Just like its predecessor, with the entirety of planet Earth available to explore, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has a whole lot to do. 2020s Microsoft Flight Simulator was the first (and, so far, only) 10 I've given in a review, and the enormity of the options available in this years follow-up have only been tempered by the lingering problems that accompany them. Because codes werent available early and unexpected turbulence at takeoff made it literally impossible to play for the first 24 hours, Im still working on my up and coming aviation career, as well as this review. For now, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has some extraordinary features to set it apart, but its impact is also falling short of how blown away I was by the last edition, and I really wanted to be blown away. Instead, I'm "merely" impressed.Right off the rip, the biggest new addition to Flight Simulator 2024 is its career mode. You pick a starting airport as your home base, get hired by a fictional aviation company, and begin progressing through your career as a pilot. It all plays out like a traditional video game skill tree: after you master the beginner missions, you open up new options, and completing them opens up further opportunities still. So you can get a tail wheel endorsement, for example, after you complete the requirements for a commercial pilots license, which then opens up options for newer planes and jobs like search and rescue, or you can get certified in rotor craft (helicopters) which leads to stuff like operating a sky crane. Which, to me personally, elicits a "hell yeah." Each new certification or endorsement also opens up different jobs you can pick from, ranging from simple stuff like flightseeing, to more complex operations like, well, anything to do with the helicopters, basically.Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Real-World LocationsEventually you earn enough money and reputation to throw off the bonds of your employment and start your own aviation company. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I am moving along with my fixed wing endorsements at a pretty good pace. To what end, I haven't yet decided, but I'm looking forward to opening my own company and taking the lion's share of the profits. Those profits are used to further grow your business, and I cant wait until I can afford my own fleet of aircraft.The first few missions in career mode are just basic flight training, meant to familiarize you with the ins and outs of flying a plane. What I found disappointing is that the flight training is pretty much identical to the tutorials from 2020. All the training missions take place at the same airfield in Sedona, Arizona as 2020 and the actual tasks are exactly the same. The only real difference is that the AI-generated instruction and on-screen advice is a little more clear about what's expected of you in any given mission. I do appreciate the default tooltips in 2024 because there are about a million different buttons that do a million different things, and I used to have to go to Google whenever I'd forget how to release my parking brake. (I don't even think I'll end up turning them off like I did in 2020, just because I'm a forgetful fellow.)The further you get in career mode, the more mission types open up.After the initial training missions, you do a few flights to get enough hours in to test for your commercial pilot's license. Taking the tests costs in-game currency, but you only need to pay for it once and you can retake it as many times as you need. You also need to have enough experience and do well enough in the training missions but if you are already an experienced pilot, you can just jump right into the test and skip the lessons. The further along you get, the more missions and mission types open up. What I thought was a little strange, however, was that they don't all open up near your home airport. I picked a small airfield in the deepest parts of eastern Maine, KMVM Machias Valley Airfield, but after my initial missions, I was being sent to Europe to complete aircraft delivery and skydive missions. It's not something that bothers me too much, but it did come across as odd, which pulled me out of the career illusion I had built up for myself. Lousy imagination!What we said about Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)PlayMicrosoft Flight Simulator is legitimately incredible. It's difficult to fully describe how amazing it feels to jump into a plane and have the freedom to fly to and from literally any place in the entire world. The base game's 20 included aircraft feel like more than enough for even hardcore aviation enthusiasts, and the ability to adjust the assists to tailor the experience to whatever skill level you desire makes it suitable for anyone looking to fly the friendly skies from the comfort of their home. The real-world mapping data, however, takes Microsoft Flight Simulator from being just an impressive game to the most awe-inspiring simulation I've ever experienced, in spite of its less than stellar load times. Seeing famous landmarks, landing at the world's most recognizable airports, or just touching down in a remote landing strip in South America is mind-bogglingly cool and an absolutely unparalleled way to virtually explore our world. - Seth G. Macy, August 17, 2020Score: 10Read the full Microsoft Flight Simulator review.Otherwise, I'm actually really loving career mode. In 2020s iteration, I would make-up little missions for myself, like delivering pizza by air from Knox County Regional Airport in Owl's Head, Maine to the remote Matinicus Island 20 miles off the coast (a real thing that happens, by the way). Having structured reasons to better familiarize myself with the aircraft and patterns in the sky is going to keep me on course, so to speak, and stealthily make me into a better sim-pilot. So far it's my favorite part of Flight Simulator 2024 and I'm looking forward to starting either my own airline or a helicopter sky crane company. Or both! I've got time.Another new addition is the challenge league. This mode is the most game-y of them all, but retains all the simulation flight models and physics I love. There are three challenges each week, as well as leaderboards, which I am a huge fan of because I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. Of the three available in the first round, my favorite is the F/A-18 rally race through the Grand Canyon. You fly Maverick's modern jet of choice through a section of the canyon, slaloming gates in a hunt for pure speed. Since it's still the same flight model under the hood, thats not as easy as it seems but holy crap is it fun as hell. It took me a lot of tries to get to my final score of around 1 minute 54 seconds, and that's not even a good score: it only put me in the Bronze league. But the satisfaction of seeing my time raised up above the Xbox Live Gamertag of someone who I don't know at all, but is unknowingly my arch-nemesis, is great. I'm looking forward to revisiting the challenges each week. The previous Flight Simulator had landing challenges with leaderboards, too, but as fun as those were, they didn't quite hit the dynamism of flying a fighter jet through one of the world's seven natural wonders.Take Your PicOne of the things I liked the most about the last Flight Simulator was how it let me visit places I'd either never been before or would almost certainly never visit again. In Flight Simulator 2024, sightseeing has been placed front and center in the photo challenges mode. You visit famous landmarks and places around the world and take photos of them. The type and criteria of the photos changes with each landmark. For example, in the first photo challenge, you need to take a picture of the Great Sphinx while the sun is above its right shoulder on the equinox. Oh, and you need to do it on foot.And that's one of the biggest and coolest new features: you can land, get out of your plane, and walk around. However, it's not quite as elegant as I had hoped it would be. First of all, your walking speed is paced realistically, just like the rest of the simulator, (who would have guessed?) so if you've been playing first-person video games all your life, walking at an actual human's pace feels almost painfully slow. Secondly, the level of detail is going to depend on a whole bunch of different factors, like the power of your PC, the strength of your internet connection, and the health of the cloud servers, so your mileage can (and probably will) vary.Still, in spite of some weirdly GoldenEye-esque objects around the Great Pyramid complex, the up-close terrain itself is really detailed. The sand and desert rocks look incredibly realistic, and the ground in general now seems to look more like how ground is actually supposed to look around the world. If you taxi through tall grass at the end of a rural runway, for example, the tracks from your wheels remain even when you return later. Same thing with snow or mud. Mud will even stick to your wheels and supposedly have an effect on your aerodynamics, although I can't speak to how true that is on account of never having flown an actual plane with mud-caked tires. There are also way more animals now. Instead of static points on a map telling you "there is a giraffe here," animals now pop up in the places you'd expect them to be. I very much felt like I was actually at an airfield in Maine when a bull moose plodded its way across the airstrip as I held short of the active runway. I haven't seen any other animals myself, but I know they're there because Flight Simulator 2024 uses an open-source database of animal locations to put them where they're supposed to be so with some luck, I can go to Africa and see some lions before long.Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Graphical ImprovementsAnd when you lift your head up from the ground, Flight Simulator 2024 can look much better than its predecessor across the board (with an emphasis on can). The improvement is especially stark in a place like the Grand Canyon, which I visited many times in 2020s Flight Simulator. Whereas before it looked very obviously like a smooth, texture-mapped computer model up close, now it looks amazingly like the real thing. I am currently running Flight Simulator 2024 on a pretty beastly PC: it has an i9-13900K processor, a Radeon RX 7900XT GPU, and 64GBs of DDR5 RAM (disclosure, the RAM was provided by Corsair). With that setup, this years Flight Simulator looks and runs way better. Mostly. The problem comes from the fact Flight Simulator 2024 is streamed from the cloud, and so far they haven't ironed out all the issues. In career mode, I did a flightseeing mission around Venice, Italy, and St. Mark's Basilica was a purple-checkered polygonal model with no textures whatsoever, while the rest of Venice was rendered in perfect detail. I honestly would rather have something like the world map packs of 2020s Flight Simulator living on my SSD and only stream the boring parts. Right now, though, there's no way to do that, and the reliance on cloud streaming was something the Flight Simulator team really hammered on the importance of leading up to launch, so I'd be surprised if they switched to some kind of hybrid model at this point. And in spite of everything looking really good on my beastly PC, it's worth noting that my GPU is running at 100% capacity at the recommended settings in order to make that happen. When I turned the graphics down to the next lower preset, it only brought GPU usage down to 98%. That ain't good. Current ThoughtsIn spite of what can reasonably be described as a catastrophic launch, I'm already pretty much in love with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 I'm just not blown away like I was five years ago, when I first found myself faced with the opportunity to fly to literally any place on Earth. That option remains, of course, and it's been vastly improved by some smart new features, but it doesn't have that same impact, either. As we move away from the rocky launch, I'm encountering fewer and fewer issues, which gives me the chance to focus on what I love about Flight Simulator. Usually thats flying around aimlessly, but this time career mode is also giving me real reasons to take off, as well as a better understanding of the world of commercial aviation. I'm going to keep at it before I render my final verdict, but right now, in spite of its initial problems, I think Flight Simulator 2024 is pretty damn great, even if it hasnt caught the lightning in a bottle that was the last Flight Simulator once again.Play

To borrow an aphorism made famous by a former U.S. president: fool me once: shame on you; fool me twice: shame on me. It was hard not to think of that adage when a second season of Squid Game was announced with lead character Seong Gi-hun a.k.a. Player #456 (Lee Jung-jae) returning as a contestant in another round of life-or-death games.Sure, the Squid Game season 1 finale makes clear that Gi-hun has revenge on his mind. But is playing along with the exploitative contests of the rich and wealthy the best way to get back at them? Thankfully, Netflix has finally released the lengthy main trailer for Squid Game season 2 and it provides us with a better idea of what the once-and-future Player 456 is getting out enduring this ordeal for a second time. Give the full trailer a watch below.It would appear that Gi-hun, bless him, has a plan here. After a tense conversation with his enemy the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) via an adorable golden piglet intercom device (surely that will be coming to a Hot Topic near you soon), Gi-hun agrees to be put back in the game as Player 456 once again. There appears to be no quid pro quo here no deal that if Gi-hun wins, the Squid Game is finished forever or anything. But surely even the Front Man understands that Gi-huns participation isnt merely a straightforward rematch.That confirmation comes a little later on when an unnamed fellow competitor asks 456 why he came back. Gi-hun simply responds Im trying to put an end to this game. How will he go about doing so? If the action-packed imagery of the trailer is anything to go off of, hes simply going to kill every masked man he can find on the Squid Game campus. Those who created this gameWe should fight them, he says.If you think about it, that approach is pretty perfect in its simplicity. Taking out the many rich pigs that attend and financially support Squid Game in the real world is a near-impossible task. But when theyre all together on the same turf and surrounded by 456 desperate people? That might be doable. Both this trailer and the freshly-released poster promise that Squid Game season 2s tagline will be Let the new games begin, emphasis on the new.Its interesting to note though that the trailer doesnt prominently feature very many new games. There is some sort of Tic-Tac-Toe battle that follows after the players self-select into Xs and Os. Theres also a glimpse at a demonic merry-go-round in the trailer that looms prominently in the poster. Aside from those, however, much of the action appears to go down in the dorm rooms, hallways, and other liminal spaces between the Squid Game events. If that holds true in season 2, we like Gi-huns odds of ending this whole thing once and for allpending the results of the shows third and final season, of course.Squid Game season 2 premieres all episodes on Thursday, December 26 on Netflix.

Where is the Batman? Lately, thats a question asked not just by Gotham City criminals, but by superhero movie fans as well. With The Batman and The Penguin winning over fans to Matt Reevess realistic take on the world of the Dark Knight and DC Studios relaunching their universe, expectations for the Caped Crusader have never been higher.While speaking with Collider, DC Studios co-head James Gunn provided an update about the future of the Batman in the revamped DCU.Theres no set timeline for anything, Gunn said. The one thing that Ive tried to make clear to people from the beginning, and the way that I hope were different, is that everything in DC is gonna be based on the writers. Until we have a screenplay that Im totally happy with, that movie is not going to get made, no matter what it is.In other words, the announced Batman DCEU movie The Brave and the Bold is still in the script writing stage, despite having a director in Andy Muschietti of The Flash and It. However, the movie does not yet have a writer attached, which fits with the bullpen approach that Gunn and co-head Peter Safran are taking. As soon as they took over, Gunn and Safran put together a writers room that includes Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, or the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), Jeremy Carver (Doom Patrol), Christal Henry (Watchmen), and comic book writer Tom King.As of this point, Gunn and Muschietti havent revealed which specific writers will be spearheading Brave and the Bold. However, they have pointed to the movies origins in Grant Morrisons excellent run from the 2000s, which developed Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul. Brave and the Bold will be the first time Robin has appeared in a live-action Batman film since the ill-fated Joel Schumacher movies of the 1990s, which only intensifies expectations.But Gunn isnt wavering from his story-first approach, which he believes is already yielding compelling projects.We have been really fortunate with some screenplays, he told Collider. Supergirl came in, and just, wow, Ana [Nogueira] did such an amazing job. The Lanterns pilot came in, and now the whole Lantern series came in, and its like, Wow, thats wonderful, wonderful work.' In fact, hes so excited about this process that hes applying it to some secret projects. There are a couple of other things that people dont know about. There are a couple of movies and TV shows that are green-lit or near-green-lit. But its going to be based, always, on the story because, at the end of the day, if were happy with the story that were telling, thats what matters most.And once Brave and the Bold gets to that point, then well make the movie, Gunn concluded. Thats really all it is.So where is Batman? Hes in the imagination of writers taking the time to craft the right script about the Dark Knight and his snotty assassin son, and wont start making his ways to theaters until that script is set.

Before I played an early version of Crescent County, I didnt know that an in-game version of a motorized, magical broomstick could feel right. But here I am, drawing wide arcs through the gently swaying grass of the Isle of Morah, identifying the perfect hillock to glide off from, and intuitively following paths of flowers to shortcuts across its open world. Youd think thered no right way to depict something as bizarre as this, but as I feel a leyline-powered boost ignite the rumble of my controller, I start to think, well, maybe.The debut game from Electric Saint a two-person development team made up of Anna Hollinrake (Fall Guys) and Pavle Mihajlovi (Erica) Crescent County is part-open world exploration, part-dating game, part-gig economy delivery challenge, part-racer, part-life sim, and all-centered around that motorbroom experience. Its ambitious, and with so many moving parts, you might expect it to have come together in pieces but the real origin point was straightforward.One of the earliest pieces of art that inspired Crescent County. Credit: Anna HollinrakeHollinrake has been painting images of what she dubs witch-tech for years, building a following as people fall in love with the bright, curious worlds she creates in static form. Choosing to leave the world of AAA development behind, and contacting Mihajlovi to create the tech, there was only one setting they wanted to bring to life together.The number one piece of feedback I get when Im at conventions selling art based on this world, or on social media when I post images of it, is that people wish that they could live in the paintings I create, she tells me. Im an art generalist for games and have worked along the whole art pipeline, but my specialty is infusing moreish worldbuilding into my work, from concepts to full 3D environments, that give a sense of place, with little story hints throughout. I really want to give people the opportunity to step into a lovingly crafted, painterly space that feels both joyful and a little melancholy and that, critically, they feel at home within.It means that Crescent County wasnt built out of disparate mechanical ideas that the developers wanted to jam into one playspace every choice has been made because it fits the theme. Even in the early form of the game I play, that comes across. As main character Lu, your motorbroom is key to everything you do you arrive on the island and take part in a race, then become the islands delivery courier. That job allows you to meet characters you can get to know (and romance), afford furniture for your apartment, and to customize your broom and go further, faster. In Crescent Countys world, motorbrooms arent a vehicle, theyre a culture.Motorbroom racing is an underground sport, practised by a small group of the coolest people you know, says Hollinrake. Its very inspired by roller derby and the roller skating community (Im an avid quad skater myself!), and we wanted to capture that punk, do-it-yourself attitude within motorbroom subculture.In terms of racing though, its more about friends challenging each other in playful ways (like seeing who can get up the mountain first), than it is about big formal races with sponsors and crowds, adds Mihajlovi. If you win, you can expect to learn some secrets about the island, or maybe get a hot tip on how to get a particular broom part, but you can also choose to lay back and spend some more quality time with a racer you have a crush on.That idea, that every activity can affect another, seems key to Crescent County. Youre building a life for Lu on the island a race can lead to romance, a delivery job could net you new decorations, and even the house creation element (so often a side activity) can have effects on the wider game.Were really interested in how we can take classic, cozy house decoration and make it push our story forward rather than being purely for aesthetics, explains Hollinrake. In that classic scouring-Facebook-Marketplace way, you can do jobs around the island for people wholl pay you back with a couch they have in the shed and arent using. Inspired by our own experiences living in crappy house shares in our early twenties, we know how big of a difference each single piece of furniture can have on your social life or sense of place you cant have a dinner party without a dinner table, and getting your new friends around it lets you chat late into the night and deepen those relationships. Even if the spaghetti bolognese you made was terrible.It leads to what promises a very satisfying loop the more you play, and the more you engage, the more opportunities await you. Again, building Crescent County as a living world rather than a sandbox, is the key. The games organized into days and nights that pass based on what you choose to do (you can deliver by day, and race by night), rather than through a linear cycle, which gives you an incentive to choose the interesting thing rather than the efficient thing.Each day brings a host of new opportunities to earn some cash, make your flat less sad, and learn more island drama, says Mihajlovi. Youll get to pick who you want to help that day whether its because you want to know a particular bit of gossip, you want to get a specific broom upgrade, or because your friend Rava has promised you shell give you her unwanted and admittedly ugly couch if you help round up her wayward sheep. You can either plan out your route carefully, or take it a bit more casually and ride around and see what you get up to. At the end of the day you can take your weird couch home, pick where to place it, and invite your friends over for a movie night who point out you dont actually own a TV.All of this would be moot if the brooms themselves didnt feel quite so good, and the Isle of Morah wasnt quite so fascinating a location. That connection to Hollinrakes art means that this world is a deeply interesting place unfamiliar silhouettes clutter the horizon, and the sheer fun meant that I spent as much time simply going places than doing, well, Lus job. The final piece in the puzzle, then, is in creating a motorbroom that suits you.Broom customization is both about building a motorbroom that looks amazing and feels just like you, but its also in how you decide how youre going to navigate the island, says Mihajlovi. Whether you want to speed down the straights, cut across a field, or glide over a canyon, different broom setups will open different paths and playstyles. You can also put Sigil Stickers on your broom that give you weird and wonderful powers, like an offensive sideways phase shift that you can use to bump your rivals off the track, or a more forgiving 10 second rewind that lets you retake a corner if you didnt get it quite right.The way the team is winding together mechanical and narrative benefits to the player isnt just fascinating its unusual. Its the kind of thing that might have been hard to pitch at their previous studios, meaning self-publishing with ID@Xbox has been a boon:Were huge fans of the ID@Xbox program and before that Xbox Live Arcade, says Mihajlovi. It birthed or enabled so many of the games that we love, and in a lot of ways the whole indie wave that got us into the games industry in the first place. I actually remember the first Summer of Arcade, and how exciting and validating it was as a teenager to see indie games on a console, so its incredible to now be a part of the program.With a two-person team, the game still has a way to go until release and theyre not set on a release date just yet but the early version I play makes abundantly clear how wild, weird, and ambitious Electric Saint is getting. Just like its motorbrooms, Crescent County might be unfamiliar, but its feeling just right already.Crescent County is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. You can wishlist the game now.Crescent CountyElectric SaintGet it nowDiscover this beautiful open world racing on the back of your very own motorbroom. In Crescent County you play as Lu, as you move to the island under tense pretences, eager to start afresh. Its a game about finding home in a brand-new witch-tech universe.During the day youre a motorbroom courier; delivering packages, herding sheep, and setting off fireworks. You find yourself building a life through helping the locals; getting to know their struggles, and their island home. Plan your day every morning by picking your jobs, and then zoom around the island getting things done! The better your broom is the more you can do, and the more of the gossip you uncover.After youve made some change, head down to Bos workshop to upgrade your motobroom and make it your own! Replace parts to improve your brooms handling, top speed, or gliding ability, and pop some Sigil Stickers on it to enable special powers such as Phase Shifting and Time Rewind.At night, use your customised motorbroom to defeat your new friends in improvised races around the island. Discover shortcuts on ancient ley lines, and sprint through abandoned power stations in rebellious, secret races to win new broom parts.Start in your cousins empty bedsit and collect furniture from the locals to scrap together a cosy new life for yourself on the island. The better your home is, the more activities you can do with your new friends. Cant have a dinner party with a table, or a date without a couch!

Joanna Gaines has a new class on MasterClass on Designing a Home That Tells Your Story, and I got a sneak preview of it before it went live on Nov. 26just in time for MasterClass Black Friday and holiday sales. Heres what you should know about it.MasterClass Designing a Home That Tells Your StoryNow 50% Off$120 $60 at MasterClassFirst, a little of my own context for watching the class: While I spend a lot of time writing about beautiful interiors for Country Living, I am not an interior designer, so I often feel unsure about decisions I make to decorate my own home. What size should a rug be for this room? How should I arrange this shelf? What color should I choose?Often for dcor guidance, I start with images of living rooms, bedrooms, dining spaces, and more I find online. But in this MasterClass, Gaines, founder of Magnolia, gave me confidence to start a different place in my design decisions: with my own story. Related StoryYour home isnt just where you live. Its a reflection of who you are and your story, Gaines says at the opening of the class. And thats her framework for the rest of what she shares over the next hour and 25 minutes (which goes by real fast!), as she gets more into the nuts and bolts of renovating and design decisions.Id forgotten that Gaines herself isnt formally trained in design either, but as we all know, she certainly knows how to do it well. In the class she walks you step by step through her design process and how to apply it to your own home. Its equal parts visual feast of images of her own projects that make you think, Yes, I want a room that looks like that! and practical instruction with tips (including budgetary ones!) to help you achieve your version of just the right room. In fact, after each section of the class, Gaines gives you bulleted home work points after to help you take your coaching home with you.One of the key ways Gaines makes design feel more doable is how she encourages you to develop a vision for a room that first starts with its functionality for your family (amen to that!)a point she emphasizes with stories of spaces in her own and how they practically work for their family of seven (and in the end, it looks real pretty too)and then how she encourages you to return to your design vision time and time again as you select each element of a room.As I watched the class, I was not only taking notes for this review but also thinking through my own living room, jotting down the words that best encapsulated my vision for it and thinking about ways those words can help guide me to find the right lamps, art, and other pieces I have gotten stuck picking out for most of this year. Maybe I could frame some of my classical music-loving husbands vinyl album covers? I thought as she talked us through finding objects to display that mean something to youaccents that are the soul to the room.Even though a lot of the class is centered on inspiring you to do your own dcor work, I appreciate that I also got a good dose of good ole before and after stories. Throughout its length, Gaines describes how her design process played out for several projects of different styles, including her own home and how it has evolved in its dcor over the years. In a way, these stories are all what we already know and love of Gaines and her style and her process, but this time they come with a framework that especially encourages you to try it for yourselfwith a Joanna Gaines level of confidence that you are the best designer for the space you spend time in and that, in the end, it should look like no one elses room but your own. To fully embrace all of those ideas and many more, I definitely recommend you watch the MasterClass for yourself. Annual memberships start at $120, but sign up now to take advantage of their Black Friday discounts of up to 50% off.Related StoriesMadoline Markham KoonceAssistant Managing EditorMadoline Markham Koonce is the assistant managing editor at Country Living and VERANDA, where she covers home dcor, shopping, travel, news, and culture. She began her career at Southern Living and previously worked in community journalismincluding serving as the editor of three community magazines she helped launch. She has an undergraduate degree in history from Rhodes College (and loves to tap her love of history in her writing) as well as a masters degree in magazine journalism from the University of Missouri. When shes not on deadline, you can find her baking or lost in a good book.

Every item on this page was hand-picked by a House Beautiful editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.Owen Han has always been drawn to food. Having learned to cook from his Nonna during summers spent in Italy, the kitchen is the content creators number one comfort zone. But after sharing a small apartment with a fellow food creator, Han knew it was time to find a permanent set-upa solo set-up. Han was admittedly a bit nervous about living alone, but his desire for an entire workspace to himself eventually won out. The only requirement Han had for the apartment was no galley kitchen. I swear that every house in LA has a galley kitchen, he says, laughing. But I film overhead and I need space for box lights which makes the traditional hallway layout impossible to work in. After weeks of searching with no luck, Han received the fateful invitation to see the apartment. (He took the call while at a gas station, refueling after yet another unsuccessful viewing.) I saw the kitchen and I knew, he says. That enthusiasm proved fruitful when the landlord said that he was the most memorable applicant.Aaron WojackHans extensive hot sauce and condiment collection are one of few things kept behind closed doors.Aaron WojackStacked, Hans debut cookbook, is packed full of sandwich recipes inspired by his love of culinary experimentation.See it HereAaron WojackCheeky nods to Hans love of food can be found all over the apartment, like this cereal bowl candle.Aaron WojackHan keeps family memorabilia close by, including a show poster to honor his father, the late concert pianist Derek Han.I know its not very neat, but something is inspiring about having all your ingredients on display.The industrial range, while not originally on Han's wishlist, was a welcome surprise and sealed his interest in the space. There was no explanation for the commercial-grade appliances, but Han saw this as a fateful opportunity to further his culinary skills and test his recipes on appliances he would have never had access to prior to moving.Han has lived in his California studio for almost a year (he celebrated the publication of his first cookbook, Stacked: The Art of the Perfect Sandwich, here), and he still doesnt believe in a separation between work and play. And in his cooking, the two are often intertwined. His filming setup stays up 24/7, even the bulky box lights and his overhead tripod. Im filming every day, he explains. I want to be able to go when inspiration strikes rather than wait to put everything back up again. Luckily, mealtimes are content gold, and entertaining more commonly takes place elsewhere. Aaron WojackHans filming set-up stays up 24/7 to allow him to film when the inspiration strikes him. Mealtimes are content gold.Across the apartment, the living room is also set up to allow him to work comfortably. Han often sits on the sectional sofa to edit his videos, plan his content, and write emails. Because I work at all hours of the day, I wanted the rest of my apartment to have a very zen energy, says Han.Inspired by surf culture and his family heritage, Hans design style leans very casual. Of course, there are nods to his Italian upbringing, cookbooks from his grandmother, a poster of his father, pianist Derek Han, and countless other pieces of memorabilia scattered throughout the open shelving.Known for his inventive twists on sandwiches, Hans cooking process is one of improvisation, letting his tastebuds take control.The very first item Han brought into the space, before a bed frame, and even before a sofa, was a large, counter-height kitchen island. I needed a space to film, he says. A surface to continue making videos has always been the priority, everything else can come later. For a while, the island was the only furniture Han had, and it remains his command center for filming, cooking, and recipe ideation even after more comfortable seating entered his space. In the kitchen, there arent any cheesy quotes or large-scale pieces of artwork. Instead, Han showcases his chefs knives and a stack of wooden cutting boards. Everything is within reach for Han to strike while the inspirational iron is hot. It may be chaos to some, but the tools are part of what gets Han excited about working in the kitchen. I know its not very neat, but something is inspiring about having all your ingredients on display, Han says of the controversial kitchen storage method.Aaron WojackPersonalized Nutella jars from a recent brand collaboration.Aaron WojackOne of the many vintage cookbooks from Hans grandmother.The first box I unpacked was all my pots and pans, Han says. Theres a pot rack hanging from the ceiling and it brings me so much joy to see all my tools out in the open. In fact, Hans housewarming present to himself was a green Le Cruset Dutch oven, something he had always wanted, but never had the space for before. His work is his greatest pride and joy, and it rings true throughout the apartment. Aaron WojackBecause of the welcome chaos in his highly trafficked kitchen, the rest of Hans living space was designed to be as zen as possible.Grooming: Jaime MaloneyFollow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

Vertical Aerospace has been thrown a crucial lifeline, staving off potential bankruptcy at the cash-strapped air taxi startup.The UK-based company which makes electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft secured the fresh funds from its largest creditor, American debt investor Mudrick Capital.The agreement, announced Monday, includes a $50mn cash injection and a substantial debt-to-equity swap. Mudrick will invest $25mn upfront and guarantee another $25mn in future funding, offset by contributions from third-party investors.Mudrick will also convert half of its $130mn in outstanding loans into equity at $2.75 per share, taking its ownership stake in Vertical to just over 70%. This move reduces Verticals debt burden while extending the repayment date for the remaining $65mn to December 2028.The of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Verticals founder Stephen Fitzpatrick whose stake will shrink from 70% to around 20% is stepping back from an operational role. He will remain on the board as a non-executive director. Despite the shift in control, Vertical will continue to operate from its headquarters in Bristol.The additional equity and stronger balance sheet will enable us to fund the next phase of our development programme and deliver on our mission to bring this amazing electric aircraft to the skies, said Fitzpatrick.The rescue deal comes at a crucial moment for Vertical, which has been burning through cash in a bid to get its VX4 aircraft tested, certified, and airborne by 2028.In September, Bloomberg reported that without additional funding, Vertical would risk running out of cash by March 2025. Stuart Simpson, the startups chief executive, said that Mudricks fresh backing will now extend its cash runway to the end of 2025.eVTOL startups have drawn huge investments in recent years, driven by the promise of revolutionising urban transportation with quiet, eco-friendly flights. Optimism and a fair bit of hype fueled early funding, but many underestimated the challenges of development, certification, and scaling production.As costs rose and timelines slipped, investor confidencesteadily waned, leaving many startups grounded. One of Verticals main competitors, German startup Lilium, filed for bankruptcy this month after failing to secure new funds.Vertical, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, has lost 95% of its market value since the listing. While the bailout gives the company a lifeline for now, its future is far from certain. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

Zurich-based startup Poncho has officially launched its weather insurance platform and bagged some fresh funding to boot.Founded in 2023, the company aims to transform how the travel and hospitality industries handle unpredictable weather.Ponchos tech integrates with booking systems, allowing customers to opt for weather protection at checkout. If bad weather, such as heavy rain or wind, occurs during their scheduled event or trip, a refund is processed automatically. You dont need to file a claim.Maybe torrential rains turn your Alpine ski trip to slush or maybe youve splurged on a Mediterranean yacht adventure only to have rough seas keep you stuck at the dock sipping overpriced cocktails.Either way, it sucks. But with Poncho, at least your budget stays intact when Mother Nature doesnt play nice. Poncho uses real-time weather data and algorithms to predict conditions at specific locations and times. In this way, it can calculate a fair insurance price based on an accurate estimate of whether a certain event or activity will get cancelled or not, it said.Watch Back NowAfter months of hard work, we are thrilled to announce that Ponchos weather insurance solution is finally available! Our product allows travel and leisure businesses to seamlessly offer weather protection to their customers at the time of booking, said Omar Jerrari, founder and CEO of Poncho.Today, the startup announced it has raised 589,000 in seed funding. WeBuild Ventures, a finance-focused VC fund from Switzerland, led the round.Poncho, with a lean team of just three, will use the cash injection to refine its platform, scale operations across Europe, and build partnerships with insurers. It also plans to develop additional features, such as weather-triggered promotions.The startups initial focus is on the travel sector, where weather unpredictability often discourages bookings, but its vision extends to other industries, such as outdoor dining and events.The company says it has already signed up five leisure and travel businesses in its home stomping grounds of Switzerland. Story by Sin Geschwindt Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecos (show all) Sin is a climate and energy reporter at TNW. From nuclear fusion to escooters, he covers the length and breadth of Europe's clean tech ecosystem. He's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. Sin has five years journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Get the TNW newsletterGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.Also tagged with

As we reported last month, OpenAI has finally launched SearchGPT, which is essentially a search engine developed by OpenAI that uses artificial intelligence to find and combine the best results from the web. And with the latest ChatGPT update for iOS, its now easier to use SearchGPT.ChatGPT app adds SearchGPT extension to Apple ShortcutsThe latest version of the app for iPhone and iPad adds a new Apple Shortcuts integration, which lets users create shortcuts to open SearchGPT. With this shortcut, you can open a new conversation in the ChatGPT app with SearchGPT enabled. Its worth noting that shortcuts can be added to the Home Screen or even triggered by Siri.While ChatGPT has always sort of been used as a search engine by some, OpenAI has made specific upgrades that provide the sort of features weve all come to expect from search providers like Google and Bing. Heres how OpenAI explains it:ChatGPT can now search the web in a much better way than before. You can get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for. This blends the benefits of a natural language interface with the value of up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more.ChatGPT will choose to search the web based on what you ask, or you can manually choose to search by clicking the web search icon.OpenAI has partnered with news and data providers so it can provide real-time information, and package it in new dedicated designs for specific content types.With iOS 18.2, which will be released to iPhone and iPad users in December, Apple is adding ChatGPT integration to Siri. The update will let users interact with the OpenAI chatbot directly from the Siri interface, and the same applies to Writing Tools. Paid ChatGPT users can also benefit from the extra features by logging into their account in the iOS Settings app.As for the new shortcut, its available with the latest version of the ChatGPT app that you can download from the App Store. Its worth noting that SearchGPT is currently exclusive to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers.Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre 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. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Dreame Technology is a leading brand for smart cleaning solutions, both in the form of robot vacuums and typical vacuum cleaners. For their Black Friday sale, its offering large discounts on a number of its smart cleaning products, making it a better time than ever to pick up a new vacuum for your household.Until December 2nd, you can score great savings on Dreames vacuums and can save an additional 5% off using our exclusive promo code for our readers, DM9to55off.Robot VacuumsL10s UltraThe L10s Ultra is one of Dreames more affordable robot vacuums, featuring automatic mop cleaning and drying, automatic dust collection, and a robust vacuum with up to 5300 Pa of suction. It packs a lot of functionality at this lower starting price, and can even shine your floor with its built in mop up to 2152 square feet. Plus, you only need to empty the base every 60 days, making it something you only need to think about a single digit number of times every year.Normally, the L10s Ultra is sold for $899.99, but during Dreames Black Friday sale, you can pick it up for just $399.99 on Amazon. Plus, you can save an additional 5% until December 2nd, using code DM9to55off.L10s Pro UltraThe L10s Pro Ultra takes things up a notch, featuring effortless edge recognition and smart mapping features to avoid obstacles in your home. It also features an even stronger vacuum, with up to 7000 Pa of suction. Itll grab all of the small crumbs and debris from small crevices. It also automatically cleans the mop with up to 136 degrees of hot water, and can dry itself too.For Black Friday, you can pick up the L10s Pro Ultra for $549.99 on Amazon, down from its $999.99 starting price. You can also save an additional 5% using our code, DM9to55off.L20 UltraDreames L20 Ultra includes a number of quality of life features, including a larger 4.5L water tank, allowing it to operate on its own for longer. It also has a bigger battery for longer runtime, and can automatically remove the mop and clean it on its own, making it even easier for you.With their Black Friday sale, L20 Ultra is available for $599.99 on Amazon, $800 off from its original starting price. And as always, you can save an additional 5% with code DM9to55off.X40 UltraX40 Ultra is Dreames highest end robot vacuum, offering the best of the best. It has 12000 Pa of suction, eliminating even the smallest bits of dust from your carpets. X40 Ultra also has an extendable side brush, allowing it to tackle wall corners and furniture legs. You also only need to recycle the bin every 75 days.Dreame thoroughly researched all of the pain points that consumers were having, and addressed all of them with this model truly offering their best. For Black Friday, you can pick up an X40 Ultra for $999.99 on Amazon, down from the $1899.99 starting price. You can knock off an additional 5% with code DM9to55off.Wet & dry vacuumsH12 ProDreames H12 Pro is a cordless vacuum, reducing one key point of hassle. It features an enhanced dual edged cleaning brush, making it easier to clean hard to reach places. H12 Pro also features a long run time, with up to 35 minutes of cleaning on one charge, and the 900mL water tank allows you up to 2150 square feet of cleaning before needing a refill.H12 Pro is available for $269.99 on Amazon during Black Friday sales, down $180 from original pricing. Plus, you can save an additional 5% with code DM9to55off.H14H14 packs up to 18000 Pa of suction, making it suitable for any sort of mess, both wet and dry. It also sustains that level of suction while flat, which not all vacuums can do. It also features a self cleaning mode, allowing users to clean their dirty brush roller in just 5 minutes. The main highlight of the H14 is definitely its ability to lie flat at 180 degrees, allowing for cleaning in hard to reach areas.You can pick up Dreametechs H14 for $299.99 on Amazon during Black Friday, $200 off the original starting price. Plus, save 5% with code DM9to55off for a limited time.Once again, make sure you use code DM9to55off to secure an additional 5% off, through December 2nd!Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre 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. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel