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After taking 1,000 photos, I uncovered the Pixel camera settings for flawless image quality
Some hidden tweaks gave my Pixel camera a serious boost
I found a hidden Chrome feature that made my browser the ultimate productivity tool
This is the Chrome upgrade I didn't know I needed
Political parties and hard truths
On Monday I received a very nice but somewhat shocking email from a reader. I wasn't shocked because I got an email, but because the reader assumed I'm a Republican. To use his words, an "old school Republican quite capable of honesty and common decency." My gosh, what a nice thing to say, but I digress.
Health Investments Reverberate throughout Our Nation
Guest Opinion At the heart of the Cherokee story is an innate commitment to community. It’s the background rhythm that connects every Cherokee Nation citizen. Gadugi, our word for working together for the common good, is a part of our nature. Gadugi, itself, is unquantifiable. We can’t measure it directly. But when we look at […]
The Carrier Behind LATAM Airlines' Inflight Entertainment Overhaul
LATAM is reinventing inflight entertainment by following Delta Air Lines' digital blueprint, combining AI, Viasat WiFi, and personalization.
New Seahawks owners should take note of how Allen family handled business
SEATTLE – If I were a ride-or-die, face-paint-wearing Seahawks fan whose mood was entirely dependent on how they performed each week, here are the 10 words I would tell the new owners: Congratulations on the purchase, now stay out of the way.
I'm saving hundreds on new phones while everyone else panics about the RAM crisis
I found the one trick that keeps me ahead
My phone doesn't go anywhere without this $10 accessory; it's better than a headphone jack
A simple splitter which opens a world of possibilities
Pokémon Go 'Genetic Mastery' choose a path quest steps — Mega Mewtwo X or Y?
Should you pick Mega Mewtwo X or Mega Mewtwo Y?
iOS 27: What's New With the Mail App
Apple's Mail app is getting some useful updates in iOS 27, with Apple making big improvements to search and introducing new AI features. Search iOS 27 has an overhauled search system that extends to the Mail app. Instead of surfacing results based on keywords and recency, Mail app search ranks results by relevance and intent. Search results that come up in Mail are more relevant than before, so you find exactly what you're looking for.
Water Wonders Event Invites Kids to Make a Splash with Science at Great River Children’s Museum
(KNSI) - Local families have a chance to dive into the science of Central Minnesota's waterways this weekend. ...
Elon Musk reverses course on Anthropic, calls rival the 'leader in AI'
In recent weeks, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has shared kinder words for Anthropic, not long after repeatedly disparaging the competitor.
ASU's efforts to improve health outcomes for Arizonans lauded by US congresswoman
As the Arizona State University Congressional Dialogue Series with Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari began Wednesday morning, David Schwartz used three words to describe the health care system:Chaotic. Complex. Confusing.But then Schwartz, vice president of strategy and business development for ASU Health, explained in one sentence how those three Cs could turn into As, so to speak.
Arts and Entertainment Agenda, July 10-16
Aspen Words Annual Benefit Dinner, July 10 Great company is paired with great words Friday at Aspen Words’ 2026 Book Ball, an annual benefit dinner from 5:45-9:30 p.m. July 10 at Doerr-Hosier Center, Aspen Meadows...
Retiring NBA Star Shades the Clippers with Subtle Jab
Kyle Lowry is retiring, and as he said goodbye, he used a very interesting word when talking about former Clipper Kawhi Leonard. The post Retiring NBA Star Shades the Clippers with Subtle Jab appeared first on LA Sports Report.
Google Photos just ditched its clunky bottom bar for something way cleaner
Rolling out now
UFC 329 predictions: Conor McGregor’s highly anticipated return arrives
Words that some MMA fans thought they’d never hear again: it’s Conor McGregor fight week. UFC 329 is this Saturday and features the return of the biggest star in the company’s history. McGregor faces off against another future UFC Hall…
You’re Always Surrounded by Neutrinos!
This second, as you’re reading these words, trillions of tiny particles are hurtling toward you! No, you don’t need to brace yourself. They’re passing through
Subanutica 2 major update adds the ability to shoot fish
To kill fish or not to kill fish, that is the question
Palworld Hits an Incredible 40 Million Players 2.5 Years After Early Access Launch, and With 1.0 Right Around the Corner
Palworld has achieved an impressive player milestone 2.5 years after its early access launch and with the 1.0 release right around the corner.
Forestry scientists stay upbeat in face of federal turmoil
The Chinese word for crisis isn’t a combination of the symbols for “danger” and “opportunity” as some business strategy books once claimed. But if it did, it could be the
The countdown to the Pixel 11 launch has officially begun
And it's happening in New York City
Google Voice launches two new personal plans with Workspace perks
Things are now more personal
‘Love and Other Words’ Adaptation a Go From Magic Hour Entertainment
Max Siemers and Tanner Anderson are behind the new company, which will adapt Christina Lauren’s best-selling novel of the same of the name centered on childhood friends turned first loves who reconnect as adults.
‘Love and Other Words’ Adaptation Set With the Newly Formed Magic Hour Entertainment (Exclusive)
Max Siemers and Tanner Anderson are behind the new company, which will adapt Christina Lauren’s best-selling novel of the same of the name centered on childhood friends turned first loves who reconnec...
Hastings Public Library brings Science Across America to Hastings
HASTINGS - Hastings Public Library is inviting the community to discover the excitement of scientific explorat...
These New Smart Glasses From Solos Come With a Privacy Shield for the Cameras
You can clip a cover over the cameras, which could be a double-edged sword.
Resident Evil Requiem Officially Returns July 30 With New DLC
Resident Evil Requiem official new DLC arrives on July 30.
This 65W charger breaks the compact-versus-power tradeoff, and it's 46% off right now
The perfect charger for those quick weekend trips
The Talos Principle 3 creators are doing their best to stay hopeful in the tech apocalypse
The puzzle series' final installment is staying optimistic, even in the face of death and AI
Succession does not mean you leave the business - Chicago Agent Magazine Top Coach
For many founders, owners and high-performing leaders, the word “succession” carries an uncomfortable weight.
Health agency warns of Algal Blooms in arear water ways
COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) - The Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency is urging residents to watch fo...
Cook review: ‘Minions & Monsters’ is a clever comedy about movie history
Everybody who’s seen the 1998 “Ronin” raise your hand. Really? You’ve missed a terrific action movie starring Robert DeNiro and Jean Reno is thusly named because it’s a parallel for the Japanese word ...
Destiny 2 Has a New Armor Farming Glitch For Easy T5 Meta Sets
A Destiny 2 player shares a glitch that allows fans to easily farm Tier 5 meta armor sets, and the good news is it won't be fixed.
I am switching from OneNote to Google Keep on Android because of this single feature
Gemini changed the game
I switched from Chrome to Edge and finally understood why my laptop battery died so fast
I blamed everything but my browser before this.
New Official Resident Evil Release Confirmed for July 30
Resident Evil fans have a fresh Resident Evil Requiem release to look forward to in the very near future.
Twelve Sick, One Recall, and No Word From Public Health: E. coli O145:H28 Turns Up in Publix GreenWise Frozen Blueberries
A tip o' the pen to David Neal at the Miami Herald, who flagged a recall that a lot of people would have skated right past over a holiday weekend. On
I've worn an Oura Ring for 5 years. The Oura Ring 5 is its finest work yet
So good, in fact, I don't know where Oura can go next
I tried this hidden Google Maps trick in Android Auto; now every drive feels smarter
Google Maps finally feels more proactive
Sword Art Online Unanswered Butterfly Anime Reveals 19-Minute Preview Available Until July 6
The new Sword Art Online anime Unanswered//butterfly anime revealed a 19-minute preview, which will be deleted on July 5 at 23:59 PDT.
Google Wallet finally shows all your spending in one place
Purchases made on phones and watches appear together
Destiny 2 Players Have Only Until July 7 to Claim a Free Cosmetic Before It's Gone
Destiny 2 has a free cosmetic for players to claim, but they have until July 7 to do so, and they may have to wait years for it to come back.
I found 3 Android 17 settings so useful I'm confused why they're hidden by default
Don't miss out on these three hidden Android 17 features
Millie Bobby Brown believes she was a closeted gay soldier killed with a sword in past life
Millie Bobby Brown thinks that she was a closeted gay soldier who was slain with a sword to the spine in a past life.
LSUA breaks ground on health education campus that will train future healthcare workers
LSU-Alexandria breaks ground on its new 43-million-dollar Health Education Campus. University officials say it...
In Absolutely Science Fiction! at Z-Space — Bradbury and Vonnegut, together at last
In “Absolutely Science Fiction!” at Z Space through July 19, literary theatre troupe Word for Word performs short stories by Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury.
Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online
Bandai Namco has released an 18-minute preview of the feature-length promotional animation Sword Art Online: Unanswered//butterfly included with the Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online Ultimate Edi…
Elden Ring's New DLC Comes With Friendly Price Tag
Bandai Namco details the upcoming Tarnished Pack DLC for Elden Ring.
Morgan Fairchild has one word to describe Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor
Morgan Fairchild was brief when describing her interactions with the Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor, with whom she worked in a 1980s miniseries.
Amazon Prime members can now stream 2025 superhero hit Dispatch
Dispatch is now available on Luna
Onimusha: Way Of The Sword Will Now Launch Three Weeks Earlier
The game's release date has been moved forward to the beginning of September.
Minor League Update: Rookie Leagues
Whenever I give updates on minor league stats, I’m always conflicted about how many players to include. Some of it is time management-related. Obviously, if I cover every conceivable player, it will take me time I sometimes don’t have. But I also am not particularly interested in writing 5,000 words for one of these either. […]
Capcom pushes forward Onimusha: Way of the Sword release date just days after devs stated they're not afraid of September's busy schedule
We'll be playing Onimusha: Way of the Sword earlier than we thought, after all.
Will Ferrell says dad gave him the 'best showbiz advice ever'
Even though it wasn't a "rah-rah speech," Will Ferrell said his father's words "took the pressure off succeeding."
Onimusha: Way of the Sword Release Date Moved Forward
Capcom has announced that Onimusha: Way of the Sword, the upcoming action-adventure sequel for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2, will now be released earlier than previously guided: it will be available on September 4 rather than September 25.
Matt Miller's serious car accident has sparked scrutiny over his business dealings
Last week's shocking news that ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller was involved in a serious car accident that resulted in the amputation of his left arm, along with other significant injuries, prompted an outpouring of support for him — both with words and, after his family created a GoFundMe effort, money.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword release date moved up to September 4
Capcom has moved up swordplay action game Onimusha: Way of the Sword from its previously announced September 25 release date to September 4, three weeks earlier than planned. It will be available f…
Android 17 QPR1 Beta 6 hits Pixel phones with a major milestone for developers
The public release is just that much closer
PlayStation Plus July 2026 free games lineup announced, including Modern Warfare 3
Play a recent Call of Duty for free before Modern Warfare 4 drops this fall
The moment Anthropic convinced me it’s serious about science
AI Prognosis: The release of Claude Science suggests big model makers are getting serious about real science, and not just flashy problems.
Taylor Swift Wants Final Approval Over Travis Kelce Wedding Footage
Taylor Swift is reportedly filming her nuptials with Travis Kelce but wants the final word over the wedding footage. Sources claimed that the singer has hired a professional crew to document her speci...
Sony will cease production of discs for new PlayStation games in 2028
New games sold for PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally and won’t be sold on discs effective January 2028, Sony has announced. The move applies to all PlayStation games released from that point on, including those made by Sony and those released by third parties. The PlayStation group calls the change “a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” according to a PlayStation blog post reviewed by Game File in advance of its publication. As movies, TV and music have shifted from physical media to an age of downloads and streaming, Sony’s move could speed the demise of physical media in a gaming. The industry has offered consumers games via cartridges, cassettes, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays across a 50-year stretch. Sony has been reporting to investors in recent years that PlayStation games have been increasingly purchased as downloads, not as discs. The most recent figures show nearly four in five purchases of full games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were purchased digitally in the past year. Stats like that may cause today’s news to carry an air of the inevitable. But Sony’s declaration for 2028 is still likely to produce a shock, as the biggest gaming platform on the planet that uses game discs leaves them behind. Discs going away, but the fate of game boxes is unknown Sony is committing to still selling games in physical retailers even after they drop discs in 2028. Just how those games will be sold—in boxes with codes inside, as cards marked with digital redemption codes—is unclear. Digital games will also continue to be sold in the online PlayStation Store. New games released for PlayStation consoles prior to January 2028 will be unaffected by the policy change, Sony says. That means the PS5 games of 2027, be they a new Madden, a new God of War, a new Call of Duty, a new Sly Cooper (one can dream?), would still potentially be offered on disc. PlayStation 6 implications Sony’s timeline for a transition to a no-disc era will also spin up more speculation about the timing and configuration of Sony’s next-generation console, the probable PlayStation 6. “This pretty much guarantees that PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” Piers Harding-Rolls, senior games research analyst at Ampere Analysis tells Game File. Harding-Rolls also concludes from today’s news that “the base version of a PS6 will not include a physical media drive,” as Sony looks to keep costs down on the device. Sony itself is saying nothing about the PS6 today: not its timing, nor how it might or might not support internal or external disc drives in order to run disc-based PS4 and PS5 games, should the console be backwards compatible. The many signs this was coming Industry support for games being released on physical media has been waning. As has consumer interest in them. PC games effectively went all-digital years ago, thanks to the popularity of playing games through Steam and other digital storefronts. The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that kept much of the global population home helped shift shopping patterns toward downloads. Sony’s own data shows PlayStation game downloads being an uncommon consumer choice a decade ago and now becoming the norm. On consoles, physical media has been in such decline that Sony and Microsoft both launched their current gen Xbox Series and PS5 consoles in 2020 with cheaper versions that lacked disc drives. In early 2024, Phil Spencer, then head of Xbox, told me that ““[w]e ship games physically and digitally, and we’re really just following what the customers are doing.” He added that the game industry had become an outlier in still supporting disc-based entertainment, even as movies and TV have bailed on discs in favor of downloads and steaming: “Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we’re going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact.” Last year, the Nintendo’s Switch 2, which uses cartridges rather than discs, introduced the concept of game-key cards, which are physical media that contain no game, just a prompt for a download. Even disc-based games aren’t what they once were, now frequently containing just stubs of games rather than the whole thing. The website Does It Play has tested over 3000 games and found that, for example, that the disc version of this year’s hit 007: First Light, only contained the game’s first mission, with the rest needing to be downloaded. Beyond all that, last week brought the news that Grand Theft Auto VI, likely the biggest game launch this decade, will debut for PS5 and Xbox Series without a disc-based version. Today’s big news comes to you for free. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and ensure more of my work is possible, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Discs helped define PlayStation However the trends in entertainment may be going, it is still remarkable to see PlayStation ditch discs given their importance in PlayStation history: In the late 1990s, the first PlayStation’s support for games on relatively cheap CD-ROMs instead of traditional game cartridges allowed the upstart console to outmaneuver cartridge-based systems from Nintendo and Sega, as it drove down game prices down in the process. (The cheaper disc format even prompted Final Fantasy VII maker Square to taunt Nintendo in a magazine ad, saying that if the game was “available on cartridge, it’d retail for around $1200.”) PlayStation devices often doubled as machines for watching movies and TV on the latest disc-based formats. In the late 2000s, for example, Sony’s pricy PS3 gained traction as a go-to device for playing then-novel Blu-Ray discs. In 2013, Sony effectively roasted the digital game-sharing restrictions proposed by rival Microsoft for its upcoming Xbox One console by showing how games could be shared for the then-upcoming PS4. In a 21-second clip that has over 20 million views on YouTube, one PlayStation executive simply handed a game box—presumably with disc inside—to another, who said “thanks.” Sony’s possible motivations The PlayStation announcement today cites “consumer preferences” and a shift away from discs among “the broader entertainment industry,” but does not delve into the decision-making process that brought Sony to this point. Sony is not discussing the economics of this move (I asked!), but there are a number of potential factors: Abandoning discs will spare Sony the cost of manufacturing and shipping them, which analysts and industry veterans I spoke to said could account for $1 or so of a game’s retail price. For first-party games, that’s direct savings for Sony, though the amount is limited by the winnowing percentage of people who were even buying the disc-based versions. For third-party games, Sony could pass the savings on to partners or just retain the better profit margin for themselves. As the 2024 comments from Phil Spencer alluded to, leaving discs behind could mean leaving disc-drives behind, allowing Sony to produce consoles more cheaply. Switching to digital-only for games could diminish the risks of copies of new games leaking. It would also seemingly make second-hand sales of used games impossible, pushing more people to buy their own copies of games. These economic benefits for Sony could be boons for the games industry overall, Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls tells Game File. Among other things, it could free publishers and retailers from having to worry about securing an inventory of game discs when trying to sell games, he noted. “If there is a way to streamline the business of games retail, I generally think it’s a good thing for the industry as it removes unnecessary costs,” Harding-Rolls said. “This will help offset pressure on margins from other directions – development and staffing costs for example.” Should the industry shift from game boxes that contain discs to smaller, cheaper game cards, Harding-Rolls said, that reduces pressure on publishers and retailers. “The advantage of everything going digital for the industry is that sales can be tracked much more easily and there is less commercial risk for publishers wanting to continue selling via retail,” he said. The shift to no discs will also likely impact game development timelines, as developers will no longer face the same urgency to have a build ready to submit to PlayStation for the production of a disc, as industry experts noted around GTA VI’s no-disc news last week. Instead, projects may gain weeks of development time, in the event delivery deadlines for platform approval move closer to release date. Preservationists’ likely worries While millions of gamers have shifted to digital, there are still people who associate game discs—and only game discs—with actual ownership of PlayStation games. That portion of the gaming community spoke up last week about wanting to buy a version of GTA VI that they could hold in their hands, could lend to a friend and could potentially pop into a well-preserved PS5 console three decades from now and still see it run. Such gamers didn’t want to worry that they’d merely purchased a digital copy that could lose access to the game if, say, the company behind the game someday turns of the servers that transmit downloadable copies. Digital copies of games are inherently less long-lasting, because consumers aren’t actually buying a game (on a disc), just buying access to the game. The fine print in online gaming shops notes this, as does a recent law that went on the books in California in 2025. That lasw requires game publishers doing business in the state to refrain from words like “sell” when offering digital copies of games, unless they explicitly tell consumers that what’s being sold isn’t the game itself but a potentially revocable license to access it. A Sony spokesperson noted to Game File that “[w]ith all digital content, including games, movies, and music, players are purchasing a personal license for non-commercial use.” Regarding the fears of PlayStation games being lost to time in an all-digital era, the rep also noted that Sony remains “committed to delivering experiences from past generations to the new platforms our players are using.” They noted that PlayStation has used emulation and remasters to keep offering its classic games to modern gamers. It’s true that many consumers have become accustomed to not having physical copies of new music albums or movies, but the relative precariousness of digital copies of games is in fact being highlighted today by…. Sony’s other big announcement: the upcoming closure of the PS3 and PS Vita online stores Sony said today that it will be closing the online marketplaces for its PlayStation 3 console and PS Vita handheld in most countries in July 2027 (sooner elsewhere: August 2026 for the PS3 store Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua; late 2026 for PS3 in other Latin American countries and the Middle East). “We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming,” Sony said in its announcement, saying the move “was not an easy decision for us to make.” Sony said that PS3 and Vita marketplaces “are no longer able” to support modern commerce systems, prompting a “need” to close the shops and focus on more modern PlayStation platform stores. The news may spark some deja vu. Sony announced back in March 2021 that it planned to take the PS3, Vita and PlayStation Portable marketplaces offline that summer. The move would have caused some 2,000 digital-only games to become unavailable for new purchasers, according to a VGC analysis at the time. Fans complained loudly. By April 2021, Sony walked back the PS3 and Vita shop closures, with then PlayStation boss Jim Ryan saying “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here.” This time around, Sony is giving a longer notice period in most regions. The closure of those stores is still likely to cut off access to new purchases of digital-only PS3 and Vita games. The current PlayStation 5 marketplace sells PS5 and PS4 games, as well as a selection of PS1 and PS2 games. It does not sell PS3 games, because games for that platform can’t run on the system (some are offered via a PlayStation Plus streaming option). Vita games also aren’t sold via PS5. Sony says digitally purchased PS3 and Vita games will be downloadable after the stores’ shutdowns “for the foreseeable future.” Sony’s move contrasts with Microsoft’s Xbox platform, which continues to sell and support games from all four Xbox console generations. But it puts it in line with Nintendo, which disabled purchases in the marketplace for its Wii console (a contemporary of the PS3) in 2019. Nintendo discontinued purchases in the online shop for its 3DS portable (a contemporary of the Vita) in 2023. The big questions about Sony’s 2028 post-disc era Will Microsoft follow suit, ending support for new disc-based games on Xbox platforms and therefore all game consoles, too? Whether Microsoft does or not, will third-parties that can no longer release games on discs for PlayStation, simply ditch the disc options across the board? Given the GTA VI no-disc experiment launching this November, will more game publishers decide to forgo disc-based offerings even in 2027? How will no-disc PS5/6 games be packaged and sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores? What becomes of game sharing in an all-digital era? Will Sony modify its current set-up, which currently allows some sharing of digital games across a pair of consoles, to allow more casual lending? (See for example, Nintendo’s year-old system of letting players lend a digital game to another player in a “family group” for up to 14 days.) Will there be a version of a PS6 with a disc drive? Or will a drive be offered as an add-on? And how will gamers who want to retain access to PS4/PS5 disc-based games react to whichever configurations Sony chooses to offer? What will the final disc-based PlayStation game be?
Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Remake Pre-Order Price Appears Online
Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake Price: Fans Shocked
I thought I was raising a confident girl. Then her words surprised me.
My young daughter doesn't think she can become a doctor because she's a girl. I don't know how this got into her head.
Meta adds $20 subscription to the Ray-Ban Meta's best accessibility feature
Pay up to hear more
Azure CLI Password Spray Hits at Least 78 Microsoft Accounts in 81M+ Attempts
Huntress says attackers made 81M Azure CLI password spray attempts from June 12-26, 2026, using ROPC to bypass weak CAPs.
Anthropic unveils drug discovery plans alongside Claude Science, an AI tool for drugmakers
At an event on Tuesday, the AI heavyweight said it plans to target "neglected" diseases.
Love and Deepspace dev cancels new love interest amid fan backlash
A little over a week of intense fan backlash has resulted in the romance gacha game rolling back the announcement of Valko
NYT Crossword Answers for June 30, 2026
John Liber makes his New York Times Crossword debut.
Netflix and Superheroes Are Having a Rough Stretch on Streaming....
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) I have a quick prediction before we start today’s article: You might see this data in future news articles. Not my specific charts or analysis, but the core trend I’ve been monitoring—Netflix is having a lackluster Q2—will become inescapable. Often, folks want to know “What does the data say?” Well, that’s what it says. I haven’t seen this analysis hit the trades really yet, but I have a feeling some other outlets are going to start making this case soon. Remember, you read it here first. You probably have read about the problems facing superhero films at the box office this weekend. Well, this week, I explore whether superheroes are dying on TV as well! And the data says: definitely maybe! We have a lot to cover in today’s Streaming Ratings Report, which covers the two weeks of 18-May and 25-May. Today, I’m just looking at TV, like Netflix’s disappointing Q2, superhero shows underwhelming, a few TV shows dropping off the charts, The Pitt finally ending its epic run on the viewership charts (and whether “view counts” change its status as one of the biggest shows of all time), all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Tomorrow, I’ve got a great rundown of the film side of things. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, Showlabs, TV Time trend data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of May 18th to May 31st, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Netflix’s Q2 Slump Continues Having analyzed streaming ratings for going on half a decade, I have learned to trust my gut, but I’m always relieved when I can find actual data to back it up. For example, after a string of very popular shows like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Lincoln Lawyer and The Night Agent came out, week after week, in January and February, my gut wondered if Netflix had enough new and returning TV shows to sustain them throughout the year. Since then, Netflix’s post-March slate of shows has not impressed me. This week seemed to feature a potential new hit, but then, like a classic Duffer Bros. TV show, there was a twist. I speak of The Boroughs, Netflix’s latest (and last) Duffer Bros. produced show. The pitch is “Stranger Things with older actors”. And it topped the Nielsen charts: With just two weeks of viewership, The Boroughs would have been a top 25 debut show last year: But here’s the twist: Netflix has already cancelled The Boroughs! What happened? Likely a few things. First, the show didn’t do as well globally as it did in the US. As What’s on Netflix showed, it lagged behind several other shows that got cancelled. Second, its completion rate was likely low; after an initial burst of interest, it quickly dropped off on the Samba TV and Luminate charts. Third, the Duffer Bros. left Netflix for Paramount, and that may have factored into Netflix’s decision here. (Though I tend to believe that if a show is doing well, Netflix would have kept greenlighting seasons.) Still, just because I can explain why Netflix may have cancelled this show doesn’t mean I’m justifying it. In particular, as I’ve noted before, Netflix is losing a lot of their bigger shows as they reach their natural ends, and they need to replace those shows. This show had the hallmarks of a big new genre show, and it’s their biggest hit of the last few months (in the US at least), but now it’s done. Netflix’s other show this week—The Four Seasons, the second season of the “hit” show from last year—definitely disappointed. Its sophomore season had about half the viewership of the first, only 12.7 million hours. It also only had a two week run on Samba TV, and its numbers were all down on Luminate too. In other words, even with two successes, the Q2 slump for Netflix looks real: I could add to the list of disappointments: Both Lord of the Files and Man on Fire had short runs on the Nielsen charts. Running Point’s sophomore season also opened to about half its viewership, similar to The Four Seasons. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s second season—see below—didn’t even make any of the three viewership charts I track, unlike the first season. Netflix is absolutely having a dismal second three months of 2026. If this Nielsen data is any indication, and I think it is, I think this will show up in Netflix’s engagement report, and maybe even their financial outcomes. And the rest of June doesn’t look much better. We have two hit shows coming back—Sweet Magnolias, one of their quietest big shows, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, a big hit for them in 2024—but the other big swings are limited series crime thrillers i.e. no future season potential. Like I said above, sometimes when I uncover a juicy nugget like this, other outlets end up writing very similar articles mimicking the data without credit. We’ll see if that happens this time! Share Television - The State of Superhero Shows on Streaming When I first heard the pitch for Spider-Noir—a Sony TV show on Prime Video that binge-released eight episodes first on MGM+ then on Prime Video two days later—I had my doubts. It’s a live-action Spider-Man show set in the 1930s, starring Nicholas Cage, based on a cameo of a character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. No, seriously, that’s the pitch. That could either go terrifically well or horribly wrong. Great because, Spider-Man. He’s the biggest superhero we have. I’ve seen tracking numbers that put the new _Spider-Man: Brand New Da_y as the blockbuster of the year and initial pre-sales back that up. And yet this Spider-Noir pitch feels very esoteric. (Also, the eight-episode binge release feels very “Amazon copying Netflix” again.) So what’s the data say? And what does this say about the future of superhero shows?
WhatsApp usernames arrive later this year, but the handle land grab starts now
Beat the rush
A business built on faith: Immeasurably More Event Catering plants roots in Madison Township
A church kitchen, a leap of faith and a dream that grew by word of mouth have led Immeasurably More Event Catering to its first permanent home.
Companion Cube Steam Machine canceled after Dbrand angers Valve
I'm making a note here, "Huge blunder"
Patrick Mahomes Shares Emotional Four-Word Message After NFL Legend’s Heartbreaking Health News
Patrick Mahomes was among the NFL stars sending support after Chris Johnson announced his ALS diagnosis. The post Patrick Mahomes Shares Emotional Four-Word Message After NFL Legend’s Heartbreaking Health News appeared first on HEAVY.
Congress wants to ban AI companies from selling your health data
The new proposal bans selling health and location data info — including data entered into your favorite AI chatbot.
T-Mobile retires legacy plans, prompting price hikes and customer backlash
Average plan increase is $4 per month
Patrick Mahomes Shares Emotional Message Following NFL Legend’s ALS Announcement
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had four words after unfortunate announcement
Sword Health contracted to provide AI-supported physical therapy for an entire country
Portugal's National Health Service signed a deal with digital health company Sword for its AI-assisted virtual physical therapy care.
Bears Great Brian Urlacher’s 3-Word Description of Caleb Williams
Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher gives his honest thoughts and description of quarterback Caleb Williams. The post Bears Great Brian Urlacher’s 3-Word Description of Caleb Williams appeared first on HEAVY.
I spent weeks thinking my Pixel's camera lens was smeared before discovering the real culprit
I can finally take good pictures again!
Summer Blockbuster Entertainment
“It’s summertime and the living is easy,” those words sung by Ella Fitzgerald in the 1960s might not ring as true in 2026, but summertime should still be the time […]
I started using Projects in Google Drive; it instantly boosted my productivity
Google Drive finally feels smarter
I found a hidden Google Maps feature that made my Pixel's always-on display useful
A hidden Maps trick worth turning on
Brain activity under anesthesia challenges what we know about consciousness
The unconscious brain appears to be far more capable than scientists once believed. Researchers found that patients under general anesthesia could still process language at a sophisticated level, distinguishing nouns, verbs, and adjectives while listening to stories. Even more remarkably, neural activity showed signs of predicting upcoming words before they were heard. The results challenge traditional ideas about consciousness and hint at new possibilities for brain-computer interfaces.
Grease is the word at Sutter Street
FOLSOM — Sutter Street Theatre will transport audiences back to the halls of Rydell High this summer with its production of “Grease: School Version,” running through July 26.
Texas Mental Health Program Reveals 103% Increase in Veteran Enrollment
Emory University treatment is expanding throughout the state at no cost, but many veterans remain unaware of their services.
Someone just released a SteamOS gaming PC before Valve even shipped its own
It has a very clever name.
Supreme Court ruling on Roundup points to a confusing difference between the law and science
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Roundup shows science and law use the same word — causation — while asking different questions, writes epidemiologist.
Pro-Israel influencers criticize Vance, but evangelicals remain open to him
Despite attacks from some conservatives, a heavily pro-Israel crowd still has warm words for Vance, with many saying they could pick him as the party’s nominee.
‘Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro’ needed more words to prove its power, three other flagship chips coming
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset lineup is eternally confusing, with slight variations generating new names and options that aren’t all that different....
Trump will present the World Cup trophy. It could be VERY awkward
The president has launched a war with nation in the tournament, and a war of words with many others.
Yearslong Resident Evil mystery solved: Kyle MacLachlan revealed to be Jill Valentine's 'boyfriend'
Twin Peaks star has ties to STARS
Michigan president has strong words for college sports after Dusty May exit
Michigan president Domenico Grasso spoke with Dusty May and said he cited the transfer portal and uncertainty about NIL as reasons for his departure.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Merck KGaA bolsters life sciences business with $11.3B Bio-Techne buy
The deal comes a matter of weeks after Kai Beckmann was promoted to CEO at Merck and signalled his intent to broaden the company's scope for M&A.