Core 3

The Wall Street Journal: Brace Yourself: You'll Soon Be Able to Buy Thin Mints Online

Girl Scouts recently released that they are developing websites and mobile apps to sell their famous cookies through. They clarified that people will only be able to order cookies during certain times of year and that the development of the websites and apps does not mean that the cookies will be available more often. However it with the new websites and apps it will make ordering and stocking up on the cookies much easier for many people. Girl Scouts announced that some of the girls will be able to market their cookies online by inviting customers with a link that goes to their personalized cookie websites. This way the consumers are still purchasing through individual scouts but can do so from home. Other girls will use the mobile app that allows for credit card processing and direct shipping taking in-person orders. Girl Scouts says that the program is “being updated to teach modern skills such as online marketing and e-commerce” to the girls. Girl Scouts also mentioned that due to privacy and security concerns they took their time setting up the site and app to ensure that the information is encrypted and the customers information is secure.

The Wall Street Journal: Should Crowdfunding Sites Do More to Vet Projects?

Crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo have become quite popular in the last few years. The concept for interested consumers to support projects that they want to see become reality is a good one that appeals to many. However many of the projects that do reach their goals have been delayed and some have even continued on to fail completely. Recently there was controversy with a new bracelet called Ritot. This bracelet reached quickly reached its goal but during the fundraising there were many people questioning the project. People wondered, “How could such a perfect display be projected from such a small device? Why was there no working prototype? And who were the founders, whose names couldn’t be found anywhere?” The founders admitted to using fake names for political reasons and at this point a lot of backers asked for refunds. Once the founders cleared issues regarding their identity and the technology behind the bracelet up Indiegogo continued to let them raise money. Beyond that Indiegogo is letting them raise money indefinitely, which is part of a new pilot program. In terms of this project it seems that a lot of the uncertainties went away but until they send out the first shipment no one can know for sure. This project along with others like it have brought up questions of liability that the Crowdfunding sites have or should have. Both Kickstarter and Indiegogo have revised their terms & conditions to make it clear that they do not offer refunds and that any problems after the funding period is over have to be sorted out between the project founders and the customers. Critics warn that the sites don’t require much information from the project starter and to invest in the projects but with extra caution. Others hope that these sites will address these issues further and try to find ways to reduce the amount of fraudulent projects or backed projects that later fail.

The Wall Street Journal: Everykey Wristband Aims to be Your Password Manager

Everykey Wristband is a new wearable technology that is trying to enter the market. The wristband aims to manage users’ passwords to unlock smartphones, computers, and websites. The startup Everykey just completed raising $117,054 on Kickstarter and aims to ship out the first bands by March 15, 2015. Although the Wristband gathered enough of a fan base to meet its goal, the design of the band has drawn attention due to security concerns. The wristband uses Bluetooth technology to unlock the devices and if the wristband is lost or stolen the user can call the company or go online to disable the device similarly to a credit card. The CEO states that the band encrypts user’s passwords with an encryption standard used to store credit card numbers by many major online stores.  Since the encryption key is stored only on the wristband and the paired devices the company promotes that the band is safe. Others argue however that “a lot can happen between [losing it] and reporting it as stolen and deactivated. Anyone with access to it will have access to all sites and portals secured by that wristband. The device cannot really tell who is using it”. The company stores the encrypted passwords on the company’s U.S. based server, which critics say is also a major risk since that server is susceptible to attacks. Everykey’s competitor Nymi is more secure since it offers a 3-factor authentication process. Nymi unlike Everykey uses cardiac rhythm to validate the user. Also Nymi is also already in the manufacturing process and hopes to ship them out by the end of fall. It seems that critics are favoring Nymi over Everykey though Everykey seems to have a decent fan base since they were fully funded on Kickstarter.

The New York Times: Apps to Compete with Snapchat in Temporary Messaging

The New York Times recently released an article discussing “self-destructing” messaging apps. While Snapchat is obviously the leading app in this category there are a few newer ones that the article’s writer Kit Eaton brings to our attention. Eaton explains the general concept of Snapchat and these other apps saying, “The main idea is that you can safely share a ‘moment’, like a photo or a short video, and the ‘moment’ you share isn’t kept on the recipient’s phone or the company’s servers”. Eaton also mentioned the recent scandal involving images being posted online that were believed to be from Snapchat. Of course Snapchat defended itself by saying it would only have been possible if the people were using an unofficial Snapchat client or if the receivers took screen shots of the sent images. Whether or not to believe Snapchat is up to the user.

Another app similar to Snapchat is Wickr. Eaton describes Wicker as a simpler alternative that is mean to be a lot more like traditional instant messaging than Snapchat. Eaton describes some of the features that Snapchat doesn’t have, concluding that it seems to be easier to navigate which reduces the risk of “accidentally broadcast[ing] a personal message to the world instead of one person”.

Following the concept of self-destructing messages, two other apps Burn Note and Confide are also brought to attention. These are not as focused around picture sharing, and instead is geared towards self-destructing text messages. They both provide a service where the text sent is never fully revealed on the screen all at once. To read the message you need to slide your finger over it to see one section at a time. This makes it hard for screen shots to be taken and harder for people around to read the message too. Eaton says that both of these apps take security seriously. Burn Note claims that once the timer on the message expires, the message is deleted from the recipient’s phone and the company’s servers. Confide goes one step further saying that each of their messages is encrypted so the message can truly only be read by the sender and recipient. While these companies can claim these things, Eaton leaves us with some advice that, “Regardless of the developers’ promises, remember this: Never assume anything you do on the Internet is 100 percent private, or 100 percent deleted”.

Time: Amazon Wants to Book Your Next Hotel

Today Time released an article stating that Amazon will likely be coming out with a hotel-booking feature starting on January 1, 2015 called Amazon Travel. It is speculated that Amazon Travel will feature a selection of hotels within the New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle area that can be booked through the Amazon site. The listings will show the room types, availability, and pricing information and Amazon would receive a 15% commission. Upon receiving payment, the hoteliers would be able to try to negotiate a lower commission. The article explains that for Amazon, this new feature could be great because along with gaining that commission, they could use the hotel booking information to create better-targeted product offerings.  

On November 13, I attended a talk given by former CEO Perry Chen on his company Kickstarter. Chen gave us his story on how the company started and where his inspiration came from. He shared with us the history of the company after it started and the direction he hopes it will go. After this the floor was open to questions.

Chen said that his idea for Kickstarter started when he was in his early 20’s and was into making electronic music. He knew of a European group and thought it would be awesome to bring them to America for a small show. He looked into the details and what he came up with was that it would be too expensive and risky to do. After that he realized how upsetting it was that there wasn’t a way that a group of interested people could come together to make an event like that happen. From there he sat on his idea for a few years until he finally decided to put it into action. He mentioned a lot of collaboration with friends and connections until the site was finally launched in 2009.

From the launch, he said that the first few projects were made by his friends and other people connected to the site. What excited him was when Allison Weiss, someone completely unrelated to the founding, used Kickstarter to try to make a full-length album. Chen said that what Weiss conveyed through her project video had the exact spirit and intent that the creators wanted for the site. She was able to raise more than her goal amount and gave everyone at Kickstarter hope for the company’s future.

After that, people had more and more of their creative projects funded through Kickstarter. Since 2009, the company has moved into a new office building in New York and has really taken off. Chen also discussed his hopeful plans for the future of the company. He said that he hopes the company can stay as small as possible (currently around 96) and can stay private. He expressed issues he has with companies going public saying that when they do, they are not longer able to fully serve their mission, instead having to cater to the investors instead.

The Wall Street Journal: Uber to Let Spotify's Premium Users Control Music During Rides

It was announced that starting on Friday November 21 in 10 cities around the world, Spotify premium users will be able to control the music during the Uber rides through their phones. The Wall Street Journal article says that this new addition to Uber's services is their "latest attempt to personalize the rides on its service to individual riders, as the company races to sign up millions of new users and fend off rivals including Lyft". This new service however is creating unease among the Uber drivers. To the drivers, this means that the control is being taken away from them, leading to created tension between them and the passengers who might have very different musical tastes. On the site UberPeople, which allows for drivers to comment and communicate with each other anonymously, a few drivers pointed out that although this service is optional, the cars who opt out of providing it may end up getting lower ratings and could eventually be terminated from Uber. A few drivers shared in this sentiment that this new service gives the passengers higher expectations from the Uber drivers, which makes this “optional service” not much of an option. 

The Wall Street Journal: Spotify Royalty Payments Outpace iTunes in Some Markets

As a result of the popular Pop artist Taylor Swift abruptly removing her music from popular music app Spotify, digital music services have been put under the spotlight. The ongoing debate on how well artists are really paid by these digital music services was rekindled and the two main digital music giants, iTunes and Spotify were compared. The article suggests that for some artists Spotify is starting to pay more than Apple's iTunes does. Data from Kobalt Music Publishing shows that Taylor Swift's new album earned 13% more from Spotify streams in Europe than from iTunes downloads made on the continent during the first quarter of 2014. This data is surprising since in the third quarter of 2013, artists under Kobalt Music Publishing earned 32% more from iTunes sales than Spotify royalties. Kobalt’s chief executive Willard Ahdritz said that streaming services from Spotify and YouTuve are “generating more revenue for the songwriters across the board, especially as they enter new markets where download or CD sales long have been negligible”. Although iTunes sales have fell by more than 13% this year, as of now in the United States, Kobalt artists still make more from iTunes downloads than Spotify royalties.

I think that it will be interesting to see how the music industry (the digital music industry more specifically) will shift and change as new services come out and new features to already existing services come out. I have always been an avid iTunes consumer. I would always do my best to buy the songs instead of illegal downloading them and even though I would go through phases of Pandora use, I never had much patience for the ads and the limited skips. This year however, after I started to realize what a large variety Spotify had to offer, I began to use it more when listening to music on my laptop. Once I started to enjoy it more, I downloaded the iPhone app but without paying for Premium I still had to deal with the ads and the random shuffle that Pandora troubled me with. One day I decided to sign up for Spotify Premium (it's only $5/month for students!) and I haven't had a day when I haven't used it since. I have completely stopped buying from iTunes and in terms of syncing songs to my iPhone, I only sync a few playlists with remixes that are not available on Spotify or of songs that I already "collected" from before. I personally see iTunes being put up for some serious competition with Spotify.

The Wall Street Journal: Burger King Aims to Sell Whoppers in India- on eBay

 In India, consumers have recently shown a liking for ordering goods online in “flash sales” (short-lived, online sales). Most popular to be sold through flash sales have been smartphones. Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone maker has sold more than 500,000 handsets in India since July by using this method. Burger King is now taking that idea and trying to apply it to the sale of burgers. Burger King is set to open this month for the first time ever in India and is trying to get consumers to pre-order the sandwiches on eBay. Burger King is also offering chicken, mutton, and vegetable versions of its Whopper sandwich in order to keep the Hindu and Muslim population part of it’s consumer base. Burger King is allowing customers to pay a lower price of 128 rupees ($2.08) on eBay, which then lets consumers get a voucher. This voucher is redeemable for the sandwich as well as a T-shirt at the new shop in New Delhi that opens on Sunday. Although it is not super clear as to why people would want to pre-order a fast food meal online, Neha Dharia, a Bangalore, India-based technology analyst at research firm Ovum says that it “will definitely catch the attention of consumers”. Dharia however doubts that the attention will “translate into a large volume of sales”. She notes that the campaign is interesting and clever in its use of e-commerce, a craze that has taken over India.

The Wall Street Journal: Google;s Election Tool Is Latest Sign of Search Future

In this article, Rolfe Winkler discusses Google's new search tools for the current national election. Winkler says that these tools are evidence of Google's push to becoming integrated even further as a search tool in people's daily lives. Some of the tools that Google is providing include the "where to vote" and "who is on my ballot" search options. When a user types that in along with their address, Google will bring up information on which polling station to go to (with the hours) and a list of candidates and referenda that will show up on their ballots. These tools hint at Google’s goal to become a more useful search page. Google is now heading into a direction where instead of directing users to other sites, Google presents the information directly on the search page in order to save clicks. Of course not everyone is happy with the shift as Winkler discusses. He says that in areas such as local information and travel, Google is providing competition with sites that are already providing that content. Overall, Google is trying to provide answers rather than links and calls this foundation of its efforts the Knowledge Graph.

The Wall Street Journal: Remote Bhutan Gets Google Street View Panoramas

Recently, Google unveiled Google Street View images of 1,900 miles of roads in Bhutan. Bhutan is a remote country sitting between India and China and is home to only about 700,000 people. Google said with the cooperation of Bhutan’s Ministry of Information and Communications, one of their camera-equipped cars was sent out to snap more than 200,000 panoramic shots of the country. The areas photographed include some of Bhutan’s major locations such as the Punakha Dzong administrative quarters (one of their most beautiful buildings), images from Thimpu the capital, and the towns of Paro and Trongsa, as well as from a major highway and the country’s National Museum. These new and easily accessible photos will allow people who are unable to visit Bhutan still experience parts of the country as well as help local hotels in navigating visitors and showing them what varous facilities look like. Google now has 63 countries available for Street View, ranging from large, populated, and central countries (such as America) to small, isolated countries (such as Bhutan). Divon Lan, one of Google’s product managers, told The Wall Street Journal that crowds of Bhutanese would surround the camera-equipped cars, never having heard of Google’s panoramic mappings but being very interested and curious about them.

The Wall Street Journal: Whisper and the Meaning of Anonymity

Recently, there has been an influx in popular anonymous applications such as Whisper, Snapchat, Secret, and Yik Yak. These programs allow for people to post messages "anonymously" which encourages people to vent about things they wouldn't otherwise express. In the Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Dwoskin discusses the idea of anonymity and recent accusations of these apps not being truly anonymous. Dwoskin questions the definition of anonymity since there are two seemingly valid options for "what counts". Does a company have to never know the identity of its users in order to be anonymous? Or would it be enough for the anonymity to exist only between users? Also, does anonymity mean that the content is erased immediately after they appear? Or can the company store the content internally and have it still be classified as anonymous? While a definition has not seemed to be officially defined, the companies who run such apps seem to go with the looser definitions of it. Whisper has recently been reported to secretly track the location of its users (even those who opted out of the location feature), especially the users who post what they deem as "potentially newsworthy". Snapchat has also been recently accused of false anonymity when it was released that there were tens of thousands of photos (supposedly deleted after 10 seconds) from Snapchat, stored away. The problem with these two companies is that they both promise privacy but do not deliver it completely. Even though other users may not have access to these anonymous posts or self-destructing snapchats, the fact that they information is still out there for people to find means the companies are advertising their privacy in a false manner.

The Wall Street Journal: Hungary Waters Down Planned Tax on Internet Use

Hungary's government recently proposed an Internet tax on the country. The original bill sent to parliament pushed for a 150 forint (about $0.62) tax for every gigabyte of Internet traffic per consumer. Since 2010 when Prime Minister Orban came into office, his administration developed a reputation for unorthodox tax policies such as putting taxes on communication services like phone calls and text messages. Reasoning for this Internet tax is that people are getting around these telecommunication taxes via the Internet. Naturally, this proposed bill sparked much anger within the citizens, leading to protests being held in Budapest among other cities in Hungary over the weekend. Protestors argued that this tax would “reduce access to the Internet and limit free speech”. Due to the protests from the citizens, on October 27 the government came out with a new proposal, capping the tax at 700 forints ($2.87) for each individual user and 5,000 forints for businesses per month. The bill was also updated to have the Internet service providers instead of the individual subscribers to pay the tax. Though this new proposal releases some pressure put on the individuals, businesses and Internet service providers are still not pleased and have called upon the government to revoke the proposal completely. An alliance of electronic trade Szek.org argues, “regardless of the size of the levy, taxing the Internet hampers economic development, is unjustified and unrealistic”. 

New York Times: GoPro Cameras Face Simpler Competition

Molly Wood of the New York Times discusses the recent release of the new line of GoPro Hero4 and the competition GoPro may face with newer and simpler "action-ready, ultraportable little cameras". Wood lists the new GoPro features along with their (VERY HIGH) prices concluding that film producers, photographers, and videographers are and should be extremely excited about the new GoPro cameras while the added features and high price may be leaving everyone else feeling overwhelmed. With the new GoPro Hero (most basic model) being priced at $130 and the new GoPro Hero 4 Black (most advanced model ) being priced at $500, it's evident that if someone were to consider purchasing a GoPro, it would have to be a fairly large investment. Wood focuses in on what she thinks will be a main competitor for GoPro; the new Polaroid Cube.

The Cube released in September goes for only $99 (as compared to the $130 for the lowest model and $500 for the highest model of GoPro). While it's specs may not be as high as the GoPro cameras, it is still very portable (smaller than the GoPro) and easier to use. It still has decent video and picture capabilities and also comes with mount options like the GoPro.

Another new portable camera (currently taking pre-orders) that will be released soon is the HTC Re. The Re will be waterproof, ultra-portable, and will be so simple to use that it won't even have a power button, turning on when you pick it up (using touch-sensitive technology on the back of it). Its starting price of $200 is still half the price of any "high model GoPro".

Although Wood doesn't discuss the Re as much as she does the Cube, it's another new technology that she believes will be competition for the GoPro on this niched market of portable action cameras. 

Wood believes that many buyers will end up picking the Cube and other similar action-ready, portable cameras (such as the Re) over the GoPro due to the easy, more user-friendly designs and lower prices.

NPR All Things Considered

In this NPR segment, the video game industry is critiqued and the debate over #Gamergate is discussed. Nate Rott, the reporter of the segment, defines #Gamergate as being about ethics in video game journalism, and the role and treatment of women in the video game industry. He says that although there is a long history of attack on women in the video game industry, due to #Gamergate, the attacks have escalated and have gotten so bad that two women had to actually leave their homes for their own safety.

One of the women is Zoe Quinn who developed a video game called Depression Quest. Her ex-boyfriend Eron Gjoni used #Gamergate saying that she cheated on him with a journalist of a gaming website in order to get better game reviews. This led to Quinn receiving death and rape threats, having her information hacked and posted, and eventually needing to leave her home to stay safe. Quinn was interviewed by Rott and said "It's like the Internet is eager and waiting for a reason to be a total scumbag to you - at least if you're a woman and you're a loud, outspoken woman".  She went on to say that she's seen a lot of sexism in the industry and has never released a game without getting a rape threat. The other woman who had to leave her house is Anita Sarkeesian. Sarkeesian has been attacked before and through #Gamergate for her critiques on many games. Sarkeesian analyzes the way video games portray women, mainly criticizing how sexualized and weak women are made to be. Of course, her critiques upset many males in the gamer community and led to their attack on her.

Another games journalist Leigh Alexander was interviewed and closes the segment by bringing up an explanation for the hate that woman have been receiving in the video game community. Alexander points out that the video game industry has been changing and heading towards easily accessible games such as Candy Crush and Words With Friends. Alexander thinks that "the conventional audience - which she calls a 'boys club' - is shaken up by [the] change' in the gaming community. She attributes much of the sexism and hate to this "In part because [the 'boys club'] are used to being explicitly catered to as a precious special market demographic and they feel like they might get left behind".

Forbes iPhone 6 Long-Term Review

Ewan Spence, a contributor for Forbes.com wrote a “Long-Term Review” on the iPhone 6. In his review, he breaks down the iPhone into parts, commenting on the main changes in the iPhone upgrade.

Design

•It is good for old users who want to upgrade to what they are comfortable with but there is nothing that would tempt Android or Windows users to switch over

•The phone feels slippery and although most people will put a case on it anyway, the phone itself doesn't feel stable to use when held in one hand

•The plastic edging is not aesthetically pleasing

•The camera lens is now protruding while it wasn't in any of the previous models

Bigger Screen

•The larger screen makes the touch interface easier to hit & viewing the screen is easier on the eyes

•There is still a large bezel above and below the screen making it feel less compact than it should

•The pixel dimensions are larger than the 5S but the pixel count is lower than many of the top-end Androids

Camera

•Megapixels are similar to the 5S but the camera did improve in taking pictures (faster, etc.)

•For picture taking it has become more effective and for casual video shooting it is very powerful

•Apple has not added any significant improvement to the camera

Audio

•The headphone socket is still on the bottom (every other smartphone has it on the top), leaving the top completely naked (doesn't make sense)

•Location of the speaker is still at the bottom and is still of poor quality. While many smartphones are heading towards "stereo speakers", the iPhone speaker is small and in a poor location (very off-center).

Battery

•The battery will not last you a whole day unless you use your phone sparingly.

•The battery is larger than the 5S battery but since the screen is larger, it requires more power leading to a small net improvement in battery life.

iOS 8

•Not much different from iOS 7 and one of the bigger changes (tapping the button to bring the screen down) is not very useful.

•Apple Pay is also one of the major features but is already a technology used in many other parts of the world (not impressive and not new technology).

Overall Spence is unimpressed by the iPhone 6. He thinks that it shows Apple's lack of vision. “The iPhone 6 does not feel ‘magical’ to [him]. It does not feel like ‘something only Apple could do’”. 

On September 23 I attended a Google Glass workshop at the Claremont University Consortium Library, which was led by Dani Brecher and Char Booth. The library owns two pairs of Glass, one of the original versions and one of the newer versions. First they had us pass around the newer pair of Glass while we watched a short presentation explaining some background/basic information about Glass. Then we watched a promotional video put out by Google for Glass, which showed us what Google’s image was for their product. How It Feels The video was interesting because it seemed as if their goal for Glass was to be used primarily in very active-life situations. What I brought up to the group was that it seemed as if they were trying to replace GoPro. Our group however didn’t seem to think that Glass would be the technology to replace GoPro on the market. We also watched a video put out by Google that showed a way that Glass was being used to improve people’s jobs. Explorer Story: Patrick Jackson The video briefly shows how firefighter Patrick Jackson uses Glass to assist him in fighting fires and executing car extractions. When discussing this aspect of Glass, we seemed to agree that it was a neat aspect and to add on to that, I think that this usage of Glass is a better way to market the product. After this, we transitioned into a group discussion while people went to the back of the room to have a 1 on 1 session with the Glass and Dani Brecher, who guided us.

In our discussion, we mainly focused on problems we had with the design and features. First Char Booth brought to our attention that the battery pack, which rests on the right side of your head, does get hot and becomes uncomfortable during extended wear. She also mentioned that the battery doesn’t last long and that Glass really needs WiFi connection in order to take full advantage of its functions. These problems alone turned me off to Glass. We also talked about the pricing. As of now Glass is selling for about $1,500, which we all agree, is way too much. Some of the people in the workshop agreed that they would probably buy a pair for $400 but beyond that was iffy. After having my hands on the pair that was passed around, I wouldn’t even spend $400 on it. I also brought up something we touched on in Core which was how many people have a problem with the photo and video capturing capabilities of Glass. We learned that you can in fact take a picture by blinking. This feature would make me nervous depending on the social situation or location I am in. One last thing we discussed was the design of Glass. Many of us agreed that it was not what we had expected from Glass (it was a bit of a let down). Char Booth brought up a product (almost in it's Beta phase) that raised some interest on the internet a little while back called "Icis" by Laforge Optical. To many of us, we envisioned Glass to be much more like this. Laforge Optical To me, this design (user interface & physical form) is much more organic and I would be more comfortable wearing and using it in my day-to-day as opposed to Glass.

In terms of my hands-on experience with Glass, I was honestly very disappointed. I found that adjusting my eye to see the screen was quite awkward and not something I would be able to do while walking around. I think that the way it was designed makes it quite obvious when and when you are not using Glass (may be good or bad, depending). I also found that it wasn't very user friendly. I thought that it was rather difficult to use (granted, I only had my hands on it for about 5 minutes, giving me no time to really learn and get comfortable). I also found it to look awkward. 

To summarize my list of problems with Glass:

Battery pack (doesn't last long & gets hot)

WiFi needed for full functionality

Price ($1,500?!?!)

"Sketchy" photo and video capabilities

Awkward design (user interface, physical form)

Not organic!!!