Teens in Tech - Tech

Editors note: This is a guest post by Burhan Siddiqui, 13-year-old lover of all things involving technology.

The 2011 MacBook Air 13.3″ is truly a stunning machine with a beastly 1.7GHz duel-core Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. This is the perfect notebook for students who want something which weighs just 2.96 pounds and is less than an inch thick! That said, there are good, bad, and points over improvement that I would like to cover.

Apple took the cover off their latest Mac OS software. The software has been given the name, Mountain Lion. Mac OS X Mountain Lion will succeed the current Mac OS X Lion. The newest software will incorporate a lot that went right for, out of all things, the iPhone and iOS in general. This mashup in softwares actually works out well into, by our previews, what we expect to be one of the most exciting OS X releases to date. So what exactly will Mac OS X Mountain Lion actually include? Let’s take a look at the new software today.

Basic Information

What we know is that Apple will release Mac OS X Mountain Lion this summer. However, the disputed fact is the exactly month. Read to learn more about OS X Mountain Lion!

Gumroad, the much hyped startup created by 19-year-old Sahil Lavingia, raised $1.1 million in funding from some of Silicon Valley’s top investors including Accel Partners, Chris Sacca, Max Levchin, SV Angel, Josh Kopelman, Seth Goldstein, Naval Ravikrant, Collaborative Fund and Danny Rimer.

Before launching Gumroad, Lavingia designed both the Pinterest and Turntable apps. Gumroad aims to make the sharing of digital content dead simple, by using links that allow buyers to enter their credit card information and purchase the digital good.

Earlier today Facebook quietly pushed out a redesigned photo viewer tool. Instead of taking the user to a different page to view photos, the new photo viewer is a pop-out overlay that covers whatever you were viewing. Once you finish viewing the page, you can pick up using Facebook right where you stopped.

This pop out includes the photo on one side and a sidebar with description, comments, and likes on the other. Read to learn more about the new Facebook photo viewer!

When looking at the back of an iPhone or iPad, what do you see? The obvious answer is that gleaming silver Apple logo on the device. However, where is that device made? Look at the far bottom of the device, you will see the words “Assembled in China”. Those three words sparked a seven-page report from the New York Times on January 15^th. The report, which included interviews from various former Apple employees and workers, explained in detail about the working conditions at the factories that assemble Apple and other gadgets in China.

The Need for a Response

The report included interviews with the family of a former worker who subsequently died in one of the factories. Read to learn more about this issue!

Are you a teen entrepreneur? Are you the CEO of a cool new startup? Are you the next “teen tycoon?” If you answer yes to any of these questions, then we have the contest for you! “The Next Teen Tycoon Video Contest” by Vertical Response, the well-known marketing solution provider, is looking for entrepreneurial teens to share their ideas with the world!

The Next Teen Tycoon Video Contest aims to help empower young entrepreneurs, by giving them the opportunity to pitch their ideas through video and win awesome prizes! Read to learn more

This is a great follow up to a recent Facebook related blog post, and now that Timeline is public its true potential is shining. What’s so great about it? That big, beautiful, cover photo is fantastic for marketing. I realize it’s only on your personal profile, but in that previous post you agreed that your personal Facebook profile is as powerful, if not more powerful than a fan page.

What’s so awesome about it? It’s a huge (851 x 315 pixels) advertisement for whatever you want. Mine, for example, is my personal blog. It’s non-intrusive, fits into the Facebook color scheme and is big, bold and traffic driving. When you use the personal marketing / networking methods I talked about in my previous post and you add some SVAPs (Silicon Valley Awesome Person) as friends they’ll immediately see a link to your website, blog, or whatever and you have yet another chance to impress them.

Just a few minutes ago, Google’s Bradley Horowitz announced on his Google+ page, that the service is opening up to teenagers. Previously, Google+ was only open to users who were 18 years or older.

Google has taken a very cautious approach on launching accounts for minors, including some new safety features, that really shows that Google is serious about wanting the best experience for minors on Google+.

The long awaited Apple educational event occurred this past Thursday at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The event was attended by only a few lucky individuals in media. The education event was quite short, lasting less than an hour, but was packed with a ton of exciting developments. There are a lot of things to cover with this event, so let’s get started with our round of of Apple’s 2012 education event.

What Happened At The Event?

To put the event in a nutshell, Apple released several additions and new developments that help education in the textbook realm. Read to learn more about Apple’s plans to revolutionize education!

A little over a month ago, Teen entrepreneur, Safeer Mohiuddin launched Mezz, an application that takes a new spin on local discovery. Safeer describes Mezz as,

A hyperlocal mobile application and platform that allows people to discover and share what’s happening nearby. Discover fun and interesting things to do, share your discoveries with everyone locally and feel the local vibe.

Simply put, Mezz allows users to share and discover things around them. Mezz achieves this by allowing users to share “cards” that include an image, location, and description. These “cards” are aggregated based on proximity to the user’s location and placed into a feed. The feed organizes cards in accordance to proximity to current location and time since creation. Read to learn more!

Yesterday, teen entrepreneur, Sahil Lavingia launched his latest venture, Gumroad. Gumroad aims to make the sharing of digital content dead simple, by using links that allow buyers to enter their credit card information and purchase the digital good. After entering their credit card information, the buyer receives access to the piece of digital content. The general idea behind Gumroad is extremely clever, since the sale of digital goods can be cumbersome and frustrating at times.

First Impressions

After initial tests of Gumroad, I found the product to live up to all its expectations. Read to learn more about Gregory’s impressions of Gumroad!

Earlier today, 16-year-old programmer, Nick D’Aloisio launched Summly. Summly a tool that summarizes search results to help you quickly find relevant information. Along with the launch of Summly, D’Aloisio announced that he raised a $250,000 seed round of funding from billionaire investor, Li Ka-shing.

What is Summly?

Great question! Read to learn more about Summly!