The job of CIO is becoming increasingly difficult as we move further into the 3rd Platform era – but pressure to keep costs down, maintain a consistent infrastructure, and to innovate has left many CIOs flat-footed, playing a catch-up game trying to integrate new innovations rather than driving them.

UK theme park Alton Towers will combine the thrill of a roller coaster with the visual excitement generated by virtual reality in a world-first new ride called Galactica, which will launch in the next few months. Riders will climb aboard and become Galactinauts, blasted into space through a 10ft portal at the start of the two-minute ride, then out into amazing galaxies and beyond.

Say “hello,” “bonjour,” “konichiwa” and “salaam” to a wearable device called “ili” that translates your speech in real time. It looks like a USB flash drive, hangs around your neck and works without an Internet or cellular connection. You could be thousands of feet in the air or stuck in a subway, and ili will still work.

Untag that sweet bong-rip, Chad: American parents keep close tabs on their kids’ digital lives, a new survey finds. Nearly half say they go through their teen’s cell phone history, while a majority check web history and social media accounts. The survey, which was run by the Pew Research Center, collected responses from parents of teens ages 13 to 17. All told, 1,060 parents answered the survey.

Today, you have a choice between cable broadband Internet, which is expensive, or DSL Internet over your phone line, which is slow.

Operator, won’t you help me place this call? A 9-foot-tall, narrow structure installed this past week on a Manhattan sidewalk is signaling a plan to turn payphones into what’s billed as the world’s biggest and fastest municipal Wi-Fi network.

Life at sea is full of improvising. Ships can only carry so much stuff, and can’t easily go to a warehouse for spare parts, so when something is broken or doesn’t quite work right, the crew has to find a solution with what they have on hand. With a 3-D printer on board, that improvisation becomes really easy, as the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman are finding out. One of two U.S. Navy ships deployed to the Middle East with 3-D printers, the utility of the device seems immediately apparent.

Concerns remain over social media, levels of physical activity A new study from the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) reveals that the large majority of parents believe technology has a positive effect on their child’s future, career and life skills (78%) and creativity (64%). Far more parents are concerned about their child’s personal safety and privacy than kids’ technology use.

There are roughly 1.7 zillion photography apps out there. All of them offer a slew of options to improve your snapshots before you share them, but after testing a whole bunch, we’ve pinpointed one that’ll work great for most smartphone owners. It’s called Afterlight.

U.S. Internet connection speeds have tripled over 3-1/2 years to keep up with consumer demands for streaming video and downloading content but the United States still lags many other countries.