Mike Elgan

Apple announced a few new products yesterday, including a new thin and light iPad Air model. But mostly, the event was an assault on its old rival Microsoft. Always disciplined in messaging, the message from Apple was loud and clear: Microsoft has no vision and their software is wildly overpriced. Apple CEO Tim Cook had […]

I read The New York Times on Sunday. It was weird. Although I was a devoted subscriber and reader of the paper for many years, the idea of sitting down to a physical newspaper and reading through the sections felt alien. As I sat there and read, I felt the constant pull of my smartphone […]

So you want to buy an electric toothbrush. But where? If you’re like millions of people, you’ll just head straight to Amazon.com and buy it there. Why? Because it’s super easy. Amazon is easy for three reasons. First, you know Amazon is going to have a good selection of electric toothbrushes. Second, you know they’re […]

Now that we’ve endured the unpleasant spectacle of Steve Ballmer crying over the loss of the company he ruined during his 14 years as CEO, it’s time to focus on who put Ballmer in charge in the first place: Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates. Three major Microsoft investors are pushing the company’s board to […]

It’s time to stop thinking of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets as glorified eBook readers. These tablets are sharks in the water, and they’re looking to gobble up Apple and Google market share. Amazon’s New Kindle Lineup Amazon announced three new tablets today, and updated one old one. The new tablets have impressive specs and should […]

When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer fell onto a glass coffee table, shattering it and cutting his forehead, he let out a shriek. Upon hearing the noise from a closed conference room, nearby Nokia executives assumed Ballmer was reacting to their counter-proposal. It was a reasonable assumption under the circumstances. The negotiations between Microsoft and Nokia […]

Apple announced a host of insignificant new iPhone features yesterday, including the bold use of plastic, wacky colors, 64-bit ARM chips and a higher-quality camera. Don’t get me wrong. Each of these features is desirable to someone. But all of them are insignificant in that they won’t change how people use their phones. They won’t […]

Apple will almost certainly announce Tuesday two new phone lines, the iPhone 5C and 5S lines. But the real event happens Wednesday, when Apple will announce the same phones in China (September 11 at Beijing’s World Trade Center, of all dates and places). This is the first such launch event for Apple in China. Why […]

Everyone was stunned by the scale of the NSA’s data capture in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. Wait, you mean they’re planning to keep a copy of all communication? Everything? In truth, the NSA is just ahead of the curve. Pretty soon, anyone who wants to will be able to cheaply and easily […]

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg today announced a partnership called internet.org, which exists to provide Internet access to 5 billion people who don’t currently have it. In our world, of course, it seems like everybody’s already on the Internet. In fact, just 2.7 billion people are online. Facebook’s goal would triple the population of […]