What's New

WIRED
undefined
Dec 5, 2017 • 8min

Star Wars News: Rey May Break the Force's Status Quo

As the release date for Star Wars: The Last Jedi approaches at ludicrous speed, stories on the creation of the movie—and teases about what might happen in it, or even after it—are beginning to pile up on all sides of the information superhighway. Don't know what to listen to or who to believe? Dear friends, just trust in the Force and keep reading. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Dec 4, 2017 • 6min

San Francisco Plan to Adjust Parking Prices Based on Demand

Let’s say you have to run an errand, a small-ish one. You’re stopping by your doctor’s office to pick up a prescription; you gotta return a regretted online purchase at the post office. How do you get there? A bunch of tiny factors contribute to your decision, but if you have a car one of the biggest is probably: Can I park? Thousands, maybe millions of people in your city are making small choices like yours every day. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Dec 4, 2017 • 7min

This Week’s Car News: General Motors’ Self-Driving Car, a New Nissan Infiniti, the Uber-Waymo Trial, and More

In the rearview mirror, innovation tends to look smooth, a clean progression from there to here. Living through that change is bit more herky-jerky. This week, I got a ride in General Motors’ self-driving car as it slowly made its way through San Francisco’s chaotic streets—with plenty of stops and starts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Dec 1, 2017 • 7min

Tesla Wannabe Lucid Takes on the Auto Industry With a Stunning Electric Sedan

While the world's most famous automakers were pulling the covers off their latest, shiniest offerings at the Los Angeles Auto Show, a dark gray sedan circled the convention center, almost silently. Riding on 21-inch wheels, the Lucid Air cuts a muscular stance, its door handles flush with the body of the car, one thin bar of light bars stretching across its front, another along the slightly boxy rear. Fully electric, it offers a tempting vision of the future. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Dec 1, 2017 • 7min

Converse Urban Utility Uses Gore-Tex to Keep the Water Out

The rain is drenching Darryl "Curtains" Jackson. It's coming down in sheets from a machine overhead that's been programmed to dump water droplets at the rate of 3.25 inches an hour. "This is a nice, steady rain," he says, as drops fall from the ceiling and drain into the grated floor below. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Nov 30, 2017 • 8min

Veer Cruiser Review: It Carries Your Kids in Comfort, Off-Road and On

Academics and researchers in relationships often face what is known as “the two-body problem,” in which they struggle to find positions for both people at either the same institution, or institutions that are close to each other. I also have a two-body problem, except neither of the bodies is mine. The bodies belong to my toddler and my infant, and the options for transporting both at the same time, as well as all of their ever-multiplying stuff, are limited. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Nov 30, 2017 • 3min

An Otherworldly Dive Into a Mexican Sinkhole

For British photographer Tom St. George, diving is escape. But when he plunged into this underwater cave in Tulum, Mexico last month, he found himself on another planet entirely. Runoff stained with tannins from the forest had dyed the normally clear water a surreal, Martian shade of red. "It really did feel like being in outer space," he says The cave he visited is the Aktun Ha cenote, a submerged sinkhole people also call the "carwash" because taxi drivers once scrubbed their cabs there. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Nov 29, 2017 • 9min

My Herky-Jerky Ride in General Motors' Ultra-Cautious Self Driving Car

Nothing will make you hate humans—capricious, volatile, unplanned, erratic humans—like sitting in the back of self-driving car. When I hitched a ride in one, a white and orange General Motors Cruise autonomous vehicle during a press event in San Francisco on Tuesday, every movement was a cause for alarm. Two walkers darted out in front of the car during my roughly 20-minute, 3-mile ride, blissfully ignorant that they were trusting their lives to a piece of software. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Nov 28, 2017 • 6min

Ciao, Chrome: Firefox Quantum Is The Browser Built for 2017

It's been years since I gave a second thought to my web browser. Safari's fine, Microsoft Edge is whatever, I think Opera still exists? None have ever offered much reason to switch away from Chrome, Google's fast, simple web tool. I'm not the only one who feels this way, either: Chrome commands nearly 60 percent of the browser market, and is more than four times as popular as the second-place finisher, Firefox. Chrome won the browser wars. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
undefined
Nov 28, 2017 • 13min

Email Is Broken. Can Anyone Fix It?

Let's start this story at the end: You can't kill email. Attempting to do so is a decades-long tradition of the tech industry, a cliché right up there with "Uber, but for" and "The Netflix of X." AOL Instant Messenger tried to kill email. So did MySpace. Then Facebook took up the mantle, followed by Slack and Symphony and WhatsApp and HipChat. Through it all, email persists—always dying, never dead. Except email isn't dying. There are 3. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
Get the app