Social Media Comparison Chart

	Facebook	Twitter	YouTube
Active Users	1,712 (million)	313 (million)	1,000 (million)
Daily Users	1,130 (million)	135 (million)	Only referred to as hundreds of thousands
Foreign Accounts	85%	79%	70%
Pros	Easy for business start  up to reach customers	Anonymity, fast reach	Entertaining for longer periods of time
	Integrates other media (videos, photos, slideshows)	Status updates in  real-time	Educational/Instructional
	Instant messaging and calls	Brings/sends users  across sites	Livestreaming available
	Cost effective customer  service for businesses	Integrates video and  gif playback	Free hosting/high quality
Cons	Expensive to advertise	Word limit to posts	Ads ignored via adblocks software
	Privacy Concerns	Need to stay active daily for reach	Limited user interaction (comments)
	Potentially hurt you  professionally if employers search for your information  and see anything negative	Takes time to build audience	Difficult to make money from ads; must be partnered with an outside network or use Google Adsense

Sources:

Donchev, D. (2016). Youtube Statistics - 2016. Retrieved from http://fortunelords.com/youtube-statistics/ 

Harden, S. (2016). STATS | YouTube Company Statistics - Statistic Brain. Retrieved from http://www.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics/

Ingram, M. (2016). Snapchat Now Has More Daily Users Than Twitter Does. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/06/02/snapchat-twitter/

Millward, S. (2015). Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. Retrieved from https://www.techinasia.com/facebook-surpasses-half-billion-monthly-active-users-in-asia-for-first-time 

Statista. (2016). Facebook users worldwide 2016. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

Statista. (2016). Twitter: Monthly active users 2010-2016 - Statista. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/

Twitter. (2016). What's Happening. Retrieved from https://about.twitter.com/company

Tynan, D. (2016). Facebook's journey 'only 1% done' after surge in revenue, Zuckerberg says. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/27/facebook-ad-sales-growth-quarterly-results

YouTube. (2016). Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html

Zephoria. (2016). Top 20 Facebook Statistics - Updated July 2016. Retrieved from https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

Podcast & Podcast Alley Websites

If I’m honest, I really disliked using both Podcast.com and Podcastalley.com.  Podcast is probably the better of the two navigation-wise when looking for a podcast to listen to. The biggest downfall to this site are the number of podcasts that are old and outdated. It was a little difficult to find current shows of interest to listen to.

Podcast Alley on the other hand, has plenty of updated shows, but I was basically only able to find ones that were on the front page. Even then, the site directed me to another site with a listing of the podcasts they host, so it was like I wasn’t even using Podcast Alley to begin with.

Both sites contained broadcaster information – tips and tricks, technical articles, podcamps, etc. While I was able to use the sites suggested to complete my assignments this week, I do prefer sites like Stitcher or iTunes when it comes to browsing for shows to listen to. Stitcher has a variety top 100 list, another top 100 list by how much shows are either moving up in the rankings, and a great selection of categories to browse through.

RealPlayer or VLC Media Player?

RealPlayer was created by RealNetworks in the mid 90s. It was never really a great program, but it worked and was still popular. I remember using it myself, although I don’t remember why I bothered. It was ugly to look at, had entirely too many pop up advertisements, and I remember there being security issues – going so far as to changing parts of your registry! I had honestly forgotten about this program for a long while and am still surprised to see it updated currently.

The newest version will allow you to use the program free for 30 days, after which you can pay a licencing fee of about $40, for premium features. There is a limited free version, which isn’t worth having, in my opinion, and two versions that sync with their cloud service. They have changed the name of the project to be RealTimes with RealPlayer. The prices for premium are $4.99 a month and $9.99 a month, for unlimited. It has advanced to being supported on PC, Macintosh, the Xbox One, and Mobile smartphones and tablets. You can also connect it with your Chromecast, Roku, and Kindle Fire, if you use it on the television. (RealNetworks, 2016)

The installation on the new program is still pretty aggressive and tries to force you into downloading other programs and toolbars, unless you are paying attention and unchecking those options.  There are also still plenty of advertisements getting thrown at you. I only tested the free version, so I’m not sure if those go away, if you choose to pay. No matter – personally I would still advise anyone looking for a media player to go elsewhere, as there are plenty of others to choose from that offer the same premium features, but for free.

VLC Media Player has been around for some time as well, but is an open source program. This program has much more you can customize and even allows the use of skins, which can make the player look and have the feel of other common programs or fun themes. My personal favourite is dressing it up like the Star Trek LCARS system, which I do with a lot of applications.

You can also play a LONG list of file extensions in this player compared to other programs in the market. As the program has had updates, I see that there are also many more features than when it first was created. You can bookmark certain areas in your playback as favourites, and utilize effects in the menu on any audio or video you might be playing to optimize it to your liking. (VideoLan, 2016)

VideoLan boasts that the program does not contain spyware or user tracking, which is a calming thought. There are also no hidden or bulky advertisements in the program – no ads at all! The program has even grown and evolved so much, that it is available on Android and iOS, in addition to all of the other operating systems it already is supported on. (VideoLan, 2016)

The VLC wiki shows all of the changes made to the project, gives general information, and breaks down any projects that are currently being worked on. You can support VLC in a number of ways, even if you’re not contributing by coding. They do a great job of breaking down these categories and providing examples of what you can do to participate, as well as provide you with the correct people to contact to get on board. (MediaWiki, 2016)

Sources:

 MediaWiki. (2016). Help VideoLAN. Retrieved from https://wiki.videolan.org/Help_VideoLAN/

 RealNetworks. (2016). Features. Retrieved from http://www.real.com/ca/features

 VideoLan. (2016). VLC media player. Retrieved from http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Gimp and Photoshop – Compare and Contrast

Both of these programs are photo editing software. While Gimp is open source and free to use, Photoshop can cost you hundreds of dollars to own. With the new Adobe Cloud system, you can also rent to use it monthly for less (although if you are a frequent user, it would waste money in the long run). While I have used Photoshop for many years, I did experiment with Gimp previously, and revisited it for this assignment. It seems that Gimp has done well growing and providing some important updates to keep it relevant to use. For those who are not familiar some of the features this open source program provides are:

• Edit photos
• Digital painting tools
• Animation (2D)
• Use of layers
• Customization options for toolbars
• Supports a variety of file types
• Allows the use of plug ins from third parties

Photoshop can go above and beyond these features, but for a hefty price. If you’re just getting into photo editing and manipulation, Gimp is a great start. While it is by no means an alternative to the professional software, it performs well for free program in it’s field. 

Compare and Contrasting

In terms of price, Gimp has Photoshop beat, as mentioned previously. Another big difference is the file size of the program. Gimp requires around 100 MB to download and double of that to run, Photoshop on the other hand is a whopping 1.4 GB to install initially, around 2+GB of updates after wards. Running Photoshop takes over 1GB of memory, which can slow down older computers as well, which is another positive to Gimp - it's light and non resource intensive.  

To keep it simple, the current version of Gimp has many of the same big main features that Photoshop does:

• Layers
• Text
• Filters
• Curves
• Cloning
• Levels
• Sharpening
• Healing
• History (to undo multiple actions)

as well as a few more. Photoshop comes in handy when you need more advanced features and tools. 

While I will continue to personally use Photoshop, as I have for so many years, I would have loved to have the current version of Gimp as a more affordable option when I first started using such a program. It's important to mention again that Gimp is open source, which means anyone can make changes and upload those changes for others to use. I'm willing to bet that further down the line, Gimp will continue to evolve and stay  relevant to those needing such software.