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Tech Week: Egg Freezing, Gamergate And Online Giving

Apple and Facebook's decisions to pay for female employees to freeze their eggs sparked a lively debate on the message it sends to women.
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Apple and Facebook's decisions to pay for female employees to freeze their eggs sparked a lively debate on the message it sends to women.

How will technology and gaming need to change to be welcoming for women? We've been exploring the issue for years. This week, the debate rages anew with a development out of Silicon Valley, and a new chapter in the still raging Gamergate controversy.

ICYMI

Egg Freezing: Apple and Facebook's new benefit that provides for egg freezing is supposed to be women-friendly, but the reaction is mixed. There are plenty of folks who think this only encourages women to put off having kids for the sake of work.

How Millennials Are Changing Philanthropy: The generation coming of age is totally game to give, but not in the same way as our parents did, as as I explained for All Things Considered.

The Big Conversation

Gamergate Still Raging: The swirling Gamergate situation and its backlash hit the front page of The New York Times, after feminist videoblogger Anita Sarkeesian canceled an appearance in Utah for fear that a shooting massacre would be carried out. The leading video game trade group has stepped in, saying violence and harassment "have to stop."

HBO Streaming (Without Cable): In a move that could signal the unraveling of cable bundles, HBO said Wednesday it will offer a streaming service to cord-cutters and other nonsubscribers. The following day, CBS said it too would offer a streaming service, for $5.99 a month.

Curiosities

Wired: A Smartwatch That Projects Buttons Onto Your Skin

Smartwatches have a real estate problem. This tries to solve it by expanding the buttons to space on your wrist.

The Guardian: Whisper Tracks Its Anonymous Users

The secret confession app is coming under fire after The Guardian's piece this week.

The Verge: This MasterCard with a built-in fingerprint sensor is coming in 2015

So, you think using your smartphone to pay at the checkout register is cool? MasterCard announced a new kind of card that will use your thumbprint to authenticate payments without swiping.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Elise Hu is a host-at-large based at NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Previously, she explored the future with her video series, Future You with Elise Hu, and served as the founding bureau chief and International Correspondent for NPR's Seoul office. She was based in Seoul for nearly four years, responsible for the network's coverage of both Koreas and Japan, and filed from a dozen countries across Asia.