No game this year captured the imagination of the Engadget crew quite like Balatro did, and when it came time for each staff member to pitch their favorite games of 2024, everyone and I mean everyone wanted to write about Balatro. In the end, rather than forcing everyone to fight for the chance to write about their love of the game, we instead decided to ask the team to write their own individual take on Balatro.My Steam Deck is a Balatro machine and I love itMy Steam Deck is a Balatro machine at this point, and no, Im not complaining about this. Ive broken out my Steam Deck for plenty of games before Balatro and I plan on playing lots more on it in the future, but for now and potentially until I take my final breath, its primary function is joker generation.First of all, Balatro just feels nice on a handheld device. Its the kind of game that you can play passively while watching TV or listening to a podcast, or with intense focus as you try to collect jokers, stakes, achievements and stickers on the way to Completionist++. The Steam Deck is the ideal platform for this type of game, because, especially in combination with a comfy PC setup, it allows players to flow between these two states without losing progression. The mobile version of Balatro is rad and the Switch version is peachy, but I started playing on PC and, more than 500 hours later, Im reluctant to start over on any other platform.I absolutely love curling up on the couch with Balatro, playing it on the PC at my desk, using it as a distraction on long commutes, and getting a few hands in before bed. The Balatro Machine uh, I mean, Steam Deck enables my obsession in a seamless way. Jessica Conditt, Senior ReporterBalatro is a card game you can feelBalatro is a game you mostly play in your head. Theres a giant array of modifier cards, each with their own effects and consequences, and you work through their permutations like youre tinkering with a chemistry kit. Its a game of decisions, all of which are contingent on the decisions youve made prior. Some work, most blow up in your face.This is what makes Balatro engaging, but its not my favorite thing about it. What I like most is how tangible it is. How it makes a digital playing card game have any felt impact at all. Its the little tck and shake each card does when scored. The donk when a joker adds to your multiplier, the way the donks speed up and rise in pitch as buffs and retriggers pile up. The thrrrp of the deck reshuffling. The brief delay upon opening a booster pack to raise anticipation, how the pack disintegrates to emphasize the finality of your decision. The sound of coins colliding when you collect interest or buy something. The fire that burns and rises around your score when youve passed the goal in one hand, a dopamine hit within a dopamine hit. The way the air gets sucked out of the trancy music when you inevitably fail.You are not a character in Balatro. Youre just you, staring at cards set against swirling colors. Yet all of these flourishes go a long way toward sucking you into that vortex, really locking you in it, somehow giving a game that most resembles video poker a sense of physical place. Balatro is, among many things, an A-1 example of economical sound design. The easiest way to dilute it is to play it on mute. Jeff Dunn, Senior ReporterThe real Balatro was the joker stickers we earned along the wayI am not an achievement hunter Im the sort of person who skips sidequests that arent interesting and rarely replays games after finishing them. The one Platinumed game in my PlayStation collection is the PS4 version of Resogun, and I have 100-percented precisely zero games on Xbox. Why, then, was 2024 the year that I became obsessed with achieving Completionist++ on Balatro?I received the Completionist Steam achievement, which you get by discovering every card in the game, after a month with the game. It took me another five months to get Completionist+, awarded to those who beat Ante 8 with every deck on gold difficulty. The one thing left for me to do was the games toughest challenge: Competitionist++, which involves getting gold stickers on every joker by beating Ante 8 on gold difficulty with each of them active.As of writing, Completionist++ is still a distant dream. Its easy to feel like youve mastered the game after beating Completionist+; There are simple joker combinations that can take you past Ante 8 with every deck. Completionist++ strips those safety nets from you, forcing you to beat the games hardest level without relying on surefire strategies. While I do occasionally miss my high-score chasing early days with Balatro, this challenge has given the game a completely new dynamic for me, as I figure out how to craft a win out of jokers I considered useless before.If youve made your way through all the stakes and are wondering what to do next, Completionist++ is a challenge worth setting yourself. Just a word of warning: Ive played for 460 hours across my PC and Steam Deck, and Ive only unlocked 961 of the games 1,200 stickers. Aaron Souppouris, Executive EditorBalatro is a deep, complex game for filthy casuals like meSome of my friends and co-workers are taking Balatro to some wild extremes. Aaron told me he's unlocked and completed about 95 percent of the game; I meanwhile sit at a paltry 19 percent. Another friend routinely shares quick videos from his runs where he racks up hundreds of millions of points in a single hand with Jokers I can't fathom, while my best single hand sits at a little over 3 million.The good thing, though? This isnt discouraging; its a feature, not a bug. Balatro has somehow managed to be the kind of game you can sink hundreds of hours into in an all-out quest for completion and mastery. Or you can do as I do and pick it up, play for 30 minutes or an hour a few times a week, and come back to it again with plenty to do when you get the itch.Dont get me wrong, Id love to get to the point where Im grabbing a billion points on a single hand, but my gaming time is limited and I usually choose to spend it on the PS5. But one of the great joys of Balatro is that you can go on a bender and play it for hours, and then not come back to it for days or weeks, and then just pick it up and keep making progress. Youre not going to lose any skills or forget your objectives. Its a casual, pick-up-and-play game that also hides some incredible depth, and games like that dont come around too often. Nathan Ingraham, Deputy EditorBalatro is an almost perfect mobile port2024 is unquestionably the year of Balatro. It came out of nowhere to fill our heads with dreams of flush fives and legendary Jimbos. But I think what put it really over the top was when it launched on iOS and Android earlier this fall. Not only did the mobile version cost $5 less than the desktop edition on Steam (or console ports), but there are no intrusive ads or extra purchases anywhere in the game. That's including all the crossover cardbacks (like the ones featuring characters from The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 and more) and the big forthcoming update due out at the beginning of next year.On top of that, theres essentially no difference in features between the mobile and desktop/console versions. Granted, thats due in large part to the game being a relatively simple title (at least in terms of graphics). But even so, youd be surprised how easy that is to mess up. The game boots up nearly instantly and even when youre smashing antes while pushing your score deep into scientific notation, the system doesnt get bogged down. Throw in a satisfying interface, support for cloud saves, multiple languages and profiles plus a high contrast option that's great for accessibility, and you've got an app that plays well on practically any device.In fact, Id argue that foldables like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are the perfect joker-hunting devices. Their large screens feel like a perfect match for Balatro without ever feeling cramped, which happens sometimes on older gadgets with less roomy displays. Text is generally easy to read (though sometimes less so on tiny devices) and theres plenty of open space to push things around without getting in your own way. I have a few minor complaints you can read about in my longer piece on Balatro's beauty on mobile devices, but as a whole I'm confident Im going to get more than my moneys worth for years to come. Sam Rutherford, Senior ReporterThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/engadgets-balatro-of-the-year-2024-140021833.html?src=rss

Hyundai is offering select EV buyers a free CCS to NACS (North American Charging Standard) adapter so that they can charge current models at Tesla's Supercharger stations. That will allow owners to charge CCS-port Hyundai models at Tesla's 20,000 strong Supercharger network, once shipping starts in Q1 2025.Hyundai is offering the free adapter to owners of 2024 and earlier Kona Electric, Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Ioniq hatchback models, along with 2025 Ioniq 6, Ioniq 5N, Kona Electric Genesis EVs. You'll be able to get the free adapter through the MyHyundai owner site. The adapters will be offered to anyone who purchased a Hyundai EV before January 31, 2025. Sibling brand Kia is also offering free NACS adapters to select customers starting next year, with a full list of supported models set to arrive soon.The automaker is joining Ford in offering the perk to its users, and other manufacturers are likely to do the same in the near future. That's because the US government recently announced that NACS is becoming an open industry standard that's likely to be widely used in charger networks across the continent.Future models won't need the adapter, as Hyundai has joined a host of automakers in changing its charging ports to NACS. That'll begin with the 2025 Ioniq 5, which will have access to Tesla Superchargers as soon as it ships, according to Tesla. Older CCS-based models don't currently have access, but Tesla is likely to enable that once the adapter ships.The news is significant because Hyundai recently became second largest seller of EVs in North America next to Tesla. The company currently sells four models: the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 5N crossovers, Ioniq 6 sedan and Kona Electric SUV. Kia, meanwhile, offers the EV6 crossover, EV9 SUV and Niro EV.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/hyundai-will-offer-its-ev-customers-free-nacs-adapters-starting-next-year-130010136.html?src=rss

Honda and Nissan have officially confirmed the rumors that they're pursuing a merger. Both would still operate under their brands but with a new joint holding company as parent. If Nissan-controlled Mitsubishi also came on board, the combined group would become the world's third-largest automaker by sales volume, with a net worth of up to $50 billion.Nissan and Honda previously announced plans to work together on EV development, but the joint company would be far more integrated. According to the press release, it could include standardizing vehicle platforms, unifying research and development teams, and optimizing manufacturing systems and facilities. This could help cut costs.In the US, Nissan sells large pickup trucks and SUVs that Honda doesn't offer, alongside more experience in EVs and plug-in electric vehicles. On the other side, Honda has relatively stable financials while Nissan has been struggling, particularly at home in Japan. Mat SmithThe biggest tech stories you missedWhite House calls for investigation into Chinas alleged anti-competitive semiconductor industryX hikes ad-free Premium+ subscription price from $16 to $22In Infinity Nikki, photo mode achieves its ultimate formGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Meta is reportedly adding displays to its Ray-Ban smart glassesMostly for notifications.According to the Financial Times, Meta may add displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses collaboration. These screens could appear in a future device iteration as early as next year. Its not aimed at full mixed reality, though. The screens will be on the smaller side and will likely be used to display notifications or responses from Metas AI virtual assistant.Continue reading.Fans made a native Star Fox 64 PC port with some modern flourishesThere shouldnt be any legal trouble coming from Nintendo.NintendoA group of fans have made a native PC port of Star Fox 64, which they are calling Starship. Harbour Masters, the team behind the project, used a tool that converts the original game ROM into PC executable code, so it doesnt use any proprietary Nintendo code. That means its technically legal. (Im sure Nintendo is looking into it.)Like previous ports, Starship features all kinds of modern bells and whistles to set itself apart from the 1997 original. The frame rate is higher and the port includes frame smoothing technology for better visuals. Theres also another major benefit: Its moddable.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-120830875.html?src=rss

It remains unknown if Builder.ai archive is locked down or not.

GIMP 3.0 arrives with a fresh design, compatibility upgrades, and feedback-driven testing for the final version.

Sega CEO says the company won't be making more mini retro consoles.

Holiday travelers flying with American Airlines experienced widespread Christmas Eve disruptions on Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the airline had grounded all flights nationwide.The ground stop, which took place on one of the busiest travel days of the year, was lifted shortly after it was announcedsometime before 8 a.m. ETbut it appeared to cause delays well into the morning.On social media, travelers expressed their frustration, with American Airlines explaining on X that it was working to resolve the issue. Rest assured, our team is working on getting you back on track as soon as possible, the airline said in one reply.Earlier, American Airlines had said the stoppage was related to a technical issue. An advisory from the Philadelphia International Airport, meanwhile, alluded to computer issues.The airline later released a statement blaming a vendor technology issue and adding, That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed, ABC News reported.Fast Company has reached out to American Airlines for more details and will update this post when we hear back.According to data from AAA and Inrix, some 7.8 million U.S. travelers are expected to fly during the holiday period.This story is developing

Esperance Dushakimana looks at her field of potato in Musanze district in North Rwanda. It is hard, she says. We till the land, sow the seeds, reap the harvest and then watch helplessly while at least a fifth of it perishes before it reaches the market. Barely 30 miles away in Rubavu, mushroom farmer Vincent Ngamije is forced to sell his harvest on the cheap across the border in Congo, instead of in Kigali, Rwandas capital, where he can get a better price. The market in DRC is barely 40 minutes away, and in contrast, my mushrooms can reach Kigali only after spending five hours in a warm truck, he says. Barely 40% will survive.Esperance Dushakimana, potato farmer in Musanze, North Rwanda. [Photo: Geetanjali Krishna]In Rwandas agrarian, undulating landscape, farmers pedaling up or madly careening down hills, on bicycles piled four feet high with bananas, potatoes and other produce, are a common sight. Like Dushakimana and Ngamije, most farmers here either watch their harvest spoil, or grow only as much as they can get to market. The issue is global: About 25% to 30% of food produced worldwide is wasted. The Food and Agricultural Organization estimates that every year, about $400 billion worth of food is lost before it ever reaches the market. But in Rwanda, where over 4.8 million people (41% of the population) are undernourished and approximately one-fifth of the population is food insecure, food waste seems even more wasteful.Better logistics is an obvious solution, but it is not as simple as that. Long-haul diesel trucks have amassivecarbon footprint; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyestimatesthat in 2022 more than 3% of all carbon dioxide emissions came from them.Traditional car manufacturers have failed to produce vehicles that suit a third of the worlds population, predominantly those in the Global South, says Simon Davis. He is the founder and CEO of the UK-based Ox Delivers, which has developed, according to the company website, the worlds first purpose-designed electric truck for Africa. It was launched in Rwanda in 2021 and is almost 10 times cheaper to run compared to existing alternatives. And it offers farmers the cost-effective choice of renting the space they need for as little as a dollar depending on weight and distance, instead of the entire truck (for about $500), to transport their agricultural produce from farm to market. Refrigeration capacity can be added to all these trucks (in fact cold trucks service Rwandas dairy farmers in Kivu, Western Rwanda) and the company has also developed a mountable cool box for non-refrigerated trucks.Farmers markets like this one in North Rwanda are not resilient to hot weather. [Photo: Geetanjali Krishna]The story of Ox began in 2013, when Sir Torquil Norman, the British pilot and toy entrepreneur famous for creating the Polly Pocket line of dolls, tasked the Formula 1 race car designer Gordon Murray to design a vehicle to transport goods in low-income countries. Murrays designa somewhat squat truck made of interchangeable and easy-to-maintain parts that could be shipped in easy-to-assemble flatpackswas practical, even if unlikely to win any auto beauty contests. In the next few years, Ox transformed into a logistics company, offering farmers ride shares for their produce for less than a dollar.Ox Truck in Rwandan market. [Photo: Ox Delivers]These ride shares, which Davis claims have been used to transport everything from cows to coffins, have positively boosted farmers bottom lines and supercharged African trade. My observation of the market is that actually the biggest problem isnt food waste, Davis says. There is food that [farmers] never bother to grow, because its just not going to get to the end. Thus far, the company has serviced over 4,000 customers, ranging from smallholder farmers and traders to large tea companies.With its recognizable branding and fleet of driverssome of them, unusually for Rwanda, young womenthe truck has been attracting attention, especially when it drops its payload in local markets. People see our truck, the Ox truck, they always crowd around and ask where has this truck come from? Muhoracyeye Lea, an Ox truck driver as well as manager of Ox Delivers Kigali Depot, says. They are even more interested when they see how we look after the cargo, keep it at the correct temperature. We talk to them, and this helps us to get new, different customers.The reduced spoilage of harvests and the convenient logisticshaveencouraged some of their customers to grow more and sell more.An Ox truck at a Rwandan market. [Photo: courtesy of Ox Delivers]In Kyazo, a fertile agricultural area in Rwandas Western Province, Jean Paul grows chili peppers. Until a couple of years ago, reaching Kigali was a logistical nightmare: He would load 100-kilo sacks of peppers onto three bicycles, push them to the nearest town, then haul them to the roof of a bus for a seven-hour journey to Kigali bus station. From here, he transferred the peppers to three motorbikes for delivery to the warehouse. This entire backbreaking process took two days. In 2021, when he began renting space in an Ox truck, the improved access to the market encouraged him to grow more. Today, he has gone from selling 400 to 4,000 kilograms of peppers a week to an exporter in Kigali, about 105 miles away.Claudine Uwiragiye has a similar story. Initially she joined with four other farmers to send their combined cassava harvest of two metric tons to the market in a single Ox truck. The financial benefits of directly accessing the market without middlemen made her confident of growing more. Now I can order up to two trucks of 1.5 [metric tons] twice a week on Monday and Thursday, which means that I can sell up to 3 [metric tons] of cassava a week, she says.Vincent Ngamije, mushroom farmer from Rubavu, next to the zero input cool chamber he is building. [Photo: Geetanjali Krishna]Eighty percent of their orders come from existing clients, Lea says, adding that once they have experienced the benefits of good logistics, the customers call again and again! While this is great news for Ox, which is consolidating its business in Rwanda, researchers point out that a lot more needs to be done before sustainable logistics companies can become a holistic solution to Rwandas food waste problem.At the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) campus in Kigali, food systems expert and senior lecturer Jean Baptiste Ndahetuye talks about the pitfalls of narrowly focusing on sustainable logistics, instead of seeing it as part of a system of best practices that optimize food production. Sustainable cold transport is important, he points out, but only one link in this chain. Davis says that for their present roster of 2,000-plus clients in Rwanda, the cold chain is not something thats even halfway there.The Ox truck has been attracting attention, especially when it drops its payload in local markets. [Photo: Ox Delivers]Climate change-linkederratic weather conditions arent helping. In Rubavu, Ngamije returns from Goma, the market in Congo where he sells his mushroom crop. It has been unusually hot here and without a cool chamber, my harvest starts losing color and texture immediately, he says. And by the time I reached Goma in a non-AC vehicle, the mushrooms were in bad shape. The young farmer has been experimenting with designs for a zero-input cool chamber in his spare time, which would, he hopes, keep his mushrooms fresh for at least a couple of days extra. But transport to bigger markets in Kigali remains an issue, he says.With a fleet of two-dozen trucks and 47 drivers (12 of them being women), Ox Delivers has not yet managed to reach the length and breadth of Rwanda, which is barely the size of the state of Massachusetts. One reason for this is the inadequacy of public charging infrastructure beyond Kigali. While these EVs have a range of 170 kilometers, at present they need to return to the companys docking stations to recharge.In early 2024, Ox Delivers won a 1.2 milliongrantfrom the UKsEnergy Catalystto develop and expand sustainable energy infrastructure in Rwanda, which could add extra buzz to their expansion plans. Spreading awareness about the benefits of using sustainable cold chain technologies could help, and this is exactly what Ndahetuye and his colleagues are doing at the ACES campus in Kigali. They have trained over 1,000 students, farmers, engineers and technicians in cold chain technologies and explored how the creation of cold chain infrastructure can generate new jobs and businesses.My dream is for Rwanda to develop a series of cold rooms, and for Ox trucks to connect them all, Ferdinand Munezero, Ox Delivers training and development lead and alumnus of ACES, says. It will be good for business, but also for the country.This piece was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful and was funded by the European Journalism Centre, through the Solutions Journalism Accelerator. This program is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Food brands will now have to do away with at least one form of deceptive communication design. According to a new rule by the Food and Drug Administration, theyll have to get rid of misleading healthy labels on packaging, unless the product meets criteria indicating that it actually is good for you.The decision puts a deceptive label to rest, and offers an example of how to make packaging easier to interpret for consumers navigating the grocery aisle. Brands are supposedly all about authenticity and trust of late, but it seems sometimes the long arm of the law needs to force their hand. However, some experts say the label rule, which goes into effect on February 25, 2025, doesnt go far enough.An edit to legacy labeling standardsLabels are an integral part of modern food packaging, from black-and-white Nutrition Facts charts to simple symbols for recyclability and country of origin. These graphics are a bit of communication design meant to inform, but its not clear consumers always understand what they see.Under the new criteria, packaging can use the term healthy only if the product contains a certain amount of at least one of the food groups recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americansincluding fruits, vegetables, grains, fat-free and low-fat dairy, and proteinand doesnt surpass limits on added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.[Image: FDA]These thresholds vary by food type, and it means foods like fortified white bread and many sugary yogurts and cereals that could once be classified as healthy can no longer be (sorry, Chobani). Additionally, the new rules automatically qualify certain nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, eggs, and nuts for healthy labeling if they contain no additional ingredients except water.The FDA is also developing a standardized healthy symbol that food manufacturers could use on their packaging if their products meet the criteria.Experts say new label needs to be paired with public education to be effectiveThe new guidance is a step in the right direction, Alice Lichtenstein, a Tufts University professor of nutrition science and policy, tells Fast Company in an email, but for it to be effective, the general public needs to be educated in its existence and how best to use it. Thats not dissimilar to the standard for any new design system.The new rules address the policy gap on sugary foods that were previously labeled healthy but shouldnt have been, and accommodates for good fats as well as concerns about ultra-processed foods. But even these changes are just a drop in the bucket compared to all the challenges that remain in making food labels useful for deciding if foods are healthy or not, says Xaq Frohlich, an Auburn University history associate professor and author of From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age.Despite decades of using food labels as a policy solution to public health problems, Americas health problems persist, Frohlich adds. I believe this is because the FDA needs to do more than just tweak labeling rules in order to improve the nations food markets and the rampant misinformation in them that confuses consumers.The FDA says data shows a majority of Americans diets exceed the current recommendations for saturated fats, added sugars, and sodium, and that the dietary patterns of 79% of Americans are low in dairy, fruits, and vegetables.Making healthy into a reliable, at-a-glance signalJim Jones, FDA deputy commissioner for human foods, sounded hopeful about the new labeling guidance, noting in a statement that the new rules may help foster a healthier food supply if manufacturers choose to reformulate their products to meet the new definition. Theres an opportunity here for industry and others to join us in making healthy a ubiquitous, quick signal to help people more easily build nutritious diets.

The iPhone 18 may become the first model to be bezel-free, but development of the all-glass iPhone is hitting some snags.Current iPhones have a bezel around the displayThe iPhone, like many other smartphones, offer users a large display but with a small border around the outside. While the bezel has been minimized over the years, it may become a thing of the past by the iPhone 18.According to sources of TheElec, Samsung Display and LG Display are working on OLED screens that don't have bezels. Both companies are key members of Apple's display supply chain, and the work is apparently being performed at Apple's request. Rumor Score: Possible Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums