Carrie is just trying to make a friend in the new trailer
Mike Flanagan's latest Stephen King adaptation, Carrie (this will be his fourth), is slated to make its debut on Amazon Prime on October 7th. The new trailer dropped at Comic-Con 2026 and doesn't contain many surprises. If you're familiar with Carrie at all, it hits all the expected notes. Though it's clearly been updated for the modern era.
According to Deadline, Flanagan's take on the classic King novel will tackle very modern teen challenges like active shooter drills and bullying on social media. The director apparently invited high schoolers into the writers' room, using their real-life traumas to inform the script:
"They shared sho …
You can get three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for almost half off
Subscribing to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on a recurring basis has been tough to justify recently, even after Microsoft reduced the monthly cost from $29.99 to $22.99. But you can get a better deal on a three-month subscription (valued at $69) by grabbing a digital code at Eneba that costs $39.01 at the time of publication.
Game Pass Ultimate grants you access to the full Game Pass library on Xbox (compared to a more limited slice with Premium), including first-party titles and online multiplayer access. The subscription also gives PC gamers access to Microsoft’s catalog of Game Pass games through the Xbox app, though the selection differs a bit between console and desktop.
You don’t need me to tell you why deals like these are nice. The costs of subscriptions generally only go in one direction over time, and it is becoming more rare to find worthwhile discounts that give you a break. If you want to jump into Halo: Campaign Evolved when it launches July 28th on Xbox and PC, all you need is this subscription instead of buying the $49.99 re-remake.
Marvel announces Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider, a new Black Panther, and more
While perhaps less dramatic than in years past, Marvel nonetheless had some big reveals lined up for Comic-Con. The highest profile was certainly the announcement that Ryan Gosling would be joining the MCU as Ghost Rider, with the Shawn Levy-directed (Deadpool & Wolverine) standalone feature set to drop sometime in 2028.
The studio also brought out Ryan Coogler, who officially confirmed Black Panther III is slated for release on December 15th, 2028. He also introduced David Jonsson (The Long Walk, Alien Romulus) as T'Chala's son and the new Black Panther in the franchise.
Marvel also showed off a new Avengers: Doomsday trailer and seemed t …
The vertical video takeover is here
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on all things vertical video, follow David Pierce. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.
How it started
For a while, every social and media platform had its own identity. YouTube was for clips of TV shows and movies, and the home of so many members of a burgeoning creator community. Instagram was mostly pictures. Netflix was trying to be the on-demand HBO. Facebook was about friends. Twitter was about news. Snapchat was a messaging app.
All these apps did have one important …
Google basically confirms the Pixel 11 is getting a price hike
Google's Vice President of Devices and Services, Shakil Barkat, all but confirmed in an interview with 9to5 Google that its next Pixel phone would cost more than the Pixel 10. Considering the ongoing RAM supply issues due to the explosion of AI data centers, the rumored price hike is not a complete surprise. Companies from Apple to Nintendo, Microsoft to Roku, have all raised their prices in response to the soaring cost of memory.
Barkat said that Google had "shielded our consumers from supply fluctuations for as long as possible," but that the "economics have fundamentally shifted and we're not immune to that." He went on to tell 9to5 tha …
Synth historian Oli Freke will spend big on a good bicycle
Oli Freke is a musician and journalist whose works have appeared in Sound on Sound, The Quietus, and Mixmag. This has included using math to explore the melodic potential of the Western 12-tone scale and deep dives on effects plug-ins. He's even written a book tracing the evolution of the synthesizer from 1963 through 1995, charting the change from analog to digital and back.
His new project is Beat Gems, a coffee-table visual history of drum machines from publisher Bjooks. Like other Bjooks titles, Beat Gems is loaded with gorgeous photos, fascinating historical tidbits, and practical advice for making the most of your gear, whether it's …
Teenage Engineering’s unique music machines are 30 percent off
With elements from synthesizers, loopers, and effects pedals, Teenage Engineering’s devices lie somewhere between musical instrument and modern art. These grooveboxes, as they’re often called, are capable of helping you produce songs in real time from a single unit, with an eye-catching design language. A wide swath of the brand’s offerings are 30 percent off at Guitar Center when you use code TE30, at Amazon when you click the on-page coupon for whichever product you’re interested in, and B&H Photo (discount applied automatically at checkout). The terms for the Amazon coupon claim it will run through August 8th, 2026, while Guitar Center deal is listed as “limited time.”
The OP-XY is one of the flagship units, which my colleague Terrence O’Brien described as a “greatest hits tour for Teenage Engineering.” Normally $2,299, the discount code brings the price down to a more palatable $1,609.30, which is a lot cheaper, but still pretty pricey for an aspiring musician. That said, it’s loaded with features for both production and live performance, and has a premium, durable build quality that reflects its price point. It’s currently sold out at Amazon, but in stock and discounted at Guitar Center and B&H Photo. Read our Teenage Engineering OP-XY review.
The model I’m most tempted by is the EP-40 Riddim, a compact sampler with a library of over 400 built-in synth settings and effects particularly well-suited for producing dub and reggae music, plus 128MB of storage for your own loops and recorded sounds. It’s a bit less intimidating for a beginner than the OP-XY, both in terms of price point and features, and its tighter genre focus may help concentrate your efforts and onboarding. Normally $329, the EP-40 is $230.30 at Amazon, Guitar Center, and B&H Photo during the promotion.
Warner Bros. is suing Amazon for poaching employees
Warner Bros. Discovery has filed suit against Amazon, accusing it of illegally poaching employees, including Pia Barlow, former senior VP for originals marketing. In the complaint, Warner says that "Amazon has chosen to ride on the coattails of other well-established Hollywood mainstays," and that it engaged in a "lawless employee shopping spree." Deadline reports that Francesca Orsi, HBO's head of drama series and films, is believed to be one of the other Amazon targets.
Barlow is set to begin a new position as Amazon's head of original series marketing on August 3rd. According to Warner's suit, Barlow was under contract until October 31st …
Is this e-reader case a gun?
Is an e-reader case as dangerous as a Glock 19?
Last month, Louisville, Kentucky-based creator Luke The Maker showed off a bizarre, 3D-printed, pistol-shaped case design for the popular minimalist Xteink X4 e-reader. The X4 lies vertically atop the plastic gun's slide, with a cutout on the side to access its buttons. Though the frame was digitally modeled after a real gun, this "case" can't shoot bullets. Squeezing the trigger does nothing at all. He calls his contraption the "Gundle."
In a post showing off the wacky accessory, Luke (whose last name is Blackford) can be seen flipping through Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and J.D. Sali …
What Surrounds Us will make you think a lot about circles
What Surrounds Us takes its title literally. You play as a circle surrounding a hole in its middle - it looks like a donut with frosting. You work together with other sentient moving circles, sometimes helping them joyfully meet with others. And you traverse a large map that's composed entirely of, you guessed it, a series of circles. But the circles everywhere aren't just an artistic choice; they underscore the game's themes about working in connection with the environment and the things around us.
Despite the trippy design, What Surrounds Us has a familiar format. I kept feeling echoes of The Legend of Zelda as I trekked across three dist …