Digital Life

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears via videoconference at an auditorium in Quito, Ecuador, on June 23.

World News

Arrest Warrant For Julian Assange Still Stands, Swedish Court Says

4:33pm September 16, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

An appeals court has upheld the detention order for the WikiLeaks founder, who has been accused of sexual assault. Assange lives at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition.

A screenshot of Google Street View shows a cow with its face blurred.

World News

A Cow With No Name: Google Blurs Bovine Face For Privacy

4:32pm September 16, 2016

by Camila Domonoske

"We thought you were pulling the udder one when we herd the moos," Google said. But it's true — automatic identity protection kept this passing animal incowgnito.

Queue Listen Now

Sure, you could get run over trying to catch that Zubat. But is it worth it? They're the worst.

Yes, People Really Are Driving While Playing Pokemon Go

3:27pm September 16, 2016

by Angus Chen

People are playing Pokemon Go while behind the wheel — and then tweeting about it. And causing crashes. Immersive games like this can be even more dangerous than texting, researchers say.

School lunch can be intensely lonely when you don't have anyone to sit with. A new app aims to help change that.

Teen Creates App So Bullied Kids Never Have To Eat Alone

4:45pm September 15, 2016

by NPR Staff

Natalie Hampton knows what it's like to have no one to sit with during school lunch. So she created Sit With Us, an app that helps kids find friendly harbors in the crowd.

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National

FBI Agent Who Posed As News Editor Didn't Break Policy, Inspector General Says

3:20pm September 15, 2016

by Bill Chappell

The impersonation came about after police in Washington state couldn't identify a suspect who repeatedly sent threatening emails to a high school in the Seattle area.

Overhead view girl playing with cellphone on hardwood floor in bedroom

Trying To Get The Kids To Put Down Those Phones? Here's Help

4:24pm September 14, 2016

by Katherine Hobson

You can nudge your kids' relationship with digital technology in a more healthful direction, but warning: It's going to require parents to change, too.

Police crime tape marks the scene where a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed and an 18-year-old man was wounded in April in Chicago. The grim milestone of 500 homicides already passed this year in Chicago.

National

In Effort To Curb Violence In Chicago, A Professor Mines Social Media

6:04pm September 09, 2016

by NPR Staff

Desmond Patton is studying how gangs in Chicago use social media to communicate. Now he is helping to create an algorithm to predict when a social media threat might spark real life violence.

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Economy

Airbnb Unveils Changes To Address Racial Discrimination

2:36pm September 08, 2016

by Bill Chappell

One study found booking requests from Airbnb users with African-American sounding names were roughly 16 percent less likely to be accepted; another found discrepancies in hosts' profits.

Hit The Road, Headphone Jack: New iPhone Goes Wireless

5:40pm September 07, 2016

In light of the news that Apple is eliminating a headphone jack from its newest iPhone, NPR's Audie Cornish explores the history of the headphone jack with Jonathan Sterne, author of the book, The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction.

Facebook can be fun, research suggests, except when it stirs up envy or depression.

Facebook And Mortality: Why Your Incessant Joy Gives Me The Blues

2:02pm September 07, 2016

by Jon Brooks

Has the social media site been good for our mental health or not? The evidence isn't straightforward, researchers say, despite lots of study. How Facebook makes you feel may depend on how you use it.