You can try Monster Hunter Wilds next week, months before its February 28 release date

One of the biggest games on the not-too-distant horizon is Monster Hunter Wilds. While the next edition of Capcom's blockbuster series has a February 28 release date, you'll be able to get a taste of it in an open beta test that's taking place next week.

PlayStation Plus subscribers will be the first to check out this beta starting at 11PM ET on Monday, October 28. That test will run for 48 hours. Capcom will then open up the servers to all PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC players on Halloween, also at 11PM. The open beta will end at 9:59PM on Sunday. November 3.

You can create both your character and your cat-like Palico companion in the beta. Along with being able to transfer your character creation data over to the full game, you'll get a virtual pendant and a few other goodies for taking part in the beta. The beta's story trial includes two hunts, one with basic tutorials and the other offering the chance to explore the environment on a Seikret animal mount. You can take on both quests in online multiplayer (Monster Hunter Wilds supports cross-play) or get some assistance from computer-controlled support hunters.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/you-can-try-monster-hunter-wilds-next-week-months-before-its-february-28-release-date-154421037.html?src=rss

The CES 2025 keynote speech will take place at Sphere with Delta CEO Ed Bastian

Delta Air Lines is no stranger to CES, one of the largest tech events in the world. Today, the company announced that Delta CEO Ed Bastian will be a keynote speaker at CES 2025, which takes place from January 7 to January 10, 2025, in Las Vegas. Most notable is where this is happening — Bastian’s keynote will take place at Sphere, the immersive entertainment venue that has so far played host to acts like U2, The Eagles and Phish as well as a film by director Darren Aranofsky.

Bastian said that Delta intends to leverage three next-gen technologies at the Sphere venue in Las Vegas. The first is Exosphere, the world’s biggest LED screen, while the second is an interior display plane, an LED screen with the world’s highest resolution. The third technology is Sphere Immersive Sound, the most advanced of its kind and powered by HOLOPLOT. All three are Sphere technologies designed to “connect with key audiences, leveraging next-generation technologies to boldly deliver a one-of-a-kind experience and amplify their message,” as President and COO of Sphere Jennifer Koester said.

This will be Delta’s third CES appearance, following appearances in 2020 and 2023. The 2020 event showed off some intriguing new technology like “opt-in Parallel Reality displays” that can show custom messages to multiple travelers simultaneously. The Delta keynote speech is scheduled for 5PM PT/8AM ET on January 7. Those who wish to hear it in person must register for CES 2025, and the keynote also has a separate ticket.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-ces-2025-keynote-speech-will-take-place-at-sphere-with-delta-ceo-ed-bastian-154024275.html?src=rss

Modular cat furniture system helps save space in small households

People these days are adopting more and more pets, sometimes more than their homes can accommodate. Dogs might have no problems staying in outdoor doghouses, but domesticated felines tend to prefer indoor accommodations. Of course, there’s no shortage of furniture for cats, ranging from litter boxes to scratching posts to climbing trees. The problem is that the majority of them are all designed to take up space on the floor, which leaves less room for human furniture. Just like how humans realize they have plenty of unused vertical space, this cat furniture concept grows upward rather than sideways to let you comfortably accommodate one or more furry felines, even if you don’t have much space for yourself either.

Designer: Arthur Zheng (Kuang Hsu)

Vertical furniture is definitely becoming a trend as we realize how precious little floor space we actually have. Unfortunately, that’s only part of the solution, because just like floor space, the vertical situation in our homes can change as well. Unlike regular furniture, however, vertical designs often have a fixed height and configuration, preventing us from easily rearranging these pieces of furniture.

FROHZ Cat Castle is a design concept that solves both those problems with a simple modular design. The furniture system is made of five pieces that can be freely rearranged as needed. Of course, they have certain limits given their fixed shapes, but you can, in theory, combine them in many ways without permanently committing to a particular configuration.

The largest part of the modular furniture system is the cat litter box, a tall cabinet with two doors at the top, one of which has an oval opening for the cat to crawl into. A “Play/Rest” box has a slightly similar design, except it’s a simpler and smaller box designed only to be a resting spot. An even simpler version of this is an arched structure with openings at the front and the back. There’s also an L-shaped scratching “post” and a simple storage box to keep kitty toys and accessories.

Arranging these pieces is as simple as stacking them on top of each other or putting them side by side, with some connectors to keep them from easily falling apart from the cat’s movement. The open-ended design even allows for more than one piece of each type to accommodate more than one feline in the house. And should the number of pets you own increase or decrease, you can quickly add or remove modules as needed. You might even be able to challenge yourself to come up with a creative design, one that would truly make your cat feel like a king or queen in its own castle.

The post Modular cat furniture system helps save space in small households first appeared on Yanko Design.

Dolby Atmos is making its live theater debut

Dolby Atmos has integrated into spaces like movies, home theaters, and headphones over the decade plus since it launched in 2012. Now, its entering the live theater space for the first time since thanks to Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company’s take on King Lear. It has been used for live events before, however, like concerts at the Dolby Live in the Park MGM Las Vegas. 

Kenneth Branagh, who stars in the production, has previously used Dolby Atmos as a director of films like Belfast. "Kenneth Branagh’s brilliant implementations of Dolby Atmos in film, like for his Oscar-winning Belfast, demonstrate the power artists have to immerse audiences in ways never before possible," said Jed Harmsen, Head of Cinema and Group Entertainment at Dolby. He added that the "collaboration with Dolby will break ground in bringing Dolby Atmos to the world of stage performance and use intentional sound design to plunge audiences into the play’s universe."

King Lear will run for nearly two months from October 26 to December 15 at The Shed’s Griffin Theater in New York City. Dolby Atmos will create audio effects and music around the audience and above the actors. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/dolby-atmos-is-making-its-live-theater-debut-144150814.html?src=rss

Severance season two teaser trailer shows the world’s worst return-to-office policy in action

After a lengthy break due in part to last year's Hollywood strikes, the hit Apple TV+ sci-fi/thriller series Severance is returning for its second season on January 17. The streaming service has released a teaser trailer that doesn't give much away, but has just enough in the way of intrigue and confusion to keep fans on their toes.

(Light spoilers for season one are ahead.)

Severance, you may recall, focuses on a group of people who undertook a brain procedure to entirely separate their work and non-work memories. Four workers at Lumon Industries (with their office selves known as "innies") eventually carry out an escape plan of sorts. They find a way to blur the lines between the two sets of memories, with three of them learning some world-shattering revelations about their "outie" lives in the first season finale.

Apple says that, in the second season, "Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe." The teaser shows a panicked Mark S. (Adam Scott) back at Lumon Industries, running through the building's oppressive corridors. In similar fashion to the previous teaser, sound bites from the first season are included alongside some eyebrow-raising visuals, including a troubling watermelon version of Irving's (John Turturro) head.

Mark halts in his tracks when he reaches an office area and encounters three new co-workers instead of his regular cohorts. A moment later, supervisor Milchick (Tramell Tillman) arrives to welcome the formerly displaced worker back while carrying a bunch of balloons with Mark’s face on them. You might think of it as the planet's most terrifying return-to-work policy being enacted.

The teaser works well as a first proper look at the new season. While the first season’s excellent finale gave the innies and the audience some much-needed and truly shocking answers, the clip raises some major new questions. It’s likely that we’ll need to endure plenty of tension in the 10-episode second season before getting more clarity as to what’s going on at this bizarro workplace.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/severance-season-two-teaser-trailer-shows-the-worlds-worst-return-to-office-policy-in-action-142930296.html?src=rss

Building tiles made from oyster shells, fish bones can be used for coastal structures

The world has a lot of waste that is discarded in landfills or worse, in natural environments that cause damage to the ecosystem. Fortunately, there are a lot of people who are exploring how to turn these seemingly useless trash into materials for products so that they can be recycled. One of the recent winners of the Red Dot Award turned her focus on oyster shells and fish bones.

Designer: Yingfei Zhuo

EcoShell is a sustainable building material that is made from abundant marine waste and is also visually pleasing. The durable exterior tiles are made from powdered oyster shells with binders extracted from fish bones serving as the adhesives, which makes it biodegradable too. The blend of these two materials make sure that the tiles are durable and can last for a long time.

Since oyster shells are salt corrosion resistant, this material can be used in coastal areas since they can last longer compared to other building materials. The tiles look like concrete but are actually lighter than that. It also has a user-friendly hanging system so that you can easily install it without using things like nails. The texture and color can also be customized to match the structure where it will be used.

This is an interesting way to use these usually discarded materials by the seafood industry. Millions of tons of the shells in particular are thrown away which actually pose risks to the environment especially if they are untreated in landfills or oceans. The fact that you can use them in buildings near oceans makes it part of the sustainable cycle.

The post Building tiles made from oyster shells, fish bones can be used for coastal structures first appeared on Yanko Design.

Adobe Fresco’s previously paywalled features are now free for everyone

Adobe Fresco is Adobe’s painting app, designed to compete with apps like Clip Studio Paint and Procreate. It launched almost five years ago for $10 a year, which was reasonable, but Procreate’s one-time $13 purchase came with many powerful features, which made it the go-to option for artists who wanted to draw on iPad. But now, Adobe is making Fresco completely free to use, letting everyone use functions that used to be locked behind a paywall.

By looking at this Adobe Fresco FAQs page, we can see what the paid plans back then offered. Fresco did have a free plan from the beginning, but those who didn’t pay are missing out on more than a thousand brushes, premium shapes and the ability to import custom brushes. Now, all of these features are free to use for all users.

For the uninitiated, Adobe Fresco is available on iPhone, iPad, Windows PCs and Windows tablets. Not every model will run the app, but you can check this list to see if your device is compatible. Most recent devices should be able to use it, though — support goes all the way back to iPhones and iPads Apple released nearly 10 years ago, including the iPhone 6 and every iPad Pro.

By making Fresco completely free, Adobe may be attempting to fight against the competition now that those apps cost more money. Fresco has unique functions like motion presets to instantly animate drawings and artwork mirroring, as mentioned by The Verge. Now that you can download it for free, those interested can grab it from the Apple App Store or the Adobe website.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/adobe-frescos-previously-paywalled-features-are-now-free-for-everyone-141956420.html?src=rss

2025 Audi RS 6 Avant GT: Unleashed! (First Look)

2025 Audi RS 6 Avant GT

The 2025 Audi RS 6 Avant GT is a remarkable blend of performance and exclusivity, setting new standards in the automotive world. Limited to just 85 units in the U.S., this vehicle is a tribute to Audi’s racing heritage, drawing inspiration from the iconic Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO. The RS 6 Avant GT is […]

The post 2025 Audi RS 6 Avant GT: Unleashed! (First Look) appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.

Eero launches a weatherproof extender for outdoor Wi-Fi

Some folks have properties too vast to be covered by the fanciest of mesh Wi-Fi sets, especially if they’ve got vast tracts of land. It’s an issue Eero is looking to tackle with the Outdoor 7, an add-on to its Eero 7 series of mesh Wi-Fi nodes that’s built to live outdoors. The hardware is IP66 rated and the company says it’ll keep working in temperatures ranging from -40F to 130F, no matter the weather.

With a range of 15,000 square feet, Eero says the Outdoor 7 should suit everyone from cafe owners with patios to land owners looking to keep their security cameras connected. Each unit supports Wi-Fi 7 with speeds up to 2.1Gbps, works with Thread, Zigbee and Matter devices, and has a 2.5Gb ethernet port with support for Power Over Ethernet. You’ll also get a mounting kit that’ll help you screw it into stucco, vinyl, wood or fiber cement walls.

The Eero Outdoor 7 will be available to buy in the US on November 13 for $350, or for $400 when bundled with the company’s 30W outdoor Power Over Ethernet adapter.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/eero-launches-a-weatherproof-extender-for-outdoor-wi-fi-140010463.html?src=rss

Amazon’s God of War series hires Ronald D. Moore as showrunner

A few days ago, Deadline reported that several key personnel behind Amazon's upcoming live-action God of War adaptation have left the project. But the series' production will still push through, and according to the publication, Ronald D. Moore will now serve as its showrunner, as well as one of its writers and executive producers. He's replacing original showrunner Rafe Judkins (Wheel of Time) and EPs Mark Fergus and Hawk Otsby (Children of Men and Iron Man). It'll be Moore's first project with Sony TV after returning to the studio with a multi-year deal in June. 

Moore is known for developing and producing the Battlestar Galactica reboot and for writing dozens of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine episodes. His writing credits also include several Star Trek movies, Mission Impossible II, and Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams for Amazon. He worked with the studio for a decade, developing shows that include Outlander for Starz and For All Mankind for Apple TV+, before departing in 2020. 

Judkins, Ferus and Otsby had already written multiple scripts for the show, but Amazon reportedly wanted to move in a different creative direction. Deadline previously reported that in addition to hiring someone new to lead the production, Amazon was also looking to put a new writers' room together. Several EPs from Santa Monica Studio (the game's developer) and PlayStation Production who had been involved from the start are still with the project. 

The God of War series will be based on 2018 game that's inspired by Norse mythology. It will focus on Kratos, as he embarks on a journey with his son to spread the ashes of his late wife from the highest peak. They battled gods, monsters and other entities before they reached their destination, and they unearthed secrets about each other and the realm they live in along the way. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/amazons-god-of-war-series-hires-ronald-d-moore-as-showrunner-133004763.html?src=rss