Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 leads record foldable preorders in the US and South Korea as more buyers move from Flip models to the larger Fold lineup before launch.

The post Samsung: New Galaxy Foldables Beat Previous Preorder Record by 30% appeared first on TechRepublic.

A new leak claims Honor’s Robot Phone will feature two 200MP cameras, a motorized gimbal, a 7,060mAh battery, and 120W charging.

The post Honor Robot Phone Specs Leak Ahead of Aug. 12 Debut: What Users Can Expect appeared first on TechRepublic.

Leaked Google Pixel 11 marketing materials suggest a new HiLight notification feature, while a five-minute charging claim raises questions ahead of Google's launch.

The post Google Pixel 11 Leak Reveals ‘HiLight’ Notification Feature, Raises Questions About Charging Claim appeared first on TechRepublic.

Motorola patented a smartwatch that could one day transform into a phone. See how it works, who might use it, and what could keep it from reaching stores.

The post Motorola Patents a Wearable that Could Transform From Watch to Phone appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung’s rumored Galaxy S27 Pro may share several premium features with the S27 Ultra, but new leaks suggest clear differences in zoom cameras, display size, S Pen support, batteries, and regional processors.

The post Samsung Galaxy S27 Pro May Not Be the Smaller Ultra Buyers Expect appeared first on TechRepublic.

The idea of merging a smartwatch and a smartphone into a single device has been floating around the industry for years, mostly because the obvious inconvenience is right there: two screens on two separate devices, one tiny and worn on the wrist, the other large and kept in a pocket, each doing essentially half the job the other can’t. The logical question is whether one of those devices could do both jobs depending on the situation.

Motorola’s latest patent, officially registered as US12,693,705 under the title “Pivoting wearable reconfigurable screen,” proposes exactly that. The device starts on the wrist as a conventional smartwatch, its flexible display curved around the band. When more screen real estate is needed, the strap pivots and unfolds, flattening into a short, wide display format that functions as a handheld device. A third configuration folds the bottom quarter into an “L” shape, turning the unit into a self-standing desk display.

Designer: Motorola (via Burnplate, David Kowalski/xeaks7)

The mechanism that makes it possible is the strap itself. Rather than housing a traditional watch face with a fixed display, almost the entire outer surface of the band carries a flexible screen. Worn, it reads like a standard wearable. Removed and unfolded, that same surface becomes the display area of a compact, landscape-oriented device. The pivot point is what separates this from simply being a wrist-wrap phone like earlier concepts.

That distinction matters because Nubia tried the wrist-phone idea back in 2018 with the Alpha, and the result was a fascinating but limited object. The Alpha wrapped a 4.01-inch OLED display around the upper wrist, delivering more screen real estate than any smartwatch before it, but the display stayed wrapped. It curved beautifully, could make calls, take photos, and run apps, but it never transformed into anything. The watch was the watch, full stop.

Nubia Alpha

Motorola’s patent reverses the logic. Rather than making a phone you can wear, it proposes a watch you can unfold. The distinction isn’t purely semantic. A device that starts as a watch and transforms into a handheld is solving a different problem than one that starts as a phone and straps to your wrist. The first carries a reasonable identity in both states; the second always feels like a compromise in one of them.

Nubia Alpha

The Nubia Alpha’s sticking point wasn’t the display, which was genuinely impressive and ahead of its time. It was the software, the battery, and the form factor’s limits in practice. Nubia never took the concept further after the original and a 2020 follow-up. The flexible display remained horizontal and wrist-bound, never taking the step toward becoming a genuinely detachable, self-sufficient screen.

Whether Motorola’s patented concept eventually ships as a real device is a separate question entirely. Patents are filed routinely without becoming products, and this one would require flexible display technology durable enough to handle daily wrist bending and regular unfolding, a battery that fits within strap dimensions, and software that transitions cleanly between modes. None of those are trivial problems.

Still, the direction of thinking has clearly shifted since 2018. Nubia asked what happens when a smartphone lives on your wrist. Motorola is asking what happens when a watch becomes a screen the moment you need one.

The post Motorola’s Patent Isn’t a Phone You Wear, It’s a Watch You Unfold first appeared on Yanko Design.

OnePlus is closing its North American Community on August 16. Learn how to save your posts, photos, guides, and files before they become inaccessible.

The post OnePlus Community Is Ending: What Users Should Save First appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 FE could cost more than its predecessor, raising questions about whether the Fan Edition still offers strong value.

The post Galaxy S26 FE Price Leak Follows Samsung’s Mobile Profit Slide appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip8 costs less and has longer support, while Motorola’s Razr Ultra leads on storage, RAM, battery, charging, and cover-screen apps.

The post Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8 vs Motorola Razr Ultra: Which Is Right for You? appeared first on TechRepublic.

Higher Qualcomm chip prices could push Android manufacturers to reuse older processors, trim specifications, or sell different hardware configurations across regions.

The post Qualcomm Price Hike Could Deepen Android Hardware Fragmentation appeared first on TechRepublic.

Google Health now sends Fitbit workouts, sleep, steps, and vitals to Apple Health, removing the need for third-party syncing apps.

The post Fitbit Data Can Now Sync Directly With Apple Health appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple's September 2026 event could bring the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple's first foldable iPhone and new Apple Watches. Here's what the most credible rumors suggest.

The post Apple September Event Predictions: iPhone 18 Pro and Other Rumors Ranked appeared first on TechRepublic.

Japanese kitchen tools tend to arrive with a very specific philosophy attached. They do less than you expect on paper and more than you realize until you’ve used them for a week. The three objects below cover different ends of that idea: a precision appliance from one of Japan’s most storied engineering brands, a pair of scissors built for the demands of serious kitchen prep, and a clay pot that has been doing its job correctly since the Kamakura period.

What connects them isn’t aesthetic or price point. It’s the sense that each was designed by someone who had a genuine opinion about what the object should do, then made it do exactly that. August is a good month to pay attention to the kitchen — the produce is at its best, the cooking is more instinctive, and the tools you reach for most tend to reveal themselves. These three are worth reaching for.

1. Mitsubishi Bread Oven

The name requires a moment. Mitsubishi, the Japanese conglomerate better known for cars and precision electronics, makes one of the most exacting home bread ovens available. The machine applies the same engineering discipline to baking that Mitsubishi Electric brings to everything else it builds: controlled heat, precise internal timing, and an attention to the baking chamber environment that consumer appliances from Western brands rarely match. The result is a loaf with a crust and crumb structure most countertop machines simply cannot produce, regardless of recipe.

What makes it worth covering in a design publication isn’t only the output. The form is unmistakably Japanese in its restraint — minimal, white, without the button complexity that clutters European bread makers at comparable prices. It occupies counter space the way well-considered appliances should: as an object with a clear visual point of view rather than a machine that apologizes for being there. Bread that comes out of it tastes like something was genuinely thought about. Because it was.

What We Like

• Precision heat management produces a crust and crumb that typical home bread makers don’t come close to replicating
• The minimalist appliance design treats the machine as a considered object rather than a utility box competing for counter attention

What We Dislike

• Sourcing outside Japan requires import channels, which adds cost and complicates any warranty or service process
• The price point places this firmly in investment appliance territory — this is a deliberate purchase, not a casual one

2. Precision Chef Kitchen Scissors

Kitchen scissors are one of those tools most cooks underestimate until they own a genuinely good pair. The Precision Chef Kitchen Scissors make the case for re-evaluation. Built with the material standards and blade geometry you’d expect from Japanese cutlery, they work through herbs, spring onions, dried chilies, and butcher twine without the handle torque that cheaper scissors force you to compensate for on every cut. Edge retention is where the quality gap between these and a supermarket pair becomes immediately obvious.

The design is deliberately restrained, which is exactly the right call for a kitchen tool that needs to sit in a drawer and get used without ceremony. Nothing superfluous in the grip, nothing decorative in the blade. Japanese kitchen scissors at this level function as precision instruments that happen to look like scissors. Once you’ve used a pair built this well for a full week of regular prep, the ones you owned before start to feel like a different category of object entirely.

Click Here to Buy Now: $95.00

What We Like

• Edge retention and blade geometry handle repeated kitchen use without the performance drop that cheaper alternatives show within weeks
• The restrained design means these function as tools first, rather than objects performing the idea of quality

What We Dislike

• The refined aesthetic means they can disappear in a crowded kitchen drawer — worth designating a fixed home for them
• Like most professional kitchen scissors, they require hand-washing to preserve edge quality, which adds a small but real step to cleanup

3. Iga-yaki Donabe Clay Pot

Iga clay comes from Mie Prefecture in Japan, where the local earth has been used for ceramics since at least the Kamakura period. The porous structure of Iga-yaki absorbs heat slowly and releases it with a consistency that metal pots structurally cannot replicate. Rice cooked in it sweetens. Broth deepens over a lower flame than you’d expect to produce it. The exterior stays rough and unfinished while the interior is glazed smooth — two surfaces on the same vessel, each doing exactly what it should.

Available from TOIRO Kitchen in several sizes, the donabe asks for a single seasoning step before first use — simmering rice water in the vessel — and then becomes one of the most reliable pots in the kitchen. It handles rice, hot pot, steaming, and slow braise with equal competence, which makes it the rare piece of cookware that earns its space by quietly replacing three other things. Store it with the lid off after washing, and it will be in your kitchen for decades.

What We Like

• Iga clay’s heat retention produces results in rice and broth that no metal pot at any price point genuinely replicates
• Real versatility across rice, hot pot, steaming, and slow cooking means one vessel covers what several usually would

What We Dislike

• Requires a seasoning step before first use that the packaging doesn’t always communicate clearly upfront
• The porous clay absorbs strong cooking odors over time and needs to be stored with the lid off after washing to stay fresh

Make the Kitchen Better, Not Faster

Three tools, three distinct registers of Japanese kitchen culture. Mitsubishi brings precision engineering to something as ordinary as a morning loaf. The scissors bring professional blade standards to daily prep work. The donabe brings centuries of ceramic craft to the kind of cooking that rewards patience over speed. None of them are trying to make the kitchen faster or more efficient. They’re trying to make it better, which is a different ambition and one worth paying for.

August is when most kitchens are running at full capacity — markets are abundant, evenings stretch long enough to cook properly. The tools you own in that window shape what’s actually possible in it. These three share a conviction that how something is made matters as much as what it does, and that conviction shows up every single time you reach for them. Start with whichever one your kitchen is currently missing most.

The post The 3 Best Japanese Kitchen Tools You Need to Buy August 2026 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Thinking about importing the OnePlus 16? Learn what OnePlus' US and Europe exit means for availability, warranty, software support, and compatibility.

The post OnePlus 16 May Skip the US and Europe: What Buyers Need to Know appeared first on TechRepublic.

Qualcomm will raise processor prices for products shipped after September 1, adding new cost pressure for Android phone makers and future devices.

The post Qualcomm Confirms Snapdragon Price Hike, Android Phones May Cost More appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung’s record second-quarter earnings masked losses in its consumer-device businesses, making the Fold8 lineup more important to its Asia mobile strategy.

The post Samsung Earnings Put New Foldables at the Center of Its Asia Strategy appeared first on TechRepublic.

HP’s Intel-powered EliteBook, ProBook, and EliteDesk lineup gives IT teams more options for AI performance, mobility, and management.

The post HP’s Intel Business PC Lineup Targets Flexible Work appeared first on TechRepublic.

Apple's new Apple Upgrade program lets US customers lease iPhones, Macs, iPads, and Apple Watches. Here's how it works and whether it's better than buying.

The post Apple’s New iPhone Leasing Program: What It Means Before You Upgrade appeared first on TechRepublic.