What's Tech | The Verge

The What’s Tech series finale

2016-12-06T13:52:48-05:00

When I started at The Verge in 2014, I needed an excuse to learn about technology. My background was in covering video games, television, and pop culture, and I lacked the basic cognitive functions to hold a phone above my head without dropping it on my face. So I launched a podcast called What's Tech.

For two years, the show was an opportunity to learn the fundamentals about the technology that supports everyday life. Free to ask silly, obvious, and embarrassing questions, I learned a ton. I hope you did, too. After all, my favorite takeaway from the podcast was that I wasn't alone. We often take tech for granted, like a magical apparatus …

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What are Snapchat Spectacles, and do I have to be a teen to wear them?

2016-11-16T10:07:52-05:00

Snapchat Spectacles, the mysterious and incredibly hyped hardware from Snap, Inc., have arrived. Vending machines for the video camera sunglasses are springing up around the country, first in California and Oklahoma, and who knows where else next.

Verge senior reporter Bryan Bishop joined me this week to talk about his experience hunting down Spectacles and whether we're all going to feel like olds wearing them. Also, what's the deal with this circular video format?

Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories …

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How smartphone cameras took over the world

2016-10-25T10:00:23-04:00

In the early 2000s, the digital photography revolution made it possible for miniaturized camera hardware and image sensors to be packed into cell phones without adding a significant amount of weight. Then the iPhone was announced. As the smartphone war began, the camera became an important part of the ongoing spec race. Competitors tried to beat Apple in making an excellent camera (and app) that was easy to use - and it took until this year for that to start happening.

Now, two-thirds of adults in the US own a smartphone. The average smartphone user takes at least 150 photos per month. Instagram has half a billion monthly users. Even if it' …

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How HTTPS is slowly but surely making the internet safer

2016-10-19T12:06:59-04:00

Over the past couple years web security has become a staple of the nightly news. The stories usually hinge on government leaks, foreign hackers, or web encryption. There's menacing subtext that practically everything put online is vulnerable to "cyber attacks." Though one might wonder what steps are being taken to protect not just the government and giant corporations, but you, the individual. What keeps you safe when you stumble your way into a Wikipedia hole or click a strange link sent from a friend?

To find out, I invited my colleague Russell Brandom to talk about web security, and particularly HTTPS. As Russell explains, while your in …

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Why is everyone making GIFs of themselves?

2016-10-13T10:32:59-04:00

Our most sacred and special task as human beings is to document our own existence with a single-minded dedication. That's why we have massive iCloud photo libraries, 15GB of video of that really cool Springsteen concert on our phones, Instagram accounts for ourselves, our pets, and our alter egos, and dusty yearbooks stacked up in our closets. The latest in this personal digital archive: personal GIFs. Apps like Boomerang, Motion Stills, Giphy, DSCO, and more help us make GIFs and other short, looping videos of life's most precious moments. And of course, of life's most 'grammable sammies.

Locked in a box with ur girl @ashleycarman, talkin …

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New haunted houses plan to scare you before you even arrive

2016-10-06T09:52:24-04:00

Here at The Verge, we love Halloween and everything about it. Horror movies, non-horror seasonal movies, seasonal beverages, seasonal bots, this Pumpkin Guy, horrifying makeup tutorials , poop-shaped candy - bring it on. In particular, we love to be scared. It gives us a sweet little adrenaline burst to get us across the daunting dark tundra of November to April.

This Hallo-season, senior entertainment reporter Bryan Bishop has embarked on a journey to find the most immersive, creative, and high-tech scares in all of Los Angeles. In a new series called "The Future of Fear," he's taking us where were are too chicken to go (or maybe just to st …

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Why smartphone batteries explode, and why they may get worse

2016-09-20T10:41:58-04:00

Samsung has officially recalled the Galaxy Note 7 worldwide, after more than 90 of the large smartphones in the US overheated due to defective batteries. Overheating is, in this case, an understatement, as some owners have claimed their smartphones outright exploded. Exploding lithium-ion batteries actually aren't so uncommon. As my colleagues Angela Chen and Lauren Goode noted earlier this month, there are many ways for a lithium-ion battery to become dangerous, and they aren't limited to any one smartphone or electronic device.

"An exploding phone seems like a freak accident," write Chen and Goode, "but the same chemical properties that m …

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How Snapchat’s goofy faces made everyone comfortable with selfies

2016-09-13T11:46:17-04:00

I didn't take many selfies until I downloaded Snapchat. But like so many people I've fallen in love with lenses, the optional tools that make my face look like a dog or an emoji or an advertisement for junk food. Now, a day doesn't go by that I don't mug into my front-facing camera.

The magic of lenses is how they erase the perception of the selfie as an act of narcissism - an insipid criticism that comes from a certain clump of people who feel the need to bash people for showing a fleck of confidence. Why didn't I take selfies? I was too embarrassed. Anyway! I digress!

I'm clearly fascinated by the popularity and power of lenses, so I inv …

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The good and bad news of the Earth-sized planet Proxima b

2016-09-08T13:16:26-04:00

Late last month, news broke of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. Orbiting the closest star to our Solar System, there's a lot to love about Proxima b since it shares a few key traits with our own home planet.

But before we start making intergalactic vacation plans, let's pump the space-brakes: half the planet is locked in darkness, it's pelted by radiation from close proximity to its sun, and the rock is 25 trillion miles away. Our current best option for sending a probe there involves a laser-propelled space-sail, which would reduce travel time from tens of thousands of years to 20. Which is to say, while potentially astonishing, even the …

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A few simple tech tips for living in a dorm or New York apartment

2016-08-30T12:36:38-04:00

Back to School Guide 2016

Because you have clicked this story, I will assume you have moved into your first dorm room, continue to live in a small apartment because modern rent charges are stacked against us, or you have a perverse fascination with confined spaces. Whatever the case, welcome.

Normally on What's Tech we focus on a single topic. Tiny computers. Encryption. No Man's Sky. But today, my friend and colleague Ross Miller and I will have a conversation about the simple ways tech can improve dorm life. We'd like to experiment with the show's structure now and then, so feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Subscribe to What's Tech on iTune …

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