The Vergecast: Puzzle Games, Computational Photography, and Project Indigo

The Rise of Online Puzzle Games

• 💡 Cracking the Cryptic is a YouTube channel where hosts Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe solve variant Sudoku puzzles live on camera daily, attracting over 650,000 subscribers.
• 🧩 The channel features a wide array of complex, handmade Sudoku puzzles, including those with fog, thermometers, or unique paths, differentiating them from computer-generated newspaper puzzles.
• 💬 A strong community has grown around the channel, with nearly 40,000 members on Discord actively solving puzzles together and pushing the boundaries of puzzle-solving.
• 🧠 The hosts find solving puzzles live to be daunting but rewarding, often experiencing moments of epiphany and enjoying the calm logic it brings, which has positively impacted viewers' mental health.
• 📈 Puzzles are experiencing a cultural moment, possibly due to their mindfulness aspect, the increasing relevance of computational thinking, and a desire for engaging, daily digital activities.

Project Indigo: Redefining Smartphone Photography

• 📸 Marc Levoy, a pioneer in computational photography, discusses his new camera app, Project Indigo, which aims for a natural look, full manual controls, and advanced computational photography.
• ✨ Project Indigo aims to avoid the common