folded Archives - usatoday24

I thought portable consoles were already defined. Lenovo has decided that they can also be folded in half

March 2, 2026 by usatoday24

I think Lenovo is one of the brands that takes the most risks in the computer segment. And in the consoles: Lenovo Legion Go It’s a good sample. With several models under its belt, the brand has come to the MWC in Barcelona with a hybrid that is, above all, extravagant. But also original, I think there is no better way to please everyone. Do you want a portable screen to play with physical controls? Covered. A more compact panel to make it less uncomfortable? Check. Option to play with the panel vertically and horizontally? Of course. What if the controllers can become a standalone controller? And even with a mouse option. The Lenovo Legion Go Fold doesn’t marry anyone. Just because, It also has a foldable screen. Lenovo Legion Go Fold technical sheet Lenovo Legion Go Fold Concept SCREEN 11.8 inch POLED panel Resolution 2,435 x 1,712 pixels, 16:10 165Hz refresh 100% DCI-P3 500 nits Tactile DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT 189.1 x 282.5 x 8.5mm 868 g (638 g modular + 230 g controls) PROCESSOR Intel Core Ultra 7 GRAPHIC CARD Integrated Intel Arc 140V GPU 64TOPS, 8 Xe-cores, 1.95GHz RAM 32GB LPDDR5x-8533 STORAGE 1TB PCIe SSD (Gen 4) 2242 OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 11 OTHERS Color: Eclipse Black PRICE Unspecified It is neither one thing nor another, it is everything It is not just a folding tablet, nor a video game console, nor a convertible laptop: it is everything at once. And with a format that can be expanded almost to the unimaginable within the gamer field. Goes from a tablet style surface to a console Steam Deck. Detachable, of course. Just like what happened to me with the modular laptop that Lenovo also brought to MWC, the Legion Go Fold goes a step further when you think it can’t expand further. Broadly speaking: It is a gaming tablet with anchored physical controls. It can be used both vertically and horizontally. It is a large tablet that folds in half into a smaller one. It runs Windows and has a keyboard as an accessory, so it can become a travel laptop. As was the case with the original Legion Go, the controllers can be joined together to function as an independent external controller. As a cherry on top, one of the controllers anchors to the base to become a mouse with a trigger. The device is a concept that is not yet definitive. However, it appears to be fully functional, all parts make sense, They are solid enough and they can be combined without excessive complication. Like all moving parts, the anchors are somewhat delicate to place: you have to remove a lock, slide the control down and separate it outwards. The lane is not too long, it gave me the impression that it was not as firm as it should be. Given the weight and size of the tablet, I don’t think it will be excessively comfortable for long periods of gaming. At least as long as he stays in suspense. A folding screen? Why not If it already seems strange that a tablet has two console controls anchored to the ends, seeing how the screen folds is the ultimate. Because of the size and because the folding looks somewhat rough: the edge is thick and leaves the panel exposed. However, it is the only way to fold the tablet so that it continues to function as a touch device. The folded Legion Go Fold is much more comfortable to play with. The problem is that Windows does not allow itself to be tamed to multiformat: System orientation does not adapt to portrait orientation. I also noticed different errors when resizing the windows, with the touch on the screen and with some buttons on the controls. The problems of direct. It is a concept and it is appreciated as such, a “I’m going to see how far I can go with removable elements.” The result is very curious to see, not so much to enjoy. At least in regards to everything related to the screen, because the design of the controls, its buttons, the detail of the mini-screen on one of the controls and its versatility are noteworthy. Quite far from viability Playing with an unfolded tablet of this size is not very comfortable, having physical controls attached even less so. Lenovo has already more than proven the Legion Go format, it is the path it is going to follow. And surely the experience gained with the Fold will help to improve the commercial family, such as adding a small screen to the controls. Lenovo is the PC manufacturer that usually surprises me the most with its proposals. Take risks even if these experimental products do not go beyond concepts. And when I tried them I found solid, well-thought-out devices with established technologies. I don’t think that combining a folding tablet with controls will come to fruition, but who knows. We ended up seeing it in stores the same way. Images | Ivan Linares In Xataka | Best tablets in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and recommended models

Scientists have folded salty ice and discovered that it behaves like an electric generator

September 18, 2025 by usatoday24

When we think of ice and salt, it is normal to imagine a road in the middle of winter: the accumulated snow on the asphalt, the trucks spreading salt in a hurry and the neighbors trying not to slip on the icy sidewalks. It is a typical scene in the north or in the mountain areas, where winter turns the landscape into postcard, but also a daily challenge for those who have to move between cut roads or pedestrian crossings turned into traps. What we usually see how a simple help against ice on roads, can actually hide an energy potential. A team from the University of Xi’an Jiaotong, in collaboration with ICN2 and Stony Brook University, has managed to try it in the laboratory. A discovery with “taste” to salt. A pinch of salt for a material to deform, produce electricity. This phenomenon has a name and is called flexoelectricity. It had already been observed in moving glaciers or in ice plates under pressure, but never with results as powerful as those achieved in this study. According to the studythe team frozen water with different concentrations of common salt (NaCl) and created ice blocks in several ways: cones, beams and plates. Then they applied flexion tests – check the ice on two supports and exert pressure from above – and measured the electricity generated. The result was surprising: salty ice generated up to 1,000 times more electric charge than pure ice. The key ingredient. But how can salt enhance something as inert as ice? The answer is in the salted water microchannels that are trapped between the crystals. As the ICN2 press release detailssalt prevents ice from freezing. When folding, water and salt ions move from compressed areas to the stretched, generating an electric charge flow, what scientists call a “Current streaming”(Drag current). In practical terms, the effect is so strong that experimental devices reached values comparable to the best piezoelectric materials used today in the industry, According to research. Depend on ice. At first glance, this technology could have applications in extreme environments, such as scientific stations in polar regions, where installing conventional energy infrastructures is very difficult. The finding contrasts with reality. Since 2000, glaciers have lost 273,000 million tons of water annually, According to ESA. That is equivalent to the consumption of the entire world population for three decades. The setback is already translates into a loss of 5% of the global ice volume, with visible consequences: increased sea level and less availability of fresh water in rivers such as Ebro. Thus, to talk about ice as an energy resource raises an uncomfortable paradox: depending on something that melts increasingly faster. That’s not all. Beyond the environmental dilemmas, the study itself recognizes that there is still much to solve. As they point out in Techxploresalty ice devices suffer mechanical fatigue: after many flexion cycles, their ability to generate energy can fall to 80%. In addition, much of energy is lost in the form of heat, which makes efficiency still lower than that of commercial piezoelectric devices. The look is wide. Even so, the finding opens a fascinating door. “Its advantages – abundance, sustainability and low cost – make it a promising candidate for clean technologies,” Underline the ICN2. And researchers believe that the model is not limited to ice: it could be applied to other porous solids containing fluids inside. The paradox, however, persists: while science explores how to take advantage of the hidden energy on ice, climate change melts at an alarming pace. Perhaps this discovery not only serves to think about new technologies, but also to remember the value of a resource that is disappearing. Image | Photo by POT ON Unspash and Freepik Xataka | A Microsoft Data Center in Mexico collided with the reality of the electricity network. Your solution: use gas generators

The AI has folded the price of an ultrarrao metal. The problem is that we need it to store renewable energy

July 18, 2025 by usatoday24

Two technological revolutions are redefining, at the same time, the entire energy sector: the transition to renewable sources and the unstoppable boom of artificial intelligence. The first needs cheap and efficient batteries. The second has an insatiable data appetite and needs hardware to store them. The problem is that both are colliding in the market of An ultrarrao metal: Ruthenium. And the AI is winning the battle. Ruthenium is in historical maximums. In the last year, this discreet silver gray mineral has become The unexpected star of raw material markets. Its price has doubled, reaching $ 25,720 per kilogram, according to data from the Johnson Matthey metal refining that Bloomberg collects. The figure not only eclipses gold or silver increases, but also touches its historical maximum of $ 27,970, reached 18 years ago. What has unleashed this fever. The answer is in data centers that feed artificial intelligence. Ruthenium, a Platinum Group metal, is exceptionally hard and versatile. One of its applications in electronics are high -capacity hard drives, which use a river layer of less than a thick nanometer to greatly increase data density. As the generative AI and the Cloud Computing They demand to store astronomical amounts of information, the demand is triggered. But the background problem is scarcity. Ruthenium is one of the most rare elements of the earth’s crust. It is obtained almost exclusively as a byproduct of platinum mining, and its annual supply is tiny: just 30 tons last year. Unless the investment in mining increases, analysts expect the market Enter in deficit next year. That is, the demand exceeds the supply. Not only does it need Ruthenio. In addition to hard drives, metal is a vital component in Several of the most promising chemists For massive energy storage batteries. Ruthenium oxide offers unique capacitance and loading and discharge speed, so It was intended to be used in Super Current before the AI duplicate its price. It is also a necessary metal In lithium-oxygen batteriesconsidered one of the next great revolutions in batteries for its very high energy density. But these cells depend on efficient catalysts. Ruthenium nanocatalysts achieve extraordinary capabilities and life cycles, but with the current price they are unfeasible. How it affects the energy sector. No sector is able to face investments as large as that of artificial intelligence. The AI is staying with the Ruthenium to save data while the entire planet faces another urgent challenge: store energy to abandon fossil fuels. Intermittent renewables, such as solar and wind, need large -scale batteries to keep the energy they generate when the sun shines or the wind blows, being able to use it later when night falls or the wind stops blowing. According to the International Energy Agencyin 2023 42 GW of capacity in batteries were installed, more than double than the previous year. It is an impressive, but insufficient figure to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement. The world needs to multiply that rhythm by six and reach about 1,500 GW of storage capacity from here to 2030 (of which 1,200 GW would be batteries). Is there any alternative to Ruthenium? There are other technologies that allow storing large amounts of data, but they are very expensive, so the industry continues to bet on ruthenium. In fact, a report by International Data Corp. provides that sales of hard drives with Ruthenium will increase 16% this year, dragging metal stocks. Researchers from all over the world have spent years developing new advanced batteries assuming a price for ruthenium that, although high, was manageable. Now, the explosion of the demand for AI has created a cost curve that no one anticipated, and that forces to start from scratch. Image | Metalle-W (CC by-SA 3.0) In Xataka | There are companies spending millions in storing hydrogen. Germany has just stored it in bicarbonate

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