The Reason for Meta’s Massive Layoffs? Ghosts in the Machine

Remember Libra, Meta’s ambitious plan to enter the cryptocurrency market? Or Lasso, Meta’s ambitious attempt to outdo TikTok? Alongside projects like Shops podcast plans; Facebook Portal and a Meta smartwatch to compete with the Apple Watch, they all failed. In pursuit of becoming the everything platform, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has thrown a lot of… Continue reading The Reason for Meta’s Massive Layoffs? Ghosts in the Machine

16 Best Tech Gifts for Kids (2022): Tablets, Speakers, Smartwatches

No matter how much they’re begging for one, your kid probably doesn’t need a smartphone. The official advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics is that young children need hands-on social interaction and exploration with peers and caregivers to learn.  That doesn’t mean you don’t need a digital device to locate them, entertain them, or… Continue reading 16 Best Tech Gifts for Kids (2022): Tablets, Speakers, Smartwatches

A Race to Bridge the Analog Divide in US Politics

“While I see and understand the power of social media and how you can communicate messages and engage in some way, shape, or form, those platforms aren’t designed for sort of a personalized interaction with the voter,” Mike Baumwoll tells WIRED. “It was specifically designed to allow and empower voters and give them a microphone… Continue reading A Race to Bridge the Analog Divide in US Politics

Inside the ‘Election Integrity App’ Built to Purge US Voter Rolls

Ten days before Georgia’s Senate runoff election in 2021, Gamaliel Warren Turner Sr., a 69-year-old veteran, found out that someone in his county had challenged his eligibility to vote. Turner, a retired major in the US Army, had requested an absentee ballot, and when it didn’t arrive in the mail, he got nervous and called… Continue reading Inside the ‘Election Integrity App’ Built to Purge US Voter Rolls

25 Best Gifts for Teens (2022): Hydro Flasks, Record Players, and Apple Gear

Teenagers are intimidating. They seemingly speak their own language, their jokes are funny in a confusing way, and somehow they’ve always already seen the TikToks you send. It can be hard to keep up with the absolute coolest kids around, and that’s especially true when it comes to holiday gift-giving. We informally polled some of… Continue reading 25 Best Gifts for Teens (2022): Hydro Flasks, Record Players, and Apple Gear

The Roccat Sova Solved My Gaming Problems

I’m a relative newbie to playing video games. Sure, I played Duck Hunt and Mortal Kombat with my cousins growing up, and I’ve watched a lot of Halo, but it wasn’t until I started playing them myself that I became ensnared in a gear-related Gordian knot. I got a Switch. Then I tried Stadia because… Continue reading The Roccat Sova Solved My Gaming Problems

The Secret Ballot Is US Democracy’s Last Line of Defense

Though foreign Disinformation campaigns have targeted the 2022 United States midterm elections to a degree, most of the pressure on US voting infrastructure has come from inside the house. Violent domestic threats against election officials have soared around the country in the past couple of years, endangering workers and, increasingly, driving them from the profession… Continue reading The Secret Ballot Is US Democracy’s Last Line of Defense

IRS Seizes Another Silk Road Hacker’s $3.36 Billion Bitcoin Stash

According to an IRS-CI affidavit detailing Zhong’s theft of the 50,000-plus bitcoins from the Silk Road, he appears to have found a vulnerability in that dark-web market that in 2012 allowed him to somehow pull more coins out of accounts he created there than he had deposited. The affidavit describes how he registered a succession… Continue reading IRS Seizes Another Silk Road Hacker’s $3.36 Billion Bitcoin Stash

Elon Musk Has Put Twitter’s Free Speech in Danger

Before becoming Twitter’s CEO, owner, and “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk had often lobbed criticism at the platform for its approach to content moderation, even going so far as to target the company’s former policy chief Vijaya Gadde. But while Musk has expressed his concern about “liberal bias” on the platform, many activists, journalists, and advocates… Continue reading Elon Musk Has Put Twitter’s Free Speech in Danger