Jess Weatherbed is a news writer, and part of The Verge UK-based team. While passionate about the future of technology, she originally trained as a prosthetics makeup and wig-making technician, fuelled by a love of animatronics and practical movie effects. Jess started her career at TechRadar, covering news and hardware reviews across computing, PC gaming and streaming. Additional bylines can be found at GamesRadar, PCGamer, Creative Bloq and Space.com.
The R&D team at Walt Disney Imagineering has embraced Adobe’s Firefly Foundry platform to “accelerate the design and pre-production visualization pipeline” for Disney Parks and Experiences. The partnership will use AI models trained on Disney assets to turn sketches into fully rendered concept art, 2D images into 3D prototypes, and more.
In this video detailing the company’s concept and character design process, Epic says that AI tools like Google’s Nano Banana and its own internal GenMedia Bridge, allows “creative control to stay in the hands of the creator.” Given artists also have to fix stuff that AI generates without being asked to, we’ll let you be the judge of that.
The controversial birth control app is rolling out “Sleep Insights,” allowing users to view key metrics — including sleep duration, efficiency, and timing — alongside their daily fertility status. It requires either an Oura Ring or Natural Cycles Band wearable, and over time, can show how hormonal changes and menstrual phases can impact sleep patterns.
The upgraded Gemini for Google TV experience lets you speak to open settings, adjust sound and picture, and fix issues by describing them, such as by saying “the screen is too dark.” It’s exclusive to select 2025 and 2026 TCL Google TV models for 60 days, and rolling out now in the US.
