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Search Gives ­s Superpowers
From ACM News

Search Gives ­s Superpowers

Machine learning—an area of AI focusing on systems that "learn" from data in order to navigate future similar scenarios—is one of the ways we’ve managed to give...

How the Smartphone Killed Typing—but Started an AI Revolution
From ACM Opinion

How the Smartphone Killed Typing—but Started an AI Revolution

Steve Jobs often swam against the tide of prevailing opinion.

Why We're All Beta Testers Now
From ACM Opinion

Why We're All Beta Testers Now

I taught a class a few years ago at Columbia Business School called "What Makes a Hit a Hit—and a Flop a Flop."

When Big Data Marketing Becomes Stalking
From ACM Opinion

When Big Data Marketing Becomes Stalking

Many of us now expect our online activities to be recorded and analyzed, but we assume that the physical spaces we inhabit are different.

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card
From ACM Opinion

Asimov's Predictions from 1964: A Brief Report Card

Predictions about technology's future are almost always doomed.

'net Neutrality' Ruling Opens Door For Two-Tiered Internet Market
From ACM Opinion

'net Neutrality' Ruling Opens Door For Two-Tiered Internet Market

An "Open Internet" became endangered this week at a time when the U.S. increasingly relies on Internet services to deliver everything from education to entertainment...

Why We Don't Trust Technology Companies
From ACM Opinion

Why We Don't Trust Technology Companies

Last October, T-Mobile made an astonishing announcement: from now on, when you travel internationally with a T-Mobile phone, you get free unlimited text messages...

7 Gadgets to Watch For in 2014
From ACM Opinion

7 Gadgets to Watch For in 2014

Turn an ordinary table into a touch screen, monitor your kids' whereabouts, and place the power of 3D printing in the palm of your hand—and there’s more.

How to Manage Your Digital Afterlife
From ACM Opinion

How to Manage Your Digital Afterlife

After their son's suicide, one Wisconsin couple was desperate for answers.

Smart Phones Mean You Will No Longer Have to Memorize Facts
From ACM Opinion

Smart Phones Mean You Will No Longer Have to Memorize Facts

When my father was growing up, his father offered him 25 cents to memorize the complete list of U.S. presidents. "Number one, George Washington. Number two, John...

How to Be an Email Survivalist
From ACM Opinion

How to Be an Email Survivalist

In the early 2000s it was the height of geek fashion to run your own email server—then along came Gmail with two gigabytes of free storage and excellent spam filtering...

Software Recognition Technology Is Amazing, but Not Amazing Enough
From ACM Opinion

Software Recognition Technology Is Amazing, but Not Amazing Enough

The gadget blogs may work themselves into a frenzy over megapixels and processor speed. But if you want to know what really dazzles the masses, consider a feature...

Is High-Tech Security at Public Events Counterproductive?
From ACM Opinion

Is High-Tech Security at Public Events Counterproductive?

Which is more intrusive: security screening and metal detectors every few blocks, or a drone flying high above it taking video of every little thing you do?

Why Retina Displays and 4k Tvs May Not Be Worth the Trouble
From ACM Opinion

Why Retina Displays and 4k Tvs May Not Be Worth the Trouble

When Apple unveiled its Retina screen on the iPhone 4, the world gasped.

Apple Shouldn't Make Software Look Like Real Objects
From ACM Opinion

Apple Shouldn't Make Software Look Like Real Objects

Last fall Apple fired executive Scott Forstall, considered by many to be a Steve Jobs protégé.

How Far Away Is Mind-Machine Integration?
From ACM Opinion

How Far Away Is Mind-Machine Integration?

Okay, great: we can control our phones with speech recognition and our television sets with gesture recognition.

Does a Public "find My Iphone" Search Violate Personal Privacy?
From ACM Opinion

Does a Public "find My Iphone" Search Violate Personal Privacy?

A guy stole my iPhone. I tracked it and posted his address online. Was that wrong?

How the Icloud Hack Happened and How to Avoid Being Next
From ACM Opinion

How the Icloud Hack Happened and How to Avoid Being Next

Mat Honan, the technology reporter who was digitally disemboweled this past weekend, has revealed exactly how he was so spectacularly owned. His case, a cascade...

Why Siri Is Still the Future
From ACM Opinion

Why Siri Is Still the Future

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S last year, the new phone looked just like the previous one. It had a better camera and a faster chip, but it could do only one...

Read My Email? Get a Warrant
From ACM Opinion

Read My Email? Get a Warrant

Last October the well-known hacking group Chaos Computer Club revealed that the German state police had been monitoring the computers of ordinary citizens using...
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