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Bits: The Byteside Blog

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Media

Twitch just became the best Watch Party tool around

Even if you don't care about trying to build an audience, this is a great tool for just sharing a show and hanging out with friends.

Twitch just became the best Watch Party tool around

The value of uninformed consent

Everyone thought they were getting free services in exchange for ads. But if the depth of the tracking involved was truly known to make the ads so good, would we really have agreed at the start?

The value of uninformed consent

Digital culture is culture

The impacts of the digital world upon every day culture have never been greater. It's time to treat them that way.

Digital culture is culture
Games

D&D's latest rules expansion gives the race overhaul fans have been waiting for

D&D announced its latest rulebook release, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. The biggest expansion of options for the game in three years.

D&D's latest rules expansion gives the race overhaul fans have been waiting for

The End Of Infinite

Like the infinite scroll, every media form keeps chasing the ability to keep us in neverending flow of content.

The End Of Infinite

High stakes lawsuits

Epic v Apple is a very big deal.

High stakes lawsuits

Apps, clouds and platform control

Will we end up where Steve Jobs started the iPhone? With web-based apps that preserve control for those who make them beyond the borders of the App Store?

Apps, clouds and platform control

More than a business story

More tech stories in the culture pages, please.

More than a business story
Networks

Digital scarcity

Limitlessness always seems viable within a digital context. But how does it work when real people have to use it?

Digital scarcity

Some friction is good for you

the hunt for 'frictionless' interactions and interfaces misses an important fact: some friction is essential to making things that matter.

Some friction is good for you

External motivations

This week school has gone back here in NSW and while the world is still in a very difficult place with the pandemic, our kids had a pretty ‘normal’ holidays. The first since October 2019. The summer was black. Kids couldn’t play outside because of the fires. They couldn’

External motivations

Transparency is a vulnerability

Today I pulled the trigger on expanding the Byteside team, creating an opportunity to bring two paid writers on board to work with me across the site, the newsletter, the social presence, and the podcasts. I love working in a team. I’ve got a good track record of helping

Transparency is a vulnerability

Byteside is evolving: come work with us!

Byteside, the miniature media empire covering tech, games and digital culture, is adding new (and paid) opportunities to join the editorial team.

Byteside is evolving: come work with us!
Games

Hearthstone goes back to school with Scholomance Academy expansion

The key details on the latest Hearthstone expansion: Scholomance Academy! Spellbursts, Dual Class, and a living Kel'Thuzad?

Hearthstone goes back to school with Scholomance Academy expansion

Picking Your Battles

Facebook can be a place for good. It has those pockets all over its swampy landscape. Demanding it be better is more important when it’s urgent it gets on with the job of fixing runaway racism, conspiracies, and anti-scientific bloviation.

Picking Your Battles

It's over before it begins

No time for a column today, but I do want to say I’m admitting defeat in my quest to truly delete myself from Facebook. I’ve had multiple occasions over the past week where I have had professional reasons to use the service. To not be able to report

It's over before it begins

Stress fractures

If we want to truly process things, we need to slow down a little to absorb information.

Stress fractures

Clean slates

Hitting "mark all read" sometimes can be a liberating feeling.

Clean slates

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

How many straws can be the 'last' when it comes to staying on Facebook?

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

A thousand words

The big questions about facial recognition technology have been coming home to roost.

A thousand words