Burning The Candle Still bummed out about 2XKO's 10 character launch roster? Riot has heard you, and have tuned the development team to get "as many champs out as possible" 2XKO executive producer Tom Cannon has revealed the team has shifted to get champs out quickly, and the personal roster number that he'd be happy with. Image credit: Riot Games News by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on April 19, 2025 Following the reveal that 2XKO will have only 10 playable champions at launch, and the negative reception to what is undoubtedly a smaller initial roster than expect, 2XKO's executive producer Tom Cannon has stated that the development team has shifted to further prioritise champion output and stated his own personal target character count: 24. Speaking to press, professional fighting game players and commentators, and content creators at the 2XKO community tour preview in France earlier this month, Tom Cannon said the following when asked by VG247 about the 10 character launch roster, what cadence of post-launch champ releases, and how many teams they currently having working on new champions at this time. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "I can say that we have champions that we're working on that you haven't seen yet. I'll tell you for me a number that would feel better than 10, just as my personal opinion, is around 24. I think at 24 you're like, okay now there's enough to keep me going, and then we can add more and more. But as for what would be enough for me? Or rather, a good starting point? 24." "We're not close to that now, so we're going to work quickly to get to that point, and then we're going to keep going. The reason why I'm being a little cagey at this stuff is because honestly we're still getting better at this stuff. This is a new fighting game team, even though we've been at this for a little while, we're not on like version five of a franchise right? We're building this team as we go and we're learning how to do things. You're seeing the game get better, look better visually, and the character kits get more dialled in as, frankly, we're getting more familiar with the game and better at our jobs." "We do have multiple champions pods going at once, and have heard the feedback we got regarding the 10 champion launch roster. We know you want more and we're tuning the game team to make sure we can optimise for getting as many champs out as possible, while keeping the quality level high. Like, one of the reasons why we only have 10 champs is because we do have that high bar on quality. We don't want half the roster to be just the assist that you use. Every character is going to be someone's favourite character, and you should be able to play that character and feel like you have something that is legit." "But yeah, one of the top things we're talking about now as a team is the roster, because we know 10 is small, we know that we want more, we know that League is adding new champions. The discussions around who is next is also really fun, and it's something we're really passionate about, and it's a real priority for us." Cannon would not further elaborate on the planned cadence of champion releases post-launch, nor how many releases the team are hoping to get out to players once the game finally comes out, but the response he did provide does offer some insight into the team's reception to the 10 champion figure. Riot Games, a company that has built itself around live service game development, has experience in supporting games like 2XKO for long periods of time, even if the 2XKO team itself is relatively fresh to the ordeal. For now, as players in the Americas jump back into the game via 2XKO's second Alpha Lab test, the focus of the community is squarely on the game following wide-spread gameplay updates. With the game set to launch some time in 2025, we're still due three more character reveals before the 1.0 version of 2XKO is finally out there. Who do you think they'll be, and when do you think we'll see them? Let us know below!

It looks like humanoid robots have a long way to go before catching up with human runners. Beijing’s E-Town tech hub hosted what it described as the first world’s first humanoid half-marathon on Saturday, with 21 humanoid robots competing alongside thousands of humans. Bloomberg reports that the winning robot, Tiangong Ultra, was built by the government-backed research institute X-Humanoid and finished the race in two hours and 40 minutes. This would not be an impressive time for a human — the race’s winning male runner finished in one hour and two minutes, and it’s normal for casual runners to complete a half-marathon in (brag alert) under two hours. Tiangong Ultra needed human assistance to win — specifically a human who ran ahead with a signaling device on his back, enabling the robot to imitate his movements. (Most other robots were remote controlled, with human operators running beside them.) Every other robot needed at least three hours to complete the race, and only four robots in total managed to finish ahead of the four-hour cutoff time, according to Bloomberg. Some robots barely made it past the starting line — for example, Shennong tripped a human support runner, then slammed into a fence and shattered. At one point, Little Giant (the shortest competitor, at 30 inches in height), paused as smoke emerged from its head. The Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half Marathon featured robots built by Chinese companies, as well as student groups. (Unitree’s G1 robot fell at the starting line, but the company said a client had used the robot without its algorithms.) In order to compete, robots needed to have a humanoid appearance and run on two legs. They ran in a separate, fenced-off lane from the humans, with staggered start times to reduce the risk that they’d run into each other. Battery changes were allowed (Tiangong Ultra’s battery was changed three times), and substitute robots could even be swapped in with a time penalty. X-Humanoid’s Chief Technology Officer Tang Jiang told Reuters, “”I don’t want to boast but I think no other robotics firms in the West have matched Tiangong’s sporting achievements.”

Gymnastic dancing in Germany, 1943. Photo by FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesGetty Images Brief, intentional movement, known as exercise snacks or mindful motion, can dramatically improve posture, focus, stress resilience, productivity and mental well-being. However, framing movement as both medicine and a powerful tool for professional growth is a decisive step toward an optimal, innovative and consciously crafted way of living and thriving. Rethinking Movement: From Metrics To Mindfulness Mainstream fitness culture has long prioritized performance metrics (think calories burned, steps counted, reps completed) over the innate intelligence of natural movement. As a result, our relationship with physical activity has become increasingly transactional. The body is treated like a machine to optimize, rather than an ever-evolving living system to care for. However, a deeper, more restorative narrative is rising within the wellness space, one that positions movement not as a task to complete, but as medicine. This shift reframes human motion as a vital rhythm for well-being, performance and clarity. Rather than isolating exercise to a high-intensity hour, this mindful approach embraces the quiet potency of consistent, embodied movement as a daily anchor. From micro-movements and walking rituals to posture resets and breath-led flow, these practices are tangible, sustainable tools for peak performance. When practiced with awareness, movement becomes a form of somatic strategy: enhancing focus, regulating emotions and restoring cognitive bandwidth. For leaders, creatives and decision-makers, mindful movement may be the missing link between chronic depletion and sustainable excellence. This evolution in thinking is rooted in a timeless truth: the human body was never meant to be still. It was designed to move frequently, rhythmically and with intention. Purposeful movement nourishes not just muscles and joints but also the brain, the nervous system and the internal landscape that shapes how we respond to challenge and change. Mindful movement isn’t a pause from productivity. It’s the physiological foundation that allows it to flourish. The Rise of "Exercise Snacks" First coined by physiologists, exercise snacks refer to short bursts of movement, typically one to five minutes, that are strategically woven into the day. Think: a brisk stair climb between Zoom calls, a few yoga stretches before breakfast, or a quick round of squats at the top of each hour. These micro-sessions require no gym, no gear and no disruption, just intentionality. And the science behind them is compelling. A 2022 study published in Nature Medicine found that adults who engaged in just one to two minutes of vigorous, intermittent, lifestyle-based physical activity three times per day had a 49% lower risk of all-cause mortality. Even more striking, their risk of cardiovascular disease mortality dropped by up to 40%, despite not participating in structured workouts. The takeaway is both profound and accessible: the body responds to frequency, not just duration. These small, purposeful movements compound over time, shaping long-term health outcomes and sustaining the energy, focus and resilience needed to show up fully in both life and leadership. Posture And Mobility: Undoing The Sedentary Spiral Extended sitting does more than stiffen your spine. It compresses lung capacity, alters gait patterns and affects how the brain processes pain signals, to name a few. Researchers from the British Journal of Sports Medicine (2023) found that interrupting sitting every 30 minutes with just 3 minutes of movement improved spinal mobility and core engagement and reduced musculoskeletal discomfort. Mindful movements, such as tai chi, dynamic stretching or simply rotating the neck and shoulders, recalibrate posture by reconnecting the body to gravity and breath. This synergistic reconnection can be especially critical for knowledge workers who spend much of their day locked into digital postures and disconnected from bodily sensations. Mental Health And Stress Resilience To Move Beyond the Mind Movement doesn’t just alter how we feel physically. It alters brain chemistry. A recent meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry (2023) found that people who engaged in short, regular bouts of physical activity, particularly rhythmic, low-intensity exercises like walking, experienced a 26% reduction in depression symptoms. These movements activated the parasympathetic nervous system, downregulating cortisol while upregulating serotonin and dopamine. The study also found that movement positively impacted interoception, or the ability to sense internal states, which is foundational for emotional regulation and stress recovery. For individuals dealing with chronic stress or burnout, even five minutes of coordinated movement with breath can be a tremendous tool to reset the nervous system. In this context, mindful motion becomes not just a coping strategy but a therapeutic tool for daily optimal living at work and beyond. Cognitive Sharpness To Move Into Flow Movement and mental clarity are tightly intertwined. Emerging evidence from a 2022 review in NeuroImage showed that concise, sub-maximal movement increases cerebral blood flow, particularly in the prefrontal cortex—the region responsible for focus, decision-making and working memory. This may explain why many high-performing professionals and creatives report their best ideas come while walking, stretching or pacing. Thus, incorporating "movement breaks" into the workday can improve problem-solving capacity, reduce mental fatigue and improve task-switching efficiency. The movement-flow connection also reinforces one of the central findings in behavioral science: context shapes cognition. In other words, when a body is in motion, it gives the brain a different lens through which to process challenges, resolve conflict and innovate. From Fitness To Fluidity The emerging paradigm of movement isn’t about doing more but about doing it differently. When physical activity is distributed throughout the day and decoupled from performance pressure, it becomes more accessible, more intuitive and more inclusive. This shift reframes movement as something that belongs to everyone, regardless of age, ability or schedule. Gone is the all-or-nothing mentality that has long defined traditional fitness culture. In its place: a fluid approach to motion. Thirty seconds of breathwork upon waking. Two minutes of spinal mobility between meetings. A spontaneous dance break while the kettle boils. These micro-movements may be small in duration, but they are mighty in impact. Restorative, cumulative and essential to sustaining our well-being in an increasingly sedentary world. Crucially, they also hold the potential to address health equity. A 2023 review published in Frontiers in Public Health highlights how movement “snacks” and mindful motion practices can serve as low-barrier, high-impact interventions, particularly for individuals facing structural or economic limitations to accessing traditional exercise environments. The Future Of Fitness Isn’t Harder, Longer Or Faster It’s smarter. Simpler. And more sustainable. Yes, the science is compelling, but the real insight is deeply human: our bodies are always speaking. They signal when we’re stagnant, when we’re overstimulated, when we’re disconnected. And when we meet those signals with movement, no matter how subtle, we affirm our vitality, agency and capacity for renewal. Because movement is more than medicine, it’s a mirror. A daily reminder that health doesn’t reside in extremes, but in presence. Not in metrics, but in moments of lived-in experience. Not in performance, but in the quiet, intentional acts that reconnect us to our most elemental truth: we were made to move.

What just happened? Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai have unveiled a flash memory device that breaks speed records once thought unreachable. Dubbed "PoX," the device can program data in just 400 picoseconds, or four hundred trillionths of a second, making it the fastest semiconductor charge storage device ever recorded. To put this achievement into perspective, PoX can perform 25 billion operations per second – surpassing the previous world record for similar technology by a factor of 100,000. The implications are profound, particularly for the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence. As AI models continue to grow in complexity and scale, their soaring computational demands are pushing existing memory technologies to their limits. Traditional volatile memories like static RAM and dynamic RAM offer impressive speeds – typically writing data in under a nanosecond – but they lose all stored information when power is cut. The researchers developed PoX using graphene, a material renowned for its exceptional electrical properties. Non-volatile memories like flash storage retain data without power and consume significantly less energy than volatile counterparts, but they've traditionally lagged in speed – often requiring microseconds to milliseconds for data access. A research team at Fudan University, led by Professor Zhou Peng of the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems, set out to close this performance gap by rethinking the physical structure of flash memory. Rather than using conventional silicon, the researchers turned to graphene – a two-dimensional material celebrated for its remarkable electrical properties – and implemented a Dirac band structure. // Related Stories By leveraging graphene's ballistic transport behavior and precisely tuning the Gaussian length of the memory channel, they developed a mechanism they call "super-injection." This process enables an almost unrestricted flow of charge into the storage layer, effectively eliminating the speed bottleneck that has limited non-volatile memory for decades. According to Zhou Peng, the difference is staggering. "This is like the device working 1 billion times in the blink of an eye, while a typical USB flash drive can only work 1,000 times. The previous world record for similar technology was 2 million." The potential applications for PoX reach well beyond faster consumer electronics. In the realm of artificial intelligence, the speed at which data can be accessed and processed is a key limiter of overall computing performance. As AI models become increasingly data-intensive, storage systems capable of keeping pace with processors are critical. With its unprecedented speed and low power consumption, PoX could enable real-time processing of massive datasets while also curbing the energy demands of data movement, one of the major inefficiencies in today's AI hardware.

Asus Zenbook A14 MSRP $1,000.00 Score Details “The Asus Zenbook 14 is remarkably light and incredibly long-lasting.” Pros Thin and extremely light Comfortable Ceraluminum material Solid productivity performance Excellent battery life Great OLED display Attractive price Cons Lid is too loose Only one configuration available Table of Contents Table of Contents Specs and configuration Design Keyboard and touchpad Connectivity and webcam Performance Battery life Display and audio A really light laptops that still lasts a long time Sometimes, a company makes a laptop with a singular design goal in mind, such as making it as light as possible. The result can be a laptop that compromises in too many areas, such as a too-small battery or a construction that feels a little flimsy. Asus has introduced the Zenbook A14 that’s one of the lightest 14-inch laptops ever, and I was a little worried that it might suffer the same fate as some other really light machines. Recommended Videos Fortunately, it does not. It’s solidly built (with just one complaint) and it has a large battery that affords exceptional battery life, even with an excellent OLED display. The trick: Asus used a new material to achieve that light weight, along with the highly efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipset and a lower display resolution. The result is a laptop that looks and feels great, runs fast, and lasts a long time. Related  Asus Zenbook A14 Dimensions 12.23 x 8.42 x 0.63 inches Weight 2.4 pounds Display 14.0-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) OLED, 60Hz CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 GPU Qualcomm Adreno Memory 16GB 32GB Storage 512GB SSD 1TB SSD Ports 1 x USB4 1 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack Camera 1080p with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetoth 5.3 Battery 70 watt-hour Operating system Windows 11 on ARM Price $1,000+ Although there are several configuration options listed in the Asus materials, there’s only one configuration I could find that available to buy today. It costs $1,000, and it includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch FHD+ OLED display. That’s a good price for a well-configured laptop that has twice the storage of the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M4). It qualifies as a midrange price, while the laptop feels like it’s quite premium. So, it’s not a bargain, exactly, but you won’t feel like you spent too much money. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends The Zenbook A14’s primary claim to fame is its incredibly light weight, coming in at just 2.4 pounds. That’s not the lightest laptop we’ve seen, but it’s light enough for a 14-inch laptop that you’ll barely notice it in your backpack — and yet, to my surprise, it avoids feeling flimsy as lightweight laptops sometimes do. That’s thanks to a new “Ceraluminum” compound in the lid, keyboard frame, and base. Ceraluminum is the result of dipping aluminum in a bath and applying high voltage, a process that transforms the surface metal into what Asus describes as a “hard, ceramic-like layer.” And it certainly feels different. In fact, it felt weird to me when I first pulled it out of the box, but as I handled the Zenbook A14 a little more, I found myself liking it. And another plus is that the Ceralumium promises to keep the surface free of scratches and blemishes. For example, I couldn’t get it to hold onto a fingerprint no matter how hard I tried. The keyboard deck and chassis bottom are solid, and the very thin lid has just the slightest give under pressure. That’s pretty good, considering that some other premium laptops show the same and they’re not nearly as light. That Ceraluminum texture has a warm feel, too, and while the edges are a little sharp they didn’t cut into my wrists. The Apple MacBook Air 13 is a little more solid all around, but it’s also heavier at 2.7 pounds in spite of being a bit smaller and much thinner (o.45 inches versus 0.63 inches) with a 13.6-inch display. And maybe what’s most impressive about the Zenbook A14’s light weight is that there’s still a large 70 watt-hour battery inside, which as we’ll see pays some real dividends in longevity. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends I do have one complaint about the ZenBook A14’s construction: the hinge is too loose. The lid can be opened with one hand, which is great, but it also wobbles more than I like and falls backward when the laptop is lifted by the base. And, the hinge won’t support the lid when it’s any less than about halfway open, meaning it falls closed with a resounding snap. Asus did a ton of testing to verify that the laptop is robust, but even so it was a bit disconcerting. I wish the hinge was a bit firmer, and I wonder if maybe Asus needs to work on the design a bit. The reviewer’s guide has a paragraph on the “EasyLife” design, and I can’t say that my review unit’s hinge matches up very well. Aesthetically, the Zenbook A14 stands apart from some other Zenbooks I’ve reviewed. It has none of the geometric patterns you’ll find on many Asus laptops, and the Iceland Gray and Zabriskie Beige (?) color ways look nice but are wholly minimalist. There’s a roundness to the design that I like, and its thin display bezels contribute to a modern look. I still slightly prefer some other laptops in this regard, like the MacBook Air 13 and the HP OmniBook Ultra 14, but I have no complaints about the Asus. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends The keyboard is spacious enough, with a comfortable layout and large keycaps. The switches are light with a snappy bottoming action, but it lacked a bit of the crispness that I like. I got up to speed quickly enough and writing this review wasn’t fatiguing, but I’d rate the keyboard just a step behind Apple’s Magic Keyboard and the excellent version HP is using on its OmniBook and EliteBook lineups. The touchpad is reasonably large, and it’s a mechanical version with buttons that are quiet and snappy. As far as mechanical touchpads go, it’s fine, but more and more laptops are including haptic touchpads that I like a lot better. Apple’s Force Touch touchpad with its Force Click feature remains the best touchpad on a laptop today. Connectivity is good, with two fast USB4 ports, a USB-A port for legacy devices, and an HDMI 2.1 port. The biggest problem is that like most laptops today, the Zenbook A14 charges via USB-C and so you only have one of those ports available when plugged in. That’s not unusual, though, so it’s not really a ding against the Asus. I do prefer Apple’s MagSafe 3 connection on its MacBooks, which keeps all the ports available for use. Wireless connectivity is also one generation behind, which surprises me a little given the Qualcomm chipset. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends The webcam is a 1080p version, which has become the new minimum standard. More and more laptops are being released with higher resolution webcams, but this one is good enough for a quality image. The Snapdragon X chipset has a fast Neural Processing Unit (NPU) running at 45 tera operations per second (TOPS), which exceeds the 40 TOPS required for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative. That means the Zenbook A14 can run the various Copilot+ AI features on-device with better efficiency. Asus also adds several of its own utilities that can utilize the NPU, such as its noise cancellation function and its StoryCube app for managing and enhancing photos and videos. Mark Coppock / Digital Trends The Zenbook A14 is the first Windows on ARM laptop I’ve reviewed in the last couple of months, and I see that the platform is doing fine. There are some incompatibilities that might trip up some users, but I haven’t run across any that would matter in my workflow. I think that for most users, Windows on ARM will be fully functional. And that’s a good thing, because the Qualcomm Snapdragon X lineup is fast enough for the most demanding productivity users, and that’s this laptop’s target market. And Qualcomm also focused on efficiency, a trademark of the ARM architecture that also shows up in Apple Silicon. My review unit used the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 chipset, an 8-core chipset running at a max multi-core frequency of 3.2GHz that boosts to 3.4GHz single-core. That makes it the second-slowest Snapdragon X chipset and well behind the faster Snapdragon X Elite chipset with 12 cores and faster speeds. Its Adreno integrated graphics run at 1.7 TFLOPs, which is also the slowest in the lineup. It’s up against Intel’s Lunar Lake chipset that’s also aimed more at efficiency. Note that all of the results listed are in each laptop’s “performance” mode. As we can see in our benchmarks, the Zenbook A14 was faster than Lunar Lake but not as fast as the Snapdragon X Elite. That’s to be expected. It fell even more significantly behind in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark, where Lunar Lake’s Intel Arc 140V graphics did better. The conclusion is that the Zenbook A14 is a very fast laptop for demanding productivity workflows, but it won’t impress in gaming or creative tasks that depend on a fast GPU. Cinebench R24 (single/multi) Geekbench 6 (single/multi) 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Asus Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X Plus / Adreno) 108 / 690 2436 / 11242 3262 Acer Swift Go 14 AI (Snapdragon X Plus / Adreno) 107 / 716 2413 / 11388 3231 HP OmniBook X (Snapdragon X Elite / Adreno)101 / 749 2377 / 13490 6165 HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V) 116 / 598 2483 / 10725 7573 Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V) 109 / 630 2485 / 10569 5217 Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V / Intel Arc 140V)112 / 452 2738 / 10734 7514 MacBook Air 13 (M4 10/8)172 / 854 3751 / 14801 7827 Mark Coppock / Digital Trends As I mentioned earlier, the Zenbook A14 manages to be very light while packing in a large 70 watt-hour battery. That’s plenty for a 14-inch laptop, and when you consider the highly efficient Qualcomm chipset, it bodes well for longevity. Even better, Asus made just the right compromise with the display, offering a great OLED panel but keeping the resolution down a bit. The result is some of the best battery life I’ve seen from a Windows laptop. The best machines in our comparison group use IPS displays, such as the Qualcomm-based Acer Swift Go 14, meaning that the Zenbook A14 does a great job of offering up a quality visual experience that nevertheless lasts for a long time. This is potentially multi-day battery life, depending on your workflow — something that, until recently, only the MacBook Air 13 with Apple’s incredibly efficient Apple Silicon processors could boast. Web browsing Video Cinebench R24 Asus Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X Plus) 15 hours, 4 minutes 21 hours, 55 minutes 1 hour, 32 minutes Acer Swift Go 14 (Snapdragon X Plus) 15 hours, 29 minutes 21 hours, 38 minutes 1 hour, 42 minutes HP EliteBook X G1a (Ryzen AI 9 HX 375) N/A 7 hours, 27 minutes 1 hour, 27 minutes Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 (Core Ultra 5 226V) 12 hours, 50 minutes 19 hours, 30 minutes 2 hours, 18 minutes HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V) 11 hours, 5 minutes 15 hours, 46 minutes 2 hours, 14 minutes Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition (Core Ultra 7 258V) 14 hours, 16 minutes 17 hours, 31 minutes 2 hours, 15 minutes Asus Zenbook S 14 (Core Ultra 7 258V) 16 hours, 47 minutes 18 hours, 35 minutes 3 hours, 33 minutes Microsoft Surface Laptop (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100) 14 hours, 21 minutes 22 hours, 39 minutes N/A HP Omnibook X (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100) 13 hours, 37 minutes 22 hours, 4 minutes 1 hour, 52 minutes Apple MacBook Air (Apple M4 10/8)16 hours, 30 minutes 20 hours, 31 minutes 3 hours, 47 minutes Mark Coppock / Digital Trends As I just said, Asus chose a display that compromises between quality and sharpness. It’s a 14.0-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) OLED panel, meaning it’s not as sharp given the screen size as the more common 2.8K variety, but unless you pay a lot of attention you might not notice. I’m a writer who loves sharp black text on a white background, and OLED provides the contrast while 2.8K provides the sharpness. But I suspect that most people won’t notice the lower resolution nearly as much as they notice the inky blacks and dynamic colors. According to my colorimeter, the display enjoys the usual spectacular OLED quality. It’s bright at 411 nits, well above the 300-nit standard we’ve had for years. Blacks are perfect, and so contrast is extremely high. Colors are wide at 100% sRGB, 97% AdobeRGB, and 100% DCI-P3, and they’re incredibly accurate at a DeltaE of 0.88 (1.0 or less is considered excellent for any use). If you don’t demand the sharpest text, you’ll love this display. It’s great for every use including productivity and creative work (although the performance doesn’t quite keep up here), and media consumption including high dynamic range (HDR) content looks great. The audio isn’t quite as impressive. The dual downward-firing speakers are loud, but there’s some distortion when turned all the way up. And the lack of bass is palpable, with the clear mids and highs coming across as a little tinny. You’ll want to use a pair of headphones for more than just the occasional YouTube video, and the MacBook Air 13’s quad speaker setup is a lot better. The Zenbook A14 kind of grew on me the more I used it. At first, it just felt kind of weird, with a surface that wasn’t quick like plastic but wasn’t quite like metal, either. But the more I handled it, the more I liked it. All the work Asus put into its Ceraluminum material wasn’t wasted. I wish the hinge was tighter, but that wasn’t at all a dealbreaker for me. And I love that even though it’s very light, it still got class-leading battery life with solid productivity performer. It’s right up there with the MacBook Air 13 (M4) which is saying something. If you’re looking for a 14-inch laptop that you don’t need for gaming or video editing, then you really need to give the Zenbook A14 some serious consideration. Editors’ Recommendations

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey says the US will fall behind China in the AI weapons race if it doesn't invest more in research and development. Sportsfile/Getty Images 2025-04-19T15:49:12Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Anduril founder Palmer Luckey says the US shouldn't worry about developing AI weapons. Luckey said the US has already opened 'Pandora's box,' so it might as well go all in. The alternative is that China surpasses the United States in autonomous weaponry, he said. Anduril founder Palmer Luckey says the US military already opened "Pandora's box" of AI and autonomous weapons, and it's too late to turn back.During a TED Live event last week, Luckey said the United States should instead double down on developing AI-controlled weapons, otherwise China could outperform the United States in a future war fought with autonomous systems."I want you to imagine something," Luckey told the crowd. "In the early hours of a massive surprise invasion of Taiwan, China unleashes its full arsenal. Ballistic missiles rain down on key military installations, neutralizing air bases, and command centers before Taiwan could fire a single shot."Luckey said that in this scenario, it would "become clear" that the United States does not have the systems to respond quickly enough to fend off China."This is the war US military analysts fear most, not just because of outdated technology or slow decision-making, but because our lack of capacity, our sheer shortage of tools and platforms means we can't even get into the fight," Luckey said.He said the best way to compete with China is to win the AI arms race.Luckey founded Oculus, which he later sold to Meta for $2 billion. Then, in 2017, Luckey founded the defense company Anduril, which produces and manufactures drones and other autonomous systems and weapons for the US military."I'll get confronted by journalists who say, 'Oh, well, you know, we shouldn't open Pandora's box,'" Luckey said. "And my point to them is that Pandora's box was opened a long time ago with anti-radiation missiles that seek out surface air missile launchers."He added that some US military ships use anti-missile defense systems capable of "locking on and firing on targets totally autonomously.""We've been in this world of systems that act out our will autonomously for decades," he said. "And so the point I would make to people is that you're not asking to not open Pandora's box; you're asking to shove it back in and close it again." Recommended video

Sinners has mainly been advertised on the prospect of Michael B. Jordan playing twins and going up against vampires. Both of those are in the film, but its true protagonist is Sammie (Miles Caton), the SmokeStack twins’ young cousin. Much of the events center on his musical talents and how its brings the people of 1930s Clarksdale to the twins’ juke joint—including the vampires that just wanna join in on the festivities. But what becomes a polite request to be let in turns into a hostile takeover, and then the rest of the movie happens. After all’s said and done, Sammie’s the only human to survive the night at the juke joint. Instead of returning to his family and leaving music behind, Sammie leaves town altogether and becomes a famous blues player. Flash forward to 1992, and the older Sammie (played by real-world Chicago guitarist Buddy Guy) has just performed when two familiar faces show up: Stack and his girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), who were both turned in 1932 and skipped town as the other vampires before the sun burnt up the other vampires. Smoke let Stack live on the promise he leave Sammie alone, but the ageless pair just had to see how the preacher boy was doing for himself. The vampires offer to turn him so he can live forever and keep on playing, but he kindly refuses, and bids them farewell with some old school blues like he used to play back in the day. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, director/writer Ryan Coogler revealed he initially had trouble shooting the scene. When he asked Jordan what Stack would do in this moment, his longtime collaborator decided to put his fake fangs in and get in close to Guy’s neck. Jordan was already wearing his 90s costume and contact lenses for Stack’s glowing eyes, and Guy’s 88 years old, so Coogler initially freaked out. But it was just a hug, and quite an eye-opening moment for the filmmaker. “Bro, I broke down in crying tears because I realized this whole movie was about that,” Coogler said. “In many ways, it was a reason for the movie. It was about me not saying goodbye to my uncle. […] The scene is incredibly important to the narrative in many ways, and the movie’s driving towards that moment.” He’s previously described Sinners as a love letter to his family history and in particular his uncle James, who passed in 2015 as he was in post-production on the first Creed. Upon hearing his uncle died, Coogler remembered “feeling like shit. It was something I felt I had to reckon with.” Loss is a major theme for several characters in Sinners, several of whom recently lost family or remember those who’ve been gone for some time. Smoke dies thinking of his estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Osaku), who died during the vampire attack, and their baby daughter, who passed before the events of the film. Coogler’s loss drove him to the blues music his late uncle used to love, including Guy. When he was alive, his uncle loved “listening to blues records on vinyl and listening to or watching the San Francisco Giants play baseball. If the music was good and you had enough to drink, you might get a story out of him.” As Coogler told EW, going back to the blues years later felt like “conjuring [James’] spirit,” which came to inform how Sammie’s music—like other music of the African diaspora—can summon spirits of the past and future, as seen earlier in the film. For Sammie, that night at the juke joint was the best of his life, and he felt alive playing for the patrons. The same is true for Stack, since it was the last time he saw Smoke, got to see the sun, and felt “truly free.” Despite music ultimately being what led to that traumatic night, it’s what brought them together then and now for the final time, and it can keep loved ones alive long after they’re gone. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Renovation of Sofia's apartment / Pedro Ignacio Yáñez + Carolina RecondoSave this picture!© Pedro Ignacio Yáñez•Argentina Architects: Carolina Recondo, Pedro Ignacio Yáñez Area Area of this architecture project Area:  753 ft² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Pedro Ignacio Yáñez Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Dralas Deco, Hande Estudio, Luna/Oks, Nardelli Carpinteria, QuadriMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture!Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. A 70m2 apartment in the City of Buenos Aires, designed to house a typical traditional family, has been inhabited for several years by a young woman who lives and works in it. Does it make sense to maintain compartmentalized spaces without cross ventilation when the activities carried out in each of these are often the same? Working from bed with a laptop, napping in an armchair, writing in the kitchen. Does an apartment with a bathroom and a toilet for one person make sense? Two rooms? A door between the kitchen and the laundry room? Another to close the bedroom?Save this picture!The project then focused on designing a scenario that was specific enough in relation to the owner's routine, but at the same time, generic enough to be able to adapt it in the event of a permanent or eventual and sporadic change of use, such as a visit from a family member or a celebration of a birthday.Save this picture!Save this picture!The reform is then proposed in two directions. On the one hand, demolish as many walls as possible, unifying the environments, providing them with greater lighting and ventilation. Thus the department gains spatial continuity, more air and more light with these actions.Save this picture!On the other hand, the material decision. a single sole, a single type of wood, a single lighting fixture that is repeated over and over again. The emergence of the white granite mosaic, placed before the artificial materials that preceded it, almost like a declaration of principles, is completed with the operation of uncovering the reinforced concrete structure. Three pieces of incense wood: The wardrobe, the kitchen bench and the chest of drawers, Together with an extensive modular metal bookshelf, articulate the space and provide support for Sofia's new way of living.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:City of Buenos Aires, ArgentinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officePedro Ignacio YáñezOffice•••Carolina RecondoOffice••• MaterialsWoodConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on April 19, 2025Cite: "Renovation of Sofia's apartment / Pedro Ignacio Yáñez + Carolina Recondo" [Reforma del departamento de Sofía / Pedro Ignacio Yáñez + Carolina Recondo] 19 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029144/renovation-of-sofias-apartment-pedro-ignacio-yanez-plus-carolina-recondo&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Project Files: https://www.patreon.com/posts/127020436 . This is the 174th episode of the new tutorial series on Action RPG game using Gameplay Ability System. Here we are going to implement a save and load system for base actor attributes (FGameplayAttribute) used along with gameplay ability system. As for base actor attributes, we currently use - Health - Stamina - Character level - XP points - Skill points But the system will be able to automatically detect all the FGameplayAttribute variables used on BaseActorAttributes and save and load them accordingly. Animations are sponsored by: https://www.ramsterzanimations.com/ https://www2.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/greatsword-anims Full Playlist : Action RPG series with gameplay ability system: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNTm9yU0zou7XnRx5MfBbZnfMZJqC6ixz ► 👇 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 // 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐀 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧! https://www.patreon.com/codelikeme ►Patrons will have access to project files of all the stuff I do in the channel and other extra benefits Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClb6Jh9EBV7a_Nm52Ipll_Q/join Like my facebook page for more content : https://www.facebook.com/gamedevelopersclub/ Follow me on twitter : https://twitter.com/CodeLikeMe2 Follow me on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/user/codelikeme #CodeLikeMe #unrealengine #ue5 #ue4 #indiegamedev

Nature, Published online: 16 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08823-4A. J. Eisfeld et al. reply