This past Friday marked the day long event where the 57th Annual Grammy Award contenders were announced. According to Rolling Stone, the event concluded with “A Very Grammy Christmas” where the five nominees up for the Grammy’s biggest award, Album of the Year were announced. Beyonce, Pharrell Williams and Sam Smith won most nominations (6 each) according to Mashable.

The most surprising nomination was Beck’s Morning Phase, the singer has not been nominated for Album of the Year since 1997 and 2001, however earlier in the day Beck was nominated for Best Rock Album, while the album single “Blue Moon” was nominated for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song according to Rolling Stone. 

Beyonce after just having missed the cut off for the 56th Grammys was a clear candidate, given earlier in the day she became the most nominated female in Grammy history, surpassing Dolly Parton and ended the day with 6 nominations for the 57th Grammys. 

Sam Smith totaled 6 nominations as well, gaining recognition in all major categories including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist to name a few.

Pharrell also racked up 6 nominations, however, impressively William’s name appears on the credits for three of the five albums nominated for Album of the Year which includes being featured on Beyonces and Sheeran’s X says Rolling Stone. Other competitive categories such as Best Rap Album, Song of the Year, and more were announced, we look forward to watching and seeing who take home Album of the Year February 8, 2015.

Have you or your friends used Venmo, or any other money transferring app but feel neglected by the inability to send the recipient a seflie along with your money transference? Fear no more! We now have… Snapcash. Snapchat and Square are collaborating on this project where Square will handle the actual cash movements and Snapchat will host the social networking platform. The deal will also provide Square with access to Snapchat’s 100 million plus monthly active users according to Mashable.

To use the new feature, one must live United States, have a debit card, and be 18 years old. Snapcash will be made first available to Android users, and shortly after it will be brought to iOS users. When using Snapcash, one also creates a Square account where the actual money transference will take place. This new feature exhibits Snapchat’s ability to push past its original limitations of strictly existing as a chat application and now becoming a surprising new competitor to mobile payment companies such as PayPal. 

Snapchat has recently begun marketing and developing platforms for Snapcash, so draining your bank account might be even easier in the near future. Also, we love the video Snapchat made for the new feature. It’s crazy but that’s part of the reason why it’s amazing!

Read more about it on Snapchat’s blog.

Amazon Echo part speaker part voice activated personal home assistant is new on the market and has consumers wondering what this product is for. Alexa is Amazon’s new version of Siri, which when asked can set alarms, reference the dictionary and play music. Echo has some promising features, but at this point seems slightly out of place. Amazon’s main objective is to sell products, but it is unclear at this point whether the functionality the Echo will provide highly marketable. However, Amazon has had success in the past with technological gadgets such as the Kindle when ahead of the market.  

It looks like Echo is making its way to the smart home scene just in time along with Google and Apple’s new home smart gadgets. According to Mashable, Echo could take Amazon from one-click purchase to no-click purchase, creating the ultimate in-home impulse purchase engine — all done with voice command. this new smart home technology could be a change in the future, making online shopping, downloading audio books and simple day to day questions easier and more convenient than ever. When addressed, Alexa, the Echo will listen and respond to questions, tasks and commands given to the device. The purpose of this product is to add a smart technology feature to homes and aid in day to day tasks. Smart home devices are a rapidly expanding market, and Amazon’s new product is currently being tested by being sent to some Amazon Prime members to test the product and receive feedback. According to Mashable the device runs around 99 for Amazon Prime members for a limited time and 200 for other customers.  

President Obama intervenes to save the internet by asking the FCC (Federal Communications Commissions) to classify the internet as a public utility, and not allow destructive practices like fast lane and throttling which will limit internet equality according to Gizmodo. The idea of net neutrality, gives innovators the chance to thrive, Obama wants the internet free and open in order to protect neutrality. Internet providers have a legal and ethical obligation to not block access to certain websites you want to visit, or to pay for priority to competitors. The internet has become an essential tool for communication and life. 

The FCC asked for feedback on its policies, and the general public responded. With over 4 million responses, the public has asked that consumers, not companies choose what sites to use and are currently very dissatisfied with current rules and regulations being practiced by the FCC. Obama then backed the public, by sending a message asking the FCC to reconsider some of its unethical practices, and adhere to the publics requests and dissatisfactions. The internet’s inherit purpose was to be a communication tool, without regulations that would spur innovation and promote freedom. According to Gizmodo, Obama is presenting a 4 point plan including: no blocking, no throttling, increased transparency, and no paid prioritization to target the main problems. In the past there have been telecommunication acts passed to prevent cellphone and telephone holders from financially over paying in services used in everyday life. Now we will have to wait for a response from the FCC since it is an independent agency. 

Apple pay sets a new benchmark for mobile payments, however, they are not alone.  according to Mashable, MasterCard has been a pioneer of mobile commerce innovation for years, including the world’s first contact-less and mobile payment solutions. Apple Pay turned to MasterCard to help ensure high quality mobile transactions. Earlier in 2005, Mastercard used Near Field Communication technology to turn almost anything into an instant and secure form of payment, meaning your smartphone, bracelet or watch could soon replace your wallet. These new methods of payment, enable consumers to spend more than they regularly would with traditional payment methods. Mastercard, has been working to promote and distribute these new methods of payment and further expand these technologies promoting them to be faster, more secure and convenient. Some may be worried about the security of using contact-less payment methods, but master card ensures heightened security through 3 layers of tokenization, EMV cryptology, and biometrics meaning respectively a special number assignment which prevents hackers from stealing your card information, creating a one time transaction number, and is thumb print or passcode secure.  Wallets might be a thing of the past, while reliance on smart phones and technology is predicted to expand and grow.

Recently, Facebook has released a new update allowing for a more organized way to post batches of photos from your smart phone. According to Mashable , Once an iPhone or Android user uploads a set of pictures from their mobile device, the app generates a quick preview of how the photos will be displayed and then allows users to rearrange image order.  This can be done by holding the selected photo and dragging it to the desired position. This update is compatible for selecting up to thirty photos at a time including tags, captions and locations. Now smartphone users are able to control photo order from the convenience of their phones rather than being limited to having this control on just website uploads. According to Mashable, Facebook is positioning photos as more of a platform for telling stories about everyday moments, rather just a place to store albums of hundreds of photos. This places emphasis not only on the large album uploads, but the importance of smaller photo uploads telling a story or updating Facebook friends. These smaller uploads are coined stories, which are different from albums in size, focusing on sharing in the moment with one’s Facebook community. 

Fitbit recently unveiled their new and improved super watch the Fitbit Charge, just in time for the Holiday season. Six months ago the company recalled their product the Fitbit Force to due the nickel content in the surgical steel affecting some consumers causing allergic reactions, thought limited in cases according to Mashable Fitbit offered a full refund, and worked hard to come back with a new and improved product. During this release, Fitbit introduced the three products it is releasing within the next year.  

Products include the Fitbit Charge, the Fitbit Charge HR, and the Fitbit Surge. Currently the only product available for purchase is the charge which offers special features that track steps, calories burn, and sleeping patterns, which can then be synched to your smart phone. The fit band also displays incoming calls and messages, so you can check your wrist before reaching for the phone. So far the Fitbit products come in black and slate, but new colors such as blue and burgundy will be released in 2015 according to Mashable.

The FitBit collections offer the combination of hardware and software unity to take health tracking to the next level. Relying on smartphone devices is less efficient, than synching the features of a smartphone and smart watch. The Fitbit HR offers heart rate monitoring during physical exertion and rest periods alike, offering extensive health insight for only a 20$ price increase. the Fitbit Charge HR offers heart rate monitoring, GPS, sleep analysis, and activity tracking. Unfortunately these two products are yet to be released to the market, but we will patiently await their release, and look forward to taking health tracking to a new level.

HBO has recently announced its intent to do a standalone streaming service starting in 2015. No longer will college student’s borrow their parents HBO GO access accounts. A recent trend in entertainment is the shift from television viewing to online video streaming. According to the The Daily Titan 1 in 3 people in their 20s and 30s watches Netflix or some other streaming service more often than they watch television.Now HBO fans will not have to pay for a pricey cable subscription to view their favorite shows. 

HBO is looking to make a profit on their extensive list of shows and merge into the online streaming market which offers factors of ease, convenience, and reduced costs for online streaming service users. According to The Source , the CEO of HBO is attempting to target the 80 million homes who do not currently have HBO.  A HBO standalone streaming service would compete with other top online streaming mega-giants like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Instant Video. It is rumored, however, that HBO could be charging up to $15 a month according to Martin Peers at The Information , it will be tough to compete with the cheaper options of Netflix and Hulu offering services for $7.99 and $8.25 for Amazon Prime respectively. It is assumed their transition into the online market will flow seamlessly, and game of throne fans can now breath a sigh of relief, cut their cables cords, and continue their viewings online. 

The GamerGate scandal started as a battle in the online gaming community between a game developer and ex-boyfriend. According to Mashable , The developer’s ex boyfriend wrote a 9,000-word screed about their relationship, accusing her of trading sex for favorable press coverage and other career boosts. Although this information was false, the gaming community preceded to intervene full force. 

One focal points of the scandal was the relationship between Zoe Quinn, an independent game developer and alleged sexual partner Nathan Grayson who is a video game journalist. The gaming community viewed this as an ethical scandal, drawing attention to the corruption within the video game journaling community. (aside from the fact Nathan never wrote an article on one of Quinn’s games) According to Bloomberg View   the underlying problems of the scandal seems to be misogyny, and the politicization of geek culture.

Misogyny has been a prevalent trend throughout the online gaming community for quite some time. There have frequently been anti-women messages spread throughout online community and spread quickly due to online anonymity. Female gamers have been particularly weary in speaking out on the controversy in order to avoid having their personal information leaked online. Felicia Day recently spoke out on the movement and her personal information was leaked in the comment box of her blog. The anonymity within the online gaming community seems to be instigating the harassment and expanded the online threats.  

Within the gaming community there seems to be a split between those wanting to protect harassment victims, mostly feminist gamers who vocalize their views online, and those misogynists who harass female gamers and leak their personal information online. There has become an inherent divide online, and many have become focused on fighting opposing parties rather than virtual zombies.  

The whole entire GamerGate scandal has gotten out of control, some female gamers have received death threats and there seems to be no end to the visual harassment either. This scandal has skyrocketed past a little debacle between exs, and has spiraled into a full force problem, drawing attention to the negative aspects of the online gaming community. Perhaps this will be a wake up call for the gaming community to take back their online forums and focus on what they initially went online for, love of video games. Or perhaps this online warfare will continue, reducing the online appeal of gaming communities for many people.

Ello is a revolutionary social networking site unlike all the rest. Ello, is different from Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking giants in that it is completely add free. Ello’s manifesto reads, “We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product. Ello. This is what makes Ello unique from its forefathers.  To generate revenue, Ello allows for users to customize their pages with special feature tools which may be purchased for a small price according to Ello these features are not necessary, but do provide some financial support to the company, as well as allowing for users to continue to create and uniquely customize their social networking experience.

Ello is set up as like a mash between Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter, in which users may generate statuses, post pictures and gifs, find friends and comment on posts. Started by a small group of programmers and artists, Ello has sprung up quickly with rapid popularity. There are as many as 35,000 requests to join the social networking site per hour according to The Guardian , and Ello’s head team is working rapidly to keep up with their growing popularity. The site however is not new; Ello was launched in March and was intended to be a small, invite- only community between friends. Interest was recently sparked by the LGBT communities’ migration to other social networking sites after Facebook launched their real name policy, prohibiting users from using names other than their legal names. As interest increased, Ello became more public, but one must still obtain an invite to join the site. Some have even begun selling Ello invites on eBay ranging from 5-150 dollars according to Mashable ,but it is still unclear whether or not Ello will be a fad, or is here to stay.