The Last Byte of Awesome

The purpose of our blog over this past semester was to spark awareness of our technology-based society. Sometimes it seems that we don’t outright recognize change as “change”, we just adapt without thinking and move on. By taking the time to research an innovation or event, understand its meaning, and assemble it in the big picture we gain a better idea of its significance. We have posted on a wide array of topics these past few months, this variability allowed us to explore and unveil niches of the tech world that are not always at the forefront.

We hope that you enjoyed this series of blog postings, we welcomed the opportunity to gather and report new information as we encountered it.

We thank you, our readers, for taking the time to hear our thoughts. We believe the world is made up of billions of opinions, and each one is just as important as the last. Never stop the pursuit of innovation.

Have a wonderful holiday season!
 
Andrew, Brady, Scott

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“Things don’t have to change the world to be important.”

-Steve Jobs

The Amazon Echo

And out of nowhere Amazon comes in with the ‘Echo’. The Amazon Echo is the ideal virtual companion. The Echo uses cloud technology to give you up-to-date information within a reasonable distance. A unique characteristic is that you can place this device anywhere in the room and it is always listening for your voice. You just have to set a keyword for it to act on your following sentence. The Echo can provide you with information, music, news, weather, and much more.

This may sound just like another version of Siri or Google Now but it isn’t. This deivce can be placed anywhere throughout your home and can be used in many different ways. The Echo includes a 360-degree speaker, for example, along with a 2.5-inch subwoofer. This can play music throughout the entire room evenly whenever you desire. You also don’t have to turn anything on or push any buttons. You simply blur out the keyword you have chosen and it’s listening just like that.

This may not be a very grounding-breaking device but it is solidifying the use of automated products. Cars are using voice technology to communicate with the driver as well as phones using voice-to-text features. The interactions and communication between humans and technology is becoming so close and seamless that you can almost develop a personal relationship with a device such as the Echo. The Amazon Echo is "shipping in the coming weeks" and is only available on an invite-only basis. Also for a limited time, Amazon is offering users half off their purchase if the are an Amazon Prime user. 

-Brady Feldman (Extra Credit)

Net Neutrality

Today The White House released a statement on Net Neutrality explaining what President Obama’s view on the issue is and what he believes should be done.  While Obama has no direct influence on the matter (that belongs to the FCC) his words carry a great amount of weight and will certainly be heeded by the FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler.        

In his statement Obama explained that the internet is becoming an ever important resource to Americans and should be widely available to everyone in this country. He then continued to compare the internet to other resources like water or electricity which are regulated by the government as public utilities. His plan is to reclassify Internet Service Providers (ISPs) under Title II of the telecommunications act which would put ISPs like Comcast or Verizon on the same field as landline telephone providers.

The whole reason for this is to prevent a company like Comcast from abusing its power. With no regulation nothing is stopping Comcast from crippling a service like Netflix for all of its customers in order to get them to drop it and move to Hulu if Hulu paid them to do that. Now nothing like that is currently happening, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be worried about it. Normally that would just be the free market at work and Netflix would have to adapt their strategy or customers could simply choose a different ISP in order to access the service, but in many regions of the country there is one, maybe two or three ISPs to choose from. The capital needed to lay fiber in a city is astronomical, so companies that offered to lay down the cost in order to have exclusive rights to a certain market now have the luxury of being in a government sponsored monopoly (much like utilities)

While it would be nice if things just kept chugging along like they currently are without government regulation, it doesn’t look like it is going to happen that way. We already hear of companies wanting to create so called “fast lanes” that would allow services to pay for increased bandwidth or speeds. Another example is T-mobile. On T-mobiles network certain music streaming services like Pandora and Spotify do not count towards your monthly data cap. While this seems like it might be a win for consumers and companies alike, what happens when a small start up that has a killer service doesn’t get that agreement with T-mobile? Consumers will be less apt to use that smaller service because it just isn't in their best interest. 

--Scott Evans

Why Flying Cars Are Still In The Horizon

As humans we know how to make a plane. We also know how to make a car. It seems that with all of the technological advancements in our world we would be able to combine these two and make a flying car. Well this concept has been at our horizon of development for many years now and is yet to pleasure many futurists. 

If you went back in time and asked somebody in the 1960's what vehicle transportation would look like today I would bet that they would be moderately disappointed. The 21st century unveiled many new technologies but none of them have been an effective flying car and I will tell you why. 

What comes to mind when you try to reason the concept of a flying vehicle? Besides that fact that it would be extremely cool, it would provide an efficient method of traveling to a given destination by using a direct route. However there is a long list of reasons why this hasn't happened yet and some of them I will touch in this post. 

First of all, the technology required to build this kind of machine that can just take off and land anywhere is going to make the product cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. With that only reaching a small percentage of the consumer market share, there is no drive to develop an infrastructure, which is my next point. Just like there being an infrastructure of roads, highways, and intersections for ground vehicles, there would need to be at least an enforced set of rules, procedures, routes, etc. Without any of that it would be total chaos. Just imagine the hectic rush hour of any major city in the nation. Now picture that without the many years of developed infrastructure and enforcement of laws, procedures, practices, etc. 

With that being said I do think that there is one way that would allow flying vehicles to appear in our lifetimes and that would be with self-flying machines. I hesitate to call them vehicles because it would act more like a machine than what we know now as a vehicle. This machine would ask for the destination and then be able to communicate with every other flying object near them to avoid crashes. The "driver" would not be in charge of controlling any part of the machine while in transit. While some of this technology is starting to emerge with newer cars today, it has a good distance to go to be sufficient in this scenario. 

I love the thought of flying cars but, in all honesty, we won't be seeing them as soon as we like. There are many things that need to happen before we see "cars" flying around but when that day arrives, it shall be great.

-Brady Feldman

Should We Trust a Self-Driving Car?

Over the past century there has been a trend of autonomy, attempting to make the world easier for the average citizen. From the automatic dishwasher, the cell phone contact list (Do you know your best friend’s number?), to the remote vacuum ( http://www.irobot.com/For-the-Home/Vacuum-Cleaning/Roomba.aspx ). It is all in an attempt to make our lives easier. These innovations have become common in our lifestyles, to the point where some users would be helpless without them.

What will be the next major automated innovation? How can we “make life easier” from here? For an innovation to be a major change in our daily lives, it must significantly affect our daily lives. With every innovation comes skepticism, it is part of the process. What’s the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? How many brilliant ideas were made with good intentions, but led to unforeseen consequences? This is the primary question I’ll ask today, can we truly trust the next major innovation in automated living? Can we trust a self-driving car?

The first question you might be asking is “What company has the confidence and aptitude to attempt such a feat?” The answer might surprise you. This project is led by the fascinating minds at Google.

In 2010 Google announced that they were creating a small division within their company for research and experimentation of a self-driving car ( http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-were-driving-at.html ). Their goal? “According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. We believe our technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half…as well as help create the new “highway trains of tomorrow." We have good intentions from a reputable company, with the resources to support this project, but is the risk of a malfunction worth it?

Google released a promotional video in 2012 giving the public an example of how this technology can change the lives of the handicap (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdgQpa1pUUE). The video shows Steve Mahan, a legally blind man from California working with Google. Steve is in the driver’s seat, relaxing as his car drives him around town and even manages to navigate a taco restaurant’s drive-through! This is a great example of how this technology could change a life, but we should notice that this situation takes place in a controlled situation, minimal traffic, prefect weather, and a planned route.

What do we do about the unforeseen events that come with driving? Some of the known limitations of the self-driving car include, but are not limited to; safe driving during poor weather conditions such as ice, unexpected traffic stops such as an officer directing traffic, and the system’s inability to discern a major hazard from trash on the street.

It will be interesting to see how Google progresses with their self-driving car, it could be the next major innovation that shifts the world yet again.

Andrew Miller

Apple Releases iOS 8.1- New Features and Fixes

Today on October 20th, Apple released its next update for iPhones and iPads, iOS 8.1. This is a departure from the way Apple generally releases new software. In the past major .1 updates haven't come for at least 2 to 3 months after a X.0 release. Apple has already sent out two updates, 8.0.1 & 8.0.2 in the past months in an attempt to cure problems some users had come across, but those were temporary fixes and the 8.1 update should be a catch all fix. 

Apple has always been the leader of the pack when it comes to user experience and while it might not always be the first to release a service, they tend to do it right when they do. Apple Pay is expected to single handily bring NFC mobile payments to the mainstream. While Google has offered its Google Wallet service for years it was always hampered by a lack of usability due to so few locations that accepted tap & pay as a payment option. Before their service has even launched, Apple has gotten a large amount of major retailers including Nike, Macy’s, Starbucks and Walgreens onboard as well as over 450 banks.

Another break out feature that isn’t being talked about as much is the ability to send SMS messages from a both iPads and Mac computers. Apple is touting their continuity and handoff features which allow seamless connection between all of your devices. Android users have had the ability to send SMS messages using a desktop or tablet for a while now using services like Pushbullet or Mighty Text, but those services don’t always work the way they are intended and tend to feel a bit hacky in nature. Apple makes the transition easy enough anyone can do it and all they have to do is update to the latest versions. IMessage now truly is the king of all messaging platforms.

Here’s a quick rundown of the 8.1 change log-

·        Photos includes new features, improvements and fixes

o   Adds iCloud phot library as a beta service

o   Adds Camera Roll album in photos app and my photo stream album when iCloud phot library is not enabled

o   Provides alerts when running low on space before capturing Time Lapse

·        Messages includes new features, improvements and fixes

o   Adds the ability for iPhone users to send and receive SMS and MMS text messages from their iPad and Mac

o   Resolves and issue where search would sometimes not display results

o   Fixes issues with group messaging

·        Resolves issues with Wi-Fi Performance that could occur when connected to some base stations

·        Fixes an issue that could prevent connections to Bluetooth hands-free devices

·        Adds an option to select between 2G, 3G, or LTE networks for cellular data

·        Adds Airdrop Support for Passbook Passes

·        Enables Health kit apps to access data in the background

While this isn’t the longest list of changes, there are some notable ones like being able to change your data connection type that users have wanted for some time now. Many of the changes are fixes to problems caused by 8.0-8.0.2, which some would say is an example of Apple’s wavering services. But Apple has responded to and fixed those issues in less than a month time, which I think we can all agree is a pretty speedy turn around. 

-Scott Evans 

The Adoption of the Digital Wallet

In today's ever-changing world we are always adapting to the latest and greatest technology. Among the more recent advancements is the digital wallet. The digital wallet makes swiping your credit card, an already very easy process, much more convenient. Some people might be hesitant to trust a gadget with all of their money but isn't that almost what we are doing with our credit/debit cards? People were skeptical initially when adopting these cards as well. What if instead of dragging your wallet or purse with you, all you had to do was take your phone with you, which is already with you at every living second. Technology is constantly making your life easier, so why not adapt to this change?

The majority of stores we go to are always bombarding us to sign up for rewards cards and/or credit cards. Eventually, either all of those cards get thrown somewhere and we never look at them again or we have to stand at the cash register and dig through them and makes us wonder why we ever signed up for them anyway. The Digital Wallet stores all of your loyalty cards, credit cards, coupons, gift cards, and debit cards in one location. The biggest challenge that people have seen come with the Digital Wallet is having stores adapt to this new change. 

Here are two of the more popular digital wallets:

1. Apple Pay: Coming soon, Apple Pay will let you store all your accounts in one place. The hassle of opening the app and waiting for the app to load is long over. Just hold your phone up to the reader with your finger on the Touch ID, you will then be noted if the payment goes through by a vibration or a beep, and off you are with the purchase you just made. 

2. Google Wallet: With multiple wallets, Google lets you store all your accounts and even lets you send money across the country. Making checking out online even easier, Google as a special account called, "Buy with Google" which stores all our information and makes checking out that much more convenient.

The digital wallet is still in the adoption phase but this will likely become a more popular payment method as consumers and stores incorporate the use of digital wallets. Many people are hesitant to adopt a digital wallet with all of the security breaches lately (rightfully so) which puts all the pressure on the developers to produce a secure and reliable product. Like I said earlier, once the credit card became a trusted form to make a purchase, consumers had no problem with owning one. I think the digital wallet will become the primary source to make payments in the future. How quickly people adopt it, on the other hand, will depend on how quickly stores will make these digital wallets an available form of payment. 

-Brady Feldman

Keeping Up With The Johnson’s Of The World

Last week we talked about personal information protection, but what about the risk to national security?

In a world of crime it is always important to be one step ahead of the bad guys, especially when it comes to cybercrime. It seems like in the world of information systems, the next best thing came out yesterday. The growth of these systems seems to be exponential! Traditional “large bodies”, such as government are much slower when it comes to system upgrades compared to an individual or group of individuals.

For example, the FBI is currently facing a national crisis of constant information intrusion by foreign and domestic hackers. One of the primary reasons? The government can’t keep up. FBI Director, James Comey, interviewed with “60 minutes” this past Sunday and talked about his history with cybercrime and the FBI’s growing pains over the years. “When I last left government, my sense of us was kind of like four-year-old soccer. So like a clump of four year olds chasing the ball, we were chasing it (cybercrime) in a pack. We're about high school soccer now. We're spread out. We pass well. But the bad guys are moving at World Cup speed. So we have to get better.”

Comey went on to explain the typical target of these hackers as “Information that's useful to them so they don't have to invent. They can copy or steal to learn about how a company might approach negotiations with a Chinese company, all manner of things.” The FBI Director, sworn in during September of 2013, recognizes the challenges of keeping his large body of government up to speed with global hackers. His plan is to continually push for funding and focus on getting all branches up to speed.

How far behind are some of these governmental branches? The Federal Register is currently using floppy disks as one of its primary means of storage! The Federal Register currently believes that USB’s are not a secure way to pass along information and will hold off on modernization until funding for a secure email system is granted.

Is there something to be said about the duty of our government to provide cybercrime protection, similar to physical crime protection? Consider this, if the police did not have the appropriate equipment to stop a crime, what would be done? How long would it take to get that police force adequately funded? Obviously a physical threat takes priority over the virtual threat, but assets and intellectual property are at stake! Though some may argue about a loss of privacy, I believe that the government as a whole should make it a top priority to upgrade their systems on a more frequent basis to better monitor illegal internet activity. Progress has been made within the FBI, but it is of the utmost importance that this gap between “good and evil” is actively reduced. It will be expensive and it will be a nuisance, but we need to keep up with the Johnson’s of this world before they are out of reach all together.

Andrew Miller

60 Minutes – James Comey

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-director-james-comey-on-threat-of-isis-cybercrime/

Floppy Disks

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/07/us/politics/slowly-they-modernize-a-federal-agency-that-still-uses-floppy-disks.html

People Do Want to Steal Your Data

          In the past decade our society has rocketed into a whole new world thanks to wireless communication. With the proliferation of smartphones and high speed cellular data, you are never more than a few taps from anywhere or anyone. We live online, maybe not in the literal sense, but rather everything we post is there for everyone to see unless we take the right precautions. And even if we do take those steps necessary to protect ourselves from the perils of the internet, there always is the chance you will be the victim of the next iCloud brute force hacking attempt.

          I'm sure you all heard of the massive iCloud security breach that led to dozens of notable people's personal information and media being distributed throughout online forums such as Reddit and 4Chan. Apple is claiming that there was no fault on their end, but rather the perpetrator(s) used brute force password guessing along with correctly answering account security questions. The two step verification method they suggest using is a smart idea, but the truth is that many of us are just too lazy or simply don't care.

          I believe that is where the real problem lies. No body wants their digital information to be compromised, but at the same time people have the "it won't happen to me" mentality. It can certainly happen to you, and if you are particularly careless there is a good chance that it will. The best solution is simply not to keep anything in digital form that you don't want disseminated throughout the internet faster than you can say Insta-famous, but barring that there are some other solutions.

          1Password is a powerful tool that I have used for a while that helps me keep my passwords cryptic and, for the most part, un-guessable while helping allowing me to maintain my sanity by not having to remember them.

"1Password gives you the security you need in today's online world without slowing you down. 1Password makes you more productive while simultaneously increasing your security with strong, unique passwords for all your accounts and keeps all of your important information encrypted and secure."

The best part about 1Password, besides the fact that you only have to remember one password, is that it is now available on the iOS Appstore for the low, low price of 0 dollars. If you want to learn more about 1Password, head over to their website and check it out!

          Moving past physically securing your data to keep ourselves safe, I think educating people of the ramifications of being careless with their online persona is important. I can't even imagine where technology will be 10 years from now, but I am willing to bet it will play an even larger role in our everyday life. So, protect yourselves because someone out there does want to steal your data!

--Scott

The Sky Is No Longer The Limit

3D printing is a relatively new concept and many people are not very familiar with it. This is unfortunate because this technology has potential to be immensely important to our future. 3D printing adds a completely new dimension what we thought was possible. In short, 3D printing is the practice of using a robotic printer to create an object by using a computer controlled additive process. There are many micro-layers that are carefully laid into place to form this three-dimensional object. This object can then be used as if it were normally manufactured. One benefit from making objects through this process is only the amount of raw materials needed to construct the object are used in creation. There is no surplus material or material that is wasted. Efficiency and effectiveness are both increased in this aspect while using three-dimensional printing.

Some popular applications of 3D printing include:

• Automobiles
• Aerospace
• Apparel
• Medicine
• Firearms
• Construction
• Art

The ability to create an object from numerous raw materials sounds like something we have been doing for years. However, 3D printing adds the opportunity to create whatever, whenever. Being able to create something on the fly decreases the need for manufacturing every part that you will ever need to have on you. 3D printers can even create fully-functioning versions of themselves. Some say 3D printing will change the world, but why stop at the world?

Made In Space has created a 3D printer (Zero-G Printer) that was launched into orbit yesterday September 21, 2014. One of the main challenges for them was to create a 3D printer that is able operate in a microgravity environment and also withstands the force of take-off. This wasn't achieved in the past because the parts would just wiggle around without the gravity that the earth has. You can imagine the doors this opens up for human kind. The Zero-G Printer will be the first time any kind of manufacturing will take place in space. Whether this triggers out of this world manufacturing (literally), or assists NASA voyages and missions, it is safe to say that this achievement is worthy of recognition. 

Zero-G by Made In Space

While this breakthrough could be the start of something new, knowing what that something is exactly is quite the challenge itself. What's so unique and attractive about 3D printing is all of the opportunity it presents to us. It is hard to tell how 3D printing will change our lives but as you have read, space development is only one of the many possible applications. Who knows, maybe we will start civilization on another planet because of printing 3D objects we need in space. 

Notable links: 

Forbes

Boston

Wikipedia

Posted by Brady Feldman

Big Data, Small World

In today’s world every action that we take can be recorded as data. From the number of times you search “Pizza Hut” on Google, how often you scan your gym membership RFID tag, or even the number of texts you send per hour, it is all data. In fact, the idea of being surrounded by this universe of data is referred to as “big data”.  Though our daily actions can be recorded, sorted, and analyzed at a relatively cheap cost, is the holy grail of business answers buried in the mess? Is it worth the time and effort to find the needle in the haystack? These are the “big” questions when it comes to “big data”.

Big data is a relatively new idea, and there seems to be confusion at all levels of this concept. One of the initial problems is pinpointing an absolute standard definition of big data. A reoccurring definition I have seen declares big data as “a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis” (Forbes). Wow, that’s quite a bit to chew. How do we wrap our head around the amount of data that is out there? Is it possible?

Big data is generally defined by volume, velocity, and variety (The 3 V’s). The volume of the data represents the amount of data we are dealing with. The velocity represents how fast the data is moving, and the rate at which the data is being collected. The variety of the data represents what type of data we are analyzing, structured or unstructured data. Structured data is data that has been arranged in a format… but it’s not that simple, not all formats are considered appropriate relational structures. Good examples of structured data include relational databases, data warehouses, and complex enterprise systems. Unstructured data is data that need more interpretation from more complex correlation systems. Some examples may surprise you, such as an excel spreadsheet without exact specifications, a word document, or even the tweet you sent 15 seconds ago. It is all considered unstructured data.

Who has the time and money to keep track of all this structured and unstructured data? Large analytics companies such as IBM and SAS offer “data mining services” to help sort through this tangled web of potentially useful information. According to SAS’s video “Big Data…What it Means to You”, in 2012 the amount of data stored in the world exceeded 2.8 million zetabytes (1 zetabyte is roughly 931 billion gigabytes). By the year 2020 that number is predicted to be 50 times larger! Despite this enormous value, only 0.5% of this data is analyzed! This leads to unprecedented levels of competition to find the “secret business plan” or the “solution of all solutions”. There is no way of knowing that the information we are looking for is out there, we just need the resources and patience to sort through it. It will be important to keep your eyes and mind open to the prospect of big data analytics, it seems to be where our world is headed, and we all need to buckle our seat-belts for the ride.

Posted by Andrew Miller

Meet the Team

Byte Of Awesome is managed by Brady Feldman, Scott Evans, and Andrew Miller. We are three Senior Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA.

The purpose of this blog is to discuss a wide variety of news across the technology industry. We plan to use our knowledge and interest in this area to provide meaningful insight. We will be posting regularly throughout this academic semester ending in December. Though this blog has been created for a course, we plan on meeting and exceeding the requirements set forth.