New Technology: Gadgets & Trends

David Bott
Manager, IT & Networks St. Catharines Public Library

Gadgets

Digital Content

MP3, MP4, WMA, WMV, AAC, FLV, OGG, DivX What is it & where do I get it?

Web 2.0 The Interactive Web

Blogs, Wikis & RSS Podcasting Social Networks

www.facebook.com www.myspace.com www.secondlife.com Picasa Google Earth

Cool Applications

Operating Systems & Security

Gadgets: Memory

Memory Storage

Floppy disks are slow, low-capacity (1.44 MB) and unreliable

USB Thumb Drives

Faster, higher capacity & more reliable Replacing floppy disks and CD-R / DVD-R
U3 and PortableApps.com Applications run right from the drive Require storage for content

New generation of USB drives

Cameras, MP3 Players, Phones

Compact Flash SD Cards MMC

USB Thumb Drive with U3

Stores data & applications

Office applications & documents E-mail, browser & bookmarks Passwords, anti-virus Free & commercial applications Proprietary software preinstalled on certain models Free alternative that you can install on any USB drive

U3

PortableApps.com

Digital Cameras

Point-and-shoot Digital SLR Get that perfect shot

Instantly preview every shot

Edit & print your own digital pictures Make digital movies Post pictures online

Flickr.com MyPhotoAlbum.com Facebook.com Weblogs (aka blog)

MP3 Players

iPod, Zune, Zen, Yepp Purchase & download music from online music stores

iTunes, AOL Radio, Puretracks.com Rip from your own CDs Podcasts, vidcasts

Download free content

Digital Video Recorders & Players

Not your fathers VCR

Pause & rewind live TV TiVo*, AppleTV ExpressVu PVR Cogeco DVR Sony, Panasonic, Phillips MythTV, Windows MCE iPod, Archos Cell phones Sony PSP

Appliances:

PC-Based:

Portable

GPS Devices

Global Positioning System

System of 24 GPS satellites Device uses Trilateration Factory-installed devices for cars After-market installations Portable Units Laptops, Palm Pilots & iPAQs

Various Implementations

Software & USB GPS Receiver

PDA Personal Digital Assistant

PocketPC, Palm Pilot & even Linux E-mail & Internet Address Book Calendar Task List Applications

Word processing Spreadsheets Audio & Video

Media

Digital Camera

Fun & Games

For the serious gamers:

Sony PSP Nintendo DS Built-in web-browsers Wireless Media Player for movies and music

Some devices have:

Cell Phones - Convergence

One device to do it all! Krzr, Blackberry, iPhone

Phone Audio & Voice Recording Video & Pictures Internet E-mail PDA Camera Games

Wireless Technology

802.11 a/b/g/n

Computers, PDAs WLAN - 30m up to 100m 11 Mbps, 54 Mbps, 108 Mbps+ Keyboards, mice, headsets, cell phones PAN - 10m Cell phones PC Cards (for laptops) Must be in digital coverage area for enhanced services

Bluetooth

CDMA & GSM

Digital Content

How do I get it? Subscribe (RSS - Push)

Requires RSS Reader RSS Owl, Sage

iTunes (Download Pull) Direct from website (twit.tv) Some content is free Some is paid

Web 2.0 The Next Generation

Interactive Websites

Slashdot.org Digg.com MySpace.com Facebook.com SecondLife.com

Social Networking

User-Created Content

YouTube.com

Dynamic & Customizable Content

iGoogle.com

Mash-ups

Mash-ups?

Many developers publish their API:

Google Maps, Amazon Can provide maps for real estate listings, restaurants, etc.

Combining content from different sites or services into a new site:

maps.google.com MTO camera feed Up-to-date traffic information with pictures

Mash em up

http://toronto.ibegin.com/traffic/

Putting Mash-ups to Good Use

Putting Mash-ups to Better Use

Blogs, Wikis & Podcasting

Blogs

Web logs, online journals Amateurs to professionals (Anderson Cooper, Rick Mercer) Websites that allow visitors to add, edit and delete content Great for collaborative authoring Wikipedia.org User generated audio or video content Resides at a unique web feed address Users can subscribe to content

Wikis

Podcasting

Cool Applications

Google Earth

Hi-res sat images Layers of data

Roads Parks Restaurants Landmarks Terrain Etc.

Picasa

Organize photos Floating Desktop Icons

Widgets
Weather News Stocks Clocks Photos

Operating Systems

Microsoft is Dominant on the Desktop

Security has always been an issue Viruses, Worms & Spyware

Apple has a small niche market

Very secure And its free!* Free as in beer and free as in speech Dell has recently started offering Ubuntu on their systems

Linux is another alternative

Windows XP

Dominant desktop OS at present Most hardware and software support Security** is an issue

Most users run as admin Can be made secure

Mac OSX

Innovative Graphics & Features

Aqua & Quartz The Dock Widgets Expos LUA Few viruses Built on BSD

Better Security**

Inter-operable with Windows

Windows Vista

Eye Candy

Aero Glass Sidebar and Gadgets

Improved Security (LUA)** Hardware and Software Compatibility Issues

Linux

Free* & Opensource Thousands of free applications Secure**

Few viruses Many different distributions KDE, Gnome, XFCE, Fluxbox

Choice

Inter-operable with Windows Live CDs

Important Notes

Free*: Theres nothing preventing anyone from charging money for the software. Some do, as they may provide support or regular upgrades. Free-libre open-source software (FLOSS) permits the end-user to modify, upgrade or build-upon existing software, as long as they return the modified code to the community

Important Notes
Security**: No computer is really secure Any time your computer is connected to a network, you are vulnerable Security vulnerabilities occur in:

Operating Systems Applications Programming Languages

Users can be tricked into phishing scams or unknowingly install malware.

Security - What You Can Do

All Operating Systems are vulnerable Security requires a layered approach Turn on firewall / Get a router Least-privileged User Accounts

Dont use root or admin accounts

Keep OS and Applications up-todate Turn off unneeded services Use Firefox Anti-virus and Anti-spyware Dont eat yellow snow on the internet

Links

Social Networks

Linux

www.facebook.com www.myspace.com www.secondlife.com www.youtube.com www.itunes.com www.puretracks.com GoogleEarth, Picasa, GMail, Blogger www.google.ca/intl/en/options/ www.digg.com www.slashdot.org http://toronto.ibegin.com/traffic/ http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/searc h/label/Toronto

www.distrowatch.com www.ubuntu.com www.getfirefox.com

Firefox Web Browser

Audio & Video

RSS Readers

Google Products

Extensions for Firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/enUS/firefox/browse/type:1 www.rssowl.org

www.twit.tv www.itunes.com http://www.u3.com/ http://portableapps.com/

Podcasts

User-driven Content

U3 & PortableApps

Mash-ups

Questions?

This presentation can be downloaded from: www.stcatharines.library.on.ca/content/present