Weekly Geek and Poke

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-Beck Goodloe

Apple's Uncrowning

As of today, Samsung has overtaken Apple in the “Smart Phone” market. As of third quarter statistics, Samsung controls 23.8% of the global “Smart Phone” market, whereas Apple only controls 14.6%. The ascent has not been subtle though. Samsung has been slowly closing the distance between themselves and Apple after they put out the first Google Android and Galaxy series phones. I do not see this as a surprise though. While many still love the iPhone, it was not until recently that they allowed other networks to service their phones, and that was where Samsung had an advantage. To give you a mental picture, the price of a Samsung stock has tripled since the release of the Android phones, and that number is continually rising.

            We have to remember though that these third quarter stats do not encompass the possible breakout of the iPhone 4S and 5. While it is highly unlikely that Apple will return to power any time soon, anticipation is rising for the later models and open networking.

            When we look at the big picture, we see a tremendous growth in the number of smart phone users around the world (44% or 117 million units). When we put this together with the growing number of Android phones, we see that it is very possible that the number of new phone owners around the world is boosting Samsung’s numbers. Why would a new phone owner want such a nice phone as their first phone? Actually, the Android phones are slightly more affordable than your typical iPhone, with just as much ability and speed. Nevertheless, whether you want the brand name of the value, it is completely up to you.

-Beck Goodloe

Flying Humvees

All in one

photo credits here

Our long lived dream of flying cars may finally come true.  "A flying car that's rugged enough for hardcore off-road driving, able to survive small-arms fire and can quickly take off and land is potentially just a few years shy of reality," says John Roach.  The Lockheed Martin and DARPA have gone into the prototype testing for flying Humvees for the military.  Prototype presentation is expected by the end of fiscal 2012.  If one of the prototypes is successful then they could be being used by 2015.  What does this mean for flying cars for personal use?  It is already clear that personal vehicles that take off and land at airports that are like small planes that can drive on roads are possible, but what DARPA wants is an off-road drivable vehicle that can hold four soldiers and their gear and be able to take of vertically like a helicopter.  They also want it to be easy enough for a typical soldier to be able to fly them and fly 250 miles on one tank of gas.  This means if we convert the Humvee part to car normal people will have easy to be flown cars that can take off from your house without airports or runways.

more information here

Jacob Saslavsky

Jonathan Ive: Steve Jobs stole my ideas

Photo credit: Apple

Jonathan “Jony” Ive Vice President of Industrial Design.

For the official article click here.

Jonathan Ive was one of Steve Jobs's best friends. Ive is the vice president of industrial design and is clamming that Steve Jobs stole some of his ideas. Ive and Jobs were very good friends and colleague. They often ate lunch together and helped the design department with new ideas. Many of the ideas that Ive created were published by steve. Ive is very upset about his friends death an plans to carry on his position if possible. Some reports on Steve say that he stole peoples ideas and not just Ive's which is unusual for a smart person that developed a million dollar company. Ive was one of the victims and is now also going to let out all of his original ideas out into the world and see how it goes. “Steve would be proud if I took his position” said Jonathan in an interview after steve died.

                                                      -Gustavo

Last Regrets

Photo credit here.

Intel Chips have historically been more popular in computers than any other processing chip. However, a lot of business is lost to other companies that are less predominate in the computer industry. This is caused by Intel’s lack of presence in tablets and smart-phones. The most popular company running these mobile devices is Apple. They use custom chips that are based on a design from a rival company of Intel’s, called ARM. However, the late Steve Jobs was beginning to question reluctance to buy into another company’s chip. Before his death, he wanted to change the chips in one of the company’s biggest products, the iPad, to Intel. Jobs had known the CEO of Intel for quite some time and and worked with him during the early stages of the iPad’s construction. However, when the time came to make the decision, advisers convinced Jobs that custom chips would be better for the tablet. Slowly, Jobs began to think that the same chips hard-wired into his computers would work well in his mobile devices. Jobs began working on a way to put Intel chips into the next iPad before his resignation and untimely death. Without Steve Jobs as the CEO, nobody really knows what will be put into future mobile devices.

For more information click here.
-- Ben Fagelman

Weekly Geek and Poke

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The Shadow Profiles of Ireland

Big events seem to come in threes. Whether it be the deaths of famous people or breakthroughs in technology, the trend has continued throughout history, and now it has arrived in the technology industry. With the death of Steve jobs being one, the blackberry outages, two, the third comes from Ireland.

Facebook Ireland is currently being accused of creating shadow profiles of users and non-user alike. What are shadow profiles? They are detailed records of personal information held by a private company without the consent of its users/clients. Several years ago, the US had a similar problem. After a graduate student emailed Facebook requesting his information from his account, he was supplied with decades of his old chats, friend requests and pokes. The same problem has arrived in Ireland.

It is believed that Facebook Ireland has been keeping records of its users. Phone numbers, email and home addresses, relationship status’ and location updates are being saved on Facebook’s private servers and are being kept for uses unknown. Nevertheless, users are not the only ones being targeted. Even people who have no Facebook account are being recorded. How do they do this? Whenever someone sends you a request to make a Facebook or tags you in a file, the data is saved. Even companies with advertisements on people’s pages have the option of uploading their subscribers email addresses to enhance their ads!

Facebook could be fined up to $137,000, but very little can be done other than that. Despite this, many privately owned organizations have launched investigations into the matter, but as of now, the only thing Facebook Ireland users can do is sit back and wait.

-Beck Goodloe

Siri Reviewed

      Recently, the iPhone 4s came out. Many new updates came with the newest version of the popular smart-phone, one being a program called Siri. Siri is a digital assistant and companion built right inside the phone. If you type in a command that corresponds with any program pre-installed on the phone, it performs the task. If you talk to the program, it replies accordingly. It even has quirky responses to some statements. For example, if you tell the phone, "I'm drunk", it proceeds to tell you phone numbers for cabs. Although this is a fun program to use for many people, there is a gaping hole in Siri. Although it can accomplish many simple commands, Apple has not released a way for the hundreds of thousands of applications available to the phone to interact with Siri. If applications could put their own custom commands into the popular program, it would be a huge plus. You could tell Siri to update your status on a social networking site, instantly get the lyrics to your favorite song, or launch a game all from what you type. I think that implementing this would make Siri almost perfect.

Apple Adds C Spire as a New US Carrier For the IPhone 4S

Photo Credits Here

C Spire will be a new carrier for the iPhone 4S.  C Spire, which used to be known as Cellular South is a regional company that Apple hopes will help increase sales away from urban centers where Apple already dominates.  Also, southerners may now want to switch from normal cellphones to iPhones because they now have a reliable network for where they live and their phones will be able to keep them busy with social networking and games.  It is not yet known if C Spire will sell the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 as well as the iPhone 4S, or if they will only sell the iPhone 4S.  At the moment sprint is the only carrier that has an unlimited data plan, but C Spire could potentially give an unlimited plan for the iPhones because they already have one for other phones.  Apple chose C Spire over a company like T-mobile because a major company like T-mobile would not get very many more users and could make partners of apple mad.

More Information Here

Jacob Saslavsky

Google and Samsung create Ice Cream sandwich Android

                

For an image click here

Google and Samsugn created the Ice cream Sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus. It is not really sandwich powered phone. Its just a name for it. It comes in many colors. With the touch screen the smartphone features a 1.2 gigahertz dual-core processor, a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a pronounced curved shape that is intended to cradle the face. There's a a 5-megapixel camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats, and support for 1080p HD video capture and playback. Not like the Galaxy II, it is more effisient in amny ways. It has a better camera na d better dual-core processor. It is 8.9 milimeters thick. Apple could do this and is now the less thick phone in history. The name ice cream sandwich comes from a new software from the adroid but placed on the new phone. It has beenplaned that it will sell lots of copies that they will reach the 12.5 billion dollars they expecty to get as profit.

-Gustavo

Weekly Geek and Poke

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Speeding up Firefox

On October 14, 2011, Firefox leaders decided to replace their historic XUL technology, effectively changing the interface on Android phones. Why? "Firefox on Android is a critical part of supporting the open Web, and this decision puts us in a position to build the best Firefox possible," says Mozilla’s Director of Firefox Engineering Johnathan Nightingale. Effectively they are trying to change the way that Firefox loads and runs on Android phones. According to a press release from Firefox, they are only changing the user interface of the browser, but are leaving the “behind the scenes” Gecko engine for processing website data. Another thing that Mozilla hopes to change is the startup speed. When ratings for browsers are released, startup time is always included in the recorded data. Historically, Firefox has fallen behind in this category, but things are changing. It is also possible that add-ons will be included in this new version of Firefox, but it is very unclear what exactly is going to happen in this update. According to Nightingale, "By the end of next week, we will have a clearer outline of the work ahead.”

The release date is still unknown, but it has been announced that the update will not be any of the products currently in testing. Firefox is starting from scratch. Let’s see what happens.

Link here

Beck Goodloe

London Philharmonic Orchestra gets played as a soundtrack in video games

 The london Philharmonic Orchestra is a very good orchestra and is now playing hit songs from common video games. Some of the theme songs of video games such as Grand theft auto, Halo, Tetris, World of warcraft and Angry birds will be in the album that this amazing orchestra will be produced. The music the orchestra are being predicted that it will trying to make that gamers not so angry with the tone of the music

Yes, the same orchestra that brought us hit albums such as Mozart: The Violin Concertos and Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 9, is now tackling Splinter Cell and Legend of Zelda.
                                        -Gustavo

Cell Phone Population Growth

Photo Credit Here

If it seems like everybody always has a cell phone glued to their ear, you are not  imagining things. This is because statistically,  everybody in the US  has  at  least  one cell phone. Recently, an a cell phone organization called the CTIA gave a report that there are more cell phones than people in the United States. This shocking data was acquired from a nationwide survey in late June. According to the survey, there are about 315.5 million people in the US and its territories. In this same area, there are at least 327.6 million cell phones. With the amount of smart-phones closing in on one million, the wireless connecting that the phones are capable of has nearly doubled the amount of mobile data. Clearly, Americans have become much more dependent on their mobile technology. This huge increase in the amount of cell phones has surprisingly only created a 1% increase in total minutes. This means that cell phones have become something more than just verbal communication machines. Now, people use smart-phones as mobile computers. I think that our over-saturation of cell phones in the population is a bad thing. It is almost impossible that every single one of those cell phones is in use. This large and unnecessary waste of technology and money could be used for other more important things. However, needless to say, the cell phone business is in no trouble.

Want more facts about cell phone growth? Click here. 

Do You Want to Sleep Better? There's an App for That

photo credits here

A company called Zeo believes technology can help you sleep better.  The app is free but will be useless without a 99 dollar headband that sinks with the app.  This headband measures your brain waves while you are sleeping so that it can give you advice on how to better your sleeping experience.  It also creates graphs to tell you what kind of sleep you had at certain times during the night.  Zeo can determine the optimal time to wake you up based on your REM sleep, deep sleep, and light sleep so that you feel the most refreshed.  Then with this information it will wake you up at that optimal time.  Zeo tells you your ZQ score after each night.  The ZQ score is a rating of how well you slept during the night.  The higher you score the better. This sleep score can help you to know if you need to go to sleep earlier or if you are doing just fine with what you are doing.  Zeo also offers a coaching program that tells you things to do to live a lifestyle that allows you to have better sleep.

More information here

Jacob Saslavsky

The Blackberry Outage (Editorial)

On an early Monday morning, the birds were singing, the dew was glistening in the early morning sun while perched on the tips of blades of grass, and 10 million angry Europeans could not use their phones. At around 5 o’clock yesterday, the company released statements saying that their phones were once again up and working. Another morning, more birds, more dew, and the same millions of people angry at their broken phones.

            Today Blackberry released another announcement saying that the outages were caused by a core switch failure within their infrastructure. Okay, now, am I being shortsighted, or does that sound like BS to you? A core switch failure? Flip the switch then (and if it is not a literal switch, then replace it!). Do they not understand the magnitude of the problem? People can’t check their emails on their phones anymore! Not on their Blackberry’s that is. That means they have to go boot up their thousand dollar computers collecting dust on their desks. Unheard of! If it were me, I would already have an Android phone sitting in my back pocket. But I don’t live in Europe, I live in America, and here we have phones that actually work! “Whoa, intense brah…” said one of my many adoring fans, “You are a genius.”

            Not that I hate Blackberry, I used to have one myself and I have absolutely no problem with it, I just think they need to be better problem solvers. Figure out what is going on, solve the problem, and put the haters (like me at the moment) to rest. They are such a “big time” corporation, they have to have some people with common sense on their staff. I mean come on, it’s not like they are all Sooners. Badump chhhhhhh. Am I right, or am I right?

-Beck Goodloe

Microsoft Thinks of Acquiring Yahoo

 

Photo Credits Here

Microsoft is considering joining the group of companies trying to acquire Yahoo.  So far it is just a roomer, and apparently Microsoft's different divisions are torn as to whether they should acquire Yahoo or if they should not.  This is just three years after their failed attempt at acquiring Yahoo, but it seems Yahoo is less unwilling now than it was three years ago.  Yahoo has undergone some changes since then, and fired its CEO Carol Bartz last month and is looking for a new leader. Yahoo may be considering getting acquired by another company instead.  Yahoo will give Microsoft a good boost for Yahoo still has a large number of subscribers and visitors of the website.  Microsoft is not the only company looking to acquire Yahoo there is also a range of companies from a Chinese internet company called Alibaba to many private equity firms like Silverlake Partners.  This means it could take more than just a little for Microsoft to Acquire Yahoo.

More Information Here

Jacob Saslavsky

Microsoft brings cable TV to Xbox live

Microsoft is adding TV to the Xbox live software in the Xbox 360.The plan is to bring TV to gamers on their own console and not have to do anything else. 40 television providers will be able to make contract with Microsoft. As for the customers, registration and payment for HBO GO will be required to be able to use this new software. Microsoft already has with partners such as ESPN and Netflix. New partners in the United States include Bravo, Syfy, UFC, TMZ, and the "Today" show, among others. The news have been spreading around really fast, even in the other side of the world. BBC is now in the UK and is now going to be part of Xbox TV. Even Spanish shows will air on the Xbox all the way from Spain including    Gol TV. The Kinect software will also make new changes such as new voice activated on/off switch, voice activated controller and new voice activated music playlist. People think that these new features will grow, and grow until Microsoft has gone to their higher peck. Microsoft will release the TV on Xbox software when the Christmas celebrations come around. The voice activated service is now available.

Read more Here.

                                                              -Gustavo

Jacob's Leads

Twist:  Chrome is great many say, but in truth, many of these people haven’t even tried many other web browser.  For example one called Opera, which has been around a long time, has gone under the radar, but is a great web browser.

Startling statement:  Internet Explorer is still one of the most used web browser out there.  What most people don’t realize is there are all these other great web browsers.  For example, one of the oldest web browsers, Opera is great, yet most people don’t know about this web browser.

Direct address: You may be one of the 70 million people who use chrome and have no clue there is a web browser named Opera out there.  Opera is one of the oldest web browsers out there and it is great.  it has great features and is super fast.  with all this why not try it.

Jacob Saslavsky

Which of Gustavo's Leads is best?

1) Descriptive.

Grand theft auto is a very violent game where you can run around, killing a person, taking their car, and running over them. The game is rated M for Mature audiences and the problem is that parents don’t read the labels and give the game to little 7 year olds. Kids can run around in this city where they have complete freedom to do whatever they want. They can run to a military base and transport drugs without getting caught. Killing a police officer with a shotgun or take a tank and destroy the city. This is the kind of violence that gets into the minds of youth and affects them in school.

2) Twist
The game Gears of War 3 shows really violent actions, from shooting at robots and robots shooting at the character(which is you) and making you angry. This game has caused many anger issues. Shawn is a middle school student and is doing really well in this school and his parents have let him play this game. He has not been in trouble for anger issues as the guy in the news said.

3) Contrast and compare.
Xbox consoles have changed a lot and their have been a lot of changes. When the first Xbox was released, it was very broad. It was just a black box with a big X in the front. Now Xbox consoles have different type of cases that can be added and the new control less system: The Xbox Kinect. I has a new “Eye” Which is a camera that fallows your body and acts as a controller.

-Gustavo

Apple's Unveils its New Iphone 4S

On Tuesday October 4, Phil Schiller announced Apple’s new iPhone 4S, a faster version of its earlier predecessor, and is now available on Sprint, AT&T as well as Verizon.  The new model looks pretty much the same as the iPhone 4 and has an A5 processor that is several times faster than the older iPhone software. Another addition to this new iPhone is a personal assistant named “Siri”. “Siri” has the ability to comprehend voice commands and has also replaced the common app “Dragon Dictation” by including the ability to convert verbally spoken words into written text (Now you can talk…to text!!! Preposterous you say? Well you are mistaken kind sir/ma’am, for what I speak of is true. ).

                Now, with a new longer battery life, you can talk on the phone for approximately 8 hours before recharging is necessary. Along with the new battery comes an 8 mega pixel camera that has a better light sensing technology, allowing your camera to take better, higher-res pictures. Many question its release though, coming so close to the release of the iPhone 5, but really it came out for a completely different purpose. This is Apple’s “Product for the Price” phone, their economically efficient phone, coming with most of the features of the iPhone 5, at a much cheaper price.

                Many believe this is Apple’s attack on the technology market. Recent studies that have been released have shown that Google’s Android phones have slowly passed and are increasing the gap between Apple’s iPhone and itself. Many people are beginning to see the increased accessibility and better value of these Google phones, with the worlds top search engine branded on it for added measure. I’m not saying one is better than the other, or that these two are better than the rest. Have we forgotten about the other brands? Google and Apple aren’t the only ones that have come out with the great smart phones. What about Blackberry, Nokia, and the hundreds of other discreet name-brand knockoffs? Tell me what you think in the poll on the right, but for now, I think we can safely say that this new iPhone will boost Apple’s stats. For now that is.

The new iPhone 4S officially goes on the market on October 14, 2011. For more information, visit the Apple website here.

Beck Goodloe

Adobe Joins the Cloud

Photo Credit Here

There's an app for that. This phrase can now be used for just about anything you want to accomplish. Whether that be viewing reports on the go, wanting to find out what song is on the radio, or even taking a quick break with a game. Ever since the introduction of smart-phones, developers have jumped on this new mobile technology. Businesses and companies have even created a new marketing strategy. Sell the app and then sell your company. Tens of millions of smart-phones have been purchased, making this actually a decent idea. Most of these apps are run by a cloud system. Recently, Adobe joined the cloud  club and put apps and media readers available for smart-phones. In the past, Adobe had been dormant on the subject of mobile devices. Now however, they are signing in with Google and have software built into many phones. This will increase the availability of many things such as viewing PDFs and even watching media via a phone's internet. Many people hope this software will be integrated into more phones so that when they go to upgrade, they are getting something new. Hopefully in the future, this will become true.

See more about this here. 

-- Ben Fagelman 

Which of Ben's Leads is the Best?

Thesis: We should stick with DVDs as the common and current method of watching movies.

1)Question Lead: Can indecision be a good thing? I say that it can be. If you have indecision, you at least have choices. You do not have these choices when you pick streaming movies over watching DVDs. Many people think they have easier access to the movies they want through streaming movies. However, there is so few selections in the online streaming libraries that you would be hard pressed to find the movie you actually want to see.

2)Compare and Contrast Lead: In the past, we have been able to watch DVDs for a cheap prices and high convenience. Now, the big players of the movie industry are attempting to change everything. They think that convenience means not having to get out of your chair when searching for movies. On the contrary, growing issues with technology not being compatible with streaming has forced people to buy expensive devices in order to watch stripped down versions of the movies.

3)Twist: It is being said by many that streaming is the convenient and futuristic way of watching movies. Though this has been said, streaming is pushing movie viewing back into the past.

-- Ben Fagelman

Which of Beck's Leads is the Best?

Descriptive:

1)      The bell rings and school lets out. The typical daily hustle and bustle of children hurrying to get home ensues. Accompanying it is the mindless chatter of hundreds of children discussing homework, Facebook and parties soon to follow during the upcoming weekend. Slowly the crowds disperse as one by one, the kids are picked up or bussed off to their respective houses. When they get home though, a consistent daily routine begins. A soda is opened, a snack is made, a computer is booted up, and the rest of the night is filled with multimedia entertainment, instant messaging and word processors, but it is not only children that make up the 2 billion internet and technology users in the world.

Startling Statement:

2)      In 2010, people around the world sent an average of 107 trillion emails. The prominence of technology is slowly growing, but so is our dependence on it. Our children know it’s becoming a problem, but very little has been done. Our mental capacities are being slowed by it, yet no one is bold enough to act. It’s time to step up to the plate.

Contrast and Compare:

3)      2 centuries ago, the prominence of technology was minimal. People were self sufficient; smart enough to use their natural surroundings in order to accomplish their goals; but now technology is everywhere. We need technology to eat, to travel, to live. Our self-dependency is nearly gone, and if our technology were to stop working, life would stop with it.

Beck Goodloe