Hollywood is busily trying to figure out the best way to present big-budget films in VR. The platform is great for games and short-form entertainment, but if you want to tell an epic story and really draw the viewer in emotionally, the limits of VR present barriers to that type experience. At the forefront of this great figuring-out is filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. He has previously written and directed visually adventurous films like Mother, Black Swan, Pi, and Requiem for a Dream. Next,...

Hey watch this YouTube video I just sent you. When it’s over, maybe watch another one. Oh, wow, that one looks interesting too—click on it. Oh never mind, it just plays. Maybe watch this one too? How long have we been here? Only an hour? Surely there’s time for one more … And so it goes. Every day, as we watch videos, consume social media, and decide what to buy, we’re being expertly manipulated. Or, to use the words of historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, we’ve been hacked. Harari is the...

By all accounts, sleep plays a critical role in a person’s overall health and well-being. But modern technology makes it way too easy to stay up later than you should, scrolling through Twitter, watching YouTube or Netflix, and responding to “urgent” messages. And for a lot of people, our smartphones are the first things we pick up when we wake up in the morning. So how plausible is it that technology – wrist wearables, mattress sensors, and apps – could also help us get more sleep? Or...

Silicon Valley is awash in hype about quantum computers. But these new machines—which perform calculations not only with bits (ones and zeros) but also with mysterious things called qubits—are still in their infancy. They are very large, very expensive, and must be kept very cold. Their applications are limited, and it will be likely a decade before they can be put to practical use. Tom Simonite, WIRED’s reporter who covers the esoteric end of computing, joins the show to explain what quantum...

When Samsung first launched its line of Galaxy Note smartphones, they were differentiated by their large size, their high performance, and their stylus pens. Now, as high-end smartphones all start to look, well, kind of the same, it’s harder for the Note to stand out. But Samsung has managed to do it again with the new Galaxy Note 9: think Fortnite, a selfie-snapping Pen, a massive battery, and more storage than you might ever need. The company also just launched a sleek-looking new...

Apple’s newest pro-grade laptop is out, and over the last week or so, our own Brendan Nystedt has had a chance to test it thoroughly. Brendan’s review of the 2018 MacBook Pro was published on WIRED on Friday morning, and he joins this week’s show as our special guest to run down the particulars. From the processor to the screen to the reparability to that divisive keyboard, he has opinions. Mac nerds, this one’s for you. Some notes: Brendan’s review awards the MacBook Pro a cautious “buy”...

Interesting things come out of teens’ mouths all the time, but one of the most controversial things to emerge recently is the wispy tendril of nicotine vapor from a Juul, a compact and discrete vaping device. Legislators and the FDA have been slow to move on the vaping craze, which has left the door open for companies like Juul to advertise and position themselves without the oversight many feel is necessary for products that have been proven to be physically addictive. Juul’s platform in...

When Google first showed off its robot phone-calling technology, Duplex, back at its annual software conference in May, it not only riveted the crowd at the event but raised the eyebrows of privacy advocates who wanted to know more about robot disclosure and Google’s plans to record phone calls. So this week, Google tried for a do-over: it gave media outlets (including WIRED) a closer look at the Duplex technology, how it works, and how the company believes it will help small businesses....

In recent years, women have increasingly turned to personal technology to provide insight into their own fertility. The women’s health market is awash with wristbands, sleep tracking devices, and sensor-laden wearables that can track the myriad factors that indicate imminent ovulation. These technological solutions can not only help women trying to get pregnant, but also those who may want to get pregnant later in life and want to measure their ovarian reserve. Of course, there’s still a...

“Bikes” Calore makes a case for why everyone should bike more–and tells you the gear you need to do it right.

Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference, is clearly no longer just about the newest version of Android. This year Google used the keynote stage to show off some of its advancements in artificial intelligence, including a demo of an eerily-human-like robot caller that can call the hair salon or a restaurant and make appointments on your behalf. We also learned more about Google’s vision for the future of visual search, saw glimpses of its new Material Design theme, and, as...

F8, Facebook’s annual developers conference, was earlier this week, so we decided to host this week’s Gadget Lab podcast entirely in VR, which means you’ll need an Oculus Go headset to listen to it as well. Just kidding, but really, that might be the future if Facebook’s vision for social VR comes to fruition. We also heard a lot about Facebook’s plans for a more social Instagram–think live video-chatting with your friends while you browse their vacation photos–and more AR filters. And if you...

Oh Snap: The next generation of Snapchat Spectacles has arrived, and they look a lot like…the first pair of Spectacles. But Snap has made some notable changes to the guts of the glasses, even if they still have that I-just-came-back-from-Coachella aesthetic, so Arielle and I took both the old and the new Spectacles to a theme park and tried them on for size. On this week’s episode we discuss why Snapchat is still committed to making hardware despite an unspectacular first attempt, why Arielle...

Lauren’s new around here, and she wants to get to know Mike and Arielle a little better. So she came up with the prompt for this episode: What’s the stuff you can’t live without? In this hour, we go deep into our personal relationships with inanimate objects. Which, as you surely know, isn’t weird at all. Some notes: There are no recommendations this week. The entire show is filled with recommendations, so get our your pen and your highlighter and give Amazon a heads up. Send the hosts...

Even though Facebook’s massive success will likely continue unabated after this week’s Congressional hearings, things are going to be very different for the social networking company in the future. One of the most impactful things this week’s hearings did was expose millions of Americans to the depth and scope of Facebook’s data collection efforts. The company’s practices were mysterious going into the hearings, and while many still can’t grasp every detail, they are less mysterious now that...

There’s a new push in the industry toward computers that are always connected and don’t need Wi-Fi. They also have insane battery life and exceedingly thin hardware profiles. Sounds like an iPad right? Or maybe a phone? Correct; These devices have mobile processors in them. Microsoft and its partners are bringing these mobile-like computers, called Always Connected PCs, to market this spring. We also learned of new rumors this week that Apple will start making its own processors to go inside...

Apple released new iPads this week at a splashy event in Chicago. Actually, the new iPads are very much like the old iPads, and even priced the same at $329. But the new 2018 iPad has an updated processor, and Apple has added support for the Pencil, so now you can draw stuff on it. One other thing you’ll get on the new iPad is a more robust toolset for teachers and students. We go over what’s new and what’s old with the iPad, and we talk about Apple’s place in the education space and how it’s...

This week, a self-driving Volvo owned by Uber struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. We won’t know the exact details of what happened until much later once Uber, the local police, and the federal government have completed their investigations. But the tragedy has opened up many questions about how self-driving car technology works, and particularly how well these robotic cars can see what’s happening around them. Alex Davies and Aarian Marshall from WIRED’s transportation desk join...