What's Tech?
Enjoy the archives of this retired, award-winning series from Christopher Thomas Plante and The Verge that explained technology bit by bit. The series finale aired December 6th, 2016, shortly before Chris re-joined Polygon as its executive editor. For more on what’s happening now (and next) in technology and gadgets, listen and subscribe to The Vergecast.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 24 minutes
- Episodes
- 88
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2016
What is Tumblr?
Tumblr was the first social media platform to feel irrelevant. I'm young enough to have blogged my way through high school, but old enough for my blogging to be unusual. I used Xanga, and then LiveJo…
00:23:32 |
Tue 12 Jan 2016
What is CES?
The Verge's Dieter Bohn shares the history of the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, which is taking place this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic…
00:32:18 |
Tue 05 Jan 2016
What is a hoverboard?
The Verge tested Lexus' hoverboard in August. Thanks to science and a considerable promotional budget, the car maker's hoverboard actually hovered above the earth — as its name suggested. The experie…
00:30:49 |
Tue 29 Dec 2015
What is Windows 10?
Last week, I wrote about Microsoft's plan to bring Xbox One and Windows 10 closer together. I've been wondering what this future might look like. I know a good deal about Microsoft's video game conso…
00:28:19 |
Tue 15 Dec 2015
What is an internet router?
When I joined The Verge, many of my peers from the video games press congratulated me on a lifetime of writing about internet routers. I laughed at their silly joke. How much, I thought, is there to …
00:27:04 |
Tue 08 Dec 2015
What is Fallout?
On a recent Sunday afternoon, you may have noticed Brutus — Fox's NFL mascot — wearing a new set of protective armor. This costume wasn't promoting a nonprofit initiative meant to distract from profe…
00:19:39 |
Tue 01 Dec 2015
What is an internet meme?
I remember my first meme. I was in my grade school computer lab — this was a time when computers were still novel, not mandatory. My fifth grade teacher was explaining email to our classroom, and how…
00:19:18 |
Tue 24 Nov 2015
What is the quantified self?
I have tried various health trackers, and they always wind up buried in the bottom drawer of my dresser. I should love the pursuit of a quantified self. I like data; I want to be healthier; I enjoy n…
00:26:00 |
Wed 11 Nov 2015
What is alien life?
More recently, discussions of extraterrestrial life have become mainstream. Brilliant minds like Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson have made headlines with their thoughts on how humans should o…
00:24:54 |
Wed 04 Nov 2015
What is Minecraft?
This week Microsoft released Halo 5, the latest installment of its most iconic exclusive for Xbox consoles. The adventures of Master Chief and his console cohorts, however, pale beneath the popularit…
00:29:07 |
Wed 28 Oct 2015
What Is The Patriot Act
A little over a month after the events of September 11th, 2001, an Act of Congress called the USA Patriot Act was signed into law by then President George W. Bush. Despite its controversial expansion…
00:23:54 |
Tue 20 Oct 2015
What is TV?
"There's too much television," said FX CEO John Landgraf at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. Landgraf, whose in part responsible for the success of shows like Fargo, It's Always …
00:31:24 |
Tue 13 Oct 2015
What are online ads?
As someone whose paycheck in some part comes from ad revenue, talking about online advertising can feel complicated. At their worst, digitals ads are annoying, intrusive, and for those of us with mod…
00:43:16 |
Tue 06 Oct 2015
What is ASMR?
I have ASMR. Or maybe the correct phrasing is that I'm susceptible to ASMR. It's tough to talk about the phenomenon, because ASMR lacks the mandatory scientific evidence that proves, well, its existe…
00:19:01 |
Tue 29 Sep 2015
What is Tesla?
The electric car isn't a newfangled idea birthed from the neck of a generation of idealists jaded by the economic, cultural, and atmospheric cost of oil. Our grandparents' grandparents' generation dr…
00:31:50 |
Tue 22 Sep 2015
What is instant replay?
After 16 games, dozens of touchdowns, and countless hits, the Dallas Cowboys 2014 season came to an end in January when officials, reviewing an instant replay, decided a mind-imploding reception by a…
00:24:57 |
Tue 15 Sep 2015
What is Destiny?
Destiny became so popular, so quickly that it’s success seems almost like, well, it’s destiny. But that wasn’t the case. Developer Bungie’s road to making the massive first-person shooter is strange …
00:29:03 |
Tue 08 Sep 2015
What is Star Wars?
The transformation of the fan-made greeting "May the 4th be with you" into the foundation of an annual Star Wars publicity storm had the sharp smell of cynicism. But this week it seems quaint. Force …
00:33:36 |
Tue 01 Sep 2015
What is fantasy sports?
A Forbes article from last years cited 33 million annual players of fantasy football. More shocking, much of fantasy football’s growth has happened in just the past 15 years thanks the to advent of …
00:14:39 |
Tue 25 Aug 2015
What is Virtual Sex?
My earliest memories of the internet are in AOL chat rooms.
I’d spend the summer of 1998 in chats dedicated to games, James Bond movies, baseball, and whatever else interested my ten-year-old mind. E…
00:37:13 |
Tue 18 Aug 2015
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