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Specialized has followed last year's launch of a 33-lb carbon e-commuter with a cheaper version that's built around an alloy frame, with the company boasting that "nothing in alloy is lighter."
Tags: ebikes, Pedal-assisted, Specialized Bikes
We live in a time when camera brands (well, at least one) are stripping down controls while smartphone brands are ramping up physical camera controls. Indeed, the quest to bring a camera-like shooting experience to smartphones is going strong, as we've seen on full display at MWC 2025 in Barcelona. Brands like Xiaomi and RealMe have even gone so far as adding lens mounts to prototype smartphones.
On the less dramatic side are features like Apple's iPhone Camera Control button, which provides quick access to the camera and various settings like zoom. You can also find grips from the likes of Belkin, ShiftCam and even Leica that add shutter buttons and a more camera-like form factor. Now, a lesser-known smartphone brand is getting into the mix with an innovation on the camera itself.
Nubia, which also sells phones under the name Redmagic, opted for a simple control ring on its new Focus 2 Ultra smartphone. According to Notebook Check, the distinctive rotating ring allows users to control zoom or select filters. Such a feature should feel more natural and familiar for zooming in or out, especially for those who use dedicated cameras. Plus, you don't have to remember if you double press, long press, or tap your head three times to get to certain settings. A control ring also means there's no fiddling with getting your finger placed just right to zoom in or out, as is necessary on Apple's Camera Control Button.
Adding to the camera-like experience, the Focus 2 Ultra has a dedicated button that acts as a shutter release when you have the camera app open.
The camera system itself on the Nubia Focus 2 Ultra doesn't seem like anything to write home about; the company says the main shooter uses a Type 1/1.55 (8.3 x 6.2mm) sensor with 2μm pixels and an F1.47 lens, but doesn't provide further details about it or the phone's other cameras. However, it's exciting to see how phone makers are experimenting with physical camera controls on their devices. Especially as phone camera technology improves, it certainly would be nice to have more tactile controls when I leave my dedicated cameras behind.
The company hasn't announced exactly when the Focus 2 Ultra will be available, but Notebook Check reports it'll cost around 300 Euros.
Researchers at Northwestern University have made a breakthrough in identifying a way for Alzheimer's disease to be treated far more effectively in the future – using the brain's own immune cells.
Category: Alzheimer's & Dementia, Brain Health, Body & Mind
Scientists have discovered the world’s oldest known meteorite impact crater. Located in Western Australia, the crater has been dated to about 3.5 billion years ago, at a time when these almost literally Earth-shattering events should have been occurring regularly.
Category: Science
Tags: Earth, Asteroid, Meteorite, Impact, Geology, Australia, Curtin University, World's Oldest
The world’s first typewriter goes to auction in Köln (Germany) on 22 March 2025. Just 35 Malling Hansen Writing Balls remain, 30 are in museums and the battle for one of the few remaining specimens will be worth watching because as the supply diminishes the price goes up.
Category: Collectibles, Lifestyle
Tags: Typewriter, History, Auction
A pair of extraordinary space missions that have been headed out of the solar system for almost half a century are getting a new lease on life as NASA engineers order the Voyager 1 and 2 deep-space probes to shut down two instruments to save power.
Modular EV startup Canoo has had a rough go of things over the past few years, and its journey might well be at its bitter end. CEO Anthony Aquila is set to acquire the bankrupt firm's assets for a bargain, and that's usually the way things wrap up in this business.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Electric Vehicles, canoo
Scientists have identified new gene modifications that can make tomatoes and eggplants grow bigger, which could help boost yields in developing countries.
Tags: Food, Food security, Food technology, Crops, Genetic engineering, Genetics, Fruit, Plants, Johns Hopkins University, CRISPR
A new study has ranked the best types of exercise for improving sleep quality. The findings demonstrate that exercise is an easy-to-implement, relatively cheap, and particularly effective way of treating insomnia, a common problem for older adults.
Category: Sleep, Wellness & Healthy Living, Body & Mind
Tags: Insomnia, Sleep, Age-Related, Exercise, Mahidol University
A trailer you can see clean through, the Naledi Camper is as simple and straightforward to use as any other teardrop on the road, but it packs two big distinguishing features: oversized picture windows on each side. Campers get sandwiched between huge views of the local surroundings to which they traveled, providing a camping experience more akin to sleeping in the fresh air on naked ground ... albeit from the comfort of a sheltered foam mattress.
Tags: teardrop trailers, Caravan, Trailer, trailers, Outdoors and Camping, Camping, RV
The signed original lead sheet music for We Are the World as performed by U.S.A. for Africa heads to auction this week, reminding us that “the world must come together as one.”
Category: Collectibles, Lifestyle
Tags: Auction, Julien's Auctions, pop music
Back in 2016 we told you about the PEBL, a pedal-electric velomobile that combined some of the best attributes of a bicycle and a car. Well, it now has a cushier, spiffier, more streamlined successor, in the form of the PEBL 2.0.
Category: Urban Transport, Transport
Tags: Velomobile, Pedal-assisted
Apple has updated its ultra-portable laptop, the MacBook Air, as well as its ultra-powerful desktop, the Mac Studio. The former gets the company's latest chip, a price cut and comes in a fun new color, while the latter is being billed as "the most powerful Mac ever."
The M4 MacBook Air Image: AppleOn the outside, the MacBook Air is much the same as its predecessor, though it's now available with a "sky blue" finish. On the inside, it features the company's latest M4 chip, which has been available for a while now in computers like the Mac Mini, iMac and entry-level MacBook Pro. Based on those machines, the M4 Air should be a bit more powerful and efficient than its predecessor.
The biggest upgrade, though, is to external display support. The M3 MacBook Air could only run one display alongside its built-in screen. You'd have to close the laptop's lid if you wanted to use a second external display. With the new model, that limitation is gone: it can drive two 6K external monitors and its internal display.
Multi-monitor support has historically been the Apple Silicon MacBook Air's biggest weakness, but that's clearly no longer the case.
Image: Apple
Apple has also upgraded the webcam and says the new model has "improved video quality." In a rare move, it's done all this while lowering the computer's base price. The M4 Air's predecessor started at $1,099 for a model with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage – now, you can get those same specs for $999.
There are caveats: the entry-level 13" M3 Air had a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, while the cheapest 13" M4 model has a 10-core CPU and an 8-core GPU. It's not a change that most people looking at this class of computer will notice, and jumping to the $1199 model will get you those cores back, but it does make it clear where Apple's saving that $100. The base 15" model gets the same price cut, starting at $1199 instead of $1299, but instead of taking a hit to the GPU, it takes a hit to storage; instead of starting at 512GB like its predecessor, it starts at 256GB. That cut will likely be more noticeable to the average consumer, as 256GB can be pretty limiting, especially if you've got a lot of documents or photos.
The M4 MacBook Air is available to pre-order now and will be available starting March 12th.
Buy at Apple The new Mac StudioApple says the M4 Max Mac Studio is "1.6x faster image processing in Adobe Photoshop" than the M1 Max version.
Image: Apple
Apple has also updated the Mac Studio, its desktop aimed at creative professionals with its powerful internals and integrated UHS-II SD card reader. It's been a moment since the computer has been updated – the previous version came out in the summer of 2023 and was powered by Apple's M2 chips.
The base-spec Studio now comes with the M4 Max, which has 14 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. That chip is the same found in the top-tier MacBook Pros released last year. However, the computer also introduces the M3 Ultra. As its name implies, it's built around Apple's last-gen architecture, but it makes up for that by essentially being two Max-class chips fused together. The entry-level M3 Max has a 28-core CPU and a 60-core GPU but can be optioned to add 4 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores.
The Mac Studio offers more I/O than any of Apple's laptops.
Image: Apple
The M3 Ultra also supports ThunderBolt 5, a spec previously only available on M4-powered machines, which allows for data transfers at up to 120 Gbps. The Ultra-equipped studio has a whopping six ThunderBolt ports, two more than the Max model, which has four ThunderBolt ports and two USB-C ones.
Beyond the new silicon, the new Studio has a few improvements over the previous generation. It can now drive eight 6K displays or four 8K displays; the M2-powered Studio topped out at six and three, respectively. The M3 Ultra version is also available with much more storage and RAM; you can get it with a 16TB SSD and up to 512GB of memory, which Apple says is "the most unified memory ever in a personal computer." The maxed-out M2 Ultra only supported an 8TB SSD and 192GB of memory.
Given that this is more or less Apple's flagship desktop – sorry, Mac Pro – it's not surprising that it costs a pretty penny. The M4 Max version starts at $1999 and comes with 36GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. The M3 Ultra Studio starts at $3999 and has 96GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. Like with all Apple machines, costs start to add up if you want to upgrade – the 512GB memory option costs an additional $4000, and bumping up to that 16TB SSD will run you a cool $4600. Both models are available to pre-order now, and will be available starting March 12th.
Buy at AppleThe best multitool is the one that you actually have with you. Thanks to its tiny size, along with features such as two screwdrivers, two wrenches and a folding steel blade, the Orioners T6 keyring tool isn't likely to get left at home.
Tags: Multitools, Knife, Titanium, Kickstarter, EDC
Phone manufacturers are continuously trying to find ways to make the cameras in their devices bigger and better, allowing them to serve as a true replacement for dedicated cameras. To this end, Xiaomi recently announced the "Modular Optical System" concept phone, which features a lens module with a built-in Four Thirds sensor that attaches magnetically to the phone's back. RealMe, a fellow Chinese smartphone brand, said, "Hold my lens," and upped the ante, releasing a concept phone with an M-mount.
While Xiaomi's approach uses a sensor built into a lens that attaches magnetically, RealMe opted for a bare sensor built into the back of the phone and an existing lens mount. RealMe says the concept features a customized Type 1 (13.2 x 8.8 mm) Sony sensor, which is covered by glass to protect it. Granted, no matter how tough that glass is, it is vulnerable to scratches and cracks, which would then impact image quality.
The phone's M-mount allows users to take advantage of existing full-frame lenses rather than buying a proprietary lens system. The prototype is on display at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. RealMe is reportedly providing lenses to try out the system, though the current concept isn't able to power autofocus motors and lacks electrical contacts to provide EXIF data. Given those limitations, it makes sense that the company chose the manual focus-only M-mount.
The mount itself is rather large, even before attaching a lens.
Image: RealMe
The concept phone features also two traditional phone cameras, both of which use Type 1 sensors. It's still not all that common to get one sensors that large in a phone, let alone three, so it's possible the phone could be a standout shooter even without an external lens attached.
The concept of a phone with an interchangeable lens mount isn't new – Xiaomi did something very similar a few years ago – and the end product can be quite unwieldy. That is especially true with larger lenses, which would get incredibly front-heavy when attached to a slim, lightweight phone. It's hard to imagine the ergonomics would be anything you'd want to experience for very long. After all, you would have to essentially only hold the lens, not the phone itself. Plus, the required lens mount is bulky before attaching a lens, so it isn't exactly a compact system. However, despite all its potential flaws, it is nice to see companies working to push the boundaries. Who knows where it could take us, after all.
Ultraviolette, the marque behind the fastest Indian motorcycle of all time, has a fun new ride on the way for trail junkies. The Shockwave enduro packs a ton of torque into a featherweight feature-filled electric package, for just INR 175,000 (about US$2,008).
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Tags: Electric Motorcycles, Ultraviolette, Enduro, India
This unnamed towable home was built by online marketplace Tiny House Listings. With a length of 25 ft (7.6 m), it features a compact interior layout that's designed to be suitable for full-time compact living, or as a guest house or vacation home.
Category: Tiny Houses, Lifestyle
Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, House, Home
Last week, Panasonic announced the S1RII, the second-generation version of its high-resolution camera. While the original model was mainly focused on stills, the S1RII is being billed as a hybrid camera with the ability to shoot 8K video.
The video chops are possible because Panasonic is using a new 44MP sensor, which has a slightly lower resolution than the 47MP model found in the S1R. Thankfully, we got the chance to shoot some initial samples with while in Japan to cover CP+, and we've put together a sample gallery. It also includes a few examples of the camera's handheld multi-shot mode, which produces 177MP images.
We'll be shooting a lot more with the S1RII in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
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Buy at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H PhotoBy now, you've no doubt heard that modern living is filling our bodies with microplastics. But an alarming study now shows just how much of the non-degradable particles are in our brains, and how much higher they are in dementia patients.
Category: Brain Health, Body & Mind
Tags: Microplastic, Brain, Plastics, Plastic, Plastic waste, Water Bottle, University of New Mexico
Since 2012, UK-based Power Roll has been working on a way to print low-cost solar film to generate clean energy from sunlight. It's now one crucial step closer to manufacturing its lightweight, apply-anywhere film, with a new design for its perovskite solar cells that should make make production cheap and scalable.
Category: Energy, Technology
Tags: Solar Cell, Solar Power, Perovskite, Flexible
