The Nature of Technology

Today NPR reported that two women losing their sight to progressive forms of blindness may have regained some vision while participating in an experiment testing a treatment made from human embryonic stem cells. I will skip all arguments on stem cell research and embryos as I usually tend to side with logic, facts, and technology, so you can assume where I stand in this controversy. I take this position mostly because my nature is based non confrontational and logic-driven most of the time --- yet I am using the term "nature" when defining "my nature" which leaves me thinking even more. Regardless of the research approach, these results are not only surprising, but also comforting as I could not help to think that by the time my sight begins to weaken, there will be a cure for mostly everything; or perhaps by then, there will be new illnesses and conditions that will continue appear as Nature continues to evolve.

The thought of Technology playing a constant "catch up" with Nature made me quickly realize that for a moment many of us believe Technology is, and will be, the solution to many things. At the same time, it would be wise to never contest Nature's own right in taking the front seat whenever it wants, as underestimating or attempting to predict it is as illogical as trying to tame it with our gadgets, or the multiple "back-up" plans we may have...sorry Western Digital and it's profits falling by 36% due to flooding (Thailand floodings in October 2011).

iPhone5 - No one to blame but myself.

It seemed that yesterday most Tech headlines were on Apple's "failure to meet our expectations" with the launch of the iPhone 4S, or must I say, the failure to launch the iPhone 5?

Once the news had come and gone, things got worse with a social media storm of disappointment, followed by Apple's stock falling 5% by the end of the day.  Like me, many were left with an iPhone 4S and a Siri, so we needed to quickly adjust our expectations and evaluate the new situation. Hard-core fans were very vocal in the different blogs and groups, but the more I scratched my head to justify this anxiety, the more ridiculous I felt knowing that I, like them, fell pray to nothing but assumptions and speculation, pictures of iPhone cases in new shapes and colors, and a lot of  social media hype that led consumers into believing a product already existed despite the fact that Apple never gave the slightest hint on a new case design or even the number 5.


I can see how all this disappointment is my own fault, BUT on the other hand, following S. Jobs resignation, the marketing department at Apple should have evaluated the impact of launching a product that was not such a "wower" to perhaps work with R&D and come up with new colors or a new case design, which seems to be all that fans wanted (per the complaints I read..lol).

Whatever it "could have been" I think now it's time to once again learn our lessons as consumers, and as my mother would say, appreciate what we have...which despite the name (4S), this phone could very well be the "most amazing iPhone yet" as the company is calling it. 

I am personally excited about:

1. Siri: I think that having a gizmo personal assistant will not only be fun, but it is something I always wanted. How about a voice that can read you text messages, find nearby restaurants, set your alarm clock, give you reminders for meetings and calendars, give you directions, dictate and transcribe your notes and text messages, and so on —to me this is a very cool tool.

2.The iPhone 4S sports a new camera with an an 8 megapixel sensor, a new fifth lens, an enlarged aperture (much like real point-and-shoot cameras), face detection and reduced motion blur. The camera also now allows for basic photo editing, so users can crop and rotate photos, auto-enhance photos and remove red-eye. All of these attributes will make your pictures editable and ready to publish easily and on-the-go!

3. Faster and stronger: the iPhone 4S's -A5 dual-processor chip (same as iPad2) will now split the duties of your iPhone’s work load as web pages will load twice as fast, applications will launch and run faster, data will download twice as fast (14.4 Mbps) and graphics will render quicker.

All and all, I am ready to upgrade, but then again, I have this little voice in the back of my head saying "should you wait until the iPhone 5?" I guess next time I start imagining a mystical product, I will remind myself of this experience.

New approach to basicotech!

This blog is taking a turn in the world of technology! Basico Tech will now discuss your everyday tech gadgets as we'll start unveiling their "hidden" capabilities.

I'm sure many of you have heard of the possibility of jailbraking iPhones, but did you know that just about every item in your household can be hacked to provide you with limitless options? It's just like that movie, "Limitless", when they say we only use 10% of our brains (btw completely untrue)... with gadgets, it's the same, and this blog will show you how to access the rest of your home gadgets brains! From the simple mods of making your DVD player read disks from any region in the world, to turning on and off the lights in your house through a simple tweet. I've even come across plants that will tweet or sms you when they are low on water! Again these are all mods to things you currently own, so no, to minimum investment will be required. The best of all, you won't have to be an uber-geek to be able to do these hacks, I myself have a party life to attend to and cannot imagine spending more time hacking than enjoying the benefits these mods provide.

So get ready for the posts to follow! they will definitely tickle your nerd vein and will ultimately make your life easier and more enjoyable.

Get ready to squeeze every bit out of all your worldly possessions... by the way, sorry to leave you hanging for the first mod but I have to make sure it is worth it :) But don't worry we won't turn your toaster into this:

Disliked by 1.19 million people at 13.

On March 29th I Twitted that the infamous Rebecca Black video was pulled down from YouTube after getting 1,276,475 dislikes. For those of you who live under a rock, Rebecca Black is a 13 year old aspiring artist who  posted a video called "Friday” that quickly AND officially became the most despised video on the Internet (even beating Justin Bieber). Her label, Ark Music Factory, posted the video and it immediately became popular for being disliked by so many @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0.

Like all sadists, I saw the video and had a laugh with some of the reviews and comments, and OK, I'll be honest, with those painful lyrics:  "yesterday was Thursday, today is Friday...we so excited, tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterward".

So yeah, I laughed and thought it was not the best thing out there, but after thinking for a while, i thought, who was I to judge this kid when at her age, I didn't even make it into the chorus, much less was I starring in a video. When I was 13, I was so incredibly self conscious of being accepted and liked by everybody; I had a major uni-brow, awful hair, and was a full on tomboy. Rebecca is beautiful and strong, and it's sad to see the amount of hatred she received over this bad "YouTube day". The news even made it to CNN, and Lady Gaga tried to come to the rescue by saying Rebecca was a genius, but  no matter how much a genius she is, the effect of so much negativity at 13 could be devastating.

I thought that all these internet outlets were created to "connect" people, but what happens when the common connection stems from negativity and hatred? how dangerous can this get? We all saw what happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya; granted, this collective resentment had a major cause that justified the outcome, but here, we seem to be channeling our emotions in the wrong direction and we forget that whomever we are judging, actually exists in the "real world" - far and away from the binary codes that bring them to our screens.

What would be nice is if so much attention, would be placed on videos where people hit the "Dislike" button on corruption, bailouts or unemployment. So instead of targeting a singing 13 year old kid, we should perhaps try to safely voice our opinions from behind a keyboard to issues that really deserve to be "DISLIKED".

Now I know for sure that I was lucky growing up without the internet. I probably dodged many YouTube, Facebook or Twitter illnesses!

Facebook booting underage users - a good move!

A few days ago, while Facebooking, I received a friend request from my 12 year old cousin. I was excited at the beginning since the last time I had seen her she was only 5 years old, but after seeing her pictures I could see she is certainly no longer 5, and she already knows how to "pose with an attitude" hence her profile picture. She also has more friends than I do, as well as more "tagged" pictures and "farmville" updates.

I figured this was uneventful, however I began to wonder the repercussions of  her being digitally "socially active" at such a tender age. I know new generations act way older than their actual age,  however they are still quite vulnerable and I began to search what were social media outlets doing to protect or prevent young kids from starting so early, specifically Facebook.

According to a study by the Pew Internet American Life Project, nearly half of all 12-year-olds in the U.S. are using social network sites, despite not meeting the minimum age requirements for sites like Facebook. And such popularity only balloons once the teens grow older: roughly 64% of 13-year-olds are social networking; between the ages of 14 to 17, that figure jumps to 82%, says Pew.

Facebook's chief privacy adviser Mozelle Thompson agreed that underage users were taking advantage of the site. When you sign up you can basically decide how old you want to be, and Facebook has no mechanisms to detect whether a teen is telling the truth or not. "It's not perfect," said Thompson, however, Facebook is trying to stop these youngsters from continuing to use the site. Thompson said "Facebook removes 20,000 people a day, people who are underage." Of course, that's a fraction of the nearly 600 million users on Facebook, but underage users have become a growing concern for the network, especially as it faces increased pressure from regulators.

Although regulators pressure here and there, the fundamental concern should come from the parents and family around these kids. One cannot escape the fact that kids will find a way to be online and be "socially active" as soon as they can, so in their best interest, the one thing that can be done is to explain about privacy, navigate WITH THEM through Facebook and "HIDE" things from strangers while explaining the implications of sharing photos and posts. I mean, I am 30 years old and my Facebook page is as exclusive as a NYC club -  the only people allowed in, are people I know in person, have met more than once in my life, and are actually people I like.

Ah la ka Xoom!

The excitement around the launch of new "tablets" almost reminds me to the excitement built up around Harry Potter movies as both are filled with fascinating names, magical powers and both require long waits and lines before being able to experience them.

Within the last few days Apple announced the launch of the new iPad for March 2nd, and now the Motorola Xoom is available at Best Buy & Verizon. If only Harry could let us borrow one of his magic balls to see which one is worth the wait and the price. I am sure that either price will imprint a Harry Potter lighting thunder on our foreheads whenever we pay the bill: the Xoom costs a hefty $799 and if you’re willing to sign a 24-month contract with Verizon, the price for the device drops to $599. Apple has not announced the price for the new iPad.

Xoom is the world’s first tablet powered by Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), an Android OS aimed specifically at tablets which I am sure would also do a fantastic job powering Quiddich games (wizarding sport). Honeycomb is the version that should help Android tablets reach their full potential and become a serious alternative to Apple’s iPad and finally defeat Voldemort. The choice is yours for now, and very much like choosing which is a better team between Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin deciding on one will be tough.

The Motorola Xoom supports up to 1080p video playback and Adobe Flash which the old iPad doesn't. It features a 2 MP front-facing camera for video chatting over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet and a rear-facing 5 MP camera that records 720p video, again, upstaging the old iPad. The Xoom has a 1280×800 widescreen, 10.1-inch display and 3D graphics acceleration, as well as HDMI-out. It features a variety of sensors, including a gyroscope, a magnetometer, an accelerometer and a barometer. The Xoom uses Nvidia Tegra 2 SoC.

The Xoom is exciting, but for now, we will all have to wait until Apple unveils its magic on March 2, at the special iPad 2-revealing event.Only at that point we will decide who wins the cup!