Category: Technology

It works like this: You connect a powerline plug to your router, then put the plug into a wall socket. Add another powerline plug in any other room in your house, and it can provide a wired or wireless connection to that room. There will be some drop in speed, but it’s a simple and […]

A few weeks ago, Sports Illustrated tweeted this video of Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry that instantly went viral. It shows him taking a shot at the basket—from the far side of the court. The ball goes in. OK, I can believe that. He’s a famously great shooter. But then he turns around […]

A fine wine can be a lot of things: oaky, fruit-forward, maybe even chewy. But wines of recent vintage also have the bouquet of a logistical nightmare, due to a brutal convergence of natural and human-made crises: drought and extreme heat, plus lingering supply chain hang-ups that have made it harder to get glass, cork, […]

Except, of course, it can’t. Virtual reality has been hovering on the cusp of success for decades now, never quite able to attract the masses. In an essay written for WIRED just before Facebook became Meta, writer and academic David Karpf outlined how the culture-shaking promise of VR had repeatedly failed to materialize, despite major advances […]

In the past decade, storied brands like meal-replacement Huel and men’s grooming company Harry’s built multibillion-dollar retail businesses by using social media and digital-first advertising to sell directly to consumers online, without the need for middlemen. These brands were exemplars of a new form of retail, called direct-to-consumer (DTC).  The global pandemic only accelerated this […]

It’s difficult to reflect on the past year—or forecast the next—without a sense of wonder regarding the sheer magnitude of innovation taking place across the AI landscape. On a weekly basis, researchers across industry and academia have published work advancing the state-of-the-art in nearly every domain of AI, toppling benchmarking leaderboards and accomplishing feats beyond […]

Crazy cold temperatures, heavy snow, and strong winds are coming just in time for the holidays, all thanks to a bomb cyclone. It’s a catchy and menacing name for a type of winter storm that can create extremely dangerous conditions. Forecasters predict this one could be unprecedented in its scope, sending freezing temperatures across Canada […]

It’s been creeping up for a while now, an old breed of horror. A movie here, another there. But now, in 2022, the time has come to give it a name: elevator-pitch horror.  These films are just what they sound like: You can summarize their conceit in a single breath. Scary Airbnb house? Check (Barbarian). An […]

Sleep is an essential part of our biology. Not getting enough of it harms our decision-making skills, our reasoning, even our social interactions.  However, sleep has recently become yet another aspect of our lives that causes endless worry, rather than being enjoyable. We’ve become obsessed with getting the perfect night’s sleep. As a consequence, many […]

Dive Brief: CrowdStrike researchers discovered a new exploit method by Play ransomware actors that can bypass URL rewrite mitigations released by Microsoft in October, according to a Tuesday blog post from the incident response firm. Microsoft’s updates were designed to mitigate ProxyNotShell vulnerabilities. Crowdstrike researchers discovered the new method while investigating Play ransomware activity. The entry […]