If youve ever hunted for a house, you know that it can be a long, involved process. While a lot of that time is taken up just finding the right house, another big chunk of that time is taken up by the negotiation.Most people focus on the price of the home, which makes senseits a huge purchase for most people, so getting the price right is crucialbut you can negotiate for a lot more than that. You may already know that you can (and should) ask for repairs or financial credits if the inspection reveals problems, but it never hurts to ask for concessions or contingencies that can make your new home more appealing, comfortable, and affordable in the long run. Here are six requests you should consider adding to your offer when you buy your next house.Professional cleaningMoving house is a dirty businessand so is living in a house. Even the cleanest people probably dont deep clean their houses on a regular basis, and moving furniture and appliances after theyve sat collecting dust and grime for years will reveal a lot of dirt. If you dont want to inherit the accumulated filth of someone elses life, you can ask that the sellers be required to have the house professionally cleaned (at their expense) before you move in. It will be one less thing you have to worry about. Free home warrantyWe all try our best to perform due diligence before buying a house. We walk through it, test out the water pressure and the wiring. We have a professional inspection done (usually). We check the permit history to see if there have been major problems. But its still very common for people to encounter major repairs after they move into a new home.That doesnt mean the sellers are hiding something, of course; major aspects of a home can seem perfectly fine until the moment they fail. For a little peace of mind, you can request that the sellers pay for a home warranty plan for a year to insure you a little against unforeseen problems. Home warranties arent always great deals, but if youre not paying for it, a warranty is a win-win.Extended contingenciesSomething you should probably always request when buying a house are contingencies against damage from insects and termiteseven if they were noted in an inspection (or disclosed by the seller) and mitigated. This sort of damage can sometimes be more widespread than initially suspected, and can take a long time to manifest. Plus, bugs can make a return appearance even if the mitigation was thorough.If the home has disclosed infestations or you have any reason to suspect theres a threat, ask the seller to purchase a termite bond or warranty or pest control contract for a period of timesix months to a year, for exampleto insure yourself against hidden problems.A chunk of HOA feesIf youre buying a house covered by a homeowners association (HOA), you can ask that the seller pay the first six months or year of fees. A lot of folks are a little cash poor after buying a house, so getting a short cushion on those fees can give you a little more breathing room as you rebuild your emergency fund and get a handle on the expenses involved in owning a house.Furniture, appliances, or other stuff you wantThe general rule of thumb when buying a house is that stuff thats permanently attached to the propertylike kitchen cabinets, storage sheds, landscaping, or towel racksis included in the sale unless the seller makes a special arrangement to take it with them. The easiest way to envision this is to imagine picking up the house, turning it upside-down, and shaking it. Anything that doesnt fall out is a fixture and thus included in the sale.That means other stuff you see, like appliances, custom furniture, or elements of decor are up for negotiation. If theres a funky dining room table thats perfect for the room its in, you can ask the seller to name a price to leave it behind. One thing to note is that negotiating for personal property (as opposed to real property) usually has to be separate from the house contract, because most lenders wont allow personal property to be part of the sale of the home. Still, you can make it part of the overall negotiation and just work up a separate agreement to cover anything you want to keep.A test runFinally, are you absolutely certain youre going to love the house? Will it be quiet enough for you? Will the layout work the way you think it will? If you have any doubts whatsoever, ask the seller to let you sleep over in the house a day or two before finalizing the sale, something thats becoming increasingly common. Just one night actually sleeping in the property can give you a very clear picture of the noise levels and general comfort of the home, and spending more than a few minutes alone in the place can offer clarity about its overall appropriateness for your lifestyle and family.Its key to keep in mind that while you can ask for just about anything when buying a house, the seller is under no obligation to agree to any of it. Still, it never hurts to askyour worst case scenario is a no.

It's honestly difficult to remember the simpler days of video card shopping, before crypto fanatics, supply chain issues and pandemic demand pushed GPUs far beyond rising manufacturer prices. Ideally, I'd like to tell you that NVIDIA's $549 RTX 5070 and $749 RTX 5070 Ti are more reasonable alternatives to the $2,000 RTX 5090 and $1,000 5080. But card makers and retailers have already pushed RTX 5070 prices far beyond those MSRPs. Our review unit, the ASUS 5070 Ti Prime, is currently selling for $900 at Best Buy and $750 at Newegg (we'll see how long that lasts). And of course, it's out of stock at both stores. While I can't guarantee the actual cost for any RTX 5070 Ti card, I can say this: they'll definitely be solid 4K performers for far less than the RTX 5080 and 5090. But if you're not desperate for an upgrade, it's worth waiting a few months for inventory and prices to stabilize. Hardware Based on its specs and (hopeful) pricing, the RTX 5070 Ti currently offers the best balance between performance and value in NVIDIA's lineup. It features 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, well below the 5080's 10,752 CUDA cores, but at least those cards have the same amount of memory. The cheaper 5070 comes with just 12GB of VRAM, which could be a problem when gaming in 4K. Our ASUS 5070 Ti card is fairly nondescript, with three fans, a plastic frame and a standard heatsink design. You can choose between performance and quiet BIOS modes, which only changes how aggressive the fans are. Its 2.5-slot design makes it tiny enough for small form-factor cases, though I noticed it was actually slightly larger than the RTX 5090 Founders card. RTX 5090 RTX 5080 RTX 5070 Ti RTX 5070 RTX 4090 Architecture Blackwell Blackwell Blackwell Blackwell Lovelace CUDA cores 21,760 10,752 8,960 6,144 16,384 AI TOPS 3,352 1,801 1,406 988 1,321 Tensor cores 5th Gen 5th Gen 5th Gen 5th Gen 4th Gen RT cores 4th Gen 4th Gen 4th Gen 4th Gen 3rd Gen VRAM 32 GB GDDR7 16 GB GDDR7 16 GB GDDR7 12 GB GDDR7 24 GB GDDR6X Memory bandwidth 1,792 GB/sec 960 GB/sec 896 GB/sec 672 GB/sec 1,008 GB/sec TGP 575W 360W 300W 250W 450W The 5070 Ti could also easily fit into more gaming rigs without requiring a power supply upgrade. It has a peak power draw of 300 watts, compared to the 5080's 360W and the 5090's whopping 575W. That means the 5070 Ti should be able to run comfortably with an 850W PSU, without needing to make the leap to a massive 1,000W unit. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget What really makes this GPU special, though, is that it fully supports multi-frame generation in DLSS 4, NVIDIA's AI upscaling technology. That allows the GPU to generate up to 3 frames with AI for every frame rendered in real-time. It also lets NVIDIA claim that the 5070 can match the speeds of the $1,599 RTX 4090. While you could argue those frames are just "fake" to make benchmarks look better, my time with the RTX 5070 Ti and 5090 has shown that they do lead to a smoother gameplay experience. On top of multi-frame generation, other DLSS 4 features are also trickling down to earlier NVIDIA cards. As I noted in my 5090 review, "RTX 40 cards will be more efficient with their single-frame generation, while RTX 30 and 20 cards will also see an upgrade from AI transformer models used for ray reconstruction (leading to more stable ray tracing), Super Resolution (higher quality textures) and Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA)." Devindra Hardawar for Engadget In use: A capable 4K gaming GPU First things first: The RTX 5070 Ti is only slightly faster than the 4070 and 4070 Ti in most benchmarks. The new card is 17 percent ahead of the 4070 Ti in the 3DMark Timespy Extreme test, and 21 percent faster than the 4070 Ti Super in Speedway bench. The difference is even smaller in raw computing and rendering tasks: The 5070 Ti scored a mere 8 percent more than the 4070 Ti in the Geekbench 6 GPU benchmark. None 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme Geekbench 6 GPU Cyberpunk (4K RT Overdrive DLSS) Blender NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti 12,675 238,417 153fps (4X frame gen) 7,365 NVIDIA RTX 5090 19,525 358,253 246fps (4X frame gen) 14,903 NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super 11,366 220,722 75fps (1x frame gen) 7,342 NVIDIA RTX 4070 8,610 N/A 45fps (1x frame gen) 6,020 But, of course, actual gaming performance matters more than benchmarks. And if you're playing something with support for DLSS 4, you'll certainly notice some improvements. Dragon Age: The Veilguard held a steady 200fps in 4K with 4X multi-frame generation, ray tracing and graphics settings maxed out, On the 4070 Ti, I typically saw between 90fps and 100fps with those same graphics settings and DLSS 3.5's single frame generation. Now, I can't actually say the game looked twice as smooth on my Alienware 32-inch QD-OLED monitor, but it definitely looked silky over the hours I've tested. There weren't any weird upscaling artifacts, those frames felt real. It's also worth noting the RTX 5090 clocked 240fps in Dragon Age with the same graphics settings. Perhaps my CPU held it back a bit (I'm running a Ryzen 9 7900X), but the 5070 Ti's performance was still remarkably close while being a much cheaper GPU. Cyberpunk 2077 also played like a dream in 4K in ray tracing overdrive mode with multi-frame gen, reaching 150fps on average. That's well below the 5090's stunning 250fps figure, but it's still impressive for a game that used to bring powerful rigs to their knees. Cyberpunk also hit 230fpsin 1,440p with those same settings, which also upscales beautifully to 4K screens. For games without DLSS 4, like Halo Infinite, the 5070 Ti was still a solid performer, reaching an average of 140fps with maxed-out graphics and ray tracing. In comparison, the 5090 hit 180fps on average. Even if you're lucky enough to have a 240Hz 4K monitor, I'd bet even demanding gamers would be just fine with the 5070 Ti's speeds. But if you care more about framerates than resolution, it'll still have you covered. I saw 220fps in Halo Infinite in 1,440p, and 320fps in 1080p. The ASUS 5070 Ti typically idled between 30C and 35C, and it quickly reached up to 65C under load. Its fan array isn't as sophisticated as the 5090 Founder's card, but it still managed to cool down the card below 40C in around 15 seconds. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Should you buy the RTX 5070 Ti? Simply put, the RTX 5070 Ti handled just about everything I threw at it, and I didn't find myself missing the 5090 too much (aside from bragging rights). Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to test the RTX 5080, but given its high cost, it's still something I'd have trouble recommending to anyone. The real question for gamers right now is: Do you need the RTX 5070 Ti's 16GB of VRAM and higher CUDA count? If you're aiming to play in 4K most of the time, it'll be worth having more than just the 5070's 12GB of RAM. Games are becoming more complex every year, so it likely won't be long before you'll actually need 16GB of VRAM to play 4K games comfortably. But if you're living the 1,440p life, then 12GB will likely be enough for years to come. DLSS 4's multi-frame gen is the biggest draw for NVIDIA's 50-series cards, and it's mostly useful for 4K gaming. So if you're happy with your 40-series GPU and don't need to push a 4K 240Hz monitor to its limit, there's not much reason to upgrade. For 30- and 20-series owners though, your patience will be rewarded. As I mentioned before, it's still worth waiting a few months to see how prices settle. If you're lucky enough to score the RTX 5070 Ti for $750, go for it. But it's far less compelling at $900 or above. At that point, you're just way too close to the 5090's $1,000 MSRP. We're still waiting to see how AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT GPUs will perform, but they're being positioned as direct competitors to the 5070 and 5070 Ti. AMD finally has DLSS-like AI-powered upscaling coming this year, so the difference between its cards and NVIDIA's may be slimmer than usual. But NVIDIA also has a dramatic head start, and it'll likely take a while for AMD's Fluid Motion Frames technology to catch up on multi-frame generation. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Wrap-up: A great 4K card... if you can get it close to $750 The RTX 5070 Ti won me over in ways I didn't expect. I knew it would be a tad faster than the 4070 Ti Super, but with the addition of multi-frame generation, it's also a far more capable 4K card. And it's definitely more future-proof than the 5070, since it has 16GB of VRAM like the 5090. While I think the $549 5070 remains the most intriguing entry of NVIDIA's new family, it's nice to see that there's something for sensible enthusiasts between that and the $1,000 5090. And yes, it's still strange to call a $750 video card "sensible."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidia-geforce-5070-ti-review-a-sensible-4k-powerhouse-for-749-140023082.html?src=rss

Chinese game publisher NetEase has laid off Marvel Rivals development team members including the game director, Kotaku reported. Some of those let go expressed surprise and dismay at the move considering that the team-based PVP shooter has consistently been in the top ten on Steam since its December debut. A large part of the Marvel Rivals development team is located in China, but only North American layoffs were reported. It's not clear yet how many people were let go."This is such a weird industry," wrote game director Thaddeus Sasser on LinkedIn. "My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games... and were just laid off."I dont get it, man, wrote game artist Del Walker on Bluesky. You make one of the most successful LIVE service titles of the generation, despite the world telling you LIVE service is dead - and still get laid off? What are we even doing at this point."Marvel Rivals currently sits at number six on Steam's top seller list and just had its first big content update for Season 1 that happened at nearly the same time as the layoffs. The game has received solid reviews for its Marvel lore and straightforward gameplay and has reportedly been very successful in its first month. It has been one of the rare good stories in terms of live service games, following announcements from Sony that some of its titles in development had been scrapped.There are concerns that more layoffs may be coming from China-based studios in response to US tariffs. In a statement to VentureBeat, however, NetEase denied that it is eliminating its foreign investments and overseas gaming studios."For 2025, we have an extensive pipeline of titles in development, feature a variety of genres, including FragPunk, Ananta and more," NetEase said in the statement. "[However] as part of our investment strategy, we started scaling down two of our studios at the end of 2024. This decision was based purely on business evaluations and not influenced by other factors. And this represents only a small portion of our overseas studio portfolio."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/marvel-rivals-team-hit-with-layoffs-despite-huge-success-of-game-133002120.html?src=rss

Apple TV+'s violent Philadelphia-set show has snagged the legendary Hollywood helmer and will start airing in March.

An Insight Partners employee reportedly fell for a "sophisticated" phishing attack.

With 2,156 painstakingly created photos and DNEGs amazing visual effects, enter the magnificent universe of Dune: Part Two. To realize Denis Villeneuves vision, the crew skillfully combined digital and practical effects under the direction of VFX Supervisors Rhys Salcombe and Paul Lambert.Every frame, from enormous sandworms to expansive Arrakis landscapes, was meticulously crafted, stretching the limits of cinematic world-building. This VFX analysis demonstrates why Dune: Part Two is a seminal work in contemporary visual effects by revealing the craftsmanship behind the grand battles, intricate simulations, and smooth incorporation of realistic components.The post Dune: Part Two VFX Making of by DNEG appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Watch American Primeval on Netflix to experience the chaos and majesty of the 1857 Utah War, as Scanline VFX expertly uses subtle yet potent visual effects to accentuate the unadulterated beauty of nature. Their skill creates realistic weather effects like sweeping snowstorms, amplifies violent conflict scenes, and brings stunning landscapes to life.Scanline VFXs work blends in well with the photography, enhancing the historical dramas emotional impact and authenticity with anything from minor environmental adjustments to extensive digital improvements. See how innovative technology and artistic talent come together to immerse audiences in this compelling frontier epic by taking a behind-the-scenes look.The post American Primeval VFX Breakdown Reel appeared first on Vfxexpress.

The U.S. Justice Departments senior ethics official resigned on Tuesday, after President Donald Trumps administration pulled him off his duties and assigned him to a new sanctuary cities working group, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.The official, Bradley Weinsheimer, decided to accept the governments deferred resignation offer rather than accept the reassignment, the latest in a string of nonpolitical career Justice Department officials who have resisted efforts that they say politicize investigations.Dozens of career Justice Department officials who normally remain in office from one administration to the next in cities including Washington and New York have been fired, reassigned or quit since Trump took office on January 20, after he vowed to rapidly shake up a department that he says was used against him during his years out of power.Last week, seven people resigned in protest, including two top officials who oversee the most politically sensitive investigations, after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered them to drop criminal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.Weinsheimer, a 34-year department veteran who was named to his current role as associate deputy attorney general during Trumps first term, provided ethics counsel to department officials related to conflicts of interest, including on decisions related to when they should be recused from working on particular cases.He also reviewed disciplinary recommendations by the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates attorney misconduct, and referrals for discipline or prosecution from the Office of the Inspector General.Weinsheimer did not return a request for comment. When Reuters tried to reach him in the evening on Tuesday, his government email responded with an auto-generated message saying he was on administrative leave pursuant to the deferred resignation program.On January 27, around the same time Weinsheimer was reassigned, Bove delegated all ethics-related decisions to two political appointees.One of them, Kendra Wharton, previously worked alongside Bove and Todd Blanche, the presidents nominee to serve as deputy attorney general, to help defend Trump against criminal charges in New York alleging he falsified records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star.The other, Boves chief of staff Jordan Fox, graduated law school in 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile.Bradley is the senior career ethics official at the Justice Department and provides advice to people across the country and in the building on really important and weighty matters, said Joyce Vance, the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, noting that the job he performed was apolitical.She said the reassignment of ethical decision-making to two political appointees is troubling, adding: This is evidence that the Justice Department is being weaponized.Chad Gilmartin, a spokesman for the Justice Department, rejected any criticism of the move by Bove to delegate the ethics decision-making to Wharton and Fox.Kendra has a decade of experience as a criminal defense lawyer, which is exactly the mindset we want in such a role, he said. He added that Fox is a highly respected attorney.Attorney General Pam Bondi, Blanche and Bove, who will serve as principal associate deputy attorney general once Blanche is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, all previously served as defense attorneys for Trump.The White House has previously argued that the Department of Justice was weaponized against Trump when it pursued charges against him for retaining classified documents and subverting the 2020 election.The department dropped both cases after Trump won the November 2024 election, citing a longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president.On Bondis first day as Attorney General, she issued a directive creating a new weaponization working group that would be tasked with reviewing two criminal cases brought against Trump by former Special Counsel Jack Smith for retaining classified documents and trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election, as well as Trumps conviction in New York.Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters

Ever wondered what it would be like to wake up in Pompei on eruption day? How about how it would have felt to be a passenger on the Titanic? Now you dont need to. A new TikTok trend lets you travel back in time via artificial intelligence and experience the POV of someone living though that time period.From waking up as a caveman in 40 B.C. to being the last person on earth in 2087, many of the most viral videos have been posted by creator @timetravellerpov. The inspiration behind my videos is the desire to bring history to life in a way that feels immersive, @timetravellerpov tells Fast Company over email. Each one is designed to transport viewers into different eras, myths, and alternate realitiesmaking them feel like theyve stepped into another world. While the account posted its first video just at the start of this year, it has quickly grown to over 329,000 followers with over 5.7 million likes. @timetravellerpov POV: You wake up as the last person on Earth in 2087 #history #historytok #ai #apocalypse original sound Time Traveller POV One viral example drops you in 1351 London during the Black Plague. The clip begins in bed before the POV takes you for a walk through the muddy streets. Here, everyone is sick and hungry. All you have left is a crust of bread, which you give to a beggar child. You visit your sick mother in the quarantine zone and try not to catch the deadly disease. Spoiler alert: It doesnt end well. @timetravellerpov POV: You wake up in 1351 During the Black Plague #history #historytok #ai original sound Time Traveller POV Each video takes @timetravellerpov around four hours to bring to life. You can tell the content is AI because, obviously, cameras didnt exist in the 14th Century. However, the content is realistic enough to receive over 18.6 million views and thousands of comments. Shoutout to the camera man, one person wrote. The only right way to use ai, another added. I just died in pompeii now Im here give me a break, a third commented.I believe my videos have resonated with so many people because they tap into nostalgia, curiosity, and the desire to explore places and moments we could never otherwise experience, says @timetravellerpov. For me, its all about creating that wow momentwhere someone watches and says, I feel like Im actually there.While the Black Plague might not be everyones first choice of time period to travel back to, the trend has since taken an even darker turn. Other POV videos posted by different creators include being a student during COVID-19, a worker in the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, or living through President John F. Kennedys assassination.But the trend isnt just for experiencing the darkest days in history. For those wishing to travel back to happier times, one of @timetravellerpovs videos lets viewers experience a day in the life of a child living in England in the 2000s. Here, the POV takes you under a parachute in the school playground and on a trip to the now-defunct video store Blockbuster. @timetravellerpov POV: You wake up as an English Kid in the 2000s #history #historytok #ai #nostalgia #nostalgic #CapCut original sound Time Traveller POV I know this is AI, but damn that felt real, one viewer commented under the video. Nah this is too sad, take me back to Pompeii, added another.

This sleek, modern take on portable cutlery is by New-Jersey-based housewares brand Zoku. Their Pocket Utensil Set comes in a pocketable carrying case made of polypropylene, with a silicone seal. The utensils themselves are stainless steel, and the entire set is dishwasher-safe. They come in different colors, and they offer kids versions as well. I was happy to learn that Zoku is a brand founded by ID'ers. Industrial designers Ken Zorovich and Yos Kumthampinij ran Propellor, a product design studio, in the 2000s; around 2007, the duo decided to stop designing for clients and to start designing for themselves. "We were very good at creating value through great design," Zorovich explains. "The projects that we worked on were making money for our clients and that in turn was turning into more business for us. What we were getting frustrated with was the value we were creating was so much more than we were getting."They launched Zoku with their inaugural product, a popsicle maker that they spent two years developing. It paid off; in 2009, Williams-Sonoma placed a major order, and the company's been a going concern ever since. The Pocket Utensil Set runs $16.