Sonos’s First Speaker With Bluetooth Is Beach-Ready

Sonos is one of the WIRED Gear team's favorite speaker companies. In the splintered buy-it-trash-it world of Wi-Fi connected tech, where nothing seems to connect together properly or last all that long, Sonos speakers always sound outstanding. They are built to last for years, and they do things other speakers just can’t. Sonos speakers can…

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Does the FDA Even Regulate E-Cigs? Actually Kinda Not

It’s been a rough summer for e-cigarettes. Once sold as the safer alternative to traditional, combustible cigarettes, e-cigs are now associated with a national outbreak of mystery respiratory illnesses, six deaths, and a fraudulent marketing campaign.The Centers for Disease Control have advised people to stop vaping, and in September the Food and Drug Administration sent…

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The Facebook Portal Smart Speaker Is Back, Now With More AI

Facebook’s 2018 was a parade of privacy scandals, congressional pressure, and executive squabbles. The social and ad network capped off its annus horribilis with a curveball: asking consumers to spend $200 or more to install an internet-connected camera called Portal in their homes to make video calling easier.Reviews of the Portal devices were middling to…

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Richard Stallman and the Fall of the Clueless Nerd

A few days ago I got a tweet directed to me:If I find another copy of the Blue Cover version of Hackers could I get you to autograph it again? The one I currently have was signed by you and Richard Stallman at LinuxWorld in 1999, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to burn…

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Don’t Storm Area 51, Begs the Webmaster of the UFO Kingdom

On August 18, Joerg Arnu, a resident of Rachel, Nevada, stepped before his local Lincoln County commissioners. He had come to voice opposition to an event called Alienstock that was set to descend on his town. Starting September 19, an unknown but possibly huge number of visitors were to swarm his hamlet. Said festival had…

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Apple Watch Series 5 Review: Always on Time

How is it possible that, for the past five years, the smartwatch recognized as the world’s best was also a watch that didn’t always show the time?This is the truth, though. From the time the Apple Watch first launched in 2015, it evolved from is-it-an-iPhone-killer? to a killer fitness tracker to an FDA-cleared ECG monitor.…

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