Author Archives: bergman.wendy

Blocked!

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Screen Shot 2015-12-29 at 16.01.17After a while of browsing through the internet, I want to watch Adele’s new music video on YouTube. As soon as I click on it and before watching it I get
an annoying 30 second commercial featuring Pitbull saying “Mr. Worldwide” selling me his latest crappy vodka. I get it. You areannoying me even beyond your music in order to click this advertisement for alcohol. Im Polish. We have all the vodka in the world. Get that sewage water you call vodka out of my face. Also the commercial streams quicker and in higher quality than the actual Adele video….God how annoying. I wish there was something that can block annoying advertisements. Oh wait there is. Ad-Block. No more commercials.
This is websites and companies worst dreams. A potential consumer annoyed beyond belief from a product you would hoping they would purchase. In fact you have annoyed the customer so much, that they have gone out of their way to get an application that blocks ads. This becomes a nightmare now. Because the company that paid money to create the advertisement and sell it to websites in order to create potential traffic, will lose money because the add will never be seen. This forces companies in a tough situation. Because majority of websites generate profits through product advertisements. But if the customer has Ad-Block then they will never see the advertised product and it will not generate clicks for the company. This in turn will generate a loss.
However, Ads have gotten to a ridiculous degree that Facebook gathers your web searches and advertises them on your Facebook News Feed properly to show things you could be interested in. But some people find that annoying. I know I do. If I just spent an hour looking at dresses and want to get on Facebook to look at something else, then I dont want to see anymore damn Sundresses! So what will I do? Ad-Block the living crap out of those ads.
But now the technological game keeps changing, and the people from Ad-Block are looking to make money. So how do they do it? By getting paid from companies to ask them to allow their advertisements to go untouched through the Ad-Block. As well companies are doing necessary things to prevent you from getting their content “Ad Free”. Some websites just straight up dont let you see the content or use their services if Ad-Block is not turned off for their websites. This makes sense for websites since some of they are alive because of advertisement. But as well it carries the risk that the customers might turn away from the website for the sake of not seeing ads and consume a similar product that allows Ad-Block.
The up and coming years will be interesting if companies/websites cannot generate the money that they need to survive. Many business could die as a result this Ad-Block and other similar technology. Loss of jobs for many, and because we just want our web browsing experience to be convenient. I mean does it really pain us to see a quick 30 second commercial while you wait?…Oh gawd damnit! P. Diddy I dont want to hear you advertise your crappy CIROC vodka! First Pitbull now this?! BLOCKED!

Live streaming

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Hey guys! I want to talk about……*Drake’s Hotline Bling in the background, while a girl talks*. Sorry! Let me turn this off… This live stream feature on Facebook is so annoying….
Well guys the future is here! Live streaming! (It has been around for ages, but unless Facebook or Apple does it people don’t recognize its existence). Now this new feature that we will be introduce eventually to all of us…some celebrities and certain high profile users have already been using it. But now it will be our turn to annoy the living hell out of our friends with us running, playing video games, baking bread, or watching the sunset…live! This sounds beyond exciting for all of us!
So now instead of spending the time for trying to write coherent text while drunk, now we can show all our friends (and family), how you get krunk at the club and make an idiot of yourself! All just a click away! This sounds like it won’t be a decision I will never regret!

But in reality this is great for Facebook in order to be more competitive against Snapchat because it brings that “Live Streaming” video that one records on Snapchat. Now its more accessible to all of us because we can just do it directly from Facebook, and all your friends can see it. I believe that this feature will be great for people who have friends that will be trying to live stream an entertainment event or even a “news” worthy event. Sure this feature might get annoying at the beginning but I believe it will be a great source of entertainment as I am sure many of our friends will do hilarious things…as well help you remove some friends that might continue talking about politics…
I will be using this feature I am sure! I mean it is just like Snapchat right? Right….? Wait you mean to tell me that the videos don’t get deleted after watching them?! Im so freaking screwed.

Whats that smell?

Reading Time: 2 minutes
As you know (or might not know by now as you are reading this) our life’s…sadly, revolve around our smart phones. When we are split apart from our phones some might get anxious or dreading that somebody might be going through their Tinder app, pictures or even worst draining your valuable battery life! So what as a society are we trying to do to detach ourselves from our “priceless” smartphones?
Great news everyone… We are doing the opposite!
Scientists from all over the world have been finding new ways to make us even more attached to our smartphones and possibly make us even more addicted (to a heroin level addict) to applications. As you know by now companies are always trying to be the first in developing new technology in order to inhale our money that we are eager to throw at them. So now that we are able to see each other via Skype, Facetime, etc. What can be the next boundary?
Well do you like the smell of a fresh croissant from a French Boulangerie? Or are you a more reasonable human being and truly care for the important stuff, like how does Adam Levine after a concert or Kim Kardashian smell like as…she..does nothing? Well that technology its on its way to being developed!

As you might see from the images there is an attachment in order for this to work. But technology as seen before (specially if funded by a beast of a company like Apple, Facebook or Google), can be put in a fast track. So this can be included into a future batch of smartphones. So while you are traveling and you want to be that guy/girl, you know the one that loves to post pictures about food, and travels. Then you can add another small slap in the face to your friends by adding smells to the pictures as they are working at their cubicle staring at their cheese sandwich.
Or it can be used as a prank as well…Oh god! why does it smell like three week old Chinese food? Damnit, I am gonna kill my husband for that text fart!

Deliveries by drones, a curse or a blessing?

Reading Time: 3 minutes
As the world keeps transitioning away from traditional shopping and moves towards online purchasing, businesses have also started adapting to these transitions. Many companies in the USA are removing steps that might be of any inconvenience to the customer. Just like Amazon delivers the new “Bread Maker 3234, with the optimal Twitter option” to your door, well even groceries stores like Publix delivers groceries to your door. However some companies like Publix have faced difficulties because of the demand and because of the logistics regarding it. Companies like Amazon, Google and Walmart have many branches in different states in United States, therefore its not difficult to have to have multiple supply hubs. The only difficulty is transporting those supplies to the customers that want their product as quickly as possible. This is where drones come into play.
Major companies like Google, Amazon and even Walmart are looking into how drones can give them an advantage over the competition, and it seems like this will be the future. Majority of these companies are doing research and testing different way that they can use drones. Amazon has a drone that can deliver up to 40 pounds (18kg) and they are trying to deliver products in 30 minutes or less. Think about that for a second. You can order an entire outfit to go out that you cannot find at the mall, but was available online on Amazon and have it delivered to you, before the pizza you ordered from Domino’s pizza online arrives. Now that is insane! As well Amazon is proposing to have a certain airspace above our heads (between 60-120 meters) to be clean and only available for “high-speed aerial drones”. Now for societies that require everything to be done at almost break neck speeds this will be useful for many of the populations, especially the lazier and less social ones. But most importantly, the increased amount of drones whipping at high speeds through the air may lead to the closure of retail stores or even malls. Malls in the USA has been closing at an incredible rate, but sure you might be looking at me and saying: “ARE YOU SENILE? YOU SOUNDS LIKE MY GRANDMOTHER! I BET YOU ARE ALSO THE TYPE THAT LIKES READING BOOKS! GO AWAY YOU OLD BAT, BEFORE YOU GIVE ME SHINGLES!” and you maybe right, I might have shingles, but you are not seeing at the entire picture of the situation.
When we were younger we would go to the mall to go shopping, hang out, buy stuff, watch a movie, simply interact with each other in person, and not via social media. But also one thing you might have ignored throughout all that time spent at the mall. The older security cop who needs a job to get a gift for his grandson for Christmas. The 17 year old shop keeper whose first job ever is at stake. The janitor sweeping the floor trying to make ends meet, with a job that most of us would never do, but he is desperate and needs it. The immigrant family who owns and runs the restaurant and is trying to make the best out of this opportunity. Now with the direction that the future is moving towards, all these jobs will be gone. Lost. Forever. As well with the increasing population, jobs will not be easier to find specially for some of the uneducated people, heck is even difficult for the educated ones.
Ordering online and having your “Desperately needed Jimmy Choo shoes, for that party tonight” delivered in 30 minutes via drone, is it truly worth all the potential damage it can cost all of us as society in the long run?
Well what do I know, I might be wrong about this. But what can go wrong? *a drone drops from the sky and hits me on the head*.

Free to read! *Charges may apply*

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Put your hand in your pocket. Dig around. What did you find? A few coins? A paper? Or did you find a Smartphone? Yes. I bet you did. Now as you unlock your phone what is the first thing that your eyes see? You will say: “Just a bunch of apps”. Perfect. Now as well, its more than likely that you did not pay for this “Free” application. Because as the economist Milton Friedman said: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” But one might think: “I just downloaded this application for free. How can they make money off me?”
Well that is a slippery question that has many answers to it. However this time I will focus on one, that is the ever growing gaming app industry. The Mobile Video Game Industry is set to make $30.3 billion dollars worldwide. The big name gaming apps that are generating this revenue are free-to-play. Some of these are Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, Temple Run, Candy Crush Saga, and Fallout Shelter just to name a few.
However the most interesting and lucrative part is how low cost these applications are to make. An application can cost to make between $10,000 to $250,000. One might say that is a high cost for a free to play application. However to create the average video game console/pc can cost between $1,000,000 to $140,000,000. That is a large sum and risk for the developer to take. As well for the consumer its a hefty tag to pay with the average game costing $60. This is why its becoming more intriguing, for big name video game companies to start creating free-to-play applications. Bethesda, the video game developer that has created iconic games like Skyrim (one of the highest selling games of all time) and Fallout, created a free-to-play application called Fallout Shelter. Within the first two weeks it made $5.1 million dollars, this game was created as form to advertise their upcoming game Fallout 4. But they might have stumbled within their actual cash cow with this free-to-play game, that will probably out gross the product that they were marketing for. Another highly addictive and revenue generating juggernaut is Candy Crush Saga. In 2014 they generated $1.5 billion dollars for a game that is just entering is third year of existence.
I wont give you any further examples since you know where this trend is going. Free-to-play apps make money. But how? Well through many different ways. One is in game purchases. The application offers you to shorten wait time, an extra life, an outfit, a character, more resources, pretty much anything in which the game revolves around. However they do this in a clever way. At the beginning they give you a few “tokens” in which you normally would pay, then they show you how they can be used during a “tutorial” and show you how advantageous it can be. So after playing the game a few times, the difficulty level starts going on an incline. Then eventually you are forced to either wait for your waiting time to end, or gain more life….but if you don’t want to wait, then you can pay.
Developers play with the addictive qualities of these games and smartphones to keep trying to fish for the money from your bank account. One might want to deny that these free-to-play games are going to go away but the forecast portrays that by 2018 mobile gaming will generate $45 billion dollars.
As you see this is the present and the future that is implemented into smartphones. But are you willing to get with the times, so you can spend your valuable time and money on a pointless application?
I’ll let you decide. I am gonna go read a book off my Kindle app…..wait….
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