Articles filed under Manjoo, Farhad

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The end of the credit card? May 18, 2013 12:00 AM
This week Square announced a new product that took me by surprise: the Square Stand, an iPad holder and credit card reader that's meant to function as a point-of-sale system for high-volume small businesses like restaurants and cafes.
Why I love Internet sales tax plan May 5, 2013 12:00 AM
Don't hate the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would require you to pay tax on all offline and online purchases. The bill does something that's almost unheard of: It makes taxes fairer and simpler. There's also a carve-out for small businesses
Why iPad is Apple's most valuable product Apr 27, 2013 12:00 AM
The iPad has always labored under the shadow of its little brother the iPhone. When Apple launched the tablet back in the spring of 2010, everyone thought it was derivative -- it's just a big iPhone! Even now, after proving itself a worthy alternative to personal computers, the iPad rarely gets its due.
Review: Facebook Phone Isn’t as Bad as You Think Apr 6, 2013 12:00 AM
Facebook Home isn't a phone, it isn't an operating system, and it isn't an app. Instead, it's a free-to-download lock- and home-screen replacement for Android phones. If most people's phones are already Facebook phones, Facebook Home makes them Facebookier, bringing the social-network's content (including, at some point, ads), to your phone's foremost screen.
Good riddance, Google Reader, Manjoo says Mar 23, 2013 12:00 AM
I've made it pretty clear that I don't like RSS readers. But enough about me. Let's talk about you. You didn't just love Google Reader. No, your feelings about it were much deeper -- you relied on Google Reader, making it a central part of your daily workflow. Now it's gone, and you feel lost.
Is Google Fiber too powerful? Mar 23, 2013 12:00 AM
Google Fiber, the search company's effort to wire a large American city with 1-gigabit Internet lines. That's 100 times faster than the average American home broadband speed. The only problem is, no one knows what to do with that much power.
What to do with the world’s fastest Internet service Mar 16, 2013 12:00 AM
oogle's gigabit initiative, called Google Fiber, has sparked a round of questions across the tech industry. Is Google looking to become an Internet service provider? Does it simply want to spur other ISPs into providing faster service? And, finally, why gigabit Internet — what does Google expect people to do with the world's fastest broadband service?
Why don’t Apple laptops have touch screens? Mar 9, 2013 12:00 AM
Like many kids, my 2-year-old son can run circles around you on an iPad. Computers, though, flummox him. o when I plop him down in front of YouTube on my MacBook he always gets confused when a video ends. He reaches for the screen and repeatedly taps to get a new clip to play. It's pretty funny, actually. But of course, my kid is totally right. Why doesn't the MacBook screen respond to his touch?
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s misstep Mar 2, 2013 12:00 AM
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is going to regret this decision to ban working from home. It’s myopic, unfriendly and so boneheaded that I worry it’s the product of spending too much time at the office. (She did, after all, build a nursery next to her office to house her new baby). Numerous studies have found that people can be more productive when they’re allowed to work away from the office.
How Google keeps its workers happy Jan 26, 2013 12:00 AM
Google monitors its employees' well-being to a degree that can seem absurd to those who work outside Mountain View. And if there's any sign that joy among Googlers is on the wane, it's the Google HR department's mission to figure out why and how to fix it. The company's swank perks — free gourmet food, on-site laundry, Wi-Fi commuting shuttles — are legendary in the corporate world, and they've driven a culture of ever-increasing luxuries for tech workers.
Hybrid computers may replace old PCs Jan 19, 2013 12:00 AM
PC makers are showing off a variety of laptops and desktops that look completely different from your father's PCs. Call these machines "hybrids," "convertibles," or maybe just call them very weird. Several companies showed off laptops whose screens detach to become tablets. Stranger still were the desktops that double as tablets.
The genius of Samsung and the phabletJan 19, 2013 12:00 AM
When Samsung first unveiled the Galaxy Note — a 5.3-inch smartphone that was big enough to be a minitablet the world's tech pundits couldn't stifle their giggles. Confounding our predictions, Samsung sold 10 million Notes in 2012, making it one of the most successful smartphone launches in history. Then, in the fall, Samsung launched the Galaxy Note II, an upgraded version with an even larger screen — and it promptly sold 5 million of them, and is on track to sell 20 million over the course of the year.
Manjoo: My technology new year’s resolutions Jan 5, 2013 12:00 AM
I write about technology for a living, but tech, and the way I use it, frustrates me all the time. I'm constantly finding technology slow or annoying or buggy, and I'm always on the lookout for new ways of doing things. The turn of the calendar is a good time to implement some changes in how I use technology. I came up with five tech resolutions for the New Year. Some of these might be applicable to you, too.
Why Apple Killed the netbook Jan 5, 2013 12:00 AM
In 2008 and 2009, recession-strapped consumers around the world began snapping up netbooks in droves. They became the fastest-growing segment of the PC market, and some wild-eyed analysts were suggesting that netbook sales would soon eclipse those of desktops and regular laptops combined. That didn't happen. Over the past couple years the netbook market crashed. Now, as Charles Arthur reports in the Guardian, most major PC manufacturers have stopped making these tiny machines.
The 8 best technologies of 2012 Dec 29, 2012 12:00 AM
2012 wasn't a breakthrough year for tech. We didn't get an innovative new category-bursting device — the Apple TV remains a pipe dream and Microsoft's Surface was, for me, a dud. But this was a year for improvement: Everything good got much, much better. That's the theme you'll notice below, in my list of the best technologies of 2012.
Facebook’s pokey chat app Dec 29, 2012 12:00 AM
It's pretty brassy to call your sexting app Poke. That was my first reaction to the news last week that Facebook had launched a clone of Snapchat, the trendy smartphone app that lets you send photos and videos that self-destruct after a few seconds.
We have the technology to make safer guns Dec 22, 2012 12:00 AM
Research shows that it's possible to make safer firearms. There are a slew of sensible technologies that gunmakers could add to their products that might prevent hundreds or thousands of deaths per year. Why aren't gunmakers making safer guns? Because guns are exempt from most of the consumer safety laws that improved the rest of American life.
Facebook has revolutionized gift-giving on the web Dec 15, 2012 12:00 AM
A startup called Karma launched a mobile app that I considered a breakthrough for gifting. The app alerted you to your friends' special occasions, recommended gifts they might like, took care of all the pesky gifting logistics, and, best of all, gave the giftee a sense of joy even before the thing arrived. Karma did a lot of this by plugging into the world's most-comprehensive repository of social relationships — Facebook.
The greatest hoodie around, made in America Dec 8, 2012 12:00 AM
American Giant has figured out a way to do what most people in the apparel industry consider impossible: It's making clothes entirely in the United States, and it's doing so at costs that aren't prohibitive. American Apparel does something similar, of course, but not especially profitably, and its clothes are very low quality. Winthrop, on the other hand, has found a way to make apparel that harks back to the industry's heyday, when clothes used to be made to last.
Microsoft just lost its Steve Jobs Nov 17, 2012 12:00 AM
In a move nobody predicted, Microsoft announced that Steven Sinofsky, the executive who'd led the development of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet, was leaving the company. Sinofsky deserves all the credit (or blame) for Microsoft's new path. He led the development of Windows 8 single-mindedly and almost single-handedly, cutting out input from other divisions as well as from his underlings.