“HBO on Amazon”

Joe Sampson

Amazon is one of the greatest websites known to man because you can buy just about anything you want. What else do people invest their time in doing? Watching TV, but now you can watch TV through Amazon!

The New York Times has an article which talks about how HBO will now be streaming through Amazon, which means you can watch all your favorite shows with an exception of some shows that will not be apart of the deal. 

The HBO on Amazon will cost $99 a year, which is similar to Netflix. Amazon will also have their own original shows. The HBO streaming will be for Amazon Prime users will have access to some of the old HBO shows that regular users do not have access to.

Look into this new Amazon feature and compare it to Netflix, maybe you’ll be surprised.

Source:NYTimes

“It’s More Than Just a Phone Case”

Joe Sampson

Imagine getting a brand new, shiny IPhone perfectly in tact without a single scratch. You’re able to maintain its perfection for about a week and then all of a sudden your phone slips right out of you hand, crashes to the ground, and you stare at it in devastation, dreading the moment of truth to see what the damage is. You pluck up the courage and pick up the phone, look at the front of it to see a spider web of shattered glass. At that very moment, you stomach drops, and an overwhelming feeling of distress overcomes you. However, this tragedy does not have to happen to you, all you have to do is invest into one of the many innovative phone cases that have been created.

The New York Times has an article that lists and briefly describes different phone cases that have been created in order to protect your smartphone and even enhance some of the features.

One of the phone cases is the Speck brand of cases which has a hard exterior and a soft and rubbery interior, but not only does this case protect the smartphone, it also enhances the sound by amplifying it through a horn-shaped cavity.

Another phone case is a Morphie brand phone case. This case protects the phone as well as provides extra storage for the phone and extra battery. The case can store 16,000 additional photos, 14 hours of video, or 9,000 songs, and all you have to do is drag them from your computer and into the file for the case using a USB cable.

Phone cases have gone above and beyond the expectations of many. They are a very good investment, and will help you maintain a perfect smartphone.  

Source:NYTimes

“But first, let me take a Selfie”

Joe Sampson

Social media as you know is used by tons of people these days, and what do people usually post on social media? Pictures, people post pictures about everything, but what is the most popular type of picture to post? The infamous selfie. Selfies as you may already know are pictures that people take of themselves so they can post it on a social media site such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Selfies have become almost like an art, you can’t just post any ordinary picture of yourself, you have to take it to the next level by finding the perfect lighting, editing it with the best filter, and, and cropping it in the most creative way. Since selfies have become so popular, there have been plenty of apps created so that people can create the perfect selfie all sorts of different ways. An article in The New York Times listed several different apps that are dedicated to selfies, and here are a few that were included.

The first app is a free app called “Frontback” and basically what happens is the front camera of the phone takes a picture of the scenery while the front camera takes a picture of you and then the two pictures are layered together to create a different and unique selfie.

The next app is “Selfie Cam” which is also free, and it has different features that allow you to take selfies in different ways such as being able to use a grid for precision, or have an automatic setting that will take the picture only when you smile.

Finally, another cool app that was listed is “Facetune” which costs $3. This app is almost like photoshop, it allows you to smooth out your face or erase any unwanted marks in order to make yourself look perfect.

As you can see, selfies have become epidemic and as a result more and more apps are being created just so that people are able to create the picture-perfect selfes.

Source:NYTimes

Tubes

Tubes

"A journey to the center of the Internet", this is exactly what Andrew Blum does when going into his book. The book is a new insight on how we view the internet today. He explains how it is a new place where the potential can always be expanded. How a couple of fiber cables being put together make a large hub of communications.

Blum talks about how the internet is n unmatched potential, and teaches you how amazing that you can communicate with people all across the globe with a few clicks on the mouse of your computer and you then enter a new realm where in some ways your fantasies can turn into realities.

With in the book you learn different concepts with how the internet began and what it's come to be. In addition it deals with the overall development and how the internet does its job.

The books is really interesting on how it talks about the physical side of the internet, which are the cables and how these fibers have been put all over the globe. The whole stories message is for the everyday internet user to know and understand the physical side of the digital world they live in.

Children Award Shows?

Children Award Shows?

Photocreds:VisualPhotos

As the children television stations prepare for their award season. This year it seems to be a little different. This is because instead of Nickelodeon being the only children's television station to have an award show. Now Disney Channel has seen this is could profit them so they decided to take the new route and having one themselves. 

These children channels are making it a point for this new generation to grow up and be raised better. Disney and Nickelodeon have both made an effort to show kids how to eat and exercise so that they learn to take care of themselves and create new and healthier choices.

In  conclusion I feel that companies like these are really trying to make a difference in their consumers lives, and to me that seems good business for everyone.

Disney Joins With Maker

Disney Joins With Maker

Photocreds:article.wn.com

The Disney company has come out and said that they have planned to to pay $500 million to Maker studios. Maker studios is a company that generates Youtube over 5.5 billion views a month and 360 million in annual subscribers.

But the question is why did Walt spend all that cash? The simple answer is that Disney is simply trying to enter a new age of interaction with the Disney lovers across the world.

The professional Youtube video makers are also said to help improve shows, and the theme park intellectual properties, such as improving the rides and shows themselves, in addition to consumer products and movie divisions.

It seems that this is the latest fad with movie companies. Others such as Dream Works have bought internet video makers to improve their productions.

Sources:NYTimes 

IOS7 Upgrade

Iphone improvements

photo creds: NYTimes

Recently Apple has made software updates. The upgrade improves reliability of the fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S and makes adjustments to Siri, as well as other changes.

The update to iOS 7.1 has made it possible for the new finger print scanning option to actually work a bit better, and has improved the accuracy of the touch ID. 

In addition people have said that there device had been crashing on the original iOS 7 and now it Apple has improved there product so it doesn't shut off sporadically. Apple also added new languages for Siri such as Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, British English and Australian English. 

Sources:NYTimes

The Writing Center

Becoming a Better Writer

photo creds: Giving Tree Associates

At St. Johns University there are many tools for us students to use in order to get out in front of the competition. Our school gives us the opportunity to fix and improve all of our papers, or anything that we need help writing. From brainstorming to final drafts the writing center just takes a chance to have a second eye look at your work so that it can be what you want it to be. 

The writing center is open every day of the week except for saturdays. There are three ways you can make an appointment, either going online and setting one up for a face to face, where you actually go into the writing center and go over it in person for about an hour, there is an email appointment you can set up where you email your paper to a writer center helper and they respond to you within 24 hours. Lastly there is a chat appointment where you and the helper go over your paper at the same time using a online chat method where you can both see and edit your paper at the same time.

In conclusion heres the link to set up your appointment and improve your writing. stj.mywconline.com

Global Studies Fair

Having Fun Abroad

When Choosing to come to St. Johns I was really excited knowing there is a well organized study abroad program, and after going to the fair it has really made me consider going. At the fair all the students were really helpful and knew a lot about it because they experienced it first hand. 

The students who have already studied abroad helped out a lot with convincing students who are thinking about going to actually consider it. First off the cost is almost the same, with the only addition of air fare and spending money. In addition they said that it's a whole new experience, and that by the end of the 15 weeks you stop feeling like a tourist and you really start looking at the place like a local. 

St. Johns Blood Drive

St. Johns Blood Drive

Last week on our class field trip we visited the blood drive on campus. I was a bit skeptical at first because they were going to make us donate blood, but instead they were very understanding if we didn’t want to but in addition told us about all of the benefits that one pint of blood does to the state of New York.

In the interview Bill a man who has been working for the blood donation center for 6 years now talked about how one pint can save many lives, and how it is important to have more donors. He said, “it cant be manufactured, it has to be given” that’s why it is important for those who can donate to do so.

He also talked about how during the winter season it is especially difficult for people who need a certain type of blood. This is because most of the blood that is donated is only good for roughly 2 weeks and with not many donors in the state of New York the supply of blood lessens by the day. We learned about how many patients cant receive the proper care and not having surgery because of the scarcity of blood and then many of these patients’ symptoms’ become worse.

Thanks to Bill and his information I’m happy to say that I will be attempting to donate blood the next time the bus comes to St. Johns.

Photo creds: Mashable.com

The Price of Renovation

WhatsApp is a popular social networking app that allows people to message each other and share their locations. This app has been recently bought by Facebook for 19 billion dollars. The way Facebooks seeks revenue from the app is on how they work.

With 1 million new users a day, and an annual fee of 1 dollar the company says it will soon reach a billion users and return all of its revenue to Facebook.

 WhatsApp users are roughly 70-75 percent active, this reached Facebooks attention because their number of active users has dropped to about 60 percent. I think that this is a way for Facebook to re-invent themselves and possibly make a comeback. We have seen the drop in popularity with this social networking site because more and more of your aunts and uncles keep adding you to be their friend, making the site less cool and active to the younger generations.

Hopefully this is a good step by Facebook leading to a new way of social media and networking that our young generation thrives from.

Source:CNN

PhotoCreds:Google

Even though Flappy bird didn't gain popularity until Mid January, the game was released in early June. It is amazing how a game can be kept silent and then it blows up over night.

Recently the game was shut down because the creator said "it was too much to handle" after receiving 50k in add revenue a day. He didn't speak out a lot of why he did this but he said that if you already have it downloaded that you are fine. 

Source:IBtimes

While getting ready to watch the Super Bowl, I couldn't wait to see all of the new commercials. There were a commercial in particular that I liked and one that was ok. Other then the commercials the Super Bowl itself was awful.

Anyways my favorite commercial was the Maserati commercial. I liked it because the commercial really gave you the feeling of how nice and why it is indeed a luxury car. The second one that was ok was the commercial with the horse and the puppy, Budweiser tried too hard and get to the hearts of america, and I feel that it took away from the product because it wasn't fully promoting it.

As my Iphone 5 starts blaring a 2 chains banger to wake me up I begin my day already hyped and ready to take on my 9 AM class. As I get ready for class I check music news websites in order to find new music while I take my morning shower.

when I finally start walking to class I take this time to check all forms of social media ranging from twitter to tumblr. My personal favorite happens to be instagram because I get a chance to see how my high school friends our doing at there own colleges.

Even though Im in class I enjoy looking up shoes. so I go to sneakernews.com, or on my sneaker app on my phone, each time that check these sight I feel that its definitely just to use up time in between the dull parts in lectures.

After class I turn my pandora back on, and listen to all the music I possibly can in the 10 minute walk back to the dorm. when I reach my dorm i usually start my homework if my roommates aren't already up  to something.

Later in the night I start watching tv or playing video games with my friends in order to get our minds off of the day we just had. I then set my alarm for the next day.