Category Archives: Technology

Is Cord Cutting the New Trend?

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As Amazon joins the game of Apple TV, Roku and Chromecast with Amazon Fire TV, communications professionals are beginning to see a pattern of people leaving behind their traditional cable TV’s and cord cutting being the new trend.

Amazon Fire TV was released Wednesday, April 2nd allowing them to compete in the market with Apple, Google and Roku. It costs $99 and will stream Netflix, Amazon Instant (of course), Hulu Plus, A graph that illustrates the rise of cord cuttingShowtime Anytime, Crackle and Vimeo, and more to be named. Apple TV is probably the primary competition, with name recognition, although Google’s Chromecast is offered for just $35 and with a dead simple operation. Roku remains a competitor, and don’t forget about game consoles: In 2013, the PlayStation 3 was the No. 1 connected television platform for Netflix streaming, with the Xbox 360 not far behind.

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Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts Used To Track US Music Conversation

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Billboard and social media network Twitter announced a multi-year partnership to create Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts. 

Expected to launch in the upcoming weeks, Billboard announced on March 27, 2014 Billboard Twitter Real-Time charts that will track US music conversation occurring over millions of tweets sent each day. By combining the authority of the Billboard charts and the opinion of Twitter users, these charts will be based off of real-time data in order to rank music.

 

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Crowdfunding Turns Your Ideas Into Reality

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Is Crowdfunding the Future for Startups, Artists, and Entrepreneurs?

Crowdfunding is one of the newest and fastest growing trends on the Internet.  By definition, it is the practice of funding a project, typically via the Internet, by raising smaller amounts of money from a larger number of people.  Crowdfunding has enabled millions of people to contribute money to turn conceptualized products and projects into reality. Continue reading →

Telecom Industry and Battle Over Free SMS

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Social media is making communication easy with free SMS internationallyFree SMS messaging apps are changing the ways people can communicate across country boundaries.

The walls of the old communication model are coming down rapidly as cell phone service providers are loosing traction in the international market. The past years have been plagued with high fees for international calling and text (SMS) messaging. Today, many new apps are surfacing that allow free SMS messaging, and sometimes calling, no matter where in the world you or your contacts are.

Whatsapp , a cross-platform mobile messaging app, has been in the news recently for being acquired by Facebook back in February for $16 Billion. Whatsapp connects with your smartphone after downloaded to check your contacts to see who else of your friends has the application. Once connected, you are free to send free SMS messages to your friends regardless of which country they are in. While this may not seem like a revolutionary idea in the United States, in Europe this has allowed many boundaries to come down. Continue reading →

Turkey to Open First Apple Store

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Despite its stringent social media regulations, Turkey is opening its first Apple store 

Apple announced Friday that it will be opening the first Apple store in Istanbul, Turkey on April 5.  The Zorlu Center mall will house the company’s first foray into Turkey, which Apple CEO, Tim Cook, explains “will be unique in all respects, with a store concept that will be the first of its kind in the entire world.”

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Twitter is King on the Second Screen

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Twitter's logo is located on many second screens.Ellen’s Oscar-selfie, otherwise known as the selfie that broke Twitter, became the most retweeted tweet of all time with over 2 million tweets just hours after posting. TV viewers live-tweeting TV programs has become a phenomenon in recent years with shows creating unique hashtags and twitter accounts. Ellen’s Oscar-selfie is just one example of how the social network is dominating the second screen world.

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Anti-Social-Network Apps

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Ever feel ANTI-social-network? Need to get some work done, but can’t stop checking Facebook? No need to smash your phone Bourne Identity style. Forget having to spend hours deactivating your numerous online profiles. These new apps are leading the way in the anti-social-network movement. Give yourself all the tools you need. Feel like you’ve jumped back to the pre-internet era!

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Cyber Dust App Deletes Messages After Reading

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Snapchat meets WhatsApp in Cyber Dust app’s message-disappearing app

CyberdustParenting in the modern world encourages kids to be in person, face-to-face with someone when telling something secretive, possibly inappropriate, or desirably “off the record.” Anything digital can be traced back to the source. There are deep, dark corners of the Internet, but The Silk Road was still uncovered. There are privacy promises made, but Snapchat was still hacked. There are emails that are encrypted, but still, people gain access to confidential information. Imagine never leaving a digital footprint again. Cyber Dust, an app that automatically deletes every message, picture, emoji, and interaction as soon as it is read, is one of the first apps to completely delete any traceable messages (unless someone takes a screenshot, of course). Continue reading →

Sony Project Morpheus Competes with Oculus Rift

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Sony Project Morpheus As of March 18, Sony announced the development of Project Morpheus. What is Sony Project Morpheus? Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with the famous character from the Matrix, but Sony’s new virtual reality head gear could have users feeling transported to another world. But competition with Oculus’ Oculus Rift v2.o has developers wondering if users will choose the red or the blue pill.

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Google Announced The New Android Wear

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Android , Information That Moves with you

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“Android Wear extends the Android platform to a new generation of wearable devices.”

On March 18 Google Inc.  introduced their  new project idea: The Android Wear. This project brings the Android Smart Phone into wearable computers.  The company released a  video-demo showing how the device would work. It uses voice commands to provide the user with all the information they need wherever they go.

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Hemingway App Helps Create Clear, Succinct Writing

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Hemingway App helps writers clean clutter from their work

American novelist Ernst Hemingway revolutionized writing with his “blunt, descriptive, concise prose.”  Today, however, clear and bold writing is hard to come by, replaced instead with verbose, over-saturated writing.  Brothers Adam and Ben Long recognized society’s departure from clear, succinct prose, and decided to create a free web app to help writers simplify their work.  Launched in late 2013, the Hemingway App allows users to enter a body of text into its processor and then analyzes the text, highlighting areas that can be simplified.

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Is there an Apple Innovation Decline?

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Apple CEO Tim Cook criticizes new book

Tim Cook and Steve Jobs together

Tim Cook and Steve Jobs together

Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs, by Ykari Iwatani Kane, argues that the company has lost its innovative touch since the death of Jobs. Is there an Apple innovation decline?

When Steve Jobs died, everyone knew that Apple would take a hit? How big of a hit was up to the consumer to decide. So far, the company has more-or-less remain stagnant. If and why is there a Apple innovation decline?

Former Wall Street Journal Reporter Yukari Iwantani Kane, argues that Apple is slowly declining from an iconic to “just another company.”

To see more of Tim Cooks response to CNBC Click Here for Wall Street Journal Link.

So that leaves the question, is there actually an Apple innovation decline? Well lets take a look at their three successful products.

Macbook

Progression of MacBooks

Progression of MacBooks

The Macbook is a notebook computer manufactured by Apple from early 2006 until today. The only chance, adding in a single word, the Macbook Pro. Although there has been some changes in design of the computer by changing the casing as well as the screens that are used, all in all the computers are pretty much the same. While some companies are incorporating touch screens and making Tablets, Apple has stayed the same. No Innovation.

Ipad

The iPad is a tablet computer made by Apple which was released in 2010. They use both Wi-Fi and cellular data plans and have sold over 170 million since 2010. Well the iPad is about the only real product we have seen some innovation. What did they do? They made it mini!!! Now the mini iPad is a great devise but lets be real here, it is either A) A smaller iPad. B) A larger iPhone. or C) A whole new invention that blew the minds of the consumers. Correct answers A and B. No Innovation

Iphone

Well, we all know what I am about to say here. I use the iPhone 5. And that is not even the most recent phone they have. I think that is enough said. No Innovation.

To be fair the company has made efforts to compete with Microsoft office with its Pages, Numbers and Keynote. However these applications are new and most people don’t want to make the change from what they already know.

The Future

Apple is a fantastic company that has seen adversity before. They will bounce back, and they will come up with the next hit product. It is just a matter of time…

 

 

High-profile and High-tech: SXSW is the Place to be in the World of Tech

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The South by Southwest Festival, a weeklong event in Austin bringing together some of the most talented individuals in music, film, and interactive media, now has a lot more to offer than a good time. Today SXSW is one of the premiere annual events for media members, entrepreneurs and investors in the world of tech.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OTrIIe4cBg?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

The place to be for cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity is none other than SXSW Interactive Festival.  The rise of social media and startup launch success are two of the most prominent factors of analyzing the expansion of the SXSW Interactive over the past decade.
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