However, unlike many apps which might serve up irrelevant, obnoxious ads, the ones displayed in Overcast are actually for other podcasts. It does cost £3.99/$3.99 for the app, but as it’s a one-off payment we think that’s more than fair.Ī recent redesign has made the interface a bit more confusing that it was before, with a few alterations just feeling plain wrong, but the active community and responsive developers will hopefully gets things back to the normal excellence very soon.Overcast is one of the most popular podcast apps on the iTunes App Store with 20,000 ratings averaging 4.7-stars. As the app is cross-platform it also means you can sync your shows and progress between iOS, Android, and even your PC, making it one of the most versatile players in this roundup. Support for Apple Watch and Siri shortcuts make Pocket Cast a well integrated experience, and the general aesthetic remains one of our favourites. It gives you access to your own personal stats regarding your listening habits: for example, telling you how much time you’ve spent listening to podcasts and how much time you’ve saved using the silence trimming feature. There’s also a fantastic filtering function to give you the ability to sort your episodes by downloaded, episodes in progress, already played and other filtering options. You get volume boost and silence trimming, and Pocket Casts notifies you of any new episodes and will download them automatically as soon as they’re released so you don’t need to manually refresh your feed. We found that other podcast apps had fiddly user interfaces but Pocket Casts cuts that down to make something feature-rich but simple – it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. The app makes it clear which episodes are locally saved on your iPhone and which ones are not. Pocket Casts is one of the best-looking podcast apps out there, with a sleek and user-friendly interface. Overcast syncs your current playback position on your phone to the desktop so you’ll never lose your place if you want to listen on your computer.ĭowncast does have banner ads, which is how the developers can afford to offer it for free, but if you like how it all works then there’s a £8.99/$8.99 p/a Premium tier that removes these and helps with future improvements to the app. Instead, it works server-side to download any new episodes so your data isn’t forced to do the heavy lifting. Overcast requires you to register for an account, which might seem strange, but this is so that your phone isn’t continuously syncing and looking for new episodes. Dig in even further and you’ll find plenty of other settings that allow you to hone the experience to your particular whim. Siri shortcuts that allow you to control the app via voice commands and Apple Watch support brings controls to your wrist. There’s also a sleep timer that can be set to any time you like, and you’ll also find a dark theme, plus support for The best part is that these can be set per podcast rather than universally, so if you have a show that is particularly quiet or with lots of gaps you can fix things easily. Voice boost equalises the voices of the hosts and maximises the volume of poorly recorded podcasts. Smart Speed is far and away Overcast’s best and most intuitive element: it cuts out long silences, making certain there’s a seamless, continuous listening experience. Overcast is a simple-to-use and aesthetically pleasing podcast app packed with clever and useful features for the everyday listener. This costs £17.99/$8.99 p/a which admittedly is a bit of a stitch-up for UK users, but the free tier has plenty to keep the British happy. Additional controls include a sleep mode that stops playback after a preset time has elapsed and speed controls for the audio.Īll of these features are free, but Castro also has a Plus tier that brings the ability to trim silences in episodes, Night Mode, download limits, audio enhancements, and other useful little refinements. You can star your favourite episodes, just in case you want to go back and listen to that specific one again or share it with a friend. Not everyone wants to listen to every single episode of a podcast and Castro gives you the freedom to do that. You can select your favourite podcasts to be put into the queue automatically and archive the ones you don’t want to listen to. With an intuitive episode ‘triage’ system, the app allows you to scan through new episodes of shows in an inbox, choose which ones you want to queue up and archive the rest so there’s no more messy feeds. If you want something that truly lives up to the title of podcast manager, look no further than
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The open source utility is natively portable and drags along a unified graphical user interface as well. A version of this application called Archives is available for the iOS gadgets and can be downloaded from iTunes.Īnd the final option on our free ZIP programs list is meant for both Windows- and Linux-based computer systems. One of its key advantages is that it promises to correctly handle filename encoding so they are not garbled. Some older formats like StuffIt, ARJ, ARC and DiskDoubler amongst others are also compatible with this utility meant for Mac computers running OS X 10.6 or later.Īnd if that’s not enough, you can use it to open ISO and BIN disc images or some Windows. You can download it if your computer runs Windows 95 or later platforms.Īs the name suggests, The Unarchiver is a tool that allows you to unarchive different types of files which include RAR, TAR and more apart from the concerned codec. This multi-lingual software can be customized further with the help of Lua scripting. The application gives you the ability to control data after the extraction is completed and allows you to make use of password lists to find out the correct passcode for an archive. It goes without saying that this particular utility is compatible with most of the major archive formats. It runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 platforms.Īnd here we have another intuitive free ZIP program in our roundup which lets you extract various archives at the same time. It can be used for packing up archives of almost any size.Īdditionally, the tool has been blessed with a simple layout and intuitive functionality so you can easily archive data without hassles. Settings for email, RapidShare, CD and DVD have already been loaded into the utility, but it lets you come up with your own settings as well. Hamster is a complimentary software which claims to use the best compression and productivity settings and at the same time, takes the assistance of multi-core processing options. There’s drag and drop functionality too and the software can carry out extraction of as many as 33 archive formats. In order to make it simpler for you, it lets you configure settings of major elements and optimizes those of the others. Apart from encryption and decryption, it can be expected to create self-extracting archives and UPX compression mode. Taking our compilation of free ZIP programs further is ArcThemAll, a compression and extraction utility which allows carrying out these operations on batches of multiple files and folders. The tool can be installed on computers running Windows 8, 7, 2008, Vista, 2003 and XP. It converts archives’ formats and boasts of AES-256 bit encryption for securing backup of confidential data. The utility allows you to save up on time by creating or extracting multiple files at the same time and enables transferring data to and from Windows Explorer by simply dragging and dropping. It extends support to all the major archiving formats and tags along a password manager. Meant for Windows-based computers, Bitser allows you to manage your archives and backups using an alternate interface that appears similar to explorer style views. Changing the format of a certain archive is possible and it permits you to add and view comments as well. You can repair damaged archives using iZArc and create self-extracting archives. Complete with a simple interface, the tool with several essential attributes has the drag and drop function for transferring files to Windows Explorer. Next up on the catalog of ZIP program solutions is iZArc, a file compression software which is compatible with a number of archive formats such as ACE, ARC, ARJ, RAR, TAR, TAZ, TGZ and many more, apart from the one in question. The software also has the self-extracting capability for 7z format and a file manager integrated in it too. Its compressions ratio is said to be higher than that of some of the most commonly used utilities. Also, formats like ARJ, RAR, CAB, CHM, XAR, RPM and many others can be unpacked using this application. Besides the concerned format, the utility can pack and unpack a number of other types of codecs including 7z, XZ, TAR, WIM to name a few. So do take a quick look at the alternatives that have managed to grab a spot on our rundown.Ī file archive app with a high compression ratio, 7-Zip is an open source software which has acquired the GNU LGPL license, but its unRAR code comes with certain restrictions. And apart from Windows, we have added a few ZIP options for the proud owners of Mac or Linux computers as well. This lineup will be of help if you are contemplating replacing a certain widely used file compression utility for the concerned format. Looking for the best free ZIP program to deal with your archive folders? Well, then look no further as we have formulated a list to help you get your work done without forking out even a single dime. That is the main thing that sets this browser apart from the Incognito Mode on browsers such as Chrome. In addition, all permissions are blocked, so your camera, microphone, or other device tools won’t be able to access your browser.Ī cool thing about the Puffin Incognito Browser is that it hides your IP address and location. There are no ads on the Puffin Incognito Browser - this is by default, so there is no need to download a special extension for this. It doesn’t matter which web pages you are visiting only you will know what you visited. The Puffin Incognito Browser never tracks your data. If you want maximum privacy while still enjoying fast loading times, make sure to download the Puffin Incognito Browser. On mobile, Puffin has two types of browsers: The regular Puffin Web Browser (for Android and iOS) and the Puffin Incognito Browser (Android only). On desktop, download the Puffin Secure Browser. A unique feature of the Puffin browser is its cloud isolation technology, which isolates your browsing in the cloud so that hackers and others with malicious intent can not access your data. It’s a great alternative to Opera if you are looking for a quick desktop or mobile browser that loads pages super-fast without sacrificing the quality of the browser experience, as Opera Mini often does on mobile. Puffin is a fast and secure browser that is available for both desktop and mobile devices. Let’s get into it! The 10 Best Opera Alternatives 1. Today, I will be going over the 10 best alternatives to Opera for both desktop and mobile devices. Whether you have been looking for an Opera alternative for one of those reasons or you are simply curious about what’s out there, this article is for you. Many others also don’t like the Opera interface - they find it buggy and slow at times.įinally, some users enjoyed the older version of Opera, which was Presto based, rather than the newer version, which has been based on Chromium since 2013. Opera has been hacked and breached in the past, with users’ passwords and sensitive information exposed. They have a whole list of those companies, which include Facebook, Google, and Yandex - you can read more about it in the Opera privacy statement.Įven if you do use the VPN, you can’t expect maximum security. Not only that, but Opera is pretty clear that they collect data from Opera Mini users and hand it over to large corporations. And, while Opera does have a VPN, its VPN has a major drawback - you can’t choose a server in a specific country, only in a specific region (such as North America). That caused a lot of chatter about potential privacy issues, as many suspect that the Chinese government forces Chinese companies to hand over the personal data of its users. In 2016, it was bought by a Chinese company. However, many people worry about privacy when using Opera. Opera Touch is a later addition, designed to make it easy to use your browser with one hand. Opera Mini is a “light” version of Opera that uses fewer resources and loads pages quicker. Others like how it gives you a few options on mobile devices: Opera, Opera Mini, and Opera Touch. Many people prefer the Opera browser because it has a built-in VPN. Final Thoughts: What Is The Best Opera Alternative?. webkit-animation-delay-The time to wait between triggering the animation and beginning the animation (default is 0s). Set this property to paused to pause and or running (default) to continue the animation. webkit-animation-play-state-Pauses or resumes an animation. The webkit-animation-iteration-count value must be greater than one1 for this property to have any effect. If set to alternate, the animation goes forward and backward-from 0% to 100% and from 100% to 0%-on alternate iterations. Can be set to normal (default) or alternate. webkit-animation-direction-Causes repeating animation to either proceed in the same direction each time or to alternate directions. Can be set to an integer value or to infinite. webkit-animation-iteration-count-Sets the number of times to repeat the animation. You can also set the following animation properties: You must set the -webkit-animation-duration and -webkit-animation-name properties in order to see an animation. You typically set keyframe animation properties by defining a CSS class or pseudoclass, but you can also set the animation properties by using the HTML style attribute in an HTML tag or by setting the style property of an element using JavaScript. One exception is the -webkit-animation-timing-function property if not specified for a particular keyframe, the default timing function is used. Exact behavior when the set of properties varies from rule to rule is currently unspecified and subject to change. Note: You may specify any CSS properties in the style rules, but you should specify the same set of properties in all of the rules. The left property animates back and forth between 75px and 150px, while the background color cycles between red, white, and blue. Listing 6-2 shows a set of keyframes where the animation is named wobble-glow and the keyframes move an element back and forth while changing its background color over time. The style rules are grouped in blocks surrounded by braces, and each is preceded by a relative point in time (typically a percentage of the animation’s duration).Īny number of CSS properties can be specified by the style rules. The rule consists of the keyword, followed by the animation name then by a series of style rules for each keyframe. Keyframes are specified in CSS using the rule. See the PosterCircle sample code project for the complete source code for this example. For example, Figure 6-1 shows an animation of text elements in 3D space. You can also change an element’s style when the animation ends by installing a JavaScript listener function for the webkitAnimationEnd event.Ĭreate stunning effects by combining animation with 2D and 3D transforms. You can override this behavior, however, and make the final animation state persistent. When a keyframe animation completes, an animated element returns to its original CSS style. Keyframe animations can be paused and resumed.Īll of the elements in a class can be animated as part of a single animation. Keyframe animations can be set to repeat a finite number of times or to repeat indefinitely, proceeding in the same direction each time, or alternating forward and backward. You trigger keyframe animations explicitly. Keyframe animations include the following features:Ĭhoose any number of CSS properties to change and define points along a timeline that have specific states.Īnimation between two defined points is automatic but can be guided by specifying a timing function. To create complex animations-such as a bumblebee’s flight or a change that starts and stops or repeats indefinitely-or to trigger animations under arbitrary conditions using JavaScript, use keyframe animations. To simply animate changes in CSS properties whenever those properties change, you should probably use an animated transition (see Animating CSS Transitions). The duration of both the animations is 1 second.Safari supports two types of CSS animation: transition animations and keyframe animations. In the following demo, two animations named "compress" and "colorChange" are defined and applied to a span element. These animations take place simultaneously. To give more than one animation to an element, give the comma-separated names of those animations as values to the animation-name property. See the Pen CSS animation-name by Aakhya Singh ( on CodePen.Ĭlick on the RERUN button in the above demo to see the animation.Ĭlick on the RERUN button in the above demo to see the animation. Whenever you notice the red medal light is on (or even the blue medal light, if you're good at hitting the medal targets), start shooting for the medal targets. If you can drop these targets consistently, you can rack up several extra balls in short order. While that light is lit, each time you drop all three medal targets you're awarded another extra ball. The secret to a high-scoring game is the ability to consistently drop all three medal targets within a short time, lighting the purple medal light and earning an extra ball. Get multiple extra balls from the medal targets. Flip the ball off the right flipper near the flipper's tip. There are still some bugs here and there.Extends the time available to complete a mission, and gives you a chance of putting the ball into the green wormhole.It plays sound effects and music (if the player supplies the music in OGG format).Print error messages on screen in case the user doesn't have the asset files in the correct place.Arranged game layout to use both screens.Improved performance, but it still doesn't reach 60fps.Also deleted the font that was included in EmbeddedData.cpp.In case that font is not available, the one in PINBALL2.MID is scaled down and has the same color palette as the other font, so it fits better and it's more readable. The game now loads the good font that's embedded in pinball.exe.Build now can also generate a CIA file (thanks to MrHuu, #7).Fixed some random crashes when exiting the game and pausing.On New 3DS, enable Vsync, high speed mode.Platforms covered by this project: desktop Windows, Linux and macOS. The ranks are: Cadet, Ensign, Lieutenant, Captain, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Commodore, Admiral, and Fleet Admiral. When all of the lights in the circle lit up, players' rank would increase. Upon completing a mission, lights in a circle in the middle of the tables light up. The lights would turn off after an amount of time, and could be each turned on by having the ball go over it, or by going on the launch ramp again. Missions would end either when the goal is met, or when all of the lights under the launch ramp would turn off. Players accept a mission by hitting mission targets which select which mission they will take, and by going up the launch ramp.Įach mission has a set number of things for players to do, such as hitting the attack bumpers (which were a set of four bumpers at the top of the table) eight times. The Space Cadet table featured the player as a member of a space fleet where they complete missions to increase their rank. The file should be named PINBALL.ogg and placed along the other assets in the SpaceCadetPinball folder. Optionally, since this port doesn't play MIDI files, you'll need to convert the music to ogg format (sample rate<44100Hz). Inside the 3ds folder, create a new folder named SpaceCadetPinball and copy the game assets into this folder. Make sure you have your dspfirm.cdc in the 3ds folder, as you will need it to have sound in homebrew games. cia to the SD card and install it with a title manager. Note: To run the homebrew you will need the game assets from the original PC game.Ĭopy. This 3DS port has been changed to use native GPU rendering with the Citro3D library. It is based on the PC decompilation made by k4zmu2a, which uses SDL2 to render the game. It's originally a game that came bundled with Windows from Windows 95 up to Windows XP. This is a port of 3D Pinball - Space Cadet for Nintendo 3DS. Just want to enjoy a friendly skirmish with your friends? Custom games let you try out new strategies with up to three friends in free-for-all or team-based matches. In addition replay feature, and spectator mode make it easy to enter the competitive scene. Mushroom Wars 2 comes tournament-ready, with a league system and ranked matches that make for fierce competition. PC, Mac Happy Wars: Xbox One, PC Hearthstone: PC, Mac, iOS, Android. Upgrade your fungi base, capture battle map objectives and lead your tribe to victory one tower at a time. Il cross-play negli ultimi 2 anni ha ricoperto un ruolo sempre pi importante. Once you’re confident in your skills, putting your mushroom army against other players is the best way to improve. Among Us: Android, iOS, PC, Nintendo Switch Apex Legends: Xbox One, PS4, PC, Switch Brawlhalla: Switch, Xbox One, PS4, PC Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Mushroom Wars 2 is an award-winning real-time strategy online game mixed with tactics of Tower Defense and the hero skill elements of a MOBA. But the journey to become a fearsome commander requires fast reflexes, an eye for strategy, and the ability to oversee up to thousands of units at once. The game is set between the events of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and Diablo III. It will be a free-to-play game with in-game microtransactions. Learning the ropes of mushroom warfare is easy with simple and intuitive controls as well as gamepad support. The game is coming exclusively to Android, iPhone, and iPad. Mushroom Wars 2: Switch, PC, Mac, mobile NBA 2K Playgrounds 2: Xbox One. The problem was that the mobile version wasn't balanced the same way the pc version is (because micro-transactions oblige) and as you said having so few players on PC keeping both versions compatible was probably not worth. Then again, you shouldn’t ignore the defensive aspect of Mushroom Wars 2 altogether. The gameplay is fine, but the poor design choices weigh it down. Among Us: Android, iOS, PC, Nintendo Switch Apex Legends: Xbox One, PS4, PC. That’s because the enemy AI will patiently wait for you to act first. Mushroom Wars 2 is an award-winning sequel to the critically acclaimed RTS hit built upon the core gameplay experience that made the original Mushroom Wars so enjoyable. Mushroom Wars 2 is a mediocre strategy game with few redeeming aspects. With tons of tactics and skill-based movesĪnd modifiers that influence gameplay significantly Over 100 missions complete with boss battlesįrom 4 different tribes with unique special skills Ranked and custom matches in various competitive modes for up to 4 players, including 2v2 How to force quit on Mac using keyboard hotkeysĪnother way to force quit any app is to use the keyboard hotkey shortcut. Click on “Force Quit” and the app will be forced to close. A confirmation pop-up box will appear.Select the app you wish to quit and click “Force Quit”. A new pop-up menu will appear displaying what apps are running.First, click on the “Apple" icon in the top left corner of your screen and choose “Force Quit…” from the dropdown menu.How to force quit on Mac from the Apple menu There are a few different ways to activate the force quit function on any Mac: If the app still won’t respond and is hanging around, it’s time to try to force quit the app. Alternatively, while you’re within the app, use the keyboard hotkey “command + Q”. To quit any app, click on the app icon in your dock (by default it’s at the bottom), and then right-click “Quit”. When apps freeze or misbehave, don’t worry! You can easily quit the app using the force quit feature and it will still leave any other apps open running and operational.īefore activating force quit, always attempt to close and quit the app normally. Of course, there are other bugs and glitches that can make this happen too. Apps freezing or misbehaving often occurs when you upgrade to a newer macOS and your 3rd party app isn’t yet supported. While this is the case most of the time, occasionally an app may crash or cause your Mac to slow down or freeze. Macs are well known for being workhorses that rarely crash or experience issues. While the nanoparticle formed using dioctylbenzoic acid displayed 80% cell viability at concentration of 60 μg/mL, those formed with the steroid deoxycholic acid or dexamethasone showed only 40% cell viability at similar concentrations. The cytotoxicity of all four “supra-amphiphilic” nanoparticles varied depending on the carboxylic acid used for their fabrication. Although these assemblies were stable at neutral pH, upon lowering the pH of the solution between 4 and 5, the protonation of the carboxylic acids leads to disassembly of these nanoparticles. All these nanoparticles were able to encapsulate the hydrophobic dye Nile red with varying efficiency. Incubation of PEG 2k- b-PHR 30 with four different carboxylic acids (including dexamethasone a glucocorticoid receptor used in cancer therapy) in water leads to the formation of “supra-amphiphilic” nanoparticles (<200 nm size) due to the charge neutralization resulting from the strong interaction between the guanidine group and the carboxylate group. A high yielding three-step methodology was developed for the synthesis of ε- N, N′-di-Boc- l-homoarginine-α- N-carboxyanhydride which was polymerized using amine-terminated PEG (2000 MW) to yield 100% guanine-functionalized polypeptide (PEG 2k- b-PHR 30) with controlled molecular weights and low PDIs. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of pH-sensitive supra-amphiphilic nanoparticles by simple mixing of PEG 2k- b-poly(homoarginine) block copolymer and carboxylic acid containing functional low molecular weight organic compounds. It is also known that the guanidine side chain of arginine binds to carboxylate anions with binding constants that are 2.5 times higher than the corresponding amines of poly- l-lysine. In contrast, the other widely used cationic polypeptide poly- l-arginine whose cell-penetrating properties are well-known has been much less explored for the synthesis of supra-amphiphile-based nanomaterials. PH-responsive “supra-amphiphiles” based on double hydrophilic, positively charged block copolypeptides such as PEG- b-poly- l-lysine together with low molecular weight stimuli-sensitive partners that contain phosphate and carboxylate groups have been widely studied. It’s amazing to see how hospitals, one of the most chaotic and serious of human environments, can incorporate and benefit from a robotic system. While the robot has mostly been responsible for mundane deliveries, it has also brought blood to operating rooms. Look at their online map to see locations for hospitals where the system is in action. I love watching the hospital staff say ‘you’re welcome’ to the robot in the videos.Īethon and TUG have already achieved some great success with their system in the US. They also end up verbally interacting with the TUG despite its inability to follow a conversation. When the robot becomes stuck behind an obstacle, it will verbally request help, and the staff is generally fond of assisting the robot. In case study reports, staff almost always end up naming and decorating the robots. TUG systems demonstrate some amazing aspects of robot-human interaction. Generally the TUG will recharge in between each delivery to keep itself ready. Automatic doors and elevators can be equipped with wireless controls for the TUG to operate. Depending on the hospital and tasks given to a TUG, the cart may come equipped with a secure door that requires a keycode to open, and RFIDs may track inventory. Two large buttons (‘pause’ and ‘go’), allow users to signal when the robot should continue on its route. When a TUG arrives at a destination for pickup or drop off it makes a verbal request. WiFi connectivity allows for delivery requests or pickups, which can also be sent through VOIP or pagers. Hospital staff can program the TUG for scheduled routes through a touchscreen. TUGs can even fit dozens of different carts and equipment, and models are available which can switch between cart types on the go (though many hospitals choose to have each TUG permanently assigned to one cart). Each TUG robot can operate up to 10 hours on a charge (though not at 500 lbs!). It can haul carts and supplies with combined weight up to 500 lbs. Once TUG has a map of the hospital in its head, it sets about moving some serious freight. But, whether or not it’s ‘cheating’ it’s a perfectly workable solution, especially in a hospital environment where obstacles move but the building rarely reshapes itself. While TUG handles dynamic obstacles, its environment is custom defined at installation. Neato’s XV-11 robot vacuum uses an absurdly robust mapping algorithm to plot a single-pass through a space. KIVA’s radio tag system lets it dynamically reshape the bins in a warehouse and adapt to any new area quickly. In the greater scheme of robots working in human environments, the approach Aethon took to mapping its environment is tantamount to cheating. A full view of the TUG robot without a cart. WiFi (which is more or less required for TUG use) allows the robot to communicate with other bots (for optimal delivery and performance) to receive requests for action, and to open doors and call elevators. An array of laser range finders (the ‘whiskers’), ultrasound sensors, and IR monitors help it navigate the hospital and avoid moving obstacles like busy surgeons. Once the TUG knows its new home, it maps its position from a starting point (a recharging station). If these drawings don’t exist for an area, the ‘installation engineer’ from Aethon will walk the robot through the space. The TUG operating system (TUGOS) allows for CAD drawings of the hospital to be converted into a map for the robot. That’s because each TUG unit is custom programmed to fit the building it will work in. Unlike KIVA, TUG doesn’t require the hospital to install radio markers, magnetic strips, or other space delineating technologies. Variations on the TUG system have been in hospitals for several years now as you can see in the following segments: Their case studies seem to back up their claims. According to Aethon, one TUG robot working two shifts a day, seven days a week, does the equivalent labor of 2.8 full time employees, but costs less than one full time employee. And that creates a versatility that allows TUG to work its magic in many different hospitals. What kind of cart it moves is up to the user. TUG is the name for the hauling robot – the machine at the bottom that moves the cart. Aethon is aiming to do the same for hospitals. Robotic systems like KIVA have taken over warehouses, improving efficiency and lowering costs. Paying people to haul goods around is so last century. Anywhere you need something to go, the TUG can take it there. They use ‘laser whiskers’ to avoid obstacles and humans, and wirelessly open doors, and call for elevators. Developed by Pittsburgh-based Aethon, the TUG robots haul carts through the halls delivering medical supplies, blood, meals, and more. Robotic couriers are now gracing the halls of more than 100 hospitals across the US. Bryan had zero involvement in the editorial operations of Gawker,” a BDG spokesperson emailed Confider. “Around the time of launch, Bryan provided to Josh Topolsky a list of notable people with whom he or the company had significant financial ties in case it needed to be disclosed. The unionized staffers all posted the same message into the BDG general channel only for management to delete all their messages and disable their chat permissions. Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to the Confider newsletter here and have The Daily Beast media team’s stellar reporting sent straight to your inbox every Monday night.Įven after Gawker’s demise, Goldberg has faces more issues, including with Bustle Digital Group’s union, which for two years has been bargaining its first contract and on Monday changed its members’ Slack avatars to the union logo and set their names to “No Layoffs, Fair Contract Now.” Gawker’s freelance budget was subsequently slashed, effectively kneecapping the site, according to sources, and the priority turned to creating content that would attract advertisers. Insiders said that things started going south at Gawker 2.0 following the May 2022 exit of chief content officer Joshua Topolsky, who had acted as a firewall between the edit and business sides of the site. It may again be up to Gawker to find out where the lines are currently drawn.Furthermore, our sources said, Goldberg gave edicts for the site to steer clear of politics and avoid appearing “woke.” The verdict was widely interpreted as a perceptible shift in how the public and juries view privacy rights.įive years on, freedom of speech is, if anything, more contentious. And jurors sided with Hogan, who shed tears in the courtroom when the verdict came down. Gawker’s original travails began when it refused to take down a 2006 sex tape of Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, with the wife of his best friend, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Bustle has already attempted a Gawker reboot, only to see it collapse before launching after problematic tweets by its editorial director were dug up. Gawker Medias new owner, US Spanish-language TV network Univision, made the decision to shut down the site after bidding 135 million for the web publishers seven-site portfolio in a bankruptcy. The problems independent journalism sites face under ownership of venture capitalists are well-known. But he knows how to build traffic using content that we all hate.” “Goldberg is an opportunist who thought he could buy an asset on the cheap, plus the archives, and get all the sparkle, branding and name-recognition to build a large-traffic site to go with his group – and all of which is antithetical to what Gawker stood for. “There’s no way to capture the old anarchic spirit under the control of venture capitalists. “Anyone who cares about Gawker thinks it’s a terrible idea,” said one. While praising Finnegan as a journalistic talent, a former Gawker staffer said many from the old era are unconvinced by its relaunch. “Some great advice I once got was ‘Be less yourself.’ I was 27, and going through a righteous phase that unfortunately coincided with having a national platform on which to write. Finnegan subsequently edited the Outline before it too was sold to Bustle.Īmong her best-known columns, under the heading ‘Unconventional Wisdom: challenging those faux-profound bits of knowledge so often taken for granted’, she reflected on an earlier post in which she had described her boss hitting his head on a lamp during a meeting. Thiel’s crusade against Gawker started after the Gawker-owned tech blog Valleywag, published a post that had outed him as gay.īustle has said the new editor of Gawker will be Leah Finnegan, who had worked at Gawker for a year as a writer and features editor before she took a buyout in July 2015. Sources close to Gawker told the Guardian that Peter Thiel, the German American billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who had funded Hogan’s libel suit over a sex tape Gawker had posted online, had also looked to buy the company, with a view to preventing the site and its archive from ever returning to the public domain. The company behind the rebirth is Bustle Digital Group, a company known as a clearing house for a dozen publishing sites, among them Bustle itself, Romper, Nylon and W, which purchased Gawker for $1.35m at a bankruptcy auction in 2018.īustle is the brainchild of Bryan Goldberg, described by the New York Post as “a scruffy, 35-year-old media mogul”. But Gawker’s original purpose as an independent publishing meteor could be tough to replicate. |