I started The Shortcut almost a year ago with the intent to offer banner-ad-free tech journalism with a simple format for time-conscious subscribers, beyond helping you with PS5 restock efforts. It’s time for that idea to grow (as per today’s press release). Here’s what that means – and why you’ll benefit – in our usual skinny format.

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny

• 🧠 My idea: create the CliffsNotes of tech journalism

• 🏃‍♂️ Ideal for on-the-go folks who want the tl;dr of tech news & reviews

• 📈 It’s growing: we’re now 7 people strong – with 5 new hires today

• 🏆 The Shortcut is the leading consumer tech publication on Substack

• 🐦 I still have 1 million Twitter followers; growing on Instagram & YouTube

• 💰 Supported solely by YOU – via paid subscriptions and affiliate links

• ✉️ Subscriber perk: email me (just reply) and I’ll answer your questions

It’s a big bet to try a new ad-free business model for tech journalism. The Shortcut is bulking up at a time when other publications are closing down or slimming down. So…

👥 Meet The Shortcut team

Matt Swider, Founder & Editor-in-Chief

I started a video game website when I was 14 talking about my favorite N64 games, and here I am running my own tech website again after enjoying 9 years at TechRadar. It’s exciting to start something from the ground up with an all-star team. Other things about me: I own hundreds of phones that line my NYC apartment. I built a six-monitor computer setup for ultimate productivity. I may be obsessed with emojis. 🤷‍♂️

More importantly than me, here’s the starting lineup:

Gabe Carey, VP of Content & Partnerships

Gabe runs the content and partnerships to ensure we’re covering as many of the right products as possible. There’s precedent for this – Gabe (and others new to the team) laid the groundwork for the Daily Mail’s first consumer reviews site “Decidedly” and led affiliate efforts for G/O Media’s brands (Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Quartz, etc). I’ve wanted to work with Gabe for years, and at The Shortcut, it’s finally happening. 🙌

Adam Vjestica, Senior Editor

I loved working with Adam over the years. He was my very first hire when I became the Managing Editor at TechRadar on a pre-COVID trip to the UK in 2020 – right before I got trapped in Egypt – and he was my first hire here at The Shortcut this past June. He drove millions of visitors to TechRadar with hard-hitting op-eds and I couldn’t ask for a better first editor. 🙏

Jackie Thomas, Senior Editor

There’s no bigger expert on computers and components than Jackie. She worked with me at TechRadar (and made my job as US Editor-in-Chief there easy) before she moved to “Decidedly.” She knows GPUs better than anyone I’ve ever worked with. Together, we’ll help you find the Nvidia 4080 when it comes out – hopefully. 🤞

Callum Bains, News Editor

Callum joined TechRadar just after I left, but I kept going back to the site and noticing great articles – a lot of them had the byline of one “Callum Bains.” He’s a natural fit for The Shortcut and already has a bunch of news on the site. It’s wonderful to wake up and read Callum’s work (and see which emojis he’s picked). 🤗

Wes Davis, Contributing Editor

Wes also comes from the Daily Mail’s “Decidedly” publication, and with him onboard at The Shortcut, we’ve got the best person to recommend everything you forgot to buy in time for the holidays – from smart home tech to routers. Wes is going to play a key role in this critical time: right before Black Friday and headed into CES 2023. He also wears a great hat. 🤠

Krista Sparks, Chief Brand Officer

Krista keeps me sane. From California, she manages The Shortcut’s marketing, brand partnerships, sponsorships and other publicity efforts. I really wanted to work with Krista because I enjoyed working alongside Krista when she was doing PR for some of the top tech companies. Now she gets paid to laugh at my unfunny jokes. 🤣

🙅‍♂️ Banner-ad-free content

I’m committed to serving no banner ads for as long as economically possible. We’ll still point out deals that earn us affiliate revenue, but they’re picked without bias.

👨‍🔬 Doing things differently

Traditional websites are just that – a bit too traditional. As a team, we’re going to shed the royal “we” and “us” in our reviews and tell you about our experiences with various products when it matters. I like the YouTuber model of being able to show a bit more character and there’s no reason that can’t live on a website.

📰 Now for today’s news & reviews

Elon Musk's $8/mo Twitter Blue shake-up explained

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: $8/mo for new Twitter perks

• 💰 Elon Musk announced a $8/mo plan for new Twitter Blue perks

• 🤖 It would come with a checkmark in an effort to defeat the bots

• 💬 Priority placement in replies, mentions & search to thwart SPAM/scams

• 📺 You’ll be able to post longer video & audio than average users

• 🙅‍♂️ 1/2 as many ads & a paywall bypass for some publications

Read the full story

Review: Samsung 990 Pro SSD – speeding in the fast lane

When we’re fully done testing the Samsung 990 Pro SSD, we’ll be adding it to our best PS5 SSD buying guide. But already, it’s impressive.

“While the Samsung 990 Pro is very much targeted at PC gamers, with a bunch of bells and whistles for nerds like me, it’s perfectly usable in your PS5. There is a heatsink version you can buy for an extra $20, and that’s totally the option you should go for if you want to use it in your console. It’s going to save you a ton of hassle. 

Just be aware that you’re not going to get the full sticker speed of the Samsung 990 Pro in the PS5. I installed it, and after formatting it, the console told me the SSD had a speed of 6,568 MB/s. That’s definitely nothing to shake a stick at, but it’s a far cry from the 7,540 MB/s that Samsung is advertising.“

Pre-order the Samsung 990 SSD

Amazon Music is now free to Prime members, but you're at the mercy of shuffle

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Amazon Music is free

• 🎧 Amazon will let Prime subscribers access its entire music library for free

• 🔀 However, you won’t be able to play songs on demand and will have to make do with shuffle

• 💯 You can shuffle any artist, album, or playlist from Amazon’s 100 million songs

• 💰 High-res audio and spatial audio are only available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers

Looks like HBO accidentally revealed The Last of US TV show release date

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: The Last of Us TV series

• 📅 HBO’s The Last of US TV adaptation is coming on January 16

• 😮 The premiere date leaked early on the HBO Max app

• ⌛ We’ve been waiting for a firm release date for several months

• 🥳 It won’t be long until we see Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay in action

Elon Musk hints at Vine revival

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Is Vine coming back?

• 😯 Elon Musk has hinted that he wants to revive Vine

• 💀 The video-sharing app was bought by Twitter and shut down in 2016

• 💻 Musk has reportedly instructed engineers to return to the platform

• 🤔 But he hasn’t committed to its revival just yet

YouTube is changing: 35 subscription services join as ‘Prime Channels’

➡️ The Shortcut skinny: everything on YouTube

• 👀 YouTube starts hosting subscription services like Paramount Plus, AMC+, Shudder, and more under the moniker “Primetime Channels”

• 📺 35 services have signed on for the launch

• 🥸 Content from streaming services will blend with YouTube creator content in both search results and recommendations

• 📝 You’ll be able to sign up for services on YouTube.com, but not the app, and there is no way to link external accounts to your YouTube account yet

• 🫰 You’ll have to pay for each Primetime Channel

• 🍾 The service is set to launch today

Netflix expands gaming with its sixth in-house studio

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Netflix buys another game developer

• 🦊 Netflix has acquired another gaming studio, Spry Fox

• 🐻 The developer has created games like Triple Town, Alphabear and Cozy Grove

• 💪 Netflix is committed to building its in-house creative capacity

• 😖 In August, it was revealed less than 1% of Netflix subscribers play its games

Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest Call of Duty launch of all time

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: MW2 is a record breaker

• 😳 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is off to a blistering start

• 🤯 The game is now the fastest-selling Call of Duty game of all time

• 😲 It’s also attracted more players online than any other title in the series’ history

• 🔫 The game’s free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone 2.0 launches on November 16