Reports claim that the Galaxy S26 series has been shattering Samsung’s sales expectations, as the company holds “Appreciation Events” and more.
Sales for the Galaxy S26 have risen by “three times” the amount in recent history, and it’s likely consumer fear over a pricier Galaxy S27 that’s cultivated this boost.
Samsung reported a major boost in Galaxy S26 popularity and production earlier this year, but with soaring DRAM and NAND prices, cost
We’re caught at a midway point between the Galaxy S26 series and the upcoming Galaxy S27 series. These series are reportedly influencing one another, as fears mount over higher prices for Samsung’s next wave.
Late this week, ETNews (Korean) reported that Samsung is experiencing another surge in Galaxy S26 sales (via SamMobile). The publication’s sources claim that Samsung observed significant sales performance domestically and globally in June. What’s more, the company reportedly held an “Appreciation Festival” for consumers. If a Galaxy S26 series device were purchased, consumers would receive a 20% refund “in Digital Onnuri Gift Certificates.”
Another contributing factor is Samsung’s website, alongside various “open markets,” which have seen sales “three times” higher than before. As a result, Samsung is boosting its Galaxy S26 production to 1.5 million units over the previously planned 1 million units for July. A report by EInfoMax adds that domestic Galaxy S26 sales have surpassed 3 million units for Samsung in 117 days, shattering Galaxy S25 records (via GSMArena).
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With everything going on with the phone market, it’s been alleged that this growing demand for the Galaxy S26 is due to pricier Galaxy S27 concerns. The memory shortage is (of course) a primary contributor to these worries.
A changing market
(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)
The Galaxy S26 series’ popularity was discussed a few times, leading to a production boost reported back in April. The spring saw Samsung boost its Galaxy S26 Ultra production by 200,000 units (1.5 mil total in April) and its base S26 model by 500,000 units. The Plus model was pulled back soon. Samsung knocked off roughly 100,000 units as the other two phones were more sought after.
We’re not entirely sure what’s going on with the Galaxy S27, but some rumors said it could be kept mild to avoid ridiculous pricing. Certain upgrades were allegedly being put on the back burner, such as the series’ display and cameras. It’s still early, and things can change. Soaring memory prices are affecting everyone. Companies are struggling to find ways to keep their profits without suffering a loss.
Recent research by Omdia suggests budget phones could take a hit, thanks to high DRAM and NAND prices. The market could see far fewer budget phones, as higher-priced devices give companies more leeway to make cost-conscious changes.
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Android Central’s Take
The Galaxy S26 series is a popular series for Samsung, coming off the back of the popular Galaxy S25. It goes without saying that the S26 Ultra is leading the charge by a mile, too. But the shift I’m seeing in how people are buying is a tell of the times. If the price of a phone is “more acceptable” right now, and we risk seeing those disappear in the future, why not buy now? Why not buy right now and see where the market takes us later? At least, right now, we’re not “suffering” as much. This is all subjective, as we all have our limits on what we’d like to pay.
I’ve spent the past 12 years building and growing digital businesses, and for much of that time I’ve worked with franchise and multi-location brands on their websites, marketing, and operations. Today at Weam AI, my team and I help these businesses bring AI into their daily workflows.
This article isn’t about selling you a tool. It’s about the systems behind your business, and how AI-enabled systems can save cost, reduce manual work, and help you make better decisions across every location. I’m going to walk you through five real automations we’ve built for franchise and multi-location businesses, with the actual screens from those systems.
Why Franchises Are a Perfect Match for AI
Franchise businesses run on repeatable systems. That’s the core of the franchise model, and it happens to be exactly where AI performs best. The more repeatable a process is, the easier it is to embed AI into it.
Across the businesses we work with, AI is improving how teams communicate, market, report, train, respond, and decide. That last one, deciding, is the piece most operators underestimate, and it’s where the real leverage is.
There’s a reason this matters right now: according to Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index, 80% of workers say they don’t have enough time or energy to do their work. If AI takes real work off your team’s plate, that flows directly to your bottom line.
The Missing Middle Layer: Software That Can Think
Here’s the shift I want you to understand before we get into the use cases.
The software you already use is mostly a one-way street. You put data in, it sits there, and you pull some reports out. Before AI, a customer review had to be read by a person and replied to by a person. The software just stored it.
AI adds a middle layer that can actually think. A system can now read a message, understand its tone, summarize a report, draft a response, flag a problem, and recommend the next step, using your SOPs, your brand guidelines, and your past responses as context. The manager still approves before anything goes out, but the work itself is done
The old way of getting software that fit your business was painful: buy expensive enterprise software built for everyone, or hire developers for a slow, costly build that often still didn’t match your workflow. Two things have changed. First, AI now sits inside software and makes it smarter. Second, AI helps us build software dramatically faster. Projects that used to take us six months now take a couple of months, and things that took months now take weeks. Focused tools built around your specific franchise workflows are finally practical.
That’s the backdrop. Now let’s look at what this actually looks like in real franchise businesses. As you read these, think about a day in the life of a franchise owner: staff questions, customer complaints, bad reviews, sales reports, marketing posts, missed calls, missing documents, fast decisions. Every one of these is an entry point for AI.
Automation #1: Local Content Automation for a Burger Chain (Marketing)
When you’re running local marketing for a chain of stores, content is a big piece of the work. Almost every marketing writer today is already using ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to draft copy. We work with large marketing teams and see this daily. But when everyone is doing the same thing, that alone won’t win you rankings in Google or mentions in LLM tools.
For this burger chain with 12 locations, we built what I’d call a vibe-coded system. AI helped us build it in a matter of weeks. Every location lives in the system, along with the local ranking metrics and target keywords for each store.
Here’s how the content workflow runs:
Select a location and a target page on your website.
Choose a keyword you want to rank for.
The system runs a live Google search on that keyword and semantically related ones to find relevant topics. It does the same for LLM visibility, what people now call GEO or AI SEO, because your brand getting mentioned inside ChatGPT matters. More than 30% of Google’s traffic has already shifted toward LLM tools. Ask yourself how often you Google something versus asking an AI. For me it’s probably 70% AI at this point.
AI checks your existing blog to make sure the topic is unique. It won’t suggest something you’ve already covered.
A human picks the topic. This is a judgment call, and it stays with your team.
AI builds the brief, drafts the content, and then runs it through QA agents: validators that review the draft against SEO best practices and Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines and revise it accordingly.
The system connects to your website, and you publish.
Notice I’m not calling this “fully automated.” Human judgment is still in the loop, but only for the judgment calls, not the actual production work. Writing a good local SEO blog used to take two to three hours per piece. With generic AI tools it dropped to maybe an hour and a half. With this workflow it’s about 20 minutes, at the same or better quality.
On top of production, the system tracks where your brand gets mentioned in Gemini, ChatGPT, and other LLMs. How often, in what context, and alongside which competitors. All of it feeds into a real-time dashboard for the marketing team.
For this chain’s marketing team, the content production cost saving is over 50%.
Automation #2: Support Every Senior Care Location From HQ (Support)
This one is for a senior care business, and it covers both staff support and customer support from headquarters.
You’ve seen the chatbots that show up on websites and don’t make much sense. They fail because they have zero context about the business: no access to SOPs, compliance guidelines, or past support cases. What we did here is the opposite. We took all of that information and trained the system on it, then delivered it inside a mobile app for the network.
So when a location owner asks something like “A family says our caregiver missed two visits this month and wants a credit. What should I do?”, the AI answers exactly the way the brand handles it. In this case: acknowledge and apologize, pull the service logs for the last 30 days, offer a credit per the Family Concern Resolution Playbook, document the incident, and escalate to HQ Operations if the family remains unsatisfied. The source playbooks are cited right in the answer.
A lot of new owners in your network simply don’t know how to handle every scenario yet. This gives them policy-aligned guidance in about two minutes instead of a call to HQ, and roughly 95% of issues get resolved at the location level.
The HQ side is just as valuable. Old support systems could tell you how many tickets were open or closed. This tells you what’s inside those tickets: the actual context of the conversations across 68 locations. If something is trending in the wrong direction, you know earlier than you ever could before.
Automation #3: Turn Hotel Reviews Into Operational Action (Marketing/Ops)
For a hotel chain we worked with, we built their operational center around reviews. Think of it as a reputation management system across the whole portfolio.
When you have dozens of properties, reviews live on Google, Tripadvisor, and industry-specific portals. Checking those manually, property by property, is painful. AI syncs with all of the platforms and brings every review from every location into one unified inbox.
It doesn’t stop at collection. When a review comes in, AI drafts an on-brand response using the chain’s brand guidelines, compliance standards, and policies. Not a generic ChatGPT reply. Things like: acknowledge the guest experience, invite offline follow-up, never promise refunds publicly, never admit legal liability. The approval rules are configurable: 4-5 star reviews can auto-approve, 3-star reviews go to a manager, and 1-2 star reviews require HQ approval before anything is sent.
The result for this chain: average response time dropped 62%, to around 46 minutes, with an 8-second average draft time.
Then there’s the analytics layer, which is where the operational value kicks in. The central dashboard shows what issues guests mention most, by location and by trend: cleanliness, check-in delays, breakfast, noise, AC. No human has time to read every Google review across every property. AI does, and it alerts you on exactly the right things: cleanliness complaints up 22% at Miami Beach in the last 30 days, response time exceeding target in Orlando, and the recommended actions to fix each.
Automation #4: Give Spa Operators One Control Center (Management)
This spa business, 28 locations, already had plenty of software: a POS, a CRM, an appointment booking system, payroll, lease records, membership data. The problem was that everything was fragmented, and the reports management actually needed didn’t exist anywhere, because no single system had the complete picture.
The unlock here is MCP, or Model Context Protocol, which emerged about a year and a half ago as a standard way to connect tools together. Major systems now ship MCPs (in the restaurant space, Toast has one, for example). Instead of stitching together traditional APIs, we used MCPs to connect each location’s POS, bookings, CRM, staffing and payroll, rent and lease data, and memberships into one AI analytics hub.
From that, management gets a single dashboard with the full business picture: revenue trends by region, no-show rates, average ticket, same-store growth, service mix, staff efficiency.
But the part that was simply not possible a few years ago is what AI does on top of that data. It automatically detects anomalies, like the West region declining for two consecutive months or no-show rates spiking in Florida, and it can even check external factors like weather to explain why. It benchmarks locations against each other: if two spas in the same city sell add-ons at very different rates, it flags it and tells you which playbook to replicate.
It goes all the way to expansion decisions, identifying underpenetrated markets and estimating first-year revenue for new locations. Insight into action: the recommendations for this business carried an estimated 12-month impact in the millions.
Automation #5: The Simple Stuff — Voice Agents and Customer Follow-Ups
The first four automations were dashboards and systems. This fifth one is different. It’s a reminder that AI is more than a chatbot, and some of the highest-ROI wins are the small, unglamorous ones. Email automation, review monitoring, call summaries, SOP and training bots, staff onboarding, website management. Agents can already work inside WordPress, Shopify, or Magento to upload products, edit pages, and send cart-abandonment emails.
Two opportunities I point every franchise operator to first:
AI voice assistants. Humans miss calls, and a missed call is a real opportunity slipping away. An AI voice agent never misses one. It answers instantly, even outside business hours, handles the common questions about store hours and pricing, guides callers through booking or rescheduling, and captures lead details so follow-up triggers automatically. Voice agents are popular right now for a simple reason: they’ve started to actually deliver, saving real human hours on the phone.
Automated customer follow-ups. A missed inquiry gets a follow-up within minutes. Appointment reminders reduce no-shows. Review requests go out at exactly the right moment post-visit. Win-back campaigns re-engage lapsed customers, and birthday offers add a personal touch at scale. All of it without anyone on your team lifting a finger.
People + Process + AI
Pulling it all together, this is what AI done right looks like in a franchise or multi-location business:
Save time by automating the repetitive first pass
Reduce cost by doing more without adding headcount
Improve response with faster replies to customers and staff
Support your team with instant answers and guidance
Make better decisions by turning data into clear next actions
Run with more control through visibility across every location
We’re still early. It’s been only a few years since the ChatGPT moment, and most of what businesses are doing today is bolting AI onto existing systems. The bigger shift, the one that’s just starting, is reimagining those systems from the ground up with AI at the core. That’s where the businesses we work with are heading, and it’s where the largest gains are.
Not Sure Where AI Should Start? Book an AI Opportunity Audit
There are a hundred things you could automate in your business, and you’ve probably seen the headlines about AI projects that fail. That’s because not every use case is ready, and knowing the difference comes from experience.
That’s exactly what our AI Opportunity Audit is for. We’ll ask a few questions, look at your operation, and identify the one workflow with the highest potential to save time, reduce manual work, or improve location-level execution. And we’ll tell you honestly whether AI is the right fit for it. It’s free, and the roadmap is yours whether you work with us or not.
Looking to turn your sparkly jewelry designs into jaw-dropping 3D renderings without breaking the bank or your sanity? You’re in luck. From CAD wizards to 3D modeling maestros, the right freelance jewelry rendering talent can bring your ideas to life with pixel-perfect precision. Enter Cad Crowd: a standout platform where top-tier 3D artists, jewelry rendering experts, and CAD pros converge to make magic happen. Whatever is your need for photorealistic images or stunningly rendered CAD designs, Cad Crowd takes you to the industry’s best in a silky “bling” language. That is just the beginning of your hunt for treasures of options.
1. Cad Crowd
Cad Crowd is a top club for jewelry 3D design enthusiasts. Wings of imagination turn into dazzling reality here, courtesy of a stable of carefully vetted CAD designers and 3D artists. Whether you’re imagining a delicate filigree ring or a bold gemstone pendant, Cad Crowd matches your vision with professionals who actually speak fluent CAD. It’s fast, reliable, and sprinkled with enough creativity to make your jewelry sparkle even before it exists. Consider it a matchmaking agency – but rather than dating, it’s for your most fanciful jewelry concepts finding their perfect 3D magic. Your creativity is finally matched by an equal.
You are walking into a jewelry design treasure chest. This website matches you with experienced CAD designers who treat every design as work in progress art. They’re relaxed, detail-oriented people who are very slightly perfection-starved (in the best possible way). Do you need a nebula-inspired necklace or earrings that look like abstract waves? Gildform’s talent arsenal brings your imaginations to life, pixel by pixel, layer by layer. Not just technicians and just designers but writers too are theirs whose creations make metal and stones tell a story. The result? Jewelry that exists but also speaks, smirks, and vibrates in between your style song.
Sarkissian Luxury Studio is the wizardry of 3D jewelry visualization in film. Each of them leap into being in photorealistic style, as if rings, necklaces, and bracelets could leap from the screen into your hand. Their actor doesn’t pose; they pose light, shadow, and brightness with stage showmanship. It is fantasy land, but intensely professional: timelines, feedback loops, and measurement to precision are all part of the magic. Whether jeweler, 3D designer, or entrepreneur, Sarkissian makes your mockups go viral online, as if every gemstone was the star solo headliner of the show.
Behance is the visual imagination metropolis of the concrete jungle. Imagine it as a jewelry designer social network where jewelry designers post their most experimental work and masterpieces-in-the-making in proportion to one another. Surfing through portfolios full of rings that defy the laws of physics, floating pendants and necklaces that tell stories. Working here is less corporate, more coincidental – you just stumble upon talent that seemed to have been looking for you. Conferences occur, minds meet, and what you are left with are designs with attitude. It is the perfect balance of social environment and professional development, where any “like” can be the beginning of your next legendary series.
Contra is freelance attitude. In this place, 3D jewelry designers are not nameless avatars but energetic professionals strutting talent, wit, and passion. To share your project is to host an event – live talent auditions with hopes shining nearly as brightly as your future masterpieces. You get advice, suggestions, and even silly wisecracks (the kind which make deadlines more manageable). Contra thrives on relationship rather than achievement, and each project is a little soiree of cooperation. It’s a professional, fun, and somewhat maverick: where else do you get to commission an artist and get a stunning design and a smile?
Guru is the wise elder of the freelance world. It’s a sanctuary for a world of 3D modelers and jewelers who walk the uncharted ground between reality and fantasy. The profiles are comprehensive, reviews are authentic, and contracts are remarkably straightforward. Designers don’t merely generate technical capability – they bring experience, judgment, and quirk that elevate a project beyond utilitarian CAD production. From creating a cutting-edge bracelet to finishing the fit on a refined ring, Guru imparts your project the care and professionalism it deserves. It’s structured yet flexible, systematic yet creative – a less frequent combination than you’d think, but one that makes hiring a joy, not an adrenaline rush.
Toptal’s the upper echelon of freelance masters. Only the best 3D jewelry designers pass through the velvet rope, so you’re not losing your time looking through dozens of uninspired options. Their process of screening is rigorous, but after you’ve settled on your designer, the process is as silky as silk. You’re employing masters who are not merely adept at CAD, but narrative, material science, and subtlety-designed art. Work gets done quicker, collaboration is second nature, and results impress even them. Toptal is perfect for precision without sacrificing imagination, a continuation of sophistication, productivity, and dependability hard to find in the so congested freelance market.
DesignCrowd is a bit more of a crazy-wild creativity bazaar, but in the global web where hundreds of jewelery designers battle it out to impress you. You put up your concept – whether it’s a trendy ring or stylish bracelet – and designers from all over the world put forward their designs. It works because it’s eclectic: different viewpoints, original concepts, and wild ideas all in one place. It’s not work; it’s a free competition where imagination is the last word. You get to experience the luxury of sitting back and watching magic happen, making decisions, and finally deciding on the design that screams out your personality the most. 99designs makes projects a creative adventure filled with imagination.
99designs is the online battle ground of art where fantasies of jewelry collide. Picture a battlefield of design where imagination knows no limits: artists produce bold, unconventional interpretations of your project, ranging from stunning showstoppers to gorgeous classics. It’s exchange and counterpoint and sometimes even an element of surprise – the sort of setting where something you didn’t even know you were looking for materializes as your favorite pendant. Revisions whiz by, conversation flows, and criticism is not tolerated; it’s cheered on. The site combines professionalism with carefree creativity, so it’s a pleasure, not a threat. Every project is a team effort, you guiding and your chosen designer as the virtuoso.
CrowdSpring is the independent jewelry design circus with a deadline and shipping. Post a project, and a procession of designers – each with his or her own personality and idiosyncrasies – brings new ideas to your concept. You’ll discover ideas that defy conventions, shatter mold, or simply tickle you. The community encourages creativity as much as precision, prompting designers to push the limits of outrageous materials, forms, and angles. Iteration is smooth as silk, feedback loops open, and good-natured community keeps it all happening. CrowdSpring is for individuals who aren’t interested in just an end result – they need a creative process, with inspiration, collaboration, and a dash of play havoc.
SimplyHired is the freelancer treasure map. You seek jewelry design talent, and the site scans listings to direct you to treasures you’d never otherwise have heard of. It works, but haphazardly: each posting tells a great deal about the designer’s abilities, sensibility, and personality. The site is basic and advanced, providing you with options of newbies and pros. The only difference is in the element of surprise – you just don’t know whose portfolio will amaze you or what fresh idea will inspire your next line. SimplyHired is not a job board, but a discovery site for up-and-coming curious jewelry designers.
We Work Remotely is more or less a virtual coffee shop for creatives – coffee only virtually and skill-based banter. Artists from all over the globe come in to swap skills, answer briefs, and work cooperatively globally. It’s ideal for high-end jobs that need flexibility and scope of vision. Staffing is actual: you put out an ad, filter through resumes, and interview serious contenders. The site respects remote professionalism without personality loss. Here, your designs are cherished and presented, and designers pound away in studios, kitchens, or terraces and exchange brilliance on your screen.
Working Not Working is the boutique gallery of the freelance community. Only best, most diligent creatives pass through the gates, and space is left for jewelry designers to shine without drowning in an ocean of dull portfolios. It’s professional, it’s sleek, and really quite fun: profiles convey personality, style, and process. Projects aren’t tasks – they’re chances to collaborate with thinkers who adore utility and beauty. Communication is smooth, expectations are clear, and results always astound. If you require someone to realize your vision as a narrative, rather than an architecture, Working Not Working is where you’re going. Creativity and reliability converge here, always.
Visionary entrepreneurs and jewellers come to AngelList in search of their creative match. Half business network and half opportunity machine – projects are aligned with 3D designers for innovation-driven companies, and companies discover talent they never knew they needed. Briefs on jewelry are finished as strategic projects, and freelancers tackle them with entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. The platform is organized but human: messaging is genuine, profiles express personality, and work happens in actual time. It’s ideal for cutting-edge designs with restraint of form and market savvy. AngelList is not hiring, but sparking collaboration that transforms naked ideas into polished, wearable art with a touch of startup sorcery.
LinkedIn is the manic professional playpen where creativity and authenticity meet. Jewelry designers offer portfolios, referrals, and closely guarded glimpses of personality as well as professional milestones. It’s more targeted cruising than wandering and no less effective: you can spot ability with quirky talent, follow their career development, and get attached to serious designers. Networking is natural, feedback is anticipated, and assignments start with a request for connect-up. LinkedIn combines structure, openness, and promise, and that is appropriate for those seeking a mix of competence, reliability, and professionalism. Your piece of jewelry comes alive in an enthusiast designer here, beautifully.
Indeed is the internet bazaar of contract seekers. You place your jewelry piece up for sale, and immediately it becomes a limelight, drawing designers from all corners of life. Profiles are full of experience, qualifications, and occasionally a picture of personality. The location is on-demand: from top-level CAD staff to mobile 3D modelers come out at the press of a button. Filtering, messaging, and application tracking are easy with you safely in command without concern. It’s handy, efficient, and irresistibly enjoyable – treasure hunt but with a succession of carefully laid maps and accurate clues. In fact ensures you find talent that is competent and sharp.
Glassdoor isn’t just for business critiques – it’s a behind-the-scenes look into the world of jewelry design talent. You can research work previously done, workflow tendencies, and client satisfaction to assess a designer’s potential match. The site gives you portfolios background, not just what designers can do, but also how they work. It’s a combination of facts, narrative, and transparency that allows you to not be caught off guard later on in the interview process. Other than numbers, Glassdoor is about the nature of people: quality of work, communication, professionalism. It’s like learning ahead of time prior to encountering the über-trendy diamond jewelry designer who can redesign your next collection.
ZipRecruiter is the fast freeway to access to jewelery designers with the skill to make your dream come true. Smart matching on ZipRecruiter results in the perfect candidate receiving your ad in an instant. Designers send suggestions, portfolios arrive in your email inbox, and work begins with little hassle. It’s organized and dynamical: computerization is paired with human imagination, and you pick the perfect person without egoistic dredging. The procedure is simple, the interface silky, and the pool of talent across the globe. For sophisticated projects with precise deadlines, ZipRecruiter is a reliable co-pilot that assists in making your 3D jewelry fantasy a reality precisely and beautifully.
Designhill is a sandbox of designs where your jewelry dream has no limits. It is a group of community creative pool of diverse product designers who share with your project their style, idiosyncrasies, and inspirations. You have proposals that are fantastically innovative through to incredibly detailed, so you’re given a range that will even surprise an old jeweler. The site is playful but honest: feedback loops are easy, alterations are accepted, and professionalism is never sacrificed. Designhill makes finding a creative partner an engaging exercise rather than a transactional experience. You’re not just selecting a service – you’re curating a collaborative adventure where your jewelry concepts gain life, personality, and flair.
Truelancer is the vibrant marketplace where talent and ambition collide. Jewelry makers from all around the world flock here, with abilities ranging from hyper-realistic CAD design to boundary-pushing 3D artistry. To stand up a project is to throw open the door of opportunity: proposals are punctuated with panache, ideas fire off each other, and collaboration second nature. The platform is one of interdependence, reliability, and mutual understanding. In addition to people-skilling for employment, as Truelancer has banter, humor, and innovative thinking on the cards. Ideal for concentration, flexibility, and vision-driven creativity-intensive activities – a dynamic, professional environment where your jewelry design happens.
Outsourcely is one-stop-shop premium professional matchmaker and international studio. Freelance remote jewelry designers, CAD experts, and 3D modelers are ready to work on your project, with heterogeneous experience, outlook, and expertise. The platform makes it easy to hire and appreciate individuality: you can get someone who collaborates professionally but also innovatively. Communication tools are merged, transactions are transparent, and teamwork functions smoothly across time zones. Outsourcely is outsourcing; it’s looking for a partner who owns your project. And the reward? Jewelry designs in your mind, quality and detail sent across the globe.
Don’t judge a book by its cover – Freelance Writing Gigs sometimes contains gems for jewelry designers. Picture it like a side alley with surprises: between copywriting gigs and writing projects, experienced 3D CAD experts and jewelry modelers pop out of the woodwork to bring ideas into shiny digital baubles. The site itself is no-frills and efficient, delivering a curated list of skill- and creativity-driven projects. Scrolling through it is like browsing through a hippie shop: the jewels are surprise finds, but worthwhile waiting for. Your time will be worth it, and the freelance designers you’ll find here have an outside-the-box way of thinking that’s credited with innovative jewelry ideas.
Freelance Switch is the down-to-earth, expert community that professional jewelry designers come to in their attempt to find satisfying projects. It’s not as glamorous as some of the other marketplaces out there, but that’s sort of the idea. Designers here appreciate craftsmanship, precision, and collaboration, so lean towards high-fidelity CAD and 3D modeling. The platform prefers guidance and community, with tip-off, advice, and feedback becoming workflow. Recruitment is more collaborative: you can browse portfolios, establish expectations, and collaborate in sync. For those seeking professional, reliable jewelry design services free from searched through trash, Freelance Switch is an oasis, a clean, and warmly creative haven in freelancing existence.
Freelance Jobs is the online community where opportunity and diversity meet. Jewelry designers of every variety offer their services, from highly detailed CAD modeling to full-sized 3D drawings. The site is working but lively, and there’s a blend of freelance and employee work. It’s easy to search for, proposals are easy to manage, and communication with designers is seamless. Freelance Jobs doesn’t simply list work; it brings people together. Every exchange is a potential collaboration, innovation, and injection of the unknown as designers bring forth something greater than dreams. It’s a secure environment to make jewelry ideas take on a solid digital form.
In 3DJewels, jewelry designers use pixels instead of polishing cloths. It is designed for designers who want their digital treasures to look remarkably similar to the real thing. It is filled with photorealistic 3D models, render-ready scenes, HDRIs, textures, materials, and visualization tools. Whether you work with KeyShot, Blender, 3ds Max, Maya, or any other creative rabbit hole, the website provides pre-made objects that spare you from existential crises brought on by lighting and save hours of setup. Both studios and independent 3D artists have access to free materials and licensing possibilities. Imagine it as a jewelry rendering backstage prop room without the glitter permanently adhering to your clothing.
At iJewel.design, jewelry design is transformed from flat to showy. The platform turns static designs into dynamic 3D displays that clients can spin, examine, appreciate, and possibly zoom into far more dramatically than necessary. It was created for developers who think glitter merits stage lights. Without struggling with complex software, you can upload models, experiment with metals and gemstones, and present designs in photorealistic quality. Whether you’re presenting a collection, developing a portfolio, or attempting to get someone to ask, “Wait, is that real?Digital jewelry is transformed into an experience by iJewel.design. It’s similar to a showroom, a design studio, and a magician’s reveal, but the secret is to make outstanding design impossible to overlook.
7CGI helps because jewelry deserves more than a fuzzy phone picture and hopeful lighting. Their jewelry rendering service turns creative thoughts, CAD files, and sketches into incredibly realistic 3D images that are polished to the point where clients start to doubt their savings account. With amazing precision, they transform rings, necklaces, and diamonds into digital eye pleasure, from clear catalog pictures to opulent lifestyle sceneries and animated presentations. 7CGI helps turn ideas into glittering reality without the expense, turmoil, and difficulty of typical picture shoots, whether you’re launching a collection, testing variations, or selling pieces that don’t yet exist. Before your jewelry ever leaves the studio, think of it as giving it its own red carpet moment.
Imagination gets a graphics card and a caffeine addiction at RenderHub. It’s a digital treasure trove full of 3D models, textures, game materials, character animations, settings, and enough polygons to make your laptop uncomfortably spin its fan. It’s part marketplace, part artist hangout. RenderHub makes it extremely simple to go down a creative rabbit hole, whether you’re creating a cinematic masterpiece, creating a gaming world, or just perusing because “I’ll only look for five minutes” (you won’t). Every click reveals a variety of polished treasures, unanticipated surprises, and limitless ideas. Imagine a sci-fi workshop mixed with Etsy, but with a lot more dragons, robots, and eerily lifelike coffee cups instead of knitted scarves.
SolidGigs is having a personal talent agent for jewelry designers. Instead of swiping blindly, the site pre-screen freelance jobs that fit your needs in advance, saving time and providing ideas. Freelancers on the site are usually A-list, experienced CAD modelers, 3D renderers, and art translators. They select their projects manually and prioritize quality over quantity, so you can be confident that you’re working with specialists who understand the importance of detail. SolidGigs finds the perfect balance between speed and discovery: each gig’s a fast treasure hunt where your jewelry design crosses paths with designers who are waiting to bring ideas to life as exquisite, well-crafted digital models that jump off the page with personality and technical savvy.
FlexJobs is the online professional paradise where experienced jewelry designers get employed across the globe. The website does not divert with overwhelming browsing, providing best freelance opportunities without frustration. Product designers provide creativity, technical expertise, and reliability ideal for intricate CAD and 3D modeling projects. FlexJobs is open-minded, has clear communication with expectations, and is professional so projects can go very smoothly through multiple time zones. It is a balancing act of being adaptable and concentrated, staying innovative but accomplishing the work. Your jewelry items are also enhanced not just by professional production but also with that human touch of perfectionist designers.
i.Materialise Blog isn’t a content website – it’s an entrance to the realm of 3D jewellery. Instead of focusing on new techniques, materials, and tools in isolation, it connects customers and designers through inspiration and hands-on guide. Jewelry designers come to the blog for inspiration, technical tips, and creative problem-solving of CAD and rendering issues. Customers can view concepts, gain access to expert expertise, and see how their concepts are transformed into concrete reality. The blog is the gateway between art and craft, converting projects from visionary idea to tangible digital design. It’s where creativity and technique converge, offering insight and bridging visionary clients and gifted designers.
Jewelry CAD Dream is the dream factory of personalized designs. The website is a master of CAD modeling, 3D visualization services, and converting sketches to precise, wearable pieces of art. Designers are meticulous, detail-focused, and enthusiastic, with technical expertise as well as creative urges. Each project is tackled as a story: the material, stones, and form all tell your story. There’s integrity, there’s repetition fostered, and the finished renders are usually exceeding expectations. Jewelry CAD Dream combines professionalism with personality, providing clients with confidence and contentment. That is where fantasy becomes reality, digital art becomes physical painting, and every jewelry piece is a unique digital painting.
The Jewelry CAD Studio is the cutting-edge atelier of computer-aided jewelry design. Seasoned designers master intricate CAD modeling, 3D visualization, and the execution of even the most challenging concepts. The environment is precision, aesthetic sense, and creative problem-solving. Every commission is taken seriously, constructive criticism is valued, and collaboration runs smoothly. It’s a human-friendly office: designers approach every project as a mini-commission, with attention to detail, refinement, and visual impact. The Jewelry CAD Studio gives concepts life in brilliant digital form, clients trusting their jewelry will look just as breathtaking in reality as on screen.
PeoplePerHour is a large general freelance platform, providing everything from copywriting via website design to CAD jewelry design. Designers can be found on the platform, but the platform is not specialist, so some time has to be taken to sift through the fine jewelry entries. The volume alone can be daunting, and specialist knowledge is no guarantee. It is quite like a generic department store: useful for everyday shopping but hardly the ideal place for sophisticated, specialist work. If precision, creativity, and technical expertise in 3D jewelry rendering is your goal, more specialist platforms will be the wiser choice.
Fiverr is another freelance site with designers who post gigs at competitive prices. Convenient and ubiquitous, it’s a mass market business that must support an enormous variety of services, so highly skilled 3D jewelry CAD professionals are in short supply. Quality is wildly inconsistent, and the platform leans toward quantity over selection. Enjoyable and convenient for quick jobs or dev work, but production-quality jewelry design requires more targeted talent pools to maintain quality consistency.
Upwork is a giant freelancing site with nearly all categories advertised. There are designers of jewelry, but the site is general-purpose, so filtering, competition, and expertise in specialisation isn’t safe to take for granted. The ideal candidate might be a time-consuming search, interview, and trial-and-error exercise. For complicated 3D jewellery rendering or CAD design, specialist websites focusing on design capability tend to provide quicker, higher quality output.
37. Freelancer
Freelancer is an international site with sweeping categories, one being jewelry design. It is a mass site, though, so top-level, high-caliber CAD and 3D rendering skills are a terror to locate. Nicely designed skills are secondary to quantity, so outcomes are blindly hit-or-miss. Good enough for some designs, perhaps, but professional-grade, professional-quality jewelry is the better choice on pages where design skill, technical precision, and creative continuity are what matter.
How Cad Crowd can help
When hiring the crème de la crème of 3D jewelry designers, all websites are not created equal. You have plenty to choose from, but Cad Crowd is light years ahead of the competition. With its team of well-experienced professionals in 3D modeling, jewelry rendering, and reverse engineering, you are acquiring precision, experience, and assurance all into a single package. If you need flawless designs that undergo an easy transfer from mind to reality, Cad Crowd is the ideal place for reliable freelancer professional services. Contact us for a quote.
MacKenzie Brown is the founder and CEO of Cad Crowd. With over 18 years of experience in launching and scaling platforms specializing in CAD services, product design, manufacturing, hardware, and software development, MacKenzie is a recognized authority in the engineering industry. Under his leadership, Cad Crowd serves esteemed clients like NASA, JPL, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 companies, empowering innovators with access to high-quality design and engineering talent.
One of the convenient things about the Steam Deck is Valve’s handy verification system, which tells you how a game is (ideally) going to run on the handheld PC before you boot it up, and whether you can stick with the default settings or need to do some tweaking. If a game has been tested by the company, it’ll be badged as either Verified, Playable or Unsupported, and while it isn’t a perfect system, it goes a long way to bridging that gap between complicated PC gaming and out-of-the-box console ease. It took a while to arrive, but the very same compatibility details are now starting to pop up for the Steam Machine, albeit bizarrely hidden away.
As spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun, there was a lot of confusion about the newly launched Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced being awarded Steam Machine verification without there actually being any evidence of it on Steam. But that has changed, if you know where to look.
I (very sadly) don’t have a Steam Machine, so I don’t know what happens if you load up the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced store page through SteamOS on the new PC, but I went into the Steam desktop app on my MacBook and found its Steam Machine verification buried inside the Steam Deck compatibility details. If you scroll down to that section (it’s located on the right of the page under the languages section) and click “Learn more,” you’ll see a tab for the Steam Machine next to the Deck’s in the pop-up. Click that and you get the usual three-tick approval found on Verified Steam Deck games.
According to Steam, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced fully supports controllers when played on the Steam Machine, displays controller icons and performs well with the Steam Machine’s default graphics configuration. This means it earns that all-important Verified badge. I also tried searching for a few other games that popped into my head, including Devil May Cry 5 and Cuphead, and they’re also showing up as Verified. In a strange turn of events, Valve’s own Dota 2 is only listed as “Playable” (as it is on Steam Deck) due to pesky mouse and keyboard icons occasionally popping up and the game sometimes requiring you to use an on-screen keyboard to enter text.
Valve is presumably planning to make Steam Machine compatibility more immediately clear in its store eventually, but for now at least, anyone lucky (and deep-pocketed) enough to have snagged a launch unit knows where to look. And if you’re still weighing up whether you want to part with the best part (or considerably more) of $1,000 on Valve’s new living room-friendly gaming PC, Engadget’s review went live this week.
Disney is exploring a free tier for Disney+ that would make some content available without a subscription. According to Nielsen data, the three largest free streamers accounted for 18.7% of watch time on U.S. TVs in April, up from 16.8% a year earlier and 12.7% in April 2024. Business Insider reports: Product and tech chief Adam Smith spoke about enabling free-tier content during a streaming town hall on Thursday afternoon, one staffer said. Smith didn’t share a timeline for this initiative or a sense of the scope, this person added. A person familiar with Disney’s streaming strategy said these talks are part of an ongoing discussion about concepts to better serve fans. Currently, the Disney+ and Hulu bundle costs $12.99 a month with ads or $19.99 without ads at full price.
You arrive just in time… or perhaps a little too late. The former postman has vanished, leaving chaos behind: parcels piled to the ceiling, customers growing impatient, and a once-thriving postal service on the brink of collapse. One package at a time, you’ll bring it back to life. Cat Mail Co. is about slowing down and enjoying the rhythm of small, satisfying tasks.
Incoming mail arrives by boat, and outgoing parcels must be carefully loaded for their journey. Sort deliveries for the right destinations, or risk having them returned damaged. Take your time serving customers, organize your storage exactly the way you like, prepare for the next wave, and keep everything running smoothly as the post office slowly regains its former glory. With each improvement, new destinations unlock, along with tools and abilities to help you manage the growing operation.
Every package tells you how it wants to be handled… but how you do it is up to you. Weigh parcels to determine postage, apply destination labels, mark fragile or heavy goods, and decorate them with a variety of stamps. Functional or whimsical, every sticker you place adds personality to your work. There’s no such thing as a “correct” way but just your way. The post office doesn’t sleep… and neither do you. As night settles in, moonlight reveals secrets. What seemed ordinary during the day may carry strange properties after dark, offering magical insight into how some parcels should be treated.
Screenshots
SystemRequirements
Minimum Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 or Windows 11
Processor: Intel Core i5-3330 3.0 GHz, AMD FX-8300 3.3 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 or Radeon HD 7970
Storage: 4 GB available space
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam
InstallationGuide
TurnOff Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game
1 :: Download Game 2 :: Extract Game 3 :: Launch The Game 4 :: Have Fun 🙂
Regardless of your gender, if you’ve ever created a female or femme-presenting player-character–especially in an RPG–you’ve almost certainly encountered an issue that has been plaguing the genre since games first made the jump from 2D to 3D: really, really, really bad hairstyle options for female characters. And look, I get it. Animating a million little strands of hair is difficult and time-consuming, and devs don’t always have the funding to make a ton of flowing hairstyle options with long, luscious locks.
But that doesn’t stop them from attempting to portray longer hair–it just tends to be styled in a convoluted up-do that says, “See, this character totally has a lot of hair, she just spends six hours every morning following intricate Ye Olde Hair Tutorials to ensure her locks will not move no matter how many heavy attacks she takes.”
Now, RPG players are bringing these off-the-wall hairstyles to life via tongue-in-cheek videos depicting the struggle players face when trying to create a female character with long hair. From long ponytails that do not react to physics whatsoever to traffic cone-shaped up-dos, here are some of our favorite player-made takes on female video game hairstyles.
1. Cursed pigtails
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DagFarxh9ul/
No matter when or where an RPG is set, for some reason there always seem to be at least six different pigtail-style hair options, all of which somehow manage to both suck and look wildly out of place, especially when your character is fully decked out in heavy armor.
Nothing says, “I am the chosen one, here to save the realm!” like rocking up to the battle looking like an Owlbear just tried to build a nest in your hair. Why accurately emulate the look of historical hairstyles when you can just give ’em the ol’ “haircut courtesy of my five-year-old sister” special?
If you do find a long hairstyle, make no mistake: It absolutely will not move. If, by some miracle, it does move, it will move as one singular mega-hair rather than a head of individual strands.
Nothing says “elegant badass” like a single, tiny braid in the middle of your forehead.
5. Long hair, but make it look short
Inevitably, when you do find a longer hair style, devs will have gone out of their way to make sure it looks weird from just about every angle, with strands that have been twisted, braided, and wrapped around themselves to the point that even getting hit with Storm of Vengeance wouldn’t blow a single hair out of place. These styles are often very tall or wide, to give the appearance of length, while ensuring nobody actually has to animate it.
On the bright side, things are definitely getting better–as much as I struggled to enjoy Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I do have to give credit where credit is due: My character may have looked like a half-melted Bratz doll, but every single strand of her hip-length hair moved individually, and responded appropriately to wind, body movement, and changes in inertia. The most fun I had with that game was watching my Rook’s hair flip around as she dove and dodged in combat. Veilguard also had a phenomenal selection of POC hairstyles, going far beyond the usual “generic fade for men, afro or short braids for women” offerings found in most games. (EA’s Frostbite Engine is the source of the magic behind Veilguard’s great hair physics.)
Still, there’s definitely room for improvement when it comes to hair animation in the games industry. As much as I get a kick out of seeing what lengths studios will go to in order to avoid having to animate long hair, I do hope that more studios–especially those working on RPGs with custom player-characters–take the time to animate hair with the care it deserves.
In the meantime, I’ll be over here trying to figure out where I can get my hands on some of this magical, gravity-defying hairspray that seems to be available to every female NPC in every RPG game ever.
After Filming 1,000s of Presenters – The Confident Ones All Did This.
Some people seem to be able to get in front of a camera or phone, hit the record button and off they go!
Smooth, effortless, totally engaging all with the ability to maintain the presence of mind to deliver the message clearly.
I am not one of those people and in fact I have come across very few of those people in my own life!
Now also over the years I have posted a number of tutorial videos from creators covering how to appear natural in front of the camera.
I know that they were all helpful in some way but this week I came across a truly excellent video on the subject.
Its from a former BBC Television cameraman, Chris Goor, who has had the opportunity to observe thousands of people both pro and amateur in front of the camera.
His observations on the subject are incredibly insightful and this guide to appearing confident on camera is probably one of the best I’ve seen.
5 Teleprompter Mistakes Beginners Make (Avoid These!)
I have actually spent the better part of the past few weeks checking out teleprompters because the one I have been using is a bit old now.
Of course it is not as though suddenly the glass on the prompter has worn out or anything like that!
The reason it has become a problem is that when I first bought it, the intention was (and still is) to use a mobile phone to scroll the text.
However over the past few years, mobile phones have gotten larger as far as screen size goes so that prompter has become a bit difficult to deal with.
We have to keep re-sizing the text down to fit the teleprompter screen but in doing so, the text gets harder to read.
So all of that has led down a seemingly endless teleprompter rabbit hole… but that a whole story in itself for another day!
Anyway, regardless of whatever difficulties may occur with them there is actually a whole world of techniques connected to using them so here’s a little advice on the matter.
The Exact YouTube Strategy for 2026!
The guys at Think Media are currently running at about 3.4 Million subscribers on YouTube.
That tells me that when it comes to setting up and running a YouTube channel, they probably know what they are talking about!
One of the basic truths of YouTube is that the basic truths of YouTube are ever changing and evolving because of two main factors.
The first is monetization because at the end of the day, YouTube is a Google product and Google has to show both growth and profit for its shareholders.
The second is that human interaction creates stresses and applies forces to what is popular and what people are looking for and that circles right back to point number one!
Show me the money!
In light of that here’s an updated for 2026 start up strategy for YouTube as well as great tips for an already existing YouTube channel.
Two Methods to Apply Facial Blur to a Video Clip in PowerDirector
Like most things in most video editing software these days, there is always more than one way to skin a cat.
So here’s a tutorial on a couple of ways you can blur out a face, or anything for that matter, in CyberLink PowerDirector.
How to Master the Euphoria Aesthetic – Movavi
Just a quick little tutorial video here from the folks at Movavi.
It simply shows how to create the Euphoria effect that is so popular these days but also there is something else to take note of for any editing software.
You will see they add and effect then add another on top of that.
Finally they adjust the settings of one of the filters to achieve the final result.
The reality is that many, many inbuilt effects and filters these days have settings that you can adjust which can completely change what the effect is doing.
It is always worth the time to have a play with any filter or effect controls to just see what happens!
One of the technical aspects of shooting videos especially with a decent camera is that you have to get the setup and especially the lighting right.
In some ways, shooting with a smartphone is way easier because there is a basic difference between how a phone shoots and how a camera shoots.
The phone shoots on the basis of how it should be.
It uses internal software to attempt correction on the fly and give you the best result possible based on what it “thinks” is the best possible result!
The camera shoots on the basis of how it is.
It is assuming you know what you are doing and whatever or however you are shooting, that’s what you want!
At the end of the day, if the smartphone didn’t get it right, you have limited ability to correct.
If using the camera you didn’t get it right, you have greater freedom to correct due to a larger amount of data being recorded. (Even if you recorded it a bit wrong!)
Correcting footage that is not quite right is an art and science in itself and trust me, there will be tears before bedtime before you get good at it!
However to be honest I have started to cheat a bit using one of the newer tools in Filmora called Relight.
Check it out in the video below but essentially it works like a color correction/grading tool that can be applied to specific areas of a video without having to mask and track.
How To Make Money on YouTube With a Small Channel
This is probably one of the most comprehensive and complete rundowns on exactly how you can generate income from a YouTube Channel.
Usually creators like this are pretty secretive about actual numbers and like to make it all seems way better or easier than it really is!
Refreshingly, this video is quite upfront about the amount views you need to generate income from YouTube ads (Adsense), sponsorships, affiliate links and digital products.
How to Color Grade a Documentary in DaVinci Resolve (Step by Step)
If you have ever thought that your project was getting a bit too complicated and things were beginning to spin out of control, check this out!
One of the steps I often refer to in any project is that of getting yourself and your assets organized.
I know I bang on about this because I am already thinking to myself, “Have I typed that exact sentence before?”
That’s how you can tell you are repeating yourself!
Anyway I wanted to add this one to this weeks Roundup because it illustrates just how important that organizational step really is.
Even a small project will spin out of control without it so look at this project and imagine what the result would be!
DaVinci Resolve 21 FREE – New Features Effects you don’t want to miss
So since DaVinci Resolve 21 came out of Beta and into full release most of the talk around town has been confined to the Studio (Paid) version.
Recently the Free version was similarly updated into full release mode so here’s a rundown of whats new and improved in that version.
Key Takeaways
Tips for engaging confidently in front of the camera while effortlessly appearing natural.
Common teleprompter mistakes beginners make and technical advice for better usage.
YouTube strategies for 2026 highlighting the evolving nature of monetization and viewer engagement.
Tips for shooting professional videos emphasizing lighting and camera setup, comparing smartphone ease with traditional cameras.
The latest features of DaVinci Resolve 21 are reviewed, focusing on improvements in the free version.
A Korean news outlet has revealed apparent US pricing for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is expected to start at over $2,000, with a $2,099 price tag being deemed likely.
On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is tipped to start at $1,899.
Samsung will launch its new foldable phones on July 22, and the company is tipped to offer the Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. We’ve already heard murmurings about European prices, but we might just have US pricing for the Fold models.
Korea’s SE Daily outlet reports that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s US price will exceed $2,000, citing industry sources. More specifically, the outlet says a $2,099 price tag is considered “likely.” By contrast, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched at $1,999.99. So the Z Fold 8 Ultra would likely be $100 more expensive than its predecessor.
What do you think of the leaked Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra price?
26 votes
This figure isn’t set in stone yet, as Samsung is reportedly conducting a final review of this price and its overall pricing strategy ahead of the July 22 launch. Either way, a price hike wouldn’t be unexpected given the RAM crisis and the Galaxy S26 family’s price increases earlier this year. This isn’t a huge increase, but the Galaxy Z Fold series wasn’t exactly cheap to begin with.
The outlet also reports that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Wide Fold will start at $1,899 for the 256GB model. The new foldable is expected to offer a 4:3 internal screen, making it more ideal for video playback than previous Galaxy Fold models. Samsung also effectively confirmed that it would be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip, while previous leaks point to a 4,800mAh battery and a dual 50MP rear camera setup.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is expected to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip and a 5,000mAh battery. The phone is also rumored to pack a 200MP main camera, a 50MP ultrawide shooter, and a 10MP 3x camera.
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