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Apple has some significant changes in mind for both future versions of the Apple Watch, and the software for existing recent models.Future and recent Apple Watch models will get new features in watchOS 12.Amid rumors that future Apple Watch models could gain cameras and additional health sensors, a new report suggests that software changes are also on the way.A new report from Bloomberg suggests that the Apple Watch won't be gaining Apple Intelligence on its hardware directly. However, watchOS 12 will be able to display results from the technology that is powered on a user's other devices. Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Bungie has finally revealed gameplay for Marathon, resulting in cautious enthusiasm from many fans. Unlike Destiny 2, which is free to start, the extraction shooter must be purchased, though the developer has yet to announce pricing. It did confirm a battle pass and seasons, with Season 1 launching alongside the game in September. Speaking to GameSpot, game director Joe Ziegler went into some more detail about the seasonal model. “Part of our seasonal model is actually to make it so as you’re having these adventures and there are things that you are earning and commemorating at an account level. Some of which are achieved by you doing some crazy things with friends or things of that sort that unlock things, potentially cosmetics or things of that account level that will stay with you throughout the time. “The idea is every season should be a moment to go on adventures, commemorate them, and then, some of those commemorative elements you can use as expressive elements for yourself in the future, whether they be skins or titles or things like that as a new season starts – a new opportunity to go on a new adventure. Part of the burden on us in terms of thinking about the service is to make sure every adventure that every season offers is in and of itself different and feels different to create those new stories.” Of course, what shape and form those adventures will take and how Bungie will allow you to commemorate them remains to be seen. Gameplay director Andrew Witts chimed in as well. “We’re taking some pretty big swings for what the middle and end of the season looks like, and we’re already starting to think about what’s happening in the world. What are some consequences? “How does that manifest into the decisions players can make, interesting ways on the mercenary fantasy and all the different ways that happens? Am I just getting something and getting out? Am I trying to take out a specific enemy? Things like that and that add to more fidelity and choice.” Despite how the gameplay looks, it seems that Bungie is trying to think beyond your average extraction shooter experience. Marathon launches on September 23rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Sign-ups are available for a closed alpha, which starts on April 23rd and ends on May 4th. Stay tuned for more details, and check out the overview trailer on its factions, Runners and more. You can also watch the incredible cinematic short written and directed by Alberto Mielgo.

One night in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, a felting artisan ended her day with a prayer. May our partners have good health. May they be ambitious, and successful, and may their businesses grow. The next morning, sisters-in-law Chinara Makashova and Nazgul Esenbaeva, and the people they worked with awoke to what seemed like a miracle: Shopify orders. So many Shopify orders. They got to work. It felt like everything was falling into place: The company they had built from scratch was exporting felted slippers and artisan products to wholesale partners around the globe. And with help from USAID’s green business initiative in Central Asia, they were expanding their production abilities — and finally building their own modern, direct-to-consumer web store: one with the payment processing and data security infrastructure to help them reach customers directly. Staff in one of the rooms in Tumar’s Bishkek factory, evaluating a finished batch of Kyrgies “wool slide” slippers. Photo by Alexandra MarvarBut just as their new ecommerce infrastructure was coming together, the USAID funding vanished around the world — leaving them with a $35,000 funding gap. In so many places, the internet makes building a retail business easy — but in the world’s most land-locked country, with a banking system bogged down by sanctions against one neighbor and cybersecurity barriers against another, growth is a balancing act. Tumar’s path has been unconventional: bringing together nomadic tradition, Soviet legacy, and digital commerce to build a modern business, even when the infrastructure around them can’t keep up. Their first challenge: scaling a 5,000-year-old process that had never before been automated, with machines salvaged from the collapse of the USSR.Nearly erasedFor centuries, Kyrgyz nomads on the Eurasian steppe drove their flocks from the low green valleys to the snowy slopes of the Tian Shan mountains, sheared their sheeps’ lush thick wool, and used heat, water, and friction to felt it into the durable shyrdak blankets that lined their yurts. Felt may have been the world’s first-ever textile. It was strong, dense, and durable. It could stand up to bitter cold or pouring rain. But between industrialization and the pressure, under Soviet rule, to abandon the past, Kyrgyz wet felting by hand almost disappeared. In fact this particular felting tradition was just a few farflung elders and hidden artifacts from extinction in the 1990s when some women in Bishkek, graduating from university into a post-Soviet world, began to seek out, re-learn, and revive the practice. Merino sheep near Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issykül, at Jaichy sheep farm and yurt camp run by shepherd Baatyrbek Akmatov and his family. Photo by Alexandra MarvarMakashova and Esenbaeva — with help from Makashova’s aunt Roza — learned how to use this millennia-old technique of wet felting with Kyrgyz wool to make things like shyrdaks and kalpak hats. In 1998, they started Tumar Art Group. Within a decade, Tumar had its first wholesale partner. And in recent years, USAID-funded programs helped them share their knowledge with women throughout Central Asia, reviving an ancient industry while spurring a new economy. On the felt factory floorToday, Tumar’s Bishkek facility is a labyrinth of sunlit workspaces, some with pastel floor tiles, some with geraniums lining the windowsills, one full of old jelly jars and coffee containers full of pigments and dyes. Workers pull giant, fluffy sheets of “pre-felt” off the conveyor belt of a wool carding machine. On a switchboard that looks like a Cold War rocket launch interface, they toggle dials that are labeled in Chinese, with hand-scrawled Cyrillic translations taped above. These days, modern, commercial felting operations use a water-free needle-felting process, Makashova explained. Some incorporate glue or synthetic fibers. But not here. Tumar’s engineering team hacked their way to avoiding all that, leveraging their custom manufacturing line to automate processes like carding (aligning the fibers), or kneading, done with a one-of-a-kind “beating machine.”The Tumar team found these metal components in a scrap heap and restored them into this two-hammer machine for pressing felted shoes — “the most complicated process in the production of felt,” according to Makashova. “No one makes this kind of equipment nowadays. It is possible only by special order.” Photo by Alexandra Marvar“We take care to keep our traditional technology of wet felting,” Makashova said. But “for the most complicated process of wet pressing, modern engineering does not offer machines, so we have to look for old Soviet schemes, adapt and make these machines ourselves — or restore old machines.”To make one of their most in-demand products — felted slippers — they needed a heavy metal tub to hold water and heat, and flywheels that could apply consistent rhythmic pressure and agitation to the wool. An old Soviet wool milling machine would have done the trick. “Unfortunately,” Makashova said, “they are almost impossible to find.” With scant financial resources and an economy in upheaval, it was hard for this start-up to find, acquire, and ship in the machines they needed — in part because some of those machines didn’t yet exist: Kyrgyz hand felting had never before been automated. Makashova’s brother, an automotive engineer, organized the group’s own small “mechanization base,” collecting, first, Soviet tools and metalworking machines. Gradually, the company acquired textile processing equipment from Italy, China, Russia, and beyond, salvaging, renovating, retrofitting, and Frankensteining equipment to bring automation to an ancient craft.Sheet felt is being dried in a large centrifuge — a piece of Soviet equipment “which we accidentally found during the dismantling of an old factory where we produced blankets,” Makashova said. Photo by Alexandra MarvarThen, more good fortune arrived: A Tumar associate found a tub and flywheels in “a heap of scrap metal intended for recycling,” Makashova recalled. The company’s engineering group restored the find, “and now we can’t imagine our work without these machines.” Steppe to storefrontAs of the 2010s, Tumar was working more with wholesale partners around the world while continuing to make goods for their brick-and-mortar shop of the same name, on a sunny corner in central Bishkek, popular with tourists and expats. By the late 2010s, the global market for sustainable, natural materials was on an upswing, and travelers coming through their Bishkek shop took notice, including a guy in Richmond, Virginia named Barclay Saul. He loved that you could see Tumar’s entire supply chain, from field to factory, in a day, and in the exploding landscape of eco-conscious “Instagram brands,” he and a partner decided to launch Kyrgies out of a Richmond storage space, and sell the slippers online. At Tumar’s lone brick-and-mortar retail space in central Bishkek, the company makes about a quarter of its revenue, selling felted goods directly to shoppers. Photo by Alexandra MarvarIn spring of 2020, when tourism came to a halt, Tumar’s bustling retail business did too. Saul’s bet was a smart one: Kyrgies’ sales surged. People were staying home — and they wanted the right footwear for it. But they also wanted natural materials. “This business has taught me simply that [people want to] buy less stuff, quality stuff,” Kyrgies CEO Saul said. Kyrgies’ ecommerce business has continued to double year over year, enabling Tumar to double its staff and scale their output fourfold in the past five years. This is the dream, Chinara said — but there’s one dream they still haven’t been able to manifest in the reality of today’s complicated internet: their own web store. The sale of artisan goods out of the Bishkek storefront is still, in some ways, the most important thing they do, said Makashova. It’s just a quarter of their revenue, but it’s a source for their product innovation. Thanks to platforms like Shopify, Kyrgies could launch their retail business in the US virtually overnight. But for a Kyrgyzstan-based business, online retail is no easy feat. The cost of shipping by air or land from the heart of Central Asia is the first hurdle. And another thing: There’s no PayPal here. Payment systems, Makashova said, are “a very, very big problem.” A handwritten ledger, detailing the recipes for each of Tumar’s dye colors. Photo by Alexandra MarvarStill today, Kyrgyzstan’s banking system is closely tied to Russia’s, and Western sanctions put in place after Putin’s invasion of Crimea have made cross-border transactions tricky. Some Kyrgyz banks, wary of being blacklisted, have cut off connections to Russian-linked payment systems, and that’s left companies like Tumar in a lurch. Another wrinkle: With growing concerns over China’s access to US consumer data, platforms handling payments in countries near China — neighboring Kyrgyzstan included — are subject to serious cybersecurity hurdles. And if a payment doesn’t go through on the first attempt, often, there won’t be a second attempt. “We’ve lost many customers for this reason,” Esenbaeva said.All this to say, Tumar’s old-school web store quickly became obsolete. They figured out they needed to rebuild their site with ISO 27001-compliant back-end infrastructure: encryption protocols, secure socket layers, and a payments gateway capable of navigating cross-border compliance from Central Asia, all in hopes of keeping international customers (and the cybersecurity platforms that protect them) from getting scared out of the purchase flow. For its raw wool, Tumar does business with approximately 1,500 small, family owned farms (think a few dozen sheep each) across Kyrgyzstan. At this end of the supply chain, the technology may be even more rudimentary. Photo by Alexandra MarvarAs of January 2025, the entire plan was in place. A new website was launched. They had the money in hand to build out the direct-sale infrastructure. But there was just one catch: The project was being financed by a green business grant from the now gutted and shuttered USAID. Tumar is hoping that enrolling in Estonia’s e-Residency program will pull their plans for modern, global payment processing out of a death spiral — but they still have about a $35,000 international funding gap to fill with USAID’s dissolution. Scaling sustainabilityOn the outskirts of Bishkek, at Tumar’s new wool processing facility, the “break yurt” feels like a step back in time. Workers drink black tea and snack on puffy little squares of fried dough with clotted cream and jam. Right next door, a more modern scene unfolds: sun pours through the oculus in the yurt’s tunduk dome roof onto architectural drawings unfurled on a conference table. Shelves of binders and spiral-bound notebooks lean against the richly colored, shyrdak-lined walls. A flat-bed all-in-one printer, reminiscent of HP circa 2010 — whirs. A similar-vintage, thick-bezeled, matte-black computer monitor and keyboard set-up peeks out from piles of print-outs, a glue stick, an old calculator.A traditional yurt becomes an office where architects and the Tumar team are discussing plans for the expansion of their sustainable raw wool processing facility, which had been partially funded by USAID. Photo by Alexandra MarvarAt this new factory, some 100 tons per year of course wool that would have been burned as waste is instead being cleaned and processed. More USAID green business support had been on the way — and it would’ve helped Tumar double the output. Now, they may be on their way to accomplishing that on their own, expanding their product line to include, for example, an entirely biodegradable slipper, and soundproofing and insulation panels (both “no-waste” products made, in part, from slipper scraps). And, importantly to the founders, reliable stocks of high quality raw material that other businesses across the region haven’t previously had access to. Across a stretch of grass from the side-by-side yurts, the warehouse is abuzz with activity. “We want to open [up] possibilities [for] artisans to get new direct online orders,” and to learn how to maintain quality and consistency as output increases, Makashova said. And the only way they can do it is to keep growing. There are workshops and small businesses across Central Asia waiting for this raw material to come their way, Esenbaeva said. That means—aside from their own production of felted goods—they’re needing to expand their partnerships with small, family-owned Kyrgyz sheep farms, and increase their capacity for processing wholesale felt. To make it all happen, they’ll need to keep collecting—and building—machines. Esenbaeva laughed, quoting Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “We are responsible for those we tame.”See More: Tech

If you’ve ever opened an issue of Country Living and wondered where the homeowners of many of the beautiful homes featured purchased their textiles and upholstery fabrics, you might have stumbled into the world of “to-the-trade fabrics” and then felt confused as to why you couldn’t purchase these fabrics by the yard directly. It’s a more common question than you might think. Fabrics and wallcoverings that are sold as “to the trade” only can only be purchased by licensed interior designers and architects with approved tax identification numbers. (In fact, access to these exclusive fabric options is one of the top reasons most people choose to hire designers.) While it’s never been easier to work with an interior designer thanks to sites like The Expert, actually hiring a designer may not be in your budget. So, how do you get these exclusive fabrics? Below, I’m sharing the five most common ways plain ol’ consumers like you and me can buy to-the-trade fabrics and wallcoverings, along with my own favorite places to shop for them.Related StoriesOnline Retailers The best (and easiest!) place to purchase to-the-trade fabrics by the yard (and wallpaper, too!) is from online retailers like Decorator’s Best, The Expert, or Perigold, who sell select options from storied fabric houses such as Lee Jofa, Scalamandré, and Schumacher. These brands offer fast shipping, return windows (though sometimes a restocking fee is applied), and sales giving you prices you wouldn’t typically find or have access to. The one downside is their limited selection, meaning, if you have a specific fabric in mind, you may not be able to find it available on these sites.Read McKendree Sample Sales Occasionally, designer fabric houses will have sample sales offering discounted fabric online or in person to the general public. For example, designer favorite Chelsea Textiles usually hosts a large warehouse sale each spring where their fabrics and furniture are available at a hefty discount. To stay on top of these designer sales, I recommend signing up for email lists and regularly checking the brands’ social media feeds on a regular basis as these sample sales are often announced shortly before they happen. I also recommend following your local design center, which are found in select major cities across the U.S. The to-the-trade showrooms inside those centers will often hold sample sales where they offer fabric, floor model furniture, pillows, art, and more at discounted prices. These sales are also a great place to shop for custom fabric lampshades! Design Center Referral ProgramsSpeaking of design centers, some of the larger design centers where multiple showrooms are located (which are all open to the public to come and browse, btw!) do offer services to help non-trade consumers purchase to-the-trade fabrics. For example, New York’s Decoration & Design (D&D) Building has their Consulting & Buying Program that gives consumers the opportunity to look at and purchase fabrics at to-the-trade prices, plus a nominal fee, as does the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. Other design centers, such as the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC), offer referral services to connect you with a designer for consultation and purchasing. David HillegasSecondhand SourcesShopping fabric remnants secondhand is an easy way to build up your fabric stockpile, especially if you aren’t looking for anything specific. Designers and workrooms often offload remnants they no longer have use for on sites such as Etsy, Chairish, and 1stDibs, the latter two being great places to find exclusive or luxury fabrics. These aren’t just small pieces, either! You’ll often find full bolts or multiple yards of fabric available. If you’re up for more of a hunt, check local estate sales or Facebook Marketplace for fabric remnants. You might even find vintage or discontinued fabric options shopping this way. Fabric ShowroomsAs a last resort, you may be able to order fabric directly from the local design showroom. It’s not guaranteed and is not a common practice, but it’s worth calling around to showrooms near you and asking if they could place an order on your behalf. If they turn you away, ask if they have local workroom (upholsterers or fabricators who work with designers to create custom upholstery, window treatments, pillows, etc.) recommendations who then might be able to place the order for you. The workroom method is especially helpful if you are looking to recover or reupholster an existing piece. There are also showrooms open to the general public, such as Calico Corners, that offer some to-the-trade fabrics, but again, their selections are usually more limited than what you could access if you were working through a designer. Related StoriesAnna LoganSenior Homes & Style EditorAnna Logan is the Senior Homes & Style Editor at Country Living, where she has been covering all things home design, including sharing exclusive looks at beautifully designed country kitchens, producing home features, writing everything from timely trend reports on the latest viral aesthetic to expert-driven explainers on must-read topics, and rounding up pretty much everything you’ve ever wanted to know about paint, since 2021. Anna has spent the last seven years covering every aspect of the design industry, previously having written for Traditional Home, One Kings Lane, House Beautiful, and Frederic. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. When she’s not working, Anna can either be found digging around her flower garden or through the dusty shelves of an antique shop. Follow her adventures, or, more importantly, those of her three-year-old Maltese and official Country Living Pet Lab tester, Teddy, on Instagram.  

Tim Cook really wants Apple to make true AR glasses. He “cares about nothing else”, according to an Apple engineer. That said, building true AR glasses will take a lot of time. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman though, Apple is developing “its own glasses with cameras and microphones” in the meanwhile, similar to Meta Ray-Bans. Despite this interim product, AR glasses are Tim Cook’s “top priority.” These glasses would tap heavily into Siri and Visual Intelligence, as part of Apple’s AI push. However, Apple has some privacy concerns with allowing the glasses to capture media, something that would differentiate it quite heavily from Meta’s offering. Regardless, Gurman’s report describes it as an “interim solution” until the company is able to develop true AR glasses. Developing AR glasses still requires a number of technologies to “be perfected.” Even if all of the components are up to spec, it still needs to manufacturable at volume: A variety of technologies need to be perfected, including extraordinarily high-resolution displays, a high-performance chip and a tiny battery that could offer hours of power each day. Apple also needs to figure out applications that make such a device as compelling as the iPhone. And all this has to be available in large quantities at a price that won’t turn off consumers. Given the fact that Meta has had success in the smart glasses product category, and that AR glasses aren’t around the corner, it seems quite likely that Apple will launch some form of smart glasses product in the meanwhile. According to the report, Apple AR glasses are still a top priority for Tim Cook. He is “hell-bent” on creating an “industry-leading product” before Meta, and “cares about nothing else.” Meta unveiled its prototype Orion AR glasses last year. Those are still many years away from volume production, and the prototype cost is likely in the tens of thousands. Regardless, competition is fierce – and Tim Cook does not want to lose. It’s the “only thing he’s really spending his time on,” at least in terms of product development. My favorite Apple accessories on Amazon: Follow Michael: X/Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram 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

In an advice column letter, a stressed spouse revealed something dirty about their husband's telescope usage in a high-rise apartment building that had nothing to do with stargazing — and let's just say it sounds like he deserves to move on down."The other night, I caught him using the telescope to look through the windows of the apartments across the street," a letter-writer told Slate's "How To Do It" advice columnist, Rich Juzwiak. "It turns out he’s been watching a couple have sex through their bedroom window!"Pseudonymed as "Jackson," the husband in question suggested when confronted by his unsuspecting spouse that it was all in good fun and there was "no harm" in his voyeurism from their high-rise apartment — and even propositioned that his spouse join him in his nightly observations."When I asked how he would feel if he found out someone was watching us, he responded with 'flattered,'" the writer, nicknamed "The Bodies He’s Observing Aren’t Celestial Ones," recounted. "Jackson then suggested we take turns 'watching the show.' I called him a pervert and left the room."If "Bodies" is to be believed — and there's a non-zero chance that this letter, or any other, is fibbed — it's clear that they're at wits' end. After asking Juzwiak what the best course of action would be, short of calling the cops, to "put a stop to [Jackson's] voyeurism," the advice columnist also seemed perplexed."I know you’re not coming to How to Do It for legal advice, right?" Juzwiak responded. "That said, voyeurism/peeping Tom laws vary by state, so while it's possible that what Jackson is doing is illegal, it's not certain. If you are curious about the law in your location, you’ll have to perform your own search."Unfortunately, Futurism found via our own search that this nefarious telescopic use case is more common than we'd like to admit. From a nine-year-old Reddit thread asking for advice on which 'scopes are best for peeping toms to a 1990 New York Times blurb about purchasing one for "sneaky city views," consumer telescopes have historically had more terrestrial purposes than polite society acknowledges.Agreeing with the baffled "Bodies" advice-seeker, the columnist said that it would indeed be "severe" for them to turn their husband in — and that informing the couple who he's violating could also, unfortunately, end up doing more harm than good."Telling them would make it hurt, if they care (if they’re doing this with their blinds wide open, you have to wonder how concerned they are about being seen and on which side that concern lies)," Juzwiak noted.Ultimately, the columnist advised the overwhelmed spouse to repeatedly "make [their] opinion known and keep doing so loudly" — though we'd add that maybe they should throw his telescope in the trash too.More on creeps: Woman Alarmed When Date Uses ChatGPT to Psychologically Profile HerShare This Article

The Magpies resume their hunt for Champions League qualification as they host the floundering Red Devils.