A little bit of everything, rolled into one class.

Our lesson in ITC on Friday consisted of, not only a lesson from Ellie about the different types of communication and what a blog should be but also an indepth lecture from Craig about Innovative thinking in IT. Both subjects overwhelmed me a bit, as it got me to think further into each topic, somewhere past my own knowledge where Google had to help me.

“Blogs are interactive”, what I learnt from this is that blogs are set out to be a sort of conversation. This one between me, my tutors and my fellow classmates. Keeping it professional but also personable to invite comments and feedback from people who like what I write.

We also touched on grammar, our use of punctuation. An example Ellie used that I quite liked was; “Let’s eat grandma”, should be “Let’s eat, grandma”. It got me thinking that I should be more cautious with how I write my blog. I tend to make a few grammar mistakes, but then again you learn from your mistakes. Although it would be nice not to make any :-).

Audience, channel, purpose and topic were the terms Ellie used to help us understand the use of context. Who are I writing this for? What kind of channel am I using? What is the purpose of my blog? What is the topic? These terms are very new to me. Like I said previously it was a tad bit overwhelming for me to absorb all this information and to remember it all when I am writing. Very scary to know that there are so many different things to take into consideration when writing something as informal as a blog.

Innovative thinking in IT, even reading the name makes my brain flip. This lecture made me sit back with a confused face and scratch my head. I haven’t really got a full grasp on this subject yet but I’m going to do my best :-).

At first in the lecture Craig went over the history of technology and how much it has changed over time. An example of this was “The history of music media”, http://mydiginexus.com/music-media-history-in-cool-infographics/ . It was really awesome to see the way music media has adapted over the last 30ish years.

Our task is to find an innovative idea in IT, “the next big thing” and discuss our bias towards it in a historical context. Craig showed us a website called Kickstarter, http://www.kickstarter.com/. Which is basically a website where anyone can show their innovative ideas in any sort of area and “kick start” it.

As this subject is definitely brand new to me, forgive my lack of expertise and some what “noobiness”. This is an idea I found that I think will be the next “big thing” in gaming, as we are forever trying to find technology that makes our lives that little bit easier.

Your probably thinking why on earth would this be the next big thing? Well, with every generation there spawns more and more gamers. Kids and adults absolutely obssessed with gaming, e.g. my flatmates :-). Their always wanting the lastest and greatest thing out there. From looking at the historical pattern of every single gaming console there has ever been, what the population want is quality and convenience. We have gone from pixels you can count on your hands, to full HD 1080i/p. From corded EVERYTHING, to wireless EVERYTHING. From great big box consoles, to slim more portable consoles. Even I lean toward the more portable consoles e.g: PSP, PS Vita. Just out of sheer convenience. Why I think this is the “next big thing”, to put it simply, I’m aiming at you gamers out there….who wouldn’t want this?? You can carry it around and just plug it into a HDMI port and BAM your good to go! http://content.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,2029221,00.html .

This product runs off Android, which we are all familiar with due to our smartphones! It provides quality, extremely portable but doesn’t cut out the quality or experience of the games. They are bringing together the portable, Android side of a smart phone and the quality and choice of a console together. I also think another really awesome aspect of this console is how it is bringing back the old Nintendo controller look to them. Very “reminiscent” and greatly popular, so popular they make phone cases modelled after the old Nintendo controller.

We are all about making our lives easier and more convenient, I definitely think this has a big future.

Although, is it really a great idea to make everything more convenient? With the growing obesity rate due to growing conveniences is it really a good idea?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7151813.stm

Due to conveniences just like the “Gamestick”, children this generation are growing up barely having to do anything, because let’s face it there is a device for everything these days. So what’s it going to be like in the future? With even more convenience?

Another thing about this product I would like to point out, is do we really need another gaming console? Loads of money goes into making and distributing this kind of thing, money that could be used else where. Especially in a console designed so small to do so much. It will inevitably cost a pretty penny to purchase, and this is where a lot of “handheld” consoles have failed.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/50935/10-video-game-consoles-were-big-disappointments

I personally think this product is like the TV remote you know? Your forever losing the TV remote in the couch, under the table, I lose mine constantly in my bed. Because of the size of the controller itself and the actual “Gamestick”, the chances are high it will get lost, dropped out of your pocket, easily stolen……..lost in the couch. The appearance of the Android powered menu seems to be greatly similar to the infamous Windows 8 menu and we all know how well the population received that and if you don’t here is a little graph explaining my point. 🙂

http://www.dvhardware.net/article55150.html

The “Gamestick” is basically the same as another console that, like this one started on Kickstarter with the same sort of idea called the “Ouya”.

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/611-console-handheld-fail.html .

The “Ouya”, was actually one of the most successful innovative ideas on Kickstarter in history, raising a huge 8.5 million dollars. Like the “Gamestick” the “Ouya” was powered by Android, was created to be a portable, high quality gaming device.  However, it’s not looking like it has a very promising future. It was apparently created for an audience that doesn’t exist. “When placed between a powerful mobile device and a robust traditional console, a cheap jack-of-all-trades may not seem that attractive”.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/ways-ouya-console-failed,review-1881.html

Whether this device will make it or not, it is pretty crystal clear that the future holds some pretty amazing “innovative” ideas, very daunting but exciting to see what happens next! :-).