Wiki: FaceTime

FaceTime was invented by inventor Steve Jobs before his death

(well, obviously)

 

 

 

FaceTime was released in conjunction with the iPhone 4.

FaceTime allows users to see the person on the other side of the phone through the usage of video software devices.

 

 

 

This application is also available on the Ipod 2.

The person on the otherside must also have a compatable Apple product in order for facetime to work

This is kind of like a webcam for phones if you think about it. 

WIKI: "The Hopper"

Chances if you've seen the highly annoying commercials, you know what the Hopper is.

or the "Hoppa"

(insert the annoying Australian accent here)

But the hopper isn't the first system to allow viewers to watch tv where they want, when they want.

More and more, people are recording television instead of actually watching it.

They can fast forward through commercials,

they can pause live television if they need Doritos from the kitchen

or whatever the instant need is...

No longer do we care if we get home by six to watch our show,

because we can dictate when we watch things.

It's that control thing.

We like it.

That is, until media controls us.



Wiki E-harmony

As long as everything else in our life is turning media based, our dating habits might as well turn that way too...

Whether it's E-Harmony,

Match.com,

or even Christian Mingle

 

People are moving to the virtual world in order to meet people online

Sometimes, these people date in the virtual world for years and years before meeting their

boyfriend or girlfriend.

 

 

 

A new show on MTV brings together the people from these relationships to meet for the first time,

however, with the internet,

you can be who you want to be,

and often times, they get caught in the act of lying... or cheating. 

Wiki: Craigslist

Oh, Craigslist

The site that everyone uses

and not everyone admits to.

Craigslist is a site that allows people to buy, sell, and advirtise products

It also involves personal sections, pets and jobs.

 

 

 

This internet invention replaces previous Classified Advirtisements from the newspapers

 

 

People can post resumes that may connect them to area jobs

This is a faster way to build the economy,

which is a very effective growth method

 

However, people can also post personal ads:

 

 

AGING CAB DRIVER. M. 52. WANTS TO FIND HIS FOREVER SUGAR MOMMA>

 

Really? You're suprised that didn't work?

 



Wiki: Youtube

Ahh... giving the power of film production into the hands of average americans.

This is really cool

and really destructive

 

You can be awesome and post hilarious videos of your children:

"Charlie bit me... and that really hurt"

or

"I only like you when you give me cookies"

 

 

You can share your own music:

 

Justin Beiber was discovered off of youtube, ya know...

 

 

Or you can act like total idiots and shame entire colleges

like those dumbass girls from UMD just did

 

 

Either way, it's very cool that something once reserved for film directors allows us to share our videos with the world, in a suprisingly good quality

 

 

 

 

 

 



WIKI: Reality Television

Reality television has become increasingly popular in television

These shows are generally shown on Bravo, TLC, MTV, and A&E

 

However, viewers always question if the shows are "real"

or if they are staged.

This brings up the question of honest media

and how much you can trust what you see

 

 

 

Arguably the most famous Documentary series that are tied to reality television include:

The Sixteen and Pregnant and Teen Mom series.

Camera crews follow the lives of expecting teens or young mothers with their trials of partenthood. 

Wiki: Television Series

As televisions became more easily accessable

and tv's were common in households,

the range of viewers changed as well as the purpose changed

Televisions began to offer series for entertainment.

Some early ones include:

MASH

Leave it to Beaver
The Brady Bunch

(Marsha, Marsha, Marsha)

 

Successful television series featured complex characters that were either serious or humorous.

Viewers grew to rely on the good television series that they enjoyed watching with friends and family

 

As television continues to focus more and more on reality television,

which I will discuss in my next post,

Viewers still value a good television series

Some (more) recent hits include:

(Within the last 20 years)

FRIENDS

The Simpsons

Pretty Little Liars

George Lopez

Full House

How I met your Mother

Big Bang Theory

House

Law and Order



Wiki: Man on the Moon

In class, we focused a portion of our time on conspiracy theories

including the theory that we did not infact land on the moon

and that it was just some giant hoax

 

 

 

The United States Apollo 11 was the first manned flight to make it to the moon.

There have been six manned flights total, but Apollo was the first to land smoothly.

 

 

People believe it is a hoax because moon landings are not common,

like they were once claimed or expected to be.

 

 

However, they claim that anyone with a telescope and a correct laser can see the proof because it will reflect off of the mirrors left by the Apollo 11 crew. 

WIKI: Dictionary

Many forms of dictionaries were created throughout time,

but it wasn't until Samuel Jackson's A Dictionary of the English Language

that a reliable, factual book was created.

 

 

 

According to Wikipedia:

American Noah Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. In 1807 Webster began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language; it took twenty-seven years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit

 

Could you imagine working on a book for twenty seven years?

Although, it must have been worth it,

considering Webster is still the most common dictionary around.

What a stud. 

Wiki: Freedom Writers

1. If you haven't seen the movie, Freedom Writers,
2. than I really suggest it.
3. The movie shows the power of writen media at it's purest form:
4. Journals.
5. (it is also based on a true story, which makes everything cooler)

 

 

 

Troubled students wrote down their own stories in journals for their teacher to read

The teacher did not come from the same background as the students.

As the teacher was used to high-living and pearls,

the students were used to dropouts and gang violence.

 

By writing their stories and sharing their voice,

they used media to carry their stories

This not only enlightened their teacher,

but created bonds that lasted through gangs.

WIKI: Spoken Word

Media is a form of expression, or communication

One hobby that people have picked up as a form of communicating their feeling is through spoken word.

Rather than publish poetry in newspapers or reviews, poets are starting to make events out of it.

As newspapers and books, lose popularity, poets are changing in order to not get lost in the shuffle.

Their new kind of poetry is called "Spoken Word"

It's crazy how that aspect of media has gone full circle.

First stories were spoken around the campfire or at gatherings,

then the printing press came along.

Now, as printing is becoming outdated,

we are back to spoken word...

 



WIKI: 3D movies

This type of motion picture enhances the depth of the film

Viewers may feel in the scene, or feel objects from the scene flying towards them.

Users must wear a pair of three dimensional glasses for the 3D aspect to work.

 

 

In 2009, Avatar was released as the first real successful 3D film and recieved raving reviews.

Disney caught wind of this success and rereleased some of their best movies in 3D,

raving that it was a brand new experience.

They started with the Lion King, and continued on to:

Beauty and the Beast

Finding Nemo

Monsters Inc

The Little Mermaid

 

 

 

So far, these rereleases have had amazing success at the box office.



WIKI: Pandora

Pandora Internet Radio is the leading internet radio in the business.

It is fully available in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

Poor Canada... at least they have cheap meds.

 

 

Users are able to suggest a song, artist or genre for Pandora to create a radio station for.

Pandora plays similar musical selections for the user

The user can provide either negative or negative feedback for songs

If a user gives a negative feedback, the songs are taken out of the radio station and won't be played again.

Ever again.

It's pretty damn serious.

 

 

Over 400 musical attributes go into picking the next song

These attributes include rhythm, harmony and tonality

WIKI: Honey Boo Boo

Although Media has contributed many positive things to our society

it has also introduced us to some negative things as well...

Such as...

HONEY BOO BOO CHILD!

 

If you don't know her, She is worth seeing...

Not because she is good at anything

but TV has fallen so damn far

 

 

 

What happened to shows that made you think?

What happened to shows that held important references to life in general?

 

This TLC show follows the life of Alana, a rolly-polly girl who loves beauty pageants, farting, and being a redneck.

Gosh.

Go on, educate yourself.

This is a downside to media...

Wiki: LIFE magazine

LIFE magazine was founded in 1883 as a general-interest magazine

It was generally viewed as light entertainment:

It was heavy on cartoons, jokes and social commentary

It often featured illustrations.

 

 

 

Years later, it took a different tone and began to write movie reviews of the films being shown in New York City.

You know, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of?

That one.

Those reviews featured different colored bullets:

green for good

Red for bad

Yellow for mixed reviews

 

Although I'm sure you could've figured that one out by yourself.



 

The most famous cover photograph was most likely the V-J day kiss



Wiki: Kindle

The Kindle, produced by Amazon is the major brand of e-reader

It's main competition is the Nook.

 

 

 

These e-readers allow people to hold an entire library in their hand.

People are able to have their magazines sent directly to their e-reader.

They can also hold books, blogs, and newspapers.

 

E-readers have gained popularity within the last few years.

It is similar to the tablet computer, such as the Apple Ipad.

 

 

 

It is predicted that tablet computers will most likely absorb the e-reader technology into its device to create a more powerful, useful device.

Wiki: Google

Google. It's cool enough to have it's own  verb.

I just "googled" something.

Although that sounds sexual slightly, everyone knows you looked something up on the internet.

 

 

Google was created by two Stanford University students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Today, they own about 16 percent of the company.

Google became a publically owned company in 2004

 

The mission statement of Google is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

 

If you don't believe me.... just Google it.

Wiki: Twitter

Tweet. Tweet.

It seems I am the only person left on the planet without a twitter account.

I don't see the purpose, I guess.

I also hate the crowd... I am very stubborn about that...

For example, I won't get a twitter, I will not like "I'm Sexy and I Know It" or "Rolling in the Deep", I will not read - nor see- The Hunger Games, or watch "How I Met Your Mother."

 

Anyway... Twitter involves sending messages that are only 140 characters long.

Just because it doesn't have a long attention span, I guess.

 

 

Twitter is one of the top 10 visited sites on the internet and grew to 500 million users in just six years.

 

340 million tweets are generated daily.

Wow.

 

People often use Twitter to interact with celebrities.

It helps them feel like they are friends.. like Internet friends.

 

 



WIKI - Dell Computers

As I type away on my computer, creating these Wiki's,

I felt that I should dedicate at least one to my (not so) trusty Dell Computer.

 

 

The company was named after its founder, Michael Dell.

It is one of the largest technological corporations worldwide.

It employs 103, 300 people total and is listed in the 44th spot of the Fortune 500 list.

It ranks as the 3rd largest PC vendor in the world, falling behind just HP and Lenovo

 

Much of Dell's power was gained by merging smaller companies, such as Alienware and Perot Systems into it's control

That makes it sound evil...

It's really not.

 



WIKI: GameBoy

One of my most prized possessions through my childhood was my GameBoy.

I didn't just have any GameBoy though..

I had a GameBoy Color and the power light was Pikachu's cheek.

Yeah, I'm awesome.

 

 

 

Perhaps it was just a 90's kid thing, but GameBoys were our bonding tool. We watched others play Gameboy, we played them in the car, on the bus, everywhere....

That is, until the lights were too bright and your screen had terrible glare problems.

 

It was released first in Japan, then in the US in 1989 by Nintendo

It sold over a million Gameboys in a matter of weeks.

They seemed to be the first very successful handheld game.

 

With advancing technology, like Nintendo DS, the GameBoy seems incredibly bulky...

But the moment someone pulls out those little square plastic games,

you know...

GameBoys will always hold a special place in 90's kids' hearts.