What does the future hold?

Well, over the last couple of months we have looked at various forms of media and how it has been used so far. Now as this is my last post I will look at what the future may hold for us. I will focus on mobile phones with a laptop/computer twist.

Apple seemed to have the market cornered in the not too distant past with their media players and brightly coloured Macs. Everyone had to have the Apple thingy-mejig as soon as it was announced by the company. Many people slept in the streets for days to get one. Not so long ago this was done for sports tickets and concerts because there was a limited number. But with Apple products they are available to the whole public and does it really matter if you got it a few days later? I think not. But for those who are waiting with baited breathe for Apple’s NEWEST, BESTEST, GREATEST new toy here it is…..

                                                                                            

Think I will stick with my old out-dated slow desktop. At least I don’t need to remember the alphabet!  Mmm that could be a problem for the Gen Tech’ers , apparently they didn’t learn the alphabet because they were too busy learning TXT talk instead of English. Here’s an easy song that you can learn while waiting outside in the dark for the Apple shop to open.

So that’s what Apple wants to produce – something smaller than everyone else. I personally think that our Mobile phones are going to be the PC of the past.  How much easier would life be if we could use Office on our phones to type up documents, print said documents and save heaps of rubbish that we find interesting? We can already do some very PC stuff now. I just wonder how much of a problem size is. Most people want something that is portable, and can do everything in their phone now. The fact that we are able to get the internet on fridges and TV’s is interesting too. One day will we be able to use any surface as a computer? Or just for the internet? Things to consider, which I am sure the technology people are brainstorming now as we think about them. Here is an interesting thought....

Well, obviously it wasn’t only my idea. How about returning to the ‘good ole days’. When life was easier, and there were no everyday acronyms to describe common everyday items eg. MP4, WMV.

Wow, that was impressive. Though wouldn’t like to carry that around in my pocket. Pretty cool though!

In signing off I would like to thank my followers, now you need to leave your homes and turn off your computers. Maybe I will see you in the queue for Apples new phone that starts off small and then opens out to be a …..PC or a car – now that would be awesome.

Bye for now

Second Life or GET A LIFE!

Welcome my followers,

This is my second last blog, and today we are looking at ‘Second Life’. Now this phenomenon is very new to me. If you are unsure of what it is I hope to enlighten you to a ‘whole new world’.

  Firstly I assume you are sitting at a desk/table probably at work thinking ‘I really need a holiday’.

Now imagine instead of going on Facebook and feeling sad that EVERYONE is going on holiday instead of you, you clicked your mouse and HEY PRESTO you were on holiday??

My ideal holiday

Anyway, back to you at your desk taking a holiday. In Second Life you can, it’s just a click away. First you get to sign up, and then you make yourself an avatar. Your avatar can look however you wish it to look – your dream body shape, your dream partner, whatever you wish it to be. The next big decision is where to go? Like the real world you have a choice these include beaches, Sydney, mountains and everywhere in-between. Let’s see someone on holiday

So you now see what I am talking about, no queues, driving to the airport and eating airline food – because you FLY. Cool huh?

My non- Second Life Avatar

So these avatars that I spoke about, I am sure that now you are thinking how do I sign up? Well as I said you have an avatar that you design. You get to dress it up and sometimes you can also buy the clothes in the real world that your avatar wears. Is that great? Or does anyone else think it’s kind of creepy and weird? Oh you must buy genitals for your avatar too. Don’t want to forget them or you can’t have sex with the great lifeguard on the beach that you were dancing with. Yes, you can have sex on the beach once you have them if you so wish ( I think). If you want to keep it real you can even go to a birthing clinic and have a baby. I am going to show you how ‘real’ it is just because I was fascinated by it. Don’t click if you don’t want to watch, but the movies on TV are more realistic.

Now that you have seen that a few more things you may need to know. You can buy real estate, go to university, shop at the Apple shop, and don’t forget you will still probably need to go to work there.

Also Charities feature

This community has many things going for it. They have beauty pageants (see zombie link below), forums, blogs and many video clips. People have set up businesses in Second Life and are able to make real money in the real world from this other life.

Zombie Beauty Pageant And More

In other words, Second Life is exactly that, another life away from your ‘normal or regular’ one. So how real is it? I think that for the people in this other life its very real for them. For people like me who lead very full lives now it’s a crock of nonsense. Seriously is the real world that bad? Come on we had Big Brother that gave us the bum dance, Master chief that is encouraging us to eat more high fat/calorie food and let’s not forget Survivor who taught us all how to be nasty back stabbing liars… Who wouldn’t want to be part of this real world?

That was very real to those people who were locked in the house together, but to those people outside in the real world it was either great or just plain stupid. These groups didn’t have to work but they did have to partake in ‘challenges’ for food and privileges. Their Big Brother world was separate from the outside world and they produced whatever persona they wished the public to see. So the differences between Big Brother and Second Life are similar in many ways. Would I sign up to either? NO, I prefer to feel the sun on my face and the sand between my toes. I would love to change my body, skin colour and hair colour regularly but it that’s not real. The only consolation is that I can go to the gym and lose weight, and go to the hairdresser and change my hair colour. Well until next time…..

Mobile Phone - LOVE IT or HATE IT?

Most of the population have at least one mobile phone – some extra important people have more so we can see they are important. This now small device has transformed greatly since its inception in size, use and styles. There is apparently even Mobile phone etiquette, though most people don’t know its rules. Now more than ever people are contactable 24/7, even in the toilet!

These devices are wonderful because you can always be contacted, and they also allow you to watch T.V, surf the web, take photos and movies, listen to music, add many apps – including Fatbooth (supersizes your body) and of course make telephone calls and send TXT messages. Opps almost forgot – make great weapons!

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/31/naomi-campbell-in-court-for-chucking-another-phone-at-maid/

Who would have thought that we would one day be able to fit a telephone into our jeans pocket? Poor Maxwell Smart had been happy with a shoe phone; today it would have been ridiculous. As it is important to keep up with technology which is constantly changing, we MUST upgrade our phones regularly, because if we don’t ……….mmmmm…… not really sure…maybe we won’t be able to take photos or surf the web or…make our bodies fat??Or I really don’t know though I think in the old days it was called ‘keeping up with the Jones’ – whoever they are.

Well at least we know our old phones have a sense of humour. But back to this new technology, apparently soon we will be watching micromovies on them. This is rather confusing for me, because our phones are shrinking but their capabilities are increasing. So when I watch a movie I would like to be able to see expression on the actor’s faces not just guess what’s happening. Maybe we are all going to recycle the old car phones so that we can use the backpacks as screens?? Don’t laugh, anything is possible. Speaking of movies, has anyone noticed that mobile phones aren’t very dominant in movies? I have and I often wondered why. I think I may have found the answer:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH2B9F-GPm0

I found it funny! (sorry could only add through this link) Now let’s discuss the serious side of mobile phone technology. I am one of apparently a rare breed of mobile phone user. I need to confess:

 I TURN OFF MY PHONE WHEN I GO TO BED, MOVIES AND OUT FOR DINNER!

Now I feel so much better. :)

 I don’t understand people who constantly complain about being available 24/7 by mobile yet have never learned where the OFF switch is. For any of those unfortunates reading this, it’s normally at the top of your phone. If you can’t find it then I am really sorry but all that stuff about radiation and brain cancer due to mobile phone use must be true – sorry. But if you don’t believe me, check this out:

Wow that looked fun...wonder what its doing to our brains? Oh thats right mobile phones aren't dangerous......mmmmm

Until next time.

Politics and Social Media - who would of thought?

Who would have thought that politicians would understand let alone use Social Media? Politicians and 'Cool' don't really normally go hand in hand. Well, if like me you don't like all the ads at election time and the endless 'debates' on traditional media, the politicians are coming to get YOU!!

In recent elections, politicians have used TXT, twitter, Blogging, My Space, Facebook and their favourite platform You Tube to spruik their messages to those of us who really don’t want to listen. There have been some very interesting clips during these election campaigns as politician’s try to understand how to capture this audience’s attention. Initially the tried and tested boring ad campaigns were used to little effect, but things are changing. Here is an unusual You Tube clip that I had to share it.

Personally when I saw this my first thoughts were the links between Hitler and concentration camps.  Surely, an educated woman like Hilary Clinton did too, yet she put her name and face to this clip. Whereas the successfully elected Barrack Obama had his own series of You Tube clips featuring ‘Obama Girl’. The publicity that these caused for Obama during the election certainly didn’t harm his reputation. Here is one of the first released:

As the old saying goes ‘Sex sells’ and this young lady is definitely using her feminine wiles to ‘sell Obama’. But I must state that apparently she wasn’t an official member of his election campaign. Another common thing in politics is parody. We have all seen comedians and cartoonist impressions of politician’s over the years but You Tube means that these parodies can carry across the world so we can all have a giggle at politician’s anywhere. I could not discuss politics without including at least one parody and Sarah Palin is an easy target:

So that’s how the American politicians have used social media. I will now look at Australia. Bob Hawke and Paul Keating were Prime Minister’s before the advent of You Tube but I am sure there isn’t an Australian around who had never heard some of their one liners. Lucky for us someone has put a few to music:

I am sure if You Tube had been around in their election days they both would have had innovative campaigns. But would they compare to Kevin 07? Kevin Rudd was a pioneer in Australian politics as he used all media throughout his campaign and as Prime Minister also. He wasn’t afraid to go on ROVE and joked openly about the PM skit that was shown on their regularly. I know I enjoy laughing at silly things politician’s say and do (see previous blog with George Bush’s sayings) and Kevin Rudd is one of the funniest especially when he selling to us his ‘fair dinkum aussieness’.

 I could show you so many more political clips but think I have said more than enough about politician’s so until next time….