Plex is adding new social features to the platform.

As of today, users can make and share "personalized lists on Plex of any movie, show or episode," the company said in an announcement. Later this year, users will be able to import lists from other streaming services and react to other people's lists.

This month, Plex will also launch a community forum that will allow people to "post and comment directly on any movie, show, season, or episode." Later this year, Plex will introduce "Match Scores" based on a viewer's history and past ratings to predict how much they'll like a show or movie, Plex said.

Plex already lets people rate content, and this year it will also allow them to react with emoji. Similarly, Plex will also enable people to respond to reviews and discussions with images. The goal, per Plex’s announcement, is to bring “a new layer of expression to every conversation.”

Finally, a "Follow Anything" feature coming this year will provide users with alerts around movies, shows, actors, and crew members that they follow.

Plex’s announcement claimed that its users have already “made over 100 million watching decisions a month and created more than 45 million watchlists,” making the new capabilities relevant to how people use Plex today.

“The addition of these features marks the next step in Plex's vision to unify entertainment discovery and help users navigate an increasingly fragmented streaming landscape,” Plex’s announcement said.

Plex is targeting a common challenge for streaming users: finding stuff worth watching across streaming services.

“We believe the future of entertainment discovery is social and trust-driven," Scott Olechowski, co-founder and chief product officer at Plex, said in a statement.

Plex's evolution

The new capabilities highlight Plex’s focus on features that go beyond its media server business.

In 2019, Plex started offering free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels. By 2024, Plex was selling movie rentals, a stark contrast to its original business, which focused on letting people share their own media with friends and family. The California-headquartered company has since added the ability for users to leave reviews on movies, as well as to comment on other users’ reviews.

Meanwhile, Plex's changes have raised concerns among some users about its commitment to self-hosting. For instance, Plex last year began removing users’ ability to remotely access a personal media server without paying a subscription fee. Plex also got rid of its Watch Together feature and redesigned its app to look more like a streaming service. And starting next month, the price for a lifetime subscription to Plex’s media server features will increase from $250 to $750. When launched in 2012, the Lifetime Plex Pass cost $75.

Plex’s evolution from its legacy business seems to be paying off. The company's marketing VP, Scott Hancock, said in 2023 that Plex has had more people using its online streaming service than its media server features since 2022. Ad-supported streaming has also been a top revenue driver for the company, which is key as it seeks profitability.

This all suggests that Plex’s expanding interest in streaming and rentals won't end anytime soon.

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We loved watching Simone Giertz prototype her Laundry Chair, a swivel-arm chair valet, a couple years ago. The piece went viral on Instagram.

Giertz recently bet that there was enough demand to start a Kickstarter for it, and boy, was she right: Her Laundry Chair campaign has racked up $750,000 in the few days since it launched.

To refresh your memory, Giertz observed the need for a place to toss clothes that are not dirty enough to launder, but not clean enough to go back in the drawer. Reasoning that most people simply use a chair for the task, she resolved to design one better suited to the purpose.

Thankfully, Giertz has not cheaped out on the materials, even though the piece is headed for production. The frame is solid hardwood. The upholstery isn't synthetic, but 100% cotton corduroy. The swivel mechanism relies on ball bearings.

There are still a few $899 Early Bird pledge slots available. The chair is expected to ship (flatpack, of course) in November.

In April, we got a short teaser for the third season of Silo, the critically acclaimed Apple TV series based on the trilogy by novelist Hugh Howey, which hinted at a mysterious origin story dating back centuries. Apple TV just released the full trailer, and it looks like our heroine is again facing conflict and danger because she just keeps asking so many inconvenient questions.

As previously reported, Silo is set in a self-sustaining underground city inhabited by a community whose recorded history dates back only 140 years. The outside is a toxic hellscape that is only visible on big screens in the silo’s topmost level. The second season expanded Silo‘s world to incorporate the survivors in the second Silo 17; everyone else died in a revolt to escape to the surface. We discovered that there are 50 silos in all. Meanwhile, another revolution was brewing in Juliette’s (Rebecca Ferguson) original Silo 18 against Holland (Tim Robbins). And even more secrets were revealed.

In the season finale, Juliette returned to her silo and warned the residents not to leave, but she and Holland ended up locked in the incinerator just as it was being fired up. The final scene was a flashback, showing a woman questioning a congressman in Washington, DC, about possible retaliation after the US dropped a dirty bomb on Iran. And that brings us to S3. Per the official premise:

Season three of Silo continues the saga of a dystopian society of 10,000 people living underground under mysterious circumstances, while revealing an origin story set centuries earlier. In the present, Juliette Nichols (Ferguson) survives her forced ‘cleaning’ but returns with memory loss as the silo recovers from rebellion and faces a dangerous new threat. Meanwhile, in the ‘Before Times,’ journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick) and Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) uncover a conspiracy that pulls them into a chain of events with catastrophic, irreversible consequences.

In addition to Ferguson, returning cast members include Common as head of security Robert Sims; Harriet Walter as agoraphobic electrical engineer Martha; Avi Nash as IT systems analyst Lukas; Rick Gomez as maintenance worker Patrick; Chinaza Uche as chief deputy Paul Billings; Shane McRae as Knox; Remmie Milner as Shirley; Alexandria Riley as Camille Sims; Clare Perkins as Carla; Billy Postlethwaite as Deputy Hank;  and Steve Zahn as Jimmy Connor/"Solo,” sole survivor of the Silo 17 rebellion. In addition to Henwick and Zukerman, other new cast members include Laura Innes, Jessica Brown Findlay, Morven Christie, Reed Birney, Matt Craven, and Colin Hanks.

Coming to an end

The trailer opens with a flashback to Juliette's rescue from the incinerator; apparently, she was in that "box of fire" for three minutes. (There is no sign of Holland.) And three months later, she still has no memories "other than those you've given her," although she does occasionally get "splinters of memories." We also catch a glimpse of a mysterious note urging "Don't take the pills"—advice she doesn't seem to have taken.

It all matters because Juliette is the only inhabitant who has ever gone outside and survived. And it seems the silo residents might not have much time left. "If the founders cared so much, why do they need to kill a silo?" Juliette asks, while Camille worries that even asking such questions will get them all killed. Juliette has a plan to protect everyone, but it just might cost her life. And then we go far into the past, watching scores of people entering what looks like a new silo. "The end of the world cannot be stopped," someone named Pierce tells Zukerman's Congressman. "It can only be survived."

The third season of Silo premieres on Apple TV on July 3, 2026, with new episodes airing every Friday through September 4. It has already been renewed for a fourth and final season.

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Yes. Running government like a business has always been a terrible idea.