It’s good to know how long your phone will get updates before you purchase.

Updates are annoying, but necessary

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When updates come to an end

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How Samsung handles software support and what models are nearing end of life

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How Google handles software support and what models are nearing end of life

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How Motorola handles software support and what models are nearing end of life

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How Apple handles software support and what models are nearing end of life

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What to do if your phone is nearing end of support

It’s not exactly the most unexpected rumor, but a new report claims that Apple is working on an iPad Pro refresh, and a new entry-level MacBook Pro with M7 for spring 2027.

If the rumor is accurate, that moves the iPad Pro from a previous fall launch cycle to the spring. This will help level out Apple’s earnings cycle, and move some new releases out of the holiday quarter, and into the spring and back-to-school purchasing season.

Any new iPad Pro will be an incremental update, with screen sizes expected to remain the same. No redesign is expected, and one is not predicted in Wednesday’s report from Bloomberg.

A faster processor is expected. Apple has also reportedly been testing vapor chamber cooling for the iPad Pro, like the iPhone 17 Pro has now.

The last iPad Pro update with M5 was delivered in October 2025.

The most notable section of Wednesday’s report is that the lower-end MacBook Pro will adopt a new design language, first seen in the OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro expected before the end of 2026 or early 2027. That model is reportedly codenamed K104 and may be the first to adopt the previously rumored M7 processor, in a quicker-than-normal debut.

The fall 2026 entry-level MacBook Pro is codenamed J804 and is expected to have the M6 chip.

The J804 codename was known in October 2025, with it found in macOS Tahoe code. J704 was the entry-level M5 MacBook Pro.

This makes Apple’s spring release period jam-packed with the non-Pro iPhone 18 lineup, and a second-generation iPhone Air expected to debut around then too.

The UK Government has recently announced that all households will be able to install plug-in solar panels – without any expensive or complicated installation required.

Plug-in solar panels promise to help reduce the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels while enabling households to save money on their energy bills too. Our Home Tech Editor Dave Ludlow explains more on the costs and savings of plug-in solar panels.

So whether you’re keen to get your hands on plug-in solar or just want to know more about the set-up, you’ve come to the right place. 

We explain everything you need to know about the availability of plug-in solar panels, including which retailers are expected to stock the systems, why they’re going to be more readily available and whether the government is offering any incentives for households.

The Enhanced membership ($25 per month, $299 annually) extends the warranty to five years, which matters with such an investment. Even though I haven’t experienced hardware issues yet, the system relies on pumps, tubing, and sensors running every night. That introduces more failure points than traditional mattresses, and consumers have reported warranty replacements for various issues over the years. Once coverage ends, replacing the hardware could be expensive. The new Elite tier ($33 per month, $399 annually) also includes a five-year warranty and Health Check.

Beyond the ongoing costs, there are also privacy considerations; cloud dependency issues, which I explain below; and questions about how much access a company should have to your bedroom. Last year, security researchers discovered vulnerabilities in Eight Sleep’s firmware, including back doors that could permit remote access and enable unauthorized users to run arbitrary code and transmit user data to Amazon Web Services (AWS). This also means that Eight Sleep engineers can know when you’re asleep, whether two people are sharing the bed, and when the bed is empty. “Imagine your ex works for Eight Sleep,” Dylan Ayrey and Jake King, cofounders at cybersecurity company Truffle Security, wrote in a 2025 blog post.

Eight Sleep has since updated its security policies, clarifying that customer support can only access a user’s Pod remotely with explicit consent and while the user is physically present with the device.

Finally, because the Pod depends on cloud connectivity, disruptions can affect functionality. During an AWS outage in late 2025, some users momentarily lost temperature regulation and adjustable-base features. Eight Sleep has since introduced Backup Mode to reduce the impact of connectivity failures, but it doesn’t guarantee that similar problems won’t happen again.

The Pod 5 is the best temperature-regulating sleep tracker I’ve tested. But between the mandatory subscription, privacy compromises, and cloud reliance, the gap between what it costs and what it demands you accept remains wider than ideal. If you’re already an Eight Sleep member, the trade-in program makes sense. If you’re a newcomer, you should know exactly what you’re buying.

As for me? I’m going to keep using it. That’s the truth.

You may be able to charge your devices much faster. Let’s find out.

How iPhone and iPad charging speeds are measured

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The latest iPhones and iPads charge at between 40 and 60 watts

With the RM9L RGB-Mini, TCL doesn’t skimp on HDMI 2.1 ports. There are four total, and each one can support a 144Hz refresh rate for low latency PC gaming or whatever you want to throw at the television. One of the HDMI 2.1 ports is for eARC passthrough audio to powered speakers or a receiver. I added an Xbox Series X and a Google TV for testing and connected Klipsch the Nines II speakers. There are two USB ports (one coaxial), an Ethernet port for a wired connection, and a digital optical port. The TV uses Wi-Fi 6, which is fast and compatible.

I liked the remote for the most part, since it is clean and easy to use. The brightness controls are on the right-hand side, which is a surprisingly brilliant design choice. For late-night gaming sessions you can crank down the brightness quickly or pump it up when the sunlight pours in. Tiny notches on the remote for volume and channels help you locate them without looking. The buttons for free television channels and a few others seemed like overkill. Also, the Home button is not centered, so it’s harder to find. Thankfully at this price, the remote is backlit.

Real-World Testing Results

Two movies I always test right away, especially to see if the contrast and brightness are as exceptional as they should be for a television’s price, are Awake on Netflix and The Creator on the Fandango at Home app. That’s because these movies have extremely dimly lit scenes at night or predawn. Even some OLED models look washed out during a cycling scene in Awake in which the actor Gina Rodriquez passes a guy in a blue shirt. Only after selecting the Vivid picture mode could I see what was going on. I find Mini RGB tech to be fussy at times, requiring picture quality tweaks.

For The Creator, an early scene by the ocean just didn’t have the vividness I would like for the price, looking slightly washed out without enough blue or deep blacks. Even after using Vivid or Dolby Vision IQ picture modes, the scene still looked too grayed out.

For skin tone benchmarks, the RM9L underperformed compared with the LG Micro RGB Evo. I noticed a lack of tonal variation, but in a side-by-side test against the LG television, there was more of a difference. That meant the RM9L matched up more closely with the midrange Sony Bravia 7 Mark II and the Hisense UR9 that also benefited from Mini RGB tech.

In a demo reel benchmark, there is one tough challenge involving white mist over a snowy mountain. The Leica Cine Play 1 projector is admittedly not a fair test (even if it’s cheaper) because that model has such an exceptional lens, but the mist was far more distinct on it. Green grass near a fence in winter was more noticeable and obvious than on the Hisense UR9, and the two televisions were about equal during a segment with buffalo on a field, showing different shades of brown. The LG Micro RGB Evo rendered several scenes with more color, including a yellow flower, a red cactus, a purple butterfly, and dark trees in a nighttime scene.

What could you do if you could make a circuit trace by just bending a piece of paper? How about bridging modern technologies and traditional handicrafts while providing opportunities for learning skills in both.

As part of our interdisciplinary research into digital craftsmanship at the MEI Lab at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, we came across research that demonstrated how to impregnate paperlike material (technically a “nonwoven textile”) with the kind of liquid metal used to make conductive ink. Initially, the impregnated material is nonconductive because an insulating oxide layer forms that encapsulates microscopic droplets of the liquid metal. However, applying pressure via shaped molds will crack open the insulating layer, allowing neighboring particles to merge, and thus creating conducting regions in the shape of the mold.

Both of us were introduced as children to origami and kirigami (similar to origami, except that cutting is allowed in addition to folding). We, along with our colleagues, decided to see if those traditional techniques could be used on the new material to eliminate the need for molds. Our goal was to allow crafters to make hybrid papercraft creations that contained easily integrated elements such as LEDs and motors.

In particular, we were interested in the possibility of combining the separate stages of creating a papercraft object and adding electrical conductors. Previous approaches to creating electrified papercraft objects relied on adding a separate flexible conductor—such as adhesive copper tape—to the paper. This increases the effort required and runs the risk of creating open circuits as the conductive material conforms to the object’s shape.

Isopropanol and a gallium-indium liquid material are used to impregnate a paperlike material that is 55 percent polyester and 45 percent cellulose. Electronic components such as LEDs and motors are held in place with masking tape. James Provost

Our first step was to see if the pressures involved in bending and cutting alone would be sufficient to create conductive traces. We became frequent visitors to our university’s materials science and engineering department to fabricate samples and then to borrow equipment to characterize their behavior.

We soon confirmed that the pressures involved in folding and cutting—ranging from 2.5 to 100 megapascals—were enough to create conductive traces. We also confirmed that normal handling of the paper didn’t accidentally create conductive paths.

We made a number of changes to the original method for creating the impregnated paper. For example, instead of immersing the paper in a mixture of isopropanol and liquid metal, we used an airbrush to spray the mixture onto the paper. That allowed us to vary how much was deposited on the paper and to use cardboard stencils to mask some areas from being impregnated, allowing folding and cutting in those regions without creating unwanted conductive traces. We also experimented with the ratios of isopropanol and liquid metal.

We became frequent visitors to our university’s materials science and engineering department.

After optimizing the mixing ratios and amount applied via airbrush, we were left with a material that reliably conducts with a resistance of 23.18 ohms per centimeter for cut edges and 4.4 Ω/cm for folded edges. The folded edges retain their conductivity even if later flattened out, and the conductivity is the same on either side of the paper. We estimate the combined cost of the paper and liquid metal (available from many online vendors) is about US $1.80 to make a 10- by 10-cm piece.

The next step was attaching electronic components to the traces. To make the connections more flexible, we cut down the rigid leads of LEDs and attached conductive thread to the stumps. We then held the threads in place using masking tape. Similarly, we connected conductive thread to the terminals of a power supply.

As our goal was to use this material educationally, we now needed to make it easy for a beginner—whether in papercraft or electronics—to try it out. We created a toolkit, dubbed LiqMetCraft. This consists of all the required materials, plus a browser-based software tool that lets the user select or create designs and then gives guidance on physical construction.

We created three versions of LiqMetCraft. The first is based on Chinese papercraft in which a piece of paper is folded into a fanlike segment and then cut to create a radially symmetric design. We provided circles of paper with a doughnot-shape impregnated region, with an untreated region that created a gap in the donut. We attached positive and negative terminals to either side of the gap. The user could specify in the software how many times they wanted to fold the disk and then draw potential cuts, receiving immediate feedback on what the unfolded disk would look like, as well as guidance on how to place LEDs.

To make our paper sample, isopropanol and liquid metal are mixed in specific ratios while being cooled by an ice bath. Sonic waves are used to ensure the liquid metal breaks up into microscopic droplets. The mixture is then applied via airbrush, while stencils prevent some areas being covered for different papercraft templates. James Provost

The second version of LiqMetCraft was based on origami. We supplied rectangular pieces of paper with two conductive regions separated by a border down the middle. The software tool provided templates for 12 origami designs, with step-by-step instructions for folding them. Once the project was completed, the user could add components, such as a motor, by taping them to the folds.

The final version supported 3D paper model making. In this case, the initial paper supplied was a rectangle with an untreated rectangular central area. By cutting this paper in half and then further cutting the halves into patterns separated by a spacer, the user could make various self-standing models. The software allowed the user to draw a pattern on screen, and then have a cutting machine produce a template for cutting the impregnated paper.

We had 42 participants, evenly divided into three groups, try out the different versions. All found it easy to use, and we were pleasantly surprised that some participants moved beyond the supplied designs to their own creations.

For full details of the current process, see our open access LiqMetCraft research paper published in CHI ‘26: Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. In the future, we plan to try different substrates for the impregnating solution, as well as explore further types of papercraft, such as pop-up books. We’re also interested in developing ways to use the material to support inputs as well as outputs by constructing switches and potentiometers directly out of the material. Imagine traditional papercraft creations becoming interactive devices!

This article appears in the July 2026 print issue.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built this machine years ago as a ground twin for the Perseverance rover. It sat in the Mars Yard outside Pasadena, rolling through simulated terrain while teams tested commands and fixes before beaming them to the real vehicle on another planet. No one planned for it to fly anywhere. Now that same hardware sits at the center of a serious discussion about placing a nuclear-powered rover on the Moon.

The vehicle’s name is PROMISE, which stands for Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration. It started life under a previous name, OPTIMISM, as a full-scale engineering model and testbed for perseverance. Parts of the previous Curiosity testbed were also included into its systems. Exact duplicates of flight hardware provide it with proven wheels, suspension, processors, and cameras that have already withstood years of rigorous usage on Mars.

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The rover is around the size of a small car and weighs about one ton. It has six wheels and the same rocker-bogie suspension that Perseverance and Curiosity used to climb steep slopes and cross broken ground. Its mast has camera systems similar to those found on Mars rovers, while an instrument arm extends for close-up work. According to NASA experts, several of these science capabilities, such as mapping resources and examining permanently shadowed regions, will need to be modified to meet lunar aims.

The real advantage is in its power system, which uses a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator to transform the steady heat produced by decaying plutonium-238 into electricity and warmth. Unlike solar panels, this source operates during the two-week lunar night and inside craters that never get sunlight. Temperatures in those shaded areas might fall below minus 200 degrees Celsius. The generator’s output also prevents electronics and mechanisms from freezing solid, eliminating the most significant limitation that solar-powered devices confront near the south pole.

NASA’s Moon Base program manager, Carlos García-Galán, highlighted the practical benefits. With nuclear power on board, the rover can explore any terrain without waiting for daylight or relying on recharge facilities. Long drives into difficult-to-reach locations become more practical, as Curiosity and Perseverance have proved on Mars. Administrator Jared Isaacman has stated that the agency is “looking very hard right now about launching Promise to the Moon” because the hardware is already available and can give results faster than starting a new project from scratch.