204 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Jess Weatherbed

Jess Weatherbed

News Reporter

News Reporter

    More From Jess Weatherbed

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    OpenAI’s Dall-E sent a “shock wave of panic” through Adobe.

    That’s according to a new Bloomberg report, detailing how Adobe concentrated its efforts to build Firefly, the company’s own “commercially safe” generative AI model used in tools like Photoshop, following the success of rival tools like Midjourney.

    Analysts now anticipate that Adobe may be one of the first big tech companies to actually profit from AI. Meanwhile, Adobe Stock contributors who helped train Firefly, potentially unknowingly, receive annual payouts that are as low as $70.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    TikTok’s Creative Assistant is now integrated with Adobe Express.

    Available in english for both free and premium Adobe Express users, the AI-powered TikTok Creative Assistant add-on can write scripts and provide insights into what topics and hashtags are trending on the video-sharing platform, alongside design templates and editing features like the free TikTok video creator.

    Once a video has been produced, users can schedule or publish content to TikTok without leaving the Express platform.

    A screenshot of TikTok Creative Assistant in Adobe Express showing trending hashtags.
    Now you can access Adobe’s basic video editing tools and key TikTok insights together on the same platform.
    Image: Adobe
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Google Meet’s companion mode is now available on mobile.

    If you’d like to use the same collaboration features as your remote colleagues while in a physical meeting room, Google is now rolling out its companion mode for Android and iOS devices — allowing Google account users to be identified by name, chat with other meeting participants, enable live subtitles, raise their “hand” to speak, and share emojis without disrupting the current speaker. It was previously restricted to laptops/desktops.

    Two GIFs showing the different between Google Meet’s companion mode on desktop and the iOS and Android versions.
    The iOS and Android companion mode should make it easier to participate in hybrid Google Meet sessions via mobile devices.
    Image: Google
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Adobe’s Project Primrose makes its catwalk debut.

    Remember the animated fabric that Adobe unveiled at its MAX 2023 event? Well, now it’s been used in an actual, wearable garment by Christian Cowan.

    The Primrose dress was revealed at the designer’s show at New York Fashion Week, created using 1,264 laser-cut polymer dispersed liquid crystal “petals.” The fact it happens to look like badass scale mail is just a happy bonus.

    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Apple Car engineer handed 120-day prison sentence for stealing trade secrets.

    9to5Mac spotted that former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang was sentenced by a Californian court on Monday. He faces three years of supervised release following imprisonment, alongside a $146,984 restitution bill.

    In August 2022, Zhang pled guilty to stealing secret materials around Apple’s “Titan” self-driving car project before leaving to work for Chinese EV startup Guangzhou Xiaopeng.

    A screenshot taken from the document sentencing Xiaolang Zhang.
    He got off pretty lightly — the maximum sentence for stealing trade secrets is 10 years.
    Image: 9to5Mac / United States district court northern district of California
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    A pretty clear take on the transparent tech trend.

    According to Windows Report, Lenovo might be showing off a new transparent concept laptop at MWC later this month. There’s no specification info yet, but this thing looks gorgeous: a fully transparent bezel-less display, alongside a clear deck with a visible keyboard underneath.

    A Lenovo concept laptop with a transparent display.
    Here’s hoping we get a better look at this thing at MWC 2024.
    Images: Windows Report
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    A dark shadow falls across the gaming industry.

    PC Gamer has put together a chart that visualizes how many people within the industry have lost their jobs over the last thirteen months.

    Each dot represents one person, with PC Gamer estimating that 11,250 people were impacted in 2023. The figure for January 2024 alone has already reached almost 6,000 layoffs.

    A graph showing how many video game developers have been laid off since January, 2023.
    This graph assembled by PC Gamer really illustrates just how dire January 2024 has been for gaming industry layoffs.
    Image: PC Gamer
    Jess Weatherbed
    Jess Weatherbed
    Public access is going well for Bluesky.

    The decentralized Twitter competitor has gained over a million new users since discontinuing its invite-only system on Tuesday, crossing 4 million total users since launching in beta one year ago.

    Bluesky said it averaged 8.5 new account signups per second with 2 million posts created within 24 hours of opening access. It’s not quite the splash that Threads made, but impressive nonetheless — but let’s see if it sticks.

    A graph with the number 1,000,179 over it representing Bluesky’s new user signups.
    A graph taken from Blueskys X account showing new signup and post stats.
    1/2
    Bluesky posted its latest user milestone to X last night.
    Image: Bluesky