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DT Daily: Apple Watch ETA, foldable tablet, bike with ice wheels

Today on DT Daily: we’ve got news on the release of Apple’s Apple Watch, a bendable tablet screen that folds up to a third of its original size, and a mad inventor tries to ride a bike with wheels made of… ice.

One piece of exciting tech we’re all waiting for is the Apple Watch, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be on sale in the very near future either.

When it was announced, Apple said nothing more than it would be ours to buy sometime in early 2015, but a new leak says the actual date will be spring 2015. The news apparently originates from inside Apple’s headquarters, and states the upcoming holiday season and Chinese New Year on February 20 will both pass us by before the Apple Watch goes on sale.

The first day of spring is March 20th, so provided the leak is genuine, we’re still at least five months out from strapping Apple’s first wearable on to our wrists.

No one wants to carry a massive tablet around with them all day, but it would still be nice to have the convenience of a really big screen on hand whenever we wanted, right?

A tablet that neatly folds away is the answer, and such a device is getting closer all the time – just take a look at this tri-folding 8.7-inch touchscreen, recently demonstrated at a show in Japan. The bendy OLED screen has a 1080p resolution, and can be folded down to a third of its original size, which makes it pocketable, but still usable. This latest version is currently undergoing tests, and is so durable it has reached 100,000 folds without a problem. However, before it can go on sale, a lot of other flexible components – from batteries to circuit boards – also need to be fully developed, so don’t expect to see it in Best Buy next week.

You know, there are some experiments that automatically make you shake your head and say “why?” This is one of them.

Mad British inventor Colin Furze wasn’t satisfied with the slim, grippy, and at least slightly shock-absorbing wheels fitted to his bike, so decided to replace them with wide, slippery, and very hard ones made of ice. Yep, ice. No, we really have no idea why either. With the wheels in place, he takes the bike out into the real world, and rides – or at least tries to ride – on tarmac, a skating rink, and finally, a glacier. All of which give new meaning to the phrase “going for a spin.”

We’ve seen Furze antics before, he also came up with magnetic boots so he could walk along a ceiling, and he is now making wacky creations all day long. Ice wheels may not even be the most impractical thing yet to come out of Furze’s lab, er, shed, but his obvious insanity – or genius – makes us excited to see what he does next.

Your host today is Greg Nibler. Miss a day? Watch all the episodes of DT Daily right here. And be sure to catch our latest podcast.

Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
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