To be honest I had never heard of Acer until last year when my friend and boyfriend both got an Acer laptop. However, now I know Acer and it is said that Acer is making a strong impact on the PC world and is helping Taiwan climb up the technology chain. Gianfranco Lanci, the chief executive of Acer is becoming rather popular because he has turned Acer into a well organization that is ready to take over the PC world.
Acer seems in a very good position to overtake Dell, the world’s second-largest seller of personal computer and if that does happen Acer would only be behind Hewlett-Packard; no computer company outside the United States has ever climbed so high. Roger L. Kay, a PC industry analyst and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates said “That is a big achievement, and they have beaten the odds.” Acer has now reached number three in the global computer business and has gone through a corporate reinvention.
Acer has been around for fifteen years but has really united as a company. One part of Acer would make computers for other PC sellers that would then put their labels on them. Another part of the company would make computers with their label. Then in 2000, Acer began ending their manufacturing division. They finally decided to focus on their own company and started producing laptops and Acer started to become favored. Acer’s market last year grew by three percent to 10.9 percent, while Dell only grew in 0.1 percent to 15 percent. Acer has continued to narrow that gap this year, 11.6 percent of the market to Dell’s 13.6 percent. However, Acer's 5.25 million units were also notable. The manufacturer used a strong retail and channel presence in Europe and Asia to overtake Dell, DisplaySearch's director of notebook research, John Jacobs, said (Shah 1).
I believe that Acer is going to be good for technology and the PC world. It allows for our society to have more options to choose from and allows for competition, which means better products and lower prices.
References:
article used:Vance, Ashlee. Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen? 28 June 2009. 29 June 2009 http://www.theledger.com/article/20090628/ZNYT01/906283000/1068/YOURTOWN29?Title=Acer-x2019-s-Everywhere-How-Did-That-Happen-.
Shah, Agam. Acer overtakes Dell in laptops sales. 6 Mar. 2008. 29 June 2009 http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?newsID=11636&pagtype=samechan.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Article 14: July 1
I remember reading an article about President Obama creating a job in the White House for internet security, well that position now seems like a great idea. There seems to be a cyberwar occurring. Russia and the United States cannot agree how to stop the growing threat of cyber attacks that could cause a catastrophe within the cyber world. A senior State Department official said that both nations agree that cyberspace is an emerging battleground. President Obama is going to address the issue when he visits Russia at the General Assembly of the United States.
However, Russia wants an international treaty, while the United States believes a treaty is unnecessary. This disagreement over the approach to stop the cyberwar has hindered cooperation among international law enforcement and the major proportion of attacks to the United States are coming from Russia and China. Recognizing the need to deal with the growing threat of cyberwar, many countries, including the United States, are developing weapons for it, like "logic bombs" that can be hidden in computers to halt them at crucial times .
I believe that cyberwar is going to be a big issue and needs to be thought about carefully so we can be prepared. Linton Wells II a former high-ranking Pentagon official who now teaches at the National Defense University said “The challenge became apparent in 2001, after a Navy P-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane and the collision was followed by a huge increase in attacks on United States government computer targets from sources that could not be identified” (Markoff 1). Our society already has to deal with so many different types of threats and now we need to be prepared for another type of threat. I think it is time for Russia and the United States to come together and figure out a way to stop these cyber attacks.
References:
Article Used: US, Russia in dispute over computer attacks: report. 27 June 2009. 29 June 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090628/pl_afp/usrussiaitcomputerdiplomacy.
Markoff, John. U.S. and Russia Differ on a Treaty for Cyberspace. 27 June 2009. 29 June 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/world/28cyber.html?partner=rss&emc=rss.
However, Russia wants an international treaty, while the United States believes a treaty is unnecessary. This disagreement over the approach to stop the cyberwar has hindered cooperation among international law enforcement and the major proportion of attacks to the United States are coming from Russia and China. Recognizing the need to deal with the growing threat of cyberwar, many countries, including the United States, are developing weapons for it, like "logic bombs" that can be hidden in computers to halt them at crucial times .
I believe that cyberwar is going to be a big issue and needs to be thought about carefully so we can be prepared. Linton Wells II a former high-ranking Pentagon official who now teaches at the National Defense University said “The challenge became apparent in 2001, after a Navy P-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane and the collision was followed by a huge increase in attacks on United States government computer targets from sources that could not be identified” (Markoff 1). Our society already has to deal with so many different types of threats and now we need to be prepared for another type of threat. I think it is time for Russia and the United States to come together and figure out a way to stop these cyber attacks.
References:
Article Used: US, Russia in dispute over computer attacks: report. 27 June 2009. 29 June 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090628/pl_afp/usrussiaitcomputerdiplomacy.
Markoff, John. U.S. and Russia Differ on a Treaty for Cyberspace. 27 June 2009. 29 June 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/world/28cyber.html?partner=rss&emc=rss.
Article 13: July 1
What else can Apple do, to make our society love them even more? Well Apple already has begun to think of one more reason to make them more loved by software developers. The new iPhone 3.0 that was released June 17th has a feature that makes it easier to make purchases using iPhone applications and therefore, allowing developers to make more money from the software they create.
For example Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins couldn’t wait for the new upgrade because his latest program Digital Chocolate, sells games for cell phones. With the new version of the iPhone Digital Chocolate can sell additional products, whereas with the older versions of the iPhone there was only a one-time fee for each of the fifteen games. Trip Hawkins said "There's no question that players buying games for a one-time fee wouldn't be spending anywhere near this kind of money." Digital Chocolate plans to have released 100 iPhone games in a year. You better believe that the mobile gaming industry is not the only ones going to be making money off the new update of the iPhone. Handmark a mobile app, is considering offering a new app called “Zagat to Go”, which is an application that would regularly update reviews of 40,000 restaurants, hotels, and shops. Also, Newspaper USA Today plans to start charging monthly and annual subscriptions for news apps. According to the data, collected from around 30 million downloads of several hundred applications, the drop-off rate for paid apps is around 70%.
Nevertheless the software makers pocket seventy percent of the revenue generated by the application they sell for Apple’s devices and Apple gets the other thirty percent and gives developers to keep writing software for their devices. Jeremy Liew, managing director at venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners said “The App Store has generated about $318 million in sales since its debut a year ago and could dramatically increase its revenues.”
Well it is always about competition and improvement in our society today. Technology shows how our society works very well. Apple always is pushing the limit for new and exciting things. They have so much competition that they have to make themselves known and wanted. They are not only making our society enjoy their products but also developers because they are helping each other make money.
References:
Article Used: Kharif, Olga. Apple iPhone Software: Developers See Green. 16 June 2009. 29 June 2009 http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009/tc20090616_915518.htm.
Interesting Statics for Apple iPhone Apps. 23 Feb. 2009. 29 June 2009 http://www.iphone-singapore.com/iphone-applications/interesting-statistics-for-apple-iphone-apps/.
For example Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins couldn’t wait for the new upgrade because his latest program Digital Chocolate, sells games for cell phones. With the new version of the iPhone Digital Chocolate can sell additional products, whereas with the older versions of the iPhone there was only a one-time fee for each of the fifteen games. Trip Hawkins said "There's no question that players buying games for a one-time fee wouldn't be spending anywhere near this kind of money." Digital Chocolate plans to have released 100 iPhone games in a year. You better believe that the mobile gaming industry is not the only ones going to be making money off the new update of the iPhone. Handmark a mobile app, is considering offering a new app called “Zagat to Go”, which is an application that would regularly update reviews of 40,000 restaurants, hotels, and shops. Also, Newspaper USA Today plans to start charging monthly and annual subscriptions for news apps. According to the data, collected from around 30 million downloads of several hundred applications, the drop-off rate for paid apps is around 70%.
Nevertheless the software makers pocket seventy percent of the revenue generated by the application they sell for Apple’s devices and Apple gets the other thirty percent and gives developers to keep writing software for their devices. Jeremy Liew, managing director at venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners said “The App Store has generated about $318 million in sales since its debut a year ago and could dramatically increase its revenues.”
Well it is always about competition and improvement in our society today. Technology shows how our society works very well. Apple always is pushing the limit for new and exciting things. They have so much competition that they have to make themselves known and wanted. They are not only making our society enjoy their products but also developers because they are helping each other make money.
References:
Article Used: Kharif, Olga. Apple iPhone Software: Developers See Green. 16 June 2009. 29 June 2009 http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2009/tc20090616_915518.htm.
Interesting Statics for Apple iPhone Apps. 23 Feb. 2009. 29 June 2009 http://www.iphone-singapore.com/iphone-applications/interesting-statistics-for-apple-iphone-apps/.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Article 12: June 21
Is there really a way to stop fraud from happening on the internet? Well I don’t think there really is but we can do things to try to prevent it from happening and that’s exactly what PayPal tries to do. PayPal has found a new way to try to stop fraud from happening. Many people use PayPal but even if you their identity has been made up (Hansell 1).
The company believes in this so much that they spent $169 million last year to buy Fraud Sciences, an Israeli company that specialized in this sort of data analysis. PayPal says on have never used it PayPal has a file on you. The reason is that if you decide to buy something online and set up your first PayPal account, the service has three seconds to decide if it trusts you or if it will block the sale. PayPal decided that this is a good way to try to prevent fraud because “ Good people on the Internet leave footprints.” Good people always have email accounts, IP addresses, things that accumulate overtime and can be found. However, if someone has made up an identity to try to commit fraud this trial will be hard to find because there won’t be one, which is a good indicator that they will (Hansell 1).
Paypals website says they believe that innovation and careful analysis is the way to beat fraud and that’s why they have developed industry-leading models to review every transaction—and help detect suspicious activity (PayPal 1). PayPal has a way of recognizing customers who use it a lot and get to know them and know they are good people. But when users show up without a PayPal or eBay account, the company can’t start checking them out from scratch if it wants to approve transactions within its three-second window. That’s why it buys data and assembles files on prospective users who have never done business with it.
I think this is a wonderful idea. PayPal has done a great thing for our society because it allows us to be able to not worry about fraud. Technology has allowed for fraud to occur more often and now PayPal has came up with a way to prevent it.
References:
article used : Hansell, Saul. Why PayPal Wants to Know Where Everybody Lives. 19 June 2009. 21 June 2009 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/why-paypal-wants-to-know-where-everybody-lives/.
PayPal. 2009. 21 June 2009
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/general/SecurityFraud-outside.
The company believes in this so much that they spent $169 million last year to buy Fraud Sciences, an Israeli company that specialized in this sort of data analysis. PayPal says on have never used it PayPal has a file on you. The reason is that if you decide to buy something online and set up your first PayPal account, the service has three seconds to decide if it trusts you or if it will block the sale. PayPal decided that this is a good way to try to prevent fraud because “ Good people on the Internet leave footprints.” Good people always have email accounts, IP addresses, things that accumulate overtime and can be found. However, if someone has made up an identity to try to commit fraud this trial will be hard to find because there won’t be one, which is a good indicator that they will (Hansell 1).
Paypals website says they believe that innovation and careful analysis is the way to beat fraud and that’s why they have developed industry-leading models to review every transaction—and help detect suspicious activity (PayPal 1). PayPal has a way of recognizing customers who use it a lot and get to know them and know they are good people. But when users show up without a PayPal or eBay account, the company can’t start checking them out from scratch if it wants to approve transactions within its three-second window. That’s why it buys data and assembles files on prospective users who have never done business with it.
I think this is a wonderful idea. PayPal has done a great thing for our society because it allows us to be able to not worry about fraud. Technology has allowed for fraud to occur more often and now PayPal has came up with a way to prevent it.
References:
article used : Hansell, Saul. Why PayPal Wants to Know Where Everybody Lives. 19 June 2009. 21 June 2009 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/why-paypal-wants-to-know-where-everybody-lives/.
PayPal. 2009. 21 June 2009
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/general/SecurityFraud-outside.
Article 11: June 21
We have all heard about people getting in trouble for illegal downloading, however most of us do it but we don’t think that anything would ever happen to us. Did you know that ninety-five percent of downloads are illegal (Tech-Ex 1) ? Well that was not the case for a Minnesota woman who was accused of sharing 24 songs over the internet, which ending up being a $1.92 million dollar verdict. Ken Port the director of the Intellectual Property Institute at William Mitchell College of Law said “Normally in our American legal system, we say the punishment should fit the crime.” He also went on to say, "Now she's being ordered to pay, in some ways, an incomprehensible amount of damages." He closely watched Jammie Thomas’s case and is the one who persuaded the judge in 2007 to give her a retrial, which ended June 18th (Williams 1).
So why haven’t we heard about someone else having to pay this big of a fine for illegal downloading. Well now there is a Federal Law the recording companies are entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement but the law allows the jury to raise that to as much as $150,000 per track if it finds the infringements were willful. And the jury for this trial decided on $80,000 per song (Williams 1).
Our society does need to learn that illegal downloading is bad and should not be done; however, $1.92 million seems very excessive, especially when the first trial ordered her to pay 222,000 and the judge gave her another trial because he thought it was too much.
I believe that our society should be punished but it should not be unreasonable because there is no way an average American woman will be able to pay $1.92 million dollars, when the songs can be bought for ninety-nice cents on iTunes.
References:
article used : Williams, Chris. Big fine could be big trouble in downloading case. 19 June 2009. 21 June 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading.
Tech-EX. 19 Jan. 2009. 21 June 2009 http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/2009/01/95-of-music-downloads-are-illegal-ifpi.html.
So why haven’t we heard about someone else having to pay this big of a fine for illegal downloading. Well now there is a Federal Law the recording companies are entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement but the law allows the jury to raise that to as much as $150,000 per track if it finds the infringements were willful. And the jury for this trial decided on $80,000 per song (Williams 1).
Our society does need to learn that illegal downloading is bad and should not be done; however, $1.92 million seems very excessive, especially when the first trial ordered her to pay 222,000 and the judge gave her another trial because he thought it was too much.
I believe that our society should be punished but it should not be unreasonable because there is no way an average American woman will be able to pay $1.92 million dollars, when the songs can be bought for ninety-nice cents on iTunes.
References:
article used : Williams, Chris. Big fine could be big trouble in downloading case. 19 June 2009. 21 June 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading.
Tech-EX. 19 Jan. 2009. 21 June 2009 http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/2009/01/95-of-music-downloads-are-illegal-ifpi.html.
Article 10: June 21
Well we have all heard about the upcoming new iPhone 3G S, it has finally arrived. However the new 3rd generation iPhone did not have as big of a crowd. It was definitely different from when the 1st and 2nd generation iPhone came out; Friday's lines outside stores across the country were reportedly 100- to 200-people deep in some places, falling short of the lines that sometimes stretched for blocks in 2007 and 2008. Apple and AT&T offered a more options for purchasing the 3G S this year, which helped to prevent chaos, such as preordering and reservations for in-store pickup. Also there wasn’t as big of a turnout for the new generation because some people are not yet eligible for an upgrade (Ogg 1).
There was also some confusion about the price of the 3G S. It was said that the new iPhone would only be $199. However Jay Bain, San Francisco-based digital marketing manager purchased his third iPhone in three years Friday morning and expected to pay $299 for a 32GB iPhone 3G S. Instead, he ended up laying down $499 for it and said "I guess I didn't read the fine print." The absence of frenzy for the new generation does raise question for Apple; however, they know that the new 4G that is coming out next year will still appeal to the diehard Apple fans (Apple iPhone 1).
So what’s different about the 3G S? It looks the same but offers more speed, more memory, more battery life and a better video and camera. Apple also has new competition with Plam Pre and other smart phones, so it’s very important that Apple keeps coming out with big and better things for the iPhone.
Nevertheless it comes down to our society having competition and companies appealing to our society. Technology is just another way of competition, which I think is good. Competition always makes people and companies strive for bigger and better and that is why Apple keeps coming out with newer iPhones.
References:
article used : Ogg, Erica. Smaller crowds line up for iPhone 3G S on first day. 19` June 2009. 21 June 2009. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10268965-37.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
Apple iPhone 3G S Is Better Model -- Or Just Get OS 3.0. 19 June 2009. 21 June 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124525573550923759.html
There was also some confusion about the price of the 3G S. It was said that the new iPhone would only be $199. However Jay Bain, San Francisco-based digital marketing manager purchased his third iPhone in three years Friday morning and expected to pay $299 for a 32GB iPhone 3G S. Instead, he ended up laying down $499 for it and said "I guess I didn't read the fine print." The absence of frenzy for the new generation does raise question for Apple; however, they know that the new 4G that is coming out next year will still appeal to the diehard Apple fans (Apple iPhone 1).
So what’s different about the 3G S? It looks the same but offers more speed, more memory, more battery life and a better video and camera. Apple also has new competition with Plam Pre and other smart phones, so it’s very important that Apple keeps coming out with big and better things for the iPhone.
Nevertheless it comes down to our society having competition and companies appealing to our society. Technology is just another way of competition, which I think is good. Competition always makes people and companies strive for bigger and better and that is why Apple keeps coming out with newer iPhones.
References:
article used : Ogg, Erica. Smaller crowds line up for iPhone 3G S on first day. 19` June 2009. 21 June 2009
Apple iPhone 3G S Is Better Model -- Or Just Get OS 3.0. 19 June 2009. 21 June 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Article Nine: June 14
article used:
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090615/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_shoppers__gamble
Have you ever wondered how credit cards work and if your truly safe using them? Well every time you swipe your credit card and wait for it to go through, sensitive data including your name and account number are transferred from store to back through computer networks, which is a potential opening for hackers. Well the Associated Press investigation has found that some banks and other companies that handle your information are not being nearly as cautious as they could. The government leaves it to credit card companies to design security rules that protect the nation's 50 billion annual transactions. So every time we use a credit card companies are gambling with our personal information. More than 70 retailers and payment processors have disclosed breaches since 2006, involving tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Credit card providers don't appear to be in a rush to tighten the rules.
I think that we need to be more cautious with using credit cards because technology is becoming more powerful and people and becoming smarter. As much as our society relies on credit cards we need to make sure our privacy is protected 100%. Technology allows credit card companies to keep tabs on what customers are doing with their money, which includes where they shop, what they spend, and whether they pay their bills for other credit cards , their car payments, and mortgages. Technology can cross borders and that is why it so important to regulate it and make sure our credit card information is safe.
Credit cards are not going anywhere if anything more things will resemble credit cards. I think like anything else that deals with technology we need to monitor it closely and make sure that our society is safe.
References:
Congress And Credit Cards: The Death Of Privacy, The Sunset Of Lying. 20 May 2009. 14 June 2009. http://247wallst.com/2009/05/20/congress-and-credit-cards-the-death-of-privacy-the-sunset-of-lying/.
Robertson, Jordan. AP IMPACT: Weak security enables credit card hacks. 14 June 2009. 14 June 2009 http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090615/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_shoppers__gamble.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090615/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_shoppers__gamble
Have you ever wondered how credit cards work and if your truly safe using them? Well every time you swipe your credit card and wait for it to go through, sensitive data including your name and account number are transferred from store to back through computer networks, which is a potential opening for hackers. Well the Associated Press investigation has found that some banks and other companies that handle your information are not being nearly as cautious as they could. The government leaves it to credit card companies to design security rules that protect the nation's 50 billion annual transactions. So every time we use a credit card companies are gambling with our personal information. More than 70 retailers and payment processors have disclosed breaches since 2006, involving tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Credit card providers don't appear to be in a rush to tighten the rules.
I think that we need to be more cautious with using credit cards because technology is becoming more powerful and people and becoming smarter. As much as our society relies on credit cards we need to make sure our privacy is protected 100%. Technology allows credit card companies to keep tabs on what customers are doing with their money, which includes where they shop, what they spend, and whether they pay their bills for other credit cards , their car payments, and mortgages. Technology can cross borders and that is why it so important to regulate it and make sure our credit card information is safe.
Credit cards are not going anywhere if anything more things will resemble credit cards. I think like anything else that deals with technology we need to monitor it closely and make sure that our society is safe.
References:
Congress And Credit Cards: The Death Of Privacy, The Sunset Of Lying. 20 May 2009. 14 June 2009. http://247wallst.com/2009/05/20/congress-and-credit-cards-the-death-of-privacy-the-sunset-of-lying/.
Robertson, Jordan. AP IMPACT: Weak security enables credit card hacks. 14 June 2009. 14 June 2009 http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090615/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_shoppers__gamble.
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