A 16-bit memory made me reflect on how constraints shaped the most inventive gamesand still influence design today.Continue reading on UX Collective

The following content is brought to you by Lifehacker partners. If you buy a product featured here, we may earn an affiliate commission or other compensation.We're all tired of receiving text messages and calls from random marketers on our personal numbers. Whenever you give out your number to sign up for stuff online, your information is very likely sold to a marketing company, then sold againuntil your phone is blowing up in the middle of the night with texts from who knows. Surfshark Starter Package Generate a virtual number, mask your email, and take advantage of other VPN subscription benefits. Learn More Learn More But sometimes, you have to hand over your digits to subscribe to a service you want, score deeper discounts, or sign up for text alerts. This is where Surfshark is a lifesaver.Sign up for a Surfshark Starter package for $3.49 per month for the first 24 months, plus an extra four months free. And in addition to getting the Surfshark Virtual Privacy Network (VPN) and Alternative ID, youll also receive an alternative phone number to use on your online accounts or wherever you want.Heres how to get on a Surfshark plan and protect your phone number from prying eyes.What is the Alternative Number? Although you can't directly make calls using your Surfshark Alternative Number, you can use your number to receive endless calls. And you're able to send and receive messages, all throughthe Surfshark app.This way, you can keep your privacy, not just when you sign up for all your favorite sites, subscriptions, and special discounts but also for all your conversations, too. Your Alternative Number is included with the Surfshark Starter package deal, beginning at just $3.49 per month.How to use your Surfshark numberWhen you give out your Surfshark Alternative Number, all of the spammy messages and calls are forwarded to your phone, but only through the Surfshark app. Your personal number remains private and is safe from marketers, hackers, and data brokers. You can also delete your Alternative Number whenever you want, or swap it out for a new one for free every 30 days for extra privacy.Bundled Surfshark security perksThe Surfshark Starter bundle also includes their award-winning VPN service and a handy Alternative ID.The Alternative ID gives you a whole new online identity, including a name and age of your choosing, and you get a second email address, which, like your alternative phone number, keeps your personal email off those lists.For even more online protection, Surfsharks VPN routes your internet traffic through a remote server and masks your IP (Internet Protocol) address. Not only will the VPN protect your online privacy, a must when using public Wifi these days, but it can also reduce location-based price discrimination, a nice perk.Surfsharks Starter bundle includes all you need to sign up for everything online while steering clear of spam, IP tracking, and potential hacks. Sign up today for $3.49 per month for the first 24 months and get an additional four months free.

Google is bringing AI Mode to more people in the US. The company announced on Monday it would make the new search tool, first launched at the start of last month, to millions of more Labs users across the country.For uninitiated, AI Mode is a new dedicated tab within Search. It's essentially Google's answer to ChatGPT Search. It allows you to ask more complicated questions of Google, with a custom version of Gemini 2.0 doing the legwork to deliver a nuanced AI-generated response. Labs, meanwhile, is a beta program you can enroll your Google account in to gain access to new Search features before the company rolls them out to the public.In addition to bringing AI Mode to more people, Google is unlocking the tool's multimodal capabilities. Starting today, you can snap and upload images to AI Mode, allowing you to ask questions about what you see. The feature brings together AI Mode with Google's Lens technology."With Gemini's multimodal capabilities, AI Mode can understand the entire scene in an image, including the context of how objects relate to one another and their unique materials, colors, shapes and arrangements," Google explains. "Using our query fan-out technique, AI Mode then issues multiple queries about the image as a whole and the objects within the image, accessing more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google."AI Mode's new Lens integration is available through the Google app on Android and iOS.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-ai-mode-rolls-out-to-more-testers-with-new-image-search-feature-160054334.html?src=rss

This is our Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order live coverage with updates on UK stock ahead of My Nintendo store going live on April 8.

Apple has triumphed over an effort from the U.K. government to keep secret details of its appeal against an order to create a "backdoor"to iPhone users' data.

Four space tourists who orbited the north and south poles returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Pacific to end their privately funded polar tour.Bitcoin investor Chun Wang chartered a SpaceX flight for himself and three others in a Dragon capsule that was outfitted with a domed window that provided 360-degree views of the polar caps and everything in between. Wang declined to say how much he paid for the 3 1/2-day trip.The quartet, who rocketed from NASAs Kennedy Space Center on Monday night, returned off the Southern California coast. It was the first human spaceflight to circle the globe above the poles and the first Pacific splashdown for a space crew in 50 years.The Chinese-born Wang, now a citizen of Malta, invited Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge and Australian polar guide Eric Philips, all of whom shared stunning vistas during their voyage.It is so epic because it is another kind of desert, so it just goes on and on and on all the way, Rogge said in a video posted by Wang on X while gazing down from orbit.Mikkelsen packed the capsule with camera equipment and spent much of her time behind the lens.All four suffered from space motion sickness after reaching orbit, according to Wang. But by the time they woke up on day two, they felt fine and cranked open the window cover right above the South Pole, he said via X.Besides documenting the poles from 270 miles (430 kilometers) up, Wang and his crew took the first medical X-rays in space as part of a test and conducted two dozen other science experiments. They named their trip Fram2 after the Norwegian sailing ship that carried explorers to the poles more than a century ago. A bit of the original ships wooden deck accompanied the crew to space.Their medical tests continued at splashdown. All four got out of the capsule on their own, heaving bags of equipment so researchers could see how steady returning space crews are on their feet. They pumped their fists in jubilation.SpaceX said its decision to switch splashdown sites from Florida beginning with this flight was based on safety. The company said Pacific splashdowns will ensure that any surviving pieces of the trunkjettisoned near flights endfalls into the ocean.The last people to return from space to the Pacific were the three NASA astronauts assigned to the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission.The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer

As a staple of photography studios and production sets, appleboxes are a supremely useful piece of kit. Typically made of " plywood, they serve as both stools and stepstools. They're durable, long-lived and easy to make. Here's one I inherited from an NYC studio on the leftyou can see the years of use on it--and a newer one that I made out of plywood scraps. (If you have a pair, you can use them as sawhorses or trestles. They come in handy in a workshop.) About a decade ago, British industrial designer Sebastian Bergne made some modified appleboxes as ancillary items for an exhibition he was participating in. "Designed to offer visitors a moments rest whilst they watched product films," he writes, "and store the exhibition catalogue beneath, they were manufactured using grey MDF board and coloured laminate."While the exhibition has long ended, interest in Bergne's take on the appleboxes has not. After enough people expressed interest, Bergne put his production hat on and started having his re-design manufactured in hardwood. His open-sided design allows the objects to carry or store things, and he added visual interest by beveling the edges of the components; the resultant object is fittingly named Bevel. Bergne produces them in Maple, Oak and stained Beech. The handsome pieces are more objets d'esign than utility pieces; whereas a studio applebox will run you $50 to $70, Bevels run 275 (USD $354).

Cable management has been one of the banes of personal computing, whether its desktops, mini PCs, or especially laptops. Part of the problem is that almost all computers are naturally designed to give easy access to connectivity ports, so cables tend to snake their way out of these computers and across your table. One solution is to have some cable management system, whether built into the desktop itself or using accessories like docks and hubs, but another option is to hide the computer itself from view.The latter is really only possible if you have a mini PC, but that also brings its own set of problems, like having no easy access to those essential ports. Theres also the problem of keeping the small box still nearby to be accessible, which often requires some complicated desk modification. This rather peculiar design solves both problems by hiding the small PC right underneath the table and having a separate box for some of the most important ports.Designer: ArcticRather than forcing you to come up with your own custom mounting solution, the Arctic Senza comes with its own mounting system that lets you stick the PC box underneath your desk. This not only allows you to keep your desk clean but also saves you from the headache of having a PC box that clashes with the rest of your tables motif. Of course, that also means you have more desk space to use for essential tools or inspiring objects.The Arctic Senza, however, has more tricks up its sleeve. Unlike a traditional mini PC, this box is significantly flatter and wider. The small motherboard and electric components are actually crammed in the middle, and the rest of the box is made up of a giant heatsink and cooling pipes. This rather unusual design is what makes up the Senzas noise-free and maintenance-free passive cooling that promises to keep the computer running at a stable speed without getting too hot and without that annoying buzzing sound from fans.Another unique detail of the Senza is its satellite panel, technically a built-in hub that literally puts forward some of the essential ports for easy access. This wired box has a single USB-A port, a USB-C port, a headphone jack, and the PCs reset and power buttons. The rest of the I/O ports are located on the back of the main box to connect more permanent peripherals like monitors and wireless receivers.Despite its small size, the Arctic Senza Desk-Under PC is quite formidable with an AMD Ryzen 5000G series processor, support for up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of NVMe storage, and Windows 11 Home. That said, the $800 price tag and seemingly limited availability are significant deterrents, especially when you can also design your own similar setup using your preferred components.The post Under-desk PC is designed to keep your desk clean from cables and boxes first appeared on Yanko Design.

It looks real... until you try to move.

This couldve been the apex of compact gaming keyboards, but it has a few too many flaws and a high price.