Dirty Touchscreens

I read from a recent AOL news article that many of the digital touchscreen products that are now out are can be unhealthy if they are not cleaned. However, touchscreen products are not only affected, even regular dial pads on cell phones are racking up germs and bacteria which could cause the user of the product to obtain a virus. In the article, it referred to British researchers saying that, "the average cell phone is home to 18-times as much bacteria as the handle of a men's toilet room." I found this to be a lot worse than I originally envisioned when I first read the title of the article. However, I can definitely believe this research to be true, because I know personally that I do not take the time to clean my cell phone on a regular basis. Instead, when it smears, like the article states, I usually try to rub it off on my shirt. This only rids of the smudge, but underneath that, there is a ton of bacteria and from that could cause me or anybody else who regular uses a cell phone, or anything that involves regular interaction with your fingers, to become sick.

The article also states that with the viruses being smeared on a touchscreen, that "30-percent of it will find its way to your fingers" and on to other parts of your body, including your eyes and mouth. But it doesn't just end with touchscreens and dial pads. This can include various things that we use on a somewhat regular basis but maybe do not think about. One of these things is an ATM, which I can see how this could be affected by many people with how often I see lines at them. Personally after I use an ATM, I do not usually think, "Hey! Let me whip out my hand sanitizer." Another area where bacteria seems to spread rapidly is at the movies, especially those with 3D and the use of recycled 3-D glasses. So with all this technology that we like to enjoy and can actually interact with using our hands, we need to make sure that we are trying to properly clean them or at least our hands after using them.

On a quick side note, would you pay $8 million dollars for an I-phone for it to be completely dirty?

Texting While Driving Remains A Danger To Teens

A recent study from Nielson has shown that teenagers send and receive 3,339 texts per month. Two years ago, Nielson reported the main reason why teenagers had a phone was for safety. Now, 43% of teens say that the number one reason for having a cell phone is for texting.Virginia Tech Transportation Institute did a study in 2009, which reported that the risk of a crash or near-crash event was 23 times higher when the driver was texting. It’s incredible how fast society changes as new digital technology becomes a social norm. One moment, cell phones were a way of keeping people safe, always having a way to call for help. The next, the use of cell phones has become a hazard to our safety on the road. The number of car accidents that involve text messaging has greatly increased; unfortunately a majority of these accidents involve teenagers. A survey at South Lyon East High School 10 out of 12 students questioned admit that they do text message and drive.

Although the majority of states have made texting while driving illegal, it considered a commonoccurrence. Even major U.S. automobile manufacturers, including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota, support the total ban of using handheld texting devices while drivers are at the wheel. Larry Burns, former head of R&D at General Motors, said that today's younger drivers prefer texting to driving:

“We asked younger people about texting while driving; they told us the driving distracted them from texting.”

What must our society do to eliminate this risk from our teens? Will the law actually prevent people from texting while driving or does the government need to enforce a stricter policy?

Many families have lost their children due to careless decisions on the road. People must realize that texting while driving doesn’t just put that individual in harms way, but also everyone else on the road at that time. It’s time that people make a responsible decision to save the road for driving and texting for free time.

-Kevin Etheridge

Apple To Make Announcement Next Week

Apple is reported to be revealing a new product in the next week and the technology bloggers are going crazy. This time is no different than the past. Bloggers have many ideas as to what they will be previewing but nothing is certain other than a new Mac OS X which was announced by Apple in their invitation. The same invitation also included a picture of a lion which caused many bloggers to believe the new version will be called Lion.

Kit Eaton points out that Apple has filed numerous patents which would suggest that Apple could be unveiling a new touchscreen Mac. This would build on the popularity of the iPad which has been selling remarkably well. Others like Kasper Jade believe the big reveal will be an new version of the MacBook Air. Kasper's source is "a person with a proven track record of pinpoint accuracy."

Also going on in Apple news, for the first time the shares of Apple stock exceeded $300 on Wednesday. It is no surprise to many people that it has reached this milestone and many investors believe it will continue to rise. I don't doubt that at all because with the growing popularity of iPads and the new models of iPods will assure a busy holiday season for Apple. I think Mr. Jobs will be able to buy a couple new turtlenecks come January.

Apple vs. Facebook: Why the fighting?

When apple decided to release iTunes 10 they decided to add some social networking features to it. Steve Jobs demoed iTunes 10 and talked about how great it will be to share your music interests with others and discover new ones.

Finding your friends on Ping should be easy especially since there was supposed to be facebook integration. I signed up for ping immediately when it was released and there was a facebook login. Then soon after I noticed the features weren’t there for integration with facebook. The next day the facebook login was pulled from iTunes.

The big problem was that negotiations between Apple and Facebook were ongoing at the time of iTunes 10’s release. When a third party application wants to access Facebook it can do so without striking a deal with them. The only limitation with this is that there are only 100 million API calls allowed. Apple definitely exceeded this the first night. Facebook and Apple soon after began talks again and the feature is still waiting to be added back to iTunes.

Links:

PC World's Article

All Things Digital Article

Eyetracker news article

This news I found it first at this site

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Eyetracker_Detects_Sleepy_Drivers_Warns_Them/551-113157-547.html, found a word link to this one http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20019653-1.html, and landed at the original source http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2010/10/eye-tracker-driver-drowsiness.jsp.

Basically, this news is about a new invention for automobiles. It was invented in Germany and is being put on display soon. The invention is cameras made to assess your level of sleepiness. The hope is of course to reduce the amount of collisions. It is called "The Eyetracker". As I searched for a post to talk about, this one was one of the first that showed. I have thoughts for and against this. I agree that people falling asleep while driving occurs often and if it can be stopped, yay. I think I would also tend to agree with those who would think that this would be too much. I posed links to the articles I looked at, I wasn't sure if she wanted us to post the entire thing on the blog, feel free to comment. The picture is also from those websites, that was the only one I saw to use.

Social Search: Facebook and Bing

On October 13, 2010 the Facebook PR team and Bing's development team met in Silicon Valley to discuss the details of a new partnership. Starting today, Microsoft will be analyzing data from Facebook to determine Bing user's search results. Searches have been altered to include data pulled from your personal social network.

Facebook's CTO Bret Taylor stated, "Your friends have liked lots of things all over the web, and now instead of stumbling across a new movie or having to look at a friend's profile to see which restaurants they like, we're bringing everything together in one place."

Even though the public announcement of social search is only a day old, Facebook integration is surprisingly robust on Bing already. When searching for movies, dining locations, and news Bing prioritizes search data with results your friends "publicly liked" appearing first.


Searches for people will now prioritize people that are included in your social network and people your friends have included in their social networks. You can even friend request people on Facebook from Bing's search results.

Obviously, social search allows Bing to provide more meaningful results to its users. However, it also means Bing can collect more meaningful data to provide to its advertisers. The social search model is part of the Microsoft and Facebook conquest against search engine giant, Google. Right now, Bing only accounts for ~4% of searches on the web. Microsoft hopes that by adding social aspects to its engine, it will be able to siphon off more Google users.

Will you use Bing now that it has social search?

FTC blog rules create big debate

The FTC revised guidelines that govern endorsements and testimonials by online contributors went into effect on 1/1/2010. The new guidelines require that all contributors or endorsers of a particular brand or service must disclose their relationship and any benefits they receive from the brand or service for their endorsements. For example, if you endorse a brand or service on your personal blog, social media accounts, or review sites, and receive any “material connections” this must be disclosed somewhere on the blog. As the FTC explains in a news release published before the new rules went into effect, “The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.”

The new guidelines are to regulate and prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. If you are interested in reading mnore about the new guides check out below!

16 C.F.R. Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising: Notice Announcing Adoption of Revised Guides

• Text of the Federal Register Notice
• Text of the Revised Endorsement and Testimonial Guides

Verizon to Sell the iPad

The big tech buzz is the announcement that Verizon Wireless stores will start to sell the Apple iPad starting as soon as October 28. This is the first time Verizon has ever partnered with Apple and will sell the WI-Fi model of the iPad along with a MiFi wireless modem so customers can still enjoy 3G coverage on their iPad.

Tim Cook, who is Apple’s chief operating officer, said in a press release “We’re thrilled to be working with Verizon Wireless to get iPad into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.” This seems to be a very beneficial maneuver for both parties, and I think it will lead to the incorporation of the iPhone to the Verizon family. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg stated in April that their company has told Apple they wish to carry the iPhone, which seems like a good business offer for Apple seeing as they could place the most popular phone on the nation’s biggest wireless network. One of the biggest reasons why this hasn’t happened yet is because Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad are not compatible with Verizon’s network which is based on CDMA technology.

Rumors have surfaced that Apple is in the process of developing a CDMA iPhone, but there has been no concrete evidence just yet; however, the fact the Verizon is starting to carry the iPad means Verizon and Apple are starting to do business together which bodes very well for all Verizon customers who wish to own the iconic iPhone. My personal prediction is that very soon we will see the iPhone being featured in a Verizon commercial.

*original article

Stronger Security for Facebook in the Month of October

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month and what does social networking giant, Facebook have to reveal to the public? New security tools that might get users excited. In a recent article by CNN, Facebook rolls out new security tools, talks safety, Joe Sullivan, chief security officer of Facebook, discussed their concern and focus on the privacy of their users. On Tuesday (Oct 12) Facebook will now allow their users to log off from all computers and devices from another computer, and also receive a temporary password to use when on public computers. Joe Sullivan says security is "a core part of the ways we innovate as a company," and this is evident in the site's new improvements.

I know that when I go on Facebook from the UA library or some other public computer, I am worried if maybe somebody might be able to retrieve my password. Well worry no more with Facebook's one-time passwords that will be available for people using public computers. These passwords will last for 20 minutes and can be received by texting "otp" to 32665 and Facebook will send the password straight to your cell phone.

Another tool that Facebook has updated to its user's accounts is the ability to see what computer/cell phone you may be still logged into. I think this is the coolest tool Facebook created because I know that many users such as myself have worried if maybe they forgot to log off of a public computer or a friend's computer. Now users can access their account settings and get a list of all computers and devices they are currently logged on to and simply log off.

Finally Sullivan also added how hard Facebook is working to keeping children 12 and younger out of Facebook and how they truly do not want it going on. They hope that parents will be able to monitor their children and help out but I believe that unless parents are watching their children 24/7 kids 12 and younger will manage to get on Facebook. There is just no way to actually end the problem but I like the concern shown by Sullivan.

Security and privacy has been a hot issue with Facebook and in my opinion, I think that the new tools that Facebook has unveiled to the public are excellent and are what set itself from the rest of the social networking sites but one-time passwords that last 20 minutes Facebook? Do you know how long people spend on your site a day? I do not have the actual number but I know that it is certainly longer than 20 minutes. At least Facebook is showing that they care for their users and are trying to make a difference and for that I respect the social networking site. For more information, please read the link in the text (Article from CNN.com).

--- Information on Facebook Security
--- What you need to know about Facebook privacy

Google's Self-Driving Car

What has the search engine powerhouse Google been up to lately? Apparently, they are now in the car business. No they are not selling cars but rather they are designing a driverless car. That is correct, a driverless car. According to Jalopnik.com, Google has been developing this car for over a year and has logged over 140,000 miles. The reason why everything has been hush-hush is the driverless cars resemble Google’s Street View vehicles, the Google Map cars. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was not lying when he said that people should not have to drive. I guess he took personal interest into seeing this come true.

With the development of a driverless car there raises the question of is it even legal? According to California officials, there are no laws that would bar Google from testing such models, as long as there's a human behind the wheel who would be responsible should something go wrong. Google says its test vehicles always have at least three passengers: a driver behind the wheel and two technicians to monitor the software and systems.

Google's software "would be just a big step up from cruise control," said Mike Marando, a spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. "If the vehicle goes too fast, or strays across the line, the human would be responsible for operating the car legally."

As long as Google stays within the law there is absolutely nothing wrong with them testing their cars on the open public streets.

My Opinion: Driving a car is great and having someone else drive is even better. Google trying to advance technology and our lifestyle is admirable. However, G4TV: Attack of the Show has pointed out a significant problem. There has already been an accident involving the car. Granted the driverless vehicle was rear ended by another car but this shows that there are multiple opportunities for more accidents to occur just like this one. Unless they can make this software widely available they probably will not make a dent into the accident rate in America.