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The Weekender: producing posters, selling science, and turning bills into bitcoins

The Weekender: producing posters, selling science, and turning bills into bitcoins

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The best of the week gone by

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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.

  • Interview

    Neil deGrasse Tyson is here to recruit you

    With the debut of Cosmos last week, Neil deGrasse Tyson has more than ever cemented himself as the public face of science — and quite simply, he's making the area of study seem huge and exciting again. We caught up with him over a glass of wine to chat about how he's evangalized learning and research, and what he plans to do once the show it over.

  • Report

    Mondo and the lost art of the movie poster

    Today's movie posters show little more than the face of a billable star who can draw interest from a broad crowd, but they didn't always used to be that way. Posters used to be beautifully crafted to capture the essence of a film, and the print studio Mondo is at the forefront of bringing that back.

  • Review

    ‘Need for Speed’ review: not so fast, not so furious

    Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul tries to lead the adaptation of EA's racing game Need for Speed to success on the big screen. Unfortunately, it's a much bigger task making real supercars' races (and explosions) look good on film than in pixels.

  • Interview

    Ernest Cline is the luckiest geek alive

    Ernest Cline, the bestselling author of Ready Player One, may be, above all else, a fanboy. We caught up with him at SXSW to chat about how he went from loving science fiction to writing a screenplay and becoming an acclaimed writer of the very genre that he's always loved.

  • Review

    Fujifilm X-T1 review

    Mirrorless cameras have gotten dramatically better year over year, and Fujifilm has just released what will likely be this year's star: the X-T1. It has a cool throwback style, more manual dials that you could ask for, and takes gorgeous photos. What's not to like? Not very much.

  • Report

    The new gold rush: Bitcoin ATMs are coming

    Bitcoin ATMs could make it easier to start turning cash into bitcoins and vice versa — easy to a point, at least. The ATMs require a major investment to set up, and interested customers have to hand over everything from a phone number to a palm scan to comply with anti-money laundering laws.

  • Review

    'Titanfall' review: how robots made me love online shooters

    A lot is riding on Titanfall, Microsoft's first big exclusive for the Xbox One. Fortunately, playing it is a ton of fun: no matter how good (or bad) you are at first-person shooters, Titanfall will make you feel seriously strong.

  • Report

    Hucksters and hustlers: inside the hidden brand orgy of SXSW

    South by Southwest Interactive used to be a place where cool apps took off and some of the most enthusiastic minds in tech came to talk. Now the scene is changing as it becomes overrun by big brands trying to learn about what tech and social media can do for them.

  • Review

    'Veronica Mars' review: a true detective returns

    Can crowdfunding successfully revive a beloved TV series that ended too soon? In the case of Veronica Mars, it seems that it most certainly can. Its cinematic revival may at times feel like fan service, but in the end: it's exactly what fans have been asking for.

  • Interview

    The era of Facebook is an anomaly

    Youth researcher danah boyd is famous for her work on privacy, social media trends, and teen behavior. We caught up with boyd after her sold-out SXSW talk to chat about ephemeral conversations, if parents should be worrying about their kids' tech use, and why it's weird that we all head to Facebook.