MacworldThe MacBook Air M2 is a great deal at $999 especially now that it has 16GB of RAM. But right now, you can save $200 at Amazon, not quite the same fantastic discount we saw on Black Friday, but not far off either.This is one of the best laptops you can possibly get because its affordable, super light and thin, and perfectly capable of getting you through the day, whether you want to work, stream content, or have fun. The M2 chip is fast, powerful, and perfectly capable of handling everyday tasks, including some content creation. Paired with the 16GB of RAM it comes with, youve got a real speedy device at your fingers.The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display is absolutely gorgeous, and its actually one of our favorite things about this laptop. It also has a great battery life that will last you through the day without needing to hunt down your charger. Also, if you have to participate in video meetings often, youll be doing it in style because the laptop has a 1080p cam, a three-mic array, and a four-speaker sound system.Dont miss out on the chance to get the M2 MacBook Air for $799 right now at Amazon. But wed hurry up because this deal wont last forever.Buy now at Amazon

Apple has moved on to its third round of developer betas, but it has started quietly with a trial of tvOS 18.3's third beta, along with HomePod OS 18.3.Apple TV 4KThe third beta for tvOS 18.3 follows after the second, which surfaced on January 7. The first round was issued on December 16.It's also accompanied by the third developer beta of HomePod OS 18.3, which is used by the HomePod and HomePod mini. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Take a look at our latest curated selection of architecture and design firms currently hiring onArchinect Jobs: This week'sfeatured employer highlightincludes job openings in Brooklyn, Los Angeles/Long Beach, and San Francisco.For even more opportunities, visit theArchinect job boardand explore our active community ofjob seekers,firms, andschools.Brooklyn-based firmKiss-Architectsis hiring for two roles: a Research/Sustainability Intern who is currently attending or has attended a college or university within the last 12 months, has a passion for the environment, and familiar with BIM, LCA, and energy analysis software; and an Intermediate Architect with three or more years of experience and who possesses a knowledge of passive house, LEED, BIM workflows, energy/daylighting simulation, and LCA/embodied carbon analysis.Bushwick Inlet Park by Kiss-Architects. Photo: Paul WarcholStudio One Elevenis in search of an experiencedSenior Designer in Long Beach, California. The...

GungHo Online Entertainments Lunar Remastered Collection is out on April 18th, retailing for $49.99. It will be available for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, with compatibility for PS5 and Xbox Series X/SAlongside digital editions, there will be physical editions with reversible covers in North America via Amazon ($54.99) and Europe for PS4 and Switch via Clear River Games (54.99). They feature new art from Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete by series animation director and character designer Toshiyuki Kubooka.Based on Game Arts acclaimed RPG classics, Lunar Remastered Collection features improved visuals, wide-screen support, additional language options (English, Japanese, French, and German), and fully voiced attacks (including a new English voiceover).Fans can opt for a classic mode to experience the original visuals and try out quality-of-life features like speeding up combat. Additional settings for streamlining battles are also available. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"FX BackPacks commercial Smoke Impacts collection of stock FX clips and VDB file sequences, one of which is included in its free Discovery Pack of smoke and fire effects.New stock effects firm FX BackPack has released the Discovery Pack: six free smoke and fire effects for use in visual effects or motion graphics projects.The assets are provided as sequences of VDB files optimized for use in Blender, but suitable for use in other DCC apps, and as 2K MOV files with alpha channels for compositing.Six free stock FX clips of smoke and fire, for use in VFX or motion graphicsThe Dicovery Pack consists of six stock effects: three of fires and three of smoke.All are based on Houdini simulations that are then resampled to reduce file sizes while preserving as much of the original detail as possible.The fire effects are flame sims with sources with suitable shapes for use on the windows or facades of buildings, and on vertical structures like poles, pillars or ropes.The smoke effects consist of a ground explosion, a smoke plume, and horizontal jets mimicking smoke grenades or steam escaping from pipes.The 150-to-300-frame animations are provided as 2K ProRes 4444 MOV files with transparent backgrounds that can be composited into footage for use in VFX or motion graphics projects.Also available as VDB file sequences for rendering in Blender or other CG softwareUsers also get the effects as sequences of VDB files that can be rendered in any DCC app or game engine that supports the OpenVDB file format, now including Unreal Engine.The VDB files are optimized for use in Blender, where they can used with either the Cycles or Eevee render engines, and are designed to be lightweight and quick to render.Blender users also get a .blend scene file with five readymade smoke shaders and three stylized fire shaders.Available as a free sample of FX BackPacks commercial asset collectionsThe files are samples from FX BackPacks commercial asset collections, each of which contains 10 variations of smoke or fire effects.The commercial packs cost $4.99 or $9.99, depending on whether you want both the MOV files and VDB file sequences, or the MOV files alone.As well as downloading the samples free on Gumroad, you can buy the Discovery Pack on Blender Market, with all of the money from sales going to the Blender Development Fund.FX BackPack plans to release new collections throughout 2025 and 2026, starting with volumetric effects, but eventually including magic FX, destruction, water and particles.License and system requirementsFX BackPacks Discovery Pack assets are provided as sequences of VDB files, suitable for use in any DCC application that supports the format, and as 2K MOV files, for use in compositing.The Blender files are compatible with Blender 3.0+, and the Cycles and Eevee renderers.The assets are licensed for commercial use.Download FX BackPacks smoke and fire FX Discovery Pack from Gumroad(Enter a figure of $0 to download it for free, or make a voluntary donation)Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

A visitor examines a watchcrafted byAbraham-Louis Breguetfor Marie Antoinette. Science Museum GroupThe sprawling grounds of Frances opulentPalace of Versailles are not only a masterpiece of landscaping, but a mark of 17th-century engineering innovation. The propertys ornamental fountains and ponds, for example, were only made possible by a specially builtmachine that pulled water from the Seine and pushed it up a steep hill to Versailles.The machine was designed at the request of the French kingLouis XIVthe monarch who commissioned Versailles, also known as theSun King. His and his successors courts are mainly remembered for ostentatious finery, but their immense wealth also enabled discovery, and Versailles turned into a hotbed for science: a theme explored by a new exhibition at the Science Museum in London: Versailles: Science and Splendor.The exhibition highlights how science flourished at Versailles, from the kings personal interest in luxurious scientific instruments and spectacular demonstrations, to its strategic role beyond the palace through newly founded institutions and scientific expeditions, saysGlyn Morgan, the museums curatorial lead for exhibitions, in astatement. Jean-Dominique Cassini'smap of the moon Observatoire de ParisThe show spans the 17th and 18th centuries, covering the reigns of Louis XIV (who founded the FrenchAcademy of Sciences in 1666), Louis XV andLouis XVI (who was executed in 1793 during theFrench Revolution). Through more than 120 artifacts, the exhibition illustrates the importance of art and science in the French royal court.Many of the objects show innovations in medicine, such as a curved scalpel designed by Louis XIVs royal surgeon, Charles-Franois Flix.Guardians Jonathan Jones writes, The rehearsals worked: He fixed the royal fistula and Louis XIV lived on until 1715, his 72-year reign a world record.Under the reign of Louis XV (who ruled between 1715 and 1774), a midwife calledMadame du Coudray became a powerful force against French infant mortality. The king hired her to travel throughout rural France to train other midwives in the mechanics of birth, employing sophisticated life-sized mannequins, per the statement. Du Coudray ultimately educated more than 5,000 women and physicians, and her last surviving model is on display in the exhibition. Part of a mannequinused by Madame du Coudray to train midwives Muse Flaubert d'Histoire de la Mdecine / Mtropole Rouen NormandieAfter Louis XV died of smallpox, his son and successor Louis XVI announced that the royal family would get inoculated. Included in the exhibition are posters made to reassure the public of the strategys success.Science at Versailles extended to the wonders of the natural world. French botanists grew and studied exotic plants. Versailles had amenagerie stocked with animals likecoatis andcassowaries. Visitors to the Science Museum will be able to see the menageries most famous resident: Louis XVs rhinoceros, given to the king by a French governor based in India and later dissected and taxidermied upon its death.As it was studied by scientists, it became incredibly important to our growing zoological knowledge, as Morgan tells theObservers Vanessa Thorpe. The photographs really did not do justice to just how impressive and characterful it is. The skin is almost jet black. Louis XVs rhinoceros was dissected and taxidermied after its death in 1793. Science Museum GroupAlso on display are philosopherEmilie du Chtelets handwritten, annotated French translation of Isaac NewtonsPrincipia Mathematica; thewatch made for Louis XVIs wife, Marie Antoinette, by Abraham-Louis Breguet; and an early map of the moon drawn byJean-Dominique Cassini in 1679. The French Revolution claimed the lives of some of the French royal courts thinkers, but their advances were permanent. Per the Guardian, Science strode on.Royal ambition, scientific knowledge and ideals of beauty culminated at Versailles in spectacular demonstrations and brilliant innovations from the brightest minds of the time, saysIan Blatchford, director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, in the statement. We are thrilled to introduce our visitors to these fascinating stories through the stunning objects on display.Versailles: Science and Splendor is on view at the Science Museum in London through April 21, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Art, Earth Science, Exhibitions, Exhibits, Famous Scientists, France, Innovations, Kings, Medicine, Moon, Natural Sciences, Royal Family, Women in Science

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn MoreChatGPT is taking a significant step toward becoming a full-blown personal assistant with the release of a new feature called Tasks. This could signal that OpenAI will release more agents in the future.Currently in beta, Tasks lets ChatGPT Plus, Team and Pro users schedule actions ahead of time. For example, if someone wants to receive project reminders or daily weather updates, they can prompt ChatGPT, which will notify them of the chosen date and time. Tasks can be recurring or one-time reminders.To set up a task, users should toggle to 4o with scheduled tasks on the model picker and write a reminder prompt. ChatGPT can also suggest tasks from previous conversations. Tasks work with all versions of ChatGPT and send notifications through desktop, web and mobile. However, users can access the task manager only on the web version of ChatGPT.OpenAI said the beta period will help its researchers understand how people use Tasks and refine the feature before making it available to all ChatGPT users.Tasks join other assistant-like features for ChatGPT. During its 12 Days of OpenAI event in December, OpenAI launched screen sharing, letting users open ChatGPT while reading a text message and asking it to help them respond.OpenAIs first agent?Rumors around OpenAI releasing an AI agent swirled when some users caught ChatGPT providing access to scheduled tasks as far back as December. The agent, called Operator, would be the companys first agent.People believed Tasks could be the precursor to Operator. X user @kimmonismus, aka Chubby, said, The Information seems to be right and everything is being prepared for the release of Operator, i.e. OpenAIs agent. The Tasks function found by Tibor seems to be the first significant step in the preparation of Operator. It is questionable whether we will get a release this month or just a preview.Testing Catalog News on X theorized Tasks could eventually enable ChatGPT to search for specific information, summarize data, open websites, access documents and think through problems.VentureBeat reached out to OpenAI about Tasks and Operator. The company declined to answer the question and only said Tasks will be an important step toward making ChatGPT a more helpful AI companion.OpenAI has already made its first foray into the agentic space with Swarm, a framework it released to help orchestrate AI agents.Making ChatGPT a better assistantIf youre like me, you probably use the Reminders app and Google Calendar too much to remind yourself to text a relative Happy Birthday or of your brunch plans, or to alert you to news embargoes and planned interviews.There are many reminder, calendar and productivity apps available for both consumers and enterprises. These include Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Asana, Trello and Notion. The productivity assistant space is not short of applications that remind individuals and teams of tasks they must accomplish.OpenAIs big play in such a crowded space is interesting, especially since most people dont think of chatbots as scheduling assistants. But ChatGPT already streamlines the process for users to migrate their coding or writing tasks to the platform or search the web without leaving the chat interface. ChatGPT even opens up developers IDE nearly automatically for them.As ChatGPT adds more actions to its platform, setting up scheduled tasks and reminders is not so far-fetched. This makes ChatGPT a viable competitor to many productivity and scheduling apps.Daily insights on business use cases with VB DailyIf you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI.Read our Privacy PolicyThanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here.An error occured.

GOG bolsters game preservation efforts by joining European game archivist organisationSays this is "a significant step in bridging the private sector with cultural organisations"Image credit: GOG News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Jan. 14, 2025 GOG has partnered with the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums, and Preservation Projects (EFGAMP), Europe's largest federation of organisations working to preserve "video games as cultural heritage".With fellow members including The Video Game Museum in Rome, France's MO5.COM, Computerspielemuseum in Berlin, The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, and Embracer Games Archive, GOG said its membership marked "a significant step in bridging the private sector with cultural organisations across Europe."It also hoped that by joining EFGAMP, GOG would "reinforce itself position as one of the global champions in game preservation" and emphasise its "passionate" advocacy work.GOG was created with video game preservation in mind," said Maciej Gołębiewski, managing director at GOG. "Classic games and the mission to safeguard them for future generations have always been at the core of our work."Over the past decade, weve honed our expertise in this area. The GOG Preservation Program, which ensures compatibility for over 100 games and delivers hundreds of enhancements, is just one example of this commitment. We were thrilled to see the Program warmly received not only by our players but also by our partners and the gaming industry as a whole."COO of EFGAMP, Andreas Lange, added: GOG brings a unique perspective to EFGAMP as a European leader in digital game distribution."Their experience in making classic games accessible to modern audiences complements the work of our existing members by bringing further digital expertise to our collective efforts."As GOG distributes classic games worldwide, GOG is a fantastic addition to EFGAMP, whose members are primarily rooted in the cultural heritage sector."

Mobile developer Space Ape Games recently launched a spinoff team called NextBeat, reports PocketGamer. Several Space Ape employees are transferring to the new studio, including co-founder Simon Hade as its CEO and product manager George Yao as head of live games.Per MobileGamer, 30 staffers currently make up NextBeat. Several non-Space Ape developers have joined, such as CFO (and Kepler Interactive veteran) Joe Adams.NextBeat's emergence comes as Space Ape is set to be fully acquired by Supercell by the spring. The Clash of Clans maker previously invested stake into the London developer, which makes BeatStar and Transformers: Earth Wars for phones.NextBeat is taking BeatStar on tourAccording to PocketGamer, the BeatStar and Country Star properties are also jumping over to NextBeat. Hade and co-founder Olly Barnes told Music Business Worldwide the former game has over 100 million downloads worldwide and is projected to exceed $200 million in lifetime revenue before the end of 2025. As such, Hade said they had to "address this immense opportunity, now.""BeatStar taught us that there is huge per-user monetization potential for music in gaming," said Barnes. "The vast mobile gaming audience and ARPU insights from Country Star's genre-focused approach underscored the need to launch a fully resourced company dedicated to this opportunity."As Hade told Music Business, NextBeat is considered more of a "dedicated, music-focused venture" than a mobile game developer like Space Ape. His ultimate hope is for the new studio to "expand into more experiences, games and apps that showcase the inspiration and creativity of our artist partners." Such plans, according to the outlet, potentially include entering the educational tech and mental health sectors.For now, the focus is on growing out BeatStar into other genres via potential standalone games. Barnes told MobileGamer the next "most obvious evolution" would be nostalgic rock, a la Guitar Hero. Hade showed similar interest in Latin, anime music, and EDM, but said some genres might require "slightly different" monetization approaches.

Instagram alternative Pixelfed now has appsInstagram alternative Pixelfed now has apps / Pixelfed recently said its seeing unprecedented levels of traffic to the original pixelfed.social server.By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge. Jan 14, 2025, 7:10 PM UTCShare this story Image: PixelfedPixelfed, a decentralized and ad-free Instagram alternative, now has apps on iOS and Android, as reported by TechCrunch. The iOS app launched today, while the Android app launched on January 10th.The platform is seeing a surge in popularity following Metas announcement last week that it would be drastically changing its content moderation policies; over the weekend, Pixelfed said that its seeing unprecedented levels of traffic to the pixelfed.social server and was working to increase resources.Pixelfed was also in the news this week because some users claimed that Meta randomly blocked links to the site they shared on Facebook. According to Engadget, Meta blocked the Pixelfed links by mistake and is now reinstating the posts.The creator of Pixelfed, Daniel Supernault, also launched a decentralized version of TikTok last October called Loops. With TikTok facing a ban in the US and the fallout from Metas content moderation changes, Pixelfed and Loops offer other options for people to jump ship to.Most PopularMost Popular