Streaming platforms are increasingly indistinguishable to consumers despite high brand awareness, according to Hub Entertainment Research. The annual Evolution of Video Branding report shows major services like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Max experiencing year-over-year declines in viewers’ ability to articulate what makes each platform unique.
Fewer consumers (37% in 2025, down from 41% in 2023) report signing up for services to watch specific shows, while many can’t correctly identify where signature programs like Game of Thrones or The Bear can be viewed. While 58% know Stranger Things streams on Netflix, less than half can properly place other major titles.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
GeoGuessr, the geography game that tasks players with guessing a location in the world based on a random Google Street View image, is coming to Steam. It’s slated to hit early access on the platform sometime in April. That should hopefully make the game much easier to access on Steam Deck without having to fiddle with browser settings on desktop mode.
The developers are taking the early access approach on Steam so they can “refine the gameplay, introduce new features and ensure the best possible experience with direct feedback from players” with the aim of making “the ultimate competitive and casual geography game.” The early access version on Steam will at the very least have a competitive solo mode and casual Team Duels, though there are plans to add more modes and competitive features in the coming months.
GeoGuessr has a fairly thriving competitive scene — this year’s world championship has a $100,000 prize pool — so you could stand to cash in if you become great at the game. But be warned: if you think pro GeoGuessr might be your calling, you’ll be up against some incredibly skilled players. They can pinpoint parts of the world based on corn growing at the side of a road, clouds in the sky and room decor. GeoGuessr pros are absolutely absurd.
It’s not clear how much the full Steam version will cost. A free version will include unlimited access to the amateur division, which is GeoGuessr’s lowest rank, as well as unranked Team Duels. A Steam Pass that’s available to purchase inside the game will be required to access the full Solo Duels mode.
The store page notes that the price won’t change during the time the game is in early access (a period that’s expected to be at least six months). Nor do the developers expect to increase the price when the game exits early access.
The original, 12-year-old web version allows players to make three free daily guesses, but to play more you have to pay for a subscription, which starts at $2.50 per month. Unlimited access on the mobile apps is available on the $3 per month Pro Unlimited plan. While there will be cross-play between Steam and the browser/mobile versions, the current GeoGuessr plans don’t include full access to the Steam edition.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/geoguessr-is-coming-to-steam-in-april-150001770.html?src=rss
A discredited anti-vaccine advocate who has no medical background and who has been disciplined for practicing medicine without a license will reportedly lead a questionable federal study on vaccines and autism—despite a large volume of existing research that has found no link between the two and despite a thorough debunking of claims that vaccines cause autism.
Late Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that David Geier has been hired as a “data analyst” by the Department of Health and Human Services, which is now headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent and fervent anti-vaccine advocate. Kennedy and Geier have both long touted the false claim that vaccines cause autism, despite the extensive evidence showing that they do not. In March, HHS directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reexamine the nonexistent link between vaccines and autism, using funds from taxpayers that could have been directed at other research.
David Geier earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2002. Since then, he has largely worked with his father, Mark Geier, also an anti-vaccine advocate who falsely blames vaccines for autism. In 2011, Mark Geier was stripped of his medical license by the Maryland State Board of Physicians for misrepresenting his credentials, failing to meet state and federal regulations on safety oversight, and allegedly putting the safety and welfare of autistic children at risk.
Unrelenting in its efforts to dig to the very bottom of my murse, LEGO is releasing a Lord of The Rings: The Shire build set. The set will cost $270 *spit-takes Miruvor* when it’s released April 5th and contains 2,017 pieces, including nine minifigs and a very tiny One Ring. I can’t fit that on my finger! But I want to rule them all! “Do you though?” God no, that sounds like a lot of responsibility. And if there’s one thing houseplants have taught me, it’s everyone will die if I’m left in charge for a week.
Keep going for several more photos and a video with Sean Astin.
April brings the highly anticipated return of some of Netflix’s most popular series, including Season 7 of Black Mirror (April 10) and Season 5 of You (April 24).
The former—Charlie Brooker’s dystopian sci-fi anthology series—is getting six new episodes, including a sequel to “USS Callister” from season 4. The new season includes appearances from Paul Giamatti, Issa Rae, Will Poulter, Chris O’Dowd, Rashida Jones, Awkwafina, and Tracee Ellis Ross. And in the final 10-episode season of psychological thriller You, serial killer Joe Goldberg (played by Penn Badgley) returns to New York to live peacefully but is haunted by his past.
Also debuting in April is Western romance Ransom Canyon (April 17) starring Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly. An adaptation of the Jodi Thomas books, the Yellowstone-esque series follows ranching families in Texas Hill Country. And medical drama Pulse (April 3), set in a Miami trauma center, may capture fans of Max’s hit show The Pitt. On the film side, Tom Hardy plays a detective navigating the criminal underworld on a rescue mission in the gritty thriller Havoc (April 25).
Finally, Netflix’s documentary lineup includes sports series Carlos Alcaraz: My Way (April 23) and The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox (April 8); another installment of Turning Point, this one focused on the Vietnam War (April 30); and Chef’s Table: Legends (April 28), a new season of the Emmy-nominated culinary series with episodes following Jamie Oliver, José Andrés, Alice Waters, and Thomas Keller.
Here’s everything coming to Netflix in April, and everything that’s leaving.
Jewel Thief – The Heist Begins—Netflix Film
Weak Hero Class 2—Netflix Series
The Age of Innocence
Big Daddy
Bonnie & Clyde
The Breakfast Club
Conan the Destroyer
Couples Retreat
The Croods
Draft Day
Field of Dreams
For Love of the Game
Geostorm
Get Him to the Greek
Heat
Insidious: Chapter 2
K-9
Lucy
Matilda
The Mauritanian
The Place Beyond the Pines
Psycho
Rise of the Guardians
Rooster Cogburn (…and the Lady)
Rudy
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Smokey and the Bandit
Smokey and the Bandit II
Uncle Buck
Banger—Netflix Film
Garnachas: Glorious Street Food!—Netflix Documentary
Love on the Spectrum: Season 3—Netflix Series
Devil May Cry—Netflix Series
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Season 3—Netflix Family
PULSE—Netflix Series
Blippi’s Job Show—Netflix Family
Kill Tony: Kill or Be Killed—Netflix Comedy Special
The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox—Netflix Sports Series
How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast): Season 4—Netflix Series
Kian’s Bizarre B&B—Netflix Series
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Season 5 Part 2—Netflix Series
The Addams Family
Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing—Netflix Documentary
The Dad Quest—Netflix Film
The Hating Game
Unicorn Academy: Chapter 3—Netflix Family
Black Mirror: Season 7—Netflix Series
Frozen Hot Boys—Netflix Film
Moonrise—Netflix Anime
North of North—Netflix Series
The Gardener—Netflix Series
Meet the Khumalos—Netflix Film
Resident Playbook—Netflix Series
Life or Something Like It
The Glass Dome—Netflix Series
Young Sheldon: Season 7
Baby Mama
The Diamond Heist—Netflix Documentary
I Am Not Mendoza—Netflix Series
Project UFO—Netflix Series
Istanbul Encyclopedia—Netflix Series
Ransom Canyon—Netflix Series
iHostage—Netflix Film
Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror—Netflix Documentary
Heavenly Ever After
Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey—Netflix Documentary
A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054—Netflix Documentary
Battle Camp—Netflix Series
Bullet Train Explosion—Netflix Film
Carlos Alcaraz: My Way—Netflix Sports Series
UnBroken
A Dog’s Way Home
You: Season 5—Netflix Series
Havoc—Netflix Film
Pokémon Horizons: Season 2—The Search for Laqua Part 2—Netflix Family
Chef’s Table: Legends—Netflix Documentary
Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight—Netflix Family
The Eternaut—Netflix Series
Exterritorial—Netflix Film
Turning Point: The Vietnam War—Netflix Documentary
Baby Driver
Boyz n the Hood
Bruce Almighty
Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
Elysium
Happy Feet
Happy Feet Two
How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Interstellar
It
The Karate Kid
The Karate Kid Part II
The Karate Kid Part III
Legion
Miss Congeniality
Molly’s Game
The Nice Guys
Richie Rich
Rush Hour
Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour 3
Rust and Bone
Space Jam
When in Rome
Serena
Megan Leavey
Pixels
Scream
A Quiet Place Part II
Hereditary
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
No Hard Feelings
Minions
Patriots Day
It turns out Nintendo Directs are like buses. You wait ages for one then get two in quick succession. Days before Nintendo fully spills the beans on the Switch 2 during a dedicated showcase on April 2, the company is hosting a surprise Direct on March 27 at 10AM ET. You can watch it above.
The stream will run for around 30 minutes and focus on upcoming Switch games. There won’t be any Switch 2 info, but pretty much every game you see here will run on the new console anyway, thanks to backwards compatibility.
Since this isn’t billed as an Indie World Direct (those focus on indie games), it’s not really clear what we can expect from this one. Nintendo’s developers will largely be focused on making Switch 2 games at this point. Still, the Switch has a massive install base — the company has sold more than 150 million of those consoles — so Nintendo probably won’t want to leave all those players behind any time soon.
To that end, we can expect a stream of games for the original Switch to keep coming for the foreseeable future. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, for instance, is still slated to hit the Switch sometime this year. Third-party games will still be coming to the Switch as well, including a certain one from Team Cherry that we expect to show up in every single gaming showcase but won’t mention here because we don’t want to jinx it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/a-switch-2-less-nintendo-direct-will-stream-on-march-27-145809333.html?src=rss
VMware is suing the US arm of industrial giant AG Siemens. The Broadcom company claims that Siemens outed itself by revealing to VMware that it downloaded and distributed multiple copies of VMware products without buying a license.
VMware filed the lawsuit (PDF) on March 21 in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, as spotted by The Register.
In the complaint, VMware says that it has had a Master Software License and Service Agreement with Siemens since November 28, 2012. The virtualization company claims that in September, Siemens sent VMware a purchase order for maintenance and support services. Siemens was reportedly looking to exercise a previously agreed-upon option for a one-year renewal of support services. However, the list of VMware technology that Siemens was seeking support for “included a large number of products for which [VMware] had no record of Siemens AG purchasing a license,” the complaint says.
The Amazon Spring Sale has given us a few great deals so far, but anyone looking for affordable earbuds is going to really appreciate this one. Right now, the Anker Soundcore Space A40 earbuds are down to $45 from $80 — a 44 percent discount. That’s an incredible price for earbuds with active noise cancellation.
The $45 deal on our favorite budget wireless earbuds is available for the Black and Blue models, while the White, Green and Purple options are slightly more expensive at $50. However, the latter two typically retail for $100, so they’re actually half off with the current sale.
As mentioned above, one of the great things about Anker’s Soundcore Space A40 earbuds is that they offer ANC. Anker claims that using it can reduce potential noise by 98 percent. The earbuds also hold up to 10 hours of battery and up to 50 hours with the charging case. Plus, you can get up to four hours of extra juice with just 10 minutes in the case. The sound quality is also pretty decent, especially for the price.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazon-spring-sale-deals-include-our-favorite-budget-anker-earbuds-for-45-144520277.html?src=rss
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
If you’re in the market for a sleek wireless speaker, the Sonos Era 100 is currently $50 off during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. Normally priced at $249, the current discount brings the speaker down to just $199. This is as low a price as this speaker has ever been, according to price-tracking tools.
The Sonos Era 100 is a smart speaker that can work as stereo with a pair or as rear speakers in a Sonos surround sound system. It is an updated version of the Sonos One smart speaker, offering better bass and other improvements. The speaker is a favorite among anyone looking for high-quality sound in a smart-system package. It has an “excellent” review from PCMag for its ability to play stereo with a single device (it has a dual tweeter setup), its balanced audio, and the well-developed companion app that allows you to adjust the EQ.
As Lifehacker’s deals expert Daniel Oropeza explains, Sonos takes their user-friendliness seriously. When people complained about an update on their companion app that got rid of many cool features, Sonos listened and put them back. It’s no wonder they’ve been so popular in the audio market.
Shopping for tech? Lifehacker can help you make the right decision. Browse our tech reviews and head-to-head comparisons for everything from laptops and smartwatches to e-bikes and home gyms. Subscribe to our deals newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox, or browse our best-of lists directly on Amazon, including:
Transport for London will ban most e-bikes across its network from March 31 amid growing safety concerns over battery fires, the transport authority announced on Wednesday. The ban, covering London Underground, Overground, Elizabeth Line and DLR trains, exempts only folding e-bikes, which are considered less likely to have been modified and pose a reduced safety risk.
TfL implemented the measure following union strike threats after several incidents, including an e-bike that exploded into flames at Rayners Lane Underground platform last month. The train drivers’ union Aslef said the incident could have caused mass casualties.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Microsoft has launched two new “reasoning agents” for Copilot that were designed to analyze vast amounts of work data, including emails, meetings, chats and documents. The first tool called “Researcher” is based on OpenAI’s deep research model combined with Copilot’s advanced orchestration and deep search capabilities. Researcher was made for “complex, multi-step research” at work. It can take a user’s internal work data along with additional information from the web, such as competitive data, emerging trends and the latest market analysis, to create market strategies and comprehensive quarterly reports, among other potential uses. Plus, it can pull data from Salesforce, ServiceNow and other external sources.
Meanwhile, the new “Analyst” tool was built to function like a skilled data scientist. It’s based on OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model and uses “chain-of-thought reasoning” to solve issues in multiple steps to provide answers that Microsoft says “mirror human analytical thinking.” It can process raw data across multiple spreadsheets to, say, predict future revenue and expenses, forecast demand for a new product and visualize the purchasing patterns of customers. For the most complex data queries, it can run Python, and users will be able to view the code while it’s running in real time.
Both Researcher and Analyst will be rolling out to customers with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license starting in April as part of “Frontier.” Customers enrolled to the new Frontier program will get access to Copilot technologies while they’re still in development, starting with these two new tools.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/microsoft-introduces-deep-research-and-analysis-tools-for-copilot-143001894.html?src=rss
I don’t review a lot of $650 headphones. That’s because most audio companies sell their top-of-the-line gear around $300-$400. Noble Audio isn’t like most companies. The FoKus Rex5 earbuds, for example, cram in five separate drivers where much of the competition uses two at the most. Noble was also among the first to employ xMEMS drivers in wireless earbuds in a bid to improve bass performance.
Enter the FoKus Apollo, a $649 pair of active noise canceling (ANC) headphones with a detachable boom mic and up to 80 hours of battery life. The real star of the show is the driver setup, which Noble says is the first time this configuration appears in wireless headphones. The company is once again on a quest for the absolute best sound quality, but it may sacrifice a little too much along the way.
Noble Audio’s proposition is simple: the “world’s first” headphones that offer a hybrid speaker pairing of a 40mm dynamic driver with a 14.5mm planar magnetic driver. A dynamic driver is nothing new for a set of cans, but adding the latter makes the FoKus Apollo’s audio setup unique. For the uninitiated, planar magnetic drivers have a thin, flat diaphragm that typically offers a wider, more immersive soundstage and enhanced detail compared to dynamic drivers. Planar magnetic drivers are typically reserved for audiophile-grade headphones since they’re larger and more fragile.
With the FoKus Apollo, Noble capitalized on the best of both worlds for the stock tuning. You get the bass power of a dynamic driver with the clarity of a planar magnetic driver. Since planar magnetic units can’t move enough air for the robust bass that most of us crave, and as dynamic drivers are limited with mid- and high-range details, the company argues it has created the optimal solution.
From the first second of the first song, I could tell the FoKus Apollo was built differently. The addition of planar magnetic drivers offers the most bass-heavy genres an almost absurd amount of detail. Albums like Spiritbox’s Tsunami Sea that lack clarity on other headphones greatly benefit from the treble boost, serving up more nuance in the guitar riffs and texture in the kick drum blasts. The FoKus Apollo also excels with mellow styles, allowing you to hear every bit of sound coming from the acoustic guitars, banjo, bass and more on Julien Baker & TORRES’ “Sugar in the Tank.” Going from most over-ear headphones to the FoKus Apollo is like going from standard music streaming to vinyl. And I don’t think that’s hyperbole.
A pair of $649 ANC headphones better damn well provide some decent noise cancellation, even if you’re primarily buying them for the audio performance. Noble opted for a hybrid ANC setup with three microphones on each side and a Qualcomm QCC3084 chip. That processor provides the necessary digital signal processing (DSP) and algorithms to reduce background distractions.
Like a lot of ANC headphones, the FoKus Apollo struggles with voices. That means any hopes of silencing a chatty colleague won’t pan out. However, the headphones do a solid job with constant noise sources — fans, appliances, noise machines, etc. — so they do offer some relief. The noise-blocking prowess isn’t as good as the likes of Bose, but I found ample room to focus during my test sessions. While the ANC here isn’t among the best, it’s perfectly serviceable in most environments.
Noble promises a whopping 60 hours of battery life with ANC enabled, with another 20 hours of use if you turn it off. I found that those figures hold true during my time with the FoKus Apollo. After 30 hours of music, podcasts and work calls with noise cancellation active, the headphones still had 57 percent battery remaining — tracking slightly better than the company’s stated numbers.
The Fokus Apollo comes with all the accessories you’d ever need right in the box. Noble includes a detachable boom mic, 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter, two-prong airline adapter, USB-C cable and 3.5mm aux cable. The headphones can be used with either of those two cords, and the company recommends you do so when employing the microphone for optimal voice quality.
If you’re planning to use the Fokus Apollo for calls, you can expect mixed results. In quiet spaces with little echo, you’ll sound good enough for a professional presentation. When you move to a room with some natural reverb, the mics on these headphones pick that up a little too well. What’s more, they’re not great at blocking background sounds, as fans, white noise machines and raucous appliances were all clearly heard on the other end during my tests.
The FoKus Apollo is really expensive, so Noble couldn’t just give us a set of headphones built mostly out of plastic and call it a day. Thankfully, the company chose a mix of anodized aluminum, premium protein leather and a soft Alcantara headband. The leather-wrapped memory foam ear pads are replaceable, which will extend the life of the headphones under heavy use. There’s also a nice textured cloth pattern on the outside of the ear cups and headband that provide both tactile and visual contrast.
Noble Audio provides physical controls on the FoKus Apollo, so you’ll never have to struggle with tap or touch gestures to make changes. On the right side, there’s a dedicated button for ANC modes (on, off and transparency) with a three-control array just below it. Here, the top and bottom buttons handle the volume and track adjustments while the center one is used for power, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause and to summon Google Assistant, Siri or some other virtual helper. On the left ear cup, a single slider allows you to mute all the microphones, even the boom when it’s attached, without reaching for your phone or keyboard.
The FoKus Apollo is really only focused on the basics, so it doesn’t offer any of today’s advanced features. Heck, there aren’t even tools that have been on other sets for years — like wear detection. Although you’ll get support for Sony’s LDAC codec along with AAC, aptX, aptX HD and SBC, there’s no mention of Dolby Atmos or any form of spatial audio. You don’t find any discussion of adaptive audio or adaptive ANC that makes automatic adjustments to both overall sound and noise cancellation either.
Look, I’m well aware the premise here is pristine sound quality above all else. But at $649, which is $100 more than the AirPods Max by the way, I expect some degree of convenience that allows me to keep these headphones on for most of the day. Automatic pausing or wear detection should be standard at this price and it would be nice to have some additional sound/ANC options. I’m not picky about whether those are the automatic, adaptive type, or whether they’re settings I have to toggle on in the app. Just, please, give me something more than EQ adjustments when your sound out of the box is already incredible.
Once you hit $500 and above, you’ve surpassed what most companies charge for their flagship-level wireless headphones. You’re also in a price range where I’ve only reviewed a handful of models. If money is no object, the $699 Px8 from Bowers & Wilkins delivers excellent sound quality in a design that might be preferable to some folks (there’s at least multiple color options). Its ANC performance isn’t earth shattering either, and one of my biggest gripes with the company’s products is the lack of advanced features like the FoKus Apollo.
There’s also the AirPods Max and Dyson On-Trac, but neither of those are easy to recommend. Apple’s over-ear headphones have barely been updated since they arrived in 2020, except for an upgrade to USB-C and the upcoming addition of lossless audio. Dyson’s headphones have long battery life and a unique design, but they didn’t impress me sound-wise, have average ANC performance and lack the modern features I expect for $500.
I also need to mention Master & Dynamic’s MW75 in the over-$500 discussion. If you’re after high-end looks, no other company consistently nails its trademark aesthetic like M&D. True to its lineage, the company pairs leather and metal on these headphones, along with tempered glass panels on the outside of the earcups. I’ve always enjoyed the balance of M&D’s stock tuning and the ANC performance is solid. You won’t get any advanced features here either, but like the Px8, there are multiple color options if you’re after something other than Noble’s black and silver paint scheme.
I have no doubts there are a lot of people that will thoroughly enjoy the FoKus Apollo. If you crave the absolute best sound quality on the market, these headphones are the best I’ve tested in that regard. For me, to pay $649 I expect more in terms of features. The first item would be better ANC performance, but I don’t feel like spatial audio support and wear detection are too much to ask. Even without any of that, you do get a novel driver setup that produces some ridiculously detailed sound across diverse genres.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/noble-audio-fokus-apollo-review-the-high-price-of-pristine-audio-141521043.html?src=rss
A U.S. appeals court has ruled that Apple cannot participate in Google’s upcoming antitrust trial, potentially jeopardizing a $20 billion annual deal between the tech giants. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that Apple waited too long to join the proceedings, filing its request 33 days after the government proposed remedies in the case Google lost last August.
“The delay seems difficult to justify,” the judges ruled. While Apple can still submit written testimony and file friend-of-court briefs, it cannot present evidence or cross-examine witnesses as it had sought. At stake is Google’s practice of paying Apple approximately $20 billion annually to remain the default search engine in Safari browsers across Apple devices. The government’s proposed remedies would make such arrangements impermissible.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
You may have seen a headline this week imply that OneNote, the extremely popular note-taking application from Microsoft, is shutting down. That’s not the case—only a specific version of OneNote, named “OneNote for Windows 10,” is shutting down.
What’s this mean? If you don’t use Windows, this news doesn’t affect you. If you do use Windows, and your version of OneNote does not say “OneNote for Windows 10” at the top of the window, this news doesn’t affect you. If your version of OneNote does say “OneNote for Windows 10” at the top of the window, then this news is relevant: The version of OneNote you’re currently using will be discontinued on Oct. 14. You can download the desktop version of OneNote for free, though, and all of your notes will sync over.
It’s worth noting that the desktop version of OneNote offers features that OneNote for Windows 10 never did—it can save your notebooks offline, for example, meaning you don’t need a OneDrive account to use the application. And the shutdown isn’t a surprise by any means—Microsoft announced this transition would happen years ago.
Still, not everyone is happy about this. OneNote for Windows 10 was built to work well on mobile devices and, to this day, some users prefer it for touch screen Windows devices. I tested both versions while writing and regularly updating the OneNote review for PCMag and I personally find the desktop version more complete, but I understand why some might prefer the “for Windows 10” version—it’s clean, fast, and does what most people want.
You can still, as of this writing, download OneNote for Windows 10 at this link. Microsoft advises you not to, and plans to show pop-ups and even intentionally slow down syncing speed in order to persuade people to switch. Support ends completely in October, after which there will be no security updates and, if history is any guide, functionality will likely slowly break.
So, if you’re using OneNote for Windows 10, it’s time to figure out what you want to use for note-taking going forward. I’d recommend downloading and trying the desktop version of OneNote first. If you’re not a fan, there are other note-taking applications out there: Obsidian, which I’ve written about, can even import your notes from OneNote.
No Man’s Sky already lets players dig deep into the terrain of its near-infinite universe of planets, but now there will actually be cool stuff to find. Hello Games just announced general availability of a new update called Relics that brings a bit of Indiana Jones to everyone’s favorite space exploration sim.
The update lets players “feel like true paleontologists” as they dig up the “skeletal remains of alien creatures.” When bones are discovered, folks can piece them together to match their own design aspirations. The game will also allow players to create museums and share collections with other players.
Hello Games boasts that there is a “truly huge variety of procedural prehistoric bones, in all shapes and sizes.” There’s a rarity system in place, with the most uncommon finds holding a “huge value.” If digging gets a bit tiresome, the developer has placed a fossil specialist at space stations that can be bartered with.
However, digging up bones comes with a major risk, as “things have been buried for a reason.” Some of the rarest items are guarded by dangerous creatures like Stone Ghosts, the colossal Stone Golem and something called a Titan Worm. Fun times.
This is just the latest gameplay update for No Man’s Sky. Recent updates have added new planets and stars, freighter combat and black holes. Relics is available for PCs, consoles and VR.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/no-mans-sky-now-lets-players-dig-up-planets-to-look-for-ancient-alien-skeletons-140002442.html?src=rss
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
As we appear to be living in an age of perpetually rising grocery prices, we’re all looking for ways to lower our food bills. Considering the average spend on groceriesis over $500 every month, I’m all open to suggestions. Extreme couponing? Tell me more. Intermittent fasting? Sounds doable. Ugly produce? Bring it on!
Spending money to save money? How does that work?
Kitchen tools like bread makers or chest freezers tend to pay for themselves over time, but often come with a hefty upfront cost. Yet there are some inexpensive gadgets that don’t require a big investment but which can trim your grocery bills significantly. Here are eight of them.
There’s nothing more frustrating than paying for a bottle of something and leaving a bunch of it in the bottle because physics refuses to release it. But if you throw away bottles of stuff—whether it’s condiments, shampoo, or anything else you pick up at the grocery store—with product still trapped in there, you’re throwing away money. Instead, pick up a bottle connector (which will let you transfer the dregs of an old bottle to a new one), a zero-waste cap (which will use gravity to help you use every drop of something in the bottle), or a bottle scraper of some kind to get every bit out of the bottle. It’s difficult to quantify how much money you can save by doing all these things, but it’s not nothing.
A food vacuum sealer isn’t the cheapest option; while you can find sealers for about $10, that could definitely be a penny-wise, pound-foolish kind of decision. But an initial investment of anywhere from $40 to $100 will save you money in several ways:
Reduce waste. Vacuum-sealing your leftovers and overflow ingredients will keep them fresher far longer.
Make bulk buying pay. Buying in bulk usually reduces your per-unit costs—but only if you can actually use what you buy. Vacuum-sealing makes it easier to buy something like meat or fish in bulk and keep it fresh long enough to actually eat. Additionally, if you happen upon a terrific sale on something perishable, you can make an unusually large purchase work economically by sealing and freezing most of it.
If you cook with a lot of fresh herbs, a herb keeper can help keep them fresh for more than a week longer than if you just stick them in the crisper (or in a plastic bag, where all herbs go to wilt). That means you can actually use them in multiple meals and buy less of them overall.
Buying fresh produce is often an exercise in expensive frustration. You pay for a bunch of apples, and some of them are already rotting seemingly before you even get them home from the store, and the rest don’t fare well no matter where you store them. You might be one of those folks who thrills at turning black bananas into banana bread and soft apples into pies, but it would be better if everything just lasted longer. That’s where products like GreenBags and the BlueApple Produce Saver come in. Both extend the life of fresh produce by days, giving you extra time to use up what you buy and improving the taste and overall experience of the produce you’re eating. Over time they’ll pay for themselves in fresher fruits and veg, and lower grocery bills.
You might not think of a cheese grater as a gadget, but tell that to the people who lived before its invention. Buying your cheese pre-grated will definitely save you money (and give you a better cheese experience, as pre-grated cheese usually is coated with a bunch of stabilizers and preservatives in it to keep it from clumping). Block cheese will almost always be cheaper than pre-grated cheese, so aside from the better eating and cooking experience, grating your own cheese will pay for the grater over time, and then some.
If you use foil or plastic wrap on a regular basis to cover bowls, old plastic storage tubs that have lost their lids, or pots straight off the stove (smash cut to your eating directly from the saucepan with a spoon later that night), you’re paying money every time you tear off a sheet. Instead, use these stretchy silicone lids. They’ll fit just about any bowl or tub you’ve got and will keep their contents nice and fresh, with an airtight seal that’s almost certainly better than that mangled lump of aluminum foil you were going to use. One note: You shouldn’t use these to leave extra canned goods in the can. Yes, the lid will cover and seal the can effectively, but once opened, your food will start reacting to the metal of the can, which can degrade the flavor and kickstart bacteria growth.
If you’re using a lot of disposable stuff from the grocery store, a great way to save money is to switch to reusable, washable versions. Makeup removal pads and paper towels (which can also be used as casual napkins) are two easy switches. Rayon paper towels made from bamboo are sustainable and can be used about 50 times. In the meantime, not buying a new supply every week or so will definitely save you some cash—have you seen what Target wants for a thing of paper towels these days?
If you use dryer sheets when you do laundry, you can probably reduce your shopping bills by switching to wool dryer balls. Dryer sheets range in price from about four cents per sheet on the low end to about ten cents a sheet (mainly for specialty sheets, like the ones intended for homes with a lot of pet fur). Wool dryer balls help reduce drying time, wrinkles, and static cling and are reusable (up to about 1,000 times). So a six-pack of dryer balls will get you at least 6,000 loads of laundry for about $10, as opposed to $240 for dryer sheets. Even if you wash large loads and use 2-3 balls per load, you’ll still seeing significant savings over dryer sheets.
On March 5, Do No Harm, an organization that advocates against diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in medicine, among other issues, sued the American Chemical Society for its Scholars Program, which provides financial support to chemistry students from underrepresented backgrounds. The complaint argues the program is illegal because it is not open to white and Asian students. Around two weeks later, Do No Harm also sued the University of Pennsylvania for its partnership with a database called the Black Doctors Directory, which allows patients to find Black physicians.
The lawsuits join a recent uptick in legal action against universities, departments, and professional societies that host programs intended to increase diversity across academia, including in the sciences. In May 2024, for example, White students at the University of Oklahoma sued their school, alleging the university discriminated against them by factoring in race when determining financial aid. In August, a conservative activist group sued the Department of Education over the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, which provides mentoring and research support to underrepresented students pursuing doctoral degrees. Those cases followed the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision against factoring in race when considering college admissions, effectively striking down affirmative action.
“What’s happened here is the organizations bringing these lawsuits, they’re capitalizing on the fact that the US Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions,” said Vinay Harpalani, a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and an expert on affirmative action policies.
