Table of contents for May 2016 in WIRED

KEVIN SPACEY HAS an uncanny talent for celebrity impersonation. And now he’s playing the oft-mimicked not-a-crook in Elvis & Nixon, in theaters April 22. But though Spacey’s dead president and Katharine Hepburn impressions sound pitch-perfect to us, we are mere humans, with fallible ears. We wanted to know if Spacey’s vocal copies sounded good to a machine. So we asked Nuance, a company that provides biometric customer authentication for banks, insurance firms, and the like, to run some clips through FreeSpeech, its program for verifying “voiceprints.” ¶ It turns out that Spacey’s impressions are better than most, but none can fool a robot. Why? About half the characteristics that FreeSpeech tests are based on physical attributes, like vocal cord length, mouth shape, and nasal passage size. In a sense, the…

LEICA’S CAMERAS have proven their excellence in war zones and on city streets. But you’d have to be batshit-insane to take one snorkeling. Nearly every model in the centuryold German outfit’s line is as expensive as a studio apartment in San Francisco. Now the aquaventurous can shoot in style with the Leica X-U, the company’s first fully ruggedized camera. Its shock-resistant, sealed shell protects against not only water (down to 15 meters) but also dirt, grime, and clumsiness. With an ultrasharp 23-mmequivalent fixed lens, light-gulping f/1.7 max aperture, and generous 16.5-megapixel APS-C sensor, the X-U has the chops you’d expect of any camera wearing the iconic red dot. Superdope design detail: The flash is mounted on the top edge of the lens barrel—great for subsurface fish photos. Just under $3K…

Go Horizontal YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo display videos in widescreen format, so get with the program. A simple rotation of your phone to horizontal allows you to fill 100 percent of a web player. It’s also the same shape as a TV screen, so when your viral video makes the news, it won’t look like amateur hour. Kill the Shakes Invest in a mini tripod or, even better, a camera-stabilizing gimbal. If you’re panning a handheld shot, place your hips in the direction of the point where your shot finishes. And here’s a dirty little secret: If you’re on your own but want a smooth third-person point-of-view shot of yourself, buy a selfie stick. You can edit out the snickers of onlookers later. Watch the Light Record video with the…

Fipronil Fluffy and Spot can thank the French for the end of weekly flea baths. Almost three decades ago, chemists working for French pharma Rhône Mérieux (now known as Merial) noticed that its fipronil-based flea killer was lethal for a lot longer than expected. Turns out, fipronil is fat-soluble and accumulates inside the oil glands that animals have on their skin. Once absorbed, this insecticide leaks out of the glands slowly, coating strands of your best friend’s fur. Along comes a tick or flea, jonesing for a blood fix. Instead, it rubs up against some of that fiproniltainted fur. The poison attacks Jumpy McFlea’s nerve cells, binding to receptors meant to receive signals that keep the critter’s nerves sort of relaxed. The bug’s nervous system goes hyperactive, and within 30…

A: Easy. Couldn’t be easier. Hate-favoriting and hateretweeting is childish behavior. So if you want to be bold, by all means call her out. And if you want to be less bold but perhaps more effective, just block her: Game over. ¶ And yet, can I be honest? This may be the most subtly perplexing question I’ve ever had to pretend to be a know-it-all about. Because if I push just a bit on your premise, it all goes soft. I can see ancillary dilemmas, qualifications, and niggling unknowns pile up until the kind of clear, objective truth I’m required to find gets hopelessly boxed in. There’s a lot here to pick apart. Let’s start with the corrosive, discombobulating nature of spite. ¶ Ever heard of the Spite Fence? Go…

stentrode n. / 'sten-'trōd / An electrode array that can be slipped into a cranial blood vessel through a catheter. By transmitting brain signals, it could allow quadriplegics to operate an exoskeleton—or finally let you change TV channels with your thoughts. Jurassic butterflies n. pl. / j -'ra-sik 'bu-t r-'flīz / Ancient insects that looked and acted like modern butterflies. The weird thing is they went extinct and nature evolved the same kind of creatures all over again 50 million years later. mousejacking v. / 'maus-ja-kiŋ / Hijacking a laptop via the wireless mouse connection. Using a small antenna, a hacker in a café can spoof your mouse’s signal to grab control while you sip your latte. dark sunshine n. / 'därk 'sun-'shīn / The dark-matter equivalent of sunlight. The…

Yuneec Typhoon H BEST FOR: Worry-free flying and shooting Why six rotors instead of four? Redundancy. Yuneec’s first consumer hexacopter can fly with just five props, so should one conk out high above the radness on the BMX track, the remaining spinners can bring your investment safely back to earth. And the landing gear can retract after the H takes off, so the camera can spin around and capture 360 unobstructed degrees. $1,799 DJI Phantom 4 BEST FOR: Filming in tight quarters The latest version of DJI’s best-selling Phantom has an awesome upgraded camera, with less edge distortion and chromatic aberration. Plus, the rig’s stabilizing gimbal calms most vibrations. And if your kung fu epic is set in a forest, you’ll love the collision-avoidance system: Sensors up front detect hazards,…

IF HE WERE alive today, legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson would marvel at all the choices a modern shooter must make before arriving at “the decisive moment.” The roadblocks to creativity we place before ourselves are more prevalent than ever. Camera makers update their lenses, sensors, and formats with overwhelming frequency. We can read hundreds of expert (and not-so-expert) opinions on every new piece of gear before we even begin to think about where to point the thing and when to press the shutter. While we all search for the one camera system that will somehow allow us to elevate our technique, a humble and ingenious solution has been here the whole time, ready for us to embrace or rediscover its beautiful simplicity: the 50-mm lens. This unassuming and ubiquitous piece…

Virtual Reality VR places the user in another location entirely. Whether that location is computer-generated or captured by video, it entirely occludes the user’s natural surroundings. Augmented Reality In augmented reality—like Google Glass or the Yelp app’s Monocle feature on mobile devices—the visible natural world is overlaid with a layer of digital content. Mixed Reality In technologies like Magic Leap’s, virtual objects are integrated into—and responsive to—the natural world. A virtual ball under your desk, for example, would be blocked from view unless you bent down to look at it. In theory, MR could become VR in a dark room.…

Most app-based museum tours work like this: Stop at an artwork, tap in a number, wait for the commentary. But SFMOMA’s app was designed to keep your phone in your pocket and your eyes on the art. Co-developed with a company called Detour, it uses your phone’s location-sensing tech to precisely triangulate your position in the museum based on a hi-res virtual map created for the museum by Apple. That way it knows exactly where you are and where you’re going—and adjusts its audio accordingly. SFMOMA’s chief content officer, Chad Coerver, calls the app “a cross between This American Life and the movie Her.” And indeed it cops to its slightly eerie capabilities at the outset. When you fire up the app, the voice of public radio veteran Marianne McCune…

JUL–AUG 2000 Popov and a partner steal data from E-Money and Western Union, then attempt to get the companies to pay for “consulting services.” MAY 2001 Ukrainian and Russian hackers launch CarderPlanet, an online marketplace for Eastern European identity thieves. AUG 2002 FBI agent E. J. Hilbert launches operation Ant City, inserting Popov back into the Eastern European underground to spy on growing crime networks. FEB 2003 Eastern European hackers breach Data Processing International, affecting 8 million credit cards, which seems like a lot at the time. DEC 2004 Eastern European hackers steal proprietary source code from technology giant EMC and sensitive documents from the FBI. MAY 2008 Russian hackers access payment processor Heartland Payment Systems and steal data on a record 130 million credit cards. JUN 2012 Vladimir Drinkman,…

How Venmo Works If Venmo transactions seem instantaneous, they’re not: When you Venmo a friend the cost of dinner, the money goes directly from your bank account into your pal’s in-app wallet, where it sits for one or two days before officially showing up on their bank statement. This is because the receiving bank has to verify the transfer. How Square Cash Works Though known primarily for its tiny card readers, Square also has its own payment app that lets users send and receive payments for free. Its competitive advantage over Venmo? You don’t need to provide your bank account’s routing number, and most transfers are instantaneous—but not all. How Swish Works Unlike Venmo and Square Cash, Swish was created by the banks themselves. When you tap Pay, a separate…

ABOVE AND BEYOND WEREN’T WE SUPPOSED to have a Mars colony by now? Easier said, etc. In the March issue, wired’s science writers reported on the 13 greatest challenges to exploring the final frontier (“Boldly Go”). From propulsion and navigation to the hazards of landing—not to mention the fact that space wants to destroy you, body and mind— the problems seem astronomical. “It’s a huge, dangerous, maybe impossible project,” sci-fi author Ann Leckie wrote in the introduction. But scientists are well on their way to conquering these earthly limitations. Each day brings us one small step closer to the stars. Re: “Boldly Go” “SPACE AFICIONADOS, READ THIS. WARNING: MAY CAUSE FANTASIES ABOUT WORKING AT NASA. Emme (@servadei1) on Twitter “I’ve been scarfing up sci-fi books with deep-space themes for a…

1 Check for credibility. Determine whether a reputable management team is runtal you ning the ports choose to use. Be critical. These portals are brand-new— the first batch will go live this May. 2 Look for what you know and like. Don’t have a clue about law? Steer clear of legal tech. Are you a world-class parent? You may have an advantage in identifying viable parenting upstarts. Products for people rather than businesses may also be a safer bet. “Crowdfunding when works best ws t in people invesn what they know—for example, dentists investing in software for dentists.” —Chris Dixon, partner at Andreessen Horowitz 3 Think different. Be open to ideas and people you wouldn’t expect to see in the tech world. As the platforms evolve, they may develop into…

1 Muscle-bound superdogs So long, protein powder. Deleting just one growth-inhibiting gene creates dogs with twice as much muscle mass, which is apparently great for police and military dogs. Maybe not so great for family pets. OR Bruiseless bananas Bananas are a mighty convenient fruit: They come with their own handle and a natural wrapper. What is inconvenient is how easily they bruise. Crispr those blemishes away! 2. Genetic redos So you’ve committed a crime and the police have your DNA—the one immutable part of any human being. But packed into viruses and inhaled, this new geneediting tool gets to work rewriting your genetic fingerprint OR Pig-to-human transplants Pigs are pretty similar to humans, but we can’t borrow their organs … yet. Use Crispr to tweak several dozen genes and,…

1. Boosted Dual+ PERFECT FOR: Sad sacks who can’t push THREAT LEVEL: Excessive Screaming toward you at up to 22 mph, this skateboard is propelled by 2,000 watts of power— which is approximately 2,000 more watts of power than anyone needs. $1,499 2. Hoverboard PERFECT FOR: Firefighters THREAT LEVEL: Explosive Now that this piece of technology is known to blow up and start fires, it’s an even hotter commodity. PRICE VARIES 3. Razor PERFECT FOR: Not you THREAT LEVEL: Minimal Nothing marketed to kids 8 and up should be used by adults going to work—or anywhere else, for that matter (though at least it requires actual effort to operate). $100 4. Acton Rocket-Skates R10 PERFECT FOR: Roller Derby radicals THREAT LEVEL: Alarming Soon these brandnew Heelys-onsteroids will cause early adopters…

1 Samsung Gear 360 Interrogation droid or VR camera? Both! Just kidding, it’s a camera. The Gear 360 has two fish-eye lenses that gobble up the scene in 4K video or 30-megapixel panoptic stills. Use the mount on the bottom to fasten it to a helmet or a tripod. Load your videos onto a Samsung phone, and plop that into a Gear VR. $TBD 2 Ricoh Theta S Not all 360 cameras are tiny globes. Ricoh’s rig is as long as a smartphone but narrower, with a fisheye lens on each flat side to capture 360-degree photos and HD video. Connected to a computer, it can livestream spherical videos. A slow-shutter feature lets you grab 5K whole-sky nighttime stills of the stars. $350 3 360Fly 4K The distinctive feature of…

Soon, software will know how you feel— and will use that data to sell you things. The gig economy will go global (but it’s not Uber-take-all). The tech industry will finally be inclusive. AI will achieve something like common sense, and it will be open source too. But that future won’t build itself. Actual people (at least for now) have to make these things happen, and they aren’t the C-suite hotshots you always hear about. The 25 people in these pages are the unsung creative, technical, and social visionaries working to bring the incredible world of tomorrow to you today. Get to know them now. They represent what’s NEXT. Encryption has mass appeal Moxie Marlinspike Founder | Open Whisper Systems Surveillance is about to get much harder for overly snoopy…