Archive: June, 2025

Decoding 4K movie quality

4K movies are almost always objectively better than their HD counterparts, but how much better? What visual improvements does the more expensive 4K UHD provide over a standard Blu-ray? When is it worth splurging on a 4K digital copy over an HD version available on streaming? Do you have to be a film enthusiast with a high end TV to appreciate the difference?

Complicating matters, not all 4K upgrades are created equal. The gap between a poor and high quality transfer is noticeable to even the most untrained eye. This topic spawns heated debates across enthusiast sites like Blu-ray.com and the 4K Blu-ray subreddit. These discussions can get highly technical, with commenters dissecting zoomed in screenshot comparisons and debating compression methods.

Fortunately, you don’t have to invest as much research as the hardcore crowd. Two basic features about any movie will, in most cases, predict how beneficial 4K will be.

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Read it later apps help us stop doomscrolling

It’s sad to see Pocket, one of the best read it later apps, unceremoniously shut down by parent owner Firefox. The app deserved better. Read it later apps separate reading from browsing, providing a refuge from the attention economy and endless doomscrolling. They are practical tools that benefit almost everyone.

Originally, read it later apps were originally built to address poor mobile bandwidth and other tech constraints. Today they combat cluttered designs from sources like The New York Times, Bluesky, Reddit, and Semafor. Design patterns like infinite scroll, autoplay, and recommendation lists push users toward another article or video. This abundance drives engagement, which in turn drives revenue.

While this noisy design ethos helps us browse and gather news quickly, it rewards mindless consumption and information gathering on autopilot. When browsing, there is always another enticing piece of content that promises another dopamine hit. We feel pressure to skim articles, cut content short, or skip reading entirely to reach the next headline or short video. Deep reading and reflection suffer as a result.

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