HOLIDAY

If you’ve ever played a Yakuza or Like a Dragon game, there are certain things you know by now – they feature several crime families and take at least a TV episode’s worth of time for exposition before you get to even touch the controller. In this regard, Infinite Wealth is the biggest culprit yet, with the new location Hawaii nowhere in sight for a good five hours. Instead, you learn about lead character Ichiban’s job at the local job centre and his lack of dating experience.Eventually, the plot emerges. He’s to go to…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain After a recent city break to Paris, one of our colleagues told us about how much she'd enjoyed some excellent coffee during her trip. But it hadn't been served in a restaurant or a cafe—she had made it herself at the apartment she was staying in using one of those capsule coffee machines. When she returned home, she…

Pedestrians walk by an advertisement for Klarna.Daniel Harvey Gonzalez | In Pictures via Getty ImagesWhen she started shopping for the holidays late last year, Kiki Andersen was struggling to buy her loved ones gifts. So she turned to a novel solution to get through the season: Buy now, pay later. The 31-year-old comedian from Los Angeles used Klarna and PayPal to split a variety of purchases into four interest-free payments spread out over a series of weeks. At the time, her upfront cost was about a quarter of the…

Combination showing store signage from Aberdrombie & Fitch and Lululemon stores.Getty ImagesAbercrombie and Fitch, Lululemon and American Eagle Outfitters all raised their fiscal fourth-quarter outlooks Monday, saying they drew customers looking for holiday gifts and items for themselves in November and December.Yet Wall Street greeted the news with varying levels of enthusiasm Monday morning. Shares of Abercrombie and Amercian Eagle shot up about 7%. And Lululemon sank by more than 1%, after investors weighed the…

From compact designs ideal for casual outings to more advanced models suitable for capturing the vibrancy of a lively house party, our curated selection encompasses a diverse range of options. We will demystify technical jargon and highlight the unique features of each camera, allowing you to make a choice that resonates with your preferences. We believe that a camera should not just capture moments but enhance them, and our guide aims to assist you in finding the perfect point-and-shoot companion to kickstart…

A UPS worker sorts packages in New York on Dec. 18, 2017.Adam Jeffery | CNBCOnline spending rose 4.9% year over year, setting a record for e-commerce during the holiday season, as shoppers pounced on discounts and leaned on buy now, pay later to cover more of their purchases, according to Adobe Analytics.Sales totaled $222.1 billion on retailers' websites and apps from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, according to Adobe.Adobe's data covers more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail websites, 100 million unique items and 18 total…

‘Twas the week after Christmas, and in a quiet corner of the San Fernando Valley, lines of waste collection trucks waited to offload their goods onto a growing mountain of garbage.Here at the Athens Materials Recovery Facility in Sun Valley, cardboard boxes careened down conveyor belts, empty bottles and cans flew through crushers and sorters, and hand crews sifted through soggy recyclables. Wrapping paper, aluminum trays and Amazon logos were a near-constant among the detritus.“We get a lot more boxes during this time…

The holidays are over, and while the bright lights of Christmas have faded, the memories remain. I know that I'm thinking back on all the fond memories of the season, as well as the weirder moments I'm still thinking about. For example, Sylvester Stallone recently shared holiday greetings on social media and decided to center his Christmas message around Rocky. Yes, Rocky. I wouldn't list any of the Rocky movies in my best Christmas movies list, as I tend to associate the boxing franchise more with the Fourth of July or…

SAN FRANCISCO — To help with my holiday shopping this year, I recently turned to a new personal assistant online. “I’m looking for a Christmas present for my mother, who spends long hours working,” I typed. “Is there something she can use in her office every day?” “Of course!” came the instant reply. “Does your mother have any specific preferences or needs for her office? For example, does she need organization tools, desk accessories, or something to help her relax during breaks?” So began my conversation with Shop AI, a…

Image: Paramount, Warner Bros., Warner Bros., Netflix, BBC, Lucasfilm, Mario Tama/Getty Images, Marvel Universe, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros., 343 Industries, Lucasfilm/Paramount, Screenshot: BBC, Photo: Emilio Madrid/Getty Images for Netflix (Getty Images)It’s the final week of 2023, but the news hasn’t stopped quite yet. As the year wound down, the io9 crew found time to look back on the year’s events, say goodbye (and possibly hello?) to some old friends, and return to some haunts we left behind. Check them out here!—James…