Sometimes, it takes government pressure to spur a company into action. For years, there have been rumors that Microsoft Office is a telemetry data hog with little to no transparency as to what is collected and when. The Dutch government had finally had it and prompted an extensive investigation. The result: 91 pages of unfettered and unabated data collection frenzy along with a lack of organizational structure that borders on chaos - enough to shake up even the most consummate of business professionals.
Using an OS for many years can feel like marriage: there are good and bad times and you adapt to get along. Your partner may no longer be the love of your life but you've become intimately familiar and know each other's quirks. However, once updates are forced down your throat, errors get ignored and customer service is next to nonexistent, the relationship quickly cools off and you start taking precautions. In other words: Get your act together, Microsoft!
When you look at your cellphone or any other LC display, you're looking at a product that contains rare earths. Nearly all electric cars, computers and various medical devices contain elements that had to be wrested from the earth. For example, cellphones contain almost half of the elements in the periodic table. Still, the importance of rare earths is underestimated by many. Read on to learn why the extraction process is complicated and what this means for the environment!
As cellphones began to lose their headphone jacks, even Joe Schmoe finally discovered the wireless technology standard Bluetooth. It had been around since the 90s but only arrived in living rooms (and on billions of devices) within the last decade. And while this technology has been adopted by many, some users are still hesitant. Read on to learn what you should know about Bluetooth!
In conversations about surveillance states, China is always mentioned. The country makes use of modern technology to monitor its 1.4 billion citizens like no other. Strong censorship of all media outlets (including the Internet) is quickly becoming old hat as the country turns towards face recognition, voice analysis and information clustering to create a "social credit system". Reason enough to take a closer look.
