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Produced and hosted by Jon Gordon, Future Tense brings you the latest technology topics in daily five-minute capsules. From electronic privacy and digital democracy to spam and computer worms, Future Tense keeps you up to date on the rapidly changing world of technology.
Future Tense is heard in the United States during broadcasts of the CBC's As It Happens.
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Libraries are taking a recession-induced hit even as they become more important for people seeking their way out of economic hard times, according to a new report from the American Library Association.
Guest: John Bertot, professor and director of the Center for Library and Information Innovation at the University of Maryland College Park
A new report from the United States Department of Agriculture says broadband Internet leads to more and higher-paying jobs in rural areas.
Guest: Matthew Lasar, Ars Technica
A study by Internet analyst Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group finds a correlation between profit growth and how well companies engage customers via social media.
For a couple of years commercial Webcasters have fought mightily against royalties they were forced to pay music performers and record labels. One argument some Webcasters made was that Internet radio should not be forced to pay fees that terrestrial radio is not required to pay. Radio stations are required to pay fees to songwriters but not performers and record labels.
Now Pandora, perhaps the best-known Webcaster, is urging Congress to level the playing field and make radio kick in money for performers and labels, too. Pandora itself never argued it should be exempt from performance royalties, maintaining only that the fees were too high.
In a recent TechCrunch post Eric Clemons, professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, argues that advertising on the Internet is failing.
Microsoft's newest TV ad features the computer shopping quest of a hip young woman named Lauren. She has a $1,000 budget and wants a fast laptop with a 17-inch screen. The ad's message: Macs are not for shoppers on a budget.
Do Macs really cost so much more than Windows PCs? We put that question to Joe Wilcox, editor of Microsoft Watch and Apple Watch.
Listener comments:
Once-promising Internet music service Spiral Frog, which attempted an ad-based business model, has ceased operations.
Guest: Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com
An audit of 700 mobile phone customer bills by the San Diego-based Utility Consumers Action Network concludes that consumers are overpaying for their cell phone service -- and that the average cost-per-minute is shockingly high.
Microsoft this week announced a program aimed at boosting the technology skills of up to two million Americans. As part of its Elevate America initiative Microsoft will offer some its training programs and certification tests for free.
The classes range from the basic, like how to use the Internet and send email, to advanced classes for using Microsoft applications.
Despite numerous reports that the U.S. has fallen behind many countries in deployment of high speed Internet, it's apparently the model country when it comes to turning information technology like broadband, software and computer networks into economic productivity. The 2009 Connectivity Scorecard has the U.S. atop the rest of the world.
The center of America's technology industry is now feeling the full effects of the global recession, according to a new report from an organization that tracks Silicon Valley's economy.
Joint Venture Silicon Valley says the region held steady throughout 2008, but now is seeing a sharp rise in unemployment as tech companies accelerate layoffs.
The bad economy is likely to blame for a big increase in identity fraud, according to a new study from Javelin Research.
President Obama is promising to use the Web site Recovery.gov to track spending under the economic stimulus bill passed by the U.S. House and being considered by the Senate. But that site hasn't been built yet. Until then, you can follow requests for stimulus money coming from local governments on Stimulus Watch. The new site relies on public contributions - a process sometimes called "crowdsourcing" - to help monitor stimulus spending.
Microsoft announced yesterday it will make the first mass layoffs in its 34-year history, cutting 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months as demand for personal computers falls.
Guest: Matt Rosoff, Directions on Microsoft
Putting content on the Web has never made business sense for the triCity News of Monmouth County, New Jersey. The small, alternative weekly is doing just fine on paper, according to publisher Dan Jacobson.
The worldwide economic slump will hasten the inevitable demise of land line telephones, free tech support, the once-formidable Internet company Yahoo, satellite radio and more, according to according to ComputerWorld.com write Mike Elgan.
Forecasters are expecting a bleak holiday shopping season for the PC industry -- but that means very good prices for those who will be in the market for a new computer, according to Future Tense news analyst Dwight Silverman.
For years YouTube has championed user-generated videos over Hollywood-style programming, and steadfastly avoided obtrusive advertising.
But recently YouTube announced it will sell search terms as part of an advertising program, and secured the rights to post full-length movies from a major Hollywood studio. And that's probably just a taste of what's to come for a site that's captured the world's imagination but has yet to figure out the money thing, according to Greg Sandoval of CNET News.
Megan Wiseman feels like she probably should buy a video game console or two, plus a handful of games -- she works as a technical writer for a video game company and needs to stay on top of the industry.
But with the stock market plunging, job losses increasing, and the threat of greater inflation, she's resisting. The Raleigh, North Carolina resident dumped her cell phone plan in favor of a cheaper pay-as-you-go phone.
"I kind of miss having a gadgety phone and I've been kind of trying to think of how I can work that back into my budget but it just hasn't really been possible," she said.
It's not just the cell phone. Wiseman's also saving money on television.
"I used to have digital cable, you know having a DVR and nifty technology where you can record and fast forward and back up," she said. "And I just couldn't afford that so I just have plain old basic cable."
Wiseman and other members of American Public Media's Public Insight Network recently responded to a questionnaire about how the economy is forcing them to change their technology spending habits.
Derek Hansell, who staffs a technology help desk at a biotech firm in Clinton, New Jersey, said his tech spending has fallen by the wayside. If it weren't for the bleak economic outlook, Hansell said he might now be the proud owner of a 3G iPhone and a new computer graphics card.
"Splurging on technology was something I did readily even just a few years ago," he said. "Those kinds of things just aren't happening anymore."
Hansell is even cutting back on small purchases like 99 cent songs from iTunes.
Ellen Crain, a home-schooling mother from Hudson, Wisconsin, feels she needs to save money to soften the blow of a deep recession, so she's nixing any new cell phones, and found a creative solution to the recent demise of her DirecTV receiver.
"I ended up calling my parents who had had the same satellite service and had switched over to cable and they shipped me their old box that had been sitting in the basement," she said. "So we've upgraded to my parents hand-me-downs."
Scary economic news actually prompted one person to make a big purchase. Software writer Lisa Twede of Burbank, California bought a computer so she could work more hours outside the office as a way to boost her standing in the eye of her company.
"I had to buy a laptop so I could work from wherever and it's turned out to be quite a blessing because I can kind of like take even more vacations now because I can just take the laptop with me," she said. "I just went to Canada and I just worked there for a week."
An urgency to spend money before it's gone prompted Anna B. Scott, an assistant professor of dance history and theory, to requisition a much-needed external hard drive from her school, the University of California Riverside. She's afraid her budget is about to dry up.
"So I just went ahead and found an external drive that came in under $250 and I'm going to use some of my research funds to get that," she said.
Not everyone is cutting back on technology of course. Some people told us they're vetoing other household budget items to protect their need for tech.
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