NASA's Kennedy Space Center Invaded by Angry Birds

Photo Credit: PRNewsFoto/Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

Started as a humble app-based video game, the Angry Birds franchise has slowly consumed the spare time of millions. From the first game created by Roxio Entertainment, the Angry Birds game concept has toured Rio, related with seasonal events and has even traveled to space. As a matter of fact, Angry Birds have taken two trips towards interstellar destinations. Angry Birds Space and later Angry Birds Star Wars (the first game of the franchise to featured licensed property) took ill-tempered birds on voyages to battle their pig nemesis.

Building an impressive virtual brand, Roxio Entertainment expanded quickly on their popularity placing their gaming characters on a wide array of merchandise. Candy, Halloween costumes and stuffed toys were a few items featuring the Angry Birds likeness over the last few years. The last avenue for expanding the Angry Birds franchise is by involving themselves with attractions. Launching out from the capacitive displays of our smartphones and tablets, Angry Birds land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as an all-new 4,485 square-foot play zone.

Called the Angry Birds Space Encounter, the themed attraction opened on March 22nd as a entertainment venue targeting children. Intended to provide guests with a fun yet educational experience, the Angry Birds Space Encounter does a lot to earn a three-star rating.

Classifying their games in stations, the Angry Birds Space Encounter delivers various action-based activities that exercises the body and mind. Eggsteroids Slingshot, Cold Cuts Tile Puzzle, Danger Zone and Red Planet Lazer Challenge are areas geared to delight children. For those looking to experience the birds and pigs back in their original habitant, the Angry Birds Game Zone allows guests to play a tournament-oriented Angry Birds Space game. Guests can battle other guests in the ultimate goal of destroying the evil pigs.

Guests can also engage in creating their own Angry Bird getting a printed copy of their creation to take home. Photo opportunities and merchandise sales will also be part of the Angry Birds Space Encounter.     

Open now, the Angry Birds Space Encounter attraction opens months ahead of a 100 million-dollar Visitor Complex at the Cape Canaveral location. A pair of IMAX theaters, Rocket Garden and other fascinating space-related activities will delight for an admission price of $50 for an adult or $40 per child. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex site will also house the retired NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis.   

The Sound of Music: 30 Years of Compact Disc Sales in North America

Photo Credit: Philips Commications All rights reserved by Philips Communications

Since developing the ability to record sounds and voices, efforts of improving the quality of the playback has fueled the the search for better media formats. From vinyl LP discs, the music industry briefly embraced 8-Track tapes during the 1960s and 1970s. Popular in the 1980s, the audio cassette miniaturized an entire artist's album into a package to the size of a small cigarette box. As cassettes reigned popular with LPs still enjoying a respectable market presence, a technology developed in Japan between Sony and Philips would revolutionize the way music would be received. First sold in Japan during October of 1982, the wider global marketplaces of North America and Europe would begin obtaining the the magically advanced Compact Disc (CD) in the early days of March of the following year. Therefore, it is acceptable to say that March the 2nd of 1983 was the starting point where the CD would be heard around the world.

When introduced, the compact disc represented a monumental step forward for audiophiles. In the early 1980s, the concept of a 4.7-inch flat disc delivering superior sound quality was cutting-edge thinking. The thought that the CD was being read by a laser beam was another outrageous notion. Priced at around $800 to $1,000 when first sold in the United States, CD players were first rolled out by Sony and Magnavox who immediately championed the new audio format.

Photo credit: Ford Motor Company

CBS Records and Sony distributed were initially involved in supplying the United States market with compact discs. Music CDs first available (originally 16 albums priced between $17 to $25 per disc) consisted largely of classical performances for the purpose to highlight the fidelity of the new equipment. Contemporary artists of the time including Journey and Pink Floyd were added to CD format later in 1983. Canadian artist Bryan Adams also saw his album "Cuts Like a Knife" converted to CD within the first year of the format's sales in North America. One of the earliest popular music groups to have an album released on CD outside of Japan was Swedish band ABBA. ABBA's 1981 album titled "The Visitors" was brought to market in 1982 ahead of the European commercial release of the CD player units.

As can be expected from new technology, the adaptation to the new player was not immediate. To promote the format in its infancy, Sony supplied 28 radio stations with free CD players and a year's supply of CDs. As the 1980s rolled, CD players slowly found its way into high-end stereo cabinets. Smaller, less expensive players of the laser-scanned discs eventually led to mainstream acceptance of the media format eventually usurping the audio cassette. The CD also existed as an external data storage solution of choice in the booming home computer market of the 1990s. Becoming a common sight around the world by the 2000s, CDs two decade superiority has been eroded by on-line music in recent years.

As we are entering full-fledged into the market where obtaining information such as music and stereo will be performed entirely on-line, the notion of purchasing a physical piece of media will become a remnant of past culture.

Rogers Wireless Performs Pre-Emptive Reform of Roaming, Service Plans

Photo Credit: Rogers

As cellular phone and wireless device usage has blossomed to a point where much of the Canadian population are now involved with a communications plan, three national players in the wireless telecom sector (Rogers, Telus and Bell) have been the ones who brought various forms of wireless contact to Canadians. As more and more wireless customers feed off services from the three major carriers and their subsidiary brands, a call has been placed by cell phone users to have clarity when engaged with a service plan.

With several complaints filed by Canadian wireless customers, a gamut of concerns ranging from unclear billing to other pricing practices have put wireless telecom providers in the hot seat. The government agency overseeing communications in this country, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), opened public consultation on the topic of establishing more transparency towards consumers. Detailing the severity of the issue, the voices of roughly 4,100 Canadians responded by mail or online with their suggestions and input. The ultimate goal is to establish a Wireless Code that will apply to all carriers. Ahead of a CRTC hearing scheduled to start on Monday (February 11, 2013), Rogers Wireless has released details of plans the company will set in place to address much of the concerns.

For those who have taken their cell phones across the border, accessing information from the device could be handled over the communication networks of other countries. Called "roaming", the voice and data services in regions outside of Canada come at a higher cost that can quickly amount to astronomical figures. In some cases, Canadians who are along the border have been docked heavily by out-of-county roaming charges by cell phone carriers, nationwide coverage has come at a price (much more literally for some customers). As many wireless customers have been hit with roaming costs, the monthly bills have easily surged into the hundreds.

Addressing roaming charges related to data use, customers will be presented with a $7.99 pay-per use rate for the first 50 megabytes of information for a 24-hour period in the United States. Rogers indicates the 50-megabyte lot of data is enough to download 50 maps or 200 webpages. This data roaming plan will also alert the cell phone user when the 50 Megabytes (MB) data amount is approaching. This is a considerable discount when comparing current prices dictated through Rogers' online data calculator. According to the current data calculator, 200 webpages would cost $48.00 to view in International areas (though the data use quote was not accurate to 50 MB). Selling data roaming in a lot is already provided by Rogers. A 40 MB plan can be purchased at $20 providing it is used within a 24-hour span.

In this move, Rogers Wireless is reacting to the input they have received from their customers base. Other proposed alternations Rogers is willing to make includes creating simplifying rate plans and amending the time period customers have to unlock their device in order to work with another phone service. Rogers' will allow the unlocking of a handset after 90 days of a customer purchasing a wireless phone plan.

At the present time, wireless service contracts are complicated by the fact they differ between provinces. Supporting the proposed Canadian Wireless Code which currently exists in draft form ahead of the CRTC hearing, Rogers welcomes a national policy that applies from coast-to-coast. The Wireless Code undergoing possible adaptation sets up numerous mechanisms that will clearly spell out costs for service features and provide all cell phone consumers enhanced abilities to control their usage.

The changes for Rogers cell phone service has not been presented with a specific date as of yet . The wireless phone carrier does indicate the measures will be in place soon.

Samsung Shows Off 110-inch Ultra High Definition TV at CES

Photo credit: Samsung

In the constant innovation of technology, it is the goal of electronic companies to make the devices we have grown comfortable using as obsolete. While not discrediting what they had most recently sold, technology developers simply stride to create bigger and better products. The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas is regularly one of those exhibitions that make us all realize rapid the pace of advancement moves. Televisions, smartphones and most recently car-based infotainment platforms are represented at the 2013 CES as major as well as up-and-coming brands want to woo us (the consumer) to a new path of technological enlightenment that, of course, involves their solutions.

At the 2013 edition of the CES, Samsung has presented a number of captivating products and innovations focused around home entertainment. Showing off their latest explorations into LED TV, OLED TV technology, the display for Samsung was anchored by the existence of a gigantic television with the promise of bringing the big world into a perspective only our own eyes could envision.

Photo source: Samsung

Bringing to life a 110-inch television screen Samsung advertises as the largest in home entertainment, their S9 UHD TV features a super vivid picture quality making full use of the sheer brilliance of such a display size. Utilizing what is believed to be the next progression to viewing television programs and movies, the concept of UHD (Ultra High Definition) is presenting a picture two to four times more detailed than current HD sets. Featuring the Samsung Precision Black, tones of black and white are even more defined than ever. Samsung Precision Black is combined with Ultimate Dimming that uses groups of hundreds of LED blocks to achieve pinpoint accurate backlight control on the Samsung S9's 110-inch screen.

The Samsung S9 UHD TV also incorporates a quad-core computer processor allowing Smart TV functions to be handled with peak performance. Multiple apps and on-line content choices could be fed through the S9 television for full media immersion for the eyes. The 3-way, 2.2 channels of 120-watt audio will delight ears with sound quality said to be six times greater than a traditional television set.

While large quantity of UHD or Super HD content could take time moving through the consumer pipeline, Samsung has built a proprietary up-scaling engine into the S9 television unit. HD and Full-HD quality picture can be delivered in higher picture detail than perhaps ever seen before.

Politicians Trended More Than Ever on Twitter in 2012

Photo source: Twitter

Though talk has often been referred to as “cheap”, tweeting could be something of great worth. Allowing some with difficulties talking to share thoughts, finding the wealth of other people’s thoughts and even the chance to interact with someone you would have otherwise never met is a strong positive to Twitter‘s allure to over 500 million users. Of those users in 2012, an increasing number are leading public official of many nation governments.

　

2012 Ranking of World Leaders on Twitter

Tracking the impact of world leaders on Twitter and other social media networks, the Digital Policy Council (DPC) released their 2012 report how politicians are reaching out over the electronic micro-blogging service. On Twitter right now, newly-re-elected president of the United States Barack Obama dominates in the Follower count with over 24,600,000 as of this past December. Obama’s Twitter Followers dwarfs the second highest Twitter account in Followers by more than 20,000,000 users. According to a study released by the DPC, the President of Venezuela Hugo Chevez maintains a second place ranking with above 3.8 million Followers. Turkish President Abdullah Gul is third in the DPC ranking and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordon is fourth. Rounding out the top five on the 2012 list of Twitter accounts is Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The current United States President is recorded as the earliest world leader to find Twitter on the service prior to taking office in March of 2007. In regards to early Twitter adopters, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Belgium Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper followed Obama as early adopters during 2007. In 2012, Mexican President Nieto was ninth in the overall ranking while Prime Minister Harper of Canada placed 21^st. Joining Twitter in January of 2012, Prime Minister of India’s Manmohan Singh entered the ranking in 19^th spot racking up more than 390,000 Followers in less than a year.

In the recent report issued out by the Digital Policy Council, three out of four world leaders now maintain a Twitter account. Out of the 164 countries recorded in the 2012 report, 123 leaders can now be followed by an official Twitter feed. Just as intriguing as the shear number of world leaders’ taking part in the major social network is the single year growth. With only 69 political leaders on Twitter in 2011, there has been a 78 percent increase in only a 12-month period. DPC believes the proliferation of Twitter and other social media is effective for connecting with national as well as global audiences.

　

Twitter and the US Election

Presentation of random thoughts or the ability to convey serious messages has made Twitter an instant reactor to current events. In particularly with the United States election, social media network Twitter was lit up with an electric mood where everyone had the potential of sharing a meaningful opinion. To the point that Twitter was slowed down significantly at times during debates between US president Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, Twitter users quickly critiqued the performances of each candidate. Allowing for such phrases like “binders full of women” to be instantaneously mocked. Through the entire US election, Digital Policy Council rates 31 million election-related Tweets were shared. Making history for being the most retweeted message on the social network included a photo of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle with the words “Four more years”.

Entering 2013, it's safe to say that government officials greatly recognize the need to communicate through the more conventional in-person way as well as by maintaining a voice on social media.

LG to Exhibit 100-inch Class Laser TV System at CES

Photo Source: LG

As LCD, LED and plasma viewing experiences have begun to dominate the way many of us watch television or interact with computer devices, South Korean electronics company LG is set to introduce the power of lasers in a grand scale. Set to be demonstrated at the upcoming 2013 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, LG's 100-inch class HECTO Laser TV projector reveals some intense cinematic quality picture.

Comprising of specialized laser illumination, the LG television setup is a projector style entertainment setup offering Full HD 1080p resolution and a 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Translated, the LG 100-unit class projector set would feature outstanding picture quality with vivid lighting contrasting. A two-piece entertainment unit where a special screen receives images from a Ultra Short Throw projector, the LG HECTO Laser TV harnesses movie theater viewing even in smaller rooms. With the latest LG design, the lens can be as close as 22 inches (about 56 centimeters) from the display screen. Incorporating all of LG's Smart TV platform capacities, built-in Wi-Fi with access to Netflix and YouTube, content management over the LG Cloud and the brand's Magic Remote are all integrated in the HECTO Laser TV projection system.

The use of lasers for creating a high-end television picture quality is a new technology principle but LG will not be the first to market. In 2008, Mitsubishi began selling LaserVue television sets at a price just under $7,000. Ranging from 73 to 93 inches in size, the Mitsubishi LaserVue units have dropped to between the $3,000-$5,000 range but obviously remains a premium viewing experience when compared to other displays.

Targeted to replace existing projector-type televisions, the LG 100-inch display is focused on attracting high-end home theater buffs and even office boardrooms. Speaking on the planned CES roll-out as well as what the electronics maker has planned for 2013 and beyond, president and CEO Havis Kwon says, "In the coming year, LG will continue to introduce innovative TV products to provide an outstanding productivity and entertainment experience for our customer."

Internet Video Consumption in US Set to Balloon by 2020

Photo source: PRNewsFoto/EverydayActors.com

Through the surging popularity of smartphones and that equally incredible boom in the sale of tablet computers, habits interest consumption of video content has been forever morphed. According to findings collected by Alcatel-Lucent's research arm Bell Labs, the growing utilization of small, Internet enabled devices who change the amount and methods many North Americans will receive video.

Today, the average American watches 4.8 hours of video content per over various devices (most commonly is still a television set). Based on educated predictions, Bell Labs anticipates the daily consumption of video media will grow to seven hours by 2020. The forecast suggests the increased prevalence of portable electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets will be the chief reason for the growth. Bell Labs attributes video content access on the go and at home through mobile devices as a major fixture in the acquisition of information as well entertainment sources.

In addition to examining the amount of video data set to be consumed, the Bell Labs predictions also took a look at the distribution side of media. It's suggested that the use of on-demand or Internet driven video content will rocket in the next seven years. Internet video content is expected to grow by 12 times its current size by the year 2020 as social networking and clouds-based data resources will continue to become fixtures.

It was claimed in a University of California Study rated the United States consumed a total of 3.6 Zettabytes (3,600,000,000,000,000,000,000) in 2008. For 2020, Bell Labs rates on-line traffic at 1.1 Zettabytes (1,100,000,000,000,000,000,000) for video data alone. The study also points to the fact the 8 pm hour will be recognized as a high peak periods with 10.5 percent of video data being shared.

The highlights the need for high speed Internet infrastructure capable of meeting increased demands.