Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
The Web-Connected Car Is Cool, ntil Hackers Cut Your Brakes
When the history of the connected car is written, this week may go down as a pivotal moment for consumers worried about security.
From ACM Opinion
We Are Data: The Future of Machine Intelligence
I look at apps like Grindr and Tinder and see how they’ve rewritten sex culture—by creating a sexual landscape filled with vast amounts of incredibly graphic site...
From ACM Opinion
What Apple's Tim Cook Overlooked in His Defense of Privacy
Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, delivered a speech last week that raised some eyebrows in the technology industry.
From ACM Opinion
A Murky Road Ahead For Android, Despite Market Dominance
In 2005, Google bought a tiny mobile software company named Android, and almost nobody in the technology industry saw its potential—not even Eric Schmidt, Google's...
From ACM Opinion
Behind the Downfall at Blackberry
Ever since Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down as co-chairmen and co-chief executives of BlackBerry, neither has spoken much in public about the once-dominant...
From ACM Opinion
Moore's Law Turns 50
On April 19, 1965, just over 50 years ago, Gordon Moore, then the head of research for Fairchild Semiconductor and later one of the co-founders of Intel, was asked...
From ACM Opinion
The Illegal Phone-Data Sweeps
There is a lot to praise in the powerful ruling issued by a three-judge federal appeals panel in New York on Thursday, which held that the government's vast, continuing...
From ACM Opinion
40 Busy Years Later, a Microsoft Founder Considers His Creation
Looking at Microsoft’s sprawling product line and 118,000 or so employees, it’s easy to forget that the company started with one modest product made by two ambitious...
From ACM Opinion
Case Against Google May Be ndercut By Rapid Shifts in Tech
The antitrust case against Google filed by European Union regulators on Wednesday will inevitably draw comparisons to the long-running prosecution of Microsoft,...
From ACM Opinion
Karen, an App That Knows You All Too Well
Thinking about a life coach but not ready to commit to the real thing?
From ACM Opinion
Modern Explorers Seek a Place in a Gps World
Eric Larsen seemed ill at ease in his tuxedo.
From ACM Opinion
The Math of March Madness
The N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament started Thursday, but for most Americans the real action began days before, as they pored over brackets, competing to make...
From ACM Opinion
Here's What Will Truly Change Higher Education: Online Degrees That Are Seen as Official
Three years ago, technology was going to transform higher education. What happened?
From ACM Opinion
Astro Teller, Google's ‘captain of Moonshots,' on Making Profits at Google X
Google is all over the place.
From ACM Opinion
Google, Mighty Now, but Not Forever
Technology giants often meet their end not with a bang but a whimper, a slow, imperceptible descent into irrelevancy that may not immediately be reflected in the...
From ACM Opinion
Tim O'reilly Explains the Internet of Things
Tim O'Reilly has been at the cutting edge of the Internet since it went commercial.
From ACM Opinion
How, and Why, Apple Overtook Microsoft
When Microsoft stock was at a record high in 1999, and its market capitalization was nearly $620 billion, the notion that Apple Computer would ever be bigger—let...
From ACM Opinion
Microsoft Hololens: A Sensational Vision of the Pc's Future
It's generally wise to take demonstrations of new technologies with a grain of salt.
From ACM Opinion
A Retreat For Google Glass and a Case Study in the Perils of Making Hardware
You won't have Glass to kick around anymore. At least not for a while.
From ACM Opinion