Black Friday tops Cyber Monday

The history of black Friday dates back to the 1960’s to kick off the Christmas shopping season. The tem “black” refers to stores moving from the “red” to the “black,” back when accounting records were kept by hand, and the red ink indicated a loss, and the black a profit. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving where shoppers will skip the left over Thanksgiving scraps to stand in line waiting for the opening of their favorite stores. Retailers advertise numerous doorbuster deals, even if this means the store will take a loss on the given product, just to entice shoppers to come to their stores. There have been many reports of customers and employees of the stores getting trampled by the herd of people flooding the stores. You may find great deals on Black Friday, but at what cost? Nowadays the online market has taken part in a sale of their own, an online sale known as Cyber Monday. This virtual holiday became globally known as Cyber Monday in 2005. Though the history of Cyber Monday is relatively short, it is becoming more and more popular in this new virtual age. Shoppers can now do their holiday shopping in the comfort of their own homes avoiding the long lines, the crowds, and the possibility of being trampled.

With Cyber Monday sales soaring up seventeen percent form the previous year to a whopping 1.64 billion dollars the popularity of mobile devices and applications is on the rise and some applications performing better than others. Some consumers are even taking their mobile devices and smart phones to stores with them and looking to see if they can find a better deal online. Mashable.com states that payments through mobile devices are up by one hundred and ninety percent as opposed to the same day last year. IBM also conducted a study that concludes that people shopping through mobile devices and phones had increased by seventy percent. According to CNN mobile sites and applications were taking roughly eighteen more seconds to load, roughly doubling the load time of mobile sites. This extended load time for mobile sites and applications can be detrimental to sales. According to Mark Rudger, a mobile and web performance manager at Keynote, states that “customers typically don't like to wait more than three seconds for a website to load, and they'll switch to a competitor's site if they grow impatient”. Customers are growing more and more impatient and an inability to keep a mobile application or website running smoothly can cost a company precious sales dollar during this holiday sales season. Dell, Ebay, and Newegg’s mobile applications were some of these years’ slow performers. Among the top performers were Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Barnes N Noble. However the worst of the worst had to be Foot Lookers website which crashed for roughly a 40 minute window. It would be asinine to not think of mobile shopping for Cyber Monday and Black Friday to become even more popular in the coming years. Failing to streamline mobile apps and websites can cost companies big dollars in lost revenue during these crucial retailing holidays.
With the ever growing innovations in technology one can assume that once the kinks are worked out on mobile and online shopping, Cyber Monday will eventually become significantly more popular than Black Friday.

Cited:

Bentley, John. "DisplayLocation();." History of Cyber Monday. Superpages.com, Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.superpages.com/supertips/history-of-cyber-monday.html>.

Redford, Roger. "Black Friday History." The History of Black Friday. Blackfriday.com, Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://blackfriday.com/pages/black-friday-history>.

Tuttle, Brad. "Cyber Monday Was a Monster — But We Still Love Shopping in Stores." Time. Word Press, 28 2012. Web. 28 Nov 2012. <http://business.time.com/2012/11/28/cyber-monday-was-a-monster-but-we-still-love-shopping-in-stores/>.

We love the Wii... U?

At the Nintendo World store in Manhattan, a line of hundreds of people that stretches over three blocks are waiting for the newest addition to the Nintendo product line; Wii U. Nintendo holds an array of our favorite games and beloved characters such as the Mario Brothers, Samus from Metroid, and Link from the Legend of Zelda. One avid gamer, known only by the name of "Triforce" is said to have been waiting in line for the release since October 23rd, nearly a month from the November 18th release date. However, many reviewers are delivering discouraging comments regarding the new gaming system.

The internal components of the new Wii U rival that of its preceding Xbox 360 and PS3.The Wii U's processor runs an IBM Power PC-Based Multicore. A 25 GB hard drive capacity, a multichip module that allows the graphics card and CPU to run together on the same piece. It consumes .22 watts of power when running on standby and 33 watts during game use. The entire case is smaller than both the PS3 and 360's design. Nintendo had multiple third party sources contribute work on the motherboard such as Samsung, Panasonic, and Micron.

The brand new gaming system has some noteworthy pros to take a look at. Just like the 360 and PS3, the Wii U has movie streaming capabilities from companies such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, but with slightly increased capabilities. It has the ability to access TiVo and the Internet Movie Database as well. Fifty games were released on the same day allowing for a multitude of gamers to have their fill. The deluxe version for $350.00 is a much better option than the lower grade $300.00 with the additional components, free game, and warranty. This also puts the new system within direct competition with Sony and Microsoft for the holiday season. The Wii U is also backwards compatible with the old Wii games and controllers. The new Wii U controller is the most impressive aspect of the Wii U. A 6.2 Inch LCD gamepad equipped with a microphone, camera, and motion sensors makes it the first mainstream console to use a touch screen.


After waiting almost seven hours in line the new Wii U gamers have become pretty impressed with the systems software, but unfortunately there have been some “iffy internet capabilities”. Although the image is close to perfect, the Wii U only comes with a single gamepad which you cannot buy separately. Initially Nintendo had intended to help families by using the original Wiimotes, the game controllers, but it seems that by doing this Nintendo is “taking a step back” in gaming. Along with these imperfections, the Wii U has a slow start-up when turning the console on and when switching from menu to applications there can be lengthy delays. Reviewers believe that one of the bigger problems facing the Wii U is that unlike Microsoft’s X-box, and Sony’s Playstation 3, the Wii U is not compatible with all forms and types of media. Unlike these other types of gaming systems Wii U does not support DVD and Blu Ray playback. In terms of operating hardware the Wii U is also at a slight disadvantage. Even though the Wii U is on par with the X-box and Playstation when Microsoft and Sony unveil their next generation systems they could put the Wii U behind in terms of technology utilized. Bundle that with Nintendo already delaying releasing of apps such as TVii it begs the question; is it worth it?

Cited:

Bakalar, Jeff. "Wii U Woes Have Already Begun." CNET. N.p., 16 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. http://news.cnet.com/8301-33692_3-57551234-305/wii-u-woes-have-already-begun/.

Brown, Alexandria. "Check Out Wii U Pros and Cons Before Adding it to your Christmas List." examiner. N.p., 28 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. http://www.examiner.com/article/check-wii-u-pro-s-and-con-s-before-adding-to-christmas-list.

Carey, Bridget. "Some Find Problems with Wii U Update." CNET. N.p., 19 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. http://news.cnet.com/8301-33692_3-57552014-305/some-find-problems-with-wii-u-update/.

MILANO, DAN. "Wii U Launch: Nintendo President Promises Continuous Updates to New Console." ABC News. ABC News Network, 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wii-launch-nintendo-president-promises-updates-gaming-console/story?id=17757312>.

Owen, Phil. "Nintendo Wii U: The Pros and Cons of Buying it at Launch." gameranx. N.p., 13 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/9265/article/nintendo-wii-u-the-pros-and-cons-of-buying-it-at-launch/.

Reisinger, Don. "Wii U Teardown: A Tight Fit in a Small Package." CNET. N.p., 19 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57551846-235/wii-u-teardown-a-tight-fit-in-a-small-package/.

Samuel, Ebenezer. "Video Game Console Review: Nintendo Wii U." DAILY NEWS. N.p., 19 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/video-game-console-review-nintendo-wii-u-article-1.1204503.

Strauss, Michael. "Pros and Cons of Buying a Wii U for the 2012 Holiday Season." Yahoo! Voices. N.p., 8 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. http://voices.yahoo.com/pros-cons-buying-wii-u-2012-holiday-11854452.html.

Stuart, Keith. "Wii U: European Launch Date Announced." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 13 Sept. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/sep/13/wii-u-uk-launch-date-announced.

Yoon, Andrew. "Wii U Review: A Week with Nintendo's New Console." Shack News. N.p., 17 2012. Web. 19 Nov 2012. <http://www.shacknews.com/article/76704/wii-u-review-a-week-with-nintendos-new-console>

Increased Government Surveillance

People have always had suspicions of the government "watching them", unfortunately for these people they are stereo typically dubbed crazy or mentally ill. However there may be some truth to this paranoia as the government continues to increase their surveillance in the technological world. According to Google, the requests by government agencies to gain access to user data has dramatically increased over the past 3 years. Google began gathering data in 2009 where they recorded the number of official requests information which at that time numbered around 14,000. The latest report shows government requests for user data has exceeded 20,000, and that is just in the last 6 months. This seems to be in direct correlation with government’s requests of censorship on Google as seen in the graph below.

A common reaction by the public to this matter is referencing the fourth amendment. The fourth amendment states that "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause". In addition to user data requests, the governments around the world have also begun sending requests to remove multimedia data from the internet to avoid offensive or sensitive information to be released publicly. Almost 2,000 requests to remove data from the internet have been received so far in 2012 which have affected 17,000 items. Google was the first technology company to begin releasing these statistics however, companies such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Dropbox are starting to reveal their data on this matter as well. With the added statistics from these companies, the public will be able to see a more accurate record of how private our information actually is.

Citations:

Newton, Casey. "Government surveillance continues to rise, Google says." Cnet. CBS Interactive Inc., 13 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2012. <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57549055-93/government-surveillance-continues-to-rise-google-says/>.

Newman, Jared. "Google Says Government Surveillance Keeps Rising." PCWorld. N.p., 14 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2012. <http://www.pcworld.com/article/2014027/google-says-government-surveillance-keeps-rising.html>.

Chou, Dorothy. "Transparency Report: Government Requests on the Rise." Google, 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/transparency-report-government-requests.html>.

Rucker, JD. "Google Transparency Report Shows That Big Brother Is Quickly Becoming a Reality." Techi Fresh Daily Technology News. Techi, 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.techi.com/2012/11/google-transparency-report-shows-that-big-brother-is-quickly-becoming-a-reality/>.

Cohen, Roger. "Generals In Their Own Web." The New York Times. N.p., 15 2012. Web. 15 Nov 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/opinion/roger-cohen-cia-generals-caught-in-their-own-web.html?ref=surveillanceofcitizensbygovernment>.

Electech

With the ever growing innovations in computer and internet technology, a campaign manager would be a fool not to utilize these resources to gain awareness about their candidate. However this election more than in years prior, technology played a huge role in encouraging people to get to the poles and vote regardless of their political stance. Facebook, Google, and Twitter were just a few social media and information sites that got directly involved by raising awareness about the election. Facebook sent out a notification to all of its subscribed users that told them about the election and that they should take the time out of their day to vote. Google was able to send out a mass email to all of the Gmail, Google Calender, and Google Plus users informing people about the election as well as providing a link to figure out where they would be able to vote on election day. On the micro-blog twitter, election day hash tags were trending all day from reputable accounts that spread awareness about the polls and how people could register to vote.
Technology aided small counties by allowing voters to cast their ballots anywhere inside its borders. This means that rather than having a set voting location, the residents of said county would be able to vote anywhere in the county. In Collin County, Texas, there were projected as many as 100,000 additional voters who will vote on election day due to this new technology. Virgin America developed a technology that allowed their customers who were on their flights to registers to vote at their seat while they were waiting to arrive at their destination. This provided an ease in the process of registering to vote which would be directly related to the number of people that would actually show up to cast their ballot on election day.

Another amazing technological innovation that is new this election is the QR code. A QR code can be scanned by any smartphone and will bring you instantly to a website. An organization by the name of Rock the Vote took this technology and made tee shirts featuring a QR code that when scanned would take the person to a website where they can register to vote. It was estimated that over 1 million people were able to register to vote using this technology.

Cited:

"Election 2012 Goes High Tech: QR Codes Bring 1.5 Million New Voters to the Polls? | QR Droid Zapper | Blog." QR Droid Zapper | Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Nov. 2012. <http://qrdroid.com/blog/election-2012-goes-high-tech.html>.

Microsoft Breaks Surface in Tablet Market

Along with Microsoft's release of Windows 8 this Friday (October 26th), there will also be a new tablet product introduced to the market. The Windows Surface is the new tablet PC from Microsoft that will be their leading competitive product against Apple's iPad Mini. The edge that this new tablet will have is the sleek attachable keyboard that magnetically clips to the bottom of the PC for instant use. There will be 2 versions of this tablet available at launch; the Surface Pro and the Surface RT. The Surface Pro is advertised to be able to do anything that a current computer is able to do while the Surface RT will be for users that are only purchasing the device for a more casual type of use. The Pro will come with an option to have 64GB or 128GB of storage space with a 3rd Generation Intel i5 Processor and 4GB of RAM. This takes a huge technological advantage over the RT where only 32GB or 64GB are available with 2GB of RAM. The Surface RT will not be running any lesser type of an Intel Core Processor, instead it will be running a Nvidia Tegra 3, which will require less energy but, will not be compatible with applications outside of the new Windows App Store. This processor will greatly decrease the amount of tasks that users will be able to accomplish while using the RT, and with its $499 base price, it makes one ask if it is really worth buying.

So far, the reviews on the RT tablet haven't been the greatest. Not only is the storage low, but it pretty much doesn't fit into any customer niche. For one thing, Microsoft has made it pretty much impossible to aim the product at business users. The business license agreements that need to be agreed to when using Microsoft office programs basically states that Microsoft Office cannot legally be used for business purposes. Outlook cannot be used by businesses to check their email, PowerPoint cannot be used for business presentations, and Microsoft Excel cannot be used for business accounting. Since they're altogether relieved themselves of that segment, it should be clear that the tablet is good for educational purposes and use in schools. However, unless the tablet uses Flash it will be useless to students, especially at $499 for 32 gigs. So if it's not marketed towards students or businesses, it's more than likely aimed at the consumer population, right? Wrong. For one thing, the tablet doesn't have a very consumer-friendly name, the Microsoft Surface RT doesn't sound nearly as high-tech or trendy as the iPad or the Kindle or the Galaxy Tab. It also doesn't have nearly as many apps as an apple product. Their biggest competitive advantage is the fact that consumers want to be able to run their mainstream Windows apps, but it can't even do that, which means it definitely can't run PC games. Games are important to consumers. The bottom line is that this product is clearly not geared towards the audience of people who just wants to read emails, play games, and socialize. So far, there seems to be no customer class for this tablet other than corporate business users, who will most likely choose the slim ultra-book over the Surface RT anyway.

Cited:

"Surface." Microsoft. Microsoft. Web. 23 Oct 2012. <http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/surface-with-windows-8-pro/home>.

"Microsoft Surface RT vs. Surface Pro: Which Tablet Will You Want?." PC World. PC World, 01 2012. Web. 23 Oct 2012. 

Gerwitz, David. "5 big things that baffle me about Microsoft Surface RT." ZDNet. CBS Interactive, 22 2012. Web. 23 Oct 2012. <http://www.zdnet.com/5-big-things-that-baffle-me-about-microsoft-surface-

WhisperCast Makes Life Easier for Schools and Business

The aspect of having a physical textbook in grade school has begun to decline over the past few years with the implementation of ebook technology. This decline has increased exponentially with the growing market for tablet PCs, which are now being allowed in schools. WhisperCast, which is an application developed for Kindle by Amazon, now is being used in schools and businesses to purchase and distribute books and documents to all subscribed students or employees.

In the educational market, schools are now able to afford newer versions of textbooks and are able to distribute them to students easier without the risk of losing or damaging them during their use. Some schools may be reluctant to purchase new physical copies of books due to their high cost, but with ebooks the production costs are now considerably lower, thus allowing newer versions to be purchased more frequently and at less of a cost to the consumer. The stress of having to carry around heavy books will soon be eliminated and replaced with only having to carry a tablet PC. Schools can also run classroom networks where students can interact with one another over a Wi-Fi allowing a new type of learning experience. The program also allows teachers to manage their student's Kindles from a centralized system. It keeps students from misusing their Kindles and keeps them on task. The program also includes features that allow teachers to organize the Kindles into groups based on the students' grade level and allows them to distribute the assignments and classroom materials as a group or to select Kindles. Not only is the Whispercast program great for educational purposes, the Kindles provide 'classic' books that can be read and used by students and teachers free of charge.

Not only is Whispercast ideal for a classroom setting, it offers many benefits for business who utilize Kindles as well. Because the program allows for a centralized management system that can manage different groups of Kindles, it is an ideal tool for a company to give to their employees to keep everyone up to speed on what's going on in the business. The program allows businesses to replace textbooks with presentations and it is useful in the distribution of Portable Document Formats and other documents to employees and consumers as well. Security features have been incorporated into the program allowing managers and users to control device settings including Wi-Fi settings and password protection, which helps keep a business's Kindle network secure. Whispercast has also proved to be helpful with non-profit organizations as well. The program has allowed one organization to deliver more than 200,000 e-books to children is Sub-Saharan Africa via the Kindle. Whispercast also supports free Kindle apps in Windows, iOS, OSX, and Android, something that Apple's iPads and iBooks don't do. In fact, as of last January Apple didn't claim to have any real answers to the issue of how to make their own expensive tablets to students. Could this possibly prove to be a competitive advantage for Amazon over Apple? Only time will tell.

Cited:

Mlot, Stephanie. "Amazon Targets Schools, Businesses With Whispercast for Kindle ." www.pcmag.com. N.p., 17 2012. Web. 17 Oct 2012. <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2411072,00.asp>.

Carnoy , David . "Amazon's Whispercast for Kindle targets schools, businesses." reviews.cnet.com. N.p., 17 2012. Web. 17 Oct 2012. <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33198_7-57533963-286/amazons-whispercast-for-kindle-targets-schools-businesses/>.

Facebook Fuels Revolutions

 While most users of social networking sites use them purely for communication and entertainment purposes, certain countries involved in civil wars have been using these websites as a tool to revolt against their own totalitarian governments.
For months now Syrian civilians in Duma, a north eastern suburb of the capital have been protesting against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. These protestors have reportedly been using Facebook as a means to fight for their cause. Syrian activists have dozens of profiles on Facebook that include the photos, names, addresses, and other information on suspected awainiyya, or "The Watchers" who are government informants posing as civilian protestors. Syrian residents can use the social networking sites to report suspected informants in their neighborhood, and the suspects' activities are monitored on the site, providing the civilians with information about who to trust and who not to trust, before the suspect is 'outed'. Once outed, the suspects usually receive a quick, and often violent retribution from the protestor regime.
However, although the revolutionists claim that they don't use information and photos of suspects unless they're absolutely sure that they're informants, many civilians have speculated that some people are taking advantage of the aggressive attacks on the 'outed' government informants. They claim that some people's information gets put on the Facebook sites, making it seem like they're suspects, for personal reasons like vendettas, whether they're actually informants or not.
Because the Syrian protestors are utilizing social networking sites as a tool to aid in their revolution, the Syrian government has taken action by completely shutting down the civilian's internet to foil their efforts.

Along with the Syrian protestors using facebook as a tool to revolt against their government other
countries like Egypt have mimicked their actions. Kullena Khaled Said was brutally murdered in
response to this incident activist Wael Ghonim created a facebook page inspiring others to act on the
behalf of Said. Ghonim says "I wanna meet Mark Zuckerburg one day and thank him...I'm takling on behalf of Egypt. This revolution started online. This revolution started on facebook. This revolution started in June 2010 when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians started collaboratin content. We would post a video on facebook that would be shared by 60,000 on their walls within a few hours. I've always said that if you want to liberate a society just give them internet."

Facebook has always been a good source to use when expressing your opinions. These countries are able to utilize the social network as means of communication to protest their government and broadcast how they want the rights they deserve. It's interesting to see a website that most people use as a casual means of communication being used for a greater purpose such as a revolution. Since we live in America, and never worry about rights being taken away, it is mind-blowing to see how a government can completely take away the internet from an entire country.

Cited: Flamand , Annasofie. "Syria's protesters turn to Facebook to expose 'citizen spies'." The Guardian. The Observer, 08 Oct 2011. Web. 10 Oct 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/09/syria-informers-protests-internet-facebook>.