Legendary Apple artist Susan Kare has released 32 new retro-inspired icons that are designed to live outside of your computer screen. Instead, the “Esc Keys” collection Kare created in collaboration with Asprey Studio consists of mechanical keyboard keycaps and wearable pendants, each featuring an 8-bit pixel art illustration like a dog, a plant, mail, and coffee.

While these icon designs are brand new, the style will be recognizable to anyone familiar with Kare’s work. She’s responsible for creating much of the iconography on the first Macintosh personal computer operating system, including the “Happy Mac” boot-up icon and the original floppy disk file save symbol.

Kare and Asprey Studio founder Alastair Walker told Fast Company that “there’s hidden meaning” to each of the new designs that represent things that people can enjoy doing away from their keyboards. Each piece in the Esc Keys collection is crafted in silver or gold-coated silver and is limited edition — from 30 to 120 pieces depending on the icon — so purchasing something won’t come cheap.

Prices start at $650 for silver computer keys, ranging up to $2,064 for necklace pendants in gold vermeil (a method that coats solid silver in a layer of gold). Solid gold options are “available upon request” apparently, and each piece comes with its own blockchain-inscribed digital artwork to verify “ownership and provenance.”

Kare has paid similar homage to Apple’s computing history in her other art collections. There are prints of her original Macintosh designs available on her website, and in 2014, she sold hand-painted Jolly Roger pirate flags, inspired by the one she painted to fly above the Apple campus office in 1983, for up to $2,500.

Apple is several months away from launching the iPhone 17 series but a significant camera redesign may be on the horizon. Leaker Majin Bu has shared CAD renders of what are purported to be the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and the rumored iPhone 17 Air — with the latter three all featuring Pixel-like rectangular camera bars.

The new CAD renders show the rear camera bars on the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models stretched to extend their currently square design, now reaching across the entire upper body. They still retain the rounder edges seen on the current models. The 17 “Air” features a similar design, albeit with only a single rear camera lens. According to these renders, the camera module on the standard iPhone 17 model will be largely unchanged, differentiating it from the premium models.

Majin Bu is an established leaker but, as MacRumors notes, the information he’s shared hasn’t always been correct. These renders are just some of several similar leaks about the iPhone 17’s rectangular camera bar in the last few months, however, with concept designs also shared by Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser and other leakers including Ice Universe, Fixed Focus Digital, and Digital Chat Station.

In January, Majin Bu also posted an image of iPhone bodies alleged to be “part of” the iPhone 17 family. The design looks similar to the iPhone “Air” render he shared yesterday, and resembles the pill-shaped camera bar sported by Google’s Pixel 9 lineup. Rumors about the so-called iPhone 17 Air have been floating around for months describing a new, slimmer model that’s expected to join the upcoming iPhone lineup, similar to Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge.

It’s early days and these leaks shouldn’t be taken as gospel. We won’t know the official iPhone 17 design until Apple reveals it later this year, with an announcement expected sometime in September.

Android Auto users are experiencing wireless connectivity issues following its recent updates. As seen by Android Authority, some Reddit users report that attempting to wirelessly connect to vehicles via the Android platform is causing their phones to reboot. Others are finding that wireless connectivity is refusing to work entirely.

Google told The Verge that its team is “aware of the issue” and is “currently investigating a fix.” No ETA has been provided. We will update this story when more information or a solution is available.

In recent weeks, some phones have only worked with Android Auto using a wired connection, according to several complaints on Google’s Android Auto community forums spotted by 9to5Google. Users have reported Bluetooth connections will work briefly before dropping, or will only connect wirelessly once their phone has been rebooted. In some cases, Android Auto is randomly forcing connected phones to reboot without being prompted to do so.

“The reboots have happened when on a call, while listening to YouTube Music, and listening to Libby books,” said one Reddit user. “It has happened when both plugged in and unplugged, and when I have been using the gps and also not.”

It’s a jumble of different issues, but the timeline suggests the bugs may be tied to the v13.4 and v13.5 Android Auto updates that rolled out in January and February. It’s unclear if rolling back to a previous version of the software fixes the connectivity issues, and a viable workaround hasn’t been established.

Almost 18,000 Swagtron electric scooters are being recalled by Walmart due to fire and safety concerns regarding their lithium-ion batteries. There have been seven reports of SG-5 Swagger 5 Boost batteries “overheating, smoking, melting or igniting” according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), including a fire that caused burn injuries and “substantial property damage” to a residential apartment building.

The recall impacts about 17,970 SG-5 Swagger 5 Boost units sold at Walmart and Sam’s Club between May 2018 and October 2024, with customers being emailed instructions on how to receive a full refund. The affected models — SWGR5-V2-SLV, SWGR5-V2-2, SG5 Boost, SG-5S, 96262-2, 96262-9, SG-5S, and 96560-2 — cost between $175 and $450, and have their model numbers located on the side of the scooter deck.

Swagtron itself, which sold the SG-5 Swagger 5 Boost directly via its own website, notably hasn’t issued a recall for the scooter. The CPSC said that Swagtron has actually ignored its requests for a recall and information about the product. We have reached out to Swagtron for comment.

“Consumers should immediately stop using and charging the recalled electric scooters, cut the throttle cord, and dispose of the entire product following local and state hazardous waste disposal procedures,” the CPSC said in its recall notice.

The recall follows an earlier warning issued by the CPSC in October, urging consumers to cease using SG-5 Swagger 5 Boost scooters that had been purchased from Tractor Supply, Best Buy, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Amazon, eBay, and Swagtron’s website from 2019 onwards. At the time, the CPSC said it was also aware of 139 additional reports of fire or thermal incidents involving other Swagtron products and criticized the company for failing to provide safety information.

Swagtron, previously called Swagway, was initially better known for making hoverboards. It got into the electric scooter business in 2016, around the same time that the CPSC recalled 267,000 of its hoverboards over — you guessed it — having battery packs that posed a fire risk.

Amazon is ending Android support for its Appstore this year on August 20th. The retail giant announced the update on an FAQ support page with no explanation for the shutdown, but said its Appstore will still be available on Fire TV and Tablet devices, where it serves as the default app marketplace.

Apps downloaded from Amazon’s Appstore onto Android devices won’t necessarily disappear on August 20th, but the company says they “will not be guaranteed to operate” once they stop receiving updates. This comes as Microsoft is preparing to cease support for Amazon’s Appstore on Windows starting March 5th, as part of its Android subsystem being deprecated.

Amazon is also killing its Amazon Coins program — a virtual currency that can be purchased and used to buy apps and in-app items via the Amazon Appstore marketplace. New coins cannot be purchased after February 20th, 2025, but existing coin balances can still be used to make Appstore purchases. Amazon says that any coins remaining in user accounts after August 20th will be refunded, though more refund information will be shared “at a later date.”

Shutting down Android support is a curious decision given Amazon’s own Fire OS is Android-based, but Amazon’s Android Appstore is little more than a strange footnote in history. It once allowed users to “test drive” Android apps in web browsers, ran a program that provided free versions of apps, and came pre-loaded on Amazon’s failed Fire phone.

Amazon’s Appstore can also be sideloaded onto third-party Android devices and was initially growing that audience, but it’s been unable to compete with Google’s Android market dominance in recent years — a point notably raised in the Epic v. Google case to help argue that Google’s Play app store constituted an illegal monopoly. Amazon even tried to make it easier to sideload by hiding it within the Amazon app until Google closed the loophole that allowed it to do so.

Spotify is bringing more AI-narrated audiobooks to its platform via a new partnership with ElevenLabs. On Thursday, the audio streaming giant announced it would begin accepting audiobooks recorded using ElevenLabs’ AI voice software, saying it “recognizes the potential of digital voice-narration to grow and expand the audiobook market.”

To be clear, AI-recorded audiobooks are already permitted on Spotify, albeit with several restrictions. Spotify’s audiobook distribution platform, Findaway Voices, only accepts digitally recorded audiobooks from “specific partners” — having previously also partnered with Google Play Books — and requires each recording to undergo review before publishing. ElevenLabs is one of the most recognizable AI voice providers on the market, however, which could lead to a surge in synthetically voiced audiobooks on Spotify’s platform.

Authors can use ElevenLabs to narrate their audiobooks in 32 languages, with a wide selection of synthetic voices to choose from. The free version of the software only provides 10 minutes of text-to-voice per month. There are several premium tiers available that expand this limitation, but users will need at least the $99 monthly Pro subscription to generate 500 minutes of narration — roughly the length of the average audiobook.

While Spotify says it “firmly believes in the power of human narration,” the company believes that digital voices could make audiobook production more cost-effective for smaller authors and make it easier to create audiobooks of older, backlist titles that would otherwise be ignored. Spotify says that all AI-narrated titles will have their metadata marked and be clearly identified to listeners in book descriptions with “this audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.”

Twitch is planning to cull some of the content archived by streamers to save on storage costs. On Wednesday, the streaming platform announced that it will introduce a 100-hour storage cap for highlights and uploads starting on April 19th, warning that users will have their content automatically deleted until it falls below the limit.

Twitch says it’s doing this because “Highlights haven’t been very effective in driving discovery or engagement,” and it isn’t worth the cost of storing thousands of hours of such content. Twitch is owned by Amazon, a market-leading cloud storage provider — a detail that hasn’t gone unnoticed by streamers criticizing the decision.

The update only applies to highlights — specific snippets edited from recordings of live broadcasts (VODs) using the Highlighter tool to showcase the streamer’s best moments — and uploaded footage created using third-party services. Other kinds of on-demand content, including Clips and VODs (the latter of which are already automatically deleted) won’t be impacted by the new storage limit.

Twitch users who have already exceeded the cap can download highlights and uploads before the restrictions take effect, after which content will be deleted starting with highlights with the least views. To make it easier to decide which videos to keep, Twitch is rolling out a new storage tracker on the Video Producer page and the ability to filter highlights and uploads by length, view count, and creation date. It won’t be possible to go over 100 hours of highlights and uploads once all users have been brought below the limit.

“Introducing this 100-hour storage limit, which impacts less than 0.5 percent of active channels on Twitch and accounts for less than 0.1 percent of hours watched, helps us manage resources more efficiently, maintain support of highlights and uploads, and continue to invest in new features and improvements to more effective viewer engagement tools like Clips and the mobile feed,” Twitch said.

The automatic deletions and 100-hour cap will notably impact Twitch’s speedrunning community, whose history is largely archived through highlights. While highlights and uploads can be exported and uploaded to other platforms, the process is laborious and may interfere with how speedrunning records have been documented on the web. 

“Not just world records, but most every run submitted that was on Twitch is stored as a highlight on speedrun.com. That includes users who no longer run, no longer stream, no longer have an online presence, or may even not be alive anymore,” one Twitch forum user noted. “Crippling the highlights feature is going to be an unmitigated disaster for speedrun history.”

Google is rolling out new search gestures that allow iPhone users to highlight anything on their screen to quickly search for it. The Lens screen-searching feature is available on iOS in both the Google app and Chrome browser and provides a similar experience to Android’s Circle to Search, which isn’t supported on iPhones.

The new Lens gestures allow iPhone users to search for anything in the Google app or Chrome by drawing, highlighting, or tapping on it. The feature works across text, images, and videos, without having to take a screenshot or open a new tab. An obvious use case is finding shopping results based on images of products you like, but Lens can also define words and phrases; identify locations, plants, and animals; and perform almost any request that Google Search can.

The functionality is essentially the same as Circle to Search, though the Android version can be used across your entire phone instead of just the two Google apps. Not every Android device supports it, however, as it’s mostly limited to recent flagships.

To use the new Lens gestures, iPhone users need to open the three-dot menu within the Google or Chrome apps and select “Search Screen with Google Lens.” You can then use “any gesture that feels natural” to highlight what you want to search. Google says a new Lens icon for quickly accessing the feature will also be added to the address bar “in the coming months.”

AI Overviews are also expanding to more Lens search results, which means you’ll sometimes see AI-regurgitated summaries and URLs when using the image search tool. Google frustratingly doesn’t let you disable the AI Overviews feature. There are a few ways around it that help to avoid the wall of text that appears before your actual search results, but it’s unclear if these solutions will work with Lens.

Elon Musk is — according to a new legal filing from the US government — not running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), despite his leadership appointment by President Donald Trump. In fact, claims the new White House declaration, he isn’t technically even a DOGE employee despite representing himself as the key decision maker behind its activity.

The affidavit filed on Monday by Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House’s Office of Administration, asserts that Musk is employed by the White House Office as a “senior adviser to the President,” a position with no greater authority than any other White House advisor. The White House has previously said Musk is serving under the classification of a special government employee, a designation it repeats here.

“Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” said Fisher, citing his personal involvement with Musk’s appointment. “Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”

The affidavit was filed as part of a legal battle with a dozen state-level attorneys general, who have accused Trump of “creating a new federal Department without Congressional approval and by granting Musk sweeping powers over the entire federal government without seeking the advice and consent of the Senate.” It’s one of numerous lawsuits filed against DOGE, some of which have led to limits on its access to government data.

The affidavit seemingly contradicts statements from President Trump himself that credit Musk with leading DOGE, and follows the unofficial “department” gaining unprecedented access to sensitive US financial systems. Even if Musk isn’t leading DOGE on paper, he’s had outspoken influence over the cost-cutting organization and acted as its de facto public spokesperson.

Musk’s supposedly true position will likely be a surprise to many people, despite the billionaire claiming that DOGE has been “maximally transparent” about all its activities. But the group’s design has always been slippery — until Trump took office, he and Musk represented it as a group “outside the government” that could work with White House agencies and a congressional subcommittee to legally reevaluate government spending. “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” Musk and Ramaswamy told The Wall Street Journal regarding their plans for the advisory group. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees.”

Elon Musk’s xAI unveiled Grok-3 on Tuesday, announcing that the new artificial intelligence model has “more than 10 times” the compute power of its predecessor. xAI said its latest flagship outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Google’s Gemini, and DeepSeek’s V3 models in early testing, and now features “advanced reasoning” capabilities.

So-called reasoning models are trained to answer more complex questions by breaking instructions down into smaller tasks and attempting to fact-check themselves before offering a solution, with the aim of providing stronger results. Similar models have been developed by rival companies, including OpenAI’s o1, DeepSeek’s R1, and Google’s Gemini Flash Thinking.

There are two Grok-3 reasoning modes available: “Think”, which will display Grok’s reasoning as it resolves requests; and “Big Brain” for complex tasks that require more computational power. xAI is also launching a Grok AI agent product called Deep Search, which the company describes as a “next generation search engine.”

Musk says that Grok-3 is a “maximally truth-seeking AI — even if that truth is sometimes at odds with what is politically correct.” Previous versions of the xAI chatbot have been criticized for spreading election misinformation and having fewer guardrails on text-to-image generation, allowing it to spit out questionable or offensive imagery. OpenAI is also exploring how to develop its models to “seek the truth” when handling controversial topics, but with the aim of maintaining certain safety rails.

The Grok-3 reasoning capabilities are available in the Grok app for subscribers to X Premium Plus, which now starts at $40 per month. This is the second hike for Premium Plus in two months, having increased from $16 to $22 in December. xAI said it is also launching a new subscription plan called SuperGrok that will provide “the most advanced capabilities and earliest access to new features.” SuperGrok will reportedly cost $30 per month, though it’s unclear if this is an additional charge on top of X subscriptions.

Elon Musk said that the Grok chatbot will soon gain a synthesized voice feature that sounds similar to OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode for ChatGPT. xAI is also planning to make Grok-2 open source in the coming months.

X users are currently unable to post links to Signal.me, which are used to quickly and securely send direct messages to Signal users. A variety of failure notifications are being reported when X users attempt to post Signal links on the platform, some of which identify the blocked message as containing spam, harmful content, or malicious activity. 

When my colleague tried, he was met with an error message saying “something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.” The issue was first reported by Matt Binder, who notes that only Signal.me links appear to be impacted. Links to the Signal.org domain do not appear to be blocked, nor do similar services like Telegram.

Signal is notably used by journalists to receive confidential information from sources, reassured by the knowledge that messages are end-to-end encrypted and stored on-device. The messaging service has become especially relevant in recent weeks as a tool for federal whistleblowers to report DOGE activity to the press.

Alongside being blocked from sharing Signal.me links in public posts and direct messages, users are also discouraged from clicking existing links published prior to the ban, and prevented from adding them to their profile bio. An error message displayed when the latter is attempted says the update failed due to the new description being “considered malware.”

It wouldn’t be the first time that X has attempted to stifle third-party services being promoted on the platform. Links to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and other rival social platforms were briefly blocked in 2022 after Elon Musk attempted to tackle “relentless advertising of competitors for free.” Substack links were also throttled and restricted in 2023 after it released its own Twitter-like “Notes” feature.

These situations differ, however, as Signal isn’t a direct competitor to X. We have asked X if Signal links are being intentionally blocked and will update this story if we hear back. Signal user handles can still be published on X at the time of writing, which can be copied and pasted into the Signal app as a workaround.

The New York Times has reportedly approved artificial intelligence tools that newsroom staff can use for editing copy, summarizing information, coding, and writing. The publication announced in an internal email that product and editorial staff will receive AI training, according to Semafor, and introduced a new internal AI tool called Echo for summarizing articles, briefings, and other company activity.

Staff were reportedly sent new editorial guidelines detailing permitted uses for Echo and other AI tools, which encourage newsroom employees to use them to suggest edits and revisions for their work, and generate summaries, promotional copy for social media, and SEO headlines.

Other examples mentioned in a mandatory training video shared with staff include using AI to develop news quizzes, quote cards, and FAQs, or suggesting what questions reporters should ask a start-up’s CEO during an interview. There are restrictions, however — the company told editorial staff that AI shouldn’t be used to draft or significantly alter an article, circumvent paywalls, input third-party copyrighted materials, or publish AI-generated images or videos without explicit labeling.

It isn’t clear how much AI-edited copy The Times will allow in published articles. The outlet promised that “Times journalism will always be reported, written and edited by our expert journalists,” in a memo it released last year, and it reaffirmed that commitment to human involvement a few months later.

“Generative A.I. can sometimes help with parts of our process, but the work should always be managed by and accountable to journalists,” read The Times’ generative AI principles, adopted in May 2024. “We are always responsible for what we report, however the report is created. Any use of generative A.I. in the newsroom must begin with factual information vetted by our journalists and, as with everything else we produce, must be reviewed by editors.”

Alongside Echo, other AI tools apparently greenlit for use by The Times include GitHub Copilot as a programming assistant, Google Vertex AI for product development, NotebookLM, the NYT’s ChatExplorer, OpenAI’s non-ChatGPT API, and some of Amazon’s AI products.

These AI tools and training guidelines are rolling out as The Times remains embroiled in a legal battle with OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that ChatGPT was trained on Times content without permission. Many other publications have also introduced AI into their newsrooms at varying scales, ranging from tools for spelling and grammar to generating entire articles.

Some Apple TV 4K users in the US are being prompted to connect their Netflix accounts to the Apple TV app. This would appear to signal an end to the streaming service’s longtime refusal to have its content aggregated into third-party platforms. Users who link their accounts are able to add certain Netflix originals like Squid Game and Stranger Things to their Apple TV app watchlist, with shows also appearing in the Continue Watching section. 

The Verge has also verified that Netflix is now listed as a participating service within the Apple TV app alongside the apps that were already supported, though this isn’t yet reflected on Apple’s website. The integration appears to still be in the process of rolling out — the entire Netflix catalog isn’t available yet, and only US-based users have reportedly been able to get it working. Apple and Netflix both have yet to announce the update.

Offering a universal watchlist from many different streaming services is a flagship feature of the Apple TV app, as it lets users keep up with the latest content and pick up playback where they left off. But Netflix has traditionally rebuffed these convenience-focused efforts — and not just from Apple: it has also been absent from Google TV.

Apple and Netflix have been at odds on this for as long as they’ve been streaming competitors. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings said in 2018 that the company wouldn’t integrate with the Apple TV platform because “we prefer to have our customers watch our content in our service.” Netflix was also among the companies to bypass in-app subscriptions to evade paying Apple’s fees before the iPhone maker later softened its rules around allowing developers to directly link to their own sign-up websites outside the App Store.

The DOGE website created to document how Elon Musk’s team is eviscerating the US federal government is wide open for anyone to edit. This is the same DOGE organization that has gained unprecedented access to sensitive US financial systems with data on millions of Americans.

Two web development experts reported the security flaw to 404Media after discovering that doge.gov is pulling from a database that third parties can access and update, pushing unauthorized entries to the live website. At least two database entries have been added by one of the coders to say “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro.” Both pages are still visible hours after 404Media published its report. 

While doge.gov displays a banner describing itself as “an official website of the United States government,” the developers say it “feels like it was completely slapped together” and doesn’t appear to be running on government servers.

The discovery establishes a poor track record for the White House’s website administration practices — on Wednesday, the newly created waste.gov site was hidden and locked down after it was found to be mostly displaying an unedited WordPress template. 

The DOGE website was launched in January, but aside from displaying three lines of text and a cartoony logo that has since been removed, it sat largely empty for weeks. Elon Musk touted during an Oval Office press conference on Tuesday that DOGE’s cost-cutting actions have been “maximally transparent” because the organization was publishing its activity to X and the DOGE website — despite the latter still being devoid of information at the time.

Since the doge.gov site was updated on Thursday, it now pulls in posts published to the DOGE X account, alongside various stats about US government regulations and its federal workforce. 

YouTube has added new generative AI video features that creators can use when making Shorts. The video platform announced that Google’s Veo 2 video model is being integrated into YouTube’s experimental Dream Screen feature, alongside allowing users to generate standalone video clips that can be added to Shorts.

Dream Screen was introduced in September 2023 and already generates images and videos for Shorts content based on text descriptions; however, these could only previously be applied as virtual green screen backgrounds.

To access clip generation, Dream Screen users need to open the Shorts camera, open the media picker, and tap the “Create” option at the top. You can then enter a text prompt describing what you want to generate and select your desired style, lens, cinematic effect, and video length.

The feature is rolling out for everyone in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand starting today, with “plans to expand to more of you in the future,” according to YouTube. 

It’s an interesting update given Google’s latest Veo model is still in early access and only available to the public via a waitlist. YouTube says the Veo 2 integration allows Dream Screen to generate videos faster, and with more “detailed and realistic” results for real-world physics and human movement. The generated footage will also be tagged with both visual labels and Google’s invisible SynthID watermarks identifying that it was created or altered using AI.

Apple has quietly released a new app that suggests it may soon allow third-party retailers to sell its Vision Pro headset. The “Vision Pro Demo Fit” app was spotted in the App Store Preview by Apple firmware detective Aaron Perris (seen via 9to5Mac), and includes various features for matching customers to their required Vision Pro sizing and accessories.

The Vision Pro is currently only available to purchase directly from Apple. Customers who aren’t being fitted at an in-person Apple Store demo need to use an iPhone or iPad with Face ID to determine a “precise fit” when ordering a Vision Pro via the Apple Store website or app.

This mysterious Vision Pro Demo Fit app describes a similar fitting service to the one Apple currently provides, including facial recognition features for sizing, and tabs for tracking demo sessions and selecting prescription and non-prescription lenses. The app description says it can be used “to measure a guest’s face and determine their vision needs to choose the most suitable Light Seal, Head Band, and Optical Inserts for the best possible Apple Vision Pro demo experience.”

If the app is intended for third-party retailers, it could help Apple to shift the headsets without dropping its $3,500 price tag — leaving other sellers to apply their own discounts if they choose. Apple reportedly scaled back Vision Pro production twice in 2024 after experiencing lower-than-anticipated demand, and is possibly shifting to focus on making a cheaper headset with more mass-market appeal.

Apple has resumed advertising on X for the first time since pausing ads more than a year ago.  The company was one of many to halt advertisements over concerns for brand safety following Elon Musk’s purchase of the social network. While X’s approach to content moderation has changed little since then, Big Tech’s relationship with Musk has shifted since President Donald Trump took office.

MacRumors spotted on Wednesday that the Apple and AppleTV accounts are respectively running promotions for Safari’s privacy features and the Apple TV Plus show Severance on the social media platform. The iPhone maker was reportedly debating whether to test ads on X again in January. 

Apple was among several major advertisers, including Amazon, Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery, and IBM, to pull out of the platform in November 2023 over concerns regarding controversial remarks about antisemitic conspiracy theories and white pride made by X owner Elon Musk.

Now with the addition of Apple, all of the aforementioned brands have since returned to advertising on X, with Amazon planning to “significantly” increase its ad spending according to The Wall Street Journal. This follows X filing an antitrust lawsuit against a group of major advertisers (which Apple isn’t a member of) in August 2024, alleging they held an “illegal boycott” and conspired to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from the company. 

X’s approach to moderation since Musk acquired the platform in 2022 has been widely criticized for failing to remove illegal or harmful content, including posts regarding misinformation, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other hate speech. Musk himself has also repeatedly engaged in such behavior, and gained more influence since befriending President Donald Trump and being handed his DOGE leadership position. The European Union is currently investigating the platform’s content moderation efforts, having already found that it violates the bloc’s rules around advertising transparency.

Adobe’s text- and image-to-video AI generator has been released for anyone to try online. Generate Video is available starting today in public beta following a limited early access testing period last year. The beta tool can be accessed via the re-designed Firefly web app, alongside new image generation and translation capabilities, and AI credit subscription tiers for creators.

Adobe started launching tools powered by its generative AI Firefly Video Model in October, starting with the Generative Extend tool in beta for Premiere Pro that can be used to extend the end or beginning of footage. The Generate Video tool rolling out today — over two months after OpenAI launched its own text-to-video generator, Sora — adds some minor improvements since it was first teased in September.

Generate Video consists of two features: Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video. As those names imply, Text-to-Video allows users to generate footage using text description, while Image-to-Video lets you add a reference image alongside the prompt to provide a starting point for the video. Generate Video includes various options that refine or guide the results, such as simulating styles, camera angles, motion, and shooting distances.

Video is now output in 1080p at 24 frames per second, up from the original 720p quality. Both Text-to-Video and Image-to-Video take 90 seconds or longer to generate clips at a maximum length of five seconds — shorter than the 20-second duration available to Sora users. Adobe says it’s also working on both a faster, lower-resolution “ideation model” and a 4K model, which are “coming soon.”

Adobe has also updated the Firefly web app that hosts many of its generative AI tools. Alongside sporting a new UI, it now integrates with Creative Cloud apps including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and  Express, making it easier to move and edit AI-generated assets. And because Firefly is trained on public domain and licensed content, it’s safe for commercial use. Adobe even describes its Generate Video tool as “production-ready” to entice users who want to use AI-generated videos in films without the risk of violating copyright protections.

Adobe faces growing competition in the AI video market. In addition to Sora, Google is testing the second generation of its Veo AI video model, which looks more impressive than OpenAI’s model judging by early demo examples. ByteDance and Pika Labs have also recently announced new video-focused generative AI tools. Adobe’s main advantage is Firefly’s commercial viability, but it will still need to keep up with the quality and features its competitors are offering.

Two additional tools will also be available in public beta on the Firefly web app starting today — but these aren’t free to use. Scene to Image lets users create their own references for AI-generated images using built-in 3D and sketching features — seemingly built on the “Project Scenic” experiment that Adobe announced in October. The Translate Audio and Video tool is pretty self-explanatory, allowing users to translate and dub audio into over 20 languages while preserving the original speaker’s voice.

Adobe is launching two new Firefly subscription plans which provide credits that can be spent to use Adobe’s Firefly models. Firefly Standard starts at $9.99 per month for 2,000 video/audio credits and provides up to 20 five-second 1080p video generations. The pricier Firefly Pro plan starts at $29.99 for 7,000 credits and up to 70 five-second 1080p video generations. A notable perk is that both plans include unlimited access to Firefly imaging and vector features.

Wacom has completely overhauled its Intuos Pro drawing tablets to make them more compact, convenient, and customizable for creative professionals. This is the biggest redesign for the Intuos Pro lineup since its introduction in 2013, featuring a new layout that relocates user controls from the side to the top of the tablet and replaces the previous touch ring with mechanical dials. It’s a huge change, but one I quickly welcomed in the short time I had to test it myself.

The Intuos Pro is Wacom’s pen tablet targeting industry creatives like 3D artists, illustrators, and photo editors who prefer to work on their own (typically calibrated) displays. Unlike Wacom’s Cintiq or One range, the Intuos Pro doesn’t have a built-in screen, making it easier to throw into a bag and connect to computing devices.

There are three sizes available: Small ($249.95 / €269.99), Medium ($379.95 / €399.99), and Large ($499.95 / €549.99). Each model is actually smaller than its equivalent predecessor, yet feature larger active areas that make better use of that space. For example, the 2025 Medium measures 11.5 x 8.1 inches versus 13.2 x 8.5 inches for the 2017 version, yet features a drawing area of 10.4 x 5.8 inches compared to 8.7 x 5.8 inches for the previous model. They’re slimmer overall too, featuring a new 0.16-0.28 inch (4-7mm) sloping design instead of the previous 0.3-inch (8mm) thickness.

The most noticeable change, however, is the layout. Where all previous Intuos Pro models had user controls like customizable buttons and touch-sensitive wheels on the side, these have now been shifted to the top of the tablet. That both greatly reduces the space on either side of the active pen area and makes it easier for left-handed or ambidextrous users to configure for their workflows. 

The touch wheel has also been replaced by tactile mechanical dials — one on the Small, two on the other sizes — which provide more precision when scrolling through the tools and actions users allocate to them. The customizable express keys have also been updated to a round space-saving design, with five buttons on the Small and ten on the two larger models.

The Intuos Pro lineup works with devices running Windows 10 or macOS 13 or later. It supports both a wired USB-C to USB-A connection and wireless via Bluetooth 5.3, the latter providing up to 16 hours of battery life when fully charged, according to Wacom. Users can jump between USB and Bluetooth via a switch on the side of the tablet, allowing it to pair with two devices simultaneously.

It comes with the same customizable Wacom Pro Pen 3 stylus that ships with Wacom’s Cintiq Pro and Movink display tablets, which features adjustable thickness and buttons. One perk if you already own these tablets is that the Pro Pen 3 can switch between devices, which is useful if you’re working across multiple tablets. The new Intuos Pro is also compatible with previous-gen Wacom Pro Pens and EMR styluses from Pilot, Dr Grip, LAMY, and Staedtler.

I was able to handle a pre-production sample for a short time. While a full review will come later when I can test a final version, the slimmer design felt well-constructed and wasn’t flimsy. The slope wasn’t significant enough to feel noticeably more comfortable but I wasn’t using it for lengthy durations like many creative professionals do. The new layout is a welcome improvement compared to having the buttons and wheel on the sides where my wrist may accidentally activate something, and it didn’t take long to adjust to the delightfully tactile mechanical dial.

Update. February 12th: added US pricing.

Motorola has teamed up with Paris Hilton to release a limited-edition version of the Razr Plus. It’s exactly what you expect: pink, pricey ($1,199.99 to be exact, $200 more than the standard model), and comes with a custom baby pink vegan leather case that looks like a teeny handbag. It even includes an alternative sparkly case strap in — you guessed it — pink.

It’s a collaboration that makes complete sense if you’re familiar with the original Motorola Razr V3’s history. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, and Rihanna were massively influential in its marketing and were frequently photographed using their own pink editions of the flip phone. So much so that Motorola brought Hilton in to help market the 2024 relaunch. This throwback — which pays homage to remarkably similar special edition Razr releases with tennis star Maria Sharapova and supermodel Naomi Campbell — is the ideal combination to market towards Gen Z’s obsession with Y2K fashion and culture.

The Paris Hilton edition Razr Plus will be available in limited quantities on Motorola’s website starting on February 13th. Alongside everything I’ve already mentioned, it’s also boxed in special packaging, and comes pre-loaded with exclusive wallpapers and ringtones / notifications recorded by Paris herself — including a spin on the iconic “Hello Moto” soundbite.

The changes to the Razr Plus itself are otherwise entirely aesthetic. Aside from the leather-like texture, the color is a near match to the existing “Hot Pink” edition Motorola released last year. Other differences include Paris Hilton’s signature scrawled on both the back of the device and its pink case, and her “that’s hot” catchphrase engraved on the phone’s folding hinge.

Pink Y2K devices seem to be having their marketing moment. If this Razr throwback collab is still too modern for your liking then there’s always the Barbie Phone.