Shira Ovide

New York

Writer of The Tech Friend newsletter

Education: Haverford College; Columbia Journalism School

Shira Ovide writes The Tech Friend newsletter. Sign up here. She is the strategy editor for Help Desk, The Washington Post's team of journalists who focus on the impact of our digital lives and empower us to corral technology to serve our needs. Before joining The Post in October 2022, Ovide wrote the On Tech newsletter for the New York Times. She has also been a technology columnist at Bloomberg Opinion and wrote about technology, finance and the media industry for the Wall Street Journal. Ovide lives in New York.
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Latest from Shira Ovide

This is what happened to the world’s most pointless website

How it started and how it’s going with the dumbest website in the world, the company whose fans turned against and your favorite simple technology.

September 3, 2024

Why killer AI is such an alluring horror villain

The new horror movie “AfrAId” shows that malicious AI is now the go-to villain for Hollywood and our nightmares.

August 30, 2024

After a decade of free Alexa, Amazon now wants you to pay

AI is a chance for companies to charge for products we’re in the habit of using for free.

August 27, 2024

What all parents can learn from the troubled AI in Los Angeles schools

An education expert says schools fail to ask essential questions about AI for children: Does it work? And is it better than other alternatives?

August 23, 2024
Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, announced an AI project in March. It has had a rocky start.

Don’t trust Google for customer service numbers. It might be a scam.

Google just keeps highlighting scams when you’re looking for help from your bank, airline or other businesses — and people are being tricked out of money.

August 20, 2024

Fortnite’s mobile return shows the gloriously messy app revolution

The blacklisted Fortnite app is coming back (sort of) to phones, showing the complicated efforts to wrest app power from Apple and Google.

August 16, 2024

Google’s foes on both coasts consider what it takes to crack a monopolist

After a landmark court decision deemed Google an illegal monopoly, its foes are crafting the legal case for something unthinkable until recently: the internet giant’s breakup.

August 15, 2024
Google, deemed an illegal monopoly earlier this month for how it promotes its search function, faces another trial soon over what measures are needed to promote competition, including a possible breakup of the company.

Here’s how much tech companies are spending to tell you AI is amazing

There are so. many. commercials for artificial intelligence.

August 13, 2024

‘Smart’ technology is out of control. We adore this dumb tech.

The youngs who love flip phones and film cameras have a point about the downsides of brain-draining, complex gadgets.

August 9, 2024

6 ways the Google antitrust ruling could change the internet

Maybe you could choose a Google-quality search engine tailored to children or news. Or would Android, Google search and Chrome be split up?

August 7, 2024
Attendees eat lunch at Google's developer conference in May.