Emerging Technologies Presentation

First, I would like to commend everyone on a superb job for our last project! I saw some really cool technologies that people found and I would say walking around to each presentation Friday was really interesting. There were incredibly medical advancements, like a bionic arm that moves itself naturally like a real arm. There was Twitter for toddlers, called Twoddler. This technology was a little odd to think about. The child has a board that they play with and what they decide to play with indicates the twitter message they send. So if they press on the picture of their mom, their Twoddler is updated to say, "[Insert name] misses their mom!" Another person presented on a 3D laptop! She made it sound like it was pretty exciting for avid gamers because it would completely revolutionize how people game online, but it is a pretty incredible technological advancement in itself. You have 3D glasses that you put on and your screen instantly becomes 3D-pretty standard. The cool thing is that when you take off the glasses you do not have the blue and red fuzzy lines that you usually would with a 3D screen. The laptop looks and operates like a normal laptop. My favorite technology that I saw was the bluetooth spying tool. The bluetooth set it so small you do not even notice it in a person's ear. This spy tool has a two way radio so you can hear what your other party is saying, but talk back to them as well. The girl presenting used the example of going on a blind date. Have the spy tool in your ear and your friends can tell you what to say and, if you want to, you can talk back to them. Your date will be none the wiser!

Apple TV

For my final project in Com 435, I decided to choose the Apple TV as my technology. Apple TV sparked my interest when my younger brother told me about how it was number one on his Christmas list. He commuted to high school everyday and as a result had a bunch of movies, television shows, and music videos on his iPod that he would watch on the train. The only place he could watch these movies were on his iPod or on his computer, but if he wanted to watch them anywhere else or share them with anyone else he couldn't. Then Apple devised Apple TV to solve this problem. Even though my little brother will have to wait a little bit until the price of Apple TV goes down, the idea of Apple TV is very cool! Apple TV looks similar to a tiny cable box and only needs an HDMI cable cord to hook into the box and the TV to work. It works with Ethernet or Wifi to give you access to iTunes, Youtube, Flickr, or your Mobileme on your television. You can rent or buy movies on demand or access your library of movies from iTunes. If you plug in the Apple TV into your computer, as you would your iPod, you can sync it up to work like an external hard drive to save all your media from your Mac onto Apple TV. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch you can download the Remote app to control your Apple TV. This Remote app even allows you to control say your iTunes from anywhere in your house! This technology is an example of convergence of technologies. Internet, television, and computer are all converging into one technology to give the viewer more control over what they watch. Will Apple TV affect the business of Cable, Satellite, and normal television stations programming? It might have a slight affect, but television providers should not be too worried. The fact that people have to pay to watch their shows does give free television programming and DVR an advantage. But Apple always seems to find a way to revolutionize technology, especially their own, so only time will tell!

Presenting...The Magic Mouse

Sometimes there are some technologies that no one thinks of needing improvement. How can you revolutionize something like a mouse? Who was even thinking that it needed to be revolutionized? Apple was thinking! If you are familiar with the touch screen capabilities of an iPhone then you can imagine what the new Magic Mouse is like to control. It is not necessarily that the new Magic Mouse has new options that you cannot find with an ordinary mouse. The Magic Mouse just makes all the movements and options of a regular computer mouse easier and quicker. So what can it do? Well you can right click and left click by just tapping or clicking on the right and left side of the mouse. The updated capabilities come when you scroll or sift through things on your desktop. Scrolling on the new Magic Mouse just takes two fingers and a swipe down or across the mouse. No clicking furiously to get to the bottom or side of an article. If you can't see something clearly, the Magic Mouse allows you to enlarge the image. People raving about this mouse say that the controls just feel more natural and that it is easier to manipulate than a regular mouse. Below is the link to the Apple website and to a video of what the mouse does. Check it out!


http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

iPhone's Apps That Aid Geocaching

Remember earlier in the semester when we completed the geocaching activity? We were told to bring in any technology-laptop, phone, camera-to record our findings and to help in our findings. Well if you're a fan of convergence and lightweight technology, then for the geocaching you should have just downloaded some iPhone apps to help you search for the clues. Two ways to track where you were going and to let the lead reporters know where you were going are by using the MotionX GPS app or the Trails app. MotionX GPS tracks the route that you take and records the amount of time you've been walking, how fast, and how far. If you chart your course and then export it using the Trails app, the lead reporters could see what course you took and follow you. If you want something a bit quicker to keep the reporters in the loop, you could use the Maps app. You find your location on a map, tap it, and then send it to whoever you need to and they instantly know your location. This is probably the most interesting, creative app I have seen. Think about not only the geocaching activity, but also the amount of time you will not waste with calling and texting your location. Someone could find you instantly and avoid the confusion and stress of questions like, "Where are you?!" or "Is there any signs around you?" The iPhone has apps for taking notes, voice recordings, and shooting video if you needed some other aids in your search. The last app, however, would be best overall, I think, for this activity (not to mention it's incredible that a phone can actually have this capability). It is a 360* panoramic camera app. Snap away in a full circle and then use the Panorama app. It will take these images and mesh them together to make one full image! So instead of lugging around a laptop or just texting and picture messaging back and forth with the lead reporter, you could have just brought your iPhone to give the lead reporter a full range of information about your location and the location of the clues.

iPhone Offers Opportunity

I remember specifically from speaker Ron Companelli presentation a comparison between our time and when he graduated from college. He was facing a bad economy with a high unemployment rate when he graduated from college. He said that in these times comes the best innovations. If you are looking for an opportunity and have a great idea for something that you think people need, perhaps check out apple.com and their step by step instructions on how to create iPhone apps. They even have an iPhone Developer Program, taking web 2.0 to a whole new level. The consumers can control the product. Apple also has a video on their which is posted below that gives the stories of all of the iPhone app creators. Notice that all of them are not Apple employees, but still are creating work for themselves through Apple.

iPhone app creators' stories:

http://developer.apple.com/profiles/

Go to Class at Stanford With the Help of Apple

Ever since the success of the Apple iPhone and their apps, Apple has surreptitiously started a program that universities can apply to that will give them license to teach an iPhone app making class. An article from USAToday. com, says that many universities are participating in this Apple program, but remain unknown because Apple will not comment. Two known universities to have the class are Stanford and NJIT. The Stanford app making class is the most famous of the two universities not only because two Apple engineers are the professors, but also because their classes are being videotaped and uploaded to iTunes, available free to view on iTunes. To look at this from a marketing standpoint, this is a brilliant move by Apple. This class is a low cost advertisement for the iPhone and its apps. Those who take the class will generate buzz, a free and most efficient way to advertise, on their campus. Apple, whether out of the goodness of their hearts or the minds of their marketers, are helping out college students and possible future entrepreneurs by teaching them how to make an app and giving them the opportunity to make money from those apps. If you are on iTunes U look up Stanford University: iPhone Application Programming.

USA Today article on iPhone app making courses:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-20-iphoneapps_N.htm

iPhone Apps for the Parental Demographic

For probably all of Com 435 students, being a parent is five (Ok, ten) years away. But I found all of the options for parents out there on their iPhone to be incredibly fascinating. If you have younger brothers and sisters or took that nanny job for the summer, here are a few options for you.

The doctor's office is notorious for long waits and long delays. Those books and magazines in the waiting room seem to scream germs and disease. The Kindle app will download children's books, chapter books, and for the arms folded, anxious tween, Twilight. Read them while you are waiting. Use the white board application to allow kids to draw without making a mess. If the children are preoccupied, moms can use Remember the Milk to make and manage a to do list while they wait.

If you decide to treat your kids to a food or a day out, there's an app for that. GoodFoodNearYou just need a zip code or current location to be able to direct you to the nearest health restaurant options in the area. For the more indecisive of families, Allrecipes.com has an app that let's you choose what ingredients you have and the amount of time you have to prepare your meal, then shake your phone, and it will spit out a recipe for you. The same idea applies for Kidtivities. Kidtivities gives suggestions for indoor and outdoor activities for children and directs you to places that will be kid friendly.

Finally, for the new parents of today, there's an app for you. If you forgot your baby monitor at home, place your phone near your sleeping baby. When the baby wakes up, your iPhone will call the phone number you choose to alert you. The iPhone has a number of teaching tools for toddlers who are just learning simple math, reading, and even sign language. And just in case your little one throws a tantrum in the middle of the supermarket or won't try vegetables, iPhone will give you the advice you need. There is an app to give on the spot parenting advice when it comes to preschoolers.