When I first saw “Green girl” I was scrolling through r/pixelsorting, and I really liked it. And most of the time I don’t upvote or like stuff online. They don’t need my data, is what I’m thinking. But I also wanna show my appreciation for this piece of art I discovered, so I upvote it…

Even though the development of “AI” chatbots, text-to-image generators, and similar “AI” tools feels extremely rapid and monumental at the moment, I would like to take a step back in this text and analyze why the development feels so significant, but also address what it (so far) is not.

If you’re not satisfied with the quality of Apple’s streaming service, it likely has to do with your choice of playback device. When I tried to watch Prehistoric Planet on my Windows PC using the Firefox browser, I was baffled. Why did it look like a YouTube video from 2007? I was very confused and frustrated. Instead of spending the evening enjoying perhaps the best modern portrayal of dinosaurs, I had to wonder what was going wrong.

The year is coming to an end, and in the media world, that doesn’t mean winter, Christmas, or New Year’s—it means yearly retrospectives, top lists, and previews. For several years now, there’s also been Spotify Wrapped, perhaps one of the best and, in terms of marketing, most effective end of year campaigns that takes up our feeds. It presents you with your own listening habits from the past year and encourages you to share them on social media.

I started a German-language video game podcast (at the beginning of 2022). In “ReGen,” my father and I talk about video games. So far, so ordinary. However, my father has no clue about games and serves as a guinea pig for me and our listeners. What hurdles do newcomers to this medium have to overcome? What is there to learn about digital skills in general? And how can someone be systematically introduced to this incredibly vast and diverse world of video games?

Out of the city and into the small town of Providence Oaks in the mid-1980s. “Lake” is a kind of charming small adventure, I really enjoy. The protagonist, Meredith Weiss, takes on a sort of “vacation job” in her hometown, temporarily filling in for her father as a postal carrier. The small, interactive story is more about the people in the town than the plot itself. So, for two weeks, you drive around the lake town, deliver mail, talk to the locals, and enjoy the digital tranquility.

With its 18th issue, the WASD came to an end in the summer of 2021. It was a video game bookazine that was published semiannually, each time focusing on a specific theme. Featuring contributions from various authors in the German-speaking video game journalism scene, each issue presented a delightful collection of opinions and ideas. I will miss this project a lot.

“Fake Doctors Real Friends” is a podcast hosted by the former actors of the comedy series Scrubs and, for me, it embodies the contrast between “old” and “new” media. But first, an explanation. The podcast, hosted by Zach Braff and Donald Faison, takes on the task of discussing the series chronologically (one episode at a time) and sharing background information, anecdotes, and anything else that comes to their minds about the production. In addition, they feature guests from the show’s cast, directors, writers, and answer listener questions at the end of each episode.