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It's Time to Stop Talking About the Apple Cult

Thirty-seven million iPhones. Fifteen million iPads. Fifteen million iPods. Five million Macs. A million Apple TVs. No matter how you do the math, that's a boatload...

From ACM Opinion

The Rise of the New Groupthink

Solitude is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement...

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Looking Backward to Put New Technologies in Focus

More than most of us, the science historian George Dyson spends his days thinking about technologies, old and very new.

From ACM Opinion

Internet Access Is Not a Human Right

From the streets of Tunis to Tahrir Square and beyond, protests around the world last year were built on the Internet and the many devices that interact with...

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt in the Near Future
From ACM Opinion

Four Industries Apple Can Disrupt in the Near Future

Over the past 10 years, Apple has done a rather amazing job of disrupting quite a few industries.

Welcome to the 'knowosphere'
From ACM Opinion

Welcome to the 'knowosphere'

Here's my take on what I've begun calling the "knowosphere"—a word intentionally echoing the more allegorical "noosphere," the "planet of the mind" of Vladimir....

From ACM Opinion

5 Game Stories to Watch in 2012

Goodbye 2011, you tumultuous, fickle, lovely year—hello 2012, another 365-day stretch full of promises, disappointments, and with a little luck, a few pleasant...

From ACM Opinion

Expanding Internet Domains

Come January, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers plans to allow businesses, nonprofits and others to apply for their own "top-level domain"...

FCC Commissioner Delivers Warning on Threat to 'internet Freedom'
From ACM TechNews

FCC Commissioner Delivers Warning on Threat to 'internet Freedom'

The United States is not ready for the battle over whether the Internet will remain free from government regulations or fall under the control of emerging global...

FCC Commissioner Delivers Warning on Threat to 'internet Freedom'
From ACM TechNews

FCC Commissioner Delivers Warning on Threat to 'internet Freedom'

The United States is not ready for the battle over whether the Internet will remain free from government regulations or fall under the control of emerging global...

From ACM Opinion

Patents and the Public Interest

Next week, in a case closely watched both by analysts and retailers, the International Trade Commission will decide whether the handset maker HTC should be allowed...

From ACM Opinion

The Last Person

There is a concept in telecommunications called "the last mile," that part of any phone system that is the most difficult to connect—the part that goes from the...

From ACM Opinion

The Court's Gps Test

There were no GPS tracking devices when the framers wrote the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches. But that does not mean this sometimes...

From ACM Opinion

The Genius of Jobs

One of the questions I wrestled with when writing about Steve Jobs was how smart he was. On the surface, this should not have been much of an issue.

From ACM Opinion

Running Out of Bandwidth

At a time of slow economic growth and declining competitiveness, wireless technology remains a shining example of innovation. In the last 10 years, wireless communications...

From ACM Opinion

The ­niversity of Wherever

For more than a decade educators have been expecting the Internet to transform that bastion of tradition and authority, the university. Digital utopians have...

From ACM Opinion

Protect Our Right to Anonymity

In November, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could redefine the scope of privacy in an age of increasingly ubiquitous surveillance technologies...

Bike Crash Wiped Details; Gps Data Filled Them In
From ACM News

Bike Crash Wiped Details; Gps Data Filled Them In

After racing and biking back roads on the San Francisco Peninsula for almost half a century without serious incident, on July 3 I crashed while riding downhill...

From ACM Opinion

Internet Memes 101: A Guide to Online Wackiness

In the olden days, it was simple to keep up with pop culture. There were only three channels on TV, and everybody saw the same shows at the same time.

From ACM Opinion

Education Needs a Digital-Age ­pgrade

If you have a child entering grade school this fall, file away just one number with all those back-to-school forms: 65 percent. Chances are just that good that...
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