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my opinion on the Google glasses are that they are not good because they are making people rely on technology way to much. people are relying on technology to much and when they don't have it, they will feel lost. i think people rely to much on technology that they can't have a proper conversation with a person face to face or use a paper map to find their way when they are lost. We have to teach the kids of this generation how to survive in life without technology and not letting them rely to much on technology, because when they don't have it they will not no how to use their brain or books to get info and will be to lazy because the information won't be at the tip of their fingers. this my opinion on the Google glasses

The main idea of this article is the possible effects on the environment that laptops have over desktops. This article discusses the possible of conserving natural resources, using energy efficiently, and how laptops contribute to landfill toxins. Connection: The main problem that laptops have is the resources that laptops are made of. For example, laptops are usually made of metals such as mercury, lead, chromium and other various metals that if not recycled could contaminate the land and resources around the landfill. For example if such metals end up in the landfill, they could contaminate ground water, land water, and the soil around the landfill. This wouldn't allow us to drink the water as well as growing crops or using the soil around the landfill. This highlights how important it is for us to create laptops that use less harmful metals and the importance of recycling laptops.  In my opinion, considering some of the harmful effects that laptops have they also have many positive ones. For example, now that people can use things such as power point presentations, sending emails, we don't need to use as much paper as we used to which saves paper and preserves trees. Due to computers, communication has also become much easier. People can now order things off the internet rather than drive far away to a specialty shop, their item is delivered by a delivery person who has many things to deliver. This is far more efficient than each person driving to a shop to buy something.  In conclusion, computers do have some negative effects on the environment but they also do have some positive effects and made our life much easier. Roman.

This article is about a new spy plane that costs $195,000 and fits in the palm of your hand. Now the British soldiers will be a bit safer thanks to this little plane and it flies nearly silently. Prox Dynamics of Norway designed this little plane and it is only 4 inches long and 1 inch tall. This plane can provide videos to the soldiers hand from up to 1000 meters away. It has been used in Afghanistan since August of 2012 and has impressed so far. It is also very hard so see or hear. This article relates to the selected tag because it impacts the lives of both the locals and the military. It affects the locals because they do not have much privacy and security anymore due to this new spy plane. This is unethical and illegal because people want their privacy and if people are spying on them daily they are not secure. Even though it is unethical to do this I think that it would be much safer for most people to use this new plane. The only thing I do not understand is why the plane costs so much and if they will be able to reduce the price.  

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.

With each new generation of smartphones, dropped calls and battery life issues are still an issue, the reason is partly because antenna technology has not changed very much. Scottish scientists have changed this. They spent 7 years to create a cellphone antenna quite smaller than a coin. The Sofant Technologies team claims that this new antenna is more efficient, finding signals faster and using up less battery life. The smaller something is in technology the less it has to travel therefore speeding the device up. The antenna also takes advantage of the full potential of LTE and 4G connectivity. Sofant plans on licensing its designs to smartphone manufacturers all over the world.  I chose the tag of portable computing because this article is about antennas, a vital part of a cellphone. This new antenna will affect people who use cellphones, which is a large amount of people in North America. In my opinion I think this new antenna is long overdue. The fact that antenna technology hasn't changed much over the years is pretty surprising. This new antenna is a step in the right direction for smartphones. 

As you all probably know, the new Apple maps available on iOS 6 is failing to live up to many expectations and requirements. Since coming out, it has had a lot of criticism and many apple customers were disappointed. There has even been a public apology from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who promised that Apple were hard  at work improving Apple Maps. In my opinion, it is embarrassing when such a prestigious company such as Apple develops something that receives this much criticism. I also think that this can hurt Apple's reputation, and even cause users to switch over to rival companies such as Samsung for phones. The big question, however, is whether or not Apple can match or even improve on the previously incorporated with Apple products, "Google Maps." Some say this is unlikely, as Google has much more experience in make map apps, and as Apple still has a long way to go until they can improve Apple Maps to a level where it could be considered decent.

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.    

Social media has exploded over the years and become a huge part of all of our lives. From facebook to twitter, from instagram to tumblr, everywhere we look there's some kind of social media being thrust in front of us. It has appeared so often that we have grown used to it. It's not unusual when someone stops to update their twitter or upload a picture of their lunch to instagram. There's that sense of excitement when your phone buzzes to tell you that you've been retweeted or your post has been liked. Social media has become part of our lifestyle and it's a great benefit to have. It allows you to keep in contact with relatives and friends and stay updated on the lives of those around you, but have we started to become too reliant on this advantage. This article had provided a look at various social media addicts, like 'the liker' and 'the constant checker' and despite the humorous aspect to it, you can still see a slightly more serious question behind it. This article brings to light an issue that we all knew existed, but never really paid much attention to. It had referred to the different types of reliance's on social media as addictions. It's a strong word to describe what most might usually think of as just small habits or pastimes, but maybe addiction is the right word to use. This post not only highlights the different types of social media addicts, but it also tells us the 'symptoms' and downfalls that can come out of each one and it raises some fair points. It draws attention to the fact that the addiction to social media can not only annoy those around us, but also hurt yourself and waste your valuable time. I mean, it becomes very hard to concentrate on the work at hand as soon as your phone or computer buzzes to tell you that someone has mentioned you in their tweet. Social media makes procrastinating so much easier, not that we wouldn't find our ways to without it. This article is just proof that the world around usis growing, especially the cyber world

Over the years, the internet has become faster and faster and as this has happened our patience has decreased. We have come to expect fast speeds and short loading times on the internet and anything slower is considered unacceptable. However, before reading this article I didn't realize how impatient we had really become when it comes to the internet. This article talks about the results of a study that showed that users were likely to give up on a video after only two seconds of loading! This had come as a surprise to me. To me, two seconds seems like only an instant, but I have to admit that I still am not willing to wait much longer than that for a video especially if the video is only 10 minutes or less. However, I find it interesting how two seconds of loading has become an issue, while we are still waiting through 30 seconds or more of advertisements before we are able to view our video. If we have already spent so much time watching an ad a couple more seconds shouldn't seem like a big deal. This article shows how our expectation of high speeds has affected us and our lifestyle. We have come to expect our video to load almost immediately and if it doesn't do this then it isn't worth the time. Our ability to wait is being altered. We're no longer used to having to wait for things that we want to watch, see or listen to on the internet. We've changed into thinking that if it doesn't load instantly, then it isn't worth watching. Of course, our patience should have limits. If it really is taking longer than the length of the video itself to load then perhaps it is time to abandon the video, but I feel that waiting only two seconds before moving on shows how impatient we have become with technology.

This article talks about new gesture that could be used in addition to finger touch in order to have more options easily and launch new apps using your knuckle, fingertip, fingernail and more. A trio of Ph.D. students at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh managed to modify a Samsung Galaxy SIII to accept input from all three different touch variations, and tell the difference between them. It accomplishes this with the help of a vibration sensor and software that listens for the acoustic differences that come with the different types of touches. A man named Harrison has already started a company called Qeexo to start selling this tech. This vibration sensor can easily be added to any smartphone's "guts" and the software added too.   This article has a lot to do with portable computing because different companies are always coming up with new innovative ways to make smart phones more "smart". This is one of those things that a new company called Qeexo is doing. They are looking to improve the options and speed of using a smartphone for example instead of opening up a note pad by going into the menu and clicking it with your finger, you can use the "shortcut" of taping your knuckle twice to open it. This can also be used in gaming, option menus etc.  The main point is that companies are always changing making technology much more natural and easy to use. I think that this is a very good idea and over time if people hear about this depending on how much this would cost to upgrade it may become big and even become a pre-installed feature. 

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.

This article is basically about how Google has Forked WebKit with Blink, making a new web engine for both Chromium and Chrome. WebKit is usually referred to as the glue that binds the moodern web: the rendering engine powers Apple`s Safari, Google`s Chrome and many mobile browsers both past and present. Google believes that Chromium`s multi-process approach has added to much complexity for both the browser and WebKit itself, so it`s creating a seperate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be much the same as WebKit from the start, it`s expected to change over time as Google strips out unnecessary codes and tweaks the underlying platform. The company has also confirmed that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future.

EA has once again made the Worst Company in American History. Although many think the constant hate towards EA is a circlejerking karma train their problems and mistakes are very much real. This article outlines 3 of their main failures: -not providing a product their costumer will want -not selling a product at a reasonable price -not supporting the products they sell Despite selling games that millions of people buy most are rushed, including features that nobody wants, and not fixing previous mistakes. They also try to squeeze as much money out of their consumers as possible. They make people pay for money in-game products that should already be in the original copy and the make many of their games pay-to-win. The last big point that makes EA the Worst Company in American History was the fact that they have a habit of not supporting the products they sell. For example when

With the thin, sleek design, the shiny screen, and the convenient touch screen, the iphone has grown to become one of the most wanted phones in our country. Behind the high-tech phones and tablets though there's a much more serious issue. Iphones are often created in factories in China that exploit their workers. Things like child labor and abuse are practiced often in these factories. However, this article didn't only bring up the issue of human rights violations, but also our role in it. In the past, companies like Nike have been forced to improve the quality and treatment in these factories after many people boycotted the brands once discovering the ethical issues in the production process. We have not let the exploitation of workers in China pass before, so why are we doing it now with these Apple products. Every time we lay down our money and pick up a new iphone or ipad, we are encouraging this type of production and becoming a part of it. Even our simple, silly complaints about the Apple products can make the conditions worse for those poor workers. They are forced to work even harder and longer, no matter how tired, underpaid and overworked they already are. Has it become important for us to own the best phone, that the rights and sufferings of other human beings no longer matters? Why are we not taking the action necessary to help those workers and send a clear message of opposition? Before, reading this article I also wanted an iphone. It's a great phone, very convenient and high-tech. Knowing the conditions these phones are made in though has started to really make me doubt what I used to consider an amazing phone. It's an ethical issue. Do I want this phone so badly that I'm willing to turn a blind eye to the places it came out of? What scared me was that as much as I knew what the clear answer was, it was still a hard decision to make. Exploiting other humans is wrong and no matter how big Apple is, they are not an exceptio

This article discusses that soon, video cameras will be able to predict your next move.  By using technology similar to that used in Microsoft's Kinect and Google's self-driving cars, the cameras are getting better and better at spotting and identifying certain objects. The step the researchers are on now is creating a "cognitive engine" so that a computer can decide whether or not those objects are misbehaving and whether or not they are about to. This will defiantly make a thief's/shoplifter's job much harder. This new software can be implemented for not only military purposes, but also civilian situations. For example airports.( if someone is leaving a suspicious package somewhere.) This kind of technology will make our everyday lives much safer because it will prevent things such as theft, terrorism, etc.  This software is not complete yet but it's coming together very swiftly. Prepare everyone, Skynet is coming.

From the time social networking rose sharply in popularity, everyone has been sharing their lives to the Internet through pictures and statuses. Since then, users' news feed has been filled with things they really don't care about. Whether it be someone telling the world what kind of cereal they are eating or posting a celebrity's quote even though they have no idea what the quote means. Facebook's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg says that the amount of pointless garbage we see now will increase 1000 times more in the next 10 years. Yes that's right, more pictures of people making duck faces and statuses giving every detail of someone's life. This ties in with eLifestyle because even if we don't want to admit it, logging on to social networking sites to see what pointless information people are posting is a part of most of our daily lives. This daily ritual is good for giving us something to do to pass the time. However, our constant obsession is sometime placed before our education by people spending too much time checking on what their friends are doing therefore depriving them of the time to finish homework. I think Mark Zuckerberg's claim that the rate of sharing will increase dramatically is highly unlikely because once the amount of sharing reaches a certain point, social networking users might be fed up and quit using it because any posts that actually seem intelligent will be drowned out by other more dull posts. I personally don't like meaningless statuses like how someone just bought an apple at No Frills, which is part of the reason why I lost interest in social networking sites.

This article is about how Amazon is now letting you trade in your CD's in exchange for Amazon gift cards. you can purchase any thing on Amazon using your gift cards. However you wont know how much you'll receive on your gift card. This depends on how much the CD is worth. I found this to be interesting because now most of society's music is coming from online and CD's are losing their popularity. This is a perfect example. There are other things that you can trade to Amazon such as movies and video games. These two objects are also being replaced by the internet.  

This article is about how a teen in China had sold his own kidney to get the money to pay for an ipad and iphone. Now this teen is going through renal failure, meaning his body can't filter out toxins so he is going to need a kidney transplant. The doctor, surgeon and medical staff involved in this case have been charged. I found this article to be really eye opening. I couldn't believe that someone would go through so much trouble to get an ipad and iphone. It shows how much society cares about having the latest thing. Its a bit sad now that the teen has to have a kidney transplant because of this. 

This article explains how the co founder of twitter believes spending too much time on the site will is "unhealthy." I agree that spending unreasonable amounts of time on the computer is unhealthy in general. I think the purpose of twitter is too update people on issues that interest them or express random ideas or thoughts on their mind. however, it is important that we limit the time we spend on twitter and other social networks in order to keep up with real life social activites. 

Over the past few years, the iphone has become much more popular.  It's thin, light and efficient design has attracted many users. However, despite the improvements made to the phone over the years it still remains rather fragile.  Our society has become so reliant on technology, yet our day to day life is very hazardous to these delicate electronics.  Every day, people drop, kick, and spill on their iphones and end up with a broken phone.  You'd think because of this constant issue iPhones would be made sturdier so that it can make it through the day, however, in the last year 30% of iphone users have damaged their phone.  Iphones come at such high prices.  We expect that when we buy one, we have not only bought a phone that can meet our daily expectations, but one that can also last through the day.  Hopefully, this is an improvement that we will see on the new iPhone5.   I think that as great as the new iPhone features are, they should also be focusing on making it last, because if the phone breaks what good are the new features?  My sister had dropped her iphone a couple of times and part of the screen had cracked.  However, despite the damage she had still had to use and rely on this old, cracked phone for a few more months until she could get it replaced, due to the costs of getting it repaired. It had caused her some problems and I'm sure many other iphone users have encountered this issue.  I don't think the goal is to make it easier or cheaper to repair iphones, but rather make it so that less people need repairs.