Tim Xu
Tim Xu
Recent Stories
TECHNOLOGY COLUMN | Xu: Double up on computers for convenience, safety
As college students, our computing needs are often fairly simple. A laptop (either the PC or Mac variety) and perhaps some sort of external hard drive for back-up are usually sufficient. A laptop takes care of everything: we take it to class to take notes, then bring it back to our rooms for some quality Facebooking afterwards. Everything’s in one package, easily accessible and portable.
TECH COLUMN | Online shopping requires more careful price research
How do you usually buy your technology? Today, the answer is increasingly becoming “online.”
TECH COLUMN | Xu: Smartphones will face test of time
When Apple introduced its iPhone in 2007, it revolutionized a handset market previously saturated with poorly designed and poorly implemented software.
Xu: Shifting paradigms in ’08,’09
2008 was a year of change — and not just in politics.
Xu: Internet to split?
There’s a version of the Internet telecommunications companies — the same ones that supply your connection — want you to adopt.
Xu: Is the Internet replacing TV?
The pace of modern life has accelerated with time. As a society, we spend less time sitting down and more time moving from place to place. When we do sit down, it’s most likely in front of a computer. This is especially true for us students — the younger generation — who are now entering mainstream adult life. So where, then, does television fit into this equation?
Xu: Cloud could be the solution to risks of digital age
I can count the number of CDs I brought to college on my fingers. Photographs? None. Tapes of old vacations — you’re kidding, right? In this brave new world of digital everything, electronic cousins of these once important physical objects have rendered them relics. The sheer physical nonexistence of digital data, along with incomparable convenience, has permeated the digital revolution into even the most basic aspects of our lives.
Xu: How and why DRM has failed
I download music illegally. I tried to be legal, to buy my CDs and use the online music stores legally. I want to support the bands whose music I enjoy. But the very thing the music companies use to protect themselves from piracy — Digital Rights Management — pushed me into the murky waters of the black market.
TIDbytes
The popularity of Apple’s iPhone has revolutionized the smart-phone market, forcing traditional powerhouses such as RIM — the maker of Blackberry — and Palm to rethink and redesign their mobile platforms. It has also drawn new players to this rapidly expanding market.