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All Tech Considered

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The Industry

Monday

What's The Big Idea? Pentagon Agency Backs Student Tinkerers To Find Out

Students Blake Jamar (from left), Ryan Clifton and Gregory Gonzales take apart a bicycle that generates electricity at Analy High School in Sebastopol, Calif. Jon Kalish for NPR hide caption

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Jon Kalish for NPR

The Industry

What's The Big Idea? Pentagon Agency Backs Student Tinkerers To Find Out

The Pentagon's research agency, DARPA, played key roles in developing the Internet and GPS. Now it's investing money in high school hackerspaces, where students gather to come up with high-tech ideas — like a bicycle that generates electricity.

What's The Big Idea? Pentagon Agency Backs Student Tinkerers To Find Out

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Tuesday

Bigwigs Out At Microsoft And Apple. Now What?

Steven Sinofsky introduces a new Microsoft tablet computer and Windows 8 software to the media in Shanghai on Oct. 23. The former president of Microsoft's Windows division has since left the company. AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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AFP/Getty Images

The Industry

Bigwigs Out At Microsoft And Apple. Now What?

Steven Sinofsky and Scott Forstall, instrumental figures at two of the world's biggest tech companies, have left their positions. What does that mean for the future of those companies?

Hear Wendy Kaufman's Report On 'Morning Edition'

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Saturday

Google, Facebook And The Next Billion Users

Men look at mobile phones at the Adjame market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The market for mobile telephones in developing countries has grown quickly, and now Facebook and Google are trying to get users to use the Internet on their devices. Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

The Industry

Google, Facebook And The Next Billion Users

Approximately three-quarters of the world's population now have access to a mobile phone, and the majority of those subscriptions are in developing countries. But those phones don't usually have data plans. Now, Google and Facebook are offering free apps on these devices to get users hooked on social media.

Wednesday

The Night A Computer Predicted The Next President

Walter Cronkite (right) listens as Dr. J. Presper Eckert (center) describes the functions of the UNIVAC I computer he helped develop in the early 1950s. AP hide caption

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AP

The Industry

The Night A Computer Predicted The Next President

Sixty years ago, computers were used for the first time to predict the outcome of a presidential race. CBS used the UNIVAC, one of the first commercial computers, on loan. The prediction was spot on, but a decade passed before the computer's potential was finally realized on election night.

The Night A Computer Predicted The Next President

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Monday

Two Top Execs Out At Apple

Apple announced Monday that two top executives who had presided over missteps at the company, including the Maps software, are leaving. Lukas Barth/dapd hide caption

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Lukas Barth/dapd

The Industry

Two Top Execs Out At Apple

John Browett, the head of Apple's store operations, is leaving after just six months on the job. Scott Forstall, who's been at the company since 1997 and is seen as one of OS X's original architects, will leave next year. In the interim, he will serve as an adviser to CEO Tim Cook.

Why Is This Supercomputer So Superfast?

Cray employees put the finishing touches on Titan at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The supercomputer may be the world's fastest. It's designed to do 20 petaflops — or 20,000 trillion calculations — each second. It consumes enough electricity to power a small city of 9,000 people. Courtesy of Nvidia hide caption

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Courtesy of Nvidia

The Industry

Why Is This Supercomputer So Superfast?

Titan, potentially the world's fastest computer, comes online at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The supercomputer is designed to do more than 20,000 trillion calculations a second, allowing researchers to model everything from black holes to nuclear reactors. And they'll have video gamers to thank for its blazing speed.

Why Is This Supercomputer So Superfast?

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Thursday

Can Windows 8 Bridge The Gap Between Tablet And PC?

The Microsoft Windows 8 operating system is unveiled at a press conference on October 25 in New York City. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

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Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Industry

Can Windows 8 Bridge The Gap Between Tablet And PC?

Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 8, is the company's boldest move yet. In an attempt to stay competitive with other tech giants, the new software is designed to boost company's mobile and tablet business. But will it upset Microsoft's computer-based loyalists?

Listen To Steve Henn's Report On All Things Considered

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Tuesday

Microsoft, An Empire Under Siege, Makes Its Next Moves

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks at a Microsoft event in San Francisco in July. This week, Microsoft launches Windows 8, a radical redesign of its operating system, as well as a new set of tablet computers. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption

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Jeff Chiu/AP

The Industry

Microsoft, An Empire Under Siege, Makes Its Next Moves

This week, Microsoft will roll out the largest upgrade of its Windows software in more than a decade. And for the first time, it's marketing a tablet, called Surface. Microsoft still commands a formidable computing empire, but it's an empire under siege.

Microsoft, An Empire Under Siege, Makes Its Next Moves

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Wednesday

The Brain Of The Beast: Google Reveals The Computers Behind The Cloud

Google's data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, houses servers in over 115,000 square feet of space. Connie Zhou/Google hide caption

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Connie Zhou/Google

The Industry

The Brain Of The Beast: Google Reveals The Computers Behind The Cloud

For years, Google has kept mostly silent about the technology that has made it one of the leaders in cloud computing. Now, for the first time, Google has opened the doors of its data centers to the outside.

The Brain Of The Beast: Google Reveals The Computers Behind The Cloud

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Monday

Cloud Computing Saves Health Care Industry Time And Money

Researchers are increasingly using cloud computing to discover new drugs and medical treatments. Cloud computing is often cheaper and quicker than in-house computing. iStockphoto.com hide caption

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iStockphoto.com

The Industry

Cloud Computing Saves Health Care Industry Time And Money

The cloud's vast computing power is making it easier and less expensive for companies and clinicians to discover new drugs and new medical treatments. Analyzing data that used to take years and tens of millions of dollars can now be done for a fraction of that amount.

Cloud Computing Saves Health Care Industry Time And Money

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Monday

The Industry

Tesla's Big Gamble: Can The Electric Car Go Mainstream?

Tesla Motors is an automotive rarity — a startup, and a car company that comes out of Silicon Valley, not Detroit or Japan or Germany. Tesla hopes the technology it uses to make electric cars will upend the industry.

Tesla's Big Gamble: Can The Electric Car Go Mainstream?

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Saturday

Apple's Patent Win Could Alter Landscape Of Smartphone Industry

Banners advertising Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S III and Apple's iPhone 4S are displayed at a store in Seoul, South Korea. Ahn Young-joon/AP hide caption

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Ahn Young-joon/AP

The Industry

Apple's Patent Win Could Alter Landscape Of Smartphone Industry

The legal win over Samsung, and the more than $1 billion in damages awarded, could send rival phone makers scrambling to make their products less "Apple-like."

Listen To Wendy Kaufman's Report For Weekend Edition

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Friday

'Techie Computer Programmer Guy' And The Website Reddit Deliver The News

Morgan Jones, an 18-year-old from Denver, gave minute-by-minute updates Friday on the movie theater shootings in nearby Aurora, Colo. Courtesy of Morgan Jones hide caption

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Courtesy of Morgan Jones

Social Web

'Techie Computer Programmer Guy' And The Website Reddit Deliver The News

Shortly after the Colorado shootings, a Denver 18-year-old named Morgan Jones started a thread on the social media site Reddit. It built through the night into a minute-by-minute chronicle of tragedy.

Monday

The Next Silicon Valley? Berlin Startups Catching Up With The Hype

Simon Fabich (center) is CEO and co-founder of the Berlin-based online shopping startup Monoqi. Artsy and relatively inexpensive, Berlin is an up-and-coming city for European tech startups. Courtesy of Monoqi hide caption

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Courtesy of Monoqi

The Industry

The Next Silicon Valley? Berlin Startups Catching Up With The Hype

California's Silicon Valley remains the powerhouse of the high-tech startup scene, but investors and entrepreneurs in Berlin, along with London and Paris, are trying to catch up.

The Next Silicon Valley? Berlin Startups Catching Up With The Hype

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Sunday

Too Hot? No Cooler Time To Honor The Steve Jobs Of A.C.

A series of 1931 newspaper ads touted the latest comfort for rail passengers on the B&O's Columbian line. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad ad hide caption

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Baltimore & Ohio Railroad ad

The Industry

Too Hot? No Cooler Time To Honor The Steve Jobs Of A.C.

Triple-digit heat and summer storms that left millions without power help mark the upcoming anniversary of engineer Willis Carrier's 1902 breakthrough. So how did ordinary people endure the heat before A.C. became a necessity?