Google Glasses

The Google Glasses Project is an idea brought forward by Google to have basically a Google-powered computer as your glasses and instead of having a computer screen that you look at when you get home you have a screen that you see through and take with you everywhere that you go.  The idea being that the technology is moving in a way that the personal computer is obsolete, and so is the iPad and everything else and that we are moving toward these newer, more mobile versions of computers that you talk to in order to complete all your tasks.  This is an idea that Steve Jobs might have had of the future where people walk around with this computer on their face that tells them everything that they need to know about the world around them.  I think that we are still years away from a perfect model for the end goal of the project but it has shown to be something that Google seems to think is worth pursuing.  Even if not fully prepared to be released to the public there have been demonstrations given at Google events as recently as last year at their Google I/O event.

I do think that Google Glasses can be a great idea for the right reasons in the hands of a responsible individual but at the same time I also feel that this could be a big step backwards for everyone as it could completely remove the organic community aspect from modern life.  A person using Facebook and other social media sites have created a community that they can control and have basically removed the organic community that surrounds them until they are forced to interact with these people, but with Google Glasses a person could remove even that inconvenience from their life and make it so they never are part of the organic community that they belong to.  

Ten Things We Know To Be True

In observance of #1, you can see a very therapeutic approach to religion.  Oprah Winfrey and her guest for her life class can be heard to have a similar view to religion.  The view of it's all about the user is somewhat flipped from the view we see in the clip above, but the idea is there that if you focus on the individual first then you can work from there to make the peripheral matters happen effectively.  In this way the individual doesn't get burned out or bogged down from all the crap in the world around them.  In this kind of system it is not about how people can influence me, instead that notion is flipped on its head and can be seen as how can I influence others.  I know the idea is always to be how can I affect others but most of the time it plays out that we run ourselves ragged trying to keep up with others and we even fail at that and wind up flat on our faces without much prospect for happiness.  I like this idea of everything is there to serve you in this world of  rushing to get everywhere at once and it's nice to see that there is something out there that is focused so much on you, the user.  In fact if you wanted to you can see the first thing on the list can be seen as a complement to this idea of putting the self first in this world of technology.  It's a service that puts the user in charge and makes sure that the user comes first.  This idea gets lost on a lot of people, just like the meaning behind that song by Midnight Oil.

Apple iPad

I will say that I'm not an Apple person in the slightest, but I have to admit that using the iPad the other day was very surprising.  I hadn't expected to find the iPad that personal or easy to use but I do have to admit that the ease of using the iPad coupled with the personalization that you can have with an iPad was very surprising to me.  I will also say that the design of it makes you want to just scoop it up off the table or desk or whatever before you bolt off to class or wherever.  It makes it simple to understand how it has been outselling the iPhone ever since it was released, as it is easy to use and just the aesthetic of it makes you want   to hold it.  The iPad seems to be something simple enough that anyone could use, and when combined with the vast personalization options that you get it makes a great deal of sense that the iPad is so popular.  I have to admit that when I heard we were going to be looking at the iPad in class this week I was kind of bored by it, just in a way that we get to use bad technology, but I have to say that personally I was blown away by it.  You can do anything to make it uniquely you, there are even apps to help you make the shelves on the home screen the way you want.  I was amazed by the ease of use and responsiveness of it was a nice surprise.  I have to say that at first I was just bored with it but I have to say that the iPad has really caught my fancy and is quite the machine.

iPad and Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs saw the iPhone as a big step forward for Apple but he wanted more, a lot more.  He wanted to create a device that could replace the personal computer, a device he helped create and revolutionize, and instead put in place one of these. iPad keynote speech He wanted to create a device that could do several tasks better than a laptop could and as you can see he had some mighty high goals to reach if he wanted a better device to browse the internet with or compose an email than a laptop.  He wanted a device that could play music better than the iPhone.  These are high goals for the iPad to try to live up to.  As far as working with ebooks and as a video player it hits the mark 100%, because you don't have all those programs going on that can interrupt your video while you watch it and as an ereader nothing beats being able to touch the screen and turn the page yourself.  The belief that you can replace a laptop with an iPad falls short in reality, because the touch screen that makes a great ereader makes it difficult to type on the virtual keyboard and you must proof read constantly.  The idea is hard to contend with though as Apple sold several iPads and have gone on to release two more iterations thus far.

iPhone

The iPhone was, in Steve Jobs's opinion, this revolutionary device that would create a whole new way to communicate and in a way change life from that point on.  The idea was that you had a new widescreen iPod with a touchscreen, and a phone with internet capability that was easy to use for the every man  to use and was also able to use the internet and run applications. The way that he presents the aspects of this product make it seem like it will become a necessity in life in the near future for every phone to be made in this way, but it seems to be just the Apple faithful that stick to the idea that the iPhone is the only mobile phone for them.  The idea was interesting at the time but has really stopped being revolutionary in the last few years. The whole market has caught up to the iPhone and in some ways has surpassed the iPhone in certain aspects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR8A3T6sPzU This link is for the ad for the Samsung Galaxy S  III, you can see how it is clearly a line of people waiting for the new iPhone and when a couple of people walk by and use a function of their phone that the iPhone doesn't have but the people in line say something like oh well, it'll be on the next one.  This idea of the cult of Mac has caused them to follow Apple at all times, while yes Steve Jobs was a great spokesman and could sell his product but in his absence the product has become stale and stagnant, and more importantly in this stagnation the competition has been allowed to catch up and surpass Apple.

Steve Jobs and Zen Buddhism

Steve Jobs was a man that seemed to favor the life of a Buddhist.  http://www.tubechop.com/watch/847299 In the first few minutes of the larger video we were required to watch and in the segment found in the link above Suzuki talks about the idea of Zen mind, beginner's mind.  This idea is about how we should always approach a project with this clean slate that is a beginner's mind, instead of thinking of ourselves as experts we should always approach things with this thought process that we know nothing of the ways and customs of the practice you are about partake in even if you have done this activity a thousand times.  This idea applies to the life of Steve Jobs in the way that he approaches business both at Apple and elsewhere.  The way he deals with potential employees and the way he deals with Woz is as a new college graduate might act, not a very grateful or respectful new employee but a new employee nonetheless.  You see it in the scene made in the job interview with the man that he feels is an IBM guy and asks this rather rude question and in a way that was Jobs's way of showing the man he didn't belong in this beginner's world.  This leads to a whole new way to do business across the board and a completely separate way of business that only Apple can do.  This can also be seen when Jobs is fired from Apple and is released to go become a member of Pixar, and once there shows this new world of computer animation the way of beginner.  This can be seen along the way in Toy Story that this movie was different from those movies that were contemporary with it, it was a movie that told a new story and in a new way.  This was the way that the beginner showed the world the path can be laid and taken care of by the beginner.

Youtube and The Whole Earth Catalog

With the youtube revolution in full swing it is time to examine the impact it has had on society.  It might seem strange that a website like this can be compared to The Whole Earth Catalog but if you look closely at the content and idea of youtube the differences seem to fall away. For example if you type in this link into the URL:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1usT9C04Foc , you can watch a person sit down and give you opinions on the world in a way that they see it.  This may seem mundane to us from the 21st century but a video that you can access almost anywhere in the world that gives these ideas and can establish communities of people to follow and subscribe to these ideas is revolutionary to a "hippie" from the 1960's.  In a way we can see youtube and other blogs and various media sharing sites to be the new generations Whole Earth Catalog, and in that way we can connect to people across the country or the world and not be shackled by location. Just the same way The Whole Earth Catalog was a safe haven for the counterculture movement to allow for the founding of a community that belonged not to a place but to a set of ideals and that's the same way that we can view youtube or other sites like it.

Steve Jobs Commencement

The Steve Jobs commencement speech from Stanford is a classic example of expressive individualism in his choice to drop out of college and instead take classes of his choosing and that carried over into the products that Apple made afterwards.  I feel that a lot of this speech was focused around this choice and is the basis of a liberal arts education and is a show of how the individual can shape the world and community that they live in.  This can lead to a multibillion dollar company as in Steve Jobs's case or to a reform in public policy.

Cell Phones

The cell phone has made life easier by allowing people to communicate from anywhere while on the move.  It has also allowed for communication via the written word immediately via the creation of the text message.  Since the cell phone has become affordable for the common man to have it's allowed for communication across the country at any time.  It has allowed for parents to make sure that their children are safe by the integration of gps units to the phone and has allowed for people to always be in contact.