AT&T and T-Mobile Get it Done

After years of being one of the only major cell phone carriers not to have a contract with apple, T-mobile and AT&T finally come to an agreement and make a merger! T-mobile already offers one of the best priced cell phone plans around and the only carrier to have nation wide 4G capability. AT&T bought out T-mobile for $39 billion (Cash and Stock), with this merger T-mobile will now offer Apple's famous iPhone.

With this merger many people are angry because as i mentioned above T-mobile offers one of the most competitively priced cell phone plans, and now that AT&T owns them their prices may be going up.

What do you think will happen to T-mobiles current customers?
Do you think existing T-mobile users will move on to Verizon or other carriers?

To read more about this merger read from Gigaom

Instagram and Twitter Clash

One of the main reasons people use Instagram is because of the ability to post pictures from it straight to twitter, however, that has changed with the newest update to Instagram. In a recent business move the social media giant FaceBook has purchased Instagram. It is well known fact that Twitter and FaceBook are rivals in the social media world, so this buyout has created some friction between Twitter and Instagram.

What does this mean for Businesses?

Many Companies and organizations use Instagram to edit and share photos with their followers on Twitter, so with the change they will be having to find alterante photo editing programs to do what they are doing now. If enough companies and individuals start to do this Instagram could take a major hit in users.

How do you think this friction will affect business for these social media sites?

To learn more about the buyout you can read an article at The Economist.

T-Mobile Offering HTC Phone for FREE!

I am a T-Mobile customer.  I also purchased the HTC One S about 3 months ago for $200.  I love this phone.  I have never had a single problem with it.  It doesn't glitch, doesn't freeze, it's never slow, no dropped calls, and it's slim with a phenomenal screen and camera.  The only thing that could have made it better was if they gave it to me for free...

If I had waited just a couple more months I could have gotten this phone for free from T-Mobile.  They are doing this promotion as part of their "Black Friday/Cyber Monday Month" thing that most stores are doing these days.  Here are the drawbacks to this phone (if you want to call them that):

• It does not have an attachable batter
• No SD Card

A lot of people think of these as negatives, but all I see are features that make it more like the iphone.  The battery is a lithium battery that cannot come out.  This makes the battery life on this phone 70% better than that on the popular Galaxy S3.  Also, who needs SD cards these days?  I can share all my information over the internet through my provider.

What I want to ask is, if you had the option of this phone for free, or another phone for $200-$800, what would you do???

Link to Article

Twitter and Violence

To tweet about what you are doing, or what you will eat for lunch is a common thing, and might not get so much attention of twitter. However, when people are tweeting about bigger things in their lives such as relationships or children, their tweets are more likely to get attention. However, recently we have seen a new side of how to use twitter, and that is a sad one; Live-tweeting in a violent conflict.

For example, when the Israel Defense Force live tweeted its strike that killed a Hamas leader, and since basically the whole world constantly are following social medias online, this is a very efficient way of these leaders ability to reach people with their messages.

Personally, I believe that twitter should do everything they can to get rid of spectacles like this since I think it is very inappropriate to have on a social media page viewed by that many people.

What do you guys think about this????

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/15/tech/social-media/twitter-war-gaza-israel/index.

Christopher

Promote an Important Post

A couple of years ago when I created my Facebook, I was amazed about all the features it offered. Just commentating friends pictures was a huge thing for me. However, through the years I have got used most of Facebook’s features and even though I am still using it I am not amazed anymore. It is feelings like this in combination with competition from other social Medias such as Instagram, Twitter and YouTube that pushes Facebook to constantly develop.

One of those developments is that you are now able to promote your own statuses. It works like this: when you are writing a status and you are about to post it you get a button above what you just wrote where it says promote. If you click there you get an opportunity to pay $7.00 to promote your status, and what that means is that your post will come up as the head news on all your friends news feed.

Obviously, this would not be anything I would use a lot for my for my personal life, but it would definitely be something I would use for a business. What do you guys think about it?

Christopher Eriksson
http://geektrickz.com/want-your-status-to-be-highlighted-on-facebook-pay-2-only/

Windows Phones Still Trying

Windows is unveiling their new products.  The biggest take away and advantage for these items?  The price. After horrible reviews and significant problems with their phones, windows has to find a new way to compete.  They decided to play the price war card.

 

With high end Android products ranging up to $400, and the iPhone 5 up $600, windows has come up with a solution.  They are going to offer their best phone for $199, the mid level for $99, and their low end for $49.  They are making affordable smart phones to try to grab a chunk of the market.  There are some original features offered on these phones, but hey, for that cheap what can you really expect?  Is this a good move for microsoft?  And do you think they're just trying to create some buzz before they release the anticipated new Blackberry design?

Link to Article

iPad Mini

Is it an iPod Touch or an iPad or something in between?

This past week Apple launched their newest product, the iPad Mini. The iPad mini is basically a smaller iPad or a larger iPod. Unlike many of their older products, which defined the handheld tech world, the iPad Mini is not the first small tablet. There are many critics out there saying that Apple has lost their touch and, since the death of Steve Jobs, the company as a whole is going downhill. I don't think this is completely true; however, the iPad Mini was not as good of an idea as their past products.

Do you think apple is running out of good ideas?
Do you think that since the passing of Steve Jobs apple will be on the downward slope as a company?


To Buy or learn more about the iPad Mini go to Apple.

Google, Android Ties APPLE?????

Apple has always had a few advantages when it came to the smart phone.  They had the iphone, which was the first phone of its kind.  It was original, sleek, and effective.  It was the most popular phone on the market by far.  They also had the largest and most prestigious selection of Applications for their smart phone.

Things are starting to take a competitive turn for the mobile phone market.  Android powered phones have come out with a couple of phones that are outperforming the prestigious iphone 5.  And just recently, the Google powered App market for Android has tied Apple with a total of 700,000 Apps.  It seems that the mobile phone market is becoming more and more competitive as time is moving on, especially with Apple's loss of Steve Jobs.  Apple vs. Google, iphone vs. Android...who do you think will be the leader of mobile phone and mobile phone networking in 5 more years???

Link to Article

iPhone 5 or iPhone 4s

Would you pay $ 399 instead of $ 99 for the same phone? However, a lot of people do this. What I am talking about is the new iPhone 5 compared to the previous iPhone 4s. Obviously, there are some differences between them since people are purchasing the iPhone 5. For example, the iPhone 5 is 4.87 inches wide instead of 4, 5 inches, it is 0.30 inches deep instead of 37, its display has a little bit better resolution, and its video and battery time is marginally better. Yet, these differences are at least for me unnoticeable when I am playing with the new iPhone 5, but apparently that is not the case for the people that do buy the iPhone 5. On the other hand, I understand that people who love new technology products can tell the differences, but in general I feel that the only reason apple launches new models this often is to make people spend money when they do not need to; a very smart way making money, that is for sure.

However, the other day I went in the an apple store in hope of a new iPhone, and the seller I spoke to claimed that the differences between the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s was massive which I found after my researches was untrue. Therefore, my question goes to you guys is the differences between iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s big enough for buying iPhone 5 or no?

http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare-iphones/

Is Check In Advertising Worth It?

I remember the first times a saw people check in at Facebook. First, I thought it was a great invention, that I could follow my friends and family without talking to them. However, it did not take long time until I changed my mind. I just thought it was too much to see what people had for lunch, what places they were going to and who they were going there with.

However, a lot of businesses have found this check in function to be a great way of promoting its businesses. For example, the McDonalds from my home town in Sweden had advertising campaign where they gave a drink a way to people who checked on Facebook. However, after a couple of weeks the canceled the advertising campaign without really explaining the reason. However, my personal opinion was that their campaign did not create enough awareness since people where checking in to so many places that the McDonalds franchise could cut through the clutter and reach enough people. In Contrast, next to this McDonalds franchise there is a sport store called team sportia which did a similar campaign on Facebook where they gave a 5 % discount to people checked in which actually resulted in a increases in sale during the month they launched their campaign.

Do you having deals related to check ins social medias like Facebook is beneficial to businesses or is it just a waist of money?

http://www.mcdonalds.se/se.html

Share Your Comments with the World

                                                    Share Your Comment With the World


The other day I was watching the television show Yukon Men, and noticed little bubbles kept popping up on the bottom of the screen. After seeing a few of these bubbles I realized that they were tweets from people who were watching the TV show. What this channel allows you to do is tweet your comments on all of the shows that are playing for the first time (not on re-runs). I thought that this was a pretty cool way for people from all over the world to share what they were thinking on what was happening at that exact time.
I have seen similar things like this on other TV shows. I cant remember specific shows, but they have numbers you can text or people you can tweet with questions and you will get responses that answer your questions.
Both of these are ways to keep ideas flowing and people from all over the world connected, can you think of any ways this could boost viewer numbers, or possible hurt the TV stations?

If you would like an account with twitter click the link. 

Presedential Campaigns Using Social Media to Get Those Darn Kids to Vote

An article in the New York Times this week highlighted how the different Presidential Campaigns have been using social media to connect to the younger voters and get them to vote.  Some of the social media outlets include Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Spotify.  This seems like the natural thing to do in order to get at the younger voters to get to the booth, but I have a different question that doesn't have the most obvious answer.

Most of the young people that are being targeted in this article are the ones that do not watch the news, read the paper, or have a factually verified source to get their information.  They get all of their information on twitter and facebook.  The presidential candidates aren't tweeting about their policies, they're trying to win a popularity contest.  Obama is sending videos from the movie "Mean Girls" and Romney is Instagram-ing pictures of him playing Jenga with his family.  The young voters are getting the most biased information from the most biased of sources.  Which leads to my question...


Is it Okay that these candidates are just trying to get these young voters to notice and like them as people?  Shouldn't they be trying to get them to pay attention to the issues and form their own opinion?  And if young people are voting without proper education, is it better that they don't vote?  I have attached the article at the bottom of the page.

Link to Article

Can Tecnology Becaome Reality

I remember it as it was yesterday and I sat on the floor in my house and played FIFA 1998 on my new PlayStation (for you guys who do not know what FIFA is; it is a soccer video game). The reason to that I recall how it was to play FIFA 1998 almost makes me scared when I yesterday tried the new FIFA 2013 at my friends place. The development of the game is incredible; it is just ridiculous to mention the two in the same sentence. In fact it is a big difference between FIFA 2013 and FIFA 2012 as well. The boll control is better, the dribbling’s are better, and the shots are harder. The whole experience of playing almost makes me believe I am playing myself.

These improvements I have seen during the fifteen years I have been playing FIFA makes me think about what it will look like in another fifteen years. Will it literally be like watching a game live? Will you be able to monitoring your players exactly the way it is in reality? Is there ever a stop where the technology cannot get closer to reality? What do you guys think? 
http://www.ea.com/fifa

Apple's iPhone 5 still elite?

The iPhone 5 was recently release worldwide by Apple.  As we all know, if you're an Apple user, you could not imagine going a single day without owning this most precious of all items.  Here's the problem, the phone sucks.  When I say it sucks, I mean that it's the same phone they've come out with for years.  Yeah, a slightly bigger screen (that actually makes it look kind of stupid).  I'm not just saying this as an Android phone user.  When I was shopping for smartphones, the iPhone 4s was my top choice.  Unfortunately, my carrier didn't have it.  One of the biggest problems with the iPhone 5 was the experiment they made with the Apple Maps system.  Basically, Apple tried to fix something that was broken, and then they broke it.  I attached an article below that explains some of the biggest (and funniest problems) of the new maps system that replaced the prestigious Google Maps system that everybody everywhere uses.  I would like to know your thoughts if you are an Apple user and have the new iPhone.  If you do not, feel free to share your opinion anyways, because there's nothing funnier than the "Apple vs. The World" argument.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/09/27/apple-maps-six-most-epic-fails/

-Kyle Swanson

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing

The global tech. industry is constantly changing and transforming something new is becoming popular with individuals and companies. One of the more promising advances this $3.4 trillion industry is pumping out is Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing accounting for about $16.7 billion is becoming more prominent in modern companies.
Cloud computing allows you to have instant access to all of your private and company information, all you need is a smart device and an internet connection. With cloud computing constantly evolving and becoming more advanced and easier to access and use the work environment as we know it is also evolving.Many companies have started to have employees work from home and other off site locations. If all companies start to follow suit, do you think, in future business, we will have a need to actually leave our home and drive to work? Will cloud computing fizzle out or keep evolving and becoming more powerful and used?
To learn more Click Cloud Computing 

Technology dependence

Ever since I can remember technology has been a part of my life. It started off when I was little and my mother put me in front of the TV to watch cartons.  A couple of years later, I think I was around seven; my parents bought our first computer. At first, I thought it was really cool to have a computer, but I was a very active kid, so it did not take long time before I got bored. I managed to stay away from most technology until I was in my early teens and I needed a cell phone to communicate with my friends, it was also around this time I got back my computer interest.

Sometimes I ask myself.  How was I able to live a life without a cell phone and a computer?  Today I am constantly online as well as I am checking my phone every other minute which I basically feel forced to do. However, I would just see myself as one of many who does that. For example, people are checking emails, answering on messages on Facebook, tweeting, or just checking the weather for the weekend.  Sometimes I feel that my generation is totally depending on technology. Therefore, I fell that this question is relevant.

Is my generations increased dependence on technology exaggerated or is the conveniences of using it reason enough to do so?

-         -  Christopher Eriksson

LinkedIn in Business

Alex Prince

Blog 1

September 18^th

In business there are various things that can help you get promoted, a new position, or a completely new job. In order to achieve these different jobs and positions you must have networking skills and be qualified. One way you can network is by the social media sight LinkedIn.

First off what is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is basically a less fancy FaceBook for business people.  It is a place where you can post different jobs you have held, strengths you have, references and you have people post recommendations about you. You can also look for jobs in your area and the world.

The reason this is beneficial is because if a company is looking for a new person they can search people on LinkedIn who have the qualities and they can reach out to them. I have personally had companies reach out to me and ask if I would be interested in working for them.

LinkedIn is a great networking tool that can absolutely help you in your professional career. It can help you get jobs, promotions and new positions in a company.
To Read More Click LinkedIn 
To get a LinkedIn Account go to www.linkedin.com
Do you think that LinkedIn can help boost your networking and your professional opportunity? 

Twitter and Business

Twitter is the newest social media site to really catch the eye of major corporations around the world.  You see companies and television stations constantly trying to get things trending on twitter.  Comedy Central always puts "#whatevershowthisis" on the bottom of the screen to influence people to tweet about it.  Does that ever work?  Rarely.

Things that trend on Twitter that really take off are the organic ones.  People don't like to be told what to tweet about.  Sometimes, in the case of the Olympics or March Madness or the Superbowl, people use the correct hash tag and it starts trending.  Those would trend anyway though because everybody in America is watching that stuff and it's the latest news in America.  So, basically, I'm wondering if businesses that have the "promoted" trend at the top of trends list on Twitter are really getting their money's worth.  Any thoughts???

- Kyle Swanson