Author Archives: Monica Esposito

My Time At SMU

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My Time at SMU

My time at SMU has been one of the greatest 3 and a half-years of my life. While SMU originally didn’t seem like the obvious choice for me when choosing a college, it has been a choice that has brought me no regrets. Growing up in Pennsylvania, going to school in Texas was completely off my radar. I was hesitant to go to a school so far away from my friends and family, but when I visited the flawlessly beautiful campus and learned more about the school, stepping outside of my comfort zone and branching out into a new part of the country seemed worth the risk.

No risk I’ve taken has brought me such great rewards as choosing to go to SMU. At SMU I’ve made the greatest friends, made incredible memories and grown up as both a student and person. Coming into college, making new friends scared me. From pre-k through 12th grade I went to the same school and was lucky enough to grow up with the same group of friends that often knew me better than I knew myself. The thought of making as close of friends at SMU at the time seemed impossible. Fortunately I was wrong. The friends I made freshman year at SMU are still the friends that I spend my free nights with and the friends I go to when I need advice, even the boy that I started dating at the beginning of freshman year is still my boyfriend today. The friends that I’ve made at SMU are the friends that I have made my best memories with and they are friends that I will keep in touch with even if we end up on opposite sides of the country. Continue reading →

Travel with Pinterest Using Place Pins

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Place Pins

Pinterest announced a new tool yesterday, called Place Pins. Place Pins is a product that can feature local spots that might interest users as well as help users plan vacations.

Place Pins can be found on a new pin board that features a map where users can pin locations such as restaurants, bars, tourist sites or different hot spots around a city and add descriptions about them. With partners such as Trulia, Booking.com and OpenTable, these new Place Pins include a brief description of each location. Not only can users create their own Place Pins board for trip ideas or places to go, but they can also share their entire board with their friends.

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Can Amazon’s Alpha House Compete with Netflix?

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Alpha House

Last Friday, Amazon’s original series “Alpha House,” a political comedy, debuted to Amazon customers. While some users may think that Amazon’s original series will be available to binge watch like Netflix series Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, “Alpha House” will be aired weekly.

By posting new episodes of “Alpha House” weekly, Amazon hopes that gossip about the show will carry on longer than the buzz surrounding shows on Netflix that can be watching in a few days.

Although Amazon hopes that it’s original series will be talked about over a period of time, the buzz that revolves around the show will depend on the success of the show itself. If the show is not popular among viewers, Amazon potentially runs of the risk of talk about “Alpha House” dying out rather than spreading.

Amazon’s original series can be viewed by not only Amazon subscribers, but by all customers with a free trial as Amazon has found that free trial Prime memberships often turn into paid subscribers.

With there only being 11 to 12 million Amazon Prime members compared to there being 43 million Netflix members, do you think Amazon’s original series will compete with Netflix’s original series? What are your thoughts on binge watching versus anxiously waiting the suspense of next week’s episode?

Home Depot’s twitter account makes a fumble

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Home Depot’s twitter account hit a new low yesterday when the company tweeted in regards to its ESPN College Gameday show sponsorship saying, “Which drummer is not like the others? See more @CollegeGameDay pics at #HDgameday #football.”

While this tweet didn’t read offensively, the photo that accompanied it of three drummers, two being African-American and the third wearing a gorilla suit, did. The tweet was quickly removed from Home Depot’s twitter account, but was unfortunately removed too late to avoid the negative social media buzz.

home depot tweet Continue reading →

MTV Artists App Does It All

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MTV Artists App

MTV Artists App for the iPhone takes MTV back to its music origins. The new app that was released Thursday, gives users an inside look at their favorite artists, new music and concert tickets all in one convenient location.

One feature of the app allows users to search for artists to view pictures and videos, and to learn more about the artists through biographies, band histories and interview segments. The app also gives you an overview of the artist by grabbing quick audio clips from Rhapsody through its “top 10 songs in 90 seconds” feature.

Another feature that the app has, similar to Shazam, allows users to tap the Song ID button to identify the song that they are currently listening to. Once the app identifies the song, all it takes is one tap to be transferred to the iTunes Store to purchase the song just researched.

The app also has a feature similar to Ticketmaster, to view concert dates and buy tickets to upcoming concerts. The app then transfers you to the mobile site of different sites such as Ticketmaster or StubHub to make your final transactions.

While the MTV Artists App for the iPhone won’t be your primary application to listen to music, it is a comprehensive app that provides you with information on artists you’re interested in as well as finding new music. The app is now available in the iTunes Store.

Instagram Introduces Ads

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Instagram

US Instagram users will soon be seeing new changes on their Instagram feeds. Facebook owned Instagram is letting users know that it will slowly start inserting video and photo advertisements into the application over the next few months to avoid potential criticism from more than 150 million current Instagram users. Continue reading →

Target Ticket: The New Netflix?

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Target Ticket

Looking for a new video service? Already finished Netflix’s original series Orange is the New Black? On Thursday, Target introduced Target Ticket, its new digital video service similar to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Video. Target Ticket is another video site to check out next time you’re looking for a place to buy or rent movies and TV shows. Continue reading →

New Handwriting Feature Released for Google Translate 2.0

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Yesterday, Google released Google Translate version 2.0 for iOS, an app that can translate your handwriting. Test input, voice translations and handwritten text are now all included in the updated app. The app translates your handwritten characters into your native language by checking the Google Translate display at the top of your screen.

Google Translate

More than 70 languages are supported by the application with 49 of the different languages being supported by the handwriting feature of the application. The handwriting can even be read aloud to you in your desired language. 7 new languages including, Bosnian, Cebuano, Lao, Marathi, Hmong, Javanese and Khmer, are also now available for translation.

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Facebook: The Coolest Kid on the Block

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In today’s digital world, teens not only have to avoid peer pressure from their classmates and friends, they also have to avoid the constant pressure to fit in every time they refresh their Facebook News Feed.

A recent study led by Grace C. Huuang, PhD, of the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research at the University of Southern California, researched how social networking influences teenager’s hazardous behavior. The study found that Facebook and Myspace teenage users had a higher chance of participating in drinking and smoking activities if their friends posted party pictures with these happenings on social networks.

When teens sign into their Facebook accounts and are continuously bombarded by pictures of their friends drinking and smoking at parties, they start to feel like they are missing out and that they need to be taking part in this risky behavior in order to fit in.

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