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The Weekender: secret surveillance, scary cinema, and seriously bad ripoffs

The Weekender: secret surveillance, scary cinema, and seriously bad ripoffs

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The best of the week gone by

By Jacob Kastrenakes, a deputy editor who oversees tech and news coverage. Since joining The Verge in 2012, he’s published 5,000+ stories and is the founding editor of the creators desk.

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Welcome to The Verge: Weekender edition. Every Saturday, we'll bring you some of the best and most important reads of the past seven days, from original reports, to in-depth features, to reviews and interviews. Think of it as a collection of some of our favorite pieces that you may have missed — or that you may just want to read again. You can follow along below, or keep up to date on Flipboard.

  • Feature

    Everything you need to know about PRISM

    Many details around the US government’s surveillance programs remain shrouded in secrecy — but more and more are coming to light each week. Here’s your cheat sheet on one of the broadest programs of all: PRISM.

  • Review

    Opening this weekend: ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘R.I.P.D.’

    The director of Saw and the director of Red both have new movies out this weekend. One of them is a super spooky film that horror buffs will want to see — and the other may just be a complete mess. You can find our review of The Conjuring here and R.I.P.D. here.

  • Report

    Here's how Elon Musk's Hyperloop might actually work

    Elon Musk — founder of SpaceX, PayPal, and Tesla Motors — says that he’s about to unveil a revolutionary new method of transportation that can shoot you from San Francisco to Los Angeles in only half an hour. We check out if that’s even possible, and how the high-tech proposal might work.

  • Review

    11-inch MacBook Air review: living with Apple's smallest laptop

    Is bigger always better? Apple’s 11-inch laptop has nearly all the power of its 13-inch machine, but in a thinner, lighter package. David Pierce checked it out to see if we should all be slimming down.

  • Report

    Edward Snowden's hunt for asylum is an uphill battle

    Since leaking classified NSA documents, Edward Snowden has been seeking asylum from countries across the globe. He’s sent out a lot of requests and even had a couple of invitations — but it’s still not clear how he’s going to get out of Moscow, and why he’s waiting to make the move.

  • Report

    Make way for Huawei: can the Chinese smartphone company buy its way into America?

    Most Americans haven’t heard of Huawei, but that’s probably better than some of the alternatives. Now the Chinese telecom is trying to change things, and it’s stepping up both its marketing and the quality of its smartphones to make it happen.

  • Feature

    The Speakers: how two people became the voice of 110 airports and the NYC subway

    One small company controls the announcement systems in just about every major public space in the US — from the JFK airport to the Kennedy Space Center. Here’s how the voices of just two people, Carolyn Hopkins and Jack Fox, ended up booming out of almost all of them.

  • Review

    Acer Iconia W3 review: a new, smaller kind of Windows 8 tablet

    Acer is the first company to take on small Windows 8 tablets, and the Iconia W3’s 8-inch display is by far its most defining feature. It works great with Windows 8 — but it may not work great as a tablet.

  • Report

    AT&T and Verizon challenge T-Mobile with new phone subsidy plans

    Last week, T-Mobile launched Jump, a device insurance plan of sorts that allows subscribers to get a new phone every six months. Now Verizon and AT&T are firing back with similar deals — but they’re not any good. Here's the math on how Verizon and AT&T are trying to rip you off, and here's whether any of the new plans are good deal period.

  • Report

    Will the NSA use the Xbox One to spy on your family?

    Every Xbox One owner will have an always-on, always-listening camera in their household. Amid continued reports of government surveillance, the idea is a little unnerving — and Microsoft’s past responses have been anything but clear cut.

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