saturday riff
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The VR Revolution Is Alive And Well, It’s Just Not Ready For You
When HTC and Oculus launched their first-gen virtual reality headsets back in the spring of 2016, it felt like the beginning of a revolution. These headsets were immersive and sophisticated, unlike anything the public had seen before, and a leap forward from disasters like Nintendo’s cursed Virtual Boy. But when you fast forward three years…
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The Surprising Best Feature Of Google Home
Despite the fact that there are now somewhere around 120 million smart speakers lurking in kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms around the United States, most people do not need Google’s Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa in their lives. In fact, I thought I’d never own one of these devices, out of principle. Why, after all, would…
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I Ditched Chrome For Safari And You Can Too
Based on my best estimates, I started using Google Chrome in late 2009, not long after the beta version for OS X came out. It was awesome, fast as hell, and full of neat little tricks that felt new at the time. (Remember when searching from the address bar was a revelation?) I loved Chrome…
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Don’t Let YouTube Babysit Your Children
Image: YouTube Maybe it’s happened to you. You’re cruising around YouTube and then boom: a video of Spiderman hanging out with girls in bikinis trying to make Elsa from Frozen jealous and then the Joker appears, ready to fight. This would seem like a weird video to any sane adult. But the weirdest thing is…