Using Mobile Phones in Public - 21/11/2012

A debate about mobile phones and where we use them has been going on for quite a while. A lot of people think that they have the freedom to use their mobile phones where ever they are however others argue that it's disrespectful. Both sides have a good point and therefor I decided to do a Cons and Pros list of using mobile phone in public.



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Pro: Safety

• In airplanes and hospitals, cell phones can interfere with the functioning of delicate instruments, a serious consideration. Many states have banned cell use while driving, citing a relationship between phones and traffic accidents. A 1997 "New England Journal of Medicine" study found that talking on a phone while driving quadrupled the risk of an accident, nearly equal to the danger from driving drunk.

Pro: Peace and Quiet

• Many people go to places such as libraries specifically to focus and do work. Others attend church or religious services for time to worship and reflect. People who use their "cell yell" in such a setting distract others. When they have paid for a nice (or even a not-so-nice) restaurant meal, restaurant-goers feel entitled to soft conversation and a relaxed atmosphere in which to unwind. Some cell phone chatter remains inappropriate for anyone to overhear, especially young children.

Pro: Inconveniencing Others

• Often cell phone users will multitask, attempting to carry on a conversation while using an ATM, driving or completing a store transaction. Their divided attention becomes an obstruction to the cashier and an inconvenience to those behind them, who must wait longer.

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Con: Safety

• Some argue that having 911 available at the touch of a button is critical to maintaining personal security. Cell phone bans impede drivers' ability to report an accident, road rage incident, medical emergency or crime. Drivers assert the importance of calling for directions if lost or receive help if their car breaks down.

Con: Emergencies

• Genuine emergencies do occur, and some calls truly cannot wait. People who have sick or elderly family members, parents expecting an important call from their child, and those in the midst of a crisis believe it's acceptable to leave their phones on in public.

Con: Personal Freedom

• Some people believe they have a right to talk on their phones under the First Amendment, and that cell phone bans intrude on their personal freedom. As they pay a high monthly price for this communication option, they believe they can use the devices wherever and whenever they choose.

http://www.ehow.com/list_6773806_pros-cell-phones-public-places.html

Employment opportunities - 15/11/2012

Employment opportunities
The vast growth of IT has resulted in changes to the way people live and function from day to day. One of the areas that IT has greatly affected are businesses. Before the IT revolution, most of the jobs like calculating spreadsheets were done by hand and therefore businesses had to spend a lot more of their wages on trained staff that could do this efficiently. This meant that there were certain jobs people trained for and have worked at for years however with the introduction of computers, those jobs started to disappear. This is because specialised staff was no longer needed, everything could've been done on a computer, operated by one person. It was a lot cheaper and the amount of errors was also smaller because all the calculations were done automatically; all you have to do is type in the numbers and the computer will do the rest for you.

Word & Excel

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In this age businesses have the choice to use all kinds of software however the microsoft software still remains the most popular. The two mostly used by businesses are Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office Word. This is because both of them are ridiculously easy to use but they also have a lot more advanced options for the more knowledgeable.
Word is used for documents like letters. Before Word was invented, businesses had to employ typewriters who needed training and had to be payed. Because everything was written on a typewriter, it meant you couldn't make any alterations and therefore if any mistakes were made, the document had to be written all over again and this was time consuming. It also didn't give you much of a choice, you could only write in one font which meant that every document looked the same and kind of boring to read. Using Word allows you to; choose from thousands of fonts, edit your work at any stage, delete single letters, and even paste pictures like the company logo or a graph. When you're done you can print it all of in a matter of seconds.
Excel on the other hand is mostly used for spreadsheets like balance sheets, profit and loss accounts or any other document that involves calculations. It can also be used to make timetables, statistics, comparisons, etc. For businesses it's one of the most useful software because again, it only needs one person to operate where as years ago it would've had to be replaced with a whole team of employees who would have to make calculations themselves with a possibility of making mistakes. They also had to be paid a lot meaning that business expenses were going up.

Jobs
As I've already mentioned, a lot of jobs disappeared however a lot also opened up meaning that the job opportunities increased. These are some of the office jobs that opened up with the introduction of IT:

• Web Designer
• Network Administrator
• IT technicians
• Computer Sales
• Technical Support (Call Centres)

www.brightsideofnews.com

Download services - 14/11/2012

Download Services
There are lots of online services that give you the option to download different types of items at a certain cost or even for free and they are being used by millions of people around the world. This is because it's much more convenient than actually going to the store yourself and buying the physical goods. Instead when you buy a song or a film, it doesn't actually take up any space because it's all digital, and stored on your computer. If it's not digital, than it is usually delivered to your house within a certain period of time which is also very convenient because the item arrives right at your door without you having to go and pick it up.

So why do people shop online?

- "A recent Nielsen survey of US shoppers found the ability to shop any time was the chief advantage of online shopping for 81%, closely followed by 77% who said they enjoyed the time-saving from not having to navigate the traffic jams and queues of Christmas shopping.

Low prices ranked fifth in the survey, with just 46% naming bargain prices as their primary reason for shopping online.

These findings are in sharp contrast to the results of another recent survey by market research firm Synovate. It found that 67% of shoppers feel lower prices as the main motivator for them to shop online, with the availability of free shipping the second most important factor.

Convenience, on the other hand, ranked way back in the pack, with only 8% citing it as a key motivating factor for shopping online."

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/advertising-and-marketing/why-do-people-shop-online.html

In my opinion the main reason why people shop online is because of the technological revolution. In the past decade, internet and technology have evolved so much that it is almost unnecessary for people to go out because everything they need can be bought online and delivered to them. With inventions like kindle, there is no reasons for people to go to libraries and buy books because they can just buy digital versions of them online, and store them all on this little device without taking up any physical space. Those books bought online are also usually cheaper so it makes more sense to buy it online instead of from a book store.


There are also other gadgets and software that makes online shopping more convenient. For example, when an ipod was introduced, Steve Jobs also created the itunes store which provided milions of songs to their customers. The best thing about it was that you could buy your favourite song seperately for less than a dollar instead of buying a whole album just for that song.

However as good as all this sounds, there is also the other side. People soon realised that if everything is so easy to get online, and there seems to be no one watching, they can just download items for free, ilegally. "It's one song and it only takes up 3mbs, so why should I pay for it if I can get it for free without consequences?" The economy is getting worse, people don't have the money to pay for entertainment like films and music so they choose to download it illegally at no cost. It's just as convenient as actually buying something online but without the drawback of actually paying for it.

The Reasons why people download items ilegally over the internet:

Convenience and price are the main factors driving illegal downloading/streaming of TV shows, movies and music. The top five reasons given for illegally downloading/streaming TV shows were: “having to wait too long to see it on TV” (50.7%), “ability to watch it at all times” (41.5%), “avoiding advertisements” (38.9%), “content not shown on TV at all” (35.9%) “it’s convenient”(35.6%). The top five reasons given for illegally downloading/streaming movies were: “going to the cinema is too expensive” (43.5%), “it’s convenient” (42.4%), “ability to watch it at all times” (42.4%), “it’s free” (28.7%) “it’s and old movie I can’t find on DVD or Blu-ray” (25.8%). The top five reasons given for illegally downloading/streaming music were: “I want it in MP3 format without copy protection” (43.2%), “it’s convenient” (37.0%), “CDs are too expensive” (36.5%), “it’s free” (33.2%), “trying before buying” (28.2%). The willingness to pay for a convenient legal downloading/streaming option is highest for movies (with 78.3% willing to pay). For TV shows and music, 66% reported being prepared to pay for a legal alternative. http://www.wipo.int/ip-outreach/en/tools/research/details.jsp?id=2534



www.ambigram24.blogspot.co.uk

4th Generation Internet Coverage - 05/11/2012

So what is 4G? In short, it's the name given to the fourth generation of mobile networks, just as the previous generation is called 3G. It's basically an improved, faster version of 3G which is only just developing in the UK. So far it's mainly available in London and a few other big cities however a company called Everything Everywhere (who owns Orange and T-Mobile) plan to provide 4G network to 98% of Britain by 2014.
 
So how is 4G so much better than 3G? Well for starters you should be able to stream video to your handset much more fluidly, without the endless buffering message. You’ll be able to use 4G to make and receive better quality audio and video calls. Just as you can load several webpages at once on a desktop PC, the same should be possible from your mobile phone – meaning you can get more done, more quickly. It will also be good news for software developers who will produce a new generation of smartphone apps that can take advantage of faster connection speeds.
For businesses, and especially SMEs, the benefits stretch even further. You’ll be able to send and receive larger, more complex documents more rapidly, opening up the option for remote-working for thousands more people. With a fuller rollout of 4G, even people in rural locations should benefit from a reasonable standard of mobile broadband – an exciting prospect for any business that isn’t based in a major city.
- http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/11/07/4g-%E2%80%93-is-now-the-time-to-join-the-party/

4G vs 3G
                                        3G                               4G

Data Throughput:	Up to 3.1mbps	Practically speaking, 3 to 5 mbps but potential estimated at a range of 100 to 300 mbps.
Peak Upload Rate:	50 Mbit/s	500 Mbit/s
Peak Download Rate:	100 Mbit/s	1 Gbit/s
Switching Technique:	packet switching	packet switching, message switching
Network Architecture:	Wide Area Cell Based	Integration of wireless LAN and Wide area.
Services And Applications:	CDMA 2000, UMTS, EDGE etc	Wimax2 and LTE-Advance
Forward error correction (FEC):	3G uses Turbo codes for error correction.	Concatenated codes are used for error corrections in 4G.
Frequency Band:	1.8 – 2.5GHz	2 – 8GHz

- http://www.diffen.com/difference/3G_vs_4G

Taken from - www.expertreviews.co.uk

Social Networking - 01/11/2012

Social Networking has been around for some time now. The first sites were created as early as the 90's but since then, none of them have survived because the thing about those sites is that they get old just as quick as they become popular. Many big websites have been the giants in this industry for months or even years but the market changes quickly and so do the demands. Facebook has been probably the most popular social networking site in history and many say it will stay like this forever however if you look at the statistics, there are other websites that are taking away their customers. Their biggest competitor at the moment is Twitter and a lot people around the world actually switched from Facebook to Twitter in the recent time.

The amount that social networking has grown in the last decade is unbelievable. It is thanks to sites like Facebook, Twitter, myspace or Linkedin that social networking has spread so much. To prove this I researched some facts and found these figures:

- Total number of Facebook users worldwide               1.2 Billion
- Total percentage of 18-24 year olds                          98% 
who already use social media
- Total percentage of people on Earth                           11%  
who use Facebook
source - http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/