Topic 2- Home Enterainment

• Interactive TV
• Gaming
• Digital Photography
• Webcam Services
• Social Networking
• Music and Sound
• Mobile Phones

Interactive TV

Digital TV offers more facilities such as:

• Pat-to-view services
• Interactive services

Services available through Interactive Digital TV

• Digital TV offers more than just better picture quality and more channels

Interactive features include:

• Sending in comments
• Viewing extra new stories or sporting activites
• Booking cinema tickets
• Playing games
• Shopping
• Email
• Voting on programmes
• Weather forecast

Disadvantages of Interactive TV:

• Cost of subscriptions
• Bad weather disrupting the satellite signals

• Faulty Equipment
• Freezing Equipment

Pay to view services:

• Pay-to view TV services are subscription
• Satellite channels and other services
• Digital terrestrail TV and other services

Online Betting or gambling

• If you go onto any sport website on the internet you will notice the large number of online betting sites

Advantages of online betting:

• Can do it at home
• Better deals online
• Quick and easy collection
• Don't need to travel so easier and quicker

Disadvantages of online betting:

• Need a credit card you need to create and account with a card before you bet
• Can become addictive
• Will gamble more because it is not handing over the money and cannot see it

Online dating

• There are a huge number of dating sites on the internet adn many people choose to dare this way because it offers them convenience in their busy lives

Advantages of online dating:

• Some people are shy so this helps to meet people
• They are very busy and do not have time to go about and meet people
• You can get to know them before you decide to meet them

Disadvantages of online dating:

• Need to be careful, they are lying
• Fake pictures
• They may be meeting lots of other people untrustworthy

Online voting

Examples:

The X Factor, Britians Got Talent, The Voice, Strictly Come Dancing, Got To Dance

Advantages of Online Voting:

• Encourages more people to vote
• Cheaper because people not needed to count votes
• Results would be obtained faster
• People who are away can vote

Disadvantages of Online Voting:

• Not everyone has internet
• Would have high initial cost

Gaming

• Computers and computer consoles are used for the playing of games from chess to fast action games
• Games can also be educational as children can learn through games

For fast action computer games it is neccessary to use:

• A fast processor
• A large screen
• A large amount of RAM
• Good security systems
• A disk drive with plenty of storage capacity
• A high quality graphics card

Advantages of computer games:

• Young children can learn from them
• They can make learning fun
• Some are played online as a team, so encourages teamwork
• Can meet people from all over the world
• Can play with relatives from different parts of the world

Disadvantages of computer games:

• They can be addictive
• They are often sedentary activity where little physical activity takes place and this can lead to obesity
• They can be voilent and some people think that can cause teenagers to act voilently
• They waste time
• Health problems

Digital Photography

Digital Photography is popular because:

Advantages:

• It is cheap as there is no film to develop
• Photos can be shared by attaching them to emails

• Photos can be sent via mobile phones
• Photos can be passed to social networking site such as Facebook
• Photos can be edited

Photo editing software:

• Copy party of an image
• Add text
• Re-Size
• Crop
• Remove red eye
• Altar the file format
• Apply filters

How is digital image made up?:

• Mega pixels

The number of pixels a digital camera can detect is measured in mega pixels

• Generally, the more mega pixels there are, the better the quality of the picture
• However increasing the number of mega pixels in a n image decreases the number of photographs that you can store on the memory card

Storing digital photographs

• SD card secure digital
• Compact flash (CF) cards
• Memory Sticks

Output devices used in digital photography:

• The main output device id the LCD screen where you view the image if it blurred, someone has three eyes closed or is pulling a strange face; you can delete it and take it again. Other output devices include:

• A computer screen
• A printable(ink- jet printers are the best type for printing photographs)
• A TV (some TV's have memory card readers)
• The screen of a mobile phones
• A digital photographic frame

Webcam uses:

• Distance learning
• Ability to allow parents to check on their children in a nursery
• Security purposes
• Checking the weather in another part of the world
• Video Conferencing

Disadvantages of webcams:

• Sometimes webcames sites shown inappropraite content

• Webcams in combination with chat rooms have been used by paediohiles
• Terrorists have used webcams services to promote terrorism
• Signal to webcams isn't always good so camera can freeze
• People can hack into websites displaying webcams
• Invasion on personal privacy

Socail Networking

Sites such as Myspace, Bebo, Twitter, etc, offer a variety of services such as:

• Email
• Bulletins
• Blogs
• Friend comments
• Photographs
• Groups
• Videos

Disadvantages of Socail Networking sites:

• Many emplyers and schools ban their use because some people get addicted to them and spend too much time on them
• Paedophiles have been known to surf networking site pages for their next victim
• Many young people share too much information on these sites and they do not realize that their teachers, potential employers, etc, can view the information
• There is a danger of identity theft
• You have to be onn all the sites your friends use if you want to take advantages of the services they offer

Music and Sound

• Downloads are where you transfer files from a website and then store them on your computer and portable music player
• You can listen to the radio using the internet

Downloads:

• Downloads have become very popular owing to:
• The ease with which they can be obtained, e.g. 24/7
• The ability to just download tracks what you want- you do not need to buy the the whole album
• You can still burn tracks to a CD provided they are only for a personal use
• The ease with which they can be loaded on to portable players such as IPods, MP3 players and mobile phones

There are a number of problems with downloading including:

• Viruses could be introduced
• Many people use file sharing to avoid having to pay for download music tracks
• People who use downloaded music or films illegally could be cut off from the internt by their internet service providers
• You do not have a physical CD that can be sold at a car boot sale or on E-Bay

Listening to the radio online:

• Many people like to listen to the radio whilst working on their computer. You can listen to the radio online using the internet and there is a huge choice of stations

Advantages of Internet Radio:

• The quality of the sound is good and the is no aerial to adjust
• You can listen to the radio stations from around the world
• You can listen to programmes you missed

Disadvantages of Internet Radio:

• You need a broadband connection
• The service is not completly reliable

Mobile Phones:

• More uses are being found for them all the time

Services obtained through Mobile Phones:

• Here are some of the services available through mobile phone:
• Send and receive text messages
• Make phone calls
• Take digital photographs
• Take short video clips
• Surf the internet
• Watch live TV
• Send and receive emails
• Downloads and listen to music
• Downloads and play games
• Send picture message

• Play videos
• GPS ( use your mobile phone as a satellite navigation system)
• Using social networking sites

Advantages of Mobile Phones:

• You can be contacted in case of an emergency
• Plans can be changed at the last minute
• Parents like children to have a mobile phone as they feel safer

Disadvantages of Mobile Phones:

• Many people use their phones when walking along and this has caused accidents
• Calls can distrub other people in the cinema, theatre, cafes, etc
• Many people still use hand-held phones when driving, which is dangerous and illegal