should have more time to work on a deal with TikTok. TikToks legal team cited a similar concern in its requests for a delay of the ban. The brief also cites Trumps dealmaking experience and his social media platform Truth Social. President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Governmentconcerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged, Sauer writes. Trumps stance on a TikTok is much different from the one he took in his first term, when he pursued a ban of the app in 2020 . He also floated the idea that Microsoft could work out a deal, an appropriate deal, so the Treasury of the United States gets a lot of money without explaining exactly how such a deal would work. President Trump reversed his opinion on a TikTok ban during his second campaign. He told CNBCs Squawk Box in March that banning TikTok would make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the ban on January 10. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...35703094.html?src=rss

in 2024 that led to the displacement of millions. The report recorded a total of 219 events from 2024 that met its trigger criteria for identifying impactful weather events. Many of the events were influenced by the natural climate pattern known as El Nio (which has only become stronger under the effects of climate change) but the WWA studies found that climate change played a bigger role than El Nio in fueling these events, including the historic drought in the Amazon. Climate change added on an average 41 additional dangerous heat days and fueled record-breaking rain and flooding across the globe. A study of 16 floods found all but one of them were caused by warming atmospheres that retained more moisture leading to heavier rainfall. These climate conditions can also fuel bigger and deadlier hurricanes and typhoons such as the Helene, the Category 4 Hurricane that hit America in September. North Carolinas Office of State Budget and Management estimates that Helene caused $53.8 billion in damage in its state alone. Two of the worlds most important ecosystems were also hit hard by climate change in 2024, according to the WWA report. The Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal Wetland, the largest tropical wetland in the world, experienced severe droughts and wildfires that created huge biodiversity loss in the past year. Both areas are critical for maintaining the strength of the Earths ecosystems, climate and economies. The Amazons plant life removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and releases water into the atmosphere that helps control the climate and circulate ocean currents. The Pantanal Wetland houses tens of thousands of species of wildlife and provides much needed flood control for the region and creates global economic activity for cattle ranching and soy production, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The WWAs report set some critical resolutions for 2025 to combat the rising influence of climate change. The report calls for a faster shift away from fossil fuel usage, improvements in early warning systems for extreme weather events, a greater focus on reporting of heat related deaths and financing for developing countries and regions hit hardest by the effects of climate change. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...rc=rss

cybersecurity crisis to sell more licenses. It adds more detail to reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times in November about an FTC probe into the Windows maker. The publications said Microsofts competitors complained that its bundling of its popular software with cloud services made it harder to compete. ProPublica says FTC attorneys have recently interviewed and scheduled meetings with Microsofts competitors. Microsoft confirmed to ProPublica that the FTC issued a civil investigative demand (essentially a subpoena), forcing the company to hand over information related to the case. A Microsoft spokesperson told the publication without providing on-the-record examples that the FTC document is broad, wide ranging, and requests things that are out of the realm of possibility to even be logical. The investigation follows a separate ProPublica report from November about how Microsoft appeared to exploit a series of cyberattacks to sell more licenses to the US government. Following a meeting with President Biden in the summer of 2021, the company was said to have offered to upgrade the governments existing bundles (including Windows and its Office suite) to a more expensive version that added its advanced cybersecurity products. Microsoft also sent consultants to install the upgrades and train employees to use them. Many divisions of the US government accepted including all of the Defense Departments military services and then began paying for the more expensive bundles after the trial ended. (The hassle of switching to a different cybersecurity product after the trial ended practically guaranteed that would be the case.) ProPublicas account essentially paints Microsoft as exploiting a cybersecurity crisis to expand sales and pad its bottom line. Just late-stage capitalism things, yall. Microsoft Ironically, the sales tactic resulted from security lapses from you guessed it Microsoft. Bidens request from Big Tech leaders to boost government cybersecurity followed the SolarWinds attack that exploited a vulnerability in a Microsoft identity service . The company reportedly knew the app contained a security nightmare that let hackers spoof legitimate employees and probe sensitive information without raising suspicion. But patching the flaw would add friction to government logins when the company was competing for US contracts. Microsoft reportedly opted to stay mum instead of risk losing business. According to experts who spoke to ProPublica , the government trial sales scheme could have violated regulations on contracting and competition. The publication reported that even Microsofts attorneys worried the deal would spark antitrust concerns. If this sounds familiar, it echoes the governments 1998 antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Bundling was also a star of that show, with the FTC accusing the company of engaging in anticompetitive practices by including Internet Explorer with Windows, a move viewed in those early days of the internet as stifling rivals like Netscape . This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...-bundling-193545163.html?src=rss

page , the company says "you may have trouble starting cloud games or be unexpectedly disconnected from a game after it begins." We are aware users may be experiencing issues launching Cloud Gaming titles. We appreciate your patience, and please watch here or on our status page for updates. https://t.co/kQKp1MgssY Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) December 26, 2024 Microsoft acknowledged that Xbox Cloud Gaming was having issues on Thursday, and followed-up today by saying that "users may see an incorrectly high wait time when attempting to launch a cloud gaming title," but that the company expects everyone to be able to connect faster than that. It's not clear if that means the issue is fixed, in the process of being resolved or what the problem was in the first place, but Engadget has contacted the company for information and will update if we learn more. Xbox Cloud Gaming has experienced outages in the past , but any kind of hiccup with the service hits harder in light of Microsoft's "This is an Xbox" marketing push, which made the ability to stream Xbox games basically anywhere a core benefit of using the company's platform. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...4-hours-190625047.html?src=rss

may even touch on that surprising cliffhanger. For the uninitiated, Severance is a sci-fi take on work/life balance in which certain employees at a shadowy corporation sever their work selves from their regular selves. This results in a harrowing, and occasionally hilarious, treatise about human identity and the lengths our corporate overlords will go to make a buck. Its very good. Best of all? Newbies wont have to wait three full years to watch season two. Apple TV+ also just posted a bunch of images to social media that heavily imply its planning on a free weekend of sorts for non-subscribers, scheduled for January 4 and 5. The images are all tagged with slogans like see for yourself and save the date. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/ph7k2Wh75G Apple TV (@AppleTV) December 26, 2024 If true, this would be a mighty fine way to check out Apples impressive slate of sci-fi originals without ponying up for a subscription. The streamer has become the de facto home of sci-fi in recent years, airing standout programs like Severance , Silo , Foundation and For All Mankind , among many others. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...rance-season-two-181627223.html?src=rss

they hold up against the competition, and at least two people weigh in on every score before it's published. If something gets a result of 80 and up, it's considered a "Recommended" product, while those scoring 90 are awarded "Editors' Choice." The latter means they're the best in their class, beating out most of the competition. Since we have to be very judicious about what we review (there's only so much time in the world), most of the gadgets we call in are from established companies with a track record of making things people will actually consider buying. That's the main reason most of our scores sit between 80 and 90, though we still test the occasional device that ends up getting a number below 70. As we look back on the year in gadgets, here are the 12 highest-scored reviews we published. Unsurprisingly, they're mostly of Apple and Google products, with a smattering of cameras and drones. I'm also including some honorable mentions for good measure, as well as a pair of the lowest-rated devices all year. May we have only excellent gadgets to review next year, and may there be less e-waste all around. Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL I'm honestly shocked. For the first time in years, we've given a Google phone a higher score than an iPhone in the same year. Maybe it has something to do with Gemini AI launching earlier than Apple Intelligence, or the fun colors and solid build of the Pixel 9 Pro series . But as I discussed the scores with our reviewer Mat Smith, a few things added up. Arguably the biggest advantage Google has over Apple this year is battery life the Pixel 9 Pros generally last about two days on a charge, while the iPhone 16 Pro series typically clocks just around 20 hours. We also love Google's cameras and the bright, smooth displays. The gorgeous palette of pastel color options is just icing on a satisfying cake, with Gemini AI bringing a tasty side treat. DJI Avata 2 Though there is looming concern over DJI's longevity in the US , the company has otherwise had a relatively successful 2024. This year saw many DJI products scoring more than 90 in our database, which makes sense as they are arguably the best drone maker around. Steve was most impressed by the Avata 2 , though, thanks to its great video quality and maneuverability for a lower price than its predecessor. It even has better battery life, to boot. iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max Apple Intelligence wasn't available when the iPhone 16 series launched and only recently rolled out , so our review score might still change, But as it is, and after months of using the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max in my daily life, I stand by my evaluation. Though there's a lot to like about Apple's latest flagships, I was just so disappointed by the relatively poor battery life that I could not score it higher than the Pixel 9 Pro series. This is more noticeable on the iPhone 16 Pro, though, as the Pro Max generally lasts a few more hours than its smaller counterpart. I also wish the generative-AI features were ready for the public at the time of my review , but now that I've spent more time with Genmoji, Image Playground and notification summaries, I'm pretty sure my verdict remains the same. These Apple Intelligence features are fun, but not game-changing, and with or without them the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are still the best options for anyone on iOS. Canon EOS R5 II We've got a slew of reviews by Steve on this list, mostly for products in cameras and drones that ranked well in their categories. As a Canon girl myself, I was happy to see the EOS R5 II get such a good rating, especially since competition has been heating up. Sadly, the EOS R5 II also heats up when shooting high-res video, but on pretty much every other aspect, it performs respectably. According to Steve, this camera "puts Sony on notice," and I'm glad to see it. Sony A9 III Reviewed much earlier in the year, the Sony A9 III caught Steve's attention for its speedy global shutter, which brought fast and accurate autofocus. It also delivered smooth, high-quality video in a body with excellent handling thanks to Sony's comfortable new grip. Steve also loved the viewfinder, and though it's very expensive at $6,000, the A9 III is a solid product that holds the title of " fastest full-frame camera " at least, until something faster comes along. DJI Air 3S and DJI Neo What lightweight $200 drone shoots good 1080p video but also screams like a banshee? That would be the DJI Neo , which, despite Steve's evocative description, is something I'm considering buying for myself. Not only is it reasonably priced, but it also promises to capture smooth aerial footage at a respectable resolution. Steve also found it beginner-friendly, which is important for a lousy pilot like me. And sure, maybe I'll scare some wildlife or neighbors with its loud screeching, but maybe that's part of the fun? If you want something that can avoid people or obstacles and deliver cinematic shots, the DJI Air 3S is a solid option thanks to its LiDAR and larger camera sensor, both of which improve performance and obstacle-detection in low light. You'll have to pay about five times the Neo's cost, of course, but aspiring Spielbergs might find that price worthwhile. MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2024) and MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024) I'm not surprised that the only laptops to make it to this list are this year's M4 MacBook Pros . Apple has demonstrated over the last few years that its M-series processors deliver excellent performance and battery life, and it's continued to prove its point in 2024. This year's model features brighter screens and improved webcams, as well as slight bumps in RAM and storage. I'm a Windows user, but even I have to admit that what Apple is doing with the MacBooks is something that Microsoft and all its partners on the PC side have struggled to fully replicate. ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) What PC makers do excel at is power and creativity. When it's not experimenting with dual-screen laptops, ASUS is pushing out capable gaming laptops in its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand. This year, our reviewer Sam Rutherford's top-scored product is the ROG Zephyrus G14 , which he declared "the 14-inch gaming laptop to beat." Sam hasn't given out a higher score at all this year, so it stands to reason we have yet to see a gaming notebook steal that crown. The Zephyrus G14 won Sam over with its beautiful OLED screen, attractive yet subtle design and generous array of ports. Though he's not a fan of its soldered-in RAM and ASUS' Armoury Crate app, Sam still found plenty to like, calling it "both pound for pound and dollar for dollar the best choice around." Honorable mention: reMarkable Paper Pro There are plenty of products that might have received the same score as the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and iPhone 16 Pro, but we have to cut the list somewhere. It's worth mentioning that other devices we awarded a score of 91 include the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 , the Analogue Duo , the Fujifilm X100 VI and the iPad Air (2024) . And when it comes to things that got 90 points, we've got the base iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus , the Apple Watch Series 10 , NVIDIA's RTX 4070 Super graphics card , the Meta Quest 3S headset, as well as appliances like Ninja's Creami ice-cream maker . But I wanted to shout out Daniel Cooper's review of the reMarkable Paper Pro . It's a gadget that's brought back waves of nostalgia and sentimentality in a time when we're all tired of constantly being wired in. It's one of the highest-rated products of its kind, not only because it's a capable writing tablet, but also because it is a color e-paper tablet that has a bigger screen and faster performance than its monochrome predecessor. At $580 to start, it's certainly a significant investment, but one that might free us from feeling chained to our laptops and phones. Worst products we reviewed this year: Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 In all my 8-plus years at Engadget, I can only remember one other time we've awarded anything a sub-60 score, and that was when Fisher-Price's Sproutling wearable baby monitor gave our editor's baby an eczema outbreak. The Sproutling got an appropriately all-time low score of 41, and this year, the Rabbit R1 broke that bottom when Devindra decided it deserved only 40 points. The Rabbit R1 first made waves at CES 2024 , when it showed up out of nowhere and enticed many of us with its cute looks and bright orange color. Its Teenage Engineering heritage was even more alluring, and we all wanted to try out the Playdate-esque scroll wheel for ourselves. The square device also came with an onboard camera, two microphones, rotating camera and a 2.88-inch display. But its biggest promise was, as with everything in 2024, all about AI. And with many things in 2024, the AI promise fell flat. Rabbit made bold claims about its "large action model," but in actuality, at the time of our review, the R1 could barely execute tasks to completion. Instead of letting you easily make orders via DoorDash, for example, it would "often deliver the weather when I asked for traffic," according to Devindra's review. Worse, "sometimes it would hear my request and simply do nothing." Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget I had a similarly frustrating experience when testing the much-hyped Humane AI Pin . It was a shiny chrome square that you could attach to your clothes and interact with either by voice, touch or via a futuristic-looking projector that beamed a display onto your palm. You were supposed to be able to simply talk to the Humane AI assistant to get it to remember things for and about you, eventually coming to rely on it like a second brain. Instead, we got a hot mess. Quite literally. The Humane AI Pin would frequently run so hot that it would stop working, with the device saying it needed to cool down for a bit before you could use it again. When it did work, it was barely smart enough to answer questions, and though the projector was cool visually, using it to do anything was frustrating and just led to sore arms and crossed eyes. Not only did it not do enough to justify the effort involved in using it, the Humane AI Pin also cost $700 way too much for a product this finicky. It gets worse (or better, depending on how you're reading this). Shortly after it was widely criticized by reviewers in April, leaked internal documents showed that people appeared to be returning the AI Pins faster than the company was selling them. In October, Humane had to issue a recall for its charging case due to overheating , with the Consumer Product Safety Commission saying it posed "a fire hazard." I gave the Humane AI Pin a score of 50 in my review, in large part due to the intriguing projector display. Right now, though, it seems these AI gadgets are, at best, struggling to take hold. At worst, they're on fire. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

low. Although the Beats Studio Pro doesnt look starkly different from the Studio 3 Wireless it replaced, it adds subtle aesthetic touches like new colors, a tone-on-tone finish and UltraPlush memory foam (wrapped in leather) earpads. Of course, you still get the brands iconic lower-case b logo on each earpiece. But the biggest changes are on the inside. Using Beats second-gen audio chip and new 40mm drivers with a two-layer diaphragm, micro vents and acoustic mesh, they have improved clarity and a more balanced profile than the Studio 3 Wireless. Although Beats was once known for overpowering bass at the expense of mids, highs and clarity, thats no longer the case. Engadgets audio guru, Billy Steele, found that the cans produced even-handed tuning and attention to precision once unheard of in the brands pre-Apple days. The Studio Pro also has Spatial Audio , familiar to anyone whos used Apples recent AirPods. (Bose also added its equivalent in its Ultra line.) The technology simulates 64 speakers around you, creating a more distinct separation between instruments and voices. You can choose between head-tracked and fixed modes, too. However, the digital trickerys effectiveness can vary depending on the track, ranging from breathing new life into old tracks to hardly providing a noticeable difference in some other genres. The headphones also let you listen to high-resolution and lossless music via USB-C wired listening up to 24-bit / 48kHz. They also have a transparency mode, up to 40 hours of listening with ANC off (or around 24 hours with ANC or transparency mode on) and a fast-fuel feature that gives you four hours of playback after just a 10-minute charge. If ANC isnt your priority, you may want to look at the cheaper Beats Solo 4, also on sale. Offering better sound quality and longer battery life over the Solo 3, this 2024 model is on sale at Amazon for $100 half off. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...l?src=rss

Instagram. I open the app and Im greeted by an ad for bidets. I start scrolling. Between each of the first three posts at the top of my feed is a different ad: lingerie, squat-friendly jorts, shoes from a brand selling items that appear to be dropshipped from AliExpress at a markup. Then, thankfully, two memes back to back. I fire off the funny one to five of my friends in a way that feels obligatory. After that, another ad, then a bunch of seemingly off-target Reels from accounts I dont even follow. Minutes pass before I encounter a post by someone I know in real life. Oh yeah, its time to turn off suggested posts again, something I have to do every 30 days or my feed will be filled with random crap. But before I get a chance to do that, Im distracted by a Reel of a cat watching The Grinch. Then by a Reel of a guy with a tiny chihuahua in his coat pocket. Curiosity gets the better of me and I open the comments, where people are angrily writing that the dog must be suffocating. Oh no . I scroll to the next Reel, a video Ive seen several times before of a rooster marching around in a pair of pants. Below, everyones fighting about whether its cruel to put pants on a chicken. Is it? Next, a video of a girl doing her makeup, where men are commenting that this should be considered catfishing. Deep sigh . I realize 30 minutes have somehow passed and I close Instagram, now in a worse mood than when I opened it. Ill compulsively return in an hour or so, rinse and repeat. Its not just an Instagram problem. On TikTok (which may or may not get shut down in the US very soon), the For You page has me figured out pretty well contentwise and the presence of toxic commenters is minimal, but every other post is either sponsored or hawking a product from the TikTok Shop. And its too easy to get sucked into the perpetual scroll. I often avoid opening the app at all just because I know Ill end up getting trapped there for longer than I want to, watching videos about nothing made by people I dont know and never will. But it still happens more frequently than Id like to admit. These days, it feels like every gathering place on the internet is so crowded with content thats competing for and successfully grabbing our attention or trying to sell us something that theres barely any room for the social element of social media. Instead, were pushed into separate corners to stare at the glowing boxes in our hands alone. Fittingly, Oxford announced at the end of November that its Word of the Year for 2024 is brain rot, a term that expresses the supposed consequence of countless hours spent on the internet consuming stupid stuff. Just as fitting, Australias Macquarie Dictionary chose enshittification, which describes how the platforms and products we love get ruined over time as the companies behind them chase profits. (It was also The American Dialect Society s 2023 Word of the Year). Social media platforms were in theory designed around ideas of friendship and connection, but whats playing out on them today couldnt feel further from genuine human interaction. Facebook if you even have an account still might be where youd go if you really wanted to see updates from family and other people you know IRL, but its UI has become so cluttered with recommended Reels and products that it feels unusable. Twitter, where it was once fun to keep up with live discourse around major events or fandom happenings, no longer exists, and X, its new form under Elon Musk, is filled with bots and political propaganda . On the other hand, Threads, an offshoot of Instagram and Metas answer to Twitter/X, took off this year and it quickly became a hotspot for copy-paste engagement bait, a problem so bad that Adam Mosseri has publicly acknowledged it . The Threads team has apparently been working to get it under control, but I still cant scroll through my For You feed without seeing a dozen posts that are either just regurgitated memes being passed off as original thoughts, or questions to the masses that are crafted with the intention of stirring the pot. The same feed is otherwise dominated by viral videos that are ripped off from other creators without credit and pop culture commentary that almost always devolves into sex- and genderism. I often step away from Threads feeling the need to go scream in a field. Threads doesnt have DMs, meaning all conversations take place in public. It finally gave users the ability to create custom feeds around searchable topics in November, but those topic pages are generally still riddled with bait-style posts, just more subject-specific versions. Thats meant so far that its been pretty hard to find communities to authentically connect with. It all feels so impersonal. It doesnt help that Threads Following feed currently isnt the default view and theres no way to change that ( though Threads recently began testing the option ). And at the end of the day, its 275 million or so monthly active users doesnt include all that many people I actually know, especially outside of the media industry. The same goes for fediverse social networks like Mastodon and Bluesky, which are far less populated but have a cliquier feel. Visiting those platforms feels like walking into a room full of people who all know each other really well, and realizing youre the odd one out. But at least Bluesky nor Mastodon arent poorly veiled shopping experiences. (Threads isnt at the moment, either, but ads are reportedly coming ). Maybe it all comes down to burnout in the era of excessive consumption, but lately Ive found myself wishing for a place on the internet that feels both inviting and human . Im sure Im not alone. In recent years, weve seen alternative social apps pop up like BeReal, Hive and the Myspace-reminiscent entrants SpaceHey and noplace , all aiming to bring character and interpersonal connection back into social media. But none have quite cracked the code for lasting mainstream adoption. Discord and even Reddit to some extent address the same person-to-person need, yet they share more in common with proto social media chatrooms and forums than with the sites that sprung up during the social heyday. Meanwhile, Meta is increasingly pushing AI across its apps. Just this summer we got the chatbot-maker, AI Studio, which Meta touted not only as a way for users to create AI characters, but for creators to build an AI as an extension of themselves to reach more fans. Rather than talk to your real friends or make new ones around a common interest, you can deepen your parasocial relationship with celebrities, influencers and fictional characters by chatting with the AI versions of them. Or, pick from several AI girlfriends you can now find in the menu of your DMs. Weve completely lost the plot, I fear. Ive started dipping back into Tumblr here and there, if only to see a less chaotic, more curated feed and relish in the reminder of how fun customization can be. A few friends have mentioned that theyve been doing the same. But given the platforms past policy upheavals and its current AI partnerships , its not exactly an online oasis either. As if on cue, I was recently served a mock Tumblr poster during my evening scroll that felt uncannily apt: we didnt get better. the rest of the internet just got worse. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...l?src=rss

become an enduring company, OpenAI said, adding that many of its competitors are registered as PBCs, including Anthropic and even Elon Musks own xAI . [The move] would enable us to raise the necessary capital with conventional terms like others in this space. As part of the transformation, OpenAIs nonprofit division would retain a stake in the for-profit unit in the form of shares at a fair valuation determined by independent financial advisors, but would lose direct oversight of the company. Our plan would result in one of the best resourced non-profits in history, claims OpenAI. Following the reorganization, the for-profit division would be responsible for overseeing OpenAIs operations and business, while the nonprofit arm would operate separately with its own leadership team and a focus on charitable efforts in health care, education and science. OpenAI did not state whether CEO Sam Altman would receive an equity stake as part of the restructuring. Last year, OpenAIs board of directors briefly fired Altman before bringing him back, in the process sparking the institutional crisis that led to this weeks announcement. According to some estimates , OpenAIs for-profit arm could be worth as much as $150 billion. In 2019, OpenAI estimated it would need to raise at least $10 billion to build artificial general intelligence. In October, the company secured $6 billion in new funding . The hundreds of billions of dollars that major companies are now investing into AI development show what it will really take for OpenAI to continue pursuing the mission, OpenAI said. We once again need to raise more capital than wed imagined. Investors want to back us but, at this scale of capital, need conventional equity and less structural bespokeness. Despite this weeks announcement, OpenAI is likely to face multiple roadblocks in implementing its plan. In addition to its ongoing legal feud with Elon Musk, Meta recently sent a letter to Californias attorney general urging him to stop OpenAI from converting to a for-profit company, saying the move would be wrong and could lead to a proliferation of similar start-up ventures that are notionally charitable until they are potentially profitable. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ....html?src=rss

into the companys ecosystem. The finding network is vast and comprehensive, which really helps when it comes time to actually find one of these tags. Just think of all of those AirTags, iPhones and other devices out there in the world helping to create this network. These trackers can also tap into the ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless protocol, which creates a sort of game out of finding a lost item in the home. As long as the object is within 25 feet of your smartphone, the screen will display directional arrows and a distance meter. This lets you zero in on the object without having to constantly ring the AirTag. Now onto the caveats. AirTags really only work with iPhones and other Apple devices, so Android users should keep shopping for something else. Also, the ringer only pings for seven seconds at a time, which can make finding something feel like a mad dash. Finally, theres no attachment point for connecting to a keychain or a related accessory. Luckily, there are all kinds of amazing AirTag accessories to get that job done. One recent case even comes with batteries that will power the tag for a full decade . Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...6138.html?src=rss

help people learn more about the world around them and is particularly handy for shopping, looking up details about a restaurant or business, translating written text, summarizing text or having something read aloud. It can also integrate with Google Image Search and ChatGPT. Are there any caveats? There are two caveats. The Apple Intelligence rollout has been something of a convoluted mess, and this trend continues with Visual Intelligence. For now, the tools only work with the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, which are the beefiest of the companys recent handsets . Apple has indicated that the feature could eventually become available for older models. Google Lens, after all, has been around since 2017 , which was when the Pixel 2 was the hottest handset on the block. Theres also a wait list, which is true of all Apple Intelligence features. To join the list, head to settings and look for Apple Intelligence & Siri. Then click on Join Waitlist. Once approved, the software will be ready to use. How to use Visual Intelligence As of this writing, the only way to launch Visual Intelligence is to long-press the Camera Control button. Thats the new control interface on the bottom right side of the handset. Once pressed, the Visual Intelligence interface will open up. Apple Now the fun begins. Just point your phone at something and select ChatGPT, via the bottom left icon, or Google Image Search, via the bottom right icon. Alternatively, if the visual field includes text, tap the circle at the bottom of the screen. The phone can also be pointed at a business to obtain useful information. How to interact with text Hover the phone in front of the text, activate Visual Intelligence and tap the circle at the bottom of the screen. This will analyze the text. Once analyzed, there are a few options. Tap Translate at the bottom of the screen to translate the text into another language. Tap Read Aloud if you want the text to be read aloud by Siri. Tap Summarize for a quick summary of the copy. The tool will also identify contact information in the text, like phone numbers, email addresses and websites. Users can take action depending on the type of text. For instance, tap on the phone number to give it a ring. Other actions include starting an email, creating a calendar event or heading to a website. Tap the More button to see all of the available options. Tap Close or swipe up to end the session. How to interact with a business Visual Intelligence can provide details about a business thats directly in front of you. Just open up the tool and point the camera in front of the signage. The name of the business should appear at the top of the screen. Tap Schedule to see the hours of operation or tap Order to buy something. View the menu or available services by tapping Menu and make a reservation by touching Reservation. To call the business, read reviews or view the website, tap More. Swipe up or tap Close to end the session. This feature is currently only available to US customers. What to do with ChatGPT Start by pointing the camera at an object. Activate Visual Intelligence and tap the ChatGPT icon on the bottom left side of the screen. Tap the Ask button for information about the object. We used it on a bottle of hand cream, which it properly identified. After that, a text field will appear for follow-up questions. Users can ask whatever they want, but results may vary. We asked ChatGPT where to buy the hand cream and how much it costs. It performed admirably at this task. Yay shopping. Engadget/Cherlynn Low Tap the "Close" button or swipe up to remove all fields, which will also shut down Visual Intelligence. What to do with Google Image Search Choosing Google Image Search will bring up a Safari dialog box that contains similar photos pulled from the web. A good use case here is finding deals. We took a photo of a bottle of hand cream and the Safari results had plenty of different price points to choose from. However, users have to find the best deal and complete a purchase on their own. Engadget/Cherlynn Low Tap the "Close" button to eliminate these results and then swipe up from the bottom of the screen to shut down the tool. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...ns-150039141.html?src=rss

past four in the afternoon the entirety of December and January. Thats to say this isnt a new phenomenon for me, but that hasnt made it any less painful. In fact, it has caused a feeling of dread that starts popping up come late September. But when I moved to Scotland, 4:30PM became nearly 3PM and the sun didnt fully rise until well after Id woken up. Even in London where Im now based, its easily dark by 4PM on the shortest days. Like most people, the darkness leaves me exhausted while taking a serious toll on my mental health. Now to the hero of this story: my SAD lamp. SAD stands for seasonal affective disorder , a depressive disorder triggered by the change of seasons (usually the darker days, though some people experience it in the summer). You by no means need to receive a SAD diagnosis to use a SAD lamp , bright light therapy lamp or wake-up lamp all names for the same thing. I bought Lumies Vitamin L bright light therapy lamp a few years ago ahead of my first Scottish winter and have used it every year since. The Vitamin L lamp is a slim rectangle that provides 5,000 lux at a foot away or 2,500 lux at about an arms length. The latter is the recommended distance for use or less how far it sits from me. Its just shy of eight inches wide with a length of 11 inches and a depth of just over three inches. It can stand in portrait or landscape orientation, too, though I find it doesnt balance very well in the latter. The light makes up the entire front panel and has a simple power button on the back. The lamp lives on the floor next to my kitchen table, where Ill prop it up nearly every morning while having breakfast or starting work. As a big fan of sleeping in, I rarely use it on the weekends unless Im getting up early to run somewhere and I typically forget or get busy in the morning at least one workday. But when I do have it on, Ill keep it shining at me from an angle for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how much time I have. Sarah Fielding / Engadget This light is far from an extra table lamp to add a little glow. Its a very I repeat for good measure very bright light. And yet, despite it practically being imitation sunlight, theres no UV rays to worry about. It really does wake me up just from how bright it is and the daily routine adds a nice structure to busy, cold mornings. Ive never received a SAD diagnosis but I do have a panic disorder that causes anxiety and bouts of depression, the latter of which is more prominent during these cold, dark days. I dont know how much of it is the lamp and how much is a placebo, but it really does help keep my negative feelings at bay and makes the dark days a bit more bearable. Overall, if you dread the darkness of the winter months as much as I do, I highly recommend trying this Lumie lamp or exploring one of the other options on the market. Just the habit of turning it on most days makes me feel like Im doing something to combat the dreariness. Plus, it really is hard to be tired when theres a bright light shining near you. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

for nearly 2.5 percent of US energy use. The Russian ban takes effect on January 1 and lasts until March 15, 2031. The currency has only been fully legal in Russia since November. Mat Smith Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The biggest tech stories you missed How to spend your $100 gift card after Christmas Engadget's Balatro of the year 2024 'Doctor Who: Joy to the World' review Squid Game will have a third (and final) season in 2025 Netflix released the second season yesterday. No, I dont know what cliffhanger shenanigans wrapped up season 2 (it just came out!), but you wont have to wait too long to see how it all concludes. The Netflix-owned blog Tudum announced that the South Korean drama will return for its third and final season next year. Continue reading. Engadget's Games of the Year 2024 From Animal Well to Vendetta Forever. Engadget After a bumper year in 2023, the last 12 months still offered plenty of amazing new releases. Whether you love a good indie or a big-budget production, there was something for you. And dont worry: we shifted our Balatro essays into their own dedicated story . Continue reading. LG found a new job for your standing lamp The "indoor gardening appliance" is a mood lighting and grow light all in one. LG The latest high-tech lamp from LG pulls double-duty as a plant pot. LG says the lamp with a circular lampshade shines LEDs in five different intensities on whichever plants you want to grow. Then, at night, the lights fire upwards to create cozy mood lighting. The taller, standing lamp can hold up to 20 plants at a time and you don't need to worry about watering. There's a 1.5-gallon tank built into the base of the lamp. Continue reading. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

like Demons Souls or the latest Final Fantasy installment. Even if youre a seasoned gamer, sometimes you just need a little inspiration to dive back into the console and discover new worlds. Whether youre after complex game modes that push your skills or just want a taste of that next-gen power, these PS5 games will give you plenty of reasons to keep your controller close. So, if youre ready for the ultimate adventure (or maybe just an excuse to escape for a while), weve got some suggestions that will keep the boredom at bay. Read more: The best SSDs for PS5 Best PS5 games for 2025 Check out our entire Best Games series including the best Nintendo Switch games , the best PS5 games , the best Xbox games , the best PC games and the best free games you can play today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

the deadly competition and convince the players to vote for the games to stop. Something tells me its not going to be that simple. The second season of Squid Game just landed today on Netflix after a three-year wait. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...025-192216881.html?src=rss

search the web, solve complex math and coding problems, as well as generate text, images and audio. As of the writing of this article, the current version of ChatGPT is based on OpenAIs GPT-4o and 4o mini models. In June 2024, Apple announced it was partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence. While some of ChatGPTs signature features are available directly within iOS, iPadOS and macOS, many, such as Advanced Voice Mode, can only be accessed through the ChatGPT app or the OpenAI website. Where can you use ChatGPT on your iPhone? Igor Bonifacic for Engadget On iPhone, ChatGPT is primarily available through three surfaces. First, Siri can turn to ChatGPT to answer your questions. In instances where Apples digital assistant determines ChatGPT can help it assist you better, it will ask you for your permission to share your request with OpenAI. You can also use ChatGPT to identify places and objects through the iPhone 16s Camera Control menu . Lastly, you can get ChatGPT's help when using Apple's new Writing Tools. Essentially, anytime youre typing with the iPhones built-in keyboard, including in first-party apps like Notes, Mail and Messages, ChatGPT can help you compose text. Finding this feature can be a bit tricky, so here's how to access it: Long press on a section of text to bring up iOS 18's text selection tool. Tap Writing Tools . You may need to tap the arrow icon for the option to appear. Select Compose . Tap Compose with ChatGPT , and write a prompt describing what you'd like ChatGPT to write for you. Do you need an OpenAI account to use ChatGPT on an iPhone? No, an OpenAI account is not required to use ChatGPT on iPhone. However, if you have a paid subscription, you can use ChatGPT features on your device more often. Signing into your account will also save any requests to your ChatGPT history. How to set up ChatGPT If your iPhone hasnt prompted you to enable ChatGPT already, you can manually turn on the extension by following these steps: Go to Settings . Tap Apple Intelligence & Siri . Tap ChatGPT , then select Set Up . Tap either Enable ChatGPT or Use ChatGPT with an Account . Select the latter if you have an OpenAI account. What Apple devices offer ChatGPT integration? An iPhone with Apple Intelligence is required to use ChatGPT. As of the writing of this article, Apple Intelligence is available on the following devices: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPad mini with A17 Pro iPad Air with M1 and later iPad Pro with M1 and later MacBook Air with M1 and later MacBook Pro with M1 and later iMac with M1 and later Mac mini with M1 and later Mac Studio with M1 Max and later Mac Pro with M2 Ultra This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

in 2024 can help us remember joyful times. LocalThunk You likely dont know the name LocalThunk, which is the handle of a Canadian game developer who has yet to share his real identity. You do, however, know his handywork. LocalThunk made a little game called Balatro , which has been the indie success story of the year. The massive cultural footprint of this game instantly put him on the Mount Rushmore of solo developers, alongside Daisuke Amaya ( Cave Story ), Markus Persson ( Minecraft ), Lucas Pope ( Papers, Please ) and Eric Barone ( Stardew Valley ), among others. Balatro which can justly be described as a wacky full-fledged sequel to poker came out back in February, and has since sold millions of copies across multiple platforms. It has popped up on numerous 2024 best-of lists and even nabbed a nomination for GOTY at The Game Awards . To call it a hit is something of an understatement. Balatro has become so popular that it has crossed over with other gaming franchises and inspired a physical deck of cards . LocalThunk is now, very likely, worth a whole lot of money. Good for him. He created something new that everyone wanted, a venture that took three years . Despite the similarities to poker, the developer is extremely committed to keeping Balatro pure and out of the hands of gambling platforms. He recently revealed that he created a will that stipulated that the IP never be sold or licensed to any gambling company or casino. I highly recommend checking out the game, which is available for both consoles and mobile devices. It will likely burn into your brain, leaving you unable to think or talk about anything else. Actually, wait until you have some time off work before giving it a download. Lawrence Bonk, contributing writer Bluesky After several months in an invitation-only beta, Bluesky finally ditched its waitlist and opened to everyone at the start of 2024. At the time, it had just over 3 million users, a handful of employees and a lot of ideas about how to build a better space for public conversations. Since then, the service has grown to more than 25 million users, including a number of celebrities, politicians and other prominent figures who were once active on X. Bluesky is still very much an underdog. Metas Threads has more than 10 times as many total users and far more resources. Even so, Bluesky has notched some significant wins. The open source service nearly tripled in size in the last few months of the year, thanks to a surge in new users following the election. The platform has also had an outsized influence when it comes to features, with Meta already copying unique ideas like starter packs and custom feeds . Bluesky isnt without issues it needs to come up with a better approach to verification for example but its still our best hope for an open, decentralized platform not controlled by a multibillion dollar advertising company. While Meta is reportedly preparing to point its ad machine at Threads and has already throttled the reach of political content, Blueskys leaders have made it clear they want to take a different approach. And while its hard to imagine Blueskys growth eclipsing Threads anytime soon, Bluesky feels more relevant than ever. Karissa Bell, senior reporter Sam Rutherford for Engadget Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold Weve seen so many competing designs on foldable phones over the years. Samsung started out with an inward folding hinge on the original Galaxy Fold and stuck with it as the Z Fold line has morphed into the long, skinny baton-like devices we have today. Then there were others like the Huawei Mate X which featured outward folding builds. More recently, companies have teased the first generation of gadgets with tri-folding displays . But after testing out Googles Pixel 9 Pro Fold this year, it feels like keeping things simple was the winning formula all along. Thats because instead of trying to create a foldable with a unique aspect ratio or screen size, Google basically took the exterior display from the standard Pixel 9 and then installed a flexible display almost exactly twice the size on the inside. So when its closed, you have a phone that looks, feels and operates just like a typical glass-brick but when opened can also expand to become a mini tablet. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold also has the best cameras on any foldable on sale today while not being much thicker or heavier than its more traditional siblings. But perhaps the biggest victory is just seeing how much of a jump in build quality and usability the Pro Fold offers over its predecessor without making any major sacrifices. I just wish it was a bit more affordable so more people could experience the magic of a big foldable phone. Sam Rutherford, senior reviewer AR Glasses For years, companies like Meta and Snap have hyped up the promise of augmented reality not just the animated selfie lenses and other effects we can see on our phones, but standalone hardware capable of overlaying information onto the world around us. But despite these promises, actual AR glasses felt just out of reach. This year, that finally started to change. Snap released its second pair of AR Spectacles , and Meta finally showed off its Orion AR glasses prototype. After trying out both, its easy to see why these companies have invested so much time and money on these projects. To be clear, both companies still have a lot of work ahead of them if they want their AR glasses to turn into a product their users will want to actually buy. Right now, the components are still too expensive, and the glasses are way too bulky (this is especially true for Snap, if the social media reactions to my selfies are any indication). But after years of hearing little more than lofty promises and sporadic research updates, we finally saw real progress. Snap has lined up dozens of developers, including Niantic, Lego and Industrial Light and Magic who are already building apps for AR. Meta is, for now, keeping its AR work internal, but its neural wristband which may be coming to a future pair of its RayBan-branded glasses feels like a game-changer for next-gen controllers. So while AR glasses arent ready to replace our phones just yet, its getting a lot easier to imagine a world in which they might. K.B. ASUS Zenbook Duo The classic clamshell with a screen up top and a physical keyboard down below isnt going away anytime soon. But this year, the Zenbook Duo showed that laptops still have plenty of room for improvement. Thats because after multiple attempts by various manufacturers to refine and streamline dual-screen laptops, ASUS finally put everything together into a single cohesive package with the Zenbook Duo. It packs not one but two 14-inch OLED displays with 120Hz refresh rates, solid performance, a surprisingly good selection of ports (including full-size HDMI) and a built-in kickstand. And weighing 3.6 pounds and measuring 0.78 inches at its thickest, it's not much bigger or heftier than more traditional rivals. You also get a physical keyboard, except this one connects wirelessly via Bluetooth and can be either placed on top of the lower screen like a normal laptop or moved practically anywhere you want. This allows the Zenbook Duo to transform into something like a portable all-in-one complete with two stacked displays, which are truly excellent for multitasking. And because the keyboard also charges wirelessly, you never have to worry about keeping it topped off. But the best part is that starting at $1,500, it doesnt cost that much more than a typical premium notebook either, so even when youre traveling you never have to be limited to a single, tiny display. S.R. DJI Neo DJIs tiny $200 Neo drone blew into the content creator market like a tornado. It was relatively cheap and simple to use, allowing beginners to create stunning aerial video at the touch of a button, while taking off and landing on their palms. At the same time, the Neo offered advanced features like manual piloting with a phone or controller, subject tracking and even impressive acrobatics. Weighing just 156 grams and equipped with people-safe propeller guards, DJIs smallest drone can be piloted nearly anywhere with no permit needed. And unlike Snaps Pixy drone , its far more than a toy.. It can fly at speeds up to 36 mph and perform tricks like flips and slides. It also offers reasonably high-quality 4K 30p video. All of that allows creators to track themselves when walking, biking or vlogging, adding high-quality aerial video that was previously inaccessible for most. There are some negative points. The Neo lacks any obstacle detection sensors, so you need to be careful when flying it to avoid crashes. Video quality isnt quite as good as slightly more expensive drones like the DJI Mini 3 . And the propeller noise is pretty offensive if you plan to operate it around a lot of people. Perhaps the biggest problem is that DJIs products might be banned in the US by 2026, even though it escaped that fate this year. For $200 , though, it offers excellent value and opens up new creative possibilities for content creators. Much like the companys incredibly popular Osmo Pocket 3 , the Neo shows how DJI is innovating in the creator space to a higher level than rivals like Sony or Canon. Steve Dent, contributing writer reMarkable Paper Pro reMarkables distraction-free writing slates have always offered an elegant alternative to other tablets. The second generation model is great, but the advent of the Paper Pro has highlighted where that device was lacking. Its certainly one of the best pieces of hardware Ive tested this year and, if I owned one, Id likely make it a key part of my daily workflow. The bigger display, faster internals and the fact it can now render colors elevates it above the competition. Its gone from a useful tool to an essential one, especially if you need to wrench yourself away from the distractions of the internet. Its still far too expensive for what it is, and qualifies as a luxury purchase in these straightened times. It wont stack up in a spec-for-spec comparison to an iPad, even if theyre clearly catering for two very different audiences. But, judging it on its merits as a piece of technology, it does the job it was built to do far better than anything else on the market. What can I say, I just think it's neat. Daniel Cooper, senior reporter NotebookLM Maybe my AI dalliances are far too mundane I spend more time trying to get worthwhile shopping advice from Claude and ChatGPT, for instance, rather than playing around with music generators like Suno or even image creators like Dall-E. But for this podcast fan, its Googles NotebookLM that was the big AI revelation of 2024. The audio offshoot of Googles Project Tailwind , an AI-infused notebook application, NotebookLM synthesizes a full-on podcast that summarizes the documents, videos or links you feed it. Delivered as a dialogue between male and female co-hosts, it feels like a next-gen two-person version of the Duplex software agent that Google unveiled in 2018. The resulting audio stories (just a few minutes in length) wouldnt sound terribly out of place on your local NPR station, right down to copious use of ums, ahs, pauses and co-hosts talking over each other with a relevant detail or two. Yes, it doesnt have any more depth than the chatter on the average TV morning show, occasionally botches pronunciation sometimes spelling out common acronyms letter by letter, for instance and its just as prone to hallucinations as any other current AI model. And I certainly dont think real podcast hosts have anything to fear here (at least, not yet .) But to me, NotebookLM doesnt feel like the rest of the AI slop thats invading the web these days. Its a win on three fronts: The baseline version is free , its dead simple to use (just feed it one or more links, or a blob of text) and it can be downright fun. This was the systems take when I fed it the full text of Moby Dick, for example and thats small potatoes compared to, say, the hosts discovering theyre not human . Thankfully, unlike the plethora of projects that Google summarily kills off , NotebookLM seems to be flourishing. I havent tried the new phone in feature or the paid Plus subscription , but both suggest that well be hearing more from Audio Overviews in 2025. John Falcone, executive editor PC CPU competition heats up For the past decade, the story around laptop and desktop CPUs has basically been a back and forth between Intel and AMD. At times, AMDs sheer ambition and aggressive pricing would make its chips the PC enthusiast choice, but then Intel would also hit back with innovations like its 12th-gen hybrid processors . When Apple decided to move away from Intels chips in 2020 , and proved that its own mobile Arm architecture could dramatically outpace x86 and x64 designs, it was clear that the industry was ready to shift beyond the AMD and Intel rivalry. So it really was only a matter of time until Qualcomm followed in Apples footsteps and released its Snapdragon X Elite chips, which powered the new Surface Pro, Surface Laptop and other Copilot+ PCs. Those mobile chips were faster than ever before, far more efficient than Intel and AMDs best, and they were aided by some timely Windows on Arm improvements . While you may still run into some older Windows apps that dont run on Arm machines, the experience today is dramatically better than it was just a few years ago. And sure, the race to equip CPUs with better neural processing units (NPUs) for AI work is a major reason chipmakers were eager to make a huge splash in 2024. Intels Lunar Lake hardware and AMDs Ryzen AI 300 chips were laser-focused on delivering powerful AI capabilities. But it turns out were still waiting to see what those NPUs can really do. Microsofts Recall AI feature has only just begun rolling out to willing testers , and it still cant effectively filter out credit card and social security numbers . Devindra Hardawar, senior reviewer This article originally appeared on Engadget at ... 837.html?src=rss

that's more compact and armchair-height, LG also has a version that the size of a side table. LG The taller, standing lamp can hold up to 20 plants at a time, according to LG, and the whole setup is height adjustable so that you can accommodate larger leafy greens or small herbs and flowers. The real beauty of LG's design, though, is that you don't need to worry about watering. There's a 1.5 gallon tank built in to the base of the lamp that can disperse the appropriate amount of liquid for whatever you have planted. Both lamps are also connected to LG's ThinQ app so you can adjust lighting and watering schedules remotely. LG introduced its previous take on an indoor gardening tool, the LG Tiiun , at CES 2022. That larger, fridge-shaped appliance could also automatically grow and water plants, but was far less aesthetically-pleasing than the company's new lamp. With all of the features it has on board, LG's new lamp is really just one Sonos speaker away from being the ultimate living room appliance. At least until tech companies find another use for lamps. LG's new indoor gardening appliance doesn't have a release date or an official price, but expect the company to share more details once CES 2025 officially starts. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...rc=rss

on search in both the desktop version and mobile apps, or you can disable it altogether in the settings, TechCrunch noted. Any words that you have muted won't appear in Trending topics either. Bluesky recently hit a big milestone with 25 million users , many of whom recently fled X following the US elections. Though still relatively small compared to Threads and X, users have remarked on the high levels of engagement along with the lack of bots and harassment compared to Elon Musk's platform. Other highly requested features still not implemented include bookmarks, editing, verification badges and private posts. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...8.html?src=rss

controller for you. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

light, fun and a little bit scattershot, much like Christmas is meant to be, right? When Doctor Who returned, the show was woven back into the UK's cultural firmament in a way it never had been before. Part of that process was adding the show to the BBC One Christmas Day schedule, making it a universal cultural touchstone. For most of its post-2005 run, it has aired an episode next to the Strictly Come Dancing and EastEnders festive specials. Imagine the British equivalent to those everyone-gathered-around-the-TV events like the Super Bowl or the Macys Day Parade, but on Christmas Day. Even if you dont like any of the fare on offer, youre still expected to sit with the family and consume it. With these specials, the prestige timeslot, longer runtime and bigger budget are burdens as much as they are benefits. The show has to play to a far broader audience than normal, with diehard fans sitting elbow-to-elbow with elderly relatives filling every silence with gossip about their neighbor's garden project. Consequently, the story needs to be a little looser, with less need for the audience to be paying undivided attention to whats going on. And it needs to be an oasis of fun in the melodramatic drudgery that is the BBC One Christmas Day schedule. Normally, the festive special would be the sole province of the showrunner but Russell T. Davies handed the reins to Steven Moffatt. Moffatt succeeded Davies as showrunner the first time around, co-created Sherlock and is widely-regarded as the best Who writer of the 21st century. With a pedigree as impeccable as that, and having already written " Boom " for the Ncuti Gatwas first season in the title road, expectations are high. Bad Wolf / BBC Studios Moffatt is an arch farce writer and has a strong grasp of structure, so its no surprise we open in medias res . The Doctor is offering room service to a variety of people in different time periods including Edmund Hilarys base camp at Everest and the Orient express before stumbling in on Joy in a miserable London hotel room in 2024. After the credits, we spool back to the Doctor arriving in the Time Hotel, which allows guests to vacation throughout history. Dont worry about causality or any A Sound of Thunder shenanigans, the Hotel is somehow built to protect its guests from screwing up the timeline. The Doctor is looking to steal some milk for his coffee from the hotel buffet, but his eye is caught on something sinister: A person carrying a briefcase with a handcuff chain is trying to check into a room. The Doctor recruits Trev, one of the employees, to keep watch while he scouts ahead to work out what scheme could be afoot. As it turns out, the case is sentient and evil, leaping from host to host and possessing each one in turn. Once its leapt to the next host, the last one disintegrates. Bad Wolf / BBC Studios Its here the Doctor bumps into Joy who, through hijinks, winds up handcuffed to the case in place of the hotel manager. When the Doctor opens the case to try and find a solution, the case threatens to kill whoever its connected to unless it gets a four digit code. Who shall provide the code? The Doctor, emerging from his own future, taking Joy with him while leaving our Doctor trapped in 2024 without the TARDIS. As the hotel door closes, the Doctor hurls abuse at his future self, about why hes always alone and people are always leaving him. Hes doubly upset as he never normally has to travel the long way around, one day after the other. And so, the episode essentially stops to give us an extended sequence of the Doctor making friends with Anita, the hotel manager. The Doctor gets a job as the hotels handyperson, and slowly lets his guard down, spending more time with Anita until theyre a platonic couple. Its a sequence youd never see in a regular episode, with snatches of the Doctor and Anitas life. He makes the microwave bigger on the inside, repaints Anitas car TARDIS blue and they even sit and talk to one another on chairs a key visual given the lack of chairs on the TARDIS. But as the year elapses and its time for the Doctor to return to his own show, he waves goodbye to Anita. Bad Wolf / BBC Studios Returning to the time hotel, the Doctor bursts back in on the events of a year ago, sharing the code and yanking Joy off to new adventures. The Doctor works out the briefcase holds the embryonic form of an artificially-created star that would offer a source of imaginable power to whoever owned it. But unless you own the Hand of Omega, stars take a long time to develop, far longer than anyone would be able to wait and test their experiment. Unless, of course, you hijack a time hotel and send it back to dinosaur times, waiting for when human history begins to see if it works. Joy, still possessed by the case, heads to the hotels dinosaur room while the Doctor tries to break its hold over her. To do that, he provokes an emotion strong enough to poison the link between the case and its host before it obliterates them. He bullies her, goading her into disclosing why she's staying at a downmarket London hotel. Turns out shes grieving the loss of her mother who died of COVID-19 in an isolation ward and Joy was unable to say goodbye to her in person. Sadly, before the Doctor can deactivate the star seed, its eaten by a (brilliant-looking) dinosaur, putting it out of his reach. Bad Wolf / BBC Studios The Doctor and Joy head back to the hotel and, 65 million years later, find the star is now ready to detonate. Its been locked inside a stone structure with a heavy stone door that neither of them can move, and time is running out. So, the Doctor, who boasts that hes good with rope, steals a rope from the Everest base camp, hanging it off the back of the Orient Express to haul the stone away.. Its an impressive and kinetic sequence let down only by the dreadful CGI when Gatwas standing on the train. Typical Doctor Who : It can now do convincing dinosaurs, but now cant do a convincing train. Its here things lose their coherence, since Joys eyes flash with possession energy, but by the time the Doctor returns, Joy has eaten the star? Absorbed it somehow? Made friends with and bonded with it? He finds her standing on a cliff edge, where Joy says shell merge with the star and take it to the heavens, where it will do nobody any harm at all. At this point in my notes, I wrote Dont let this be Bethlehem, when the camera pulls out to reveal thats exactly where they are, complete with three camels parked outside a stable. Oy. Bad Wolf / BBC Studios Joy reunites with her mother and the Doctor goes back to traveling, but not before he gets Anita a job running the Time Hotel. We also get a little shot of Ruby Sunday, who will return to the show for its second season proper. As I said at the top, you cant judge Joy to the World on the merits of a regular episode since its serving multiple masters. But I dont think we could call it the strongest episode of either Steven Moffatts oeuvre or the shows various Christmas Specials. Like all of the Disney-era episodes, it has a slightly incoherent quality where the pacing sags and zips in all the wrong places. Im for the lengthy aside where we see a normal year in the life of the Doctor, but the story framing it should have been tighter to balance out the slowness. Its a fun enough way to pass an hour with a stomach full of holiday turkey (or your preferred equivalent) with enough mawkishness to make you think youve seen something quite profound. But I dont think Ill be coming back to watch this one again and again like I would for, say, The Christmas Invasion. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...018215.html?src=rss

worth that $50 gift card you're eager to use up, from power banks to streaming sticks to smart lights. Check out the rest of our gift ideas here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

largely competitive by nature. Check out our entire Best Games series including the best Nintendo Switch games , the best PS5 games , the best Xbox games , the best PC games and the best free games you can play today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...l?src=rss

Android phone makers were stuck on outdated patch notes. The Qi2 standard was officially announced in early 2023 during CES. We even gave it an award , as the spec looked to bring 15-watt wireless charging (and possibly more in future revisions), improved safety and critically the introduction of Magnetic Power Profiles that make it a cinch to align and attach compatible charging pads. In essence, Qi2 was set to bring the simplicity and ease of use iPhone owners enjoy with MagSafe products to the Android ecosystem. Not a single phone from any of the top three Android phone makers in the US (Samsung, Google and Motorola) offered support for Qi2 in 2024. Photo by Sam Rutherford Even more surprising is that in a rare move for a company that likes keeping its tech siloed neatly inside the walls of its ecosystem, Apple shared core parts of the MagSafe spec with other members of the Wireless Power Consortium (which is the governing body that oversees the Qi and Qi2 standards) to speed up development and interoperability. So youd think after seeing the convenience and popularity of MagSafe accessories among iPhone users, Android phone makers would have rushed out to add Qi2 to as many devices as possible. But nearly two full years after the spec was finalized, the grand total of Android handsets that support Qi2 stands at one: the HMD Skyline. At this point, you might be saying that product development cycles are multi-year processes that are difficult to change prior to launch. And in most cases, youd probably be right. But let's be honest, its not like Samsung, Google, Lenovo and others didnt see this coming. Like Apple, practically all of the big Android phone makers are also members of the WPC , so they would have known about the development of Qi2 long before it was officially announced. On top of that, the first iPhone with MagSafe was the iPhone 12 , which came out four years ago. So even if we assume that the first time Samsung, Google et al were presented with the idea of a magnetic wireless charging system was during Apples keynote in the fall of 2020, youd imagine thats still more than enough time to engineer similar technology for use on todays Galaxy and Pixel handsets. The HMD Skyline was the only Android phone to feature Qi2 this year. Photo by Sam Rutherford For manufacturers, another concern when adopting a new standard is that there may not be enough accessories and other compatible peripherals on sale to make implementation of new tech worth it. Weve seen this in the past with modular phones like the LG G5 and Moto Z Force line and the funky palm-reading tech on the LG G8 . However, because Qi2 and MagSafe gadgets are largely interchangeable , theres already a huge market of options like Ankers MagGo line of power banks, which are some of my current favorite portable battery packs. Another annoyance is that some phones like the Razr Plus and Pixel 9 Pro Fold will even stick magnetically to some Qi2 accessories and may even suck down a tiny bit of juice. Unfortunately, this is more of a coincidence caused by the magnets used to help keep foldables open or closed, rather than an intentional use case. This means that even though these devices may appear to support Qi2 at first glance, accessories dont maintain a firm grip and often slide off even in what appear to be ideal circumstances. Even cases that claim to add support for Qi2 are hit or miss, resulting in a poor experience for Android phone owners hoping to recreate the magic of MagSafe on their own. Its really a shame, because it almost feels like with a few small tweaks Google, Moto and others could unlocked Qi2 support on a wider range of devices without a ton of extra effort or cost. The lack of Qi2 support on Android phones is preventing users from enjoying a huge range of handy charging accessories. Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget Unfortunately, while many Chinese phone makers have avoided Qi2 up until this point, thats sort of to be expected with manufacturers like Oppo often favoring proprietary tech like its 65-watt AirVOOC wireless charging instead of more widely accessible industry standard. And because the Galaxy S24 family came out at the very beginning of 2024, Samsung didnt have quite as much time to add Qi2 to its current flagship lineup as Google, which launched the Pixel 9 series just a few months ago. Regardless, this still doesnt explain the general reluctance of OEMs to adopt what Id argue is one of the most meaningful upgrades in accessibility and general usability you can add to a smartphone today. But the most frustrating thing is that six months ago, our friends at CNET pondered why we had yet to see any Qi2 Android phones . And as were nearing the end of the year, theres still only a single model trying to spark hope that 2025 will be different. So kudos to HMD for doing what Samsung, Google et al. couldnt be bothered to figure out. Now Im just worried that if things dont change next year, one of the most promising standards could end up in the graveyard (at least for Android phones) before ever getting a chance to thrive. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...1029769.html?src=rss

bans may be required in other regions during periods of peak energy demand. It could also go the other way. The ban could be temporarily lifted or altered in certain regions if a government commission examines changes in energy demand and deems it necessary. Cryptocurrency mining has only been fully legal in Russia since November 1 , as the country has had a rocky relationship with the practice . Miners must register with the Ministry of Digital Development and energy consumption limits are continually monitored. The country banned the use of cryptocurrencies as legal tender back in 2022 , but does allow cross-border payments. The latter is largely seen as an attempt by Russia to avoid sanctions in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine . Russia isnt the only country to put the kibosh on crypto mining due to the industrys obscene energy demands. Kosovo outlawed the practice back in 2022 to conserve electricity during an energy crisis. Angola did the same in April of 2024 . That countrys law goes a step further and criminalizes crypto mining. Several European countries, like Iceland and Norway , have started to strictly regulate the industry due to energy shortages. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...rns-163102174.html?src=rss

working on their "shared belief in greener aviation," at least under Lilium. The German company has been testing its VTOL electric air taxis for a while now. Its vehicle took off for the first time for its maiden flight back in 2017 , and it completed its first phase of flight tests in 2019. Lilium was able to prove that its VTOL air taxis are capable of flying at speeds of over 100 kilometers per hour, though the Lilium Jet prototype it unveiled in 2019 was supposed to be able go as fast as 300 kmh and to have a range of 300 kilometers. Lilium has been struggling financially over the past year, but its CEO reportedly remained optimistic about being able to secure enough funding as recently as last month. Grnderszene said that a small number of people will remain employed to help with liquidation. The company has yet to announce what will happen to its technology and the rest of its assets, but its patent attorney, Fabien Mller, wrote in a post that he's managing the transition of Lilium's intellectual property. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...operations-160025593.html?src=rss

machine at this point, and no, Im not complaining about this. Ive broken out my Steam Deck for plenty of games before Balatro and I plan on playing lots more on it in the future, but for now and potentially until I take my final breath, its primary function is joker generation. First of all, Balatro just feels nice on a handheld device. Its the kind of game that you can play passively while watching TV or listening to a podcast, or with intense focus as you try to collect jokers, stakes, achievements and stickers on the way to Completionist++. The Steam Deck is the ideal platform for this type of game, because, especially in combination with a comfy PC setup, it allows players to flow between these two states without losing progression. The mobile version of Balatro is rad and the Switch version is peachy, but I started playing on PC and, more than 500 hours later, Im reluctant to start over on any other platform. I absolutely love curling up on the couch with Balatro , playing it on the PC at my desk, using it as a distraction on long commutes, and getting a few hands in before bed. The Balatro Machine uh, I mean, Steam Deck enables my obsession in a seamless way. Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter Balatro is a card game you can feel Balatro is a game you mostly play in your head. Theres a giant array of modifier cards, each with their own effects and consequences, and you work through their permutations like youre tinkering with a chemistry kit. Its a game of decisions, all of which are contingent on the decisions youve made prior. Some work, most blow up in your face. This is what makes Balatro engaging, but its not my favorite thing about it. What I like most is how tangible it is. How it makes a digital playing card game have any felt impact at all. Its the little tck and shake each card does when scored. The donk when a joker adds to your multiplier, the way the donks speed up and rise in pitch as buffs and retriggers pile up. The thrrrp of the deck reshuffling. The brief delay upon opening a booster pack to raise anticipation, how the pack disintegrates to emphasize the finality of your decision. The sound of coins colliding when you collect interest or buy something. The fire that burns and rises around your score when youve passed the goal in one hand, a dopamine hit within a dopamine hit. The way the air gets sucked out of the trancy music when you inevitably fail. You are not a character in Balatro . Youre just you, staring at cards set against swirling colors. Yet all of these flourishes go a long way toward sucking you into that vortex, really locking you in it, somehow giving a game that most resembles video poker a sense of physical place. Balatro is, among many things, an A-1 example of economical sound design. The easiest way to dilute it is to play it on mute. Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter The real Balatro was the joker stickers we earned along the way I am not an achievement hunter Im the sort of person who skips sidequests that arent interesting and rarely replays games after finishing them. The one Platinumed game in my PlayStation collection is the PS4 version of Resogun , and I have 100-percented precisely zero games on Xbox. Why, then, was 2024 the year that I became obsessed with achieving Completionist++ on Balatro ? I received the Completionist Steam achievement, which you get by discovering every card in the game, after a month with the game. It took me another five months to get Completionist+, awarded to those who beat Ante 8 with every deck on gold difficulty. The one thing left for me to do was the games toughest challenge: Competitionist++, which involves getting gold stickers on every joker by beating Ante 8 on gold difficulty with each of them active. As of writing, Completionist++ is still a distant dream. Its easy to feel like youve mastered the game after beating Completionist+; There are simple joker combinations that can take you past Ante 8 with every deck. Completionist++ strips those safety nets from you, forcing you to beat the games hardest level without relying on surefire strategies. While I do occasionally miss my high-score chasing early days with Balatro , this challenge has given the game a completely new dynamic for me, as I figure out how to craft a win out of jokers I considered useless before. If youve made your way through all the stakes and are wondering what to do next, Completionist++ is a challenge worth setting yourself. Just a word of warning: Ive played for 460 hours across my PC and Steam Deck, and Ive only unlocked 961 of the games 1,200 stickers. Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor Balatro is a deep, complex game for filthy casuals like me Some of my friends and co-workers are taking Balatro to some wild extremes. Aaron told me he's unlocked and completed about 95 percent of the game; I meanwhile sit at a paltry 19 percent. Another friend routinely shares quick videos from his runs where he racks up hundreds of millions of points in a single hand with Jokers I can't fathom, while my best single hand sits at a little over 3 million. The good thing, though? This isnt discouraging; its a feature, not a bug. Balatro has somehow managed to be the kind of game you can sink hundreds of hours into in an all-out quest for completion and mastery. Or you can do as I do and pick it up, play for 30 minutes or an hour a few times a week, and come back to it again with plenty to do when you get the itch. Dont get me wrong, Id love to get to the point where Im grabbing a billion points on a single hand, but my gaming time is limited and I usually choose to spend it on the PS5. But one of the great joys of Balatro is that you can go on a bender and play it for hours, and then not come back to it for days or weeks, and then just pick it up and keep making progress. Youre not going to lose any skills or forget your objectives. Its a casual, pick-up-and-play game that also hides some incredible depth, and games like that dont come around too often. Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor Balatro is an almost perfect mobile port 2024 is unquestionably the year of Balatro . It came out of nowhere to fill our heads with dreams of flush fives and legendary Jimbos. But I think what put it really over the top was when it launched on iOS and Android earlier this fall. Not only did the mobile version cost $5 less than the desktop edition on Steam (or console ports), but there are no intrusive ads or extra purchases anywhere in the game. That's including all the crossover cardbacks (like the ones featuring characters from The Witcher , Cyberpunk 2077 ) and the big forthcoming update due out at the beginning of next year. On top of that, theres essentially no difference in features between the mobile and desktop/console versions. Granted, thats due in large part to the game being a relatively simple title (at least in terms of graphics). But even so, youd be surprised how easy that is to mess up. The game boots up nearly instantly and even when youre smashing antes while pushing your score deep into scientific notation, the system doesnt get bogged down. Throw in a satisfying interface, support for cloud saves, multiple languages and profiles plus a high contrast option that's great for accessibility, and you've got an app that plays well on practically any device. In fact, Id argue that foldables like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are the perfect joker-hunting devices. Their large screens feel like a perfect match for Balatro without ever feeling cramped, which happens sometimes on older gadgets with less roomy displays. Text is generally easy to read (though sometimes less so on tiny devices) and theres plenty of open space to push things around without getting in your own way. I have a few minor complaints you can read about in my longer piece on Balatro's beauty on mobile devices , but as a whole I'm confident Im going to get more than my moneys worth for years to come. Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

progression. Beating the core story opens up a couple layers of admirably elaborate and increasingly meta secrets, but lets be real, most people interested in those are just going to look up the answers online. And yet, you play it, and you cant help but think there isnt much like it nowadays. Why? Its not just the lo-fi aesthetic. Its the fact that you never learn what your little blob guy is. Its giving you a map to mark up yourself instead of providing any instructions. Its accidentally realizing the disc youve held onto for the last three hours isnt just for throwing. Its the big monkey that flings rocks at you, just because. Its the way each screen is a static shot, the way the camera centers the world instead of the player. Its the eternal wonder and pleasure of uncovering what lies in wait in the dark, behind us, under our feet, outside of our little wells. And then having no clue what it actually means. Thats real stuff. Animal Well is that rare thing: a modern video game that trusts you to figure it out and has enough grace to let you stumble in the shadows. I bet the ending will leave you slack-jawed. Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter Astro Bot Astro Bot is a paean to the three-decade history of PlayStation. It shines a spotlight on every crevice of the brand's timeline, turning both mascots and long-forgotten characters from Sony's archives into adorable bots that you collect along your journey. More importantly, though, Astro Bot stands squarely in the pantheon of great PlayStation games in its own right. It's an exquisitely designed platformer that's bursting with personality, wit and gorgeous visuals. Team Asobi packed its ultra-charming game with clever ideas and mechanics to keep you on your toes. It even feels great thanks to smart use of the DualSense controller's haptic feedback. Video games arent always supposed to be fun. But Astro Bot wrings pure joy out of every single moment at least when its not kicking your ass in the tough bonus levels. Kris Holt, Contributing Reporter Batman: Arkham Shadow I never get sick of playing the Batman Arkham games. It doesnt matter how many times Ive solved all the Riddlers puzzles or foiled The Jokers plans. Batman: Arkham Shadow does a superb job of replicating all the things that make the original Batman games fun, like using gadgets to rack up combos in hand-to-hand combat and swooping out of the darkness to pick off armed henchmen. The games most impressive feature, however, isnt the fighting, Batarang-ing or the satisfying feeling you get when you make a Tyger guards leg bend in the other direction. Its the story. Batman: Arkham Shadow goes deep into the legend of Batman and its Rogues Gallery of thematic villains. It unpacks Bruce Waynes story of perpetual pain and need for emotional redemption just as well as any of the other games and even some of the big-screen adaptations. Batman: Arkham Shadow shows that VR games have a lot of potential to be more than just mindless shooting galleries and boxing simulators. Danny Gallagher, Contributing Reporter Balatro Of all the games you see on this list, not one was as universally loved as Balatro . Nearly every member of the Engadget team wanted to write about the game. So instead of limiting ourselves to just one blurb, we wrote an entire ode to Balatro . Crow Country When I first heard about Crow Country , a 2024 release that was heavily influenced by PS1 survival horror games, I was really intrigued but also a bit worried that itd be little more than a nostalgia grab. But once I got to playing it, I totally fell in love, and found it to be a unique experience even with all the loving nods to its inspirations. Crow Country follows Mara Forest, a somewhat shady protagonist, as she explores an abandoned amusement park in search of its missing owner, Edward Crow. There are constant hints to a terrible event that led to the parks shutdown, and strange skinless monsters are all over the place. In typical survival horror form, you have to manage your resources like ammo and health kits, and youll encounter a bunch of puzzles that youll need to solve in order to progress. I played Crow Country before the introduction of Hard mode, and found it to be spooky and engaging but, to my surprise, also kind of cozy, which I really liked. But theres a game mode for everyone. If you want a more riveting experience, go for Hard mode. If you dont want to face any enemies, theres Exploration mode. Survival, the normal mode, falls in between those two. Crow Country is a great game with some light horror and a story that was fun to piece together along the way. Its perfect if you want to play a horror game that has a creepy atmosphere but wont have your heart in your throat the entire time. Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor Dragon Age: The Veilguard Dragon Age: The Veilguard wastes no time showing off the full glory of its graphical prowess and epic storytelling. Once youve spent some time in its (excellent) character creator, its only a few minutes until youre fighting to stop the end of the world. Solas, the previous games surprise villain, is trying to tear apart the boundary between the spirit and human world. And in the process, his magical ceremony fills the screen with a glorious array of neon lights, color and shadows. If youve got a modern GPU, youre in for a ray tracing workout. Im a gamer of simple pleasures, and Ill admit, that bombastic opening sequence alone was enough to make me fall for Dragon Age: The Veilguard . What kept me playing, though, was BioWares classic formula of intriguing characters and sharp storytelling. Ill forgive the many missteps of Mass Effect Andromeda , Veilguard s crew of ragtag heroes make it clear BioWare still has its narrative. Whats truly surprising, though, is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is also a decent action RPG, with fast-paced and challenging combat that feels more reminiscent of the recent God of War games than anything from Dragon Age proper. Theres a rich skill tree to follow, and you can always re-spec without penalty. For a game that could take a hundred hours to truly finish, Veilguard still manages to feel fresh and exciting every time I sit down to play. So really, I dont mind if it doesnt hit as hard as previous entries, or if it doesnt give you as many consequential choices as Baldurs Gate 3 . Sometimes it just feels good to hang out with your fantasy buds and crack a few demon skulls. Devinda Hardawar, Senior Editor Final Fantasy VII Rebirth The second part of the anticipated remake of 1997s Final Fantasy VII uses the power of the PlayStation 5 to create a more significant (if not entirely open) world. (Its also one of the best games to showcase what the PS5 Pro is capable of, offering smoother framerates and crisper textures and detail.) Its a bigger, better, game than Remake. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands Remake 's often constricted alleys and buildings into expansive plains, mountain hikes, and Mythril caverns. Whats interesting about this middle chapter is that the ending of Remake seemingly cut ties with the story we all knew from the original. Despite that, Cloud, Aerith and the rest of the motley crew tour most of the same towns and destinations of the original game. That feeling of nostalgia is paired with a modern, further refined action RPG battle system, with new synergy attacks, materia and summon spells. Its all a little convoluted, but also meant I got to lean into my favorite characters and their play styles. (No one likes Cait Sith.) Its a rolling adventure that folds in extra character and story detail. While exploration in this middle chapter isnt as expansive as I might have liked, the themed areas are all different from each other, packed with their own battle and exploration themes. I just love the soundtrack of Rebirth I love it so much that it made it into my most-played albums of 2024. Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief Indiana Jones and the Great Circle When I first learned an Indiana Jones game was in the works, it seemed instantly superfluous. Whats the point when the Tomb Raider and Uncharted games have spent decades translating Indys pulpy action into the world of video games? I should have known better than to doubt MachineGames, the developers behind the recent (and excellent) Wolfenstein games. If anything, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has more in common with Dishonored and Hitman than the bombastic set pieces that have plagued Uncharteds Nathan Drake. Its a first-person game, for one, and it focuses more on stealth and problem-solving than mowing down dozens of baddies. The game begins with a stunning recreation of the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark , a sequence that had me continually dropping my jaw. Many shots are directly mirrored from the original film, the Indy model looks surprisingly life-like, and perhaps the biggest shock of all, voice actor Troy Baker delivers a solid interpretation of a young Harrison Ford. Honestly, his Indiana Jones sounds more like the character I remember than Ford does in the recent (and genuinely great) Dial of Destiny . While youre equipped with a gun early on, most of your time is spent investigating large areas like the Vatican, sneaking around restricted areas and punching fascists in the face. Youll also encounter a few puzzles that pose just enough of a challenge to be satisfying, without being overly annoying. Five hours into the game, I realized I hadnt yet fired my gun. And it would take several more hours before that was actually necessary. I cant think of many other action franchises that practiced such restraint. MachineGames didnt just make a good Indiana Jones game it crafted one of the best Indiana Jones experiences ever made. Ill take The Great Circle over Temple of Doom any day. Its so good, it belongs in a museum. D.H. Infinity Nikki From the hours we spend transmogging items or building gear sets for max stats, fashion has always been low-key essential in video games. So it's about damn time that someone decided to take the plunge, accept that style is everything and put it at the heart of an extremely charming game. Infinity Nikki is the most time I have ever spent in a game's photo mode. How could I not? My in-game wardrobe has been filling up with pieces all over the style spectrum from the ultimate cozy loungewear to absurdly frivolous pastel confections and I love them all. Dressing up in fabulous outfits is a big part of Infinity Nikki's immaculate vibes, but there's a whole lot of game here that has wisely taken its design cues from other very good titles. The influence of Genshin Impact is clear in the approach to gacha systems. The open-world exploration and side questing feel reminiscent of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom . The Whimstar mechanics are right out of any 3D Mario. But every idea has been toned down so there's no stress and very little challenge. That sounds like it should be boring. It's not. Being in Miraland is a complete joy. Anna Washenko, Contributing Reporter INDIKA I havent stopped thinking about INDIKA since I played it in May. Its not a constant train of thought or anything, but memories of the game float through my consciousness fairly often and I welcome them each time funny, heartwrenching and all the emotions in between. And yet, INDIKA is not a game I freely recommend to every person. Its a satirical and surreal tale about the devil living inside a nuns head, and while it has laugh-out-loud dialogue and cute buddy-cop moments, its also laced with scenes of sexual violence. No matter how delicately and powerfully these scenes are handled, theyre still heavy. But, if youre up for it, INDIKA is an utterly unique third-person adventure that deftly balances levity and agony. It offers a flurry of whimsical absurdity, religious criticism and raw human suffering, always with a wink and a nod. INDIKA thrives in the messy area between pleasure and discomfort, and its worth a play for anyone seeking something mature and original. Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is composed of contradictions. Its a distillation of everything that makes a puzzle game tick, and its also a complete subversion of the genre. Its heartwarming but eerie, mysterious yet satisfying, chaotic and utterly logical. Its modern, vintage and futuristic all at once. In Lorelei , players are stranded at the gates of an otherworldly hotel, and the only thing to do is investigate the creativity and tragedy thats touched its grounds over the decades. The hotel is vast and dotted with secrets, and each of its rooms houses at least one mystery. There are more than 150 puzzles in the game memorization tests, logic riddles, perspective tricks, math problems, art projects, lunar phases, astrological clocks and mazes and the solution in one room often unlocks secrets in other areas. Its a nonlinear experience, though it feels like everything in the hotel is deeply connected. Even you. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is for fans of puzzles, narrative twists and David Lynch but really, its for anyone who likes rad new video games. This is a game like no other, and its proof that innovation is alive and well in the industry, especially among indie developers. J.C. Metaphor: ReFantazio Metaphor: ReFantazio improves on the Atlus JRPG formula that Ive loved across various Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games in every way. Perhaps the games greatest triumph is making that classic JRPG grindfest feel unique and purposeful. Rather than crawling through bleak, procedurally generated dungeons to level up between key objectives, youll be claiming bounties on monsters, helping locals rescue loved ones or searching for mysterious relics. Add to that an engaging and surprisingly grounded storyline, vibrant characters and a fine-tuned battle system, and you have a clear winner. The one drawback is that I wish its technical underpinnings were stronger; all the beautiful artwork and stylish menus in the world cant hide that the game is clearly built on the same engine as Persona 5 , stretched to its absolute limits. Coming from the slick Persona 3 remake, which utilized Unreal Engine to good effect, its a little jarring to see low-res textures, fizzling lines and weird loads between areas. None of this is enough to stop Metaphor from being a game I recommend to anyone who will listen, though. Heres hoping that the next Persona game which has to be around the corner, right? takes the gameplay improvements of Metaphor and pairs them with an engine that wasnt built to accommodate the PlayStation 3. Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor Neva Neva packs a hell of a punch. This action platformer tells a devastatingly affecting story about disease, entropy and the relationship between human and animal over time. It's mesmerizing on multiple levels: visually, aurally and emotionally. The story plays out almost wordlessly, with Nomada Studio largely using its environments, enemy encounters and your progression to tell the tale. You play as a warrior named Alba who tries to cleanse the world of a corruptive force that plagues the environment and possesses animals. Her companion is a titular wolf. Neva grows from a pup to an adult throughout the seasons depicted in the game. Alba can call the wolf to her when they're apart, but the timbre of her cries changes depending on how fraught the situation is. Neva is a relatively short game, but it's one that will stick with you. Just as the blight does to the landscapes and fauna of this sumptuous world. K.H. Nine Sols 2024 may not be over yet, but I can safely say we probably wont see Team Cherry release Silksong . In other words, it was another painful year for Hollow Knight fans. But if you love Metroidvanias as much as I do, 2024 was easily one of the genres best years since 2017. Even if you only count two of this years more popular releases, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Animal Well , there was no shortage of incredible Metroidvanias to play over the last 12 months. But if you ask me, most people slept on 2024s best release: Nine Sols. Nine Sols is one of those rare experiences where the elevator pitch actually does the game justice. Its a 2D Metroidvania with a Sekiro -inspired combat system. Ill be honest, that alone would have been enough to get me hooked, but the reason Im still thinking about the game months after it came out in May is because of its story. The only thing Ill say here is that Nine Sols is the product of Red Candle Games. If that name sounds familiar, its because the studios previous game, Devotion , was at the center of a major censorship scandal involving the Chinese government. By all accounts, Devotion featured an incredible story, and I wish I could play it after experiencing Nine Sols . The team at Red Candle Games are master storytellers, and if the way Hollow Knight hid its best narrative elements behind item descriptions and environmental details left you wanting more, I think you owe it to yourself to give Nine Sols a try. Igor Bonifacic, Senior Reporter Pepper Grinder Pepper Grinder is a brisk, no-bullshit 2D platformer. Its hook is the titular device: a giant frigging drill that lets you chew and leap through each stage like a chainsaw-wielding dolphin. Youre never fully in control while the machine roars along, so navigating the quick stages comes to feel like a cross between bull riding and figure skating, as wild and destructive as it is elegant. Put another way, simply moving in this game is a kinetic thrill. The levels themselves refuse to repeat or linger on ideas for too long some tedious run-and-gun segments toward the end aside the boss fights are honest challenges and the whole thing is over in about four hours. Thats fine. Pepper Grinder knows what it is, does what it does and does it well. If only more games could be so focused. J.D. Thank Goodness You're Here! Dumb, funny, easy to play, I cant tell if Thank Goodness Youre Here is a tribute to British comedy history or a pastiche about what Americans think British comedic sensibilities are. Either way, its a whole lot of fun. You control an unnamed, tiny man who goes around the fictional town of Barnsworth, helping people the only way he can: pummeling objects and people with his little fists. You can hit things, you can jump, and thats it. Thats all you need to rustle together a flock of seagulls, deliver soup to a sickly man with spaghetti arms and even fix the local fish and chip shops fryer. It looks like a fizzy cartoon that would look at home on Cartoon Network, squeezed through an aggressively Northern English lens. Its just a shame it doesnt last longer. M.S. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Two years in a row with absolutely stellar Zelda games ? Sign me up! The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is not nearly as expansive as Tears of the Kingdom , but it definitely shares some of the same DNA. Dont let the cutesy toy-like art style fool you. This is a legitimate Zelda game, and not an experiment like Princess Peach: Showtime . Here are the main takeaways. This is the first-ever game that actually stars the titular Princess Zelda, and no Im not counting the Philips CD-i title from the 90s. Also, shes an absolute badass summoner/mage who made me feel more powerful than Link ever did. It plays like a perfect mix between old-school Zelda ( A Link to the Past was an obvious inspiration) and the more open-ended modern games like Breath of the Wild . I spent hours upon hours trying to rig up contraptions to reach faraway sky islands in Tears of the Kingdo m and, lo and behold, I did the same thing here to explore the entire map before I made a dent in the main story. There are 127 summonable echoes that combine in fascinating ways to allow for custom puzzle solves and unique methods of travel. It also has old-school dungeons, including one of my very favorites in the whole franchise. I hope we get more playable Zelda titles in the future, as the series bears her name. Also, the next Smash game had better let Hyrules princess embrace her inner dark mage. I want to murder that little Earthbound kid with five crows and a Lynel. Lawrence Bonk, Contributing Reporter Phoenix Springs Ive never encountered a game quite like Phoenix Springs . Ive played point-and-click adventures, sci-fi mysteries and narrative games, but Ive never seen one that sounds this luscious, looks this dramatic or plays this hypnotically. Phoenix Springs is a noir detective novel come to life but its also a cyberpunk vision of the future, and its all presented in muted, hand-drawn hues blanketed in light blue shadows. Truly, every scene of this game is gorgeous. Phoenix Springs stars Iris Dormer, a technology reporter whos searching for her estranged brother, Leo. Her hunt takes her from the abandoned buildings of a rundown city, to a rich suburb, and finally to Phoenix Springs , a desert oasis bathed in golden light and occupied by a handful of odd, disconnected people. Theres nothing rushed about Phoenix Springs . Iris walks leisurely through expansive wide shots, her silhouette cutting across high grasses and cold concrete at the same unhurried pace. When she speaks, she sounds like a jaded detective lost in time, her sentences stark and powerful. Haunting choir chords and droning bass lines share screen time with pristine silence and birdsong. Phoenix Springs excels as both a piece of art and a detective game, and its the perfect escape for anyone who wants to slow down and get lost in the grit of a neo-noir world. J.C. Still Wakes the Deep Still Wakes the Deep is quietly one of the best horror games of 2024 and in a year that gave us Mouthwashing , Slitterhead and the Silent Hill 2 remake, thats saying something. Still Wakes the Deep comes from the horror masters at The Chinese Room, and its a stunning first-person experience that introduces violent paranormal monsters to the Beira D oil rig in the middle of the icy North Sea. In Still Wakes the Deep , horror comes in multiple forms. The invading creatures move with thin, too-long limbs that burst from their bodies like snapping bungee cords. Large pustules and bloody ribbons grow along the corridors, emitting a sickly cosmic glow. The ocean is an unrelenting threat, wailing beneath every step. And then theres the oil rig itself, a mazelike platform supported by slender tension legs in the middle of a raging sea, groaning and tilting as its ripped apart from the inside. Each of these elements is deadly; each one manifests a unique brand of anxiety. Amid the life-threatening terror, Still Wakes the Deep manages to tell a moving story about family and regret, thanks in large part to the games fabulous voice acting and compelling script. This one was easy to miss amid the glut of good horror games this year, but it belongs at the very top of that list. J.C. Silent Hill 2 There isnt much to say about Silent Hill 2 and its story that hasnt already been said a million times; it is incredibly bleak, a masterclass in psychological horror. In the 2024 remake, the story is much the same, but theres a new intensity to the enemies and environmental elements that takes the horror to another level. Silent Hill 2 (2024) really got under my skin at times, and at others, made me jump out of said skin. In the game, you play as the confused and grieving James Sunderland, who traveled to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife telling him shes waiting for him. They once vacationed there as a couple, but needless to say, Silent Hill is not as he remembers it. The game presents you with both a fight for survival and mystery that needs solving, as James fights off horrifying monsters and little by little uncovers clues that point to dark events. Its extremely compelling and genuinely scary, not to mention emotionally effective as the story eventually reveals itself. Bloober Team did a great job with the remake and, as with the original, its the kind of game youll be thinking about well after youve finished playing. C.M. Space Marine 2 At first glance, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a simple, by-the-numbers action game in the mold of Gears of War. Its loud, bloody, and over the top. But the more I played Space Marine 2 , the more I came to appreciate how much depth and intelligence it hides just below its shiny Ceramite surface. For one, it absolutely nails the Warhammer 40K setting, both visually and in tone. Its a game that knows its transhuman protagonists are just cogs in a brutal and repressive regime. Then theres the close combat system, which, once again, seems simple but rewards players who take the time to master its rhythm. Just because youre a super soldier doesnt mean you can simply charge into combat; instead, you need to block, parry and counter the most deadly opponents on the field. Plenty of other games have employed this rhythm, but Space Marine 2 makes its own and feel extremely satisfying. Add to that a compelling co-op mode that offers a great progression system, and you have a game that Ive played more than any other this year. I.B. The Last of Us Part 2 Remasted Im going to exploit a loophole to write about one of my favorite games that technically came out back in 2020, The Last of Us Part II . However, Naughty Dog released a remastered version for the PS5 in January. Yes, the core game is the same, and the graphics upgrade isnt nearly as massive as the remake of the first Last of Us that came out in 2022. But as I said in my review of Part II Remastered, the new roguelike No Return mode was easily worth the $10 upgrade fee on its own. I wasnt going to write this up for our favorite games of the year, thinking it would be silly to go back to this particular obsession of mine yet again. However, my PlayStation 2024 wrap-up indicated that I spent a positively ridiculous 318 hours playing Part II. Yes, I went through the main campaign once this year and also finally got the platinum trophy that had eluded me on the PS4 version but my rough guess is that I spent somewhere between 250 and 275 hours on No Return alone. Yes, thats borderline obsessive behavior, but I think it also speaks to how good the combat system in Part II is. And getting to play these encounters with 10 different characters, each with their own traits and quirks, means theres a ton of replay value here (if I havent proved that already). Add in the randomized mods that pop up (invisible enemies, healing when you land a melee hit, tripwire traps populating the arena) and youll never have the same run twice. Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor Vendetta Forever Fitness is one of the best selling points for VR headsets. Its not just a static gaming experience. You can get up, jump around, squat, duck and dive your way in all sorts of different games. Meatspace Interactive may not have had fitness in mind when they designed the rapid action simulator Vendetta Forever, but its one of the most fun ways to work up a sweat on a VR headset. Vendetta Forever puts you in the shoes of the target of a series of minimalist assassins. Just like Superhot VR , the action ramps up the more you move, but Vendetta Forever has a unique LO-KILL-MOTION gimmick that makes it so addictive. You zip between your faceless enemies as you snatch weapons out of the air like firearms, ninja stars and even pencils while contorting your body to avoid incoming fire. Its easy to get caught up in the repeating action as you make your way through action movie staple scenes and learn from your deadly mistakes in gun run after gun run. Vendetta Forever is my favorite way to meet my daily cardio requirements. D.G. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

even tougher. As The Verge noted, a notice posted by the Federal Aviation Administration confirms that there is a "nationwide groundstop" for all AA flights; it also says that this stoppage is at "company request." We're currently experiencing a technical issue with all American Airlines flights. Your safety is our utmost priority, once this is rectified, we'll have you safely on your way to your destination. americanair (@AmericanAir) December 24, 2024 Aside from the FAA notice and American Airlines' post on X, there wasn't a real reason given for the delay. But since the grounding was lifted, CNN reports that an American Airlines spokesperson said the stoppage was due to a "vendor technology issue" that has now "been resolved and flights have resumed." Update, 9:15AM ET: This story has been updated to note that the ground stoppage has been resolved. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...ded-131522223.html?src=rss

You'll be able to get the free adapter through the MyHyundai owner site . The adapters will be offered to anyone who purchased a Hyundai EV before January 31, 2025. Sibling brand Kia is also offering free NACS adapters to select customers starting next year, with a full list of supported models set to arrive soon. The automaker is joining Ford in offering the perk to its users, and other manufacturers are likely to do the same in the near future. That's because the US government recently announced that NACS is becoming an open industry standard that's likely to be widely used in charger networks across the continent. Future models won't need the adapter, as Hyundai has joined a host of automakers in changing its charging ports to NACS. That'll begin with the 2025 Ioniq 5, which will have access to Tesla Superchargers as soon as it ships, according to Tesla. Older CCS-based models don't currently have access, but Tesla is likely to enable that once the adapter ships. The news is significant because Hyundai recently became second largest seller of EVs in North America next to Tesla. The company currently sells four models: the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 5N crossovers, Ioniq 6 sedan and Kona Electric SUV. Kia, meanwhile, offers the EV6 crossover, EV9 SUV and Niro EV. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...starting-next-year-130010136.html?src=rss

the press release, it could include standardizing vehicle platforms, unifying research and development teams, and optimizing manufacturing systems and facilities. This could help cut costs. In the US, Nissan sells large pickup trucks and SUVs that Honda doesn't offer, alongside more experience in EVs and plug-in electric vehicles. On the other side, Honda has relatively stable financials while Nissan has been struggling, particularly at home in Japan. Mat Smith The biggest tech stories you missed White House calls for investigation into Chinas alleged anti-competitive semiconductor industry X hikes ad-free Premium+ subscription price from $16 to $22 In Infinity Nikki, photo mode achieves its ultimate form Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! Meta is reportedly adding displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses Mostly for notifications. According to the Financial Times, Meta may add displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses collaboration. These screens could appear in a future device iteration as early as next year. Its not aimed at full mixed reality, though. The screens will be on the smaller side and will likely be used to display notifications or responses from Metas AI virtual assistant. Continue reading. Fans made a native Star Fox 64 PC port with some modern flourishes There shouldnt be any legal trouble coming from Nintendo. Nintendo A group of fans have made a native PC port of Star Fox 64 , which they are calling Starship . Harbour Masters, the team behind the project, used a tool that converts the original game ROM into PC executable code, so it doesnt use any proprietary Nintendo code. That means its technically legal. (Im sure Nintendo is looking into it.) Like previous ports, Starship features all kinds of modern bells and whistles to set itself apart from the 1997 original. The frame rate is higher and the port includes frame smoothing technology for better visuals. Theres also another major benefit: Its moddable. Continue reading. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

your game, and prepare your skeleton for some fresh air because youre about to jump out of your skin. Check out our entire Best Games series including the best Nintendo Switch games , the best PS5 games , the best Xbox games , the best PC games and the best free games you can play today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...

automotive, healthcare, infrastructure, aerospace and defense industries. The White House accused China on Monday of routinely engaging in non-market policies and practices, as well as industrial targeting, of the semiconductor industry that caused significant harm to its competition and created dangerous supply chain dependencies, according to the statement. If action is taken as a result of the investigation, Section 301 allows the USTR to impose duties or other import restrictions, withdraw or suspend trade agreement concessions or enter into an agreement with China to either eliminate the conduct in questionor compensate the US with satisfactory trade benefits, according to the US Trade Act. Those decisions, however, will be left to President Trumps administration and incoming USTR Jamieson Greer. A spokesperson for Chinas Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the US investigation. The nation would also take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its rights and interests, according to the New York Times . Tensions between the US and China are already high. President Biden launched an investigation in February into China and other unnamed countries over possible vulnerabilities and threats from connected vehicles. Then in May, the White House announced a significant increase in tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports including semiconductors. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ......

for $34 at third-party retailers like Amazon. Either way, you're saving a bit more than usual. The discount is available at several stores, including Amazon, Walmart , Best Buy and Roku.com . If you're hoping to grab the device as a Christmas gift, that'll be more of a hassle: Most listings we could find say that it won't ship until after the holidays, so you'll likely have to order with in-store pickup at Walmart, Best Buy or another retailer with physical locations. We recommend the Streaming Stick 4K in our guide to the best streaming devices . It's not as fast or fluid as a premium set-top box like the Apple TV 4K , but it's still quick to load up apps and menus, and its tiny design plugs directly into your TV's HDMI port. It supports just about all of the major HDR formats and streaming services ( Twitch aside), plus it works with Apple's AirPlay 2 protocol, so you can beam content to it from an iPhone. While it can't decode Dolby Atmos audio on its own, it can pass that audio through to a compatible sound system from apps that support the tech. Like other Roku devices, the Streaming Stick 4K is dead-simple to navigate, with a home screen made up from a basic grid of apps. Google's TV Streamer (the top pick in our guide) is much more proactive about recommending content you might like and getting you back to shows you've watched recently, but you might find Roku's interface easier to take in if you don't mind surfing for things to watch yourself. The UI makes a host of free content easily accessible as well, and we found searching to work fine, even if it's not quite as robust as Google's OS. We also like Roku's mobile app, which lets you control the device and listen in privately with a pair of headphones. As with every other streaming player, there are ads scattered throughout the UI, though Roku is at least a little less aggressive about them than Amazon is with its Fire TV devices . A few other Roku devices are still available for their Black Friday prices as well, including the Roku Express 4K+ (which lacks Dolby Vision HDR) for $24 and the Roku Ultra (which has a larger box design, full Atmos support and a more advanced remote) for $79. For most people looking to visit Roku City , though, the Streaming Stick 4K should be the best value. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...c=rss

Mask and Super Mario 64 using the same conversion tool. There is one major caveat here. Youll need your own legally-sourced Star Fox 64 game ROM to play. Star Fox 64: now on PC, thanks to an unofficial port. https://t.co/YZULlJdrqw pic.twitter.com/q684NpU49p Andy Robinson (@Andy_VGC) December 23, 2024 Just like previous ports, Starship features all kinds of modern bells and whistles to set itself apart from the 1997 original. The frame rate is higher and the port includes frame smoothing technology for better visuals. There are custom-made textures and the ability to run on widescreen monitors, as seen above. Theres also another major benefit. This port is moddable, so who knows what well see in the future once people get their hands on it. The teams Ocarina of Time port has received plenty of love from the modding community. Some mods allow for abilities sourced from newer Zelda games and one even throws functioning Pikmin into the mix because, well, why not? According to Redditors, the Star Fox 64 port is easy to get going on a Steam Deck , if thats your bag. It requires Proton and some light hurdle-jumping, as the code isnt Linux-based. Its been a while since weve gotten a legitimate Star Fox game from Nintendo, and it was a weird one , so this could sate that neverending urge to do barrel rolls. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...es-174612229.html?src=rss

planning on making this a full mixed-reality device just yet. For that, Meta has the recently-unveiled Orion AR glasses , which are still several years out. The same report indicates that the positive response to the Orion glasses has likely accelerated development and possibly ensured a commercial release. It was uncertain if those glasses would remain an in-house prototype. The Ray-Ban smart glasses have been a surprise hit for Meta, and its easy to see why . They look great and perform admirably. The current model includes in-ear speakers, cameras, microphones and access to Metas virtual assistant. I quite enjoy the simplicity of the current design, particularly when taking photos and videos. My hope is that screens do not get in the way of that simplicity and that they dont come at the expense of, say, improvements to the camera system. Ray-Ban Meta glasses, after all, are the perfect device for snapping quick photos of a pet. Have you ever tried to will an animal to keep still so you can dig your phone out of a bag to take a photo? Those darned cuties never do. The Ray-Bans solve that problem. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...34427.html?src=rss

potential to shape our future," said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida. Integration talks are still preliminary, but the companies are pressing forward. "We are still at the stage of starting our review and we have not decided on a business integration yet," said Honda director Toshihiro Mibe. However, he added that the companies aim "to find a direction for the possibility of business integration by the end of January 2025." After that, they hope to have a "definitive agreement" concerning business integration by June 2025. Approval must come from each company's shareholders and is subject to Nissan executing a turnaround. Nissan and Honda previously announced plans to work together on EV components and software development, but the joint company would be far more integrated. According to the press release, the plan includes: standardizing vehicle platforms; unifying research and development teams; and optimizing manufacturing systems and facilities. All of that is usually designed to cut costs, so it could spell significant layoffs in Japan and elsewhere. Nissan's Titan pickup lineup Nissan Though the two companies sell comparable vehicles like Nissan's Rogue and the Honda CR-V, some synergy seems possible. Nissan sells large pickup trucks and SUVs in the US that Honda doesn't offer and also has more experience in EVs and plug-in electric vehicles. On the other side, Honda has relatively stable financials while Nissan has been struggling in the market, particularly at home. Of course, Nissan is already in the Renault-Nissan-Misubishi Alliance. Nissan and Renault hold a 15 percent voting stake in the other, and all three sold a combined 10.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2017, more than any other light vehicle manufacturer at the time. The Alliance is also one of the largest EV makers in the world, with over 1 million units sold since 2009. If Nissan and Honda merged, it's not clear what would become of the Alliance. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...62.html?src=rss

of tutorials during my first session, my initial reaction was, "Oh good, something I can forget about." Anna Washenko / Infold Games Photo mode has become a standard feature in single-player AAA games over the past decade. For those unfamiliar, this feature pauses the gameplay to let you pose your protagonist like an action figure, making them mug with a silly expression or hold up a peace sign. You can slap on a filter or make minute adjustments to the focus, aperture and other details to capture a striking image. Over the years, I've seen people capture Nathan Drake, Ellie and Joel, Aloy and many others striking heroic or hilarious poses. I appreciate those images when they cross my social feeds. And as game graphics become ever more photo-realistic, it makes sense that studios want to give players tools to capture beautiful moments when they happen. But every time I've played a game with a photo mode, I've found that after I take the one picture required by the tutorial, I never open the camera again. Anna Washenko / Infold Games My issue isn't that these games aren't gorgeous enough to warrant documenting. It's that when I'm in the middle of playing something like The Last of Us , it doesn't occur to me to stop for a snap because I'm so focused on the other gameplay mechanics and goals. Sure, there might be some calmer moments to breathe, but running for your life in a post-apocalyptic wasteland just isn't a time for casually browsing filters. And in other games, taking pics simply doesn't feel like an activity the character would do. Come on, there's no way Kratos would ever take a selfie. Like all its predecessors, Infinity Nikki is a beautiful game. Miraland comprises picturesque towns and charming landscapes, equally lovely in their sweeping vistas and hidden nooks. Everywhere you look are tons of carefully constructed little interactions that serve no purpose other than encouraging you to stage a cute image. You press a button to take a hot air balloon ride or to blow bubbles at a cafe table. It's a step up from most implementations, where the most you might be able to do is sit on a chair or bench. Anna Washenko / Infold Games What fully hooked me on becoming a shutterbug, though, is a system where players are prompted to take pictures of notable locations around Miraland. The first time I found one, it was a lush green grotto where I directed Nikki to sit on a log by an underground lake. It was a pretty spot, sure, but what most delighted me was that my outfit matched the setting perfectly. So I didn't just grab a photo and move on to a more important task. Taking the time to look great is the most important task. There's no single style point of view in Infinity Nikki . A few special ensembles offer contextual in-game abilities, but most pieces are there just so you can look exactly how you want. Nikki can be an absurd anime character from fantasy land in tulle and sparkles. Or she can look exactly like someone you might see streaming the game on Twitch or TikTok in an oversized hoodie. Or she can pair a top hat with jean shorts and thigh-high knit boots if you want. (And yes, I did want.) Anna Washenko / Infold Games This game knows you're there at least partly to play dress-up. It also knows that the obvious thing to do when you play dress-up is to immortalize your best fits with a photo shoot. That's why Infinity Nikki 's photo mode feels not just enjoyable, but essential. It's a core part of the game loop. When I assemble a new outfit, I want to find a good setting to snap a pic. When I stumble on a striking location, I think about which poses will best showcase it. Most of the time, cameras and photo modes do little to enhance my love of a game. They're the metaphorical cherry on top of the sundae. With Infinity Nikki , though, the photo mode is the ice cream. And it is delicious. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...tml?src=rss

"Premium+ subscribers will enjoy higher priority support from @Premium, access to new features such as [X's advanced search tool] Radar, and higher limits on our most cutting-edge Grok AI models," the company wrote in a help page article . X also promised that more subscription revenue would be shared with creators. Premium+ prices are also rising by a similar amount in Europe, the UK, Canada and Australia. Existing users on monthly subscriptions will keep their current rates until January 20th, and price for other tiers (Basic and Premium) remain unchanged. X first introduced the Premium+ subscription tier in October 2023, promising an ad-free experience your "for you" and following timelines, along with existing Premium perks like a blue checkmark. However, users quickly noticed that ads appeared elsewhere on X (profiles, replies, Explore and elsewhere). A further update in August 2024 promised to eliminate those too, but X said that users would still see "occasional branded content in less common areas." Now, it seems, those will be vanquished too. X has reportedly lost 2.7 million active users in the last two months, with rival Bluesky gaining nearly the same number over that period. That has likely led to some loss in advertising revenue, which the platform may be hoping to recoup by raising subscription prices. This article originally appeared on Engadget at ...16526.html?src=rss