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Denshattack! is a blend of Tony Hawk, trains and shonen anime

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Denshattack! is what happens when Tony Hawk trades in his skateboard for a high-speed Japanese train. Yes, you read that correctly.

Denshattack! is the latest game from Barcelona indie studio Undercoders, and it’s a delirious, high-speed action experience complete with flow states, a banging original soundtrack, flamboyant characters and coming-of-age drama. Players attempt to keep their train moving while jumping, wall riding, spinning, landing tricks and nailing combos. Between the rail-hopping action, there’s a fully voice-acted story (in English and Japanese) about overcoming oppression and finding your true friends. It’s a wacky mix of ideas, but it all comes together in a Jet Set Radio type of world that looks like a real thrill.

Undercoders is based in Spain, but the studio founders have spent a lot of time backpacking through Japan, visiting the trains specifically. In a virtual briefing ahead of Denshattack!‘s reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025, director David Jaumandreu and his team couldn’t stop giggling about how much they loved trains, and it was all fairly adorable.

Denshattack! is due out in early 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and it’ll be available day-one on Game Pass. It features music from lead composer Tee Lopes, who’s best known for Sonic Mania, Sonic Frontiers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and additional artists from video game music label Kid Katana will contribute to the soundtrack.



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Hands-on with Sony’s five new PC gaming peripherals for 2025
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Hands-on with Sony’s five new PC gaming peripherals for 2025

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Sony is finally ready to take on the likes of SteelSeries, Razer, and Logitech with its InZone brand of PC gaming accessories. While InZone started with monitors and headsets in 2022, with a few new products since then (including its great InZone Buds and the sleek but pricey M10S OLED), Sony is making a concerted effort to take over your desk. It just launched two new headsets, a gaming keyboard, a wireless mouse, and even a couple of mousepads, all developed alongside esports organization Fnatic, and all available for preorder today.

As you might expect, Sony’s not aiming for the bargain bin here. Each of these peripherals is made for competitive play, and they come with high prices that don’t always feel justified.

To test them all out at once, I swapped out each of my regular PC peripherals for the new InZone gadgets, which made me feel like I was on a Sony Pictures movie set with intense product placement.

The headband size adjusters are one of my favorite new features in the H9 II. It’s the small stuff, right? Image: Sony.

The InZone H9 II gaming headset is the successor to the bulkier H9 from 2022, with a refined finish, a handful of improvements, and a gen-to-gen price hike from $299.99 to $349.99. The headset is slimmer and lighter (273g versus 330g), and it features a clever “pinch-to-adjust” button on each side of its headband to let you easily find the right fit. The suspended headband design feels lightweight on my head, rivaling the most comfortable models I’ve used, like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless.

The new model has the same 30mm speaker drivers as Sony’s latest WH-1000XM6 flagship headphones. Even though they’re 10mm smaller than those in the previous-gen model, they sound just as phenomenal for music as they do for games. You’re also getting fantastic active noise cancellation, with the option to turn on a transparency mode that, notably, doesn’t affect the audio quality. You can customize the H9 II’s more granular settings within the company’s InZone Hub on PC or via Bluetooth in Sony’s Sound Connect mobile app — the same one used for several of its consumer headphone models.

This headset has several features every wireless model should have. The ear cups are on swiveling hinges, giving you the option to let them rest on your chest between matches, or if you need to remove them to talk in person. You can now listen to audio via a 3.5mm cable, even when the headset is out of battery. Wired mode will override any wireless connections. If you’d prefer to go wireless, it can maintain simultaneous connections over Bluetooth and its compact 2.4GHz USB-C transmitter, which has a toggle for PC and “other” platforms.

The headset works just fine with the PS5 and Switch 2, letting me listen to podcasts from my phone as I play. This model adds Bluetooth LE Audio support, allowing them to last longer per charge with better sound — love that, especially since I’m likely to keep them paired to two devices. Another new feature for this generation is a feature that several other headsets have: a removable boom microphone, in case you’d rather use a desktop mic or if you’re heading outdoors.

The $149.99 InZone E9 wired in-ear monitors are small and lightweight, with good noise isolation. They’re simple to use, either connecting via 3.5mm jack or its included 3.5mm-to-USB-C dongle, which is required to personalize the audio in the InZone Hub app. Unlike normal earbuds, these and all other in-ear monitors have hooks that route the cables on top of your ear cartilage and down the back of your ears, so as to stay out of your face. It all ships in a nice case that springs open when unzipped, exposing several ear tip size options.

The E9 in-ear monitors are tuned for FPS games out of the box. The default equalizer setting gives a flat, reference-style sound that pursues accuracy over bombast — the better to locate footsteps and gunshots in game. It’s effective, but outside of gaming, I found the E9s boring to listen to compared to the full-bodied, warm sound of the Linsoul KZ ZSX in-ear monitors that I bought on Amazon for about $60. That Linsoul model is the best-sounding set of headphones that I own — with detachable cables, no less — and I never expected to pay so little for something so good. Perhaps you’ll be as inspired as I was by our 2019 piece on great Chinese hi-fi to find other options that are significantly cheaper, yet better-sounding than Sony’s new IEMs, at least for non-gaming needs.

The InZone E9 comes in black or white. Image: Sony

Sony is one of the only major companies making gaming in-ear monitors, along with Razer, which makes the Moray (those have detachable cables and are $20 cheaper) but I hope it aims higher, and future models sound better than the cheaper competition.

To type all of this, I’ve been using Sony’s InZone KBD-H75, a name so clunky that I’m just going to refer to it as the InZone keyboard. This wired milled-aluminum board took the place of my split ergo gaming keyboard made by Kinesis Gaming, which I use to manage wrist strain during and after work. So, this wasn’t a swap that I was exactly looking forward to for ergonomic reasons. However — forgetting my wrists for a moment — it feels nice to type on, once I got used to the 75 percent layout that omits several navigation keys I commonly use.

The KBD-H75 uses Hall effect magnetic switches that actuate faster and more accurately than mechanical switches. I’m accustomed to clicky Cherry MX Blue switches, and I found the InZone keyboard doesn’t have quite enough resistance for my taste. In fact, they’re so easy to press that I kept accidentally actuating keys in chat apps, making it look like I fell asleep at my desk. This can be rectified by customizing the actuation point of each key, between 0.1mm and 3.4mm. It’s a feature that’s common among its competitors. And thankfully, you won’t need to install the InZone Hub app to make adjustments; Sony took a page from other keyboard makers by building a web version of its app that can be accessed from any PC this keyboard is plugged into — perfect for tournaments or LAN tournaments.

Thanks to the milled-aluminum case and gasket-mounted switchplate, I couldn’t sense vibrations as I pounded out articles and messages. Tapping each key results in a quiet yet satisfying sound, and I know my partner wishes my split ergo was this quiet. But, again, I prefer switches that have a little bit more resistance. I’m sure if I were a professional gamer, I’d be happier with these.

Ask most people who are into keyboards and they’ll probably tell you a handful of alternatives with similar features to the InZone keyboard that cost less than the $299.99 Sony’s asking for. At this price, most gamers expect wireless support and hot-swappable switches. The $169.99 LemoKey P1 HE has hot-swappable Hall effect switches, plus 1000Hz polling over 2.4GHz wireless. Unless Sony’s design and its promise of 8,000Hz polling rate are really doing it for you, there are many good options out there that cost less.

The top and sides of the keyboard are aluminum but the bottom is plastic. Image: Sony

I’m dubious of this keyboard’s 8,000Hz polling rate, which is one of its selling points (as well as one of the mouse below). Instead of being limited to 1,000Hz, which means it can register your input once per millisecond, 8,000Hz increases the rate to register movement and clicks once every 0.125ms. Sony’s definitely not the first company to advertise 8,000Hz polling in a gaming peripheral, but its utility is just as questionable here as it is in other products. As it turns out, human reaction time is pretty slow, so, maybe you shouldn’t pay more for this feature.

I’ve been radicalized by Rocket Jump Ninja’s video on YouTube, which demonstrates that 1,000Hz is more than enough speed for most people; in the video, it shows that even fast human reaction times are still over 150ms, or approximately 6.67Hz. So, unless you have superhuman reflexes, this feature just isn’t necessary. Plus, trawling through Reddit shows that some gamers have had issues with an 8,000Hz polling rate affecting game performance.

Lastly, there’s the InZone Mouse-A — Sony’s first wireless gaming mouse. It costs $149.99, and at 48 grams, it’s the lightest mouse that I’ve ever used. This right-handed mouse is light on flourishes and excess buttons, with just a left and right click, two thumb buttons, the scroll wheel, and a profile-switching button on the bottom. As someone who typically uses the Glorious Model I, I quickly warmed up to its soft, matte-textured arch, though I wish it had a thumb rest. It feels pretty similar to the Logitech G Pro X Superlight in terms of ergonomics. I have an average-sized hand, though small-handed gamers will also likely find this to be a comfortable pick. The click is swift and relatively quiet, and it has optical switches (as many gaming mice do at this point), letting inputs register faster than they would with mechanical switches.

The purple PCB viewable through the covered honeycomb pattern looks pretty slick. Image: Sony

To complement its new mouse, Sony has launched two cloth mousepads, both of which are 18.89 x 15.7 inches in size. The Mat-F is thicker at 6mm (versus 4mm), with a surface that’s meant to create some drag to prevent the mouse from moving any more than you want it to. It’s designed for tactical first-person shooters that don’t emphasize twitchy movement. It costs $59.99. The $34.99 Mat-D, is for those who want speed, and the ability to make quick flicks of the mouse to pull off headshots and other commands. I don’t typically use any kind of mousepad, just a mat that my keyboard, mouse, and drink sit on. Sony only sent the Mat-D for me to test, and while it’s step up from my desk mat, I think it’d prefer the Mat-F for its higher friction.

Of all of Sony’s InZone gear, the product that I’ll miss the most is the H9 II headset. Despite its $349.99 price, you’re getting great audio quality for the money. And, thanks to its removable mic, using it as a set of headphones away from your desk won’t make you look as ridiculous as the first-gen model does. Each of the new products has redeeming qualities, but a lack of novelty and high prices across the board make them tough to broadly recommend.

Sony is a household name, but not so much in esports. It’s going up against companies that have been making similar products — often with lower prices — and have years of goodwill attached to their names. But I suppose every company has to start somewhere. High prices aside, this isn’t a bad place to begin.

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Datadog network monitoring 1
Product Reviews

I tested Datadog network monitoring and found it amazing for analytics and integrations review

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Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

If you’re searching for a network monitoring tool that can keep up with hybrid and cloud-first IT environments, Datadog is likely on your shortlist. We’ve spent weeks researching every major IT platform and Datadog is near the top for its feature-rich approach and impressive integrations. For a broader look at your options, check out our best network monitoring tools list.

Our team at TechRadar has deep experience evaluating IT platforms — using, comparing, and stress-testing them in real-world scenarios. LogicMonitor is our pick for the best network monitoring tool of 2025. Its AI-powered suite automates many day-to-day IT workflows, making it a top choice for organizations wanting proactive, hands-off monitoring.

Still, Datadog’s popularity is no accident. It’s a favorite among IT teams for its real-time visibility, rich analytics, and ability to unify monitoring across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. But is it the right fit for your team? Let’s dive in.

Datadog network monitoring: Features

Datadog is one of the most feature-rich platforms in the network monitoring space. It’s packed with tools for real-time analytics, customizable dashboards, anomaly detection, and integrations with over 850 services and devices.

These features are best suited for IT teams managing complex, hybrid, or cloud-native environments who need granular visibility and automation. Everything comes together pretty well, though some users have asked for easier self-remediation and more transparent pricing, especially as data volumes grow.

At its price point, though, you’re paying for depth and breadth. So, if you need only basic monitoring, there are cheaper options.

Infrastructure monitoring

Datadog’s core component gives you a bird’s eye view of servers, cloud instances, containers, and network devices. It auto-discovers resources and collects data from CPUs, memory, disk, and network performance, all visualized in real time.

Network performance monitoring (NPM)

NPM provides deep visibility into your network traffic, showing you which services are talking to each other, where bottlenecks are, and how traffic flows across your environment. You can drill down to individual connections, monitor bandwidth usage, and set up alerts for unusual activity.

Log management

Datadog automatically ingests, parses, and analyzes logs from across your stack. You can search logs in real time, correlate them with metrics and traces, and set up alerts for error spikes or suspicious activity.

Application performance monitoring (APM)

APM traces requests across distributed systems, helping you spot slowdowns, errors, and performance bottlenecks at the code or service level. It supports major programming languages and frameworks.

Synthetic monitoring

This tool simulates user interactions with your apps and connectors, running tests from locations around the world to measure uptime and performance. It’s useful for catching issues before users notice them.

Real user monitoring (RUM)

RUM tracks the actual experience of your users, measuring load times, errors, and engagement in real time. This is important for teams focused on optimizing user-facing applications.

Security monitoring

Datadog’s security suite includes anomaly detection, threat intelligence, and compliance monitoring, helping you spot vulnerabilities and suspicious behavior as it happens.

Integrations and APIs

With support for 850+ integrations, including AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, Chef, Puppet, and more — Datadog can slot into almost any IT environment, making it easy to unify monitoring across tools and platforms.

(Image credit: Datadog)

Datadog network monitoring: Ease of use

Datadog is generally user-friendly, with a modern, intuitive interface and customizable dashboards that make it easy to visualize the metrics that matter most to you. Many users find setup and configuration straightforward, especially compared to older tools like SolarWinds. You can drag and drop widgets, create custom views, and filter data with just a few clicks.

However, the initial setup can feel overwhelming for newcomers. With so many features and integrations, it’s not always clear where to start, and some users report that onboarding documentation could be more beginner-friendly. Once you’re past the learning curve, though, day-to-day use is smooth and efficient.

Datadog also supports accessibility features and offers a REST API for advanced customization and integration with other tools. While the platform is designed to scale with your needs, we’d love to see more guided onboarding for first-time users.

Datadog network monitoring: Pricing

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Plan

Starting price (paid annually)

What’s included

Infrastructure Monitoring

$15 per host/month

Core metrics, dashboards, 850+ integrations

APM

$31 per host/month

Distributed tracing, service maps, code profiling

Log Management

$0.10 per GB ingested

Log ingestion, search, analytics

Network Performance

$5 per host/month

Network traffic analysis, flow monitoring, device health

Synthetic Monitoring

$5 per 10,000 API tests

API and browser tests, uptime checks

Real User Monitoring

$2 per 10,000 sessions

End-user experience metrics, session replay

Security Monitoring

$0.20 per GB analyzed

Threat detection, compliance monitoring

Database Monitoring

$21 per host/month

Database performance, query analytics

Continuous Profiler

$8 per host/month

Code profiling, performance optimization

Incident Management

$15 per user/month

Incident tracking, collaboration tools

CI Visibility

$5 per 25,000 test runs

CI/CD pipeline monitoring, job analytics

Datadog’s pricing is modular and can add up quickly as you layer on more features or monitor more hosts. While the entry price for network monitoring is competitive, costs for log ingestion, APM, and other advanced features can become significant for large environments.

The flexibility to pick and choose modules is great, but budgeting can be tricky. Compared to competitors like LogicMonitor, Datadog is often pricier at scale, though it offers more control over what you pay for.

Datadog network monitoring: Customer support

Datadog’s customer support is generally responsive and knowledgeable, with 24/7 availability for most plans. Users can access support via email, chat, or ticketing, and there’s a robust knowledge base and active community forums. Enterprise customers get priority support, including a dedicated account manager and faster response times.

But, some users have reported mixed experiences, especially with lower-tier plans or complex billing issues. A few customers mention delays in getting detailed technical answers or feeling like their concerns weren’t fully addressed. For mission-critical environments, we recommend opting for enterprise support to ensure the fastest resolution times.

Datadog network monitoring: Alternatives

Datadog is a leader in network monitoring, but it’s not the only option. It’s best suited for mid-sized to large IT teams managing hybrid or cloud-first environments who need deep analytics and extensive integrations. If you’re a smaller business or just need basic monitoring, you might find Datadog’s cost and complexity overkill.

Top competitors include LogicMonitor for its AI-powered automation and intuitive interface, Dynatrace for AI-driven anomaly detection, and Nagios or Zabbix for IT teams who want open-source options. That said, Datadog’s main edge is its unified, cloud-native approach and real-time analytics. But if you value simplicity or lower costs, it’s worth comparing alternatives.

Datadog network monitoring: Final verdict

Datadog brings a powerful, unified approach to network monitoring, with real-time analytics, deep integrations, and customizable dashboards. It’s a top choice for IT teams that need to monitor complex, hybrid, or cloud-native environments and want to correlate network data with logs, traces, and application metrics.

However, cost and complexity can be drawbacks, especially for smaller teams or those new to monitoring platforms. If you need the most advanced features and can invest in setup and training, Datadog is a strong contender. For simpler needs or tighter budgets, other platforms may offer better value.

FAQs

What types of environments can Datadog monitor?

Datadog supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, with integrations for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and more. It’s designed to provide unified visibility across all your infrastructure.

Is Datadog suitable for small businesses?

While Datadog can be used by businesses of any size, its pricing and feature set are best suited for mid-sized to large organizations with complex monitoring needs. Smaller teams may find the cost and learning curve steep.

Can Datadog alert me to network issues in real time?

Yes, Datadog provides real-time alerts for network performance issues, outages, and anomalies. You can customize alert thresholds and receive notifications via email, Slack, PagerDuty, and other channels.

Does Datadog offer a free trial?

Datadog typically offers a 14-day free trial for new users, allowing you to test core features and integrations before committing to a paid plan.

How does Datadog compare to LogicMonitor?

LogicMonitor is our top pick for 2025, thanks to its AI-powered automation and revamped UI. Datadog offers more granular analytics and integrations but can be more expensive and complex to set up. Both are excellent, but LogicMonitor is better for teams wanting automation while Datadog excels in analytics and customization.

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A screenshot of Microsoft's Copilot Gaming technology demo
Product Reviews

87% of game developers are already using AI agents and over a third use AI for creative elements like level design and dialogue according to a new Google survey

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Fully 87% of game developers are already using AI agents. That’s according to a new survey from Google Cloud and The Harris Poll of 615 game developers in the United States, South Korea, Norway, Finland, and Sweden. It’s also just the tip of the AI-berg.

Some of the tasks completed by AI aren’t immediately worrisome and you’d think will speed up development and reduce costs. The report says AI is proving useful for automating “cumbersome and repetitive tasks”, freeing developers to focus more on creative elements.

For instance, 47% of developers reported that AI is, “speeding up playtesting and balancing of mechanics, 45% say it is assisting in localization and translation of game content, and 44% cite it for improving code generation and scripting support.” Overall, 94% of developers surveyed, “expect AI to reduce overall development costs in the long term (3+ years).”


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That could help keep smaller developers in business, it might mean niche game titles are more viable, and so on. But it’s only part of the picture. Arguably one of the great fears among gamers is that game design, stories and dialogue will be replaced with the sort of AI slop that’s now bunging up YouTube and social media.

Well, slop or not, AI is increasingly being used for those purposes. Google’s survey found that 36% of respondents are using AI for dynamic level design, animation and rigging, and dialogue writing, while 37% of developers report they have, “enhanced experimentation with new gameplay or narrative concepts.”

Will today’s games be among the last to be coded, written and voiced by humans? (Image credit: rmk1234, CD Projekt Red)

The report is pretty granular about many aspects of game design and development and makes for an intriguing read. Overall, Google is nothing if not upbeat about the implications of all this. Of course it would be, considering it is one of the largest AI researchers on the planet. It has skin in the game, and it’s trying to sell AI to the world.

“Overall, the research found widespread adoption of gen AI in the games industry—and a surprising level of optimism for it. AI is already making a big difference in developer workflows, including productivity and creative tasks.

“Developers also see promising possibilities with AI agents and other emerging AI tools to accelerate game development and enhance player experiences,” the report says.

Of course, the end game, pun very much intended, of all this is presumably games fully AI generated in response to user prompts. “I want to play a first person shooter set in ancient Rome, but with modern weapons, procedural crime elements and Disney characters,” or whatever. And off you go.

Of course, except the one bit that almost definitely won’t be doable is the Disney characters due to IP ownership. Unless you pay extra for the Disney AI gaming subscription or similar. But you get the idea.

If that puts the burden on users to come up with game narratives, semi-curated games where the basic premise is tweaked by user prompts might make more sense for most mainstream gamers. But the main point is that it might all be AI generated one day. At which point will there be a submarket for “artisanal” hand-coded games with human-written narratives, real voices and the rest? All of this is to come, much is to be decided. But the the direction of travel looks pretty unambiguous, and a little icky.

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'Skibidi,' 'Tradwife,' and 6,000 Other New Words Are in the Dictionary Now
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‘Skibidi,’ ‘Tradwife,’ and 6,000 Other New Words Are in the Dictionary Now

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Before you roll your eyes at the Gen Alpha in your life for using made-up words, you might want to check the latest update to the dictionary. Cambridge University announced that its most recent revisions to the Cambridge Dictionary add 6,000 new words, including a slew of internet-pilled ones like skibidi, tradwife, and delulu.

“It’s not every day you get to see words like skibidi and delulu make their way into the Cambridge Dictionary. We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power. Internet culture is changing the English language, and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the Dictionary,” Colin McIntosh, Lexical Program Manager at Cambridge Dictionary, said in a statement.

Note that the measurement here is staying power, not whether we want it to stick around. To McIntosh’s point, “skibidi”—defined as “a word that can have different meanings such as ‘cool’ or ‘bad,’ or can be used with no real meaning as a joke”—has already been around for nearly a decade, with its first usage tracked to a 2018 song released by Little Big. The song, titled “Skibidi,” has over 700 million views on YouTube. Of course, the term came to prominence in 2023 thanks to a deeply brain-rotted YouTube series and became so popular that Kim Kardashian wore the word on a necklace for no apparent reason.

Another entry, ‘tradwife,’ is fascinating to consider in terms of staying power, as it references an older model of familial structure. It’s literally short for “traditional wife,” suggesting that the users recognize that the term “wife” has moved away from their preferred definition. Interestingly, Cambridge identifies tradwife as a uniquely online identity, defining it as “a married woman, especially one who posts on social media, who stays at home doing cooking, cleaning, etc. and has children that she takes care of.”

A link to the internet or technology is a central aspect of many of Cambridge’s new terms. Others that made the cut include “mouse jiggler,” referring to software that keeps your screen active so it looks like you’re working, and “broligarchy,” defined as “a small group of men, especially men owning or involved in a technology business, who are extremely rich and powerful, and who have or want political influence.” We’ll give you three guesses as to whom that term applies.

One term that is not particularly modern but has just made the cut: “work spouse.” Which is defined as “a person with whom someone has a close, but not romantic, relationship at work, in which the two people help and trust each other in the same way that a married couple does.” That one almost feels like a word from another era, making it a fascinating inclusion in a tech-heavy batch.

If seeing some of those terms make it into the dictionary gets you riled up, you should know that Cambridge is constantly adding new words. You don’t have to use them, but it’s nice to be able to look them up when others do.



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The Best Cooling Sheets (2025): Brooklinen, Slumber Cloud, Buffy
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The Best Cooling Sheets (2025): Brooklinen, Slumber Cloud, Buffy

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There’s a lot of terminology thrown around in the world of cooling sheets and cooling mattresses. Temperature regulating! Airflow! Moisture wicking! Phase-change material! Most of the time, these features come back to how breathable the sheets are. Breathability means moisture can better evaporate, and “temperature-regulating” usually means the sheets are breathable enough to release the heat and moisture from your body.

What makes sheets breathable? Cotton, flax linen, and bamboo have great breathability, but not all sheets are made equally, so material alone isn’t a guarantee. Weave, as in percale’s one-over-one threads versus sateen’s three-over-one, and weight (including thread count) of the bedding comes into play. Higher thread counts are less breathable, and tighter weaves will be less breathable too. The yarn within the fabric is also important, as well as how twisted it is—a higher twist makes for a smoother, cooler feel to the fabric, while a loose twist isn’t as smooth and can trap heat.

Some companies treat sheets with something called phase-change materials, or PCMs, which are substances that absorb and release energy to either heat or cool an area. “PCMs create a microclimate,” says Karen Leonas, a professor of textile sciences at the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. Excess body heat is absorbed by these materials and then released to the body when it’s cool.

These treatments can raise the price of cooling sheets, but they’re not super popular yet, and it’s hard to determine how well incorporated it is into the fabric. “PCMs go through thermal cyclic testing and have shown to last a long time,” Leonas says. “If this is a surface treatment, there is the possibility that some of the microcapsules will be lost due to abrasion.” Parima Ijaz, CEO of Pure Parima, agrees and says these treatments sometimes only last up to 10 washes. There are only a handful of sheets on the market that tout their use of PCMs, and our guide focuses on breathable materials and weaves rather than these treatments. It’s worth noting that PCMs will last much longer on a foam mattress, according to Leonas. If you’re still sweating at night after switching to cooling sheets, try a cooling mattress.



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Spotify now lets you create seamless transitions between songs on your custom playlists

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Spotify routinely debuts new playlist features for its users, but the company’s latest update has the potential to dramatically alter custom mixes. Starting today, premium users will have access to a new tool for creating customized transitions within playlists. This will allow seamless progression from one track to the next, with natural-sounding changeovers and no awkward silence.

Once you’ve created a playlist, you’ll notice a Mix option on the toolbar. When selected, the tool gives you the option to pick Auto and allow Spotify to instantly make the transitions, or you can tap in further to customize things as you see fit. From there, you can choose presets like Fade or Rise to quickly apply transition styles or try specific changes to volume, EQ and effects. The app will display a waveform for the two songs, helping you select the best place to make the swap.

After making your transitions, you can save them for future use or for sharing with friends. And speaking of friends, the transition editor is available for collaboration on any playlists you build with your pals. Spotify allows you to toggle the Mix option on and off at any time, so you’re free to listen without any of that creative customization if needed.

To help you create a playlist that’s ready for mixing, Spotify will show you the tempo in BPMs (beats per minute) and Camelot keys for each song once you tap Mix. The company reminds users that the best options for this tool are songs that were created for seamless transitions, so genres like house and techno will provide the best results. Spotify also recommends using the Mix tool for making running playlists with consistent BPMs to help with pace or to create roadtrip playlists that can maintain “the vibe.” Lastly, you can create your own cover art for mixed playlists using Spotify’s built-in editor that debuted last fall.



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innocn 40C1u review
Product Reviews

innocn 40C1u ultrawide 5K monitor review

by admin



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innocn 40C1u: 30-second review

There’s no doubt that out of the box, the Innocn 40C1U is instantly impressive with its huge 40-inch 21:9 aspect ratio screen that essentially dominates the desk once it’s in place. Considering the price, I was quite surprised by just how well built the screen was, and it feels by no means cheap despite coming in at almost half the price of other monitors that are similarly specced and offering 5K resolution, DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB colour spaces.

Getting set up and started was simple enough, although I would highly recommend having at least an extra pair of hands to manoeuvre the monitor into place. It’s not overly heavy, but it’s more the size that makes it a little difficult to place on your desk, and once situated in your workspace, it does dominate.

However, because the screen itself features a very thin bezel and the metal stand and design is relatively slimline, once it’s pushed up against the wall, it blends in very nicely, still enabling plenty of room on a standard-sized desk for keyboard, mouse and other accessories and peripherals.

Getting started is as straightforward as with any monitor, with the option for either HDMI, DisplayPort or, in the case of this review, USB-C connected into either a MacBook Pro M1 Max or an Asus Prime-based PC.

As the monitor flicked to life, I felt that the factory calibration was overly warm, and sure enough, checking it out with Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra and running a quick screen calibration quickly highlighted how off the initial calibration colours were. Once the screen was cooled significantly, the visuals really started to look impressive.

Compared with some of the other monitors that I’ve looked at that also support DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB, the one thing that was noticeable was the IPS screen lacked some of the depth of tone and colour of those more expensive screens, but if you’re using this for pure productivity or media production, then that really isn’t going to be an issue.

The other point is that the screen is limited to 100Hz, which to be honest at 5K is still impressive, but if you’re looking at gaming and you need full depth of contrast and refresh rates, then this probably isn’t the best option for you, and a curved screen of a similar size is going to give you a more immersive experience.

As I went through video editing in DaVinci Resolve and photo enhancement in Adobe Photoshop, the additional real estate definitely helps with the workflow, and I found myself using a large percentage of the screen for creative applications, whilst leaving my email browser open on the right-hand side so that I could quickly check and respond to emails. This is exactly as I would do with my two-monitor setup, but here it feels a lot cleaner with just this one single monitor.

As with any of the best business monitors, there are plenty of options to adjust the screen settings and a quick delve into the onscreen display enabled me to swap from standard RGB to Adobe RGB, so that I could quickly adjust the gamma of the screen, depending on the work I was doing.

As expected, the screen does also include speakers, although firstly these aren’t greatly powerful and secondly they’re extremely tinny, so if you have another form of speaker, even if that’s just your MacBook Pro internal speaker, then this is going to have far better audio quality than the monitor itself.

By the end of the test, I was impressed by the quality of the screen considering the price. Whilst it might not really challenge more expensive Adobe RGB creative monitors from the likes of Eizo, ViewSonic or even Apple, for the price, what’s on offer here is exceptionally good and will suit most creators and coders looking for a large-scale monitor with a high-quality, clear screen and decent refresh rate.

  • innocn 40C1u (Blue) at Amazon for $712.49

innocn 40C1u: Price & availability

  • How much does it cost? $799
  • When is it out? Now
  • Where can you get it? Widely available

The Innocn 40C1U is widely available and can be purchased at $780 directly from the innocn.com website by clicking here. It’s also available via online retailers, including Amazon.com where it’s currently $750 at time of review.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

innocn 40C1u: Design

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Specifications

Screen Size : 40″
Resolution : 5K UWQHD (5120 x 2160 Pixels)
Display Technology : LCD
Aspect Ratio : 21:9
Refresh Rate : 100 Hz
Panel Type : IPS
Connectivity : Type C ; 2xHDMI2.0 ; DP1.4 ; 2xUSB-A ; USB-B
Brightness (Typical) : 350cd/㎡ (typ)

The price point is by no means high, considering what you’re getting with this 40-inch monitor that supports Adobe RGB and a 100Hz refresh rate. When this monitor arrived, I was expecting it to be a little plasticky and limited in features.

However, from the outset, I was impressed by the overall build quality. The bezel around the outer edges is nice and slim, and when it’s all assembled and sits on the desk, it has a modern aesthetic that will suit any design studio or coding office.

The huge 40-inch screen is flat, and actually, this is much better suited than curved screens when it comes to productivity. Those curved screens are better placed for gaming, giving you a more immersive experience, whereas a flat screen is better for laying out screens and for productivity, as there’s no distortion of panels or the images you’re adjusting.

Likewise, if you’re typing, then having a purely flat screen is far easier to use. At 40 inches, it is huge; essentially, it’ll give you a similar screen real estate to three 17-inch monitors placed side-by-side, but with no interruption along the horizontal, whilst the vertical is essentially the same as a 32-inch 16:9 monitor.

Considering the size, it’s worth noting the pure scale of the monitor. It measures approximately 945mm x 420mm x 55mm in depth, and these measurements don’t include the stand. The stand measures 230mm x 200mm for the base that sits on your desk, and the full height can go from as low as 460mm to 580mm, with a subtle tilt upwards and down as well as to the left and right, making it extremely easy to position. The monitor and stand come in at about 12kg.

There is the option for a VESA mount with the 75 x 75 fitting, but with that weight, you might find it a little tricky to mount, although it should fit most heavyweight TV mounts without issue.

When it comes to connectivity, there is a single USB-C (65W) to enable a maximum 100Hz refresh rate, then there are two HDMI 2.0 ports (100Hz max), a DisplayPort 1.4 (100Hz max), and also a few USB ports with two USB-A 3.0 ports and a single USB-B 3.0. It’s also worth noting that there are speakers built into the monitor if you want a neat solution.

innocn 40C1u: Features

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

Once the screen is on the desk, the 40-inch 21:9 aspect ratio is instantly impressive, and the fact that it supports a resolution of 5K QHD 5120 x 2160 pixels really does stand out. It’s also good to note that it has a refresh rate of 100Hz.

As with the monitor’s design, there are several connectivity options, including those highlighted above, but it’s worth also noting that the USB-C port I mostly used throughout this test also offers 65W PD passthrough. This means that under general productivity use, when you’re not pushing your computer too much, that’s enough power to supply a MacBook Pro M1 Max to keep the battery topped up for an entire day. For most other laptops, that 65W is perfect, meaning you just need that single cable to your machine to both power it and supply the monitor with the visual data.

The standout feature aside from its pure 40-inch scale is the ultrawide colour gamut that enables rich, bright colours, especially suited to creative applications such as photography and video editing, but also good for general productivity. The monitor supports sRGB at 99%, DCI-P3 at 97%, and offers 16.7 million colours at 8-bit. It’s a shame that there’s no REC 709 option. So, for those looking for the best monitor for photo editing or the best monitor for video editing, in my experience this is a solid choice with an ultrawide screen.

The panel type used is IPS (In-Plane Switching), which means that from multiple angles, you get good, vibrant colour and sharp visuals. This makes it an ideal option for anyone working in a studio where several people might need to view the monitor throughout the day as you show work and collaborate.

During this review, I used the innocn 40C1u for video and photo editing as well as general productivity. That screen real estate is ideal for anyone focused on Excel, spreadsheets or word documentation. It means you don’t have to quickly switch between applications as you can have them all sat side-by-side on the screen, making it far easier to work.

The 100Hz refresh rate is great to see for a creative-based monitor and will enable you to watch most videos smoothly, whilst also allowing you to play many games, although the 100Hz is a little low for competitive gaming.

Overall, for modern design, creativity and productivity, the features of the innocn 40C1u are well balanced with a good choice of colour gamut depending on the type of work you’re doing and a good range of resolutions all the way up to that 5K QHD.

innocn 40C1u: Performance

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

From the outset, the innocn 40C1u was quick and easy to set up despite its large size, and whilst it is heavy, one person should be able to manoeuvre it relatively easily, although an extra set of hands is always helpful with a monitor of this size, especially when mounting it to the stand.

The stand was exceptionally simple to attach, is a really good quality metal build, and offers strong support. One of the issues I was worried about with a monitor of this width was wobble when typing on the keyboard, but thankfully, the stand and base are heavy enough to reduce vibration of the screen when working.

The aesthetics of the monitor are also spot-on, with nice slim bezels and a dark matte black finish that just gives it a really good premium feel despite its relatively low price point.

Starting the monitor up, the first thing I noticed was just how warm the colours looked. Flipping through the onscreen display options, I went from the standard mode to sRGB and then onto Adobe RGB, but still wasn’t satisfied that the colours had been calibrated correctly, at least not for the environment I was in.

Everything looked overly warm, which might be fine if you’re watching multimedia, but if you’re doing colour-critical work, you need accuracy, especially with a monitor sold for creative use. This adjustment could be done directly using the onscreen display, which is relatively easy to navigate with plenty of options. The navigation buttons are under the bottom right-hand side of the screen.

Under the professional settings, the CT settings were set to ‘Warm’. This could be quickly adjusted to ‘Natural’ which gave a much better look, however I found that these colour settings still weren’t exactly as I wanted, so I was pleased to see that there was a user-defined mode, and through there I could adjust the RGB just to cool down some of that warmth with the blue slider.

The adjustment was small but made a big difference to the quality of the colours displayed on the screen. To ensure the monitor was completely calibrated, I ran it through the Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra to fully calibrate it to the ambient colour temperature of my environment. Once done, the colours and tone of the screen instantly became far more balanced and ready for content creation.

As I used the monitor for editing, work documents, browsing the internet, watching YouTube videos (when I should have been working), and editing video in DaVinci Resolve, I was impressed with the overall sharpness of text, detail in images, and superb colour accuracy.

Visually, without hardware analysis, the screen looked superb and really highlighted the strengths of an IPS screen for creative and productivity work. OLED screens might give you more impact for blacks and contrast, which is good for gaming, whereas for pure productivity, an IPS screen is often a better option, with decent coverage of sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 colour spaces.

For creative and productivity use, the screen excelled, and I was impressed with most aspects, especially the resolution that enabled so much real estate for applications. It essentially feels like much the same as my three 27-inch monitors side-by-side, but it takes up less space and has no bezels between each section. From a practical point of view, it also means there are fewer cables needing to be plugged into the PC and the power socket.

One area worth highlighting is the built-in speakers, which are tinny and underpowered. They also seem to be mono and biased to the left-hand side of the monitor. They are okay for video calls or the odd YouTube clip, but the audio quality doesn’t match the quality of the screen, and I switched to my MacBook Pro’s internal speakers or my Fostex 6301B speakers.

During testing, I ran the monitor quality tests in Spyder X2 Ultra to check screen uniformity, colour accuracy and contrast, along with a few other tests. For a monitor of this size, it performed exceptionally well.

The first tests were run in standard mode, and as expected, the overall monitor rating was modest at 3.0. However, after calibration and switching to Adobe RGB, results were far better, with gamma response and contrast both scoring 5/5, and Adobe RGB colour accuracy scoring 4.5/5, making this a solid option for photographers, with an overall score of 4/5.

It’s worth noting that luminance uniformity across the screen was fair, with about a 10% variation from the base across different parts of the screen, with the best uniformity in the bottom right and the brightest area in the top left. Visually, you wouldn’t really notice the difference.

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

innocn 40C1u: Final verdict

(Image credit: Alastair Jennings)

At the end of the test, I was impressed with the quality, from the high-quality build, thin bezels and aesthetic styling, to the fact that this monitor would sit perfectly in any high-end studio without issue. While the monitor comes in at the budget end of the creative monitor market, there’s nothing cheap about the look and style, and in fact, it feels more premium than some more expensive monitors, including two high-end models I use in the studio.

When it comes to connectivity, there’s a good selection from USB-C, HDMI and DisplayPort, meaning that almost any machine you want to plug in should be catered for. It’s worth noting that whilst there is a DP and a USB-C cable in the box, there is no HDMI cable.

In use, that extra real estate and 21:9 aspect ratio are a real benefit, especially for creative work. As I’m presently editing a film at 21:9 using anamorphic lenses, the ability to watch that footage at full resolution and aspect ratio really adds to the cinematic depth of the piece I’m working on.

I also like that once calibrated, the monitor’s onscreen colours matched the output on our printers, with a very good match on tone and contrast.

Where this monitor falls short is with gaming and some media playback. While TV programmes and films look fine, the 100Hz refresh and lack of deep blacks you get from OLED will be a limitation for gaming. In all other situations, this monitor is spot-on and an ideal option for content creators and anyone looking for additional real estate for productivity.

Should I buy a innocn 40C1u?

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Value

Very good considering the screen size, resolution and build quality

5

Design

A slimline design makes this large monitor seem less dominant in the office

4.5

Features

A good balance of features considering the price, just let down by weak built-in speakers

4

Performance

Generally superb performance with some variation in screen luminosity, but otherwise superb colour tone and vibrancy

4

Overalls

A great all-round monitor for content creators and productivity, but less suited to gaming

4

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

For more top picks, we’ve reviewed the best ultrawide monitors.

innocn 40C1u: Price Comparison



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A screenshot from Gallipoli showing two soldiers in battle
Product Reviews

Not content with making three WW1 first-person shooters already, the creators of Verdun and Isonzo are now making a Gallipoli FPS

by admin



BlackMill Games has been making World War 1 shooters for over a decade now, first with Verdun, and then with Tannenberg and Isonzo. Now it’s making Gallipoli, which will shift focus to the Middle Eastern theatre, to dramatize the battles between the Triple Entente and the Ottoman Empire.

While it’s not as well-known as other WW1 campaigns, the landing at the Gallipoli Peninsula, and the ensuing long stalemate, was an especially bloody encounter. Over ten thousand members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps were killed during the campaign, which is commemorated annually on ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand.

For what it’s worth, the only other modern videogame depiction of the campaign is in the Battlefield 1 mission The Runner (which itself seems to borrow heavily from Peter Weir’s 1981 film Gallipoli).


Related articles

The move east promises to make BlackMill’s fourth WW1 game a little more varied: according to its Steam page it’ll traverse “coastal dunes, dry deserts, urban areas and more”. In addition to the Gallipoli campaign it’ll also move further east to take in the Mesopotamian campaign, which reached as far as modern day Iraq. Players will side with either the Ottoman Empire or the Entente (BlackMill specifies “the British”).

As before, Gallipoli is a squad-based shooter heavily focused on choosing a class and sticking with it: If you’re the stretcher bearer, you better not be caught sprinting across no man’s land to increase your KD ratio. Public matches will be populated with AI bots to accurately convey the sense of scale, though these can be toggled off in custom matches.

It’s due to hit Steam some time in 2026, and the reveal trailer is below.

WW1: Gallipoli – Official Reveal Trailer – YouTube

Watch On



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Nobody Likes Zuckerberg's Glitchy AI App
Product Reviews

Nobody Likes Zuckerberg’s Glitchy AI App

by admin


Clearly, throwing billions of dollars at a problem can’t solve everything.

Nearly six months after its debut, Meta’s consumer-facing AI app still struggles with inconsistencies and persistent shortcomings, casting doubt on the company’s lofty ambitions for artificial intelligence.

It has been a rough learning curve for Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to join the AI race after lagging behind an already-crowded field and spending tens of billions of dollars on catching up. So far, the most Meta has to show for it is a glitchy chatbot, a growing chorus of irritated users, and frustrated shareholders who would like to have something to show for that kind of capital outlay.

Now, market watchers and consumers alike are wondering what exactly Meta can deliver if its flagship AI offering remains uneven.

Launched in April 2025, the standalone app was a late entry into the AI space, arriving roughly two and a half years after OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, Meta’s biggest competitor in the space and by far the most commercially recognizable brand for AI currently.

Meta AI also took a different approach: Its AI bot attempts to combine chat, image creation, and a public feed showcasing user-generated content.

Hit or Miss Has Been Mostly Miss

That tack appears to be failing. Users across the internet have expressed frustration with its unpredictability and limited relevance, saying it feels less like a polished product and more like an early prototype struggling to live up to Meta’s new AI-driven vision.

Since its launch, critics and users alike have voiced concerns on social media, highlighting bugs, odd interactions, and a lack of personalization.

The app’s Discover feed, intended to inspire conversations and showcase creative uses of the AI, often displays outdated user-generated images, diminishing its appeal as a dynamic social hub.

Meanwhile, its chat feature, which purportedly learns about user preferences, frequently makes up false information—an issue known as “hallucination” in AI lingo—that calls into question its reliability.

The reception has been lukewarm at best.

A Reddit post titled “Who hates Meta AI?” has garnered thousands of upvotes, with commentators dismissing it as “here anyway,” and “nobody ever asked for it.”

In the company’s own words, the app is still in its infancy. “This is just the first of many steps,” a Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg, promising ongoing updates as the company invests heavily in AI talent and infrastructure.

The success of the program and its importance to Meta’s future cannot be overstated.

Zuckerberg has made AI a cornerstone of Meta’s future, pledging hundreds of billions of dollars toward development, and actively recruiting top researchers from rivals like Apple and OpenAI. Meta even open-sourced its large language model, Llama, positioning itself as a leader in AI research, but its consumer tools, including the Meta AI app, are still far from polished.

Meta’s aspirations go beyond simple chatbot interactions

Zuckerberg has said he thinks of AI as a “personal superintelligence” that empowers individual users, not just a tool for entertainment. The company has said it wants to eventually embed AI across its portfolio of apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, and hardware.

But the current experience falls short of that vision, because the way Meta is slicing and dicing the data it receives is stymying internal efforts to advance its AI program. Conversations with the AI are siloed across apps, and it doesn’t retain memory or context from previous chats unless explicitly programmed to do so, limiting its usefulness and personalization.

More worryingly, the AI sometimes hallucinates, fabricating details that users may believe to be true. It can also get pretty weird, with many of the AI-generated images and text snippets that it uses to flood feeds with user-generated content ranging from inappropriate to the outright bizarre.

This has been worsened by Meta’s grappling with balancing automation and moderation.

Meta’s goal of harnessing the potential in AI applications for productivity and entertainment remains largely aspirational. For now, the company’s most visible consumer product remains a work in progress, far from fulfilling Zuckerberg’s lofty promises of an AI-powered future designed for “individual empowerment.”

As Meta continues to develop its AI technology, it remains to be seen whether the company can transform this nascent app into a truly useful and trustworthy personal assistant, or if it will continue to flunk its real-time tests and become a cautionary tale of moving too fast.



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