tech reads

This week in Tech Reads: How the internet is filling up, the horrors in store if your future connected home gets hacked, cyber-stalking reporters for journalism, and more! Iljitsch van Beijnum explains that with Americans running out of IPv4 addresses, the internet is full. [Ars Technica] Mat Honan explores the inevitable horrors of a wildly…

This week in tech reads: What really happens when you shock a dead brain with electricity, the real science behind the summeriest sci-fi movies, ex-Lulzsec hacker walks free, and more! Danny Yadron talks to the man behind the first computer password, and digs into how this whole password thing got so out of control. [WSJ]…

This week’s Tech Reads covers books, brains, octopus arms, and more. Meanwhile, the Gizmodo team is hanging out at our Home of the Future in Manhattan. We’ll be here all week, and we’ve got some great events planned, so come say hello! Erik Sofge digs into an increasingly relevant question regarding the future of autonomy:…

This week in Tech Reads: DIY electronic brain stimulation, a chat with the man who invented the browser tab, the strange hi-caffeine soda that fuels Germany’s hackers, and so much more! Greg Miller looks at the strangely adventurous world of do-it-yourselfers experimenting with electronic brain stimulation, using home-brewed hardware and inspired by a small clutch…

There’s tons of talk about fitness trackers, but do any of them live up to the hype? Where did the internet phrase “me IRL” come from? What’s the internal pressure of a decomposing whale? Answers to all this and more, in this week’s Tech Reads. Nick Bilton takes a long hard look at fitness tracking…

This week in Tech Reads: how data from Apollo 12 debunked the “skydiver meteorite,” facial recognition software that performs better than the human brain, a literary easter egg on Amazon’s Kindle, and more, more, more! Philip Metzger explains how Apollo 12 discoveries proved that the “meteorite” caught on video whizzing by a Norwegian skydiver was…

This week in Tech Reads: the biological basis behind yawning, the suspicious backroom deals that undergird “sound science,” high-tech toilets, and a Silicon Valley inventor who’s either a prolific genius or a criminal con-man. And more! Maria Konnikova delves into the long and strange history of the ways scientists have investigated a misunderstood thing we…

This week in Tech Reads, record-breaking mystery spacecraft, tricks to finding life on other planets, tweaking real-life toys to win kids’ attention away from apps, and more! Kyle Mizokami brings us the story of the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B, an experimental unmanned space shuttle that’s been orbiting earth for a record-breaking span of nearly 500…

This week in Tech Reads: coal, animal actors, wasteful government spending, and more! Coal provides 40% of the world’s electricity. It’s also a killer, whether by dangerous mining conditions or the toxic pollution it produces. Michelle Nijhuis takes a long look at how coal is produced and consumed, and asks, can it ever be clean?…

This week in Tech Reads: emoji, stolen passports, and what happens to our digital avatars when we die. And more! Caroline Porter examines the strange and wonderful new language that is emoji, through the lens of people like Laura Ustick, who’s launching a campaign to add a hot dog icon to the texting and Twitter…

This week in Tech Reads: micro-entrepreneurship, New Mexico’s curious investment in space tourism, and the history of the veggie burger. And so much more! Sarah Kessler goes inside the “gig economy,” spending a month doing freelance odd jobs found through sites like TaskRabbit and Mechanical Turk. It ain’t the easy life. [Fast Company] Gizmodo alum…

This week in Tech Reads: internet drones, bee brain surgery, the continued search for Flight 370, and more. Jordan Golson explains how, despite all the tracking and navigation technology out there, it’s still possible to lose an airplane in 2014. [Wired] Brian Fung shows us how we know that Flight 370 kept flying for hours…

This week in Tech Reads: bandwidth on the battlefield, making a chart-topping app without ever learning to code, how glowing screens are messing with our sleep, and much more. Don’t forget to change your clocks! Brendan Koerner shows how the next development in warfare will be controlling and commandeering bandwidth for communications and more. [Wired]…

This week in Tech Reads: experimental energy, polar bears on Google Street View, how movies and TV portray tech, and lots—tons!—more. Tara Isabella Burton contemplates the real originators of the selfie: “the silk-waistcoated dandies of nineteenth-century Paris.” [The Paris Review Daily] Derek Thompson peers into the mysterious numbers surrounding House of Cards. Based on number…

This week in Tech Reads: tracking down hackers, peering inside a marketing “war room,” examining gender on Facebook, and more. Nicole Perlroth profiles Brian Krebs, the security blogger who first uncovered numerous hacking events, including the recent Target credit card hack. [The New York Times] Brendan Farrington shows how federal prisoners are using smuggled cell…

This week in Tech Reads: area codes, Facebook comments, and who’s really benefiting from Google+? It’s our weekly roundup of smart takes from around the web on this tech-driven world we live in. Simon Parkin considers the perhaps outmoded view that longer-playing video games are inherently better. [The New Yorker] Astronomy and astrophysics professor Jason…

This week in Tech Reads: Microsoft’s new CEO, Steve Wozniak’s view of where Apple should head next, ancient computer art, and much more! In The New Yorker, Matt Buchanan gives us a view of how Microsoft, and its new CEO Satya Nadella, want the world to look. [The New Yorker] Long-time Apple guy Steve Wozniak…

In this week’s Tech Reads: robot ethics, training to fly in space, the history of the selfie, and so much more. Ken Auletta looks at how Netflix is changing television, starting with the company’s early days courting Blockbuster. [The New Yorker] Jerry Saltz gives us a history of the selfie. Turns out, it’s been around…

This week in Tech Reads: Twitter, YouTube, Her, and much more! New York Times film critic A.O. Scott recounts the weird turn of events when one of his tweets turned into an advertisement for Inside Llewyn Davis, and what happened next. [NYTimes] Ryan Graff explains how the New York Times’ most popular item of 2013…

Why do videos go viral, while audio doesn’t? What’s the most high-tech music device you can purchase in prison? Who were the first meme cats? Answers to all this, and more, in this week’s Tech Reads! Dave Girard looks at the rise and fall of QuarkXPress, a long-forgotten internet publishing software that once had a…