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- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 6
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 16, 2026
Latest issues
What if the interface is a character? (opens the original)
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Yesterday, OpenAI held its DevDay and launched Dots: always-on agents that work toward your goals around the clock, connected to more than 4,000 apps. That’s the tech highlight. Here’s the character bit: every Dot comes with its own 3D character that you design. A plush heart. A frog. A cloud wearing a beret.Two weeks earlier, Meta launched Muse, a personal agent you name, give an avatar and shape the voice
What happens when cute becomes free? (opens the original)
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The pile on my desk got out of hand this month, so let’s get going:OpenAI shipped Images 2.5, which generates faster, renders cleaner, and most importantly holds a character’s identity across edits. Same face, same outfit, small local changes. Character consistency used to be the moat that kept casual players out of mascot work. That moat is draining fast (I’m not gonna lie, I’m kinda into the nugget character).So we’re about to see c
Why did a robot duck make a million dollars in six hours? (opens the original)
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On August 27, Hugging Face put a $399 robot duck on pre-order. Six hours later, it had passed a million dollars in sales. Within 24 hours, $2.6 million. Within a week, more than 10,000 ducks and over $5 million.<f
Why is everyone launching a mascot right now? (opens the original)
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The last 2 weeks, mascots just kept falling out of the sky. Crocs hatched a crocodile. Dolmio pulled its puppet family out of storage after a decade. A Stanley toolbox started talking. And the Wall Street Journal ran a whole piece on why everyone from Microsoft to your water filter suddenly wants a fluffy little companion.Two things are happening at once. New characters are being born, and old ones are revived. And every new mascot arrives with a launch. Sometimes that just means distributing th
Marcel has a show now (opens the original)
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For the past months, this newsletter has been hammering one idea. Build the character. Own it. Give it a world and let people play with it.At some point you have to eat your own cooking.So: Marcel has a show now.Introducing Character News NetworkIt’s a news desk for character news. Marcel anchors. I’m the sidekick. Every episode covers what this newsletter covers: mascots, character IP, world building, the technology moving it all, except now a blue dog with a skull charm delivers it to camera,
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