Hundreds of ways to get s#!+ done—and we still don’t

PLUS: Oh Good, Now There's an Outbreak of Wildfire Thunderclouds, and more

View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions 07.27.21   SMOKE SIGNALS | 4-MINUTE READ Oh Good, Now There's an Outbreak of Wildfire Thunderclouds BY MATT SIMON Huge pyrocumulonimbus clouds just formed over fires in the West. Here's why they could become more common on a warmer planet.   IDEAS | 7-MINUTE READ Virtual Reality Is the Rich White Kid of Technology BY DAVID KARPF For decades, VR has failed to live up to expectations. Yet somehow, it keeps receiving more chances and more resources.   PUNKSPIDER | 7-MINUTE READ A Controversial Tool Calls Out Thousands of Hackable Websites BY ANDY GREENBERG PunkSpider is back, and crawling hundreds of millions of sites for vulnerabilities.   UNDONE | 16-MINUTE READ Hundreds of Ways to Get S#!+ Done—And We Still Don't BY CLIVE THOMPSON You want to be productive. Software wants to help. But even with a glut of tools claiming to make us all into taskmasters, we almost never master our tasks. GET WIRED Summer Sale! Ending Soon: Get WIRED for $10 $5. You can't see into the future, but you can subscribe to WIRED. Subscribe now.   BUYING GUIDE | 5-MINUTE READ Power Up Anywhere With the Best Travel Adapters BY SIMON HILL When going abroad, these plugs are essential to keep your gadgets charged. These are our favorites.   HEAR HEAR | 3-MINUTE READ Clubhouse Opens Its Doors. Is Anyone Rushing to Get In? BY ARIELLE PARDES Just a few days after ditching its invite-only status, the audio chat app had fewer than 500,000 new downloads.   DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION | 6-MINUTE READ The Shapeshifting Cam Girl Rewriting the Rules of Digital Porn BY GIAN VOLPICELLI, WIRED UK Face-morphing adult content creator Coconut Kitty is ushering in the unsettling future of the medium, one where nothing is as it seems.   OPINION | 6-MINUTE READ Biden's 'Antitrust Revolution' Overlooks AI—at Americans' Peril BY BHASKAR CHAKRAVORTI A handful of companies have outsize influence on the world's artificial intelligence. Policymakers must act now to stem the rise of powerful monopolies.   PRODUCT REVIEW | 5-MINUTE READ TCL's New Android Phones Can't Keep Up With the Competition BY JULIAN CHOKKATTU The TCL 20 Pro 5G, 20S, and 20 SE are perfectly capable and affordable handsets, but you can do better.     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   Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.