Posted on
February 7th, 2012 by
David
The Internet is a remarkably shifty place. Like the most clique-oriented teenagers, the Internet is home to overnight successes and equally fast crashes in popularity. The Internet is, in many ways, the ultimate medium for those who have short attention spans. Perhaps that is why there have been remarkably few Internet music phenomena. The latest celebrity in music to have gotten her start from exposure on the Internet is also, arguably, the one who has gained the most from her time as an Internet phenomenon. That person is Rebecca Black.
Rebecca Black was thirteen years old when she became an Internet phenomenon with her song “Friday.” ARK Music Factory produced the song “Friday” and its creation was a gift from Black’s mother to Rebecca. When the video for “Friday” was released on YouTube, it languished for a month before exploding with popularity. On March 11, 2011, “Friday” started picking up millions of hits and the song and Rebecca Black became trending topics on Twitter. Despite having a vastly disproportionate number of “dislike” ratings by viewers, “Friday” became a legitimate Internet success when YouTube users downloaded the video over 165 million times. The video earned tens of thousands of dollars in royalties and revenue-sharing from advertising through YouTube.
But how did Rebecca Black become an Internet phenomenon and what did she do with her sudden celebrity?
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Posted on
February 7th, 2012 by
David
Have you been considering upgrading the storage capacity of your laptop? Are you thinking about data backup? Since different laptops store data in various manners, there are actually quite a few options to consider when upgrading your laptop’s storage capacity.
The oldest type of storage, and the bulkiest, is the traditional hard disk drive. Hard disk drives have been around since the 1950s, though they are drastically smaller now than they were then. Hard disk drives use a rigid spinning disk to store information and they have been growing in storage capacity at a pace that has kept them relevant for the advances in technology.
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Posted on
February 7th, 2012 by
David
There have been some truly intriguing combinations of computer devices. The Sony VAIO Mouse Talk, for example, very cleverly combined a computer mouse with a cell phone. It takes a lot of imagination to combine a standard computer peripheral with something else to make a new device that is more useful than it is clever. Inventors risk making something that is more of a gimmick than a worthwhile gadget. Genius, a Taiwan-based company specializing in devices for the information technology field, managed to create an unlikely combination device that is surprisingly practical with its Ring Presenter.
The Ring Presenter combines a computer mouse with a laser pointer. This unlikely combination proves to be remarkably useful due to the way that it was designed by Genius. With a clever ring design, Genius gives you hands-free control of your presentations. Equally important, the Ring Presenter allows you to control your presentations without having to be at your computer.
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Posted on
February 6th, 2012 by
David
Once upon a time, there were three fields of vision. Normal vision was considered a range around twenty feet away and with ideal vision you could see everything there clearly. When humanity was hunting to survive, seeing farther way became important. With the invention of the written word and, especially, printed text, the ability to see close objects became essential. With the rise of technology tends to come new problems and for computer users, one of the most serious is computer eye strain.
Computer eye strain is a condition reported by fifty percent of computer users. Computer eye strain can manifest itself in symptoms as benign as slightly dry or itchy eyes to the more extreme migraine headaches. There are several causes of computer eye strain.
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Posted on
February 6th, 2012 by
David
As technology has improved, it is easy to recall the milestones in terms of experience. Those who were alive during the transition between black and white and color television often recall the first program they saw in color. Similarly, those who were raised on older color televisions can usually recall how awesome their first experience with a true high definition set was. Now, the next leap forward has hit the market with an ultra-high definition 3D television from Samsung!
The best part is, with this 3D television, you do not need special glasses!
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Posted on
February 5th, 2012 by
David
If you have seen The Social Network, you know the Hollywood version of the history of the creation of Facebook. In the movie, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook for the programming challenge and the status of creating the “next big thing.” When Sean Parker comes into the mix, the priority with “The Facebook” is keeping the site cool and hip, as opposed to monetizing it. This is actually one of the details from the film that jives with reality. However, there came a time for Facebook to monetize and when it did, it was Sheryl Sandberg who made the cool Facebook into a multibillion dollar advertising platform.
Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. Sandberg arrived at Facebook in 2008 after being wooed away from a potential job at Google. That hiring was seen as a real coup for the Facebook team and shortly after joining the company, Sandberg initiated the advertising program that changed Facebook from a potential cash cow into a multibillion dollar moneymaker. By 2010, Facebook was showing a profit, which was virtually unheard of in Internet social networks.
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Posted on
February 5th, 2012 by
David
Wireless power, or at least the idea of it, has been around for centuries. Nikola Tesla invented the first “Tesla coils” that produced an electrical field able to wirelessly power light bulbs up to fifty feet away in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, this did not lead to widespread use of wireless power.
Constantly, every day, there are thousands of wireless energy signals being sent back and forth across large distances, but we have yet to perfect easy methods of wireless electricity. That might be about to change.
For a while, there have been wireless charging stations available for cell phones, but those come riddled with many mobile computer support problems. Most of the time, these wireless-charging stations will only work with certain products, or they become obsolete when you upgrade to a new model of phone because of incompatibility.
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Posted on
February 5th, 2012 by
David
For those who chose to keep the purity of the Kindle idea alive by not upgrading to the much-hyped Kindle Fire, there are some rewards awaiting you! The e-reader concept was upgraded into a multimedia player, much like a tablet computer, with Amazon’s latest iteration. But for those who like to read, for whom being trendy, current and/or not upgrading at the first sight of the next new product, companies like SolarFocus are there for you! SolarFocus has a great product for Kindle users with its SolarKindle Lighted Cover!
The SolarKindle Lighted Cover is a portfolio-style cover for the Amazon Kindle that features a powerful solar panel on the front cover. The cover helps to recharge both the Kindle and the case using solar power. As trendy as renewable energy is, there have been very few companies to tap into the market and synergize it with the e-reader and tablet market. With the SolarKindle Lighted Cover, SolarFocus brings together two very popular concepts to enhance the user experience of the Kindle e-reader! Read more »
Posted on
February 4th, 2012 by
David
Every good idea has its time. Sometimes, the window for that idea can be very small and a business that fails to enact the good idea in a timely fashion, it can find itself in a world of trouble. Similarly, when a business uses a good idea well, it often has to remain ahead of its competitors. Blockbuster Video knows what it is like to wait too long to get on board a good idea; Netflix, with its innovative business strategy and product delivery method virtually buried the video rental chain. Much of the success Netflix has had is the result of Neil Hunt.
Neil Hunt is an accomplished software engineer who rose to become one of the most vibrant executives in the technology and entertainment industries. As the Chief Product Officer of Netflix since 2002, Hunt helped Netflix rise to become the industry leader in DVD rental services. As a shrewd businessman, Hunt helped to build the platform for Netflix that has made it one of the most flexible and successful media delivery services ever.
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Posted on
February 4th, 2012 by
David
Serious photographers who live on the cheap and use computers for their digital photography are feeling the squeeze. One of the best sites for altering digital photographs is closing down on April 19, 2012 and the virtual world of the Internet will be a little worse off for it. The site is called Picnik and is has announced that it will be ending service soon, sending many photographers scrambling.
Picnik is, at least for the next few weeks, a free website where you could alter photographs you took. The site was simple. You uploaded a picture to their site, where Picnik provided tools to crop, resize, alter lighting and color settings, reduce red eye and do several other alterations to your photograph. When you had the picture looking the way you liked it, you could download your altered picture and move on to more pictures. This was a wonderful alternative to expensive, licensed programs like Adobe Photoshop or Photo Explosion. Through Picnik, you could transform the photo you actually took into the photo you wanted it to be.
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