Pelican Press

The Future Needs to Hurry Up The Future Needs to Hurry Up I stayed up late one night watching Wim Wenders’ 2011 documentary Pina on the Apple Vision Pro, and it was magical. This beautiful 3D film, about the ******* dance theater pioneer Pina Bausch, made me feel like I was sitting in the theater with the performers. A year after its release, moments of magic keep popping up with Apple’s Vision Pro, but I have to look for them. And most of the magic occurs when watching movies, or when I turn the headset into a giant curved monitor for my Mac. The rest of the Vision Pro’s potential remains unfulfilled. Apple’s $3,500 spatial computer is hardly an overnight success, but at that price it was never going to be. The Vision Pro remains a bleeding-edge tech showcase and the most advanced standalone VR/AR headset in existence. It provides a fascinating taste of the unbounded visual experiences of the future. And for certain professional zones – anyone interested in simulation, a display for looking at high-res 3D models, or a flexible iPadOS-based platform to build out some ideas – the Vision Pro can be a powerful tool. In my life, however, it’s mostly a movie screen and a super-fancy wearable monitor. I do so much more “VR stuff,” from games to video chat to exercise routines, on other headsets. There just aren’t that many interesting Vision Pro apps, either from developers or from Apple itself. And that’s just one of the problems that bugs me about Vision Pro, even after a whole year of using it pretty regularly at home. There are absolutely areas where Apple has succeeded, and even paved the way for where headsets and glasses could go next. But not enough of them. Without addressing some other big missing pieces, the Vision Pro will never feel like it’s leapt up to become a successor, or even a key extension, to my phone or my Mac. Here’s my take on the successes and the missed opportunities for Vision Pro over the last year. My first demos with Vision Pro were early signs that the interface was mostly a big success. Success: Hardware-free gesture controls and eye-tracking The eye and hand tracking quality on Vision Pro, and the ways they work together, really do make a lot of basic navigation pretty effortless. I’ve gotten spoiled by the simple ways I glance and slightly pinch or swipe my fingers to open apps or scroll windows. Having no controller for Vision Pro is mostly no problem at all, which in retrospect feels as bold a move as shipping the first iPhone without a keyboard. Apple has added extra gestures and improved the shortcuts since the Vision Pro came out. I love tapping my fingers and tilting my hand to check the time and adjust volume. Yes, sometimes I have to recalibrate eye-tracking because it’ll drift from where my eyes look. And tapping and grabbing some edges of windows or apps can still be fiddly. I’d prefer having more precision, with an optional wearable or accessory like the ring and pointer on Sony’s pro-focused XR headset, but Apple has mostly proved its point. Success: The best personal display and movie experience As a big TV on my face, Vision Pro remains unbeaten. It’s not perfect by any means: The field of view is still narrower than I’d want, and I see some reflective glare at times with prescription lenses inserted, but the experience with Apple’s audio and video in Vision Pro makes me feel like I’ve got the best movie-screening device I’ve ever tried. It’s my preferred way to see any movie or show if I know I can view it alone. Wicked in 3D? Stunning. I keep being wowed by it. In the curved-screen monitor format, paired with a Mac, I feel like I have my own little wraparound work world. I’m using it right now. When I set it up, it’s as satisfying for work as my personal cinema outings. The headset’s awkward size has gotten better with improved straps from companies like Belkin and ResMed, too. Apple’s unique place here won’t last forever. Other devices are getting micro OLED displays too. Samsung’s Project Moohan, the first Android XR headset coming this year, looks very much like a Samsung/Google Vision Pro, and the display quality during a brief demo impressed me. Sony’s headset also has micro OLED displays. And there are display glasses, including the Xreal One, that feature vivid (but smaller 1080p) displays that are good enough for watching movies, at a far lower price. Running regular everyday apps in XR is boring but important. Success: A way to fold XR into everyday apps Apple made the Vision Pro feel like an iPad for your face, which was a big shift from previous AR and VR headsets that built up custom app stores and interfaces. This focus can make the Vision Pro seem a little pedestrian because a lot of its apps are things like Mail or Notes or Apple Music. On the other hand, that seamless flow between things I already use is what makes the whole thing feel like a natural computer. It’s boring as hell, but it’s a useful and previously missing part of the VR experience. Meta, by comparison, is still struggling to find enough truly everyday work apps that can run usefully on the Quest. Meta has games galore, but none of Horizon OS is naturally Android or iOS compatible. Google’s Android XR is coming this year with full support for Google Play onboard, and Vision Pro can run tons of iOS apps. Meta’s caught in the middle. My app life in Vision Pro hasn’t changed much from my experiences a year ago. Missing: Where are all the good new apps? It’s been a whole year and I still find myself browsing what feels like a random scattering of games, immersive experiences, occasional productivity apps and Apple’s every-once-in-a-while drop of new Vision Pro immersive-format 3D short films. The immersive videos are well-made, and some – like The Weeknd’s jaw-dropping music video, or Edward Berger’s Submerged – are some of the best I’ve seen. But it’s not enough, and the video releases don’t come frequently enough to justify getting a Vision Pro. There are lots of apps you can browse through on the Vision Pro but that doesn’t mean there are many meaningful ones. On Meta’s Quest headset, I feel like I can always find a new game or two to catch my eye. The Vision Pro doesn’t make it easy to know what’s good, or what I should be using it for. And Apple doesn’t seem to have invested much into drawing big stunning experiences in, either. Even the Vision Pro games on Apple Arcade are largely ports or casual, simpler stuff. And why hasn’t Apple itself made some of these killer apps? There are still tons of obvious missing pieces. Maps – an app that already showcases detailed 3D landscapes and cities – would have been an amazing Vision Pro showcase. (Google is already showing off its Maps app for Android XR.) GarageBand could have been adapted with spatial musical instruments, something third-party developers have already dabbled in. Apple has no spatial creative apps of its own – no Vision Pro-ified Final Cut, or drawing/sketching/sculpting apps. If you don’t dream them up, they won’t exist — and the Vision Pro needs new dreams. Fitness is still a missing piece of Apple’s vision, even though working out has become my favorite thing to do on Meta’s Quests. If the Vision Pro could double as a virtual Peloton, then maybe that would help absorb its price. But it doesn’t, not yet. And the current Vision Pro’s heavier design and dangling battery pack make it a weird fitness fit, although the Apple Arcade game Synth Riders shows off what Apple could do with active gaming on a lighter, more affordable headset. Missing: Working with iPhones, Apple Watch, iPad A huge missing piece, for me, is something I thought Apple would have had on day one of Vision Pro: An ability to work with iPhones, Apple Watches and iPads as well as Macs. The Vision Pro is standalone, but it still works with Macs to act as an extended monitor and feel like a connected part of the computer you already use. It should work that way with the iPhone, literally a device everyone has in their pocket. As a handheld controller, a way to extend connected apps, take calls, use the iPhone to camera to 3D scan things that could instantly be synced to Vision Pro, to help remote-control demos for friends trying your Vision Pro. I don’t understand why it’s not already set up to work. Similarly, the Apple Watch could be used for gestures, as an input shortcut, for haptics, or to collect and sync health data into some apps (like heart rate for meditation and active games). And the iPad should be able to work as a portable keyboard/touchscreen part of Vision Pro, extending displays the same way Macs do. The Vision Pro ($3,500) next to Xreal One’s display glasses ($500). Completely different products, but Xreal’s glasses at least do a good job as wearable displays at a fraction of the size and cost. Meta’s hardware is also well under $1,000. Missing: A price cut after a year The most obvious miss is the Vision Pro’s price. Sure, it’s really an early-adopter, developer kit type of computer. And, for the pros that might need it – say, for medical simulations – $3,500 isn’t much more than previous business-targeted XR headsets like the Hololens 2 (and it’s less expensive than industrial headsets like Varjo’s XR-4). But that price will never appeal to any regular person I know. It’s hard enough to convince someone to get a $500 Quest 3. To make the Vision Pro feel remotely appealing, it needs to get into the range of what an iPhone or iPad Pro costs. Otherwise, Apple needs to work even harder to justify what else this high-end thing could be used for. The Vision Pro has wowed me, and it still continues to wow me. But not enough, especially at $3,500. It feels like a first stab at a greater idea, but there’s no second stab in sight. Apple apparently canceled plans for smaller AR glasses, but it could still make a smaller, lighter and easier to use Vision non-Pro in the next few years as another step toward, perhaps, glasses. Getting Vision on more faces for less with the capability of doing more with what you already own is a difficult bridge to cross. But with Google’s Android XR and Meta’s headsets — and possibly other competition from Valve and elsewhere — it’s what Apple still needs to overcome as it figures out how the Vision Pro something that’s not just… well, for pros. Source link #Future #Hurry Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

One of 2024’s most overlooked games just came to consoles. Don’t miss it twice One of 2024’s most overlooked games just came to consoles. Don’t miss it twice We are currently in something of a Metroidvania *****. With the genre reaching peak saturation, new releases — of which there are many — are forced to expand upon the core formula fans know and love in hopes of standing out. Take the thrilling Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist as an example, which imbues the Metroidvania with RPG systems and a focus on player builds. Momodora: Moonlit Farewell, on the other hand, believes that simple is better. Originally released in January 2024, Moonlit Farewell is the fifth and final entry in developer Bombservice’s Momodora series. While it might not have any ostentatious additions to the basic Metroidvania formula, Moonlit Farewell’s devotion to a sleek rendition of the genre’s core pillars make it a refreshing adventure. The game went under the radar in 2024 but now, with its release on consoles, Metroidvania fans have the perfect way to tide yourself over until Hollow Knight: Silksong. Before you ask, no you don’t need to play any of the previous Momodora games before Moonlit Farewell. Sure there are some returning characters and world lore that fans of the franchise are sure to delight in, but Moonlit Farewell onboards newcomers extremely well. That’s partially because the narrative is kept pretty simple. The priestess Momo embarks on a journey to save her village from destruction at the hands of evil. What more do you need to know? This is also a series that truly exemplifies iterative design. While Moonlit Farewell is the end, it is also the best place to start. Momodora: Moonlit Farewell – Launch Trailer – Nintendo Switch Back to basics There are a handful of elements that come to mind when thinking of Metroidvanias: a sprawling interconnected map, collectible abilities, impressive boss fights. Moonlit Farewell has them all. There is no **** on the proverbial bone here though. When it comes to exploration, the world of Moonlit Farewell feels no ******* than it needs to be to instill a sense of scale on the player. Over the course of its brisk eight hour runtime, players run, double jump, and roll through a handful of biomes each with their own impressive design. Moonlit Farewell reduces the need to backtrack, as new abilities unlock sprawling new areas that bring players closure to the game’s conclusion. You can still explore old areas but it’s more in search of collectibles than anything else. Combat and movement might be the most jarring to veterans of the Metroidvania genre. Not because Moonlit Farewell does anything particularly new, but because it does quite the opposite. Momo only has two attacks throughout the game: one for close-up melee encounters and another for ranged combat. There are no complicated combos or parrying mechanics. Just dodge and hit until the enemy is dead. There is a weightiness to Momo’s actions that gives this simple combat an almost strategic feeling. Her actions take a little longer than you might expect compared to more fast-paced titles. That means when jumping, rolling, or attacking timing is still a consideration. If not done properly, seemingly easy platforming and combat challenges can quickly go wrong. Playism That is especially true of boss fights. These often hulking monsters with massive health bars can be extremely tricky at times, as they can use a ******* bag of tricks than is afforded Momo. Oftentimes success comes down to pattern recognition and endurance. To make it a little easier Moonlit Farewell does bring a little customization to Momo in the form of Sigils, which grant bonuses to her health, attack, and other stats. Mixing Sigils doesn’t reinvent how Momo plays, it just gives players a little more wiggle room. The cherry on top of what is admittedly Moonlit Farewell’s sparse sundae is its gorgeous pixel art. I know that anything with a retro-inspired aesthetic often gets praise for being pretty to look at, though Moonlit Farewell is truly deserving of that praise. Enemies, allies, and every little detail of the game’s diverse world are rendered with such palpable care. The detail of every pixel brings a tangible complexity to everything players interact with. Most impressive are Moonlit Farewell’s dazzling particle effects that render leaves and other debris constantly floating through the wind. This is a 2D world, yet these flourishes add depth. The relative simplicity of Moonlit Farewell’s take on the Metroidvania is wonderful in that it reduces the genre to its core pillars. While there are a number of more complex takes on what a Metroidvania can be, Moonlit Farewell reminds players that all of these come built upon a strong foundation. Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch Source link #2024s #overlooked #games #consoles #Dont Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Skinny jeans are making a comeback Skinny jeans are making a comeback The vilified linchpin of millennial and Y2K fashion – the skinny jean – might be on its way to a comeback. Over the last few months, a range of skinny styles, including pants and jeans, have cropped up on fashion runways, influencer videos and Google search trends, indicating the divisive garment could soon be a closet staple again. Part of the buzz around skinny jeans undoubtedly came when TikTok star and Gen Z influencer Alix Earle debuted a pair of exclusive skinnies with denim brand Frame at the end of January, but the hype was already building before that. “For like the last six months, we started to hear rumblings of skinny jeans making a comeback,” said Janine Stichter, a retail analyst and managing director at BTIG. “If you look at Google Trends data for skinny jeans … it actually [spiked] the week of January 12 and it’s been picking up steam ever since.” The week after Earle debuted her skinny jean partnership with Frame, searches for skinny jeans were up 50% year over year, she added, but still well off their 2009 peak. That likely led to a spike in interest across retailers. Reformation told CNBC this week its customers have been searching for skinny jeans on its website more frequently lately. American Eagle has also seen interest grow. “Certainly, there’s a lot of activity on skinny. I would like to say there’s a styling thing that’s happening, the high boot situation, and high boots and skinny jeans work, so that’s definitely taking hold,” Jen Foyle, American Eagle’s president and executive creative officer, told CNBC in an interview. “You’re starting to see some of that movement but right now, it’s still relatively small, but we’re prepared to roll with it as we test it and scale,” she continued. “Our job is to be nimble, right?” But like any fashion trend, the skinny jean resurgence was first spotted on the runways. Based on how the major designers are interpreting the look, it’ll appear different this time around. “On the runways, Prada, Isabel Morant, Tod’s, they all did very slim silhouette pants. They’re calling them skinny pants. The difference is that they’re doing them in plaid, not just solids. They’re doing them in these very tailored fabrics,” said Shawn Grain Carter, a fashion professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “We’re seeing some of the celebrities wear these skinny jeans, but they’re not nearly as conforming … it’s different from the jeggings that you saw [between 2009 and 2011]… It conforms to the leg, but it doesn’t have to necessarily hug it so tightly that all you see is an outline of a woman’s leg.” The unofficial queen of denim – Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass – spotted the same trend on the runways and told CNBC she expects the controversial jeans to officially come back “sometime in the future.” “While we don’t have a crystal ball, don’t get rid of your skinny jeans,” said Gass. “I do think when we see a ******* trend re-emerge, it’s going to look and feel different.” Grain Carter said skinny styles could start appearing in stores more widely by this summer, but Stitchter said they could start returning to shelves closer to the fall when more consumers are out shopping for pants and jeans. That’ll be welcome news for apparel and footwear retailers because whenever trends shift, it tends to trigger a surge in demand for new clothes, she said. “If we are to get a full fledged restocking in any of these styles, it tends to be a big positive for the sector,” said Stichter. “Anytime you have a big silhouette shift, it’s positive for restocking cycles. It’s also positive for footwear because you need different footwear to go with the bottoms, and then you don’t just buy the bottoms, you tend to need different tops to go with the bottom so it can kind of catalyze a whole closet refresh … That’s kind of what we’re looking out for.” For those who’ve only just stocked up their closet on baggy and loose fits, the current jean du jour, rest assured that there’s room for both. If there’s one thing that’s started to define fashion, it’s the lack of consensus among consumers of all age groups and styles, said Stichter. Many shoppers never stopped wearing skinny jeans, and with the breakneck pace that trends move in the age of social media, fashion cycles can be resurrected before they’re even dead. “The denim closet really should have all varieties of denim. It really is about what you’re wearing, what your mood is, and people still wear skinny today,” said Gass. “So keep your loose, keep your baggie. Everything right now goes.” Source link #Skinny #jeans #making #comeback Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Trading digital Pokémon TCG Pocket cards is a risky but lucrative business Trading digital Pokémon TCG Pocket cards is a risky but lucrative business After Pokémon TCG Pocket released its controversial trading feature, an odd sort of “****** market” has arisen around some of the rarer cards. Some players have started to sell the digital cards on eBay, charging anywhere from $5 to $10 per card. Yes, it’s a definite violation of the games’ terms and conditions, but the real-money trades are difficult to prove and present little financial risk to the seller — but don’t think it’s an easy to line your pockets. The initial release of the trading mechanic was met with backlash from players. Developer Creatures, Inc promised changes to the way the system works, but provided few details regarding how or when those changes would take place — and while there are restrictions on how trading works, those restrictions haven’t stopped players from finding workarounds. A quick eBay search for “Pokémon TCG Pocket” reveals thousands of listings for everything from entire accounts to real-world representations of the cards. Other sellers have listed specific rare cards like Gyarados ex, requesting only that buyers have the necessary trade stamina and 500 trade tokens needed to complete the transaction. “Once your payment is successfully processed, you will be contacted for us to exchange our Friend ID,” the listing reads. It guarantees delivery within 12 hours of purchase. So far, alternate art and Pokémon ex cards are the most in-demand, but the actions haven’t gone unnoticed. Please enable Javascript to view this content Creatures, Inc released a statement in-game that says, “We are aware that some players have engaged in data tampering, real money trading, and other behaviors that violate the Terms of Use. If we confirm that a player has engaged in behavior that violates the Terms of Use, we will arn them, suspend their account, or take other action.” The warning covers a wide range of violations, so it isn’t completely clear what the company is referencing — but it is clear that participating in this underground ****** market comes with its share of risks. Trade-specific currencies like Trade Tokens were intended to curb exploitation of in-game systems, but all it has done is left a bad taste in player’s mouths. Some fans have suggested opening up the trading system so players can search for specific cards they want to trade for and doing away with the requirement that both players be friends. Source link #Trading #digital #Pokémon #TCG #Pocket #cards #risky #lucrative #business Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

NASCAR Hall of Fame welcomes Rudd, Edwards and Moody to the class of 2025 – Jayski.com NASCAR Hall of Fame welcomes Rudd, Edwards and Moody to the class of 2025 – Jayski.com NASCAR Hall of Fame welcomes Rudd, Edwards and Moody to the class of 2025 Jayski.comNASCAR welcomes Rudd, Edwards into HOF ESPNPro Football Hall of Fame to enshrine four in Class of 2025 Pro Football Hall of FameEdwards and Rudd walked away from NASCAR and never looked back. Their reunion is at the Hall of Fame The Associated Press Source link #NASCAR #Hall #Fame #welcomes #Rudd #Edwards #Moody #class #Jayski.com Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Warner Bros. Gaming Division Is in a Complete Free Fall as Wonder Woman Game Is MIA Following Suicide Squad and Multiversus Shutdown Warner Bros. Gaming Division Is in a Complete Free Fall as Wonder Woman Game Is MIA Following Suicide Squad and Multiversus Shutdown Warner Bros. Gaming division has been on quite the rollercoaster lately, except instead of a thrilling ride, it’s been more like a series of painful, surprise drops. After Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and MultiVersus tanked spectacularly, the company’s gaming division is definitely in a downtrend. Players are waiting cautiously for new games from the company. | Image Credit: Rocksteady Studios The Wonder Woman game had been the division’s shining hope, but according to recent reports, it looks like the game has hit yet another roadblock, with development further delayed. This news has left the fans wondering when they will get their hands on the game. Warner Bros. Wonder Woman game faced further delays Players are disappointed about the delay. | Image Credit: Player First Games The Wonder Woman game has been in development for several years, with many fans eagerly awaiting its release. From the moment it was announced, the game was seen as a potential big hit for Warner Bros. Games, like its Batman Arkham series. With a beloved character like Wonder Woman, a new action-adventure experience bout the character seemed like a surefire hit. However, recent reports from Bloomberg suggest that the game has faced significant setbacks, with a change in directors and a full restart of development. While it’s disappointing that the game is being delayed even further, this could be a welcome move if it means the developers are taking more time to polish and refine the project. After all, fans of the character and the DC universe, in general, don’t want to see a repeat of the mistakes of the division’s other games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League or MultiVersus. Both of these games had massive potential, but they turned out to be disappointing and frustrating experiences. These failures have made the release of the Wonder Woman game far more important than it should have been for Warner Bros. to get it right. So the delays might sting for fans, but it could ultimately save the game from the same fate. Warner Bros. Gaming Division is desperate for a win The division is not doing great and needs a win. | Image Credit: Player First Games Warner Bros. Games has a treasure trove of iconic intellectual properties under its belt, from Batman: Arkham to Game of Thrones to the entire DC Universe. With such beloved franchises, the company should be poised to dominate the gaming industry. However, despite these advantages, the studio has been struggling to find success in recent years. The gaming division is currently in disarray, having suffered from multiple missteps, internal leadership changes, and a lack of clear direction. The recent failures of Suicide Squad and MultiVersus (both are shutting down) have left the company with little to show for its investments, and Warner Bros. is now scaling back its gaming division, with fewer releases planned for the coming years. In the end, whether or not Wonder Woman can be the title to right the ship remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the company cannot afford another misstep if it hopes to remain a major player in the gaming industry. Source link #Warner #Bros #Gaming #Division #Complete #Free #Fall #Woman #Game #MIA #Suicide #Squad #Multiversus #Shutdown Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search is now free to use without a login OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search is now free to use without a login ChatGPT is becoming more accessible to the masses. Its ChatGPT Search feature is now available without having to log in to the popular chatbot. Parent company OpenAI has also confirmed that ChatGPT Search will be free to use– the feature works similarly to a search engine. When accessing the service’s web address, ChatGPT you will see ChatGPT Search front and center, with a message saying “What can I help you with?” You can immediately input your query into the text box. At the bottom of the text box are options that say “Search” and “Reason.” The Search option is the option that allows you to use the page without logging in. Selecting the Reason option will prompt you to log in or sign up to access ChatGPT. The login and sign-up options have been moved to the left and right sides of the web page. Notably, ChatGPT Search offers additional and more recent information, from how ChatGPT typically functions, such as up-to-date sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more. CNET noted like most AI tools, the search option is still susceptible to hallucinations or providing false information. Users should opt for fact-checking with the provided links. ChatGPT Search has been available since October 2024 and has been a direct competition to Google’s Gemini features as the brand fleshes out its own AI services. Google is currently in-house testing a feature called AI Mode that would bring a more contextual experience to its Google Search engine. Other competition has been Anthropic, as well as the ******** AI brand, DeepSeek. make search great again — Sam Altman (@sama) February 6, 2025 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman retweeted the announcement of ChatGPT Search being made public, adding: “Make search great again.” This isn’t the only feature of OpenAI’s that it is making more ubiquitous. Microsoft is now offering the OpenAI o1 model for free through a new toggle called ‘Think Deeper’ as a part of its Copilot chat. OpenAI’s latest reasoning models are typically exclusive to its paid subscription plans and can cost up to $200 to access. However, those with a Microsoft account can access the feature powered by the o1 model for free. OpenAI has also recently announced other tools including an AI agent called Operator and the o3 mini reasoning model. Source link #OpenAIs #ChatGPT #Search #free #login Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Stock Market Is Doing Something Witnessed Only 3 Times in 154 Years — and History Makes Clear What Happens Next The Stock Market Is Doing Something Witnessed Only 3 Times in 154 Years — and History Makes Clear What Happens Next For more than two years, the stock market has been virtually unstoppable. Last year, the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), broad-based S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), and innovation-inspired Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) galloped higher by 13%, 23%, and 29%, respectively, with all three indexes notching multiple record-closing highs. Investors haven’t needed to dig too deeply to locate the catalysts fueling this extended rally in equities. In no particular order, the powder keg of the current bull market includes: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Better-than-expected corporate earnings. A pullback in the prevailing rate of inflation from a four-decade high. A resilient U.S. economy. The return of Donald Trump to the White House. Investor euphoria surrounding stock splits. While nothing has slowed this bull market rally, history has often shown that when things seem too good to be true, they usually are. Image source: Getty Images. At any given time, there is bound to be a data point, metric, or forecasting tool that spells potential trouble for the U.S. economy and/or Wall Street. Some of the more recent examples include the first notable year-over-year decline in U.S. M2 money supply since the Great Depression, as well as the longest yield-curve inversion on record. But among the “what if”s for the stock market, none screams louder than a valuation tool that’s making history for only the third time in 154 years. As the old idiom states, “value is in the eye of the beholder.” Value is a relatively subjective term, and what one investor considers to be pricey might be viewed as a bargain by another. The traditional valuation tool on Wall Street is the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which divides a company’s share price into its trailing-12-month earnings. While the P/E ratio is a quick value-comparison tool for mature businesses, it doesn’t work particularly well with growth stocks and can get easily skewed during turbulent events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A considerably more comprehensive valuation tool that allows for apples-to-apples comparisons is the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E Ratio, which is also referred to as the cyclically adjusted P/E Ratio, or CAPE Ratio. The Shiller P/E is based on average inflation-adjusted earnings from the previous 10 years, which means that shock events won’t be able to skew its readings. S&P 500 Shiller CAPE Ratio data by YCharts. When the closing bell rang on Feb. 5, the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E crossed the finish line with a reading of 38.23. For context, the average reading for the Shiller P/E when back-tested to January 1871 is just 17.2. Story Continues What’s even more noteworthy is just how rare the magnitude of this deviation is above the historic average. Spanning 154 years, this marks only the third time during a continuous bull market that the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E has reached a reading of at least 38. The other two incidences include an all-time high in December 1999 of 44.19 and first week of January 2022 peak of just over 40. The former occurred just prior to the bursting of the dot-com bubble, which saw the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite respectively lose 49% and 78% of their value on a peak-to-trough basis. Meanwhile, the latter gave way to a bear market for the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite between January 2022 and October 2022. Widening the lens a bit further finds only six instances, including the present, where the Shiller P/E Ratio has surpassed 30 during a bull market in 154 years. All five previous occurrences were followed by declines ranging from 20% to 89% in at least one of the three major stock indexes. Admittedly, the Shiller P/E isn’t a timing tool and provides no clues as to when equities hit a temporary top. But when back-tested 154 years, it does have a flawless track record of foreshadowing eventual (and significant) downside in the stock market. Image source: Getty Images. While history rhyming and sending the stock market notably lower may not be what investors want to hear, there’s a critical difference when it comes to trying to time short-term market moves and putting your money to work over long periods on Wall Street. The blunt truth is that no matter how much we wish against stock market corrections, bear markets, crashes, and economic downturns, they’re a normal and inevitable part of the respective investing and economic cycle. But what’s vital to recognize is that cycles for the U.S. economy and stock market aren’t mirror images of each other. For example, the U.S. economy has worked its way through 12 recessions since World War II came to a close in September 1945. Spanning nearly eight decades, nine out of 12 recessions were resolved in less than a year. According to a report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the average recession from 1945 through 2009 endured just 11 months. On the other hand, CRS notes the typical economic expansion stuck around for 58 months between 1945 and 2009, or nearly five years. Prior to the COVID-19 recession taking shape, the U.S. economy was enjoying an expansion that was over 10 years old. In other words, even though economic downturns are inevitable, they’re historically short-lived. This same cyclical nonlinearity can be seen on Wall Street. The data set above was posted in June 2023 by the researchers at Bespoke Investment Group shortly after the benchmark S&P 500 was confirmed to be in a new bull market. It examines the length of every bull and bear market for this widely followed index dating back to the start of the Great Depression in September 1929. In the 94-year ******* examined, the average S&P 500 bear market took 286 calendar days to complete, or about 9.5 months. What’s more, the lengthiest bear market on record endured for 630 calendar days in the mid-1970s. On the other hand, Bespoke’s data set found the average of 27 S&P 500 bull markets lasted 1,011 calendar days, or roughly 3.5 times longer than the typical bear market. Further, if you include the current bull market rally (extrapolated to present day), over half — 14 out of 27 — of all bull markets have stuck around longer than the lengthiest bear market. Short-term moves lower on Wall Street are virtually impossible to forecast. But history has conclusively shown that time in the market is far more valuable than trying to time the market. Before you buy stock in S&P 500 Index, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and S&P 500 Index wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $788,619!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 929% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 177% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list. Learn more » *Stock Advisor returns as of February 7, 2025 Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Stock Market Is Doing Something Witnessed Only 3 Times in 154 Years — and History Makes Clear What Happens Next was originally published by The Motley Fool Source link #Stock #Market #Witnessed #Times #Years #History #Clear Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Google employees are testing new AI Mode search feature Google employees are testing new AI Mode search feature Google is working on integrating more AI features into its search engine. The company is now having its U.S. employees test a new feature called “AI Mode.” The publication 9to5 Google uncovered an internal email detailing that employees had been invited to dogfood (test), the AI Mode, which is intended to be a form of intelligent search embedded within Google Search. The feature adds “easy-to-digest breakdowns with links to explore content across the web.” Function-wise, it allows you to ask more “open-ended” and “exploratory questions” in search of a more familiar atmosphere. You will be able to get AI-generated overview-style responses within the search in return, the publication noted. The AI Mode feature is also powered by Gemini 2.0, which as of today is available for free across Google’s platforms. However, the feature will run a custom version that will enable “advanced reasoning and thinking capabilities.” Google’s internal email gave examples of queries that AI mode can assist with: “How many boxes of spaghetti should I buy to feed 6 adults and 10 children, and have enough for seconds?” “Compare wool, down, and synthetic jackets in terms of insulation, water resistance, and durability” “What do I need to get started with aquascaping?” Follow-up: “What are some nearby stores to buy supplies?” AI Mode works in desktop browser search and mobile. Its main interface is reminiscent of the Gemini chatbot, while the header of the page still looks like Google Search, with filters for Images, News, Shopping, etc. The interface includes a “dig deeper” text box for you to continue your contextual search if you choose. To the right of the interface, there are links for search results– overall showing how the feature blends Google Search and Google’s AI features. 9to5 Google previously uncovered the feature’s mobile APK in December 2024 and got a detailed look at how AI Mode works using voice input. At that time, Google was previously looking at OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search as its biggest competition. Since then new challengers have surfaced. The company’s CEO, Sundar Pichai said in a recent earnings call that Google will be investing up to $75 billion into AI, in efforts to make 2025 “one of the biggest years for Search innovation yet.” Source link #Google #employees #testing #Mode #search #feature Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The powerful Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop is $400 off The powerful Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop is $400 off You shouldn’t pass up any discount when you’re shopping for gaming laptop deals on a premium device, as any form of savings is already a huge bonus. That’s exactly why you’re going to want to take advantage of Dell’s offer for the Alienware m18 R2. This configuration that usually sells for $2,400 is currently $400 off, slashing its price from $2,400 to $2,000. It’s still not in the budget territory, but for serious gamers, it’s going to be worth every single penny. You need to complete the transaction immediately though, as the bargain may be gone as soon as tomorrow. Why you should buy the Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop If you want a gaming laptop that will be able to play the best PC games at their highest settings without any issues, you should set your sights on the Alienware m18 R2. It’s equipped with the 14th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, along with 32GB of RAM that’s the sweet spot for high-end gamers, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need. The gaming laptop also features a 1TB SSD for ample storage space for your favorite games, and it’s got Windows 11 Home pre-installed. The Alienware m18 R2 trades a bit of portability not only to pack all that power under its hood, but also to house a relatively large 18-inch screen. With QHD+ resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate, you’ll be able to fully enjoy the graphics of the video games you’ll be playing, which will make the extra size and weight worth it. The gaming laptop also has customizable AlienFX lighting zones for style, the Alienware Command Center to tweak every aspect of its performance, and the Alienware Cryo-tech system for advanced cooling. For the ultimate gaming experience on a laptop, we highly recommend going for the Alienware m18 R2, especially now that it’s on ***** from Dell. This configuration with an original price of $2,400 is $400 off, so you’ll only have to pay $2,000 for this beast of a machine. You’ll have to hurry with your purchase if you’re interested though, because there’s no assurance that this offer for the Alienware m18 R2 gaming laptop will still be available if you check back tomorrow. Source link #powerful #Alienware #m18 #gaming #laptop Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Tech megacaps to spend more than $300 billion in 2025 to win in AI Tech megacaps to spend more than $300 billion in 2025 to win in AI Megacap technology companies funneled billions of dollars into artificial intelligence last year to try and keep up with unfettered demand. The hype isn’t dying down in 2025. Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft intend to spend as much as $320 billion combined on AI technologies and datacenter buildouts in 2025, based on comments from their CEOs early this year and throughout earnings calls in the past two weeks. That’s up from $230 billion on total capital expenditures in 2024. Tech companies have already poured many billions of dollars into AI projects since ChatGPT’s 2022 debut, as they race to expand data centers with boatloads of Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) and to advance their models. The recent rise of China’s DeepSeek sent a shockwave through the sector, with estimates suggesting the open-source tool cost a fraction of some U.S.-based competitors to create. Those fears spurred a market selloff last week, pushing shares of AI chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom down by a combined $800 billion in a single day. That development forced U.S. tech CEOs to field questions over their hefty spending plans and whether it’s all necessary. The answer, so far, is that they’re not slowing down. Amazon offered the most ambitious spending initiative among the four, aiming to shell out over $100 billion, up from $83 billion in 2024. CEO Andy Jassy said during the company’s earnings call on Thursday that the money would mostly go toward AI for its Amazon Web Services division and a “once-in-a-lifetime type of business opportunity.” “I think that both our business, our customers and shareholders will be happy, medium to long-term, that we’re pursuing the capital opportunity and the business opportunity in AI,” he said. Last month, Microsoft said it would allocate $80 billion in the 2025 fiscal year for creating data centers for AI workloads. Over half of that spending is poised to occur in the U.S., said Brad Smith, the company’s president. Microsoft’s fiscal year ends in June. Alphabet is targeting $75 billion in capital expenditures this year, with $16 billion to $18 billion expected in the first quarter. Finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said on Tuesday’s earnings call that the majority of spending would go toward “technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking.” Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg set his company’s AI capex budget at $60 billion to $65 billion in January, calling 2025 a “defining year for AI.” In a Facebook post, he said the move would help “unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership.” The other three of the so-called Magnificent 7 are Apple, Tesla and Nvidia. Apple’s spending on AI is tricky to project, often showing up in operating expenses because the company rents training capacity from cloud providers. The models underpinning Apple Intelligence were trained on Google Cloud, for example. Apple also rents cloud capacity from AWS and Azure. “On the capex part, it’s important to remember that we employ a hybrid kind of approach where we do things internally and we have certain partners that we do business with externally where the capex would appear in their respective businesses,” CEO Tim Cook said on an earnings call last year. Tesla said after its earnings report in late January that AI-related capital expenditures were approximately $5 billion in 2024, out of $11.34 billion total. The company expects its AI spending to be flat year over year. Tesla has been building out a “training cluster” dubbed Cortex, at its Texas facility to be used for training models behind the company’s self-driving technology and humanoid robotics currently in development. Nvidia doesn’t report results until later this month. And it’s capex figures will look very different since Nvidia is the one developing and supplying AI technology, rather than buying it. For Amazon, Google and Microsoft, AI spending is high, but it’s supposed to results in a big boon for their cloud businesses, which are major growth drivers. They’ve all said that clients are asking for more AI processing tools and that they plan to run ******* workloads in the cloud. But in the most recent quarter, the cloud numbers were weaker than expected, with all three companies falling short of consensus estimates. A big reason was supply shortages. “I predict those constraints really start to relax in the second half of 2025,” Amazon’s Jassy said. At Microsoft, the AI side of the Azure cloud business came in better than management had anticipated, but outside of AI, Azure lagged behind internal projections because of disappointing sales to clients through partners, finance chief Amy Hood said on the earnings call. Microsoft is revamping its sales approach when it comes to balancing AI with more traditional IT processes, Hood said. — CNBC’s Jordan Novet, Lora Kolodny, Kif Leswing, Jonathan Vanian, Ashley Capoot, Jennifer Elias and Annie Palmer contributed reporting WATCH: Expect Amazon’s growth to decelerate in the near term Source link #Tech #megacaps #spend #billion #win Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Marvel Rivals Needs a Thanos Mode Where the Mad Titan Goes up against 6 Avengers to Collect Infinity Stones Randomly Scattered across the Map Marvel Rivals Needs a Thanos Mode Where the Mad Titan Goes up against 6 Avengers to Collect Infinity Stones Randomly Scattered across the Map With Marvel Rivals proving to be a massive success since its December 2024 launch, NetEase Games has shown they know how to craft engaging gameplay experiences that keep players coming back for more. The game’s unique team-up mechanics and dynamic environments have already won over millions of players, maintaining an impressive 93% retention rate. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, ready to face their greatest challenge yet? | Image Credit: NetEase Games But what if we could take that winning formula and add a dash of Infinity War to the mix? Imagine a mode where one player takes control of the Mad Titan himself, facing off against six Avengers in an epic battle for the Infinity Stones. Given NetEase’s already-proven track record of innovative game modes in Marvel Rivals, this might not be as far-fetched as it sounds. A perfectly balanced game mode, as all things should be Picture this: Thanos starts with 1,600 HP and a basic set of abilities, including summoning waves of Chitauri or members of the ****** Order as support. Meanwhile, six players controlling various Avengers must work together to prevent him from collecting all six Infinity Stones scattered across the map. Each Stone collected would reset the timer and grant Thanos new game-changing abilities. The Power Stone could enhance his damage output and grant him devastating area-of-effect attacks. The Reality Stone might let him temporarily transform parts of the map into deadly hazards. The Space Stone could grant enhanced mobility and short-range teleportation, while the Time Stone creates localized areas where enemy movement is slowed to a crawl. The Soul and Mind Stones could offer even more strategic options. Perhaps the Soul Stone lets Thanos temporarily control an eliminated Avenger, while the Mind Stone—always the final objective—grants him the ability to influence enemy abilities. If Thanos collects all six stones before the timer expires? Well, you know what happens next. One snap, and it’s game over for the heroes of Earth. The future of Marvel Rivals looks mighty Season 1’s roster expansion is just the beginning of something *******. | Image Credit: NetEase Games While we dream up new game modes, NetEase continues to expand the Marvel Rivals roster at an impressive pace. Season 1, which went live on January 10, is already proving to be the biggest content drop yet, (eventually) introducing four new heroes instead of the usual two—a scale that the developers have confirmed won’t be repeated in future seasons. Players have already gotten their hands on Invisible Woman, whose mix of healing, mobility, and team-wide invisibility has made her one of the strongest Strategists in the game, and Mister Fantastic, whose stretchy combos are either devastating or desperately in need of a buff—depending on who you ask. The Thing and Human Torch are set to complete the Fantastic Four lineup around February 21 or 28, with The Thing joining as a Vanguard and Human Torch as another Duelist to round out the team. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Dataminers have uncovered references to numerous potential additions, from X-Men members to cosmic heroes, though separating fact from fiction has become increasingly challenging. Recent reports suggest that NetEase might be playing 4D chess with the datamining community by potentially planting false information in the game files. Whether these leaks are genuine or just elaborate misdirects, one thing’s certain: Marvel Rivals’ future looks brighter than an Infinity Stone. What do you think about the idea of a Thanos-focused game mode? And which upcoming hero are you most excited to see join the roster? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Source link #Marvel #Rivals #Thanos #Mode #Mad #Titan #Avengers #Collect #Infinity #Stones #Randomly #Scattered #Map Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Israeli hostages forced by ****** captors to speak in Gaza release Israeli hostages forced by ****** captors to speak in Gaza release Emaciated and disoriented, three Israeli hostages freed in Gaza on Saturday were forced by their ****** captors to speak on stage, in the latest of the increasingly familiar handover ceremonies. Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy were led on to a makeshift stage in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah and asked questions by a masked militant in Hebrew on a microphone in front of watching crowds, before being handed over to the Red Cross. Ben Ami, wearing a brown sweater and trousers with dark glasses, looked pale, needing support as he was led from the stage to three awaiting Red Cross SUVs, an AFP journalist reported. Eli Sharabi, also wearing the same brown uniform, was almost unrecognisable from the amount of weight lost in captivity. Or Levy, dressed in darker, heavier clothes and also stick-thin, appeared distressed as he was compelled to speak. On completing the choreographed interviews, the ****** fighters broke into chants of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest). Before the exchange, hundreds of ****** fighters and onlookers gathered in the central Gaza city, projecting enthusiastically triumphant scenes despite the devastation wrought on the ************ territory during more than a year of war. A banner across the edge of the platform erected for the exchange declared “total victory” for ****** in Hebrew and bore images of destroyed and rusted Israeli military vehicles. A picture of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, dejected with his palm to his cheek was shown in the centre of the destruction. – Flowers and petals – The release in Dier el-Balah was the fifth since the start of the January 19 ceasefire and, unlike previous exchanges in the north and south of Gaza, the destruction of war in the ************ territory was largely absent from ******’s careful staging. A four-floor villa, its balconies lined with onlookers, and other intact buildings could be seen behind the stage, which was flanked by the movement’s green flags, along with pictures of killed commanders and leaders. On a row of ******’s white pickups next to the stage, fighters displayed the group’s heavy weaponry, including rocket-propelled-grenades, sniper rifles and large machine guns. Exultant martial music blared from loudspeakers around the platform. Scores of armed men, masked and wearing ******’s distinctive green headbands, formed a cordon in the city to control onlookers around the open area where the militant group had erected a makeshift stage for the swap. A source from ******’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, told AFP 200 fighters were present at the handover. “Residents were allowed to attend the event, however are limited to a certain location to assure no confusion or chaos on site,” the source added on condition of anonymity. Crowds, modest compared to the handovers in the first week of the truce, gathered in rows three or four people deep around the cordon, while other onlookers clambered on a nearby advertising billboard for a better look at the hostages. A woman carrying a basket of flowers, and followed by half a dozen young girls in traditional ************ dress, scattered colourful petals over the fighters and onlookers. str-csp/jd/jsa Source link #Israeli #hostages #forced #****** #captors #speak #Gaza #release Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Dell G16 gaming laptop with RTX 4070 is $400 off The Dell G16 gaming laptop with RTX 4070 is $400 off The Dell G16, a gaming laptop that provides amazing value for money, is currently even more affordable right now when you buy from Dell. This particular Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 configuration, which is originally priced at $1,700, is on ***** for $1,300. We’re not sure how much time is remaining on this $400 discount though, so if you’re interested in taking advantage of this offer, you’re going to have to finalize your purchase as soon as possible. Why you should buy the Dell G16 gaming laptop The Dell G16 7630 is the successor of the Dell G16 7620, featuring the 13th-generation Intel Core i9 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card. The gaming laptop also packs 16GB of RAM, which our guide on how much RAM do you need says is the best place to start for gaming. With these specifications, you’ll be able to play the best PC games without any trouble, though you’ll have to stick to medium settings for the more demanding titles. The gaming laptop also comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed in its 1TB SSD, which will provide enough storage space for multiple games with all of their important updates. With a weight of just over 6 pounds, a 16-inch screen, and a battery that can last about 6 hours from a full charge, the Dell G16 is a portable machine that will be easy to bring with you wherever you go. The display offers QHD+ resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate, so the graphics of your favorite video games will look sharp, and its support for Nvidia’s G-Sync means there will be no stuttering and screen tearing for a more immersive experience. Gamers who are on the hunt for gaming laptop deals will want to consider the Dell G16 as it’s on ***** from Dell. This configuration with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card is available for $1,300, following a $400 discount on its sticker price of $1,700. There’s a chance that the offer expires as soon as tomorrow though, so if you don’t want to miss out on getting the Dell G16 gaming laptop for a lower price than usual, you should add it to your cart and proceed with the checkout process immediately. Source link #Dell #G16 #gaming #laptop #RTX Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

With Hi-Rez Laying Off Employees, Marvel Rivals & Overwatch 2 May Have Been the Final Nail in Paladins’ Coffin With Hi-Rez Laying Off Employees, Marvel Rivals & Overwatch 2 May Have Been the Final Nail in Paladins’ Coffin Hi-Rez Studios has officially ended development on Smite and Paladins and the once budget-friendly alternative to Overwatch has come to an end. The market has just been harder and harder to navigate in recent years as players have higher and higher standards of developers. And unless you’re doing something unique like what Marvel Rivals has managed, it’s hard to survive. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s not unexpected. | Image Credit: Hi-Rez Studios After mass layoffs at Hi-Rez, the future for Paladins looks bleak. But this hasn’t come as a surprise to most of the gaming community. Hi-Rez’s hero shooter was never supposed to be a genre-defining character and only ever took off because of Blizzard’s decision to put a price tag on Overwatch. So while it wasn’t a bad game, Paladin’s time has come to an end. Hi-Rez Studios has made big changes to the studio’s direction The studio will be focusing solely on Smite 2 now. | Image Credit: Hi-Rez Studios When Paladins launched in 2016, it was the best free-to-play alternative to Blizzard’s Overwatch. But while it had its own unique mechanics like card-based loadouts, it never truly reached its full potential. But today, Overwatch 2 is free-to-play and Marvel Rivals is already the new trend of the genre. Smite and Paladins have officially ceased development after mass layoffs at Hi-Rez Studios pic.twitter.com/0MXeGTit9p — Pirat_Nation (@Pirat_Nation) February 7, 2025 Over time, player numbers declined, and the game saw fewer major content updates. The recent layoffs at Hi-Rez seem to have sealed its fate. Hi-Rez Studios recently laid off 50-70 employees and shut down active development on Paladins, Smite 1, and Rogue Company. The decision comes as part of a shift in strategy, with the company now focusing exclusively on Smite 2. According to a statement that Hi-Rez’s CEO Stewart Chisam made to Kotaku, Smite 2 will be the new focus of the studio’s “streamlined operations.” While the servers for the hero-shooter will remain online, no further major updates are planned. This isn’t a new pattern from Hi-Rez if you remember it previously abandoned Tribes: Ascend in a similar manner. I feel like Paladins was missing some kind of spark to make it truly great. As for Smite the only thing interesting about it is that you can play as a whale yokai. — Matthew Cenance (@MatthewCenance) February 7, 2025 The writing had been on the wall for a long time. The last new champion in Paladins was released in 2023, and since then, updates have just been bug fixes and minor improvements. Many players noted that Paladins lacked the “spark” that made Overwatch engaging. While Hi-Rez did attempt to support the game, it was clear that it wasn’t a priority, and eventually, the company chose to pull the plug. Every game that isn’t Marvel Rivals has struggled to remain popular recently The industry has become very hard to navigate. Image Credit: NetEase Games Hi-Rez’s layoffs are part of what has been a mass trend in the gaming industry. Thousands of developers lost their jobs in the past year and things aren’t slowing down. Layoffs have hit even the biggest companies and they are doubling down on their most profitable projects, and for Hi-Rez, that meant letting go of its iconic titles. The hero shooter genre has become increasingly competitive, and Paladins was simply unable to keep up. Marvel Rivals, which launched in December 2024, has already made a massive impact. On the other hand, Overwatch 2 continues to get frequent updates, hero reworks, and new content. In today’s market, games must either land with a big splash or have massive long-term investments to succeed. Paladins was fun while it lasted, but after the lack of updates or a strong player base, it was only a matter of time before it reached the end. Source link #HiRez #Laying #Employees #Marvel #Rivals #Overwatch #Final #Nail #Paladins #Coffin Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Taylor Swift Enjoys Private Dinner Date with Travis Kelce Ahead of Super Bowl LIX – PEOPLE Taylor Swift Enjoys Private Dinner Date with Travis Kelce Ahead of Super Bowl LIX – PEOPLE Taylor Swift Enjoys Private Dinner Date with Travis Kelce Ahead of Super Bowl LIX PEOPLETravis Kelce ‘sneaks out’ of Chiefs’ New Orleans training camp for private date with Taylor Swift 48 hours before Super Bowl Marca EnglishVideo of Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce’s Date Night Before Super Bowl LIX Emerges Athlon SportsTaylor Swift live updates: Singer enjoys date night with Travis Kelce as she arrives in NOLA for Super Bowl 2025 Page SixThis Is Where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Should Dine in New Orleans During Super Bowl Weekend Eater New Orleans Source link #Taylor #Swift #Enjoys #Private #Dinner #Date #Travis #Kelce #Ahead #Super #Bowl #LIX #PEOPLE Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

OpenAI’s Super Bowl commercial suggests new marketing strategy OpenAI’s Super Bowl commercial suggests new marketing strategy OpenAI is planning a fascinating marketing push by introducing its first TV commercial during the 59th Super Bowl this coming Sunday, February 9th, according to the Wall Street Journal learned from sources close to the matter. In addition to the game itself, the many surrounding traditions, and the halftime entertainment, Super Bowl Sunday is an auspicious night for advertising. Some of the most notable brands pay millions of dollars for up to 30 seconds of airtime during the popular football event. Reports indicate that advertisers have shelled out up to $8 million for spits during this year’s Super Bowl, where the San Francisco 49ers will play the Kansas City Chiefs. This is up from $7 million the year prior. Details about OpenAI’s Super Bowl ad, or how much the company paid for the TV spot remain unknown. However, its introduction to a more forward-facing advertising space comes at an interesting time. The artificial intelligence company became notable in the tech space in late 2022 with the popularization of its ChatGPT chatbot. Since then, OpenAI has had a limited branding strategy, relying largely on social media, word of mouth, and news reports to evangelize its tools and services. With more AI options being developed almost daily, and competition growing, the brand has onboarded its first chief marketing officer, Kate Rouch, the WSJ noted. The company is also in talks to raise up to $40 billion at a valuation of $340 billion– with investor SoftBank leading the funding round. While it seems OpenAI is keeping its ad under wraps until Super Bowl Sunday, many other tech brands have already teased their commercials online. Google’s commercial is called “Dream Job,” featuring a father prepping for a job interview using Gemini Live AI assistant. Microsoft is also airing its first Super Bowl commercial in four years, to advertise its Copilot AI assistant. AI companies have developed other interesting strategies to market themselves during football’s big night. The brand Perplexity will also be on location in New Orleans where the Super Bowl is being hosted, advertising its brand on a custom-wrapped Tesla Cybertruck. The brand has chosen this option in hopes of garnering social media buzz, AdAdge noted. Source link #OpenAIs #Super #Bowl #commercial #suggests #marketing #strategy Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Dell G16 gaming laptop with RTX 4070 is $400 off The Dell G16 gaming laptop with RTX 4070 is $400 off The Dell G16, a gaming laptop that provides amazing value for money, is currently even more affordable right now when you buy from Dell. This particular Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 configuration, which is originally priced at $1,700, is on ***** for $1,300. We’re not sure how much time is remaining on this $400 discount though, so if you’re interested in taking advantage of this offer, you’re going to have to finalize your purchase as soon as possible. Why you should buy the Dell G16 gaming laptop The Dell G16 7630 is the successor of the Dell G16 7620, featuring the 13th-generation Intel Core i9 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card. The gaming laptop also packs 16GB of RAM, which our guide on how much RAM do you need says is the best place to start for gaming. With these specifications, you’ll be able to play the best PC games without any trouble, though you’ll have to stick to medium settings for the more demanding titles. The gaming laptop also comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed in its 1TB SSD, which will provide enough storage space for multiple games with all of their important updates. With a weight of just over 6 pounds, a 16-inch screen, and a battery that can last about 6 hours from a full charge, the Dell G16 is a portable machine that will be easy to bring with you wherever you go. The display offers QHD+ resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate, so the graphics of your favorite video games will look sharp, and its support for Nvidia’s G-Sync means there will be no stuttering and screen tearing for a more immersive experience. Gamers who are on the hunt for gaming laptop deals will want to consider the Dell G16 as it’s on ***** from Dell. This configuration with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card is available for $1,300, following a $400 discount on its sticker price of $1,700. There’s a chance that the offer expires as soon as tomorrow though, so if you don’t want to miss out on getting the Dell G16 gaming laptop for a lower price than usual, you should add it to your cart and proceed with the checkout process immediately. Source link #Dell #G16 #gaming #laptop #RTX Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Is It Finally Time to Give Up on UPS After the High-Yield Dividend Stock Crashed to a 4-Year Low? Is It Finally Time to Give Up on UPS After the High-Yield Dividend Stock Crashed to a 4-Year Low? United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) stock fell 14.1% on Jan. 30 after the company reported disappointing fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results. The stock is now at its lowest level since July 2020. Dividend raises, paired with a beaten-down stock price, have pushed UPS’ yield up to a mouthwatering 5.9% at the time of this writing. But given the company’s challenges, some investors may wonder if the high yield is too good to be true. Here’s where UPS went wrong, why the situation could get worse before it gets better, but why UPS is a high-yield dividend stock worth buying now for patient investors. Image source: Getty Images. Let’s take a trip back to March 2024. UPS stock was hovering around a three-year low. To regain investor trust, management hosted an investor presentation detailing ways to get the business back on track over the next three years. UPS had badly overestimated package delivery volumes, thinking that a COVID-19-induced increase in e-commerce would lead to sustained growth. Or, at the very least, consumers would permanently adapt their behavior to incorporate more purchases online. So UPS overexpanded its routes and positioned the business for demand that never lived up to expectations — resulting in lower sales and falling margins. In its investor presentation, UPS adjusted its 2026 forecast for U.S. small package average delivery volume to 98 million packages compared to early estimates for 108 million packages by 2023. The target implied a much more reasonable 5.5% compound annual growth rate between 2023 and 2026. In the presentation, UPS forecast 2026 revenue of $108 billion to $114 billion compared to 2023 revenue of $91 billion. The idea was to expand revenue in 2024, and then focus more on margins in 2025 and 2026. Unfortunately, UPS failed to deliver on its promises in 2024. The company grew revenue by just 0.1%, operating margins declined, and adjusted diluted earnings per share fell 12.1%. In other words, UPS is moving in the wrong direction — putting its 2026 targets in jeopardy. UPS is already struggling, so it took investors off guard when the company announced a major change to its relationship with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Despite Amazon being UPS’ largest customer, UPS expects to cut Amazon volumes by 50% by the second half of 2026. The move could bolster margins but at the expense of revenue. UPS CEO Carol Tomé said the following on the earnings call: We’ve been partnered to Amazon for nearly 30 years, and we hold that company in high regard. Amazon is our largest customer but it’s not our most profitable customer. Its margin is very dilutive to the U.S. domestic business. Our contract with Amazon came up this year. And so we said it’s time to step back for a moment and reassess our relationship. Because if we take no action, it will likely result in diminishing returns. So we considered a number of different options and landed on what we think is the best option for our company, and that is to accelerate the glide down of their volume with us, as we commented in our prepared remarks by more than 50% by June of 2026. Story Continues UPS’ margins have taken a hit, so it’s understandable that the company wants to improve them. But cutting the reliability that Amazon brings to its revenue stream is a controversial move, especially given how vulnerable the business has been in recent years. UPS has sold off for valid reasons. The company’s sales and margins have declined for a few years now, and 2025 isn’t expected to bring a quick turnaround. UPS is guiding for revenue of $89 billion and operating margins of 10.8% — which would be an improvement from 2024 margins but slightly lower revenue. Given the state of the business, UPS stock arguably deserves to be at its lowest level in years. The good news is that management has ripped off the proverbial bandage by setting a bleak outlook for 2025. The stock chart would indicate UPS is a steal at current levels, given the extent of the sell-off. However, investors would be wise to focus on business results rather than using price action as a yardstick for whether the stock is a good value. Given the guidance for 2025, it could take several more years for the turnaround to play out. In the meantime, UPS’ 5.9% yield is a worthwhile incentive to hold the stock through this difficult *******. And the stock’s mere 16.4 price-to-earnings ratio suggests it is a good value, even based on weak trailing earnings results. Still, investors should only approach the stock if they agree with management’s strategic direction, which could include even more efficiency improvements at the expense of sales. It could be the right decision long term, but the road to get there will be bumpy at best. Before you buy stock in United Parcel Service, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and United Parcel Service wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $788,619!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 929% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 177% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list. Learn more » *Stock Advisor returns as of February 7, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Daniel Foelber has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends United Parcel Service. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is It Finally Time to Give Up on UPS After the High-Yield Dividend Stock Crashed to a 4-Year Low? was originally published by The Motley Fool Source link #Finally #Time #Give #UPS #HighYield #Dividend #Stock #Crashed #4Year Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Worst video game controllers of all time Worst video game controllers of all time Table of Contents Table of Contents Dreamcast controller Power Glove Atari Jaguar Pro controller ***** Activator Atari 5200 controller Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw controller Tony Hawk: RIDE Skateboard controller The best video game controllers are the ones you don’t even think about. They let you fully immerse yourself in the game and let you forget you’re even holding them. The best controllers today all follow a mostly standard design, but in the early console generations, each system took a completely unique approach. In fact, many consoles would experiment with multiple types of controllers of various shapes, sizes, and input methods. Most of them were bad, and there were a few that were even painful. No matter how amazing the game was to play or how great the graphics were, a bad controller would completely tank the experience. Looking back from the days of the NES up to the PS5, we’ve recalled the very worst video game controllers of all time. Dreamcast controller ***** We’re starting off with a tame one here before working our way up. The Dreamcast controller looks fairly standard for the time — it has an analog stick, D-pad, triggers, and four face buttons. The problem with it is everything else. This thing is somehow bulkier and less comfortable to hold than the original Xbox’s Duke controller but made worse because the cable comes out of the bottom rather than the back or top. This made it awkward to handle for any length of time, and even the D-pad and buttons were hard on the thumbs. It wasn’t bad enough to cause the console to die the early death it did, but it by no means helped. Power Glove Matt Mechtley/Wikipedia CC / Digital Trends The NES controller was amazing for its time, but Nintendo has never been a company to rest on its laurels. There were plenty of peripherals for the NES, but none quite as bad as the Power Glove. In truth, Nintendo was just a few decades early with the idea of motion controls as we would see with the smash hit of the Wii. Back in the early ’90s, however, the technology was nowhere near advanced enough to work. You’d be lucky if the game recognized even half your inputs moving this thing around, but it was also a huge pain to even get set up since it required you to type in long codes for each game. Using this was an exercise in frustration that only made it harder to enjoy your games. It did look cool, but that’s about the only positive we can say about it. Atari Jaguar Pro controller Evan Amos / Atari The Atari Jaguar Pro controller is proof that more isn’t better. Games were getting more sophisticated and required more than the typical two to four buttons most controllers had come with up to this point. Somehow this abomination isn’t even Atari’s worst controller since it at least has a D-pad and three buttons you can press without moving your hands. How Atari expected us to use an entire num pad while playing is a mystery we may never solve. Even ignoring how impractical the entire bottom section is, the “good” part isn’t even made well. holding the controller at the top is awkward and hard to get a grip on, plus the buttons and D-pad are mushy and hard to actually press correctly. Thankfully not many people got a Jaguar and had to be subjected to this monstrosity. ***** Activator ***** Remember how we said the Power Glove was ahead of its time? Well, ***** somehow thought that it could make full body tracking work in the early ’90s. The Activator was an octagon that you placed on the ground and used to control a game, or that was the concept, anyway. In practice, it forced you to memorize a completely new “control” scheme based on which sensor you moved over. For example, to pause the game you would need to move over panels 4 and 6 at the same time. So, once you knew what button you wanted to press you would then have to translate that into what panel that represented on the Activator, remember where that panel is, and then move your body over it. Oh, and pray that it reads you at all. That last part failed more often than it worked, making the entire struggle pointless. Atari 5200 controller Atari Sorry, Atari, but your controllers are terrible. Unlike most other controllers we mention, Atari’s worst ones are the default options, and the 5200 controller is the worst. This thing looks like a TV remote with an awkward joystick at the top. The entire layout feels like it wasn’t designed for human hands, let alone comfort. There was no way to hold the device, use the joystick, and press any of the buttons at the same time. It fails in every aspect of a controller without even talking about how stiff and unreliable the joystick is. The only notable thing this controller brought to the table was a dedicated pause button, but that alone isn’t worth much praise. Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw controller Capcom The GameCube and PS2 had fantastic controllers with no need for any major changes. However, this was the era where third-party and novelty controllers started flooding the market. Of all the experimental controllers we’ve seen, none can compete with the chainsaw controller released alongside Resident Evil 4. Instead of making some kind of lightgun controller, Capcom thought the best form factor for a controller would be a bulky chainsaw. The result is worse than whatever you had in your mind. Besides just being big and bulky, it is wildly impracticable. There’s no way to hold this thing and have access to all the buttons and sticks at once. The only way you could sort of make it work is to use it on a table like some kind of arcade stick, but even that is hard on your wrists with how the sticks are placed. Hopefully, anyone who purchased this only wanted it for display purposes because it is absolutely useless as a controller. Tony Hawk: RIDE Skateboard controller Activision It’s one thing for a controller to be uncomfortable, and another for it to not function, but this “controller” is so much worse. Designed only for Tony Hawk: RIDE, this skateboard controller takes things to a new level by being actually dangerous to use. Speeding up requires you to slide your foot along the side, mimicking the motion of pushing a skateboard, but pulling off tricks actually requires you to lift and tilt the board around. Leaning back to do a manual, as one example, can easily end up with you flat on your back. This was during the height of Guitar Hero which popularized gimmick controllers like this, but thankfully RIDE was a bomb, and not that many people purchased this death trap. Source link #Worst #video #game #controllers #time Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Acer’s new gaming laptops with AI power won’t hurt your pockets Acer’s new gaming laptops with AI power won’t hurt your pockets Acer has introduced two new gaming laptops outfitted with the latest chips to enable AI features. The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 AI and Helios Neo 18 AI were announced at a recent Counter-Strike gaming tournament in Poland, according to Engadget. The laptops can run processors up to Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, which facilitates their AI features. Acer said it intends for the Helios Neo 16 model to be a portable gaming option, and the Helios Neo 18 to be good for replacing a desktop computer. Acer The Predator Helios Neo 16 features a 16-inch OLED WQXGA display with a 240Hz refresh rate, 400 nits maximum brightness, DCI-P3 100%, and 1 ms response time. The Helios Neo 18 features an 18-inch Mini LED WQXGA display with a 250Hz refresh rate, DCI-P3 100%, and 3 ms response time. The Predator Helios Neo 16 AI and Helios Neo 18 AI both have simple and minimalist designs, with the Helios RGB logo prominent on the back panel, in addition to “dynamic 4-zone” RGB keyboards. They have similar hardware support with 64GB of RAM and up to 2TB of internal storage. Other similarities between the devices include Intel Killer Ethernet and Wi-Fi 6E, for connectivity, as well as NVIDIA G-SYNC, Advanced Optimus, and MUX Switch. The Helios Neo 16 supports Bluetooth 5.4 or above, while the Helios Neo 18 supports Bluetooth 5.3 or above. Many of the two laptops’ I/O ports are also identical. Both devices also have 90-watt-hour batteries. The Predator Helios Neo 16 AI will be available in North America in April with a starting price of $1,900. The Predator Helios Neo 18 AI will be available in North America in May with a starting price of 2,200. They will also be available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in June, with a starting price of €1,700 and €1,800 respectively. Source link #Acers #gaming #laptops #power #wont #hurt #pockets Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy offers Trump mineral partnership, seeking security Ukraine’s Zelenskyy offers Trump mineral partnership, seeking security Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during an interview with Reuters, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine Feb. 7, 2025. Valentyn Ogirenko | Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday, part of a push to appeal to Donald Trump’s penchant for a deal. The U.S. president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine’s war with Russia, said on Monday he wanted Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskyy said, emphasising Ukraine’s need for security guarantees from its allies as part of any settlement. Ukraine floated the idea of opening its critical minerals to investment by allies last autumn, as it presented a “victory plan” that sought to put it in the strongest position for talks and force Moscow to the table. Zelenskyy said less than 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including about half its rare earth deposits, were under Russian occupation. Rare earths are important in the manufacture of high-performance magnets, electric motors and consumer electronics; Zelenskyy said Moscow could open those resources to its allies North Korea and Iran, both sworn U.S. enemies. “We need to stop Putin and protect what we have – a very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine,” he said. Russian troops have been gaining ground in the east for months, throwing huge resources into an unrelenting offensive while Kyiv’s much smaller army grapples with a shortage of soldiers and frets over future weapons supplies from abroad. Zelenskyy unfurled a map on a table in the heavily-defended president’s office in Kyiv, showing numerous mineral deposits, including a broad strip of land in the east marked as containing rare earths. Around half of it looked to be on Russia’s side of the current frontlines. He said Ukraine had Europe’s largest reserves of titanium, essential for the aviation and space industry, and uranium, used for nuclear energy and weapons. Many of the titanium deposits were marked in northwestern Ukraine, far from the fighting. Ukraine has rapidly retuned its foreign policy approach to align with the transactional world view set out by the new occupant of the White House, Ukraine’s most important ally. But Zelenskyy emphasised that Kyiv was not proposing “giving away” its resources, but offering a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly: “The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most. And they should have this priority, and they will. I would also like to talk about this with President Trump.” He said Russia knew in detail where Ukraine’s critical resources were from Soviet-era geological surveys that had been taken back to Moscow when Kyiv gained independence in 1991. In addition, Zelenskyy said Kyiv and the White House were discussing the idea of using Ukraine’s vast underground gas storage sites to store U.S. liquefied natural gas. “I know that the Trump administration is very interested in it … We’re ready and willing to have contracts for LNG supplies to Ukraine. And of course, we will be a hub for the whole of Europe,” he said. Zelenskyy wants meeting The interview comes days before the February 14-16 Munich Security Conference, where officials from dozens of Western countries will converge at an unpredictable juncture in the nearly three-year-old war. Zelenskyy said he planned to attend the forum, where Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, is also expected. The Ukrainian leader said it was essential that he met Trump in person before the U.S. president meets Russian President Vladimir Putin, “otherwise it will look like a dialogue about Ukraine without Ukraine”. Trump said on Friday that he expected to talk to Zelenskyy next week. Zelenskyy said his own priority would be raising Ukraine’s need for security guarantees as part of any deal, to prevent Russia launching another In general though, it was vital the West determined a broad strategy before entering into talks with Moscow. He said there were already regular contacts between his team and Kellogg and Trump national security adviser Michael Waltz. “Every day we have contacts, we talk about general things, but the specifics will come a little later,” he said. Trump’s peace push comes as advancing Russian forces threaten the major Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk. On the battlefield, Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that his troops had launched a new offensive on Thursday, advancing 2.5 km (1.5 miles) further into Russia’s Kursk region. Russia had reported a Ukrainian attack in the area that day, but said it was repelled. Zelenskyy said thousands of North Korean troops fighting on Russia’s side had now returned to active combat against Kyiv’s forces in Kursk after a pause of several weeks. Next week, the government intends to launch lucrative recruitment contracts to entice young men aged 18-24 – below draft age – into the armed forces to help ease a manpower shortage. Zelenskyy declined to say how many men were expected to sign up. Source link #Ukraines #Zelenskyy #offers #Trump #mineral #partnership #seeking #security Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Federal Election 2025: Bulk billing rates plunge across WA but Government disputes report’s findings Federal Election 2025: Bulk billing rates plunge across WA but Government disputes report’s findings Anthony Albanese’s bid to win over WA voters this Federal Election might be harder than he thinks, with new research showing those in key Labor seats have a tough time finding a doctor who fully bulk bills. Source link #Federal #Election #Bulk #billing #rates #plunge #Government #disputes #reports #findings Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Sony rejected a pitch for Resistance 4, claims Insomniac founder Sony rejected a pitch for Resistance 4, claims Insomniac founder Outgoing Insomniac Games founder and president Ted Price has claimed that Sony rejected a pitch for Resistance 4. Speaking during an interview with Kinda Funny to celebrate his career at the developer, Price was asked about which game he wished he could have worked on, but didn’t work out. Price revealed that at one point, the studio pitched Sony on a fourth mainline entry in the Resistance franchise. The Resistance franchise was a series of alternative history first-person shooters. The first game in the series was a launch game for the PlayStation 3, the console that would house the entire mainline franchise. “It was a wonderful concept. It was the result of a lot of Insomniac Games team members being passionate about extending the story further,” said Price. “I do believe that Resistance set up a cool alternate history base where anything can happen with the Chimera and where they go and what their origins are. We spent a lot of time working on backstory and brainstorming on where we could take this in the future.” As for why Sony rejected the pitch, Price claims that the “timing and market opportunity,” for the game wasn’t right at the time. Since the conclusion of the Resistance franchise in 2011, Insomniac Games has become one of the most prolific studios in Sony’s lineup. In the decade since, the studio has released three Ratchet and Clank titles, three Marvel Spider-Man games, Sunset Overdrive, and other smaller titles. As of 2025, the series is largely dormant. Due to the majority of the games in the series being released on the PS3, they currently can’t be played on PS5. The series was never remastered for PS4 despite years of rumors. In 2022, Days Gone director Jeff Ross claimed that he pitched Sony an open-world revival of the Resistance franchise. Source link #Sony #rejected #pitch #Resistance #claims #Insomniac #founder Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Snag AirPods 4 for Just $100 From Amazon’s Presidents’ Day Deals Snag AirPods 4 for Just $100 From Amazon’s Presidents’ Day Deals “Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.” Looking for the perfect time to upgrade your Apple tech? Presidents’ Day is typically your first shot of the year to score AirPods, Apple Watches, iPads, and MacBooks for less. Although Presidents’ Day isn’t until Monday, February 17, 2025, we’ve already spotted sales on a ton of Apple gadgets over on Amazon, with significant savings on coveted electronics like headphones, earbuds, fitness trackers, and laptops up for grabs. While Apple sales used to happen exclusively during ****** Friday and Cyber Monday, recent years have brought more markdowns during select holiday weekends—Presidents’ Day included. Although Apple isn’t running any official Presidents’ Day promotions of its own, Amazon has already dropped prices on its Apple inventory (likely to make room for upcoming 2025 releases). Ahead of the holiday weekend, our editors spotted a record-low price on the AirPods 4 (which were just released last fall), dropping them down to $100. We also found markdowns on several Apple Watches, including an $80 price cut on the second-generation Apple Watch SE. Equipped with high-tech health, safety, and activity features, this smart watch can track your steps, monitor your sleep, detect falls and crashes, display notifications, and more. Or, if you’re ready to upgrade your tablet, save $70 on the 10th generation iPad at Amazon. Ahead, we’ll break down the best early Presidents’ Day Apple deals happening right now, up to 32% off. Plus, our editors will continue to update this story with new deals as the holiday weekend approaches. Best Presidents’ Day Deals on AirPods Whether you’re hoping to upgrade your existing AirPods or snag your first-ever pair, Presidents’ Day is a great time to take advantage of record-low markdowns on Apple’s beloved earbuds. Right now, the AirPods 4 are just $100 on Amazon, making them the lowest price we’ve seen since release. If you’d rather make the jump to Apple’s noise-cancelling AirPods Pro, shop an $80 price cut on the second-generation model. AirPods Pro 2 $169.00 at amazon.com AirPods 4 $99.99 at amazon.com Best Presidents’ Day Deals on Apple Watches Track your workouts, measure your heart rate, and answer texts and phone calls straight from your wrist thanks to these Presidents’ Day 2025 sales on Apple Watches. Our editors are already spotting markdowns on the second generation Apple Watch SE ($80 off) and the latest Apple Watch Series 10 ($70 off). Shop Presidents’ Day sales on Apple Watches below: Watch SE (2nd Gen) [GPS 40mm] $169.00 at amazon.com Watch Series 10 [GPS 42mm] $329.00 at amazon.com Watch Series 10 [GPS + Cellular 42mm] $429.00 at amazon.com Watch SE (2nd Gen) [GPS + Cellular 40mm] $219.00 at amazon.com Best Presidents’ Day Deals on iPads One of Apple’s most versatile products, the iPad, is a great way to take notes, watch movies and TV shows, stay up to date on all your notifications, and much more. While iPads rarely dip in price outside of ***** events, they’ve historically been marked down by at least $50 over Presidents’ Day weekend, and this year is no exception. Ahead of Presidents’ Day, we found the 10th Generation iPad for $70 off! iPad (10th Generation) [64 GB, WiFi] $279.00 at amazon.com iPad Air 11-Inch [128 GB, WiFi] $499.00 at amazon.com iPad Pro 11-Inch [512 GB, WiFi] $969.00 at amazon.com Best Presidents’ Day Deals on MacBooks Presidents’ Day weekend is one of the best times of the year to score savings on a new laptop. Most retailers tend to offer sales on previous Apple models to make room for new releases. Since the launch of Apple MacBooks with an M4 chip, we’ve seen markdowns on M2- and M3-chip MacBooks—for example, you can shop a 2022 MacBook Air for $100 off right now. Surprisingly, we also spotted savings on an M4 model—the 2024 MacBook Pro is currently discounted $160. 2024 MacBook Air Laptop with M3 chip [256 GB] $827.08 at amazon.com 2024 MacBook Pro Laptop with M4 chip [512 GB] $1439.00 at amazon.com 2022 MacBook Air Laptop with M2 chip [256 GB] $899.00 at amazon.com You Might Also Like Source link #Snag #AirPods #Amazons #Presidents #Day #Deals Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]