“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.