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?

Apple is the wealthiest company in the world possessing more money than the US government. With this being said, it is no surprise that four of the top five best paid executives in America are employed by Apple. It was reported by Bloomberg that they each receive a base salary of $805,400, but also get paid in stock options. At the top of the list, Bob Mansfield, Senior VP of Technologies makes a huge equivalent of $85.5 million a year. Next on the list is Bruce Sewell, Apple's lead lawyer, who makes $69 million a year. After that is Jeffrey Williams, Senior VP of Operations, who makes $68.7 million a year, and Peter Oppenheimer, Chief Financial Officer, who makes $68.6 million a year. I gave this article the economics tag because it deals with the salaries of highly paid apple employees. Personally, I think it is outrageous that these people make multi-million dollar salaries, and this kind of thing should be regulated.     

This article is about a new concept developed by Berkeley that allows users to emit their password through their thoughts. This concept uses a technology known as Neurosky, and the actual headsets that use this technology look like cat ears. This device is still in testing, but for those eager people who want their thoughts converted into Passthoughts, they can get their hands on the device for a very pricey $199. I don't believe that this invention will "take off" because it doesn't seem very practical in real world situations when typing in a password can be as quick as 2 seconds. However this is a very imaginative invention and will most likely inspire people to create products just like this one. I chose the eLifestyle tag for this post because it may become a fashion trend in some part of the world, (Asia maybe) and people will truly enjoy using this product. I think it is safe to say though that I will not be walking into school wearing cat ears in the future!    

The OUYA Android powered gaming console started off as a Kickstarter exclusive, but will now be available to consumers on June 4 for $99. On Kickstarter, the OUYA was a huge success, raising over $8 million. It is basically an Android powered device that is capable of running console quality games. There has been much anticipation for the people who did not back the project on Kickstarter because no one knew that it would get this big and popular. When it hits the market, it will be sold at retailers such as Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and through OUYA's website. It will include the console, a controller and HDMI cables. I chose to use the economics tag because at just $99, this console is a steal compared to other consoles currently on the market. I believe that many people will pick this product up and OUYA may be able to compete with SONY and Microsoft in the next few years.

Early in the afternoon today, a clever developer managed to sneak a Game Boy Advance emulator into an innocent looking app named "Awesome Baby Names". The secret emulator is activated by a series of taps on the touchscreen inside of the app. Once it is activated you can play your classic gba games just like you did in 2005. Apple was quick to catch this security breach as it was only in the App Store for twenty something minutes, but in that time many people including myself managed to download the app. This kind of sneaky activity from developers happens very seldom, but when something is smuggled into the App Store, it is usually very important. As stated in the article, it is a very easy process to unlock the emulator from the app, but getting the games and the BIOS onto the iPhone is the hard part. You must first download a program that lets you access the phone's file directory, then you must find the app's directory and drop the relevant BIOS and game files there. I chose the portable computing tag for this article because it deals with mobile technology and exploiting it to run handheld gaming software. This idea is not knew and has been around for a long time, but the idea of hiding the identity of apps and smuggling them into the App Store is a new idea. Apple is updating their security daily, but clearly couldn't spot this "child naming app" and make it out for the emulator that it was. I chose the privacy and security tag because Apple has a high priority for the security of their ecosystem and operating system, but clever people can still find ways to bypass this and get unidentified files into the operating system. I believe that Apple must keep a close eye on how they approve future apps into the app store because one day we may see cydia disguised as a senseless app make its way into the app store. If this happens, Apple with really have some explaining to do!    

This article demonstrates that the popularity of the Harlem Shake has urged people to get creative and think outside the box. A developer, Filippo Bigarella, has created an iOS tweak that essentially lets the icons on your springboard do the Harlem Shake. Harlem Shake videos have gone viral over the past few months and the most popular ones get millions of views a day. Since, many sports teams and popular YouTube channels have made parodies of the popular song. The closest viral video that this can be related to is the Gangnam Style video by Psy that currently has over 1.4 billion views. Although the Harlem Shake is popular now, soon enough it will be yesterday's news and some new video or song will be viral. This article relates to the elifestyle tag because the Harlem shake video has literally become a lifestyle for some people and parodies are sweeping the internet everyday. Overall, this is a pretty cool tweak that I would definitely use if I believed in jailbreaking.       

A recent survey has proven that the downloading of illegal music has decreased by 26 percent from 2011 to 2012. It seems that fewer people are illegally downloading music for three specific reasons. With the introduction of P2P music sites a few years ago, illegally downloaded music was becoming more and more common. Since, the music industry has responded very negatively trying to shut down these sites.A famous example was the shutting down of the huge P2P site and software, Limewire, after they were found guilty of copyright infringement. Limewire had millions of users that ripped off artists music millions of times and the record companies were not just going to stand there and watch. People are also not downloading illegal music as much because of the new music streaming services, such as Songza.  These sites stream music to many computers and devices free of charge for the listener to enjoy. The last reason that people are downloading illegal music less is because of the malware and spyware risks that downloading this music poses. You may think you are downloading your favourite techno song when really you are downloading a trojan virus that will steal all of your passwords and personal information. I think this is a sign that people are finally realizing that this is an immoral act and they are taking away money from the artists that make the songs. I personally have bought all of the songs I own and I rarely use the music streaming services. Hopefully by 2014, there will be no illegally downloaded music by anybody.

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.  

Many people these days do not consider refrigerators as interesting pieces of technology. when you walk into your local Best Buy, you go look at the phones or the TVs, not the fridges. Ever since CES 2010 though, fridge technology has come a long way. New "smart fridges" have come out ever since that perform many tasks such as tweeting and running applications such as evernote. Samsung is now releasing a new fridge that carbonates your drinks for you. They call this technology SodaStream. This article relates to the portable computing tag because fridge technology has come so far that there are fridges now that run full versions of Android OS. This article also relates to the elifestyle tag because fridges have come from being appliances that barely keep your food cold, to pieces of technology that can do so much more. overall, I am impressed with fridge technology and will probably buy a new smart fridge in the next 2 years

There was a lot of hype around the jailbreak community when the evasi0n iOS 6.1 jailbreak was released on Monday. It saw 1.7 million downloads on the first day alone. This jailbreak works by exploiting "bugs" in Apple's iOS code to allow users to write data to the kernel. This article relates to the legal tag because over the past decade, jailbreaking has become a very controversial topic and some people consider jailbreaking unethical or illegal. This article also relates to the economics tag because jailbreakers are pirating App Store apps which digs into Apple's and app developers' profits. I was once a jailbreaker myself, but have recently learned that developers work hard to make their apps and they deserve the credit and money for them. Overall, this article shows that the jailbreak community is still going strong and there are still those people who like pirating apps and taking profit away from developers 

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