MCruz’s Profile Student Toggle navigation

This ar­ti­cle, by Nick Bil­ton, is about Adobes fu­ture plans of break­ing away from the tra­di­tional mouse and key­board tech­niques they have been using to op­er­ate their prod­ucts since the cre­ation of the com­pany. He talks about the draft­ing table Adobe will be re­leas­ing, that lets you op­er­ate pho­to­shop on a touch screen, and draw using your fin­gers. Bil­ton also men­tions a few other things that Adobe plans to be re­leas­ing in the fu­ture, such as some apps avail­able for use on smart phones and tablets. Per­haps their biggest up­com­ing prod­uct, is Pho­to­shop Touch. “Pho­to­shop Touch al­lows peo­ple to draw, paint and ma­nip­u­late de­signs and im­ages. The ap­pli­ca­tion goes be­yond desk­top soft­ware, too, by al­low­ing peo­ple to share their work on Face­book and by tak­ing ad­van­tage of a tablet’s cam­era to pull pho­tos di­rectly into the soft­ware.” He closes the ar­ti­cle by say­ing that com­put­ers haven’t been for­got­ten, what with all the tablets and smart phones and such, and they will still be used for cre­ativ­ity, but now they will work along­side these other de­vices and cre­ations, to offer an even big­ger play­ing field.

This article, by Nick Bilton, is about Adobes future plans of breaking away from the traditional mouse and keyboard techniques they have been using to operate their products since the creation of the company. He talks about the drafting table Adobe will be releasing, that lets you operate photoshop on a touch screen, and draw using your fingers. Bilton also mentions a few other things that Adobe plans to be releasing in the future, such as some apps available for use on smart phones and tablets. Perhaps their biggest upcoming product, is Photoshop Touch. “Photoshop Touch allows people to draw, paint and manipulate designs and images. The application goes beyond desktop software, too, by allowing people to share their work on Facebook and by taking advantage of a tablet’s camera to pull photos directly into the software.” He closes the article by saying that computers haven’t been forgotten, what with all the tablets and smart phones and such, and they will still be used for creativity, but now they will work alongside these other devices and creations, to offer an even bigger playing field.

Steven Paul Jobs was an Amer­i­can in­ven­tor and en­tre­pre­neur, and was also the chair­man and co-founder of Apple Inc. Apple, a major Amer­i­can elec­tron­ics com­pany, is best known for their ex­ten­sive line of Mac com­put­ers and hand-held de­vices named with the sig­na­ture lower-case “i,” such as the iPad, iPhone and iPod. Apple also has it’s own rec­og­niz­able op­er­at­ing sys­tem for their com­puter line (OS X) as well as a com­plete line of soft­ware ap­pli­ca­tions. Most of this was pos­si­ble be­cause of Steve Jobs, who sin­gle-hand­edly help change the fu­ture of elec­tron­ics. Jobs was born on Feb­ru­ary 24th, 1955 to a Syr­ian fa­ther and a Swiss mother who al­most im­me­di­ately gave him up for adop­tion due to the fact that he was born out of wed-lock. Jobs was adopted by an Ar­men­ian-Amer­i­can cou­ple who raised him into ado­les­cence. At a young age, Steve’s adop­tive fa­ther, Paul, taught him how to take apart and put to­gether small elec­tron­ics and his adop­tive mother, Clara, taught him to read be­fore he started school. In school, al­though a prankster, Steve was ex­cep­tion­ally bright and even skipped a grade. After high school, Jobs at­tended Reed Col­lege in Ore­gon, but did not stay longer than a se­mes­ter be­cause his par­ents could not af­ford to pay his tu­ition. Even­tu­ally, Jobs began work­ing for Atari, one of the first video gam­ing cor­po­ra­tions, where he cre­ated hard­ware for video games. Steve Jobs paired up with a high school friend, Steve Woz­niak, and formed their own busi­ness in 1976, which they named “Apple Com­puter Com­pany.” They in­vented their first com­puter and paired up with an Intel em­ployee. A few years later, Jobs re­signed from Apple due to a con­flict within the com­pany. He then joined a com­pany called NeXTStep, a hard­ware com­pany that pro­duced com­put­ers but ul­ti­mately turned out to be un­suc­cess­ful. From there, Steve pur­chased a graphic film com­pany, which would later be named Pixar. Even­tu­ally Jobs re­turned to Apple where the suc­cess­ful busi­ness began ex­pand, cre­at­ing the apple store and iTunes. Jobs stayed with Apple until 2011 when he re­signed from the com­pany, but stayed on as chair­man. Jobs also had a bi­o­log­i­cal sis­ter who he even­tu­ally met in 1985. In the bi­og­ra­phy of Steve Jobs, Wal­ter Isaac­son men­tions how close jobs and his sis­ter, Mona Simp­son, be­came. They both also tried to lo­cate their fa­ther and Mona was suc­cess­ful, but Jobs be­came un­in­ter­ested in meet­ing him, through some of the things he learned about his fa­ther. Mona, an ac­com­plished writer, ac­tu­ally mar­ried a writer for the show “The Simp­sons,’ which is more-or-less the way the show got its name. The two re­mained in con­tact for the du­ra­tion of Jobs’s life. So what ex­actly made Steve Jobs so im­por­tant? He is im­por­tant to me per­son­ally be­cause I hap­pen to work for an in­de­pen­dent Apple re­pair store called Dr. Bren­dan Mac Re­pair, next to Tek­Serve in Chelsea, NY. In a more broad sense, he was the co-founder of Apple, which he built from the ground up and today is the worlds sec­ond largest tech­nol­ogy com­pany. The evo­lu­tion of the Mac­in­tosh line of com­put­ers is as­tound­ing to see, along with the var­i­ous elec­tronic hand-held de­vices that have com­pletely rev­o­lu­tion­ized the so­cial media/cy­ber­space world. Per­haps the biggest, next to the Mac com­puter line, is the iPhone, one of the first smart­phones that dou­bles as an iPod, along with the iPad, a multi-pur­pose hand held de­vice with Wi-Fi. Just be­fore his death, jobs stated his fu­ture dream of de­sign­ing an Apple car called the iCar, which I imag­ine would have been well equipped with it’s own in­ter­face, the fa­mous Siri, and lots of glass. It is widely known that Jobs re­jected a lot of prod­uct pro­pos­als, and that he be­lieved that the de­sign of an ob­ject should go hand in hand with its per­for­mance. Take the iPhone for ex­am­ple. It is a small and sleek de­vice avail­able in white or black and is made with glass which is con­sid­ered classier and more del­i­cate than plas­tic. It isn’t the most durable elec­tronic, but it def­i­nitely speaks money and so­phis­ti­ca­tion when com­pared to the lead­ing com­peti­tors. Jobs also fre­quently ref­er­ences in his book a cal­lig­ra­phy class that he took in col­lege as being one of the fac­tors that prepped him for suc­cess. Jobs also rev­o­lu­tion­ized the music in­dus­try by de­vel­op­ing portable de­vices with ac­cess to world-wide music, (pur­chasable through the iTunes store), for a gen­er­a­tion that thrives off of music. Prior to the re­lease of the iPad, it was thought it would not be a trendy prod­uct, but wound up kick­ing off the tablet craze, which thank­fully brought life to read­ing books in a dying age. Steve Jobs died on Oc­to­ber 5th, 2011 from a tumor of the pan­creas, and even though he never fin­ished col­lege, he was worth about $2 bil­lion. Al­though many peo­ple helped cre­ate and ex­pand Apple Inc. jobs is the most widely known for his ac­com­plish­ments. Today, Apple is known for being a well-made user-friendly prod­uct, which I would more or less have to dis­agree with, being that I fix these prod­ucts nearly every day of my life. In a city like New York, it is easy to see the pop­u­lar­ity of this prod­uct by sim­ply peo­ple-watch­ing on the sub­way or some other pub­lic place. Peo­ple every­where are play­ing games on their iPhones, watch­ing movies on their Mac lap­tops and lis­ten­ing to music on their iPod. The first Apple com­puter was bought for $600 and the com­pany today is worth $400 bil­lion. Re­sources: -http://​www.​smi​thso​nian​mag.​com/​arts-​culture/​A-​Tribute-​to-​a-​Great-​Artist–Steve-Jobs.html -http://​www.​bus​ines​sins​ider.​com/​steve-​jobs-​said-​he-​wanted-​apple-​to-​eventually-​make-​a-​car-​2013-​2 -http://​www.​crunchbase.​com/​person/​steve-​jobs -http://​adage.​com/​article/​agency-​news/​book-​jobs-​a-​student-​advertising/​230612/ ut­m_­source=dai­ly_e­mail&ut­m_medium=newslet­ter&ut­m_­cam­paign=adage -http://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​Atari -http://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​Apple_​Inc.#​iPhone -http://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​Steve_​Jobs -Steve Jobs by Wal­ter Is­sac­son. Pub­lished by Simon & Schus­ter, Print, 2011. -http://​www.​smi​thso​nian​mag.​com/​arts-​culture/​A-​Tribute-​to-​a-​Great-​Artist–Steve-Jobs.html

Steven Paul Jobs was an American inventor and entrepreneur, and was also the chairman and co-founder of Apple Inc. Apple, a major American electronics company, is best known for their extensive line of Mac computers and hand-held devices named with the signature lower-case “i,” such as the iPad, iPhone and iPod. Apple also has it’s own recognizable operating system for their computer line (OS X) as well as a complete line of software applications. Most of this was possible because of Steve Jobs, who single-handedly help change the future of electronics. Jobs was born on February 24th, 1955 to a Syrian father and a Swiss mother who almost immediately gave him up for adoption due to the fact that he was born out of wed-lock. Jobs was adopted by an Armenian-American couple who raised him into adolescence. At a young age, Steve’s adoptive father, Paul, taught him how to take apart and put together small electronics and his adoptive mother, Clara, taught him to read before he started school. In school, although a prankster, Steve was exceptionally bright and even skipped a grade. After high school, Jobs attended Reed College in Oregon, but did not stay longer than a semester because his parents could not afford to pay his tuition. Eventually, Jobs began working for Atari, one of the first video gaming corporations, where he created hardware for video games. Steve Jobs paired up with a high school friend, Steve Wozniak, and formed their own business in 1976, which they named “Apple Computer Company.” They invented their first computer and paired up with an Intel employee. A few years later, Jobs resigned from Apple due to a conflict within the company. He then joined a company called NeXTStep, a hardware company that produced computers but ultimately turned out to be unsuccessful. From there, Steve purchased a graphic film company, which would later be named Pixar. Eventually Jobs returned to Apple where the successful business began expand, creating the apple store and iTunes. Jobs stayed with Apple until 2011 when he resigned from the company, but stayed on as chairman. Jobs also had a biological sister who he eventually met in 1985. In the biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson mentions how close jobs and his sister, Mona Simpson, became. They both also tried to locate their father and Mona was successful, but Jobs became uninterested in meeting him, through some of the things he learned about his father. Mona, an accomplished writer, actually married a writer for the show “The Simpsons,’ which is more-or-less the way the show got its name. The two remained in contact for the duration of Jobs’s life. So what exactly made Steve Jobs so important? He is important to me personally because I happen to work for an independent Apple repair store called Dr. Brendan Mac Repair, next to TekServe in Chelsea, NY. In a more broad sense, he was the co-founder of Apple, which he built from the ground up and today is the worlds second largest technology company. The evolution of the Macintosh line of computers is astounding to see, along with the various electronic hand-held devices that have completely revolutionized the social media/cyberspace world. Perhaps the biggest, next to the Mac computer line, is the iPhone, one of the first smartphones that doubles as an iPod, along with the iPad, a multi-purpose hand held device with Wi-Fi. Just before his death, jobs stated his future dream of designing an Apple car called the iCar, which I imagine would have been well equipped with it’s own interface, the famous Siri, and lots of glass. It is widely known that Jobs rejected a lot of product proposals, and that he believed that the design of an object should go hand in hand with its performance. Take the iPhone for example. It is a small and sleek device available in white or black and is made with glass which is considered classier and more delicate than plastic. It isn’t the most durable electronic, but it definitely speaks money and sophistication when compared to the leading competitors. Jobs also frequently references in his book a calligraphy class that he took in college as being one of the factors that prepped him for success. Jobs also revolutionized the music industry by developing portable devices with access to world-wide music, (purchasable through the iTunes store), for a generation that thrives off of music. Prior to the release of the iPad, it was thought it would not be a trendy product, but wound up kicking off the tablet craze, which thankfully brought life to reading books in a dying age. Steve Jobs died on October 5th, 2011 from a tumor of the pancreas, and even though he never finished college, he was worth about $2 billion. Although many people helped create and expand Apple Inc. jobs is the most widely known for his accomplishments. Today, Apple is known for being a well-made user-friendly product, which I would more or less have to disagree with, being that I fix these products nearly every day of my life. In a city like New York, it is easy to see the popularity of this product by simply people-watching on the subway or some other public place. People everywhere are playing games on their iPhones, watching movies on their Mac laptops and listening to music on their iPod. The first Apple computer was bought for $600 and the company today is worth $400 billion. Resources: -http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/A-Tribute-to-a-Great-Artist–Steve-Jobs.html -http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-said-he-wanted-apple-to-eventually-make-a-car-2013-2 -http://www.crunchbase.com/person/steve-jobs -http://adage.com/article/agency-news/book-jobs-a-student-advertising/230612/ utm_source=daily_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#iPhone -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs -Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson. Published by Simon & Schuster, Print, 2011. -http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/A-Tribute-to-a-Great-Artist–Steve-Jobs.html

Aamer Mad­hani, USA TODAY, May 1st 2013: WASH­ING­TON—Pres­i­dent Obama said Tues­day that his ad­min­is­tra­tion would re-en­gage Con­gress on clos­ing the U.S. mil­i­tary-run de­ten­tion cen­ter at Guan­tanamo Bay, call­ing the fa­cil­ity a “re­cruit­ment tool for ex­trem­ists” and sug­gest­ing it is un­der­min­ing U.S. se­cu­rity. “It needs to be closed,” Obama said at a White House news con­fer­ence mark­ing the first 100 days of his sec­ond term. “I’m going to go back at this.” Obama’s com­ments come as mil­i­tary of­fi­cials say that as many as 100 pris­on­ers at Guan­tanamo are en­gaged in a hunger strike. _______________________________­_­_­_­_­_­_­_­_­_­_­_­_­_­___ My po­lit­i­cal poster shows Guan­tanamo Bay es­sen­tially being put on the back burner by being put into Amer­ica’s closet, along with a bright or­ange jump­suit – the pris­oner uni­forms used in the fa­cil­ity. The poster also shows the word: “Iraq W” in much smaller let­ters and ap­pear­ing be­hind Guan­tanamo. This was done to sig­nify how one of the first things Obama pledged to do was get us out of Iraq dur­ing his pres­i­dency, which he more or less did, but then sent more troops to Afghanistan, which was not the orig­i­nal plan. The idea was to com­pletely be done with the mid­dle east and in­stead, moved troops from one for­eign coun­try to the next.

Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY, May 1st 2013: WASHINGTON—President Obama said Tuesday that his administration would re-engage Congress on closing the U.S. military-run detention center at Guantanamo Bay, calling the facility a “recruitment tool for extremists” and suggesting it is undermining U.S. security. “It needs to be closed,” Obama said at a White House news conference marking the first 100 days of his second term. “I’m going to go back at this.” Obama’s comments come as military officials say that as many as 100 prisoners at Guantanamo are engaged in a hunger strike. _______________________________________________ My political poster shows Guantanamo Bay essentially being put on the back burner by being put into America’s closet, along with a bright orange jumpsuit – the prisoner uniforms used in the facility. The poster also shows the word: “Iraq W” in much smaller letters and appearing behind Guantanamo. This was done to signify how one of the first things Obama pledged to do was get us out of Iraq during his presidency, which he more or less did, but then sent more troops to Afghanistan, which was not the original plan. The idea was to completely be done with the middle east and instead, moved troops from one foreign country to the next.

UFT On May 7th, our class had a field trip to the united Fed­er­a­tion of Teach­ers on Broad­way in Man­hat­tan, New York. The pur­pose of this trip was to get a close-up look into the world of a print shop, and to learn about the dif­fer­ent kinds of ma­chines, paper, ink, etc, that are used there. The rea­son this part of ad­ver­tis­ing/graphic de­sign is use­ful to know about, is be­cause it can greatly as­sist in cost and time re­duc­tion of print­ing, and will also keep you ahead of the game if you are pre­vi­ously in­formed to the kinds of print­ing avail­able to you. The first ma­chine we were showed was a poster-sized one, that can only print doc­u­ments with min­i­mum mea­sure­ments of 11” by 17” in color or black and white. The next was a ma­chine used to print news­pa­per-type ar­ti­cles with the op­tion of front and back. This ma­chine used oil-based ink and pro­duces a medium-qual­ity pic­ture. The third print­ing ma­chine we saw was an ex­tremely large one of the ryobi se­ries, used to print large quan­ti­ties of large-sized doc­u­ments. This ma­chine used a soy-based ink be­cause of the type of paper that it print on. If you used reg­u­lar ink, it would not imbed into the paper, al­most in an oil-wa­ter type of sit­u­a­tion. Our tour guide then showed us how you can turn a doc­u­ment into a neg­a­tive using cer­tain metal plates and a high-pow­ered light. From there, we were shown a very large ma­chine that prints off of a gi­gan­tic paper roll, in­stead of by in­di­vid­ual sheets. This paper would need to be cut after print­ing, and there is a cut­ting ma­chine right next to the paper roll ma­chine. This cut­ting ma­chine can be ad­justed so you can cut at any size. Our guide showed us how to min­i­mize the time it takes to cut by al­ways cut­ting from the back. We were brought to a dif­fer­ent room that had sev­eral ma­chines used for dif­fer­ent things. One was an or­ga­nizer that would arrange your doc­u­ments in order. Next we were shown how we can use self-mail­ing on a paper you want to mail. What this means is, you can mail a piece of paper with­out using an en­ve­lope. You fold the paper and use a sticker to keep it sealed, and then right on the out­side of it as if it were an en­ve­lope. There was also an en­ve­lope maker which seemed quite com­plex. The tour guide showed us a spe­cial ma­chine used for print­ing high-qual­ity posters and such. The ma­chine was given to the shop for free so that it can be tested, and the re­sults sent back to Japan where it was made. Over­all this ex­pe­ri­ence was help­ful, yet just a glimpse into the depths of print­ing. Not only did we learn about a few dif­fer­ent kinds of print­ing ma­chines, but we also learned about the kinds of jobs the shop gets. Jobs such as mak­ing book­marks or protest poster, en­velopes, news­pa­pers, large posters, books, etc. Any­thing re­quir­ing some­thing that needs to be printed in bulk is done at shops like these. Our guide was man­ag­ing the shop for 37 years and has done count­less print­ing jobs. He stressed that some­times you run into com­pli­ca­tions, but the bot­tom line is to get the job out on time.

UFT On May 7th, our class had a field trip to the united Federation of Teachers on Broadway in Manhattan, New York. The purpose of this trip was to get a close-up look into the world of a print shop, and to learn about the different kinds of machines, paper, ink, etc, that are used there. The reason this part of advertising/graphic design is useful to know about, is because it can greatly assist in cost and time reduction of printing, and will also keep you ahead of the game if you are previously informed to the kinds of printing available to you. The first machine we were showed was a poster-sized one, that can only print documents with minimum measurements of 11” by 17” in color or black and white. The next was a machine used to print newspaper-type articles with the option of front and back. This machine used oil-based ink and produces a medium-quality picture. The third printing machine we saw was an extremely large one of the ryobi series, used to print large quantities of large-sized documents. This machine used a soy-based ink because of the type of paper that it print on. If you used regular ink, it would not imbed into the paper, almost in an oil-water type of situation. Our tour guide then showed us how you can turn a document into a negative using certain metal plates and a high-powered light. From there, we were shown a very large machine that prints off of a gigantic paper roll, instead of by individual sheets. This paper would need to be cut after printing, and there is a cutting machine right next to the paper roll machine. This cutting machine can be adjusted so you can cut at any size. Our guide showed us how to minimize the time it takes to cut by always cutting from the back. We were brought to a different room that had several machines used for different things. One was an organizer that would arrange your documents in order. Next we were shown how we can use self-mailing on a paper you want to mail. What this means is, you can mail a piece of paper without using an envelope. You fold the paper and use a sticker to keep it sealed, and then right on the outside of it as if it were an envelope. There was also an envelope maker which seemed quite complex. The tour guide showed us a special machine used for printing high-quality posters and such. The machine was given to the shop for free so that it can be tested, and the results sent back to Japan where it was made. Overall this experience was helpful, yet just a glimpse into the depths of printing. Not only did we learn about a few different kinds of printing machines, but we also learned about the kinds of jobs the shop gets. Jobs such as making bookmarks or protest poster, envelopes, newspapers, large posters, books, etc. Anything requiring something that needs to be printed in bulk is done at shops like these. Our guide was managing the shop for 37 years and has done countless printing jobs. He stressed that sometimes you run into complications, but the bottom line is to get the job out on time.

This ar­ti­cle is about the re­la­tion­ship be­tween free prod­ucts and cus­tomer ser­vice ex­pe­ri­ence. It men­tions free cus­tomer ser­vice help via phone and such not liv­ing up to the ex­pec­ta­tions of con­sumers. Har­ris In­ter­ac­tive con­ducted a stud that said that, “60% of con­sumers said that speak­ing with a live cus­tomer ser­vice agent via the tele­phone is the num­ber one way in which they want to in­ter­act with a com­pany, and only 25% said they pre­fer email.” Even com­pa­nies such as Google that of­fers a great free prod­uct, their cus­tomer ser­vice, how­ever, is an­other story al­to­gether. The point the ar­ti­cle makes is that if you’re of­fer­ing a free ser­vice/prod­uct, your cus­tomer ser­vice should be up to par as well. I al­ways love a good free prod­uct and I com­pletely dis­agree with this ar­ti­cle. Sure, it would be nice if the cus­tomer ser­vice of a good prod­uct matched the qual­ity of this prod­uct, that would be great, but they’re usu­ally not, and THAT is the true cost of free. But, this cost I am very will­ing to pay. You can’t have your cake and eat it too, so it is per­fectly un­der­stand­able for these well-known com­pli­men­tary prod­ucts to come with a price tag. As long as that price tag isn’t phys­i­cally tak­ing money from my pocket, I am all for it.

This article is about the relationship between free products and customer service experience. It mentions free customer service help via phone and such not living up to the expectations of consumers. Harris Interactive conducted a stud that said that, “60% of consumers said that speaking with a live customer service agent via the telephone is the number one way in which they want to interact with a company, and only 25% said they prefer email.” Even companies such as Google that offers a great free product, their customer service, however, is another story altogether. The point the article makes is that if you’re offering a free service/product, your customer service should be up to par as well. I always love a good free product and I completely disagree with this article. Sure, it would be nice if the customer service of a good product matched the quality of this product, that would be great, but they’re usually not, and THAT is the true cost of free. But, this cost I am very willing to pay. You can’t have your cake and eat it too, so it is perfectly understandable for these well-known complimentary products to come with a price tag. As long as that price tag isn’t physically taking money from my pocket, I am all for it.