In this generation of technology now there are applications for everything. No one bothers to use the web page because why would they if there is an application that will take you there directly. Also since everything is so quick and easy now it is faster to pull up the application then it is to go to the web page and type in the URL for Facebook or Instagram. Also since more people use their mobile devices people are using applications a lot more. The articles basically state that the mobile apps are taking over and they are here to stay. They want the web pages to get the hint that it isn’t going to work out for them anymore.

Another big thing right now is a digital currency like bitcoin. Bitcoin is one of the biggest digital currency and people become really wealthy with bitcoins. There are a lot of stories of different people having so much because of bitcoin. Although they did not think it would the way they expected. It is something that I find to be pretty difficult to even understand and I wouldn’t use it myself, because it seems complicated.

There is an app for any and everything in this generation. In this generation, it is rare for people to go on websites such as facebook, Instagram, even skype. Why? Because there is an app for all of those sites. Phone applications are easier and way more convenient than going on the actual website. In the article written by Ewan Spence “The Mobile Browser Is Dead, Long Live The App” the article basically expresses how the people are running away from mobile browsers. The article states “Users are turning away from the browser and relying on applications. Anyone who relies on reaching out to users should be paying attention to these numbers, and have a strategy to deal with the app issue.” I feel like these mobile browsers need to get with the program because mobile apps are here to stay for a very long time.

The internet is so powerful now that there is such a thing called digital currency. Bitcoin is really one of the most popular digital currency out there. In the article “How Bitcoin Ends”, the author talks about how bitcoin didn’t work out like how people thought it would.

Now a days, apps on your phone are all you need. Wanting to go on your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts do not require going on the internet first and searching up “Facebook”.  This is what apps are for now. They take us straight to the website/ links we want to use.  According to , The Mobile Browser is Dead, it is expressed how using the internet browser is now longer a nee and I can agree with that. The only time I would click on my “Safari” on my iPhone was to go on Google, in which I eventually downloaded the Google app itself instead. Its a quicker process so I can definitely see how apps are taking over everyone’s phone. There are even apps made for talking on the phone and texting without needing internet connection but WiFi the least. The browser can be seen to as not much of use to most people in today’s society.

Bitcoin was very popular in 2012 after its arrival in 2009. Not fully understanding what Bitcoin was prior to reading the articles,  How Bitcoin Ends and The Fierce Battle for the Soul of Bitcoin, I kind of got the gist of it.  According to Douglass Rushkoff, “Bitcoin may have been meant to disintermediate the agents of trust who monopolized commerce and currency.“ However, while reading The Fierce Battle for the Soul of Bitcoin,  the actually battle itself was a difficult one due to digital currency being not easy to regulate. All in all Bitcoin, in my opinion, is not something that is necessary to use and seems to be far more complicated to even want to be used.

Times have surely changed. I remember when the Internet was the biggest thing since sliced bread. Now it appears that apps (applications) has taken over. Apps are widely used more than our good friend Internet explorer or our first cousin, Safari. Why is that? I think the millennials made this happen. Seriously, people are so attached to their phones and convenience seems simplicity of apps makes them more user friendly. For example, it’s much easier to go straight to your YouTube app as opposed to taking the longer way in putting your search in the Internet search engine and waiting for YouTube to pop up and then a third step searching for the YouTube video you want. It’s much quicker using the app. The practicality of these apps take away from the search on the Internet. In the article, The Mobile Browser Is Dead, Long Live the App, the author stated, “Users are turning away from the browser and relying on applications.” (Spence, Pg.1) This statement is entirely true. The future seems to hold big changes for the Internet and apps. The digital market place will change because more and more apps will be created and less Internet.

Technology has increased and improved over the years and inventions like Bitcoin has become popular. According to CNN Money, “Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person, alias Satoshii Nakamato. Transactions are made with no middle men-no banks!” In recent years, everybody wanted a piece of Bitcoin until people started realizing they were scams. In the article, The Fierce Battle of the Soul of Bitcoin, the author stated, “It could have lost them to hackers or worse, steal them outright. These rip-offs were already an all-too-common occurrence in the nascent bitcoin world.” (Voorhees, Andersn & Newton, Pg. 2) I remembered this year my girlfriend at work her fiancé hurried up and sold his shares in the company because Bitcoin was going down. Now, Blockchain on the other hand seems like they will stick around. According to the article, Blockchain Will Disrupt Every Industry, the author defined Blockchain as, “a digital, distributed transaction ledger, with identical copies maintained on multiple computer systems controlled by different entities.” (Tapscott, Pg.2)   This is a good deal because Blockchain is like a recording and that can be less scams like in the case of Bitcoin.

I believe that digital currency does have a future. Blockchain more so than Bitcoin but even the next invention of digital currency might fare well. It’s always time for a change and with technology changing every day and getting rid of the “middle-men” people would gravitate to this style of banking more than our dinosaur predecessor, the go between-a la banks. Digital currency is here to stay!

Works Cited

money.cnn.com/infographic/technology/what-is-bitcoin/

Mashup are usually seen or heard whether it’s a mashup of a song or even a video. People make mashups very frequently especially DJs. They are basically getting paid to play music at a party and not all of the songs or much of the music playing is their own beat or anything really. This can cause a lot of artists to sue these DJs or anyone else since we have copyright laws. You can get arrested for these mashups because you are technically stealing. If you are making a profit and the person who first made that beat and didn’t give u permission to use it does not make it profit it is illegal.

I never knew that Amazon was a mashup. I went on it a couple times to buy items for my son but didn’t really pay attention. It’s amazing to find how many mashups that are there right in front of you. I feel as if mashups will be around for a long time because you are always going to find something that can be put together. There is always a new beat or song that you will be able to mashup. The next generation after this one will have mashups that we have never heard or even thought of doing

Mashups have been around for many years. Mainly popular in music when DJ’s are usually mixing two records into making their own remix out of it. Funny thing is that sometimes these mashups are better than the original record. The problem is that when a lot of producers, DJ’s or anyone who is making a mash-up available for the world to hear on platforms such as YouTube, Soundcloud or any type of streaming service, there are copyright laws that can get your mash-up taken down. I am for this because I believe everyone deserves their cut especially if you are sampling someone else’s work. I have been in many situations where my producer and I would sample a song and an amazing beat has come out of it. Whenever we tried getting that sampled record’s cleared, we would usually get denied. Some artists don’t want you using their music and a lot of the times if you aren’t a big enough artist, they don’t feel like they can make any money out of you. It kind of sucks because when you’re an emerging artist, producer, etc you try to use anything you can get ahold of to create but with all these copyright laws, you are also very limited with what you can create.

Before reading these articles I thought mashups only came into play when it came to music. I never thought about the many different examples of mashups. The one that really shocked me the most was shopping mashups that was mentioned in the article “The new breed of web app.” I never looked at ebay and Amazon as mashups.

I have mixed feelings about mashups being a potential threat, because its technically not the same exact thing in some cases, because they do add their own twist to it. I feel like it has a chance of becoming a threat if its too similar or it does better than the original.