The upcoming issue of Vogue magazine, which is set to hit newsstands at the end of this month, features Kanye West and Kim Kardashian on the cover, and then apparently this beautiful picture inside, of a photographer taking a picture of Kanye taking a picture of Kim and North taking a picture… lol…  while I know this isn’t anything near groundbreaking news, or even a surprising move for most likely the most egocentric couple in Hollywood, I still believe it warrants consideration, if for nothing else than the comedy that can be found in how ridiculously vein this representation is.  Obviously most can surmise that we undoubtedly are living in one of the most narcissistic times ever, and in no small part because of the availability for exposure offered to us nowadays that we never had (mainly social media and the internet).  But you would think that there would be a line.  When is vanity being taken too far?  And I think that the message this picture sends is exactly that.  But I obviously don’t think that it should be taken any other way than comically – to take it too seriously would be petty.  I do feel like, though, it is a funny enough societal reflection to blog about, and a very real depiction of the times that we live in. How many people now will sit there with their iPad taking a picture of their wife taking a selfie with their newborn kid in front of the Eiffel Tower, or on top of the Empire State Building?  Hmmmmmmm =]

In what already seems to be a decades-old question, I am curious to hear what the classes’ opinion is on which kind of phone/software they prefer.  As some may know, the HTC One M8 is set to be released soon, and early benchmark tests propel the handset to the top of the pack in terms of speed and functionality.  While I am always interested in what Android has to offer, I’ve been skeptical at times of their phones sustaining the zippiness and fluidity they have when you initially buy them.  I’ve owned multiple Samsung Android handsets in the past (before jumping ship for the iPhone 4S, and now the 5), as well as fooled around with countless other Android devices, and I would always get that impression.  I’ve also gotten the sense, speaking to other Android owners, that the phones start getting buggy after a few months.  And this, to me, is no doubt because of the fragmentation that develops between the software and hardware.

Since Android is proprietary to Google, all the phone makers (HTC, Samsung, LG, etc.) need a specific kind for their hardware.  And because it’s so hard for Google to customize one kind of software for virtually hundreds of different phones, there is inevitably bugs and glitches that are pushed through at a much higher rate than the iPhone.  Since the iPhone only functions on iOS (Apple-made software), it is that much easier to make a uniform, fluid interface that works cohesively with all iPhone hardware.  But that software is extremely limiting, and that’s why I debate whether Android is the better fit for me.

Apple, as most people most likely already know, keeps its ecosystem locked tight within iOS.  There are very few customization options.  The icons are static.  There are no skins.  No themes.  No nothing.  Just a wallpaper selection.  Everything else is basically decided by Apple for you in a ‘take it or leave it’ sort of mentality.  The functionality is optimal, yes, but there’s almost no customization.  One alternative is to jailbreak, which basically means that you hack into your iPhone to get all the customization options that Apple actually has.  You can change pretty much every single thing with your phone, but the caveats are that it voids your warranty and the phone doesn’t run completely right afterwards.  While the former can be moot with a simple software restore, the latter gives me less inventive to do it than not, since I’d rather have a phone without any glitching that is more limited in options.  The other alternative, though, is to switch over to another device.  And while I used to believe that the bugginess of Android devices was too much to compensate for more customization options, I feel as though that functionality disparity is closing.  And if it is, with the new Android line-up in the coming months, including the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, is it time to start considering a switch?

Recently President Obama appeared on the show Between Two Ferns hosted by Zach Galifianakis. Obama came on to the show to promote awareness of HealthCare.gov. The President did this in order to appeal and reach out to young adults. The Obama administration saw an opportunity to reach out to a specific demographic and acted upon it.                                                                                                                                                                           The video has generated over 19 million views on the website where it was originally uploaded funnyordie.com. Hours after Obama appeared on the show, the video directly sent over 32,000 users to HealthCare.gov. Healthcare.gov immediately had a spike of traffic and it only increased as time went on. The Internet has enabled organizations to directly tap into specific demographics. What would organizations have to do to reach specific demographics without the internet? What are other methods to reach target demographics using technology? And finally, would you rate the above video moderately comical or absolutely hilarious?

Have you ever thought how life would be like without technology technological improvements? Imagine how the laptop experience would be different without a touch pad? Or typing on a keyboard at night without the keyboard back lit option?

We are more familiar with people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates that revolutionized the personal computer industry. Who we don’t know are the “mini-Steve Jobs” and “mini-Bill Gates” that enhanced our experiences with these products. The name, Brad A. Myers, probably won’t ring a bell in an average person’s mind. However, everyone that uses a computer will come across his work at least once. Any idea on what this is?

The progress bar! Yes, that little bar that tells how much longer you have to wait until your new Facebook profile picture is uploaded. This improvement may be unnoticeable to the user, but according to Myer’s theory on the “percent-done progress indicators”, a progress bar reduces user anxiety to ensure a more relaxed experience even if the progress bar does not accurately reflect the percentage of completion. That is right! All of us have been deceived by the progress bar! (Hopefully this truth won’t raise your anxiety levels the next time you are waiting for the progress bar.)

Can you think of any subliminal improvements that were made on technology and the reason behind such improvements?

It’s the 5th day since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing. Rescue effort continues with experts from many countries including the United States, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia using 39 aircraft and 42 ships. The search attempts covered 27,000 square nautical miles centering the area where the jet vanished.

We live in the technology era that makes every piece of information just a click or few away. At least, that’s what we think of. However, the plane mystery has no trace of getting resolved even after 4 days. One of the reasons why the plane lost connection with radar is assumed to be technology failure. Now that the plane has been a complete mystery for 4 days, rescuing technology also failed so far. On the other hand, family and friends of people who boarded the plane are heart-broken as nobody knows the fate of 239 people on board. I really wish there was a way of conveying condolences to these people.

I read this article on Techdirt.com about this law suit against an anonymous commenter in Philadelphia. This anonymous commenter, apparently made a comment about John J. Dougherty, who is the head of a powerful electrical company in Philly. The commenter was being sued for defamation because he referred to Dougherty by his famous name Johnny doc, and called him a pedophile. The lawsuit demanded that the website which the comment was found- Philly.com, give up the name of the anonymous commenter. The website had the information but refused to provide it. Instead, the website contacted the commenter informing him/her of the lawsuit and promptly deleted any traces of the commenters account on it’s website.

What I found interesting about this article is, although the website was not being sued by third party actions, it still took the task of deleting any traces of the user. But the plaintiff was still able to search up the username before any traces of it was removed from the site. The username was searched on the web and had multiple hits on different sites, in which they eventually found the biographical information of the commenter. The users name “fbpdplt” stood for “Fire Boat Philadelphia Pilot. The user was registered on Sailnet.com, where it revealed that the user was a past fireboat pilot.

This brings me to how there is no such thing as anonymous. If a person really wanted to find the identity behind an anonymous user he/ she could. It can be done by tracing IP addresses or as simple as on the web. This goes to show that what you put on the web will stay on the web, even if you delete it. There is no such thing as “delete” on the web.

My question is, do you think that people realize that there is no such thing as anonymous? Is there such a thing as anonymity on the web? If so, does it imply that there are no consequences for the actions done on the web through this because he/she believes that he/she is being protected by this anonymity?

Phantom pocket vibration is a syndrome that causes your brain to think  your phone is vibrating or ringing when it really isn’t. How many of you have actually experienced this? I think living in this technological age, we have all experienced at least a taste of this syndrome. It’s almost as if there is a type of anxiety that is attached to the “social” technology world. People during this era are extremely attached to their electronics, feeding off of these virtual notifications. Whether it is a text message, email, or Facebook notification. A Nokia study shows that, “the average mobile phone user checks their phone every 6.5 minutes during the day or 150 times during their waking hours.” Why do you think we are so hooked to these electronics? Do you think this syndrome will eventually get so advanced that people will need rehab?

There is a project called the UNICEF Tap Project, the goal of this project is to help others get clean water. It is a really simple task all you need to go is go to their website on your smart phone and there will be a timer for how long you can resist not touching your phone. Every 10 minutes you don’t touch your phone the more donations they will receive to provide clean water for others. The longer that you don’t touch your phone the more donations they will receive. I thought that this idea was interesting because we are so attached to our phones. I think there another message not just for donations but there are greater things that can be achieved without your phones. My time was 1 hour and 10 minutes, how long can you go without touching your phone?

The topic I’d like to focus on is the “fad” of social networks. Just like that cool pair of the bell-bottom jeans and those nifty sneakers that have wheels attached to them, the Internet goes through phases. First lets go back in time and think back to the popular social media tools that took over our society roughly ten years ago.

-Xanga

– Friendster

– MySpace

 I always wondered why websites just seem to fall off that face of the earth. Well not literally fall of the face of the Earth, but the public just seems to stop caring. Chat rooms filled with hundreds of people have suddenly become a ghost town. Why is that? It also seems as if social media websites lose their popularity AFTER drastic improvements are made to the site. Does the world hate the idea of change?I always see people complaining about new modifications to their favorite social network. Or does the website become redundant and is change exactly what we long for?

This past sunday Ellen Degeneres’ tweet of a few of the most famous celebrities at the Oscars broke the record for the most retweeted of all time tweets. It currently holds the record of 3.1 million retweets and beat the original record that Obama held of a photo of him hugging his wife Michelle with the comment “four more years” after he had won his re-election. I find it comical that more people were somewhat more tuned in to the winning of an oscars trophy than the winning of a presidency. Does this tell us something? Does this tell us that more people are infatuated with celebrities and oscars then the outcome of a political presidency? How do social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook influence what is relevant and what needs to be shared? Certainly people thought that the oscars were more exciting then Obama winning his re-election right? OR is it the photo that people are more inclined to share rather then the words? This brings up the debate of the saying that pictures say a thousand words or vice versa?

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/03/ellen-degeneres-selfie-retweet-obama

On Sunday March 2nd, the host of the 86th Oscars Ellen Degeneres took a group selfie and posted it to the internet. That photo as of March 4th has been retweeted more than 2.5 million times. That is more than 3 times the previous record holding 777,000 retweets of President Obama’s inaugural hug with his wife Michelle. Degeneres’ photo has far surpassed any old records and set a high bar for others to follow.

This seems like a fun and entertaining record, but in light of current world events doesn’t it seem a bit frivolous and uncaring to retweet a photo of celebrities at an expensive event where attendees are given gift bags worth $80,000? With so much different news happening in the world why does a photo of multiple celebrities garner so much attention from internet users and the media. Russia has invaded Ukraine, the Oscar Pistorius murder trial is about to start and North Korea is firing scud missiles on the eve of joint exercises between the U.S and South Korea and that’s just to start. There is so much occurring or developing in the world yet a snapshot of actors garners more attention and sharing than poor, hungry orphaned kids in Africa. Does this mean there is an inherent downside to all of the access we have through the internet or are internet users just unwilling to face or share bad news or more serious matters.

Yahoo News posted recently of the world’s oldest person tips on living a long life. This person, named Misao Okawa, is expected to celebrate her 116th birthday on Wednesday, March 5th. According to Yahoo News Misao Okawa states that one will have a long life if one follows her advice, “Eat and sleep and you will live a long time. You have to learn to relax.”

My question is: With the quick and continuous rise of technology and information, is the term ‘relax’ even defined literally anymore? If we were to live to such age (which is highly likely), what would our advice be on living such long lives and how would it differ from that of Misao Okawa’s?

My mother’s smart phone recently broke down and she is temporarily using an old flip phone until the new Galaxy S5 is released. Seeing my mother bring out the flip phone, brought back memories where I thought the flip phone was the coolest and one of the most advance technologies out there next to having a computer.

After reading this article on the Bluetooth Ring from Mashable.com, it surprises me to see how easy technology makes our lives easier. From the Google Glasses to the Samsung Watch and now the Bluetooth Ring, which is actually the Logbar’s Ring device. It looks like an average  silver ring, but inside the device are electronics that allow it to recognize your finger gestures and control any number of devices. By recognizing finger gestures, Ring allows the person to write text messages by simply drawing in the air.

Although I think the Ring is unique and wearable, I would like to know if this ring can be incorporated into our lifestyles or will it be a luxury item like the Google Glasses?  http://http://mashable.com/2014/03/03/bluetooth-ring/

Online gambling is intrinsically better than gambling in real life. As of right now, there are plenty of underground poker rooms in New York City. They are sometimes hard to find and to get in to. Also, there can be huge problems with walking in to an underground poker room with a large sum of money in your pocket. The safety is not there and there can be suspicions of cheating. Well online poker gets rid of all those fears.

Playing online poker is extremely easy and secure. You could wake up, go on your computer and play poker for any amount you want, all in your pajamas. You play in the safety and comfort of your own home. There is no fear of collusion or of being robbed.

Online poker has been able to become a significant threat to traditional casinos. The transaction costs to create an online poker room has plummeted. In order to create an online poker room, you just need servers, proper software and minimal staff. This is nothing compared to casinos which need real estate, security, dealers etc.

Another thing to be noted is the speed of play. Online poker has a very rapid pace of play. However playing live poker is much more slow. This means fewer hands played for the consumer and less fun. A single hand in real life can take a few minutes. For example,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY82JG7sdeg

Unfortunately, on April 15, 2011, the United States Department of Justice shutdown the most popular poker sites for U.S. players. Since this shut down, most American poker players have stopped playing online poker altogether. Only certain states are allowed to play poker online. Should New York really be left behind? Is it fair for some states to enjoy the freedom of playing online while we cant?

Chinchillas are known today as an adorable animal, similar to a squirrel and a rabbit. They are native to the Andes mountains in South America. Also, they sport the densest and softest fur of any animal in the world. Petting a chinchilla is akin to putting your hand on a cloud. They are fairly popular pets as of today. However back in 2005, Chinchilla’s were a relatively unknown rodent. There was not much information online about these tiny balls of fur.

As big chain pet stores started to pick up chinchillas, information started flooding online. People started to understand how to care for these fragile animals and would post their knowledge online. As time went on, breeder associations, web rings, and Facebook pages arose that were completely dedicated to creating a well of knowledge to anyone who wanted to take care of a domesticated chinchilla.

Owning a chinchilla requires a decent amount of research on taking care of it. The wealth of information on the Internet and ease of access to it has allowed chinchilla pet care to flourish. If publishing and communication had not evolved, would chinchillas be as widespread? What other ways could you find out about them?

E-sports or competitive gaming has seen colossal growth in the past few years. For example, the immensely popular game called League of Legends recently hosted its Worlds Championship last October. The tournament was held in the Staples Center and it was completely sold out. Millions of people watched live on the web. The event had over 32 million people watching with 8.5 million people watching concurrently. This is a short HBO documentary covering the event and its background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMh2b_n7cKw

E-Sports is massively successfully at the moment, but a decade ago, it was not doing so well. Access to live tournaments was just non-existent. The proper platforms to deliver the content to the masses were not in place. Thus, E-sports had nowhere close to the number of viewers to traditional sports. Traditional sports had their channels on television. Back then, the only way you could watch the competitive scene for your favorite game, was to be at the tournament itself. This was just not feasible for the majority of people.

Recently, appropriate platforms that would deliver this media live came into existence. Websites like Twitch, Ustream, and Youtube have made it possible to give consumers access to this media live, without actually being at the event. This allowed E-sports to get to where it is today. Where do you think E-sports will be in the next 5 years? If events started charging money for viewing, would you pay to watch?

How advanced does your toothbrush have to be? Oral-B, a dental manufacturer has created a “smart toothbrush” along with an app on your phone that shows you how long you have been brushing for and how well you’re brushing. You get real-time feedback for two minutes – the amount of time each brushing session should be. When you finish, the app will rate you based upon time and distribution and even give you a score (either a frowny face or a trophy)!

It is definitely a cool invention in the dental and technological world but, is it necessary? How effective do you think this toothbrush and app will be? What are the chances of this becoming the next new trend?

Maybe in a few years, we will have robots to brush our teeth.

As more and more news websites are made available to us, we can just stay home and know everything that is going on in the world. Timely information is also made available to us since news websites are consistently updating. However, while we read news online, we have to be aware of the credibility of the articles. Especially, be aware of who the author of the articles really is. Native advertising is a form of advertising used in news like articles. they are usually sponsored by companies for its own interest. To be more specific, when we see a news like article on a news website, it could actually be an advertisement article written by a company.

For example, Huffington Post is one of the news websites that employs native advertising. Link When most of us go on Huffington Post’s website, we expect to read news articles written by professional journalists. However, the article linked above was actually written by Netflix for its Thanksgiving promotion. If we did not pay attention to the “Presented by Netflix” above the article title, we could take it as an article written by journalist. There is definitely a difference between a news article and an advertisement because advertisement are usually biased by the interest of the sponsored companies.

Since native advertising can be easily confused with news article on a news website for readers, native advertising should be made more recognizable from news articles. As readers, we have to be aware of the existence of native advertising, so that we do not get “fooled” by companies’ advertisement. What do you think? Should there be regulations in place to separate native advertising articles from news articles?

How often do you use Snapchat? A study found that 77% students from 1,600 social media savvy college students use Snapchat Daily. Continue reading →