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tech.explain Explaining tech
Hosted by Eric the engineer
📍San Francisco, CA
[email protected]
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06/23/2026

Why doesn't Siri activate during Apple keynotes?

Siri doesn't listen to words, it listens for frequencies.

In order to stop millions of Apple devices from activating during a keynote, Apple cut those frequencies from the live audio. We put that audio into a spectrogram in order to visualize the alteration.

06/11/2026

Can you block ads from hitting your router?

Ads don't come attached to websites, they are loaded from a different server. So there's a way to stop them from ever loading onto your network.

Using a raspberry pi and some free software, you can stop ads from getting into your home. It's called a pi hole and it acts as a catch between your home internet and the servers that place ads on websites.

06/05/2026

Will new cars have Al breathalyzers in them?

A new law will require all American cars to have passive driver impairment detection pre-installed in them.

That means the car must be able to automatically know if you're unfit to drive and stop the car from moving. But what are the actual technologies being developed to meet this requirement?

06/01/2026

Can fiber optic cables hear you?

Using the deformations in fiber cables caused by sound waves, researchers engineered a way to rebuild and record speech.

The setup requires complex equipment and direct access though, so it's unlikely to be used for surveillance.

05/28/2026

Is your printer tracking you?

Every time you print from a color printer, hundreds of yellow dots are embedded into the page.

Everything you've ever printed can be traced right back to the printer with metadata. Is this surveillance or a useful tool for law enforcement?

05/26/2026

Is there a way to identify a USB C cables abilities?

USB C cables all look the same, so how does your computer know the difference between them?

Turns out there's a tiny chip inside most USB C cables that identifies its capabilities. Someone made an open source app that uses that chip to list out the info so you never have to confuse cables again.

05/20/2026

Is there real ink inside e-readers?

There's a reason your kindle is so easy on the eyes. E-ink displays have real color particles inside moving up and down to create images.

The physical pigment is electrically charged and is suspended inside millions of microcapsules under the screen.

05/15/2026

How does a TSA scanner see through your clothes?

You've probably been through a TSA scanner but have you ever wondered why they only see the surface of your body?

Turns out there's some pretty complex technology happening the second you step into the booth.

05/14/2026

Can you use leaves to design microchips?

The answer to Al chip heat management may be in leaves.
We got the chance to visit Microsoft headquarters and see some of these chips in person.

We learned that Microsoft studied the way leaves distribute water through branching vascular networks and implemented their findings into Al chips used in data centers.

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