Nilay Patel, writing at The Verge:
“The Verge is 13 years old now, which feels remarkable to say — we’ve outlasted a lot of our peers, and we’ve mostly done it because we’re stubborn as hell. We’ve never chased metrics, we’ve never taken money to say what other people want us to say, and we’ve never shied away from caring deeply about technology and how it makes people feel. Launching a subscription is a big change, but it’s the foundation of how we’ll stubbornly make it another 13 years.
I hope you can help support us — and if you can’t, we’ll do our best to earn your support in the future.
I’ve been reading The Verge since the beginning (well, before the beginning, I guess: I followed them from Engadget to This is My Next and ultimately to The Verge), so I subscribed. I think full-text RSS feeds as a subscriber benefit are a great idea, and getting fewer ads is always nice (although I have to say that for $50/year, I’d prefer ad-free). Anyway, if you’re looking for something to spend the subscription money you saved by canceling The Washington Post, I can happily recommend The Verge.
A lot of our site will remain free, but you can now pay to get fewer ads and unlimited access to all of our work.
Joe Biden:
“Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
I can’t blame him, given Trump’s victory. There’s no telling what would befall Biden’s son once Trump had him in his hands. I do wonder if this would still have happened if Harris had won. Perhaps, given the reasoning, which is also hard to fault.
President Biden issued the statement after signing a pardon for Hunter Biden Sunday night.
Mark Zuckerberg, posting on Threads:
Testing the option to choose any feed — For You, following, or a custom one — as your default. Also making this more visible in the app. Interested to see how and if people use this.
Oh, people will use it, given that it’s a constant refrain among people on there. Threads is clearly feeling pressure from Bluesky, given the recent changes to keep up. While I prefer that Facebook not become the dominant player in this space, competition is clearly good.
Testing the option to choose any feed — For You, following, or a custom one — as your default. Also making this more visible in the app. Interested to see how and if people use this.
It’s a good rule of thumb, and one of SCMTS’ Trail Tips: “If you leave trail marks, it’s too wet to ride!”
Before you hit the trails, be sure to know your trail etiquette by checking out SCMTS’ #TrailTips.
I recently purchased the black Peak Design Slide Lite camera strap that was a collaboration with Carryology, and like it a lot. I already knew I liked the strap—I have one in another color—but not only do I like the orange accent, it matches the “Sony orange” very well. It’s sharp looking and well made.
Look, I have to admit that—despite my initial reaction—the Ford Mustang Mach-E has grown on me. I mean, I still think that it’s a crime to call it a Mustang, but whatever. But the new affront to all that is holy is the new Rally edition. Man, that thing really is heinous.
The review of Wicked at The Verge is much more positive than the one I linked to earlier.
Universal’s Wicked adaptation is the rare big-screen musical that feels like movie magic.
Jason Snell at Six Colors is having similar thoughts to those I posted about having. Since I’ve got the Ultra (and just one office), I’ve got a little more reason to fend off the temptation.
My current desktop Mac, the one I work on day in and day out in my garage/office, is an M1 Mac Studio. I’ve had it for almost three years, and it’s still great. I know it’s great …
OK, that’s pretty neat. I’d have definitely rocked one of those back when I was in high school and playing a lot of D&D.
Kill (and track) time while killing dragons.
I’m looking forward to seeing Wicked in theaters with the family, and this review indicates that we won’t be disappointed. But I’m shocked to hear that it’s not only two hours and forty minutes long, but that there’s a part two coming next November! I’ve not read the book, but based on the musical, I’m surprised that there’s this much material to fill two long movies.
Cynthia Erivo is the strongest draw in this splashy, overly long movie, which is the first installment in a two-part adaptation of the Broadway show.
I love the Nerds clusters, and it turns out it’s not just me—they’re a phenomenon. I had no idea!
In 2018, Nerds products brought in $40 million in sales. In the past calendar year, the company said, that number jumped to $800 million, a 20-fold increase in about six years.
Sales of Nerds have greatly increased in recent years, the company says. The secret? A multicolored orb.
There are a lot of interesting tidbits in this piece at The Hollywood Reporter.
...Star Wars at its core has been the original George Lucas movies. And nothing has been codified or been made more canonical in modern times than those three movies. To filmmakers and executives, the first trilogy is the Old Testament.
“You’re being asked to create the new New Testament,” adds one source who worked on previous movies. “And no one can agree on anything and there’s a lot of second guessing about meanings.”
That’s a great take, one that I wish had been internalized by the people in charge of the last trilogy. I’m not positive that it’s Kathleen Kennedy—who frequently gets the blame—but she’s certainly the name at the top, so negative credit where it’s due. The article says this about her:
Star Wars movie development has been under scrutiny for several years, with Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy taking fire for not developing meaningful characters beyond those first created by Lucas prior to the sale to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion. And if the franchise looks forward in its canon timeline, all those beloved characters — Luke, Leia, Vader, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Han — are dead or had their storylines wrapped in prequels or spinoffs. Rey, created in the post-Lucas era, is arguably the only entity with currency on the big screen now. “The closet is a little bare,” says another source.
I’d say the closet shouldn’t have been stocked with the characters from the Lucas movies—this last trilogy needed to wrap up their story. The disappointment lies in the characters left at the end of the nine, with Rey being the only one of any interest to me. Speaking of Rey…
...Rey, the scavenger turned Jedi played by Daisy Ridley in the last three episode movies, is key to the franchise’s next turn. That potentially puts Kinberg’s trilogy story development, as early in its conceptual stages as it may be, on a collision course with the Rey stand-alone movie that is actively in the works with director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. … While insiders dispute the notion that there is a battle for Rey, there definitely is internal deliberation within Lucasfilm as to what do with the heir to Skywalker next. “She is the most valuable cinematic asset, in some ways maybe the only one, Star Wars has right now,” one source close to the franchise tells THR. (Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian and the Yoda-like Grogu are Disney+ creations and will have their big-screen power tested with a feature directed by Jon Favreau, releasing in 2026.)
I’d be interested in seeing the continuation of Rey’s story, although I’d like for it to be a real break from the Skywalker saga. I think seeing her trying to “bring balance to the Force” or otherwise start a new story could be fun. That said, I’d like to see some new blood come in to Disney in order to bring balance to the Star Wars franchise. It’s just been too inconsistent under Kennedy.
The scavenger turned Jedi played by Daisy Ridley in the last three episode movies is key to the space opera’s next turn.
My Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra is still an amazing machine, but these new MBPs are pretty compelling. Since you don’t give up much to have a portable Mac vs. a desktop, I may switch back to an MBP the next time I upgrade.
