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Huawei Reveals Mate X2: The New Huawei Folding Phone

Marty
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Huawei Reveals Mate X2: The New Huawei Folding Phone

The last time I really got to attend a proper tech event was as Huawei launch at Mobile World Congress. While MWC was cancelled, Huawei still had an event to launch some of their laptops and smartphones. One of the phones was their first folding phone, the Huawei Mate X. Huawei recently launched their new folding phone, the Mate X2. It’ll likely never hit Irish shores, but here’s what we know about it to date.

What’s New With The Huawei Mate X2?

With just 12 months between the two phones, you might imagine not much has changed. But this is the folding phone market and it’s moving quickly

Design

The new Huawei Mate X2 does make significant departures from the first folding phone created by the Chinese manufacturer. I need to highlight, I’ve not tested this phone out, so I’m just weighing in with opinion on some things I’ve seen.

Huawei has left their original outward folding design, instead opting for a more typical inward design seen on the Samsung Galaxy Fold. I’ve got to say I think this is a mistake by Huawei. Getting hands-on with both of the folding phones left me feeling like The Mate X only fell down in the software department. The hardware was perfect. At the time I honestly believed far superior design minds in China had smashed it, while the South Korean Samsung teams were second best.

Yet, here we are a year later and Huawei is following Samsung’s lead. I’m extremely surprised. Their swap to the inward folding design means the Mate X2 will have a small gap in the phone when closed.

Open the phone and you get to see the phone’s 8-inch tablet screen. From other reviews I’ve read, the verdict is that the display is fantastic with the crease being almost invisible. There’s no camera cutouts or loss of screen real-estate on the inside.

Overall though, from a distance, the design looks great. Essentially, the Mate X2 is a thicker P40 Pro that you can open with a tablet in the middle. The front and rear of the phone is almost identical to the P40 Pro.

Cameras

The design decisions have knock-on impacts for the camera setups on the Mate X2. For some reason, Huawei has included a cut-out selfie camera. I don’t fully get this given that the front-facing camera is inferior to the rear-facing camera and you can take selfies with the primary camera when the phone is open.

Now, I have a theory here. The rear and the front of the phone looks so much like either the P40 Pro or P40 Pro+ that it’s entirely possible some parts are being reused. I might be way off and haven’t been able to closely inspect the phone to verify, but that’s my theory.

Without getting hands-on myself, and kind of assuming this phone will never hit Irish retailers, I’ll concede this article might be the only bit of writing I do on the Mate X2. It’s not a review, but more the observations I’ve made from watching other reviewers. The most in-depth I’ve seen to date is from MKBHD, so give it a look and see what you think yourself!

If you’re interested in this phone, hit the bell in the bottom left corner. In the event this comes to Ireland and I have news, I’ll update this article and you’ll be first to know.

Why Did Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” Become A Meme?

Marty
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0
Why Did Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” Become A Meme?

We’re closing in on April Fools’ Day 2021. I don’t know about you, but I sure do feel like I could use something a bit more light-hearted. It got me thinking about what overlaps between tech and trolling are out there and the most obvious just has to be Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. But where does the ultimate troll come from and why is it so damn funny? Join me for the history of rick-rolling.

Never Seeing It Coming

One of the classic comedy principles is misdirection. A story is built up, sending you down one train of thought before the punchline hits and gives you the opposite. The result? Well, if it’s delivered right, it’s laughter.

This is the core reason rick-rolling gets a laugh and you can trace misdirection right back to the early mentions of the internet’s favourite troll move. You promise your friend or foe with their most desired content, and you hit them with Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

The popularity of this switch up is clear when you look at the view count of Astley’s video coming up on one billion views. Considering YouTube only counts a view after 30 seconds, this would suggest billions more have hit back almost immediately on the video in a rick-roll-rage.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Origin Of Rick-rolling

The true origin of rick-rolling has to be July 1987, when Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” was released. This song wasn’t a damp squib by any definition either. Astley reached number one in the American, UK and South African charts. It was a true hit, but the song’s legacy wouldn’t truly be written until 2007 when it became one of the original modern memes.

Users of 4chan, an anonymous and somewhat adult website, began the rick-roll before Rockstar Games released trailers for Grand Theft Auto IV. The online world was eagerly waiting and fingers were able to click faster than minds could process. When someone would post a “links to the unreleased GTA IV trailer”, it was guaranteed to get attention and clicks. And click they did. What the trolls had done, however, was swapped out any hope of a GTA IV trailer with a link to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

This “bait and switch” move wasn’t new. In fact, the rick-roll replaced a similar move called the “duck-roll”. This started in early 2000 because 4chan owners had implemented a rule on the site that switched “egg” to “duck”, confusing users typing in “egg roll”. The internet is a weird place.

There was some mild speculation about why the internet decided this was the time for Rick Astley’s hit to see the light of day again. Some erroneously attribute the song’s appearance in Grant Theft Auto: Vice City as being the reason. The problem with this theory is that the song never featured in that game, although a host of classics did.

It’s almost certain that one of the internet’s favourite shows, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, featured the tune in the 2005 episode “Charlie Has Cancer”. This would have left the song fresh in the memories of would-be trolls.

Google Getting In On The Action

Whatever the source of origin for rick-rolling, the bait-and-switch approach trolling spread like wildfire. People developed clever ways of hiding YouTube links to the song behind images or by using URL-shorteners, meaning 2008 was the year of being rick-rolled.

On April Fools Day 2008, Google’s jokers flipped the links in YouTube’s featured feed with all clicks ending up with, you guessed it, Rick Astley.

You Still Need To Be On-guard Today

What’s perhaps most impressive about the once humble rick-roll is that it’s still funny. People still get caught. And people are still coming up with new ways to prank people. It’s just one of those odd internet things that don’t seem to ever want to go away. I don’t really think any of us want it to either. It’s just some good clean innocent fun.

Uhm, What About Rick Astley Now?

This is perhaps the only slightly sad part of the rick-roll story. Initially, while slightly perplexed by the trend, the artist wasn’t all that bothered by it. He’s quoted as saying his main concern was hoping “daughter doesn’t get embarrassed about it”. Thanks to the internet, Astley was catapulted back onto the scene and was suddenly performing more than ever. In 2008, the people of the internet used the power of the crowd to get Astley nominated for “Best Act Ever”, even though he wasn’t originally nominated.

This is where I start to get some Black Mirror vibes off the whole tale of the rick-roll. It’s like one of those stories where Rick made a deal with the devil for fame one more time, only for the devil to pull a bait and switch of their own. Instead of the expected fame, Astley was famous again for the same song, where he really wasn’t the subject, performing as a bit of an inside joke while winning awards which were nothing to do with his talent. In 2008, after initially seeming that he wasn’t all that bothered by it, he would eventually say he was done discussing rick-rolling.

Flash forward ten years to 2018 and a very happy Rick Astley is sitting on the famous couch with Graham Norton and his guests, including Emma Stone. The subject of rick-rolling reluctantly comes up and thankfully, Astley is happy with it explaining that his daughter helped him understand that it’s not a joke about him per se.

It just happened to be a song that just happened to feature in a show that just happened to air around the time people happened to make a joke.

Astley’s legacy is much more than just providing the song for the ultimate prank, but it’s not a bad thing to be remembered for either.

Why I think the Snyder Cut is the most important film of 2021

Alex
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Why I think the Snyder Cut is the most important film of 2021

The Snyder Cut is finally here in all its four-hour glory. If you don’t know what that is, it’s essentially the director’s cut of 2017s Justice League. After years of rumours of its very existence and fan campaigns to have it put out into the universe WB has relented and allowed it to be streamed on HBO Max (or Sky Cinema in Ireland). I should be clear upfront and say I haven’t finished watching it yet. In fact, with only half an hour under my belt, it’s probably fair to say I’ve barely even started. This isn’t a review of the film (though reception is mixed), but a defence of the idea that the Snyder Cut is possibly the most important film to be released this year.

How it all came together

To understand the magnitude of the release I think it would help to go back to the beginning. Zack Snyder was given the helm of the DC Extended Universe way back in 2013 when he directed Man of Steel. The plan was to essentially create a darker, grittier DC film continuity to mirror the light-hearted MCU. Through rushed production and much gun-jumping, this did not pan out as well as WB had hoped, with only Wonder Woman and Shazam garnering any real praise from critics. Though when the time came to pull together all three previously introduced characters for an ensemble movie, things took an even worse turn. As Justice League wrapped filming and transitioned into post-production Zack Snyder left the project to be with his family in the wake of a personal tragedy. The studio then hired Joss Wheadon to finish the film in Snyder’s place. At the time this was probably seen as a guaranteed win seeing as Wheadon had previously directed both Avengers Assemble and Avengers Age of Ultron. However, this would be the death knell for the so-called Theatrical Cut. Previously finished scenes were re-shot to add in off-tone one-liners, characters were completely cut from the film and Henry Cavill was given a lovely CGI lip to cover up the moustache he grew for Mission Impossible: Fallout. This is all without mentioning the allegations that have come out regarding Wheadon’s mistreatment of the cast and crew. The film we got in 2017 was an unmitigated disaster, and that’s being nice about it.

This would have been a very different movie…

Almost immediately after “Josstice League” released, fans hit the internet hard with a campaign to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut. This was prior to most people even knowing whether that cut of the film even existed. Such was the backlash and hatred for the Theatrical release. After the movement gained momentum and support from the likes of Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Jason Mamoa, and Ray Fisher (who was one of the first to publicly out Wheadon for his behaviour on-set) Snyder confirmed that the cut of the film did exist and that the decision to release the film was entirely up to WB. Well, here we are a week after the film has been made available to stream. The movie is over four hours long and is presented in a somewhat jarring 4:3 format “to preserve the director’s artistic vision”. Normally those two things would ensure a film never saw the light of day, but right now, the Snyder Cut being the most talked about movie in the world.

So what?

So, a fan campaign got a movie released, big deal. That might be some people’s takeaway from all of this. To me, this is so much more. As I said, this movie would have never been released in cinemas. It’s formatted for a tiny number of screens and its length would probably warrant it having an interval (even Endgame with its 3-hour runtime nearly had one). But take away the theatrical release and push it out on streaming platforms and neither of those is an issue. People can choose to watch on any screen they want and are able to watch it at their leisure. They can binge it all in one go on their 40-inch TV, or they can consume it piecemeal on their phone over the course of a few days. Cinema has, for a long time been quite prescriptive in its formatting. Keep the movie between 90 and 150 minutes and present it in widescreen format (or letterbox if that’s your thing), but with Streaming, directors are more enabled to stay true to their vision. They can have outrageous runtimes, or weird aspect ratios, or host different cuts of a movie side by side so the viewer can choose which they’d rather watch.

No two episodes of Wandavision are the same length

We’ve already seen this kind of freedom being exercised before in some of Disney’s new shows. Both The Mandalorian and Wandavision have variable episode lengths. Some episodes are only half an hour, while others are nearly a full 60 minutes. In my opinion, this makes for far superior storytelling. There’s no padding or filler necessary to meet a required run time, and scenes or stories aren’t cut for the sake of brevity. It’s how TV and movies should be. Taking Wandavision as an example (because there’s a good chance you’ve watched it), I didn’t find there was anything that was unnecessary in the whole series. Likewise, there wasn’t anything I would have liked to have seen added, it answered all the questions I wanted answered while keeping the classic “where will they go next” vibe that Marvel does so well.

What will the future hold for cinema?

I think the example set by the Snyder Cut has the potential to empower filmmakers and directors to make bold new decisions in their art. It’s time for cinema and TV to fully embrace the possibilities that streaming can offer. The Snyder cut isn’t important because the fans want it or because it “breaks the rules” but because it has fully embraced the possibilities that streaming can bring.

Just Die Already: Chaotic Senior Mayhem

Marty
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0
Just Die Already: Chaotic Senior Mayhem

I’ve spent a few hours with Just Die Already on PS4, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from the developers behind Goat Simulator. You play as a pensioner evicted from their retirement home, tasked with racking up points through increasingly absurd and dangerous stunts. It’s a middle finger to ageism wrapped in physics-based chaos, and for a while at least, it’s genuinely entertaining.

What Works

If you loved Goat Simulator’s approach to sandbox mayhem, this hits similar notes but with more structure. The city environment feels denser and more detailed than Goat Simulator’s settings, giving you plenty to explore and destroy. There’s something darkly amusing about watching your elderly character tumble through the world, limbs flailing about like overcooked spaghetti, all whilst society literally wants you gone.

The co-op and PVP modes add replay value if you’ve got friends willing to join the madness. Shared chaos amplifies the humour, turning technical disasters into memorable moments rather than frustrations.

Where It Struggles

Here’s where honesty matters: the controls are rough. Really rough. Aiming feels imprecise, melee combat becomes an exercise in patience as weapons swing in unpredictable arcs, and hit detection doesn’t always register when it should. I’ve died repeatedly at certain checkpoints not because I made poor choices, but because the game simply didn’t respond properly.

The physics system, whilst intentionally chaotic, crosses into glitchy territory regularly. Elongated limbs and exaggerated ragdoll effects are part of the appeal, but they also cause genuine technical problems that break immersion.

When Just Die Already appeared free on Epic Games in April 2022, player reactions split predictably. Those expecting polished mechanics found themselves frustrated by clunky gameplay, whilst fans of intentionally messy sandbox games embraced the absurdist premise despite its limitations.

Should You Play It?

This comes down to expectations. If you want silly, physics-based destruction with mates and can tolerate technical jank, you’ll likely squeeze several hours of entertainment from it. The game doesn’t pretend to be anything more than chaotic fun, and within those boundaries, it delivers.

However, if you value responsive controls and consistent mechanics, the frustrations will outweigh the humour quickly. It’s worth knowing what you’re getting into before committing time to it.

For me, it scratched a particular itch for a few hours, then I moved on. That’s perfectly fine for what it is, a brief, anarchic romp that doesn’t overstay its welcome. Just don’t expect it to hold your attention for extended sessions.

Seaspiracy Review: 2021’s Most Important Documentary

Marty
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Seaspiracy Review: 2021’s Most Important Documentary

I was left staring at the screen with my jaw as on the floor as humanly possible. By 2048, our oceans could be empty of fish. That’s just one of the utterly shocking moments from a new documentary on Seaspiracy. The documentary has had a profound impact on me. 24 hours later an I, an happy carnivore, haven’t touched a morsel of meat, from land, air or sea. If there’s one bit of telly you watch this year, it’s Seaspiracy. While I’m sure they had some really good reasons for not going with Conspira-sea as the title, let’s just get over that and dive in.

What Is Seaspiracy About?

I’m very conscious of the world around me and what impact I have on it. I’m very aware that I promote technology which uses precious metals and sometimes even has questionable mining methods. I’m fully aware of all of that. Being aware is the start of navigating your way through the world and trying to leave as minimal an impact on the earth as you can. For this reason I’ve challenged myself. I have my KeepCup, reusable straws and do my best to sort rubbish and recycle what I can. Why? Well my understanding was that we were destroying our oceans with waste and that’s not the world I want to leave to my future children.

Seaspiracy starts out with the filmmaker Ali Tabrizi living a very similar life to me. I guess the difference is that something urges Tabrizi to scratch the surface of the “plastic issue”. What he uncovers is shocking.

The documentary uncovers the incredible human impact that we have on our oceans, an impact where plastic is nearly the least of our worries. The documentary looks at whale-hunting in Japan before bringing things far closer to home, lifting the lid on how “dolphin-safe” cans of tuna and the likes still leave millions of dead animals as “waste” in our oceans. Tracking down the people behind the stamp found on tinned sea-food in Irish supermarkets, they simply confirm there’s no way to guarantee that the stamp means anything at all.

Should You Watch Seaspiracy?

Simply yes. I know I’ve labeled this as a review, but it’s not really going to be one. This isn’t a situation of “should you watch this”. You almost have a responsibility to do so. This planet is at a dangerous tipping point. That figure at the start is very real. Imagine. In your lifetime, the oceans may not have fish. This documentary is utterly disturbing but I’m a lot happier knowing there’s a problem I need to do something about.

I can’t put my finger on what exactly triggered me so much about this piece of film but it fire that part of my brain that made me want to leave the Catholic church through GDPR. I now feel that by continuing to buy or eat seafood, I’m a willing accomplice and that sustainable meat production is an impossible goal. I need to take a few days and evaluate what I do next, but since when Seaspiracy was over I just sat on the couch in silence. It’s over 24-hours later, and I’ve only eaten vegetarian meals. Rocked to my core.

We’re on the verge of destroying our oceans and sea-life, in turn increasing the risk of global warming and, more generally, just being human assholes. I know I’ve not done the impact this film has had on me justice but I hope you find some time to watch this documentary and then appreciate that any little change in your lifestyle could save the planet.

Seaspiracy is streaming now on Netflix.

League Of Ireland Launches E-Sports Events With FIFA 21

Marty
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League Of Ireland Launches E-Sports Events With FIFA 21

At the weekend I made an impulse decision. I decided to adopt my local football team, St. Patrick’s Athletic. I signed up for Watch League of Ireland Online and watched The Saints play out a 1-1 draw in the league opener against Shamrock Rovers. With my interest in LOI growing, today, the FAI has launched its first-ever e-sports League of Ireland competition, piquing my interest again. It will be broadcast from 6th April through to the final day on 10th May. All 20 clubs from the SSE Airtricity Premier and First Divisions will participate in the tournament.

The League of Ireland will also be joining forces with FIFA 21 as part of the Global Series Tournament.

Prospective participants can enter the FAI eCup in the coming days by visiting news.fai.ie/Qualifier1 and news.fai.ie/Qualifier2 and registering online by 11pm on 30th March.

Comments From FAI and LOI

Announcing the FAI’s entrance into the esports field, FAI project lead Robert Garrigan said, “This marks an exciting start for the FAI with our first venture into the world of esports. We’ve seen huge growth in the participation of our Irish footballing fans in the esports space and we can’t wait to put Irish players on the map in the FIFAe Nations Series and via the brand new eLOI”.

League of Ireland Director Mark Scanlon added, “I wish all the participating clubs the best of luck in the new eLOI tournament and look forward to seeing them going on to represent Ireland on the global stage. I’d also like to extend a big thank you to FIFA and our partners EA SPORTS in making this possible”.

Huawei FreeBuds 4i Review: €79 Buds Delivering Everything You Need

Marty
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0
Huawei FreeBuds 4i Review: €79 Buds Delivering Everything You Need

It’s no secret that Huawei phones have lost a bit of their appeal since Google was banned from working with them. Every cloud has a silver lining. While there’s no sign of the Biden Administration helping out, Huawei has started to invest heavily in other areas of their business to create gadgets that support smartphones. While the likes of their Gentle Monster sunglasses collaboration is cool, it won’t appeal to every user. Dedicated audio, on the other hand, does have broad appeal. Huawei has churned out some incredible earbuds and headphones in recent years from the FreeBuds 3 to the FreeBuds Studio.

Huawei has just launched its latest pair of truly wireless earbuds called the FreeBuds 4i. I’ve been reviewing these for the past few days, here’s what I think.

The Huawei FreeBuds 4i Features

Huawei has split its earbuds into three price points. At the top, are the Huawei FreeBuds Pro, in the middle are still the FreeBuds 3. Previously, their entry-level buds were the FreeBuds 3i, a pair of buds people still tell me they’re delighted they bought them. Now, these are being replaced with the FreeBuds 4i.

Sound Quality

I’m going to kick off with the sound quality. Sometimes I keep this till later, but I think this is noteworthy to start with. The predecessor to these buds were great, but I could still tell they were the entry-level buds. There was just something about them that made them good for their price, a subtle difference from being just good in their own right.

The FreeBuds 4i are considerably better. Huawei describes this as being learnings from the high-end feeding the low-end. For me, this nails it. I love my FreeBuds 3. They’re my goto call buds, but the FreeBuds 4i are right up there. They’re not just good for the price, they’re a great pair of earbuds full stop.

Listening

After being run through the tech behind the buds, it’s clear that a lot of research and development has led to even these entry-level buds being the result of scientific endeavour. 

The buds’ driver design cleverly emphasises the treble highs while also reducing distortion. Crisp audio, clear treble and enough bass to be punchy without making the buds too uncomfortable to wear for longer stints – important considering the battery life. I’ll come back to that later. 

These is one bit of functionality which the FreeBuds 4i do not support and I will miss this. You can only connect to one device at a time. While working from home, I’ve enjoyed listening to music on my phone while quickly jumping on a team video conference without changing buds or fiddling with Bluetooth settings. This is one sacrifice you make for the price.

Talking

Has mic-quality become more important than ever now that many of us spend so much time on video calls? Whether it’s for work or keeping in touch with family, often it will be with a pair of headphones or earbuds

The Huawei FreeBuds 4i provide excellent mic quality.

I love real-world testing and on a video-call shortly after getting these buds, my audio quality was complimented. That’s a pretty big compliment to get today if you’re working from home. These buds feature a slit-duct design similar to that of the Huawei FreeBuds 3 which practically eliminates wind noise.

Active Noise Cancellation

Active Noise Cancellation is one of those technologies that has become so standard and affordable in an incredibly short period of time. These buds demonstrate that best. I remember testing my beloved FreeBuds 3 and being completely underwhelmed by the ANC. Now, the technology is nearly at the standard of my “other beloved” headphones, my Bose QC35 II over-ear headphones.

Design

The buds themselves are light. Really light, again, contributing to being wearable for longer. In the box, you’ll get three silicon tip sizes to ensure a comfy fit. Not quite the range of fit options you get from the Melomania Touch, but plenty nonetheless.

Huawei freebuds 4i review

I’ve been looking more and more into ear fatigue lately, having touched on this when reviewing the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro. Owing to the lightweight design and shape of the earbuds themselves, pressure on your ears is greatly reduced. This is an essential bit of progress for the earbuds as vastly improved battery life means you can wear these for nearly more than twice as long as the precious buds. With a 10 hour battery sans ANC or 7.5 hours with ANC, you’ll rarely go a full workday or trip while requiring a charge. If you do, 10 minutes gives you four hours of use and a grand total of 22 hours with the charge-case.

For that reason, it’s critical that Huawei successfully tackled ear fatigue, making them just the second pair of earbuds I’ve tested to do so properly.

Huawei FreeBuds 4i: The Verdict

When you get to test buds week in and week out, the romance can be lost. I know, it’s a first world problem but it’s an important point. Because during all of these tests, something arrives that makes testing worth it again. The Huawei FreeBuds 4i absolutely does that for me.

The technology is affordable and the quality, while not quite at Apple AirPod level, is far from indicative of the price gap. You’re looking at a pair of buds here which will set you back €80 but delivery quality, not short of, a €200 pair of buds. The technology has come a long long way and making the decision on buying should be easier than ever.

The Huawei FreeBuds 4i is available to buy from today for €80, and is available from Vodafone, Carphone Warehouse, Eir, DID, Power City, Harvey Norman, and Three.

Help! I Don’t Understand NFTs: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens

Marty
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0
Help! I Don’t Understand NFTs: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens

First of all, don’t worry. You’re not alone and this could very well be something you won’t hear about for very long. Looking at you CryptoKitties. There is yet another blockchain trend poking its head into the feeds of the general public. This particular buzzing term is Non-fungible Tokens or NFTs. Here’s what they are and why they’re probably going to disappear pretty quick.

What Are Non-Fungible Tokens Or NFTs?

Non-fungible tokens are basically unique tokens which represent a digital asset. The name means that it can’t be replaced with something else. It’s unique. Take the Mona Lisa. That’s non-fungible. If I own the original Mona Lisa and sell it, I no longer have it. I might have a copy or a re-print, but the one from Da Vinci’s brush is gone.

Non-fungible tokens are trying to achieve the same level of uniqueness in a digital world. Unlike art, NFTs a little less “real” in that they represent digital assets. If you’ve seen Ready Player Two, you might already have a feel for what this is like and why it could be important for the future. NFTs can be absolutely anything. Your picture online could be an NFT. A tweet you’ve sent in the past could be an NFT or even a voice recording uploaded online. The NFT itself is just a token that points towards the digital asset. And here is the big problem.

What’s The Point Of NFTs?

NFTs are an imperfect solution to a real problem. Actually, they’re a pretty awful solution to a problem. If someone uploads a piece of art to the web, generates an NFT and then sells that NFT, I can still go to where that piece of art sits and download it. NFTs provide little more than a sense of ownership in a digital world, as opposed to real ownership that you would get when buying physical item.

One of the highest profile items up for grabs as an NFT was Jack Dorsey’s, founder of Twitter, first tweet. That’s gone for a very real $2.5 million. But here you go, you can have it for free.

What happens if Jack deletes that Tweet? What happens if I sell a voice file and then delete it? What happens if I create 50 of the same voice file and sell them as unique? It’s all well and good saying the hi-res image online belongs to me, as long as it exists at all.

Some claim that NFTs prove society respects artists, but torrents say otherwise. Whether I own the NFT for a movie or just download the pirated copy, I’ve consumed and enjoyed. I’m finito.

NFTs feel like they’re close to solving a massive problem, but the more you scratch the surface you realise it’s Whistler’s Mother from the gift shop we’re looking at here. These are peak online notions.

With that said, if you think too long about currency, you’ll end up in a panic too. At the end of the day, we all just agree that specific pieces of paper are worth €20.

Where To Watch Mrs. Doubtfire: Directors Confirm Robin Williams Cut

Marty
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Where To Watch Mrs. Doubtfire: Directors Confirm Robin Williams Cut

Eagled-eyed internet users might have spotted a lot more chatter about Mrs. Doubtfire than usual. You wouldn’t begrudge it because Mrs. Doubtfire is one of the best comedy classics going, arguably some of Robin Williams’ finest work. But why the sudden jump in interest again? Well, it has emerged that there is an R-rated version of the movie that has never seen the light of day, and everyone is very interested.

If that’s enough to make you want to jump in and give the classic a watch, Disney+ customers can stream Mrs. Doubtfire right now. But it’s the original cut.

R-rated Mrs. Doubtfire Is Confirmed

If you’ve ever watched an interview with Robin Williams, you’ll know what kind of energy the man had. He was wild and his greatest strength simply had to be improvisation. Williams could make the mundane hilarious in a fraction of a second. This could be traced back to the very early days of Williams’ career when his improvisations would leave fellow drama school attendees doubled over with laughter.

Improvisation a strength, much of the random unscripted moments Williams brings to roles becomes his most memorable moments. Check out these ten examples.

And this is where we get to Mrs. Doubtfire again. It recently emerged that during filming the hit movie, Williams had improvised so much material that there’s an entire unreleased version of Mrs. Doubtfire locked away somewhere.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the movie’s director Chris Columbus confirmed that there is indeed an R-rated version of the movie. The original cut was PG-13, but during filming Williams had ad-libbed so many lines that another cut exists which would need to be Rated-R.

The director and Williams had a deal where they would first shoot scenes before letting Williams off the leash to do what he though the scene needed. Columbus describes how the actor would “sometimes go into territory that wouldn’t be appropriate for a PG-13 movie”.

It’s obvious enough, but this also confirms that the director had planned the movie for a certain age audience and they couldn’t wander too far from that.

What Is R-rated?

Rated-R is a classification from a movie rating system from the U.S. When a movie is classified as “Rated-R” it’s deemed “restricted”, hence the “R”. To view this movie, you would need to either be over the age of seventeen or be accompanied by a parent or guardian. This is due to some adult material and parents would be encouraged to review the movie before letting kids watch it.

There was also rumoured to be a NC-17 cut of Mrs. Doubtfire, but the director denied this, saying he had “only [previously] used the phrase NC-17 as a joke. There could be no NC-17 version of the movie”.

Will The R-Rated Version Of Mrs. Doubtfire Be Released?

I think it’s almost certain. The movie industry is on its knees right now as a result of the pandemic. Shooting new material is complicated. Making the most of content that already exists could be a way for the industry to make a quick buck. Zack Snyder’s extended cut of the Justice League has just been re-released. While campaigns to get this cut released took place long before the pandemic, the decision to release on the HBO Max streaming platform was made in May 2020. Make of that what you will.

The original cut of Mrs. Doubtfire is available to watch right now on Disney+, but I have a feeling that it won’t be long before this Robin Williams cut of the movie is released too.

Hidden Games Crime Scene: Little Gomersal Case Review

Marty
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Hidden Games Crime Scene: Little Gomersal Case Review

Is this a tech review? I don’t know. It’s more of a “I bought this to pass the time and I think you should too” kind of review. Google Trends data shows that in the build-up to Christmas every year, we all get very interested in board games. Last year, this interest started earlier than ever in the run-up to Christmas but also had a spike in March as we learned of lockdown. I was still rather late to the “board game” thing, but have bought a few. The best one I’ve come across so far is a murder mystery detective game created by a German company called Hidden Games. I’ve played the Little Gomersal murder mystery game, and here’s why I think you’ll love it.

This is a spoiler-free review.

What Is Hidden Games Crime Scene All About?

Hidden Games is a German puzzle company. Over the past few years, they’ve nailed extremely premium experience escape rooms. They’ve also turned their hand to crime investigation games and it’s one of these that I bought to test out.

The first of this games is Hidden Games Crime Scene – The First Case: The Little Gomersal Case. The concept is simple enough. Once you order your game, it’s delivered and you get to take part in what is effectively an “escape room” style game in your own home. Myself and by better half took on the challenge which took the full 2.5-hours the game advertises to complete.

How Does Hidden Games Crime Scene Work?

The immersive nature of the game is obvious from the get-go. The manilla-style envelope gets you feeling like a detective straight away. Read the back of this package. It’s important and includes what parameters you need to meet to win the game. For example, who sent you the letter in the package and who is the killer. There are four things in total you need to work out.

If you’re gifting this to someone else, maybe give them a heads up. I sent this to someone in my family and didn’t tell them, thinking the surprise would be cool. They then thought they needed to work out who sent the package itself, not the letter in the evidence.

Once you open your envelope, you’ll find loads of evidence. You need to sort through all of this and find your start point. There are some bits and pieces which will be of obvious help immediately. Other bits of evidence will need thinking and might only make sense depending on some of the other evidence you’ve sorted through. There are also some documents to help you track your work, including that classic police pin board sheet. Get your red string out if you want to go all in on the experience.

What Do I Need To Play?

To start your murder mystery, you’ll need about 2.5 hours. There’s no reason you can’t play on your own, but the game is recommended for 2 to 6 players. Because of the incredible production quality and effort the game designers put in, you’ll also need your phone, ideally with a laptop too.

When you’ve gathered the evidence and are fairly confident you know the answers, you need to head to a the Hidden Games website and validate your theories.

Is Hidden Games Crime Scene Worth Buying?

This is a massive yes from me. It’s not a very cheap game at €30, especially for the uninitiated when it comes to “board games”. But the production quality of the game is incredible. By the end of solving our mystery, and we did successfully solve it all, we could absolutely see how the price is justified.

The one bit of advise I have for people is to try and keep your notes separate. Use post-it notes and don’t write or draw on the evidence. We did which means we couldn’t pass the game onto anyone else. It’s a single play game so, once you don’t draw on it, you can easily pass it onto friends and family to try out.

You can buy the first Hidden Games Crime Scene game right now from Amazon.co.uk. The game manufacturers have several other games created in German already and they are converting them to English to meet massive demand. The next English version of their game will be released towards the end of April or the start of May.

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