Month: July 2023

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  Behold the insides of the Pixel Fold. It's cramped in there. (Full disclosure, this is a composite of the left and right halves with all the thermal tape peeled off.) [credit: PBKReviews ]

The Pixel Fold is one of Google's most complicated pieces of hardware ever, but what does it look like on the inside? The Pixel line doesn't get much teardown love from iFixit anymore (despite an official partnership), but PBK Reviews is still a reliable source for timely teardowns of Google's latest phones.

As usual, the Pixel Fold is glued together, so you'll have to heat up the back cover and the front screen, and then pry everything off. The camera side of the device has most of the normal phone components, like the three cameras, the SoC, storage, modem, bottom speaker, and USB-C port, and also squeezes in a 1489 mAh battery. The other side is mostly battery, sporting a big 3332 mAh battery, the outer display camera, haptic feedback vibrator, earpiece, and SIM tray.

It doesn't look like there's much room for repairability. The USB-C port lives on the motherboard, so it'll be tough to replace. PBK Reviews didn't even attempt to pry off the flexible screen due to "a high chance of damaging or breaking the screen," but presumably, there's just a big slab of metal underneath it. With all the parts removed, you can see how the two sides communicate as a series of ribbon cables snake their way through the hinge.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | natatravel)

Reddit is fighting another attempt by film companies to unmask anonymous Reddit users who discussed piracy.

The same companies lost a previous, similar motion to identify Reddit users who wrote comments in piracy-related threads. Reddit avoided revealing the identities of eight users by arguing that the First Amendment protected their right to anonymous speech.

Reddit is seeking a similar outcome in the new case, in which the film companies' subpoena to Reddit sought "Basic account information including IP address registration and logs from 1/1/2016 to present, name, email address and other account registration information" for six users who wrote comments on Reddit threads in 2011 and 2018. Reddit wrote in a court filing on Wednesday:

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

OpenAI's immensely popular ChatGPT has started losing users for the first time, The Washington Post reported today.

According to data firm Similarweb, ChatGPT's mobile and desktop traffic worldwide decreased by nearly 10 percent from May to June. Another data firm, Sensor Tower, reported that ChatGPT's iPhone app downloads have been steadily dipping since they peaked in early June.

This, the Post suggested, could be a sign that consumer interest in chatbots and other AI tools is waning as tech companies heavily invest in  AI product development.

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

OpenAI's immensely popular ChatGPT has started losing users for the first time, The Washington Post reported today.

According to data firm Similarweb, ChatGPT's mobile and desktop traffic worldwide decreased by nearly 10 percent from May to June. Another data firm, Sensor Tower, reported that ChatGPT's iPhone app downloads have been steadily dipping since they peaked in early June.

This, the Post suggested, could be a sign that consumer interest in chatbots and other AI tools is waning as tech companies heavily invest in  AI product development.

Enlarge (credit: audioundwerbung)

In most industrialized countries, solar panels account for only a quarter to a third of the overall cost of building a solar farm. All the other expenses—additional hardware, financing, installation, permitting, etc—make up the bulk of the cost. To make the most of all these other costs, it makes sense to pay a bit more to install efficient panels that convert more of the incoming light into electricity.

Unfortunately, the cutting edge of silicon panels is already at about 25 percent efficiency, and there's no way to push the material past 29 percent. And there's an immense jump in price between those and the sorts of specialized, hyper-efficient photovoltaic hardware we use in space.

Those pricey panels have three layers of photovoltaic materials, each tuned to a different wavelength of light. So to hit something in between on the cost/efficiency scale, it makes sense to develop a two-layer device. This week saw some progress in that regard, with two separate reports of two-layer perovskite/silicon solar cells with efficiencies of well above 30 percent. Right now, they don't last long enough to be useful, but they may point the way toward developing better materials.

Enlarge (credit: audioundwerbung)

In most industrialized countries, solar panels account for only a quarter to a third of the overall cost of building a solar farm. All the other expenses—additional hardware, financing, installation, permitting, etc—make up the bulk of the cost. To make the most of all these other costs, it makes sense to pay a bit more to install efficient panels that convert more of the incoming light into electricity.

Unfortunately, the cutting edge of silicon panels is already at about 25 percent efficiency, and there's no way to push the material past 29 percent. And there's an immense jump in price between those and the sorts of specialized, hyper-efficient photovoltaic hardware we use in space.

Those pricey panels have three layers of photovoltaic materials, each tuned to a different wavelength of light. So to hit something in between on the cost/efficiency scale, it makes sense to develop a two-layer device. This week saw some progress in that regard, with two separate reports of two-layer perovskite/silicon solar cells with efficiencies of well above 30 percent. Right now, they don't last long enough to be useful, but they may point the way toward developing better materials.