Read CW's new July digital magazine!

Special Report: Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT for 2015

Our 22nd annual report highlights top organizations across the country that offer technology pros challenging projects, robust salaries and flexible work/life options. We identify which employers offer high salaries, superior benefits, and unsurpassed access to training and career advancement opportunities. We also reveal what more than 23,000 IT workers think of their benefits, training, office morale, workplace stress levels and more.

Here are the top organizations for 2015:

No. 1 Large Employer: Quicken Loans

Abundant perks aside, IT team members are drawn in by a culture that values innovation, an entrepreneurial spirit, and the use of technology to drive business goals. 

No. 1 Midsize Employer: Credit Acceptance

Ambitious IT pros are rewarded by this auto financing company with frequent pay raises, substantial bonuses and generous tuition reimbursement. 

No. 1 Small Employer: Noah Consulting

Team-building takes priority at this all-virtual company, which hires top technologists and keeps them happy with compelling assignments and rapid career advancement.

Have the Computerworld Digital Magazine delivered to your inbox each month.

News Analysis

At a crossroads in the automotive technology market, Microsoft is likely to start losing its foothold in the in-vehicle infotainment business, but it may have a future in providing cloud-based services to carmakers.

Shark Tank

Read the latest exploits of hapless bosses and clueless users.

Download the Computerworld Digital Magazine.

After clicking the link above, find the download button that's specific to the browser you're using, click it, then check the folder you have designated for downloads. Please note that this extra-large issue, jam-packed with information on Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT, might take slightly longer than usual to download.

Read CW's new July digital magazine!

Special Report: Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT for 2015

Our 22nd annual report highlights top organizations across the country that offer technology pros challenging projects, robust salaries and flexible work/life options. We identify which employers offer high salaries, superior benefits, and unsurpassed access to training and career advancement opportunities. We also reveal what more than 23,000 IT workers think of their benefits, training, office morale, workplace stress levels and more.

Here are the top organizations for 2015:

No. 1 Large Employer: Quicken Loans

Abundant perks aside, IT team members are drawn in by a culture that values innovation, an entrepreneurial spirit, and the use of technology to drive business goals. 

No. 1 Midsize Employer: Credit Acceptance

Ambitious IT pros are rewarded by this auto financing company with frequent pay raises, substantial bonuses and generous tuition reimbursement. 

No. 1 Small Employer: Noah Consulting

Team-building takes priority at this all-virtual company, which hires top technologists and keeps them happy with compelling assignments and rapid career advancement.

Have the Computerworld Digital Magazine delivered to your inbox each month.

News Analysis

At a crossroads in the automotive technology market, Microsoft is likely to start losing its foothold in the in-vehicle infotainment business, but it may have a future in providing cloud-based services to carmakers.

Shark Tank

Read the latest exploits of hapless bosses and clueless users.

Download the Computerworld Digital Magazine.

After clicking the link above, find the download button that's specific to the browser you're using, click it, then check the folder you have designated for downloads. Please note that this extra-large issue, jam-packed with information on Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT, might take slightly longer than usual to download.

4 news apps that will change everything

I'm a huge fan of newspapers. I've been subscribing to the print edition of The New York Times since I was in college.

Newspapers always had an edge over alternative sources for news, which is that they're run by editors. That's why I also use the individual news apps from the Times, as well as The Wall Street Journal and others.

Software is great, but computers are decades away from being able to even approximate a human editor's ability to combine reason, experience, intuition, taste, judgment and other qualities in developing and presenting stories for human readers.

But I'm also a fan of socially or algorithmically curated sources of news. These have an advantage over newspapers because they can cherry pick the best stories from thousands of sources, including newspapers, magazines, blogs and social networks.

One recent example of a good socially curated news app is Kite, which is currently for iOS only. It's been called the "Instagram of News" because you follow people and get your news based on what they share. Plus you can share to other social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Another interesting advancement is Facebook's Instant Articles, which (like all content on Facebook) uses a combination of socially and algorithmically curated news stories.

Facebook's Instant Articles enable select publications (only nine at present) to build their stories directly into Facebook's iOS app. An Android version is expected this summer.

Anything Facebook does with news is, well, big news because, according to a recent Pew Research study, some 61 percent of "millennials" get their political news from Facebook.

When you tap on a news story that uses Facebook Instant Articles, the fully formatted story -- pictures, videos and all -- load instantly in the app. The reason is that they are actually pre-loaded, and also because they're not a link that switches to a browser app. In other words, you don't have to wait for the content to load or the app to switch.

Best of all for publishers, the formatting tools enable each publication's signature look, including typefaces, logos, colors and other design elements. Another benefit for publishers is that they can sell ads that will be delivered through the app, and Facebook isn't demanding a cut.

While Kite and Facebook's Instant Articles are improvements over what existed before, they still aren't likely to transform how the wider public gets their news.