Simon Parkin of The New Yorker:

“The first endless runner I played was Canabalt,” said Luke Muscat, Jetpack Joyride’s designer. “You had this single button to jump. I loved the juxtaposition of high-intensity action with absolute simplicity.” Prior to Canabalt’s release, game makers had struggled to reconcile the smartphone’s absence of buttons with the interactive complexities of contemporary video games. Canabalt’s solution was elegant and simple: tap anywhere on the glass and your character leaps. Muscat recalled: “I remember playing Canabalt and just thinking, How has nobody ever thought of this before?”

There’s a lot of endless runners on the iPhone, and Canabalt is widely attributed as the game that started it all. It’s also the only runner that’s maintained my interest, being one of a few games that doesn’t ask me to buy something in a store or prompt me with a tutorial. It’s an attractive game with only a few core mechanics and touchscreen controls that aren’t middling (you feel the weight of your character as he leaps from ledge to ledge). There’s a real sense of desperation in the game as you stumble out of the first window and onto the rooftops below, scrambling onto your feet as the game reveals the backdrop of a burning city under siege. It begs you to ask a lot of questions, though it never answers them, even as more is revealed the farther you run. It’s a classic.

Ken Shirriff tore down Apple’s Magsafe 2 connector, explaining the symmetrical pin layout, how the connector sticks to your MacBook, and how the Magsafe LEDs function to notify you of its charging status. The Magsafe is one of the MacBook’s best features, and it’s deceivingly complex: the charger goes through a startup process as it’s connected to verify that it has a solid connection with the MacBook. If you’re into electronics, there’s a lot of geeky information here pertaining to the circuit board, switch, and how to obtain the charger’s ID code.

Last year, Hulu refreshed their website to put an emphasis on all the shows and programming you love to watch, removing much of the chrome that adorned video players and promotion carousels, and making thumbnails and artwork bigger for easier navigation. Hulu also implemented a new “Shows You Watch” feature for logged in users so you can quickly jump to your favorite show.

Today’s iPad update brings the same minimal redesign to the iPad, adding new features such a discover panel which will tell you more can you expect from a show based on your viewing history. But the coolest feature is the new minimized player, which lets you continue watching a show while browsing for something else.

You can learn more about Hulu for the iPad here.