When Nicki Gitlin was an intern at Snarkitecture she explored objects and spaces at all scales, setting the foundation for her own work. With an emphasis on materiality and the interplay of light, Gitlin was fascinated by the way in which elements could be layered and how they influenced an individuals experience in a particular setting.As an architectural designer for sportswear brand Theory, Gitlin was responsible for store layout and fixture development. The role was a perfect fit for this creative, who appreciates fashion as a means of expression and an art form all its own. I love the way clothing can shape how you feel moving through the world its design on a more personal, immediate scale, she says.Nicki GitlinGitlin earned a graduate degree from Columbia University, and continued to hone her skills via residential projects and thoughtful research. In 2022, she was ready to make her own mark when she founded her New York-based firm dang. This unforgettable moniker is what Gitlin wants a client to exclaim when they step into one of her signature spaces.Her philosophy is rooted in the belief that beauty is found in the everyday. And whether Gitlin envisions a residence or an eatery, she ensures that each interior is modern yet still deeply livable. Her environments offer an inviting combination of comfort and style that people look forward to returning to.Even with a full schedule of client meetings and site visits, Gitlin manages to carve out quality time away from her computer and mobile phone. Shell often turn her attention to something completely different, like playing with her son or cooking dinner. Its a chance to be fully present, and a reminder that not everything has to happen at once, she notes.Today, Nicki Gitlin joins us for Friday Five!Photo: Nicki Gitlin1. Finding Otis in a Sun SpotNo matter how hectic my day gets, catching Otis stretched out in a warm patch of sunlight instantly slows me down. He has a way of reminding me to pause, breathe, and enjoy the simple comforts something I try to bring into my work, too.Photo: Nicki Gitlin2. Tailored PantA perfectly cut pant is my version of armor. Its polished yet effortless, and it carries me through site visits, client meetings, and late nights at my desk. The structure grounds me, while the ease lets me move through my day feeling like the most put-together version of myself.Photo: Nicki Gitlin3. Daily PlannerMy daily planner is where big ideas and tiny to-dos live side by side. Theres something grounding about putting pen to paper seeing the day laid out makes even the busiest schedule feel manageable. Its my roadmap, my motivator, and sometimes, my excuse to use a really good pen.Photo: Nicki Gitlin4. Satin ScrunchieThe oversized satin scrunchie is my go-to for pulling my hair back without pulling myself out of the moment. Its practical, but it also feels a little indulgent soft, easy, and chic.Photo: Nicki Gitlin5. Iced Coffee in a To-Go CupAn iced coffee in a to-go cup is my constant companion, no matter the season. Theres something about the ritual the clink of ice, the first sip that signals its time to get things moving. Its equal parts fuel and comfort, keeping me energized through early mornings and late afternoons.Works by Nicki Gitlin and dang:Photo: Eric PetschekAfficionado Coffee RoastersFor this Hells Kitchen caf, the design draws from the brands roots in sourcing coffee directly from farmers around the world. Raw, tactile materials like plaster, terracotta floors, and patinated metal echo the landscapes where the beans are grown, creating a space that feels as grounded and authentic as the coffee itself.Photo: Sean Q. MunroSoho Pied-a-TerreThis 400-square-foot Soho apartment proves that small can still feel spacious. Every inch works hard the wardrobe doubles as a side table, a radiator cover transforms into a banquette and a media console, all concealing storage little moments of ingenuity that make the space feel effortless to live in.Photo: Stephen Kent JohnsonUpper West SideThis private home, a collaboration with Studio ST, was grounded in Alyssa Kapitos timeless interiors and brought to life through architecture that honors the buildings character while supporting a serene daily rhythm. The thoughtful detailing plasterwork, generous natural light, and sculptural millwork creates a layered backdrop where classic elegance meets lived-in comfort.Photo: Ryan NeevenGather Market and EateryIn the heart of the Lower East Side, this project was about more than designing a coffee shop it was about creating a series of pockets where people could gather. From the window bench to the intimate tables, every detail was meant to encourage connection and foster a sense of community.Photo: Nicki GitlinMidcentury Modern RevivalMy own home has been a labor of love bringing it back to life while keeping the midcentury character that drew me to it in the first place. The mix of warm wood, slate, and clean lines makes it feel both true to its roots and perfectly suited to how we live now.

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Googles Pixel 10 phones made their official debut this week, and with them, a bunch of generative AI features baked directly into the camera app. Its normal for phones to use computational photography these days, a fancy term for all those lighting and post-processing effects they add to your pics as you snap them. But AI makes computational photography into another beast entirely, and it's one Im not sure were ready for.Tech nerds love to ask ourselves what is a photo? kind of joking that the more post-processing gets added to a picture, the less it resembles anything that actually happened in real life. Night skies being too bright, faces having fewer blemishes than a mirror would show, that sort of thing. Generative AI in the camera app is like the final boss of that moral conundrum.Thats not to say these features arent all useful, but at the end of the day, this is kind of a philosophical debate as much as a technical one.Are photos supposed to look like what the photographer was actually seeing with their eyes, or are they supposed to look as attractive as possible, realism be damned? Its been easy enough to keep these questions to the most nitpicky circles for nowwho really cares if the sky is a little too neon if it helps your pic pop more?but if AI is going to start adding whole new objects or backgrounds to your photos, before you even open the Gemini app, its time for everyone to start asking themselves what they want out of their phones cameras. And the way Google is using AI in its newest phones, its possible you could end up with an AI photo and not really know it.Pro Res ZoomMaybe the most egregious of Googles new AI camera additions is what its calling Pro Res Zoom. Google is advertising this as 100x zoom, and it works kind of like the wholly fictional zoom in and enhance tech you might see in old-school police procedurals.Essentially, on a Pixel 10 Pro or Pro XL, youll now be able to push the zoom lens in by 100 times, and on the surface, the experience will be no different than a regular software zoom (which relies on cropping, not AI). But inside your phones processor, itll still run into the same problems that make zoom in and enhance seem so ludicrous in shows like CSI.In short, the problem is that you cant invent resolution the camera didnt capture. If youve zoomed in so far that your camera lens only saw vague pixels, then it will never be able to know for sure what was actually there in real life. Credit: Google Thats why this feature, despite seeming like a normal, non-AI zoom on the surface, is more of an AI edit than an actual 100x zoom. When you use Pro Res Zoom, your phone will zoom in as much as it can, then use whatever blurry pixels it sees as a prompt for an on-device diffusion model. The model will then guess what the pixels are supposed to look like, and edit the result into your shot. It wont be capturing reality, but if youre lucky, it might be close enough.For certain details, like rock formations or other mundane inanimate objects, that might be fine. For faces or landmarks, though, you could leave with the impression that you just got a great close-up of, say, the lead singer at a concert, without knowing that your zoom was basically just a fancy Gemini request. Google says its trying to tamp down on hallucinations, but if a photo spat out by Gemini is something youre uncomfortable posting or including in a creative project, this will have the same issuesexcept that, because of the branding, you might not realize AI was involved.Luckily, Pro Res Zoom doesnt replace non-AI zoom entirelyzooming in past the usual 5x hardware zoom limit will now give you two results to pick from, one with Pro Res Zoom applied and one without. I wrote about this in more detail if you're interested, but even with non-AI options available, the AI one isnt clearly indicated while youre making your selection.Thats a much more casual approach to AI than Googles taken in the past. People might be used to AI altering their photos when they ask for it, but having it automatically applied through your camera lens is a new step.Ask to EditThe casual AI integration doesnt stop once youve taken your photo, though. With Pixel 10, you can now use natural language to ask AI to alter your photos for you, right from the Google Photos app. Simply open up the photo you want to change, tap the edit icon, and youll see a chat box that will let you use natural language to suggest tweaks to your photo. You can even speak your instructions rather than type them, if you want.On the surface, I dont mind this. Google Photos has dozens of different edit icons, and it can be difficult for the average person to know how to use them. If you want a simple crop or filter applied, this gives you an option to get that done without going through what could be an otherwise intimidating interface. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt The problem is, in addition to using old-school Google Photos tools, Ask to Edit will also allow you to suggest more outlandish changes, and it wont clearly delineate when its using AI to accomplish those changes. You could ask the AI to swap out your photos background for an entirely new one, or if you want a less drastic change, you could ask it to remove reflections from a shot taken through a window. The issue? Plenty of these edits will require generative AI, even the seemingly less destructive ones like glare elimination, but youll have to use your intuition to know when its been applied.For example, while youll usually see an AI Enhance button among Google Photos' suggested edits, its not the only way to get AI in your shot. Ask to Edit will do its best to honor whatever request you make, with whatever tools it has access to, and given some hands-on experience I had with it at a demo with Google, this includes AI generation. It might be obvious that itll use AI to, say, add a Mercedes behind me in this selfie, but I could see a less tech savvy user assuming that they could ask the AI to zoom out without knowing that changing an aspect ratio without cropping also requires using generative AI. Specifically, it requires asking an AI to imagine what might have surrounded whatever was in your shot in real life. Since it has no way of knowing this, it comes with an inherently high risk of hallucination, no matter how humble zoom out sounds.Since were talking about a tool designed to help less tech-literate users, I worry theres a good chance they could accidentally wind up generating fiction, and think its a totally innocent, realistic shot.Camera CoachThen theres Camera Coach. This feature also bakes AI into your Camera app, but doesnt actually put AI in your photos. Instead, it uses AI to suggest alternate framing and angles for whatever your camera is seeing, and coaches you on how to achieve those shots. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt In other words, its very what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Camera Coachs suggestions are just ideas, and even though following through on them takes more work on your end, you can be sure that whatever photo you snap is going to look exactly like what you saw in your viewfinder, with no AI added.That pretty much immediately erases most of my concerns about unreal photos being presented as absolute truth. There is the possibility that Camera Coach might suggest a photo thats not actually possible to take, say if it wants you to walk into a restricted area, but the worst youre going to get there is frustration, not a photo that passes off AI generation as if its the same as, say, zooming in.People should know when theyre using AIIm not going to solve the what is a photo? question in one afternoon. The truth is that some photos are meant to represent the real world, and some are just supposed to look aesthetically pleasing. I get it. If AI can help a photo look more visually appealing, even if its not fully true-to-life, I can see the appeal. That doesnt erase any potential ethical concerns about where training data comes from, so Id still ask you to be diligent with these tools. But I know that pointing at a photo and saying that never actually happened isnt a rhetorical magic bullet.What worries me is how casually Googles new AI features are being implemented, as if theyre identical to traditional computational photography, which still always uses your actual image as a base, rather than making stuff up. As someone whos still wary of AI, seeing AI image generation disguised as 100x zoom immediately raises my alarm bells. Not everyone pays attention to these tools the way I do, and its reasonable for them to expect that these features do what they say on the tin, rather than introducing the risk of hallucination.In other words, people should know when AI is being used in their photos, so that they can be confident when their shots are realistic, and when they're not. Referring to zoom using a telephoto lens as 5x zoom and zoom that layers AI over a bunch of pixels as 100x zoom doesnt do that, and neither does building a natural language editor into your Photos app that doesnt clearly tell you when its using generative AI and when it isnt.Googles aware of this problem. All photos taken on the Pixel 10 now come with C2PA content credentials built-in, which will say whether AI was used in the photos metadata. But whens the last time you actually checked a photos metadata? Tools like Ask to Edit are clearly being made to be foolproof, and expecting users to manually scrub through each of their photos to see which ones were edited with AI and which werent isnt realistic, especially if were making tools that are specifically supposed to let users take fewer steps before getting their final photo.Its normal for someone to expect AI will be used when they open the Gemini app, but including it in previously non-AI tools like the Camera app needs more fanfare than quiet C2PA credentials and one vague sentence in a press release. Notifying a user when theyre about to use AI should happen before they take their photo, or before they make their edit. It shouldnt be quietly marked down for them to find later, if they choose to go looking for it.Other AI photo tools, like those from Adobe, already do this, through a simple watermark applied to any project using AI generation. While I wont tell you what to think about AI generated images overall, I will say that you shouldnt be put in a position where youre making one by accident. Of Googles AI camera innovations, Id say Camera Coach is the only one that does that. For a big new launch from the creator of Android, an ecosystem Google proudly touted as "open" during this years Made by Google, a one out of three hit rate on transparency isnt what Id expect.

Ayn added more than just a touch of nostalgia with its upcoming dual-screen handheld that gives us modern-day Nintendo DS vibes. After teasing the device in a YouTube video earlier this week, Ayn dropped the full spec sheet, price range and release date for its Thor handhelds. The Thor Lite base model will start at $249 for preorder pricing, but you can opt for the top-of-the-line Thor Max model that goes for $429. Besides the clear purple colorway, the Ayn Thor will come in black, white and rainbow, which colors its buttons like the SNES.AynAyn built all of its Thor models with a primary six-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, while the secondary 3.92-inch AMOLED screen will have a 60Hz refresh rate and a smaller 1,240 x 1,080 resolution. The Thor Lite maxes out at 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, but you can upgrade to 16GB of memory and 1TB of storage with the Thor Max. The Pro and Max models will pack a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, while the Lite will use the less powerful Snapdragon 865.Outside of the spec differences, all Thor models will run on a 6,000 mAh battery and Android 13. The dual-screen handheld will have video output capabilities, a USB-C port, a 3.5mm audio jack, a TF card slot and can connect via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. As with all foldable devices, the hinge is often a point of failure, so Ayn built the Thor with a reinforced hinge, along with an active cooling system and Hall effect joysticks.Ayn isn't the only handheld maker getting into dual-screen devices. The market was previously dominated by the Ayaneo Flip DS, which currently starts at $1,139, but Ayaneo has announced a more affordable dual-screen handheld called the Pocket DS. Along with the Retroid Flip 2 that was released earlier this year, Retroid is selling an add-on accessory to make some of its other products into a dual-screen handheld. As for the Ayn Thor, preorders start August 25 at 10:30PM ET, with the first shipments expected in mid-October.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ayn-reveals-a-nintendo-ds-style-handheld-that-comes-in-the-classic-game-boy-color-purple-194416424.html?src=rss

Prusa declares open hardware 3D printing dead, blaming Chinas subsidies, patent imbalance, and disputes transformed collaborative innovation into a competitive and increasingly restrictive global industry.

Meta's glasses are codenamed Hypernova and will include a small display in the right lens of the device, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

See the official release preview video here.Launching August 27, 2025, Character Creator 5 arrives with more polish, performance, and creative flexibility than ever. At its heart is ActorMIXER, a groundbreaking tool for custom and random character generationmix heads, facial components, or full bodies, and seamlessly blend stylized with realistic designs. Dive in, ignite your imagination, and explore limitless character possibilities.Curious about whats coming next in CC5? Discover all the upcoming features here.Join the prelaunch and claim your bonuses: https://www.reallusion.com/character-creator/cc5-prelaunch.htmlAnd watch the special preview video, below.Brought to you by Reallusion:This article is part of the befores & afters VFX Insight series. If youd like to promote your VFX/animation/CG tech or service, you can find out more about the VFX Insight series here.The post One Week to Go: Unleash Creativity with Character Creator 5 & ActorMIXER appeared first on befores & afters.

About the EventBeep Boop! We're already in the third month of the new year and with that starting our new challenge: March of Robots! Show us the machinery you can come up with, no matter if big or small, by using #marchofrobots in your Cara posts. You can either do one prompt per day, or combine multiple prompts for a multi-day artwork! This challenge is as modular as the different parts a robot could contain are We are excited to see what you come up with and we hope you have fun creating and building your own constructs~ Happy creating! How to join March of Robots on Cara1. Participate by posting new work youve made by following the March of Robots list 2. Mention #marchofrobots in the description when posting! Cara Theme ListWe encourage everyone to take this chance to explore new ideas, experiment with the nature of your art and take a chance at growing your art skills within our budding theme. Most of all, we are excited to see everyone having fun while creating and nurturing each other's works in the community with discussions and conversations. Have fun! - The Cara Teamcara.app | twitter | instagram | buy cara a coffee

From Bucky Barnes iconic arm to explosive stunt sequences, Base FX delivered 190 jaw-dropping VFX shots for Marvel Studios Thunderbolts.This film combined practical stunts, cutting-edge CGI, and an in-camera first approach to ground the action in realism from Buckys motorcycle chase to Voids haunting shadow spread over New York.Base FX worked on key street-level set extensions and emotional sequences, bringing realism and cinematic weight to grounded action.The post Thunderbolts VFX Breakdown Done by Base FX appeared first on Vfxexpress.

As more companies demand employees spend more days in their workplaces each week, some critics claim that tightening return to office (RTO) rules in part aim to provoke resignations from employees unwilling to give up their remote or hybrid work arrangements. Data now suggests employer use of that indirect quiet-firing manner of reducing head count is far more widespread than previously suspected and often involves tactics that go beyond ordering people back to their desks.Reinforced RTO mandates, especially by large companies like Amazon and Starbucks, sparked accusations that managements tighter in-office requirements are a cover for pushing flexibility-loving workers to quit. It turns out, businesses are also using other methods to trim head count, including cutting worker benefits, increasing workloads, delaying pay raises, or gradually isolating targets in the workplace until they resign. A recent survey of 1,128 U.S. business leaders by CV writing platform ResumeTemplatesfound 42 percent of respondents admitted to having used those quiet-firing strategies this year, with an additional 11 percent saying they plan to do so in coming months.The main reason that total of 53 percent of participants said theyd employed the stratagem was to avoid severance, legal, and other costs that layoffs usually generate. They also credited the ruse with averting the bad blood and even worse reputational damage that firing people can create.In addition to establishing that a small majority of employers have or intend to resort to quiet firing this year, the survey also identified the most common methods that managers use to passively push workers toward the door.Delaying promised raises topped the list, with 47 percent of participants citing the tactic. That compared with 46 percent of respondents who said theyd tightened RTO or other workplace rules, 45 percent who increased workloads without compensation, and 32 percent who cut wages or benefits to sour employees on their jobs. Micromanaging workers or, inversely, cutting them out of projects and consultations entirely was another method mentioned, as was ignoring toxic environments that undermine the well-being of people designated for departure.The scenarios for which the passive maneuver to lower head count was used varied. Around 41 percent of participating managers said theyd deployed it against specific employees theyd deemed troublesome, problematic, or simply unwanted. That included 47 percent of respondents who said theyd embraced quiet firing to get rid of underperforming employees, and 41 percent whod used it with staff who complained about or resisted strengthened RTO rules.Just over a third of participants said the method allowed them to sidestep severance payments that often accompany formal layoffs, with an equal 34 percent crediting it with lowering the attendant legal headaches. Around 32 percent said the passively manipulative approach allowed them to avoid the bad external publicity that can arise when businesses cut staff.But company owners and executives who answered the survey also noted there were broader economic and business reasons that made lowering head count necessary. In many cases, quiet firing was ultimately selected as the means to achieve that.The most frequently cited of those external pressures was slowing revenue and sales, at 50 percent. Adjusting to increased costs from import tariffs was second, at 46 percent. Nearly 40 percent of participants said staff reductions had already been or will be made this year in anticipation of a recession, and the same percentage pointed to wage inflation as a factor in cuts.But in spite of the frequent and increasing recourse to quiet firing, its results received mixed reviews from survey respondents. A whopping 85 percent of participants called it a somewhat or very effective way of influencing employees to leave with lower costs and legal hassles. But 98 percent of respondents acknowledged the technique also had a negative effect on workplace morale, with nearly 40 percent describing that erosion as considerable.For that reason alone, Julia Toothacre, ResumeTemplates chief career strategist, warned that quiet firing is a double-edged sword employers should think entirely through before using.From a business perspective, quiet firing can seem like an efficient way to reduce head count without triggering layoffs, bad press, or severance costs, Toothacre said in comments about the surveys results. But its shortsighted. Creating an environment that pushes people to quit inevitably damages morale, productivity, and trust. It can also negatively impact hiring in the future. And lets be honest, when this tactic is applied broadly, companies risk losing high performers, not just underperformers.Another possible result is businesses not losing anyone at all. Survey respondents reported that employees targeted by quiet firing dont always quit as hoped especially in an increasingly challenging labor market.Indeed, 77 percent of participants said some of their quiet-firing efforts had failed when workers decided that finding a new job elsewhere would be more arduous than roughing it out where they were. One reason for that fatalism, 53 percent of responding managers said in their rather depressing view of the modern workforce, is that a large number of current workers simply tolerate poor treatment rather than quitting.That may wind up leaving manipulating executives with more than they bargained for. Because refusals of targeted employees to quit can have potentially negative consequences for the workplaces they remain in and the employers who wanted them gone.Many workers will stick it out right now not because theyre engaged, but because the job market feels uncertain, Toothacre said. Theyre weighing the stress of a toxic workplace against the risk of landing a new job that pays less. This calculator puts employees in survival mode, which will ultimately impact productivity.In other words, although quiet firing is spreading among businesses, its lower costs and confrontations up front may well be offset by lower workplace happiness and productivity over time. By Bruce CrumleyThis article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.