Gear News Week: Samsung’s Trifold Promise, IKEA’s Sonos Split, new robot embracing Face’s
Samsung’s Galaxy is unpacked From the Galaxy Z Fold7 to the Galaxy Watch8 series, the event in Brooklyn made its debut with seven new devices. But despite rumors that Samsung will unveil the triangle phone, there are no surprises in the end. Disappointingly, the company later confirmed that the phone is expected to be available in 2025.
“I hope we can launch the Trifold phone this year,” said TM Roh, head of Samsung’s mobile business. Korea Times. The Trifold phone is rumored to have a normal screen on the front, and two hinges will let you turn it on as a tablet-sized screen.
Huawei first launched its Trifold in China last year, which is €3,499 ($4,090 ~) and Samsung showed off a concept version on Mobile World Congress 2025. Considering that it has raised the price of its Galaxy Z Fold7 flagship to $2,000, this makes it increase the price by $2,000. Samsung is also expected to launch its Android XR mixed reality headsets in the fall, so the Trifold can land.
Hug the face with a new robot
AI startup Hugging Face has announced a new coding robot called Reachy Mini, which is the company behind Reachy 2 Humoid Robot just months after acquiring Pollen Robotics. RENACHY MINI is open for pre-order for $449 (although there is a $299 Lite version) and is an open source robot designed around AI experimentation and coding.
Think of it as a stem toy or a raspberry Pi (in fact, the robot is powered by the Raspberry Pi 5 Minicomputer) – you have to build it yourself, and there are over 15 “robot behaviors” so you can learn how to use it. The Reachy Mini can use the latest AI models that you can program to act in some way. The head is electric and the antenna moves around. It has a camera, microphone and speaker to interact with the surroundings.
Reachy Mini owners will be able to upload and share these robot behaviors with the embracing face community and download other robot behaviors. It will ship this fall, and although not the wireless Reachy Mini Lite, it will arrive first at the end of summer. We can only hope that this cute little robot will not have the same fate as Jibo.
Apple’s iOS 26 beta drama
Public betas for Apple iOS 26, MACOS 26 and iPadOS 26 are expected next week, but some drama has been launched after recent developer Beta 3’s iOS 26 beta Beta 3. The company reduces transparency in its liquid glass design language, making the interface look more like frost glass. Online criticism of Apple has changed so much, although there were a lot of rebound and readability issues about it when Apple debuted at WWDC 2025.
In more Apple news, the company is expected to debut Apple Vision Pro later this year, with the professional powered by an M4 chipset that is in some MacBooks and iPads. The hardware itself will not look different, although Bloomberg reports that there will be more comfortable belts. The rumored cheap Vision Pro version is a few years away.
IKEA Ditch Sonos and Zigbee Materials and Spotify
Provided by IKEA
It’s a new day in the popular Swedish furniture supplier IKEA’s smart home strategy as the company announced more than 20 new things smart lights, sensors and remote controls using threaded protocols. This means you can capture some affordable items from IKEA and use it directly with your Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or Samsung Smartthings setup without buying an IKEA hub. IKEA’s David Granath told The Edge that “new product types and forms are coming.” People at IKEA’s Dirigera Hub are also happy to learn that IKEA is activateing the built-in thread radio and adding material support. This means it can be used as a matter controller and threaded border router, allowing it to connect and control any material equipment in the home. Sadly for some, this marks the end of Zigbee support, as IKEA plans to replace its Zigbee gadget with material devices.
IKEA also announced two new Bluetooth speakers this week – one that looks like a retro radio and the other looks like a light. Both have a dedicated Spotify Tap button that lets you jump right back to what you last listened to on Spotify. IKEA worked hard for simplicity, accessibility and affordability, another nail for the coffin that IKEA worked with Sonos. –Simon Hill
OnePlus has 5 new devices, but only 2 for us
This week, the company announced a number of new devices, which are more than five this week. The smaller, 43mm version of the Watch 3 is more comfortable, but less endurance than its larger siblings, and is now available from OnePlus for $300 ($100 less than the 47mm model). The very affordable Wireless Bud 4 also landed in the US for $130.
