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In early December of this year Intel is going to come out with a new NUC (Next Unit of Computing) mini-PC. This mini-PC has everything a normal PC except its more compact. Its motherboard is 4x4inches and held by four screws to put memory, its PCIe cards, and its power cord. The PCIe slots accommodate half height cards, for WiFi, mSata, and you can put a full height card. The mini-PC holds a core i3 processor, HD 4000 graphics, two SoDIMM sockets, mSATA and mini-PCIe interfaces, one to two HDMI and three USB 2.0 connectors. The DC3217BY model carries a Gigabit Ethernet which favours Thunderbolt and everything listed above. The mini-PC will be priced from $300-$320 and sold on Amazon and Eggdrop. This portable computing by it's so small that it fits in your jacket, blazer, and purse. Many people won't need to buy big bags for their computer. Its economics because more PC companies will have to come out with better computers than the mini-PC or join in the race to build the best mini-PC. PC companies will have to make their computers cheaper to compete with the mini-PC. Overall it's good for the consumer because you many companies competing and making their products cheaper and better.  

US carrier AT&T lowered the price of its 2GB monthly plan. This plan also includes unlimited talk, and international texting. The 2GB of data, can be shared with family, or other devices. The plan used to cost $55 per month, but starting today, it dropped $15 to $40 per month. The monthly fees for a smartphone on this plan is $40 per month on a 2 year contract, and $25 per month if bought outright or through AT&T's Next incentive which allows you to upgrade every year. The total cost of this plan would be $80 on a contract, and $65 outright, or through next. I think this plan, especially through Next is an excellent deal. I think that Canadian carriers should offer more plans like these to replace the costly plans we pay for today.

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.    

This article is about the comparison of the old apple earphones and the new EarPods. Apple claims that the new EarPods sound as powerful as the expensive earphones invented in the world (example: Beats by Drake.. if that's what they're called). These new EarPods are as powerful as a expensive pair of earphone, but cost only 29$ and if you purchase any apple device (iPhone, iPod touch, etc.) these earbuds are free.  I have watched the video below, and some people say they can't tell a difference from the old earphone, while other people say it's a big difference. I have never used the EarPods before, but in my opinion I do think it would make a difference because technology is improving and becoming more successful. One little piece of technology can make a big difference in the world. Also, the customers have commented that these EarPods are more comfortable to fit into your ears. These EarPods are not a great device to repair. However, they are a low price so once your EarPods break, you could buy a new pair.

The above article (by Cyrus Favriar) details various interesting facts about the concentration of cellphone subscriptions on the planet - over 6 billion. At first the idea of 85% of the global population having access to a mobile phone seems outrageous, but 6 billion subscriptions does not necessarily mean 6 billion individual mobile phone owners. Many people living in third world countries will have multiple phones in order to take advantage of cheap calls within the carrier to and from a specific other party. Another interesting fact detailed in the article is that over 1/3 of the world's cellphone subscriptions is attributed to China and India, with over 2 billion subscriptions combined. A study from Gartner predicts that 1 billion smartphones will ship worldwide in 2014, and data from Canalys showed that more smartphones were sold in 2011 than personal computers. Between July 2011 and June 2012, Americans used 1.1 billion GB (> 10 000 TB) of mobile data, and over the last year Americans collectively spent 2.321 trillion minutes on the phone and have sent 2.273 trillion text messages. So, why should we be interested in all of these arbitrary facts? We understand that as smartphone prices become exponentially less expensive and other parts of the world gain access to data services, mobile broadband continues to grow at a rapid pace. There is a global trend from fixed-broadband to mobile-broadband subscriptions, simply because it is more cost-effective. As global bandwidth increases we can supposedly pump an infinite amount of data to billions of customers around the world. This relates to eLifestyle because it shows that although we talk about poverty and oppression around the world, one thing unites us: technology. This relates to Economics because of the decreasing cost of smartphones and the accessibility of cheap subscriptions becoming more prominent. This relates to the ICS20 class because as most of us own mobile phones and have mobile plans with various car

LG released its newest refrigerator called the Smart Thing.which as you can guess, is a "smart" fridge. The fridge can communicate and interact with your Android phone to complete or help complete some of its tasks. This fridge can tell you what is in the fridge, scan barcodes of food products, suggest recipes based on the user's preferences and lifestyle, notify expiration dates, and count your calories. All these features can be done on an Android smartphone. Everyday, technology is improving itself to be better than its predecessor and allowing us to live simpler, more automated lives. This fridge is bringing computing into the kitchen by allowing us to do more things with our fridge other than just store food. We can now have our questions like "when will the eggs expire?" answered automatically by this new fridge. It appears as time goes on, the implementation of computers into our daily lives will be more and more prominent. The LG Smart Thinq is an amazing appliance because it is redefining the refrigerator entirely by making it so that modern fridges should soon have built-in computers. Yes this fridge is expensive at about $4500, but over time this price will drop to something more reasonable and also influence other companies to make fridges just like this one. Though this is a cool fridge, I still wonder who would buy a $4500 fridge.

This article is about Freescale launching the world's smallest arm chip. It is made of silicon and is only 2 x 2 x 0.5mm. It can hold 48 HMz ARMM Cortex-M0+ processor, 32KB flash memory, and 4KB of RAM. This, however, is not designed to run desktop software, but is instead intended to be used for products that can be swallowed. I think this is an improvement on "Portable Computing", as this technology can be used in the medical field. This also follows the trend of minimization, as we can now see the potential and advantages of having smaller chips, for example, inserting them into pills that can be swallowed. Freescale is pricing this product at 75 cents apiece, if purchased in 100 000 unit loads. However, I am certain that the cost will go up dramatically if launched successfully, causing the a shift in the electronic market and economy.

It is well-known that Apple has access to almost any music that one can think of. However, according to the New York Post, Apple is low-balling record labels for the rights to use their music in a new music streaming service. The company is only offering labels 6 cents per 100 listens, where as Pandora offers 12 cents per 100 and traditional radio pays 22 cents per 100. One can say that Apple is trying to enter this business, but not willing to go through all the trouble and complications that other music streaming services has to go through. I personally do not think this is right because record labels go through a lot of work just to try to get a little profit from the music industry. With Apple offering such a low price to use their music, it is not fair to those who work hard for a result.

This article talks about how Google is rumored to release a second-generation Nexus 7 tablet. There is said to have more screen resolution, a thinner bezel and an unspecified Qualcomm CPU.  There is no info or pricing, and Google has not confirmed any information yet.  If this information is accurate, then this will be good news for Google.  The first generation Nexus tablet had huge successes, and its predecessor should share the same success.  Also, Google has chosen to go with Qualcomm, a digital wireless telecommunications producer.  This will allow the Nexus 7 Second-generation to save power,  as they are going to drop the current Nexus 7's NVIDIA Tegra 3.  This new tablet sounds very promissing, and will help the company make a large profit while being user friendly.

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

This article is about how Apple's stock prices have decreased by 2.7%. In fact, $290 billion has been wiped off Apple's value since September. The article explains that the last time, Apple's stock was so low was when Steve Jobs had passed away. The article also talks about how investors will only pay about $9 for a dollar profit, whereas for a different company such as Standard & Poor's 500 company, they will pay $15. This shows that Apple's investor loyalty is falling. Investors no longer see Apple as a "safe" investment, which is why they are no longer willing to invest in Apple. Investors are not sure of the direction that Apple is going, which is why they are reluctant to invest and take a risk.

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?

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.  

This article takes the results of a research center which says that approximately 61 percent of Facebook users will take random breaks from the site, and can go for weeks at a time. The people who have answered this survey say they take time off of Facebook because A. Lack of time to dedicate to updating their profiles. B. They are losing interest in the site. or C. Facebook is a waste of time. I believe this is true because I personally have noticed that Facebook is slowly losing consumers to other social network such as Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Tumblr, ect. I also feel like this article is truthful because recently Facebook has been losing lots of its stocks, and its price for their stocks is below par compared to when they were starting up. This article relates to eLifestyle tag because this shows how people may be less reliable on their social network website (Facebook) and may be having a more social life, rather than being on the internet.

Elvis Impersonator take a step further with use of voice of control by using your Iphone, what can be done now with your Iphone now is that use raspberry Pi and siri to control things in your home such as opening and closing your garage door, changing the Chanel on television, opening or closing the your lights, checking your  security camera, and so on. Many users complain about this mainly towards on how much you have to pay, in order for you to get these features you have to have sensors around your house is specific places, and therefore you must pay a high price, a minimum of $500, many say that's its not worth it and better to get the lights yourself , and others say that this is the next step for technology and therefore making us live the future  

Bogomil Shopov, a Bulgarian blogger and digital rights activist, bought 1.1 million Facebook names, user IDs and e-mails for the ridiculously low price of 5 dollars. Luckly for us, he was not trying to spam people, or use this info in a negative way. Instead he wanted to see how bad the facebook security really is. And it turns out to be really bad. According to the seller of the information, a Gigbucks user with the handle "mertem," the data was collected from Facebook applications."The information in this list has been collected through our Facebook apps and consists only of active Facebook users, mostly from the US, Canada, UK and Europe," reads the Gigbucks post. This can affect us a lot because there are a lot of teenager (our age) facebook users. If instead of person who was trying to prove a point was a spammer, the information that we have on facebook can be in danger.  Facebook is currently looking into the breach of user data but they haven't yet come to a resolution.

On October 29 Google unveiled its new tablet the Nexus 10. This is Google's first 10 inch Nexus device and it runs on an Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Google's newest mobile system, also it comes with some new cutting edge hardware you ever seen in an Android tablet. Google has priced its new tablet at $399 to compete with the other new tablets such as Microsoft Surface, iPad 4th generation, and Kindle Fire HD. The Nexus 10 has a 2560 x 1600 pixel Super PLS display at 300ppi and has a denser display screen than other competitors. The Nexus 10 runs on an ARM Cortex-A15 processor and quad-core Mali T604 graphics processing unit. It has a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 1.9 megapixel front camera. The Nexus's new software has a new user account option that lets multiple users customize the tablet to their own needs without disrupting other users that may have access to it. The only bad thing it lacks the proper apps for a tablet that are available to Android. It is eLifestyle because a lot of people have been waiting for this new tablet and it's different than the latest tablets. It's portable computing because it runs on the new Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and Google's latest mobile system. Has a bigger screen and it will compete very well with the other companies.

This article (by Emily Price) details a few interesting facts surrounding the social media giant 'Facebook', particularly around gaming. We are all familiar with social games, such as Mafia Wars and Farmville, and Facebook has been recently seeing most of their income from in-game advertisements and in-app purchases. Facebook has seen a 13% growth in gaming users since September 2011 (226 million - 251 million.) Facebook now has over 900 million users, and over 500 million users are utilizing Facebook via a mobile platform. Facebook says that games grow on the network in five different ways: App Center, Notifications, News Feed, Timeline, and games users have Bookmarked. 8 out of the 10 top iOS games have Facebook integrated, and the top two categories of games users play on Facebook are 'Simulation' and 'Games and Puzzles.' This relates to Portable Computing because Facebook has recently taken large steps to improve the user's mobile experience, understanding that most of their core audience is on smart devices. This relates to eLifestyle because we see these social networks like Facebook integrating gaming into the user's social feed, allowing them to spend more time on the site. This relates to Economics because as games become cheaper and more accesible, we see that most of the gaming market is taken by mobile games; no longer do we have to go to an electronics boutique to purchase a $60 triple-A game, when we can buy the $0.99 version of said game or another digitally. Mobile games are the consumer conscious choice because you get the most "bang for your buck." This relates to ICS20 because although most of us say that our time on Facebook is deteriorating, we still are entrenched in the social gaming environment; this is demonstrated by Facebook's 65 million user growth in 2012 alone.

This article is of interest to me because it explains what the best processor is for gaming. I have always loved playing video games and I am constantly on the computer but now I can do both. Learning about which processor is best for gaming is important and significant for someone who wants to play video games on the computer. Choosing the right processor is key to have the best gaming experience possible. This starts from choosing a processor that is in your price range, has powerful graphic features, but can also fulfill your needs of playing fast, at a high performance, and without it taking too much space on your hard drive. Overall, I have a better understanding about gaming on the computer and I hope to use this information to start to game on the computer in the most efficient and fastest way to play.

While the tablet was originally supposed to be out in May, the date has been pushed back until July. Reasons being: they hope to make it more cheaper than what it was originally supposed to cost ($250). This is also because they are in competition with the Kindle Fire only costing $200. I think that this was a bold move for Google because it it makes sense that they would've seen a flop with their product because theirs would've been more expensive. While lowering the price would be beneficial for us, no one really knows if it'll be a success for them like the Kindle Fire was for Amazon.