Technology

People walk struggling for space between public transport buses and trucks at the burstling Oshodi bus stop in Lagos 06 February 2006. Lagos is reputed as one of the mostly densely populated city in the world with population more than 14 million. AFP PHOT

World News

How Recalculating GDP Can Help App Designers In Nigeria

2:34pm May 31, 2013

by Marianne McCune

Pledge 51 creates applications for Nigeria's low-tech cellphones. The company thinks it could grow its business with help from foreign investors, but Nigeria's low GDP has made that difficult. If the country changes the way it calculates this figure, that could help Pledge 51 bring in new investment.

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Science

With Chemical Tweaks, Cement Becomes A Semiconductor

12:09pm May 31, 2013

With the right chemistry, cement can take on some of the properties of a metal, researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Chris Benmore, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory, explains why a semiconducting cement might be useful.

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The University of Tennessee became one of 10 state university systems teaming up with Coursera, a for-profit tech company.

Online College Courses Get A Big Boost, But Doubts Persist

6:01pm May 30, 2013

by Claudio Sanchez

Degree-granting institutions are responding to austere budgets by catapulting themselves into the world of online education. But some professors point to low online completion rates as evidence that these "massive open online courses" do a disservice to students.

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What a potential employer finds when researching an applicant online can make or break a job opportunity.

Fixing Your Online Reputation: There's An Industry For That

7:21am May 30, 2013

by Steve Henn

What an employer finds when researching an applicant online can make or break a job opportunity. Pete Kistler says he found this out the hard way. Since online reputation-management services were too pricey for his college budget, he started his own.

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Economy

How Code For America's Apps Benefit Kansas City

7:58am May 28, 2013

by Laura Ziegler

Code for America, a new nonprofit out of San Francisco, is building apps to make cities work better for citizens. One of its apps often cuts down the normal time it would take to find something — for example, property research in the treasurer's office.

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Vintage Sounds: The Clacks And Dings Of Pinball Machines

4:57pm May 27, 2013

As part of our occasional series on All Tech Considered, "Vintage Sounds," we remember sounds of older technology that brings fond memories to the minds of listeners. Today, listeners share what they loved about pinball machines.

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Hulu's Future Depends On Which Company Buys It

5:06am May 27, 2013

by Dan Bobkoff

Multiple companies — from Time Warner Cable to Yahoo — are said to be interested in acquiring Hulu. The site streams TV shows and movies online. Some shows on Hulu are free, but paid subscribers get access to more programming.

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Tackling New Tech In The Golden Years

2:58pm May 24, 2013

Smartphones, tablets and computers could help seniors stay connected to their communities and families. But a hefty price tag, steep learning curves, and designs meant for younger eyes and hands could keep some older adults from logging on. Guests discuss the best ways for seniors to tackle new technology, and how devices can be adapted to accommodate older users.

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Nay Aung is the founder of Oway, a tech startup in Yangon, Myanmar. He used Taste Cafe as his unofficial office when he started his company — in part because it was one of the few places in Myanmar with a stable Internet connection.

World News

Can This Man Bring Silicon Valley To Yangon?

9:29am May 24, 2013

by Robert Smith

A Stanford MBA who used to work for Google returned to Myanmar to be an Internet entrepreneur. But it's tough to start an Internet company in a country where the power goes out every day.

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Google and NASA are betting that quantum forces are at work inside D-Wave's 512-bit chip.

Quantum Or Not, New Supercomputer Is Certainly Something Else

11:33am May 22, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

NASA and Google have come together to buy a new kind of computer that the manufacturer says runs on the strange laws of quantum mechanics. But some physicists counter that the machine, known as the D-Wave Two, has never demonstrated a phenomenon known as "quantum entanglement."

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