Sandeep Kashyap, CEO, ProofHubMay 21, 20254 Min ReadEugene Sergeev via Alamy StockIt’s normal to feel nervous when you have to make big decisions at work. After all, you never know how things will turn out. Fortunately, decision-making frameworks can help lessen those nerves and boost your confidence. They bring structure and clarity by bringing practical, proven methods that turn chaos into clarity.  For IT leaders, these frameworks support critical thinking, confident action, and smarter choices -- even under pressure. Most importantly, they help you cut through the noise and ensure every decision stays aligned with your long-term business goals. This blog post will walk you through the five frameworks for effective decision-making that can help IT leaders make more informed decisions. Each one is designed to help you simplify complexity and lead with greater impact.  Importance of Decision-Making FrameworksDecision-making frameworks bring consistency and logic to the decision-making process. They help you break things down and focus on the essentials. Here are the benefits of using these frameworks. Make your objectives clear: Structured decision-making frameworks help you cut through the noise and focus on what matters most, ensuring every decision aligns with your objectives.  Bring teams together: The frameworks allow you to involve the right people and ensure everyone is on the same page. Related:Avoid costly mistakes: IT decisions often involve significant investments, such as new software and infrastructure upgrades. The framework helps you assess potential risk upfront and make deliberate choices.  5 Decision-Making Frameworks Every Leader Should KnowA decision-making framework provides clarity and consistency to make better decisions. Here are five frameworks that can sharpen your thinking and strengthen your leadership. 1. RAPID (recommend, agree, perform, input, decide) RAPID is a decision-making framework that helps clarify who is responsible for what when multiple stakeholders are involved.  Each letter in RAPID represents a key role in the decision-making process:  Recommend: The person in this role leads the effort by gathering data, analyzing options, and proposing a well-informed recommendation. Agree: These stakeholders have to work closely with the recommender to shape the best possible decision.  Perform: This is the individual or team responsible for executing the decision once it's made. Input: These contributors offer valuable insights, expertise, or context that inform the recommendation.  Decide: The final authority that makes the call and commits the organization to move forward. This role carries accountability for the outcome. Related:2. SPADE (setting, people, alternatives, decide, explain) The SPADE framework breaks down each step of the structured decision-making process so that you can reach an informed and critical conclusion. It’s especially helpful when decisions involve multiple teams, limited time, and high visibility.  Each letter in SPADE represents a crucial phase in the decision-making process: Setting: Define the decision’s scope, goal, and constraints.  People: Identify and engage relevant stakeholders such as decision-makers, influencers, and executors. Alternatives: Generate options related to the decision based on criteria like cost, security, and scalability.  Decide: Evaluate all options and select the best course of action. You can avoid negative consequences and bias through objective methods like private voting. Explain: Clearly document and explain the rationale behind a decision to ensure alignment across teams and maintain accountability for outcomes. 3. OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) The OODA loop is a four-step approach to decision-making that focuses on filtering available information, putting it in context, and quickly making the most appropriate decision.  Related:The word OODA stands for:  Observe: Monitor system performance, team dynamics, and industry trends to gather relevant and timely data. Orient: Analyze the information you have collected to understand the context, challenges, and opportunities. Decide: Based on your analysis, choose the most effective course of action. Act: Implement the decision quickly and efficiently. Once action is taken, the loop restarts—each decision and outcome creates new conditions to observe and evaluate. 4. Eisenhower MatrixThe Eisenhower Matrix is a task prioritization technique that helps make decisions related to tasks. It helps you organize tasks into four quadrants, based on the urgency and importance, and suggests appropriate action for tasks in each quadrant. It ensures that essential tasks are completed first, contributing to the success of projects and goals.  Here is what the Eisenhower matrix includes:  QuadrantDescription Action DoImportant and urgent Handle these immediately ScheduleImportant but not urgent Schedule these for later DelegateUrgent but not important Assign these to others if possible DeleteNeither urgent nor important Consider removing these altogether 5. Decision TreeA decision tree is a graphical representation that helps IT leaders map out the possible outcomes of different decisions. It helps leaders assess risks, rewards, and the potential consequences of each choice before committing to a path. Decision trees are most useful in complex decision-making processes where multiple scenarios are involved. ConclusionIT leaders deal with tough decisions every day. Which project should be prioritized? Should we adopt new tools or improve the existing ones? Who should get what tasks? To handle these challenges, leaders can use frameworks for effective decision-making like RAPID, SPADE, OODA, Eisenhower Matrix, and decision trees. These tools help bring structure and clarity to tough decisions, making it easier to move forward with confidence in a fast-changing business world. About the AuthorSandeep KashyapCEO, ProofHubSandeep Kashyap, the visionary CEO of ProofHub, boasts over 25 years of IT industry experience. He's a recognized luminary known for innovation and agility. His contributions extend to project management insights and leadership, growth and entrepreneurship. His practical expertise is evident in ProofHub's success. Recognized as Top Leadership Voice on Linkedin, Sandeep’s contributions provide invaluable insight for leaders and professionals seeking to create thriving workplaces.See more from Sandeep KashyapWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Sandeep Kashyap, CEO, ProofHubMay 21, 20254 Min ReadEugene Sergeev via Alamy StockIt’s normal to feel nervous when you have to make big decisions at work. After all, you never know how things will turn out. Fortunately, decision-making frameworks can help lessen those nerves and boost your confidence. They bring structure and clarity by bringing practical, proven methods that turn chaos into clarity.  For IT leaders, these frameworks support critical thinking, confident action, and smarter choices -- even under pressure. Most importantly, they help you cut through the noise and ensure every decision stays aligned with your long-term business goals. This blog post will walk you through the five frameworks for effective decision-making that can help IT leaders make more informed decisions. Each one is designed to help you simplify complexity and lead with greater impact.  Importance of Decision-Making FrameworksDecision-making frameworks bring consistency and logic to the decision-making process. They help you break things down and focus on the essentials. Here are the benefits of using these frameworks. Make your objectives clear: Structured decision-making frameworks help you cut through the noise and focus on what matters most, ensuring every decision aligns with your objectives.  Bring teams together: The frameworks allow you to involve the right people and ensure everyone is on the same page. Related:Avoid costly mistakes: IT decisions often involve significant investments, such as new software and infrastructure upgrades. The framework helps you assess potential risk upfront and make deliberate choices.  5 Decision-Making Frameworks Every Leader Should KnowA decision-making framework provides clarity and consistency to make better decisions. Here are five frameworks that can sharpen your thinking and strengthen your leadership. 1. RAPID (recommend, agree, perform, input, decide) RAPID is a decision-making framework that helps clarify who is responsible for what when multiple stakeholders are involved.  Each letter in RAPID represents a key role in the decision-making process:  Recommend: The person in this role leads the effort by gathering data, analyzing options, and proposing a well-informed recommendation. Agree: These stakeholders have to work closely with the recommender to shape the best possible decision.  Perform: This is the individual or team responsible for executing the decision once it's made. Input: These contributors offer valuable insights, expertise, or context that inform the recommendation.  Decide: The final authority that makes the call and commits the organization to move forward. This role carries accountability for the outcome. Related:2. SPADE (setting, people, alternatives, decide, explain) The SPADE framework breaks down each step of the structured decision-making process so that you can reach an informed and critical conclusion. It’s especially helpful when decisions involve multiple teams, limited time, and high visibility.  Each letter in SPADE represents a crucial phase in the decision-making process: Setting: Define the decision’s scope, goal, and constraints.  People: Identify and engage relevant stakeholders such as decision-makers, influencers, and executors. Alternatives: Generate options related to the decision based on criteria like cost, security, and scalability.  Decide: Evaluate all options and select the best course of action. You can avoid negative consequences and bias through objective methods like private voting. Explain: Clearly document and explain the rationale behind a decision to ensure alignment across teams and maintain accountability for outcomes. 3. OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) The OODA loop is a four-step approach to decision-making that focuses on filtering available information, putting it in context, and quickly making the most appropriate decision.  Related:The word OODA stands for:  Observe: Monitor system performance, team dynamics, and industry trends to gather relevant and timely data. Orient: Analyze the information you have collected to understand the context, challenges, and opportunities. Decide: Based on your analysis, choose the most effective course of action. Act: Implement the decision quickly and efficiently. Once action is taken, the loop restarts—each decision and outcome creates new conditions to observe and evaluate. 4. Eisenhower MatrixThe Eisenhower Matrix is a task prioritization technique that helps make decisions related to tasks. It helps you organize tasks into four quadrants, based on the urgency and importance, and suggests appropriate action for tasks in each quadrant. It ensures that essential tasks are completed first, contributing to the success of projects and goals.  Here is what the Eisenhower matrix includes:  QuadrantDescription Action DoImportant and urgent Handle these immediately ScheduleImportant but not urgent Schedule these for later DelegateUrgent but not important Assign these to others if possible DeleteNeither urgent nor important Consider removing these altogether 5. Decision TreeA decision tree is a graphical representation that helps IT leaders map out the possible outcomes of different decisions. It helps leaders assess risks, rewards, and the potential consequences of each choice before committing to a path. Decision trees are most useful in complex decision-making processes where multiple scenarios are involved. ConclusionIT leaders deal with tough decisions every day. Which project should be prioritized? Should we adopt new tools or improve the existing ones? Who should get what tasks? To handle these challenges, leaders can use frameworks for effective decision-making like RAPID, SPADE, OODA, Eisenhower Matrix, and decision trees. These tools help bring structure and clarity to tough decisions, making it easier to move forward with confidence in a fast-changing business world. About the AuthorSandeep KashyapCEO, ProofHubSandeep Kashyap, the visionary CEO of ProofHub, boasts over 25 years of IT industry experience. He's a recognized luminary known for innovation and agility. His contributions extend to project management insights and leadership, growth and entrepreneurship. His practical expertise is evident in ProofHub's success. Recognized as Top Leadership Voice on Linkedin, Sandeep’s contributions provide invaluable insight for leaders and professionals seeking to create thriving workplaces.See more from Sandeep KashyapWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Well-funded French AI model maker Mistral has consistently punched above its weight since its debut of its own powerful open source foundation model in fall 2023 — but it took some criticism among developers on X recently for its last release of a proprietary large language model (LLM) called Medium 3, which some viewed as betraying its open source roots and commitment. (Recall that open source models can be taken and adapted freely by anyone, while proprietary models must be paid for and their customization options are more limited and controlled by the model maker.) But today, Mistral is back and recommitting to the open source AI community, and AI-powered software development in particular, in a big way. The company has teamed up with open source startup All Hands AI, creators of Open Devin to release Devstral, a new open-source language model with 24-million parameters — much smaller than many rivals whose models are in the multibillions, and thus, requiring far less computing power such that it can be run on a laptop — purpose-built for agentic AI development. Unlike traditional LLMs designed for short-form code completions or isolated function generation, Devstral is optimized to act as a full software engineering agent—capable of understanding context across files, navigating large codebases, and resolving real-world issues. The model is now freely available under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, allowing developers and organizations to deploy, modify, and commercialize it without restriction. “We wanted to release something open for the developer and enthusiast community—something they can run locally, privately, and modify as they want,” said Baptiste Rozière, research scientist at Mistral AI. “It’s released under Apache 2.0, so people can do basically whatever they want with it.” Building upon Codestral Devstral represents the next step in Mistral’s growing portfolio of code-focused models, following its earlier success with the Codestral series. First launched in May 2024, Codestral was Mistral’s initial foray into specialized coding LLMs. It was a 22-billion-parameter model trained to handle over 80 programming languages and became well-regarded for its performance in code generation and completion tasks. The model’s popularity and technical strengths led to rapid iterations, including the launch of Codestral-Mamba—an enhanced version built on Mamba architecture—and most recently, Codestral 25.01, which has found adoption among IDE plugin developers and enterprise users looking for high-frequency, low-latency models. The momentum around Codestral helped establish Mistral as a key player in the coding-model ecosystem and laid the foundation for the development of Devstral—extending from fast completions to full-agent task execution. Outperforms larger models on top SWE benchmarks Devstral achieves a score of 46.8% on the SWE-Bench Verified benchmark, a dataset of 500 real-world GitHub issues manually validated for correctness. This places it ahead of all previously released open-source models and ahead of several closed models, including GPT-4.1-mini, which it surpasses by over 20 percentage points. “Right now, it’s by pretty far the best open model for SWE-bench verified and for code agents,” said Rozière. “And it’s also a very small model—only 24 billion parameters—that you can run locally, even on a MacBook.” “Compare Devstral to closed and open models evaluated under any scaffold—we find that Devstral achieves substantially better performance than a number of closed-source alternatives,” wrote Sophia Yang, Ph.D., Head of Developer Relations at Mistral AI, on the social network X. “For example, Devstral surpasses the recent GPT-4.1-mini by over 20%.” The model is finetuned from Mistral Small 3.1 using reinforcement learning and safety alignment techniques. “We started from a very good base model with Mistral’s small tree control, which already performs well,” Rozière said. “Then we specialized it using safety and reinforcement learning techniques to improve its performance on SWE-bench.” Built for the agentic era Devstral is not just a code generation model — it is optimized for integration into agentic frameworks like OpenHands, SWE-Agent, and OpenDevin. These scaffolds allow Devstral to interact with test cases, navigate source files, and execute multi-step tasks across projects. “We’re releasing it with OpenDevin, which is a scaffolding for code agents,” said Rozière. “We build the model, and they build the scaffolding — a set of prompts and tools that the model can use, like a backend for the developer model.” To ensure robustness, the model was tested across diverse repositories and internal workflows. “We were very careful not to overfit to SWE-bench,” Rozière explained. “We trained only on data from repositories that are not cloned from the SWE-bench set and validated the model across different frameworks.” He added that Mistral dogfooded Devstral internally to ensure it generalizes well to new, unseen tasks. Efficient deployment with permissive open license — even for enterprise and commercial projects Devstral’s compact 24B architecture makes it practical for developers to run locally, whether on a single RTX 4090 GPU or a Mac with 32GB of RAM. This makes it appealing for privacy-sensitive use cases and edge deployments. “This model is targeted toward enthusiasts and people who care about running something locally and privately—something they can use even on a plane with no internet,” Rozière said. Beyond performance and portability, its Apache 2.0 license offers a compelling proposition for commercial applications. The license permits unrestricted use, adaptation, and distribution—even for proprietary products—making Devstral a low-friction option for enterprise adoption. Detailed specifications and usage instructions are available on the Devstral-Small-2505 model card on Hugging Face. The model features a 128,000 token context window and uses the Tekken tokenizer with a 131,000 vocabulary. It supports deployment through all major open source platforms including Hugging Face, Ollama, Kaggle, LM Studio, and Unsloth, and works well with libraries such as vLLM, Transformers, and Mistral Inference. Available via API or locally Devstral is accessible via Mistral’s Le Platforme API (application programming interface) under the model name devstral-small-2505, with pricing set at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens. For those deploying locally, support for frameworks like OpenHands enables integration with codebases and agentic workflows out of the box. Rozière shared how he incorporates Devstral in his own development flow: “I use it myself. You can ask it to do small tasks, like updating the version of a package or modifying a tokenization script. It finds the right place in your code and makes the changes. It’s really nice to use.” More to come While Devstral is currently released as a research preview, Mistral and All Hands AI are already working on a larger follow-up model with expanded capabilities. “There will always be a gap between smaller and larger models,” Rozière noted, “but we’ve gone a long way in bridging that. These models already perform very strongly, even compared to some larger competitors.” With its performance benchmarks, permissive license, and agentic design, Devstral positions itself not just as a code generation tool—but as a foundational model for building autonomous software engineering systems. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. 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Apple Pay is now the fifth most widely available online payment option as more shoppers ditch traditional checkout forms for faster, mobile-first alternatives.Apple Pay on iPhoneA May 2025 study by Merchant Machine found Apple Pay is available on 5.25% of websites globally. That puts it just behind American Express and ahead of Shopify Pay, Google Pay, and Stripe.PayPal remains the clear leader, appearing on more than a quarter of websites at 26.24%. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Bungie's Marathon reboot has been under fire for plagiarism of a British artist, and a new report has suggested Sony has set a sales target for the game that could prove challengingTech13:07, 21 May 2025Is Marathon in trouble?Destiny 2 developer Bungie isn't having the best of weeks, despite revealing a series of expansions for the game and preparing for the launch of its Marathon reboot in September.Still, the studio was forced to go back to the literal drawing board in recent days, with an artist claiming much of the game's design language was lifted from her portfolio, including some lifted wholesale.‌Now, Forbes' Paul Tassi, a regular reporter on Bungie, has discussed the high stakes facing the studio. Reports had previously suggested that Bungie is close to being absorbed into Sony and losing its autonomy if it underperforms, and that seems more likely than ever, given the publisher apparently wants the game to hit a high sales target.‌Posting the above video on YouTube where he explains the deep issues with Marathon on multiple levels, and how it's unlikely to be a critical hit, Tassi reveals he's heard Sony is expecting big things."I heard this needed to be in the top 5 of NPD sales for the year if it's going to be a success, or considered a success," he explained.Article continues below"Crazy," he adds, "there's no way".Last year, Sony did have a live service game in the top five NPD (now called Circana) games with Helldivers 2, but that felt like a cultural zeitgeist moment that didn't enter the arena with all of the baggage Marathon now has saddled on it.The gaming community praised Marathon's visuals, but now those are being questioned, too‌Considering 2025 has already seen critical hits like Monster Hunter Wilds and Split Fiction doing well sales-wise, and the Nintendo Switch 2 is launching soon, it seems like a tall mountain for Bungie to climb–especially since it's launching at a $40 price point when many alternatives in the genre are free-to-play.Still, it would be interesting for Sony to push a specific sales number, given that a live service title tends to live or die based on player retention.Over the weekend, Tassi reported that morale at the studio has plummeted.Article continues belowHe said: "Sony and Bungie legal are now sorting through this, and there is unlikely to be any new information as all of this continues to unfold. It is not clear how long an “audit” will take of the assets to remove or find any more plagiarism, as it’s an expansive enough process to have Bungie not even show any footage at all in its recent livestream.""Morale is in 'free-fall” across all departments, and “the vibes have never been worse.” Everyone has the same concerns about what happens to Bungie as a studio if Marathon bombs, which is something they absolutely cannot afford."For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌

UK-based engineering equipment supplier Kingsbury and metal additive manufacturing company Additure have been appointed by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to supply additive manufacturing technology and expertise as part of the UK’s ongoing efforts to advance fusion energy research. The partnership will support the development of components designed to endure the extreme conditions within fusion reactors, with a focus on innovative materials and design approaches. A key area of focus involves the use of tungsten—layered with materials such as copper—to achieve the necessary durability. To support this work, Kingsbury and Additure will deliver and install a Nikon SLM Solutions SLM 280 2.0 Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) system at UKAEA’s facilities. “We are excited to support the team at the UKAEA as they scale, not just with the SLM 280’s LPBF capability, but with all the key elements of the AM ecosystem to make this a robust manufacturing solution for UKAEA and the UK’s fusion programme,” said Will Priest, Business Development Manager at Additure. The SLM 280 Production Series system. Image via Nikon SLM Solutions. About UKAEA The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is the United Kingdom’s national fusion energy research organisation. It operates as an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. A key part of its mission involves fostering industrial fusion capability by working with manufacturers and supply chains to introduce and scale the technologies required for commercial fusion energy deployment. “The UKAEA aims to develop the commercialisation of additive manufacturing and support UK industry in the transition into the fusion energy sector. We conduct the complex areas of research and development to the point where it becomes commercially viable, the advice and support of our supply chain is hugely valuable in expediting this process,” said Roy Marshall, Head of Operations for Fabrication, Installation, and Maintenance at UKAEA. JET interior with super imposed plasma. Image via UK Atomic Energy Authority. Additure’s Role and Technology Contribution At the center of this initiative is the SLM 280 2.0, an LPBF system designed for high-performance applications, including the development of refractory metals. The system offers build speeds up to 80% faster than single-laser alternatives and includes integrated safety features such as a powder sieve module and system cooling enhancements. Beyond equipment delivery, Additure is also providing comprehensive technical training to UKAEA’s research, materials, and design teams. This includes detailed guidance on machine setup, build optimization, and specialized functions—such as a heated reduced build volume. “The applications training from Additure will provide our engineers with new ways to design some of the complex structures required by fusion and allow them to do this using some of the most challenging materials to work with. For additive manufacture to contribute to fusion energy, more designers need to think, ‘What process is most suitable for the desired thermal or structural performance?’ And ‘how do I create a design that is best optimised for additive manufacture?’”, said Mr. Marshall. Advancing Laser Beam Shaping 3D Printing  Given its notable advantages for industrial metal 3D printing, beam shaping capabilities are being developed and commercialized by several players in the research and LPBF 3D printing spheres. In 2024, German research organization Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT showcased its new 3D printing beam shaping technology. Working with the Chair of Technology of Optical Systems (TOS) at RWTH Aachen University, the new platform, the Fraunhofer team is developing a test system for investigating complex laser beam profiles.  This platform can create customized beam profiles for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) 3D printing, enhancing part quality, process stability and productivity, while minimizing material waste.  In 2022, Equispheres and Aconity3D used laser beam-shaping 3D printing to achieve build rates nearly nine times higher than industry norms. Equispheres’ NExP-1 aluminum powder was used with Aconity3D’s AconityMIDI+ LPBF 3D printer to unlock speeds exceeding 430 cm3/hr for a single laser.  The system was modified to employ a PG YLR 3000/1000-AM laser with beam-shaping capabilities. By using a shaped beam over a zoomed Gaussian profile, the team reduced overheating and mitigated spatter formation during high-speed 3D printing.  Take the 3DPIReader Survey — shape the future of AM reporting in under 5 minutes. Who won the 2024 3D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the3D Printing Industry newsletter to keep up with the latest 3D printing news. You can also follow us on LinkedIn, and subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry Youtube channel to access more exclusive content. Featured image shows JET interior with super imposed plasma. Image via UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Macworld If you want to add some quick edits to a photo or video, Apple’s free Mac apps – Photos and Preview – can do a good job, but for anything more advanced you’ll need a dedicated image editing app like Adobe’s Photoshop. For years now it has been the industry standard, due to its wide range of features and capabilities, but it does come with a substantial subscription fee that might be a bit too much for the casual user. Here’s how to get a copy of Photoshop on your Mac, or, failing that, the next best thing. Plus, because you can’t beat free, we’ll also explain your options for getting Photoshop on Mac at no cost, as well as rounding up the Best Mac free image and photo editors. If you’d like to get the same software on your tablet, read How to get Photoshop on iPad. How to get Photoshop free on a Mac: Adobe Express As Photoshop is professional-grade software, you won’t be able to get the full version for free aside from the 7-day trial that we’ll cover below. However, Adobe does offer a stripped down version that covers a lot of the same ground if your demands aren’t too high. Adobe Express is a free, online web app that offers a range of editing tools, such as the ability to crop, reshape, flip, and recolor images. You can also add text (there are plenty of templates and fonts to choose from), make the background of an image transparent, quickly put together collages, and generally improve the style and form of your photos and videos. Adobe Express comes with access to 1 million+ royalty-free stock images you can use for posters or social media content, plus you get 5GB of storage. Adobe If you want more advanced features, including Generative AI for instantly creating images, removing backgrounds in video, one-click resizing, a much larger selection of stock images, not to mention 100GB of storage, then you can sign up to Adobe Express Premium for $9.99/£9.98 p/m, with the option to cancel at any time. There’s also a free 30-day trial so you can see if Premium gives you all the Photoshop capabilities you need, without spending any money. If you’re happy to work online rather than with a dedicated app, and you’re not after the high-end editing features, either Adobe Express or Adobe Express Premium are probably the ones to go for, plus you have those trials to ensure whether the tools you need for your particular workflows are included. How to get full Photoshop for free If you want to use the full version of Photoshop, then there is the aforementioned free trial, or you could sign up to a short-term subscription to at least keep the costs down. Trial: The first option is a Photoshop trial. There is a 7-day free trial that gives you access to the full program, with no restrictions. While Adobe advertises the free 7-day trial, you can actually get 14 days free, because you can cancel within 14 days of your initial order and get fully refunded. In fact, you could, theoretically, get 21 days free if you had the trial and then canceled your subscription after 13 days. Don’t forget though, as you’re then liable to pay 50% of the entire 1yr contract if you miss the deadline. Monthly subscription: The second option is signing up for a subscription on a monthly rather than an annual basis. This won’t give you Photoshop for free, but the option will allow you to access all the features of the software on a shorter-term basis, then cancel when you no longer need it. We’ll run through the various subscription options in the sections below. Adobe To explain how it works we need to explain the difference between Adobe’s two monthly subscription packages: one is cheaper ($22.99/£21.98 a month) because it is part of an annual plan; the other is a more expensive option ($34.49/£32.98 a month), but you can cancel without having to pay Adobe anything. Adobe doesn’t list these options on the site, instead you have to click the Buy Now button then you can select from the three options: Annual – Billed monthly, Monthly, and Annual – Billed upfront. Photoshop with 100GB of cloud storageU.S.U.K.Annual plan paid monthly$22.99£21.98Annual plan paid upfront$263.88£262.51Monthly plan (cancel at any time)$34.49£32.98Buy it hereBuy it here Adobe explains the legal terms of the various contracts here. Basically, if you sign up for the cheaper ‘annual contract, paid monthly’ and then choose to end your subscription you will be able to do so, but if you end the contract after the first 14 days “you’ll be charged a lump sum amount of 50% of your remaining contract obligation and your service will continue until the end of that month’s billing period.” This is a slightly better scenario than if you were paying annually – in that case, your contract will continue to the end of the term. You wouldn’t get any money back. This is why the best option, in this case, is to sign up for a month-to-month contract. In this case, the contract will automatically renew every month, but should you choose to cancel (we explain how to cancel below) you will be able to use Photoshop until the end of that month, at which point your contract will cease. If you need Photoshop, but you don’t want to tie yourself into a contract with Adobe, this could be the best option for you. However, you should note that you will lose access to anything you have saved in Adobe’s cloud after 90 days. If these options aren’t quite what you’re after, you can always look for alternatives to Photoshop, as there are some excellent apps currently available. We also have a round-up of the Best Mac free image and photo editors, which includes options such as Seashore and Gimp. How to get Photoshop on a Mac without an annual subscription If you were hoping to buy a copy of Photoshop to own, as in not paying on a subscription basis, we have some bad news for you: Adobe no longer sells what is known as a ‘perpetual license’ for Photoshop and its other apps. There is one option though: you can buy Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements is designed for amateur rather than pro photographers, but it does offer a number of photo editing features that might be sufficient for your needs. One very important thing to note though is that Adobe has changed how Elements works, so that when you make your purchase you’re only getting a 3-year licence. That means, once the three years are up, the app will stop working, although you’ll still be able to access all of the work you created. You can buy a copy of Photoshop Elements directly from Adobe’s website for $99.99/£86.99. (Buy Photoshop Elements from Adobe). See our review of Photoshop Elements for more information. You can also buy Photoshop Elements on the Mac App Store for $99.99/£99.99. The benefit of Photoshop Elements is that you can buy it outright and install it on your Mac. You will have access to features like masks, layers, colorisation, image manipulation and other useful, more consumer-level effects with Elements. If you’re a creative professional though, or are used to the full-blown version of Photoshop, then you may find too many tools missing from the box. If you want to take a look there’s also a 7-day free trial of Photoshop Elements so you can take the software for a test run. If you don’t care about how up-to-date your software is you might be interested in buying a secondhand copy of Photoshop, or an old Mac with Photoshop installed. Just be aware that Adobe doesn’t support all older versions in terms of updates, so the ones you find might not be compatible with later iterations of macOS, plus newer Macs won’t run old versions of Photoshop. You’ll also need to confirm that the software license hasn’t already been used, as usually these are non-transferable. And generally, we would advise against buying a used Mac (unless it’s certified refurbished). For more information read: What version of macOS can my Mac run? If a subscription to Photoshop isn’t for you, and Photoshop Elements isn’t enough, we recommend you look at alternatives to Photoshop, many of which have comparable features with the benefit of being available to buy outright. The best options include PixelMator Pro, Affinity Photo and others. See: Best Photoshop alternatives for Mac. Is there an education discount for Photoshop? There is one other way you can save money while getting a copy of Photoshop for your Mac. If you are in education then you may qualify for a discount. However, you can’t sign up for a reduced price on the Photoshop-only tier, you have to get the entire Creative Cloud collection, which includes Photoshop and a large collection of other Adobe apps. The student and teacher deal for Creative Cloud does represent quite a hefty reduction. At the time of writing, Students and Teachers pay $19.99/£16.24 a month, which is around 70% less than the normal subscription rate. Photoshop for Mac price If you have accepted that you need to pay for a subscription to Photoshop you will want to know how much it costs. There’s not actually a straightforward answer: it depends on how you want to buy it. Whether you love or hate the subscription model, there are a few options to choose from if you want to get a copy of Photoshop: Photoshop: If you just want the single Photoshop app you can have that for $20.99/£19.97 a month if you sign up for a year, or $31.49/£30.34 a month if you just pay on a monthly basis. Sign up on Adobe’s website. Photography Plan: However, the Photography Plan is actually the best deal. It includes Photoshop, Lightroom (for web and mobile), and Lightroom Classic (for desktop), plus 1TB of storage. The bundle costs $19.99/£19.98 a month, but you will be on a contract for a year as there’s no monthly option. Sign up on Adobe’s website. Plan: Photography Plan with 1TB cloudU.S.U.K.Annual plan paid monthly$19.99£19.97Annual plan paid upfront$239.88£238.42Monthly plan (cancel at any time)n/an/aBuy it hereBuy it here Business: If you are a business user you ought to sign up for the Business option where you can get a single Photoshop license for $37.99/£27.99 ex VAT a month per license. It’s worth noting that all the Adobe CC apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat, cost $89.99/£65.49 (ex VAT) per license a month. Sign up on Adobe’s website.  How to cancel a Photoshop subscription The ease with which you can end your Photoshop contract is one of the benefits of Adobe’s decision to switch from selling copies of Photoshop outright to a subscription model. It also means that you only need to pay for Photoshop for as long as you need it. So if it’s just for a short-term project you can unsubscribe as soon as the work is done. Here’s how to cancel your subscription: Sign in to the Adobe web page where plans are managed. Sign in to your Adobe account. Under the My Plans tab find Manage Plan (or View plan) and click on that. Now click on Cancel plan. Give your reason for cancellation. Click on Continue. Best alternatives to Photoshop on Mac? There is plenty of great photo and image editing software available on macOS, many of which come with lower price tags than Adobe products. One of our favorites is Affinity Photo 2 from Serif, which boasts a wide range of powerful tools, a friendly interface and costs $69.99/£67.99 as a one-off payment, and also offers a 30-day free trial. Seriff Another popular choice is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which is completely free and comes with an incredible range of tools and features. The interface can take a little getting used to, which is not uncommon with open-source software, but once you get to know your way around, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. There’s also a large collection of tutorials for the software on YouTube, so if you’re willing to put in the time then it’s a powerful suite that will cost you nothing at all. We also recommend you read Best Mac for photo editing. You may also be interested in: How to get Adobe Illustrator on a Mac and How to get InDesign on a Mac.

Host with the most (containers) Self-hosting is having a moment. Ethan Sholly knows why. We interview Ethan Sholly of the selfh.st podcast/newsleter/directory. Kevin Purdy – May 20, 2025 5:22 pm | 44 Credit: Aurich Lawson Credit: Aurich Lawson Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Self-hosting is having a moment, even if it's hard to define exactly what it is. It's a niche that goes beyond regular computing devices and networks but falls short of a full-on home lab. (Most home labs involve self-hosting, but not all self-hosting makes for a home lab.) It adds privacy, provides DRM-free alternatives, and reduces advertising. It's often touted as a way to get more out of your network-attached storage (NAS), but it's much more than just backup and media streaming. Is self-hosting just running services on your network for which most people rely on cloud companies? Broadly, yes. But take a look at the selfh.st site/podcast/newsletter, the r/selfhosted subreddit, and all the GitHub project pages that link to one another, and you'll also find things that no cloud provider offers. Ethan Sholly, proprietor of the selfh.st site, newsletter, and occasional podcast, recently walked me through the current state of self-hosting, and he shared some of the findings from his surveys of those people doing all that small-scale server administration. “Turn your desktop on—it's movie night” Ethan Sholly, proprietor of the selfh.st media mini-conglomerate. Credit: Ethan Sholly Ethan Sholly, proprietor of the selfh.st media mini-conglomerate. Credit: Ethan Sholly Sholly works in finance, not tech, but he was a computer science minor with just enough knowledge to get Plex working on a desktop PC for his friends and family. "I'd get a call or text: 'Can you turn your desktop on—it's movie night,'" Sholly said. He gradually expanded to building his own tower server with 10 terabyte drives. Once he had his media-serving needs covered, the question inevitably became "What else can I self-host?" He dug in, wandered around, and found himself with tons of bookmarked GitHub repos and project pages. Sholly, a self-professed "old-school RSS junkie," wanted one place to find the most commonly recommended apps and news about their changes and updates. It didn't exist, so he assembled it, coded it, and shared it. He also started writing about the scene in his newsletter, which has more personality and punch than you'd expect from someone in a largely open source, DIY-minded hobby. After Plex increased subscription prices and changed its business model in March, Sholly wrote in his newsletter that, while there were valid concerns about privacy and future directions, it would be a good time to note something else: The majority of people don't donate to a single self-hosted project. Responses from more than 3,700 people to the question "Why do you self-host?" on selfh.st. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Responses from more than 3,700 people to the question "Why do you self-host?" on selfh.st. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The types of hardware people reported using for self-hosting in Ethan Sholly's survey. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The types of hardware people reported using for self-hosting in Ethan Sholly's survey. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Responses from more than 3,700 people to the question "Why do you self-host?" on selfh.st. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The types of hardware people reported using for self-hosting in Ethan Sholly's survey. Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Among roughly 3,700 responses from the self-hosting community in 2024 (nearly double the 2023 returns), 60 percent said "no" to the question "Have you donated to a self-hosted project in the last year?" This is despite Plex being in third place for respondents' favorite self-hosted application, behind Jellyfin and Home Assistant. Sholly's surveys provide many other insights into this sub-section of a niche community, and they likely give him a perspective on what people are interested in. He can give the developers of the self-hosted, AI-capable photo tool Immich a good-natured ribbing about shipping a new mascot before other much-requested features. He knows them, for one thing, and his readers should sense the gratefulness coming through. Privacy, costs, and affordable small computers Given this familiarity, I had a few big questions for Sholly about the self-hosted scene. First up: What is the difference between "home lab" and "self-hosting"? Home labs, Sholly suggested, are much more focused on hardware and networking. Home labs are often something people do in their professional lives and bring home with them. Self-hosting is something you could technically do on a laptop you keep running in a closet, Sholly said. What gave rise to self-hosting's relative recent popularity? That led Sholly to a few answers, many of them directly relating to the corporate cloud services people typically use instead of self-hosting: Privacy for photos, files, and other data Cost of cloud hosting and storage Accessibility of services, through GitHub, Reddit, and sites like his Installation with Docker ("a game-changer for lots of people") and Unraid Single-board computers (SBCs) like the Raspberry Pi NUCS, mini-PCs, workstations, and other pandemic-popular hardware Finally, there's the elephant in any self-hosting discussion: piracy. Sholly doesn't shy away from it as a driver of self-hosting (see the "*arr Stack" in the chart below, "arr" as in goofy pirate speak). "Look at the questions asked by the newcomers to the scene on any subreddit or forum, look at what they're asking about: It's their 'media files' and how to handle them," he said. The apps used by folks on their journey through self-hosting, as of 2024. Credit: Ethan Sholly / selfh.st The apps used by folks on their journey through self-hosting, as of 2024. Credit: Ethan Sholly / selfh.st Sholly self-hosts a whole bunch of services, but not everything. "It's not the end-goal, and we need to push on companies to fix the way they host their services," he said. "Convenience shouldn't be an add-on; privacy shouldn't be a value-add. A lot of services people are self-hosting, they might gladly pay for if companies gave them more organization and control." Feel free to share your own journey with self-hosting, and how it's going, in the comments. Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 44 Comments

Bold recycling claims deliberately distract from the disastrous ecological effects of plastic in buildings The building industry consumes nearly a fifth of all plastic produced globally. Plastic enters buildings not only as elements – window frames, fences, gutters and cable sheathing – but also in the form of petrochemical‑based polymers that permeate building products less visibly: dissolved in solvents, mixed into concrete and asphalt, impregnated into wood products, and affixed, laminated or otherwise agglomerated with other materials. These applications preclude their separation from other waste for recycling – a major reason why only a tiny proportion of the estimated 77 million metric tonnes of plastic waste from demolition or renovation is recycled. The rest is incinerated, landfilled or mismanaged.  This does not prevent building product manufacturers from routinely promoting plastic products as recyclable. VinylPlus, the recycling wing of the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers, claims that nearly 27 per cent of vinyl products were mechanically recycled in 2021. But nearly two thirds of this was sourced from factory waste, before the vinyl even became flooring or roofing.  Recycling claims serve an important ideological function: to deflect corporate accountability for plastic’s deleterious effects, and to delay and derail efforts to restrict plastic production. Promoting these claims serves as a passcode to a ‘green’ building material industry expected to reach a value of over US$1 trillion by 2032. The infiltration of plastic in buildings runs deep. Some of the largest producers of construction chemicals and synthetic building products include the world’s largest private and state‑owned fossil fuel companies, such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Sinopec and Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC). The chemical and plastics industries are intertwined with the fossil fuel industry via extensive infrastructural, institutional and ideological ties, ranging from their shared and interdependent supply chains, to common political interests and secure global transport routes. These companies provide thousands of polymer‑based building products ranging from ready‑to‑install components (rigid insulation boards, waterproofing membranes, etc), to myriad adhesives, coatings, binders, sealants, admixtures and insulating foams – or provide their constitutive chemicals. ‘Architects must look up from their carbon calculators to question manufacturers’ claims of circularity’     The modern building product industry arose in tandem with the fossil fuel, chemical and plastics industries in the postwar era in the US and Europe. The massive productive capacity that had supplied the war effort was transformed to meet the needs and long‑repressed desires of a populace eager to partake in the fruits of peace, modernity and affluence, resulting in a flood of new plastic consumer goods. Among the new uses for plastic emerged an ever‑widening array of building products from flooring to cladding and furniture. By the late 1960s, however, plastic’s durability began to represent an existential threat to plastics and petrochemical companies as demand for plastic consumer goods began to wane. Industry’s solution? Disposability – not in response to consumers’ demand for convenience, but to the saturation of the market of plastic consumer goods that lasted too long. Disposability transformed a crisis of declining profit into a wellspring of unending demand and plastic waste. Eventually, producers became increasingly unable to credibly deny the problem of discarded plastic accumulating in great heaping piles and circling ocean gyres. What they could do was flood the mediascape with solutions that worked for them: redirecting focus from the obvious step of curtailing production, to downstream, consumer‑focused measures, such as increased recycling and the adoption of biogenic and recycled plastic feedstocks. Though plastic building products are less disposable than single‑use plastics, claims of ‘circularity’ similarly serve to sanction plastic use while ensuring that end‑of‑life costs stay off company ledgers.  Facing the prospect of declining demand for fuel due to electrification and the adoption of electric vehicles in much of the world, petrochemical industries have doubled down on expanding plastic fabrication as an economic lifeline. The immensely powerful nexus of fossil fuel, petrochemical and plastic industries have poured billions of dollars into new refineries and plastic production facilities. With nearly a fifth of plastic demand coming from the construction industry, these cartels have much at stake in maintaining their business. Accordingly, use of plastic in building is widely promoted by their well‑funded trade lobbies, including the American Chemical Council, Plastics Europe and the British Plastics Federation. These trade lobbyists work fervently to influence legislation to ensure the cost and responsibility of recycling is displaced onto consumers and municipalities, ‘externalising’ the cost of remediating what will be a legacy of toxic pollution left for future generations.  As a result, architects remain pressurised and incentivised to specify plastic products due to their low cost, superior performance, availability and lack of alternatives. Architects must look up from their carbon calculators, not only to question manufacturers’ claims of circularity, but also the limits of circularity within an economy predicated both on compulsory growth and – for some time to come – on fossil fuels. Lead image: Plastic is used in numerous applications in the built environment, from cladding and fences to adhesives and insulation foams. Manufacturers claim their plastic products are widely recycled as a tactic to obscure their origin in the petrochemical industry and their contribution to the climate emergency that causes extreme weather events such as wild fires. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times / Getty) 2025-05-21 Reuben J Brown Share AR May 2025CircularityBuy Now

Macworld Throughout its history, Apple has introduced many industry-changing technologies, some of which are still present in today’s devices, like MagSafe on MacBooks. However, some of the technologies introduced by Apple have been discontinued over time for different reasons. While most of these decisions are understandable, some technologies were ahead of their time, and I really miss them today. Let’s look back at some of Apple’s best ideas that were discontinued but ahead of their time and deserve to come back. 3D Touch Although 3D Touch was first introduced with the original Apple Watch as “Force Touch,” Apple later added it to the iPhone. I remember seeing the iPhone 6s introduction video in 2015 with Jony Ive explaining how 3D Touch worked, and it sounded impressive. Indeed, it was. Essentially, Apple put pressure sensors under the iPhone’s screen so that it could distinguish a soft press from a hard press with extreme precision. 3D Touch could be used in many ways, such as pressing harder on an icon to reveal more options or gently pressing a link on a webpage to see a preview of it. Game developers could also adopt 3D Touch for custom controls. You can still perform the 3D Touch action on today’s iPhones, but the result is different.Filipe Esposito The technology blew my mind, and I loved how precise it was. Not only that, but 3D Touch worked very well with the iPhone’s haptic feedback. It was so satisfying. But in practice, only a few apps added support for 3D Touch, and it was a very complex and expensive technology to build. Apple ended up discontinuing 3D Touch, starting with the iPhone XR, and replaced some of the actions with a simple long press on the screen. I still dream of future iPhones having 3D Touch back. Luckily, the trackpads on MacBooks still have Force Touch, so that’s something. AirPort AirPort was Apple’s lineup of wireless routers. First introduced in 1999, AirPort devices always had a futuristic design and made it easy for users to plug in an internet cable and have a Wi-Fi connection at home. While the first version looked like a spaceship, one of the most interesting versions of the AirPort was the model that looked like a giant MacBook charger that had an ethernet port on it. There was also the sleek and modern AirPort Extreme, which was essentially a mini-tower made of polished white plastic. That thing was beautiful. The AirPort line once had a tower form factor (left) and a design that was like a MacBook power adapter (left).Apple Apple’s AirPorts gained many cool features over time. For example, you could plug a USB stick, printer, or external hard drive into it, and all your Apple devices would have wireless access to it. It could also turn wired sound systems into AirPlay speakers. AirPort also resulted in another product called Time Capsule, which had an internal hard drive to wirelessly back up your Mac. Apple stopped selling AirPorts in 2018, and while rumors suggest that Apple has no plans to introduce another Wi-Fi router anytime soon, the company has reportedly been exploring the idea of making Apple TVs and HomePods work as Wi-Fi signal extenders. I really hope that’s true. iPod A lot has changed since Apple introduced the first iPod in 2001. iPod wasn’t just a good product, it also made anyone using it look cool. I remember upgrading from a Discman to an iPod, and I felt like I was in the future. “A thousand songs in your pocket,” as Apple’s slogan went. The third-generation iPod nano. Filipe Esposito There have been many different versions of the iPod over the years, including the iPod touch, but the most iconic ones will always be the iPods with a Click Wheel. There was a unique and satisfying feeling in turning your finger on that wheel to navigate the interface. It was unlike anything else at the time. And although the product was once a hit, it ended up losing the battle to smartphones. Apple knew this, which is why the company has always promoted the iPhone as “the best iPod ever.” Suddenly, our phones could also work as great iPods, so having a dedicated music player no longer made sense for most people. Apple stopped selling the iPod shuffle and iPod nano in 2017, while the iPod touch remained in the lineup until 2022. The company said at the time that the iPod still lives on in its other products, and that’s true. Thanks to the iPod, we now have the iPhone, AirPods, and the HomePod. While some people are nostalgic about the iPod and want it back, I really believe that it served its purpose and that there are better alternatives now, like using an Apple Watch with AirPods if you want to listen to music without having your phone nearby. Cover Flow How could I forget Cover Flow? The cool iPod interface that lets users explore their music library by its art covers? Interestingly, Cover Flow was created by a third-party developer, and the idea was so good that Apple acquired it to implement it in iTunes. The feature was eventually added to the iPod, iPhone, and even Finder on the Mac to browse files with large previews. I remember using the original iPod touch for the first time, rotating the screen with the Music app open, and seeing the Cover Flow interface. That was probably the moment I fell in love with that product. Cover Flow on an iPod touch.Filipe Esposito Cover Flow went away with iOS 7, when Apple completely redesigned the iPhone’s operating system in favor of a flat-design interface with less skeuomorphism. But Apple should bring Cover Flow back. It would be a good feature to reintroduce with iOS 19, as the company is rumored to be changing the user interface all over again. Front Row Similar to Cover Flow, Front Row was an interface that Apple created to use the Mac as a multimedia center. The app made it easier to navigate between the user’s music, videos, and photos. The experience of using Front Row was really cool, especially when the Mac was connected to a big monitor or TV. With Front Row, it was easy to imagine what a multimedia device (like a DVD player) from Apple would look like. Apple never launched a DVD player, but it did announce the first Apple TV in 2007–it had the same interface as Front Row, but now in a standalone device. Front Row was later removed from the Mac, probably because Apple wants you to buy an Apple TV instead. Still, I miss Front Row, especially now with Apple Music and Apple TV+. Front Row provided an easy-to-use interface for using your Mac as an entertainment center.Apple iSight camera Pretty much every Apple device today has a built-in front-facing camera, but there was a time when that wasn’t a thing, and Apple had to create its own webcam for the Mac. Called iSight, Apple’s webcam had a beautiful design for its time (which still looks modern). It was definitely something you’d look at and think, “that’s an Apple product.” The iSight had decent specs for a 2003 webcam, with a three-element lens with autofocus and 480p resolution at 30fps. It also had built-in microphones with noise cancellation and a cool way to cover the lens for better privacy. We now have 1080p and even 4K webcams built into our devices, but there’s still a market for external webcams with larger sensors and better microphones for those who videoconference every day. Although this would be very niche, I would like to see Apple reintroduce iSight with a large 4K sensor for vloggers. Unfortunately, this seems quite unlikely to happen since Apple itself has released a feature that lets users turn their iPhone into a webcam for their Mac or Apple TV. The iSight webcam design would look great in today’s Apple lineup.Christopher Phin Back to the future Apple is known for not reviving things from the past very often, even when it’s something its users really love. Still, we can dream of some of these things coming back in the future–just look at MagSafe, which was removed from MacBooks and then added back years later. And even though some of these technologies may not seem relevant these days, they certainly contributed to improving the Apple ecosystem at the time.