ISYS 338

iPhone no longer avaliable in Apple online store, 3G iPhone next?

2008-05-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

From the article "No More iPhones at Apple Store - 3G Imminent?" in Techcrunch, I was shocked by a big news in which Apple online store has stopped selling iPhone completely by stating iPhone is currently unavailable. When I was thinking this news is just a rumor because I remember that iPhone is still sold at Apple Store nowadays, then I visited the official website of Apple and check it out. As a result, iPhone is definitely unavailable. In the other words, 3G iPhone is going to release very soon.

When I was studying in Hong Kong, my home country, 3G phone had been already released in the market. All the 3G phones were released by a telecommunication company called "Three". At that time, 3G phones symbolized that we had entered a new generation of telecommuncation. It is because this company can bring people the world's first Video Conference service, which enable maximum 4 3G users using 3G mobile phone to make face-to-face communication simultaneously anytime, anywhere in Hong Kong or overseas countries.

Now, 8GB and 16GB are no longer available in Apple online store means a new product or revolutionary iPhone is comming soon. Indeed, 3G iPhone is expected to launch sooner rather than later, even though iPhone has just been released for about one year. It is because LG, the South Korea-based electronics, will release in Japan next month a 3G version of the Prada, a touchscreen cellphone. I strongly believe this phone would threaten iPhone because 3G feature would be attractive. Although iPhone includes GPS, Youtube, Email, Music, Movies, and Photos, some users would prefer to have a 3G phone because those features could be found in other electronic devices. Therefore, let's wait for or look forward to what Apple will release soon.

Google's secondary search, for or against?

2008-04-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

In the article "Some Retailers Oppose Google’s Secondary Search Feature" in Techcrunch, some people do not agree and support Google's secondary search. In my opinion, I also think that this feature is not that useful and helpful.

Google offers its secondary search feature by clicking the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. When people search the keywords by clicking this button instead of the "search" button, Google will directly link you to the web page of the first result of normal search. For example, if you search "ebay" from the normal search, the official website of ebay will come up in the first searching result. If you search "ebay" by clicking the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, it will link you to the first searching result of the normal search, which is the official website of ebay.

However, I do not think that this feature would be very useful. It is because people must know the first searching result of the normal search before using the secondary search feature. If they do not know or predict what result will come up at the first, then the secondary search feature is totally helpless.

Moreover, people will confuse with the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. When I had not known much about the function of this button in the past, I thought that this button is used to bring users to the official website of the searching keywords, such as seaching Toyota then go to www.toyota.com, searching dmv then go to www.dmv.ca.gov, etc. However, I misunderstand the function of Google's secondary search.

Should take action for the internet illegal sharing.

2008-03-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

From the article "Japanese ISPs To Ban File Sharers" in Techcrunch, Japan becomes the first country to ban the file sharers from internet. Besides, this agreement is made by four internet service providers (ISPs) in Japan, instead of from Japanese Government. This agreement will check the copyright of the file if it is illegal by using a special software, and then the illegal files will be banned to share to others. Additionally, as Duncan Riley, the author of the article, mentions in the last paragraph, this agreement mainly marks the focus on the users of Winny, which is the most common and prevalent file sharing network in Japan.

This is not about net neutrality, but we concern about the net legality. I am wondering that the agreement is not proposed by the Japanese government, but the four Japanese internet service providers. Undoubtedly, bilions of people share the music and movies illegally through internet. Rather than music and movies, they actually are stealling the copyrights of electronic games, softwares, and people's private files. They not only upload the whole file to the server, but they also use bit torrent to share files. However, the governments have not taken any effective or legal actions to control the illegal sharing and downloading.

Now, Japan becomes the first country to ban the illegal files sharer on internet by using a "special detection software". I really hope this software can be used in other countries, so that people are not able to steal the copyright. Nevertheless, people can still share the files illegally through msn, emails, or by using flash drives. Therefore, I would like to say that what the government should do is to educate people to respect the importance of copyright and people. As a result, this would be the most effective and long-term solution for the illegal sharing on internet.

Facebook, Opensocial, then what's next?

2008-03-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

85% of college students use facebook, 60% log in daily, 85% log in at least once in a week, 93% log in at least once in a month, so that there is no doubt that Facebook is getting hot definitely days by days. In the past, people were using MySpace, Blogger, or Xanga to post their daily blogs. However, Facebook was launched in 2004 as social networking website, but not just a blog web. People can communicate each other, or even creating events and parties, by using Facebook. On the other hand, Google introduced Opensocial to response Facebook. Also, from the article Yahoo To Join OpenSocial in April, Microsoft Groans. in Techcrunch, Yahoo has made an decision to join Google's Opensocial.

It is a long-term competition between Facebook and Opensocial, because Microsoft is a big investor in Facebook, and Google and Yahoo are standing on Opensocial. Both of them are trying to put some specific and attractive features in order to gain a larger market share. Things are getting changed and updated continuously. For instance, when CD player was competing with MD player, MP3 player was invented and then being commonly used. Therefore, no matter Facebook or Opensocial wins at this time, one of them will be eliminated a few years later. However, the most important point is that a new social network platform will be launched very quickly to response to the winner of this competition. How about "FaceSocial"?

Dropbox: An online storage solution

2008-03-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, people get used to save lots of music, movies, and photos in their computer. Since they need a huge volume of hard drive storage, they usually either buying an external hard drive, or choosing a computer with a hard disk in an enormous volume. I am belong to this majority. I like to save the movies in my computer even I have watched those already. Also, I enjoy taking pictures with my family and my friends, so that I have stored about 2000 photos in my hard disk now. I have a 200GB external drive; however, it seems that 200GB memory cannot satisfy me since I store many files continuously. Dropbox: The Online Storage Solution We’ve Been Waiting For? in Techcrunch tells me that Dropbox might be a great choice or solution to share the load of my hard drive.

Dropbox is a great online storage solution to let people get the files which are uploaded online before. Not only storing data, but other people can also share those files with friends or co-workers. Once you enter the email addresses of who you want to share the folder with, they can easily share your files. Of course, when your friends add some files in the shared folder, you can download it to get the files also.

This kind of online storage like Dropbox is very useful and user-friendly to help people to access and share the files online, instead of storing the files in a flash drive or hard drive. Actually, the concept of Dropbox is similar to the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server. Both FTP and Dropbox are used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network, such as over the internet. In my experience, my friend was sending many big files to me. He put those files to his ftp servers, so that I could download them easily.

Therefore, I believe Dropbox would be commonly used in the future. It is becasue more and more people have a sense of backing up their files in another place.

A better social network device: iPhone

2008-02-25T15:26:00.000-08:00

Electronic device is getting new and updated nowadays since people have a demand of high technology in order to improve their life quality. For examples, people used cassette player or walkman to listen music, but later they chose CD or MD player, and now most of them probably are using mp3 player such as Ipod. The reason is that more and more features are improved and installed in the device to fulfill people's demand. People are attracted by the most updated products because they are improving people's quality of life. The article "Will There Be A (Successful) iPhone-Only Social Network?" by Michael Arrington in Techcrunch.com can support my point of view. There is no doubt that iPhone is one of the best soical network device.

IPhone is not just a mobile phone, but a multi high technology features electronic device. Youtube, music, movie, photos, wireless internet, and GPS are the basic and popular functions installed in iPhone. In the article, Michael Arrington mentions that Fon11 is an iPhone based social network, which is a live phonebook and a friend locator. It helps the users to get know of the people around themselves. Although Ipod has a function of sharing music library in a local network, it is just a way of sharing files. Comparing to Fon 11 in iPhone, Fon 11 is an excellent way to help people having more friends, maybe they will become a couples later.

Moreover, comparing to the video conference service in 3G mobile phone, meaning to make face-to-face communication simultaneously anytime and anywhere with using the 3G (third generation of) mobile phone (http://www.three.com.hk/website/template?pageid=41100&lang=eng), Fon11 in iPhone can have better archievement in helping people socialized. It is because even though people can see each other's face during the call, people cannot socialize very much to know more friends who they did not know before by enjoying this features.

Therefore, I would not say iPhone is the best and the most successful social network device in our community, but iPhone with the software such as Fon11 is really a very outstanding product to help people having or getting into a social life.

Cookthink...just think and then cook

2008-02-17T13:17:00.000-08:00

People are creative and open-minded in cooking food nowadays since people are always seeking the inventive and innovative meal to fulfill their curiosity. The artice "Cookthink: Like Pandora For Recipes" by Duncan Riley in techcrunch really inspires me, because Cookthink does help the people who do not have the recipes or even the idea of what they want to cook.

Cookthink provides the recipes of what people are craving. Recipes can be searched in four categories, which are ingredients, cusisine, mood, and dish type. The users do not have to worry about the dependability of recpies since all the recipes have been already tested by one member of Cookthink.

Then, I visit Cookthink immediately. The word with bigger size in the site of the front page, the hotter ingredient people have searched. People can just enter ingredients, cusisine, mood, or dis type they want to have, then Cookthink will provide the recipes, cooking method, tips, and the time needed.

I believe that the recipes in this kind of online cooking database is much better than the recipes in books. People can brainstorm what they want to cook, and then input the key phrase in Cookthink. Afterwards, the best matching result will come out. It is very convenient because the recipes in the book or other websites are so limited and inflexible. Therefore, after reading this article, I would say nothing is better than online nowadays.

Flash games offered in MySpace

2008-02-12T00:59:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried any free flash game in the internet? If so, which one is your favourite site? After reading the article "MySpace Quietly Launches Games Site" by Duncan Riley in Techcrunch, I am wondering if people would choose MySpace as their one of the favourite game site.

As Duncan states in the article's title, MySpace posts some free flash games quietly. I did not know nothing about MySpace Games due to none promotion or advertisement. Then, I click into http://games.mypsace.com/ to take a look what kind of games they have. Sometimes I would like to spend a hour in playing flash game online to relax. Then, due to my curiousity, I select the game "Micro Olympics," which is labelled as "Top Game," in order to see how the game is. However, I was totally disappointed because the outlook and the content are really simple and not attractive. I would say people can play this kind of game without using their brains. Comparing with my favourite game site, Crazymonkeygames, which provides plenty high-quality flash games, MySpace Games is absolutely in behind and unsatisfied.

MySpace Games also offers multiplayers games such as Pool, Chess, Poker. Players have to login in their MySpace account before entering the game rooms. Basically, it is just like Yahoo Games and Sina Games. However, since MySpace Games is still unpopular, there were very few players in the game rooms. The number of players is shown in the front page. Most of the number of players shown are zero. Therefore, comparing to other flash game sites, MySpace Games is not very competitive.

I believe more features and elements should be input in MySpace Games. It is not only to compete with other popular flash game sites, but also is to increase the market share of flash games in order to make more money.

Microsoft takeovers Yahoo, what is your stance?

2008-02-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

The big news "Microsoft-Yahoo: What Will Stay And What Will Go?" by Duncan Riley in Techcrunch really draws my attention. It is because both Microsoft and Yahoo are big IT company in the world. I am curious what will happen when Microsoft makes the $44.6 billion takeover bid.

I strongly believe that people will enjoy a better searching engine due to the combination of the strengths from both companies. People will get more accurate and sufficient information from this combined engine. Nevertheless, I also believe that this new searching engine will make Google be the first sufferer. Live Search, Yahoo, and Google are all the well-known searching engine in worldwide. Then, this new searching engine must be a very powerful competitor to Google. That's why Duncan Riley states that it just likes creating a "Google killer".

Moreover, there are a lot of technical problems, such as management of messanger id and email id, to be solved after the takeover. I think this problem can be solved by professional techicians, but the system and the change may make people confusing and inconvenient.

Finally, I still agree Microsoft's takecover bid. Infomation technology becomes an indispensable thing in human's life. People are always seeking the most updated technology. For instance, Apple was mainly selling Ipod Classic and Ipod Mini few years ago, but now we can see that most people are using Ipod Touch, Iphone, Ipod Nano with small-sized, big color screen, and new software. Therefore, I believe that Microsoft-Yahoo symbolizes that we are going into a new IT era.