Welcome to Pixel Fun!

Hi there, welcome to Pixel Fun, a newsletter that I’ll be publishing once a week (to start) and likely on weekends (TBD). I’ve pondered the idea of starting a newsletter before and never followed through. That changes today, so what can you expect when Pixel Fun lands in your Inbox every week?

That all starts with the things I’ll be writing about, and I think Pixel Fun does a great job of describing it. In its simplest form, Pixel Fun will be a home for anything that’s a pixel you can have fun with.

Table of Contents

• 🤔 What can I expect from Pixel Fun?

• 📄 What’s the format going to be?

• 💸 Is Pixel Fun free?

• 🧔 Cool, but who are you?

🤔 What can I expect from Pixel Fun?

What does that look like? Well, video games are an obvious place to start. I’ve been a gamer since the late 1980s and fell out of love with gaming in the last decade or so. I’ve been trying to fix that of late, and I’ll be using the newsletter to help with that.

Me being me, it’ll be no surprise to anyone that a good chunk of Pixel Fun will be mobile tech — turns out phones have a lot of pixels, who knew? That’ll be phone hardware, mobile games, and apps. Especially cool indie apps that I come across. One of the things I enjoyed most about my time at the now-defunct iMore was the scope I was given to cover apps that might not otherwise get the attention they deserve. I’ll be doing that here, so reach out if you’re a developer and want me to check out your work.

Pixels are hardware, too, so I’ll be writing about laptops, monitors, TVs, and just about everything related to any of those things.

If it isn’t yet clear, Pixel Fun will be where I can write what I want without worrying about whether anyone will read it. I hope you will, of course, and I think you’ll enjoy what you see!

📄 What’s the format going to be?

A good newsletter needs a predictable format, and I intend to settle into one with Pixel Fun. It might not happen right away, and I’ll be tweaking the format over the coming weeks as I work out what I like, what I don’t, and I take on your feedback as I go.

What I do know is that you can expect something along these lines:

• A section highlighting the biggest news of the week across mobile, tech, and gaming.

• What I’ve been using, testing, and enjoying this week.

• Highlighting any work I’ve done for the places I currently freelance at/

• Sharing any notable deals (yes, there’ll be affiliate links) that I think you folk will like. Don’t worry, there’ll be no air fryers here — everything will be on-brand.

• What I’ve been playing, and how, whether that’s a mobile game on my iPhone, a AAA game on Nvidia GeForce Now, or something on the big screen on a PS5 or Xbox. If you make games for any of those platforms, reach out. I’d love to hear what you have cooking.

There might be the odd newsletter that does a deeper dive into a specific subject, but they’ll be in addition to the usual weekly edition.

💸 Is Pixel Fun free?

OK, cards on the table here. Yes, Pixel Fun will be free. At least, initially.

As a freelance writer, I know all too well how volatile the industry can be. I’ve already been involved with websites that closed down, so pour one out for iMore and Input, now part of Inverse.

Because of that, I want to try and have a more direct relationship with my readers. That’s you.

Will it work? I don’t know, we’ll find out together. I might close Pixel Fun down after six months because nobody subscribed. But I might not, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned doing this job, it’s that you should always try.

So that’s what I’m doing. Please subscribe, it would mean the world to me. And maybe share it with your friends, too. I’m sure they’d like it.

🧔 Cool, but who are you?

I’m actually adding this section as an afterthought because I’m so big-headed that it never crossed my mind anyone would get this far and not know who I am. But someone might, so I thought I should probably explain who I am. You know, in case you’re interested.

I’m Oliver Haslam, and I write words on the internet. I write lots of words, actually, and I’ve done it at some of the biggest tech and gaming publications on the internet. And I kinda love it.

You’ll find me at the following places, although this isn’t an exhaustive list because, frankly, I’ve probably forgotten a few places. I’ve been doing this for more than a decade, after all

• AppleInsider

• CNET

• TechRadar

• iMore

• GameRadar

• Pocket-lint

• Lifewire

• Tom’s Guide

• How-To Geek

• 1Password

• TouchArcade

• Macworld (Print)

• PC Mag

I’ve also done work for app developers to help them get people’s attention, either by writing App Store copy or press releases. Basically, if there are words to be written, I’ve probably done it for someone.

And now I’m doing it for you, straight into your Inbox

You’re so lucky.