Spotify’s New Features

Spotify has already done exceptionally well in drawing in consumers to listen and browse music through the app and computer download. But no business will stay popular without continuously making changes and improving their systems to keep up with competition. Spotify’s most recent updates became a misunderstanding that they ended up apologizing for. But does apologizing for asking consumers to basically give up every piece of information on their phone make it okay? The CEO says this is part of a new “privacy policy”… but it’s starting to sound like the opposite.

Spotify prides itself on being able to provide users with custom playlists that tailor to specific music tastes, but they want to go a step further to get even more exact. They are looking to have access to your location at all times, photos stored on your phone, contacts, etc.

As explained in the attached article, you do not have to agree to allow Spotify have access to all of this information. The scariest part of what I’ve read is the last sentence that states, “But if you don’t want Spotify to go through your phone or track your location — even with your permission — your only real option is to stop using Spotify and delete your account.” In today’s world it seems like everyone is forced to be okay with giving up any and all information about themselves. Would you want Spotify having all of this data on you? Would you give them permission or would you find other means of browsing music?

Read more: CNN Article

Hacking

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/a08bb8753a7038445c581c5e10b4a621.htm

 

One of the biggest issues with technology and the internet today.. the risk of being hacked and having all of your private information being stolen such as SSN and credit card numbers.

In this link the video describes a program called dendriod where one can spy on you through your own phones camera and microphone.

Hacking is a big problem in today’s society due to the increase of use of cell phones and computers.   People’s private information is at risk as well as government’s top secret profiles.

Please use this blog post to post all hacking related articles and opinions

-Dean Brancucci

The Growth of eSports

As a lifetime gamer, I’m finding myself spending more time spectating games over the last few years on websites like twitch.tv. Most of my friends and colleagues, even ones that play games often, find this idea of watching other people playing games strange on one end of the spectrum, and dumbfounding on the other end of the spectrum. As I think about what makes spectating eSports so compelling, a few things come to mind:

The technologies that enable spectating. Twitch.tv is a lot like watching television with a live chat. For me, it’s not very compelling, but based on the volume of chat during popular events that certainly seems to be a draw for some. I find the experience of watching a game like DOTA 2 through the game client very enjoyable, as I have much more control over the viewing experience compared to being a passive viewer (like TV). I can control the camera, and decide which players I want to follow. I can pull up various types of graphs and charts to dive deeper into the game, and see specific trends or key moments that changed momentum of the game.

A second aspect of eSports I find fascinating is that, in many instances, the announcers are more popular than the players. People know specific announcers, and recognize their voices when they dial into various streams.  A possible reason for this is that many announcers are ex-players, and they often have their own very popular streams on Twitch.tv.

Lastly, we’re starting to see eSports on ESPN and other major networks. Below is a (hysterical) clip of Robert Flores trying to cover DOTA 2:

I think it’s fairly obvious that we’ll start to see more eSports on TV, but will the opposite also be true? Will services like Twitch.tv start to broadcast professional sports? Even more interesting, will regular people like you and me be able to syndicate a stream of a professional football game (as an example), and put our own commentating on top of it, for anyone in the world to listen? Also, what would it look like if the viewer had the ability to cut between different camera angles in real time, while watching a professional game on TV? I think we’ll see a lot of interesting cross-pollination as eSports grows that will create innovative and compelling new viewing experiences.