Tech Week: Voice Mail Hang-Ups, Apple Pay And Zuckerberg's Chinese

By Elise Hu

Published October 25, 2014 at 5:40 AM EDT

Apple Pay is promoted on signs placed at the cash register of a Whole Foods supermarket in New York.

It's the weekend, which means it's time to look back on the week in technology that was. As your handy NPR One listening app says, here we go...

ICYMI

Please Do Not LeaveVoice Mail: As part of our ongoing #newboom series, Rachel Rood reports on how annoying voice mail is to millennials. If it's important enough, just text me, younger generations say.

Online Gaming And Women: The Pew Research Center released its first ever study on online harassment and found that there's one online space where people don't perceive women and men are treated equally — gaming. In light of the ongoing, sprawling #Gamergate crisis, it probably surprises no one.

The Big Conversation

Apple Pay Debuts: With Apple's new mobile payment system, a major shift away from credit cards and wallets could be happening. But as Aarti Shahani noted on Morning Edition, other vendors have tried this before and failed.

iCloud And The Chinese?: A group claims the Chinese government supported an attack against users of Apple's iCloud service, and experts fear it may be a harbinger of more attacks to come.

Curiosities

BuzzFeed: Facebook Rebukes DEA For Impersonating Woman Online

The company isn't happy the Drug Enforcement Administration created a phony Facebook page using a real woman's name, without her knowledge.

Wired: New Tablet Case Recognizes Sign Language and Translates It Into Text

A California startup is developing a case for tablets that can serve as a virtual interpreter for deaf people.

NPR: Mark Zuckerberg Shows Off His Mandarin Chinese Skills

During a visit to a Beijing university, the Facebook co-founder and CEO conducted a full Q&A in Mandarin Chinese. It's tonally cringe worthy, but he got a lot of props for his commitment.