23andme

23andme.com is a wonderful resource that allows individuals to explore more than any family tree could tell them. Not only does it help build a family tree based on genetics, but it gives the user power over their own health. Since knowledge is power, it allows you to partake in preventative medicine. 

However, this service proves to have some flaws that could be potentially hurting their business. One main flaw is a lack of good customer support. Many customers complained on other websites such as Amazon, saying to "NEVER use this site" because of the lack of communication between the buyer and the seller. Also this website seems to have less genealogy information than another website like ancestry.com. Another huge flaw is that it has given customers inaccurate data about the readings of their DNA in several instances. This can be terrible for someone who believes their family heritage may be from a whole different continent than where he/she is really from. Many customers reviews spoke for themselves saying that this technology may not be worth it. 

Rosen would not like this technology because you are treating for a disease that you may never have, since 23andme only provides percentages.

InfraScanner

The InfraScanner presents an interesting new technology developed in order to have a portable brain scanner to use in the detection of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).  TBIs are the leading cause of death and disability every year. These individuals range from sports players to military servicemen children falling to ordinary  people in car accidents.  InfraScan, Inc. created this technology based on near-infrared wavelengths, which penetrate skull and show the tissues of the brain. The largest downside to the InfraScanner is the accuracy, as the device shows different areas of the brain rather than a complete brain image, as a traditional CT would.  The InfraScanner's portability is a huge draw.  The size allows for the device to be carried to patients that are far from hospitals or the importable CT scanners, such as comatose patients and soldiers. The device also allows for patients to be scanned quickly, which is a benefit for children, as well as pregnant mothers who could not have a CT due to the radiation affecting the fetus but can have a brain scan through this method.  Educationally, Carr presents a history of technology and how people throughout history, such as Socrates, believed that the brain was suffering for this ideal.  Likewise, Rosen presents disorders that can root from the dependence on technology and the effects of the technologies.   Aldous Huxley presents a similar view, stating "Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards."  All three of these authors present valid points pertaining to the derelict state of the mind due to technology but I believe this InfraScanner presents a new technology in a way that the human mind alone could not function; therefore, this technology presents a innovative mean of saving lives, cutting down costs, and providing brain imaging , despite the flaws.

3D Printing–Potential Disadvantages

Dear Class,

Three-dimensional printing progressed from academic curiosity to powerful production tool through the 1980s and 1990s. The apparatus works by injecting media onto a bed, sometimes submerged in liquid, in thin layers, usually around 100 micrometers. After repeating this process many thousands of times, a physical model of a digital object is produced in three dimensions.

As with most technologies, three-dimensional printing has the potential to be socially disruptive. For instance, how will we, as a society, decide to protect the intellectual property rights of companies whose products are likely to be copied using three-dimensional printing? (See this article on how three-dimensional printing is likely to disrupt tabletop gaming company, Games Workshop.) How will we choose to regulate the production of certain objects, like assault rifles? (For more information about weapons manufacture using three-dimensional printing, see this interview with Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson.)

As technology is adopted, there is the tendency for our lives to be lived farther and farther from the physical. Three-dimensional printing is an odd reversal of this trend, a movement of the digital world into the physical. And yet, the physical experience of three-dimensional printing is not the same as other acts of creation. The designer of objects for three-dimensional printing never knows the human pleasure of craftsmanship, the tactile experience of exploring material as it progresses from imagination to form.

The craftsman knows the sensory delights of working in the physical world: the sound and smell of wood as the plane removes shavings, the touch of the plane, the sight of wood taking its final form.
(Image Source.)

With best wishes for your happiness,

Hayden

The UWand - Pro

The UWand allows control of any device with ease including a Smart TV using gesture based controls in 3D. Easy setup with no confusing directions allows for an even simpler transition from a remote with many buttons to a remote with only 3 that allows you to do the controlling  With this UWand you no longer have to go through the tedious task of going up, up, up, left, left, enter to get where you want on a device. Now it is a simple point and click. With this new technology it allows you to create your own entertainment, giving you universal control. Valentine's Day is coming up and I'd like to propose a scenario  Imagine you're waiting for you significant other to come home after his or her long day. You're getting everything ready for a romantic dinner for two and his or her favorite movie about to be played. With the UWand and a few simple gestures, the lights are dimmed, mood music is playing and every picture frame is changed to pictures of flowers or the two of you holding hands and a roaring fire is playing on the TV. Transitioning from dinner to the movie is as simple as "swish and flick." Now the movie is about to play - "The Notebook", and every frame in the room now holds a picture related to the film and the lights are now off and you and your lover can now cuddle up and watch that movie in comfortable peace.

Because of the infrared technology is goes 46 times fast than Wi-Fi and 1430 times faster than Bluetooth allowing a more accurate and faster response from the devices. Eventually this technology will even be used on iPhones and other devices as well for massive data transfer. Walking in to a store and picking up what ever you want and leaving could be a reality with IR technology scanning your credit card as you walk out making store efficiency 100% and customer happiness at an all time high. The UWand and the technology that created it could truly make the world (and your love life) a better place.

Rock Prodigy Pros

     Rock Prodigy is an app that plays like a game, but uses a real guitar and teaches real songs and skills.  It teaches you these songs and skills by allowing you to play along with notes displayed on the screen, like a real-life Guitar Hero.  You simply play along with the 'game' on your real guitar, and in doing so learn guitar techniques and songs.  Rock Prodigy, however, is not a game; it's an instructional tool.  Rock Prodigy's purpose is to teach you how to play the guitar in a fun way.  It is intended to provide some relief to the burden of practicing, making learning the guitar easier, faster, and more fun.
    
     One large benefit of Rock Prodigy is its mobility.  It works with any recent iOS device, and requires no plug-ins.  Also, you can use any guitar, electric or acoustic.  And so, you can use Rock Prodigy anywhere that you can bring your iOS device and guitar.  It's very portable.

     More importantly, however, it works with any level of experience.  If you are picking up a guitar for the first time, or if you already know how to play well, it has lessons and songs adapted for your level of experience.  It teaches you the basics, such as how to hold and tune a guitar, and then increasingly advanced lessons, such as scales and difficult songs.  This leads into the main function of Rock Prodigy:  it is an instructional tool designed to assist the learning and practicing of any guitar player.  It is not intended to replace any traditional methods of learning or practicing.  Rock Prodigy, as a supplementary tool, can help any guitar player learn and perfect songs and techniques.  Learning how to play a song requires repetitive practice.  Why not practice in a way that is fun?

     In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr claims that our brains change and develop based on our behaviors and experiences.  I think it's possible that, after practicing the guitar with Rock Prodigy for some time, guitar players could come to develop positive, fun associations with guitar practice.  Do not be deceived; no app can make learning and practicing an instrument easy.  It requires hard work and consistent practice.  However, if Rock Prodigy can make learning the guitar a little easier, faster, and more fun, then that is a worthy accomplishment.

The Ups and Downs of the Playstation Vita

The Playstation Vita represents the next generation of portable gaming.  Already on the market in Japan, this game system will hit the American market on February 22.  This revolutionary product features dual analog sticks, front and rear cameras, a high-resolution screen, a quad core processor, and is touch sensitive on both the screen, and a rear panel. 

            Having two analog sticks pleases the Playstation fans because it allows for game play similar to that on the home console, which improves the quality of first-person shooter gameplay.  However, being a Nintendo fan myself, I prefer the camera’s point of view to adjust automatically so that I only need one analog stick to control the character’s movement. 

            The front and rear cameras allow for augmented reality gaming.  Needless to say, this is a mind-blowing development in the world of entertainment. To see why it's so cool, check out the youtube video below.



           Augmented reality games allow the player to manipulate the world around them through the game, essentially morphing the real world into a digital, playable platform.  However, the cameras do not record at a very high resolution in comparison with cameras of similar sizes on portable, multi-purpose devices.  This is especially disappointing because the Vita is manufactured by Sony, a company that also makes professional-grade cameras.

            In most reviews, users find the rear touch pad to be instinctively easy to use, despite not being able to see where your fingers land.  The front touch screen is bright, clear, and sensitive.  Nothing less should be expected from a Playstation product, because their selling point from the beginning has been superior graphics.  The Vita delivers on this front. 

            The graphics do come at an underestimated cost, however. Now that games are becoming more life-like, they are becoming more immersive. This can be both a good and bad thing depending on a game’s audience. There is substantial research, which shows that violent games resonate with children more than with an audience mature enough to understand that the world in a game is not the same as the real one. Better graphics and more violent games are not a problem unique to the Vita, but there isn’t much that Sony or anyone else is doing to inhibit children from playing games outside of their age recommendation.

            After demoing the Vita myself in a GameStop, I can attest that it feels light, but substantial enough to not seem terribly fragile.  However, the analog sticks are too far apart to be comfortable on the thumbs.  This is an understandable drawback because to have them closer together would sacrifice some of the ever-popular, giant screen.

            The starting price is $250, not cheap, but not unreasonable either… until you look closer.  It is more expensive than its Nintendo brand counterpart, the 3DS.  Also, the memory cards are proprietary, meaning that only Vita memory cards can be used on the Vita, and they can be used for no other purpose.  This is an annoying and expensive inconvenience to consumers.   Another expensive addition to this device is portable Internet, which is locked into AT&T if you choose to have it.

            Another awesome aspect to this new gaming device is the continuity it will provide to the gaming experience.  If Playstation follows through on what they have promised, a gamer can be playing a game like Madden (football) on their PS3 at home, pause, save, and resume from that checkpoint on their Vita from anywhere. 

As with any product, the Playstation Vita has its upsides and downsides.  Overall, this product will have a positive impact on furthering the technology of the entertainment industry.  The social implications are another issue entirely. Perhaps providing a more immersive gaming experience will prevent children from forming real-world social connections.  Alternatively, using Playstation’s own social network, Near, could connect gamers in new ways that would not be possible without this technology. 

Co-written by Mandy and Mitchell.

Prezi presentation available here:

Playstation Vita on Prezi

What's Not Cool about the SpareOne cell phone

      The Spare One, like every other product, has its drawbacks. The cell phone claims to have a fifteen year battery life, but that number is actually very relative. Fifteen years only describes the shelf life of the battery, but does not take into account the usage. The battery life of the phone while being used is only ten hours. Also, the company only claims fifteen years if you are using a specific battery, the Energizer ultimate lithium battery. 

      According to Danah Boyd, our ever-present messaging systems and devices mean that we “never really have to disconnect.” (The Shallows, page 86). Thanks to the Spare One, even in emergencies where there is no power or electricity, we don’t have to disconnect. The fact that there is a market open for these “emergency cell phones” shows that our society is becoming extremely dependent on technology. In past time periods, when there was some emergency, one could always go to neighbors for help with a problem. Now, since our community is communicating more and more through technology, and less and less in person, emergency situations in which technology have failed have become more of a problem. 

     Also, you need a cell phone plan for the phone to work. For most people, that only entails placing your current SIM card to the Spare One, but to other people, it could be more difficult and even expensive to create a cell phone plan. Another drawback is that the Spare One sacrifices a display on the device for battery life. The lack of a screen makes calling difficult. Also, there is no way to save contact lists, and many people don’t memorize phone numbers anymore because we don’t have to. 

      The Spare One is $50.00. That is a lot for a backup cell phone that you may never get a chance to use. The Spare One is definitely not a perfect product. It is very good at what it does, but for many people, it will not justify the cost of the product.

New Technologies - What's Cool about the SpareOne phone

Scheduled for release in March 2012, the SpareOne phone, made by Powerskin, is a mobile device that runs on a single AA lithium battery. The phone comes equipped with an Energizer Lithium 91 battery, a battery that doesn't degrade when it's not being used. That single battery allows the phone to have a shelf-life of up to 15 years and 10 hours of talk time. It’s an affordable phone at $49.99. It has no screen and can only do one thing: make phone calls.

With moderm smartphones boasting specs like 5” screens and super AMOLED resolutions, the SpareOne phone may seem like a backward step advances in the mobile phone industry. However, the SpareOne was not made to be like a smart phone. It was made to be your phone's backup. 

We live in a world that is extremely dependent on mobile devices for communication. As Turkle puts it in Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, "Compassion is due to those of us--and there are many of us--who are so dependent on our devices that we cannot sit still for a funeral service or a lecture or a play." Our cellular devices are the primary tools that we use for everyday life nowadays, so it has become necessary to have some sort of backup for when your tool’s battery life gets drained from all the texting, calling, gaming, and web surfing. What do you do if the power goes out, your phone is dead, and there is no workable outlet? What do you do when your car breaks down in the middle of a deserted high way, and your phone is dead? Or if your phone is lost or stolen? A backup—just in case situations like this happen—might be needed.

The SpareOne phone’s primary use is for emergency situations. If a natural disaster occurs and assistance is needed, it might be smart to have a SpareOne phone lying around your house or in your car. And it doesn't need a SIM card to make emergency calls. Its long shelf-life means that you can put it in storage and know that it’s there for you when you need it. At only fifty dollars a phone, you can keep one in your car and in your home. It’s a good phone to have—just in case. 

What's Cool about StumbleUpon

                StumbleUpon- Pro

                StumbleUpon is a website that caters to the user.  It allows you to choose topics and takes random pages from the internet about those topics and shows them to you after which point you can like it, saving it your profile, or dislike it, preventing the page from being shown again. Over time, it learns more of what you like, giving you the best content in your selected categories. In a sense, it makes the internet your own. StumbleUpon organizes the internet in a way that allows you to discover what you might never know otherwise and eliminate the things you never wish to think about. It is also good for the mind. In Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows (2010), he states that the brain craves stimulus and that the internet provides it in a way that causes activity in all areas of the brain, so much so that it can be a mental exercise for the elderly. It also can provide too much for our brains to handle by receiving too many sources of stimuli at once, “the Net seizes our attention only to scatter it”(page 118). StumbleUpon can appeal to both, by giving a nearly endless amount of content to keep the brain busy and stimulated but by narrowing it down to topics you enjoy and know it lessens the total amount of stimuli and eases into new stimuli.

To use Carr’s analogy, if we imagine the transfer of working memory into long term memory as filling a bathtub then the internet equates to “many information faucets, all going full blast” while a book is transferring information “thimbleful by thimbleful.”(pages 124-125) StumbleUpon essentially is the plumber who takes some of the faucets out and reduces the water flow to more your liking, allowing for deeper concentration than the internet initially provides by easing that cognitive load into something much more manageable. It also helps build communities of like minded people by bringing you and others to the content enjoyed.

 In the digital age, the way we learn and develop is changing thanks to the internet. Like many before us, we are in the twilight of a new age as the old ways of learning start to fade and the digital age begins to rise. StumbleUpon is the perfect site for our time of transition, allowing for better browsing of the internet for the minds of all generations.

What's NOT cool about StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a site that lets you rate pages, choose the type of content you want to see, and then suggests other similar pages for you. You can also use a friend’s StumbleUpon account to surf through their preferences. In a way, it’s TiVo 2.0, helping make the vast stretches of the internet easier to digest by telling you what you like. This method of maintaining pre-established interests is detrimental to personal growth and discovery, since users are continually exposed to the same division of information. This allows the account holder to simply stay in their comfortable “box” of interests and never branch out into new, exciting, potentially enlightening information. If someone wants to spend the whole day reading articles about a political issue, StumbleUpon will provide an endless supply of articles with a similar skew that the reader had previously preferred. There is nothing mentally stimulating or challenging about finding information in this way, seeing as the finder isn’t even doing the finding himself. In turn, the mind cannot create new and creative connections to information, since all the information provided is already intertwined for the reader. 

Easily accessed and connected information like this has a significant consequence: reduced memory. As stated in The Shallows by Nicholas Carr (2010), the internet has taken over as our new memory. There isn’t a need to remember details of an issue, or anything for that matter, when it can easily be retrieved online with negligible effort (pg. 180-184). The mind now forgets much more quickly than in the era before websites like StumbleUpon, which is certainly not a positive side effect.  All in all, this website is simply a tool for laziness and unimaginative discovery. 

Nest - negative

            The Nest Learning Thermostat learns from the adjustments made to it and uses this information to create a personal schedule of temperature changes.  Once a schedule is created, the Nest will change the temperature on its own, according to its schedule, without anyone having to touch it at all.  I, however, am not convinced that this would be very useful for everyone.  Do you really change the temperature so many times during the week that you need a thermostat to make a schedule and change the temperature for you?  For this aspect of the device to be useful, you would not only need to change the temperature a lot, but you would need to change the temperature at consistent times.

            The Nest also has an “Auto-Away” feature, which is designed to sense when the house is empty and make appropriate temperature changes in order to avoid wasting money heating or cooling an empty house.  I am skeptical of its ability to accurately determine when a house is empty or not.  First of all, the Auto-Away sensor detects motion.  This could mean that if there is a long period of inactivity in the room in which it is located, it could think that nobody is home, even if there are people in another room.  Also, thermostats are not always placed in central areas of a house, but instead are often located in out of the way places such as hallways and corners.  And so again, it could potentially think that nobody is home just because nobody passed in front of the sensors.  Finally, the sensors can mistake the presence of pets for the presence of people.

Nest - Positive

The Nest Thermostat is a step that is geared towards a more digital and automated age. With the ability to “sense” physical presence in a room, the temperature, humidity, and light levels, the Nest Thermostat will automatically adjust itself accordingly. It does this through a learning process of the owner’s daily routine and manual adjustments of the thermostat. With this capability, the Nest will save massive amounts of energy, money, and waste as thermostats are estimated to control have of the consumed energy in an average household. There are claims that the utilization of Nest can save up to 20 to 30 percent in energy consumption as it will be able to adjust itself in situations otherwise impossible to with a regular thermostat, such as when nobody is home.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) calculated that if a relatively modest 15 percent of total energy use is saved by every household in the U.S. starting today, by 2020 $46 billion would be saved. This figure says enough on its own as one can imagine all the different areas and uses that all that money could be allocated to. In addition to the monetary savings, energy loss and pollution such as carbon would be significantly reduced as a result.

A feature that has an unlimited of future technological implications is its remote control ability. Being able to adjust the Nest from anywhere, via the built-in Wi-Fi hardware in the thermostat, adds convenience and efficiency into the owner’s life. Instead of having to be physically present to adjust it, owners can control the thermostat from anywhere with the use of 3G of Wi-Fi. Another example of the remote control ability is a system and software that allows users to water their plants remotely. Not only does time not need to be allocated in performing the physical task, but exactly amounts of water and fertilizer can be added precisely through the software. With the Nest, all the data that is sent to and from the thermostat is gathered in a database where further analysis takes place.

With access to this vast amounts data, Nest Labs are able to constantly improve the thermostat and automatically update them through the built-in Wi-Fi. In addition, the information in these databases is accessible to owners of Nest Thermostats to observe their own behavior as well as share the information with others. People are now being connected through the thermostat, sharing their experiences, thoughts, problems, and suggestions. Before this technology, there would have never been such hype or conversation stemming from thermostats. Nilay Patel, an editor for news publication The Verge, summed it up with the phrase “social networking to save the earth.”

For the ever-changing technological field, this thermostat is just a small step, hinting of the even greater future products to come. Looking at the interaction created between users, it is exciting to imagine what social benefits more technological advanced products can bring to society. Maryanne Wolf wrote in Proust and the Squid, “The next few decades will witness transformations in our ability to communicate, as we recruit new connections in the brain that will propel our intellectual development in new and different ways... understand[ing] other human beings is especially important today as we make the transition from a reading brain to an increasingly digital one.” It sums up the importance of social connection and getting to know and understand each other as we progress into a digital age. New advanced technologies, such as the Nest Thermostat, certainly do promote social networking and intellectual development.
For more information about Nest, please visit:   http://www.nest.com/

Nest

The Nest Thermostat is a learning thermostat that improves over time by observing changes in its surrounding. There are senses built into the thermostat that detect movement, temperature, humidity, and light. Any manual adjustment made to the thermostat is recorded and eventually the thermostat will begin automatically adjusting itself according to the owner's patterns created through their daily routine. It costs $249.

Smart Fabric--What's Not Cool (Jocelyn)

As Kristina pointed out, BMW's design is both innovative and cool; And what happens when a new product is both of those things? The price is through the roof. I could see car makers using this technology as an excuse to inflate the prices of their products, even in cars that don't look as cool as the concept car presented in Geneva.
As much as I would love to drive around in a "Tron car," I can tell you right now that I won't be able to afford it until the technology is old news.

Stroking the seat or dashboard to change the radio station or turn on the wipers might seem like a really cool trick in theory, but put in practice I could see a lot of problems with it. First, because it eliminates the need for buttons, drivers would have to learn all new controls. If you've ever driven a strange car and been confused for a moment when your hand changed the temperature instead of the volume because the controls were different from what you were used to, just imagine how confusing and distracting it would be to have to fiddle with every upholstered surface of the car to find the control you're looking for. And, of course, there won't be any labels to tell you where to touch. That would look weird. Secondly, Kristina pointed out that the smart fabric technology can be just as durable the fabric it is woven into. However, I've never seen anything woven into leather; and even if BMW did manage to weave these plastic wires into the leather seat, can we call it the same quality as traditional leather seats? People who buy luxury cars with leather seats aren't going to be pleased to know that there are bits of plastic under them.
Lastly, I would like to address other uses for this smart fabric. We read an article about how the fabric could be woven into that of a couch or chair and programmed to work like a remote. Well how lazy is our society getting that not only can we not be bothered to use the the buttons on the TV, but now we're too lazy to even look for the remote.

Smart Fabric Introduction

BMW is investigating a new touch-sensitive fabric for use in their upcoming models. The interactive seats and dashboards would be all touch sensitive with controls for air conditioning, the radio, and more. There have been many recent improvements by a research team led by Professor Maksim Skorobogatiy in Montreal, Canada that have made the fabric more marketable. They showed a concept car at the Geneva motor show.

What's Cool about Smart Fabric? -Kristina

The smart fabric looks quite amazing. That is a large draw of any technology now. The sleek screens of nowadays tablets and phones have made touch items the "hip" thing for our generation.

The newest smart fabric technology is able to be cleaned like normal fabric. This is a significant improvement from its previous prototypes. Most retailers realize that people eat, drink, smoke, etc. in their car and they need fabric that can be cleaned without special care and detailing. Instead of using copper wires, they are trying to use conductive plastic that can be sponged clean so the average person could clean it like in current cars.

It is now as durable as any other fabric used for car seats. When woven into a durable fabric, it is just as functional as leather or polyester. It supposedly doesn't feel any different than the fabric with which the technology is interwoven, so there would still be options of feel and look to car seat material.

This fabric has the potential to eliminate buttons on the dashboard. You wouldn’t have to look at the radio or air conditioner buttons and controls which distract drivers. Also, labels can be confusing. In many cars, the label for turning the air flow up looks like a strip of bacon. In the book, "Proust and the Squid," Wolf speaks of “visual feature analysis” and she says it takes a half second after a word appears to actually see it and then another second to comprehend and take action. That second and a half when driving at 70 mph would correlate to approximately one hundred and fifty-four feet. (70 miles per hour = 102.666667 feet per second.) That distance could easily cause a car accident. By eliminating those visual buttons and replacing them with smart fabric that doesn't need to be seen, smart fabric could eliminate a few distractions for drivers and prevent distracted driving accidents.

Amazon Kindle, What's Cool!

     The great thing about having an Amazon Kindle is the ability to access millions of books from a small, lightweight device that can be easily read no matter where you are. With the use of its electronic ink, (E-ink) the Kindle's screen is very similar to an actual book page and will not show a glare when used in an outside setting. With the more recent development of the Kindle app, Whispersync, and Amazon Cloud, users can access their entire Kindle library from Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Mac, and PC devices and have their bookmarks saved no matter where they last view their books. Each Kindle is given its own email address so users can send and save important documents directly to their device with ease. The Kindle can also last over three weeks on a single charge.
     Books available from the Amazon Kindle library are often cheaper than traditional books, and E-book sales surpassed traditional book sales for the first time in December of 2009. Amazon has also started publishing Kindle singles, which are short stories that would usually be rejected by book and magazine publishers because of their non-traditional length. There are also millions of free books available for download, such as those books published before 1923 with expired copyrights. Kindle even offers E-book check-outs from 11,000 local libraries and textbooks for buy or rent.
     The Kindle has added features that enhance the overall reading experience, such as text-to-speech capabilities which will read the text aloud or optional professional readings that can be downloaded. This feature can be extremely helpful for weaker readers or those with poor reading comprehension skills. In Maryanne Wolf's Proust and the Squid, the author states, "...in the first three grades a child 'learns to read,' and in the next grades the child 'reads to learn.'" (Wolf, 135) The use of Kindles in school settings as a replacement for traditional textbooks is becoming more commonplace, and these features can be extremely helpful in developing comprehensive reading skills in children.  Amazon Kindle will define difficult words on the screen allowing the reader to better understand their book quickly and efficiently. Kindle's E-books also include background information on key characters and events in the book that are downloaded automatically to the device, negating the need for an internet access and eliminating search time. 

Amazon Kindle Youtube Channel

 
This is a great technology that is useful for people of all ages, occupations, and interests!

Kindle - What's Not Cool (Anna)

The Kindle is a relatively new technology; it is a device on which people read e-books.  While most people see only the positives of e-reading devices, there are more than a few negatives.  Some of the more basic problems with the Kindle include cost and durability.  An average paperback novel from a bookstore costs between ten and fifteen dollars.  The price of a single e-book may be the same, if not less, than the real book; but this price must be added to the seventy-nine dollars that the Kindle itself costs.  Durability is another issue to think about.  A Kindle is nowhere near as durable as a book.  As Nicholas Carr says in his The Shallows, you don’t have to worry about a book falling off of your bed, whereas a Kindle would most likely break if dropped.

            One problem with the Kindle involves Communities and Connections.  Many people lend books that they enjoy to their friends.  With a kindle, a person can only lend “eligible” books to friends.  Eligible books can be lent once for a period of fourteen days.  If this person does not finish the book within the fourteen days, or if another friend would like to borrow the book, the whole Kindle would have to be borrowed. 

            There are many more negative consequences of the Kindle, and these are less trivial.  In Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, he quotes Jacob Weisberg, who said that, “printed books, the most important artifacts of human civilization, are going to join newspapers and magazines on the road to obsolescence.”  This is a problem related to Human Development.  Historians have learned invaluable information about the past from the records that past peoples left behind.  If written books become obsolete, this will rob future generations of the important artifacts that can show how people today live their

lives.   

            Another problem arises from the use of the Kindle, and this one falls under the Education and Learning category.  This problem is also addressed in Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows.  He mentions that it is very easy to become restless and distracted when reading an e-book on the Kindle.  Many e-reading devices can now hold hyperlinks, making it easy to forget the task at hand.  With the increasing popularity of buying textbooks and other class materials on the e-reader, serious problems arise.  Students today have an increasing problem with ADD and ADHD, which may make it hard to focus on things like reading a chapter of the textbook.  Partner ADD or ADHD with the increased restlessness and difficulty concentrating that comes with reading on a Kindle or other e-reader, and many students will have a huge problem.

Kindle

The Kindle is Amazon’s e-reading device.  The Kindle can hold 1,400 e-books and has a battery life of one month.  Newer Kindles can also hold movies, television shows, magazines, music, and games.  They range in price from $79 to $379.
Amazon Kindle

Xbox Kinect - What's Not Cool (Tyler)

    While the Xbox Kinect has a wide variety of uses, it ultimately limits the user’s experience physically, mentally, and socially.  The Kinect can only receive signals in a certain area and needs to operate in an open space.  Many households simply cannot provide ample space around the users; an individual must stand eight feet from the device and have an additional six feet of free space on every side.  This is further complicated with the introduction of another player.
    Another problem with the Kinect is that while it promotes some physical activity, is it a substitute for natural outdoor activity?  Why limit yourself to a piece of carpet when we have the entire world to play on?  An open field does not present as many safety hazards as a confined space surrounded by furniture.  Individuals have more materials to interact with and a larger range of motion outdoors; they can engage in games of soccer, swim in a pool, or jog around a block.  One can certainly expend more energy outdoors and burn more calories, a standard measure of exercise for many people.
    The Kinect only allows two users to interact with it at one time.  Even in the presence of others at a social event, users are engaged in the game and have little social interaction with others.  This takes away from the social connectedness of a group or family, a consequence of many forms of modern technology.  The book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam shows strong correlation between the use of technology and the decline of social groups.  Socially, individuals might benefit more if they were members of a fitness club, soccer team, or community organization, all of which provide similar entertainment to that of the Kinect.  People should be “kinected” to others, not a camera or microphone.
    Finally, the current age of media and technology has heightened some functions of our brains, but dulls others.  No longer can we focus on an activity for an extensive period of time.  No longer can we read a book cover to cover with the same level of comprehension, even if we do finish it.  In Maryanne Wolf’s book Proust and the Squid, she claims that the rush of information and accelerated thought processes caused by technology isn’t necessarily a good thing (213).  Her book takes a look at the reading brain, how we engage and process information, and the continuing development of our mental systems and structure.  The brain is set up with dedicated “‘delay neurons’ whose sole function is to slow neuronal transmission by other neurons for mere milliseconds” (Wolf 214).  This allows us time to make inferences and compose new knowledge.  With the wealth of signals we are receiving from the Kinect and other sources, has technology injected itself into these moments, limiting our ability to think and comprehend?  Have the Kinect, and all of technology, created “a society of decoders of information, whose false sense of knowing distracts them from a deeper development of their intellectual potential" (Wolf 226)?  The Xbox Kinect limits us in more ways than one.