Apple has the opportunity to do something really cool here! An emulator going by the name of Classipod has been doing the rounds on the Google Play Store, letting you run an iPod Classic style interface on any Android phone of your choosing. The only problem is that Apple never really made a 9:20 iPod Classic. Every iPod Classic had a short, stout design and as it stands, there are only two Android phones that currently fit this bill, and both fold.

A video on Instagram showed the Classipod interface on a Galaxy Z Fold8 and I can’t help but feel like this almost exactly looks like the classic iPod. The proportions are damn near perfect, the interface still makes me nostalgic, and those color options absolutely slap! The only real problem is that, like all good things, Classipod came to Android before it did to the iPhone Duo… but if someone from Apple’s software team is reading this (hey Craig!), just go ahead and give us an Apple Music skin that brings back the iPod Classic! Pretty please??

Designer: Adeeteya

Here’s what I find so funny about running Classipod on a Z Fold8 – sure, it almost matches the iPod Classic’s form factor, but even when folded shut, it’s still thinner than the iPod! I’m talking hinge, two sets of screens, two batteries, an entire processor, cameras galore, all that packed into something that measures 9.7mm thick while the iPod Classic, which is just a tiny screen, battery, SoC, and a massive flash drive, measures 10.5mm in thickness. Then again, the iPod Classic packs an aux input too, which you’ll never see on a foldable phone.

But hold the Z Fold8 in your hand and the Classipod definitely scratches the itch of owning vintage Apple gear. The weight and heft, the analog interface, and that gorgeous jogwheel that is sure to get your muscle memory kicking in instantly. You sideload music so it plays locally (no streaming), and you can do everything, from searching for artists to making playlists. And yes, if you’re asking, the jogwheel has haptic feedback so it actually does feel like the iPod of yesteryears.

There are a few iPod emulators on the App Store, but none as good as the Classipod. I guess someone could vibecode one overnight and run it on an iPhone Duo soon, but until then, turns out the most faithful recreation of an iPod Classic exists… just on an Android device!

The post iPod Classic emulator for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 finally gets the size and aspect ratio right first appeared on Yanko Design.

Samsung has had the folding phone conversation to itself for six years now, tweaking hinges, shrinking creases, and figuring out what a cover screen is even for. Apple waited, watched, and let its rival make every mistake first. That patience shows in the iPhone Duo, a first-generation foldable that skipped straight past problems Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 still hasn’t fully solved.

None of that comes cheap, though. The Duo starts at $1,999 and costs more than the Fold8’s $1,899.99, weighs in at roughly nine ounces against the Fold8’s seven, and folds up thicker in your pocket, besides. Samsung still wins those arguments outright, and we’ll get back to that later. But set weight and price aside, because here are five places where Apple’s first foldable actually beat Samsung’s eighth attempt.

Designer: Apple

The Camera That Disappears

A foldable phone’s whole pitch is the screen, one continuous surface that opens up into something closer to a small tablet. Every notch or punch-hole cut into that surface breaks the illusion a little, reminding you that the software is still working around a sensor buried in the glass. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 has never quite escaped that compromise, even eight generations in.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 carries a 10-megapixel camera punched into both the inner and cover displays, a hole you notice every time the screen lights up. The Duo takes a different route entirely, tucking its inner selfie camera under the panel itself so nothing interrupts the display when you’re watching a movie or scrolling through photos with both halves open. The outer screen keeps a single, smaller cutout.

A Stylus Samsung Gave Up On

Samsung built its whole Note legacy around the S Pen, then carried that stylus into the first few generations of the Galaxy Z Fold before quietly dropping it this cycle. Neither the Galaxy Z Fold8 nor the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra bring it back, leaving a gap for anyone who used to sketch, sign, or jot notes onto that big inner display. It’s a strange retreat for a company built on that exact feature.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6

Apple Pencil support changes that, working on both the 5.4-inch cover screen and the 7.6-inch inner display, once it arrives. Dual-screen support lands through a software update later this year rather than at launch, so early buyers will have to wait a bit for the full experience. Still, it means signing a document or sketching an idea won’t require unfolding the phone first, something Samsung’s lineup can no longer offer.

Built to Survive the Mess

Dust is the part of durability testing everyone forgets about until it’s too late, and a folding hinge is the worst possible place for grit to sneak into. Water resistance ratings get all the marketing attention, but the dust half of an IP rating tells you whether sand at the beach or fine construction dust will actually make it past the seals and start scratching at the mechanism underneath.

The iPhone Duo carries an IP68 rating, meaning the seal is dust-tight; nothing gets through, full stop. The Galaxy Z Fold8 only manages IP48, which covers water fine but leaves that dust digit low enough that fine particles, sand, and powder aren’t actually kept out. For anyone who takes their foldable to a beach, a workshop, or just a dusty backpack, that gap matters more than it looks.

Room for Everything You Shoot

A foldable’s bigger inner screen practically begs you to shoot more video and drag around heavier files, whether that’s 4K footage, a stack of RAW photos, or a library of apps you’d never bother installing on a regular phone. Storage stops being an afterthought pretty quickly once you’re using the extra screen real estate the way it’s meant to be used, for actual creative work instead of just bigger icons.

Apple tops out the iPhone Duo at 2TB of storage, double what the Galaxy Z Fold8 offers at its 1TB ceiling. That’s the difference between planning around your camera roll on a long trip and simply forgetting storage exists as a problem. For anyone who treats their foldable as a mobile production tool rather than a bigger email client, that extra headroom ends up mattering more than the megapixel count.

Fighting the Fold’s Oldest Flaw

The crease down the middle of a folding screen has been the one problem no manufacturer has fully cracked, Samsung included, no matter how many generations they’ve shipped. Apple’s approach to the Duo’s hinge stacks a nano-texture matte layer over glide-adhesive glass and backs the whole assembly with a titanium plate, an engineering answer to a problem that’s mostly been treated as unavoidable elsewhere in the industry.

Early impressions from outlets with briefing access suggest the crease is still visible. Nobody’s claiming otherwise, but it doesn’t catch your finger or your attention the way it does on most rivals, the Galaxy Z Fold8 included. That’s worth flagging as an early read rather than a verified result, since neither phone has landed in reviewers’ hands yet. Outdoor glare handling gets similar praise, though the real test comes once these ship.

What Samsung Still Gets Right

None of this makes the Galaxy Z Fold8 a bad phone, and Samsung still wins the arguments that matter most to plenty of buyers. It’s $99.01 cheaper, noticeably lighter at roughly seven ounces against the Duo’s nine, and thinner whether it’s folded shut in your pocket or opened flat on a desk. Those are real, measurable advantages, not consolation prizes.

Apple iPhone Duo

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8

What you’re really choosing between is a phone that’s been refined for eight generations and one making its very first attempt, price and weight included. A first try that already beats its rival on a camera, a stylus, a durability rating, storage, and a hinge design is a strong opening argument, whatever it costs to get there. Samsung’s turn to respond comes next year.

The post 5 Things the iPhone Duo Got Right That Samsung Still Hasn’t first appeared on Yanko Design.

Apple’s iPhone Duo still has a display crease, but clever hardware and software make it harder to notice. Here’s what buyers should know.

The post The iPhone Duo Has a Crease: Apple’s Clever Fix Makes It Harder to See appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide rumors cover its design, specs, cameras, price, and possible release date ahead of Galaxy Unpacked on July 22 in London, UK.

The post Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide: Everything We Know So Far appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung’s One UI 8.5 rollout began in Korea on May 6, bringing Galaxy AI upgrades to select flagship phones and tablets in phased markets.

The post Samsung One UI 8.5 Rollout Begins: Eligible Galaxy Devices and How to Check appeared first on TechRepublic.

Foldable phones have reached a point where the form factor itself is no longer the talking point it once was. The big, dramatic “look how it folds” moment has settled into a quieter rhythm of iterative refinement, with each generation tweaking dimensions and chasing thinner profiles. Most buyers know what a modern book-style foldable looks like, and the language of change has shifted from shape to substance.

That’s the situation shaping the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 conversation right now. Leaked CAD-based renders show a design that’s nearly indistinguishable from the Z Fold 7 pictured above: same flat sides, same sharp corners, same camera layout. The cover screen sits at 6.5 inches and the inner display at 8 inches, both unchanged. If you handed someone these renders without context, they’d probably just guess it was another angle of last year’s model.

Designer: Steve Hemmerstoffer/OnLeaks (Renders) via AndroidHeadlines

There’s one notable external difference, though, and it actually goes in the wrong direction. The leaked dimensions put the Z Fold 8 at 4.5mm thick when open and 9mm folded, compared to the Fold 7’s 4.2mm and 8.9mm. That’s a slight regression for a phone that went to considerable lengths to slim down the year prior. It’s not dramatic, but for a device that made a point of its thinness, it’s worth flagging. That said, the 4.5mm figure includes the protruding bezels around the display; it’s actually just 3.9mm thin.

The likely reason for that extra thickness is one of the better leaks so far: the possible return of S Pen support. Samsung dropped the stylus from the Fold 7, and that’s been a consistent complaint from the people who actually used it for note-taking or sketching on that wide inner canvas. If the S Pen does come back, a fraction of a millimeter is a fair trade for most of those users.

The battery theory, however, is probably more probable. A jump from 4,400 mAh to a rumored 5,000 mAh would mark the first capacity upgrade since the Galaxy Z Fold 3, and pairing that with 45W wired charging, up from 25W, addresses one of the more persistent frustrations with this lineup. Spending less time near an outlet matters more on a device you’re likely using across more tasks throughout the day.

The camera is also in line for a significant upgrade, according to the same leak. The main sensor is rumored to still be 200MP, and the ultrawide jumps from 12MP to 50MP. That ultrawide improvement in particular has been a long time coming. The gap between the Fold’s main and ultrawide cameras has been noticeable enough that it’s affected how people use the phone outdoors.

All of this is still leak territory, of course, pulled from CAD renders and a specs tipster ahead of what’s expected to be a July 2026 Unpacked announcement. Samsung hasn’t confirmed any of it, and final specs frequently shift between early renders and launch day. The Z Fold 8 is shaping up to be a phone that looks familiar and updates what actually needs updating, but none of that is official yet.

Galaxy Z Fold7

The post Galaxy Z Fold 8 Renders: Same Look, Bigger Battery, and S Pen Is Back first appeared on Yanko Design.