Anbernic is the Shenzhen company behind a big chunk of the retro handheld craze. Since 2017 it has cranked out a steady stream of pocket consoles built for emulating old games, from cheap Game Boy-style devices to Android handhelds that can handle PS2 and GameCube.
The lineup
RG35XX family: the budget classics, running Linux, usually somewhere around $35 to $70.
RG34XX and RG40XX: different screen shapes and layouts in the same affordable range.
RG406H and RG557: Android handhelds with much more power, roughly $160 to $250 at launch.
Newer odd ones: a dual-screen RG DS, the rotating-screen RG Rotate and a Vita-style RG VITA.
Bluetooth controllers too.
Worth knowing
The Linux models are simple and great for 8-bit and 16-bit games, while the Android ones run more demanding systems and apps. A lot of people swap the stock firmware for community builds like muOS, ROCKNIX or ArkOS, which tend to be smoother. New models drop constantly, so it is worth reading a review or two before buying. Orders ship worldwide from China with a 12-month warranty.
Why I saved it: the place to start if you want a cheap handheld for old games.
Wikipedia’s page on Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino’s strange and beautiful 1972 novel. It is barely a novel at all. Marco Polo sits with the emperor Kublai Khan and describes the cities he has seen across the empire, each one shorter than a page and more like a prose poem than a travel report.
How it is built
55 cities, each named after a woman, spread across nine chapters.
The cities are grouped into 11 themes, like Cities and Memory, Cities and Desire and Thin Cities.
Short conversations between Polo and the Khan frame each chapter.
The tight, almost mathematical structure comes from Calvino’s time with the Oulipo group of writers.
Worth knowing
The English translation by William Weaver came out in 1974 and was nominated for a Nebula Award. Late in the book Polo admits that every time he describes a city, he is saying something about Venice, which changes how you read everything before it. Architects and urban planners love it, and it was turned into an opera staged inside Union Station in Los Angeles in 2013.
Why I saved it: a short book you can open to any page, and a good one to read slowly.
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If you want to sell online this holiday season, or you have “start a business” penciled in for January, you face a choice before you list a single product: build your store stack yourself, or buy one that comes assembled.
The DIY route means picking a host, installing WooCommerce, adding security and backups, and keeping it all updated. The bundled route is what WordPress.com Commerce offers: a WooCommerce store with managed hosting baked in.
This guide compares the two honestly, covers what you still have to decide either way, and explains how the free trial works so you can test before you commit.
What is WordPress.com Commerce?
WordPress.com Commerce is an online store powered by WooCommerce, the open source store software behind millions of shops, running on WordPress.com’s managed hosting. You get the store and the server in one plan, so there’s no separate hosting account to buy or babysit.
WordPress.com handles the technical upkeep:
Hosting tuned for WordPress and WooCommerce
Security monitoring around the clock
Real-time backups
Core and plugin updates
You can sell physical products, digital downloads, and services. Because it’s WooCommerce underneath, you keep the open source flexibility and ownership of your store data.
Managed bundle vs. DIY: the comparison
The bundle trades some freedom for far fewer moving parts. Here’s how the two approaches stack up on the jobs every store needs done.
What your store needs
WordPress.com Commerce
DIY (your own host + WooCommerce)
Hosting account
Included
Buy and configure separately
Security and malware monitoring
Included
Host add-on or a security plugin
Backups
Real-time, included
Host feature or a backup plugin
WordPress and plugin updates
Handled for you
Your job (or your developer’s)
Product Add-Ons
Included
Paid extension or plugin
Product Bundles
Included
Paid extension or plugin
Gift cards
Included
Paid extension or plugin
Order and inventory management
Included
Core WooCommerce, plus extras as needed
Mobile-optimized store themes
Included
Free or premium theme of your choice
Server-level control
Managed by WordPress.com
Full control
Where the bundle wins: one bill, one dashboard, one support team, and nobody on your end patching plugins at midnight before Black Friday.
Where DIY wins: maximum control over the server, and potentially lower costs if you’re comfortable stitching tools together and maintaining them yourself.
The honest math: DIY often looks cheaper on the hosting line alone. Add up the extensions in the table above, plus your time, and the gap usually narrows. Check the full Commerce feature list against what you’d otherwise buy piece by piece.
What you still have to decide
Managed hosting takes the server off your plate. It doesn’t run your business for you. Before launch, you’ll still need answers for these:
Products: what you’re selling, how it’s priced, and whether it’s physical, digital, or a service
Images: clean, consistent product photos (this matters more than most themes)
Payments: which payment provider you’ll connect, and its processing fees
Taxes: where you owe sales tax or VAT, and how it’s calculated at checkout
Shipping: zones, rates, carriers, and whether you offer free shipping thresholds
Policies: returns, refunds, privacy, and terms pages
WordPress.com’s store setup guide works as a prep checklist, and you can read it before paying for anything. Work through it now and your trial time goes to building, not researching.
How the 14-day free trial works
You can start a 14-day free trial on a new site and build your store before you pay. It’s a sandbox, not a soft launch, so know the limits going in:
Coming Soon mode: the site isn’t public while you’re on the trial.
No real payments: the store can’t accept actual customer orders until you upgrade to a paid Commerce plan.
Restricted extras: additional plugins, third-party themes, and some hosting tools are limited during the trial.
What you can do is plenty for a test drive:
Pick a store theme and customize the storefront.
Add products, descriptions, and images.
Set up shipping zones and tax settings.
Run a test purchase from the admin to see checkout end to end.
When everything looks right, upgrade to a paid Commerce plan and the store goes live.
Who it’s for (and who should skip it)
A good fit if you:
Want to sell without becoming a part-time sysadmin
Are launching your first store, or moving off a marketplace to your own site
Want WooCommerce’s flexibility without managing the hosting under it
Value one support team over a chain of vendors pointing at each other
Maybe not if you:
Need root-level server access or a custom server stack
Already have a developer and a hosting setup you’re happy with
Costs to budget for beyond the plan
The plan covers the store and hosting. A few things are separate:
Payment processing fees from your payment provider
Specialty extensions such as subscriptions, bookings, and event tickets, each with its own price
Domain renewals after any included period
Pricing and billing terms vary by region and currency, so check current WordPress.com pricing rather than trusting any number you see in a blog post (including this one). Annual billing typically gives the best value if you’re committed.
The verdict
If your goal is to sell, not to maintain servers, WordPress.com Commerce is the shorter path to a working WooCommerce store. You give up some low-level control. You get back the hours you’d spend on hosting, security, backups, and updates.
October is the right month to start. A store built now has time to be tested, polished, and found before holiday shoppers arrive.
Build the storefront, add products, and run a test order before you spend a cent.
FAQ
Do I need a separate hosting account? No. Hosting is included in the Commerce plan.
Is WordPress.com the same as WooCommerce? No. WordPress.com is the hosted service. WooCommerce is the store software running on it.
Can I take real orders during the free trial? No. The trial runs in Coming Soon mode and can’t accept real customer payments until you upgrade to a paid plan.
Are subscriptions and bookings included? They’re separate WooCommerce extensions with their own costs.
Can I sell digital products and services, not just physical goods? Yes. Commerce supports physical products, digital downloads, and services.
How much does it cost? Pricing varies by region, currency, and billing term. See WordPress.com pricing for current rates.
Meadow is a small standalone device built for the times you want to leave your phone at home but still need the basics. It has its own phone number, so you can take calls, send texts, and share your location without carrying the thing that pulls you into email and feeds.
What it does
Calls, texts, and location sharing
Maps and Uber for getting around
Spotify and Apple Music, plus a camera
Strava for runs and rides
Just as important is what it leaves out: no social media, no web browser, and no algorithmic feeds. The pitch is a night out, a hike, or dinner with family where you are reachable but not distracted.
Plans and availability
Meadow runs on T-Mobile’s network and needs one of three monthly plans: $15 for 1GB of data, $25 for 5GB, or $35 for unlimited. The homepage does not list a hardware price, so check the order page before you budget for it. It is only certified for sale in the US for now.
It sits in the same “dumbphone” lane as the Light Phone, but with more practical apps like rideshare and music built in. Worth a look if you keep trying to use your phone less and keep losing.
This link goes straight to the raw file listing for an Internet Archive collection of BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix recordings, with a heavy lean toward techno. If you want the friendlier page with a built-in player and track details, use the collection’s details page instead. The download view is handy when you just want to grab a specific file.
What the Essential Mix is
The Essential Mix first aired on 30 October 1993 with Pete Tong as host, and he still presents it. Each week a different DJ or artist plays an uninterrupted two-hour set, broadcast in the early hours of Saturday morning UK time. More than 30 years in, it is one of the longest running shows on Radio 1 and a big part of how dance music history got recorded.
Where else to look
The Archive hosts many single-mix uploads too, like Andrew Weatherall’s 1993 set and Nia Archives’ 2023 mix. Search “Essential Mix” on archive.org.
New episodes stream officially on BBC Sounds.
One caveat: these are fan uploads of BBC broadcasts. The BBC and the artists own the recordings, so treat the archive as a listening library, not something to repost.