'Zines of the Future

Sports Illustrated, Time, and Cosmopolitan are all top-selling magazines. As we all should know, print media such as magazines and newspapers are dying off because of what you are doing now- reading free media from the internet( let it be known that I didn't think of that saying myself, I stole it from this guy's blog). With this, questions arise on what will happen to these failing magazines so I took the initiative of exploring the world wide web to see how I could answer that question.

I was logging into my MySpace page when I saw an advertisement to read Revolver Magazine's free digital issue (warning: digital issue contains profanity). As I was digitally "flipping" through the magazine I found it very interesting. It is laid out just as if you were reading a magazine. At first I was weary at how the text was small, but, after clicking on the page it zoomed in and it was easy to read. Although I am not a fan of death metal bands like Dying Fetus and Suicide Silence that Revolver is known for covering, I thought it was a good idea for them to make digital magazines. I imagine they would be cheaper to produce, save paper, and it is right on your computer. What I think would be negatives are the jobs lost for the people involved in printing and not owning a physical copy. There is something about buying digital print that doesn't seem worthwhile. You can't hold it or cut out pictures.

Another idea I found about the future of magazines came in a different form. As you can see in this video, last year Esquire came out with a prototype of a magazine using e-ink. This made it possible to make small amounts of animation to make the pictures move. This turned out to be kind of a flop because people didn't seem to care about the animation and price increased. However, if they ever succeed to make it wirelessly receive the new information, I think that could be a good idea.

The final idea I found came in the form of Mine Magazine. As a ten week experiment this summer, Mine Magazine consisted of a selection of five sets of articles from eight major publications sent to you in one convenient magazine (physical or digital). This is a good idea because you only got what you wanted. However, once again, you can find all the information on the internet.

So do you think these are good ideas? Would you buy these? What do you think the future of magazines is coming to?

Hey Zack, I'm Happy For You And I'mma Let You Finish But I Think That A Blog About How Information Spreads Through Social Media Would Be The Best Blog

(Title Continued) Of All Time

...Okay Kanye, I will do precisely that.

By now I'm sure you are sick to death of the Kanye West VMA story (trust me, I am). But, let me write the last piece of information on the internet that you read on the subject.

On Sunday I was sitting in my dorm not watching the VMAs when all of a sudden my homepage of Facebook explodes with status updates that read "OMG Kanye" and "Kanye is a jerk." This got me interested. I commented on a friend's status asking him what happened. Moments later he gave me the scoop on what had happened.

On Sunday at the VMAs while Taylor Swift was making an acceptance speech for her first ever award for best female music video, (for those out of the loop- this was the first VMA ever given out to a country artist- kind of a big deal) Kanye West (who has a history of whining at awards shows) got on stage, took the microphone, told everyone who he thought should have won, gave Taylor back the mic, and got offstage. This left Taylor Swift shocked and almost in tears with a performance to give in five minutes.

After my friend explained this to me I needed to see what happened with my own eyes. Did I turn on the TV hoping they would replay it? NOPE. I jumped right over to YouTube and typed in " Taylor Swift Kanye West 2009 VMAs." Sure enough, ten minutes after the incident, there was a video of the incident. Sadly, due to copyright laws, I only got to watch the video a small number of times before it was taken off, but, I did get to see it.

This is what amazes me about social media and technology in general. Within twenty minutes of the incident, I had heard about it, watched the video three or four times, read numerous tweets on the subject, and chatted about it with friends. The next morning I even saw the video of Kanye on Jay Leno's show online.

Imagine, 25 years ago when people were outraged by Madonna's "Like A Virgin" performance at the VMAs, you only got to watch it once IF you had MTV unless you or a friend "taped" it on their VCR.

So there you have it; One of the beauties of social media- getting all your celebrity gossip in a time-efficient manner. Oh, and if you haven't had enough making fun of Kanye yet I recommend you go to http://www.immaletyoufinish.com/ - you won't regret it.

APPS!

APPS! No, not delicious apps from applebees, I am talking applications for an iPhone- specifically, social networking apps. Now, I know that my North Dakota readers are saying, "But, Zack, there's no iPhones in North Dakota." Well, I am sure they will be here soon enough. So here are a few top apps to get when we can get one:

Facebook- Not too much to explain here, it is Facebook for your phone. Some of you probably have it on your Blackberries or other smart phones. It is basically Facebook without all the bells and whistles like Farmtown and stupid quizzes. You can comment, post, poke, add friends, and look at pictures.

MySpace Mobile- Since Facebook had an app, of course MySpace has one. It is a watered down MySpace just like the Facebook app.

Twitterific- I know this is getting redundant but Twitterfic is pretty much just like Twitter, read tweets and tweet.

Twittelator- This is very similar to Twitterific, however, what is special is that it can notify your friends if you need help and can show them a map of your location. You can also post photos.

Mobile Flickr- This is a very good application according to rotorblog.com. The application is very similar to the website. You can take snapshots and upload them straight to the website. You can also share photos, look at contact's photos, add favorites, tags, view photostreams, and do everything else you can do on regular Flickr.

Eventful- This app lets you find out what acts are at your favorite venues. It also lets you send friends this information and find out what your friends are doing.

SnapMyLife- This app lets you share photos and view photos. It also has location and mapping features.

These are just a few social networking apps for iPhones. One of the most interesting apps I saw while looking for apps was Zintin. It was recently shut down, but, what it consisted of was using GPS to discover new friends or find out which friends are around you. From there you can share photos with people.

These are a few social networking apps for iPhone. Here you can find a few others. It is amazing all the things that you can do with phones these days. They are slowly becoming mobile computers. Do you think there will be a time where we don't really use laptops, just our fancy phones? How many years until the Digital Communications class learns about adding apps to social network? Have you used any of these apps on your phone?

Phishing From A Dock In London

'Ello Guvna! (I got it out of my system).

Put your rods in the trunk you won’t need them to learn about this kind of Phishing. Phishing means “To request confidential information over the Internet under false pretenses in order to fraudulently obtain credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal data” and it is one of the biggest dangers of social networks like Facebook. It can leave you missing a big chunk of money.

The case of one woman from St. Louis, and what is one of the most infamous schemes in the world of Facebook, took place when she got a message from a trusted friend that she and her husband were stuck in London after being robbed and had no way to get home. They asked her to wire them money and she got scammed out of $4,000. This phishing scam has been named 'The London Scam.'

What happened in the situation with the woman from St. Louis is usually the basic scenario. Hackers hack into one of your friends' Facebook pages, next, they look at your information, friends, relatives, and whatnot. They use this information to seem believable that they are actually one of your friends. They then message you that they are being detained or that they just got robbed and are stuck in London and need money. Being the loving, warm-hearted friend that you are you sympathize with them and immediately go to Western Union and send them a bunch of money. GOTCHYA! Now the hackers, posed as your friend can go buy a fancy new iPod Touch (Gee, thanks loving warm-hearted sucker).

Now, if you are like me you are saying, "Gee golly, blogger, but I'm not stupid. I would never fall for that. I know all about the world wide web." Think again. Beny Rubinstein is a little bit of a computer security whiz too. He has 20 years of IT experience and he has a degree in computer engineering. Do you have that? Well, to put it bluntly, he fell for it. His computer tech buddy sent him a disturbing message about getting robbed and being stuck in the good old U.K. What do you know, Beny sent that money and as soon as he knew it he was out $1100.

This goes to show you that maybe you aren't quite the smarty pants you think you are. Anyone can get caught in a Phishing or other kind of scam on Facebook or any social medium. Here you can find some tips (on Facebook what do you know?) about how to not fall for phishing scams on Facebook. Basically, it tells you to contact an individual who is asking for money outside of the social network to verify that it's a real person and don't click on suspicious links. I am going to give you one piece of advice- KNOW WHEN YOU'RE FRIENDS ARE IN LONDON! Sheesh, that's a big trip to not know your friend is on, and you call yourself a friend.

What do you think? Have you heard of this scam? Do you know anyone who has been phished? Have you ever gotten a suspicious link? I have.