Futurama returns for its 12th season July 29—a fact that just a few years felt like an impossibility. Thanks to Hulu, the oft-canceled and oft-revived series dropped its first new episodes in 10 years in 2023, and there are more to come even after this latest batch of 10. Its continuing existence is assured for now, so there’s only one question left to ask: is it still worth tuning in?
io9 watched the first six episodes for this (spoiler-free!) review, and the short answer is “yes.” There’s no new ground being broken here; taken as a whole, the episodes represent exactly what fans expect from Futurama, which is 31st century shenanigans galore revolving around the misfits of Planet Express.
Also present as usual are clever plots that reflect on 21st century culture, which this time around includes NFTs—a concept still so confusing in the far future that only the kid characters fully understand it—as well as the perils of chatbots, toxic-positivity co-workers, and fast fashion. There are also more timeless themes, including childhood trauma (cleverly viewed through a lens that borrows heavily from Squid Game), animal rights, the search for family roots, and the difficulties in building friendships as an adult.
And, of course, there’s all the stuff that really makes Futurama, Futurama: the hilariously weird asides, the pun-laden product names, the momentary gross-outs, and the lightning-fast oddball references that make you want to rewind to double-check your own eyes.
Along with that goes the fantastic cast, especially John DiMaggio as Bender, who finds ways to make even his character’s well-worn catchphrases sound funny every time, but also Billy West (who plays Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, and Zoidberg), Katey Sagal (Leela), Phil LaMarr (Hermes), Lauren Tom (Amy), and the flexibly voiced Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, and David Herman as various other characters. There are, as always, guest stars in season 12, but we won’t spoil their reveals here.
Season 12 of Futurama, created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen, debuts July 29 on Hulu; it’s a weekly episode drop, so you’ll have to wait until the end of September if you want to binge it all at once.
GSC Game World announced today that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl will miss its intended September 5th release date, hitting PC on November 20, 2024 instead.
These two extra months will give the developers time to fix bugs so the game can launch with the quality the team wants to achieve. While it might be saddening for fans to see the highly anticipated title experience yet another delay, it’s almost a miracle that it’s still aiming for a 2024 launch date, considering the hell Ukrainians have been through in the past few years.
A Developer Deep Dive showcasing new footage, exclusive interviews and a full walkthrough of one of the game’s quests will be released on August 12th, so players can at the very least look forward to knowing more about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2‘s world next month.
Chornobyl Exclusion Zone has changed dramatically after the second massive explosion in year 2006. Violent mutants, deadly anomalies, warring factions have made the Zone a very tough place to survive. Nevertheless, artifacts of unbelievable value attracted many people called S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, who entered the Zone for their own risk striving to make a fortune out of it or even to find the Truth concealed in the Heart of Chornobyl.
EPIC NONLINEAR STORY IN SEAMLESS OPEN WORLD
Take over a role of the lone stalker and explore photorealistic seamless open world in a 64-km² radioactive zone with a variety of environments that reveal post-apocalyptic atmosphere from different angles. Make your way through the Zone to define your destiny as you choose your paths within highly branching epic story.
VARIETY OF ENEMIES AND HUNDREDS OF WEAPON COMBINATIONS
Meet members of different factions deciding who of them worth your friendship and who deserve a bullet. Engage intense gunfights with a variety of enemies that follow different tactics trying to outsmart you. Choose your preferable firearms from 30+ types of weapons with numerous modifications that allow creating hundreds of distinctive lethal combinations.
LEGENDARY MUTANTS WITH DIFFERENT BEHAVIOUR MODELS
Prepare to encounter horrifying mutated creatures that will try to slaughter you following different behaviour model. Each mutant may appear in different subtypes which makes their behaviour less predictible. Truly extreme danger represent regions with lairs with numerous mutants hunting in large groups.
ARTIFACTS OF INCREDIBLE VALUE AND UNFORGIVING ANOMALIES
The most valuable artifacts and secrets of the Zone are hidden in the most dangerous places. Beware of the hazardous anomalies and unique devastating arch-anomalies as you hunt for highly valuable artifacts scattered around the Zone. Will you dare to unveil the mysteries of the Zone that took lives of many others before you?
Discover legendary S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe and experience:
Unique gameplay built on a blend of FPS, horror and immersive sim
Non-linear story with the variety of paths that lead to one of the several endings
Benchmark-setting graphics developed using cutting-edge photogrammetric and scanning technologies
Advanced artificial intelligence systems that will keep engaged even the most hard-boiled players
Life-simulating system “A-life 2.0” that makes the game world feel alive as never before
Immersive survival mechanics like hunger, sleeping, bleeding, radiation effects that enrich the gameplay
Dynamic day-night cycle and weather will add even more realism to the gameplay experience
Mod support giving the freedom to the creative players to extend and enrich the game universe
Multiplayer mode, that will be added soon after release as a free update
It is a broad question with no single correct answer. Combining a functional PCB with a hardware product design is practically building an electronic product. And just like the question in the beginning, it is a broad category of products, from a simple everyday device like a USB drive to a state-of-the-art avalanche probe.
Developing a USB thumb drive design takes little more than purchasing ready-made flash drive boards and connectors. Then, you can get creative with the enclosure design using CAD software and a consumer-grade 3D printer. Since you don’t need to hire an experienced mechanical engineer to lead the project and partner with a custom prototype maker, the overall development cost for the new enclosure will not exceed several hundred dollars.
The latter is at an entirely different level of sophistication. Take the AvaTech SP1 Smartprobe as an example; the GPS-enabled device connects to a user’s smartphone via Bluetooth and is equipped with an accelerometer and an inclinometer as well as a ranger finder – all in addition to a whole bunch of optical depth sensors and a custom digital force sensor. It collects data from the surrounding environment and sends them to the smartphone to help the user avoid triggering an avalanche when skiing. It probably took the company around a million dollars to have it developed, tested, and certified. In general, simple consumer electronic products are less expensive to build and bring to market than complex, specialized, high-tech solutions.
Hardware Design Cost and PCB Prototyping Rates
The scope of the term “hardware product design” must be clearly defined as well. Building an electronic product with a 3D printer and a prototype platform, such as an actuator kit, should not require more than $50,000 upfront investment. However, you may need anywhere between $200,000 and $300,000 to make the product at least presentable to potential buyers. The development requires a thorough product design process and plenty of engineering input, so much money goes to hiring mechanical and electronics engineers. If the plan is to prepare the design for mass production, you may need an even more significant investment.
Design complexity is among the most significant factors affecting development costs. While a large company can afford to have a few failures during market readiness, a small startup should focus on keeping things simple to avoid costly mistakes.
A complete range of product development services from a small design studio can cost up to $60,000 for concept creation, 3D modeling, physical prototyping, and testing. An electronic product with a user interface via screen or mobile app requires software development, which can easily double the investment requirement.
Freelance engineers
Hiring freelance engineers is more expensive than partnering with a design studio regarding electronic product development. To build a quality product design, you need a dedicated team of at least a mechanical, electronics, and software engineer. A project manager is also necessary to oversee the process and collaboration. A software engineer is required when the product is supposed to work with a computer or smartphone; otherwise, it is a permissible omission.
PCB prototyping requires firmware integration, a task best left to the electronics engineer. Firmware is low-level software embedded in PCB hardware components, whereas an app is high-level programming typically handled by computer scientists or software engineers. For most electronic products, app/software development is only necessary after going through PCB prototyping and firmware integration stages.
In other words, a small design team of mechanical engineers and electronics engineers alone should be enough to get the job done up until the point of PCB prototyping. Hardware/enclosure development occurs after PCB prototyping because both parts must be fitted to each other. If the PCB layout features USB ports, audio jack, buttons, and knobs, the enclosure needs to accommodate the parts. According to the BLS, the typical rates for electronics and mechanical engineers are as follows:
Hourly Rates
Occupation
Lowest 10%
Median
Highest 10%
Mechanical Engineers
$29.80
$46.30
$72.72
Electronics / Electrical Engineers
$36.00
$52.00
$82.42
Since the data is based only on the pay rate of mechanical and electronics engineers in the United States, the most significant factor between the hourly rate gaps is the experience level instead of location.
The hourly rates are manageable. You must consider the expected development timeline until a functional PCB is prototyped and a hardware enclosure is built. An electronics engineer must complete a series of procedures before a layout is ready for prototyping. Such methods include producing a Bill of Materials based on preliminary evaluation, drawing schematics, and designing the PCB layout. The whole process can take several months. After the PCB prototyping, the electronics engineer performs the firmware integration; these tasks need another month to complete.
A mechanical designer begins the work by drawing a 3D model of the enclosure based on the dimensions and specifications of the PCB prototype. You will have to wait at least a month for a simple enclosure design and up to 6 months for a complex one. Access to a 3D printer can speed up the enclosure prototyping work, which should not take more than a week. Preparing the design for mass production, usually with injection molding technique, can be a tedious 4-week process.
Most product development firms offer a complete range of services, including PCB prototyping, encompassing the typical step-by-step progression of a hardware design creation.
Concept evaluation: At the end of a concept evaluation phase, a design firm should develop several design iterations based on your original idea. The point is to revise your idea and improve a rough design into its best possible refined version. Good communication is the key to ensuring that you and the firm are on the same page so the project may progress quickly.
Product schematics: the design firm produces a Bill of Materials based on the product schematic drawn on a computer. BoM lists all electrical components and materials required to build the product. It is the part where you get a clear idea of how much it would cost to develop an enclosure design and build a PCB inside it.
PCB layout and enclosure model: an electronics engineer creates a digital PCB layout. The software will verify the design at the end of the process to see whether the configuration is correct and by the schematic. At the same time, a mechanical engineer produces 3D models of the enclosure design. Development for the enclosure goes slowly during the early stages, but it picks up the pace once the PCB prototype is ready. The 3D models function only as visualizations. You can also order a lifelike render if needed.
PCB prototyping: The PCB prototype takes about a week to complete. Generally, be prepared to have 3 – 5 PCB layout prototypes for the first run. You need another prototyping run after some tests, evaluations, and revisions to fix potential functionality issues. Increase the order quantity to have enough product samples for different experiments.
Embedded firmware: an electronics engineer starts the hardware/firmware integration to establish connection and communication among the components.
Enclosure prototyping: The 3D models are revised according to the PCB specification and dimensions. A mechanical engineer builds the design on CAD software and sends the file to a 3D printer. If your enclosure is supposed to have metal parts, the prototyping process needs to involve a CNC machine.
Certifications: The design firm can help you apply for the certification process through recognized bodies such as FCC, CSA, and UL. Most certifications are voluntary.
Documentation: if packaging is not needed, the design firm can go directly to the documentation work to produce various documents such as instruction manuals, warnings, and maintenance recommendations.
A product design firm does not usually provide mass-production services. However, it will be willing to help you find a potential factory partner to manufacture the product in large volumes. Depending on the design, some additional work might be required before you can proceed to the manufacturing step. For example, a plastic enclosure requires an injection molding technique. The design firm will design the mold and have it fabricated.
End Note
Product development is not something to take lightly. The development cost will be your biggest obstacle, but it won’t be your only challenge. There is a long road from a design concept to a tangible product. For a small company, developing a new hardware product can be a considerable investment, especially when the product is an electronic device with embedded firmware or mobile app integration. Having an experienced design firm or a team of mechanical and electronics engineers on your side can make the difference between the efficient development of a feasible design and a significant money drain.
I like a good factory game, but there’s a fine line between “I enjoy this” and “I am uninstalling this before it ruins my year.” I can’t tell on which side of the divide Shapez 2 will fall, but I’m planning on finding out when it launches in Early Access next month on August 15th.
Alien: Romulus brought the facehugging terror to Friday’s San Diego Comic Con panel in Hall H. To promote the upcoming installment to the celebrated horror franchise, Disney and 20th Century Studios pulled out the stops — and unleashed a horde of facehuggers into the crowd — to make for a memorable hour of horror.
Director Fede Álvarez (Evil Dead) was on hand with cast members Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu to show the packed room what will be in store for movie-goers once the movie premieres on August 16.
The events of Alien: Romulus take place between Alien and Aliens. While the movie exists as a standalone story — meaning audiences won’t need to see Ridley Scott’s classic or James Cameron’s epic follow-up — Alvarez revealed there will be “member berries” (aka Easter Eggs) sprinkled throughout for the fans.
“I mean, it is his own story, right?” Álvarez said. “You really need to have seen the other ones to really understand or enjoy this film.”
Álvarez called his movie “two hours of insanity,” which was inspired by the works of Scott, Cameron, David Fincher (who directed Alien 3) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who helmed Alien: Resurrection). Paying homage to the directors who came before him, he revealed that each artist’s style informed his direction with Romulus, which he acknowledged as a period piece.
Three separate first-look clips were played throughout the panel to whet the proverbial whistles of every fan in attendance, and they were glorious.
In the first preview clip, the Hall H fans got a closer look at the facehuggers and chestbursters in, and there were hordes of them. Alan Seeger’s haunting poem, “I Have A Rendezvous with Death” was recited over the beginning visuals as the group of colonists work to make sense of the abandoned ship they’ve boarded. As they clamor to fix a ripped-apart synthetic, a collection of alien pods begin hatching in the adjacent room and pick off members of the crew.
What was remarkable about this first look was the kinetic nature Álvarez’s crew gave the creatures. They’ve always been fast, but as I watched them move underwater, they took on an amphibious quality. It was refreshing to see team members bat the creatures away from their faces with weapons instead of immediately perishing. Álvarez did assure the room that many people would indeed die. So that’s a nice confirmation of the bleak thrill ride to come.
The second clip gave a closer, jarring — and surprisingly intimate — perspective of a chestbursting alien birth. It was a refreshing take on the familiar sequence, which raised the stakes while also slowing things down at the right moment to allow the audience to fully take in the majesty of this god-awful childbirth.
During the Q&A portion of the panel, Hall H suddenly went dark. Red lights began to flash and sirens wailed throughout the room. Suddenly, a barrage of motorized face-huggers took over Hall H and the stage. Bodies lay on the floor with creatures smothering their faces, and an actor took the stage and went through the final stages of death before a chest burster tore through his shirt.
The third and final clip found Spaeny’s Rain attempting an escape through the hallway of the abandoned ship, only to witness the hatching of an adult Xenomorph. It was, by all accounts, a glorious sight.
Facehuggers stormed Hall H and claimed their victims at San Diego Comic Con 2024.
Getty Images
Capping off the event in style, Disney and 20th Century Fox treated everyone in the crowd to facehugger masks and then had the masked-up crowd pose in a grandiose Hall H selfie with Álvarez and the cast.
More than a handful of directors have helmed movies within the Alien franchise — and yes, I am including Prometheus, Alien: Covenant and the Alien vs. Predator movies. The quality of these releases varies from epic classics to box-office calamities. For Álvarez, the risk of making a crappy movie is part of the reward when it has a chance of becoming a celebrated work of art.
“For me, when you sit down in the theater, the logo shows up, and the lights go down. I feel that this is it; This is the one that is going to change my life,” he revealed. “It’s kind of crazy because most movies are sh*t. Five minutes in, you go, ‘This is not going to change my life.’ But for the first five seconds, you do feel that way because it did happen to you. And we all keep looking for that moment.”
Alien: Romulus is poised to bring some old-school flavored glory to the franchise. The passion and dedication of the cast and their trusted director make this release sound like a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all involved. According to Álvarez, they all gave 200 percent to “give you the movie you deserve.” And really, that’s all I could ask for.
A Guide To Custom AI Solutions: How To Use ChatGPT For Sales?
What is ChatGPT?
ChaGPT Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) a boom in the technology industry introduced by OpenAI in 2022. It’s a profound innovation of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. OpenAI’s Large Language Model (LLM) powered ChatGPT has created waves in the modern tech industry.
ChatGPT is trained with a diverse set of databases which allows the application to generate creative, detailed, structured, and tweaked content responses. Delivering human-like text responses to user prompts, this modern generative AI application is gaining momentum across the industry. Moreover, with its Natural Language Processing capabilities, ChatGPT can better understand and engage customers users through a qualitative conversation.
Generating content as a core application, ChatGPT is also witnessing breakneck growth in various aspects. Using ChatGPT a software development team can write code and test code and a marketing and sales team can create compelling email content and sales campaign content faster. Further, integration of ChatGPT’s APIs into your CRM-like applications could help you instantly respond to customer queries and ensure personalized experience through reliable communication all the time. Hence, companies can achieve customer satisfaction and improve retention rates.
Like these, the applications of ChatGPT or the uses of ChatGPT are incredible. The HR department, development team, operational team, marketing, and sales department can avail the benefits of ChatGPT. Especially, the use of ChatGPT for sales and marketing increasing nowadays to streamline various aspects of the sales processes.
Today, in this article, we would like to give you a little information on how can ChatGPT be useful for sales and what are the benefits of customizing ChatGPT for your sales operations.
Top Applications of ChatGPT For Sales
ChatGPT For Customer Support
The generative AI powered ChatGPT using Natural Language Processing potentialities would help sales and marketing teams to automate responses to customer queries. Hence, integrating a well-trained GPT model into CRM applications will help can automate the process of receiving customer queries and sending accurate responses faster than a human workforce does. IT will improve the customer loyalty and at the same time boost productivity.
Lead Campaign Content Ideas
Leveraging the innovative advanced ChatGPT platform, sales and marketing professionals can generate content required for digital campaigns. ChatGPT is been trained with vast versatile databases related to market trends that help sales professionals get content ideas and relevant snippets and other marketing materials for boosting their campaign activities.
ChatGPT Makes Language Translations Easier
ChatGPT is the most useful asset for translating languages. Using ChatGPT like large language learning model, it will be easy to sales professionals to give prompts in one language and getting responses in required language. Hence it can be used as a language translator and supports multilingual interactions.
Customer Segregation Content
Giving necessary customer data input as a prompt to this advanced and AI-powered GenAI-based ChatGPT, sales professionals can segregate customers’ data based on their requirements, order types, order quantity, payment status, etc. It will reduce manual efforts and help in maintaining clear and structured sales data with zero errors.
In this digital world, getting noticed by prospects is a key step for ensuring a strong lead pipeline and improving conversions. Giving introductions to the brand’s services and products and doing continuous follow-ups are two mandatory tasks of a sales professional. ChatGPT will play a significant role in email generation in just a matter of seconds.
Providing your requirements such as targeted audience group, email intention, and email type (a service introductory draft or a follow-up), sales professionals can get creative email content. Later, it can be customized as per business requirements. Hence, time-consuming email writeups would be automated and help resources focus more on lead generation and nurturing.
Data Summarizations
It is one of the top benefits of ChatGPT in sales. ChatGPT helps the sales team or operations team to better manage sales processes and derive insights from historic sales data. These insights or summarized data would help the sales team to predict the market growth opportunities and create results-driven sales strategies.
Generate and Nurture Leads
Integrating ChatGPT into your existing sales applications and processes, identification of quality leads, gathering associated customer data, and creating lead generation striation would become seamless. By defining your prospects, ChatGPT assists in picking the best quality leads seamlessly and contributes to optimized ROI.
Guidance on communication strategies
ChatGPT guides communication strategies to sales representatives. You can also train ChatGPT to automate onboarding processes, pushing automated recommendations to leads based on their previous search history feedback collection and analysis, and many more can be done by customizing ChatGPT APIs and integrating them into your sales applications.
These are a few significant applications of ChatGPT in sales. This powerful Generative AI application helps the sales team generate content that meets their needs. Like these, ChatGPT offers multiple benefits to sales teams.
Wrapping Up
Whether conversational AI or generative AI apps will have a bright scope in the years ahead with their smart, intelligent, and automation capabilities. Marketing, sales, development, and almost every department can gain from ChatGPT content generation potentialities and improve their focus on core activities.
USM is the best AI app development company in the USA. Specializing in the design, development, and deployment of trending AI, and ML. NLP, RPA, and other leading-edge technology-based mobile apps, USM is the best partner for all types of software development projects. Based on your AI project requirements and scope, our expert AI consultants provide you with top-notch AI consulting services and AI development services that enable intelligent automation across your business processes.
The new AutoCAD 2025 is here, and it comes with powerful updates to the following specialized industry toolsets:
AutoCAD Architecture
AutoCAD MEP
AutoCAD Mechanical
AutoCAD Electrical
AutoCAD Plant 3D
AutoCAD Map 3D
AutoCAD specialized toolsets provide access to libraries of detailed components, symbols, parts, and functions tailored to AEC professionals with specific industry requirements.
They can automate repetitive or common tasks such as developing floor plans, sections, elevations, detail drawings, and more. Using the specialized toolsets not only increases productivity thanks to automations and customizations, but also helps ensure consistency among different users working on the same project.
As with every new release, AutoCAD 2025 brings new features and improvements to optimize and improve your workflow. Learn below how you can take advantage of these latest updates.
AutoCAD Architecture 2025 now supports automatic synchronization of changes across multiple users on Autodesk Docs, enhancing productivity and collaboration.
Edits made by one user are automatically synced with others working on the same project, eliminating the need for a restart or refresh, and benefiting teams collaborating within a single office or across different locations.
Edits made to a project hosted on Autodesk Docs by one user automatically sync with other users working on the same project without the need to restart or refresh the production.
The Design Center in AutoCAD Architecture 2025 now has approximately 36 new MVBlocks and block references, including furniture, vehicles, and kitchen appliances. These blocks are available in both US Imperial and Metric content packs.
Along with a significant reduction in export and import times for large IFC files, and improved import quality, we’ve introduced a tech preview which improves geometry fidelity—ensuring cleaner representations as well as smoother lines and edges for specific objects, with the potential for more objects to be supported in future updates.
The new AutoCAD MEP 2025 also supports automatic synchronization of changes across multiple user machines to enable more efficient collaboration among team members and improved IFC workflow times and capabilities.
AutoCAD MEP 2025 includes updated content packs with new pipe and pipe fittings, duct fittings, and MVParts.
The MEP content packs include new pipes and pipe fittings, duct fittings, air handling units, VAV units, air terminals (diffusers and grilles), and MVParts—all of which are available in US Imperial and Metric settings.
In AutoCAD Mechanical 2025, surface texture symbols now support the latest revisions of ISO and ANSI/ASME standards. You can annotate documents with the latest ISO 21920-1:2021(E) and ANSI/ASME Y14.36 – 2018 standards while maintaining support for all legacy revisions.
Content-wise, more than 1,197 new mechanical standard parts have been added to the latest version’s content library. These parts, which include specific screws, bolts, and nuts, are available in English and all other languages that are supported in AutoCAD Mechanical.
More than 1,197 new parts have been added to the content library of AutoCAD Mechanical 2025.
Updated Activity Insights now contain detailed information about drafting standards and symbol revisions. The “Drafting standard changed” and “Symbol revision changed” events are recorded whenever modifications are made through the Options dialog box or the AMSETUPDWG command, provided the changes are committed.
There are also several quality improvements in this release, including
Enhanced preservation of mechanical standards when saving to previous formats
Improved viewport dimension scaling with chamfer dimensions
Optimized functionality for creating blocks with holes
Other enhancements in graphics and stability
In AutoCAD Electrical 2025, users can now update or create an entirely new drawing list report with the Automatic Reports tool.
To create a drawing list report, which extracts and presents detailed settings for each drawing in the project, navigate to the Reports tab, select Automatic Reports from the Miscellaneous panel, and choose Drawing List in the Automatic Report Selection dialog box.
Easily create or update a drawing list report with the Automatic Reports tool in AutoCAD Electrical 2025.
The Bill of Materials (BOM) report in AutoCAD now includes enhanced sorting by TAG, allowing users to organize the report based on specific tags assigned to components. This new feature offers alphanumeric and numeric-to-alphanumeric sorting options, accessible through the Reports tab in the Schematic panel under Bill of Material settings.
Along with detailed tracking of project-wide updates initiated through specific commands through the Activity Insights palette, improvements to wire type synchronization are also included with this update. Changes to wire layer properties like color, size, and line type now propagate automatically across all synced drawings if the wire type is updated at the source arrow.
AutoCAD Plant 3D 2025 now allows collaboration within subfolders on Autodesk Docs, simplifying cloud sharing of projects. You can search for specific folders, and expanded folders are searchable for improved performance; the project path is displayed for clarity when projects have the same name.
This release also includes updates to the P&ID ISA symbols and their settings across the platform, so that they comply with the latest ANSI/ISA-5.1-2022 standard. More instrumentation symbols have been created and included, along with other updates to ensure the migration — although it is still possible to work with legacy ISA symbols.
P&ID ISA symbols have been updated to match the latest ISA standard in AutoCAD Electrical 2025.
The enhanced P&ID modeler in AutoCAD Plant 3D 2025 provides users with a comprehensive view of all line segments—including inline components, nozzles, start/end equipment models, branches, and off-page connectors. Team members can now easily select P&ID objects from the Line List window and place corresponding Plant 3D counterparts in the 3D model, ensuring accurate transfer of property values.
In AutoCAD Map 3D 2025, visibility and workflow are optimized thanks to the option to set dark or light themes in the Workflow Designer, which features updated icons.
What’s more, the redesigned Workflow Designer includes a search box for filtering activities, and it also displays activity properties directly in the interface, streamlining the workflow editing process.
You can now customize the color settings of the Workflow Designer using the Options dialog box in AutoCAD Map 3D 2025.
In addition to the introduction of the FDO GeoPackage, which provides access to GIS data stored in GeoPackage files, the FDO WFS Provider in AutoCAD Map 3D has undergone several enhancements. This will support users with key improvements to BBOX keywords, IGN’s Geoplateforme, and performance with large layer sets.
Finally, the 2025 toolkit release features new coordinate systems across various categories, enabling team members to operate with a broader range of coordinate systems and geographic data. The categories include
Mortal Kombat 1’s much-anticipated story expansion has been revealed, and it’s called Khaos Reigns. It unfolds after the events of the story campaign and centers on the invasion of Titan Havik from an alternate reality, who seeks to spread anarchy across all timelines.
The expansion’s cinematic story introduces new playable characters, Noob Saibot and the now female Sektor and Cyrax. These three fighters make up half of Kombat Pack 2 and will be available when the DLC launches on September 24.
In keeping with the tradition of prior games, the second half of Kombat Pack 2 features guest fighters from various films. Scream’s Ghostface, Terminator 2’s T-1000, and Conan the Barbarian are on the way, but there’s no release window for their arrival. Kombat Pack 2 comes included with Khaos Reigns and cannot be purchased as a standalone character bundle.
Animalities are making their return as a free content update upon Khaos Reigns’ release. First introduced in Mortal Kombat 3, these beastial finishing moves see fighters morph into animals to eviscerate opponents. The trailer reveals Mileena can turn into a giant, horrifying praying mantis, for example, and a press release states every playable fighter will have an Animality (which would include the movie-born guest fighters for an interesting thought).
Speaking of free content, today, owners will receive the MK95 Scorpion skin modeled after his appearance in the live-action 1995 Mortal Kombat film.
Khaos Reigns launches digitally on September 24 for all platforms MK1 is available on. It will run for $49.99 on every platform except for Switch, where it costs $39.99. You can read our review of the base game here.
I have created a simple Azure Function triggered by service bus queue messages. It works on my local and I can see the break point hit. However, when I try to publish it to Azure I get this error – Publish profile creation failed.
