Technology & Digital Life

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

Let's begin our show this Christmas Day with a look back at a business development this year that took many investors by surprise. Just over three months ago, Apple's stock hit a record high - for a few days in September a single share was selling for more than $700. But since then, Apple's stock has tanked. In December, it traded briefly below $500 a share.

Social media experts Baratunde Thurston, author of the book How to Be Black, and Deanna Zandt, author of Share This: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking, answer questions about how to behave in the digital age. This week's topic: What's the rule for spending more time with technology than family during the holidays?

We want to say thank you.

Our colleague Kate Myers has been helping us look back on The Two-Way's year — the most popular posts, the most frequent commenters, the heaviest traffic days and other such measures. We'll share some of what she's found in coming days.

But something Kate just turned up strikes us as worth noting right away.

In August 2011, Debbie Jo Lashaway was charged with theft. She was arraigned and booked in Lucas County, Ohio, and her mug shot was taken.

Seven months later, the charges were dismissed and her record was sealed — effectively removing the theft charge from her public record. Six months after that, she even won a judgment against the man who accused her of theft, declaring the charge bogus and awarding her thousands of dollars in damages.

No big surprise here:

About 20 people walked into the room, sat down and slid their phones, iPads and other devices toward the center of the table. It was the last session of the conference, and the rules were simple.