Category: Technology

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The best part about any new generation of Pokemon is trying to guess what kinds of weird and wonderful critters that Game Freak will dream up for us. After last week’s Pokémon Presents, we waited with bated breath for the new pocket monsters that would join our teams in Gen 9.

We already know that Paldean Wooper (aka the People’s Pooper) will become an honorary member of our team. Meanwhile, it seems inevitable that Fidough is bound to evolve into Purebread, otherwise it’ll be a sorely missed opportunity. And we’re all ready for our boy, Lechonk to grace our dinner tables… uh, we mean battle up a storm.

But what other Pokémon are we hoping will be unveiled in the lead-up to the worldwide release of Gen 9? After all, aren’t the next few months meant to be a time of speculation and anticipation? This is the time when we’re allowed to dream big and place bets on what ‘mons will battle by our sides once we get our greasy, hairy mitts on our version of choice.

Here’s a list of our new Pokémon demands hopefuls that we’ll get to see in Scarlet and violet.

A new Eeveelution

Nintendo, Game Freak, hey, hi – you there? Are you listening? We think it’s high time we got a new Eeveelution and we will be taking no excuses. We truly think that pokemon’s been taking us all for a ride over the last month.

While the most recent Pokémon Presents aired last week, many of us who are obsessed with Eevee were hoping – no, expecting – an Eeveelution announcement.

Any type of sign that Eevee might get a new evolutionary form has been painstakingly stamped out. If we look back at previous generations, we received Vaporean, Jolteon and Flareon in Gen 1, Espeon and Umbreon in Gen 2, Leafeon and Glaceon in Gen 4 and Sylveon in Gen 6. Following that pattern, we should have gotten a new evolution in Gen 8 via pokemon sword and Shield.

Then, on the 30th and 31st of July, pokemon’s Instagram account shared a video of Espeon and Umbreon on those respective dates. There was no context, save for a couple of emojis.

On 1 August, the Pokémon Presents date was announced. This led many to speculate that maybe, just maybe, we were about to get the Eeveelution we’ve been dreaming of. And yet, nothing.

The anticipation was only heightened when some fans peeked ahead at the episode summary guide for Pokemon Ultimate Journeyswhere two episodes named Koharu and Eievui – The Miracle of Evolution and Koharu and Eievui, the Possibilities are Endless! were due to air on 22 July and 29 July in Japan. Spoiler alert: as it turns out, Koharu (or Chloe, as she’s known in the English dub) did n’t evolve her from her Eevee, much to everyone’s dismay.

So where does this leave us? Eevee-less and afraid. But let’s pretend we live in a merciful world where Pokemon will deliver us the Eeveelution of our prayers. What are we hoping for?

While we’ve been granted eight out of 18 possible types, our hopes are high that the next Eeveelution will be either a Ghost, Flying or maybe even a Dragon-type.

But what do you think? Based off the theme of Pokemon Scarlet and violetwhat type of Eeveelution can we expect?

We don’t have a dolphin Pokémon yet

Someone once tried to tell us that Lanturn is a dolphin Pokémon and there will be no further comment on that, aside from the statement: Lanturn is based on an angler fish. You know, the big ugly fish that tried to eat Marlin and Dory in Pixar’s Finding Nemo. Cool, glad we got that out of the way.

With every new generation that’s been announced, we have patiently awaited the reveal of a dolphin Pokémon. when Sun and Moon came and went, we thought that surely with its Hawaii-inspired region that we’d be served a dolphin Pokémon on a silver platter. And yet, nothing.

Out of all of the new Pokémon that’s been introduced to us over the years, we’ve had a panda, a koala and even a bloody ice cream cone added to the Dex. There’s even been a double scoop evolution of said ice cream cone.

As much as we like a very cute, very blue angler fish, we’d much prefer a bottle-nosed dolphin Pokémon in Gen 9 instead.

Make the little worm a big wyrm

We can’t help feeling that poor ol’ Dunsparce has drawn the short straw of the lot. Pokemon loves its weak, floppy ‘mons and Dunsparce is apparently the king. While Magikarp and Feebas both evolve into great sea serpents, Dunsparce has nothing. Dunsparce has been robbed.

While we absolutely froth Gyrados and Milotic, both stunningly detailed and well-designed powerhouses, we’ve tried to picture how Dunsparce’s final form could look. Dunsparce is a normal-type that is meant to be based on a “land snake” called Tsuchinoko. (Aren’t most snakes…land snakes?)

According to Japanese folklore, a Tsuchinoko translates to “child of hammer” and can swallow its own tail to roll around like a wheel.

To us, this suggests that if Dunsparce is granted an evolution, he’d probably look like some giant, yellow and winged beast that can swallow its hammer-shaped tail and roll over its Phanpy-style enemies.

that sounds sick. Game Freak, jot that down.

Please explain where baby Kangaskhan came from

A certain detail that’s always irked us is the fact that Pokemon has never explained where in the hell baby Kangaskhan comes from?

We get that it’s fiction and maybe Pokémon biology does not always work the same way it does in the real world (sure), but you cannot tell us that Kangaskhan is born with a baby.

It makes no sense. What also makes no sense is the fact that in Sun and Moon, Kangaskhan got a Mega Evolution that allows Baby K to leap out of its pouch and battle. Nevermind the fact that the Kangaskhan I hatched seven days ago can Mega Evolve with a baby that, according to its Pokédex entry, can’t leave its pouch for three years.

Pokemon, please explain why Baby Kangaskhan is purple. Please also explain why it isn’t its own ‘mon yet.

Where to pre-order your copy of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

If you’re keen to find out if any of these Pokemon hopefuls will find their way into Gen 9, you better make sure you pre-order your copy of Scarlet and violet.

Below, we’ve rounded up a bunch of Aussie retailers where you can snap up your copy ahead of its November 18 release date:

If you prefer to collect both versions of the game, you can swipe a dual pack below:

Very few details are confirmed about Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, but one rumor suggests a controversial Sword and Shield feature will return.

Pokemon is indubitably one of the most iconic franchises in all of gaming, as it’s a household name among even non-gamers. Many gamers grew up on Pokemonand to this day, continue to play every generation and game that comes out. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is that new set of games, and when they release in November, it stands to reason fans old and new will flock to them.

However, this presence in the industry isn’t without its drawbacks. Some Pokemon fans believe the games are too heavily marketed and designed for children, even if they are designated family-friendly at their core. Many fans believe Pokemon games have become too easy, hold players’ hands throughout it all, and haven’t evolved with the times, potentially evidenced by the fact that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are the first open-world games in 9 generations. All of this is, of course, up for debate, but one controversial element about the “Pokemon games are too easy” debate may rear its head again.

RELATED: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Leaker Details the Pseudolegendary Dragon Type

The EXP Share has long been part of Pokemon video games, beginning as a way to confer extra experience to a single Pokemon and by Sun and Moon becoming a toggleable way to give all Pokemon in the party XP. Pokemon Sword and Shield included the EXP Share too, but in what amounted to tons of controversy, it could not be turned off in someone so chose. The recent remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl did not allow for it to be toggled off either. Now, rumors suggest the EXP share will return in pokemon scarlet and violet, which comes as no surprise, but it would seem that it cannot be toggled off either. This means it will likely operate as it did in Pokemon Sword and Shield and BDSP.

A recent tweet by Pokemon S/V leaker Blaines suggests that EXP is “forced on by default,” and while this doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t be toggled off, it highly suggests it. The writing was already on the walls. With EXP Share being forced on in Pokemon Sword, Shield, Brilliant Diamondand shining pearlthere’s really no way it won’t be a permanent mechanic in the new generation.

It should be noted that the EXP Share’s impact on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s open world will be interesting to see, unlike the guided adventures of the previous titles. It would seem that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet doesn’t feature level scaling, and because of this, perhaps the EXP Share will find a more fair use and a better reception in the new generation of games. Fans should keep in mind this is only a rumor for now, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see it come from legit.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet release on November 18 on Nintendo Switch.

MORE: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Are Breaking a Longstanding Legendary Tradition

The ASUS Zenfone 9 is a brilliant small smartphone, with an obvious focus on performance at the cost of camera quality.

If you’re someone who doesn’t take a lot of photos, then it’s hard to look past the ASUS Zenfone 9. The internal performance of this phone is on par with the best from Google, Samsung and OPPO, however its cameras are how the cost is kept down.

As a small phone lover, here’s what I think.

compact king

This phone was made for me. I am a massive fan of small phones and I don’t take many photos. My standard phone is the iPhone 13 Mini, which is smaller than the Zenfone 9, but ASUS’ new premium handset is far more powerful.

I prefer smaller phones. If I can’t use it one-handed, then I’m not interested. It’s not that I have small hands or anything, it’s that I like the convenience of a smaller device more often than not.

This is why I was so in love with the ASUS Zenfone 8, and why I’m so happy with the Zenfone 9: because it’s everything I want out of a phone. It’s small, it’s beautiful, it has terrific performance and it’s not riddled with software I’ll never use.

My criticisms of the phone are few and far between. As you’ll see in the cameras section, there’s a fairly annoying blur when using the 1x zoom (for standard photos, I’ve been using 0.9x). Moreover, there’s no wireless charging, which isn’t essential, but it’d be nice if it were there, as the feature is becoming synonymous with premium handsets.

Size doesn’t matter

The ASUS Zenfone 9 is the smallest premium Android smartphone in the market at the moment, smaller than its predecessor and a bit smaller than the recently released Google Pixel 6a.

Despite its size, ASUS has slapped on a beautiful 120hz AMOLED display and built in a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. This is supported by an Adreno 730 GPU, making for some of the best specs you can get in any phone at the moment.

This translates incredibly well to day-to-day performance. Using my standard assortment of apps, which includes the full Google suite (Drive, Docs, Gmail and the like), along with Twitter, Instagram, Messenger, Slack and Discord, I don’t think I noticed the phone lag once.

For my battery test, where I chucked on Avengers: Endgame at full brightness and volume, the phone was down to 93 per cent in the first hour, 86 per cent by the second and 79 per cent by the third. This 4300mAh battery can fast charge very efficiently, and I was able to go from 7 per cent to 100 per cent within half an hour. It’s similar in performance to the ROG Phone 6.

For gaming it’s just as impressive, managing to retain high frame rates and great performance for several matches on League of Legends: Wild Rift and Call of Duty: Mobile.

If you’re of the mind that the best Android performance means a requirement for a big screen, then you have been misled. This phone is as powerful as you’re likely to get from juggernauts like Google and Samsung.

Its only problem is the camera, which ASUS has never really gotten right.

falling short

ASUS doesn’t really care about camera tech, despite the protruding lenses on the back of this phone taking up quite a bit of space (it’s quite a distinctive design).

Really, I can let these photos speak for themselves, but I’ll add some context. I’ve compared them to the two other leading compact phones available right now, the iPhone 13 Mini and the Google Pixel 6a.

Check out the ugly blur on the wide camera test above (this is a standard 1x lens test). I wasn’t able to shake this blur throughout my testing with the ASUS Zenfone 9, but I was able to counteract it by using the 0.9x lens instead. It’s a shame that the 1x lens is just this bad, but again, I would never recommend an ASUS product for the cameras.

The Pixel 6a, which retails for $749, is the right pick if you’re after a small and cheap phone with great camera performance, but I want to reiterate that the ASUS Zenfone 9 is the likely pick for internal specs. If you want a good camera, look elsewhere.

measure-up

This year, the ASUS Zenfone 9 is directly competing with the Google Pixel 6a in the Australian market as a small phone (a market that includes the iPhone 13 Mini and the iPhone SE). The Pixel 6a beats it on price and camera performance, easily, however, the ASUS Zenfone 9 packs a 120hz AMOLED screen and much more capable internal specs.

With this comparison, even though the ASUS Zenfone 9 is still arguably affordable, it’s an uphill battle against the Google Pixel 6a. Considering just how well the Pixel 6a has ASUS beat on price and photos, it’s difficult to say that this is the best phone for every small lover.

Come next year, ASUS may need to start actually focusing quite a bit on the camera technology – I don’t want to see the Zenfone brand be discontinued for not keeping up with competitors. It doesn’t have to be the best, but what we’ve been given this year is below average.

That said, this is likely my favorite phone of the year. Again, I’m not a photographer, but I do like having a powerful and small handset.

I believe in you ASUS.

Where to buy the ASUS Zenfone 9

Retailers of the ASUS Zenfone 9 haven’t been announced yet. It’s expected to be priced similarly to the ASUS Zenfone 8, which started at $999.

When you’re having phone troubles that basic troubleshooting can’t fix, organizing a repair is a common next step. However, data security when someone else is fixing your phone is a valid concern. Samsung’s new Repair Mode might be the solution to put your mind at ease.

As spotted by SamMobile, Samsung is adding a Repair Mode feature to devices in South Korea via a software update. Announced via a newsroom post on its Korean site, Repair Mode is a setting found in the Battery and Device Care menu rolling out to Galaxy S21 devices at first. It reboots your phone, blocking access to personal data such as photos and messages, while only providing access to the phone’s default apps. To then disable repair mode, you’ll need to reboot the phone again using fingerprint or pattern authentication. The idea is that you enable Repair Mode prior to sending the device away so no one can snoop on your private info.

Although it will only be for Galaxy S21 devices initially, Samsung plans to release the feature on more devices in the future. Recently, the Korean company shared a blog post about security and privacy discussing its Knox Vault technology. Samsung Knox Vault works to store your most sensitive data separately from the rest of the device at a hardware level. In short: Samsung is getting serious about security.

It’s not known when other countries will get Repair Mode, which leaves the door open for a potential announcement at the next Samsung Unpacked event on 10 August in New York. GadgetGuy will be at the event, bringing you the latest.

Repair Mode is a clever idea from Samsung on multiple levels. It provides peace of mind when you need to send a phone for repairs and can’t monitor its usage. Additionally, depending on how well the feature works, it could be a big time-saver not needing to factory reset your phone before sending it away – if you’re the extra cautious type. Hopefully, it won’t be too long until we see the feature on Australian shores.

Read more Samsung news on GadgetGuy

A new player in smart cameras offers up tilt and pan control, but really needs to work on the app experience. What makes the Aqara Camera Hub G3 good today?

Our homes aren’t the same as they used to be, and that’s something that doesn’t take much effort or thought to realize. Smart lights, smart speakers, smart TVs and so on and so on mean so much around the house is now labeled as “smart”, but what does that even mean, and how do you control them?

The obvious approach is by your phone, and then maybe through your voice. Call out and your home can stack signals and routines, making actions happen based on concepts you’ve programmed, but these aren’t the only options available to you.

As the smart home evolves, it’s also our faces and hands that can gesture for things and stuff to happen. While your face mightn’t launch a thousand ships like Marlowe wrote, it could be the thing to open a door, or even lock another. So how do you do this, and is the technology available now?

A new player in the world of the smart home in Australia could have something for that, as Aqara launches not just a security camera, but a “camera hub”.

What is the Aqara Camera Hub G3?

Not quite a hub, but definitely a camera, the Aqara Camera Hub G3 is a PTZ security camera for the home that comes with ears and painted on sleepy eyes when it’s off, as smart home brand Aqara tries its hand with a subscription-free approach to secure the smart home.

The G3 camera isn’t the only smart home gadget Aqara makes; there’s also a G2H and G2H Pro camera, curtain and rollershade controllers, door locks, a light bulb or two, and several detectors for smoke, gas, motion, vibration, water leaks, temperature, and so on and so on.

Like many things related to the smart home, the idea is to equip your home with the smart versions of things you need, and then work with the system to join the dots, allowing bits and pieces to talk to each other so your home can do things for you.

What does it do?

With the Camera Hub G3, doing things for you is both for security and for home control.

Much like other security cameras, you can turn the Aqara G3 Camera Hub to monitor for familiar faces, pets, and intruders, and have that information pop up with an alert. It can also track things that are familiar and act on them, such as when you come home and you want to do something — like turn on the lights — or even make a gesture to the camera, and have an action play out because of that .

The Aqara Camera Hub G3 will talk to pretty much every system, playing nicely with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s HomeKit, Zigbee, and even the IFTTT platform, basically making it work with pretty much every other smart home system you might encounter in Aussie shops. Handy.

One of the more interesting features is that it’s largely a subscription-free approach to the smart home, doing away with a monthly or even yearly cost of gadgets these days, and instead just letting you link it up with what you have. Gone is the monthly or yearly cost, and instead you just plug it in, set it up, and away you go.

The Camera Hub G3 needs to be permanently powered — no battery here! — and can rotate in its spot, tilting up and down, too. That’s the nature of a Pan-Tilt-Zoom “PTZ” camera, similar to what Canon made with its PowerShock Pick, but unlike that compact, there’s no battery in the Aqara G3. You’ll need to keep the USB Type C port plugged in and powered to use this.

Do that, though, and you’ll find 360 degrees of camera aiming, several degrees of tilting, plus support for night mode and object tracking, all available in 2K video, running at 2304×1296.

When you don’t want the camera to be doing anything, it’ll even shut up shop, tilting the camera so far down that it’s hidden with only a sleeping face left on the camera. Cute.

Does the Camera Hub G3 do the job?

A bit of a jack-of-all-trades as far as security cameras go, we’ve not seen a local player try what Aqara is doing in this model. This isn’t just a security play for the home, but also a smart home controller.

You can register your face and set up an assortment of functions, and triggering parts of your home if you have extra sensors, locks, or smart devices, such as an Amazon Echo or Google Nest Hub.

Security alerts are the obvious feature, but gesture support and face recognition mean you can set the Aqara Hub to monitor for specific things, and make smart gadgets do other things. A gesture could be linked to a curtain being lifted, while a face could unlock a door. That sort of thing.

What does it need?

But being a jack-of-all-trades comes with some catches, because it’s the basic things the Aqara Camera Hub G3 seems to mess up at.

You can’t turn the LED off forever, only at times. You can’t program your own motion mode by selecting what you want to track and where, and you can’t crop your field of view to a specific area.

And notification videos don’t have a cloud option, only a microSD option or save to your phone, basically making the Aqara security camera system a net-controllable one, but not necessarily a cloud one. This isn’t quite the Arlo competitor, or even the Google Nest Cam competition Aqara may think of itself as.

Aqara has also left out pre-built automations, so you kind of have to do everything yourself. Uploading a picture or two of your family for the camera to track is easy enough, but getting it to send an alert or record a video becomes you learning Aqara’s own take on If This Then That, which is easy enough, but time consuming. Prebuilt automations would be super handy here, but they just don’t seem to exist in the Aqara app.

It’s not just the app that struggles to do things, but also the feature set. Namely what the camera presents itself as when you take it from the box.

Open the box for the Aqara G3 Hub, and the camera arrives with cute little silicone cat ears pre-installed, almost like what the Arlo Baby offered. That’s all well and good, but there are no kids mode options in the app.

For instance, while you can track people and dogs and cats and such, you can’t set the camera app to monitor for kids crying or if the temperature is too hot. It’s not a camera for the nursery or your kids room, even if the silicone ears suggest otherwise.

It’s kind of surreal, almost as if Aqara had an idea of ​​what it was going to do, and didn’t follow through. The company could probably add it with new software, and it could probably fix most of these complaints on software, but the fact that this is the G3 — presumably the third generation — and we’re still not there, well that’s something Aqara needs to think long and hard about, especially for the G4 version.

Is it worth your money?

At $195, Aqara’s Camera Hub G3 provides an interesting approach to security the smart home, especially given it is largely subscription-free. In an era where everything seems to have a subscription to make a little extra money from you with long-term support, this sort of approach is foreign and unusual, which makes the Camera Hub G3 worth it, at least on paper.

It isn’t perfect, though, and Aqara really needs to work things out. Better functionality in the app, support for a battery variation, and if you wanted to, a cloud option would be really appreciated. We love the idea of ​​a microSD card for storage, but it should really be a choice: store locally, or store on Google or Dropbox. Or maybe even both.

A battery would help make this even better, too, allowing you to set the camera up outside to do that little bit more. Pick up on faces, on objects, provide tracking and identification and so on and so on.

These are just examples of things Aqara needs to work on. We love what the company is trying to build out, making the security camera more than about simply security, but about controlling the smart home in its entirety.

The idea of ​​a whole home concept is here, but it just needs to be finished. Fortunately, it’s a solid idea, and you just get the feeling that in G4, Aqara will be so much closer.

Yay or nay?

Right now, we’d have a hard time calling the Aqara G3 Camera Hub the best security solution, because it’s not. The bones of a great idea are here, but it’s only a neat idea for some rooms, not all.

At a little under $200, the Aqara Camera Hub G3 may be a best fit for small homes without a big need for security. The idea of ​​security doesn’t seem as well developed as home controlling, although we suspect in time that it will change.

Overall, the Aqara system does seem like something that will grow with you, but we’d wait until the feature set is more polished until we outfitted the entire home in gadgets made by the brand. It’s a positive start for holistic smart home technology, and we’ll be watching Aqara eagerly.

Sometimes, life becomes easier if you look back at the things that made it great. Or, on the complete other end of the spectrum, your life becomes riddled with nothing but sorrow from the cursed things you’ve seen in your lifetime.

I like to think the Mario Koala is one of those cursed things.

My life has never known peace since I set my eyes on him. Roughly once every few months, I find myself remembering that fucked up beast. I don’t know why, he just haunts me. I respect him only because I fear the power he holds over me.

Just in case you forgot, I’m going to make you remember. Because I never forgot him.

The Super Mario Koala is a painted sculpture made by artists Kate Clarke and Bernadette Wallace. He was cursed to live motionless upon this forsaken Earth for nice reasons, though. AAs part of a fundraiser for the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation, the Super Mario Koala was created along with many other koalas to raise money for the hospital in the Gold Coast.

The foul creature has lived in Surfers Paradise for most of its life. However, according to reports (Editor’s note: It’s me, I’m ‘reporting’ — David), the Super Mario Koala has been on the move. Now at the southern tip of the Gold Coast, he physically haunts the entrance of a Timezone in a Coolangatta shopping center called The Strand. He is now meters from the NSW border. I fear he may attempt to flee interstate.

I fear he may be trying to reach me.

I am a lover of horrible things. I see yucky little freaks and they make me smile. Truly, there is a piece of me that has a deep love for the Super Mario Koala. I simply just wish it would stop taking up real estate in my brain.

I’m in bed. I’m about to fall asleep. A 4-hour YouTube documentary about a YouTuber I’ve never heard of plays wistfully in the background. I feel myself fading into a peaceful slumber, my shitty little body held tightly by my weighted blanket that I still believe one day might cure me of my unforgiving brain rot.

And soon, I fear, there he will be, in the doorway. Still. Lifeless. On all fours. He will say nothing, but his eyes beg for eucalyptus leaves. He will breathe in deeply, and let out a bellowing ‘Wahoo!’

I haven’t slept in years. The Super Mario Koala will not leave me alone.

I recently took a trip to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia, where the museum is currently displaying a Holden exhibition. When I got there, I knew exactly what I wanted to see: the 1969 Holden Hurricane.

Now, this isn’t technically the original Holden Hurricane, nor is it the first time we’re writing about it. Back in 2011, Gizmodo Australia ran a story on the restoration of the Holden Hurricane, based on the original designs of the car and the only model ever constructed.

The Hurricane was not a car built for production. It was a concept car, designed to rival the high-tech sports cars of the day. With that in mind, it was packed with sci-fi gadgets like a navigation system and a rear vision camera.

The navigation system was called “Pathfinder”. The concept involved magnetic signals built into the road to direct the driver. Of course, this navigation system was never developed and would be made redundant with the creation of GPS technology.

Upon restoration, it was put on display at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, and at the time of the original Gizmodo Australia article, there was no word on when the resurrected car would be put back on public display.

This is the Holden Hurricane, Holden’s first concept car from 1969, featuring… A navigation system… And a reverse camera? This thing is absolutely beautiful pic.twitter.com/VyYb2Xw8JZ

— BLM | Zachariah Kelly (@ZachariahK_) August 4, 2022

Well, 11 years later, I’m here to tell you that the Holden Hurricane is on display at the National Motor Museum, where it has resided since 2013.

Were the Holden Hurricane to be put into production, it would have been the only mid-engine Holden to ever be built. That engine would have been a 4.2 liter, 253 cubic inch Holden V8, and the car would have packed a four-speed manual transaxle.

The engine went on to have a greater legacy than the car itself and was later built into production-ready Holden vehicles. The designer of the Hurricane remains a mystery.

It would have also been one of the most beautiful Holden vehicles ever built, with the top of the car electrically lifting up so that passengers could enter or exit. A door would have also likely worked, but who doesn’t love a concept car that’s a bit extra?

But no, the Hurricane was designed to be a spectacle and a trade show gimmick. Rear-view cameras and navigation systems wouldn’t come for another 40 years on production model Holdens as the technology developed.

If you’re headed to South Australia, I couldn’t recommend the National Motor Museum enough. It’s where I also spotted the Telstra phone car that time forgot.

If you’d like to see more photos of the glorious Holden Hurricane, Supercars has a great gallery.

Long live the Holden Hurricane.

Samsung’s August 2022 Unpacked is only a couple days away. The event, which is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 10, will likely feature upcoming models of the Galaxy Z Fold and the Z Flip. the rumored Galaxy ZFold 4 and Z-Flip 4 would be successors to the $1,800Z-Fold 3 and the $1,000 ZFlip 3and Samsung’s own promotional art for the event showingcasing a Z Flip phone seems to tease new foldable phones that are on the way.

In addition to folding phones, Samsung might also provide a look at the future of its Galaxy Watch line, as Samsung continues its collaboration with Google on the newest version of the Wear OS operating system. This version of Wear OS — which will eventually incorporate features from Google’s Fitbit — is currently on last year’s Galaxy Watch 4. Now that it’s been a year since that watch debuted, Samsung might have a new Galaxy Watch 5 ready for 2022 alongside new details about Wear OS. Some announcements revealed by Samsung could even end up in Google’s own Pixel Watch later this year.

Samsung Unpacked will take place as a livestream starting at 6 am PT (9 am ET) on Aug. 10, with the company planning to broadcast on Samsung’s YouTube channel, Samsung.com and Samsung’s Newsroom. As the event gets closer, we’ll embed the livestream into this post.

CNET will also hold live coverage including a pre- and post-show, spotlighting the latest reveals in Samsung’s Galaxy lineup. That live event will stream on CNET’s YouTube channel, and will be accompanied by reporting from CNET staff.

Samsung’s next Unpacked event comes as phones including the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip hit the market, including the OnePlus 10Tthe asus zenfone 9 and the Red Magic 7S Pro. It’s also arriving about a month before Apple is expected to reveal its 2022 iPhone lineup, expected to coincide with the iPhone 14 and the public release of iOS 16.