π the city is TOO good. I walk the streets thinking βwhat are we even doing, Americaβ
π the city is TOO good. I walk the streets thinking βwhat are we even doing, Americaβ
Here with the mighty @cnet.com team for day one of #MWC26, my first time at the show (and Barcelona!), reporting on phones, wearables, and maybe a wee bit of AI.
Itβs almost the end of Day One and I r seen enough to write half a dozen stories.
Ahead of MWC 2026 and all the exciting new phones, @katiecollins.bsky.social casts back to a tale of a Samsung phone from 2012 that survived a decade in the Arizona desert β and the detective work to find who it belonged to
www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/...
Now that I'm on the other side of my forced hiatus (no we're not unpacked, mind your business!), it feels like the right time to drop a reminder that I am open to new clients and available for full-time work.
Unbelievable that we still talk about withholding HIV funding as a form of political maneuvering rather than an act of social murder, as if the 80βs + 90βs never happened and we didnβt lose an entire generation to this already.
Anti-homeless benches in Pokemon Legends ZA
why is there anti-homeless architecture in pokemon
If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff.
Democracy dies in oligarchy.
Kicking off 2026 with a look at the gaming landscape and how generative AI has ensured gamers can't trust that the games they play are completely made by humans
www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...
The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.
If you want to learn more about how game developers & the games industry are engaging with climate change and sustainability, preorder The Game Needs to Change, due out in 2026 (Lente graciously submitted quotes for my chapter):
www.routledge.com/The-Game-Nee...
In this and other stories (including some I wrote), Lente explains she didnβt set out to make a game about sustainability, but the themes are intrinsic to her game, Spilled! Itβs one of many ways game devs are incorporating caring for the world + the impact of climate change in gameplay.
Love this story from @jacksonwryan.com about Lente, a game designer who developed a game about cleaning up waterways on a boat while, yes, she was living on a boat. More lovely stories about the people behind games by talented writers, please!!
CNETβs @outonalumb.bsky.social took the #OnePlus15βs cameras for a spin around LA. This is OnePlusβ first phone since its partnership with Hasselblad ended. Take a look at Davidβs photos to see what OnePlus is doing without the iconic Swedish camera maker
www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/...
Iβve written about sustainability in the games industry and this book will be a great comprehensive overview β perfect for folks wondering how games will clash with climate change. Iβve even got a chapter in it covering games mediaβs role!
give greta thunberg a gundam
I shouldβve been more specific: high end for max battery life/efficiency (aka laptops) formats
Qualcomm's also got a pair of new PC chips: the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (high end) and the Snapdragon X2 Elite (slightly less high end). Aside from performance/efficiency upgrades, it's powering up Agentic AI:
www.cnet.com/tech/computi...
Qualcomm debuted the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip with performance & effiicency upgrades plus extras, like a new video codec that lets you pull still images at photo quality from footage. (Also a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 coming later, presumably slightly less premium.)
www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/...
In Maui, Iβm at the #snapdragonsummit2025 keynote with @katiecollins.bsky.social hearing about what Qualcommβs got in store for next yearβs phones and PCs via their chips
It should be needless to say, but it is perhaps at this moment worth saying, that transgender individuals have the same right as anyone else to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Very excited to try the new Star Wars mixed reality playset experience - my colleague @outonalumb.bsky.social checked it out in LA, and Iβm envious www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/...
If only so many of the writers we need right now hadn't lost their jobs
aftermath.site/tyler-robinson...
Adjusted for inflation Spirited Away cost $22 million to make. The Triplets of Belleville cost $16.5 million, Cartoon Saloon's Wolfwalkers cost $14.28 million, and Oscar winner Flow cost only $4 million. These critically acclaimed, made by real people films, cost less than this pile of actual vomit.
ZDCG demands accountability for continued attacks on media workers in Gaza:
Happy birthday Manda! Plants, nurturing, growth for next year β all the good metaphors for 39 π
This sucks so much, you and everyone at IGN deserve better, Amelia πͺ
NEW: Israel targeted and killed five @aljazeera.com journalists in Gaza.
They risked everything to document atrocities so we could know the truth. Killing them is an attack on journalism itself.
With @nwu.org, we demand accountability:
newsguild.org/the-newsguil...
Screenshot of a vox media union logo over the Eater logo. The heading reads, "Eater isn't essential without journalism."
Screenshot (condensed for Bluesky word limit): On August 8, without warning, Vox Media laid off 15 members of Eater, Punch, and Thrillist, the award-winning food, drink, and travel news and recommendation sites, while management celebrated Eaterβs 20th anniversary. The cuts decimated local coverage, including Chicago, the countryβs third-largest market. This is the second restructuring at Eater in less than 10 months. The cuts come not only one month after the Vox Media Union ratified its new collective bargaining agreement, but also two months after the James Beard Awards, where Eater and Punch earned four nominations and two wins. The firings came a week after Jim Bankoff claimed in an interview there would be no imminent layoffs. Eater says farewell to a cohort of award-winning and dedicated journalists who fought tooth and nail to keep the wall between editorial and advertising intact. We sound like a broken record, but we are once again grateful to have bargained for industry-leading severance language in our latest contract. This GoFundMe is organized by members of the Vox Media Union. All funds raised will directly benefit union members impacted by the August 7 layoffs, and will be distributed in equal shares to those who opt-in to receive funds. The organizers will be reaching out to those impacted in the coming days with details. Our union is committed to supporting our colleagues who were laid off, and will hold management accountable for how these layoffs were conducted. With these funds, we hope to ease the financial burden that these layoffs have placed on our colleagues some of who face mounting medical bills and are charged with being their family's primary caretakers. The Vox Media Union layoff fund is being overseen by a committee of Vox Media Union members, including Ashok Selvam, Jaya Saxena, and Amy McCarthy. The fund will operate transparently, with full accounting of all donations that are received and distributed.
Our Eater GoFundMe is up! We all know this has been a difficult year for Vox, but the folks at Eater have been extremely dedicated in their support for each of their colleagues, past and present. Let's support them now!!! #unionstrong #voxunion #1u
gofund.me/04932462
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Absolute garbage.