Fire-Wired Blog

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com One thing that denotes a city from a major metropolitan area is an extensive mass transit system. While Des Moines’ labor force may worry about our daily “rush minute,” cities like New York and Chicago have to worry about bus and rail schedules, not to mention full-on gridlock. Maybe Des Moines will someday grow large enough to warrant a rail system of some sort, but if a recent rash of ridesharing networks has anything to do with it, it may never be necessary. The real bane of traffic jams worldwide is single-rider vehicles, miles of four-door cars with only the driver’s seat occupied. Hoping to fill those seats with would-be carpoolers, social rideshare networks have popped up, thanks to smartphone applications such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. These applications enlist willing drivers to rent their vacant car seats to passengers. Rather than having to choose between braving roadway congestion or the horrors of public transit, ...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Somewhere in America a giddy tween-ager is right now being handed his or her first cell phone along with that parental warning: “Remember, once you post something online it is there forever.” Thankfully forever now has a pit stop, and it’s an application called Snapchat. While I won’t profess to be fully attuned to youth culture, I do know this: Snapchat is in: Facebook is out. For those even more out the loop, Snapchat is a social messaging service that allows users to send multimedia messages with a shelf time of 10 seconds or less. Basically, users can share content privately with their social circles without their entire Facebook network of friends seeing it (i.e. mom), and it will self-destruct protecting the user from potential fallout. Much has been made about the nefarious aspects of Snapchat: lewd photos, offensive or harassing content and the potential to bypass the self-destruct feature via screen capture. But in t...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Whenever a new website pops up and becomes super popular, eventually everyone asks the same question: How does this site make money? Usually sites first make it online with minor personal investments followed by private investors, but all investors want a return, and more likely than not that means advertisements. Though most people often tune out the ads, a festering type of advertisement can camouflage itself in the content a person actually cares about. This infestation is known as native advertisements. All Internet users have seen them hiding in plain sight — in search results, Facebook newsfeeds, Twitter feeds, even CNN’s main page — posts and links that look like normal content but are actually advertisements. Some say “sponsored” or “promoted,” but others are not so aptly defined. Google was even sued into fine-print labeling their native ads. Regardless, though, they often prove to work. Currently reaping roughly $2 b...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com For gamers everywhere, Christmas has come early — the long-awaited next generation of gaming units has finally hit store shelves. Within 10 days of each other, both Sony’s Playstation 4 and Microsoft’s XBox One hit the market this past month and together opened up the console gaming world to a new echelon of button-mashing entertainment. While Playstation and XBox loyalists spend the coming weeks embroiled in heated arguments over whose platform is superior, let me save you from becoming collateral damage. Neither the Playstation 4 nor the XBox One is worthy of your time or money. There’s no denying the unbelievable player experience, realistic graphics, processing power, back catalogue of games or gamer mindshare that Sony and Microsoft have to work with. The trouble lies in the world these two platforms find themselves in — the mobile gaming and wireless world. The rising tide of mobile gaming is undeniable. More than on...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Fewer web actions are more vapid and vain than that of the “selfie.” What makes it worse is the Oxford English Dictionary legitimizing the nuisance by awarding it “Word of the Year” status. For Cityview’s less narcissistic readers, a selfies a self-portrait taken at arm’s length with a cell phone. While the act itself is not inherently evil, the self-aggrandizing overuse of the selfie becomes extremely annoying when appropriated and shared online by unabashed teenagers and less mature adults, clogging various social network feeds with girls’ duck lips and guys’ shirtless bathroom mirror reflections. Still the Dictionary had its reasons giving the term the crown. According to Oxford, the term selfie exploded in use during the last year, with a 17,000 percent rise in online appearances — a figure so daunting, Dictionary representatives said the decision was unanimous. Apparently it’s hard to turn down a trend so popular eve...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com With the passing of daylight savings time, and two of the more gluttonous holidays approaching, maintaining a healthy lifestyle becomes nearly impossible this time of year. As easy it may be to give in to winter laziness, there is an entire niche industry of tech gadgets designed to keep the susceptible on the path to good health. In the past five years the health and fitness world has ridden the smartphone wave to help users monitor their activity levels. From diet tracking applications such as SparkPeople and MyFitness Pal to phone-synced gadgets such as Nike’s popular “Plus” line of products, technology can help you track every detail of your exercising efforts. The problem comes when deciding which tool to use. Most fitness apps are free, but require serious dedication to update, whereas Nike’s products are exceptionally smart but expensive. Thankfully there is a middle ground tool that offers the robust monitoring and...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com For all of its hip commercials and excellent word-of-mouth buzz, Apple’s iPhone is still second-best. Market analysis from this past quarter revealed four-fifths of the world’s smartphone users are Android users, Google’s mobile operating system. As dominant as 80 percent sounds, why does it feel like Google’s stronghold is an outright lie? Android’s quiet climb to the top of the smartphone world wasn’t about marketing or innovation but pure and simple undercutting the competition and providing the alternative. While the iPhone was undoubtedly the best smartphone for four or five years after its release, it was expensive at first and only available to AT&T customers. Since it first hit the market, Android has been available on practically every carrier, offered extremely similar functionality, and it practically reset the scale for what smartphones should cost. One of the major differences between Android phones and iPho...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com There are two sacred cows in smartphone-user experience: battery life and constant connection to information. One of the best features of smartphones is the ability to notify users of new content through a background tool known as push notifications. For years popular services such as email, text messages and social networks have used push notifications to alert users of updates with little uproar, but a new trend in application development is pitting these two sacred cows against each other. Since Foursquare wove user geographic location into the social media universe back in 2009, developers have been frothing at the mouth to capitalize on user location. Global positioning system (GPS) technology has been a standard feature on all smartphones since the original iPhone. At a moment’s notice, users can find directions, traffic information and local businesses, but too much GPS use drains the phone’s battery extremely fast. U...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com In the shadow of the release of the newest iPhones, Apple unleashed on its users something even bigger, the seventh iteration of its mobile operating system (iOS). Every iPhone, iPad and touch screen iPod was given the option to upgrade to iOS 7 earlier this month, and hardcore Apple users were practically counting down the minutes until they could install the update. Based on the sheer number of users who installed the new operating system — about 200 million in the first week — you’d think iOS 7 is a slam-dunk success. However, Apple’s latest user interface is quickly falling prey to the tech plague where nothing’s good enough. Redesigns and interface overhauls are unavoidable. While design fashions go out of style, technologies become outdated and competitors push the envelope of innovative features, the real problem is the belief that tech companies see themselves as sharks. A common, not-entirely true belief is, if sharks stop...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com After a long, hard-fought battle, one of the world’s worst evils is almost completely eradicated. No, I’m not talking about a heinous disease or tyrannical dictator. This evil is the resilient tech scourge known as Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). Once upon time, in an age known as 1994, a little company called Netscape changed the way information was consumed with its innovation of Netscape Navigator, the very first Web browser. Within a couple years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer completely dominated the browser marketplace and held onto the No. 1 spot until only recently. During its reign as king of the browser, IE6 was at one time the crown jewel. It was the default browser on Microsoft’s most popular operating system, Windows XP, an OS so popular and stable that users were reluctant to give it up when its successors turned out to be bug-riddled duds. While IE6 was the Cadillac of its day, the Internet changed during XP’s reign ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Just as television networks kick off another season of reality shows, sitcoms and dramas, a deluge of media outlets are pondering the future of TV. With advertising dollars being spread thin between cable television and the rise of online video, will TV follow the path of the daily newspaper industry? It might be too early to forecast TV’s demise, but just for kicks, I’d like to throw out one idea that could potentially throw the TV world into disarray. What if Google gained exclusive rights to livestreaming NFL games online? On its face, the idea sounds preposterous: Why would a tech giant possibly want the rights to streaming NFL games? Well the answer is quite simple. Google is much more than Web searches and smartphones. In recent years, it has quietly turned into a media giant. YouTube, which is owned by Google and is the fourth-most heavily trafficked website, is arguably the place for online entertainment. It streams Hollywo...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com With Apple’s announcement of two new iPhones, it’s safe to assume tech writers everywhere are losing their minds while whispering tear-soaked thank-yous to the ghost of Steve Jobs, right? Well, not this one. While there were a few intriguing updates to the latest iteration of Apple’s wonder product, I personally met the unveiling of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s with an audible yawn. See, there are three certainties in life: death, taxes and commoditization. If you’re born, you will one day die; if you make a buck, Uncle Sam is gonna take his cut; and if you revolutionize an industry, eventually the industry will catch up with you, and all you’ll have left to do is battle over the price. Apple was once the unquestionable king, but those days are long gone. While smartphone manufacturers continue to cram more and more pixels onto their screens, upgrade cameras, speed up processors and balloon storage space, none of that really ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Sam Goody, Suncoast Videos, Borders Bookstores and Circuit City; what do all these stores have in common? They were all brick-and-mortar stores that laid to waste by the rise of e-commerce, and the big box tech store has been hit the hardest. Still I occasionally find myself wandering the aisle of the few brave businesses left that refuse to shut their doors and give in to the “inevitable.” A couple weeks ago, when I purchased a Windows Surface tablet to test run, I decided to use the opportunity to evaluate the in-store tech purchase experience. In my life, no business has taken more of my expendable cash than Best Buy. The mountains of CDs, DVDs and video games I bought in Best Buys through the years easily ring up into thousands of dollars. However, in the last five years, I bet I’ve spent less than $100. The disadvantages far outnumber the few advantages of buying a computer in person. For starters, the salesmen push you to t...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Last week Steve Ballmer surprised the tech world by announcing that in 12 months he will be stepping down as CEO of Microsoft. According to the rumor mill, Ballmer is not so much retiring as being gracefully shown the door due to the failure of Microsoft’s Surface line of tablets. Having personally spent a week with a Surface RT, I wholeheartedly agree that someone needed to lose his or her job for this piece of garbage. Since taking over for Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 2000, Ballmer’s CEO tenure has seen Microsoft miss the boat on MP3 players, smartphones, Internet search and now tablets. Besides being four years late to the tablet market, the entry level “Surface RT” falls short on virtually every count to the gold-standard iPad. As far as specifications go, the Surface loses on camera quality, screen resolution and third-party application availability with slow, frustrating operating systems. When considering design, the S...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com If there is one thing technology is not, it’s cyclical. Once it becomes outmoded, technology is more or less immediately forgotten. Bulky computer monitors, floppy discs and audio cassettes are but a few tech innovations that can only be found in landfills, never to return. Still, the last few years have seen one dead technology claw its way back to prominence, the animated GIF. Way back in 1997, it seemed the Internet was a proverbial wasteland of eternally looping, animated cartoon images. It was practically a prerequisite for every website to be crammed full of flaming skulls, burping Homer Simpsons and flashing neon “under construction” graphics. However unlike audio cassettes and floppy discs, GIFs did not slowly sail into the sunset; they simply dropped off the map. So why are they back with such a vengeance? The beauty of GIFs is how perfectly they encapsulate our five-second attention spans. Whereas YouTube, Facebook and ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Road trips are a hard prospect for the tech addicted. With a digital world of friends and information only a few smartphone clicks away, it’s difficult to resist the temptations of distracted driving. Most of us have peaked at a text or checked a Facebook notification behind the wheel, but if you’re currently in the throes of a text-and-driving fixation, know that there is a way out. Just as smokers kick their habit with nicotine gum or e-cigarettes, the easiest way to keep your eyes on the road is to replace one distraction with another. My personal treatment is podcasts. Distracted driving is nothing new. When car stereos were first introduced in the 1930s, many decried drivers fiddling with their radio dials instead of keeping their hands at 10-and-two. Over the years, eight-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs and mp3s all augmented the way drivers enjoy audio on the road, but few have truly replaced the original AM/FM radio establishme...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com In film fanatic circles, much is made of the “Golden Age” of cinema, i.e. the 1930s and 1970s. Films from these periods, such as “Gone With the Wind” and “The Godfather,” respectively, are considered the pinnacle of celluloid expression, and the entire movie industry seemed to be enraptured with artistic meaning and bravura storytelling. As wonderfully nostalgic as that sounds, being a cinephile myself, I personally find no era of film more exciting than the one we are living in right now. Why? Technology has leveled the playing field. For roughly $1,000, the most rudimentary pieces of filmmaking can be had with non-linear video editing and prosumer cinematic cameras. Around the turn of the century, applications such as Media 100, Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Adobe’s Premiere Pro started to proliferate across the independent filmmaking community. These programs allowed amateurs to digitize their footage and manipulate it by dragging a...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Every few years a technological innovation comes along that is so obvious it’s infuriating that you didn’t come up with it yourself. A few recent examples include eBay, the iPod and YouTube, each of which revolutionized its field and practically changed the world. The beauty of these ingenious tech tools is that virtually no one can see them coming, and as soon as they hit, you know immediately that you need it. Two weeks ago I felt this same impulse with the announcement of Google Chromecast, a key-sized device that allows you to wirelessly stream almost any Web content from any computing device to your TV. Streaming content wirelessly from computing devices to television is nothing new. Apple TV has offered this capability for years. What is new is Chromecast’s ultraportability and price. For only $35, users can basically carry their entire video or audio library in their pocket and stream it to any TV or stereo system that ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com After years of swimming against the tide, I finally broke down and bought a tablet last week. While I still feel they have little value outside of watching videos and surfing the Web, tablets are an extremely convenient way to share multimedia content and cut back on paper use. Outside of practical concerns, one perk of purchasing a tablet is Flipboard, an application that turns virtually any Web content into personalized magazines. It’s no coincidence that tablets are roughly the size of the average magazine, and reading Internet content on them is extremely easy. Flipboard takes both those virtues and turns the Internet into a bottomless pit of reading material, tailored to the reader’s interests. Plus, like the random magazines that drift into our lives, Flipboard is a great way to discover content that sits in the periphery of our interests. Launched in 2010, Flipboard allows mobile device users to search the Web and subscrib...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com A universal experience in personal computing is the moment when we sit down to do some work only to discover our computer can barely keep up. You don’t know if it’s a virus, too many programs running or old age, but whatever the reason, there is no mistaking when a computer is officially past its prime. While the thrifty user will upgrade his or her antivirus protection or computer memory, many take the nuclear option and replace their misfiring machine wholesale. Ten years ago this scenario meant an easy swap: Replace computer tower “A” with shiny, new computer tower “B.” Today, shoppers have platform options galore, and more often than not, they’re ditching their stationary setup. Compared to 2012 sales, PCs are being overlooked by consumers in record numbers with users opting for more mobile computing options, such as tablets and smartphones. In fact, desktop producing juggernauts such as Hewlett Packard and Dell have seen sal...

15 months ago I left the journalism world, this was a really hard decision. Growing up I routinely watched the nightly news while my mom prepared dinner. I quickly fell in love with the storytelling aspect of a journalists life and the fact they were reporting on something different practically every day. So following my dream to be a rockstar, my life's ambition was to be a reporter.  In route to that dream I carried a videocamera with me practically everyday, worked for a few news radio stations, PA'd at local CBS is San Francisco and eventually became a small town reporter and T.V. Producer. So why did I drop the dream? Two reasons: my mortgage and the hope to one day provide sole support to family, so my wife can be a stay-at-home mom (her dream). While I may be out of the journalism game at the moment, there is a simple way to keep the dream alive; freelancing. Back in February, I applied to the local alternative newspaper, Cityview , for a freelance tech col...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Last week I survived something I will forever deem the most treacherous act of technological perpetration in my life, full stop. After almost eight years of uninterrupted service, Google shuttered its longstanding RSS reading service, Google Reader. RSS (Rich Site Summary) feeds are the paper delivery boy of the Internet. Millions of websites use RSS feeds to syndicate content automatically to website subscribers. Nearly every major website and news distributor on the planet uses this technology to deliver content; CNN, ESPN, Google News, Twitter, Facebook and many, many more. RSS Readers, such as Google Reader, allow users to aggregate and subscribe to these feeds and bypass the need to visit dozens of sites each day for news and entertainment. While Google gave plenty of warning that it was terminating its RSS reader site, for diehard content curators such as myself, it was a devastating gut punch. While Reader wasn’t the most ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com You may not be aware, but you are living in a war zone. Central Iowa is currently besieged by two warring factions that are fighting for the future of our very existence. Why haven’t you heard anything about this on the news? Because it’s occurring on a plane of existence only visible through specially-equipped devices… and it’s a game. Last November Google unveiled “Ingress,” a free, augmented-reality, geocaching mobile game. While most video games are played on computers and gaming consoles, Ingress is played in the real world with smartphones. Similar to other role-playing games, Ingress players (known as agents) collect weapons, attack points and claim battle sites known as “portals.” Plus players are split into two factions: the Resistance and the Enlightened. While that may all sound like the recipe for yet another nerdy video game, the tech and effort required to actually play Ingress are really cool. Augmented-reality is ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com If you’re technologically inclined, you can hook practically anything up to a universal remote. Your entertainment center, house lights, heating-and-cooling system and much more can be accessed at the push of a button. As cool and convenient as that is, it would be really cool if those devices worked on their own without user input, and that is entirely possible thanks to the promise of the “Internet of Things.” While the Internet we all know and love is a massive network of computers that allows users to share information, the Internet of Things is a network of Internet-connected devices that work together to make everything we use more efficient. The end result is smarter machines that react to our needs based on user-generated data and digital behaviors. It’s estimated that more than 2 billion devices are currently connected to the Internet and generate data: smartphones and laptops are the obvious examples, but also televisio...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com A recent Nielsen survey revealed that now more than 51 percent of adult Americans own smartphones. It’s no mystery why. Web searches, mobile applications, social networks and much more supply its users with answers to nearly any question within seconds of being asked. But what about providing answers to questions that you’d never think to ask? Location, location, location. No matter if you’re standing in Manhattan, Des Moines or Pohdunk, your phone is the divining rod to the undiscovered adventures and information surrounding you. Location and GPS-enabled smartphone applications host treasure troves of data, reviews and details on nearly every business, school, state park and everything in between. Yelp and TripAdvisor, maybe the most popular and easy to adopt for gadget novices, allow their users to search for specific businesses or categories for information. Foursquare, a GPS-enabled social network and discovery application, all...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Every so often I catch myself getting a little too “inside baseball” when it comes to talking tech. Understanding how to use an application or website is not innate, and if one service reminds us of this over and over it’s Twitter. Even though Twitter has been around for seven years, and more than 200 million users are on the service, still nearly all users have the same reaction when preparing to write their first tweet: “How do I use this thing?” My employers, best friends, parents and wife have been mystified by the social network, and if I’m being honest, so was I at first. What is a tweet? Who sees it? How do people respond to it? First, the basics: Twitter is a micro-blogging service where users publish 140-character-length posts called “tweets” in a public or private manner for followers and the general public to read. Once users sign up, they create a username, start following people and organizations and communicate with...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Over the last few years, television ratings have seen an incredible drop industry-wide. Fifteen years ago, 76 million Americans tuned in for the “Seinfeld” series finale, whereas two weeks ago not even six million watched “The Office” series ender. While viewer numbers rise when online views are considered, online advertising revenue is nothing compared to broadcast, making TV producers desperate to push viewers back to their TVs. So what is the plan to entice you back to live TV? Exclusive “second screen” content. The term “second screen” can be defined as any screen other than a television where viewers enjoy content. It was coined around the dawn of the iPhone when online streaming video services started to proliferate. No longer inconvenienced by air times, second-screen viewers could watch at their leisure with fewer ads. So if the second screen is the disease, how is it also the cure? Say you’re a huge fan of “Fox’s New Gir...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com If tomorrow I win the lottery and can finally start making the ludicrous purchases we all dream of making, my first splurge will be the same as many as others’: a new car, specifically the Tesla Model S. For those expecting to read Ferrari, Aston Martin or Bentley, I’m sorry to disappoint, but to the tech geek imaginary millions can provide more than mere style and comfort. Started in 2003 in California’s Silicon Valley, Tesla builds exclusively electric-powered vehicles and defines itself as “the car company of the future.” While Tesla has struggled for the last 10 years to crack the luxury car market, the masterpiece Model S might be the car to finally break through. The Model S is a full-sized, four-door sedan equipped with a 416 horsepower engine that runs exclusively off a 1,300-pound lithium-ion battery and reportedly drives like a comfortable sports car. Beyond its eco-friendliness, the Model S is legitimately stylish, som...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com If there is one term in the tech world that is off-putting, exciting and confusing all wrapped in one, it’s cloud computing. While there is definitely a high degree of nerdery when talking about “the cloud,” chances are you are already using several cloud services. YouTube, Wikipedia, WordPress, Dropbox, TurboTax, Gmail — all of these websites, and the service they represent, are examples of cloud computing. So what is it? Cloud computing is the use of Web-based computing tools that replace the need for hardware and software traditionally stored on a computer. Any time you store a picture online, create an event on your web-synced calendar or web search for the definition of a word, you are computing in the cloud. Why is this such a big deal? Think back to how you used a computer in 2000 and compare it to today. A little more than a decade ago, you probably stored every picture, document and mp3 on your computer. It was ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Let’s say you’re 10 years old, you’ve just seen “Iron Man 3,” and your life is completely changed; you want to be Iron Man. Chances are you’ll never be bitten by a radioactive spider, and it’s too late to have been born on Krypton. But if you study hard enough, you could potentially become Iron Man, right? Most likely not. The chances are impossibly slim that you will one day build your own exoskeleton super-suit and fly around the planet fending off bad guys. But, theoretically, there is a chance. First, let’s examine the education necessary to build a fusion-powered, body-molded jet that responds to its pilot’s thoughts. From that very simplified description, you’d need a Ph.D.-level understanding of nuclear, software, materials and aerospace engineering, plus physics, chemistry and neuroscience. Tony Stark was a gadget-building prodigy growing up, so I guess he could master all those concepts. In the real world, though, if you...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Over the last 30 years, the music industry has been hit with repeated body blows: music videos, cassette and CD dubbing, revenue-crippling peer-to-peer mp3 sharing. Long gone are the days of albums going platinum on the day of their release, replaced instead with viral Internet hits and the emerging technology known as streaming music services. A couple of weeks ago, Twitter unveiled #Music, a new music discovery web-service and standalone application. #Music allows users to listen to popular music, discover emerging bands that are being tweeted about, find suggested artists based on who a user follows and tweets about and #NowPlaying pulls music from tweets in a user’s timeline. While #Music is currently getting all the headlines, streaming music is definitely not new. Streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify, Rdio and others have been around for years. The advantage Twitter holds over its predecessors is its public communica...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com If such a thing as the “ethics of war” exists, the modern fringe is defined by unmanned aerial vehicles, more commonly known as “drones.” Besides spying on people, keeping pilots out of the sky and being extremely efficient killing machines, drones have another trait — they’re really cool. Before you get upset and label me a warmonger, tell me, if you had the chance to pilot one of these overgrown remote-control planes from your backyard, would you? Two weeks ago, I attended the 2013 National Association of Broadcasters conference. One of the more popular camera toys I got to play with were remote-control helicopters mounted with high-definition cameras. Companies such as DJI, Rotor Concept, Freefly and many more filled the exhibit hall airways with innovations. While I stood in line with thousands of conference attendees, anxiously awaiting my turn to pilot a drone, I heard plenty of “oohs” and “ahs,” yet not a single concern ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com The cable television industry is capitalism at its most corrupt. Outside of refusing to partake, cable and satellite subscribers have close to zero recourse in bringing down the cost of the service. While it would seem the fate of TV viewers is sealed, one provider has stepped in to potentially stem the tide of ever-climbing cable bills. Verizon Fios proposed last month to change its payment model to a system where networks are paid for their content based on the actual number of views they receive, not the current system of set, negotiated rates. Cable bills are, for the most part, comprised of “carriage fees,” which is the amount networks get paid per subscriber to their service. The amounts are rather small with payments anywhere from $4 for ESPN to less than a nickel for networks such as MTV2, LOGO and BBC World News. While those carriage costs don’t seem like much by themselves, many networks refuse to sell their content unl...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com No longer relegated to the fictional worlds of Iron Man, James Bond and Star Trek, sometime within the next two years your friends and family will start sporting computerized watches, glasses, rings and potentially more. You may have heard of Google’s much buzzed-about “Project Glass,” a.k.a. “Google Glasses,” a computer-powered set of glasses that allows its user to record video, take pictures, search the Internet, make and take phone calls and analyze real-time data through heads-up displays (think the “Terminator 2” scene where Arnold is scanning body types in the biker bar). What you probably haven’t heard about are the watches and rings. Apple’s long-rumored, next industry-melting innovation is said to be the iTV, a television that marries the power of smartphones with the content of the entertainment industry. Now comes word that the iTV could possibly sport an innovation on top of an innovation; replacing the classic remot...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com The Internet has taken a proverbial wrecking ball to countless industries: recording, publishing, newspaper, brick-and-mortar retail and so many more. At times it seems like no field is safe. So what is the most likely candidate to be reduced to rubble next? Higher Education. This is truly the information age, with almost everything you could possibly want to learn available online — in many cases for free. For instance, the most popular videos on YouTube are actually “How-To” tutorials. There are entire networks on the site devoted to teaching viewers everything from fixing a flat tire to calculating the mass of a gas giant planet. By itself, YouTube isn’t upsetting the Higher Education system. You can’t get a medical degree or graduate from law school on YouTube. Where the collegiate system is slowly starting to feel pressure from the Internet is through “eLearning” websites. These online venues provide skills training without ...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Just when it seems all smartphones are starting to feel the same, one developer has completely thrown the market for a loop. Two words: X-ray photography. Through a light-capturing advancement known as hyper light-refraction, the application “PERView” is able to amplify the ultra-violet light that bounces off cloth fibers, rendering them invisible to certain smartphone cameras. While this technology isn’t truly “X-ray vision” and doesn’t provide skeletal imagery, it does allow the user to see through the cloth materials of its photographed subjects. PERView’s developer, Timothy Saddman, unveiled the application last week explaining that his initial idea was to create a tool to help security agents check for weapons. It wasn’t until Saddman tested his innovation at a shopping mall that he discovered his “jaw-dropping” achievement. Privacy rights groups are labeling the application as “depravity of the crudest order” and “invasiv...

This article was first published by dmcityview.com Gadgets and summer are two terms that generally do not go together. People are outside swimming, hiking, playing soccer and, despite what the tech giants would like us to believe, it’s hard to incorporate a smartphone or tablet into those activities. But there is one gadget that not only fits but allows users to relive those experiences with vivid detail — action cameras. Most people have already seen these little wonders and probably don’t know what to make of them. That weird guy with the aparatus strapped to his forehead? That’s his action camera. That Subaru driving down I-235 with a device mounted on the hood? That another action camera (also that was me). While everyday users are starting to adopt these gadgets, over the last few years action cameras have completely revolutionized the way thrill-seekers film and share their adventures. Through the use of high-powered, compact cameras, mountain bikers, skydivers and other adve...