Jennifer Wu

I read an article in CNN today about our daily activities being carried out with only a phone! Google Wallet’s product manager Freed-Finnegan “hope[s that] one day [we] can walk out of the house with [a] phone in [our] hand[s] — and nothing else.” It immediately made me think of the article on The phone that works like a bank that we were assigned in one of our readings last week.

According to CNN, techonologists are developing “phone prototypes that could be built into cothing, […and] project their screens on your skin.” Frankly, this kinda of abstract technology makes me fear that in the future, humans would be so dependent on technology that there will be no need for us to do anything ourselves. And then comes the fear of artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world.

Speaking of AI, IBM’s chess master, Deep Blue, a computer that won against the world’s best chess player, was dismantled in 1997. IBM gave no reason of why the computer was dismantled, but there is reason for people to believe that technicians feared that Deep Blue’s intel would unltimately lead to an AI-run world.

Is technology development going to bring our down-fall?

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Sources: CNN, New York Review of Books
Photo Credit: Intelligent-Future.com

In August, China posted a “black-list” of 100 hundred songs and claimed that they “endangered national security.” The list included songs by popular artists such as Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Backstreet Boys (only to name a few). China’s Ministry of Culture requires that songs be translated to Chinese and undergo inspection, review, and registration before being published online. The songs were simply banned because they were not submitted for review.

China censors many websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube; the purpose being to keep society under control of the government. A democracy would not work in China because of the massive number of people, and censorship is a way to keep society under control by disconnecting them from revolutionary ideas. However, to democratic societies, China’s censorship represents a violation of human rights and freedoms, and people have less opinions because they are not given a chance to think freely.

It’s not a wonder that China’s economy is 20 years behind, their economy is limited to the ideas of the Chinese government!

Food for thought: Is China’s censorship of pop songs simply a claim for authority? The content in the lyrics certainly do not represent itself a threat to national security.

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Sources: Reuter’s and Net Censorship Forum

Only 56, Apple founder Steve Jobs died on October 5th, 2011, one day following the release of the iPhone 4S.

A fellow Comm101 class-mate blogged about his death here.

Apple is known to the public for purposely keeping its products a secret until the day of press conferences to build up excitement about the fashionable tech device. However, the long awaited-for iPhone 5 was not launched for sale during the press conference on October 4th, causing a steep decline in Apple’s stock by 7%.

There is reason to believe that the launch of the iPhone 4S is due to the anticipation of Jobs’s death. The Apple stock would’ve been believed to decrease substantially following Jobs’s death, therefore, the launch of the iPhone 4S was only a preparation for the shock following Jobs’s death. Could there be another plot behind these events to manipulate the stock price (a sudden decrease, then a huge increase maybe following the release of the iPhone 5 as a surprise to the public)?

Another theory could be that Jobs was shocked to hear about the decrease in his stock, and it affected his health condition. His death definitely has its impact on the technology oriented world.

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Source: CNN U.S.
Photo Source: OhInternet

Following the release of the iPhone 4S this morning, the Apple stock has dropped nearly 7%. The question that arises here: is the iphone merely valued for its trendy design, or for its functionality? (Personally, I don’t think the iPhone is the best phone in terms of functionality. It’s incompatible with macromedia flash, restraining the visual features of many websites through Safari. However, I find it next to impossible to get used to non-touch-screen phones after the iPhone).

The iPhone 4S has the same exterior as the iPhone 4, but features a much more user-friendly interface that includes a dual-core processor and a high-definition camera.

iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 4: What’s Changed?.

The innovations to the features of the phone should theoretically be more than enough to raise the stock prices, while instead, the value of the Apple stock dropped from $381.80 to $354.24. Although it rose back up again, this is a sign to companies that their product not only needs to be functionally, but also visually appealing (not that the iPhone 4 design is unappealing, but the launch of the iPhone 4S instead of the iPhone 5 is most definitely disappointing).

It’s all about the looks.

Source: NASDAQ

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