We all know the feeling. You're sleepless in the sad hours of the night or stumbling around early on a hazy weekend morning in need of something to read, and that pile of unread books just isn't cutting it. Why not take a break from the fire hose of Twitter and RSS and check out our weekly roundup of essential writing from around the web about technology, culture, media, and the future? Sure, it's one more thing you can feel guilty about sitting in your Instapaper queue, but it's better than pulling in vain on your Twitter list again.
On keynotes
Nathan Grayson critiques E3's hyper-violent-without-any-context keynote presentations.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Nathan Grayson -
E3 Day Zero: When Game Violence Becomes VileThis was the blaring exclamation point on the end of a day of gleefully grotesque neck-shanking, leg-severing, and – of course – man-shooting. I can honestly think of maybe five games – in four multiple-hour press conferences – that didn’t feature some sort of lovingly rendered death-dealing mechanic. And oh how show-goers cheered.
On the Newton
On the eve of this year's WWDC, take a look at Harry McCracken's eBay-aided reassessment of the twenty-year-old Apple Newton PDA. And here's a
full history of the Newton from Tom Hormby.
Techland: Harry McCracken -
Newton, ReconsideredThere was certainly some Newton in the Pilot. And there’s an awful lot of Pilot in the iPhone 4S, the iPad and every Android device–starting wtth the home screen’s grid of icons and the way apps run in full-screen mode. Had Apple followed Palm’s path–smaller, simpler, cheaper–it might have made all the difference. Read more
here
