Technology News (Blue Day Students)

Please browse your NewsGator RSS "technology news" feeds.  Read an article and write a short summary of the article, be sure to leave the URL for your article in your summary.  Please write in complete sentences and use proper grammar.  This assignment will be due before class starts next week, and will be a 20 point homework assignment.

Comments

[Meg Sexton]

They have come out with a new type of keeboard. It is a much more conveyent setting and there are many options and vatrations to it. It comes on an incline and is detachable (split down the middle). It also has a new type of buttons that act the same as a mouse. It is not out yet but can be ordered ad is expected to come out in the next couple months.

[Emily Johnson]

The article I read was about using new technology and cell phones to keep people safe. With the tragedy at Virginia Tech, a new software program is getting even more attention. At this time, only 70 of 3,000 colleges are using this software. The hope is that many schools will see the Virginia Tech tragedy and think about buying and using the software to keep their students safe. The college takes all the cell phone numbers of its students and stores them. Then, when and emergency notification needs to quickly and effectively be sent out, it uses the cell numbers to send out a mass text message to the students' cell phones. I think this is really great. Combining the newest technology with safety is a wonderful way to keep people out of harm's way.

Here is the article link:
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6177795.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news

[Laura Hutchison]

I read this article becuase it is about the 100 millionth ipod being sold. I was shocked by this number; even though ipods have become so popular, the number is very big. Apple ipods came out five and a half years ago when the first model was introduced. Over the years Apple has made ten different models each with its own new feature; including the latest shuffle and nanao second generation. This article also talks about the success of the entire Apple company. "At this historic milestone, we want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be a part of that.” This statement by Steve Jobs talks about how the ipod has transformed the music industry. So many people have ipods today, it still surprises me how many they sold. Apple has made a great product and theres no doubt that they will continue to make new models.

[liz bauman]

The article that I read touched on the recent events a Virginia Tech. It was about how students who has lost friends in the recent shootings got first word about them via the internet. Such as through AIM and e-mail. Student were saying how they planed on hanging out with the people that they lost this weekend. That they were so shocked to hear about it online about their teachers and friends, they didn’t know what to say. Many students at Virginia Tech have been using the Internet as a way of morning posting their feelings and sympathy for others online for people to see.

[liz bauman]

The article that I read touched on the recent events a Virginia Tech. It was about how students who has lost friends in the recent shootings got first word about them via the internet. Such as through AIM and e-mail. Student were saying how they planed on hanging out with the people that they lost this weekend. That they were so shocked to hear about it online about their teachers and friends, they didn’t know what to say. Many students at Virginia Tech have been using the Internet as a way of morning posting their feelings and sympathy for others online for people to see.

[Lindsay Ruppert]

The article which I read dealt with the new Window's Vista and the more traditional Window's XP. Even thought Vista was brought out to be a simpler, higher quality, and more interesting program for computers, many average consumers would rather purchase their computers with Window's XP instead of the new option. I can understand where the consumers are coming from because newer isn't always better. Many people are very comfortable and used to the old program and sometimes it can be hard to transition everything you know to a new program. I feel that there should definantly be the option between Vista and Xp, and Dell is one company which is holding that option in mind.

[Whitney]

Hp is the first to create a combo projector, called the ep9010. They have combined a DLP projector with a DVD player, a 2.1- digital audio system, a subwoofer and speakers. It can produce a 110 inch image from a small lens and can be as far away as 10 meters. It even has the strength to work well outdoors. Unfortunately, there are visible lines that appear on the digital image, and can be agitating. The audio sounds very nice, without the fan noise that comes from many other projectors. All you have to do to set it up to watch a movie is plug it in, turn it on, and line it up with the screen. You can connect a cable box, Xboxes, playstations, nintendos, and laptops PCs. Even the shape and style of the projector is appealing. It looks futuristic and technologically advanced.

[chris gartland]

Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google are the three leading providers for online search engines. They have struggled for power on the desktop, and now on the cell-phone. Current internet searching on cell-phones is as slower than dial-up in the 90's. The three companies have invested millions trying to improve the quality of web surfing on cell-phones. Some of their new developments have been voice commands and built-in GPS. Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft are hoping consumers will be willing to pay a premium for cell-phones with internet accessibilty almost as easy as on desktop.

[Mike]

It says that Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have started to turn to the cell phone as their new battleground in the Internet search wars. The reason for this is because they feel that it causes to many problems with the pages not displaying properly and it taking to much time for the phone to find the web. So they are creating a search service that can do things like answer simple questions and pinpointing peoples locations through a Global Positioning System. The only problem is that many of the cell phone services fell that these search engines are more of threat than they could be partners. so the main atraction they have comming out that would show off these abilities would be the new iPhone that apple is comming out with.

[Joe Fortunak]

This article states that groups advocating internet privacy are in the process of appealing to the federal trade commission to prevent Google Inc. from acquiring online advertising firm DoubleClick Inc. in a proposed $3.1 billion deal. Privacy advocates argue that Google Inc.'s vast archives of user data would lend themselves to abuse if this acquisition was allowed to be completed.

[Suzanne]

Environment groups believe that there is a major problem with the way we dispose of our e-waste. This e-waste is loaded with toxic chemicals that build up in landfills and continue to pollute our world. About eighty percent of this out-dated technology is sent to developing countries such as China, India, and Kenya where people dismantle them for parts. This work is dangerous and low-paying and is polluting the countries. Recycling these products is very difficult and time consuming, not to mention that, it too, is harmful to the environment. The biggest reason for this disposal of them is because of poor quality products that are either too hard to use or people get tired of them and want the newest product out on the market. Instead of just disposing of them in a landfill or on developing countries, a better way would be to simply "reupgrade" them.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9017281&pageNumber=2

[Chris A]

Rueters had a article about the Nintendo Wii being the number 1 new game console of 2007 in relation to sales. The $250 Wii has sold 259,000 units this month while the XBOX-360 has sold 199,000 unit and the PS3 sold 130,000 units.
Last year the PS2, which was the leading console last year, has sold a good 280,000 units.

The Wii has been the console that attracts people of all ages and is a new form of technology. It has a motion-sensored control which reacts directly to the game you are playing. I have not tried the Wii yet but it yet hasn't impresed me with its graphics. The PS3 and XBOX 360 has incredible graphics compared to the Wii but both of them cost more than the Wii.

[Vanessa F]

This article warns the people in significant government agencies to be careful when they are downloading email attachments. The email attachments are sometimes corrupted or tampered with. So if you open one, a hacker may able to access the internal database on your computer. It is thought that many of these attacks come from China or other countries because they want important " military, trade and infrastructure intelligence." These events are becoming more and more frequent. The best way to prevent the attacks are to keep Office security patches updated however it is getting harder to protect confidential information.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070423/tc_usatoday/cyberspiesexploitmicrosoftoffice

[Heather Garrich]

The article I read about is explaining about a website that began in 1981 and in the past couple of days a farmer seached and realized that the website has been exposing data. Over 150,000 people were affected although they have now been able to narrow that number down to 38,700. The people affected were given funds by either the Farm Service Agency or USDA Rural Development. They don't believe the information has been misused however those affected were given federal 15-digit social security numbers.

[Miles Brooks]

The article i read dealt with ID theft. There are task forces that want a larger and harsher punishment for ID theft. They want for convicted thieves to serve a mandatory 2 year sentence. Also they want to prevent this crime by finding a way to detect spyware on a computer so that an individual will not be able to steal one's ID.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2007-04-23T220550Z_01_N23284793_RTRUKOC_0_US-IDTHEFT.xml

[Gary Stewart]

This article was mainly about what PlayStation 3 is going to be doing in the future. It talks about how many new games are to be expected by next year. In the article it says that they now have come out with Folding at Home. Folding at Home is when your PS3 is not being used, it is doing calculations for Alsheimers disease. It does calculations that would take us forever to do.

[Elaina]

The article I read was about a failure in the Blackberry e-mail system. Blackberry users were without e-mail access April 18th. The company is keeping quiet the reason for the problem. The recent problems have not reduced the sale or use of Blackberrys. Consumers are not concerned with the problem and the expectation of future issues does not worry most of them. I agree with the views of such consumers because one outage shouldn't be a reason to abandon such a useful resource. The company took care of the problem and doesn't forsee anymore in the near future.

[Gavin Pereira]

this article talks about the new gateway 12-inch tablet. this now allows computer users
to be able to twist and turn the computer moniter. this product also has various items along with such as the lastest hardware and operating systems making it better for people who work in large corp's which have a lot of different groups that work with each other.
the price of this new tablet is a little under $2000 making it afforable however it is sold seperately. i think that this new product is better for people that enjoy working with each other mainly people in big corp's such as apple, microsoft ETC..

[Ray Wyder]

This article was about the retirement of Sony Playtion's inventor Ken Kutaragi. Ken Kutaragi has played a large part in Sony's success in the last couple of decades with large thanks to the invention of the Playstation and Playstation 2. Those consoles, which have sold more 200 million copies in the entire world. Kutaragi who on june 19th will retire will serve as ahonorary chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and act as a senior technology adviser to parent Sony Corp. He says he wants to move on new endeavoar.

[Hunter Hoopes]

Here is the url http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6606727.stm

Apple Mac Books have turned out to hold defective batteries. They have called them back in order to replace and fix the batteries. An update has been created to fix the problems but sometimes the defective battery still exists. Many times visual defectivness, when the battery is not recognized, or when it won't charge are signs that it is defective.
I am suprised that the Ibooks would be defective. Especially at a time like this when technology is so important. It seems as though as the computers become better or faster other parts decrease in strength. The most amazing thing is that Mac has been one of the strongest technology groups through the Ipod yet is still having the defective battery problems.

[Scott Spealman]

The new craze of video games came out just a couple of months ago called the Wii. The Wii is an interactive game simulation that lets you controll your character in this case mario. As we all remember the Super Mario Games that we played had only had the view of looking at his shoulder. Now the wii has made the first game that you can swich the angle of the game to fight of the evil mushrooms. This is not justy an accomplishment for the game but it is an accomplishment for all game systems to let them find the new edge in the video game world

[Giovanna Romano]

This article is about how animation aims to draw more girls to technology. It talks about how in UMBC they created a character to get more girls intersted into technology. It includes a hands-on, high-tech activities for adults and children.

[Chris R.]

The article i read was a representation about new in the technology world isn't always better. Window's Vista is the newest thing in the computer world. This new version of the windows operating system includes all new formats that are supposed to be alot more "simpler" then any before this time. Many people including myself have no problem with the old operating system and tend to prefer it than any others because its what i got used to. In purchasing a new computer i would find a way to get the old in windows xp because i have no problem with it and it is my preference to just know something through the amount ive used it than through practicing and having to learn an all new layout and format.

[Gavin Pereira]

This article talks about the new gateway 12-inch tablet. This now allows computer users will
be able to twist and turn theier computer moniters. This product also has various items along with the lastest hardware and operating systems making it better for people who work in large corp's,that have many empolyees.
The price of this new tablet is a little under $2000 making it afforable however it is sold seperately from the computer. I think that this new product is better for people that work in big corp's that create big projects, because the persons working on the projects will now be able to work to together rather then just alone.

[Gavin Pereira]

This article talks about the new gateway 12-inch tablet. This now allows computer users will
be able to twist and turn theier computer moniters. This product also has various items along with the lastest hardware and operating systems making it better for people who work in large corp's,that have many empolyees.
The price of this new tablet is a little under $2000 making it afforable however it is sold seperately from the computer. I think that this new product is better for people that work in big corp's that create big projects, because the persons working on the projects will now be able to work to together rather then just alone.