Group items tagged

Cellphones play a huge factor in our everyday life.  Everybody uses cellphones nowadays.  However, the real question is, when should a child receive a cellphone?  Rather, when should a parent give their a child a cellphone?  Everybody is different, so they have their own opinion as to when they are ready to receive a cellphone/give a cellphone.  A recent report shows that nearly half of the teens surveyed say they can't live longer than a week without their phones, and 36% said they check their phones at least every 10 minutes.  Of course, these habits don't develop within a day of course.  An American research market company polled parents on what they thought the most appropriate age for a child to receive their first cellphone.  Twenty-two percent of parents polled said they thought 10 was the right age, while 43% of the parents fell within the 10 to 12 age range.  I find this ridiculous, because not even I have my own cell phone, nor will I be receiving one in the near future.   In today's society, a phone is like a miniature computer that you can take anywhere with you.  Phones were originally used for making phone calls and giving parents feel a sense of security knowing they can contact their kids whenever and wherever.  However phones can also be a whole set of challenges to a parent.  It is an Internet-enabled device with few parental controls, which could be one challenge.  It might also give a child access to inappropriate apps, the less-than-wholesome intentions of other people, from bullying to worse.   As a child's age increases, there comes many other challenges such as sexting or texting while driving. Personally, I feel the only time one can be ready for a phone, is when they prove that they are mature enough to handle such responsibility.  But that's just my side of the story.

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

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.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed to help protect digital rights, but allowed the Librarian of Congress to make exceptions to the act that would otherwise not follow the act. Today (October 28), four new exemptions to the DMCA were put into effect most notably the legalizing of jailbreaking on iPhones but not iPads. The other exemptions to the DMCA are the requirement of disabled people to own multiple devices in order to access e-books, the illegalizing of unlocking a cell phone purchased after January 2013 at a new carrier without permission from your old carrier, and the legalizing of ripping some content of a DVD only for specific purposes. The new exemptions put into effect could have a serious impact on the technology market. The number of e-book reader sold to disabled customers will decrease drastically since they will have to buy other devices so they can legally read e-books. Apple and app developers would also lose a lot of revenue from the App Store since more users will be motivated to jailbreak their iPhones and get pirated apps instead of actually buying apps since they can do so legally. The new exemptions could cause some providers to lose some money though not a significant amount should the provider refuse to unlock cell phones when consumers go to other countries since in the foreign country, consumers will be paying and using service from a local provider instead of their original provider causing them to miss out on some money. Finally, the DMCA exemptions could cause a decrease in DVD sales not just because they are losing popularity already but also because if someone wants to rip a part of a DVD, they can just borrow it from someone else instead of buying and ripping the needed content. I think these new exemptions are very silly and could end up being more harmful than useful. Making disabled customers buy multiple devices just to access e-books is very discouraging to potential e-book reader customers. I also wonder th

This article talks about a lot of jobs related to social networking and amount of salary they are paid every year. This shows the social impact of social networking on our society because social networking is a big part of our society that there are so many jobs that deal with that. In the past, there were barely any jobs related to social networking. There is a pie graph that shows all the different jobs related to social networks and how much they are paid in each province in U.S. I thinks this would be a great help to teenagers who are interested in the social network systems because now they can look for careers that they might find interesting and work toward to achieve it because not many people know about the jobs that deals with social networking and they have hard time looking for something they can do but this article could help them. 

 IPhone 5 is a the new phone that everybody wants. However is it actually everything we expected? Many IPhone 5 users are talking about how they have been noticing their phones flickering. The first reports were as soon as the device was launched. The main thread for the issue is over 12 pages long with reports of flickering screens. When people began investigating they realized that this issues seems to most frequently occur when a user accesses the virtual keyboard in the App Store. Because the users don't see flickering each time they use it , it only affects the virtual keyboard which means it is a software issue. My personal opinion on this topic is that if Apple doesn't want to lose the rank they have they need to fix this!  

This article talks about our famous #firstworld problems jokes on Twitter and other Social Networking sites. They may seem funny to you, but DDB New York sees them as creating an online atmosphere of neither sensitivity nor awareness to deal with real social and worldwide problems. So DDB decided to team up with the non-profit organization called WATERisLIFE. Together they traveled to Haiti to film locals reading aloud a series of these "problems" to show how ridiculous they are in comparison to real problems that people face in third-world countries like Haiti. In addition to the video they tweeted some of the original authors of the #firstworld problems saying things like "I'm sorry you were awoken by your cleaning lady. I hope today is better" as well as a call to action to donate money to WATERisLIFE which helps create water solutions and rebuilding communities.  This article relates to eLifestyle and how those posts may be funny to us they can also be insensitive to real problems world-wide even though we don't always intend to be hurtful. This also relates because it shows how the internet can be such a positive or negative thing worldwide. In this case out of an insensitive tweet people were inspired to create awareness for bigger issues and a way to help through a video and a few tweets online.  I think this shows a positive side of the internet where people can take something and turn it into a way of helping people world-wide and getting word out faster and to more people all with the power of the internet.

Wouldn't it be great to communicate with almost anyone in the world without having to learn a new language?  Microsoft has created a software that can analyze your speech, translate it, then play a new recording of your own voice speaking in a different language.  There are some downfalls however.  To reach a stage where the software is able to copy the user's speech and translate it, it would require the software to be trained with said person's voice for hours.  As well, the software may misinterpret the word, and could translate the wrong word, throwing the entire sentence off.  This software gets around one word in eight wrong. Regardless of the flaws, this software will benefit almost everyone worldwide.  People from all over the world will be able to communicate with each other no matter what language they speak.  This will help many companies worldwide as they do business with one another, due to the fact of how easy it will be to communicate with global companies. As well, it will be easier for people to look for jobs since they communicate with almost anyone, which means they can look for a job almost anywhere.   This software seems like it could potentially change the world as we know it today.  Once this software is perfected, it would be an amazing breakthrough in technology, seeing as how many companies would want to buy it.  Many people who don't work for big companies may also want to purchase this software to communicate with people on a global scale, and just to say that they can speak a different language.  To me this software would've been useful long ago, so I would not have to worry about taking international language classes.  Nonetheless, it will be exciting to see this software in the future.

Some people have experienced an issue with Google Voice. They have claimed that when they send SMS messages through the service, their messages are sent from random numbers. Some have received other people's personal messages and this can threaten privacy. Although many have been warned that they should never send personal text messages for security reasons, many ignore it. This issue with Google Voice can cause confusion for the people sending and receiving the texts since the sender does not have the option to send their messages to someone they know and the receiver receives a mysterious texts from a number that they cannot identify. Others might also receive multiple texts from random numbers which may irritate the person rather than confuse. Since texting is a very popular form of communication. those who use Google Voice may have to use other methods to communicate if the problem if affecting them too much and will have to wait until the issue is solved. Though this affects only a fraction of those who use Google Voice, this is bothersome. 

Facebook is now offering the option to disallow all applications from sharing and/or accessing your information. Currently, there is a lot of talk about privacy on the internet and how a lot of people don't like having advertisements and notifications shoved into their face every time they use social networking sites or play games.  Nowadays a lot of games have 'share' options built into them that allows you to share useless achievements such as how many cows you bought or how much wheat you need to feed them. This annoys many people who use social networking sites to just talk with friends and get up-to-date information from pages they liked.  The 'nuclear' option will allow people who do not want to be bothered by friends' status updates on games and also people who don't want applications to share what they are doing to others without them knowing or without their consent. This may cause many game developers to change tactics on how they want to attract users from sites such as Facebook because they don't want to risk getting blocked by everyone. 

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

Google+ has decided that it is time they make a new look for their social networking site. The new design allows you to drag apps in whatever particular order you would like. Also, the timeline pictures are bigger so it is easier to view. Google+ also came out with a new addition, chat. The web designing for this page is similar to Facebooks; when viewing pictures on a timeline. The new look on Google+ will allow people to be more organized and nicer to look at. As web designers, they are supposed to catch the viewers eye. If a site does not appeal to the viewer they will not even bother looking into the website. By creating this new look, google+ is hoping to have more additions to their site. They designed this new look for Google+ to more flexible for people when viewing profiles, and it is evident because that is what most people want. They prefer when things are made easy for them.

This article identifies a potential setback for various iPhone users. With all the hype of Apple's iPhone 5, some 4S iPhone owners may be out of luck in terms of upgrades from cellphone carriers. Rumors have said that the iPhone 5 will be seeing a summer or fall 2012 launch but the story here is owners with the iPhone 4S may not be eligible for an upgrade when Apple releases it's newest phone, this means essentially users that rely on contract upgrades are put at a disadvantage. In addition, Verizon customers are affected by the upgrade issue the most, and it will cost these users more if they choose to upgrade to a iPhone 5. This is huge news to anyone who owns a iPhone 4S, especially if they are a Verizon customer, and they plan to buy a iPhone 5. The additional cost may be too much for buyers and they may just stick with what they have until a hopefully near price drop. Apple on the other hand could also suffer because the more people who buy the 4S can reflect to less people who will be able to afford the iPhone 5. The Apple company as well as many other Apple users highly anticipate the iPhone 5, and it could be something like this little dilemma that can angry consumers and could also lead users to leave the upgrade and essentially pass on Apple's phone this time around.

The people in this article all take old, used up and bad computers and make them new and better again. They are a non-profit organization who gives the computers back to the schools who are sending them. They are both helping the environment and helping the children learn through the computers that they make. This connects to computers and the environment because the people in this organization are doing what they can to help out by fixing computers, therefore helping the environment by reducing the amount of computers thrown out. My thoughts about this are that what these people are doing is a good thing, though more people should be helping with what they do, however I am not sure if this is a sustainable action, since it takes time and sometimes money to fix computers. I just checked diigo and i didnt put these into the group -.-

Over the past few years, Facebook has grown to become one of the largest social networking sites in the world. People everywhere, young or old, have leapt at this opportunity to connect with friends or family from all over. This article brings up the possibility of creating a Facebook option that is available specifically for under 13 users as the current Facebook is only supposed to be available to users over 13. This new option would allow parents to create a link to their child's website and edit the Facebook Timeline options to whatever they think is appropriate. However, this possibility is met with a lot of opposition. People believe that allowing kids younger than 13 onto this site could be risky as they would be more susceptible to the dangers of cyber bullying and abuse. They believe that kids would simply be too young to understand the dangers of the internet and as a result would not know how to stay safe. Letting kids go on social networking sites like Facebook at such a young age is a huge decision. How do you know what is the right one? Despite the over 13 rules on Facebook, there are still thousands of young kids on this site that had simply lied about their age. It isn't hard to get onto this site. No matter what we do, with or without this new Facebook option, there will undoubtedly be young kids on Facebook. This fact is unavoidable. That is why I think that this alternate Facebook for children is not necessarily a bad idea. If we can't keep kids off of Facebook then we might as well work to make a safer version of it for them. Although, I don't condone young kids using this site, I am aware of the fact that we can never keep them all away from it and if that's the case then we might as well do all we can to protect them while on it. The growing world of technology is going to reach the younger children at some point and instead of trying to shield them from this other world and forcing them to explore it behind our backs, I thin

k we should find safer ways for them to discover this cyber world and educate them on its dangers. This article highlights people's concerns about rapidly growing social networks in the cyber world and its expansion to target younger children. It simply gives us a look at how much Facebook has really grown and what they are willing to do to keep it growing. It has grown so quickly and so has its number of users. It is only natural that young kids want to see and learn about what has fascinated so many of older people.

Kodak, let us admit, is doomed. Founded over a century ago, it has dominated film for as long as film has existed, but now that film is on the verge of ceasing to exist, they have very little to dominate. They're short on cash and while they deny plans to file for bankruptcy, many question whether they will have the luxury of choice a few years from now.

Kodak, let us admit, is doomed. Founded over a century ago, it has dominated film for as long as film has existed, but now that film is on the verge of ceasing to exist, they have very little to dominate. They're short on cash and while they deny plans to file for bankruptcy, many question whether they will have the luxury of choice a few years from now.

We all know that voice recognition software exists having been created by companies like Apple, some of us thought that advanced technology would end at a computer recognizing words and responding to questions. However that is not the case. A company called Kimera Systems is developing a system that figuratively reads your mind. This isn't a software that literally reads what you are thinking and performs an action based on your thought since that would require an implant into your body. Rather, Kimera's system consisting of the Salience Engine and DigitalMe (or DMe) Smart Agents. The Salience Engine collects information from its users and uses this to understand human action better while the Smart Agents perform actions based on the user's preferences and the user's previous actions. For example, if a user sent out party invitations to friends and then went out to buy groceries, Kimera's system would automatically download a shopping app for the user because the system understands the user is going to the grocery store to buy select food items. This system, should it be implemented into future phones and devices could very well change society for the better and for worse. This system could make people's lives better by allowing decisions to be made by the system for the user so they can worry about other things while knowing Kimera's system will take care of tasks for them. This could negatively impact society though because since the system automatically makes decisions for the user, if they begin to rely on this system and lose their sense of judgement rendering them unable to decide without this system. Though automated technology is the dream of many, is an automated life really what we want? From this new technology Kimera is creating, other more advanced automated technologies could arise and eventually we could end up losing our humanity since everything we need to do is done for us by a computer. We would end up like the humans in the movie Wall-E who were

This article is introducing a new product that could possibly be put on the market soon. It is called AdTrap. You buy this device for $120 and it sits between your modem and router and blocks all kind of ads on the internet for all kind of devices. This device is in its working prototype stage and is on a crowd-funding site Kickstarter. If $150,000 worth of devices are pre-ordered by December 8th they will start shipping the device. It is like a small computer running the Linux OS and can be easily updated to black new kinds of ads. You can also have a list of websites where you do not want the ads blocked. This device is great for those who despise ads and just 10 hours after being launched they raised just over 10 percent of its goal.  This advertisement has to do with eLifestyle because this device can possibly change the way we spend time on our computers. Those who hate ads in front of videos and other side and popping up have an alternative for $120. Most people that use technology have at one point complained about advertisements and constant bombardment with these ads this is a way to protect yourself and possibly your kids from advertisements at least on the web. This also has to do with eLifestyle because if enough people buy this device and it becomes huge it can change the way websites make money or not make money because most websites rely on ads in order to be able to give people their services and posts.  If this device is shipped for those who pre-order it may be a big fail in the market because ads just may not be as annoying to some as they are to others or this can be a big success but in the long term be devastating for web sites because they will not be making money from ads anymore. I personally would not buy this device for $120 dollars because ads do not make me that mad and I have gone long enough without this device I can continue this way for a while. Also can change the websites that run because of ads and I wouldn't want that. 

What if there a was a way to charge your smartphone and get a workout at the same time?  This project is currently being implemented in New York City. Bikes open to the public that are able to charge phones have been scattered all over New York City.  The Charge Cycle hopes to bring a network of outdoor neon-green stationary bikes that allows anyone to charge their phone for free by simply peddling.  It takes the same amount of time to charge as if you were to directly plug it into the wall. Although there are some concerns of theft, developers have chained the bikes and also put locks on the bikes, which makes it harder to move. Nowadays, we all rely on our smartphones, they are technically our everything.  Many people would be devastated if it were to die, and they will not be able to use it until they have their charger and an outlet.  The Charge Cycle offers a charging system for smartphone users while they get a workout as well, so it is a "win win" situation for these users.  This affects our lifestyle because instead of sitting around doing nothing while waiting for our phones to charge, we can get a workout out of it, and stay fit and healthy. I do think this a good idea because obesity rates today are increasing, which is dangerous.  In order to maintain a healthy diet, exercise is important.  This bike allows us to maintain said healthy diet, while charging our phones at the same time, which truly is a win win.

        In this article it talks about companies trying to trademark the name "Python" for their server products. The company "Veber" is trying to trademark exclusive right to use Python for software, servers, and web services everywhere in Europe. After briefly explaining what the company is trying to do the article teaches people how they could help stop this from happening.      The article tells the readers to send emails tops psf-trademarks@python.org telling them how they use Python and send them any published information mentioning the Python language. By doing this they can prove that Python the programming language is used everywhere and not only the language the name as well. With this they can top Python from becoming an exclusive trademark.