Robot toilets, vibrating headbands, and other oddities at CES

PLUS: The language of viral mutation, adorable robot fish, and the NSA's secret tool. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions 01.16.21   PRIVACY How Law Enforcement Gets Around Your Smartphone's Encryption BY LILY HAY NEWMAN New research has dug into the openings that iOS and Android security provide for anyone with the right tools.   CES 2021 CES Update: Laptops, Robovacs, and Lab-Grown Breast Milk BY GEAR TEAM The consumer tech show was virtual this year, and the WIRED Gear crew watched all the Zooms to bring you up-to-the-minute highlights of news from CES.   ESCAPEES Can an AI Predict the Language of Viral Mutation? BY GREGORY BARBER Computational biologists used an algorithm meant to model human language to instead predict how viruses could evolve to evade the immune system.   GADGET LAB PODCAST Robot Toilets, Vibrating Headbands, and Other Oddities at CES BY WIRED STAFF This week, we recap the news, trends, and stand-out gadgets from the first-ever virtual CES. GET WIRED Get one year of WIRED access for less than $1 per month. Tech news and analysis you won't find anywhere else. Subscribe now.   PODCASTS With Discovery, Star Trek Is Finally Moving Forward BY GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY The show's third season jumps forward 1,000 years into the future. It helped the show not stay mired in old ideas.   FINTECH Adorable Fish Bots Get Schooled in How to Swarm BY MATT SIMON Meet Bluebot, a friendly swimming robot with big camera eyes. Put a few in a tank together and they'll collaborate to complete surprisingly complex tasks.   EYES IN THE SKY Inside the NSA's Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network BY BARTON GELLMAN Edward Snowden revealed the agency's phone-record tracking program. But thanks to "precomputed contact chaining," that database was much more powerful than anyone knew.   BACKCHANNEL Poker and the Psychology of Uncertainty BY MARIA KONNIKOVA The game has plenty to teach about making decisions with the cards we've been dealt—on and off the table.   WHO AM I? The Devastating Decline of a Brilliant Young Coder BY SANDRA UPSON Lee Holloway programmed internet security firm Cloudflare into being. Then he became apathetic, distant, and unpredictable—for a long time, no one could make sense of it.     This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or Manage your newsletter subscriptions