There is a television show airing soon on the History Channel, about soldiers who are back from irak blogging about things that happened. They say it’s the kind of stuff the news and Governments doesn’t want you to know. There looked to be many video post of ambushes and the like. It’s interesting to see how soldiers are using the internet to spread their stories.
Which would you prefer to use– your old wallet with a few presidents’ faces inside, or your cell phone with digital cash? Currently in Briton 200 volunteers are using Nokia phones equipped with the Near Field Communications equipment– the same used by Capital’s oyster card. These special phones double as wallets and transportation tickets. A simple swipe of the phone over a special poster and payments are made instantly. The volunteers have been given 200 pounds in an account, and have 6 months to spend it. Unfortunately, only about 1000 shops in Britain are equipped with the technology that is compatible with the phones, but there is a high potential of the “digital wallet” catching on–it is possible that a full scale launch of this technology could occur as early as the end of 2008. Right now the most useful purpose of this mobile technology is for transportation– on buses, subways, trains, etc. It makes sense that cell phones are beginning to take on even more roles, as they are already the most important possession to many people. It will be interesting to see how soon (if at all) this idea catches on in the US. The article can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7117213.stm
John Goldner
A couple of classes ago I remember some one talking about the Zune. I have the IPOD Video 60 GB and
Personally I think I ipod is great. So I went ahead and look for information on the zune since Christmas time is coming. Amazing theres something even better than the zune. HEAR THIS OUT: a Wi-Fi MP3 player that wirelessly hooks into your Rhapsody account and at the same time lets you download your favorite music, music channels, and listen to podcasts, all without ever syncing with a PC. ISN’T THAT Cool! That means that for those that liked the Zune… you’ll love the Ibiza Rhapsody
Recently published in the Wall Street Journal is an article about Google preparing to offer a service in which people can save data on servers set up by google. This lets people save files that would normally be saved on desktops to servers that are remotely operated. These servers will enable people to access files saved on the servers from any location at any time. A price hasn’t been set yet and a release date should be mentioned in the next few months.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119612660573504716.html
Isn’t amazing how low the price of laptop computers has decreased! It doesn’t seem possible for laptop prices to keep dropping, but Circuit City kicked off the holiday shopping season with a full-featured Compaq laptop for $299. It’s a sign that PC prices are not only continuing to drop, but that the bottom hasn’t been reached yet.
The Circuit City deal includes an all-in-one printer, a wireless Wi-Fi router, and Norton Internet security software. The Compaq Presario laptop has an 80-Gbyte hard drive and features Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system.
To read more go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/204203374;_ylt=AvbeXPhMSQiopsCnCLdiZFwWr7sF
Lisa
Google-Inc funded 23andMe launched on Monday and began offering a DNA saliva test, which would help US users to learn about disease, inherited traits, and their ancestry. This allows people to share and better understand their own genetic information. People that sign up are offered if they want to know about their risk to diseases such as cancer and diabetes. This site shows why you dont like certain foods or flavors and whether you have famous historical relatives. Thought this was a fun article because it shows how far technology is coming, that now we can get our own DNA tests done and find out information about ourselves that we wouldn’t normally have ever known.
Mark Prince
HDVMD, or High-Density Versatile Multilayer Disc uses the red-laser technology of traditional DVDs instead of the blue-laser that HD and Blu-ray use. This is way cheaper and keeps prices down, so the first player that will be available is expected to be around $150 and discs are expected to be very cheap as well. They can also hold 30GB on a single slide which is more than both of the others. Not many titles are on this format so far however (A few include Lord of the Rings and Spy Kids), but if the disc prices for this are much lower than its other two competitors, it could soon dominate the field.
-Computer Shopper magazine
-Chelsea Speer
We were talking about peer-to-peer networking in class and how it is illegal. I found this article about how serious it is. MGM v. Grokster. This company has to go to the supreme court because of it. When we use our p2p netwroks to download music or whatever, we have to remember that it is illegal. We talked about napster and how it was in trouble the same way. It has a license now to give out music and videos, etc. legally, with a monthly payment plan. Read more about it at http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/02/16/hilden.fileswap/index.html?iref=newssearch
Izhak Shahdin
I found this article about how the CRT monitors are pretty much finished and being replaced with the LCD monitors. We discussed in class about the two different monitors and how instead of including a cathode-ray tube, LCD monitors are made of two sheets of material fillled with liquid crystal solution. It is way more advanced then the CRT so no wonder CRTs are being replaced. “This year, 40 percent of monitors sold in the United States will be flat screens”, according to market researchers at ARS. CRTs are really cheap right now though. I’m going to stick with my LCD monitor any day though.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/02/15/crt.monitors.idg/index.html
Izhak Shahdin
This sounds like a good buy for those of you shopping on black Friday. This external hard drive is a good back up to have. If your PC should ever fail, you can restore it all with this. It has a document synchronization feature that makes sure both your desktop and your laptop have the same data if that is what you prefer. I think it is a smart buy because you can image your PC’s entire hard drive. You never know what can happen to your computer with all of these virsuses and trojans out there like we discussed in class. I know I’m going to Best Buy this black Friday. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/11/02/maxtor/index.html#cnnSTCText
Izhak Shahdin
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