Culture

Its Android app is testing a new feature that’ll warn users before replying to old posts or posts from people they don’t follow, asking them to make a great first impression.

Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko says the goal is to “curb unnecessary negativity” that’s common on the internet. Mastodon is your new think before you reply coach.

Last night, a friend pointed me to Radio Garden. The site (or iOS app) is simple, presenting a swipe-able digital Earth covered in green dots. Some represent collections of local stations, and some, like the lonely, all-shellac-78s Arctic Outpost AM1270, solemnly broadcast into the Earth’s farthest reaches.

James did a good job documenting the unexpectedly simple, nostalgic joy of Radio Garden in his Verge story years ago.

After 15 years of Android, Google’s blog post walking down memory lane didn’t do much for me beyond one note about 2017’s Android 8 (Oreo) launch and the big emoji problem that was so important that CEO Sundar Pichai got involved.

For some reason, the Android 8.0 emoji for cheeseburger and beer had some odd mistakes (the originals are on top, see if you can spot the differences) that were fixed a few months later with the release of Android 8.1.

UploadVR spotted a “coming soon” listing for VRChat, the virtual reality social platform, in the app store for the ByteDance-owned Pico 4 headset.

I wonder if that Four Seasons Total Landscaping hangout is still around.

We haven’t updated this timeline of ill-fated celebrity “creative directors” for tech companies in several years, but something about today’s calorie-free Paris Hilton / X announcement really cements my belief that we’re just reliving 2015 on the internet in every way.

In a galaxy far, far, away, jazz doesn’t exist. Instead, when you want to really blow on that horn you’re jizzing or jatzing. As AVClub recently noted, both words have technically been used to describe the musical stylings of the Star Wars universe over the years, with jizz gaining in popularity for extremely obvious reasons.

But in a recent short story collection based around Return of the Jedi characters, Max Rebo, the blue alien front man for the band that plays at Jabba the Hutt’s palace thinks back to other times he’s performed “jatz standards”. That means jatz is the official Disney-approved name for the music.

Wookiepedia, meanwhile, continues to embrace jizz.

Consumers, states, and the FTC are taking marketing claims from wellness companies more seriously — and, increasingly, there are legal consequences.

The lawsuits come as online promoters move from endorsing other companies’ products to creating and pushing their own. Meanwhile regulators are looking more closely at influencer marketing, which is expected to exceed $21 billion this year, according to an industry report.

Writer, comedian and YouTuber Demi Adejuyigbe had a long-running bit of increasingly elaborate videos for September 21, featuring an edit of the Earth, Wind and Fire song. You can relive them today!

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Perhaps you’ve seen them: two girls, one wordlessly mixing a drink while the other one snacks. Why don’t they talk?

Honestly, the internet is too loud. The feed is too loud. TikTok is too loud. I’m scrolling and I just want everyone to shut the fuck up.

Turns out it’s still possible to have mystique on social media.

The iconic Phil Collins song has been reworked with “football centric verses” from Snoop; the all-important drums are being played by legendary touring drummer Cindy Blackman Santana. Incredible quotes from the USA Today story about the project as well:

— “Collins gave his blessing to the project once he had assurances it would not replace the “MNF” theme song – “the four notes,” as those on the creative content team call it.”

— “Snoop was responsible for seven different rap sections that take about 17 seconds total.”

— “The anthem will play before every ESPN game aside from the Week 4 London game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons (on ESPN+) because kickoff is at 9:30 a.m. ET.”

I cannot wait to hear the 17 seconds of football raps that are too hot for the AM.

Wild times on the playa.

and wondered how an unlicensed two hour film could exist when even Disney had to negotiate with Sony to use the character in films. Sony, Disney, and Marvel are all very protective of the character so it’s a surprise to see this film still live. It’s also super unusual to see a fan film of this scope outside of the Star Trek fan film community, especially as the last time a Star Trek fan film attempted a project of this high a production quality level Paramount sued the creator.

Spider-Man: Lotus’s other major problem is it was funded by a non-profit more than two years ago and immediately faced challenges after the VFX team quit due to racist remarks previously made, separately, by the lead actor and the director.

The Internet Archive’s Great 78 project launched in 2017 and streams thousands of digitized 78rpm discs and cylinder recordings for free. Now music labels, including Universal, Sony, and Concord, are suing, citing 2,749 sound-recording copyrights they say it’s infringed and pointing to the Music Modernization Act of 2018 (via Reuters).

They’re pursuing damages of up to $412 million, while the Archive is also battling book publishers in court over its National Emergency Library program.

For more information on the Music Modernization Act, check out this episode of The Vergecast.

In this episode of Andscape’s Rap Stories podcast series, David Dennis and Curren$y recap the “blog era” of rap music that existed in the late ‘00s by pinpointing exactly why it was so relatable.

There are other podcasts specifically dedicated to this period, but the Smoking Section alum and Pilot Talk artist are more qualified than most to talk about what it was like.