James Bareham
New York
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Articles by James Bareham
Reading Neuromancer for the very first time in 2025
I have a confession: Until I started working at The Verge in 2016, I’d never heard of Neuromancer. I was, of course, familiar with many of Neuromancer’s themes: Cyberpunk and cyberspace, computer hacking, corporate espionage, cybernetic enhancements, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and near-future worlds populated with leather jacket-wearing murderous street punks.
Dark and moody music for writing on a deep, dark winter’s night
Give me rainy, sonic soundscapes over sunny Lofi, at least, until spring. James Bareham · Follow 5 min read · -- Listening to “ALONE: The Empty Outpost” | Photo composition: James Bareham If I look out of my home office window right now, there’s snow on the ground, the skeletal trees stand stark against the deep ultramarine night sky, and it’s barely six o’clock in the evening. It’s winter here in New England, with forty-odd days to go until spring.
Reading Neuromancer for the very first time in 2025
So many sci-fi movies, anime, and video games owe a massive debt of gratitude to William Gibson’s seminal 1984 novel. James Bareham · Follow 9 min read · -- Chiba City Greens | Illustration: James Bareham I have a confession: Until I started working at The Verge in 2016, I’d never heard of Neuromancer.
‘Severance’ is the most creative show in the Outie world
Why did I wait so long to watch this series? James Bareham · Follow 6 min read · -- Mark Scout (Adam Scott) returns to the severed floor for season 2 of Severance | Graphic: James Bareham/MBH4H | Source image: Apple For some inexplicable reason, I only just finished watching season one of Severance. I say inexplicable because this Apple TV+ series has “made for James” written all over it. The first season of Severance premiered on February 18, 2022, on Apple TV+.
It took me over thirty years to appreciate the creative genius of Hayao Miyazaki
I was both early and late to Studio Ghibli. James Bareham · Follow 11 min read · -- Illustration: James Bareham/MBH4H | Source images: © Studio Ghibli To date, my relationship with the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli spans 36 years. During that time, Miyazaki’s creative style has seemingly changed little. That’s the diametric opposite of mine: My creative career has swung wildly in all sorts of directions over the past three decades, some intentional, some not.
The double-whammy of disruption in a post-AI creative world
Illustration by James Bareham/MBH4H (with apologies to René Magritte) What are you willing to pay for 100% free-range organic content? James Bareham · Follow 8 min read · -- Since Dall-E, Midjourney, and the other AI image generators first appeared, many creatives voiced their fear, frustration, and anger that these tools were trained on their original work without permission or compensation and that, in turn, these new AI tools threatened their future livelihoods.
Letting Go of Being Let Go
A year of learning to be a “leaf on the stream.” I guess it’s hardly surprising that LinkedIn doesn’t have a bot to remind my connections to “congratulate James Bareham on one year since being let go from Vox Media.” Being let go is not usually something most people want to be reminded of, let alone celebrate. But if it were a thing, today would be the day. It’s hard not to look back on being let go with anything other than sadness and a little bit of bitterness and regret to go along with it.
iPhone X review: face the future - The Verge
By Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of the Verge, host of the Decoder podcast, and co-host of The Vergecast. Photography by James Bareham If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. After months of hype, endless speculation, and a wave of last-minute rumors about production delays, the iPhone X is finally here. Apple says it’s a complete reimagining of what the iPhone should be, 10 years after the original revolutionized the world.
It wasn’t my decision to leave Vox Media, but it is a good time to start something new
Today is exactly two weeks since I — along with many of my colleagues at Vox Media — received an email telling me that I was no longer going to be working at the company. The following Monday, I found myself having to acclimatize to the fact that for the first time in seven years I wasn’t fully immersed in Slack or meetings or deep in work. I literally had nothing I needed to do.
Elon Musk wants to charge me $8 per month to keep my Twitter verification check mark.
Illustration by James Bareham using elements created by Midjourney. Prompt: Twitter Blue check mark on fire For those of you who are (rightly) focused on getting on with your lives and not paying much attention to the slow motion car crash that is Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the TL;DR is that it's been... well, interesting is one word to describe it. Welcome to Hell is another.
Episode 61: telling personal stories involving conflict with Arielle Duhaime-Ross
How can we better navigate difficult topics when telling personal stories? In this episode of Emerging Form, we talk with podcasting host Arielle Duhaime-Ross about their podcast episode “My Cousin Baptized My Dead Relatives Into the Mormon Church” which aired on VICE News Reports.
I finally beat Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, after two years and 300 hours
I don’t consider myself a gamer — I’m just someone who quite likes playing video games. Apart from a Game Boy in the 1990s, the first console I owned was a Nintendo Switch that I bought in early 2018 to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I finally got around to buying a PlayStation 4 in the latter part of the same year.
The Verge: A Photographic Retrospective
The Verge: A Photographic Retrospective Today, February 8th, 2021, marks five years since I began working full time for The Verge. My two and half years working at this preeminent digital publication (I moved into a more central role as creative director of Vox Media networks in August, 2018) were the most prolific of my career to date. I have no doubt that I shot more photos during my time at The Verge than during the previous decade; it was non-stop from day one.
From Mine to Market - the Diamond Story
From Mine to Market - the Diamond Story I was commissioned to photograph two photo-essays: the first documenting the journey made by a raw diamond from "Mine to Market" and the second, a behind-the-scenes reportage of the world of the Select Diamantaire. The project began at the Diavik Diamond Mine, 300 miles north of the town of Yellowknife, deep in the Northwest Territories of Canada. This mine - carved out of the granite on reclaimed land from Lac de Gras - is one of the richest in the world.
Jony Ive made the entire tech world care about design
I love industrial design and have for as long as I can remember. As a child, I broke my dad’s Braun electric razor playing with the dial that raised and lowered the blades because the action was so cool and “clicky.” At school, I dreamed of being either a product designer or an architect.
The Anita Sarkeesian story
When Anita Sarkeesian tells the bleak story of her “first bomb threat,” she turns it into a joke, like she’s recalling a cherished memory. It’s a bitter gag about a difficult time in her life, but she pulls it off, and I can’t help but burst out laughing. She’s a practiced raconteur, good at self-deprecation. She swears a great deal and seems to relish the dark absurdity of her life experiences.
Star Wars Land’s custom droid-building experience requires some strategy
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disneyland’s new Star Wars land, opened this past weekend to rave reactions. While the park opened with only a single new attraction, Disney did manage to mount a full complement of unique retail experiences. One of the most exciting is Droid Depot, where you can build your own custom astromech droid. After previewing the product line at this year’s Star Wars Celebration in Chicago I rushed to the shop on opening day for the full experience.
Star Wars land: An inside look at Disneyland’s immersive new world
Lovers of all things Star Wars, this is the week. Tomorrow, on May 31, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will open in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, as the largest-ever single-theme addition to the Disney parks. While the second Star Wars land won’t open at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, until August 29, we’ve got a sneak peek into what the California version looks like.
A close-up look at Star Wars Land’s life-size, hyper-detailed Millennium Falcon
Disneyland’s new land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, opens May 31 and boasts the first full-size replica of Han Solo’s faithful-but-flaky ship, the Millennium Falcon. Tucked behind the Corellian light freighter is Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run, described as an “anchor attraction” in the land. The sales pitch: it’s not only a ride, but — as seems to be the theme with the entire park expansion — an immersive storytelling experience.
Star Wars Land tells a canon story, but it repeats itself like Groundhog Day
Ever since Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the Star Wars land expansions to Disneyland and Disney World, fans have been promised an opportunity to not just visit the galaxy far, far away, but to become part of the story. On the eve of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’s opening, I asked a Lucasfilm rep what any true, self-respecting lore junkie must know: will a park-goer’s personal journey be official Star Wars canon?
The Oculus Quest is virtual reality’s next big leap forward
Photo: James Bareham/Polygon Portable VR just became much better By Ben Kuchera Apr 30, 2019, 1:30pm EDT The Oculus Quest is the most innovative virtual reality headset since the arrival of the original Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The benefits of Oculus’ new hardware, which is out May 21, don’t come from enhanced resolution or a lighter weight, but from the ease of use and lack of setup.
My Samsung Galaxy Fold screen broke after just a day
Look closely at the picture above, and you can see a small bulge right on the crease of my Galaxy Fold review unit. It’s just enough to slightly distort the screen, and I can feel it under my finger. There’s something pressing up against the screen at the hinge, right there in the crease. My best guess is that it’s a piece of debris, something harder than lint for sure. It’s possible that it’s something else, though, like the hinge itself on a defective unit pressing up on the screen.
Yoshi’s Crafted World is a symphony of everyday materials
poly-lt-wire-logo Good-Feel/Nintendo Take your time and enjoy the scenery, and what the scenery is made of By James Bareham@Happicamp Mar 31, 2019, 11:00am EDT I am not an expert at video games, but as I have worked in the creative industry for over 30 years, I know and appreciate great design. I’ve found a perfect match with Yoshi’s Crafted World.
Samsung Galaxy S10E: hands-on with the smaller, cheaper new phone
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge It’s human-sized By Dieter Bohn@backlon Feb 20, 2019, 2:29pm EST Alongside the flagship Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, Samsung is launching a lower-cost, smaller smartphone it’s calling the Galaxy S10E. Starting at $749.99, it has a 5.8-inch display and lacks some of the more advanced features you’d get on its siblings — but I suspect most people won’t miss them.
Apple’s new Smart Battery cases work great, but they aren’t for everybody
The best thing about the iPhone XR is not its design, processor, camera, or even its fun colors. The best thing is the XR’s battery life, which lets me use the phone all day without ever having to worry about charging it. Many days, I go to bed with 50 percent left in the tank. So it came as a bit of a surprise to see Apple announce a new Smart Battery Case for the iPhone XR a few weeks ago.
Welcome to Airspace
Igor Schwarzmann is the German co-founder of Third Wave, a strategy consultancy based in Berlin that works with small-scale industrial manufacturers. The company’s clients range across Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States, so Schwarzmann often finds himself moving between poles of the global economy. While traveling, he turns to Foursquare for recommendations about where to eat and drink. "It knows what I like," he says.
2018: A year in photographs on The Verge
It’s been a busy year By James Bareham, Amelia Holowaty Krales, and Michele Doying Dec 28, 2018, 3:00pm EST Last year, the introduction to 2017: A Year in Photographs began, “As 2017 finally draws to a close, we can all look back on a year that in many ways seems to have lasted 10.” If that statement was true of 2017, then it is doubly true of 2018. There has been so much news and information hitting us from all sides over this past year that, at times, it has seemed almost overwhelming.
The iPhone XS camera beats the iPhone X, but not the Pixel 2
Filed under: Apple And given the Pixel’s limited distribution, that’s probably all that Apple needs By Vlad Savov@vladsavov Sep 19, 2018, 11:00am EDT Apple’s new iPhone XS and XS Max have arrived, and as with any new flagship phone, a key question has been, “How’s the camera?” We now take great displays and performance for granted, especially with Apple’s new and improved iOS 12, but the camera remains the one technical aspect where a modern phone can truly set itself apart.
iPhone XS review: the XS and XS Max are solid updates to a winning formula
Last year, Apple did something out of character: it introduced the usual update to the iPhone, the iPhone 8, while simultaneously introducing the iPhone X with a flurry of hype. The iPhone X was a total rethinking of the iPhone, with a new gesture system, Face ID unlocking, and an edge-to-edge screen that prompted a wave of app redesigns. The iPhone X was meant to usher in the future of phones, and it succeeded; its influence (and its notch) are all over the industry now.
How the Nintendo Switch finally turned me into a gamer
I think the first time that I ever used a Nintendo game console was an SNES plugged into a TV parked on the sidewalk outside an electronics shop in Ginza, Tokyo in the spring of 1991. In fact, I think this may have been the first time I had ever used a video game console of any kind, period. Though I had played arcade games and was the proud owner of a Game Boy, I don’t remember ever playing on a proper console prior to that trip to Tokyo. If I had, it was literally a very forgettable experience.
The Nintendo Switch turns one
On March 3rd, 2017, Nintendo released a strange new device called the Switch. Part home console, part portable gaming device, the Switch created a new category for games hardware, and it has gone on to become the company’s fastest-selling device. In less than 12 months, it’s already more popular than its predecessor, the Wii U Since its debut, the Switch has become home to some of the company’s best games, from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to Super Mario Odyssey to Splatoon 2.
My original iPod is a time capsule from 2002
I bought my first iPod back in 2001. I didn’t buy it just because I was a massive Apple fan or an early adopter; I bought it because I traveled a lot for work and spent hours of my life in trains, planes, and hotel rooms. At the time I was living in my home city of London.
CES 2018: Behind-the-Scenes Photo Essay
CES 2018 may not officially end until tomorrow (January 14th) but The Verge team has already packed our bags and left the warmth of Las Vegas for home.
2017: A year in photographs on The Verge
As 2017 finally draws to a close, we can all look back on a year that in many ways seems to have lasted 10. And we thought a lot happened last year. 2017 has been very interesting and emotional. Again. When it comes to the photography on The Verge, 2017 was the year of “more.” Not only have we taken and published more original photographs than ever before, more people at The Verge have been taking them.
ScreenDrive: The McLaren 570S Spider puts the England back in New England
Cars have become expensive rolling gadgets, full of screens, speakers, and sensors — but are they actually good gadgets? In our series, ScreenDrive, we review cars just like any other device, starting with the basics of what they’re like to use. When you think of a McLaren supercar, the first words that probably pop into your head are “incredibly fast,” “very expensive,” “uniquely designed,” and possibly “silly doors.” I very much doubt that “sophisticated touchscreen interface” is on your list.
Exclusive: Instagram will now let you follow hashtags in your main feed
Filed under: Apps The social network now lets you follow hashtags By Ben Popper Dec 12, 2017, 11:15am EST The glass facade of the SuperMoon Bakehouse (#newforkcity, #eatingnyc) has a pleasing symmetry to it. Two black rectangles sit on either side of a square, a neon smiley face suspended upside down in the center. Inside, a few small cylinders of pink marble serve as tables, but seating for customers is limited.
Google Pixelbook review: emperor of Chrome
Filed under: Google Can a supercomputer for web apps challenge the iPad Pro? By Dieter Bohn@backlon Oct 26, 2017, 9:00am EDT There are many questions about the Pixelbook, a new $999 Chromebook manufactured by Google. Who should buy this thing? Who would want to? Is it supposed to compete with MacBooks? Surface tablets? Windows convertibles? iPads? iPad Pros? All of the above?
Google's 2017 gadget collection
About five years ago, a popular line was “Google is getting better at design faster than Apple is getting better at web services,” and I think that’s reached an inflection point. The overall design of Android and Google’s web-based platforms seems to have jumped ahead leaps and bounds over the last few years.
Inside Google’s new hardware
On October 4th, Google announced eight new hardware products. Two versions of the Pixel 2, a new Daydream VR headset, two new Google Home speakers, an AI camera called Google Clips, AI-enhanced headphones called Pixel Buds, and the Pixelbook laptop. It was a giant statement from a giant company that it is very serious about making hardware in many different categories.
Inside Google’s massive hardware ambitions
Rick Osterloh has been on the job as the senior vice president of hardware at Google for just over 17 months now. In that time, he's had to repeatedly answer the same questions from reporters like me: just how serious is Google about making its own hardware? Is it a hobby or is it going to genuinely affect Google's financial bottom line? Is the company sure it won't repeat the same mistakes it made with its ill-fated Motorola acquisition and subsequent sale years ago?
Google’s new smart speaker fixes your sound quality with AI
Not 10 minutes after Amazon's surprise announcement of new Echo devices last week, I walked into a small meeting room in Google's Mountain View headquarters to hear about the new Google Home Mini and Google Home Max. If there was ever a sign that Google had a big hill to climb to stay competitive in home speakers, this was it. But Rishi Chandra, Google’s GM of Home products, was characteristically relaxed about the whole thing, even joking about it.
Inside Google Clips, the weirdest camera of the year
You know what a digital camera is. It's a lens and a sensor, with a display to see what you're looking at, and a button to take the picture. Google Clips is a camera, but it only has some of those parts. There's no display. There’s a shutter button, but it's completely optional to use. Instead, it takes pictures for you, using machine learning to recognize and learn faces and look for interesting moments to record. It took me a while to wrap my head around Google Clips.
Google Pixelbook first look: a stunning $1,000 laptop
Chromebooks mostly exist in two camps. The first is the education market, where an entire generation of students have been using cheap, low-end laptops to get their schoolwork done. The second camp is the direct-to-consumer market, where manufacturers like Samsung and Asus have been introducing higher-end models that creep up into the $500 range, but don't have the power or flexibility of a proper Windows or Mac laptop.
Up close with Pixel Buds, Google's answer to AirPods
Google is making wireless headphones that are specifically designed to be the first and best option for people who buy Google phones — just like AirPods are designed for iPhones. The new Pixel Buds borrow a lot of ideas from Apple's AirPods: they have a new, easier way to pair with your phone, they come in a little battery case, they use touch controls, and they have tight integration with an intelligent assistant. They're also priced exactly the same, at $159, and are coming out in November.
Exclusive first look at the Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL
For a majority of the 10 years smartphones have been mainstream, phone makers have been copying each other’s designs. It's not easy to differentiate when all you really have is a slab of glass and a handful of variables like materials, camera, ports, and bezels to work with. It's only recently that we've been able to suss out some genuine schools of design thought, and genuinely competing philosophies of phone design are only beginning to emerge.
Multi-million dollar Ferraris, Jaguars, Astons, and a fine cup of tea
TheThe Goodwood Estate is nestled in the rolling hills of the south downs near the town of Chichester in West Sussex, England. It is a staggeringly beautiful corner of the country, rich in history (Jane Austen’s house is in the nearby village of Chawton) and is renowned for the wonderful sweeping roads that have made the area a magnet for motoring enthusiasts for years, much to the annoyance of many of the locals.
Visiting Pandora: a photo tour of Disney’s new Avatar land
ThisThis past weekend Disney officially opened up Pandora: The World of Avatar. We’ve already taken a look at the rides, the landscape, and even some of the odd foodstuffs that can be found throughout the park — but Pandora is an immersive environment, and sometimes the best way to get a sense of what it’s like to visit is to just look at the glorious sights it has to show you.
Burger King didn’t hack Google Home, it hacked the media
I think that it’s no accident that we’re talking about Burger King’s TV commercial that was designed to trigger Google Home — and not just because it would have been really annoying if it worked, or because it raised some some fairly troubling privacy issues. We’re talking about it because I would like to suggest that was the entire aim of this commercial. The media, not your Google Home, has been hacked by Burger King.
Deafeningly loud shrimp named after Pink Floyd
There’s a new heavy rock species of shrimp roaming the oceans, playing loudly, and generally annoying the neighbors: its name is Synalpheus Pinkfloydi, in honor of the iconic British band, Pink Floyd. Instead of a Fender Precision bass, the shrimp uses its large, garish pink claw to create a loud noise that is lethal to small fish. In fact, snapping its claw shut creates a sonic boom that can reach 210 decibels, one of the loudest sounds in the ocean.
Everybody knows this quote, but nobody knows where it's from
Here’s a quiz: without searching the internet, can you name the source of this quote? One character asks: "What does it do?" Another replies: "It doesn’t do anything. That’s the beauty of it.” I asked The Verge’s culture Slack room this question last week, and here are some of the answers I got.
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