Tech Article 4/22

Comcast will let you replace your cable box with an app!

• Let you bypass the cable box and get Xfinity service directly on their television sets or streaming devices
• Will serve up live TV and on-demand video
• Just as Comcasts X1 cable boxes do
• Customers who use this app save up to $10 a month equipment fee they would otherwise have to pay to rent their set box
• This app is similar to the apps currently available on smartphones and tablets, which Comcast says have been downloaded 23 million times.
• The new app more closely mirrors the experience you get from your cable box 
• They're expanding the availability of its services to mobile gadgets and smart TVs as customers increasingly use those devices for media.  

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Tech article 4/15

Verizon workers go on strike

• 36,000 Verizon workers had walked out of verizon on Wednesday
• Largest strike in the US since 2011
• Verizon has outsourced 5,000 jobs to workers in Mexico, Philippines, and the Dominican Republic
• They're now hiring low-wage, non union contractors for Verizon
• Verizon continues to make record profit, but only from wireless business
• The company says it saved $300 million in employee costs in 2015
• Over time, there profits have increased up to 9% ever since from last year
• Verizon has thousands of non union workers that are trained to cover the spots of the workers on strike for emergency reasons. 

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W-R Wikipedia Page Findings 4/11

1. Principal is not Dr. Sue DeNobile, it is Mr. Petrucelli

2. Different amount of students currently enrolled in Wood-Ridge Highschool

3. Different amount of people from Moonachie attending Wood-Ridge Highschool today

4. Different amount of students eligible for free lunch

5. School has a different ranking since 2012, when ranked 176th in the state of 328

6. Ranked the school 101st in the state in 2008, which is different from today's current state wide ranking

7.The school was ranked 143rd in a magazine in 2006 out of only 316 schools in the state

8. Grades go from 7-12th grade

9. Different number of student to faculty ratio

10. No longer the lone secondary school, there is an intermediate school as well

Tech article 4/8

Amazon's Echo Dot packs the soul of the Echo in a smaller way!

• Amazon has made a voice controlled Echo speaker, and decapitated it
• The Dot includes a small speaker for the usual communication, which isn't really meant for music
• If you have a Sonos speaker with an AUX connection, you can turn it into an Alexa speaker
• If the Echo and Echo Dot can hear both people, you'll be treated to cacophony of weather reports
• The soul of the Echo remains in the Echo Dot, but only comes in a small size
• Music is capable of being played like from Spotify, Pandora, etc.
• You can call an Uber or set an alarm with the Echo Dot, without even touching it. 

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