Global Pariah

This concludes the Global Pariah project - at least, for now. Thanks heaps for your responses! And please, continue feeding the spiral of dependence on social-networking an online interactive media. It gives us a lot to talk about.

thedailywhat:

RIP: Steve Jobs, co-founder and former-CEO of Apple Inc., passed away today at the age of 56.

Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. His failing health forced him to resign his role as Apple’s CEO earlier this year, as he felt he could “no longer meet my duties and expectations.”

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being,” Apple said in a statement. “Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have build and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

Apple is asking fans to send their thoughts, memories, and condolences to rememberingsteve@apple.com.

October 14th was recently designated Steve Jobs Day by Apple fans.

[apple.]

(via mylifeisonline)

whatwouldkatedo:

This is mindblowing technology… and a little creepy, am I right? Still, I want.

Apple iPhone4S “Siri” aka personal Jeeves.

zienanthony:

I WANT

sumequals:

Here is everything you need to know about Apple’s Keynote and announcement of the iPhone 4S, which was a dud in my opinion.

Connected: An Autoblogography

Directed by Tiffany Shlain

http://connectedthefilm.com/

*Froths at the mouth*

Just when you thought people couldn’t get any more antisocial, the ironically dubbed “social networking generation” expands once again in a last-ditch effort to cash-in on the popularity of online music technologies, and subsequently keep users interested in a rapidly developing phenomena.

After enjoying the success of squillions of users, trillions of networking apps, groups, pages, and games, and bajillions of dollars in advertising and rights-distribution to the makers of a recent Hollywood blockbuster (I may be exaggerating with these statistics a bit, but you get the idea), Facebook’s shortcomings have begun to surface in a very public fashion. The first, obviously, would be the recent scandal whereby Facebook was proved to be tracking users as they roamed the Internet, even once they had logged out of the website. The second, as documented by top blogging sites the world over, has been the lack of integration between Facebook and other popular online music technologies. Google, being the savvy entrepeneurs that they are, have struck while the iron is hot, and are using these openings as the foundation for their new social networking site, Google+.

            While we are perfectly aware that no-one (except you) particularly cares about your personal playlist, we are also aware that the ability for a social networking program to keep track of such a personal collection would be the final frontier in addictive online behavior. Sure, Facebook users can upload videos and links to music hosting sites, so that individual tracks can be shared with your loyal subjects via the mystical realms of cyberspace. But, answer this honestly: how often do people actually watch the videos suggested by others in their newsfeed? Surely it happens, but not as often as it could. This could be because, while social networking pages are designed to be, well…social, the sharing of individual tracks via links from another site altogether (Youtube) seems a little amateurish. Enter, the next generation of social networking, Google+. This site, which follows in the footsteps of gmail other successful Google apps, is said to be the latest competitor for Facebook’s social networking crown, possibly due to their focus on attracting global music aficionados who feel let down by Facebook’s shortcomings in the musical arena.

The question on everyone’s lips/fingertips: Which will win the power-battle, Facebook or Google+? 

            Google+ ‘Hangout’ is the latest talk, attracting huge acts such as Black Eyed Peas frontman and solo artist Will.I.Am, who ave begun promoting it as a place to attract and interact with fans. Turntable.fm and other upcoming softwares such as StreamJam have, until now, been ahead of the curve in terms of allowing fans to interact with artists and eachother, but now Google has picked up the trail. Google+ will not only allow people to interact in forums and share/access playlists, it is also used as a storage space, and with the eventual globalizing of Google Music Beta (currently only available in the USA), will work in a similar manner to iTunes Genius in allowing educated music suggestions…all within the confines of the average social networking framework. So, get registering! Facebook may very well be in its’ way out – and Google+ will provide the soundtrack.

robsolo:

It was recently estimated that Google+, the newest social network on the block, grew a whopping 30% between the 20th and 22nd of September. During this period, the social network finally moved away from their field trial and launched open beta meaning that anyone could join, eliminating the need…

This brings the term “Facebook stalking” to a new level.

It was unveiled yesterday that epic social-networking site Facebook, after enjoying the success of more than 8 million users, a Hollywood Blockbuster and addictive qualities that are on par with heroin (to some), Facebook has been monitoring and tracking users as they visit other websites. The embarrassing admission has left Facebook fighting to defend itself, outlining that these measures were taken to promote “good instead of evil.”

Obvious question for the day is this:

Is it ever fully justified to breach someone’s privacy?

For more information (it’s a pretty big scoop, really), check this out (sourced from http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2112198/facebook-promises-fix-tracking-cookie-issue):

“People database Facebook has told a security hacker and blogger that it will fix the privacy issues that he exposed on his blog last weekend and told it about almost a year ago.

Yesterday we reported that Nik Cubrilovic had revealed how Facebook tracks users via cookies, even after they have logged out. Even though the firm told him, and us, that it only uses these cookies for good, and not for actually tracking users, it has promised to fix the issue.

Cubrilovic told the Australian newspaper that during a long telephone call Facebook promised him that it would change its system within 24 hours. Although it claimed that it presently does not use the information for identifying users it could in the future, and because of this Cubrilovic was pleased with the result.

“They’re sending the information to their servers, even when they are (users) logged out. It’s a question of what they do with it,” he said. “They may not do with it now, but in two years’ time, they might introduce a new feature that accesses it.”

- Dave Neal, The Inquirer, Yesterday (27 September, 2011).

So it’s official. But look on the bright side! None of us do anything particularly interesting online, anyway.

Looks like we’re not alone in treating Myspace as the latest “pariah!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Xv7if_DSU