These Adorable Fish Robots Form Schools Like the Real Thing

Meet Bluebot, a friendly swimming robot with big camera eyes. Put a few in a tank together and they’ll collaborate to complete surprisingly complex tasks.

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The Future of Phone Design: Flexible Screens That Roll Up

At CES 2021, two companies showed off concepts for a rollable phone. This year, expect this new category of devices to greatly expand.

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How Law Enforcement Gets Around Your Smartphone's Encryption

New research has dug into the openings iOS and Android security provide for anyone with the right tools.

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Scientists Have Sequenced Dire Wolf DNA. Thanks, Science!

The creatures made famous by Game of Thrones went extinct some 13,000 years ago. Now geneticists know a little more about where they come from.

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How a Decade-Old Game Helped Me Cope with Seasonal Depression

During a bleary fall and winter, the open world of Skyrim gave me the motivation and joy I couldn't find in the real world.

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How Amazon Sidewalk Works—and Why You May Want to Turn It Off

The premise is convenient. But the e-commerce giant's privacy track record isn't exactly inspiring.

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The Case for Cannibalism, or: How to Survive the Donner Party

Don’t be a young, healthy, single man. That’s our first piece of advice.

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Lucasfilm Games' New Partnerships Mean the Galaxy's the Limit

The Disney-owned company just announced a new Star Wars title coming from Ubisoft and an Indiana Jones game from Bethesda. And that's just the beginning.

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The Parler Bans Open a New Front in the 'Free Speech' Wars

Apple, Google, and Amazon booted the site from their own platforms. But who moderates the moderators?

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The Best of CES 2021

These are the products, prototypes, and ideas that did the best job of signaling the future at this year’s consumer tech showcase.

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Bugsnax Is Keeping Me Going (and It Might Just Help You Too)

The island quest-style game is perfect for this "casual gaming" moment.

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The Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Faces a Two-Shot Problem

Millions of follow-up doses have been languishing in freezers, causing a massive logjam—and not everyone likes the ideas for a fix.

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In Minecraft, All the Server's a Stage

A pixelated political drama has played out in the sandbox game since May—drawing millions of viewers in the process.

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The Unsettling Truth About the ‘Mostly Harmless’ Hiker

His emaciated body was discovered in a tent, just a few miles from a major Florida highway. His identity—and troubled past—were discovered by the internet.

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There’s No Excuse to Ignore Warnings of Domestic Terrorism

The insurrection at the Capitol was planned on social media—and more plans are still being made in broad daylight across the internet.

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My Quest to Survive Quarantine—in Heated Clothes

Cold weather sucks even more when a pandemic makes it nearly impossible to socialize inside. But I found a hack.

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An Absurdly Basic Bug Let Anyone Grab All of Parler's Data

The “free speech” social network also allowed unlimited access to every public post, image, and video.

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It's a Big Year for ‘Clean Tech’ at CES

Pandemic-inspired sanitizing technology is everywhere. Even if the science behind the gadgets is sound, it's smart to be skeptical.

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The Arctic Ocean Is Teeming With Microfibers From Clothes

Scientists find an average of 40 microplastic particles per cubic meter of the northern water. The likely source? The synthetic clothing in our washing machines.

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Postapocalyptic Video Games Saved Me From Pandemic Despair

Stories of people clawing their way back from despair, bonding together, and having fun in the process are exactly what we all need right now.

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Job Screening Service Halts Facial Analysis of Applicants

But it’s still using intonation and behavior to assist with hiring decisions.

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Omori Is the Horror RPG of Your Dreams (or Nightmares)

As an elegant exploration of psychology and grief, it has the promise of Undertale—and it might have slipped under your radar.

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Google’s New Union Is Already Addressing Political Issues

The Alphabet Workers Union isn’t seeking better pay and benefits. It wants to influence the company’s policies on social and other issues.

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How Many Microcovids Would You Spend on a Burrito?

Six nerdy roommates used public health data to create an online Covid-risk points system for every activity—and protect their pandemic pod.

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A Startup Will Nix Algorithms Built on Ill-Gotten Facial Data

The FTC applies a novel remedy, going a step further than simply deleting the source photos.

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Mobileye Puts Lidar on a Chip—and Helps Map Intel's Future

It's been a rocky stretch for the chipmaker. But a bright spot was on display at this year's CES.

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Listening to Black Women: The Innovation Tech Can't Crack

Tech creators and journalists ignore the insights and experiences of Black women—and fail to see the harm of their "innovations."

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The SolarWinds Hackers Shared Tricks With a Russian Spy Group

Security researchers have found links between the attackers and Turla, a sophisticated team suspected of operating out of Moscow's FSB intelligence agency.

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The Plan to Build a Global Network of Floating Power Stations

A lot of thermal energy is trapped in the ocean. An ex-NASA researcher has figured out how it might generate unlimited clean power for aquatic robots.

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How to Get More Plant-Based Meat Onto Plates in 2021

The consequences of industrial livestock farming are severe. It's time for investors and policymakers to put resources toward the alternatives.

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2021 and the Conspiracies of Johnny Mnemonic

William Gibson was wrong about the wetware implants (not that he wanted to make predictions), but you’re still rooting for his dark, techno-druggy future anyway.

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If You Are Going to Survive, You Must Prepare to Fail

Whether you are ejecting from a fighter jet or psyching yourself up for a meeting, plan for the worst—over and over and over again. And don't forget to breathe.

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CES Liveblog: Smart Home, Workout Tech, and So Many TVs

The consumer tech show is virtual this year, and the WIRED Gear crew is watching all the Zooms to bring you up-to-the-minute coverage of news from CES.

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A Newfound Source of Cellular Order in the Chemistry of Life

Inside cells, droplets called condensates merge, divide, and dissolve. Their dance may regulate vital processes.

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The Best Cheap Phones for (Almost) Every Budget

There’s little reason to pay top dollar for a phone these days. These are our favorite Android devices and iPhones for $200 to $500.

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6 Apps to Help You Trim Down Subscriptions—and Save Money

New year, new recurring subscriptions you've probably forgotten about. Here's how keep track of them.

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A Digital Picture Frame Is My Favorite Way to Keep in Touch

The devices have come a long way and are especially great right now, since they offer a way to connect with long-distance family.

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The SolarWinds Investigation Ramps Up

Plus:  Covid-19 contact tracing privacy, a Nissan source code leak, an and more of the week's top security news.

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What Would It Take to Run a City on 100 Percent Clean Energy?

Most claims of running on “clean” electricity come with caveats, and many technologies required for round-the-clock renewable energy aren’t quite ready yet.

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Amazon's Fitness Tracker Teaches You How to Be Nicer (Kinda)

The Halo is one quirky wearable. But its biofeedback can help your relationships … up to a certain point.

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The Mystery of the World’s Loneliest Penguins

A small group of king penguins have appeared on Martillo Island in Argentina. How they got there, and whether they will stay, is unknown.

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How Long Would It Take for a 747 to Stop, Like in Tenet?

The airplane in the movie is stripped down and doesn't have all of its brakes installed, making the calculations even more fun.

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The 14 Best Weekend Deals on Home Goods, Tech, and TVs

Start the new year right with a new Apple Watch Series 6 or a cast-iron skillet at a discounted price.

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The Capitol Attack Doesn’t Justify Expanding Surveillance

The security state that failed to keep DC safe doesn't need invasive technology to meet this moment—it needs more civilian oversight.

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The 2 Tweets That Got Trump Banned Were Far From His Worst

The offending tweets cited in Twitter's statement seem tame compared to what the president has blasted from the platform in the past four years.

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The DC Insurrection Lays Bare the Fiction of America

The actions of rioters showed a need to hold on to a vision of the country that’s at odds with reality.

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A Virus Variant Spreads, Vaccine Efforts Accelerate, and More

Catch up on the most important updates from this week.

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WhatsApp Has Shared Your Data With Facebook for Years

A pop-up notification has alerted the messaging app's users to a practice that's been in place since 2016.

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Your Media Diet Will Never Be the Same

We have a glut of streaming options. But if recent events show us anything, it's that live TV news is far from obsolete.

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The Mandalorian Is Way Better in Season 2

The first season of the Star Wars series was good. But in the second, the visuals and writing make the jump to lightspeed.

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A Trump Ban Is Easy. Fixing Facebook and Twitter Will Be Hard

Plus: Dorsey in the Trump administration's early days, how to define privacy, and chaos in the Capitol.

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Get the Most Out of Your iPad With These Accessories

These are some of our favorite stands, cases, keyboards, and Pencils no matter which iPad you have.

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Trump Gets Suspended, but CES Does Not

This week, we analyze how the social media platforms reacted to the events of January 6. We also offer our preview of what to expect next week at CES.

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The Rise of Sierra Online Wasn’t Exactly a Fairytale

Founder Ken Williams opens up about his new book, video game design in the late 80s—and his regrets about selling the company.

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New York City Proposes Regulating Algorithms Used in Hiring

A bill would require firms to disclose when they use software to assess candidates, and vendors would have to ensure that their tech doesn’t discriminate.

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The DC Mobs Could Become a Mythologized Recruitment Tool

Wednesday’s riot in Washington was the result of conspiracy theories, anti-government sentiment, and online extremism—and it could start a movement.

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What to Expect From the First-Ever Virtual CES

The show must go on.

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How Fast Can Scientists Find the New Coronavirus Strains?

The discovery of more contagious variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the US sparks a push for a long-overdue national genomic surveillance network.

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A Game Livestreaming Site Has Become an Extremist Haven

DC rioters used DLive to stream from the Capitol to thousands of people on Wednesday—and to get donations from them, too.

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Post-Riot, the Capitol Hill IT Staff Faces a Security Mess

Wednesday's insurrection could have exposed Congressional data and devices in ways that have yet to be appreciated.

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The Race to Preserve the DC Mob's Digital Traces

The pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol livestreamed their actions. As social media platforms scramble to remove dangerous content, what will become of all that footage?

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Platforms Must Pay for their Role in the Insurrection

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have spent years fomenting and enabling yesterday's violence at the Capitol. Policymakers need to do something about it.

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Call Trump's Scheme for What It Is: Autocracy

Pundits and platforms have spent years mislabeling and under-appreciating threats to democracy. It led to the mob.

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Even Mark Zuckerberg Has Had Enough of Trump

By freezing the president’s accounts, social media platforms finally drew a line. It only took a violent insurrection in the Capitol to get them there.

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Do I Have a Moral Obligation to Be On TikTok?

I'm only 30, and already feeling like I owe it to society to keep up.

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Climate Change Is Turning Cities Into Ovens

A new model estimates that by 2100, cities across the world could warm as much as 4.4 degrees Celsius. It’s a deadly consequence of the “heat island” effect.

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How to Find the Perfect Music and Podcasts, Faster

Choosing just the right thing to listen is tricky. Here's how to navigate your options and set the mood.

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These Are the 17 Must-Watch TV Shows of 2021

From Marvel hopefuls to mind-bending dramas, here are all the series you'll need to keep an eye on this year.

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Ticketmaster Pays Up for Hacking a Rival Company

Employees admitted to using stolen passwords and URL guessing to access confidential data.

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Razor’s E-Scooter Isn’t Much of a Kick

This electric scooter offers a stable ride at a relatively affordable price, though its bulky design isn’t the best for apartment-dwelling city slickers.

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Activists Publish a Vast Trove of Ransomware Victims' Data

WikiLeaks successor DDoSecrets has amassed a controversial new collection of corporate secrets and is sharing them in the name of transparency.

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Want a Better PC? Try Building Your Own

Assembling a computer yourself is a good way to learn about how it works. It’s also a lost art—one due for a revival.

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For Marginalized Groups, Being Studied Can Be a Burden

Academics often research minority communities in the hope of helping them. But too much time under the microscope can cause its own harms.

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The US Needs More Foreign Artificial Intelligence Know-How

Jason Furman, a top economic adviser to President Obama, says good ideas come from everywhere—but Trump has dissuaded tech workers from coming to the US.

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The Autonomous-Car Chaos of the 2004 Darpa Grand Challenge

The self-driving vehicles smashed, burned, flipped, and tipped. But the ambitious race through the Mojave launched an industry.

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There Should Be a Nobel Prize for Vaccine Logistics

Immunization against Covid-19 is not going perfectly, but at least it's going. Let's give credit where it's due.

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One Free Press Coalition Spotlights Journalists Under Attack - January 2021

This month’s focus is on Zhang Zhan, who had been posting reports from Wuhan since early February. She was arrested in May.

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26 Movies We Want to See in 2021—One Way or Another

From Dune to Black Widow, a ton of films got delayed due to Covid-19. Here are the ones WIRED is hoping to see, whether at home or (finally) in a theater.

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A Farewell to Adobe Flash—and the Messy, Glorious Web

The software helped create an amateur internet. It’s a far cry from the glossy, corporate one we know now.

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Watch a Robot Dog Learn How to Deftly Fend Off a Human

Kick over this robot and it’ll quickly right itself—not because someone told it how, but because it taught itself to overcome the embarrassment.

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The Nokia 5.3 Is a Dependable Phone for Under $200

If your budget is tight, this Android smartphone is a smart buy.

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Twitch Is Having a Political Renaissance

Candidates and organizers are flocking to the platform, with the hope of reaching voters who would normally be disengaged.

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A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society?

In 1995, a WIRED cofounder challenged a Luddite-loving doomsayer to a prescient wager on tech and civilization’s fate. Now their judge weighs in.

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Tenet Is a Must-Watch for Fans of Action Movies

Christopher Nolan's latest has lots of mind-bending action scenes, but not much character development.

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The UK Denies Assange's Extradition, Citing Suicide Risk

The ruling is based not on whether the Wikileaks founder violated the Espionage Act, but on the implications of subjecting him to the US carceral state.

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How to Upgrade Your Home Audio While You're Quarantined

Stuck home or not, it's always a good idea to invest in better sound. Our advice and gear recommendations can help.

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Wikipedia's Biggest Challenge Awaits in 2021

Changes proposed by the Wikimedia Foundation to diversify its community of editors raise existential questions for the online encyclopedia.

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In India, Smartphones and Cheap Data Are Giving Women a Voice

About 200 million women in the country are illiterate. But voice memo and image-sharing apps make it easier to connect, communicate, and run businesses.

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This Drone Sniffs Out Odors With a Real Moth Antenna

Researchers slap a living antenna on a drone to give the machine an insanely keen sense of smell. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the “Smellicopter.”

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Gear and Tips to Winter-Proof Your Home and Stay Warm

So you're freezing inside and outside. Our advice can fix that.

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The Milky Way Gets a New Origin Story

Over the past two years, astronomers have rewritten the history of our galaxy.

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This $40 Cast-Iron Pot Is the Secret to Baking a Perfect Loaf

An inexpensive, so-simple-it-hurts pan has come to rule our food writer's kitchen.

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Humanity Is in Danger of Becoming Obsolete in LX 2048

Director Guy Moshe talks about the ambitious scale and preternatural timeliness of his new sci-fi film.

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What a Victorian Disease Detective Proved About Urban Health

John Snow showed that London's cholera outbreak arose from bad water, not the moral failings of the poor. His legacy can help tackle new problems like Covid-19.

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Ways to Stay Sane and Relaxed During Quarantine

It’s hard to keep calm and carry on when trying not to lose your mind is a struggle. Here are a few tips to help you cope.

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Zoom Book Tours: 5 Authors on Publishing in a Pandemic

WIRED asked the writers of five of our favorite 2020 titles what it was like to release a book during Covid-19.

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How to Make the Most of a Virtual Therapy Session

And some Instagram resources to shore up your mental health, if therapy isn't an option right now.

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How to Cook in Your Tiny Kitchen (and Stay Sane)

Your cooking area is the size of a Game Boy. But with some strategic gear you can still whip up a storm of good food.

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Dungeons, Dragons, and Diversity

Dungeons & Dragons has spent the past few months pushing a new era of diversity and inclusions, but it’s still got a lot of work to do.

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How Tech Could Help Us Contemplate Our Own Mortality

Monks stared at skulls to ponder the inevitability of death. We stare at our phones.

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