Technology

Taking stock of last year's big announcements and experimental products.

A software glitch is causing parking meters throughout New York City to reject credit and prepaid parking cards.

If you get annoyed that Google has pivoted its way through launching and killing a dozen messaging apps, that open, freewheeling culture is why.

Developers are protesting that the source-code repository GitHub contracted with ICE. But if you restrict access to open-source code, is it still open?

A kidney doctor treats a college student on the brink of death and is reminded that survival is never guaranteed.

Despite her best efforts to build a social justice startup focused on sex education, there were tensions between startup culture and the social justice space.

Keeping a camera running overnight can provide a sense of comfort or at least a confirmation of fidelity.

Big tech is lending its machine learning technology to big oil. What could go wrong?

Wildflower Schools has a radical idea: use sensors to track kids' every movement — where they go, who they interact with, and how long they engage with materials.

The Moxie Showerhead definitely belongs in the long list of products with unnecessary Alexa integrations.

AT&T's EO Personal Communicator was going to change everything. Too bad nobody cared.

The S-Pod is like a traditional Segway that you can sit in. Instead of leaning to move, though, it's controlled by a small joystick.

The chip's complex design was generated by a computer. "If you look at the design, no human engineer would have come up with it."

The chip's complex design was generated by a computer. "If you look at the design, no human engineer would have come up with it."

Whether you're a fan of country, hip-hop, jazz, classical, Latin, rock, or any music genre in-between, you most likely listen to music on a major streaming platform.

Nearly ten years ago, Google shipped an unassuming, totally unbranded laptop to a large group of journalists and tech enthusiasts as part of a 60,000 unit pilot program.

From the Amiga 500, Atari ST, IBM PC, Super Nintendo, up to the Sega Genesis, I attempted to discover how "Another World" was implemented. I found an environment made rich by its diversity where the now ubiquitous CPU/GPU did not exist yet. In the process, I discovered the untold stories of seemingly impossible problems heroically solved by lone programmers.

In 2020, this is what to expect in the world of consumer tech: the best stuff is going to get more powerful and more premium.

A wave of startups wants to make brain-computer interfaces accessible without needing surgery. Just strap on the device and think.

As has been the case the past few years, 2019 didn't look all that different from the year that came before it. To me, this continues to underscore just how hard it is for a new app or service to break through in our era of app saturation, where everyone already has all the services they use on a daily basis, and aren't spending nearly as much time looking for what's new.

The code was awful in ways that were entirely new to me but, despite the best efforts of the architecture team, we managed to gradually improve things. But there were still lots of problems, and some of them began to impact the business plan.

We started the 2010s obsessed with our electronic hygiene — and ended them a nation of digital hoarders. Eleven ideas about the decade that killed iTunes.

TensorFlow.js is a gamechanger for AI. It's an end-to-end open source ML library that is capable of running pre-trained AI directly in the browser.

Samsung's expected to show off a nearly bezel-free TV at CES in Las Vegas next week, and as tends to be the case with such things, some of the details have leaked.

Julia Edelman and Olivia de Recat imagine a breakup conversation between a meditation-app subscriber and the app.

If you've bought an Apple laptop in the last few years and you try out the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, you will be furious. It's so good.

Technology like the Bond Bracelet, which lets you communicate with a partner wordlessly, is changing the ways people experience connection and romance.

2019 was the year wireless earbuds went mainstream.

From smart homes to ultrafast wireless speeds, here's what to watch.

Here's what we're expecting from the next ten years of smartphones.

It's the rise — and revenge — of the machines.

The NYPD's drones can only be used for certain things. "Traffic and pedestrian monitoring at large events" is one.

Voter registration, thoughtful regulation, replaceable batteries, and more — here are the solutions for a better tomorrow, today.

Failed Kickstarter projects, flammable gadgets, and investment bubbles were tech's biggest flops of the decade.

Since 2010, a slew of on-demand companies and technologies have managed to use consumer data to transform the commercial significance of urban living.

Many depression management and suicide prevention apps don't have functions that fill all of the clinical recommendations for suicide prevention tools.

They're a lot less impressive when they're everywhere. Here's how the smartphone went from innovation icon to standard component.

Sonos' attempt to control the aftermarket for its products produces frustration and waste.

Sometimes perfectly good gadgets or services that still work as intended are taken out back, unceremoniously shot and buried in a shallow grave.

There are so many Airpod knockoffs. YouTuber Unbox Therapy tests all of them out.

In 2010, the future of electric vehicles looked wide open. The terrain was rocky, but fertile; full of opportunity, if you could make it through the technical and consumer crags.

By one measure, Baidu's natural-language algorithm understands English better than any other.

The world's toughest privacy law proves toothless in the eyes of many critics.

There are now 11 French unicorns, and many of them arrived in 2019.

Responding to the customer's demand for instant gratification in the middle of the retail apocalypse.

WSJ's Joanna Stern attempts to maneuver around the town of Hell, Michigan with only products from 2010. How far can she go?

Nintendo copied Apple, while Apple copied Braun. Why are there so many electronics made of white polycarbonate, no matter the decade?

YouTuber Destin Sandlin attempts to break into a smart home with just the help of a laser.

Sarcos Robotics has spent the past 20 years building the ultimate powered robot exosuit. Early next year, its Guardian XO wearable robot will ship to the first customers.

Sure, there were disasters this year — one of the products on this list even started out as such! That said, these are some of the very best gadgets of 2019.

In the last 10 years, traditional celebs have begun clamoring for a spot on the erstwhile cat video haven, even as it's churned out stars of its own.

Marques Brownlee explores the Solarius Zenith, the most expensive iPhone in the world, equipped with 24-carat gold and 137 diamonds.

Another quantum computing architecture closes in on quantum supremacy.

Drawn into the tech world, a 20-something wonders why she — and the rest of us — didn't wise up to the grandiose myopia sooner.

Nobody set out to make one of this decade's most influential styles of game. It just happened. What's next?

Wary of alarming investors, companies victimized by ransomware attacks often tell the SEC that "malware" or a "security incident" disrupted their operations.

It's been a rough 10 years in cybersecurity — and it's only getting worse.

The explosion of metrics and algorithms isn't just reflecting what's happening in the music industry. It's transforming it.

Once a mighty villain, the bookstore chain looks different in the age of Amazon.

The 2010s were the decade of Google filling up its product graveyard, Apple stubbornly denying obvious missteps, and Microsoft writing off billions of dollars. It was the decade of crowdfunding fails on Kickstarter, Indiegogo and elsewhere. And many, many more.