses many microphones to hear in coming objects, the suit then detects where this noise is coming from and pushes you away from the object. This is great for people that are blind or slow because the suit will move you from harms way and save lives. The suit was tested a number of times and it has a 95% success rate which is really good for the first of it's kind. I am really excited for this cause it brings us one step close to super human like characteristics.

This article is based on recycling of the iPhone 5. Apple sold over 5 million iPhone 5's the first week it was introduced. Most of these buyers weren't first time owners. They were buyers of an iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or an iPhone 4S. Some customers did successfully recycle them, but most iPhone's aren't efficiently thrown out. These resources are collected from our earth. Knowing that many iPhone's have been sold in the past years, there are many resources used from our earth that are getting wasted and overused. If there are going to be many more iPhone's invented, then this will be a problem to our environment and its going to affect our ways of living. In conclusion, if the iPhone if successful and continues to invent more, then we will be living in a different environment which will not be good.

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

Texting is one of the most popular ways of communicating with other people. However, do we really benefit from it? One could argue that it is convenient, but others believe that the language people, especially the youth, use in texts affect their grammar. Some might even say that sometimes they include abbreviations and slang such as b/c, r, and u, in their English assignment without even noticing the problem, I know I have.  In 2011, an estimate of eight trillion text messages were sent, and those between the ages of 18 and 29 make up 95% of the texting population. Many are concerned about the future of the English language since so many people are fond of texting. There was even a National Texting Championship in 2012 that was won by 17-year-old Austin Wierschke who was able to text 149 words in 39 seconds. It seems that texting have become an important part of many lives. Some abbreviations have become so popular that even the Oxford English Dictionary has including them into their dictionaries making abbreviations such as LOL, OMG, FYI, TMI, and BFF, official to the English language. In my opinion, texting is not a crime. It is a convenient and effective way of communicating with other people. I believe that there is nothing wrong with using abbreviations in texts as long as it does not affect the way I write. 

This article talks about different ports on T.V. There are various types of ports on T.v. such as cables, USB, composites, VGA and DVI and Optical Audio / Digital Audio / TOSLINK. However not many people knows the purpose for each of them and end up not using them. If you are part of those people, you should read this article because this describe the purposes of many kinds of ports and what you can do with them as well as what kind of uses there are. Almost everyone owns a T.V. at home but not many of them know how to use their ports so this article could be very helpful to them. This relates to our course because we just learned about various types of USB which is part of T.V. ports. We can use this article to know more about those kinds of USB and their uses and purposes. 

On twitter @bullymovie tweeted something about bullying and asked people to retweet it. The tweet said "RETWEET PLEASE Did u know kids get bullied every year? I support @BullyMovie. Let's make it trend: #BullyMovie" Many people retweeted it including many celebrities such as Randy Jackson, Ryan Seacrest, Channing Tatum and many more. This shows how people get influenced by the computer from that one tweet.