Course Project: Second Life

Day 10

     As I continue my research, I continue to ask myself the question what type of people would be attracted to Second Life. I understand the prospect of creating a virtual world that mimics our ideal lifestyle. I even understand the attraction of a free virtual world where you can frolic freely with friends playing and doing whatever you want. Second life does not give its users a very sturdy interface in which to do this. The game has very complicated controls with very sluggish movement. Graphically the game is very outdated when compared to modern games and virtual worlds. Textures and models take forever to load I often find myself waiting a good 3-5 minutes before everything is loaded. A good amount of the users that I have run into do not live within the same country which makes me wonder if this game is much more appealing to users from different countries. As I continue my research, I have grown to wonder how effective this world is for delivering an effective means of communication and entertainment for its users. Maybe the world is just not appealing to my type of demographic; I will continue to develop my findings.

Course Project: Second Life

Day 3


     As I continue my research into Second Life, I have noticed a few important factors regarding my behavior towards the virtual world. I have noticed that I personally do not find myself being drawn into the world as I initially thought I would. I also do not seem to be enjoying the social aspects of Second Life. This could be because of my values and interests in face-to-face gatherings. In my opinion, there is still a very important element missing from Second Life that you get from meeting people in person and I am unsure if they could ever really incorporate that human element into the world.  I do not get any enjoyment from the prospect of buying myself a virtual life of my choosing. I also noticed that for a virtual world that allows users to socialize as you would in real life everything still feels very secluded and individualized. Every user within Second Life seems to stay within their comfort zone never really branching out which makes initial communication within the world difficult.

Course Project: Second Life

Day 2

In Second Life, people converge by walking, running, or flying across a dedicated area that is usually focused on a major theme. The theme can be based of realistic places like New York City or completely fictional. The virtual world allows its users to communicate with each other by using a text chat feature or by communicating via a headset or some type of microphone device. Using the teleport feature I traveled to various locations and one important fact that I learned is that based on the space that you travel to you will find people of various cultures speaking their native language. Therefore, it is very important that you pay attention to where you are so that you do not accidentally offend someone from another culture who is not accustomed to your culture.

Second Life Space



Second Life Space

Course Project: Second Life

Day 1

   

     My initial observations lead to believe that Second Life like many other virtual worlds serves the purpose of providing a means of escape from our day-to-day lives by providing a world outside of our own where we can explore and socialize with individuals from all occupations. The virtual world also serves as a bridge between users that are distances apart, allowing them to converge and socialize in a virtual environment that mimics several of the regular activities that we would do in face-to-face social gatherings. Second life allows the user to explore the possibility of different venues of life by allowing them to purchase and live as they see fit through the purchase of virtual goods. I will continue to observe and further develop my initial findings.

Amazonmp3 Music Downloads Service

      In a digital era, you would be hard pressed not to find all of your favorite media now available in some type of digital format. Music an early adopter of all digital can now be bought and downloaded directly from the internet, onto your computer then to any music player. Amazonmp3 is one the several music download service providers that provides consumers direct access to purchase all of their favorite music directly to their computers. Providing thousands of your favorite songs Amazonmp3 opened shop in 2007 allowing users to purchase their music digitally, most would agree that one of the major benefits of using Amazon for the purchase of your songs is that the songs do not come with any DRM restrictions. This is a type of security that limits the control and management of your files by restricting the amount of copies that you can have active for any digital song. The store also has several features such as Amazon Cloud Player, Amazon MP3 App for Android, free music, and much, much more.

     Amazonmp3

     In closing if you have yet to find a good music download service, or if you are tired of all of the restrictions placed by your current provider then amazonmp3 might just be what you are looking for, for all your music needs.

3D Televisions Gimmick or are they here to stay?

     There has been a good amount of buzz over these 3D televisions receiving both praise and dismissal. The fact is that 3D technology is nothing new and has been around since the 50's with very few advances made in the technology since its creation. Most modern 3D televisions employ some form of the pre-existing technology with the majority of these new 3D TV's employing a method called polarization, were two images are superimposed on the same screen using different polarizing filters. While the rest use active shutter technology, which involves the use of expensive glasses that filter the amount of light that passes through in synchronization with the display.

Vizio 3D Polarized glasses

     But enough about the tech, in my opinion the determining factor of whether or not 3D TV's are here to stay is not the technology but instead the content that will be provided. 3D technology has finally become affordable and it will only continue to get more, and more affordable so content is the underlying factor that will determine the inevitable fate of 3D TV's. So far Sony one of leading promoters of the technology has been increasingly releasing several 3D capable content going as far as making the majority of their first party titles for the PS3 3D enabled as well as partnering with publishers to release more and more 3D enabled Bluray movies. In closing it is always important to keep in mind that the technology is only as good as the content provided for it.

Are Smartphones The New Laptop?

     In a technological era were functionality and innovation are the driving force of what we see, no longer do laptops reign supreme as the pinnacle of portability and functionality. More and more we are seeing the rising trend of smart-phones offering all of the tidbits that a laptop provides as well as all of the typical features that a cell phone provides, all within the palm of your hand. Current Smartphone's provide all of the typical features found within laptops from music, video, pictures, documents, web browsing, to social networking. Take for instance the new HTC Sensation XE with Beats weighing at a mere 5.33 ounces the phone comes with a 4.3-inch touch screen with a resolution of (540x960) the phone comes packed with all the benefits mentioned above plus much, much more.

HTC Sensation XE

     This past holiday season alone saw an increased mark of activation in smartphones with the activations topping the 6.8 million mark on Dec. 25 alone commented by author Mike Isaac and reported by mobile research firm Flurry Analytics . There is is no doubt in my mind that smart phones will inevitably replace laptops in the area of media management on the go.