After months of intense speculation, rumors, and leaks, Nintendo fully unveiled the Switch 2 with its own Direct. Not only did we receive trailers for new games like Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bonanza, and even Nintendo GameCube games exclusive to Switch 2 Online. But maybe more importantly we got a good look at the system itself and I’m happy to report that, from an accessibility perspective, the Switch 2 is undoubtedly an upgrade to its predecessor in almost every way. Several months ago, I explored my accessibility predictions for Nintendo’s latest console. I wanted more robust accessibility offerings, better usage of Joy-Con controllers, and unique inclusive design practices. And to my surprise, Nintendo answered every wish while also giving extras. For this Access Designed, let’s examine the exciting and confirmed accessibility of the Switch 2New Accessibility SettingsPlayThe Direct offered little in terms of tangible accessibility options, aside from fully customizable controls for each virtual GameCube game, respective of the system settings. Instead, Nintendo released an accessibility page detailing a bevy of returning and new features.Fully customizable controls are back, with the feature performing exactly like the original Switch. Settings to adjust text size to three different variants also return but with the additional capability to also implement High Contrast and change general display colors. Even the Zoom functionality is making a comeback, a necessary inclusion for blind/low vision players. Yet, Nintendo’s biggest surprise comes in the form of a new “Screen Reader” setting.Blind/low vision individuals often need settings like Text-to-Speech to help navigate menus and settings. While the option is only available for the HOME menu and system settings, this accessibility feature is a necessary tool, allowing disabled players to independently navigate the Switch 2. Options to choose different voices, read speeds, and volume levels accompany the Screen Reader feature. We still don’t know if individual games will support these tools or come equipped with their own accessibility offerings, but Nintendo’s acknowledgment of their disabled audience is a welcome sight, one that absolutely piques my interest regarding the future of accessibility at the company.Innovative DesignPlayWhile not within a specific menu, Nintendo did advertise a new inclusive tool that not only adds more depth to a beloved franchise, but also vastly improves the cognitive, physical, and blind/low vision accessibility. Within the renamed Nintendo Switch App, is Zelda Notes, a companion app for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. With the Navigation option in the app, players can choose to locate shops, areas of interest, and even the elusive Korok’s all within the app’s GPS-like UI. The app, which comes with audio cues and voices, will direct players to the exact location of their selected object. While not perfect, as the app does not help with precise navigation or enemies, it helps blind/low vision individuals navigate the overworld while reducing the cognitive overload of having to travel across a vast world.For cognitive, blind/low vision, and physically disabled players in particular, another feature in the app — the Autobuild Sharing tool — lets players share their custom Zonai tech creations. By scanning a QR code, disabled individuals can automatically build a Zonai machine if they have the corresponding materials. For me, especially, I immensely struggled with the control layout and required buttons to properly build Zonai machinery in Tears of the Kingdom. But thanks to this new tool, I only need to worry about gathering materials, and not the actual building process of Zonai contraptions. And all of this is done with Inclusive design, something I’ve regularly praised Nintendo for in the past.Finally, disabled individuals can even share items with one another through Item Sharing, a feature identical to Autobuild Sharing. By scanning a QR code, I can immediately access items that my friends send me, reducing physical strain by no longer having to continuously scour the world for weapons and food. Does this make Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom fully accessible? Absolutely not. However, it’s an incredible step forward.Wheelchair SportsPlayThe biggest surprise for me was by far the announcement of Drag X Drive, a Rocket League-esque game that lets players control characters in manual wheelchairs on a basketball court. Not only is this surprising announcement a fantastic way to show proper disability representation, but it also highlights one of the Switch 2’s few new hardware changes – mouse control.By flipping the Joy-Con on its side, players can move the controller across any surface, making the device behave similarly to a computer mouse. While we still don’t know how much force is required to move the cursor, – for comparison, my mouse on my ultrawide monitor has a DPI of 6400. But any new way to play will no doubt have accessibility benefits for an array of disabled players. It’s exciting to imagine just how Nintendo will utilize this new feature, but more importantly, it’s yet another tool for disabled individuals. Combine this with the multitude of controller types already available on the Switch and Switch 2, and Nintendo continues to innovate with controller usage.As a Nintendo fan, I’m beyond excited for the Switch 2. While I’m admittedly hesitant to spend upwards of $450 for the system, my love of gaming began with Nintendo. And with each new system comes exciting accessibility additions that continue to demonstrate Nintendo’s commitment to accessibility and inclusive design. While we still don’t have a first party accessible device like the Xbox Adaptive Controller and PlayStation Access Controller, Nintendo is in its own way innovating with new ways to play for disabled individuals.Combine these innovations with the recent announcement of Nintendo joining other developers to create standardized accessibility tags, and I believe we'll see Nintendo continue to elevate accessibility for the better.Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist covering accessibility and the disabled perspective in video games. When not writing, he is usually screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.

It’s always good to hear welcome news, even when it arrives 97 years late. So it was Thursday when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors announced that beginning in 2027 they will annually award an Oscar for Achievement in Stunt Design. Or: there will finally be an Oscar for Best Stunts beginning at the 100th annual Academy Awards. This is genuinely happy tidings considering stunts and derring-do have been the hallmarks of why folks have gone to the cinema since the glory days of the silent era when Harold Lloyd hung precariously from a clocktower in Safety Last! (1923) or Douglas Fairbanks shimmied up literal draw bridge chains in Hollywood’s first Robin Hood movie circa 1922. Nonetheless, the Academy has strangely ignored the daredevils that make their biggest tentpoles to this day box office draws. It’s wonderful to see that changing, but we would like to honor a baker’s dozen or so achievements that have stood the test of time and deserved Oscars in their day. Charlie Chaplin Ends Up a Cog in the Machine of Modern Times (1936) When Charlie Chaplin decided to retire his Little Tramp persona with one glorious swan song in Modern Times, his kind of physical comedy and breathtaking stunt work were already things of the past. In the 1930s, sound brought talkies and an emphasis on comedy of the screwball and musical variety. Yet for all intents and purposes, Modern Times is a silent movie, and one of Chaplin’s best as he got to do everything that made him a star 20 years earlier—now with an overt political bent. Take one of the most visually impressive gags ever conceived as a critique of capitalism and industrialization. Midway through Modern Times, Chaplin’s Little Tramp ends up swallowed by the literal machine of a factory that grinds him through its gears where he is expected to perform menial repairs. It is far from the most death-defying trick on this list, but it is an example of physical stunt work reaching a comedic and artistic grace that makes cinema richer. The stunt created an indelible image that nearly a 100 years later packs allegorical punch. Yakima Canutt Jumps Between Horses in Stagecoach (1939) So much of our idealized image of the Old West, both as a historical setting and as a movie genre, is derived from the iconography of John Ford. Mythic compositions of men on horses, and perhaps thornier depictions of Native Americans in pursuit, define many of Ford’s best films. And 1939’s Stagecoach is high among them. This was the first film in which Ford worked with his onscreen muse John Wayne in Monument Valley, and it set the tropes that many Westerns still follow. What is Firefly if not Joss Whedon’s Stagecoach in space? Stagecoach also has perhaps the definitive “cowboys and Indians” chase sequence where Apache raiders descend on the titular stagecoach as it makes a frantic dash across Indigenous territory. The chase features two iconic stunts executed by the movie’s stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt. The first of which sees Canutt play an Apache warrior who jumps from his horse to the stagecoach’s team of steeds—only to fall beneath the animals and the wheels of the coach. It’s such a spectacular image that Steven Spielberg remade it 40 years later in Raiders of the Lost Ark, minus the horses. Yet the even more impressive stunt is when Canutt, now made up to resemble Wayne, leaps between each pair of horses pulling the stagecoach in order to take the reins of the out-of-control leader and guide man and beast to safety. It’s still breathtaking almost a century later. Chariot Race in Ben-Hur (1959) Ben-Hur became the first film to ever win 11 Academy Awards. To this day, no film has bested that number (though several have tied it). Well, it would have been 12 if there was an Oscar for stunt work. Even 65 years later, there are few sequences as astonishing as the Roman chariot race that proves to be the centerpiece of this monumental Biblical epic.Running at 11 minutes in length, the race was not actually directed by Ben-Hur helmer William Wyler, but rather second unit directors Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt (yes, him again). Filmed with luscious 65mm cameras and 72 horses beneath a vibrant Italian sun, the sequence is gorgeous eye candy to just stare at. But the stunt work is itself so marvelous that to this day urban legends persist that either a stuntman or horse died while making it. There is no historical evidence of either occurring, however there was a close call that you can watch in the film: the shot of Judah Ben-Hur getting flipped over his own chariot after it strikes a barrier along a wall of the arena? That wasn’t scripted, and the stuntman who performed it nearly died: Joe Canutt, Yakima’s son. He didn’t though, and it changed the scripting of the scene with the filmmakers adding a beat of Charlton Heston being forced to pull himself back in. Rick Sylvester Skis Off a Glacier in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Really if there had been Oscars for stunts in the last 100 years, the James Bond franchise would have probably collected close to a dozen by now. There are so many to choose from: Bill Suitor operating a real-life jetpack in Thunderball (1965); Wayne Michaels performing the highest bungee jump ever captured on film in Goldeneye (1995); everything Sebastien Foucan did in the Madagascar parkour sequence of Casino Royale (2006). Yet if we are only going to pick one for this list, it has to be when Rick Sylvester skied right off a glacier atop a Canadian mountain for a sum of $30,000. It’s still the defining 007 stunt which opens one of the series’ best movies where Bond, in a ridiculous yellow “undercover” ski uniform, escapes Soviet assassins by launching himself into an abyss where he does nothing but fall for a breathless 20 seconds. He then pulls the chord on an absurd and terrific Union Jack parachute. Way to keep a low-profile, James. It’s all captured in one unbelievable long shot that cuts just before one of Sylvester’s skis nearly punctures his parachute, which would have sent him plummeting. Outrunning a Boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) This was one of the trickier ones to include. There are so many great stunts in the Indiana Jones pictures, so how do you pick just one? For pure adrenaline spectacle, we suspect Vic Armstrong in a fedora and torn shirt dangling from a rope bridge in Temple of Doom (1984) might be the winner. And Spielberg’s homage to Stagecoach where Armstrong again is dragged beneath and behind the wheels of a jeep in Raiders is probably the most complex set piece performed in the first Indy flick. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Still, great stunts aren’t only about real-life danger. It can also be about aesthetics, originality, and indelible iconography. Hence why the first thing that pops in your mind when you read the words “Indiana Jones” is still probably the sight of the ragged archaeologist outrunning a boulder by the skin of his teeth—a trick done without a stuntman. That is clearly Harrison Ford outrunning the boulder! Of course it’s not really a boulder, but a still gruesome 300-pound prop made of fiberglass. It is also on a track, hence why Ford was able to do the stunt. Nonetheless, it remains one of the all time great movie moments that gets the hair to stand on end as a visible movie star appears to be within inches of becoming a pancake as he stumbles his way into an enormous spider’s web.  Jackie Chan’s Explore Slide in Police Story (1985) A performer who should have a whole collection of stunt Oscars, Jackie Chan made a career out of pushing his body to the limits one insane stunt (and many more broken bones) at a time. We could pick a trick he did, or sequence he choreographed, in almost any of his Hong Kong films. But his character’s bizarre choice to chase bad guys at a shopping mall in the first Police Story remains a personal favorite. In the sequence, his prey is escaping down at the lower levels of massive mall, so instead of following in close pursuit down a crowded escalator, Jackie decides the most efficient way to catch them is to lunge at a not-so-near pole and slide about four stories down—for real and with no wires—while shattering every string of Christmas lights in his path before crashing through a real partition of glass and wood at the bottom. Reminiscing years later about the stunt, Chan said, “I made my jump, grabbed the pole, and watched the twinkling lights crack and pop all the way down, in an explosion of shattering glass and electrical sparks. Then I hit the glass. And then I hit the floor. Somehow I managed to survive with a collection of ugly bruises… and second-degree burns on the skin of my fingers and palms.” Michelle Yeoh Catches a Train in Police Story 3 (1992) I was conflicted about including this one since we are trying to keep this list to one entry per franchise, however given that this was Michelle Yeoh’s own jaw-dropping moment in Police Story 3, it seems safe to include the moment where she literally jumped a dirt bike onto a moving train. The moment comes at the end of the movie when Yeoh’s young Interpol agent is attempting to catch up and help Jackie save the day. Not only did Yeoh successfully land the bike onto the train but she rode it the near length of the train cars’ rooftops before jumping off after her character loses control. However, even that last bit is somewhat for real since Yeoh, who had never before ridden a dirt bike before making this movie, was unable to cleanly escape the vehicle. So that’s really her kicking it away and off the train while its wheels are still spinning! Another case of the stunt work achieving a gracefulness and artistry that supersedes just pure adrenaline, this duel among the trees between Chow Yun-fat and Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon remains one of the most surreal and achingly beautiful “fight scenes” in cinema. Admittedly, calling it a fight scene is almost a misnomer. This is really a chance for two protagonists in direct conflict to properly introduce themselves to each other. As such, there is a serene peacefulness to the ostensible violence occurring between two martial arts masters gliding between treetops. The sequence came to director Ang Lee in a dream and was realized by stunt choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, whose stunt team is probably best known in the West for popularizing wire-fu in movies like The Matrix. Yet the wirework in Crouching Tiger is better, and it really is Zhang and Chow up in that wilderness, dancing in the green. Rotating Hallway Fight in Inception (2010) A case can be made that the sequence where Joseph Gordon-Levitt and several members of stunt coordinator Tom Struthers’ team fought in a rotating hotel was just doing a more elaborate version of that time Fred Astaire wowed ‘em by dancing on the walls and ceilings of his own hotel room in Royal Wedding (1951). Which is true, but it’s no less impressive given how dizzyingly complex director Christopher Nolan made his action version of the showstopper. Choreographed on a rotating set in an air hangar outside London, this sequence was the culmination of months of training by Gordon-Levitt and Nolan’s teams to create the sense that gravity was a fluid, sputtering resource in a dream world where the only limits was your knowledge of kung fu. It’s hypnotic. Tom Cruise Scales World’s Tallest Building in Mission: Impossible 4 (2011) Once again, we come to a stunt legend where it is difficult to choose which sequence to include. Tom Cruise has had a late career renaissance as a modern day Douglas Fairbanks. His appearance in a movie over the last 15 or so years is a near-guarantee you’ll see some death-defying hijinks. So should it be the time he hung from a real plane as it took off in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation? Or how about when he performed hundreds of HALO jumps from 25,000 feet in 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout? The last movie in the series was pretty much marketed around him trying to one-up Rick Sylvester’s TSWLM stunt by riding a motorcycle off a mountain with a parachute as his only salvation. We ultimately decided to go with the stunt which really signaled this transition in Cruise’s career. It was in December 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol that Cruise revitalized his career by playing a real-life Spider-Man along the sun-kissed glass of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It’s more or less the same trick Harold Lloyd did 90 years earlier, only higher and in Cruise’s case, he has safety harnesses holding him in place. Yet they don’t even digitally remove that element. They astutely make it part of the story, with the idea being both the harness and his character’s glue gloves only have a fixed amount of time to keep him safe. Afterward he’s street pizza. It’s a marriage of movie star charisma, superb visual storytelling, and old-fashioned derring-do captured in massive IMAX cinematography. Bane Hijacks a Plane in Midair in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Another Christopher Nolan sequence, this one is also the favorite of the director’s stunt sequences in his Batman trilogy. A bit of a riff on a similar scene in the James Bond movie Licence to Kill, Nolan improves on his influence by recording in eye-popping IMAX photography how a team of aerial stuntmen, coordinated by Tom Struthers again, literally jump from one massive plane to smaller charter flight, and commandeer it with little more than wires, explosives, and guts. The wings coming off is a digital effect. Almost everything else is not. We were tempted to just include all of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road as a single entry. This mad fantasia of gas-guzzling grandeur is one set piece marvel after another, strung together in a feature-length chase sequence that ascends to a level of cinematic Valhalla where all is shiny and chrome. But if we must narrow it to one scene that the Academy can point to and go, “Witnessed!” it would probably be the pole cat spectacle. With Miller’s gang of Australian lunatics… er, stuntmen trained by the acrobats of Cirque du Soleil, these blokes really swayed in the breeze (purely because it looked cooler) on poles above cars going anywhere between 30 and 60 MPH in the Namibian desert. They then swung on said poles over movie stars, including Zoë Kravitz who is really whisked by a pole-catter from one speeding vehicle to another, with nothing but hard desert earth beneath their feet. God Bless George Miller. No, really, that must’ve been the case because the fact no one died makes this something of a miracle. The Last 40 Minutes of John Wick 4 (2023), All of It Much like the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchises, the John Wick flicks are an embarrassment of riches for stunt work and spectacle. Begun by former stuntmen-turned-directors Chad Staheleski and David Leitch, and with every film in the mainline series so far still directed by Staheleski, the John Wick movies are a chance for those who know the intricacies of stunts to translate that into pure cinema. Which might make it a bit of a shame the series is not ending after what was clearly intended to be the grand finale in John Wick: Chapter 4. Everything about this entry acted like it was embracing the kitchen sink mentality, including an epic climax of stunt work that begins with one of the most impressive oner action sequences ever conceived—this one taking an overhead, godseye view to the carnage as Keanu Reeves shoots his way through enemy territory—and culminates in an even more impressive, seeming series of oners where Reeves and Donnie Yen fight their way repeatedly up a long, outdoor Parisian staircase in Montmartre filled with assassins who want old Johnny boy dead. It’s a visual crucible of Mr. Wick’s trials and travails distilled into a masterpiece of carnage.

Apple and its customers can breathe a sigh of relief today after the White House carved tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, and more. The iPhone maker was facing a 145% fee on products imported into the United States from China. This caused weeks of speculation that the iPhone and other electronics could be subject to price hikes to cover the cost. Bloomberg reported on the tariff exemption policy development: The exclusions, published late Friday by US Customs and Border Protection, narrow the scope of the levies by excluding the products from Trump’s 125% China tariff and his baseline 10% global tariff on nearly all other countries. The exclusions would apply to smartphones, laptop computers, hard drives and computer processors and memory chips. Those popular consumer electronics items generally aren’t made in the US. Setting up domestic manufacturing would take years. The products that won’t be subject to Trump’s new tariffs also include machines used to make semiconductors. That would be important for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has announced a major new investment in the US as well as other chipmakers. The move follows a week of policy and market volatility in which the White House issued tariff increases across the board for imports, reset tariff rates for 90 days for most countries except for China, and stated that the iPhone could be built in the USA. But as Bloomberg’s coverage suggests, the tech industry may not be out of the woods yet. That’s because the Trump administration may be planning sector-specific tariff rates separate from the 145% tariff rate put on imports from China. For now, the return to a 10% tariff rate on electronics will likely offer relief to Apple and consumers who were rushing to buy products at pre-tariff prices over the last few days. Best Apple accessories Follow Zac Hall: X | Threads | Instagram | Mastodon Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Is yours in here?Steady DripA new report from the security firm UpGuard reveals that some NSFW chatbot sites are oozing explicit user chat contents into the open web — and what those chats contain can be disturbing.According to Wired, UpGuard's investigation focused on 400 "exposed" AI services, all of which were built on an open-source AI protocol called llama.cpp. Researchers from UpGuard were able to determine that 117 IP addresses connected to these poorly built services were leaking user prompts into the digital wild, and that three such systems were leaking data from extensive, sexually explicit interactions with erotic chatbots.Over 24 hours, UpGuard collected nearly 1,000 leaked user chats. Disturbingly, five of them centered on child sexual abuse scenarios.Though UpGuard couldn't determine which specific AI sites or services were leaking the exposed prompts, according to Wired, they were able to make out that the sites are host to roleplay-oriented chatbots designed to embody specific "characters."UpGuard's report is alarming on multiple levels. On its face, that sexually intimate user interactions with AI chatbots are drifting out into the open web is a massive privacy issue. At the same time, those privacy gaps reveal some of the darkest underbellies of generative AI, where people use unregulated AI services to engage in horrifyingly abusive — and alarmingly accessible — sexual fantasies.Large language models "are being used to mass-produce and then lower the barrier to entry to interacting with fantasies of child sexual abuse," Greg Pollock, the VP of product at UpGuard and the author of the report, told Wired.Darkest CornersTo Pollock's point, this is far from the first time that generative AI has been used to create or consume child pornography or engage in pedophilic fantasies.Last week, Wired reported that yet another exposure incident at a South Korean AI image generator startup revealed a horrifying trove of AI-generated sexual deepfakes, including sexual synthetic images of celebrities de-aged to look like children (the company deleted the whole website as a result.)And regarding character-based chatbot services specifically, MIT Technology Review recently found that a chatbot provider called Botify AI was similarly hosting chatbot versions of sexualized, de-aged celebrity women, while a Futurism investigation last year found that the chatbot startup Character.AI — which is currently fighting two child welfare lawsuits — was hosting chatbots expressly designed to groom underage users.More on AI and abuse: AI Startup Deletes Entire Website After Researcher Finds Something Disgusting ThereShare This Article

The next time a carrier needs to check on a utility pole, they might not need to send an actual person.

April 12, 20252 min readThis Robot Copies Life—By DecomposingA new soft robotic arm and its controller break down naturallyBy Saugat Bolakhe edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Thomas FuchsPicture a robot. What do you see? A rugged, steel-clad machine built to transcend living beings’ organic fragility? Unfortunately, this very quality now threatens to drown the planet in extremely durable e-waste. What if, instead, our increasingly prevalent machines were designed to decay and disappear—like life does?For a study in Science Advances, researchers crafted a robotic arm, and a joysticklike controller to operate it, from pork gelatin and plant cellulose—materials sturdy enough to function yet delicate enough to degrade in backyard compost. After testing, both origamilike structures disintegrated in soil within weeks.Biodegradable robotics often falls under the umbrella of soft robotics, which draws inspiration from nature’s more pliable creations. “The field originated from materials science and chemistry rather than conventional robots that come from mechanical engineering,” says materials scientist Florian Hartmann of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany. But a lot of early soft robotics prototypes still relied on synthetic polymers that linger as pollution.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Pingdong Wei, a materials scientist working with natural polymers at Westlake University in Hangzhou, teamed up with his friend Zhuang Zhang, a robotics engineer now at Fudan University in Shanghai, to assemble robots for the new study. Wei had long been intrigued by robotics, Zhang recalls, and raised the idea of creating a robot himself. “That’s when I thought, Why not use the materials he works with to build one?”They started with cellulose layers derived from cotton pulp, then added glycerol for flexibility and dried the layers for strength. “Cellulose is also cheap and easy to assemble,” Wei says. To build sensors, the researchers used a conductive gelatin extracted from pork, in which the flow of ions changes when the material is stretched, bent or pressed. They then folded the flat films and sensors into 3D structures.Wei and Zhang found that the controller and robotic arm stood up to both heavy use and a week of inactivity. Finally, they buried them both in a 20-centimeter-deep hole near their campus. Within eight weeks the machines were almost entirely gone.“The way the researchers were able to engineer something so rigid yet so soft is impressive,” says robotics engineer Ellen Rumley, who is also at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. Neither Rumley nor Hartmann was involved in the study.Wei and Zhang envision bots like these handling hazardous waste and then dissolving; they also propose robots that aid surgeries and then safely break down inside the body. But it’s important to note that the technology is in very early stages.“If we truly want to have a sustainable robot that goes outside in nature,” Hartmann says, “we also need to think of electronics or power supplies, or even batteries, that are biodegradable.”

Phasmophobia turns to its community to make this Easter event the most terrifying yet "Our community is everything, and we're always looking for ways to improve." Image credit: Kinetic Games News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on April 12, 2025 Phasmophobia developer Kinetic Games has outlined what's coming up in the first event of 2025, Cursed Hollow, when it launches on 17th April. Fans can expect "new bone-chilling challenges and secrets to uncover", as well as a number of "exciting changes from previous events" including new reward categories, daily map rotation - nine of which have been seasonally decorated - and gameplay modifiers as you unearth mysterious Jackalope totems. Let's Play Phasmophobia! SOLO ZOE TRIES THE NEW UPDATE & ALREADY REGRETS THIS.Watch on YouTube Players can also expect "additional reworks" recommended by the Phasmo community itself, including two different types of rewards: Community and Personal. Completing the former will grant points that go towards the wider community pool, whilst personal rewards are precisely that. However, to unlock personal objectives, players have to work together to reach the Community goal first. "During Cursed Hollow, Ghost Hunters will need to work together to identify ghosts, complete objectives, and search for Jackalope totems hidden across the game’s maps," the developer teased. "But beware: interacting with the totems will have eerie effects, some helpful, and some that may hinder even the most experienced of teams." "We're really excited for Cursed Hollow to launch next week, and once again have our players join together to tackle this season's Community goals," said lead developer and director of Kinetic Games, Daniel "Dknighter" Knight. "We've made some changes this year following direct feedback from our previous events; from the new reward split, to some interesting new gameplay modifiers. Our community is everything, and we're always looking for ways to improve - we hope everyone enjoys what 'Cursed Hollow' has in store for them this Easter, and keeps the feedback coming on what they want to see in the future." Cursed Hollow will kick off on 17th April and run for three weeks. Phasmophobia is available on PC via Steam, PS5, PS VR2, and Xbox Series X/S The ghost-hunting sim has sold two million copies on console since it came out of early access last October, bringing the total sales across all platforms to 22 million. The development team recently outlined the road ahead for the spooky sim in 2025, confirming map reworks, new ghost-hunting equipment, "thrilling seasonal events", and a brand-new location, too.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here NetEase’s decision to introduce Lord icons in Marvel Rivals was certainly a great move. While these icons primarily showcase a player’s proficiency level, they aren’t necessarily a reflection of skill, but rather of the time and dedication spent mastering heroes, as most of these icons require playing a hero for approximately 20 hours. According to Danny Koo, executive producer at Marvel Games, Lord icons will soon take on an additional purpose. Koo recently revealed a few more things coming to the game, including Legendary skins for everyone. Lord icons will be added to the Marvel Rivals hero selection wheel At the beginning of every match, players need to select their heroes. This is done through a selection wheel, which is the first thing everyone sees after the loading screen. For now, the selection wheel has default icons for every hero. However, NetEase will add Lord icons to it, Danny Koo revealed on X (formerly Twitter). The executive confirmed that the feature is on NetEase’s to-do list, though its release date remains uncertain. It may be introduced with the release of Season 2.5, which is expected to come in late May. While not a groundbreaking addition, this feature will provide players with added motivation to enhance the proficiency rank of their favorite heroes. Default icons can be upgraded after completing hero-specific quests. Image by VideoGamer Since the game has been out for more than four months, many players have earned Lord icons for their favorite heroes. Due to this, it will be interesting to see if NetEase will add another proficiency level to Marvel Rivals in the future. For now, we have a lot of new content to enjoy with the release of Season 2. Besides the new map and Emma Frost, the season also brings seven free skins that are available to everyone. Marvel Rivals Platform(s): macOS, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X Genre(s): Fighting, Shooter Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

The moment you find yourself Googling the best dinnerware sets, you know you’ve transitioned into a fully grown adult. That level of maturity comes with the expectation of having a few domestic things in order, like a fresh set of bath towels that haven’t been with you since your college days, bed sheets without holes and stains, or a mattress that’s not on the floor—who doesn’t love a bed frame?! Once you finally graduate to this stage in life, your kitchen should have a full set of matching plates and bowls that can be proudly displayed right next to your color-coordinated cookware sets.We’re not talking about cobbling together a collection in different colors and sizes spanning appetizer to platters, amassed over many moves with many different roommates. Nor do we suggest laying out random pieces of bone china from a relative; these are fully grown-up dinnerware sets that’ll last you a lifetime. If you were under the impression that proper place settings are something you’d receive as a gift for your wedding, anniversary, or starter home, think again.From matte, minimalist tableware and everyday dinnerware to hand-painted porcelain sets that double as home decor, check out our favorites below.Our Top Picks for the Best Dinnerware Sets:Back to Basics: Made In Tabletop Set, $168 $149Best Timeless Set: Our Place Serving Set, $355 $215Americana Set: Crate & Barrel Mercer Blue Rim Bowls, $50Best Stoneware Set: Stone Lain Lauren Stoneware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set, $90 $80Personality Pick: Porta Vino Dinner Plate (Set of 4), $240Made In Tabletop SetAnother cookware brand gone tabletop, Made In is preparing for dining domination. Available with place settings for four, the plate-ware is made in England and Italy and designed to be restaurant-quality. Not only are they chip-resistant, but the brand offers a one-year no-chip guarantee if it doesn’t live up to your dinnertime demands. It’s an elevated take on simple white dinnerware with a twist and is surely nice enough for special occasions or everyday use.Our Place Serving SetDon’t forget to give your serving pieces an upgrade if you’re tackling the rest of your dining tablescape. This eight-piece set includes two serving platters, two serving bowls, and a set of four smaller bowls. It’s perfect for grown-up dinner parties, snack attacks in front of the TV, and feeling really put together as you dig into your third girl dinner of the week. These designs can stand the heat (and cold) as long as you avoid super-extreme temperature changes. And yes, they’re dishwasher safe.Crate & Barrel Mercer Blue Rim BowlsIf subtle pops of color are your thing, this set from Crate & Barrel should catch your eye. A delicate ribbon of color tops every bowl, anchored with a rich, creamy porcelain. Also available with a black strip, these bowls are dishwasher-, oven-, and microwave-safe and can be purchased alongside other dinnerware essentials that match the design.Stone Lain Lauren Stoneware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set, Service for 4Sometimes a simple hint of color can make all the difference on your dinner table. This nearly sage green set and its ribbed texture will accommodate all of your last-minute dinner guests with full dinnerware setups for four people (16 pieces total). Plus, they’re dishwasher safe and attractive enough to work as serving pieces.Porta Vito Dinner Plates (Set of 4)Porta is our resource for dinnerware no one else has or maybe even knows about. The NYC-based store exhibits untouchable taste, and while we had to pick a single dish to portray in our lineup, we actually recommend all of them. These hand-painted Portuguese plates make every meal feel like a European feast. Plus, they’re microwave- and dishwasher-safe.Henry Holland Studio Brown & White Check Side PlateHenry Holland Studio SSENSE Exclusive Green Pasta BowlFor more enviable dinnerware, SSENSE has a surprisingly large dinnerware collection with unique and artistic picks from small creators like Henry Holland. The checkerboard plates, paired with his marbled bowls, make for a dinner party tablescape no one can rival.Staub Ceramic Dinnerware 12-pc Set - WhiteStaub has a cult following, and it’s not hard to understand why—the iconic cookware brand makes some durable (and shabby chic) stuff that you hope and pray someone buys off your wedding registry. So it makes sense that this cereal bowl set pulls the right nostalgic strings. You can go all in and buy matching plates, too, if matchy-matchy is your vibe.Juliska Berry and Thread Melamine Salad PlateThese antique-inspired melamine salad plates have just enough detail to make white dishware interesting. A threaded trim and elegant berry motif make these suitable for a dressed-up dinner, as well as a special occasion set. If you’re not sold on the white, try this bright baby blue.Fiore Dinner Plates in Terracotta (Set of 4)These Fiore dinner plates are made by a brother duo in Southern Italy. The terra-cotta and small floral motif couldn’t look more suited to outdoor dining in a lemon grove. Or inside, on a rustic wooden table, some linen cloth napkins and a beautiful set of pewter silverware. Looking at these, you’d think they were more artifact than dishwasher-safe, but you’ll be happy to learn these are artifacts that can, in fact, withstand the dishwasher.Maison Madison Riviera Hand-Painted Dinner Plates (Set of 4)On the topic of Italian dining, these plates, aptly named Riviera, bring a Mediterranean vibe to your tabletop. The bold blue stripe and scalloped edge are perfect for making a regular old meal into a European occasion. We’re also after their soup bowls and dessert plates.Corelle Vitrelle City Block 18-Piece Dinnerware SetThere’s something wonderfully postmodern happening on this Corelle set. There are more than a few reasons to love this dinnerware brand—and you’ve likely spotted it in your parents’ (or grandparents’) kitchen at some point. First, it’s really hard to chip these pieces. Next, the patterns are durable; this isn’t one of those situations where you’ll get further and further from the original design every time you pull these out of the dishwasher.East Fork Shallow Dinner SetMade in Asheville, North Carolina, East Fork’s earthenware set has a down-to-earth vibe in refined silhouettes. There’s something special about the colors the potters are able to achieve; they’re rich in a way that feels like they came directly from the center of the earth. We’re into this mossy green, a collaboration with Momofuku. The exposed rims are a nice texture not only to look at but also to grip when you’re transporting everything from the kitchen to the table.

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