Opinion
If my PowerBook G3 was a person, it would be of legal voting age and counting down the days until it’s legally allowed to drink. As a computer, it’s almost useless and outclassed by even the most basic of smartphones….
If you want to build an open-source computer, you can—if you’re talking about software. The processor under the hood, however, is proprietary. RISC-V is an open-source processor design that’s rapidly gaining traction and pr…
There’s a chance (albeit, an ever-decreasing one) that your phone comes with an IR blaster. These allow your phone to communicate with everyday devices in your home, like TVs and DVRs, using invisible bursts of electromagne…
Last month, I bought myself a “new” Mac, and it only cost me $50. How is this possible, when the cheapest Apple computer (the Mac Mini) costs $799, or 16 times what I paid?
The smartphone in your pocket can perform millions of calculations per second, play visually stunning 3D games, access information worldwide, and maybe even take DSLR-quality photos. It’s easy to take that for granted—par…
Siri, Google Assistant, Bixby, Cortana, Alexa, and now, Celia. Yes, there’s yet another voice assistant on the market thanks to Huawei. But what sets Celia apart from the competition, and what does it mean for the wider voic…
Everyone knows that hacker-attack scene from NCIS. Working in their dimly lit forensics lab, Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) have to fend off a cybercriminal, hell-bent on stealing information a…
Private is a relative term. This is abundantly clear when it comes to “private browsing”—the setting in a web browser that supposedly allows you to hide your history from others who use the same computer….
The internet isn’t anonymous. Wherever you go, you leave breadcrumbs about who you really are. Some of these are bigger than others, but the biggest is your IP address. Armed with this, it isn’t difficult for law enforcem…
Two cops stand at a computer. Before them is a blurry security camera image. “Enhance,” barks the senior officer to the rookie, who presses a few buttons. Suddenly, the image transforms, revealing a critical piece of evi…
When you delete a file from your computer’s hard drive, it’s never really gone. With enough effort and technical skill, it’s often possible to recover documents and photos previously thought obliterated. These computer …
After years of speculation and rumor, Chinese tech giant Huawei formally unveiled its Harmony OS operating system in 2019. It’s fair to say that more questions have been raised than answered. How does it work? What problems…
I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve being sat cross-legged before a cathode ray tube, where I’d watch Picard and the crew save the galaxy from Borg and Romulan ho…
How do you trace a phone call? According to TV shows and films, you just have to keep someone talking long enough for a detective to pinpoint his location. While this overused trope can add some tension when paired with a tim…
TV shows and films rarely represent hackers accurately. We’re all familiar with the old trope of the hoodie-clad digital criminal frantically typing into a black terminal before triumphantly whispering, “We’re in.”…
A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack occurs when someone sits between two computers (such as a laptop and remote server) and intercepts traffic. This person can eavesdrop on, or even intercept, communications between the two mac…
You think you’re making all the right moves. You’re smart with your security. You have two-factor authentication enabled on all your accounts. But hackers have a way to bypass that: SIM swapping.
The internet has radically changed how retailing works thanks to companies like Amazon and eBay. If you’re on Instagram or Facebook, though, you’ve probably also encountered advertisements for shockingly cheap boutique goods …
Transcription was once a manual, tedious process. Doctors, journalists, and a swath of assorted professionals would record their notes and conversations on scratchy Dictaphone tape, and then sit down in front of their compute…
According to analyst house Gartner, consumers are expected to buy 86 million smartwatches in 2020. It’s a market worth $23 billion globally. Beyond fitness and sports, a major factor prompting people to buy these stylish wr…
Earlier this year, after an almost decade-long period of anguish, the European Parliament approved binding plans for a Europe-wide charging standard. But what does this actually mean? Well, it’s complicated—but it could hav…
TikTok: teens love it, and parents don’t understand it. Congress fears it. Brands want to make money off it. It is, perhaps, the most controversial (and beloved) social network ever. Downloads of the app are rapidly outstri…
All day, strange foreign numbers have called your phone. They’re from a country you’ve never visited. Each time the digits change slightly, making it impossible to block them. They ring for just a few seconds before hangi…
There are more competing web browsers than ever, with many serving different niches. One example is Brave, which has an unapologetic focus on user privacy and comes with a radical reimagining of how online advertising ought t…
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