Daily Authority: 📱 DIY foldables

👋 Hello, and welcome to Thursday’s Daily Authority. If you’re thinking it feels like we just saw each other, you’d be right! Paula here covering for Hadlee today, and if you’re already subscribed to the Weekly Authority, you’ll see me for the third time at the weekend. Lucky you!

Flipping marvelous

While you’re probably not about to rush out and build your own foldable when there are phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, Z Fold 4, and Motorola Razr 5G around, that’s exactly what a Chinese YouTuber and his teammates did.

• The team made a foldable iPhone, complete with functional iOS software.
• The project took almost a year to complete, and wasn’t nearly as simple as we’re about to make it sound.
• Parts from different iPhones were used to create the foldable, including internals from the iPhone X.
• These internals were packed inside a Motorola Razr flip phone chassis to create a foldable iPhone.

Trial by fire

Hours of meticulous construction and plenty of trial and error were required to get the device working.

• As well as using materials from other iPhones, some parts had to be 3D printed, and the battery used was a tiny 1,000mAh cell that doesn’t support MagSafe or wireless charging.
• It’s still pretty impressive that the phone runs iOS smoothly and has touchscreen functionality, though.

Foldable future

The Youtuber wanted to preserve as many parts of the donor iPhones as possible during the build.

• After testing various foldable hinges, including the Galaxy Z Flip’s hinge, they settled on the Moto Razr hinge as it caused the least amount of creasing.
• They even named their creation: The “iPhone V.”
• Though it’s a far cry from what a foldable iPhone of the future could look like, it is impressive!

Roundup

📱 Foldables, not rollables: Samsung’s reluctance to make rollable phones may encourage other OEMs to try (Android Authority).

👀 Bigger and better? New leak reveals the complete specs of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 (Android Authority).

🚗Va-Va-Vroom: Red Bull Racing’s first e-scooter packs plenty of F1 racing pedigree (Android Authority).

😢 Meta confirms 11,000 layoffs, amounting to 13% of its workforce (TechCrunch).

✅ Bye-bye, “Official” Twitter badges: Hours after rollout, Elon Musk just nixed the new feature (Android Authority).

🙌 Mastodon’s on the up: Thousands have joined the site since Twitter changed hands, and its founder has a vision for democratizing social media (Time).

⌚ Google confirms Pixel Watch bug that counts calories in Fitbit app inaccurately: It’s a software glitch, apparently (9to5Google).

🎨 In case you missed it: Yesterday was Wallpaper Wednesday, and we’ve got more great phone wallpapers to share (Android Authority).

🎵 YouTube Music and Premium subscriber count grew to 80 million in past year: That figure includes subscribers worldwide, plus subscription “trialers” (9to5Google).

💰 Woop! Google has started rolling out refunds for Stadia, though no refunds on Stadia Pro subscription fees or Google’s Power Support Claw. (Android Authority).

🎮 The Xbox Series X could be getting new graphics modes that can save you money: lower your in-game framerates and resolutions to save on your energy bill (TechRadar).

Thursday Thing

Spend your weekends on your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, or Nintendo Switch? How much money are you spending on powering your consoles? With the rising price of energy in the UK, Eurogamer collaborated with hardware experts Digital Foundry to look at how much energy consoles use per hour during a range of different tasks, and the results are enlightening.

Note: These costs apply to the UK, based on current energy prices in the country.

• Consoles still draw power even when they’re off completely, though it’s a tiny amount, with the PS5 drawing 0.1W of power and the Xbox Series X slightly more at 0.2W.
• Gamers in the UK could be spending up to £22.70 per year ($25.85) by leaving their consoles in rest mode.
• Most of us have left our console idling while making a snack or doing something else, but it might surprise you to know that your console doesn’t draw much less power while idling. The PS5 draws 57.4W per hour (costing 1.95 pence), while the console drawing the least power is the Nintendo Switch at 7.8W per hour.
• It’s likely more efficient to use a streaming stick or smart TV than your games console for that Netflix binge — A Chromecast at peak load uses around 2W of power per hour, while the PS5 uses a whopping 80W, and the Xbox Series X uses 44.8W.
• Finally, the question on all our lips: How much is your gaming habit actually costing you? Playing demanding games (CyberPunk 2077 in performance mode, in this instance) can be costly. The PS5 used up to 230W of power per hour, costing 7.54 pence (9 cents), while the Xbox Series X used up to 190W, costing 6.12 pence (7 cents).
• That means a three-hour gaming sesh on the PS5 could cost you 23 pence in the UK, £1.60 ($1.82) if you game this way every day for a week, and £7 ($8) for a month. Most of us probably don’t game this much, but if you do, it could cost you £84 ($96) per year.
• If you’re in the US, these costs will obviously vary, but you can still use the energy consumption figures to work out how much your gaming habit is costing you based on rates in your area.

Switching my idling console off,

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.