Tag: tech

To every man and woman their own Dorito.

When an online news outlet goes out of business, its archives can disappear as well. The new battle over journalism’s digital legacy.

On how a new administrative technology is being conflated with radical politics.

On the macro forces that have made digital nomadism something more powerful, and more sinister, than just another “lifestyle choice.”

The popular online tool is great at rapid decoding. Extracting meaning? Not so much.

After helping shape the public image of numerous tech companies, Margit Wennmachers is now helping shape the story of Silicon Valley itself.

Hiroshi Ishi­guro has spent his career creating robots. But does he know enough about humans to make them lifelike?

The mysterious creator of bitcoin asks a journalist to help reveal his identity.

The Facebook CEO is in control of his company. He could just use a little more confidence.

The internet is not pleased with start-up bros who want to “disrupt” bodegas.

Sleek-kitschy idiosyncrasy is all the rage.

When your Ubud neighborhood becomes a luxury tech bubble.

It’s not the pace of housing construction. It’s that the world’s most successful companies are gathered in a small number of cities.

“I’ve lived in Seattle for seven years, single most of them. The only thing that has changed is the increase in men I’d never want to go out on a date with.”

Who needs fear and loathing in Las Vegas when you can have joy and harmony in Miami?

Tilt was once a start-up with extravagant soirées, hazy business plans, and a $375 million valuation. Then it came to the end.

As the company begins its bookstore expansion, a joyless retail experience awaits.

“I think it’s coming along,” said Tim, “though we expect—” “I think it sucks!” said Jobs. His vehemence made Tim pause. “Why?” he asked, a bit stiffly. “It just does.” “In what sense?” said Tim, getting his feet back under him. “Give me a clue.” “Its shape is not innovative, it’s not elegant, it doesn’t […]

The story of Google’s groundbreaking, buzz-generating modular smartphone — aka Project Ara — from bang to whimper.

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories. Here, the best in business and tech. * * *

Roger Hodge went inside Zappos for his October 2015 in the The New Republic, investigating CEO Tony Hsieh’s radical decision to eliminate management and fully embrace the concept of Holacracy at the online shoe retailer. 

Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that many tech workers in San Francisco turn to psychics for a glimpse of the future. Or that psychics, in turn, are rebranding themselves as spiritual therapists, executive coaches, and corporate counselors. The trend is common enough to be spoofed on HBO’s Silicon Valley, where the show’s fictional tech CEO confers […]

Few are excited about the Apple Watch—its burdens are too easily imagined. And yet we treat it as an inevitability. How did this happen?

“The point is to spoil [the internet], to create the atmosphere of hate, to make it so stinky that normal people won’t want to touch it.” –Adrian Chen, in The New York Times Magazine, on Russia’s massive troll army—and their plot against him. Read the story

A short reading list on the many lives of AOL, which will be acquired by Verizon for $4.4 billion. Fifteen years ago, AOL acquired Time Warner for $165 billion. 

One challenge for Andreessen is whether venture itself has a skills problem. If software is truly eating the world, wouldn’t venture capital be on the menu? The AngelList platform now allows investors to fund startups online. Its co-founder Naval Ravikant said that “future companies will require more two-hundred-thousand-dollar checks and way fewer guys on Sand […]

With Alfred, you no longer have to open the door for the Instacart delivery: A worker comes into your apartment and stocks food in your fridge. You don’t hand off your dirty undies to a Washio messenger; Alfred puts the laundered undies in the drawer. This all happens by paying your Alfred $99 a month, […]

A few years ago, Uber was barely started. Travis is at my house up in the mountains over the holidays, hanging out with me and my family. And he’s palling around with my dad. And my dad says, ‘Hey, let’s play a game of Wii Tennis (Nintendo Wii). And my dad had a Wii at […]

Nick Leiber | Longreads | March 2015   The first battery, a pile of copper and zinc discs, was invented more than 200 years ago, ushering in the electric age. Subsequent versions led to portable electronics, mobile computing, and our current love affair with smartphones (1,000 of which are shipped every 22 seconds). Now batteries […]

The iOS app, pending improvements, still might catch on, but if it doesn’t, we’ll have to figure out how to try to keep those subscribers as we fold them back into the original distribution system. We’re also in talks with an established indie publishing house, trying to figure out whether doing a handful of print […]