Google Glasses

Happy graduation to all the graduates this past weekend! We wish you all nothing but the best in all your future endeavors!

In this week’s post we’d like to talk about Google’s new invention, Google Glasses. Have you heard of them? On May 24, 2012 a video surfaced showcasing the glasses in action. The 16 second clip was of a person doing backflips on a trampoline wearing the glasses. If you go to HuffPost Tech’s Facebook page you can access the video.

The glasses allow the user to video chat with friends, know a friend’s location, provide gps capabilities, check the weather, set things to your schedule, etc. The glasses pretty much do what a smartphone would do, but on your face!

You can see a complete video of the glasses via this link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/google-glasses-video-pictures-trampoline_n_1543618.html?1337899635&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

The glasses have aroused some concerns and benefits, which are also detailed in the above video. People will now be introduced to notifications projected onto their line of vision which could be problematic. On the other hand, the glasses are controlled by a person’s voice commands versus hand controls with a phone. There are pros and cons to the new technology, but the invention could house great benefits in the fields of advertising and communication.

What do you think? Yay or nay to the new Google Glasses. Leave your comments below, we’d love to hear what you have to say. Until next week everyone!!

Filed under: Fun Articles

Facebook News!! From Wedding Bells to Stock Prices

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weekend we just had

As you may know, Facebook’s IPO began its first day of trading on Friday at $38.23, but has since began to drop slowly as it continues its pre-market action today. Facebook’s (FB) shares fell $4.50 to $33.73 in just the first 1-1/2 hours of trading, which is a 11.8% drop from Friday, according to a HuffPost Tech article. As we discussed in last week’s article, half of the individuals polled in the CNBC study said Facebook was a fad and they didn’t think its Wall Street debut would live up to the hype. As we can see, it looks as if they were correct.

Facebook’s IPO was said to make $104 billion for the company, but since its decline, it has cut about $19 billion off of Facebook’s capitalization.

On a happier note, Facebook’s very own CEO Mark Zuckerberg tied the knot with his long time girlfriend, Priscilla Chan. Mark and Priscilla were married this past Saturday at their Palo Alto, California residence after a memorable week for the couple. As we’ve discussed, Mark took Facebook public on Friday, while Monday of last week Priscilla graduated from medical school.

The ceremony was held in the couple’s backyard for less than 100 guests and the event included catered dishes by the couple’s favorite Palo Alto sushi restaurant. Yummm

For a complete look at this week’s 2 articles, follow the links below. Comment below and we will see you all next week!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/facebook-share-price-slide-pre-market_n_1532554.html?ref=technology

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/mark-zuckerberg-marries-priscilla-chan_n_1530377.html?ref=technology

Filed under: Fun Articles

Do You Think Facebook Will Last?

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the last few days or weeks of school! Today we come to you with an article that reveals results of a new poll done by CNBC found that half of Americans think Facebook is just a fad. Do you think so?

If it were just a fad, would it have lasted the past 8 years!? Facebook is said to be the biggest internet IPO ever. When Facebook makes its Wall Street debut later on this week, it is said to value $100 billion, says the Huffington Post. That’s a real expense fad, wouldn’t you agree? :-/ “Just a third of those surveyed think the company’s expected value is appropriate, while 50 percent say it is too high. Those who invest in the stock market are more likely to see shares as overvalued, 58 percent said.”

The results of the poll are interesting. It can be seen that users under the age of 35, who pretty much grew up around the time Facebook was introduced in 2004, 59 percent believe Facebook is a good bet. On the other hand the results are pretty much divided in terms of Facebook’s future. “Just under half of adults (46 percent) predict a short timeline for Facebook, while 43 percent say it has staying power.”

What do you think will happen to Facebook in the years to come? Will it stay or will it go? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

For a complete look at the results, please follow the link below. Until next week everyone!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/facebook-fad-poll_n_1517449.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Filed under: Social Media

Are You a Facebook Addict?

Happy Wednesday everyone! The school year is winding down, so does that mean you’ll be spending more time on Facebook? In this week’s article we ask you … Are you a Facebook Addict?

According to a Huffington Post article, “Norway’s University of Bergen recently published the results of its “Facebook Addiction” research project, finding that women are more likely to develop an addiction to the social network that boasts more than 500 million daily users.”

The study found that women were more susceptible to acquiring a Facebook addiction, but even more so, younger users are more likely to have a Facebook addiction.

If you scroll to the bottom of the article, there are 6 questions and you have the options to choose: very rarely, rarely, sometimes, often or very often to respond. If you answer “often” or “very often” you will be considered a Facebook addict!!

Check out the full article and to take the test to know … if you dare Let us know what you rank! Until next week…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/facebook-addiction-test-women_n_1500656.html?ref=technology

Filed under: Fun Articles

Photoshopping .. To Do or Not Do?

Happy Tuesday everyone! Thank you all for joining us last Wednesday for our Celebrity Scholarship Dinner, it was such an enjoyable night! As for this week we will be talking about the famous tool-Photoshop. Do you think the media is overusing Photoshop for the good or the bad? Some argue its a useful tool to enhance images, while others believe by altering the images, especially photos of women, it sends negative messages to our youth and other viewers.

An article by Mashable Social Media details a story of Julia Bluhm, a 14-year-old teen, who rallied an astounding 7,000 signatures on her petition to have Seventeen Magazine print pictures that have not been photoshopped in their upcoming issues.

Bluhm describes herself as a feminist and an activist. She also does blog posts for the SPARK Movement, a girl-led movement fighting the sexualization of women in the media, according to the article.

It has also been see by Tumblr and Pinterest that they’ve recently changed their policies regarding the promotion of pro-anorexia content. This is a great move in our opinion of helping promote more positive images to the audiences that view content on these sites. It has to start somewhere by those who find it right to do so.

Do you think magazines that promote to younger audience groups (i.e Seventeen Magazine & Teen People) should make it their responsibility to promote positive body images for young women? We definitely think it is a place to start and other media advertisers should do the same, but what do you all think?

For a complete look at this week’s article, check out the link below. You’ll also find a slideshow on the site showing just how Photoshop is being used on images we’ve seen in our media. Thank you all for reading and let us know what you think in the comments below! Until next week….

http://mashable.com/2012/04/30/seventeen-photoshop-petition/

Filed under: Fun Articles

12th Annual CMR Celebrity Scholarship Dinner Tonight

Come see us tonight at the Venus de Milo with Dennis Eckersley & Bob Ryan!! It’s going to be fun event!! See you all there!

Filed under: Happenings at the Center

Last Chance to Purchase Tickets! Get Yours Today!!

Filed under: Happenings at the Center

The End is Near for Instagram!?

Happy Tuesday everyone! We have some exciting news!! Facebook has just bought Instagram for an astounding $1 billion! If some of you are not familiar with Instagram, it’s a popular photo-sharing app that has taken smartphones by storm since its release 2 years ago.

Though some people are excited about today’s news, other are opposing Facebook’s latest purchase saying it could mean an end to Instagram. Facebook has purchased Gowalla (a location-based social network) and FriendFeed (a social aggregation site) in the past and both have ceased to exist. If you look at the facts Gowalla was already not doing too hot because people were using Facebook’s Places and Foursquare, both more popular at that time. Then, if you look at FriendFeed is just never really evolved.

Mark Zuckerburg has made it clear that he will leave Instagram’s interface alone. This just means they will not redesign or advertise on Instagram. Mark does plan though to create a way for Instagram to be integrated more with the new Timeline layout. Currently, users cannot “highlight” their Instagram photos-meaning photos can’t expand the two Timeline columns.

It hard to believe that this popular 2 year old app, which has grown in the likes by many, could just disappear. What do you think? Do you think Instagram will benefit or hinder from Facebook buying it over? Let us know, we’d love to hear! Until next week everyone….

Filed under: Social Media

Legendary Sports Writer, Bob Ryan to Speak at CMR 12th Annual Celebrity Scholarship Dinner

The Center is pleased to announce that Bob Ryan will be featured alongside our celebrity speaker, Former Red Sox pitcher Dennis Eckersley, on April 25, 2012 from 6-9pm at the Venus de Milo!

Bob Ryan is an American sports writer for The Boston Globe Newspaper. Ryan is known as a basketball guru for his articles on the Boston’s Celtics. He was born  in Trenton, New Jersey and graduated from Boston College in 1968. Ryan started as an intern at the Globe in 1969 where he covered stories on the Celtics and here is where he developed a close relationship with the Celtics organization.

Ryan has been awarded many honors over his years including:

• Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism recipient in 2006.
• In 1996 Ryan won the Curt Gowdy Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame.
• In 2000 he was the AP National Sportswriter of the Year.
• He has been named the NSSA’s National Sportswriter of the Year four times (2000, 2007, 2008, 2009).[16]
• He is also a member of the College Basketball Writers and New England Basketball Halls of Fame.

Today, Ryan continues to write, but his work has become more general sports-oriented vs basketball-oriented as he’s been doing throughout the years. Ryan also has plans to retire after the 2012 Summer Olympics in London because he feels the sports business with all the Tweeting and blogging, and an audience with a different taste – is not him anymore. Though we will be sad to see him go, Ryan still plans to be involved in sports in a part-time capacity after his retirement.

If you wish to be apart of our dinner to meet Bob Ryan and Dennis Eckersley, we would love for you to be apart of this joyous event! For more information please contact Ava Lescault at ava.lescault@umassd.edu or call 508-999-6435.

Until next week everyone! Thank you for reading!

Filed under: Happenings at the Center

Would You Give Your Facebook Password to an Employer?

Happy Thursday everyone! As our title states, would you give your Facebook password to an employer?

In this week’s article, Justin Bassett was interviewing for a job and in the course of the interview he was asked to provide his Facebook password. According to Mike Tuttle’s article (link below), when Bassett refused, he walked out of the interview and stated he did not want to work for a company that would ask for such personal information.

Though this may seem overly demanding, it has become common for some companies to ask for such passwords to employees and potential employees’ social sites. It’s a controversy that is arising and both sides provide reasons as to why this is a plausible request or why they think this is an invasion of privacy.

In our opinion, this seems to be an invasion of privacy. It’s one thing for a company to do a web search of an applicant or current employee, but to ask for a person’s personal password and log-in is pushing boundaries. Who’s to say the information an employer finds is accurate or how a person actually behaves. The way an individual acts at work vs at home varies; you have your work self and home self because there’s a certain persona you must have in both cases.

What side are you on? Do you think employers are going too far asking for passwords, or do you think they are justified in wanting to know about the people they’re hiring? Do you think it’s even legal for companies to be able to do this? Let us know what you think, we always love to hear your thoughts. Until next week everyone!!

http://www.webpronews.com/asking-for-facebook-passwords-disturbing-2012-03

Filed under: Fun Articles