Uncanny Valley | WIRED

If you’ve committed any internet crimes lately, you probably shouldn’t have paid for them with Bitcoin. While many crypto-evangelists have long thought of digital currency as a means of buying legal and illicit goods on the web with total anonymity, the fact is that nearly all cryptocurrency transactions leave a digital trail behind them that can point to your true identity. No matter how hard you try to hide, a dedicated sleuth with the right resources can find you.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior cybersecurity writer and author of the book Tracers in the Dark digs into all the ways investigators, government agents, and hackers can track down criminals online by “following the money” exchanged in cryptocurrency transactions.Show NotesAndy’s book is Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency. You can read two excerpts from the book on WIRED.com: the six-part AlphaBay saga and the feature about the takedown of a website for sharing child sex abuse materials.RecommendationsAndy recommends the deliberately frustrating game Getting Over It. Lauren recommends Andy’s WIRED story about the animal activists whose spy cams revealed the grim realities of pork slaughterhouses. Mike recommends the book Art Is Life by the art critic Jerry Saltz.Andy can be found on Twitter @a_greenberg. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Phones have been pretty boring for a long time. Don’t get us wrong—phones are still amazing little devices! It just feels like we haven’t seen any truly innovative phone designs or new standout features in a long while. This year’s phone looks and works a lot like last year’s phone. Your phone looks and works a lot like my phone. Have phones actually plateaued, leveled off, or chilled out? Is their transition from fetish object to commodity complete?The perfectly fine boringness of phones gets thrown into focus every time a new handset is launched into the world. This week, we saw the debut of the newest Samsung Galaxy devices. WIRED staff writer (and our podcast's producer) Boone Ashworth joins us to talk about those new phones, and phones in general, and how breathtaking and bland they all are, all at once.Show NotesRead our roundup of everything Samsung announced at Galaxy Unpacked 2023, including three new Galaxy phones and five new laptops. If you want to preorder a Galaxy device, we have some buying advice for you. Last year’s model is also just great. Read Lauren’s story about safely buying a used phone.RecommendationsBoone recommends Barbarian, which you can watch on HBO Max or rent elsewhere. Mike recommends Sichuan Gold hot sauce from Fly By Jing. Lauren recommends the HBO documentary Navalny.Boone Ashworth can be found on Twitter @BooneAshworth. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme music is by Solar Keys. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

TikTok’s influence is expanding well beyond the social sphere. The app is increasingly being used for the types of internet searches one would normally rely on a web search engine for. The video-based social app might not seem like the best place to find answers to your burning questions, but many users have made it their tool of choice for finding bars and restaurants to visit, movies to watch, or clothes to wear. It's a trend that has companies like Google more than a little concerned. The popularity of the app has also raised the hackles of US lawmakers, who have cited security concerns about the app and have even introduced legislation calling for a wholesale national TikTok ban.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED's Lily Hay Newman joins us to discuss why all the kids are using TikTok for search and dig into whether the app's ownership by a Chinese firm really makes it a national security threat.Show NotesRead Lauren’s story about her week of using TikTok for search. Here’s Lily on TikTok’s security threats. Follow all of WIRED’s coverage of TikTok.RecommendationsLily recommends the essay collection "You Are Not Expected to Understand This": How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World, edited by Torie Bosch. Lauren recommends the book I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. Mike recommends the classic seasons of the show Doctor Who, which you can find on BritBox.Lily Newman can be found on Twitter @lilyhnewman. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The podcast discusses the environmental and health impact of gas stoves, including the release of harmful emissions and connection to asthma. It also explores the debate around gas stove restrictions and the cost of replacing them. Additionally, the hosts talk about health and fitness goals, an audiobook recommendation, and various topics like induction cooking and the Libby app.

The tractor company John Deere has faced a lot of criticism for the tight hold it keeps over its products. If someone needs to repair their tractor, they’ve got to do it through John Deere’s official channels, which farmers say creates unnecessary hassles. If a problem arises during harvest time, a days-long wait for a sanctioned repair could spell financial ruin. Now, in an effort to stave off lawsuits from right-to-repair advocates, John Deere is making some concessions about repairability. But the move has been criticized by some advocates, who say the company still has to do more to make its products truly accessible.This week on Gadget Lab, we dig into the dirt about John Deere and what the repairability of tractors means for the rest of the gadgets out there.Show NotesRead Lauren’s story about John Deere. Follow all WIRED’s coverage of the right-to-repair movement.RecommendationsMike recommends the book Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat by Jonathan Kaufmann. Lauren recommends taking the train. Choo choo!Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the world of consumer tech, there’s no palette-cleanser for the new year quite like the annual CES, the giant electronics show. What better way to kick off 2023 than to find your way through the maze of metal and screens (and germs) and Alexa-equipped toothbrushes and pet-feeding robots (and germs) and hyper-futuristic electric vehicles that may never actually ship (also, probably germs)? Our WIRED editors on the ground at CES, keeping an eye out for the most important developments to emerge from the gadget extravaganza. So for this week’s WIRED Gadget Lab podcast, we come to you (alive but a little exhausted) from Las Vegas to talk about the big trends from CES and how they might shape our tech experiences for the rest of the year.Show NotesFollow WIRED’s liveblog of all the news from CES. Or just check out the coolest stuff from the event. Read all of WIRED’s coverage of CES.RecommendationsJulian recommends not feeling like you have to see everything at CES. Adrienne recommends the Aeropress Pro and a collapsible travel kettle. Mike recommends not partying until your last night of CES and taking showers at night.Adrienne So can be found on Twitter @adriennemso. Julian Chokkattu is @JulianChokkattu. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Lauren Goode (who will be returning to the show next week) is @LaurenGoode. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The hosts reflect on the chaotic nature of social media and the collapse of the cryptocurrency economy in 2022. They discuss the future of Twitter, AI-generated art, and the metaverse. They also share investment opportunities and end-of-year recommendations, including finding local foot races and exploring meditation.

Microplastics are a major problem permeating our lives, polluting the environment from the highest mountains to the deepest oceans. The podcast delves into the ubiquity and impact of microplastics, exploring their sources, the challenges in recycling, and the limitations of compostable bags and bioplastics. The hosts also discuss community-building on Twitter and Discord, as well as congratulate the guest on their newly released book.

Even if you own no Bitcoin, no Ether, and no NFTs, crypto wallets—pocket-friendly hardware lockers that store digital assets—will be a part of your future. They’re essential tools for securing not only coins and digital tokens, but also the next generation of passports, drivers licenses, and concert tickets. A French company called Ledger, one of the leaders in digital wallets, is trying to take the technology mainstream with the help of Tony Fadell, one of Silicon Valley’s most celebrated hardware designers. Fadell designed the iPod and the Nest thermostat, and now he’s designed Ledger’s next product, a crypto wallet called Stax.This week, WIRED editor at large Steven Levy joins the show to tell us about the time he spent with Fadell and the Ledger team in Paris (we know, tough gig) to witness the birth of the Stax. We cover all you need to know about crypto wallets, why they are safer places to store digital assets than exchanges, and how digital wallets will be useful beyond the world of cryptocurrencies.Show NotesRead Steven’s story about the development of the Ledger Stax. You can also read about Fadell’s Paris-based consultancy business. Read all of WIRED’s cryptocurrency coverage.RecommendationsSteven recommends Paxlovid, the antiviral treatment for people suffering from Covid symptoms. Lauren recommends the second season of HBO’s White Lotus and also Zebra Sarasa Grand pens. Mike recommends dusting off your old iPod.Steven Levy can be found on Twitter @StevenLevy. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Artificial intelligence is advancing faster than ever, with a new crop of generative AI programs that are creating art, videos, humor, fake news, and plenty of controversy. The technologies powering this latest slate of tools have been in the works for years, but the public release of these programs—particularly a new chatbot enabled by OpenAI’s GPT system—represents a big step forward for machine intelligence. Same with the image-generating app Lensa, which creates painterly selfies that have captured the public’s imagination. Now, engineers are asking chat programs for coding help, students are using AI to generate book reports instantly, and researchers are testing the tools’ ethical boundaries. It's all gotten very weird, but AI is about to get bigger and even weirder still.This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED artificial intelligence reporter Will Knight joins us to talk about ChatGPT, how generative AI has grown up since the early days, and what the latest tools mean for everything from school book reports to online disinformation campaigns.Show NotesRead Will’s WIRED story about ChatGPT. He’s also written a bunch of recent stories about generative AI. Follow all of WIRED’s AI coverage. Read more about Lensa from Olivia Snow. Try the new chatbot for yourself.RecommendationsWill recommends the Tractive GPS Tracker for Cats. Mike recommends Das Keyboard MacTigr keyboard, which he reviewed this week. Lauren recommends that you keep an eye on your keys using a Tile or AirTag tracker.Will Knight can be found on Twitter @willknight. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices