Bits: The Byteside Blog
On Quitting Facebook
This week I decided enough was enough. The mental gymnastics around why I *must* stay on Facebook came to an end. I’m not exactly deleting Facebook, but I am done using it as a place to offer up my attention as a commodity. Instead, I will use it as
Back from BlizzCon
Last week I was at BlizzCon in the USA, so we skipped an issue of the newsletter. It was my first time at the event and as a long-time fan and writer about all things Blizzard games (makers of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone) it
Critical mass hysteria
Nothing digital succeeds anymore without a big enough snowball to propel it forward. It’s kind of obvious. But it underpins everything today, and a lot of this week’s stories. From Microsoft’s game streaming service Mixer wooing another big Twitch streamer to change platforms, to TikTok deepening its
From Space Daks to Afterlife Pranks
Great seeing a bunch of you at PAX Australia last weekend! It was my first time with the family and it changed my perspective in amazing ways. The kids loved it on the ‘life changing’ end of the scale. I felt like they really felt more validated in their love
My lovely car limiter proves why cruise control sucks
I got a new car recently. By recently I mean a year ago. I like cars, but I'm not a 'car person'. I do my research ahead of time, but then I pretty much make
Newsletter with a hint of podcast
Quick one this week! I’m at PAX Aus! If you’re here please say hello! I’m hosting a panel for young folks and families on how to pursue esports in ways that don’t throw the rest of your life away (Sat, 11.00am), and also appearing on
The Goose That Honked The World
PAX Australia has really carved out a special place in the local event landscape. I’ve never missed one, and, for me, it shows the best of what the local games community can be. Not just videogames, the event is about boardgames and card games and RPGs and, yes, lots
Bot Fight: Activate!
It felt like a quiet week in tech news on the surface. But that’s mostly because global politics had a very loud one. There’s actually been a lot of interesting stuff going on. And here’s your weekly newsletter to catch up on it all! A lot of
Digital Brian Blessed
Through the calendar year there’s a few different times of year when it’s ‘new thing’ season. Right now it’s phones. Samsung landed a little while ago, Apple lands this week, and Google lands in October. We’re also getting lots of other new things soon too. Apple
Descent Into Avernus: the spoiler-free review
Dungeons & Dragons latest adventure, Descent Into Avernus, is a bargain with the devils you should sign up for. No blood required.
Less Gravity, More Personality
Let’s skip the iPhone launch chat. You’ve heard about that everywhere, I’m sure. I’m planning a special edition to round up the state of phones at the moment very soon. Seems a good time off the back of iPhones and the new Android 10 launch. Cameras
It's Tim Cook's Apple now
Steve and Jony have left the building.
Factory Default Suckage
Happy Friday! It’s been an interesting week after I spent the weekend down in Melbourne covering the Melbourne Esports Open. The big tech show IFA has been taking place in Berlin. I realised it’s been about five years since my last visit. Sad face. I was invited, so
Subject line real estate is crucial if you want to fit a complicated message into a very limited amount of available sp
I’m going to stop writing ‘Byteside [issue #] in the subject headings from now on. But I’m adding the lightbulb emoji to kick off the subject line. Give it a little 'pop’ in the email list while adding some Subject uniformity without eating up valuable readable space. Make
Byteside Newsletter: A Weekly Curated List of 'Oooh!'
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Tangled Webs
I heard a great podcast over the weekend speaking with a journalist about his time covering technology. The host actually hit on an interesting concept - that the history of technology in recent times is one of a shift from science to business to politics. It rings very true. But
Assorted brain food
No themes are leaping out this week. It’s a mixed bag of interesting that, thankfully, has more nourishing discussions than bad news this week. Not that there’s no bad links… I’m still looking for input on the tech parenting newsletter / podcast concept, so if you can spare
Should I do a tech parenting newsletter too?
Games don’t cause gun violence. It’s old news. It’s not a statement worthy of rebuttal. In one of the many debates of this topic over the years - back when the games industry was arguing to get R18+ ratings for games in Australia - one expert pointed
Apple launches AR[T]: AR experiences in global cities by amazing artists
Starting August 10, incredible Augmented Reality (AR) experiences will be offered in six major cities around the world in a collaboration between Apple and
![Apple launches AR[T]: AR experiences in global cities by amazing artists](/content/images/size/w1460/format/webp/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Apple_Today-at-Apple-ART_ART-Walk-Pipilotti-Rist_073019.jpg)
Gogoro gets Yamaha and others on board to use its swappable EV battery platform
I first covered Gogoro nearly four years ago for CNET while in Taiwan for Computex. The Taiwanese electric scooter company was designing beautiful scooters
