Month: March 2019

The bouncy beeps of Pac-Man. The percussive build-up in Legend of Zelda. The effusive gibberish of The Sims. The sounds in videogames tell us to speed up, start over, and of course, to keep playing. But how does one set of beeps so effectively tell you you've gained power, while another indicates your character has…

When Hulu made its debut nearly a decade ago, you would have been forgiven for thinking its semi-cryptic name was actually an acronym for “Here’s, Uh, Lotsa Unrelated stuff!” For its first few years, the streaming service’s offerings were hilariously scattershot, a mix of rando ‘80s sitcoms, oddball documentaries, and some cool Criterion Collection samurai…

During the first season of Stranger Things—which returns to Netflix this Friday—viewers were introduced to the Hawkins National Laboratory, a mysterious high-tech lair in which scientists conduct all sorts of top-secret mucking about with the space-time continuum. Sure, it was an effectively creepy setting—but what would it be like as a workplace, especially when compared…

Over the long holiday weekend, chances are you binged on at least one Netflix show—and now you want to talk to a friend about it. But how? You can go cryptic: Have you figured out what happens to the main character yet? Or you can go analytical: Which number episode are you on? Or you…

Between all the superheroes and supervillains, directing a Marvel movie takes an effort that verges on the superhuman. But when he was making Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi had to do more than wrangle Thor, Loki, and the Hulk; he also cast himself as Korg, the stone-man gladiatorial fighter who becomes Thor’s new mate. “I usually…

Once upon a time, there was a fringe news outlet with a loud and dissenting opinion. A fatal shooting, it claimed, was not at all what it seemed to be: It was a hoax, orchestrated by some shadowy force—probably Communists—bent on replacing freedom with dictatorship. This was untrue, but that didn’t stop the outlet from…

Back in March, when Drake released his project More Life, he did something unusual: He didn’t make it an Apple Music exclusive. Despite having a long, successful history with the service—he actually helped announce its launch in 2015—he released the “playlist” on Spotify and Tidal as well. It broke streaming records. After a 2016 that…

If you want to feel old, forget the fact that WIRED is 25, and realize that Nike designed the first Air Jordan in 1984, for NBA star Michael Jordan. Thirty-four years later, the original red, black and white high tops have spawned their own sneaker subculture. This morning, at the WIRED25 festival in San Francisco,…

Television: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the legacy broadcast network CBS. Its apparently never-ending mission: to explore strange new revamps of old shows, to seek out fully integrated distribution models and new revenue streams. To boldly go where, to be honest, a few other networks with studios and a couple powerful streaming…

Just when you were beginning to think it might just be a hoax, Netflix released a trailer for its Marvel crossover mini-series The Defenders. Set to a syrup-slow rendition of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” (they’re casual, edgy heroes, get it?), it’s exactly what you expect from a big ol’ superhero team-up trailer. Except, in…