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By now, everyone who is the slightest bit technologically inclined - or just interested in the news - has heard of the 'questionable' activities of the NSA. The National Security Agency, for the uninitiated, is a United States government agency that deals with national security and recently became the object of scrutiny after leaked information showed the massive data collection effort of the agency. This included: recording phone calls, ingoing and outgoing call identities, computer browsing, emails, key-logging and much much more. Needless to say, this was perceived as a tad scandalous and independent panels were brought in to assess the agencies spying program. Recently, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded that the metadata collected by the NSA was obtained through illegal means. Before you cheer, however, this sort of conclusion has been reached before and has only resulted in a promise to limit spying. This is bad because its merely a promise; a promise from a government who lied repeatedly, committed perjury, knowingly covered its tracks, and chased a citizen away with the threat of life in prison. Unfortunately, many people have since stopped caring because its no longer new news, but we need to stand up for our right to privacy and demand legal action to prevent such breaches of trust in the future.

This article is about iOS exposing the private data on your phone to third party apps. These include your photos, contact numbers and even your present geographical location. And a week later, Android was also discovered having the same security flaw. Both companies promised that they are working on fixing it. They should do it fast because soon, we are going to run out of personal data to expose. 

For a service that had such an artificially high demand, the tech industry has not really capitalized on Video Chat. When Apple unveiled their video chat service 'FaceTime' in June of 2010, many thought that this would become the primary standardized service used by all. In practice, FaceTime is a clunky system that is evidently less productive and convenient than just vocal or text communication. So why hasn't video conferencing taken off as the industry had hoped? The answer is most likely because there is no standardized system and the market is too saturated; Polycom Inc. hopes to adress this issue by introducing a Universal Video Chat in early 2013. The product (called RealPresence CloudAxis) monetizes all of your contacts from Skype, Facebook, Google Talk and other apps into one place - all hosted on a web browser. This is a very ambitious task and if it delivers on what Polycom says (with the "same security and reliability as enterprise systems"), then there may be some validity to the video conference service. This relates to Privacy and Security because when monetizing a group of services, there is a chance for data leak and possible identity theft; Polycom promises to adress all security issues in order to make a safe and immersive experience for its users. This relates to eLifestyle because companies and their consumers have been trying for the past years to create a universal video chat service that actually worked in order to establish a multi-faceted social network: it might be too early to tell if Polycom has something that will fulfill the needs of consumers. This relates to ICS20 because as a class, we are no stranger to multiple accounts that often times serve the same purpose. As consumers, we hope for a streamlined service that can connect all of our multiple accounts into one place, preferably on a browser. It will be hard for Polycom, both legally and economically, to convince all of these pre-existing video chat developers to allow Polycom to

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.

In Lagos, Nigeria in Africa, four teenage girls aged 14 through 15 created a pee powered generator that can generate around six hours of electricity per liter peed.  This contraption works through separating the pee's hydrogen with an electrolyte cell.  Although the option of turning human waste into energy is very appealing and promising, it can also turn out to be a health hazard.  From this, humans have the ability to turn non-needed waste or excretions into a needed thing: electricity.  Personally this idea is extremely appealing to me as I pee a lot.  I also use a lot of electricity when I play games, surf the web, and watch tv.  This contraption here would help tons of people as well as me.  Considering it passes health inspections and can be modified to be more hygeinic.

A Taiwanese company, Polytron Technologies, has developed a new smart phone that is completely transparent. Although this device is a mere prototype, it is a promising look into the future of smartphone technology. It consists of all the features of current smartphones, such as SD card support, speakers, a microphone and battery, but the clear display is what has many people in awe. Polytron calls this new technology Switchable Glass technology which allows the phone to look completely opaque when not in use and transparent when powered on. This technology functions based on the behaviour and properties of liquid crystal molecules in certain conditions. In the coming years we will most likely see this technology being introduced into smart devices if it proves to be a success. No longer will smartphones be thin, black or white rectangles, but rather they will be transparent works of art. In the coming future we may be thanking Polytron Technologies for their brilliant advancement in smartphone technology.  

So the Mobile World Congress is just around the corner and Apple has chosen to stay out of it and have its own exclusive events. Apple has done this to make sure that way Apple news will not get lost in the flood of other announcements. So far Apple has not announced anything yet they do traditionally announce new phones at the WWDC in June. As for the actual iphone 6 Tim Cook confirmed while speaking with ABC that the iphone 6 is going to have a sapphire display by using the company's new Arizona plant. The sapphire display is pretty much just a clear screen. Which I find can be pretty cool but I'm sure it has its disadvantages. But the sapphire display is very strong and quite resistant to scratches so thats great. Though they have not announced very much about the iphone 6 it does sound promising.

"Mobile World Congress on Monday, Zuckerberg delineated some of his plans for moving forward with Internet.org, the initiative led by Facebook to bring Internet connectivity to poor countries around the world.  While Zuckerberg touted the altruistic vision of his company's goal to connect the next one billion people, it's important to note that the project isn't just for the sake of bringing basic services to those that don't have it, but rather bringing millions of additional eyeballs to Facebook and its advertisers.  See Also: Hey Facebook! Connecting The World To The Web Isn't Enough "[We are] making it so that we can increase the amount of up-sells to subscriptions when they're using these basic services," Zuckerberg said in his keynote. "They will come to a link that isn't included in the basic services package; a popup that says, ok if you want to consume this, you have to buy this data plan." Facebook is making a long-term promise to both data carriers and advertisers-Zuckerberg said the next one billion people to attain Internet access will not be as affluent as those already on Facebook, thus making it harder to monetize the company's services. Zuckerberg said the social network will subsidize Facebook, Messenger, and other services like weather or basic news and information, and then provide up-sells in applications to deliver the whole package-like a gateway drug. Those up-sells are where carriers and Facebook make money. "The reason why they're not on [the Internet] is they don't know why they would want to get access to it," Zuckerberg said. "[We will show] people why it's rational and good for them to spend the limited money that they have on the Internet." How WhatsApp Fits Into Internet.org Facebook recently spent $19 billion to acquire the mobile messaging application WhatsApp, an application Zuckerberg claims will be one of the few services to amass a billion users in the future. He claimed that, by it

Intel has announced the new prototype processor that can run off nothing but solar power. The processor uses 20 times less energy than its counterpart chipsets. This design will feature in Intels ultrabooks, a new group of thin, fast computing machines. It is promised that this processor can extend a computers battery life to 24 hours.

Facebook.....what did you do this time? The Timeline, which was supposed to be released "in a few weeks," but now it's two weeks late. Maybe, it's due to controversial feedback from early users. Many feel that Timeline is making them stay on Facebook for longer, and ultimately defeating the main reason they like it: to be able to quickly scan their news feed. However, Facebook has PROMISED to unveil the new Timeline, so all Facebook users will have it, whether they like it or not. Tough love. 

This article was about the leading android app on the Google store to be a scam. It was suppose to protect your phone from malware and spyware, it costed $3.99. Virus sheild just changed the logo from an "X" to a check mark with no effort needed. Many complaints have been sent it saying that this app did not work. Making the price high and having good image previews, and a good description will make people want to buy it because they trusted the rating's and reviews. The app ended up not working, and with other 10,000 downloads, the people that made this scam, made a large amount of money. Google took this app down, and has their eye closely on malicious apps, to prevent this type of scam from happening again.

This article is about how Google is launching an Android Wear Project. Their goal is to bring Android to wearable devices. The world is staring to elaborate more with mobile technology and increasing the number of different uses for mobile tech. Right now, Android wear is focused on watches, which are designed to offer several functions. The app is planned to provide notifications, messages, and updates from social networking apps and it will include Google Now, which will allow the people to ask questions, send texts, set alarms and much more. Android Wear is also being designed to help with fitness and health by providing reminders. The company is partnering with chip makers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek, and Qualcomm, plus fashion brands to help introduce the new Android Wear powered watches in 2014.

Some details on the upcoming Windows 8 were revealed. Including an 8 second boot up time. in my opinion this is very important new feature because a common complaint about pc users (including myself) is a long boot up time.

BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and other parts of the world have been stuck without BlackBerry Messenger and internet access for over two days now. RIM did promise customers in a message via Twitter that the service had been restored yesterday, however, that doesn't seem to be the case.

It's now been three days since RIM's BlackBerry services went down, leaving users all over the world stranded without BlackBerry Messenger, email, and internet access. Despite promises on Tuesday that services were restored and working normally, millions of users have continued to report issues with their devices.

An US air force recruitment commercial that promises that everything you see is real; but right away you notice that the first 30 seconds of the commercial is from a Micheal bay movie. The part that amazed me the most was that the c-17s fly's to a collapsing bridge to safe some stranded people on it, when it gets to the bridge the engines (which are 500,000 pounds each) turn vertical and make the plane stationary for enough time to rescue the stranded; then the plane transforms into another aircraft and fly's away. How can you call something like this real, unless the U.S. army is flying an auto-bot c-17s.