Addition to Facebook

Has anyone else noticed the new Facebook tool underneath a friends picture that shows the actions between you and the person whose page your looking at?  "View you and..."

Our society is growing in terms of media at exponential rates.  This growth, like one of our recent readings highlights, is taking place in schools across America.  Today many schools are filled with state of the art computer labs, production stations, etc.  Recently, colleges have been supplying many of their students with iPads.  The article linked in this post mentions Stanford as the most prestigious school to begin this program for its students.  When I heard about programs such as this one, I remembered that when my brother attended college back in 2000, his school had handed him a laptop.  Is this slowly becoming the way of the future? Will iPads be distributed to each Freshman class?  I find that to be very unlikely.  Personally I don't see much use out of an iPad.  However, the presentation comparing the iPad to the soon-to-be-released Playbook caught my eye.  I was unaware that Blackberry was going to be releasing a tablet in the near future.  It's a very intelligent move on their part, especially considering my last post was in regards to their recent misfortunes.  I believe, actually hope is a better word, that Playbook will bring Blackberry back.  I think it will prove to be a hot commodity for the company that hasn't had much luck with recent releases.

Blackberry really looks to be putting their cards into the Playbook. As we all know, the Playbook will feature Adobe, unlike the iPad.  However, Blackberry has chosen to integrate its tablet so that Adobe is used in all of its apps.  It is also said that Blackberry will offer any app developer a free Playbook for doing so.

Has RIM run its course?

It appears as though iPhones are what people want.  The iPhone 4 shattered records for AT&T in the third quarter of the year for activations.  iPhones sales are up tremendously along with the never-ending reports of the iPhone coming to Verizon.  Not to mention the gaining popularity with Android phones and the upcoming Microsoft 7 phone, it would appear as though RIM may be on the outside looking in when it comes to users. The company failed to create an appropriate response to the iPhone when it first came out, their answer being the rejected Blackberry Storm, with all of it's hardware and software deficiencies.  Then there was the Blackberry Storm 2, which had its own slew of problems in regards to software and hardware.  Their latest edition to the smartphone industry, Blackberry Torch, has fallen upon mixed reviews.  Regarded as being a game changer by having both a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard, the Torch just doesn't seem to have what users want.  RIM's biggest reason, in my opinion, would have to be the lack of apps that are supported.  They cannot hold their own when it comes to the apps provided by Apple and Android users.  The next upcoming model for the Blackberry, the Style, appears to be yet another hopefully popular addition to the RIM catalogue.  The main difference for this phone is that it's a flip-phone.

It also doesn't help that the iPhone is reported (again) to be coming to Verizon at the beginning of 2011.  Verizon is rumored to be releasing their new network at the end of this year that is supposed to withold 4G capabilities.  If these speculations prove to be true, bad news can be spelled for both RIM and AT&T.  According to the first artile I linked, as many as 6 million iPhone users could potentially leave AT&T for Verizon's network.

It's so weird to hear about these claims that RIM is unable to maintain its hold on the smartphone industry, one that it's held for so long.  Personally, I know twice as many people with Blackberrys as I do iPhones.  I myself have the Blackberry Bold and have no qualms with it whatsoever, sure the apps would be nice, but I like what I have and BBM is one thing that no other smartphone will be able to acquire.  In my mind, the apps will come eventually to RIM.  It's just a matter of them holding out until they figure out their ish.

Death on Facebook and Other New Media Ramblings

With this past few classes being in regards to death on Facebook, I figured i jump on board and talk about the subject, as well.  I had the misfortune of a close friend of mine who passed away in the past year.  In the few days immediately after his passing and subsequent funeral, his Facebook exploded with friends and family members posting either videos and pictures of past experiences with him.  It was quite heartbreaking to see just how many lives my friend touched and how dearly he was cared for.  His profile was never memorialized; I don't believe his parents really cared for it.  Of course as time has passed since the event, the posts have calmed down, however, every now and then I'll check back on his page and there will always be new pictures or videos posted of my friend.  That's the thing that shocks me the most, the fact that people still keep his legacy going through the continual postings.

On a lighter note, this past weekend I saw The Social Network.  I thought it was an excellent film.  Just how truthful it was, I'm not sure.  The typical comment about the film, from my knowledge, is that people couldn't believe how much of an asshole Mark Zuckerberg was.  Truthfully, I don't believe what he did was all that bad.  What did he do, exactly?  According to the film, he was asked to join three other people who had an idea for what was essentially a dating site at Harvard.  He took that idea and expanded in a way that no one else could have imagined.  I don't see anything that's too too bad about that.  I mean look at Bill Gates.  However, the one thing he did, that I believe was dick was what he did to his once best friend, Eduardo Saverin, the first real investor and CFO of Facebook.  Recently, Saverin came out public and blogged a post on CNBC.  He doesn't discuss much about the film's validity or his relationship now with Zuckerbeg.  He does, however, discuss the importance of entrepreneurship in today's society.  He raises multiple important points that seem to resonate.

Finally, I want to discuss a topic that was brought up in class yesterday and that is the introduction of the iPad to Verizon.  Starting as soon as October 28th, the iPad will be made available at over 20,000 Verizon stores.   There will be three different types of bundle packages for the iPad ranging in different amounts of GB.  On the Verizon network, there will be a monthly charge of $20 per 1GB of data.  It will also not be the 3G model sold by AT&T.  This progression in relationship between Verizon and Apple will surely spur the rumors of a Verizon iPhone for sure, however, just how much could it really mean?  It seems as though every year there is a new date for the announcement of a Verizon iPhone and each year that date comes and goes with no announcement from either group.  IMHO, I don't see the iPhone coming to Verizon until Verizon releases their little-known new network, LTE.