The year 2015 brought us the Apple Watch, the rise of the "hoverboard" (but it doesn't really hover, we know), lots of stories about virtual reality and self-driving cars and data breaches and encryption and copyright. ... Well, you get the point.

NPR delivered a few quirky stories, too, and ...

Last year, our tech reporters looked ahead to developments dealing with anticipatory computing, data breaches and Apple. Now as 2015 ends, they consider what has changed.

Bummer, you've missed the best time to order Christmas gifts online! And now you have these options: pay for same-day delivery or face the dreaded shopping mall (or resort to that end-of-the-line choice of a gift card, but you wouldn't go there, would you?).

So what's the last-minute buy for ...

After years of debate, cybersecurity legislation may pass this week, tucked inside the trillion-dollar federal spending bill.

The House and the Senate both have passed competing versions of cybersecurity legislation and pressed to negotiate a version they could pass before the end of the year. It's now part of the ...

Politicians are pressing social media and tech firms to do more to rein in the online presence of terrorist groups. But there are challenges, including defining what constitutes terrorist content.

Is a drone a toy or a (tiny) airplane?

To the Department of Transportation, the question is far from complicated.

"Unmanned aircraft operators are aviators and with that title comes a great deal of responsibility," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said on Monday while unveiling new drone registration rules.

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In the words of Wired magazine, it's "one of the most stubborn mysteries of the 21st century": Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used to refer to the creator of bitcoin, which is the digital currency that has taken the financial world by storm.

The concept can ...

Remember net neutrality?

Right, it's that brain-flexing term that refers to the idea that phone and cable companies should treat all of the traffic on their networks equally. No blocking or slowing their competitors, and no fast lanes for companies that can pay more.

In fact, the term itself was ...

You couldn't look anywhere on Facebook without seeing it: friends, celebrities and complete strangers dumping buckets of ice water to raise awareness of ALS, a neurodegenerative illness also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge ended up raising more than $115 million for ALS research and ...

A family member's passing this month sent me on a wistful expedition through endless unnamed photo collections from my old hard drive. I searched for group shots and family holiday pictures in hopes of tracking down one or two nostalgic images of someone very photo-averse.

Instead, I found this — ...

The Consumer Technology Association forecasts that 400,000 drones will be sold in the United States this holiday season. That's not to mention the commercial drones being developed by Google (now known as Alphabet), Amazon, Wal-Mart and others.

In the face of this drone proliferation, the Federal Aviation Administration ...

Security officials say the Paris attacks are an example why law enforcement needs to access encrypted data. Privacy advocates and the tech industry say such "back doors" are not the best solution.

If you live in an apartment building or another densely populated area and your Wi-Fi is slow, your neighbors bingeing on Netflix may be to blame.

Your and your neighbors' Wi-Fi networks have a limited number of wireless frequency channels to move your data. And when things get crowded and ...

 

In December 1912, financier John Pierpont "J.P." Morgan testified in Washington before the Bank and Currency Committee of the House of Representatives investigating Wall Street's workings of the time.

The fascinating record produced from the testimony called him the "uncrowned king of finance" and recounted this exchange between Morgan ...

It's been about a year since Google (now known as Alphabet) first introduced its drone-delivery system known as Project Wing. The project now seems to have a timeline to become reality: 2017.

Reuters is reporting from an air traffic control convention:

"Google, which hopes to revolutionize consumer ...

Urban commutes can get crazy. How do you get around? Is it a bike with a motor and a baby carriage? A hoverboard or souped-up skateboard? Send us photos of DYI, rigged, wacky means of transportation.

Uber has shaken up what it takes to get from point A to point B in cities across the country with a simple premise: If you need a ride, a driver nearby could pick you up within minutes.

Behind that idea is an algorithm, which promises to keep supply and ...

IBM's big-data ambitions have been well-known for years, thanks to the high-profile Watson computer that's been delving into all kinds of industries.

The latest is weather.

For a while now, IBM has worked with The Weather Co., the outfit behind Weather.com, Weather Underground and The Weather Channel. At the same ...

It's an obscure provision of a relatively obscure law, overseen, rather unpredictably, by the Librarian of Congress.

A section in the country's copyright law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits unlocking of "access controls" (in simpler terms, breaking digital locks to dig around computer code) on various software.

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