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

LUVED Is A New Curated Preloved Marketplace For The UAE

Sellers keep 100 percent of every sale and AI can build a listing in five seconds — though the app’s smartest tools are still coming.

Published

5 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Joanna Melki

luved is a new curated preloved marketplace for the uae

Secondhand shopping has become mainstream in the UAE, but the experience is still scattered across resale sites, social media and informal group chats. LUVED, a mobile-first marketplace that launched in Dubai this month, is betting it can pull that activity into one place — and that the thing buyers and sellers actually want is not more inventory, but trust.

The app trades in what it calls circular luxury: preloved fashion and lifestyle pieces across men’s, women’s and children’s categories, bought, sold or given away peer to peer. Its main pitch is economics, with sellers keeping 100 percent of every sale under a zero-commission, fast payout model, while buyers are promised vetted pieces at lower prices.

Where LUVED is staking its reputation is verification. Sellers pass a KYC check, and items run through a two-layer authentication system powered by Entrupy that pairs instant AI screening with human expert review for high-value pieces. Authenticity certificates travel with each item, payments sit in escrow, and a buyer-protection package the company calls The Safety Net adds a 48-hour return window and dispute resolution. Door-to-door logistics removes the in-person meetups that make most resale deals awkward.

An in-app assistant called Luvbot — offering selling insights and demand-based recommendations — is soon to be introduced to the platform. Other features include autofill and dynamic pricing that lets users build a listing in as little as five seconds from three photos, plus a swipe-based feed, story-style drops and in-app chat in English and Arabic. Finally, a gifting layer, Luved & Gifted, lets users pass items to others inside the app rather than sell them.

Also Read: Logitech’s New Folding Mouse Is Designed For Work On The Go

“After moving to Dubai, I saw how difficult it was to sell or even give things away,” says founder and CEO Shaima Sibtain. The friction is real, and so is the competition. In resale, trust is won transaction by transaction — and that is the test LUVED has set itself.

The app is live on the App Store now, with Google Play to follow. The company also plans to expand across the region, which will be the real test for a marketplace staking everything on trust.