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>.