The Best Tech Newsletters to Subscribe to

I have a renewed love for email.

After having mistakenly outsourced my reading curation to (seemingly untrustworthy) social tools, I have wrestled back control and I am convinced that, at present, human curation is better in choosing the best stories for me to read. There may be tools involved in this process. For example I still use tools like Nuzzel, Pocket and Feedly, but I still believe in the human art of picking.

In order to decide what to read with my increasingly limited time, I subscribed and unsubscribed from a heap to get down to my favourite few newsletters. In order to help you, I have picked out the very best newsletters that not only choose the most newsworthy articles in tech but also provide excellent commentary on the tech news of the day. As I said before, I am convinced that reading curated emails will give you a better read of what’s going on in the world of tech than any other route. If there are others that you recommend then please let me and others know in the comments below. Apologies for the shameless plug!

tl;dr: make sure you're using nuzzel, pocket and feedly efficiently, sign up for the weeklies below, pick one or two dailies and the niche ones you are interested in.

The Best Weekly Newsletters about Technology

If you only want the highlights of the week, these are the ones that you need to subscribe to. They will keep you updated on the important issues without giving you information overload.

Benedict’s Newsletter (Ben Evans) – I like Ben’s newsletter a lot. He points you to the articles that he has written as well as to the best from Andreessen Horowitz. But what makes it great is the commentary on the stories of the hour. It's the last email I would unsubscribe from. Sign up here

Exponential View (Azeem Azhar) – Azeem manages to bring together some of the most important reading around tech, AI and society into his much lauded weekly. He also brings in some highly reputable guest editors giving a uniqueness that others can’t giving you some deep tech reading to keep you going for a week. Sign up here

Mobile Fix (Simon Andrews) The only email to read on a Friday morning is the one from Simon. It's billed as coverage of media and social, but it's broader than that, thoughtful in its approach. Simon is agency side so it's refreshing to hear different view. Sign up here

Box of Amazing (Rahim Hirji) How could this list be complete without Box of Amazing? ;> Covering emerging tech & trends with everything in between from robotics to AI, drones, autonomous vehicles to cryptocurrency, DNA privacy to AR/VR, cyborgs to 3D printed blood Sign up here  

Daily Briefing Technology Emails

You obviously don't need to sign up to a multitude of daily briefing emails but I have tried to give you a flavour of what is available. Pick a couple - and let me know if you agree.

Stratechery (Ben Thompson) - Strategy within the tech/media industry from Ben. You have to pay for it but it's my must read for the day. The uniqueness of this proposition is that the commentary really does try to break down the strategy of what companies like GAFA are doing. More than ten friends have signed up for this in the last year and haven't regretted it. (I should get some commission or something!) The monthly podcast is also awesome. Sign up here

Fully Charged (Bloomberg Technology) - a stream of editors at Bloomberg are discerning about what's important for you to read. They also pick the most important story of the day and do a two paragraph summary of the implications. Good journalism doesn't get much better than this. Sign up here

Techmeme Newsletter (Gabe Rivera) - Techmeme is somewhat akin to the founding father of tech news curation and their new newsletter brings the best views together on a single subject from various sources to give a balanced view. It's my new favourite email, post-GDPR. Sign up here

Recode Daily (Recode) Recode do a similar job to what Bloomberg doing, but there tastes are a little wider in the five or so recommended stories and where they pull from. The writing is tight - and the email is short. Sign up here

Data Sheet from Fortune (Adam Lashinsky) - covers the business end of the tech industry. If that's what you are looking for, Data Sheet is awesome. Sign up here

Axios Login (Ina Fried) - industry briefing on the tech industry. Axios is a relatively new brand in news. The writing is fresh and free from bias, especially in this daily from Ina. Sign up here

The Download (Jamie Condliffe) This is MIT Technology Review’s daily dose on what’s up in emerging technology. Each email contains a handful of the top stories in in summary with ten links to “other fascinating things” Sign up here

CB Insights (Anand Sanwal) - good analysis of one main technology topic of the day. Data, with sharp wit to boot. Each email is signed with “I love you”. Sign up here

Mattermark Daily (Ashley Riley) - daily digest of timely, must-read posts by investors and operators within the tech industry. Sign up here

Intelligent Digital (PWC) - If summaries are all you want, pulling from the traditional press, then PWC's round up is probably good enough for you. It won't keep you ahead of the game, but it certainly will keep you in the game when keeping up to date with digital. 

The Sizzle (Anthony Agius) - For $5 a month, Agius sends you a weekday email curated into ten tech stories, weaving together the best articles. It's got some Aussieness thrown in, but everyone loves some shrimp on the barbie. Sign up here  

Wired Awake (Wired UK) - Wired needs no introduction, but it's newsletter does. It is short, sent early hours UK time, so it's capture the best from the US the night before and what's going on in Asia and also surfaces some of its own articles. Very accessible if you need a quick email. Sign up here

Ten Things in Tech you need to know today (Business Insider) - a simple ten story list linking to the news BI think you need to know. If you are not in the industry, then I would sign up for this. The only downside is that it only links to its own news which could be perceived as good or bad, depending on who you are. Sign up here

Recharged (Owen Williams) - For $9 a month you get a clean and crisp summary of the news from Owen who has built out his weekly into a daily. It's well written and worth the investment. Sign up here

Best Daily Technology Podcasts

Hey, did you know that podcasts have taken over? Essentially, you can have your own radio show, but the best ones are the ones that are produced. So, as a supplement to your tech news by mail, my two favoured ones are below, but feel free to send me your recommendations. I listen at 1.5x, because that's the limit of speed of my brain.

WSJ tech news briefing (Tanya Bustos) The tech news briefing is all you really need to get that quick view of what's going one and Bustos takes one story from the Wall Street Journal and does a deep dive with the journalist who wrote the piece. Sign up here

Techmeme Ride Home (Brian McCullough) everyone knows techmeme as a collation of the best tech links on the net. This daily podcast comes at the beginning of my day rather than on my ride home but is a weaving together of the best stories referring to the best writing if you want to follow up. Sign up here

Other Newsletters I Enjoy

There are hundreds, if not thousands of email newsletters. I'm not trying to avert your goal of inbox zero but some of the following, while not fully tech specific are worth your time and attention, especially if you have an interest in and around the tech industry. To be honest, technology is affecting us all, so you should be thinking about it!

The best general news email is Next Draft by Dave Pell who is a one man machine, crafting a calculated mix of the most important and the most fascinating. I read it (nearly) every day. The other one that I think gives a good global flavour is the Quartz Daily Brief. Whether you need to deep read or not, you can get a flavour of what's going on in thirty seconds every morning.

Axios have a heap of newsletters tailored to lots of niches. My favourite of the bunch is the Future of Work by Steve LeVine, reporting how robots and AI are affecting out daily lives. There's also Pro Rata a newsletter on VC. Inside do something similar to Axios but do a deep dive on specific niches, so if you are interested in Drones, there's an email for you. If you're interested in Google, there's one for you - everything from bitcoin to Apple, Trump to Cannabis, there's an email for each.

In some ways, Asia and what's going on in places like China, Korea, India and elsewhere is way more interesting and, sometimes more advanced than what's going on in the West. Asia Tech Review from Jon Russell surfaces the best stories from all over the region. Anjali Ramachandran covers stories in a different way with her newsletter Other Valleys - covering tech and innovation in developing markets.

If you really want to get your head round all the comings and goings of artificial intelligence, then I can recommend ImportAI written by Jack Clark. He does a great job of breaking it down for people like me. It's the best and most accessible of the AI newsletters. A good alternative is the news briefing from CognitionX you get a flavour of all things AI and some stories that push the boundaries a little. And, if those two aren't enough AI, then the InsideAI newsletter is the icing on the cake. For all things blockchain, I'd go with Blockchain Weekly. If you are in the VC/PE/ startup space it's always useful keeping up with what Fred Wilson, Thomas Tunguz and Brad Feld are saying as well as understanding all the deals from tech.eu - especially if you are in Europe. For Blockchain, I recommend Chain Letter, Crypto Insider and Crypto Confidential.

Some final recommendations include Media Redef covering media, tech and popular cultures, Hacker Newsletter for some deep tech recommendations, Tech Alert from IEEE Spectrum with the best of robotics, energy and science and Scott Stanchak's newsletter which covers tech but always with a sporting spin to it. My secret to looking smart is to read Notes by Ada by Rohan Rajiv. It's a brilliant break down of technology and helps me understand some of the more complicated subjects in detail - e.g. quantum computing. I also recommend The Conversation, which brings the best of independent view from academia.

Since writing this piece, I was reminded of a few that I had missed off including Good News from Future Crunch, Breaking Smart, Founders Grid, and some less technology focused emails but equally good from Kevin Rose and Sunday Dispatches from Paul Jarvis. The others which were recommended multiple times were Finimize (finance), Morning Brew (business), the Hustle (Daily News), PRSUIT (mindset) and the Skimm (for the ladies).

There were more that didn't make the list and I have culled my list to a select few from the above, but my tastes may be different to yours. I am always interested in hearing about other newsletters? Have I missed any obvious favourites? Have you got any suggestions? Let me know in the comments.