Podcasts by Whats Tech?

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 technology and gadgets, listen and subscribe to The Vergecast.

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What's Tech?
What are Snapchat Spectacles, and do I have to be a teen to wear them? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 Calif...

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What's Tech?
How smartphone cameras took over the world from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 weigh...

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What's Tech?
How HTTPS is slowly but surely making the internet safer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 pr...

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What's Tech?
Why is everyone making GIFs of themselves? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 co...

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How immersive haunted houses and participatory plays are making Halloween scarier from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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-shape...

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Why smartphone batteries explode, and why they may get worse from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 understate...

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How Snapchat’s goofy faces made everyone comfortable with selfies from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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...

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The good and bad news of the Earth-sized planet Proxima Centauri b from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 h...

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A simple explanation of No Man’s Sky and its internet-fueled controversy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 be fully explored by one player in a lifetime. T...

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Hate going to the grocery store? Maybe it's time to try food-delivery services from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Imagine if grocery shopping was just another online subscription service, like Netflix or Spotify. You complete a survey, sharing your likes and dislikes, and the platform sends, week after week, p...

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Why Sony and Microsoft are already announcing and releasing new consoles from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 original Xbox One, and the predecessor to next year’...

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What's Tech?
Is your neighborhood the next great social media app? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 building where most tenants lasted a year, and...

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What's Tech?
A podcast explains the power of podcasts from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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. We were bound to make a podcast about podcasts...

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Why Pokémon Go is a hit, how it helped Nintendo, and when its moment could fizz out from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 finding dead bodies to Craigslist entrepreneurs sel...

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The agony and the ecstasy of life as a webcomic artist from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

As a teenager, my only interaction with the world of webcomics was Achewood. Launched in 2001 and published sporadically ever since, Achewood is like Seinfeld crossed with Adult Swim. It felt for m...

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What's Tech?
How The Bachelor became social media’s favorite sporting event from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

"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 explainers into the many pockets of technology and th...

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What's Tech?
What you need to know about doxxing, the average internet user’s nightmare from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 if my personal information — phone numbers, ad...

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What's Tech?
What you should know about torrenting from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 orientation session. I didn't understand the l...

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What's Tech?
How a computer the size of a credit card is changing education — and GameBoy emulators from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 Pi actually is, and though it's not nearly as ta...

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What's Tech?
How people play Nintendo games on a computer, and why that's probably illegal from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 prevalence. Since the age of modern computing, people ha...

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What's Tech?
What are graphics cards, and why do you want one? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 rig you'd never previously have dreamed of stashi...

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Everything you wanted to know about Drake, but were too afraid to ask from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Share on Facebook Tweet Share Pin Drake is a former child actor, current pop star, and the secular god of memes — even if he denounces that last label. Born Aubrey Drake Graham, the Canadian cel...

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Why movie theaters should and shouldn't be afraid of VOD from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

A couple weeks ago, my friend and colleague Bryan Bishop visited Las Vegas for a flashy conference called CinemaCon, where movie studios and theater owners discuss the future of the film industry —...

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What's Tech?
Why the future of video games may be free-to-play from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 Clash of Clans. If you're anything like me, one of...

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What's Tech?
What is a gadget blog, anyway? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 Miller, the editor of Circuit Breaker, has spoken...

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What's Tech?
Why bots are the new big thing, and what that means for ordering pizza from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 intelligence software meant to improve the lives of huma...

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What's Tech?
Why artificial intelligence is more important than ever and how it will change our lives from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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. Artificial Intelligence? To settle the question o...

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What's Tech?
What is Slack, why is everybody using it, and will it destroy my work-life balance? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 help but check its messages every hour of every ...

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Wrestlemania: why you should watch, even if pro wrestling isn't your thing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 maximum capacity of 105,000. If things go as the WW...

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What's Tech?
Everything you need to know about the Hyperloop, a potential transportation game-changer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In 2013, billionaire eccentric inventor Elon Musk announced an idea called the Hyperloop: a super-fast, low-friction transportation system that looked like the prom photo for a subway tunnel and a ...

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What's Tech?
Dota 2: an explainer for newcomers and the confused family of addicts from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 tell, does any of that mean? Dota 2 is an immense...

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What's Tech?
Before the driverless car, there was the PRT from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

My colleague Adi Robertson, I recently learned, is a fan of oddball transportation. On our work trip to the Sundance Film Festival, she gleefully introduced me to the funicular, a small and nicely ...

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What's Tech?
Encryption: what is it exactly, and who is right about it? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 FBI gain access to the contents of an iPhone th...

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What's Tech?
Reusable rockets could send you to space — eventually from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Coverage of SpaceX and Blue Origin, the two private companies pursuing the reusable rocket, is near inescapable. Maybe you watched a launch on our site, or saw one of the not-quite-landings in a Fa...

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What's Tech?
It's time to give film cameras a second chance from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 editions, and Sega arcades. His is the technologic...

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What's Tech?
The Super Bowl: how to sound like an expert from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 can answer here. What teams are in the Super Bo...

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Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal: which service is right for you? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

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 Music has free concerts, I'm told, and Tidal ha...

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What's Tech?
What is Sundance? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

[Apologies, the original file uploaded incorrectly. This is the complete episode.] My options at the movies this week include a 1980s Dublin-set rock musical, a dark comedy that hinges on a lap dog...

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What's Tech?
What is Tumblr? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Tumblr was the first social media platform to feel irrelevant. I'm young enough to have blogged my way through high school, but old enough for my blogging to be unusual. I used Xanga, and then Live...

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What is CES? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Verge's Dieter Bohn shares the history of the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, which is taking place this week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...

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What's Tech?
What is a hoverboard? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Verge tested Lexus' hoverboard in August. Thanks to science and a considerable promotional budget, the car maker's hoverboard actually hovered above the earth — as its name suggested. The exper...

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What's Tech?
What is Windows 10? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Last week, I wrote about Microsoft's plan to bring Xbox One and Windows 10 closer together. I've been wondering what this future might look like. I know a good deal about Microsoft's video game con...

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What's Tech?
What is an internet router? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

When I joined The Verge, many of my peers from the video games press congratulated me on a lifetime of writing about internet routers. I laughed at their silly joke. How much, I thought, is there t...

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What's Tech?
What is Fallout? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

On a recent Sunday afternoon, you may have noticed Brutus — Fox's NFL mascot — wearing a new set of protective armor. This costume wasn't promoting a nonprofit initiative meant to distract from pro...

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What's Tech?
What is an internet meme? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I remember my first meme. I was in my grade school computer lab — this was a time when computers were still novel, not mandatory. My fifth grade teacher was explaining email to our classroom, and h...

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What's Tech?
What is the quantified self? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I have tried various health trackers, and they always wind up buried in the bottom drawer of my dresser. I should love the pursuit of a quantified self. I like data; I want to be healthier; I enjoy...

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What's Tech?
What is alien life? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

More recently, discussions of extraterrestrial life have become mainstream. Brilliant minds like Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson have made headlines with their thoughts on how humans should...

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What's Tech?
What is Minecraft? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

This week Microsoft released Halo 5, the latest installment of its most iconic exclusive for Xbox consoles. The adventures of Master Chief and his console cohorts, however, pale beneath the popular...

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What's Tech?
What Is The Patriot Act from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

A little over a month after the events of September 11th, 2001, an Act of Congress called the USA Patriot Act was signed into law by then President George W. Bush. Despite its controversial expansi...

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What's Tech?
What is TV? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

"There's too much television," said FX CEO John Landgraf at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. Landgraf, whose in part responsible for the success of shows like Fargo, It's Alway...

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What's Tech?
What are online ads? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

As someone whose paycheck in some part comes from ad revenue, talking about online advertising can feel complicated. At their worst, digitals ads are annoying, intrusive, and for those of us with m...

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What's Tech?
What is ASMR? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I have ASMR. Or maybe the correct phrasing is that I'm susceptible to ASMR. It's tough to talk about the phenomenon, because ASMR lacks the mandatory scientific evidence that proves, well, its exis...

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What's Tech?
What is Tesla? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The electric car isn't a newfangled idea birthed from the neck of a generation of idealists jaded by the economic, cultural, and atmospheric cost of oil. Our grandparents' grandparents' generation ...

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What is instant replay? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

After 16 games, dozens of touchdowns, and countless hits, the Dallas Cowboys 2014 season came to an end in January when officials, reviewing an instant replay, decided a mind-imploding reception by...

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What is Destiny? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Destiny became so popular, so quickly that it’s success seems almost like, well, it’s destiny. But that wasn’t the case. Developer Bungie’s road to making the massive first-person shooter is strang...

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What is Star Wars? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The transformation of the fan-made greeting "May the 4th be with you" into the foundation of an annual Star Wars publicity storm had the sharp smell of cynicism. But this week it seems quaint. Forc...

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What is fantasy sports? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

A Forbes article from last years cited 33 million annual players of fantasy football. More shocking, much of fantasy football’s growth has happened in just the past 15 years thanks the to advent o...

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What is Virtual Sex? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

My earliest memories of the internet are in AOL chat rooms. I’d spend the summer of 1998 in chats dedicated to games, James Bond movies, baseball, and whatever else interested my ten-year-old mind....

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What's Tech?
What is biohacking? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

We have a few cyborgs on staff. Ben Popper is arguably the reporter best known for peeling back his skin to insert a piece of technology, which he chronicled in his feature, Cyborg America. But oth...

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What is space colonization? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

After a light night spent skimming the Interstellar Wikipedia page, I began to wonder about some of the bigger questions of humankind: Will we live on Mars? Will we inhabit the moon? Will we just b...

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What is internet television? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I am nostalgic for internet videos in the time before YouTube. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I remember watching strange, absurd, hideous shorts — shot on home camcorders or animated with chea...

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What's Tech?
What are video games? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

If you named a video game, I could probably tell you who made it, when, and how it was received. I've reported on the medium in some capacity for seven years, and in that time I've acquired an ency...

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What is beauty vlogging? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Sometimes I’m ashamed by the pockets of the internet I overlook until a friend holds them right in front of me. I knew beauty vlogging was a thing, for example, but I didn’t grasp that the video fo...

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What's Tech?
What is Bitcoin? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Will Bitcoin make me rich? That was my first question about Bitcoin when I heard the term years ago. I didn’t know a thing about cryptocurrency, or why or how a Bitcoin might be used, but it sounde...

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What are selfies? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The selfie gets a bad wrap. Labeled shallow and self-centered by its critics, self-portraiture has a rich history, dating back to humanity’s earliest works of art. What changed between artists pain...

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What's Tech?
What are emoji? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Emoji have become such an everyday part of my life that I can't remember my iPhone keyboard without the adorable icons. The tiny cartoon characters have been my go-to solution for Poe's Law, a way ...

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What's Tech?
Bonus: What is Verge ESP? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

We're taking this week off because Chris is deep in the throes of E3. We'll be back with a brand new episode next Tuesday/ But today, we have a special bonus! Verge ESP is a brand new podcast from ...

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What's Tech?
What is Uber? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Uber is an ideal topic for an episode of What's Tech. It's a ubiquitous piece of technology that millions of people use across the planet. But even intelligent veteran tech executives throw around ...

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What is E3? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

In two weeks, I will fulfill one of my childhood dreams for the sixth time over by attending E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, held every June in Los Angeles, is no longer the biggest video ga...

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What's Tech?
What is space travel? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I want to visit space before I die. I have no practical reason to do so, and surely I'm not alone. I just want to. There's something about the concept of exploration that I pine to achieve. Which i...

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What's Tech?
What is Twitter? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

While traveling from New York City to my new home in Austin, I downloaded Twitter onto my phone. I have a sordid history with the social media platform, particularly when its stream of opinions is ...

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What is high-tech coffee? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Every day I practice the same routine: I hop out of bed, take a shower, get dressed, and drink a cup of coffee. The process is so repetitive, it's become this uninspired dance I do with my eyes hal...

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What is the Marvel Universe? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

If you watched Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend, you're in good company. The film had one of the strongest openings of all time. As the credits rolled, though, I wondered about the sustainabili...

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What is a camera? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

I love my new camera, even though I have little understanding of how it works. I recently wrote about the Fuji X100T, which I swear is less complicated than its Terminator-esque name would have you...

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What is the singularity? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

If only new episodes of What's Tech appeared on Mondays, we could have run this week's explanation of the Singularity on 4/20. That would have been appropriate. This is, after all, the strangest th...

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What's Tech?
What is vaping? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Don't smoke. At least, don't start smoking because of this episode. Vaping has become a niche of tech culture, to the point that I can't attend a press event without getting lost in a plume of root...

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What is live streaming? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

When Gary Schteyngart wrote about the äppärät, an iPhone-like device that could stream our thoughts and conversations while monitoring our popularity, the idea seemed like an extreme parody of real...

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What are self-driving cars? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Our future will involve driverless cars. At this year's CES, car companies and graphics card manufacturers alike featured the technology that they believe will power the vehicles of tomorrow. But h...

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What is VR? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Recently, VR's made a striking comeback. Last year, Facebook acquired Oculus, the frontrunner in VR hardware, for $2 billion. Since then, we've seen aggressive movement in the industry from Samsung...

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What is Snapchat? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

You might not Snapchat, but chances are your niece or nephew loses hours each week to the increasingly popular social media app. The Verge's Sam Sheffer explains the app once known for nude pics, a...

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What is hacking? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Hacks, exploits, and system security are regularly in the news, most notably with the hacking of Sony Pictures. Russell Brandom illuminates a culture that's more complex than how it's often portray...

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What is net neutrality? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Verge's Editor-in-Chief explains net neutrality. The recent historic vote by the FCC in favor of net neutrality will have a decisive impact on the future of the internet. But when did the pursu...

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What is a smartphone? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Verge's Executive Editor Dieter Bohn explains smartphones. The iPhone and Android have made smartphones ubiquitous. But when did cell phones become smartphones? And what makes them so smart any...

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What is fan fiction? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Verge's Entertainment Editor Emily Yoshida explains fan fiction. This past week's Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation made a staggering amount of money, but did you know the series began as Tw...

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What are smartwatches? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Verge's smartwatch expert Dan Seifert explains smartwatches. People have been clamoring for something like the smartwatch since the days of Dick Tracy, but will the new crop of smartwatches mee...

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What are drones? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

The Verge's Business Editor and drone expert Ben Popper explains drones, the flying unmanned aerial devices flying over battlefields, metropolises, and Popper's own backyard. Learn more about your ...

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What's Tech?
What are drones? from 2015-02-12T18:17:13

The Verge's Business Editor and drone expert Ben Popper explains drones, the flying unmanned aerial devices flying over battlefields, metropolises, and Popper's own backyard. Learn more about your ...

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What's Tech?
What are drones? from 2015-02-12T18:17:13

The Verge's Business Editor and drone expert Ben Popper explains drones, the flying unmanned aerial devices flying over battlefields, metropolises, and Popper's own backyard. Learn more about your ...

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