Stuff Happens: 2014

If you have not been living under a rock for the past 365 days, you would know that a few things happened in 2014. Some of these events are more important than the others, so here is what you need to know from 2014.

FCC and Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality has been an issue for many years, but 2014 was the year more people started to take notice. If you are one of the many people that still do not know what net neutrality is, it is the issue of broadband providers wanting to treat internet traffic in different ways. This does not sound very important, but it can make the internet a complete nightmare to use. Broadband providers can slow down your internet when you visit certain websites, and even make you pay extra to use them. When you pay $8 a month for Netflix, Comcast or Time Warner Cable will be able to make you pay an extra amount on top of that just to use it. Time Warner can make Spotify stream so slowly that you are forced to use Rdio. We are not quite there yet, but we will be very soon. The Internet itself is currently filed under regulations that deem it as a "luxury item". Everyone knows that you need the internet to be apart of our modern society and economy, so the Internet needs to be reclassified as a Title II utility. Reclassifying the Internet as a Title II utility will solve all of our problems. It would give everyone America faster internet with possibly more bandwidth, and prices could be lowered to bring internet access to low-income families. There should be no hesitation about classifying the Internet as a utility, but doing so would make the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney did not have an official stance on net neutrality during the 2012 election, and that helped us get to where we are today. Putting ex-lobbyist Tom Wheeler as FCC chairman also did not help improve our situation. Nothing bad could happen if the Internet is reclassified as a Title II utility but if we allow politicians to keep lobbying for the big bad broadband providers, it will become even worse. John Oliver and thousands of other people told the FCC that they wanted a neutral internet, and we need to do the same. If you want to learn more about how the internet will be ruined, read Nilay Patel's amazing piece on the subject over at The Verge.

Ebola

Ebola has sadly been in Africa for many years, but Americans started caring this year because 2014 was the first time it came to America. It is a horrible disease that's spread through contact with infected people and their bodily fluids, the way people die from it is terrible, and we need to work harder to prevent the spread and find a cure. So far, we have not done such a great job. Travel sanctions on countries do not help prevent its spreading, and only help to build up racism here in America. Many doctors and nurses also have been given poor instructions on how to remove their protective gear, which helps Ebola spread even more. All of you who happened to scream "Ebola" whenever someone sneezes or coughs, you guys aren't funny. If everyone keeps washing their hands often, stops being racist, petition to take down the travel sanctions, and donate to charities responding to the Ebola outbreak we should be able to stop this. To those of you close to the outbreaks in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Mali, stay strong.

Nokia dies

Everyone remembers their first Nokia, but nobody remembers Nokia. In case you haven't noticed, Nokia's cellphone business died this year. Once Microsoft acquired Nokia's devices and services business, they decided to kill the Lumia brand, stop putting Nokia's name on high-end smartphones, and effectively killing Nokia as a cell phone company. Back in the 1980's, Nokia was one of the first in the telecommunications business. They laid the groundwork for HSPA, invented SMS texting, and made dozens of crazy looking cellphones. You have seen them in the Matrix, you beat Snake on it, and you and your friends probably had at least one. Sure Nokia made wonderful cell phones ten years ago, but Nokia's more recent crop of handsets were not as good. There were no glaring flaws with the Lumia Icon, Lumia 1020, or any of the Lumias, but none of them were good enough to beat Samsung and Apple. Nokia's choice to put Windows Phone on the Lumias was probably another bad decision, since the Windows Phone store has been lacking in content for the past four years. Nokia as a company still exists, but it is not the same knowing that they will never make cell phones ever again. Let's be real, no one would buy Lumias if Nokia stayed around and Nokia would only continue to lose money. Microsoft needed Nokia to keep Windows Phone around, and buying them up was the best thing to do. We'll miss you Nokia. Au revoir. 

Ferguson/Eric Garner/Black Lives Matter

Martin Luther King Junior fought for civil rights in the 1960's, but they have been ignored time and time again. Too many innocent black men are killed every year, but people decided that they had enough. In Ferguson, an innocent black man was shot six times. In New York, an innocent black man was choked to death. These two cases, with Michael Brown and Eric Garner as victims, both show a blatant disregard to proper conduct and procedures. The conflicting testimonies and slightly weak evidence would support not convicting Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, but that does not mean it was right in not indicting him. Are you going to shoot someone six times for stealing cigarettes? In addition, Darren Wilson's testimony did not only heavily conflict other eye witnesses' but it also made zero sense. The indictment trial itself did not have a fair jury, considering it was nine Caucasian people and three African-American people. Funny how you only need nine to make the final decision. There have been huge riots in Ferguson because of these rulings, and they are somewhat justified. Yes rioting and damaging property is not the ideal solution, but what else would work? Fifty years of civil rights laws didn't do anything. Without the riots, no one would pay attention to the case. For an in-depth look at what happened in Ferguson, Vox.com has a great timeline with articles explaining everything you need to know about the case. With Eric Garner's case, we even had video evidence of him acting calmly and doing nothing wrong. How is it not excessive force when five officers choke one man? Chokeholds have been illegal in the New York Police Department for decades, yet nothing happened here. What is there to say when clear evidence cannot indict an officer for killing a black man? Make some noise people, because this isn't over yet. Racial equality is still an issue, and something America needs to work on.

Android Wear

Google finally showed off its attempt at the smart watch by releasing Android Wear. Unlike the Pebble's or Metawatch's e-ink display, Android Wear smart watches have color touchscreens to interact with. Wear is also tied to Google Now and your Android smartphone, allowing you to view Google Now cards and reply to messages by voice. The Android Wear powered Moto 360 turned heads with its almost full circle display and the Asus Zenwatch is absolutely gorgeous, but other than that the rest are very lackluster. If you are the kind of person that dreams of "Inbox Zero" then Android Wear's Gmail integration might make it a good buy, but every else should wait. Most Android Wear smart watched barely obtain a 1-2 day battery life, and many still have performance issues. Wait until 2015, or buy a Pebble if you need a computer on your wrist right now. If you're dying for the Apple Watch to come out, please don't get too excited. 

Doctor Who Season 8

Last year was the 51st anniversary of Doctor Who, and it brought many other firsts. We found out in 2013 that Peter Capaldi would play the 12th Doctor, and we found out what kind of Doctor he would play. Peter played a more cynical and aloof Doctor than ever before, which developed off of how dark Matt Smith's Doctor was before the regeneration. Instead of a bubbly "happy go lucky" Doctor like Matt Smith, Capaldi was put into incredibly dark situations. The series hinted at the Doctor pushing an android to its death, re-acknowledged the fact that the Doctor once committed mass genocide, and how he cannot always be the one to make the hard decisions. Capaldi gave an excellent performance this season, and truly became the Doctor. He was incredibly emotional and aloof at the same time, and he brought excitement to every scene. We can't wait to see where the doctor goes next.

iPhone 6 & 6 Plus

Apple did technically dip its toes into the big-screen kitty pool with 2012's iPhone 5, but 2014 was when Apple dove headfirst. This year's 4.7 inch iPhone 6 and 5.5 inch iPhone 6 Plus show how Apple gave into the "stupid trend" Samsung started so long ago. Both iPhones have great specs and work great like every year, and are selling like hotcakes. Just like antennagate before, many bugs plagued this year's batch of iPhones. A large surface area and the relatively soft aluminum structure caused many people's iPhones to bend in their pockets, and bendgate was born. iOS 8 also brought dozens of features like Apple Pay and better Touch ID integration, but it brought even more bugs. Overall Apple's newest handsets were very disappointing. Apple made no efforts to utilize the larger displays, both iPhones had ugly lines on the back, and iOS 8 wasn't even properly finished until version 8.1. Despite this they both have best in class displays, cameras, performance, and the Apple ecosystem is still unrivaled. We looked at both iPhones when they were announced and our conclusion is still the same. If you're looking for a phone that you can enjoy until New Year's eve 2016, then there are no better choices.

T Swizzle & Spotify

Taylor Swift had a bone to pick with the streaming services of the world, and she decided that this year was the right time to do it. She says that music streaming services, like Spotify, are ruining the music industry by not paying artists enough every time their song is played. The 16 cents an artist is payed every time someone plays a song on Spotify pales in comparison to the $1.29 or $15 that can be paid if someone buys the song or album. Miss Swift stood up to Spotify, Rdio, and the like by not putting 1989, her latest album, into their music catalogs. While she is correct in how one Spotify play is less than one song or album sale, it is possible to make the same if not more profit through streaming services. A song could be played enough times so the 16 cent plays add up to more than $1.29 or $15, but you would have to make an incredibly good song for that to happen. Here's the situation: you can get your money now by forcing people to buy all 12 songs on a mediocre album, or you can get more or less money over time by making great music that people will listen to for the rest of their lives. Don't read this wrong; I'm not saying Taylor Swift is doing this because her albums aren't good enough to be played over and over. She is just "beefing" with the wrong people. Music streaming services were not the ones that killed the music industry's album sales. Album sales have been dead ever since Apple made iTunes, so a better argument would be that Apple is hurting the music industry. Then again, you can't expect people to leave their 5,000 song iTunes library and go back to copying CDs onto their computers. Yes T Swizzle is right that streaming services should pay artists more per-play, no she is not fighting the right people, but she is "winning". Well kind of. 1989's sales have not slowed down at all, and millions of people are still buying music through iTunes and physical albums. She is also the first artist to make people notice this issue. No other artist could have started a " battle" like this, and that is a remarkable feat in itself. Hats off to you T Swizzle*

The Interview

Apparently not everybody in the world loved Seth Rogen and James Franco's latest comedy, The Interview. A group of hackers, known as the "Guardians of Peace", did not enjoy the film as much as Sony had hoped, and they decided to take action by hacking into Sony's systems and take terabytes of data. Even though there is no clear evidence that makes North Korea the culprit, but who else would it be? Tons of sensitive information has been leaked like social security numbers, passwords, salaries, management strategies and more. They also showed the world that high-ranking Sony executives write emails like 12 year-olds. Most importantly, these hackers (North Korea) started a new form of warfare: Information warfare. Threatening to release more private information let them force Sony to pull The Interview from theaters, and threatening "9/11 type attacks" on theaters showing it on Christmas day. Even though they threatened physical attacks (that probably could not have been executed anyways) they did not have to physically harm anything or anyone to get what they wanted. After Sony allowed theaters to pull the movie, a few still showed it on Christmas, and Sony put The Interview on YouTube, Google Play, its own website, and iTunes for people to buy on-demand style. Luckily, the group of hackers did not harm any of the theaters on Christmas Day. The leaked documents also uncovered the Hollywood movie studios' "Project Goliath", which is basically SOPA part two. Sony and other movie studios are angry that Google has not done much to stop pirated content from appearing in search results. This is a big issue for them, the internet, and this is not over yet. Hollywood has the money, lawyers, and time to fight this and they will.

*Yours truly did buy "Shake it Off" from Taylor Swift's 1989 album, and left Spotify for unrelated reasons.