Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is now live on PS Plus Premium with a full trophy list. The obscure PS2 game joined the classics catalog on PS Plus Premium earlier this week, and brings glad tidings for trophy hunters as well.

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After a series of unfortunate delays, the next installment in the Assassins Creed franchise is coming to PC and consoles on Mar. 20. Assassins Creed Shadows follows protagonists Naoe and Yasuke through 16th-century Japan on a quest for vengeance, while continuing the modern-day Assassins versus Templars storyline thats always been at the center of the series. The gameplay of Shadows combines some of the best elements of previous Assassins Creed titles, but most notably marks the return of the more robust loot system that was trimmed for the leaner experience of Assassins Creed Mirage.If youd like to pre-order this new entry in the stealthy and stabby franchise, weve compiled every version of Assassins Creed Shadows thats currently available to pre-order, what you get with each edition, and where you can find them.Assassins Creed Shadows- Standard EditionPre-ordering the standard version of Assassins Creed Shadows from any retailer, whether physical or digital, grants you access to the Thrown to the Dogs bonus quest at launch and the Claws of the Awaji expansion, which will become available later in 2025. However, there are some slight differences depending on which retailer you purchase from. Reserving a copy at Target will gets you access to an exclusive Steelbook case, while reserving the Limited Edition from Amazon gets you the Naoe Sekiryu Character pack which includes a modest collection of in-game cosmetics in addition to the pre-order quest content.Currently you can preorder a physical copy of the $69.99 Standard Edition for Xbox or PlayStation from Amazon, Target, or GameStop. However, if youre playing on PC you can also reserve a digital version of the game on Steam or the Epic Games Store.Assassins Creed Shadows Digital Deluxe EditionThe Digital Deluxe Edition of Assassins Creed Shadows features all of the pre-order quest content from the standard edition but also includes some additional in-game items. Youll get the Sekiryu Dual Pack which includes a collection of cosmetic items for both Yosuke and Naoe along with some extra decorations for your hideout and five Mastery Points to jump start your adventure.The $89.99 Digital Deluxe Edition of Assassins Creed Shadows is available to pre-order for consoles from Xbox or PlayStation, while PC players can reserve a copy from Steam or the Epic Games Store.Assassins Creed Shadows Collectors EditionIf you want actual physical bonus items with your copy of Assassins Creed Shadows, the Collectors Edition is the best place to get them. This version of the game features all of the digital content included with the lesser versions of Assassins Creed Shadows, but also includes the following items:Steelbook case76-page concept art bookletLife-size replica of the hilt of Yosukes katanaFold out world map15.7-inch statuette of Naoe and YosukeWall scroll with the Assassins Creed on it (27.6 x 11.8-inches)Two lithographs (5.3 x 7.5-inches)The $229.99 Collectors Edition of Assassins Creed Shadows is available to pre-order for PlayStation or Xbox exclusively from GameStop.

Modern Hollywoods foremost experimenter, Steven Soderbergh, has a new movie out this week, and its all about ghosts. Presence, his excellent new film and his first real foray into the horror genre, is shot entirely from the perspective of a ghost who inhabits a house where a new family has moved in. In the hands of nearly any other director, this kind of formal experiment could feel like a gimmick at best or, at worst, a movie-ruining annoyance but instead Soderbergh integrates it so effectively and smoothly that it feels like the most natural way to tell this story. Soderbergh carefully allows the camera-ghost to become a character at exactly the right times; otherwise, he lets the concept rest and relies on the movies fantastic script and family drama.So, in honor of Soderberghs achievement in ghostly innovation, it got us thinking about ghosts as a subgenre of horror, and all of the fascinating and inventive cinematic storytelling filmmakers have used to tell evocative ghost stories. You can probably think of a few movies that fit the bill off the top of your head: Theres The Sixth Sense and Paranormal Activity, even Field of Dreams if youre willing to stretch a little. But the well runs much deeper than those few movies. Here are some of our favorite unique ghost movies, each of which does something a little different with the genre.Carnival of SoulsDirector: Herk HarveyCast: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney BergerWhere watch: Prime VideoThis film follows Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss), a young woman who survives a tragic car accident only to find herself pursued by a ghostly spirit with haunting eyes and a stark white face. Aside from just the spirit, Marys also inexplicably drawn to an abandoned carnival, which she finds herself constantly drifting toward for seemingly no reason at all.Carnival of Souls is an utterly strange and inescapably haunting classic, but the reason it belongs on this list is how quietly and effectively it slips ghostliness into the film. The ghosts in Carnival of Souls arent just haunting, theyre watchful and almost unnoticed, slipping eerily through crowds before doing something tangible, like reaching out and touching Mary before shes even seen them. Watching it now, over 62 years after its release, Carnival of Souls feels both recognizable, in how deeply it influenced not just ghost movies but the horror genre as a whole, and also still somehow surprisingly unique. While its inspirations are felt throughout the genre, its not quite like any movie thats come since.Lake MungoDirector: Joel AndersonCast: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin SharpeWhere to watch: Prime VideoLake Mungo is a found-footage film that tells the story of the Palmer family, whose 16-year-old daughter Alice drowns in the Australian lake that gives the movie its title. A few days after Alices funeral, the family begins hearing strange noises and waking up to bizarre occurrences in their house each morning. Alices older brother Matthew sets up a video camera to see whats going on, and the family realizes Alice seems to have returned to their home as a ghost they just cant figure out how or why.Theres no shortage of found-footage ghost movies, but few of them engage as meaningfully or interestingly with either concept as Lake Mungo does. What makes it unique is how actively it engages with both the faults of memory and the faults of film itself. Its constantly grappling with the ways that footage could be doctored or altered, and what it might mean for the supernatural to interact with digital manipulation. For the viewer, it also means a constant questioning of what were seeing in this pseudo-documentary is real and what isnt. The result is a film, much like Presence, that uses its ghostly subgenre to tell a deeply moving story about families and the secrets that pull them together and apart.Classic ghost moviesOf course, theres much more to the wider cinematic world of ghosts than just the strange and unique movies weve listed above. While the goal of this main list is to shed light on a few films you may not have seen, or that may have been doing something out of the ordinary, were certainly not immune to the classics either. With that in mind, here are five all-time ghost movie classics, in case the other five in this story werent enough to cure your paranormal curiosity.The HauntingWhere to watch: Rentable on Apple TV and Amazon Prime VideoPoltergeistWhere to watch: Paramount PlusThe ChangelingWhere to watch: Shudder, PeacockThe ShiningWhere to watch: Rentable on Apple TV and Amazon Prime VideoHouseWhere to watch: Max, Criterion ChannelKwaidanDirector: Masaki KobayashiCast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentar Mikuni, Tetsur TambaWhere to watch: MaxKwaidan is unique on this list in that it doesnt tell a single narrative story, but rather is made up of four different ghostly short stories. One short story tells the tale of an unfaithful swordsman, another of a man who makes a promise to a spirit, another of a musician who plays songs for the court of a long-dead emperor, and another of a man who sees someone elses face in a teacup.Kwaidan is both the easiest and hardest movie on this list to recommend. This isnt due to the movies quality its outstanding but rather due to the amorphousness of its influence and uniqueness. Its not just hard to imagine what this subgenre of horror might look like without Kwaidan, its downright impossible. The movies haunting tone and camerawork and the distinctive style with which each of its tales is told have seeped down into the very foundation of horror films and become inextricable from the films we love today which is reason enough to include it here.The Devils BackboneDirector: Guillermo del ToroCast: Fernando Tielve, Eduardo Noriega, Federico LuppiWhere to watch: Rentable on Apple TV or Amazon Prime VideoThe Devils Backbone is about an orphanage in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. One day, an orphan named Carlos arrives and begins to meet the other residents of the orphanage and explore its secrets. While most people might think the orphanages most interesting treasure is the cache of loyalist gold hidden somewhere on the grounds, Carlos finds himself more fascinated with (and terrified of) the ghostly boy who lurks the buildings halls at night.Many movies include ghosts as something other than malevolent spirits, enough that its a category that absolutely necessitates a place on this list, but what makes del Toros version of this narrative so compelling in The Devils Backbone is how elegantly he weaves them into the story and tone of the movie. The Spain of this movie feels constantly haunted by the recent past, and troubled by the wounds of its violence a literal bomb sits in the orphanages courtyard, unexploded but always threatening. Del Toro makes a ghostly presence in this place feel natural, like you couldnt imagine somewhere this terrifying not having a ghost in it. Its at once a more hopeful and haunting kind of ghost story than anything else on this list.PulseDirector: Kiyoshi KurosawaCast: Kumiko As, Haruhiko Kato, KoyukiWhere to watch: MaxThis 2001 masterpiece from Japanese horror legend Kiyoshi Kurosawa is perhaps the scariest movie on this list. Pulse follows several people in Japan whose dealings with computers, and time spent on the burgeoning internet, allow them to watch the slow tumble of ghosts into the real world. These ghosts take the place of the once-living humans and seem to be in constant, but passive, search for more victims.Despite the fact that its now nearly 25 years old, Pulse remains the definitive ghost story for the internet age. Its concept of ghosts who slip into our world through the internet feels as hauntingly plausible as it did when the technology was still mysterious and perhaps even more metaphorically sound than anyone in 2001 could have imagined. Whats more, the films signature images of lonely people on webcams, desperate for connection, fading into black spots on the wall only to return as haunting specters waiting to turn the rest of the world into something just as alone as they are is the most affecting, insightful, and tragic addition to ghostly cinema since the subgenres earliest films.

I asked six leading LLMs this question.Two of their answers surprised me. The rest were incorrect. Some were more misleadingly incorrect thanothers.This reveals a secret to designing effective and successful AI products. PerplexityYes, some mosquito species do bite leeches. A groundbreaking study by researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has revealed that the mosquito species Uranotaenia sapphirina feeds on the blood of earthworms and leeches. This discovery is significant because it challenges the long-held assumption that mosquitoes only feed on vertebrate animals.Key Findings Unique Feeding Behavior: Uranotaenia sapphirina, a common mosquito species in eastern North America, was found to obtain 100% of its blood meals from worms andleeches. Implications for Disease Transmission: This feeding behavior could potentially impact the transmission of pathogens. For example, Uranotaenia sapphirina mosquitoes that feed exclusively on worms and leeches have tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis virus and West Nilevirus. Indirect Virus Contact: While the mosquitoes are unlikely to become infected with these viruses by feeding on worms, there is a possibility that they could come into contact with viruses by feeding on leeches that have previously fed on virus-infected animalhosts.Broader ImplicationsThis discovery expands our understanding of mosquito host ranges and feeding behaviors. It suggests that the potential hosts for mosquitoes are considerably broader than previously thought. This new information could have significant implications for our understanding of disease transmission and mosquitoecology.The study highlights the need for further research into mosquito-host interactions, particularly regarding invertebrate hosts. As Lawrence Reeves, the lead researcher, stated, This study really highlights that we still have much to learn about mosquitoes. Correctanswer. Provides links to sources and related information. Provides shareable link to the conversation: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/do-mosquitoes-bite-leeches-w5huK163TuKAOcxnueZ8hg#0 Gemini 2.0 Flash ExperimentalIts an interesting question! While its not the norm, some mosquitoes do indeed biteleeches.Heres what weknow:Mosquitoes have diverse diets: While many mosquito species prefer the blood of vertebrates like mammals and birds, some species have been found to feed on invertebrates.A specific example: Research has shown that the mosquito species Uranotaenia sapphirina specifically feeds on the blood of earthworms and leeches. This was a surprising discovery, as it was previously thought that these mosquitoes primarily fed on frogs andtoads.So, in short, while its not common for all mosquitoes, some species do bite leeches for their blood. This highlights the diverse feeding habits of mosquitoes and how much we are still learning about their behavior. Correctanswer. Provided two source links, but presented many facts that lacked citations. Didnt provide a way to share a link to the answer or the related conversation. Claude 3.5Sonnet:This is a fascinating but very obscure ecological question. Based on my understanding of mosquito feeding habits, they generally dont bite leeches. Mosquitoes typically feed on warm-blooded animals (mammals and birds) because they are attracted to body heat, carbon dioxide, and specific chemical signatures these animals produce. Leeches, being cold-blooded invertebrates, wouldnt produce these attractive signals.Additionally, leeches have a tough, muscular body wall that would likely be difficult for a mosquitos proboscis to penetrate, unlike the softer skin of their usualhosts.Since this is quite an obscure question about a very specific ecological interaction that may not be well documented, I should note that while I aim to provide accurate information, I may hallucinate when answering questions about such specific and uncommon interactions. If youre interested in this for research purposes, Id recommend consulting a parasitologist or checking scientific literature on mosquito host preferences. Wrong answer. But Claude prominently warned me that this specific answer may be wrong. This is a huge improvement over the other incorrect LLMs, which presented their wrong answers authoritatively. Didnt provide links to sources or related information. Didnt provide a way to share a link to the answer or the related conversation. ChatGPTo1There is no documented evidence or strong biological reason to suggest that mosquitoes feed onor biteleeches. Mosquitoes typically seek vertebrate hosts (such as mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles) because they rely on cues like carbon dioxide, body heat, and certain body odors that are not produced in significant quantities byleeches.Why mosquitoes generally would not biteleechesHost detection:Mosquitoes use CO, heat, and chemical signals given off by vertebrates. Leeches (being invertebrates) do not emit these signals in a way that would attract mosquitoes.Feeding preferences:Mosquitoes are adapted to feed on vertebrate blood. While leeches do have a circulatory fluid, it is not the same as vertebrate blood, and it would not be considered a typical or efficient food source for mosquitoes.Habitat and behavior differences:Even though both mosquitoes and some leeches (particularly aquatic species) may share marshy or aquatic environments, their interactions are more or less incidental. Mosquitoes typically rest on surfaces above water or vegetation, while leeches remain in or very close to the water column or substrate, reducing any opportunity for directcontact.Consequently, while mosquitoes and leeches may coexist in similar habitats, mosquitoes do not typicallyand are not known totarget leeches as bloodmeal hosts. Wronganswer. Didnt provide links to sources or related information. Provides shareable link to the conversation: https://chatgpt.com/share/67730f81-98a0-8003-944b-1f4a1dc92cf5 MistralMosquitoes typically do not bite leeches. Mosquitoes are known to feed on the blood of various animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even some fish, but leeches are not a common target for them. Leeches themselves are blood-sucking creatures, but they feed on vertebrate animals, not on other invertebrates like mosquitoes.The feeding habits of mosquitoes and leeches are quite different, and there is no known ecological interaction where mosquitoes would feed on leeches. Mosquitoes use their proboscis to pierce the skin and suck blood, while leeches use their suckers and teeth to attach to their hosts and feed onblood. Wronganswer. Didnt provide links to sources or related information. Provides shareable link to the conversation:Le Chat - Mistral AI Llama (MetaAI)Mosquitoes primarily feed on nectar and other sugary substances. Female mosquitoes may bite animals and humans to obtain protein from blood, which they need to layeggs.Leeches, on the other hand, are primarily aquatic and feed on the blood and bodily fluids of otheranimals.There is no documented evidence of mosquitoes biting leeches. Their feeding habits and ecosystems generally dont overlap in a way that would lead to this behavior. Wronganswer. Didnt provide links to sources or related information. Didnt provide a way to share a link to the answer or the related conversation.Takeaways for AI productdesignAccuracy is critical. Of course AI product makers strive for accurate answers. But even the best LLMs will hallucinate and get things wrong sometimes.Just as important as accuracy is helping people calibrate trust so they can make better decisions.Research shows a repeated pattern in human behavior around early AI tools: people tend to bounce between counterproductive extremes of overreliance and aversion:Initial overreliance: When encountering an AI tool, people frequently accept its suggestions without double-checking them. They trust it too muchmore than they would a humanexpert.Algorithm aversion: After the tool makes a mistake, people often shut down and reject even helpful AI assistance. They trust it too littleless than they would a human expert who made amistake.To succeed, designers need to keep people involved, to help them find a healthily skeptical middle ground. How? Were still hammering out the best practices, but here are three core guidelines:1. Surface sources, and link tothemPerplexitys approachlinking to primary research and showing its workhelped people verify its surprising claim.Without sources, even correct answers (like Geminis) are harder to trust andverify.Making sources easily checkable builds credibilityand more importantly it encourages people to get involved and verifyclaims.As fully Explainable AI (XAI) seems more and more an unrealistic pipe dream (though approaches to show me your train of thought show promise in certain contexts), source attribution is more important thanever.2. Highlight risk, and help people manageitClaudes answer was wrong. But Claude served it up in a way that made it less likely for people to repost it as truth. Other LLMs included easily-ignored, ever-present LLMs may sometimes hallucinate warnings off to the sidebut in the midst of an output that seemed at higher-than-usual risk of inaccuracy, Claude pointed out that higher risk and advised me to fact-check a specificclaim.This stands in stark contrast to ChatGPT, Mistral, and Llama, which confidently presented incorrect reasoningAcknowledging uncertainty helps prevent destructive overreliance on AI systems. Research shows that, when AI tools present calibrated uncertainty, users can adjust their reliance appropriately and reduce confirmation bias in their decisionmaking.3. Design for verification and collaborationAI tools should make it easy for people to shareand questionfindings with other humans. Chats should default to privacy, and sensitive conversations about personal information or trade secrets should be kept private. But for simple questions about public information, we can make it easier to share parts of any conversation with friends and colleagues, to reduce misunderstanding that comes from loss of context and to encourage further fact-checking. Features like shareable conversation links and integrated source citations should be standard, not afterthoughts.This isnt just good product design its essential for building collective knowledge and trust, and for defusing disinformation.The future of AI products wont be determined by their accuracy alone, but by how well they help humans make better decisions.By designing to the complementary strengths of humans and of AI, we can augment human intelligence and agency, rather than attempting to replacethem.Sources / more backgroundAlgorithm Aversion: People Erroneously Avoid Algorithms After Seeing ThemErrAI Overreliance Is a Problem. Are Explanations a Solution?Overreliance on AI: Addressing Automation BiasTodayTo Trust or to Think: Cognitive Forcing Functions Can Reduce Overreliance on AI in AI-assisted Decision-makingIncreasing the Adoption of UX and the Products You Design Part 1 | Part2How People Can Createand DestroyValue with Generative AIShaping minds: how first impressions drive AIadoptionDo mosquitoes bite leeches? was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When old dogma causes old dogs to dieContinue reading on UX Collective

I don't know if you can believe it, but we're fast approaching the end of January. And I want to kick off the first review recap of 2025 by acknowledging how busy it's already been. CES 2025, which to me seemed to go on for a year, now feels like it happened months ago. We've witnessed TikTok disappear and return, a new president get sworn in and Samsung launch new phones. Even with all that's been happening, our reviewers have been hard at work, with Devindra testing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and Billy on a number of headphones and grills. So much for easing into 2025. Before I give you the full recap, I also wanted to shout out some reviews we published in the later half of December, as well as others we recently updated. This article typically goes out every two weeks, but with the holidays, CES and Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked, we had to skip a few editions. In that time, I didn't get the chance to tell you all about our re-reviews of gaming consoles that were launched years ago, like the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5. We wanted to revisit our evaluations of these systems and their respective game libraries, to see how well they stack up today. The team also published and updated reviews of colorful Kindles, an Intel processor, a Samsung Chromebook and more. Here's a quick list, but you can always go to our Reviews page to scroll on your own time, if you prefer: Kindle Colorsoft review: The missing link in Amazons ereader lineup by Valentina Palladino Kindle Scribe 2 review in progress: Is slightly useful AI worth the extra cash? by Cherlynn Low Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review: Quirky in ways both good and bad by Nathan Ingraham Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 review: An impressive headphone debut by Billy Steele Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: Great movie, good game by Jessica Conditt Bose Smart Soundbar review: Using earbuds as surround sound speakers by Billy Steele Formovie Cinema Edge review: A midrange UST projector that lags behind its rivals by Steve Dent Intel Arc B580 review: The new king of $250 GPUs (for now) by Devindra Hardawar Echo: The Oracles Scroll is a must-play combatless metroidvania for Playdate by Cheyenne MacDonald CRKD's Nitro Deck+ keeps its best features and adds typical stick layout by Mat Smith ICYMI: The 12 best gadgets we reviewed in 2024 In case you missed it, in lieu of a typical review recap, we published a list of the 12 highest-rated products we reviewed last year. Spoiler alert: there were a lot of flagship phones, cameras and drones on the list. I also included the two worst gadgets we ever tested, and you'll just have to guess what they are. Or read the article, I guess. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 review by Devindra Hardawar If you're the sort of person that's in the market for a $2,000 GPU, then the GeForce RTX 5090 is something you might consider. It's fast, powerful and NVIDIA's frame generation was very impressive, according to Devindra. But for the rest of us with actual, reasonably sized budgets, the company's highest-end offering is probably out of reach. We're most likely setting our sights on the $550 RTX 5070, and I await our review to see how different a product that costs about $1,500 less will be. Traeger Woodridge and ThermoWorks RFX reviews by Billy Steele Grills and cooking accessories continue to get more and more high-tech. And Billy continues to expand his expertise in the space, all while delighting his editors with tantalizing descriptions of smoked and barbecued foods. Believe me, I always have to feed myself before starting an edit, and I remain slightly jealous that I don't have the space for a dedicated grill like the Traeger Woodridge. But as I read Billy's pieces, I am quietly making notes on what I'd like to get for myself one day. Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review by Billy Steele Billy's been busy, that's for sure. As our resident audio guru, he pretty much spends most of his days with the latest set of headphones in his ears, seeing how they fare not just in daily use but also against the competition. Bowers & Wilkin's Pi8 may deliver excellent audio, but according to Billy they don't offer enough special features for the money. In fact, as he says, "$399 should get you a lot more than superb audio." On the horizon: Upcoming reviews Our reviewers already have units of the latest Samsung Galaxy S25 phones and are testing them in the real world as I write this. Devices that were announced at CES 2025, like some headphones, laptops, smart glasses and even LED masks are also making their way to our team members, so stay tuned for our evaluations. We're also planning on some longer-term reviews of popular products, and welcome your feedback on things you'd like to see us take on! Moving forward, Billy Steele will be taking over this roundup, so I leave you with this extremely appropriate and relevant image to remember me by. Engadget This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-all-eyes-on-nvidia-and-samsung-150022570.html?src=rss

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Watching TV no longer just means watching TV. After the rise of tablets and smartphones in the late aughts, a second-screen experience became the new standard for home viewing. Live-blogging the latest season of Netflixs Stranger Things, or buying a new T-shirt during it, is now just reflexive for millions of people. According to a 2023 YouGov study, 91% of Americans at least sometimes look at their phones while watching TV. For generations weaned on TikTok, that sometimes might be a little closer to always. As Saturday Night Lives Michael Longfellow recently joked about the apps brief ban: What do I even watch during a movie now?Although viewing habits have long been headed in this direction, whats changed more recently is that Netflix now appears to have adapted to those habits by optimizing for second-screen viewing.A December deep dive into Netflixs approach, from literary culture magazine n+1, describes how the streaming service has subtly changed the way some of its movies and shows get made. As Will Tavlin writes, Several screenwriters whove worked for the streamer told me a common note from company executives is have this character announce what theyre doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along. (Netflix did not respond to Fast Companys request for comment.)Tavlin goes on to include a dialogue exchange from last years Lindsay Lohan-comeback vehicle, Irish Wish, that sounds like an audio commentary track describing what has previously happened. (I admit it was a beautiful day filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, Lohans character says at one point, but that doesnt give you the right to question my life choices. Tomorrow, Im marrying Paul Kennedy.)Overly expository dialogue is nothing new. Its usually just a sign of lazy writing. If its no longer just a trope but rather part of a studio-wide effort to relieve viewers of having to come up for air from their phones once in a while, well, that feels like a different story.The n+1 report isnt the only suggestion that streaming services like Netflix are now making content with an eye toward background viewing. Actor and director Justine Bateman made headlines in 2023 when she told The Hollywood Reporter, Ive heard from showrunners who are given notes from the streamers that this isnt second screen enough. More recently, U.K. outlet The Telegraph singled out a conversation on BBCs Miss Me podcast, between Stranger Things actor David Harbour and host Miquita Oliver, about the process of second-screen pitching. During it, Oliver mentioned that studios are asking for ideas that people will kind of ignore, so they can be on their phone.Netflix seems especially receptive to such ideas. In 2020, New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka coined the term ambient TV to describe Netflix programming like the breezy sitcom Emily in Paris and the reality series Dream Home Makeovershows that are pleasant enough but require zero engagement from viewers. [A]s prestige passes its peak, Chayka wrote, were moving into the ambient era, which succumbs to, rather than competes with, your phone.At the time, the growing abundance of this kind of content could have been written off as a coincidence. If a streaming service is meant to be all things to all people, of course some areas of its programming would have a similarly smooth-brain feel. These recent reports all but confirm, however, that the company is actively making its content more palatable for background viewing.There is nothing inherently wrong with providing ambient TV for those who just want to zone out while thumbing through TikTok (while we still have it . . . ). Considering how many prestige shows still aspire to be taken seriously as high art, its refreshing to see shows with the courage to be trashy fun to have on in the background while doing house chores or decompressing after a long day. Netflix was making the latter kind of show for years before The New Yorker gave it a genre name. It certainly hasnt hurt Netflixs bottom line, eitherthe company just posted a Q4 revenue increase of 16% from a year earlier, helped along by another 19 million subscribers for the quarter.Clearly, Netflix seems to be delivering what people want from it.The question remains, though, whether the company is only contorting some of its original content to be better background viewing, or if that aesthetic is becoming its feature attraction.