New Hippo Techie: Megapixels are back!

The megapixel wars, which had camera makers advertising ever-increasing photo resolutions, were at least in a state of cease fire, if not outright truce or peace. The fanciest cameras topped out around 16 megapixels, and more attention was being paid to the lenses that collected the light and the internal sensors that recorded it.

Now manufacturing and software interpolation is catching back up with the marketing hype of years past. The 8-megapixel sensor in the iPhone 4S is so good that it has some folks wondering if they even need a separate camera. The rest of the world isn’t so eager to cede yet another entire industry to Apple, so they’re selling you more and more megapixels.

Read the full column at The Hippo.

New Hippo Techie – The next Instagram

My publisher turned to me the other day and asked, “Why can’t you come up with something I can invest in that Facebook will buy for a billion dollars?” That’s not an exact quote; newspaper folk tend to curse a lot in casual conversation.

With my publisher’s entreaty in mind — and ignoring the fact that wacky ideas with no real plan for making money other than being bought out were a big part of the dotcom bubble — I came up with a few ideas for blockbuster companies.

Read the complete article at the Hippo.

New Hippo Techie: Future past

I’ve spent the last couple weeks addicted to Words With Friends and Lexulous, Scrabble clones that I play online. Both have Android (and iOS) apps, so even stepping away from my computer provides no relief from the addiction.

It’s sort of weird that I can get so wrapped up in a digital version of a game I have in an armoire in my house that’s been taken out maybe once or twice. But the online version, and especially its mobile app extension, offers a fundamentally different experience. Most of my opponents are distant friends I haven’t seen in person for years. Moves can be made hours or days apart, so we don’t even have to be free at the same time. I also have a dozen games going at any given time.

That same-but-better feeling drives a lot of apps and gadgets. Developers have taken a few different tacks in the quest to replicate one of the most ancient and useful inventions ever: paper.

Read the full column at The Hippo.

New Hippo Techie: Keep passwords to yourself (PLUS insta-update!)

Some things are off limits during a job interview. You can’t be asked your age, your religion, your marital or family status, or anything about your health. Even if something seems relevant to the job at hand, a question has to be asked in a very narrow and specific way to be considered legal.

Or they could just ask for your Facebook password and read it all from your profile.

Read the full column at The Hippo.

UPDATE: After this column was submitted for publication, the US House voted down what many news sources are calling legislation that would make it illegal for employers to ask for your social media passwords. In fact, the amendment to a communications law would have simply clarified that the Federal Communications Commission still had the power to make such a rule:

SEC. 5. PROTECTING THE PASSWORDS OF ONLINE USERS.

Nothing in this Act or any amendment made by this Act shall be construed to limit or restrict the ability of the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a rule or to amend an existing rule to protect online privacy, including requirements in such rule that prohibit licensees or regulated entities from mandating that job applicants or employees disclose confidential passwords to social networking web sites.

New Hippo Techie: The price of gadgets, part 2

You may have heard about the radio show This American Life dedicating an entire show to retracting and clarifying the details of an earlier show about Apple and its Chinese assembler, Foxconn. It’s important and right that they diligently corrected themselves, but it’s also vital to note that it was only the personal narrative aired that was fictional, not the underlying situation.

When The New York Times did its own investigation, also in January, it told stories of a dust explosion that killed and injured workers on an iPad production line; “toxic chemical exposures” that left employees permanently sick; violations of Apple’s policies that had people working more than 70 hours per week; and riots and suicides in overcrowded factory dormitories.

None of these facts are in dispute. Daisey incorporated them into his monologue, but presented the incidents as if he met the people involved. In most cases, he did not.

Read the full column at The Hippo.