Gear News of the Week: Samsung’s TriFold Sells Out in Minutes, and a Leak Teases Google’s New OS

Samsung’s first-ever Galaxy Z TriFold went on sale this past Friday, but it sold out in minutes. This folding phone differs from the 7th-generation Galaxy Z Fold7 in that its screen can expand to a whopping 10 inches, turning it into a proper tablet. That also means it commands an incredibly high price of $2,899. It’s the first device of its kind here in the West, though Huawei has its own version in China.

You’ll have to sign up at Samsung.com to receive notifications of when the next batch of Galaxy Z TriFolds will be available. The company says it has limited units at select Samsung Experience Stores across the US in states such as New York, Texas, California, and Minnesota.

Leak Gives Us a Glimpse at Google’s Aluminium OS

Google hasn’t been quiet about hinting at its future plans of converging Android and Chromebooks into a single operating system, reportedly known as Aluminium OS internally. But now we may have our first peek at what it’ll look like, as picked up by 9to5 Google. Admittedly, the glimpse is a bit limited, but a couple of official images and a video have been pulled from a bug report that reveal the interface, which has since been removed by Google.

The brief look shows that Aluminium OS really does feel like Android and ChromeOS stitched together. The windowing and browser elements feel pulled from ChromeOS, while the rest of the interface seems to take more cues from Android. Specifically, the taskbar and start screen look a lot like the desktop mode in Android 16. The video shows two instances of Google Chrome running in split-screen, a common setup for Chromebooks, before briefly opening the Google Play Store in a separate window. Either way, according to what we’re seeing here, Aluminium OS may not end up feeling like a significant divergence from what’s available. That’ll be important if Google hopes to keep the Chromebook business running in education markets.

While Aluminium OS will reportedly replace ChromeOS in the long run, that may take years, and Chromebooks themselves aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. But rumors indicate that we will see an official launch of its cross-platform operating system sometime later this year as Google gradually integrates its platforms. —Luke Larsen

Vivaldi’s New Update Shuns AI

Vivaldi via Scott Gilbertson

Vivaldi, an alternative web browser, recently released an update to its tab organization tools, but the update is more notable for what it doesn’t include: AI. “While every major browser is racing to cram AI assistants into their products, Vivaldi is dropping a middle finger to that entire approach,” writes Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner.

With Google’s Chrome browser now integrating the company’s Gemini 3 LLM model to handle tasks like booking flights and finding apartments, Vivaldi is positioning itself as the browser that remains AI-free. Instead, Vivaldi plans to double down on tools for humans because “human intelligence, equipped with genuinely powerful tools, beats artificial algorithmic assistants every single time,” says Tetzchner.

The new “powerful tools” in this release include some improvements to Tab Tiling, Vivaldi’s feature for having two tabs (two web pages, or more) side-by-side in the same window. Vivaldi 7.8 adds a new feature that allows you to tile tabs using drag and drop. Grab any tab in your tab bar and drag it onto the current tab, and Vivaldi will tile the two side-by-side. Where you drag it determines how the tab is tiled, to the left, right, top, or bottom, depending on where you want it.

Other new features in this update include easier access to Vivaldi’s integrated mail client and a user-requested feature that allows you to restrict pinned tabs to a single domain. Vivaldi 7.8 can be downloaded from the Vivaldi website. —Scott Gilbertson

Samsung Makes a Sustainable Screen

Courtesy of Samsung

Samsung is always experimenting with new display technology, but sustainability fans will be especially interested in its most recent innovation: phytoplankton-based bio-resin in screens. The material is a part of a new color e-paper display from Samsung, where it is used in the housing.

“The display’s housing has been independently verified by global safety and sustainability certification organization UL to consist of 45 percent recycled plastic and 10 percent phytoplankton-based bio-resin,” Samsung says. “This material innovation was developed as an alternative to conventional petroleum-based plastics, which can reduce carbon emissions in the manufacturing process by more than 40 percent.”