Recommended Reads on the Mobile Beat This Week
A roundup of some of the most interesting stories about mobile technology from other sites, collected by Rachel Metz, MIT Technology Review’s senior editor for mobile.
Paris Attacks Fan Encryption Debate
A story in the Wall Street Journal citing sources “familiar with the matter” explains how the U.S. government is continuing to push tech companies to loosen mobile communications encryption, this time in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
A Virtual Reality Revolution, Coming to a Headset Near You
If you’re still confused about the state of virtual reality, this piece in the New York Times gives a good overview, highlighting some of the most influential creators of virtual-reality content—both computer-generated and live-action—and the headsets you’ll use to view it. Some are available today, others are still to come.
Review: Samsung Gear VR
And more on the virtual-reality beat: reviews are coming out for Samsung’s new Gear VR headset, which requires one of several Samsung smartphones to function. Wired calls Samsung’s new device “the most robust VR system you can have until dedicated desktop systems arrive next year.”
Square Goes Public and Fields a Flood of Customer Complaints
This story from NPR’s All Tech Considered explains how some small businesses who use Square, the mobile payment company that had its initial public offering this week, are mysteriously having their accounts frozen.
Tinder? I’m an Addict, Says Hook-Up App’s Co-Creator and CEO, Sean Rad
Oh, my. This Wednesday piece in the London Evening Standard, an interview with hook-up/dating app Tinder’s Sean Rad, is definitely interesting. In it, Rad talks about how many women he’s slept with, when he lost his virginity, and so on—all just before The Match Group, which owns Tinder, was slated to start trading publicly (that happened on Thursday). Match Group soon responded with this SEC filing distancing itself from Rad’s words.