Monthly Archives: June 2026

Speedy document scanning via Drive

Mobile

Approximately 2000 years ago (give or take a couple orders of magnitude), we shipped a cool Crop & Straighten feature in Photoshop. It enabled putting a bunch of images into a flatbed scanner (talk about words I haven’t typed in decades) and automatically turn them into individual images (“Lift & Separate,” as PM Karen Gauthier cheekily dubbed it).

Along those lines, but with radically more smarts & speed, check out what you can now do in the Google Drive app (who knew?):

Puppetry + AI FTW: Behind the Scenes with Timmy TPU

AI/ML, Design, Google Omni

I love the blend old-school puppetry, 3D animation, Gemini Omni, and the latest experimental video tools that went into creating TPU Training Day, the short film that debuted during Google I/O 2026.

I know you’ve heard it a million times, but it bears repeating: AI isn’t a substitute for human creativity, or in many cases even for traditional techniques. It’s just a whole new toolbox that can multiply our expressive powers.

And here’s the film itself:

Check out Google Flow Agent

AI/ML, Google Flow

Did I have “Google makes cool, extensible, AI-powered creative tools” on my 2026 Bingo card? I did not—and I’m happy to be wrong! Check this out:

According to the docs, you can use the Agent to:

  • Brainstorm and plan: Chat with the Agent to outline storyboards, develop visual mood boards, and turn high-level concepts into actionable prompts.
  • Generate new media: Ask the Agent to generate videos or images and select the best model to generate with.
  • Edit assets directly: Ask the Agent to edit selected media from your project.
  • Batch generate: Ask the Agent to create multiple variations of an asset at once.
  • Organize your assets: Ask the Agent to rename specific files, group selected media into a new Collection, or archive unused assets.
  • Add context & references: Drag media into the Agent prompt box from your device or project. You can also select multiple assets and let the agent know which media you are referring to.