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
Arturo Bejar, Facebook Director of Engineering
Facebook engineering director Arturo Bejar is a numbers guy by training. But he's also in charge of the giant social network's foray into what it calls "compassion...
From ACM Opinion
Should Google Be Censoring Videos Just Because They Are Linked to Violence?
After violent attacks on Americans in both Egypt and Libya—including an attack in Libya on Tuesday that killed the American ambassador to that country—Google said...
From ACM Opinion
Why Hewlett-Packard May Be Beyond Saving
Almost one year into Meg Whitman's tenure as CEO, it is hard to escape the feeling that once-mighty Hewlett-Packard is slipping into a downward spiral.
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...
From ACM Opinion
William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (thankfully) Almost Always Wrong
William Gibson, one of science fiction's most visionary and distinctive voices, maintains that he and his fellow writers don't possess some mystical ability to...
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.
From ACM Opinion
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Says Mobile Efforts Will 'Make a Lot More Money' than Website
In his first public appearance since Facebook's trouble-plagued Wall Street debut, CEO Mark Zuckerberg conceded Tuesday the company's stock performance "has obviously...
From ACM Opinion
Top Tech Hurdles Facing Next President, Congress
With the U.S. in high political season, partisan rhetoric is in no short supply. But one area of agreement stands out: both parties have put solid endorsements...
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...
From ACM Opinion
Seven Questions For Tom Leighton, Chief Scientist of Akamai
You probably never think much about it, but there's a pretty good chance that in the course of doing your routine business on the Internet every day, you're also...
From ACM Opinion
How Smartphones Make S Superhuman
Both men lit themselves on fire in protest. But only one of them is credited with starting a revolution.
From ACM Opinion
Amazon's Bezos: Maybe the Most Second-Guessed Genius in Tech
Jeff Bezos is fond of a line that he wrote in a note to Amazon's shareholders in 1997: "We will make bold rather than timid investment decisions where we see a...
From ACM Opinion
A New Kind of Warfare
Cybersecurity efforts in the United States have largely centered on defending computer networks against attacks by hackers, criminals, and foreign governments,...
From ACM Opinion
Why Your Cellphone Could Be Called a 'tracker'
Your cellphone is a tracking device collecting a lot more information about you than you may think, says ProPublica investigative reporter Peter Maass.
From ACM Opinion
A Handy Way to Foil Atm Skimmer Scams
I spent several hours this past week watching video footage from hidden cameras that skimmer thieves placed at ATMs to surreptitiously record customers entering...
From ACM Opinion
Samsung Defeats Apple (in South Korea and Japan)
Did Samsung really steal Apple’s innovations? It all depends on where you live.
From ACM News
From Smart to Genius: Will Design Define Future Gadgets?
In a pre-iPhone age, mobile phones came in all shapes and sizes. Remember the clamshell, candy bar, swivel, backflip, slider, dual-slider, lipstick, and, of course...
From ACM Opinion
How Steve Jobs' Love of Simplicity Fueled A Design Revolution
Steve Jobs' interest in design began with his love for his childhood home.
From ACM Opinion
10 Things We'd Like to See Tim Cook Do in His Next Year at Apple
It's officially the anniversary of the day Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple and let Tim Cook take the reins.
From ACM News