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TECHNOLOGY
How I Defeated Adoraburglar
Joshua Alston 4/29/2009 12:00:00 AM
I take really long showers, the kind of shower that single-handedly depletes my hot-water heater. I know it's terribly selfish, from an environmental standpoint, but a shower for me is more than a perfunctory morning ritual. The shower is my think tank. I puzzle through my problems and have colossal breakthroughs. I write rough drafts of stories in my head, and give stirring vocal performances that the world will sadly never hear. But a little under two months ago, it's where I got my calling to become a cyberdetective.
TECHTONIC SHIFTS
Apple’s New Weapon
Benjamin Sutherland 4/18/2009 12:00:00 AM
Tying the hands of a person who is speaking, the Arab proverb goes, is akin to "tying his tongue." Western soldiers in Iraq know how important gestures can be when communicating with locals. To close, open and close a fist means "light," but just opening a fist means "bomb." One soldier recently home from Iraq once tried to order an Iraqi man to lie down. To get his point across, the soldier had to demonstrate by stretching out in the dirt. Translation software could help, but what's the best way to make it available in the field?
AMERICAN GEEK
The Future Of The iPhone
N’Gai Croal 12/16/2008 12:00:00 AM
The recent rumor that a $99 iPhone would be making its way to Wal-Mart set the Internet abuzz last week. That is until the idea was debunked. For the record, Wal-Mart will sell iPhones next year, but the entry-level $199 price isn't expected to change. Nevertheless, it prompted me to seek out some informed speculation about the iPhone's possible future—emphasis on the speculation, given how closely Apple holds its future cards to its vest.
TECHNOLOGY
The Internet Is Closing
Jonathan Zittrain 11/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
The Internet, perhaps the most important technological development of the past 30 years, succeeded unexpectedly. It started out in an experimental backwater, nurtured far from the mainstream. It was spawned with no business plan and with no CEO leading the charge. Instead, a group of researchers—nerds, really—had the very un-entrepreneurial idea to develop a set of free and open technical protocols to move data from one place to another. The PC, which I think of as a companion technology to the Internet, likewise groomed as the hobbyhorse of passionate nerds who (at least initially) shared their designs. Both the Internet and the PC were released unfinished, and because they were open technologies, businesses and inventors could use them as a springboard for innovation. New applications were deployed to use them without needing the permission of their vendors.
R.I.P., Dear DVD
N’Gai Croal 9/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
There's nothing like having a new housemate (in this case, my sister, who's attending graduate school in New York) to motivate a proper apartment cleaning. My CDs will be sent off to iPodmeister.com, where you can exchange CDs for a new iPod (the site even converts your old discs to MP3 as a free bonus). As for my 600 or so DVDs, I've taken them out of their cases and stored them in a set of Case Logic binders. But I'd like to find an easy way to store them digitally, much like I'll be doing with the CDs.
One Bad Apple
Daniel Lyons 9/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
A former lieutenant of Steve Jobs's once told me something surprising about his ex-boss. "Steve is a monopolist at heart," he said. "He's just like Bill Gates. He just hasn't been as successful." Well, Jobs is getting there. This summer, Apple's market capitalization surged past Google's, making it the financial king of Silicon Valley. True, Apple still holds only 11 percent of the U.S. consumer PC market, according to researcher NPD, but its influence is far greater than that market share suggests. The iconic iPod dominates its market, and the iTunes music store has sold more than 5 billion songs, making it the No. 1 music retailer in America, ahead of Wal-Mart, according to IDC. Apple's iPhone is the No. 3 smart phone in the United States, according to NPD.