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WIRED
8 hours ago
- Business
- WIRED
I'm an Outdoor Writer. I'm Shopping 28 Deals From REI's July 4 Sale
Whether you need a tent, sleeping pad, rain jacket, or new pack, REI's Independence Day sale has something for everyone. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. The REI Fourth of July sale is a great time to get a deal on hiking, camping, and backpacking essentials. This year, there are also great competing July Fourth sale deals from Backcountry and Public Lands. We test camping and hiking gear all year round here at WIRED, and these REI deals are on gear we've tested and approved. There's something here for nearly all our favorite summer activities—tents, stoves, sleeping bags, and plenty of outdoor apparel. If you're not sure what you need, be sure to look at our guides to outdoor gear, like the Best Backpacking Tents, Best Sleeping Bags, Best Backpacking Sleeping Pads, Best Rain Jackets, Best Merino Wool Clothes, and Best Binoculars. Do I have to be an REI Member to save? AccordionItemContainerButton No, but REI Co-op members earn 10 percent Member Rewards on all their purchases (which you can redeem at the end of the year), and there are some special deal for members, like a coupon for 20 percent off any one full price item. REI membership is a one-time fee of $30. When Does the REI Fourth of July Sale end? AccordionItemContainerButton This year the REI Fourth of July sale runs June 27 through July 7. Both Backcountry and Public Lands are running sales through July 7 as well. The Best Deals on Hiking Apparel Be sure to check out our guides to the best rain jackets, the best merino wool, and how to layer your clothes to stay comfy in any weather. This deal is only on one color (Redtail Rust for men's and Oxide Red for the women's), and probably won't last, but this is the lowest price we've seen for one of our favorite hiking rain jackets. Backcountry (Men's) Backcountry (Women's) This North Face fleece jacket features in our upcoming guide to mid layers. The stretchy, recycled midweight fleece is perfect for cool mornings and evenings in the shoulder seasons. It offers a good range of motion, though the sleeves are elastic, which some people will not like. I like this fleece, though, because it's not overly technical looking, you can wear it around town or when belaying. The Rab Cinder Phantom is our favorite rain jacket for cycling. It solves almost all my issues with rain gear—it's incredibly light (3.3 ounces/114 grams for a medium), stuffs down to about the size of a tennis ball, and is somehow surprisingly waterproof. It will eventually wet out, but it takes quite a downpour. Photograph: Scott Gilbertson When the weather gets down well below freezing, and the wind makes your cheeks burn, this is the jacket I turn to. With a base layer at the bottom, a wool sweater over that, then this jacket, I was toasty warm walking in the early morning chill of winter (usually -10 Fahrenheit in January). The shell is lightweight (20D) Pertex ripstop nylon that's nicely windproof and water-resistant. For some reason, only the women's jacket is on sale. If you live in a cold climate, even if it's not quite Canada, you need this shirt. It's your classic, ultrawarm wool shirt. Sorry, shirt jacket. Whatever it is, it's warm, cozy, and comfy. Don't let the wool scare you, it's not itchy. I bought this during the REI Anniversary sale in May and have been very happy with it. It's too hot for it now, but a cool spring gave me a chance to wear it for a good week. It's slightly oversized, but very soft, stretchy and comfortable. I mean it's a merino wool beanie, hard to go wrong with one of those. And it's Fjällräven so it's well-made and should last a very long time. Huckberry's Proof 72-hour Merino T-shirt will rank very high in our upcoming guide to merino T-shirts. It's soft, and the classic fit is loose and comfortable. It doesn't look overly 'sporty,' the way many merino T-shirts do (though there is a slim fit version also on sale for $52 ($20 off) if you prefer that style). This shirt is 87 percent merino wool and 13 percent nylon, which gives it a bit of extra stretch. The best midweight base layer we've tested, this Smartwool shirt is perfect for chilly spring and fall mornings. It's comfortable, though tending to be looser fitting, which is something to keep in mind when layering. The heavy-duty seams (read: sturdier, longer lasting) don't rub, and sit off the shoulder for more comfort when wearing a pack. At 87 percent merino wool (blended with nylon), these are also very durable while remaining lightweight (10.3 oz for a men's large). I bought my father, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and husband each one of these shirts last year. Roark Clothing is a small company that makes some of my favorite active apparel, and the Bless Up shirt is the perfect summer shirt. It's perforated and made from synthetic fibers, so it's perfect for super-humid beach days when the temperatures are above 90 degrees. —Adrienne So This is another deal that's only on one color, but REI 650 puffy jacket (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best budget 3-season puffy you can buy, more so at this price. At 10.9 ounces it's reasonably lightweight and has large hand pockets and some very nice internal pockets for stashing a hat or gloves. Deals on Backpacking Gear Photograph: Scott Gilbertson This deal is a combo of our top pick backpacking water filter and our top pick water bladder. As the name suggests, the Sawyer is a squeeze filter, but paired with the Cnoc it turns into a gravity filter when you have the time. When I'm not testing something else, this is the filtration system I use and it's never let me down. If you don't want the Cnoc bladder for some reason the Sawyer is also on sale for $35 ($10 off). Heading into bear country this summer? You'll very likely need a bear-resistant way to store your food. In my experience, the BV500 from Bear Vault is the most widely approved option (though always check with the rangers in the area). At 700 cubic inches, the BV500 has room for about 3-5 days of food for two (depending on how well you pack). It does weigh almost 3 pounds, and it's a bummer to carry, but when you need it, you need it—might as well grab one when it's a little cheaper. I'm not sure this really qualifies for the 'ultralight' moniker, and these pots are unfortunately marred by having a ton of fake influencer reviews out there, but they're actually quite good. The hard-anodized aluminum is sturdy and provides good heat transfer. The ceramic nonstick coating makes for easy cleanup (especially paired with the GSI scraper below). Still the most useful piece of backpacking gear I own, GSI's pot scraper is the unsung hero of backcountry cooking, turning cleanup from a tedious chore to a couple of seconds' work. Now, if you seriously burn something, this thing will not save you (boil water in the pan to loosen the burnt bits), but for every other situation, scraping down your pot with this tool will get you 99 percent of the way to a clean pot. Backcountry (40L) Backcountry (55L) This has been my backpack of choice for the last five years. It's light, durable (it's made of Dyneema), and carries loads of up to about 35 pounds in comfort. The rear mesh pocket gives you a place to stash wet gear, and water-repellent outer means your gear doesn't get wet (there may be limits to this, but I've never had a problem). My only regret is that I didn't get the 55 liters (also on sale for $340 ($60 off)), so I could fit a little more gear when backpacking with my kids. Backcountry (40L) Southwest (55L) While I love my Junction pack (see above), were I buying today, I would get the Southwest. The only real difference is the outer rear pocket, which is mesh in the Junction and Dyneema in the Southwest. Turns out I never dry wet gear in the mesh, and I have found it snags on things more than I'd like. If you don't need the mesh, the Southwest is the pack to get. Again, I'd go 55 liters, but if I were only doing solo trips, the 40 liters should be plenty. Sea to Summit's ultralight Alto (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is designed to keep weight down on your solo adventures. At just 33 ounces for a semi-freestanding tent, it remains one of the lighter options on the market, and at this price it's hard to pass up. Photograph: Scott Gilbertson Six Moon Design's Lunar Solo (7/10, WIRED Review) is my favorite single-wall ultralight solo tent. It's not without its quirks (read the pitching tips), but if you want something more than a tarp, that still weighs just 26 ounces (740 grams), this one is hard to beat. Sleeping Bag and Sleeping Pad Deals Looking to upgrade your sleep system? Check out our guides to the Best Sleeping Bags and the Best Backpacking Sleeping Pads. The Zenbivy Bed 25 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is hands-down the most comfortable backcountry sleeping experience I've ever had. It wouldn't be my top pick for extreme situations, but so long as your expected temperatures fit in Zenbivy's range (the comfort rating is 35 degrees Fahrenheit), it doesn't get more comfortable than this. The Zenbivy isn't just a sleeping bag. It's a sheet, hood, and quilt-style bag that can be combined in various ways. Zenbivy's Light Bed is a brand-new option that takes the basic clip design of other Zenbivy beds and lightens up the load. I've been testing this bag for several months, and it is everything I loved about the original above, but lighter weight. I'll have a full review very soon, but if you've been tempted by the Zenbivy, but wanted to keep your base gear weight down, this is the option you've been looking for. It's no longer our top pick for side sleepers, but the Questar remains a good option for those who want more room. It uses what Therm-a-Rest calls W.A.R.M. fit, which stands for 'with additional room for multiple' positions. Indeed, this bag is very roomy for a mummy design. I was able to draw my legs up when side-sleeping and spread out considerably more than with most of the other sleeping bags I've tested. Sea to Summit's Ether Light XT is only marginally heavier than the Therm-a-Rest above. The extra 4 ounces for the Sea to Summit pad gets you quite a bit more cushion too—this is a 4-inch thick pad, compared to the 3 inches of the Therm-a-rest X-Lite, which makes this a better ultralight option for side sleepers. I also like the baffle design better, and it seems to be a little more durable, making this an excellent alternative ultralight pad. Note that this one is an REI Outlet deal; the XT has been replaced by a newer model. Hiking and Camping Deals Don't forget to check out our guide to the Best Day-Hiking Backpacks and the Best Travel Bags. This chair is the coziest way to hang out around camp. It is somewhat huge, heavy, and awkward to fold up and carry, but so long as you have room for it in your vehicle, there's no better way to relax around the fire with your loved ones. This deal is only available on the almost blinding Firefly Yellow color, but if that works for you, this is the best price we've ever seen on the Roadie 32. The Roadie coolers aren't quite as robust as the Yeti Tundra, but they're great for camping. You get a basket for organizing your contents and the usual high-quality Yeti rotomolding to keep your food cold for up to five days in our testing. Hurry, though, this deal will not last. Osprey has been making Talon packs since 2007. This model is the smaller cousin to the 33L version in our guide to the best day-hiking packs. The success of the Talon line is well deserved, the 100-denier high-tenacity nylon (Bluesign-approved) makes for a durable pack while remaining reasonably lightweight (2 pounds, 1 ounce for the S/M size). The dual zippered panel-loading design makes getting to your stuff a snap, and there are plenty of extra pockets inside and outside to help you stash all your gear. I have yet to do a trip with a satellite communicator, but I do understand why people use them. If I were to bring one along, this is the one I'd get. It's tiny, light (3.5 ounces), and easily stashable. It utilizes the super-fast Iridium satellite network, so you can send a rapid SOS from pretty much anywhere. There are extra features like waypoints and interval tracking, and it plays nice with compatible Garmin watches. Oru's foldable kayaks are genius—all the boat, none of the size. The Lake is light, reasonably fast, and the cheapest way to get into the world of folding kayaks. As with all Oru's offerings, the Lake folds origami-style into a roughly 30-inch square that's just 15 inches deep—small enough to fit in a car trunk or hall closet. Our favorite way to avoid the green propane bottles is this gas growler. This model gets you a 1.2-pound propane tank with a nice padded/insulated sleeve and a handy strap for carrying, and it makes your camp setup look much nicer than a bare tank. It also saves your shins during those inevitable run-ins with cold hard steel that come from lugging around a big propane tank. This size is the equivalent of five green propane bottles.
WIRED
10 hours ago
- Business
- WIRED
OpenAI's Unreleased AGI Paper Could Complicate Microsoft Negotiations
Jun 27, 2025 3:35 PM The partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft in many ways hinges on the definition of artificial general intelligence, creating a tension that has spilled over into OpenAI research that has not been made public. Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI Inc., during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, May 8, 2025. Photograph:A small clause inside OpenAI's contract with Microsoft, once considered a distant hypothetical, has now become a flashpoint in one of the biggest partnerships in tech. The clause states that if OpenAI's board ever declares it has developed artificial general intelligence (AGI), it would limit Microsoft's contracted access to the startup's future technologies. Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, is now reportedly pushing for the removal of the clause and is considering walking away from the deal entirely, according to the Financial Times. Late last year, tensions around AGI's suddenly pivotal role in the Microsoft deal spilled into a debate within OpenAI over an internal research paper, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Titled 'Five Levels of General AI Capabilities,' the paper outlines a framework for classifying progressive stages of AI technology. By making specific assertions about future AI capabilities, sources claim, the paper could have complicated OpenAI's ability to declare that it had achieved AGI, a potential point of leverage in negotiations. 'We're focused on developing empirical methods to evaluate AGI progress—work that is reproducible, measurable, and useful to the broader field,' OpenAI spokesperson Lindsay McCallum said in a written comment to WIRED. 'The 'Five Levels' was an early attempt at classifying stages and terminology to describe general AI capabilities. This was not a scientific research paper.' Microsoft declined to comment. In a blog post describing its corporate structure, OpenAI notes that AGI 'is excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft.' OpenAI defines AGI as "a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work.' The two companies have been renegotiating their agreement as OpenAI prepares a corporate restructuring. While Microsoft wants continued access to OpenAI's models even if the startup declares AGI before the partnership ends in 2030, one person familiar with the partnership discussions tells WIRED that Microsoft doesn't believe OpenAI will reach AGI by that deadline. But another source close to the matter describes the clause as OpenAI's ultimate leverage. Both sources have been granted anonymity to speak freely about private discussions. According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI has even considered whether to invoke the clause based on an AI coding agent. The talks have grown so fraught that OpenAI has reportedly discussed if it should publicly accuse Microsoft of anticompetitive behavior, per the Journal. A source familiar with the discussions, granted anonymity to speak freely about the negotiations, says OpenAI is fairly close to achieving AGI; Altman has said he expects to see it during Donald Trump's current term. That same source suggests there are two relevant definitions: First, OpenAI's board can unilaterally decide the company has reached AGI as defined in its charter, which would immediately cut Microsoft off from accessing the technology or revenue derived from AGI; Microsoft would still have rights to everything before that milestone. Second, the contract includes a concept of sufficient AGI, added in 2023, which defines AGI as a system capable of generating a certain level of profit. If OpenAI asserts it has reached that benchmark, Microsoft must approve the determination. The contract also bars Microsoft from pursuing AGI on its own or through third parties using OpenAI's IP. Bloomberg previously reported on the existence of the 'Five Levels' paper, and that OpenAI was planning to share the scale with its outside investors, though it was considered at the time as a 'work in progress.' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and chief research officer Mark Chen have spoken about the five levels of AI capabilities in various interviews since. A version of the paper dated September 2024 viewed by WIRED details a five-step scale for measuring how advanced AI systems are, citing other research that claims many of OpenAI's models at that point were at Level 1, defined as 'An AI that can understand and use language fluently and can do a wide range of tasks for users, at least as well as a beginner could and sometimes better.' It notes that some models at the time were approaching Level 2, which the authors define as 'An AI that can do more advanced tasks at the request of a user, including tasks that might take an hour for a trained expert to do.' The paper deliberately avoids giving a single definition of AGI, arguing the term is too vague and binary, and instead opts for using a spectrum of capabilities to describe increasingly general and capable AI systems. The paper doesn't predict when OpenAI's systems will reach each of the five levels, but it does predict how each step up in capabilities could change different facets of society, including education, jobs, science, and politics, warning about new risks as AI tools become more powerful and independent. In a podcast with YCombinator president and CEO Garry Tan in November, Altman said that the company's o1 model could be defined as Level 2, and he expects they'll reach Level 3 'faster than people expect.' Last July, a coauthor of the paper gave a presentation of the research at an internal event where teams highlighted their most important projects for research-wide awareness, according to multiple sources. The research was well received by other staffers, one source added. Sources also believe that the paper seemed to be in final stages, and the company had hired a copy editor to finalize the work late last year along with generating visuals for a blog announcing the paper. OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft was cited internally as one reason to hold off on publishing the paper, according to multiple sources who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity as they were not permitted to speak to the press. Another source says that discussions with Microsoft were often 'mentioned as a blocker for putting the paper out.' McCallum said in a comment to WIRED that 'it's not accurate to suggest we held off from sharing these ideas to protect the Microsoft partnership.' Another source familiar with the matter said that the paper wasn't released because it didn't meet technical standards. 'I think mostly the question of what AGI is doesn't matter,' Altman said at a conference in early June 'It is a term that people define differently; the same person often will define it differently.'
WIRED
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- WIRED
'Persona 5: The Phantom X' Brings The Series To Your Phone—and It's Shockingly Good
Jun 27, 2025 3:11 PM The free-to-play game is the first time the JRPG is available on mobile, offering fans a quick fix with a few hidden costs. Still from Persona 5: The Phantom X. Courtesy of fortyseven communications Persona games are herculean efforts to finish. A single playthrough of any game in the main series, which includes everything from saving the world to studying for finals, frequently clocks in at around 100 hours. Much of that time is spent building relationships with the game's characters and world by hanging out with friends, doing mundane tasks like laundry, or finding new parts of the city to explore. It creates a dedication that leaves many players so attached to each game's cast that they'll eagerly jump into new experiences just to get more time with them. Persona 5 was no exception. Since its launch in 2016, the JRPG has inspired spinoffs across a variety of genres, from rhythm game Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight to the strategy-based Persona 5 Tactica . On June 26, co-developers Atlus, Sega, and Perfect World released Persona 5: The Phantom X —a spinoff for PC and mobile that mirrors the original game so closely, it works as both an easy introduction to the series, and an enjoyable re-entry into Persona 5 's world. Much like with Persona 5 , Phantom X s follows a group of teenage vigilantes known as Phantom Thieves who gain the power to summon powerful entities, Personas, to fight evil forces. More directly, the game feels like Persona 5 , adopting its turn-based battle system, music, visual style, social links, and more to deliver an experience on PC and mobile devices that works surprisingly well for a series with so much to do. While The Phantom X opens almost identically to the original game, it quickly veers away from Persona 5 's cast to establish its own. Something is off in the world of high school student Nagisa Kamishiro, where people are losing the desires that guide their free will and dreams. In order to help people reclaim their lives, Nagisa and his friends will need to crawl through the Metaverse, a foe-filled alternate reality only they can enter, and fight back. The Phantom X is free-to-play, but is a gacha game, meaning it has in-game purchases and relies on randomized pulls for things like characters from other games in the series and items. It's a controversial style that can prompt players to fork over cash endlessly to get the experience they want. Because of that system, The Phantom X is best played at a daily pace, rather than long stretches. The game has daily activities and awards to earn, and developers plan to continue releasing content for it over the coming months. Right now, the game only features Japanese voice acting and English subtitles, which may be a deterrent for some fans. Although the Persona series is available on handheld consoles, like the PS Vita or Nintendo Switch, The Phantom X is the first time the more traditional JRPG version is available on mobile. The game uses touch controls to move through its world and select commands. Its cutscenes work well even on a small screen, and though its menu can feel at times cramped (depending on your screen size) it's an experience that flows seamlessly. Mobile platforms are well-suited to the dungeon crawling aspects of the game especially, allowing for much needed breaks and the ability to quickly jump back in at any time. For players who want to relive the highlights of the Persona 5 universe, The Phantom X is an easy recommendation. Its faithful recreation of the original game's best elements, mixed with a new story, makes the experience feel like a premium one—and a promising look at what a Persona game could look like on your phone.
WIRED
11 hours ago
- Politics
- WIRED
Substack Is Having a Moment—Again. But Time Is Running Out
Jun 27, 2025 2:29 PM While star reporters continue to flock to Substack, subscription fatigue is only getting worse. The Substack homepage on a smartphone. Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Photograph:Before June 8, the skilled and respected ABC News television journalist Terry Moran was neither a household name nor political lightning rod. That changed abruptly when Moran posted on X that Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller was 'a world-class hater,' followed by an addendum that the president was a hater as well. (The post was later taken down.) While the statements were certainly defendable, they apparently violated ABC policy, and Moran was suspended, then dismissed. Moran, though, had one move left. On June 11, he started writing on Substack. Moran was joining a movement based on a dream: Journalists could start a Substack newsletter and garner subscription fees that would match or exceed their previous salaries. And they would be editorially liberated! No editors to screw up copy, no censorship from bosses when advertisers complain, no corporate overlord to fire you when you say the president of the United States is a hater. Substack says that some people are indeed living the dream. CEO Chris Best recently boasted in a speech that 'more than 50' of its users were pulling in a million dollars in revenue. As more journalists get pushed out of their jobs, get fed up with their bosses, or just want to breathe the cool air of freedom, they now have what appears to be a viable escape hatch. Recently a lot of them are taking advantage of it. Jeff Bezos has been good to Substack: The Washington Post editorial page's apparent recent disinterest in stopping democracy from dying has led popular opinion writer Jennifer Rubin to start a publication called The Contrarian, and censored editorial Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes now publishes on Substack as well. Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan started his own publication. Even Chuck Todd has gone indie. You might be tempted to think that the Substack revolution is shaking up the foundations of journalism, agreeing with Substack star Emily Sundberg that newsroom leaders everywhere should be barring their doors to prevent further defections. Well, not so fast. The Substack model may work very well for a few, but it's not so easy to march in and match a salary. Readers have to pay a high price for a voice that they once enjoyed in a publication they subscribe to. And writers have to get used to the idea that the breadth of their wisdom is limited to a small percentage of patrons. Is Substack sustainable for writers addressing a general audience? Just in the last week or so, a cluster of critics have been publishing that the platform may be on shaky ground. It started when Eric Newcomer—posting on his own successful Substack—celebrated Substack's recent influx of big names and reported that the platform told investors it was taking in $45 million a year in revenue. He claimed it was seeking a new investment round which would value the company at $700 million. (Substack did not confirm those numbers.) This is an essay from the latest edition of Steven Levy's Plaintext newsletter. SIGN UP for Plaintext to read the whole thing, and tap Steven's unique insights and unmatched contacts for the long view on tech. But then Dylan Byers of Puck (a publication on Substack) looked at those numbers and wondered whether the bottom line valuation was actually less than in the previous rounds. Byers, like other critics, charged that once you get past the few real big earners, the platform was full of low-flying mediocrities: 'The truth is that the vast majority of the content on Substack is boring, amateurish or batshit crazy,' he wrote. His conclusion was that Substack was a media company trying to be valued as a tech company, which is a familiar fail point for similar companies. (WIRED itself once failed at an IPO for that very reason.) Ana Marie Cox, who once enjoyed blogging fame as Wonkette, is even grimmer, writing in her newsletter that Substack 'is as unstable as a SpaceX launch.' She wasn't impressed with the more recent influx of name writers. 'How many Terry Morans does Substack have room for?' she wrote. 'Is there even a public appetite for a dozen Terry Morans, each independently Terry Moran-ing in his own newsletter?' Cox is referring to subscription fatigue, which is something I think of every time a sign-up page pops up when opening a new Substack. Typically, Substack pros solicit a monthly fee of $5-10 or an annual rate of $50-150. Usually there's a free tier of content, but journalists who hope to make at least part of their livelihood on Substack save the good stuff for paid customers. Compared to subscribing to full-fledged publications, this is a terrible value proposition. After leaving The Atlantic, celebrated writer Derek Thompson started a Substack that cost $80 a year—that's one penny more than a digital subscription to the magazine he just left! (The Atlantic will probably spend $300,000 to replace him with someone else worth reading.) It doesn't take too many of those subscriptions to match the cost of The New York Times, which probably has 100 journalists as good as Substack writers, and you get Wordle to boot. Those fees can pile up. I asked one news-junkie pal of mine how many indie subs she was paying for, and a quick audit showed 31 subs costing over $2,000 per year. But my friend is the exception who actually pays. The vast majority of subscribers on Substack don't. The cost emphasizes the non-egalitarian nature of the independent concept. While I love the idea of liberated journalists speaking out, the fact is that compared to a bundled package known as a publication, the lone-voice model monetizes by delivering full content only to patrons who can afford it. It's a downside for writers, who typically want to reach wider audiences. 'I'm guessing a lot [those writers] don't like not being in the broader conversation on a regular basis, even if they're getting paid more,' says M.G. Siegler, who writes tech commentary on Spyglass, his own free-and-pay indie column.(You will note that this newsletter, and this writer, are delivered to you as part of a larger legacy media stack, That's a conscious choice.) Substack prefers to dwell on its success stories. Look what happened to Casey Newton. In 2020, he left the Verge and started Platformer, and it's still going strong with a six-figure number of subscribers, some thousands of whom actually pay him real money for all his posts. 'Platformer succeeded beyond my expectations,' he told me. 'It let me buy a house in San Francisco. I'd honestly never thought I'd be able to do that.' But Newton no longer publishes on Substack. Platformer is now on another platform called Ghost. It's a choice that a number of successful indie journalists have made, mainly because alternatives don't take a tenth of revenues. (Newton left Substack mainly because he said he was unhappy that the founders didn't sufficiently condemn Nazi-oriented content.) Substack says that it uniquely offers journalists access to a broad community and has offered a social-media-like feed that's sort of an internal Twitter, but I don't sense that those features have taken off. Other potential Substackers, like former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, have chosen a platform called Beehiiv. Unless they already have huge, passionate followings, newly independent journalists have a tough time rounding up enough subscribers to pay for even a fraction of a decent legacy media job. Newton says that early adopters like him had an easier time. 'Substack was shiny and new, and people were warming up to the idea,' he explains. He says that the decline of Twitter is another disadvantage for newer Substack writers. 'There was nothing like Twitter in the old days for finding new customers,' he says. 'Taking that away has made it meaningfully harder to promote their stuff.' Even Sundberg, who advised legacy media to sound the alarm about the Substack exodus, told a writer for Status that the window of opportunity for newbies might be closing. 'I wouldn't want to be starting now,' she says. For its part, Substack seems to be pivoting away from its roots. I first met the founders when they were going through Y Combinator's boot-camp-like experience, and they eagerly pitched me on their crusade to improve journalism. But now the Substack 'about' page promotes the site as 'the home for great culture,' describing itself as 'a new media app … [where] you can discover world-class video, podcasts, and writing from a diverse set of creators.' Note that 'writing' comes last in that hierarchy of creator output. Does Substack really think that its creator videos can compete with TikTok and Meta? (Substack did not make its executives available to comment.) Meanwhile, Moran is off to the races, posting anti-Trump comments without worrying about his job. He has over 100,000 subscribers, though it's not clear how many pay him. I read his comments and view his video posts via his free tier. No way will I pay him: I've already got ABC News on my cable, paid subscriptions to nearly a dozen publications and, yes, a bunch of Substack subs that I or my wife get billed for yearly or monthly. These include James Fallows, Jonathan Alter, Joyce Wadler, and Gregg Easterbrook, during the months he writes Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Even though the price is high for one single voice, I find those writers worth the cost. But I wish the legacy publications they once wrote for still employed them so I wouldn't have to pay a la carte. Don't miss future subscriber-only editions of this column. Subscribe to WIRED (50% off for Plaintext readers) today.
WIRED
12 hours ago
- WIRED
So Long, Blue Screen of Death. Amazingly, You'll Be Missed
Jun 27, 2025 1:37 PM After a long and storied history, the BSOD is being replaced. WIRED takes a trip down memory lane to wave goodbye to the iconic screen we all love to hate. A blue Windows error message is shown on a laptop. Photograph:For decades, the Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD to its friends, has instilled a mix of panic, dread, exasperation, and rage across countless Windows users. But now, Microsoft is getting ready to retire it. According to a Microsoft blog post, the Windows 11 crash screen—or, as the company puts it, 'unexpected restart screen'—will soon adopt a distinctly more minimalist vibe. Along with scrapping the blue (in favor of a perhaps even more dread-inducing black), the revamp also ditches the sad face emoji and QR code. All that remains is a single ominous sentence—'Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart'—along with a stop code and details of the errant driver that contributed to your PC's misfortune. A Black Screen of Death is something Microsoft has teased before. But why now? Why no more blue? And where did the Blue Screen of Death come from in the first place? Out of the Blue: Before the BSOD To be clear, there was no grand plan behind the Blue Screen of Death. Its origin story is a patchwork of coincidences and iteration. Even the term itself likely evolved organically, perhaps derived from 'Black Screen of Death,' used by InfoWorld's Robert X. Cringely while writing about a bug that affected networked PCs running Windows 3.1. That screen, you'll note, wasn't even blue. Early versions of Windows did have blue screens, but they weren't really about death. Windows 1 (1985) would spew white-on-blue garbage when confronted with the wrong version of DOS during boot. Windows 3.1 (1992) used the same scheme for important system messages that required user input and for the rudimentary task manager that let you kill unruly apps or reboot. At most, this was Blue Screen of Mild Dilemma territory. When things went really bad, you'd get dumped back into DOS. Which also wasn't blue. Windows 95 moved things on a bit by not kicking you back to DOS when it imploded. But its system error screens still gave you the option to limp along, even if Windows by then was one wobble from collapse. A Blue Screen of Potentially Delayed Death, then. But BSOPDD never caught on as an acronym because it's far too silly . Blue-Sky Thinking: Evolution of the BSOD The real BSOD, the one burned into tech lore, arguably arrived with Windows NT 3.1 (1993). When the system hit a critical error, it threw up a wall of white text on a blue background, which might help engineers diagnose an issue—or make the average user stare at it and weep. So why blue? Years ago, former Microsoft architect John Vert explained that the color scheme matched his workstation boot screen and text editor. And when Windows crashed, the display adapter was forced into text mode with a basic color palette. Vert added that he was unaware of other Windows blue screens. In short, then, he chose what he knew and liked. Yet those arbitrary decisions stuck for nearly two decades, aside from minor tweaks to simplify the output to make it a little less terrifying. Significant changes arrived with Windows 8 (2012), which was the first real attempt to make the crash screen user-friendly. But this being Microsoft, that effort included a huge, obnoxious, almost sarcastic sad-face emoji above text that read, 'Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to restart.' At least the shade of blue was nicer. Later, Windows 10 (2016) added a QR code, so that rather than scrawl down error messages, you could use your phone to quickly jump to a support page. (And then probably reboot anyway, when you realized it wasn't any help.) Then came Windows 11 (2021), which briefly made the dramatic visual change of turning the BSOD black, matching the system's login and shutdown screens. That was subsequently reverted, perhaps in response to the anguished cries of confused users and support desk engineers alike. So, what's different this time? Back in Black: Why Microsoft Is Ditching the Blue In 2024, a botched CrowdStrike update rendered countless PCs unusable, taking down airlines, railways, banks, TV stations, and more. What had they in common? All proudly displayed the Blue Screen of Death. It's not hard to imagine Microsoft wanting to distance itself from that imagery by making its crash screen less iconic, less memorable, less memeable , and less noticeable. Not that Microsoft would ever say that. Officially, the new crash screen is part of the broader Windows Resiliency Initiative, designed to, well, make Windows more resilient. And the redesign specifically is all about clarity and simplicity. According to David Weston, Microsoft Vice President, Enterprise and OS Security, it 'improves readability and aligns better with Windows 11 design principles, while preserving the technical information on the screen for when it is needed.' There's arguably an added bonus, too: removing all distinct visuals from the Windows crash screen gives Apple one less thing to poke fun at. So no more sneakily adding BSOD colors and :( to macOS PC icons. Sad face indeed. Feeling Blue: Microsoft Might Regret the Change But before WIRED suggests black looks good on everyone, including the Windows Lock Screen, let's ask: Should Microsoft think again, as it did in 2021? A whistle-stop tour of color theory books will tell you blue is widely regarded as positive, right across cultures. It's the most favored hue and associated with calmness, serenity, and competence. It's the sky and the sea—the 'everything's probably fine' shade. By contrast, black is the absence of color. Cold. Ominous. The void. More importantly, the Blue Screen of Death is recognizable . You can spot it across the room and instantly know something has gone very wrong. A black crash screen, though, risks blending in with update screens. And something you definitely don't want to do is have users in any way confuse the two. As a commenter WIRED spotted put it, 'You wouldn't change the colors of road signs, so why do that to the computer equivalent?' Whatever the reason—ditching a negative image, unifying design, simplifying an experience, or just change for the sake of it—the Blue Screen of Death is on borrowed time. Still, the BSOD acronym will surely live on, because there's no chance Microsoft's 'unexpected restart screen' term will stick. That's not a name; it's a euphemism. It'll always be a Screen of Death to WIRED, whatever its hue, black or blue. The BSOD is dead. Long live the BSOD.
