It’s Time. Meet My New Thing.

For this first newsletter, I want to tell you about this new thing, and why I’m doing it. After this one, it's tech news, reviews and whatever else is on my mind. You’ll get this email twice a week. Wednesdays will bring bigger tech stories plus new videos.

When I was cleaning out my attic a few weeks ago to make room for my new home video studio, I found a box.

Inside: an iPod with a click wheel. A Zune HD with a scratched screen. An old Garmin that I can remember rerouting me directly to a Chili's parking lot. The BlackBerrys and Palm Pilots are in another box, resting together like tiny monuments honoring the past we used to carry around.

Of course, these are all old things now. But once upon a time, when I started covering technology, they were new things.

In today’s launch video on YouTube, I explain why I left The Wall Street Journal to build this. Some of it is media stuff—feeling trapped inside a legacy publication and wanting the freedom to make journalism outside those walls, on channels that are actually mine. But most of it comes down to this: We are entering a new era of technology that will soon make today’s “new things” feel like old things. And it’s happening faster than a piece of bacon disappears near my dog. 

If you’ve read my work at WSJ—or before that at ABC News or The Verge—you know I love consumer tech. I love reviewing it, talking to the people making it and helping people understand it. Mostly, I love having fun with it. That’s what we’re doing here.

So let me answer a few questions.

At the simplest level: what I’ve always done. Writing and making videos about the devices, apps and services changing how we live. Yes, there will be phones. Yes, Apple stuff. Yes, Google and Android stuff. Yes, tips and tricks. Yes, probably a weird robot. Probably many weird robots.

But while writing my new book, I AM NOT A ROBOT—where I used AI in as many parts of my life as possible for a year—I realized Is this a good product? isn’t the main question to ask anymore. The bigger question is: Who is this tech for? Wall Street? Greedy CEOs? AI agents? Actual humans? I want it to be for humans. And I want to cover it that way too: as a human living with it, using it, testing it and trying to make sense of what it’s doing to our lives.

That’s the thread running through everything here—every review, every story, every dumb joke. And if I do this right, New Things won’t be just a publication. It’ll be a group of people asking that question together—and figuring out what kind of future we actually want.

Hi! I’m a human. I wrote this. Twenty years of journalism ethics don't disappear because I started an independent media company and a YouTube channel, and they definitely don't disappear because there are 700 chatbots on my laptop. Every word you read here—every review, every story, every bad joke—is written by me or by a human on my team. (Say hi, Amaya, David, Adele and Rich. 👋🏻) 

Don’t get me wrong, we’re using AI all day over here. In fact, we hope to introduce you to our intern agent soon. But the thinking, the reporting, the voice, the calls about what's true and what's worth your time—that's all human. Speaking of humans and the human hand, our whole brand font was hand drawn by Jason Snyder. Briana Feola and Zach Ferdman (also humans) put all the stunning designs together. Seriously, how good do things look around here?

In today’s launch video, I went to go visit Casey Neistat, world famous YouTuber and one of a few who inspired me to take this career step. When I asked him what was most important for me to do as I launch my own YouTube channel, he said: “Being human is not enough. You have to only be you. There's eight billion other humans out there. What do you have to offer me? And only you have that.”

What I offer is a love of technology, but also the curiosity and skepticism this moment demands. Also: fun. I offer fun.

Some things do change here, though. New Things makes money two ways: newsletter subscriptions and sponsorships. On YouTube and other social channels, you'll start hearing ad reads from me. You'll always know when something is sponsored. It will be clearly labeled and delivered through a ridiculous gold microphone that we have termed the MoneyMic. Sponsorships have zero influence on our editorial coverage. Our full standards live at TheNewThings.com/standards. Please go read them and ask me if you have questions about them.

Subscribing is what helps us build this independent journalism venture. It funds high-quality, deeply reported videos and stories. No ring light here.

I want New Things to be more than a publication. I want it to feel like a club—a group of humans who care about where tech is going and want to figure it out together. Speaking of: Every Friday, we're going to feature a piece of old tech—your old tech. Reply to this newsletter with a photo from something out of your own attic box and the story behind it. Your click wheels. Your flip phones. Your old DVI cable. 

Tech journalism. For humans. Who like fun. That's what I quit my job to do. Thanks for being here at the start of it.

Then people started telling me about Mercury, now the exclusive launch sponsor of New Things. And it turns out banking does not have to be an old thing. It can be a new thing.

With Mercury, I applied for an account from my bed in about 10 minutes and got virtual cards I could use immediately. No sitting around for the mail truck. And I got bill pay that lets me pay contractors without spelunking through 14 confusing portal menus. 

I’m so excited to be partnering with Mercury to launch New Things and power this part of my business. You’ll be hearing more about Mercury here and in some of our videos soon.

Google recently launched vertical tabs in Chrome, which is exactly what it sounds like: a feature that moves your tabs from a tiny row across the top of the browser to a scrollable list on the left side.

To turn it on, type chrome://flags/ in your address bar, find vertical tabs and enable it. Then restart your browser and right-click in Chrome’s tab bar and select “Show Tabs Vertically.” Google will be turning this on for everybody soon, so you won’t have to take the initial step. 

This turned my whole world upside down on its side. In a good way! I now see life as divided into two tabs, one labeled BVT (Before Vertical Tabs) and the other AVT (After). The change is clarifying: You can actually read the name of every tab. No more website titles getting chopped into two sad syllables every time you open another. Want 150 tabs open? The future is here. 

You can also collapse the sidebar down to just icons to reclaim screen space. Pins, groups and split view all still work the same as they do in the regular top-tab setup.

This is Honor’s bipedal humanoid dominating a half marathon in Beijing, crushing 13 miles in 50 minutes and leaving every human and rival robot in the dust. Sources close to the robot say it wasn’t chasing victory. It was racing to subscribe to New Things and preorder my new book.

GIF from China Global Television Network

This newsletter was written and curated by Joanna Stern and Adele Lowitz. The amazing New Things branding was designed by Brainstorm. See you Friday.