Hasta La Gadget!

The Queen offered her blessing for her son Charles’ wife to one day be known as “Queen Consort.”

If you recently downloaded the latest Canary release of Google Chrome, you may have noticed the icon is different. The change marks the first time in eight years that Google has redesigned the symbol representing its iconic web browser. At first glance, it doesn’t look that different, but there’s more to the refresh than meets the eye. In a Twitter thread spotted by The Verge, Google designer Elvin Hu details the thought process that went into the redesign.

If you look carefully, you’ll notice Google removed the shadows that were part of the icon, opting for a more flat design that’s in line with the company’s other products. It also changed the proportions of the symbol while brightening up the individual colors that make it up. But the most impactful change the company introduced is that it added subtle gradients to the green and red segments of the icon. Hu says the company found that certain shades of those two colors produced an “unpleasant color vibration” when placed next to one another. You can see a more apparent example of the phenomenon Hu talks about on this website. Either way, the result of the change is an icon that is “more accessible.”

Depending on where you use Chrome, you’ll see additional subtle changes. That’s because Hu says Google spent time customizing the icon to make it more at home in every operating system where you can download Chrome. On macOS, for instance, the symbol will look more three-dimensional. On iOS, meanwhile, there will be a special blueprint version of the icon tied to the beta release of the software. According to Hu, we’ll see the refreshed icon roll out over the next few months.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but a North American automaker is about to temporarily reduce its manufacturing output due to the ongoing global chip shortage. A Ford spokesperson told Reuters on Friday the automaker would cut or suspend production at eight of its factories across the US, Mexico and Canada. The shutdown will start on February 7th. Among other facilities, the decision will affect the Kansas City plant where Ford produces the F-150, one of its most popular and profitable vehicles.

This isn’t the first time Ford has felt the chip crunch, nor has it been the only automaker affected by the situation. Last September, General Motors temporarily suspended production at all but four of its North American factories amid component shortages. At the start of the year, the US Commerce Department warned semiconductor-related supply constraints would last until at least the second of half of 2022. “We aren’t even close to being out of the woods,” Department Secretary Gina Raimondo said at the time. 

Companies like Ford have taken action to address the problem. In November, the company announced a strategic partnership with GlobalFoundries to boost US semiconductor production, but the automaker likely won’t benefit from that arrangement for a while. In the meantime, Ford told Reuters it expects its production volume to “improve significantly” in the second half of the year.

HBO Max is not bringing back The Boondocks for an additional two seasons. In 2019, before the streaming service was even available, WarnerMedia announced that it had greenlit a 24-episode revival of the beloved Adult Swim animated series that was supposed to debut in the fall of 2020. In the two years since that announcement, there’s been almost no news about the series. Until now.

In an interview with the Geekset Podcast spotted by Gizmodo, Tom DuBois voice actor Cedric Yarbrough said the reboot isn’t moving forward. “I hate to say this, but right now the show is not coming back,” Yarbrough told the podcast. “Sony [Pictures Animiation]… they decided they’re going to pull the plug.” Yarbrough didn’t say why the company made that decision but noted that recording sessions for the show had started. We’ve reached out to WarnerMedia for comment.

The fact we won’t get two more seasons of The Boondocks is interesting in light of all the money WarnerMedia has spent to establish HBOMax as a destination for adult animation. Shortly after announcing the show’s revival, the company paid a reported $500 million to secure exclusive US streaming rights to South Park. It’s also tapped people like J.J. Abrams to create a new animated Batman series for the platform. The Boondocks was supposed to be one of the first releases in that push.

Since he first swung into the Marvel movies in 2016 with Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland’s had a fairly busy life. Not only has he been caught up in various Marvel movies and animated flicks, but he’s also about to don the half-tucked shirt of Naughty Dog’s Nathan Drake for Uncharted. That’s a lot of work for…

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