The Weekender: Kindle Fire HD review, space exploration, and the DNC
Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition.
Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition.
Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Each week, we’ll bring you important articles from the previous weeks’ original reports, features and reviews on The Verge. Think of it as a collection of a few (very few!) of our favorite pieces from the week gone by, which you may have missed, or which you might want to read again.
 | A little infographic porn for your weekend brunch reading. Facebook maps out the friendships between nations with some helpful interactive graphics by the Stamen design studio. Bonus quick read on colonization. |
 | As we march into the future it becomes increasingly clear that our primary struggles will be linked to a lack of global resources, and the easiest preventative solution to this problem — while still acknowledging the primal human instinct to do more — is to do more with less. An intergalactic examination of space exploration, past and future. |
 | Amazon brings the fight to Apple's iPad and the Nexus 7, but is its beauty more than skin deep? With a great price tag and ecosystem the Amazon Kindle Fire HD means business. Read the full Verge review and see what our verdict is. |
 | Co-founded by former Facebookers, Quora was the It Startup when it launched in mid-2009 with the goal of putting all the information in our heads onto the web. But the Q&A product is still searching for traction beyond Silicon Valley with a new design. |
 | After a week on the ground in Tampa at the RNC, Matt Stroud takes a load off and watches the DNC from the comfort of his own living room. Just how different are those two media experiences? |
 | With a fresh 5-year extension on the line, privacy groups and members of Congress fight to get answers on the NSA's shadowy electronic surveillance activities. Watch what you say. |
 | The iPhone 5 is the best iPhone ever: everybody knows that. Why then, are there some persistent voices out there crying, "boring"? Are we just spoiled, or does this malaise speak to something deeper? |
 | What does Amazon's new X-Ray for Movies feature mean for the future of product placement and interactive shopping? Sean Hollister looks at how it's only a matter of time before you can buy anything you see on your Amazon tablet. |
