Cameron Faulkner

(AP) — Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power.

@apnews.com
apnews.com/article/pent...

Design Room Video game oral histories

🚨🚨🚨

We are live! Welcome to Design Room, a new independent games media site.

• We specialize in oral histories like the Final Fantasy 7 and Street Fighter 2 ones I (@mattleone.bsky.social) did at Polygon
• Our first big story is on Shadow of the Colossus: bit.ly/4hjwz8n
• See more: designroom.site

"They talked about Neural Arrays, Radiance Cores, and Universal Compression. No, these aren’t Destiny 2 patch notes, they’re a roadmap to what will seemingly make gaming on PS6 marginally better than current-gen tech." lol nicely done

Sony teases new GPU tech coming to its next PlayStation Sony’s Mark Cerny and AMD’s Jack Tuynh shared some graphics compression and GPU innovations coming to the unnamed PlayStation devices, presumably the PS6.

Sony teased next-gen AMD graphics features coming to the PS6 (presumably - the console wasn't named). You'd think any whisper of PS6 would be a big deal, but our readers don't seem excited. One said "This console generation has fully convinced me to move on to PCs." www.theverge.com/news/797640/...

Fractal’s Scape is proof that $200 can get you a luxurious gaming headset It gets a lot right on its first try.

The Fractal Scape slaps www.theverge.com/tech/797879/...

Using saline spray for your nose will improve your quality of life, especially during chilly, dry weather

Contact An Organizer | Writers Guild of America East Find out how you can form a union at your workplace. No matter what changes have impacted the media industry, the Guild has always played a central role in fighting for—and winning—better standards…

A union will drastically improve your work life. If you work in nonfiction TV, documentary film, podcasting, online media or broadcast news, contact a representative from the WGA East to answer your questions. www.wgaeast.org/organize/con...

The rear grip of the EasySMX S10 is in focus, with a lemon in the background out of focus. I attempted to zest the lemon with the grippy grips, but it didn't work.

In trying to expand the way that I test controllers, I attempted to zest a lemon with the S10's very grippy (for some, too grippy) grips. Alas, the lemon remained unzested, which is good by the way

I’ve tested the latest Switch 2 controllers, and this one is the best It’s not made by Nintendo.

Hello, I tested out some Switch 2 controllers for @theverge.com for your consideration. The EasySMX S10 is the best gamepad that isn't Nintendo's own Switch 2 Pro (it has almost all of the same features, but is $40 cheaper right now).

www.theverge.com/tech/791574/...

What a dark day for press freedom in the United States

*Adam Jensen voice*: "Pritchard..."

We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract 404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.

New: 404 Media is suing ICE. We have filed a lawsuit demanding ICE release its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware to break into phones and read encrypted messages. This is expensive for a small outlet but this info is important
www.404media.co/were-suing-i...

There's an online radio station in Japan called Nonstop Casiopea. It rules (via the awesome Radio Garden app)

WGA Statement on ABC's Decision to Pull ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other - to disturb, even - is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people. It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice. As a Guild, we stand united in opposition to anyone who uses their power and influence to silence the voices of writers, or anyone who speaks in dissent. If free speech applied only to ideas we like, we needn't have bothered to write it into the Constitution. What we have signed on to - painful as it may be at times - is the freeing agreement to disagree. Shame on those in government who forget this founding truth. As for our employers, our words have made you rich. Silencing us impoverishes the whole world. The WGA stands with Jimmy Kimmel and his writers.

The following is a statement from the WGA on ABC’s decision to pull ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’

Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way The mainstream media seems entirely uninterested in explaining Charlie Kirk's work.

Mainstream pundits have instantly sanitized and ignored Charlie Kirk's core political project and its impacts. He has been remembered by the mainstream press as someone they merely disagreed with, a debate me-guy whose words and actions had zero consequences:

www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...

I tried Jsaux’s new anti-glare Switch 2 screen protector, and it revealed a glaring bug I slapped a pre-production version on my Switch 2. This $21.99 screen protector is coming in October.

I got my hands on an pre-production sample of a new anti-glare Switch 2 screen protector, and ironically, it revealed that there's a dead cockroach in my ceiling light www.theverge.com/games/770667...

This is amazing. Congrats Alice!

Since I got laid off in May I've been working with a number of other former Polygon writers to start a new website. I'm proud to announce that we've just launched Rogue.site, a worker-owned and operated games journalism site funded by readers like you.

It’s Always Been Our Meanest Sci-Fi Franchise—and Our Most Honest There are no happy endings in Alien: Earth or the many Alien movies.

tonight’s Alien: Earth episode is an Alien movie in miniature, so I wrote a bit about the franchise’s fundamental mean streak and how that makes it resonate, even when it stumbles

slate.com/culture/2025...

Weekend Watchlist, 8/29: Killer Bs What to watch at home this weekend

my picks for what to watch this weekend! pvguide.ghost.io/movies-to-wa...

every new story like this convinces me more that the cat is entirely, irrecoverably out of the bag with these systems. no amount of guardrails or consulting with experts will ever fix this. they built a product designed to make people reliant on it emotionally/mentally, and that's the original sin

Zombies ate my neighbors

Ate too much ice cream...

What’s craaaazy to me is that a Minnesota state rep was ASSASSINATED and nothing even remotely close to this happened there

They're best tuned low imo. I don't make them bright. I want it to look like some of the tv colors are seeping just beyond the bezels

Screenshot of a vox media union logo over the Eater logo. The heading reads, "Eater isn't essential without journalism."

Screenshot (condensed for Bluesky word limit): On August 8, without warning, Vox Media laid off 15 members of Eater, Punch, and Thrillist, the award-winning food, drink, and travel news and recommendation sites, while management celebrated Eater’s 20th anniversary. The cuts decimated local coverage, including Chicago, the country’s third-largest market. This is the second restructuring at Eater in less than 10 months. The cuts come not only one month after the Vox Media Union ratified its new collective bargaining agreement, but also two months after the James Beard Awards, where Eater and Punch earned four nominations and two wins. The firings came a week after Jim Bankoff claimed in an interview there would be no imminent layoffs. Eater says farewell to a cohort of award-winning and dedicated journalists who fought tooth and nail to keep the wall between editorial and advertising intact. We sound like a broken record, but we are once again grateful to have bargained for industry-leading severance language in our latest contract. This GoFundMe is organized by members of the Vox Media Union. All funds raised will directly benefit union members impacted by the August 7 layoffs, and will be distributed in equal shares to those who opt-in to receive funds. The organizers will be reaching out to those impacted in the coming days with details. Our union is committed to supporting our colleagues who were laid off, and will hold management accountable for how these layoffs were conducted. With these funds, we hope to ease the financial burden that these layoffs have placed on our colleagues some of who face mounting medical bills and are charged with being their family's primary caretakers. The Vox Media Union layoff fund is being overseen by a committee of Vox Media Union members, including Ashok Selvam, Jaya Saxena, and Amy McCarthy. The fund will operate transparently, with full accounting of all donations that are received and distributed.

Our Eater GoFundMe is up! We all know this has been a difficult year for Vox, but the folks at Eater have been extremely dedicated in their support for each of their colleagues, past and present. Let's support them now!!! #unionstrong #voxunion #1u

gofund.me/04932462

thanks for having me, pete!

Polygon Exit Interview: Cameron Faulkner, Commerce Editor “Every day was full of new experiences”

Today's Polygon Exit Interview is with commerce editor extraordinaire @cameronfaulkner.bsky.social, who ran Polygon's commerce program with passion and enthusiasm and was a joy to work with pvguide.substack.com/p/polygon-ex...

Weekend Watchlist, 8/8: Survive and thrive Two stellar new releases and a great collection on the Criterion Channel

my picks for what to watch at home this weekend:

pvguide.substack.com/p/weekend-wa...

Design Room (@designroom.bsky.social) A new website dedicated to video game oral histories coming soon from mattleone.bsky.social. Logo by asawallander.se.

For the evening crowd: I’m launching a new oral histories site called designroom.bsky.social. Won’t be much there for another month or so, but follow now to get in early!