Blog
Lamborghini’s Revuelto Is Its First Hybrid
Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann claims that the company is on a path marked by four things: sustainability, digitalization, urbanization, and geopolitics. For the carmaker that has provided so much visual fuel for car-obsessed teenagers the world over this past 60...
North Korea Is Now Mining Crypto to Launder Its Stolen Loot
In the cryptocurrency ecosystem, coins have a story, tracked in the unchangeable blockchains underpinning their economy. The only exception, in some sense, is cryptocurrency that's been freshly generated by its owner's computational power. So it figures that North...
Technology Addiction Has Created a Self-Help Trap
For years, I sat down to work each morning, realizing hours later that I felt drained, but got little done. Instead of writing, I spent my time texting, emailing, and mostly aimlessly browsing through news sites, blogs, and social networks. Every click triggered...
7 Best Electric Toothbrushes (2023): Cheap, Smart, Kids, and Alternatives
I hate brushing my teeth. I do it, yeah, because I have to, but it’s a time-consuming, uncomfortable process—two minutes standing in front of the mirror can feel like an eternity. My dentist says I brush too harshly as well. And don't even get me started on...
To Hold Tech Accountable, Look to Public Health
How is it that public health has delivered on its promise to improve the lives of millions, while failing to resolve the dramatic health disparities of people of color in the US? And what can the movement for tech governance learn from these failures?Through 150 years...
The Best MacBook Accessories (2023): Keyboards, External Monitors, and Sleeves
The MacBook is a powerful machine. Whether you're using a MacBook Air for web browsing and sending emails or a MacBook Pro for graphics-intensive projects like video editing and 3D design, Apple's laptops can handle a wide range of activities. But to enhance your...
Imploring TikTok to “Think of the Children” Misses the Point
nearly every Congressional hearing on Big Tech—whether about data privacy, monopolies, or in the case of last week’s TikTok hearing, national security—eventually features one or more lawmakers bemoaning something along the lines of, “But think of the children!” At the...
16 Best Wireless Earbuds (2023): Truly Wireless, Cheap, Luxe, and More
Wireless earbuds are one of those ideas that sounded like a dream at first: Pop a little headphone into each ear and listen to music or take calls untethered from everything. The first wireless buds were gigantic, died after a few hours, and had a bunch of other...
Withings Body Comp Scale and Health+ Review: Not Enough for Too Much
Smart scale pioneer Withings has been making Wi-Fi-connected scales for more than a decade. As the Body Comp name suggests, Withings’ latest scales provide a breakdown of your body composition, adding vascular age, visceral fat, and nerve health to the usual list of...
AI Loves—and Loathes—Language
A few years ago, I found myself investigating the thorny problem of Shakespearean authorship. I wanted to know if the anonymous Renaissance play Arden of Faversham (1590) was written partly or entirely by William Shakespeare. Perhaps, I thought, an AI could look over...
Google Rolls Out its Bard Chatbot to Battle ChatGPT
Google isn’t used to playing catch-up in either artificial intelligence or search, but today the company is hustling to show that it hasn’t lost its edge. It’s starting the rollout of a chatbot called Bard to do battle with the sensationally popular ChatGPT. Bard,...
The End of ‘Life’ As You Know It
In 1947, Claude Beck used the defibrillator to undo what was once deemed irreversible: the cessation of the human heart. Only a few years later, the first mass-produced mechanical ventilator began supporting inert bodies through heavy steel lungs. For the first time,...
Netflix Games Is Still Happening. Just Don’t Hold Your Breath
Netflix Games wants to cater to every kind of player. Not only that, says head of external games Leanne Loombe, it wants to be “a publisher that developers from all around the world want to work with.”It’s a lofty goal for a service barely a year into launch. The...
Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 Review: An Adorable Instant Camera for Anyone
The one thing I don't particularly like about the Instax 12 is the look. The body is in the same vein as the Mini 11, with a kind of Bob Ross, fluffy cloud vibe to both the shape and range of available colors. It's fun and playful and I can see why Fuji uses...
Security News This Week: Ring Is in a Standoff With Hackers
What’s more controversial than a popular surveillance camera maker that has an uncomfortably cozy relationship with American police? When ransomware hackers claim to have breached that company—Amazon-owned camera maker Ring—stolen its data, and Ring responds by...
How Venture Capital Can Avoid the Next Silicon Valley Bank Fiasco
In the public imagination, venture capitalists are often seen as independent wealthy actors seeding early-stage companies with their personal money. But the vast majority of VC capital is from “LPs”—or limited partners—including public pensions, university endowments,...
You Don’t Have to Be a Jerk to Resist the Bots
There once was a virtual assistant named Ms. Dewey, a comely librarian played by Janina Gavankar who assisted you with your inquiries on Microsoft’s first attempt at a search engine. Ms. Dewey was launched in 2006, complete with over 600 lines of recorded dialog. She...
16 Best Wired Headphones (2023): In-Ear, Over-Ear, Studio
“I’ve got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret or make me frown …” You’d think, wouldn’t you, that if it was good enough for Pinocchio then it should be good enough for the rest of us? And it’s true, there’s a lot to be said for basic convenience (in general)...