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 New National Identity Is What Smartphone You Prefer, and Nobody's Quite Sure Why
In a fascinating note at Asymco, mobile analyst and ex-Nokian Horace Dediu details how people's taste in smartphones varies from place to place:
From ACM Opinion
Behold! Jonathan Ive's Apple
Apple is today releasing the much-anticipated iOS 7, and with it, the biggest overhaul of its mobile operating system since it debuted in 2007 with the original...
From ACM Opinion
Ios 7, Thoroughly Reviewed
When we reviewed iOS 6 a year ago, we called it a "spit-and-polish" release and stand by that assessment today.
From ACM Opinion
The 'legalization' of China’s Internet Crackdown
Internet usage—especially microblogging on Sina Weibo, China’s largest Twitter-like social media site—is presenting new challenges and new attempts to meet them...
From ACM Opinion
Cryptographers Have an Ethics Problem
Last week, I visited the MIT computer science department looking for a very famous cryptographer.
From ACM Opinion
Trigger Finger: Apple Fires Biometrics Into the Mainstream
By adding a fingerprint scanner to its newest mobile phone, Apple Inc. is offering a tantalizing glimpse of a future where your favorite gadget might become a biometric...
From ACM Opinion
The Real Reasons Apple's 64-Bit A7 Chip Makes Sense
Apple injected a lot of marketing hyperbole into its claims about the wonders of 64-bit computing when it showed off the A7 processor at the heart of the new ...
From ACM Opinion
VCs Doerr and Khosla on Gov't Snooping: It's a Tradeoff
Two of the most influential venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, John Doerr and Vinod Khosla, weighed in on the current controversy government surveillance, contending...
From ACM Opinion
Google Security Exec: 'passwords Are Dead'
New startups looking for ways to keep their users secure should know one thing, a top Google security executive said Tuesday: "Passwords are dead."
From ACM Opinion
Apple's New Iphone 'touch Id' Makes Fingerprint Scans Easy, But Don't Ditch Passcodes Yet
The latest iPhone has arrived, and along with it what may be the slickest integration of biometric security yet: A fingerprint scanner built seamlessly into the...
From ACM Opinion
Why a Cyberwar Won't Happen
Exactly two decades ago, the RAND Corporation, an influential think tank, proclaimed that "cyberwar is coming!"
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Surveillance Makes For Strange Bedfellows
The controversy over U.S. government surveillance has produced a king-size collection of strange bedfellows. Beneath the covers one finds both amusing ironies and...
From ACM Opinion
If the New Iphone Has Fingerprint Authentication, Can It Be Hacked?
When Apple bought AuthenTec for its biometrics technology—reported as one of its most expensive purchases—there was a lot of speculation about how the company would...
From ACM Opinion
Nsa's Anti-Encryption Efforts Compromise .s. Security
National Security Agency efforts to overcome encryption of online data weaken American security and undermine the government's duty to protect its own cyberinfrastructure...
From ACM Opinion
Online Data Brokers Know You—surprisingly Well
I'm a middle-aged guy who lives in a house that was built more than 50 years ago.
From ACM Opinion
Online Data Brokers Know You—Surprisingly Well
I'm a middle-aged guy who lives in a house that was built more than 50 years ago.
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Surveillance: A Guide to Staying Secure
Now that we have enough details about how the NSA eavesdrops on the Internet, including today's disclosures of the NSA's deliberate weakening of cryptographic systems...
From ACM Opinion
Why the .s. Should se Cyber Weapons Against Syria
If the Obama administration does conduct military strikes against Syria, as seems likely, it should use military cyber weapons at the earliest possible moment to...
From ACM Opinion