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
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
Nasa Sparks Its Imagination
It's been a month since Curiosity’s remarkable soft landing on the surface of Mars. Remember the massive, supersonic parachute that slowed the spacecraft’s descent...
From ACM Opinion
Review: Raspberry Pi
You can get a lot for $35 these days. It bought me what looks like a credit card-size James Bond gadget prototype but is actually a fully functional computer.
From ACM Opinion
Big Data and Dna: What Business Can Learn from Junk Genes
The science world was rocked Wednesday by the discovery that the 80 percent of the human genethat scientists throught was "junk" actually contains genetic regulators...
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
Meet the Man Who's Rewiring Google From the Inside Out
It was a tweet that fired the imagination like few others. On May 10, 2011, at 1:35 in the afternoon, Eric Brewer told the world he was redesigning the most important...
From ACM Opinion
The Jet Propulsion Lab Is Way Weirder (and Awesomer) Than You Even Imagined
For a center of cutting-edge scientific research, Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab seems to be a pretty wacky place. Luke Johnson, a graphic designer at the lab, set...
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 Opinion
Connoisseur of Chaos
As a high school student in a Detroit suburb in the 1990s, Russ Tedrake did not fit the standard profile of a future computer science professor.
From ACM Opinion
The 'surround Computing' Era Is Just Around the Corner
The 'surround computing' era is coming soon, according to Mark Papermaster, the chief technology officer of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices.
From ACM News
Massive Cyberattack: Act 1 of Israeli Strike on Iran?
Talk in Israel of a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities has reached a fever pitch.
From ACM Opinion
Apple-Samsung Jury Foreman Recalls 'aha! Moment'
According to Velvin Hogan, the 67-year-old foreman of the jury in the U.S. trial between the Apple and Samsung, one of the turning points in group's journey to came...
From ACM Opinion
Apple Case Muddies the Future of Innovations
Apple's victory on Friday in a patent lawsuit against Samsung could, if upheld, give its rivals a kick in the pants to create more original products.
From ACM Opinion
Apple's Big Win Over Samsung—what Does It Mean?
History buffs will note that Apple scored one of the most lopsided victories since Agincourt on Tim Cook's one-year anniversary as the company's CEO.
From ACM Opinion
Giving In to the Surveillance State
In March 2002, John M. Poindexter, a former national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, sat down with Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the National...
From ACM Opinion
Our Favorite 'forgotten Tech'—from Beos to Zip Drives
We all know about the gadgets that get showered with constant praise—the icons, the segment leaders, and the game changers. Tech history will never forget the Altair...
From ACM TechNews