The Weekender: augmented dating, transparent brains, and a phone filled with Facebook

The best of the week gone by

by Jacob Kastrenakes

Apr 13, 2013, 2:00 PM UTC

Jacob Kastrenakes is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.

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 of our favorite pieces from the week gone by, which you may have missed, or which you might want to read again.

Feature

OK, Cupid: giving your love life to Google Glass and the hive mind

Technologies like Google Glass have the ability to augment not just our senses, but our entire personality. Artist Lauren McCarthy used a streaming video setup to outsource her entire personality during a series of blind dates, and she found out that leaving your actions up to the masses can get pretty confusing.

Review

HTC First review: a Facebook phone that's pure Google at heart

Mark Zuckerberg may have said any phone could be a Facebook phone, but the HTC First is truly a Facebook phone. It's a reasonably-sized Android device with LTE and a big surprise underneath. Could this Facebook phone be the perfect companion to Google's mobile platform?

Report

Bad SEO: a martial arts champ responds to rape allegations with Internet Marketing trickery

Welcome back to Scamworld. Here’s what happens when an MMO star and internet marketer responds to rape allegations using his business techniques.
Feature

First Person Shooter: Taser's new cop-cam takes aim at perps and privacy

Police in Mesa, Arizona are wearing head-mounted cameras while on patrol, capturing both the mundane and thrilling moments of the daily beat. Taser's new technology has the potential to protect officers against legal fallout, but what does it mean for the future of privacy and surveillance?
Interview

Filmmaker Shane Carruth talks 'Upstream Color' and making movies like albums

Upstream Color has finally begun a limited theatrical release, and we sat down with director Shane Carruth to talk about the film and what happened in the nine years since his debut with Primer.
Report

Technique to create transparent brains could transform neuroscience

Researchers have developed imaging methods that allow them to see through the brain and analyze it in greater detail. What could they learn using these new techniques?
Review

Facebook Home review: are people more important than apps?

Facebook Home completely redesigns your Android phone, moving your apps and widgets aside and placing your friends' status updates front and center. Dieter Bohn tried to find out if it's the overhaul that your phone needs.
Report

Suicide and silicon: why would anyone want to kill an American engineer in Singapore

Shane Todd’s girlfriend found his body hanging in his apartment two days after he celebrated leaving a job for a better one. Nothing about the alleged suicide seemed likely, and now it’s grown into international intrigue as answers are demanded about the secretive projects that Todd was working on for his employer.