Disney held its first-ever Disney+ Day on Friday, and wouldn’t you know it, new content from Marvel Studios dominated the slate, with the company announcing or providing updates on 12 different live-action and animated shows. You can see an early look at footage from some of the upcoming shows on the Disney+ website.
X-Men`97
Let’s start with the news nearly everyone is excited about. Disney is bringing back X-Men: The Animated Series as part of a new project called X-Men ‘97. It will pick up where the original series ended following its five-year run between 1992 and 1997. X-Men ‘97 will debut in 2023.
Moon Knight
Disney
Following his excellent performance in Duneas Duke Leto Atreides, Oscar Issac will star as Marc Spector in Moon Knight. Much like in the comics, Spector has a dissociative identity disorder that sees believing that he’s the human incarnation of the Egyptian Khonshu. Moon Knight will also star Ethan Hawke. Moon Knight will debut next year, according to Disney.
She-Hulk
Disney
In She-Hulk, Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, The Other Half) plays Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who inherits Hulk-like powers. If you love Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, worry not. Disney has already confirmed he’ll reprise his role. She-Hulk will hit Disney+ sometime in 2022.
Ms. Marvel
Disney
Since her solo debut in 2016, Kamala Khan has had an amazing run as Ms. Marvel. Not only have her comics been some of the best from Marvel in recent years, but she was one of the few highlights in the otherwise dismal Marvel’s Avengers video game from Square Enix. Now she’s about to get her own live-action series that will debut in the summer of 2022.
Echo
Disney
Hawkeye won’t debut until later this month, but Disney already has plans for a live-action spinoff starring Alaqua Cox’s character Maya Lopez. We’ll learn more about Lopez when Hawkeye starts streaming on November 24th.
Ironheart
Disney
Dominique Thorne will star in this live-action series that sees Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, create the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.
Agatha: House of Darkness
Disney
As expected, Kathryn Hahn’s WandaVision character Agatha Harkness will star in her own live-action spin-off series. Jac Schaefer will produce and write the series.
Secret Invasion
Disney
After guest appearances in nearly every Marvel film, Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury finally gets his own time in the spotlight courtesy of Secret Invasion. Ben Mendelsohn will star opposite Jackson as Skrull Talos in the live-action series.
What If…?
Disney
Whether you liked the first season of What If…? or felt, like we did, that it didn’t live up to its potential, Disney is moving forward with a second season. The Watcher will return to meet new heroes and explore more of the MCU multiverse, with AC Bradley set to return as head writer.
Spider-Man: Freshman Year
Disney
In another animated series, Marvel plans to tell the story of Peter Parker before he became the Spider-Man of the MCU. The studio says this one will celebrate the character’s early comic book roots.
I Am Groot
Disney
It’s time for Groot to shine.Everyone’s favorite Guardians of the Galaxy characters will star in his own animated series titled I Am Groot. Again,no release date on this one, but Kirsten Lepore — best known for short films like Sweet Dreams and Bottle — will direct the project.
Marvel Zombies
Disney
“You know what the MCU is missing? Zombies,” said no one ever, but that didn’t stop Disney from greenlighting an animated series that will pit some of your favorite heroes against an endless undead tide.
Here's one thing we know for sure about Obi-Wan Kenobi: we'll finally see another showdown with Darth Vader. We got our first glimpse at the series during Disney+ Day, the streaming network's extended birthday celebration. While there's no actual footage from Obi-Wan available, a behind-the-scenes clip streaming through the app and concept art reveals some familiar and new territory for the franchise. Ewan McGregor confirms the show will start off with Obi-Wan trying to keep Luke Skywalker safe — as you'd expect — but that's just the launching point for a whole series of new adventures, according to director Deborah Chow.
Lucas Film/Disney
Disney previously revealed that Hayden Christensen would be returning to play Darth Vader, and judging from the concept art (and some training footage), he'll definitely be ready to throw down once again. (The live-action footage in today's promo is just some clever editing from the previous Star Wars films.) Given the relatively tepid response to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it makes sense for Disney to lean more on TV productions, like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett,, where it can explore new aspects of the franchise.
Perhaps not as hotly anticipated, there's also some footage from Baymax!, a show dedicated to the lovable healthcare robot from Big Hero 6. It's the second series for the franchise — following the sequel show that ran for three seasons — and from the looks of it, there'll be more focus on comedy than superhero antics. But really, it's not like we're lacking in super-powered action these days.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Baymax! will hit Disney+ sometime in 2022.
Agatha Harkness is returning to Disney+. A WandaVisionspinoff centering on the show's breakout character has been confirmed, with Kathryn Hahn reprising her role in Agatha: House of Harkness. Jac Schaeffer, the head writer of WandaVision, will take on that same position for the upcoming series, according to Variety.
No other details have been confirmed, and it's not clear when the Marvel Cinematic Universe show will debut. For now, Disney says it's "coming soon." Rumors started swirling about the spinoff last month.
As part of Disney+ Day, the company announced a swathe of new shows and movies that are coming to the streaming service, including a whole bunch of Marvel shows. If you're anything like me, you're probably most looking forward to a continuation of the classic '90s X-Men animated series.
New streaming services are a dime a dozen. By now, their debuts are met with an eye roll. Viewers might wonder what beloved shows or movies are now leaving Netflix to be siloed off in some walled garden of a service. But the hype around Disney+ was a bit different when it launched two years ago today, mostly because it started off with a sizable library of well-loved content, much of which had never been available on streaming before. Add in some buzzworthy new shows from big-name franchises and 116 million subscribers, and it’s safe to say that Disney+ has become a must-have channel for your streaming lineup.
Disney has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to finding new ways to distribute its content. In 1983 it launched The Disney Channel, a premium network that showcased Disney-owned and other family-friendly content. (The channel would later make the shift to basic cable starting in 1990.) Other corporate-content-specific cable networks like Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network wouldn’t debut until a decade later. Disney was also well-known for how it would re-release classic animated films in theaters every seven years or so and, once home video was a thing, would consign those same movies to the “Disney Vault” until that period of time had passed. With the advent of DVD and later Blu-ray, Disney would loosen its grip on content, making movies available through subscription services like the Disney Movie Club, and adding free digital copies with every physical media purchase.
The launch of Disney+ promised an end to the Disney Vault, with every Disney animated film available to stream. Well, almost — Song of the South is still not available on Disney+ due to its racist content, and other shows and films have been held due to licensing restrictions. But it’s still an impressive lineup. If you wanted to give yourself a crash course in animation history Disney+ is a good service to have, home to some of the earliest Walt Disney Animation Studio films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio and Fantasia, all the way to recent releases like Ralph Breaks the Internet and Frozen II. Plenty of shorts are available on the service, too, allowing kids and adults to check out all-time classics like Steamboat Willie and The Brave Little Tailor.
But while parents were happy to have a streaming service they didn’t need to put on parental lock with their kids, Disney was making a play for older folks with two franchises it had acquired over the previous decade: Marvel and Star Wars. Right out of the gate the company promised fresh content from both, with The Mandalorian debuting only weeks after the service’s launch. Alongside later Marvel Cinematic Universe shows like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, Disney could lay claim to having “water cooler” shows, ones that would light up social media and hopefully win a few awards in the process. Though the company hasn’t been entirely successful in the latter category and subscriber numbers have stalled, it at least has programs that generate as much excitement as Netflix’s Stranger Things or Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
So what’s next for Disney+? The service continues to add more programming from its big franchises, with shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Hawkeye not far over the horizon. I’ve talked before about how Disney+ can facilitate franchise world-building thanks to the ability to have all its content in one place, though both Star Wars and Marvel risk growing to the point where audiences may not be able to keep up with it all. The new shows and service definitely benefited from people having a lot of free time in 2020 and 2021 — it’ll be interesting to see if Disney+ can maintain its cachet as more businesses open back up. After gettingmixed results with offering new movies on “Premier Access” streaming for $30 a pop, Disney has switched to offering films “only in theaters” again, with even a divisive film like Eternals pulling in over $70 million on its opening weekend.
Disney+’s biggest strength today is its back catalog of content, namely the shows and movies that are still missing from the service. Some programs were held back to promote future releases. One easy example I can think of is how the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King showed up a week or two shy of the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The short film was the last appearance of the character Trevor Slattery, who would go on to play a part in Shang-Chi. One can hope this means the other One-Shots will make their way to Disney+ as their characters reappear in the Marvel films.
The same, however, cannot be said for the Hulk, whose film rights are still tangled up with Universal, making 2008’s The Incredible Hulk the only MCU movie still missing from Disney+ — even with a She-Hulk series on deck for 2022. But if Marvel could patch things up with Sony over the rights to Spider-Man to the point where the new film seems to be bringing back previous actors and introducing the older films as part of a multiverse, there’s certainly room to be surprised over on Planet Hulk.
Other odd omissions: Disney+ has the original animated Aladdin film and its two direct-to-VHS sequels, but not the TV show that the two latter films bookended. At this point we don’t know if it’s a rights issue, an indication of future plans or someone just forgot the show existed. And you can only watch five episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club right now, from its classic black-and-white ‘50s period and nothing from the ‘90s reboot that launched the careers of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. The service may just be holding those in reserve for a potential relaunch, or just something to promote if and when the content dries up.
But right now, things are strong for Disney+. It’s got five new MCU shows on the horizon, while also planning a second season for Loki. Star Wars has a whopping seven live-action shows on deck, along with more of the animated The Bad Batch for the kids. It’s plenty to keep subscribers on the hook week after week and, alongside its massive back catalog, those things have catapulted Disney+ into the top tier of streaming services only two years after launch.
Instagram was clearly trying to court TikTok users when it launched its short-form video format called Reels. Now, it has introduced two features already widely popular on TikTok, perhaps in hopes that they can convert those who've been hesitating to use Reels due to their absence. One of those tools is text-to-speech, which provides a robotic voiceover for videos.
When a user types in text for their videos, they'll now be able to get an auto-generated voice to read it out loud by accessing the feature living inside the Text bubble on the lower left corner of the screen. They then have to choose between the two available voice options before posting their video. While text-to-speech will make Reels more accessible, it's also popular on TikTok just because some find a robotic voice narrating their activities a funny addition to their content.
Instagram
In addition to Text-to-Speech, Instagram has also rolled out Voice Effects for Reels. With this feature, creators can change their voice as they see fit, and choose from the several options available. They can change their voice to sound like they inhaled some helium or to sound like a giant. They can also choose to sound like an announcer, a robot or a vocalist. Instagram has rolled out both audio tools, so users can now give them a try.
The next time you're watching a show on Prime Video and there's a moment that leaves you crying, laughing or feeling wowed, you might be able to share a clip of it with your friends. Prime Video users in the US can now try a clip feature on iOS.
Perhaps due to rights issues, the feature is limited to select Amazon Original series for now — season one of The Boys, The Wilds, Invincible and Fairfax — with more shows and movies to follow. When you're watching one of those shows, you can select the Share a Clip option. The app will pause the video and create a 30-second clip of what you just watched. You can move the starting point of the clip and watch a preview before sharing it on social networks or in a message.
The feature could come in handy if you ever feel the need to explain the appeal of Hot Priest from Fleabag in the future. Maybe you'll eventually be able to share a clip of one of James Bond's narrow escapes if Amazon's MGM deal goes through too.
VOIR, the latest Netflix series from Zodiac and Fight Club director David Fincher, will debut on December 6th. Described as a collection of visual essays celebrating cinema, the documentary series will see the likes of Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos, best known for their work on Every Frame a Painting, tell personal stories about some of the most influential films in history.
VOIR, a series of visual essays celebrating Cinema and the personal connection we each have to the stories we see on the big screen.
From executive producers David Fincher and David Prior. Only on Netflix December 6. pic.twitter.com/RI6nV6lxYz
Even with Netflix sharing a trailer, it’s hard to say what exact movies will get the spotlight. At one point, nearly every famous film from the past seven decades makes an appearance in the clip, including more modern classics like The Matrix and Mad Max: Fury Road.
While some fans had hoped Fincher was working on a third season of Mindhunter, they’ll have to settle for VOIR instead. That’s not to say the auteur won’t return to the popular series. Last year, he extended his exclusive contract with Netflix by four years.
You'll soon have the chance to visit Radiohead's virtual exhibition. The band and Epic Games are releasing Kid A Mnesia Exhibition for free on November 18th for PS5, Windows PC and Mac. As you can see from the trailer, the finished project is just what you'd expect — it's a trippy 3D art gallery that blends Radiohead's music from Kid A and Amnesiac (including new sound design from Nigel Godrich) with the unsettling artwork of Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood.
The exhibit was originally meant to be physical, but a combination of "laws of zoning and physics and COVID-19" (according to Epic) pushed it to the digital realm. Radiohead, Godrich and Donwood teamed with Namethemachine, Arbitrarily Good Productions, artist Sean Evans and theater set designer Christine Jones to create the exhibition. Epic is publishing the end result.
This is clearly a plug for the Kid A Mnesia album that includes both albums and a string of previously unreleased material. At the same time, it might be worthwhile even if you're only casually familiar with Radiohead's tunes. This is a rare chance to explore a legendary group's music and imagery well beyond the usual confines of an album, and more on your own terms.
Charts have long been a useful way for Spotify users to check out the top songs on a given day as well as what's trending. The company is giving fans and artists more charts to check out, as well as a dedicated website on which to peruse them.
New to the platform are weekly genre charts. You'll be able to see the top 200 songs across 17 genres, with user playlists and editorial input used to categorize tunes. You can also take a peek at artist charts. These will be updated every Friday to show the top 200 artists globally, as well as in each of Spotify's top 65 markets, based on streams from an artist's entire catalogs.
What's more, users can dive into more than 200 city charts to see the biggest songs in specific locations. Local pulse charts, meanwhile, show how popular a song is in a city compared with how big that track is around the world. That should provide a sense of how listeners' tastes in one city match up against the broader Spotify userbase.
Spotify
There are a few features tailored toward artists as part of this expansion. They can see when a song entered the chart, its peak position and streaks. Credits are now included for each song on charts under the "more" option. If a song is doing particularly well, artists and fans can share that success using promo cards that Spotify created.
Spotify also expanded its podcast charts this year. There's now an option to see the top podcast episodes, in addition to the most popular shows.
If there’s an artist in your life the best gift you can give them is inspiration. Whether they’re a painter, writer, musician or anything else. Something to get their creative juices flowing will be welcome. Trust us. There are countless ways to spur creativity and aid the creative process — many of which don’t require spending any money, like meditation or simply taking a long walk. But there are tools out there that can help someone stretch beyond their comfort zone, or simply document and fine-tune their own ideas. From subscriptions, to books, to extremely bizarre instruments, here are the best gifts for the creative in your life.
You Are an Artist by Sarah Urist Green
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget / Penguin Books
It might seem counterintuitive, but sometimes just being told what to do is a great way to spur creativity. Because, truth is, rarely is the actually creative part in the original idea, but rather in the execution of it. The problem is, once someone leaves school nobody is giving them assignments any more. That’s where You Are an Artist comes in, a book compiled by Sarah Urist Green, the host of PBS’ The Art Assignment on YouTube. It’s a collection of 50 assignments crafted by a diverse set of artists to help get the creative on your list, well, creating.
Many of the assignments focus on visual arts, asking them to make endless copies of an image using a Xerox machine, or to take random photos of a location and make notes on details they might normally miss. But there are others that encourage them to hum or clap along with the sounds of traffic, or engage in word games. You Are an Artist is the sort of book they’ll probably revisit time and time again. — Terrence O'Brien, Managing Editor
The iPad has become a key tool for creatives over the years and arguably nothing has contributed to that more than the Apple Pencil. Most of the newest iPads support the second-generation Pencil and it’s admittedly much more convenient than the first purely for its magnetic charging method. But otherwise, the Apple Pencil is the best stylus I’ve ever used because it has little to no latency and that helps mimic the feeling of drawing with a traditional pen and paper.
While investing in a paper-like screen protector will blur the lines even further, you don’t have to do that to get an excellent experience from the Apple Pencil. Drawing is seamless, taking notes is a breeze (especially with iPadOS 15 if you use Apple’s Notes app) and the possibilities are endless once you get familiar with third-party programs like Procreate. Battery life is superb, too: I’ve spent hours drawing in Procreate or experimenting with different planner layouts in GoodNotes and I have yet to pause a session to recharge the Pencil. While the Apple Pencil hasn’t completely replaced traditional art forms for me, it’s certainly the most useful tool I own for when I want to be creative. — Valentina Palladino, Commerce Editor
The Freewrite smart typewriter is a niche device that would nonetheless make a wonderful present for any aspiring writer. Or, come to think of it, anyone who is already committed to the art of putting words to the page. The Freewrite combines an excellent mechanical keyboard with an E Ink display, and while it can get online to sync drafts to the web, that's the only thing it can do. There's no way to browse the web, play a game, or watch YouTube on the Freewrite, which makes it a lot easier to just sit down and get into a flow state. The E Ink screen and keyboard can take a little getting used to, but both things quickly become assets when just looking to get some writing done. And thanks to the low-power display, the Freewrite lasts for a week or two of heavy writing. At $600, it's a serious investment — but gifting one to an aspiring writer should give them great motivation to write that book they're always talking about. — Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Managing Editor
Decades worth of record label design offers a wellspring of visual aesthetics to kickstart your own creativity. There are even a few monoliths of music and design culture that succeeded in the record industry without succumbing to the corporate machine. Factory and Mute records are such creatures. Spawned in the UK in the late ‘70s (though only Mute remains today), both companies informed generations through tales of — sometimes careless — business tactics and quality curated output. In general, they were groups driven by a DIY aesthetic and creativity unhindered by official structure.
Not only did these labels champion freedom of musical expression and help drive new genres of music, but they also became an outlet for visual designers. Most notably, Peter Saville’s (found) cover art for Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album (Factory) is ubiquitous today with its mountainous range of wavy lines. Spending time digging through either of these books which are chock full of art, music and history can get your creative juices flowing. Either are a welcome gift for family, friends or even yourself. — Jon Turi, Homepage Editor
I’ve gotten to the point in my cooking journey where trying recipes isn’t as interesting to me as learning new techniques. Do I have a pile of go-to recipes in my Paprika app? Yes, but now I’m more interested in mastering cooking methods that essentially set you up to make your own recipes from scratch. Ruhlman’s Twenty is one of the “cookbooks” I’ve been turning to the most in my quest, and if some of the concepts in the book may seem basic, that’s because they are. Most cooking shows and online recipe blogs don’t explain why they add an acid to a tomato sauce or how to get a perfectly crispy french fry rather than an oily, soggy mess — but this book does. It takes you back to basics, explaining the proper techniques behind different ways of cooking, so that you can understand what’s happening to your food as you prepare it. And don’t worry, it doesn’t read like a textbook and there are even complete recipes in there for you to follow if you wish. Ultimately, Ruhlman’s Twenty has made me a more competent cook who isn’t forced to consult a recipe every time I prepare a meal. — V.P.
A new instrument can be a decent way to snap someone out of a creative rut. But even better than a new instrument is a weird instrument. And if the musician in your life likes things on the weird side, I highly recommend the Make Noise Strega. It was designed in collaboration with Alessandro Cortini (touring member of Nine Inch Nails), and eschews most of your usual synth controls and makes sounds that are best described as weathered.
The front panel is a confounding array of glyphs and lines that look like something out of a book on the occult. The express goal of the Strega is to get someone experimenting — literally poking and prodding at the various touch panels that serve as modulation sources and destinations using a person's own body as a patch cable. It won’t be for everyone, but if you’re shopping for the kind of person who loves lo-fi warbles and nightmarish drones, they’ll love the Strega. — T.O.
Okay, calling the Sound Urchin an “instrument” might seem like a stretch, but the otherworldly sounds it creates are sure to inspire the musician in your life to tackle composing differently. It’s essentially a bunch of metal rods stuck to a guitar pedal enclosure with a microphone inside it. The rods aren’t really tuned in any traditional way, which allows for the creation of unexpected melodies, but it can also be a source of clanging percussion or ominous wails. When paired with some effects this strange little box is capable of being the basis for an entire composition — albeit a slightly odd one.
This particular recommendation came courtesy of Abby Santourian, a Chicago-based musician and music gear expert at Reverb who told Engadget via email: “For centuries, artists have been inspired by the sea, but I think this takes that idea to a new level…. When combined with other pedals and effects, the sonic possibilities and combinations are seriously endless.” — T.O.
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget / Souvenir Press
If you’ve heard about Morning Pages, or Artist Dates, both are two core habits established inThe Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron’s decades-old book on creative practice. That’s probably the most straightforward way to describe this book, which walks you through a 12-week program of writing exercises and tasks, all aimed at freeing up your creative powers. The crux of it is demanding three pages of handwritten writing every day. While it’s often a stream of consciousness — and if your handwriting is atrocious, barely legible — Cameron’s advice is to simply put the writing out there, and see where it takes you. Famous fans include Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, Alicia Keys and practically half of the comedians whose podcasts I listen to, it seems. The book does get a little bit spiritual at times, which you may or may not be fine with, but the core exercises and ideas can be pretty powerful, especially if you’re in a creative rut, or simply looking to add more artistic output to your day-to-day life. — Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief
Another slightly weird instrument to consider is the Moog Subharmonicon. The sounds it produces are more “standard” than the Strega (for lack of a better term), but its sequencer and focus on subharmonics are anything but. It takes inspiration from a pair of early experimental electronic instruments — the Mixtur-Trautonium and the Rhythmicon. The Subharmonicon encourages one to explore the concepts of subharmonics and polyrhythms to create unexpected melodies and rhythms. It’s capable of that classic Moog sound, but it will also force someone out of their comfort zone. — T.O.
Sometimes a person doesn’t need whole new sounds to get the creative juices flowing, but just a new way of making those sounds. The Sensel Morph is an impressively portable and flexible MPE MIDI controller with amazing shapeshifting possibilities. It can be a piano, a pad-based drum machine, a sketch pad, or an obscure controller inspired by Don Buchla — the driving force of West Coast-style synthesis.
The Buchla Thunder overlay marries the expressive possibilities of the Morph with an approach to composing melodies and harmonies that it’s fairly safe to assume your giftee has never experienced. Instead of a traditional piano layout it’s a series of pads organized into a roughly bird-like shape that you’re supposed to tap and slide along to create unique timbres. Its unfamiliarity forces anyone to stop thinking about what they already know about playing music and focus instead on the results.
Plus, the Morph has a number of other overlays so, if the Thunder has worn out its welcome, it’s still incredibly useful and flexible. — T.O.
Sure it’s easy to just grab a drum loop from the top of the Splice charts and wind up sounding like everyone else. But there are far more interesting ways to find sounds. For one, search results can be shuffled. So, rather than just using the same Rhodes sample that thousands of other bedroom producers have relied on, a person can hit the shuffle button and grab something that might be flying under the radar. This technique can also be combined with searching for random terms on Splice, rather than pulling up specific instruments. (Just Google “random word generator” and use that as the basis for a search.) There are lots of interesting and sometimes strange sounds and loops to be found by searching for things like “clinic” and “preparation.”
The entry-level $10 Sounds+ plan includes 100 sample credits. But your giftee would probably really appreciate the upgrade to the Creator Plan. That includes 200 credits, plus access to Splice’s surprisingly excellent Astra soft synth, its Beatmaker drum machine plugin and a library of tutorials and lessons on music production under the Skills banner. Sometimes, when you’re not sure what to do, simply learning a new skill or trick can get the creative juices flowing again. — T.O.
A decent field recorder should be in pretty much every artist’s arsenal. For a musician, obviously, it’s valuable for recording samples and capturing impromptu jam sessions. Anyone can buy sample packs, sure, but building a custom drum kit from snapping twigs and the crunch of dead leaves is a surefire way to get someone thinking outside the box.
But even beyond that, it’s great for documenting ideas and finding inspiration. Yes, there are voice-note apps, but your giftee might like having a dedicated (and distraction-free) tool for documenting ideas, inspiring sounds and capturing interesting lectures or panels. A writer can set a recorder up and talk through the plot of a novel they’re working on, without worrying that their battery will die. Or a painter can record the ambience of a cafe they frequented while traveling in Paris and revisit it to find inspiration for a new work. — T.O.
