Tara Chklovski has spent much of her career inspiring young women to take on some of the worlds biggest challenges using technology.The founder and CEO of education nonprofit Technovation joined the AI Podcast in 2019 to discuss the AI Family Challenge. Now, she returns to explain how inclusive AI makes the world a better and, crucially, less boringplace.In this episode of the NVIDIA AI Podcast, Chklovski and Anshita Saini, a Technovation alumna and member of the technical staff at OpenAI, explore how the nonprofit empowers girls worldwide through technology education.They discuss the organizations growth from its early days to its current focus on AI education and real-world problem-solving.Anshita Saini speaking at the Technovation World Summit event.In addition, Saini shares her journey from creating an app that helped combat a vaping crisis at her high school, to her first exposure to AI, through to her current role working on ChatGPT. She also talks about Wiser AI, an initiative she recently founded to support women leaders and other underrepresented voices in artificial intelligence.The AI Podcast Tara Chklovksi, Anshita Saini on Technovation Pioneering AI Education for Innovation Episode 245Technovation is preparing the next generation of female leaders in AI and technology. Learn about the opportunity to mentor a team of girls for the 2025 season.And learn more about the latest technological advancements by registering for NVIDIA GTC, the conference for the era of AI, taking place March 17-21.Time Stamps2:21 Recognizing AIs revolutionary potential in 2016.5:39 Technovations pioneering approach to incorporating ChatGPT in education.12:17 Saini builds an app through Technovation that addressed a real problem at her high school.29:12 The importance of having women represented on software development teams.You Might Also LikeNVIDIAs Louis Stewart on How AI Is Shaping Workforce DevelopmentLouis Stewart, head of strategic initiatives for NVIDIAs global developer ecosystem, discusses why workforce development is crucial for maximizing AI benefits. He emphasizes the importance of AI education, inclusivity and public-private partnerships in preparing the global workforce for the future. Engaging with AI tools and understanding their impact on the workforce landscape is vital to ensuring these changes benefit everyone.Currents of Change: ITIFs Daniel Castro on Energy-Efficient AI and Climate ChangeAI is everywhere. So, too, are concerns about advanced technologys environmental impact. Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and director of its Center for Data Innovation, discusses his AI energy use report that addresses misconceptions about AIs energy consumption. He also talks about the need for continued development of energy-efficient technology.How AI Can Enhance Disability Inclusion and EducationU.S. Special Advisor on International Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State Sara Minkara and Timothy Shriver, chairman of the board of Special Olympics, discuss AIs potential to enhance disability inclusion and education. They discuss the need to hear voices from the disability community in conversations about AI development and policy. They also cover why building an inclusive future is good for societys collective cultural, financial and social well-being.Subscribe to the AI PodcastGet the AI Podcast through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Google Play, Castbox, DoggCatcher, Overcast, PlayerFM, Pocket Casts, Podbay, PodBean, PodCruncher, PodKicker, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher and TuneIn.

By TREVOR HOGGImages YT/S,D courtesy of GKIDS.Capturing the spirit of the manga through an off-the-wall hybrid of aliens, ykai [supernatural beings and phenomena in Japanese folklore] and high school romance is the Crunchyroll, Netflix and GKIDS anime series Dan Da Dan. The original ink drawings of Yukinobu Tatsu have been reinterpreted by director Fga Yamashiro and Science SARU with a color palette that ranges from monochromatic to muted pastels depending on the theme of the scene in question. The story revolves around a dare between two classmates resulting in one becoming possessed by an evil spirit while the other is abducted by intergalactic beings that accidentally unlock her psychic abilities. The unlikely duo face a number of adventures together that cause them to utilize their newly acquired powers and in the process of doing so fall in love.There are only so many colors in the world. It is intense when it comes down to Dan Da Dan because when you can put one color on the screen, your options suddenly become limited. The approach right now is to go full throttle every time, and well see!Sophie Li, Color Script Artist, Science SARUColor Designer Satoshi Hashimoto and director Fga Yamashiro shared an understanding as to what the base colors should be for each of the characters appearing in the 12 episodes.Handling the color design were Satoshi Hashimoto and Makiho Kondo, with the former working on projects such as Spy x Family, Death Note and Paprika. First of all, I want to talk about briefly the pipeline order in Japanese animation, states Satoshi Hashimoto, Color Designer at Science SARU. Basically, what happens is that the colorists, background artists and animators are separated. Then, as things go, first of all the director decides the direction he wants to go in, and he orders the backgrounds based on that. He gets those backgrounds back, then he brings them to us and the color team, and talks about what he wants to do. Then, we make the colors using those backgrounds, based on his and our own ideas.Working on a subliminal level is the color script. Its more like music, notes Sophie Li, Color Script Artist at Science SARU. Its underlying but conveys emotion, an energy and sometimes story through color. When I start thinking about the colors for a specific show, what is important is to try to understand the tone of the project and the directors vision; whatever references they are using and how the color in those references work and try to apply the logic into this new show that were making. Thats how color script works. It also involves a lot of figuring out light directions. Sometimes, light and dark values in a scene also comes in. When I do the color script, I try to lead with the emotion of the scene. I want the audience to know where we are in the story, and they will remember what the color combination is on the screen. After watching the show, they will know this is the beginning, middle and end of the fight. It progresses clearly, which is something I hope to achieve in the color script.A graphic panel recreated from the original manga that has been reinterpreted with color.Its more like music. [The color script] is underlying but conveys emotion, an energy and sometimes story through color. When I start thinking about the colors for a specific show, what is important is to try to understand the tone of the project and the directors vision; whatever references they are using and how the color in those references work, and try to apply the logic into this new show that were making. Thats how color script works.Sophie Li, Color Script Artist, Science SARUDetermining the color palette for each scene is whether the adversary is an alien, ykai or combination of the two. I have been with this production since pre-production, so when we were figuring out the direction of the series, I was doing things like image boards, Hashimoto explains. Even at the early stages, the director had a strong idea as to what he wanted to do with the color direction for the ykai and aliens. The idea has always been that the ykai, for example, Turbo Granny or Acrobatic Silky, are warm colors, like a reddish or pinkish for the characters in question. Whereas, the aliens are the opposite to that. They have colder colors to them; for example, the Serpo aliens that you see in the first episode are bluish. When Okarun is cursed by Turbo Granny, he gets her red color, and you can see his hair and the tips of his cloths turn partially red. Those were all requests from the director. A retro aesthetic was adopted for the everyday scenes because of the frequent references to Japanese pop culture in the manga. A lot of Japanese animation nowadays is focused on being flashy, vivid and high saturation all of the time. But this time we wanted to go with a slightly less saturated, more relaxed look for the screen and save that vivid high-saturation, more modern anime look for the action scenes to make them pop.Cool colors were used to distinguish the alien characters, with blue designated for the Serpo.Dan Da Dan is crazy! laughs Li. It conveys so many genres. It was so free even though there were references given by the director, like for his fight scene, which was inspired by a particular fight in Ultraman. Its important to put myself back in the box and say, This is heavily influenced by older filming techniques and that kind of feeling. I think about it as if Im using a real lightbulb somewhere in the scene and non-digital older colors, too. A lot of time was spent developing the color language for Episode 101. When the color is dyeing the whole scene, I try to use lighting to balance it out so you know Momo is under this spotlight and whats happening. When its a running around sequence, the color balance is always hard to keep, like Episode 104 with the big fight with the crab, Li says.When Momo unlocks her psychic powers, she is given the theme color of emerald green.Some of the scenes look like actual ink drawings taken from the manga, such as the Fleetwood Monster fight, and this applies to some of the other colors that we use as well, especially for black and white where it gets a lot harder to depict depth, notes Makiho Kondo, Color Designer at Science SARU. The characters are put into a similar tone, and you have to rely on brightness. It was difficult to construct the screen in a way that even with those colors, it would still have the depth the director was looking for. We ended up having a lot of back and forth with him where he would say, We could make this darker. We can make this whiter or brighter. We were doing a lot of individual smaller changes to make sure that we felt the level of depth between the characters or between the characters and the background. Then, the ideas about the insert colors, for example, the red in the scene when Okarun uses his power, and in his hair and face lines; director Yamashiro was particular about having that stand out in any scene he used it in. The black and white was particularly good for helping us have the red stand out.The emerald green of Momo and red of Turbo Granny-possessed Okarun collide during the alien abduction sequence in Episode 101.Tones of gray are explored for the transformed skin of Okarun, while different shades of brown are considered for the eyes of Momo.Each of the transformed states of Okarun had to be color designed, with red highlights a common throughline.When Momo and Okarun defeat Turbo Granny, all the spirits of the deceased girls that have fused with her are unleashed like a watercolor painting.The characters have their colors, and we had to take into account. For example, the auras; if there is going to be effects placed on this in compositing, how is that going to change the color? What are shadows going to look like? A lot of it was working with both the director and compositing team to decide on colors that will still look good even placed under compositing effects or pushed in a different direction. There was a lot of trial and error back and forth to make sure that the final result was what everyone was looking for.Satoshi Hashimoto, Color Designer, Science SARUThe color treatment of effects was determined by the scene itself. For the regular type of effects, like explosions in normal scenes, we would go with a baseline normal color, Hashimoto remarks. But we paid a lot of attention to how the character effects should be influenced by the image colors that a character has. For example, Okarun is using some sort of power, and we flash some red in there. Another big one is Momos psychic power; we were using her specific colors for that as well. Careful attention had to show how digital augmentation would impact the desired color. The characters have their colors, and we had to take into account, Hashimoto states. For example, the auras; if there is going to be effects placed on this in compositing, how is that going to change the color? What are shadows going to look like? A lot of it was working with both the director and compositing team to decide on colors that will still look good even placed under compositing effects or pushed in a different direction. There was a lot of trial and error back and forth to make sure that the final result was what everyone was looking for.A color-inverted environment was created to emphasize the growing psychic powers of Momo.To understand the motivations of characters, backstories are a significant part of the storytelling, and nothing is more tragic than what led to the existence of Acrobatic Silky. Of course, we had a color script for that which helped to decide the overall direction, Hashimoto explains. The way I was thinking about it was that we have the action scenes, and the strong pink was based on grudges Acrobatic Silky was holding; however, when we were dealing with the mother, I wanted to represent the free parts of her life, the times she was spending with her daughter and her truer personality by using the opposite color to pink, which in this case would be a blue. I wanted to create a gap between her true feelings and sadness; for example, her life with her daughter versus the pink you see during the action scenes when she becomes a monster.When Turbo Granny is winning during the fight with the Serpo aliens, her red color becomes more vibrant and dominates the frame.Piecing together the frames when the psychic powers of Momo are awakened, as well as a black-and-white moment from the Fleetwood Monster fight.The opening title sequence provided an opportunity to experiment with the colors free from the storytelling.The main purpose of the opening title sequences is to be fun to watch and make the viewer interested in finding out what happens next.The spirit of Turbo Granny gets transferred into a doll that poses with Aira and Jiji, who both get possessed by ykai and inherit their abilities.Looming over the narrative are the missing testes of Okarun, which have been turned into golden balls by Turbo Granny and are desired by a number of opposing forces for different reasons.Color Script Artist Sophie Li was given the freedom to come up with the character closeup shots that begin the opening title sequence.The color script for when Okarun gets possessed by Turbo Granny in the tunnel and Momo gets abducted by the Serpo aliens, as well as the fight sequence that occurs when the two stories intersect.Black and white prevail when Momo uses her psychic powers to find and grab hold of Turbo Grannys aura. I had a strong idea already, Li recalls. It was more like making concept art. This particular shot was like x-ray vision and simplified lines that inverted the color. I was testing out how the grading of the hand works to make it simple. The main point of that sequence was to make it readable, and nothing matters besides her hands, which are her theme color of turquoise, and the color of the flame of each character. Everything else is black, grey and white lines; that remains consistent every time she uses her powers. A massive crab goes through different shades of red as it attempts to catch Okarun and Momo. I tried to think about the different elements and the part of the fight where you have to let your eyes rest a little bit. When the crab is boiled, it is more orange, and when Turbo Granny goes into the final form with the crab, it is more of a darker red. The progression shifts subtly in the show, but when I do the color script, it is more condensed.Each fight has its own theme color, with the Fleetwood Monster getting a black-and-white treatment, with the red associated with Okarun serving as an accent.During the crab chase, the color script reflects who has the upper hand at a particular point of the narrative.The color script for when Momo is using her psychic powers to find the whereabouts of Turbo Granny by locating her aura, which resembles a red flame.Reflecting all the Japanese pop culture references in the manga, a nostalgic retro feeling was adopted for the daily life scenes.Turbo Granny does not always retain the same red color; at times orange takes over depending on her mental state.Momo and Okarun during a moment in the black-and-white fight with the Fleetwood Monster in Episode 102.Emerald green is the theme color for Momo and is represented by her dangling earrings.Light and dark values are essential when directing the eye of the viewer, especially when a single color overpowers the frame.The typical vivid, high-saturation aesthetic prevalent in anime was avoided for the everyday moments.Pink was the theme color of Acrobatic Silky, with the black hair serving as reminder that she is an evil spirit.The backstory of Acrobatic Silky is tragic, and blue was used to contrast with her theme color of pink for the moments where she was a loving mother to her daughter.A dramatic moment occurs when Acrobatic Silky dances on a rooftop where the light is celestial.Adding to the drama of Acrobatic Silky fading away is the muted rusted, decayed background that resembles an abstract pastel sketch.Dan Da Dan has been both challenging and rewarding. There are only so many colors in the world, Li acknowledges. It is intense when it comes down to Dan Da Dan because when you can put one color on the screen, your options suddenly become limited. The approach right now is to go full throttle every time, and well see!

With Ryan Norths Squirrel Girl still standing as one of the greatest Marvel comics of this century, and with North in the midst of a lauded run on Fantastic Four, it feels like pigeonholing to describe him as the Dinosaur Comics guy. On the other hand, the Canadian writer who has also hit the New York Times bestseller list with prose books like a choose-your-own-adventure adaptation of Romeo and Juliet has kept the venerable webcomic going strong and steady at qwantz.com even as the other projects on his plate have gotten bigger and bigger. There are enough readers out there whove never connected the dots on his career that its worth drawing the line between his creative spheres.Also, sentences like The Dinosaur Comics guy is writing Marvels latest line-wide crossover event, One World Under Doom are simply irresistible.One World Under Doom is Norths first time at the helm of a major Marvel Comics crossover, and as typical for a writer who loves to experiment with form, its not a story about Doctor Doom taking over the world. Instead, Doctor Doom as North says, the best supervillain of all time has already taken over the globe by page one, much to the bafflement of Earths superheroes. The question raised by One World Under Doom #1 isnt so much How will the Avengers stop him? but Does a beleaguered world even want them to?Polygon sat down with North over video chat to talk about this classic superhero event comic, and discuss punch-em-ups, weird science solutions, and the dangerous political fantasy of What if there was one perfect person who could fix everything for us?This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.Polygon: In his late career, Doom co-creator Jack Kirby drew some sketches of the villain without his mask, which Doom insists that he wears because of a disfiguring science experiment gone wrong. Famously, Kirbys sketches depict him as merely having one little scar. What do you think is going on under Dooms mask?Ryan North: Under his mask? Oh, wow, starting with the hard questions.I always liked [Kirbys take]. To me, Doom is someone who has all these gifts, all these strengths. Hes smart, hes driven, hes brilliant, powerful. It was never enough. Hes never pleased. And I think the reason he is never pleased is because Reed Richards exists. I dont think Doom thinks hes smarter than him, but hes damn close. And it frustrates Doom that he cant prove once and for all that he is the better man here.So for me, you take that mask off I think its what Kirby drew. The perfect face with the one scar, the blemish that he just cant accept. If he could accept that blemish, he could accept Reed Richards, but he cant do either.Years ago, someone asked me, Hey, I dont know a ton about comics stuff, but whats the appeal of Doctor Doom? I was totally speechless. All I could think was, You have to read any comic with Doom in it. Hes perfect. If you boil the idea of supervillains down to a syrup, why is it Doom?So before I was writing Fantastic Four, or before I even knew I was writing Fantastic Four, I was working on a book called How To Take Over the World, which was nonfiction [about] supervillain schemes.In the intro to that book, I talk about Doctor Doom, and I say hes the best supervillain of all time. And the reason is that hes got all the powers of science, hes got all the powers of magic, and he dresses like a robot in a cape. Everything is peak. [Laughs] And, most impressively of all, he can speak in the third person and have it read as cool and not ridiculous.There are times when Doom starts talking about Doom in third person, and youre like, Oh crap, things are getting serious now that hes doing this. Everything just ties together with him, in this perfect bow of elegance and power and operatic beauty, almost? I cant think of anything I would change with him to make him better, which is great for a character and a character design.The simplest summary of the logline of One World Under Doom is Doctor Doom is taking over the world again, which is kind of a dog-bites-man story. How does this become a man bites dog story? Tell me about your twist.This is a story of Doctor Doom taking over the world, and it begins with him having taken over the world. Thats done. So the story is almost like dog bites car. Now that hes got it, whats he going to do with it, and how is he going to hold onto it? The first issue is basically him selling himself to the world, saying, Look, heres what Im doing. Heres why you should accept me.[The issue ends with] this woman repeating a slogan back to him and sort of giving that oh shit moment of This might be working. You get to see both Doom and the heroes working in this unfamiliar status quo where he has successfully done this, and theyre left going, Well, what now? This clearly cant stand. Hes Doctor Doom, this is not a good thing for the world. And then Doctor Doom saying, Hey, Im Doctor Doom, and this is definitely fine, and its definitely a great thing for the world.It is a story of power and politics, in the sense of politics being the art and science of negotiating with people, and trying to get them to do what you want them to do. Dooms never really been one for negotiation. Its a big story, in the sense that it is dealing with global events and big heroes running around doing stuff, but its also a story of Doctor Doom, personally, and getting to see him get what he wants. He doesnt want the world for altruistic reasons, of course, he wants to take over the world to show that hes the best guy to be in charge of the world. This is all, in the end, feeding his ego. And thats dangerous, but also powerful.Maybe this is me projecting, as an American, but it feels like youre asking questions about why people follow charismatic leaders.Thats not [just] an American thing! For me, I think that Doom is selling himself as a single leader who can do everything; this special little guy [laughs] whos going to solve all the problems.And thats a fantasy, right? Thats a fantasy of What if there was one perfect person who could come down and fix everything for us? And thats a dangerous fantasy, thats an anti-democratic fantasy. So in one sense, [One World Under Doom] is a story of a fascist leader trying to take things over, and succeeding in doing that. When you look at fascism as a political system, you have to see that its sold on that seductive fantasy of Heres a guy who can fix everything. This man alone can do it. Doom sees himself in that way. Hes the kind of guy whos like, Yes, OK, yes, that is fascism. But when Im doing it, its not fascism, its the actual best guy doing it, so its fine. [Laughs][One World Under Doom] is talking about world politics not in the sense of actual Whats Going on Today politics, but the idea of fascism versus more democratic approaches. You see a lot of that in history not so much in the present, where we thankfully do have a lot of democracies but going back a couple hundred years, where you have nations represented by kings and queens and individuals, and world politics was the relationships between these individuals and what they wanted to do.I consider you a guy who has a real knack for tie-in issues to events.[Laughs] Theyre hard!Your Squirrel Girl tie-in for War of the Realms and Fantastic Four tie-in for Blood Hunt come to mind the event tie-in comic is a tricky thing, and youve mastered it. Now that youve been on the other side of penning and organizing a big crossover event, do you feel like youve learned something new about the form?Yeah, thats exactly it. As a guy who has done tie-ins before, one thing I wanted to do here was have the whole story written well in advance, so when it came time to give the story to other artists and other writers, to be like, What do you want to do with this? It was less of, Yeah, Im thinking this might happen, and Im pretty sure around issue #8, well be here. Instead, I could go, Heres the script, heres exactly whats happening.Because for me, when Im doing a tie-in issue, what I care about is What is the status quo? Whats happening? Where are the characters? What can we do with this? Because then once you know what the world looks like, you can tell a story inside that world. With War of the Realms, it was OK, frost giants have taken over, theres some place for Squirrel Girl to operate there. In Blood Hunt, vampires have taken over. The challenge there was, Well, how can we tell a story with Mister Fantastic where he doesnt solve the problem? And the answer was, Hes trying to, but hes struggling with it because its magic, and hes bad at magic, and hes surprised when Doom solves the problem, which is a nice lead-in to where this is going.I just wanted to make sure that I had [One World Under Doom] fully written, so that for everyone else doing a tie-in on their side, it would be as easy as possible to say, Heres whats happening. What can we do with this? And I will say, Ive seen what people have planned for some of the tie-ins, and theres stuff there where Im like, I wish Id thought of that, thats so cool. If I hadnt already written these issues, I wouldve stolen that and put it in my book!As a Squirrel Girl fan, Im always delighted to see her in your wider Marvel books. Is that just about using a favorite character, or is there more to it?Oh yeah, shes going to show up again in One World Under Doom, and she has an important role to play. There was no way I was going to do a Marvel event and not put Squirrel Girl into it, because I love her. But also, I think whats so great about her is she is this really smart, intelligent woman, and she sees through baloney in a way that I think is really useful. She brings a fresh voice to the table.So its not just like, Oh, Squirrel Girl is here because Ryan likes Squirrel Girl. Squirrel Girl is here and she has a cool role to play. Shes encountered [Doom] before, she knows what hes like. And it lets us have some really interesting discussions on the hero side about, like, What are we doing here? What is the correct thing to do here? What is the ethical thing to do here? Those are Squirrel Girl questions. Shes involved in those conversations.I wrote a piece recently about Todd Phillips Joker movies that challenged me to figure out what I considered immutable about a very mutable character. What do you think is immutable about Doctor Doom?I was going to answer that by saying that the Joker famously changes a lot. Youve got the goofy one, youve got the serious one, they did three Jokers for a time, just to bring that home. Doom, in his first appearance, sends the Thing back in time to steal Blackbeards gold. Hes got this archness to him that remains, I think. He can do big goofy stuff, but its serious because he is such a threat.I think his second appearance is him being blasted into space on an asteroid, and theyre like, Lets see if he survived. And he comes back, hes like, Yeah, obviously I survived, Im Doctor Doom! As much as you get a sense of who Reed is when he calls himself Mister Fantastic right off the bat, you get a sense of who Doom is when not only does he call himself Doctor Doom when he doesnt have a doctorate, he dresses like that. He is making a statement.So if youre asking whats the essential part of Doom, I think he has been very consistent throughout the years. He can be a little bit silly. He can be very serious. He can be both at the same time, but the consistent part for me, like, Whats the core of Doom? Its how he presents himself to the world and the way he talks about himself in the third person. And of course, ego, but a lot of characters have ego. Its what they do with it [that counts].

The Shadow Hunt event gives you the opportunity to join Nocturne in Black Ops 6.The Shadow Hunt event is tailored around Nocturne, an operator added in the Season 2 Battle Pass, and his organization of highly trained assassins. Players will need to complete his challenges to earn rewards like the TR2 Marksman Rifle, but when can you start the challenges?Heres when the Black Ops 6 Shadow Hunt event starts in your time zone and what you can expect from the event.What time does the Shadow Hunt event start in Black Ops 6The Shadow Hunt event will start on Thursday, Feb. 13, and run until Thursday, Feb. 20.Although there isnt an official start time for the event, previous Black Ops 6 events have started at 10 a.m. PST, so it stands to reason the Shadow Hunt event will start around the same time. Provided the update cadence is the same, heres when you can expect the Shadow Hunt event to start in your time zone: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 West Mainland Europe3 a.m. JST on Friday, Feb. 14 for Japan5 a.m. AEDT on Friday, Feb. 14 for the East Coast of AustraliaAnd well update this guide with the official times if and when developer Treyarch makes them available.What to expect in the Shadow Hunt eventThe Shadow Hunt event will feature seven rewards, including the TR2 Marksman Rifle and a Binary Trigger Fire Mod for the Tanto .22 SMG.Additionally, according to an X post by Realityuk, youll earn the usual cosmetics such as a spray, emblem, and XP token, but the best prizes are the Slipstream perk, Black Diamond Bayan operator skin, and the aforementioned Marksman Rifle and weapon mod.Shadow Hunt Event pic.twitter.com/OIg9qAYJFc Reality (@realityuk_) January 28, 2025As seen in the video above, youll need to complete six limited-time challenges in either Multiplayer, Zombies, or Warzone, witch each challenge having its own reward. The requirements to complete the challenge will vary depending on the mode youre playing, so youre free to play any mode of your choosing. To earn the ultimate prize, you need to unlock all six rewards, so finish those challenges as soon as possible!

In Lviv, Ukraine, the KM Home is an apartment that spans just over 1,000 square feet and is the private residence of designer Karina Mayer and architect Danylo Koshulynskyy, co-founders of the acclaimed interior studio KOSHULYNSKYY & MAYER. Rejecting the conventional developers layout, Mayer and Koshulynskyy embarked on a transformative journey to create a home tailored to their lifestyle. The original plan, which included a combined kitchen and living area and three cramped bedrooms, gave way to a more thoughtful configuration. The couple introduced two spacious bedrooms, dual dressing rooms, a practical laundry space, and two elegantly designed bathrooms. This layout not only optimizes space but also enhances daily living with an emphasis on comfort and efficiency.From the moment one enters the home, art takes center stage. The entrance is graced by Renaissance, an evocative piece by Ukrainian artist Andriy Voznytsky, crafted from coal. This striking artwork is highlighted by strategically placed ceiling lights, creating a dynamic interplay of shadows and textures. Another captivating piece, PORTAL by Lesya Panchyshyn, adorns the living area, illuminated thoughtfully to accentuate its vibrant details.The absence of corridors is a deliberate choice, eliminating unnecessary spaces and fostering a natural flow throughout the apartment. Another common challenge for those aspiring to create a truly modern home is the presence of unnecessary corridors, which often serve little purpose other than to collect decorative clutter and subtract valuable space from the main living areas. Thats why we eliminated all the corridors, says Mayer.The open-plan living room and kitchen serve as the heart of the home, designed to encourage both relaxation and social interaction. The kitchen exudes understated elegance with sleek eucalyptus wood panels, integrated Miele appliances, and a Calacatta marble dining table that effortlessly extends to accommodate more guests. A strategically placed block of marble supports the countertop giving it the illusion of floating while offering an unexpected design detail.The use of ceramic tiles throughout simplifies maintenance and supports underfloor heating, eliminating the need for traditional radiators. Eucalyptus veneer adds warmth and texture, seamlessly blending with the minimalist decor. Notably, Mayers decision to forgo curtains in the living room allows the natural landscape outside to become a living artwork, framed by uniquely angled windowsills.The primary bedroom is a serene retreat, complete with an en-suite bathroom and a private dressing room. The bathroom, reminiscent of luxury hotel suites, features glass partitions that balance privacy with openness. Highlights include a Rosso Imperiale marble sink and sophisticated fixtures from Hansgrohe and Catalano, while the guest bathroom showcases an illuminated Patagonia marble washbasin, adding a touch of refined glamour.A multifunctional room, which Mayer refers to as the room of uncertain function, currently serves as Koshulynskyys office but is designed to adapt easily into a nursery or additional living space as needed. This flexibility reflects the couples foresight in creating a home that evolves with them.Completed in just six and a half months, KM Home embodies the essence of modern minimalism, where every element serves a purpose, and every detail contributes to a cohesive environment thats for the soul.Karina Mayer, founder and designer of KOSHULYNSKYY & MAYERFor more information, visit kmdesignlab.com.Photography by Andriy Bezuglov.

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We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.There are no surprises with the Blink Video Doorbell camera. Blink is an established brand and the doorbell camera has been around since 2022. What might be surprising is how cheap it has become. You can get the Blink Video Doorbell and Sync Module 2 for $34.99 (originally $69.99) after a 50% discount, the lowest price it has been according to price tracking tools. Blink Video Doorbell and Sync Module 2 $34.99 at Amazon $69.99 Save $35.00 Get Deal Get Deal $34.99 at Amazon $69.99 Save $35.00 Blink is owned by Amazon, so it's no surprise to see the doorbell get a big discount on Amazon. The Blink Video Doorbell can be wireless and use batteries, which lasts up to two years (depending on how many triggers you get a day). You can also choose to wire it (if the battery seems annoying to you, you can always pay an electrician to wire it for you). And since it is owned by Amazon, it is compatible with Amazon Alexa, but no other competitors.It uses your phone as a chime bell, has two-way audio so that you can communicate with guests from your phone, and supports 1080p resolution and infrared night vision. You'll get a 180-degree field of view, so you can see your whole porch in the camera. Of course, you can also use the camera indoors if you want to. The Sync Module 2 is a hub that lets you control up to 10 Blink devices with your phone and use local storage for your video files instead of paying for cloud storage, but you'll need to buy a USB flash drive of up to 256 GB (sold separately). Keep in mind that you will still need a Blink subscription to use all of Blink's features (but it's not necessary). The Blink subscription plan starts at $30 a year for Blink Basic. You can read more about this camera and hub from PCMag's "good" review.

Breaking news: Apple has another update for you to install. While it seems like there's always a new update for us Apple users to install on our devices, this one is quite important to prioritize. That's because it's not a simple feature update, changing the software you're used to. Instead, it's a security patch, fixing issues with iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and other Apple OSes that, left unpatched, leaves you vulnerable to hacking. Security patches vs. software updatesSome platforms separate security patches and software updates as two distinct processes. Not Apple. Usually, the company couples security patches and software updates together, which creates some interesting situations. You can have a feature-filled software update that is also full of security patches, a feature-filled software update with few (or no) security patches, or a software update with few (or no) features, and any number of security patches. It's this latter category that this post will focus on exclusively. See, every now and then, Apple will discover a critical security vulnerability on its platforms. This isn't necessarily Apple's fault: Software inherently contains security vulnerabilities, and the goal is to discover these before bad actors do. However, whenever these security flaws do come to light, it's imperative to push them out to users as quick as possibleespecially if that flaw has already been used by bad actors.These are the times when you see software updates on your iPhone or Mac that look like a weirdly long string of numbersiOS 18.3.1, for example. iOS 18 is the big update, with all the keynote features; 0.3 is the minor update, that comes with some new features; and while it's possible a 0.0.1 update could come with new features, it usually denotes security patches and bug fixes. There is an exception to this rule: Apple's Rapid Security Responses. These are strictly security patchesnot feature updatesand are deployed when it's absolutely critical to patch a security flaw on customers' devices. You'll know when one of these hits your device, since it not only says "Security Response," but also includes an (a) to denote this isn't a standard update.This isn't a Security Response, though: This is an update, that just so happens to be a security patch. I knownot confusing at all.Apple's latest security patchOn Monday, Feb. 10, Apple dropped a series of updates for its devices. That includes iOS 18.3.1 for iPhones; iPadOS 18.3.1 for iPads, iPadOS 17.7.5 for older iPads, macOS Sequoia 15.3.1 for Macs, macOS Sonoma 14.7.4 for Macs running Sonoma, macOS Ventura 13.7.4 for Macs running Ventura, watchOS 11.3.1 for Apple Watches, and visionOS 2.3.1 for Apple Vision Pro.Curiously, out of all of these updates, only iOS and iPadOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 17.7.5 contain release notes. The rest are blank. However, we can pull from the notes Apple shared on these first two posts to see what's new. At this time, it's just one security patch: "Impact: A physical attack may disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals."USB Restricted Mode protects Apple devices from unknown wired peripherals. The idea is that if a bad actor tries to plug a malicious device into your Mac or iPhone, for example, the feature will block that device from connecting. The feature is configurable, so you can choose whether to allow all USB devices to connect to your Apple device, allow USB devices when your Apple device is unlocked, have your Apple device ask you whenever a new device connects, or have it ask you whenever any device connects.Regardless of your setting, it seems this latest flaw enables a bad actor to bypass the security feature entirely on a locked device, and potentially connect a malicious accessory to your Apple device. What makes this flaw particularly dangerous is that Apple confirmed that it is actively exploited in the wildmeaning there are actors out there abusing the flaw to attack Apple users. To protect yourself, make sure to install the latest security patch on all of your eligible Apple devices right now.How to install a security patch on your Apple deviceAgain, security patches like 18.3.1 are just software updates. As such, you can install these patches just as you would any other Apple update. On most Apple devices, you can head to Settings (System Settings for macOS) > General > Software Update, then follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the latest update.

My hand is cramping. Its not carpal tunnel or some other dubious reason thats causing the pain. Its an analog ache that is oddly satisfying in a nostalgic way. In the last few days, Ive held a pen and written more words for a much longer time than I have ever done in years. As I pushed myself to handwrite large parts of this review to spend more time with the 2024 Kindle Scribes stylus and note-taking tools, I started to feel a sensation I hadnt remembered since my teens. I often feel the urge to jot down thoughts and lists, but I never really wanted to spend longer than 15 minutes writing. And yet, Amazons new AI features for the Kindle Scribe seem to cater more to those who labor over essays or missives that they ultimately need to share with others. The Summarize and Refine tools for your notebooks, for example, can shorten and neaten up your scrawl so, I guess, you can send it to another person to read. Thats it, really. The other improvements to the Scribes writing experience are for scribbling on books, which Ill get to in a bit. Update, February 11 2025: Since this review was published in December, Amazon released new software in February 2025 that brings collapsible margins to the Kindle Scribe. Now that I've been able to evaluate that feature, as well as spend more time with the Scribe 2 and its competitors like the reMarkable Paper Pro, I am ready to assign a score, which you'll see below. For the most part, the new collapsible margins don't drastically affect my experience with the Kindle Scribe 2. As someone who mostly reads fiction and self-help books, I don't often find myself itching to scribble in the columns of a page. In the months since I published the review, the Scribe 2 has served me well as a general ereader that is a perfectly functional notebook. I actually found the feature that converts my handwriting into legible text more useful than I thought it would be, since I frequently write down my team's priorities and sending a cleaned-up version is more professional than passing along my scrawl. It also saves me some time as I don't have to retype every word. I do have to point out, though, that now that I have a reMarkable Paper Pro in for testing, it's clear the latter is the superior product for writing. reMarkable's software accommodates both handwritten and typed writing in the same document, and its app lets you edit those notes from your phone. It's everything I wanted the Scribe to do, and performs well enough that I am tempted to shell out the $3 a month to keep using it. Of course, if youre more of a reader who occasionally wants to mark up books,s ketch out some floorplans or make to-do lists, the Scribe 2 is better, thanks to Amazons huge library of titles. The rest of my original review follows below. Whats changed on the new Kindle Scribe As I said earlier, most of whats new on the Kindle Scribe is internal. On the outside, Amazon did tweak the bezels not in actual size but in colors, so that theres a white rectangle surrounding the screen, within a teal green column on the side. If you opted for the tungsten version, then instead of teal green youll see dark gray. I love the new color, but its a bit confusing and makes me think the grippable area is narrower than before when in fact, its about the same. Still, this is a small complaint, if that, and one that is mostly mitigated by how fresh the new version looks. The other main change is on the Premium Pen, which now has a rubberized top for its faux eraser. Ive always appreciated how easy this was to use on the original Kindle Scribe, and Im happy to report that the updated texture doesnt get in the way of responsiveness. It certainly feels enough like erasers of my youth that every now and then I find myself subconsciously swiping away phantom dust. I will point out, though, that I had to remind myself to use the eraser on a few occasions, since I was more accustomed to simply striking out a mistake with the pen. The new Premium Pen also has a customizable shortcut button so long-pressing it can activate the highlighter, pen, marker, pencil, eraser, canvas or sticky note. Drawing on books on the new Kindle Scribe Finally, in addition to the two AI-related tools I already mentioned, Amazon also updated how you can write on ebooks. As I described in my hands-on in October, the new Active Canvas feature makes it so that once you put your pen on the page, a box will appear to contain your writing. Compared to the clunky implementation on the older model, which required you to first go to the floating toolbar on the left of every page, select the sticky note feature and then write in it, this seemed a huge improvement. In my testing so far, though, this was less impressive. The software was buggy in my experience. On one occasion, I drew a spiral over the words We had a good yarn about old times in an Agatha Christie novel. A translucent box appeared, containing my drawing in a layer above the text, with a check mark and cross at the top. Youre supposed to tap the check, which will cause the box to fully solidify and the rest of the pages words will rearrange themselves to make room. However, when I hit X by accident, the box didnt go away, and I was able to continue to add doodles all over the screen. When I flipped to a different part of the book and came back, though, it disappeared, only to reappear later when I was trying to underline something. Thats clearly just a bug, and when executed as intended, Active Canvas does work. You can resize the box, and lines will continue to reflow to make room or snap back into place. The boxes will stay where you left them, instead of disappearing under a little tag the way they did with the original Scribe. Its a slight improvement, and though I cant yet imagine how Id use it in real life, its nice to know its there. I do have to point out a couple of caveats, though. This doesnt work on samples you can tell whether the Active Canvas is supported by checking if the floating toolbox is present. The other issue, which is a bigger one, is that Active Canvas can sometimes be triggered even when youre just trying to underline something. Drawing lines under or on text will generate underlines, which will be indexed by Amazon the same way highlights are, so you can easily find them again later on. Cherlynn Low for Engadget Its pretty annoying when youre trying to underline some text and the words jump away to make room for a box you never wanted to appear. It gets even more frustrating when, due to the lag, you have to wait for seconds for the box to go away after you tap the X on top of it. Worse, that bug I mentioned earlier caused the spiral and other doodles I had drawn to show up where I was trying to underline words. Thankfully, I was able to delete that when it reappeared and had no more phantom boxes. These little hiccups would be less of a problem if Amazon werent already behind its competitors. Similar products from companies like Kobo already offer better support for writing on books, where you can circle specific words and the drawing will stay in place (though this is wonky if you resize the text afterwards). I understand that Amazon has to manage the resizability of its content, to support people who often change up font sizes while reading. There needs to be a better way. One might be coming. At the Kindles launch event, the company did preview a collapsible margins feature, which lets you scribble in the column on either side of every book. Importantly, youll be able to resize these columns and the space in them can scroll vertically, giving you plenty of room to cram in your musings. Sadly, this feature is only going to be available in early 2025, so I wasnt able to test it out. Its also worth noting that the original Kindle Scribe, which continues to retail for $340, will be getting the Active Canvas and generative AI features, as well as the collapsible margin when that arrives. Generative AI features on the new Kindle Scribe Where things feel more finished is in Notebooks, where Amazon has had to contend with fewer limitations. This section contains your lists, jotpads and works of art. Like you could on the original, you can select from a variety of backgrounds like lines, a dot grid or even planner or calendar views. Its here that youll find the new Summarize and Refine tools, by tapping on the sparkles icon on the top menu bar. Selecting either Summarize or Refine writing will bring up the option to work Amazons magic on the page youre on or the entire notebook. After you decide, the Kindle will get to work, using cloud-based processing to generate either a summary of your words or a tidied up version of your chicken scratch. This usually took about 10 to 15 seconds, depending on the length of the source material. Once a result is returned, youll also get the option to customize the font and line spacing, as well as the ability to add it to the end or beginning of your notebook. Screenshots / Engadget I was surprised to see the Scribe make sense of a disorganized plan I made for reviews coverage that involved some lists with three in a row up top, two at the bottom and three lining the right side. The Refine tool accurately laid them out in sequential order, giving me a list of lists starting with the one I had in the top left position and ending with the tiny one titled OSes that I had squeezed in below iPads at the bottom right. The summary it returned for this example was also decent, and in all the other notes I tested I saw largely accurate results. Any mistake the system made felt reasonable, since I have horrible handwriting. Its not really the Scribes fault that it thought I wrote Addly when really I just had an extremely malformed n and a barely legible g at the end of Adding. When I did make an effort to write more neatly, the Scribe was more accurate, but that almost feels like it defeats the purpose. If Im going to try to write better for the AI so it can make my handwriting neater for others to read, then how is that different from making a greater effort for humans? As competent as the generative AI features here have been, I still remain hesitant to call them useful. Im not the sort of person that likes writing long enough to need AI summarization (to that end, youll need to have at least 25 words on a page to qualify for Summarize). I also dont generally share my handwritten thoughts with other people, though on the extremely rare occasion that I do, I could see Refine being a good start. Screenshots / Engadget The problem is that Refine isnt always accurate, and its generated result isnt editable. If I could go in and correct Addly, then I might not mind sending that document to my team. Or if that were the only mistake in the refined writing, I could share the note and tell my friends to ignore the one error. But Id have to write a whole new appendix just to clarify the mistakes, at which point I might as well type up my original thoughts. Neither Refine nor Summarize are groundbreaking new features in generative AI or even note-taking, either. Apple offers a version of Refine on the new iPadOS, while Summarize is something weve seen all over products from Google, Apple, OpenAI, Samsung and more. While I respect that Amazon has largely avoided chasing hype with its adoption of generative AI on the Kindle Scribe, I need more time and testing to better understand how useful it might be in the long run. What I like about the Kindle Scribe 2 so far As I did with the original, I do like the Scribe a lot. It offers a smooth, convenient writing experience in a svelte, relatively light package thats just 0.22 inches thick and weighs 433 grams (0.95 pounds). None of those dimensions have changed in the second-gen model, though the 10.2-inch screen somehow seemed sharper to me, despite having the same brightness and pixel density. Reading on such a roomy canvas is a joy, although I prefer to take the Paperwhite on the go since its a lot easier on my wrist. That expanse can be helpful for those with visual impairments that might need a much larger font, for example. Ive also liked doodling on PDFs and write-on books. The latter is a category of titles in the Kindle store that are formatted so you can doodle directly on them. I borrowed a couple of these through my Kindle Unlimited subscription, and had a blast solving cryptography and Sudoku puzzles. I did see some promising books in this category, like interactive or hyperlinked planners, but the customer reviews for those put me off. There is a lot of potential in that space, though, that could make the Kindle Scribe far more useful. I just wish Amazon would invest more in the format and make a notebook you can write on that would also work with your phones calendar or reminders app and seamlessly integrate what you write on your planner into your digital universe. What I dont like about the Kindle Scribe 2 Alas, that is not a reality. And the reality is that there are quite a lot of things Amazon could stand to improve. While I can understand that finding a way to keep a loose stylus attached to a tablet is challenging, the magnetic edge that the Premium Pen can latch onto is just a precarious approach. I was walking into my apartment with the Kindle Scribe in my hand and jostled the door by accident. Two seconds later, I was wondering where the stylus had gone. It was on the floor, and when I picked it up, I noticed the nib was slanted. I didnt know if I had damaged it, and though it still worked well, I eventually saw some scratches on the Scribes screen that I suspect might not have been there had the pen not dropped due to a light knock against a doorframe. The company does include some replacement nibs in the box, so fixing this is fairly easy. Cherlynn Low for Engadget I also really wish Amazons Notebooks were more versatile. Theyre better than they were with the original Scribe, but you still cant edit them in the mobile Kindle app. You can view your Notebooks there, which is nice, but its slightly annoying that theyre listed in alphabetical order instead of based on whats recently been opened like they are on the Kindle. Amazon rates the new and original Scribes as having the same battery life that is, up to three weeks if you write for about half an hour a day, and up to 12 weeks if you read for that same amount of time. In my review of the older model, I saw battery numbers drop 35 percent in about a week with lots of writing and testing. With the new Kindle Scribe, the power level is currently at 21 percent after coming out of the box at 50 percent just a couple of days ago. I have been testing its AI, writing and annotating features pretty relentlessly in that time, and usually see the percentage fall one or two points whenever I generate an AI summary or refinement, too. Ill need much more time to get a better sense of how the new Kindle Scribes battery holds up under more normalized use, but if it behaves like its predecessor, I shouldnt need to charge it more than once every couple of months. Wrap-up Amazons new Kindle Scribe has a lot of competition from companies like Kobo, Boox and reMarkable. And with a price of $399, the new Scribe is a whopping $60 costlier than its predecessor, which will also get a lot of the new software updates. To be fair, the new Scribe comes with a Premium Pen for the price, while the cheaper model only includes a Basic Pen, so youre partially paying more for a better stylus. While I do like the new color option and slightly improved annotation capabilities, Im not sure Amazon has done enough to justify the additional cost here. Id much rather see the company focus its efforts on improving its Notebook syncing and mobile editing software, as well as investing in innovating on the write-on book format, than chase the generative AI trend. No matter how much restraint its exercised in doing so. Still, Kindles, the Scribe 2 included, remain some of the best ereaders around, and are pretty much the most obvious choice for anyone already invested in Amazon's ecosystem.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/kindle-scribe-2-review-in-progress-is-slightly-useful-ai-worth-the-extra-cash-140018638.html?src=rss

Kickstarter just unveiled a bunch of new tools for backers and creators. The most notable of the bunch is called Pledge Over Time and, well, its exactly what it sounds like. The tool allows backers to split a pledge into four payments that get pulled from a bank account every two weeks. Its sort of like Affirm or Klarna.This feature should also help creators, as itll entice more backers to buy into a campaign. Its available right now, but only to select campaigns. Pledge Over Time is coming to everyone by spring. This follows a related tool that was released last year that allows folks to back projects after a campaign has ended.KickstarterThe platform is also in the process of refining search and discovery to help backers find stuff that interests them. Kickstarter promises that new search filters and sorting options are coming to web and mobile this spring. The mobile app is also getting an update by the end of 2025 that lets backers view all of their funded, live and unsuccessful projects in one place.KickstarterThere are some changes coming down the pike to make backers feel more secure when pledging. If a project faces significant fulfillment failures itll get slapped with a notice on the main page. Backers of these projects will also get a notification that outlines the issues and actions that Kickstarter has taken. Project pages will also soon include more details about a creators overall track record. Indiegogo already does something similar via its Trust-Proven badge.For creators, the fundraising platform is introducing add-ons. These are perks that can be added to a campaign after being successfully funded. It gives backers more opportunities to spend money and get cool stuff in return. Shipping management is also being streamlined, as is the tax collection system.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/kickstarter-is-rolling-out-new-tools-for-backers-including-a-way-to-split-pledges-into-four-payments-170051752.html?src=rss