The Not-So-Nice Holidays

Yahoo recently came out saying that they would be firing roughly 650-700 today, the 14th.  I can't imagine how that must feel for not only the employees who will be receiving the untimely news this holiday season, but also the remaining employees of Yahoo.  The majority of the layoffs will take place in the U.S. offices of Yahoo proving that our economy still has yet to bounce back.  The article states that these firings are unavoidable if Yahoo wishes to "improve revenue and spur growth."  However, the most interesting part of the article that I would like to ask you all about is in regards to the manner in which Yahoo is going about relieving these employees of their jobs: "Those let go will be notified tomorrow and will likely have to leave Yahoo facilities immediately."  This is my question, given the time of year and magnitude of the layoffs, do you feel it is necessary for not only Yahoo but companies in general to notify workers in advance if they are to be fired?

Verizon announced today that it will release it's 4G network Sunday.  It will be released for computers first, and then eventually it will make its way to smartphones.  I consider this the first real account for 4G.  T-Mobile and Sprint have already released their versions of 4G, but both of those companies are relatively unpopular in America, Verizon boasts the biggest network.  By Sunday, Verizon hopes that 4G will be available to roughly 110 million people immediately.  Unlike T-Mobile and Sprint, whose 4G network took much time to reach even the bigger cities, Verizon will provide coverage in the US's largest cities immediately.  AT&T is planning on releasing their 4G network at some point in the upcoming year.


While reading this article, there was a link in regards to how even Verizon's 4G is not really 4G.  Under the full capabilities of 4G, a person should have the ability to download a HD movie in roughly 3 minutes. None of the 3 companies who claim to have a 4G network actually have a fully-able 4G network.  Verizon and Sprint actually upgraded their network to a different network, yet one that still is not fully 4G.  T-Mobile chose to just aggressively update their already existing network to have the abilities that Verizon and Sprint have.  The best way to summarize what this particular article is trying to say is "The term 4G has become meaningless and confusing as hell for wireless customers."  It is believed that the term "4G" will eventually vanish and companies will have to reset their whole PR campaigns.

When use of technology can go too far

The presentation about the live streaming sites is blessing. CUA's cable service doesn't provide the channels I need to watch any sporting events. `i had heard of justin.tv before, but I had forgot about it and thankfully I have found out about it again. `The sites are really a golden ticket, they give viewers a vast field on which they could potentially watch anything they wish. `The ability to watch live concerts just blows my mind. However, like the cons of it, such as the Rutgers case and others. I remember the first news story I had heard like that was about a young adult who was a fan of a band, whose name escapes me, who killed himself online due to the bands lyrics. It's upsetting things such as this that add to the problems of innovations such as this.

`I was browsing the internet, check that, the web the earlier today and I found an interesting article that relates "hypertexting" amongst teenage adults to other dangerous activities.  `When I first saw the headline to this website, I was unclear as to what "hypertexting" meant; according to the article, it refers to a person who sends over 120 text messages during the school day.  The article goes on to say that people who fall into this category tend to experiment with cigarettes, drinking, and binge drinking.  After about halfway through the article or so, I bgan to wonder if they would mention anything about texting and driving, surely they did.  The author discusses that use of the technology in particular areas can absolutely cause problems (texting and driving), but consistent use of these mobile technologies may prove most fatal.  `The same high schoolers were also surveyed on social networking site use.  The same results were shown prevalent in this study as the cell phone use.  I believe the relation between these two uses (SNS and cell phones) and social situations.  However, I don't believe that that's all there is to it.  I can't help, though, to believe that there must be some relation between these survey results and the regrettable outcomes that we discussed of the streaming sites.

In regards to the cyber bullying presentation, I thought it brought up numerous interesting points, such as the fact that children today are acquiring cell phones at younger ages than before.  I got my first cell phone when I was a freshman in high school and I know that my older brother and sister got their cell phone's when they were about to graduate from high school.

I don't believe their is any way for people to regulate cyber bullying.  There's no way that people are going to be able to censor text messages or facebook messages based on content.  I believe that cyberbullying is just something that we, as adults, are going to have to do our best to teach our children that it is the wrong thing to do.

On a rather random note, the commercials that were shown in regards to cyber bullying were quite brutal, in my opinion.  The things the kids said were so incredibly painful that I couldn't help but laugh a little bit because I wasn't aware that kids that age said things that hurtful.  Kids who still participate make fun of another child's family's economic status?  The commercials reminded me of a Canadian PSA commercial that I had seen online a few years back, mind you that the link I just posted is quite graphic, even though it connects to a YouTube video.  I post it as a comparison just to show the same "shock and awe" value that I  got when I watched the cyber bullying commercials.

On another note, I found this article on CNN that says Facebook is able to tell when people are most likely to have a broken relationship.  They conducted the search through key words in people's facebook status (which almost comes off as an almost poor way to conduct the research).  The article claims that many relationships are broken off just before Valentine's Day, which is just so heartbreaking!  The majority of relationships ending, hilariously, happens right at Spring Break.

It's quite insane how much we can learn about people through studies conducted by Facebook.  Perhaps sociologists around the country should start looking into Facebook as a means to study human actions.

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.