That I could order my Apple Watch Sport from my iPhone while walking down the Corso Italia in Milan, and pay for it on the phone with just the touch of my thumb, is as much of a technological marvel as the Watch itself.  With the exception of my thumbprint, not a single element in...

From digital broadcasts that allow TV stations to report more quickly from the scene of breaking news, to websites that can distribute information to tens of thousands of readers in mere seconds, to Facebook and Twitter and other social media that provide a “crowdsourcing” element, quickly able to detect and correct mistakes, the rise of...

When I sat down to write my Virtual Realities column for October (“Suc­cess(ion)”), I was fairly certain the end was near for Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.  I had privately told some friends (and fellow Apple stockholders) a few months earlier that I thought he would not make it to the end of the year.  His...

The lifeblood of Chronicles is Tom Fleming, who took the reins of an interesting magazine in 1985 and turned it into an indispensable publication for anyone concerned about the future of this country.  But the magazine that you hold in your hands today also owes its current form—and perhaps even its continued existence—in no small...

The esteemed editor of this magazine was not at all persuaded by my discussion of Twitter in the first installment of this new column (“Weiners and Losers,” September).  I would have been more than a bit disappointed if it had been otherwise.  Though I have been using Twitter in various ways for over four years...

Anthony Weiner is, in the immortal words of one Oscar-winning actress, so five minutes ago.  Almost a decade and a half before the instrument of Weiner’s downfall launched on July 15, 2006, that line from one of the most perceptive films of the 1990’s presciently captured the essence of modern social media.  Anyone who follows...