Touching From a Distance
Technology is moving so fast, it’s easy to overlook that what's to come is already right in front of us. Stop for a moment, and you’ll see the future.
technology
A collection of 110 issues
Paris and the Data Mind
Registering everything from fitness levels to sleep patterns, personal tracking devices satisfy our desire for self-knowledge. But when we hand control to our holograms, we may be surprised at what they want.
For the Price of a Dime
Since the 1980s, changing social mores, rising gas prices, and advancing technology have resulted in an information gap just screaming to be studied. A guide to demystifying songs from the ’80s for later, digitally native generations.
The Sound of the Internet
If the internet makes a sound (and it does), are you listening? Our correspondent uses software to transform the digital ephemera of web browsing—from network traffic to JavaScript, browser histories to JPGs—into music.
Enjoy the Silence
Just because no one uses payphones doesn’t mean the phone booth needs to go the way of the dodo. One man’s plea for preserving society’s greatest unused invention.
Don’t Leave Me
World War II had veteran parades. Vietnam War vets were often ignored, if not shunned. For the current generation of war-weary Americans, solace comes on YouTube.
The Truth Will Set You Free
I knew when I was in trouble—like the time I was 13 and was caught watching porn on my dad’s computer—and I knew I couldn’t escape my fate. Nor would I have wanted to.
Home for the Holiday Tech Support
When the annual trip home becomes a customer-service visit to “fix the internet,” sometimes even bourbon can't save the day. We gathered a half-dozen of our favorite tech writers and editors to help anticipate the headaches of 2011.
Picture Me Not Posting
If distractions poison a writer’s ambitions, then surely a summer with no internet access is the antidote?
Handheld Time Machines
Cities are full of noise and scuffle, and they don’t always reveal their history. Armed with a fistful of maps from 1901 and a smartphone bristling with data-recording apps, one man tries to uncover a city’s secrets.