[georgelyon]

I betting $10 Apple’s foldable will be two iPhone Airs where one side has 0 bezel hinged together with extreme mechanical precision and maybe some fairy dust to make the gap when unfolded unnoticeable.

This creates a foldable with no durability issues and no “crease” problems. Also the two halves of the display could be on the outside when folded, avoiding the need for a third display and getting a rear display for free. I would buy 3 of these.

[red369]

Having the displays on the outside when folded removes all the durability advantages of closing the phone with the screens inside.

I don't even know if that affects my opinion of whether you'll be right or not, because putting glass on the back is definitely more fragile than machining the phone out of a solid block of aluminium. Am I remembering this incorrectly? Was that the unibody MacBooks? Regardless, I found the aluminium backs a lot less fragile, but we all gave them up pretty easily for wireless charging.

Is there something equivalent to longbets.org, but for bets which are about matters that aren't important to society? I'd take you up on the bet - not because I think you're wrong, but because I think it's fun and fairly harmless gambling that is unlikely to lead to either of us developing a habit - but has easily sending small amounts of money internationally been solved yet?

I'll bet $10 it hasn't! That I can't send $10 from one country to another, without paying fees that are a significant proportion of that amount, or needing to put an unreasonable amount of effort into setting up an account with a 3rd party service or doing the transfer with that service.

And the two bets above are a bad look, so I'll also bet $20 that you can't get me doing any more gambling by the end of the day.

[CaptainOfCoit]

> I'll bet $10 it hasn't! That I can't send $10 from one country to another, without paying fees that are a significant proportion of that amount

I'd take you up on that bet! I'm not sure what an envelope costs, but probably less than $0.1 if you buy more than one, then add a stamp (usually around/below $1 in most places in the world AFAIK, even for international destinations).

Please send the $10 in an envelope to Oranjerie 114, 7311 WP Apeldoorn, Netherlands whenever you can :)

[red369]

Ha! Fine, it will have to wait until I'm next near a post office with time to kill, otherwise it's not convenient. I think you'll allow that "not an unreasonable amount of effort" could imply "convenient".

I think the post offices where I am only sell the envelopes in bulk, and buying a pack will probably add an unreasonable 20% - 30% of the amount, but I'll concede that most people will probably have an envelope from a bank and a glue-stick lying around.

This is very off-topic, but sending something to an address which I can't tell is complete, without a name, has reminded me of something I find interesting.

A few years ago, my mother received a postcard from a friend who didn't have her address handy. She sent it with just my mother's name (first and last), the city, and country (New Zealand). It took some time, but it reached her! In NZ, "city" is used for some pretty small places - the population is only around 70,000. But I'm still very impressed with the effort to deliver that to her. Especially for a postcard - even internationally the postage on those is not a lot!

[red369]

Hmm - I've just seen that postage is $1.55, so >15% of the amount. I'm not sure that is a reasonable fee. I'm deducting $2 from what I'm sending! Lucky there are $2 notes here.

Of course, if not stated I suppose it would be reasonable to assume international bets are are in USD, but it's close enough, and this feels like it's only just holding up anyway.

And most importantly, I think sending $8 is funnier than sending $10.

[pastage]

Sweden - Netherland: 3.6 euros to send a letter. Sure I could fit a couple of 500 euro bills there, but the point was that you cant send money with out paying too much.

[Kwpolska]

Or you can just send a SEPA transfer, probably for free.

[CaptainOfCoit]

How could I make a SEPA transfer without having any accounts? I think only banks are allowed inside the SEPA cartel :)

[Kwpolska]

Normal people have accounts.

[dzhiurgis]

Trivial with likes of wise.com etc

[hoseja]

The advantage is you can put bigger screen into your pocket. You already have one exposed display in there normally.

[whatsupdog]

> I'll bet $10 it hasn't! That I can't send $10 from one country to another, without paying fees that are a significant proportion of that amount

It has been solved, but the hacker news hivemind hates the solution. Sending USDT on Ethereum chain costs 25 cents usually.

[red369]

I think I agree with the hacker new hivemind, but I think I formed the opinion separately. I did a few small transactions with bitcoin ages ago, and it was a huge pain. Buying the bitcoin was painful, and then I couldn't send an exact amount, it's better to receive change to a different address, and the fees weren't as cheap as I expected for small amounts.

I often hear this has been solved with additional layers, and I see that you mentioned Ethereum instead of bitcoin. Is that significantly easier? $0.25 is not bad for $10, so the fee seems fine. I'm accepting money in an envelope as a solution, and that costs more, but I'm keen to hear whether this would have been easier.

[whatsupdog]

Bitcoin maximalists have purposely ruined the cheap transactions on Bitcoin (in order to sell their own centralized solution) by limiting the block size. If everything had gone according Satoshi's original plan, we would have transaction fees in cents today. That's why I mentioned Ethereum, because it's eating Bitcoin's lunch in cheap transactions and contracts.

[manquer]

If you ignore parts the transaction sure it is cheap. What can I do with USDT? no shop near me would accept it, most major digital commerce stores like Amazon won't accept it, my bank won't accept deposits in USDT.

If I have to start and end with USD which is what anyone interested in other three functions of money want, there is USD -> USDT and back to USD costs, and depending on geography there may not be cheap or legal way to make that trade, which means it is going to be far more expensive than just the $0.25 "gas" fees.

[whatsupdog]

Go to a site like bitrefill and buy a gift card for any store where you want to spend it. I often buy Amazon, Uber, Apple, etc. cards from them. Pretty straightforward. Obviously they might not support any stores in your country, but they seem to have a wide reach. And they are not the only ones in the game.

[oblio]

I'm fine with that solution, how can I store the $10 safely in that case?

[whatsupdog]

Download a wallet on your phone, I guess. As long as you are not downloading unverified APKs left and right, your 10$ should be pretty safe. I can even bet a 10$ on it!

[oblio]

What happens if my phone gets bricked?

[whatsupdog]

I guess you'll be more worried about a $200-$4000 phone over $10. If you are planning to get hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of crypto, buy a hardware wallet. They are hack proof and you can write down the seed phrase as a backup in case the wallet bricks.

[ashdksnndck]

The reason you need to worry about the screen of a foldable is because it’s plastic. Normal phones with glass screens are plenty durable. So if you could manage to make a foldable with glass screens, it wouldn’t matter much that the screen is on the outside when it’s in your pocket.

The most popular betting website is Polymarket. Payment is via crypto. The fees aren’t super high. The typical user is more likely to lose money by making bad bets. If you don’t want to spend money, there’s Manifold.

[asadotzler]

That would be an unacceptably fat foldable. Foldables are 4.1mm to 4.2mm at the head of the class and iPhone Air is 5.6mm. Double that and add a bit for folding and you're still under 9mm (acceptable) with today's leading folders, and about 12mm (not acceptable) for the hypothetical Air.

[Fraterkes]

I think it’s a cool idea, but for there to be no crease the 0 bezel sides would have to have incredibly sharp edges. Seems like a real cutting hazard when the phone isn’t folded out (especially if the screens are still glass instead of plastic)

[georgelyon]

Unless Apple comes up with a way to have the crease still physically be there, but visually seem like it isn’t. Perhaps using a waveguide or something similar.

[jay_kyburz]

Apple fans were fine with the notch. If I were them would embrace the bezel and make UIs like a book with distinct left and right panes. Even embrace multi tasking and run two regular apps side by side.

[egypturnash]

This would be kind of amazing for reading ebooks, too. Turn most readers sideways (ibooks definitely included) and they tend to give you two columns of text anyway.

[Anarch157a]

Having both screens on the outside doesn't let you use the main cameras when folded, Apple would never do that.

[mrheosuper]

i wonder why people so obsessed with "no crease". If apple truly care about "perfect screen", they would remove the face id "notch/island" 5 generations ago.

[rollcat]

The last time Apple introduced a product with a moving part was the Airpods line. I think we'll see a foldable iPhone about the same time we see a touchscreen Mac.

[ashenke]

That's funny, a lot of rumors are pointing to a foldable iPhone AND a touchscreen Mac https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/09/latest-round-of-cred...

[gyomu]

What a weird argument, Apple ships tons of AirPods and MacBooks with hinges, not counting accessories like the iPad keyboard (introduced after AirPods) or display stands.

A hinged iPhone seems totally in the cards.

[rollcat]

>> introduced

> MacBooks

Laptops have been a thing since the 80s.

[waiwai933]

I don’t own any AirPods, so this may be incredibly obvious to anyone who does, but what’s the moving part in them?

[sethaurus]

The hinge of the case (not the buds themselves).

[pnt12]

A touchscreen Mac would compete with iPads so that's a no no.

For the foldable phone, it may just have to do with aesthetics.

[tyleo]

All the products compete. A foldable phone already competes with iPads. iPad competes with Mac. iPad Mini competes with iPads.

[LPisGood]

Apple Vision Pro and Apple Watch both have moving parts.

[rollcat]

They have straps, not hinges.

[LPisGood]

I’m referring to the rotating dial.

[rollcat]

I'd argue the crown was already well-established from day 0 of Apple Watch, but you're right.

[eclipxe]

This is not what the fold will be like. The air and fold have no relation.