Working for Google (GOOG) sounds a lot like living in a fancy retirement community run by Willy Wonka sometimes. In Fortune’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For,” the publication listed Google as No.1 overall due to the extensive perks it gives employees to keep them happy. Among other things, Fortune says that Google gave its workers “100,000 hours of subsidized massages” last year and also built “three wellness centers and a seven-acre sports complex” that includes “a roller hockey rink; courts for basketball, bocce, and shuffle ball; and horseshoe pits.” With all the fun Google workers have at their disposal, it’s a wonder that any of them bothering going home to their families at the end of the day.
As the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, millions of people around the world vowed to make changes to the way they live their lives. For some, 2013 will bring an end to smoking, drinking and an unhealthy lifestyle. For me, the new year will also bring some changes, but this year I plan to adjust some of the more technical aspects of my life. Here are my five tech resolutions for 2013. More →
Some day, we may refer to lazy and docile people as “app potatoes.” New data from Flurry Analytics shows that Americans are spending more time using mobile apps than ever before, and are now spending nearly as much time using them as they spend watching television. According to Flurry, U.S. consumers now spend 127 minutes per day using mobile apps, up from just 94 minutes per day one year ago. Television, by contrast, has remained constant as Americans spent an average of 168 minutes per day watching TV in both 2011 and 2012. Flurry doesn’t think that apps are just a fad either, as the firm writes that “we ultimately expect apps on tablets and smartphones to challenge broadcast television as the dominant channel for media consumption.”
Laugh at the “iSheep” all you want for camping outside of Apple (AAPL) stores the night before new products release, but some researchers say that suffering through long waits with their fellow Apple fans is good for their self-esteem. MarketWatch this week got in touch with some market researchers who provided insight into Apple fans’ curious desire to wait for hours on end in the rain and cold when they could just as easily preorder their devices online and wait for them to come in the mail. The main takeaway, these researchers say, is that Apple fans benefit from building social solidarity. More →
The engineering minds at MIT have concocted a new invention that will bring warm feelings to lonely Internet nerds. The Atlantic has discovered a new computerized jacket called Like-a-Hug developed by researchers at MIT and designed to replicate a hugging sensation by gently inflating whenever someone “likes” something you’ve posted on Facebook (FB). Like-a-Hug engineer Melissa Chow describes the jacket as a “wearable social media vest” whose goal is “bringing us closer despite physical distance.” Hopefully no one will give this jacket to Star Trek and Facebook legend George Takei as a gift since it would suffocate him within 20 minutes. More →
The issue of “sexting” has been widely covered by the media, but the practice of sending explicit images and text messages via mobile phones may be more common among minors than previously thought. A recent study of teen sexting conducted by the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network found that 28% of high school students have sent nude images of themselves using a mobile phone. 31% of those surveyed admitting to having asked someone to send a naked picture of him or herself, and 57% said they had been asked to sext. More →
A 28-year-old New Zealand-born filmmaker from Berlin is attempting to drastically change his lifestyle. Sam Muirhead plans to abandon all copyrighted products for one year and instead make use of only open source products. The filmmaker’s goal is to raise awareness outside the world of technology about various open source projects. Muirhead, a Mac and Final Cut Pro user, will dive into the world of Linux for the first time, abandoning numerous programs he has come to know and love. More →
People have certainly grown more attached to their smartphones over the past few years — smartphone penetration has topped 50% in the United States and 10% globally — but things may be getting out of hand. According to a recent survey conducted by gadget trade-in service Gazelle, nearly 15% of respondents said they would rather give up sex than go for even one weekend without their iPhone. And it gets worse: 4% of those surveyed admitted to having used their iPhones while having sex. “It’s amazing to think about how much the iPhone has changed consumers’ lives in just five short years,” Gazelle’s chief gadget officer Anthony Scarsella said. “As the nation’s leading high-end consumer electronics trade-in site, we know just how much people love their iPhones, and we’re happy to help them upgrade to the latest generation in the smartest way possible – by giving them cash for their current device.” Gazelle’s full press release follows below. More →
“Anonymous Operations,” a global band of hacker-activists whose targets over the past year include the CIA and other government bodies, has been ranked No. 36 on TIME’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” According to a report from The Huffington Post, however, Anonymous was actually ranked No. 1 with 395,793 votes as of 5:00 p.m. on April 6th. Even at No. 36, Anonymous was still ranked ahead of investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett, Apple CEO Tim Cook and United States President Barack Obama, who was ranked No. 61. New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin took the No. 1 spot on TIME’s list, though the poll had him ranked at No. 9 according to The Huffington Post. Other people included among the top-10 on TIME’s list of the most influential people in the world were New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow, comedian Louis CK and pop singer Rhianna. More →
Censorship and the Internet are topics that have gone hand in hand since the birth of the World Wide Web more than 20 years ago. Proponents of various levels of censorship often target online pornography with their efforts, and a new report suggests censors may soon get their way in Egypt. According to local news agency Egypt Independent, Egypt’s Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology has taken preliminary steps that could lead to a nationwide ban on internet porn. Minister for Telecoms and IT Mohamed Salem last week announced the formation of a committee that will investigate the possibility of banning online pornography, and it will report back to the Ministry on what might be involved with implementing such a wide-stretching ban. “Parliament will be represented in the committee,” Salem told reporters during a briefing. “The issue is becoming persistent and worrying to families.” More →
A teenage girl in China has offered up her virginity in exchange for an iPhone 4, Chinese news site Biznewschina reports. The young girl recently took to Weibo, a Chinese microblogging service similar to Twitter, to seek out someone willing to buy her an Apple iPhone 4 in exchange for sex. According to the report, the girl’s dream is to own an iPhone 4 but her father refused to purchase one for her. The girl posted a photo of herself on the website alongside some personal information, and offered to sell her virginity to anyone who buys her the new Apple smartphone. Some people responded by telling her that an iPhone is not worth the trade, while others joked that she should wait for Apple to release the iPhone 5 in September. It is also possible that someone has gained unauthorized access to her account and is playing a prank on her. If genuine, this is the second story we’ve reported this month about a teenager willing to go to extremes for an Apple device. Earlier this year, a Chinese boy sold his kidney for 22,000 yuan ($3,400) on the black market in order to purchase an iPad 2.
According to a new report from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, “radio frequency electromagnetic fields” are “possibly carcinogenic to humans based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer associated with wireless phone use.” The agency met with with 31 scientists from 14 countries from May 24th through May 31st, 2011 to assess the potential carcinogenic hazards of cell phone usage. The report said that the results were “evaluated as being limited among users of wireless telephones for glioma and acoustic neuroma,” and that it was not relevant to finding conclusions for whether or not cell phones can cause other types of cancers. “Given the potential consequences for public health of this classification and findings, it is important that additional research be conducted into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones,” IARC Director Chrisopher Wild said. “Pending the availability of such information, it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands-free devices or texting.” The full report will be published on July 1 in The Lancet Oncology. More →
