Technology

On a beach with no phone signal, I rediscovered the wonder of boredom

11 August 2018 9:00 am

After an hour’s beach work I was just about done. I’d read some book, I’d skimmed the papers, I’d eaten…

Amateur porn is not empowering

11 August 2018 9:00 am

If ever you find yourself bored and with 15 minutes to spare, I recommend looking up Pornhub’s annual report, the…

When it comes to new technology, we’re all Luddites at heart

21 July 2018 9:00 am

When I saw my first jogger in Wales in the early 1970s, I assumed he was running away from the…

The lost art of patience

14 July 2018 9:00 am

I’m losing my patience. Not so long ago I’d happily wait ten minutes for a bus, or even whole days…

Can democracy survive the tidal wave of technological progress?

30 June 2018 9:00 am

For a brief moment in 2011, standing among thousands of people occupying Syntagma, the central square in Athens, it looked…

Could an Owl make video conferencing take off?

28 April 2018 9:00 am

When I was ten, the two things we all expected to enjoy by 2020 were flying cars and videotelephony. What…

It is a sin to die in the Land of the Depraved

21 April 2018 9:00 am

New York Remember when the internet, Twitter, Facebook and other such useless gimmicks were supposed to usher in an era…

Do we really need an app for everything?

21 April 2018 9:00 am

‘If this madness goes on, I will not be able to leave my house without downloading the app,’ I told…

Where’s the internet revolution they promised us?

14 April 2018 9:00 am

At the risk of sounding like Jean Baudrillard, I would like to suggest that the internet revolution has not yet…

It’s not all Twitter mobs – the internet can be a force for good

3 March 2018 9:00 am

Few readerships of any intelligent national magazine will be more alive to the perils and downsides of 21st–century cyber-life than…

I can’t live without Jane Fonda

24 February 2018 9:00 am

Everything since the ZX Spectrum has pretty much left me cold. Ghetto blasters, Sony Walkmans, CDs, Apple Macs, iPods, PlayStations……

How the Rat sniffed out £15,000 down the back of my virtual sofa

20 January 2018 9:00 am

It must be about 25 years since the Rat first made an appearance in The Spectator. He started out as…

The inventions (and Welsh rarebit mix) that will change your life

2 December 2017 9:00 am

At last. And just what you’ve been waiting for. The official Wiki Man guide to the best gadgets and gizmos…

iPhone 8 Plus, unveiled last week at the new Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Headquarters, Cupertino, California. The new features include a Retina HD display, A11 Bionic Chip and wireless charging

iAddicts

23 September 2017 9:00 am

For many years The Spectator employed a television reviewer who did not own a colour television. Now they have decided…

Decision breakers

16 September 2017 9:00 am

‘The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision,’ said Maimonides. How right he was. Today,…

Want greater diversity? Try being less fair

26 August 2017 9:00 am

In its hasty dismissal of James Damore, Google showed a worrying disregard for one of the most important freedoms within…

A tale of two Valleys

12 August 2017 9:00 am

Silicon Valley looks like a cross between Milton Keynes and the set of the Stepford Wives. Row after row of…

Big Auntie

12 August 2017 9:00 am

It’s sneaky, the way in which the BBC, so much regarded as part of the family as to be nicknamed…

Warning: rationality could be bad for your health

21 May 2016 9:00 am

Almost every popular commercial product owes its success to two different qualities. First, it does the job it is ostensibly…

The internet’s war on free speech

14 May 2016 9:00 am

The web was meant to empower us all. Right now, it’s empowering censors

I used to back Jeremy Hunt’s digital NHS plan. Now I know it’s a disaster

7 May 2016 9:00 am

My baby and I excel at blood tests. He (tiny, jaundiced) stretches out naked under the hospital’s hot cot-lamps like…

Why it makes sense to buy your banker lunch

7 May 2016 9:00 am

We recently moved -offices from Canary Wharf to Blackfriars bridge. When you move after a long time in one place,…

Life gets faster — as the Earth slows down

16 April 2016 9:00 am

Modern life is too fast. Everyone is always in a hurry; people skim-read and don’t take the time to eat…

I have seen the future, and it’s a racist, filthy-mouthed teenage robot

2 April 2016 9:00 am

‘I’m a nice person,’ said the robot. ‘I just hate everybody.’ Maybe you know the feeling. The robot in question…

Would you like to buy an American’s vote?

26 March 2016 9:00 am

Killing time in a Heathrow first-class lounge, I notice how many men adopt an unmistakable ‘first-class lounge’ persona. They stand…