Overwatch 2's Gundam Wing skins have leaked ahead of launch, confirming which heroes will receive them and based on which mechs. The crossover between Overwatch 2 and Gundam Wing will be available soon, bringing another collaboration inspired by an iconic anime.

Pokémon Go is having a Vanillite Community Day event on April 27 from 2-5 p.m. in your local time. As expected with a Community Day event, Vanillite will spawn in huge numbers with a high chance for it to appear shiny. There are also several other bonuses and perks, which we’ve list out below. How do I catch a shiny Vanillite in Pokémon Go? As per old research by the now-defunct website The Silph Road (via Wayback Machine), Shiny rates on Community Days are about 1 in 24, which means that if you keep playing throughout the three-hour window, you should find quite a few shiny Pokémon. If you’re short on time or Poké Balls, you can pop an Incense, then quickly tap each Vanillite to check for shiny ones, running from any that aren’t shiny. Notably, any Vanillite you’ve already tapped will face where your player is standing, so that should help identify which ones you may have already checked. What Community Day move does Vanillite’s evolution learn? If you evolve Vanillish into Vanilluxe starting on April 27 at 2 p.m. until May 4 at 10 p.m. in your local time, it will learn the charged move Avalanche. If you miss out on evolving it during this period, you will likely be able to evolve it during a Community Day weekend event in December to get Avalanche. If you don’t want to wait, you can use an Elite TM to get the move. How does Vanilluxe do in the meta? Unfortunately, Vanilluxe and its pre-evolutions have no space in any of the high-intensity Pokémon Go content, whether it’s PvE (raids and gyms) or PvP. I don’t recommend investing Stardust into it unless you just really like this Pokémon — in which case, let them (you) eat ice cream. How do I make the most of Vanillite Community Day? The following bonuses will be active during Vanillite Community Day: Triple XP for catching Pokémon Doubled candy for catching Pokémon Doubled chance for level 31+ trainers to get XL candy from catching Pokémon Incense lasts three hours Lure Modules lasts three hours Vanillite special photobombs when taking snapshots One additional special trade Stardust cost halved for trading That said, you should definitely pop a Lucky Egg and an Incense and try to nab some ice cream. If you can Mega Evolve Glalie or Abomasnow, you’ll score additional Vanillite Candy per catch. There will also be “Community Day Continued” Timed Research until May 4 that will reward more Vanillite, including ones with special themed backgrounds. This research will keep the increased shiny rate for Vanillite, even after the three-hour event is over, so make sure you complete them for extra chances to get a shiny.

Siri is struggling. It's struggling to respond to simple questions or create simple calendar events. And the end still isn't in sight, now that Apple has mostly delayed Apple Intelligence's "smarter Siri" until the end of the year.Meanwhile, Perplexity AI's new Voice Assistant is here now, trying to capitalize on Apple's mess. In addition to answering questions, the AI's new Voice Mode is able to create calendar events and reminders, play music, and more. It can hold conversations, and even perform some web-based tasks. These are things that Siri just can't do, at least not yet.How to use Perplexity Voice Assistant on iOSDownload and open the latest version of the Perplexity app. In the Ask Anything bar, you'll see an animated Waveform icon to the right. That's the shortcut to the Voice Assistant. Credit: Khamosh Pathak Simply tap on it and start speaking. Perplexity will show an animation when you're speaking, and when it's responding to you. There's also an option to Mute the microphone for longer chats.This is more of a conversational space, so you can keep talking as Perplexity responds. Tap the Gear icon up top for settings. Here, you can disable the transcript feature, or enable a push to talk mode. You can also change the Assistant's voice.The Voice Mode works in the background, and only stops when you hit the X button in the app. So you can start the Voice Mode, switch to a different app, and continue talking to Perplexity in the background, if you wish. Credit: Khamosh Pathak For quicker access, you should add the Medium Perplexity widget to your home screen, since it has a shortcut to the Voice Mode. Alternately, you can create a shortcut and add it to your Home screen, Lock screen, Control Center, or even the Action button (to set that up, follow this guide.)What Perplexity Does better than SiriPerplexity integrates directly with Apple's default apps like Calendar, Reminders, Mail, Contacts, and more. As long as you give it permission, Perplexity can add events to your calendar, remind you of something, and even draft emails and text messages.As it stands, Perplexity also has a better knowledge base than Siri, as it's connected to the web. So asking something like "when was the Pixel 4a launched" brings up an instant response, while asking Siri requires a confirmation via ChatGPT.In my testing, I found Perplexity was reliable at creating calendar events and reminders, more than I often get with Siri. Credit: Khamosh Pathak Drafting an email shows a stark difference between the two approaches. I used the same prompt with both Siri and Perplexity: Draft an email asking Pranay if he's up for a Pickleball match this weekend. Siri took this literally, and drafted an email saying "if he's up for a Pickleball match this weekend." That's it. Perplexity, on the other hand, expanded this into a coherent sentence, added a Subject, and showed a compose box. All that was left for me to do was switch out my name and hit Send (Siri also doesn't send an email without your confirmation). Credit: Khamosh Pathak My experience with text messaging was more iffy. Perplexity couldn't just draft a message to Pranay, even though I gave it full access to my contacts (if you don't want to do that, you can dictate the email address or the phone number instead). Hopefully, this is a day-one issue and gets sorted out later on.Perplexity's Voice Assistant can also play music directly from Apple Music, using voice commands. And because Perplexity integrates with YouTube, it's quite quick when finding YouTube videos. I asked it to find a soothing video about the hidden art of ceramics in Japan, and in a couple of seconds, Perplexity started playing the video inside the app.What Perplexity Does that Siri just can't doPerplexity's Voice Assistant can converse with you with ease. There's a very smooth back and forth, where the assistant remembers the details that you asked before, knows the context to your prompts, and replies accordingly. It simply doesn't need to ask follow-up questions. Credit: Khamosh Pathak This is great for asking general questions, and for learning things. Instead of a 500 word response, Perplexity's AI assistant will give you a couple of sentences and will prompt you to ask further, sometimes even giving you clues about what you might want to ask about next.Perplexity can take actions on the web too, thought you have to be the one to take the final action, which is fair (and, honestly, appreciated).For example, I asked Perplexity to book a table at White Olive at 8 PM in New York City, and it opened Open Table with all those details already filled in. I had to confirm the details, and finish the booking myself. Then, I asked if Perplexity can call me an Uber, and it opened the Uber app with the location of the White Olive restaurant mapped in.These are the things that Siri with Apple Intelligence is supposed to be able to do for you, but we won't see these features until at least the end of the year, and we have no idea how exactly they will work.It's the transparency and consistency that mattersIn my limited hands-on testing, I noticed that Perplexity's responses were more consistent than Siri's, and since Voice Mode stays active by default, I asked nuanced questions without feeling like I need to hurry myself, like I do with Siri.Siri is sometimes great, and sometimes it just doesn't respond. Perplexity takes care of that issue. Of course, there were times with Perplexity ran into a wall, like with my text messaging question. Here too, it calmly told me it wasn't able to accomplish the task, and that it could try again if I wanted. Hopefully, these small issues will get sorted out with more updates.Of course, Perplexity can't replace Siri in the true sense, because Apple won't allow for it. Only Siri can access OS level features like changing toggles, settings, calling someone, replying to text messages, setting alarms, and so on. But for all the other things, if you're feeling frustrated with the limitations of Siri, Perplexity's Voice Assistant is definitely worth a try.

Etsy is selling Reverb, six years after it purchased the online marketplace for musical instruments. Reverb didn't say how much money is changing hands, but Etsy purchased the company for $275 million in 2019. In its announcement, Reverb said that the investors Creator Partners, which was founded by former SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor, and Servco, the owner of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, have entered an agreement to buy the company. The marketplace will not be merging with either investor and will be "privately-held [and] independently operated" like it was before Etsy's acquisition.  Reverb CEO David Mandelbrot said the deal is expected to be completed in the coming weeks. He assured users that they can continue buying and selling on the platform without any disruption during the process. He also briefly talked about what the company is working on for its users, including preparing for the pilot of a new selling option that would allow people to get paid faster and to drop off their instruments locally without even needing to create a listing for them. This could help buyers who want to get their gear locally when available or those who don't want to pay extra on top for tariffs. Reverb is also working on a way to make it easier for find what a buyer is looking for and on a way for sellers to be able ship their instruments more safely.  This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/etsy-is-selling-online-music-gear-marketplace-reverb-160002119.html?src=rss

With Windows 10 support ending October 2025, many SMBs remain unprepared, risking security and compliance issues.

Includes VFX supe Alex Wang discussing flamethrowers, bloater effects and more. The post Behind the scenes of the Battle of Jackson in s2 of ‘The Last of Us’ appeared first on befores & afters.

Getting your tax refund is the only fun part of filing your taxes every year—which can make it especially galling when Uncle Sam takes his sweet time sending your money. Waiting for a refund in 2025 has some added stress, considering the recent IRS layoffs, the department’s plans for a 25% reduction in force, and the heartburn-inducing game of acting director musical chairs that played out during this year’s tax season. With all of that turmoil in the IRS, any taxpayer still waiting on a refund may worry their tax return got lost in the shuffle. The good news is that the IRS is still processing tax returns and refunds at a steady clip, even with a reduced workforce. Additionally, this department offers taxpayers a number of resources to soothe your worries about the status of your refund. Here’s what you need to know about receiving your tax refund this year if it still hasn’t hit your bank account. Believe it or not, tax refunds are on track If you’ve waited more than the 21 calendar days the IRS claims it takes to process your refund, you can be excused for assuming the DOGE cuts are responsible for the delay. But the IRS filing season statistics tell a different story. Despite the reduced workforce, the IRS is processing returns and refunds at a similar rate to last year. As of April 11, 2025, the IRS has processed 74,858,000 refunds for the 2025 tax season—a 0.2% increase compared to the 74,685,000 refunds processed as of the same time frame in 2024. It’s also instructive to look at last year’s statistics from later in the tax season. The 2024 refunds processed by mid-April last year represented 71.2% of all refunds for the calendar year. That means it’s not unusual for more than a quarter of taxpayers to still be refund-less at this point in the tax season. Additionally, by May 10, 2024, nearly 90% of refunds had been processed for the year—which correlates pretty well to the nearly 92% of taxpayers who file on time. The remaining refunds paid out after mid-May 2024 were generally owed to late filers who got an extension. If you filed your taxes as of the April 15 deadline, you’ll probably receive your owed refund by mid-May at the latest. So is there a tax refund delay? While the beleaguered IRS is working full steam ahead under difficult circumstances, there are several global and individual reasons why you may not have received your refund: Filing volume: The volume of tax returns received by the IRS goes up steeply the closer it gets to April 15. The increased filing volume creates a bottleneck for IRS workers, which can delay your refund. Paper filing: Uncle Sam prefers e-filing, and taxpayers who file a paper return may have to wait four or more weeks to receive their refunds. Refund via check: If you requested a paper check instead of ACH deposit, that can also delay your refund. Tax credits: If you claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Child Tax Credit, that can delay your refund. Errors: An error on your return can delay your refund. Amended return: Filing an amended return can also cause your refund to take longer to process. Where’s my refund? One of the best updates to modern taxation is the IRS Where’s My Refund? tool, which allows you to check the status of your refund. Typically, you can use this tool within 24 hours of e-filing your current-year tax return. To check your refund status, you will need your Social Security number (or individual taxpayer ID number, or ITIN), your filing status, and the exact amount of your refund. There are three potential refund statuses: Return Received: This status indicates the IRS has received your tax return and is currently processing it. Refund Approved: This status shows that your refund has been approved and will be submitted as of the date listed. Refund Sent: This status indicates that the IRS has sent the refund either via ACH or paper check through the mail. ACH could take up to five days to appear in your bank account, and a paper check could take several weeks to show up in your mailbox. When to pick up the phone Calling the IRS for help is about as appealing as a colonoscopy, especially if you expect the wait time for reaching a real live human being to rival the run time for Wicked—the director’s cut. However, you may need to reach out to the IRS by phone if there is no change to the refund status listed on the Where’s My Refund? tool after 21 calendar days or if the tool asks you to contact the IRS. Just remember that the IRS can’t answer questions about your delayed refund until you’ve hit the 21-day mark. If you’re ready to call the Taxpayer Assistance hotline, you can reach it at 800-829-1040 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time. The IRS is still working as designed—for now The 2025 tax season may seem more fraught than usual, but the IRS is still processing about the same number of returns and refunds as it has in past years. The delay on your refund may be related to when or how you filed your taxes, whether you took any tax credits, or if there is an error on your return. You can check the status of your refund using the online Where’s My Refund? tool, and give the IRS a ring if the status hasn’t changed after 21 days. Just remember that if you do need to call, the IRS worker who answers the phone is almost definitely having a worse tax season than you are.

Titanium’s always had a bit of a mythos around it. Light enough for a jet, strong enough for surgery, expensive enough to make stainless steel look like a budget buy. Now picture that kind of overkill precision applied to something as ‘boring’ as a baking tray. The result? A tray so incredibly capable that it steals attention from your oven itself, becoming the appliance’s crown jewel. Why make a titanium baking tray? Well, the answer lies in titanium’s physical properties. It conducts heat evenly, doing a better job than even stainless steel. Ever tried cooking a pizza only to find you needed to rotate it mid-way because there’s a ‘cold’ spot at the bottom of the crust that doesn’t brown as evenly as the rest of the pizza? Stainless steel heats slightly unevenly and can also warp under heat, causing your baking results to turn out inconsistent. That’s where Titaner’s oven tray comes in – it heats faster than steel, distributes heat more evenly, and results in baking that isn’t just more consistent, it’s up to 20% faster too. Designer: Titaner Click Here to Buy Now: $149 $269 (45% off) Hurry! Only 20 of 50 left Most ovens swing wildly – up to 20°C off from what the dial claims, turning your soufflé into a science experiment and your roast into roulette. The Titaner tray doesn’t fix your oven, but it does something smarter. Its 4.6 mm-thick GR2 titanium body acts like a thermal moderator, smoothing those wild fluctuations into something controllable. Their testing shows it holds cooking temperature variations to within 5°C, resulting in every muffin in your muffin tray being equally baked – or your tray pizza tasting consistent from crust to center. Meanwhile, the tray can take temperatures of up to 882°C (1600°F), so you can use it in your wood-fired or electric pizza ovens that go up to 600°C without worrying a bit about the tray getting ruined. Speed follows precision. This tray runs roughly 20% faster than your typical thin steel at 200°C, thanks to titanium’s ridiculous thermal conductivity. Your chicken’s done while your neighbor’s still watching theirs sweat in a metal sauna. This means quick preheating and quick baking too – so not only are your cookies ready minutes ahead of schedule, you’re also burning less electricity in the process. Each tray’s a 10 x 13.5-inch slab – quarter sheet size – but line two up and you’ve got a seamless surface big enough to batch-cook like a pro. The regular tray comes with a plain slab-like design that looks like your average pizza steel (but titanium, of course), while the Pro tray comes with a CNC-machined groove running along the sides to grab any oil or drippings so they don’t roll off down the tray onto your oven’s heating coils. The food stays crispy while the oil gets channeled away, and clean-up becomes ridiculously easy in the process. Just wipe grime away and it’s gone. Scrub away with your roughest metal brush, and the titanium tray shrugs it off without taking any damage. But if you think a titanium oven tray is JUST for baking, you’re missing half the fun. Sure it does marvels in the oven, but the same properties make it great on the grill too, or as a flat-top for making smash burgers. The tray’s gorgeously machined design (and easy-to-clean nature) make it great for serving stuff up on too; and its heat conductivity, while great in the oven, works just as well for defrosting meats too, slashing thaw times by up to 70%. Toss a frozen steak on it at room temp, and it’s good to go before your playlist gets to the second track. The same physics that helps titanium dissipate heat in rockets now lets your tray pull the frost from meat in mere minutes. You can even use the titanium tray as a cutting board. Wood retains bacteria and gets moldy. Plastic gets gnarly over time. This tray doesn’t absorb anything – it just shrugs off garlic oil and wipes clean. No lingering odors, no scratches, no mold. Whether you’re dicing tomatoes at a campsite or carving brisket in the backyard, it handles the abuse without flinching. Just don’t apply too much knife force – you don’t want your knife getting ruined! Titaner’s built world-class titanium EDC for over 20 years at this point, practically perfecting the art of building gadgets with the world’s toughest metal. For years, they’ve wanted to build an oven tray out of pure titanium, but it’s been fairly cost-prohibitive. Titanium prices are currently at historic lows, giving Titaner the unique opportunity to realize this world-class product, and you, the consumer, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grab this top-tier tray at its lowest price ever. Price-wise, it hovers in cast-iron or carbon steel territory. Early birds on Kickstarter can grab it at $149 (MSRP’s $269), while the Pro model hits $199. Two-tray and four-tray bundles scale the value hard, slicing up to $700 off the full set. It ships in June 2025, and with its staggering 100-year warranty, expect this tray to last long enough that you pass it down to your grandkids like you would a good cast-iron skillet. After all, titanium is rust-proof, corrosion-resistant, scratch-free, and practically indestructible. Click Here to Buy Now: $149 $269 (45% off) Hurry! Only 20 of 50 leftThe post This $149 Titanium Oven Tray Cooks Food Faster, More Evenly, and Will Last For 100 Years first appeared on Yanko Design.

2D art of the week: Rio Krisma's work explores the delicate balance of life and death.

Plus: Duolingo now teaches chess, and it’s a big week for coffee.