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
Iphone 5? Yawn. What Will the 'phone' of 2022 Look Like?
The near-term future of phones is fairly well-established. The iPhone 5 was released Wednesday and its similarity to every Apple phone since 2007 serves as a reminder...
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
The Iphone Stimulus
Are you, or is someone you know, a gadget freak? If so, you doubtless know that Wednesday was iPhone 5 day, the day Apple unveiled its latest way for people to...
From ACM Opinion
Why 'ser Friendly' Is So Friendly: A Tribute to Bill Moggridge
Some considered it an inspired choice, others simply surprising, when Bill Moggridge was appointed director of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum...
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
Curious About Life: Interview with Danny Glavin
The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has 10 science instruments, and each will be used in the coming weeks and months to help characterize the environment...
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
Sometimes, One Little Phone Can Have a Big Impact on the Economy
The next iPhone, which Apple Inc. AAPL plans to unveil this week, could do something the White House, Congress, and Federal Reserve have struggled to do: boost...
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 Careers
Mow Yard. Drop Off Kids. Take a Drive on Mars.
Matt Heverly, 36, started a recent workday as any young father might: up at 5:30, gulping coffee, fixing a bottle for the baby.
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
Rumor Review: What to Expect from Apple's September 12 Media Event
Six years since its debut, the iPhone shows no signs of slowing in popularity.
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