You know exactly where this is going the moment IKEA hands you that little L-shaped hex key. You use it once, maybe twice, cross your fingers the furniture doesn’t wobble, and then it disappears into the junk drawer, a kitchen counter corner, or the bottom of a tote bag you haven’t opened since 2021. The allen key has never been a thing anyone kept on purpose. Until now.
IKEA Singapore, working with creative agency The Secret Little Agency, has reimagined the brand’s iconic flat-pack tool as a piece of wearable jewelry. The ALLËNKI, as it’s been named (and yes, the umlaut is doing a lot of heavy lifting there), is the humble allen key redesigned to hang from a chain as a pendant. It leans hard into an industrial aesthetic, the kind that lives somewhere between a Depop vintage find and something a contemporary menswear designer would slip into a lookbook without explanation. Raw, utilitarian, and surprisingly chic. I did not expect to want a hex wrench around my neck. And yet, here we are.
What makes the ALLËNKI genuinely interesting as a design concept isn’t just the novelty of it. It’s the fact that it remains fully functional. The piece isn’t a replica or a decorative prop styled to look like the real thing. It’s the actual tool, shaped into something you’d wear. That framing, which the designers describe as “hardware meets heirloom,” is doing a lot of the creative work here, and it does it well. There’s a real conversation happening in contemporary design right now about the objects we use every day and why we’ve decided some deserve beauty and others don’t. The ALLËNKI is a pretty sharp response to that question, even if the response comes with a chain and a studio-lit campaign.
The branding also knows exactly what it is. The campaign leans into humor and self-awareness, which is the right call. A jewelry line built around a furniture tool that most people lose within 48 hours of unboxing a bookcase doesn’t need to take itself too seriously. The Secret Little Agency managed that balance well, keeping the design itself genuinely considered while letting the concept breathe with a bit of absurdity. That’s harder to pull off than it sounds. Most brand stunts either try too hard to be funny or take themselves so seriously that the joke lands flat. This one sits in the right place.
Now, the catch. The ALLËNKI dropped on April 1st, which puts a fairly significant asterisk on the whole thing. Whether it was an April Fools’ stunt, a concept piece, or an actual product in development isn’t entirely clear. Store availability, if any, has not been confirmed. And while part of me wants to be cynical about that, the other part of me thinks the ambiguity might be intentional. It functions as a piece of cultural commentary either way. If it becomes real, great. If it doesn’t, it still made people stop and look at a two-inch hex key like it had something worth saying.
And maybe that’s the bigger point. The ALLËNKI asks you to reconsider what makes something worth keeping. We’ve watched fashion absorb work boots, industrial hardware, and construction aesthetics for years. Luxury brands have put carabiners on bags and charged several hundred dollars for the privilege. In that context, turning the allen key into a pendant feels less like a joke and more like a logical next step in a long line of utilitarian objects getting a second life. IKEA has always understood that good design shouldn’t be reserved for expensive things. Extending that thinking into wearables, even as a concept, feels genuinely on-brand.
Whether or not the ALLËNKI ever lands on store shelves, it’s already doing what good design work does. It’s got people talking, reconsidering a mundane object, and maybe feeling just a little possessive over something they used to throw in a drawer without a second thought. That’s a win, April Fools or not.
Racing Bulls arrived at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix wearing a livery that had nothing to do with sponsor placement optimization or brand color refresh cycles, and everything to do with sakura. Designed by Bisen Aoyagi, one of Japan’s most accomplished calligraphers, the Cherry Edition wrapped Lawson and Lindblad’s cars in white, red, and silver calligraphy that treated the F1 car as a medium for cultural expression rather than a rolling billboard. The team introduced it to Tokyo at Red Bull Tokyo Drift in Shibuya before the Suzuka weekend, generating the kind of organic enthusiasm online that no marketing campaign can manufacture, and the cars then backed the visual statement with a double points finish in the race.
That specific convergence of art, culture, and competitive result is what F1 Authentics and Memento Exclusives have captured in a limited edition motion simulator now available at f1authentics.com. The simulator replicates the Cherry Edition livery from official team data, ensuring the calligraphy and colorwork match what appeared on the actual cars at Suzuka, while haptic actuators, front pivot configuration, and rumble feedback handle the physical side of the experience. Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer framed the Cherry Edition as part of a broader commitment to engaging meaningfully with the cultures that host each race, which makes the simulator less a piece of merchandise and more a physical artifact of that philosophy in action.
Designer: Bisen Aoyagi
The livery itself deserves more than a passing description. Aoyagi’s calligraphy does something that most F1 livery design cannot, which is carry genuine visual weight at both highway speed and standing still. The white base gives the red and silver calligraphic strokes room to breathe, and the result reads differently depending on your distance from the car. At speed through Suzuka’s Esses, the Cherry Edition reads as a bold, high-contrast graphic. Parked in the Shibuya streets during Tokyo Drift, it operated as something closer to a gallery installation on wheels. That duality, between kinetic graphic and considered artwork, is exactly what makes the livery a strong candidate for the simulator treatment, because you actually want to sit inside it and study the surfaces around you.
The simulator itself is built by Memento Exclusives’ in-house team of engineers and mechanics, people who have spent decades working in professional motorsport environments and understand the difference between a product that looks like an F1 simulator and one that behaves like one. The haptic actuator system and front pivot configuration work in tandem to replicate the physical signature of cornering forces, while the haptic rumble feedback layer communicates road surface texture and kerb strikes with enough fidelity to make the experience genuinely instructive rather than merely theatrical.
Memento Exclusives has built simulators for other F1 teams through the F1 Authentics platform before, and the Racing Bulls Cherry Edition continues that technical standard while raising the aesthetic bar considerably.
For the sim racing community, which has already made the Cherry Edition one of the most discussed liveries of the early 2026 season across forums and social channels, the simulator represents an opportunity to own the physical version of something they have already been racing virtually. For collectors with a longer view, it represents a documented moment: a calligrapher’s interpretation of Japanese spring, painted onto an F1 car, raced at one of the sport’s most mythologized circuits, and preserved in a numbered, limited run that will not be repeated. Available now at f1authentics.com, and given the trajectory of interest since Suzuka, the window to secure one is likely shorter than a sakura season.
It’s not easy to create a workstation that reflects your personality, and it’s even harder to keep one organized. While the former is entirely a personal choice involving handpicked equipment, the latter depends on readily available solutions that make decluttering possible. Kakao, an all-in-one PC that utilizes the space behind the monitor for storage, presents itself as a godsend for achieving just that.
At the rendering stage at the time of writing, Kakao has a long way to go, if ever, to see the light of day. But from how it appears in pictures shared on the internet, this is a desk setup of the future, which draws some inspiration from the past when monitors or all-in-one PCs were more than slim panels we own these days.
Conceived on two metal stands, this all-in-one PC appears in a boxy form with storage and computer innards tucked behind the monitor. If you are someone who is often bothered by the awkward space behind the monitor, which has no purpose because it’s either too shallow to store something or too cluttered with wires, and you don’t want to add to the visual displeasure, then the Kakao is what you should be looking at with interest.
It turns the often-ignored space behind the monitor into a useful space with its design that is a combination of a PC and a storage cabinet. The furniture integrated all-in-one PC reimagines how the monitor looks and functions: instead of leaving the space vacant, Kakao extends the screen into a horizontal enclosure that houses computer parts along with storage for everyday things.
I am not definite about how we are supposed to use the Kakao on the desk with all that bulk, but once it is there, there is definitely going to be less clutter. I can already see my Bluetooth speaker, power strip, gaming controller, pen stand, and other stationery disappearing from my desk into the cabinet.
I’m not sure about the monitor’s screen size or the computing components we are getting with it. However, that the PC has a mirror-polished stainless steel frame with PVD finish. The horizontal cabinet is completely closed on the side where the computer innards sit, while the other half has a mesh panel that ensures the heat can flow out and there’s no hindrance in using the computer.
On the front, the monitor slides sideways to reveal or conceal the storage shelves inside. The Kakao speakers and power slot are placed on the bottom panel, while the connectivity ports are seen on the side. The latter I believe, is a terrible idea. Ports on the side of the storage cabinet will end up allowing cables to clutter outside the all-in-one PC, defying its actual purpose. I think overall it is a decent idea, and the designer will think about getting the ports on the inside with cable cutouts to ensure decluttering.
Resident Evil legend Shinji Mikami's new studio, Unbound Inc., has been acquired by Shift Up, the company behind Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke. Unbound's unannounced games will be fully supported and distributed by South Korean publisher Shift Up, which is led by CEO Hyung-Tae Kim.
Mikami is an icon of Japanese horror as the director of Resident Evil, its 2002 remake and Resident Evil 4, as well as a founder of PlatinumGames and Tango Gameworks. Tango was responsible for The Evil Within series, Ghostwire Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush. Shift Up recently developed the hit action game Stellar Blade, with Kim as director.
Even with an adorably grotesque introduction video, it's unclear exactly what Unbound is working on at the moment, but the studio is targeting the global PC and console market. Its concepts involve plenty of monsters, as is tradition.
Consider even the surface-level possibilities here: The campy horror of Resident Evil blended with the melodramatic beauty of Stellar Blade. The frenzy of Hi-Fi Rush amped up by the anime stylings of Goddess of Victory: Nikke. The Evil Within III, but make it sexy. These are jokes, but the sentiment remains — this partnership makes a lot of sense and it'll be exciting to see what shakes out.
“We believe we can respect each other as creators and make games together,” Mikami said in a Shift Up blog post about the deal. “And I think with Hyung-Tae, we can even enjoy the hard parts.... Seeing my own vision and ideals come into focus like this, and finding someone whose direction aligns so closely is something I’ve rarely experienced before in my career. I hope we keep building together for a long time.”
It's also heartening to see stability for Mikami's new studio. His previous team, Tango Gameworks, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021, and Mikami left in 2023 after the release of Hi-Fi Rush. Microsoft shuttered Tango in 2024 during a period of mass game industry layoffs, and its remaining team was eventually sold to Krafton. Mikami has been quietly building up his own studio since 2022.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mr-resident-evil-signs-a-deal-with-mr-stellar-blade-180158872.html?src=rss
In January, a Finnish-Estonian startup proclaimed it had developed a truly solid state battery, a holy grail for the technology industry. Donut Lab's cell wasn’t just solid state, however. It claimed it was made from cheap and easily available materials, would charge to full in a few minutes and last for hundreds of years. If real, such a device would change the face of the world, which is why plenty of people don’t think it is. And, as the company makes more effort to demonstrate it is telling the truth, the more holes people are finding to poke their fingers into. So, what the hell is going on with Donut Lab's battery? After many weeks of research, I’m throwing my hands in the air, tired of the endless dog and pony show the company is putting on.
Solid state batteries
Conventional batteries have improved a lot in the last few decades but remain imperfect in many ways. Cells found in electronics and EVs commonly use liquid or gel polymer as an electrolyte. These electrolytes are the cause of thermal runaway, where the heat of a battery increases exponentially, and can become a primary cause of battery failure and fire. Plus, they’re pretty fussy, requiring a consistent temperature for peak performance and to be treated pretty delicately. It’s why the industry has raced to develop a solid state battery that eliminates the liquid or gel polymer.
Because of their higher energy density, solid state batteries should be lighter and smaller per watt than conventional batteries. These benefits would be enjoyed widely but are vital for an EV where weight and size dictate so much of how it operates. Solid state batteries are at far less risk of thermal runaway, and should work in a much wider temperature window. Now, we are already seeing plenty of semi-solid batteries coming into the market, with fully-solid cells expected in the near future. Chinese battery giant CATL told BatteriesNews at the end of 2025 that its first small-scale production of solid state batteries is anticipated to begin in 2027. However, those first production runs are likely to be limited rather than global rollouts.
Donut Lab
Enter Donut Lab. The startup is a subsidiary of Finnish motorcycle maker Verge Motorcycles, famous for its Tron-style hubless (in-wheel) rear-wheel motor. Verge says it has built the “world’s most powerful electric motor family,” and that it made “all the components needed to build an electric vehicle.” Verge’s motors have since been incorporated into Longbow Motors’ recently announced Speedster EV.
At CES 2026, Donut Lab announced it had built the world’s “first full all-solid-state battery.” It said this wasn’t just a prototype, but was “ready to power up production vehicles now.” In a glossy promotional video, the company said it had solved the issues the whole industry had been working to solve for decades. There was nothing but upside, with none of the trade-offs its competitors had been forced to make while developing their own solid state batteries. And, it was ready to be incorporated into EVs starting today. Verge Motorcycles announced it would add the battery into its TS Pro, with shipments expected to begin Q1 2026.
Donut Lab's battery
The company’s extensive list of claims begins by saying the cell has an energy density of 400Wh per kilogram, roughly twice the energy density of the best lithium ion battery on the market. Right now, you should expect to get around 1,000 charge and discharge cycles out of any half-decent battery. Donut Lab is promising its cell will last for a whopping 100,000 cycles, even if you’re fast-charging the cell. The company promises users will be able to reach an 80 percent charge from zero in around five minutes, and get to full in under six. Donut said the cell offers a “clay-like” freedom of design, adapting to the specific needs of a specific product, rather than the other way around.
Naturally, pumping all of that power into such a small cell will mean it’ll need a lot of babying, right? Not according to Donut Lab, which says its battery will operate in temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) or as hot as 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit). And, to top it off, it’s made from common, easily-available and cheap materials which are “geopolitically safe,” rather than from rare-earth minerals sometimes held by rival nations. All of that means the cell will be cheaper to produce than the equivalent lithium ion cell and, best of all, Donut said the battery is ready for scaled production.
A battery that promised some of these features would be world-changing; one offering all of them would be world-shattering. It would upend supply chains, shift the global balance of power, potentially eliminate reliance on so-called rare earth minerals and supercharge EV adoption. But Donut Lab offered no proof for its claims, no hint as to what its process was based upon, and no sign it had the manufacturing capacity to deliver on its promises. Naturally, a lot of people just didn’t believe what they were seeing and hearing, and called BS.
People are suspicious
Yang Hongqin, CEO of Chinese battery maker Svolt, was quoted by CarNewsChina as saying “any person with even a basic understanding of the technology would think it’s a scam.” Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reported that CATL’s venture capital head Ulderico Ulissi described the matter as “clearly fake.” That comment prompted Donut CEO Marko Lehtimäki to respond on LinkedIn, saying that Ulissi would “regret the arrogance.” Tom Bötticher, CEO of battery startup Litona, posted on LinkedIn his belief Donut’s technology is actually tied to a company Donut invested in, Nordic Nano. Bötticher found a pitch deck, which is no longer available (but is here at the Internet Archive) which described Nordic’s energy storage technology as a supercapacitor.
Some have pointed out that Lehtimäki has a track record of making strong claims about his products. On May 15, 2025, he announced an AI startup, ASILAB, and said in a similarly glossy launch video that his team had created a “synthetic counterpart” to the human brain. Its first product, ASINOID, Lehtimäki said, is a “dynamic self-developing organism designed to grow in capability and in consciousness.” The company said it would open up access to ASINOID, but I’ve been unable to find any evidence that any such access has been granted. ASILAB has not responded to our request for comment.
In response to the minor social media backlash, Donut Lab went on the offensive. It launched the website IDonutBelieve.com promising a weekly drop of so-called evidence to support its claims. In a polished video introduction, Lehtimäki said the criticism comes from parties with vested interests, such as competitors. He addressed the above attack lines directly, saying people have been assembling theories from scraps of online data to create an untrue picture. He also denied claims the battery was a supercapacitor.
In the same video, Lehtimäki said the media has amplified “so-called experts” from the battery industry, taking their opinions at “face value.” Naturally, rival researchers who would stand to gain by taking down a potential challenger have a natural desire to rubbish Donut’s claims. But because many of them are credentialled experts in the field, their authority was elevated above his own.
Crucially, Lehtimäki said Donut didn’t publish validation tests at the time of announcement as it would have been similarly dismissed by those same biased voices. By holding the proof back, he said it forced Donut’s competitors to essentially show their hand, making it easier to refute them. To do so, Donut engaged VTT Finland, a government-owned research organization which offers testing services to third parties. VTT has conducted specific tests on cells supplied by Donut, the results of which the company has released piecemeal over several weeks.
It’s important to note that VTT’s reports don't make any statements which could be seen to support Donut’s claims. For instance, it says it was asked to “conduct independent charging performance tests on the energy storage devices supplied by the customer, which the customer identified as solid-state battery cells.”
The tests
Donut Lab published a test for five weeks, each one each one designed to show off one key feature of the battery. Test One saw VTT fast charge a cell beyond the limit of a regular battery, after which it still had close to 100% of its charge available for use. In Test Two, VTT charged the cell to full, and then discharged it in high-temperature environments. Once that was done, the cell was charged again at a normal temperature, but researchers noted that the pouch lost vacuum. Donut Lab later said the vacuum loss was caused by the packaging materials not being able to withstand the temperature, rather than an issue with the battery itself.
A VTT spokesperson told me “during the final stage of manufacturing, all gases are removed from the cell, and the cell is sealed tightly under vacuum conditions. The cell feels firm. If the cell loses its vacuum, it usually becomes slightly soft and swollen.” Essentially, if a battery loses its vacuum, it means it’s started swelling, which is visible in the photos from the report. Swelling is fatal to a traditional lithium ion battery and, potentially, the device it’s connected to.
Test Three purported to disprove the idea that Donut was secretly selling a supercapacitor, so VTT charged the cell to full and let it sit idle for 10 days. At the end of that time, the charge level of the battery appeared to hold steady, with a small drop commonly seen in all batteries. Which appeared to confirm the cell was a battery, rather than a capacitor which may struggle to hold its charge over longer periods of time. Test Four was conducted by Donut Lab itself, taking a prototype of its battery in a Verge motorcycle to a fast charger. The cell had a rated capacity of 18kWh and it was charged from 9 percent to 80 percent — around 14.5kWh — in 12 minutes.
Test Five focused on the cell from Test Two which lost its vacuum, to prove it was not broken. VTT’s report says it cycled the broken cell 50 times (up to 90 percent of its full charge) to see what happened. VTT’s researchers said it was possible to cycle the cell, but that its capacity began to degrade after the first few, and by the end of the process, it had fallen to nearly half of its original figure. The cell itself had swelled, however, with VTT saying “the cell thickness had increased by 17 percent, and the cell pouch was firm.” Donut Lab boasted that while a lithium ion battery in this condition would likely explode, its own cell still worked.
When contacted, VTT said it did complete an assignment for Donut Lab but declined to make any specific comment on confidential client assignments.
On March 31, Verge Motorcycles posted a video claiming the TS Pro Gen 2, the first to carry Donut’s solid state battery, was ready to ship. Given March 31 is the last day of Q1, it’s the latest possible day the company could announce this and say it has honored its promise. The accompanying write-up said the bike will ship with either a standard-range 20kWh battery with a range of 350km (217 miles) or a long-range 33kWh battery that should run for 600km (372 miles).
April 1
Then, on April 1, the company posted a video beginning with a fakeout scene of Lehtimäki admitting the whole thing had been a scam. One hard cut later, and the clip pivots into a Q&A, with an off-screen interviewer asking why anyone would believe Lehtimäki on April Fools Day. He dryly responded that people don’t believe him the rest of the time, but that the ambiguity provided by the occasion was a benefit. He would be able to speak more freely with less fear of censure, or so he claimed.
Lehtimäki said the series of I Donut Believe tests already published were another part of his “3D chess” strategy to get battery rivals to show their hand. And that the tests undertaken by VTT were on a first-generation battery while the company was already working on the second. He did concede that the claims around cycle life were based on estimates, and that if they wanted to prove it, they would have needed to start testing a decade or more ago. But he batted away questions about energy density, weight and size, saying you “wouldn’t ask a woman her age, and you never ask a battery its weight.” He added those questions would be answered in future, in more episodes of the I Donut Believe “complete multimedia experience.”
Donut Lab (YouTube)
Consequently, the weekly video series will continue until the full details of the first generation battery have been revealed. Lehtimäki then teased that this cell would be shipping, and the videos will shift focus to the second-generation cell with far better specs. But producing the I Donut Believe series — which, it’s worth mentioning is a marketing function of the company trying to sell us a new product — was costly, and had run over budget, which has led the company to open its own merch store, including $70 t-shirts and $141 hoodies.
If you’re already facing credible accusations of perpetuating a scam, and your big reveal is to double down on misdirection, it’s not a good look. Lehtimäki ended the video by talking about how much better Donut Lab’s second-generation battery was, with a staged outtake showing a notepad listing the specs for a third-generation battery with 1,000 Wh/kg energy density, 100C charge speed and durability for a million cycles — due to be announced at a future CES.
Analysis
The release of these tests has seen interested parts of the internet engage in a near-Zapruder level of interrogation. People have pored over every facet of the reports and videos trying to work out what exactly is inside Donut Lab’s battery. A number of prominent YouTubers have produced deep dives on the matter, each one claiming the cell is real, or not. There are countless Reddit threads where people are picking apart the voltage graphs and claims in the reports. And it seems every week there is a new revelation about what Donut’s technology is and where it came from. Plenty of people online are chasing down threads tied to energy technology companies like Holyvolt and CT-Coating, or examining the charge graphs against a nickel manganese cobalt cell. I’ll spare you the details (for now). Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti decried the results of the fifth test, saying the cell didn’t lose its vacuum. It quoted Finnish battery expert Juho Heiska, who said the company has just used a traditional cell that is sufficiently hardy to withstand this abuse in the short term.
Donut Labs (YouTube)
Even to a non-expert, there’s clearly a gap between what Donut promised and what its tests are showing. For instance, the company said it would be able to fast charge a Verge TS to full in less than 10 minutes. But, in Test Four, it took 12 minutes to get from 9 percent to 80 percent — not a bad charging time, but certainly not as swift as the company pledged. That said, if we take the company’s claims at face value, then being able to fast charge a battery at that sort of speed with just air cooling is noteworthy. At least, it will be if you can do that regularly, and one or two trips to the charger don’t leave you with what Reddit likes to call a Spicy Pillow afterward.
Unfortunately, it’s been difficult to find battery researchers willing to go on the record about Donut Lab. I sought out experts in academia who were not tied to industry backing, and so wouldn’t be accused of having a vested interest in the matter. But all of them refused to go on the record. More than one I contacted said they were well aware of the saga, and had plenty of feelings about the matter. But they were unwilling to expose themselves to the potentially intensive social media scrutiny that comes from weighing in.
I’m Donut skeptical
Personally, I’ve been suspicious of how Donut Lab has gone about demonstrating its technology. After all, if you were actually confident about your product and its technology, you would surely be able to share basic information about it. Table stakes stuff, like the weight and size of the battery cell you handed over for testing. As ElectronicDesign notes, data like that would help us all see if its energy density claims hold water. Instead, the company has engaged in an ornate kabuki which only serves to further undermine its case. You can go a long way on the back of very little trust, but the grander the promises get and the less eager you are to share evidence, the faster that trust evaporates.
And, you know how someone spends a lot of time talking around something, so as to not be caught in a deliberate lie? Donut Lab’s videos can feel a lot like that, since there are so many things it’s intentionally not making clear. Rather than taking the chance to offer even a small amount of substantive evidence to support its initial claims, it has instead moved the goalposts. So, rather than talking about the efficacy of its first-generation product, it’s dangling the second and third in front of us to hopefully distract us.
Look, I want to be even-handed, and give the company the fairest shake that I can, and obviously if the cell can deliver on its promises, I’ll be overjoyed. But we’ve all seen scams before, and until Donut Lab starts offering up a lot more data, it hasn’t earned anything close to the benefit of the doubt.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/whats-going-on-with-donut-lab-173007121.html?src=rss
Sony just revealed a trio of PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for April and it's a pretty stacked lineup. These will all be playable on April 7 for subscribers on any tier. After downloading, the games will stay in a player's library as long as the subscription remains active.
First up, there's Lords of the Fallen for PS5. This is a sequel to 2014's Lords of the Fallen, despite having the same exact name. The 2023 release boasts a much larger world than the original, but similar fast-paced gameplay. It's an action RPG with nine character classes and hundreds of weapons to choose from. There's also a dual-world mechanic that's (sort of) like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It was generally well-reviewed and a success with players. There's another sequel scheduled for release later this year.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered is a collection of ports first released back in 2024. These updated versions of old-school PlayStation classics boast updated graphics, with the ability to instantly switch back to the retro polygonal look. There's a new challenge mode that offers players the ability to replay levels with customized modifiers to complete achievements. This is a great entry point for Lara Croft fans who never got to play the originals. The collection is available on PS4 and PS5.
Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream is a live-service action RPG for PS5 owners with a heavy emphasis on co-op gameplay. Around 20 players can adventure simultaneously in teams of five parties scattered throughout the world. The story is a bit of a mess, pulling in characters from across the franchise's many entries. This approach sort of reminds me of something like Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, which uses narrative trickery to allow characters from multiple games to team up.
As always, the introduction of new titles means that some old games have gotta go. PS Plus members have until April 6 to download March's lineup, which include PGA Tour 2K25, Monster Hunter Rise, Slime Rancher 2 and The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/aprils-ps-plus-monthly-games-include-lords-of-the-fallen-and-a-trio-of-remastered-tomb-raider-ports-172105756.html?src=rss
We first saw the Mova AtomForm Palette 300 at CES earlier this year, where its unusual approach to multicolor 3D printing immediately stood out. Seeing it again at AtomForm’s San Jose demo event left an even stronger impression, especially in a category where most launches tend to focus on speed, build volume, or software polish rather than rethinking the workflow itself.
That is what makes the Palette 300 so interesting. Instead of treating multicolor printing as a feature layered onto a conventional FDM machine, Mova seems to have built this printer around one of the biggest frustrations in the category. For anyone who has spent time with multicolor 3D printers, that pain point will feel very familiar.
Switching between colors or materials usually means purging filament over and over again before printing can continue. It is messy, wasteful, and often slow, with purge towers piling up next to the final print. The end result can still look impressive, but the process behind it rarely feels elegant.
The Palette 300 is designed to tackle that problem in a more inventive way. Its headline feature is what Mova describes as the world’s first automatic 12-nozzle swapping system. Rather than constantly purging filament every time a color or material change is needed, the printer swaps to another nozzle that is already loaded. In theory, that means cleaner transitions, less wasted material, and a much smoother path to complex multicolor prints.
At the San Jose demo, that concept felt like the real story behind the machine. Plenty of 3D printers promise better quality or faster output, but the Palette 300 seems more focused on improving the actual experience of multicolor printing. That gives it a different kind of appeal. It is not just trying to be faster or bigger. It is trying to make a frustrating process feel smarter.
The rest of the hardware helps support that pitch. AtomForm says the system can support up to 12 materials and up to 36 colors in one print setup, which is far beyond what most consumer-level multicolor machines currently offer. The company also says nozzle swaps can be up to 50 percent faster and filament waste can be reduced by up to 90 percent compared with traditional purge-based systems. If those claims hold up in broader real-world use, the Palette 300 could become a very compelling option for makers, designers, and small creative studios that want more ambitious color work without the usual trade-offs.
There is also a serious performance story here. The Palette 300 is equipped with FOC step-servo motors and is rated for speeds up to 800 mm/s, with acceleration up to 25,000 mm/s². That puts it firmly in the high-speed conversation, but the machine is not just about raw pace. AtomForm is also emphasizing precision, thanks to a smart positioning system that identifies nozzle attributes and compensates for microscopic alignment variations in milliseconds. On paper, that should help maintain consistency even in more demanding prints.
Another detail that stands out is the RFD-6 filament management system, which combines drying, storage, and feeding in one setup. Its dual-zone design allows one section to dry filament while another feeds material into the printer. That may sound like a smaller feature compared with the nozzle-swapping system, but it speaks to the broader thinking behind the machine. The goal seems to be reducing friction across the entire printing workflow, not just solving one isolated issue.
So, is this the best multicolor 3D printer? Right now, it is probably more accurate to say it is one of the most intriguing. The Palette 300 brings a genuinely fresh idea to a space that can often feel iterative, and that alone makes it worth paying attention to. Its approach to nozzle swapping could prove to be a meaningful step forward for multicolor FDM printing, especially if it delivers on waste reduction and speed in everyday use.
After seeing it first at CES and then again in San Jose, my takeaway is that the MOVA AtomForm Palette 300 has the potential to be a standout machine for anyone who cares about multicolor printing. It is ambitious, technically interesting, and clearly designed around a real user pain point. Whether it becomes the best multicolor 3D printer will depend on long-term testing, software reliability, and how well the full system performs outside the demo environment. Even so, it already feels like one of the most promising new entries in the category.
Here's a feature that would've been a lot more useful before this week. Amid recent hours-long airport lines, United is adding security wait times to its app. However, the feature arrives a few days after security lines began returning to normal. Hey, at least it'll be there for the next shutdown.
At launch, the feature is only available for United's hub airports. That includes Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Houston, LAX, Newark, San Francisco and Washington Dulles. Passengers traveling through any of those locations will find the feature in the Travel section of the United app. It will display separate wait times for standard security and TSA PreCheck lines.
However, timing is everything, and that's where United comes up short. This week, airport security lines finally returned to normal as TSA workers began receiving their first paychecks in over a month. Go figure: That led to better attendance and, therefore, short wait times.
Over 60,000 TSA employees had been working without pay since the partial government shutdown began in February. The DHS shutdown continues, but President Trump belatedly ordered the agency on Friday to begin processing back pay for TSA employees. When asked why he hadn't signed the order much earlier, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt cited an "existential crisis" at airports. (Translation: It contributed to an existential polling crisis for the president.)
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-united-app-adds-airport-security-wait-times-after-lines-return-to-normal-164315823.html?src=rss
Most furniture does exactly what it promises. A shelf holds things. A table provides surface. A sideboard stores what you don’t want to look at. Deniz Aktay, a Stuttgart-based designer, seems to find that level of literalism a little boring.
His latest piece, the “Slot” Sideboard, is a sleek metal sideboard that does something I haven’t seen before: it swallows your books whole. Or nearly whole. The top surface features book-shaped cutouts, slots sized just right to accept a few volumes that then slide partway through, hovering suspended between the top of the sideboard and the interior shelf below. Spines tilted at an angle, partially disappearing into the furniture itself, the books aren’t hidden. They’re put on stage.
The visual effect is genuinely arresting. From straight on, it looks like the books are simply leaning through the sideboard, defying the expected logic of furniture. The steel body, finished in a dusty blue-grey, stays completely clean and minimal, which only makes the books pop harder. They become the focal point. The design knows this and leans into it.
Aktay trained as an architect at the University of Stuttgart before founding his own design studio, DEZIN, in 2020. You can feel the architectural thinking in the Slot Sideboard. The slots aren’t decoration. They are a structural decision that reorganizes how the object functions. By cutting through the plane of the top surface, Aktay collapses the boundary between storage and display. The books don’t live behind a door or on top of the piece as an afterthought. They are literally built into its architecture.
This matters more than it might seem. One of the persistent design problems with books is exactly this tension: do you store them, or do you show them? Traditional bookshelves say store, with display as a side effect. Coffee table styling says display, with access sacrificed. The Slot Sideboard says both, simultaneously, and solves the problem by making books a structural element rather than an accessory.
I appreciate that the piece doesn’t shout about this. It’s not a novelty object with an obvious gimmick printed on the side. At rest, without books, the sideboard is clean and almost brutally minimal, the stepped slot openings looking like an architectural section drawing. Add a few books, and the whole thing shifts register. It becomes warmer, more personal, more lived-in. That kind of dual identity in a single object is hard to pull off.
Aktay’s philosophy centers on finding the right balance between proportion, material, and functionality. The Slot Sideboard is a good example of that balance working. The proportions are long and low, giving the piece the kind of horizontal calm that makes a room feel settled. The metal construction is precise without feeling cold. And the function is genuinely expanded by the design, not just dressed up.
The one thing I keep thinking about is the practical question of how many books actually fit, and at what angle. The promotional images show a small cluster, maybe three or four volumes, tilted together in the slot. It reads beautifully. Whether it reads the same with a thicker, heavier hardback, or with books of wildly different heights, is a detail that a real-world test would answer. That’s not a criticism so much as natural curiosity. Good design always makes you want to live with it.
The broader trend here is worth noting. Furniture design has been slowly, quietly moving away from pure storage and toward what you might call narrative objects, pieces that make a room tell a story. The Slot Sideboard fits into that movement while having its own specific logic. It isn’t just pretty. It has a point of view about what books are for and where they belong. They belong where people can see them. Where they’re part of the room. Not filed away. Whether or not Aktay set out to make a statement about books and visibility, the piece makes one. And it makes it beautifully.
SpaceX has reportedly taken the step many onlookers have long expected: filing paperwork to hold an initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market and become a publicly traded company. Rumors had long pointed toward the IPO taking place by July.
The company filed draft IPO registration paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission confidentially, according to Bloomberg. As such, the public won’t get a chance to closely scrutinize SpaceX’s finances just yet. Taking the confidential approach means SpaceX can obtain feedback from the SEC before making the details public and announcing key factors like the price range and number of shares it’s planning to sell at the outset.
SpaceX is said to have designs on holding the largest IPO in history. It’s reportedly looking to raise $75 billion in the offering, which would far exceed the current record held by Saudi Aramco, which pulled in $24 billion in its 2019 IPO.
It’s expected that SpaceX will seek an IPO valuation of $1.75 trillion. When the Elon Musk-led business swallowed up the Elon Musk-led xAI earlier this year (which means SpaceX is now the parent of X and Grok), the entire company was valued at $1.25 trillion.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/spacex-has-reportedly-filed-for-the-biggest-ipo-in-history-154547537.html?src=rss
