This article is from Canadian Business written by Peter Nowak in 6th Nov, 2014: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/technology-news/android-lollipop-5-security/

This article talks about how Android released a new system called “Lollipop”, as it increases the security for users. The application mainly blocks third party users from accessing important data and information from the users phones, such as credit card numbers and important passwords. Before this new system was released, Encryption, which is an option that people can turn on, prevents people from hacking your phone. However, it slows down the phone’s processor which makes everything slower. For average users that unlocks their screen 10-15 times a day, they would not like to turn on that option.

A few years ago, there were lots of articles talking about how google actually have access to all your personal information, whoever uses an android powered phone or has a gmail account will have their information released to Google Company only. This created a lot of debate between the users knowing that their chats, passwords are exposed to google, if others were able to hack google’s servers, they can obtain a lot of important information.

In my opinion, this will definitely improve Google’s reputation in terms of users security, however I don’t really see how this will improve the situation by a lot. Even though third parties might have a harder time obtaining important information in your phone, I am sure that Google still has all your information. If Google’s internet security is not as strong, hackers can still obtain the information. However as of now, the users get the option to increase their security without their phone slowing down. Also, this new system only works on newer phones, so for old phone users, their security is still not as strong

This post is from New York Times Posted on october 11th by William Turton: http://www.dailydot.com/esports/new-york-times-esports/

A month ago, the famous and most played video games, League of Legends, just hosted a championship game in Seoul, Korea. With a prize pool of 11 million dollars, more and more competitive players started forming teams to compete for first place. This article talks about how E-sports is a “power up” series that can lead to a profitable business.

This topic is very interesting to me because I also started playing 4 years ago, the company was founded in 2006 and I have seen it develop and improve. The audiences on this video increases exponentially each year, to the point where they host championships in a stadium. Comparing the first season with the 4th one, the difference in audience capacity has changed a lot. The article also compared how these professional E-sports players are just what LeBron James did to basketball. If NBA is like a profitable business with team management, constant changes on players, with audiences and large prize pools, I believe that League of Legends can be considered in the same category.

At first when I told my friends about how this game is a sport, but online, they didn’t believe me. After analyzing how the components of a sport which includes: competition, audience, teamwork, prize pool, training etc., they also believe that the potential of League of Legends is just as good as any other sports out there. For me, managing a team on something that I am interested would be a great opportunity. Doing something I love while making connections and gaining profit is what everyone wants as their job.

This article is taken from BBC news on the 7th November, 2014: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29947422

This article talked about how Twitter is expanding into Asia, despite the fact that they got banned from expanding into China in year 2009. This article appeals a lot to me because when I remember during year 2009, I remembered reading a post about how twitter got banned from China because the tweets may raise threats to the country. Knowing that China has a very tight censorship on digital content, I was not surprised that Twitter got banned. Moreover, they even created a substitute for Chinese people to use that is very similar to Twitter – Sina Weibo. In Weibo, all the content posted will be monitored by the Chinese government, but users gets the same feeling as using Twitter.

After 5 years, despite the fact that Twitter’s shares are down almost 36% and revenues falling short, they decided to expand Hong Kong in year 2015. In order to attract more users, China is their first priority with so many people, and even though they have been rejected, they are still aiming to expand into China.

I have been living in Hong Kong for my entire life and I have seen some changes in terms of increase in Mainland Chinese population living in Hong Kong. Over the past 4 years or so, Mainland Chinese would come over to purchase a lot of products, firms would expand into China. I remember my father saying how in a few years, companies from China will take over the economy in Hong Kong. From the pattern I’ve been observing, I think my father’s statement will come true as more Mainland Chinese companies will start to enter the market. In my opinion, I think that Twitter is making a good investment even though they are losing revenues because more Mainland Chinese people are coming to Hong Kong. This allows them to use Twitter freely as well and might increase their sales in the long run.

This post is based on one of my classmates, Matteo Stephan’s blog post. Link to the post is here: https://blogs.ubc.ca/matteostefan/2014/10/05/marriott-fined-600000-by-fcc-for-blocking-wi-fi/

A month ago, Marriott Hotel is charged with $600,000 for blocking customer’s Wi-Fi, and forcing them to pay double the price in order to get their wifi when they are using conference rooms. They have been receiving complaints from customers about the Wi-Fi for a while now. After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigated the reason behind Wi-Fi blocking, they found out that Marriott hotel is doing it on purpose. Marriott Hotel stated that they blocked the wifi from outside was to prevent any “rogue wireless hotspots that can degrade service, insidious cyber-attacks and identity theft”, however they still paid the amount ($600,000).

Matteo perspective was very against Marriott Hotel’s decision on blocking outside wifi and charging double the amount on customers using their conference rooms. He said that being an industry that prioritises customer service, they should provide free wifi for any customers in their hotel. I agree with this point, especially since Mariott Hotel is famous for it’s quality in rooms and services. However I also thought about how this can relate to my high school.

In my own high school, we only have one cafeteria, run by one company and we are not allowed to order any other food outside of campus. This creates a monopoly inside our school since everyone’s forced purchase their products (food). No matter how high they set their prices, we still have to pay in order to get our lunch. This scenario can apply to Mariott Hotel, all firms want to maximize their profit, and since Wi-Fi is very common and high in demand, it is obvious to make as much profit as they can on this topic. Even though they should not charge customers double the amount necessary, having the power of a monopoly, they should charge them a reasonable price in order to gain more profit. Because with the extra profit, they can use it to develop their industry and make it an even better place for the customers to live in.