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Three years after Yukai Engineering’s headless robotic cat first wagged its way into our hearts, the therapy pillow is getting a smaller, portable sibling called the Petit Qoobo. Like its predecessor, the Petit Qoobo is meant for seniors in nursing homes or people who can’t own pets because of allergies or apartment rules but still want the loving embrace of a soft, cuddly friend. The idea proved to be so comforting that Qoobo owners asked for a miniature version that they could carry with them at all times. Thus, Petit Qoobo was born.

In addition to vibrating softly to mimic purring and wagging its tail in reaction to a user’s touch, Petit Qoobo will also wag its stubby little tail in response to sounds. Its main selling point is that…

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Adobe’s Photoshop for iPad is getting its first major update since launch today, with the addition of the Select Subject tool. The tool automatically selects clean outlines of the subject of an image, using Adobe Sensei’s AI to make selections while removing artifacts. Adobe trained its algorithmic models on a diverse set of images so the tool can recognize more objects and scenes, Photoshop product manager Pam Clark explains in the announcement blog.

The tool first came to the desktop app in 2018 and was previewed during the Photoshop for iPad presentation onstage at Adobe Max this year. Future improvements to Select Subject will roll out on both desktop and iOS.

This addition marks the first real improvement to Photoshop for iPad…

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Adobe’s Photoshop for iPad is getting its first major update since launch today, with the addition of the Select Subject tool. The tool automatically selects clean outlines of the subject of an image, using Adobe Sensei’s AI to make selections while removing artifacts. Adobe trained its algorithmic models on a diverse set of images so the tool can recognize more objects and scenes, Photoshop product manager Pam Clark explains in the announcement blog.

The tool first came to the desktop app in 2018 and was previewed during the Photoshop for iPad presentation onstage at Adobe Max this year. Future improvements to Select Subject will roll out on both desktop and iOS.

This addition marks the first real improvement to Photoshop for iPad…

Continue reading…

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Watch company Citizen is expanding its (less well known) line of wall clocks today with two new models that add support for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, in what are effectively nicer looking versions of Amazon’s existing Echo Wall Clock.

Like the Echo Wall Clock, the Citizen clocks is part of the “Works with Alexa” program. That means that they don’t actually feature Alexa hardware like a microphone or speaker. Rather, they’re meant to augment an existing Alexa-powered smart speaker by serving as a display for timers you’ve set using Alexa using a ring of lights around the dial.

The Citizen Smart Clock comes in two designs —one with a metal frame clock that will cost $79.99, and one with a wooden frame for $89.99….

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Watch company Citizen is expanding its (less well known) line of wall clocks today with two new models that add support for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, in what are effectively nicer looking versions of Amazon’s existing Echo Wall Clock.

Like the Echo Wall Clock, the Citizen clocks is part of the “Works with Alexa” program. That means that they don’t actually feature Alexa hardware like a microphone or speaker. Rather, they’re meant to augment an existing Alexa-powered smart speaker by serving as a display for timers you’ve set using Alexa using a ring of lights around the dial.

The Citizen Smart Clock comes in two designs —one with a metal frame clock that will cost $79.99, and one with a wooden frame for $89.99….

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When Christopher Ayres started as Taco Bell’s creative director, he didn’t realize just how passionately some people loved the fast-food chain. “I didn’t even know how fervent the fandom was,” Ayers says. But that enthusiasm is what allowed the brand to lean into a playful persona that doesn’t take itself too seriously. “I think that’s what gives us the permission to be fun.”

Ayres was part of the company’s major 2016 rebrand, which transformed a dated ‘90s logo into something more modern and minimalist. The updated logo was flexible enough to let Taco Bell, the fast food brand people long associated with stoner food and their college days, play around with different identities in recent years. There was the chic, Instagrammable Bell…

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When Christopher Ayres started as Taco Bell’s creative director, he didn’t realize just how passionately some people loved the fast-food chain. “I didn’t even know how fervent the fandom was,” Ayers says. But that enthusiasm is what allowed the brand to lean into a playful persona that doesn’t take itself too seriously. “I think that’s what gives us the permission to be fun.”

Ayres was part of the company’s major 2016 rebrand, which transformed a dated ‘90s logo into something more modern and minimalist. The updated logo was flexible enough to let Taco Bell, the fast food brand people long associated with stoner food and their college days, play around with different identities in recent years. There was the chic, Instagrammable Bell…

Continue reading…

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Procreate 5, Savage Interactive’s newest update for the iOS painting and illustration app, is now available. The free update brings long-awaited features such as Photoshop (ABR) brush import, custom brush creation, CMYK mode, and more robust animation features.

The app runs on a new Valkyrie graphics engine that works with Apple’s Metal API for faster performance on the iPad. With Valkyrie, Savage Interactive says the imported ABR brushes paint faster in Procreate 5 than in Photoshop. That’s something that’s going to make a difference for artists when they’re choosing which drawing app to use on the iPad, especially on the heels of Adobe’s Photoshop for the iPad, which received disappointing reviews when it was released last month….

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Procreate 5, Savage Interactive’s newest update for the iOS painting and illustration app, is now available. The free update brings long-awaited features such as Photoshop (ABR) brush import, custom brush creation, CMYK mode, and more robust animation features.

The app runs on a new Valkyrie graphics engine that works with Apple’s Metal API for faster performance on the iPad. With Valkyrie, Savage Interactive says the imported ABR brushes paint faster in Procreate 5 than in Photoshop. That’s something that’s going to make a difference for artists when they’re choosing which drawing app to use on the iPad, especially on the heels of Adobe’s Photoshop for the iPad, which received disappointing reviews when it was released last month….

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About three years ago, a naked, hairless humanoid told us that it was okay to look at its butt. The internet obliged. The mesmerizing short animation Hi Stranger quickly amassed millions of views and was even featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The film’s soothing message that “everything was going to be okay” was a perfect antidote to the stress many were feeling in early 2017.

The film came from the mind of artist Kirsten Lepore, a stop-motion animator who has a knack for tapping into the psyche of the moment. Her animations are tender, captivating, and reassuring and seem to appear when things are looking particularly bleak. Her latest short film Natural History Museum presents a hopeful look into the distant future, a…

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