Contemporary issues in the development of IT

This week I am aiming to talk about several news stories I have researched into and providing an overview on what impact these developments can have for the technology industry.
Some of the stories that I will be covering are:

• Digital textbooks in South Korea by 2015.
• ARM chip designers cheaper costs in smart phones.

Finding out about the digital textbooks in South Korea by 2015 was an interesting story for me because it really does highlight how rapid technology is growing. Considering that is around 4 years before it will be launched to the market the question is how fast will this be used by other worldwide countries and the real advantages and disadvantages that brings can only be told within time itself.

What are the advantages of this piece of technology?

Paper being saved

Considering how sustainable we are trying to be with this planet the saving of paper through this piece of technology could be vital for environmentalists who feel passionately about keeping the number of trees on the planet cut down by a minimum so this is guaranteed to be backed by this group of people for sure. For me this is probably one of the biggest advantages that comes with this piece of technology because most people tend not for example to print screen work for mistakes or overall proof-reading their work so this can only be described as a major development in the technological industry.

No heavy backpacks anymore
Not having heavy backpacks anymore means students will not have the need to focus on getting lockers anymore and thus they will be surplus to requirements. Because of this the student will most likely not require a backpack at all so having this piece of software available means that costs are saved. In my opinion having the piece of software available means a revolution for education, the added bonus of not having heavy backpacks will create a positive attitude towards learning and reduce the stress of actually carrying around that weight on your back. I personally think that we should look into the possibly when this software is available to purchase it because I ultimately believe this is a way of saving money for school budgets.

More subject choices?
Having this piece of technology means a wider range of subject choices for students particularly in rural areas because these places lacked the specialist teachers in order for students to study at home so having this technology available means that more study for students can be made available in an environment that suits the learner which I personally believe is key to developing the education of the learner by making the environment they learn in as relaxing as possible. Having the wider range of subjects also means that the learner can gain as many qualifications as possible to make the next step-in in life depending on what they wish to do. In addition to that the extra subject choices will broaden the learner's education.

Better IT skills being put into practice
One of the major advantages that come with this piece of technology means that IT skills are being put into practice by the learner. In the world as every so 1000 IT jobs come on to the market around about 500,000 people will look to apply for them. Because of the technological advances we need to have the basic and complex IT skills in order to use these futuristic technologies and by having this technology available those skills can be put into practice to assist the education of the learner. For me the skills that we can develop by having this technology available to us will be highly useful considering the use of IT in the majority of workplaces.
Disadvantages of this piece of technology




Reliance upon this technology
I feel the one major disadvantage to having this piece of technology is having to rely on this technology to succeed at our education. If the system crashes for example we cannot possibly use the technology meaning we will progress less and achieve possibly worst than if normal textbooks were used. In my experience having to rely solely on just one source means we aren't progressing enough, I strongly feel that if we were to take up this technology there must be a back up source in case a fault is found during the use of this technology.



The complexity of the technology
No details when reading this article were made about the complexity of the technology. For me not having this knowledge is difficult to determine whether or not students will have the skills in order to use the technology. The complexity of the technology may well be simple but not being told firstly how a user can access or even use the software portrays to me that there is no direction to the software and is bound to fail.

The cost of this technology

No details were given in the article were given to the cost of this technology which for me is bad because how can schools budget towards this piece of technology without knowing the actual cost to run the software and make it available to the students. To be able to develop this technology is going to cost all so in the current recession can technology like this be afforded to be purchased by schools at all? I don't think so due to the fact that governments give schools a low budget for that year so possibly buying this technology could mean all if not most of that budget is spent on that technology.

ARM Chip designer promises lower costs in smart phone

A leading chip designer has unveiled his plans for a new processor that will allow cheaper costs in smart phones. The cortex A7 processor which it has been named is hoped will be a computering revolution for consumers particularly in developed countries where technology is often unaffordable.

The advantages of this technology

Lower power costs- The making of this new chip realised by ARM promises to have lower power costs which is helping in my opinion to reach that sustainable future for the world. The less batteries we have to use and the less electricity we have to use as well for that matter will mean fewer factories to make the electricity are needed and ultimately save on the cost of electricity for the consumer. The way this is power is saved is the chip can be used in conjunction with more powerful processors to create a 'hybrid' model to save this power. In my opinion this is highly efficient considering the economic climate where affording electricity on monthly scales becomes more difficult as the recession continues so having this technology is a measure to counter this 

there are lower production costs in the making of this chip which saves power to make this technology and fewer working hours for the people that need to oversee the production of these chips increasing leisure time for these workers. You usually make chips on a silicon wafer and it costs roughly the same amount of money for each wafer. If you can get 2,000 devices on a wafer or 1,000 devices on a wafer it makes a huge difference to the cost per chip. The smart phone can be produced for under £60 per model making it more affordable for everyone around the world including developing countries.

Ubiquitous – New technology makes people talk about it on regular scales, because of this people will be more likely to buy the chip for their smart phone as it is being expressed through the media and recommended by family and friends alike. Mr. East the chip designer said that the “trend will happen no matter what because of how cheap it will be”. I personally believe that when this is available it will be regularly boasted about by the media in particular urging people to upgrade to it because of the power costs and the larger processor which seems to be on everybody’s agenda when technology is discussed.


 Disadvantages of this technology

it has to be said that a product like this doesn’t come with many disadvantages but I have managed to think of a few to express my personal concerns with this product.

Competition
As ARM is probably going to be the first to develop this chip other companies will soon see how this has been made and will look to make it better than ARM has made it resulting in new technologies every year or so which the consumer will most likely have to pay for. I personally believe that ARM should look at developing their chips faster and looking for solutions to make it better because of the completion even though they are one of the leading chip designers in the UK.

Aiming it towards world countries - When reading the article I found that this was quite alarming because they said this product could become available to the majority of African countries. It is alarming because as we know the African continent isn’t rich at all with the majority of the population in those countries being poor so how is this going to be made available to African countries and other 3^rd world countries? I personally believe that when reading that I felt has ARM got its target market correct in offering this worldwide? Because of this I have come to conclude that Arm should first notice the success in the UK alone before making such a, leap in making the product worldwide despite the cheap costs it brings.

Unfortunaly some issues occured when uploading the text occured so you will notice a white box, I have made a temporary solution so you can see the text.