Samsung’s latest mobile screen prototype slides and folds

It's Wednesday, January 04, 2023.

Samsung’s apparently tired of mobile displays that only fold in on themselves. At CES 2023 this week, the company revealed the Flex Hybrid OLED mobile screen. It folds from one side and slides out the other. This combination not only increases the size but alters the aspect ratio, too.

Starting off at a relatively compact 4.2-inch device, it folds out to a 10.5-inch 4:3 display. Then, because it’s not done, the right side slides and expands out to create a 12.4-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which seems like it’d be ideal for watching TV and movies. Samsung’s folding phones won me over in 2022, even if they could do with longer battery life. With a screen this big, that has to be a major consideration for any real-world devices.

We’ve seen roll-out displays on concept phones before. TCL teased such a device in 2021, but it never showed off a working prototype. If Samsung has one at CES, we’ll check it out when the show floor opens. Already, we’ve been barraged by PC and TV announcements. Keep track of all the news from CES 2023 right here. What are you hoping to see this year?

– Mat Smith

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NVIDIA unveils the pricey mid-range RTX 4070 Ti GPU

Even at $799, it’s better value than the 4080.

NVIDIA finally unveiled its latest midrange GPU, the RTX 4070 Ti. Starting at $799, it's a slightly more reasonable alternative to NVIDIA's $1,199 RTX 4090 and $1,599 4090. But yes, it's still pretty costly. Is this the new GPU midrange? NVIDIA is positioning the RTX 4070 Ti as the pinnacle of 1,440p gaming beyond 120 fps. DLSS 3 is a big reason for that – just like with the other 4000-series cards, it uses machine learning to generate entire frames, rather than the pixels DLSS 2 created. That means it should be able to deliver better overall frame rates. The RTX 4070 Ti will be available on January 5th.

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Apple is raising the price of battery replacements for older iPhones

It already costs more to give newer iPhones a fresh battery.

Apple is adding $20 to the price of battery replacements for pre-iPhone 14 models on March 1st. For notched iPhones (iPhone X through iPhone 13), this will bump the price from $69 to $89. If you have an iPhone SE or iPhone 8, the price will climb from $49 to $69. It's not clear if self-repair prices will increase at the same time. However, part prices roughly equal the cost of asking Apple to perform a battery swap. The company didn’t elaborate on the reasoning, but last year said inflation had affected business, and it raised iPhone prices in several international markets.

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Hugging this pulsating cushion could help with anxiety

The Fufuly's movements can guide your breathing pattern.

Engadget

Yukai Engineering, the team behind the strangely adorable cat tail pillow, is back. The Fufuly is yet another anxiety-reducing cushion from the Japanese company, with a gentle rhythmical pulsation as the main therapeutic tool. The idea is hugging a Fufuly stimulates your belly to induce slower and deeper breathing, thanks to the cushion’s lifelike behavior. The Fufuly will launch in Japan this year, through crowdfunding.

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Dell’s revamped G-series: Surprisingly compelling budget gaming laptops

With retro sci-fi designs and fun colors.

Engadget

Dell’s latest G-series gaming notebooks seem to draw inspiration from gadgets in ‘80s sci-fi movies. You get simple lines with hard edges and bold two-tone paint jobs with neon/pastel accents. Color options may eventually change when these laptops go on sale, but Dell is even painting small details like the radiator fins inside each laptop’s vents. In short, they’re not as… extra as the Alienware laptop family.

The G15 will start at $849 for a 13th-gen Intel Core i5, with a 1,920 x 1,080 screen and a choice of RTX 40-series GPUs from NVIDIA. The larger G16 will start at $1,499 with the same Core i5 chip but a higher-res 165Hz 2,560 x 1,600 screen. Both should go on sale early this year.

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Test your pee where you pee with this oversized toilet clip-on

Not a fitness tracker.

Vivoo has unveiled a smart toilet device that can test your urine and send the results to your phone. The tech is in a device that clips to existing toilets. Vivoo, which has offered at-home urine tests for the last few years, designed the system with the elderly, residential care and healthcare service providers in mind. The device will automatically align a testing strip with a person's urine stream, which should reduce the risk of, well, mess. It analyzes the urine sample for four wellness parameters. The company suggests the results can offer "indications of certain deficiencies or abnormalities" and help with early detection of some conditions.

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