Prop bet
Prop bet

Substack has updated its partnership with betting platform Polymarket, “introducing native tools that make it easier to share, discuss, and debate prediction market data directly on Substack.” Additionally, Polymarket will effectively pay “a cohort of creators,” including Matt Yglesias, to use its data though the newsletter platform’s pilot sponsorships program. This is just the latest […]

Nintendo turned its biggest flop into an expensive, uncomfortable novelty
Nintendo turned its biggest flop into an expensive, uncomfortable novelty

I’ve written about a lot of different video game hardware over the years, from new consoles to retro gadgets to whatever you want to call the Playdate. But I can’t remember ever being perpetually sore from testing a device; such are the joys of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo has turned its biggest flop into an […]

The executive that helped build Meta’s ad machine is trying to expose it
The executive that helped build Meta’s ad machine is trying to expose it

Brian Boland spent more than a decade figuring out how to build a system that would make Meta money. On Thursday, he told a California jury it incentivized drawing more and more users, including teens, onto Facebook and Instagram – despite the risks. Boland’s testimony came a day after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the […]

The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about
The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about

Maybe you’ve heard: Memory is expensive now. The price of RAM has tripled, quadrupled, even sextupled depending on the type of chip, all because AI companies are gobbling it up. But maybe you’ve thought: I don’t buy memory sticks! I don’t build my own PCs! It won’t affect me, right? I’m here to tell you […]

Mark Zuckerberg and his Ray-Ban entourage have their day in court
Mark Zuckerberg and his Ray-Ban entourage have their day in court

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg entered a downtown Los Angeles courthouse in largely the same way as all the attorneys, reporters, and advocates who’d come to watch his landmark trial testimony, but with one notable difference: he was flanked by an entourage that appeared to be wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. To get to the courtroom, […]

Ken Watanabe didn’t think a kabuki movie would work
Ken Watanabe didn’t think a kabuki movie would work

A three-hour-long period drama about kabuki, a centuries-old form of Japanese theater, doesn’t exactly sound like box office gold. But that’s exactly what happened with Kokuho. Director Lee Sang-il’s adaptation of the Shuichi Yoshida novel of the same name was a surprise hit last year, becoming Japan’s top-grossing live-action film domestically. But star Ken Watanabe […]

Are Elon Musk’s Mars plans finally coming back down to Earth?
Are Elon Musk’s Mars plans finally coming back down to Earth?

Maybe you’ve heard, but Elon Musk is apparently a Moon fan now. He has historically been the ultimate cheerleader for human missions to Mars, and as recently as last year, he said his aim was to go straight to the red planet and that the Moon was “a distraction.” Now, he has apparently changed his […]

Mark Zuckerberg is taking the stand as social media goes on trial
Mark Zuckerberg is taking the stand as social media goes on trial

Lori Schott didn’t care what it took to haul her way from her small town in Eastern Colorado to show up to a Los Angeles courtroom where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify Wednesday. “I don’t care if I had to hire a pack mule to get me here, I was going to […]

Ford is fighting against physics to build affordable EVs
Ford is fighting against physics to build affordable EVs

To say that Ford has struggled to make profitable electric vehicles would be an understatement. The company recently pulled the plug on its F-150 Lightning, a truck once heralded as the most important EV ever made, after taking a staggering $19.5 billion hit on its EV investments in 2025. A new focus on hybrids and […]

Laurie Spiegel on the difference between algorithmic music and ‘AI’
Laurie Spiegel on the difference between algorithmic music and ‘AI’

In 1986, electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel created Music Mouse, a way for those with a Mac, Atari, or Amiga computer to dabble in algorithmic music creation. Music Mouse is deceptively simple: Notes are arranged on an XY grid, and you play it by moving a mouse around. Back in 1986, the computer mouse was […]