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
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...
From ACM Opinion
Stephen Hawking's New Pc
Intel application engineer Travis Bonifield has been working closely with Hawking to communicate with the world for a decade.
From ACM Opinion
iPhone Celebrates 5th Birthday
Gadget fans may be focused on the CES trade show this week, but there’s something else notable going on today: It’s the iPhone’s fifth birthday.
From ACM Opinion
I Want to Translate the Web
I want to translate the Web into every major language: every Webpage, every video, and, yes, even Justin Bieber's tweets.
From ACM Opinion
What I Learned About the Future of Computing from Delving into IT's Past
Turing, Colossus, and even the Jacquard Loom still matter to the iPad generation.
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...
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.
From ACM Opinion
Q&a with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto
It was a tough year for Nintendo. Revenue at the venerable game company plunged. Its stock price was cut in half. And initial sales of its new 3DS handheld game...
From ACM Opinion
10 Tech Wishes For 2012
2011 was top-notch gadget-wise, but there's always room for improvement. Here, some hopes and wants for the new year.
From ACM Opinion
Why Books Are Better Than E-Books For Children
Do you read to your children from your iPad or other device, or encourage them to use an e-reader to read to you?
From ACM Opinion
2011 Was a Terrible Year For Tech
If you read tech criticism often, there’s a good chance that you’ve come upon a staple of the form that I like to call the "mommy dearest" review.
From ACM Opinion
The Man Who Saves Stephen Hawking's Voice
Sam Blackburn has been responsible for the technology which allows Stephen Hawking to communicate for the past five years. Now he's moving on. The challenge for...
From ACM Opinion
Why Windows 8 Tablets Will Surprise Everyone
Windows-based tablets haven't been treated kindly by the test of time. Those released in the Windows XP era relied on wonky, stylus-based data entry, and even...
From Communications of the ACM
Interfaces For the Ordinary User: Can We Hide Too Much?
Increasing the visibility and access to underlying file structure on consumer devices can vastly improve the user experience.
From Communications of the ACM
The IBM PC: From Beige Box to Industry Standard
Looking back at three decades of PC platform evolution.
From Communications of the ACM
The Difference Engine
Observations on cognitive diversity and team performance.
From Communications of the ACM
The Yin and Yang of Copyright and Technology
Examining the recurring conflicts between copyright and technology from piano rolls to domain-name filtering.
From ACM Opinion
The Year in Computing
2011 saw the personal computer continue to be marginalized. Although PCs are still the workhorse computing device in homes and offices, the most exciting innovations...
From ACM Opinion
The Emergence of a Digital Money Ecosystem
At the beginning of this year I wrote that the transition to universal mobile digital money is likely to be among the most exciting, important and challenging...
From ACM Opinion