Devices
How an e-reader holds a page with the power switched off
Electronic paper moves physical pigment rather than emitting light, which explains the battery life, the sunlight readability and…
Devices
Phones, laptops, watches and what is actually inside them.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
Devices
How a phone fakes the click of a button that does not exist
A sealed slab of glass has no moving keys, so it throws a tiny weight against a spring and lets your nervous system fill in the…
Devices
Why noise cancelling silences an engine but not a conversation
Cancellation is arithmetic performed against a deadline set by the speed of sound, and high frequencies arrive before the…
Devices
Where a phone hides its antennas, and why your hand is part of the circuit
The metal band around the edge is not trim. It is a set of radiating elements, and the gaps interrupting it are the design.
Devices
Why a device that thin cannot make bass, and what it does instead
Low frequencies mean moved air, and there is almost none to move. Everything you hear as depth from a phone is reconstruction.
Devices
Automatic brightness is guessing what your eyes have already adapted to
The sensor reads one number from a narrow cone of the room, and your vision has been quietly changing its own reference the whole…
Devices
How a receiver finds itself by listening to four clocks it cannot see
Satellites broadcast time, never your position. Everything else is arithmetic performed on signals weaker than the noise around…
Devices
The moving parts inside a phone are etched, not assembled
Springs, weights and combs a few microns across are carved out of one piece of silicon, and then asked to survive being dropped.
Devices
Phone glass is strengthened by swapping atoms, and it still breaks
Hours in a hot salt bath leave the surface permanently squeezed. That compression is the whole defence, and a deep scratch walks…