August arrives with a lineup that feels genuinely thought of. Not each gadget this month is chasing a headline spec or preventing for shelf house. A number of the most fascinating issues touchdown proper now are smaller, quieter, and extra trustworthy about what they really do — a folding mouse that disappears right into a shirt pocket, a bedside unit that replaces three gadgets directly, and a dual-screen E Ink pill that lastly treats studying and writing as a single workflow moderately than two separate duties competing for a similar display.
There’s additionally one thing bigger value being attentive to. Samsung is formally pulling again the curtain on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 this month, and what’s shaping up as a tiered foldable lineup might redefine the class’s identification. In the meantime, Google has quietly slipped a brand new good speaker onto retailer cabinets for the primary time in six years. August, because it seems, rewards persistence — and figuring out precisely the place to look.
1. piBrick Pocket-CM5
The piBrick Pocket-CM5 is a type of tasks that reads higher the longer you spend with the spec sheet. Constructed by Ahmad Amarullah on a customized PCB designed across the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, this open-source handheld prices round $172 in components and arrives at smartphone proportions — 80 × 145 × 19.6mm. The three.92-inch AMOLED show runs at 1080 × 1240 and 90Hz with Asahi tempered glass excessive, which is the form of element that separates a deliberate design from a prototype that merely occurs to work. Full-size and micro-HDMI outputs imply the identical pocket gadget can drive an exterior show when a bigger workspace makes extra sense.
The BBQ20 keyboard with its built-in BlackBerry-derived trackpad provides the piBrick a tactile depth that touchscreen-only handhelds can not match, and facet rotary encoders plus 5 programmable buttons lengthen the enter choices additional nonetheless. A 5,000mAh LiPo retains every little thing working, NVMe SSD help in 2230 or 2242 codecs handles storage, and USB 3.0 with Kind-A and Kind-C covers connectivity. Essentially the most quietly helpful characteristic is USB-HID mode — plug the piBrick into any exterior machine and its keyboard and trackpad immediately develop into a purposeful enter gadget, unbiased of the Pi completely. For a sysadmin who reveals up at a server rack and not using a spare keyboard, that framing adjustments the gadget from hobbyist novelty to respectable every day carry software.
What we like:
- USB-HID mode turns the entire gadget right into a USB keyboard for any exterior pc
- 90Hz AMOLED at this worth level and kind issue is a genuinely uncommon mixture
What we dislike:
- Requires hands-on sourcing, PCB manufacturing, and 3D-printed shell meeting
- The compact BBQ20 keyboard structure carries an actual studying curve for prolonged typing classes
2. OrigamiSwift Folding Mouse
The OrigamiSwift is a Bluetooth mouse that folds flat to 0.18 inches — thinner than most notepads — and comes again right into a full-size ergonomic kind in below half a second. Designed by Horace Lam and constructed across the geometry of conventional origami folding, it weighs simply 40 grams and connects over Bluetooth 5.2, with a 4,000 CPI HD infrared sensor monitoring at as much as 30 inches per second. For digital nomads and frequent vacationers, the enchantment is speedy: full-size mousing consolation that compresses to the entrance pocket of a bag with none structural compromise.
Gentle-click buttons and a easy, constant glide make it discreet in quiet environments, and the triangular origami construction that allows the folding mechanism additionally provides the body sufficient rigidity to soak up every day use with out flex. Battery life is a real standout — one USB-C cost lasts as much as three months, which removes the disposable battery cycle from the equation completely. At $85, it sits in a worth vary the place compromises are likely to accumulate, and the sensor efficiency, weight, and construct high quality maintain most of them from showing. It really works throughout Mac, iPad, Home windows, and Android with out further drivers, which retains the setup frictionless wherever you find yourself working.
What we like:
- Three-month battery life on a single USB-C cost is genuinely distinctive for a wi-fi mouse
- 40 grams means you cease noticing it’s in your bag till the second you really need it
What we dislike:
- 4,000 CPI ceiling might not fulfill customers engaged on high-resolution or multi-monitor setups
- Inventory is at the moment very restricted, with just a few items out there within the store
3. Divoom FlowToo
The Divoom FlowToo prices $99.99 and replaces three issues which were quietly cluttering nightstands for years — a Bluetooth speaker, a white noise machine, and an alarm clock. It runs via a 10W amplifier with a 45mm full-range driver, which is sufficient to fill a bed room at a decent quantity with out the sound turning into harsh on the excessive finish. Greater than 90 built-in sounds cowl the classes folks truly attain for at evening and through focus classes, from rain and ocean atmosphere to forest and calming tones, and the Divoom app handles every little thing from alarm scheduling to sound choice instantly out of your telephone.
The two.26-inch good show is the half that makes the FlowToo really feel like one thing designed with some care moderately than assembled from a components listing. It cycles between a number of clock faces, music visualizers that react to no matter’s enjoying, sleep scene animations, and temper lighting relying on the mode and the time of day. The wake-up sequence replaces a jarring alarm tone with pure sounds that construct in quantity whereas the show steadily brightens — a small change that makes an actual distinction to how the primary couple of minutes of a morning really feel. Out there in White and Black, the shape is clear, rounded, and scaled nicely sufficient to take a seat beside most beds with out dominating the floor.
What we like:
- A 10W full-range driver makes this an actual speaker, not simply an alarm clock with Bluetooth bolted on
- The gradual light-and-sound wake sequence is a meaningfully higher method to begin the morning
What we dislike:
- Devoted white noise machines and standalone audio system will every outperform the FlowToo of their respective classes
- Full characteristic entry requires the Divoom app, which provides dependency to a tool constructed round simplicity
4. Transportable CD Cowl Participant
The Transportable CD Cowl Participant brings album paintings again to the bodily heart of the listening expertise at a time when streaming has lowered most music libraries to a scrollable grid of thumbnails no bigger than a postage stamp. The shape issue is slim and designed to echo the proportions of a CD sleeve — constructed for the form of listening that occurs away from a desk, on a commute, in a resort room, or anyplace else a report participant can not moderately observe you with out important planning.
There’s something the CD format affords that streaming nonetheless hasn’t managed to duplicate — intentionality. You selected this album. You set it in. You listened entrance to again, the best way it was meant to be heard. The Transportable CD Cowl Participant leans into that ritual moderately than treating it as an inconvenience to be engineered away. At a second when cassette gamers and vinyl decks have staged a reputable business comeback, there’s a actual and rising viewers for bodily music {hardware} that doesn’t apologize for present in 2026. For anybody rebuilding a CD assortment or searching for a purpose to make use of the one they by no means threw out, that is the gadget for it.
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What we like:
- Restores album paintings as a bodily, tactile a part of the listening expertise moderately than a compressed thumbnail
- The intentionality of the CD format is one thing streaming genuinely can not replicate
What we dislike:
- The value requires an present or rebuilt CD assortment to justify the funding
- Inventory is tight, with just a few items at the moment out there via the Yanko Design store
5. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
Samsung confirmed the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Unpacked occasion for July 22 in London, and what’s taking form is arguably essentially the most architecturally formidable foldable lineup the corporate has tried. Three fashions seem like in play — the usual Fold 8 at 4.1mm unfolded, the wide-format Fold 8 Huge at a exceptional 3.9mm, and the Fold 8 Extremely, which is the place the S Pen is making its return after being stripped from the Fold 7 to attain that gadget’s headline thinness. Studies level to a titanium-plus-carbon-fiber development for the Extremely, a cloth mixture that works extra naturally with the digitizer layer the stylus requires than the pure titanium backplate the Fold 7 used.
The Ultra is the mannequin value watching most intently. A 5,000mAh battery — the biggest within the Fold line for the reason that third era — marks the primary significant capability improve the collection has seen in years, and the S Pen’s return shifts the Fold 8 Extremely from a premium {hardware} story into one thing with precise software program depth for energy customers. Samsung can also be reportedly growing a digitizer-free stylus resolution for future generations, which might ultimately decouple S Pen performance from bodily bulk completely. If the Extremely ships because the leaks describe, it turns into the primary Z Fold that stops treating its personal productiveness options as an issue to be engineered round, and begins treating them as the rationale the gadget exists.
What we like:
- S Pen returns on the Extremely alongside the road’s largest battery so far
- A tiered lineup lets consumers select between thinness-first or capability-first with out compromise
What we dislike:
- Splitting S Pen help completely to the Extremely positions it as a premium inside an already premium product line
- Three distinct SKUs danger diluting the design identification that made the Fold recognizable within the first place
6. Google Dwelling Speaker
The Google Home Speaker is the corporate’s first new standalone good speaker for the reason that Nest Audio launched in September 2020. Almost six years is a very long time to depart a product class untouched in shopper electronics — Apple refreshed AirPods thrice in that window, Sonos shipped new {hardware}, redesigned its app, and broke it, and nonetheless discovered time to return again. Google’s return is framed nearly completely round Gemini, now constructed instantly into the speaker and positioned as the first purpose to place it in your kitchen counter moderately than any specific development in audio engineering.
The {hardware} reads clear — small, rounded, and out there within the form of understated colours Google’s design groups have at all times been good at choosing. It options 360-degree audio, quicker processing for extra fluid conversational responses, and a brand new mild ring that indicators when Gemini is listening, pondering, or responding. Whether or not this launch represents a real recommitment to the good residence class or just Google discovering Gemini one other product floor to occupy is a good query to ask. The speaker is again on the counter after six years. Whether or not the corporate chooses to remain within the room this time is the more durable and extra essential query.
What we like:
- Gemini integration makes this essentially the most conversationally succesful Google speaker the corporate has ever shipped
- Six years of {hardware} and processing development imply the hole over the Nest Audio ought to be substantial
What we dislike:
- Google’s well-documented historical past of deprioritizing good residence {hardware} makes long-term software program help a respectable concern
- The launch narrative frames the speaker as AI infrastructure first, and as a designed product second
7. Inkleaf Foldable Twin-Display E Ink Pocket book
The Inkleaf is a foldable dual-screen E Ink pill with two 10.3-inch Carta panels that open facet by facet — one for studying, one for writing, concurrently. That single characteristic solves an issue researchers, college students, and writers have been navigating awkwardly for years, normally by propping a pill subsequent to a paper pocket book or toggling between apps and shedding their place every time. Designed by Kameron Yu, it closes to eight.4mm and 480 grams, thinner than an ordinary paperback, and every open panel measures 4.2mm — slimmer than the reMarkable 2 at 4.7mm, the Kindle Scribe at 5.4mm, and the Boox Word Air4 C at 5.8mm. None of these fold.
The forged aluminum physique and precision-machined hinge barrel lay completely flat at 180 levels when open, tactile page-turn buttons sit precisely the place your thumb expects them, and the pressure-sensitive stylus ships within the field with no subscription price connected. Android handles the OS with help for PDFs, EPUBs, MOBI, and TXT recordsdata, and an AI-powered handwriting search can floor any phrase throughout each pocket book you’ve stuffed. First items are anticipated to succeed in founders in August 2026. At round $450, it’s a severe monetary dedication, however one the shape issue and the issue it truly solves handle to earn.
What we like:
- Twin-screen setup genuinely resolves the read-and-write-simultaneously drawback that each comparable single-screen gadget ignores
- 4.2mm per panel open is thinner than any single-screen E Ink gadget at the moment available on the market
What we dislike:
- The value level requires an actual dedication to the E Ink workflow to justify
- Android on an E Ink show nonetheless carries limitations in app responsiveness and display refresh velocity
August Belongs to the Devices That Get Out of the Method
August’s lineup doesn’t observe a single theme, which is a part of what makes it value being attentive to. The piBrick and the Inkleaf each deal with computing as one thing that ought to suit your precise workflow moderately than simply your desk. The OrigamiSwift and the FlowToo make the case that the perfect on a regular basis tech is the type that removes one thing out of your bag or your nightstand moderately than quietly including to it. The Transportable CD Cowl Participant is a reminder that intentional listening by no means truly went away — it simply wanted {hardware} value utilizing once more.
The larger tales — Samsung’s Fold 8 and Google’s long-overdue speaker — inform you one thing significant about the place two of the trade’s largest firms have landed on the query of what good {hardware} is definitely for. One is restoring functionality it arguably ought to by no means have eliminated. The opposite is making up for six years of silence with an AI pitch and hoping no person checks the calendar. Each are value watching this month, for very completely different causes.
