Spotify, it’s fair to say, has made some weird user-experience choices.
There are a number of panels in the app, and the layout is confusing. The service constantly tracks your activity. The app also seems to have an odd hostility to playing actual albums. This all works to create a general feeling that Spotify’s designers are trying to push you into using the service in a particular way.
It’s understandable, then, that some people are annoyed with the way music videos have been added to the platform. For the most part, they would start to play by default, in the background, whenever an artist had uploaded a video for the song. Some music videos have very different audio from the original tracks, particularly if they include sketches or sound effects, which can prove distracting if you prefer the album version of the song. And even if you enjoy music videos (which I do), the decision to have videos play by default—using up bandwidth and battery power—upset a lot of people.
There are a few other quirks. On Spotify’s desktop app, the videos are barely visible; they stay contained in the tiny album art panel until you manage to find the hidden, extremely small Now playing button that enlarges them. Also, the selection of videos that are on the platform, and the ones that are mysteriously absent, seems totally random. Because of this, I check YouTube first when I really want to watch a music video.
The most annoying thing, though, had been a lack of any obvious way to disable all videos. That changed recently—there’s now a toggle in the settings to disable music videos in Spotify entirely, alongside controls that disable the Canvas feature (animated album art) and video podcasts.
On mobile you can do this by tapping your user profile icon in the top-left to bring up the side panel. Then tap Settings and privacy, followed by Content and display.
Photograph: Justin Pot
In the Videos and Canvas section you will see three toggles: one for music videos, one for Canvas, and one for all other videos. This last toggle disables video podcasts, meaning you’ll get the audio-only version of podcasts instead. Turn all these off, and Spotify will use a lot less bandwidth.
On the desktop app, it’s a little different. Click your user profile icon in the top-right corner, then click Settings. Scroll down to the Videos and Canvas section to find the options to disable music videos and Canvas.
I tested this and it worked. The music video icon in playlists and albums disappeared, as did the collection of music videos on Artist pages. The only remnant of the disabled feature is a Switch to video button in the Now Playing sidebar, which appears below the album art. Click it and you’ll be told the video can’t play unless you turn videos back on in the settings. Odd, for sure, but for the most part turning this off means you don’t have to think about music videos in Spotify anymore.
I sincerely wish that Spotify would roll out music videos with more care. Sometimes I really do want to see a video—just not every time I play a track. Playlists of music videos might be welcome if they ran separately from the audio-only playlists. I just don’t want to get a music video when I’m looking for the album version of a song, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I can only hope that Spotify’s future interface design choices will keep things more clearly separated.
Spotify, it’s fair to say, has made some weird user-experience choices.
There are a number of panels in the app, and the layout is confusing. The service constantly tracks your activity. The app also seems to have an odd hostility to playing actual albums. This all works to create a general feeling that Spotify’s designers are trying to push you into using the service in a particular way.
It’s understandable, then, that some people are annoyed with the way music videos have been added to the platform. For the most part, they would start to play by default, in the background, whenever an artist had uploaded a video for the song. Some music videos have very different audio from the original tracks, particularly if they include sketches or sound effects, which can prove distracting if you prefer the album version of the song. And even if you enjoy music videos (which I do), the decision to have videos play by default—using up bandwidth and battery power—upset a lot of people.
There are a few other quirks. On Spotify’s desktop app, the videos are barely visible; they stay contained in the tiny album art panel until you manage to find the hidden, extremely small Now playing button that enlarges them. Also, the selection of videos that are on the platform, and the ones that are mysteriously absent, seems totally random. Because of this, I check YouTube first when I really want to watch a music video.
The most annoying thing, though, had been a lack of any obvious way to disable all videos. That changed recently—there’s now a toggle in the settings to disable music videos in Spotify entirely, alongside controls that disable the Canvas feature (animated album art) and video podcasts.
On mobile you can do this by tapping your user profile icon in the top-left to bring up the side panel. Then tap Settings and privacy, followed by Content and display.
Photograph: Justin Pot
In the Videos and Canvas section you will see three toggles: one for music videos, one for Canvas, and one for all other videos. This last toggle disables video podcasts, meaning you’ll get the audio-only version of podcasts instead. Turn all these off, and Spotify will use a lot less bandwidth.
On the desktop app, it’s a little different. Click your user profile icon in the top-right corner, then click Settings. Scroll down to the Videos and Canvas section to find the options to disable music videos and Canvas.
I tested this and it worked. The music video icon in playlists and albums disappeared, as did the collection of music videos on Artist pages. The only remnant of the disabled feature is a Switch to video button in the Now Playing sidebar, which appears below the album art. Click it and you’ll be told the video can’t play unless you turn videos back on in the settings. Odd, for sure, but for the most part turning this off means you don’t have to think about music videos in Spotify anymore.
I sincerely wish that Spotify would roll out music videos with more care. Sometimes I really do want to see a video—just not every time I play a track. Playlists of music videos might be welcome if they ran separately from the audio-only playlists. I just don’t want to get a music video when I’m looking for the album version of a song, and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I can only hope that Spotify’s future interface design choices will keep things more clearly separated.
“There’s only been one Blade. There’s only ever gonna be one Blade.” When Wesley Snipes spoke those lines in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, audiences cackled. Sure, Deadpool and the characters around him love to make self-referential jokes, but something about Snipes—playing Blade for the first time since 2004’s Blade: Trinity—delivering the joke hit extra hard.
Comic-book movie lovers know, of course, that Marvel announced a Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali all the way back in 2019. It’s had a stop-and-start progression since then and slowly became a bit of a punchline, with many fans coming to believe it would never actually happen.
It’s not unheard of in Hollywood that a movie gets announced, then never actually goes into production. But it is unusual when a high-profile Marvel project starring a two-time Oscar winner that was trumpeted from the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con gets quietly shoved to the bottom of the TBD list.
However, Marvel hadn’t made any statement putting Blade to rest until very recently, when Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz came right out and asked Marvel head Kevin Feige for an update on the status of Blade. Horowitz shared the clip in an Instagram reel you can watch here, but this is what they said:
“How much time in therapy have you spent talking about Blade?” Horowitz joked to Feige. “This poor project. We just need to get this done, Kevin … We all want it. Mahershala wants it. How are you feeling at this moment?”
Feige replied, “I’m feeling very excited that we got Wesley back for a time in Deadpool & Wolverine and like a gigantic loser and a failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.”
So he doesn’t say there will never, ever be a new Blade film, no matter what Deadpool & Wolverine would have us believe. But it sure sounds like the Mahershala Ali Blade movie is no longer in play.
Horowitz also asked if there’s a chance Secret Wars could be two films (no), if Doomsday is sticking to its release date (yes), and what the MCU will look like after Secret Wars arrives in late 2027. “I look to the comics as I always do in terms of our storytelling,” Feige said, after noting he doesn’t consider Secret Wars to be a reboot. “And after both the Secret Wars, but particularly the [Jonathan] Hickman Secret Wars from 10 years ago, there’s a nice road map to where we can go.”
Horowitz also asked if any actors have signed on for X-Men characters that we don’t know about yet, and Feige said, with supreme vagueness, “Not necessarily.”
Perhaps we’ll learn more about that when Marvel’s Hall H panel happens this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con. Marvel didn’t hold its traditional Saturday night panel in 2025, so Feige and company have some catching up to do.
“There’s only been one Blade. There’s only ever gonna be one Blade.” When Wesley Snipes spoke those lines in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, audiences cackled. Sure, Deadpool and the characters around him love to make self-referential jokes, but something about Snipes—playing Blade for the first time since 2004’s Blade: Trinity—delivering the joke hit extra hard.
Comic-book movie lovers know, of course, that Marvel announced a Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali all the way back in 2019. It’s had a stop-and-start progression since then and slowly became a bit of a punchline, with many fans coming to believe it would never actually happen.
It’s not unheard of in Hollywood that a movie gets announced, then never actually goes into production. But it is unusual when a high-profile Marvel project starring a two-time Oscar winner that was trumpeted from the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con gets quietly shoved to the bottom of the TBD list.
However, Marvel hadn’t made any statement putting Blade to rest until very recently, when Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz came right out and asked Marvel head Kevin Feige for an update on the status of Blade. Horowitz shared the clip in an Instagram reel you can watch here, but this is what they said:
“How much time in therapy have you spent talking about Blade?” Horowitz joked to Feige. “This poor project. We just need to get this done, Kevin … We all want it. Mahershala wants it. How are you feeling at this moment?”
Feige replied, “I’m feeling very excited that we got Wesley back for a time in Deadpool & Wolverine and like a gigantic loser and a failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.”
So he doesn’t say there will never, ever be a new Blade film, no matter what Deadpool & Wolverine would have us believe. But it sure sounds like the Mahershala Ali Blade movie is no longer in play.
Horowitz also asked if there’s a chance Secret Wars could be two films (no), if Doomsday is sticking to its release date (yes), and what the MCU will look like after Secret Wars arrives in late 2027. “I look to the comics as I always do in terms of our storytelling,” Feige said, after noting he doesn’t consider Secret Wars to be a reboot. “And after both the Secret Wars, but particularly the [Jonathan] Hickman Secret Wars from 10 years ago, there’s a nice road map to where we can go.”
Horowitz also asked if any actors have signed on for X-Men characters that we don’t know about yet, and Feige said, with supreme vagueness, “Not necessarily.”
Perhaps we’ll learn more about that when Marvel’s Hall H panel happens this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con. Marvel didn’t hold its traditional Saturday night panel in 2025, so Feige and company have some catching up to do.
“There’s only been one Blade. There’s only ever gonna be one Blade.” When Wesley Snipes spoke those lines in 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, audiences cackled. Sure, Deadpool and the characters around him love to make self-referential jokes, but something about Snipes—playing Blade for the first time since 2004’s Blade: Trinity—delivering the joke hit extra hard.
Comic-book movie lovers know, of course, that Marvel announced a Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali all the way back in 2019. It’s had a stop-and-start progression since then and slowly became a bit of a punchline, with many fans coming to believe it would never actually happen.
It’s not unheard of in Hollywood that a movie gets announced, then never actually goes into production. But it is unusual when a high-profile Marvel project starring a two-time Oscar winner that was trumpeted from the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con gets quietly shoved to the bottom of the TBD list.
However, Marvel hadn’t made any statement putting Blade to rest until very recently, when Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz came right out and asked Marvel head Kevin Feige for an update on the status of Blade. Horowitz shared the clip in an Instagram reel you can watch here, but this is what they said:
“How much time in therapy have you spent talking about Blade?” Horowitz joked to Feige. “This poor project. We just need to get this done, Kevin … We all want it. Mahershala wants it. How are you feeling at this moment?”
Feige replied, “I’m feeling very excited that we got Wesley back for a time in Deadpool & Wolverine and like a gigantic loser and a failure that we didn’t get off the ground with Mahershala.”
So he doesn’t say there will never, ever be a new Blade film, no matter what Deadpool & Wolverine would have us believe. But it sure sounds like the Mahershala Ali Blade movie is no longer in play.
Horowitz also asked if there’s a chance Secret Wars could be two films (no), if Doomsday is sticking to its release date (yes), and what the MCU will look like after Secret Wars arrives in late 2027. “I look to the comics as I always do in terms of our storytelling,” Feige said, after noting he doesn’t consider Secret Wars to be a reboot. “And after both the Secret Wars, but particularly the [Jonathan] Hickman Secret Wars from 10 years ago, there’s a nice road map to where we can go.”
Horowitz also asked if any actors have signed on for X-Men characters that we don’t know about yet, and Feige said, with supreme vagueness, “Not necessarily.”
Perhaps we’ll learn more about that when Marvel’s Hall H panel happens this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con. Marvel didn’t hold its traditional Saturday night panel in 2025, so Feige and company have some catching up to do.
There’s nothing more natural, simple, and affordable than a mushroom log. Many mushroom logs available for purchase are meant exclusively for outdoor use, as they’re just plain old logs with sealed holes full of colonized mushroom spawn. But this 12-inch-tall option from Williams Sonoma is meant for indoor display (though you can also place it outside if you’d prefer), with smooth waxed ends and a rustic metal tag printed with its creation date.
Soak it for 24 hours and—theoretically—you’ll have mushrooms pinning in about 30 days. Even though oyster mushrooms are the easiest variety to grow, for reasons known only to me at the time, I chose a shiitake log, which came with a piece of paper identifying it as a “younger log.” This means the spawn was still in the process of colonizing and should fruit seven to nine months from the date stamped on its tag, which was December 2025. I soaked the log in mid-May and again in early July, but I’m still waiting to see any pins. Williams Sonoma says the log is guaranteed to fruit, so it continues to sit on my dining room table, in a saucer full of water, tented with a plastic produce bag. Some green mold has started to appear on the top, but I remain optimistic, even though this is not my first shiitake mushroom log failure (I tried to grow one from a different brand some years ago, outside under a bush).
#Year #Growing #Mushrooms #Badlyapocalypse wow,food and drink,biology">
There’s nothing more natural, simple, and affordable than a mushroom log. Many mushroom logs available for purchase are meant exclusively for outdoor use, as they’re just plain old logs with sealed holes full of colonized mushroom spawn. But this 12-inch-tall option from Williams Sonoma is meant for indoor display (though you can also place it outside if you’d prefer), with smooth waxed ends and a rustic metal tag printed with its creation date.
Soak it for 24 hours and—theoretically—you’ll have mushrooms pinning in about 30 days. Even though oyster mushrooms are the easiest variety to grow, for reasons known only to me at the time, I chose a shiitake log, which came with a piece of paper identifying it as a “younger log.” This means the spawn was still in the process of colonizing and should fruit seven to nine months from the date stamped on its tag, which was December 2025. I soaked the log in mid-May and again in early July, but I’m still waiting to see any pins. Williams Sonoma says the log is guaranteed to fruit, so it continues to sit on my dining room table, in a saucer full of water, tented with a plastic produce bag. Some green mold has started to appear on the top, but I remain optimistic, even though this is not my first shiitake mushroom log failure (I tried to grow one from a different brand some years ago, outside under a bush).
#Year #Growing #Mushrooms #Badlyapocalypse wow,food and drink,biology">My Year of Growing Mushrooms Badly
Mushroom hunting is cool and fun, but you know what’s not cool and fun? Having slugs or other mushroom hunters discover your secret spot. Or, worst of all, accidentally collecting the wrong kind of mushroom that could make you quite sick—or worse.
Ideally, you’d be able to grow your favorite kind of mushrooms safely in your own home or yard, whether that’s shiitakes, morels, or lion’s manes, just like you would vegetables. But like many gardening-adjacent pursuits, it’s not that simple. Mushrooms, like all fungi, need just three things to grow: spores, a food source, and a humid environment.
However, because mushrooms are incredibly sensitive to light, heat, and contamination, it doesn’t take much to create a prohibitive growing environment. And then there’s the question of whether it’s possible to simulate the critical symbiotic relationships that many mushrooms, especially more coveted ones like porcinis and chanterelles, must maintain with tree roots to thrive.
I am far from a mycology expert, but during the past year, I, a busy full-time-working parent, have engaged in five different attempts to grow mushrooms in my house and backyard: shiitakes on an inoculated log, oysters on a cardboard-enclosed fruiting block, wine caps in spawn buried in bark chips in my garden, oysters from grain spawn in a bucket, and oysters and lion’s manes in a monotub setup.
I laughed, I cried, I made an epic mess of chopped straw in my bathroom, and only two of the five methods succeeded. If you, too, are mushroom-curious and looking to grow your own, here’s what I did—and, in some cases, wish I had done differently.
There’s nothing more natural, simple, and affordable than a mushroom log. Many mushroom logs available for purchase are meant exclusively for outdoor use, as they’re just plain old logs with sealed holes full of colonized mushroom spawn. But this 12-inch-tall option from Williams Sonoma is meant for indoor display (though you can also place it outside if you’d prefer), with smooth waxed ends and a rustic metal tag printed with its creation date.
Soak it for 24 hours and—theoretically—you’ll have mushrooms pinning in about 30 days. Even though oyster mushrooms are the easiest variety to grow, for reasons known only to me at the time, I chose a shiitake log, which came with a piece of paper identifying it as a “younger log.” This means the spawn was still in the process of colonizing and should fruit seven to nine months from the date stamped on its tag, which was December 2025. I soaked the log in mid-May and again in early July, but I’m still waiting to see any pins. Williams Sonoma says the log is guaranteed to fruit, so it continues to sit on my dining room table, in a saucer full of water, tented with a plastic produce bag. Some green mold has started to appear on the top, but I remain optimistic, even though this is not my first shiitake mushroom log failure (I tried to grow one from a different brand some years ago, outside under a bush).
#Year #Growing #Mushrooms #Badlyapocalypse wow,food and drink,biology
Thanks to BTS member J-Hope, we now have our first look at Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide in the wild, ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event.
According to a report from 9to5Google’s Ben Schoon, the singer was filmed using the device during soundcheck footage at a BTS World Tour stop in Paris, with the compiled clips circulating on X. The footage shows J-Hope holding and filming with the device from both front and back angles. The device in the video matches leaked renders of the new wide version of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which is expected to go head-to-head with the iPhone Ultra Fold later this year.
The clips show a purple finish, though the phone isn’t shown unfolded, leaving its inner display still unseen. Samsung maintains a marketing partnership with BTS, and 9to5Google suggested the phone was likely supplied to J-Hope through that relationship rather than as an intentional early reveal.
Mashable Light Speed
The device is widely expected to carry the Galaxy Z Fold 8 name, though as we’ve noted, the branding may cause confusion. This version reportedly isn’t a direct successor to last year’s Z Fold 7, with that role instead going to a separate Z Fold 8 Ultra.
In our guide to Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide leaks, the reported specs point to a 5.5-inch external display, 7.6-inch internal display, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB RAM, and a 4,800mAh battery, alongside a camera setup: 50MP wide, 50MP ultrawide, dual 10MP selfie. This marks a step down from the Z Fold 7’s 200MP main sensor.
Samsung is set to formally unveil the device alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip 8, and new smartwatches at the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London.
Thanks to BTS member J-Hope, we now have our first look at Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide in the wild, ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event.
According to a report from 9to5Google’s Ben Schoon, the singer was filmed using the device during soundcheck footage at a BTS World Tour stop in Paris, with the compiled clips circulating on X. The footage shows J-Hope holding and filming with the device from both front and back angles. The device in the video matches leaked renders of the new wide version of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which is expected to go head-to-head with the iPhone Ultra Fold later this year.
The clips show a purple finish, though the phone isn’t shown unfolded, leaving its inner display still unseen. Samsung maintains a marketing partnership with BTS, and 9to5Google suggested the phone was likely supplied to J-Hope through that relationship rather than as an intentional early reveal.
Mashable Light Speed
The device is widely expected to carry the Galaxy Z Fold 8 name, though as we’ve noted, the branding may cause confusion. This version reportedly isn’t a direct successor to last year’s Z Fold 7, with that role instead going to a separate Z Fold 8 Ultra.
In our guide to Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide leaks, the reported specs point to a 5.5-inch external display, 7.6-inch internal display, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB RAM, and a 4,800mAh battery, alongside a camera setup: 50MP wide, 50MP ultrawide, dual 10MP selfie. This marks a step down from the Z Fold 7’s 200MP main sensor.
Samsung is set to formally unveil the device alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip 8, and new smartwatches at the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London.
Mashable will be at Samsung’s London event, so check back on Wednesday for our live blog and the latest Galaxy Unpacked news.
#wide #Galaxy #Fold #revealed #BTS #member #JHope">The new, wide Galaxy Z Fold 8 revealed by BTS member J-Hope
Thanks to BTS member J-Hope, we now have our first look at Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide in the wild, ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event.
According to a report from 9to5Google’s Ben Schoon, the singer was filmed using the device during soundcheck footage at a BTS World Tour stop in Paris, with the compiled clips circulating on X. The footage shows J-Hope holding and filming with the device from both front and back angles. The device in the video matches leaked renders of the new wide version of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which is expected to go head-to-head with the iPhone Ultra Fold later this year.
The clips show a purple finish, though the phone isn’t shown unfolded, leaving its inner display still unseen. Samsung maintains a marketing partnership with BTS, and 9to5Google suggested the phone was likely supplied to J-Hope through that relationship rather than as an intentional early reveal.
Mashable Light Speed
The device is widely expected to carry the Galaxy Z Fold 8 name, though as we’ve noted, the branding may cause confusion. This version reportedly isn’t a direct successor to last year’s Z Fold 7, with that role instead going to a separate Z Fold 8 Ultra.
In our guide to Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide leaks, the reported specs point to a 5.5-inch external display, 7.6-inch internal display, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB RAM, and a 4,800mAh battery, alongside a camera setup: 50MP wide, 50MP ultrawide, dual 10MP selfie. This marks a step down from the Z Fold 7’s 200MP main sensor.
Samsung is set to formally unveil the device alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip 8, and new smartwatches at the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London.
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