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Weekly Rewind: How to become a cyborg, super strong iPhones, and more

In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from this week. Everything from the cell phone service with the fastest download speeds to the latest, modern takes on home lighting, it’s all here.

T-Mobile now has fastest LTE download speeds of four big carriers, study shows

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For a long time, T-Mobile has been on the lower end of the big four carriers in terms of connectivity and speed. The Un-carrier has come a long way — it now rates the second highest in customer satisfaction, and offers the fastest LTE downloads in the U.S., according to a new study by OpenSignal.

Read the full story here.

Solar panels? Not good enough for Elon Musk — he wants to create a solar roof

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Millions of homes around the world protect us from the hot and brutal sun, so it only makes sense that having a solar roof would be the logical next step in harnessing that power. Sure, many can afford to install solar panels on their roofs, but Musk’s plan is different. He wants to make a roof entirely out of solar cells.

Read the full story here.

British Columbia woman’s iPhone survives a 2,500-foot fall nearly unscathed

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This iPhone must be part Apple device, part cat. That’s the only explanation for its surviving a 2,500-foot drop out of an airplane, right? Call it fantastic engineering or just blind luck, but Jeannine Buck says her smartphone lived to tell the tale of plummeting around half a mile out of the sky.

Read the full story here.

Forget your bank, hackers say we should worry about smart sex toy privacy

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No one wants to share their data with just any old app developer and even less so when it could reveal when, and how often, a smart sex toy is used. That’s the accusation against Standard Innovation Corporation, makers of the We-Vibe 4 Plus vibrator, by two hackers at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas. The pair, who go by the names Follower and Goldfisk, presented their findings in a talk called Hacking the Internet of Vibrating Things. Sure, the name is quite amusing, but the implications are less so.

Read the full story here.

You can pre-order the Blocks modular smartwatch for $60 off right now

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Gadgets like the Blocks Smartwatch have the potential to revolutionize how we buy products. That’s because, instead of being replaced, the modular smartwatch is designed to be upgraded and tweaked with the passage of time. (No pun intended!) At $100 off its $320 pre-order price on new.chooseblocks.com and $60 off its regular price on our store, the DT Shop is offering a solid deal on the smartwatch.

Read the full story here.

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China is developing a hypersonic space plane that makes the Space Shuttle look primitive

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China is developing a space plane that’ll go from runway to orbit and back down again at hypersonic speeds, reports Popular Science. When it is completed, the hypersonic space plane will boost the Asian country to the forefront of the aerospace industry — eclipsing the capabilities of the now retired Space Shuttle and competing with the cutting-edge British Skylon.

Read the full story here.

Apple’s push into education has helped more than 32,000 U.S. students

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Apple joined President Barack Obama’s ConnectED program in 2014, promising to issue grants to 114 schools in 29 states — including a MacBook and iPad for teachers, an Apple TV for each classroom, and an iPad for each student. Fast forward two years, and it seems as if Apple’s decision to join the initiative is paying off quite well.

Read the full story here.

100 million Volkswagen vehicles can be unlocked wirelessly by hacker thieves

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Is your keyless remote safe? Connected cars face increasing threats as new technologies present hackers and thieves with additional ways to access vehicles. One vulnerability, though, involves older tech — remote key fobs used to unlock cars. Researchers at the Usenix security conference in Austin will soon present a paper outlining two remote unlocking vulnerabilities, one of which puts nearly every Volkswagen Group vehicle manufactured since 1995 in jeopardy, as reported in Wired.

Read the full story here.

Nanoleaf’s triangular panels offer a new, modular take on lighting

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If you can say one thing about Toronto-based Nanoleaf, it’s that its light bulbs don’t look boring. From the dimmable Bloom to the smart Ivy, the folded circuit board bulbs are eye-catching. The same can be said for the company’s newest product, the Aurora, debuting at CES 2016. The Aurora isn’t something you’ll stick under a lamp shade. In fact, it moves home lighting onto the wall (though you could also put them on the ceiling or a table, too). It’s a series of triangle-shaped LED panels that fit together in various shapes.

Read the full story here.

Ready to become a cyborg? This dermal implant will give you a sixth sense

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The international team of activists, technologists, and body-hackers known as Cyborg Nest want to give you a sixth sense — and, with apologies to M. Night Shyamalan, it’s got nothing to do with seeing dead people. Instead, Cyborg Nest’s upcoming first product is a device called the North Sense: a miniature, Bluetooth-enabled wearable chip-like device users attach by way of body piercings. Its purpose? Firstly, to vibrate each and every time you face in a magnetic northward direction. Secondly, to aid your transition in becoming a real-life cyborg.

Read the full story here.

Lulu Chang
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
It looks even more likely the iPhone Fold will release in 2026
Concept render of a foldable iPhone.

Mark Gurman has once more suggested a 2026 release window for the rumored iPhone Fold, adding his own not-insignificant influence to the cascade of other analysts saying the same thing. In his Sunday morning newsletter for Bloomberg, Gurman said he expects the foldable to arrive "next year."

This lines up with predictions made by trusted analyst Jeff Pu. It certainly seems like the rumored device isn't likely to hit shelves anytime soon, and when it does, it could carry the highest price point of any iPhone to date at $2,300.

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Apple iPhone 17 Pro might have more than one design change
Render of iPhone 17 Pro Max.

We're still several months away from the launch of Apple's next iPhones, with the devices not expected to arrive until sometime in the second half of the year, typically September if previous patterns are followed. That hasn't stopped the rumours surrounding the unannounced devices however, with the latest coming from a leaker that also revealed an apparent third-party case for the iPhone 17 Air this week. 

Sonny Dickson has shared an image on X, which was picked up by Macrumors, showing a selection of what he claims are dummy models for the iPhone 17 series. Alongside the image, Dickson said: "Here's another look at some iPhone 17 dummies, notice on the Pro models where the glass will change."

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Apple’s portless iPhone could be more than a concept
The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max's charging port.

A portless iPhone may no longer be outside the realm of possibility for Apple. The European Union has confirmed that the Silicon Valley giant can create portless iPhones without USB-C.

We reported over the weekend that Apple wanted to make the iPhone 17 Air the first portless phone, but shelved the idea because of regulations in the EU, per a report from Bloomberg. One of those regulations was the Common Charger Directive, an environmental law that forced Apple to switch from the Lightning port to USB-C to reduce the amount of electronic waste from Lightning cables. Now, according to 9to5Mac, European Commission press officer Federica Miccoli said a portless iPhone would also comply with the directive.

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