Boox’s tiny Picco e-reader should land in November
Boox’s tiny Picco e-reader should land in November

Boox teased the Picco, its take on the buzzy Xteink X4 e-reader, back in July, but provided almost no details. Now, thanks to some reporting out of IFA, we’ve got a bit more info, though sadly still no price. Unlike the Xteink devices, the Picco will not have magnets on the back for attaching to […]

The Fairphone 6 Plus is the midrange phone we desperately needed
The Fairphone 6 Plus is the midrange phone we desperately needed

The Fairphone 6 Plus feels like an extremely average midrange Android phone and I couldn’t be more thrilled. The mission has always been admirable. Fairphone seeks out ethically sourced materials and offers a high degree of repairability for its devices. But the phones themselves required a lot of sacrifices, like putting up with underpowered processors […]

Flock’s AI search tool for police officers has been reverse engineered — here’s what it shows
Flock’s AI search tool for police officers has been reverse engineered — here’s what it shows

Wired has managed to uncover some of the details about how search works for police officers using Flock.

DIY plug-in solar gains momentum in the US
DIY plug-in solar gains momentum in the US

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on e-bikes, power stations, and how to work anywhere, follow Thomas Ricker. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started With a deep breath, I took […]

Explore the globe in field recordings
Explore the globe in field recordings

I love field recordings. I love making them. I love them when they’re incorporated into my ambient music. They’re great background noise for working or sleeping. But they’re also great for active listening, focusing in on the fine nuances of burbling brooks or urban chaos. Earth Garden gives you a globe to explore with real […]

iPhone Handoff will seamlessly share one number between two phones
iPhone Handoff will seamlessly share one number between two phones

When iOS 27 lands later this month, it will have a feature called iPhone Handoff that lets you switch between two phones using the same number. It was briefly mentioned during the WWDC keynote back in June, but there were no details at the time. Now there’s a demo clip showing how to set up […]

Content creators drop the ball
Content creators drop the ball

During Naomi Osaka’s match against Anastasia Zakharova at this year’s US Open earlier this week, a gaggle of ring light-wielding influencers who were packed in a luxury suite became enough of a distraction that the umpire paused the match and repeatedly asked them to quiet down. Elsewhere in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis […]

Researchers report on a solar storm that caused a GPS glitch serious enough to crash self-driving cars
Researchers report on a solar storm that caused a GPS glitch serious enough to crash self-driving cars

The solar storm that hit Earth last November was more severe than most, and we need to be prepared for the next one.

The weird and wonderful headphones of CanJam 2026
The weird and wonderful headphones of CanJam 2026

I’ve been reviewing headphones for a long time, and I’ve listened to everything from the barely serviceable to multi-thousand-dollar open-back headphones. But recently I’ve been uninspired by the state of mainstream options. Most are perfectly good – great, even – but they lack a distinct character. Something to remind me why I fell in love […]

OpenAI admits to German wiki ‘incident’
OpenAI admits to German wiki ‘incident’

OpenAI says it needs to overhaul how and when it reports instances of AI models attacking real-world targets. The acknowledgement comes as the company manages the fallout from reports that a swarm of its out-of-control agents hijacked a German wiki site. Regarding the “‘wiki incident,’ where our agents wrote to several internet sites,” OpenAI wrote […]