Creator

The Oatmeal’s creator says his new game is a way to ‘play the comic’

The creator of The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman, released a new cat-themed mobile word game called Kitty Letter earlier this week that feels like playing one of his irreverent comic strips. That feeling was intentional, Inman told me. “My comics have always been rhetorical,” he said. “You don’t interact with the comic, you have no say… Read more

Acast acquires RadioPublic to become the biggest podcasting company in the US

Acast, a podcast host and ad network, is looking to improve its tech and broaden its reach. The company announced today that it’s acquiring RadioPublic for an undisclosed amount with the goal of using RadioPublic’s tech to bring more creators to the Acast platform and make inroads in the US market. RadioPublic’s podcast app will… Read more

YouTube won’t reopen remaining creator Spaces as company shifts to new model

YouTube’s permanent Spaces locations, which were designed to offer resources and networking opportunities to its creators, won’t reopen after the pandemic, the company has confirmed. Instead, YouTube says it’s shifting to a hybrid model that will combine pop-up locations with virtual events. The Spaces that won’t be re-opening are in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New… Read more

Nyan Cat is being sold as a one-of-a-kind piece of crypto art

Nyan Cat turns 10 this year, and to mark the occasion, a one-of-a-kind edition of the iconic GIF is going up for auction. Chris Torres, the artist behind Nyan Cat, has remastered the original animation and will be selling it through the crypto art platform Foundation. The auction begins at 1PM ET today and will… Read more

The 20 biggest announcements from today’s Nintendo Direct

For the first time in over a year, Nintendo hosted a full-fledged Direct presentation. The latest presentation was focused mostly on games slated to hit Nintendo’s hybrid gaming console, the Switch, sometime during the first half of 2021, though there were a few announcements for games that will hit later than that. The nearly hour-long… Read more

Apple won’t have to allow App Store alternatives on iOS after North Dakota bill fails

A North Dakota bill that would have drastically altered the way app store operators like Apple and Google manage their digital marketplaces has failed to garner enough votes, failing in the state senate by an 11-36 vote on Tuesday, according to North Dakota House of Representatives member Karla Rose Hanson. The bill, SB 2333, stirred… Read more

Corsair grows its roster of streaming brands with Visuals by Impulse

Today, gaming peripheral brand Corsair is announcing that it has purchased streaming visuals company Visuals by Impulse (VBI), which it’s organizing under its other streaming brand, Elgato. If reading that makes your eyes cross, don’t worry — all it means is that some of the biggest names in streaming technology have come together under Corsair’s… Read more

Audio-Technica Creator Pack Review

Introduction In terms of equipment, several roads are available once you’ve decided to launch a career as a content creator. The general idea is to gear up with a solid pair of headphones and, more importantly, a great microphone, which will make you sound pleasant to your listeners or viewers. Poor microphone quality is a… Read more

Can anyone moderate podcasts?

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Apple, Spotify, and the impossible problem of moderating shows When former White House adviser-turned-podcaster Steve Bannon called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray, the tech platforms reacted. Twitter, YouTube, and Spotify all banned him and his podcast relatively quickly, cutting off access… Read more

Sony KD-75ZH8

Our Verdict The ZH8 does a lot of things seriously well, but it makes less sense as a purchase than rival models from Samsung For Bright and punchy picture Superb colours and motion Impressive sound Against Blooming around bright highlights Plays even less 8K than rivals Missing some HDMI features With the dearth of real… Read more

Epic’s new MetaHuman tool lets you craft realistic faces inside a browser

Epic Games has announced a new, browser-based software tool powered by its Unreal Engine called the MetaHuman Creator that can craft highly realistic human faces and help power more realistic body movements and facial animations. Epic provided a sneak peek at the platform today in a pair of YouTube videos showing off examples of creations… Read more

Turn Your Raspberry Pi Into a Motorola Droid-like Handheld PC

Home News (Image credit: Rahmanshaber) Do you miss phones with slide-out keyboards? Can you pretend you miss them long enough to hear about a cool Raspberry Pi project? Ok, great, because there’s a new open-source handheld computer project that basically turns your Raspberry Pi (or similar board like the Pine H64 Model B or the… Read more

The original Barcode Scanner app, seemingly mistaken for malware, is getting review-bombed

One of the first Android apps — ZXing Team’s Barcode Scanner, an app that predates the first official release of Android itself — is currently getting review-bombed on the Google Play Store. Hundreds of users are leaving 1-star reviews claiming a recent update spews unwanted ads, while nearly 200 more have come to the app’s… Read more

3D audio could be the next big podcast trend

Companies looking to make a name in podcasting have mostly done so by spending lots of money on flashy names, big acquisitions, and valuable content libraries. But increasingly, the audio itself, and the recording techniques used to capture it, are becoming the selling point. Today, iHeart Media announced that it’s investing in binaural audio, also… Read more

New trailers: The Nevers, Pacific Rim: The Black, Moxie, and more

So I watched the latest episode of Servant and can’t decide whether it’s the slow pacing or the suspension of disbelief (how long can Julian and Sean keep up the plot’s central ruse before they do real damage to Dorothy?) keeping it from being genuinely frightening. I won’t spoil the latest episode, but it feels… Read more