Pinterest has a new artistic way to spark your inspiration - but there's a catch

In a bid to support creativity, Pinterest has very quietly launched a new collage-making app called Shuffles on the Apple App Store.

Looking at the App Store description, Shuffles allows people to create collages by grabbing images from Pinterest’s “massive photo library” or adding pictures via their smartphone camera. The app features a few simple editing tools like resizing, rotating, and layering images on top of one another. 

Specific objects in an image can be removed with one tap and pasted elsewhere with Shuffles' cut-out tool. It reminds us of a similar feature on iOS 16 called Visual Look Up which lets people crop out photo assets and paste them to other apps like Messages.

Users, or Shufflers as Pinterest calls them, can add a personal flair to their creation with the app's animations and special effects catalog. And when done, collages can be shared either privately with friends or publicly for the world to admire.

People can even “remix” others’ collages by adding their own spin, but it’s unknown if remixing is exclusive to mutual friends or if it can be done to public creations. In fact aside from the App Store description, not much else is known about Shuffles.

Pinned for a test

The app is currently exclusive to iOS, and according to TechCrunch, it’s invite-only. There is a waitlist that people can join to eventually gain access. However, it’s unknown when more people will be added. We reached out to Pinterest to see if we could get more information about the app like when will it launch for Android and when will it leave the testing phase. However, Pinterest is playing its cards close to the chest. 

A spokesperson got back to us and said “As this app is in its initial test phase, we don’t have any additional details to share on the record at this moment.”

Fostering that creative outlet does seem to be a major drive for Pinterest as the spokesperson continues by saying “With more people coming to our platform for creative inspiration, we’re continuously experimenting with new ways to help Pinners and Creators bring their ideas to life.”

What was revealed by the Pinterest spokesperson is that Shuffles is a creation of the platform's TwoTwenty team.

Pinterest expansion

As the representative puts it, TwoTwenty is “Pinterest’s innovative incubator team” meaning that it's the part of the company that comes up with new apps and ideas. The division launched in November 2021 and its name is a reference to where Pinterest first started in Palo Alto, California. Prior to Shuffles, TwoTwenty created Pinterest TV, an in-app video service where people can watch original content and shop featured products.

Other tech companies have their own incubator teams like Meta with NPE. In fact, NPE actually created an app that was very similar to Shuffles called E.gg and appears to have been more expansive because it supported texts, GIFs, and images for mixed media collages. If you’ve never heard of E.gg before, that’s because Meta shut it down six months after launch.

Whether it’s sheer coincidence or reviving an idea, Pinterest sees the potential in an inspirational collage app. Hopefully, Shuffles works out for the platform and it doesn’t get shut down half a year later.

If you’re on Android and feel like you’re missing out, TechRadar has you covered with a list of the best free collage makers. 

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Sony's next-gen OLED is 'best 4K TV' of 2022, says expert panel

Value Electronics, an A/V retailer located just outside New York City, has been conducting an annual ‘TV Shootout’ for nearly two decades. The Shootout traditionally gathers a panel of TV testing experts and puts them in front of the best 4K TVs to decide which one is the absolute best – an honor that Sony earned this year for its A95K QD-OLED model.

With the rise of 8K TVs, the Value Electronics test has expanded in 2022 to include a separate test for that category, with LG’s Z2 OLED model taking the 8K crown at this year’s Shootout.

4K TVs competing in the 2022 TV Shootout: 

• LG G2 Gallery Series OLED
• Samsung QN95B Quantum Dot mini-LED
• Samsung S95B QD-OLED
• Sony XR-A95K QD-OLED (winner)
• Sony XR-X95K mini-LED

8K TVs competing in the 2022 TV Shootout:

• LG Z2 OLED (winner)
• Samsung QN900B Quantum Dot mini-LED
• Sony XR-Z9K mini-LED TV

Robert Zohn of Value Electronics addressing participants in the 2022 TV Shootout. (Image credit: Value Electronics)

To create an even playing field for the evaluation, each TV is first adjusted by a professional TV calibrator. The sets are then arrayed side by side along with a 32-inch Sony professional broadcast reference monitor, and fed test patterns and regular movie scenes over a video distribution network. This arrangement allows for the expert participants to evaluate the TVs simultaneously, with their votes tabulated to determine the winner in each category.

The evaluations covered standard high-definition content displayed in both a bright and dark viewing environment, and 4K high dynamic range (HDR) in a dark viewing environment. For the HDR tests, each set was further evaluated for “tone mapping,” or its performance when scaling the full contrast range of incoming HDR programs to the display's maximum brightness capability.

Is QD-OLED the best TV tech? 

The Sony QD-OLED had a first place standing in each testing category in the Value Electronics Shootout, and was followed closely by Samsung’s own S95B QD-OLED model. That result says quite a bit about the future for the new TV technology, which combines the best qualities of OLED with the Quantum Dots tech used by QLED TVs.

LG’s G2 OLED also closely trailed Sony’s QD-OLED in the 4K TV test. This tells us that regular OLED is still a viable contender, especially models like LG’s G2 and C2 that use the company’s higher brightness ‘evo’ panels. In fact, the G2 bested the Sony A95K in the peak brightness and 4K picture detail categories of the Value Electronics test.

The LG Z2 OLED model was also the winner in the 8K category, which proves that OLED can be expanded to even higher resolutions and greater screen sizes (the Z2 is only available in 77- and 88-inch options) and still successfully compete with the best QLED TVs.

What’s really interesting about the results of this test is the pricing aspect. At around $4,000 / £3,499 in a 65-inch screen size, Sony’s award-winning XR-A95K is one of the most expensive 4K TVs you can buy – not surprising given that it uses next-gen display tech. 

But the Samsung S95B which uses the same display technology and was nipping at the Sony QD-OLED’s heels in the Value Electronics evaluation, is only around $2,600 / £2,799, making it the test’s real value champ.

You won’t go wrong with any of the sets that participated in this test, since they are all top models from top brands. But if getting a good deal is also of interest, you may want to do further research before simply forking over hard-earned cash for an award-winning flagship TV.

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HBO Max is losing the Harry Potter movies to a major streaming rival

HBO Max will lose all eight of the Harry Potter movies at the end of August. 

From August 31, the original octet will leave the streaming service, marking the second time in three years that the adventures of the boy wizard have left the platform. 

For those in the US, the only place to stream the movies for the foreseeable future will be on Peacock, which began streaming all eight films at the start of July. The Fantastic Beasts movies, however, will remain on HBO Max, as will the cast reunion that aired at the start of 2022. 

When HBO Max first launched in May 2020, it boasted the full Harry Potter collection, but only for a few months, with Peacock snaring exclusive rights later that year. HBO Max secured the movies once again in September 2021, but only for a year, and now they're flying back to Peacock. 

While the Harry Potter series and its larger universe were made by Warner Bros. – the parent company of HBO Max – the origins of this deal date back to 2016, when NBCUniversal struck an exclusive agreement with Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution for US broadcast and cable rights to the whole Wizarding World franchise, which runs until 2025. The deal was reported to be worth a colossal $250 million. 

The move comes at a crunch time for the franchise. 2022's latest instalment, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, grossed just over $405 million worldwide to become the lowest-grossing film in the Wizarding World franchise. Despite plans being in place for a further two movies based in the series, Warner Bros. executives have been tight-lipped about its future. 

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Analysis: Is Warner Bros. done with Harry Potter?

While it's easy to see that Warner Bros. executives may be done with Fantastic Beasts, the studio's commitment to the Wizarding World remains strong. 

In fact, over the weekend, reports emerged in Deadline claiming that David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery (who has been overseeing a brutal regime of cost-cutting that has seen the likes of The Time Traveler's Wife and period drama Gentleman Jack  canceled), met with Potter author J. K. Rowling. That meeting, it is suggested, was about a Harry Potter TV spin-off. 

Reports on a Potter TV show have been bouncing around for a couple of years now, but there's been no details on what kind of story could be told. Rowling retains a huge amount of creative control over the franchise, and Warner Bros. can't do anything without her sign-off. 

There are always rumors about the possibility of adapting Rowling and Jack Thorne's hugely successful stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, for the screen, and it might be easier to adapt something that's already proven successful than create a whole new spin-off. But who knows what Rowling and Zaslav have cooked up? Whatever happens, we're sure there's a lot more to come from the Wizarding World. 

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The next Star Wars Disney Plus show has been delayed – but not by much

Andor, the next Star Wars TV series set to debut on Disney Plus has been delayed – but only by a few weeks.

The Disney Plus show, which was originally supposed to arrive on Wednesday, August 31, has been pushed back by three weeks. Now, Andor will launch on the streaming service on September 21. Disney and Lucasfilm haven't explained why the Star Wars prequel series has been moved by a few weeks, but we've reached out for clarification and will update this article if we hear back.

Regardless, the announcement was made during the latest trailer for Andor, which dropped online on Monday, August 1. The teaser also confirmed that Andor would launch on Disney Plus with an unprecedented three episode premiere – the first time a Disney Plus series has done so.

Check out the official (and explosively awesome) trailer for Andor below:

Ordinarily, Disney Plus shows only get a one or two episode premiere when they're released. The fact that Andor will launch with three episodes, then, marks a significant departure from Disney's usual streaming release schedule.

It's likely, though, that this decision has been taken due to Andor's episodic length. The series' first season will contain 12 episodes, meaning it's twice as long as most other Star Wars and Marvel TV projects that have released on Disney's streaming platform. With more big-budget productions set to debut on Disney Plus before the year is out, too, it seems Disney is looking to put more of Andor in front of viewers' eyes as soon as possible.

Set five years before the events of Star Wars: Rogue One, Andor will follow deadbeat rogue Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) as he grows into the rebel spy we eventually see in the hugely underrated Star Wars movie. 

The TV show will also chart the rise of the Rebel Alliance, which grows into the primary band of resistance fighters who attempt to fight back against the Galactic Empire. The series has already been renewed for a second season, too. Season 1 will depict events in the rebellion's first year of formation, with season 2 following the next four years, leading up to the events that transpire in Rogue One.

Tony Gilroy, who penned the screenplay for Rogue One, is on showrunning duties, while Toby Haynes (Black Mirror, Utopia), Susanna White (Billions, Trust), and Benjamin Caron (The Crown, Sherlock) split directing duties.

Those starring alongside Luna include Genevieve O'Reilly (Tolkien), who reprises her role as Mon Mothma from Rogue One. Adria Arjona (6 Underground, Morbius), Stellan Skarsgård (Thor, Dune), and Kyle Soller (Poldark, Fury) are also part of the show's extensive cast.

For more Star Wars-based content, read up on every other Star Wars movie and TV show set to arrive in the next few years. Alternatively, find out why the era of Star Wars film trilogies may be a thing of the past.

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This iconic Windows 11 tool isn’t getting ditched… yet

The Control Panel has been an integral – and iconic – part of Windows since the very first version of the operating system, which was launched in 1985, but its days are numbered, with Microsoft moving even more of its functionality to the newer Settings app in Windows 11.

However, while an upcoming Windows 11 update looks set to move more of the Control Panel to Settings, according to Windows Latest, Microsoft hasn’t completely ditched it.

The biggest feature to migrate from Control Panel to Settings is the ability to uninstall programs, including older Win32 desktop apps. The Settings window was able to uninstall some apps, but not all of them, so this move is certainly welcome, and means there’s less switching between screens to find what you need.

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Analysis: A stay of execution, but should Control Panel be put out of its misery?

Despite launching with every Windows version, the time has come for Microsoft to fully ditch the Control Panel. As you may expect of a feature that’s approaching its fourth decade, the Control Panel feels pretty archaic.

It’s changed little over the years, and while that’s led to it being a comfortingly familiar presence no matter what version of Windows you use, it’s really started to stand out among the more modern apps of Windows 11.

When Microsoft began to seriously overhaul the look of Windows, starting with Windows 8, it bungled the job, somewhat, keeping both older, legacy apps, like Control Panel, while introducing modern apps like Settings, which often did the same job.

This meant that Windows 8, as well as Windows 10 and Windows 11, felt like multiple operating systems bolted together, rather than one unified, modern, OS.

Microsoft is trying to rectify that with Windows 11 and has modernized many of its iconic apps, such as Paint.

It’s also started to migrate Control Panel features to Settings, with an aim of ditching Control Panel completely at some point. While this is a wise move, it still feels like Microsoft is moving too slowly, as users may visit the Settings app, only to find they actually need to go to Control Panel for the setting they want.

This was particularly annoying when uninstalling applications, as the Settings app would only uninstall certain apps, and you’d have to use Control Panel for the others.

Unsurprisingly, this caused a lot of confusion and frustration, and while we can understand Microsoft wanting to slowly move over to Settings, it would be far better for users to rip off the bandage, and just move everything to Settings at once, and kill off Control Panel once and for all.

Of course, we’ll be sad to see Control Panel disappear, but it wouldn’t just make Windows 11 easier to use, it’d save the iconic feature from a long, drawn-out death of a thousand cuts.

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'So dull it’ll send you off to sleep' – Netflix’s new thriller gets a kicking from critics

The likes of Stranger Things, The Sea Beast and The Gray Man may have buoyed the fortunes of Netflix in recent weeks, but the streamer’s latest thriller series, Keep Breathing, has endured something of a critical kicking. 

The six-episode limited series follows Melissa Barrera’s Liv, a young lawyer who finds herself caught in a fight for survival when her private plane crash-lands deep in the Canadian wilderness.

Keep Breathing hit Netflix on July 28, and although the show hasn’t been given too much time to, well, breathe with general audiences, reviewers have been less-than-enthusiastic about its familiar premise (see Yellowjackets, The Wilds) and monotonous storytelling. 

For a bird's-eye view of the series’ critical performance thus far, Keep Breathing currently sports a lowly 38% rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and a similarly disappointing 5.2 score on IMDb. 

“Where its predecessors were inventive in their approach, Keep Breathing plods along, tediously unrealistic and painfully predictable,” wrote the Independent, while The Guardian labeled the series “a survival drama so dull it’ll send you off to sleep.”

(Image credit: Netflix)

CNN was equally unforgiving in its assessment: “The episodes are relatively and mercifully short, with most running 30-some-odd minutes; even so, the show can't entirely escape the common sensation of a movie concept stretched out to roughly twice that length.”

Many critics (including those from Decider and Variety) did, at least, praise Melissa Barrera’s performance as the show’s lead, though most still found Keep Breathing to be a lackluster take on a tried-and-tested formula.

IGN, for instance, gave the following verdict: “Keep Breathing is well-shot, well-acted, and well-intentioned. But as far as the story itself goes, there’s just no reason to watch this middling take on the survival genre when there are so many other series that have done it better.”

Analysis: critics be damned? 

Despite the series’ less-than-glowing reception, recent trends suggest Keep Breathing will still manage to break into the upper echelons of Netflix’s weekly top 10 rankings for a sustained period (it's already the biggest show on Netflix UK). 

2022 has seen countless critically-panned movies and TV shows rise to the top of the streamer’s popularity charts, and Keep Breathing’s easily-digestible structure – each episode runs between just 30 and 40 minutes – will inevitably work in its favor. 

What’s more, Netflix subscribers have proven that they don’t much care for the opinions of critics. Take 365 Days: This Day, for instance, which briefly became the most popular movie on the streamer despite a woeful 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Or Interceptor, which resisted its label as a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad movie” to also reach number one in its first week of release. 

On the TV front, Anatomy of a Scandal shot to the top of the platform’s most-watched chart irrespective of its largely negative critical reception, while the “very hard to watch” First Kill likewise defied its detractors.

The point being, viewership figures are, for better or worse, the most important measure of success for Netflix in its precarious current state, and company executives will be more than happy to weather Keep Breathing’s critical storm if the series delivers the goods on the numbers front.

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Secret Invasion will make Disney Plus history for Marvel in 2023

Secret Invasion will make Disney Plus history for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) when it launches in 2023.

The limited series is the first Marvel TV show to be billed as a "crossover event" – a phrase that suggests Secret Invasion will be the first-ever MCU Disney Plus show that ties into Marvel's upcoming movie slate. The intriguing and historic description can be found on the show's Disney Plus Originals page (thanks to Reddit for the catch), though there's no indication about what other productions it'll be linked to.

So far, Marvel Studios' Disney Plus productions have followed self-contained stories that occasionally set up events in some MCU movies. A classic example is WandaVision, the first MCU TV series that kicked off Marvel's Phase 4 slate, which simultaneously told a complete story and teased Wanda's extensive involvement in Doctor Strange 2.

However, Secret Invasion is the first MCU TV show officially described as a "crossover event". Other TV entries in the MCU, including Hawkeye and Ms Marvel, haven't been labeled as such, despite the fact they set up forthcoming Marvel projects including Echo and The Marvels. It seems, then, that Secret Invasion could be a far more important Marvel TV show than we realize.

This isn't the first crossover-style event on Disney Plus. The streamer's Star Wars TV line-up has been similarly positioned as a crossover event, with The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka tied together by an overarching narrative. Maybe Marvel is taking a page out of Lucasfilm's book...

Secret Invasion sees Samuel L Jackson reprise his role as Nick Fury, the former director of SHIELD, as he leads an investigation into a sect of shape-shifting Skrulls who have infiltrated (and live among) Earth's human population. The series will also star Ben Mendolsohn as Talos and Cobie Smulders as ex-SHIELD agent Maria Hill. Meanwhile, Game of Thrones alumnus Emilia Clarke, Oscar-winning actor Olivia Colman, and One Night in Miami's Kingsley Ben-Adir are also part of the cast.

Originally set to release this year, Secret Invasion will now arrive in spring 2023 as part of Marvel's Phase 5 slate. The show is currently undergoing reshoots in London, with Jackson previously confirming he was heading back to the UK to film new scenes for the show and The Marvels. Jackson has also teased Fury's future in the MCU, so we can expect to see him appear in other Phase 5 projects.

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Analysis: how could Secret Invasion impact the MCU?

Secret Invasion may have ties to multiple MCU projects. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Given its "crossover event" description, it's possible that Secret Invasion will be a mini Avengers-style project, with multiple MCU superheroes and characters appearing at various points throughout its episodic run. Don Cheadle's War Machine and Martin Freeman's Everett K Ross are already set to cameo, so it's not out of the realms of possibility that other prominent MCU characters may show up.

The series could also be the first-ever open-ended Marvel Disney Plus series. If it's going to instigate events in MCU Phase 5 projects, such as The Marvels and/or Captain America: New World Order, Secret Invasion won't necessarily need a finite ending, especially if its narrative bleeds over into future Marvel productions.

Secret Invasion will pick up where The Marvels' predecessor – aka 2019's Captain Marvel – left off, particularly with Captain Marvel leading Talos and the other Skrull refugees off into the cosmos to find a new permanent home. With Talos set to feature prominently in Secret Invasion, the show's ties to The Marvels seem pretty certain at this point.

There have even been rumors that Secret Invasion could release in two parts – akin to how Netflix released Stranger Things season 4 – either side of The Marvels' July 2023 release. That would further cement its place as the MCU's first TV crossover event, as long as the rumors are true.

Meanwhile, the "New World Order" part of Captain America 4's title may allude to the Skrulls holding key government, military, and even superhero roles worldwide. This is a major plot thread that plays out in the Secret Invasion comic storyline, so it's one that could be explored in greater detail if Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson/Captain America makes a surprise cameo in Secret Invasion.

Maybe Thunderbolts will tie into Secret Invasion, too. Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Contessa Fontaine has taken up an anti-hero Fury-esque role in recent Marvel movies. If she's the individual who puts the Thunderbolts together, they could be tasked with removing the Skrulls from their high-ranking Earthly positions. A covert, off-the-record mission like this would be perfect for this anti-hero/villain supergroup, especially if one or two MCU heroes are surprisingly unmasked as Skrulls. How subversive and cool would it be to see a Marvel superhero actually be a Skrull – as some are in the comics – and be the villain of the piece?

We've got a while to wait before we see how Secret Invasion impacts the MCU. In the meantime, check out our Marvel movies in order guide. Alternatively, read up the last two major Phase 4 entries – She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – which arrive later this year.

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