Frog is a rooster. Every weekday, he speeds down his family’s dusty driveway, rocking back and forth as he goes, like a feathery wind-up toy. Seconds later, a yellow school bus whines to a halt in front of him, just as Frog knew it would. For the last two years, Frog has never missed his…

Everyone returns a gift now and then. Maybe the item doesn’t fit. Maybe it doesn’t suit your taste. Or maybe you just read a book extolling the virtues of minimalism and want to give that lifestyle a swing.Whatever your reason, you’re not alone. In 2018, the National Retail Foundation estimated that around $369 billion worth…

Playing Santa Claus is a tough gig. Oh sure, anyone can stuff a pillow under a cheap red velvet jacket, paste on a fake beard and bellow "Ho Ho Ho." Such people are amateurs unworthy of the title Father Christmas. The best Santas take the role seriously. They bulk up. They exude jolliness. And they…

And it won't slow down in 2020, either -- HBO Max and Peacock are right around the corner. Between those and existing streaming options, like CBS All Access, Sundance Now, Shudder, BET+, Crunchyroll and Funimation (did we miss any?), it's getting expensive to keep up with TV and, naturally, piracy is roaring back into the…

When the Oculus Quest originally launched, I knocked it for feeling a bit limited for a $400 device. But it's now shaping up to be the most versatile headset around. And you can bet that price will fall over time. Still, it'd be nice to see Oculus take another stab at a dedicated high-end VR…

Kalanick was the CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017. During that time, he was no stranger to controversy, with Uber frequently popping up in the news for its toxic work culture and efforts to mislead regulators. Kalanick was eventually ousted from the position after a group of investors penned a letter, demanding a change…

For generations, millions of Star Wars fans have thought they were watching a good ol’ fashioned space opera. In fact, they’ve received a decades-long primer in geopolitics, warfare, and the tenets of leadership. This is on display again in the latest and final movie of the nine-film franchise, The Rise of Skywalker.At the outset of…

When photographers show their work to us WIRED photo editors, common responses as to why they’re reluctant to show off some of their most interesting projects include “I wasn’t sure if this is WIRED's style,” or “I didn’t think you cover this.”Year in Review: What WIRED learned from tech, science, culture, and more in 2019Sure,…

The 2010s are nearly in the books, and while the decade has seen its share of megahits—The Cloud! Chromebooks! Instagram!—there was no shortage of utter floppery to go around. In fact, paring the list of tech disasters down to just 10 was awfully hard, as nearly every major tech company had at least one multimillion-dollar…

Try to take stock of the 2010s in social media and you might begin to feel a sense of dread. This was the decade of mistrust and manipulation, when platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube became synonymous with hijacking democratic elections, promoting ethnic cleansing, and creating “digital voodoo dolls” from our data. Mark Zuckerberg started…