Live streaming is booming. People spent 1.2 billion hours watching Twitch in the first quarter of 2020, according to analytics company StreamHatchet and streaming software company Streamlabs. Time spent viewing the live-streaming service, a unit of Amazon, jumped 23 percent from February to March, and the number of unique Twitch channels increased 33 percent over…
In times of strife, stories are more important than ever. They help make sense of what’s happening right now—there’s a reason everyone seems to be reading Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, chronicling the bubonic plague in London—and document the recent past. Stories can also connect people to shared history, and the lives…
It’s Saturday! Time to relax, watch some shows and play some games. We’ve got both on offer today, starting with an awesome bundle deal for Hulu and Disney+. Follow that up with a great sale on Nintendo Switch games, currently happening on Amazon. If those two things aren’t for you, then continue further down where…
“Try not to take these attacks personally.” This is the opening statement from a Google Doc sent to me by a 12-step “old-timer” earlier today. “To those in recovery programs, know that these disruptors are not targeting your specific recovery meetings specifically. These are teenagers, gamers, attacking the Zoom platform itself. The attackers don’t seem…
Pictured: dragons, a dungeon. Image: Wizards of the CoastGames are a powerful escape and coping tool for many of us amidst the ongoing pandemic. With digital tools allowing people to play tabletop and board games online, it’s become a great way to spend time indoors with those you love, whether you’re together or not. Now,…
Greetings, and welcome to Replay, WIRED’s rundown of all of the week’s big videogame news. This time around we have news about the forthcoming PlayStation 5, Final Fantasy XIV, and Google Stadia. Let’s get going, shall we?The PlayStation 5 Will Have a Controller… And it seems like a nice one! In a new blog post…
Stuck inside? Yeah me too. Some days I just lay under a weighted blanket and listen to Landslide on repeat. Games help. Until this pandemic took hold, I hadn’t made a dent in my backlog of videogames to play. Now they’re a bright spot in an otherwise dark time. Games can offer an escape that…
Since Covid-19 began its spread across the world, technologists have proposed using so-called contact-tracing apps to track infections via smartphones. Now, Google and Apple are teaming up to give contact-tracers the ingredients to make that system possible—while in theory still preserving the privacy of those who use it.On Friday, the two companies announced a rare…
Today is Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion. For Jews, Wednesday night marked the beginning of Passover, the spring holiday celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt. Normally both sets of holidays are packed with family, friends, food, and celebration—yet this year, as the US and the world weather the Covid-19 crisis,…
Mike Massimino has experienced the greatest isolation a human being could ever know: the solitude of space, hundreds of miles above humanity. A NASA astronaut for 18 years, Massimino spent about a month total sheltering in place—or, more accurately, sheltering in space—aboard two separate missions on the space shuttle, donning a suit and stepping out…
