design
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Waze lets drivers display their moods in the app
Waze is rolling out a brand refresh and app update that lets users share their mood.
Photoshop’s AI subject selection now handles portraits with ease
Adobe is adding new features to Creative Cloud apps to help you collaborate or share your projects with others. Of course, there are a number of new features for your regular everyday work, too. Perhaps the most interesting addition is an AI-powered selection feature for portraits that will save you a ton of time.
The PS5's dashboard will have ‘a whole new visual language’
The PlayStation 5 was finally unveiled last week and whatever you make of the design, we can probably agree that it’s something of a departure from the console’s previous iterations. Now, PlayStation’s head of UX design has said we can expect the same for its user interface.
It doesn’t matter what the PS5 looks like
The PlayStation 5 is an unattractive piece of tech. Next to the clean, utilitarian and purportedly more powerful Xbox Series X, it's not a great look for Sony.
Photoshop for iPad gets Curves and Apple Pencil pressure settings
Curves and Apple Pencil sensitivity settings have finally arrived on Photoshop for iPad.
Lenovo's $400 digital picture frame is half-off if you pre-order it
In an unusual move, Lenovo is allowing people to pre-order its upcoming $400 Smart Frame device on Indiegogo. Doing so, you get a 50 percent discount.
Facebook's redesigned website finally starts rolling out to everyone
After months of limited availability, Facebook's redesigned desktop website is now rolling out to all of the social media platform's users.
Why Facebook redesigned Facebook.com
Twelve months ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a major redesign of the company's behemoth social network. Dubbed 'The New Facebook,' or FB5, it was a visual marker for the company's pivot toward privacy-focused communications. Facebook's iconic shade of blue was stripped from the top navigation bar, for instance, and an overhauled Groups tab made it easier to find and keep up with communities that were relevant to you.
LG confirms specs of its flagship Velvet phone ahead of launch
LG has released official Velvet specs ahead of the phone's launch next week.
Adobe's Photoshop and Fresco for iPad are now bundled for $10 a month
Adobe is letting iPad creatives save a bit of money by bundling together its iPadOS Photoshop and Fresco premium subscriptions.
Apple's next iPhone may look like a smartphone-sized iPad
Apple’s next flagship smartphone may look more like the classic iPhone 5 than the current iPhone 11 Pro, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The upcoming devices will reportedly have flat steel edges rather than curved ones and pack a display that’s flat and flush with the body. In other words, picture the current iPad with much smaller bezels and shrink it down to the size of a smartphone.
MIT project turns spray paint into a functional user interface
Scientists from MIT have developed a way to create interactive surfaces using airbrushed inks -- or in other words, graffiti that actually does stuff. The SprayableTech system lets users create room-sized interactive graphics with sensors and displays that can be applied to everything from walls to furniture. Spray-painted art on walls can be used to turn lights on and off, for example, while designs airbrushed onto the arm of a couch can be used to control a TV. After designing the interactive artwork with a 3D editor, the system generates stencils for airbrushing the layout onto a surface. Then a series of inks are applied -- conductive copper ink, paint, dielectric, phosphor, copper bus and a clear conductor -- and then a microcontroller is attached, connecting the interface to a board that runs the code for sensing and output. The system hinges largely on the stencil design phase, to ensure the inks are placed in the right places and can connect to the microcontroller properly, so at this stage there's not much opportunity for spontaneous exploration -- you couldn't just spray a design on the wall and expect it to control your lights, for example. But the team is now working on creating modular stencils, potentially allowing users to try the system at home without needing to use a 3D editor or cut out stencils themselves. And looking ahead, the team has even bigger plans. Michael Wessely, lead author on the paper about SprayableTech, says, "We view this as a tool that will allow humans to interact with and use their environment in newfound ways. In the future, we aim to collaborate with graffiti artists and architects to explore the future potential for large-scale user interfaces in enabling the internet of things for smart cities and interactive homes."
Dell's XPS 15 and 17 leak with sleek new designs
It looks like Dell is about to launch highly revamped versions of the XPS 15, along with an XPS 17 laptop for the first time in years, according to an image on its site.
Google's AI can replicate your photos in the style of iconic paintings
There are loads of apps out there that use filters to turn your photos into works of art. You can give your selfie a delicate watercolor feel, for example, or ramp up the colors and composition to create a frenzied portrait of your pet. Now, thanks to Google, you can give your pics a makeover in the style of your favorite artist.
I went to a sneaker launch in VR because of the coronavirus
If you're launching a new product, you normally want to put on a show with a sprinkling of razzle and plenty of dazzle. That means getting journalists and fans into a big room, trotting out your wares and letting everyone play with the new toys. Unfortunately, the world is currently on lockdown to deal with COVID-19, and large groups in auditoriums is a big no-no right now.
iFixit's MacBook Air teardown confirms 0.5mm thicker keyboard
If you've been lucky enough to get your hands on the new MacBook Air, you know that the keyboard really is excellent. Thanks to the scissor mechanism, which replaced the hated butterfly keyboard, the keys are noticeably cushier, with more travel. iFixit took a closer look at those keys in its latest teardown and reports that the height difference is about 0.5 millimeters.
The terrible, fantastic life of AbleGamers COO Steven Spohn
When Twitch streamer DrDisrespect won the Trending Gamer prize at the 2017 Game Awards, there was a tiny riot on Twitter. There's always a buzz of hashtag activity after a winner is announced as people congratulate or disagree with the pick, but this time around, there was a small yet clear consensus: Steven Spohn should have won. As the Chief Operating Officer of AbleGamers, a charity working to make video games more accessible to people with disabilities, Spohn was the face of positive change in the industry. He regularly shared insightful affirmations on Twitter, as well as deeply personal stories about the realities of living with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a disease that was progressively destroying his motor neurons and muscles. Meanwhile, DrDisrespect was best known for wearing a mullet wig and mocking his teammates with racist accents in Fortnite streams.
Unity is offering premium game development tutorials for free
Unity, arguably the biggest game engine in the world, is giving away hundreds of hours of premium game developing tutorials for free because of the coronavirus. For three months until June 20th, aspiring game makers will be able to get their hands on courses on everything from coding to design, and get access to Unity's daily interactive live lessons, Create with Code.
Google is rolling out a redesigned Podcasts app to some Android users
According to 9to5Google, Google has started rolling out a redesigned Podcasts app to some Android users. Thankfully, it appears to address at least some of the issues people have with the company's current offering.
