This story explains how being “friends” on facebook can sometimes be too much when the friendship means that there is a conflict of interest. In this story, they talk about judges being friends with the lawyers that represent people in front of them. Some would think that if they were “friends” on facebook, then there would be a conflict of interest when deciding on who wins the case.

This is the same for people like teachers and students. It becomes a question of what is right, and if it is right to show everyone your information like that. This story definitely impacts others because everyone has a face book in our day and age. We are always friending people that we may know, or having them friend us. Sometimes, there is a line between who you should be “friends” with on facebook and what is acceptable. At times, there is a level of professionalism that should not be crossed, like in the case of judges and lawyers.

There is a question however of it being too sensitive, and the fact that people should be able to have a person and a professional life is at stake. I agree with this, although, I feel that there should be a line made, and not crossed under certain circumstances. I  agree that you should be able to be “friends” on facebook and not having it go to the work place.

With the new Windows 7 out on the market, there have began to be problems with its operating system that may be detrimental to its success with the public. This screen of death has been a problem for up to a million people. There are up to ten different causes to the problem that the firm is attempting to fix and look into for future sales and customers of Windows 7. The “black screen of death” moniker is a play on the “blue screen of death”, which appears when Microsoft operating systems crash.

This story affects other users because other users of windows 7 may experience these difficulties. This interuption may cause a disturbance in work as well as make it so people cannot use their computers until it gets fixed. Users are instructed to uninstall the malware software to increase the probability of the system working for futrure use.

I believe that these problems are bound to happen when a new product or software comes out on the market. All the glitches have not quite been worked out by the company and customers are bound to see problems come about. With that being said, I also think that Windows should help fix the problem and continue to update the software according the these changes.

This article from cnn explains the technological advancement from last year in the way of twitter and black friday. This year, thousands of people tweeted about their good deals, favorite places and even ways to be a green shopper. This shows just how technology has developed in the last year and how many people continue to use twitter as a way of information. There were a few consumer advocates updating these posts by the minute.

This story definitely impacts others because it is a great way for them to get information via the internet. Also, with the amount of people using blackberry’s and smart phones to get on the internet, they could search their area for good deals by the minute while out shopping on black friday. Many of these twitter accounts plan to continue to update for customers and interested people about way to be green, save money and have a great holiday.

I think this is a great way to get information such as this. Although, I am not an everyday tweeter, if I were, this would definitely be something that I would look into.

This story is about how companies like Garmin that make gps devices are worried that because of cell phone apps they may lose business and have a drop in sales. However, it is important to recognize the dangers of looking at a phone while they are driving and possibly getting lost on the road. It is important to customers to pay less for these locator devices which is why they are turning toward the phone apps rather than the typical gps device.

This story impacts others because customers are the ones dictating which they would rather use and what they are buying. The more people that use the phone apps, the more advanced that technology will get for future use.

I agree with the risks of using a smart phone as a gps system as opposed to having the gps device like garmin and tomtom. The typica devices are safer because of the fact that they talk to the driver and it isn’t just a map on a screen. Although it would be cheaper to use a cell phone as a gps, I don’t think I’d use one mainly because of the safety factor.

This article explains how technology has advanced so much that a simple facebook status update is serving as a alibi for a man accused of robbery. The status update is being treated like phone records and video footage. The update shows that he was at his house at the time of the robbery and that his status update came from his dad’s computer.

“On the Internet, nobody really knows it’s you,” he said. “A kid could set up an alibi by setting up a Facebook update.”

I’m not sure that I agree completely on letting someone off because of a facebook status update. Like the officer explained, he could have set it up and had someone else update his facebook at that time. I would think that he would need another alibi/ other evidence to prove his innocence.

This story affects others because it proves just how influential technology is these days. People our age are effected everyday by the internet and the ways that it is used. Not that people will use these status updates to get off of being accused of a crime, but it just proves that anyone can see these updates and there are sometimes consequences for such updates, pictures or even wall posts. As students looking for jobs, it becomes evident that nothing is private and it is important to keep information and pictures appropriate.

This article is about how facebook has decided to make groups that are making pages for the site pay for advertising as well. Also, groups that are using the site for contests, must go through a screening process before they are allowed to start the contest via facebook.

Getting that approval could be a new revenue stream for Facebook: according to multiple sources in the marketing industry, they’re being told that running a promotion in a Facebook application or “fan page” requires buying ad space too.

It’s pricey. The minimum ad buy is $10,000 for 30 days, using Facebook’s self-service advertising system, according to documents seen by CNET, or $30,000 for 30 days of Facebook home page ads. Priority in the approval process will be scaled, based on how much advertising space has been purchased.

This has to do with other users of facebook, and society as a whole because they are the ones affected by the contests and ads that are placed on facebook. I agree on a business level that facebook should charge some sort of fee for this advertising that they have been doing previously for almost free. However, the prices seem almost outrageous for what they are for. Overall, it is the businesses that want to use facebook as a means of advertising that are affected by most. They are now having to use facebook as some of their advertising budget, a tactic they may have no had to do in the past.

Verizon Wireless charges an early termination fee for those that want to get our of their contract before the two year contract is up. For instance, if a person wants to get at&t service for their new iphone, they are going to have to pay up to $350 to back out of the plan, this up from $150.

This impacts other users, especially during this time of year, because many people are wanting to get new phones for Christmas. However, if these customers want to get a new phone, they will have to pay this ETF in order to use the new phone. Verizon is pushing this fee because they argue that they price their phones down from their original price in the beginning because they feel that they will make it back with the two year contract. However, with the data packages that are mandatory to have on the phones, they end up making more anyways.

The article poses questions as to whether or not Verizon should be able to charge such a high ETF. I agree that Verizon is making their money back when people buy the phone and also with the data packages. I believe that there sould be a fee, possibly a per month that you are getting out of the contract pay a certain amount. There has to be a penalty for getting out of the contract that you signed, however, with such high ETF’s Verizon may lose customers for the future.

What do you think: is Verizon over-reaching its bounds? Do we already pay enough in extra data costs for these “advanced devices” to offset the subsidy, or is the company justified in trying to cover its costs?

This article is about how the iPhone is about to become available in China. The chinese population sees the iphone as a status symbol and will probably buy it because of that alone. The middle class has emerged as a number one consumer. However, the China iphone is having trouble finding a subscriber that wants to carry it.

“I don’t see a bright future for the iPhone with China Unicom because it is not the strongest mobile carrier in China,” Bo said. “It will be hard to attract users from China Mobile.”

Price isn’t the only challenge facing the iPhone here. The market is already flooded with what some project to be around two million iPhones, some of which are fakes, while others are purchased from unauthorized sellers, smuggled in from Hong Kong and other countries.

This story is relevant to this class because of its use of technology. We have had the iphone for a few years and saw the phone as a status symbol for a while as well. People had to get the phone because it was a new product.

I don’t know if i agree that the iPhone will not be popular with china and its serive, however, I know that because of the service difficulties in the US I would probably not get an iphone. They have too many technical problems and it doesn’t make it easy to use in busy places in the US. If China’s servise has half that promlem, with their high population, there would be a very big problem.

This article explains the need for having company information readily available to consumers, and Americans- online, whenever they want it. The writer references the similarities between the internet and the international highway that Eisenhower created, and the railroad system that Lincoln oversaw. The internet is America’s way of being connected and it should be available to all Americans across the country.

Over a third of Americans to do subscribe to a broadband connection, whether it be by personal choice, or the fact that broadband does not reach to all parts of the country. There are rural areas that have not yet begun to see the start of such technology.

Also, with the increased use of the internet with the new political administration, this technological advance is pertinent to the development of our country. 

It endorsed efforts to provide communities with information in as many forms possible, including mobile phones. Each community should also have an Internet hub — a Web site that provides links to many forms of local information.

– This story impacts people all over the country. CEO of the John S and James L Knight Foundation explained how people without the internet drop in class rank, as well is whether they are socially and economically acceptable. When people do not have the option to get on a broadband network, it limits their ability to be involved in the country as much as the current administration wants them to be.

I agree with the viewpoint of this writer in the fact that information should become more readily available to Americans. The internet should also become available to Americans that do not yet have it and broadband should be offered. Those that do not use the internet are at such a disadvantage now with how everything is run through e-mail, blogs, and web news. Even job applications are mostly done online, and employers want to be e-mail instead of talked to on the phone. The internet has put a completely new spin on how we live our lives and without it; it becomes extremely difficult to keep up.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091002/ap_on_hi_te/us_informing_citizens

This person, explains that her calls are dropped 2 out of 3 times she makes a call. She finally decided to call AT&T to figure out the problem and they told her there were other contributing factors to this dropped call. Some of which include:  proximity to a cell tower, the thickness of walls in the building and amount of demand on the network at that time.

The company is reportedly rolling out 850 Mhz frequency, adding 2,000 cell towers to increase coverage; beefing up its back-haul capacity that connects the cell towers to the Internet; spending as much as $18 billion this year to upgrade its wireless and broadband networks; and moving to the LTE, or 4G, network standard known next year.

All of these problems are reported from the San Francisco area, however, it is possible that it is a problem in similar areas in which there are lots of people using the same network at the same time as well as these data packages.

The author of this story is very upset with what is taking place with her iPhone. I know that if I had a phone that wouldn’t let me carry on a phone call in areas that you spend a lot of time, like your bedroom, living room, and work place, I would be upset as well.  As a customer you pay for a product to work, and you expect for your connection to work in the way that it should, if you are not satisfied, AT&T should be doing something constructive about this growing problem.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/biztech/09/22/cnet.iphone.att.coverage/index.html#cnnSTCText