Thanks to Apple TV, Roku, Netflix, Hulu and several others, paying for cable is not the hands down popular winner of watching television shows and movies anymore.  Many opt for the $8-$25 amounts for streaming video vs. the $140 that cable wants from you.  There have even been comments made on here before about streaming as a future possibility for alternatives to watching television.

Almost every single week, I have a conversation with someone about how high their cable is, how they want to turn their cable off, or how displeased they are with their cable.  It’s not hard to see that many are looking to get away from cable.  In Q3 of 2010, 741,000 cable customers ditched their cable – the largest mass exodus of cable customers during a period since 1980 (I was one of those).  Many customers may have used the same logic I did.  Cable at the time was my highest utility bill, yet it was the most unnecessary one.  I opted for the cheaper option – $7.99 Netflix and free hulu (ads included).  This is also when Netflix boasted of its phenomenal growth.

If you already have internet, you already have the medium for online TV.  What do you think?  Is it your future?

First off, let’s start off by telling you what SOPA is.  SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act.  SOPA aims to shut down offshore or sentence an “Internet death penalty” to offshore websites that are accused of hosting American broadcast or media via their sites.  In other words, the site you go to watch Real Housewives or the big football game.

These offshore sites are reported as attracting more than 53 million sites a year, and take away 19 million jobs (I don’t get the job part).  Does this sound like something you dislike yet?  Well, these small companies have voiced their concern over the US attempting legislation against this: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn.  But just to bring this closer to home, let me explain this.  Suppose you are online and surfing as normal.  You come across a site you like and it has some music or a show or content you are just interested in wearing.  If this Act passes through Congress, your internet provider would have the responsibility of blocking that site from your viewing and also reporting you to the internet bad people list.  <NOT GOOD>

Section 101 of SOPA states:

(A) the Internet site is used to provide goods or services to users located in the United States;
(B) there is evidence that the Internet site or portion thereof is intended to offer or provide such goods and services (or) access to such goods and services (or) delivery of such goods and services to users located in the United States;
(C) the Internet site or portion thereof does not contain reasonable measures to prevent such goods and services from being obtained in or delivered to the United States; and
(D) any prices for goods and services are indicated or billed in the currency of the United States.

Section 102 states:

A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order…Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within five days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order.

You may be asking how is this different from the Protect IP Act that already exists.  Well, it only targets domain providers, financial institutions, and ad promoters.  Never any companies that provide internet connectivity.  If you’re on the slightly on the furious side, come down below and let’s talk about it.

The compact disc, most familiarly known as CD, has been a hot item since it first appeared on the scene in the 1980s.  Originally developed to store data and playback audio files, the CD has proved to be a necessity to many.  However, time moves on and things evolve.  Just as I was picking at my dad for having 8-tracks and vinyl years ago, that age is coming to roost for the CD.

The usage of CDs are now replaced by flash drives, iTunes, Google Music, the cloud, external hard drives, iPods, iPhones, Android devices, the list goes on and on.  Many major music labels have even planned to cease CD-format production by end of 2012.  I know you’re asking, what’s the reason.  The reason is that costs of creating, stocking, and distributing CDs cost money.  A company could save a ton by going strictly to downloads like iTunes.

However, every time I go in Best Buy, I am immediately hit with a rack of CDs at entry.  What about those?  Someone is obviously still buying and selling them.  And that means someone is making money off of them.  Go figure.

I will go ahead and put it out there that I love technology.  I don’t care so much for the prices all the time, but I love reading about ingenuity and changes to past tech toys.  I recently read an article (forgive me – I cannot find it) that discussed how innovation was killing jobs.  Then I thought back to a few stories that friends, aunts, and uncles told me of how they use to work back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

• Backing up company data involved manually changing tape and sequenced with a card punch machine
• Auto assembly lines that once had hundreds of people standing alongside the belt now have large seemingly alive robots
• Do remember picking up the phone and telling the operator to connect you to your aunt in New York
• Even in my current line of work, we cut out a department of 100+ associates that order product for our stores; All currently done by the centralized automation replenishment system now
• Full service gas stations have even changed; And with the debit/credit card, you do not even need to go in and get a bag of chips or soda pop

These are just a few of the many I can recall from the “older” folks.  There are thousands more.  Just think about it.  If you don’t agree, vote accordingly and let us hear why down below.

Many people enjoy texting more so than actually talking on the phone.  Mobile carriers now this which is why they charge anywhere between $5 and $20 for texting on top of your data and voice plans.  As with all features, there are always options to wiggle around such treasonary charges.

Below are a few apps that work with either Android, iOS, or both:

• Kik
• Google Voice
• Fring
• Meebo
• Whatsapp
• Textfree
• Groupme
• iMessage

These all provide messaging ability that allow for free use.  No need to give your carriers $5 – $20 a month.  One of the largest hits lately is the iOS5 update of iMessage to all apple devices.  With Apple having sold over 200 million Apple devices, carriers will definitely feel this.  Many carriers have voiced opinions to mobile manufacturers to disallow such apps but they all see them as viable options that pose no threat, so why remove them.  And their popularity is growing.  I personally like Whatsapp.  I’ve converted several friends to it and we all love it.  Guess Verizon and AT&T are missing out, or are they?

When the internet came into fruition there were only a few browsers available.  Netscape and Internet Explorer dominated the scene for a long time.  Netscape eventually took a big dive and opened up space for other competitors to enter the marketplace.

When that space opened up a ton of players entered the space.  Today, the following browsers have huge user bases:

• Google Chrome
• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Safari
• Opera
• Camino

Each has their pros and cons and there is no need to list them here.  The question here is simple.

I bailed on Blockbuster for Netflix in December of 2010 and never looked back.  To me Netflix was a one stop replacement for my inexplicably high cable bill.  Netflix gave me the ability to instantly stream content to my PS3, Blu-Ray player, phone, and tablet PC.  I was also able to a DVD in the mail.  All for the wonderful price of $8.99 a month.  Recently, Netflix instituted a 60% price hike and the internet went haywire.

The backlash was swift and resolute.  Many customers vowed to drop their Netflix accounts when the price hike goes into effect on September 1.  Many customers dropped their accounts the day the increase was announced.

The much maligned Blockbuster responded quickly to Netflix’s price hike. On their front page you will find a flashing image requesting that Netflix customers come back to Blockbuster.  All indicators say that Blockbuster is doing well after Netflix’s price hike.

What do you think?

Click here to view the embedded video.

A few years ago Apple launched a marketing campaign aimed at it’s #1 rival in the PC market…Windows.  The message was simple.  Mac users are younger, more interesting, and smarter than Windows users.  The ads were relatively harmless and funny (even to Windows users).  I, for one, didn’t think much of them until I saw this article at CNET.

Apparently Mac users are more educated than Windows users according to a study conducted by Hunch.com.

What do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

It seems like technology changes the way we do things everyday.  It wasn’t long ago that a cell phone with a QWERTY keyboard, data connection, calendar, and a web browser was a revolutionary piece of hardware.  Needless to say times have changed.

Android OS (#1 in market share), Apple IOS (#2), Symbian (#3), and Blackberry RIM (#4) have turned cell phones into mobile phones.  At a minimum these devices allow you to do the following:

1. Browse the web and consume information with stunning clarity
2. Manage your work and personal calendar
3. Listen to a large segment of your personal music library
4. Read E-books
5. Play thousands of games
6. Check your bank balance
7. Watch movies
8. Shop
9. Use map applications for navigation
10. Make phone calls

That’s an incredibly impressive list of basic functionality.  So incredible that it encroaches on the functionality and usefulness of the laptop and desktop computer. Since I upgraded to an iPhone in April of this year I’ve seen my laptop usage dwindle immensely.  When I need to do anything that involves the internet I instinctively reach for my phone.  Need to browse the web? iPhone.  Want to check a status on Facebook? iPhone.  Want to read a book? iPhone.

I only use my laptop computer to manage my overall media library, work, and use certain programs (PS3 server, Microsoft Excel, StuffItExpander, etc).  Other than that I barely ever touch my laptop computer.  More and more my laptop is becoming a storage and work device (2 functions that happen far less than the 10 items listed above).

So what do you think?

In early July 2011 Google entered the crowded social media space treading where many others have already gone.  The social media space already has Twitter, YouTube, Blackplanet, Classmates.com, Digg, Reddit, Flixster, Foursquare, LinkedIn, MySpace, StumbleUpon, and Xanga.

There’s another one out there floating around that I seem to be forgetting the name of.  It has over 640 million users, the owner is the youngest billionaire in the world, your mom probably has a profile on it, and it’s caused people to alter the way the communicate and connect with others worldwide.  Yes, its the behemoth known as Facebook.

Facebook has had a firm hold on social media since it came out.  It’s uniform design, ease of connection with colleagues, and the ability to share information with others pushed it to the top of the social media world.  As Facebook grew so did the complaints.  Users complained about privacy concerns, the news feed (and mini feed), and a temporary inability to voluntarily delete your account.

Google+ has capitalized on Facebook’s wave of bad fortune and generated its own buzz.  In just over a month’s time of operation there are already 25 million members on the site.  It has circles, hangouts, and integration with Google chat.  It has 2 other things going for it that can’t be underestimated at this point.

It’s shiny and and new.  2 things that can’t be underestimated in our 140 character culture.

At this point Google+ is nowhere near as ubiquitous as Facebook.  Sure, the word “Google” has become a verb.

However there are a few things going against Big G.

1. The words “Google+” don’t exactly roll off the tongue like “Facebook”, “Google”, and “MySpace” do.
2. Setting up and participating in a social network is a task on its own.  Nobody wants to go through the painstaking task of setting up another social network (with essentially the same people) on another site.
3. There is nothing really wrong with Facebook that would cause a mass exodus to Google+.

With that in mind lets focus on the question of the day.