Apple was far from the first company to announce a passport-shaped folding phone this year, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t copied. As my colleague Dom Preston already explained, it’s almost impossible to keep product development secret when Apple and its competitors all share the same global suppliers. 

Apple’s new CEO John Ternus and head of marketing Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak addressed the topic during an interview with TechRadar’s Lance Ulanoff and Mark Spoonauer of Tom’s Guide.

“People knew through leaks that we were working on a foldable,” said Joz. “Unfortunately, they got the aspect ratio, and a lot of coincidental instances of people finding that an interesting aspect ratio.” By “people,” Joz means Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi who all announced wide foldables ahead of Apple.

What did remain a secret is the folding nano-texture display unique to the iPhone Duo. “What I’m super proud of — we kept it secret,” said Joz. “We put the extra security on it. We didn’t talk about it to anybody.” 

The whole interview is worth a watch. Ternus’ boyish enthusiasm is a refreshing change from the more measured Tim Cook, signaling his roots as a hands-on engineer. You can see it when describing his first interaction with a prototype of the display. “Oh this is it, this is what I want,” he said, eagerly grinning.

The new head of Apple, unlike Cook, is clearly a product guy, just like its mercurial founder.

Google is introducing a new Live Game Feed to keep you updated on NFL games as the regular season kicks off tonight. Look for the red “Live” icon and you’ll see a recap of the ongoing game, play-by-play updates, top commentary on social, video highlights, and “AI-powered insights.” It’s available now on mobile in English, with support for college games and more languages coming later this month.

Search on mobile is also getting a new carousel that lets you flip through scores for other games currently in progress. Stats are improving too, now showing which players lead in categories like passing touchdowns and rushing yards, as well as improved individual stats to track things like sacks, fumbles, and yards after catch.

Starting today you can also link your Yahoo Fantasy or Sleeper account with search to get AI-generated insights that can help you tweak your fantasy lineup, all without uploading screenshots or manually entering data.

Adobe is overhauling how editors interact with AI in its Premiere professional video editing software. Its new Generative Media tool makes it easier to generate video, sound effects, music, and soundscapes without ever leaving the project timeline. The generators themselves aren’t entirely new; the big change is how easily you can access them without breaking your workflow. 

Instead of jumping between browsers or external apps to find missing B-roll or audio elements, editors can now highlight an empty gap on the video or audio track and generate context-aware, fully editable clips without leaving the project. Editors can choose from multiple underlying models directly in the timeline — including Adobe Firefly, Google Veo, Runway, Luma, and Kling — to best match their project’s style.

Premiere is also getting new AI audio tools (in beta) that can separate overlapping speakers, automatically duck music under speech, and independently adjust dialogue and ambience. And Adobe is bringing its AI Assistant to After Effects (also in beta) that lets editors use plain-language commands to reorganize projects, fix technical problems, and create effects without writing expressions themselves.

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How it started

With a deep breath, I took the cable seething with 800W of solar power and plugged it directly into a standard wall jack in my home. Nothing sparked, nothing smoked, and by the end of that sunny summer day, my electricity bill had dropped to nearly $0.

As unnerving as it sounds to treat a common household power outlet like a power input, these DIY plug-in solar kits, sometimes called balcony solar, have proven to be safe and effective for years already in Europe, and are slowly making their way into the US to democratize the production of energy. They transform solar from a high-barrier capital improvement (starting at around $15,000) requiring contractors, engineering permits, and utility preapproval, into an consumer appliance you can buy at a supermarket (starting around $300) and hang from a balcony railing or prop against a wall — all without the help of an electrician.

Traditional plug-in solar kits include a few solar panels and a small microinverter that ties itself to the electrical grid. The microinverter converts solar energy into power that’s prioritized for use by devices inside your home. 

Optionally, you can add a battery to the kit to store any surplus energy produced during the day. That way, you can continue to cut your costs by feeding that stored energy back into the home when the sun goes down. These so-called power stations can also be used to power a fridge and other critical devices during a blackout. They start at around $500 for a small 1kWh battery or $1,500 for 3kWh.

I live in Europe, where millions of households, including as estimated 1.5M in Germany, have purchased plug-in solar systems over the last few years to gain a modicum of energy independence. They’re so popular, even Ikea sells them (though they’re actually just EcoFlow resellers). 

Plug-in solar’s popularity has been fueled by two things. Oil and gas prices have surged ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, and have remained high amid the ongoing US war with Iran. Meanwhile, global prices for solar panels and batteries have fallen to record lows — though US consumers face higher costs due to Trump’s tariffs on panels and batteries and the elimination of solar tax credits. Nevertheless, plug-in solar is finally getting a foothold in those amber waves of grain.

Historically, utility regulations in the US treated a budget solar panel in a garden like a massive 10kW rooftop array. Now, over a dozen states have passed laws or introduced bills to legalize the deployment of plug-in solar systems. The rules vary, but in general they allow for qualifying plug-in solar systems to be installed without utility preapproval so long as they meet safety requirements, prevent individual circuits from overloading, and shut down during a power outage to keep line workers safe.

How it’s going

I’ve had a modest 400W plug-in system operating on my rooftop deck in the Netherlands. In those 21 months of use, it produced 709kWh, saving me about €225 (about $260) — enough to nearly offset the purchase price of my kit. It will take longer to offset the rather large $1,800 power station it all plugs into when I’m home. But as an avid vanlifer, I get a ton of extra value out of that emergency battery, which also enables me to live and work off grid for months at a time.

People operating a plug-in solar system in sunnier climates with maxed out solar arrays will recoup costs much faster. European plug-in solar systems can feed as much as 800W into the home, while US states typically support up to 1200W. And kits often support even greater solar capacity so long as it’s diverted to a battery. 

In the US, plug-in solar is now legal in Virginia, Maine, Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire, ever since Utah pioneered the state-level reclassification of plug-in solar as a small household appliance last year. Legislation is awaiting governor signature in California and New York, while another half-dozen states have introduced bills.

In Europe, of the 27 EU member states, only Sweden and Hungary still prohibit plug-in solar devices. 

What happens next

European adoption of plug-in solar systems will almost certainly continue its upward trend so long as solar and battery prices keep falling — it’s not like the geopolitical situation will bring energy prices down anytime soon. US adoption could be in for a hockey stick moment of growth just as soon as California — the state with the highest residential electricity rates — signs plug-in solar into law. 

Now that the legal dominos have started falling in the US, the nascent plug-in solar category has piqued the interest of companies focused on home energy. EcoFlow, Bluetti, Anker, and many others, are all trying to capitalize on the surge of interest, giving renters and budget-conscious consumers a wider selection of kits to choose from. 

Already in the last few months, we’ve seen EcoFlow launch its more capable Stream 2 series alongside Bluetti’s Balco series. Both of these plug-in solar systems are built on modular architectures so that owners can expand from entry-level solar generation to a larger, whole home energy system over time. 

I can attest that plug-in solar is a slippery slope. First you buy the microinverter and a few solar panels, then more panels and a battery to store the energy surplus, and then you start looking at how you can extract even more energy out of thin air. Because once you start looking closely at the power you’re paying for, canceling it out with “free energy” becomes an addictive game.

Plug-in solar isn’t going to replace utility-scale solar farms or 10kW rooftop arrays, but it fills the missing bottom layer of the clean energy transition. My two-year-old kit has already nearly paid for itself. Beyond the savings, I like that I’m reducing my contribution to climate change, and that feeling’s invaluable.

And who knows, maybe a new US administration will arrive in a few years to give the entire sector a goose, instead of actively working against solar and handing the future of energy production to China, uncontested.

By the Way

• Plug-in solar systems just became legal across Great Britain on August 27th. Retailers like Lidl, B&Q, Argos, Currys, and Amazon are selling solar-only kits in stores and online. It took the unusual step of forbidding battery-integrated systems, but they’re being explored for future inclusion.
• New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed the Garden State Balcony Solar Act into law earlier this week, legalizing setups up to 1,200W on 120V outlets. But the law takes effect on March 1st, 2027.

Read this

• Here’s my review of an early EcoFlow plug-in solar system from back in 2024.
• The New York Times looks at the race between the US and China to define the future of energy, each guided by two very different strategies mired in economic and national security concerns.
• This New York Times piece takes a sober look at the transformative effects plug-in solar could have on American energy production and consumption.

Detail-preserving optical lens shift is not something you expect to find on an ultra-short throw projector running Google TV, but that’s exactly what you’ll find inside of Awol Vision’s new LuxVision. It also promises to produce an incredibly bright (6000 ISO Lumens) 4K 120Hz image measuring 120 inches when placed just 7.5 inches from the wall.

The vertical lens shift is the star here. Most UST projectors use digital trickery to manipulate the image onto the wall or screen behind it. The LuxVision can raise and lower the output optically to preserve the detail in the 4K image without having to move the projector or resort to keystone correction. That makes this, like all USTs, a possible TV replacement if you’ve got enough cash to offset your hatred for ugly black monoliths. LuxVision is available in a number of colors and trims for that very reason.

Awol Vision is pitching the LuxVision at sports fans by playing up the fluidity of the 4K 120Hz display, which is still a rarity in projectors. It’s also targeting gamers by baking in Dolby Vision Gaming HDR, ALLM, VRR, and an input lag of around 1ms. You also get 3x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1x DisplayPort, and HDMI Multiview to view up to four sources simultaneously. 

As you might have guessed, these specs won’t come cheap. It’ll list for $5,999 at launch, sometime “around October.” And that’s before you shell out another $1,000 or so for an ALR screen that can dramatically enhance the viewing experience. Starting September 5th, Awol Vision is offering discounts for anyone willing to preorder the LuxVision ahead of the reviews.

Anker’s SleepLab speaker promises to track and enhance sleep without a wearable. It uses millimeter-wave radar (60GHz) blasting from your nightstand to track micro-movements in your chest and body to continuously monitor your heart rate and breathing to enhance whatever sleep stage you’re in. It also embeds lots of hippie shit.

If I’m understanding things correctly, the speaker will — over the course of a month — determine which routines help you get the most rest, using acoustic binaural beats and lighting to gradually deepen relaxation. It operates with a touch of a button, independently of your phone, and doesn’t require a paid subscription. You can also stream audio to it via Bluetooth if you want.

It’s all a bit new-agey but maybe it works? It can be reserved now for $1, with the SleepLab Pro model priced at $269.99 with radar sensing, or $169.99 without. Best to wait for the reviews on this one. I’ve got a unit called in, so we’ll see soon enough.

Here’s a non-AI-generated image from the IFA show in Berlin. That radar arm is weirdly intimidating!