A River of Dreams (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 62 x 42 1/4 x 2 inches framed. Photos by Phillip Maisel. All images courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San FranciscoElemental Shifts and Enigmatic Narratives Anchor Rupy C. Tuts Mystical PaintingsFebruary 3, 2025Kate MothesVerdant scenery inhabited by vibrant wildlife and graceful feminine figures center in the work of Rupy C. Tut, whose paintings (previously) draw upon her Sikh ancestry and experiences emigrating from India as a young girl. As an environmentalist and Indian-American woman, she never takes place for granted, says a statement from Jessica Silverman Gallery, which represents the artist.Tuts ethereal works tread the boundaries between abstraction, portraiture, pattern, and traditional Indian painting. Her compositions introduce narrativesoften captivatingly mysteriousthat highlight enigmatic mystical, elemental, and spiritual phenomena.Bursting with Clouds (2024) handmade pigments on linen, 41 1/2 x 61 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches framedThe artists subjects typically exist front-and-center, like in A River of Dreams, in which a figure sits in a stream and observes a lily while dark clouds move in above. Motifs of darkening skies and dramatic change continue in recent works like Bursting with Clouds and The First Rain.Oscillating between idyllic paradises, anxieties around climate disasters, and gender constraints, Tut focuses on female figures, turning the tables on a genre that typically focuses on male achievements. I question traditional roles and labels while preserving traditional practices, she says.Tut was a 2024 recipient of the Joan Mitchel Foundation Fellowship, and her work is on view in the group exhibition About Place at San Franciscos de Young through the end of November. You can explore more on her website and Instagram.A Place Dear to Me (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches framedThe First Rain (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 1/4 inches framedRiding my Thunder (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 inches framedWhere Dreams Flow (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 42 1/8 x 82 x 2 inches framedBowing to the Cosmos (2024), handmade pigments on linen, 61 3/8 x 41 5/8 x 2 inches framedArchipelago (2024), handmade pigments on linen; diptych, 61 1/2 x 83 x 2 1/4 inches overall, framedEscaping the Heat (2024), handmade pigments on hemp paper, 13 3/4 x 18 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches framedA Natural Thought (2025), handmade pigments on linen, 81 1/2 x 41 1/2 x 2 inches framedNext article

monsitj - stock.adobe.comNewsDisjointed industrial strategy a barrier to UK scaleup successThe House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee calls on Labour to join-up piecemeal initiatives and cut bureaucracyByCliff Saran,Managing EditorPublished: 03 Feb 2025 14:00 The second report from the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee has warned that the UK risks becoming an incubator economy unless there is greater support for tech startups.The AI and creative technology scaleup report presents witness statements and oral evidence from industry experts warning that the UK will lose out to other countries, and in particular, the US, unless it provides an environment to support scaleup businesses.One of the witnesses, Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder and CEO of Cleo AI, noted that the challenge the UK faces is that it cannot scale startup companies. He said it was also challenging listing these companies and capturing their tech value. Hussey-Yo described the UK as a terrible place to scale and list a business.Another witness, Nick Poole, CEO of video games industry body Ukie, described the UK as one of the worst places in the G7 for scaling games businesses.While the CBI warned that unless the UK can nurture scaleups and create the environment for them to expand, it cannot hope to approach the level of growth and prosperity it needs.Written evidence from the British venture Capital and Private Equity Association (BvCA) highlighted the fact that UK science, technology and financial innovation sectors will lose out on opportunities when companies move overseas, taking intellectual property, quality jobs and innovation with them.Oxford Science Enterprises also submitted written evidence to the committee, arguing that, without urgent action, the future cascade of value from the unicorns we are building and the creation of the next generation of entrepreneurs from those companies will continue to benefit other countries, primarily the US.Read more about the UK governments AI opportunities action planThe AI Opportunities Action Plan is recommended reading: The governments strategy for accelerating AI has been many months in the making is it enough, and what regulatory environment will be appropriate?Labours AI action plan a gift to the far right: Critical computing expert Dan McQuillan argues that, on top of the clear social and environmental harms associated with the technology, Labours vapid fixation on AI-led growth in lieu of real change will further enable the far right.The report describes piecemeal initiatives that fail to offer scaleups a coherent pathway of financial support as they grow.A complicated spaghetti of well-intentioned government schemes, including financial reforms, tax credits, investment incentives and innovation focused initiatives are introducing further barriers and bureaucracy, the reports authors wrote.The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee concluded that the government should not be complacent about the health of the UKs scaleup scene. While the committee was positive about the governments recent AI opportunities action plan, it stressed that achieving its ambition of making the UK the best place to scale an AI business will require concerted effort and a significant mindset shift across the public sector.Tina Stowell, chair of the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee, said: The governments new AI opportunities action plan is a good start, but a plan in itself is not enough. The key is its delivery. The government will need to drive through change to address fundamental barriers such as limited infrastructure and comparatively low levels of adoption if it is to have an impact. It must also ensure creative tech is given the attention it deserves as an area with huge potential for economic growth.Action must be taken to unravel the complex spaghetti of support schemes available for scaleups, she said. Various tax credits, British Business Bank funds and investment incentives combine to be so hard to navigate that companies have to employ consultants to advise them. We urgently need to simplify the help available and ensure it is set up to support our most innovative scaleups to grow, while also offering value for money to the taxpayer.The committee has called on the government to ensure its industrial strategy is joined up and it streamlines public support for innovation. Other recommendations include committing to AI delivery and accelerating financial reform to unlock domestic growth capital.In The Current Issue:World Economic Forum: Digital supply chains at risk as world faces two years of turbulenceData sovereignty and security in the UKDownload Current IssueConfluent: Shifting the paradigm to (real-time) data engineering CW Developer NetworkVision for the technology landscape of 2025 Data MattersView All Blogs

Maksim Kabakou - FotoliaOpinionVigilant buyers are the best recipe for accountable suppliersIn January 2025, outgoing CISA chief Jen Easterly called on IT buyers to demand better security standards from their software suppliers. The Security Think Tank considers what better means, and what does best practicefor secure software procurement looks like in 2025.ByAditya K Sood, AryakaPublished: 03 Feb 2025 In todays digital world, secure software is not just a feature its a requirement. The risk of advanced threats and cyber attacks necessitates buyers holding software suppliers and vendors accountable for security. Failure to do so could lead to increased risks, security breaches, and potential damage to the digital ecosystem.Understanding the responsibilities of software suppliers is essential. Security should be built in, not added later. This requires a proactive approach to implementing security controls and processes before the code development. Measures such as secure design review, threat modelling, secure coding practices, rigorous testing, and ongoing vulnerability management are all part of a secure software development lifecycle. This proactive approach should reassure buyers that software suppliers are committed to security. Software suppliers must be transparent about adopting software bills of materials (SBOMs) detailed lists of all components, including open-source dependencies. This transparency allows organisations to understand the risks associated with third-party libraries and make informed decisions about the risks they are willing to accept.Lets discuss why accountability matters. First, inherent vulnerabilities in vendor software can compromise organisations' sensitive data and critical operations. Second, successfully exploiting these vulnerabilities could lead to security breaches, exposing organisations to hefty fines, legal liabilities and reputational damage. Third, addressing vulnerabilities in the production environment adds significant costs to businesses' security policies, update practices, and any vulnerabilities or breaches discovered post-release. The financial and reputational risks of not holding software suppliers accountable for security are significant, making it a critical aspect of software procurement.Inflection pointIn January 2025, outgoing CISA chief Jen Easterly compared secure software development to automotive safety, arguing that we are at an inflection point similar to 1965, when Ralph Nader published Unsafe At Any Speed.Nader's book spurred public outrage over road safety and helped foster widespread adoption of innovative new technology, such as seatbelts. Like Nader, Easterly believes change will only truly come if we demand better from our suppliers.There are several steps customers can take to make accountability work.Buyers should include explicit security requirements in contracts, mandating compliance with best practices, regular security audits and vulnerability disclosure protocols. Failure to meet these standards should have tangible consequences, such as financial penalties or contract termination.Buyers should seek certifications or independent audits to verify a vendors security claims. Certifications such as SOC2, FedRAMP, or PCI DSS prove that a supplier has undergone rigorous evaluation. Buyers should also ask for real-time access to security dashboards or reports to monitor the health of their vendors systems over time.Buyers should evaluate the vendors security posture, history of breaches and ability to meet compliance requirements. Enforce requirements for vendors to disclose their secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes and security measures.Regulations like the EUs General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the US Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) create frameworks that mandate accountability across supply chains. Buyers should leverage these regulations to ensure compliance and encourage suppliers to align with broader legal standards.January 2025: The Security Think Tank on global regulation and complianceMandy Andress, Elastic:Why CISOs should build stronger bonds with the legal function in 2025.Adam Stringer, PA Consulting:Why we need better cyber regulation to protect the UK from disruption.Nick New, Optalysys:Cyber innovation to address rising regulatory, threat burden.Petra Wenham, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT: Your first steps to improve international compliance.Secure software is no longer optional. Buyers have the power and the obligation to hold suppliers and vendors accountable by demanding higher standards, enforcing compliance through contracts, and leveraging regulatory frameworks. By doing so, they protect their interests and contribute to a secure digital world.Aditya K Sood is vice president of security engineering and AI strategy at Aryaka.In The Current Issue:World Economic Forum: Digital supply chains at risk as world faces two years of turbulenceData sovereignty and security in the UKDownload Current IssueConfluent: Shifting the paradigm to (real-time) data engineering CW Developer NetworkVision for the technology landscape of 2025 Data MattersView All Blogs

It happens like clockwork, around the first of each month. Sites that focus on technology churn out nearly identical articles, all based on a chart like this one, prepared by the good folks atStatcounter Global Stats. Every month, tech bloggers try to turn a chart like this one into a story, but most of them miss what's actually happening. Statcounter GSYou're going to see that chart a lot this week, embedded in posts that include detailed explanations of what the author thinks the underlying data points mean. Sometimes they even convince an industry analyst to share their thoughts. It's stereotypical horserace coverage. This month, everyone will be attempting to explain why Windows 10 (the purple line at the top) is suddenly collapsing in popularity and why Windows 11 (the blue line in the middle) has regained its mojo.Also:If your Windows 10 PC can't be upgraded, you have 5 options before time runs outWhen I checked Google News early this morning, these stories were already up, and I'm sure more are on the way. At the start of every month, stories like these appear, all based on the same charts. Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNETMy favorite quote from this batch is from Forbes, which made this bold assertion: "The January stats are now out, and according to Statcounter, the Windows 11 upgrade trend has now un-reversed itself ... some 40 million hold-outs have suddenly upgraded their PCs in the last 31 days."Inevitably, these posts try to answer the question, "Why did this happen?" But maybe a better question is, "Did this happen?" followed by "Are you sure?" and "Why doesn't any of this data make sense?"Because here's the reality: Statcounter's "market share" reports are a great excuse for tech bloggers to crank out a story each month, but they bear only the most casual relation to the real world, and most of those month-to-month spikes are simply statistical noise.Also:The Excel World Championship is real, and it just crowned the king of spreadsheetsLet me show you what I mean with another chart, which I created using data I downloaded from Statcounter's site. For this one, I changed the parameters to include data from January 2022 through January 2025, covering only the United States. After plugging that data into Excel, I created a line chart like the ones they publish, but I made two changes. First, I added third-order polynomial trendlines for the Windows 10 and Windows 11 data points to show the general direction of those monthly figures over time. Then, I added a shadow on either side of that trendline to indicate a likely margin of error. Adding a trendline helps to smooth out the statistical fluctuations and reveals the real patterns in this data. Chart by Ed Bott/ZDNET; data from Statcounter GSWell, that tells a very different story, doesn't it?At the sites that use Statcounter's web analytics service, pageviews from PCs running Windows 10 are steadily declining, while pageviews from PCs running Windows 11 are steadily increasing. And those trends have been consistent over time, despite some fluctuations in the data.Also:Your Windows 11 PC is acting up? 4 essential settings I always check firstYou'll notice that description doesn't mention "market share." Statcounter's data counts pageviews, not visits, or sessions, or individual devices.And make no mistake about it, those monthly fluctuations really are just noise. Look at the teal-colored line for Windows 8.x versions from January 2024. Do you really think that 10 or 20 million people fired up their old Windows 8 devices on New Year's Day, used them for a few weeks, and then put them all back in the closet? That's unlikely.None of those other monthly spikes mean anything either. Did millions of people uninstall Windows 11 in December 2024 and then change their mind a month later? Of course not. The data is just messy!Now, let me be crystal clear here: I don't blame the Statcounter folks for taking advantage of an irresistible opportunity to generate publicity. I do, however, want to have a serious talk with every journalist and analyst who relies on Statcounter's charts without questioning the underlying data behind them, because those numbers can't stand up to even the mildest questioning. Who is Statcounter? Statcounter is a web analytics company based in Ireland. It was founded in 1999, during the Web 1.0 era, with a simple business model of counting "hits" to websites using a tracking pixel that clients embedded on their pages. If you're a website owner, adding Statcounter's tracking technology to your site can give you valuable information about your visitors.It was a good business for a long time, but over the years the company's customer base has shrunk. In 2009, it boasted that 3 million customers were using its service. By 2022, its own pages acknowledged that the customer base had been cut in half, to 1.5 million websites.Also:How to easily create a drop-down list in ExcelW3Techs, which tracks companies in this space, reported that 0.9% of all websites were using Statcounter's services in 2019. By January 2024, that number had shrunk to 0.5%, and when I checked again in January 2025, the number was down again, to 0.4%.None of that decline should be surprising. Google Analytics dominates this space today, and other big players, like Meta Pixel, WordPress Jetpack, and Adobe Analytics, have also stolen share from tiny firms like Statcounter. Where do Statcounter's numbers come from? Statcounter's customer base consists of a lot of small websites and a few medium-sized ones. The Statcounter Global Stats reports aggregate all the pageviews from those sites, with details about the visitors, including the hardware type, operating system, and browser, as collected by that tracking.Statcounter's data collection has declined dramatically in the last decade. A decade ago, thecompany's FAQ pagereported that it measured more than 17 billion pageviews in a typical month. By 2022 (the last numbers that Statcounter has provided onthe current FAQ page), that number was down to 5 billion a month.Statcounter represents a tiny sliver of actual traffic on the web, mostly from fairly esoteric websites that have chosen to embed the Statcounter tracking code on their websites, like Futbin.com,Filmyzilla.com.fj,Ask.com, andKernel.org. They can't count traffic from the most popular sites on the web, like Google, Facebook, or Wikipedia.Also:How to protect your privacy from Facebook - and what doesn't workIt's like trying to do a survey of consumer behavior without including Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, Target, CVS, or any Kroger grocery store. By leaving out those giants, your sample becomes quirky and almost certainly not representative of the greater market.More importantly, Statcounter measures only pageviews, not visits or sessions. If I go to a site that uses the Statcounter service and visit five pages on my Windows 11 PC, and you load 10 pages with your Windows 10 PC, the results in Statcounter's "market share" report will show that Windows 10 is twice as popular as Windows 11. You see the problem here, I presume.Of course, that assumes all those pageviews are even counted. On my Windows 11 PC, where I use Microsoft Edge with its tracking protection set to Strict, Statcounter's tracking code is automatically blocked. Oops.So, what's the real story?The data from Statcounter tells a perfectly valid story about how people use websites that belong to its customers. But it says nothing about the "market share" for Windows PCs.It does show, in the most general terms, that traffic to those sites from Windows 10 PCs is declining slowly and that traffic from PCs running Windows 11 appears to be increasing slowly as well. Do those numbers map to the population of PCs worldwide? Probably not, although no one can say for sure.We do know that there are a very large number of PCs running Windows 10 that are not eligible to upgrade to Windows 11. That number will probably still be very large in October 2025, when support for Windows 10 ends. Someone with access to Microsoft's telemetry servers could probably give you a pretty good estimate of how many devices are in each population, but they're not talking.The rest of us, unfortunately, are left to guess. And if you want to make a wager based on data from Statcounter, go right ahead. Just don't put any serious money on that bet.

Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on January 23, ... [+] 2025, in Washington, DC. Trump signed a range of executive orders pertaining to issues including crypto currency, Artificial Intelligence and other issues. Donald Trumps plans to ensure Americas AI leadership could fail without enacting policies to attract and retain foreign talent. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)Getty ImagesDonald Trumps plans to ensure Americas AI leadership could falter unless his administration makes attracting and retaining foreign-born talent easier. A report from the outgoing White House Council of Economic Advisers finds immigration remains crucial to the U.S. artificial intelligence workforce. A National Foundation for American Policy study concluded, Immigrants have founded or cofounded nearly two-thirds (65% or 28 of 43) of the top AI companies in the United States, and 70% of full-time graduate students in fields related to artificial intelligence are international students.Trumps Executive Order On AI Does Not Mention Immigration PolicyIt is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance Americas global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security, according to a presidential executive order issued January 23, 2025. To achieve this policy objective, the order tasks officials, including the special advisor for AI and crypto, to submit an action plan within 180 days.Unlike Joe Bidens executive order on AI, which Trump repealed, the new executive order does not mention immigration policy. Bidens order called on the secretaries of state and homeland security to attract and retain talent in AI and other critical and emerging technologies in the United States economy including by streamlining visa petitions and applications for individuals who will come to America to work on, study, or conduct research in AI or other critical and emerging technologies.The Biden executive order on AI resulted in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issuing favorable guidance that increased approvals for O-1A visas for people with extraordinary ability and allowing more employment-based immigrants to qualify for national interest waivers in science and technology fields. In December 2024, the State Department made it easier for many scientists and others to remain in the United States on J-1 visas.The Trump AI executive order failing to mention the role of immigrants and attracting talent is ironic given that the new special advisor for AI and crypto, David Sacks, told Donald Trump on the Silicon Valley All-In podcast that liberalizing U.S. immigration policy was crucial to Americas technological future. Trump agreed with Sacks on the podcast and told him that he wanted international students who graduate from U.S. universities to get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country. Although Trump promised to address the issue on day one, he has not.David Sacks, Donald Trump's AI and Crypto Czar, listens to President Trump as he signs a series of ... [+] executive orders in the Oval Office on January 23, 2025.(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)Getty ImagesEconomic Report Shows Significant Immigration Policy Role For Retaining AI TalentA report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers published at the end of the Biden administration states, Between 40% and 60% of AI-related masters degrees have been awarded to non-U.S. citizens in the last 5 years. For Ph.D.s, this share has been above 50% since 2003, most recently 59% in 2022. (The figure may be higher if one defines AI-related more broadly.)The report notes a significant shortcoming in the U.S. immigration system: Retaining talented people. The economists who authored the study indicated that liberalized reforms could help increase the supply of top talent in the United States.Immigration obstacles often prevent capable workersincluding many graduates of U.S. institutionsfrom moving to or staying in the United States and supplying their talents in the U.S. workforce, according to the report. Among non-U.S. citizen AI Ph.D.s who left the United States, over half cited immigration issues as relevant to their decision to leave. The report notes 60% of foreign Ph.D. recipients in the U.S. say they have trouble staying compared to 12% of Ph.D. holders in other countries.The economists concluded that a better immigration system would make it easier to retain talent and be more attractive for researchers who are educated outside the United States to come to the United States for work.The bipartisan National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence released a final report to Congress in 2021 that recommended changing U.S. immigration laws to allow America to attract and retain talent to compete in AI and other cutting-edge technologies. In a section titled Strengthen AI talent through immigration, the report concluded: Nations that can successfully attract and retain highly skilled individuals gain strategic and economic advantages over competitors. Human capital advantages are particularly significant in the field of AI, where demand for talent far exceeds supply. Highly skilled immigrants accelerate American innovation, improve entrepreneurship and create jobs.Young Engineers Crucial For Chinas DeepSeek AI StartupH-1B visas are the primary immigration category for retaining foreign talent and often the only practical work option for high-skilled foreign nationals. H-1B visa critics most oppose the ability of U.S. companies to hire young foreign-born tech talent out of U.S. universities, claiming that should not be allowed since they compete with older U.S.-born engineers. Research shows that H-1B visa holders expand job opportunities for U.S. professionals, including by encouraging more investment. U.C.-Davis professor Giovanni Peri and his colleagues concluded, We find no evidence that H-1B workers displace native-born computer-related workers in a local labor market.The recent success of the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which focused on young engineers, shows America could make a grave error if it shifted its immigration system to primarily accepting experienced foreign talent over recent graduates from U.S. universities.In an interview with a Chinese publication in 2023, [DeepSeeks leader] Liang said most technical positions [at the company] were filled by fresh graduates or people with one or two years of experience, reported the Wall Street Journal. Experience, he said, was a potential obstacle. When doing something, experienced people will tell you without hesitation that you should do it this way, but inexperienced people will have to repeatedly explore and think seriously about how to do it, and then find a solution that suits the current actual situation, Liang said.The Wall Street Journal added, What they came up with is now being studied by Silicon Valleys best and brightest. At minimum, DeepSeeks experience shows the value of allowing companies to decide for themselves the best mix of employees.During Donald Trumps first term, many policies worked against retaining foreign-born talent from U.S. universities, including proposed measures to restrict international students from studying or working in the United States and a Labor Department rule aimed at pricing H-1B visa holders and employment-based immigrants out of the U.S. labor market. A failed Trump rule awarding H-1B visas from highest to lowest salary likely would have blocked many international student applicants in favor of the most senior scientists and engineers.During the Trump administration, companies hiring foreign nationals received hostile treatment, with H-1B denial rates for initial employment reaching 24% in FY 2018. About 60% of cases were handed costly Requests for Evidence. Some companies hope Elon Musks influence will prevent a renewed assault on H-1B visas. However, many analysts believe the restrictive policies on high-skilled immigration that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller championed in Trumps first term could return and threaten Americas AI leadership in a competitive world.

At first glance, indicators of compromise (IoCs) feeds appear to be a straightforward solution, but the reality is much more nuanced.

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsThe secret AppleCare+ hackLeaving it lateIf youre as clumsy as I am, youll know the value of AppleCare+. Apples insurance plan gives you deeply discounted repair fees and an unlimited number of claims while its active, putting your mind at ease and coming to the rescue if your Mac or iPhone makes an unfortunately rapid introduction to a dangerously hard floor.Yet it looks like theres a big change on the way, and it could make getting AppleCare+ more expensive in the long run. If youve been thinking about purchasing coverage for your Apple device, now is the time to make your move.Recommended VideosWhats the big idea? Well, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple is about to stop customers from taking out two- or three-year AppleCare+ plans in its retail stores and on their devices. Instead, youll only have the option to subscribe monthly or annually. That matters because AppleCares multi-year options work out much cheaper than its subscription offerings. For instance, a three-year AppleCare+ plan for the 16-inch MacBook Pro costs $399, which works out to roughly $11 a month. Pay annually, though, and itll cost you $149.99 a year, or $449.97 over three years. Thats an increase of over 12% compared to the three-year bundle.With the iPhone 16 Pro, the difference is even more stark, with the monthly option ending up over 20% more expensive than opting for a two-year plan.So it makes sense to go for the longer options, providing you can afford the upfront price and know youll have your device for the duration of the coverage. But with Apple removing the ability to purchase the multi-year coverage options in its stores and on your devices, you might not have long to save money.AppleThe one bit of good news here is that Apple will reportedly continue to allow you to get the better-value coverage on its online store. But even then, we dont know how long that situation will last. Theres also an interesting wrinkle that could make it harder to purchase, and its something Ive got personal experience with.I bought an Apple Watch Series 10 in September 2024, and I didnt think I needed AppleCare+ at the time. Usually, you have two months to buy AppleCare+ for your new device, and you can do so from within the Settings app in iOS. After that, the option disappears.That would seem to suggest that AppleCare+ is no longer available for your device, and everything I could find on Apples website simply said youve got to buy it within two months. When I changed my mind about AppleCare+ some five months after purchase, I assumed it was too late.Yet I kept reading online threads claiming that you could take your Watch to an Apple Store, have it inspected by one of the in-store Geniuses and, if it passed muster, take out AppleCare+ there and then even if your allotted two months were up.With nothing but a few scattered Reddit threads to go on, I went down to my local Apple Store to see if this secret hack worked. Lo and behold, it did Apple told me they generally let anyone take out AppleCare+ for their device within a year of purchase, even if it fell outside the normal two-month window. In fact, the employee I spoke to said they wouldnt be surprised if Apple one day expanded AppleCare+ availability to every Apple device owner, regardless of how long theyd had their product, as long as it was in good condition. The idea was that AppleCare+ makes the company a lot of money, so expanding it is a logical next step.Once the employee had inspected my device, the AppleCare+ option reappeared in my Settings app, and I hastily purchased the pre-paid two-year coverage option. That was just this week fortuitous timing given Gurmans latest news.AppleHow does that relate to Gurmans claim about the changing AppleCare+ landscape? Well, I was only able to get AppleCare+ coverage this late because I had my Watch physically inspected by Apple. But if things change and you can only buy longer AppleCare+ plans online and not in Apple Stores or on your device, how will you be able to get the discounted plan and convince Apple that your device is still roadworthy if it falls outside the two-month window?In other words, youll probably be fine as long as you purchase a multi-year AppleCare+ plan within the initial two-month window, as the online option (which doesnt require device inspection by Apple) will remain. But if, like me, you later change your mind, you might end up being locked out once the two months are up because the online store route wont let Apple check your devices condition. With only subscription options available, that will be more expensive in the long run.That means if you want to save money on an AppleCare+ purchase but your device is currently outside the two-month period, youll need to head down to your nearest Apple Store as soon as you can to get your device assessed. Dont leave it too late.Editors Recommendations

Two of Nvidias best graphics cards finally hit the market last week, but it was really more of a brief appearance. The RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080 are sold out pretty much everywhere, and if youre waiting for a chance to buy one, dont hold your breath. According to Overclockers, a UK retailer, the new Nvidia flagship may not be back in stock for up to 16 weeks.Overclockers, one of the biggest PC hardware stores in the UK, posted a stock update for the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080. According to the retailer, both cards are sold out, and the store is also not accepting preorders anymore. The demand was so high that some people are in a preorder queue; those customers can either wait it out or cancel and get a refund.Recommended VideosWe have no plans to take pre-orders for any 50 Series cards until we have greater clarity on availability and have fulfilled the pre-orders we have taken, says Overclockers UK.Jacob Roach / Digital TrendsThe worst part of it all is the estimated time for the RTX 50-series to be restocked. Overclockers estimates that the RTX 5090 should come back within three to 16 weeks, and the RTX 5080 two to six weeks. On the lower end of that scale, its not so bad for either card. But, in the worst-case scenario, people who want to buy Nvidias new halo card may have to wait until the end of May. Considering the card launched in January, thats a pretty long delay. Its hard to say how long itll take for U.S. retailers to get more RTX 5090s. The cards are all but gone from Amazon, Newegg, and other retailers. Newegg says that itll replenish stocks as soon as possible, which could mean just about anything. The only place to get an RTX 5090 right now appears to be eBay, but that place is flooded with scams where people are selling .jpg files of the RTX 5090 for $2,000. If you want the actual GPU, you might have to pay up to $7,000. Meanwhile, the RTX 50-series launch in Japan resulted in chaos, including a broken kindergarten sign.Rumors about the limited availability of Nvidias RTX 50-series spread far and wide prior to the launch, but still, the harsh reality of high demand and low stock is only just starting to hit.The GPUs are sold out at all the major retailers, leaving many to wonder where to buy an RTX 5090 or an RTX 5080 today. The answer to that question is pretty much nowhere, unless youre willing to spend $2,600 on the one RTX 5080 thats currently available on Amazon, but youreally shouldnt. At this point, all we can do is wait.Editors Recommendations

The provider of healthcare equipment and supplies said long-time leader, Jose Almeida, has abruptly retired as chairman, president and chief executive.

One more turn Civilization VII review: A major overhaul solves Civs oldest problems Not all changes will be popular, but it's a great launching point for a new age. Samuel Axon Feb 3, 2025 9:00 am | 3 One of the sprawling cities of Civilization VII. Credit: Samuel Axon One of the sprawling cities of Civilization VII. Credit: Samuel Axon Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreTheres a lot of talk of cozy games these days, and Civilization is definitely my personal cozy game. Its relaxing to get lost in a flow state, making a series of interesting decisions for one more turn, then another, late into the evening.Change is almost definitionally not cozy, though, and Civilization VII changes quite a lot especially about the games overall structure.Frankly, Ive long felt the series peaked with Civilization IV, at least for me. But after playing VII for a couple of dozen hours, theres a chance its at least as good as Civilization V, and it has the potential to even match IV with just a little more refinement.In this review, well explore all the major changes, assess whether they are worth any trade-offs, and talk about why VII has the potential to be the best Civ game in recent memory.Table of ContentsJump to sectionA specific kind of Civ playerCivilization is a franchise that caters to a broad range of players, and different people want different things from the games. It makes sense to clarify what kind of Civilization player I am so you know where Im coming from and what kind of filter to run my take through.Ive played at least a few games of Civilization a year since Civilization II came out. All told, I probably have a cumulative 2,000 hours in the franchise. I skipped Civilization III, and I played the most in the Civilization IV era, when I played weekly hotseat games with my friends in college. I frequently played the 1,000 AD scenario solo. I continued to play Civilization V, but a little less than IV. When Civilization VI came out, I wasnt as big a fan. Ive played maybe two full games a year after an initial 50 or so hours when it first arrived.Ive usually played on low to mid difficulty levels and have enjoyed the inevitable march to victory. I did work my way up through the difficulty levels in V while Steam achievement-hunting, but I didnt enjoy it as much as taking a relaxed approach.Ive spent comparatively little time playing other 4X games. I had a couple of weeks where I got really into Endless Legend, but it didnt stick long-term. I played a lot of Master of Orion II back in the day, but Ive only played a couple dozen hours of Stellaris. I did, however, obsessively play Alpha Centauri. I also love The Battle of Polytopia.If VI was your favorite Civ game, if you always play on Deity, or if youre a hardcore player who plays 5,000 hours a year, just know that Im coming at this from a different place than you are. I hope you can still filter through that and find the information you need here, though.This review is based on two full-length playthroughs of all three ages of Civilization VII, plus a little extra dabblinga total of about 35 hours. I mostly played on a Windows PC, but I also tested the game briefly on a Steam Deck. The Mac, Linux, and console versions were not made available to me.Lets dig in.The ages of civilizationCivilization VII overhauls the structure of a Civilization game more radically than weve ever seen. Whereas previous games had eras (Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, Modern, Atomic, Information, and Future in VI) that acted as a soft structure for how the game progressed, VII cuts everything down to just three and names them agesAntiquity, Exploration, and Modern.(This is not to be confused with the boom/bust system of the dark and golden ages in VI.) As in earlier titles, exploring with scouts plays a big role in the first age. Credit: Samuel Axon But unlike the eras of yore, VIIs ages are presented and play almost as distinct games. Ages do not just mark the passage of time; transitioning from one to another involves significant changes to the map and objectives in the game, with a summary screen displayed during each transition.Each age has its own tech and culture trees, buildings and units, and even unique victory conditions and game systems. For example, the system of spreading religions around the globe with missionaries and tracking the religious makeup of cities is exclusive to Exploration, even though there are some more basic applications of religion in Antiquity.Legacy pathsEach age has its own legacy paths corresponding to the different victory types: economic, military, science, and culture. These paths include a sequence of objectives that must be fulfilled to gain points that are tallied at the end of the age to determine rankings and decide which options you have for bonuses to start with if you continue to the next age.For example, the science legacy path in Exploration involves using specialists (urban population who build up the yields of tiles that have already been developed) to optimize city districts with very high yields, whereas the path in Modern involves using city production to build major flight and spaceflight projects.All players transition from one age to another at once when enough progress has accumulated (either in just one path or all of them). The final legacy path, for Modern, is the path to the games ultimate win conditions. Legacy paths map to victory conditions and give you a linear series of objectives with which you can gain points that assist you in starting the next age with an advantage. Samuel Axon Legacy paths map to victory conditions and give you a linear series of objectives with which you can gain points that assist you in starting the next age with an advantage. Samuel Axon You can check how far the various leaders are along each legacy path. Samuel Axon You can check how far the various leaders are along each legacy path. Samuel Axon During the age transition, you can see what bonuses your actions in the previous age will offer you in the upcoming one. Samuel Axon During the age transition, you can see what bonuses your actions in the previous age will offer you in the upcoming one. Samuel Axon You can check how far the various leaders are along each legacy path. Samuel Axon During the age transition, you can see what bonuses your actions in the previous age will offer you in the upcoming one. Samuel Axon Legacy points from the previous age can be applied to bonuses as soon as the new age starts. Samuel Axon Each age has its own civic and tech trees, and there are unique civic trees for each civilization, too. Samuel Axon As an age nears its end, a crisis can happen that affects everyone. In one example, the plague begins to spread around the world toward the end of Exploration. Each crisis has some unique gameplay elements, including crisis cards, which force you to pick between some negative effects for your civilization to face as you tackle the problem.After an age is complete, the crisis ends, a recap screen is shown, and you get to spend legacy points (which you accumulated by following the legacy paths) to gain bonuses or choose specializations for your civilization that apply when you start the next age.You also pick a new civilization for the next age, which brings us to the other major overhaul to the games formula.Leaders and civilizationsAs in all prior titles, you select a leader to play as when you start a new game, and that leader has unique bonuses or mechanics that affect how you would optimally play the game.But whereas leaders were tied to specific civilizations before, now theyre not. You can play as Benjamin Franklin, King of Persia. Those concerned with historical accuracy wont love this change, though the developer clearly designed the leaders to have some mechanical synergy with historically appropriate civilizations; these pairings are even given special labeling in the civilization-selection screen.When an age transition happens, though, you have to pick a completely new civilizationbut not just any. Several factors contribute to the list of options. The civilization you picked and which things you accomplished in the previous age make up the bulk of those factors. Again, the game nudges you toward civs that make loose sense historically (I went from Isabella leading Rome in Antiquity to Isabella leading Spain in Exploration), but its possible in some cases to do something different. You pick your leader first, and then "historical" civilization choices for each leader are labeled with a special icon. Samuel Axon You pick your leader first, and then "historical" civilization choices for each leader are labeled with a special icon. Samuel Axon This is the screen for picking a civilization when the age switch happens. As you can see, some are locked while others are available. Samuel Axon This is the screen for picking a civilization when the age switch happens. As you can see, some are locked while others are available. Samuel Axon You pick your leader first, and then "historical" civilization choices for each leader are labeled with a special icon. Samuel Axon This is the screen for picking a civilization when the age switch happens. As you can see, some are locked while others are available. Samuel Axon This fits a general theme in Civilization VII of modeling the way cultures and cities in our own world are built in layers. For example, London was a Roman city before the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings built their own settlements on top of it.To that point, you can "overbuild" buildings relevant in later ages to replace ones that were specific to an earlier age, which not-so-coincidentally helps solve the problem from VI of having to work around legacy decisions when working on optimizing your districts.Does it work, and is it still Civ?This controversial change to civilizations allows the games designers to better fine-tune civilizations bonuses, units, and buildings. Since they can be age-specific, they can tie deeply into mechanics that are endemic to a specific age. It also addresses the franchises long-standing balance problem of certain civilizations having an advantage in one part of a games trajectory but being weak in another.Likewise, putting strong guardrails around each of the three ages allows the designers to better refine and balance certain gameplay systems to interact with each other better. Its much easier to design a system that only has to be fun in a certain context than it is to produce one that needs to stay relevant and interesting throughout every phase of the game.It also acts as a catch-up or rubber-banding device. Civilization has long been criticized for the tendency of its games to snowball early. Establishing a lead in the first few eras could sometimes all but guarantee the final outcome, making the back half of the game seem like a pointless exercise to some.Since the age transitions in VII put all civs on relatively equal footing with regard to tech trees and so on, thats less of a problem. Of course, there are still the era points to spend to make your successes or failures earlier on more meaningfulthey're just not as game-defining.There are some downsides besides pedantry about historical accuracy, too. Most notably, the last 15 or so turns of an age can be a bit of a bummer.Thats because buildings and units late in an ages tech or culture trees end up being mostly irrelevant as a result of the hard reset that happens so soon after you acquire them. I also found myself incentivized to slow my civilizations progress to delay age transitions to get things optimally set up for the start of the next one, which feels unnatural and unintended.RIP busyworkAmid a number of changes to the civilization formula, another one stands out: workers (called builders in VI) are no more. Instead of directing a unit to build improvements, you do so directly from the city view each time the city grows.On one hand, this is a simplification at a time when a lot of people want their grand strategy games to get deeper and more complex. But I feel that its a good change. Workers always became unwieldy as the scale of your empire grew, and many players just ended up automating them by the later eras.The change also allows building rural improvements to integrate more neatly with the urban district system introduced in VI and refined here. Worker units have been replaced by a centralized city management screen. Samuel Axon Worker units have been replaced by a centralized city management screen. Samuel Axon As seen in the bottom right, a number of military units have been grouped in with this commander. Samuel Axon As seen in the bottom right, a number of military units have been grouped in with this commander. Samuel Axon You can level up commanders, and there are multiple talent trees for each, emphasizing different uses. Samuel Axon You can level up commanders, and there are multiple talent trees for each, emphasizing different uses. Samuel Axon As seen in the bottom right, a number of military units have been grouped in with this commander. Samuel Axon You can level up commanders, and there are multiple talent trees for each, emphasizing different uses. Samuel Axon There are other refinements that reduce unit-based busywork, too. One of the reasons IV is my favorite game in the series is that its the last one with stacks of death, where youd pile multiple military units onto one tile and move them as a group.When stacks of death were replaced by a one-unit-of-each-type-per-hex approach in V, I felt it made moving armies in the late game an infuriatingly tedious process that wasnt worth the added tactical complexity.Firaxis has struck an ideal middle ground in VII. You can now pack up to five units into a single-hex-occupying group with a military commander unit. You then just have to move that one unit to the front line before deploying everyone and commanding them individually in battle.Its a great change! (Rivers are also fully navigable by naval units, by the wayanother change that makes getting around a lot easier.)Small town, big cityI mentioned that you now manage hex improvements via the city view. There are some other changes to cities to cover. First off, newly founded settlements start as towns, not cities. Towns cant produce buildings or units normally, but you can purchase a subset of options with gold.They grow by similar rules to cities, and they have multiple specialization options that customize how they benefit your wider civilization. You can spend gold to convert them to cities, and it costs less gold to do so the more they grow. There are pros and cons to each classification, and youll almost always end up going with a balance, regardless of the age.Theres a settlement limit that is affected by ages, cultures, and technologies. Capturing or founding towns or cities beyond that limit comes with big penalties and is almost never worth it. City tiles sprawl out across the map. In this case, we have a Los Angeles-like situation where a sort of megalopolis has formed out of several cities growing into each other. Samuel Axon City tiles sprawl out across the map. In this case, we have a Los Angeles-like situation where a sort of megalopolis has formed out of several cities growing into each other. Samuel Axon Towns have specializations that change the role they have in your civilization. Samuel Axon Towns have specializations that change the role they have in your civilization. Samuel Axon There's a centralized resource assignment panel for distributing resources (and their bonuses) across all your settlements of all types Samuel Axon There's a centralized resource assignment panel for distributing resources (and their bonuses) across all your settlements of all types Samuel Axon Towns have specializations that change the role they have in your civilization. Samuel Axon There's a centralized resource assignment panel for distributing resources (and their bonuses) across all your settlements of all types Samuel Axon All told, I liked these systems. Theyre big changes, but they feel natural. I wouldnt tweak much about them.This towns classification is also relevant to what used to be known as city-states. Barbarians and city-states have merged into one concept, called independents. These are single-settlement AI civs that are either hostile or friendly. I really enjoyed this system, as it allowed me to gradually befriend independents, convert them into towns I control through diplomacy, and ultimately upgrade them to cities within my civilization. Its a satisfying progression.You court independent settlements by spending a new yield called influence, which is the foundation of a significant overhaul of how diplomacy and espionage work in the game.How to win friends and influence peopleI hated the way diplomacy and war weariness worked in VI, especially at launch. I felt that the AI was hyper-focused on baiting me into wars, and if I ever responded in kind, it was too difficult to avoid all the AI leaders turning on me because they didnt like what I was doing. Often, I would just ignore diplomacy and end up at war with almost everyone rather than engage with the systems the game had in place for managing all that.VIIs approach is much more straightforward. As noted, theres a new yield called influence, and it sits alongside gold, science, and so on. Its produced passively by certain buildings and the like. It has multiple uses, but all of them relate to affecting your relationships with other powers on the map.You can use it to build favor with independent cities, levy their troops, or ultimately bring them into your civilization. You can use it to offer trade deals to or denounce other rulers. Its also the resource used for espionage, like stealing technologies or sabotaging space race production.Thats not where it stops, though. When other leaders offer you a deal of some kind, youre given the option to spend a small amount of influence to prevent the deal from happening, no influence to accept the deal on terms that are slightly more beneficial for them, or a larger amount of influence to shift the terms of the deal to be significantly better for both of you. You can spend influence on everything from treaties to espionage. Samuel Axon You can spend influence on everything from treaties to espionage. Samuel Axon Influence is used to build favor with, leverage, and ultimate acquire independent settlements. Samuel Axon Influence is used to build favor with, leverage, and ultimate acquire independent settlements. Samuel Axon You can spend influence on everything from treaties to espionage. Samuel Axon Influence is used to build favor with, leverage, and ultimate acquire independent settlements. Samuel Axon Most critically, it plays a role in a system of war support. When a war occurs between two civilizations, every leader in the game (not just those two) can spend influence to support one side or another. The side with the most support suffers significantly less war weariness and fewer diplomatic consequences for the continuation of the war.If you have high influence yields and pour it all into supporting a war thats important to you strategically, you can put yourself in a much better position.It works extremely well, and it simplifies a lot of disparate systems that have been tried in Civ over the years into one coherent thing thats much easier to understand and manage than ever before.Of all the major additions in Civilization VII, this is my favorite. For the first time, I find diplomacy fun instead of a chore.Grab bag: Steam Deck, minor gripes, and hopes for the futureThose are the big categories of changes in VII, but there are a few things of note that dont neatly fit into any of these buckets, so lets rapid-fire through a few.Steam Deck, consoles, and controller supportConsoles have always been a footnote in the Civilization franchises storied history. There was Civilization Revolution, a stripped-down version of the game that came out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. (It was better than youd think if you approached it on its own terms, but it wasnt the desktop PC Civ experience by any stretch.)Civilization VI got ports for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Switch, but the ports were not very good at all. The game was playable, but the ports were definitely an afterthought.So its interesting that Civilization VII will have PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch versions launching the same day as the PC, Mac, and Linux ones. Along with that, the game is Steam Deck Verifiedwhich wasnt even a concept when the last Civ game came out.I wasnt given access to the console versions during this review period, but I was able to try it out on Steam Deck, which gave me a sense of how it plays with a controller interface.The left stick moves between tiles to select, while the right stick moves the camera and changes the zone the left stick effects. You tap A to select something and B to back out, while the left and right triggers can be used to zoom in and out. Pressing the right bumper brings up a radial menu that gives you access to everything from the tech tree to different leaders with whom you can engage in diplomacy. The remaining buttons are direct shortcuts to commonly used features, like mini-map options (yields and so on).Civilization VII running on the Steam Deck. Credit: Samuel Axon It works pretty well! Its not as natural as using a mouse, of course, but its a big improvement on the mess that the console versions of VI presented you.The game seemed to perform OK most of the time on low settings and the native 1280800 resolution on the Steam Deck, but the exception was zooming in on large, sprawling cities in the late game. I saw some stutters and framerate chugging in that situation. Thats not a game-breaking problem in a turn-based game, but it's annoying. It's possible that more performance optimization will come later.The performance is inconsistent enough to give me pause about recommending playing on Steam Deck; youre probably better off using your laptop to play when youre traveling. That said, the controller configuration (which is also an option on PC, by the way) is good enough that Im optimistic about the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions. It's hard to imagine the game running well on the Switch, though, given that the much more powerful Steam Deck barely squeaks through.UI bugs aplenty at launchI believe the version Im playing right now is the day-one release version (or close to it), so its worth mentioning Ive run into some annoying UI bugs.For example:I have to click several times to get it to register, or sometimes deselect and re-select the unit, to make ranged military units fire on units in other hexes.In one game, I just could not create trade routes. I'd select the merchant, click on the target city, and nothing would happen. It's possible this was not a bug and that there was instead some reason in the game's mechanics for why I couldn't do it at this stage that I didn't understand, but there was no feedback about why it wasn't working.There are some instances (like in the religion panel) where mouse wheel scrolling simultaneously scrolled the list in the panel while also zooming the map view behind it.This is the sort of stuff that will almost surely be fixed quickly, but its good to be aware if youre planning on playing on launch day.Some of the balance is a little wonkyAs is the case for all games like this, there are a few systems that will need some post-launch refinement. Most notably, the balance between building units or buildings with gold versus production feels way off. By around the middle of the Exploration Age, I found myself using gold to purchase things far more than I bothered waiting on production. You just have too much gold in the late game. I imagine Firaxis will rein this in.Launch content is lightCivilization VII offers arguably the most complexity, depth, and breadth of systems of any Civilization game pre-expansion. Thats great! Yeah, there are some standards missing I imagine might come in expansions later, like the World Congress or nukes. But compared to earlier games, theres more here on day one than usual.That said, the actual content is pretty bare-bones. There arent a ton of leaders right nowthough many more are planned within just a few months, according to Firaxis roadmap.More critically, there are no scenarios at all, and theres no mention of scenarios in the roadmap. Scenarios were always some of my favorite experiences in prior games, so thats a disappointment. I hope Firaxis announces some plans on this front soon and that we wont have to wait for a paid expansion to get something that has usually been part of the core of earlier titles.There are some additions in this iteration that weren't there before to make the game stickier and reward long-term play, though. For example, completing an age with a specific leader levels them up, granting access to modifier cards you can use on future games with that leader. These aren't enough to make them radically more powerful; they're more like small extra tweaks to make it worth revisiting them. There's also a large library of challenges to complete. You can earn mementos by leveling your leaders up while playing; these can be used to grant modest gameplay modifiers for future games or ages. Credit: Samuel Axon Also, multiplayer is pretty bare-bones feature-wise at launch, but Firaxis says it's planning on addressing that within a few weeks.You cant rename your citiesI am afraid to even write this out because it seems like such a glaringly obvious omission that I almost assume Im just an idiot and havent been able to find the right thing to click. But Ive looked and looked, and Im pretty sure you cant rename cities at all. Thats very perplexing.A new ageChange might not be cozy, but some of these changes have made a meaningful difference in countering Civilization's longest-standing frustrationslate-game fatigue, snowballing, and frustrating diplomacy, among other things.If you're coming to Civilization with historical accuracy in mind, the divorce between leaders and civilizations will bug you. I will remind you, though, that this is a game infamous for Gandhi warmongering with nuclear weapons, so that's not new. (Notably, Gandhi is not a leader in Civilization VII, though I had an amusingly similar situation with Harriet Tubman taking a violent, scorched-earth approach to diplomacy.)It's worth it, though, because it expands the strategic depth of the game while also addressing some classic balance problems.Firaxis has added significantly more structure to Civilization here. The game is not as sandbox-y as previous versions of the game, as objectives within ages are much more clearly articulated. Fortunately, it drops the arbitrary objectives that dominated VI in that game's eureka and dark/golden age systems, so I feel it's a happy medium.It was always going to be a challenge to make yet another Civilization game while retaining the guts that have been around for 34 years. Even though the structural changes are arguably radical, I believe they have more justification and upside than the ones we saw in VI, making VII feel like a return to form.Systems-wise, Civilization VII is the most complete pre-expansion package we've seen in a long time. There are plenty of refinements and additions I'd like to see, but my general impressions are positive. This is still the best recent 4X game out there.Let's see if future expansions and mod support have the potential to make it the best Civilization yet. It's not there yet, but there's ample reason to hope.The goodThe ages system helps to solve many longstanding problems with the overall arc of a Civilization gameInfluence yield makes diplomacy better than it's ever beenTweaks and additions turn building city districts into the full realization of what VI was hinting at but never achievedThe visual presentation is excellent, with sprawling, intricate cities and detailed leadersSeveral additions streamline annoying busywork the franchise is known for without curtailing depthThe badContent is light even though systems are robust; there are no scenarios at allThe final few turns of an age end up feeling wonkyYou can't rename your cities for some reasonThe uglySome launch-window bugs and other issues might make it worth waiting a few weeks before digging inSamuel AxonSenior EditorSamuel AxonSenior Editor Samuel Axon is a senior editor at Ars Technica. He covers Apple, software development, gaming, AI, entertainment, and mixed reality. He has been writing about gaming and technology for nearly two decades at Engadget, PC World, Mashable, Vice, Polygon, Wired, and others. He previously ran a marketing and PR agency in the gaming industry, led editorial for the TV network CBS, and worked on social media marketing strategy for Samsung Mobile at the creative agency SPCSHP. He also is an independent software and game developer for iOS, Windows, and other platforms, and heis a graduate of DePaul University, where he studied interactive media and software development. 3 Comments