They say time flies when youre having fun, but with this watch, time floats instead! The latest creation from The Trio of Time and Hey Studio turns timekeeping into an ever-shifting spectacle, where bold numerals drift inside an oil-filled display like a snow globe or lava lamp for your wrist. The numbers1, 7, 8, and 3dont sit in place like in a traditional watch. Instead, they float freely, nudged by movement, while the thick hour and minute hands point the way forward. Its not just a watchits a playful experiment in perception, a reminder that time doesnt stop for anyone, and maybe, that it doesnt have to be taken so seriously.Images dont do justice to the Time for Fun, which responds much better to videos and GIFs (like the one below). At first glance, Time for Fun looks deceptively simple. A black case frames a crisp white background, setting the stage for the fluid dance of numerals. The hour hand, cleverly designed to match the color of one of the floating numbers, adds a touch of intuitive readability. The whole piece is a study in contrastprecise engineering meets chaotic movement, function meets whimsy. And while theres no second hand ticking away, the restless movement of the numbers gives a sense of time passing in its own unpredictable way.Designers: The Trio Of Time (Anicorn Watches) and Hey Studio (Vernica Fuerte)Anicorns Trio of Time project has always been about reinterpreting time through creative collaborations. Their past designs have leaned into unconventional displays and graphic-heavy aesthetics, and Time for Fun continues that tradition. Teaming up with Barcelona-based Hey Studio, known for its bold, colorful work, the result is a timepiece that feels both nostalgic and futuristic. The primary color palettered, blue, and yellowchannels the energy of classic Bauhaus design, while the striped watch straps reinforce the theme of playful, kinetic motion. The entire package exudes the kind of joy found in childhood toys, where even the simplest objects could spark endless fascination.The oil-filled display is the real star of the show, creating a mesmerizing visual effect where the numerals seem to hover weightlessly. This liquid-based design isnt new to watchmakingbrands like Ressence have used oil to create near-frictionless dialsbut Time for Fun takes a different approach. Instead of refining precision, it embraces randomness, making time feel more organic and fluid. Its a stark contrast to the rigid timekeeping were used to, where every second is accounted for in mechanical precision. Here, time shifts and flows, asking wearers to engage with it in a more instinctive way.This isnt Anicorns first venture into unorthodox timepieces. Their collaborations with NASA and other designers have resulted in watches that challenge traditional formats, from mission-inspired chronometers to more minimalist, whimsical timepieces like the Spinning Beach Ball watch. With Time for Fun, theyve taken a step into pure abstraction, stripping timekeeping down to its most essential elements and injecting a sense of movement that feels alive. Its a departure from the structured elegance of their previous designs, but one that still carries the brands signature focus on graphic and conceptual storytelling.With a release date set for March 4th, 2025, Time for Fun is poised to be a statement piece for those who see time as more than a rigid sequence of minutes and hours. Instead, it becomes something to be observed, enjoyed, and maybe even questioneda swirling, floating reminder that time moves, but it doesnt always have to be measured and that staring at your watch can be an act of observing art, rather than just functionally reading time.The post Like A Lava Lamp For Your Wrist: Meet the Time for Fun Watch with Floating Numerals first appeared on Yanko Design.

DOGE claims that a government agency has nearly three times as many software licenses as employees. Experts say there are plenty of good reasons for that.

One Architecture & Urbanism(ONE)is involved in a new RFP released by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) calling to make the beloved Coney Island section of Brooklyn "more livable" with 1,500 new residential units. The plan additionally calls for the $42 million renovation of a sports and recreation center and the reconstruction of the historic Riegelmann Boardwalk.Image rendering courtesy of One Architecture & UrbanismTwo new streets Ocean Way and Parachute Way will accompany the new development. It is better known as 'Parcel A' of ONEs "Coney Island West" master plan, which began in 2019. The NYCEDC's CEO, Andrew Kimball, said he wants to see it to be realized as a "place where New Yorkers can live, learn, work, and play year-round."The firm is also included in theEast Side Coastal Resiliency Project(ESCR).

Archinect readers have once again weighed in on their predictions for the winner of the Pritzker Prize. The 2025 winner of what is arguably architectures most prestigious accolade will be announced on Tuesday, March 4th.Last year, 2024 winner Riken Yamamoto appeared as an unexpected choice from the community, with no readers correctly guessing the ultimate winner. Those who fear humans are losing their competitive edge over machines can, however, take comfort in the fact that none of the AI models we asked predicted the correct winner either.This years jury will be chaired by Alejandro Aravena for the seventh consecutive year, joined by Barry Bergdoll, Deborah Berke, Stephen Breyer, Andr Aranha Corra do Lago, Anne Lacaton, Hashim Sarkis, Kazuyo Sejima, and Manuela Luc-Dazio.Who will they choose as the 2025 winner? Here are some predictions from Archinect readers:Kengo Kuma was among the most popular predictions, with user meteoricc including Kuma as one of several names alo...

Velan Studios has announced that Midnight Murder Club is coming to PS5 and PC as an Early Access title on March 13. Game director Eric Feurstein took to the PlayStation Blog to reveal details on the PS5 launch of the game, including a new game mode.Joining Free for All, Thief in the Night, Team Deathmatch and Headhunters is the new Wildcards mode. The mode revolves around breaking established rules of the game to cause more chaos. Players get to pick cards in the Wildcards mode, each of which can have different effects on the game, from all players getting super speed to player deaths causing explosive flames.Midnight Murder Club is also getting a Guest Pass Edition, which allows friends of players who already own the game to join in on the fun without having to buy a separate copy. Each person that buys a copy of Midnight Murder Club gets five Guest Pass Editions that they can give to their friends. The Guest Pass Edition features all current game modes and zero time limits.Midnight Murder Club is a six-player shooter set in a pitch-black mansion. Players dont have much in the way of light sources, and will have to figure out the positions of their opponents using unconventional means, like keeping an eye out for their muzzle flashes. Players will also have flashlights that have the unfortunate side-effect of giving their own positions away as well.The PS5 release of Midnight Murder Club was originally announced all the way back in December 2024. The studio will also be taking feedback from its players as development on the game continues.As a member of the Midnight Murder Club, your opinion on the direction the club should go matters, wrote Feurstein in the announcement. Were determined to evolve this game with the community as we continue developing through Early Access. We want your opinions and ideas, which will help shape our roadmap (which well be sharing before launch!).Midnight Murder Club will be priced at $19.99.

Capcoms Monster Hunter Wilds is already breaking records for the company, with over 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam (and rising). As for the future, Capcom has confirmed some new details for Title Update 1, including an early April release and the return of the Gathering Hub.Introduced in Monster Hunter World, the Gathering Hub allowed players in the lobby to hang out and interact with each other in various ways (including arm-wrestling contests). Wilds version remains to be detailed, though youll have to finish the main story to access it. Capcom also promises a new level of challenge with a monster of formidable strength at a level above Tempered!It also promises another challenging monster, though its unknown if either refers to Mizutsune. Per the roadmap, players can also look forward to new features and Event Quests. Title Update 2, out this Summer, introduces another monster yet to be revealed.Stay tuned for further information in the coming weeks. Monster Hunter Wilds is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. You can read our review here.

It may be difficult to believe in this time of Zoom, Google Meet, and Slack, but at one point, Skype was one of the primary ways to make contact with friends, family, and colleagues. First released in 2003 and, after going through several owners, finally purchased by Microsoft in 2011, the app allowed you to make phone calls and eventually video calls over the internet. For its time, it was a major convenience. Unfortunately, the once-popular app was fated to be neglected and ignored, and it has finally reached its end. Microsoft has announced that it is shutting Skype down on May 5th; current users will be encouraged to move to Teams or to export their data. But although Skype will be gone, the memories it evokes not to mention the sound of its weird and wonderful ringtone will stay with many of us for years to come.Here are some thoughts from The Verges staff on Skypes passing.Skype was my lifeline back home.In 2006, I was 18 and did a thing only brash teenagers could do: I left the country on my own to live in Japan for seven years. This was before smartphones, when you had to have international calling cards, and my family had only gotten high-speed internet access the year before. On the one hand, I was excited about an adventure in a place where I knew no one and wasnt fluent in the local language. On the other hand, I was petrified. Skype was my lifeline back home. All of my high school friends were on it, and it was cheaper than calling my family with expensive international minutes. The call quality wasnt always great, and the time difference between Tokyo and New York City was tough. But in those early days, it was comforting to set up Skype dates with people who I knew loved me. That distinctive Skype ringtone was a reminder that I could always go home if I wanted to. Nearly a decade later, when my dad had to leave the US to receive more affordable medical treatment in Korea, Skype was the only video chat software he knew how to use. It became the main way I could see him for several months before his health declined. Eventually, we all moved on to other chat and video apps. My Japanese friends all use LINE, and my Korean family all uses KakaoTalk. FaceTime, Zoom, and Google Meet pretty much cover the rest of my friends. I havent thought of Skype in a hot second. But now that its going away, I am grateful it was there for me during some of the hardest moments of my life. Victoria Song, senior reviewerThose long-distance calls were expensive if you didnt use SkypeRemember the first iPhone? No, not that one. Infogear sold products under the name beginning in 1998. It was acquired by Cisco, which later sold Linksys-branded iPhones. (Yes, there was a lawsuit over it.) I remember reviewing the Linksys iPhone CIT400 otherwise known as a Skype phone in 2007.Although there were a couple of competitors, it was relatively unique at the time since it allowed you to use Skype to place voice calls like you would on a normal household phone (remember those?). It was useful because my girlfriend (now wife) was living in Italy. And those long-distance calls were expensive if you didnt use Skype! Todd Haselton, deputy editorIt became a cherished lifelineI actually avoided Skype right up until a few years before its demise. I dont remember it being a popular thing in the UK when I was growing up. When I started jobs that required me to make overseas calls, however, it became a cherished lifeline. My mobile carrier outright blocked me from dialing non-UK numbers, and every attempt to correct the issue fizzled out. Instead, I found it was easier and cheaper to just download Skype and use credits when I needed to make those calls. It was good while it lasted :-( Jess Weatherbed, news writerWe were using Skype for a lot of our productionsWhen I first started producing podcasts at The Verge in 2015, we were using Skype for a lot of our productions. Before each taping of our show Ctrl-Walt-Delete, Id sit in our VO booth on Skype with veteran tech journalist Walt Mossberg in DC to make sure his Blue Yeti microphone was still operating with the software. For our show Verge ESP, I remember having to buy Skype credits to call the phone numbers of guests who didnt have / want to use a Skype account. When The Vergecast was live on YouTube every Thursday, we used Skypes NDI (Network Device Interface) to bring remote guests onto the show, which was the best software for our needs in the live control room at the time. However, once Zoom took over, that was the end of using the buggy Skype software. Andru Marino, senior producer If a writer couldnt get to the studio Skype workedFor decades now, my partner Jim Freund has been the host of a radio show called Hour of the Wolf on listener-sponsored NYC station WBAI-FM. He talks about science fiction and fantasy, and over the years, he has interviewed a lot of authors.For many of those years, if a writer couldnt get to the studio to talk and read from their work, Skype worked. It was easy to use the most tech-nervous author could be talked through the downloading and registering process and the quality of the resulting recording was better than youd get over a phone. And if the writer was overseas, the cost wasnt as prohibitive as if youd used the landline.But as time went on, Skype didnt keep up. When Microsoft bought it in 2011, Jim was hopeful that this would mean better quality calls and more features in other words, increased product support and development. However, Skype was, for the most part, ignored. As a result, especially with the increased popularity of Zoom and other apps, it became pretty much forgotten. These days, if a guest is having trouble installing or understanding the video / podcasting software that Jim uses, and he suggests, Well, we could use Skype instead, the current answer is often, Skype? Whats that? When he told me that, I knew Skype was a thing of the past. Barbara Krasnoff, reviews editorI listened to that ringtone so many timesIn 2015, I did a deep dive on Skypes entire soundscape as it was being redesigned under Microsoft:All the actual components [were] recorded organic sounds like wind, water, pops, peoples voices, says [Steve] Pearce. Wind, he says, provided the white noise in a notification. A bubble pop could be recorded from a ketchup bottle, a glass, or a human gasp or gulp. We dont like technical things, even though we are a technical company, he adds.If you actually ask people to hum or sing the Skype ringtone, they cant.Ironically, I listened to that ringtone so many times that, almost 10 years later, doo dee doo, dee doo dee popped into my head immediately. Adi Robertson, senior editor, tech and policyDOO DEE DOO DEE DOO DEE. Jay Peters, news editorSee More:

The United Kingdom dealt a significant blow in its war on encryption last week that, aside from blemishing Apples meticulously curated privacy commitments, could have worldwide ramifications for personal data protections. And while several days have passed since Apple pulled its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature from UK customers, other end-to-end encryption providers like Meta, Signal, and Telegram have yet to meaningfully take an official stand beyond some of their execs posting about it on social media.The UK may have set a precedent for other global governments to follow when it reportedly ordered Apple to give it backdoor access to iCloud data. Under the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), the British government can legally demand user data be handed over for the purpose of national security and crime prevention. That seemingly includes worldwide data access, even if its tightly encrypted.Some of these demands would be facilitated by controversial changes that were made to the IPA in April 2024 to expand its surveillance capabilities, like allowing intelligence services to access bulk personal datasets held by third parties and the UK government to interfere with communications companies that want to offer encryption services.We dont know specifically how the UKs order was worded. The Washington Post reported that Apple received a technical capability notice under the IPA that demanded it create a backdoor to its iCloud service that provides blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, not merely assistance in cracking a specific account.This may be an interpretation of the order. According to Home Office state minister Dan Jarvis, a technical capability notice itself does not require specific information to be disclosed. Instead, it forces companies to have the capability to respond to an individual warrant or authorisation. In other words, it prevents operators from having technology in place such as full encryption services with user-only access that could block the UK from snooping when it chooses to.The order given to Apple is believed to be the first such demand made since the IPA was updated last year. We dont really know if other companies have been slapped with similar orders because its illegal to publicly acknowledge if theyve received one. Britain insidiously designed its war against data encryption to happen almost entirely behind locked doors. Apple can appeal the ruling in secret but cant reveal if it exists. It cant even say if its complying. The only reason we know about the order is because it was leaked to The Washington Post.We dont really know if other companies have been slapped with similar orders because its illegal to publicly acknowledge if theyve received oneThe British Home Office department also wont confirm or deny its involvement. The statement it gave to The Verge said, We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.Instead, the Cupertino, California-based company pulled its highest-level data security tool from the country without explanation after The Washington Post article was published. The ADP feature expands the end-to-end encryption provided on passwords, health data, and payment information to include iCloud drives and backups, Notes, Photos, Voice memos, and more.The UK government put Apple in an untenable position by demanding a backdoor in end-to-end encryption in iCloud for users everywhere in the world, Andrew Crocker, surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told The Verge. Apples decision to disable the feature for UK users could well be the only reasonable response at this point, but it leaves those people at the mercy of bad actors and deprives them of a key privacy-preserving technology.Given the UK reportedly demanded global access to data, its unclear if withdrawing ADP from the country has appeased the order. It will, however, remove some obstacles that prevent the UK government from spying on its own citizens, which, as Crocker notes, makes people less safe from potential security threats and less free. Apple had already threatened to withdraw security features from the UK market when it opposed the IPA bill, but the decision to do so still attracted criticism for clashing with the image its built around being a self-professed defender of privacy rights.Apples withdrawal of ADP can be interpreted as a call to break an intentionally curated silence around Britains bullish efforts to crush end-to-end encryption services. Its a call that other encryption service providers dont seem to be answering, however. Meta, Signal, and Telegram havent made any announcements about their own services that provide full encryption and havent responded to our requests to comment on the situation. Their silence and the ongoing availability of encryption features in the UK would suggest that nothing is amiss. Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the EFF, says that this is likely the case because the encryption services provided by most communications companies arent as broad as Apples ADP offering.Few companies offer anything exactly like Advanced Data Protection, and as it stands, Apple is saying it believes it can still offer the end-to-end encryption of iMessage, Klosowski told The Verge. If history is any indication, if the end-to-end encryption of the other communication apps, like Signal or WhatsApp, was targeted, those companies would make noise about it.Few companies offer anything exactly like Advanced Data ProtectionWhatsApp and Signal have both previously threatened to leave the UK if their services were forced to weaken encryption standards under the countrys Online Safety Bill. WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart has also commented on the UK versus Apple situation directly on social media, but neither WhatsApp nor its parent company, Meta, has provided an official statement.Encryption is absolutely critical for keeping people safe, and governments should encourage it, Cathcart said on X. Banning encryption is a dangerous gift to hackers and hostile foreign governments.Most of the outcry hasnt been from at-risk companies but, rather, from privacy rights groups and government officials. The US is also investigating whether the UKs Apple notice violated the CLOUD Act, an agreement between both countries that bars the other from issuing demands for citizen data.If a company offered a backdoor without its customers knowing about it, it would be a massive violation of privacy and trust, said Klosowski. Even taken at face value, these sorts of backdoors put everyone at risk of hacking, identity theft, and fraud, because there is no way to ensure only the good guys would have access. As weve seen in the past, bad actors will find a way into these backdoors.The full ramifications of Apples decision to withdraw ADP from the UK have yet to unfold. Britain isnt the only nation that has a beef with end-to-end encryption several EU countries and other Five Eyes alliance members have expressed interest in weakening the security method, arguing that it hampers efforts to crack down on child sexual abuse material and criminal activity.This situation could be seen as a successful test of the UKs overreaching surveillance powers that may inspire other governments to adopt the same approach. The US and Australia have already proposed laws with similar powers to the IPAs technical capability notices, and the US, in particular, has tried and failed to crack open Apples user security before.Unless a company impacted by these notices dares to violate legally binding gag orders, the IPA can either force targets to provide secretive snooping access or force them to remove the very barriers it installed to prevent it from happening in the first place. Either way, they have nothing to lose we do.See More:

Dragonite and the Special Delivery is free to watch on YouTube.Dragonite and the Special Delivery feels truer to the initial spirit of Pokmon creator Satoshi Tajiri's vision than just about all of the franchise's recent output combined. The short, released as part of this year's Pokmon Day festivities, commemorates the unassuming whimsy, joy, and earnestness of Tajiris creation and looks incredible while doing so. The plot is predictably slight for a 14-minute animated short, but no less fun because of it: Hana, whose childhood encounter with a Dragonite mail carrier inspired her to join the postal service, struggles to keep up with the steady bustle of her chosen field. After receiving a mysterious envelope, she finds herself on an urgent errand with youngster Rio, who wants to send a birthday present to his father but is worried it won't reach him. It's all very light, fluffy stuff, perfect for a low-commitment romp through familiar (to us) locales. Even better, its stunning visuals lend it an almost otherworldly sheen, an ethereal glow that instantly makes this world and its characters even more enchanting.Pokmon comes by its appetite for wonder honestly, rooting it in Tajiris childhood bug-collecting hobby. Dragonite and the Special Delivery reclaims some of the spark and magic the franchise has lost through years of frantic output and repetitive storytelling not by adhering to Pokmons Gotta catch em all! conceit, but by spotlighting other manifestations of passion in its mythos. Hanas drive to use the mail to connect people is as obsessive and singular as Ash Ketchums ever was, and everything from the opening shot of young Hana opening an envelope to her breathless quest to deliver Rios present illustrates her devotion.We don't learn much about Hana beyond her aspirations, but that's really all we need to know . This feels strange to write, but it's true: Dragonite and the Special Delivery isn't trying to tell a story as much as it's attempting to honor a franchise, which means I cant fault it for coming up short narratively. However, it does seem to be shooting for emotional resonance it doesnt fully achieve. Hanas story isnt hollow. It just wont linger. Instead, the special focuses heavily on its visual appeal (and with animation from Your Name studio CoMix Wave, why wouldnt it?), treating us to welcome yet unexpected appearances of certain Legendary Pokmon and using its casual splendor to counter the monotony of delivering the mail. Pokemon Legends: Z-A Trailer GalleryIts most stirring scene Dragonite, carrying Hana and Rio, zipping across the ocean, the music swelling around them is Pokemon at its purest. Its in this simple, beautiful moment that the franchise regains its clarity.

In Mickey 17, Parasite writer-director Bong Joon-Ho travels to the future and outer space to tell the story of Robert Pattinsons title character or rather, to tell the story of Robert Pattinsons at least 17 title characters. Because, see, Mickey is a clone.In the new sci-fi movie, which is based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton and also stars Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo, Pattinsons Mickey takes a job on a colony spaceship as an expendable worker. Basically, hes onboard to do, as Harry Callahan once said, every dirty job in the book. Even if it kills him. Which it often does. Take, for example, what happens to Mickey in the exclusive clip from Mickey 17 that we just debuted at IGN Fan Fest:PlaySo a deadly alien virus takes you out, whatre ya gonna do? Just print out a new Mickey, itll be fine!Thats certainly the trick to much of Bong Joon-Hos work, which often straddles a line between sci-fi, satire, and social commentary: He somehow finds the humor in the tragic, and the tragedy in the humor too at times. I spoke to him recently about Mickey 17, how important it is to him to straddle that line between the funny and the messed-up, and more.There is a lot of humor in this film, says Bong (through a translator), but it doesn't roll with the singular goal of making the audience laugh as many times as they can. I think humor really strengthens sadness, and especially with those bitter laughs, you get a huge mixture of different emotions.Afterwards they're like, Was that worth actually laughing about? You kind of feel guilty. -Bong Joon-HoIts certainly a hoot seeing a not-quite-dead-yet Robert Pattinson being tossed to his molten grave even as he says thank you to the guys who are throwing him in, but as Bongs films like Parasite, Snowpiercer and The Host have shown us, theres more going on here than just goopy, sci-fi fun.When you're exploring social-political themes, instead of just going super hard on a serious tone, if you use humor to deliver that story, it leaves the audience with a longer-lasting impression, the filmmaker continues. Because the audience, they can laugh out loud at something, but then afterwards they're like, Was that worth actually laughing about? You kind of feel guilty. You start ruminating on what it was that you were actually laughing at, and you slowly discover what was in that humor and what meanings it was trying to deliver.Obviously theres a long tradition of using science fiction storytelling to talk about real-world issues and current events, masking hot topics beneath the guise of mutant monsters, alien cultures, and maybe even poor bastards who sign up to be expendable clones.Bong Joon-Ho and Robert Pattinson on the set of Mickey 17.I asked Bong how much hes inspired by real figures and events when telling his stories. In Mickey 17, for example, the leader of the planned space colony is Mark Ruffalos Kenneth Marshall, a politician and sorta cult leader who is portrayed as a lecherous, exaggerated weirdo. But the director demurred from naming any specific current lecherous, exaggerated weirdos in public life who he might be inspired by.Of course, Mickey 17 does have a clear political layer, and I think a huge appeal of sci-fi is that it lets you really excitedly jump into political satire, he says. Through a story about the future, you actually discuss more about the past. And Mark Ruffalo's character, he plays a dictator alongside his wife, Ylfa, played by Toni Collette, and those characters, it kind of reminds you of all the sort of political turmoil and bad politicians that we have experienced in the past. And I try to create sort of a mix of all the bad memories we have about politics with those two characters.Bong cites so many, so many when asked what his favorite sci-fi film is, but John Carpenters The Thing and Ridley Scotts Alien are at the top of the pile. (He also shouts out a low-budget indie about giant insects called Infestation: I love that film.) As for the future of the genre, hes optimistic.The masters of the sci-fi genre are getting old, and it would be great to see new up and coming sci-fi directors make a splash, he says. I definitely see directors continuing that lineage, like Alex Garland, and [Fede lvarezs] Alien: Romulus was great. There's a particular excitement that comes from sci-fi, and I would love to just see more of these traditional sci-fi films, because if you look at my films, I'm kind of an exception [as a] sci-fi filmmaker. It's sci-fi, but it doesn't really feel like sci-fi. I kind of like to pull down the genre to the realm of pit stains and sweat stains!Lets hear it for pit stains and sweat stains in our sci-fi, then. Mickey 17 is in theaters on March 7.