What's Tech?
88 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 7 years ago - ★★★★★ - 418 ratingsEnjoy 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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Episodes
The What’s Tech series finale
December 06, 2016 18:12 - 24 minutesWhen I started at The Verge in 2014, I needed an excuse to learn about technology. My background was in covering video games, television, and pop culture, and I lacked the basic cognitive functions to hold a phone above my head without dropping it on my face. So I launched a podcast called What’s Tech. For two years, the show was an opportunity to learn the fundamentals about the technology that supports everyday life. Free to ask silly, obvious, and embarrassing questions, I learned a ton. I...
What are Snapchat Spectacles, and do I have to be a teen to wear them?
November 16, 2016 14:59 - 21 minutesSnapchat 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 California and Oklahoma, and who knows where else next. Verge senior reporter Bryan Bishop joined me this week to talk about his experience hunting down Spectacles and whether we’re all going to feel like olds wearing them. Also, what’s the deal with this circular video format? Learn more about your ad c...
How smartphone cameras took over the world
October 25, 2016 13:58 - 25 minutesIn 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 weight. Then the iPhone was announced. As the smartphone war began, the camera became an important part of the ongoing spec race. Competitors tried to beat Apple in making an excellent camera (and app) that was easy to use — and it took until this year for that to start happening. Now, two-thirds of adul...
How HTTPS is slowly but surely making the internet safer
October 19, 2016 16:05 - 29 minutesOver 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 practically everything put online is vulnerable to “cyber attacks.” Though one might wonder what steps are being taken to protect not just the government and giant corporations, but you, the individual. What keeps you safe when you stumble your way into a Wikipedia hole or click a strange link sent fr...
Why is everyone making GIFs of themselves?
October 13, 2016 14:04 - 14 minutesOur 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 cool Springsteen concert on our phones, Instagram accounts for ourselves, our pets, and our alter egos, and dusty yearbooks stacked up in our closets. The latest in this personal digital archive: personal GIFs. Apps like Boomerang, Motion Stills, Giphy, DSCO, and more help us make GIFs and other short...
How immersive haunted houses and participatory plays are making Halloween scarier
October 06, 2016 12:04 - 24 minutesHere 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-shaped candy — bring it on. In particular, we love to be scared. It gives us a sweet little adrenaline burst to get us across the daunting dark tundra of November to April. This Hallo-season, senior entertainment reporter Bryan Bishop has embarked on a journey to find the most immersive, creative, and h...
Why smartphone batteries explode, and why they may get worse
September 20, 2016 14:38 - 16 minutesSamsung 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 understatement, as some owners have claimed their smartphones outright exploded. Exploding lithium-ion batteries actually aren’t so uncommon. As my colleagues Angela Chen and Lauren Goode noted earlier this month, there are many ways for a lithium-ion battery to become dangerous, and they aren’t limited to an...
How Snapchat’s goofy faces made everyone comfortable with selfies
September 13, 2016 15:45 - 13 minutesI 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 for junk food. Now, a day doesn’t go by that I don’t mug into my front-facing camera. The magic of lenses is how they erase the perception of the selfie as an act of narcissism — an insipid criticism that comes from a certain clump of people who feel the need to bash people for showing a fleck of ...
The good and bad news of the Earth-sized planet Proxima Centauri b
September 08, 2016 17:11 - 20 minutesLate 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 home planet. But before we start making intergalactic vacation plans, let’s pump the space-brakes: half the planet is locked in darkness, it’s pelted by radiation from close proximity to its sun, and the rock is 25 trillion miles away. Our current best option for sending a probe there involves a la...
A few simple tech tips for living in a dorm or a New York apartment
August 30, 2016 16:37 - 22 minutesLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A simple explanation of No Man’s Sky and its internet-fueled controversy
August 25, 2016 15:57 - 16 minutesThe 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. The hype was immediate, and it only continued to build with each month between the game’s announcement and its release this summer. This, some fans speculate, could be a game that lasts forever. My buddy Austin Walker concisely dismantled that logic at Vice before the game’s release, but No Man’s Sk...
Hate going to the grocery store? Maybe it's time to try food-delivery services
August 17, 2016 14:56 - 17 minutesImagine 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, precisely measured portions of proteins, veggies, fruits, oils, and spices required to make dinner and the necessary recipes to alchemize these ingredients into Food Network-level dinners. My friend and colleague Kaitlyn Tiffany lived this modern spin on the home cook life this past spring, after sh...
Why Sony and Microsoft are already announcing and releasing new consoles
August 10, 2016 14:28 - 16 minutesA 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’s flashier upgrade, codenamed Project Scorpio. Next month, Sony is expected to announce its own update for the PlayStation 4, codenamed Neo. If it feels a little early in a generation of consoles to be talking about dropping cash on the next great thing, you’re right. But these consoles don’t follo...
Is your neighborhood the next great social media app?
August 02, 2016 15:10 - 19 minutesI 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 longtime residents kept to themselves. In my first year in Texas, however, I’ve regularly relied on Nextdoor, along with my neighborhood’s private Facebook group and the handful of sites that provide hyper-local support. I’m not the first to say local online forums are the bulletin boards and comm...
A podcast explains the power of podcasts
July 26, 2016 20:03 - 16 minutesFor 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 eventually. This was inevitable. For this momentous occasion, our guest is Alex Goldman, co-host of one of my favorite podcasts, Reply All. After you listen, visit Reply All’s publisher Gimlet Media, which is responsible for a number of the best examples of the podcasting form. Subscribe to What's ...
Why Pokémon Go is a hit, how it helped Nintendo, and when its moment could fizz out
July 19, 2016 16:12 - 20 minutesPokémon 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 selling pre-played accounts. My friend and former boss Chris Grant wrote about the staggering demand for coverage at our sister-site Polygon. In "Some thoughts on Nintendo’s big week," Grant contextualized the game within Nintendo’s unusual year. And he noted how Pokémon Go inspired the most popular po...
The agony and the ecstasy of life as a webcomic artist
July 13, 2016 22:00 - 13 minutesAs 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 me in the early 2000s like this lone, weird thing. A few years later, around when I got my first writing gig, I realized how much bigger webcomics were than the stories of Téodor and Cornelius. I inevitably came across Penny Arcade and the rush of video game-inspired webcomics its inspired. And after...
How The Bachelor became social media’s favorite sporting event
June 28, 2016 15:57 - 25 minutes"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 the culture around them. I believe the answer is yes. The Bachelor series has aired for over 14 years and spun-off numerous programs, totaling over 35 seasons, but its most recent surge of critical significance stems from the rise of social media. Who watches The Bachelor and how they watch it have ch...
What you need to know about doxxing, the average internet user’s nightmare
June 21, 2016 13:15 - 30 minutesMy 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, address, social security number, credit card information — will be made public, or doxxed. And if it is made public, then how will it be used? Even though our identities on the internet are more public than ever, we are still individually afforded a certain amount of privacy. Our passwords, our forum ...
What you should know about torrenting
June 14, 2016 17:47 - 16 minutesI 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 legality of file sharing, let alone the technical explanation of how it worked. Peer-to-peer file distribution has changed over the years. Though I feel more savvy to the legal issues, I am no less dumbfounded by how it all works. That’s why I invited my colleague Ashley Carman onto this week’s show....
How a computer the size of a credit card is changing education — and GameBoy emulators
June 07, 2016 17:01 - 15 minutesFor 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 tasty, it's just as exciting: an affordable, customizable computer the size of a credit card. Raspberry Pi has changed how thousands of people tinker with and learn about computers. People have used the hardware to create Game Boy emulators and synthesizers, tiny cameras and jukeboxes. To learn more a...
How people play Nintendo games on a computer, and why that's probably illegal
May 31, 2016 14:24 - 19 minutesWhether 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 have figured out how to use code to mimic game consoles like NES and Genesis in order to play them on everything from laptops to smartwatches. Sometimes it's a near-perfect recreation of a childhood memory. Sometimes it's a virtual reality "remix" of a popular cartoon fighter (blatant self-promotion) ...
What are graphics cards, and why do you want one?
May 24, 2016 14:15 - 28 minutesGraphics 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 stashing under your desk, or the blitz of hype surrounding Nvidia's latest 1000-series GPUs, there's more reason to get excited about PC gaming hardware than there has been in years. But what is a graphics card? Do you really need one, and which one do you need? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit pod...
Everything you wanted to know about Drake, but were too afraid to ask
May 17, 2016 20:25 - 27 minutesShare 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 celebrity has been inescapable, not just for fans of music, but enthusiasts of technology. That's because Drake is a meeting point of the two. To talk about Drake's give-take relationship with technology — specifically social media — I invited my friend and colleague Jamieson Cox onto this week's episo...
Why movie theaters should and shouldn't be afraid of VOD
May 10, 2016 00:00 - 28 minutesA 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 — a future that isn't as predictable as it used to be. Many theater owners worry that in the age of streaming, the cineplex will become less relevant. The message from studios, however, was clear: theater owners have nothing to fear, because studios still believe big, communal screens are the true ho...
Why the future of video games may be free-to-play
May 03, 2016 14:29 - 19 minutesIf 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 those city-building games (the kind that publishers shrewdly pair with a popular intellectual property like The Simpsons or Star Wars), has sunk its claws into your free time and shredded it into gory pulp. Odds are you haven't, however, paid for your free-to-play games. The format, which makes mon...
What is a gadget blog, anyway?
April 28, 2016 16:06 - 19 minutesThis 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 a lot this week about the broader hopes and ambitions for the new site. But ever the dullard, I wanted to learn the basics: what is a gadget blog, anyway? I invited Miller onto the show to get an answer. Miller co-launched The Verge years ago, and before that he worked for Engadget, one of the orig...
Why bots are the new big thing, and what that means for ordering pizza
April 19, 2016 15:00 - 32 minutes2016 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 humans by completing small tasks, and last week Facebook launched an entire bot platform for its communication tool, Messenger. I invited my buddy and colleague Casey Newton — who wrote one of my favorite features on bots — to explain the technology. Newton has some predictions for the applications of b...
Why artificial intelligence is more important than ever and how it will change our lives
April 12, 2016 16:07 - 29 minutesFor 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 once and for all, I invited my friend and artificial intelligence expert, Sam Byford, to appear on the show. Sadly, as you will hear me learn, Sam Byford is in expert in actual artificial intelligence, not the film Artificial Intelligence. Truth is, he's never even seen the film. But that's okay. Thi...
What is Slack, why is everybody using it, and will it destroy my work-life balance?
April 05, 2016 14:15 - 21 minutesI 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 day. Yesterday night, I responded to a message at 3AM. Lol, I have no self-control and this is a cry for help! Anywho, Slack is still so new that it's possible you haven't heard of, let alone used, the service, which I describe to newcomers as something between text messaging, AOL chatrooms, and AIM...
Wrestlemania: why you should watch, even if pro wrestling isn't your thing
March 29, 2016 15:31 - 23 minutesThis 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 WWE plans, the show will be the biggest pro wrestling event in history. That's only partly why you should tune in. After decades of ups-and-downs, pro wrestling is expanding beyond the ring, becoming a superhero-like universe of comedy shows, gaming streams, and reality programs. Wrestlemania is the c...
Everything you need to know about the Hyperloop, a potential transportation game-changer
March 15, 2016 15:38 - 22 minutesIn 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 bullet-train. Musk made the Hyperloop an open-sourced project, inviting thinkers, scientists, and fellow inventors — no matter their age — to help make the potentially revolutionary concept into a reality. This year, we're seeing some of the early steps from the theoretical sketch room to a real wor...
Dota 2: an explainer for newcomers and the confused family of addicts
March 04, 2016 14:29 - 26 minutesA $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 immensely popular video game that mixes elements of many genres, from sports simulation to role-playing epics to twitch-reaction shooters, and yet is unique in its own right. To its millions of adherents, Dota is closer to a lifestyle than a pastime. Think about the dedication most people show to playing a...
Before the driverless car, there was the PRT
March 01, 2016 14:34 - 17 minutesMy 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 furnished box that travels up and down a cliffside on a steel track, like a rollercoaster pushing through molasses. The funicular, she told me with the confidence of an expert in these things, was cool, but not nearly as cool as the PRT. Robertson had been traveling elsewhere in the country to resea...
Encryption: what is it exactly, and who is right about it?
February 18, 2016 16:40 - 35 minutesNormally 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 that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple has refused. For some, the issue appears, at first glance, quite cut and dry: Apple should do everything in its power to help the FBI. But the case is more complex than a company collaborating with the government, and plays into a larger and o...
Reusable rockets could send you to space — eventually
February 16, 2016 14:50 - 31 minutesCoverage 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 Facebook video. Space news has become so ubiquitous in tech culture, that it's easy to scroll right past, maybe leaving a Like in your wake, taking for granted the creative and financial cost that goes into sending an object into space — and attempting to bring it back to repeat that journey. I've inv...
It's time to give film cameras a second chance
February 09, 2016 17:22 - 26 minutesI 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 technological life I wish I could live. There's one gadget, however, Sam says I can and should buy today in the States: a traditional film camera. I invited Sam to What's Tech? to defend this suspicious claim, and I admit, his love for the classic camera is contagious. To learn how you can get started with a f...
The Super Bowl: how to sound like an expert
February 02, 2016 14:36 - 24 minutesSuper 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 Bowl? The Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. What time is the Super Bowl? Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30PM ET on CBS, but it's safe to add another five minutes of ceremonial buffer time. What dish should I bring? Homemade fried mac and cheese balls, an easy, unexpected hit. But there are plenty ...
Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal: which service is right for you?
January 26, 2016 17:28 - 19 minutesI'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 has better audio quality. But every time I consider shifting my subscription, I feel overwhelmed by the details. I invited The Verge's Micah Singleton onto today's episode to share the history of music streaming services, and direct me on where to spend my money. I also want to hear his story about in...
What is Sundance?
January 19, 2016 15:30 - 28 minutes[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, a thriller involving the moon landing conspiracy, a Werner Herzog doc about the internets profound mark on our lives, and dozens of other offbeat films, TV shows, documentaries, and visual experiments. I'm speaking about the Sundance Film Festival, but the variety of genre and voices applies to th...
What is Tumblr?
January 12, 2016 14:56 - 23 minutesTumblr 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 LiveJournal. When Facebook launched, I traded both platforms, and decided I'd communicate my goings-on by updating my favorite movies and TV shows. In the late 2000s, Tumblr felt to me like a flavorless combination of Twitter's relentless personal updates and the curatorial blogging of Boing Boing and, ...
What is CES?
January 05, 2016 16:44 - 32 minutesThe 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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What is a hoverboard?
December 29, 2015 15:11 - 30 minutesThe 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 experience was the culmination of a shared pop culture dream dating back to Michael J. Fox's faithful special effects-aided ride in Back to the Future Part II. It felt perversely historic. Somehow, only a couple months later, the creation of an actual working hoverboard has been overshadowed by a trendy ...
What is Windows 10?
December 15, 2015 15:28 - 28 minutesLast 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 consoles, but Windows remains a bit of a mystery. I switched to Apple laptops in high school, and only recently welcomed a Windows PC into my home exclusively for gaming. But more and more, I'm tempted to switch back to Windows for my work computer. It seems less fussy, prone to viruses, and bland than...
What is an internet router?
December 08, 2015 15:53 - 27 minutesWhen 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 to really say about an internet router? If only my naive self of 2014 had known the truth, that routers evoke a passion among the citizens of the internet like few pieces of technology. I thought people cared about console wars, then I witnessed a debate about the benefits of Netgear's Nighthawk line...
What is Fallout?
December 01, 2015 13:55 - 19 minutesOn 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 professional football's abundance of PR debacles, nor was it celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas. It was an ad for a video game: Fallout 4. As your pupils dilated and the molten cheese dribbled from your pizza roll, you likely found yourself in one of two camps: the camp that recognizes the Fallout b...
What is an internet meme?
November 24, 2015 14:40 - 19 minutesI 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 how she could use it to talk with a friend in another country about what happened on this week's episode of Friends. Presumably Friends didn't air in said country. After an awkwardly long explanation of what Friends is to a couple dozen 11-year-olds, my teacher decided to show us something more our s...
What is the quantified self?
November 11, 2015 23:04 - 26 minutesI 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 new technology, even when it's fussy and doesn't really work. But for whatever reason, trackers just leave me feeling guilty at best and competitive with friends and family at worse. I shouldn't be competing, I should be collaborating! We all should be better! This week, I invited The Verge's Scien...
What is alien life?
November 04, 2015 00:22 - 24 minutesMore 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 or shouldn't make contact. This week, I invited my friend and colleague Loren Grush to explain how science thinks about alien life. It's a bit spooky, like a Halloween-ish episode, airing just a few days late for the horror holiday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What is Minecraft?
October 28, 2015 15:27 - 29 minutesThis 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 popularity of the stories created by players in the universe of Minecraft. Designed largely by a single gamer maker and purchased for billions of dollars by the software giant, Minecraft has the potential to be the Super Mario of a generation, not in how it plays but what it represents for an entire cultur...