Internet of Things: Security researchers, legal authorities, government officials and consumer advocates fear gadgets linked together via far-reaching electronic networks could divulge the most intimate details of our lives, skew our credit ratings, jack up our insurance rates, exclude us from housing and hurt our chances of getting jobs.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement that he is gay caps years of efforts by an industry that has long championed gay rights at home, and propels Silicon Valley to the forefront of global equality struggles, underscoring the reach tech powerhouses have not only with their gadgets and software but with their positions on heated social issues.
Troy Wolverton writes: Amazon’s new Fire tablets, which have reasonable prices and innovative features, deserve to have wider appeal, but probably won’t get it.
Michelle Quinn writes that we are witnessing the second digital disruption of media in about a dozen years: having access to digital content at all times — and not necessarily by owning it.
Mercury News interview: Tim Berners-Lee, professor, inventor of World Wide Web.
Larry Magid has mixed feelings about the robotic shopping assistants that will be employed at a San Jose Orchard Supply Hardware store this holiday season.
Two years of tight supply and intense demand have pushed prices for modest Bay Area homes in trendy neighborhoods to mind-boggling heights.
