So basically there is this new smartphone that is used as an add on to the Verizon plan that you would have for your other devices. The purpose of this smart tiny phone is for users to carry on the weekends to avoid carrying anything else with them when they are on the go. This particular type of smartphone is only $349.00 and started up in San Francisco. The only downside to this purchase is that you cannot simply go out and purchase it in stores. The purchase can only be made through an active plan that you are on for your own device. This palm smartphone serves under the full version of the Android 8.1 and contains apps from all of the Google Play Store. The similarity between this small palm phone and any regular phone you may have already is that its smaller for you to carry everywhere and has everything that your regular phone would have on it.

The purpose of making this phone small was to eliminate the distraction aspect of a phone. They want this phone to be able to fit in the “palm of your hand” and be accessible for any and everything. On this phone there is only one button featured and that is the power button. Unlike competing companies its the phone has a camera but not so good quality when it comes to photos. There is an option for the phone to be charged with the USB-C port but no option of wireless charging or a jack for a headphone. Most of the features on this phone are done through a virtual button on the screen that allows you to control volume, access home page and get to the multitasking page with all the installed apps. In the end this palm phone is definitely a Verizon product. The final downside is that since this is supposed to serve as the second phone to a user’s first phone and takes on the track of an Android iPhone users could use this as their second phone but will no receive Apples iMessages on it. I personally do not like this idea at all I feel that this idea is just basically the same as the smart watches that these companies have come out with already.

Citation & Image: Bohn, Dieter. “The New Palm Is a Tiny Phone to Keep You Away from Your Phone.” The Verge, The Verge, 15 Oct. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/10/15/17974850/new-palm-smartphone-android-lifemode-time-well-spent-verizon.

As we as a society and generation become advanced in technology and information sciences day by day, we have come to the point in our lives where we might be able to use smartphones to help individuals with personal health. There are many apps out there help aid or guide an individual with their own personal health. This can be from tracking the amount of steps one take sin a day to the next time a female should be receiving their menstrual cycle.

A variety of research groups have been able to turn these smartphones into necessary medical equipment and assistants for procedures and assessments. Some of these things that can be partner with smartphones are similar to those of heart monitors as well as microscopes. The fact that smartphones are increasingly becoming popular all over the world means they are reaching places and locations that don’t have the best health care providers and being able to have your phone diagnose and help your own personal health is very convenient and may just save a life.

Some of the bigger health conditions that can be solved or helped with the use of these smartphones are: HIV, Malaria, Respiratory Disease, Parkinson’s disease, measuring blood levels and eye exams. The variety is enormous and will benefit a numerous amount fo people in the world. One of the main points that stuck out to me was the help that a smartphone can perform when it comes to suicide prevention. As we mostly know suicide is one health condition that you cannot diagnose off a certain symptom or has one direct causation. But, with the help of the smartphones we will be able to track and examine individuals routines and personal lives and see if they are immediate or concerned risk of suicide, in a way that humans won’t be able to determine on the outside.

Citation: “Smartphones Can Now Diagnose These Health Problems.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, health.usnews.com/health-care/for-better/articles/2019-01-18/health-problems-that-smartphones-can-diagnose.

Image Citation: “Smartphones Can Now Diagnose These Health Problems.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, health.usnews.com/health-care/for-better/articles/2019-01-18/health-problems-that-smartphones-can-diagnose.

In the current day and age the majority of people living own so may internet of thing devices. There are advantages and disadvantages of these devices and like anything sometimes the bad outweighs the good. In Japan, as they are approaching one of the biggest sporting events of the year, they have come to a realization. Most of these internet of things devices are smart appliances and are owned by many people in homes.

The bad thing about these devices are how capable and easy they can be hacked. The lack of security on these devices are so low and continue to be low the more these devices become more and more smart and efficient. Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications technology will create this so called “project” to basically hack citizens all over who own these smart devices. This definitely sounds weird I get that but at the same time it is something that needs to be done to see how companies can improve these internet of things devices and better the customers.

The one thing that I don’t like about this idea from Japan is that they are basically using government as the reason why they can hack the citizens. This is also weird because some would look at it in a way that is invading individual privacy rights. I don’t know for sure if that is something that can be proven but it does seem like now everyone has to be on the look out for any kind of hacking…especially from the government.

The positive side of this entire project is that the government will inform the citizens on their actions of hacking their least safe devices if they are able to hack it and will notify internet service providers as well.

Citation: Person. “The Very Good Reason Japan Is Going to Start Hacking Its Own Citizens.” Popular Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, 29 Jan. 2019, www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a26077229/japan-hacking-citizens-internet-of-things/.

Recently, archeologists in Jerusalem have been up to some out of the world research. They have come across what it seems to be rocks from 2,000 year old stairs that may relate back the age of King Herod. You may think, “Okay, this is the job they are supposed to do.” Right, this is what they are supposed to look for but the twist is they wanted to pair their research and findings with some of the newest technology out right now. Thinking of this concept is a little oxymoronic as they are trying to see what life would have appeared to be 2000 years ago with the use on 21st century technology. Basically, what was done was over the Winter Holiday, many tourists flew out to Jerusalem for a virtual reality tour of Jerusalem during the age of Jesus. So, what is hotels and high rise apartments today, through the screens of the virtual reality headsets you can see old deserts or something like the Western Wall.

The name of this specific interactive tour is, “Step Into History” which is a walking guided tour. The Virtual Reality headset comes from the Australian product Lithodomos which is responsible for making these 3-D images come alive. In addition, it has an office that is able to look up information on these archeological records to add on to these tours. These headsets are GPS enabled which allows the tourists to navigate through the city themselves and take on the tour more individually.

This new aspect of virtual reality puts the tourists in the feet of past history that was only accessible to certain religions. I think this is actually really shocking and incredible as many would not really know much about things specific to ceremonies and highly religious events because they weren’t allowed. But with this interactive tour they can experience every single as if they were there themselves.

Article: “Virtual Reality Brings Ancient Holy Sites Alive in Jerusalem.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/cities/articles/2018-12-24/jerusalem-embraces-virtual-reality-at-ancient-holy-sites.

Image: “Virtual Reality Brings Ancient Holy Sites Alive in Jerusalem.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/cities/articles/2018-12-24/jerusalem-embraces-virtual-reality-at-ancient-holy-sites.

Could the problem of eavesdropping finally be fixed? So, recently there has been complaints and concerns with the successful home assistants such as Google Home and Amazon Echo. They were making such a breakthrough by the work they have been doing in homes such as improving home life with just a couple of words through voice commands. But, in addition to the positive features of these specific devices, there has also been a downside. Instead of serving as a home assistant it has been able to eavesdrop on conversations as well as record conversations and send them to other people. This could be scary as we know so many people who own devices like these as well as what could possibly be done with the information being taken from these assistants. The bright side of all of this is that a solution has been created to “tame” these problems. “Project Alias” is a new device developed by Bjorn Karmann and Tore Knudsen. This device serves as a “blocker” to the conversations and voice command devices such as Alexa or Echo.

What’s special about this device is the way it works. Basically, Alias is an extension that you place on top of your assistant and begins to create “fake noise” to block the conversations that are taking place in the background. Just like the assistant have their own command that they listen to the Alias has one too. The only difference between the two commands is you create your own designated word for it to respond to you. Once you create the word and use it to activate Alias, you will have access to either your Alexa by Google or Amazon Echo.

Article: Person. “Paranoid Your Amazon Echo Is Eavesdropping? There’s a Way to Be Sure That It’s Not.” Popular Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, 15 Jan. 2019, www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a25894138/amazon-echo-google-home-project-alias-white-noise-eavesdropping-defense/.

Image: “Paranoid Your Amazon Echo Is Eavesdropping? There’s a Way to Be Sure That It’s Not.” Popular Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, 15 Jan. 2019, www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a25894138/amazon-echo-google-home-project-alias-white-noise-eavesdropping-defense/.