July brought with it Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but it also gave us a fair few cool af gadgets. Well, not all cool. Some are just… weird.
But here at Gizmodo Australia, we love weird. And we know you do too. So without further ado, here are all the gadgets (and things) that caught our attention last month.
Nothing (Phone (2)) to see here
Nothing, a relatively new phone company, finally announced its new smartphone, the Phone (2). The reveal was contained to the Nothing website, well, that and Twitter, skipping the hype that other phone brands tend to do on every channel possible, at every opportunity they can. But that’s sort of the appeal of Nothing. The company is almost nonchalant about the actual appeal of its phone to Android lovers.
Reviewed: Samsung’s flipping cool new phone
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is probably the funnest phone I’ve ever used. It doesn’t take itself seriously, yet it offers a pretty decent experience when we take away the fun and look purely at it as a phone. It’s… it’s just a sweet phone that wants you to be happy. But it’s also an engineering marvel, so there’s that.
A $3,000 foldable comes to life
Also announced last week at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but not yet reviewed, is the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The Fold 5 is lighter, thinner, and brighter than its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4. It’s also $3,149 for the 1TB model – $2,599 if you can settle for 256GB and $2,799 for 512GB. Its biggest selling point, at least as far as the company is concerned, is that it’s basically a PC that fits into your pocket.
Samsung ‘Unpacks’ 3 new tablets
The penultimate of the Samsung Unpacked devices in this list is the Galaxy Tab S9, S9+, and S9 Ultra. The three tablets offer three different propositions – but they’ve all had a refresh over the S8 series, which, if you cast your mind back to February last year, dropped with a focus on video. This year, however, the focus seems to be on “immersive viewing and creative freedom”. Which this year also means underwater. Yep – you can write with this thing underwater.
Watch this classic gadget
Last but not least is the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic. The Samsung Galaxy Watch has been un-dethroneable (not a word) as the best Android watch, and it looks like the throne isn’t going to vacate any time soon. With the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and 6 Classic (yes, the Classic is back after two years in purgatory), Samsung’s upped its fitness and health focus – so much so that it spent more time talking about these features at Galaxy Unpacked than it did the specs.
A microscopic handbag
Technically not a gadget, but still worthy of a mention, a microscopic handbag observable with a microscope sold for $US100,000 in July. It was made by an artist collective called MSCHF, which you may remember as the guys behind the big red boot, or the ATM that broadcasts your bank balance. The whole idea of the collective is to draw attention to overconsumption and behaviours of consumerism.
An 18-karat Apple Vision Pro
Speaking of overconsumption, luxury aftermarket gadget company Caviar presented an 18-karat gold Apple Vision Pro in July, covering the upcoming Apple headset in gold with a more luxury-looking strap. It’s expected to cost $US39,990, although a final price hasn’t been locked in (because, obviously, the headset hasn’t even been released yet). It does include one feature over the standard Apple Vision Pro that’s pretty cool though – a hard covering over the eyes that may be attractive to some users.
Sony’s HT-AX7 Bluetooth Speaker disassembles into a portable surround sound system
Despite attempts to turn them into keyboard-less laptops, tablets remain primarily media consumption devices for most users. Sony’s new HT-AX7 Bluetooth speaker promises to expand on that use by transforming your tablet into a portable home theatre with a pair of detachable satellite speakers.
Pokémon Sleep, the Pokémon game about sleeping
July also saw the release of the latest Pokémon game – Pokémon Sleep, a phone app that’s built as a sleep tracker, with the fun-little gamification gimmick of assigning you your own Pokémon type based on your sleeping patterns, and letting the virtual monsters visit your ‘camp’ while you snooze, allowing you to collect them as you go. Your phone needs to be turned on for the entire night for it to work, but if you love Pokémon and want to focus more on your sleep, it’s certainly something you can try out (for free too!).
Reviewed: Boujee stick vac that mops
The Samsung Bespoke Jet AI Stick Vacuum Cleaner is the most souped-up non-tech, tech product I’ve ever used. I am unsure what to class it as – is it a home appliance or a gadget? All I know is that this thing is very good, albeit over the top. Read my review here.
Dyson: Hold my beer
My biggest criticism of Dyson stick vacuums has always been that there is no mop head attachment – they’re otherwise fabulous (save for the price). A mop head would go some way to justify the price, though. Well, I can no longer complain, as Dyson has announced a new stick vac, one it’s calling a wet-and-dry cordless vacuum cleaner, one with a name that I’m genuinely surprised made it to market. It’s called the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine
Hisense washing machine (yes, really)
Hisense at CES 2023 launched its range of TVs, focusing on its signature ULED, OLED, and of course laser. But Hisense does a little bit more than TVs, and even though I have a Hisense washing machine and fridge, have for yeeeeears, I somehow forgot that home appliances are a massive part of the company’s focus. The hyperfixation on a washing machine is over here.
Nike’s sweat-powered self-venting running jacket
Tired of interrupting your run to constantly take off and put on your jacket to help regulate your body temperature? Nike’s new Run Division Aerogami Jacket uses a special moisture-reactive coating so that when you start to sweat, a series of vents automatically open to allow air to flow right through the jacket to cool you down. Once it dries, the vents close again to help keep you warm by trapping heat.
Reviewed: Bigger isn’t always better
Last year’s Miyoo Mini retro gaming handheld was a surprise hit with one fatal flaw: the company couldn’t keep them in stock for more than a couple of minutes. The console would sell out almost immediately and was nearly impossible to buy if you didn’t spend all day tracking stock. The Miyoo Mini Plus is the company’s solution to that problem, but an expanded design has introduced another fatal flaw: a bigger screen.
Brilliantly modded Game Boy camera is no bigger than a cartridge
Twenty-five years after the Game Boy Camera first debuted back in 1998, fans are not only still enjoying lo-fi, black and white, pixelated photography, they’re also re-engineering the camera to make it better, even going so far as to shrink it down to the size of a regular Game Boy cartridge.
BMW’s smartglasses give bikers a heads-up display
Apple still hasn’t quite given the world a great reason to spend $US3,500 on its Vision Pro AR/VR headset, nor even released it, but BMW Motorrad, the automakers’ motorcycle division, believes it’s come up with a convincing reason for riders to wear smart glasses. The company’s new ConnectedRide Smartglasses position dashboard metrics in riders’ field of view so they never have to take their eyes off the road.
Framework’s new laptop
Framework, one of our favourite laptop manufacturers, showed off its upcoming gaming laptop – a modular device with a removable graphics card and an ‘Overkill’ option. We loved the original Framework device, and one of the things we wish it had was a dedicated GPU. This new model will be released with one, along with AMD’s latest Ryzen CPUs.
Reviewed: Sony Mark 5 earbuds
Sony has just announced the WF-1000XM5 earbuds, its latest in-ear headphones that come with the promise of “the best noise-cancelling”. Sony’s tried true wireless many times over the years, and in many forms, too. As a lover of the over-head counterparts of these bad boys, the WH-1000XM5s, and someone yet to use any of the in-ear offerings from Sony, I was very keen to try the WF-1000XM5s. But while I’m impressed, I won’t be ditching the Apple AirPods Pro 2s for them just yet.
Let’s get PrinterPilled
I (Zac, typing this par) got a bit PrinterPilled. I attended HP’s latest printer launch, where it announced the release of its new SmartTank bulk printing devices, and I spent a while pondering if I could make a printer work in my small apartment. As it turns out, HP had a really cool portable printer on display that I absolutely loved – it’s small enough to fit in a laptop bag and I reckon it’d be best paired with HP’s Smart Ink subscription service.
Microsoft’s most powerful laptop ever
We’re big fans of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio, the laptop I’m using right now to write this, which is the company’s most powerful portable machine, but now rumours of the Surface Laptop Studio 2 are being circulated. Windows Central had the scoop, and reported that device is codenamed ‘Ersa’ over in Redmond. It’s expected to include Nvidia’s 4000 series GPUs, Intel’s 13th-gen CPUs, and up to 64GB RAM, with an expected reveal in Q4 2023. I cannot wait.
A record-breaking Landcruiser EV
Up in Darwin on the last weekend of July, an electrified Landcruiser resto-mod broke the world record for the longest and deepest underwater drive. It’s an awesome-looking car with some heavy modding to make it work underwater, and it’s called the Mudcrab.
You can hang this gargantuan e-reader on your wall
Although mostly relegated to e-readers, e-notes, and price tags at your local grocery store, there are some other novel users for E Ink displays. Want to display art on your walls without committing to just a single artist? That’s how Project E Ink is using the display technology, but instead of putting Renaissance masterpieces on a wall, it turns front page news into artwork.
This machine can fix broken smartphone OLED screens
By leveraging the same technology and techniques used to manufacture OLED panels, including lasers, a new machine that recently debuted in China can be used to fix broken OLED panels exhibiting malfunctioning vertical lines without a device’s screen having to be turned off. Phenomenal stuff.
Reviewed: The ASUS TUF A16
We put ASUS’ budget gaming laptop to the test, and we were very impressed. The ASUS TUF A16 is a brilliant and powerful gaming laptop with a fairly standard screen and less of the RGB-heavy flare that ASUS saves for its ‘Republic of Gamers’ subdivision. The only problem we really found with it was the placement of the activity lights – they’re located directly underneath the screen, and while they weren’t particularly annoying during gameplay, they were excruciating during pretty much every other activity.
YouTuber gives Alexa attentive eyes and a moving mouth
Science fiction promises us all sorts of sentient automatons once artificial intelligence becomes a part of our daily lives — not hockey puck-sized speakers. Determined to breathe more life into Amazon’s smart assistant, Thomas Burns hacked together a CRT TV and a pair of moving eyes to make Alexa feel more engaging — or look more like an eighth-grade science project, depending on how you look at it.
Apple’s patented modular laptop
An Apple patent approved was really interesting – a modular laptop with a particularly interesting turntable attachment. The patent was originally filed back in July 2021, and covered the company’s conceptualised “modularised computing and input devices”. Other interesting mods were shown, including swappable screens, keyboards, and a drawing tablet attachment.
LG’s new instant coffee machine
While the rest of the world is trying to live more sustainably and find ways to reduce its trash output, LG Labs has put its resources into designing yet another pod-based instant coffee machine with a twist: it actually uses two pods to make a single cup of coffee, doubling the amount of trash generated with every cup brewed.
Reviewed: The Beats Studio Pro
The new Beats Studio Pro, the first new addition to the Beats Studio line in six years, bring excellent ANC performance plus a built-in DAC supporting high-res audio through a USB-C connection. But the headphones also feel like some important features are MIA, making their $529.95 price tag a harder sell for some users.
Hasbro’s Groove ‘N Grow Groot is incredibly upsetting
The mountain of merchandise revealed at San Diego Comic-Con this year included a couple of toys we wish we could un-see. Lego’s two foot-tall brick-built Chewbacca’s beady eyes are already a staple of our nightmares, and is soon to be joined by a growing Groot Hasbro that makes the character look like he’s being stretched out on a medieval torture device.
A Pizza-smelling Xbox controller
To tie in with the upcoming Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, a range of new Xbox controllers has been released, with a core gimmick being a Pizza-smelling odour. The controllers can have a Pizza diffuser fitted to them, capable of spritzing the user with the quick smell of greasy, old pizza. It’s a freakin’ weird tech tie-in for a movie, but hey, it makes the list.
This robotic transforming Grimlock is a masterpiece of engineering
In 2021, Robosen and Hasbro left ‘80s toys fans with their jaws on the floor after revealing a $US700 robotic Optimus Prime that could autonomously transform from the Autobot leader to a Freightliner truck. Two years later, Optimus is finally getting some backup with a new robotic Grimlock that transforms nearly exactly the same way the original ‘80s toy did.
Stable Doodle turns your dumbest scribbles into off-putting AI art
From the makers of Stable Diffusion, Stable Doodle is the company’s latest free text-to-image and image-to-image combo. It takes your poor attempts at mouse-drawn images and converts them into a more cohesive AI illustration. The service is free, and users on the Stability AI-owned Clipdrop platform can use their mouse (or a drawing tablet) to create a simple black and white line drawing that can transform into a more interesting image in a variety of styles.
PlayStation makes headway with new accessibility controller
Sony’s gaming arm has long been fascinated by shapes. The fact that everybody else labelled their buttons with “A” or “B” meant nothing to the legacy tech brand, as the first PlayStation controller included “X” or “O” buttons instead. Now, the gaming company finally has a release date and price for one of the most intriguing designs out there for a controller—a large, flat circle with swappable keys engineered to be one of the most accessible interfaces on the console market.
Chipotle’s new kitchen robot
Petition to bring both Chipotle AND its avocado-peeling robot to Australia?
That’s all for July, but check out the others: