Vogue!

The magazine that has influenced the way we see fashion. Vogue was originally a higher society marketed paper so to speak. It was produced in 1892 by Aurthur Baldwin Turnure. In it's early issues it was targeted at both high society men and women and mans sports were chronicled into the magazine, whereas today it's more of fashion orientated towards women. That soon changed in 1909 when a man named Cole Nast bought the magazine company. Nast attended Georgetown University. Nast is the one responsible for transforming Vogue into a woman's fashion magazine. His constant need to expand this magazine empire resulted in the creation of British Vogue in 1916. Today Nast's company now known as Conde Nast Publications owns magazines like, Glamour, Allure, W, GQ, and many more well renowned magazines. Conde Nast died in 1942 thus bringing a new commander and who we all know today as, Anna Wintour in 1988, who is editor and chief of Vogue magazine today. Anna Wintour began Teen Vogue, a fashion magazine targeted towards a younger audience in 2001 a fairly recent in-devour and a Men's Vogue in 2005. There are issues of Vogue across the world and it continues to be a very large success in the fashion world.


Links:
http://students.cis.uab.edu/juli305/finalpaper.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_%28magazine%29
http://www.umbrella-d.com/styled/2245-the-history-of-vogue-magazine-

Tweet Tweet

Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, and Twitter have expanded the world of social media today. Twitter is a socially networking site which allows its users to post 140 characters of whatever they would like. The site is based in San Francisco, California. The word Twitter means, "a short short burst of inconsequential information." Which was exactly what Twitter involves. 140 characters of anything. Today, Twitter has over 200 million users, and on average have over 140 million tweets a day. There initially wasn't a limit to how many characters could be used, but when the site went public the limit was set. The founders chose 140 characters because initially 160 characters was the SMS limit and they subtracted 20 characters in order to leave room for the username. Twitter also known as micro-blogging has changed the way we look at media today because essentially we can be connected with anyone anytime and know what they are doing according to their tweets at the tip of their fingers.


Links:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/the-history-of-twitter-140-characters-at-a-time/article1949299/
www.twitter.com

Broadcast Television

Broadcast news in it's earliest form started on the radio. Broadcast television news first started commercially in the 1930s and the first television broadcast aired in 1937. Broadcast news was a great way to inform the public of world events happening. During the second world war, radio and television broadcasts were pre-recorded broadcasts from war correspondents. In 1967 the US created the Public Broadcasting System which centered around large main cities such as, Los Angeles, and New York which included main stations that spanned across the country. For example, PBS is comprised of over 300 stations. In 1939 the National Broadcasting Station or NBC was aired for the first time. It aired at the New York World's Fair to the world and in 1941 FCC authorized commercial television. By 1948 there 36 television stations broadcasting. Today we have many channels that broadcast news, shows, music, movies, etc and the possibilities continue to grow.


Links:
http://www.mbcnet.org/history-of-broadcast-news-and-media-outlets.htm
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/History%20of%20Television%20page.htm
http://law.jrank.org/pages/4874/Broadcasting-History-Television.html

Billboards

A billboard is defined as, a large outdoor advertisement structure. In 1889 the worlds first 24-sheet billboard was shown at the Paris Exposition. In 1908 with the invention of the Model T Ford, it caused people to use the roads more thus producing the first roadside billboard, the most commonly used ones today. An interesting fact is that in 1997 the permission for tobacco advertisement was banned in the U.S. To think if you're driving down I-35 you don't ever see a billboard that is advertising smoking. These days you would most likely see something about trying to quit or products to aid in that process. Then 10 years later in 2007 was the production of a single sheet billboard. Today if you go to Times Square, NYC the light up billboards brighten up dark streets at night with many changing and moving advertisements made from computer software. Billboards are one of the most common types of advertisements and also the biggest. A lot of them have become digital thus expanding what types of advertisements can be done with them.




Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard

For Online Shoppers Only

Along with the creation of the world-wide-web in the 1990s, came along e-commerce or online shopping but before that, in 1982, a company called, Minitel was successful in creating an online market (before the www) using telephone lines to sell their computer products. In 1987 Swerg created a merchant account where which they could sell their products. In 1994 however SSL which was a encryption of data which allowed for a more secure data. I With secure data came the first online store which was a German store called Intershop and in 1995 came the highly popular online shop, Amazon. In 1996 came the launch of the eBay store. Until recent, online shopping has become really popular and more efficient. With companies like UPS and FedEx orders arrive a lot faster. Today there really isn't a store that doesn't at least have an online website which allows the customer to browse products and more often than not purchase them.


Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_shopping
http://www.instantshift.com/2010/03/26/the-history-of-online-shopping-in-nutshell/

Generation 4 of the iPhone

The iPhone 4 broke the barriers of what many smart phones were capable of. Unlike the past 3 generations of the iPhone, the iPhone 4 is now equipped with HD cameras on both the front and the back of the phone. This feature allows the user to use what's called "face time." If another user has an iPhone 4 when they talk to someone you can see their face, kind of like a skyping feature especially for the iPhone 4. There is also HD video capabilities which a lot of smart phones right now don't have. It also has what is called Retina Display. Retina Display is the sharpest, highest resolution visibility on a phone right now. The display is so high that to the human eye, you cannot distinguish individual pixels. The iPhone 4 also allows the user to multitask with different applications. Each generation of the iPhone has continued to break the molds and raise the expectations as far as smart phone capabilities. What the future holds for the next generations will most likely be ground breaking.


Links:
www.apple.com

Graphene

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon. You're probably wondering what an allotrope is? It means a property of some chemical element that exists in two or more molecular components, these are known as allotropes of that element. An example would be if you take carbon which has four allotropes you would get the first allotrope which is a diamond, the second would be graphite, the third would be graphene, and the fourth would be fullerenes. Back to graphene, an article found on bigthink.com entitled, "Graphene Will Change the Way we Live" talks about the first explorations of graphene in 1974 by a man named, Philip Wallace. In the past 6 years scientists have been looking into this remarkable element and have discovered that is can help aid in some amazing things. First and foremost graphene is today, the thinnest possible material to date. Although it's extremely thin it is said to be almost 200 times stronger than steel and can conduct electricity better than anything we have out there now. Amazing right? But where does this come into play with media? The potential uses for this material is almost endless. Prospected uses include making aircrafts much lighter and stronger, graphene sensors that would be able to sniff out any dangerous molecules, stronger medial implants and materials, advancements with LCD touch screens on phones and other technological devices, and the list goes on and on. Graphene could be the most revolutionary product out there, and could aid in so many things.


Links:
http://bigthink.com/ideas/24381
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotrope

The Future of Photography

The Future of Digital Photography Abstract

The advancement of photography has grown rapidly over the past 10 years. With such large advancements to the camera, it has had a very large impact on consumers today. On October 17, 1969 the first digital camera was invented by two men by the name of, George Smith and Willard Boyle and by 1970, only a year later, inventors were able to put video capabilities onto the digital camera. Such leaps and bounds were successfully achieved in only one year. By 1981 Sony created a camera that could hold up to 25 pictures and take a small amount of short video clips. Today digital imaging and video capabilities are a part of almost everyday photography. You can also find digital video and photography today on smart phones, and computers. The quality of images has also increased tremendously over the years. Smart phone are now able to take high resolution pictures that often times couldn’t be differentiated from an actual digital camera. Like the iPhone 4 with HDR imaging. Today we can load pictures onto our computers from a memory chip, but that’s all about to change. Camera companies are coming out with digital camera software that allows the user to upload pictures to websites and computers straight from their camera. Another breakthrough in digital camera technology is the company Adobe is trying to come up with a vivid detailed Plenoptic Lens. Meaning the lens captures every segment of the images around you ensuring you don’t miss any details. Many technological advances have been made in the area of 3D technology. With the digital camera it is a work in progress. Fiji Film has come out with what appears to be the first 3D camera earlier this year. The camera is equipped with two eye holes to capture the pictures. The possibilities for the digital cameras in the future are endless.

A Sinful Bite: The iPad 2

As most of you know, the infamous iPad 2 came out on March 11, 2011 and has been widely celebrated. The buzz with the first release of the original iPad was enormous and with the iPad 2 it was even bigger. The iPad 2 comes with a lot bigger changes in a much smaller package. How so? The iPad 2 is equipped with a Dual-core A5 chip which allows the devise to run TWO TIMES FASTER than before. If that wasn't amazing enough the iPad 2 went down in size by 33% that's alot if you think about how thin the original iPad was to begin with. It also lasts up to 10 hours with its revolutionary new battery life! The iPad 2 has two build-in cameras, one on the front and one on the back. So it's basically like a MacBook and an iPhone combines minus the phone aspect. But hey if the iPhone can download the Skype app and make calls to anyone...the iPad can too, so essentially it is just like a phone. Cool! The iPad 2 has a ton of cool new things to offer and to get more information on this amazing product you can visit the Apple site. The iPad has not only exceeded what was ever thought computers and the Apple company could come up with, and it continues to expand. I wonder what will come next?

Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQG0XfU-bFs
http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

Nook Revolution

November 2009, Barnes and Noble, and a national retail book seller came out with their first e-book called the Nook. The Nook made the world rethink what the “book” was. The Nook allowed its buyers to download thousands of books for about half the price. The original Nook comes with Wi-Fi and is in connection with AT&T cellphone company. It has a six-inch black and white E-Ink display with a separate touch screen along the bottom. The Nook comes at an affordable price, is small and compact, and is easy to use. The cheap price of books offers both an affordable product and affordable downloads for customers.

The Nook Color was introduced to the public in October of 2010. When the Nook Color was introduced to the market, the original Nook went from $199 to $149. The Nook Color provides its readers with a larger LCD screen in full color and has Wi-Fi and 3G network capabilities. The Nook and Nook Color have reading capabilities without Wi-Fi connection which expands the ability for its readers to read any place at any time. The Lendme feature on both Nooks allows users to share books with other users.



Links:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp?

Facebook for our Furry Companions?

Something you may not have thought about in the aspect of social media, is how it affects animals or what impact it shares with them. Today if we are looking to either adopt an animal or looking to buy through an accredited breeder of some kind we go to an online site which gives you the option to look through different kinds and breeds of animals for your selection. There's now sites like, animalallies.net and other animal shelter sites offered to you for yours and the animals benefit. At the pedigree database website, it offers not only breeders and adoptable animals but message boards about certain breeds, training your animal, diet and nutrition information, vets within close proximity of you, and so much more. Media has expanded not only towards a kind of "social network" for people, but also for animals and their handlers to network with others so to speak. Also Facebook has also started to include breeder ads and pet adoption ads on their pages, aside from organizations having their own page, which also helps with the awareness or breeders and animals that are up for adoption.




Links:
http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/
http://www.animalsheltertips.com/social_media.html

GrubHub

Yes, this site is actually called GrubHub.com. GrubHub is a site that markets over 13,000 delivery restaurants around the country and allows customers to order food from online. It was invented in 2004 by two men named, Matt Maloney and Mike Evans. There are currently over 13,000 restaurant menus to choose from and more are being added daily. All you have to do it enter your location in the search bar and then the type of food that you wish to order, and the site will pull up any restaurants in your area that deliver, and you can place your oder directly through them. The only issue I see with this type of service is that it mainly centers around larger cities with a diverse and abundancy of restaurants. This changes how we order and buy food. Usually if you wanted to order food you would either call the restaurant or have it for pick up. Now a lot of restaurants are converting to online ordering, for example Pizza Hut and a lot of large pizza franchises have the easy access or ordering online.


Link:
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3648207587166256167

Computers in the Future

The Future of Computers:

The future of computers are being developed and expanding everyday. Nicholas Negroponte a professor at MIT, is trying to produce a $75 computer which will be available to low income countries around the world to expand learning and advance education. Artificial intelligence is another expanding area in the aspect of computer technology. We know AI as the everyday automated voice you hear when you call a company which is able to recognize words and questions to transfer and connect people. Gordon Moore, the Co-Founder for the Intel computer chip has predicted in 1965 that computer technology will continue to grow and expand. He was right. Professors and students are also working at Singularity University on ways to make AI and the human minds immortal. Meaning that the knowledge and memories of that particular person will be preserved and will be able to communicate within the realm of that persons knowledge with others. The Dell Computer Company is trying to make computers more Eco-friendly by trying to make and have come up with a prototype to connect plants with computers. What makes this invention so evolutionary is that when the PC’s life has finished, the case that holds the plant can either be recycled or reused as a plant vase, thus combining nature with technology. The multibillion dollar franchise Google is again expanding in the technology of broadband. Google is now trying to create an even faster broadband made of fiber optic materials which may cause eventual problems that could arise when and if Google does succeed and the possibility of wiping out all other internet companies. Computers without a doubt are expanding everyday, maybe beyond comprehension with endless possibilities.

Books: The Future in the Digital Age

Today, in 2011 the evolution of literature is leaps beyond where our ancestors ever thought it would be. Of course, the classic paperbound book still exists and is still immensely profitable for book sellers around the world, but many say that this tangible item cherished by so many will soon become obsolete. Where are books going? We have already had a glimpse into the digital e-books with products like the Amazon Kindle, the Nook, and the iPad. This essay will discuss evolutionary products and the future of literature. It’s never certain where technology will take us, but where ever it takes us will never be short of astounding.
The earliest known general e-book was made in 1971 by Michael s. Hart of Project Gutenberg. The e-books made at this time weren’t available to the general public and was only shown to a limited group of people who were interested in the product at the time. The 1990s with the invention of the internet made the accessibility of e-books much easier. Many libraries in the United States started to provide free e-book access in 1998 through their websites. The actual tangible e-book product tablets weren’t available until 2009-2010. In 2010 the Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study found that 66% of public libraries around the nation were offering e-books.

In November 2009, Barnes and Noble, and a national retail book seller came out with their first e-book called the Nook. The Nook made the world rethink what the “book” was. The Nook allowed its buyers to download thousands of books for about half the price. The original Nook comes with Wi-Fi and is in connection with AT&T cellphone company. It has a six-inch black and white E-Ink display with a separate touch screen along the bottom. The Nook comes at an affordable price, is small and compact, and is easy to use. The cheap price of books offers both an affordable product and affordable downloads for customers.

The Nook Color was introduced to the public in October of 2010. When the Nook Color was introduced to the market, the original Nook went from $199 to $149. The Nook Color provides its readers with a larger LCD screen in full color and has Wi-Fi and 3G network capabilities. The Nook and Nook Color have reading capabilities without Wi-Fi connection which expands the ability for its readers to read any place at any time. The Lendme feature on both Nooks allows users to share books with other users.
The Amazon Kindle came out in February 2009, which offered the Nook its main competition. The Kindle surpassed paperback books by almost 50% during 2010 making a revolutionary change for booksellers around the country. The Kindle, like the Nook, has Wi-Fi capabilities which allows its readers to shop and download their books right from their devise. Like the Nook, the Kindle has a black and white E Ink display screen which offers easy reading in the sunlight and under bright lights. Amazon then came out with the Kindle DX, which has the same features of the original Kindle but displays a larger screen and is marketed towards displaying content in textbooks and reading newspapers.

An article from mitworld.mit.edu talks about the uncertainty of the publishing industry now that digital books have swept the market. The article talks about how publishing companies have to become more creative and flexible when it comes to distributing books. Many companies have turned to the e-book industry and have started to convert books to e-book format.
Gavin Grant’s publishing boutique in Massachusetts says that new technologies have transformed his work in several ways. “He licenses some books via Creative Commons; releases others as downloads in a variety of ebook formats and deploys social media, in form of blogs and Facebook-enabled communication, to publicize and attract passionate readers to the firm’s website” (mitworld.com, 2010). The digital book era has also made way for author produced book trailers on YouTube. Other publishing companies see the transformation of books into digitalized electronic reading devises as a transition that was inevitable.
We now have websites like lulu.com, which allows people all over the world who aren’t world renowned writers to publish and sell their own books from front to back cover. Lulu.com was published in 2002 by CEO and founder, Bob Young. There are six international versions which includes sites for the U.K., French, Dutch, German, Italian, and Spanish costumers. Within the site you are able to publish paperback, eBooks, mini books, photo books, calanders, cookbooks, travel books, CDs, and DVDs. Each creator of the book is able to keep 80 percent of their profits if they choose to sell their books through the site. The site itself publishes about 20,000 books-of-choice per month.
Having a site like lulu.com doesn’t completely throw editing companies under the bus. Sites that allow their own customers publish what they want raises the consumer rates. The fact that lulu.com also allows for their customers to publish books in the e-book format shows that the site is up to date with the latest consumer media.
Media brings an uncertain and unpredictable future but the transformation and evolution of media is inevitable. As long as the technology we have can be sustained and there are people out there who make advances, one can never tell where we will end up next. With technology like the Nook and Kindle it still allows people to enjoy the satisfaction of sitting down and reading a book without the tangible page turns and collection of bookshelves. < The possibilities are endless in regards to where the digital age of literature is going. Maybe one day we’ll pick up our Nooks or Kindles and see moving images like in Harry Potter with their animated news papers.

Granted there are people out there who love the feel of holding a book in their hands and who might not ever fall prey to the advancement of where books in the digital age are headed. Maybe one day we’ll have microchips implanted in our brains and just at the thought of a book a large list will configure in our minds and we will have our own virtual libraries.