Just about a year ago, SpaceX sent the rocketry equivalent of a clown car to space: A rocket crowded with more than 60 small satellites. Inside one of them, Excite, were even more. It was actually a satellite made of other satellites, all clones of each other, all capable of joining together and working together.…
DetailsThe internet has a dirty little secret that’s hiding in plain sight: People love to read. Looking back on 2019, that trend is only growing. The majority of the most-read WIRED stories this year were ambitious longreads.They ranged across a wide array of topics—from inside accounts of tech companies in crisis to twisty crime tales…
DetailsIndian tech startups have never had it so good. Local tech startups in the nation raised $14.5 billion in 2019, beating their previous best of $10.6 billion last year, according to research firm Tracxn . Tech startups in India this year participated in 1,185 financing rounds — 459 of those were Series A or later…
DetailsTOKYO — Apple may be the world’s most recognizable brand. Few consumers have ever heard of Seiko Advance. But when Apple CEO Tim Cook spent three days in Japan in early December, he made sure to visit the unsung company — and tweet about it.In an interview, Cook told Nikkei that Seiko Advance is the…
DetailsHome News Storage Storage giant Seagate unveiled two new hard disk drives with a 16TB capacity earlier this year and for once, it was not all about data centers. The Exos X16 and the IronWolf/IronWolf Pro targeted two different audiences (data center for the first and NAS users for the second) and feature SATA or SAS…
DetailsThis past decade took us all over the cosmos. Physicists produced the first picture of a black hole. A giant rover landed on Mars. A spacecraft visited Pluto for the first time.Decade in Review: WIRED looks back at the promises and failures of the last 10 yearsWith data collected by robotic explorers, satellites, and telescopes…
DetailsThe new HBO series Watchmen is a superhero show that deals with serious themes of race and trauma. Science fiction author Tobias S. Buckell was impressed to see the show highlight the 1921 Tulsa race riot, in which a prosperous black neighborhood was destroyed by an angry mob. “That’s the magic of genre, the magic…
DetailsIf you’re feeling a bit uneasy right now, you’re not alone. It’s the end of not just a year but a decade, and we’re not exactly closing on a high note. There’s more misinformation than ever, climate change is putting the future of humanity at risk, devices are eroding our privacy, and the police are…
DetailsIt wasn’t long ago that robot vacuums were something of a joke, more a statement of affluence or potential cat car than a convenient household tool. However, both the hardware and software have improved enormously in the past few years. Innovations like smart maps and self-emptying dust bins have made robovacs more useful and more…
DetailsThe 2010s were a turbulent time for videogames. Bolstered by a rapidly expanding ecosystem of online distribution marketplaces, independent games ballooned, touching every part of the industry and reshaping the entire landscape. As that happened, big-budget gaming became even bigger, costing more and simultaneously generating higher revenues. In that environment, change moved fast and freely.…
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