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Archive for July, 2011

Sprint is Hopefully Staying Ahead

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Sprint announced they struck up a 15 year deal with LightSquared, a wireless broadband communications network company with plans to develop a 4G network. However, LightSquared first needs Federal Communications Commission approval, and here’s why.

LightSquared LTE implementation plan interfered with aircraft and personal GPS functions. Therefore, the government put a ban on funding the company until these problems were resolved. The company said they had no intention to interrupt GPS signals and promised to shift its spectrum plan to rid of GPS interference.

LightSquared agreed to pay Sprint $9 billion cash over the course of 11 years and $4.5 billion in LTE and satellite purchase credits—which they can use to gain capacity from LightSquared.

Overall, the deal will save LightSquared more than $13 million and give Sprint a 4G LTE network in 2013, a year earlier then they planned to get one.

Sprint shares dropped 15%, and their stock fell as much as 20% on the New York Stock Exchange. This decline was the largest they’ve had since December 2008. Obtaining a 4G network couldn’t hurt!

So will LightSquared save Sprint? We can only hope for those great unlimited data plans! It seems like the one thing that is really hurting their business is the fact that they do not carry the iPhone. We’ll see what Sprint comes out with for their 4G network, but we are all hoping for Apple!

Tags: 4G network, LightSquared, Sprint
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Kids “Yahooing” College Life

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

As another fall semester rolls around, Yahoo! began to notice some search trends. College related searches have increased as the summer is coming to its second half, showing all those who are excited and nervous about their first year away from home. Teens preparing for college are turning to the internet for advice on their freshman year.

Survival tips

Kids have been looking up ways to help them through the year and live comfortably. Some of these searches include “how to survive freshman year,” “how to make friends,” “styles for freshman back to school,” “list of items for college freshman,” “dorm checklist,” “dorm bedding,” “dorm room ideas,” “how to make scrambled eggs,” “how to cook spaghetti,” and of course “how to do laundry.”

ALPHA GAMMA PHI?

Many incoming freshman have also been looking up information about Greek Life, which is very popular at many schools. Some researched “reasons to join Greek life,” “Greek life policies,” “fraternity hazing,” “best fraternity houses,” what is fraternity hazing,” “how to know if a sorority is right for you,” “sorority initiation,” “sorority paddling stories,” and “sorority hazing pics.” Clearly girls and boys are both worried about being accepted into these brother and sister organizations!

Oh yeah, We’re Here to go to School

Students have also been Yahooing how to grow up. Thinking about their future, kids have looked up “what should I major in?,” “how to choose a major,” “how to save money,” “tuition,” “student loans,” “how to make a budget,” “cheap textbooks,” “internships,” and “rent textbooks.”

The internet and search engines, like Yahoo!, are helping kids prepare for college they best way they know how—by looking everything up on the internet! Good luck to all incoming freshman; have fun and work hard!

WFLSQD

Tags: College life, search trends, yahoo
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The U.S. Has iPhone Fever!!

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

About one third of the US population says they will be walking around talking on new iPhone 5s within the next year. The wait and withheld release date of the new phone has created so much buzz that 35% of consumers say they want it!

Rumors have it that the iPhone 5 will be launched in September, and the wait is almost over! Statements from an anonymous Swisscom source claim that Apple will be launching the smartphone in the US on September 5 and worldwide the following month. However, that is an odd date and on a holiday weekend. There are doubts that it will be released then, but it will most likely be somewhat close to it.

Of that thirty-five percent, 7% will buy it in the first week, 14% will buy within the first month, 30% before the end of 2011, and 51% say they will have it within a year of its release. Wow!! This phone is creating a frenzy!

Consumers have some pretty high expectations for the new phone, and Apple is very unlikely to let us down. 42% of consumers are looking for a better camera, 45% a bigger display, 46% are concerned about the 4G network, 55% want a lower cost, and 59% say they want longer battery life.

The craze over the iPhone 5 is great for Apple, guaranteeing them customers and hopefully giving us satisfaction! Apple seems to be making entire movements with their products and trending all around the world.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sure hoppin’ on that iPhone train in September!

Tags: 4G, Apple, iphone, iPhone 5
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Is the Extinction of Discs Coming Too Quickly?

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

It feels like we just made the switch from floppy disks and VHS tapes to CD-ROMs and DVDs. And we’re already switching from discs to …thumb drives and clouds? Apple is making the first step in obsolescing discs, and—more than likely—everyone is going to have to follow along to keep up.

Apple has removed their DVD drives from Mac Mini computers, and MacBook Airs already didn’t have one. This means that if you want to play a CD or watch a DVD, you will need a separate SuperDrive to do so.

Some believe Apple did this to cut costs, and others think it’s because Apple is simply just retiring discs all together. But what are the pluses and minuses about this, and is it really necessary to outdate CDs and DVDs?

A few arguments for the upgrade are that discs make noise, they can get scratched, they use more battery power on a computer, they’re slower, and they’re less convenient. The internet has made sharing files easy as pie, but do we really want to convert everything to just computer files? It seems like Blu-ray players just came out for goodness sake! What am I going to do with all those Blu-ray DVDs now???!

Apple’s iCloud is making moves like we never imagined and is changing our technology and world as we all know it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but how are we all suppose to keep up?!

Whaddyathink?

Tags: Apple, icloud, Mac Mini, macbook air
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Lollapalooza Apps Help Connect Music Lovers

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Summer is the season of outdoor music festivals and concerts, but some huge festivals like Lollapalooza can be overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with the festival. This year, there is a great Lollapalooza app that will really help in that inevitable occurrence when you and your friends split up, someone is lost, someone is hungry, and someone wants to see a set starting in 5 minutes.

With the free Lollapalooza app for the iPhone and Android, you can create a personalized schedule or sync with your customized schedule from Lolla.com. You can also share via Facebook, Twitter, and group chat. There is also an interactive map of Grant Park, where the festival is held. Between the interactive map and sharing options, you can share you exact location with friends by just dropping a pin.

To get excited for the festival or to pass time in between sets, the app also includes streaming stations with playlists of past and present Lolla artists. There is a station to listen to artists from this year’s Lolla as well as an anniversary station to celebrate Lollapalooza’s 20^th year.

Last but not least, the app is obviously a great guide for the whole weekend, with a Lolla Store, FAQ answer guide, quick links to the Lollapalooza website, Facebook, and Twitter pages, and a stream of tweets about Lolla.

With more people having smart phones and great new apps arriving every day, there are a lot of great apps for festivals. Earlier in the summer, Lollapalooza shared its API to host HackLolla, a hackathon for developers to create web and phone apps themed around the festival. The winning apps were Veokami for Lollapalooza, which helps relive the concert by gathering YouTube videos uploaded by fans, and Who’s Now Who’s Next, which tells you what bands are performing currently and which ones are up next.

Anyone going to Lolla this year? Will you be using the app to organize and plan your experience?

Tags: android apps, apps, concert, iPhone apps, music
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A Picture Says THOUSANDS of Words Now!

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Bob Lisbonne, CEO of Luminate—formerly known as Pixazza—has recently discussed their plans for new interactive images on websites. The idea seems like it’s going to change images on the internet forever—or at least that’s what they think!

Images can now have apps put on them. This means that when you scroll your mouse over a certain part of the image, a little box with extra information will come up. It will show where to buy products similar to the ones in the picture, Facebook and Twitter comments, fun facts, search suggestions, etc.

The images with these apps will have a Luminate icon in the corner, and will allow users to share the apps via e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook.

The good thing about these extra blurps is that they will be chosen by humans. This is a plus because the information is not chosen by a computer, therefore giving better, thoughtful results and more useful recommendations.

Lisbonne believes that in the future, if someone scrolls over an image and nothing pops up, they will be disappointed! People will expect the extra tabs to come up once they start to on the majority of images on the web. Luminate seems extremely confident that these interactive image apps on websites are going to be a huge success, and it’s easy to understand why. This opens up so many more doors for advertisers and companies, and a picture can now say a thousand more words!

Whaddyathink?

Tags: Interactive images, Luminate
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