Technology & Digital Life

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish. When Apple recently fired Scott Forstall, the executive in charge of its mobile software unit, a cheer went up among some Apple critics. That's because Forstall championed an approach that has polarized the design community. It's called skeuomorphism. That trash or recycle bin icon on your computer that looks like an old wire trash can? That's skeuomorphic. Ditto Apple's Notes icon, made to look like a yellow legal pad.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Canvassing has long been a part of the political process. But now, new social networking technologies are changing how people go door-knocking. Mobile apps with integrated voter registration rolls make it possible to collect and react to voter sentiment instantly. And a new Facebook tool enables volunteers to evangelize for their candidates like never before.

From member station KQED in San Francisco, Aarti Shahani reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF TAPPING)

"After Sandy, Wired New Yorkers Get Reconnected With Pay Phones: Coin-Eating Retro Devices Baffle Some, Frustrate Many; Moment Merits a Tweet."

That Wall Street Journal story today, about folks in lower Manhattan who have been forced by the power outages and damages in the wake of Superstorm Sandy to seek out an old-fashioned way to make a call, has struck a chord.

T-Mobile and AT&T have cut an emergency deal to share their cellphone networks in areas affected by Superstorm Sandy. They're trying to make it a little easier for customers to get a signal as carriers restore their networks. Some say companies should be forced to make their networks more resilient.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is: Animated eyeballs.

Yuck. It's one of the many ideas that mobile app developers are coming up with to enhance your Halloween experience.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Digital Dudz app - that's D-U-D-Z - allows your smartphone to display blinking eyeballs. The idea is that you cut eye holes in your shirt and duct tape the screen to the inside. You can also display video of a live, beating heart to liven up your costume.

Audie Cornish and Robert Siegel talk about how the Internet has responded to Hurricane Sandy, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg's sign language interpreter and storm photos that seems too fake to be true.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And moving west, now, to the tech world. Microsoft has been trying to break into the smartphone market for years, but it hasn't had much luck. When the iPhone was introduced in 2007 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer derided it as overpriced and poorly designed. Since then, Apple has become the most valuable company in the world and Microsoft has struggled to capture just four percent of global smartphone sales. But NPR's Steve Henn reports the company and Steve Ballmer haven't given up.