Skip to main content
All Stories By:

Sean Hollister

Sean Hollister

Senior Editor

Sean is a senior editor at The Verge, a very good website he helped found in 2011. He thrives at the intersection of gaming, technology, and toys, with a side of consumer advocacy because companies just can't help themselves, can they? Sean previously led breaking news teams at The Verge and CNET and the reviews program at Gizmodo. He also has that voice.

Ethics statement, June 2023: Sean's wife is employed by Apple as a video producer. He therefore does not currently report or edit stories about Apple products or Apple as a company.

S
Instagram
The toaster was OP, but I did my best.

Where can you battle a toaster with a waffle iron? Wield a barcode scanner for fun? Navigate a digital character through a real-life paper pop-up book?

The Game Developers Conference Alt.Ctrl showcase, that’s where. It’s my happy place at GDC, and this year I wanted to share some of the zany magic with ya’ll.


Go read how this “passive income” ChatGPT scam is stealing people’s faces and voices the old-fashioned way.

Matt Novak has a banger of a new entry for the Internet of Shit. Over at Gizmodo, he’s discovered a YouTube scam that doesn’t just drain your crypto wallet — it also scams the actors hired to read bullshit testimonials about how they make money while they sleep.

Who needs AI when you can get a real, live human to legitimize your scheme on camera?


S
Youtube
One of the Lego designers I interviewed quit to become a YouTuber.

I’m still pretty proud of my big story on how Lego builds a new Lego set — but why not hear about the Lego Polaroid directly from its Lego designer? James May, who also recently worked on the BTS Dynamite and Hocus Pocus witches’ cottage sets, has now left the company to start a YouTube channel, design toys for UK schools, and also write for Brickset.


The case of the missing $400,000 worth of cute hand-cranked game consoles.

Did they “fall off a truck”? Kinda! Playdate’s Cabel Sasser says the company lost two entire pallets of the tiny yellow Game Boy alternative in Las Vegas, when they were delivered to a nextdoor gas station instead of Playdate’s warehouse.

It seems whoever signed for the handhelds may have gotten, ahem, creative: “Seven of them have been registered to people who live in north Las Vegas.” More at Game File and Game Developer.


A photo of the Playdate.
Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Bambu’s A1 Mini 3D printer gets a $50 price cut.

I found its bed too small for the stuff I like to print — and I still need to re-test a few issues from my hands-on — but assuming they’re fixed, $400 is a great price for an auto-feeding four-color printer of any size at all.

Bambu says the Mini can also detect additional kinds of errors now, like when nothing’s coming out of the nozzle or molten plastic is clumping on its end. And no, this wasn’t the printer that got recalled.


The Bambu A1 Mini with AMS Lite.
The Bambu A1 Mini with AMS Lite.
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
S
External Link
Silicon Valley’s biggest city is training AI to detect homeless encampments.

A decade ago, San Jose broke up “The Jungle,” reportedly the biggest homeless encampment in the US; the feds estimate San Jose still has the highest proportions of unsheltered homeless and homeless youth. It’s not unusual to see a sidestreet filled with sunbaked RVs, or tents lining a creek or underpass.

Now, under new pressure to solve the homelessness emergency that’s never gone away, San Jose is quietly training AI to detect lived-in vehicles. More:


S
External Link
$10,000 fine shows why you should report ISPs who lie about serving your address.

When I suggested you should challenge the FCC’s new broadband maps — which still let ISPs lie about coverage — some readers told me it was pointless. Well... a small ISP in Ohio is now getting fined $10,000 after it was caught lying! Here’s hoping we can make bigger lying ISPs feel the heat, too.