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That time Microsoft blew it with Xbox
Steven Asarch for Kotaku, Xbox’s Biggest Flop Was a Decade Ahead of Its Time
Microsoft’s follow-up was the Xbox One, the always-online console bundled with the much-maligned motion control accessory known as the Kinect. To be blunt, the console’s introduction was a bit of a clusterfuck.
It may be
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It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity!
I wrote a little about this already, but I also wanted to link to Ken White’s Substack Has a Nazi Opportunity because it makes a few points very well and is worth a read.
I dislike McKenzie’s apologia for Substack’s policy and for Richard Hanania because it has a sort of detached,
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I’m always happy I use Ghost and not Substack, but I’m extra happy today
Hamish McKenzie in a note on Substack:
We believe that supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power. We are committed to upholding and protecting freedom of expression, even when it hurts.
Here’s what I’ll say for myself,
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The surprising challenge to run the best web apps locally
Tim Bradshaw for the Financial Times: Apple Wants AI to Run Directly on Its Hardware Instead of in the Cloud
While Microsoft and Google have largely focused on delivering chatbots and other generative AI services over the Internet from their vast cloud computing platforms, Apple’s research suggests that it will instead focus on AI
Make good shit
Do you subscribe to MKBHD on YouTube? If you follow this blog, then there's a very high chance you do. If you don't, then swap in whoever you like here, but I wanted to ask a simple series of questions.
Do you subscribe to MKBHD because he has great thumbnails?
Do
Game
Some games just have the juice
I put about 70 hours of game time in Forza Horizon 4 back in 2020. I was naturally excited to
My favorite little Mac tips (or, how to make a better computer 👀)
Today I wanted to take a few minutes to share some of my favorite little things you can do in
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Pedestrian deaths have been rising for a decade. Mostly in America, and mostly at night. Why?
Emily Badger, Ben Blatt, Josh Katz for the New York Times: Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night?
What’s even more perplexing: Nothing resembling this pattern has occurred in other comparably wealthy countries. In places like Canada and Australia, a much lower share of pedestrian fatalities occurs at night, and those fatalities
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The Beeper Mini saga
Beeper: Beeper Mini Is Back
In the first 48 hours, it was downloaded by more than 100,000 people. The reason for its success is clear: Android and iPhone customers desperately want to be able to chat together with high quality images/video, encryption, emojis, typing status, read receipts, and all modern chat features. We
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A great year for games, a great year for players, and a tough year for the people making those games
Ash Parrish writing for The Verge: Geoff Keighley failed to recognize a terrible year for game developers - The Verge
At this point, you cannot talk about how amazing 2023 has been for the quality of games released this year without also mentioning how it’s been utterly disastrous for the people who made them. But
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LLMs can be quick to discriminate, and that says more about us than we’d like to think
Devon Coldeway writing for TechCrunch: Anthropic’s latest tactic to stop racist AI: Asking it ‘really really really really’ nicely
My subscription reset status update: pain points, but surviving
It's been about 2 weeks since I stopped using nearly $1,000/year-worth of subscriptions and changed to free or paid-up-front options, and I wanted to give an update with some micro-details on how it's going. I have only resumed one subscription, but I've put
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The harmful mythology of “we didn’t use CG”
Todd Vaziri: FXRant: The Most Egregious Example of "We Didn't Use CGI" Mythology (So Far)
In
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Big month for plagiarism
Case Marshall writing for Polygon: Hbomberguy’s 4-hour YouTube plagiarism video set social media abuzz
Brewis systematically goes through Somerton’s content, calling out multiple instances in which he plagiarizes — or heavily lifts from, without proper crediting — authors from other outlets, academics, and documentaries.
I know it’s a lot to ask, but Hbomberguy’
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Google releases Gemini Nano, which runs locally on Pixel 8 (just like Apple should next year)
Casey Newton reporting on Google’s update to their AI backend, Gemini
In accordance with Google’s preference for chaotic branding, Gemini will be available in three “sizes”: Nano, which is small enough to fit in a smartphone and will power features in the Pixel 8 Pro smartphone starting today; Pro, which now powers Bard;
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Disney belittled Pixar’s brand
Charles Pulliam-Moore for The Verge: Pixar’s Turning Red, Soul, and Luca are getting theatrical releases
Today, Disney and
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You have every right to block whoever you want (and a quick story!)
Joan Westenberg: The block button is the ultimate source of dopamine. Use it
It's your right to choose
