This service is rumored to be an added bonus to Amazon Prime customers. Every month Prime members would be able to read a limited number of older books as part of their annual $79 Prime membership fee.

The Amazon library service is still in the planning stages, but it appears that some publishers are not very happy with the idea. It’s unclear if the plan would allow consumers to download the books or just save them to a device for a limited time. Publishers are in fear though, that this service may devalue books.

The bookstore and publishing industries are already struggling, and with Amazon starting a trend, more companies are likely to follow. The bookstore, Borders, recently closed and the only real power in the bookstore industry appears to be Barnes and Noble. Amazon’s e-book library service may not only hurt bookstores, libraries, and publishers, but manufacturing and shipping companies would also lose business.

The growth of technology services is exciting and convenient in the eyes of consumers, but behind the scenes it is causing a large number of businesses to struggle. Maybe public libraries won’t fade, but instead rent out e-book readers. It is likely though, that this would not be a free service. Times are changing, and along with these changes the idea of a free and friendly service seems to be fading.

Dr. Sparrow and her co-researchers, Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard and Jenny Liu of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, staged four different memory experiments.

In one of the experiments, test subjects used the Internet to research 40 trivia facts. Half of the subjects were told the information would be saved in the computer, while the other half believed the items they typed would be erased. Researchers discovered that the subjects were significantly more likely to remember information if they thought they would not be able to find it later. The researchers wrote, “Participants did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statement they had read,”

In another experiment, a concept known as “transactive memory” was tested. This concept theorizes that human beings rely on other people and outside resources to store information for them. In this experiment the participants were asked to remember both the trivia statements and which of five color-coded computer folders they were saved in. The researchers were surprised to find that participants were better able to recall the location.

Dr. Sparrow stated that the Internet’s effects on memory are still largely unexplored, yet she believes that this new trend might make us smarter by reserving brainpower for understanding the big picture, rather than wasting energy trying to memorize facts. Sparrow reported to U.S. News and World Report, “If you take away the mindset of memorization, it might be that people get more information out of what they are reading, and they might better remember the concept.”

It is interesting to learn how much electronics are changing, not just the lives, but also the internal workings of human beings. As our dependence on technologic resources continues to grow, how much more will our thinking processes change? Could our minds become lazy and not feel the need to store information, as the information will always be found at our fingertips? Will we lose all sense of direction as our navigational devices tell us every turn to make? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Spotify offers three subscription levels. The Premium service, costing $9.99, allows users to play an unlimited amount of music on a computer or cell phone without hearing any advertising. Spotify Unlimited allows advertising-free access only on computers and costs $4.99 a month. The Spotify Free Service has advertisements, does not have the radio feature and will not play through music systems such as Sonos or Squeezebox. Restrictions on the Free service, such as limits on streaming hours, are not yet listed on the site. Spotify is currently taking email addresses to send out invitations for the Free service later.

Spotify has teamed up with its “exclusive launch partners” Coca-Cola and Sprite, Chevrolet, Motorola, Reebok, Sonos and The Daily. They stated that these brands will be launching campaigns in partnership with Spotify in the coming weeks and months.

Your mobile phone will display a caller’s name and picture, but only if you have saved that number as a contact. T-Mobile is attempting to change this. The company announced that they will be the first of the four major U.S. carriers to debut a caller ID feature. T-Mobile calls the new service Name ID.  The system is powered by Cequint, a company that specializes in caller ID technology.

With Name ID, once a caller’s name and location data is displayed on screen, it will allow you to save that information with one click. The service is available immediately on the Samsung Exhibit 4G and will be supported on the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide later this month.  The Name ID service will cost an extra $3.99 a month, but T-Mobile is offering a 10-day free trial.

So another point is scored for Mobile phones. The use of landline phones is continuously fading, and by adding a key feature, mobile phones will have even more power to take over. It’s funny to think how caller ID was such a necessity for landlines after it was released, but people have been using mobile phones without caller ID and there weren’t many complaints.

As of now, to use Evoz a user needs two iOS devices. One device acts as the receiver and the other connects to WiFi. In September Evoz plans to offer a standalone monitor starting around $120.

With the Evoz service users can receive texts, calls, or emails when the baby cries for more than 30 seconds. Evoz also collects data to help users track how often the baby cries and when they cry, and then compares the data to studies on the subject. This is meant to help parents better understand the health of their baby. The Evoz service also enables parents to easily get in touch with a network of baby health experts if they have questions.

So, does this sound like a handy app that would be great to use? I’m not so sure about that. There are multiple factors that make this service more than a little sketchy. First, there are already numerous news reports about parents leaving babies alone in a house, with this app those reports are likely to increase. An irresponsible parent may decide they can go to the store and leave the baby alone because they would be notified if their baby cried. That just isn’t safe. Many other things could happen, but if the baby doesn’t cry for at least 30 seconds the user isn’t notified. Also, what if the user is out and their phone loses service or the battery dies? Then what?

The old-fashioned baby monitors keep the parents in the house to watch the baby, alert the parent of both cries and any other important noises, and are highly unlikely to experience the numerous technological malfunctions that occur with smartphone apps. Oh, and they cost about 4% the cost of two iPhones. Some things just need to stay safe and “old-fashioned.”

From April 26 through May 22, 2011 Pew conducted a telephone survey of 2,277 U.S. adults. Eighty-three percent of the respondents said they owned a cellphone of some kind, while 35% said they owned a smartphone.

The survey also found smartphone ownership trends in relation to finances, age, and race. The results showed that household income does play a role in smartphone ownership, with 59% of those earning $75,000 or more owning a smartphone. Among those surveyed with a college degree or higher education, 48% had smartphones, compared to 18% with no high school diploma.

The people surveyed between the ages of 25 and 34 were most likely to own a smartphone. Race also plays a factor, as 44% of the African-Americans and Latinos surveyed said they own a smartphone, compared to only 30% of whites surveyed.

It was found that 87% of respondents use their smartphones as Internet portals, with about 78% of them doing so every day. Somewhat surprisingly, 25% of owners use their smartphone to access the internet more so than a computer.

Android was found to be the most popular smartphone, being used by 35% of adults with smartphones. The iPhone and Blackberry followed with 24% each.

While the number of smartphone owners is likely to continue growing, it is interesting to think what may happen to the sales of laptops and desktops. Bring in the tablet market and this question grows even larger. If people have two forms of internet access, one in their pocket, and one in their hand, along with an entertainment and work device, what could happen to the basic computer?

The phone takes a picture of the skin, measures the diameter, and uses a proprietary algorithm to determine if the lesion or mole is developing into potential cancerous melanoma. Skin Scan was created by a team of 13 people, including two dermatologists and two mathematicians. The app has received €50,000 Euro in seed funding, and costs $4.99.

Now, having a phone be your dermatologist may sound cool to some people, and foolish to others. Would you trust your phone with your life? There are many possible circumstances that could occur with this app. A very poor circumstance would be that people begin to trust their phone and feel as though they no longer need to go to the dermatologist if they are concerned with a spot on their skin. What if the phone didn’t scan the spot correctly, then what happens? Even if the app was only inaccurate on rare occasions it could still lead to death, and most likely lawsuits.

Skin Scan also produces a live global map of the skin cancer rates it diagnosis. Hopefully this map will then be used to analyze why rates may be higher in certain locations. A doctor in your pocket may sound like a cool idea, but I’m not so sure about this one.

On June 22, 2011 Google invested another $102 million into the Alta Wind Energy Center in Tehachapi, California, after investing $55 million in May. The wind power will be sold to utility Southern California Edison under a power purchase agreement that was signed in 2006. When the project is complete, it should create 1,550MW of energy, enough to power 450,000 homes. Google states that it will not purchase any of the energy produced at Alta.

As Google’s business is based around energy, they know its value and are passionate about the clean energy movement. Google competitors, such as Microsoft and Amazon also face the challenges of energy consumption. If the competitors follow Google’s path, the clean energy movement will be more successful and continue to grow. Hopefully Google’s passion will spread to the competitors.

The smartpad runs on Google’s Android operating system, and the displays are WVGA AMOLED. It runs a dual-core TI processor paired with 1GB of DDR3 memory and between 32GB and 128GB of internal storage, augmented with a microSD card slot.

This gadget is months away from being available to the public, but it appears that it may have great success. Our country has become devoted, if not addicted, to mobile electronics. We love our smartphones, and now we love our tablets. What if we could combine them into one and keep it in our pocket? Well here you go. A phone and tablet to fit in our pockets that we can pop open whenever we need more than a smartphone. Just be careful though, while you’re walking down the street look up every once in awhile, you wouldn’t want to bump your head.

Apple is known for obtaining patents, and the patents are known for causing multi-company disputes.  If this patent is to truly succeed, companies such as Samsung and HTC are in for some trouble. The patent does allow for some leeway though.  It appears that infringement would only occur if every characteristic off the patent claims are used. There are 20 characteristics in total.  While applying all 20 characteristics may be unlikely, this patent is still sure to cause problems amongst competitors.