Google Chromebook Pixel (2015)

The best a Chromebook can get

Remember netbooks? Tlrey were the simpler alternative to laptops, with just enough processing power for web browsing and other basic tasks. There were just two problems: netbooks were too rubbish for anyone to want them, and too cheap to make manufacturers any money. So they went away. But not completely.

Terrible Things Of The Digital Age

Sometimes even we long for a simpler time

1 Trolling

Before we had the internet, if you wanted to casually insult someone, you had to do it in person or over the phone. Nowadays, of course, you just head onto an internet forum or social network and abuse people as much as you like - all without the burden of being identifiable. Predictably, this anonymity brings out the worst in many people and has led to the phenomenon known as trolling, which before the internet came along, would just have been known as being a really, really terrible human being.

Virus Alert: What to Do?

Is your computer warning you about a virus, while your browser sounds the alarm about a hacked certificate? We’ll show you how to respond to such notifications

All of a sudden, a warning window pops up with a cryptic message: ‘‘Object c:\3df34wf4.pdf is infected with the Trojan.Win.32.Invader Trojan programme.” Right below the message are three options: Quarantine, delete and skip. Even experienced computer users don’t always know how to proceed in such a situation. Popular anti-virus programmes make it easy for themselves, and shove the responsibility onto the user. Those who hastily press the wrong button could catch a virus, or even end up permanently deleting a harmless but important file from the hard drive.

Google’s Modular Smartphone

Anyone can create and customise the Ara according to their tastes using selected modules. Will this idea revolutionise the smartphone market?

When Google sold the mobile phone manufacturer Motorola to Lenovo at the start of 2014 and made a loss of 10 billion US dollars as a result, it became the butt of many caustic comments in the industry. However in the bargain, the IT giant retained not only thousands of patents but also Motorola’s research centre “Advanced Technology and Projects” (ATAP). This department has been working on an idea for a long time – an idea that can rightly be described as revolutionary, namely, a modular smartphone, code name “Project Ara”. If Google’s plan works, its loss of billions could soon turn into a huge advantage and give Google’s competitors – from Apple to Samsung – a terrible headache.

Coding with empathy

Amanda Glosson explores what we can gain by putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. If I were to relate a story to you and ask you to empathise with me, I might say something like, ‘Imagine yourself in my shoes’. But if you were to follow these instructions, you would only be part of the way there. Empathy isn’t imagining yourself in my situation. Empathy is imagining what it’s like for me to be in my situation.