Gadget Lab: Weekly Tech News

If you’ve committed any internet crimes lately, you probably shouldn’t have paid for them with Bitcoin. While many crypto-evangelists have long thought of digital currency as a means of buying legal and illicit goods on the web with total anonymity, the fact is that nearly all cryptocurrency transactions leave a digital trail behind them that can point to your true identity. No matter how hard you try to hide, a dedicated sleuth with the right resources can find you.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior cybersecurity writer and author of the book Tracers in the Dark digs into all the ways investigators, government agents, and hackers can track down criminals online by “following the money” exchanged in cryptocurrency transactions.Show NotesAndy’s book is Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency. You can read two excerpts from the book on WIRED.com: the six-part AlphaBay saga and the feature about the takedown of a website for sharing child sex abuse materials.RecommendationsA

Phones have been pretty boring for a long time. Don’t get us wrong—phones are still amazing little devices! It just feels like we haven’t seen any truly innovative phone designs or new standout features in a long while. This year’s phone looks and works a lot like last year’s phone. Your phone looks and works a lot like my phone. Have phones actually plateaued, leveled off, or chilled out? Is their transition from fetish object to commodity complete?The perfectly fine boringness of phones gets thrown into focus every time a new handset is launched into the world. This week, we saw the debut of the newest Samsung Galaxy devices. WIRED staff writer (and our podcast's producer) Boone Ashworth joins us to talk about those new phones, and phones in general, and how breathtaking and bland they all are, all at once.Show NotesRead our roundup of everything Samsung announced at Galaxy Unpacked 2023, including three new Galaxy phones and five new laptops. If you want to preorder a Galaxy device, we have some buying adv

TikTok’s influence is expanding well beyond the social sphere. The app is increasingly being used for the types of internet searches one would normally rely on a web search engine for. The video-based social app might not seem like the best place to find answers to your burning questions, but many users have made it their tool of choice for finding bars and restaurants to visit, movies to watch, or clothes to wear. It's a trend that has companies like Google more than a little concerned. The popularity of the app has also raised the hackles of US lawmakers, who have cited security concerns about the app and have even introduced legislation calling for a wholesale national TikTok ban.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED's Lily Hay Newman joins us to discuss why all the kids are using TikTok for search and dig into whether the app's ownership by a Chinese firm really makes it a national security threat.Show NotesRead Lauren’s story about her week of using TikTok for search. Here’s Lily on TikTok’s security threats. F

Gas stoves are so hot right now. A recent report found that emissions from gas cooktops are worsening both the environmental crisis and the health of the humans who use them. This knowledge has stoked a heated cultural debate in the US. Some people have piped up to advocate for phasing out gas stoves, while others have fired back that the government can pry gas stoves out of their cold (presumably because they stopped paying the gas bill) dead hands. While the controversy has blown up, the reality is that gas is a problematic energy source with many worrisome issues. Reducing our dependence on the appliances and the fossil-based fuels they consume will be no easy task.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED staff writer Amanda Hoover joins us to re-spark the gas stove debate, and talk about what we can actually do to fix the problems these old-school appliances are causing.Show NotesRead Amanda’s story about the gas stove culture wars.RecommendationsAmanda recommends the Normal Gossip podcast. Lauren recommends gettin

The tractor company John Deere has faced a lot of criticism for the tight hold it keeps over its products. If someone needs to repair their tractor, they’ve got to do it through John Deere’s official channels, which farmers say creates unnecessary hassles. If a problem arises during harvest time, a days-long wait for a sanctioned repair could spell financial ruin. Now, in an effort to stave off lawsuits from right-to-repair advocates, John Deere is making some concessions about repairability. But the move has been criticized by some advocates, who say the company still has to do more to make its products truly accessible.This week on Gadget Lab, we dig into the dirt about John Deere and what the repairability of tractors means for the rest of the gadgets out there.Show NotesRead Lauren’s story about John Deere. Follow all WIRED’s coverage of the right-to-repair movement.RecommendationsMike recommends the book Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat by Jonath

In the world of consumer tech, there’s no palette-cleanser for the new year quite like the annual CES, the giant electronics show. What better way to kick off 2023 than to find your way through the maze of metal and screens (and germs) and Alexa-equipped toothbrushes and pet-feeding robots (and germs) and hyper-futuristic electric vehicles that may never actually ship (also, probably germs)? Our WIRED editors on the ground at CES, keeping an eye out for the most important developments to emerge from the gadget extravaganza. So for this week’s WIRED Gadget Lab podcast, we come to you (alive but a little exhausted) from Las Vegas to talk about the big trends from CES and how they might shape our tech experiences for the rest of the year.Show NotesFollow WIRED’s liveblog of all the news from CES. Or just check out the coolest stuff from the event. Read all of WIRED’s coverage of CES.RecommendationsJulian recommends not feeling like you have to see everything at CES. Adrienne recommends the Aeropress Pro and a co

Keeping on theme with the roaring ‘20s, this year has been a doozy. Social media sites are aflame, all that hype over the metaverse has fizzled, the cryptocurrency economy has all but collapsed, and you can't always tell if a piece of art was created by a person or an eerily human bot. The future is now, and there sure is a lot of it.On this final Gadget Lab episode of the year, we discuss 2022’s biggest stories and guess at what wild tech frontiers might be awaiting us all in 2023.Show NotesCheck out all WIRED’s coverage of art, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and the metaverse. Read more about Twitter and Elon Musk, if you must. Read Lauren’s story about how no one cares about her NFT. Here’s Steven Levy’s story about how big tech layoffs may fuel new industry upstarts.RecommendationsMike recommends finding a local foot race to run. Lauren recommends meditation, particularly guided meditations from Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, and 10% Happier podcast.Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @

Plastic waste never really breaks down. It just splits into tinier and tinier pieces until it becomes trillions of microscopic bits scattered across the world. Microplastics are everywhere: In the air we breathe and the water we drink, atop the highest mountains and in the deepest parts of the ocean. Microplastics are even coursing through our bloodstreams and sitting in our digestive systems. It's a problem we have only recently begun to understand, and are still trying to figure out how to solve.This week on Gadget Lab, Matt Simon, WIRED climate writer and author of the new book A Poison Like No Other, joins us to talk about how microplastics became such a scourge and what—if anything—we can do about it.Show NotesMatt’s book A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies is out now. Read an excerpt of the book on WIRED. You can also find other Matt Simon stories about microplastics and the climate by browsing his author page.RecommendationsMatt recommends Derry Girls on Netfli

Even if you own no Bitcoin, no Ether, and no NFTs, crypto wallets—pocket-friendly hardware lockers that store digital assets—will be a part of your future. They’re essential tools for securing not only coins and digital tokens, but also the next generation of passports, drivers licenses, and concert tickets. A French company called Ledger, one of the leaders in digital wallets, is trying to take the technology mainstream with the help of Tony Fadell, one of Silicon Valley’s most celebrated hardware designers. Fadell designed the iPod and the Nest thermostat, and now he’s designed Ledger’s next product, a crypto wallet called Stax.This week, WIRED editor at large Steven Levy joins the show to tell us about the time he spent with Fadell and the Ledger team in Paris (we know, tough gig) to witness the birth of the Stax. We cover all you need to know about crypto wallets, why they are safer places to store digital assets than exchanges, and how digital wallets will be useful beyond the world of cryptocurrencies.S

Artificial intelligence is advancing faster than ever, with a new crop of generative AI programs that are creating art, videos, humor, fake news, and plenty of controversy. The technologies powering this latest slate of tools have been in the works for years, but the public release of these programs—particularly a new chatbot enabled by OpenAI’s GPT system—represents a big step forward for machine intelligence. Same with the image-generating app Lensa, which creates painterly selfies that have captured the public’s imagination. Now, engineers are asking chat programs for coding help, students are using AI to generate book reports instantly, and researchers are testing the tools’ ethical boundaries. It's all gotten very weird, but AI is about to get bigger and even weirder still.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED artificial intelligence reporter Will Knight joins us to talk about ChatGPT, how generative AI has grown up since the early days, and what the latest tools mean for everything from school book reports to

Money is tight these days. Holiday shopping, ballooning inflation, and a looming recession have forced people to more carefully consider their finances. Those factors might help explain the explosion of Buy Now, Pay Later services. BNPL plans offered by companies like Affirm, Afterpay, and Klarna let you spread the cost of a purchase over multiple installments, without the fees or interest rates of most credit cards. Of course, free money always comes with a catch.This week on Gadget Lab, we dig into the Buy Now, Pay Later phenomenon and what it means for the future of shopping.Show NotesRead Lauren’s interview with Max Levchin. Check out more of WIRED’s reporting about buy now, pay later programs. Follow our coverage of all things ecommerce.RecommendationsLauren recommends the third season of the show Dead to Me. Mike recommends the Select Five podcast, specifically the episode with him on it (episode 19).Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The s

Companies love sticking chips in everything. That's how you get a feast of connected kitchen tech: app-controlled Instant Pots, $400 touchscreen toasters, and Wi-Fi enabled fridges that let you check Twitter while you wait for some crushed ice. It's all very high tech and modern, but does any of it actually help you cook—or live—any better?This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED contributor and food writer Joe Ray joins us to talk about how to navigate the smart kitchen and whether any of these connected gadgets will really improve your cuisine or bring you happiness.This episode originally ran on September 29, 2022. Read the transcript.Show NotesRead Joe Ray’s many reviews of smart kitchen tech.RecommendationsJoe recommends the cookbook I Dream of Dinner (so You Don't Have To) by Ali Slagle. Lauren recommends pasta e ceci. Mike recommends the Oxo Brew Precision Scale With Timer.Joe Ray can be found on Twitter @joe_diner. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab

Twitter doesn't work like it used to. Under new ownership, the site is operating with half its usual staff and an entirely new set of executive pressures. As a result, Twitter has become a more unstable platform. As features break, security measures lapse, and personnel struggle to keep up, Twitter is likely to also become more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED security writer Lily Hay Newman joins the show to talk about what could happen if Twitter gets breached by hackers.Show NotesRead Lily’s story about the problems with Twitter’s SMS two-factor authentication. Read all of WIRED’s recent Twitter coverage.RecommendationsLily recommends Wicked protein bars, specifically the maple flavor. Lauren recommends Andy Greenberg’s book Tracers in the Dark. (WIRED has published a few excerpts.) Mike recommends the show The Sandman on Netflix.Lily Newman can be found on Twitter @lilyhnewman. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetL

Amid all the Twitter hubbub, the lesser known social site Mastodon has seen a surge of new users. Mastodon is a loosely connected network of individually run servers, which all play by their own rules and answer to their own moderators. It's a very different environment than Twitter. But even though Mastodon aims to be a new form of social media, it could still be prone to the same kinds of troubles that have plagued the platforms that existed before it.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior editor of security Andrew Couts joins us to talk about the ins and outs of Mastodon, and whether something like the decentralized network can ever truly replace Twitter.Show NotesRead more about how Mastodon is handling the influx of users. And here's how to find your friends on Mastodon.RecommendationsAndrew recommends Fi smart dog collars. Mike recommends So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley by Roger Steffens. Lauren recommends the new season of the HBO show White Lotus.Andrew Couts can be found on Twitt

If you've been on Twitter in the past week, you may have noticed that the platform has been emanating some slightly different vibes. Mostly because everybody on there is talking about how Elon Musk just bought the place. There's no doubt Twitter—as a company and as a community—is in flux. So far Musk has already fired top executives, flirted with adding additional paid tiers of service, tasked employees with finding ways to make the company more money, and spread his own share of misinformation.This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with WIRED platforms and power reporter Vittoria Elliot about the changes coming to Twitter and how they may affect the future of the social network.Show NotesVittoria covered the news of the takeover deal closing. Users are flocking to other platforms because of Elon’s ownership of Twitter. Read more about the potential privacy risks that could arise from Elon cleaning house. Read Twitter users’ reactions to the power shift. Read all of our stories tagged with “Elon Musk.”Recommendatio

Plastic waste never really breaks down. It just splits into tinier and tinier pieces until it becomes trillions of microscopic bits scattered across the world. Microplastics are everywhere: In the air we breathe and the water we drink, atop the highest mountains and in the deepest parts of the ocean. Microplastics are even coursing through our bloodstreams and sitting in our digestive systems. It's a problem we have only recently begun to understand, and are still trying to figure out how to solve.This week on Gadget Lab, Matt Simon, WIRED climate writer and author of the new book A Poison Like No Other, joins us to talk about how microplastics became such a scourge and what—if anything—we can do about it.Show NotesMatt’s book A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies is out now. Read an excerpt of the book on WIRED. You can also find other Matt Simon stories about microplastics and the climate by browsing his author page.RecommendationsMatt recommends Derry Girls on Netfli

Modern cars are giant computers. They're packed full of chips and bits, all working toward the goal of making your ride smoother, safer, and more comfortable. But when it comes time to take these technical marvels in for repairs, all the code under the hood becomes more of a nuisance than anything. Auto shops have struggled to keep up with the needs of these high-tech vehicles. And companies aren’t about to stop filling their cars with gadgets anytime soon.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED staff writer Aarian Marshall joins us to talk about how computerized cars have become a nightmare for auto shops and how cars will evolve in the future.Show NotesRead Aarian’s story about how the accelerated computerization of cars is killing auto shops. Read Aarian and Greg Barber’s stories about EV batteries. Here’s Lauren’s story about how you own nothing.RecommendationsAarian recommends appointment TV (aka watching a show with your friends) and not going to baseball games anymore. Mike recommends all three seasons of Twin

As its new company name would imply, Meta’s making a big deal about the metaverse. The company formerly known as Facebook just announced a new VR headset, the $1,500 Meta Quest Pro. It’s an expensive hunk of face hardware meant to entice users into the metaverse—an ambitious virtual realm that Mark Zuckerberg so desperately wants to make A Thing. But the supposed VR revolution still feels like it’s a long way off.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED editor at large Steven Levy joins the show to talk about Meta’s latest VR ambitions and whether Zuckerberg’s metaverse gamble will pay off.Show NotesRead Lauren’s story about the Meta Quest Pro. Follow Steven Levy’s Plaintext newsletter.RecommendationsSteven recommends the play Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard on Broadway. Lauren recommends Tap to Pay on the New York subway system and just having tap top pay everywhere, really.Steven Levy can be found on Twitter @StevenLevy. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. T

Even though it’s already October, we are somehow still seeing new products announced by the tech giants. This week, it was Google's turn to show off its new gadgets. There's the new Pixel 7 phone, of course, but Google also unveiled the Pixel Watch, its first smartwatch release since its acquisition of the wearable company Fitbit.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu joins us to go over all the stuff Google announced this week, including new Pixel phones and Google's entry into the very crowded smartwatch space.Show NotesRead more about the Pixel Watch and the Pixel 7 phones. Also read the initial announcement from Google I/O earlier this year.RecommendationsJulian recommends the Netflix show Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Mike recommends the book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky. Lauren recommends the book Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America by Emily Dreyfuss, Joan Donovan, and Brian Friedberg and also the 24-p

Companies love sticking chips in everything. That's how you get a feast of connected kitchen tech: app-controlled Instant Pots, $400 touchscreen toasters, and Wi-Fi enabled fridges that let you check Twitter while you wait for some crushed ice. It's all very high tech and modern, but does any of it actually help you cook—or live—any better?This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED contributor and food writer Joe Ray joins us to talk about how to navigate the smart kitchen and whether any of these connected gadgets will really improve your cuisine or bring you happiness.Show NotesRead Joe Ray’s many reviews of smart kitchen tech.RecommendationsJoe recommends the cookbook I Dream of Dinner (so You Don't Have To) by Ali Slagle. Lauren recommends pasta e ceci. Mike recommends the Oxo Brew Precision Scale With Timer.Joe Ray can be found on Twitter @joe_diner. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme mu