An FCC filing lists a pair of unreleased Apple over-ear headphones as on the way, but it’s more likely to be a Beats product than an AirPods Max stablemate.

Occasionally, unannounced Apple products surface through regulatory filings as they undergo testing and other necessary tasks before going on sale. While these filings can often provide a lot of clues about what Apple has planned, they can sometimes raise more questions than answers.

A filing at the Federal Communications Commission found by @Aaronp613 and spotted by MacRumors on Friday are for a pair of “Bluetooth over-ear headphones.” The report, dated May 5, 2026, identifies Apple as the company behind the tested product.

There are a few real clues about what it is, aside from the description that it uses Bluetooth and has an over-ear design. There is an Apple product number of A3577, an FCC ID of BCGA3577, and an image showing where the FCC ID would be shown on an earcup.

While an FCC filing confirms that something from Apple underwent testing, it does not indicate when the headphones will launch and go on sale. The best guess is sometime in 2026.

Personal audio speculation

The nature of an early FCC filing like this isn’t that helpful when determining what product line it belongs to. There’s enough vagueness to make it too difficult to nail down.

That Apple product number isn’t that helpful, since A3577 is far away from the AirPods Max 2, which is A3454. The preceding AirPods Max were A2096 and A3184 for Lightning and USB-C, respectively.

The unearthed image does little to help, either, since it is a simple diagram. There’s no way to determine the product’s identity visually.

While it is entirely possible for Apple to be working on other over-ear headphones to accompany the AirPods Max 2, there are no rumors circulating about it.

Another possibility is that Apple is preparing more headphones for its subsidiary, Beats. The most recent Beats headphone release was the Solo 4 in April 2024.

The other headphones in its lineup, the Beats Studio Pro, were released in July 2023, making it three years old.

It is entirely possible that a brand new headphone line is on the way, but it’s a small chance. The better bet is on an update to an existing older product line, making the Beats Studio Pro a good candidate.

Most people working with AI today are not using one tool. They are using multiple tools for a single task. A PDF goes into ChatGPT for a summary, key points are copied into Canva for design, and a script moves into ElevenLabs for audio. Similarly, a slide deck gets built in Gamma. Then everything is checked again against the original source because nobody fully trusts the output. That is the modern version of tab overload.

ChatGPT and Claude are strong with text, but visuals still take work. NotebookLM is excellent for source-based summaries and audio overviews, but it does not give users much creative design control. Gamma makes quick slides, but it does not turn research into podcasts, comics, videos, or broader creative assets.

IvyCraft enters that gap. It is not just another chat box, but works more like an integrated AI creation workspace built for people who need to turn source material into finished communication assets.

What Is IvyCraft?

IvyCraft is a source-to-screen AI creation workspace. That means it starts with raw material and helps turn it into polished outputs. The input side is broad. Users can upload PDFs, paste URLs, add video links, work with audio files, or start from text. The output side is where IvyCraft becomes more interesting. It can generate infographics, slides, videos, comics, podcasts, posters, and storybook-style content from the same source base.

The most useful part is source tracing. When IvyCraft generates a claim, users can trace it back to the original material. AI tools are useful, but only when the user can verify where the information came from. IvyCraft is designed around that need, which makes it more practical for research, education, marketing, and business content. In other words, IvyCraft is positioned as a platform that moves beyond simple chat by turning documents, videos, and audio into multiple content formats. 

How IvyCraft Was Tested?

For this review, IvyCraft was tested across two weeks of regular use. The input materials included a 20-page academic PDF on climate technology, a 45-minute YouTube investor lecture, and a recorded internal team audio memo. These were chosen on purpose. A good AI workspace should not only handle clean text. It should be able to make sense of dense research, spoken content, and messy internal material.

The outputs tested included one slide deck, one infographic, one short video, one comic strip, and one podcast script. The IvyCraft review focused on three things: whether the outputs stayed coherent, whether the design quality was usable without heavy fixing, and whether the platform reduced hallucination by tying claims back to source content.

Results:

Deep Dive: Core Features

Here are some core features of IvyCraft that you should know about:

The Source Library

The Source Library is where IvyCraft starts to feel less like a chatbot and more like a workspace. 

Instead of asking questions in an empty chat window, users first upload or add their source materials. That could be a PDF report, a YouTube lecture, an audio memo, a URL, or a text document. IvyCraft then reads those materials before generating anything.

That matters more than it sounds. In many AI tools, users spend half the time reminding the model what the project is about. IvyCraft keeps the source context available. The workflow feels closer to building from a research folder than chatting with a general model.

For researchers, this is useful because arguments stay closer to the source. For marketers, it means one webinar or white paper can become several content assets. For teachers, a lesson can start from one video or chapter and turn into a visual learning material.

AI Infographics: The Visual Breakthrough

The infographic tool is one of IvyCraft’s strongest features. The basic process is simple. Highlight or select content, then generate an infographic. The question is whether IvyCraft simply dumps bullet points into a decorative template or actually understands the information.

The answer is mixed, but mostly positive. For the climate tech PDF, IvyCraft did more than create a circle of bullets. It grouped related ideas, separated causes from outcomes, and turned timeline-style information into a visual flow. The first version still needed refinement, mostly spacing and wording, but the logic of the layout made sense.

This is where IvyCraft stands apart from text-first AI tools. A summary is useful, but an infographic changes how quickly someone else can understand the material. The platform seems to understand that knowledge work does not end with comprehension. It ends when the idea can be communicated clearly.

Results:

The weaker side needs polishing. Dense source material can lead to crowded visuals. Shorter, cleaner sections produce better infographics. Still, as a first draft, the feature is strong enough to save serious time.

AI Video and Comics

The video and comic tools are built for repurposing. That is where IvyCraft starts becoming valuable for educators, marketers, and internal communication teams.

A dry report can become a short explainer video. A lecture can become a comic strip for students. A webinar can turn into short social content.

The short video output was best when the topic had a clear structure. The investor lecture, for example, converted well into a short “key takeaways” video. The pacing was acceptable, the script was readable, and the visuals followed the main ideas. It was not a replacement for a professional editor. It was, however, a very solid first version.

Result:

The voiceover quality was usable. It sounded clean enough for internal content, learning material, and social snippets. For polished brand campaigns, manual editing would still help.

The comic output was surprisingly effective for education-style content. IvyCraft turned abstract climate tech concepts into a sequence of panels that felt easier to follow than a plain summary. 

The main limitation is depth. IvyCraft’s AI video feature is better for short loops, explainers, and social clips than long narrative videos. That is not a failure. It is just where the tool currently fits best.

AI Slides: The Gamma Competitor

Slides are where IvyCraft enters more familiar territory. Gamma, Tome, and similar tools already made prompt-to-deck generation popular.

IvyCraft’s advantage is not that it creates slides. It is that the slides are grounded in the uploaded source material.

When the climate tech PDF was converted into a deck, IvyCraft did a decent job identifying the argument structure. It opened with the problem, moved into market forces, then covered technology categories and investment implications. That is better than simply shuffling facts.

If the goal is a quick startup pitch from a short prompt, Gamma may feel faster. If the goal is a slide deck based on a real document, IvyCraft feels safer.

Source Traceability: The Fact-Check Mode

Source traceability is one of IvyCraft’s most important features.

When a generated output contains a claim, users can trace that claim back to the source. In practice, this reduces the anxiety that comes with AI-generated material. Instead of rereading the entire PDF to verify one point, users can jump back to the original section.

NotebookLM is already strong in source-grounded Q&A. IvyCraft’s key move is applying similar trust mechanics to creative outputs. A slide, infographic, or podcast script is more useful when it can still point back to the original source.

For casual users, this may feel like a nice bonus. For professional users, it is one of the reasons the product is worth taking seriously.

Workflow Comparison: Before Vs. After

The biggest value of IvyCraft becomes obvious when comparing workflows.

This is where IvyCraft’s value becomes clearer. It does not only save time on one task. It reduces handoffs between tools.

That matters because most knowledge work is not difficult at one step. It becomes difficult because the work keeps moving between apps.

Why Choose IvyCraft Over NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is a strong tool. It is especially useful for source-based Q&A and audio summaries. But it has limits.

NotebookLM can help users understand sources, but its creative flexibility is narrower. Its generated images cannot be edited afterward in the same way a design workspace allows. Outside of image and podcast generation, users still rely heavily on prompts and external tools to create visual assets.

IvyCraft does not have that same limitation. It supports a wider range of outputs, including PPTX presentations, infographics, comics, podcasts, posters, videos, and more. That makes it more useful when the goal is not only to understand material but to turn that material into communication.

Source traceability is also comparable in intent. Both platforms take grounding seriously. The difference is that IvyCraft carries that traceability into more content formats.

So the choice is not simply “IvyCraft vs. NotebookLM.” It is more about the job. If the goal is studying and asking questions, NotebookLM works well. If the goal is turning source material into finished creative assets, IvyCraft has the broader workspace.

Head-To-Head Comparison

IvyCraft’s strongest advantage is range. It combines analysis and creation in a way most competitors do not.

Pros And Cons

Here are some pros and cons that can help you come up with a decision:

Pros

1. The Glue is Real: IvyCraft brings reading, summarizing, designing, and repurposing into one flow. That is its strongest quality.
2. Visual IQ is Better than Expected: The infographic and comic tools are not just decorative. They often organize ideas in a way that makes sense.
3. Source Tracing Builds Trust: Being able to click back to original material reduces the “black box” feeling that comes with many AI tools.
4. Good for Repurposing: One source can become a deck, podcast, short video, and visual summary.

Cons

• Video Still Works Best for Short Content: It is useful for clips and explainers, but not yet a full replacement for long-form video production.
• The Workspace Model Takes Adjustment: Users coming from ChatGPT may expect to start typing immediately. IvyCraft works better when sources are uploaded first.
• Visual Exports May Need Cleanup: Dense infographics and slides can require manual spacing fixes before final use.

Pricing And Value

IvyCraft’s value depends on how many tools it replaces. A typical content or research workflow may involve Canva Pro, ChatGPT Plus, NotebookLM, a video tool, a podcast tool, and a slide generator. Even if some of those tools are free, the workflow still costs time and attention.

• Basic: $7.00/month with 10,000 tokens
• Pro: $14.00/month with 20,000 tokens
• Max: $70.00/month with 100,000 tokens

Who Is IvyCraft For?

Good Fit

1. Researchers and Analysts who need to turn dense source material into visual briefs, slides, or summaries.
2. Educators who want to make lessons more engaging by converting chapters or videos into comics, quizzes, storyboards, or audio material.
3. Content Marketers who need to repurpose one webinar, report, or podcast into multiple pieces of content.
4. Consultants who regularly turn research into decks, client summaries, and visual explanations.

Bad Fit

1. Coders who need advanced code execution, debugging, or notebook-style computation.
2. Users Who Only Need Simple Chat may find the workspace model more than they need.

FAQ

The Verdict

IvyCraft earns a strong 4.5 out of 5. It is not just a chat wrapper. The platform understands something many AI tools still miss: knowledge work does not stop at summarization. Most professionals need to explain, present, teach, publish, or repurpose what they learn. That is where IvyCraft stands out. It connects source understanding with content creation, and it does so across formats that usually require several tools. It still has rough edges. Some features might need improvement, but the direction is right. For anyone tired of copying text between AI tools, design apps, slide generators, and audio tools, IvyCraft feels like a serious step forward. Stop switching tabs. Start crafting. Try IvyCraft for free!

If you’re a PlayStation customer who lives in the US, you may be eligible to claim part of an upcoming $7.85 million settlement payout. The case centers on an allegation that Sony “unlawfully eliminated competition and monopolized the market for [its] digital games” by no longer selling game-specific vouchers that let PlayStation owners buy digital games from different online shops.

The class-action lawsuit Caccuri v. Sony Interactive Entertainment alleged that Sony’s actions caused “consumers to pay more for certain digital games than they otherwise would have paid on the PlayStation Store.” It alleges that this action is a violation of antitrust laws, as it forces PlayStation customers to buy from a single storefront at an inflated price.

Put simply, the lawsuit alleges that Sony limited the sale of digital games on other marketplaces, funneling customers into its own PlayStation Store. Some of these games include PlayStation exclusive titles, such as The Last of Us, as well as third-party games like Mass Effect Trilogy and Resident Evil 4.

The lawsuit was initially settled in 2024, but the settlement was rejected twice during the approval process — most recently in July 2025 (PDF), when the presiding judge said the proposed plan “[did] not provide an estimated recovery or a range of potential recovery for class members.” The approval process was reinitiated in April.

Sony denied that it engaged in any wrongdoing or that settlement class members were damaged by its actions, and the court has not decided if the company violated any laws. Despite this, the court has preliminarily approved the $7.85 million settlement payment, subject to the court’s final approval hearing.

The settlement website is live now. The hearing is scheduled to take place on Oct. 15, and it’s meant to confirm the settlement sum, allocate up to 25% of the funds for attorneys’ fees and create a plan to distribute the rest of the money to eligible class members.

If you fit all of the criteria to be part of the Sony PlayStation game-voucher settlement, you’re automatically a class member in this lawsuit and will be able to collect a portion of the settlement money — added directly to your PlayStation Network account wallet — sometime after the final approval hearing.

Gamers who have deactivated their PlayStation Network accounts can apply for the settlement payment by sending qualifying purchase information to the email address info@PSNDigitalGamesSettlement.com. Customers with deactivated accounts will receive cash payments instead of PSN account accreditation.

You can opt out of the settlement if you’d like to retain your right to sue Sony separately in regard to its game-voucher sales practices. If you don’t send a written request to the court opting out of or objecting to the settlement by July 2, you will remain part of the settlement class.

Who can be part of the Sony PlayStation settlement?

Not every PlayStation owner is automatically eligible. The money is reserved for those who purchased a digital game through the PlayStation Store during a period after Sony ceased its sales of game-specific vouchers for alternative online storefronts.

In order to join, you must meet the following qualifications:

1. Be a living individual human being in the US or its territories.
2. Have purchased one of the eligible digital games (PDF) through the PlayStation Store between the period of April 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2023.

Affected individuals are automatically part of the settlement class and will receive their compensation through their PlayStation Network account wallet, subject to approval at the final hearing, the date and time of which could change. Any updates will be posted to the settlement website.

How much will the Sony PlayStation settlement pay?

It’s unclear how much each settlement class member will receive, though we know affected parties will automatically receive compensation in the form of PlayStation account funds.

Up to a quarter of the $7.85 million settlement will be used to pay attorneys’ fees, taxes and other administrative costs. The remaining settlement money will be administered equally to every settlement class member. Settlement class members will likely see a couple of dollars added to their PlayStation accounts once the funds are fully allocated.

Crostplay2 spent six months transforming the official LEGO Wall-E set into a robot that actually moves and responds on its own. Pixar fans everywhere know the official set looks perfect on a shelf yet stays completely still once assembled. Crostplay2 decided to change that completely by adding electronics, custom parts, and precise controls that bring the little trash-compacting character to life. The finished robot drives around smoothly, tilts its head, waves its arms, plays sounds from the movie, and even lights up in different patterns, all operated from a distance with a PlayStation 4 controller.

Everything starts with the LEGO Wall-E set, which was released late last year, but Crostplay2 turned the normal design on its head. They kept the famous yellow body and rails, but made room for completely new innards. The enhanced motor configuration is the true game changer; hobby-grade power allows the tracks to move like tanks, allowing you to blast forward, spin on a dime, or simply sit and spin in circles. To make things even more interesting, the right trigger accelerates the tracks, while the left joystick gives each side more independence, allowing for some really tight turns.

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Its brain is an ESP32, which facilitates WiFi connections and allows you to connect via Bluetooth without the need for any other components. It also includes the Bluepad32 library, which allows it to communicate with a PS4 controller like a pro, ensuring that every stick, trigger, button, and even the gyroscope function as they would on your console. The cool thing is that when you tilt the controller, the head moves with it, courtesy to a bespoke dual-rod neck created from 3D-printed pieces and rods that replaced the goofy original joint. It’s pretty smooth now, and it looks as it should be after all is said and done.

You’ll also notice a host of tiny micro servos hidden away doing their thing, such as making the arms go up and down on a timer so they don’t collide with the tracks, opening and closing the front hatch, and even adjusting the head from side to side when you press a button so it appears to be looking around. Since there weren’t enough pins on the ESP32 to handle everything, an Arduino Nano had to come in and help with the chest-mounted screen, which displays an animated solar charging graphic and tells you how much battery life you have left. Some addressable LEDs illuminate the headlights and taillights, and when the party mode is enabled, they flash all over the body like crazy. Finally, when you press the controller’s touchpad, a small speaker plays some brief and beautiful sound clips from the film.

One of the most useful features is that Crostplay2 designed and printed custom mounts and gears that really work with LEGO, as normal bricks weren’t going to suffice for extra power. Thanks to those carefully printed components, the complete device seems very clean from the outside. Prioritizing safety, a small isolation switch was included to protect the motor drivers during firmware upgrades after some questionable input during the early stages of development fried a couple of boards. Crostplay2 also included a tiny 2,000-volt taser module, which allows you to create some real drama, complete with visible electrical arcs, when you want that extra burst of personality to match the movie’s daring vibe.
[Source]

South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said the wealth created by artificial intelligence must benefit the wider public, warning that the labour tensions that nearly shut down Samsung Electronics this week are not an isolated event but a preview of what the AI era will produce. Speaking to CNBC on Friday, Bae said that as AI generates unprecedented corporate profits, the question of how that wealth is distributed, and whether the technology worsens inequality, is now a matter of national policy.

“In the age of AI, more of these super-large companies will continue to emerge,” Bae said. “In that process, labour-management conflicts may continue to arise, and when they do, it will be important to resolve them wisely through dialogue.”

The reference was unmistakable. Samsung’s largest labour union had been preparing an 18-day strike that South Korea’s prime minister warned could cost $668 million per day. The walkout was suspended on Wednesday after government-mediated negotiations produced a tentative deal. Workers had demanded that 15% of Samsung’s operating profit be allocated to bonuses and formalised in employment contracts. Samsung had offered 10%. The union is voting on the proposed agreement from Friday to 27 May.

The dispute was not abstract. Samsung’s Q1 2026 operating profit reached ₩57.2 trillion, an eightfold year-on-year increase, driven almost entirely by high-bandwidth memory chips for AI infrastructure. The Lee family’s wealth doubled to $45.5 billion in twelve months. Samsung’s share price has risen nearly 144% year to date. SK Hynix is up almost 200%. The Kospi index has gained more than 86% in 2026, surpassing last year’s 75% rise. The wealth is real, concentrated, and visible.

Bae, who also serves as South Korea’s minister for science and technology, pointed at automaker Hyundai as another pressure point. The company is integrating Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robots into its manufacturing processes, a deployment that Bae said has generated “many concerns and worries” about the impact on workers. Hyundai acquired a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics in 2021 and announced its AI robotics strategy at CES 2026, positioning itself to lead what it calls a “human-centred robotics era.” The framing is aspirational. For workers on the production line, the concern is more immediate.

The political context adds urgency. On 12 May, South Korean presidential official Kim Yeong Beom proposed on Facebook to distribute excess tax revenue generated from Korea’s AI and semiconductor sectors directly to citizens. The post triggered turmoil in markets, with Samsung and SK Hynix shares dropping sharply before an official reportedly clarified that the proposal was Kim’s personal opinion and not a subject of formal government discussions. The fact that even a speculative post about redistributing AI wealth could move billions in market capitalisation illustrates how sensitive the question has become.

Bae framed Seoul’s goal as building an “AI-inclusive society, a society where no one is left behind in the AI era.” The language echoes similar commitments from European and American policymakers, but South Korea’s position is unusual. The country’s economy is more dependent on semiconductor manufacturing than any other advanced nation. Chips accounted for 37% of South Korea’s total exports in April. Samsung and SK Hynix together represent a disproportionate share of the Kospi’s gains. The AI boom is not one sector among many for South Korea. It is the sector.

When asked whether the concentration of market gains in two companies represented a vulnerability, Bae argued that Samsung and SK Hynix sit atop a broader ecosystem of suppliers and service companies that also benefit. He said South Korea is now trying to establish a competitive advantage in physical AI, the category that encompasses robots, autonomous vehicles, and industrial systems capable of sensing, reasoning, and acting in real-world environments. “Semiconductors and AI infrastructure provide the fundamental foundation,” Bae said. “On top of that, Korea is trying to build out the full spectrum of AI capabilities, including various hardware equipment, software, and related services.”

The tension between AI-driven productivity and workforce displacement is global. Detroit’s Big Three automakers have cut 20,000 white-collar jobs while posting hundreds of AI positions. Salesforce cut 4,000 support staff after deploying AI agents. The pattern is consistent across industries and geographies: AI makes companies more profitable and workforces smaller, and the question of who captures the gains is becoming the defining political issue of the technology’s adoption.

South Korea’s version of this question is sharper than most because the gains are so concentrated. Two companies, in one sector, in one country, have seen their combined market value increase by hundreds of billions of dollars in six months. The workers who run the fabrication lines that produce the memory chips powering the AI boom nearly walked off the job this week. Bae’s statement that “the benefits of AI must also go to the public” is an acknowledgement that the market alone will not solve the distribution problem. Whether Seoul’s policy response matches the scale of its rhetoric will be tested every time the next Samsung contract cycle arrives, and every time a Hyundai factory installs another Atlas robot.

Early iPhone 20 leaks indicate a screen that curves gently along every edge of the device. This wraparound approach could eliminate the typical bezels and give the front a continuous look with no visible breaks. When combined with a full glass back, the entire handset may feel like one smooth slab held in the hand.

According to reports, this is part of a larger plan for the 2027 release, which will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the first iPhone. According to several supply chain insiders who use social media, curved display prototypes are currently in the testing phase. The early manufacturing stages may encounter some challenges, but it is evident that they are making considerable work toward developing the panels that Samsung will manufacture specifically for them.

People in the know mention a simpler rear camera configuration on some models; a prevalent theme is two lenses side by side in a small horizontal strip. We’ve heard that one of the new camera sensors is designed to pick up a lot more light and detail in images, offering users better overall results. Of course, ordinary models are expected to retain a small notch for the front camera, whilst a special edition may take it a step further by totally concealing the selfie camera and face recognition features beneath the display.

Battery life appears to be a significant improvement, as Apple is rumored to be transitioning to silicon-anode technology, which allows you to pack more energy into the existing battery while also stretching out the time between top ups. This transition away from lithium-based cells will not make the phone any larger or heavier. Inside the handset, we can expect to see the new, next-generation A21 processor paired with some fancy new high bandwidth RAM, which will aid in the performance of some of the more demanding AI technologies running on the phone. Some speculate that the chip’s manufacturing process may alter, although nothing has been proven as of yet.

It appears that the chassis may also change significantly. There is a lot of discussion about employing materials other than titanium and aluminum, such as new alloys that can withstand higher temperatures and are lighter. That will have to be weighed against the fact that the frame must hold the curved glass while remaining strong enough to handle daily wear and tear. Physical buttons may disappear and be replaced by touch-sensitive surfaces on the sides. These would function by recognizing pushes via vibrations, similar to a laptop trackpad, making it very easy to distinguish between a light or forceful touch.
[Source]

It’s been a long, long time coming, but remakes of two all-time classic puzzle adventure games hit PS5 and PS VR2 this week. Cyan Worlds released this version of Myst on Meta Quest headsets in 2020; PC, Mac and Xbox in 2021; and iOS in 2022. PlayStation had been an outlier until now. It’s available for Sony’s console and VR headset (usually $35, 20 percent of for PlayStation Plus members until May 26)

The remake of the sequel, Riven, debuted on PS5, PS VR2, Xbox Series X/S and the Microsoft Store on PC as well (also $35, but with a limited-time discount). The PS5 Pro versions of both games have “better view distance, foliage, textures, post-processing and shading,” per the PlayStation Blog.

I’ve never played Myst, but Riven was one of the first games I had on PC as a kid. I remember it looking very pretty back then, unlike any game I’d seen before.

Alas, I never made much progress. If I recall correctly, I couldn’t figure out what some of the various handles and levers I found in the opening section actually did and I quickly gave up. Perhaps I’d have more success in Riven (and Myst) now, even if puzzle games aren’t necessarily my forte.

Speaking of being an idiot as a child, I spent a lot of time playing Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind when I was young. I really liked it at the time, but in hindsight that game is not good. I mention this because Bubsy 4D — the first Bubsy game since 2019 and the first one in 3D in 30 years — dropped this week.

The quippy bobcat is back thanks to Fabraz (Demon Tides) and publisher Atari. In this platformer, Bubsy sets out on a mission to recover a Golden Fleece from the technologically enhanced sheep that stole it — I’m not going to try to explain the lore beyond that.

Bubsy has some new tools at his disposal, like being able to roll into a ball form and move faster. That should help players who want to finish levels as quickly as possible as claw their way up the online leaderboards.

There’ll be a nostalgia factor for a lot of players here. Honestly, it’s strangely comforting to me that Bubsy sounds as annoying as ever.

Bubsy 4D is out now on PC (Steam, GOG and Epic Games Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. It’ll typically run you $20, though there’s a 10 percent launch discount on GOG.

Thick as Thieves is a game that we’ve had our eye on for a while, and it’s had an interesting journey toward hitting Steam this week ($5). This was originally planned as a multiplayer heist game from a team that includes two stalwarts of the immersive sim and stealth genres in Thief and System Shock 2 veteran Paul Neurath and Deus Ex creator Warren Spector. The idea was that players would battle each other to steal valuable items in a 1910s setting that featured magic and nascent technology.

However, during development, OtherSide Entertainment pivoted after realizing that the solo and two-player co-op mode was more fun than the original vision of competitive heists. The developers said they may add a PvPvE mode down the line.

To begin with, Thick as Thieves features two thieves, two maps (which can be altered by adjusting the difficulty settings), 16 contracts and half-a-dozen pieces of gear. At the outset, the campaign is said to last for around four hours.

Amanita Design’s latest game is Phonopolis, which looks utterly gorgeous in this trailer. It’s a puzzle adventure set in a 3D world made from hand-painted cardboard. The developers animated it at 12fps to mimic the style of stop-motion films.

Here, the residents of the dystopian city of Phonopolis are bossed around by a leader who issues commands via loudspeakers. But one young resident is immune to these orders and starts to fight back against The Man. As Felix, you can rebel by manipulating the loudspeakers to solve puzzles with the help of other characters. You’ll be shifting the environment around as well.

Phonopolis is hitting all the right notes for me and I’m eager to check it out. It’s available on Steam, GOG and Epic Games Store. It’ll usually run you $25, but there’s a 10 percent discount until June 3.