Tech Corner

Technology could take over the world

Rahul D’souza Copy Editor

Emily Augustine/ Prowler

Technology rules society. Almost everyone is walking around with either an iPhone or an Android in their pocket, many of whom also use a Google Home system, and even more of whom use Amazon for most of their orders.

Th e four most valuable companies in the world are all technology based. Apple, number one on the list, recently passed the $1 trillion valuation mark. Th e next three most valuable companies -- Google, Amazon and Microsoft -- are worth $2.1 trillion combined. In comparison, there is about $1.67 trillion in circulation in the US.

But these companies did not simply manifest this wealth from nowhere. Society depends on them for almost all daily functions: planning schedules, communicating, navigating, ordering things to our homes and even running them electronically. According to TechCrunch, over 16 percent of Americans alone use a smart speaker in their homes (i.e Google Home/ Amazon Alexa). Looking deeper, it may be frightening how much of our lives is controlled by modern technology.

Apple’s stock once sold for one dollar a share, and is now worth over $220 a share. Apple revolutionized the technology industry with the personal computer and continue to do so with each new iPhone, iOS update and Macbook. New features are constantly added, making life easier and easier for us. At some point, convenience borders on control, creeping into every aspect of our lives.

With their wealth alone, these companies hold signifi cant infl uence in the world. With all their customers and users, they could quite possibly take over the world. According to Forbes, Android and iOS account for 99 percent of the worlds smartphone population, meaning over 2 billion people use their smartphones. Th e only obstacle they would have to overcome is their Terms and Policies contract, which nobody ever reads anyways so who knows, they might already have control.

New graphics card receiving hate

Christina Borisoff Staff Writer

During the 2018 GamesCon Germany, Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, a highly-regarded gaming company, announced the next generation of GPU’s or graphics cards that will available to the public on Sept. 20. Ever since then, reactions from both gaming and tech communities have been mixed. Some tech users are experiencing the hype in full force, already pre-ordering the expensive new GPU, and some are completely disregarding the GPU all together.

So, why all the hate? Well for starters, many people are calling out NVIDIA for acting shady and disingenuous during GamesCon. During the convention, Huang spent an hour of his time pumping the audience full of complicated terminology and “irrelevant information” which was more of him bolstering his company rather than actually talk about gaming. To many people, this didn’t seem right for an event titled “GamesCon.”

Huang made a statement to hyped gamers, saying that RTX (the soft ware that NVIDIA is using for it’s graphics card) yields twice the frame rate of 1080ti (the current best graphics card on the market. Huang didn’t specify, however, which RTX he was referring to, which left a sour taste in people’s mouths. In addition he didn’t address frame rates of the percent of performance yield which further made players question the legitimacy of the company. During convention Jensen Huang showed footage demonstrating the strength of the card by toggling RTX on and RTX off . A notable improvement was the shadows, which certainly added a sense of immersion the previous gameplay didn’t give you. But for a price of $990, it doesn’t seem worth the apparent small boost in performance the GPU gives to gameplay.

Overall, GamesCon indeed left many people disappointed, however it is important to remember that the graphics card hasn’t even come out yet, and opinions are subjected to change. Th e next generation of graphic cards is likely to be an improvement, but by what degree is uncertain. So before buying it, I would wait for other people to try it fi rst just in case you waste your money, or sell your perfectly good graphics card.