Author: Press Room
I’ve bounced between pretty much every big-name music streaming service out there — Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, even Deezer. Each one promised better recommendations, better sound, or better exclusives that would finally make it “the one.” What I got instead were creeping prices and algorithm fatigue. Then one day, while scrolling through an FOSS forum, I stumbled on a post about a streaming music app that caught my attention right away: OuterTune. I grabbed the APK, sideloaded it, and was surprised by how refined it looked. A week later, I realized something funny. I hadn’t opened my paid streaming…
ChatGPT is famously polite (and so are we). It agrees, elaborates, and rarely challenges you. Its lightning-fast answers make us feel productive. But after a while, the responses sounded smart but safe. I realized the importance of making AI stop agreeing with me. I didn’t want it as an echo chamber, but a thinking partner. One day, I typed: “Play devil’s advocate and argue against my idea.” With this tweak, ChatGPT went from agreeable assistant to critical partner. It uncovered weak arguments, questioned my logic, and even highlighted blind spots. Since then, the “devil’s advocate prompt” has become one of…
Right now, YouTube Shorts are awash with a dual-horned scarlet character making pixel-perfect jumps in a bid to ascend a murky cavern, all the while avoiding spiked floors, making use of shelled enemies to bounce off of and desperately clinging onto tiny safe spaces on walls desecrated with thorns. This is Hornet, lead character of the latest Metroidvania game Hollow Knight: Silksong, and she needs to ascend the bug-infested land of Pharloom by jumping fiendish platforms, negotiating labyrinthian cave networks and violently parleying with monstrous insectoid bosses. After ascending continuously using a furious repertoire of double jumps, wall jumps and…
I finally got around to watching the new version of The Toxic Avenger, and it pretty much delivered what you’d expect if you’ve seen the original. I’ll admit I’m actually not a big fan of the 1984 original because its commitment to gore outdid its sense of fun. The new one is not much different in this regard, but I found that director Macon Blair made it much more stylish, and the cast is just great. But this got me thinking about other superhero movies that just full-on embrace the gore and violence that you don’t really see in the…
It’s October. The leaves are falling, the weather is cooling, and pop-up costume shops are opening on every corner. It’s Halloween season, and Hollywood knows you want to be scared round the clock. They’re obliging with a bunch of new shows and movies designed to chill you to the bone. The first couple are already here: Monster: The Ed Gein Story Streaming now on Netflix The Monster series on Netflix focuses on a different true crime story each season: first, Jeffrey Dahmer; then, Lyle and Erik Menendez; and now, Ed Gein, played by Charlie Hunnam. If you’re looking for a…
In November, a new sci-fi show called Pluribus will debut on Apple TV+. Apple has only released one official image. It hasn’t released a trailer despite the premiere being only a few weeks away. We only have a vague idea of what Pluribus is about, and yet people are already expecting it to be the show of the year. But from what we do know about Pluribus, I can see why the excitement is building, and it’s time for you to get involved and feel the hype, too. Pluribus comes from the guy who made Breaking Bad Résumés don’t come…
This week, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a law forbidding ads that play on streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, and YouTube from being louder than the content they interrupt, meaning that Californians will no longer be startled by blaring commercials asking if they’re satisfied with their car insurance. The reason advertisers crank up the volume on their ads is obvious: they’re hoping the sudden burst of noise will make viewers pay attention, which is very annoying. I’m glad someone did something about it. But given how streaming is getting worse and worse these days — even high-powered Hollywood executives…
Apple design has always been famously opinionated. The company does what it thinks is right for you. If you disagree, well, you’re wrong. But lately, chinks have appeared in Apple’s design armour. Customisation options could suggest a lack of confidence at the top, or simple acknowledgment that people like being able to make devices their own. Even so, it’s rare for a major feature to vanish and then claw its way back from the dead. But that’s exactly what happened this week as Slide Over triumphantly returned in iPadOS 26.1. The feature originally debuted in 2015, when Apple first started…
The Witcher debuted on Netflix in 2019 to effusive praise from fans. They loved the fantasy action, they loved seeing a popular series of books and video games come to life onscreen, and they loved Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, a taciturn monster hunter more vulnerable than he lets on. Then, in 2022, it was announced that Henry Cavill would be leaving the show after season 3, to be replaced by Hunger Games veteran Liam Hemsworth. The tide soon turned. As of this writing, the recently released trailer for season 4 has 16k likes to 65k dislikes, a staggering…
While the science fiction genre can often get lost in the latter part of that term than the former, sometimes you get some movies that really try to bring the science. It’s not really a dealbreaker for me either way, but I know certain fans want a little realism in their fiction rather than sci-fi that makes you question reality. This is part of why shows like The Expanse were so acclaimed; they tried to make living and traveling in space grounded in science as much as possible. Sci-fi movies involving time travel can often get lost in paradoxes that…