Entertainment has revolutionized the way we used technology, nowadays there are so many different devices, which can actually entertain us. We have a massive range of technology which can store information and actually entertains us, ranging from portable handheld devices that can fit in your pocket to 60” plasma 3D TV’s, I will talk about the different ways that we can get entertained in each particular genre today.
Games
There are lots of different platforms that we can play games of, the most popular is probably the dedicated gaming system such as Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo, which ultimately dominate the games market rivalling Hollywood blockbusters in terms of money made. Games that mainly dominate Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo are usually big names ones such as Call of Duty, FIFA and rock band on the Xbox. Most people play games just for the fun of the game, although some people play it purely to play with their friends online; this in my opinion is not really enjoying the game properly. Some people prefer using different platforms e.g. Xbox Playstation and Nintendo simply because what suits their family the most, in my experience I think that Xbox suits the full gamer, whereas Playstation suits the family that likes to watch HD DVD’s and then on the other hand Nintendo suiting the whole family which also gets the kids involved. This also tend to relate to the age of the players, teenagers tend to get what ever platforms that their friends have so they can play with them etc. Ages of the players tend to vary, but the majority of the players tend to lie in the 14-30-age bracket. Some people may argue that playing games is a major time waster, but to what extent is it? Personally I think that a few hours a week is acceptable, and then if you go outside a few hours then it starts to become a real time waster.
Recently games have moved over to the iOS and android platform which is great, because we can now play good free games in a spare 5 minutes while waiting for the bus or something. Having games on our iOS and android devices have been great because of the versatility of them.
In my opinion games have changed the way we can entertain our self, for the better.
Music
Music is a key source of entertainment and has been for a while now; MP3s have modernized the way we listen to music on the go. In the old times people used to buy CDs from shops and have a CD player on the go, nowadays we can store thousands of songs on a little iPod. The iPod was first launched on October 23rd 2001, and as of October 2011 apple has retailed over 300,000,000 units of the apple iPod. Below is a retail chart of the apple iPod history.
Portable music has transformed the way we can actually listen to music, all for the good. I store all my music on my iPhone, and without that I don’t know what I would do, because I certainly wouldn’t walk round carrying lots of my favourite CD’s. All of this is an advantage, the only disadvantage that I could imagine happening is that people damaging their ears through loud music, because it can. In my experience I know my friends who listen to really loud music and I don’t think that it is doing them any favours personally.
Digital Cameras
Digital cameras have contributed massively to ours entertainment, because when we want to go out we would want to capture the good memories. All of this can be done with a digital camera now. The first commercially available digital camera was released in the 90’s and has shaped what digital cameras can do today. The majority of people have a camera with them most of the time, whether it is a camera phone, a small compact camera or a digital SLR. The best advantage of digital cameras in comparison to the old film cameras is that you are able to review the photos as soon as you take them on a small screen, they tend to be about 3” which is still fairly small but better than nothing. Along with digital cameras has come photoshop; Photoshop allows people to digitally enhance photos and manipulate them into something that there not. Most big name women’s magazines actually digitally enhance their photos to make them look like something their not, this is a major disadvantage because it’s branding that it’s the ‘perfect’ look when they don’t actually look like that. Below is a great image that I found on the Internet of something called Photoshop cream.
This image clearly shows what Photoshop can do to a hi-res image, and in my opinion it is not right for magazines to digitally enhance their photos to an extent, which is not reality.
eBooks
Books have always been a source of entertainment for many avid book readers, but lately their have been numerous releases of technology which allows you purchase books of the internet and store them on your device and have access to all the books you purchase, where ever you are in the world. The main players in the genre of eBooks are Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad. The Kindle from amazon is a dedicated portable eBook, which runs on e-Ink, which is a massive advantage that it holds over Apple’s iPad; e-ink is great because it doesn’t require a backlight screen and when something doesn’t require a backlight screen it is much nicer on the eyes. You can purchase books for the Kindle from Amazons website directly, the eBooks are always cheaper than the actual book because there is no packaging involved what so ever. The bog standard Kindle retails at a cheap price of £89, which is a great price for such a great item. The iPad from apple is not just an eReader, but it does practically everything, but the main disadvantage is that it is a backlight screen and after about 30 minutes of reading you will develop a headache. The other main disadvantage is the price in comparison to amazons kindle, the cheapest iPad retails at a whopping £399, and this is a huge amount of money compared to amazons kindle.
Overall I think that if you just want an eReader for books then amazon is hands down the way to go, but on the other hand if you want other great awesome features like surfing the internet and being able to play games then definitely get an iPad.
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