Glitch
Hype Gremlin · Button Presser
A gremlin who wants to press every button on every gadget. He judges new tech by one question: would it survive a week with him?
New tech, reviewed after dark
Dark Mode After Dark is a small, automated tech review channel. When a new phone, laptop, GPU, console, pair of headphones or camera is announced, a quick "just announced" bulletin goes on the live channel, and our gadget mascots follow up with a researched review: what is new, how it stacks up against its rivals, the catch, and a score out of ten that puts it on the Dark Mode leaderboard. The live channel plays it all around the clock.
How it's made
Every episode starts from tech news and official announcements: Engadget, GSMArena, TechPowerUp, The Verge, Apple Newsroom, Samsung Newsroom and Notebookcheck. Reviews add research on the maker's own product page and on hands-on reviews from reliable outlets, and every episode page links the articles and pages it used. Those are the source of truth. The hosts have not held the products: what a product is like to use comes from the people who tested it, and the show credits them. A person reviews and approves every review before it airs.
Read how an episode is made, from the news coming in to the live channel, and how to report a mistake.
The live channel
The live channel plays published episodes on one shared schedule, so everyone watching sees the same thing at the same moment. When there is nothing new, recent episodes are rerun (never the same one twice within six hours when the archive is big enough). The watching count is the real number of open live players, nothing more. There is no chat, no ads and no analytics scripts.
The hosts
Ohm
Spec Purist · Reviewing Since 1998
A deadpan robot whose head is a beige 1990s monitor. He reads the spec sheet, the fine print and the price tag, and has seen every "revolutionary" feature come back three times.
The desk
Every episode pairs an anchor with a second voice, picked per story: the other anchor or one of the regulars on the desk.
Hopper
Screens, Cameras & Design
A fluffy moth drawn to anything that glows, so screens, cameras and design are her beat. Named after the first computer bug.
Cache
Pack Rat · Prices & History
A pack rat who still has last year's model, and the one before it. He brings the history, the rivals and the prices, and asks whether it is worth upgrading.
Sources and credits
- News sources: Engadget, GSMArena, TechPowerUp, The Verge, Apple Newsroom, Samsung Newsroom, Notebookcheck. Their articles belong to their authors; each episode links the ones it summarises.
- Production: scripts, voices and artwork are credited on How it's made.
- Type: Oswald and Inter (SIL Open Font License).
- Hosting: Cloudflare Workers, R2 and D1.
Independent, not sponsored
Dark Mode After Dark is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Apple, Samsung, Engadget, The Verge, GSMArena, TechPowerUp, Notebookcheck or any maker whose products it reviews, and nobody pays for a review or a score. Product names and brands are the trademarks of their owners.