Google launched Nano Banana 2, upgrading its wildly popular AI image generator with real-time Gemini data, faster generation, and more precise text rendering, making it genuinely useful for marketing mockups, social content, and branded graphics. This update replaces the original version across all Gemini models. As OpenAI, Adobe, and ByteDance all push harder into AI-generated visuals, Google is making sure it stays the one everyone already has open. (CNBC)

A new Similarweb report puts Threads at 141.5 million daily mobile users, ahead of X's 125 million. To keep that momentum, Threads is now testing a "DM me" shortcut that auto-generates a direct message link from any post or reply, making it easier to move conversations off the public feed. Threads is pushing messaging to the center of its platform, not the edges. Founder-to-audience engagement on Threads might be worth a second look. (TechCrunch)

IDC is forecasting a 12.9% drop in global smartphone shipments in 2026 (the biggest decline ever) as AI infrastructure spending by Meta, Google, and Microsoft has captured so much of the memory chip supply that prices for consumer devices are surging. The average smartphone price is expected to hit a record $523 this year, up 14%. Budget Android makers will get hit hardest, while Apple and Samsung are positioned to gain share. (Reuters)

Eight hundred eBay employees are out as the company realigns around AI investments, focus categories, and its newly announced Depop acquisition. eBay has been on a steady headcount reduction for years, even as it partners with OpenAI and builds AI into its buyer and seller experience. The layoffs aren't a sign of distress; they're the cost of transformation at a 30-year-old marketplace trying to stay relevant against Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok Shop. (CNBC)

After months of escalating bids, Netflix walked away from Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday, calling the deal "no longer financially attractive." Paramount stepped in with a $31-per-share offer the WBD board deemed "superior," complete with a $7 billion regulatory termination fee. The deal still faces regulatory review, but barring surprises, David Ellison will control one of the most powerful media and news portfolios on the planet. (CNN)

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