5 CNET article reviews and reflections - Essay Example

Hackers post data from dozens of breached college servers By: Steven Musil Published: October 3, Summary: In order to get the attention of the state of education, a group of hackers who call themselves GhostShell released vital personal information they have stolen from different universities from all over the world, including but not limited to the Ivy League schools and other famous universities in the United States. The group claims that their action’s intention was to make the public become more concerned on the hugely diversified educational system worldwide, which greatly affects every single individual as well as the society (Musil, “Hackers Post”).

There are more than 120,000 private information that the group admitted to have breached and exposed to the public. Identity Finder, a software company involving in securing the safety and privacy of information of individuals, said that although there are only around 40,000 accounts that were confirmed to have been exposed, this incident must not be ignored bigger and more crucial information may be accessed by these hackers. To make it even alarming, the group declared that they are just starting as there are planning for more data leaks in the near future (Musil, “Hackers Post”).

Reflection: Such outbursts on the educational system may not be solved through actions that GhostShell has initiated. Releasing personal information to the public may only escalate the problem to a higher level. Individuals whose identities have been breached are at a great risk against different forms of cybercrime, such as phishing, identity theft and more. The 40,000 personal information that has been verified to be made available to the public is not a small number that every user of the Internet should ignore.

Title: PC market much worse than expected, says analyst By: Lance Whitney Published: October 11, 2012 Summary: Gartner estimate of a 2.1 percent drop from last year’s PC shipments in the last quarter and a growth of 9.4 percent in the previous quarter was observed to be extremely different from what has been found recently. PC shipments in the last quarter showed an 8.3 percent decline and an increase of only 2.5 percent in the second quarter. This huge gap left its investors with very few ways of dealing with such great loss (Whitney, “PC Market”).

Several factors have been affecting the market since consumers are not as eager to upgrade their PCs, especially companies with limited budgets. Individual consumers are far more interested in upgrading their smartphones and tablets than their PCs as well. An increase in sales in the fourth quarter may be possible should there be a well-planned management scheme of inventory before the release of Windows 8. However, this improvement will only be temporary and may not be big so there is no reason for its investors to become too hopeful of huge changes (Whitney, “PC Market”).

Reflection: Convenience involving comfort and mobility is what every consumer looks for in the gadgets they purchase. Without any of this, any technology is no longer appealing to them. The reason why smartphones have become very successful was the fact that they made all operations in the computers at arm’s length wherever they are. There is an absolute truth in the report about people being more interested in upgrading their smartphones and tablets several times before deciding to refresh their PCs.

Looking at the trend in the designs of the technologies that makes a hit in the market, any improvement in sales in the last quarter may not be big enough and will last only for a short time. Title: AOL squatter launches his company -- no hiding out required By: Daniel Terdiman Published: September 26, 2012 Summary: After stealthily spending two months working on his new technological venture in an office at AOL’s Palo Alto offices in California that he does not own, Eric Simons has finally launched his company.

Initially known as ClassConnect, Simons came up with the idea of providing the teachers a place where they could get connected to each other and share lesson plans, as well as with the students. He says that what he created has a similar concept as GitHub for which teachers may be able to use other teachers’ lesson plans as a start before creating their own (Terdiman, “AOL Squatter”). For its opening, the company has renamed itself as Claco. As of the company is starting its beta period, they are hoping to find “quality teachers” who will help them to finally keep the ball rolling for them, especially that Claco has now been receiving some funding (Terdiman, “AOL Squatter”).

Reflection: Simons’ fueling desire of putting up his own company and making it big in the Silicon Valley is inspiring enough for those who wish to venture into the virtual world. His experience as a student brought him to where only those with burning passion into achieving their goals survive. Recognizing the potential in increasing the learning outcome of the students with the help of the computers and the Internet, Claco’s marketability is high. On the other hand, it would be deemed necessary for them to come up with an effective strategy in using the resources made available for everyone.

Title: Twitter teams with Nielsen on brand surveys By: Don Reisinger Published: October 3, 2012 Summary: Twitter announced its partnership with Nielsen, which allows advertisers to conduct survey to users to the social networking site. Users would have the freedom to choose whether they want to participate in the surveys that are in-line with their tweet timeline. An advantage of this survey feature is that users will no longer be redirected to another site and complete the survey immediately within Twitter (Reisinger, “Twitter Teams”).

The social network company sees this partnership as a way in which they could widen their connections. It hopes to improve its way of gaining more profits from different advertisers by providing them with various options in reaching out to their target consumers (Reisinger, “Twitter Teams”). Reflection: The new partnership between Twitter and Nielsen has once again bridged the advertiser-consumer relationship through the social media. On the other hand, as this partnership opens up new opportunities to gain profit for Twitter, the social media company should also favor itself be creating its own survey regarding this new features effect to its users.

Surveys may be annoying to the users, especially if they are often greeted with surveys as soon as they open their accounts. Instead of increasing its market, twitter may only lead its own way to its fall. Title: Apple rethinking Samsung chip partnership, say sources By: Brooke Crothers Published: September 12, 2012 Summary: It has been confirmed by several sources that Apple has been working its way on the possibility of shifting from Samsung to TSMC concerning chip manufacturing. News reports in Asia confirmed such rumors as well, which reports that Apple is looking into having TSMC produce the quad-core chips for its devices.

As such, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is now ignoring some of its customers as they exert as much effort in producing 20 nanometer chips for Apple (Crothers, “Apple Rethinking”). On the other hand, Apple is also believed to have opened negotiations again with Intel for the more advanced 14 nanometer chip. According to Gus Richard of Piper Jaffray, no deal, however, has been closed between the two companies so far (Crothers, “Apple Rethinking”). Reflection: Apple’s decision to change the supplier of its chips opens up new opportunities to manufacturing companies aside from TSMC.

Some might Apple consumers might be hesisant though with this new manufacturer, though if Apple closely work alongside with its new partner, they would not even notice the difference. In addition, its working deal in the making with Intel may only make things as colorful as for Apple. As one of the most widely distributed smartphones in the world, Apple continues to aim at providing the most reliable gadgets for every individual who is always on the go. Works Cited: Musil, Steven. “Hackers post data from dozens of breached college servers.” CNET. 3 October 2012. Web. 15 October 2012.

Whitney, Lance. “PC market much worse than expected, says analyst.” CNET. 11 October 2012. Web. 15 October 2012 Terdiman, Daniel. “AOL squatter launches his company -- no hiding out required.” CNET. 26 September 2012. Web. 15 October 2012 Reisinger, Don. “Twitter teams with Nielsen on brand surveys.” 3 October 2012. Web. 15 October 2012 Crothers, Brooke. “Apple rethinking Samsung chip partnership, say sources.” 12 September 2012. Web. 15 October 2012