Author: Press Room
Romance, sci-fi, and horror are not subgenres that go together very often, but when they do, we get memorable masterpieces like Ex Machina, which came out in 2014 and which seems more prescient than ever today. Why? Well, Ex Machina is about a computer programmer named Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who is chosen to visit the luxurious home of his billionaire boss, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). His job is to speak to a humanoid android named Ava (Alicia Vikander) to determine if she has consciousness. In the process, he falls for her. In a world where people openly admit to being in…
Summary Anna’s Archive acquired metadata for nearly 256 million tracks. The organization also archived nearly 86 million audio files, representing over 99% of listens. The metadata is available now, and the audio files are coming soon. The data is being released as a bulk torrent with a file size of nearly 300 TB. The group behind the media archive site Anna’s Archive announced that it has successfully scraped almost the entire Spotify library. The organization outlined the endeavor and its results, as well as what it plans to do with the data, in a blog post. The data includes metadata…
The iPad changed personal tech when it launched in 2010. It proved a tablet could be more than a gimmick, slipping neatly between phones and laptops with a design that put touch first. Steve Jobs famously called it “magical,” and while plenty of people doubted it at the time, it quickly turned into a worldwide hit. Since then, Apple has steadily evolved the iPad. Faster chips, sharper screens and clever accessories like the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard have turned it into far more than a media slate. With each update, the iPad has edged closer to being a genuine…
Apple’s Vision Pro has not sold well, but the operating system it uses has huge potential. visionOS and its gesture-based system remains stunning sensor and camera-based technology that you have to experience to believe. While Apple gave us the Vision Pro M5 refresh a couple of months ago, it doesn’t sound like there will be a follow-up. Rumours suggest Apple has canned work on headsets in favour of shrinking the technology into smart glasses in 2027 or 2028. The revamp of the Vision Pro gave the headset a real power-up, but the device remains a niche purchase, not helped by…
Time travel movies that take themselves seriously are often doomed to failure because it’s pretty much impossible to write a story about time travel that doesn’t have massive contradictions or paradoxes. The exception is Primer, a 2004 independent film made for around $7,000. Primer doesn’t have big stars or any special effects to speak of, but it does have the most scientifically literate script of any movie about time travel ever written, which is more than enough. Heaven help us while we try to explain the plot of Primer Beware headaches and potential spoilers Primer is about a pair of…
When I received an email asking me if I’d like to research and write a feature about AI sex robots, I accepted the commission immediately. Not for any hands-on testing opportunities, mind. It just made for a refreshing change off the back of a hectic few weeks covering Black Friday sales and fuelling the hellish fires of capitalism. Praise Bezos. Having said that, this is far from my first rodeo covering the convergence of tech and erotica. Many moons ago, I was one of the first people in the world to try virtual reality porn. It was… an experience. But…
Once upon a time, Monopoly, Cluedo and Scrabble is all you might find in the average person’s games cupboard. Maybe Trivial Pursuit if you were somewhere fancy. How things have changed. Now, we’re in a board game boom. Some even rival the playability and immersion of console games. There’s every kind of tabletop fantasy out there for you to explore – if you know where to look. Fancy yourself as an industrialist pioneer or a master of the English language? Do you want to unearth the secrets of a haunted house, or rebuild a dystopian Europe? You can do all those…
Next year should be huge for Tudor. A century is a big deal for any watch brand, but especially one that’s spent the last decade quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) proving it can do serious watchmaking without losing its value-led soul. If Tudor wants to mark 100 years properly, the clues for how it might do that are already hiding in plain sight. Let’s start with the obvious one – the Big Block chronograph. If Tudor brings back just one historic model for its centenary, this is it. And crucially, not as a straight reissue. The real excitement isn’t…
If you are an audiophile, relying on a pair of wireless earbuds and your phone’s default music player app will be a mistake. To get the best sound quality, you need some controls, especially the ability to tweak the equalizer to match the audio profile you want to hear. Being a music lover myself, I have tried and tested a lot of tricks to get the best audio out of my phone. That is when, sometime in 2013, I stumbled upon Poweramp, a music player that finally gave my ears the audio profile I was craving. Everyone has a unique…
When watching TV, we most commonly listen to audio through speakers or a soundbar to enjoy a fully immersive experience. But this isn’t always possible. You might be a night owl who likes to watch in the late-night hours. Maybe you have a baby at home and want to curl up with a movie once they’ve gone down for a nap, but don’t want to disturb them. College students residing in dorms or anyone living with roommates knows the frustration of not being able to watch a show or even play video games while the other person is studying, sleeping,…