Lifestyle posts

When costs are high and demand is low, it’s time to cut out the middle man. That seems to be what Amazon is doing in their latest move to expand both their reach and influence as they will be publishing 122 books this fall directly from the writers’ works. They’re publishing program has been available for some time but this is the first time that they are actually threatening to do something with it. To accelerate the move and bring credibility to the product, they hired veteran publisher Laurence Kirshbaum to run the program. Kirshbaum, 67. was CEO of Time Warner Book Group until 2005. He was hired earlier…

There was a time not too long ago when a search on Google for “ice cream parlor” done in Newark, NJ, would look pretty much the same as searching for “ice cream parlor” in Long Beach, CA. One would have to type in geographical specifics to something other than national or world-wide results. Those days are behind us and both the search giants Google and Bing as well as many social networking sites have localized search to allow for more relevant results depending on GPS or ISP location of the device doing the search. The main reason is, of course, user experience; the more useful a service is, the more…

It’s hard to decide whether this is a testament to how technology is advancing and making things more accessible to people of all ages or whether we’re training the children of today’s society to rely on electronic devices, losing part of our heritage and enabling a reliance on technological innovations to define our methods of media and communication. Either way, it’s adorable. According to YouTube user UserExperiencesWorks: Technology codes our minds, changes our OS. Apple products have done this extensively. The video shows how magazines are now useless and impossible to understand,…

There is little doubt that Facebook has emerged as a dominant form of communication for college-age people. For many, it’s easier to contact them through Facebook than by calling their phone. Is it changing the way that college itself is working as well? That’s the question that Online PhD asked and attempts to answer in the infographic below. As Facebook continues to expand internally and in userbase, there’s bound to be more apps, groups, and pages created that are geared towards changing the user experience at college (and everywhere else, it seems). Click to enlarge. Created by: Online PhD…

When people think about luxury cars and the technology behind them, they often look to the German vehicles as the pinnacle. Mercedes Benz and BMW have separated themselves as the definition of luxury over the decades. Now that Acura, the first Asian luxury brand, hits its 25th anniversary, perhaps it’s time to look at what the Japanese carmaker has to offer. The image below was taken from an infographic made by Pohanka Acura. It highlights many of the advancements that have helped to separate the manufacturer from other luxury brands. Click to enlarge or view the text of each advancement below…

It has been speculated that home entertainment would meld with online and app-based engagement more and more over time. Today, Nielsen revealed that 40% of tablet and/or smartphone owners use them while watching television. As people continue to Tweet or post to Facebook when watching TV while others explore and research information about the shows they’re watching, a growing number of people are using television time as email time. For most activities like email and surfing unrelated information, the gender gap is slim. The notable exceptions are visits to social networks (which women…

In the fast moving world of tech (and the faster moving world of social media) finding the happy medium between family and professional life can be a challenge. It is particularly challenging for women at times because of heightened familial expectations mixed with equal professional responsibilities with their male counterparts. As part of our ongoing Life Resources series, we took a long look at HybridMom. The website itself offers tons of material with advice, resources, tips, and experiences that women across the country can share and utilize. It’s not your standard women’s magazine…

Despite heavy support from both parties and an outcry of the people, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill passed by state legislature that would have banned searches of smartphones by police without a warrant. The ban would have prevented police officers from searching smartphones during an arrest. Many smartphones have persistent logins to personal communication services such as email and Facebook, keep track of locations the phone has been, and give access to personal contacts. This stays in line with a California Supreme Court decision that was upheld by the US Supreme Court…

It’s easy to trick the mind. We’ve seen some amazing examples of this in the past, but what about the mind’s ability to be tricked to heal (or not heal) the body through drugs that we believe will work, but are empty in reality? Why do placebos work? Science has yet to fully understand why placebos, a sham or simulated medical intervention, can have such a dramatic effect. People have been shown to have pain relieved, diseases cured, and body ailments removed simply by taking drugs that they are told will do the trick. This video explores some of the interesting facts about placebos. …

And just like that, it’s gone. Netflix is quickly turning into the faux pas kings of the entertainment world with mistakes, mishaps, missteps, and misunderstandings popping up every couple of weeks. Their latest: the abortion of the new Qwikster brand before it made it out of concept mode. “It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs,” CEO Reed Hastings said in a blog post. “This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.” Last month, Netflix…