Photo by Tian Fangfang. All images courtesy of GN Architects, shared with permissionMinimal Blades Flutter in the Breeze in a Shoreline Installation on Chinas Chaishan IslandFebruary 28, 2025ArtDesignGrace EbertOn an abandoned pier on Chaishan Islands shore, an elegant installation rocks in the wind. Completed in 2023 by GN Architects, The Seaside Pavillion rests on a coastal trail frequented by tourists and locals alike. The dynamic construction features dozens of elastic-wrapped blades that, when caught by a breeze, flit and flutter, echoing both the movement of the tide and creating a semi-shaded space for respite. During the day, the leaves are closed, the designers say in a statement. In the morning and evening, when the tide starts to rise, the wings open and dance under the drive of the buoy, forming a romantic and magical scene.Once a fishing community, Chaishan today is mainly a tourist destination. Only 100 elderly residents still live on the island as many have left for larger cities. The Seaside Pavillion was commissioned by the Zhoushan governments Hello, Island initiative to attract more people to move to the sparsely populated area. While appearing delicate, the blades are designed to be resilient and to withstand typhoons. Fishing ropes provide their structure, while a rubber and steel armature creates a strong, hardy base. When a tropical cyclone threatens the island, caretakers can tie the blades down to prevent damage.You can find more from GN Architects, whose projects span installations, landscapes, interiors, and more, on its website. (via designboom)Photo by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunPhoto by Liang WenjunNext article

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Panos Panay, Amazons senior vice president of devices and services, talks about Alexa+ at the ... [+] launch event in New York earlier this week.Anshel SagAt an event in New York City this week, Amazon launched the next generation of its Alexa assistant the Alexa+ which has been rearchitected to run agentic generative AI models. Company leaders including CEO Andy Jassy and senior vice president Panos Panay led the discussion, describing how the companys journey with AI has led it to build a new version of Alexa based on generative AI and more natural user interfaces. Alexa already exists in many platforms, ranging from smart home speakers and smartphones to automobiles and TVs. Alexas strength has always been in smart-home applications, especially bolstered by acquisitions such as Ring and Eero.Although Alexa has been around for years and has a large installed base, Amazon is a bit behind the curve now, given that many other companies are already offering agentic AI solutions that power next-generation assistants. Because the age of agentic AI began just last year, were still seeing those agents evolve and improve rapidly. While Alexa+ may be a bit late to the show, I do believe that Amazons approach to it may end up being more meaningful for users and should inform Amazons overall direction with consumer AI.Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on stage talking about the companys AI strategyAnshel SagWhat Is Different About Alexa+?Amazon stated that Alexa+ is based on four pillars. The company wants to ensure that Alexa+ is:Conversational Amazon wants Alexa+ to feel more natural and not like a traditional electronic assistant.Personalized Alexa+ is engineered to understand your individual needs and learn new ones as they arise.Action-Oriented Alexa+ acts on your behalf, for example by planning, shopping and making arrangements for you.Smarter Amazon wants Alexa+ to be knowledgeable and approachable for users.Amazon redesigned Alexa+ so it can show how it understands what you are saying through a combination of speech-to-text and blue icons that show how Alexa+ is responding. Alexa is now more than 10 years old, and Amazon wants users to move away from Alexa Speak and towards a new type of conversational engagement that feels more natural and expressive. This also means that users can now create routines by voice rather than needing to create complex routines in the Alexa app.On stage, Amazon showed a really interesting demo of the capability to use Alexa+ while listening to music and then contextually find and jump to the exact moment in a movie that the music is in, using the example of 2018s A Star is Born on Prime Video. You can also shift the music youre playing from room to room or even parts of a room, all with voice commands. Another demo used an integration between Ring and Alexa+ to easily query video recordings for things like package deliveries or letting out the pets.In addition to the demos on stage, Amazon also showed off how one could build shopping lists using Alexa+ and how the device can easily tap into services like Amazon Fresh or the Whole Foods app to make ordering food even easier. The ability to ask for ingredients based on pre-known recipes is very useful, and Amazon says that youll be able to bring your own recipes into Alexa+ to make shopping for your next meal even easier. While the OpenTable integration is also fairly interesting, there are still some roadblocks in the way, for example restaurants that require a credit card to confirm a reservation.Amazon says that Alexa+ will connect to thousands of services and devices to enable Alexa+ to take actions for customers. This means working with partners beyond OpenTable and adding companies such as Dyson, Plex, Samsung and Hulu to enable next-generation home AI experiences. Over time, Alexa+ should be able to learn which apps to use based on understanding the users intent; with so many connected apps in the ecosystem, theres a lot of goodness to be had.Amazons Mara Segal giving more demos of Alexa+Anshel SagFocusing On The In-Home Experience With Alexa+While Amazon was not the first to market with an agentic AI assistant, it is clear that the compnays focus is still very much on improving the in-home experience, as the examples shared above suggest. There was no talk about how Alexa+ will work on mobile devices or in automobiles areas where Amazon could potentially see growth opportunities. Currently the Alexa in my Mustang Mach-E isnt very useful for me, but with Alexa+ it could get a lot more use, even if it has to compete with Google Assistant.Amazon had the right idea of trying to integrate Alexa into the car because I believe that with increased autonomy, cars will become the mobile living room of the future. Being able to connect the device intelligence you have built at home with Alexa+ would be extremely powerful on the go in the car or on the phone. There are so many ways that Alexa+ could keep you informed about whats going on at home through your phone, it seems inevitable that it would be more powerful with a better mobile experience.Alexa+ Pricing And AvailabilityAmazon says that Alexa+ will cost $20 a month but be free for Amazon Prime users. Early access will begin in March and start with availability for the Echo Show 8, 10, 15 and 21 devices. However, the company did say that it eventually plans to support Alexa+ on the majority of existing Alexa devices. There is a chance that some of the oldest Alexa smart speakers might not be compatible; I think that if you want to use Alexa+, you should probably consider at least an Echo Show 10. I currently have an Echo Show 8, but I dont think thats going to create a good experience with Alexa+.Analyst Takeaways From The Alexa+ AnnouncementWhile Amazon definitely feels like its late in some ways to the agentic AI party, it did deliver a strong showing right off the bat with the first Alexa+ demos. Amazon knows the smart home space very well, and I think that with Alexa+, Amazon is continuing to lean into that heritage, because it very much feels like Alexa+ will live nicely in the kitchen, the living room and even the bedroom.I do believe that Amazon needs a stronger mobile and automotive story to complement the at-home interactions with smart speakers and smart displays. It doesnt make sense for users to invest so much time and effort into using an AI agent like Alexa+ at home, only to lose that richness and personalization once they get in the car or leave the home. If Im right that the automobile will eventually become the moving living room for many users, it could create a huge opportunity for Amazon. Although Amazon has had a hard time in the past with building its own smartphones, really all I think it needs to start down that road is a good mobile app experience.

AspyrVideo games are sailing through the age of the remake. The likes of Resident Evil 4Final Fantasy VIIBut as dazzling as those games are, we all get an itch to play something from our childhood from time to time, exactly as it was back then. Fortunately, the need to climb into the attic and dust the cobwebs off of a PlayStation One or a Sega Mega Drive has passed as playing the classics on a current console has never been easier.These five remasters wont just take you on a trip down memory lane, but theyll also teach you a thing or two about gamings history, from how storytelling has evolved to the technological advances the industry has made in the decades since their release.Halo: The Master Chief CollectionAvailable on: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PCMicrosoftThere are few first-person shooters more influential than the Halo games and this compilation, which was first released in 2014, bundles everything together in one neat package.After a series of updates, it now includes a whopping six games in total, from 2001s Halo: Combat Evolved, all the way up to 2012s Halo 4 and everything in between. Tweaks like an improved frame rate and polished visuals make this the definitive way to experience these classic games. Not only will it give you a dousing of sentimentality, but itll show you how Halo evolved as a franchise, shaping the FPS genre along the way.Metroid Prime RemasteredAvailable on: Nintendo SwitchNintendoAlong with the Halo games, 2002s Metroid Prime will go down in history as one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time, but 2023s remastered port managed to take the game a step further by updating the originals awkward control scheme (which now includes the ability to use both sticks) and adding a stunning layer of detail to the visuals.In case you missed it when it was first released on the Gamecube, Prime was the 3D debut of series protagonist Samus. Shes dropped onto a hostile alien planet filled with space pirates who are dabbling with biotechnology - for nefarious reasons, of course. The game sweetly combined rapid action with a series of intuitive puzzles. Its the perfect game to play while we wait for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond to be released.Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 1Available on: PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PCKonamiThe highly anticipated remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, is on the horizon with its release date now confirmed as August 28, but Konamis superb remastered collection of games from 2023 should not be overlooked.Its a chunky package, combining 1987s Metal Gear and 1990s Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake with the HD versions of the first three games in Hideo Kojimas pre-eminent series, starting with 1998s Metal Gear Solid through to 2004s Snake Eater. The games hold up tremendously well, largely thanks to their stylish and ludicrous method of storytelling.Each game also comes with a glossy digital screenplay and an encyclopaedia book which adds another layer of insight into these influential titles; a supplementary addition that many modern remasters fail to include.Tomb Raider 1-6 RemasteredAvailable on: PS5/PS4, Xbox Series XS/Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PCAspyrRevisiting Lara Crofts globe-trotting adventures is a sure fire way to evoke a slice of nostalgia. Developer Aspyr released two trilogies collecting the initial six Tomb Raider games from 1995s Tomb Raider, right through to 2003s Angel of Darkness, launching them exactly a year apart on February 14, Laras in-game birthday.Theres an option to play each title with glossy new visuals and modernised controls, which allows you to move Lara with the left stick and rotate the camera with the right. However, rather smartly, Aspyr has included an option to revert back to the originals visual style and tank control scheme.Playing them decades later serves as a reminder of why they became so important; Tomb Raider offered a mature narrative and used mind-blowing polygonal graphics that were nascent in the nineties. Plus, in Lara they had an iconic female lead at a time when women werent commonly featured as main characters in video games that has since transcended gaming.The Thing RemasteredAvailable on: PS5/PS4, Xbox Series XS/Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PCNight Dive StudiosNight Dive Studios could have featured on this list several times. The Washington-based developer has made a name for itself by remastering games such as Star Wars: Dark Forces, Turok and System Shock, but it was 2024s The Thing Remastered that became its biggest hit; the third-person shooter became Night Dives fastest selling game after it was launched in December, according to a report released by its parent company, Atari.No official sales figures have been revealed, but the game has proven a hit with players and critics alike. Its unsurprising as it became a cult smash when it was first released in 2002, shifting over one million copies. Its a direct sequel to John Carpenters seminal 1982 film, The Thing, where we play as Captain J.F. Blake, a special forces soldier who leads a team on a mission to investigate Outpost 31 - the same facility where the films gory events took place.

Why it matters: If you use ChatGPT and have noticed its slow response time, OpenAI just confirmed that it is due to a lack of processing power. The company is scrambling to install thousands of GPUs by next week, with hundreds of thousands more "coming soon." In the meantime, the shortage has prompted the company to slow-roll the release of GPT-4.5. OpenAI just released GPT-4.5, but average users won't have access yet. The model is only available on the company's $200/month Pro tier. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman explained that the plan was to release the model simultaneously on Plus and Pro subscriptions. However, a shortage of GPUs has forced the company to stagger its release.In recent weeks, ChatGPT users have noticed slow response times from the GPT-4o model. Altman noted that the platform has undergone significant growth and doesn't have the extra processing power to accommodate all of its users, making the launch of the "giant, expensive" GPT-4.5 problematic.Fortunately, OpenAI already has "tens of thousands" of GPUs on hand that technicians will install next week. After that, the company can complete the rollout for Plus users. Beyond that, the company has "hundreds of thousands" of GPUs on order, which Altman is sure will not entirely satisfy capacity."Hundreds of thousands [of GPUs are] coming soon, and I'm pretty sure y'all will use every one we can rack up," the CEO said. "This isn't how we want to operate, but it's hard to perfectly predict growth surges that lead to GPU shortages."We have all felt the effects of these shortages, and it's one of the reasons that OpenAI wants to branch into chip development. Last July, the company reportedly held talks with Broadcom about designing AI chips and reducing its reliance on Nvidia. The talks must have been very productive since insiders say OpenAI is prepared to send TSMC a custom chip design for validation within the next few months. If all goes well, mass production will begin in 2026. // Related StoriesRegarding the performance of OpenAI's latest AI, Altman noted that GPT-4.5 is not a reasoning model, so users should not expect it to blow benchmarks out of the water. That said, there is a certain kind of "magic" to the intelligence that Altman finds impressive."It is the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person to me," Altman touted. "I have had several moments where I've sat back in my chair and been astonished at getting actually good advice from an AI."At this stage, I would not take advice from an AI, let alone pay for it. That said, OpenAI is starting to get pricing to the sweet spot. Its Plus tier is $20 per month, which is not bad but lacks the unlimited access the $200 Pro version has. The free tier has unlimited access to GPT-4o mini, which is enough for most average users. If OpenAI could get Plus subscriptions to $15 or lower, it would attract more of the casual crowd.

James Gunn loves to interact with curious fans on social media. His latest interaction might disappoint fans of Harry Potter.Earlier this week, Jeff Sneider of The InSneider reported that Radcliffe is one of DC Studios rumored choices to star in Clayface. Gunn saw the rumor and took to Threads to deny Radcliffes involvement.Recommended VideosAs we confirmed the other day, were closing a deal with James [Watkins] to direct, Gunn wrote on Threads. Because we dont have a director yet, we havent even started the casting process. Daniel is great but we certainly havent talked to or considered him. So this one is 100% false.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThis wouldnt be the first time Radcliffe has been fancast into a superhero role. Internet rumors suggested that Radcliffe was circling the role of Wolverine in the X-Men franchise. Radcliffe has repeatedly denied the reports.As Gunn mentioned, Speak No Evil director James Watkinsis closing in on a deal to direct Clayface for DC Studios. Mike Flanagan penned the screenplay, but the horror maestro could not direct due to his commitment to the new Exorcistmovie.Clayfaceis the shapeshifting villain and primary antagonist of Batman. However, Flanagans Clayfacewill likely not serve as a vehicle to square off against the Caped Crusader. Instead,DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran describedClayfaceas a body horror film, while Gunn hopes the movie works as a pure horror movie for somebody who doesnt care at all about DC.Casting will begin shortly after Watkins signs his deal. Per Gunn, one actor who will not play Clayface is Alan Tudyk, who voices the character in Creature CommandosHarley Quinn.Clayfacewill begin filming later this year, with casting beginning soon after Watkins signs his deal.Clayfaceopens in theaters on September 11, 2026.Editors Recommendations

JackeryThe International Builders Show 2025 just wrapped up, with thousands of exhibitors showing off the latest in home and construction technology. Jackery had a big presence during the event, offering a closer look at its new Explorer 5000 Plus solar generator and an exciting look at the future of solar roofing giving homeowners a unique new way to power all their appliances.Backup power solutions are becoming an increasingly important part of a well-rounded smart home, providing you with a simple way to keep your home running during emergencies. The Jackery 5000 Plus is designed as an elegant solution that requires little maintenance or manual input. Capable of connecting directly to your home via the Jackery Smart Transfer Switch, it automatically activates as soon as an outage is detected. This gives you peace of mind that all your critical appliances, medical devices, and electronics will continue to function even if the grid goes down.Recommended VideosIts packed with some impressive specs too, including 7200W output and expandable storage up to 60kWh, nearly silent operation, a fume-free design thats ideal for indoor use, and the option to recharge the unit with solar panels to extend its battery life. It also supports both 120V and 240V for added flexibility when it comes to powering your gear.JackerySpeaking of solar power, Jackery used IBS 2025 to showcase the Jackery Solar Roof. Displayed earlier this year at CES 2025, the Jackery Solar Roof serves as both your roof tiling and your solar panels. So instead of slapping unsightly solar panels on your home, the Solar Roof is a more robust alternative. Boasting a stylish, curved design that converts sunlight into energy, the tiles come with an impressive 30-year warranty and withstand extreme temperatures, making them suitable for most climates throughout the United States.Please enable Javascript to view this contentBetter yet, theyre durable enough to withstand high winds and hail, ensuring they provide a reliable source of energy for years to come. Theyre available in either obsidian or terracotta, giving homeowners flexibility when it comes to matching their preferred aesthetic.The Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus is available in a variety of formats, with the entry-level model starting at $3,499 and scaling upward to around $7,999 when bundled with the Smart Transfer Switch and accounting for professional installation. Pricing for the Jackery Solar Roof varies based on the size of the home, though expect to spend between $13,000 and $27,000, including installation fees. That sounds quite expensive, but compared to competing models from Tesla and other brands, Jackerys solution is much more affordable.Visit the official Jackery website to learn more about all the products at IBS 2025.Editors Recommendations

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