Technologies

Why You Won’t Be Buying a Rollable Phone Anytime Soon

Shapeshifting concepts from Motorola and Samsung likely won’t turn into real products for quite some time.

Imagine if your phone or tablet could change the size of its screen depending on what you’re doing? That’s the future Motorola and Samsung envision, as both companies showcased concept devices capable of extending or shrinking their displays with the press of a button.

Motorola flaunted its concept at Mobile World Congress this week, while Samsung exhibited a slew of shapeshifting prototypes at CES in January. Such concepts prove phone makers are thinking about the next evolution of personal devices beyond today’s static touchscreens. They’re even looking beyond foldable phones, which have only been widely available for a little more than three years.

But as eye-catching as these concepts are, it’ll likely be a long time before you’re carrying one around. High prices, engineering and durability challenges and a lack of compelling use cases will likely mean these concepts won’t turn into real products anytime soon. And if they do, there are still good reasons why you should wait before buying one.

Rollable phones are eye-catching

Motorola's rollable phone concept — Motorola’s rollable phone in small (left) and large form (right).

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Conceptual devices with expandable screens have surfaced before, but they’ve garnered attention again this week at Mobile World Congress thanks to Motorola and its parent company Lenovo.

Motorola showcased its prototype palm-sized phone that extends with the double press of a button. And even better, the screen automatically unfurls when using certain apps like YouTube, according to my colleague Andrew Lanxon, who got to see the device at the conference. The phone may also switch between small and large mode depending on what you’re doing within an app. For example, the phone may stay tiny when you’re scrolling through your inbox, but it could automatically expand as you compose an email, Lanxon writes.

When the device is in its compact form, the display wraps around the bottom of the device to provide a secondary screen on the back of the phone. I can’t think of many other reasons to use this extra screen other than as a viewfinder for taking selfies with the rear camera, as Lanxon did during his demo. Regardless, it’s intriguing to see how Motorola is thinking about putting that technology to use.

Take a look at the phone in action.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Even though phones with rollable screens are in their infancy, they could present some notable advantages over today’s foldables, according to Ross Young, CEO and co-founder of Display Supply Chain Consultants. The crease may be smaller since it would be located at the edge of the device rather than in the center, he said via email. Rollable phones will also likely be thinner than current devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which resembles two phones stacked on top of one another when folded.

But those benefits will probably result in additional engineering challenges. The motors and sliding mechanisms likely require more power consumption, says Young.

«Some brands told us there is a lot of work still to be done,» he said.

It’s not the first time Motorola has shown a concept like this; the phone maker also showcased the tech at Lenovo’s Tech World conference last year. But its arrival at MWC underscores Motorola’s ambitions in this area.

Motorola isn’t the only company interested in making phones with screens that can roll, slide and expand. Nearly two months ago, Samsung exhibited its own vision for what futuristic phones and tablets could look like. The star of the show was the Flex Hybrid concept, which looks like a notebook when closed but can switch between 10.5-inch and 12.4-inch screen sizes when opened.

Samsung showcased its display concepts at CES 2023.

David Katzmaier/CNET

LG also made a splash with the rollable phone concept it teased at CES 2021, although the company shut down its mobile phone business shortly thereafter. Chinese tech giant Oppo has developed a rollable phone concept with a 6.7-inch screen that transforms into a 7.4-inch tablet-sized display.

At the same time, foldable phones — which are generally considered to be the precursor for future rollable devices — still only account for a sliver of the overall smartphone market. Foldable phones are estimated to have accounted for just 1.1% of smartphone shipments in 2022 and are expected to make up 2.8% in 2026, according to International Data Corporation. But that hasn’t stopped phone makers from looking ahead.

«They’ve got to keep innovating to differentiate,» said Brad Akyuz, executive director and mobile analyst at NPD Group. «That’s the only way they can just get ahead of the competition.»

But don’t count on buying one anytime soon

The word «concept» is crucial; these devices aren’t products. Instead, they’re proofs of concept meant to illustrate the direction these companies may take when developing future smartphones. That means we don’t know when rollable phones from Motorola, Samsung or other device makers will launch, if ever.

The foldable phone market could serve as a blueprint. Samsung demonstrated flexible display technology as far back as 2013, but it didn’t release its first phone that could fold in half until 2019.

Whether a rollable phone arrives in the near term or not, analysts believe it’ll take several years for the devices to become a regular fixture in the tech world. Akyuz pegs that at around three to four years, while Bill Menezes, a director for market researcher Gartner covering the telecoms industry, estimates three to six years.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 — Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 (left) alongside an iPhone (right)

James Martin/CNET

There are a variety of reasons why, all of which mirror the challenges that the foldable phone industry is going through. Prices need to be affordable, and phones must be durable enough to withstand everyday use without concern.

They should also offer compelling features that significantly improve the way you use your mobile device to make them worthwhile. Even though today’s foldables have different designs that make our phones more compact when closed, the overall experience is the same as that of using a standard phone. Samsung is trying to address this with a feature called Flex Mode, which divides compatible apps across the top and bottom portions of the display when folded halfway. But this feels more like an optimization than a brand new way to use your phone.

«A foldable phone really isn’t that much different than a flat phone concept,» said Menezes. «Once you open it, you’re still scrolling through to get to different applications, or different screens or tabs.»

Even if a company like Motorola or Samsung does release a rollable phone in the near future, you probably shouldn’t buy it. First-generation products can be expensive, damage-prone and not as polished as later iterations.

Take the Galaxy Fold from 2019, for example, which Samsung postponed launching after a small number of reviewers reported issues with the display. That phone was also priced at $1,980, while the much-improved Galaxy Z Fold 4, which just launched in August, starts at $1,800. Samsung’s smaller foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip, has also matured; the first version had a tiny screen that barely felt useful and lacked 5G.

Samsung's 2019 Galaxy Fold — Samsung’s 2019 Galaxy Fold

Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Now, more than three years after the Galaxy Fold’s launch, demand for foldable devices is starting to accelerate. Even though IDC’s report suggests foldables only account for a fraction of the smartphone market, shipments are estimated to have grown by 66.6% in 2022 compared to 2021. NPD Group’s Connected Intelligence Mobility Survey also suggests interest is growing. While 51% of survey respondents said they were not likely at all to buy a foldable phone in 2019, only 36% said the same in 2022, according to data from the survey shared with CNET.

«I think this is the future, I don’t think we can deny that,» Akyuz said. «But as we’ve seen with the foldable category, it’s just going to take some time to get there.»

Technologies

Lemon8 and TikTok Could Be Banned. Here’s How the Apps Are Different

TikTok and Lemon8 are owned by the same parent company, but they offer different experiences.

TikTok faces another sale deadline Saturday, and unless a US buyer intervenes — or President Donald Trump extends the deadline again — the app could disappear for US users. If the ban goes into effect, TikTok wouldn’t be the only app to disappear: TikTok’s sister app, Lemon8, could be caught in the crossfire.

Read more: A VPN Alone Probably Won’t Bypass TikTok Bans. Here’s Why

Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, the same parent company that owns TikTok. It’s one of the top Lifestyle apps in Apple’s App Store, and it has more than 10 million downloads in the Google Play store.

«Lemon8 is a lifestyle community focused app powered by TikTok, where you can discover and share authentic content on a variety of topics such as beauty, fashion, travel, food, and more,» the app’s description reads in both stores.

Here’s what you need to know about Lemon8.

Note: I reached out to ByteDance for this story, and the company did not respond for comment.

What is Lemon8?

Lemon8 is a video- and photo-sharing platform that eschews the vertical-scrolling format of TikTok in favor of a Pinterest board-style format. But what Lemon8 and TikTok do have in common is that both have Following and For You tabs to show you posts from creators you follow and posts the app thinks you will like.

Lemon8’s content is split into six topic tabs, plus a seventh tab called All. The other tabs are Fashion, Beauty, Food, Wellness, Travel and Home. These tabs can be found across the top of your screen, and tapping into these tabs shows you recommended and suggested posts.

Posts can be swipeable photo collections like in Instagram, or TikTok-style videos. Some creators add text to their photos to label clothing or a product. Some will also include the price of the item in the text.

How is Lemon8 different from TikTok and other apps?

Lemon8 is different from other apps in terms of what is posted and how it’s presented.

Lemon8 has a lot of influencer ads and product recommendations. It’s difficult to tell what is and isn’t sponsored content, and this appears to be the norm across the app. TikTok also has sponsored content, but usually these are marked as such in the bottom-left corner.

There aren’t a lot of memes or jokes on Lemon8 compared to other apps, either. You can find memes on Lemon8, but various hashtags associated with «memes,» like «funnymemes» and «catmemes,» have fewer than 1 million views (as opposed to hundreds of millions on Instagram). This could be because Lemon8 is still catching on in the US, but my suspicion is Lemon8 isn’t meant for memes. It’s meant to be more of a guidebook to help you achieve a certain lifestyle or aesthetic.

There’s also a lot of writing in Lemon8. For example, post captions might include instructions for a recipe or a deeper breakdown of an outfit. TikTok captions can have useful information, but those captions are more about connecting posts to hashtags to get more views and don’t necessarily add new information to the TikTok post. Lemon8 uses captions in a similar way to Instagram posts, but Lemon8 captions have one key difference from Instagram: templates.

Lemon8 lets you use templates for your posts to help you quickly format and to give you an idea of what to caption your post. There are caption templates for fashion, shopping finds, beauty, food and travel.

Lemon8 reminds me of a mashup between the magazines Martha Stewart Living, Muscle & Fitness and Travel + Leisure. You can find some useful tips in Lemon8 to help you achieve a desired aesthetic or find some vacation inspiration, but it’s not clear what is and isn’t an ad.

What are people saying about Lemon8?

People’s reaction to Lemon8 is seemingly positive so far. One TikTok creator posted a video calling Lemon8 «Pinterest, but interactive.» Another said Lemon8 is a combination of Pinterest, Instagram and TikTok.

However, this positivity could be artificially inflated. ZDNet reports that many TikTok posts about Lemon8 have described the app with similar language, making some believe ByteDance paid these creators.

And some Lemon8 creators’ claims make this theory sound more viable. One Lemon8 creator told Insider that ByteDance paid them to post on the app. Two other Lemon8 creators showed Insider emails that outlined the app’s payment structure.

Who owns Lemon8?

ByteDance, the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok, also owns Lemon8. According to ZDNet, ByteDance is positioning Lemon8 to be an Instagram rival as more users stop using, or abandon, Meta’s app.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a leaked internal memo from Meta showed that Instagram engagement was declining. ByteDance executives could be hoping to capitalize on this by giving Instagram users an alternative app in the form of Lemon8. And while Lemon8 was released globally in 2020, the app’s recent growth might show ByteDance’s gamble is paying off.

Will Lemon8 be banned alongside TikTok?

Since Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance, which also owns TikTok, it’s possible that the app will be banned alongside TikTok on April 5.

The law requiring the sale of TikTok could be applied generally to other apps that are owned and operated by ByteDance and its subsidiaries. When TikTok shutdown operations in the US in January, Lemon8 was shutdown alongside the app. If TikTok shuts down again, Lemon8 likely will as well.

Should you download Lemon8?

Even with a shutdown looming, Lemon8 is free, so you can download and try the app now before the sale deadline. Just know the app’s posts resemble instructional guides more than memes to share, and many posts feel like advertisements.

What’s Lemon8’s privacy policy?

Most of Lemon8’s privacy policy seems standard for social media apps. It states Lemon8 collects personal and location information to provide you with a better app experience. Some collected information includes your IP address and browsing history. But part of the app’s privacy policy might raise eyebrows.

«The personal information we collect from you may be stored on a server located outside of the country where you live,» the policy reads. The company has servers around the world, according to the policy, so your information could be stored in any of them.

This is different from how Lemon8’s sister app TikTok stores some user’s data. The company stores US-based user data in Oracle servers. TikTok CEO Shou Chew said ByteDance employees in China can access this data, but with «robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval» overseen by a US-based security team.

For more on the TikTok ban, here’s what to know about the Supreme Court’s decision, here’s what could happen next and here are other apps users are flocking to.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 4, #193

Three of the four categories are especially tough today. Here are hints and the answers, for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 193, for April 4.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

I only solved one of the four categories for today’s Connections: Sports Edition on my own, so if you need help, you’re not alone.

The yellow category was pretty simple, but after that I couldn’t make any connections. It might help if you know a lot about a certain NBA player’s resume. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Do better.

Green group hint: March Madness.

Blue group hint: Six-time all-star.

Purple group hint: Think Wimbledon.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Not meeting expectations.

Green group: Teams in the Women’s Final Four.

Blue group: Teams Kawhi Leonard has played for.

Purple group: Ends in a piece of tennis equipment.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is not meeting expectations. The four answers are bust, disappointment, dud and failure.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams in the Women’s Final Four. The four answers are Bruins, Gamecocks, Huskies and Longhorns.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is teams Kawhi Leonard has played for. The four answers are Aztecs, Clippers, Raptors and Spurs.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a piece of tennis equipment. The four answers are bracket, eyeball, horseshoes and internet.

Quick tips for Connections: Sports Edition

#1: Don’t grab for the easiest group. For each word, think about other sports categories it might fit in – is this a word that can be used in football, or to describe scoring options?

#2: Second meanings are important. The puzzle loves to use last names and even college names that mean other things, to fool you into thinking they are words, not names.

#3: And the opposite is also true. Words like HURTS might seem like a regular word, but it’s also the last name of at least one pro athlete.

Technologies

Skip Your iPhone’s Lockscreen: Here’s the Hidden Flashlight Trick You Need to Know

A couple of taps can really make a difference on your iPhone.

Not long ago, your iPhone’s lockscreen would only allow two app shortcuts that you couldn’t change: camera controls and a flashlight toggle. However, iOS 18.2 allows you to customize these shortcuts to almost anything you might want. This small but impactful change is one of many ways iOS 18 supercharges customization for iPhone and iPad users. But what if you still want an easy-to-access way to toggle your flashlight without unlocking your phone?

Apple introduced an accessibility feature in iOS 14 that, once enabled, allows you to perform actions by just tapping on the back of your phone. The feature is called Tap Back and it remains a sleeper feature that’s sneakily hidden away in your settings menu. Enabling Tap Back essentially allows you to create a button on the back of your iPhone to perform an action without needing to take up any space.

Once you have Tap Back enabled, it doesn’t take long to see how much of a game-changer it can be with its added convenience. Below, we’ll show you how to set it up so a couple of taps on the back of your iPhone will let you launch just about anything you want.

For more, check out what’s in the latest iOS 18.4 release.

How to set up Back Tap on iPhone

Whether you want to link Back Tap with your flashlight, camera or launch a different iPhone app, the path through your iPhone settings begins the same way.

On your compatible iPhone (iPhone 8 or later), launch the Settings application and go to Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Now you have the option to launch your action (in this case, your flashlight) with either two or three taps. Although two taps is obviously faster, I would suggest three taps because if you fidget with your phone, it’s easy to accidentally trigger the accessibility feature.

Once you choose a tap option, select the Flashlight option — or a different action if you prefer. You’ll see over 30 options to choose from, including system options like Siri or taking a screenshot, to accessibility-specific functions like opening a magnifier or turning on real-time live captions. You can also set up Back Tap to open the Control Center, go back home, mute your audio, turn the volume up and down and run any shortcuts you’ve downloaded or created.

You’ll know you’ve successfully selected your choice when a blue checkmark appears to the right of the action. You could actually set up two shortcuts this way — one that’s triggered by two taps and one that’s triggered by three taps to the iPhone’s back cover.

Once you exit the Settings application, you can try out the newly enabled Back Tap feature by tapping the back of your iPhone — in my case, to turn on the flashlight. To turn off the flashlight, you can tap on the back of your iPhone as well, but you can also just turn it off from your lock screen if that’s easier.

For more great iPhone tips, here’s how to keep your iPhone screen from dimming all the time and canceling all those subscriptions you don’t want or need.