Pop-Up Booths and Yoshi Too
With everybody locking themselves away over the coronavirus, you may not have heard that Nintendo had a cool campaign afoot that may have you longing for the good old days of late February. The company was staging what they called Nintendo Switch pop-up lounges in a handful of airports around the world, including the United […]
Entertainment Industry Responds to Coronavirus With Early VOD Releases, Special Offers
Well, here we are in the new age of fear and virus loathing. Concerts, conferences and sporting events have been cancelled, school is going totally online, restaurants are closing and public places of entertainment like movie theaters are shuttering for the immediate future. That massive social-isolation shift to our own couch and kitchen table has […]
Libraries Versus Movies: Is There Any Contest? Nope, Not Really.
There’s a very modern mindset that libraries are antiquated things: obsolete, archaic and dusty old buildings that sit unused. I mean, who needs a library (the thought goes) when you can pull out your phone and instantly have an enormous internet of things at your fingertips? But a recent Gallup poll suggests that ain’t so, […]
What’s Streaming for Families in March (2020)
We’ve all heard the old saying that March comes “in like a lion, out like a lamb.” But did you know that on the ancient Roman calendar, March rang in the New Year? That’s what some knowledgeable scholars say. And in our modern day, March is also known as a great month for basketball (March […]
What’s New and Streaming for Families in February 2020
It’s February: a time for hearts and flowers, poems and blown kisses. And, of course, a lot of dreary weather and blown snow. In fact, maybe that’s why, historically, thoughts have always turned to lovey-dovey stuff in the second month of the year. I mean, what else is there to do other than cuddle and […]
There’s No Nicotine in Social Media, So Why are You Puffing so Hard?
Who wrote this? We are in the business of relaxing people who are tense and providing a pick-up for people who are bored or depressed. The human needs that our product fills will not go away. Thus, the only real threat to our business is that society will find other means of satisfying those needs. […]
10 Mind-Blowing Gadgets Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show
The Consumer Electronics Show for 2020 has come and gone. And, of course, it brought with it a wide assortment of gigantic TVs, foldable phones, futuristic computers and robotic wonders: All the sorts of things you’d expect when the words “consumer” and “electronics” show up in the same sentence. But instead of talking about the […]
What’s Streaming for Families in January 2020
Happy New Year! Here we are tippy toeing into a brand-new year and decade. That’s right, the 2010s are over—10 years that saw the birth of the iPad and meat dresses; witnessed royal weddings and Gangnam Style dancing; and gave us everything from ice-bucket challenges to the legalization of same-sex marriage to fidget spinners. And […]
The Beauty of Christmas Movies … in Black and White
With family driving in, the hearth glowing and the spirit of the yuletide warming the cockles of your heart, there are probably times when you stop and think, “You know, a fun little Christmas movie might be fun tonight!” That’s exactly what my fellow Plugged In colleagues were doing a day or so ago. And […]
Game Goods 2019: Bob Hoose’s Year-End Picks
Yes, it’s December and time for Plugged In to wheel out its end-of-the-year “Best Of” lists. And in the gaming category, that’s not an easy call—not because there’s too little to choose from, but too much: I reviewed a pretty heavily populated crowd of fun games this year. But fear not, we’ve culled the crowd […]