How did the iPhone Become so Popular

 

    Apple and the iPhone have been at the top of popularity from the beginning, with the first iPhone being released in 2007 its popularity instantly took off among all people. It combined its predecessor, the iPod, an old school cell phone into one device with some added perks. Apple has come out with 29 different models of iPhones over the last 14 years and they have dominated the industry, although other companies like  Samsung Google and Moto have come out with their own smartphones they are not nearly as popular as the iPhone.

The iPhones success comes from its extreme ease of use, it has a very compact shape, well designed easy to view screen, simple and minimal buttons and easy to navigate settings. They keep up on new updates for the phones to keep older versions up to date a functioning to the best of its ability and adding in all of the newest iPhone specific features.  Another reason it is so successful is because it came out when texting was starting to get popular and having a touch screen made it much easier to do. With the addition of a touch screen to the iPhone it became way more desirable than a traditional cell phone because you no longer have the need for a keypad taking up room on the device, now you have a digitally displayed one that pops up whenever you need it.

The iPhone is an all in one device combining a computer, music player, access to the internet, games, social media, phone, and whatever other apps you can find into one device that can fit in your pocket. Having an iPhone is beneficial in many ways and could potentially help you out of a bad situation by allowing you to call for help if you get in a car crash or injure yourself.

Apple has also kept up the popularity by releasing a new and improved model of the iPhone nearly every year. This keeps people interested in it and brings in more business of people who want to have the latest and greatest technology. Not only that but they have also managed to keep them at a relatively low price for the amount of technology that you are getting. Now around the iPhone X the price started to get a little high but I think that Apple realized this and the prices have started to come down a little. They also have started making different models of the same phone like the iPhone 12 for example has the iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 pro, and 12 promax. All of theses phones have different sizes and are designed to fit different peoples lifestyles according to size and what they need a phone for. 

With the new five G networks coming out it will also make the iPhone more popular because you will have fewer dead spots, more range and faster speeds.

What's your favorite iPhone model (Mines the 8)

Works Cited

Jones, Matthew. "iPhone History." History Cooperative, 14 Sept. 2014, historycooperative.org/the-history-of-the-iphone/. Accessed 27 Jan. 2021.

"Why Is the iPhone so Successful." Grid Ireland Smart Phone Info Blog, Grid Ireland, 25 Sept. 2017, grid-ireland.org/why-is-the-iphone-so-successful/. Accessed 27 Jan. 2021.

Is the World Ready for Electric Cars

     Electric cars are on the rise, lots of people already own them many companies produce them and new designs are in the works. The concept for electric cars is that they are less pollutant and more efficient to drive and with the world running out of fossil fuels the long term plan is to make all cars electric. If this is coming in the near future it begs the question how ready is New England and the rest of the world for the transfer to electric vehicles?

     According to researchers at the Energy Institute at University of Texas at Austin New England and California will have the biggest challenge converting to electric cars. they state that the 29% of energy we use comes from fossil fuels used by cars, adding this 29% to the power grid could over load it with to much draw. We could need up to 50% more electricity if we went full electric in New England. Meanwhile Texas could need up to only 28% more.

    Why? Because places like Texas use tons of A/C in the summer so they already have a power grid that could handle the bigger load. But around here we don't have that kind of infrastructure in place yet.

    Even if we had infrastructure in place to use fully electric vehicles the hard part is going to be getting people to buy and use them. Electric vehicles are way more expensive then a gasoline engine vehicle and on top of that electric vehicles only have about half the range of a normal gasoline engine, but so what just pull over and charge the battery which takes a minimum of 4-5 hours. If you have gas you can be back on the road in 5 minutes.

Another turn down for buying an all electric car is that when they brake they cost a small fortune to repair because they are all run buy computers and you most likely will no longer be able to work on your own car.

Do you want an electric car?

Works Cited

Davidson, F. Todd. "Electric Vehicles Are Coming, and New England and California Better Watch    out." Forbes, 5 Nov. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/ftodddavidson/2018/11/05/electric-vehicles-are-  coming-and-new-england-and-california-better-watch-out/?sh=6c3377392c41. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

Deepblue4you. "Electric Car Charging at Power Station." 2021. Pixabay, pixabay.com/images/search/electric%20car/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

Rao, Rajkamal. "Is the World Ready for Electric Cars." BLoC, 25 June 2019, bloncampus.thehindubusinessline.com/columns/world-view/is-the-world-really-ready-for-electric-cars/article28135993.ece. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly of Social Media

 



Today almost everyone uses or has access to social media and are on it a lot over the duration of the day. This includes everyone from teens, parents, and even grandparents to theme parks companies and restaurants.



Why are so many people on social media? Because it is so easy to share pictures and post and communicate information to huge numbers of people in minutes. But how often is social media actually used for its intended purpose and how much are people addicted to it. Dr. Rock at the Cleveland clinic says that social media can "give people a sense of social well being" and that "heavy users of social media develop a tolerance to that much like those who use drugs and alcohol, " not great.



Social media is not used for just sharing pictures and talking to people either, lots of times people end up having fights over opinions or beliefs over social media and the problem is that wherever there is opinions being shared there will be fights and arguments. It's also easy to bully or stalk people over the internet by using fake accounts and being able to hide behind a screen while doing so.



One of the Ted Talks I watched mentioned how in 2008 a 7.9 magnitude earthquake happened in China, news of the earthquake spread world wide in a matter of minutes even before the news knew about it. This is one of the good things about social media.



But what happened after the earthquake? The Chinese government started to moderate and not allow certain posts to be posted. This has happened before and is called "The Great Firewall of China". The government did not do this because they felt like it though they had reasons none of which were right. The earthquake happened during the week while kids were in school and the school buildings collapsed and killed many kids. This was discovered to be the fault of the government taking bribes to let the schools be built not up to code. When the citizens found out, they went out and protested in the streets and online. China, wanting to protect its ego, started to deny and censor anything about the school building collapse.

I don't see what China's government did as right or okay I think that everyone should have a freedom of speach and if you don't like it then just don't read it.

Whats your opinion on social media moderation?





Works‌ ‌Cited‌ ‌
    Cleveland‌ ‌Clinic.‌ ‌"Is‌ ‌It‌ ‌Possible‌ ‌to‌ ‌Become‌ ‌Addicted‌ ‌to‌ ‌Social‌ ‌Media."‌ ‌‌Cleveland‌ ‌Clinic‌,‌ ‌1‌ ‌Mar.‌ ‌
2019,‌ ‌health.clevelandclinic.org/is-it-possible-to-become-addicted-to-social-media/.‌ ‌
Accessed‌ ‌18‌ ‌Dec.‌ ‌2020.‌ ‌
 

   PixelKult.‌ ‌Phone‌ ‌Showing‌ ‌Social‌ ‌Media‌ ‌Apps.‌ ‌23‌ ‌Oct.‌ ‌2015.‌ ‌‌Pixabay‌,‌ ‌23‌ ‌Oct.‌ ‌2015,‌ ‌
pixabay.com/users/pixelkult-631805/.‌ ‌Accessed‌ ‌18‌ ‌Dec.‌ ‌2020.‌ ‌
Shirky,‌ ‌Clay.‌ ‌

    "How‌ ‌Social‌ ‌Media‌ ‌Can‌ ‌Make‌ ‌History."‌ ‌‌Ted‌,‌ ‌June‌ ‌2009,‌ ‌www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_social_media_can_make_history?referrer=playlist-‌
the_power_of_social_media.‌ ‌Accessed‌ ‌18‌ ‌Dec.‌ ‌2020.‌ ‌
‌
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How much of the future is set in stone and how much is a computer taking a guess?

How much do you trust technology? You'd probably say a lot because you use it everyday like, your phone, computer, even your car. So it's now wonder that we use it to try and predict the future whether it be the immediate future or one hundred years from now but how much of that is actually fact and how accurate is that information?

Answer: not very much people seem to think that just because the computer predicted something it is more accurate than an educated guess by a human. We see computers as this higher power that is never wrong, but humans, who made them, are susceptible to being wrong. People in the 50s thought the world was going to end in 2020 and sure, we came close to it but it didn't. Even predicting what is going to happen seconds from now is hard for a computer to do accurately.

Take cars with automatic braking and lane departure alert for example what happens when a piece of paper flies across the road in front of your car and it thinks its a person or an animal and slams on the brakes. You are not prepared for that to happen neither is the car behind you. You have a better judgment call than the computer and can see that it's a piece of paper and not a person.

Lane departure alert is supposed to wake up drivers who fall asleep behind the wheel, the car will detect if you start drifting over the line on the road seems like a good idea but how many roads do you drive down that have no lines or what about the winter when there is snow or on new pavement with no lines yet.

My point being that there are just too many factors that contribute to it for it to be accurate 100% of the time, even if it is advertised as being 100% accurate that is the results of testing it in perfect conditions.

The human brain is a computer that is not yet able to be mechanically replicated and you could argue is smarter than a computer in the sense that a human has a better judgment call then a computer.

Are there situations where accuracy is not needed? Yes. Programmers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory developed a computer that can predict what happens next based on looking at a still photo. The computer watched 2 million videos to figure out how things move and react to situations. Then using algorithms it can create a 2 second video of what it thinks will happen.

So now how much do you trust technology? How much of the information you base your long term plans on are fact and how much is speculation. 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Melendez, Steve. "Teaching Computers to Predict the Future." nbcnews.com, nbc, 2 Dec. 2016, www.nbcnews.com/mach/technology/deep-learning-predicts-future-n690851. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Samuel, Tim. Driver Sitting in Car in Rainy Weather. 9 Nov. 2020. Photos for Class, www.pexels.com/photo/driver-siting-in-car-in-rainy-weather-5835278/. Accessed 10 Dec. 2020.