Shubham Agarwal

I outsourced my memory to AI for 3 weeks

On a recent late afternoon, I was having trouble remembering. My browsing history for the day suggested I'd read over a dozen news articles, numerous Slack messages, plenty of Twitter threads, and a bunch of notes for my next assignment. Yet,…

The big ideas that will change web design in 2023

When I looked at my Mac’s dock last month, I realized none of the pinned apps were from Big Tech companies. Most of them hadn’t even existed a couple of years ago. It was instead dominated by apps either from freshly-funded ventures, such as Arc, a…

The Asus ZenBook 17 Fold OLED is Promising, But Not Ready

Get ready for foldable laptop screens to become the norm... eventually. I would describe the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold as the ideal ambassador for the folding laptop. It’s far from perfect, nor does its Taiwanese PC maker expect to sell it in droves,…

Search engines and AI will make each other better

“Is the U.S. flag still on the moon?” I asked ChatGPT, the viral AI chatbot. “The United States flag is no longer on the moon,” responded ChatGPT. It went on to explain why the flag couldn’t survive the harsh conditions of the lunar surface, and…

Apple’s App Review Fix Fails to Placate Developers

In January, Jake Nelson, a London-based developer, submitted a routine update to his popular new iPhone word game to Apple’s App Store for review, adding support for a slate of new languages. This wasn’t his first app, but he was unprepared for what…

The black market for blue checks

On August 15th, an alarming email popped up in the inbox of Diana Pearl, a New York-based news editor. Someone in Moscow had logged into her verified Twitter account, it said. Pearl was familiar with the email content’s theme as it resembled previous…

AI-generated faces are taking over the internet

The Times profiled an 18-year-old Ukrainian woman named “Luba Dovzhenko” in March to illustrate life under siege. She, the article claimed, studied journalism, spoke “bad English,” and began carrying a weapon after the Russian invasion. The issue,…

Shortwave just rescued my inbox from the drudgery of Gmail

When Google killed its Gmail alternative Inbox in 2018, it promised that several of its ideas would eventually come to Gmail. While some did arrive, most of what made Inbox a success, such as “bundles,” never did. Instead, in the following years,…

The road to instant groceries is paved with broken bones

Mahesh knew he was running out of time. Although he had already spent eight hours darting across the notoriously busy city of Bangalore, India — already driven his two-wheeler 70 miles to deliver half a dozen broccoli, 11 pounds of flour, and more —…

The Browser Apps That Teach You Languages While You Watch TV

Binge-watching Narcos a few weeks ago taught me two things: (1) to become a Colombian drug lord, you must be willing to smuggle cocaine in just about everything, including airplane tires, and (2) I’ve been pronouncing at least half of the Spanish…

Are smartwatches and fitness trackers making us more anxious?

In a recent Apple Watch ad, one of the protagonists is shown taking an electrocardiogram (a test that can be used to check your heart’s rhythm and electrical activity) on his watch while riding a bus, working at the office, and even while hanging out…

Why India’s ultracheap new smartphone is critical to Google’s future

The 5G arms race is about to kick off in India and Google has a head start. Last month, the company announced that it’s partnering with Reliance Jio, India’s leading wireless carrier, to launch an “ultra-affordable” smartphone in the country. Called…

Social media was a lifeline for Indians as COVID-19 overwhelmed hospitals. But the government wants to censor it.

Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images India's second coronavirus wave has overwhelmed hospitals. But the government is focused on censoring discussion of its failures on social media. A new law threatens social media employees with prison if…

Browsers are rushing to stop shadowy ‘supercookies’ that spy on your activity

There’s a new internet threat in town and browser makers are rushing to keep it from invading their users’ privacy. The latest to join the fray: Mozilla, which recently rolled out an update for its Firefox browser for combating the rise of what’s…