Digital Life

Scott Simon On Sharing His Mother's Final Moments On Twitter

5:33pm July 30, 2013

by NPR Staff

The Weekend Edition host used Twitter to share his observations and feelings in the final, tender moments of his mother's life. In a conversation with NPR's Audie Cornish, Simon remembers his late mom and explains how the social media community bolstered his spirits in a time of grieving.

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National

The Reply To Email Overload? Prioritize — Or Turn It Off

7:33am July 26, 2013

by Elise Hu

In this age of digital overload, we're forced to pay "continuous partial attention" to the world around us. The problem of too much email is so prevalent that a Wall Street titan is using it as his legal defense. Experts offer tips on dealing with the email onslaught.

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Royal Baby News Or No? Guardian Lets Web Visitors Decide

9:02pm July 22, 2013

The Guardian's U.S. editor in chief, Janine Gibson, discusses how the news organization came up with the idea to let visitors to its website see news about the royal baby or not. You can click on "Royalist" or "Republican." (In the U.S., the choice is "Royalist" or "Not a royalist.") We muse on what this means.

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Anthony Townsend is a research director at the Institute for the Future and a senior research fellow at NYU's Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management.

Books
Arts

Tech-Savvy Cities May Be 'Smart,' But Are They Wise?

4:52pm July 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Around the world, cities like Rio de Janeiro are using new technologies to solve their problems. And while there's great promise in many of these "smart" city programs, urban planner Anthony Townsend is wary of putting so much power in the hands of tech companies.

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Stephen Balaban has re-engineered his Google Glass to allow for facial recognition.

National

Clever Hacks Give Google Glass Many Unintended Powers

8:55pm July 17, 2013

by Steve Henn

Whether it's facial recognition or snapping photos with a wink of an eye, hackers are proving it's possible to re-engineer Google Glass in a number of creative ways.

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It's easier — and cheaper — than you'd expect to hack a cellphone, say a team of white hat hackers.

How Hackers Tapped Into My Cellphone For Less Than $300

8:57am July 15, 2013

by Laura Sydell

A group of good guy hackers showed us how they can listen in on phone conversations and read text messages of Verizon customers simply by using inexpensive store bought technology.

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Iranians surf the web at an Internet cafe in Tehran on April 28, 2013. The recently elected president, Hasan Rowhani, has suggested that he may loosen restrictions on the Internet.

World News

Iran's New President Hints At Easing Internet Controls

5:10am July 15, 2013

by Peter Kenyon

Iran's President-elect Hasan Rowhani says his country should be more engaged with the world. While analysts are not expecting radical change, they say Rowhani could tackle pragmatic issues like increasing Internet broadband speed.

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Filmmaker Chris Barrett wearing his Google Glass. He is among the first 1,000 nondeveloper testers of the product.

National

Arrest Caught On Google Glass Reignites Privacy Debate

12:36pm July 09, 2013

by Elise Hu

The wearable technology, which is being tested by a select group of users, was used to record an arrest on the Jersey Shore. The incident raises questions about citizen journalism and the limits of privacy in public.

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The Ouya game console and controller. Games are sold through something like an app store, allowing customers to sample them before buying.

Game Console Ouya Lures Buyers With $99 Price Tag

12:37pm June 27, 2013

by Laura Sydell

A $99 video game console funded through Kickstarter went on sale this week. Ouya is significantly cheaper than the big-brand consoles and also relies on a different business model. Games are sold through something like an app store, allowing customers to sample them before buying.

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More courts are asking jurors to avoid social media services and tools that have become an integral part of modern life, like Twitter, Facebook, email, texting, instant messaging and Internet research.

National

For Modern Jurors, Being On A Case Means Being Offline

6:10pm June 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

In simpler times, jurors were told not to discuss their cases with others. But with the proliferation of mobile devices, courts must now contend with Facebook, tweets, texts, instant messaging and Google — all tools that can compromise a juror's impartiality.

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