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Seamus Byrne

Founder and Head of Content at Byteside. Brings two decades of experience covering tech, digital culture, and their impacts on society.

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

The Goose That Honked The World

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

Bot Fight: Activate!

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

Digital Brian Blessed
Games

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.

Descent Into Avernus: the spoiler-free review

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

Less Gravity, More Personality
Art & Culture

It's Tim Cook's Apple now

Steve and Jony have left the building.

It's Tim Cook's Apple now
Art & Culture

Five things I learned about capturing new memories while scanning old photos

The best lesson I've ever had in what I should try to take pictures of, and how I should take them, was when I spent a week scanning over 5,000 family photos

Five things I learned about capturing new memories while scanning old photos

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

Factory Default Suckage
Games

A chat with Zac and Luke from 'I Speak Giant'

We chat to the DM and Vinnie from liveplay D&D podcast "I Speak Giant" about the show. Where it started, how it has evolved, what it's been like working

A chat with Zac and Luke from 'I Speak Giant'

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

Subject line real estate is crucial if you want to fit a complicated message into a very limited amount of available sp

Byteside Newsletter: A Weekly Curated List of 'Oooh!'

Sign up for the Byteside Newsletter now. It's easy to get the latest tech and digital culture news each week. And it's free!

Byteside Newsletter: A Weekly Curated List of 'Oooh!'

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

Tangled Webs
Games

GenCon 2019 round up with our man on the scene

This week we spoke with Jaime Lawrence, Brand Manager at Good Games, who was there on the ground at GenCon 2019.

GenCon 2019 round up with our man on the scene

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

Assorted brain food

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

Should I do a tech parenting newsletter too?
New Realities

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
Technology

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

Gogoro gets Yamaha and others on board to use its swappable EV battery platform
Games

WoW Classic landrush to reserve cool names opens on August 12

Going back to where it all began can bring with it a lot of very specific vibes someone is looking for to get their nostagia trip just right. So it'll be

WoW Classic landrush to reserve cool names opens on August 12
Technology

Attention to detail makes the TwelveSouth StayGo USB-C Hub stand out

USB-C hubs are finally starting to pick up some steam, and as the range of options grows we're seeing some well thought out (but not overcooked) versions hit

Attention to detail makes the TwelveSouth StayGo USB-C Hub stand out
Art & Culture

All-Time Classic 'Journey' Now Available on iOS

No build up. No hype. Just a wonderful sneaky release that means you can get it in your iPhones and iPads immediately. The best kind of surprise!

All-Time Classic 'Journey' Now Available on iOS