A new app has been released for coffee lovers. It’s called Caffeine Zone. This app basically shows how much coffee or any other drinks a person drank. By showing a number of black lines inside the cup shaped figure, it reminds the person when coffee or caffeine is needed to actively stay up during their day.

 According to Frank Ritter, the Penn State cognitive scientist who created this app, thought of this idea by studying antibiotics. By learning lessons about how much caffeine is most effective to people’s daily performance, Ritter thought this could be a boost for people’s active life. Therefore, by showing how much caffeine or coffee is needed from the app, this could prevent people from taking too much or too little intake of caffeine and coffee.

Recently, not only smartphones and iPhones are in a rush of development. The App markets are also in a rush to satisfy the consumer’s needs. I believe, if apps were like this which are easy and fun to use, the businesses who created it would reap great profit.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-16/how-to-drink-your-coffee-theres-an-app-for-that

Janne Kytömäki, a Finnish software developer of GOOGLE, surfed the android market for smartphone apps. However, all of a sudden, she noticed that an unknown malware had messed up her findings during when she was surfing through her phone.

GOOGLE quickly responded by truing on the “kill-switch.” The malware reached into more than 250000 android smart-phones  and had forcibly messed up the core coding. Recently, corporations that are highly based on the internet started to install this “kill-system.” One example is the Windows 8 operating system. As one of Microsoft’s latest program, the firm decided to put “kill-systems” in all of their devices.

The “kill-system” will prevent important information being stolen or being revealed to the public. However, there also is a doubt about it. As this system destroys the entire system from a single click, some companies are reluctant to install such an extreme system. For instance, as they fear this system may be abused, civil rights and speech advocates worry that tech companies could be pressured by governments to delete software data for political reasons.

In my opinion, I believe it would be beneficial to install such a system as important files can always be backed up and saved. In contrast, if there was a virus that revealed all the important information, there would be no way returning back.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-02-17/the-kill-switch-comes-to-the-pc

Activision Blizzard, one of the most popular FPS game company has recently released a new gamed called “Call of Duty: Ghosts.” As one of the company’s latest FPS games from the Call of Duty franchise, gamers from all around the world are very curious about what new themes, items and characters there will be included in the newly presented game.

Eric Hirshber, president and chief executive officer of Activision Publishing has let one of the elite Call of Duty players to advertise his latest game.

Martin is a well known Youtube video gamer, who records himself playing games while narrating tips on strategy and delivering tips on how to play better. He then publishes his clips on Youtube. By letting him play the latest game, Call of Duty: Ghost, Eric Hirshber expects a high sales revenue from the advertisement effect gained by Martin. This can be a very effective way to advertise the latest product as not just Call of Dusty fans but also fans of Martin would gain interest of the newly presented game. Therefore, if Eric Hirshber has an opportunity to have big events to show his new game products to the public, I believe using elite gamers would promote the brand image for Activision Blizzard.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-13/elite-video-gamers-cash-in-by-sharing-tips-on-youtube

Xerox is an enterprise that seeks to better manage an influx of documents and data. Recently, Xerox responded with new tools to print for less. As a way of “printing less,” Xerox simplified how work gets done in a safe and sustainable way.

Mike Feldman, the president of Xerox asserted that the newly managed print service helps their workers to control the information they receive while managing everyday concerns such as productivity, mobility, security and sustainability. This in result lets the workers to perform their ability whenever and wherever they wish to.

Xerox currently is changing their managed print and document services strategy to be employee centered. I believe such care in employees would in the long run generate the company’s efficeny and reduce waste such as too much spending of time.

http://news.xerox.com/news/Xerox-takes-managed-print-services-beyond-print

A flat Chain of Command is a company without a hierarchy system that includes a CEO within the business layer. According to the article, Valve Corporation is using the exact same structure.

Valve, an influential video game company that created Steam is most well known from their popular innovative online games such as Counter strike and Team Fortress 2. Just like a flat structure, the company is run without a single layer of hierarchy. To ellaborate, the individuals within the company do not have to report anything to anyone. In fact, they are able to do anything they wish to. BBC, one on Britain’s highly credited news broadcast has reported that, “the employees sit where they want, choose what to work on and decide each other’s pay.” Surprisingly, despite the risky structure, Valve is known to be one of the top influential video corporations.

For the majority of companies, there is a reason why they choose to have a hierarchical  structure. Because within a hierarchy, a leader has the power to control his or her staffs. This can be very efficient within a business as lower-level of employees may not have a clue on what they are doing. In contrast to this system, Valve is doing the exactly the opposite. I believe Valve should at least consider changing the business structure of become partially hierarchical in order to prevent the risks a total flat structure may cause.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24205497

According to the article, it mentions that the top earners in Canada have more than doubled compared to their past three decades. From this situation, the article illustrates on how beneficial the wealthy would be from Canada’s economic growth and productivity gains.

In reference to the article, globalization in the short-run is damaging Canada’s economy by  only letting a minority of the population to succeed. This in result would drop Canada’s working capital as well as the economic profit for the country’s future continuation.  Another disadvantage from the short run of globalization is that this may lead to population dissatisfaction. As it is too competitive for the people to succeed, rather than to live in Canada, they would try and leave. This in effect could damage Canada’s total revenue as there would not be enough people to cover all the costs Canada spent on.

Surely in the long run, globalization may push not only Canada but the whole world to become an innovative society. However, it will be very hard in the short run to push the nation to be successful in the long run.