Webrev Blog

A report by Canalis was cited in numerous technology posts over the weekend, showing that for the first time, sales of mobile devices have overtaken PC (laptop and desktop) sales.

In recent years, the computer programs most of us use have become increasingly web-based, reducing the need for large hard drives.  Also, because mobile devices are usually less expensive and sustain a lot more use and physical abuse, they tend to wear out more quickly, thus NEEDING to be replaced more often.

Does this mean that the desktop and laptop PCs are about to go the way of ticker tape?  Probably not in the near future; they still have an important place in our world. But if it is time for you to replace a worn-out device, how do you know whether you should be looking at a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone?  Here are some things to consider.

Desktops

If you work in an office, chances are you still have one of these monstrosities sitting on your desk, and believe it or not, they're still the best option for anyone who is going to be sitting at a computer for a large portion of his or her day.  They larger screens and keyboards are more ergonomically sound, and the larger hard drives are convenient for gamers and for those needing to store large amounts of data locally.  Because you're not carrying them around much (hopefully), they last forever (in technology years), and because the need for them in the marketplace has decreased, they can be very economical - especially the refurbished ones.

Laptops

The newer laptops have a huge amount of memory, and are a good compromise for some gaming and for those needing to store large amounts of data - to take with them on the go.  The screens and keyboards are acceptable for extended use for most people - although not as comfortable as the desktops.  Some are still pretty heavy to carry, but they've been getting lighter and lighter as technology improves.   Like the desktops, they now have so much competition in the marketplace that they have become much more affordable, and some great deals can be found - both new and refurbished. 

Tablets

These devices are a great option for those who need a larger screen but also want to be able to easily store the device in a backpack or purse.  These devices typically don't have a keyboard unless you buy one separately, so they're not ideal for extended use.  They're excellent for web-based activities like e-mailing, web surfing, and reading books.  Some are even good for watching movies and web-based games.  Increasingly, they're functioning as mobile phones with much larger screens.  They're too large to put in your pocket, however, and because they tend to sustain physical abuse from getting moved around and bounced around a lot, they just aren't going to last as long as a desktop or even a laptop, which is typically comes in its own case.  They are a great economical option, however, for the casual internet user.

Smartphones

These are by far the handiest devices available.  They do have their limits: even the larges screens are microscopic, and you're going to be typing with your thumbs, whether you're using an on-screen keyboard or a tiny slide-out keyboard.  Because they're so easy to carry and use, a lot of us tend to use them obsessively to check our e-mails and social networking profiles, so they tend to last about a year - important to remember when shopping for a good deal on one.  Although it is possible to download movies to these devices, actually watching a movie on one is more of a novelty than a really good movie experience.  They hard drive space is getting larger in recent months, but they really don't have enough storage to be a practical option as a primary computer.  Most likely, your smartphone is going to be a fun-sized version of your "real" computer - something else to keep in mind when deciding how much cash to drop on one of these trendy little gizmos.  

So which of these (or combination of these) have you found is your best option, economically and practically? 

You may have recently received the newest Twitter layout, which I wrote about last month.  If you haven't noticed a change yet, be patient.  About two-thirds of the accounts I manage have it, and the others don't  yet.  Unlike the last update, there doesn't seem to be a way to manually upgrade to the new look.

Well if you have that new layout, you'll find that some of your favorite brands may have an expanded version of that look. 

Above is an example of how the expanded page for Staples looks.  Of course they've customized their background - anyone can do that - even without an easy button. They now have a banner add that runs horizontally across the top of the page, and there is expanded space for a description.  There is also a space for a featured tweet, which can be a video, photo, or advertisement of some sort. 

Through this, has Twitter actually found a way to finance its operations without venture capital - premium layout pages?  I hope so.  For more information about brand pages, and to see if this may eventually be a good option for your business, see the Twitter Advertising Blog.

Anyone who grew up dreaming of having a Jetson's food machine or Jean Luc's replicator will love this story. 

I've been exploring virtual worlds like Second Life and InWorldz lately, and one of the basics of building and creating in those worlds is learning to work with "objects," which are usually things like houses, clothing or avatar parts.  These objects can be transferred between the virtual worlds by downloading and uploading these objects as XHTML files, much the same way data from websites are often backed-up and/or moved from one site to another.

These objects are visually 3D, which means that you can rotate them to see all sides, and that they have the appearance of being "real" when displayed using an appropriate viewer for each respective virtual world. 

Well, a site called "The Pirate Bay" made big news this week when it announced it was adding a new download category called "Physibles."  The Pirate Bay is a website that allows users to download computer programs and other media for free.  The site is based in Sweden, and many of the downloads most likely violate copyright laws in the United States and other countries, which is why I'm not linking to them here, but you can read the report on just about any Tech News site listed HERE in the Googe Search.

Apparently, these techie-trend watchers believe that the future of illegal downloads is in 3D printing.

What?! 

That's right - they believe that basically, you will actually be able to download physical objects, and they want some of that action.  Well, I do, too.  Not the illegal part, but wouldn't it be fun to be able to buy a book online, and then download the physical book instead of just a file for your iPad (which I don't have)?  Or speaking of that, maybe I could just download an entire iPad.

Apparently, this is not as crazy as it sounds.  Mashable has a post today, You'll Download Physical Objects Sooner than you think, thanks to Kids Like These:

"...Riley and Vernon are eighth graders. Along with a small cohort of classmates at Discovery Charter School in the Bay Area, they’re already getting pretty deep into the world of 3D design and printing. After Riley developed a strong interest and aptitude for 3D printing a couple of years ago, a company called 3D Systems donated a 3D printer worth several hundred dollars for him to use at school.

The class of some dozen students is one a very small number of middle school labs beginning to delve into the emerging industry. The group’s work has been featured in a Popular Science blog post, and they have already produced items including dice, jewelry and replacement parts for the printer. Their progress reflects a tangible future for the medium that exists outside of exclusive laboratories and research facilities....(more)"

Wow!  Those kids are cute.  And smart.  And they'll be running the world when I'm too old to do anything about it, so I'm glad that they seem bent on using their powers for good. 

Now, where's my Earl Grey (two lumps, please)?

Twitter, the social network that has been the hero website of several international revolutions recently picked a REALLY bad week to clarify its policy on international censorship.

The online community was just beginning to settle down a bit from the SOPA / PIPA boycott, in which many large websites "went dark" for a day to protest government censorship of the web, when Twitter decided to announce that it could now censor Tweets by country, and the world screamed "WHAT?!"

Deep breaths, everyone.  Deep breaths.  This isn't what it sounds like.

Twitter is an international website (as are most websites, now), and as such is required to obey the laws of the countries in which it operates.  If a foreign government orders a take-down of certain content (e.g. for copyright violations, decency laws, etc.), then Twitter has no choice, really, but to comply.   It doesn't matter what the company believes about free speech in a case like that. 

Twitter was simply letting users know that in the past when this happened, it had to take down the content globally.  That meant that if the land of Genovia deemed all Tweets about Anne Hathaway to be illegal and demanded that Twitter remove them (that's a Princess Diaries joke), Twitter would have to take those tweets down, and NO ONE would be able to see them.  Now, Twitter's technology has been upgraded to allow a country-specific take-down, so that if such a demand were to be received, those tweets would simply be blocked in Genovia.  The rest of the world would still be able to see them and protest the take-down.  Because you know we would have a lively #FreeAnneHathaway hashtag feed going in about half a minute, as well as #BoycottGenovia. Because that how we roll...er, Tweet.

Mashable has a great explanation of how the new policy might help those wishing to use the site for political and social activism - see Relax: Twitter's new Censorship Policy is Actually going to be Good for Activists, and see Twitter Adopts Country-Specific Censorship Regime - How will that Work? on BoingBoing.

So, the #TwitterBlackout campaign might have been a tad unnecessary.  Especially since the whole idea was to boycott Twitter, and it doesn't make much sense to stage a boycott on the website you're threatening to boycott.  ;-)

Happy Monday, everyone!

Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know that while I do enjoy using some Google products, I'm not exactly a fan of Google's newest social networking endeavor, Google+, due to some very serious privacy concerns.

But I believe it is important to give credit where credit is due, and this week Google announced a change to its privacy policy that will make it much easier for users to manage what is publicly viewable about them on the web.  The change will be effective in March. Some users may not have even been aware that some of the products they have been using are now owned by Google (like YouTube and Picasa), and interface with its other products.  Wikipedia keeps a running list of the products Google has acquired HERE.

Actually right now (and apparently there will be improvements between now and March 1st) you can go to your Google Dashboard (Google.com/Dashboard), login, and see all of the Google products you are signed up for using that Google profile.  You can then adjust your privacy to a level that suits you.  I recommend doing this now, and then again after March 1st.  Also, remember that if you have more than one Google profile (e.g. one for personal use and one for business), you'll want to sign in under each one separately.  After March 1st, all of these products will have one official privacy policy.  Mashable has some great information HERE and HERE.

Just remember that Google actually works for its paying customers, and who those customer are: The advertisers.  Google pays its bills by harvesting user data and packaging it in a way that is meaningful to its advertisers.  If you find this unacceptable, I hear Hotmail is trying get us all to switch back. 

Conference and event attendees have been using the social media site, Twitter for several years to communicate at the event about changes in plans, room reservations, event promotions, jokes about speakers at the event, etc., through the use of #hashtags.  Usually, influential people at the event will begin to tweet each other prior to the event, and the hashtag will often develop organically, as more and more people start to use it to make sure other event attendees are able to see their "tweets."

For example, if we had a conference in 2012 called "Burgers and Fries," our #hashtag might be #baf12.  Everyone who posted a tweet that they wanted to communicate to crowd at the event would include that tag in their post.  All tweets on Twitter are public, so this would not be the place to communicate any sort of private information - but it's a great place to communicate public information.

Well, there are very few events bigger than a Super Bowl, and the folks that are hosting this year's national championship have collaborated with students from Ball State University to up a social media command center," to help those attending the game in person get where they're going and have a good time:

...About a dozen Ball State journalism, telecommunications and information and communication sciences students are participating in the effort to offer the online concierge service, helping visitors around Indianapolis in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Nearly half the collegians working at the center are from Ball State with two other local universities supplying student employees.

John Strauss, a journalism instructor overseeing the Ball State group, said the service will operate on official Super Bowl social media channels including its Twitter feed. The service is designed to respond to questions from the public as well as relay questions and developing issues to the host committee, law enforcement and other organizations....(more)

They're going to have their hands full.  RTV6 in Indiana reports that during last year's Super Bowl there were approximately 4,000 tweets per second. Whew! FastCompany has a great write-up about how social media is being incorporated into the bowl game celebrations HERE. 

If you would like to tweet during this year's Super Bowl, just sign into Twitter, and start by checking out #SBXLVI and #SuperBowl.  May the best team win!