Lego Mario Kart: Mario & Standard Kart (1,972 Pieces) $170 | Releases July 1 at Walmart | Available now at Lego Store Preorder at Walmart See at Lego Store The latest Lego Mario display model for adults and experienced builders will no longer be exclusive to the Lego Store starting July 1. Walmart has opened preorders for Lego Mario Kart: Mario & Standard Kart, a charming and superbly designed building set comprised of 1,972 pieces. The kit lets fans build a large Super Mario figure and his signature red kart. As of June 27, Walmart is offering release-day delivery for the $170 set.Mario & Standard Kart debuted as a Lego Store exclusive on May 15. Lego exclusives typically don't arrive at major retailers for three to six months after launch, so Walmart stocking it on July 1 is a bit surprising. Since Walmart is the only retailer taking preorders, it's possible that the retail release will only be available there.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Mark Theriault founded the startup FITY envisioning a line of clever cooling products: cold drink holders that come with freezable pucks to keep beverages cold for longer without the mess of ice. The entrepreneur started with 3D prints of products in his basement, building one unit at a time, before eventually scaling to mass production. Founding a consumer product company from scratch was a tall order for a single person. Going from preliminary sketches to production-ready designs was a major challenge. To bring his creative vision to life, Theriault relied on AI and his NVIDIA GeForce RTX-equipped system. For him, AI isn’t just a tool — it’s an entire pipeline to help him accomplish his goals. Read more about his workflow below. Plus, GeForce RTX 5050 laptops start arriving today at retailers worldwide, from $999. GeForce RTX 5050 Laptop GPUs feature 2,560 NVIDIA Blackwell CUDA cores, fifth-generation AI Tensor Cores, fourth-generation RT Cores, a ninth-generation NVENC encoder and a sixth-generation NVDEC decoder. In addition, NVIDIA’s Plug and Play: Project G-Assist Plug-In Hackathon — running virtually through Wednesday, July 16 — invites developers to explore AI and build custom G-Assist plug-ins for a chance to win prizes. Save the date for the G-Assist Plug-In webinar on Wednesday, July 9, from 10-11 a.m. PT, to learn more about Project G-Assist capabilities and fundamentals, and to participate in a live Q&A session. From Concept to Completion To create his standout products, Theriault tinkers with potential FITY Flex cooler designs with traditional methods, from sketch to computer-aided design to rapid prototyping, until he finds the right vision. A unique aspect of the FITY Flex design is that it can be customized with fun, popular shoe charms. For packaging design inspiration, Theriault uses his preferred text-to-image generative AI model for prototyping, Stable Diffusion XL — which runs 60% faster with the NVIDIA TensorRT software development kit — using the modular, node-based interface ComfyUI. ComfyUI gives users granular control over every step of the generation process — prompting, sampling, model loading, image conditioning and post-processing. It’s ideal for advanced users like Theriault who want to customize how images are generated. Theriault’s uses of AI result in a complete computer graphics-based ad campaign. Image courtesy of FITY. NVIDIA and GeForce RTX GPUs based on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture include fifth-generation Tensor Cores designed to accelerate AI and deep learning workloads. These GPUs work with CUDA optimizations in PyTorch to seamlessly accelerate ComfyUI, reducing generation time on FLUX.1-dev, an image generation model from Black Forest Labs, from two minutes per image on the Mac M3 Ultra to about four seconds on the GeForce RTX 5090 desktop GPU. ComfyUI can also add ControlNets — AI models that help control image generation — that Theriault uses for tasks like guiding human poses, setting compositions via depth mapping and converting scribbles to images. Theriault even creates his own fine-tuned models to keep his style consistent. He used low-rank adaptation (LoRA) models — small, efficient adapters into specific layers of the network — enabling hyper-customized generation with minimal compute cost. LoRA models allow Theriault to ideate on visuals quickly. Image courtesy of FITY. “Over the last few months, I’ve been shifting from AI-assisted computer graphics renders to fully AI-generated product imagery using a custom Flux LoRA I trained in house. My RTX 4080 SUPER GPU has been essential for getting the performance I need to train and iterate quickly.” – Mark Theriault, founder of FITY  Theriault also taps into generative AI to create marketing assets like FITY Flex product packaging. He uses FLUX.1, which excels at generating legible text within images, addressing a common challenge in text-to-image models. Though FLUX.1 models can typically consume over 23GB of VRAM, NVIDIA has collaborated with Black Forest Labs to help reduce the size of these models using quantization — a technique that reduces model size while maintaining quality. The models were then accelerated with TensorRT, which provides an up to 2x speedup over PyTorch. To simplify using these models in ComfyUI, NVIDIA created the FLUX.1 NIM microservice, a containerized version of FLUX.1 that can be loaded in ComfyUI and enables FP4 quantization and TensorRT support. Combined, the models come down to just over 11GB of VRAM, and performance improves by 2.5x. Theriault uses the Blender Cycles app to render out final files. For 3D workflows, NVIDIA offers the AI Blueprint for 3D-guided generative AI to ease the positioning and composition of 3D images, so anyone interested in this method can quickly get started. Photorealistic renders. Image courtesy of FITY. Finally, Theriault uses large language models to generate marketing copy — tailored for search engine optimization, tone and storytelling — as well as to complete his patent and provisional applications, work that usually costs thousands of dollars in legal fees and considerable time. Generative AI helps Theriault create promotional materials like the above. Image courtesy of FITY. “As a one-man band with a ton of content to generate, having on-the-fly generation capabilities for my product designs really helps speed things up.” – Mark Theriault, founder of FITY Every texture, every word, every photo, every accessory was a micro-decision, Theriault said. AI helped him survive the “death by a thousand cuts” that can stall solo startup founders, he added. Each week, the RTX AI Garage blog series features community-driven AI innovations and content for those looking to learn more about NVIDIA NIM microservices and AI Blueprints, as well as building AI agents, creative workflows, digital humans, productivity apps and more on AI PCs and workstations.  Plug in to NVIDIA AI PC on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X — and stay informed by subscribing to the RTX AI PC newsletter. Follow NVIDIA Workstation on LinkedIn and X.  See notice regarding software product information.

Asus ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X to Start Pre-Orders in August, Launch in October – Rumour A new report indicates that the ROG Xbox Ally will be priced at around €599, while the more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X will cost €899. Posted By Joelle Daniels | On 16th, Jun. 2025 While Microsoft and Asus have unveiled the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X handheld gaming systems, the companies have yet to confirm the prices or release dates for the two systems. While the announcement  mentioned that they will be launched later this year, a new report, courtesy of leaker Extas1s, indicates that pre-orders for both devices will be kicked off in August, with the launch then happening in October. As noted by Extas1s, the lower-powered ROG Xbox Ally is expected to be priced around €599. The leaker claims to have corroborated the pricing details for the handheld with two different Europe-based retailers. The more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X, on the other hand, is expected to be priced at €899. This would put its pricing in line with Asus’s own ROG Ally X. Previously, Asus senior manager of marketing content for gaming, Whitson Gordon, had revealed that pricing and power use were the two biggest reasons why both the ROG Xbox Ally and the ROG Xbox Ally X didn’t feature OLED displays. Rather, both systems will come equipped with 7-inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD displays with variable refresh rate capabilities. “We did some R&D and prototyping with OLED, but it’s still not where we want it to be when you factor VRR into the mix and we aren’t willing to give up VRR,” said Gordon. “I’ll draw that line in the sand right now. I am of the opinion that if a display doesn’t have variable refresh rate, it’s not a gaming display in the year 2025 as far as I’m concerned, right? That’s a must-have feature, and OLED with VRR right now draws significantly more power than the LCD that we’re currently using on the Ally and it costs more.” Explaining further that the decision ultimately also came down to keeping the pricing for both systems at reasonable levels, since buyers often tend to get handheld gaming systems as their secondary machiens, Gordon noted that both handhelds would have much higher price tags if OLED displays were used. “That’s all I’ll say about price,” said Gordon. “You have to align your expectations with the market and what we’re doing here. Adding 32GB, OLED, Z2 Extreme, and all of those extra bells and whistles would cost a lot more than the price bracket you guys are used to on the Ally, and the vast majority of users are not willing to pay that kind of price.” Shortly after its announcement, Microsoft and Asus had released a video where the two companies spoke about the various features of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. In the video, we also get to see an early hardware prototype of the handheld gaming system built inside a cardboard box. The ROG Xbox Ally runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2A chip, and has 16 GB of LPDDR5X-6400 RAM and 512 GB of storage. The ROG Xbox Ally X, on the other hand, runs on an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, and has 24 GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM and 1 TB of storage. Both systems run on Windows. Tagged With: Elden Ring: Nightreign Publisher:Bandai Namco Developer:FromSoftware Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PCView More FBC: Firebreak Publisher:Remedy Entertainment Developer:Remedy Entertainment Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PCView More Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Publisher:Sony Developer:Kojima Productions Platforms:PS5View More Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out! Summer Game Fest 2025 Saw 89 Percent Growth in Live Concurrent Viewership Since Last Year This year's Summer Game Fest has been the most successful one so far, with around 1.5 million live viewers on ... Asus ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X to Start Pre-Orders in August, Launch in October – Rumour A new report indicates that the ROG Xbox Ally will be priced at around €599, while the more powerful ROG Xbo... Borderlands 4 Gets New Video Explaining the Process of Creating Vault Hunters According to the development team behind Borderlands 4, the creation of Vault Hunters is a studio-wide collabo... The Witcher 4 Team is Tapping Into the “Good Creative Chaos” From The Witcher 3’s Development Narrative director Philipp Weber says there are "new questions we want to answer because this is supposed to f... The Witcher 4 is Opting for “Console-First Development” to Ensure 60 FPS, Says VP of Tech However, CD Projekt RED's Charles Tremblay says 60 frames per second will be "extremely challenging" on the Xb... Red Dead Redemption Voice Actor Teases “Exciting News” for This Week Actor Rob Wiethoff teases an announcement, potentially the rumored release of Red Dead Redemption 2 on Xbox Se... View More

What just happened? As protests against federal immigration enforcement swept through downtown Los Angeles last week, a wave of looting left several major retailers, including Apple, T-Mobile, and Adidas, counting the cost of smashed windows and stolen goods. Yet for those who made off with iPhones from Apple's flagship store, the thrill of the heist quickly turned into a lesson in high-tech security. Apple's retail locations are equipped with advanced anti-theft technology that renders display devices useless once they leave the premises. The moment a demonstration iPhone is taken beyond the store's Wi-Fi network, it is instantly disabled by proximity software and a remote "kill switch." Instead of a functioning smartphone, thieves were met with a stark message on the screen: "Please return to Apple Tower Theatre. This device has been disabled and is being tracked. Local authorities will be alerted." The phone simultaneously sounds an alarm and flashes the warning, ensuring it cannot be resold or activated elsewhere. This system is not new. During the nationwide unrest of 2020, similar scenes played out as looters discovered that Apple's security measures turned their stolen goods into little more than expensive paperweights. The technology relies on a combination of location tracking and network monitoring. As soon as a device is separated from the store's secure environment, it is remotely locked, its location is tracked, and law enforcement is notified. // Related Stories Videos circulating online show stolen iPhones blaring alarms and displaying tracking messages, making them impossible to ignore and virtually worthless on the black market. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, at least three individuals were arrested in connection with the Apple Store burglary, including one suspect apprehended at the scene and two others detained for looting. The crackdown on looting comes amid a broader shift in California's approach to retail crime. In response to public outcry over rising thefts, state and local officials have moved away from previously lenient policies. The passage of Proposition 36 has empowered prosecutors to file felony charges against repeat offenders, regardless of the value of stolen goods, and to impose harsher penalties for organized group theft. Under these new measures, those caught looting face the prospect of significant prison time, a marked departure from the misdemeanor charges that were common under earlier laws. District attorneys in Southern California have called for even harsher penalties, particularly for crimes committed during states of emergency. Proposals include making looting a felony offense, increasing prison sentences, and ensuring that suspects are not released without judicial review. The goal, officials say, is to deter opportunistic criminals who exploit moments of crisis, whether during protests or natural disasters.

All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.Featured in this articleBest Overall Sateen SheetsBoll & Branch Signature Hemmed Sheet SetRead moreFor a Romantic DrapeEttitude CleanBamboo Sheet Set Read moreThe Affordable PickGood Sleep Bedding Egyptian Cotton Sateen SheetsRead moreShow more3 / 8A close cousin to percale and silk, the best sateen sheets offer a happy medium of refinement and softness, all in one durability, and an easy-to-clean fabric.Sateen is known for having a polished appearance because of its lustrous sheen and wrinkle-resistant material. This comes from a tight satin weave that leaves a shiny look without compromising a smooth hand feel. While you can find this bedding in elevated spaces like this vibrant West Village town house thanks to embroidered touches and traditional prints, they’re surprisingly versatile and come in many forms. Here, our editors dive into their favorites for their bedrooms. Since you can find many in higher thread counts though (which we dive into more below), these are durable enough for any room in the house—as seen in this family-friendly getaway.Inside this ArticleBest Overall Sateen Sheets1/8Boll & Branch Signature Hemmed Sheet SetBoll & Branch caught commerce director Rachel Fletcher’s attention when she was browsing for new sheets for a few reasons. One: The brand makes organic and fair trade sheets: Two: She loves a sateen weave, and the retailer mentioned that this set was their bestseller and she wanted to see what the hype was about. “Boll & Branch claims that these cotton sateen sheets are buttery soft, and I definitely agree,” Fletcher says. “That extra-soft feel paired with the lovely, cooling properties make them feel like the luxury sheets that they are.” Along with an earthy color palette (Fletcher has her set in mineral) and thoughtful hem detailing, this set stood out to be our top pick. These do have a higher price point, but as some of the plushest sheets she’s slept on, Fletcher thinks they’re worth it.Specs:Material: 100% organic cottonThread count: N/ASizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, King With Std. Cases, California King, Split KingColors: 18 colors; 8 printsUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesSustainable materialBreathableOrganic colorwaysDownsidesExpensiveFor a Romantic DrapePhoto: Yelena Moroz AlpertPhoto: Yelena Moroz Alpert2/8Ettitude CleanBamboo Sheet Set “These sheets are buttery—pun intended,” says senior commerce editor Nashia Baker, who has the set in the butter yellow hue and loves the fabric’s delicate yet durable feel. Contributor Yelena Moroz Alpert also has this set and says that the cooling lyocell fabric set takes the bamboo sheets category up a notch. “Somehow they feel substantial but incredibly light and smooth,” she says of this splurge-worthy set. “The site says that the silky-soft sateen weave is comparable to 1,000 thread count cotton—and I believe it. I’ve never touched a baby alpaca, but I imagine that it’s as soft as these sheets.”Specs:Material: 100% CleanBamboo lyocellThread count: 1,000 thread countSizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, California KingColors: 8Upsides & DownsidesUpsidesPearly appearanceLightweightUltra softDownsidesPriceyThe Affordable Pick3/8Good Sleep Bedding Egyptian Cotton Sateen SheetsDon’t overlook the best Amazon sheets for high-end sateen bedding. Contributor Erika Owen says these are a great option: “After a single night, they became my favorite set, and a few more nights and a wash only locked in this opinion.” She says they’re sumptuous, cool, and durable—and their quality (think texture, weight, and comfort) hasn’t changed after many rounds through the washer and dryer. “I would buy these as a gift for my best friend, if that tells you anything about how much I recommend these,” says Owen. “There’s nothing better than feeling really good as you hit the hay—who doesn’t want a luxury bed situation—and I felt that way every time I dug into these silky sheets. Let it also be known that I’m no stranger to night sweats and these kept me cool every single night.” The finishing touches are the deep pockets and sturdy elastic on the fitted sheet to fit a grand mattress.Specs:Material: 100% Egyptian cottonThread count: 1,000 thread countSizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, California King, Split KingColors: 13Upsides & DownsidesUpsidesHigher thread countCoolingSturdy after several washesDownsidesSome shoppers found the fabric weightyA Vibrant Print4/8Rifle Paper Co. Peacock Sateen Bed Sheet SetThese are some of the softest bed sheets out there, just take it from Alpert. Not only are they comfortable to sink into night after night thanks to the plush 300 thread count, but they also veer away from traditional patterns and solid colorways. “I was originally drawn to the peacock print because it is just so whimsical and livens up my guest bedroom,” Alpert says. “But these are also buttery soft. Maybe too soft—my guests never want to leave.” If it wasn’t for the true-to-Rifle print, she would mistake these for hotel sheets because of their supple feel.Specs:Material: 100% combed cotton sateenThread count: 300 thread countSizes: Twin, Full, Queen, KingColors: 3Upsides & DownsidesUpsidesUnique patternsSuppleAiry materialDownsidesNot as ideal for minimalistsClassic Core Set5/8Brooklinen Luxe Sateen Core Sheet SetIf you want sheets with unparalleled quality, durability, and softness that gets better with every wash, multiple AD staff members say you can’t go wrong with these Brooklinen sheets. Fletcher shares that this sateen set is “super classic, smooth, and has a crisp feel.” Sleepers with sensitive skin will also be happy to know that they’re “not at all scratchy or harsh on my skin, like some of the less expensive options I’ve tried in the past,” Fletcher adds.Specs:Material: 100% long-staple cottonThread count: 480 thread countSizes: Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, California KingColors: 22Upsides & DownsidesUpsidesStructured fabric like a press shirtWrinkle-free designAffordableDownsidesLimited-edition colors sell out fastMore AD-Approved Sateen Sheets6/8Hill House Home Fitted Sheet“For a $100 top sheet and $125 fitted sheet, I truly didn’t know what to expect from a brand as new to the decor game as Hill House Home, but was delightfully surprised at the quality and attention to detail that was put into making these products,” contributor Katarina Kovac says of these Hill House Home sheets.“I wanted something that was crisp yet elevated, and the colored trim in the Savile Sheets was my answer.” Since she’s had her fair share of sheets that have a sandpaper-like texture, she paid close attention to how well these felt after the first wash. To her delight, these “felt soft, velvety, and breathable against my skin, leaving me truly struggling to get out of bed in the morning.”Specs:Material: 100% brushed cotton sateenThread count: N/ASizes: Twin, Full, Queen, King, California KingColors: 6Upsides & DownsidesUpsidesTraditional printsLushSmooth feelThoughtful trimDownsidesFlat sheet, fitted sheet, and pillowcases are sold separately7/8Homebird Sateen Fitted Sheets (Set of 3)Fletcher loves an ethically made, slippery sateen weave, and it took just one night of sleep to be sold on this Homebird set. “They’re very high quality and everything you want in a sateen sheet: incredibly soft to the touch and slightly silky, with a sturdiness to them that you can tell is the result of a high thread count,” she says. “They fit my bed perfectly and also have the most useful feature that, in my opinion, every set of sheets ever made should have: a long-side and short-side label.”Specs:Material: 100% GOTS-certified, long-staple organic cottonThread count: 300 thread countSizes: Full, Queen, KingColors: 7Upsides & DownsidesUpsidesSilky smoothHelpful labels to make the bedDeep pocketsDownsidesOnly available in muted tones

Becky Luigart-Stayner for Country LivingCountry Living editors select each product featured. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Why Trust Us?Like a well-made quilt, a classic farmhouse aesthetic comes together gradually—a little bit of this, a touch of that. Each addition is purposeful and personal—and isn’t that what home is all about, really? If this type of slowed-down style speaks to you, you're probably already well aware that Etsy is a treasure trove of finds both new and old to fit your timeless farmhouse aesthetic. But with more than eight million active sellers on its marketplace, sometimes the possibilities—vintage feed sacks! primitive pie safes! galvanized grain scoops!—can quickly go from enticing to overwhelming.To better guide your search for the finest farmhouse furnishings, we’ve gathered a go-to list of editor-and designer-beloved Etsy shops which, time and again, turn out hardworking, homespun pieces of heirloom quality. From beautiful antique bureaus to hand-block-printed table linens, the character-rich wares from these sellers will help you design the farmhouse of your dreams, piece by precious piece. Related Stories For Antique AmericanaAcorn and Alice Every good old-fashioned farmhouse could use some traditional Americana to set the tone, and this Pennsylvania salvage shop offers rustic touches loaded with authentic antique allure. Aged wooden wares abound (think vintage milk crates, orchard fruit baskets, and berry boxes), as well as a grab bag of cotton and burlap feed sacks, perfect for framing as sets or crafting into footstool covers or throw pillows. For French Country TextilesForest and LinenThere’s nothing quite like breezy natural fabrics to make you want to throw open all the windows and let that country air in while the pie cools. Unfussy and lightweight, the hand-crafted curtains, bedding, and table linens from these Lithuanian textile experts have a classic understated quality that would be right at home in the coziest guest room or most bustling kitchen. Warm, welcoming hues range from marigold yellow to cornflower blue, but soft gingham checkers and timeless French ticking feel especially farm-fresh. Our current favorite? These cherry-striped country cafe curtains. Becky Luigart-Stayner for Country LivingVintage red torchons feel right at home in a farmhouse kitchenFor Rustic RugsOld New HouseWhether or not you’re lucky enough to have gorgeous wide-plank floors, an antique area rug or runner can work wonders for giving a room instant character and warmth. This fifth-generation family-run retailer specializes in importing heirloom hand-knotted carpets dating back to the 1800s, with a focus on traditional designs from the masters in Turkey, India, Persia, and more. Their vast variety of sizes and styles offers something for every aesthetic, with one-of-a-kind patterns ranging from distressed neutrals to chain-stitched florals to ornate arabesques. For Pillows and ProvisionsHabitation BohemeIn true farmhouse fashion, this Indiana shop has curated an enticing blend of handcrafted and vintage homewares that work effortlessly well together. A line of cozy hand-stitched linen pillow covers (patterned with everything from block-printed blossoms to provincial pinstripes) sits prettily alongside a mix of found objects, from patinated brass candlesticks and etched cloisonné vases to sturdy stoneware crockery and woven wicker baskets. For Elegant Everyday DishwareConvivial ProductionSimple, yet undeniably stunning, the handcrafted dinnerware from this Missouri-based ceramist is designed with durability in mind. Produced in a single, time-tested shade of ivory white glaze, these practical stoneware cups, bowls, and plates make the perfect place settings for lively farm-to-table feasts with friends and family. Beautifully balancing softness and heft, each dish is meant to feel comfortable when being held and passed, but also to look attractive when stacked upon open shelving. For English Country Antiques1100 West Co.This Illinois antiques shop is stocked with all manner of versatile vintage vessels culled from the English countryside, from massive stoneware crocks to charming little escargot pots. Their collection of neutral containers can be adapted for nearly any provincial purpose (envision white ironstone pitchers piled high with fresh-picked hyacinths, or glass canning jars holding your harvest grains), but we especially love their assortment of old advertising—from toothpaste pots to marmalade jars and ginger beer bottles galore—for a nice little nod to the quintessential country practice of repurposing what you’ve got. Brian Woodcock/Country LivingPretty English ironstone will always have our heart.For a Cozy GlowOlde Brick LightingConstructed by hand from cord to shade, the vintage-inspired lighting produced by this Pennsylvania retailer is a tribute to the iconic quality and character of old American fixtures. Nostalgic design elements include hand-blown glass (crafted using cast-iron molds from over 80 years ago) and finishes ranging from matte black to brushed nickel and antique brass. To create an authentic farmhouse ambiance, check out their gooseneck sconces, enameled red and blue barn lights, and milky white striped schoolhouse flush mounts. For Enduring ArtifactsThrough the PortholeThe weathered, artisan-made wares curated by this California husband-and-wife duo have been hand-selected from around the globe for their time-etched character. From gorgeous gray-black terracotta vases and rust-colored Turkish clay pots to patinated brass cow bells and rustic reclaimed elm stools, each item is a testament to the lasting beauty of classic materials, with storied sun-bleaching and scratches befitting the most beloved, lived-in rooms. For Winsome Wall ArtEugenia Ciotola ArtThrough graceful brushstrokes and textural swirls of paint, Maryland-based artist Eugenia Ciotola has captured the natural joy of a life that’s simple and sweet. Her pieces celebrate quiet scenes of bucolic beauty, from billowing bouquets of peonies to stoic red barns sitting in fields of wavy green. For a parlor gallery or gathering space, we gravitate toward her original oils on canvas—an impasto still life, perhaps, or a plainly frocked maiden carrying a bountiful bowl of lemons—while her stately farm animal portraits (regal roosters! ruff collared geese!) would look lovely in a child’s nursery.For Time-Tested Storage SolutionsMaterials DivisionFunction is forefront for this farmhouse supplier operating out of New York, whose specialized selection of vintage provisions have lived out dutiful lives of purpose. Standouts include a curated offering of trusty antique tool boxes and sturdy steel-clad trunks whose rugged patina tells the story of many-a household project. Meanwhile, a hardworking mix of industrial wire and woven wood gathering baskets sits handsomely alongside heavy-duty galvanized garbage bins and antique fireplace andirons.For Pastoral PrimitivesComfort Work RoomFull of history and heritage, the old, hand-fabricated furnishings and primitive wooden tools in this unique Ukrainian antique shop are rural remnants of simpler times gone by. Quaint kitchen staples like chippy chiseled spoons, scoops, and cutting boards make an accessible entry point for the casual collector, while scuffed up dough troughs, butter churns, washboards, and barrels are highly desirable conversation pieces for any antique enthusiast who’s dedicated to authentic detail. Becky Luigart-Stayner for Country LivingAntique washboards make for on-theme wall art in a laundry roomFor Heirloom-Quality CoverletsBluegrass QuiltsNo layered farmhouse look would be complete without the homey, tactile touch of a hand-pieced quilt or two draped intentionally about the room. From harvest-hued sawtooth stars to playful patchwork pinwheels, each exquisite blanket from this Kentucky-based artisan is slow-crafted in traditional fashion from 100% cotton materials, and can even be custom stitched from scratch to match your personal color palette and decorative purpose. For a classic country aesthetic, try a log cabin, double diamond, or star patch pattern. For Hand-Crafted GiftsSelselaFeaturing a busy barnyard’s worth of plucky chickens, cuddly sheep, and happy little Holstein cows, this Illinois woodworker’s whimsical line of farm figurines and other giftable goodies (think animal wine stoppers, keychains, fridge magnets, and cake toppers) is chock-full of hand-carved charm. Crafted from 100% recycled birch and painted in loving detail, each creature has a deliberately rough-hewn look and feel worthy of any cozy and collected home. For Open-Concept CabinetryFolkhausA hallmark of many modern farmhouses, open-concept shelving has become a stylish way to show that the practical wares you use everyday are the same ones you’re proud to put on display. With their signature line of bracketed wall shelves, Shaker-style peg shelves, and raw steel kitchen rails, the team at Folkhaus has created a range of open storage solutions that beautifully balances elevated design and rustic utility. Rounding out their collection is a selection of open-shelved accent pieces like bookcases, benches, and console tables—each crafted from character-rich kiln-dried timber and finished in your choice of stain.Related StoryFor Antique Farmhouse FurnitureCottage Treasures LVThe foundation of a well-furnished farmhouse often begins with a single prized piece. Whether it’s a slant-front desk, a primitive jelly cabinet, or a punched-tin pie safe, this established New York-based dealer has a knack for sourcing vintage treasures with the personality and presence to anchor an entire space. Distressed cupboards and cabinets may be their bread and butter (just look at this two-piece pine hutch!) but you’ll also find a robust roundup of weathered farm tables, Windsor chairs, and blanket chests—and currently, even a rare 1500s English bench. For Lively Table LinensMoontea StudioAs any devotee of slow decorating knows, sometimes it’s the little details that really bring a look home. For a spot of cheer along with your afternoon tea, we love the hand-stamped table linens from this Washington-based printmaker, which put a peppy, modern spin on farm-fresh produce. Patterned with lush illustrations of bright red tomatoes, crisp green apples, and golden sunflowers—then neatly finished with a color-coordinated hand-stitched trim—each tea towel, placemat, and napkin pays homage to the hours we spend doting over our gardens. For Traditional TransferwarePrior TimeThere’s lots to love about this Massachusetts antiques shop, which admittedly skews slightly cottagecore (the pink Baccarat perfume bottles! the hobnail milk glass vases! the huge primitive bread boards!) but the standout, for us, is the seller’s superior selection of dinner and serving ware. In addition to a lovely lot of mottled white ironstone platters and pitchers, you’ll find a curated mix of Ridgeway and Wedgwood transferware dishes in not only classic cobalt blue, but beautiful browns, greens, and purples, too.Becky Luigart-Stayner for Country LivingPretty brown transferware could be yours with one quick "add to cart."For Folk Art for Your FloorsKinFolk ArtworkDesigned by a West Virginia watercolor and oils artist with a penchant for painting the past, these silky chenille floor mats feature an original cast of colonial characters and folksy scenes modeled after heirloom textiles from the 18th and 19th centuries. Expect lots of early American and patriotic motifs, including old-fashioned flags, Pennsylvania Dutch fraktur, equestrian vignettes, and colonial house samplers—each made to mimic a vintage hooked rug for that cozy, homespun feeling. (We have to admit, the folk art-inspired cow and chicken is our favorite.)For Historical ReproductionsSchooner Bay Co.Even in the most painstakingly appointed interior, buying antique originals isn’t always an option (don’t ask how many times we’ve been outbid at an estate auction). And that’s where this trusted Pennsylvania-based retailer for historical reproductions comes in. Offering a colossal collection of framed art prints, decorative trays, and brass objects (think magnifying glasses, compasses, paperweights, and letter openers), these connoisseurs of the classics have decor for every old-timey aesthetic, whether it’s fox hunt prints for your cabin, Dutch landscapes for your cottage, or primitive animal portraits for your farmstead.For General Store StaplesFarmhouse EclecticsHand-plucked from New England antique shops, estate sales, and auctions, the salvaged sundries from this Massachusetts-based supplier (who grew up in an 1850s farmhouse himself) are the type you might spy in an old country store—wooden crates emblazoned with the names of local dairies, antique apple baskets, seed displays, signs, and scales. Whether you’re setting up your farmstand or styling your entryway, you’ll have plenty of storage options and authentic accents to pick from here. Becky Luigart-Stayner for Country LivingSo many food scales, so little time.Related StoriesJackie BuddieJackie Buddie is a freelance writer with more than a decade of editorial experience covering lifestyle topics including home decor how-tos, fashion trend deep dives, seasonal gift guides, and in-depth profiles of artists and creatives around the globe. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her M.F.A. in creative writing from Boston University. Jackie is, among other things, a collector of curiosities, Catskills land caretaker, dabbling DIYer, day hiker, and mom. She lives in the hills of Bovina, New York, with her family and her sweet-as-pie rescue dog.

One stock recently impacted by a whirlwind of volatility is Block—the fintech powerhouse behind Square, Cash App, Tidal Music, and more. The company’s COO and CFO, Amrita Ahuja, shares how her team is using new AI tools to find opportunity amid disruption and reach customers left behind by traditional financial systems. Ahuja also shares lessons from the video game industry and discusses Gen Z’s surprising approach to money management.   This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. As a leader, when you’re looking at all of this volatility—the tariffs, consumer sentiment’s been unclear, the stock market’s been all over the place. You guys had a huge one-day drop in early May, and it quickly bounced back. How do you make sense of all these external factors? Yeah, our focus is on what we can control. And ultimately, the thing that we are laser-focused on for our business is product velocity. How quickly can we start small with something, launch something for our customers, and then test and iterate and learn so that ultimately, that something that we’ve launched scales into an important product? I’ll give you an example. Cash App Borrow, which is a product where our customers can get access to a line of credit, often $100, $200, that bridges them from paycheck to paycheck. We know so many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That’s a product that we launched about three years ago and have now scaled to serve 9 million actives with $15 billion in credit supply to our customers in a span of a couple short years. The more we can be out testing and launching product at a pace, the more we know we are ultimately delivering value to our customers, and the right things will happen from a stock perspective. Block is a financial services provider. You have Square, the point-of-sale system; the digital wallet Cash App, which you mentioned, which competes with Venmo and Robinhood; and a bunch of others. Then you’ve got the buy-now, pay-later leader Afterpay. You chair Square Financial Services, which is Block’s chartered bank. But you’ve said that in the fintech world, Block is only a little bit fin—that comparatively, it’s more tech. Can you explain what you mean by that? What we think is unique about us is our ability as a technology company to completely change innovation in the space, such that we can help solve systemic issues across credit, payments, commerce, and banking. What that means ultimately is we use technologies like AI and machine learning and data science, and we use these technologies in a unique way, in a way that’s different from a traditional bank. We are able to underwrite those who are often frankly forgotten by the traditional financial ecosystems. Our Square Loans product has almost triple the rate of women-owned businesses that we underwrite. Fifty-eight percent of our loans go to women-owned businesses versus 20% for the industry average. For that Cash App Borrow product I was talking about, 70% of those actives, the 9 million actives that we underwrote, fell below 580 as a FICO score. That’s considered a poor FICO score, and yet 97% of repayments are made on time. And this is because we have unique access to data and these technology and tools which can help us uniquely underwrite this often forgotten customer base. Yeah. I mean, credit—sometimes it’s been blamed for financial excesses. But access to credit is also, as you say, an advantage that’s not available to everyone. Do you have a philosophy between those poles—between risk and opportunity? Or is what you’re saying is that the tech you have allows you to avoid that risk? That’s right. Let’s start with how do the current systems work? It works using inferior data, frankly. It’s more limited data. It’s outdated. Sometimes it’s inaccurate. And it ignores things like someone’s cash flows, the stability of your income, your savings rate, how money moves through your accounts, or how you use alternative forms of credit—like buy now, pay later, which we have in our ecosystem through Afterpay. We have a lot of these signals for our 57 million monthly actives on the Cash App side and for the 4 million small businesses on the Square side, and those, frankly, billions of transaction data points that we have on any given day paired with new technologies. And we intend to continue to be on the forefront of AI, machine learning, and data science to be able to empower more people into the economy. The combination of the superior data and the technologies is what we believe ultimately helps expand access. You have a financial background, but not in the financial services industry. Before Block, you were a video game developer at Activision. Are financial businesses and video games similar? Are there things that are similar about them? There are. There actually are some things that are similar, I will say. There are many things that are unique to each industry. Each industry is incredibly complex. You find that when big technology companies try to do gaming. They’ve taken over the world in many different ways, but they can’t always crack the nut on putting out a great game. Similarly, some of the largest technology companies have dabbled in fintech but haven’t been able to go as deep, so they’re both very nuanced and complex industries. I would say another similarity is that design really matters. Industrial design, the design of products, the interface of products, is absolutely mission-critical to a great game, and it’s absolutely mission-critical to the simplicity and accessibility of our products, be it on Square or Cash App. And then maybe the third thing that I would say is that when I was in gaming, at least the business models were rapidly changing from an intermediary distribution mechanism, like releasing a game once and then selling it through a retailer, to an always-on, direct-to-consumer connection. And similarly with banking, people don’t want to bank from 9 to 5, six days a week. They want 24/7 access to their money and the ability to, again, grow their financial livelihood, move their money around seamlessly. So, some similarities are there in that shift to an intermediary model or a slower model to an always-on, direct-to-consumer connection. Part of your target audience or your target customer base at Block are Gen Z folks. Did you learn things at Activision about Gen Z that has been useful? Are there things that businesses misunderstand about younger generations still? What we’ve learned is that Gen Z, millennial customers, aren’t going to do things the way their parents did. Some of our stats show that 63% of Gen Z customers have moved away from traditional credit cards, and over 80% are skeptical of them. Which means they’re not using a credit card to manage expenses; they’re using a debit card, but then layering on on a transaction-by-transaction basis. Or again, using tools like buy now, pay later, or Cash App Borrow, the means in which they’re managing their consistent cash flows. So that’s an example of how things are changing, and you’ve got to get up to speed with how the next generation of customers expects to manage their money.

How to Train Your Dragon - Limited Edition Steelbook (4K Blu-ray) $40 at Amazon | $47 at Walmart Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Walmart See all editions at Amazon The live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon hits theaters this weekend, but fans can already start thinking about adding it to their media shelves. Preorders for the remake and a two-movie collection with the original animated hit are live now at major retailers. Big fans will want to check out the eye-catching Limited Edition Steelbook on 4K Blu-ray, which is available to preorder for $40 at Amazon and comes with a collectible medallion inside the case. We'll update this story when a release date and details about special features are announced. Here's a list of the seven editions of How to Train Your Dragon available to preorder at Amazon and Walmart. Continue Reading at GameSpot

Cases News 6 Years to Make a Fan, G370A Budget Case, & Phanteks Technical Fan Discussion, ft. CTOJune 9, 2025Last Updated: 2025-06-09We cover Phanteks’ new G370A budget case, the XT M3, and the Evolv X2 MatrixThe HighlightsPhanteks’ new X2 Matrix case has 900 LEDs and is aiming to be around $200Phanteks’ G370A is a $60 case that includes 3x120mm fansThe company has a new T30-140 fan that required 6 years of engineering to makeTable of ContentsAutoTOC Grab a GN Tear-Down Toolkit to support our AD-FREE reviews and IN-DEPTH testing while also getting a high-quality, highly portable 10-piece toolkit that was custom designed for use with video cards for repasting and water block installation. Includes a portable roll bag, hook hangers for pegboards, a storage compartment, and instructional GPU disassembly cards.IntroWe visited Phanteks’ suite at Computex 2025 and the company showed off several cases along with a fan that took the company roughly 6 years to make.Editor's note: This was originally published on May 21, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.CreditsHostSteve BurkeCamera, Video EditingMike GaglioneVitalii MakhnovetsWriting, Web EditingJimmy ThangPhanteks Matrix CasesWe’ve talked about Phanteks’ X2 case in the past but the company was showing off its new Matrix version, which has matrix LEDs. The X2 Matrix has 900 LEDs in a 10x90 layout. It’s supposed to be about $30 to $40 more expensive than the base X2, which means it should end up around $200.  The interesting thing about the case is that the LEDs wrap around the chassis. In terms of communication, the LEDs connect to the motherboard via USB 2.0 and use SATA for power. This allows Phanteks to bypass a WinRing 0 type situation. Another Matrix case had 600 of them in a 10x60 LED configuration and is supposed to be about $120. Phanteks also has software that allows you to reconfigure what the LEDs display. When we got to the company’s suite, it had been programmed to say, “Gamers Nexus here,” which was cool to see. We also saw that the LEDs can also be used to highlight CPU temperature. Phanteks G370A Grab a GN15 Large Anti-Static Modmat to celebrate our 15th Anniversary and for a high-quality PC building work surface. The Modmat features useful PC building diagrams and is anti-static conductive. Purchases directly fund our work! (or consider a direct donation or a Patreon contribution!)Phanteks also showed off its G370A case, which is a $60 case that includes 3x120mm fans in the front coupled with a mesh front that offers 38% hole porosity. The company tells us that manufacturing typically offers around 25% porosity.  It has a glass side panel and the back side panel of the case is just steel and has no ventilation. Taking a look at the placement of the front fans, we asked Phanteks why they weren’t higher on the case so the bottom fan could get more exposure to the bottom power supply shroud area and the answer the company gave us was simply clearance for a 360mm radiator at the top. There’s not a lot of room for the air coming into the shroud. Some of it will go through the cable pass-through if it’s empty. The back of the case features a drive mount.XTM3The company also showed off a Micro ATX case called the XTM3. It comes with 3 fans and is $70. For its front panel, it has a unique punch out for its fans. The top panel is part standard ventilation but it does have one side that provides less airflow, which covers where the PSU would exhaust out of. The side panel does have punch-outs for the PSU, however. We don’t test power supplies, though that may change in the future. Power supplies can take a lot of thermal abuse, however, so we’re not super concerned here.  The case should be shipping in the next month or so and is 39.5 liters, which includes the feet. We appreciate that as not a lot of companies will factor that in. There’s also a lot of cable management depth on the back and the case also supports BTF. In addition, there’s a panel that clamps down all of the power supply cables. T30 FanPhanteks’ T30 fan took the company 6 years to make and is a 140mm fan. The company is competing with Noctua in the high-end fan space, but is going for a grey theme instead of brown. Phanteks CTO Tenzin Rongen Interview Visit our Patreon page to contribute a few dollars toward this website's operation (or consider a direct donation or buying something from our GN Store!) Additionally, when you purchase through links to retailers on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.Finally, we interviewed Phanteks CTO Tenzin Rongen to discuss technical details behind the company’s long-developed fans. Make sure to check it out in our video.

Reading Time: 6 minutes What is marketing without data? Assumptions. Guesses. Fluff. For Chapter 6 of our book, “The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die,” we spoke with Alec Haase, Product GTM Lead, Commerce and AI at Hightouch, to explore how engagement data can truly inform critical business decisions.  Alec discusses the different types of customer behaviors that matter most, how to separate meaningful information from the rest, and the role of systems that learn over time to create tailored customer experiences. This interview provides insights into using data for real-time actions and shaping the future of marketing. Prepare to learn about AI decision-making and how a focus on data is changing how we engage with customers.   Alec Haase Q&A Interview 1. What types of customer engagement data are most valuable for making strategic business decisions? It’s a culmination of everything. Behavioral signals — the actual conversions and micro-conversions that users take within your product or website. Obviously, that’s things like purchases. But there are also other behavioral signals marketers should be using and thinking about. Things like micro-conversions — maybe that’s shopping for a product, clicking to learn more about a product, or visiting a certain page on your website. Behind that, you also need to have all your user data to tie that to. So I know someone took said action; I can follow up with them in email or out on paid social. I need the user identifiers to do that. 2. How do you distinguish between data that is actionable versus data that is just noise? Data that’s actionable includes the conversions and micro-conversions — very clear instances of “someone did this.” I can react to or measure those. What’s becoming a bit of a challenge for marketers is understanding that there’s other data that is valuable for machine learning or reinforcement learning models, things like tags on the types of products customers are interacting with. Maybe there’s category information about that product, or color information. That would otherwise look like noise to the average marketer. But behind the scenes, it can be used for reinforcement learning. There is definitely the “clear-cut” actionable data, but marketers shouldn’t be quick to classify things as noise because the rise in machine learning and reinforcement learning will make that data more valuable. 3. How can customer engagement data be used to identify and prioritize new business opportunities? At Hightouch, we don’t necessarily think about retroactive analysis. We have a system where we have customer engagement data firing in that we then have real-time scores reacting to. An interesting example is when you have machine learning and reinforcement learning models running. In the pet retailer example I gave you, the system is able to figure out what to prioritize. The concept of reinforcement learning is not a marketer making rules to say, “I know this type of thing works well on this type of audience.” It’s the machine itself using the data to determine what attribute responds well to which offer, recommendation, or marketing campaign. 4. How can marketers ensure their use of customer engagement data aligns with the broader business objectives? It starts with the objectives. It’s starting with the desired outcome and working your way back. That whole flip of the paradigm is starting with outcomes and letting the system optimize. What are you trying to drive, and then back into the types of experiences that can make that happen? There’s personalization. When we talk about data-driven experiences and personalization, Spotify Wrapped is the North Star. For Spotify Wrapped, you want to drive customer stickiness and create a brand. To make that happen, you want to send a personalized email. What components do you want in that email? Maybe it’s top five songs, top five artists, and then you can back into the actual event data you need to make that happen. 5. What role does engagement data play in influencing cross-functional decisions such as those in product development, sales, or customer service? For product development, it’s product analytics — knowing what features users are using, or seeing in heat maps where users are clicking. Sales is similar. We’re using behavioral signals like what types of content they’re reading on the site to help inform what they would be interested in — the types of products or the types of use cases. For customer service, you can look at errors they’ve run into in the past or specific purchases they’ve made, so that when you’re helping them the next time they engage with you, you know exactly what their past behaviors were and what products they could be calling about. 6. What are some challenges marketers face when trying to translate customer engagement data into actionable insights? Access to data is one challenge. You might not know what data you have because marketers historically may not have been used to the systems where data is stored. Historically, that’s been pretty siloed away from them. Rich behavioral data and other data across the business was stored somewhere else. Now, as more companies embrace the data warehouse at the center of their business, it gives everyone a true single place where data can be stored. Marketers are working more with data teams, understanding more about the data they have, and using that data to power downstream use cases, personalization, reinforcement learning, or general business insights. 7. How do you address skepticism or resistance from stakeholders when presenting data-driven recommendations? As a marketer, I think proof is key. The best thing is if you’ve actually run a test. “I think we should do this. I ran a small test, and it’s showing that this is actually proving out.” Being able to clearly explain and justify your reasoning with data is super important. 8. What technology or tools have you found most effective for gathering and analyzing customer engagement data? Any type of behavioral event collection, specifically ones that write to the cloud data warehouse, is the critical component. Your data team is operating off the data warehouse. Having an event collection product that stores data in that central spot is really important if you want to use the other data when making recommendations. You want to get everything into the data warehouse where it can be used both for insights and for putting into action. For Spotify Wrapped, you want to collect behavioral event signals like songs listened to or concerts attended, writing to the warehouse so that you can get insights back — how many songs were played this year, projections for next month — but then you can also use those behavioral events in downstream platforms to fire off personalized emails with product recommendations or Spotify Wrapped-style experiences. 9. How do you see the role of customer engagement data evolving in shaping business strategies over the next five years? What we’re excited about is the concept of AI Decisioning — having AI agents actually using customer data to train their own models and decision-making to create personalized experiences. We’re sitting on top of all this behavioral data, engagement data, and user attributes, and our system is learning from all of that to make the best decisions across downstream systems. Whether that’s as simple as driving a loyalty program and figuring out what emails to send or what on-site experiences to show, or exposing insights that might lead you to completely change your business strategy, we see engagement data as the fuel to the engine of reinforcement learning, machine learning, AI agents, this whole next wave of Martech that’s just now coming. But it all starts with having the data to train those systems. I think that behavioral data is the fuel of modern Martech, and that only holds more true as Martech platforms adopt these decisioning and AI capabilities, because they’re only as good as the data that’s training the models.     This interview Q&A was hosted with Alec Haase, Product GTM Lead, Commerce and AI at Hightouch, for Chapter 6 of The Customer Engagement Book: Adapt or Die. Download the PDF or request a physical copy of the book here. The post Alec Haase Q&A: Customer Engagement Book Interview appeared first on MoEngage.