What's Tech?
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What's Tech?
Enjoy the archives of this retired, award-winning series from Christopher Thomas Plante and The Verge that explained technology bit by bit. The series finale aired December 6th, 2016, shortly before Chris re-joined Polygon as its executive editor. For more on what’s happening now (and next) in techn...
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The What’s Tech series finale
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 cult...
What are Snapchat Spectacles, and do I have to be a teen to wear them?
Snapchat Spectacles, the mysterious and incredibly hyped hardware from Snap, Inc., have arrived. Vending machines for the video camera sunglasses are...
How smartphone cameras took over the world
In the early 2000s, the digital photography revolution made it possible for miniaturized camera hardware and image sensors to be packed into cell phon...
How HTTPS is slowly but surely making the internet safer
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 we...
Why is everyone making GIFs of themselves?
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 p...
How immersive haunted houses and participatory plays are making Halloween scarier
Here at The Verge, we love Halloween and everything about it. Horror movies, non-horror seasonal movies, seasonal beverages, seasonal bots, this Pumpk...
Why smartphone batteries explode, and why they may get worse
Samsung has officially recalled the Galaxy Note 7 worldwide, after more than 90 of the large smartphones in the US overheated due to defective batteri...
How Snapchat’s goofy faces made everyone comfortable with selfies
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...
The good and bad news of the Earth-sized planet Proxima Centauri b
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...
A few simple tech tips for living in a dorm or a New York apartment
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A simple explanation of No Man’s Sky and its internet-fueled controversy
The first trailer for No Man’s Sky, published in December 2013, promised a universe with enough planets, creatures, and vegetation that it could not b...
Hate going to the grocery store? Maybe it's time to try food-delivery services
Imagine if grocery shopping was just another online subscription service, like Netflix or Spotify. You complete a survey, sharing your likes and disli...
Why Sony and Microsoft are already announcing and releasing new consoles
A new round of video game consoles has began last week with the release of Microsoft’s One S. The slim, white hardware is a minor upgrade to the origi...
Is your neighborhood the next great social media app?
I had never heard of Nextdoor when I lived in New York City. Social media services catering to individual neighborhoods weren’t useful in an apartment...
A podcast explains the power of podcasts
For 72 episodes, What’s Tech has invited guests to explain technology and its cultural periphery — from drones and fan fiction to ASMR and biohacking....
Why Pokémon Go is a hit, how it helped Nintendo, and when its moment could fizz out
Pokémon Go had a week unlike any video game I’ve covered in my career. Here’s a collection of the posts we penned last week, ranging from players find...
The agony and the ecstasy of life as a webcomic artist
As a teenager, my only interaction with the world of webcomics was Achewood. Launched in 2001 and published sporadically ever since, Achewood is like...
How The Bachelor became social media’s favorite sporting event
"Is The Bachelor tech?" You might ask this question while listening to this week’s episode of What’s Tech, a podcast that provides introductory explai...
What you need to know about doxxing, the average internet user’s nightmare
My entire body clenches when I hear the word doxxing. Each time I write something that, for whatever reason, upsets a corner of the internet, I wonder...
What you should know about torrenting
I was a teenager in the days of Napster and LimeWire, when illegal files flowed through the internet like free hamburgers through a freshman dormitory...
How a computer the size of a credit card is changing education — and GameBoy emulators
For longer than I would like to admit, I thought Raspberry Pi was a dessert. I'm not proud of that. Fortunately, I eventually learned what Raspberry P...
How people play Nintendo games on a computer, and why that's probably illegal
Whether or not you've used a video game emulator yourself — and if you have, it's okay, I'm not gonna snitch — it's impossible to deny their prevalenc...
What are graphics cards, and why do you want one?
Graphics cards! So hot right now. Whether it's the slow realization that jumping on board with the 2016 VR revolution requires a tricked-out gaming ri...
Everything you wanted to know about Drake, but were too afraid to ask
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Drake is a former child actor, current pop star, and the secular god of memes — even if he denounces that l...
Why movie theaters should and shouldn't be afraid of VOD
A couple weeks ago, my friend and colleague Bryan Bishop visited Las Vegas for a flashy conference called CinemaCon, where movie studios and theater o...
Why the future of video games may be free-to-play
If you own a smartphone or have a Facebook account, odds are you've played a free-to-play game. Maybe you grew crops in Farmville or scrimmaged in Cla...
What is a gadget blog, anyway?
This week, The Verge launched a gadget blog. It's called Circuit Breaker, and you can read about its origin and purpose in The New York Times. Paul Mi...
Why bots are the new big thing, and what that means for ordering pizza
2016 is shaping up to be the year of the bot. Late last month, Microsoft made a big bet on tools that will help developers create artificial intellige...
Why artificial intelligence is more important than ever and how it will change our lives
For nearly 60 episodes, one question has persisted through What's Tech: what is happening in the ending of Steven Spielberg's 2001 sci-fi film A.I. Ar...
What is Slack, why is everybody using it, and will it destroy my work-life balance?
I love Slack, the mega-popular corporate-friendly chat client. I love it so much that I desperately want to delete it from my phone, because I can't h...
Wrestlemania: why you should watch, even if pro wrestling isn't your thing
This Sunday the WWE will host the Super Bowl of professional wrestling. Wrestlemania will takeover the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, which has a maxi...
Everything you need to know about the Hyperloop, a potential transportation game-changer
In 2013, billionaire eccentric inventor Elon Musk announced an idea called the Hyperloop: a super-fast, low-friction transportation system that looked...
Dota 2: an explainer for newcomers and the confused family of addicts
A $3 million vide game tournament is happening right now in Shanghai, China, pitting 16 of the best Dota 2 teams against each other. But what, pray te...
Before the driverless car, there was the PRT
My colleague Adi Robertson, I recently learned, is a fan of oddball transportation. On our work trip to the Sundance Film Festival, she gleefully intr...
Encryption: what is it exactly, and who is right about it?
Normally we publish What's Tech on Tuesday morning, but we couldn't hold next week's episode until then. A federal court has requested Apple help the...
Reusable rockets could send you to space — eventually
Coverage of SpaceX and Blue Origin, the two private companies pursuing the reusable rocket, is near inescapable. Maybe you watched a launch on our sit...
It's time to give film cameras a second chance
I am perpetually envious of my friend and colleague Sam Byford. He lives in Tokyo, and has access to new Hatsune Miku vinyls, Nintendo 3DS limited edi...
The Super Bowl: how to sound like an expert
Super Bowl 50 approaches with the reliability of the morning sun, and yet, you still have so many questions. There are the obvious questions, which I...
Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal: which service is right for you?
I've used Spotify for a few years, but I'm curious if I should make a switch to one of the dozen and change alternate music streaming services. Apple...
What is Sundance?
[Apologies, the original file uploaded incorrectly. This is the complete episode.]
My options at the movies this week include a 1980s Dublin-set...