Column: The worst tech of 2023 (an anti-gift guide)

Column: The worst tech of 2023 (an anti-gift guide)

It’s the holidays, and you know what that means: an endless stream of wishlists, gift guides, and splashy sales of products competing for our cash. Since this is the 21st century, so many of those are tech products — wearables, AI-infused gadgets, smart birdhouses, a firepit you control with an app, you name it. It’s…

Into the metal-verse: Why Avenged Sevenfold is doing virtual reality concerts

Into the metal-verse: Why Avenged Sevenfold is doing virtual reality concerts

In a nondescript Culver City warehouse, members of the metal band Avenged Sevenfold wear protective booties over their shoes to avoid scuffing the floor-to-ceiling green screen. The surroundings couldn’t be more different from their usual fire-and-brimstone aesthetics. That will soon change, of course, with the green screen swapped out for a series of fantastical concert…