Steve Henn
Steve Henn is NPR's technology correspondent based in Menlo Park, California, who is currently on assignment with Planet Money. An award winning journalist, he now covers the intersection of technology and modern life - exploring how digital innovations are changing the way we interact with people we love, the institutions we depend on and the world around us. In 2012 he came frighteningly close to crashing one of the first Tesla sedans ever made. He has taken a ride in a self-driving car, and flown a drone around Stanford's campus with a legal expert on privacy and robotics.
But Steve's favorite technology stories are the ones that explain how little-understood innovations can change the way millions of us behave. Why do people buy cows in Farmville? Why are video games so compelling and why do some people have such a hard time setting Twitter aside? He is fascinated by how digital companies attempt to mold our behavior and study our every move in a world where we are constantly interacting with connected devices.
Prior to moving to Silicon Valley in 2010, Steve covered a wide range of topics for the public radio show Marketplace. His reporting kicked off the congressional travel scandals in late 2004, and helped expose the role of private military contractors at Abu Ghraib.
At Marketplace, Henn helped establish collaborations with the Center for Public Integrity and the Medill's School of Journalism.
Steve spent his early life on a farm in Iowa where his parents, who are biochemists, hoped to raise all their own food and become energy self-sufficient. It didn't work. During college Steve hoped to drop out and support himself by working in the fishing industry in Alaska. That also didn't work. After college he biked around the country with his sweetheart, Emily Johnson. He then followed Emily to Africa, volunteering at Soweto Community Radio. That did work out. He and Emily are now happily married with three daughters.
Steve graduated from Wesleyan University's College of Social Studies with honors and Columbia University's Graduate school of Journalism.
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In Silicon Valley and around the world there are thousands of folks toiling away on new technologies, convinced that the thing they are building will transform the way we live. NPR's Steve Henn introduces us to five techies whose research and work he'll be keeping a close eye on in the coming year.
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This week, Microsoft will roll out the largest upgrade of its Windows software in more than a decade. And for the first time, it's marketing a tablet, called Surface. Microsoft still commands a formidable computing empire, but it's an empire under siege.
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While the new iPhone 5 has a number of new features designed to entice Apple loyalists into an upgrade, the decision to introduce a new connector could cause a bit of domestic chaos.
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You could soon pay for a latte at Starbucks simply by walking into the store with a smartphone in your pocket and giving the cashier your name. Square, a San Francisco-based payments startup unveiled a deal Wednesday with the world's largest coffee chain that will move its mobile payments products into Starbucks stores around the world.
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The Wall Street Journal says the days of "wild user growth appear to be over" at Facebook. The Next Web says Facebook is "eating the world" (except for China and Russia). Taking a closer look at the numbers, both stories can be right.
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A report issued Tuesday by the environmental advocacy group found fault with Microsoft, Amazon and Apple. Greenpeace ranked the companies according to the efficiency of their cloud facilities, as well as where they get their electricity.
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Eye glasses with computing power have long been sci-fi fantasy, relegated to Terminator movies and the like. But now it appears Google may be a few months from selling a beta version of their own.
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A fleet of Google's robotic cars has been tested more than 200,000 miles over highways and city streets. And Nevada has finalized rules that give special driving permits to the self-driving cars.
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Facebook's Timeline — the long anticipated overhaul of the site — is rolling out across the world this week. Your old posts and photos could be about to make a comeback, so you need to spend some time cleaning house.
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Apple has been taking a lot of heat lately for working conditions at plants making its products in China. Some of the tech giant's largest suppliers are repeat offenders.