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Personal Technology
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7.1 Convergence, Portability, &

Personalization
 Digital Convergence
 Describes the combining of several industries –
computers, communications, consumer electronics,
entertainment, and mass media – through various
devices that exchange data in digital form
 Pros:
 Multiple-use machines such as Xbox that can play games,
display DVD movies, and play music CDs
 Cellphones with enhancing features such as address books
and digital cameras that also shoot videos
 Cons:
 Multiple features that compromise the primary feature—no
single feature works optimally
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7.1 Convergence, Portability, &

Personalization
 Portability
 Pros
 Devices that enable phone and email access from
anywhere, portable digital music, and convenient cheap
digital photos that allow people to remain connected even
while on the move
 Cons
 Bombardment by emails and phone calls
 Lack of face-to-face contact can lead to misinterpretations

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7.1 Convergence, Portability, &

Personalization
 Personalization
 Tree-and-branch telecommunications model
 A centralized information provider sends out messages
through many channels to thousands of consumers
 Used by AM/FM radio and by TV broadcasters
 Hard to personalize
 Switched-network communications model
 A common carrier provides circuit switching that creates a
temporary two-way connection between one public user and
another
 In a telephone network, the connection is made by dialing
 Personalized by default
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7.1 Convergence, Portability, &

Personalization
 Personalization Advantages & Disadvantages
 People are unhappy when they have too many choices
 Regret: People are more likely to regret their decisions
 Inaction: People can’t decide now, because they might later
regret their decisions
 Excessive Expectations: Reality has a hard time meeting
the expectations when there are so many choices
 Self-blame: People blame themselves for making the wrong
decision
 Having many personalized devices leads to
multitasking, which can lead to “absent presence” and
nonfocus.
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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7.1 Convergence, Portability, &

Personalization
 Popular personal technologies
 Portable media players
 Satellite, high-definition, and internet radios
 Digital cameras
 Personal digital assistants and tablet PCs
 The new television
 E-books
 Smartphones
 Videogame systems

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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7.2 Portable Media Players

 MP3 is a format that allows audio files to be
compressed so they are small enough to be sent over
the internet and stored as digital files
 Portable media players (PMPs) are portable devices
that play digital audio, video, and still image files

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7.2 Portable Media Players

 Technology Considerations: What’s Useful to Know?
 Storage capacity (both hard drive and flash memory)
 Sampling rate
 Transferring files
 Battery life
 Color screens and photo viewing
 Other features such as:
 FM radio reception
 Music recording using extra microphone
 Car stereo adapter to connect player to your car’s speakers
(do not use head set or earbuds)
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7.2 Portable Media Players

 Societal Effects
 One in five American adults owns an iPod or other MP3
player
 PMPs offer convenience and portability to music listeners
 Warning! Over 85 decibels can cause hearing loss! (85
decibels is as loud as a vacuum cleaner or a crowded
restaurant – not that loud)
 For more information, see www.lhh.org/noise/

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7.3 High-Tech Radio

 Satellite radio
 Digital radio signals are sent from satellites in orbit
around the earth to subscribers that have special radios
 CD-quality sound is better than normal radio
 More channels than regular radio
 Providers are Sirius satellite radio (merged with XM
satellite radio in 2008)
 Commercial-free

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7.3 High-Tech Radio

 Satellite Radio
 Provides CD-quality sound
 No commercials
 No limits to format
 Broadcasters serve a diverse group of niche markets

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7.3 High-Tech Radio

 HD Radio
 Provides CD-quality sound
 Allow broadcasters to squeeze one analog and two
digital stations on the same frequency
 Broadcasts are free—no subscription charges
 Broadcasters are hoping HD radio can introduce more
local or innovative programming

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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7.3 High-Tech Radio

 Internet Radio
 Internet users can listen to radio on their computers and
various handheld devices, such as a Blackberry and the
iPhone

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7.3 High-Tech Radio

 Podcasting
 Involves the recording of internet radio or similar internet
programs
 Requires no studio or broadcast tower and is not
regulated by the FCC (Federal Communications
Commission)
 Allows amateur deejays and hobbyists to create their
own radio shows and offer them on the internet
 Podcasting-receiving software, called an aggregator, is
necessary

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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7.4 Digital Cameras

 Cameras that take photographs but do not require film
 Types to consider
 Point-and-shoot digital camera
 Automatically adjusts settings such as exposure and focus
 Easy to use, but manual controls can allow you to tweak the
settings to get better photos (under $500)
 Single-lens reflex (SLR) digital camera
 Uses a reflecting mirror to reflect the incoming light so the
viewfinder shows what the lens is framing ($450 on up)

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7.4 Digital Cameras

 Resolution: Megapixels and Sensors
 Megapixels = millions of picture elements; the more
megapixels, the higher the resolution
 7 – 12 megapixels common for point-and-shoot cameras;5 –
12 for SLR
 The larger the sensor chip, the sharper the images

 Lenses
 Digital zoom
 Means the image is cropped in the camera
 Lowers the resolution and so can produce a grainy photo
 Optical zoom
 Enlarges the subject without you needing to move closer
 Lens extends to focus on distant objects; clearer image
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7.4 Digital Cameras

 Storage
 Use flash memory cards inside camera; cards are reusable

 Viewing images
 Optical viewfinders let you see the image to be
photographed before you snap the picture
 LCD screens let you review the photos you have taken
take

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7.4 Digital Cameras

 Start-up time
 Digital cameras require time to start up
 Look for one that has a short start-up time
 Also, the shutter can lag, delaying the time between
when you press the button and the shutter clicks; look for
a camera that allows “burst” or “continuous “ mode

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7.4 Digital Cameras

 Battery life
 The camera requires a battery to function
 Some rechargeable batteries are available with many
models
 Some recharge in the camera, while others require a
separate charging stand
 Video clips
 Most digital cameras can shoot movies, too
 1-gigabyte memory cards can shoot as many as 44
minutes of video at 30 frames per second

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7.4 Digital Cameras

 Principle methods for transferring images
 Use a direct connection between your camera and your
computer (with a USB cable and software).
 Insert the memory card into your computer or card reader
 Put your camera into a cradle attached to the PC
 Use an online photo developer
 Use a photo printer with a built-in card slot
 Use a portable hard drive, CD burner, or MP3 player
 Use a photo-printing kiosk
 Use a photo lab
 Bring along your own card reader and CDs and use
others’ computers
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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7.4 Digital Cameras

 The Societal Effects of Digital Cameras
 People are taking their cameras everywhere
 People take far more pictures than they used to
 Photography is becoming more casual
 People are touching up their photos, making them look
better

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7.5 PDAs & Tablet PCs

 Have touch-sensitive screens so you can enter data with a
stylus by tapping or writing on screen
 Store data in RAM that stays on even when the unit is off by
using the PDA’s battery
 Can be augmented by flash memory
 Commonly use lithium ion batteries
 Transfer files to your PC in one of three ways
 Pull out the PDA’s flash card and insert it into the
PC’s card reader using a USB port
 Put your PDA into a special cradle plugged into a
USB port
 Transfer data wirelessly

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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7.5 PDAs & Tablet PCs

 Many cellphones are usurping features from PDAs
 To compete, PDAs must develop new features
 Examples of possible PDA evolution
 Display television and photos
 Handheld weather meters
 GPS locators

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7.5 PDAs & Tablet PCs

 Tablet PCs
 A special notebook computer with a digitizer tablet and a
stylus so the user can handwrite input from the screen
 Recently only about 3% of laptops being sold
 Used in niche markets such as schools

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7.6 The New Television

 New equipment available for TV
 Interactive TV
 Lets you interact with the show you’re watching
 Internet TV
 Television distributed via the internet
 Internet-Ready TV
 Allows viewers to watch TV shows as well as go online to
get news, stream movies, view photos, etc.
 Mobile TV
 “Tiny TV,” displayed on cellphone screens

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7.6 The New Television

 Three kinds of TV
 Digital television (DTV)
 FCC has mandated that all TV stations be capable of digital
broadcasting
 People with analog TVs use a converter box to deal with digital
broadcast signals
 High-definition television (HDTV)
 Works with digital broadcasting signals
 Has broader screen and higher resolution than analog TV
 Uses a lot of bandwidth
 Standard-definition television (SDTV)
 Uses lower resolution than HDTV and so can transmit more
information within the HDTV bandwidth
 Allows multicasting

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7.6 The New Television

 Societal Effects
 Changing when you watch TV
 Changing where you watch TV
 Changing the nature of TV programs

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7.7 E-Book Readers

 E-Book, or electronic book
 An electronic text, the digital-media equivalent of a
conventional printed book
 E-Book Reader
 A device specifically designed to allow people to read
electronic books
 Examples
 Amazon’s Kindle
 Sony’s Reader
 Barnes & Noble’s Plastic Logic eReader

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7.7 E-Book Readers

 How an E-Book Works
 Different e-books use different e-software formats
 Vizplex technology (E Ink) reduces eyestrain and battery
consumption
 E-books are downloaded by wireless access (3G or Wi-Fi)
 Some benefits
 One e-book reader can store hundreds or thousands of books
 Easy to download books by wireless access; books are less
expensive
 Type size and face can be adjusted
 Usually can be read in low light
 Automatically opens to the page where you left off
 Text can be searched and cross-referenced
 Dictionary automatically available
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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7.7 E-Book Readers

 Drawbacks of E-Book Readers
 High price--$300-$400
 Photos, charts, diagrams, foreign characters, and tables
not as good as in print version—or are left out of the e-
book
 Battery needs to be recharged
 Reader doesn’t own the downloaded books
 Are not designed for college textbook use

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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7.8 Smartphones
 Smartphone = cellphone with microprocessor, memory,
display screen, and modem
 Allows phone calls, email, web browsing, music
availability, text messaging, videogames, digital TV
viewing, search tools, GPS, personal information
management, and so on
 Storage
 Data is stored in ROM
 Data does not disappear when phone is turned off

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7.8 Smartphones
 Input
 Have a keypad for entering numbers and text
 Microphone for picking up your voice, such as for voice-
activated dialing
 May have a touch-sensitive screen or a screen that uses a
stylus
 Output
 Speaker to hear voice calls
 Display ranging from LCD to full-color high-resolution
plasma
 MP3 players
 May also use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
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7.8 Smartphones
 Smartphone Services
 Text messaging and SMS
 Download ringtones
 Email
 Internet access
 Photography
 Games
 Radio and music
 TV and video
 GPS
 Payments
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7.8 Smartphones
 Societal Effects of Cellphones
 Positive (among others)
 Parents can more easily monitor their children
 Police dispatchers can help people who are lost
 Information and amusements are readily available

 Negative (among others)

 People are less polite, courteous, and respectful using
cellphones
 Cellphones are answered in theaters and restaurants
 Cellphone users engage in loud conversations in public
places
 Cellphone use while driving is dangerous
© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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7.9 Videogame Systems

 These may be the “ultimate convergence machine”
 People buy them to play games, but they do a lot more
 Xbox 360
 Sony PlayStation 3
 Nintendo’s Wii

© 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.