Sunday Roundup by Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth

iPad Used As Medical Device, Huge Success For Apple In Healthcare

An iPad can also be used as a medical device itself. Although it seems unbelievable, it's true. An iPad coupled with a specially designed attachment can work as a state-of-the-art MS (multiple sclerosis) assessment tool.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2300005-ipad-used-as-medical-device-huge-success-for-apple-in-healthcare




WOZ: Samsung Galaxy Gear Is 'Worthless'

http://www.businessinsider.com/woz-samsung-galaxy-gear-is-worthless-2014-7




The first phones offered by Apple's low-price competitors were cheap because they were crappy.

In the past year, however, the quality of low-priced phones has improved dramatically, to the point where the design and specs of some of these phones, as well as the religious devotion of some of their brand fans, has come to rival that of Apple.

If Apple is ever forced to reduce its prices to compete with the likes of Xiaomi—or if any would-be full-priced iPhone buyers are ever seduced by the far more attractive prices offered by the likes of Xiaomi—Apple's profit is going to tank.

http://www.businessinsider.com/xiaomi-phone-sales-2014-7




The Reign Of Windows At Work 'Is Coming To An End' And Macs Are Rising Fast

http://www.businessinsider.com/vmware-windows-is-coming-to-an-end-2014-7




Apple Fast Facts
Thirty years of the Macintosh

A good summary of Apple and Mac history

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/01/business/apple-fast-facts/




Four biggest long term threats to the Internet

Interference by governments
Surveillance programs will erode trust
Commercial pressures will derail the open structure
the problem of finding interesting and meaningful content when you want it

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2014/07/03/four-biggest-threats-to-the-internet-pew-study-looks-ahead-to-2025/




Sneaky malware lurks on your computer until you log into your bank

The new strain starts with an old tactic: Spam. Messages detail financial transactions and include a link, but instead of luring users to phony websites to trick them into typing their banking credentials, the malware stealthily injects malicious code into the browser so it can later detect when the customer is banking online.

Last year saw a million new strains of banking malware, double the prior year's volume.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sneaky-malware-lurks-on-your-computer-until-you-log-into-your-bank-2014-07-02




A Bright Side to Facebook’s Experiments on Its Users

Facebook’s disclosure last week that it had tinkered with about 700,000 users’ news feeds as part of a psychology experiment conducted in 2012 inadvertently laid bare what too few tech firms acknowledge: that they possess vast powers to closely monitor, test and even shape our behavior, often while we’re in the dark about their capabilities.

The publication of the study, which found that showing people slightly happier messages in their feeds caused them to post happier updates, and sadder messages prompted sadder updates, ignited a torrent of outrage from people who found it creepy that Facebook would play with unsuspecting users’ emotions.

Studying how we use social media may provide important insights into some of the deepest mysteries of human behavior.

It is only by understanding the power of social media that we can begin to defend against its worst potential abuses.

if every study showing Facebook’s power is greeted with an outcry over its power, Facebook and other sites won’t disclose any research into how they work. And isn’t it better to know their strength, and try to defend against it, than to never find out at all?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/technology/personaltech/the-bright-side-of-facebooks-social-experiments-on-users.html?emc=edit_ct_20140703&nl=technology&nlid=11893479




Swear Off Social Media, for Good or Just for Now

Your profile includes not only your posts, photos, videos and other valuable digital trinkets, but also a detailed history of everything you have ever done on Facebook. You will see ads you have clicked, how you are being targeted, every time you have logged into Facebook and from which IP addresses, the facial recognition data Facebook uses to recognize you in pictures, and quite a lot more.

That will most likely rush you toward the Delete button. Once you request deletion, your data may hang around on Facebook’s servers for about 90 days and then, Facebook assures me, will be gone forever.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/technology/personaltech/swear-off-social-media-forever-or-just-for-now.html?emc=edit_ct_20140703&nl=technology&nlid=11893479




How to Digitally Avoid Taking It to the Grave

So how do you make sure all that information — protected by who knows how many passwords — is handled the way you would like after you’re gone? Two words: Plan ahead.

While the legal issues are being untangled you can plan ahead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/03/technology/personaltech/how-to-digitally-avoid-taking-it-to-the-grave.html?emc=edit_ct_20140703&nl=technology&nlid=11893479




Google Deleted The Listing Of A Negative Blog Post About Merrill Lynch's Former CEO

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-deletes-article-merril-lynch-ceo-2014-7




Google Is Being Forced To Censor The History Of Merrill Lynch — And That Should Terrify You

The European Union's new law giving people a "right to be forgotten," which requires Google to remove links to information about them, is having exactly the effect its critics predicted: It is censoring the internet.

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-merrill-lynch-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten-2014-7




British Media Cry Foul After Google Removes 'Forgotten' Search Links

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/british-media-cry-foul-after-google-removes-forgotten-search-links-n147811