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Explainers
Clear answers about the tech you already use, without leftover jargon.
- Aug 5, 2026 When you tap Send on an end-to-end encrypted message, the server passes along a scrambled blob it cannot read By How It Works
- Aug 4, 2026 When you type bbc.com, the invisible DNS lookup that may end in a nearby cache or climb from one of 13 named… By How It Works
- Aug 4, 2026 How did one incorrect command input during a routine debugging task in February 2017 knock a large slice of the… By How It Works
- Aug 3, 2026 How did one music video expose YouTube’s 32-bit ceiling at 2,147,483,647 views in late 2014 without actually breaking… By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team
- Aug 3, 2026 Bluetooth was named after a 10th-century Viking king who united Denmark and Norway By How It Works
- Jul 31, 2026 When you type an address into a browser, your computer asks a DNS resolver for the site's numeric address, and the… By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team
- Jul 31, 2026 How did a guidance computer with 4 kilobytes of memory, less than a modern greeting card chip, land Apollo 11 on the… By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team
- Jul 30, 2026 Fast charging isn't killing your battery By How It Works
- Jul 30, 2026 Deleting a file usually doesn't erase it By How It Works
- Jul 30, 2026 A password manager stores your vault in the cloud as encrypted ciphertext, not readable passwords, which is why… By How It Works
- Jul 29, 2026 Airplane mode was never just about planes By How It Works
- Jul 29, 2026 Incognito mode was never private By How It Works
- Jul 28, 2026 HTTPS doesn't encrypt which sites you visit By How It Works
- Jul 27, 2026 In 1947, Harvard’s Mark II ran on roughly 13,000 electromechanical relays, stored numbers across 100 registers, and… By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team
- Jul 27, 2026 In 1971, engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first networked email between two computers sitting side by side in the same… By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team
- Jul 27, 2026 How did a single computer worm written by a Cornell graduate student in November 1988 crash roughly 6,000 machines and… By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team