Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
Your home router lets several devices share one public address
Inside the house, a phone and laptop have separate private addresses. The router keeps track of their connections and translates traffic so both can use the…
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Your calculator still depends on decades-old logic
Even graphing calculators still use basic electronic switches to handle calculations as simple as a restaurant tip.
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Why your dog’s name is a terrible password
A dog’s name with an exclamation point is still an easy password for automated scripts to guess. Small, predictable tweaks don’t make it secure.
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Consumer drones frequently struggle with sudden wind gusts
A gust near a tall building can shove a lightweight drone off course and send it crashing into a wall.
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Your shirt could soon track your pulse
Conductive silver threads woven into cotton can let a shirt track pulse and step counts without a separate wrist-worn device.
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Invisible wireless magic that rarely pairs easily
Bluetooth can drop out when you move only a few feet away, or send audio to the wrong speaker just when you expected it to play privately.
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Why 3D printing can take hours for a trinket
A heated nozzle slowly extrudes plastic to build an object, so even a tiny boat can take hours to print.
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Apple briefly made the peach emoji look less like a butt
A 2016 beta redesign changed the familiar shape, prompting complaints from users who liked its unofficial anatomical meaning. The design was adjusted again…
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The internet has an error for asking a teapot to make coffee
The 1998 April Fools' RFC for controlling coffee pots defined status 418 as 'I'm a teapot.' The joke was a machine refusing a request because it was the wrong…
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Using scratchy fabrics to stick things together
The strips cling when pressed together, but their rough surfaces make a loud ripping sound when pulled apart.
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The Windows blue screen did not have to stay blue
Windows 3.1 let users change the colors of its error screens through configuration options. Microsoft engineer Raymond Chen recalled that an earlier red…
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Swiping down to refresh screens endlessly
It can feel like a slot machine: each swipe might reveal something new, though often nothing has changed.
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Printing plastic objects takes immense patience
A small plastic print can take 14 hours as a nozzle lays down melted filament layer by layer.
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Remote control helicopters with better cameras
Camera-equipped remote-controlled aircraft let hobbyists take aerial photos of places that are otherwise hard to see from above—even their own suburban roofs.
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Spring loaded bread crisping devices
A spring-loaded toaster pops bread up when it's done, helping keep it from burning.
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Couch commander handheld remotes
It worked by shining a beam of light at the television, so bright sunlight could interfere with its commands.
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How calculators became classroom prank machines
Typing certain number sequences and turning the calculator upside down made words appear on the display—a low-tech classroom prank before smartphones.
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Instant developing camera film
Instant cameras developed photos on the spot, though the results could be blurry or poorly framed.
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Color profiles manipulate your screen
Even a corporate logo's blue can vary from monitor to monitor, so viewers may not see precisely the same image.
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Clicking out of pure frustration
When a window freezes, clicking the same spot repeatedly won’t fix the underlying software problem, even if frustration makes it feel worth a try.
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Text messaging's 160-character limit had a postcard-sized argument
Engineer Friedhelm Hillebrand checked everyday written messages, including postcards, while developing the idea of short mobile texts. Many useful messages…
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Early USB sticks carried several floppy disks in your pocket
Even an 8-megabyte flash drive held several times the data of a standard 1.44-megabyte floppy. It connected directly through USB and stored data…
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Why password symbols can create false confidence
Adding an exclamation mark or random numbers can make a password feel safer without delivering the absolute security users imagine.
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Why air purifiers fill up with pet hair
HEPA air purifiers also trap pet dander and floating fur, which can quickly clog their filters.
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