Samsung is already the king of folding phones – and at the first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2025, the tech giant teased its potential next frontier.

During the launch, which saw the reveal of the Samsung Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Plus, Samsung showed off a brief roadmap of its future products – complete with a tri-folding foldable phone.

This is important because, while we MagSafe lovers have made do with MagSafe Android phone cases these past few years, there’s always been a caveat that these cases may not work with all MagSafe products. With Qi2 Ready cases, you can rest easy knowing they’ll work with Qi2 chargers.

It’s worth noting that OnePlus’ latest flagship phone, the OnePlus 13, is not a Qi2 Ready phone, however, OnePlus sells a magnetic case to enable Qi2-like charging. This is the old approach of adding magnetic charging to phones with basic Qi support, and it will not turn your phone into a Qi2 device. While it may feel similar, you may not enjoy faster charging speeds, it will not be as energy efficient, and it’s not guaranteed to work with all Qi2 accessories. Golden says Qi2 Ready phones have “special features built into them” to enable proper Qi2 functionality when paired with a Qi2 Ready case.

Alas, as soon as you take these Qi2 Ready cases off the phone, the magnetic functionality disappears. This may not be a problem for most people. It’s hard to find recent statistics, but a 2023 YouGov survey found that roughly 68 percent of Americans use a phone case, and a 2017 study put that number at 79 percent. But it does stink for those of us who don’t like using a case. Pour one out for the case-less fiends.

I can recall dozens of times when I’ve had to take my iPhone case off to attach a wireless microphone to the USB-C port or to fit the phone on a gimbal. Removing the case didn’t change anything because iPhones have magnets built in, but this is something that will impact Qi2 Ready phones, and it’s a frustrating limitation.

I think Qi2 Ready phones are an acceptable in-between measure. Considering it’s cheaper than embedding magnets into a phone, I hope it means more budget and midrange smartphones can enjoy Qi2 capabilities.

Still, I worry that this will make things confusing for the average person. New phones will support Qi but not Qi2, but they’ll have Qi2 Ready cases to enable Qi2—my brain hurt just writing that. If they just had native Qi2 support, magnetic charging would work all the time with any Qi2 accessory. Easy peasy.

The good news is that Samsung and Google have committed to releasing official Qi2 Android phones in 2025, so it is on the way, though it does feel bizarre that Samsung may not end up debuting it on its flagship smartphone series.

I’ll make do with a magnetic case (again), but for the love of God, can someone just give me my magnetic Android already?

Google worked with the Israeli military in the immediate aftermath of its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, racing to beat out Amazon to provide AI services, according to company documents obtained by the Washington Post. 

In the weeks after Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel, employees at Google’s cloud division worked directly with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) — even as the company told both the public and its own employees that Google only worked with civilian government ministries, the documents reportedly show.

Weeks after the war began, an employee with Google’s cloud division escalated the IDF’s military’s requests for access to Google’s AI technology, according to the Post. In another document, an employee warned that Google needed to quickly respond to the military’s requests, or else Israel would turn to Amazon for its cloud computing needs. In a November 2023 document, an employee thanks a coworker for handling the IDF’s request. Months later, employees requested additional access to AI tools for the IDF. 

Amid this, Google was punishing employees for protesting Project Nimbus, Israel’s $1.2 billion contract for Google and Amazon’s cloud computing services. Google fired 28 employees who staged sit-in protests at the company’s offices in New York and California, some of whom were also arrested during the demonstrations.

At the same time, Google denied that it was working with the Israeli military. “We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy,” Anna Kowalczyk, the external communications manager for Google Cloud, told The Verge in April 2024. “This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services,” Kowalczyk said.

Google did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex’s own ad-supported free TV and movies. More recently, the company added social networking features, which it’s today expanding with its rollout of new functionality. Notably, this includes a way to share your Plex profile publicly and tools to let others read your TV and movie reviews and then comment in return.

Plex first introduced social networking in November 2023 when it launched a feature called “Discover Together,” which allowed users to create profiles on the service and then find and follow friends to see what they were watching. (The feature initially received some backlash as some Plex users were unhappy about its opt-out nature. Plex now notes that content flagged as adult won’t appear in users’ Activity fees, which was one of the users’ concerns.)

While it was a shift for the company, offering a more social experience on Plex allows it to better compete not only with other free, ad-supported streamers but also with dedicated social networks for movie and TV reviews like Letterboxd and TV Time, among others.

With today’s release, Plex says users will now be able to share a public URL that points to their profile on the service on watch.plex.tv. By default, users will be findable by others on Plex via the app’s search, unless they’ve already turned this off in their settings.

People who view your user profile will be able to see what you’ve been watching, what’s on your Watchlist, and more. This does not change any of your existing privacy settings, Plex notes.

In addition, Plex users will have the option to make their Ratings & Reviews visible to other users on Plex through a new setting. Here, you can choose between allowing anyone to see these reviews or only those signed in to Plex. You can also choose that your reviews are only visible to Friends or Friends of Friends, or you can make all your Ratings & Reviews private if desired.

Alongside the social networking features, Plex is also launching a preview of its new user interface, initially on Apple TV. The redesign includes updated navigation, more personal media customization, easier feature access, a richer experience with more artwork, and Plex’s various social networking features, the company says in its announcement.

For power users, Plex Pass subscribers (paid users) will gain access to HEVC hardware encoding for better video quality while saving bandwidth. This option was previously in preview mode with select users but is now available to all subscribers.

A joint venture called The Stargate Project will contribute $500 billion over four years to generative AI infrastructure in the U.S., representatives of SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle announced in partnership with President Donald Trump on Jan. 21.

The joint venture will support infrastructure, including data centers, contributing to what OpenAI calls a “computing system.”

“This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” OpenAI wrote in a Jan. 21 post on X (formerly Twitter). “This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”

“It’s big money and high-quality people,” Trump said at a White House press conference, according to the Associated Press.

At least one location confirmed in Texas

OpenAI will initially contribute $100 billion to the project, with the other $400 billion coming at an undisclosed pace over the next four years.

OpenAI said building a data center associated with the project has already begun in Abilene, Texas.

“We are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalize definitive agreements,” OpenAI wrote.

Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said 10 data centers were already built or under construction.

SEE: AI adoption tends to weaken companies’ chances of meeting sustainability goals, according to a report released in January.

Which companies are involved?

The initial equity funders are:

• Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank.
• OpenAI.
• Oracle.
• MGX, a technology investment firm located in the United Arab Emirates.

SoftBank will be responsible for The Stargate Project’s finances, while OpenAI will handle operations.

Other initial technology partners are:

“This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle,” OpenAI wrote.

Trump’s administration will ease the way for more data centers in the United States, he said on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. That easement may include unspecified “emergency declarations” around The Stargate Project potentially generating its own electricity.

Building out AI involves rethinking data and power needs

“Our current infrastructure is not ready for the demands AI will require for full maturation,” said Sean Tufts, managing partner for critical infrastructure and operational technology at Optiv, in an email to TechRepublic. “This team is a perfect trifecta to embolden a new ecosystem. Bringing together the boldest AI firm, one of the largest data and cloud companies, and one of the most innovative financiers.  This is the type of public/private partnership that America’s innovators thrive on.”

Tufts suggested a power generation company should join the group to address electrical needs. In addition to chips, robust data centers, and more efficient cooling, he said, power is one of the pillars required for increased support for generative AI technologies.

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