Browsing: Alistair Fairweather

One of the most exciting developments in hardware in the last five years has just been announced … by Facebook. No, it’s not yet another smartphone or any kind of personal electronic gadget. It’s something much more important, something with the potential to

The Chinese government is not renowned for its openness, particularly not in matters involving its own citizens. So last week’s…

At first glance, Nadim Kobeissi looks about 14 years old. Yet the baby-faced PhD student is part of a new wave of entrepreneur-activists who are finding new ways to protect our privacy online, to the horror of governments around the world. Born in Lebanon in 1990

Every day, around the world, billions upon billions of slips of paper are printed with legally binding information. The vast majority of these are never even looked at by the people who accept them – most are thrown away immediately. You’ve probably done so already today. I’m talking

What do you think of when you hear the word “nerd”? What was once an insult has become almost affectionate. With their extreme intelligence and social awkwardness, nerds are usually seen as endearing and harmless. This makes what is happening in the gaming industry all the more shocking

Neil Harbisson is an extraordinary person. Though he was born completely colour blind, he found a way to see colour using an electronic eye that is now permanently grafted to his skull. In 2004, he became the first person to be officially recognised by a government as a cyborg — a being that is part man

Have you heard of the world’s fastest growing language? It was born just 20 years ago, and already hundreds of millions (possibly billions) of people use it to communicate every day. You’ve probably used it today without even thinking. I’m talking about Emoji. These expressive little symbols have slowly

The smartphone industry may produce gleaming marvels of modern technology, but it is also ruled by the law of the jungle. Amazon has learned this the hard way. Its Fire Phone range, unveiled to such fanfare in June, has been completely mauled by

Nobody likes to feel like they’re being watched. Societies will tolerate a lot from their governments but few things cause more outrage than the kind of mass surveillance practiced by America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and its cronies. But true to form, the Internet has spontaneously generated

Human beings are fickle creatures. As soon as any trend reaches its peak, its polar opposite is suddenly the next big thing. Technology is particularly prone to these societal mood swings. Take the latest surge in online anonymity, for instance. The last decade of the Web has been dominated