At a Massive New David Hockney Retrospective, Spring Never Ends The exhibition features more than 400 of the 87-year-old artist’s works, which are spread throughout the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris A Bigger Grand Canyon (1998) is a 25-foot-long work spread out across 60 canvases. Luc Castel / Getty Images All spring and all summer long, pink neon lights strung in the shape of handwriting across the silver exterior of the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris will bear a reminder: “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring.” These are the words of artist David Hockney, whose massive new retrospective—titled “David Hockney 25”—is on view at the foundation through August 31. Spring is a powerful theme for Hockney. His paintings frequently depict flowering trees, grassy fields and blue swimming pools under languid skies. “When he looks at spring, it is like a child discovering it for the first time,” Suzanne Pagé, the foundation’s artistic director, tells the New York Times’ Eleanor Stanford. But springtime has other meanings for the 87-year-old artist, who now uses a wheelchair. It represents constant curiosity and boundless creativity, even in old age. With more than 400 works made between 1955 and 2025, Hockney's retrospective has taken over the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. Luc Castel / Getty Images With more than 400 of his works on display across the foundation’s Frank Gehry-designed building, it’s easy to see Hockney’s devotion to art, experimentation and change. Hockney, 87, at the retrospective's opening Luc Castel / Getty Images One of the earliest works on view in the exhibition, Portrait of My Father (1955), was the first painting Hockney ever sold. The most recent pieces are from 2025, including “some of the very last paintings I’m working on now,” Hockney says in a statement. The artist collaborated with organizers at the foundation to plan the sweeping showcase of his work. Even with an entire museum at their disposal, they had to make difficult cuts. As Norman Rosenthal, the exhibition’s curator, tells the Times, “We could double it in size, and still use all different works.” After all, Hockney’s career has stretched across seven decades. He was born in Bradford, a mill town in West Yorkshire, England, in 1937. While at art school in London, he bleached his hair, donned round black glasses and began wearing colorful, flamboyant suits. “He’s instantly recognizable,” John Kasmin, an art dealer who gave Hockney his first solo show in 1963, tells Vogue’s Dodie Kazanjian. “He’s the only person I know who can wear yellow Crocs to Westminster Abbey.” Hockney decamped to Los Angeles after that first show, and it was in the flat sunlight of California that he created iconic paintings like A Bigger Splash (1967) and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972) that came to define his visual style. Both paintings, on view at the retrospective, depict chlorine-blue pools and the sharp edges of mid-century modern architecture. But over the years, Hockney became more interested in the natural world, rather than the human creations built atop it. Consider A Bigger Grand Canyon (1998), a nearly 25-foot-long oil painting of the Grand Canyon spread out over 60 canvases. The viewer is confronted with no other humans—only nature’s expanse and Hockney’s vivid colors.As the exhibition title suggests, the main focus rests on Hockney’s 21st-century works. In the past 25 years, he has created art with his traditional materials—oil and acrylic paint, charcoal, ink, pencil—and experimented with new digital tools. Beginning in 2009, Hockney began painting flowers and landscapes on his iPhone and progressed to the iPad when it was released the following year. “The reason I was good on the iPhone was that I always had quite small sketchbooks in my pocket, so with it being small, it didn’t matter to me that much,” Hockney tells W magazine’s Arthur Lubow. His experimentation was met with mixed reviews. “They can never hide their electronic origins, no matter how painterly they appear,” art critic Adrian Searle wrote in the Guardian in 2012. “There’s something inescapably dead and bland and gutless about them.” Exposition "David Hockney 25" | Teaser Watch on But Hockney has never tried to hide his art or his methods, as the show at the Louis Vuitton Foundation shows. For an artist so focused on the future, criticism doesn’t slow him down. “There are people in the art world who think he’s not very good … same as Picasso,” says Rosenthal to the Times. “But time will tell.” In recent years, Hockney has continued to lean into experimental methods. In 2023, he helped create his own immersive experience, which included projections of his paintings across empty rooms. At the foundation, one gallery is filled with screens showing choreographed dancers in his studio. “What I am trying to do is to bring people closer to something, because art is about sharing,” Hockney says in a statement. “You wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.” “David Hockney 25” is on view at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris through August 31, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

OpenAI launched a new family of AI models this morning that significantly improve coding abilities while cutting costs, responding directly to growing competition in the enterprise AI market. The San Francisco-based AI company introduced three models — GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and GPT-4.1 nano — all available immediately through its API. The new line…Read More

Japanese modder handed suspended prison sentence for modding Nintendo Switch consoles The 58 year old was convicted of infringing Nintendo's trademark and fined $3500 News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on April 14, 2025 A Japanese modder has been sentenced to two years in prison. As reported by NTC (thanks, Automaton), a 58-year-old man has been found guilty of modifying and selling Nintendo Switch consoles. He was allegedly arrested for "soldering modified parts" within the Switch system, enabling modded consoles to run pirated games. In a hearing earlier today, April 14, the man was convicted of infringing Nintendo's trademark and sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years. He has also been fined around $3500. According to Automaton, the prison sentence sets a new legal precedent in Japan. In related Switch news, according to internal assessments by a "major Apple and Nintendo supplier", game consoles in the US will still be subjected to the 145% tariff on goods imported from China.

President Donald Trump wants to expand his already chaotic and cruel mass deportations. On Monday, he told reporters that he’s looking into the possibility of sending US citizens to a megaprison in El Salvador.“I’d like to go a step further,” Trump claimed at a press conference with Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele on Monday. “I don’t know what the laws are — we always have to obey the laws — but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters. I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country, but you’ll have to be looking at the laws on that.”In March, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport 300 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, also called CECOT. The law has been on the books since the 18th century but has only been invoked three times before — most recently to incarcerate Japanese-Americans during World War II — and has never been used during peacetime. But Trump claims that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has “invaded” the US, thus allowing him to use the law to deport people the administration accuses of being gang members without due process. The administration is reportedly paying El Salvador $6 million to imprison 238 people for one year. Human rights monitors have documented several instances of systematic beatings and torture in CECOT, where 368 detainees have died since it opened in 2023.This isn’t the first time Trump has floated the idea of deporting US citizens. After Trump responded enthusiastically to Buekele’s suggestion that the US detain some of its federal prisoners in CECOT, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was serious about the idea. “These would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly,” Leavitt told reporters.It’s unclear what authority Trump would use to send US citizens to CECOT. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the Alien Enemies Act applies to both citizens of “enemy nations” and to its “natives,” or those who were born there, even if they’ve since renounced their “enemy nation” citizenship.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used spurious evidence to accuse people of being linked to Tren de Aragua and send them to CECOT. According to ICE’s “Alien Enemies Act, Validation Guide” which was obtained by the ACLU, Venezuelan men aged 14 and up can be removed under the Alien Enemies Act if they meet certain criteria, including having “gang tattoos,” as determined by ICE, or if they’ve communicated with other people ICE has accused of being gang members. Neri Alvarado Borges, one of the Venezuelan migrants sent to CECOT by the Trump administration, was accused of being a Tren de Aragua because he had three tattoos, one of which is an autism awareness ribbon.The people deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act weren’t given hearings or any other form of due process, and their families and attorneys deny that they’re involved with Tren de Aragua or any other gangs.Despite these legal issues, the Supreme Court has allowed Trump to enforce the Alien Enemies Act while litigation continues. The court required the administration to give migrants adequate notice that they’re being removed under the act so they have “reasonable time” to file habeas corpus complaints.But critics say the ruling will still allow Trump to send migrants to what is effectively a foreign black site without any due process. The administration admitted to mistakenly deporting a Salvadoran man to CECOT even though an immigration judge previously ruled that he can’t be sent back to the country because he faces persecution there. Officials said Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation was due to an “administrative error” but have refused to return him to the US despite a Supreme Court order. The administration says it can’t order Abrego Garcia’s return since he is now in Salvadoran custody. And Bukele, the president of El Salvador, also claims he doesn’t have the power to return deportees to the US. Trump is using a centuries-old wartime law to deport people to El Salvador with dubious evidence, and keeping them there in violation of court orders. Now he wants to expand his regime of deporting whoever he wants, including US citizens.See More:

Streaming has gotten expensive. We're no longer living in the era of subscribing to a single streaming service and getting almost everything. The biggest streamers like Netflix, Disney+, and Max all have exclusive content that you can only watch by subscribing. Realistically, the only way to cut down the cost of your streaming bill each month while still being able to watch your favorite shows is to bundle your services together.The overall best streaming bundle right now is the Disney+, Hulu, and Max bundle. This option, which starts as low as $16.99 with ads included, combines all three services into one subscription. This saves you quite a bit of money while letting you watch some of the best new shows on streaming: Daredevil: Born Again and The Last of Us Season 2. Here are all of the details you need to know about this bundle in 2025.How to Get the Disney+/Hulu/Max BundleIncludes adsDisney+, Hulu, Max BundleIncludes subscriptions to all three services with ads.See itActually taking advantage of this streaming bundle can be confusing, especially if you already have one or more of these services you're paying for separately. To help you out, we have this handy guide to switching over to the Disney+, Hulu, Max bundle in 2025 that gives you all of the details on how to save. Here's a quick rundown of the option available to you depending on your situation:For New SubscribersIf you don't currently have a subscription with any of the streaming services in the bundle, signing up is as easy as clicking the link above and signing up for the service.For Existing SubscribersIf you are currently subscribed to only one of these subscription services, then switching to the bundle is also easy. All you need to do is go to your account settings for that service and choose to upgrade to this bundle. Once that's done, you will be billed through that service.If you happen to have separate accounts for Disney+ and Max, then the process gets a little bit more complicated. You will need to choose one service to upgrade to the bundle from while canceling the other service.Watch Two of the Most Popular Shows This AprilTwo of the most popular shows of 2025 are now available to stream. Daredevil: Born Again is about to air its season finale and The Last of Us Season 2 has officially begun. If you really want to watch episodes of both of these hit shows this April, the cheapest way to do so is to sign up for the bundle. Both Disney+ Basic and Max Basic subscriptions with ads are currently $9.99 per month each. So if you were to subscribe to both of these separately, yo would be paying about $20 for each service. With the bundle, you'll save $3 a month while making it easier for you to cancel the service all at once after you've finished streaming the new shows. You also get the added benefit of Hulu subscripton as a bonus.The Last of Us Season 2 - Streaming on MaxPlayThe Last of Us Season 2 has started at Max. IGN reviewed the full season of the show before all of the episodes aired, so here is a quick synopsis of what we thought of The Last of Us Season 2 as whole:"It was always going to be a challenge to adapt The Last of Us Part 2’s sprawling, twisting story into a television show across multiple seasons, and at the halfway point, the jury is still out on whether it will ultimately work. Season 2 of HBO’s Naughty Dog adaptation is not bad television, far from it. It’s incredibly well-made, often looks gorgeous, and is packed full of stellar performances. But the storytelling devices and choices made in terms of pace and placement for key events bump up against what works, ultimately not delivering the striking effect this story’s undeniable shocking events should. It’s good, just not a patch on its stellar source material (or its first season) so far." Daredevil: Born Again - Streaming on Disney+PlayDaredevil is back following the end of Netflix's take on the Marvel series. Daredevil: Born Again started streaming on Disney+ back in March and is headed for its season finale on April 15. For a quick snippet of what to expect from the series, here's a synopsis of IGN's Daredevil: Born Again premiere review:"Daredevil: Born Again does a bang up job with ol’ Hornhead’s long-awaited return. The show captures the signature drama and brutality of Netflix’s Daredevil series while taking the story of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk in a bold (and surprisingly topical) new direction. It’s to Marvel’s credit that they’ve set up such a gripping face-off not between Daredevil and Kingpin but between their civilian-facing personas. But for all the new show does right, there are still a few quibbles to be had – mainly, the lack of supporting characters who pop in these first two episodes and the fact that we are yet again getting a story about Murdock giving up being Daredevil."

This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2 episode 1. The Last of Us is a story about loss, grief, and the lengths someone will go to protect the people they love. Last season, we saw Joel (Pedro Pascal) grapple with the loss of his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) for decades until he met Ellie (Bella Ramsey). He went to great lengths to protect Ellie on their journey across the country, including slaughtering Fireflies in their Salt Lake City outpost to keep them from killing Ellie for a chance at a Cordyceps cure. But this season we learn that his actions aren’t without consequence, and after five years, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) has come to Jackson to collect. In the series, we first meet Abby in the aftermath of Joel’s massacre on the Fireflies. She and her friends have buried the dead, and Abby vows revenge against Joel. In HBO’s post-premiere featurette “The Last of Us Season 2: The Making of Episode One,” series co-creator and executive producer Craig Mazin says that Abby “is broken here, and if she reminds you a little bit, say, of what Joel felt like when he lost his daughter, well that’s not unintentional” Both Joel and Abby’s stories begin with an unimaginable loss. Abby has lost her father, someone she clearly cares about deeply; someone she’s willing to go to the ends of the Earth to avenge. Joel loses his daughter at the start of the Cordyceps outbreak when a soldier opens fire on them, and it forever changes him.  “When we lose somebody who’s taken from us violently for reasons that don’t seem fair or logical, the chain reaction begins,” Mazin says. In a world overrun with infected, with humanity having to fight to survive, it’s no surprise that law and order is left up to the people. We already saw this cycle of violence and retribution come into play in season 1. In Kansas City, Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) was ruthless in her pursuit of Henry (Lamar Johnson). Henry gave her brother up to FEDRA in exchange for lifesaving medicine for his younger brother, Sam (Keivonn Woodard), and Kathleen believed that that meant they both deserved to die. Joel killed a raider to defend himself and Ellie in Colorado. Then people from that community came after them seeking vengeance. “This season is about the consequence of violence,” series co-creator and executive producer Neil Druckmann says. “How far will you go in that pursuit of justice, when you are feeling righteous and just?” Abby and Joel both believe that the only way they can protect and avenge the ones they love is through violence. Joel wasn’t able to save Sarah, but in Salt Lake City he is able to save Ellie. He is able to finally atone for this mistake that has haunted him for decades. And as we see in “Future Days,” he still believes that this was the right course of action. He believes that all of the violence was worth it to save Ellie’s life. According to Kaitlyn Dever, Abby is “riddled with grief.” Just as Sarah’s death continues to haunt Joel, “the loss of [Abby’s] dad has sort of really taken over her life.” Abby wants Joel to die slowly, painfully, so he can feel the intense pain that he has caused her by killing her father so callously.  Obviously after spending so much time with Joel last season we don’t want anything to happen to him. But at the same time, it’s not hard to empathize with where Abby is coming from. We saw what Joel was willing to do at the mere mention of Ellie dying. If the Fireflies had gone through with it before he was able to stop them, it’s not hard to imagine that Joel would go on the most intense, scorched-earth revenge spree you’ve ever seen. While we’ve yet to see in the show just how far Abby is willing to go to avenge her father, those familiar with the games know that this cycle of violence in response to violence is just getting started. When The Last of Us Part II first came out, a lot of people hated Abby for this reason. Hopefully this time around, people will be able to find some empathy for her character and realize that she and Joel have more in common than you think. New episodes of The Last of Us season 2 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, culminating with the finale on May 25, 2025. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

SummaryTurn-based, character-focused, stand-alone tactical RPG.Set in the dark fantasy world of King Arthur: Knight’s Tale.Conquer Avalon with heroes from the abyss. Here at NeocoreGames, we are excited to share that King Arthur: Legion IX is coming to Xbox Series X|S. Legion IX is a turn-based, character-focused tactical RPG set in the dark fantasy world of our previous game King Arthur: Knight’s Tale. Whether you’re a seasoned tactician or diving into Avalon for the first time, we think there’s something here for you in this stand-alone adventure: New heroes, new story and, of course, plenty of tough battles to sink your sword (or gladius in this case) into. The Ninth Legion Rises  A new threat has arrived on Avalon, and it’s not your usual band of marauders. The infamous Ninth Legion of Rome – lost to history – has marched straight out of the depths of Tartarus and onto the mystical island. Their leader, Gaius Julius Mento, was once a proud Roman tribune. Now he commands a demonic legion, a twisted gift from their dead emperor, Septimus Sulla. But Gaius has bigger ambitions: he wants to conquer Avalon and build an Eternal Rome. First, though, he must reunite his scattered legion. A Roman Invasion of Avalon You will step into Gaius Julius Mento’s boots and lead the Ninth Legion through a brutal, Roman-themed campaign. You’ll have to battle nightmare-fueled monsters, clash with fierce Pict tribes, and face off against the ancient Fomorians and cunning Sídhe. You might even cross swords with the knights of Sir Mordred’s Round Table, first introduced in King Arthur: Knight’s Tale. Across fifteen handcrafted missions, you’ll carve your path through Avalon and decide Gaius’ fate. Tactical Combat Meets Role-Playing If you like strategy and character-driven stories, you’ll be in for a treat. In King Arthur: Legion IX, you control a squad of five to six unique heroes as you explore and battle through the mystical land of Avalon. Combat in this game revolves around using cover, setting traps, flanking enemies and mastering the overwatch and opportunity system to turn the tide of battle. Heroes from the Abyss Legion IX introduces six new heroes, each with unique skills and playstyles. You’ll have to level them up, unlock their skill trees and equip them with powerful artifacts to become the deadliest force in Avalon. Whether you prefer a methodical approach or charging straight into battle, you’ll have the tools to build your characters your way. Build Nova Roma Conquering Avalon is no small feat, and you’ll need a proper stronghold to do it. We wanted to make the rebuilding of Nova Roma a fundamental part of the game. This means that you’ll have to manage resources, upgrade buildings and facilities in between battles, and make sure your heroes are ready for whatever comes next. Your Choices Shape the Story At the heart of Legion IX there is a choice that will define Gaius Julius Mento’s journey. Your decisions throughout the campaign will shape not only Gaius’ fate, but the future of Avalon itself.  We hope you’re ready to lead the Ninth Legion and we’ll see you on the battlefield on May 6, 2025. King Arthur: Legion IX NeocoreGames ☆☆☆☆☆ ★★★★★ Get it now King Arthur: Legion IX is a turn-based, character-centric tactical RPG in the King Arthur: Knight's Tale universe – a dark fantasy version of the Arthurian myth. King Arthur: Legion IX welcomes new players to the mythical land of Avalon with an all-new story and heroes, also offering tough challenges to returning veterans. A new threat looms over Avalon as the long-lost, infamous Ninth Legion of Rome has set foot on the mythical island. Their commander, the fallen hero, Gaius Julius Mento was granted a demonic legion by their dead emperor, Septimus Sulla to find a way out of Tartarus. But when they accidentally arrive to the magical realm of the Lady of the Lake, Gaius Julius Mento decides to subjugate the island and establish Eternal Rome there. First, however, he must gather his lost legion… Play through a Roman-themed campaign as Gaius Julius Mento, a tribune of the undead Ninth Legion, as he discovers Avalon. Battle the monsters of nightmares, challenge the Pict tribes, the monstrous Fomorians and the cunning Sídhe. Experience the might of the Old Faith and Christianity and face the knights of Sir Mordred's Round Table through 15 handcrafted missions. Find, rebuild and protect the remains of the only Roman colony in Avalon and choose your path to victory. By the end of the campaign, you'll have to choose: do you want to become a powerful demon, or will you reject the might of Emperor Sulla and restore your humanity? A Role-playing Tactical Adventure: Experience a unique hybrid between turn-based tactical games and traditional, character-centric RPGs. Manage and control a party of 5-6 heroes to explore and conquer the land of Avalon. Engage in deep tactical combat, tough moral choices, hero management, and the rebuilding of Nova Roma. Prove your Worth as a Tactician: Every little move and every decision matters. Use covers, traps, flanking and an in-dept overwatch and opportunity system and turn the entire battlefield to your advantage like a master tactician. Sometimes meticulous planning, sometimes charging simply to combat will be the key to victory. The only difference between a successful or a failed quest may depend on the composition of your party only! Heroes Straight from the Abyss: Legion IX introduces six unique heroes who have risen from the Abyss to conquer the mythical land of Avalon. Level up, gain skill points and unlock unique skill trees. Loot, equip and craft hundreds of artefacts and create the deadliest fighting force that has ever set foot on Avalon. Wide variety of Abilities: Use unique skills, Ultimate Skills and World Abilities to overcome the toughest challenges during your quests in Avalon. Take risks and explore various tactical options as heroes don't face permanent death at the end of the missions. Test your skills in different difficulty modes, from laid-back storytelling to brutal, unforgiving battles. Not Built in a Day: Build up and expand the city of Nova Roma. Make sure that your stronghold has the right facilities for your heroes that prepare them for different quests. But beware! Resources are scarce and you have to manage Nova Roma thoughtfully to keep it afloat. Regain your Humanity: Your decisions have far-reaching consequences, influencing both gameplay and narrative. Through your actions, Gaius will either restore his humanity, or forever be transformed into a demon.

When shopping for a new home, potential buyers are drawn to clean, contemporary, and neutral interiors that allow them to imagine their own lives unfolding in the space. Recognizing this, many savvy sellers are turning to professional home stagers to give their properties an instant makeover. These experts specialize in transforming outdated or overly personalized spaces into universally appealing homes, often resulting in a major boost to the sale price.“A thoughtfully staged and curated home can sell for at least 10 percent more than an unstaged home,” says Jessica Buchman, an associate real estate broker at Corcoran, noting that about one-fourth of her clients hire professional stagers.If you’re preparing to list your home, leveraging the power of expert staging could be the key to selling faster and for top dollar. Alternatively, you can take inspiration from their proven techniques and implement them yourself for a cost-effective upgrade. Whether you hire the pros or go the DIY route, strategic staging can breathe new life into your home, highlight its best features, and help prospective buyers fall in love at first sight. Follow these 11 expert-backed tips to transform your house into a buyer’s dream and potentially secure an above-asking price offer.Related StoriesRemove Personal ItemsThis first tip may be somewhat controversial, but many say that it really does make a difference. Potential buyers want to establish an emotional connection with a home and envision their family enjoying it—and seeing pictures of your family hanging on every wall can stand in their way. Take family portraits off the wall, and clear framed pictures off end tables and bookshelves. This principle also extends to any other decorative pieces that may be construed as personal, political, or potentially offensive, says expert stager Terry Mainord, founder of Terry Mainord Design. For example, a mounted deer head over a fireplace could send even the most serious of buyers running out the door, and a provocative piece of art may make some buyers feel uncomfortable. Paint the InteriorsThe dark green walls in your study and the cabbage rose wallpaper in your powder room may appeal to you (or at least not bother you), but they might turn off some buyers. “A fresh coat of not quite white paint makes a home feel newer and fresher. Try neutral beige tones like Benjamin Moore London Fog or La Paloma Grey,” says celebrity interior designer Cheryl Eisen, founder of Interior Marketing Group, which specializes in luxury staging and interior design. “My mantra is ‘neutral tones sell homes’ because neutral tones have broad appeal.” There are, however, a few instances in which color can make a space feel more inviting. “In NYC, I stage a lot of brownstones and prewar apartments, which can often benefit from color,” says Mainord. “In stagings this year, I’ve used deep burgundy, soft lavender, steely blue, and a bold, emerald green. In kitchens, we often paint worn wood cabinets and use darker tones to complement existing dark kitchen counters.”Related StoryGo for a Minimalist VibeSimple, modern furniture in light colors enhances most rooms and doesn’t compete with the architecture. That was Eisen’s mindset when she flipped a Mediterranean-style house in Palmetto Bay, a suburb of Miami. After changing the flooring, removing a few walls, updating the staircase, and making some other improvements, she staged the home with neutral paint, modern chandeliers, and modern art. “The result was a bidding war—and a profit of over 100 percent return on investment,” she says.…Or Make a StatementWhile simple, neutral furnishings are the hallmark of most stagers, a cool, stylish interior can appeal to certain buyers. “My favorite stager is a maximalist. He will create an aspirational experience from the moment you walk in the door. There will be color and texture, and his props are often antiques and curiosities from far-away travels,” says Buchman. This tactic is riskier than opting for a sparse, neutral look, but it can appeal to discerning buyers in high-end areas who want a stylish home they can move right into.Related StoryPay Attention to ScaleChoosing the right size furnishings can make your home seem bigger. “Lower profile furnishings give the appearance of higher ceilings, and the larger the area rug, the larger the room looks,” Eisen says. Large-scale modern art can also add life and energy to a home, but be sure you don’t hang it too high, which is a common mistake. “In general, the center of the artwork should be around 57 inches from the floor, unless it’s hanging over a piece of furniture,” Mainord says.Replace Light FixturesThis is one of the quickest and most inexpensive staging techniques—and it can have a huge payoff. Swap out dated chandeliers and sconces with more modern fixtures, and screw in warm 2700K lightbulbs, which provide a soothing, inviting glow. “It doesn’t have to be expensive lighting, but updates like this make a home feel more custom and designed,” Eisen says.Related StorySpiff Up the FloorsDated, worn, or stained wall-to-wall carpeting can make a house feel old and dingy. “Remove old carpet and replace it with neutral area rugs like jute or ivory wool, which work in almost any room and will add an appealing texture,” Mainord says. Also replace worn stair runners (or just remove them if there’s nice wood underneath), sand and/or buff wood floors, and clean the grout in tiled floors. Try Some Smoke and Mirrors“Buyers respond to bright, spacious spaces,” Eisen says. To make your home seem brighter, she suggests strategically placing mirrors across from windows to help reflect light. For example, hang a mirror over the fireplace in the family room or above a sideboard in the dining room. Related StoryFocus on High-Traffic AreasIf you can’t afford to stage your whole house, zone in on the rooms that buyers see first. “I would suggest focusing on the living/dining rooms and primary bedroom. Those are the main rooms of a home, which usually get photographed,” Mainord says.Accessorize WiselyKitchens and bathrooms can the the most costly and complicated spaces to stage, so be creative when it comes to accessories. “Replacing cabinet hardware and lighting are two ways we like to update kitchens,” Mainord says. “In bathrooms, we strive for a spa-like ambiance, so new fluffy white towels, white shower curtains, and white mats are easy upgrades. Adding plants—even good fauxs—to these areas also makes a difference. Adding something that looks fresh and organic appeals to buyers!”Related StoryDon’t Forget About the ExteriorPainting the exterior of a house is expensive, but when you consider that an unusual or unappealing paint color can cause a house to languish on the market for months, it’s a wise investment. “Curb appeal is incredibly important when selling a house. Pulling up to a wow moment immediately sets the tone,” says Eisen, who suggests painting houses white, which is always a safe bet. To add to the exterior style, “try flanking two topiaries outside the front door to create a welcoming, happy moment,” she says.Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

Last month, Apple delayed the rollout of its more personal and powerful Siri features. As it looks to right the ship for future Apple Intelligence updates, Bloomberg highlights a shift that Apple is making in how it trains its artificial intelligence models. The report highlights a blog post from Apple’s Machine Learning Research website, explaining how Apple generally uses synthetic data to train its AI models. There are limitations to this strategy, however, including the fact that it’s hard for synthetic data to “understand trends” in features like summarization or writing tools that operate on longer sentences or entire email messages. To address this limitation, Apple highlights a new technology it will soon start using that compares the synthetic data to a small sample of recent user emails, but without compromising user privacy: To improve our models we need to generate a set of many emails that cover topics that are most common in messages. To curate a representative set of synthetic emails, we start by creating a large set of synthetic messages on a variety of topics. For example, we might create a synthetic message, “Would you like to play tennis tomorrow at 11:30AM?” This is done without any knowledge of individual user emails. We then derive a representation, called an embedding, of each synthetic message that captures some of the key dimensions of the message like language, topic, and length. These embeddings are then sent to a small number of user devices that have opted in to Device Analytics. Participating devices then select a small sample of recent user emails and compute their embeddings. Each device then decides which of the synthetic embeddings is closest to these samples. Using differential privacy, Apple can then learn the most-frequently selected synthetic embeddings across all devices, without learning which synthetic embedding was selected on any given device. These most-frequently selected synthetic embeddings can then be used to generate training or testing data, or we can run additional curation steps to further refine the dataset. For example, if the message about playing tennis is one of the top embeddings, a similar message replacing “tennis” with “soccer” or another sport could be generated and added to the set for the next round of curation (see Figure 1). This process allows us to improve the topics and language of our synthetic emails, which helps us train our models to create better text outputs in features like email summaries, while protecting privacy. Apple explains that these techniques allow it to “understand overall trends, without learning information about any individual. Bloomberg says that Apple will roll out this new system in a future beta of iOS 18.5 and macOS 15.5. You can read Apple’s full blog post for more details. Follow Chance: Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, and 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

Them's fightin' words. Silent RiotA former OpenAI employee is joining Elon Musk's campaign against CEO Sam Altman — and he's got a lot to say about his former boss.After jumping ship to Anthropic, which was cofounded by former OpenAI-ers over AI safety and ethics concerns, researcher Todor Markov is now claiming in a new legal filing that his ex-boss is, essentially, a really bad dude.The root of Markov's complaint, as he explained in his portion of a lengthy amicus brief that also includes statements from 11 other former OpenAI employees, are Altman's alleged lies about non-disparagement agreements that staffers are forced to sign early in their time at the company.Last year, the researcher discovered the existence of the clause that essentially made him and other departing employees give up their right to ever speak critically about OpenAI if they wanted to keep their vested equity in their multi-billion-dollar former employer. During an all-hands meeting about the controversial clause, Altman claimed he had no knowledge of its existence — only to be caught with egg on his face immediately after when Vox published leaked documents showing that the CEO had signed off on it.Lying GameAs Markov explained in his declaration, that debacle proved to him that Altman "was a person of low integrity who had directly lied to employees" about the restrictive non-disparagement agreements. This suggested to him that the CEO was "very likely lying to employees about a number of other important topics," including its commitment to building safe artificial general intelligence, or AGI.In the company's charter, OpenAI promises to "use any influence we obtain over AGI's deployment to ensure it is used for the benefit of all, and to avoid enabling uses of AI or AGI that harm humanity or unduly concentrate power." According to Markov, that promise was "positioned as the foundational document guiding all of our strategic decisions" — but ultimately, it proved empty."I realized the Charter had been used as a smokescreen," he wrote, "something to attract and retain idealistic talent while providing no real check on OpenAI’s growth and its pursuit of AGI."Like Musk, Markov believes that Altman's attempts to restructure OpenAI into a for-profit entity shows that its charter and mission "were used all along as a facade to manipulate its workforce and the public." Unlike that multi-hyphenate billionaire cofounder, however, the researcher isn't looking to buy anything — and seems mostly to want his voice heard.More on Altman: This Appears to Be Why Sam Altman Actually Got Fired by OpenAIShare This Article