Bits: The Byteside Blog
"They're doing what now?"
It’s been a dark year for tech culture discussions. Lots of ‘oh no, that nice thing has turned out even worse than we’d feared?’ discussions. And a few more of those today… BUT I’ve made sure and throw you some more positive links at the end to
Google Assistant now on Sonos here in Australia
Alexa not doing it for you? Now you can ask Google to help you out via your Sonos speakers instead. The new features landed in an update on Tuesday night.
AIS gives Aus Women's Cricket an Apple Watch edge
As the Aussie Women's cricket team get ready to destroy the English in the Women's Ashes Tour (after a 2-0 drubbing in the warm up one-day matches), it's
'Saviors of Uldum' is the next Hearthstone expansion
Is it time already? It's the sign of a healthy period for the game when a new expansion sneaks up on us rather than us desperately wishing for new cards to
Enter The Game Table podtastic D&D prize draw!
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast and Good Games Australia, we're giving away the two latest D&D books plus some D&D Live 2019 tidbits as part of the
Jony Has Left The Building
Jony Ive has left the building. Wow. I’m one of the true believers in the Lennon-McCartney dynamic of Steve Jobs and Jony Ive. Steve Jobs was a true design champion, and knew how to give someone as gifted as Ive the space and the constraints to do his best
AI, 'doing' science, awkward hacks and Ikea meatballs
Testing a Monday push. Let me know if you think Friday is best fit, or whether a Monday missive might give you a different vibe at the start of the week? Thanks everyone for the feedback to date. Really helpful! Best of the Week The New Wilderness A fantastic discussion
Ever heard of 'Fishwrap'?
Preamble be damned this week. Enjoy the links! OK, one quick thing… please let me know what you’re thinking of the newsletter so far. I appreciate all feedback, even if there’s stuff you don’t like. It all helps refine what I’m sharing. Fundamentally, if I think
WWDC, EmDrives, Napster, and working smarter
I just got home after attending Apple’s WWDC in San Jose, California. (I attended as a guest of Apple). It was a big year – a new Mac Pro for the most extremely high end of users, iPad gets its own OS to push it toward more serious ‘laptop alternative’
Dirty rotten engagement
Brace yourself. There aren’t too many happy stories this week. I’m not sure there have been many happy stories lately, but the nature of looking deeply at the state of technology doesn’t have many good answers right now. Tech is at quite the crossroads culturally. I keep
Miss me?
I was in Los Angeles last week and hadn’t quite had a chance to pull the newsletter together before I disappeared. Thankfully, this is beta season, so I figured one week off wouldn’t hurt. No double issue or anything, just a fresh batch of thought provoking stories about
Phones, thrones, skins, lungs + more
Happy Friday! This week I’ve written my own descriptions with a little analysis under each headline (and not all headlines are the originals) to try to efficiently sneak in my 2c worth without turning the newsletter into an odyssey. I’ve also chosen one dozen stories (aside from links
Algorithms for good
Thanks for the feedback last week. Super helpful - and a special thanks to those who spotted the secret signal. More did than I expected, so I appreciate how attentive my beta friends are. Lucky eight links today. I’m definitely thinking about whether I rewrite headline links to describe
In the beginning...
Welcome, beta friends! As social media fades as a place for gathering as a positive community or to share ideas effectively as a publisher, it seemed worth exploring the idea of stepping back into a more controlled and direct environment – email! Maybe everyone’s inbox is too full. Maybe email
The Huawei P30 Pro camera is basically powered by witchcraft
There’s no other word for it. The P30’s camera tech is beyond clever or smart. It’s the work of wizardry. Here’s a collection of photos directly comparing the
Christo gets to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in 2020
Few urban artists are as monumental as Christo. Not everybody has nailed the idea of wrapping buildings in fabric and rope, and now – almost 60 years after
The Matrix 20 years on: how a sci-fi film tackled big philosophical questions
20 years on, the film stands tall as a sci-fi epic that also encouraged viewers to explore some big philosophical questions.
An NVIDIA AI can turn your crappiest doodles into gorgeous lifelike landscapes
The latest AI fakery is thankfully something more peaceful and calming than most. Doodle some colours on a screen and NVIDIA's GauGAN (get it?) will turn them
Open Bionics delivers an awesome BB-8 decorated bionic arm that delivers superheroic vibes all day long
Sometimes a kid needs a bionic arm. But when that arm is given some cool styling like a BB-8 theme – and excellent functionality too – you might just make
Star Trek Catan gives you something more exciting to fight over than sheep and wool
I've enjoyed the odd game of Catan, but I'm also a sucker for a good theme. Sheep, wool and wood just aren't all that exciting. But what about collecting
