Another Crab?!?Another Crab's Treasure was a bright spot in a rough year, and an absolute must playA quirky little action game made by a team of young, passionate creatives. That's what it's all about, innit.Image credit: Aggro Crab Article by Connor Makar Staff Writer Published on Dec. 29, 2024 I first played Another Crab's Treasure on the side of the street behind the Day of the Devs event in LA earlier this year, the sun glaring on a laptop screen, quickly running out of power. Next to me sat Nick, the studio head, who watched patiently as a hungover blob attempted to navigate his team's game. He muttered "interesting" as I struggled to navigate the tutorial at first, I assume in awe at how long it took me to jump into the ocean and start the game proper. It remains the most embarrassing moment I had this year.And yet, of all the games that came out this year, all the indie darlings, daring double A's, big-budget triple A's, and the occasional hilarious quadruple A, it was this quirky little crab adventure that stood out to me. A prime example of how to do game development right, and a game I could (and have) recommended to everyone I can get my claws on. Another Crab's Treasure is special, and a real gem of 2024.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Created by Aggro Crab, the studio is seemingly cursed to have its offices broken into forevermore and formed of a varied team of largely new faces to video game development. Young and with fresh ideas, they dropped Another Crab's Treasure in April to healthy success. As of writing, the game has sold at least 500K copies as of November 1 (not shabby for an indie by any means) and has won numerous awards. It's also, by the way, a brilliantly fun game that brings a splash of fun and vibrancy to a subgenre that oftentimes can get lost in the doom and gloom, all without foregoing an important message.What's brilliant about Another Crab's Treasure is the team's very modern approach to game and community management. The dev team knew they had a rad game on their hands but they didn't just throw it out there. They did some wonderful community management work that capitalised on even the tinniest opportunity to make memes and build rapport, showing an understanding of how the current social media landscape works. They collaborated with influencers and made the most of them, pushing them just enough to make waves but not too much to drown out the game itself. The team's young talent expressed themselves wonderfully through their work, offering innovative twists on genre standards and a youthful vigour to the game's vibe. It also has a sick original soundtrack - great job Felix.However, even Aggro Crab, who from where I'm sitting seems to be doing everything right, is not safe from the harsh winds of 2024 and the current industry environment. At the start of November, the team announced that funding for its third game had fallen through. This means that even while members of the team were picking up Golden Joystick Awards and being celebrated by their peers, the financial gears of the same industry remained stationary. To say this is a bummer is an immense understatement. If the industry is not a place where teams like Aggro Crab can thrive, and games like Another Crab's Treasure are enough to ensure a level of security then that's a testament to how bad things real are. Still, it's not as though their efforts have gone unnoticed! Here's hoping that come January, when corporate budgets are established and men in suits start shopping around for studios to throw money at, they shell out some dough for what will surely be a shellfish steal.For you, the player, the game is not done yet! It's getting a new game plus mode soon as well as a boss rush mode and other goodies. So grab it! It's a fantastic game well worth your time, made by people who will surely appreciate it.

Which Exit?Remember that viral, nightmarish horror game about traversing Japan's subway stations? Well, the studio behind Godzilla is working on a film adaptationColour me intrigued!Image credit: Kotake Create News by Oisin Kuhnke Contributor Published on Dec. 29, 2024 The Exit 8, a liminal space horror game about trying to find your way out of a Japanese subway station, is getting a movie.When it comes to video game adaptations, really anything is on the table these days, and that includes even the shortest of horror games. And next up on that list is The Exit 8, a short and not so sweet horror game that explains itself thusly: "You are trapped in an endless underground passageway. Observe your surroundings carefully to reach 'The Exit 8'." Creepy! The entire thing lasts no longer than an hour, but quickly went viral due to its strong vibes and setting. It's not the kind of thing you'd expect to get a film adaptation, but it is, and from a very notable studio too: Toho, the very same studio behind the incredibly iconic Godzilla.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Over on the official Exit 8 movie website, developer Kotake Create shared a statement (as translated by GamesRadar), saying, "Exit 8 will be made into a live-action movie! I had no idea that when the game released at the end of November 2023, a movie adaptation would be announced about a year later, so I'm full of surprise and gratitude. "When I was approached about the movie, I was wondering how to make a movie about a game without a story, but I think it will be interesting as a movie without destroying the world view and atmosphere of Exit 8! I also visited the shooting site, and it was really amazing to see that underground passage and uncle in front of me! We hope you will look forward to it! I'm also very much looking forward to the release!"I'm not sure how this one will get adapted, but I'm definitely curious to see it. It's the kind of film you could probably do on a tight budget, so hopefully that'll lead to some interesting filmmaking. Let's just hope it doesn't traumatise the average Japanese railway user.

Hello, my pretties.Another year, another set of beautiful-looking Switch games to savour. Even as the Switch is approaching its eighth birthday, we've seen a stunning variety of art styles grace our OLED (or NoLED) screens.We know the Switch 2 is on the horizon, and we can't wait to see what our favourite games look like on the successor, but developers have been working their magic with the ageing Nintendo console. Even in the year of the PS5 Pro, we've seen some of the best art styles on show on the Switch.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

AIgettyThis is my fourth and last blog on digital storage and memory projections for 2025. The first two articles focused on digital storage and memory devices including magnetic tape, HDDs, SSDs as well as NAND, DRAM and emerging non-volatile memories. The third was an update on optical storage, since several optical storage startups targeting the archiving and digital preservation market came to the forefront in 2024 and appear to be poised to deliver prototype products in 2025 and beyond. This article will focus on developments in storage systems and software and their use in workflows as well as additional insights on the future of storage devices and systems.2024 saw the recovery of the overall storage and memory markets, although NAND flash and SSD markets have had only a partial recovery this year with most growth in the enterprise and data center markets. In September 2024 IDC released a report stating that the worldwide enterprise external OEM storage systems are expected to grow an average of 4.3% over a 5-year period.IDC attributed the growth to, Positive developments and drivers for growing demand include increasing demand for flash storage (typically, all-flash arrays) to support projects related to artificial intelligence, both for training and inferencing and increasing demand for flash media across both external storage systems and servers. They also say that IaaS solutions are leading more companies to repatriate or planning to repatriate workloads from shared cloud to dedicated IT environments.On the other hand, IDC, in another September report, forecast that 2024 cloud infrastructure spending (computing and storage) will grow 48.8% over 2023. Much of this spending growth was due to the increasing costs for GPU servers. Actual unit cloud growth in the same period was 17.7%.Shared cloud infrastructure spending is expected to grow 57.9% Y/Y with dedicated cloud infrastructure spending growth projected at 20.4% Y/Y. Non-cloud infrastructure spending is expected to grow 11.7% Y/Y. Long term, IDC predicts spending on cloud infrastructure (compute and storage) to have a compound growth rate 18.1 from 2023-2028 and accounting for 76.4% of total compute and storage infrastructure spending by 2028 with shared cloud infrastructure spending being 78.6% of total cloud spending by 2028.Read More: IEEE Trips To Singapore, Japan, New Jersey, San Francisco And ItalyDeveloping AI workloads will have an impact on storage and memory demand. Eric Herzog, CMO at Infinidat, said that Enterprise storage infrastructure will take on a new role as the foundation for retrieval-augmented generation, RAG. RAG is a GenAI-centric framework for augmenting, refining and optimizing the output of AI models including large language models, LLMs, and small language models, SLMs). RAG can eliminate the need for continually re-training models, reducing the costs of these models and can reduce the incidence of AI hallucinations. Infinidat announced its RAG workflow deployment architecture in November 2024.Infinidat is also joining efforts to defend data stores from cyberattacks. As part of its data protection capabilities. At the first sign of a cyberattack an immutable snapshot is taken of data to automatically reduce the impact of an attack. Infinidat also projects growth in hybrid multi-cloud storage in 2025. This brings together on-premises/private cloud and public cloud storage resources to enable high levels of flexibility, cost efficiency and use case-specific solutions. AWS and Azure are able to assist with such efforts. Infinidat announced such services with AWS and Microsoft in 2023 using the companys InfuzeOS software defined storage, SDS, solution. Infinidat also says that non-VM based virtualization and Kubernetes/container deployments will increase in 2025.Steve Leeper, VP of Product Marketing at Datadobi, says that, The amount of unstructured data stored in both public cloud and private cloud environments will continue to grow. The impact of unstructured data management solutions that give customers the ability to manage data no matter where it is located will increase as the data in multiple environments accumulates.Its no longer realistic to ignore the fact that, in most organizations, data lives in a hybrid environment and global data management is required. In addition, he indicated that with the growth of unstructured data there is a greater need for data insights to create GENAI-ready data.Don Boxley, CEO and co-founder of DH2i says that AI can be used to create self-optimized high availability, HA, clusters, where, AI eliminatesinefficiencies by continuously analyzing workloads and resource usage, allowing clusters to self-optimize and maintain peak performance without manual oversight.He also says that AI-driven HA clustering can help maintain HA across different cloud environments by managing clusters spanning multiple providers. Boxley says that, AI simplifies cross-cloud HA by dynamically analyzing traffic and distributing workloads intelligently across providers, ensuring seamless performance and responsiveness.AI data demand will increase the need for archiving data. Gal Naor, CEO of StorONE says that, The exponential growth of data in 2025 will significantly increase storage costs as organizations face the challenge of retaining cold data for extended periods. Although rarely accessed, this data must remain secure, easily accessible and cost-efficient.In addition, Auto Tiering storage solutions will dynamically migrate inactive data to low-cost drives while ensuring rapid access for future analysis, reducing overall costs without compromising efficiency. Also, With rising cyber threats, fast and cost-effective recovery will be critical. Intelligent architectures will store snapshots on economical tiers while ensuring immediate availability for recovery, enhancing both preparedness and cost management.Skip Levens, Product Leader and AI Strategist for Media and Entertainment at Quantum, had some comments on AI growth in 2025 and its impact on digital storage demand. He says that, In 2025, organizations that take a more pragmatic approach to AIand its underlying data infrastructurewill be best prepared to fuel new insights and power discovery.He also talks about who the winners will be, Those who are leading the data race are the ones who are not only leveraging every scrap of their collected data for differentiated AI outcomes, but those who have an infrastructure and process in place for effectively doing somanaging, organizing, indexing, and cataloging every piece of it. Theyll produce more, faster, and better results than their competitors. In 2025, well start to see who leaps ahead in this new data and algorithm arms race.Members of the Active Archive Alliance also had comments related to the growth of archive data to support 2025 workflows. Rich Godomski, Head of Tape Evangelism with FujiFilm NA Corp., Data Storage Solutions, say that, Sustainable active archive solutions with intelligent data management capabilities can leverage ultra energy efficient and extremely cost-effective tiers of storage such as S3 compatible object-based tape libraries. This will be needed to offset the voracious energy consumption of truly cutting-edge and breakthrough AI applications as the AI age evolves in 2025 and beyond.Paul Luppino, Director of Global Digital Solutions at Iron Mountain, said that, Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize data storage and active archives by enhancing efficiency and accessibility. As data volumes soar, we can optimize storage management by predicting usage patterns and minimizing costs, potentially making decisions about how and where to store data at the point of creation.In the realm of active archives, AI can analyze and prioritize data, ensuring frequently accessed information is readily available while less critical data is stored cost-effectively. Automated classification, tagging, and indexing could simplify the search process, allowing for intelligent data handling.Mark Pastor with Platform Product Management at Western Digital said that, disaggregated storagehas been proven to deliver the performance and capacity required to meet the requirements of demanding GPU-related workloads which are at the heart of AI and machine learning processes. Disaggregating storage from the server accomplishes two key things: (1) it enables storage to be shared across multiple servers offering greater flexibility and utilization of storage resources, and (2) demonstrations show that disaggregated storage delivers the performance needed to keep GPU processing fully saturated.Over time these external storage architectures will become standard with HDD for active archives and with flash for performance workloads and will ultimately migrate to fabric as opposed to SAS given the convenience and distance benefits of fabrics.Jason Lohrey, CEO of Arcitecta also emphasized the value of fabric shared storage, saying that, Businesses can maximize their existing investments and avoid vendor lock-in by leveraging a data fabrican architecture that unifies cloud, disk, tape, and flash storage into a single, logical namespace. This trend towards virtualization allows for a more flexible approach to data management, enabling businesses to mix and match technologies to meet specific needs.Ted Oade, Director of Product Marketing at Spectra Logic also talks about how archive storage practices can help create more sustainable AI workloads and create competitive advantages, Modern tape storage is not only highly durable but also incredibly energy-efficient, particularly when compared to disk storage. By offloading cold data to tape in an active archive, data centers can free up energy for AI workloads, maximizing efficiency. As energy becomes a factor potentially limiting the growth of AI, businesses that embrace sustainable practices will gain a competitive edge in 2025 and beyond2025 promises increased demand for storage devices, systems and software to support the growth of AI data processing. AI will increasingly be used to make digital storage more efficient and safer. Digital storage and memory architectures may play an important role in more sustainable AI data centers.

Authentic CommunicationgettyImagine opening your email and finding a subject line that reads, Youve been fired.Its the kind of email no employee ever wants to seepunishment, apparently, for complaining about stress at work.The message came from Yes Madam, a beauty and wellness platform in India, and spread like wildfire. Outrage erupted as people shared screenshots, condemning the companys callous approach. But heres the twist: the email wasnt real. It was a marketing stunt, the company later explained, meant to raise awareness about the importance of mental health. Their solution? Giving employees a day off and a spa voucher.If the backlash was swift, it was also deserved. Instead of sparking dialogue about workplace stress, the stunt felt performative and hollow. What should have been an opportunity to build trust and show genuine care ended up eroding both. The problem wasnt just the contentit was the lack of authenticity. In an effort to appear thoughtful, the company managed to alienate the very people it claimed to support.This story highlights a growing challenge for leaders and organizations everywhere: in an era where employees and customers demand transparency, connection, sincerity, and kindness, how do we communicate in ways that are genuinely real and human? As we rethink how to engage and build trust, we need to embrace new ways of showing up authentically in our communication. Best practice communication toolsmass emails, scripted memos, and formal announcementsno longer resonate the way they once did.While best practices are rooted in what worked in the past, next practices focus on whats needed for the future. In an increasingly digital, distributed, and asynchronous world, authentic communication is the ultimate next practice. Whether its a CEO addressing employees, a team leader sharing updates, or a professional building their network, success today depends on our ability to show up as real peoplenot faceless corporate personas.MORE FOR YOUAuthenticity Isnt Optional AnymoreAuthentic communication is about more than delivering a messageits about creating a sense of connection. When leaders and professionals communicate authentically, they bridge the gap between themselves and their audience. People dont just hear or read what you say; they trust you because they see who you are.As Catherine Fisher, LinkedIns Career Expert, explains in a podcast interview, The way we connect and consume information has changed. People want to engage with content that feels real, relatable, and human. The more authentic you are, the more impactful your message will be.This shift explains the growing popularity of video as a communication tool. Unlike polished text updates or scripted presentations, video allows people to share thoughts, reflections, and stories in a way that feels personal and direct. Fisher elaborates, You dont need perfection. Its about showing up as yourself. Its the authenticity of videostumbling over a word, pausing to thinkthat helps people feel connected.The Case for Ditching the ScriptThe numbers make the case clear. Data shows that short-form video content drives deeper engagement, with viewers retaining 95% of a videos message compared to just 10% for text. According to LinkedIn data, video posts from senior leaders have grown by 23% in the past year, leading to a 39% increase in followers.Executives across industries are already leaning into this approach. During last earning season we could see CEOs like Ralph Laurens Patrice Louvet, Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan and Shopify CEO Harley Finkelstein using LinkedIn to share complementary posts and videos that provide additional context and information on their earnings reports. According to LinkedIn data posts from CEOs now receive, on average, eight times more impressions and four times more engagement than other types of content.The key here isnt the medium itselfits the way it enables transparency and connection. Take the CEO who shares a short, spontaneous video after an earnings call. The official report remains available for those who want details, but the video serves a different purpose: it humanizes the message. Employees, investors, and customers see the leader not just as a voice of authority but as a person with emotions, reactions, and a point of view.Whether its video, live discussions, or interactive forums, tools that enable authentic communication allow leaders and professionals to build trust across time and space.Authentic Communication for EveryoneAuthentic communication isnt just for CEOs or senior leadersits essential at all levels. As Catherine Fisher points out during the podcast, professionals are increasingly using tools like short-form video to build relationships, share insights, and foster trust:Sometimes Ill post polished videos, and sometimes Ill share something spontaneousa quick thought or response to a question I received. What Ive found is that the most unfiltered content often sparks the most engagement. Its not about being perfect; its about providing value.The lesson? Authenticity works because it feels real. A consultant answering an industry question, a team leader recognizing success, or a job seeker sharing their storythese moments of connection transcend the limitations of text alone. Whether through video, live chats, or informal updates, the key is to focus on what matters to your audience.Forget Perfection, Aim for ConnectionOf course, embracing authentic communication isnt always easy. For many, the thought of putting yourself out therewhether on video, in writing, or through live interactioncan feel intimidating. Its easy to overthink what to say, how youll look, or whether the content will resonate.But perfection isnt the goalconnection is. As Fisher advises, Start small. Think about whats valuable to your audience and let that guide you. People arent looking for perfecttheyre looking for something meaningful, something they can learn from or relate to.This applies whether youre recording a video, writing a post, or delivering an update. The most impactful communication happens when we focus less on how polished we appear and more on how genuine we are. Because in a world where so much feels automated and distant, people want to connect with people.In todays workplace, authentic communication isnt optionalits essential. Its how we build trust, foster relationships, and create connection, whether were engaging a team, a customer, or a network.Video exemplifies a broader shift toward authenticity in communication. From short videos and live conversations to thoughtful updates and reflections, tools that allow us to show up as real, imperfect humans are becoming indispensable.The challenge now is to embrace authenticity in all formswhether through a video post, a live update, or simply a thoughtful message that shows who you are. Start small. Be yourself. Because in a digital-first, asynchronous world, being real isnt just powerfulits the way forward.

Futurology A new study has unveiled a discovery beneath the Earth's surface: a vast reservoir of hydrogen that could potentially reshape the global energy landscape. Scientists estimate that approximately 6.2 trillion tons of hydrogen lie hidden in rocks and underground reservoirs, a quantity that dwarfs known oil reserves by a factor of 261. The research, led by Geoffrey Ellis, a petroleum geochemist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has been published in the journal Science Advances. It suggests that tapping into just a fraction of this hydrogen could have far-reaching implications for the world's energy future."Just 2% of the hydrogen stocks found in the study, equivalent to 124 billion tons of gas, would supply all the hydrogen we need to get to net-zero [carbon] for a couple hundred years," Ellis told LiveScience. This amount of hydrogen contains roughly twice the energy stored in all known natural gas reserves on Earth.Hydrogen, a clean energy carrier, has diverse applications, ranging from fueling vehicles to powering industrial processes and generating electricity. As global efforts to combat climate change intensify, hydrogen is projected to play an increasingly significant role, potentially accounting for up to 30% of future energy supply in some sectors.The study's findings challenge long-held beliefs about hydrogen's behavior underground. "The paradigm throughout my entire career was that hydrogen's out there, it occurs, but it's a very small molecule, so it easily escapes through small pores and cracks and rocks," Ellis said. However, recent discoveries of substantial hydrogen caches in West Africa and an Albanian chromium mine have shifted this perspective.To estimate the global hydrogen reserves, Ellis and his colleague Sarah Gelman developed a model accounting for various factors, including hydrogen production rates underground, the amount likely trapped in reservoirs, and losses through processes such as atmospheric leakage. The model revealed a wide range of possible hydrogen quantities, from 1 billion to 10 trillion tons, with 6.2 trillion tons being the most probable estimate. // Related StoriesWhile these figures are promising, Ellis cautions that much of this hydrogen may be inaccessible due to depth or offshore locations. Additionally, some reserves might be too small for economically viable extraction. Nevertheless, the sheer scale of the estimated reserves suggests that even with these limitations, there could be ample hydrogen available for exploitation.One of the key advantages of natural hydrogen over synthetically produced "green" or "blue" hydrogen is its ready availability. "We don't have to worry about storage, which is something that with the blue hydrogen or green hydrogen you do," Ellis said. "You want to make it when electricity is cheap and then you have to store it somewhere. With natural hydrogen, you could just open a valve and close it whenever you needed it."However, the exact locations of these hydrogen reserves remain unknown, presenting the next challenge for researchers. Ellis and his team are working on narrowing down the geological criteria necessary for underground hydrogen accumulation, with results for the U.S. expected early next year.While the potential of this discovery is enormous, some experts urge caution. Professor Bill McGuire from University College London told the BBC that extracting hydrogen on a scale large enough to impact emissions significantly would require "an enormous global initiative for which we simply don't have time." He also emphasized the need for extensive supporting infrastructure. McGuire questioned whether exploiting another finite resource is necessary, given the availability of renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

As part of its celebration of the 2024 holiday season, Epic Games is giving away a free title each day until January 1. Today, that late stocking-stuffer is Orcs Must Die 3, an action-packed battle through hordes of orcs that combines aspects of hack-n-slash gameplay with tower defense. Normally $30, this game is yours for the low price of just a click, but only until tomorrow at 11 AM.Epic Games has given away one free item each day since December 19, and this one joins the ranks of heavy-hitters like Vampire Survivors, Astrea: Six Sided Oracles, TerraTech, Wizard of Legend, Dark and Darker, Dredge, Control, Ghostrunner 2, Hot Wheels Unleashed, and Kill Knight. There are three more free games to be had after today, but we arent sure what they are yet. Its a safe bet that Epic will save its most impressive giveaway till last, so keep your eyes peeled on January 1.Recommended VideosOrcs Must Die 3introduces War Scenarios, a mode that throws you against a veritable tidal wave of orcs and monsters. It also lets you hop aboard a War Machine a special type of trap that hits multiple enemies at once and carve through swathes of foes with ease.Orcs Must Die 3 trailer | PC Gaming Show E3 2021And dont worry about it being the third in the franchise. The storyline is set 20 years after the events of the second game, but its a brand-new story and a great place for players to enter the series. Once the campaign and story are complete, you can get a lot of replayability from the Scramble to Survive mode.Please enable Javascript to view this contentYou can download Orcs Must Die 3 from the Epic Games Storetoday only. A new surprise will take its place tomorrow morning at 11 AM EST.Editors Recommendations

The AI-fication of the iPhone was heavily anticipated, apparently more so by analysts and investors than the average user. Apple Intelligence put AI in all key places that define an iPhone, including Mail, Photos, Safari, notifications, Notes you name it.But those changes havent been welcomed by all. The Photos redesign continues to test the patience of iPhone users. But the Mail app is not too far off in the rage race. On Reddit and other user forums, many have been venting their frustration against the new categorization system, which sorts emails across different classes.Recommended VideosThanks in no part to Apples efforts, users are missing out on the simplicity of seeing all their emails neatly arranged in chronological order. Moreover, its another hassle to click on the category tags at the top to find certain types of emails slotted across primary, transactions, and updates, among other tiers.Please enable Javascript to view this contentNo one was asking for this, and no one wants it, writes one frustrated user. Multiple users are also reporting that the categorization in Mail is not always accurate. A few have also mentioned that the read/unread system is acting haphazardly for them.Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsThankfully, you can revert to the old and more importantly, familiar look of Mail before the rollout of AI with iOS 18 changed things on your iPhone. Moreover, its a relatively easy exercise.RelatedWhen you open the Mail app on your iPhone, click on the Three-dot icon in the top-right corner. You will now see a small window that shows previews of the old and new Mail views.All you have to do is select the Checkbox underneath the List view, and youre good to go. If you are in two minds about categories, swipe on the pill-shaped Category button at the top, and you will land on the All mail view, where all your emails are listed in order without any category sorting.You can also access your emails, stored in a combined fashion across different inboxes, from the side panel in case the categories have been disabled. Tap on Mailboxes in the top-left corner to open the side panel, scroll down, and select the All mail option.Nadeem Sarwar / Digital TrendsThere are a healthy few complaints about the email summarization system, too. Yes, it has been misfiring, especially for chained emails. The Digital Trends team often has a good laugh at the poor summaries in group chats.The good news here is that you can disable email summaries as well. They are often badly executed and just serve as a distraction at the top. Head over to the Settings app, open Mail, and disable the toggle that says Summarize message previews.If your experience has also been hit or miss with Apples mail summaries, you can switch things over to Gmail, where the summaries are generated by Gemini. In my experience, theyve been more contextually accurate.Shortwave is another excellent app that does a lot of AI in-mail management. But just like Apple Mail, this app also relies on OpenAIs GPT stack to pull off its AI magic. On the positive side, it offers a lot more functional versatility, so you might want to check that out as well.Editors Recommendations

Elon Musk again came out in support of Germany's far-right party, Alternative for Germany.In an op-ed in a German newspaper, Musk praised the party's stance on immigration and regulation.Germany is holding elections in February.Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, has reaffirmed his support for Germany's far-right party.In an op-ed for a major German newspaper, Musk called the Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, the "last spark of hope for this country." He praised its stances on immigration and government regulation, among others."The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy that gives priority to integration and the preservation of German culture and security. This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalization," Musk wrote. "A nation must preserve its core values and cultural heritage to remain strong and united."The Welt am Sonntag newspaper published the op-ed on Saturdayresigned in response, citing the publication of Musk's piece. Welt am Sonntag and Business Insider are both owned by Axel Springer SE.Germany is holding elections in February after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence earlier this month, paving the way for snap elections. Long a fringe political party, the AfD has been gaining popularity in Germany with its anti-immigration platform.Musk said in his opinion piece that the party "resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are being ignored by the establishment," adding that the "portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false."He also praised the party for supporting tax cuts and economic deregulation, and he called for a more balanced energy approach that includes nuclear energy.Tesla has a major gigafactory in Berlin that manufactures battery cells and Model Y cars."As someone who has made significant investments in Germany's industrial and technological landscape, I believe I have the right to speak openly about his political orientation," Musk wrote.After publishing the op-ed, Musk reposted a series of comments on X, his social media platform, that also praised AfD. One post accused Europe and the United States of overusing the label "far-right."Last week, Musk called Scholz an "incompetent fool," adding that the chancellor should resign following an attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg that left five people dead. Musk shared a post on X suggesting that the attack was a result of immigration. Police identified the suspect in custody as a Saudi citizen who sought political asylum in Germany."We have freedom of opinion it also goes for multibillionaires, but freedom of opinion also means that you can say things that aren't right and don't contain good political advice," Scholz said in response, according to the Associated Press.Editor's Note: Business Insider is owned by Axel Springer, which also owns the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

I loved going to Disney World as a kid, experiencing the freedom of the parks.Now that I bring my kids, we feel bogged down by apps, crowds, and restrictions.My kids don't know what they're missing, but the parks have changed so much for me.Visiting Disney World was an annual experience of my youth. For decades, my family would spend a long October weekend at the Fort Wilderness camping resort. We'd run around the parks and skip through the numerous resorts and restaurants sprinkled throughout the Lake Buena Vista campus.The Disney parks somehow felt futuristic and cutting-edge while also being nostalgic and magical. The trips made such an impression that I still find myself every September doing house chores with the animated "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" playing in the background or watching YouTube videos of park workers setting up the fall decorations.So when my wife and I started taking our boys to the parks, I fell into the nostalgia trap of hoping their experiences would be just like mine. Time and economics had other plans.A Disney trip requires too much planning nowI never appreciated the high level of planning it takes to visit a theme park until I became a parent. Ride line length and bad weather were my only concerns as a kid with some minor concerns about food. But as a parent, I find myself overwhelmed by the sheer number of pre-visit requirements.When you take pride in your theme park survival knowledge, nothing will humble you faster than trying to navigate the Dos and Don'ts of visiting a Disney park in the 21st century. Visiting a park these days requires weeks of planning, constant communication with everyone traveling in your group, and downloading phone apps just to enjoy certain parts of the park.Further complications include things like Lightning Lane passes, blackout dates, rope drops, ride reservations, and premium annual passes all things I never had to think about that have since become standard operating procedures for park visits.My favorite part of visiting the Magic Kingdom used to be seeing the castle once I got through the front gate. Now, it's the bar stool at the resort because it doesn't require a reservation (yet).I wish my kids get to be more free at the parks like I wasIn addition to the annual October visits, I frequently visited the parks through school field trips or group events like Grad Nite. I have memories of racing through the parks with my friends, sprinting from ride to attraction with minimal crowds to slow us down, feeling like those feral kids from "Pinocchio" before they got turned into donkeys.The sheer volume of the Disney park crowds these days makes that notion impossible. Our boys have fewer opportunities to behave like wild, unaccompanied minors.This reality doesn't bother me too much, especially since I get the feeling park security would be less tolerant of unaccompanied minors than when I was a kid.Thankfully, my kids don't careOf course, none of these differences mean anything to my kids. I have no idea how they really feel about visiting the parks, but I know they enjoy it, and I'm getting better at letting them have their own life experiences without comparing them to mine.That's fine because those comparisons didn't matter to me as a kid, either. Historians refer to the 1970s and 1980s as Disney's Dark Age, the years when the company produced some of its darkest films and the parks were not the IP-heavy juggernauts of today. But that didn't matter to a late-stage Generation X kid who watched "Robin Hood" and "Winnie the Pooh" until the VCR ate the tapes.Visiting the parks felt like stepping into a pocket dimension where all the lands and characters showcased by Disney could be seen and touched. The Disney I experienced was the correct Disney, just as the Disney my boys currently experience is also the correct Disney.Plus, I can feel them rolling their eyes whenever we talk about how much the parks have changed since we were kids.