Group items tagged

This article is about how now even in pro soccer leagues, referees can use a smartphone app called Referee Pro to give people cards. It is set to official FIFA rules which means anyone anywhere can use it.  I found this article interesting because it shows how technology is taking over. People can't even do something as simple as pull out a card. Do you really need a phone app ? This relates to class because we always talk about apps and stuff. 

lol apps and stuff

The article i chose is about why Smartphone, Laptop, and Airplane batteries can explode. These batteries are lithium-ion batteries and are less expensive and more energy dense than than regular batteries which is why many people use them. These batteries don't just short circuit, they explode into flames and the batteries explosive tendencies are the result of a process known as thermal runaway. This means that the increasing temp. causes the system to get hotter which increases the temp. and so on. The causes of this are short circuits, temperatures exceeding 60 degrees C, repeated overcharging, or unauthorized modifications to the case. This occurs very rarely but just to be on the safe side all you have to do is make sure you don't repeatably overcharge, and replace the batteries every 36 months or so to avoid pushing a worn cell to hard.  This relates to the selected tag economics because some companies such as apple took out 1.8 million iBook and PowerBook battery packs after just nine reports of overheating. It also relates to Portable Computing because your computer can overheat and be damaged forever.   

An android smartphone called the Alcatel One Touch Idol X has been released in Canada on February 11th. It has average specs compared to the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5s while costing a lot less. Without a contract the Idol costs 250 dollars while with a Bell 2 year plan it has a price tag of 0 dollars. The operating system of the Idol X is a modified version of jellybean 4.2.2 giving the phone noticeable difference but still keeping the android feel. Also the Alcatel smartphone has a beautiful design. It looks a cross between an iPhone and the Samsung galaxy S4. Finally, on paper this phone is near perfect but the next couple months will put it to the test in real life situations.

thoughts/opinions?

A day after Google announced that 190 million Android devices have been manufactured to date, Sony Ericsson this morning revealed that 22 million of those that were sold were its Android-powered Xperia smartphones. 

This article is about how graphene, a material made up of only carbon, could revolutionize smartphones and other other portable devices. Graphene is 100 times stronger than steel and can be made so thin, an ounce of it could cover 28 football fields. Touch screens made with this material would be very strong, light, flexible ,and  and as thin as a piece of paper. A device could be able to fold and fit easily into a pocket. Other possible uses for graphene are thin solar panels, and bionic implants in humans. Once scientists are able to produce large amounts of graphene economically all these products could exist. I chose the tag "portable computing" because this article focuses mostly on the use of graphene for portable smartphones and devices. This material could completely change the portable computing industry.  In my opinion I think graphene has a large potential and scientists should work to make products made with this available as soon as possible. 

your mother was right- Posture is important! In this article, a new innovating chair has been introduced to the market, Gesture chair. Ever since the progression of technology in the last decade, tablets, smartphones and computers are everywhere- including the office. These new technologies, and their frequent use have uncovered nine new postures that have never been seen before. And with these new postures, a new chair is needed for the proper support. Many overlook the importance of posture in you health but good posture is as imperative as eating right, exercising and so on. For example, when we are sitting at a computer much like you are now reading this, you are most likely hunched over with you head and neck tilted forward.This hunched over position creates an imbalance between your head and your spinal column forcing the human body to stretch certain spinal ligaments to support your head. This can eventually cause fatigue and pain. However, this is where Gesture comes in; this chair has the ability to support you body's many postures and movements through out the day. Its features include movable arm rests, fluidity in the back that cradles your back and more. This chair encourages movement rather than restricting the body to a certain position. Overall, it is something that can positively affect your health, and shares new ideas regarding the chair and how we can use technology and kinesiology to improve our lives.

This article is about how Nokia is losing sales because of lack of demand.In an effort ot save the company, Nokia collaborated with Microsoft to create Nokia's Lumia Windows smartphone, the market for it's phones is still declining. There has been a 20 percent decline in quarterly sales resulting in a loss of 272 million euros. Although sales of the LUmia Windows smartphone has increased by 27% it is not enough to offset Nokia's losses. This article shows that Apple has created a niche market in which it dominates. Apple seems to be the only company that customers continually purchase phones from, without decline. With each new phone release Apple develops stronger customer loyalty, that keeps it as one of the top phone companies in the market.

Earlier today, Twitter announced  a brand new update for it's searching features for the web and smartphones including Android and IOS. This new update adds a search button to the Iphone making it up to speed with Androids and any form of a tablet. Also, this update improves search results for photos, tweets and twitter accounts. Secondly, the connect tab automatically defaults to interactions which will display new followers, mentions as well as re tweets. Lastly, which is probably the most favourite new addition, is a change in Twitters mobile implementations handle links. Meaning, you can now click a URL directly from your twitter timeline without having to open a related tweet. This is the new twitter search update that was released earlier today. Make sure to install this update and the mobile site is already sporting the latest updates, but you will need to update your IOS or Android smartphone at their respective store.

This article discusses the speculation that facebook may be already working on its own phone. They are hoping to release a facebook smart phone already by next year. The article states that Facebook has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone to help them create this phone. A Facebook-built smartphone would allow users to more seamlessly send messages, post updates and share photos or article links. Although it makes apps for iPhones and iPads, Facebook is still not integrated into Apple's mobile operating system. They are working on this because, more and more people are now using smartphones, tablets, etc. over computers and laptops. This would allow easy access to facebook anywhere they go without paying for data on your phone. In my opinion, this would be a good thing for frequent facebook users that maybe need it for jobs, just to stay connected, or simply they need to make a status about everything that they do. It would make it much easier to use facebook if they were to make such a phone. I am not a very frequent facebook user. I can wait to get home in order to use so if this phone would come out, I personally do not see a need for me to purchase it.

This article tells us about how riding a bike in the city will soon be easier than ever courtesy of two wheels and AT&T's wireless network for many big cities across the US. The bicycles will have built-in GPS using AT&T's wireless network to make the basic part of public bicycle renting possible-making sure they don't get stolen or abandoned in some unknown place. Also, smartphone users will be able to use an app to locate Social Bicycle racks nearby, as well as reserve bikes and unlock them from racks. Riders will then be capable to bike around the city and return the Social Bicycle at any rack located in the city. You can also rent a bicycle by using the smartphone app to reserve one. The app will automatically send your personalized pin to the rack, which will unlock the bicycle, checking out the bicycle in your name. It also has a cool feature where you can use the app to track stats like calories burned, emissions reduced, and dollars saved. There isn't any information yet on how much the bike rentals will cost. Social Bicycles will hit more cities at the beginning of 2013.

Many of us think of Apple as this giant in electronics. Over the past decade, Apple set the market for smartphones, ultrabooks, and tablets. However, in the past couple of years, Apple has begun to fall off. Rather than being the huge 'juggernaut,' Apple has become a follower, forced to play catch up to other companies including Google and Amazon. Evidence of this are tied to the recent releases of the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7. Apple's response was the iPad Mini, when they realized consumers enjoyed smaller tablets. Before that was the iPhone 5, in response to people wanting larger phone displays. Apple Maps is a blunder that both iOS 6 users and Apple pays for. Apple was slow on the draw to join in on changes to the market specifications. Having controlled the market for the past decade with the popularization of smartphones, tablets, and retina display, Apple was simply unprepared to react to these changes. Apple still has their innovation and secrets hidden in R&D, but the fact of the matter is their most recent releases contain ideas from other companies' progress. This relates to elifestyle because our generation uses these products in our daily lives. Most of us do not remember a time when electronics did not make up a substantial part of our lives; when Apple was not a prominent consumer electronics company. This reminds us that power does not last indefinitely; innovators become followers, and companies fall. The next big thing in electronics may not even exist yet. 

This article explains the fall of the leading company in smartphones. RIM experiences a significant decline in profits. I think that smartphones have risen in popularity and RIM is unable to keep up with their competition and it shows in their profits. I think that in order for RIM to recover from such a loss, they must provide an new and innovative feature to their products or a completely new product that will separate themselves from the competition. I think it is unfortunate that such a successful company experiences such a drastic downfall. This goes to show how unpredictable the world of technology can be.

This article is about the evolution of the normal cell phone vs the smartphone. The Pew internet and the american life projects  reported that smartphone users have now surpassed(Be better than) basic phone users. It also talks about how the mobile phones will over take PCs.

This is sooooo cool! It's going to be awesome to wear glasses that have all the functions of a smartphone without having to actually take a smartphone out! It allows for stuff like a HUD when you're walking around, so it can point you to a location that you specified. The only problem with this is that you may look a little dumb trying to navigate the interface out in public. (You have to tilt your head to scroll and stuff)

Just when you thought that the Apple-Samsung dispute was long gone, the two rivaling tech companies will once again appear in court next week in Silicon Valley. As usual, they are accusing each other of ripping off designs and features. Apple is accusing Samsung of infringing on 5 patents including Samsung's popular Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung on the other hand is accusing Apple of stealing ideas to use on Apple's iDevices. According to Apple attorneys, Apple "revolutionized the market in personal computing devices, while Samsung "systematically copied Apple's innovative technology and products. Samsung in defense says that it has been a "pioneer in the mobile business sector since the inception of the mobile device industry, and that Apple copied many of Samsung's innovations on Apple's iDevices. Some things Apple claims that Samsung copied are tap to search technology, and "slide to unlock" the latter in my opinion, is not true. However, each smartphone has many patents, but Apple is only challenging 5 of them. personally I think that Apple and Samsung devices are very different. Sure some features may be similar or identical, but that's just to have competition. Although both of them are innovators, I think that Samsung/Google is innovating more nowadays than Apple.

A survey reviled that more than nine out of ten teenagers lose sleep because of their smartphones. They lose a few house checking their phone, texting, or watching videos. I find that these kinds of reports are really saddening. These kinds of diversions from everyday life and sleep can be devastating. Another study proved that about one out of ten people had a present sleep after using their electronics before going to sleep. This will probably cause a drop in grade averages and destroy the future of great nations. I myself had been doing this last year and found myself almost missing the bus and my grades slipping. Although technology is good like everything it must be used in moderation so we don't harm ourselves.

Many people have a smartphone, and we all know how dangerous carrying one can be. It's kind of like carrying glass - it can break at any time. Original equipment warranties DO NOT usually cover phone repairs if it is broken, or has water damage. So, some look to third-party device warranty companies. SquareTrade is a company like such, and it gives insurance for what Apple and other OEMs don't cover. Thought it might feel like a scam to you, it's probably worth the money, to protect your phone. phone companies are great for giving you phones, just not for fixing them. So, what other option do we have?

New to the world of phones and transactions alike: the Blackberry Bold 9900 and Curve 9360 are the first SIM-based smartphones to earn the "MasterCard PayPass Certification." This means that MasterCard thinks the phones are advanced and secure enough to handle MasterCard's NFC-based Paypass system. Now that this has been decided, any MasterCard Paypass-issuing bank can give a PayPass account to the SIM card in these phones. As a Vice President of RIM puts it, this is a "significant step forward in the way we use mobile devices for payments." Indeed, VP, indeed. This quite the large leap for Blackberry, and Blackberry users alike, as it will affect the way we do our business and transactions, and therefore out everyday lives. Jealous, Apple & Co.? 

The latest in RIM's collection of Blackberry's have now been deemed secure enough to handle Mastercard's pay pass system which means that when one of these phones SIM cards is encrypted with a pay pass account it will allow the user to make payments from their Mastercard account through their smartphone

Siri may have given Apple the boost they needed to remain on top and above Google. They may have given themselves at least a two-year advantage over Google in the on-going battle for the best smartphone platform. Siri crossed the threshold of being able to directly communicate with your device, and it is huge. Google has a program called Voice Actions, but Siri really understands what you mean. And it's personable. For example, it responds to "I love you, Siri," with "I love you too." Why shouldn't Apple be on top? They have cracked a code that Google has yet too, and the technology for this will haunt the people at Google's nightmares for the next long while.