David Pogue

Graham Roumieu Who, in a million years, ever thought that the ridesharing idea would fly? You’re going to pay total strangers to drive you around in their own cars? Really now? Well, yes. Services like Lyft and Uber may have decimated the taxi…

I’ve got some bad news for you: Once you hit 40, you’ll probably need reading glasses. Drugstore readers are cheap and do the job for most people. Unfortunately, they’re not built into your face. Sooner or later, you’ll find yourself needing them but…

Graham Roumieu A few years ago, I crowdsourced an entire book, called “The World According to Twitter.” Every night for 100 nights, I tweeted a provocative question; I published the best responses. (Sample question: “Supply the subject line of an…

When Apple and Samsung say their phones have “wireless charging,” they don’t mean through-the-air charging, all day long, from some wall transmitter. No, they’re talking about little pads that recharge phones on contact. (They’re called Qi chargers,…

Ben Boothman When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone in 2007, he dissed the tiny keyboards on rival smartphones. “They can’t change down the road if you think of another great idea you want to add to this product,” he told the…

A former tech columnist at Yahoo, Scientific American, and the New York Times, David Pogue will write occasionally for the Strategist about things he has bought for himself and loves. If you travel much, you know why noise-canceling headphones are so…

A former tech columnist at Yahoo, Scientific American, and the New York Times, David Pogue will write occasionally for the Strategist about things he has bought for himself and loves. I needed a new wallet — something non-bulky. I’m not quite at the…

Graham Roumieu Flying with an unhappy child is no fun for anyone, everyone knows that. But it wasn’t until I asked you for your tips, tricks and traumatic tales of babies on planes, that I realized I didn’t know exactly how many different victim…

A former tech columnist at Yahoo, Scientific American, and the New York Times, David Pogue will write occasionally for the Strategist about things he has bought for himself and loves. Whenever someone complains to me about Wi-Fi dead spots, I roll my…

A former tech columnist at Yahoo, Scientific American, and the New York Times, David Pogue will write occasionally for the Strategist about things he has bought for himself and loves. If you’re one of the Pogue children, you know that getting a…

Graham Roumieu Do you laugh when someone’s grocery bag bursts? Do you find yourself stealing cabs? Have you shouted at puppies? If you answered yes to any of these, then you may have Empathy Deficit Disorder. For this Crowdwise, I asked you to…

Claudia Toran If we need a checkup on our health, our finances or our cars, we can find doctors, accountants or mechanics. But who checks up on our digital lives? There’s no such thing as 10,000-mile scheduled maintenance for your hard drive or an…

Graham Roumieu You know what the English language needs? A word for the hot, sickening feeling you get when you accidentally hit “Reply All,” subsequently broadcasting a private message to a much larger group. Maybe we should call it e-barrassment.…

My inaugural column in these pages, eight years ago, explored the world of crowdsourced answer Web sites. My last Scientific American column—well, you're reading it. My tenure here has aligned neatly with the rise of everything in the headlines…

In the beginning, there was the keyboard. If you wanted to issue a command to your computer, you typed it. Then came the Apple Macintosh, which popularized the mouse as standard equipment. No longer would people have to memorize key commands! No…

Lots of cars these days can auto-park. Lots can self-drive on the highway. Lots of them have collision avoidance—they’ll slam on the brakes if you don’t. A few cars can change lanes automatically when you put your turn signal on. Tesla’s Autopilot…

James Patterson, among the world’s bestselling authors, has never shied from experimenting with the storytelling form—or the storytelling business. He heartily embraced e-books when they were new; he’s launched a series of super-short, $4 books…

In the beginning, there was MoviePass. It was a revolutionary service that let you go see as many movies as you liked, in theaters, for a flat $10 a month. (Here’s my interview with the CEO in happier times.) Amazing! Irresistible! Boom: 3 million…

Car companies predict that self-driving cars will save millions of lives. They talk about a future without personal auto ownership, drivers' licenses, car insurance or the search for parking. When you need a ride, simply use an app to call an…

Some people don’t know about Amazon’s shadow clone site, even though it launched five years ago. It’s a complete, nearly perfect duplicate of Amazon.com. It sells the same things, for the same prices, with the same descriptions and customer reviews.…