Lego's big gamble

Like many little boys, I grew up playing with Lego.  I remained a big fan and currently have a Lego robot that I enjoy programming.  Lego's next step is apparently expanding into the video game arena.  Lego has developed a massively multiplayer game called Lego Universe.  Lego wants a piece of the $20 billion children's game market and has made an estimate $20 million investment in Lego Universe.  Whether Lego can convert the popularity of their building block and robotics toys into a computer game remains to be seen.   To learn more: http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gaming/building-the-lego-universe-online

The cost of bad publicity

The sales of the iPad have been phenomenal.  I wonder if publicity from the recent lawsuit will dent those sales.  The plaintiffs are claiming that the iPad overheats so quickly that it cannot be used in warm weather or direct sunlight.  One of my colleagues has a iPad and only has good things to say about it.  I am skeptical about the claims and worry that the publicity hype may exceed the reality.  Technology sales are so dependent on the hype these days that reality gets left behind

Commercials on YouTube

I just bought a new hardened flash drive.  The manufacturer's Website pointed me to YouTube to watch their commercial for the product.  While I was watching the drive being driven over by a truck and beaten with a hammer I realized what a stroke of genius this was.  The company completely transferred the overhead of serving their video to YouTube.  Instead of paying the bandwidth overhead, they let someone else do it.  I wonder what percentage of YouTube content is commercial advertising?

This is a vacation?

The Washington Post (July 4, 2010) recently ran an article on how we take our technology on vacation with us.  Many hotels and resorts provide video game consoles along with television and Internet connections in every room.  Some hotels have switched to wireless connections because so many guests needed more than one connection per room.  Americans are now posting their vacation activities on social networking sites and cannot conceive of not constantly using their phones.  My memories of going to the cottage with the family are as outdated as my old Commodore 64 computer.

Legal Settlements

dell just paid an enormous settlement to end a legal situation about their chip selection several years ago.  http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/22/technology/dell_sec/?iref=NS1

Clean out your car

Many people who sell their cars are unknowingly leaving behind their personal data.  Cars with Bluetooth synchronization or GPS computers need to have their memory purged or the new owner can glean a great deal of information about the previous owner.

Contrasting Lifestyles

I just spent a couple of days at Shippensburg State University.  The school is located near a Mennonite community.  It was quite a contrast to drive past a community on horseback and in horse-drawn buggies to get my diet soda to drink while working on my laptop.  It is possible to live without laptops and the Internet but I am not certain that I want to :)

The cost of storage

I just got an e-mail advertisement for a 2 TB name-brand hard drive for $109.  I can remember when a 2 TB hard drive was  just a dream.

Verizon's big announcement

According to USA Today (June 30, 2010), Verizon is going to begin selling Apple iPhones in January.  This will end the AT&T monopoly on iPhone service and alleviate some of the network congestion that AT&T has encountered.

Good news for Farmville players

There truly is an iPhone app for everything.  Zynga is releasing an iPhone app for Farmville.

iPhone keyboard support

The latest and greatest version of the iPhone operating system supports using an external keyboard.  This feature will be greatly appreciated by many of the iPhone users who have struggled with the on-screen keyboard. to learn more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/06/29/iphone.keyboard/index.html?hpt=C2

Hilarious Commercial Parodies

If you are a developer you might enjoy the Java parody commercials on YouTube.  This one is hilarious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbuyKUaKFo

What a contrast!

Verizon released the new version of the Droid phone.  The difference between this announcement and the latest version of the iPhone is staggering.  marketing and Hype play a large role in the success of any new technology product.

I coulda been a contender

CNN has a fascinating story about the third cofounder of Apple who sound his ten percent of the company for $800.  Not everyone is cut out to be part of a tech startup.  This video is well worth watching.
 http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/06/24/apple.forgotten.founder/index.html?hpt=C1

Is this really a problem?

I have enjoyed reading several articles on how Apple cannot meet the demand for the new iPhone 4.  All businesses should have the problem of not being able to sell enough of the product quickly enough.  Apple has come out with some of the most in-demand products in the technology marketplace and production cannot keep up.  If only more companies had this problem we would not be having any economic difficulties.

Do you use Hotmail?

According to the Wall Street Journal (June 5), Microsoft is going to release a new version of hotmail that they hope will become more popular than the old version.  Microsoft wants to compete with gmail and Mac mail addresses.  Getting people to change their primary e-mail account may be more difficult than the marketers think.

It was only a matter of time

It was only a matter of time before a Linux-based tablet computer was announced. InfoWorld reports that Canonical is developing a tablet based on the popular Ubuntu distribution of Linux. To learn more, go to: http://infoworld.com/d/mobilize/canonical-developing-ubuntu-os-tablets-778

It was also only a matter of time before iPad owners were targeted by cyber-criminals. ComputerWorld reported that a brute force attack targeting iPad owners successfully collected the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 iPad owners. It is amazing how fast criminals target new technology. To learn more: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177921/_Brute_force_script_snatched_iPad_e_mail_addresses

How much do you rely on Internet information?

According to the Washington Post (June 6, 2010, B3)), a woman is suing Google because she felt that the directions she received from Google Maps led her on a dangerous path. The route Google proposed was along a busy street without sidewalks. The woman was struck by a car and she wants Google to compensate her for this accident. This is a lawsuit that I will bring up in my classes to illustrate liability and torts. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I would have switched to “Plan B” if I felt the Google-proposed route was unsafe.

Scareware

USA Today has recently published a warning about the increasing amount of “Scareware” ads. Scareware ads typically state that your computer has become infested by a virus and for a reasonable fee the company that detected the virus will remove it from your system. These ads have increased en fold since 2008 and are becoming big business. These ads are simply scams that prey on people who are afraid of the Internet and will pay whatever it takes to have a “safe” computer. Like most online purchases, a little research before payment will reveal which vendors are legitimate and which are scammers.

Knockoff iPads

The first iPad knockoffs are coming out overseas.  This illustrates the need to have consistent protection for intellectual property around the globe.

http://kotaku.com/5549865/china-rips-off-the-ipad-with-the-iped