Google is adding several Gemini 3-powered features to the free version of Gmail, including a new AI Inbox that promises to filter out clutter and AI Overviews of your messages. "Email has changed considerably since Gmail launched in 2004," Google says. "With email volume at an all-time high, managing your inbox and the flow of information has become as important as the emails themselves."
https://www.pcmag.com/news/google-adding-gmail-ai-inbox-ai-overviews-does-anybody-want-this
Microsoft has cut its sales targets for its agentic AI software after struggling to find buyers interested in using it. In some cases, targets have been slashed by up to 50%, suggesting Microsoft overestimated the potential of its new AI tools. Indeed, compared with ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, Copilot is falling behind, raising concerns about Microsoft's substantial AI investment. "The Information’s story inaccurately combines the concepts of growth and sales quotas," Microsoft said in a very defensive statement (via Futurism), adding that "aggregate sales quotas for AI products have not been lowered."
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/microsoft-scales-back-ai-goals-because-almost-nobody-is-using-copilot
Pantone has released its Colour of the Year for 2026, and the winner is… drumroll please… white. While it's not the most exciting shade on paper, the world's leading authority on colour claims the "lofty" white is much more than blank space. As a "symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection," Cloud Dancer supposedly represents a sense of serenity and retrospection. Built to encourage "true relaxation and focus," the shade allows the mind the freedom to wander, creating a perfect environment for innovation to grow.
https://www.creativebloq.com/design/pantones-new-colour-of-the-year-is-giving-me-existential-dread
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According to Bloomberg News, Meta is considering slashing its metaverse spending by as much as 30% in 2026 — although no plans are final yet — after meetings at Zuckerberg’s Hawaii compound laid out a slimmer future for its namesake ambitions. For three years, the company tried to brute-force another new reality into existence: new name, new stock ticker, new keynote vocabulary about “presence” and “embodied internet.”
https://qz.com/meta-metaverse-cuts-mark-zuckerberg-reality-labs
Spotify may have popularized the Wrapped user recap trend, but more companies are jumping on that bandwagon every year. From rival music streaming providers like Apple, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer, to completely unrelated services across tech, gaming, and other industries, a huge range of companies are using fun visuals, stats, and personalization features to show how you’ve been using their platforms over the last 12 months.
https://www.theverge.com/news/837280/spotify-wrapped-2025-recap-annual-best-of-data
Font Book, macOS's built-in font manager, has seen its icon hugely simplified. Gone are the various typefaces depicting the letter, 'A', replaced with a single clean sans-serif character. Many have complained that it's no longer clear what the app does. "I get the modern take, but this is disappointing, I'd rather have it say 'Aa' than just 'a'," one Redditor comments. Another adds, "hmmm yeah this is upsetting."
https://www.creativebloq.com/design/logos-icons/apples-new-font-book-icon-is-upsetting-designers
[Slop Evader is] a new browser tool that filters your web searches to only include results from before November 30, 2022 — the day that ChatGPT was released to the public. Created by artist and researcher Tega Brain, who says she was motivated by the growing dismay over the tech industry’s unrelenting, aggressive rollout of so-called “generative AI”—despite widespread criticism and the wider public’s distaste for it.
https://www.404media.co/slop-evader-browser-extension-pre-generative-ai-search-filter/