The Pedes3antech Weekly (June 9-14)



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This week was still dominated by one major story- PRISM. The US government under the Obama administration has been under a lot of heat since the leaks came out of the media. This week however, the PRISM story was made even more interesting when Edward Snowden came out and faced the world. Now the people and the government can put a face to the NSA leak. This development however has put the whole debate around PRISM on the wrong direction. The government and the public dialogue has started to shift towards questions about Snowden's decision to leak. Questions about the ethics of his decision and how he has endangered (mysteriously) thousands of lives is drowning the more serious questions about Civil liberties, Individual Privacy, Limits on government powers, Government Accountability and Corporate Social responsibility. The US Senate, in one of its more sensible decisions lately, has put pressure on the NSA to show proof that PRISM has indeed foiled terrorist plots and has saved civilian lives. 

In a bold and useless move, Facebook decided to release data on all Government data requests it received. Bold, because it shows defiance against the controversial FISA rules, and useless in a sense that the data Facebook provided does not shed anymore light to the reality of the situation. 

The other big news last week was Apple and iOS7. As expected the OS underwent a huge redesign under the helm of Mr. Ivey. Like any Apple announcement, it was met with mixed reaction (read my take on iOS7). My initial reaction to the new OS was both surprise and excitement. Judging from the new features in iOS7, one can feel that the next iOS devices will be better at maximizing its touch screen. I believe other people think this too as another ridiculous Apple rumor is circulating just days after iOS7- that Apple is building a PHABLET. Apple's WWDC 2013 keynote was not all about the software because we also got to see a new Mac Pro and Macbook Air together with an all new Mac OS X (Sea Lion) Maverick. 

Amidst all the noise caused by PRISM and the festivities surrounding WWDC and iOS7, the gaming industry was also facing a bug shake-up. During this years E3, the rivalry between the top dogs of gaming console (Sony and Microsoft) just heated up. Coming into this years E3, gamers had plenty of questions about the next generation consoles themselves. Yes, the PS4 and XboxOne were released and showcased prior to E3, but people still had a lot of questions- two main ones to be exact- 1. Policy on used games, and 2. Internet connectivity requirement. Both these questions were answered in this years E3 and the gaming industry has never been this divided. The announcements and the media fall-out after has been epic- a case in point is how one Microsoft executive said to people complaining about XboxOne requirement to have internet connectivity. STICK TO XBOX360! 

A lot more has happened in the world of tech in the last week, so if you want to know more about them, read this weeks edition of Pedes3antech Weekly on Flipboard and subscribe.

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