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Sega reveals its limited-edition trainer collaboration with Puma and they’re far cooler than I expected

by admin October 2, 2025

Sega has revealed its limited-edition trainer collaboration with Puma, to celebrate the release of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.

Puma already showed off the trainers back in August, but Sega has now unveiled the full capsule collection.

While Sonic gets a custom pair of Puma Inhale trainers, Shadow and Tails have their own version of the Puma Inverse. These come in blue, black, and yellow – according to the characters’ colours – and have various swappable features. I’m quite partial to the gold ring in the laces, myself.

Sonic Racing Crossworlds REVIEWWatch on YouTube

In addition, Puma is releasing some apparel too, which “blends motorsport styling with graphic cues inspired by racing and design elements from Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds”.

The collection includes a hoodie, a jacket, t-shirts, and even a bum bag (or fanny pack, for those of you in the US).

The collaboration also goes the other way, with Puma-designed in-game decals with which to customise vehicles in Sonic Racing: Crossworlds. These will be added to the game for free.

The trainer and clothing collection launches on 30th October and will be available from the Puma online store, flagship stores, and selected stockists. The UK prices are yet to be confirmed.

And frankly, compared to Nike’s furry Donkey Kong trainers or the absolutely vile Animal Crossing Crocs, these Sonic-themed trainers are footwear I will happily slip my feet into.

Image credit: Sega / Puma

As per leaks last month, Sonic and Shadow sneakers are also expected to make their way into Fortnite soon.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is out now across all major platforms. Our review praised its “exquisite handling model” despite all the chaos.

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October 2, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

CoD: Black Ops 7’s wallhack killstreak is receiving a frenzy of criticism, but isn’t the point of killstreaks that they’re unfair?

by admin October 1, 2025

What is Simp using?! 😱”You think this will be GA’d?” pic.twitter.com/VJUUwAZB8nSeptember 30, 2025

A clip from today’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 event has gone mildly viral, and is attracting the ire of onlookers who seem to feel that Call of Duty has, this time, gone too far with the wacky gadgets and guns.

The clip (embedded above) shows Call of Duty pro Simp using one of Blops 7’s new killstreak rewards, The Gravemaker, a sniper rifle whose wielder can see, and snipe, through solid walls. The go-to joke is that Activision has given up on combating cheaters and decided to just put wallhacking into the game.

I sort of get the indignation, because it doesn’t look fun to be on the receiving end of a bullet that was fired through two layers of concrete by someone you never could’ve seen, but I also sort of don’t get it, because aren’t all Call of Duty killstreaks like that?

How is this less fair than someone calling in an attack helicopter or carpet bombing part of the map? In some of these games you can call in a tactical nuke. A nuclear bomb!

Granted, the specific post I’ve shared is directed at the pro scene—”GA” refers to a “gentlemen’s agreement” not to use certain guns or abilities that have been deemed harmful to competitive play—and maybe this is something the pros will balk at.

To me, though, it just looks like yet another thing better players will kill me with. It appears that you get nine bullets, and so with perfect aim can score nine kills, which is a lot, but other streak rewards can do the same job. Also, Blops 7 will include the usual ‘Cold-Blooded’ perk so that you can hide from thermal optics.

I do agree that killstreaks and scorestreaks are annoying in general. I liked them way back in the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare because they were novel, and there were only a few of them to deal with, but these days I’d welcome streak-free playlists where I don’t have to be bullied by exceptional players who spend a quarter of the match shooting me from a helicopter.

The response here is probably more about vibes than anything: A wallhack sniper rifle is yet another prompt for the Call of Duty-fatigued to declare that they’re throwing in with the Battlefield crowd this year, and EA has smartly been playing up the idea that Battlefield 6 offers a more “grounded” take on modern warfare.

I don’t think Battlefield has ever been something I’d call grounded, but Call of Duty got so loaded up with live service cruft and goofy-ass crossover skins that it wasn’t a hard reputational battle for EA to win—it just had to not give Beavis and Butt-Head starring roles in BF6. Activision has started to change its tune on premium skins, but for the near future, I don’t know that it has much hope of escaping the narrative that CoD jumped the shark.

As Morgan just pointed out, it doesn’t help that Blops 7 hasn’t blown us away so far. I remain a sucker for CoD’s particular style of shooting, so I’ll check it out, but I doubt I’ll be good enough to ever earn this fancy sniper rifle. If I do, I guarantee that some kid will bound around a corner and noscope me before I even get a chance to look down that thermal sight, so you don’t have to worry about OP killstreaks from me, at least.

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October 1, 2025 0 comments

Art shows FF9 characters fighting in Alexandria.

Game Reviews

Even More Gorgeous Final Fantasy MTG Cards Are Coming And They’re Already Selling Out Again

by admin October 1, 2025

Wizards of the Coast is going to turn as much paper into gold as it can with Magic: The Gathering, and leading the way is its best-selling Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set. The company recently announced at MagicCon Atlanta 2025 that it will be releasing additional Final Fantasy box sets with new cards featuring more beautiful art spanning the Square Enix RPG franchise’s history. If you’re worried about your wallet, relax! The initial wave of pre-orders sold out instantly.

This mini-expansion includes a new Chocobo Bundle, a new Commander Deck, and four new Scene Boxes. They all arrive on December 5 and all of them are basically impossible to find online right now. Hopefully, fans have better luck with the inventory that comes directly to their local hobby shops. The Chocobo Bundle is $110 and comes with a bunch of booster packs, Chocobo-themed lands, alt-art reprints, a new promo card, and an incredibly neat life total click-wheel:

Then there’s the new $100 FFVII Limit Break Commander Deck that comes with a PC download code for the HD remaster of the original game and an exclusive Traditional Foil promo card that shows Cloud looking up at Shinra HQ. It seems way over-priced but is also completely sold out right now on Amazon.

The new Scene Boxes are what really have my attention. There’s one for Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, and Final Fantasy XV. Each comes with six Foil Borderless Scene Cards, six Art Cards, three Play Boosters, and one Display Easel for $42. The six cards go together to recreate scenes from each game. These new cards aren’t legal in standard play but look cool as heck. The art on the boxes alone makes me want one.

There was no shortage of Lord of the Rings Scene Boxes when they arrived in 2023, offering hope that after the initial frenzy subsides, fans will be able to get access to the new Final Fantasy ones without too much trouble or paying over MSRP for them. Are the boxes worth even that? In the grand scheme of things, probably not. But that’s the whole point of Universes Beyond: subverting logic with passion.

The result has been very lucrative for Wizards but a pain for many fans. “This whole collab has been so confusing,” wrote one after the latest Final Fantasy products were announced. “Every attempt I’ve made at actually purchasing cards has shown that the set is sold out everywhere, and they don’t seem to be printing any new ones. But there’s new cards still coming out too?” Yes. And I suspect these won’t be the last ones either.

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October 1, 2025 0 comments

Dwight from The Office appears on official Magic: The Gathering cards

Product Reviews

Magic: The Gathering cards featuring Dwight from The Office are a step too far for some, though others think they’re ‘so bad its circling back to being funny’

by admin September 28, 2025

“I’m rarely at a loss for words,” says Saffron Olive on the hive of scum and villainy formerly known as Twitter, “but I honestly have no idea what to say about the Dwight from the Office Secret Lair drop.”

Others have eagerly stepped in to fill the gap. Over on the MagicTCG subreddit, HiroProtagonest says, “I don’t wanna associate with someone who’d buy merch for The Office”, though in another thread Raevelry says, “This is so bad its circling back to being funny Like, this is a HIGH QUALITY shitpost cringe, its almost impressive, all of these fit his ‘lore’, they’re well drawn, amazing lore text”.

Secret lairs are mini-sets containing a handful of cards a regular Magic expansion wouldn’t have room for. A lot of them present alternate art, with guests like Junji Ito invited to present their own take on iconic cards, though since the best-selling Walking Dead secret lair back in 2020 they’ve often been crossovers. While more thematically matching crossovers like Final Fantasy tend to get full-size sets, secret lair crossovers provide a space for something smaller and often a bit more light-hearted, like Hatsune Miku or Monty Python.

And this is how now Dwight from The Office arrives in Magic. As announced in a roundup of October’s secret lairs, he’ll be getting his own six-card “drop” alongside fantasy artist Kieran Yanner, Iron Maiden, Jaws, and Furby. You might expect the Furby cards to attract the most controversy, but apparently it’s Rainn Wilson as a muscular farmer holding a giant turnip on a reskin of the Swords to Plowshares card that crosses the line.

Admittedly I’ve never seen the American version of The Office, but I’m struggling to have an opinion about this. Magic did a Fortnite-themed secret lair in 2021, so complaints about “Fortnite-ification” are a bit late to the party, and as someone who has read a bunch of Magic comic books and short stories I don’t think the sanctity of the game’s official setting is really worth preserving. I’m just going to shrug and move on with my day if that’s OK with you.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Were Pricier at Launch, But Now They’re Way Cheaper Than AirPods Pro 3

by admin September 27, 2025

We can’t blame you if you were planning on keeping your wallet stashed away until Amazon’s Fall Prime Day hits on Oct. 7-8, but the run-up to the big event is often where you can find sneaky-good deals as Amazon looks to clear out the shelves. We found this one today — 24% off the price of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, which brings their price down to just $190. That’s right in line with Apple’s AirPods 4 and a big drop from the closer-comparison AirPods Pro3.

The Galaxy Buds3 Pro got a full redesign from Samsung before dropping this past July, with an emphasis on comfort for long listening sessions. The sound is, of course, the amazing quality that Samsung’s famous for. And these buds are bolstered by Galaxy AI to enhance the noise cancellation, equalization, and more.

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Theater of the Mind

Whether you’re listening to your own playlist or connecting to your tablet or TV via Bluetooth, the surround sound from the Galaxy Buds3 Pro is so good and so immersive it’s like being in the theater, but the sound is all for you. Dual amplifiers and a 2-way speaker in each bud creates a 360-degree effect, and Galaxy AI powers an adaptive equalizer that optimizes the sound specifically for you.

You can disappear into the listening experience of the Galaxy Buds3 Pro regardless of where you are, because the Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation feature, also powered by Galaxy AI, intelligently adjusts the level of noise cancellation based on your surroundings, and changes is as the conditions around you change. You won’t want to put them down, and thanks to the comfort-enhancing redesign and long battery life, you won’t have to.

Futuristic Features

One of the most jawdropping features of the Galaxy Buds3 Pro is the real-time interpreter. When your Buds3 Pro are paired with a compatible Galaxy device, your can carry on a conversation with someone speaking a foreign language and hear the translation on your earbuds in real time. All you need is a Samsung account, from which you can download languages for free. (English and Spanish are pre-installed.)

Will there be incredible tech deals dropping during the two-day Fall Prime Day event? Of course. But consider the several days leading into the event a golden opportunity to find those under-the-radar bargains Amazon likes to drop as they get their inventory set for the big rush. This is most definitely one of them — a $60-off deal on Samsung’s newest and best wireless earbuds. Get the Galaxy Buds3 Pro for just $190 and beat the Prime Day rush.

See at Amazon

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Chick-fil-A launching new restaurant that won’t serve anything they’re popular for

by admin September 26, 2025

Chick-fil-A is preparing to test a standalone restaurant that focuses entirely on drinks, but fans hoping for chicken sandwiches or waffle fries won’t find them on the menu.

The chain confirmed to Today that the new concept, called Daybright, will debut in the Greater Atlanta area in 2025 under its subsidiary Red Wagon Ventures. Instead of Chick-fil-A staples, the spinoff will serve beverages like specialty coffees, smoothies, and cold-pressed juices, along with a food menu that hasn’t yet been detailed.

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Customers will not be able to order traditional Chick-fil-A items like waffle fries or chicken nuggets at Daybright, as the brand is positioning it separately from its core restaurants.

Facebook: Chick-fil-A Central & McCordChick-fil-A waffle fries and Chick-fil-A sauce are a match made in heaven.

A new lane for Chick-fil-A

Red Wagon Ventures was formed to explore ideas beyond the main business. Its name references founder Truett Cathy’s childhood, when he used a red wagon to sell Coca-Cola in his neighborhood.

Daybright enters the market as fast-food chains expand into customizable drink offerings, a space long dominated by Starbucks. Earlier this year, McDonald’s beverage spinoff CosMc’s closed after less than two years in operation, though some of its specialty sodas will now appear in select McDonald’s restaurants.

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Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s aren’t the only major fast food chains to open spinoffs over the last few years, either. KFC, another popular chicken restaurant, opened its first ‘Saucy by KFC’ restaurant in December 2024, which focuses on different types of sauce to spruce up its chicken offerings.

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September 26, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

‘There is a chance that they will stay in Roblox’: Gen Alpha is into PC gaming, but one industry analyst isn’t so sure they’re going to age out of their favorite haunt

by admin September 20, 2025

The kids are playing computer games.

According to the latest Global Games Market Report from the analysts at industry intelligence firm Newzoo, Gen Alpha—defined in this case as anyone born in or after 2010—makes up “an increasing share of the player base, especially on PC.”

As a lifelong fan of computer games, this is good news to me. The kids are with us! But the kids aren’t necessarily playing the kinds of games I grew up on: You may have heard of that excruciatingly popular platform called Roblox where kids are pressured to spend their parents’ money in games like “Steal a Brainrot.” (Which, to be fair, does sound like something you’d find on Newgrounds circa 2000, so maybe we’re not all that different.)

Earlier this week, I spoke to Newzoo director of market intelligence Emmanuel Rosier about what young gamers are up to, and two aspects of his perspective stuck out to me the most:

Gen Alpha doesn’t care if it can run Crysis. They’re growing up playing browser games, tablet games, phone games, and games on low-powered family PCs. You can’t win the Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox generation over with ray tracing.
They aren’t necessarily going to leave Roblox behind. It’s a common assumption, but in Rosier’s personal opinion, it’s not a sure thing that kids will age out of the Roblox ecosystem en masse.

Regarding videogame graphics, Rosier observed in a recent article that Battlefield 6 doesn’t support ray tracing, “not because the tech isn’t there, but because enabling it would exclude too many players.”

“I don’t think 8K is really the next step in the market,” he told me. “I don’t think it’s going to be about that. I don’t think the young people that were born playing on mobile or on tablet care that much about the visuals.”

Pushing graphics settings as high as they’ll go and fighting with Randy Pitchford over frame rates are still aspects of PC gaming today, but I think Rosier is clearly right that we’re no longer in a place where increased graphical fidelity is a primary selling-point for games. PC gaming is just as much something done on a low-spec family computer, or a Steam Deck.

I don’t think the young people that were born playing on mobile or on tablet care that much about the visuals.

Emmanuel Rosier

“The entry barrier on PC is lower than console, because in most families, there is already a computer, there is a laptop,” Rosier said. “But the other thing is that the younger players, they play the free-to-play cheap games that can run on any device. You don’t need a GeForce RTX 5000 to play Roblox. You just need a browser.”

But what about when the kids graduate from Roblox to the games I understand? Rosier, a parent to Roblox-playing teenagers himself, isn’t so sure that’s going to happen.

“I think there was this initial assumption from older people that Roblox is a platform for kids,” Rosier told me. “When they grow up, they will play GTA or Call of Duty and things like that. I’m questioning that perspective.

“I’d say there is a chance that they will stay in Roblox, because all their friends are still in Roblox, and there is this network effect, that it is difficult to go and play Call of Duty alone, or, you know, you have to convince so many friends to come and play with you and spend $80 or $70 to play a different experience. And I am not sure at this point that once these teenagers, or kids, grow up, that they will start playing different games and feel like it’s a promotion.”

That uncertainty about the Roblox generation’s future as PC gamers is just Rosier’s personal opinion for now, but Roblox games are getting surprisingly sophisticated (they have their own Call of Dutys in there), and the demographic data that Roblox shares does suggest that players stick around.

“We don’t have proof,” he said. “The only thing that we see that is being shared by Roblox is that the average age of the players of Roblox is going up, but I don’t think it’s older players jumping in, it’s just the existing players that are aging and not leaving.”

Ah well, c’est la vie. If you’re looking for me this weekend, I’ll be adapting to the future by playing Break Your Bones, a Roblox game where you “Try to BREAK all of your BONES.”

In related news, another bit of Newzoo’s recent report that interested me was an analysis of videogame release windows, which led the firm to suggest that publishers consider releasing some dang games in May instead of stuffing them all into the end of the year.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Randy Pitchford advises Borderlands 4 players to “get a refund” if they’re not happy with it, as social media tirade defending PC performance continues

by admin September 20, 2025

As criticism of Borderlands 4’s technical performance continues, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has told players to “get a refund from Steam if you aren’t happy with it”.

Since Borderlands 4’s release last week, Pitchford has been on a tirade on social media in defence of the game calling it “pretty damn optimal”.

In his latest post, Pitchford stated every PC gamer “must accept the reality of the relationship between their hardware and what the software they are running is doing”, effectively placing responsibility on individual players to perform their own optimisations.

Official Story Trailer | Borderlands 4Watch on YouTube

One player responded “Your product doesn’t meet the standards” and said it took days to get the game to a tolerable state.

“You can do whatever you want,” Pitchford replied. “The game is the game. Please get a refund from Steam if you aren’t happy with it.

“You made an analogy to a vehicle. I would not put a Ferrari engine in a monster truck and expect it to drive like a Ferrari. If you tell me about your specification, I can help you optimise your performance. I’m sorry you don’t like being told to use DLSS, but that is the way. If you’re not happy using the tools available to you to improve frame rate and you’re not happy with the frame rate you have, you should play a different game.

“The game is awesome and it is designed to be just fine of an experience at 30fps and feel great at 60fps. We also have provided a lot of options for you to make different trade offs between frame rate, resolution, and graphics features than we would make and we encourage you to use those tools to optimise to your taste. Would you like help tuning your experience better to your liking?”

Every PC gamer must accept the reality of the relationship between their hardware and what the software they are running is doing.

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 15, 2025

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Despite performance issues across both PC and console platforms, Borderlands 4 is proving popular. On Steam alone it’s reached a concurrent player count of over 304k (though this remains behind Hollow Knight: Silksong).

The official Borderlands account released some player stats such as items looted and bosses defeated, with Pitchford adding: “Holy bananas you guys played a LOT of Borderlands 4 over the weekend. The backend on-line services all held, which is what we hoped would happen!”

It also looks like a POV slider could be added for console players, following complaints of motion sickness.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

young workers being productive in an office meeting

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Over half of SMB employees say they’re considering quitting – so how can bosses keep their best talent?

by admin September 19, 2025

Half of HR leaders are struggling to attract under-30 candidates
Younger workers want more flexible working options
Greater AI training opportunities are needed, Personio says

More than half (54%) of British SMB employees have considered quitting over dissatisfaction with poor pay (33%), their work-life balance (29%, stressful environments (29%) and a lack of career progression opportunities (27%), new research has claimed.

The figures from Personio show how workers quitting has had a major impact on SMBs, with an average expense of £233-235k over the past year wasted on preventable turnover, mis-hires and skill mismatches.

Two in five (38%) HR leaders also agree that talent shortages are now their biggest risk, so is it time to rethink hiring?

SMBs are struggling to retain talent

The report found three-quarters (76%) of UK HR leaders now say they’re hiring for skills and aptitude rather than degrees, with two-thirds (67%) anticipating a rise in skill-based hiring over the next year.

Workers are clearly on-board with this, with 73% wanting employers to prioritize transferable skills allowing them access to new opportunities.

However, it’s become evident where companies are failing their workers – only 43% of employees feel they’re getting adequate AI training and support at work. A lack of it is said to make employees 22% more likely to leave.

With 49% of HR leaders now struggling to attract under-30 candidates, despite 74% agreeing that junior talent is important, it’s clear that companies need to offer more engaging learning opportunities to retain talent.

Personio’s report also reveals evolving post-pandemic trends, with 39% of younger workers saying they’d quit if asked to work from the office more than three days per week. Three in five (62%) agree that the traditional 9-5 is outdated, with 55% across all ages noting better performance when choosing their own hours.

Personio Chief People Officer Lenke Taylor summarized some of the changes companies can make to put them at an advantage: “Investing in development, trusting employees to work flexibly, and hiring for potential – not just on their credentials.”

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September 19, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Extremist Groups Hated Charlie Kirk. They’re Using His Death to Radicalize Others

by admin September 13, 2025

For years, extremist groups, white nationalists, and militias like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers saw Charlie Kirk not as their ally, but as their enemy.

Though Kirk denigrated trans people, Muslims, unmarried women, and many minorities and advocated for an America with Christianity at the center of every aspect of life, he was, in their view, a moderate. For some, his staunch support of Israel’s government made Kirk a target rather than a friend.

But in the immediate aftermath of Kirk being fatally shot while speaking at a Turning Point USA event Wednesday at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, these same groups were quick to frame the incident as an attack on one of their own, portraying Kirk’s death as part of what they see as an ongoing war against white, Christian men. The same groups were relatively quiet on Friday after police announced they had arrested a 22-year-old from Utah for the killing who had no obvious ties to the left.

These groups, many of which have been relatively dormant since the mass arrests surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol, have used the outpouring of grief around Kirk’s death as a lightning rod, a signal that they need to mobilize and take action. Many of them, including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have used Kirk’s death as a recruitment and radicalizing tool to convince his supporters to take a more extreme worldview.

“Nothing can stop what is coming,” Ryan Sánchez, the leader of the far-right National Network, who was caught on video giving a Nazi salute during last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, wrote on his Telegram channel. “We are mobilizing young Nationalists to defend our communities against the Radical Left—we need your help!”

The appeals appear to be at least somewhat working: Sánchez’s post was accompanied by a screenshot showing a $1,000 donation he received on Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo.

“This is the beginning of a movement that may define our nation,” the donor wrote on the site. “Use it for good and purge the country of these insane ideologies.”

Another donor, who called himself “White Nationalist,” commented: “Time to take our country back fellas. Get to work!”

Sánchez, an acolyte of far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, has already mobilized. A video from a vigil for Kirk that Sánchez promoted in Huntington Beach, California, on Wednesday shows a group of men chanting: “White man fight back.” He shared another image of himself speaking at the vigil on his Telegram channel, with the caption: “DEATH TO THE LEFT.”

The video of the chanting in Huntington Beach was shared in many other extremist groups, including the Anti-Communist Combat HQ channel on Telegram, which is a hub for amplifying antisemitic, racist, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from groups including Active Clubs and the National Justice Party.

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September 13, 2025 0 comments

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Theater of the Mind

Futuristic Features

A new lane for Chick-fil-A

SMBs are struggling to retain talent

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