What's Tech?

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 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, at that time, the Gawker Network. Like I said, I didn't get it — I mostly used the service as a static homepage to host my portfolio. I've come around to Tumblr, largely thanks to people like my colleague Kaitlyn Tiffany, who have pointed me to its most bizarre and spectacular corners. In this podcast, she compares Tumblr to a nicer Reddit, an astute point, and a succinct description of something I'd want in my life. It only took seven years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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/adchoices

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 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 namesake that doesn't hover at all — though on occasion, it has been reported to burst into flames. Maybe you are so enticed by the modern hoverboard, which looks like a miniature Segway without hand supports, that you're considering buying one in the new year. Or maybe you find the rideable and its misnomer dumbfounding, and a dangerous nuisance that impedes your morning commute. Whatever either case, I've invited The Verge's Sean O'Kane to tell us about the history of the hoverboard, and speculate on whether it will cap

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 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 it did in the early 2000s. For this week's episode, I invited The Verge's Tom Warren to explain the history of Windows and what makes Windows 10 unique. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 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. Frankly, I get it now. As my internet connection speed has increased in the past half-decade, having an internet router that allows my Wi-Fi to make the most of said speed seems obvious. What isn't always obvious is knowing which router to buy. I've invited my pal Dan Seifert to explain internet routers and provide some guidance. I recommend you listen to this episode before visiting the in-laws this holiday, so you can give them the gift that keeps giving: a router that doesn't suck. Learn more about your ad choices. V

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 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 brand and feels the sudden, stinging pang to buy this video game; or the camp more or less unfamiliar with the brand, but probably hears it referenced in sentences like, "You know, I haven't seen my girlfriend since she bought Fallout 4," or, "My husband doesn't sleep, and I blame Fallout 4." In either case, you probably slurped the string of cheese-like substance back to your lips, saving your favorite sports jersey from a trip to the dry cleaner, and found yourself in need of more information, not just about Fallout 4 bu

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 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 speed on the internet: the dancing baby. Then she showed us the dancing baby, but wearing a birthday hat. Then she loaded the dancing baby and a bouncing ball. That was my first contact with a meme, and the day I fell in love with the GIF. While the basic principle of the GIF has remained the same, though, memes have become more prominent and stranger features of society, both online and offline. To explain internet memes, I invited my friend, The Verge's senior reporter Adi Robertson to the show. Learn more about your ad

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 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 Science Editor Elizabeth Lopatto to tell me about the history of the quantified self, and why tracking every step might not be as healthy as it sounds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 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 culture of video game lovers. We'll see over a dozen big name video game releases this fall, but I thought we should take a look at the game that thrives all year long. I invited Polygon's Minecraft devotee Charlie Hall to update me on the game's past, present, and future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 expansion of government power pertaining to domestic surveillance, law enforcement, and border security, President Obama signed an extension of what were key provisions in 2001. That extension expired this past summer, but parts of the extension were renewed for another four years under a new name, the USA Freedom Act. Arguments for the continuation of the Patriot Act typically pivot on the belief that citizens who aren't committing crimes have nothing to fear, but the role and impact of national government surveillance is more complex. With the USA Freedom Act in its first year, I invited The Verge's Colin Lecher to explain the original law, how it has evolved, and in what ways it could effect the average person, like you and me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"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 Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer, and The Americans, painted a landscape in which a mountain of good programs impede a wandering audience from discovering the truly great shows. Landgraf has firsthand experience: FX alone produces the aforementioned critical hits, along with The Strain, American Horrors Story, Louie, the upcoming American Crime Story, and plenty of other shows. And that's just one cable channel. Today, Landgraf and his peers compete in battle royal of network, cable, premium, and streaming series, along with additional media like video games and YouTube videos. To break down what TV has become, I invited The Verge's entertainment editor Emily Yoshida to the show. I've been following her reporting on television long before we began working together, and she does an excellent job of keeping Landgraf's

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 modest data plans, costly. Ads also provide revenue for the majority of websites — including this one — allowing visitors to read, watch, and listen to news and entertainment free of cash payment. This month, a conversation about the merits and value of online ads came to a boil when Apple began allowing the sale of apps that block ads from appearing in Safari on mobile devices. Plenty of people have discussed whether ad blockers are morally dubious or ethically mandatory, but I want to learn more about how online ads work and why — like editorial — they range in quality and purpose. So, I invited Vox Media's CEO Jim Bankoff to explain online ads, and how we handle them at The Verge and our other sites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 existence. And if it does exist, what the hell is it anyway? A group of people have taken to the internet to discuss, examine, and enjoy a shared pleasurable sensory experience triggered by specific sounds. Not every person has the same stimulants. Some people get a tingle on their neck when they hear a soft whisper, others feel a tickle on their brain when the sound of scissors clipping hair gets close to their ear. Much of the evidence of ASMR is anecdotal, so consider this episode one of the least scientifically sound of the bunch. But the more people learn about ASMR, the more people might discover they share this unusual attribute. That's why I invited my pal, The Verge Senior Editor Ross Miller, to explain the rise in awareness of autonomous sensory meridian response. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph

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 dreamed of electric cars. Some of them actually built the clear, quiet vehicles. And yet, the crop of electric cars feel, over a century later, futuristic. What changed between the 1830s and today? What took the electric car so long? This week, I invited The Verge's car lover Sean O'Kane to talk about electric cars and the most popular electric car manufacturer, Tesla Motors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 all-star wide receiver Dez Bryant was in fact not a reception at all. The decision seemed illogical at the time. How had officials used such powerful technology to make such a seemingly asinine call? This year, instant replay will continue to play a pivotal, if not maddening, role in professional football, along with the other major league sports that have adopted to technology into their officiating. To explain the history of instant replay, and its current role inside of sports, I invited SB Nation’s Dan Rubenstein to the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 strange and storied. This week, nearly a year after its release, the game will receive a substantial update, making the experience more accessible for even more players. And next week, the largest expansion to the game, The Taken King, will be released. Now is the perfect time to learn what this game is and how it instantaneously rivaled the top competitors in one of gaming’s most crowded genres. I invited Polygon’s Samit Sarkar, who handles reviews for the game’s expansion, to the show. Sarkar isn’t just a Destiny expert; he’s also a fantastic karaoke sing. Unfortunately, that will have to be discussed on another episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Force Friday, a new, wholly corporate creation, will close this work week on September 3rd. The day is an announcement and celebration of the toys and merchandise fans will see by this holiday. I'm thrilled to see The Force Awakens, but I'm already exhausted by the Star Wars hype that could continue indefinitely. To get some healthy perspective on Star Wars as films, not the centers of promotional vortexes, I invited longtime fan Bryan Bishop onto the show. We chat about how technology has allowed the actual films to be changed over the decades, both by director George Lucas and a collection of dedicated fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 of online leagues. To explain fantasy football, and fantasy sports in general, I invited SB Nation host and contributor Susannah Collins to the show. Collins covers the NFL at Vox Media, and will be premiering a new show on the site later this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Each conversation was unique, but they always began the same way. I would say, “Hello.” And a strange somewhere across the world would respond, “a/s/l/. Age. Sex. Location. “I am thirteen,” I’d explain. “Male, and from Missouri.” If they were my age, the conversation would continue. If they older, they’d disappear. As an adult, I now understand that while I was in AOL chats to talk about pop culture, a large chunk of the folks were just looking for digital hook-ups. The range, scope, and prevalence of sex technology in 2015 makes the AOL chatrooms of 1997 seem quaint. Snapchat, Tinder, and even Facebook double as social networks, dating platforms, and subtle messaging systems for sexual missives. This week, I invited sex tech consultant Lux Alptraum to explain the culture around digital sex, and how technology is