Friday 5 July 2013
Sony SmartWatch 2 Launching In The UK on July 15th For £120, According To Online Retailer
Sony announced the second version of its Bluetooth SmartWatch just a couple of weeks ago, and you'll be able to buy one in another couple of weeks, at least if you live in the United Kingdom. While Sony hasn't said anything about a rollout aside from a vague "September" date, UK electronics retailer Clove has already announced availability for the SmartWatch 2. The store expects stock to be ready on Monday, July 15th, at a price of price is £120, just shy of $180 USD.
Sony hasn't said when the SmartWatch 2 will be available internationally, or for how much, though the original press release had it pegged for a September debut. A Euro-focused launch isn't unheard of for the company - their phones tend to be targeted for unlocked users, and don't often make it to American carriers. When the SmartWatch 2 does jump across the pond, you can expect it to retail for somewhere in the $150-175 range (though that's just a guess from your friendly neighborhood gadget blogger).
The SmartWatch 2 improves on the original with a bigger, denser LCD touchscreen, longer battery life, Android-style capacitive touch controls, and an NFC chip for easy pairing with a newer smartphone. The design itself is better as well: it's got a swanky new housing that shares a lot of design touches with the Xperia Z, it's IP 57 waterproof, and it uses standard 24mm watch lugs for swapping out with typical 24mm watch bands. Some of the apps Sony highlighted during the announcement were a remote presenter, a remote camera shutter, integration with Runtastic, and the typical email/SMS/social notifications, among many others.
Also, the power button is the same shape and location as a winder/adjustment dial on a real analog watch. Give Sony points for style.
Source: Clove via GeekyGadgets
Dell looking to enter wearable computing market
Dell has uncovered that it is looking to enter the wearable registering division with a gadget of its own.Much has been discussed the rumoured Apple's iwatch and Google Glass in the previous year. Notwithstanding a Dell official has guaranteed that his association is looking to the business sector as well.
"We're investigating that space," said Sam Burd, the association's Vp of particular figuring.
"There are tests in expense, and how to make it a better than average encounter. Yet the piece that is fascinating is that Pcs are getting more modest. Having a watch on your wrist -that is really fascinating, really engaging."
Dell would like to increase its item extend to incorporate wearable figuring as the Pc business sector recoils. Research association Idc gauges that worldwide deals of desktop and Pcs fall by practically 8 for every penny in 2013. That might stand for a moment yearly decrease and examiners need that bargains of Pcs to additionally succumb to 2014.
Tablets and half and half units are one region that are on the expansion, with the previous anticipated that will beat laptops by 2015, however different parkways would have been wise to be examined, said Burd.
"Looking ahead five years, we want mechanisms and shape variables to press on to change. There will even now be a need for "static" figuring on desktops, however there will be a legitimate need for portable units. There's a ton of talk about how that fits into wearable apparatuses like we've seen with Google Glass and watches," he included.
"We're taking a gander at an universe of loads of associated units."
Hisilicon K3V3 is an Octa-core processor, to power future Huawei devices
The long awaited and much delayed Hisilicon K3V3, to replace the company's aging K3V2 chipset, will actually be a powerful Octa-core processor, will power future Huawei devices. Whether the Octa-core is a true 8-core or an ARM big.LITTLE design implementation is yet to be discovered.
Huawei is hard at work on their next generation mobile chipset, the Hisilicon K3V3. While the K3V2 was meant to be updated this year, some unknown production (or similar) issues led to Huawei issuing a tweaked K3V2E chipset in the Ascend P6 flagship instead.
The report suggests that Huawei having invented a new soft of cooling technology which enables the processor to auto-charge while running at high temperatures, as well as cool itself on its own. Presently, we can't really make any sense out of it, but lets hope they do come up with something cool and innovative.
Scheduled to debut towards the end of 2013, the K3V3 chipset features ARM architecture based cores, as many as 8 (Octa-core) as per the latest report, clocked up to 1.8 GHz. The GPU is an ARM Mali part, exact model is not known as of yet. The chipset will be manufactured on the 28-nanometer process.
via GSMInsider
Tegra 4 come in at a trickle
Orders for Nvidia's much-hyped Tegra 4 have been limited as OEMs consider other chips instead.
Enthusiasm for Nvidia’s new Tegra 4 chip from OEMs has been muted, as many are favouring cheaper chips from the likes of MediaTek.
While Nvidia has been able to secure commitments from Toshiba, Asus and Hewlett Packard shipment volumes have been limited. According to sources that spoke with Digitimes, many OEMs may be waiting for the release of the Tegra 4i with an LTE baseband to make high volume commitments.
Nvidia has been able to get Tegra 4 into Hewlett Packard’s Slatebook x2, and Asus’ Transformer Pad Infinity — both of which could be considered wins for the company. However, these are far from Nexus 7 level bestsellers that Nvidia so desperately needs to give Tegra 4 a boost in cred.
Nvidia’s Tegra 4 is surrounded on both sides by fierce competitors: on the high end it has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and on the low end there very competitive chips from MediaTek to deal with. Plus, despite Tegra’s high price the chip is handicapped by the lack of modern API support. As previously discussed, it won’t support DirectX 11.0, OpenCL, and OpenGL ES 3.0 making it a poor choice for manufacturers making a gaming focused device.
The high-end market that the Tegra 4 is targeting is already quite saturated and not growing. In contrast, the low end low cost market is growing and MediaTek has that virtually locked up. When the world’s next billion people get a tablet or smartphone, it probably won’t be powered by a Tegra SoC.
Source: Digitimes
Nokia Asha feature phones receive major software update
Nokia has begun rolling out a major new software update for its Asha powered feature phones, bringing in a plethora of new tweaks and features.
Nokia has officially begun the roll out of a massive system software update for its Asha powered feature phones. The new update promises to bring exciting new features to the low-cost feature phone lineup.
Nokia Asha software update features:
- Dedicated YouTube launcher
- Mail for Exchange support
- Imroved Social experience
What's more, the software update brings support for the uber-popular messaging service, Whatsapp, on the Asha 305, Asha 306, Asha 308 (dual-SIM) and Asha 310 (dual-SIM) devices.
While the update is available OTA (over-the-air), you can connect your devices to your PC, install Nokia PC Suite and continue with updating your phone to the latest software. For more detailed insturctions on how-to update your phone, hit the source link posted below.
Source: Nokia
Steve Wozniak hints at iWatch’s function
Speaking in Mexico City, Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak hinted about the upcoming iWatch, and mentioned that Apple is merely in a waiting period between innovative products.
The iWatch has been in the rumour mill for so long that we were wondering if Apple would ever launch the device. It may have gotten its first official confirmation, as Steve Wozniak not only confirmed of its existence but also hinted at the functionality it might feature. He said, “I think, oh my gosh, I just wish I had the old iPhone right here on my wrist and I wish I could ask it questions like a new Siri (voice assistant technology) or tell it to play certain music.”
Wozniak told the audience in Mexico City that devices are getting smaller, and that Apple is waiting for the next big direction in consumer tech. He added, “You can’t expect a whole new incredible revolution of a category of existing consumer electronics, you can’t expect that every year. If you could have one every year it would be quite a surprise.”
Apple has been trademarking the iWatch name globally, but it might run into a few hurdles along the way. China already has a trademark for the name “iWatch” and “iWatching”, and in the U.S., an organization called OMG Electronics owns the iWatch trademark. In the U.K., Probendi owns the rights to the iWatch name, which extends to cover the entire EU.
Source: PhoneArena
WHY BLACKBERRY KILLED THE PLAYBOOK
In short: BlackBerry 10
During 2010, RIM purchased QNX from Harman International, they [QNX] would quickly begin work on the next generation software platform for their resilient new buyer BlackBerry. 2 years of obituaries, and yet here we are in BlackBerry’s first fiscal quarter for 2013.
The QNX 6.5 Neutrino is the latest publicly available Neutrino version from the wholly owned BlackBerry subsidiary. While older versions of the kernel run in numerous systems, the markets of healthcare and automotive are where QNX foresaw the next big growth, and BlackBerry has taken on that sight vicariously.
During 2010, RIM purchased QNX from Harman International, they [QNX] would quickly begin work on the next generation software platform for their resilient new buyer BlackBerry. 2 years of obituaries, and yet here we are in BlackBerry’s first fiscal quarter for 2013.
The QNX 6.5 Neutrino is the latest publicly available Neutrino version from the wholly owned BlackBerry subsidiary. While older versions of the kernel run in numerous systems, the markets of healthcare and automotive are where QNX foresaw the next big growth, and BlackBerry has taken on that sight vicariously.
The 6.5.5 Neutrino running your PlayBook is essentially the same operating system they were putting into millions of vehicles with their initial version of the CAR Platform which launched in2009. It worked and behaved much like an infotainment display. Reliably–great multitasking, but damn were those Adobe Air apps sluggish and slowed down a relatively nimble tablet . Essentially the fabulous tablet that the PlayBook is would be shunned due to poor execution from RIM into a marketplace riding the craze of the iPad. It was tumultuous to say the least. This neutrino version was not designed from the ground up for the PlayBook–it was retrofitted for the PlayBook.
Between the time leading up to the BlackBerry 10 launch, BlackBerry let slip that a new neutrino would be underneath BlackBerry 10, QNX Neutrino 8. And they were quick to take it off their developer site.
With the jump in underlying kernel from 6.5.5-8.0, it is readily apparent that the new platform was too much for PlayBook to keep up with. While BB10 base specs suggest a necessity for 2GB of ram–PlayBook only has 1. This is likely the fatal weakness that led BlackBerry to abandon their attempts to bring BB10 to PlayBook.
BB10 on PlayBook implies more than just an update for PlayBook. It leads the assumption that the entire OS, ecosystem and experience would be transposed to a widely unsuccessful tablet, and that it would follow some connected update schedule as the the rest of the OS would. To date, I don’t think they ever sold more than 3 million of them. I went through the earnings call and did the addition. Very, very few PlayBooks were ever sold, and BlackBerry probably did not want to fork their OS to support such a niche user base of diehard BlackBerry fans who’d want to be supported beyond just ‘PlayBook getting BB10.’
“Our teams have spent a great deal of time and energy looking at solutions that could move the Blackberry 10 experience to PlayBook. But unfortunately, I am not satisfied with the level of performance and user experience, and I made the difficult decision to stop these efforts and focus on our core hardware portfolio,” Heins said during the call.
With outdated specs on a ground up rebuild of their operating system, sacrifices had to be made. While they were very likely able to get some semblance of BB10 running on PlayBook, its specs could not keep up with the demands of the system as a whole, as with the Dev A – it has 1GB of ram and doesn’t handle BB10 very well but it handles it, likely because the additional graphics processor on the Dev A.
Now sure, they could go back to the 6.5.5 Neutrino and build us some kind of update, but it’s to the benefit of so few people that their energy and efforts are better spent moving forward instead of looking back. BlackBerry 10 has already outsold PlayBook, and therefore to them it’s more important to focus on the new product portfolio.
Now sure, they could go back to the 6.5.5 Neutrino and build us some kind of update, but it’s to the benefit of so few people that their energy and efforts are better spent moving forward instead of looking back. BlackBerry 10 has already outsold PlayBook, and therefore to them it’s more important to focus on the new product portfolio.
Perhaps (and this is total speculation) Thorsten’s comments regarding the irrelevancy of tablets within the next 5 years was his lead to what he announced during the call. BlackBerry is “over” the PlayBook and while it’s a great tablet, especially when you can scoop them for under 150$ for a 64GB model, it’s not part of the future as BlackBerry sees it.
BlackBerry killed the PlayBook because the Playbook nearly killed them, symbolically the failed launch of PlayBook will go down in history as the nail in the coffin of Research in Motion. BlackBerry is simply the hammer. Thorsten has been open about mobile computing, it’s not just a buzzword. Think back to PlayBook and BBOS Bridge, which already allowed most of your phones communications to be handled on a second screen… the PlayBook tablet. However, the CEO understands that there are screens everywhere and the 7″ tab is not a large enough audience to entertain the true aim of this new platform.
The concept of modular computing was already in the testing stages way back when. Tablets have very little utility aside from being a larger screen. When the devices in our pockets are as powerful, or more, as a small laptop, the barriers between what you can do and what you can’t need to come down. Modular computing–mobile computing is the future as BlackBerry sees it.
So, you PlayBook owners out there – don’t feel soured just yet. While BB10 won’t be coming to PlayBook, it has not been totally abandoned. We could see an incremental update that brings some added features. The OS is already pretty great. Its multitasking method had been copped by Apple for iOS7 and the PlayBook still runs an Android Gingerbread runtime giving you some Android support on board as well. They have built BB10 on PlayBook, it just doesn’t run well on PlayBook. I expect we’ll see that UI next year, unless Santa is more prepared than insiders suggest.
BlackBerry killed PlayBook because they need to keep moving, simple as that. At BlackBerry Live, we heard that QNX Neutrino 10 would be released sometime this Fall. This is another departure pushing that old PlayBook out from the latest QNX fun. The pace in this industry is fierce. All I can say now is get ready for the A-Series. For those still nostalgic and in love with your PlayBook, or if you have NO idea what I’m talking about, watch this fan made mashup:
Public beta registration now open for the Xbox 360's 2013 Live update
It's that time of the year once more, and we're not discussing the long Independence Day weekend. Microsoft has opened up open beta enlistment for the 2013 Xbox Live redesign, and this time around you'll have to log your investment straightforwardly through a Xbox 360 reassure. Just Xbox holders in Japan will be passing up a major opportunity, in spite of the fact that they'll have the same chance "at a later date." There ought to be a tile on the dashboard home screen entitled "Xbox Beta Program," and with restricted spots accessible, we propose you join instantly provided that you'd such as to cooperate --a year ago spots were filled pretty rapidly. There doesn't have all the earmarks of being anything energizing incorporated in the beta; Major Nelson refers to "overhauls to enhance general exhibition" and the alternative to buy content with true cash in place of Ms focuses. There may be more items in the beta Faq when it goes live later today, yet in the event that you get into the system and find anything delicious Ms fail to say, it trusts you'll honor the Nda which you'll consent to as a feature of the enlistment procedure.
CameraAce app for Android
The Google Play store has no deficiency of Android applications, with channels, impacts, and different types of fancy odds and ends. Cameraace, as its name prescribes, is one of these applications, yet notwithstanding the advantages we recently specified, it additionally has the possibility to make your photograph gathering simpler to maintain.
Essentially, the requisition give you a set of topics – the client picks one of them preceding snapping a photograph, and afterward the picture is handled in a particular manner. Case in point, all photographs caught with the "Food" preset empowered might be immediately given a Hdr channel and a Polaroid casing. Cameraace can even recover photographs in diverse registries, contingent upon what topic has been connected. Moreover, Cameraace gives you a chance to make compositions out of different pictures and slideshows with music playing out of sight. The client is additionally allowed to draw notes right on their photograph, be it utilizing a finger or a S-Pen, expecting they're utilizing a Galaxy Note unit.
Cameraace is a free requisition so anybody with a cell phone or tablet running Android 4.0 or fresher can give it an attempt. Download
via XDA-Developers
Use your own number on local rates when traveling with Roamer app for Android and iOS
Roamer is a cleverly designed app for Android and iOS that aims for savings while roaming abroad. Those prices per minute or per kilobytecan be pretty excruciating as we all know, but the service forwards the calls through your number to a local SIM card so you pay local rates.
The only thing you need to do is activate roaming credits from the app in installments of $13, $16, $39 and $65, then get a local SIM from any kiosk when you land. Data is only needed briefly when you activate the card with Roamer and when you initiate the call, and these will be local mobile data rates applied, so nothing exorbitant.
The savings are enormous, but above all the call ID is your own motherland number, so you don't have to let everyone know your local cell, or have people wondering who's calling from Europe in this ungodly hour. App versions for BlackBerry and Windows Phone are in the works, too.
HTC Butterfly S: HTC’s Newest Flagship Phone (HTC Butterfly S vs HTC One)
As some of you might remember, a couple of months before the HTC One
was released on the market, the Taiwanese company announced that the
smartphone will be its only 2013 flagship. The head of HTC UK said, at
the time, that this new strategy will allow the manufacturer to focus
all its marketing and financial strength on promoting only one device – THE “ONE” device.
The new approach made sense, because HTC had previously made some really bad marketing decisions. The 2012 HTC One series has been a fiasco from this point of view, with o multitude of devices seemingly stepping on each other’s virtual toes – we had the HTC One X, One X+, One S, One V, One XL, One SV, One XC, One VX and several other versions. To say that the brand was diluted would be an understatement. If you add the fact that the HTC One X (and then the One X+) was an AT&T exclusive and that the company also launched, in late 2012, the HTC Butterfly (another flagship whose US model, the Droid DNA, is still a Verizon bound device) you can get an overview of HTC’s chaotic way of doing business (which reflected in the company’s disastrous financial results).
The HTC One was meant to address all of the above, with the smartphone being released on (almost) every major carrier in the world, around the same time (a plan which eventually failed), and without any “carrier driven customizations“. It was a risky (we even said at the time that “HTC Is Going All In“) but logical move. And then the HTC Butterfly S happened ….
Even though it was clear that the HTC Butterfly S was shaping up to be a better overall handset than the HTC One, we now have several pieces of evidence to back up our claims – HTC Butterfly S vs HTC One Benchmarks. Check them out.
NOTE: HTC Butterfly S on the left, HTC One on the right.
Well, it looks like, although not by much, the HTC Butterfly S overpowers the HTC One and it can successfully claim the title of current HTC flagship.
Besides having more processing power than the HTC One (most probably thanks to its higher clocked CPU – 1.9 Ghz vs 1.7 Ghz), the Butterfly s also has a much bigger battery (3200 mAH vs 2300 mAh). Other than, that the two devices are pretty much identical.
For those of you out there eager to claim that the HTC Butterfly S is for the HTC One what the Galaxy Note 2 is for the Galaxy S3, the difference in screen size between the HTC devices is of only 0.3 inches while the Note 2 completely overshadows the S3 (it has a 0.7 inches bigger display).
What do you think? Would you be interested in the Butterfly S if it will receive a wider release? Would you like to see this device at Verizon as the HTC Droid DNA 2? Has HTC tricked its fans by claiming that the One will be its most powerful device for 2013? Let us know in the comments section below.
The new approach made sense, because HTC had previously made some really bad marketing decisions. The 2012 HTC One series has been a fiasco from this point of view, with o multitude of devices seemingly stepping on each other’s virtual toes – we had the HTC One X, One X+, One S, One V, One XL, One SV, One XC, One VX and several other versions. To say that the brand was diluted would be an understatement. If you add the fact that the HTC One X (and then the One X+) was an AT&T exclusive and that the company also launched, in late 2012, the HTC Butterfly (another flagship whose US model, the Droid DNA, is still a Verizon bound device) you can get an overview of HTC’s chaotic way of doing business (which reflected in the company’s disastrous financial results).
The HTC One was meant to address all of the above, with the smartphone being released on (almost) every major carrier in the world, around the same time (a plan which eventually failed), and without any “carrier driven customizations“. It was a risky (we even said at the time that “HTC Is Going All In“) but logical move. And then the HTC Butterfly S happened ….
Even though it was clear that the HTC Butterfly S was shaping up to be a better overall handset than the HTC One, we now have several pieces of evidence to back up our claims – HTC Butterfly S vs HTC One Benchmarks. Check them out.
NOTE: HTC Butterfly S on the left, HTC One on the right.
Well, it looks like, although not by much, the HTC Butterfly S overpowers the HTC One and it can successfully claim the title of current HTC flagship.
Besides having more processing power than the HTC One (most probably thanks to its higher clocked CPU – 1.9 Ghz vs 1.7 Ghz), the Butterfly s also has a much bigger battery (3200 mAH vs 2300 mAh). Other than, that the two devices are pretty much identical.
For those of you out there eager to claim that the HTC Butterfly S is for the HTC One what the Galaxy Note 2 is for the Galaxy S3, the difference in screen size between the HTC devices is of only 0.3 inches while the Note 2 completely overshadows the S3 (it has a 0.7 inches bigger display).
What do you think? Would you be interested in the Butterfly S if it will receive a wider release? Would you like to see this device at Verizon as the HTC Droid DNA 2? Has HTC tricked its fans by claiming that the One will be its most powerful device for 2013? Let us know in the comments section below.
The Quick & Easy Guide to Starting Your Own Website
The Quick & Easy Guide to Starting Your Own Website
This is a step-by-step guide to creating your own website. There is a lot of information to cover here but I’ll try to make it as simple and information-rich as possible.
Before starting, you should know your total cost for the first year will be around $55
1) Choose a domain name
A domain name is the URL or web address on which you run your site, eg. highexistence.com. There are a few key things to consider when choosing a domain name:
a) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You’re going to start hearing this term a lot — it is the process of making your website more likely to be found on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For domain names, it is smart to include a keyword that people might search to find your site. For example if your site is about waffle recipes, a domain like JordansWaffleRecipes.com would be good for SEO.
You’re going to start hearing this term a lot — it is the process of making your website more likely to be found on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. For domain names, it is smart to include a keyword that people might search to find your site. For example if your site is about waffle recipes, a domain like JordansWaffleRecipes.com would be good for SEO.
b) Simplicity
At the same time, you should also make your domain name as short and catchy as possible. Depending on the type of site you are starting, it might be more beneficial to forget about including keywords in order to make the domain name more simple. It doesn’t even have to be a real word eg. Twitter, Vimeo, Posterous. Continuing with the waffle site example, a good domain name might be Wahfulls.com.
At the same time, you should also make your domain name as short and catchy as possible. Depending on the type of site you are starting, it might be more beneficial to forget about including keywords in order to make the domain name more simple. It doesn’t even have to be a real word eg. Twitter, Vimeo, Posterous. Continuing with the waffle site example, a good domain name might be Wahfulls.com.
c) Meaning - Try to choose a name that I visitor can look at and instantly know what your site is about. This isn’t necessary because you could just as easily put an explanation at the top of your site, but it would be helpful.
Domain names are registered for anywhere from $2-30 per year. I always use GoDaddy.com for my domain names because it is the cheapest at $11.99 for a .com domain (different extensions like .net or .biz are cheaper than .com)
2) Purchase a Hosting Account
The job of a hosting company is to store your website content on their servers and makes sure it is constantly available for download. They also do a lot of complicated things you do NOT want to do yourself that I won’t go into. Just know that you cannot do your own hosting unless you have very advanced knowledge.
There are different kinds of hosting for different sized sites, but for your first site a shared hosting account will work just fine. It is called a shared account because you share the server bandwidth with other accounts based on moment-to-moment needs. You can easily upgrade to a faster, dedicated account later when your site attracts more traffic. This will run you $8-15 per month and most cheap providers will ask you to buy a year of service upfront.
I have tried Bluehost, HostGator and GoDaddy and absolutely hated all of them. My sites were down all the time and their customer service wasn’t too great either.
My favorite hosting provider is VMStorm, which is what HighExistence runs on currently. They have extraordinarily cheap plans at $8.97 per month, and do not make you pay for a year in advance like the previously mentioned hosts. That price includes full managed service, meaning they will help you out with any server issues you run into. Note: I do not receive any kickbacks if signing up with VMStorm, they just rock!
3) Get to Know Your cPanel
When you log into your hosting account, it should take you to your cPanel automatically. This is the back end of your hosting account where you can create email addresses, change settings, manage domain names, create new FTP users, etc. It looks really complex right now but I promise it will become easy soon enough.
The best way to learn here is through experience but if you need extra help, see the Unofficial Guide to cPanel
3) Download the Necessary Applications
You need 1 or 2 different applications to start a website depending on what you want to do.
1) File-Transfer-Protocol (FTP) + Code Editor Program
This is an absolute must because it allows you to edit and transfer files to and from the hosting server your just purchased. They are very easy to use once you get it to connect to your server. If you’re having trouble setting it up, contact your hosting provider.
a) Coda (Mac only) – by far the best app out there but will run you $99 (unless you use a little site called PirateBay to get it for less, wink wink).
b) Aptana Studio 2 (Mac/Windows/Linux) – a free application that does almost everything Coda does. It’s a little less polished but it will definitely get the job done.
2) Digital Design Program (optional)
If you would like to design elements like the logo for your website yourself, you need one of these fun applications.
a) Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Illustrator– the industry standard for digital design. Illustrator is more targeted at designing things from scratch as opposed to photo editing, but Photoshop will have everything you need. Every single graphic and most of the images you see on this website has been created in Photoshop. Both of these apps cost $199 BUT Adobe also offers a 30-day free trial, no credit card required.
b) InkScape – the free alternative to Adobe Illustrator. I have no used this program but it looks to have everything you would need to design a logo.
4) Choose a Content Management System
In the old days, web designers had to create websites using pages and pages of code. Luckily for you there are now content management systems (CMS) out there that have made it so you can create a beautiful site without ever touching a line of code. Unless your site is a completely custom idea like Twitter or StumbleUpon, you will be able to do it all with a CMS.
There a three major CMS’s out there for you to choose from:
a) WordPress - The most popular and easy to use CMS available. If this is your first time doing anything web-related I highly recommend you choose WordPress.
b) Drupal - While being more advanced and customizable than WordPress, Drupal is aimed more at users with some coding experience. The only reason you should choose Drupal over WordPress is if you require fine-tuned customization like multiple dynamic content types (press releases, news articles, blog posts, etc.). For a better comparison of the two, check out this article.
c) Joomla! - Joomla is more customizable than WordPress but not as feature-rich as Drupal. I think you should either go with the simplicity of WordPress or the advanced options offered by Drupal. I don’t see the point in using Joomla, but that is just me.
5) Pick a Design
WordPress, Drupal and Joomla all work with themes, or templates that dictate how your site will look. There are literally thousands upon thousands of themes on the internet for you to choose from.
If you’re tight on cash, there are plenty of free, beautiful themes. However if you have an extra $20, it’s definitely worth it to buy a premium theme. The advantage is premium themes usually come with a whole bunch of custom settings that make them more customizable than free themes. Some premium themes even come with free support so you can go in and ask the developers how to change certain things.
6) Choose a monetization model
If part of your goal in creating the site is money, you should start thinking early on how you want to go about generating income. There are 5 basic revenue models for you to choose from:
a) Advertisements
Depending on the ad service you use, you will get paid a certain amount per 1000 impressions/pageviews (CPM) or per click (CPC). CPM rates can vary from 10 cents to $25 or more while CPC can vary from 1 cent to multiple dollars. It seriously depends on the quality of the ad network you use.
Depending on the ad service you use, you will get paid a certain amount per 1000 impressions/pageviews (CPM) or per click (CPC). CPM rates can vary from 10 cents to $25 or more while CPC can vary from 1 cent to multiple dollars. It seriously depends on the quality of the ad network you use.
b) Products
You can also sell your own products online such as an eBook, CD or your brand of energy drink. Digital products are the best to shoot for because you don’t have to stock inventory, ship items or deal with returns. Here are a few e-commerce options to choose from:
You can also sell your own products online such as an eBook, CD or your brand of energy drink. Digital products are the best to shoot for because you don’t have to stock inventory, ship items or deal with returns. Here are a few e-commerce options to choose from:
WordPress Ecommerce Plugin - A free plugin for setting up an online store if you went the WordPress route
Network Solutions Ecommerce Shopping Cart - an all-in-one domain, hosting and ecommerce solution for any sized online store
c) Affiliate Products
Don’t have your own product idea? Just sell someone else’s and get a share of the profit! Sites like Clickbank make it easy to find other people’s products to sell on your website. You simply place affiliate links that have your unique affiliate ID and if anyone clicks on them and purchases the product, money is immediately in your account.
Don’t have your own product idea? Just sell someone else’s and get a share of the profit! Sites like Clickbank make it easy to find other people’s products to sell on your website. You simply place affiliate links that have your unique affiliate ID and if anyone clicks on them and purchases the product, money is immediately in your account.
d) Premium Membership
Some sites offer extra content or privileges to users if they purchase a premium membership. For example, Amazon.com offers a ‘Prime’ membership for $60 per year that gives members free 2-day shipping on any purchase. Another example would be a site that only shows normal members half of their blog posts/forums/pictures and charges $5/month to see everything.
Some sites offer extra content or privileges to users if they purchase a premium membership. For example, Amazon.com offers a ‘Prime’ membership for $60 per year that gives members free 2-day shipping on any purchase. Another example would be a site that only shows normal members half of their blog posts/forums/pictures and charges $5/month to see everything.
7) Learn some code
I swear coding for websites is not as hard as it sounds. HTML is the most simple coding language out there and CSS can’t even be considered a language. Here’s a quick example:
<p style=”color:blue; font-size: 20px;”> Hello everyone! </p>
<p> stands for paragraph. As you can probably guess, that paragraph would be colored blue and have size 30 font. Of course it’s not all that simple but I wanted to show you that it’s not beyond your capacity to learn.
Learning HTML and CSS will give you the ability to make your website look however you want without paying someone $50/hour to make the changes for you. It is well worth your time and it’s fun too, I promise :)
Check out the tutorials over at Tizag.com in this order: HTML –> CSS –> PHP –> Javascript (the last two aren’t necessary unless you want to get into creating custom functionality in addition to design)
8) “…but I have more questions!”
Google is now your best friend. If you have ANY question about anything, just Google and you will most likely find some forum where someone has asked the exact same question.I learned everything I know about websites through Google. No books, no class, no teachers or webinars… just Google.
If you can’t find the answer anywhere, create an account on StackOverflow.com and ask the experts. You will get an answer back within minutes.
If all else fails or it’s a very general question, do feel free to ask in the comments section below.
Happy Web Designing!!!
Happiness in a Pill: The Ethics of Biohappiness
Happiness in a Pill: The Ethics of Biohappiness
Imagine you could press a button and experience a boost in your subjective well-being, or happiness.
More realistically, what if you could take a pill that would improve your mood? Or genetically screen for “happier” genes? Mark Walker coined the term “bio-happiness” to describe the idea of directly manipulating the biological roots of happiness in order to increase it.
This possibility is simultaneously awesome and terrifying. Most people agree that all else equal, increasing happiness is a good thing. At the same time, images of a Brave New World-esque scenario come to mind.
The idea of bio-happiness is controversial. But science is making it more and more of a reality, and we must consider how we want to respond to it. Drugs such as SSRIs and MDMA are already well-known to increase happiness (albeit with unintended side-effects), and developments in science and technology will allow us to improve on these agents. Genetic screening already exists, and there isn’t much stopping us from screening for genes that would predict higher baselines of happiness.
Like it or not, bio-happiness is an issue we must deal with. And there are many people who do not like it. My first reaction was certainly negative, as I’m sure many of yours are. I’ve since come around to supporting the idea. In this article, I would like to explore in greater detail the ethical dilemma that bio-happiness entails, guided by Walker’s paper, “In Praise of Bio-Happiness”.
Overview
There are three main categories of criticisms of bio-happiness:
- Happiness is not of moral importance.
- Bio-happiness cannot actually increase happiness.
- Bio-happiness involves a sacrifice in other moral values.
Each of these criticisms will be addressed here. We will focus on the use of drugs, because it is easier to understand and other technologies may pose additional ethical issues. So the question becomes: is it morally acceptable for an adult to be permitted to use pharmacological means to improve their happiness, even if they have “normal” happiness levels already?
There are a number of difficulties in defining happiness, but for the purposes of this article we will define happiness as positive affect, or a good mood. Happiness has many more components of course, but the argument becomes far more complicated if we include things like finding meaning in the world or flow in our daily activities.
Objection 1: Happiness Is Not Morally Valuable
Most people agree that the world would be morally better if we were happier, holding all else equal. Utilitarians believe that happiness is the supreme moral value we should be concerned with, but they are not the only ethicists who consider happiness to be a moral value (consider Aristotle).
Of course with any subjective endeavor, there are ethicists who don’t consider happiness to have intrinsic moral significance. For example, perfectionists believe that we ought to cultivate positive mental and physical characteristics (such as knowledge or strength) as much as possible. Pursuing those characteristics is often detrimental to our happiness because we may have to sacrifice something that makes us happy in order to study or work out more often.
But if improvements in happiness could enhance these characteristics, it is still morally worthwhile to pursue. There is significant evidence that happier people tend to be more productive and healthier in a number of measures, so we will conclude that the pursuit of happiness is morally valuable in a wide range of ethical theories.
Objection 2: Bio-Happiness Cannot Actually Increase Our Happiness
There are both technical and conceptual obstacles to bio-happiness. First, we will discuss the technical roadblocks.
Is Bio-Happiness Technically Impossible?
Let’s take the common party drug MDMA as an example. While feelings of euphoria are typical in the MDMA experience, it varies from person to person. The effects are short lived, and the doses required to achieve a sustained boost in happiness are almost certainly harmful. Drugs such as MDMA suggest that bio-happiness may not be able to provide a real, long-term enhancement of happiness.
Traditional pleasures like food and sex are no longer enjoyable for a period of time once you’ve eaten enough food or had enough sex. However, electrical stimulation of the pleasure center in the brain has been shown to be rewarding, without decreasing marginal returns. This type of pleasure is not exactly the same as happiness, but it is encouraging that at least a significant component of happiness can be improved and sustained in the long-term.
Probably the most widely used technology for increasing happiness is a family of drugs called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), which have helped alleviate depression in many people. There is some evidence that normal individuals taking these antidepressants can feel “better than well”. The effect of these drugs is variable and they do cause side effects, so they are not a great option for bio-happiness yet either.
Current technologies for achieving bio-happiness are clearly limited, but research on this subject has only just begun. There is no reason to believe that with a better understanding of neurochemistry we can’t develop a drug that increases happiness in the long-term without significant side-effects.
Genetics have been shown to account for approximately half of a person’s level of happiness (with another 10% being environmental factors outside of our control, and 40% from factors that we can control). Just as there are depressed individuals who lost the genetic lottery, there are people on the other end of the spectrum who are almost unexplainably happy, called “hyperthymic” individuals. It won’t be straightforward, but research can help find the genes responsible for hyperthymia, and illuminate how these genes are expressed. Once that happens, we can develop pharmacological agents that mimic these effects.
The problems with all this research are similar to the problems of finding drugs to treat elusive diseases like Alzheimer’s. The good news is that many scientists are optimistic about creating drugs that can treat Alzheimer’s, so we can be similarly optimistic about finding drugs that can mimic the genetic effects that lead to hyperthymia.
Can Bio-Happiness Bring “True” Happiness?
Let’s assume we’ve developed a drug that mimics hyperthymia without serious physiological side-effects. Wouldn’t this drug only produce a “false” sense of happiness?
People want to experience happiness that originates from within themselves, not something that only exists because of a drug. Most people, at least in western cultures, believe that happiness is something that they must earn. If the positive feelings are from a drug, individuals may feel like their experience of the world is distorted or unreal.
Drugs affect the neurochemistry of our brains in order to achieve their effects (in this case, positive affect). But all of our experiences involve neurochemistry; were we to not have serotonin, dopamine, etc. in our brains, we would have no experience at all. Those who argue against bio-happiness consider the neurochemistry of peoples’ brains when not under the influence of drugs as “true” or their own, whereas the neurochemistry that occurs as a result of taking a pill is “false”, or not real.
But wouldn’t that mean that depressed people taking SSRIs never experience genuine happiness? That’s a pretty harsh judgment.
There is another layer to this argument, and Walker brings up the example of a sex change procedure to highlight it. If someone gets a sex change, there is a clear sense in which their new looks are not “genuine and true”. At the same time, the new looks are an expression of what the person believes is appropriate, and in that sense is more authentic.
Now we have two concepts here: natural vs. artificial and authentic vs. inauthentic. We could say the recipient of a sex change surgery has looks that are artificial and authentic. Similarly, someone who takes a hyperthymic pill might have happiness that is artificial and authentic, and it would allow them to be a more genuine version of who they want to be.
Walker concedes that artificially creating happiness will not lead to authentic happiness for all. Not everyone wants to move away from their genetic set-point. That being said, many people do. So even if bio-happiness technology creates an artificial happiness, there are cases where it would be authentic, and could still be considered “true” happiness.
Objection 3: The Costs Of Bio-Happiness Are Too Great
Even if bio-happiness is possible, it may have too high of a price in other respects to be worthwhile.
Will Bio-Happiness Distort Emotionally Appropriate Responses?
If a friend or family member is trying to cope with serious illness, it seems only natural and appropriate to feel worry or grief. Wouldn’t it be strange and even bad for someone to feel happy in response to a loved one’s illness?
Negative emotions are clearly appropriate in some circumstances. Critics claim that a world with bio-happiness will prevent such healthy emotional responses. The drug soma from Brave New World comes to mind here.
But there is no reason to believe that all pharmacological agents of bio-happiness will produce this one-dimensional response. In fact, current antidepressants seem to only cause emotional blunting in some patients, but not all. A drug could be developed that wouldn’t have this side effect.
In addition, there is no reason to believe that hyperthymic people don’t experience negative emotions. Research has shown that they do still experience sadness and negative moods, but less frequently. They also show more empathy, which is associated with increased social support, coping, and resilience. If we develop a drug that mimics hyperthymia, individuals taking it could still have completely normal or even richer emotional responses.
Emotions are very complex, and sometimes sad things can make us happy, or the emotions mix together completely. A hyperthymic individual might reflect on a period of their life and feel nostalgic, enjoying the happy memories while being sad that it has passed. Another person could look back on the same situation and experience only feelings of sadness that it couldn’t continue. Both are “normal” emotional responses, but don’t you think it would be better to have the more positive feelings?
Does Bio-Happiness Lead To A Loss Of Achievement?
Human flourishing consists of more than just feeling good, so couldn’t bio-happiness take away much of what is important in the good life?
Again, the book Brave New World comes to mind. After consuming soma, the people in that world experience huge increases in positive affect. However, relationships between people are shallow, anything resembling a sense of achievement dissolves, and nobody cares about anyone else. Doesn’t that world, well, suck?
Most people, if they had to choose one or the other, would take our current situation over the one from Brave New World. But there could also be a third choice. Perhaps we could increase both human flourishing and happiness at the same time.
It is generally regarded that high achievement causes an increase in happiness. But the relationship goes both ways; higher levels of happiness tend to result in higher levels of achievement. So if bio-happiness can lead to chronically increased happiness, it may also lead to greater achievement. We don’t have to sacrifice achievement to gain happiness; we can have more of both.
The Positive Side Of Bio-Happiness
While many of the criticisms of bio-happiness have been shown to be hollow, we have yet to show that bio-happiness is an especially good and worthwhile thing to devote resources to.
Justice
The most obvious argument in support of bio-happiness is that it would be cruel and unjust to prevent its use. If people want more happiness and achievement, bio-happiness can help.
Unfortunately, many people believe that the amount of positive affect that one experiences is deserved and fair already. They believe that an unhappy person is that way because of poor life choices, and thus they “earned” their unhappiness.
But what if an unhappy person was abused as a child and that contributed to their unhappiness? Most people would no longer think their level of happiness is fair, because it is due to factors that they had little to no control over.
Similarly, what if an unhappy person is that way in part due to genetic influence? People are not responsible for their own genetic makeup and can’t possibly be said to “deserve” any unhappiness caused by it.
But even if losers of the genetic lottery don’t deserve their unhappiness, that doesn’t imply that it is unfair. After all, nobody is morally responsible for a person receiving bad genes, so no one is to blame, right?
Losing the genetic lottery is not the injustice here. Preventing someone from compensating for it is. Would you tell someone who had below average or even normal intelligence that it is wrong or unfair for them to study for an exam?
Clearly, it is just and fair to allow people to take a hyperthymic pill if it existed.
Bio-Happiness As A Social Good
Bio-happiness doesn’t require balancing individual interests with those of society as a whole.
One could argue (I wouldn’t, but I digress) that if an individual’s interests clash with a greater social interest that it would be justified to intervene on behalf of the societal interest. For example, some people believe that vaccinations should be mandatory, because choosing to avoid the vaccine increases the risk of other people getting sick.
But bio-happiness doesn’t seem to present this sort of dilemma. Increasing happiness is a social good if happiness has universal moral value. Similarly, if achievement has moral worth, then increasing happiness can improve a social good in that regard as well. Finally, since happiness tends to promote pro-social behavior, increasing happiness may cause people to be more generous and empathic, reducing poverty and environmental damage. At the very least, people might just be nicer to each other in their day to day lives.
Conclusion
Bio-happiness is a promising goal to work towards. Many people are afraid of it, but prohibiting the use of bio-happiness would be unjust and misguided. Introducing Bio-happiness would cultivate a society full of people who are more satisfied with their lives, have stronger relationships with friends and family, are healthier, and accomplish more.
What do you think?
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