What if the next big leap in artificial intelligence wasn’t about generating text or images but about truly understanding the world around us? The AI Grid outlines how a new model called VLJ (Vision-Language Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture) is shifting the AI landscape by prioritizing meaning over generation. Unlike traditional language models like GPT, which […]
The release of iOS 26.3 beta 1 introduces a mix of incremental improvements and unresolved issues. While Apple continues its efforts to enhance the iOS experience, this beta version comes with bugs that could disrupt your daily routine. Before deciding whether to install it, it’s important to weigh the benefits of the new features against […]
Wild Badger Power is closing out the year with a gift for homeowners: deep discounts on award-winning tools that make lawn care and snow removal faster, easier, and more enjoyable. Whether you’re battling through winter snow or gearing up for spring growth, Wild Badger’s Christmas & New Year deals are designed for DIYers who demand […]
DAREU heads to CES 2026 with three new peripherals: Ultra75 hall-effect keyboard, Ultra07 modular mouse, and Red Dot-winning GT87 magnetic switch board.
Imagine an AI so versatile it can master over 1,000 games just by watching YouTube. Sounds like science fiction, right? Not anymore. NVIDIA’s NitroGen AI has achieved exactly that, redefining what’s possible in the realm of generalist artificial intelligence. In the video, Universe of AI breaks down how this new system learns directly from publicly […]
The typical vacation rental is a cabin or beach house sitting on the ground with a yard, a deck, maybe a hot tub, and a hammock scattered around it. Those amenities are usually background, things you walk past on the way to the main house or visit once during the stay. Michael Jantzen’s Elevated Leisure Habitat flips that logic by pulling everything off the ground and turning circulation into the main event, so moving through the complex becomes as much the attraction as the rooms themselves.
The Elevated Leisure Habitat is a functional art structure meant to be rented as a very special vacation place. This first version is designed for two people and consists of a small central house surrounded by a series of elevated platforms, each dedicated to a single leisure activity. Instead of one building with a yard, you get a loose constellation of outdoor rooms in the sky, linked by stairs and landings.
The central house is a compact volume with sleeping space, a desk, a toilet, a shower, and a small food-preparation area. Around it, the elevated amenities include a garden, a hot tub, a picnic pavilion, a porch-swing pavilion, a hammock platform, and a solar-cell array for electricity. All sit on their own stilts at different heights, connected to the house and to each other by a network of stairs, two of which descend to the ground.
Jantzen leans into archetypal forms. The house is a classic gable-roof silhouette, the pavilions echo that same pitched profile, the garden is a simple tray, and the solar array is a dark plane tilted like a roof. He writes that the aesthetics evolved from using a symbolically conventional, conventionally shaped house and amenities that symbolically refer to their conventional counterparts, turning the complex into a three-dimensional diagram of domestic life.
Simply elevating elements we are used to seeing on the ground and forcing us to climb from one to another creates an unexpected experience. Every trip to the garden, the hot tub, or the hammock becomes a small ascent and crossing. The stairs and platforms choreograph how you move, making the journey between activities as much a part of the stay as the activities themselves, which shifts the feel from a passive rental to an active exploration.
Lifting everything on slender white columns reduces the footprint on the landscape, leaving the ground largely untouched beneath the habitat. The dedicated solar-panel platform hints at off-grid potential, while the garden tray suggests controlled cultivation instead of sprawling lawns. The all-white structure against a green site reads like a deliberate insertion, a piece of land art that happens to contain a working vacation program with real utilities and shelter.
Jantzen describes the Elevated Leisure Habitat as basically a large interactive sculpture that explores new and exciting ways in which to have fun. It sits somewhere between house, artwork, and playground, using familiar icons and a simple structural language to reframe what a holiday stay could be. Instead of retreating into a single enclosed volume, guests would inhabit a small network of outdoor rooms in the sky, climbing and crossing between platforms as if moving through a three-dimensional diagram of leisure itself.
LG will unveil a canvas-style art TV, dubbed the LG Gallery TV, at CES 2026. The new model will be offered in 55-inch and 65-inch variants, and sports a flush-mount design along with customizable magnetic frames.
The Gallery TV uses a Mini LED display and the company's Alpha 7 AI processor and offers 4K resolution. The new model will also leverage the LG Gallery+ service, a paid subscription with a library of over 4,500 works that users can display on the TV. Users will also be able to create custom images using generative AI or display images from personal photo libraries.
LG says the TV was developed with museum curators, and will feature a Gallery Mode that optimizes brightness and color to show off the texture of displayed artwork. The display will have some degree of reflection handling and glare reduction, though precise details were not shared. The TV will automatically adjust picture settings to maintain an optimal image in response to changing ambient light throughout the day.
This isn't the first time LG has released an art-inspired TV. It released an ultra-thin OLED model called the LG GX Gallery TV in 2020. It has also released other "Gallery Design" TVs that offer wall-flush mounting in the past, but the new LG Gallery TV with dedicated art-focused features seems like a more direct competitor to Samsung's "The Frame" or the Hisense CanvasTV.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/lg-to-unveil-a-canvas-style-tv-at-ces-2026-010024691.html?src=rss
Perched among the towering oaks of Switzerland’s Onsernone Valley, the Casetta Tessino emerges as an unconventional solution to a common problem. When a Swiss artist and climate activist sought additional living space on their property, local building regulations stood firmly in the way. Traditional extensions were off the table. Foundation work was forbidden. What remained was the possibility of building upward, anchored not to earth but to the forest itself.
Architect Olin Petzold embraced the constraints. The resulting structure balances on three trees, its triangular form rising from the woodland floor like a geometric bird’s nest. Wood and translucent polycarbonate panels wrap the exterior, filtering dappled light into the compact interior. Located roughly 150 meters from the main house, the treehouse functions as a writing studio, guest room, and personal retreat.
Designer: Olin Petzold
The design deliberately references Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, channeling the same spirit of simple living and immersion in nature that defined the American naturalist’s woodland experiment. This philosophical foundation informed every decision, from material selection to spatial organization, creating a structure that prioritizes contemplation and creative work over conventional comfort.
The self-build aspect shaped every design decision. Petzold knew machinery couldn’t navigate the remote site, so each component needed to be light enough for human hands to lift and maneuver. Details were simplified to accommodate untrained builders. The client took on the entire construction themselves, transforming architectural drawings into physical reality through careful, patient work. This wasn’t just about budget or preference. The treehouse’s isolation demanded it.
Inside, the triangular footprint maximizes limited square footage. The client’s main house already combines living area, kitchen, and bedroom into one large room, making the need for a separate, quiet space essential. The treehouse delivers that solitude. Its triangular base rests on the three anchor trees, then rotates upward into an inverted equilateral triangle, with corners threading between trunks. The geometry creates distinct zones for sleeping, sitting, and writing within a minimal envelope.
The cabin remains available to other creatives, turning occupation of the space into an ongoing experiment. Each visitor tests how design shapes daily rhythms and creative practice. The structure challenges both architectural norms and lifestyle expectations, proving that meaningful space doesn’t require sprawling square footage or conventional construction methods. Casetta Tessino represents architecture stripped to its essence. Three trees provide the foundation. Simple materials form the shelter. Human hands assemble the pieces. What emerges is more than a building. It’s a meditation on living lightly, working deliberately, and finding refuge in the company of trees. Thoreau would recognize the impulse. The forest certainly does.
Every foldable phone currently on the market carries the same visible compromise: a crease running down the center of the internal display. You notice it immediately when light catches the fold at certain angles. Samsung has iterated through six generations of the Galaxy Z Fold line, refining hinge mechanisms, adjusting UTG formulations (the ultrathin glass layers that cover foldable displays), and experimenting with display stack configurations. The crease persists. Google’s Pixel Fold carries it. Motorola’s razr carries it. The crease has become an accepted industry tax, a visual and tactile reminder that folding glass remains an unsolved materials engineering challenge.
What we know: Jon Prosser leaked renders on December 24, 2025 depicting a book style foldable iPhone alongside the iPhone 18 series, targeted for Fall 2026, with reported pricing between $2,000 and $2,500. What remains unverified: The central claim of zero visible crease, which cannot be confirmed until production hardware is tested.
Recent leaks from Prosser suggest Apple intends to eliminate this compromise entirely. The renders depict a book style foldable iPhone expected alongside the iPhone 18 series in Fall 2026. Zero visible crease on the internal display. If accurate, this represents not an incremental refinement but a fundamental breakthrough in foldable display architecture.
The Engineering Challenge Behind the Crease
Understanding why the crease exists requires examining the layer stack of a flexible OLED panel, and the answer lies in material behavior rather than design oversight. Traditional rigid OLEDs use glass substrates that provide structural stability and optical clarity, creating a surface that feels seamless under the finger and reflects light uniformly across its entire area. Foldable displays replace this glass with plastic substrates, typically polyimide (PI), which can flex repeatedly without fracturing but responds to mechanical stress in ways that accumulate over time, and the plastic remembers each fold. Each fold leaves a trace, invisible at first, then gradually visible as the substrate fatigues along the bend axis. Samsung’s UTG approach adds a thin glass layer for improved feel and scratch resistance, but that glass develops micro-fractures along the bend radius that compound the problem over time.
When a foldable display bends along its hinge axis, the material on the outer curve stretches while the material on the inner curve compresses. This differential stress accumulates at the fold line, creating permanent deformation in the plastic substrate. The encapsulation layers, touch sensor films, and polarizer sheets all respond differently to this stress, compounding the visible crease into something you can both see and feel. If you run your fingertip slowly across the center of any current foldable, that slight bump tells the story of mechanical compromise.
The bend radius matters enormously, because tighter radii create more stress concentration while wider radii reduce stress but increase device thickness when closed. Every foldable manufacturer has navigated this tradeoff differently, but none has eliminated the fundamental physics that creates the crease.
Apple’s Alleged Solution: Metal Dispersion and Liquid Metal Hinges
Prosser’s leak describes two key engineering innovations, and the approach is clever in its simplicity. The first involves a metal plate positioned beneath the display that disperses bending pressure across a wider area rather than concentrating it along a single axis.
The dispersion plate concept addresses the stress concentration problem directly, representing a fundamental rethinking of how force should travel through a folding display stack. Rather than allowing the display to experience maximum strain along a narrow fold line, the metal plate would distribute that mechanical load across a broader zone. This approach resembles structural engineering principles used in suspension bridges, where forces spread across multiple support points rather than concentrated at single anchors. The geometry of such a plate would need to be precisely calculated, balancing flexibility with rigidity, weight with durability. Whether Apple has developed a plate configuration that achieves this without adding prohibitive thickness or weight remains the critical engineering question.
The second innovation involves a liquid metal hinge mechanism, likely referencing Apple’s existing work with Liquidmetal, a zirconium-based amorphous alloy the company has explored in various applications since acquiring licensing rights in August 2010. Amorphous metal alloys can be molded into complex geometries with extremely tight tolerances, potentially enabling hinge designs that control the bend profile more precisely than machined components allow. The material’s natural lubricity and resistance to fatigue could improve long-term reliability, addressing the mechanical feel of traditional hinges with something that operates more fluidly.
Form Factor Analysis: What the Dimensions Reveal
The leaked dimensions reveal Apple’s engineering priorities with unusual clarity. The device measures 9mm thick when closed, splitting to approximately 4.5mm per half, making the unfolded thickness sit at just 4.5mm. The iPhone 15 Pro measures 8.25mm. Apple’s foldable, closed, would be only marginally thicker than current flagship iPhones while delivering a 7.8-inch internal display.
These dimensions suggest aggressive component miniaturization and careful thermal management. Apple reportedly uses its second generation modem developed internally (C2) and high-density battery cells enabled by a slimmer display driver. The shift from Face ID to Touch ID in the power button represents another space-saving decision, eliminating the TrueDepth camera array that occupies significant volume in current iPhone designs.
The Production Reality Gap
Renders exist in a frictionless conceptual space. Every surface appears seamless. Every material performs to theoretical maximum.
Production hardware operates under different constraints, and the question of whether Apple has genuinely solved the crease problem cannot be answered until someone folds and unfolds a production unit under varied lighting conditions, at different temperatures, after thousands of cycles. The crease typically worsens with age as wear accumulates. A render cannot show what happens at month six. Previous reports suggested Apple figured out how to minimize the crease; Prosser’s leak suggests it might be eliminated entirely. These statements describe meaningfully different engineering achievements: minimization implies a visible crease less pronounced than competitors, while elimination implies none at all.
Material Considerations and Manufacturing Scale
Assuming Apple has developed a crease-free folding mechanism, the question becomes whether it can be manufactured at iPhone scale. Apple ships iPhones at a scale that dwarfs the entire foldable category. Every component must be producible in quantities that dwarf what Samsung delivers for its foldable line, where foldable shipments represent a small fraction of overall smartphone volumes.
The dispersion plate, if it uses exotic geometries or materials, could present manufacturing bottlenecks that slow initial production to a trickle. Liquid metal components require specialized casting and forming processes that Apple has used only in limited applications: SIM tray ejector tools, Apple Watch Series 9 buttons. Scaling to display-size components at flagship volumes would require substantial production infrastructure investment. Display panel supply presents another constraint. Samsung Display currently dominates flexible OLED production, and Apple has worked with LG Display and BOE to diversify its supplier base, but building capacity for an entirely new flexible panel format would require years of development and billions in capital expenditure from panel makers. The supply chain alone could determine whether this device ships in millions or hundreds of thousands.
Pricing and Market Position
The expected price tells its own story. Prosser suggests pricing between $2,000 and $2,500, though he hedges on the exact figure.
This range positions the foldable iPhone above the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which starts at $1,899, while falling short of the most extreme luxury phone territory. For Apple, this represents uncharted pricing for a mainstream product line. The iPhone Air’s reported sales struggles, if accurate, suggest limits to what consumers will pay for form factor innovation alone. The foldable iPhone will test whether Apple’s brand premium extends to a new device category or whether the foldable market itself has a price ceiling that even Apple cannot exceed.
Color options limited to black and white reflect Apple’s tendency to constrain initial product launches, signaling a cautious market entry rather than a mass market push. Premium positioning with limited variants allows Apple to manage supply constraints while testing demand at the high end of the price spectrum.
The strategic bet is clear, and Apple appears confident enough buyers exist at this price point to justify years of R&D and tooling investment, even if the initial addressable market remains narrow.
The Broader Display Technology Implications
If Apple has genuinely solved the crease problem, the implications ripple far beyond smartphones, touching every device category that could benefit from flexible displays. Foldable tablets, laptops with folding displays, and rollable screen formats all face similar material constraints, and a breakthrough in stress distribution or substrate engineering would have applications across the entire flexible display industry. The solution, whatever form it takes, would likely be protected by extensive patent filings. This could create licensing opportunities or, more likely given Apple’s historical tendencies, a proprietary advantage that competitors cannot easily replicate.
Samsung has built its foldable ecosystem partly on component sales. An Apple breakthrough using internally developed technology would disrupt that supply chain dynamic. Other manufacturers would need to license Apple’s approach or develop their own solutions from scratch.
The timing of a Fall 2026 launch, if accurate, gives Apple nearly two years to refine manufacturing, build component inventory, and develop the software experiences that justify a foldable form factor. iOS adaptations for larger internal displays, multitasking paradigms, and app developer frameworks would all require substantial engineering investment beyond the hardware itself. The display breakthrough means nothing without software that makes the larger screen worth having.
What Remains Unknown
The crease claim stands as the most important detail and the least verifiable. Prosser has accurately predicted some Apple announcements and missed on others. His track record provides some credibility but not certainty. Until production hardware reaches independent reviewers, the fundamental promise of Apple’s foldable remains speculative.
The legal context adds intrigue, and the question of source reliability becomes harder to untangle when litigation enters the picture. Apple sued Prosser in July 2025 for leaking iOS 26 and Liquid Glass design details, and his response appears to be leaking even more. Whether this reflects confidence in his sources or defiance toward Apple’s legal pressure is difficult to assess from outside. For the foldable display industry, the claim itself matters regardless of accuracy: if Apple believes a crease-free folding display is achievable, the engineering resources the company can deploy dwarf what any competitor has invested. Even if the initial implementation falls short of the leaked renders’ promise, Apple’s entry would accelerate development across the entire foldable ecosystem. The question that defines this product will not be answered by renders or leaks. It will be answered by light catching, or not catching, a fold line at certain angles. By fingertips feeling, or not feeling, a ridge when swiping across the center of a 7.8-inch display. Fall 2026 will provide the answer.
Specifications
The leaked specifications paint a picture of aggressive engineering tradeoffs. Apple appears to have prioritized thinness and internal display size over external screen real estate, betting that users will spend most of their time with the device unfolded. The choice of Touch ID over Face ID represents a meaningful departure from Apple’s biometric strategy of the past decade, suggesting the engineering constraints of fitting a foldable mechanism left no room for the TrueDepth camera array.
Specification
Details
External Display
5.5 inches
Internal Display
7.8 inches
Closed Thickness
9mm
Unfolded Thickness
4.5mm
Hinge Type
Liquid metal mechanism with dispersion plate (reported)
Biometrics
Touch ID (power button)
Modem
Apple C2, reported as second generation internal modem
Colors
Black, White
Expected Price
$2,000 to $2,500
Expected Launch
Fall 2026
These numbers remain unverified until production hardware surfaces. Prosser’s track record includes both accurate predictions and notable misses, so treating any single specification as confirmed would be premature. The fall 2026 timeline, if accurate, gives Apple roughly eighteen months from now to finalize these details.
The iMac G3 was discontinued in 2003, around the same time Apple began pivoting to its clean, color-free aesthetic. Cut to a few years later and Apple transitioned entirely to aluminum for its devices, ushering in an era of sleek, and a few more years later, Apple built a computer small enough for your wrist. That means there was a little over a decade between Apple’s era of color, and the Apple Watch. Sadly, the two didn’t coexist in the same timeline, but that doesn’t mean a guy can’t imagine, right?
Saffy Creatives’ Apple Watch G3 concept brings the two together in what I can only describe as sheer nostalgic dream-come-true. The two design worlds collide perfectly – the body of a Watch with the soul of Apple’s G3 devices (tbh even the MacBook was absolute eye-candy). The results don’t just look fantastic, they honestly look wearable – like I would absolutely like to be caught with this piece of hand-candy across my wrist, even if its vibrant colors feel less serious than the cool metallic finish of your standard Watch.
Designer: Saffy Creatives
It’s worth noting that this isn’t just an existing watch with a plastic body. There are a few changes to the design itself to make it stand true to its inspiration. For starters, the watch has a chonky bezel, quite like the G3 iMac did. The bezel separates itself from the body by being made of an entirely separate plastic component. This is further reinforced by the watch’s two-tone colorway. The bezel adopts a clear white plastic design, while the body itself goes for the transparent tinted plastic that G3 fans know too well. The watch ditches all perceivable metal components, barring probably the crown, which looks like metal anodized to match the body’s color. The power button on the side is clear plastic, as are the lugs, and even the strap!
The G3 trend even carries to the Apple’s colored logo, which features on the bezel of the watch. It’s rare for the watch to have a logo on the front, but then again, it’s entirely inconceivable for Apple to make a plastic watch. But, like I said, a guy can dream! The colorful logo sits on the front, right above the standard touchscreen display with its curved glass almost perfectly mirroring the iMac G3’s CRT display.
The watch comes in a variety of colors, all celebrating that short but iconic era. You’ve got the truly legendary Bondi Blue, along with the Strawberry, Lime, Tangerine, and Grape variants. Like I said, this is, for most parts, an entire redesign of the watch itself. It isn’t really possible to make a watch case that captures the retro beauty of this watch – unless you expand the design outwards to give the watch a true bezel, or cut into the watch’s screen to keep the exact proportions as shown here. That being said, I’d like to see Spigen or any other company try giving the Apple Watch a retro flavor. That being said, this iMac G3-inspired Watch Charger from Spigen is perhaps the closest we’ll ever come to seeing anything!