Dipping your toes into virtual reality? From shooters to woodsy adventures, these are our favorites to play by yourself or with friends.

This user-friendly countertop stone mill grinds dried wheat berries, quinoa, and more with the flip of a switch.

MacworldYoull often hear people complain that Apples luxury gadgets are too expensive for them. If theyre talking about a $1,599 iPhone 16 Pro Max or a $2,299 iPad Pro, then this point of view is understandable. But strictly speaking, even the most expensive of Apples Pro devices are premium products, not luxury. Theres a big difference.Want to see a real luxury product? How about an $8,900 Gucci jacket. Or a $10,000 Dior bag. Or a $17,000 Apple Watch. Real luxury is about exclusivity and as much about the number of people who dont buy your product. But with more than 200 million iPhones sold per year, the luxury niche tag is simply no longer applicable to Apple. Take the new $599 iPhone 16e. Its a solid but spartanly equipped smartphone with an older design and only one camera (which doesnt offer a real optical zoom, no matter how often Apple claims this). The 16e is not a luxury product. Its part of a growing group of Apple devices that are meant to appeal to a mass market looking for a good-looking product at a decent price. Its J. Crew, not Cartier.Of all Apples products, only a handfulthe iPad Pro, Mac Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Maxcan truly be described as premium. In addition to Apples brand image and good design, the iPhone Pro and iPad Pro offer exceptional performance and ease of use. And the video professional or app developer who spends big on a Mac Pro can be sure they will get high stability and first-class hardware in return. But its hard to find luxury in a product that essentially offers the same experience as one costing thousands less.The iPad Pro and Mac Pro are some of the few premium products Apple still makes.Thiago Trevisan/FoundryIs Apple still a premium manufacturer?Apple launches more and more affordable products every year. Although these are first-class products, they are aimed more at the mass market and are significantly cheaper than other Apple products.The M4 Mac mini is often available for under its $599/599 MSRP. Even at full price, this is an excellent deal, but despite its many strengths, this is hardly a premium computer.The Apple Watch SE isnt a luxury smartwatch, nor can it even be described as premium compared to the Apple Watch Series 10. But you can pick one up for as little as $199/189. Its primarily intended for younger family members who are joining the Apple world at an early age.A colorful HomePod mini is available for just $99, $250 less than the classic HomePod. This cute smart speaker has its charms even if audio quality is relatively weak at the bass end.The current Apple TV delivers a first-class home cinema experience, voice control, and intuitive remote control for $129.AirPods 4 offer AirPods Pro-level sound quality with ANC for $179.At $349 (and often on sale), the 10th-gen iPad is clearly targeted at budget buyers. It costs nearly a thousand dollars less than the 13-inch iPad Pro.Apple had to make a decision years ago. Should it remain a pure premium manufacturer, a kind of Porsche among consumer tech manufacturers, by offering only the best to people willing to pay for it? This would have been risky because it would mean the survival of the company hangs on the success of a very small number of high-priced products. (As an illustration of these risks, mistakes in product development are currently causing the aforementioned German sports car manufacturer serious difficulties.) So Apple chose a different path.The iPhone 16e is another product aimed at a mass market, not a luxury one.FoundryLess luxury, more shipmentsApple has evidently decided to become a mass manufacturer offering a wide range of products catering to all income brackets. Premium devices such as the iPhone 16 Pro Max may deliver the biggest profit margin, but less profitable devices such as the iPhone 16e ensure a large number of users. This in turn leads to strong revenue through services such as iCloud+, AppleCare+, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and, last but not least, the App Store. Even growth regions such as India cannot be conquered with premium devices alone.A broad customer base brings another benefit: economies of scale. The larger the turnover, the higher the number of shipments, the more advantages you gain in areas such as development and marketing. It makes little economic sense to develop your own iPhone CPUs and operating systems for a few customers. But if you sell 230 million smartphones a year, you can negotiate completely different conditions with companies like TSMC.Its possible that this strategic shift will have consequences: Apple could find that the premium portion of its brand diminishes in the coming years as people choose value over premium. But I would bet Apple will be just fine with that.

If you were paying attention to CES this year, you may have come across the Asus Adol 14 Air Fragrance Editions curious gimmick: a magnetically-attached oil diffuser in the lid that emits the aroma of essential oils once the laptop heats up. Asus has now announced details about a Fragrance Mouse to go with it. Mentioned along with the companys Copilot Plus PCs at CES 2025, its coming to the US around late April, early May, company spokesperson Anthony Spence told The Verge in an email.The Fragrance Mouse has a light-duty mousing layout of two buttons and a scroll wheel. Its trick is on the underside, where a small compartment holds a refillable vial you can load with essential oils of your choosing. Its an otherwise standard affair the mouse connects wirelessly over Bluetooth or a 2.4GHz wireless USB dongle, offers adjustable DPI (1200dpi, 1600dpi, and 2400dpi), and is powered by a single AA battery. Asus says its available in distinctive Iridescent White or Rose Clay finishes.You may not be able to get a complete stinky laptop and mouse set, since the Adol 14 Air Fragrance Edition has only been released in China since being introduced in July 2024, as Ars Technica notes. Spence was unable to confirm pricing details for the Fragrance Mouse in his email to The Verge.Update February 22nd: Added that Asus had previously mentioned the Fragrance Mouse in January.

The fuzz of the cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor, alongside static grains and flickering scanlines, is a touchstone for 90s-era nostalgia. Its shorthand for those halcyon days when technology was predominantly analog and millennial kids spent their summers shoving bulky tapes into VHS players, recording favorite bits of their after-school television shows, and making their own home videos with camcorders. Its this vignette that developer Dont Nod Montral leans heavily into in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The game follows a blossoming friendship and apparent falling-out of four teenagers over an unforgettable summer. And it all starts with a good dose of that nostalgia: the ubiquitously blue anti-drug message that precedes the title screen, complete with the telltale flicker of a CRT monitor.Such adolescent longing is all par for the course for Dont Nod. Alongside Telltale, the studio popularized the choose-your-own-adventure style of narrative games with Life is Strange, while foregrounding the outsized pain and tribulations of teenhood. But more than just coating teenage drama in a layer of dreamy nostalgia, Bloom & Rage is also an opportunity for Dont Nod to write a story based in familiar settings. The era already has its own vocabulary and culture; its the era of riot grrrl, Bikini Kill, The Blair Witch Project, and video rental stores. Doing so helps Bloom & Rage avoid the criticism of penning teenage slang and using outdated references that sound like theyre written by much older adults. This means a lot less hella cool and more lets bounce, which is definitely a phrase I remember using as a teenager.At first glance, Bloom & Rage looks like another Life is Strange. Every moment is infused with the same emotional weight the series is known for, be it standing up to a bully or excitedly gushing about your new best friend to your cat. Then theres the tinge of the supernatural. But while promising, its a tad early to see if Bloom & Rage can surpass the juggernaut that was the original Life is Strange. Thats because Bloom & Rage is a two-part adventure game a nod to the episodic roots of its forebears with the second half of the game expected to release in mid-April this year.Image: Dont NodSet in the small town of Velvet Cove, youll play as Swann, one of the four central teenagers. The story is depicted across two time periods: the present-day Swann as an adult meeting her long-lost friends decades later, and her earlier days as an awkward teenager during the summer of 95.The first few minutes of Bloom & Rage neatly set the stage. At first, the adult Swann is struggling with a tedious, mostly one-sided conversation with her mother over the phone, and she can choose to respond meekly, with indifference, or mere silence. Meanwhile, lots of objects in the vicinity are available for her to fiddle with: a receipt, some brochures, and even a bottle of maple syrup. While examining these will cause Swanns mother to chide her for being distracted, this also demonstrates how Dont Nod is expanding the ways in which dialogue can play out. You can look at specific objects and this will, at times, open up new dialogue choices that can influence your current and future conversations with other characters. Its a small addition, but it helps make conversations feel more authentic, rather than simply choosing between binary choices of playing nice or being rude.Flashbacks to Swanns younger days make up the bulk of Bloom & Rages first half, with the teenager navigating the thorny passage of adolescent friendships. In the beginning, Swann is a loner, largely reluctant to socialize and too awkward to belong anywhere the familiar plight of every millennial teenager. Spending her days memorializing almost every waking moment with a camcorder, Swann will meticulously record clips of anything that catches her eye, before putting them together to make short films. Aside from the conversations, documenting Swanns everyday life is the games central conceit, a bold gamble given how this can feel like busywork at first.RelatedFrom fulfilling objectives that move the storyline along, such as filming the local video store (its one of Swanns favorite haunts), to discovering collectibles in the form of crude graffiti and exotic birds, this almost reduces the game to an object-hunting adventure. Eventually, you may develop the tendency to just whip out the camcorder the moment cutscenes conclude. But theres a lingering charm to this approach, highlighting how Swann tends to instinctively interact with the people around her through her camcorder. Making films is the one thing that empowers her. This is all the more poignant as she eventually comes out of her shell and hides less behind her lens.And then there are Swanns newfound friends Nora, Autumn, and Kat who similarly are more than just one-dimensional caricatures. Theres Nora who, for all her bravado and punk rock sensibilities, is one of the most conflict-averse individuals in the group and the quickest to suggest giving up when they get into trouble. Then there are seemingly villainous folks who are more multifaceted than what their initial hostility suggests, which isnt revealed until you examine their behavior and personal artifacts.These point toward complexities that a young Swann may not fully comprehend, evident in some of her childlike responses, but that the older Swann and by extension, the player can probably recognize. This is what Dont Nod has always been adept at: crafting believable and deeply human characters and the abundant world that they inhabit.Image: Dont NodExperiencing the idyllic memories of Swanns days with her friends can be deeply emotional, as if chancing upon a time capsule youve forgotten about. These are long-buried moments about engaging in hours-long phone calls with close friends, partaking in rambunctious activities on the fly, and waxing lyrical about larger-than-life ambitions, like playing in famous bands or living in a secret getaway, hidden from the prying eyes of untrustworthy adults.Seeing Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat trade lifelong promises and form intense bonds ones so characteristic of deep female friendships will hit close to home for many. Its this juxtaposition between these idyllic scenes and the constant, foreboding reminder of the groups inevitable fallout that feels so ominous, unnerving, and perhaps a little painful. And the vague, supernatural happenings only serve to heighten the anxieties of teenhood. Whether it serves a deeper, more metaphorical purpose still remains to be seen. The first half of Bloom & Rage ends in a dramatic cliffhanger, of course, but its one thats not quite as audacious as it seems. Some hints have been hiding in plain sight. But a small concern lingers. Stories like these often introduce so many twists that could derail the game, before the story goes off the rails so quickly that it inevitably plummets. This was partly why the recently released Life is Strange: Double Exposure faltered in its concluding chapters. For now, theres plenty of time to wonder; we still have to wait two more months or so for Bloom & Rages melodramatic conclusion.Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox.See More:

Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGNs Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry Yellowjackets Season 3 Premiere: Why Nothing Is What It Seems and the Trees Are Angry.This column contains spoilers for Severance Season 2.Severance Season 2s major theme has revolved heavily around the idea of consent and autonomy between the Innies and Outies, expanding further on the idea of just how split a person can be when severing their work and personal personas. This line of thinking has already led to major betrayals, with Mark S. sleeping with who he believed to be Helly R. but actually ended up being Helena Eagan. Its a jarring scene once you really know whats going on, and hits even harder once Helenas Innie, Helly, is given time to sit with the news. But Episode 6 features a potential of an entirely separate betrayal. One that, if true, will blow the lid off Season 2 and one of fans favorite romances.Burt (Christopher Walken) and Irving (John Turturro) enamored fans in Season 1 with their courtship, ripping our hearts out when they were seemingly separated for good as a result of Burts retirement. Due to the overtime protocol in the Season 1 finale and his extensive research of Lumon employees when not on the severed floor, Irvings innie was able to sprint to Burts house just in time to see him with his husband. Despite the crushing blow, fans held out hope that their office romance would find a way to make its way into the real world. Season 2 has potentially made those dreams a reality, but not without the proverbial monkeys paw moment that could mean ultimate devastation for Irving. PlayEpisode 6 involves a dinner date with Irving, Burt, and Burts husband Cecil Fields (John Noble) who Burt curiously refers to by his last name, calling him only Fields in conversation throughout the evening. The dinner is a nightmare for folks who suffer from second-hand embarrassment myself included but there may be something more nefarious woven into the uncomfortable dinner discussions.Toward the end of their meal, Fields lets slip that Burt has been with Lumon for 20 years. Burt laughs it off and tells his partner that perhaps its time to step back from the wine, as Lumons severed division has only been around for a little over half that time, but theres something unspoken between the two. Burts expression isnt one of a concerned spouse thinking their partner needs to slow down on the wine, but of a man who has just been outed in front of a former Lumon employee who had previously sued the company and was recently let go not once, but twice.Itd be one thing if it only went as far as Burts outie being a longtime company man, but my concerns run deeper than that. The fact that Severance just went out of its way to make it narratively clear that you can be on the severed floor as an Outie with Helena masquerading as Helly for several days and then immediately followed it with this episode has me alarmed. Have both versions of Burt just been a singular Lumon lackey this whole time? Was all of this to get close to the Innie of the man who has been fighting them for years both through the courts and his own internal investigation? Severance Season 2 Episodes 1-6 GalleryLets not forget that Burt magically appeared outside of the phone booth when Irving was having his mysterious phone call several episodes ago. And the fact that Drummond (Darri lafsson) is seen breaking into Irvings home to look at the evidence he has on Lumon at the exact time Irving is eating dinner with Burt? Its sus, fam. Its all sus. There is, of course, the off chance that all of this is a coincidence. The writers wanted our line of thinking to follow the Helena of it all, Drummond was only there because they were already actively investigating him after his attempted murder of an Eagan, etc., but to what end? Theres a whole lot of evidence stacked up against Burt at the moment and all of it sucks. We were rooting for you crazy kids!

What if I told you Oz Perkins' The Monkey isn't the first to adapt Stephen King's short story? While Neon's 2025 goreganza is the approved and licensed adaptation, there's a lesser-known 80s horror movie with eerie similarities to King's short story The Monkey. Kenneth J. Berton's The Devil's Gift was released in 1984, four years after King's bite-sized tale was published in Gallery magazine. For those who've read King's fiction, it's hard to watch The Devil's Gift and ignore comparisons to "The Monkey" despite the production never acknowledging King in any manner.Let's start with the resemblances, which are glaring. In King's story and Berton's film, a cymbal-banging monkey causes fatalities after it clangs. They're also supernatural situations intertwined with Death's plans. There are murderous doll movies aplenty, and you can trace cymbal-banging monkey toys back to 1932's Hoppo the Waltzing Monkeybut King's imaginative blend of The Twilight Zone and Final Destination is unique. You can't ignore how The Devil's Gift borrows King's specific focal point and narrative mechanisms.Berton and the film's two credited co-writers (Jos Vergelin and Hayden O'Hara) eek past plagiarism complaints based on a few tweaks. Kings' The Monkey features Hal's family finding the monkey in a Ralston-Purina box, where The Devil's Gift suggests its monkey has been possessed thanks to a Ouija board. This leads to a more demonic version of the killer monkey versus Kings, which is a stand-in for Deathor at least Death's right hand. Also, King's time-jumpy story follows brothers Hal and Bill (but primarily Hal), whereas The Devil's Gift makes actor Bob Mendelsohn's father figure, David Andrews, the central character. Finally, in the 84 film, you can survive Mr. Monkey's impending doom if you stop his clattering or escape its trap, unlike King's cruel finality.The swapability of pawn shops and antique stores links Perkins' The Monkey and Berton's The Devil's Gift. It's the scene of the first crime (we see) in The Monkey, where Hal and Bill's delinquent father tries to sell his beady-eyed monkey. But in The Devil's Gift, it's where David's current partner Susan (Vicki Saputo) buys a cheeky monkey percussionist for David's son, Micahel (Struan Robertson). Both locations are frequently the cornerstone of stories about a malevolent trinket. King stays focused on familial hand-me-downs and inescapable curses, but when building a case that connects The Devil's Gift and "The Monkey," Perkins' adaptation only adds fuel to the fire.If you hadn't read King's story, you wouldn't think twice after watching Vestron Video's VHS release in the 80s. But with Perkins' direct adaptation (and expansion to feature length) coming out this weekend, The Devil's Gift's cover might be blown. It's a bizarre concept, almost too bizarre to be replicated. This isn't 1997's conundrum of Volcano and Dante's Peak hitting theaters only months apartvolcanos are standard natural disaster fare. We're talking about cymbal-banging, drum-beating monkeys acting as Angels of Death.About the monkey itself, King writes: "It grinned at him with its murky amber eyes, doll's eyes, filled with idiot glee, its brass cymbals poised as if to strike up a march for some band from hell." Is it a coincidence that Berton keeps opting for close-up shots of the monkey's deviant grin, allowing shiny amber eyes to glisten? Even funnier is how Perkins chooses to trash the traditional cymbal monkey prototype recognized by pop culture in favor of a drum. The Monkey, the direct adaption of King's "The Monkey," opts to differentiate where The Devil's Gift stays with the common brass discs. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say.The Devil's Gifts legacy is much stranger than possibly (probably) ripping off Stephen King.The Devil's Gifts legacy is much stranger than possibly (probably) ripping off Stephen King. If you're a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan, you may have already seen The Devil's Giftor, more appropriately, parts of The Devil's Gift. Berton would direct a film in 1996 titled Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, featuring Ernest Borgnine "as a grandfather telling his grandson a story about the wizard Merlin opening up a store in the modern-day United States." It's an anthology with two segments, but instead of shooting a brand new second story, Berton recycled The Devil's Gift. He cleaved out story chunks, added a few sequences where Merlin chases the monkey toy, and voil! You've got the back half of some oddball fantasy flick where Merlin ruins people's lives with his magical creations.MST3K would eventually dedicate an episode to Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, where Merlin's interference would taint Berton's butchered version of The Devil's Gift. Instead of a Ouija board unleashing evils powerful enough to blow up a house, doofy criminals steal The Monkey, and that's how it ends up in a small town's pawn shop. None of the beginning exposition matters, nor "boring" scenes between the monkey's horrors. What's left of The Devil's Gift is a deceased goldfish, a dead dog (boo, R.I.P. Sparkles), and David's frantic attempt to discard his sons devilish birthday gift before it kills again.The Merlin Cut of The Devil's Gift is prime MST3K fodder. Berton's full-length version of The Devil's Gift from 1984 never made waves, but at least attempted some semblance of storytelling. Oh, you replaced what little coherent plot that existed with Merlin running around America, trying to collect misfit objects? Yeah, the MST3K crew had a field day between "Rock and Roll Martian" and a fortune tellers "Bethagram" necklace (whatever that means, but it looks like a knock-off sheriffs star). Berton's attempt at double-dipping backfires, especially considering how the original film at least dared to end things on a bleak-as-heck note. Merlin's version wraps on a cutesy little button-up where everything's just dandy.So I guess there are technically two unofficial movies that beat Perkins' The Monkey to the punch? And one involves Merlin. And theyre both technically the same movie. Ish. Kinda?PlayAs of today, there are no definitive answers as to whether The Devil's Gift wanted to be an adaptation of "The Monkey" or not. It's easy to speculate about unmissable influences, and many have (many, in this case, being relative to the very few people who have seen the film). King was never involved, nor was the property cited, and "The Monkey" wasn't even published outside Gallery pages until 1985's Skeleton Crewbut c'mon. The empirical evidence is everywhere. People recognize Child's Play as one of the killer doll subgenre's crowning achievements, but even its imitators found ways around outright duplication. Why not make your figurine an elephant instead of keeping it a monkey and highlighting the elephant in the room?The Devil's Gift is one of those video store rentals from the 80s worth checking out for its audacity alone. It's not fooling anyone (re: The Monkey), which is suspiciously charming. Although, it's hard not to recommend MST3K's Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders episode instead. Who needs all that pesky exposition, endless dad chores, and random costumed creatures? If all you want are the down-and-dirty highlights of this Stephen King imposter, trust in Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot. It's the primer for Perkins The Monkey you never knew existedseparated at birth but tethered nonetheless.The Best Stephen King Movies of All Time

I spend most of my days scrolling through Instagram in search of the latest trend or design idea. Over the last few months, Ive noticed a clear change in how most of us have been decorating our kitchens. Gone are the days of wall-to-wall kitchen cabinetry and the perfect work triangle layout. Instead, weve entered the era of the collected kitchen. And I dont just mean collected decor (which is also great!)I mean the furniture. Welcome to return age of the unfitted kitchen.Once a wholly British approach to kitchen design, unfitted kitchens, also known as freestanding kitchens, are defined by a sort of happily hodgepodge feel that comes together over timethink slow decorating at its finest. Below, weve broken down exactly what an unfitted kitchen is, why people are suddenly obsessed with them, and how you can easily get the look in your own kitchen space. FOR MORE KITCHEN DESIGN IDEAS: What is an Unfitted Kitchen? Put simply, an unfitted kitchen relies less on built-in cabinetry and more on freestanding furniture piecesnothing is anchored to a wallor a combination of both. The unfitted kitchen is more of a furnished room with appliances and kitchen items included than a generic kitchen, says Helen Parker, the creative director of beloved British kitchen design firm deVOL. Instead of glass-fronted upper wall cabinets, you find a tall step-back cupboard. Instead of a built-in, marble-topped island, an unfitted kitchen makes do with a happily worn farmhouse table. These types of kitchens prioritize personality, utility, and a gathered-over-time approach to decorating over uniformity and perfection. Are Unfitted Kitchens Trending? Yes, and its not hard to see why. Their flexibility, ease of installation, and design choices make them an appealing choice for clients building, renovating, or refreshing an existing space, says designer Tanya Smith-Shiflet, founder of Unique Kitchens and Baths. While the concept of a freestanding kitchen isnt new (also look back at early American kitchens!), its being reinvigorated thanks to the growing popularity of British kitchen design. Additionally, American designers and homeowners have only recently started adopting this new-old style thanks to a growing rejection of sameness and a renewed emphasis on personality-forward decorating (see: maximalism and cluttercore). These once-niche design aesthetics based entirely on personal expressions of style, especially those with a flair for antique accents (see: cottagecore), are set to dominate the design zeitgeist in 2025. FOR MORE KITCHEN INSPIRATION:What are the Key Elements of an Unfitted Kitchen? Many of these five Brit-borrowed elements translate easily to kitchens stateside with just a bit of clever thinking. Just dont forget to stick to a palette of muddy paint colors to really hammer home the British feel. Clean-Lined Cabinetry Freestanding kitchens still require some cabinetry, though designers prefer to keep cabinetry confined to a single area, such as along a single wall or just flanking the stove, to allow freestanding pieces to make up the majority of the kitchens storage. The cabinets themselves should feature simple doors, such as Shaker-style doors. RELATED: A Guide to Standard Kitchen Cabinetry Dimensions and SizesFreestanding Furniture Standalone pieces make unfitted kitchens what they are, and reflect that uniquely British perspective that made them so popular in the first place. A classic English country kitchen has few built-ins, if any, says designer Kathryn Ireland. Instead, antique step-back cupboards, hutches, and armoires constitute a majority of an unfitted kitchens storage space. Not only do these pieces add a mix-and-match ease, they also offer an economical approach to decorating. You can buy a reasonably inexpensive pantry cupboard at a flea market or antique fair, play around, paint it, add new hardware, or add caf curtains inside the doors if they are glazed, and suddenly you have something special and unique to you," says Helen Parker of deVOL.Workhorse Tables 2025 is the year of island-less kitchens, and trading them for a farmhouse table makes the transition an easy one. Not only does this swap save some money, it adds cozy, country house charm to any kitchen. When we spoke to Leanne Ford about the growing popularity of tables-as-islands earlier this year in our vintage decorating trend report, she hit the nail on the head: I, of course, love the way it looks, but even more, I love the way it feels and the way it brings my family together.RELATED: More Stylish Kitchen Island Ideas for Kitchens Large and SmallInteresting Lighting Following the idea that unfitted kitchens should be unique and not-at-all standard, interesting lighting choices are key. While overhead recessed lighting is (unfortunately) necessary, they dont have to be the only source of light in your kitchen. Instead, opt for layers of lighting with small lamps, one-off picture lights, or a set of sconces flanking the sink or over open shelving. Keep in mind that Brits also prefer a more bare-bones approach to lighting, favoring industrial-style pendant lights or simple ceramic sconces. RELATED: 45 Farmhouse Kitchen Lighting Ideas to Brighten Your Cook SpaceAntique AccentsWhile this may be an optional aspect, antiques are, in our opinion, essential in bringing an unfitted kitchen to life. As Helen mentioned, the spirit of an unfitted kitchen is a room that you cook in, not a space dedicated to the cold machinations of feeding oneself. Shifting that mindset begins with adding layers of personality and decor to the space. So, yes: The kitchen is a place for your favorite crusty landscape portraits or seascapes. Your antique pottery and old copper cookware will sit happily next to your brand-new range or air fryer. RELATED: Start Shopping! The 100+ Best Places to Shop for Antiques and Vintage OnlineExamples of Unfitted Kitchens Brie Williams for Country LivingA simple pine hutch, sit-on-top plate rack, and antique table-turned-island bring this classic farmhouse kitchen together. Buff Strickland for Country LivingIn this Texas farmhouse kitchen designed by Claire Zinnecker, simple Shaker-style cabinets line the back wall while a freestanding antique sink fits happily under the window and an antique potting table acts as the island.Nick JohnsonIn this Michigan kitchen designed by Erica Harrison, a farmhouse table with an antique feel offers up plenty of pretty prep space. Rikki Snyder for Country LivingAn antique china cabinet, painted Palm by Farrow & Ball to match the small row of cabinetry, looms large in this collected kitchen.Victoria Pearson, styling by Liz StrongIn this farmhouse kitchen full of salvaged charm, there are no built-in cabinets to be seen. Instead, a large step-back cupboard and sets of antique drawers offer up storage. The kitchen island is pieced together from bits of reclaimed wood. MORE KITCHEN INSPIRATION:Anna LoganSenior Homes & Style EditorAnna Logan is the Senior Homes & Style Editor at Country Living, where she covers design and decorating trends, home features, and gift guides. She also produces home features and styles content for the print magazine. When she isnt working, can often be found digging around antique shops for the perfect find. Follow her adventures on Instagram!

"Humans cannot really understand them."From smartphones to modems to air traffic radar, you'll be hard pressed to find communications infrastructure that doesn't use wireless chips.So far, those chips have been designed by humans but that might be set to change: an international team of engineering researchers has demonstrated a wild new approach to wireless microchip design powered by AI.The effort,published in the journalNature, describes how deep learning was used to dream up new chip layouts and while the chips seem to work, the researchers say they're not entirely sure how.The designs "look randomly shaped," lead researcher Kaushik Sengupta, an electrical engineer at Princeton, toldLive Science. "Humans cannot really understand them."Indeed, photos of the chips have a bit of an alien design, as if H.R. Giger'sHarvard's Avi Loeb have suggested that AI could be better understood as an alien intelligence than an imitation of our own cognition. (After all, experts argue, even the people building today's AI don't quite understand how it works.)In tests, the deep learning model came up with highly optimized electromagnetic structures that, when tested, outperformed their human-designed counterparts. The researchers found that their model was well suited to an inverse synthesis design approach, basically starting from the desired result and letting the model work backward to fill in the blanks.And on a practical level it's a potential bellwether for the future of millimeter-wave wireless chips, a $4.5 billion dollar industry that's expected to grow triple in size over the next six years.The current approach to designing those chips is tedious, banking on a mix of expert knowledge, battle-tested templates, and good old trial-and-error. That process typically takes days to weeks of synthesis, emulation, and real-life testing, and even then, humans have a difficult time comprehending the astronomically complex geometry of the chips they produce.Sengupta is keen to point out that this is a tool, not the end-all-be-all for hardware engineering, especially because the deep-learning algorithm hallucinated faulty designs just as well as it produced effective ones."There are pitfalls that still require human designers to correct," Segupta said in a blurb about the research. "The point is not to replace human designers with tools. The point is to enhance productivity with new tools. The human mind is best utilized to create or invent new things, and the more mundane, utilitarian work can be offloaded to these tools."The AI model's current output is small electromagnetic structures, but looking to the future, researchers will likely use these and similar findings to develop ever-more complex circuits by chaining these smaller structures together.It's an exciting find for researchers, but it does invoke an alarming possibility: that soon enough, we could be using AI-designed tech without quite understanding how it works.More on AI research: There May Be Downsides Now That Mark Zuckerberg Can Read Your Thoughts With a Scanning DeviceShare This Article

An international team of researchers has made an ominous discovery: our planet's glaciers are melting at even more alarming rates than previously predicted, in large part due to human-driven climate change.As detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature, the team estimated that ice loss accelerated from about 255 billion tons a year between 2000 and 2011 to 346 billion tons annually between 2012 and 2023. And the recent years from 2019 to 2023 represented the largest annual ice loss, averaging more than 440 billion tons a year and setting a new record in 2023 by losing 604 billion tons of ice."To put this in perspective, the 273 billion tonnes of ice lost in one single year amounts to what the entire global population consumes in 30 years, assuming three liters per person and day," said University of Zurich professor and coauthor Michael Zemp in a statement.In short, this is the terrifying new reality of the climate."The thing that people should be aware of and perhaps worried about is that yes, the glaciers are indeed retreating and disappearing as we said they would," Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland glaciologist and coauthor William Colgan told the Associated Press. "The rate of that loss seems to be accelerating."The rate of acceleration is even higher than the most recent assessment by the United Nations IPCC climate panel, as Agence France-Presse reports."Hence, we are facing higher sea-level rise until the end of this century than expected before," Zemp told the outlet.Many small glaciers "will not survive the present century," he added.The biggest losses were recorded in Alaska, where ice retreated at the fastest rate of any of the 19 regions the researchers studied around the world. Glaciers in central Europe also lost a whopping 39 percent of their ice compared to 2000 levels,with scientists now worrying that many of the Alps' glaciers could eventually disappear altogether."Glaciers are apolitical and unbiased sentinels of climate change, and their decline paints a clear picture of accelerated warming," Simon Fraser University Earth Sciences professor Gwenn Flowers told the AP, "and their decline paints a clear picture of accelerated warming."Unsurprisingly, the culprit is humanity's extremely harmful treatment of the environment."Its due to greenhouse gas increases caused directly by coal, oil, and natural gas burning," University of Colorado ice scientist Ted Scambos, who was not involved in the study, told the AP. "No amount of rhetoric, tweeting, or proclamation will change that."And unfortunately, we're headed in the wrong direction, with president Donald Trump's "drill, baby, drill," mantra expected to result in the ramping up of fossil fuel extraction and burning.The renewed plans shocked even oil and gas executives, and could greatly undermine the United States' contributions to cutting carbon emissions.Researchers have warned that the Earth's glaciers are facing a point of no return. For instance, scientists found last year that the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica has experienced an irreversible retreat.While we've long known that glacier loss is accelerating, the latest study suggests the situation is even worse than we thought."If youre losing 5.5 percent of the global ice volume in just over 20 years, clearly thats not sustainable," Colgan told the AP. "That's going to catch up with you."For humanity to survive, "you have to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, it is as simple and as complicated as that," Zemp told the AFP. "Every tenth of a degree warming that we avoid saves us money, saves us lives, saves us problems."More on glaciers: Scientists Horrified by What They Found Under the Doomsday GlacierShare This Article