News

Microsoft Is Resurrecting Clippy With Its New 3D Emoji

All new emoji are rendered in beautiful 3D, and the majority of them are animated to make them even more fun to use.

Published

5 years ago

July 22, 2021

microsoft is resurrecting clippy with its new 3d emoji

Remember Clippy, the whimsical paperclip assistant included in older versions of Microsoft Office? Well, Clippy is back. Well, kind of.

Microsoft understands that most people were happy to see the interactive animated character disappear from their office suite of choice. Still, the company’s designers just couldn’t resist included it in the refreshed set of 1,800+ emoji that will soon make its way into Windows, Office, and other Microsoft 365 products, including Teams.

clippy replaces the old and flat paperclip

All new emoji are rendered in beautiful 3D, and the majority of them are animated to make them even more fun to use when instant messaging with friends, discussing work with colleagues, or planning the new next family get-together.

“Body language, subtle forms of humor, or environmental conditions — while we can see and respond to those cues those in-person, the loss of them in digital contexts impacts our communication greatly. With emoji, however, a few pixels can telegraph our thoughts and feelings in ways that are fun, clear, and emotionally resonant,” Claire Anderson, Art Director & Emojiologist at Microsoft, commented the role emoji have come to play in our modern lives.

The design principles that guided the look and feel of Microsoft’s new emoji revolve around emotional honesty and playfulness. The goal is to empower all users of Microsoft products to express themselves as openly and naturally as possible, even when separated by borders or even entire continents.

Also Read: Windows 11 Is Coming: Here’s What To Expect

Microsoft’s design principles are based on a substantial body of research suggesting that play encourages innovation. It will be interesting to see how the users of Microsoft products from around the world will put the new emoji set to use. Perhaps, it will really help them unlock their creative potential and nurture stronger relationships with the people they communicate with on a regular basis.

News

NEOPAY Wants To Follow Merchants Across Channels And Borders

A controlling 65% stake in noon payments would give NEOPAY access to marketplace sellers, online merchants and the payment flows they generate.

Published

1 day ago

October 5, 2026

Nour Nasir

neopay wants to follow merchants across channels and borders

It’s been a long time since checkouts were single defined places. A merchant might take payments at a physical register, on its own website and through an online marketplace, sometimes in more than one country. NEOPAY wants to follow those transactions wherever they happen.

The UAE payments company has entered into an agreement to acquire a 65% controlling stake in noon payments. NEOPAY already runs the acquiring infrastructure that lets merchants accept card payments, along with omnichannel acceptance and a merchant services platform. This new deal would add noon payments’ embedded payments platform, e-commerce gateway and merchant network across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. That would considerably expand both NEOPAY’s digital commerce capabilities and its regional reach.

For merchants, the attraction is a single provider for online and in-store payments, plus faster settlements, data and analytics, and value-added financial services.

“Payments should be simple, reliable, and built for the markets they serve,” said Faraz Khalid, CEO of noon. His counterpart at NEOPAY, Vibhor Mundhada, added: “We have built a strong payments business in the UAE, and our ambition is now to take that capability across the region”. The acquisition, Mundhada added, would “expand our footprint into Saudi Arabia and Egypt” while reinforcing NEOPAY’s position at home.

Also Read: In Kuwait, Your Surgeon Might Be Operating From Another Country

NEOPAY is also keen to point out potential payment volume increases. The company says noon payments’ integrations with marketplace sellers and online merchants create high transaction density in some of the region’s fastest-growing digital commerce segments. It also believes control of the business would give it access to those merchant relationships and payment flows, and speed up the rollout of alternative payment methods and installment options.

The combined roadmap targets faster merchant onboarding, better payment performance, tighter fraud controls and embedded financial services. The deal could also strengthen cross-border payments and settlement along key regional commerce corridors.