During the first week of the Los Angeles wildfires, Niantic assured fans that its Pokemon Go Unova Tour - Los Angeles event will go on as scheduled. Nearly a month later, that's still the plan. However, Niantic is also extending a refund offer to ticket holders who won't be able to make the event.Niantic shared the news on the official Pokemon Go site, and added that players who choose to take the refund can make the request via in-app support through February 23.The Pokemon Go: Unova Tour - Los Angeles will be held at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena on February 21-23. There will also be citywide gameplay in Los Angeles and Orange County. The event will also mark the Pokemon Go debut of Black Kyurem and White Kyurem ahead of their global rollout on March 1.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Last month, director and actor Chris Carpenter launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring his vision for a Legend of Zelda fan film to life. Although the campaign was moderately successful and raised approximately $24,000, it also caught the attention of Nintendo itself. Now, the Kickstarter campaign has been suspended and the Zelda fan film is no longer happening.Via Nintendo Life, Dio Traverso--one of the film's producers--confirmed on the Kickstarter page that the project has been shuttered and that no money will be collected from the campaign. He also thanked the film's supporters on behalf of Carpenter and the rest of their collaborators.Carpenter had planned to step into the role of Link opposite A Series of Unfortunate Events' Avi Lake, who was cast as Princess Zelda. The movie was called Lost in Hyrule, and the story was set after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask in order to bring that chapter of Link's adventures to a close.Continue Reading at GameSpot

GTA Online players on PC are reporting that they're experiencing a particular type of crash, and it's ruining some of the game's experiences. Grand Theft Auto Onlinefans may want to exercise caution if they play the game on PC, as some fans are reporting losing considerable progress due to when the bug happened to them.

Without an effective forward to spearhead the offense, a team will fairly often struggle to win matches in Football Manager 2024. At most, they will only earn one point per match due to draws. Therefore, a team can only be competitive once they have figured out a balance in their offensive maneuvers with both effective tactics and personnel.

Sid Meiers Civilization 7 executive producer Dennis Shirk shared his opinion on the rumor that the new Switch 2 Joy-Con can be used as a PC-style mouse during a recent interview with IGN.It is definitely intriguing, Shirk said. You always do some trade-offs when you have to deal with pure console controls. And the announcement has some great stuff in it. I love what theyre doing with the controllers. Its all very cool. Thats about all I can say about it in terms of an opinion. I think it looks awesome and theyre not wrong, so it would be cool for something like that.IGN characterized Shirks response as both coy and teasing, possibly insinuating some implied subtext that doesnt translate through text alone. If any studio were to test out this potential Switch 2 functionality, Civilization developer Firaxis would be a good choice. Civ is commonly played on PC, like many grand strategy games, but always comes out on console, too, despite controllers being widely considered less efficient for this style of game. Civilization 7 will be launched on PC and consoles, including the Switch, on Feb. 11, so it wouldnt be much of a surprise if it ends up being compatible with Switch 2, too, which Nintendo has promised to launch within 2025.This is the exact scenario that makes the possibility of the Switch 2 Joy-Con doubling as a mouse so exciting. Although strategy games can translate well to consoles, rectifying the relative imprecision of gamepad controls could be a boon for the genre. As Polygon deputy editor Maddy Myers pointed out last month, the potential benefits also extend to point-and-click games like Rise of the Golden Idol and even more hardcore, real-time simulators in the vein of Starcraft.Regardless of the potential for a mouse, its probably unlikely that the Switch 2 will have the processing power to keep up with the most technically hefty PC games but this one addition to the already-versatile Joy-Con controller opens up a whole new world of possibilities for gaming on the upcoming Nintendo console. That said, only time will tell if this rumored gimmick goes the way of the Wiis motion controls or the Wii Us second screen.

The Terminator is a man of his word and is coming back to the Call of Duty franchise in Black Ops 6.First making an appearance in Vanguard and Warzone, the Terminator returns with a new event with lots of rewards for players to earn. Players will need to eliminate others to earn skulls and rewards like the PP-919 SMG blueprint, but when can you start collecting skulls?Heres when the Blacks Ops 6 Terminator event starts in your time zone and what you can expect from the event.What time does the Terminator event start in Black Ops 6The Terminator event will start on Thursday, February 6, and last until Thursday, February 20.Although there isnt an official start time for the event, the Squid Game event started at 10 a.m. PST, so its likely the Terminator event will start around the same time. Heres when the Terminator event will start in your time zone, though note that well update this guide if developer Treyarch confirms official timing:10 a.m. PST for the West Coast of North America1 p.m. EST for the East Coast of North America6 p.m. GMT for the U.K.7 p.m. CET for Western Europe/Paris3 a.m. JST on Friday, Feb. 7 for Japan5 a.m. AEDT on Friday, Feb. 7 for the East Coast of AustraliaWhat to expect in the Terminator eventThe Terminator event will feature thirteen rewards, including a PP-919 SMG blueprint and a Full Auto Mod for the AEK-973 Marksman Rifle.Additionally, according to an X post by Realityuk, you can earn your usual cosmetics such as the weapon charm, calling card, weapon sticker, spray, and emblem, but the best prizes would be the Reactive Armor perk, War Machine scorestreak and the aforementioned blueprint and weapon mod.The Terminator Event pic.twitter.com/2IfJgmIcpm Reality (@realityuk_) January 28, 2025From the video above, it appears that the rewards are earned by trading in your skulls, which are earned through eliminations in Multiplayer, Zombies, and eliminating players and opening caches in Warzone. You can earn more skulls for eliminating enemies with explosive or fire damage, so look out for rockets and molotovs flying your way!

How key interface decisions are shaping the next era of human-computer interactionMade with Midjourney.Interface designers are navigating uncharted territory.For the first time in over a decade, were facing a truly greenfield space in user experience design. Theres no playbook, no established patterns to fall back on. Even the frontier AI labs are learning through experimentation, watching to see what resonates as they introduce new ways to interact.This moment reminds me of the dawn of touch-based mobile interfaces, when designers were actively inventing the interaction patterns we now take for granted. Just as those early iOS and Android design choices shaped an era of mobile computing, todays breakthroughs are defining how well collaborate with AI for years tocome.Its fascinating to watch these design choices ripple across the ecosystem in real-time. When something works, competitors rush to adopt itnot out of laziness, but because were all collectively discovering what makes sense in this new paradigm.In this wild-west moment, new dominant patterns are emerging. Today, I want to highlight the breakthroughs that have captured my imagination the mostthe design choices shaping our collective understanding of AI interaction. Some of these are obvious now, but each represented a crucial moment of discovery, a successful experiment that helped us better understand how humans and AI might work together.By studying these influential patterns, we can move beyond copying what works to shaping where AI interfaces gonext.The BreakthroughsEarly ChatGPT on top. The dev playground that preceded itbelow.1. The Conversational Paradigm (ChatGPT)Key Insight: Humans already know how to express complex ideas through conversationwhy make them learn something else?Impact: Established conversation as the fundamental paradigm for human-AI interactionThe chat interface is so ubiquitous now we barely think about it, but its the breakthrough that launched us into our current era. GPT had already been available in OpenAIs developer console, but that interface didnt resonate with a wide audience. It looked and felt more like any other dev tool. I remember playing around with it and being impressed, but it didnt capture my imagination.The decision to shift that underlying technology into a conversational format made all the difference. Whats interesting is how little the company itself probably thought of this change. I mean, they named it ChatGPT for crying out loudnot exactly the brand name youd pick if you thought you were making a revolutionary consumer product. But it proved to be the single most important design choice of this generation. The chat interface has since been copied far and wide, influencing virtually every consumer AI tool that followed.I used to think that the chat interface would eventually fade, but I dont anymore. This entire wave of generative AI tools is built around natural language at the core and conversation is the central mechanic for sharing ideas with language. Clunky chatbots will evolve, but conversation will persist as a foundational paradigm.While minimal in terms of UI, citations were a bigstep.2. Source Transparency (Perplexity)Key Insight: Without seeing sources, users cant validate AI responses forresearchImpact: Set new expectations for verifiable AI outputs in search and researchtoolsOnce people started using ChatGPT frequently, common complaints emerged around the lack of sources. While GPT could generate responses based on its massive training data, there was no way to understand where that information came from, making it difficult to use for legitimate research.Perplexity changed the game by introducing real-time citations for its AI responses, making its answers traceable and verifiable. This feature has since been heavily copied, including by OpenAI with its web search integration in ChatGPT. It addressed a fundamental trust issue: users wanted not just answers, but confidence in where those answers camefrom.This breakthrough was essential for addressing peoples concerns about using AI as a new form of search engine, but the reality is that AI does much more. LLMs can enhance question-answer style tools like Perplexity, but they also open the door to entirely new creative workflows.Conversation drives creative outputs with Artifacts3. Creative Integration (Claude Artifacts)Key Insight: Conversation can do more than generate textit can drive the creation of structured, reusableassetsImpact: Enabled new creative workflows where dialogue produces tangibleoutputsUsing artifacts was the first time I felt like I was actively creating something with AI rather than just having a conversation. My previous chats with ChatGPT and Claude had been valuable for ideation, and Perplexity had been useful for research, but artifacts gave me that a-ha momentI could start my creative workflow with a conversation and translate the best parts into tangible outputs I could export and reuse later. We still have a ways to go to make it easy to continue your workflow after creating an asset with this dialogue-based interaction loop, but were moving in that direction.For me, Artifacts proved AI collaboration would be the core of a new creative workflow, shifting my expected interaction model: instead of AI being a supporting tool, the dialogue with Claude became the core mechanic, generating creative output we refined together. AI wasnt just my assistant or copilotit was increasingly in the driversseat.Dictation input on ChatGPT iOSapp4. Natural Interaction (VoiceInput)Key Insight: Speaking allows for richer, more natural expression compared totypingImpact: Reduced friction for providing detailed context and exploring ideas withAIA lot of people are still overlooking voice as an input method. I think we have collective disbelief that it can work, thanks to a generation of mostly incompetent voice assistants (Im looking at you, Siri). But the reality is that AI transcription is very goodnow.Voice input is crucial because it allows you to actually use natural language. We forget, but as soon as we go to write anything down, we start to edit ourselves. Speaking out loud allows your brain to tap into its full improvisational creativity. This output provides much richer context to the LLMwhich is exactly what it thrives on. I think people get self-conscious or worry about seeing the messiness of real spoken language in text (all the umms and ahhs, for instance). But I can tell you from experience that current LLMs dont care about that. They see past it and even filter out a lot ofit.What youre left with is a much more natural creative ideation flow that gets captured and interpreted quickly and thoroughly by the AI. Im very bullish on dictation as a central creative skill for the next generation. Start practicing it today because it does take some time to get used to if youre new to it like Iwas.Deep integration into existing coding workflows ispowerful5. Workflow Integration (CursorIDE)Key Insight: Deeply embedding AI can supercharge where people alreadyworkImpact: Transformed code editors into AI-powered creative environmentsCursor brought the AI-led creative workflow I first experienced with Claude artifacts directly into the context of my existing codebases. Some of its features felt like no-brainersof course an IDE should do this kind of moments (like its powerful tab-to-complete feature).While I was a professional UI developer earlier in my career, I hadnt written code regularly for years until picking up Cursor. Getting back into it was always challenging because Id get stuck on new syntax or unfamiliar framework features. Tools like Cursor help sidestep many of those blockers. For example, it can be overwhelming when you first open an existing codebase because you dont know whats available or where to find it. With Cursor, I can ask detailed questions about whats going on and any code Im unsure about and get answersquickly.Working with Cursor also reinforced for me how powerful it is to have AI reading and writing directly to your file system. My work with Claude is great, but always requires an additional step to get the output out of Claude and into whatever platform I want to pick it up with later. With tools like Cursor, the output is immediately available in its final destination which makes the workflow muchtighter.The Grok button gives me instantcontext.6. Ambient Assistance (Grok Button onX)Key Insight: Users need AI help most at the moment they encounter something they dont understandImpact: Made contextual AI assistance instantly accessible alongside contentThe usefulness of the Grok button took me by surprise. Theres so much content flowing through the X feed that I regularly feel like I dont have the right context to fully understand a given post. The direct integration of the Grok AI button at the content level gives me one-click context for real-time interpretation of the information Im being bombarded with online. Whether its a meme, an article headline, or anything else, its very useful to be able to call upon the AI assistant to help me interpret what Imseeing.I think this kind of assistance will become more important as the content we encounter online is increasingly up for interpretation (is this AI generated? who published it? what are their biases? how are they trying to influence me?).This is still new and, like many things in the X platform, the design execution leaves something to be desired. But I quickly found myself wishing for this kind of ambient give me more context button on other sites I use around the web. Eventually, it feels like OS level assistants (Gemini, Siri, etc) will deliver this functionality, but the Grok button is a good example of how valuable ambient assistance can be when integrated well.DeepSeek shows the thinking that leads to itsresponse7. Process Transparency (Deepseek)Key Insight: Showing how AI reaches its conclusions builds user confidence and understandingImpact: Humanized AI responses by making machine reasoning visible and relatableThe most recent entrant to this list is Deepseek, which blew up the internet recently with the release of its R1 reasoning model. While it wasnt the first reasoning model to market, it made a critical design choice that fundamentally changed the experience for many people: it exposed the models thinking.This caught peoples attention because it shows how the machine arrives at its answer, and the language it uses in its thoughts looks an awful lot like what a person would say or feel. This visibility helps build trust in the output as users can verify whether the thought process makes sense. Another side effect is that there might be useful ideas in the reasoning itselflike maybe an idea that came up in the middle was interesting and worthy of further exploration on itsown.It reminds me of the importance of progress bars in the last generation of web apps. If an interaction happens instantly, it can feel jarring. But if it happens slowly without any indication, people will wonder if its working or broken. The progress bar helps smooth that out by helping users understand that the machine is working. Showing the AIs reasoning feels similarit reinforces that the model is indeed working. Going forward, I dont think exposing model reasoning upfront will be necessary, but it should at least be clearly accessible so users can follow along if theychoose.Leveraging Discords UI meant Midjourney could postpone creating theirown.8. Interface Deferral (Midjourney)Key Insight: Getting the core technology right matters more than having a polished interfaceImpact: Demonstrated how focusing on capability first leads to better informed interface decisionsSo much of the design conversation focuses on visual interfaces that it makes Midjourney all the more interesting. The companys choice to avoid building a custom UI in its early days and instead leverage Discord is fascinating and strategic. Even though Midjourney is a tool for visual creators, the companys core product is the tech that makes the visuals possible. That is the engine for everything else. If it wasnt excellent, people wouldnt care whether or not they had a web interface.While Midjourney now has a web UI, choosing to avoid custom UI initially allowed them to focus on the core capability of the model over the interface. Starting in Discord controlled the demand for the product by putting it in an environment where many people who werent early adopters simply wouldnt go (myself included). It also provided super-powered community-based feedback loops that enabled highly informed product decision-making.So, depending on the kind of AI youre creating, Midjourney serves as a reminder that choosing not to build a custom UI can itself be a strategic designchoice.Final ThoughtsThese eight breakthroughs arent just clever UI decisionstheyre the first chapters in a new story about how humans and machines work together. Each represents a moment when someone dared to experiment, to try something unproven, and found a pattern that resonated.From ChatGPT making AI feel conversational, to Claude turning dialogue into creation, to Deepseek showing us how machines thinkwere watching the rapid evolution of a new creative medium. Even Midjourneys choice to avoid building a custom UI reminds us that everything we thought we knew about software design is up for reinterpretation.The pace of innovation isnt slowing down. If anything, its accelerating. But thats what makes this moment so exciting: were not just observers, were participants. Every designer, developer, and creator working with AI today has the chance to contribute to this emerging language of human-AI interaction.The initial building blocks are on the table. The question isnt just What will you build with them? but What new blocks and patterns will you discover?Id love to hear which breakthroughs have captured your imagination or what patterns youre seeing emerge. Your insights might just shape the next chapter of thisstory.If you enjoyed this post, consider sharing it, subscribing to my newsletter, or following me on social media: X, LinkedIn.8 design breakthroughs defining AIs future was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Understanding next-gen color space that makes color scaling easier and future-proofs your designsystemLast week, TailwindCSS released their v4 version with revamped color tokens using OKLCH. I forsee more web devs are going to adopt OKLCH as the new standard for color tokens. This might sound very technical, but its actually a significant change UI/UX designer should be aware of. With major browsers now reaching 93.1% adoption rate, OKLCH is on track to be the new standard that bridges design and development.Why should designers care aboutOKLCH?Most designers are familiar with RGB and HSL color spaces, but OKLCH is a new way of thinking about color. Heres an example: Traditionally, RGB use hexcodes (e.g. #0077CC), which are not easy to understand for humans. HSL is a more human-readable format (e.g. hsl(205deg, 100%, 40%, 1) for the same color), but lightness in HSL have different contrast in different hues, ergo it's not perfect with accessibility issues.OKLCH is a new system that solves this by offering a color space thats closer to how we actually perceive colors with better ergonomics in design and development experience. It stands for Oklab Lightness, Chroma, and Hue, and its written as oklch(56.01% 0.1577 249.8 /50%).3D render & syntax of OKLCH color space, illustration render from OKLCH.comAdditionally, have I mentioned that OKLCH supports a wider range of colors with P3 compatibility? It means 30% more new colors that you can use that are humanly perceivable compared to RGB. There are more colors to choose from for yourpalette.Applying OKLCH in a designsystemThink about the last time you tried to create a consistent color scale for your design system. With RGB or HSL, increasing brightness often leads to washed-out colors, and its very time-consuming to tweak color for both light and dark mode, while maintaining accessible color contrast. OKLCHs perceptual uniformity ensures that color transitions feel natural. By deducting lightness and chroma without changing the hue. Its way easier to finetune the desired color scale. The value corresponds to how bright and how saturated we perceive the color, unlike HSL where yellow appears brighter than blue at the same lightness value.By doing so, OKLCH also means devs can calculate color scale more efficiently by defining fewer color tokens. For example, in disabled or hover state, you can simply set CSS calculating function oklch(from var(--color-blue) calc(l/2 +.2) c h); to darken the color. To explain this example in plain text, it means we're taking the lightness value of the defined blue variable, and then divide it by 2, and then add 20% to it, and then use the same chroma and hue value to calculate the newcolor.OK, so what are we waiting for, and why are we still usingRGB?While modern browsers have embraced OKLCH with 93% adoption (industry standard is 98%), native app frameworks are still playing catch-up. This creates a fragmented ecosystem where web applications can leverage OKLCHs benefits, but native apps remain falling behind with RGB & HSL. This poses a challenge for designers to maintain consistency across platforms.While flagship smartphones received P3 color gamut support, offering richer color reproduction. Majority of home-use desktop monitors still only support sRGB color space by default. Only professional monitors support wider color gamuts. This gap means lower ROI for brands to invest in updating their color where only a few users can see the difference.Even design tools like Figma, Sketch have not natively supported OKLCH yet. Third-party plugins are required to convert OKLCH toRGB.Comprehensive color picker of OKLCH, with compatible color gamut range visualisedLooking forwardWith great backward compatibility in modern CSS, You can still start using OKLCH today given all the mentioned limitation, as long as you as you set RGB as fallback. This will ensure widest adoption without breaking old devices and technologies. For designers getting started with OKLCH, I recommend experimenting with the color space in Chrome DevTools or color picker first, understand how OKLCH values translate to visual colors, making it easier to incorporate into your design processlater.With all being said, OKLCH is still subjectively better and I believe its on track to be the new color standard that bridges design and development. Let me know what youthink!ResourcesTailwindCSS v4 DocumentationOKLCH Color PickerToolOKLCH Color Variations FigmaPluginOriginally published at https://desktopofsamuel.com on February 1,2025.OKLCH, explained for designers was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Growing up, I was obsessed with helping my mom cook. Though she would dabble in making Italian food or try out popular boxed ingredients of the time, most nights featured what she knew bestgiant pots of Thai comfort fare and heaping mounds of jasmine rice. My childhood of ad hoc cooking lessons taught me two things: Jasmine rice goes with everything, and anything can taste good with the help of one of five bottled Asian sauces. I'll assume you have the rice covered, so let me tell you about these sauces.Fish sauce This sauce gives you the most flavor bang for your buck. The thin, reddish-brown liquid is made by fermenting small fish, like anchovies, with salt for up to two years. The juice extracted from the mixture is a pungent sauce that brings a blast of umami to any and everything it touches. Add a few drops to fill out the flavor profile of your stir fry, or use it as a major ingredient, like in Thai som tum salad. For fish sauce newbies, just add a few drops to a hearty dish with many components. Youll notice a difference in flavor, but you wont be overwhelmed by fishy flavor. I dont consider myself much of a fish-head, and this sauce really does taste like fermented fish, but somehow it just works. You can use fish sauce during cooking or as a finishing sauce while eating. I like to add a few dashes to hamburger meat, or make a nam jim with chili peppers and sliced garlic to drizzle it over eggs and rice; and Claire likes to use it to funk up butter, tuna, and chili.Whichever fish sauce you find will be the best one, but if you have a choice, I like: Squid Brand Fish SauceOyster sauceThe name might include another sea-faring friend, but oyster sauce is entirely different from fish sauce. There are a few sauces that might be described as oyster sauce, but in this case Im talking about a dark brown sauce thats so thick its almost gelatinous. Oyster sauce is often made with oyster extracts, soy sauce, and thickeners, and is both sweet and salty. Add a tablespoon of oyster sauce to deepen the flavors of a dish, or use a few tablespoons as the primary ingredient of a sweet and savory sauce. I add oyster sauce to beef stews in the winter, and use it to build the quintessential sticky glaze for chicken pad see ew.My favorite oyster sauce: Mae Krua Oyster Sauce I usually use a combination of two or three sauces in a noodle stir-fry like this one. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Mushroom soy sauce It might be easy to box-in soy sauce as a mere salty condiment, but this liquid gold is as nuanced as wine. I usually keep at least three different types of soy sauce on hand, because they all provide something different. And I need them. All of them. Mushroom soy sauce can range from thin and medium-brown in color, to slightly viscous and nearly black. Mushroom soy sauce is made using dried black mushrooms and a light soy sauce, and though it doesnt taste exactly like the fungi, it does taste notably earthier than standard soy sauce. I use light brown mushroom soy sauce rather liberally in dishes, or as a replacement for regular soy sauce. If Im making a pot of turkey chili and looking for a salty, earthy flavor, Ill splash this in to add some depth to the tomato base.My fridge houses: Dek Som Boon, also called Healthy Boy Brand Mushroom Soy SauceBlack mushroom soy sauceSometimes, if youre adding fish sauce and regular soy sauce to a dish already, you dont necessarily need another salty component. A teaspoon of black mushroom soy sauce, however, gives an entire stir fry a beautiful dark brown color with a touch of sweet, earthy umami, and much less salt. This type of soy sauce still uses dried black mushrooms for added flavor, but the mushroom extracts are added to dark soy sauce, instead of a light one. Dark soy sauce is usually aged longer than the light variety, and some bottles might even include molasses. I like Pearl River Bridge superior black mushroom soy sauce for its dark color and sweet flavor. I splash it (lightly!) into my fried rice, along with regular soy sauce and Golden Mountain Sauce.My go-to: Pearl River Bridge mushroom flavored superior black soy sauceGolden Mountain SauceThe four products Ive mentioned so far are types of sauces, and you could explore different brands to find your favorite, but Golden Mountain Sauce is a brand of very special seasoning sauce. The ingredient list consists of soybean sauce, made from soybeans, corn, water, sugar, and salt. The flavor is salty, malty, savory, and ever-so-slightly sweet. Its incredibly flavorful, and its my favorite all-purpose sauce by a long shot. There's just something about it that tastes like nothing else around. It's perfect dashed upon leftover rice with an egg. (A little dose will do it, but when I was a kid I had to make sure every grain of rice had a pool of this sauce around it.)Golden Mountain Sauce is great in stir fries, as a dipping sauce for dumplings, and is an exceptional partner for eggs, but you can sprinkle it over anything to improve the flavor. If you cant find Golden Mountain Sauce, you can try the very similar Maggi Seasoning, but keep your eyes peeled for the real deal with a green and yellow label at your local Asian grocery stores.Or you could order it, of course: Golden Mountain Sauce

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Soon after Nvidia's new RTX 5080 and 5090 gaming GPUs went up for sale last week, they sold out pretty quicklywhich shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has tried to buy one of its graphics cards before.According to PC parts seller Newegg, the companys stock sold out within minutes, and none of the big-name retailers Ive checked today have cards available. While that might sound like a success on Nvidias part, consumers and reviewers alike are responding to the short supply with ire, accusing Nvidia of a paper launch, a term for when a company only releases enough units to say that a product released on schedule, without actually making it readily available.Starting at $999 for the 5080, these products were always going to be for a premium market, but buying them now can mean going through resellers, which could cost you twice as much and means supporting the same scalpers that make stock so hard to find in the first place.Luckily, there are still a few steps you can take to get a new Nvidia graphics card through official means, although it will take some trial and error. But with enough diligence, you can be sure to get in line for a new card as soon as stock opens up.Sign up for notifications Credit: Best Buy Its boring, I know, but major retailers including Newegg, Best Buy, Amazon, and B&H offer the opportunity to sign up for stock notifications when a product is in limited supply. (Youll usually see this to the right of or underneath a grayed out buy button on the product page.) These will often be incorporated into a wish list feature, so you can quickly check in on all of your desired products and keep track of themuseful if you have a specific PC build in mind.Try visiting your local MicrocenterMicrocenter is a popular electronics store that sets itself apart by offering the majority of its goods only in-store. Currently, its stock is as sold out as everyone elses, although a big banner at the top of the stores website says its working hard to restock as soon as possible.Shopping at your local Microcenter drastically reduces your competition: rather than having to compete with the entire world, you only have to compete with your local community. Even better, you can still look products up online to ensure stock is available before making the trek to the brick-and-mortar location. Simply visit the product page, input your store (assuming your cookies dont tip off your location for you), and youll know before visiting whether your visit will be fruitful. Some products will also let you reserve a unit for in-store pickup before arriving, although for new GPUs, Microcenter is more likely to take a first-come, first-served mentality.Follow the right social media accountsGetting notifications when a product comes into stock is well and good, but ideally, youre getting prepped to click the buy button well before its even available. Thats where industry insiders come into account.These are social media users who, through protected sources, sometimes know when sales happen before they go live. There are entire publications and newsletters dedicated to this, although you sometimes have to use your best judgment when knowing who to believe.My favorite account for this purpose, personally, is @Wario64 on X and Bluesky. Down-to-earth with a good (but not overbearing) sense of humor, they havent let me down yet. In-Stock-Alerts-US has also proven reliable in the past, as has journalist Matt Swider. Unfortunately, many accounts that have been useful in the past have since stopped updating.Alternatively, you can also use a stock tracking website like NowInStock.net or TrackaLacker to track stock across various storefronts.Avoid resellers whenever possibleGoing through the above process might seem annoying, but trust me, buying through a reseller is only going to make things worse for everyone. Yes, eBay is where youll find the most stock, but its also going to cost you way more than going through official sources, and theres no guarantee that youll end up getting the real deal, or a GPU that hasnt been used.That said, when it comes to GPUs, Amazon can be as bad as eBay. Third-party sellers are abundant there, and it can be easy to confuse a legit seller with one that's a little more dubious. If you want to go through Amazon, be sure to check the Sold by tag underneath the buy button before you add anything to your cart. That will tell you who you're actually buying the product from.Just buy a pre-built PC Credit: Maingear It might sound like sacrilege to a hardcore PC builder, but if youre looking to get your hands on a new GPU as soon as possible, it can be easier to bite the bullet and go with a pre-built model. Thats because manufacturers like Maingear and Cyberpower often get special stock earmarked for them, and because their PCs are customizable, more expensive than a GPU alone, and are just all-around harder to stack in a warehouse somewhere, theyre less attractive to scalpers.Youll still pay a premium with this route, but youll get a whole PC alongside your GPU, plus save yourself the labor of construction. And if you price it right, you might actually still save money over what youd pay for a resold card alone.