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

Samsung’s very first Galaxy Z TriFold went on sale last Friday, but it sold out within minutes. This foldable phone differs from the 7th generation Galaxy Z Fold7 in that its screen can extend up to 10 inches, turning it into a real tablet. This also means it costs an incredibly high price of $2,899. This is the first device of its type here in the West, although Huawei has its own version in China.

You’ll need to sign up on Samsung.com to receive notifications when the next batch of Galaxy Z TriFolds becomes available. The company says it has limited units in select Samsung Experience Stores in the United States, in states including New York, Texas, California, and Minnesota.

Leak gives us a glimpse of Google’s Aluminum OS

Google hasn’t been shy about hinting at its future plans to converge Android and Chromebooks into a single operating system, apparently known as Aluminum OS internally. But now we can get our first look at what it will look like, as picked up by 9to5 Google. Granted, the preview is a bit limited, but a few official images and a video were taken from a bug report revealing the interface, which has since been removed by Google.

The brief overview shows that Aluminum OS really looks like Android and ChromeOS stitched together. The windowing and browser elements seem to be taken from ChromeOS, while the rest of the interface seems to take more inspiration from Android. Specifically, the taskbar and Start screen look a lot like Android 16’s desktop mode. 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. Regardless, from what we see here, Aluminum OS doesn’t appear to be a significant divergence from what’s available. This will be important if Google hopes to maintain the Chromebook business in education markets.

Even though Aluminum OS is expected to replace ChromeOS in the long term, it could 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 later this year, as Google gradually integrates its platforms. —Luc Larsen

Vivaldi’s new update avoids 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 all the major browsers are racing to integrate AI assistants into their products, Vivaldi is giving the whole approach the middle finger,” writes Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Vivaldi.

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 truly powerful tools, beats artificial algorithmic assistants every time,” says Tetzchner.

The new “powerful tools” in this release include some improvements to Tab Tiling, Vivaldi’s functionality for having two tabs (two or more web pages) side by side in the same window. Vivaldi 7.8 adds a new feature that lets you tile tabs using drag and drop. Grab any tab from 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 arranged, left, right, up, or down, depending on where you want it.

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

Samsung makes a durable screen

Courtesy of Samsung

Samsung is always experimenting with new display technologies, but sustainability enthusiasts will be particularly interested in its most recent innovation: phytoplankton-based bio-resin in displays. The material is part of a new e-paper color display from Samsung, where it is used in the case.

“The display casing has been independently verified by global safety and sustainability certification body UL to be made from 45 percent recycled plastic and 10 percent phytoplankton-based bioresin,” Samsung says. “This material innovation was developed as an alternative to conventional petroleum-based plastics, which can reduce carbon emissions during the manufacturing process by more than 40 percent.”