This week on The Digital Life, we discuss privacy, security, and the hubbub around the FBI request of Apple to unlock an iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that Apple would not comply with the FBI request, as it would force the company to build a backdoor to the iPhone, an outcome that no reasonable person would find acceptable. The US government and the FBI in particular has a history of misusing information in the name of security, dating back to J. Edgar Hoover. And Apple’s defiance of the FBI comes at a time when the US government is still trying to repair the damage of the Snowden revelations about surveillance and massive data collection. Nonetheless, the government is attempting to force Apple’s compliance insisting that the law, not the company’s technology, should not be the final word on access for data critical to an investigation.

On The Digital Life this week, as a part of our trendspotting series, we discuss the intersection of high tech and clothing.

Clothing is one of humanity’s original technologies — it has protected our bodies for thousands of years. Today, clothing designers are working with multi-disciplinary teams, integrating input from engineers and synthetic biologists into their work. From 3D-printed couture to scarves dyed with bacteria to textiles grown in the lab, emerging tech is creating rapid innovation in the fashion industry. How do people interact with their clothing? How does clothing respond to the environment? And what is the next step? Join us as we discuss all this and more.

Boston MFA Exhibition: #techstyle
15 of the Best Designs Merging Fashion and Technology
Chameleon Clothing Adapts to Its Environment

This week on The Digital Life, we chat about the rapid evolution of design and innovation practice. Chinese companies are increasingly taking an assembly line approach to R&D, which allows them to accelerate the process using multi-functional problem solving teams. By industrializing the process, Chinese companies are looking to make innovative product development quick and inexpensive, using simultaneous, parallel engineering and design. Additionally, IP sharing is commonplace in China: Designs move quickly from one company to the next. For example, the hit toy of the holidays, the hoverboard, was created seemingly simultaneously by several Chinese manufacturers. Join us as we discuss the future of innovation.

Resources
Accelerated Innovation: The New Challenge from China
The Hoverboard Mystery: Where Did The Holidays’ Hot Product Come From?

The world of transportation and logistics is changing rapidly as emerging technologies start to overlap with more traditional industries. In this episode of The Digital Life, we go on a technology trend spotting journey, discussing the intersections of supply chain automation and autonomous trucks, ride sharing and car manufacturing, and drones and passenger vehicles.

Resources
Self-Driving Trucks Are Coming, and They Will Change Everything
GM invests $500 million in Lyft, sets out self-driving car partnership
This Chinese Drone Could Carry Human Passengers