Personal Tech

Twitter's had a bad couple of weeks.

First, the Boston marathon bombings and subsequent manhunt led many (including me) to question the role of fast-moving, potentially inaccurate real-time Twitter reporting and its effect on mainstream news.

Then today, a false tweet from a hacked Associated Press Twitter account claimed that the White House had been bombed and that President Obama had been injured. The news caused a sudden plunge in the stock market (and, one can probably assume, some massive profit-taking by the hackers).

Twitter has always had an accuracy problem. It's a lot of voices, its information … Read more

Early this morning, the public Facebook page called Binders Full of Women apologized for posting Boston police scanner chatter that erroneously identified a missing Brown undergrad as a suspect in this week's Boston Marathon bombings. The Binders Full of Women feed author subsequently deleted the post. Earlier, in the midst of multiple other posts about the unfolding Watertown, Mass., manhunt and shootout that started last night, the author defensively noted that any misinformation must be excused because, "I am NOT a journalist, and I am only relaying information from the [Boston Police Department] scanner and news sources." … Read more

Dear Samsung: What just happened?

In the middle of a red-hot conversation about women in technology, the resurgence of the equal-pay discussion, and Sheryl Sandberg reigniting the very concept of feminism in America, Samsung delivered a Galaxy S4 launch event that served up more '50s-era stereotypes about women than I can count, and packaged them all as campy Broadway caricatures of the most, yes, offensive variety.

To be fair, everyone in Samsung's bizarre, hourlong parade of awkward exchanges, forced laughs, and hammy skits was a stereotype. The kid was lispy, tow-headed, and tap-dancing (the little girl did ballet, of … Read more

I told you the new dock connector change was awful.

Apple unexpectedly unveiled a new fourth-generation iPad today, just six months after the birth of the cheekily dubbed "new iPad." That's the shortest planned obsolescence window I've ever seen from Apple, and CNET's Roger Cheng is not alone in feeling burned at spending $500 (or more) on a gadget that's just been significantly upgraded at the same price.

Make no mistake, though -- the suddenness of the iPad update has nothing to do with the faster A6X processor, expanded LTE support, and 10-hour battery … Read more

The Autographer is an upcoming wearable ultracompact that aims to enable users to "see the unseen" by automatically capturing images based on its five built-in sensors. These sensors -- color sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer, infrared motion detector, and thermometer -- work together to tell the camera when to capture an image.

A GPS module works in tandem with the cam, tagging location information to every image captured.

"The user can live the experience while Autographer spontaneously captures the stories that unfold," says maker OMG (Oxford Metric Group). "This is not just a new camera but a whole new photographic approach." … Read more

Amazon introduced its Kindle Paperwhite e-reader today, showcasing the new device's lighted screen and lengthy battery life at an event in Santa Monica, Calif.

With more contrast and brightness than found on previous Kindles, the Paperwhite has a resolution of 212 pixels per inch (62 percent higher resolution than the current Kindle) and boasts eight weeks of battery life with the light on at half brightness (based on 30 minutes of use a day with WiFi off)  -- twice as much longevity as the Nook Glowlight, CEO Jeff Bezos said at the event. The Kindle Paperwhite is 9.… Read more

Way down in the fine print about Apple's upcoming iOS 6, you'll find a little note that says new features like Flyover and turn-by-turn directions are only available on the iPhone 4S, or the iPad 2 or higher.

A note immediately below that says Siri is only available on the iPhone 4S or third-generation iPad.

Since the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 are all actively for sale and still being marketed by Apple, I have to wonder: is Apple on the road to fragmenting the iOS experience? Could there come a future when not only do … Read more

I'm no shrinking violet when it comes to video game violence. I cut my teeth on Unreal Tournament, and I am a machine with a shotgun in Halo. But the bloody displays at Microsoft's and Sony's press conferences here at E3 left me horrified -- and depressed that an industry with so many challenges chose to offer so little to its existing and potentially new audiences.

Microsoft's Splinter Cell: Blacklist trailer was a mano-a mano murder fest (you need to enter your age just to watch it online), featuring multiple headshots that were helpfully slowed down, … Read more

Last week, I wrote about a Dell summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the moderator of the event, Mads Christensen, "entertained" the crowd of IT professionals with a barrage of sexist jokes, and exhorted them to go home and tell their wives to "shut up, bitch."

This week, Dell posted an apology on its Google+ page, saying the company would be "more careful selecting speakers at Dell events."

The apology comes weeks after the actual event, unfortunately, after my column and tech blogger Christiane Vejlo's English-language post made it onto Reddit this past weekend. (… Read more