We live in a time of too many words. Remember Bruce Springsteen’s song “57 Channels (And Nothings On)?” Seems quaint now, doesn’t it? Today we have 100 million websites and often, nothing’s on. This phenomenon gives rise to one of my favorite phrases about our times: “Words without content.” Our [Keep reading]
Rarely does a U.S. Supreme Court ruling have an immediate impact on the everyday lives of Americans, but this one might. The U.S. Supreme Court pushed American law into the 21st Century a bit on Wednesday, ruling that cops can’t search through the contents of suspects’ cell phones before obtaining [Keep reading]
John Oliver finally woke up the sleeping masses to the boring but incredibly important net neutrality discussion a few weeks ago with his brilliant, closing-argument style summation of the issue. Well, now that we’re awake, we might as well understand what’s really going on. Fortunately, Wired today began a series [Keep reading]
When 140 characters is too much, there is Yo. In one sense, Yo is a new app that lets you send two characters to anyone in your contact list — bet you can guess what those two characters are. In another sense, Yo is another sign of the apocalypse. Yo [Keep reading]
While kill-switch-friendly law enforcement officials on both coasts are patting themselves on the back over what they say is a sharp drop in iPhone thefts, the headline has been buried. Here it is: Samsung phone thefts are up 51 percent this year vs. last year. There must be quiet a [Keep reading]
If I said to you, “It’s a Small World After All,” you would inevitably start humming the tune. But if I tried to clear the musical part of your brain by suggesting another catchy tune, called “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” that would almost certainly be no help at [Keep reading]
Amazon has a problem. A really, really big problem. Let me try to explain it in a small way. Imagine you owned a coffee shop, and for simplicity’s sake, you sold coffee for $1 a cup. After a really, really busy day, when you sold 750 cups of coffee, because [Keep reading]
What ailment is so devastating that its symptoms can range from an incorrect medical diagnosis, to (virtually) killing you, to hurting your kids’ chances of getting college financial aid? That distinctly digital-age malady? Identity theft. In a world of overused metaphors, this one is spot-on: If Franz Kafka were writing [Keep reading]
“We’re improving ads based on apps and sites you use, and giving you more control,” says the notice I received this morning from Facebook. Uh oh. Any time a company says they are giving me “more control,” I know something bad is happening. When did I lose control? I clicked [Keep reading]
“I already swept the floor” said the annoyed woman behind the cash register, yelling over her shoulder to no one in particular. She managed to take my order, and my money, without ever looking at me. It was the 100th transaction recently that occurred at this particular brand of coffee [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan