By enabling the streaming of calls and music straight to cochlear implants, Apple is empowering those with hearing loss—and maybe, one day,...
Audio company Bluesound makes a variety of wireless speakers and stereo components. But the company sees itself more as a music platform for audiophiles than a speaker manufacturer, as it has always proudly focused on hi-res, lossless playback. Rather than solely...
If you’re seeking a more restful and refreshing night’s sleep, you could take your pick from dozens of products and apps designed to improve your slumber. There are alarm clocks that wake you with an artificial sunrise and apps that listen to you snore, not...
Brienne of Tarth wants it. Bran wants it. Even the Onion Knight wants it. Let’s make this happen,...
The iPod died slowly, then all at once. After nearly 16 years on the market, more than 400 million units sold, and one Cupertino company launched into the stratosphere on its back, Apple quietly pulled the iPod Nano and Shuffle out of its virtual stores today. The iPod...
Last year the self-professed “communist farmer” and “saxophone kisser” known as Oedipus uploaded a song to SoundCloud, the artist-first music streaming platform that launched in 2008. Titled “Please B Okay,” it was a bright,...
Amazon’s Alexa has plenty going for it. Developers have trained the virtual assistant with over 10,000 “skills”—apps you talk to instead of tap—to do everything from hailing a Lyft to checking your stock portfolio. At home, Alexa can...
Despite what you may have heard, an Amazon Echo did not call the police earlier this week, when it heard a husband threatening his wife with a gun in New Mexico. On Monday, news reports took Bernalillo County authorities’ version of those events credulously,...
Maybe you’ve noticed that today is a day of online protest. Or maybe you haven’t. Whether you realize that today marks a Day of Action in support of net neutrality depends entirely on what websites you visit—and how the companies behind those websites...
People like Alexa. They’ve bought millions of Alexa-powered devices. When you think about Alexa, you’re probably thinking about the Echo, the tall, cylindrical monolith that first introduced Amazon’s chatty assistant to the world. The Echo features...
The Volta V is a gaming computer made out of wood. Many stories have been written about the Volta, and they all talk enthusiastically about its impressive woodiness. This enthusiasm may take the form of nostalgia for the days of console televisions, or commentary on...
A single black hand rises from a sheet of steel-blue water. Fire enshrouds a house as women and men look on in amazement, or perhaps fear, and a voice tracks the haunting spectacle: “I’m willin’ to die for this shit / I done cried for this shit,...
Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver begins the way most capers end: three goons pulling off a bank heist, then their getaway driver leaving the cops in his rearview. Unlike most capers, though, the escapade goes down to the pulse-pounding strains of The Jon Spencer Blues...
Silicon Valley (the place) has a long history of big exits: Steve Jobs being forced from Apple, Larry Ellison stepping down at Oracle, and most recently, Travis Kalanick leaving Uber. Yesterday’s episode of Silicon Valley (the show) treated us to another, when...
Jon Larsen’s idea for a book fell into his lap. Well, his breakfast, actually. The Norwegian jazz musician was dining on his porch one day eight years ago when a rock tumbled out of the sky onto the table. It was shiny, rough, and metallic. Baffled, he did what...
Of all the social networks, Instagram stands out as the place to show off your most idealized life. But look more closely, and you’ll spot a dissonance present in those pristine posts when you scrutinize them—that low-fat granola bar looks too sumptuous,...
The bouncy beeps of Pac-Man. The percussive build-up in Legend of Zelda. The effusive gibberish of The Sims. The sounds in videogames tell us to speed up, start over, and of course, to keep playing. But how does one set of beeps so effectively tell you you’ve...
It’s hard not to watch Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant invade millions of living rooms and not feel like Apple blew an opportunity. Almost six years after Apple announced Siri as a feature on the iPhone 4S, Siri’s still confined to...
Ask a four-year-old how an electrical circuit works, and you’ll get a blank stare in return. Ask a four-year-old how to make the eyes on her monsters light up, and they’ll happily plug an LED into a block of conductive dough while explaining that...
The show constantly questions what keeps innovation from happening in the tech world—but it should ask the same of itself. The post It’s Time For Silicon Valley to Disrupt Its Toxic Asian Stereotypes appeared first on...