Bits: The Byteside Blog
How piracy made game culture thrive in my small Indian town
What happens when all you can get is a handful of pirated games? And what changes when you can finally buy everything ever made?
SteelSeries Rival 5 review: nine buttons are great – if you can reach them
Extra buttons are great for so many games, but we're not quite sure who has hands that can use them all effectively.
Answering the call
Phones have fallen victim to becoming an open platform with no barriers to entry and a simple system for computational calling to make it a breeze for scammers.
Australia's COVID-19 vaccine certificate now load into digital wallets
Apple Wallet and Google Pay support is now available for Australian COVID-19 vaccination certificates through the latest Medicare app update.
Windows 365 Cloud PC service is now live: here's what you'll pay
The new cloud-based Windows service is available to the public today. Prices vary based on cores, RAM and storage options.
Google's Pixel 6 new chip and camera raise the bar for Android phones
A cheeky reveal shows a new 'camera bar' with optical zoom and a new Google Tensor SoC that together make the Pixel 6 a big step forward.
Nokia X20 review: an 'average' phone ready to take you to 2025
The Nokia X20 feels slightly less than ideal, but nothing is a dealbreaker – it just wants to be a reliable phone for years to come.
Magic The Gathering Arena ESL ANZ Champs 2021 launch this weekend
Are you the best MTG Arena player in Australia? ESL ANZ Champs is here to let you find out – with cash and prizes, of course.
Toshiba Canvio Gaming Portable Storage deletes your uninstall anxiety
These new drives are designed to run HDD storage optimised for game console needs at an impressively affordable price.
We discovered an undersea volcano that looks like the Eye of Sauron
A deep sea mapping expedition has found amazing new geological formations near Christmas Island that will reveal new scientific treasures.
Fans produce the never animated final episode of the 1980s D&D cartoon
The series was cut short, robbed of the last episode that was written but never made. But now we can watch it thanks to this fan project.
How 'The Million Dollar Homepage' has aged, and what it means for digital history
Researchers look back on the seminal marketing website and check the active links – and debate how to improve digital archives in future.
Where we're going next
Byteside version x.x
Dogecoin's co-creator really, really hates all things crypto these days
"Built primarily to amplify wealth [through] tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight and artificially enforced scarcity." Ouch.
Tokyo Olympics opening blasts classic videogame themes across the world
Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger and many more all had orchestral music featured in the Tokyo 2020(+1) opening ceremony.
Today's Google Doodle is a gloriously unlicensed Olympics tribute
A cool anime intro and an expansive 16-bit game with team leaderboards? Just don't mention the specific event in Japan this is about.
Inside the making of the new Dungeons & Dragon's Magic The Gathering set
We speak to James Wyatt and Meris Mullaley from Wizards of the Coast about the art and science of bringing the Forgotten Realms to Magic.
Watch the Forza Horizon 5 audio team capture awesome zoom vroom sounds
Seven minutes of behind the scenes as the Forza Horizon sound crew capture a bunch of cars hooning up and down an old track.
Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin's motley crew lifts off in just hours: here's how to watch
The most phallic rocket yet is scheduled for launch. Here's when and how to watch. Whatever you think of Bezos, Wally Funk is the real deal!
Italian museums now use cameras to see which art you look at most
Visitor's eyeballs will decide how these galleries redesign their layout and which artworks are put on prime display.
