The highlights are $200 off the 2026 M5 MacBook Airs at Amazon, while B&H Photo has up to $300 off M5 MacBook Pros.

Could we still see a discount on the brand-new touchscreen PROLED XDR MacBook Pro released this month? It's unlikely, but perhaps a very small one. If it does come up, you'll find it here because we'll be updating the MacBook deals below throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

If you want to shop around rival brands, see our guide to the best laptops for graphic design. And see our iPad Black Friday hub if you're also after an Apple tablet.

• Shop MacBook deals at Amazon

Quick links: USA

• Amazon: Save $200 on M5 MacBook Airs
• B&H Photo & Video: Save $260 on M5 Macbook Pros
• Back Market: Discounts on refurbished MacBooks
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Quick links: UK

• Amazon: Save £200 on M5 MacBook Airs
• Very: Save £100 on 2026 MacBook Airs
• Laptops Direct: Big savings on older MacBook
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• John Lewis: Discounts on older MacBooks

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• Read the official Adobe Firefly blog for the details of what's new

Fine. But I'd like to know what "commercially safe" covers once you've picked someone else's model. The clean-data claim was about Firefly, and I guess it still is, but Firefly now sits alongside less open AI models. Adobe's position with Firefly was never a claim about OpenAI's training set or ByteDance's. A designer or artist clicking through the options could be forgiven for assuming the Adobe badge applies to everything inside the Adobe app. Adobe spells out the distinction in its partner-model documentation, but I'd argue this needs to be much clearer at the point of generation, not buried in the small print.

There's an important distinction here, too: Adobe's commercial-use assurances for its own Firefly models shouldn't be taken as a blanket guarantee for everything generated inside Firefly. Partner models have their own terms, training histories and conditions of use, and users need to assess those separately. For agencies and studios, that difference matters. A Firefly badge isn't necessarily the same as a Firefly guarantee.

Does Adobe Firefly's 'commercially safe' label still apply to every AI model?

Even before opening its gated community to other AI models, Adobe came under pressure from people uploading AI versions of other artists' work and claiming them as Adobe Stock, so some bad actors found ways around Adobe's walled garden. Adobe took action and says it respects creators' rights, and that resemblance isn't proof of copying.

Still, the complaints point at something licensing can't settle. Licensed training data answers whether Adobe was allowed to use the images. Artists were asking whether the output leans on their look. Those are separate questions, and the marketing has tended to let the first stand in for the second.

Add other companies' models and the problem grows. 'Safe' stops describing the product and starts describing one entry on a list. Agencies and art directors who signed off on Firefly because of that word now have to check each model separately, and I suspect most won't. It's this idea that we, the users, the artists and designers, are now responsible for ensuring Firefly outputs are as ethical as they can be.

Licensed AI training data doesn't guarantee ethical AI images

What I'd want from Adobe is, frankly, very dull and specific. Say in plain language, next to each model, what it was trained on. Say what the safe label does and doesn't cover, style included. Make it easy for studios to lock their workspaces to Firefly models alone, and make those controls available to everyone who needs them.

Adobe has earned a fairly good reputation for adopting AI carefully and responsibly in AI's gold-rush free-for-all. It can keep that and run a marketplace, but only by showing which parts of the marketplace are ethical, carefully made and sourced.

To see what's likely coming down the line, read our report on the Adobe Sneaks from Max 2026, including one in particular that caught the eye: Project Link Up, which is set to make vector design more accessible.

The result is Beyond the Screen: wildlife, lush vegetation and ocean life bursting out of a glowing monitor. It’s built from just 640 x 512 pixels and 32 colours, a canvas that would make a modern phone wallpaper blush. Benjaminsson first sketched in pencil, then brought it to life in Deluxe Paint 4. He calls the Amiga’s limits a “sweet spot”: tight enough to push against, generous enough to make something great.

• For a taste of the Amiga, read our Apidya' Special review on Switch 2

The Jim Sachs' inspired art

It’s also a nod to Jim Sachs’ Amiga Lagoon, the picture that showed a generation what these machines could do, and a love letter to an era when your imagination really was the only limit.

The timing is no accident. Retro Games’ full-size Amiga 1200 replica, THEA1200, lands on 4 December. Unlike the A500 Mini we reviewed in 2022, it comes with a working keyboard and Workbench desktop, so it’s built for creating as well as playing.

Artists can join in too, with PosterSpy inviting its community to reimagine Benjaminsson’s piece in their own style. Need a pixel fix first? Dive into our 31 amazing pixel art examples or learn how to break into pixel art. Then read on as Benjaminsson explains why limits still make for better art, and which retro tools you should try first.

The new THEA1200 arrives on 4 December. See more of Klas Benjaminsson's poster art at PosterSpy x THEA1200.

Retro replica 80s and 90s consoles and computers to buy:

Carolina uses Procreate for her work (see our guides to the best digital art software and Black Friday iPad deals). Below, she tells us about four examples of her ethereal art style.

Swans

“With this piece, I had fun while creating a tranquil look into some unlikely friends crossing the stream. My favourite part was to portray a feeling that filled my heart with joy!”

Sun Threads

“What if someone could turn sun beams into warm and golden threads? The result uses a sea of hues to create this cozy and inviting piece glowing from within.”

Forgotten

“An exploration of the feeling of being left behind, contrasted against dreamy and unnervingly moody colours and delicate elements and shapes.”

Stealing the Moon

“I imagined a character sneakily taking away the moon. Watching her through these bright and ornate window frames gave her a magical and ethereal feel.”

You can see more of Carolina's work on her website.

Gear up

See below for today's best deals on drawing tablets. We also have a guide to choosing the best iPad for drawing.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. You can order back issues.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
Download the Creative Bloq app for iOS
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The Cybercab will initially only be usable in the same locations where Tesla's Robotaxi ride-hailing service operates, which means it will be geofenced to specific parts of Texas and Florida. Even then, to use it at all, customers will have to pay a hefty monthly subscription fee on top of the upfront cost. Cancel the subscription, and you've got an expensive decoration sitting in your driveway.

If you thought Adobe's subscription model was bad, at least there's the Creative Cloud Black Friday sale.

Cybercab sales aren't opening to the public at large. Like with the flight-mode Roadster, you'll need a personal invite from Tesla. Nevertheless, the company says it expects to make the first deliveries in Austin, Texas, as soon as December.

Those who get an invite will have to pay $29,990 for the car itself. If they want the vehicle to actually drive, they'll have to also commit to a Tesla Autonomy Subscription at $299 per month.

People generally don't like subscriptions. Companies do since recurring payments usually provide higher margins and more stable long-term revenue than a one-off sale. People willingly accept that approach for phone data, streaming services and software, but it stings a but more when it comes with a physical product that also has an up-front cost.

Other carmakers have been roasted for this. BMW wanted people to pay $18 a month for heated seats. Mercedes-EQ decided to cap performance and ransom it back to customers in the form of an Acceleration Increase costing $100 a month. Other cash graps have included paywalled key fobs and garage door opening.

Admittedly, the Tesla Cybercab is different beast. You could argue that its autonomous driving capability is the real product and that the vehicle is just the shell for it. That service entails plenty of real ongoing costs for cloud infrastructure, remote monitoring systems, maps and safety updates.

The controversial part is that the vehicle's usability will depend on the Autonomy Subscription because it has no manual controls. Cancelling won't downgrade it to a normal car – it makes it unusable. It's a piece of hardware whose usability depends entirely on an ongoing software service controlled by Tesla.

For comparison, an extra $10,000 would get you a Tesla Model Y with manual controls and an optional full-self driving (FSD) subscription at $100 per month.

Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks the Cybercab monthly fee that his company is quoting is "too high". Writing on X in response to a post by YouTuber Marques Brownlee, he suggested that it "should match the cost of Tesla FSD and connectivity for other models, which is more like ~$115/month."

That might give Cybercab customers hope that the price will come down in the future. But it could also go up. The Tesla Autonomy Subscription Agreement states that the company reserves the right to adjust the monthly fee with just a month's notice. If it hikes the cost beyond a price you're prepared to pay, you lose the use of your car.

The agreement also allows Tesla to retain a lot of control over the product you just bought. It can modify service areas, update operating conditions, and control access to autonomous operation remotely. At least initially, those buying the car for personal-use will not be allowed to put it to work on ride-hailing networks. The car also films you during the entire ride and will pull over if the camera detects that you're infringing Tesla's rules.

These are unusual limitations compared with traditional car ownership, making it feel more like a temporary lease of a product whose branding Tesla hasn't yet managed to trademark.

I have to admit that I've not really 'got' the Lego Star Wars collaborations so far, but this piece is a real beauty. The anniversary model is a stunning 3,209-piece recreation one of the best Star Wars posters.

I was a massive Lego fan as a a kid, and then two things happened. I grew up, and so did Lego. While I got into other forms of entertainment, Lego got into collaborations, and big time. It still makes some classic sets, but most of its energy is put into partnerships with franchises from Disney and Marvel to Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Fortnite.

The extreme was when it started making logo kits for Star Wars and Marvel. I love it that a YouTuber made 100 famous logos out of Lego, but $100 for a dedicated set that lets you build a Lego Marvel logo? It felt like a product who's only use would be as a decoration on a YouTuber or streamer's desk.

But the Lego Star Wars A New Hope poster is something else. With its size and the level of detail, this is a piece you could put on a wall as a piece of interior design, turning Lego into art.

According to Brick Fanatics' interview with model designer Steven Howard, the logo was actually the most difficult part to create. Because of that, the text was made slightly bigger than on the original poster at 32 studs wide for the bottom row of the text.

The Lego A New Hope Movie Poster will cost $299. It's just a shame that it's not coming out until 4 January, otherwise it would be the perfect Christmas gift for any Star Wars fan.

With iPad prices inevitably more expensive than during Black Friday last year because of RAM and SSD shortages, this could be as good a deal as we get on the latest Air, and it offers pretty good value. If you do need more power, up to $150 off the M5 iPad Pro at B&H Photo is also tempting. But I think the lower-spec iPads could still fall in price as Black Friday gets closer.

If you need help deciding which iPad to choose, our expert guides to the iPad generations and the best iPad for drawing are the places to turn to.

• Browse iPads at Amazon

Quick links US

• Amazon: Save up to 11% on iPads
• B&H Photo: Save up to $150 on the M5 iPad Pro
• Target: Discounts on iPads with Circle Card
• Walmart: Cheap prices on restored iPads
• Best Buy: discounts on refurbished iPads

Quick links UK

• Amazon: discounts on most iPads
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See below for the best iPad Black Friday deals wherever you're located.

The game stars Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul as Robert Robertson, a former hero turned dispatcher for a team of reformed supervillains, alongside Jeffrey Wright, Laura Bailey, and members of the Critical Role cast. Getting that cast to feel like they're in the same room, and getting the player to feel part of the story, took a lot of invisible work.

You can read how four video tracks and a doughnut shop gave Dispatch its start, but here I ask co-founders Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart, the studio's COO and CTO, and both co-creative directors, how they nailed down the premium animation.

• Read our guide to the best animation software

Directing performances that branch

How do you keep dialogue, facial expressions and performances consistent when the player can send a scene in different directions? While it was made using Unreal Engine 5, it starts on the page. "Everything is written with choice in mind," says Herman.

AdHoc built its own tools to ingest scripts, including a playable script you can read and click through. That produces the recording script actors use in the booth, which Herman says is "a little bit crazy to read on a linear page". Do it long enough, though, and it starts to make sense. Each scene has a spine, and every time a choice appears, different options eventually trunk back into the main flow.

The studio also uses recordings as a directing tool. AdHoc ingests every performance as it’s captured, so when an actor records opposite someone already in the booth, the team can play those existing lines back for them to react to. In Herman’s example, with Aaron Paul already recorded, the team can bring in Erin as Blonde Blazer, play Paul’s lines for her to read off, then play him again after her response. It’s a clever bit of craft: AdHoc builds each conversation around real delivery. The effect, Herman says, is to simulate the actors being in the same room, which helps performances feel grounded and integrated. It also gives a scene its flow, because the actors know where they’re coming in from, and it makes testing branches easy.

It's clever craft. Rather than recording actors in isolation and hoping the performances fit together later, AdHoc builds the conversation around real delivery. The effect, Herman says, is to simulate the actors being in the same room, which helps performances feel grounded and integrated. It also gives a scene its flow, because the actors know where they're coming in from, and it makes testing branches easy.

By the time animation begins, the voice work is trusted, and the team is happy with it. The facial animation then comes down to knowing every character. "Not everyone laughs the same. When they cry, they look different," Herman says. "Every character is their own person. Like they are on the page, they are in animation." Getting there takes "a lot of review, a lot of ref", and the team shoots plenty of reference footage for its animators.

Making gameplay part of the story

For AdHoc, the problem was the seam: the point where a cutscene ends and gameplay begins. “The goal was always to make it feel integrated,” Lenart says. Part of the studio’s philosophy is that gameplay and story should feel like a seamless handoff rather than two different experiences. He and Herman had worked on plenty of games with clear story sections and clear gameplay sections, “and you could feel that break every single time”. That, he says, “always kind of drove us crazy”.

When they dreamed of starting their own studio, one mandate was to choose mechanics that feel like an integrated part of a character's life, not scenes contrived for interactivity. If someone has to break into a room and pick a lock, it shouldn't be something the character would never do.

For Dispatch, that meant the shift mechanic. Robert sends heroes out on calls because it's his job. "It's the thing he does every day," says Lenart. "So, when he sits down at his computer to do it, it feels natural."

The team also made sure the Z-Team keep talking to the player throughout each shift, so the dialogue and relationships keep flowing, and the story never stops for gameplay. At times, a shift cuts out to a cinematic and back in again, and Lenart says that only feels organic because "we spent a lot of time and effort to make it that way".

Unlearning Telltale

Herman and Lenart both spent years at Telltale Games, the studio behind The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Tales from the Borderlands, and Dispatch forced them to drop much of their old way of working.

At Telltale, Lenart says, cinematics were "fast and loose". Episodes were made in what the studio called live development: they would release one episode, then spend the next six weeks on the following. Things "could change at any time". Player feedback from the previous episode could feed straight back in, with tweaks to cinematics and character intentions right up until the day before shipping.

Dispatch had a different goal. AdHoc wanted the visuals and style to feel like "a premium animated television show" that wasn't a barrier for people who might enjoy a story like this but aren't typically into games. That meant a more traditional animation pipeline, with decisions made much earlier and, in some cases, locked down a year in advance.

"That was a really big learning curve for us since we were used to being able to make small adjustments all the way up until the last minute," Lenart says. But he now thinks the discipline made the game better. It "forced many detailed conversations way earlier in the process, which only better informed how each piece of the story was going to play out". His verdict: "Oh, this is actually the way to make the best quality product."

The Dispatch Deluxe Edition is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch / Switch 2, and $10.99 digital upgrade path for existing owners

Where to buy Dispatch Deluxe Edition

Sutherland Shire Council, in Sydney's south, covers a population of around 240,000 people. It rarely gets much coverage in the national press, let alone grabs attention in England over 10,000 miles away.

Yet in recent weeks, it's been at the centre of a row over its crest: an engraved portrait of Captain James Cook, who first came ashore on Australia's east coast at Kurnell, within the shire, in 1770.

Back in July, staff began favouring a newer, simpler logo across its communications. It's a light blue wave that's simple but effectively represents an area on Australia's east coast.

The Captain Cook crest row explained

To be clear, Cook has not been "cancelled", removed or erased by the council. They've simply moved the emblem featuring him to what they call "civic, ceremonial and high-value corporate applications", while using the newer one for things like email signatures, where a simpler mark works better.

Councillor Haris Strangas, though, wasn't happy that he'd never been asked about this change. So he tabled a motion to review the council's policy, then went on the Today show, a major national breakfast TV programme in Australia, to discuss what he'd done.

Admittedly, in the clip, Haris came across as a likeable, ordinary guy who said he didn't want to inflame the issue and acknowledged most people have better things to talk about. Nonetheless, he wasn't backing down, and as a result, Sutherland Shire found itself a front in Australia's long-running culture wars. Lots of other people then piled in with their own agendas, and you can imagine how it's all spiralled out of control since.

While I imagine most people in the area simply shook their heads and ignored this episode, I think it says something about how politics is making it harder for designers to do their jobs.

Why logos need to change

Logos are tools, not monuments. They need to be tweaked, updated, redesigned or replaced when they start to look tired, or for practical reasons, like when they don't work on small screens. It's not vandalism; it's maintenance.

Ninety-nine per cent of the time, this happens, and nobody bats an eyelid when logo redesigns get it right. Mastercard dropped its name from its circles emblem in 2019. Volkswagen flattened its badge the same year. Burger King reverted to its retro bun in 2021. Pepsi brought back a bolder, blacker globe in 2023. Few people outside the Creative Bloq audience would ever have noticed.

Even changes to the Sunderland Shire logo followed the same pattern. In 2008 the council shrank Cook in favour of its name and a new colour scheme. Ahead of the 250th anniversary of Cook's landing, it restyled the portrait for digital screens. The wave itself was introduced back in 2017. None of this made the national news.

What this means for designers

So what's changed? Well, sadly, we're in an era when a rebrand isn't just a rebrand. If people can make it a symbol of something bigger, they will. It's no longer about colours, type or kerning. It's about identity.

None of this means history doesn't matter, or that communities shouldn't have a say in how they're represented. But let's be clear: Cook has not been, and has not been, erased. The council just introduced a different design for specific use cases. That's all.

The fuss that people make over such minor tweaks puts designers in a difficult position. The lesson many clients will take from this, Cracker Barrel, Jaguar et al is that it's safer never to change anything at all. That's bad for design, and frankly bad for the organisations themselves, which end up stuck with identities that no longer work.

The concept art and early teasers revealed a painterly 2D style. Now Pixar's released a complete trailer, providing a deeper look at the new hybrid animation approach. And it's really got people talking

If you want to take advantage of Black Friday to upgrade your own studio setup, see our guides to the best laptops for animation and the best drawing tablets.

The Gatto trailer reveals more details about the movie's premise. Nero is a Mark Ruffalo-voiced black cat who joins the mog mob in Venice. After losing eight of his nine lives, he reevaluates his place in the world and decides to make a fresh start with a street musician called Maja, played by Bianca Babaşa.

The trailer also allows us to see Pixar's hybrid animation style in action. As we already knew, this isn't traditional 2D work. Pixar's combining computer-generated animation with hand-painted 2D textures and shaders.

The environments, characters and sets are modeled and animated in 3D to retain spatial depth, dynamic lighting and camera movement. The studio then applies hand-drawn details and a flattened perspective layered onto the 3D models, somewhat like the approach Disney used in its 2012 short Paperman.

In the comments on YouTube, a lot of people are pleased to see that the movie looks like its concept art (unlike Disney's Hexed). The question is whether Pixar has managed to find the sweet spot at which its familiar 3D models and the stylised 2D art style gel.

For the most part, I think it does. There are moments where the trailer feels a little uncanny, like when the police appear towards the end, and this hybrid style doesn't entirely replicate the warmth of physical animation, but the environments look spectacular, and the flat perspective and visible brushwork give the movie an appealing storybook feel.

Some people were hoping for something even more stylised and feel that Pixar's heart isn't in this approach. There are suggestions that it's chasing a trend on the heels of Into the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem without going all the way there.

But it might have taken many fans aback if Gatto had made such a radical departure. Sony Pictures Animation could make a movie like Into the Spider-Verse because it wasn't so synonymous with a particular house style. Pixar had to find its own sweet spot.

People are also seeing the influence of Oscar-winning Flow and DreamWorks' 2022 movie Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. That's fine; there's always room for more cats in animation. Maybe all of these films were inspirations, but the characters and story make Gatto still feel like a Pixar movie even if it looks very different, and that's something that's exciting to see.

Gatto will be released on 5 March 2027.

Below, he shares four examples of personal work. Alexandre uses Zbrush, Maya, Substance Painter, Houdini, Marvelous Designer, Arnold, Marmoset Toolbag and Photoshop. See our guides to the best drawing tablets and the best laptops for 3D modelling if you need new hardware for your own projects.

Veldrak

“Veldrak is based on the fantastic work of Kian Kiani. I absolutely love sculpting scales, so I’ve set myself another challenge to make them one by one by hand.”

Lion

“I’ve wanted to create a realistic lion for quite some time now. I challenged myself to push the boundaries as far as possible, and above all, to create a believable, realistic fur with Houdini.”

Dr Strange

“I’ve been a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch since the start of the Sherlock series. I’m also a big Marvel fan, so I have been itching to depict his likeness again and improve my sense of realism.”

Aquatien

“I wanted to try my hand at creating a realistic portrait, and I drew a lot of inspiration from various tribes. Julie Bijjou was in charge of the grooming, and she did a fantastic job on it.”

You can see more of Alexandre's work on his ArtStation profile.

Gear up

See below for today's best deals on drawing tablets.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. You can order back issues.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
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• Get the ZiiGaat Seraphim for $259 at Amazon

Amongst the wave of IEMs to come out in 2026, I don't think I've been more excited about the look of an IEM than with the ZiiGaat Seraphim. And the more I found out about these beauties, the more excited I got about their sound.

Tuned by the consistently excellent Jay Audio, and combining two dynamic and three Knowles balanced armature drivers, the Seraphim promises a flagship-tier listening experience without – at $259 – the accompanying destruction to your wallet.

At this price point, they're not going to make my list of the best budget IEMs under $100, but there's every chance that they make my buying guide to the best IEMs under $500. Read on and see if they sound like the right option for you.

Sound profile

Overall sound: There was online chat about the Seraphim being a mini-Storm, but that's actually a bit of a red herring. I heard the Subtonic Storm at CanJam London, and from memory, it has much less emphasis on bass, noticeably fuller mids, and a significantly more nuanced, airy treble presentation overall. Instead, the Seraphim offers an exciting, contrasty sound with strong bass and a well-balanced treble. The mids are a little lean for me, and won't be for everyone, but if you're looking for sub-bass impact, these are your boyees!

Bass: The Seraphim uses an isobaric dual dynamic driver configuration that is meant to be good at delivering deep frequencies. I have no way of testing whether that's true, but what I can tell you is the sub-bass hits like a truck. In a good way.

Rather than bleeding into the lower midrange, the mid-bass remains tightly controlled, prioritising accuracy over bloated warmth. I really like this, as it provides a sense of bounce and grip texture, where bass guitar lines from Dry Cleaning's MySoul / Half Pint feel satisfying, while electronic kicks and 808s sound authoritative, separated, and just a blast to listen to.

However, this separation of upper bass and lower mids, while eliminating bleed, brings its own issues to the tuning...

Midrange: Again, if marketing materials are to be believed (they're not, they're not!!) the Seraphim's Knowles balanced armatures allow the midrange to lean toward a clean, analytical profile that slightly favours upper registers.

For me, the midrange has pros and cons. Higher register vocals, such as Neil Young on Tell Me Why, are forward and engaging, cutting through the arrangement with transparency. But the lower mids feel a tad lean, stripping some natural body and chest resonance from vocals, especially on the lower tones of Barry White on Can't Get Enough of Your Love.

Despite this minor honkiness on certain vocal tracks, the instrument separation is really good, making every piano plonk and acoustic guitar strum sharply defined. I think the upper mids are so balanced that overall the timbre of the Seraphim is good, and instruments sound 'right', on the whole (though this is definitely where the Seraphim falls down against the CrinEar Reference – see the comparison section below for more on that).

Treble: The treble response is probably the most impressive part of the Seraphim's tuning. It delivers a highly resolving, crisp presentation without harsh peaks. It just seems to be very well balanced, offering a well-extended presentation, with just enough air to bring sparkle but without the tiring glare that you often get with bright IEMs.

I hear plenty of micro-details and coupled with the massive sub-bass, you could call this a very exciting V-shape tuning. Now, there's no perfect tuning, and especially when it comes to treble, one person's subtle spotlight is another's midday sun aimed at your eyeballs, and I think the Seraphim's treble can get a little much. But that's only on music that's mixed bright, like Michael Jackson's Billie Jean or Lucinda Williams's Sweet Old World.

But on 80% of my music library, the treble is smooth and fatigue-free, allowing for long listening sessions.

Price & Competition

Price: At $259, the Seraphim sits in a competitive mid-fi price zone where consumers rightfully expect premium technicalities, durable accessories, and engaging tunings without glaring flaws.

And you get all of that with the Seraphim! It offers good detail retrieval, a thunderous sub-bass response, modular cable terminations, and a quality metal build that justifies its relatively modest asking price.

But how does it compare to the competition?

Vs CrinEar Reference

This is slightly unfair, as the Seraphim isn't going for the same style of tuning as the neutral Reference. Yet it's worth comparing, because at $350 the CrinEar Reference offers what I would describe as a far more sophisticated sound. There are lots of fun, exciting, contrasty, V-shaped IEMs out there, like the Seraphim. At the time of writing, there's only really one truly exceptional neutral IEM: The Reference.

When placing the Seraphim alongside the Reference, it's impossible to ignore the visual similarities. Aesthetically, the Seraphim is definitely trying to steal Crin’s lunch, mimicking the sleek metallic faceplates and minimalist shell contours. And Jay does it better! The Seraphim looks so much more engaging and visually interesting than the Reference's bland logo faceplate.

As mentioned, the sound is totally different. Where Crinacle goes for strict neutrality, emphasising natural vocal timbre and a smooth yet full midrange, the Seraphim leans heavily into a more flash, fun, V-shaped profile. It aggressively pushes that thunderous ten-decibel sub-bass slam and analytical treble, trading tonal purity for excitement and flair. And sometimes that's what I want! Most of the time, I get plenty excited by the balanced brilliance of the Reference.

Another area the Reference wins in is comfort. For me, the longer, deeper fit means a better seal is achieved quicker than with the Seraphim.

Vs Binary EP321

Pitting the Seraphim against the Binary EP321 is more of a fair fight. First of all, at $310 the Binary EP321 is more comparable price-wise. It's also a visually interesting IEM with its multi-coloured, reflective faceplate.

Sound-wise, it's a bright IEM with enough sub-bass and mid-bass to justify the 'exciting' descriptor. I think it does mid-bass better than the Seraphim, and with its extra treble, there's more detail in that bass with the EP321.

Most important for me, the EP321 is less lean in the lower mids, injecting much-needed warmth and thicker vocals that the Seraphim can lack. As mentioned, the Binary EP321 provides more treble energy thanks to its MEMS driver (says the marketing), meaning ultra-high frequencies are achieved with blinding speed.

Ultimately, if you crave physical sub-bass impact, grab the Seraphim, but if you prioritise airy treble and natural lower mids, the EP321 wins out easily. For me, I'd always go for the EP321 over the Seraphim.

Build & comfort

ZiiGaat has fully embraced sturdy metal shells, providing an understated faceplate design that feels solid without being heavy. Although I've read online that some people don't like the thin cable, I'm a fan of it! After all, when was it decided that thick = great quality?! It wraps easily and avoids annoying microphonics entirely, which are major plusses for me.

In terms of ergonomics, the robust nozzles create a rather noticeably shallow fit, so I couldn't use my favourite Juzear eartips, as I wasn't able to get a proper seal, and instead I used the new rounder tips that came with the Dunu Vitruvian IEMs, which are longer. I still had issues with achieving a seal when swapping them with other IEMs for comparisons, but I don't expect many people will be doing that, and once I got the seal, it stayed, so I don't want to overstate it.

The Seraphim is mid-sized and I find them very comfortable when fitted. This makes them a good choice for long daily commutes or extended listening sessions at your desk without any noticeable fatigue.

Should you buy it?

I'm confident that the ZiiGaat Seraphim will be many people's idea of perfect in an IEM. Their tuning is ideal for audiophiles wanting visceral sub-bass impact combined with pristine detail retrieval. EDM fans and gamers will get on with them, with its punchy dynamics and superior imaging. They also look stand-out-beautiful, and though that's not enough by itself, it's a hell of a big plus in my book. After all, my favourite IEM is the CrinEar Reference, but I far prefer the look of the Seraphim!

Listeners seeking lush, thick male vocals should look elsewhere, as the lean lower mids will prove frustrating. However, despite a few subjective quirks, it remains an incredibly competent hybrid monitor, and I really liked it for the vast majority of my music library.

This is the biggest Adobe Black Friday deal we've seen for several years. You can get all of the Creative Cloud desktop apps, mobile apps and services for just $29.99 per month for a year in the US (down from $69.99). That includes Photoshop for digital art and image editing, Lightroom for photo editing, Premiere for video and Illustrator for vector art and graphic design. It's still the industry-standard package for professional creatives, and if you're in the US.

The Adobe Black Friday discount extends to the students and teachers plan, which is reduced by 77% to $15.99 for the first year. Pricing in other regions varies but often with similar discounts. Here are the details. In the UK, the price is reduced from £66.49 to £28.49 per month.

While there's a lot of competition in creative software today (see our guides to the best graphic design software and the best digital art software), we think Adobe's Creative Cloud still has the edge.

It's convenient to have a complete ecosystem of apps that integrate into multitool workflows, especially now that an increasing number of artists and designers are working across various media, from 2D design to motion graphics and video. Adobe also works continually on developing new tools and features to add to the suite, as we saw in the Adobe Sneaks 2026 presentation at the Adobe Max conference in Miami this past week. That means regular updates that add new tools, keeping the software ahead of the competition.

Following a successful 2024 Kickstarter and two years of intensive engineering, creative tech studio CircuitMess is finally shipping its officially licensed Rick and Morty Butter Bot. And yes, theoretically, it will be able to pass you the butter. Better yet, it rolls around on rubber caterpillar tracks delivering deadpan commentary about the futility of its own existence. Yes please!

However, even though this grumpy little companion looks like the product of some of the best 3D printers out there, it will set you back $349. Yeah, it's for the ultra-fans only.

What is my purpose?

Inspired by a two-second gag from the intro of an Rick and Morty episode, Butter Bot started life as a cult Kickstarter project backed by 2,715 eager fans ($441,349 pledged). CircuitMess spent two years, and three electronics revisions plus custom steel moulds, turning that animated gag into a real, palm-sized AI desk robot.

And yes, of course this includes AI. Under the hood, it packs an onboard AI camera, dual microphones, edge sensors, and a remote controller featuring a live first-person video feed. Because its voice, face, and object recognition run on-device, it should recognise its owner, identify random desk clutter, read out phone notifications, tell jokes, control your TV, and – crucially – ferry sticks of butter across the table (though how the hell this is done is currently a mystery to me).

Left alone, it roams your workspace, avoids table edges, and loudly questions its own purpose. Pick it up and it panics; shake it and it disapproves; press the controller’s 'Poke' button and you’ll visibly irritate it.

Tinkerers can also snap on six modular add-ons, including an air-quality sensor, motion-sensing intruder alarm, and LED light show. O you can reprogram its open-source brain from scratch using C++ or CircuitBlocks (I'll leave that to the people in the know).

Available worldwide now at circuitmess.com for $349, it’s a wonderfully over-engineered piece of pop-culture hardware that can turn existential dread into festive cheer. If you can afford it!

So when I heard a new generation was on its way, I asked to speak to the design team behind the biggest shake-up of its physical design yet. It’s a fairly tricky proposition: a product used by children but invested in by parents, with a clear mission and a feature set that’s still evolving. The new players have a mischievous new look, a green dial (big news in the world of Yoto) and a few other added features. Most importantly, the design team and Yoto chose not to lean any harder on the screen’s capabilities. For families trying to rely less on screens, that’s a crucial decision.

• Explore Yoto players and accessories at the Yoto website

Below is my conversation with Jack Godfrey Wood of design studio Heirloom, covering the design mission, how the players were prototyped and tested, and the challenge of designing for a product with such a clear purpose and such a vocal community.

How did Heirloom come to work with Yoto?

We knew people there. One of our colleagues worked on the original Kickstarter version, the wooden cube with the two blue dials, and two of our team designed the later generations at another company. When we started Heirloom, we took on the current fourth-gen players, so our team has been involved in and out from the beginning. It made sense straight away, because we all had that Fisher-Price cassette deck as kids and this felt like this generation’s version. Once Tom and Ben showed us the community they’d built, I knew it would work.

What were the aims for the redesign?

There were technical aims and design aims. Yoto wanted more storage, more battery and more internal robustness, and they wanted the player to be splashproof. That meant a lot of work on keeping dust and liquid out. Inside, the downloads are faster, there’s more storage and the sound is better, so they’ve fixed the things I wanted fixed as a parent. Our job was to make the players fit better in kids’ hands, travel better, and be easier to hold, carry and drop without anything breaking.

Where did your design decisions come from?

Both the community and our own experience, plus writing some rules. Yoto’s core goal is “kids in control and parents in charge”. We also knew we didn’t want addictive, distracting moments. Both screens have more resolution than before, but we kept everything in pixel world, because to us that’s Yoto. It’s a fun menu, not a distracting screen. We could have added motion, like a character that waves at you if nothing happens for 15 minutes, but we felt the community would say that was wrong.

Does Yoto’s approach feel different to other consumer tech clients?

Yes. Yoto’s goal isn’t to keep eyeballs on the screen. It’s how often the player gets used and whether it adds value to a child’s and a family’s life. It’s a very clear moral code, which makes design decisions easier. A lot of the pixel work we did is artful, precise and beautiful, but we kept it happily lo-fi and didn’t turn it into another Apple product.

What was the big challenge on content?

Yoto wanted the backup content stored in each player to be available on the player itself. That way, if you can’t find the card, your kids can still listen to what they like, and you don’t have to get your phone out at 9pm when nobody’s going to bed. The hard part was doing that without turning the screen into an iPod or an iPad.

So how does the green dial work?

It was our way of giving kids access to what they want without overwhelming them with 200 cards. Daily radio and podcasts have moved onto it, along with 20 favourites. It populates automatically, but parents can set up day and night versions in the app. At night, all 20 can be sleep or relaxation content. In the daytime, you can have Elton John and Harry Potter. It also means your favourites are there wherever you go, which is really good for holidays. We still love cards, though. In all our research, they’re still the main way younger kids want to use it.

How many concepts did you go through?

For one of the players, up to 10 to 15 concepts across a few different areas. When we gave the more pebbly form to some children, it was obvious how naturally it fitted their hands and how much they wanted to hold on to it, so we presented that one with a strong recommendation. For the other, we looked at five or six directions, but Yoto wanted it to feel like a continuation of the previous products. The concept was quite singular, and we spent a lot of time on the detailing: where the dials sit, how sharp they should be, and so on.

What did you change about the dials and finish?

The dials used to be crisp. We softened them so kids can reach them from different angles, and made them slightly longer for more grip. The smart button isn’t in the middle, which most designers would do. Because it’s a kids’ product, kids can use it from the front as they hold it.

How do you work with such an opinionated community?

Because we’re external to Yoto, they do most of the community work and the feedback is funnelled to us through the Yoto team. We’re forthright about what we think is right within Yoto’s mission, and we don’t try to do everything people ask for. The challenge is that the community is always ageing up, but we also have to look after new families who’ve never used Yoto. A new user shouldn’t have to learn anything, and an existing user shouldn’t be thrown off because every feature suddenly does something else. The community’s feedback is great because it comes from hard-won experience, not assumptions.

How do you keep Yoto feeling like Yoto?

By keeping the mischief, fun and wonder, and the underdog spirit, rather than suddenly feeling like a big corporation. My favourite bits are the hidden details. There are little faces between the dials, and the charging cable has four tiny Yoto logos, one of which is winking. No one’s going to talk about it, but one day someone will spot it and get a little flutter of appreciation.

This month, though, things felt different. US voters delivered a blunt verdict on AI infrastructure in ballot measures, while Nvidia, the chipmaker who's played a vital role in building that infrastructure (and made RAM more expensive in the process), found itself at the centre of a spy scandal. The recent Nvidia scandal and resignation of Jensen Huang have sent things into a spiral, from a share price drop to speculation that the AI bubble has burst, even a rebranding, when we asked whether Nvidia need a new logo as well as a new CEO?

Neither story on its own spells disaster for AI. But together, they suggest something important has shifted. And that matters for the millions of creatives whose lives are being reshaped by this tech.

Voters bite back at AI data centres

Most news coverage of the US midterms focused on who controls Congress. But at the same time, 40 of 41 local data centre measures decided on 3 November across 10 states favoured limiting development.

Voters approved 27 restrictive measures and rejected all 13 that would have helped projects go ahead. The results range from moratoriums and zoning limits to outright bans. And candidates who campaigned on pausing data centre construction won governor's races in Texas, Ohio and Georgia. This was not surprising, because in NBC News' exit poll, 76% of voters said they'd oppose a new data centre in their own community.

Nvidia’s spy scandal and Jensen Huang’s resignation

It's important to understand that this is not a partisan issue. Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike have been fighting back against the AI industry. So the timing couldn't have been worse for Nvidia.

On 6 November, The New York Times shared details of how CEO Jensen Huang had been the target of an alleged espionage operation involving a Chinese businesswoman US officials believe was working for China's Ministry of State Security. On Sunday, Huang admitted to an extramarital affair with her and apologised to staff.

Huang said he had no idea she was a spy, and Beijing has dismissed the claims as groundless. Nvidia's board launched an inquiry and said it still had confidence in him. But later revelations of a second affair piled on the pressure, and Huang eventually resigned on 12 November.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but this feels like a watershed moment. Up until now, the AI industry has relied on two things: the assumption that its physical expansion was inevitable, and the aura of its leaders as visionaries above scrutiny. Now, that's changed.

What it means for creatives

That doesn't mean the AI boom is about to collapse, of course. But it does suggest the era of 'build first, ask questions later' is ending. Expect more political resistance, more regulation and more scrutiny.

For creatives, that may be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if you're using AI tools, they're likely to go up in price. On the other hand, if you're worried about AI's impact on jobs and don't want it to scrape your work, there's a chance things will slow down now, at least a little.

Finally, it feels like a good time to remember that we actually have a voice. For years now, many of us have either kept quiet or felt like we've been shouting into the void about AI. Now that millions of voters are shouting too, the industry might actually start to pay attention.

I’ve reviewed the best 3D printers since 2021, and Prusa’s concern for their customers has always stood out. I’ve had this CORE One for well over a year, and when the “Gen 2 +” came out, my machine wasn’t obsolete, it just needed a small bag of parts and a screwdriver.

The CORE One+ is the same size as the Original Prusa MK4S and can be upgraded into a multicolour master with an INDX tool changer upgrade.

Unboxing and Setup

We unboxed a fully assembled CORE One (which was later upgraded to a “+”). You only need to remove the packing material and install the screen. The machine arrives pre-calibrated from the factory so all you need to do is load filament and select your first print. The machine automatically probes the bed level before each print to ensure a perfect first layer.

The CORE One is made with a solid steel exoskeleton that also forms the machine’s chassis, and the print bed is milled aluminum for even heat distribution. Nothing on the machine is glued, and the entire thing can be taken apart with a screwdriver. This is to facilitate both repair and custom modding, which Prusa fully supports.

The 3D printer came with a set of tools, alcohol wipes, a detailed paper manual, a USB stick loaded with pre-sliced test prints and a full sized spool of Galaxy Black Prusament. You also get a bag of Haribo Goldbears to fuel your journey.

Performance

The CORE One+ is much faster than its bed slinger brethren, but honestly it's not as fast as a Bambu Lab X1C. This “space marine” phone holder I printed for my son (above) in Prusament PLA Pearl Mouse took 12 hours and 18 minutes to print, using a high quality .15mm layer height, 15% infill and 3 walls. An X1C would cut that down by 3 hours using similar settings. This is because PrusaSlicer, Prusa’s native slicing software, is optimized for precision rather than raw speed. Though both the CORE One+ and X1C are similar sized Core XY printers, Prusa never pushes the speed or travel settings on its machines.

The Prusa Nextruder is at the heart of the CORE One+, with its large planetary gear to firmly grab and control filament. Squirrely TPU is no match for the CORE One+, with a redesigned filament loading point that has a manual switch to loosen the sensor and allow soft TPU to slip through.

One of the best features given to the CORE One after its “+” upgrade is the simplest: a nozzle wiping brush. The small silicone brush started as a community mod, with dozens of variations uploaded to Printables. The printer can now clean its own nozzle before performing bed leveling probes, eliminating an annoying failure point.

One sticking point is the lack of a dedicated heater for the chamber. The CORE One+ depends on retaining heat generated by the heated bed, which can leave you waiting when you need a toasty interior for nylon or PC.

Prusa Research’s ecosystem consists of PrusaSlicer, PRUSA App for mobile and Printables.com for community file sharing. Printables hosts frequent contests, free models but also supports designers financially by allowing them to set up club memberships and shops.

EasySlice is a simple, yet fully functional, web based slicer you can run from the PRUSA App or directly from Printables. Prusa makes its own filament, Prusament, in house at both its headquarters in Prague and the more recently acquired Delaware factory, formally known as Printed Solid.

Price and Competition

The Prusa CORE One+ typically retails $1,299/£1,199 assembled or $999/£929 for a kit, which is on the high end for an enclosed Core XY 3D printer. The company is currently running a Black Friday sale with free shipping and gifts worth up to $450. Gifts include an Open Print Tag upgrade, a spool of Chalky Blue PLA, premium models, Prusa Academy courses, and extended one year warranty, and $50 off an INDX upgrade.

The CORE One+ is definitely an investment, but the machine is built to last and carries the promise of years of upgrades. If you’re willing to do the occasional mod, this printer will likely serve you for years without getting kicked to the curb just because a new sensor package has come along. Fun fact: if you owned a MK2 ten years ago, you could have upgraded it all the way to a CORE One+.

For a bit less than an assembled CORE One+, you could get a Bambu Lab H2S Combo, a single nozzle 3D Core XY with a larger 340 x 320mm print bed and a four color AMS. The H2S is currently on sale for $1249/£999. We reviewed the laser variant, which is slightly more at $1599/£1249 and tops our list of Best 3D Printers.

You could also opt for a more modest machine, like the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo, which is closer in size with a 256x256mm build plate, but a fraction of the cost at $449/£398. It’s an enclosed four color Core XY, with good quality, though a bit lacking in the polished ecosystem of its rivals.

Should You Buy?

Buy it if: You’re a hobbyist who wants a machine you can maintain and mod yourself for years to come.

Don’t buy it if: You’re looking to print large models like cosplay armor.

Prusa’s CORE One+ is for hands-on makers who’ve outgrown bed slingers and crave a no nonsense, fully enclosed machine they can mod and repair. After more than a year with this machine in my studio, this is where it earns its keep. I personally enjoy its old-school vibe, and the thought that when things go wrong, I can sort it out with a screwdriver and mod from the community over at Printables. I’m already eyeballing an eight color INDX upgrade for this machine.

It's also an excellent fit for classrooms and workshops where people need a reliable, well-built machine that can handle a bit of benign neglect. Its enclosure means it can churn out high temperature filaments, like ASA and ABS, and its precision is a must have for practical prints and designing prototypes.

See our guides to the best drawing tablets and the best laptops for 3D modelling if you need new hardware for your own projects. Below, Ian tells us a little about this latest project.

Iomall

My latest stylised project, Iomall, was inspired by Yehliu Geopark and Seceda Mountain. Built in Unreal Engine 5, it combines Lumen and Nanite Foliage to create a stylised environment.

For this project, I wanted to create two distinct biomes. I began with a series of simple sketches to establish the overall concept, materials, and color palette for each biome. This approach helped minimise unnecessary iterations in 3D and ensured that all elements worked together cohesively from the start. I used Nanite for both vegetation and rock assets.

Terrain

The landscape shader combines Global Albedo Maps, Nanite Tessellation, RVT blending, height blending and cell bombing.

To reduce texture tiling across large landscapes, I implemented cell bombing in the terrain material. This technique adds variation to repeated textures, allowing large surfaces to be covered with fewer material layers while maintaining a natural appearance.

You can see more of Jan's work on his ArtStation profile.

Gear up

See below for today's best deals on drawing tablets.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. You can order back issues.

Creative Bloq is now easier to access than ever before with our on-the-go app, which brings you all the content you know and love from our website, but in a super-streamlined design.
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Alas, it turns out that the DLSS 5 controversy is the least of its problems. Former CEO Jensen Huang has now resigned after embroiling Nvidia in a honeytrap scandal worthy of a spy novel. CFO Colette Kress has stepped up as interim CEO and an executive search has begun.

But the debacle has also resurfaced another question. Why does one of the world's most valuable companies still have such a terrible logo design? And could this be the moment for a refresh?

See our guides to the best laptops for graphic design and the best monitors for graphics artists if you need new tools for your own work.

Over on Reddit, designers are debating the "least aesthetically pleasing, most poorly designed corporate logo" still in use today, and the Nvidia logo is the example that was used to get the ball rolling. Other contenders put forward on the thread include the X logo and, of course, the infamous Kia logo.

I can see where the OP is coming from. Nvidia was the world's most valuable company until the Jensen Huang honeytrap controversy hammered its share price and put Apple back in the lead on the Nasdaq. The identities of those two companies couldn't look or feel more different. The Apple logo is sleek and minimalist. It feels modern and premium. The Nvidia logo is... weird.

"So many things I hate about this design: The Aztec-looking spiral eye, the half inverted color, the lime green, black, and white color pallette, the '80s sci-fi font. None of it coheres well," the OP writes on Reddit.

Of course, Apple and Nvidia are very different beasts. Apple is mainly consumer facing and Nvidia's business is mainly corporate. On the consumer side, Nvidia's GPUs are packaged and sold by other brands rather than by Nvidia directly. But the company is becoming much more of a household name as its tentacles spread.

Nvidia components are being promoted more visibly in GeForce RTX laptops, and the company's being collaborating on workflow developments with creative software developers like Adobe, Blackmagic (DaVinci Resolve) and the Blender Foundation.

There is a compelling case for a change. Nvidia's visual identity was born in a very different age of technology back in 1993. Its last logo redesign was twenty years ago in 2006.

Time alone is never a reason for a rebrand, even for a tech company. IBM's had the same logo since 1972. But with Nvidia, the age shows. The wonky eye, brat green colour palette and retro-futuristic type feel rooted in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when aggressive, futuristic aesthetics dominated PC hardware branding.

Compared with the cleaner, more restrained identities of companies like Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI and even AMD, Nvidia's main rival in the GPU space, the branding feels tied to gaming origins.

There's also a somewhat dark occult reference going on. In the company's name, the 'NV' comes from the shorthand that was used to identify the 'next version' in file names, while the 'invidia' part means 'envy' in Latin.

That feeling will be familiar to anyone who has a colleague with an RTX 5090, but it's a strange choice for a brand. The word is often associated with malice and the 'evil eye' and was sometimes used as the Roman name for the ancient Greek deity, Nemesis, the personification of divine retribution. Yikes.

Today, the firm's influence and ambitions extend far beyond GeForce. It sells AI infrastructure, networking technology, autonomous vehicle platforms and enterprise computing systems. A more refined visual identity could reflect its status as a global AI platform rather than a 'mere' component manufacturer.

That said, for all of its weirdness, Nvidia's mysterious green eye is one of the most distinctive marks in tech. A rebrand could risk of abandoning something that has aged better than critics might admit.

While the eye doesn't feel especially contemporary, it is unique. At a time when many companies are converging towards minimalist sans-serif wordmarks and simplified geometric symbols, the identity stands out precisely because it has character, and distinctiveness is arguably more valuable than modernity.

The strongest argument would probably be for a careful evolution. The company could modernise the typography and tweak the eye. It might be able to find a more appealing shade of green. A relatively subtle refresh could preserve decades of recognition while signalling that Nvidia has entered a new chapter.

But it remains to be seen how much the last two weeks have changed things. It looked like Jensen Huang was going to hang on until yesterday's resignation announcement. The company might also decide that the controversy requires a clear visual break from the past.

There's plenty of branding inspiration about this week that Nvidia might want to check out, from the solid Caixa rebrand in Brazil to the intriguing new Takara Tomy logo .

Let me know below if you agree that Nvidia has the worst corporate logo in tech, or if you feel that there's a stronger candidate.

All of the below wired earphones are distributed by the IEM retailer, curator, and distributor Linsoul, and with that comes a certain guarantee of quality. Everyone I've tested from them has hit a high level of quality control, so really all you as the potential buyer have to worry about, is if the sound profile is to your taste.

As I've tried most of them, I'm going to give you my tuning impressions, plus any design and comfort highlights for each of them. Many of them feature in my list of the best IEMs under $500, and my favourite budget IEMs under $100 – so these aren't just random IEM deals, but rather a curated list of genuinely excellent options.

I were to pick only one? Considering price, sound and build quality, I would get the Kiwi Ears KE4 down from $199 to $169. It's a fantastic, modern IEM that has a best-seller since its 2024 release for very good reason.

Fortunately, there are eight travel accessories that could all potentially save the day at some point during a trip, whether you're going on a work journey or just visiting family for the holidays. These handy gadgets could help you find your gear, save your work, keep you charged up or just improve your entertainment experience when you're on the go. And some of them have decent discounts now that the Black Friday sales have started!

For larger pieces of hardware, see our guides to the best drawing tablets and the best portable CAD laptops.

• Browse travel essentials at Amazon

It's not a massive saving, especially since Nintendo's 'next gen' console used to be cheaper than Switch 2's new US price, but discounts on Nintendo hardware are still relatively rare. For comparison, the console and Ocarina of Time bundle is $568, so it's cheaper to buy the Woot deal and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time separately, since it's $49.99 as a digital download. (That's $10 less than the physical edition.)

• Read our The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time review

US price drops on Nintendo Switch 2 and The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

The picks of the UK NIntendo Switch 2 deals

There's also a growing selection of UK deals to consider, and as with the US, it's rare to see Switch 2 drop in price outside of big sales events like Black Friday – it feels like Nintendo really wants you to play Ocarina of Time.

Amazon UK lists the standard Switch 2 through third-party sellers, with prices starting at £399.99 on its current listing, although the cheapest visible offer is a Like New console for £369.99 rather than a new console from Amazon itself.

Elsewhere, Sports Direct (yes, they sell Switch 2 and Nikes) has been listing the standalone console for £395.99, while EE has it for £405. Even better, EE has a Switch 2 and Mario Kart World bundle for £409, making the extra £4 a no-brainer if you don't already own the game.

Very is also worth a look, with its standalone console listed at £389.99, alongside bundles including Ocarina of Time, Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World. My pick? The Switch 2 Console bundle with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as you get the console's biggest game and the latest party game. The same bundle is £489 at Currys.

Speaking of which, one of my picks at Currys is a Switch 2 and Splatoon Raiders Bundle, spotted for £424 – it's one of my favourite Nintendo games released this year (read our Splatoon Raiders review to discover why). That's a particularly tempting option if you're after a game as well as the hardware.

• Read our Nintendo Switch 2 review

My Nintendo Switch 2 deals advice?

The Woot deal is excellent if you're already an Amazon Prime member or want to join before Black Friday. But it does suggest there could be deals around the end of November for the year's big sales event.

If you just want The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, buying it digitally 'saves' you $10 off the physical edition price.

In the UK, I'd be looking at the £390–£410 mark for a Switch 2 console, especially bundles that include a full-price game for very little extra. There are more offers around right now, too.

Dispatch was made in Unreal Engine and stars Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul as former hero Robert Robertson, alongside Jeffrey Wright, Laura Bailey, and members of the Critical Role cast. It's an animated, episodic workplace comedy that plays like a TV series, but it wasn't always a game, and that's perhaps why it feels so unique. AdHoc was founded in Los Angeles in 2018 by Telltale Games alumni who planned to make interactive experiences with real actors on screen, and Dispatch began that way.

I asked co-founders Nick Herman and Dennis Lenart, the studio's COO and CTO and both co-creative directors, what survived the jump from live-action series to animated game, and what had to change.

• Read our guide, 'How to make an FMV game: 10 pro tips' for advice

How a live-action browser test shaped Dispatch’s doughnut shop scene

One piece of the original script made it through every draft: the doughnut shop scene in episode two. Lenart says it was "one of the pieces from the early script that just kind of kept hanging around through every draft all the way from live action into the animated game".

The set-up was different back then. You watched a camera feed as the hero Invisigal dealt with a thief, and your job was to feed her the information she needed to succeed. In the live-action version, that meant switching cameras and pulling information from what each camera showed. Herman says the scene was "purely built around the technology" AdHoc was using to create its interactive live action. It ran in a browser and had hard limits, including, as Herman recalls, “I think it was like four simultaneous tracks of video”.

The team turned that restriction into a mechanic. Watch the alley behind the shop, and you couldn't see what was happening inside the front. "By choosing where you were going to give your attention, the game would adjust, and you'd learn different things based on where you were looking," says Herman, calling it the perfect place to test the idea.

Because they'd spent so long on it, they carried it forward. In the game, Lenart says, they wove in mechanics from the final design, such as hacking, "to make it feel a little bit more like Robert was helping out Invisigal".

Why Dispatch’s story changed: how the Z-Team was created

The original story was a mentorship, centred on the one-on-one relationship between Robert and Invisigal. Pivoting it into a game changed that. AdHoc wanted a dispatch mechanic, with the player sending heroes out on calls, and that needs a roster. "So the Z-Team was created to support the gameplay," Lenart says, "which then informed the story, and then changed the overall arc of the season, which brought a whole team into it as opposed to just a one-on-one mentorship with Invisigal."

It's a neat illustration of how the studio works. "Everything at AdHoc starts with story," says Herman, contrasting that with studios that pick a genre first, polish the mechanics and the game-feel, and only later ask what the story is. AdHoc begins with the world, the characters and who the player is, then asks what that means for gameplay. "Oh, well, you're a superhero dispatcher, so maybe we should have some sort of dispatching mechanic, right?"

Once there's a script, it moves on to storyboards, animatics and animation. That storyboard stage is now part of the product: the anniversary Deluxe Edition update adds Storyboard Mode, which plays the whole game through its original animatics. It's a new mode that offers genuine insight into how a scene was planned, scripted and animated.

Why Dispatch switched from live action to animation

The move to animation was driven by budget constraints, to an extent, because they could do more with a little extra, and it also changed the game's scale, given Dispatch's live-action origins; Lenart says the team knew they were "severely limited from a budget standpoint compared to big-budget superhero tentpole movies". For budgetary reasons, the story was largely set in an office with a small cast.

Animation flipped that constraint and aligned with trends like Mixtape's hand-made animation, giving the team room to grow and aim higher within the new art form. "We're able to have a giant action scene because it doesn't cost that much more than having a bunch of characters walking around talking," Lenart explains. That let AdHoc expand the moments that deserved spectacle: "Let's really go all out and try to compete with some of the other best-in-class versions of these scenes in animation."

What Dispatch’s success means for narrative games

Ask whether players have done anything that made AdHoc rethink how interactive stories should work, and Herman is refreshingly honest. “I don’t know that there have been any major epiphanies,” he says, before steering to a different answer: launching Dispatch “was a labour of love”, the culmination of a lot of work distilled into one experience the team felt was exciting and high quality.

He adds: "The success of the game has just really injected a lot of confidence into us and other developers making similar types of games. For a long time, there hadn't been a really clear or recent example of something like this reaching a level of success that a developer could go out and raise funding for."

He's proud of who found it, too. Dispatch "was able to pierce a new audience who perhaps thought gaming wasn't for them". Lenart agrees, saying the success feels like "motivation to keep making these types of games and expand our possibilities even more".

The Dispatch Deluxe Edition is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch / Switch 2, and $10.99 digital upgrade path for existing owners

Where to buy Dispatch Deluxe Edition

The MX Master 4 Special Edition takes Logitech's excellent black mouse and spruces it up with a new white colourway and red-and-grey accents. Inside, it's the same MX Master 4, and like the 2025 version, it has a tough act to follow. Its predecessor, the MX Master 3S, is already one of the best productivity mice you can buy, so Logitech never intended to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we get more customisation, haptic feedback, and a handful of design tweaks, and in this Special Edition, a more personalised colour choice.

These are all the developments I’d expect from a follow-up to the excellent MX Master 3S, one of the best mice you can buy, but they make this a nicer-looking version of a mouse that was a smart evolution rather than a must-have upgrade, unless, I'd argue, you're a creative; then the Actions Ring becomes a bigger thing than you may expect and is new to MX Master 4, Special Edition or not.

The shape is the same as the MX Master 3S, with its sculpted ergonomic design, deep thumb rest, and plenty of controls to keep your hands off the keyboard. It’s comfortable for long workdays, and the weight is spot on. It has enough heft to feel planted on the desk without feeling clumsy. It’s big, though, and it won’t suit everyone. This is a mouse for your desk, not your laptop bag.

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The impressive MagSpeed scroll wheel

The MagSpeed wheel is as good as ever. Flick it, and it free-spins through a long spreadsheet or a 40-page document, then ratchets back to click-by-click scrolling when you need precision. Switching between the two is automatic, which is why it’s so easy to take for granted.

The finish is where things have changed. This is the Special Edition of last year’s MX Master 4 release, so the design changes over the MX Master 3S remain. Logitech has swapped the soft, rubberised coating of older models for something harder, but it’s not slick or glassy. The cover has a nice bit of tooth, and different areas have subtly different textures, so your fingers always know where they are without you looking. It feels different from the old MX Masters. A colleague wasn’t keen on it when they tried [2025’s MX Master 4], but I got used to it quickly, so your mileage may vary, and existing owners may need a few days to adjust.

Those alterations aside, the Special Edition replaces flat blacks with a soft grey-white colour and red accents. The dark grey Actions Ring thumb rest pops in this colourway, and I far prefer it to the faceless black PC-mouse aesthetic of the base model. There’s no price difference between black and Special Edition.

Making use of haptics and the Actions Ring

The thumb rest gets the biggest rethink. It’s usually the most wasted area of a mouse, a bit of plastic to rest your thumb on. Here, it’s the way into the new virtual dial, called the Actions Ring, which makes it feel like part of the design rather than an afterthought.

The haptics are a lovely touch. They kick in when you make a selection and when you open and cycle through the Actions Ring, so I can keep my eyes on the screen, click and scroll, and still feel a little resistance and feedback. This also helps with gesture control, too, if you go as far as needing that kind of input. It’s subtle, but it makes the mouse feel more connected to what you’re doing.

As you may have guessed, the Actions Ring is the real star of the new features. It’s an on-screen dial that expands what the mouse can do, making it easy to open folders or switch between apps without dropping into the Windows menus. You can tailor the ring to the job, from something as basic as Google to Photoshop or DaVinci Resolve. Support isn’t universal, though. The best digital art and design apps like Krita, Affinity Photo and CorelDRAW are covered, but smaller apps like Escape Motions Rebelle aren’t a default option, so you’ll need a workaround: assign function keys in Options+, then match them to the app’s own shortcuts for undo, clear layer or brush toggles. It works, but you need to know your keys or set them up ahead of time.

This also means getting to grips with Options+ and its app features, which is a lot of learning for a mouse. I’d like it to work more without that software running in the background. But if you persevere, it adds real depth and makes the mouse faster to use and more flexible. Once it’s set up, you’ll love it. You can tweak everything from haptic strength to scroll speed, and I’d probably be moaning if I couldn’t fiddle.

The haptics, gestures, and Actions Ring are a step beyond the MX Master 3S, and creatives who map shortcuts to the ring will get the most from this mouse.

MX Master 4 Special Edition vs MX Master 3S: should you upgrade?

So, should you buy the MX Master 4 Special Edition? If you’re coming from a basic mouse, absolutely. The ergonomics, scrolling and customisation make it a brilliant tool for anyone who works at a computer all day, whether in creative apps or simply navigating menus and Google.

If you already own an MX Master 3S, it comes down to how you work. The haptics and Actions Ring are genuinely useful and, for creative apps, a new, easier way to work, so it’s worth it if you’ll map shortcuts to the ring or, like me, hate sorting through Windows menus and would rather one-click into the regular apps and files. For everyone else, they’re not enough to make a perfectly good mouse obsolete.

In this image, I really wanted to feature the uncanny nature of his deadly art, and I think this upside-down pose captured that the best. But I almost went with something less... weird! Finding the sketch that best communicates what’s important about a character is crucial to a successful illustration. You may want one of the best drawing tablets or the best laptops for drawing.

Gear up

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This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. You can order back issues.

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