• ALL DEALS
    Why the US Government and Tech Firms Can’t Agree About Encryption

    Your phone is getting better and better at protecting your privacy. But Uncle Sam isn’t totally comfortable with that, because it’s also complicating the work of tracking criminals and potential national-security threats. For decades, tech companies have steadily expanded the use of encryption – a data-scrambling technology that shields information from prying eyes, whether it’s […]

  • ALL DEALS
    For Some People, the Older the Smartphone, the Better

    Between splashy launches, lavish new-phone offers (get a free HDTV on activation!) and frequent software updates that slow down your old handset, it sometimes feels like the entire technology industry is pushing you to buy the latest smartphone. Yet some holdouts resist. Take Zak Sommerfield, 35, a software analyst in New York, who has hung […]