Mossberg: The Disappearing Computer

Welcome to Mossberg, a weekly commentary and reviews column on The Verge and Recode by veteran tech journalist Walt Mossberg, executive editor at The Verge and editor at large of Recode. This is my last weekly column for The Verge and Recode -- the last weekly column I plan to write anywhere. I've been doing these almost every week since 1991, starting at The Wall Street Journal, and during that time, I've been fortunate enough to get to know the makers of the tech revolution, and to ruminate -- and sometimes to fulminate -- about their creations. Now, as I prepare to retire at the end of that very long and world-changing stretch, it seems appropriate to ponder the sweep of consumer technology in that period, and what we can expect next. Let me start by revising the oft-quoted first line of my first Personal Technology column in the Journal on October 17, 1991: "Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault." It was true then, and for many, many years thereafter.