“How Google and Apple’s digital mapping is mapping us”:

“The map is mapping us,” says Martin Dodge, a senior lecturer in human geography at Manchester University. “I’m not paranoid, but I am quite suspicious and cynical about products that appear to be innocent and neutral, but that are actually vacuuming up all kinds of behavioural and attitudinal data.”

“The Whole In Our Thinking About Augmented Reality”:

“… while Team Augmented Reality does a great job of explaining the enmeshment of ‘online’ and ‘offline’, and what the difference between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ isn’t, we need to do a much better job of explaining clearly what the difference between ‘online’ and ‘offline’ actually is.”

“Impatience As Digital Virtue”:

“Apple isn’t selling a fantasy but instead asks us to literally change — intellectually and emotionally — our default relationship with information.”

“The New Furby Review: Absolute Horror”: No, seriously, read this. Quite entertaining.

“Furby actually makes you want to hurt it somehow—if only it had feelings—so that you can punish it for existing. You begin to feel like a wrathful deity.”

“Generation Smartphone: The smartphone’s role as constant companion, helper, coach, and guardian has only just begun”:

“But the SmartPhone 20.0 won’t be just a high-tech baby monitor. Rather, the device or smart mobile devices like it will serve as nanny, nurse, or golf caddy—the perfect assistant for people of all ages. If you think that people can’t seem to make a move without consulting their phones today, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Update — More on Google maps from Alexis Madrigal here: “How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means for the Future of Everything.”