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An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.


The Jacket That Talks to Facebook
From ACM TechNews

The Jacket That Talks to Facebook

SINTEF researchers have developed a jacket that can communicate with Facebook. 

From ACM News

Google's Restricting of Anti-Muslim Video Shows Role of Web Firms As Free-Speech Arbiters

Google lists eight reasons on its "YouTube Community Guidelines" page for why it might take down a video. Inciting riots is not among them.

Twitter Reluctantly Coughs ­p Occupy Protester's Data
From ACM News

Twitter Reluctantly Coughs ­p Occupy Protester's Data

Twitter on Friday reluctantly complied with a judge's order to divulge the tweets and account information connected to an Occupy protester.

Wired Is the New Wireless: Spreading the Web in China
From ACM News

Wired Is the New Wireless: Spreading the Web in China

It's not easy to give over 1.3 billion people access to the internet—especially if that population is spread across a vast area that ranges from hinterland to sprawling...

Despite a Slowdown, Smartphone Advances Are Still Ahead
From ACM TechNews

Despite a Slowdown, Smartphone Advances Are Still Ahead

Apple's new iPhone 5 has faster chips and a bigger screen, but these improvements lack the dramatic impact the first iPhone had in 2007. However, analysts say...

Intel Seeks to Eliminate Computer Passwords With Wave of Hand
From ACM TechNews

Intel Seeks to Eliminate Computer Passwords With Wave of Hand

Intel researchers recently demonstrated a system that has the potential to do away with computer passwords.

Iphone 5? Yawn. What Will the 'phone' of 2022 Look Like?
From ACM Opinion

Iphone 5? Yawn. What Will the 'phone' of 2022 Look Like?

The near-term future of phones is fairly well-established. The iPhone 5 was released Wednesday and its similarity to every Apple phone since 2007 serves as a reminder...

Arab Spring: Tech As Tinder
From ACM News

Arab Spring: Tech As Tinder

The Internet tools of the Arab Spring have become the weapons of a new Arabian nightmare playing out at American diplomatic missions across North Africa and the...

Microsoft Xbox 3D-Projected Games Outlined in Patent
From ACM News

Microsoft Xbox 3D-Projected Games Outlined in Patent

Details of an immersive video games display system that projects images of the title's environment around a player's room have been revealed in a U.S. patent belonging...

With Kinect-Like Gestures, Softkinetic Leads the Way to Intel's Perceptual Computing
From ACM News

With Kinect-Like Gestures, Softkinetic Leads the Way to Intel's Perceptual Computing

The age of perceptual computing starts with devices that can be controlled with the wave of your hand or the sound of your voice rather than just a mouse, keyboard...

Difference Engine: The Pc All Over Again?
From ACM News

Difference Engine: The Pc All Over Again?

What could well be the next great technological disruption is fermenting away, out of sight, in small workshops, college labs, garages, and basements. Tinkerers...

New Breed of Robotics Aims to Help People Walk Again
From ACM News

New Breed of Robotics Aims to Help People Walk Again

When Joey Abicca pokes a metal crutch into the ground with his right arm, tiny motors start whirling around his left leg, lifting it and moving it forward.

New York Police Dept. Issues First Rules For ­se of Social Media During Investigations
From ACM News

New York Police Dept. Issues First Rules For ­se of Social Media During Investigations

The NYPD has for the first time laid out rules for using social media during investigations—but critics say the guidelines raise questions about privacy issues.

How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means For the Future of Everything
From ACM News

How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means For the Future of Everything

Behind every Google Map, there is a much more complex map that's the key to your queries but hidden from your view.

How Apple Really Invented the Iphone
From ACM News

How Apple Really Invented the Iphone

Like many of Apple's inventions, the iPhone began not with a vision, but with a problem.

The Accidental History of the @ Symbol
From ACM News

The Accidental History of the @ Symbol

Called the "snail" by Italians and the "monkey tail" by the Dutch, @ is the sine qua non of electronic communication, thanks to email addresses and Twitter handles...

Facebook's China Problem
From ACM Opinion

Facebook's China Problem

Last May when Mark Zuckerberg wed his Chinese-American girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, a joke began to make the rounds on China's version of Twitter, a microblog—or...

Tech's New Wave, Driven by Data
From ACM News

Tech's New Wave, Driven by Data

Technology tends to cascade into the marketplace in waves. Think of personal computers in the 1980s, the Internet in the 1990s, and smartphones in the last five...

Are Hackers Heroes?
From ACM News

Are Hackers Heroes?

On the last day of June of this year, a tech Website called Redmond Pie posted two articles in quick succession that, on their face, had nothing to do with each...

Amateur Mapmakers Redraw Boundaries, Working Online
From ACM News

Amateur Mapmakers Redraw Boundaries, Working Online

Reshaped and renamed by generations of developers and gentrifiers, the borders of New York City’s neighborhoods are often hazy at best. Yesterday's Chinatown is...
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