hardware
hardware on Spoot: Spotted Early: a running collection of 3 stories we have gathered and hand-picked because they are worth your time. Every post here touches on hardware in some way — the news, the analysis, the deep dives, and the occasional surprise find. # Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns, concept designs, tiny… New stories are added to this page as we find them, so check back if you want to keep up with what is happening around hardware, or subscribe to the RSS feed to get them as soon as they are published. Browse the collection below, or head back to the homepage to see everything Spoot: Spotted Early is covering right now.
Apple's own code just whispered three new gadgets before the year ends
Apple's code just whispered three new gadgets before the year ends, and honestly, that's the kind of gossip we live for. MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris dug up images and details pointing to a refreshed HomePod mini, an iPad mini 8, and an Apple TV 4K, all expected after this month's iPhone 18 Pro and folding iPhone Duo debut. The HomePod mini 2 reportedly keeps the original's shape from late 2020, which is fine, but I'm side-eyeing the color situation. The current model pops in orange, yellow, and blue; if the leak's images suggest a muted palette, that's a quiet downgrade for a speaker that made brightness its personality. We'll see what ships.
Phones with robot arms and keyboard cravings: five designs worth the pocket space
A phone with a literal robot arm. Not a concept render, not a crowdfunding fever dream, but a design someone actually put together and said, yes, this belongs in a pocket. That's the kind of specific weirdness we live for. This roundup gathers five handsets that put design first, from that mechanical appendage to a keyboard phone clearly built for people who type faster than they talk. It's a refreshing break from the endless glass slabs. The honest take? Some of these will feel like solutions looking for problems. Others might just make you question why every phone looks the same. If you're already circling back for the details, our piece on Dyson's camera-toting toothbrush suggests we're equally intrigued by tech that refuses to play it safe. Stay spooty.
Googlebook isn't one laptop: it's an Android-native invite to everyone else's hardware
Google didn't build a laptop. It built a door and handed out keys. The new Googlebook project skips the house-brand hardware entirely, instead offering a desktop platform that several manufacturers will bolt onto their own machines. The twist that actually got my attention? It's native Android. No virtualized layer, no emulator shim, just apps running the way they do on your phone. That's the razor clam in this spec sheet, the detail hiding under all that "partnership ecosystem" language. I like it. Google has spent years making Android feel at home on phones, and now it's daring the laptop world to catch up. Will it work? The manufacturers are the wildcards, and the real test is whether the software feels as tight on a big screen as it does in your palm. I'm curious.