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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

"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

So, Facebook has recently lost some followers, in case no one has heard. Today, Facebook announced the launch of another new feature: something called Subscriptions. It's actually pretty basic. You'll notice that some users will have a button that says "Subscribe." If you press that button, you will begin to see the user's updates in your News Feed, like tthey would if you were their Facebook Friend. However, the people you subscribe to don't approve your request, and there's no limit as to how many people can subscribe to a user. It is very much like Twitter and Google+, not to mention a stronger reboot of a feature called Pages, which has been up and running for a while. The plus side: you can choose what is shown publicly, and what is shown only to friends. Interesting to see how users take to this.

This article is about a music streaming service that Google might release for their Andriod Operating system. A few months ago, Apple was supposedly working on a music streaming service for their iOS and now Google is joining in, increasing the rivalry between them. Because of the on going rivalry between Andriod and Apple, both companies are trying to take all the necessary steps towards buying over their fans. The music streaming service would enable the customer to play music without actually having to download it. You would stream the music from the application with your internet connection, and since Google and Apple are developing these services, all the audio files that will be streamed will be playable on the device in use. This is a good way to get people to listen to music without actually having to download the song illegally and listen to the song they want to buy before purchasing it. This service could boost hardware sales, but they would not make a lot of money from the actual service itself, since its hard to make money with an ad-supported music streaming service.

While Amazon has continued to grow both its video on-demand and all you can eat Prime Instant Video services content-wise, playback on the TV is still limited to relatively few devices. You can add a major one to the list however, since the app has just started popping up on the PlayStation 3. It shows how handy it is to get movies on the Ps3.

in this article, it is stating that MARVEL opened its vault to offer 15 to comic books to iOS and Android users. Marvel is offering this one-time fee of $0.99, a reduced rate, to access the comics during March as a promotion for he company's activities. Marvel Unlimited users can now download up to 12 comics at a time to their personal libary and enable offline reading for on-the-go access. following the month-long promo, fans can continue their subscription to Marvel unlimited for $9.99 a month or $69 for a basic year plan or $99 for the year long premium, Marvel Unlimited Plus, which gives members additional discounts on Marvel products and a first look at Marvel news. Marvel Unlimited is available in the APP Store and Goggle Play Store.   

Today steams family sharing has become available for everyone. Family sharing allows people in a close vicinity to play most of each other's games. Also while a game is being although there are some exceptions like monthly subscription MMO games. I believe that this is a really good and inspiring concept. This allows siblings and friends who come over to you house to play the same games while only one person owning it. This is giving similar freedom you have in console games where you can play together using one disk. Although this is still early and really buggy, I myself tried to share games with my brother and while his computer found my laptop shows "no other local accounts found". All in all being released so recently I am impressed.

This article is about how Apple plans to increase its music sales by bringing iTunes to Android and launching a paid music subscription service. Google has already brought their Google Play Music to iOS devices. Even though Apple takes up about 40% of the U.S. digital music market, it has declined in the double digits in the past few years. They plan to expand to Android and open its store to hundreds of millions of users. I don't think this will work good for Apple because there already so many other music services such as Spotify, Pandora, Beats Music and Google Play Music itself on Android, and most people these days just download their music online because they do not want to spend lots of money to buy a song or an album.

The company behind Animal Planet has bought a two-year-old network called DogTV. The channel broadcasts 24/7 content for dogs with three categories: relaxation, stimulation, and exposure. The target market for this channel is for owners that feel guilty about leaving their pets home alone. The idea is not new either, a channel called Puppy Channel was launched in 1997 and still has a website today. In August, DogTV closed its distribution deal with DirecTV and DirecTV estimated that half of its 20 million customers are dog owners who would be interested in the channel. DogTV has gone with the HBO style charging their monthly subscription $5 on the channel and $10 for online streaming. If the owners of the dogs are interested in watching the channel as well, the channel may add advertising to it. Dan Fox, Discovery's senior vice president of corporate development, says that DogTV is a very natural fit and is lacking big-name stars. This is good because unlike other very popular shows, the channel will not have to pay a lot for salaries. I think this is a great ideas for dogs who have to stay home because their owners are not allowed to take them out. It will keep the dogs busy as well as keep them entertained and stimulated while the owner is out doing whatever they need to do without having to worry about if their dog is ok.

Five-year old Kristoffer Davies was able to login in to his dad's, Richard, Xbox Love account and was able to play video games that were off limits to him. Kristoffer entered a series of spaces and clicked enter, gainning access to his father's account. Richard Davies said that he found it incredible that a five-year old is able to launch a "secured" Xbox Live account. Richard Davies did report this to Microsoft and they are taking matters into their own hands. According to KGTV-10, an affiliate station to CNN said that Microsoft will give Kristoffer 4 games, a $50 gift card and a year-long subscription of Xbox Live.

As HP is falling behind all the new technologies they are beginning to be a disgrace to the technological world, and the world of annoying and pointless subscriptions. HP is now going to introduce a new service called instant ink that will cost somewhere between 6-10 dollars a month. basically what it is will be a message will be sent to this service when your printer is out of ink, and in a few days, you will get more ink. Ya definitely not going to work.

...And this is why no one should use Norton. Ever. Well that's not the only reason, it's slow, it makes you pay expensive subscription fees and it tends to put pop-ups on your desktop, but this is a good reason not to use it too.

Google has been keeping quiet about their latest tech, but a leak has hinted toward a google smart watch with certain features that will compel you to purchase the new wave of wearable tech. The google watch will allow you to get ambient notifications between your phone and watch through Blue tooth LE. This connectivity will allow you to awnser calls, and see who is texting you. The watch will take a "Pebble" like design, but it will have a less masculine plastic wristband instead. The watch though, will either be released with less features or fully released at a later date due to time constraints. In my opinion, wearable tech is interesting but I believe its still in a beta-phase due to the fact of limited battery life and actual applicable features in real life.