ARTICLE 1
Article Category: Tech Culture
Publication Date: February 15, 2013
Summary
With the introduction of Xbox 360 into the console market, Microsoft has witnessed sales leadership for over 2 years. With such creative and innovative console in the market, the company was able to sell 281,000 units in January 2013. Such sales figure has allowed the company to remain ahead of its competitors in the console market. With Xbox 360 in the market, Microsoft was able to grab 44 percent market share in the console market. With such market share, it was noticeable that the sale of Xbox 360 hardware, software and accessories accounted for $338 million (Reisinger).
In January, the sale of hardware was comparably low by 17 percent. According to the research conducted by NPD, it was found that the total market sales of gaming industry accounted for $834.7 million. This amount includes all the accessories associated with gaming. The fiercest rivals of Microsoft in the console industry are Sony and Nintendo which have so far ignored to publish their actual sales figure in January 2013. The software or game that remained ahead of others was Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The other software that were able to rank in the most selling software were Far Cry 3, Just Dance 4, NBA 2K 13 and NFL 13 (Reisinger).
Reflection
The article was substantially developed and well articulated. The article was based on facts and figures which helped to gain clear information regarding Microsoft’s leadership in the console market. Along with such information, the article was able to present recent facts and figures which were reasonably put so that any misunderstanding regarding the position of companies in the market could be eliminated. The article presented the overall situation of the gaming console market in United States and reflected the idea that Xbox 360 has outpaced other game console manufacturers in the industry.
ARTICLE 2
Article Category: Security and Privacy
Publication Date: February 18, 2013
Summary
Cyber attacks in U.S. are on its peak and the country indicated by several researches for such crimes in U.S. is China. As indicated by Mandiant; U.S. Security firm, the group responsible for such acts is associated with Chinese army known as ‘Comment Crew’ or ‘Shanghai group’. To eliminate the culprits for hacking into corporations and agencies personal information, a team of investigators was send to confirm the report but the group was somehow unable to locate the hackers in 12-story building in the outskirts of Shanghai (Musil).
Kevin Mandia, the founder and chief executive of Mandiant, provided realistic explanation for such cybercrimes. According to him, either the attacks were being operated from inside the Chinese Liberation Army Unit 61398 or the internet service providers were unaware of such facts. Furthermore, after the attack session was analyzed, Mandiant led to conclude that these hackers were supported by the Chinese government. The key reason behind such conclusion was the method that was used to hack credentials as it was the same method used by Chinese military in earlier years. According to Mandiant, 90 percent of the attacks on corporations and agencies in U.S were from China. On the other hand, the Chinese authorities clearly rejected their involvement in any crimes related to computer hacking (Musil).
Reflection
The article “Chinese Army linked to hacks of U.S companies, agencies” is supported by facts and figures. This is the major reason to attract most of the readers. Despite of facts and figures, the article is well established and aims to cover the whole story in just few paragraphs. The article made the claim with the help of all facts and figures and for this reason has presented the sensitive information with full authenticity.
ARTICLE 3
Article Category: Mobile
Publication Date: February 19, 2013
Summary
With the use of modern technology, Polytron Technologies presented its first ever fully transparent Smartphone. The introduction of such Smartphone is just another step into the future but due the limitations of modern technology, this first ever fully transparent Smartphone is incapable of making calls. The transparency of this Smartphone can be witnessed as its internal items are quite visible. In order to provide its customers with complete transparent Smartphone, the company has started working on moving the visible items to bottom opaquely shaded area (MacManus).
With the use of limited modern technology, Taiwan based company i.e. Polytron Technologies, have used switchable glass technology that would allow the Smartphone to appear opaque when the Smartphone is not in use. In addition, the Smartphone has an additional feature; that the entire phone appears clear when powered off. To provide the customers with an innovative Smartphone, the company will move towards the production of fully transparent Smartphone by the end of the year (MacManus).
Innovation is the key to success and for an organization to provide such Smartphone that is limited by modern technology can gain a lot of popularity within coming days. I am in total favor of such Smartphone that leaves behind all the concepts of thin, rectangular and big screen Smartphone as this is just a glimpse of future Smartphone. The article has presented the information in the attractive manner and hence will attract the attention of several tech geeks and teenagers interested in knowing the future of the Smartphone.
ARTICLE 4
Article Category: Compute Technology
Publication Date: February 18, 2013
Summary
After the retirement of Bill Gates from his role at Microsoft, it was observed that the co-founder of the company was not quite satisfied with the innovations of the company. Bill Gates further added that the company is doing everything possible to change the face of the game but despite of such innovations, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are yet not satisfied with the performance of the company (Musil).
The success of Microsoft in Smartphone sector was quite disappointing as the company was constantly trembling in such sector. According to IDC data, the company only had 2.4 percent in this sector whereas the major market shares were with others in the market. Furthermore, Bill Gates considered missing the opportunity to take the leadership in the Smartphone sector as a mistake. The reason as indicated for such a failure was the inability to efficiently provide the customers with Smartphone that could meet their needs followed by time factor. By the time Microsoft started providing the customers with Smartphone, it was already too late as the company missed its opportunity to take the leadership (Musil).
As indicated by Bill Gates in the interview that innovation was one such thing that he loves to work on. This could also be seen in the projects undertaken by Bill Gates which includes energy innovation. Such projects could provide Microsoft with a competitive edge to produce clean and cheap energy as compared to others (Musil).
Reflection
I totally agree with the article “Bill Gates ‘not satisfied’ with Microsoft’s innovation”. Despite being the most recognized and reputable organization in the world, the company has not been able to take the lead in the Smartphone sector. According to Bill gates, the key to success is innovation which can be seen in Microsoft’s projects. The article presented the idea that innovation is essential for the information technology organizations in order to survive in the industry and create competitive edge over other competitors in the industry.
ARTICLE 5
Article Category: Politics and Law
Publication Date: February 14, 2013
Summary
After the design and style of Pirate Bay were copied from antipiracy group CIAPC, the company was quite disappointed and considered this act as morally unacceptable due to which the company (i.e. Pirate Bay) came to a conclusion to sue CIAPC for copyright infringement. Pirate Bay is outraged for such morally unacceptable behavior of CIAPC and to make sure that others in the marketplace do not make the same mistake as CIAPC did, the company would try to take CIAPC to court. The only difference between Pirate Bay and CIAPC is its logo. Pirate Bay’s logo consists of a floating ship whereas the logo of CIAPC shows a sinking ship (Whitney).
Pirate Bay is an online site that allows people from all over the world to download music, TV shows, movies and applications for free. Furthermore, the usage policy of Pirate Bay clearly states that others in the market can use the systems provided by Pirate Bay after getting permission from the operator which CIAPC failed to do. On the other hand, the spokesperson from CIAPC hoped that the operators of Pirate Bay would reveal their true identities and to get in touch with the company to make amendments (Whitney).
Reflection
The article presents a recent event that occurred between two companies based on copyright infringement. The article covers the story of both the companies and has presented quotes along with the action that Pirate Bay has decided to take against the CIAPC for copying its pattern and design to a create duplicate site. Furthermore, the article has provided quality information regarding the event which allows the reader to understand the event without any misconception.
Works Cited
MacManus, Christopher. Transparent Smartphone prototype is clearly cool. CNET. 19 Feb 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
Musil, Steven. Bill Gates not satisfied with Microsoft’s innovations. CNET. 18 Feb. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
Musil, Steven. Chinese army linked to hacks of U.S. companies, agencies. CNET. 18 Feb 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
Reisinger, Don. Xbox 360 again the most popular console among U.S. gamers. CNET. 15 Feb 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2013.
Whitney, Lance. Pirate Bay to sue antipiracy site for pirating its design. CNET. 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2013.
