Nicole Kobie

Journalist

London

Freelance journalist covering tech, transport and science Contributing editor to Wired UK and Futures editor at PC Pro. Bylines in New Scientist, Motherboard, the Guardian, Teen Vogue, WebUser, Computer Shopper, Computer Active, Grazia, Big Issue, the Outline, IT Pro, Alphr and more.

Nicole Kobie

Journalist

London

Featured
Night trains are brilliant. So why doesn’t the UK have any to Europe?
Ask Michael Guerra about night trains running through the Channel Tunnel and he can’t help but throw his hands up in frustration — it happens dozens of times on our Zoom call. And no wonder: the engineer and founder of London Sleepers has been trying to get an overnight service running between London’s St Pancras and the continent for 18 years. ”It’s really hard to do,” he says, adding that the financials of the business are ”really stupid”.
Wired UK
Tech Transport
Featured
The big rise in small beer is the beginning of the end for hangovers
Sam McGregor spends his days brewing beer at an industrial park near Blackhorse Road in London, so it should come as no surprise that he also wants to spend his days drinking it. That raises a problem: if he and the rest of the crew at Signature Brew indulged as they liked, the headaches would be brutal.
Wired UK
Featured
The Police's Military Tactics Turn Peaceful Protests Violent
The Police's Military Tactics Turn Peaceful Protests Violent. Research shows that calm and negotiation, not excessive force, reduces damage. So why are officers still turning to tear gas? Officers, seen here in riot gear, have escalated use of force in response to protestors, but research shows that these tactics only make matters worse.
Wired Magazine
Featured
The pessimist’s guide to the future, from virtual reality to driverless cars
Hype fuels the technology industry. A few years from now, we’ll be shuttled about in driverless cars, lose our jobs to AI and robots, and forget our troubles in virtual worlds. Hyperloop will zip us across countries, chatbots will organise our lives, and drones will deliver our shopping paid for with digital currencies.
Alphr
Futures Transport Tech
Featured
Farmers are fighting back against the fake meat supermarket invasion
Ditching meat doesn’t mean that come BBQ season you’ll be choking down a crumbly mash of beans for your burger — technology is catching up with vegetarians, offering plant-based burgers that “bleed” and promising lab-grown meat without killing animals. Such products are already on menus. Across restaurants in the US, the Impossible Burger uses a mix of wheat and soy hemoglobins to offer a texture similar to beef, including “blood” oozing out of the centre, and rival Beyond Meat has said it hopes to have its pea-protein burgers on store shelves in the UK this year.
Big Issue
Futures
Featured
How you and your friends can fight back against online trolls
How you and your friends can fight back against online trolls. Tackling trolls with a little help from your friends. A “friendsourcing” tool called Squadbox lets people use their friendship group to filter abusive messages sent to them by online trolls. If someone is being targeted with abuse, Squadbox allows friends, support groups or other trusted parties to access their email account to act as personal moderators.
New Scientist
Science Tech
Featured
Is This The Beginning Of The End For Facebook?
Last week's Observer investigation struck at the heart of social media with its revelations, but will it prove the wake-up call needed to regulate the internet? Wired contributor Nicole Kobie reports... A pink-haired whistleblower, hidden-camera confessions and regime- changing propaganda. Data privacy stories aren’t normally plotted like a spy thriller, but this had it all.
Grazia
Security Tech Policy Tech
Featured
FBI Webcam Surveillance: What You Should Know
Does an FBI agent sit all day watching you through your webcam? Twitter loves the idea, turning it into a meme about special agents helping surveilled subjects through relationships, advising on selfies, and offering a "bless you" after sneezing. As amusing as it is to imagine some poor wretch has to watch your day-to-day routine — singing along to YouTube, searching for your ex on Instagram, and being depressed about breakups — the suddenly popular meme has origins in real-life privacy invasions.
Teen VOGUE
Tech Security
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/living-next-to-airbnb-sharing-economy-problems
https://www.wired.com/story/a-cobalt-crisis-could-put-the-brakes-on-electric-car-sales/
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/quantum-computers-quantum-security-encryption
Masks will soon be mandatory but nobody wants to enforce the rules
Surinder Josan has been dealing with Covid-19 disbelievers in his All Seasons DIY shop in Smethwick, Birmingham, throughout lockdown. “One guy wanted to shake my hand, and I said I really shouldn’t because of the coronavirus – he just walked out muttering, ‘Coronavirus, my ass’,” he says. But now that masks are set to be made mandatory inside shops from July 24 under threat of a £100 fine, Josan has a problem: what to do if someone refuses?
Boris Johnson’s driverless Tube dream is doomed to fail (again)
Boris Johnson has been pushing for driverless trains on the Underground ever since his term as London mayor. In 2012, he pledged we'd have them in two years. Now, as prime minister, he's trying again: last week, he threatened to withhold future funding from Transport for London (TfL) if it refuses to invest in the technology.
Shops are open again. Here’s what to expect if you’re heading out
Hellen Stirling-Baker’s toy shop, Small Stuff in Sheffield, is reopening this week. But she has a problem: how do you stop children from picking up toys and playing with them? “We've spent quite a long time trying to figure that part out,” she says. Ahead of non-essential stores officially reopening from June 15, Stirling-Baker has removed the cozy reading corner that previously entertained tots, and reimagined the store as a showroom, with only one of each product on display.
Plans for coronavirus immunity passports should worry us all
If you’ve had Covid-19, an immunity passport could be your ticket out of lockdown — but even companies designing such systems aren’t sure it’s an idea that will or should ever be widely used. An immunity passport or health certificate is a way of proving to others — your boss, an airline, or a bouncer at a bar — that you have antibodies against the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
How US police used military tactics to turn peaceful protests violent
Police in riot gear swinging batons. Plumes of tear gas. Protesters on their knees, pepper-sprayed in the face. Rubber bullets shot from moving cars. Such scenes have played out in some 75 cities across the US after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. US president Donald Trump has called for authorities to shut down protests with tougher policing, but he’s wrong.

About

Nicole Kobie

journalism

writing

editing

news

features

blogging

columns

photojournalism

photography

technology

spending hours at the pub

Being retweeted by Snowden

You may have seen my work at PC Pro, where I edit the Futures section, on Wired UK, where I'm a contributing editor, or in WebUser, where I write the news pages. I also regularly contribute to Teen Vogue, The Outline, CityMetric, New Scientist, Alphr, Vice's Motherboard, IT Pro and Cloud Pro, Computer Shopper, and the Telegraph, and have written for Mental Floss, Ars Technica, Trusted Reviews, MacUser, Computer Active, The Calgary Herald, the Guardian, and more.

I’m a creative, hard-working digital and print journalist, currently specialising in technology, science and transport stories, but happy to write about anything -- even Theresa May coughing.

I focus on high-quality news and features stories, explaining complicated topics with clean, precise writing. I work quickly, write accurately and, perhaps most importantly, hit my deadlines.

Aside from writing and editing, I've had training in investigative journalism, data journalism and photojournalism, and used to be a regular on PC Pro's podcast.