MacworldAt a glanceExpert's RatingProsIncluded as part of Office subscriptionIdeal for just about any finance managementTied in nicely with OneDriveConsNo Copilot (yet)Our Verdict Excel is a fantastic spreadsheet app, capable of processing large quantities of data with ease, but its missing arguably its biggest recent feature addition on Mac. Still, its absolutely packed with features and is ideal for anyone already using Office apps and OneDrive.Price When ReviewedThis value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefinedBest Pricing TodayLove them or hate them, spreadsheets are a key part of the business world, but even with the rise of Google Sheets and the like, theres a good chance your work leans on Microsoft Offices apps because, well, thats just the way its been for years.Weve already covered Word 2024 and PowerPoint 2024 and how both are starting to lean into Microsofts AI tools, even on Mac, but at the moment Excel feels strangely free from that. Sure, its likely to come in the future, but for now, its a relatively old-school experience and thats no real bad thing for many of us.From building a whole host of charts to drop into a Powerpoint via OneDrive, to less intense household financial plans and maths homework, Excel is flexible and scalable but perhaps not worth the price alone since Numbers does much of the same stuff.First ImpressionsTemplates: Excel can tackle just about any number-based request you can throw at it.FoundryExcel makes a very strong first impression, but its pretty identical to other Microsoft Office apps. You can open a blank sheet, dig through your OneDrive files, or pick a template.Those templates are able to cover just about anything you may need, from housemate rent payments, to a task manager, and time sheets, and once you open any of them youll find them already populated with the required formulae. Thats particularly nice if, like me, youve struggled with them in the past.As with the other apps in Microsofts suite, Excels interface is much more cluttered than Numbers, Apples alternative. Its rammed full of icons and toolbars, whereas Apple has a sort of slide-in bar on the right when its needed. If youre used to it, great, but it can be intimidating.Numbers may have the upper hand in terms of look and feel, but its the wider Office365 suite that makes Excel part of a more compelling whole. For one, as with Powerpoint, you may not consider signing up to a spreadsheet app on its own, but since its included in with a robust set of apps, why wouldnt you consider Excel?For one user its $99.99/84.99 a year ($9.99/8.49 a month) for Microsoft 265 Personal. Or for $129.99/104.99 a year (or $12.99/10.49 per month) you can get the Microsoft 365 Family edition with up to six licenses including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and more.However, if you only want to buy Excel you can do that too. Microsoft sells a lifetime license of Excel for $179.99/159.99 (one device).Microsoft Excel featuresCalculation settings: Excel can use as many, or as few, processor cores as youd like.FoundryA lot of what Excel does so well hasnt really changed in years. Its still a fantastically powerful tool for quick sums right up to complex equations, but one thing I was particularly surprised by is hiding in the settings.Thats because Excel lets you decide how many processor cores on your machine it can use to crunch data, meaning if you want it to run difficult calculations in the background while you do something else, you can tell it to use fewer cores at the cost of it taking longer. Its a neat trick, although I will say in my testing on an M3 MacBook Air I had no need for turning the cores down.Still, you can take a picture of a printed data table and drop it into your Excel sheet using your iPhone, but in my testing of the Mac version you need to save it as a file first.Microsoft Excel annoyancesNew from Template: Copilot is absent, but there are plenty of great templates to take the hassle out of using Excel.FoundryLess an annoyance and more a surprising omission, Microsofts Copilot features for Excel simply arent here on Mac at least as far as I can tell when digging through.If youre on Windows, Copilot can help analyze data with its own window, but on Mac theres no such option. If you dont need AI, thats fine, but for the time being that might just help make Numbers a better candidate if you do since it has Apple Intelligence and ties to ChatGPT.Should you buy Excel 2024 for Mac?If youre not in need of AI and youre already in the Office365 subscription ecosystem, youll find plenty to like in Excel, but it does feel like its treading water until Microsoft can port over Copilot.

In a first of its kind promotion for Apple TV+, the cast of "Severance" appeared in character, working in a pop-up glass office at Grand Central Terminal.L-R: Zach Cherry, Adam Scott, Britt Lower in the "Severance" popup in New York's Grand Central"Severance" has been a critical and popular hit since it started, and is already talked about so much that it probably doesn't need promotion. But that's what it got with an all-star stunt at New York's Grand Central on January 14, 2025.Apple has now released footage of the stunt, showing stars including Adam Scott, Britt Lower, and Zach Cherry, working in a replica of their "Severance" office set. Placed in a glass cube, the pop-up was big enough for four cubicles and some room to walk around the edges. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Leveraging an attack vector that's been in play off and on for the last two decades, hackers are targeting Mac users with malware camouflaged as the popular Homebrew tool, and spreading it through deceptive Google ads.Fake Homebrew Google ads target Mac usersMalicious actors are leveraging Google ads to distribute malware through a counterfeit Homebrew website. The campaign targets macOS and Linux users with an infostealer that compromises credentials, browser data, and cryptocurrency wallets.Homebrew, a widely-used open-source package manager, enables users to manage software through a command line. Hackers recently exploited its popularity by creating a malicious Google ad. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The New York Times is following the growing community of food-inspired furniture obsessives on TikTok whose love for pillaging HomeGoods and other retailers in search of stools designed to look like burgers or fruit has grown into what might be taken as a full-blown re-embrace of kitsch nationwide.One Long Island-based member says: "I sort of based my entire life and personality around this silly burger stool.I think a lot of millennials specifically or older Gen Zs grew up with the 'beige' dcor, once we hit the scene, we made it OK to decorate fun and silly."And it's also very lucrative for the home goods retail industry. TJX Companies has reported a net revenue of$40 billion in the first nine months of FY 2025 alone.

The movement to memorialize all 72 victims of the Grenfell Fire tragedy in London has named a group of five architects and designers who will compete for the chance to deliver a memorial near the site of the deadly 2017 blaze. Together with the Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA), the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission announced the following five teams to the shortlist along with its intentions to name an overall winner later this summer:Curl La Tourelle + Head ArchitectureFreehausGeorge King Architects x Grow to KnowNew SouthOffice SianSpeaking on behalf of the families, representatives from the Memorial Commission said: "Having a shortlist of teams brings us another step closer to turning the Grenfell communitys memorial vision into a physical reality. Through this process, we intend to identify and appoint a specialist and worthy design team. One that has proven experience of working on sensitive and community-focused projects, and who can leave no doubt in our minds about the...

Calling all architects, landscape architects and interior designers: Architizer's A+Awards allows firms of all sizes to showcase their practice and vie for the title of Worlds Best Architecture Firm. Start an A+Firm Award Application today.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grgoire Trudeau, became the unlikely poster couple for a parenting trend known as bird nesting (or just nesting, if you prefer) when they announced their plans to separate in 2023. We remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and everything we have built and will continue to build, they wrote on Instagram, neatly summarizing the philosophy behind the agreement.The arrangement they chose is unconventional, to say the least. To summarize, bird nesting keeps children in the family home while the parents rotate in and out, taking turns like housemates, albeit with wildly different schedules. Its a set-up that attempts to make the best of a bad situation for the children, putting the onus and strain of a breakup solely on the adults involved. On the surface, its an elegant solution to the chaos of shared custody. The children stay put, the parents do the moving, and everything looks perfectly balanced until you realize the house now needs two sets of wardrobes, color-coded snack drawers and a spare room just for the lingering awkwardness of it all.Bird nesting is just one of many contemporary family dynamics that are forcing us to rethink how residential design functions and who it is for. Co-parenting, blended households and multigenerational living are now as common as the traditional nuclear family once was. Each of these configurations presents its own architectural challenges and opportunities.For decades, the family home was built on the comforting illusion of permanence. You bought a house, planted some rose bushes and assumed that you would live happily ever after (together!). Fast forward to 2025, and that illusion has been thoroughly debunked. Families and individuals are more fluid than ever and their dynamics more complex. As a result, the traditional home is often no longer fit for purpose.Afterglow by Chain10 Architecture & Interior Design Institute, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan | Photo by Chain10 Architecture & Interior Design InstituteBlended families, when two families come together under a new union, present their own set of challenges. How do you create a space that encourages togetherness without forcing it? Kitchens can quickly become battlegrounds of dishwasher etiquette, bathrooms a magnet for the time police. All the while, bedrooms must balance individuality and neutrality to avoid any sense of territoriality.Then theres multigenerational living, a trend fueled by everything from economic necessity, cultural expectation and sitcom-inspired nostalgia for the good old days (spoiler: they werent). These homes must cater to vastly different needs accessible ground-floor suites for grandparents, soundproofed hideaways for teenagers and a collective tolerance for three generations worth of opinions on what constitutes a good sofa.In each of these circumstances, architects face a unique challenge: to design homes that can adapt not just to their varying occupants on a daily basis but to their occupants inevitable reinventions over the long term.Life Cycle by Steffen Welsch Architects, Coburg, Australia | Photo by Tatjana PlittAs is often the case, flexibility is key. Walls that slide, partitions that fold and furniture that transforms arent novelties theyre necessities. An office may become a bedroom three days a week, or after years of hosting parties, a dining room may be reassigned as a playroom. These transitions shouldnt require remodeling. The challenge is for architects and designers to factor in this type of future-proofing without compromising on functionality and aesthetics. Modular and adjustable shelving, removable wall paneling and unfixed rechargeable light fittings are all simple solutions that provide flexibility without increasing cost.Privacy, too, is an increasingly delicate negotiation. Co-parenting homes require spaces that are distinctly individual yet inherently shared. Personal belongings must have places to go that are secure but dont require stripping an entire room every time there is a changeover. Innovative storage solutions can relieve a lot of the pressure here: lockable pantries and cupboards or caddies on wheels are game changers. While in multigenerational homes, incorporated acoustic solutions can be the difference between life and divorce.TripTych by Leckie Studio Architecture + Design, Vancouver, Canada | Image by Leckie Studio Architecture + DesignOf course, all the innovative designs in the world wont matter if the policies surrounding housing remain stuck in the past. Zoning laws, in particular, seem to have been written with the assumption that families never change. In cities where accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are permitted, families can easily construct secondary spaces for co-parenting, multigenerational living, or, lets be honest, avoiding each other on particularly bad days. In Portland, Oregon, streamlined ADU regulations have increased backyard unit permits by 400% in the last five years, a move that has drastically reduced the number of unhoused people across the city as friends or family members are able to provide land on properties, if not a bedroom.Affordability is another sticking point. Modular layouts, smart home systems and two of everything dont come cheap, leaving many families to make do with spaces that barely meet their needs. To counteract this, many countries across Europe have introduced tax incentives for multi-family housing and single-parent developments to encourage innovation at scale and speed. The result is co-living developments that are specifically designed to provide housing that is suited to a particular living situation. Additionally, this type of development starts to create a community of people who are in the same or similar circumstances, whatever they may be, and helps people find support and empathy in what may be a challenging time in their lives.O de LErdre by Claas Architects, Nantes, FranceTo align with our society and the needs of families, architecture must become less of a static entity and more of a living system one that has the capability to evolve alongside the people who reside within it. Architecture has always been and will always be about much more than aesthetics. We endeavor to create environments where people can exist and thrive comfortably, safely and for as long as they choose to do so.The family home is no longer a tidy reflection of stability. Its messy, dynamic and unpredictable, requiring a level of adaptability that traditional design simply doesnt provide. For architects, this is both a challenge and an opportunity; it is a chance to support countless families lives through spaces that are as flexible, diverse and resilient as the families who inhabit them.Calling all architects, landscape architects and interior designers: Architizer's A+Awards allows firms of all sizes to showcase their practice and vie for the title of Worlds Best Architecture Firm. Start an A+Firm Award Application today.The post Shared Spaces: Architecture to Support Modern Family Dynamics appeared first on Journal.

A remaster of classic action game Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles, slated for release tomorrow on on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, has gotten a new trailer that you can check out below to celebrate its launch.The short trailer gives us a quick glimpse at the fast-paced title, which allows players to take on levels based on Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace with a host of different characters. For context, the original release of the game was all the way back in 2000, coming out on PlayStation and Dreamcast.The side-scrolling arcade-style action game will allow players to engage in fights against a host of different varieties of droids from The Phantom Menace. There are also a host of playable characters, including Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and even deep cuts from the Star Wars universe like Plo Koon and Adi Gallia.The game also unlocks special characters like Ki-Adi Mundi, Darth Maul, Queen Amidala, and even a Battle Droid right from the start. Players had to complete various challenges in the original release of the game to unlock these characters.The title also features multiplayer in the form of local split-screen co-op, where up to 2 players can take on the games 10-level campaign side-by-side. Players can also complete bonus mini-games throughout their journey through the campaign.Among the new features coming to Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles are the option to use classic controls or a new modern control scheme, a New Game+ mode, fun cheat codes that can be toggled like Big Head Mode, and even a host of new playable characters like the Tusken Raider.

AMD looks like it is getting ready to release its new line-up of graphics cards soon. Head of the consumer GPU and CPU division at AMD, David McAfee, took to social media platform X to reveal that AMD is targeting a March release window for its new set of graphics cards.While no specific release date has been announced yet, McAfees post indicates that AMD has been on track when it comes to ironing out its driver software for the upcoming Radeon 9000-series graphics cards.Radeon 9000 series hardware and software are looking great and we are planning to have a wide assortment of cards available globally, posted McAfee. Cant wait for gamers to get their hands on the cards when they go on sale in March!With McAfee mentioning the entire Radeon 9000 series rather than any specific GPU, it is possible that AMD will be launching all four of the graphics cards it had unveiled during CES 2025 in March.These four GPUs are the Radeon RX 9070, RX 9070 XT, RX 9060, and the RX 9060 XT. While the company hasnt yet provided concrete details on things like the clock speeds on the new GPUs, it did reveal that the new naming system for the Radeon 9000-series graphics cards is meant to allow consumers to deduce their specs from equivalent GPUs from Nvidia.The few technical details we do know about AMDs new GPUs is are that the RX 9070 and 9070 XT will feature 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, while the 9060 and 9060 XT will feature 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and the fact that all four new graphics cards are based on the 4nm process node.During the announcement, AMD had stated that the RX 9070 and 9070 XT would compete with Nvidias GeForce RTX 4070 and 4070 Ti, while the RX 9060 and 9060 XT would compete with RTX 4060 and 4060 Ti cards respectively, both in terms of performance and pricing.One of the key new features of AMDs new generation of graphics cards revolve around FSR 4, which is set to bring with it improvements to high-resolution rendering up to 4K, as well as features like Anti-Lag 2 and FSR Frame Generation.While AMD might be targeting the mid-range hardware market, Nvidia took to the stage at CES 2025 to unveil its new high-end GeForce RTX 5000-series graphics cards. The new GPUs include the top-of-the-line RTX 5090, which features 32 GB of GDDR7 VRAM and 21,760 CUDA cores, as well as the RTX 5080, RTX 5070, and RTX 5070 Ti.The GeForce RTX 5090 will be priced at $1,999, making it Nvidias most expensive consumer-grade GPU. The RTX 5080, on the other hand, is slated for release in January with a price tag of $999. The upper mid-range RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti will be hitting stores in February, and will be priced at $549 and $759 respectively.Along with the graphics cards, Nvidia also announced a host of new software features under the DLSS 4 umbrella. The new features include a completely new AI model that makes use of transformers, as well as the capability of the new 50-series GPUs to use multi frame generation.Radeon 9000 series hardware and software are looking great and we are planning to have a wide assortment of cards available globally. Cant wait for gamers to get their hands on the cards when they go on sale in March! David McAfee (@McAfeeDavid_AMD) January 20, 2025

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025Posted by Jim ThackerAfter Effects latest beta lets you preview HDR compshtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Adobes promo for the new betas of its video apps. The section on After Effects starts at 01:25.Adobe has released a new beta build of After Effects that makes it possible to preview High Dynamic Range projects within the compositing and motion graphics software.The beta release also features a new caching system that is not restricted to the RAM on a users machine, making it possible to play back longer compositions.Other current beta features include the option to customize the color of the softwares transparency grid and panel backgrounds.Preview comps in HDR with support for two common HDR formatsThe current beta reflects the increasing availability of HDR displays, even in non-specialist laptops, making it possible to preview compositions in HDR.Artists can now import HDR media, place it in a composition, and preview the result in HDR.The beta build displays HDR video in a range of standard formats in HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) and PQ (Perceptual Quantizer) color spaces.Users can preview HDR output on a local display, or an external display via Mercury Transmit. The changes should make it more practical for editors and motion graphics artists to work on HDR projects within After Effects, although many artists still rely on Adobe Media Encoder to export HDR content, as discussed in this thread on Adobes Community site.New caching system makes it possible to preview longer projectsThe beta also reworks After Effects caching system to use the disk cache for rendered preview frames, rather than storing them solely in RAM.The resulting increase in cache capacity should make it possible to preview longer projects without having to wait for frames to render, and to preview projects at higher resolutions.Adobe also says that the change improves performance on less powerful systems.Other current After Effects beta featuresThe current beta also includes features added before todays update, including the option to change the color of panel backgrounds, and the color and size of the transparency grid.Other beta features include Quick Set Anchor, a new UI feature for setting the anchor point in 2D layers to common locations, including the corners and edge centers of the layer.Price, system requirements and release dateBeta builds of After Effects are available to subscribers via the Creative Cloud desktop app. Adobe hasnt announced when the beta features will become available in a stable release.The current stable release, After Effects 25.1 is available for Windows 10+ and macOS 12.0+ on a rental-only basis. Single-app After Effects subscriptions cost $34.49/month or $263.88/year.Read more about the new beta features in After Effects on Adobes blogRead a full list of the current beta features in After EffectsHave 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.Latest NewsAfter Effects' latest beta lets you preview HDR compsCheck out the latest beta features in the compositing and motion graphics app, including the option to preview HLG and PQ video.Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025New version of iOS and Android scanning app Kiri EngineKiri Engine 3.13 improves the quality of 3D Gaussian Splatting in the app, sharpening scans and reducing 3DGS file sizes 'approximately 50%'.Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025RE:Vision Effects launches Twixtor StandaloneGPU-accelerated, AI-powered video retiming tool can now be used without a host app, for under half the price of a regular plugin license.Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025See the new features due in Unreal Engine 5.6 and beyondCheck out upcoming features in the game engine, from rendering and simulation to Megaworlds biomes, next-gen terrain and Anim Next.Tuesday, January 21st, 2025Left Angle releases Autograph 2025Big update to the compositing and motion design app adds a DaVinci Resolve Live Link, an After Effects converter - and a new free edition.Tuesday, January 21st, 2025Check out this GPU-accelerated Houdini Skin Slide DeformerDNEG TD Mengya Zhang's OpenCL-based tool generates realistic skin sliding without tissue simulation. Free to try on personal projects.Monday, January 20th, 2025More NewsCheck out this free 2D Rim Light Tool for NukeCreate motion graphics in Nuke with the new Screen FX pluginMaster Cinematic Sand & Dust Simulations Using HoudiniGet the new free version of ZibraVDB for Unreal EngineChaos releases V-Ray 7 for Cinema 4DThese simple free tools convert Maya shaders to BlenderGet 75+ free modular shop assets for Unreal EngineAdobe releases Substance 3D Designer 14.1Adobe unveils Live Co-Editing in PhotoshopFree tool: Hair Cinematic Tool for Unreal Engine 5Master World Building using Blender and PhotoshopGet 6 free smoke and fire effects sequences from FX BackPackOlder Posts

AdamBoyeshas launchedVivrato, an advisory company dedicated to forging a more collaborative, sustainable, and thriving gaming future.Read More