I just wish my Tesla Model 3 had Steam
I just want a rolling battle station. | Image: Tesla
Steam, the PC gaming platform, is making its way around town as part of Tesla’s latest holiday update. It fulfills a promise Tesla CEO Elon Musk made almost two years ago: that you’ll be able to play The Witcher 3 using the car’s built-in hardware. But unfortunately for me, I won’t get to play it, and it doesn’t look like there will be any easy path toward upgrading.
I have a 2018 Tesla Model 3, and I think I should mention it’s received plenty of upgrades over the years, including overhauled user interface, Autopilot visualizations, streaming apps, and arcade games. But in my car, all of Tesla’s fancy new software is running on the Intel Atom — a processor designed for cheap netbooks from the previous decade (Remember the Eee PC?). So it’s no surprise that my Model 3 can’t play Steam games, but I still wish it could.
Support for PC games from Steam, however, is reserved for the latest Model S and X vehicles, ones that cost about twice, if not more, than what I paid for my 3 (even with the latest discounts).
And we’re talking about only the latest of the 2022 models, as redesigned S and X vehicles from 2021 and early 2022 include the “PS5-level” graphics chips based on AMD RDNA2 but don’t have the needed 16GB of RAM.
Of course, the holiday update comes with a brand-new holiday light show that can time up with other Teslas. Also, I appreciate that Tesla brought back the swipe-able cards that conveniently show trip info and tire pressure — that was removed in last year’s introduction of software version 11, amongst other head-scratchers like removing seat heater buttons from the bottom bar.
The video also includes some technical details on what it takes for games like Cyberpunk 2077 to run at high graphics settings in a Tesla. It uses a Linux virtual machine, Steam Deck verified games, and of course, GPU acceleration from hardware I could only dream of having in my car.
Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge
Thanks for bringing the cards back, Tesla! Version 11 of the OS is finally good.
Interestingly, Model 3 and Y vehicles that started shipping this time last year came with some upgrades, too, including new infotainment computers running on AMD Ryzen chips. The new hardware, known in Tesla community circles as MCU3, shows improved performance throughout the OS — but unfortunately, they don’t come with discrete graphics needed to run many resource-heavy games offered on Steam.
There’s also no official word whether older cars with the Intel-based MCU2 (like mine) can get a retrofit, which would be awesome since apps I can run, like Netflix and the web browser, are feeling increasingly sluggish nowadays.
While the update didn’t bring me Steam, it did at least get me Apple Music — so I no longer need to pay for Spotify to listen to music directly on my slow Intel Atom-powered screen.
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Tesla behind eight-vehicle crash was in ‘full self-driving’ mode, says driver
San Francisco crash is the latest in a series of accidents blamed on Tesla technology, which is facing regulatory scrutiny
The driver of a 2021 Tesla Model S told California authorities the vehicle was in “full self-driving mode” when the technology malfunctioned, causing an eight-vehicle crash on the San Francisco Bay bridge last month.
The crash on Thanksgiving Day resulted in two juveniles being transported to hospital and led to lengthy delays on the bridge. The incident was made public in a police report on Wednesday.
TikTok banned on devices issued by US House of Representatives
Politicians ordered to delete Chinese-owned social video app that House has said represents ‘high risk to users’
TikTok has been banned from any devices issued by the US House of Representatives, as political pressure continues to build on the Chinese-owned social video app.
The order to delete the app was issued by Catherine Szpindor, the chief administrative officer (CAO) of the House, whose office had warned in August that the app represented a “high risk to users”.
This new Game Boy-inspired 8-bit game console is the size of a matchbox
Image: Arduboy | The Verge
The Arduboy Mini is the latest Game Boy-inspired handheld game console from creator Kevin Bates, the man behind the original Arduino-based 8-bit Arduboy. Measuring in at around two quarters in length (as shown in Gizmodo’s early review), this tiny gaming handheld offers many of the same benefits as the larger Arduboy despite its compact size, such as an OLED display, hundreds of open-source games, and an exposed design that encourages users to explore hardware hacking and coding.
In fact, tinkering is so encouraged that the Arduboy Mini doesn’t come with a speaker or a battery built-in. Instead, the gadget comes with clearly labeled solder contacts for both a battery and speaker located on the exposed rear of the device. Otherwise, the Arduboy Mini can be powered by a portable battery connected to the USB-C port.
The Mini features a monochromatic 128 x 64-pixel OLED screen, a 16MHz ATmega32u4 processor, and six buttons — four on the front left laid out like a directional pad and two on the right that can be used as action buttons in-game. A seventh button is also located on the rear of the device, which is used to reset the console. A library of over 300 8-bit retro-inspired games come preinstalled on the tiny console, all open-source and created by a dedicated developer community.
Image: Kevin Bates | Arduboy
The Arduboy community has developed over 300 retro-inspired 8-bit games that come pre-installed on the Arduboy Mini.
Preorders for the Arduboy Mini are currently available for $29 via an open KickStarter project, which surpassed its initial $10,000 funding goal within just 13 hours of launching on December 7th. Discounts are available when buying multiple Arduboy Mini consoles (such as a pack of ten for $240) and fulfillment isn’t expected to start until June 2023.
Google Employees Brace for a Cost-Cutting Drive as Anxiety Mounts The tech giant has so far taken steps to streamline without mass layoffs, but employees are girding for deeper cuts.
US military biometric capture devices loaded with data were sold on eBay
Image: Getty
Old US military equipment being sold on eBay contained what appears to be biometric data from troops, known terrorists, and people who may have worked with American forces in Afghanistan and other countries in the Middle East, according to a report from The New York Times. The devices were purchased by a group of hackers, who found fingerprints, iris scans, peoples’ pictures, and descriptions, all unencrypted and protected by a “well-documented” default password. In a blog post, the hackers called getting at the sensitive data “downright boring,” given how easy it was to read, copy, and analyze.
Matthias Marx, who lead the group’s efforts in researching the devices, doesn’t think that the data itself is boring, though, calling the fact that they had been able to get their hands on it “unbelievable.” Though he plans on deleting the data after the club finishes its research, what they’ve already found raises concerns about how closely the military guarded this information.
Image: Chaos Computer Club
Screenshot of the Windows XP-based UI from one of the biometric devices obtained by the Chaos Computer Club. MOBS stands for “Mission Oriented Biometric Software,” according toa presentation from the club.
That’s especially true given reports from last year that the Taliban obtained biometric devices as the US was withdrawing from Afghanistan. As several commentators have pointed out, the data that may or may not remain on the devices could help identify people who had helped American forces. The US also built biometric databases of Iraqi citizens. Talking to Wired in 2007, one US official said of the database: “essentially what it becomes is a hit list if it gets in the wrong hands.” (It’s worth noting that the devices wouldn’t necessarily let someone use the master database of Afghanistan’s population, unless they had access to additional equipment, according to The Intercept — small comfort for those whose data was stored locally on the device.)
In all, members of the Chaos Computer Club purchased six devices, which the Times says the military used around a decade ago to gather biometric info at checkpoints and during patrols, screenings, and other operations. Two of the devices — both Secure Electronic Enrollment Kits, or SEEK IIs — had information left on their memory cards. According to the hackers, one of the devices contained 2,632 peoples’ names and “highly sensitive biometric data” that appeared to have been collected around 2012.
The device only cost them $68, according to the Times. The outlet also says the company that sold it on eBay after acquiring it from an auction wasn’t aware it contained sensitive data, according to one of the employees it spoke to. Another company wouldn’t comment on how it had gotten the devices that it sold to the club. In theory, the devices should’ve been destroyed after they stopped being used.
It’s not a surprise that they’re available for sale online — decommissioned military equipment often ends up in private hands. The disconcerting part is that the data was left on at least some of them and that nobody caught it before the devices were sold on eBay (which technically constitutes a violation of the platform’s policies against selling computers with personally identifiable information). The response from the US and device vendors is also not reassuring; when contacted by the Times, the Department of Defense just requested the device be mailed back. The Chaos Computer Club says it also contacted the DoD, and was told to get in touch with the SEEK’s manufacturer, HID Global. The hackers say they didn’t receive a response.
Southwest cancels thousands of flights, leaving passengers stranded across the US
Southwest Airlines canceled over 2,600 flights on Tuesday. | Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Southwest Airlines has left thousands of travelers stranded at airports throughout the country after a winter storm barreled through most of the US before and during the holiday weekend.
While Southwest canceled over 2,600 of its flights on Tuesday, the trouble’s expected to extend well into this week, with data from Flight Aware indicating that the airline has already called off more than 2,400 flights on Wednesday and over 1,500 on Thursday. Southwest canceled nearly 3,000 flights on Monday. Other airlines with notable flight cancellations didn’t even come close to Southwest’s total, as Spirit canceled 83 flights on Tuesday, while Alaska Airlines called off 75.
Southwest uses a “point-to-point” system that has planes flying from destination to destination and picking up staff along the way. Point-to-point systems have their advantages, as they can offer direct and more affordable flights because the destinations they stop at typically have less air traffic, but flight schedules can quickly fall apart once one route gets canceled.
Other airlines, like United, use a “hub and spoke” system that has planes returning to a central hub once their route is complete. This allows airlines to cancel flights to certain locations without affecting other routes, as well as have access to additional planes and flight crews without flying them in first; something Southwest can’t do without causing a domino effect of cancellations for its other flights.
Southwest spokesperson Jay McVay said to reporters that due to the storm, “We end up with flight crews and airplanes that are out of place, and not in the cities that they need to be in to continue to run our operations,” which was echoed in a video released by CEO Bob Jordan (below).
WFAA-TV in Dallas, where Southwest is headquartered, spoke to Mark Duebner, a former director of aviation at Dallas Love Field. Duebner, who was driving to his destination due to a canceled flight, told the station that while Southwest’s system is normally very efficient with no slack, “If the crew isn’t positioned in the right spot, because of another cancellation, then that flight gets canceled, connecting flights get canceled. It just really spirals downward very quickly. It’s the combination of a perfect storm as you will.”
The mass cancellations have travelers at airports waiting in line for two or more hours to rebook their new flights, which, unfortunately, won’t occur anytime soon. A number ofpassengersreport not getting new flights until the end of this week or after the New Year, forcing them to sleep on airport floors while they wait.
Cancellations are spread out around the US, hitting major transit hubs like Denver International Airport, Chicago Midway International, and Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport. Ryan Green, Southwest’s chief commercial officer, tells the Wall Street Journal that the company will cover the costs for hotels, rental cars, and other airline tickets, and is notifying customers that they’re entitled to refunds if they don’t want to rebook their flights.
The catastrophe prompted a response from the US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who says he’s tracking the situation “closely” and will have a statement on the matter tomorrow. On Monday, the US Department of Transportation sent out a tweet, stating that it’s “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service” and that it will “examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.” Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also called for Southwest to compensate passengers for the cancellations.
In a video posted to the company’s website, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan says he reached out to Buttigieg on Tuesday to talk about what the airline was doing to help customers. He also apologized to travelers and employees, and reiterated that the company’s “highly complex” network struggled with large numbers of its airplanes and crew being put out of commission. “After days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across a busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up,” he said. You can watch his full statement below.
CEO Bob Jordan addressing Southwest’s delays.
In addition to cancellations due to the snowstorm, Southwest is also struggling with a staffing shortage in some locations. The airline declared a state of operational emergency last week at the Denver airport after receiving “an unusually high number of absences.” In a leaked memo to employees, Southwest Airlines says staff members will need a doctor’s note when calling out sick, and that it “will use mandatory overtime” to require employees to come into work or otherwise be fired. As noted by the Denver Post, Southwest spokesperson Chris Perry denied that the callouts were part of a coordinated effort from employees.
As of 17:00 ET today, Southwest canceled 71% of its 4000 scheduled flights. Tomorrow the airline has canceled 62% and Thursday 57%, so far.
“We were fully staffed and prepared for the approaching holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent, where Southwest is the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 travel markets in the U.S,” Southwest Airlines says in a statement. “As we continue the work to recover our operation, we have made the decision to continue operating a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days.”
This isn’t the only other time Southwest has experienced major operational issues. Last October, the airline contended with both staffing shortages and severe weather conditions, leading Southwest to cancel almost 3,000 flights over the course of four days. At the time, former Southwest COO Mike Van de Ven told employees that the company has “a very aggressive hiring plan” but that it still isn’t “where we want to be with staffing.” Dallas Business Journal reports CEO Bob Jordan made similar statements during an investor day presentation earlier this month, saying the company’s systems needed to be upgraded as part of a major modernization push to eventually operate 6,000 flights per day while employing 100,000 people.
Update Tuesday December 27th, 7:18PM ET:Added video from Southwest CEO Bob Jordan.
The Google Nest Hub Max is still matching its best price ever at Best Buy and Target
The Nest Hub Max is a great alternative to Amazon’s larger Echo Show devices | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Just in case Santa didn’t make it to your house this year, we’re bringing you a handful of post-Christmas content. Because unlike the big dude that lives up north, The Verge Deals team works hard all year scouring the internet to make sure its best discounts are all front and center for you to see. The discounts available right now are a bit sparse, but we’ve still managed to wrangle a handful that we think are worth looking into if you’re looking for something to treat yourself.
Currently, Google’s Nest Hub Max is still on sale at Best Buy and Target for $174.99 (normally $229.99). While it may not offer the same, room-filling sound as the Nest Audio, the Max features a gorgeous 10-inch screen with a great camera for making video calls. It also offers extensive smart home controls and offers up personalized information based on whoever is looking at the screen. Read our review.
The Nanoleaf Shapes Mini Triangles Smarter Kit is usually $119.99, but is currently discounted to $99.99 at Best Buy, and comes packaged with everything you need to set up a small area of customizable accent lighting. The bundle comes packaged with ten individual touch-activated pieces that can be programmed to display specific themes or mirror the colors on your computer monitor, allowing for a more immersive gaming experience. Just like other Nanoleaf products, the modular light panels can also be controlled using either the Nanoleaf app or voice commands via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
The Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones are discounted to $249 at Amazon and Best Buy (normally $329). Not quite their lowest price ever, but still worth checking out if you’re shopping for a relatively inexpensive pair of high-quality noise-canceling headphones. Living up to their name, the Bose headphones are remarkably comfortable, in addition to providing excellent noise cancellation. While the QuietComfort 45 headphones can’t be used while charging and lack audio support over USB-C, the solid battery life should ensure that these occasions are rare. Read our review.
You can also find Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds II discounted to the same price at Amazon and Best Buy, lowering the $299 earbuds to just $249. The QuietComfort Earbuds may lack multipoint Bluetooth support and wireless charging but still provide excellent noise cancellation and sound quality. Read our review.
If you’re running out of space on your PC or PlayStation 5, the 2TB WD Black SN850 SSD is currently available for $229.99 at Best Buy. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on this drive, which usually costs $359.99. This is a little pricey but condenses a lot of storage into a single drive, and this model comes equipped with a heatsink that makes it compatible with Sony’s PlayStation 5.
M.2 SSDs like the SN850 are much easier to install than older storage methods, allowing you to slot them into a motherboard or other device with an M.2 slot without the need for cables. SSDs also offer much faster transfer speeds than older SATA storage methods, allowing files to be moved around quickly and games to load faster.
You can also find discounts on the 1TB model at Best Buy for $154.99. The 1TB model is a good option if you need a drive with a less expensive entry fee, but the 2TB model is the best value of the bunch.
New iPad Mini could be a year away
Apple’s iPad Mini launched at the end of 2021. | Photo: The Verge
Apple is updating its iPad Mini with a new processor, says respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The inbetweener is supposed to begin shipping by the end of 2023 or the first half of 2024.
The iPad Mini received an all new design at the end of 2021 after remaining largely unchanged since it was introduced way back in 2012. The 8.3-inch tablet fits in between Apple’s largest iPhone (the 6.7-inch Pro Max) and 10th-gen iPad (10.9 inch). It runs on an A15 Bionic chip with a USB-C port and an option for 5G connectivity. Kuo says the new processor will be “the main selling point,” so we shouldn’t expect too much else to change.
The iPad Mini will certainly be ready for a chip update after two years, if Kuo’s timeline is correct. That could mean an A16 inherited from the current top-of-the-line iPhone 14 Pro, or even an M-series chip used by the iPad Air and iPad Pro. Guess we’ll find out as early as next fall when Apple usually unveils its pre-holiday lineup of hardware.
Four stories that sum up the state of tech in 2022
Crypto self-destructed (twice) and Twitter got a new, CEO-shaped main character– but what else happened this year?
Happy Betwixtmas to those who celebrate, and mournful “sorry everything fun is shut” to those who don’t. Me? I’m thankful for the one week of the year where tech news stops – or at least, slows down. (This is written in advance and I’ve got a lot riding on that sentence still being true by the time you read it).
It’s been an odd year. Even by the standards of the sector, it was just extraordinarily silly. Crypto collapsed in the dumbest possible way, twice. Elon Musk bought his way into being the main character of Twitter, for good. AI seems just on the precipice of doing away with the Ucas personal statement. Nothing is normal.
Standing for “decentralised autonomous organisation”, a DAO isn’t really in the same class as an NFT. Rather than being a singular digital asset, like a picture of a monkey or a dog-themed copy of a dog-themed copy of bitcoin, a DAO is more like a company – but one which is directly controlled by its shareholders, without the need for employees or directors.
(Although, we should note, a DAO is Not A Company and owners of DAOs are Not Shareholders, because if it were and they were, the whole thing would be wildly illegal. Glad we’ve cleared that up.)
Given what we know and expect from Russia, it’s unlikely to come as a shock that – according to data from Checkpoint Research – in the first three days of combat, cyber-attacks on Ukraine’s government and military sector went up by 196%, compared to the rest of February.
But what has been interesting to watch has been the fightback, with attacks on Russia up 4% for the week. It might not sound like much, but there has been noticeable pushback from white hat hackers, hactivist groups and others on the counterattack.
What happened was unexpected. Upon proving that I was the real Alex Hern, I was greeted with a wall of glee. One user spammed the phrase “YOUNG_HERN_IN_THE_HOUSE”, another posted “ITS_FUCKING_ALEX”. “ALEX NEXT ELON”, “ALEX SAVE OUR BAGS”… before I could even post my first real message, someone had sent “ALEX TYPING”15 times. Where my first appearance had felt like a parent breaking up an illicit house party, this felt more like the second coming, with me unwillingly cast in the role of Jesus.
Things got worse when I said I wanted to speak to people for a story about it. No matter how explicit I was that I thought the entire thing was dumb as hell – dumber than I thought was possible for an already extremely-dumb sector – news of a forthcoming article spread like wildfire. “All publicity is good publicity,” was spammed into the channel, with one user pointing out that Shiba Inu, a shitcoin worth an inexplicable $7bn, had had a very similar genesis, with the majority of its early press simply mocking it as a low-effort clone of the original shitcoin, Dogecoin.
[Elizabeth Lagone],the head of health and wellbeing policy at Mark Zuckerberg’s company was taken through a selection of the Instagram posts the teenager had viewed in the six months before her death – deeming many of them to be “safe” for children to view. It was not an opinion shared by many in the room atnorth London coroner’s court.
Molly, from north-west London, died in 2017 after viewing extensive amounts of online content related to suicide, depression, self-harm and anxiety. In what the NSPCC described as a global first, the senior coroner said social media had contributed to Molly’s death, ruling that that Molly had died from “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.
Reliance on hi-tech solutions to climate crisis perpetuates racism, says UN official
Rapporteur Tendayi Achiume says projects are at expense of marginalised groups and Indigenous peoples
The world’s reliance on hi-tech capitalist solutions to the climate and ecological crises is perpetuating racism, the outgoing UN racism rapporteur has warned.
Green solutions including electric cars, renewable energy and the rewilding of vast tracts of land are being implemented at the expense of racially and ethnically marginalised groups and Indigenous peoples, Tendayi Achiume told the Guardian in an interview.
Gary Hersham has been selling houses to the very rich for decades. At first, £1m was a big deal. Now he sells for £50m, £100m, even £200m. What does it take to stay on top in this cut-throat business?
Finding Community, and Freedom, on VRChat On any given weekend, there are dozens of parties happening on VRChat, a platform where users assume fantastical avatars of their own design.
Is A.I. the Future of Test Prep? Riiid is one of a handful of companies that believe that A.I.’s algorithms are perfectly suited to track student performance and give individualized attention.
LG’s new minimalistic appliances are also upgradeable
LG’s new lineup of minimalistic appliances is coming in 2023. | Image: LG
LG Electronics has a new lineup of minimalistic appliances that removes all unnecessary buttons and decorative flourishes in a refreshing “less is more” approach. The fridge, washing machine, dryer, oven, and dishwasher are said to feature improved controls for an “effortless” user experience.
The appliances are also upgradeable via software and hardware as part of a program LG launched in January. “Upgradeability challenges the idea that expensive appliances are designed with planned obsolescence in mind,” said Lyu Jae-cheol, president of LG Electronics home appliances at the time. “We want customers to experience the feeling of getting a new washer or refrigerator throughout the entire lifecycle of an LG appliance, not just the first time they bring the item home.” Let’s just hope LG isn’t taking a page from the automotive industry to extort money from customers in perpetuity by charging to activate basic features the appliances already come with.
Unfortunately, LG’s announcement lacks any detail like specs or pricing or dates of availability, so we’ll have to wait for CES to kick-off on January 5th to learn more.
‘Hack’ of UK cabinet minister’s Twitter account changes profile picture to Elon Musk
Education secretary Gillian Keegan’s account was completely altered, with profile picture showing Elon Musk
The Twitter account of the British education secretary appears to have been hacked. The profile picture was changed to one showing Elon Musk and several tweets were posted promoting a cryptocurrency event.
On Christmas Day the account of Gillian Keegan, the MP for Chichester, replied to a number of tweets with links to a website advertising cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and dogecoin.
Yes, I’ve got two watches on — why don’t you?
A mechanical dive watch like this Seiko SKX013 is a classically cool look, especially on a NATO strap, but there’s no reason you can’t pair it with a smartwatch and still look great.
A little over a year ago, I made the conscious decision to wear both a traditional watch on my left wrist and a smartwatch on my right wrist day in and day out. And I’m here to tell you with a straight face that this best-of-both-worlds solution has no downsides. If you’re into watches and tech or even remotely watch-curious, you should consider doing the same.
It’s easy to be a little bit anachronistic, admiring the simplicities of the past while wanting the bleeding-edge intricacies of the future. I find myself bouncing back and forth on these all of the time. I want the latest technology in my digital camera, but part of me feels an itch to go back to shooting film. I like the convenience of streaming music on Spotify, but I spend money on vinyl records to own a proper sonic keepsake. The same is the case for my love of wristwatches. For years, I’ve admired traditional watches, fancy handmade mechanicals and inexpensive quartz movements alike, but I’m still drawn to smartwatches and all of the functional advantages they offer.
A silver or black Apple Watch can match with just about anything, even a bright red see-through Casio G-Shock.
My traditional watch collection is quite modest, as I’m more the Casio and Seiko type than the Rolex and Omega type. In other words, while I appreciate the luxury stuff out there, I seek out affordable timepieces that are still fairly well made and designed and should last a long time if well taken care of. On the other hand, I also own an Apple Watch Series 6 that I bought off of my colleague Mitchell Clark shortly after I started at The Verge. While the horological folks out there might categorize most styles of watches I own as “sport” or “tool” watches, there really is nothing more sporting or tool-equipped than an Apple Watch. It’s a helpful little computer for your wrist, though frankly, it doesn’t get me excited quite like my Seiko SKX013 — which was my first automatic watch — or spark emotion in me like my dad’s old Hamilton Paxton that he left behind.
If I don’t get an occasional pop of color from my watches, then the yellow stitches on my Docs have to do all the heavy lifting.
The Apple Watch is a great work of technology and engineering, but its masterstroke comes from all of the stuff you can do with it: timers, alarms, notifications, activity and fitness tracking, and digital watchfaces you can change on the fly. Traditional watches have some of those features, like timers and alarms, but I don’t feel like I have to do much extra with a regular watch to appreciate their form and function.
Once I combined these two devices by wearing them at the same time every day, I quickly learned how perfectly they complement each other. It starts out as simply as how I’m going to dress for the day. I often swap out which traditional watch I’m using every few days or even on a daily basis depending on my mood or what I’m wearing. Sometimes I want something that blends in with my outfit (which is usually black, some gray, and occasionally white), and sometimes I want my watch to be a statement piece that really pops from my monochromatic wardrobe. You can sort of do that with an Apple Watch on its own since there is a litany of strap options and watchfaces available, but it’s not the same as traditional watches that have wholly different shapes, sizes, textures, and materials from one to another.
With unique watches like this all-metal G-Shock, you get cool features like a solar-powered movement that you just don’t get with most smartwatches. So why not wear and appreciate both?
However, by combining the unique qualities of my traditional watch opposite my Apple Watch, I feel like I can come up with small ensembles that lend me a bit of added confidence in my personal style and leave me feeling more comfortable in my own skin.
Now, you may ask: is that the clothes or is it the watches? I’d argue it’s both. Each of my traditional timepieces has a small connection to me in terms of design and style, so if I didn’t wear a watch or only stuck with a smartwatch, I’d lose out on that little bit of personal flair.
This is my first main pitch to you for why I think more people should try out this double-wrist combination — accessorizing is just a whole lot of fun. Finding your personal style is essential to a lot of people’s confidence and overcoming personal anxieties, and even if it helps a tiny bit, it’s worth it. The other primary reason why you should try double-wristing is that it teaches you to settle into appreciating the things you’re into in a slightly more casual manner.
Okay, I know, I own a lot of G-Shocks. They’re affordable and so dang fun.
For example, all of us that wear Apple Watches or other smartwatches are often familiar with battery anxiety. My 44mm Series 6 dies in about a day and a half, but it rarely phases me. It’s barely a minor inconvenience because, while it’s charging, I’ve still got my regular watch on the opposite wrist. In fact, I rarely ever charge my Apple Watch overnight, which is the usual routine for many people. I let it track my sleep — because why not — and just plop it on the charger at any point in the day when it buzzes about a low battery. This practice may sound chaotic to some, but to me, it helps me mostly not care too much about the battery life of one more device in my life. If it dies, it dies. I’ll get to charging it soon enough and have no problem being a bit blasé about it.
These casual feelings have also helped me not get too bent out of shape over the inevitable dents and dings my watches pick up. In fact, when I bought my Apple Watch from Mitchell, I was aware that it already had led a very Pacific Northwest life — it had a bunch of small scuffs and a long scratch across its screen, which I assume happened while running away from a bear trying to steal Mitchell’s fancy trail mix or something. Buying a well-loved timepiece for a good deal is a great way to help you overcome that initial anxiety of putting the first scratch on it, and since my wrists have a tendency to make unscheduled appointments with the door frames in my house, it’s just best that I don’t fret. Patina and wear and tear are cool anyway, right?
Watches are important keepsakes for a reason. My father’s old manual-wind Hamilton still works like a charm, and when I wore it on my wedding day, it was a small way of making him a part of it. I usually reserve it for special occasions.
Keeping my relationships casual with my timepieces (and any device I own, really) is often best, as I have a tendency to be a little too hardcore about some of the things I care about most. When someone asks me about my cameras or my fountain pens or my love of Dr. Martens boots, I have a tendency to come on a little strong and overshare my passion for these things — I’m working on that. But that brings me to what may be my most important point about the double wristwatch ensemble: you think you’ll look like a weird nerd, but the truth is, most people do not care. Not one iota. Like, nobody else gives a shit. Trust me.
Most people don’t give a shit about your expensive camera, either, by the way, unless they’re just as big of a nerd as you. Ditto for wearing two watches.
Just like when you go out looking your best and nobody comments on how cool or pretty or handsome you look that day, if you’re doing this for other people, you’re doing it wrong. You have to do it all for yourself because that’s the opinion that matters most. You’ll think wearing two watches will paint you as some weirdo, but even if and when people actually notice enough to make a comment, it’s so low on their list of concerns that they probably won’t give it much more thought or attention after that. You can give them a long explanation, sort of like I’m doing here, as to all the advantages of wearing two watches, but most conversations will play out like this:
“Oh, are you wearing two watches?”
“Yeah, a regular watch and a smartwatch.”
“Why?”
“I like it.”
“Oh okay, cool.”
And whether they think it’s actually cool doesn’t really matter. It matters that you think it’s cool, or that you like the way it makes you feel about yourself, or that you like being able to tell the time with a small flick of either wrist because it’s helpful when you’re working on something and you’ve got your hands full but you gotta know the time because someone’s asking or... — I digress.
On the off chance that someone asks you about your duo of watches and they actually do care, it’s probably because they’re into this stuff, too, and it will instead spark a beautifully nerdy conversation about watches or tech or both. In my experience, this is more likely than any snide remarks or perplexed stares of confusion.
The Casio F91W may be my most inexpensive watch, but that doesn’t stop me from cherishing it like few others — even opposite a pricey Apple Watch.
I really don’t feel there is much stigma over wearing two watches. Hell, the late CEO of The Swatch Group, Nicolas Hayek, was known for wearing a half-dozen or more watches at any given time. There isn’t much stigma over wearing a traditional watch at all, really, even though we live in a world that in some ways has evolved past them entirely. So try it out. Bust out that old Timex or Swatch someone gave you as a kid or start with a classically geeky Casio calculator watch. Why not? (Okay, fine, the calculator watch might be a little redundant with a smartwatch.) Get out of your comfort zone if you have to, and instead of choosing between tech and tradition, choose both. Life’s too short to make decisions about yourself or your own sense of self based on what others may think or care about.
Cadillac Lyriq review: the Cadillac of EVs
Cadillac finally made an electric vehicle, and it’s great.
Cadillac’s first electric vehicle is the Lyriq, a smooth, sumptuous 312-mile range compact SUV for $64,000 with a focus on comfort over sportiness. But what’s with those door handles?
When something is referred to as “the Cadillac of” its particular category, it usually means it’s the best of the best. That’s because, for decades, Cadillac was the rare American brand willing to go toe-to-toe (wheel-to-wheel?) with the more dominant German brands in competition for luxury car shoppers. (Ask your grandparents, kids.) And while those brands have occasionally outsold Cadillac, the Detroit automaker has won the lexiconic battle by becoming synonymous with style, class, and excellence.
Which brings us to the Cadillac of electric vehicles, the Lyriq. (Pronounced like “lyric.”) Does the brand’s first EV merit the designation? Of course it does — because it’s a literal Cadillac. What a stupid question. But is it the best of the best?
Perhaps a more important question to ask is whether it’s reasonable to expect a world-class EV from Cadillac right out of the gate. A brand’s first electric vehicle is supposed to set the stage for what’s to come. But it can also be a bit rough around the edges, serving as a mishmash of ideas and concepts that may not be fully fleshed out. (See: Leaf, Nissan.)
In that respect, the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq is a beguiling preview of the iconic brand’s future as an all-electric company. It’s comfortable and luxurious but never sporty. Availability remains a major obstacle — Cadillac has already announced that the 2023 model is sold out — but that’s the bitter truth for most EVs these days.
Overall, the Lyriq is a long-legged, compellingly priced, sumptuously appointed EV draped with enough high-tech features to make any Tesla owner reconsider their life choices.
The Lyriq is already sold out, which is a drag.
Drive (and charge) my car
For the 10 days I had the Lyriq, I was able to take it on a 350-mile road trip of mostly highway driving with a few gravelly back roads through New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. I also used it for normal daily driver stuff: shopping, errands, school pickups. My kids put their muddy shoes on the white leather upholstery (sorry, Cadillac). The temperature hovered around 30–40 degrees Fahrenheit during the course of my testing: cold but not so cold as to seriously degrade the battery.
The drive quality was everything I’d expect from a Cadillac: smooth, frictionless, whisper quiet, with plenty of hustle. This was my first Ultium driving experience, and I found it to be really nice, if not particularly notable. The Lyriq glides over roads of various surface quality with ease. The version I had was a single-motor RWD, which has better range but not as much oomph as the dual-motor all-wheel drive Lyriq that’s expected to go on sale next year.
The acceleration was delightful — as is typically the case for an EV — without the same neck-snapping, eye-watering intensity of a Performance-equipped Tesla. The RWD motor emits 340 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque, which is on par with other RWD EVs. If it comes out next year, the AWD version promises 500hp and 450 lb-ft of torque.
A quick note about Super Cruise: the Lyriq I tested did not have it, which was a bummer. I was eager to put GM’s hands-free highway driving assistant to work, but according to GM, the Lyriq won’t be getting it for a few more months: after its first over-the-air software update rolls out. If you must have Super Cruise now, you can get it in the decidedly not luxurious Chevy Bolt EV.
The Lyriq is the first Cadillac to be built on GM’s new flexible Ultium architecture, which is being used to power the automaker’s next-generation lineup of EVs, including the Hummer EV and Chevy Silverado EV. Even on those gravelly back roads, the Lyriq gripped the road with seemingly every ounce of its 5,688 pounds of curb weight. That’s right in between a 2022 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV, which is incredible when you consider that the Lyriq is a whole 12 inches shorter and 15 inches more compact than the Escalade. But it’s on par with similarly sized EVs like the BMW iX and Audi E-tron.
Where does the Lyriq hide all of that extra girth, you ask? In the battery, of course! There are 102kWh of electrons percolating under those floorboards, similar to comparably priced EVs from the luxury German brands. The Lyriq’s Ultium battery electronics are incorporated directly into the modules, which GM says eliminates nearly 90 percent of the battery pack wiring as compared to other EVs.
In my 350-mile road trip with the Lyriq, I logged 2.7 miles per kWh, which should translate to about 275.4 miles of range given the 102kWh battery. (The Lyriq’s very good instrument cluster gives you efficiency ratings for up to three trips.) But according to the EPA, the Lyriq’s estimated range is closer to 312 miles, which I assume you can get from slower, less complicated driving in slightly warmer weather. At one point, I started with the battery at 90 percent, and after an approximate 190-mile jaunt on highways and backroads, that dropped to 22 percent.
I won’t regale you with another woeful tale of non-Tesla EV charging failure and regret (so, so many broken chargers) except to note that the Lyriq’s fast-charging capabilities sound great on paper, but seeing it in action took some work.
At one charging stop using an EVgo fast charger, it took nearly 40 minutes with a maximum charging rate of 83kW to go from 49 percent to 80 percent on the battery. Another DC fast-charging experience took nearly two hours with a maximum charging rate of 80kW to get the Lyriq from 10 percent to 90 percent. Again, much of this is a function of receiving less energy than advertised — the Lyriq can charge up to 190kW, but I was unable to find a charger that could deliver such speeds.
On a Level 2 home charger, the Lyriq’s 19.2kW AC charging capability allows it to recoup 52 miles of range per hour, which is how most owners are likely to charge their vehicle. That translates to five hours to bring it to a full charge when parked in your garage.
The interior is clean and functional without leaning too far toward minimalism.
Shine bright like a diamond
Maybe you’ve noticed, but EV headlights can be super gimmicky: pixelated light squares, cheap plasticky light bars, whatever the hell Elon Musk was thinking with the Cybertruck. The front of the vehicle has become a weird new sandbox in which designers are throwing a lot of stuff around to see what sticks.
Cadillac is not immune to this trend, but here’s the thing: it works. The diamond-cut pattern on the faux grille is unique and flattering, unlike so many Cadillac grilles that look like a sheer cliffside. The main lines, which descend from the angular headlights and meet in the middle of the grille, are meant to evoke a motorsport checkered flag (but I didn’t really see it). Cadillac is reportedly working on other unique grille patterns to help differentiate various trim levels.
The rear lights are equally impressive, reaching up and along the side of the vehicle until they are parallel with the C pillar. It’s a nifty trick that also has the advantage of making the Lyriq more visible in profile. Locking or unlocking the vehicle sends the red lights flowing across the rear of the vehicle to meet in the center.
At that center is a rather chunky-looking Cadillac logo. It took me a second of searching around the license plate trying to find the latch to open the trunk before I realized the logo was it. Pressing it makes the trunk open automatically. To quote Doug DeMuro, not a bad quirk and feature.
The Lyriq is basically the same size as the Cadillac XT5, with a long wheelbase and 22-inch wheels. It feels like a longer car thanks to its ample hood line. That said, there’s no front storage space, which will be disappointing to all the frunk lovers out there.
Which brings me to the door handles. I can’t really wrap my head around why Cadillac opted for these particular door handles. The paddles, which are flush against the vehicle, improve aerodynamics, sure. But the design makes opening the door a two-step process: push the paddle, and then pull the door open using an L-shaped part attached right below the window. It’s a befuddling decision and clear evidence that automakers are overthinking some of their designs in the shift to electrification. There’s no phone-based locking or unlocking mechanism, so you’re stuck with the weird handle.
Why Cadillac, why?
Get into my car
Visibility from the driver’s seat was just okay; I found myself wishing the rear end of the Lyriq didn’t slope down at such an angle. As it is, the rear windshield was pretty squat and could stand to be much taller. It didn’t make it harder to see out the back necessarily, but it left me wanting more. Otherwise, the Lyriq’s greenhouse was ample, with obvious assistance from the panoramic glass roof. I’m not saying there were Escalade levels of headroom, but the glass roof certainly lent it that appearance.
The interior is plush, comfortable, and inviting. The absence of a transmission tunnel means there’s more space for a cantilevered center console, which extends forward between the front seats with open air below. The storage area underneath is lined in brilliant blue leather, the same material that can be found inside a neat little drawer that pops out above.
There’s an adequate number of USB-C ports (three in all), though they’re sometimes in awkward places. There’s a slot in the center console where you can stick your phone for wireless charging. I wanted to like it — it’s arguably more secure than all of those wireless charging pads, for example — but if you have any kind of cover on your phone, it makes it difficult to get it out. No one wants to have to play tug-of-war with their car’s wireless phone charging slot.
The Lyriq has 28 cubic feet of cargo space behind its rear seats and 60.8 cubic feet with those seats folded. That’s about average for an electric SUV. The cargo area is narrow but deep, and there’s ample space for carry-on bags, boxes, or the occasional large item. There’s also an additional compartment under the floor of the cargo area for charging equipment and other odds and ends.
Now, we get to the part where I gush about the screen. First impression: it’s huge. Thirty-three inches of floating LED infotainment. That’s nearly three feet of screen, almost stretching the entire length of the dashboard pillar to pillar. It’s also one piece of glass featuring three different displays: the main display; the instrument cluster; and a small third display to the left of the instrument cluster (where you can find the aforementioned trip details).
As gorgeous as it was, the user experience left a little to be desired. While not as ostentatious as Mercedes’ Hyperscreen experience, it did still require too much swiping and searching for it not to be a distraction to some drivers. As with all screens these days, it’s recommended to orient yourself before you start driving, find the features you’re likely to use most, and do your best to build that muscle memory right out of the gate.
Cadillac made the right choice by integrating native Google apps, like Maps, Assistant, and the Play Store for media. I used CarPlay less in the Lyriq because I preferred the big full-screen navigation of its native Google Maps. The Wi-Fi hotspot worked great — I was able to do work from my laptop during a couple of protracted charging sessions — and lo and behold, there’s a line of physical buttons underneath the screen controlling the Lyriq’s HVAC system. You love to see it.
The gear stalk to the right of the steering wheel took a full minute to figure out, but once I did, I liked it. A lovely knob on the center console provides an additional way to toggle between menus on the infotainment display that doesn’t involve tapping and swiping. There’s even a cool little silver scroll wheel for volume control. The material matched the delightfully tactile silver knobs on the vents that controlled the airflow. I can’t overstate how comforting it is to have a bevy of physical knobs and buttons in a modern EV. More of this, please!
The Lyriq’s seats were comfy and included massage functions that provided needed relief on long drives. Speakers embedded in the headrest are a nice addition to the AKG sound system found throughout the vehicle. There are 19 speakers in total, including some dime-shaped ones right above your head to capture voice commands. Google Assistant is Google Assistant. It worked fine for simple things, like navigation, but lacked the ability to control the vehicle’s HVAC and other controls.
This is about as close as you’ll get to a Lyriq for a while.
Should you?
The Lyriq is a welcome addition to the luxury EV market. And at a starting price of $62,990 for the RWD version I tested ($64,990 for the AWD version), it certainly makes a strong case for itself when compared to pricier offerings from BMW, Mercedes, and Tesla.
But will you actually be able to find a Lyriq for that price? Lol, of course not. Even the cheapest of EVs are selling for thousands of dollars above their asking price. Demand is skyrocketing and supply is scant, so it’s best not to harbor any illusions about driving your brand-new sticker-price Lyriq off the lot in the near future.
That said, Cadillac is accepting reservations for the 2024 model. If you can’t wait that long, then you might want to consider a BMW iX, a Genesis G80, or a Mercedes-Benz EQE. But if the Lyriq sounds like music to your ears, then it’s time to get in line.
Every year I look back at my Product of the Week choices and pick what I think made the most significant impact on my life as the Product of the Year. There were a lot of contenders this year, which I will cover, but I want to lead with why I'm calling out BlackBerry. The post Standout Tech Products of 2022 appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
An A.I. Pioneer on What We Should Really Fear “Some people naïvely think if we teach A.I. ‘Don’t kill people while maximizing paper-clip production,’ that will take care of it,” says Yejin Choi.
Did a Fourth Grader Write This? Or the New Chatbot? Don’t be surprised if you can’t always tell. Neither could two teachers, a professor, nor even the renowned children’s author Judy Blume.
A love letter for the original Steam Link: I regret taking you for granted
Poor experiences with the Steam Link app and Cloud gaming services have left me yearning for the now-outdated Steam Link dongle. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
Back in 2018 I managed to nab a physical Steam Link when Valve was flogging them for £2.50 here in the UK ($2.50 in USD). I was actually buying a Steam Controller for my then-partner and spotted the bargain while browsing through the Steam website, so I purchased the gadget on a whim. That little black puck has since left such a good impression on me that every alternative service has paled in comparison.
The Steam Link is fairly straightforward. It’s a wireless box-shaped dongle that plugs into your TV’s HDMI port, allowing you to stream games directly from your PC over your home internet connection. I had great success using it over Wi-fi, seeing barely any detectable lag, but you could also connect the device directly to your network via ethernet for a more stable connection. It even has three USB 2.0 ports for you to hook up wired controllers, mice, keyboards, or headsets in case you don’t have the luxury of owning a load of wireless peripherals.
Image: Valve
Having all those ports allowed me to crack out the old, wired gaming controllers for couch co-op when friends were over. Bliss.
I’ve had access to both a computer and various gaming consoles over the years, so I’ve never considered having an allegiance to either side of the PC vs console debate. But there are some titles that just feel better to play sitting on a couch with a controller. The physical Steam Link gave me the best of both worlds: I could play The Witcher 3 or Skyrim with all of my mods enabled from the comfort of my living room, or walk over to my bedroom to play World of Warcraft directly on the same PC.
The aforementioned ex-partner got the Steam Link when we split, by which point Valve had discontinued the gadget and removed its listing from its Steam platform for good. The Steam Link app was released on Android as its replacement in 2018 (later followed by a version for iOS in 2019,) and can be downloaded directly onto most smart TVs. It functions similarly to the original Steam Link and, on paper, offers some advantages over the now obsolete box (such as regular software updates, and support for 4K streaming where the Steam Link was capped at 1080p). But I’ve still experienced numerous connectivity issues and abysmal latency while using it – and now I’m yearning for the dongle again.
Image: Alice Newcome-Beill
The Steam Link app allows you to remotely adjust settings and controls, but I find it constantly crashes if I spend too long in the Steam app menu.
For example, on the days when it does work, the stream randomly freezes or crashes (despite having a solid internet connection) and the input lag is so unbearable that I usually abandon efforts and begrudgingly play on my PC directly. Some days the app randomly disconnects from my PC or refuses to load, forcing me to delete and then re-install it on my TV. These are all issues I never experienced with the original Steam Link hardware — it worked effortlessly every time it was plugged in.
I have better internet speeds and a more stable Wi-Fi connection than I once did. My Philips OLED TV is less than two years old. My current ethernet-connected gaming computer is more powerful and is even closer to both my router and television than it was when I used the Steam Link hardware. I’ve checked every relevant parameter and connection, and by all accounts, the Steam Link app should work. And yet it doesn’t.
Other services haven’t lived up to my previous streaming experience either. The GameStream feature on my Nvidia Shield TV (which works similarly to the Steam Link app) came pretty darn close, but Nvidia recently announced that it plans to discontinue the service in February 2023. Nvidia now points users towards its cloud gaming platform GeForce Now (with which I’ve personally experienced middling performance, despite paying for the Priority tier) or, frustratingly, the Steam Link app. I’ve also found other cloud streaming platforms like Google Stadia to be effectively unplayable due to latency. While cloud gaming tech is neat, it’s not yet a viable replacement for hardware like the Steam Link.
Image: Nvidia
I get mixed results with Nvidia’s GeForce Now service, but the GamesStream feature for Nvidia Shield was near perfect. Sadly, that service is being shut down in February 2023.
Outside of hunting for used Steam Link listings online, there are two solutions left. One is to hook my TV directly to my router via an ethernet cable. That’s likely to solve at least some of the connectivity problems, but it’s slightly infuriating that I never had to do the same for the physical Steam Link. It worked perfectly on my then-slower Wi-Fi connection over a much greater distance, and I didn’t have to drag cables around my living room.
The other (more drastic) solution would be to fork out a stack of cash for a small, dedicated PC for my TV, such as an Intel NUC. I’m only half considering that since that could cost over a thousand dollars, and I already have a perfectly serviceable gaming PC in another room. At the end of the day, that’s an awful lot of money to spend in order to replicate an experience that once cost me less than a cup of coffee.
Valve’s reasoning for discontinuing the dongle is sound — its 1080p ceiling would have eventually rendered it obsolete, and the software version can be used on non-HDMI devices. Still, I’m far from the only person experiencing similar discontent with the app. Reddit threads still regularly request help with troubleshooting issues, while other users have compared their experiences using the two Steam Link versions to see which offered better performance.
Despite the imminent shutdown of Google Stadia, many companies have also worked hard to push cloud gaming to consumers this year. Gaming Chromebooks have been released that come with Nvidia’s GeForce Now service preinstalled for example, and Xbox Cloud Gaming is eventually making its way onto Meta Quest VR headsets. Streaming games from the cloud is brilliant when it works, but for folks like myself, it simply isn’t a viable alternative to LAN-based game streaming yet. Until cloud gaming truly becomes the exciting frontier these companies promise, nothing will top that 1080p dongle.
What keeping a bullet journal taught me about using to-do list apps
An example from the official Bullet Journal YouTube channel of how to lay out daily tasks. | Image: Bullet Journal
On July 6th of this year, I officially ended my three-year-long experiment with trying to organize my life using a physical bullet journal. I know the exact date because I’m looking at my discontinued notebook as I write this. Apparently, five months ago, I needed to take photos of the Corsair K70 keyboard for a then-forthcoming review and follow up with a quote I’d received to insulate my roof. I took the photos. I did not end up insulating my roof.
Since then, I’ve used the notebook for jotting down things to remember here and there, but when it comes to keeping track of daily tasks and chores, I’ve switched back to the same hodgepodge of different note-taking and to-do list apps that I used three years ago. These include Notion for longform notes and lists, Apple Notes when I need something instantly, and Todoist for to-do lists and reminders. But although I’ve ditched the physical notebook for apps, I don’t think bullet journals are a waste of time. In fact, I think my experiment taught me an important lesson about how to stay organized digitally.
Bullet journals can be either physical or virtual (such as with this Notion template), but they’re best known as a way to organize a blank notebook into a personal planner. There are page formats for your yearly, monthly, and daily tasks, a methodology for weaving your to-do list between them, and a series of common symbols and notation to make sense of it all. Ultimately, it’s all in service of giving you a format to design your own planner and flexible rules for how to use it.
There’s a lot of potential complexity, and people like to lay them out in different ways, but my basic approach each day was to write out my list of tasks, manually copy over anything incomplete from previous days (aka “migrate” them), and tick each task off as the day progressed. Some people like to copy over tasks on a weekly or monthly basis, but daily was what worked for me.
The bullet journal’s core is practical, but I was also drawn in by the aesthetics. YouTubeisfilledwithvideos of people painstakingly laying them out, filling them with delicate illustrations and little visual elements they slowly fill up over the course of the year. I dreamed of having a small notebook filled with neat handwriting and maybe a sketch or two, like the ones Naughty Dog has its protagonists carry in its games. I imagined my bullet journal as being as much of a scrapbook of my daily life as it was an organizer.
The reality of my truly terrible handwriting meant this never really came to pass, but that didn’t stop my notebook from becoming a half-decent planner. Important emails got jotted down rather than being marked as unread, upcoming articles got categorized with deadlines and priority levels, and I assigned apartment chores to myself on a regular schedule rather than a chaotic ad hoc basis.
But most important was that all of this was being done manually, rather than having an app’s internal logic whisk tasks to and fro. Every morning, I’d be forced to spend a couple of minutes writing out and prioritizing the day’s tasks — and reckoning with what I’d failed to do yesterday. You’d be amazed at how quickly you get around to doing a nonurgent task after forcing yourself to write it out every day for a week. Other times, I realized something that seemed super urgent when I first wrote it down wasn’t worth going through with when I looked back at it the following day.
Having to write each task out manually turned a to-do from something I could just file away in an app and forget about into something that I had to manage on a daily basis. I had to actively prune and prioritize and think about those chores that past Jon had lumbered present Jon with. Did I really need to buy a replacement pair of suit trousers with no formal events on the immediate horizon? And isn’t it time I let that terrible blog post idea go? In each case, forcing myself to just think about what was on my list inevitably kept it more manageable.
It wasn’t that I grew tired of the writing, but eventually, I got sick of having to carry around a physical notebook. A friend would remind me about a film I wanted to watch while we were in the pub, and I’d have to note it down in a notes app before transcribing it into my physical notebook later. Or I’d be passing a grocery store on the way home and not have my physical shopping list with me. Eventually, the allure of keeping things digital on my phone and with me at all times grew too strong.
What I’ve since realized, however, is that it’s perfectly possible to keep lots of the things I liked about keeping a bullet journal without sacrificing the convenience of apps. Ultimately, what I liked about the notebook was less about its physicality and more about the fact that it forced me to spend real time actively thinking about and organizing my life on a daily basis. And that’s something that’s just as possible to do with an app as it is with a notebook. You just have to avoid thinking the technology can organize it for you.
Image: Todoist
Todoist is my current app of choice.
Now, instead of spending time writing out tasks each day, I instead take a spin through Todoist, pruning out old tasks, changing due dates on others, and generally trying to keep things neat. I don’t have to fight against my terrible handwriting, and I always have my phone on me when I need to jot something down for later. I can still benefit from the streamlined interface, but rather than filing and forgetting a task, I force myself to keep track of it.
And although I don’t think I’ll ever find an app as aesthetically pleasing as a YouTuber’s bullet journal, that doesn’t mean I have to give up on nice designs entirely. I like the options Notion has here, allowing you to customize pages with elements like cover photos and emoji. It’s enough to encourage me to start thinking of it as an ever-evolving scrapbook rather than a utilitarian collection of documents.
It’s easy to think that an app or to-do list service will take you by the hand and organize your life for you, but if you’re not careful, it can just become an infinite digital locker with a messy collection of notes filed under “forget.”
I’m still tempted to give physical journaling another go at some point, especially after scanning through a couple of beautiful bullet journal illustrations in the process of writing this piece. But for now, I’m happy enough to be back on the apps. They’re far from the perfect solution, but I’ve learned that you get as much out of them as you’re prepared to put in.
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