Welcome to Tech Beat, your daily look at the stories shaping our digital world.
China's crackdown on VPN use is intensifying, and people inside the country are feeling it. The tools millions have relied on to reach the open internet beyond the Great Firewall are becoming harder to find and harder to keep running. Beijing appears to be closing gaps it previously tolerated, and the pressure on ordinary users is growing.
Shifting to a story that sits at the uncomfortable crossroads of technology and public health politics, anti-vaccination dating apps like Unjected and PureBlood.Dating are moving beyond the screen and into real-world meetups. What began as niche online communities has evolved into organized social gatherings, drawing both loyal attendees and sharp criticism from people who see the events as normalizing vaccine hesitancy in physical spaces.
And finally, a story that is pure internet joy. A retro gaming enthusiast tried loading Sega Genesis games through a vinyl record player, encoding game data as audio on a turntable. The attempt used a Mega EverDrive Pro and a Pi Pico two board, but even that hardware could not overcome the fundamental limitations of a needle dragging across wax. It did not work, but honestly, we are glad someone tried.
Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
