Are Apps Taking too Much Personal Info?

There are millions of Apps out there for people to use. Some are to stay in touch with others, or keep up with the latest news.  Other apps provide access to accounts and other personal information and then there are music and game apps.  But certain apps could be exposing a little too much personal information, the Angry Birds game has been rumored to be one of them.

Over a billion users worldwide download and play this simple, mindless game, yet this certain software is capable of collecting personal information located on the mobile device.  As technology becomes an even greater part of society, I feel like the fine line between privacy and public will shrink even more.

People want to keep as much information on their mobile devices as possible because it is easy to keep track of and convenient to transport.  It also makes sharing information easier.  The only trouble is that is has also become easier for the wrong people to figure out ways to access other peoples information as well.

There is no doubt that before we all know it, everything will be run on technology, but the big question is how can we prevent the wrong people to access personal records?  So far there hasn’t been a 100% secure way to protect people’s information, and if information can be accessed through something as simple as an App game, who knows how many other ways are there for other to access people’s information?


Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/technology/mobile-apps-have-a-ravenous-ability-to-collect-personal-data.html?ref=technology&_r=0

Competition Continues to Surface

As more people continue to depend on technology, companies continue to create devices for people to use.  The most recent product, the Microsoft Surface, is Microsofts first attempt at producing a tablet device, and so far has seen success.  As mentioned previously, Microsoft sold out of the estimated pre-order amount and already reviews have come back in favor of this product because of the familiarity of the system. 

This is the first device to use Windows 8, so PC users do not have to try and figure out how to work a new system.  For PC users this is probably the most appealing characteristic of this device.  I know that I am more inclined to purchase Apple products mainly because I am very comfortable using them and it is all the same.  I sometimes have a hard time familiarizing myself with PCs because I rarely use them, and the same holds true with PC users when attempting to work on Apple products. 

Apple has been so dominate in the technology market that it will be interesting to see if a significant amount of people prefer the Microsoft Surface over the iPad products.  With the holidays approaching, more of these Surface tablets will fall into people’s hands, and it will be interesting to hear what people have to say about the device. 

Reference: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/26/tech/mobile/ifatigue-windows-8/index.html

Problems with the iPhone

The new iPhone 5 has a different connection than the previous models, which makes it complicated for people to use their original chargers, phone docks, and other miscellaneous Apple accessories.  Some lightening cables have started to arrive so that people are able to connect their devices but people are still facing minor complications.

So far the biggest issue has been dealing with cars.  It has been advised to keep a lightening cable handy, especially if the vehicle supports bluetooth stereo streaming since it has ben difficult to find some consistency there.

Even though people always want to keep up with the most recent technologies, when companies such as Apple decide to make a drastic change such as this, people have to except to have adapt to these changes.

Reference: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2012/10/28/apple-lightning-connector/1659027/

Counting Down the Election

With the Presidential campaign coming to an end, both candidates continue to learn everything they can about their potential supporters.

Both candidates have used data-mining techniques to customer ads for voters based on the digitals trails people leave as they visit Internet sites.

People who visit political websites have been known to receive more information about that particular candidate due to the “retargeting” software that was programed into the website.  The point of this software is to show people ads for certain sites or products that they have previously viewed.

While this is a good advertising strategy in the since it is an easy way to advertise and remind those people interested in you. The problem however, as mentioned in this New York Times article, is that “retargeting” sometimes follows people, who might not support the candidate but has visited the website just to take a look at it.

As the article mentioned, this data-mining tool has not been mastered yet, and is not completely accurate but does provide the candidates a quick and easy way to project their messages to a large population of people.

Car Seats Soon to be Softer than a Baby’s Bottom

Sitting in a car for an extended period of time can sometimes be uncomfortable, but Nissan’s latest invention might make long travels a little bit more pleasant.  The car company is working on developing a material for car seats that will replicate the texture and softness of human skin.

The project called Premium-fEEl interior concept (PEEL) has had engineers carry out studies about what provides the sense of touch with a comfortable sensation.  These engineers discovered that nothing matches the comfort and tranquility connected to the feel of human fingers against the body.


Nissan wants to create the semi-aniline leather with a textured and lightly pigmented protective coating the containing fingerprint patterns. Figuring out a way to make seats exceptionally comfy for passengers would not only put Nissan at an advantage but could also change the way car companies design their vehicles.

Apple Continues to Create New Products

It seems like no sooner has Apple released a new version of a product, they have made an announcement about something else. It is hard to keep up with all of these products! Most recently Apple has released the iPad mini and also unveiled a fourth-generation, full-sized iPad. Apple has also announced that a new 13” macbook with retina display, two new thin iMacs and a mac mini will join the Apple product line. 

Some customers felt that Apple has got away from their computers and have focused a lot of their attention on the iPhones, so hearing about new computer products excited a lot of people.  

It did seem like a lot of attention has been directed towards the phones and tablets.  I actually saw a commercial for the new 13” macbook the other day and was sort of surprised because I can’t remember the last time I saw one on TV.  

Apple has become such a dominate force in the technology industry, that I sometimes find it difficult to keep up with all of their latest products. 

Reference: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/26/tech/gaming-gadgets/apple-mac-schiller/index.html

Will Facebook Soon Start Paying Me?

Facebook has access to over 1 billion users information; they know what we like, our interests, even what groups we belong to and so on.  For advertisers, Facebook is a gold mine, companies can directly figure out which people are interested in their products, however for some reason advertisers have been reluctant to advertise with Facebook.

Right now Facebook makes only $1.28 per each user per quarter, which is much less than the $7.00 Google makes on each of its users.  Facebook’s stock is also worth half of what it was when it first started trading in May, mainly because investors are afraid than the social media tool lacks a clear path of increasing revenue it makes off of the subscribers.

A couple of NYU professors have begun proposing a strategy for Facebook that consists of Facebook paying its users for the privilege of selling their information.   This idea isn’t new; Facebook would pay its users a fee of say $10 a month for the right to send their relevant personal information to the advertisers.  Companies looking to advertise their products or brands to a specific group of people would pay Facebook for that data and for the ability to directly market to those individuals.



Facebook has made no comment regarding this issue, and honestly paying a billion users a month seems pretty expensive and also very tricky to do.  Theoretically this concept seems like it could work, but logistically it would be very difficult and complicated I think.  However it would be pretty nice to get compensated for using Facebook, but I guess everyone will just have to wait and see!



Reference: http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/18/technology/social/facebook-should-pay-you/index.html?iid=SF_T_River

Verizon Disappointed with iPhone 5s Numbers

Even though Verizon sold 3.1 million iPhones last quarter, only 651,000 of those were iPhone 5s. Verizon anticipated selling more of the 5 (almost twice as many as they actually sold), and blamed Apple’s supply constraints, and not weak demand.

But even though Verizon was unhappy with the sales numbers, the company still benefited from customers who purchased the 5 elsewhere, but has a Verizon account.  Verizon has implemented a $30 activation fee, plus altered their data plans to encourage more data usage.

Over the past month Verizon was able to activate 6.5 million smart phones, which is more than any other quarter in its history except for in 2011 when the iPhone 4s was released.  So yes, Verizon might not have sold as many iPhone 5’s as the company would have liked too, but Verizon has been seeing a great amount of success through data plans and activating phones.

Reference: http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/18/technology/mobile/verizon-iphone/index.html?iid=SF_T_River

New Surface for Microsoft

The Microsoft Surface, their new tablet appears to already be a hit.  The product was originally unveiled in June, but most recently more specifics about the device have surfaced.  Along with the pricing and marketing availability, Microsoft announced a special limited-quantity pre-order for the Surface with Windows RT.

 This is Microsoft’s first attempt in the tablet community, and already it seems like people are interested in the product.  Not only will this tablet be more familiar to current PC users, but the starting price is $499, which is a little more affordable than the iPad.

They have filled up all of the pre-order requests, which only adds to the fact that consumers are interested in this product.

Reference: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Oct12/10-16announcementPR.aspx

iPad Mini Release Date

Apple recently announced the release date for the iPad mini on October 23rd.  The seven inch tablet is estimated to be priced around $300.  But Apple isn’t the only company who plans on launching a new product. Microsoft plans to release Windows 8 and also surface a tablet later in October and Nintendo will launch the Wii U video game console in the middle of November. This just shows that companies are constantly coming up in innovative ideas and creating new devices for people to purchase.  

Reference: http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/16/technology/mobile/ipad-mini-event/index.html

Google Maps Keep Growing

As most know already, Apple opted against Google Maps for the iPhone5 and decided to use their own, less dependable mapping service.  Since then Google has updated Google Maps and included 250,000 more miles of roadway.  The new app also lets users see a real-world, 360 degree view of locations which not only enhances the map for users, but also makes it easier to follow.

Google maps has always provided a “street view” option, which shows the actual image of the location as opposed to simply a map grid.

New iPhone 5 customers have not been as pleased with Apple’s map options, the feature has been rather inconsistent amongst a variety of devices.  It is unknown whether or not Apple will go back to using Google maps, but with the newest edition it seems silly not too.

Reference: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/11/tech/web/google-maps-street-view/index.html

Can Microsoft Make It?

As if there wasn’t enough tablets and devices surfacing around everywhere, Microsoft has decided to direct its focus to producing hardware products as well.  CEO Steve Ballmer says he sees Microsoft as “a device and service company.”  There are already an abundance of hardware products, so what could a Microsoft device have that other tablets don’t?

Microsoft is following is Apple’s footsteps.. it hopes to borrow some of Apple’s tactics in regards to marketing and sale while also holding on to the Windows operating system.

It seems a bit odd that Microsoft is just now trying to enter the tablet playing field... if the company was aware of Apple’s success tactics, why didn’t Microsoft choose to start creating devices sooner? Now Samsung and Amazon are also creating devices, so it only makes it that much more difficult for Microsoft to control some of the market share.

Reference: http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/10/technology/microsoft-gadgets/index.html

T-Mobile Continues to Grow

As of Wednesday, T-Mobile USA agreed to by MetroPCS in hopes of growing and becoming more competitive with bigger rivals.  With this merge, T-Mobile hopes to compete more on the level as Sprint, a lower-cost cellphone service.  T-Mobile also expects to gain more customers and build out a next generation data-network; “With 42.5 million users, the combined company will close the gap significantly with Sprint, the No. 3 player with 56.4 million customers.” Even though the two companies will continue to operate separately the goal for both companies to move towards unified entity to the Long Term Evolution technology down the road.

Reference: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/t-mobile-seals-deal-with-metropcs/?ref=technology

Figuring out the iPhone 5

Even 5 million iPhone 5’s were sold in the first weekend (a new record for iPhone purchases) customers have not been completely satisfied with the new product.

Verizon customers have expressed complaints with the Wifi connections and some have said that they have been overcharged for data that they did not use. The new Apple Map App has also not received positive feedback from customers.  The Map App replaced Google Maps and has mislabeled cities and also locate the wrong addresses.

Even though a significant amount of people own GPS systems, the Map application is an attractive feature of the iPhone. Apple will have to continue to work to fix this feature in order to satisfy customers.  Like new product obviously certain glitches but I feel like people have a certain expectation from Apple products so these kinds of issues are kind of disappointing.




Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/iphone-5-problems-users-b_n_1911038.html

The iPad Mini

It is appears that the iPad mini will be the next creation from Apple, but this product is already experiencing delays.  According to this article,  it might be difficult for Apple to produce the mini in masses.  The iPad mini is expected to look more like an iPhone or an iTouch than an actual iPad. I am not quite sure why Apple feels the need to create this device because it seems very similar to an iPhone, so it will be interesting to see how it is marketed.



References: http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-mini-delays-2012-10