It’s called Channel Surfer, and it presents YouTube as an old-school grid of TV channels, which you can flip though to see what’s on. All the simplicity of watching cable in a hotel room; all the videos you actually want to watch. It’s fun on its own, but it feels like magic as soon as you import your own subscriptions to create personalized channels.
One of my favorite things to do on social media is to just imagine the people setting up the camera right before the video starts — because as soon as you remember they set up a camera, the whole viewing experience changes. This fun Ringer story about the rise of YouTube Face (trust me, you know the face) pulls back a lot of that artifice and dives into some of the strange workings of the internet’s biggest video platform.
[The Ringer]
The third season of Version History kicked off this weekend, and I can confidently tell you it’s the first time that research has required me to spend several hours on Geocities. Such was the toy world in 1998! Furby is a story of technology, of toys, and of human-gadget philosophy. It’s a really fun episode — subscribe wherever you get podcasts, or watch the full episode on the new Version History YouTube channel.
8
Verge Score
If your iPad is still in good shape, you don’t need this one. Or any other new one. But if it’s upgrade time, start here.
For the next six Sundays, we have stories about tech we talk to… and tech that talks back. We’re starting with Furby, which is truly one of the wildest episodes we’ve done yet. Here’s how to get all things Version History going forward:
Also, we’re already scheming for next season — tell us what stories you want to hear!