In 2025, a lot of IEEE Spectrum‘s prime consumer electronics tales have been about about creating the expertise you need with know-how. Open-source software program supplied extra customization for laptops and shows, gadgets with much less distracting design acquired recognition with a brand new certification, and smart glasses producers solid paths to determine what customers really need within the wearable tech.
Different tales highlighted the fascinating basic tech in our smartphones, like how your new iPhone stays cool and the potential for its digital camera to assemble data past what the human eye can see. And we thought of the consequences of U.S. tariffs from the Trump administration.
We’re gearing up for a 2026 crammed with many extra thrilling developments. Within the meantime, learn on for IEEE Spectrum’s hottest client digital tales of the yr.
Supply picture: Modos
When hours of our days could also be dominated by screens, e-paper shows provide an possibility simpler on the eyes. Traditionally, these shows have been too gradual for on a regular basis computing. However this yr, a small Boston-based startup known as Modos created a monitor and improvement equipment for a show with a refresh charge of 75 hertz—akin to some fundamental LCD screens. That’s even quick sufficient for video.
“Modos has a not-so-secret weapon,” contributing editor Matthew Smith writes. Particularly, an open-source show controller is essential to the show’s velocity. Modos accomplished its crowdfunding marketing campaign and pre-orders are scheduled to ship in late January 2026.
IEEE Spectrum; Supply pictures: Apple
With out the right cooling tech, high-end smartphones threat burning a gap in your pocket—actually. Within the newest era of Apple smartphones, launched in September, the iPhone 17 Professional and Professional Max contain thin chambers of water that assist dissipate warmth by means of evaporation. Cooling telephones with water vapor isn’t completely new although: Excessive-end smartphones from Samsung and Google additionally use the approach.
For extra on the right way to maintain our electronics cool, try IEEE Spectrum’s current special report, The Hot, Hot Future of Chips. Our editors and knowledgeable authors break down how lasers, liquid cooling, and diamond blankets might all contribute to thermal management for more and more advanced and succesful chips.
DeepComputing
Most laptops can solely be custom-made a lot. When you get right down to the extent of particular directions for the way the pc executes directions—the instruction set structure—laptops often function on proprietary know-how like x86 and Arm.
Earlier this yr, repairable pc maker Framework launched a laptop computer that can support a RISC-V mainboard, bringing open-source structure to the plenty—or at the very least, builders and early adopters excited by straying from mainstream closed architectures. Later within the yr, Framework additionally made information when it launched a swappable laptop graphics module, permitting customers to decide on between the AMD GPU the laptop computer initially shipped with and Nvidia’s RTX 5070.
Vincent Walter/Purdue College
An image is value a thousand phrases, because the cliché goes. However the pictures taken by your smartphone digital camera comprise extra data than you may understand. Whereas the human eye is delicate to a restricted vary of seen gentle wavelengths, the pixels in an ordinary smartphone digital camera sensor are doubtlessly delicate to a a lot wider vary of wavelengths.
Researchers at Purdue College developed a option to capture hyperspectral information by inserting a card with a coloration chart in body. With this method, an abnormal smartphone might function a “pocket spectrometer” and determine particular chemical compounds for medical diagnostics, analyzing pigments in art work, and extra.
Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/Alamy
Shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn into workplace for his second time period in January, he started enacting new tariffs on overseas items. In April, Trump introduced vital modifications, together with a common 10 % tariff on all imports, in addition to a 125 % tariff on Chinese language items (now decreased to a a lot decrease 10 % baseline).
To learn the way these tariffs may have an effect on the U.S. electronics market, senior editor Samuel Moore interviewed Shawn DuBravac, chief economist of the World Electronics Affiliation (previously IPC, or the Institute of Printed Circuits). Amidst ongoing modifications, they spoke about predicted worth will increase, shifting provide chains, and the impact on lower-priced electronics.
Spectrum additionally coated how tariffs affect hobbyists and students, who usually depend on elements sourced from suppliers outdoors of the United States. And maintain a watch out for extra tales on the connection between tech and authorities from technology policy editor, Lucas Laursen.
Mui Lab
With the sheer amount of eye-catching tech displayed on the annual Shopper Electronics Present (CES), it’s becoming that the occasion is hosted in Las Vegas. However at CES 2025, some gadgets took a distinct strategy. The Calm Tech Institute issued a brand new certification to a number of gadgets proven at CES which might be designed to be much less distracting and command much less of our major consideration.
As an example, an e-ink pill and a wood-like smart-home interface have been among the many first batch of gadgets that acquired the certification. Whereas on a regular basis gadgets bombard us with notifications, calm technology defaults to the minimal mandatory notifications and extra naturalistic design.
Supply pictures: Xreal; Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Photographs
Rounding out the record, this function article thought of a basic query in client tech: What do customers truly need? With sensible glasses lastly on the verge of mainstream use, contributor Alfred Poor compares two paths ahead for the wearable tech. “Ought to a head-worn show replicate the pc screens that we at present use, or ought to they work extra like a smartwatch, which shows solely restricted quantities of knowledge at a time?” Two smaller firms, Xreal and Halliday, provide AR glasses that characterize the 2 design ideas, and the tradeoffs between them.
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