Google’s answer to Canva is an AI tool where you prompt instead of design

With Google Pics, Google is pushing deeper into the creative software market dominated by Canva and Adobe, but with a distinctly AI-first approach.

Ikea’s Xbox collection includes a giant thumbstick stool
Ikea’s Xbox collection includes a giant thumbstick stool

Ikea has teamed up with Microsoft to launch a new assortment of gaming-inspired furniture and home accessories, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the first Xbox console. The nine-piece Yxstaby collection (good luck pronouncing that) includes a TV stand, laptop stand, side table, lounge chair, and multi-functional toolbox, with standout products like a stool, cushion, […]

Adobe Firefly can now generate music, speech and sound effects
Adobe Firefly can now generate music, speech and sound effects

Adobe Firefly’s audio tools became generally available on Thursday. Generate Music, Generate Speech and Generate Sound Effects now sit beside the image, video and design tools in its creative AI studio. Each runs on a different model. Generate Music us…

Canva’s backers cut $7.1bn from its valuation, and its own valuer cut more
Canva’s backers cut $7.1bn from its valuation, and its own valuer cut more

Emma Rapaport and Paul Smith reported the markdown for the Australian Financial Review on 14 August. The figure appears two ways and both are correct. It is $7.1bn in US dollars, and A$10bn, which is the number most headlines carried. The cut takes Bla…

Microsoft is killing its AI mascot, ten months after building it
Microsoft is killing its AI mascot, ten months after building it

The cull lands on Tuesday. Group Chat, Podcasts, Copilot Labs and consumer Deep Research all retire that day, according to Microsoft’s own support page. Mico goes at the same time, out of the voice experience and into Learn Live as a tutor. The whole t…

Instagram changed its logo. The bit you actually tap is the same
Instagram changed its logo. The bit you actually tap is the same

Instagram changed its wordmark on Thursday. A wordmark is the written name, the word “Instagram” as it appears at the top of the app. It is not the icon. The pink and orange gradient square on your home screen is untouched. The change itself is small. …

This is Instagram’s new logo
This is Instagram’s new logo

Instagram has unveiled a new wordmark, moving away from the recognizable cursive typeface it’s used over the last decade. The updated wordmark is a strange mix of half-cursive half-print that’s somehow less legible than its predecessor. Like, that totally says “Instagzam,” right? “The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, […]

Adobe just put more than 70 of its tools inside ChatGPT
Adobe just put more than 70 of its tools inside ChatGPT

Adobe’s whole business is the apps creative professionals open every day. This week it put more than 70 of those tools inside a rival’s chatbot. The company has launched a single Adobe plugin for ChatGPT that pulls in Photoshop, Premiere, Lightroom, Il…

Jensen Huang made $172 billion selling AI chips. He just gave $75 million to an art school.
Jensen Huang made $172 billion selling AI chips. He just gave $75 million to an art school.

Jensen and Lori Huang have given Vanderbilt University $75 million to establish the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design in San Francisco. The $75 million is a matching gift, and it has already spurred over $100 million in ad…

Google is open-sourcing its 3D emoji
Google is open-sourcing its 3D emoji

Now, if you want to, you can use Google’s 3D emoji in your own creations. The company shared some details about how it went about designing the little pictograms and why, as part of World Emoji Day on Friday. Things you might not necessarily worry about in a 2D illustration suddenly become very important when […]