Dubbed the Eden Tower, this conceptual structure was created by the design studio Oxman. Oxman has come up with a new system called “ecological programming” which is designed to enhance and promote green architecture. The studio utilized the system to create this impressive skyscraper with several planted platforms. The plan was developed in the studio’s newly opened Foster + Partners-designed lab in Manhattan. The plans and models of the skyscraper showcase a bunch of circular forms stacked on top of each other, with a central element offering support to some of the levels, while other levels are suspended from different columns.
“We are figuring out how to create master plans, building layouts, and building forms that increase biodiversity and resilience and ecological thriving,” said Oxman. “And we have devised a new approach for this called ecological programming.”
Oxman founder Neri Oxman states that the skyscraper is a demonstration of the “ecological programming” technique. This technique employs computation to build layouts that take into consideration different factors such as wind, sunlight, and contamination. By doing so, they create structures that look after the ecosystem and do not adversely affect the environment, and the cities they’re located in. The buildings elevate biodiversity and even improve the urban heat. This is quite an exciting feat since AI was utilized to design “building forms that increase biodiversity”.
The different levels of the skyscraper will feature diverse landscapes and topography. Few of the levels will be open air, while others will be enclosed glass spaces created for human habitation. At the moment, Oxman is putting together and collecting data that will be used in these programs. This data is collected via “capsules” in the on-site wet lab, and they were created with the goal of increasing biodiversity.
“The capsules provide us with physical data that informs a computational design process at the center of Eden. Now, with conventional architectures throughout history, we’ve become very good at designing for humans, because we can talk to humans. We can understand what they need. Nonhumans are not like that. They don’t speak the same language as us, so we need to develop a data-driven approach that allows us to figure out the parameters that they need to thrive if we want to effectively design for them,” said Oxman studio head of ecology Nicolas Lee.
Square Enix’s multiplayer shooter Foamstars is moving to a free-to-play model. The four-player team multiplayer melee officially turned into a free game today on Sony’s PlayStation 4 and 5 meaning you also won’t need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play it, according to a posting on the studio’s support page.
If you purchased the game before Square Enix’s price change, the studio will send you a free “Legacy Gift” that includes 12 exclusive color-variant Bubble Beastie skins, an exclusive Slide Board design and a “Legacy” title. You’ll need to keep an eye on the game’s official website and X account to find out how to obtain your free “Legacy Gift.”
Foamstarsreleased earlier this year on Sony’s past and current gen consoles as a third-person multiplayer battle game. It’s basically a mix of the homebase building mechanic of Fortnite and Nintendo’s family friendly multiplayer shooter melee Splatoon. Teams use mounds of foam to build terrain for their shooters to traverse at high speeds or build higher vantage points to attack their enemies. You shouldn’t learn anymore about the game’s backstory and where the mounds of foam come from or at least not while you’re eating. Trust us on this one.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/foamstars-is-going-free-to-play-starting-today-231750186.html?src=rss
At one point or another, a bookworm has probably experienced this: you’ve just finished reading a very engrossing book and you want to start on another one but you’re too comfortable (or lazy) to get up from your chair. You wished another book was just within your arm’s reach. While you could always just have several books placed near where you are, you still wish you had a bookshelf near your favorite reading chair.
The Bibliochaise is one such piece of furniture that is a bookworm’s haven. It is a chair and a bookshelf in one as there are spaces around it that is designed specifically to hold your books. This way, you can spend hours just reading book after book without having to move an inch. It can also add to the visual styling of your living room and bedroom, further proof that you cannot live without your books.
The chair is able to hold around five linear meters of books if you fill in all the spaces in the arms and underneath your seat cushion. It comes in three different finishes to fit your aesthetic: glossy lacquered for the Glossy model, oak veneer and stained for the Plus variant, and open pore lacquered for the Home option. There’s also a Special Edition in open-pore oak essence that contains 24 or 18 carat gold leaf.
For the structure itself, you can choose from different colors. You can also match or contrast the color of your cushion which is available in superior quality full-grain leather. As a certified bookworm, it’s my dream to have a chair like this in my room, although that probably means less social life for me.
The past week hasn’t been the kindest to the electric vehicle industry. Now, it’s capped off with news that the EV startup Fisker is the subject of an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
TechCrunch reported that SEC officials sent several subpoenas to Fisker. The filing doesn’t specifically say what the subpoenas are asking for or looking into but it’s clear that the SEC has launched an investigation into the floundering EV maker that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June.
Fisker has been struggling to keep its head above water ever since last year’s disastrous rollout of its Ocean SUV that failed to score more than a few thousands sellers even though it produced well over 10,000 units. Following its Q4 earnings report last year that saw a gross margin loss of 35 percent, the car maker announced it would lay off 15 percent of its workforce the following March as it shifted to a direct-to-consumer sales strategy.
A Fisker spokesperson declined to comment on the matter to TechCrunch saying they could not “comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/fisker-faces-more-bad-news-as-the-sec-starts-investigating-its-business-practices-222504280.html?src=rss
Why is it so satisfying to toss, drop, throw and fling ragdoll characters down steps, out of windows and into oncoming traffic in games like Human Fall Flat? Ragdoll games just know how to scratch the lizard part of our brain that enjoys being the destructive force of mayhem while also meeting the moral center of our frontal lobe by not causing any real world harm (or felony charges).
Now you’ll be able to see the fruits of your destruction in a virtual environment as Human Fall Flat and its hapless, ham-handed hero head to the Meta Quest headsets and Steam VR on Halloween. Curve Games and No Brakes Games are also working on a version for the PSVR2 for a date yet to be announced.
Human Fall Flat is a three-dimensional physics platformer that has you control a floppy, ragdoll human named Bob. Just like the other games, you’ll see Bob in a third-person perspective as you use his sinewy limbs to guide him through a series of bizarre obstacles like a train that somehow derailed through the top floor of a Victorian style mansion, a dysfunctional power plant in dire need of a OSHA review and the inevitable ice world level.
Owners of a Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 or Meta Quest 3S headset can pre-order the game now on the Quest App Store for the discounted price of $9.99. The Steam port doesn’t have a price yet but you can add it to your wishlist.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/soon-youll-be-able-to-fling-around-the-klutzy-schlub-in-human-fall-flat-on-vr-212033104.html?src=rss
Juxtopposed’s redesign of the Panels app is a literal chef’s kiss if you love a good review. Just like MKBHD politely dismantles bad design, Juxtopposed brings the same calm demeanor to her review of the Panels app, while simultaneously redesigning literally every page to make the app MUCH better. Not only does the new app have a better UI, it’s more feature-packed, less buggy, more visually efficient, and even proposes a new way to monetize the app that makes it, well… less offensive.
MKBHD announced his first ever product last week – an app that gives you access to a wallpaper marketplace featuring wonderfully curated artist-made wallpapers that come personally approved by YouTuber and tech-culture icon Marques Brownlee. The problem, however, was that the app was a fraction of what we expected from tech’s greatest reviewer. It was buggy, had ad-ware, tracked personal data (which a wallpaper app definitely shouldn’t do), and tried to monetize jpegs by asking for $12 a month or $50 a year… something that was simply outrageous for essentially a bunch of wallpapers. The internet revolted in massive swathes, raking MKBHD’s credibility over fire for what seemed like a very obvious cash-grab. Moreover, people somehow managed to reverse-engineer the app and extract the wallpapers for free as a form of protest. Paying $12 a month for wallpapers isn’t something that makes a lot of sense to most people, considering Netflix, Spotify, hell even MKBHD’s own YouTube Premium cost the same amount. However, this isn’t about the app’s launch or its pricing model – it’s the fact that the app itself could be better designed. Taking things to task, YouTuber and UI designer Juxtopposed decided to quickly critique and redesign the Panels app. For UI/UX designers, this video is an absolute masterclass in great design, as she breaks down her entire process, providing constructive criticism of the existing app and fixing every flaw with simple design tweaks. If you’re a UI/UX designer or just an enthusiast, grab a coffee, sit down, and enjoy the next 5 and a half minutes of the video above… or scroll through to quickly read how Juxtopposed took the most polarizing phone app of last week and turned it into a well-designed experience that any tech YouTuber would recommend.
First off, the website—a brand’s first handshake with its audience—felt like a bit of a fumble. Given MKBHD’s production quality for his videos, you’d imagine expecting precision, but instead you’ve got a layout that feels like a rushed draft. There’s an odd flatness to the design, where headings blend into paragraphs and links lead you down rabbit holes of nowhere (it’s also incredibly heavy and doesn’t scroll smoothly on weak internet connections). It’s strange, considering MKBHD’s professional video production setup. But to be fair, this is just the website, not the app itself. And if there’s anything we know about the tech world, first impressions on paper (or screen) don’t always define the real experience.
Once you install the app, you’re greeted with a setup process – and here’s where things feel, well, clunky. To create a personalized home feed, users are asked to select five artists from a list of fourteen. Sounds simple enough—except there’s a catch. You can’t actually explore these artists’ work before choosing. No profiles, no descriptions, just a gallery of unfamiliar names, leaving you to essentially take a shot in the dark. Wouldn’t it be easier to offer some style or mood-based suggestions? Especially for an app built around personalization, this initial friction feels like a missed opportunity to connect with users from the get-go.
The three core sections of the Panels app
Navigating through Panels, you’re introduced to its three core sections: Home, Explore, and Account. It’s a simple enough structure, but it doesn’t quite land. The Home page, intended to show personalized suggestions, feels more like a placeholder, with user favorites and purchases awkwardly scattered. Meanwhile, the Explore section, where discovery should thrive, suffers from design missteps. A small, nearly invisible search button? In 2024? Come on. Even the icons seem to have skipped the quality check, with mismatched styles and inconsistent border thicknesses. It’s hard not to feel like this is still a work in progress—one that launched too soon.
Inconsistent icon styles
But here’s where the real frustration sets in – pricing. For an app that delivers digital art, the monetization strategy feels surprisingly tone-deaf. Want standard wallpapers? Watch an ad. Want premium ones? That’ll be $50 a year or $12 a month (this is AFTER Marques reduced the prices following a blowback). Compared to other apps in this space, many of which offer free ad-supported options with lower subscription rates, Panels’ pricing feels excessive. It’s not that the app shouldn’t charge, but the balance between free and paid features needs rethinking. Locking everything behind a hefty subscription might scare off users before they even have the chance to engage with what could be a fantastic product. Remember, nobody buys NFTs anymore because of how inherently people feel JPEGs shouldn’t cost so much money. For $12 a month, you can either have a premium wallpaper app subscription or pay $2 extra for YouTube Premium. The math isn’t mathing, as people on the internet say nowadays.
Technically, Panels offers some good ideas, but they’re overshadowed by awkward execution. There’s no flexibility in how wallpapers are applied—no option to choose between home screen or lock screen. The search functionality is limited, forcing you to abandon filters if you want to type a new term. And for a wallpaper app, isn’t search everything? Refining the search experience and adding sorting options like relevance or popularity could make a huge difference in how users interact with the app.
In fact, Juxtopposed even proposed turning the Panels app into a de-facto social network where people can build out a proper profile and create and share their own wallpaper designs (sort of like how OnePlus did with their community). It’s a clever idea that offers the ability to strengthen MKBHD’s own 19.5 million-strong follower base, effectively also becoming a place where Marques can share exclusive content with Panels+ members. But alas, the app currently is a victim of Marques’ success as a YouTuber who puts quality above all. It’s a shame the app didn’t reflect that.
Ultimately, Panels is a solid idea that just needs time to mature. It’s not there yet—the design is inconsistent, the pricing feels off, and the user experience needs a serious overhaul. But as with most things Marques touches, there’s potential. Feedback from the community could steer the app in the right direction. For now, though, Panels feels like a promising beta rather than a polished product… but hey, the redesign feels like a major improvement, doesn’t it?
X has lost a legal fight in Australia in which the company tried to avoid a $400,000 fine by claiming that Twitter no longer exists. The creative legal argument, first spotted byArsTechnica, came amid a more than year-long dispute with Australia’s eSafety Commission.
The commission had asked the company, then known as Twitter, to provide details about its handling of child sexual exploitation on the platform last February. In its response, X failed to answer a number of questions and left “some sections entirely blank,” the commission said in a statement last year. As a result, the eSafety Commission slapped the company with a more than $415,000 fine for non-compliance.
It was an attempt to fight that fine that led to X’s claim that it shouldn’t be responsible since Twitter had “ceased to exist.” From the court filing:
X Corp submitted that, on and from 15 March 2023, Twitter Inc ceased to be a person, and therefore ceased to be a provider of a social media service. It was submitted that Twitter Inc therefore lacked capacity to comply with the notice, and that X Corp was not obliged to prepare any report in Twitter Inc’s place, as X Corp was not the same person as the provider to whom the notice was issued.
The argument isn’t exactly new for the Elon Musk-owned entity. CEO Linda Yaccarino has also repeatedly claimed that X is a “brand new company” in a bid to avoid scrutiny. She repeated the line multiple times earlier this year while testifying at a Senate hearing on child safety issues.
Australia federal Judge Michael Wheelahan, however, found the claim unconvincing, saying that X’s argument required “leaps in logic that were not supported by adequate explanation.” X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, eSafety Commissioner Inman Grant cheered the decision. “Had X Corp’s argument been accepted by the Court it could have set the concerning precedent that a foreign company’s merger with another foreign company might enable it to avoid regulatory obligations in Australia,” Grant said.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-lost-a-court-battle-after-trying-to-claim-twitter-ceased-to-exist-203030765.html?src=rss
Samsung will begin using the One UI name for all its consumer devices, now including TVs and home appliances. Executive Vice President Sally Hyesoon Jeong made the announcement at the company’s 2024 developer conference (via9to5Google). The One UI branding was previously exclusive to its Galaxy phones, tablets and wearables.
“One UI now goes beyond mobile as the software experience for all Samsung consumer devices,” Hyesoon Jeong said onstage at the San Jose keynote. It’s part of the company’s aim for more cohesive branding across its consumer ecosystem, especially as its AI approach evolves.
Samsung
Samsung also teased that its next software user experience, One UI 7, will arrive with the 2025 batch of Galaxy S phones. “One UI 7 will bring a fresh, new look to the entire interface,” Hyesoon Jeong said at the conference. She laid out three goals for the upcoming software: simple (with a purpose), impactful (leaving a “signature impression”), and emotive design that elicits a human reaction from the user.
The Samsung VP says the One UI 7 home screen grid represents the more focused design principles. “It’s sleeker and easier to use, giving you a neat home screen no matter which Galaxy device you’re using,” said Hyesoon Jeong.
Although you’ll have to wait until early next year for One UI 7, the company said a developer beta will be available to test-drive by the end of this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/samsungs-one-ui-now-covers-all-of-its-consumer-devices-including-tvs-and-appliances-201850799.html?src=rss
Once again, the European Union has issued a ruling preventing Meta from going too crazy with user information. The top court in the EU ruled that limits must be put in place for how long Meta and other social media networks can use people’s information for ad targeting strategies.
TechCrunch reported that the EU’s highest court sided with an earlier opinion published in April by a court adviser. The previous ruling also urged for limits on the amount of time companies could retain customers’ personal data for the purpose of targeting advertising.
The rulings referred its retention guidelines to the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) established by the EU in 2018. Recital 65 of the GDPR establishes a person’s “right to be forgotten” and the right to rectification and erasure of personal data. Failure to comply with the GDPR could result in a 4 percent global annual turnover penalty, a number that could reach into the billions for a social media mega-corporation like Meta. Last year, Meta had to pay a $414 million fine (or approximately €390 million) for illegally requiring users of its social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to accept personalized ads.
The EU and Meta along with other big tech companies like Apple and Google have tangled over the use of personal data in relation to the Digital Markets Act. Meta is currently awaiting a fine ruling for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act when it required users to pay to prohibit the company from collecting and sharing their personal data. Last year, the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that Meta needed to obtain consent before delivering personal ads to users in the region.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/eu-court-rules-social-networks-cant-use-personal-data-forever-193013206.html?src=rss
Many renditions of the Batmobiles have kept us all hooked to Bruce Wayne’s crime-fighting antics. Undeniably the 1966 TV show featuring the superhero’s ride is the best of them all, and now you have the chance to own a LEGO version of Bruce’s favorite crime-fighting machine.
This 1,822-piece scaled-down replica of the cape crusader’s classic ’60s Batmobile recreates the real ones’ sleek lines and curves to perfection. The interiors are extensively detailed on both the Batman and Robin’s side. To give you an idea of the level of detailing, the opening trunk has a mobile crime-fighting Bat Computer stashed in there. The latest version of the classic Batmobile has a minifigure of Adam West’s legendary Bright Knight with its own display base. Not surprising the superhero poses with a batarang.
Compared to some previous LEGO Batmobile builds, this one has more intricate detailing. When fully assembled, it measures 19 inches long and seven inches wide. Everything about this pursuit vehicle is rigged with bat gadgets. There are molded windshields, a rear jet engine, movable wheels, and an informative plaque to complete the display. In the driver’s seat is Adam’s legendary crime fighter in all his might, and looking intimidating with the painted eyebrows on the cowl. The only thing missing is a can of Bat-Shark Repellent.
The $150 price tag is a bit surprising given the size of the completed LEGO build. Compare that to the likes of The Legend of Zelda Deku Tree or other smaller sets, this one seems to have hit the sweet spot. LEGO Group is pitching it as Batman: The Classic TV Series Batmobile. If I had to choose one of the LEGO Batmobile versions, this one would be it.
