The Military and the iPhone

Recently at an Intelligence Warfighting Summit in Tucson, Apple's military contractor Raytheon announced that they have an app that can track anyone and retrieve their live location on realtime maps, as well as providing secure communications. This app is called The One Force Tracker. This app could certainly be useful for anyone in any medical emergency or, specifically, any military emergency field. In most cases, the military will give technological advances to software companies such as Apple, but in this particular case, Apple actually created an idea that could be very beneficial to our military.

If a particular unit in the military was scheduled to be at a certain location at a certain time, this app would allow all other units to know their location and approximate time of arrival. There would be no more confusion or miscommunication's about where a certain military unit was located, because they could be tracked simply by clicking a button on your phone. This would also lessen the amount of tactical errors and misfires inside the military.

In order for this idea to follow thru and actually work, their would have to be certain changes made to the iPhone that would allow its battery life, and construction make up, to survive on the battlefield. Phone's would have to come equipped in a larger form with a heavier case to allow loner battery life, as well as a durable frame for the life of the phone. There has also been talk of sensors being placed inside the phones, so that they could serve other purposes. These purposes have not been disclosed at this time. One other thing that Apple would have to adjust is that the app would have to be able to multi-task with other applications. Whereas now, one app can only be running at a time on the iPhone. This did not seem to be of much concern because underneath the iPhone is the Mac OS X operating system which is based on Unix, which would give them Unix multitasking as well.

This could be a great leap for our military technology, and a very beneficial tool for helping medical and emergency responders. The iPhone never ceases to amaze me!

Converted to an eBook Supporter

A couple months ago in October I posted a blog that declared my concern for the future of books. I did not ever question whether or not future generations would still be reading words that were written by some of the most brilliant penmen to have ever lived, but I did question how they would be reading it. My fear was that future generations would no longer appreciate the physical form of a book, and would soon after, forget the smell of the fresh pages when they enter a bookstore and break the spine of a recent best seller.

I thought there would never be a day when I gave into the craze of this digital book era, but I am a bit reluctant to say that I think today may be that day. The more and more I consider the hard facts behind this mass media transition, the more and more I realize that it might be for the better.

Author's should not fear that they will be losing money, because the people who will be willing to spend $250-$300 on a nook or a Kindle, are the people that will still be willing to pay for their favorite author's work as soon as it is made available. The people that will be willing to spend this chunk of change for an electronic reader are certainly not people trying to save money on books. In fact, they are the people who love reading enough that they would, given the option, like to be able to carry all their books right in one device, that can fit inside their pocket.

According to a recent New York Times article:

"For every 100 copies of a physical book we sell, where we have the Kindle edition, we will sell 48 copies of the Kindle edition. It won't be too long before we're selling more electronic books than we are physical books."

Electronic devices, such as the nook or the Kindle, are a way to give people who love to read instant access to over 360,000 books. If author's insist that there be a hold or a waiting period for their book to be available on the nook, I am sure the reader can occupy themselves with one of the 360,000 other books available to them, that is just one "instant-purchase-click" away.

To be honest, at this point, I am not sure if there is any way around books going electronic. It just seems like the most sensible thing to do with our generation and the next. All we know and all we are going to get to know is, everything digital.

Author's need to realize that by resisting the nook and the kindle, the people that they are really starting to squabble with are the their fans that have supported them from copy to copy. Below is a sample of just what the future of books might be. For a step by step by step tutorial video, check out this other video that was uploaded on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezlLHKktf9I

Digital Art: Technology Break Through

This Tuesday, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London began an exhibition of digital art: "Decode: Digital Design Sensations". Digital art may have once been thought of as an enjoyable "nerdy" pastime, but it has official given our world a break through into information that was once very hard to understand or explain. According to the recent New York Times Article, these incredible pieces that were placed in the V&A Museum are not only spectacular, but they are also, "dazzling examples of data visualization, the new medium that translates complex information into gorgeous- and easily understandable- digital images." The museum contains pieces of Digital Art from the 1950s that they refer to as, "Digital Pioneers".

The exhibition shows a whole new realm of art work for not only our generation, but the entire population of mankind. The exhibition in london walks you through the digital art world from its beginnings to its most current creations.

"Earlier artists , like Harold Cohen, devoted their loves to working directly with the machine without any intermediate software by writing their own computer programs to produce drawings."

Just like most of our technology today, this technology constructed by Harold Cohen enabled students and people interested in the digital art world to produce their own artistic work and pieces without having to truly understand the technology beneath the surface of what they were creating. Artists can now use this foreign language of 'computer code' and use it as their tools to create a masterpiece.

The potentials of technology are explored on a daily basis and the hopes for the digital design world look bright. Some day students may be able to splash paint across the screen just by simply moving their arm, as if they were stroking a brush against the screen. Hopes for the artistic world is that one day computers will be able to be controlled by gestures and voices rather than keys and a mouse.

Are the Commercials All Wrong: Is AT&T Better than Verizon?

We've all been taunted by the commercials of the rivaling wireless networks: AT&T vs. Verizon Wireless. For anyone who has not caught a glimpse of the commercial, it plays out something like this: there is one map of the United States covered in red, representing the area that Verizon Wireless covers within its network, and off to the other side of the screen is a map of the United States with a few splotches of blue, which represents what the AT&T network covers ... or lacks to cover for that matter. At the end of the commercial your Verizon Wireless tag line is: "There's a map for that".

For me, these graphically enhanced commercials offer me a sigh of relief as I hold onto my Verizon Wireless blackberry in my pocket, and can sit back and know that I will have good coverage just about anywhere in the U.S. And for those of my friends who sit on the couch next to me with their AT&T iPhones, and are engaged in their latest app purchase, they are forced to cringe a little as Verizon Wireless' marketing scheme just completely squashes any marketing scheme that AT&T has constructed thus far. Anyone who has paid attention to the marketing battle between all wireless companies must think that Verizon Wireless is not only on top, but very much ahead of the rest of the pack ... but is there a chance that the facts and the marketing we see is not exactly level with one another?

According to a recent NYT article AT&T actually carries the better phone. The article states that although AT&T's iPhone may be causing some airway problems with its "air interface" problems, AT&T does not dare speak ill of Apple because of the strengths and brains it brings to the table for AT&T. The statistics of which wireless carrier is better seems to be clear according to one paragraph of the recent NYT article, which stated the following:

"This year, Root Wireless ran 4.7 million tests on smartphones for each of the four major carriers, spread across seven metropolitan areas: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles/Orange County, New York, Seattle/Tacoma, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington. In every market, AT&T had faster average download speeds and had signal strength of 75 percent or better more frequently than did Verizon."

I think anyone who watches television can agree that if this is the case, AT&T needs to hire someone to take the bull by the horns in terms of marketing, and Apple's iPhone gadget may need to open its ears to AT&T's "techies" who can assist on the mechanic side of things. But, for now, I will still find some sort of comfort as I see the heavily shaded red on the map of the U.S. and grin a little with AT&T's confused coverage marketing scheme!

Italy vs. Google?

Most of us may think that Google, Facebook, and eBay are companies that might be untouchable. And while most of us may be in agreement that all three of these companies serve a good purpose in our cyber society, Italy begs to differ. The New York Times tells the story something like this: On January 2008, chief privacy counsel at Google, Peter Fleischer was walking to the University of Milan to give a speech, and shortly after hearing his name called from behind him, he was surrounded by 5 Italian police officers.

Fliescher had been surrounded by these officers that day because of a video web incident that had been posted in 2006. The video was taken of an autistic boy from Turin, who was being taunted by classmates, and to continue their teasing, the classmates posted the video on the web. After the brief interrogation, the police allowed Peter Fleischer to make his speech, but now Fleischer, as well as three other Google executives, were facing charges of defamation (malicious gossip) and privacy violations; all charges that could serve serious repercussions for Google. Google argues that if these charges are implemented on themselves, that other Internet companies that are up and running in Europe and Italy could also feel the shock wave from the charges as well.

Prosecutors have already given their case last month, and are looking to give Fleischer and the two other executives a sentence of one year in prison. Google executives are scheduled to give their defense some time this week. Google is pleading not guilty, saying that they had nothing to do with these videos.

The beauty of Google is that they leave it up to their users to mark videos as offensive or to control the flow of what should and should not be allowed to be posted on the web. Websites like YouTube and Google Video are not responsible for filtering the content in advance. When users mark an item as objectionable, then Google steps in to see if it violates the terms of use, and then it will decide whether or not to remove that item from the site.

But this time the stakes are high for Google because Italian law holds individuals responsible for corporate action. Prosecutors are saying that Google was negligent in allowing the clips to remain on the Internet for two months in 2006. Google removed them after an Italian company Vivi Down (representing people with down syndrome) complained about the video. If Google is proven guilty in this case, Peter Fleischer fears that web 2.0 will become much more liable for what is posted on these open forum websites.

20 hours of video are uploaded every minute onto YouTube, and in my opinion 20 hours of video a minute would be quite a task to monitor every single upload. YouTube's accessibility, easy access to upload, and easy viewing process, is what makes it so appetizing for everyone to take part in. Fleischer stated it the best himself when he said that:

"We see this as an attempt to reopen the law in Italy and Europe that protects these platforms for freedom of expression..." "It's an attach on a decade of progress."

I agree with Fleischer that we have made nothing but progress in the Internet world. To let someone come in and try and harness our freedom of speech and expression on the Internet would do nothing but set us back in what our constitution originally read from the beginning.

The run-in incidents with Italy are not only effecting Google. Italian tax authorities have also asked eBay to see a review of individuals who made large volumes of sales within the last year. Facebook has also faced some head on collisions in Italy, who wanted Facebook to block the content that they marked as threatening and objectionable.

According to the New York Time Article, concerning the Google case:

The verdict, expected within weeks, might not be the final word in the case, because the decision could be appealed in the European Court of Justice. In the meantime, Mr. Fleischer said he had been advised not to set foot in Italy at least until a verdict is issued.

Downward Spiral for Newspaper Industry

In 2005 newspapers took a 2 percent fall. In 2007 newspapers took a 3 percent fall. In 2008 newspapers took a 4 percent fall. Now, in 2009 newspaper companies are experiencing a greater downward spiral than ever before. Sales have now fallen 10.6 percent on weekdays and 7.5 percent on weekends. The newspaper industry has not experienced anything like this since 1940.

There are many causes for this screeching halt in sales. Internet readership, price increases due to sale decrease, and the recession, have all been probable reasons for the newspaper industry to find itself in its own depression. Since 1990 sales of newspapers have been falling about 1 percent per year. So, maybe we should have seen this coming, but with that being said, besides going digital and still taking an enormous cut in profit, what can the newspaper industry do to survive?

My generation is going digital, and consequently killing off industries that have been around for decades. The New York Times article gives statistics to exactly what the Internet has done to newspaper readership by saying that,

The Internet, where newspapers are generally free, has siphoned off circulation and advertising even as it made papers more widely read than ever before. This year, newspaper sites have had more than 72 million unique visitors a month, compared with 60 million in 2007, according to reports by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association

Because newspapers have had to cut their budget, newsrooms are smaller and papers themselves are thinner than ever before. Alan Mutter, a newspaper consultant who writes a blog about the industry called Reflections of a Newsosaur says that,

"I’ve worried for a long time that they’re losing readers because they’re offering less, and I think we’re seeing the effects of that."

Newspapers all over the world are facing the same problems. The problems are effecting even some of the largest companies we know today, such as: New York Times, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal. As sales fall for these companies, with previously such large nationwide readership, we have to wonder if the newspaper can indeed survive our generation.

Some people say that there are times that a newspaper can never be replaced. Moments in history such as 9/11, Michael Jackson's death, or Obama's history shattering presidency, are things that people will want in its original paper document forever. But sometimes I begin to wonder if my generation will even know what paper is by the time my hair starts to get grey. For now, anything we predict will be just that, merely a prediction. But as times continues and technology continues to advance we will, indeed, see someone's prediction of: 'The Newspaper's Will to Survive' or 'The Slow Death of the Newspaper', come true after all.

Twitter Trends

When we think of the creation of new products or trends that producers seem to create from thin air, we have to take a second and wonder, who thought of this brilliant idea? But did we ever stop to think that maybe we are the brilliant ones, and the producers themselves are actually just watching from the side to see what we can come up with. Then maybe they pick up on a trend that they could potentially market as their own. Well, Twitter is a software that did just that.

Twitter began about two years ago. It was created to simply allow the public to post 140 characters, essentially, about what they were doing, thinking, or wanted everyone to know at that time. Since then Twitter has reached a brand new height and, has potentially made the lives of the people creating products for us (the public), much easier. Now, instead of picturing the designers and producers in a board room meeting in a suit and tie, sitting in fancy chairs that twirl around ... start to picture them all at home in their pajamas sitting on Twitter.

Because of the Twitter software producers can now see which ideas catch on through twitter updates/thoughts. Through the 'twitter chatter' they can start to turn these ideas into features available for the public to use. In the New York Times article they discuss all the new features that Twitter is making readily available for their users to start using. By doing this, they will be making the world of tweets have many more options for all of its tweeters! Some of the new features include: your very own Twitter search engine, the @ symbol section, marking conversation about a certain topic with the # symbol, Lists, and Follow Friday. These are all features that make perfect since in the world of Twitter.

Isn't it odd to think about what we could potentially come up with if we just payed attention to our own trends! Ah ... maybe one day we could sit at our desk at home, making millions in our pajamas, realizing we were the "brilliant" ones all along!