Shift: Living in the Digital Age

In Tel Aviv, start-ups are looking for digital ways to beat traffic in the form of apps that help monitor the flow of vehicles on Israel's roads. Tel Aviv has become Israel's start-up incubator city. Many of the dot-coms here are focusing on mobility apps. The metropolis on the Mediterranean is especially hard hit by congestion and rush hours with tailbacks stretching for kilometers. Apps like Moovit and Waze could provide relief...

Months of fighting have devastated the infrastructure of eastern Ukraine. Now the United Nations is turning to crowdsourcing to help rebuild. As the crisis in Ukraine continues, the United Nations has joined with the European Union and the World Bank to plan the country's reconstruction. The UN Development Program, for instance, has deployed a crowdsourcing platform and a smartphone app under the name "reDonbass". The app allows any user to upload photos of damaged or destroyed structures.

Audio series on unsolved crimes are all the rage. A German reporter has launched his own True Crime podcast, "Who Shot Burak", a real-life murder mystery. Netizens can listen in. Podcasts are programs that can be downloaded from the internet usually for free. Among the most popular audio shows are true crime podcasts such as "Serial" from the US by Sarah Koenig...

Intelligent apps are there to make life easier. Personalized services can do anything from arranging your pictures to telling you about your surroundings. But what do these free services want in return? Your information.A Berlin start-up has developed an app that connects guests with the hotel they're staying at. They use Bluetooth beacons. The hotel benefits from the app because it provides them with data about their guests, which they use to personalize their marketing...

Millions of people the world over have fled their homes. Often, their only information source is the internet. Apps help lead them to safe areas. And refugees can keep in touch with their families online. Migrants get information about routes and border checks, among other things, from the internet. They can also keep in touch with their families back home. A Syrian refugee couple in Berlin talks about what apps and websites they turned to for help on their perilous journey...

A Lagos taxi company is luring customers with free Wi-Fi access during their trip. For the customers, it’s a great way to make use of the time on the road, especially because traffic jams are common in the Nigerian megacity. The service is proving very popular in the congested megacity. Many of regular customers are people traveling to work or business appointments. For them, free Wi-Fi means they can use their taxi ride to get work done...