What does Facebook (and Twitter) have that Xanga didn't?

As technology and social networking mature and adapt to various societies today, we almost always forget about the old networks immediately as the newest one comes along. Popularity of one social network is usually overshadowed by a newer more visually pleasing social network. As I was sitting on my computer one day looking at my facebook and tweeting on my iPhone, I thought to myself what ever happened to Xanga? Ahh yes, Xanga, the poetically written blog accompanied by the latest indie song you have playing as your background music, and the website where one blogger could visit random blogger's blogs for hours and hours. The personality of your xanga directly represented you, the blogger, or so one would think. Can you personalize your Facebook? Maybe. But I don't know how quite yet. On a Xanga page, you would have your list of viewers where you could tally up how many times this person had viewed your page. The majority of the time you had to accept the person to FOLLOW you (hence the reference to Twitter). You would seem like a cool blogger if people you kind of knew where following you. By kind of knowing someone I'll use the example..Timmy, the boy that you went to the same church with and lived 25 minutes away from. Although this FRIEND REQUEST (Facebook reference, you're welcome) seems to sound like Facebook in a way, Xanga just told you that the person was following your blog and they did not have any safety precautions to it. But safety a few years ago wasn't really the issue to young budding teens who were as obsessed with Xanga as they were with Instant Messaging. Once you think about it you do realize that yes, it was that long ago. So why was Xanga so hot and then suddenly so not? Well, to back up my hypothesis on Facebook being far better than Xanga, I set up my own Xanga account (again) to see why no one really uses Xanga anymore. First off, registering for your Xanga is-to say the least- a complicated order. When your favorite book, food, tv show, movie, place, color, where you attend school, and your religion are all optional on Facebook, Xanga made me feel like I was applying for an eHarmony subscription. Secondly, uploading pictures onto Facebook is idiot-proof. I can even upload them from my smart phone. It is just user friendly. Xanga on the other hand requires the use of PhotoBucket. I wasn't sure how to use it before when I was 13 and, sure enough I still am clueless when it comes to uploading pictures onto Xanga. Thirdly (and the most important) is that I really find the most important thing about having a social networking profile (or two) is the safelty of the network you are working with. Xanga was about as vulnerable to the internet as MySpace, which freaked me out the whopping one month I had a MySpace and I deleted it. You can have tons of random people from all over the world commenting on your posts- some of which are just weird. Facebook lets it's users ask and send requests for everything, even if it's a virus floating around Facebook. And as for Twitter, its a Xanga that allows 250 words and icons, pictures, and no one cares about what is on your profile. From my personal experiences a good quote will usually work. To top it off you can follow celebrities and see what they are up to. So, overall...what happened to Xanga is that people found better ways to blog, keep up and in touch with friends, and protect themselves better than Xanga allowed them to.

Top Three Twitter Apps for an Iphone user

Twitter is rapidly becoming one of the most popular social networking sites out there. I absolutely love Twitter. Twitter is my comic relief on a daily basis. I'm probably addicted. I tweet everywhere:while walking to class, sitting in the union, in class, in long meetings, and wherever else I deem necessary. I even tweet in the shower. #DontJudgeMe That's just a little Twitter humor for you all. I am able to effectively tweet and update my account on Twitter by using applications. Well, today I wanted to share with you some great twitter apps for the iPhone. I wanted to share with you the applications that have worked best for me.

1) EchoFon

Echofon is by far my favorite application. I have tried many apps before but this one is perhaps the best. It a

llows you to do so much. My favorite feature is the mute option. In case you don't know what the mute option is, it allows you to temporary silence one of your followers. You might ask "why would you want to mute someone?" Well, there are certain followers that annoy me but I do not want to "unfollow" them, instead I just mute them until I feel like being bothered with them again. EchoFon also includes the push notification feature. The ap

p will send me a notification whenever I receive a direct message, a mention, or a retweet. It helps me to keep up with everything. It is a wonderful app for an afforable cost: FREE!

2) Twitbird

I really really like Twitbird. It's also another free application for Twitter. I especially like Twitbird because it allows you to be creative and change the layout of your timeline as well as your profile. Twitbird also allows your to change your profile picture without making it appear small unlike other apps. It is much easier to edit and transform your profile than it is on the internet or any other app. I am able to alter my background with this app. As you can see in my picture on the right, I can upload my own picture and save them as a background.Twitbird is one of the few applications that read your tweets aloud for you. This can come quite in handy if you are driving or preoccupied. It is a great feature for someone who is blind or have poor vision. This app does not have push notifications but itorganizes my Retweets, Direct Messages, and Mentions into separate folders. I never miss a tweet with twitbird.

3) Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a pretty nice app as well. As you can tell, I have many applications for Twitter installed on my phone. I use Hootsuite as my backup app in case my other applications start to crash. Sometimes, there is an error in an application which may cause it to fail. That doesn't happen often though. I like Hootsuite because it is very easy to navigate. Hootsuite places everything in to separate folders. Not only does it use organize my Twitter account but it organizes my Facebook account. I really like that feature of Hootsuite. It allows me to easily navigate between Twitter and Facebook without a problem.

These applications that I listed above are my personal favorites. These apps should be most helpful to any iPhone user.

-Brittany Dukes

Yet Another Way to Procrastinate

Last year, I was introduced to an amazing website called Stumbleupon.com. This site has saved me from boredom, homework, essays, and responsibilities... to say the least. Stumbleupon is a search engine that is meant for discovery rather than finding. It enables the users to stumble upon different websites that tend to their specific taste. Once a user becomes a part of the community, they can pick topics that represent their likes and interests. Once everything is set up, it is time to STUMBLE! All they do is press the button stumble, and it takes them to a web site, photo, or video that caters to their topics. If the user fancies the page they have stumbled upon then they like the page and the engine brings up more and more things that are closer to their interests. If the page isn't to up to their standards then they unlike it and the engine makes sure to leave out pages that the user would most likely not enjoy. Plus, after the user likes the page it is considered a favorite and it's on a list in their account so they can always revisit the site if wanted. Users can also find their friends on Stumbleupon to see what kind of things that like as well and to share sites founded.

The website was founded in Canada by Garret Camp, Geoff Smith, Justin LaFrance, and Eric Boyd. It was an investor-backed company when first starting off in San Fransisco, and at one point the company was sold to eBay. Though, in 2009 it was bought back by the original founders, and is today an investor-backed company in New York and San Fransisco.

I love this website with all of my heart. I am a sort of artist, and I have found a cornucopia of arts and crafts to do while stumbling. I also love humor, and some of the most hilarious things I've found were the ones I stumbled upon. A person can literally spend hours and hours on this site. Beneath I'll give examples of sites that can be stumbled upon by getting on my account and as I stumble I'll put up fun sites I find.

1. The first site, that I usually always stumbleupon is a site called Craftgawker. The link is here. This site is a compilation of people's blogs that are chosen to be put up where someone can either by arts and crafts or learn how to make certain things. It has really quirky, cute crafts that are perfect for many of people.

2. The next thing I've come across is this video from Collegehumor. It is entirely too awesome. It's titled Human Jumbotron. You just need to watch the video to see how intense it is. Human Jumbotron

3. Do you love Harry Potter? Confession time!! I do! Well, if you said yes to loving Harry Potter, then I've just stumbled upon something you may just enjoy. A really cool site called 8tracks.com allows it's users to put up playlists online for other people to search and find. The playlist I just found is (Literally) Magical Harry Potter Film Scores.

4. Mmmm, recipes! I love to cook, and these cookies look scrumptious. Baked Perfection: S'mores Cookies.

5. Perfection. Have any of you out there heard of being... Rick Rolled? This is when you are on Youtube and you expect a certain video but instead it's Rick Astley's song Never Gonna Give You Up. This humorous paper I stumbled upon is a student Rick Rolling his computer teacher. The link is here.

There it is! The awesomeness of Stumbleupon.com. I highly recommend you join the community.

Evolution of the iPod

Because there was only one iPod available at the beginning of this very successful and long lasting “iPod phase,” it was obviously very easy for the buyer to choose which iPod to buy. Since the time that the 1st generation iPod was released in 2001, Apple has successfully come out with new iPods each year through 2010. The iPods differ in many ways from storage and battery life to mobile Wi-Fi and camera capability. Looking at each year, it is very interesting to see the evolution of the 1st generation 2001 iPod into the most recent 2010 iPod.

2001: This 1st generation iPod was Apple's first MP3 with 10 hours of battery life. It was appealing to buyers because of the design and storage. Although there were other MP3s available at the time, the iPod stood out because of its new design with a scroll wheel and storage capacity of up to 10 GB. Its catchy slogan was, “1,000 songs in your pocket.” This iPod was only Mac compatible.

2002 and 2003: The 2nd generation iPod was released with a few upgrades. It now had 20 GB capacities, and was Windows compatible. The appearance of the iPods was the same except for replacement of the mechanical scroll wheel with a touch-sensitive scroll wheel. 2003 marked the release of the 3rd generation iPod, which had a sleeker design and storage up to 40 GB.

2004: Apple’s creativity was seen through their 2004 releases. Along with upgrading to the 4th generation iPod, which now had 12 hours of battery life, Apple introduced iPod Mini an iPodPhoto. Mini had different model colors instead of the standard white, and was very small. Photo could store up to 60 GB of music and photos, 15-hour battery life, and it now had a color screen.

2005: iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano were introduced. Shuffle was such a hit because of the inexpensive price. It did not have a screen, but still had the USB drive and control buttons. The Nano took the place of the Mini because it was small, but also because it had a color screen that the Mini did not have. Color and 5th generation were also improved with more memory and longer battery life. 5th generation now supported video, and took on a much slimmer design.

2006: Apple produced upgraded versions of iPod, Shuffle, and Nano. Each had software updates and extended battery life. Nano was given color options other than black and white, while Shuffle decreased its size and also added colors.

2007: The introduction of the iPod Touch, new Nanos, and Classic. The best way to explain the Touch is an iPhone without the phone. Touch lost the touch-wheel that the other iPods had, and instead gained a touch screen that was the entire front of the iPod. The Classic was the 6th generation iPod, which now was made with aluminum. The battery life of each new iPod was increased to at least 20 hours.

2008 and 2009: Classic, Nano, and Touch were all upgraded in 2008 and 2009. Classic v2 now had 160 GB of storage and 36 hours of battery life. Nano evolved by now having a larger screen, FM radio capability, and the ability to record video. Touch was not modified much, but it did have some software upgrades and went up to 30 hours of b

attery life.

2010: Shuffle, Nano, and Touch each upgraded during 2010. Shuffle 4th generation now had 2 GB of storage and 15 hours of battery life. It went back to its small square shape. Nano 6th generation took on a completely new design: square shape with screen covering the face of it. Touch 4th generation obtained a front and back facing camera, 40 audio hours of battery life, and 64 GB.

iPods from 2001 to 2010 went from having storage of 5 GB to 160 GB, battery life of 10 hours to 40 hours, and the ability of only playing music to now having the ability to video chat over Wi-Fi. The evolution of the iPod is an ongoing process, and it will be interesting to see what Apple will introduce to us next with iPods!

Some of this information came from:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2037089,00.asp

http://gear.ign.com/articles/107/1078271p1.html

Oh, How I Love Oovoo!!!

    Oovoo is a video chat tool that permits users to communicate through video conferencing.  It was released in between the year 2007 and 2008.  It has become extremely popular over the years with an average of over 14 million users. Oovoo allows users to make video calls, form conferences, and send instant and video messages. My experience with Oovoo has been absolutely amazing. It has made my way of communicating easier and more fun. There are several reasons why I love Oovoo.
 
   Oovoo allows me to physically interact with my family and friends.
        - There are several websites, such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Yahoo Messenger, that allows me to communicate only by sending messages back and forth. However, Oovoo is my only way of having the option to actually visually interact with my online friends. This is a great advantage for me to talk to my loved ones who live far away.

   Oovoo enables me to video chat with more than one person at a time.
          - Oovoo allows users to video chat with up to six people. For me, this comes in handy because my friends and I get to converse all at once. Most of my friends live miles away, but Oovoo makes it possible for us to keep in contact on a daily basis. From experience with other video chat tools, such as Skype, I have learned that users can only video chat with one person. This is one of the main reasons why I love Oovoo.

   

Oh, How I Love Oovoo!!!

    Oovoo is a video chat tool that permits users to communicate through video conferencing.  It was released in between the year 2007 and 2008.  It has become extremely popular over the years with an average of over 14 million users. Oovoo allows users to make video calls, form conferences, and send instant and video messages. My experience with Oovoo has been absolutely amazing. It has made my way of communicating easier and more fun. There are several reasons why I love Oovoo.
   
   Oovoo allows me to physically interact with my family and friends.
        - There are several websites, such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Yahoo Messenger, that allows me to communicate only by sending messages back and forth. However, Oovoo is my only way of having the option to actually visually interact with my online friends. This is a great advantage for me to talk to my loved ones who live far away.




 

    Oovoo enables me to video chat with more than one person at a time.
          - Oovoo allows users to video chat with up to six people. For me, this comes in handy because my friends and I get to converse all at once. Most of my friends live miles away, but Oovoo makes it possible for us to keep in contact on a daily basis. From experience with other video chat tools, such as Skype, I have learned that users can only video chat with one person. This is one of the main reasons why I love Oovoo.

    

Having One Of Those Days? Blog About It.

Have you ever been so frustrated with someone or something and wanted to express your feelings about it, but did not want to be the person who complained about everything on your Facebook or Twitter? Well I was that person after one of the girls in my sorority broke my nose two weeks ago while practicing for derby days. I was so mad and did not feel any better after calling my mom and talking to her about it for an hour. I knew my president was my friend on Facebook and followed me on Twitter so I could not put anything about my sister on either one of those accounts. So as I was thinking about my blog topic, I stumbled across Tumblr. Which for those of you who live under a social network rock and don’t know what Tumblr is, click here http://www.tumblr.com/ . I realized, duh Sloan you can obviously blog about it and you won’t get in trouble about it, because 99.9% of your sorority will not think to look on a blog.

As soon as I finished registering online, I started reading other people’s blogs and was instantly hooked. Tumblr is unlike any Social Network I use. Facebook is full of kids and people I graduated high school with. I really don’t want those people to read about my thoughts. I also found that there are so many ways to use Tumblr. According to the Tumblr website “The average Tumblr user creates 14 original posts each month, and reblogs 3. Half of those posts are photos. The rest are split between text, links, quotes, music, and video.” Which in my opinion is awesome, because you can read other people's blogs that are interested in the same things as you are. Also if you stumble across a blog that is extremely boring to you, you don’t have to read it.

When you create your profile, you have so many options of themes to choose from. Also, if you are unlike me and are very creative and artistic you can create an original theme. I unfortunately have a very hard time drawing so I chose one that was pre-made. Unlike Facebook and Twitter you can have your own domain name so that if your friends who don’t have Tumblr want to read your blogs, you can send them the link to your Tumblr page by using your domain name. I made mine easy so that it wasn’t hard for my not so smart friends to find me (www.sloan1234.tumblr.com). My favorite part of Tumblr is that there is an app for that,duh. I just bought an Iphone three weeks ago and it never leaves my hands so having a Tumblr app makes it really easy to update my blog. So when I’m sitting in class and my teacher says something that I don’t agree with or when they say something funny, I can obviously update it to Facebook, Twitter and now Tumblr. I also forgot to mention something that I feel like everyone would like about Tumblr, whether you live under a rock or you are president of ASB, Tumblr is free. You don’t pay for storage, bandwidth or even the advance features like the full theme source codes and group blogs. Next time you are having one of those days where you just need to let it all out, blog about it.