In recent years, reflecting on the past 12 months has seemed to bring back nothing but woe. Surprisingly, though, 2024 saw a higher number of candidates for good things in tech than bad. In spite of the continued AI onslaught, widespread dissatisfaction and worldwide political conflict, there were some bright spots this year that put smiles on faces and took minds off things. As we get ready to start saying "2025" when making plans, heres hoping that reminiscing about the best things in tech in 2024 can help us remember joyful times.LocalThunkYou likely dont know the name LocalThunk, which is the handle of a Canadian game developer who has yet to share his real identity. You do, however, know his handywork. LocalThunk made a little game called Balatro, which has been the indie success story of the year. The massive cultural footprint of this game instantly put him on the Mount Rushmore of solo developers, alongside Daisuke Amaya (Cave Story), Markus Persson (Minecraft), Lucas Pope (Papers, Please) and Eric Barone (Stardew Valley), among others.Balatro which can justly be described as a wacky full-fledged sequel to poker came out back in February, and has since sold millions of copies across multiple platforms. It has popped up on numerous 2024 best-of lists and even nabbed a nomination for GOTY at The Game Awards. To call it a hit is something of an understatement. Balatro has become so popular that it has crossed over with other gaming franchises and inspired a physical deck of cards.LocalThunk is now, very likely, worth a whole lot of money. Good for him. He created something new that everyone wanted, a venture that took three years. Despite the similarities to poker, the developer is extremely committed to keeping Balatro pure and out of the hands of gambling platforms. He recently revealed that he created a will that stipulated that the IP never be sold or licensed to any gambling company or casino.I highly recommend checking out the game, which is available for both consoles and mobile devices. It will likely burn into your brain, leaving you unable to think or talk about anything else. Actually, wait until you have some time off work before giving it a download. Lawrence Bonk, contributing writerBlueskyAfter several months in an invitation-only beta, Bluesky finally ditched its waitlist and opened to everyone at the start of 2024. At the time, it had just over 3 million users, a handful of employees and a lot of ideas about how to build a better space for public conversations. Since then, the service has grown to more than 25 million users, including a number of celebrities, politicians and other prominent figures who were once active on X.Bluesky is still very much an underdog. Metas Threads has more than 10 times as many total users and far more resources. Even so, Bluesky has notched some significant wins. The open source service nearly tripled in size in the last few months of the year, thanks to a surge in new users following the election. The platform has also had an outsized influence when it comes to features, with Meta already copying unique ideas like starter packs and custom feeds.Bluesky isnt without issues it needs to come up with a better approach to verification for example but its still our best hope for an open, decentralized platform not controlled by a multibillion dollar advertising company. While Meta is reportedly preparing to point its ad machine at Threads and has already throttled the reach of political content, Blueskys leaders have made it clear they want to take a different approach. And while its hard to imagine Blueskys growth eclipsing Threads anytime soon, Bluesky feels more relevant than ever. Karissa Bell, senior reporterSam Rutherford for EngadgetGoogle Pixel 9 Pro FoldWeve seen so many competing designs on foldable phones over the years. Samsung started out with an inward folding hinge on the original Galaxy Fold and stuck with it as the Z Fold line has morphed into the long, skinny baton-like devices we have today. Then there were others like the Huawei Mate X which featured outward folding builds. More recently, companies have teased the first generation of gadgets with tri-folding displays. But after testing out Googles Pixel 9 Pro Fold this year, it feels like keeping things simple was the winning formula all along.Thats because instead of trying to create a foldable with a unique aspect ratio or screen size, Google basically took the exterior display from the standard Pixel 9 and then installed a flexible display almost exactly twice the size on the inside. So when its closed, you have a phone that looks, feels and operates just like a typical glass-brick but when opened can also expand to become a mini tablet. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold also has the best cameras on any foldable on sale today while not being much thicker or heavier than its more traditional siblings. But perhaps the biggest victory is just seeing how much of a jump in build quality and usability the Pro Fold offers over its predecessor without making any major sacrifices. I just wish it was a bit more affordable so more people could experience the magic of a big foldable phone. Sam Rutherford, senior reviewerAR GlassesFor years, companies like Meta and Snap have hyped up the promise of augmented reality not just the animated selfie lenses and other effects we can see on our phones, but standalone hardware capable of overlaying information onto the world around us. But despite these promises, actual AR glasses felt just out of reach.This year, that finally started to change. Snap released its second pair of AR Spectacles, and Meta finally showed off its Orion AR glasses prototype. After trying out both, its easy to see why these companies have invested so much time and money on these projects. To be clear, both companies still have a lot of work ahead of them if they want their AR glasses to turn into a product their users will want to actually buy. Right now, the components are still too expensive, and the glasses are way too bulky (this is especially true for Snap, if the social media reactions to my selfies are any indication). But after years of hearing little more than lofty promises and sporadic research updates, we finally saw real progress.Snap has lined up dozens of developers, including Niantic, Lego and Industrial Light and Magic who are already building apps for AR. Meta is, for now, keeping its AR work internal, but its neural wristband which may be coming to a future pair of its RayBan-branded glasses feels like a game-changer for next-gen controllers. So while AR glasses arent ready to replace our phones just yet, its getting a lot easier to imagine a world in which they might. K.B.ASUS Zenbook DuoThe classic clamshell with a screen up top and a physical keyboard down below isnt going away anytime soon. But this year, the Zenbook Duo showed that laptops still have plenty of room for improvement. Thats because after multiple attempts by various manufacturers to refine and streamline dual-screen laptops, ASUS finally put everything together into a single cohesive package with the Zenbook Duo. It packs not one but two 14-inch OLED displays with 120Hz refresh rates, solid performance, a surprisingly good selection of ports (including full-size HDMI) and a built-in kickstand. And weighing 3.6 pounds and measuring 0.78 inches at its thickest, it's not much bigger or heftier than more traditional rivals.You also get a physical keyboard, except this one connects wirelessly via Bluetooth and can be either placed on top of the lower screen like a normal laptop or moved practically anywhere you want. This allows the Zenbook Duo to transform into something like a portable all-in-one complete with two stacked displays, which are truly excellent for multitasking. And because the keyboard also charges wirelessly, you never have to worry about keeping it topped off. But the best part is that starting at $1,500, it doesnt cost that much more than a typical premium notebook either, so even when youre traveling you never have to be limited to a single, tiny display. S.R.DJI NeoDJIs tiny $200 Neo drone blew into the content creator market like a tornado. It was relatively cheap and simple to use, allowing beginners to create stunning aerial video at the touch of a button, while taking off and landing on their palms. At the same time, the Neo offered advanced features like manual piloting with a phone or controller, subject tracking and even impressive acrobatics.Weighing just 156 grams and equipped with people-safe propeller guards, DJIs smallest drone can be piloted nearly anywhere with no permit needed. And unlike Snaps Pixy drone, its far more than a toy.. It can fly at speeds up to 36 MPH and perform tricks like flips and slides. It also offers reasonably high-quality 4K 30p video. All of that allows creators to track themselves when walking, biking or vlogging, adding high-quality aerial video that was previously inaccessible for most.There are some negative points. The Neo lacks any obstacle detection sensors, so you need to be careful when flying it to avoid crashes. Video quality isnt quite as good as slightly more expensive drones like the DJI Mini 3. And the propeller noise is pretty offensive if you plan to operate it around a lot of people. Perhaps the biggest problem is that DJIs products might be banned in the US by 2026, even though it escaped that fate this year.For $200, though, it offers excellent value and opens up new creative possibilities for content creators. Much like the companys incredibly popular Osmo Pocket 3, the Neo shows how DJI is innovating in the creator space to a higher level than rivals like Sony or Canon. Steve Dent, contributing writerreMarkable Paper ProreMarkables distraction-free writing slates have always offered an elegant alternative to other tablets. The second generation model is great, but the advent of the Paper Pro has highlighted where that device was lacking. Its certainly one of the best pieces of hardware Ive tested this year and, if I owned one, Id likely make it a key part of my daily workflow. The bigger display, faster internals and the fact it can now render colors elevates it above the competition. Its gone from a useful tool to an essential one, especially if you need to wrench yourself away from the distractions of the internet.Its still far too expensive for what it is, and qualifies as a luxury purchase in these straightened times. It wont stack up in a spec-for-spec comparison to an iPad, even if theyre clearly catering for two very different audiences. But, judging it on its merits as a piece of technology, it does the job it was built to do far better than anything else on the market. What can I say, I just think it's neat. Daniel Cooper, senior reporterNotebookLMMaybe my AI dalliances are far too mundane I spend more time trying to get worthwhile shopping advice from Claude and ChatGPT, for instance, rather than playing around with music generators like Suno or even image creators like Dall-E. But for this podcast fan, its Googles NotebookLM that was the big AI revelation of 2024.The audio offshoot of Googles Project Tailwind, an AI-infused notebook application, NotebookLM synthesizes a full-on podcast that summarizes the documents, videos or links you feed it. Delivered as a dialogue between male and female co-hosts, it feels like a next-gen two-person version of the Duplex software agent that Google unveiled in 2018. The resulting audio stories (just a few minutes in length) wouldnt sound terribly out of place on your local NPR station, right down to copious use of ums, ahs, pauses and co-hosts talking over each other with a relevant detail or two. Yes, it doesnt have any more depth than the chatter on the average TV morning show, occasionally botches pronunciation sometimes spelling out common acronyms letter by letter, for instance and its just as prone to hallucinations as any other current AI model. And I certainly dont think real podcast hosts have anything to fear here (at least, not yet.)But to me, NotebookLM doesnt feel like the rest of the AI slop thats invading the web these days. Its a win on three fronts: The baseline version is free, its dead simple to use (just feed it one or more links, or a blob of text) and it can be downright fun. This was the systems take when I fed it the full text of Moby Dick, for example and thats small potatoes compared to, say, the hosts discovering theyre not human. Thankfully, unlike the plethora of projects that Google summarily kills off, NotebookLM seems to be flourishing. I havent tried the new phone in feature or the paid Plus subscription, but both suggest that well be hearing more from Audio Overviews in 2025. John Falcone, executive editorPC CPU competition heats upFor the past decade, the story around laptop and desktop CPUs has basically been a back and forth between Intel and AMD. At times, AMDs sheer ambition and aggressive pricing would make its chips the PC enthusiast choice, but then Intel would also hit back with innovations like its 12th-gen hybrid processors. When Apple decided to move away from Intels chips in 2020, and proved that its own mobile Arm architecture could dramatically outpace x86 and x64 designs, it was clear that the industry was ready to shift beyond the AMD and Intel rivalry.So it really was only a matter of time until Qualcomm followed in Apples footsteps and released its Snapdragon X Elite chips, which powered the new Surface Pro, Surface Laptop and other Copilot+ PCs. Those mobile chips were faster than ever before, far more efficient than Intel and AMDs best, and they were aided by some timely Windows on Arm improvements. While you may still run into some older Windows apps that dont run on Arm machines, the experience today is dramatically better than it was just a few years ago.And sure, the race to equip CPUs with better neural processing units (NPUs) for AI work is a major reason chipmakers were eager to make a huge splash in 2024. Intels Lunar Lake hardware and AMDs Ryzen AI 300 chips were laser-focused on delivering powerful AI capabilities. But it turns out were still waiting to see what those NPUs can really do. Microsofts Recall AI feature has only just begun rolling out to willing testers, and it still cant effectively filter out credit card and social security numbers. Devindra Hardawar, senior reviewerThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/techs-biggest-winners-in-2024-180015837.html?src=rss

LG is bringing a lamp that doubles as a small garden to CES 2025. The "indoor gardening appliance" is designed for apartment dwellers or anyone whose otherwise backyard-challenged to enjoy the benefits of homegrown produce.During the day, LG says the lamp with a circular lampshade shines LEDs in five different intensities on whichever plants you want to grow. Then, at night, the lights fire upwards to create cozy mood lighting in whatever room you put the lamp in. If you'd prefer something that's more compact and armchair-height, LG also has a version that the size of a side table.LGThe taller, standing lamp can hold up to 20 plants at a time, according to LG, and the whole setup is height adjustable so that you can accommodate larger leafy greens or small herbs and flowers. The real beauty of LG's design, though, is that you don't need to worry about watering. There's a 1.5 gallon tank built in to the base of the lamp that can disperse the appropriate amount of liquid for whatever you have planted. Both lamps are also connected to LG's ThinQ app so you can adjust lighting and watering schedules remotely.LG introduced its previous take on an indoor gardening tool, the LG Tiiun, at CES 2022. That larger, fridge-shaped appliance could also automatically grow and water plants, but was far less aesthetically-pleasing than the company's new lamp. With all of the features it has on board, LG's new lamp is really just one Sonos speaker away from being the ultimate living room appliance. At least until tech companies find another use for lamps.LG's new indoor gardening appliance doesn't have a release date or an official price, but expect the company to share more details once CES 2025 officially starts.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/lg-found-a-new-job-for-your-standing-lamp-173446654.html?src=rss

A new variant of the dreaded Mirai botnet is here, and it's targeting unpatched endpoints.

RayCue's dock for the Mac mini adds seven ports, supports up to 8TB SSD storage, and offers versatile connectivity options.

Blender 4.3 introduces powerful updates in rendering, grease pencil, UI, and video tools.

Welcome toAI Decoded,Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekhere. This week, Im dedicating the newsletter to a conversation I had recently with the futurist Zack Kass about some of the risks and myths that will come with the advent of AI across business and society. Kass, who was head of go-to-market at OpenAI, is the author of the upcoming book, The Next Renaissance: AI and the Expansion of Human Potential.What types of risks do you think we might be facing from AI in the next decade?I give it a very low percentage, but I think there is a reasonable chance that we actually build systems that are so smart that we start to devalue critical thinking and sort of decline cognitively. This seems very unlikely because every generation is smarter than the last, but its worth calling out.More likely is that, at some point, a percentage of the population will be more interested in the virtual reality than the physical one, and that percentage may grow and actually become sort of dominant, which would obviously be catastrophic for population growth and quality of life. This trend you can sort of see with Gen Z, the anxious generationthe attachment to the device, the addiction to the device era.Do you think that job losses to AI and automation are more of a near-term problem that well have to deal with, along with the effects on the economy?This is the thing that I would love if people spent more time talking about: The risk is not an economic one. I think in a world where we actually automate all our work, something profoundly positive will happen economically. If you can actually figure out how to automate everything and the cost of everything declines so far that you can live freely, its more that people may not know what their purpose is in a world where their work changes so frequently and so much. I think that the future is incredibly optional in all sorts of interesting ways, and I really do caution that the risk in all this is simply that people will lack purpose, at least for a couple generations.It will be our generation and maybe the next that bears figuring out what we do in a world where our work is just so dynamic, and maybe relatively less meaningful because the world is so much more robust. That being said, theres also incredible new opportunities. For every job that goes away, there will probably be a new job created in some interesting new way that we just cannot imagine. And I caution people to consider how they would imagine the economy looking before the internet or before electricity, for that matter. How could you fathom the economy in 1900 or 1800?What about other things like the use of AI to flood the information space with misinformation and disinformation?I dont even list it as one of my primary concerns because misinformation is one of these things that will have an incredible counterbalancefor every article and every photo that is generated by AI, we will have a system to actually determine its validity.And we will have much more robust truth telling in the future. This has just been true forever. And by the way, I remember going to the grocery store with my mom and looking at magazine covers of women and my mom saying, Oh God, Cindy Crawford is so beautiful because for a long time they were Photoshopping photos and just not telling us. Now, of course, we all know that every photo is Photoshopped. We have this lens with which we view the world. I thinkand this is what I say to publicistswe will have this return to traditional media if we do it right. We need the institutions to recapture trust, otherwise it will be very hard for people to know what to believe because in a world where people are more interested in Reddit and Quora, this could go a little strangely. In a world where people dont trust traditional mediaand they dontthe institution has just lost so much trust.And we didnt even really need AI for that to happen.Thats exactly right. So I think now presents an opportunity for us to find ways, and theres a lot of historical precedent. The printing press introduced all sorts of incredible ways for people to behave as charlatans, and you dont have to go back that far. We studied a bunch of people who sold early Ponzi schemes. There was so much financial fraud in the late 19th/early 20th century. There was an incredible amount of financial fraud because people could just print fake securities and sell them, and there was just no way to actually validate things. And obviously, theres this incredible new way now that we can actually score things. I dont basically ever talk about blockchain, but I do think blockchain will serve as a means to keep an official record of lots of things, a place that cannot be tampered with.What are your thoughts about longer-term AI risks, the existential risks people like Geoff Hinton and Eliezer Yudkowsky talk about?The existential risk has two parts. The first is, is this machine going to unwittingly do something untowardare we building something that is going to do something really bad on its own? And that presents the alignment problem. The real risk in all this is not that the machine wakes up one day and says, Im going to kill all. The theory of the alignment problem basically says we need to make sure that it cares about its unintended consequences because we [humans] may not fully appreciate what were doing.And then theres the bad actor. And this I think is also misunderstood because the real concern around bad actors in my opinion is not high-resource bad actors. I dont spend time worrying about North Korea with AI. They already have plenty of tools at their disposal to be bad actors, and the reality is we get better at managing high-resource bad actors all the time. The low-resource bad actor problem is a risk. In a world where we embolden anyone to do interesting things with this technology, we should create very punitive measures to police bad acting with it. We should make bad actors terrified to use AI to do bad thingsfinancial crime, deepfakes, etc.And this is something that we could do really easily, like we did with mail theft. We could say, hey, we built a system thats really fragile, and if we let people steal mail, domestic commerce will collapse. We need to make it a felony offense.What needs to be done to address these risks over the next five years?We should try to figure out how to come up with international standards by which all models are measured, and companies that use models that dont meet these measures are penalized. We should just make sure that everyone honors alignment standards.Second is explainability standards. The expectation that a model can be perfectly explainable is inherently dangerous because theres plenty in a model that cannot be explained. But we should set standards by which tasks that require explainability meet explainability standards. For example, if youre going to use a model to write an insurance policy, it should meet an explainability standard.And then the third thing is bad acting: We just have to make it scary for low-resource bad actors to use this stuff. The market will figure itself out. Europe, I think, is going to have some really serious economic suffocation pretty soon here because theyve passed a bunch of really strange policies that I dont even know if it protects the consumers as much as it just gives the policymakers a reason to celebrate. If we can get these things right, the market will behave in a way that serves us the constituents.Was Bidens executive order on AI constructive?It was passed at a time where basically no one working on it knew much about what they were talking about. So its less that its lip service and more that it didnt actually change behavior. So it really is one of these things like, you know, are you just doing this to appease voters?A lot of people in Congress have the perspective that we missed the boat on social media and we sure dont want to miss it again on AI.All progress has a cost . . . the cost of social media, the cost of the internet, is pretty great. The cost of social media on young childrens minds is terrible. It is also now something that we as individuals are identifying and working through. Passing policy on these things has potentially very dangerous consequences that you cannot unwindeconomic consequences, massive learning and development consequences. Its not that the government missed the boat on social media, so to speak. They just werent even paying attention. And no one went into this thing with eyes wide open because there was no one in Congress, if you recall, who knew anything about what the internet was. So you basically had Mark Zuckerberg going on stage in front of a bunch of people who were like, I dont know.Ive written about Californias AI bill that was vetoed by the governor. What are your thoughts on that approach?I fully support the regulation of AI. Im not asking this to be the Wild West. This is the most important technology that we will build in our lifetime, maybe except for quantum. Its really scary when people celebrate policy for the sake of policy, especially when it comes at the cost of what could be truly society-improving progress. Like massive amounts of progress are probably going to be found on the other side of this. And thats not a hot take because thats what technology does for the world. People spend so much time fixated on what the government will do to solve their problems that theyve forgotten that technology is basically doing all the things that have been promised to us. You know, the utopias that we build in our mind may actually come to pass. I think they will, for what its worth, and not because of government intervention, but because of technological progress; because what one person can do today will pale in comparison to what one person can do [tomorrow].More AI coverage from Fast Company:We used Googles AI to analyze 188 predictions of whats in store for tech in 2025Andrew Ng is betting big on agentic AIWe called 1-800-ChatGPT to see if OpenAI would ruin ChristmasAs Bible sales boom, so does Christian techWant exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.

The electric vehicle (EV) market is bracing for seismic shifts following the election of Donald Trump, whose policy proposals could have far-reaching implications for automakers and consumers alike.A pivotal issue is the potential elimination of the $7,500 federal tax credit for EV purchasesa move that could reshape the competitive landscape.Policy shake-upTrump has signaled his intent to abolish the EV tax credit, possibly even retroactively to January 1, 2025. This policy, a cornerstone of federal support for EV adoption, has spurred millions of electric vehicle sales over the past decade. Experts predict its disappearance could dent consumer demand and force automakers to rethink their EV strategies.I would be very inclined to say yes, its going away, Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, told CNN. Drury emphasized that the Trump administration could take a straightforward approach, potentially through early tax legislation or a new IRS rule.For prospective EV buyers, the timing couldnt be better. The combination of the current tax incentive and record inventories of EVs at dealerships presents a unique buying opportunity. According to Edmunds, about 64% of EVs sitting on lots are last years modelsnearly double the rate for traditional vehiclesprompting automakers to offer steep financing incentives.If you buy an EV now, youre not only sure of getting the tax credit, youve got automaker incentives, Drury explained. Youre doubling down. It wont get any better.The Tesla-Trump allianceTesla, often viewed as a frontrunner in the EV market in the U.S., finds itself in a unique position. CEO Elon Musk, an influential advisor to Trump, has openly advocated for the elimination of the tax credit, arguing it would only help Tesla. Musks rationale lies in Teslas competitive edgethe companys scale and profitability position it to weather the policy change better than its rivals.But the auto industry has been fighting to preserve the tax credit. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry trade group that includes most automakers (except for Tesla) wrote aletter to Congressin October, urging that the tax credit remain in place. Legacy automakers including General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, are relying heavily on federal incentives to compete with Tesla. Smaller upstarts such as Rivian could also face significant headwinds, potentially scaling back production and delaying new launches.Despite the potential policy shift, industry experts remain cautiously optimistic about the EV markets trajectory. Chris Hopson, principal automotive analyst for S&P Global, told CNN that even without federal support, automakers can play with pricing to adjust for lack of credits. And some states, like California, may step up with their own tax incentives.Broader impact on policy and industryDuring his campaign, Trump criticized the EV industry while promising to roll back ambitious targets set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including a mandate that 35% of new cars sold by 2032 be electric. However, his relationship with Musk has introduced complexities, as Tesla would stand to benefit from reduced competition in a post-tax-credit landscape.As the auto industry grapples with these changes, the coming months will be critical in determining how consumers, manufacturers, and policymakers adapt to the shifting sands of the EV market.

Japan Airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack Thursday, causing delays to more than 20 domestic flights but the carrier said it was able to stop the onslaught and restore its systems hours later. There was no impact on flight safety, it said.JAL said the problem started Thursday morning when the companys network connecting internal and external systems began malfunctioning.The airline said it was able to identify the cause as an attack intended to overwhelm the network system with massive transmissions of data. Such attacks flood a system or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or crashes.The attack did not involve a virus or cause any customer data leaks, JAL said. It said that as of late morning, the cyberattack had delayed 24 domestic flights for more than 30 minutes.Experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the vulnerability of Japans cybersecurity, especially as the country steps up its defense capabilities and works more closely with the United States and other partners with much tighter cyber defenses. Japan has taken steps but experts say more work is needed.In June, Japans space agency said it had suffered a series of cyberattacks since 2023, though sensitive information related to rockets, satellites and defense was not affected. It was investigating to take preventive measures. Last year, a cyberattack paralyzed operations at a container terminal at a port in the city of Nagoya for three days.JALs ticket sales for both domestic and international fights scheduled for departure on Thursday were suspended temporarily but resumed several hours later.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a regular news conference Thursday that the transport ministry told JAL to hasten efforts to restore the system and to accommodate affected passengers.Other Japanese airlines, including ANA Holdings, Skymark and Starflyer, were not affected.Television footage showed many passengers at Tokyos Haneda airport crowded into its terminals as the attack hit the year-end holiday travel season. Offices will close from this weekend for the New Year holidays, the biggest celebration of the year, when millions of people travel back to their hometowns from the cities.Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press

There was a time when PC gaming was largely defined by its use of a keyboard and mouse instead of a gamepad. While some titles remain exclusively driven by this combo, many PC games nowadays support both input methods. The rise of handheld gaming PCs, patterned after the Nintendo Switchs successful design, further narrowed that gap but also magnified one of video gamings ugliest warts: non-uniform controller layouts.You already have the great divide between Xbox and PlayStation, but throw in variants like the Nintendo Switch and unconventional arcade controls and youve got quite a mess for gamers whose preferences transcend these superficial boundaries. Since there is no one controller to rule them all, the next best thing would be to let the player decide which design to use, a dream that is finally becoming reality in the AYANEO 3 handheld gaming PC.Designer: AYANEODepending on who you ask, the Xbox or PlayStation controller layout might be more ergonomic than the other, though it mostly boils down to getting used to what the console makers force upon their users. At the same time, some PC games dont even play well with controllers, which is why Valve implemented unusual trackpads on its Steam Deck handheld. Throw in the flipped position of ABXY face buttons on the Nintendo Switch and the somewhat standard six-button system of arcade fighting games, and you basically have four or five configurations available.AYANEOs solution is a modular system it calls Magic Modules, offering a way for users of its upcoming handheld device to swap out controls as they wish, depending on the game theyre playing. You might not have a keyboard available for typing, but a touchpad and buttons emulating the mouse will probably do for most PC titles. Want to mash buttons for Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat? Theres also a Magic Module for that, though youll have to make do with a cramped button layout nonetheless.Not only can you mix and match modules, you can even turn them upside down so that you have two analog sticks at the bottom like a PS DUALSHOCK controller and switch to a normal Xbox layout afterward. It seems that you can also remove the button caps to switch them around, though thats probably more cumbersome to do than simply removing controller modules.Amazing as these all may sound to gamers, the real test of the design will happen when the AYANEO 3 is out in the wild. The risk of implementing a modular system is that it might affect the stability, reliability, and durability of the device. Of course, AYANEO is promising the moon, so well have to see whether it can actually deliver this Holy Grail of video gaming.The post Handheld gaming PC with modular controls finally solves one of gamings biggest problems first appeared on Yanko Design.

Based on what we've seen, odds are good that you're not in love with the redesigned Photos app in iOS 18. While the old version isn't returning, here's how to make it more like its beloved former self.Here's how to make the iOS 18 Photos app betterWith iOS 18, Apple undertook the daunting task of redesigning the Photos app. While the app was loved by many, it hadn't changed in a while and Apple wanted to prep it for the future.This modernization didn't go over well. The redesign decision has been a controversial to say the least. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums