Now this is something that could actually work, using the touchscreen
style of the ipod touch, merged with theclassic look, meaning they could
focus on just one line of iPod's!
Thursday 6 May 2010
ipod classic touch!
Now this is something that could actually work, using the touchscreen
style of the ipod touch, merged with theclassic look, meaning they could
focus on just one line of iPod's!
ok this is amazing! new music file!
IBM has been devloping a new chip, called "RACETRACK" , which is a hundred times more powerful than any other storage data.
"The technology, called ‘racetrack‘ memory, uses the ‘spin’ of an electron to store data, and can operate far more quickly than regular hard drives."
This technology will apprently be able to let ipods and other devices store up to 500,000 songs!
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3728060.ece
"The technology, called ‘racetrack‘ memory, uses the ‘spin’ of an electron to store data, and can operate far more quickly than regular hard drives."
This technology will apprently be able to let ipods and other devices store up to 500,000 songs!
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3728060.ece
Toshiba - gaming laptop
Toshiba had been running a competition for people to design a new
gaming laptop. The winner would have theirs made and sold on the
market. This winner was exceptional and could possibly be the future
for gaming. There is a
- 180 degree screen for maximum enviroment gameplay
- the mousepad has turned into a virtual map
- the gaming controls are all controlled through hi-tech gloves
- a hologram projector for enemies that appear out of the screen
- customizable lazer projected keypad
- a built in surround sound system.
SONY VAIO - FUTURE LAPTOP DESIGNS
These are the designs for snoy vaio's zoom laptop. With a plexi-glass
keyboard,1080 dpi screen, and the thickness is only 2 milimetres!
Future Laptops!
This is a design for a future laptop, using wireless technology, and a
screen which you can seprate from your keyboard.
http://www.dothedaft.com/idaft/
This an interactive music maker, inspired by the dj group
Daft Punk, called iDaft. This is such as simple idea but
could be the way forward for music, making people have
their own choice and make their own. The thing works by
setting each key to a letter, meanwhile you play the backing
track and just hit the keys when you want.
This an interactive music maker, inspired by the dj group
Daft Punk, called iDaft. This is such as simple idea but
could be the way forward for music, making people have
their own choice and make their own. The thing works by
setting each key to a letter, meanwhile you play the backing
track and just hit the keys when you want.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
before the ipod...
This is Creative's Jukebox.
Similar to the ipod's shape,
can hold 8,000 songs,
no colour led screen
and no click wheel!
and lightweigh in design, but holds
only 1,000 songs. The LED screen
in too small and you can only go up
and down to search for songs.
Worlds first laptop
This is the worlds first laptop, made by Grid, call the Compass 1100
In addition to being able to close the screen, it weighed 5kg, which is
the the equivilent of "having skii boots made of swan feathers".
http://www.smartparts.com/
Myspace
This is a screen shot of my Myspace page. As you can see, the backgrounds are changable, unlike facebook but this often causes viruses and slows it up, because they are from 3rd party sites. Myspace has quired a new chat system, similar to facebook, but unfortunatley I never use it because everyone is on facebook.
Monday 3 May 2010
Understandig New Media Essay
Four technologies and how have changed my life
Choosing four pieces of technology that have changed my life was rather demanding at first, because there are so many things I use today, which I take for granted. I really had to think about my four objects and the ones I finally decided on are key to my everyday life. While researching my objects, I noticed they each focus upon a popular area in today's world, which is why I feel they support me for every aspect of my life.
My first choice has to be my laptop without doubt; it has been my most important piece of technology, or any item for that matter, for the past two years. I was rather late to the whole laptop scene, receiving my first on my 18th birthday. Beforehand I used the home PC but now that I had my own laptop, I had so much more freedom and privacy.
The following year my laptop became extremely useful and had a major part to play in choosing animation as a career path. There is some debate as to which was the first ever laptop, with Bill Moggridge in 1969 inventing the first laptop for Grid System Corporations, which was eventually used by NASA. However, it wasn’t until 1981 that the Grid Company produced commercial versions of the laptop to sell to the public.
In 1981 Epson produced there HX-20, which included the first LCD laptop screen. Apple, who is famous for its Macbook, didn’t produce its first laptop till 1989 and was called the “Macintosh Portable”, which evolved into the Powerbook. My laptop is a Compaq, who brought out its first laptop in 1987. Since the creation of laptops, numerous models have followed, from thinner to small ones but they still have the same clamshell design.
However, in 2010 Apple released the “ipad”, which is a touchscreen tablet, with all the capabilities of the Macbook. Apple’s ipad is revolutionary and with interaction becoming more popular, it could be the next step forward.
Before my laptop, my iPod was my biggest and most favourite item, I literally take it everywhere with me because it keeps me motivated, where as I used to be distracted easily. A portable CD player was my former music device, but was too big and could only play one album at a time, so being able to have your whole music collection on one device was mind blowing and is something we all take for granted in today's world.
But according to an article I read in FHM’s magazine, it might not have even seen the light of day. Apple were losing billions when Napster came out because Steve Jobs had brought out the imac with a built in dvd drive, instead of tackling the increased music software popularity, Steve jobs was quoted saying “I feel like a dope” and apple needed to seriously catch up. In 1995 Companies such as, Creative had realised the “jukebox” and Samsung the “yepp” but apple had nothing.
However, in 2001, during a trip to Tokyo, the iPod’s head engineer Jon Rubinstein is shown by Toshiba executives a new 1.8in hard disk, which is perfect for the iPod. Steve Jobs knew that the iPod needed to be sleek, quick and wanted people to be able to listen to “any piece of music in three clicks of a button” but how was this going to be achieved? Well the key to all of this and the iPod’s success was its clickwheel feature.
The clickwheel was new and different but was not thought up by the design team, instead by Phil Schiller, who was head of marketing. Phil’s idea sprouted from him saying “All the other MP3 players had these little plus and minus buttons to go down a menu one song at a time”, “So I figured, if you can’t go up, why not go around?” Now that everything was in place, the name of the iPod was needed and copywriter Vinnie Chieco was the one to provide it, saying how much it reminds him of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the end scene, quoting the hero “Open the Pod door, Hal!”
Since then, the iPod has gone on to have major success in the music world, 6 generations, 4 different models and is one of the biggest technologic advancements this century. Currently my model is the 160 GB version, which can hold up to 20,000 songs, and of that I have only filled 50 GB, proving the iPod is the best mp3 player on the market to date.
I was tempted to put this choice first, seeing as I don't know how we would communicate without it but Facebook is such a common part of my daily routine that I don't know how long it’s been since I haven't gone without it. Setting my account up in 2008, I have slowly become addicted to this social networking site, along with millions of other users. The site was foundered by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, who was a Harvard sophomore.
Zuckerberg founded the website with his roommates and was originally intended for just Harvard students, but soon expanded, so that everyone in the world could use it. According to Wikipedia, the idea of facebook stemmed from Philips Exeter Academy, who published a manual of all the pupils and staff called the “face book”. The networking site soon stood out from the crowd because of its “imposing Spartan design ethos”, which was written in a recent article for the New York Times, which I believe sums up its success, not allowing users to add third party features, which often included spam and has ruined sites such as, Myspace.
Like most big companies, Facebook has had its fair share of legal proceedings and has been banned from several countries, such as China and Iran for national security reasons. In 2009, facebook changed its privacy settings, improving how information was shared between friends; users could say which friends saw what information. As with every networking program, something will surpass facebook and be even more popular, but for now I will settle for facebook.
Certainly not my first gaming console and probably not my last either but my Xbox 360 is my last choice of the four. This is the most recent piece of technology I have required, only having it since Christmas. In terms of other consoles I have had, the Xbox 360 has a unique online gaming experience different to that of the PS3 or any other console. The online system is run by microsoft, who have vast experience with the internet and know what the gamers want, which is speed and the ability to stay in contact with your friends.
The Xbox 360 was first unveiled on MTV on May 12th 2005 and has since sold 39 million consoles. It is easy to say the Xbox 360 has major success but it all falls down to three major factors, the first is its time of release. The PS3 was going to out sell the Xbox 360 and was eagerly awaited but came out a year too late on November 11th 2006, this whole year allowed the Xbox 360 to capture the gaming market with its Xbox Live feature, allowing gamers to play against each other.
Secondly, the price, as when the PS3 came out it was an alarming £400, were the Xbox 360 was practically half the price. Thirdly and most importantly, Xbox were targeting the true gamer audience, bringing out their own titles such as, Halo and Gears of War, which were fast passed shooters that worked harmoniously with their excellent online system.
However, there are a few major draw backs with the Xbox 360, one being its online system isn’t free, unlike the PlayStation 3. The system itself when first brought out was full of internal bugs, which cause a ring of red lights to appear round the power button that is infamously known as “The Ring of Death”. According to Wikipedia, in February 2008 the warranty company Squaretrade, published a report of the Xbox 360’s they tested saying, “1 in 6” had a fail rate.
Other symptoms consist of discs that have been scratch from the internal drive, if the Xbox is moved while switched on. In the midst of all these problems, the Xbox 360 still shines through as the best console and has big plans for the future. In 2009 at the E3 expo in Las Vegas, Microsoft announce their plans for Project Natal, which is a package for the Xbox 360, that allows users to interact with their gaming, similar to that of the Nintendo Wii. With the backing of famous director Steven Spielberg and plenty of money from Bill Gates, the project is sure to bring big success in the future of gaming.
Overall, I feel that researching into my objects helped me appreciate them more and see how important they are, not just to me, but for technological advancement. Choosing just four objects gave me the chance to research them in depth, not only finding out their history, but what is next for them in the future. Finally and most importantly, looking at the history of my objects has taught me that things can always be improved.
Choosing four pieces of technology that have changed my life was rather demanding at first, because there are so many things I use today, which I take for granted. I really had to think about my four objects and the ones I finally decided on are key to my everyday life. While researching my objects, I noticed they each focus upon a popular area in today's world, which is why I feel they support me for every aspect of my life.
My first choice has to be my laptop without doubt; it has been my most important piece of technology, or any item for that matter, for the past two years. I was rather late to the whole laptop scene, receiving my first on my 18th birthday. Beforehand I used the home PC but now that I had my own laptop, I had so much more freedom and privacy.
The following year my laptop became extremely useful and had a major part to play in choosing animation as a career path. There is some debate as to which was the first ever laptop, with Bill Moggridge in 1969 inventing the first laptop for Grid System Corporations, which was eventually used by NASA. However, it wasn’t until 1981 that the Grid Company produced commercial versions of the laptop to sell to the public.
In 1981 Epson produced there HX-20, which included the first LCD laptop screen. Apple, who is famous for its Macbook, didn’t produce its first laptop till 1989 and was called the “Macintosh Portable”, which evolved into the Powerbook. My laptop is a Compaq, who brought out its first laptop in 1987. Since the creation of laptops, numerous models have followed, from thinner to small ones but they still have the same clamshell design.
However, in 2010 Apple released the “ipad”, which is a touchscreen tablet, with all the capabilities of the Macbook. Apple’s ipad is revolutionary and with interaction becoming more popular, it could be the next step forward.
Before my laptop, my iPod was my biggest and most favourite item, I literally take it everywhere with me because it keeps me motivated, where as I used to be distracted easily. A portable CD player was my former music device, but was too big and could only play one album at a time, so being able to have your whole music collection on one device was mind blowing and is something we all take for granted in today's world.
But according to an article I read in FHM’s magazine, it might not have even seen the light of day. Apple were losing billions when Napster came out because Steve Jobs had brought out the imac with a built in dvd drive, instead of tackling the increased music software popularity, Steve jobs was quoted saying “I feel like a dope” and apple needed to seriously catch up. In 1995 Companies such as, Creative had realised the “jukebox” and Samsung the “yepp” but apple had nothing.
However, in 2001, during a trip to Tokyo, the iPod’s head engineer Jon Rubinstein is shown by Toshiba executives a new 1.8in hard disk, which is perfect for the iPod. Steve Jobs knew that the iPod needed to be sleek, quick and wanted people to be able to listen to “any piece of music in three clicks of a button” but how was this going to be achieved? Well the key to all of this and the iPod’s success was its clickwheel feature.
The clickwheel was new and different but was not thought up by the design team, instead by Phil Schiller, who was head of marketing. Phil’s idea sprouted from him saying “All the other MP3 players had these little plus and minus buttons to go down a menu one song at a time”, “So I figured, if you can’t go up, why not go around?” Now that everything was in place, the name of the iPod was needed and copywriter Vinnie Chieco was the one to provide it, saying how much it reminds him of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the end scene, quoting the hero “Open the Pod door, Hal!”
Since then, the iPod has gone on to have major success in the music world, 6 generations, 4 different models and is one of the biggest technologic advancements this century. Currently my model is the 160 GB version, which can hold up to 20,000 songs, and of that I have only filled 50 GB, proving the iPod is the best mp3 player on the market to date.
I was tempted to put this choice first, seeing as I don't know how we would communicate without it but Facebook is such a common part of my daily routine that I don't know how long it’s been since I haven't gone without it. Setting my account up in 2008, I have slowly become addicted to this social networking site, along with millions of other users. The site was foundered by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, who was a Harvard sophomore.
Zuckerberg founded the website with his roommates and was originally intended for just Harvard students, but soon expanded, so that everyone in the world could use it. According to Wikipedia, the idea of facebook stemmed from Philips Exeter Academy, who published a manual of all the pupils and staff called the “face book”. The networking site soon stood out from the crowd because of its “imposing Spartan design ethos”, which was written in a recent article for the New York Times, which I believe sums up its success, not allowing users to add third party features, which often included spam and has ruined sites such as, Myspace.
Like most big companies, Facebook has had its fair share of legal proceedings and has been banned from several countries, such as China and Iran for national security reasons. In 2009, facebook changed its privacy settings, improving how information was shared between friends; users could say which friends saw what information. As with every networking program, something will surpass facebook and be even more popular, but for now I will settle for facebook.
Certainly not my first gaming console and probably not my last either but my Xbox 360 is my last choice of the four. This is the most recent piece of technology I have required, only having it since Christmas. In terms of other consoles I have had, the Xbox 360 has a unique online gaming experience different to that of the PS3 or any other console. The online system is run by microsoft, who have vast experience with the internet and know what the gamers want, which is speed and the ability to stay in contact with your friends.
The Xbox 360 was first unveiled on MTV on May 12th 2005 and has since sold 39 million consoles. It is easy to say the Xbox 360 has major success but it all falls down to three major factors, the first is its time of release. The PS3 was going to out sell the Xbox 360 and was eagerly awaited but came out a year too late on November 11th 2006, this whole year allowed the Xbox 360 to capture the gaming market with its Xbox Live feature, allowing gamers to play against each other.
Secondly, the price, as when the PS3 came out it was an alarming £400, were the Xbox 360 was practically half the price. Thirdly and most importantly, Xbox were targeting the true gamer audience, bringing out their own titles such as, Halo and Gears of War, which were fast passed shooters that worked harmoniously with their excellent online system.
However, there are a few major draw backs with the Xbox 360, one being its online system isn’t free, unlike the PlayStation 3. The system itself when first brought out was full of internal bugs, which cause a ring of red lights to appear round the power button that is infamously known as “The Ring of Death”. According to Wikipedia, in February 2008 the warranty company Squaretrade, published a report of the Xbox 360’s they tested saying, “1 in 6” had a fail rate.
Other symptoms consist of discs that have been scratch from the internal drive, if the Xbox is moved while switched on. In the midst of all these problems, the Xbox 360 still shines through as the best console and has big plans for the future. In 2009 at the E3 expo in Las Vegas, Microsoft announce their plans for Project Natal, which is a package for the Xbox 360, that allows users to interact with their gaming, similar to that of the Nintendo Wii. With the backing of famous director Steven Spielberg and plenty of money from Bill Gates, the project is sure to bring big success in the future of gaming.
Overall, I feel that researching into my objects helped me appreciate them more and see how important they are, not just to me, but for technological advancement. Choosing just four objects gave me the chance to research them in depth, not only finding out their history, but what is next for them in the future. Finally and most importantly, looking at the history of my objects has taught me that things can always be improved.
Sunday 2 May 2010
The New York Times - Facebook
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html
Facebook, by some measurements the most popular social network with more than 200 million active users worldwide, is one of the fastest-growing and best-known sites on the Internet today.
The company, founded in 2004 by a Harvard sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg, began life catering first to Harvard students and then to all high school and college students. It has since evolved into a broadly popular online destination used by both teenagers and adults of all ages.
Like other social networks, the site allows its users to create a profile page and forge online links with friends and acquaintances. It has distinguished itself from rivals, partly by imposing a spartan design ethos and limiting how users can change the appearance of their profile pages. That has cut down on visual clutter and threats like spam, which plague rival social networks. In May 2007, Facebook unveiled an initiative called Facebook Platform, inviting third-party software makers to create programs for the service and to make money on advertising alongside them. The announcement stimulated the creation of hundreds of new features or "social applications" on Facebook , from games to new music and photo sharing tools, which had the effect of further turbo-charging activity on the site.
In May 2009, a Russian investment firm, Digital Sky Technologies, invested $200 million in Facebook in return for a 1.96 percent stake. The investment values Facebook's preferred stock at $10 billion, a $5 billion drop from October 2007 when Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake. With the latest round of financing, Facebook has raised about $600 million since it was founded in 2004.
At the time of Microsoft's investment in 2007, Facebook's $15 billion valuation drew criticism for being unrealistically high and a sign of a bubble in social network investments. With the new valuation, Facebook is demonstrating to its critics that it is living up to its early promise.
Facebook's rise has been marked by several controversies. Three other Harvard students maintain that they came up with the original idea and that Mr. Zuckerberg, whom they had hired to write code for the site, stole the idea and surreptitiously created a rival company. Facebook has denied the allegations; a lawsuit is pending.
Another Harvard classmate, Aaron Greenspan, asserts that he created the underlying architecture for both companies, but has declined to enter the legal fray .
In November 2007, Facebook again created a storm when it announced a new advertising system called Beacon, in which users' purchases or activities on some 40 partner sites were broadcast to their Facebook friends. Some users claimed that they were not adequately warned about the feature, and the political activist group MoveOn.org organized a protest group on Facebook, which attracted more than 70,000 members.
In December, Facebook capitulated to a key demand of the protesters by offering users an easy way to decline to take part in Beacon.
In February 2009, when Facebook updated its terms, it deleted a provision that said users could remove their content at any time, at which time the license would expire. Further, it added new language that said Facebook would retain users’ content and licenses after an account was terminated.
After a wave of protests from its users, Facebook said that it would withdraw changes to its terms of service. Mr. Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s next revision of terms would reflect “a new approach” and would be “a substantial revision from where we are now.”
Xbox 360 Slim
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has predicted that Microsoft will release a slim iteration of its Xbox 360 console to coincide with the launch of Project Natal.
Speaking on his GameTrailers show, the industry expert also said that he does not expect the new system to be available as a standalone unit.
"I think there is a '360 Slim', although I don't think they will call it 'Slim' since the PS3 is called that. I think there is a cheaper version of the Xbox 360 console coming out. I think it will probably have a different graphics card and processor, and if it does exist they will save around $20 to $30 (£12 to £20) on each unit," he said.
"They won't cut the price on this unit. Instead they will bundle it with Natal and perhaps a 250GB HDD for $299 (£200), see if they can get 8 to10 million units out there and make Natal their future platform."
He added: "I think a 'Slim' SKU is coming out, but no, you won't be able to buy it cheaper than $299 (£200) until at least next year."
A slim Xbox 360 has been frequently rumoured since the announcement of Project Natal, although Microsoft has denied reports in the past.
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