Apple Finally Made AirPods Repairable… Sort Of

September 30, 2026 by 3 Comments

It’s been true for a while now that Apple’s AirPods have been effectively disposable, with [iFixit] slapping each successive generation with an abysmal 0/10 repairability score. The moment that any of the built-in batteries faltered you could effectively toss the whole package out as e-waste.

Interestingly, with the fifth generation it would seem that a battery swap in the earbuds is now actually possible without whole-scale destruction, according to the [iFixit] teardown video.

Although it’s still a far cry from the demonstrated FairBuds battery replacement, this time around a bit of gentle heat allows for the glued-together earbud to cleanly separate, with inside a socketed coin cell. The catch here is that the polarity on these sockets differs between the left and right earbud, which was discovered after a quick swap.

Unfortunately this same easy-to-open change doesn’t carry over to the case for the earbuds, which still requires  physical destruction of the plastic to get to its battery. Accordingly [iFixit] gives this generation of AirPods a generous 2/10. Although a step in the right direction, it seems clear that if repairability or even simply being able to replace the batteries is a concern, the AirPod’s probably aren’t for you.

Last year’s third generation AirPods made [iFixit] really angry, so this is borderline glowing praise. Of course, the issue with non-removable batteries remains a problem, especially when new EU regulations that should have fixed this get watered down.

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Assembling And Testing A DIY Jet Turbine

September 30, 2026 by 6 Comments

After many months of painstaking work, [AlfMart CNC Garage] over at YouTube has finally reached the stage where he can fully assemble his DIY jet turbine and commence testing. Even if deceptively simple devices, just the starting mechanism turned out to be a challenge. Due to the extreme conditions that these jet turbines operate under, tolerances are narrow, and many of the materials require careful selecting and testing.

Fortunately this is not true for the outer casing, which is cobbled together from a commercial gas cylinder and a children’s steel drinking bottle that so happened to have the right dimensions. From there the parts get increasingly more specialized, down to the carefully balanced rotor. Assuming everything was done right up till this point, the first start-up will mean a happily roaring turbine and not a deafening explosion followed by a cloud of shrapnel.

In the video the full assembly can be observed, along with detailed instructions should anyone want to follow along with their own DIY jet turbine. Naturally a lot of attention has to be paid to tolerances during the assembly process. Following the basic turbine assembly, the RPM sensor circuit and the electrical starter are added, with the latter allowing for the turbine to spin up prior to ignition.

The first basic starter tests revealed an issue with the starter motor and clutch mechanism, requiring some upgrades. Before the first ignition the whole turbine has to be dynamically balanced, for which first a new balancing rig will be designed and assembled. While this means that first ignition will still be a while off, it’s best to take projects like this slow and steady. We’re also looking forward to seeing this new dynamic balancing rig that’s claimed to be much more advanced than that used for balancing the rotor.

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Roman Telescope Saves Fuel, Doubles Mission

September 30, 2026 by 4 Comments

Contemplate the events that might end a space mission, and you might picture something dramatic: detonation on the pad, a dead guidance system, or micrometeoroids shattering delicate solar panels. More often, though, the ending is far more mundane. Plenty of perfectly healthy spacecraft have been retired simply because the fuel tanks ran dry. That’s why mission planners guard every kilogram of go juice so jealously, and why careful preparation in a mission is critical to long-term success.

Which brings us to NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Barely two weeks after its August 30 launch on a Falcon Heavy, the mission team announced that Roman now has enough fuel for at least 22 years of science operations. That’s well over double its original 10-year fuel budget. It’s a huge gain, so let’s explore how NASA pulled it off.

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Sheety Turns Spreadsheets Into Binaries, For Some Reason

September 30, 2026 by 15 Comments

Ever wanted a spreadsheet as an executable with a built-in terminal interface? No? Well, that’s a pity because [Roberto Alsina]’s Sheety project does exactly that.

Sheety compiles spreadsheet definitions into a self-contained, executable binary with zero runtime dependencies. It presents a simple terminal application (with mouse support) in which one can browse and edit data and formulas with a simple interface. As far as formats go it can import and export Excel files, or a human-readable .yaml file.

When Sheety runs, the data and formulas defined are compiled into a self-contained executable with the formulas baked in, and that’s actually what one sees and uses. If a formula gets changed in the UI, a new and updated version is created on the fly to reflect the changes.

Sheety is perfectly functional, though it does have some limitations. Can the display width of cells be resized? They cannot. Does anyone actually need this? Probably not, as [Roberto] happily admits. Is it a fun project? Absolutely.

Be warned that while Sheety supports the Excel format, it understandably doesn’t support every single function Excel has added in the over forty years it has been around.

Sheety is written in Crystal and the GitHub repository has everything you need if you’d like to give it a try for yourself.

A drawing of a battery cell with gunk on the labeled anode and cathode called the "thick and inactive interphase layer." An icon of a dead battery with two red bars within a pictograph of a battery is superimposed. An arrow points to the right to a cleaner looking cell with a full battery icon with green bars inside showing the cell after regeneration.

A Simple Solution For Streamlining Battery Recycling

September 30, 2026 by 3 Comments

Lithium batteries have become the backbone of many modern devices ranging from toothbrushes to semi trucks, so what are we going to do with them when these rechargeable cells finally die? Researchers at Cornell have identified a way to streamline the recycling process.

Most current lithium battery recycling involves grinding up the batteries and separating active material from other components like the casing, current collectors, etc. These materials are then processed and turned back into fresh material for a new batch of batteries. Taking everything all the way down to rebuild it is time and labor consuming, and therefore expensive, especially in light of increasingly lower prices for lithium.

The researchers found that by electrochemically dissolving the inactive electrode–electrolyte interphase layers that built up over time, they could rejuvenate the electrode without completely taking it apart. This direct electrode-to-electrode regeneration (DEER) uses 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone (DMI) as a solvent for the process. Once reassembled, these regenerated cells have up to 95% of their original capacity while cutting the cost of recycling by over half.

If you’re looking to reuse a pack before sending it to the recycler, may we suggest a whole house battery from an old EV pack and how to integrate them safely.

No More Windows For The Dutch Government, Ze Kiezen Nu Linux

September 29, 2026 by 66 Comments

The events of the last few years have caused many in Europe to re-evaluate their reliance on large offshore technology companies, with a corresponding move to home-grown EU-based alternatives. It’s one thing when individuals or companies do this, but another entirely when it’s an entire country. So the news that the Netherlands is building their own Linux distribution to replace Microsoft Windows in government installations, is not inconsequential. The Tweakers site linked  actively breaks out of Google Translate, so you may have to rely on your browser’s translation tool if you are not a Dutch speaker.

The Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid, or Digital Autonomous Work Environment, is a distro based upon NixOS, itself originally a product of a Dutch university. It comes complete with all the office and collaboration applications needed to replace Windows, and is reported to have been tested already by a small group of Dutch government workers.

The influence of this move is likely to be a huge one for Microsoft, given that governments have huge numbers of operating system seats. But perhaps more important than the OS itself are the extras that Microsoft would like to sell to its OS customers, such as AI services. We’d expect that there will be managers in Redmond paying close attention to Europe in the wake of this move.

Meanwhile the Netherlands has a vibrant hacker community, and we can imagine that this move will be welcomed in those quarters. All Netherlands government online services are accessed through an ID verification app called DigID, and it’s a lament we’ve heard from our Dutch friends that this only works with Windows, Android and Apple platforms. If this means a Linux version will appear on the back of an NL government Linux distro, we know some people who will be very happy indeed.

NL flag: SpinnerLaserzthe2nd, CC0. Tux: Larry Ewing (lewing@isc.tamu.edu) and The GIMP. Attribution.

Determining Diamond’s Properties Under Extreme Pressures

September 29, 2026 by 1 Comment

Although graphene gives diamond a solid run for its money when it comes to being the most useful assembly of carbon atoms, both have the distinct property of material scientists still trying to figure out all their properties and potential applications. This includes something like the melting curve of diamond and potential phases beyond this diamond lattice phase that occur when exposed to extreme pressures and temperatures. Such as those experienced on a planetary scale and during inertial confinement fusion (ICF).

In this research (paywalled) by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), it was investigated how close theoretical simulations were to physical reality by blasting diamond samples with a laser. This ablated the surface and sent a shockwave through the material that caused it to melt. Using X-ray diffraction data this entire process was followed, elucidating the exact melting temperature under such conditions.

This revealed that previous estimates based on earlier experiments had been off by many hundreds of degrees, giving a far better idea of how diamond responds to such extreme pressures and temperatures. Where such information is very relevant is in fields like planetary science where diamonds can occur naturally and being able to predict their presence can be essential.

The other application, and the primary reason why LLNL does this kind of research is for the sake of ICF at the national ignition facility (NIF), which is the best way to investigate the behavior of e.g. hydrogen isotopes under extreme conditions like those of nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately this research will have no impact on practical power generation using nuclear fusion, as the only viable path there involves forms of magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), but it’s still pretty rad to improve our understanding this carbon form.