Journal #9

Journal #9

Tim Wu’s Slate article “iPhony” is quite the bold statement. Determined to cut the iPhone hype concentrate with some good, old-fashioned water, Wu is completely unafraid to call Apple’s new iPhone remarkably unrevolutionary, and he’s terribly glad you asked. Wu calls the iPhone’s closed-platform design and single carrier availability quite the contradiction to Apple’s corporate mantra of “Think Different”. Pointing to the sub-par internet outside of limited immediate Wi-Fi service areas, Wu questions exactly what Apple thinks is revolutionary about a hand-held personal computer that does so little to challenge the status quo of the wireless industry. Remaining hopeful, he does provide some ideas for improving any future editions of iPhones, such as permanent roaming that allows users to choose the carrier that provides them the best service or changing to an open-platform design that will allow developers to make the iPhone as great as it could (and some argue should) be.

Question 1:

Is there any indication of whether Apple will be releasing OS upgrades/updates or phones with greater capabilities like Wu wishes the current iPhone had?

A small amount of research seems to indicate that OS upgrades could be downloaded via computer or to the iPhone directly but there is no indication at this point whether any will be released.

Question 2:

What does Apple have to say to critics of the iPhone?

Steve Jobs replies to most criticisms that Apple has plans for developing applications for the iPhone’s web-browser Safari, but the fact remains that these applications would remain limited to when the iPhone has Wi-Fi access. Beyond that there seems to be no response to other criticisms.

Journal #8

Journal #8

Michael Agger’s article “Google Spy” concerns a whole new level of internet voyeurism. While GoogleEarth was stunningly powerful and massive, Google Street View is a kind of creepy snapshot of real streets on GoogleMaps taken with real cameras of real people doing normal real day-to-day things. And while it was to be a very useful application, giving users access to real images of real locations instead of just top-view schematics of typical online map applications, many who were wittingly or unwittingly caught in embarrassing poses when the GoogleShutter snapped have been eager to make their complaints addressed.

Question 1:

Is Google Street View really worth the money put into it?

I’m not sure exactly, but it probably cost a lot to get people to drive around some of the United States’ largest cities and take real photographs of every street and then take all of those images and insert them into a whole new software application that is supposed to load the images instantly for millions of users. I guess it just sounds expensive.

Question 2:

It seems like Google has a lot going on. The article mentioned Google Patents—what is that all about?

Google patents is a section of Google designated for patent searching. You can even download .pdf’s of patents for personal record keeping. Perhaps the article mentions it because it was one of the less useful Google tools.

Journal #7

Journal #7

According to Christopher Beam’s article “In Your Face”, Facebook.com is the sleeping giant of social networking sites. Beam’s article comparatively analyzes the web’s most popular social networking sites and comes to the conclusion that if Facebook.com would only add a few truly useful components to it’s already practical and respectably clean interface, well, “The rest of the Internet might as well surrender.” Calling Myspace.com downright creepy and citing the uselessness of Second Life’s large-breasted 3D avatars and make-believe currency, Beam believes that Facebook.com and Myspace.com are already the closest things we have to “virtual worlds.” He believes that the final missing link (one that Facebook.com is quickly discovering) combines the demands of the real world, such as real-time news feeds, email, and instant messaging, with the familiarity and utility of the virtual world. Beam says that with mergers like Yahoo! and Myspace.com on the horizon, Facebook.com would only need to write some truly useful applications for its users spaces to create an unstoppable social networking juggernaut.

Question 1:

Do people really use/care about Facebook and social networking that much?

In a word, HECK YES THEY DO! Facebook.com has 27 million users and has seen a dramatic increase since the release of Facebook Platform.

Question 2:

Who else is capitalizing on this?

Beam adds that even politicians are deciding to use social networking sites like Facebook to promote themselves. My.BarackObama.com can only boast of 70,000 registered users, while on Facebook.com, Thousands of users have downloaded the Obama Facebook application and hundreds of thousands have joined Obama-themed groups.

Journal 6

Journal #6

In an article from the April 2005 issue of Learning and Leading entitled “Filming Compassion”, authors Janet Bremer and Marilyn Clark discuss service learning and show different ways that teachers can incorporate components of service learning into a curriculum. To be honest, I didn’t really understand what they meant exactly by “service learning” so I guess now I’d loosely define it as “an assignment or project that makes students complete by contributing to disadvantaged areas of their communities.” In this case, students were assigned short video ads that the inner city school or daycare center or homeless soup kitchen could use to show how students spend a typical day at school or to show potential donators all of the services provided by the soup kitchen. The students were given a rubric outlining all of the criteria that had to be satisfied to receive a good grade so that it would be ensured that their work would be of value to the school/ centers/ organizations after they were done.

Question 1:

What grade level would such projects be appropriate for?

This kind of activity would probably be most useful in the upper education levels, like grades 9-12. I think it would be easier to arrange transportation to and from the shooting locations if the students were teamed up with each other such that they could get the work done without depending on their parents. I also think that older students could be more mature and could get more out of this kind of project as opposed to younger, more immature grade levels where they might not be at a place where they could really take it seriously or make a quality film for them.

Question 2:

Would supervision be a problem?

Supervision should not be a problem as long as the students have arranged in advance with the organizations/schools that they may come and make the films.