Enforced temptation control?
Do school kids need some help resisting the temptation of the smartphone? Do the rest of us? Plus Apple, QR codes, Netflix Direct and more.
Hearthstone: Madness at the Darkmoon Faire roundtable
Highlights from a roundtable on the latest Hearthstone expansion, featuring Game Director Ben Lee and Game Designer John McIntyre.
Apple 'M1' Macs announced, claiming 3x to 5x faster than Intel
Today we see new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini models with Apple's new M1 chip. And they're bonkers fast.
Xbox Series X: the launch review
The best Xbox you've seen. A new benchmark. Stunningly familiar. But if you didn't get a pre-order? It's going to be fine to wait until 2021.
Deepfaking Trump with Harry Shearer
We speak to virtual production studio Mod's Michela Ledwidge about the tech that brought Harry Shearer's Donald Trump satire to freakish life.
Overanalysing the Xbox box
This is the extended, over hyped, over dramatic, over detailed Xbox Series X unboxing you have been waiting for.
The last Xbox
The demand for higher resolutions and faster refresh rates and more data throughput is cresting, creating the chance for smaller and smarter hardware in future, or even the potential for future mobile devices to bear the load instead of needing big boxes under our TVs.
We owned a bit of Quibi too?
This week we realise we're talking about two troubled apps the Australian government owned in whole or in part: COVIDSafe and Quibi.
Attention, distraction and Quibi
It will go down in history as one of the great failures of the digital age. Almost $2 billion spent on a Hollywood-backed, highly-polished, mobile-only, episodic streaming video service that will be long forgotten with no sense of loss whatsoever. We talked about Quibi on the Byteside podcast a lot
Prideful sharing
It’s been a crazy week and I’m genuinely sorry to say that I don’t have a column this week. I love writing these and your feedback is always thoughtful and insightful and helps me to keep building on the ideas I try to express here. It’s
LG CX OLED 4K TV review: So good I'm buying one
When you can't live without the TV you just tested, and hate having to let it go back after the review? That's something very special.
EPOS GSP 600 series headset sends you to a world of your own
It's chunky and demands some desk real estate, but for solid passive sound isolation in a versatile gaming headset, EPOS has some great kit.
New Apple iPhone day 2020
iPhone 12, why MagSafe rules', plus we still find time on iPhone day to talk about videogames as well as electric vehicles in regional Oz.
Apple iPhone 12 got 5G: so what else is new?
We've picked out seven features that are faster, shinier, stronger and smarter than before in the latest iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro.
Industry bit rot
More Australian media job losses in tech and gaming show a fading of local nuance as global dominance grows.
JB Hi-Fi changes course on gift cards for console pre-orders (but it's still messy)
JB Hi-Fi has seen sense and created a new system for pre-order customers to pay for a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X with gift cards.
Riot Games is shutting down the OPL in another blow to ANZ esports
Riot has pulled up stumps on the Oceanic Pro League and its Sydney office. It's a gut punch to local fans, and the entire ANZ esports scene.
JB Hi-Fi at "real risk" of breach over gift card refusal on console pre-orders
We got consumer advocacy group CHOICE to weigh in on the JB Hi-Fi pre-order situation, and it's got advice for buyers – and for JB.
All your next favourite movies are being delayed so stop worrying
Dune. The Batman. 007. All the upcoming blockbusters are being delayed and reshuffled so just get used to disappointment.
WoW Shadowlands delay gives us more time to embrace the squish
Any delay is disappointing, but this one is an opportunity to properly explore the big changes we're getting in the pre-patch.
