News

You Can Now Make Your PS5 Matte Black Thanks To Dbrand’s Darkplates

Published

5 years ago

February 17, 2021

Dbrand

When Sony first revealed the PlayStation 5, the two-color curvy design sparked a heated discussion online, with some reporters comparing it to a trophy you might get at an award show and some to a boutique Wi-Fi router. If you’re among the PlayStation 5 owners who are secretly or openly jealous of the more understated design of the Xbox Series X, then we have good news for you: accessory maker Dbrand is selling custom black matte faceplates for PS5, known as Darkplates.

Dbrand

Starting at $49, the set of faceplates lets you easily change the look of your console to please your design taste buds. Besides the faceplates themselves, you can also customize the look of the middle section by ordering one of the optional middle skins (available in matte black, neon yellow, matte white, and several different patterns).

Dbrand

The faceplates feature “a familiar-but-legally-distinct apocalyptic spin on the classic PlayStation button shapes,” which is also how Dbrand would most likely defend its product should Sony decide to take it to court.

Why in the world would Sony do that? To start with, Darkplates are an unofficial accessory sold without Sony’s approval. Last year, accessory seller CustomizeMyPlates was forced to cancel all orders after legal action from Sony, so Dbrand wouldn’t be the first company to feel Sony’s boot on its backside. What’s more, Dbrand is actually touting Sony by saying, “Go ahead, sue us,” on its website.

Also Read: Facebook Is Working On A Smartwatch With Health-Tracking Capabilities

So far, three waves of Darkplates have been shipped to buyers around the world, and the fourth wave is expected to be sold out soon, so you should hurry up if you want to get your hands on this product, whose marketing is just as polarizing as the design of the PlayStation 5.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.