Author: Press Room
We’ve all been there before, right in the middle of a movie, all prepared to see the plucky protagonist defeat the evil villain and save the day once and for all. But then the antagonist starts monologuing or does something you don’t expect, and you think about it for more than just a few seconds. What if they’re right? What if our hero is fighting for the wrong cause or the wrong team? And then there’s that sinking feeling as you realize that you realize what the protagonist, and perhaps even the writer or director, does not: the villain’s methods…
You may have seen that Apple has made the decision to stop including a charger with the new 14in MacBook Pro M5, and I think this feels like a major misstep. Just imagine someone buys a new laptop, and imagine that excitement turning into frustration the moment they unbox it and realise they can’t even plug it in. For a company that prides itself on “it just works,” this time, it really doesn’t. The company says it’s about the environment, and technically, it’s aligning with new EU rules, but the reality is that it cheapens what should be a premium…
Reboots are hard to get right. I have been disappointed by the lukewarm rehashing of the Ghostbusters franchise, the unnecessary revival of my childhood hero, Indiana Jones, and the numerous pointless Star Wars spin-offs, not to mention all the Spider-Man remakes that follow a similar formula. Yet, while many soulless reboots put us off going to the theater, there are occasions when filmmakers strike a balance between nostalgia and innovation that equals or even surpasses the original. Whether it’s through modern cinematography, special effects, sharp scripting, or bold creative risks, some reimagined classics are genuinely worth our time. The Thing…
A $500 / £500 budget puts you in a fantastic position to buy a wide range of watches. At this point, you can safely graduate away from so-called fashion brands – clothing companies that also put their name on the dial of a watch – and purchase legitimate, Swiss-made timepieces from some of the biggest names in the business. This guide to the best affordable watches includes models from well-known brands like Seiko and Tissot, as well as Swatch, Orient, and a handful of lesser-known but equally interesting boutique companies. It also includes a range of watch types and styles,…
Though most music streaming apps tend to have more or less the same features these days, one unique feature you’ll find on Spotify is its AI DJ. If you haven’t tried the feature out before, AI DJ is a feature Spotify announced in 2023 and is a personalized AI guide that analyzes your listening history and music preferences to choose what music to play for you. Beyond just curating playlists and playing music it thinks you’ll enjoy, the DJ also adds its own commentary between tracks, making the whole experience feel more personal and dynamic. Today, Spotify has improved the…
Science fiction can be a genre that holds up a mirror to the present, past, and future simultaneously. Other genres of movies and television can do this, of course, and some have even accidentally predicted the future. But sci-fi can really capture the societal mood, or even predict it in ways viewers don’t see coming. For me, the best entries in this genre not only have biting commentary on society, but they remain relevant long after their release date. But not all predictions are created equal, and not everything that eventually comes to pass is a good thing. Sometimes I…
Reading has always been a solo pursuit for me—just me, my Kindle, and a cup of tea. But now, I include an unlikely reading companion into the mix: ChatGPT. I wanted a method to help me get out of my own brain and question my blind spots. More critically, I wanted to connect ideas and turn scattered highlights into insights. Now, I use ChatGPT to reflect, recall, and even apply what I read. I think of it as my virtual book club partner, and you too can use it to make reading more interactive and interesting. 1 ChatGPT as your…
I’m a big fan of robot vacs – I’ve got one on each floor of my home and I’m happy to let them take over my floor care. Getting a robot to take care of my lawn has seemed like the next logical step, but, to be honest, the prospect of mapping out my garden, even though it’s not huge, left me cold, so I’ve persevered with my trusty and perhaps somewhat retro, corded mower. Until, that is, Stiga launched their new robot lawnmowers, which let you map out your garden virtually and I got to test the A4. The…
From the early console days of the 80s and 90s, Japan had always been the spiritual home of games, but it’s only in recent years that culturally Japanese games have captured a wider imagination of gamers around the world. That’s not happened in a vacuum as there’s also been a newfound appreciation of Japanese media, from award-winning shows like Shogun to Netflix having the whole back catalogue of Studio Ghibli films, as well as a wide variety of popular anime. Naturally, this means Japan’s legendary warriors, the samurai and ninja, have also been having a second wind, especially when applied…
It started as one of those idle moments online, the kind where you’re just aimlessly clicking around with no real purpose. I opened a random link, assuming I’d close it almost immediately, and somehow ended up somewhere completely different. That place turned out to be Poolsuite. It’s a retro radio website that feels like it was built by someone who desperately missed summer vacations in the ’80s and decided to trap that feeling inside a browser window. It’s one of the ways you can listen to nostalgic online radio shows with a perfect tan. What Poolsuite is The radio station…