Buy Friends....Online Friends that is

One of the biggest trends found on social media sites today is the overwhelming number of accounts that allow users to purchase friends.  There are multiple accounts that allow users to send the money ranging from $5 to $100 for more followers or friends on social media sites in order to increase their popularity.  The website 1000followers.co allows individuals to purchase packages that guarantee the individual a certain number of added followers on their social media account.  Though with today's world this seems like pretty promising business to get into and could create a lot of money, I feel that this just isn't right for the average person.

For the average person, I don't understand what the difference is whether you have 3 followers or 3,000 followers.  I personally feel that I would much rather be actual friends with my followers or at least interested in topic that a group posts rather then just have an absurd amount of random people follow me.  However, if the account is for a band or business starting up this may be something beneficial to look into.  Having a lot followers or friends on an account provides a sense of credibility when other individuals may look at the account and could be very beneficial for the account.

source: http://buy1000followers.co

Facebook Going too Far?

Recently this past week, Facebook has been challenged in court by an Illinois man who has a very interesting law suit.  We all have seen the facial recognition feature on Facebook and how it can practically pick out who is who, and this is thanks to Biometric Data.  The question now comes that if  Facebook should be allowed to have this data, or is it an invasion of our privacy?  This individual from Illinois plans to test this and is taking Facebook to court of the unauthorized use of his biometric data because he never received a notification was told that they would be storing and using this information.

I'm not totally 100% how this will go for Facebook. I think a lot of this court case will be decided on how good this individuals lawyer is, and how far into Facebook's privacy regulations that they want to dig into.  I can see both sides of the argument in this situation but I feel like Facebook should be okay with this court case.  When you sign into and register with a social media site, you are taking the risk of your information to be taken or stored on the internet.  I feel at most Facebook will have to send a message describing that the users information is stored and being used for facial recognition with pictures to all users and pay a small fee to this man, but I do not think this will change anything or force Facebook to not use this feature.  After this court case is settled I believe that we will see a very bold line in the agreement that we have when signing up for a Facebook account that states the use of biometric data being store by the company strictly to avoid something like this happening again.

source:
http://mashable.com/2015/04/07/facebook-facial-recognition-lawsuit/

Periscope = Something New? or Just a Remake of Snapchat?

Periscope is the newest social media app to hit the market over the past few months.  This new app has many new features though that make it quite interesting.  Like SnapChat the main objective is to take videos (or pictures in Snapchat's case) and use these as a form of media to connect individuals from across the globe.  However, when using Periscope all the videos are set to being live immediately.  This means that there is no do-overs or reruns when recording and your friends on Periscope can comment on your videos as you're recording.  The other biggest feature of this app is the connection with Twitter and the ability to upload your videos right to Twitter.  Partnering with this social media powerhouse is probably one of the best options Periscope could have taken because of Twitters reputation and already high fan base.

Though this new social media app will be competing directly with Snapchat, I think that Periscope has a chance of making it in the social media world.  The partnership with Twitter is probably the biggest and most successful direction this company could have gone in to survive in this market.  The ability to add you friends from Twitter, share directly with Twitter and comment immediately will allow Periscope to compete in the market and separate themselves from other competitors enough to be successful.  Only time will tell however with how successful they will be with advertising their service and how they will be able to gain users at a fast rate.

source:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/periscope-and-meerkat-the-apps-where-life-is-but-a-stream-20150411-1mhxsk.html

Twitter Saves the Day for NHL Goaltenders

This past year, I've witnessed more unlucky goals in the NHL then I have ever seen in my entire life.  Whether the puck is dumped in from center ice, or it bounces out of no where and ends up in then net, the puck has seemed to find its way into the net this year more then normally.  With this new trend in goaltending, a variety of NHL star goaltenders have found a very creative way to help ease the tension they were receiving form the public.....Twitter.  Luongo is one of the most popular NHL figures on Twitter with his constant stream of punny comments, and hilarious photo's of his teammates.  After giving up a goal against the Florida Panthers this past year, he took to Twitter in an effort to stop the mocking he received from every hockey fan across the world.  He allowed a goal from center ice, and the puck bounced down the ice and right over his glove and in the goal.  Taking to Twitter, Luongo released a picture of himself with a large cardboard piece taped to the top of his glove, demonstrating the new addition he would like to add to his equipment in order to not allow goals like this again.

By doing so, Luongo made a joke of his recent tragedy during a game and sparked a trend within the goaltending community.  Since this post other NHL goaltenders, such as Jonathan Bernier, have released similar posts trying to ease the tension on themselves and from the public about the issues they've been having.  These accomplish a lot for not only the individual but for the organization.  Making these posts such a "fan favorite" provides great publicity for the teams and gives the public an insight look at the character of these players.  Demonstrating that they're not just a "big mean fighting machine", and rather normal people just like us.  These Twitter posts also provide the goalies a way of easing the tension on themselves and help them move forward after the incident.  I'm sure that we will likely see a lot more of these posts throughout different social media platforms as teams are now creating SnapChat accounts with stories demonstrating the day to day activities of the players, and Facebook accounts allowing the players to interact with fans.

source:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/11/toronto-maple-leafs-jonathan-bernier-is-off-the-hook-roberto-luongo-allowed-a-terrible-goal-against-anaheim-ducks/#__federated=1

Apple Taking a SERIOUS Shot at Android

Though isn't your typical social media move that we've seen Apple make, Apple is taking a HUGE shot at Android over the past week.  Apple released over there corporate website and social media accounts that Android users can now turn in their phones towards gaining credits for paying for a new iPhone.  By doing this, they have created quite a stir within the technological market as they took a direct shot at all Android companies.  One of the biggest successes of this move by Apple was their secrecy before making the act, and immediately taking to their corporate social media accounts to spread the word.

Through using their corporate social media accounts loyal users were alerted of this new opportunity immediately.  Hundreds of thousands of users follow Apple on a variety of social media accounts and voiced their opinions.  Most of the comments and shared posts appeared to be very positive towards Apple, and most think it's a great idea.  However, the biggest social media move I'm waiting for is from companies such as Samsung, HT&T and Motorola.  The next moves that will happen should be very interesting in the way that nobody knows how they're going to react.  Should they respond with their own campaign in the same manner? Or should they try and make a joke of Apple and try and play it off?  Only time will tell.

source:
http://9to5mac.com/2015/03/30/apple-launches-in-store-android-trade-in-program-to-boost-iphone-sales/

Your Twitter Page Running Itself...

Can you imagine a day when your Twitter page could post by itself without you having todo anything? And being able to post what you actually want it to?  Well this is about to become a reality within the next 10 years thanks to the use of Artificial Intelligence.  No i'm not talking about Aliens, but about Cortex.  Developed out of Boston, this software learns the needs and wants of brands and is able to help them make decisions on social media sites.  The use of having a strong social media presence is becoming much more important and this is the reason why Cortex was developed.

Through running a series of algorithms, the software is able to learn the tendencies and situations that he brand is exposed to on social media accounts.  By doing so Cortex is able to learn and develop strategies that could help the brand function in a more beneficial manner.  The biggest point being made by Cortex is that nobody has to be there to run it.  The artificial intelligence runs by itself, makes decisions and practically runs the users social media accounts for them.  Though this seems mildly terrifying, I believe that this could be a huge step for technology and social media in the world. Being able to not have to hire somebody to run the accounts, and having the best possible knowledge about social media can only be beneficial for companies.  With Cortex being able to develop and adapt to changes so quickly, I believe that we could see a serious drop in jobs in this field if this technology continues to grow.

Source:
http://www.betaboston.com/news/2015/03/25/with-the-launch-of-cortex-artificial-intelligence-comes-to-social-media-management/

Virtual Reality Coming to Facebook

At a recent press conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced the introduction Facebooks latest study on virtual reality.  Working with Oculus, a virtual reality company that Facebook bought for $2million this past year, they hope to be able to take this technology and change how we use social media.  The main focus of using this new "Virtual Reality" is to connect the world in a totally new fashion and in a way that everyone can experience using social media platforms and peer to peer interaction.  

The development of this new technology can open Facebook from just a typical social media site, to an international market place.  This all depends on what steps that Zuckerberg wants to take and into which direction he wants the company to go in.  If he were interested in making Facebook into a more business oriented site, the use of Oculus could help drastically change how we deal with interacting with meetings.  The use of the virtual reality would allow individuals to feel like they're at the business meeting and interacting with other members, without ever having to be there.  The use of virtual reality would potentially allow for meetings, conferences, games and other sorts of issues to become a first person experience; no matter your location.   Time will only tell if this new form of media will take off, or if it'll be just a giant waste of money.

source:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2902183/at-f8-today-virtual-reality-may-be-next-phase-of-social-networking.html

Pixels Takes on a New Look

We can all remember the days of playing Donkey Kong and Pong and how great the animations used to look to us.  However, as time went on we started to realize that, well, these games were actually pretty awful.  A new movie being released within the next year is all about the pixels that we've come to love and portrays them in a totally new way.  This fictional movie has taken a series of older games and produced something totally and new.

Movie companies are taking to social media to advertise their movies now much more then ever before.  Due to the rise of social media in our every day lives, it isn't surprising that they now do most of their advertising over this platform.  With companies such as FaceBook and LinkedIn lowering their age requirement for using their service, companies are now promoting to this audience as well (via social media).  I believe that this trend in advertising will only rise and become a much bigger factor for companies like Pixar and other movie companies.

source:
https://www.facebook.com/PixelsMovie?pnref=story

From Social Media to the Court Room--Class Work

Brief Summary:
The use of social media sites within the court room has been a growing figure the last 10 years.  The first part of this article depicts how hard it is for court rooms to narrow down evidence with online data.  The use of images and videos may not always be taken as concrete evidence within the court room do to the advances in producing "life like" digital files.  The use of different digital programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe AfterEffects is creating interference with the court room because it asks the question, "is this really what happened? Or did somebody edit this and put what they wanted into it?"  The next section of the reading describes to the user how lawyers are affected by taking social media evidence to the court room.  The lawyers duty of candor is a primary issue within many court cases dealing with social media information.  Whether the lawyer is being 100% truthful with the information he/she has gathered, and whether he/she is representing the case honestly is proving to be a larger issue within todays court hearings.  Though this seems like a "no brainer" and that lawyers are always truthful with their cases, in many cases they are unaware of the situation that they are in and are mislead by a client dealing with social media evidence.

Notable Points:
-Information pulled from social media sites is not always considered good evidence.
        -Can be altered in programs and therefore not eligible for court.
-People vs. Beckley
        -Girl putting up gang sign with a quote considered to be from a gang on social media.
        -Brought up in court as evidence.
        -Not concrete evidence so couldn't be used.

Relation to Law Topics Issues such as the ability to alter images and the ability to quote sources that many think shouldn't be allowed on social media sites will continue to be a problem within todays court system.  The main issue that court cases will run into is whether whatever is being taken to court was "literal in meaning" or "used in that way".  The interpretation over a users information on their social media site will be hard to fight due to not being able to ever know the exact reasoning behind it without having to go to the source who wrote it.  Because we cannot know for sure they exact and literal meaning behind something found on social media sites (such as images or tweets), lawyers will continue to have a hard time building evidence off of information found on a social media platform.

Discussion Question:
1.) How can we determine the literal meaning behind information pulled from social media platforms against the client who wrote it?

2.) Does the court have the right to bypass the security and rights of an individual on a social media site who is being prosecuted in court?


source:
http://apps.calbar.ca.gov/mcleselfstudy/mcle_home.aspx?testID=61

Google Plus

Blog about Google Plus from class: 3/10/15

When it comes to social media, many of us restrict what we publicly announce about ourselves on these sites.  Some information that users post seems far to private then anything we would use, but yet there is no distinct boundary about what is acceptable and what isn’t.  Choosing to opt in on the information that we are sharing can be far different then what many other users are doing, and choosing to opt out seems to be an easier (used more) option.  Due to the decision about what is right and what isn’t, different social media sites have created layout for their sites due to how easy it is to opt out of sharing information.

Google Plus, a modern social media site, is an internationally used social media platform that allows you to share and hide personal information within their site.  Certain aspects within Google Plus such as a photo and your name are automatically displayed forcing you to opt in with this service.  Though you are forced to have an image associated with your name, Google gives you the option of having a default image that they created which preserves your privacy.

Privacy protection within Google Plus is a main focus within the social media platform.  For example, the user can simply “lock” or “hide information” much like they can do on other sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  The user can choose to block cookies from the Google platform so that their personal information is not being tracked due to what they are looking at or clicking on.  Another precaution that Google takes with their social media site is found within the code of the site itself.  Google has taken many steps towards encrypting their service so that outside sources cannot break their wall and access information that is stored within the site about their users.  Though this seems like a typical step with a social media sites, encrypting the software in a unique way will prevent hackers from being able to access private information and tearing down the social media network.

When it comes to the information that the user has control of on Google Plus, we run into a mild curveball.  The user can display pretty much as little or as much as they want, but Google sometimes adds information to the account without the user knowing on occasion.  Google accounts for these incidents by stating that the user has the power to delete whatever they want, so they should be in charge of doing it.  This brings up a serious issue with the connection between private information and the power of the social media network.  Should they dictate what they feel is acceptable for other users to know about you? Should you be able to make these decisions?

Budgee the Robot

Are you tired of carrying around your groceries? Is it a struggle to walk around the mall with all kinds of bags? If so, then Budgee is here to help.  This new robot is designed to be by your side and do all these tasks for you.  First introduced on Kickstarter, Budgee is a one of a kind robot to help with carrying your every day things so you don't have to anymore.

Though this project failed on Kickstarter due to its cost, over $1,000 a piece, Budgee is pretty neat and will surely be a lot more popular in the future.  Controlled by your smartphone, you can control nearly every aspect of this robot.  You simply decide various parts of the robot through your smart phone, such as the distance it travels behind you, the eye color and different speeds of traveling.  Budgee can carry up to 50 lbs and travel at a staggering 4 miles per hour.

Though this product failed on Kickstarter, I feel that we will see a rise in this type of technology very soon.  As today's society keeps moving towards producing goods that can complete our every day tasks, I think that Budgee will be located in many stores and households.  In order for this to happen, I feel that the owners of the technology need to lower the cost to produce the product, advertise on social media platforms about what they are doing, and potentially sell this product to a major company such as Microsoft or Sony.  By selling their technology, the newer and larger companies have more of an advantage with more money to put toward further developing it, and advertising it better because of their brand name.

source:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/crazy-or-genius-gadgets/
http://5elementsrobotics.com/budgee-video/

Snapping Money

Recently there has been a lot of talk over the use of money on social media websites.  Some big names include Facebook and Instagram who allow you to make purchases through their platforms, but another big name is joining in the race.   Snapchat has released that they are in the midst of developing a way to snap checks and other forms of payment via Snapchat.  Partnered with the payment firm Square, the user will have the option to take a picture of their debit or credit card and be able to make payments via sending Snaps.



This new payment system is called SnapCash and includes some pretty interesting features.  For the payment to work, the user needs to have entered all their card information into their respective Snapchat accounts on their mobile device.  Once this is done, the user can decide whether to send the payment when they send snap, and the individual receiving the payment has 24 hours to accept the payment.  If they do not accept the payment within the 24 hour period, then Snapchat will cancel the payment, and like regular snaps, it will disappear. 

Though this seems like a pretty flawless idea and includes some nice safety features, I still feel very nervous about even considering putting my bank card on snap chat.  With all the recent hacking incidents going on across the world, I don't necessarily think this is a very safe thing for hundreds of thousands of people to do.

source:
http://time.com/money/3592310/snapchat-snap-money-cash-friends-peer-to-peer/

Class Work- Social Media and the Blackout at LVC

Feb. 19^th 2015

Social Media has seemed to take on a life of its own at LVC. The blackout seemed to spark anger but surprisingly took a humor spin as well. For example: #LVCBlackout2015, #LVCHellWeek. Some people even said that LVC was giving up power for Lent. 

As a response LVC memes and athletics responded by trying to keep people calm about it. They used humorous Facebook posts and Twitter tweets to try and keep student’s spirits up. They tried to keep everyone entertained. Although this helped the college took a long time to respond to the innocent. It lasted for 2 hours and it took the college 30 minutes to respond and send an email to everyone and let them know what was going on.

They could have emailed the students faster to inform them what was going on.  It would have made it a lot easier on the students because they were most likely in a panic. It seems like LVC hasn’t been really responsive to emergency situations and I think they need to change their way of doing things. It will not only make it better for the students but also for the parents. That way they won’t have to worry about their child being in an emergency situation, they will know that everything is being taken care of. Its also might be a good idea for them to notify the parents when something like this happens so that they can feel like they are kept in the loop. At least they cancelled tests and quizzes, that’s always nice. On a more positive note the LVC Bookstore is having a 50% off clearance items today only… but who can afford those prices. The Goodwill and Wal-Mart are always the best way to go. 

Hockey World takes to Twitter over Ovechkin's Slash

Being a huge hockey fanatic, I constantly get updates about what is going on in the hockey world both from the NHL app and social media accounts.  On February 17, 2015 one of the biggest names in hockey, Alex Ovechkin, committed a serious penalty against another popular individual (Kris Letang) that left many the hockey world is shear shock.  On a play entering the penguins zone, Ovechkin clearly slashed Letang across the foot and caused him to be helped off the ice.  There was no call on the play, and the home fans in Pittsburgh made sure that the officials knew that they were upset.  Not only did they verbally voice their opinions over the subject, thousands of fans took to Twitter and posted about the call and how they felt about it.

Most of these tweets were not positive in Ovechkin's favor, as videos and pictures of the incident flooded hockey based accounts across the globe.  The twitter account WDAE 620AM, which is the social media site for a sports based radio station, posted multiple tweets about the altercation including videos, articles and other major account posts.  This specific account is a very credible source for sports information, having over 120 thousand tweets and 15.8 thousand followers, which leads me to believe that by releasing their opinion over the call that they influenced many individuals who hadn't already seen the video beforehand.  Overall it will be very interesting to see if the league deals with the call, and what will happen to the reputation Ovechkin has because of the strong opinions of thousands of users on social media sites have now portrayed him to be.

source:
https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=ovechkin%20slash&src=tyah
https://twitter.com/620wdae

Shhhhh it's Secret

One of the newest and fastest growing social media apps in todays social media world Secret, is making a lot of noise (haha).  Secret looks like a combination of many different very successful social media sites all piled into one.  With the design and graphics of Instagram, the reliability of Facebook and the secrecy of Yik Yak, Secret has really taken off in 2015.  The idea behind Secret is to be able to share whats on your mind at any given time with a nice picture behind it, and most importantly to remain totally anonymous.  Other users can comment on your post and ask simple questions on your post such as "yes" or "no" questions in order to keep the user anonymous to the social media world.  Individuals can also like posts as they could in mental models of other social media platforms.

Though Yik Yak didn't ever really take off and seemed to be a fab for about a year, I think that Secret has the potential to be successful for a while.  By having the same feature as Yik Yak, yes the aesthetics of other major companies, I believe that users will want to use this site much more.  By doing so, the network affect would carry over and Secret would continue to spread across the world via social networking.  Time will only tell to see if a major social network company such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter can buy out this company or if the app fails completely.   But my best prediction is that this app will succeed and become much more common on many individuals phones within the next few years.

source:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/features/social-networks/3587091/5-new-social-media-apps-that-could-be-big-in-2015/

https://www.secret.ly

Moving Facebook in a New Direction

Not only is Facebook one of the most popular social media platforms on the World Wide Web today, Facebook is taking new steps to work their way into your every day life.  Users can now load their credit/debit card information into Facebook and pay individuals right through the site.  Not only is this convenient for the company as they are now involving themselves in a totally new area of business, but it is also very convent for Facebook's users.  Individuals using the social media site can now stay on the same site and cut out third party services such as PayPal, as Facebook would take care of the transaction for them.

After doing further research on the changes Facebook is making including the new money privacy agreement, I'm not too sure I would look to add my credit card information into Facebook.  Though this site is a very respectable and reliable social media site, I just can't wrap my mind around adding something that important to a social media site.  I understand that the use of social media sites are becoming a bigger and bigger part of our every day lives, but I think a line needs to be created dealing with some subjects.  As Facebook continues to grow, I believe that many individuals will use Facebook's money transaction service, however I do not think the majority of users will be willing to put their credit card information on Facebook.  I think that this service will be short lived and not be as successful as many believe it will be, as the issue of hacking continues to rise and thousands of people having their identity and card numbers stolen every day.

source:

http://time.com/3590866/social-media-2015/

http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2014/09/23/ryan-holmes-why-twitter-facebook-and-apple-suddenly-want-to-handle-your-money/

Let Your Voice be Heard on Social Media....Literally

Bubbly is a one of a kind social media site that seems to be a mix of Twitter, Instagram and your microphone. Instead of reading posts like you would on every other social media platform, you can now listen to what people are saying.  You can literally hear their thoughts and what they have to say rather then read a post.  Bubbly has already gained over 40 million users over the past few months and has spread from California to China.  Built for both mobile and desktop use, the interface of Bubbly.net appears to be very similar to the layout of twitter.  It allows the users the ability to like, comment and share posts of other users that they follow. One of the biggest advertising strategies that Bubbly has developed is the use of recruiting popular celebrities from different countries.  Individuals such as Salman Knahn and Rio Ferdinand are currently using this new social media platform and are constantly updating their profiles for their users. By recruiting popular individuals from other countries then just the United States, Bubbly has the ability to expand much farther and much faster globally.

Though Bubbly shows much promise with this their marketing and web layout, I do not think that this social media site will be able to compete with other competitors.  I think that having to listen out loud to posts will not incline users to leave other sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  The "extra work" of having to plug in head phones or have the individuals around you listen to the posts with you I believe will draw people away from using Bubbly.  Though this a good idea and has a different twist on how we use social media, I think that it may be to different for most individuals. 

Only time will tell however...

source:

http://bubbly.net

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2014/12/17/15-social-media-companies-to-watch-in-2015/

A New Social Media Platform that Will be Making Some Noise in 2015

When thinking about social media sites, most individuals think of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram right away.  However, a new site called Unmetric, released in 2015, will surely be causing quite a stir very very soon in the social media realm.  Unmetric is unlike any other social media platform every developed before, and this uniqueness will surely set it apart from other competitors for a long time.  This company strives on being just like everyone else and wants to keep it this way.  For instance, Unmentric claims that 80% of their employees take public transportation to and from work and that a third of all employees have a post graduate degree.

Unmetric.com is a data based company to primary help further develop your company.  Using analytics and other e-commerce strategies, they strive on taking companies and further expanding their businesses in the social market.  Though they are primarily a data based company, for your original fee, they are willing to help expand your companies reach within other social media sites.  Unmetric is the first of its kind and seem like it will surely do very well in todays market as social media becomes a bigger part in every day life for many individuals.  However with Unmetric revealing this new way of strategic planning for businesses, I'm sure that many other companies will start to develop sectors within their businesses that are very similar to Unmetric.

Source:

https://unmetric.com
http://www.forbes.com/

Robots + Youtube = Unbelievable

As many of you know, I'm a HUGE junkie for innovative technology and the research that we are starting to develop with machines.  With this being said, we are now getting very close to creating robots that can pretty much perform everyday human tasks without our help at all.  At the University of Maryland, taking strides towards creating a robot that can act like a human has never been closer.  Funded by DARPA's Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation and Execution, a team of students and staff have created a robot that can learn some human tasks strictly from watching Youtube videos.

Not only is Youtube one of the largest and most commonly used video sharing sites on the internet, but it now serves for a new purpose.  According to engadget.com, researches stated that they programmed the robot to watch a few cooking shows on Youtube.com and then tried to test it out.  The robot ran smoothly and completed the asked tasks with zero human interference.  This should be very interesting as they start to program the robot to watch other videos as the team told the media that it is capable of storing everything that it has watched, which leads me to wonder what can it do next? Will it be able to move and perform common gestures such as shaking hands the same way that humans do?  Could this mean that we will be seeing robots used much more often in the future performing jobs in the place of where humans once did?  Only the future can tell, and it should be more then interesting in seeing how far they can take this technology with the help of social media.

source:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/30/darpa-robot-videos/

Snapchat Taking Strides Towards a New Direction

According the buisnessinsider.com Snapchat has over 100 million users around the world right now, and with the recent update that number will surely grow.  The recent update included a better interface, mapping adjustments and the Discover section.  However, hours after releasing this newly updated Snapchat, they also released their first original series of shows.  Snapper Hero, will show short videos ranging from 100 to 200 seconds long about all kinds of things.  What makes this much more then just another story is that they are including major Youtube stars.  Youtube stars such as Freddie Wong and Anna Akana are only a few among many on the list and will surely help the expansion of Snapchat into the media realm.  The biggest concern with this is that Snapper Hero is not directly affiliated with Snapchat and is creating a great stir as other social media competitors are competing for the potential buyout of this organization.  Will Snapchat spend all the money on Snapper Hero just to help with expanding further into social media? Or will other social media services try to buy them out in order to slow down Snapchat? Only time will tell.

Source: 
http://mashable.com/2015/01/28/snapchat-youtube-series-snapperhero/

From Bread to Barcodes

Picture this; you walk into a grocery store and are looking for a type of bread that is low in carbs and  is whole wheat. Instead of spending hours looking at every loaf of bread in the isle you simply walk up to a loaf and scan the bar code on the back, and are given all the nutrition information about the product along with the information about other competitors.  This simple task could save you a lot of time and frustration instead of searching every loaf in the isle, hoping you get lucky enough and happen to pull down the right product.  

This type of activity is becoming more and more prominent in todays society as companies such as GOOGLE and SCVNGR are literally giving away QR stickers for products to many retailers all across the world.  This isn't just a big deal because we can now use our phones for things other then Facebook or Trivia Crack, but because we are making a connection between the digital realm and the physical world.  These scanning tiles allow you to do all kinds of different things such as checking in your location to your friends via social media, and posting about the product on social media platforms.  According to mashable.com, companies such as Stickybits and Bakodo are creating communities through these scanning tiles.  All you need to complete this is the app to scan the code itself and the code and you're ready to give it a shot!

Starting out as simply a way for users to compare items when shopping, companies such as those listed above have created a new and rising way to engage in social media.  I not only think that these bar codes and scanning tiles are beneficial for society, I think that we will see the rise in these symbols in our everyday life.  Relating back to the bread shopping adventure, I believe that one day we won't even need to go searching a store for items.  It wouldn't surprise me if one day we could simply walk up to a store, can the product that we want and be directed right to the location where it is at and all the information about the product (along with ratings, social media posts about the product, and various images).  The rise of technology connecting the digital world and physical world  is very interesting to me and makes me wonder just how close we will get to connecting digital functions and everyday activities as time progresses.

source:

http://mashable.com/2010/08/20/top-5-social-media-trends/

Drone Takeover #phantom

One of the most popular hashtags in the world right now according to hashtags.org is the simple word #phantom.  No not Phantom of the Opera or the model of European car, but actually the newest and most anticipated drone of the 2015 season.  This stunning air craft is capable of being flown directly out of the box and is able to be monitored from the users iPad or Android tablet.  Another interesting feature about this product is its use of a GPS system just incase something were to ever go wrong and your drone may encounter some issues.  This drone doesn't just fly around and look cool, it also takes stunning images.  Equipped with a Sony 1/2.3 inch CMOS sensor, this little guy can take some incredible images of parts of the earth that we have never been able to experience first hand before.  This #phantom trend is really sparking all across the world as it has started to bring in over 1,000 hashtags per hour according to hashtags.org.  

So with all this hype and excitement towards the creation of drones, will we soon see the rise of drones in helping us with every day activities? Will we be able to develop technology using these machines to make simple everyday tasks into something that we can just tell this machine todo?  The future seems very bright as technology development and innovation continues to grow.

So why not check it out? The new Phantom2 vision+ is really something to be seen and watched as time continues. 

sources:
1. hashtags.org
2. http://doctanium.com/tech/the-best-drones-to-fly-in-year-2015/