The Outlast Trials clocks up 3 million players since launch | News-in-briefRed Barrels' brutal co-op horror celebrates first year with all-new review trailerImage credit: Red Barrels News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on March 11, 2025 This is a News-in-brief article, our short format linking to an official source for more information. Read more about this story by following the link below:The Outlast Trials clocks up 3 million players since launch

Xsolla launches all-new direct-to-consimer publishing suite"This solution simplifies reaching players directly," Xsolla saysImage credit: Xsolla News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on March 11, 2025 Xsolla has launched a new direct-to-customer publishing suite.The commerce company said the new suite offers an "all-in-one direct-to-consumer (D2C) solution designed to help developers sell and distribute their games.""Regardless of genre, monetization model, or stage in the game lifecycle, any game can benefit from content management, payments, LiveOps, analytics, and pre-integrated marketing tools to accelerate time to market," Xsolla said in a press release.Xsolla said the Publishing Suite is a modular toolkit that lets developers "achieve their unique goals" and "ensure a successful release" by engaging with players, gathering feedback, optimizing marketing strategies, and driving traffic through pre-order campaigns.It will also maximize direct-to-consumer sales, build a multi-game publishing platform, unite players across platforms, and help developers "grow revenue with in-game and web stores.""With the launch of the Xsolla Publishing Suite, were enabling developers to overcome the challenges of direct-to-consumer sales with powerful, customizable tools," said Berkley Egenes, chief marketing and growth officer at Xsolla."This solution simplifies reaching players directly, helping developers build lasting connections and drive sustainable growth."

After a tumultuous 2024, in which iRobot lost its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, Amazon abandoned its acquisition plans, and the company laid off a large portion of its staff, iRobot is back with a major shake-up of its robotic vacuum line.This week, the company that invented the robot vacuum over 20 years ago announced eight new models that are definitely not the Roombas youre used to. Not only do they look totally different, but they also work differently, thanks to a new-to-Roomba feature: lidar navigation and mapping.iRobot has started publishing suction power specs for its robotsThe new lineup starts at $299 and goes up to $999. It features the entry-level 105 series of vacuums and vacuum mops with the option of an auto-empty dock, the 205 series with a new onboard dust compactor, and the higher-end 405 and 505 models that bring dual spinning mopping pads to the iRobot family for the first time. The new bots come in black and white and will be available to preorder on March 18th at iRobot.com in the US and select European markets.The Roomba 505 is iRobots first robot vacuum with lidar and dual spinning mopping pads. Image: iRobotAccording to the company, this is the largest product launch in iRobot history. But thats not the biggest surprise. iRobot finally adding lidar navigation and room mapping a technology used by most competitors is a huge change that should bring faster mapping and more features to Roombas. The company is also launching a new iRobot app that adds a real-time cleaning view aided by lidar and it has started publishing suction power specs for its robots.All the new models feature 7,000Pa and four suction levels, according to iRobots product management lead, Warren Fernandez. While he points out its not all about suction power, this is significantly lower than the competition. Roborocks newest model, the Saros 10, has 22,000Pa (but costs $1,600).The robot vacuums have a new look that uses a geometric grid design. Image: iRobotFacing increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers, iRobot has gone back to the drawing board with this new line. Featuring a completely new industrial design, the Roombas have been redesigned from the ground up to accommodate the shift from camera-based vSLAM navigation to lidar.In an interview with The Verge, Fernandez said that iRobot made the change now after evaluating the technology for some time because they believe lidar is finally mature enough and affordable enough to fit into their product roadmap.The main benefit of lidar is smarter mapping for the lower-priced Roombas, including room-specific cleaning and the ability to create clean zones and keep-out zones in the app. For the higher-end models, it should mean faster mapping and more agile navigation.Also new is an ultrasonic carpet detection sensor on all Roombas, so the robots can intelligently avoid carpets when mopping. The mopping models now all have three levels of water flow and iRobots unique SmartScrub option. Previously, most of these features were reserved for higher-end Roombas, which started at $500.Most models now have a lidar tower on top, and the auto-empty docks have a whole new look. Overall, the new Roombas look a lot more like models from iRobots major competitors: Roborock, Dreame, and Ecovacs.The Roomba 505s dock can also wash and dry its mop pads with hot air. It has a three-liter clean liquid tank, a 2.3-liter dirty liquid tank, and a dust bag that holds 75 days worth of debris. Image: iRobotThe fanciest model in the new line is the $999 (799) Roomba Plus 505 Combo Robot Plus AutoWash Dock (yes, the naming has gotten worse). This is the first Roomba with dual spinning mop pads for scrubbing hard floors. It can also extend its right mop outward to clean along edges and lift its mops 10mm to avoid low-pile carpets. Roborock and Dreame have had variations on these features for a while.RelatedThe 505 comes with a new multifunction dock that washes and dries the mop pads, refills the mop tank, and empties the bin. It also adds heated drying, something the Combo 10 Max, iRobots top-of-the-line robot vacuum / mop that launched last summer, doesnt have. Like the 10 Max, the 505 has AI-powered obstacle detection, thanks to an onboard camera, so it should recognize and avoid things like cords, socks, and pet waste.Fernandez says the 10 Max remains the current flagship model, as it has better cleaning power than the 505, but he declined to give suction specs for it. It uses a different mop a retractable system that puts the mop on top of the bot to avoid carpets. According to Fernandez, the 505 is the only Roomba among the new models that will support the Matter smart home standard, which the 10 Max also does. All the new models will support existing integrations with Amazon Alexa, Apples Siri, and Google Home. The Roomba 404 has most of the same features as the 505. Both use a single rubber roller brush. Image: iRobotThe Roomba Plus 405 Combo Robot Plus AutoWash Dock is a step down in price to $799 (699). It keeps all the same basic functionality a combo vacuum and mop with spinning mopping pads and a multifunctional dock but it differs from the 505 in a few ways. It cant extend its mops, doesnt have AI-powered obstacle detection (as theres no camera), and lacks heated mop drying. It also has iRobots standard ClearView Lidar navigation, whereas the 505 has a Pro version, which Fernandez says is more accurate and can see smaller objects.The 205 features an onboard dust compactor and is the only new model without a lidar tower. iRobot integrated the lidar into the robots front visor. Image: iRobotThe budget lineup is also getting a big bump up. The new Roomba 105 and 205 series have the same lidar-based mapping, 7,000Pa suction, virtual keep-out zones, automatic carpet detection and avoidance, and object sensing and avoidance capabilities as the 405, all features unavailable on the entry-level Roomba i5 and Combo Essential line. Both new models come in a vacuum-only or a combo option that adds a removable flat microfiber mopping pad. The 105 works with an auto-empty dock, but the 205 uses the new dust compactor technology. Its kind of like a miniaturized version of a trash compactor, says Fernandez. He says it can last two months before emptying, compared to 75 days on the auto-empty dock. You dont need to find space for an auto-empty dock, which means you can stick your robot under a couch or bed, and he added that there isnt a loud emptying noise or a need to buy bin bags.The Roomba 105 has the option of a slimline auto-empty dock. Image: iRobotBoth series are priced the same: $449 for the 105 Vac Robot Plus AutoEmpty Dock; $469 (449) for the 105 Combo Robot Plus AutoEmpty Dock; $449 for the 205 DustCompactor Vac Robot; and $469 (449) for the 205 DustCompactor Combo Robot. (This is more expensive than Roombas Combo Essential line with auto-empty dock, but those dont have lidar.) If youre fine with emptying a bin once a week or so, you can go for the 105 Vac Robot for $299 or the 105 Combo Robot for $319 (299). Image: iRobotThere are some innovations here; the dust compactor will appeal to those who dont like the extra clutter of those big auto-empty docks. Ive seen something similar on the Narwal Freo X Ultra and found it to be very good. But overall, this lineup represents iRobot capitulating to the competition. What people really want is spinning mop pads, lidar towers, and suction specs, so thats what youre gettingFor years, under founder and CEO Colin Angle, the company stood firm in its belief that its superior cleaning ability and smarter robots were just better. It appears that the new CEO, Gary Cohen, took a look at the competitive landscape and decided that what people really want is spinning mop pads, lidar towers, and suction specs, so thats what youre getting. Last year, we reinvented our iRobot Research and Development Labs, and these robots are the result of our world-class engineers and designers brilliance, he said in a press release.This if you cant beat em, join em approach is clearly designed to save the struggling company. The pricing is competitive, and combined with the Roomba name, its a strategy that could work well, assuming the products are as good and as reliable as Roombas have traditionally been.Im looking forward to testing the new robots to see how they stack up to the current Roombas, which have long been some of my favorite robot vacuums. But for today, Im slightly sad to see decades of innovation and enterprise at iRobot get trampled in what looks to be a boring race to the middle.See More:

ChatGPT Now Works Natively in Xcode and VS Code 0 like March 11, 2025Share this postAuthor(s): Get The Gist Originally published on Towards AI. Plus: Apple Delays Advanced Siri Features Until 2026This member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Welcome to Get The Gist, where every weekday we share an easy-to-read summary of the latest and greatest developments in AI news, innovations, and trends all delivered in under 5 minutes! In todays edition: on MacApple Delays Advanced Siri Features Until 2026Foxconn Introduces FoxBrain, Its First Large Language ModelMicrosoft is Developing its Own AI Models, Codenamed MAIAnd more AI news.Image by: MacRumorsThe Gist: OpenAI has updated its macOS ChatGPT app to allow direct code editing in Xcode, VS Code, and JetBrains tools, eliminating the need to copy and paste.Key DetailsChatGPT can now read and modify code within integrated development environments (IDEs).An optional auto-apply mode lets the AI implement changes instantly.The feature is available to Plus, Pro, and Team users, with broader availability planned next week.This update enhances ChatGPTs competitiveness against AI coding tools like GitHub Copilot and Apples Swift Assist.Image by: MacRumorsThe Gist: Apple has postponed the release of personalized Siri features originally expected in iOS 18, citing the need for more development time.Key DetailsThe delayed features include personal context, onscreen awareness, and deeper app integration.Siri will eventually be able to track messages, files, and emails, recognize Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

Author(s): Towards AI Editorial Team Originally published on Towards AI. What happened this week in AI by LouieAs Ilya Sutskevers Safe SuperIntelligence (SSI) secures another $2bn round at a hefty $30bn valuation, speculation has grown around what he is working on and whether he will discover yet more groundbreaking scaling laws for AI. While another scaling breakthrough would be exciting, an alternative, pragmatic pathway to progress AI capabilities continues to emerge building advanced agents on top of existing foundation models. China-based startup Monica is proving precisely this point with Manus, their invite-only multi-agent product, which has rapidly captured attention despite not developing their own base LLM. Instead, Manus stitches together Claude 3.5 Sonnet and custom fine-tuned open-source Qwen models, paired with specialized tools and sandboxes, to autonomously tackle real-world complex tasks.Manuss architecture neatly divides into two key highly specialized layers: the planner, powered by fine-tuned Qwen models optimized for strategic reasoning and task decomposition, and the executor, driven by Claude 3.5 Sonnet alongside a diverse set of 29 dedicated sub-agents. This system demonstrates remarkable capabilities by seamlessly integrating code execution, web browsing, multi-file code management, and interactive frontend generation features reminiscent of recent advanced tools like Cursor, OpenAIs Operator and Deep Research agents, and Claudes Artifact UI. Manuss success emerges from coherently assembling these previously separate functionalities into a unified agent framework, unlocking greater autonomy and practical utility. Its GAIA benchmark performance reflects this clearly: scoring an impressive 86.5% on simpler Level 1 questions which easily surpasses OpenAI Deep Researchs result (74.3%). Even on more complex, Level 3 multi-step tasks, Manus leads notably, achieving 57.7% versus OpenAI Deep Researchs 47.6%.Yet, despite Monicas innovation using existing models, even more could be unlocked with improvements to base model intelligence. Ilya Sutskever, previously at Google and OpenAI, has been intimately involved in many of the major Deep Learning and LLMs breakthroughs in the past 1015 years.Ilya Sutskevers SSIs 5x valuation increase to $30bn in less than six months has raised speculation on what he has been working on (in heavy secrecy, reportedly requiring job candidates to leave phones in a Faraday cage before entering its offices). Ilya has consistently been central to major breakthroughs in deep learning scaling laws and training objectives for LLMs, making it plausible hes discovered yet another one. Indeed, clues from recent interviews suggest precisely this. Ilya himself in September mentioned discovering a different mountain to climb, hinting at a new scaling law. Everyone just says scaling hypothesis, he noted pointedly. But scaling what?.Ilya first demonstrated GPU-driven neural network scaling with AlexNet in 2012 alongside Geoffrey Hinton and Alex Krizhevsky, paving the way for dramatically accelerating model depth, performance, and computational intensity. While he didnt invent the next-token prediction objective (which was a much earlier technique) or the transformer architecture introduced in 2017, he laid essential groundwork for transformers with sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) models. He also crucially pushed OpenAIs strategic decision to massively scale next-token prediction using GPUs and transformers, thus pushing data scaling bottlenecks (and corresponding useful compute scaling) to the scale of the entire internet. Most recently, Ilyas foundational contributions to test-time compute reportedly laid the groundwork for development into Q* and o1 by Jakub Pachocki and Szymon Sidor. This approach led to a new training objective predicting full solutions to verifiable problems and introduced both a new training scaling regime (reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards or RLVR) and new inference-time scaling laws.If Ilya is indeed onto yet another new scaling mechanism and SSIs rapid valuation jump seems to suggest investors belief this would mark quite a breakout from the many years we spent focused only on the next token prediction objective and scaling just pre-training data and parameters. Scaling both the new RLVR training method and corresponding inference time tokens alone might well be sufficient for approaching AGI-like capabilities across many human standalone tasks (particularly together with Agent pipelines and LLM Developers using reinforcement fine tuning to customize models to different tasks). New training objectives on the other hand could accelerate this and also unlock entirely new types of intelligence and categories of AI capability.Why should you care?The convergence of new scaling paradigms and advanced agent architectures suggests an approaching tipping point. Companies like Monica with Manus demonstrate how effectively existing models can be recombined to produce substantial leaps in real-world task performance. At the same time, breakthroughs from Ilya and SSI, or indeed any of the AI labs or even individual researchers, may fundamentally alter what we even think of as scalable AI, setting the stage for a far broader spectrum of intelligence capabilities. For developers and entrepreneurs alike, this dual innovation track practical agent integration versus groundbreaking foundational shifts offers compelling paths forward. While waiting for the next great leap, significant competitive advantages can still be gained today by intelligently leveraging and refining existing tools into specialized agents. But make no mistake: if Ilya is indeed pioneering another new scaling law, AIs landscape may soon be reshaped once again.This issue is brought to you thanks to NVIDIA GTC:Join Us at NVIDIA GTC The AI Event of the Year!NVIDIA GTC is back, and its shaping up to be one of the biggest AI events of the year! Running from March 17 to 21 in San Jose, CA, GTC will bring together developers, researchers, and business leaders to explore cutting-edge advancements in AI, accelerated computing, and data science.Theres a packed agenda, including:Keynote by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang covering AI agents, robotics, and the future of accelerated computingThe Rise of Humanoid Robots exploring how AI is pushing robotics forwardAI & Computing Frontiers with Yann LeCun and Bill Dally a deep dive into where AI is headedIndustrial AI & Digitalization how AI is transforming industries in the physical worldHands-on Workshops & Training Labs practical sessions on AI, GPU programming, and moreOur CTO, Louis-Franois Bouchard, will be attending, so if youre around, lets connect! March 1721 San Jose, CA & OnlineHottest News1. Alibaba Released Its QwQ-32B Model Based on High Scale Reinforcement Learning TechniquesAlibabas Qwen team has introduced QwQ-32B, a 32-billion-parameter AI model designed for advanced reasoning, coding, and math problem-solving. Because of reinforcement learning, it performs on par with larger models like DeepSeek R1. QwQ-32B is open-source under Apache 2.0 and available on Hugging Face and ModelScope.2. AI Pioneers Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton Win 2025 Turing Award for Groundbreaking Contributions to Reinforcement LearningAndrew Barto and Richard Sutton, pioneers of reinforcement learning, have won the 2024 Turing Award for their groundbreaking contributions to AI. Their work laid the foundation for modern AI systems like chatbots, autonomous vehicles, and personalized recommendations. Their work also bridged AI and neuroscience, revealing insights into dopamines role in human and machine learning.3. Microsoft Reportedly Ramps Up AI Efforts To Compete With OpenAIMicrosoft is developing its own AI reasoning models called MAI, to reduce reliance on OpenAI and enhance its AI offerings. It is reportedly training much larger models relative to its more famous synthetic data-focused Phi series. These new models have been tested as potential replacements for OpenAIs technology in Microsofts 365 Copilot system. Additionally, Microsoft plans to unveil future developments for its Copilot AI companion at a special event on April 4th, marking its 50th anniversary.4. Chinas Second DeepSeek Moment? Meet Manus, the First General AI AgentManus, developed by Chinese startup Monica, is an autonomous AI agent designed to handle complex tasks independently. Since its beta launch on March 6, 2025, it has generated significant buzz, with some comparing its impact to DeepSeek. Available by invitation only, it has sparked excitement among users eager to test its capabilities.5. Mistral AI Introduced Mistral OCRMistral launched Mistral OCR, a multimodal OCR API that converts PDFs into AI-ready Markdown files, facilitating easier AI model ingestion. It outperforms competitors in complex and non-English documents and integrates them into RAG systems. Mistral OCR is available on its API platform and cloud partners, offering on-premise deployment for sensitive data handling.6. Google Searchs New AI Mode Lets Users Ask Complex, Multi-Part QuestionsGoogle enhances its search experience by introducing expanded AI-generated overviews and a new AI Mode. The AI overviews will now cover a broader range of topics and be accessible to more users, including those not logged into Google. The experimental AI Mode, currently available to Google One AI Premium subscribers, offers a search-centric AI chatbot experience, providing generated answers based on Googles search index.7. Microsoft Dragon Copilot Provides the Healthcare Industrys First Unified Voice AI AssistantMicrosoft launched Dragon Copilot, a unified AI voice assistant for healthcare. Designed to alleviate clinician burnout and streamline documentation, Dragon Copilot aims to improve efficiency and patient experiences while supporting healthcare workers across various settings with its advanced speech and task automation capabilities, rolling out in select regions.Five 5-minute reads/videos to keep you learning1. Starter Guide for Running Large Language Models LLMsThis article is a practical guide to running LLMs, covering key considerations like balancing model size and dataset requirements using scaling laws such as Chinchilla. It also highlights the importance of proper dataset preprocessing like tokenization and cleaning to improve efficiency.2. What Changed in the Transformer ArchitectureThis article explores key improvements in Transformer architecture since 2017, focusing on efficiency and scalability. It covers the shift from sinusoidal positional encodings to Rotary Positional Embeddings (RoPE) for better handling of long sequences, the adoption of pre-layer normalization for more stable training, and the introduction of Grouped-Query Attention (GQA) to reduce computational costs.3. AIs Butterfly Effect: Early Decisions Matter More Than You ThinkBased on insights from Polyas Urn Model, this article shows how an initial random bias can have lasting effects on an AI systems learning trajectory. The insights derived from Polyas Urn Model deepen our understanding of the interplay between chance and choice and encourage a more thoughtful approach to managing data biases and long-term trends in complex systems.4. The Rise of Diffusion LLMsThis article explores diffusion-based LLMs, a novel approach to text generation that refines noisy data into structured outputs. It discusses how these models differ from traditional autoregressive LLMs, their potential benefits in reducing biases and improving efficiency, and their challenges in real-world applications.5. AI Is Killing Some Companies, yet Others Are Thriving Lets Look at the DataThis article explores how AI-powered search and chatbots are reshaping the digital landscape, hitting some companies hard while leaving others untouched. It looks at why platforms like WebMD, G2, and Chegg are losing traffic as AI delivers instant answers, while sites like Reddit and Wikipedia remain strong. It also argues that user-generated content and community-driven platforms may have a built-in advantage in an AI-dominated world.6. DeepSeek-V3/R1 Inference System OverviewThe article provides an overview of DeepSeeks inference system for their V3 and R1 models, focusing on optimizing throughput and reducing latency. It also discusses strategies to address these challenges such as increased system complexity due to cross-node communication and the need for effective load balancing across Data Parallelism (DP) instances.Repositories & Tools1. MetaGPT is an AI framework that acts like a software team, breaking down a simple request into detailed project plans, code, and documentation.2. Light R1 introduces Light-R132B, a 32-billion-parameter language model optimized for mathematical problem-solving.Top Papers of The Week1. START: Self-taught Reasoner with ToolsThe paper introduces START, a self-taught reasoning LLM that integrates external tools. This integration allows START to perform complex computations, self-checking, and debugging, addressing limitations like hallucinations found in traditional reasoning models. It uses Hint-infer (prompting tool use) and Hint-RFT (fine-tuning with filtered reasoning steps) to enhance accuracy. START, built on QwQ-32B, outperforms its base model and rivals top-tier models on math, science, and coding benchmarks.2. Predictive Data Selection: The Data That Predicts Is the Data That TeachesResearchers have introduced Predictive Data Selection (PreSelect), a method enhancing language model pretraining by using fastText-based scoring for efficient data selection. Models trained on 30 billion tokens selected with PreSelect outperform those trained on 300 billion vanilla tokens, reducing compute needs tenfold. PreSelect also surpasses other methods, like DCLM and FineWeb-Edu, in 3 billion parameter models.3. Unified Reward Model for Multimodal Understanding and GenerationUnifiedReward, a novel model for multimodal understanding and generation assessment, improves image and video preference alignment. By training on a large-scale human preference dataset, UnifiedReward facilitates pairwise ranking and pointwise scoring.4. Babel: Open Multilingual Large Language Models Serving Over 90% of Global SpeakersBabel introduces an open multilingual large language model that covers the top 25 languages and supports over 90% of the global population. Babel employs a layer extension technique and elevates performance with two variants: Babel-9B for efficient use and Babel-83B, which sets new standards. Both variants demonstrate superior multilingual task performance compared to similar open LLMs.5. Large-Scale Data Selection for Instruction TuningThe paper examines large-scale data selection for instruction tuning and testing methods on datasets of up to 2.5M samples. It finds that many selection techniques underperform random selection at scale, while a simple representation-based method (RDS+) is both effective and efficient.Quick Links1. Google debuts a new Gemini-based text embedding model. Google claims that Gemini Embedding surpasses the performance of its previous embedding model, text-embedding-004, and achieves competitive performance on popular embedding benchmarks. Compared to the previous model, Gemini Embedding can accept larger chunks of text and code simultaneously and supports over 100 languages.2. Cohere released a multimodal open AI model called Aya Vision. It can perform tasks such as writing image captions, answering questions about photos, translating text, and generating summaries in 23 major languages. Cohere is also making Aya Vision available for free through WhatsApp.3. Anthropic has launched an upgraded Anthropic Console that lets everyone in your company collaborate on AI. The updated platform also introduces extended thinking controls for Claude 3.7 Sonnet, allowing developers to specify when the AI should use deeper reasoning while setting budget limits to control costs.Whos Hiring in AIData Scientist Python @Motion Recruitment Partners (Florida, USA)ML Engineer @Numerator (Remote/India)Software Engineer, AI Decisioning @Hightouch (Remote/North America)Gen AI Consultant @Capco (Pune, India)Natural Language Processing (NLP) Intern @IMO Health (Hybrid/Texas, USA)Junior Data Scientist Intern @INTEL (Hybrid/Singapore)Software Engineer, GenAI Enablement @Principal Financial Group (Multiple US Locations)Interested in sharing a job opportunity here? Contact [emailprotected].Think a friend would enjoy this too? Share the newsletter and let them join the conversation.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AI

ODessa streams on Hulu beginning Thursday, March 20. This review is based on a screening at the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival.What happens when you mix Streets of Fire and O Brother, Where Art Thou? with the look and vibes of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon? You get a bold, vibrant, catchy, romantic cyberpunk rock opera with memorable performances and rocking musical numbers seemingly destined for infinite fan edits once it drops on Hulu. One of the best scenes in all of Stranger Things involves Sadie Sink and a great song, but that doesnt prepare you for just how great her singing voice is in O'Dessa. Director Geremy Jasper tasks Sink with carrying his follow-up to 2017s Patti Cake$ and fortunately, she (and the considerable shoulder pads of her retro-cool wardrobe) are more than up for it.Sink plays ODessas title character with a stoicism that hides raw vulnerability: Shes a girl who acts tough, moves and dresses like Elvis, and sings like Hank Williams. In her mothers words, shes a "dirt farmer," and the last in a long line of "ramblers" troubadours who once traveled around a now-ravaged landscape lifting spirits and providing hope through song. All O'Dessa wants is to fulfill her dreams of going to the dystopian metropolis of Satylite City to experience all its chaos and grandeur, accompanied only by Willa, a legendary guitar made from a tree that was struck by lightning. Its a story thats powered by an alluring grab bag of mythology: What initially appears to be a grimy Americana take on Homers Odyssey with its long shots of countryside, train-hopping, and colorful side characters quickly gives way to a cyberpunk retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice once O'Dessa reaches Satylite City and meets the beautiful dancer Euri Dervish (an electrifying Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Sink and Harrison have ample chemistry, and they truly sell this doomed romance drenched in neon and set in opposition to the dictatorial rule of a TV host named Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett).Read what you will into Jasper creating a villain whos a media-savvy tyrant running a high-stakes televised talent show, but any commentary in his script is less overt than this implied Trump analogy. The filmmaker prefers to make ODessas most powerful statements with its dazzling visuals and loaded costume choices. The central romance is one big middle finger to gender norms, with Sink playing humanitys prophesied savior as an androgynous pop star with slicked-back hair and white tuxedo, opposite Harrison as her tender, graceful, gown-wearing lover. O'Dessa GalleryTheres gusto in the songs, too, a soundtrack of 16 original numbers by Jasper and co-writer Jason Binnick that map O'Dessa's journey onto the evolution of American popular music. Bluesy ballads with personal lyrics eventually give way to rockabilly and even acid-rock psychedelia. Sink finally gets to show off her Broadway-honed pipes on screen; its a shame it took this long for her to find this kind of role, because her vocals are simply enchanting. At a time when studios are still making musicals but appear hesitant to sell them as such (who puts together a trailer for Wicked with barely any footage of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande singing?), heres one that boldly proclaims what it is, with little time to rest in between music numbers. It joyfully goes from one song to the next, with the music keeping the story aloft.Accompanying the catchy tunes is a strong visual aesthetic that makes O'Dessa stand out in a sea of indistinguishable cyberpunk stories. A sense of naturalism in the early scenes mingles with the look of a lost video-store favorite from the 1980s in Satylite City. Theres an environmental message in there, too, via the constant sight of oil pipelines in the countryside and the iridescent look of the oil that powers Plutonovich's empire.

Hazelight's latest co-op adventure, Split Fiction, has officially surpassed one million copies sold in the first 48 hours, setting a new record for the studio.This news was announced on BlueSky, with the official account saying, "The love you all show for our game is overwhelming! Everyone here at Hazelight are beyond happy - and we cant stop enjoying your amazing reactions! "PlayNotably this is one million copies sold, which means it's possible that far more than that are playing Split Fiction. Every copy of the game comes with a Friend's Pass that lets a friend play the entire game in co-op with the purchaser for free. While not everyone will take advantage of that option (some will play local co-op, some may play with someone who already owns the game, etc), that's still a whole lot of people playing Split Fiction.This is a huge sales jump from Hazelight's last game, It Takes Two, which didn't reach the one million milestone until a month after launch. But that in and of itself was deemed an impressive milestone, with studio head Josef Fares saying at the time that it proved players want co-op games.We really dug Split Fiction, calling it "a rollercoaster of constantly refreshed gameplay ideas and styles and one thats very hard to walk away from" in our 9/10 review.Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Experience South Americas most alluring regions in fresh, vibrant detail for both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Microsoft Flight Simulator.This long awaited and oft-requested Microsoft Flight Simulator: World Update XIX is filled with excitement and beauty that enhances over half the land mass of South America with its coverage of Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Brazil and its northern bordering countries of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana are home to some of the planets most spectacular sights and ecosystems. The region encompasses much of the vast Amazon Basin, Caribbean and Atlantic coastlines, and modern cities. World Update XIX invites you to explore these diverse regions, reproduced in exquisite detail.Microsoft Flight Simulator partnered with Bing Maps, Maxar and Vexcel to create this update, featuring sights ranging from vast dune fields to bustling metropolises. The team fused several types of recent geospatial data, including aerial photographs, satellite imagery, DEM (digital elevation model) data, and DTM (digital terrain model) data to bring the most realistic, real-time images.World Update XIX captures 75 POIs (points of interest), including Fort Diamant in French Guiana, Monte Roraima in Guyana and Brazil, Fort Zeelandia in Suriname, and Brazils Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. It also includes four TIN cities, all in Brazil: Brasilia, Ouro Preto, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Microsoft Flight Simulator partner, Gaya Simulations hand crafted seven airports, including Brazils Foz do Iguacu International Airport (SBFI), Fernando de Noronha Airport (SBFN), Santos Dumont (SBRJ) and Santarem-Maestro Wilson Fonseca International Airport (SBSN); Guyanas Kaieteur International Airport (SYKA/PKSA), Surinames Zorg en Hoop Airport (SMZO), and French Guianas Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Airport (SOOM).The update also includes:Three Discovery Flights including northern Brazils Lenis Maranhenses National Park, Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, and Brazils So Paulo.Three Landing Challenges for you to test your piloting skills at Brazils Santos Dumont Airport (SBRJ) with its short runway, Brazils Fernando de Noronha Airport (SBFN) in a strong wind challenge, and Brazils So PauloCongonhas Airport (SBSP) located in the heart of the So Paulo metropolis.Three Bush Trips (only for Microsoft Flight Simulator owners) where youll soar throughout some of South Americas most spectacular scenery: Amazon Tour, which explores the Amazon River from the depths of the Amazon Rainforest to its delta; Discover Brazil, which traces a route inland of So Paulo to Brazils capital, Braslia; and Guyana Suriname French Guiana, which explores seldomvisited regions of South America, from highlands to the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean coasts.Starting on March 17th Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will introduce the following Brazil-based content:A helicopter landing challenge at Mirante Dona Marta, which grants a spectacular view of Rio de JaneiroA Rally Race through Rio de Janeiro in an F/A-18A Low-altitude Challenge in an L-39 through the Serra do Corvo Branco, a rugged mountain range in southern BrazilWorld Update XIX: Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana is available FREE to all owners of Microsoft Flight Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Ensure that your simulator is updated to the latest version and download World Update XIX today. The sky is calling!ScreenshotsMicrosoft Flight Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 are available for Xbox Series X|S and PC with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Windows, and Steam, and on Xbox One and supported mobile phones, tablets, and lower-spec PCs via Xbox Cloud Gaming. For the latest information on Microsoft Flight Simulator products, stay tuned to@MSFSOfficialon X (formerly Twitter) or visit www.flightsimulator.com.

When Thomas Wolfe wrote his posthumously published novel You Cant Go Home Again, he couldnt have foreseen one Southern California-raised couples homeward bound determinationor the design firm that would help them reach the end of their dream home journey. Laure JolietThe breakfast nook is one of the familys favorite places to convene throughout the day. The custom blackened oak table was fabricated by Corey Joseph and is flanked by a custom-designed banquette and modernist Italian oak and straw chairs found on 1stDibs. The wood Totem sconces are from Allied Maker, and the ceramic vessel and glass vase are by artists Vince Palacios and Austin Fields, respectively.Situated among equally historic properties in an idyllic South Pasadena neighborhood is a Craftsman-style home that bridges its past to the futureand 117 years of historythrough a thoughtful redesign. Originally built in 1908, the home had already lived a lot of life by the time architect-designer Cayley Lambur, co-founder of Los Angeles-based Electric Bowery, came along. In fact, it was her friendship with one of the homeowners that stretched years back to time spent on the East Coast that made her clients forever home a reality. I was friends with the husband when we both lived in New York and, actually, he invested in a couple of our early development projects when we started, Lambur explains of the firm she conceived with Lucia Bartholomew in 2013. He was a fan of our work and always said he hoped wed design his home one day. Laure JolietIn the guest bedroom, Benjamin Moores Citrine paint color is a sunny base for this welcoming guest bedroom. The bed is dressed in a vintage crochet bedspread and linens from Kneeland Co. Rarities. A rattan weave pendant hangs overhead and a vintage minimalist teak lamp with a rattan shade from 1stDibs sits bedside. On the wall is a work by artist Saxon Quinn.For the clients, an active, design-savvy couple with three daughters under the age of 14, the idea of home meant digging in close to their roots. They both grew up in South Pasadena and have deep ties to the communitythey were actually living in a Craftsman [nearby] but wanted more space, shares Lambur. Theyve always been looking for their dream home, but the one they lived in before this was very traditional. When we started the project, they gave us a really long leash, because he wanted us to have the bandwidth and creativity to design a home we could all be really proud of. Its not super serious and feels very relaxedAnd, according to Electric Bowerys design director, Daniella Gohari, what they started with was anything but livable. When they bought the home, it hadnt been lived in for several yearsthink Grey Gardens, but in Pasadena, she says laughing. But theyd kept their eye on it for a while; it was historic, and it had really beautiful bones. So, when it finally hit the market, they pounced. The design teams ensuing challenge was how to reconcile the original elements of the home while updating it for the way a family would live today. After opening up walls, raising some ceilings, adding onto the existing structure and ultimately reconfiguring the homes flow, what they ended up with was a two-story, five-bedroom, three-full and two-half-bathroom, 6,188-square-foot urban retreat. Its a fresh take on an American Craftsman, says the firms director of interiors, Stephanie Luk. Its not super serious and feels very relaxed. SEE HOW THIS TEAM OF CRAFTSWOMEN UPDATED AN HISTORIC CRAFTSMANWhen we first walked into the house it felt like you were on a boat because everything was out of plumb, says Gohari, referring to the small dark rooms and incomprehensible flow. To get into the kitchen you had to enter through a powder roomI dont know anyone who would want to live that way, then or now. But revitalizingand reusingoriginal details was important to the designers. A lot of the leaded glass windows were damaged and had to be restored, adds Lambur. Keeping those details was really important, as was brightening the [interiors] to achieve a certain level of warmth. And, as most designers would agree, color is key. We took traditional Craftsman colorsthose saturated blues, reds and greensand applied them intentionally to the more intimate spaces, like the study.

iOS 18.4 is currently being beta tested, and it packs a ton of new features and changes. Among those updates are some easy-to-miss changes to Apples Photos app that give users more flexibility and options than before. Here are the details on iOS 18.4s Photos enhancements.#1: New filtering optionsWhenever youre viewing a collection of photos and/or videos, you may have noticed that the Photos app shows an icon in the lower-left corner with two vertical arrows.Behind this arrow icon youll find various sort, filter, and view options.In iOS 18.4, there are two new additions to the Filter menu. You can now filter by:Shared With YouNot in an AlbumFilters make it easy to find all photos or videos that fit a specific description. So in this case, you can filter to only see items that others have shared with you, or ones that arent yet sorted into an album.Additionally, if you tap the Albums button then the three-dot icon in the top-right corner, youll see new filter options there too. These additions let you filter to only show Albums or only show Folders.#2: New album sorting optionSpeaking of the Albums screen, iOS 18.4 now lets you sort that view in a new way too.Joining the existing Sort by Name and Sort by Custom Order options, theres a third sorting method available for your Albums screen:Sort by Date ModifiedThis will rearrange your albums and folders to bump the most recently changed ones to the top.The Albums screen has another change worth noting briefly: Grid and List have been renamed to List View and Key Photo. This change doesnt make a functional difference, and to me it reads as more confusing, so its unclear why Apples changing things.#3: Disabling albums for privacyThere are a couple albums included by default in the Photos app that you may or may not want visible for privacy reasons.No, Im not talking about the Hidden album. Though that album certainly has its own privacy implications, Im referring to two others:Recently ViewedRecently SharedLike their names imply, these albums collect all the photos and videos that you last looked at, or last shared with someone else.Id guess that for most users, they wont have a problem keeping these albums visible in the Photos app. But for anyone whofor privacy reasons or otherwisewant to disable them, iOS 18.4 adds a new Settings toggle to do just that.You can find this toggle by visiting Settings Apps Photos then scrolling down to find Show Recently Viewed & Shared. Its right below where you can also disable the Hidden album.#4: Bulk recover or delete photosIf youve ever wanted to quickly, easily remove all your deleted photos and videos permanently, iOS 18.4 now provides that option.Open the Recently Deleted album and youll find a new trash can button that will remove all items permanently.On the flip side, you can also use the new Recover All button if you want to quickly add all deleted items back into your Photos library.Were any of these iOS 18.4 Photos updates on your wish list? What other changes do you hope to see? Let us know in the comments.Best iPhone accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel