What's New

For all its virtues, Facebook Messenger works more like email than a group messaging app like GroupMe orTango. If you want to talk with someone directly, no problem. But it hasn’t handled large groups effectively because it lacked some of the key elements that make group messaging fun. It was too simple. A pair of new features, called Reactions and Mentions, constitute part of Facebook’s bid to ma...

Science fiction cinema has a longstanding problem:Good ideas abound, butgreat ones are in short supply. (And most of the good ones have been used.) After decades of drought, 2001: A Space Odyssey spawned Solaris andStar Wars and Alien, and the genre became popular, but pulpily so; parades of familiartropes spackled over withterrible visual effects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...

Let’s clear this up right from the start:Paul Budnitz does not want to take over the world. He didn’t createEllo to disrupt Facebook, even if the media sayshe did. And he definitely didn’t launchWuu, an app that looks like Snapchat and Instagram yet stands firmly opposed to so much about them, in a bidto kill them. Really. He swears. No, Budnitz sees Wuu creating aspace beyond those global town sq...

Some mornings-not many, but some-you wake up to a new iPhone. Surprise! This is one of those mornings. And while today's new iPhone acts just like the old one, it adds a certain special something. It's red. Yes, red, a bright, brilliant, gleaming red, a shade so bright it makes rose gold blush. The case is read. The buttons are red. The fiddly little nano-SIM tray? It's red, too. The Apple logo? N...

First of all, everyone needs to know that there will be AT-AT Walkers at the Star Wars land currently under construction at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Now that that's out of the way, what else is going on in a galaxy far, far away? Oh, nothing much, just teases for what's going to happen in this December's Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Why aren't you reading ahead already? Move along. Move along. L...

Do you remember when you first saw The Matrix? If it was opening day, it wasMarch 31, 1999: Bill Clinton was president, and TLC’s “No Scrubs” was about to knockCher from the top ofthe Billboard chart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No end of sites and platforms make it easy to watch sports highlights on your phone. But none is more now than House of Highlights. The bombastic, occasionally NSFW Instagram account is the hottest thing going, due in no small part to the dedication of its 22-year-old founder, Omar Raja. "He's honestly like the modern SportsCenter, or the young person's SportsCenter," says Dave Finocchio, CEO of t...

Not quite a year ago, I wrote a story about the merits of good oyster knives, getting a shucking lesson from a pro in the process. I walked away from the lesson with a refreshed appreciation for finding the right tool for the job, but what was most impressive was the shucker's technique, which was like nothing I'd ever seen. My lesson came from Lucas Stone, a shucker at Seattle's fantastic Westwar...

Hurricane Carol has finally returned. But for all the expectations surrounding that fact—that she'd kick ass, that she'd take names, that she'd maybe make a few of the most heinous Saviors cry—the reality isn't nearly as satisfying as the expectations. That's what happens when someone finds out that Negan made ground beef out of your nearest and dearest. Melissa McBride delivers a powerful perform...

It’s 160 degrees outside, a massive sandstorm could appear at any moment, and you’re trying to capture footage of a pack of lions chasing a giraffe. They’re bigger, faster, and scarier than you are. Oh, and you’ve been out in the desert for weeks, waiting for this exact moment. Don’t screw it up. That, evidently, is what it’s like to be a member of the crew for Planet Earth II. And as we watched t...

California just ensured one of itswettest winters in state history. I didn't mind all that rain, though, because it gave me the perfect opportunity to try some of the latest waterproof running shoes. I aimed for puddles, muddy ruts, and small streams with childlike abandon while out on my runs. I occasionally experiencedsore feet-a comfortable upper is hard enough to design, and making it impervio...

Earlier this week, WIRED ran a story about the new Nike sneakers tied to Breaking2, the company’s attempt to help runners break the two-hour mark at a special marathon this spring. As part of WIRED’s exclusive look at that initiative, our writer took a trial run in the sneakers as part of his training to achieve his own personal milestone: a sub-90-minute half-marathon. I thought we were talking a...

“WikiLeaks on Tuesday released thousands of documents that it said described sophisticated software tools used by the Central Intelligence Agency to break into smartphones, computers and even Internet-connected televisions…One [program], code-named Weeping Angel, uses Samsung “smart” televisions as covert [surveillance] devices.” — The New York Times, March 7th, 2007 Gabe, what’s going on? You’re...

In its ongoing jihad against federal regulations, the Trump administration has indicated some interest in targeting the ones that attempt to fight climate change. First in its sights: a funky law that gives the state of California the right to make its own rules on automotive emissions. But because of the way laws and business work, the California exemption is one of the most powerful environmenta...

Fans who ran out to catch Logan on its opening weekend were treated to a very cool, Deadpool-shaped surprise. Flipping the script on Marvel’s post-credits scene tradition, the new Wolverine flick beganwith a lead-in short of Wade Wilson trying (and failing) to fight some crime. The 3.5-minute teaserwas a nice gift. It was also a reminder: R-rated comic book movies are here for good. Learn more abo...

It's been such a crazy week in the real world—Oscar flubs! Presidential addresses! Nicole Kidman's clapping!—that keeping up with the virtual one has been a real pain. But that's why you come here, isn't it? To catch up on what you've missed? Here's everything that went down online while you were AFK. The Great Garfield Conspiracy What Happened: We know that Garfield loves lasagna. We know that Ga...

When Wolverine first appears in Logan, he’s graying and tired. His claws get stuck between his knuckles and have lost their snikt-sniktresponsiveness. He’s suicidal and he’s drinking too much, even for him. Guys he normally would have taken out with a quickness can get him on his back. He looks like shit—and because this is R-rated Wolverine, he can say so. Yes, everything you’ve heard is true. Le...

I have zero virtual-reality skills. I don’t know how to work in Unity, the graphics software engine often used to make immersive worlds. I have little sense for 3-D design. But I have a secret weapon: A-Frame, an easy-to-use language released by Mozilla last winter. Based on HTML, it lets anyone quickly type commands that place blocks, spheres, and other shapes into a 3-D scene. Learn more about y...

Nintendo's Switch comes out on Friday. I've been playing with the Switch-an all-in-one gaming machine that works as both a handheld device and a TV game console-for the last two weeks. Nintendo says we can publish a review of it right now, though I have no idea why Nintendo would want us to. The company's new toy isn't finished yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi...

Set aside the factSony has not been a part of the smartphone conversation lately. Never mind that you’re almost certainly better off with an iPhone 7 or Google Pixel. For now, just take a moment to bask in the glorious, mostly unnecessary overkill that defines the Xperia XZ Premium. Specs? Why yes, it has all of them. For its latest flagship, Sony opted for a 5.5-inch 4K display that crams in 801...

Before there was iPhone, there was 3310. After its launch in 2000, Nokia sold more than 125 million models of its indestructible candybar, turning Snake into a cultural icon and searing that tinkling ringtone permanently into the back of your mind. If you didn't own one, you probably knew someone who did. And you were probably jealous. It's been almost 17 years since the 3310 first came out. In th...

Some of the best Instagram content tells a story in pictures—maybe with a snap-zoom, or a good ol’ “who wore it best” between Rihanna and Patrick the Starfish. But doingthis requires using aclunky collage-making app. That’s frustrating, because Instagramputs carousel-style ads in your feed and long alluded to making the same tools available to everyone. That’s finally changing, because Instagram n...

Technology offers plenty of ways to smartify your home. Some prefer the DIY approach—cobbling together an array of NFC antennae and some Arduino boards to make the coffee maker deliver a fresh, hot cup at sunrise—but that’s a giant pain in the ass. Turn your lights on and off from anywhere on Earth---cool huh? Breezy set-up. Simple design. The Wemo app is delightful to use. Bark at Alexa or Google...

Beards are all the rage right now, but for the baby-faced, facial hair just looks wrong. Photos of my misguided mid-’90s goatee back this up. But just because you might want a hairless chin doesn’t mean you want bother of shaving with a razor. Solution: The electric razor, Jacob Schick’s 1923 invention and the morning savior of many a lazy man. I’ve used electrics exclusively for more than a decad...

In the summer months of 2015, Jeffrey Schnapp and a few of his colleagues started collecting rideables. The hoverboard craze was in full swing, and OneWheels and Boosteds were showing up on roads and sidewalks. Schnapp and his co-founders rode, drove, and crashed everything they could find. For Schnapp, a Harvard professor and longtime technologist with a shaved head, pointy goatee, and a distinct...