e-books

The article, Barnes & Noble Expects $1B in Digital Book Sales By 2013 , caught my eye because I recently saw a Nook in Barnes and Nobles and wandered how it differed from Amazon's Kindle.  Although this article wasn't really about that, I was surprised how much e-book sales are surpassing hard cover book sales.  I have read a few books on a Kindle and I really liked it; however I don't think I like the idea of an e-textbook as they talk about in the article. In textbooks I like to underline, highlight and make margin notes because it helps me study, so I don't know how I would do that if all I had was an e-textbook.  But it would probably be a whole lot cheaper for us to buy our books online instead of going to Co-Op every semester and spending $200+ on textbooks!

Overall, what I got out of this article is that there is a major shift toward e-books as opposed to physical books, which is not surprising; however does that mean that soon there will no longer be physical book stores? To me, that's a sad thought.

Google Instant: Criticisms and Controversies

After reading the article, Google Instant: Criticisms and Controversies, I think there are both good and bad aspects of Google Instant, which is exactly why the author says "the debate rages on". 

I like how the searches are personalized to your location and how it suggests search queries as you type to find things faster.  However, I don't like how it doesn't show previously typed searches, even though the article says that 40% of your searches on any given day are repeated searches.

I also found it interesting when the article talked about searching the word "suicide".  I had never thought of that and I understand both sides of the argument.

Costly Help for Lost Cell Phones

This article,  "Help for Lost Cell Phones" caught my eye because I was just recently looking at a free iPhone application that allows you to locate your missing phone by logging on to your account from any computer.  I think this type of technology is useful because, as the article talks about, I have been in the position where I have to franticly return to a restaurant looking for my phone. 

However, the two applications referred to in the article seem to be unneccessarily annoying and expensive.  As I said earlier, the iPhone application I was looking at is free and it has features that I think are more useful than just emitting an alarm that demands attention.  These features include haiving the option of displaying a message or playing a sound even if the phone is on silent.  You can also remotely set a passcode that locks the phone.  I find these to be more useful than the $79.99 and $59.95 options described in the article.

Either way, I think this type of technology is useful for the consumer and worth looking in to!