Comprar um novo iPhone é sempre uma experiência especial — principalmente quando estamos falando dos recém-lançados iPhones 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max e do novíssimo iPhone Duo! Mas, junto com a empolgação de conhecer os novos recursos, surge também uma preocupação inevitável: como proteger um aparelho tão valioso sem esconder seu design ou comprometer a experiência de uso?

Pensando nisso, os nossos parceiros da Shokan Premium apresentam sua nova linha de capas desenvolvida especialmente para os novos modelos profissionais da Apple.

Mais do que um acessório, a capa representa a primeira linha de defesa do iPhone contra quedas, impactos, riscos e pequenos acidentes do dia a dia. Afinal, basta um único descuido para transformar a empolgação com o aparelho novo em uma grande dor de cabeça.

Proteção premium por todos os lados

As novas capas Shokan Premium foram desenvolvidas para proporcionar proteção, conforto e um acabamento à altura dos iPhones 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max e do novíssimo iPhone Duo, garantindo uma experiência realmente premium.

Com encaixe preciso, construção resistente e design cuidadosamente elaborado, elas ajudam a proteger as laterais, a traseira, os botões e o conjunto de câmeras, preservando a aparência premium do iPhone sem deixá-lo pesado ou exageradamente volumoso.

É proteção para a rotina real: dentro da bolsa, sobre a mesa, durante o trabalho, em viagens ou naquele momento inesperado em que o iPhone escapa das mãos.

Capa, película e garantia de tela original

Para uma proteção ainda mais completa, a Shokan oferece uma condição especial que combina a capa premium com a película de proteção avançada da marca.

Além de ajudar a proteger a tela contra riscos, arranhões e impactos, a película Shokan conta com um grande diferencial: a sua garantia exclusiva de tela.

Depois da compra e da ativação da garantia, caso ocorra um dano acidental coberto pelo programa, a tela do iPhone poderá ser substituída por outra original em um Centro de Serviço Autorizado Apple, conforme os termos e condições da garantia Shokan.

Enquanto a capa protege as laterais, a traseira e o conjunto de câmeras, a película cuida justamente da parte mais sensível e utilizada do aparelho.

É uma combinação pensada para quem deseja aproveitar o novo iPhone com muito mais segurança e tranquilidade desde o primeiro dia.

Você já comprou algum case nos Estados Unidos? E película?

A Shokan Premium é uma marca brasileira com produtos desenvolvidos nos Estados Unidos, então se você conhece as cases premium de verdade (como Incipio, OtterBox, Tech21, Speck, Balkin, Griffin e Prodigee), precisa conhecer a Shokan Premium. É uma marca pensada para quem realmente sabe o que quer em termos de qualidade e proteção — produtos com acabamento completamente diferente do que encontramos aqui no Brasil.

A proposta da marca é trazer produtos de qualidade superior com uma relação ótima de custo-benefício. Se compararmos, por exemplo, o preço de um case premium em uma Apple Store ou na Best Buy (que vai de US$69 a US$199), vale muito mais a pena comprar a proteção completa da Shokan e receber em casa.

Ah, e se você estiver nos EUA, a Shokan também entrega em todo o território pelos mesmos preços daqui.

Shokan Pencil: mais precisão para criar, trabalhar e estudar

Além da nova linha de proteção, a Shokan também oferece uma alternativa versátil para quem deseja ampliar as possibilidades de uso dos seus dispositivos Apple.

A Shokan Pencil é uma caneta capacitiva ativa e passiva, com bateria interna recarregável, ponta de alta precisão e excelente desempenho para atividades domésticas e profissionais.

Ela pode ser utilizada para fazer anotações, desenhar, assinar documentos, editar imagens, navegar por aplicativos e executar tarefas que exigem mais controle e precisão do que o toque dos dedos.

Entre seus principais diferenciais estão:

• Funcionamento ativo e passivo;
• Bateria interna recarregável;
• Ponta de alta precisão;
• Formato confortável e ergonômico;
• Ampla compatibilidade com dispositivos Apple elegíveis;
• Uso profissional, criativo, acadêmico e doméstico;
• Garantia e suporte especializado da Shokan no Brasil.

Com preço normal de R$499, a Shokan Pencil estará disponível por apenas R$399 para os leitores do MacMagazine, oferecendo uma excelente relação entre qualidade, desempenho e custo-benefício!

Cupom exclusivo, frete grátis e entrega expressa!

Para celebrar a chegada da nova geração, os leitores do MM terão acesso a condições especiais para adquirir os produtos Shokan. Ao utilizar o cupom exclusivo SHKMM, o cliente garante:

• Desconto nos produtos participantes para toda a linha de iPhones;
• Shokan Pencil de R$499 por R$399;
• Frete grátis para todo o Brasil;
• Entrega expressa pelo Mercado Envios;
• Compra segura diretamente na Loja Oficial Shokan no Mercado Livre;
• Garantia e suporte especializado da Shokan.

Cupom: SHKMM

Basta acessar a oferta, selecionar os produtos e o modelo correspondente ao seu iPhone e aplicar o cupom antes de concluir a compra.

Se você investiu em um novo iPhone 18 Pro ou 18 Pro Max, não espere a primeira queda para começar a pensar em proteção. Afinal de contas, quanto vale a sua tranquilidade?

E, se deseja mais precisão para trabalhar, estudar ou criar, aproveite também a condição especial da Shokan Pencil.

Proteja seu novo iPhone e amplie suas possibilidades com a qualidade da Shokan Premium

➡️ Capas e películas Premium de Verdade a partir de R$99
➡️ Shokan Pencil por R$399
➡️ Loja Oficial da Shokan no Mercado Livre com entrega grátis e FULL pro Brasil inteiro

The Conservatives want to brand Burnham’s administration as a ‘traditional tax and spend socialist government’

In a news release issued ahead of his speech this morning, Andrew Griffith, the new shadow chancellor, gave details of some of the questions he wants the experts he has asked to review small business regulation to address. (See 8.58am.) He said:

[Craig Mackinlay and Robert Colvile] will produce a report taking evidence from small business and self-employed organisations. While they will have a wide remit, they will consider in particular these key questions, and report in December:

-Why have past attempts to reduce the regulatory and compliance burden on small business and the self-employed failed, and what specifically should be done to reduce the burden successfully?

This is staggering. Our socialist Chancellor has dished out a big Bank of England finance job to a socialist union boss who knows nothing about finance.

Clearly, trade union donations not only buy your way into government policymaking, but also onto the Bank of England’s board. This is cronyism in plain sight.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Taiwanese manufacturers are showcasing a wide range of smart manufacturing technologies at IMTS 2026, as the Taiwan External

Lenovo’s upcoming Lenovo Googlebook 15 is shaping up to be a very different kind of Google-powered laptop. Leaked specifications point to a 15.3-inch 120Hz OLED touchscreen, Intel’s Core Ultra 5 325 processor, up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory and a 70Wh battery. The combination suggests that Lenovo is targeting users who want more than the basic hardware traditionally associated with Chromebooks.

The laptop is expected to become one of the first devices built around Google’s new Googlebook Panther Lake processor platform. Lenovo has not yet confirmed the final retail price or complete launch details, so the specifications below should still be treated as leaked information until the company makes an official announcement.

Lenovo Googlebook 15 specifications

The reported configuration puts the Googlebook 15 firmly in the premium laptop category.

• Processor: Intel Core Ultra 5 325
• Graphics: Integrated Intel Xe3 graphics
• Memory: 16GB / 32GB LPDDR5X
• Storage: 256GB / 512GB SSD
• Display: 15.3-inch OLED touchscreen
• Resolution: 2880 × 1800
• Refresh rate: 120Hz
• Brightness: Up to 500 nits
• Color coverage: 100% DCI-P3
• Battery: 70Wh
• Claimed battery life: Up to 11 hours
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
• Ports: 2 × Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, HDMI 2.0 and 3.5mm audio
• Webcam: 5MP RGB with dual microphones
• Audio: Four speakers with Dolby Atmos
• Weight: Approximately 1.29kg
• Thickness: Approximately 15.9mm

A 120Hz OLED display is the biggest highlight

The Googlebook 15 laptop lineup reportedly uses a 15.3-inch OLED touchscreen with a 2880 × 1800 resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio.

The 120Hz refresh rate is particularly notable. Instead of positioning the machine as an inexpensive web-focused notebook, Lenovo appears to be giving it a display specification normally associated with more expensive Windows laptops.

The panel is also reported to reach 500 nits and cover 100% of the DCI-P3 color space. That combination should make the Googlebook 15 more appealing for photo and video viewing, creative work and general multimedia use.

For everyday productivity, the 16:10 format also provides more vertical workspace than a traditional 16:9 laptop display.

Core Ultra 5 325 and up to 32GB RAM

Performance is another area where the Googlebook 15 moves beyond the usual entry-level Chromebook formula.

The leaked configuration points to Intel’s Core Ultra 5 325 processor, paired with integrated graphics. Buyers are reportedly expected to have a choice between 16GB and 32GB of LPDDR5X memory.

Storage options are said to include 256GB and 512GB SSD configurations.

The higher 32GB memory option could be particularly useful if Googlebook is intended to handle heavier multitasking, Android applications and AI-assisted workloads rather than simply running browser-based tasks.

Googlebook 15 brings a different keyboard and design

Lenovo is reportedly giving the laptop several visual and functional details designed specifically for the Googlebook platform.

One of the most unusual additions is a dedicated Google “G” key positioned between the Fn and Alt keys. Its final software function has not been fully explained, but the key could become an important shortcut for Google services or AI features.

The lid is also expected to feature a multicolor LED strip known as Glowbar. Rather than being purely decorative, the lighting system can reportedly provide visual information related to power and charging status.

The laptop is said to use a large haptic touchpad measuring approximately 150 × 95mm, while the keyboard is backlit.

Security and video-call features

The Googlebook 15 also appears to take security and communication more seriously than a basic Chromebook.

The power button is reportedly integrated with a fingerprint reader, while the laptop is expected to support Google’s facial authentication system.

For video calls, Lenovo is reportedly using a 5MP RGB webcam with dual microphones. A physical privacy shutter is also included, allowing users to cover the camera when it is not in use.

Audio is handled by four speakers with Dolby Atmos support.

Plenty of ports for a thin 15-inch laptop

Despite its relatively slim chassis, the reported port selection is fairly comprehensive.

The laptop is expected to have two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB-A port, HDMI 2.0 and a 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo jack.

Wireless connectivity reportedly includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

This combination makes the Googlebook 15 more flexible for users who connect external displays, storage devices and other accessories.

70Wh battery and lightweight design

The reported 70Wh battery is another interesting part of the specification.

Lenovo is said to target up to 11 hours of battery life under its own testing conditions. That figure should not be interpreted as guaranteed real-world runtime, since display brightness, refresh rate, applications, wireless connections and workload can all affect battery performance.

More impressive is the reported weight. Despite its 15.3-inch display, the laptop is expected to weigh around 1.29kg and measure approximately 15.9mm thick.

That would make the Googlebook 15 relatively portable for a large-screen notebook.

Why the Googlebook 15 matters

The most interesting part of the Googlebook 15 is not any single specification. It is the overall hardware combination.

A 120Hz OLED touchscreen , Core Ultra 5 processor, up to 32GB of RAM, Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 7 and a 70Wh battery place the machine well above the basic hardware profile that consumers traditionally associate with Chromebooks.

The Googlebook platform also appears designed around Google’s broader ecosystem, including Gemini AI features and closer Android integration.

That means Lenovo’s new laptop could be aimed at users who want the simplicity of Google’s software environment without accepting entry-level laptop hardware.

This is also why the Googlebook 15 may be more interesting than a conventional Chromebook upgrade. Its value will ultimately depend on how well Googlebook OS takes advantage of the more powerful hardware.

Lenovo Googlebook 15 release date and price

Lenovo has not yet announced a final retail price for the Googlebook 15.

The laptop is expected to arrive this autumn, with Googlebook hardware expected to receive more attention as Google reveals additional details about the platform.

For now, the leaked specifications suggest that Lenovo is preparing a premium large-screen Googlebook rather than another budget-focused Chromebook.

The combination of a 120Hz OLED display, Intel Core Ultra 5 325, up to 32GB of RAM, modern connectivity and Google-focused software could make the Lenovo Googlebook 15 one of the more interesting new laptops in the emerging Googlebook category.

Until Lenovo officially confirms the specifications, however, pricing, availability and final software features should be considered unconfirmed.

The post Lenovo Googlebook 15: What the 120Hz OLED and Core Ultra 5 325 Mean for Users appeared first on IGeeKphone China Phone, Tablet PC, VR, RC Drone News, Reviews.

Projetores Hisense C3 Ultra e Ultra Max desembarcam globalmente com até 5.000 lumens e áudio Devialet potente.

O post Hisense lança globalmente a família de projetores C3 Ultra com até 5.000 lumens apareceu primeiro em Blog do Edivaldo - Informações e Notícias sobre Linux.

Apple was far from the first company to announce a passport-shaped folding phone this year, but that doesn't mean it wasn't copied. As my colleague Dom Preston already explained, it's almost impossible to keep product development secret when Apple and its competitors all share the same global suppliers.

Apple's new CEO John Ternus and head of marketing Greg 'Joz' Joswiak addressed the topic during an interview with TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff and Mark Spoonauer of Tom's Guide.

"People knew through leaks that we were working on a foldable," said Joz. "Unfortunately, they got the aspect ratio, and a lot of coincidental instances of people fin …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Welcome boost for chancellor with unexpected rise put down to rapid growth of AI in services sector outweighing Iran war fallout

The UK economy grew in July as the rapid expansion of AI appeared to outweigh the economic damage from the Iran war, in a welcome boost for John Healey.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed a surprise 0.4% increase in gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 0.3% growth in June. City economists had forecast zero growth.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The iPhone Duo was the unequivocal star of Apple's "Surprise and shine" event, but not for people who were mostly paying attention for news on wearables. Thankfully, Apple had a lot to share about its new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. There's no update to the SE model for 2026, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (the SE 3 rules). Also, no price changes either, which can't be said for the entire iPhone lineup.

While both new watches look similar to their predecessors, there are a number of updates under the hood that might intrigue some people enough to warrant a preorder. My colleague Victoria Song got hands-on with both smartwatches …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at its event on Wednesday. The 18 Pro and Pro Max come in deep black, silver, "glacier," and burgundy, with color-matched back glass. They also have a new A20 Pro chip and purportedly the longest battery in an iPhone.

During Wednesday's presentation, Apple highlighted how the new phones are well-equipped to work with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, including Siri AI's more expressive voices.

The A20 Pro has a "brand new architecture" built on 2nm technology, like the M6 chips. It has a 6 core CPU with 2 "desktop-class" super cores and 4 efficiency cores. It also has a "significantly a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple's latest product event began with something the company hasn't seen in more than a decade: a new CEO at the helm. And he got a standing ovation.

"First of all, thank you, it is great to be here," John Ternus said as he opened Wednesday's event excited about Apple's future in what is his first product launch since succeeding Tim Cook as chief executive. "I think you're gonna like what you're gonna see," he said.

The remarks offer an early glimpse at how Ternus plans to present himself as he settles into a role long defined by his predecessor and steers one of the world's most closely watched companies.

Ternus is a seasoned product ex …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Early users of Dyson's CameraJet are reporting that water is getting into the battery compartment of the newly launched $499.99 electric toothbrush. One user posted on the r/Dyson subreddit that their model "broke within 30 seconds."

The problem appears to stem from the device getting wet, which is a big issue for a toothbrush. In a post earlier this week, a Reddit user in the UK wrote that his unit appeared faulty and then discovered water in the battery compartment. Several responses to both posts indicate the issue is affecting multiple units.

"… a small number of early batches of Dyson CameraJet products may have experienced a componen …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Apple’s hosting its “Surprise and shine” launch event on September 9th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, where it’s expected to announce the first phones in its iPhone 18 lineup — including Apple’s first foldable, the rumored “iPhone Duo.”

This event will also be John Ternus’ first as Apple’s CEO after taking over for Tim Cook on September 1st. Ternus was previously Apple’s head of hardware engineering, and he spotlighted upcoming hardware launches in his first staff memo as CEO. All eyes will be on Ternus for a big first announcement to kick off the new leadership era at Apple.

Aside from new iPhones, the September 9th event could also include new Apple Watches and AirPods, and we’re keeping our eyes peeled for other possible surprises, like an updated Apple TV or new smart home hardware. 

Follow along here for all the latest news and updates.

• Apple announces the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max
• Join us after the Apple event for a Vergecast livestream!
• iPhone 18 live blog: On the ground at Apple’s biggest event
• How to watch Apple’s September 9th launch event
• Apple says ‘Fold’ and competitors ask ‘How wide?’

It's not just time for any old Apple event, but one that's expected to usher in a new era for the company. This is the first iPhone keynote to be led by Apple's newly anointed CEO John Ternus, and all signs and rumors have been pointing to it being the one that also debuts a foldable iPhone. Ternus has already billed this as "a huge launch . . . that's going to be phenomenal." What bigger and flashier way to step into the limelight than with a new halo product of an iPhone?

We're also likely to hear about OS updates, Apple Watches, and possibly some AirPods. But this might be an unconventional event in more ways than one. It's also possible …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Em entrevista ao TEK à margem da IFA 2026, Sonny Ming, responsável máximo do negócio de TVs da Hisense explica porque é que a marca aposta tudo no RGB MiniLED, como lê o consumidor europeu e o que espera da televisão daqui a cinco anos.

The post Entrevista: “Nos próximos anos, a televisão vai sentir-te e tornar-se uma amiga” appeared first on Tek Notícias.

iQOO has revealed more details about its upcoming iQOO Pad Ultra, giving users a closer look at the tablet’s cooling system and gaming-focused accessories. The new compact tablet is expected to target users who want stronger performance in a smaller form factor.

According to the latest official teaser, the iQOO Pad Ultra will feature a built-in cooling fan designed to help manage heat during demanding workloads and extended gaming sessions. The fan measures just 30 × 30 × 3.5mm, while the cooling area reaches 1,661mm². It can spin at up to 14,500rpm and deliver a maximum airflow of 0.94 CFM.

iQOO Pad Ultra Gets Dedicated Gaming Accessories

iQOO is also preparing two gaming accessories for the Pad Ultra: a telescopic game controller and a rear grip attachment.

The telescopic controller is designed to turn the compact tablet into a more console-like gaming setup. It features a dedicated USB-C port, micro-switch buttons and Hall-effect joysticks, which should provide more precise control and a more responsive feel during gameplay.

The rear grip takes a different approach. Rather than adding traditional controls, it is designed to improve the way users hold the tablet. This could make longer gaming sessions more comfortable by providing additional support for the hands.

8.8-Inch OLED Display and High-End Hardware

iQOO has already confirmed that the device will officially carry the iQOO Pad Ultra name. The company is expected to launch it alongside the iQOO 16 series toward the end of September.

Previous reports suggest that the tablet could feature an 8.8-inch OLED display with a centered punch-hole camera and four narrow bezels. Its rear design is also expected to include a square-shaped camera module and an integrated air outlet for the internal cooling system.

The tablet is rumored to use a 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen6 processor, positioning it as a high-performance compact tablet aimed at demanding users and mobile gamers. It may also pack a 9,000mAh-class battery, offering a relatively large capacity for an 8.8-inch device.

The reported color options include Endless Black and Star Armor Silver.

A Compact Tablet Designed for Gaming

With an active cooling fan, high-end hardware and dedicated gaming accessories, the iQOO Pad Ultra appears to be taking a different approach from conventional small tablets. Instead of focusing solely on portability, iQOO seems to be building the device around sustained performance and gaming.

More official details, including the final specifications, pricing and availability, should become clearer when iQOO officially introduces the Pad Ultra later this month.

The post iQOO Pad Ultra to Feature Built-In Cooling Fan and Gaming Accessories appeared first on IGeeKphone China Phone, Tablet PC, VR, RC Drone News, Reviews.

A Worten decidiu antecipar os descontos do Black Friday, com promoções em vários produtos da Apple, Samsung, com diferentes smartphones e tablets. Mas para os fãs de gaming há descontos nas consolas da Nintendo, PlayStation e Xbox.

The post Apple, Samsung e consolas PlayStation e Nintendo: o que vais poder comprar na Black Friday Worten 2026? appeared first on Tek Notícias.

De escovas de dentes com câmaras e exoesqueletos a robots de limpeza que trabalham em conjunto e “companheiros” de IA, a IFA 2026 também serviu de palco a uma variedade de gadgets com ideias pouco convencionais, entre conceitos experimentais e produtos a caminho das lojas.

The post Robots, “companheiros” com IA e novos formatos nos smartphones entre os melhores (e os mais estranhos) gadgets da IFA 2026 appeared first on Tek Notícias.

Throughout the history of the computer chip, engineers have treated waste heat as an inevitable cost of a calculation. Hannah Earley, however, thinks it’s a design choice. Earley, 31, is cofounder and chief technology officer of Vaire Computing, a startup building chips that recycle energy usually thrown away as heat—a strategy known as reversible computing. Ultimately, she thinks, this approach could help make data centers (and our laptops and phones) much more energy efficient. 

When conventional computer chips perform calculations, they erase the information they no longer need along the way, dissipating energy as heat in the process. Earley compares the approach to racing through a city only to pump the brakes at every intersection: The car loses momentum and must burn more fuel to accelerate again. Reversible computing aims to keep the momentum going—instead of erasing information from the intermediate steps in a calculation, the circuit retains it, making it possible to run the computation backward and recover some of the energy.

While the idea was first proposed more than 50 years ago, it proved impractical to implement with existing transistors and circuits. Earley, though, has completely rethought the hardware needed to make energy recovery work. She designed a patent-pending type of resonator—a microscopic chip component that stores recovered energy for later reuse. “It’s really a glorified pendulum,” she says. Last year, Vaire announced a key breakthrough: a chip with a resonator that recovered more energy than it lost, even after the energy needed to power the component was taken into account. For a subfield that has existed mostly in theory, the result was proof of life.

“It’s clear they have something interesting,” says Igor Markov, a researcher in electronic design automation and a former professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Still, he says, the technology is quite early stage; the company will need “a series of increasingly realistic and convincing demonstrations to attract the industry support needed for commercialization.” 

She gradually became convinced that the connection between information, energy, and heat could change computers forever.

Earley’s journey into chip design started sooner than most. She began programming around the age of nine, starting with high-level coding for the web before digging into other programming languages like Perl and Java. She continued progressing to more and more abstract layers of computing, until she got all the way down to transistors.

She eventually enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Cambridge under the computational biologist Gos Micklem. She started out studying how materials such as DNA could be used to perform calculations, but a few months in, Micklem sent her the 1999 PhD thesis of Michael Frank, a pioneer in reversible computing. Earley read it once, felt skeptical, read it again, and sat with it for a few weeks. She gradually became convinced that the connection between information, energy, and heat could change computers forever.

The fascination completely redirected her PhD work. Earley studied the physical limits of computation and built software that could turn ordinary programs into reversible ones. “Eventually I wouldn’t let her put my name on any of her papers, because I felt that I couldn’t really stand up and give a proper talk about them,” Micklem recalls. “It was her stuff.”

After completing her degree in 2021, Earley met Rodolfo Rosini, a technology entrepreneur and investor. The pair cofounded Vaire that same year, and the company has since raised more than $12 million, hired Frank as a senior scientist, and begun turning the vision of reversible computing into real hardware.

Innovation, however, doesn’t happen overnight. During the winter of 2022 in Grinnell, Iowa, Earley spent weeks in her now-wife’s basement apartment as the wind chill outside reached roughly −40 °F, covering a whiteboard over and over again with schematics for the core piece of circuitry needed to make reversible logic work. By the time the design finally came together, after the couple had escaped the cold for Las Vegas, it felt less like an aha moment and more like a gradual wave of relief. “I’m not completely out of my depth,” she remembers feeling. 

Earley and her colleagues’ next challenge is making their drastically different chip fit into familiar devices and manufacturing systems. She believes that’s where the future lies—not in further refining existing chips but in rebuilding them from the ground up with an eye toward reversibility. “I want to tackle every part of how computers are built,” Earley says, “and rethink it in these terms.” 

Danijar Hafner’s office in San Francisco’s SoMa district sits mostly empty. His brand-new startup is still in stealth mode and doesn’t even have its name on the door. On the day I visit, there’s only one other person there, and little in the way of furniture. But what it lacks in decor, it makes up for in robots. Humanoids of various shapes and sizes hang like marionettes from racks that run down the center of the wide-open space.

While Hafner, 31, won’t say too much about his new venture just yet, he describes it as a continuation of his longtime work to enable AI to navigate environments it has not encountered in training. The humanoids, which he imports from China, are the next evolution of this work—and its physical embodiment. Their ability to react in previously untested scenarios will be key to getting robots into human spaces. Because if you want to send a robot into a person’s home, for example, it needs to be able to handle a floor plan and furniture it’s never seen before. 

To achieve this, Hafner relies on something called model-based reinforcement learning. He develops world models—AI models designed to emulate physical reality—and trains agents within them. The agent essentially treats the model as a real-world simulation and learns how to act there. It then uses those experiences to make predictions (to dream or imagine, Hafner might say) about future outcomes. That allows agents—or the robots they’re embedded in—to navigate unfamiliar situations IRL.

“I get to interact with a lot of really smart people in research at Google, and he easily sits in the top half of 1%.”

Timothy Lillicrap, Google DeepMind

Unlike other efforts, Hafner’s technique enables agents and the robots they control to execute massively complicated tasks without the real-world trial-and-­error training that’s traditionally been used in robotics. 

Hafner grew up in a rural town in northeastern Germany, where his parents were both classical musicians. He learned programming from a neighbor, and in high school he began taking online courses about AI, which quickly developed into a passion. “I was always fascinated with how thinking works,” he says. AI offered him a way to emulate it on a computer.

In 2015, as a second-year under­graduate studying engineering at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, he won a role as a student researcher at Google Brain. From there, he went on to a dozen internships and other positions at the company, including stints with Google Brain and Google DeepMind (the two have since merged under DeepMind) in the UK, Canada, and the US. He worked with industry legends including Geoffrey Hinton, who is often referred to as one of the godfathers of AI, and Ashish Vaswani, coauthor of the groundbreaking research paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which described the transformer technology used by today’s large language models.

One of Hafner’s former managers and coauthors at Google, Timothy Lillicrap, describes him as a standout among standouts. “I get to interact with a lot of really smart people in research at Google, and he easily sits in the top half of 1%,” Lillicrap says. “In many cases he would build, single-­handedly, things it would take entire teams of engineers to build.”

Over the years, Hafner has honed and proved his approach by pitting agents trained within his world models against popular video games. His first breakthrough was PlaNet, a model that allowed agents to execute actions by planning ahead. His Dreamer 2 was the first agent to hit human-level performance playing Atari 2600 games using a world model. Dreamer 3 was the first one to solve the Minecraft Diamond challenge—successfully mining in-game gems on its own. And Dreamer 4 went a step beyond that by learning to mine diamonds from an offline data set of recorded game-play videos, without ever interacting with the game directly. 

More recently, he’s begun to migrate his agents out of the virtual world and into physical reality. His DayDreamer project used the Dreamer algorithm to let robots operate themselves in novel environments and react to new experiences (such as being pushed over) without any specific training. 

Today, Hafner is working on his new startup, which he left Google DeepMind to form in the fall of 2025. Though he’s coy about his next steps, it’s clear he’s dreaming big: “I was interested in solving a problem,” he hints, “that would change the world.” 

The steel industry isn’t exactly known for innovation. Very little has changed about purifying iron ore since the process was invented and commercialized in the 1850s.

The majority of steelmakers melt solid iron ore at dizzyingly high temperatures inside blast furnaces, where the material reacts with gases to trigger chemical reactions that remove oxygen. It then undergoes further refining to purify it before it is made into products like rebar and car frames.

The process relies on coal, and it generates roughly 7% of the carbon emissions that drive climate change—about as much as the fashion industry. Decarbonization has proved difficult: Profit margins are tight and furnaces have long service lives, making investment tough to justify.

Now Laureen Meroueh may have found a way to clean up steelmaking without driving up the price. Meroueh, the founder of Hertha Metals, invented a new furnace that simplifies the chemistry behind the process. Her method turns iron ore into refined liquid steel in a single step, and it swaps coal for natural gas. Together, those changes slash emissions by at least half, she says, and cut costs by 25% compared with steelmaking business as usual.

If it catches on, the tech could be transformative. “There’s huge value in reducing the size of this production system,” says Iryna Zenyuk, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. “They’re massive. They’re inefficient and require a lot of energy input, so even if they just save energy efficiency, that’s already a big step.”

Hertha’s approach focuses on what it can fix about the steel industry now, as opposed to waiting around for a zero-carbon system.

Still, it’s a risky endeavor, but pushing limits isn’t new for Meroueh. At 12 she was accepted into a pilot program to take college-­level courses through Florida Atlantic University in lieu of a traditional secondary education. She was immediately drawn to engineering and explored topics including calculus and ocean wave energy.

Despite the rigorous coursework, she would spend hours sitting in trees and surfing, which fostered a deep appreciation for nature and a desire to safeguard it. “I don’t know how you can’t be drawn toward trying to help protect that,” she says. 

Now 34, Meroueh has let that passion inform her professional goals. After finishing her PhD in mechanical engineering at MIT, she led a green hydrogen startup before founding Hertha in 2022. A first-generation Lebanese-American from an entrepreneurial family, she saw starting her own company as a typical path. “Seeing how common it is to take that jump to start your own business is what made me feel like ‘This is normal,’” she explains on a video call from her office at Hertha’s pilot plant in Conroe, Texas, just north of Houston.

That facility can produce one metric ton of steel per day. “One ton per day is a big metric for steel,” says Rajesh Swaminathan, a partner at Khosla Ventures, one of the company’s investors. (Hertha had raised about $20 million in funding as of July 2026.) 

Swaminathan says the company’s scale-up is “impressive,” especially given how little the team has spent. Competitors, he notes, have created far less steel with $50 million or $100 million in funding.

Hertha’s approach focuses on what it can fix about the industry now, as opposed to waiting around for a zero-carbon system. While other approaches to making green steel center on using hydrogen to free oxygen from iron ore—a method that could one day cut or eliminate emissions—Meroueh says Hertha is content for the time being with a continued reliance on fossil fuels, mainly to keep costs down. The current Hertha plant could eventually switch to a fully decarbonized system without drastically changing the hardware, she says, if hydrogen becomes more affordable. 

In the meantime, plans are underway to expand into a new plant next to the existing one. The facility is slated to produce 10,000 metric tons of high-purity steel per year and should reach full capacity by the end of 2027. By 2030, Meroueh believes, Hertha can up its output to 500,000 metric tons per year with the addition of a third site. That’s only a fraction of the approximately 80 million metric tons of steel produced annually in the US, but Zenyuk says making even one metric ton is still an achievement.

In Meroueh’s mind, the world isn’t going to outgrow its need for steel, so she’s asking another question: “How can we be smarter about how we make things … so that it’s also not going to harm us in the long term?”