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Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

When the Mac Mini was first introduced in early 2005, it was pitched as a compact, “stripped down” desktop — and the most affordable Mac in Apple’s lineup. Steve Jobs referred to it as a “BYODKM” system: you’d bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse, and the Mini would provide a dependable computing experience with all the benefits of macOS.
The Mac Mini has carried on ever since. There have been periods where the Mini has been sidelined and ignored by Apple for long stretches of time. But the debut of Apple Silicon gave it a new lease on life. Even if the overall design didn’t change much in the transition from Intel to Apple’s in-house chips, the Mini’s potential soared.

But now that design is about to change. And if the rumors prove accurate, it’s going to be a radical makeover. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that the M4-powered Mac Mini will shrink down in size so significantly that its footprint will resemble that of an Apple TV. The new Mac Mini will be anything but a stripped down Mac.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Steve Jobs shows off the original Mac Mini’s box at Macworld 2005.

Instead, it’ll likely be the most visually impressive example yet of what Apple is capable of in this new era, where the incredible efficiency of its chips allows for all sorts of hardware designs that were technically unfeasible a handful of years ago. I haven’t been this excited about a new Mac since the phenomenal M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros were released in 2021.

Gurman has said the 2024 Mac Mini — at least the M4 Pro variant — will include a total of five USB-C ports, with two on the front of the machine. I consider that frontside I/O to be a godsend after years of having to turn the Mini around to plug anything in — or just guessing at it. It’ll still have an HDMI port for those of you who’ve integrated Apple’s smallest Mac into their home theater setup. USB-A is said to be a goner, but… it’s time.
Within the Mac family, the Mini still holds an important spot. The iMac is the visual stunner; the MacBook Pro delivers tremendous power on the go; and the Mac Pro and Mac Studio are both geared at professionals and creatives. But the Mini remains the line’s unassuming over-performer at a compelling price for anyone who wants a Mac that “just works.”
No matter its size, the Mini’s BYODKM is remains one of its best attributes. Apple might not be planning a 27-inch iMac, but we’re about to have an astonishingly-compact desktop that can be paired with any screen you want. And the software outlook is also excellent: the revamped Mini arrives shortly after macOS Sequoia, which added useful features like iPhone Mirroring and (long overdue) window tiling.
It’ll take some kind of colossal, unforeseen dealbreaker for me not to immediate preorder the M4 Mac Mini as my new at-home machine. If I’ve got one concern, it’s that Apple will find some way of artificially holding the Mini back so as not to steal too much thunder from the Mac Studio. But I don’t think that’ll be the case — at least not to an egregious degree, anyway. As of now, the Studio easily wins out in CPU and GPU performance, and it has other bonuses like an SD card slot and faster ethernet. I’d expect those advantages to remain true whenever the M4 model arrives.
Apple’s Mac portfolio has never been on a better path. And for those who’ve stuck with the company’s products for decades, that can still be hard to believe — even this deep into the age of Apple Silicon. We’ve been through some dark days. But with a new Mac Mini that looks equal parts streaming box and miniature PC, Apple seems poised for another M-series marvel and feather in its cap.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

When the Mac Mini was first introduced in early 2005, it was pitched as a compact, “stripped down” desktop — and the most affordable Mac in Apple’s lineup. Steve Jobs referred to it as a “BYODKM” system: you’d bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse, and the Mini would provide a dependable computing experience with all the benefits of macOS.

The Mac Mini has carried on ever since. There have been periods where the Mini has been sidelined and ignored by Apple for long stretches of time. But the debut of Apple Silicon gave it a new lease on life. Even if the overall design didn’t change much in the transition from Intel to Apple’s in-house chips, the Mini’s potential soared.

But now that design is about to change. And if the rumors prove accurate, it’s going to be a radical makeover. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that the M4-powered Mac Mini will shrink down in size so significantly that its footprint will resemble that of an Apple TV. The new Mac Mini will be anything but a stripped down Mac.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Steve Jobs shows off the original Mac Mini’s box at Macworld 2005.

Instead, it’ll likely be the most visually impressive example yet of what Apple is capable of in this new era, where the incredible efficiency of its chips allows for all sorts of hardware designs that were technically unfeasible a handful of years ago. I haven’t been this excited about a new Mac since the phenomenal M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros were released in 2021.

Gurman has said the 2024 Mac Mini — at least the M4 Pro variant — will include a total of five USB-C ports, with two on the front of the machine. I consider that frontside I/O to be a godsend after years of having to turn the Mini around to plug anything in — or just guessing at it. It’ll still have an HDMI port for those of you who’ve integrated Apple’s smallest Mac into their home theater setup. USB-A is said to be a goner, but… it’s time.

Within the Mac family, the Mini still holds an important spot. The iMac is the visual stunner; the MacBook Pro delivers tremendous power on the go; and the Mac Pro and Mac Studio are both geared at professionals and creatives. But the Mini remains the line’s unassuming over-performer at a compelling price for anyone who wants a Mac that “just works.”

No matter its size, the Mini’s BYODKM is remains one of its best attributes. Apple might not be planning a 27-inch iMac, but we’re about to have an astonishingly-compact desktop that can be paired with any screen you want. And the software outlook is also excellent: the revamped Mini arrives shortly after macOS Sequoia, which added useful features like iPhone Mirroring and (long overdue) window tiling.

It’ll take some kind of colossal, unforeseen dealbreaker for me not to immediate preorder the M4 Mac Mini as my new at-home machine. If I’ve got one concern, it’s that Apple will find some way of artificially holding the Mini back so as not to steal too much thunder from the Mac Studio. But I don’t think that’ll be the case — at least not to an egregious degree, anyway. As of now, the Studio easily wins out in CPU and GPU performance, and it has other bonuses like an SD card slot and faster ethernet. I’d expect those advantages to remain true whenever the M4 model arrives.

Apple’s Mac portfolio has never been on a better path. And for those who’ve stuck with the company’s products for decades, that can still be hard to believe — even this deep into the age of Apple Silicon. We’ve been through some dark days. But with a new Mac Mini that looks equal parts streaming box and miniature PC, Apple seems poised for another M-series marvel and feather in its cap.

Read More 

Image: David Pierce / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 58, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, Batman forever, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)
This week, I’ve been reading about Simone Giertz and billionaire assistants and Checo Pérez and Call Her Daddy, learning about “Earthrise,” listening to Quinta Brunson and Conan O’Brien talk comedy, trying to decide whether to get super into Bluesky or just quit social altogether, and throwing myself into baseball so I can pretend I know what I’m talking about during the World Series.
I also have for you an excellent new VR game, a delightful new reading gadget, a nice RSS reader update, a new browser worth trying, and much more.
(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What does everyone else need to be watching / reading / playing / baking / cutting up with scissors this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Batman: Arkham Shadow. I am hopelessly biased in favor of this game, the latest in my all-time favorite series of video games. But a surprising amount of what worked for the old Arkham games works in VR, too — the story, as always, is kind of whatever, but the action is fun and intense and everything I wanted it to be. This is the most I’ve used my Quest in months.

The Boox Palma 2. Another week, another reading gadget I’m going to feel ridiculous buying but definitely buy anyway. One of my favorite devices of the year got a faster processor, new Android… and not much else. But I still love this tiny Android e-reader.

Hasan Minhaj: Off With His Head. I’ve been waiting for this ever since that New Yorker story, and it delivers. His whole digression into crypto bros and podcast listeners has been all over my For You pages this week, and for good reason.

Inoreader. Inoreader is a really good RSS reader, but I always thought it was… ugly. The new redesign is really nice! It’s still very dense and text-heavy, but in a news reader, I actually like that. I’m also enjoying all the new filters, which are helping me find to-do list app news easier than ever.

“Shrek ASMR.” One of the most off-the-wall, committed-to-the-bit things I’ve ever seen on YouTube: a full remake of Shrek, ASMR-style. I loaded up the video after reading a really fun story about it from our friends at Polygon and ended up watching the whole thing. It’s remarkable… in so many senses.

Vivaldi. I’m still slightly torn on the new tab design, which is lovely but kind of busy. But I love the new Dashboard feature, which just lets you embed a bunch of apps and websites and see them all at once. It’s like what iGoogle used to be, only much better.

Sonic x Shadow Generations. Sonic. And Evil Sonic. What else do you need to know? All the reviews I’ve read say this game is an excellent remaster of a classic, plus lots of new stuff including a huge new Shadow-focused campaign. I immediately cleared space on my Switch for this one.

Notion Forms. Notion’s quest to be all things to all people continues! The new Notion Mail app looks pretty great, but day to day, I think Forms is a bigger deal. Even if you just use Notion (or Sheets or Airtable or whatever), setting up a bunch of forms for easy data input is such a simple way to make your life easier.

Mailbird. One of the best — maybe the best — Windows email apps is now available on the Mac. The free tier is pretty limited, but at least it’ll give you a sense if the app is right for you. I’m still a Mimestream devotee, but especially if you’re balancing Outlook and Gmail, this is worth a look.

Computer use in Claude. Anthropic’s AI bot got an upgrade this week, including a new feature that can just use your computer on your behalf. The video explaining how it works is great and a useful explainer of how simple some of this complex stuff really can be. Eventually. Someday.

Screen share
I reviewed the new iPad Mini this week and, as a result, spent a bunch of time setting up a new tablet and thinking a lot about how to organize the homescreen. I’ve deliberately kept this space phone-centric so far, because I really think you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their phone, but after spending all that time thinking about my iPad life, I’m wondering if I need to broaden the scope a little bit. Maybe I should get people to share, like, their computer desktops? Or their game console homescreens? Maybe the first screen of their smart TVs? I don’t know, there are a lot of homescreens out there. We’ll try some stuff.
All that said, here’s my iPad Mini homescreen, plus some info on the apps I’m using and why:

The tablet: iPad Mini, 2024. I love the iPad Mini. I wish this one were a lot better and that Apple would care about the Mini a lot more, but here we are.
The wallpaper: Apple’s weather wallpaper, which adapts to the current weather outside. It’s a total gimmick, and I am shocked at how much I love it.
The apps: Balatro, Madden, EA Sports FC, Retro Goal, Retro Bowl, Delta, Call of Duty: Warzone, Coffee Golf, Real Racing 3, Tiny Wings, NYT Games, The New York Times, Apple News, The Washington Post, Unread, Netflix, TikTok, Disney Plus, Prime Video, Sling, YouTube, Peacock, Max, Hulu, ESPN, Arc, Kindle, Workflowy, Readwise Reader, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Mela.
I feel like there are two ways you can go with your iPad. You can use it to try and do laptop things, or you can decide to use your iPad mostly as a way to avoid doing laptop things. I’ve picked the latter: roughly 100 percent of my iPad use is reading, watching, and playing. I don’t have Gmail or Slack or Google Docs on here; nothing is allowed to send me notifications. My iPad is a place for relaxation and fun, period.
I like and use all these apps, but there are a few to call out specifically: I’ve tried a lot of recipe apps, and Mela is still the simplest and the best at pulling recipes out of websites; Balatro is the most addicting game I’ve downloaded in years; I finally became an Apple News Plus subscriber and am blown away by how much I’m using it; the iPad Mini is the perfect tablet to use as a steering wheel, and Real Racing 3 is a fabulous driving game.
My dock is reserved for the apps I use at least close to every day, which means it’s reading, notes, recipes, podcasts, and music. (I just realized I should move Workflowy, so it’s not between the reading apps — I’ll get to that.) The most-used non-dock app right now is probably Peacock, which has Community and Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and is, thus, the streaming service I have on in the background basically all the time.
For years, I tried to turn my iPad into something like a laptop replacement. But the more I’ve leaned into it being a purely recreational device, the screen for when I don’t want to be stressed out by screens, the more I find myself using it. It’s a weird and expensive strategy, but it’s working for me.

Crowdsourced
Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.
“I saw Adi ask for a Goodreads alternative and wanted to suggest The StoryGraph! It’s really great at showcasing stats about what you read, rather than the updates-sharing focus of GR, and it has really nice monthly summaries!” – Aurora
“Reading about Adi’s suffering with LibraryThing, I remembered that just a few days ago, I started using Hardcover, and so far, I’m finding it really cool.” – AH
“Taskly is a very straightforward list app for iOS with absolutely nothing else. I have been looking for something to manage my grocery list or just things I need to buy. Twodos is another such app, except it has a very clever way to separate the list into two categories: Sooner and Later. That’s something I really love about it.” – Karan
“I just put about six hours into Wagotabi, and I’m wildly impressed. It is one of the most clever and effective Japanese learning games I’ve ever played. It’s structured like Pokémon, but instead of catching monsters, you’re learning Japanese words and grammar. Instead of battling, you’re engaging in social interactions that put your new skills to the test. Over time, it replaces more and more English text with Japanese. And it’s genuinely fun! Duolingo be damned; Wagotabi is the king.” – Tom
“I grabbed a Steam Deck OLED a few weeks back and have been diving into games I just kind of missed. Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy were great. Now digging into the modern Tomb Raider trilogy. I guess I like adventure games when FIFA isn’t available.” – Andi
“I upgrade phones every two to three years, and one way I keep it fresh is to get a new case every year. This year’s case upgrade was from Keyway Designs. They make gorgeous wood and metal phone cases (and other goodies). Check them out!” – Bill
“Trying a new second brain app, Sublime, that adds a few interesting features. Will try for a few weeks and see how it grows on me.” – Miguel
“I have a seriously good Switch controller for you: the GuliKit Zen Pro is awesome, supports everything the Pro Controller does, and has Hall effect sticks to boot. It’s also a lot cheaper than the Pro Controller, so I’d recommend it for anyone buying a new Switch, too!” – Ben
“I’ve been using Capture for iOS, and it’s low-key amazing. Like should be a built-in feature-level amazing. Anything I come across online, I can set aside, hold it off to the side, and then send it where it needs to go later.” – Max
“The premise of MovieCart is simple: it’s for watching full-length movies on an actual Atari 2600. The reality is quite complex. It’s the work of a mad genius, and you may feel like one, too, once you actually get a film running!” – Tom

Signing off
Approximately every single person on the internet has been talking about the Chicken Shop Date episode with Andrew Garfield, which really is as charming as you can imagine. (Garfield has a history of great YouTube moments, like his convo about grief with Stephen Colbert.) The episode sent me down the rabbit hole of all things Chicken Shop Date, and it turns out, host Amelia Dimoldenberg has been through a truly fascinating ride as a creator.
Last year, she did a great interview with Colin and Samir, which doubles as a (very funny and silly) masterclass in how to turn a YouTube channel into a show at the very center of pop culture. All my favorite creator stories are equal parts ruthless execution and constant aimless experimentation, and Dimoldenberg is a perfect example of both.
See you next week!

Image: David Pierce / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 58, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, Batman forever, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about Simone Giertz and billionaire assistants and Checo Pérez and Call Her Daddy, learning about “Earthrise,” listening to Quinta Brunson and Conan O’Brien talk comedy, trying to decide whether to get super into Bluesky or just quit social altogether, and throwing myself into baseball so I can pretend I know what I’m talking about during the World Series.

I also have for you an excellent new VR game, a delightful new reading gadget, a nice RSS reader update, a new browser worth trying, and much more.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What does everyone else need to be watching / reading / playing / baking / cutting up with scissors this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, forward it to them and tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Batman: Arkham Shadow. I am hopelessly biased in favor of this game, the latest in my all-time favorite series of video games. But a surprising amount of what worked for the old Arkham games works in VR, too — the story, as always, is kind of whatever, but the action is fun and intense and everything I wanted it to be. This is the most I’ve used my Quest in months.

The Boox Palma 2. Another week, another reading gadget I’m going to feel ridiculous buying but definitely buy anyway. One of my favorite devices of the year got a faster processor, new Android… and not much else. But I still love this tiny Android e-reader.

Hasan Minhaj: Off With His Head. I’ve been waiting for this ever since that New Yorker story, and it delivers. His whole digression into crypto bros and podcast listeners has been all over my For You pages this week, and for good reason.

Inoreader. Inoreader is a really good RSS reader, but I always thought it was… ugly. The new redesign is really nice! It’s still very dense and text-heavy, but in a news reader, I actually like that. I’m also enjoying all the new filters, which are helping me find to-do list app news easier than ever.

“Shrek ASMR.” One of the most off-the-wall, committed-to-the-bit things I’ve ever seen on YouTube: a full remake of Shrek, ASMR-style. I loaded up the video after reading a really fun story about it from our friends at Polygon and ended up watching the whole thing. It’s remarkable… in so many senses.

Vivaldi. I’m still slightly torn on the new tab design, which is lovely but kind of busy. But I love the new Dashboard feature, which just lets you embed a bunch of apps and websites and see them all at once. It’s like what iGoogle used to be, only much better.

Sonic x Shadow Generations. Sonic. And Evil Sonic. What else do you need to know? All the reviews I’ve read say this game is an excellent remaster of a classic, plus lots of new stuff including a huge new Shadow-focused campaign. I immediately cleared space on my Switch for this one.

Notion Forms. Notion’s quest to be all things to all people continues! The new Notion Mail app looks pretty great, but day to day, I think Forms is a bigger deal. Even if you just use Notion (or Sheets or Airtable or whatever), setting up a bunch of forms for easy data input is such a simple way to make your life easier.

Mailbird. One of the best — maybe the best — Windows email apps is now available on the Mac. The free tier is pretty limited, but at least it’ll give you a sense if the app is right for you. I’m still a Mimestream devotee, but especially if you’re balancing Outlook and Gmail, this is worth a look.

Computer use in Claude. Anthropic’s AI bot got an upgrade this week, including a new feature that can just use your computer on your behalf. The video explaining how it works is great and a useful explainer of how simple some of this complex stuff really can be. Eventually. Someday.

Screen share

I reviewed the new iPad Mini this week and, as a result, spent a bunch of time setting up a new tablet and thinking a lot about how to organize the homescreen. I’ve deliberately kept this space phone-centric so far, because I really think you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their phone, but after spending all that time thinking about my iPad life, I’m wondering if I need to broaden the scope a little bit. Maybe I should get people to share, like, their computer desktops? Or their game console homescreens? Maybe the first screen of their smart TVs? I don’t know, there are a lot of homescreens out there. We’ll try some stuff.

All that said, here’s my iPad Mini homescreen, plus some info on the apps I’m using and why:

The tablet: iPad Mini, 2024. I love the iPad Mini. I wish this one were a lot better and that Apple would care about the Mini a lot more, but here we are.

The wallpaper: Apple’s weather wallpaper, which adapts to the current weather outside. It’s a total gimmick, and I am shocked at how much I love it.

The apps: Balatro, Madden, EA Sports FC, Retro Goal, Retro Bowl, Delta, Call of Duty: Warzone, Coffee Golf, Real Racing 3, Tiny Wings, NYT Games, The New York Times, Apple News, The Washington Post, Unread, Netflix, TikTok, Disney Plus, Prime Video, Sling, YouTube, Peacock, Max, Hulu, ESPN, Arc, Kindle, Workflowy, Readwise Reader, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Mela.

I feel like there are two ways you can go with your iPad. You can use it to try and do laptop things, or you can decide to use your iPad mostly as a way to avoid doing laptop things. I’ve picked the latter: roughly 100 percent of my iPad use is reading, watching, and playing. I don’t have Gmail or Slack or Google Docs on here; nothing is allowed to send me notifications. My iPad is a place for relaxation and fun, period.

I like and use all these apps, but there are a few to call out specifically: I’ve tried a lot of recipe apps, and Mela is still the simplest and the best at pulling recipes out of websites; Balatro is the most addicting game I’ve downloaded in years; I finally became an Apple News Plus subscriber and am blown away by how much I’m using it; the iPad Mini is the perfect tablet to use as a steering wheel, and Real Racing 3 is a fabulous driving game.

My dock is reserved for the apps I use at least close to every day, which means it’s reading, notes, recipes, podcasts, and music. (I just realized I should move Workflowy, so it’s not between the reading apps — I’ll get to that.) The most-used non-dock app right now is probably Peacock, which has Community and Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and is, thus, the streaming service I have on in the background basically all the time.

For years, I tried to turn my iPad into something like a laptop replacement. But the more I’ve leaned into it being a purely recreational device, the screen for when I don’t want to be stressed out by screens, the more I find myself using it. It’s a weird and expensive strategy, but it’s working for me.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads.

“I saw Adi ask for a Goodreads alternative and wanted to suggest The StoryGraph! It’s really great at showcasing stats about what you read, rather than the updates-sharing focus of GR, and it has really nice monthly summaries!” – Aurora

“Reading about Adi’s suffering with LibraryThing, I remembered that just a few days ago, I started using Hardcover, and so far, I’m finding it really cool.” – AH

“Taskly is a very straightforward list app for iOS with absolutely nothing else. I have been looking for something to manage my grocery list or just things I need to buy. Twodos is another such app, except it has a very clever way to separate the list into two categories: Sooner and Later. That’s something I really love about it.” – Karan

“I just put about six hours into Wagotabi, and I’m wildly impressed. It is one of the most clever and effective Japanese learning games I’ve ever played. It’s structured like Pokémon, but instead of catching monsters, you’re learning Japanese words and grammar. Instead of battling, you’re engaging in social interactions that put your new skills to the test. Over time, it replaces more and more English text with Japanese. And it’s genuinely fun! Duolingo be damned; Wagotabi is the king.” – Tom

“I grabbed a Steam Deck OLED a few weeks back and have been diving into games I just kind of missed. Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy were great. Now digging into the modern Tomb Raider trilogy. I guess I like adventure games when FIFA isn’t available.” – Andi

“I upgrade phones every two to three years, and one way I keep it fresh is to get a new case every year. This year’s case upgrade was from Keyway Designs. They make gorgeous wood and metal phone cases (and other goodies). Check them out!” – Bill

“Trying a new second brain app, Sublime, that adds a few interesting features. Will try for a few weeks and see how it grows on me.” – Miguel

“I have a seriously good Switch controller for you: the GuliKit Zen Pro is awesome, supports everything the Pro Controller does, and has Hall effect sticks to boot. It’s also a lot cheaper than the Pro Controller, so I’d recommend it for anyone buying a new Switch, too!” – Ben

“I’ve been using Capture for iOS, and it’s low-key amazing. Like should be a built-in feature-level amazing. Anything I come across online, I can set aside, hold it off to the side, and then send it where it needs to go later.” – Max

“The premise of MovieCart is simple: it’s for watching full-length movies on an actual Atari 2600. The reality is quite complex. It’s the work of a mad genius, and you may feel like one, too, once you actually get a film running!” – Tom

Signing off

Approximately every single person on the internet has been talking about the Chicken Shop Date episode with Andrew Garfield, which really is as charming as you can imagine. (Garfield has a history of great YouTube moments, like his convo about grief with Stephen Colbert.) The episode sent me down the rabbit hole of all things Chicken Shop Date, and it turns out, host Amelia Dimoldenberg has been through a truly fascinating ride as a creator.

Last year, she did a great interview with Colin and Samir, which doubles as a (very funny and silly) masterclass in how to turn a YouTube channel into a show at the very center of pop culture. All my favorite creator stories are equal parts ruthless execution and constant aimless experimentation, and Dimoldenberg is a perfect example of both.

See you next week!

Read More 

Image: Finji

I used to hate jigsaw puzzles. I thought they were frustrating, messy, and took way too long to solve. But my wife showed me how those parts of jigsaw puzzles can actually be fun: there’s something satisfying and meditative about working through those frustrations, sorting through the mess, and putting a picture together, one piece at a time, over the course of a few hours. (Or days.)
The makers of Wilmot Works It Out, a new puzzle game, understand this, and everything about the game is designed to make solving puzzles fun instead of annoying.
In the game, you play as Wilmot, an adorable white square with a face who has a puzzle-by-mail subscription. (He’s the same smiley square from Wilmot’s Warehouse, a 2019 puzzle game also made by developers Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg and published by Finji.) Every time you open a new package delivered by Sam, your mail carrier friend, the pieces appear in a jumble on the floor so you can match them together into a picture to put on the wall.
When you’ve put up a completed puzzle, Sam typically comes knocking with a brief conversation and a new box of pieces to sift through. After you finish a bunch of puzzles, you’ll complete a “season” and can move on to the next, which amps up the difficulty.

Image: Finji
It’s fun to sift through the pieces scattered about.

Wilmot Works It Out has a few clever ways to iron out the process of putting pieces together. Unlike every jigsaw puzzle I’ve done in real life, the puzzle pieces in Wilmot are all square. That sounds annoying, but because you don’t have to rotate the pieces to match them, it’s much easier to compare pieces side to side to see if they might fit together. When you slide a piece next to its correct counterpart, the piece you’re holding flashes once, and you’ll hear a soft but satisfying chime. I loved chasing those chimes.
Those design choices make it much easier to quickly assemble puzzles. But the game’s best trick is that puzzle packages typically contain a few pieces that connect to a puzzle you can’t finish yet. Because of that, you’re constantly trying to figure out which pieces fit a puzzle you can solve now and which pieces are supposed to be set aside for later.
Some puzzles are quite tricky
In the early seasons, I didn’t find this to be too difficult. That changed in the later seasons, though, as the developers have some devilish tricks to make you really work to figure out which pieces belong with which puzzles.
One season, for example, featured pieces that seemed to assemble into a peacock with big colorful circles on its feathers. Then, I started matching pieces with more colorful circles, but they turned out to be owl eyes. I tried to find a way for the owls and peacock to connect for longer than I care to admit — until I eventually realized that they were two separate pictures.
Two of my biggest problems with jigsaw puzzles have been how long they take and how messy they are. They can take what should be a fun activity and turn it into a chore. But Wilmot Works It Out fixes both, highlighting what I love about jigsaw puzzles in a delightful video game.
Wilmot Works It Out is out now on PC and Mac.

Image: Finji

I used to hate jigsaw puzzles. I thought they were frustrating, messy, and took way too long to solve. But my wife showed me how those parts of jigsaw puzzles can actually be fun: there’s something satisfying and meditative about working through those frustrations, sorting through the mess, and putting a picture together, one piece at a time, over the course of a few hours. (Or days.)

The makers of Wilmot Works It Out, a new puzzle game, understand this, and everything about the game is designed to make solving puzzles fun instead of annoying.

In the game, you play as Wilmot, an adorable white square with a face who has a puzzle-by-mail subscription. (He’s the same smiley square from Wilmot’s Warehouse, a 2019 puzzle game also made by developers Hollow Ponds and Richard Hogg and published by Finji.) Every time you open a new package delivered by Sam, your mail carrier friend, the pieces appear in a jumble on the floor so you can match them together into a picture to put on the wall.

When you’ve put up a completed puzzle, Sam typically comes knocking with a brief conversation and a new box of pieces to sift through. After you finish a bunch of puzzles, you’ll complete a “season” and can move on to the next, which amps up the difficulty.

Image: Finji
It’s fun to sift through the pieces scattered about.

Wilmot Works It Out has a few clever ways to iron out the process of putting pieces together. Unlike every jigsaw puzzle I’ve done in real life, the puzzle pieces in Wilmot are all square. That sounds annoying, but because you don’t have to rotate the pieces to match them, it’s much easier to compare pieces side to side to see if they might fit together. When you slide a piece next to its correct counterpart, the piece you’re holding flashes once, and you’ll hear a soft but satisfying chime. I loved chasing those chimes.

Those design choices make it much easier to quickly assemble puzzles. But the game’s best trick is that puzzle packages typically contain a few pieces that connect to a puzzle you can’t finish yet. Because of that, you’re constantly trying to figure out which pieces fit a puzzle you can solve now and which pieces are supposed to be set aside for later.

In the early seasons, I didn’t find this to be too difficult. That changed in the later seasons, though, as the developers have some devilish tricks to make you really work to figure out which pieces belong with which puzzles.

One season, for example, featured pieces that seemed to assemble into a peacock with big colorful circles on its feathers. Then, I started matching pieces with more colorful circles, but they turned out to be owl eyes. I tried to find a way for the owls and peacock to connect for longer than I care to admit — until I eventually realized that they were two separate pictures.

Two of my biggest problems with jigsaw puzzles have been how long they take and how messy they are. They can take what should be a fun activity and turn it into a chore. But Wilmot Works It Out fixes both, highlighting what I love about jigsaw puzzles in a delightful video game.

Wilmot Works It Out is out now on PC and Mac.

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Image: The Verge

Google could preview its own take on Rabbit’s large action model concept as soon as December, reports The Information. “Project Jarvis,” as it’s reportedly codenamed, would carry tasks out for users, including “gathering research, purchasing a product, or booking a flight,” according to three people the outlet spoke with who have direct knowledge of the project.
Powered by a future version of Google’s Gemini, Jarvis reportedly only works with a web browser (it’s tuned specifically for Chrome). The tool is aimed at helping people “automate everyday, web-based tasks” by taking and interpreting screenshots and then clicking buttons or entering text, The Information writes. In its current state, it apparently takes “a few seconds” between actions.

The biggest AI companies are all working on models that do things like what The Information is describing. Microsoft’s Copilot Vision will let you talk with it about webpages you’re viewing. Apple Intelligence is expected to be aware of what’s on your screen and do things for you across multiple apps at some point in the next year. Anthropic debuted a “cumbersome and error-prone” Claude beta update that can use a computer for you, and OpenAI is reportedly working on a version of that, too.
The Information cautions that Google’s plan to show Jarvis off in December is subject to change. The company is reportedly considering releasing it to some small number of testers to find and help the company work out bugs.

Image: The Verge

Google could preview its own take on Rabbit’s large action model concept as soon as December, reports The Information. “Project Jarvis,” as it’s reportedly codenamed, would carry tasks out for users, including “gathering research, purchasing a product, or booking a flight,” according to three people the outlet spoke with who have direct knowledge of the project.

Powered by a future version of Google’s Gemini, Jarvis reportedly only works with a web browser (it’s tuned specifically for Chrome). The tool is aimed at helping people “automate everyday, web-based tasks” by taking and interpreting screenshots and then clicking buttons or entering text, The Information writes. In its current state, it apparently takes “a few seconds” between actions.

The biggest AI companies are all working on models that do things like what The Information is describing. Microsoft’s Copilot Vision will let you talk with it about webpages you’re viewing. Apple Intelligence is expected to be aware of what’s on your screen and do things for you across multiple apps at some point in the next year. Anthropic debuted a “cumbersome and error-prone” Claude beta update that can use a computer for you, and OpenAI is reportedly working on a version of that, too.

The Information cautions that Google’s plan to show Jarvis off in December is subject to change. The company is reportedly considering releasing it to some small number of testers to find and help the company work out bugs.

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A Lyft sign taken in January 2023 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. | Photo: Mat Hayward / Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Friday that rideshare company Lyft has agreed to pay $2.1 million as part of a proposed settlement that requires it to change how it advertises driver pay.
The company routinely advertised that drivers could make “specific hourly amounts” — in one instance, claiming earnings of “up to $33” per hour for driving in Atlanta — that were based not on an average, but on what the top fifth of drivers made, according to the Commission. The company also apparently included tips in those figures.
Such moves “overinflated the actual earnings achieved by most drivers by as much as 30%,” writes the FTC, which says the company now must base potential pay claims on what drivers typically make, instead. And those amounts can no longer factor in tips as part of stated hourly pay.
“It is illegal to lure workers with misleading claims about how much they will earn on the job,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC will keep using all its tools to hold businesses accountable when they violate the law and exploit American workers.”
The FTC included examples of Lyft’s offending ads in its complaint, such as those below.

Screenshots: United States of America v. Lyft, Inc. proposed order

Screenshots: United States of America v. Lyft, Inc. proposed order

Lyft also apparently promoted earnings guarantees, such as one promising $975 for completing 45 rides in a weekend. But those also misled drivers, who thought they’d be getting the amount as a bonus on top of what they earned, when the offer was actually a conditional minimum pay guarantee for doing a set number of rides, according to the FTC. The company is now required to make that fact clear.
Here is the proposed order:

In a statement on its website, Lyft highlights changes it has made recently to tell drivers how much they can earn and says it is “committed to following the FTC’s best practices” when communicating such details.
The settlement comes two years after the FTC announced it was going after gig work companies for “unfair, deceptive, anticompetitive and otherwise unlawful practices.” Lyft and Uber have also faced labor regulation at the state and municipal level, such as in Massachusetts, where a law now requires them to offer rideshare drivers a minimum wage. In New York City, which has a similar law, they reportedly locked drivers out of their apps to limit how much they can make.

A Lyft sign taken in January 2023 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. | Photo: Mat Hayward / Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Friday that rideshare company Lyft has agreed to pay $2.1 million as part of a proposed settlement that requires it to change how it advertises driver pay.

The company routinely advertised that drivers could make “specific hourly amounts” — in one instance, claiming earnings of “up to $33” per hour for driving in Atlanta — that were based not on an average, but on what the top fifth of drivers made, according to the Commission. The company also apparently included tips in those figures.

Such moves “overinflated the actual earnings achieved by most drivers by as much as 30%,” writes the FTC, which says the company now must base potential pay claims on what drivers typically make, instead. And those amounts can no longer factor in tips as part of stated hourly pay.

“It is illegal to lure workers with misleading claims about how much they will earn on the job,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “The FTC will keep using all its tools to hold businesses accountable when they violate the law and exploit American workers.”

The FTC included examples of Lyft’s offending ads in its complaint, such as those below.

Screenshots: United States of America v. Lyft, Inc. proposed order

Screenshots: United States of America v. Lyft, Inc. proposed order

Lyft also apparently promoted earnings guarantees, such as one promising $975 for completing 45 rides in a weekend. But those also misled drivers, who thought they’d be getting the amount as a bonus on top of what they earned, when the offer was actually a conditional minimum pay guarantee for doing a set number of rides, according to the FTC. The company is now required to make that fact clear.

Here is the proposed order:

In a statement on its website, Lyft highlights changes it has made recently to tell drivers how much they can earn and says it is “committed to following the FTC’s best practices” when communicating such details.

The settlement comes two years after the FTC announced it was going after gig work companies for “unfair, deceptive, anticompetitive and otherwise unlawful practices.” Lyft and Uber have also faced labor regulation at the state and municipal level, such as in Massachusetts, where a law now requires them to offer rideshare drivers a minimum wage. In New York City, which has a similar law, they reportedly locked drivers out of their apps to limit how much they can make.

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Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Governor Tim Walz is returning to Twitch and this time, he’ll actually be playing a game. Earlier this month, Kamala Harris’ campaign teamed up with a Twitch streamer to live-stream a Walz rally as part of a World of Warcraft stream. But on Sunday afternoon, Walz will be playing Madden NFL on Twitch with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY).
Like with live-streaming the Walz rally alongside WoW, the idea with this Madden livestream is to try to reach young men, a demographic that Trump polls relatively high with.
Ocasio-Cortez is already well-known for her huge Among Us stream ahead of the 2020 election and a stream in July 2023 where she played Pico Park and Gartic Phone. (She’s a fan of League of Legends, too.) But while Walz is a known Dreamcast fan and a successful high school football coach, this will be the first time we’ll get to see him play games live on Twitch. Maybe someday we’ll get to see him play Crazy Taxi.
Sunday’s stream will kick off at 3PM ET on AOC’s Twitch channel, where Walz will be a guest. It will also be co-streamed on Kamala Harris’ Twitch channel.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Governor Tim Walz is returning to Twitch and this time, he’ll actually be playing a game. Earlier this month, Kamala Harris’ campaign teamed up with a Twitch streamer to live-stream a Walz rally as part of a World of Warcraft stream. But on Sunday afternoon, Walz will be playing Madden NFL on Twitch with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY).

Like with live-streaming the Walz rally alongside WoW, the idea with this Madden livestream is to try to reach young men, a demographic that Trump polls relatively high with.

Ocasio-Cortez is already well-known for her huge Among Us stream ahead of the 2020 election and a stream in July 2023 where she played Pico Park and Gartic Phone. (She’s a fan of League of Legends, too.) But while Walz is a known Dreamcast fan and a successful high school football coach, this will be the first time we’ll get to see him play games live on Twitch. Maybe someday we’ll get to see him play Crazy Taxi.

Sunday’s stream will kick off at 3PM ET on AOC’s Twitch channel, where Walz will be a guest. It will also be co-streamed on Kamala Harris’ Twitch channel.

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Google may be working on persistent notifications similar to its phone call status pictured here. | Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge

Android 16 may come with a new “Rich Ongoing Notifications” feature that lets developers keep persistent notifications in the Android status bar, according to Android 15 beta code discovered by Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, who frequently dives into code to surface coming features.
Right now, the code enables adding a pill-shaped icon with custom text and background color to the Android status bar. Some mock notifications Rahman created show how it could be used for things like telling you when to expect your Uber to arrive. Android has already had a feature like this since Android 12 that lets you know how long you’ve been on a phone call, Rahman notes.

Screenshot: Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
A screenshot of a mock ongoing notification for Uber, created by Rahman.

It looks similar to the iOS Live Activities feature, which surfaces things like timers, sports scores, and delivery ETAs on users’ lock screens and at the top of notifications. On the iPhone 14 Pro and up, they appear as widgets that are a glance away in the Dynamic Island cutout while you’re doing other things on your phone.

I’d love to have something just like that on my Pixel 6 phone. Live Activities have been a great way to keep from forgetting about a parking meter I paid for via my city’s parking app, or quickly checking on when a food delivery will arrive. Having something similar on Android would be one less barrier to me switching back to the platform in the future.

Google may be working on persistent notifications similar to its phone call status pictured here. | Photo: Wes Davis / The Verge

Android 16 may come with a new “Rich Ongoing Notifications” feature that lets developers keep persistent notifications in the Android status bar, according to Android 15 beta code discovered by Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, who frequently dives into code to surface coming features.

Right now, the code enables adding a pill-shaped icon with custom text and background color to the Android status bar. Some mock notifications Rahman created show how it could be used for things like telling you when to expect your Uber to arrive. Android has already had a feature like this since Android 12 that lets you know how long you’ve been on a phone call, Rahman notes.

Screenshot: Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
A screenshot of a mock ongoing notification for Uber, created by Rahman.

It looks similar to the iOS Live Activities feature, which surfaces things like timers, sports scores, and delivery ETAs on users’ lock screens and at the top of notifications. On the iPhone 14 Pro and up, they appear as widgets that are a glance away in the Dynamic Island cutout while you’re doing other things on your phone.

I’d love to have something just like that on my Pixel 6 phone. Live Activities have been a great way to keep from forgetting about a parking meter I paid for via my city’s parking app, or quickly checking on when a food delivery will arrive. Having something similar on Android would be one less barrier to me switching back to the platform in the future.

Read More 

Fear the Spotlight. | Image: Blumhouse Games

More than most genres, survival horror feels rooted in time. It started with the methodical Resident Evil on the original PlayStation and is defined in part by limitation — a slow pace, grimy visuals, and scant resources to help amplify the scares. Many of those elements stemmed from the early, awkward days of 3D gaming, whether it was Resident Evil’s clunky controls, which made zombie chases more terrifying, or Silent Hill’s fog, which lent an iconic atmosphere while also letting the developers get around technical limitations of the time.
And a few decades later, developers are still finding ways to bring the most important elements of those games — namely, the mood and scares — to modern horror without feeling dated.
The most obvious way to do this is keeping the style and tone of classic survival horror while updating the gameplay to make it more approachable. The most recent example of this is Fear the Spotlight, the first release from horror movie studio Blumhouse’s new gaming label. Much like Crow Country and Signalis, it’s a game that looks like it was ripped right out of 1998; the visuals are blocky, the textures low-res. It gives the experience a grimy feel, which is just the right note for horror.

Image: Blumhouse Games
Fear the Spotlight.

Fear the Spotlight — developed by the two-person team at Cozy Game Pals — starts out simple enough, with two friends breaking into their high school to perform a seance in the library. But, of course, things go bad, and they get pulled into a nightmare realm that connects both to their own pasts and a dark mystery the school has been hiding for decades. It’s part coming-of-age story, part romance, and part true crime. But it’s all rendered in the crunchy style of PlayStation-era horror, which lends it an uneasy edge.
The game also lets you really focus on the story by streamlining the gameplay. There’s a lot of puzzle-solving; much like in early Resident Evil games, you’ll be fixing all kinds of complex mechanical problems and dealing with arcane statues and locks. But there’s almost no actual combat. Instead, you have little choice but to run and hide when the terrifying monsters appear. Some of the scariest moments of the game have you huddled under a desk, waiting for the creatures — which have deadly spotlights for faces — to pass.

In some ways, removing combat makes the game even scarier since you have no way to fight back. These moments in Fear the Spotlight reminded me a bit of stowing away in a locker in Alien: Isolation, hoping the xenomorph couldn’t see me. The hazy, dirty visuals only amplify this feeling, as it’s often difficult to get a clear view of what’s ahead of you.

Image: Konami
Silent Hill 2.

On the other side of the spectrum is the recent remake of Silent Hill 2. Instead of creating a brand-new survival horror experience with modern sensibilities, it’s an attempt to take one of the genre’s most influential titles — a particularly idiosyncratic one at that — and reimagine it as a big-budget release in 2024. That has pros and cons. Like the remakes of classic Resident Evil games and the original Dead Space, Silent Hill 2 looks and plays like a modern release. The visuals are crisp and detailed, instead of hazy and disorienting. And it controls like a well-tuned third-person action game. It’s immensely satisfying to swing a bat, whether you’re smashing in windows or fending off a living mannequin.
There’s a shift in tone. The modern Silent Hill 2 is still scary. The level of realism makes the squirming enemies and cramped hotel hallways feel incredibly unsettling, and there’s a level of immersion that can be panic-inducing. But now it plays and feels like a lot of other games and is, for lack of a better word, a lot cleaner than the original. It’s no longer as weird and distinct. It reminds me a bit of the 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus: a cover song that doesn’t replace the original but provides a different way of looking at it, one that’s welcoming for newcomers. (If only Konami made the original Silent Hill 2 more accessible.)
The point is, these games show there is still plenty of room to do interesting things with survival horror. And they do it in a way that both connected to the genre’s history without being stifled by it. More importantly: they find new ways to scare.
Fear the Spotlight and Silent Hill 2 are both available now.

Fear the Spotlight. | Image: Blumhouse Games

More than most genres, survival horror feels rooted in time. It started with the methodical Resident Evil on the original PlayStation and is defined in part by limitation — a slow pace, grimy visuals, and scant resources to help amplify the scares. Many of those elements stemmed from the early, awkward days of 3D gaming, whether it was Resident Evil’s clunky controls, which made zombie chases more terrifying, or Silent Hill’s fog, which lent an iconic atmosphere while also letting the developers get around technical limitations of the time.

And a few decades later, developers are still finding ways to bring the most important elements of those games — namely, the mood and scares — to modern horror without feeling dated.

The most obvious way to do this is keeping the style and tone of classic survival horror while updating the gameplay to make it more approachable. The most recent example of this is Fear the Spotlight, the first release from horror movie studio Blumhouse’s new gaming label. Much like Crow Country and Signalis, it’s a game that looks like it was ripped right out of 1998; the visuals are blocky, the textures low-res. It gives the experience a grimy feel, which is just the right note for horror.

Fear the Spotlight — developed by the two-person team at Cozy Game Pals — starts out simple enough, with two friends breaking into their high school to perform a seance in the library. But, of course, things go bad, and they get pulled into a nightmare realm that connects both to their own pasts and a dark mystery the school has been hiding for decades. It’s part coming-of-age story, part romance, and part true crime. But it’s all rendered in the crunchy style of PlayStation-era horror, which lends it an uneasy edge.

The game also lets you really focus on the story by streamlining the gameplay. There’s a lot of puzzle-solving; much like in early Resident Evil games, you’ll be fixing all kinds of complex mechanical problems and dealing with arcane statues and locks. But there’s almost no actual combat. Instead, you have little choice but to run and hide when the terrifying monsters appear. Some of the scariest moments of the game have you huddled under a desk, waiting for the creatures — which have deadly spotlights for faces — to pass.

In some ways, removing combat makes the game even scarier since you have no way to fight back. These moments in Fear the Spotlight reminded me a bit of stowing away in a locker in Alien: Isolation, hoping the xenomorph couldn’t see me. The hazy, dirty visuals only amplify this feeling, as it’s often difficult to get a clear view of what’s ahead of you.

On the other side of the spectrum is the recent remake of Silent Hill 2. Instead of creating a brand-new survival horror experience with modern sensibilities, it’s an attempt to take one of the genre’s most influential titles — a particularly idiosyncratic one at that — and reimagine it as a big-budget release in 2024. That has pros and cons. Like the remakes of classic Resident Evil games and the original Dead Space, Silent Hill 2 looks and plays like a modern release. The visuals are crisp and detailed, instead of hazy and disorienting. And it controls like a well-tuned third-person action game. It’s immensely satisfying to swing a bat, whether you’re smashing in windows or fending off a living mannequin.

There’s a shift in tone. The modern Silent Hill 2 is still scary. The level of realism makes the squirming enemies and cramped hotel hallways feel incredibly unsettling, and there’s a level of immersion that can be panic-inducing. But now it plays and feels like a lot of other games and is, for lack of a better word, a lot cleaner than the original. It’s no longer as weird and distinct. It reminds me a bit of the 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus: a cover song that doesn’t replace the original but provides a different way of looking at it, one that’s welcoming for newcomers. (If only Konami made the original Silent Hill 2 more accessible.)

The point is, these games show there is still plenty of room to do interesting things with survival horror. And they do it in a way that both connected to the genre’s history without being stifled by it. More importantly: they find new ways to scare.

Fear the Spotlight and Silent Hill 2 are both available now.

Read More 

Image: Loops

The fediverse answer to TikTok is on its way. Signups opened this week for Loops, a short-form looping video app from the creator of Instagram alternative Pixelfed, reports TechCrunch.
Users who’ve signed up can post up to 60 seconds of video, according to details shared by developer Daniel Supernault on Mastodon. He added that using sounds and remixing others’ videos is coming, as are pinned profile videos, and that users will be able to “curate” their comment sections. Videos can be categorized, but hashtags and mentions aren’t yet supported.
The Loops Pixelfed account has posted videos like the one below of Loops in action. Supernault has posted screenshots and screen recordings, as well.

Creating an account isn’t instantaneous as you’ll have to wait for a confirmation email, which could take time, according to Supernault. Its iOS app will be available initially in TestFlight, Apple’s program for testing unreleased apps that requires a free developer account. Loops will also have a “side-loadable” Android app, Supernault posted.
Loops will rely on human moderators, which Supernault put out a call for on Mastodon. Videos posted to the site will be moderated based on a trust score that every local user has, Supernault posted. Videos uploaded by people with low scores will be held for moderation before they go live, while those from “trusted users” will be posted right away.

Loops’ fediverse integration is in-progress but not live, and the platform hasn’t been open-sourced yet, according to a FAQ on the site. Users own their content, and Loops doesn’t sell or provide videos to third-party advertisers or train AI on them, the FAQ says. The site is instead relying on grants, sponsorships, and donations for funding. You can review the privacy policy here.

Image: Loops

The fediverse answer to TikTok is on its way. Signups opened this week for Loops, a short-form looping video app from the creator of Instagram alternative Pixelfed, reports TechCrunch.

Users who’ve signed up can post up to 60 seconds of video, according to details shared by developer Daniel Supernault on Mastodon. He added that using sounds and remixing others’ videos is coming, as are pinned profile videos, and that users will be able to “curate” their comment sections. Videos can be categorized, but hashtags and mentions aren’t yet supported.

The Loops Pixelfed account has posted videos like the one below of Loops in action. Supernault has posted screenshots and screen recordings, as well.

Creating an account isn’t instantaneous as you’ll have to wait for a confirmation email, which could take time, according to Supernault. Its iOS app will be available initially in TestFlight, Apple’s program for testing unreleased apps that requires a free developer account. Loops will also have a “side-loadable” Android app, Supernault posted.

Loops will rely on human moderators, which Supernault put out a call for on Mastodon. Videos posted to the site will be moderated based on a trust score that every local user has, Supernault posted. Videos uploaded by people with low scores will be held for moderation before they go live, while those from “trusted users” will be posted right away.

Loops’ fediverse integration is in-progress but not live, and the platform hasn’t been open-sourced yet, according to a FAQ on the site. Users own their content, and Loops doesn’t sell or provide videos to third-party advertisers or train AI on them, the FAQ says. The site is instead relying on grants, sponsorships, and donations for funding. You can review the privacy policy here.

Read More 

Image: Remedy Entertainment

Remedy’s latest release is connective tissue for its growing video game universe. After a year, Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment has opened the gates to a mysterious location in the 2023 third-person horror hit Alan Wake 2, known as The Lake House. In this short DLC, released just in time for Halloween, players step into the shoes of Kiran Estevez, the long-suffering agent of the mysterious Federal Bureau of Control we meet in the main game, who allies with Alan Wake 2’s protagonists, Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. Set before the events of Alan Wake 2, The Lake House sees Kiran recounting a horrifying event at the titular location to Saga, yet the plot is almost firmly removed from the main game itself.
This is both a boon and a curse, depending on what you were looking for. But as a bridge to the continuation of Remedy’s grand connected universe narrative — which also includes the supernatural thriller Control — it’s ideal. Instead of waving goodbye to Alan and Saga, Remedy is extending a hand to take us on its next weird journey.
Kiran is investigating a research station, where FBC researchers, doctors Jules and Diana Marmont and their teams, are looking into the effects of Cauldron Lake. In Remedy’s lore, there is a connection between the power of creating “art” and the power of otherworldly forces to misuse such gifts.

The Marmonts are experimenting on a painter, Rudolf Lane, who some might remember from the main game. Lane’s creativity has a tendency to illustrate — and possibly create — the future, much as Alan’s writing did. (God forbid those two ever make a comic book together.) I won’t spoil what the Marmonts did, save to say they were monsters long before any otherworldly forces came into the frame. Regardless, the Lake House is suddenly cut off and unresponsive to FBC HQ, resulting in Kiran investigating with a small team.

Image: Remedy Entertainment

Remedy has been playing with a connected universe since Control, and the Lake House is a firm bridge backward and forward to that story. Of course, being an Alan Wake DLC, players can expect the solid third-person survival horror of the main game.
The Lake House, as a setting, is as unnerving as most of the spaces in Alan Wake 2. However, there’s more of a focus on the brutalist and office-space aesthetics from Control, without the outside or natural environments that dominated about half of the main game. In the eerily quiet office spaces, there are visual wonders like looping hallways and rooms of infinite typewriters, which have been programmed to “write” like Alan Wake.
That last quirk appears to be a clear jab by Remedy’s writers at AI slop, with a page of Alan’s real writing saying, “The art was not art. Just content for the experiment.” Indeed, the whole thesis of The Lake House is the misuse of art for the acquisition of some end product, rather than relishing in the beauty art can create. This is all the more obvious when you figure out who the villain is and who has created the new terrifying humanoid paint beasts that slither out of the walls. Remedy is not subtle in its disdain for the corporatization of creativity, the reconfiguration of art into a harvest field of bland capitalistic fervor. There’s no love lost and much hate gained in the Lake House’s story, outlining the interaction between artistic freedom and corporate control: a golden hand wrapped around imagination’s throat.

Image: Remedy Entertainment

To say too much about this already short game would spoil it, so I won’t go into detail about the clever set pieces that would feel right at home in Control. Let’s just say, light switches and motels make a welcome return, as does a familiar and powerful character.
Kiran, unfortunately, does not mechanically demonstrate any prowess fighting otherworldly beings, despite her years as an FBC agent. She plays no different to Saga or Alan Wake, once again using a flashlight to whittle down enemies’ shadowy armor before unloading a satisfying number of bullets into their bodies. There is also only one new enemy type: the aforementioned long-limbed painting creatures who can only be destroyed with a new weapon Kiran discovers late in the story.
I would’ve liked some new ability or mechanic that demonstrates her years of experience in dealing with the weird. Instead, this is relegated to her interactions with the odd object / entity, being able to quickly control her fear, and knowing how to deal with recurring “items” Control veterans like myself know all too well.
Much of the joy of the Lake House is discovering what occurred and experiencing the few floors for yourself. The DLC takes about two hours to complete. But in that short span of time, it made for not only a satisfying send-off of one of my favorite recent games but also a bridge back into the world of Control.
All signs seem to indicate Remedy will be taking the grand plot of this connected universe to an almost apocalyptic level. We can probably expect to see plenty of returning characters, including Kiran herself, as Remedy steers us through its creepy weird lake of stories.
The Lake House expansion for Alan Wake 2 is available now.

Image: Remedy Entertainment

Remedy’s latest release is connective tissue for its growing video game universe.

After a year, Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment has opened the gates to a mysterious location in the 2023 third-person horror hit Alan Wake 2, known as The Lake House. In this short DLC, released just in time for Halloween, players step into the shoes of Kiran Estevez, the long-suffering agent of the mysterious Federal Bureau of Control we meet in the main game, who allies with Alan Wake 2’s protagonists, Alan Wake and Saga Anderson. Set before the events of Alan Wake 2, The Lake House sees Kiran recounting a horrifying event at the titular location to Saga, yet the plot is almost firmly removed from the main game itself.

This is both a boon and a curse, depending on what you were looking for. But as a bridge to the continuation of Remedy’s grand connected universe narrative — which also includes the supernatural thriller Control — it’s ideal. Instead of waving goodbye to Alan and Saga, Remedy is extending a hand to take us on its next weird journey.

Kiran is investigating a research station, where FBC researchers, doctors Jules and Diana Marmont and their teams, are looking into the effects of Cauldron Lake. In Remedy’s lore, there is a connection between the power of creating “art” and the power of otherworldly forces to misuse such gifts.

The Marmonts are experimenting on a painter, Rudolf Lane, who some might remember from the main game. Lane’s creativity has a tendency to illustrate — and possibly create — the future, much as Alan’s writing did. (God forbid those two ever make a comic book together.) I won’t spoil what the Marmonts did, save to say they were monsters long before any otherworldly forces came into the frame. Regardless, the Lake House is suddenly cut off and unresponsive to FBC HQ, resulting in Kiran investigating with a small team.

Remedy has been playing with a connected universe since Control, and the Lake House is a firm bridge backward and forward to that story. Of course, being an Alan Wake DLC, players can expect the solid third-person survival horror of the main game.

The Lake House, as a setting, is as unnerving as most of the spaces in Alan Wake 2. However, there’s more of a focus on the brutalist and office-space aesthetics from Control, without the outside or natural environments that dominated about half of the main game. In the eerily quiet office spaces, there are visual wonders like looping hallways and rooms of infinite typewriters, which have been programmed to “write” like Alan Wake.

That last quirk appears to be a clear jab by Remedy’s writers at AI slop, with a page of Alan’s real writing saying, “The art was not art. Just content for the experiment.” Indeed, the whole thesis of The Lake House is the misuse of art for the acquisition of some end product, rather than relishing in the beauty art can create. This is all the more obvious when you figure out who the villain is and who has created the new terrifying humanoid paint beasts that slither out of the walls. Remedy is not subtle in its disdain for the corporatization of creativity, the reconfiguration of art into a harvest field of bland capitalistic fervor. There’s no love lost and much hate gained in the Lake House’s story, outlining the interaction between artistic freedom and corporate control: a golden hand wrapped around imagination’s throat.

To say too much about this already short game would spoil it, so I won’t go into detail about the clever set pieces that would feel right at home in Control. Let’s just say, light switches and motels make a welcome return, as does a familiar and powerful character.

Kiran, unfortunately, does not mechanically demonstrate any prowess fighting otherworldly beings, despite her years as an FBC agent. She plays no different to Saga or Alan Wake, once again using a flashlight to whittle down enemies’ shadowy armor before unloading a satisfying number of bullets into their bodies. There is also only one new enemy type: the aforementioned long-limbed painting creatures who can only be destroyed with a new weapon Kiran discovers late in the story.

I would’ve liked some new ability or mechanic that demonstrates her years of experience in dealing with the weird. Instead, this is relegated to her interactions with the odd object / entity, being able to quickly control her fear, and knowing how to deal with recurring “items” Control veterans like myself know all too well.

Much of the joy of the Lake House is discovering what occurred and experiencing the few floors for yourself. The DLC takes about two hours to complete. But in that short span of time, it made for not only a satisfying send-off of one of my favorite recent games but also a bridge back into the world of Control.

All signs seem to indicate Remedy will be taking the grand plot of this connected universe to an almost apocalyptic level. We can probably expect to see plenty of returning characters, including Kiran herself, as Remedy steers us through its creepy weird lake of stories.

The Lake House expansion for Alan Wake 2 is available now.

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