Tech Hacker: The Weekly Dose of Breakthroughs, Bytes & Brainwaves

🗓️ Issue #19 | May 2025

May 07, 2025

Hello Hackers!

This week’s roundup features Apple’s bold move into foldables, Google’s Hollywood gambit, Sam Altman’s biometric World ID rollout, Neuralink’s FDA leap, FutureHouse’s AI agents, plus four wild innovations in robotics and battery tech. Let’s dive in!

📱 Apple’s Foldable Frontier & Release Shakeup

Apple is set to overhaul its iPhone launches by splitting releases: premium models—the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, a new ultrathin iPhone 18 Air, and a long-rumored foldable iPhone—will debut in fall 2026, while the standard iPhone 18 and budget-friendly iPhone 18e arrive in spring 2027. This staggered approach aims to streamline production of its six-model lineup and rejuvenate sales amid market saturation. Rumors also hint at an ultrathin iPhone later this year and a foldable iPad by late 2026 (or even 2028).

🎬 Google’s “100 Zeros” Hollywood Play

Google has quietly launched 100 Zeros, a film and TV production wing in partnership with Range Media Partners, to fund scripted and unscripted content that subtly showcases Google tech and enhances its cool factor among Gen Z. Instead of YouTube, 100 Zeros plans to sell projects to major studios and streamers, weaving in product placements like Android devices to reinforce Google’s brand story.

👁️ Sam Altman’s Orb & World ID

Tools for Humanity, co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, has launched “Orbs” in six U.S. cities—Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco—to scan irises and issue World IDs as proof of personhood, countering AI-driven fraud. With 12 million scans globally, the project will scale with a handheld Orb Mini in 2026 and debut a World-branded Visa debit card, plus pilot age verification for Tinder in Japan.

🧠 Neuralink’s FDA Boost

Elon Musk’s Neuralink scored the FDA’s Breakthrough Device designation for its speech restoration BCI, aimed at helping patients with ALS, stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, MS, and other disorders regain communication—potentially speeding approval by 9–18 months. This milestone underscores Neuralink’s broader portfolio, including vision-restoring Blindsight and motor-control interfaces.

🔬 FutureHouse’s AI Scientist Agents

Eric Schmidt–backed nonprofit FutureHouse introduced four AI agents—Crow for general literature Q&A, Falcon for deep database reviews, Owl to check prior art, and Phoenix for chemistry experiment planning—that outperformed PhD-level benchmarks and integrate wet-lab data for closed-loop scientific discovery.

🤖 Breakthrough Innovations

• Jumping Soft Robot

Georgia Tech engineers built a 5-inch soft robot inspired by nematode worms, capable of hopping up to 10 feet high without legs by mimicking worm kinks with a silicone rod and carbon-fiber spine, as detailed in Science Robotics.

• 3D-Printed Train Station

JR West and Serendix used a construction-grade 3D printer to replace rural Hatsushima Station’s exterior in six hours overnight—the world’s first 3D-printed train station building—saving weeks of traditional construction time.

• Stretchable, Self-Healing Battery

A team from UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, and HKUST unveiled a stretchable lithium-ion battery with a hydrogel electrolyte that self-heals after cuts, punctures, and folding, maintaining stability over 500 charge cycles—ideal for resilient wearables and soft robots.

• Conformable Fluid Battery

Linköping University researchers developed a fluid-electrode battery with a toothpaste-like texture that can be molded or 3D-printed into any shape, powering future e-textiles, medical implants, and soft electronics with stable 500-cycle performance.