Take the standing desk plunge: Save $80 on a FlexiSpot desk converter

a flexispot standing desk featuring two monitors

SAVE $80: Fine-tune your WFH setup with the FlexiSpot Adjustable Standing Desk Converter, which is on sale for $89.99 at Walmart as of Feb. 24. That’s 47% off its usual price.


Having a top-tier workspace is essential when you work from home full time. That’s where the FlexiSpot Standing Desk Converter really comes in handy.

The FlexiSpot Adjustable Standing Desk Converter sits atop an existing surface in your home — a desk, countertop, table, etc. — and gives you a dedicated 35-inch x 23.2-inch desktop area that can be adjusted to your needs. It’s on sale for just $89.99, down from $169.99, as of Feb. 24 at Walmart. That’s $80 in savings.

Adjustable desks give you the flexibility to fine-tune your work surface to either an eye-level sitting position or an ergonomic standing position. The FlexiSpot adjusts from 5.5 inches to 19.7 inches, giving you a range of precise adjustment options to choose from for your comfort. You can adjust the level in one smooth lifting or pushing motion — just grab the adjustment handle and find your ideal height.

flexispot standing desk converter

Credit: FlexiSpot

FlexiSpot Adjustable Standing Desk Converter

$89.99 at Walmart (save $80)

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Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway get personal in high-stakes ‘WeCrashed’ trailer

Closeup of a silhouetted man and woman embracing and looking at each other.

Leasing office space might not seems like world-changing work, but that’s not how Adam Neumann felt.

In the trailer for Apple TV+’s WeCrashed, the WeWork founder — played by Jared Leto — compares his company’s mission to golden geese laying golden eggs…which was certainly the WeWork promise before its spectacular decline in 2019. At the center of it all were Adam and his wife, Rebekah (Anne Hathaway), a supposed power couple with battling egos that arguably brought their empire crashing down. Leto and Hathaway lean into this fascinating dynamic in the full-length trailer, which focuses on brewing tension between Adam and Rebekah as WeWork rapidly grows.

WeCrashed premieres March 18 on Apple TV+.

How to customize Instagram suggested posts

Instagram icon.

Are suggested posts clogging up your Instagram feed? You’ve come to the right place.

You can typically recognize a suggested post in your Instagram feed because it’s posted by an account you don’t follow. A suggested post will also feature a reason above the post for why it’s appeared in your feed. Instagram determines suggested posts through what posts you like and comment on, what accounts you follow, and how other people are interacting with the post.

SEE ALSO:

Instagram is sliding Stories likes out of your DMs

  • How to delete individual photos from a carousel on Instagram

  • How to change your camera tools setting on Instagram

  • How to use voice effects on Instagram Reels

If you don’t like suggested posts interrupting the content your friends are posting, you have two options: You can customize posts suggested to you or you can snooze suggested posts for 30 days. Until Instagram unveils the option to turn off suggested posts, that’s the best you can do. We will walk you through both ways to manage suggested posts.

How to customize your suggested posts:

1. Tap the three dots in the right-hand corner of a suggested post

You can identify a suggested post because it will be labeled “Suggested post” or it will have a description of why it is on your feed above the post. The username that posted the suggested post will also have the follow button next to it.

screenshot of a suggested post

Tap the three dots.
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram

2. Tap “Not Interested”

instagram screenshot selecting not interested on suggested post

Select “Not Interested.”
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram

3. Tap “Don’t suggest posts related to”

instagram screenshot for hiding suggested posts

Now your suggested posts will better suit your interests.
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram

How to snooze suggested posts:

1. Tap the three dots in the upper right hand corner of a suggested post

instagram screenshot of suggested post

Tap the three dots.
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram

2. Select “Not Interested”

instagram screenshot selecting not interested on suggested post

Tap “Not Interested”
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram

3. Tap “Snooze all suggested posts in feed for 30 days”

instagram screenshot red arrow pointing to option hide post in feed for 30 days

Now your suggested posts will be snoozed.
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram

More Instagram tutorials:

  • How to disable Instagram embeds (and why you should)

  • How to post a photo to multiple Instagram accounts at the same time

  • How to clear your Instagram search history

  • How to post Live Photos on Instagram

  • How to delete individual photos from a carousel on Instagram

  • How to turn your social profiles into hubs for charity

  • How to create an “Add yours” story on Instagram

  • How to hide photos on Instagram without deleting them

  • How to see your ‘Least Interacted With’ on Instagram

Facebook’s hyped new ‘AI concept’ looks busted as hell

Screenshot of computer generated figure demonstrating Facebook's new BuilderBot.

If Mark Zuckerberg is to be believed, the AI-powered future is being born now. Unfortunately for him, it clearly has a long gestation process.

The Facebook (er, Meta) CEO on Wednesday demonstrated what he described as an “AI concept” dubbed Builder Bot. Like some sort of digital castaway shouting commands to his robotic Wilson, a Zuckerberg avatar was shown populating a computer-generated space with voice commands given to a floating representation of the bot in question.

“Let’s add some clouds,” the legless Zuckerberg intoned as some pixelated clouds filled the would-be sky. “Huh. That’s all AI-generated.”

In an accompanying blog post, Meta AI, Facebook’s AI division, argued that projects like Builder Bot represent “breakthroughs in artificial intelligence” that will power the company’s efforts “building for the metaverse.”

And maybe that’s true, but for some who watched the demo it’s going to take a little more convincing.

To be clear, the Builder Bot demo obviously shows technology in its early stages. Even so, following the company’s costly pivot to self-proclaimed “metaverse company,” it suggests the type of work we’ll see from Facebook down the road.

SEE ALSO:

Facebook’s ‘News Feed’ rebranded as ‘Feed,’ and the memes are delicious

Perhaps Builder Bot can help the company find a better vision.

Trump’s Truth Social leaves lots of questions. Here are some answers.

Truth Social waitlist

Truth Social is finally here…sort of. 

Former-president Donald Trump’s very own social media platform officially went live in Apple’s App Store on Monday, President’s Day. However, the launch of Truth Social has not been pretty. Bugs, long waitlists, and various other problems have left people asking a lot of questions. This comes with the territory though. Truth Social is a Donald Trump product, after all. 

After Trump was booted off Twitter and Facebook in the aftermath of the pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, it seemed like only a matter of time before he disseminated his daily thoughts and opinions online through a new medium. He tried blogging. It didn’t work out. 

SEE ALSO:

Truth Social already censoring content, bans user who made fun of Trump Media CEO

Then, in October 2021, Trump announced that his long-anticipated social networking platform, Truth Social, was on the way. And that’s when Truth Social’s troubles began.

Trolls immediately found the unreleased version of the site, which wasn’t supposed to be public, and defaced it with fake accounts and memes like Pig Poop Balls. Shortly after that, internet sleuths dug into the website’s terms of service and found that Trump and his team were violating the licensing agreement from Mastodon, the open-source software Truth Social is built upon. (Truth Social eventually updated its licensing to adhere to Mastodon’s requirements.)

Now that Trump’s Twitter clone is accepting user registrations from the public, there’s a slew of new problems and an assortment of new questions on everyone’s mind.

Does Truth Social Have a waitlist?

Yes, the Truth Social app may have officially launched on Feb. 21, but the vast majority of people can’t actually use the platform. Upon signing up for Truth Social with a name and email, users are allowed to reserve their username. But then, they are put in a line and given a number.

“Thank you for joining!” reads the Truth Social prompt. “Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist.”

Truth Social started accepting around 500 beta users via invite last week. It’s unclear how many users have been accepted onto the platform since the app actually launched. Waitlist features aren’t out of the norm for new social apps. However, usually, there’s a viral marketing aspect where users can invite friends to join the platform in order to move up a place in the line. There’s no such incentive feature here.

So, is it actually due to “massive demand?” Let’s find out.

How popular is Truth Social?

We all know that Trump cares deeply about big numbers – whether it be TV ratings, social media shares, sketchy business deals – you name it. The braggadocios face of the modern Republican Party loves to tout success. So, naturally, when Truth Social hit number one on Apple’s App Store charts for free, non-gaming apps, Trump supporters boasted about the platform’s popularity.

But, that begs the question: How many downloads has Truth Social actually received?

According to app analytics firm Apptopia, Truth Social has received an estimated 350,000 downloads by the end of Tuesday. Remember, the app officially launched Monday.

You may have seen waitlist numbers that are higher than that — it’s unclear how those numbers are being given out. An Apptopia spokesperson explained to Mashable that the waitlist number they received in the app and the number they received via email were off by around 80,000 places.

I personally signed up for the app about an hour after my App Store “pre-order” notification let me know Truth Social went live. At first, I was placed at around 11,000 on the waitlist. The next time I reopened the app, Truth Social had pushed me back in the line to where I sit now at around 100,000.

What’s is the “missed a step” error in Truth Social?

Waitlist issues aren’t the only glitches on the Truth Social app. Some users who attempted to sign up received an error message preventing them from even reserving a spot on the list.

“Oops, looks like you have missed a step,” reads the error message some have received when attempting to input their email address.

According to reports from those who have received the error prompt, it appears that the message shows up when trying to use certain email address domains. For example, some users have said that changing their email from a Yahoo email address to a Gmail address resolved the issue.

What is the controversy with the Truth Social logo?

Aside from the glitches, Truth Social is also once again dealing with potential legal problems.

Some users noticed that the logo for Truth Social bared a striking resemblance to the logo for Trailar, a UK solar vehicle company.

The two logos do look quite similar and Trailar seemed to be having a bit of fun with it on Twitter, tagging the Trump family in a sarcastic tweet. Since the tweet, however, it seems the company has taken a more serious stance. According to a statement from Trailar provided to The Daily Beast, the company is “now seeking legal advice to understand next steps and options available to protect our brand.”

Will Trump make money off Truth Social? What is the SPAC?

Truth Social is essentially a social network with approximately 500 known users right now. Yet, you can already invest in Truth Social on the stock market? How?

Back in October, the social network’s parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) merged with Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC), a publicly-traded SPAC. What’s an SPAC? Basically, SPACs are shell companies that are listed on the stock exchange with the intent to acquire a company or partner with a third-party in order to provide that entity with a stock listing.

While the SPAC is currently under SEC investigation for “potentially skirting securities laws,” thanks to the structure, Truth Social and the rest of TMTG claims it has a market valuation of around $19 billion.

When will Truth Social actually launch?

The only concrete date that was ever listed for a Truth Social launch was Feb. 21. And, as we know, that date came and went and all most iPhone users got was an app that doled out spots on a waitlist.

But, reports prior to President’s Day had strongly insinuated that the actual launch of the Truth Social platform was going to be pushed back. According to TIME, TMTG CEO Devin Nunes said the platform would launch by March 31.

Is there an Android version of Truth Social?

No. There is currently no Android app for Truth Social. If you’re an Android user, there’s currently no timeline for a Truth Social Android app.

Will there truly be “free speech” on Truth Social?

Probably not. Truth Social has rules and terms of use like any other social network. Users who have been accepted into the beta program have shared that certain types of content have been hidden. Users on the waitlist have reported that their accounts have been banned as well.

And if you’re wondering how an account could be banned without ever posting a single piece of content, you’re going to have to ask CEO Devin Nunes about that.

Kevin’s chili recipe from ‘The Office’ is hidden in Peacock’s user agreement

Image of Kevin Malone from The Office on the floor trying to clean up a spilled pot of chili

Peacock has spilled the beans on Kevin’s famous chili recipe from The Office.

Those who actually read the terms of use on NBC’s streaming app Peacock have been rewarded with a nod to an iconic moment involving Brian Baumgartner’s Kevin Malone, a spilled pot of chili, and a futile attempt to clean it up. Reported in the Daily Dot earlier this week, Peacock’s user agreement references a famous cold open from a Season 5 episode of The Office called “Casual Friday,” where Kevin brings in a huge pot of homemade chili and spills it all over the office carpet.

Nestled deep in the legal text of Peacock’s user agreement, you’ll find the full recipe of ingredients and detailed instructions on how to make Kevin’s chili including how to prepare the ancho chiles and a specific note to undercook the onions. “The trick is to undercook the onions.”

The Easter egg was captured in a TikTok last week by Mckenzie Floyd (@mckenziefloyd.) “So, my boyfriend obviously reads the terms and conditions,” said Floyd in the video. Thanks to Floyd and her boyfriend’s admirable due diligence, we now have the famous recipe.

Screenshot of TikTok depicting Peacock's user agreement

The benefits of reading the fine print.
Credit: Screenshot: TikTok / @mckenziefloyd

According to the Daily Dot, this isn’t the first time Peacock has poked fun at lengthy legal fine print that is mostly ignored. When the streaming platform first launched in 2020, it hid a recipe for chocolate cake in its user agreement.

Peacock’s current terms of use were updated in March, 18, 2021. At the top of the agreement, Peacock teases the recipe, saying “Here you’ll find answers to your burning legal questions about our service (plus a recipe inspired by Kevin’s famous chili from The Office!”) About halfway down Peacock introduces the recipe, stating, “At Peacock, we don’t make promises we can’t keep.”

When reached for comment, a representative from Peacock said the inclusion of Kevin’s recipe was a collaborative effort between its legal, creative and product teams. “As a company, Peacock thought it was important that all of our subscribers knew the importance of undercooking their onions when making chili, and of course our terms of use.”

Without further ado, here is the recipe for Kevin’s famous chili recipe from The Office:

Ingredients

4 dried ancho chiles

2 Tbs neutral oil (vegetable, canola or grapeseed)

3 lbs ground beef (80/20 or 85/15 lean)

2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic

1 large jalapeño, finely chopped

1 Tbs dried oregano

2 tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 Tbs tomato paste

2 12 oz. bottles of beer (lager or pale ale)

3 cans Pinto beans, drained and rinsed

3 cups beef stock

2 ½ cups chopped ripe tomatoes

2 Tbs kosher salt

Chopped scallions, shredded Jack cheese and sour cream for topping

Directions

– Tear ancho chiles into pieces, discarding seeds and stems. In a large heavy pot or Dutch oven, toast chiles over medium-high, stirring occasionally until very fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer toasted ancho chiles to a food processor or spice mill and process until very finely ground. Set aside.

– Add oil to pot and heat over medium-high. Add ground beef and cook, stirring occasionally to break beef into small pieces, until well browned (about 6 minutes). Using a slotted spoon, transfer beef to a plate and set aside.

– Add onion to pot and cook briefly over medium-high until barely softened, about 2 minutes. The secret is to undercook the onions.

– Using a garlic press, press garlic directly into the pot, 1 clove at a time. Then stir in jalapeños, oregano, cumin, cayenne pepper and tomato paste. Stir and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add beer and continue to cook, stirring and scraping the pan, about 7 minutes.

– Meanwhile, put beans in a large bowl and mash briefly with a potato masher until broken up but not fully mashed.

– Add mashed beans, stock, tomatoes, salt, and cooked beef to pot. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low to maintain simmer and cook 2 hours so everything gets to know each other in the pot. Remove from heat, uncover and let stand at least 1 hour (can also be refrigerated 8 hours or overnight).

– Reheat gently, taste and add more salt if necessary, and serve with your favorite toppings. We recommend chopped scallions, shredded Jack cheese and sour cream.

UPDATE: Feb. 23, 2022, 5:00 p.m. EST This post has been updated with a comment from Peacock.

Jenna Fischer fought hard to cut this storyline from ‘The Office’ (and won)

A woman (Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly) removing a framed watercolor painting of an office building from the wall in a scene of

The series finale of The Office was an absolute tearjerker, but the show’s final moments might not have been as sweet had Jenna Fischer not fought to cut a controversial storyline from Season 6.

The last five minutes of the series finale include a montage of Dunder Mifflin employees leaving the office, saying farewell to each other, and recording their final talking heads with the documentary crew. In a particularly touching moment, Pam removes her famous watercolor painting of their office building from the wall. We later see a flashback to the Season 3 scene in which Michael proudly hangs the painting, which he bought from Pam’s art show. Pam says, “There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that kind of the point?” and the show masterfully transitions from the watercolor painting of the building to an image of the actual building. And then it’s over.

OK! Now that we’re all crying, let’s find out what deleted Season 6 storyline would have completely changed the end of the series, shall we? On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the Season 6 episode, “Mafia,” and called out a deleted scene involving Pam’s sentimental watercolor painting that Fischer fought hard to get cut.

“Erin was supposed to be cleaning Pam’s watercolor, her famous watercolor that Michael bought from her art show. She sprays the glass with this cleaner, and then Creed kind of distracts her by chatting her up, and the spray seeps under the glass and the watercolor is ruined,” Fischer explained. “Erin destroys Pam’s watercolor while she’s on her honeymoon was the storyline.”

“If you watch the deleted scenes, you watch it melt. Like all the colors slide down to the bottom of the frame,” Kinsey said. “And I literally [gasped]. Like, I forgot it was in the story at one point.”

(You can watch part of the painful watercolor destruction scene here.)


Via Giphy

Fischer said that in another watercolor-related deleted scene, Erin asked Kelly to help her save the painting. As you can imagine, that didn’t go well.

“There’s another deleted scene where [Erin] asks Kelly to help her fix it, and Kelly is like, ‘Oh yeah, I can do watercolor.’ But what Kelly does is she like adds a rainbow and a sunshine. But the painting is still totally melty. And then in the end, Erin calls Pam on her honeymoon and says she ruined it. And Pam has this line where she says, ‘You know what? I will be mad at you about ruining my painting when I get back. Stop calling me. Tell people to stop calling us,'” Fischer recalled.

Fischer went on to explain that during the table read for this episode she felt outraged when she first read the watercolor scenes. She decided to speak up, and after her concerns were shot down, she didn’t give up the fight.

“I was like, ‘Listen, you cannot destroy Pam’s painting. You can’t do it. It’s the heartbeat of the show. It’s on the wall. It’s her relationship with Michael. It’s hope. It’s so many things you don’t understand. You can’t make this a gag,'” Fischer said. “And Paul Lieberstein was like, ‘I think it’s funny. What are you talking about?’ And it was a battle.'”


“It’s the heartbeat of the show. It’s on the wall. It’s her relationship with Michael. It’s hope.”

After Lieberstein rejected the cut, Fischer called showrunner Greg Daniels, who also shot her request down.

“They were like, ‘I’m sorry, it’s staying in. We really like this gag. We think it’s great. We like it,'” she said. But she wasn’t ready to give up.

After they fully shot the scene, Fischer went into the edit bay and asked everyone there to remove the scene.

“I appealed to [editor] Dave Rogers. I appealed to [writer and producer] Brent Forrester. I would not shut up about it,” she said. “Finally, in the end, they took it out. They took it out, and I was so relieved. But you’ll see next week Pam’s watercolor [isn’t] on the wall because that was the week they were editing and still deciding. So if you look, Pam’s watercolor is missing for a couple of episodes and we just sneakily put it back on the wall without saying anything.” 


“I would not shut up about it. Finally, in the end, they took it out.”

Fischer and Kinsey acknowledged that the entire series ends on Pam’s watercolor painting, and they can’t imagine it ending any other way. For those wondering if Fischer brought up her heroic Season 6 efforts after the series ended, of course she did. As she should have!

“You better believe that I marched right up to Paul Lieberstein when I read that ending of the finale and I was like, ‘Paul, do you see now why Erin couldn’t destroy the watercolor? Do you see?'” she said. “There were two things in the series that I fought hard for. I would consistently fight that there be no infidelity in Jim and Pam’s relationship… And this was the other thing. Don’t destroy the painting.”

Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode for behind-the-scenes stories about filming “Mafia” and those deleted watercolor scenes. But before you go, we’ll leave you with one final intriguing tidbit.

Fischer says that at 20:49 in “Mafia” you can see proof of the deleted watercolor scene over Michael’s shoulder.

“As he’s bragging to the bullpen about standing up to this mobster, you can see that there is a replacement painting on the wall where Pam’s watercolor would have been. It says, ‘Being Cleaned,’ and it has stars and smiley faces all around it,” she said. “This is something that Erin put up on the wall. Now, in the next episode, that’s going to be replaced with something else. But we’ll get to it.”

You can stream episodes of The Office on Peacock and follow along with the podcast every week on EarwolfApple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

Amazon lets anyone answer Alexa questions. Trolls are loving it.

Finger presses a button on a smart speaker.

Alexa, what happens when a trillion-dollar company outsources its menial work to pseudonymous volunteers?

Way back in 2019, Amazon announced that, going forward, any old idiot off the street could provide answers for its voice assistant Alexa to read aloud in response to questions from Alexa users. It turns out that many people played along, though perhaps not in the way Amazon intended. Instead of providing useful answers to hard-to-parse questions, a dedicated number of Alexa Answers pranksters have spent untold hours flooding the service with obvious trash.

Because the answers, as many of the people providing them long ago realized, don’t have to be correct.

And yes, many of those obviously wrong responses are designated as “live” in Amazon’s system — meaning, an Alexa-enabled device is simply waiting for the right prompt to read them aloud somewhere in the world.

“Who is mister poopypants?” reads one such question logged in the Alexa Answers system. “Jared Kushner,” reads the reply which Amazon designated as “currently being shared with Alexa customers.”

Screenshot of an Amazon Alexa Answers page with bad answers.

Thanks, Alexa.
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

That answer was provided by an account with the name “Yabbah DaBadeux,” a clear reference to Fred Flintstone’s catchphrase. That account, like many others, has provided Alexa Answers with a mix of plausibly real and obvious fake answers — some potentially less humorous than others.

Thanks to a user-provided answer, in response to a question about what a quick Google search reveals to be a discount jewelry brand, Alexa essentially suggests drinking NyQuil and Coca-Cola. Which, when one considers the number of children using Alexa, could be a serious health risk.

Screenshot of a wrong Amazon Answers response.

Maybe not.
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

Largely, though, the junk answers flooding Alexa Answers are harmless — albeit wrong.

Screenshot of a wrong Amazon Answers response.

Boo.
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

Screenshot of a wrong Amazon Answers response.

Ouch.
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

We reached out to Amazon with a host of questions about Alexa Answers — Who approves the answers submitted by users? for example, and, What percentage are rejected? — and while a company spokesperson replied to our email, they didn’t immediately answer any of our questions.

Screenshot of a wrong Amazon Answers response.

Sure, why not.
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

“These answers are reviewed for quality by a combination of automated systems, community members, and Alexa Answers moderators before going live,” the Alexa Answers Help Center explains in part. “If your answer is accepted, it may be made available on Alexa next time a user asks the question you answered.”

That Alexa Answers is full of trash shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s unpaid labor, and Amazon only rewards providers of answers via a nebulous points-and-cartoon-badge system. And those points, Amazon makes clear, have absolutely no real-world value.

Screenshot of a wrong Amazon Answers response.

Shiny.
Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

“Currently, there is no way to redeem these points for anything on or off the Alexa Answers website,” notes the Help Center.

SEE ALSO:

Now any idiot off the street can answer your dumb Alexa questions

It is perhaps surprising, though, that Amazon hasn’t outsourced this Alexa Answers labor via its Mechanical Turk program. That program, unlike Alexa Answers, pays real money — albeit literal pennies.

Maybe then we could finally get Alexa to tell us the identity of the real Mr. Poopypants.

You need a $200 Stem Player to hear Ye’s new album ‘Donda 2’

Ye walking around town

Do you want to listen to the artist formerly known as Kanye West’s newest album, Donda 2? If so, I have many followup questions for you, including: Why? And, did you buy his required $200 Stem Player?

It’s not surprising that Ye would want to create a unique and innovative way to disrupt music streaming — he did, after all, turn down $100 million from Apple Music, and announced on his Instagram that he wouldn’t be allowing Apple, Amazon, Spotify, or YouTube to host his new album on their platforms. But this is an objectively wild way to try to connect people with his new work.

So if you’re asking, will Donda 2 be on Spotify, Apple Music, or other streaming platforms? The answer right now is no. Though Ye can obviously change his mind in the future.

SEE ALSO:

Spotify seemingly purged over 100 Joe Rogan podcast episodes

  • A bot named Ashley is ruining playlists on Spotify

Donda 2 will only be available on my own platform, the Stem Player,” Ye said on Instagram, blaming the “oppressive system” of music streaming that leaves artists with a pitiful percentage of the money the industry makes. “It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own. Go to stemplayer.com now to order.”

What is the Stem Player?

The Stem Player is a whopping $200 and ships with Donda 2 pre-installed. The device basically allows you to isolate the vocals, drums, bass, samples, and other aspects of a song in order to add effects, control the volume and speed, and create your own mixes of the music. Ye’s device, which was created last year in partnership with Kano Computing, comes with audio mixing, tactile effects like a mini mixing desk, 8GB of storage, a USB-C port, Bluetooth, and a 97db speaker, among other features. There’s even a Discord forum for the device, with more than 11,000 users online at the time of this writing.

There are plenty of reasons to thwart music streaming, an industry that notoriously treats artists terribly. And this is coming at a time in which plenty of musicians are taking a stand in an attempt to control how fans listen to their music. Take Neil Young, who left Spotify in protest of their continued support of infamous meathead Joe Rogan. But is forcing all fans to pay such a hefty price for his Stem Player to even listen to his album truly the answer?

It’s not that owning this Stem Player is a bad idea — it sounds like a pretty cool tool, actually. But what will likely happen here, is that die hard fans with expendable money will buy Ye’s Stem Player, while the rest will likely download it illegally. Nice to see you, 2008.

Everything coming to Netflix in March

Five stills: an animated furry monster, an old man holding up a photograph of a smiling woman, a woman in a long blue dress and matching top hat holding a hunting rifle, a man looking up at the sky with a glowing crystal around his neck, a man and woman looking confused.

As we head into spring, it’s time to take a look at the new movies and TV shows coming to Netflix this March.

Original films to watch out for include time travel flick The Adam Project and robbery thriller Windfall. Other films joining Netflix’s library include Shrek (and Shrek 2), A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Shawshank Redemption.

Netflix’s March TV offerings feature true crime series like Bad Vegan: Fame, Fraud, Fugitives. and Worst Roommate Ever, as well as Big Mouth spin-off Human Resources.

There’s a lot more where that came from. Here’s everything coming to Netflix in March 2022.

Top pick: Bridgerton Season 2

A man and woman in formal Regency-era dress stand in a dancing hold.

Anthony and Kate are our next “Bridgerton” obsession.
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix

Shondaland’s steamy sensation finally returns! Now that Daphne and the Duke have had their happy ending, it’s time to turn our attention to another member of the Bridgerton clan. Season 2 focuses on the courtship between Daphne’s older brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley). Brace yourselves for more delicious gossip, swoon-worthy romance, and more classical covers of modern pop favorites.

How to watch: Bridgerton Season 2 premieres on Netflix on March 25.

Movies

21 (3/1)

21 Bridges (3/1)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) (3/1)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) (3/1)

A Walk Among the Tombstones (3/16)

Adam by Eve: A live in Animation (3/15)

Against the Ice (3/2)

All Hail (3/30)

Autumn Girl (3/8)

Battleship (3/1)

Beirut (3/5)

Black Crab (3/18)

Blade Runner 2049 (3/26)

Christine (3/1)

Coach Carter (3/1)

Due Date (3/1)

Dunkirk (3/12)

Freddy vs. Jason (3/1)

Gattaca (3/1)

In Good Hands (3/21)

King of Thieves (3/25)

Lee Daniels’ The Butler (3/17)

London Has Fallen (3/13)

Marilyn’s Eyes (3/13)

Meskina (3/4)

My Best Friend’s Wedding (3/1)

One Piece Film: Strong World (3/15)

Public Enemies (3/1)

Redemption (3/1)

Rescued by Ruby (3/17)

Richie Rich (3/1)

Savage Rhythm (3/2)

Shooter (3/1)

Shrek (3/1)

Shrek 2 (3/1)

Soil (3/17)

Sorry to Bother You (3/1)

Starship Troopers (3/1)

Surviving Paradise: A Family Tale

Texas Chainsaw 3D (3/1)

The Adam Project (3/11)

The Bombardment (3/9)

The Gift (3/1)

The Green Mile (3/1)

The Imitation Game (3/28)

The Invisible Thread (3/4)

The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure (3/2)

The Replacements (3/1)

The Shawshank Redemption (3/1)

The Weekend Away (3/3)

Thomas & Friends: Race for the Sodor Cup (3/18)

Top Gun (3/1)

Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King (3/30)

V for Vendetta (3/1)

Where the Wild Things Are (3/1)

Windfall (3/18)

Without Saying Goodbye (3/18)

Zoolander (3/1)

TV

800 Meters (TBD)

Alessandro Cattelan: One Simple Question (3/18)

An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts Season 2 (3/8)

Animal Season 2 (3/18)

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. (3/16)

Bridgerton Season 2 (3/25)

Byron Baes (3/9)

Call the Midwife Series 10 (3/21)

Casual Seasons 1-4 (3/31)

Chip and Potato Season 3 (3/8)

Cracow Monsters (3/18)

DC‘s Legends of Tomorrow Season 7 (3/10)

Eternally Confused and Eager for Love (3/18)

Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 4 (3/11)

Good Girls Season 4 (3/7)

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Season 2 (3/3)

Hei$t: The Great Robbery of Brazil’s Central Bank (3/16)

Human Resources (3/18)

Is It Cake? (3/18)

Karma’s World Season 2 (3/10)

Kotaro Lives Alone (3/10)

Last One Standing (3/8)

Lies and Deceit (3/4)

Life After Death with Tyler Henry (3/11)

Light the Night Part 3 (3/18)

Love, Life & Everything in Between (3/10)

Making Fun (3/4)

Midnight at the Pera Palace (3/2)

Mighty Express Season 6 (3/29)

Once Upon a Time… Happily Never After (3/11)

Pedal to Metal (3/16)

Pieces of Her (3/4)

Power Rangers Dino Fury Season 2 (3/3)

Queer Eye Germany (3/9)

Standing Up (3/18)

Super PupZ (3/31)

Team Zenko Go (3/15)

The Andy Warhol Diaries (3/9)

The Guardians of Justice (3/1)

The Last Kingdom Season 5 (3/9)

The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties Season 2 (3/3)

The Principles of Pleasure (3/22)

Thermae Romae Novae (3/29)

Tomorrow (TBD)

Top Boy Season 2 (3/18)

Transformers: BotBots (3/25)

Worst Roommate Ever (3/1)

Young, Famous & African (3/18)

Specials

Catherine Cohen: The Twist…? She’s Gorgeous (3/15)

Jeff Foxworthy: The Good Old Days (3/22)

Mike Epps: Indiana Mike (3/29)

Taylor Tomlinson: Look at You (3/8)

Whindersson Nunes: My Own Show! (3/3)