Solid State Bytes

Solid State Bytes is a weekly roundup of the most interesting hardware, maker projects, and open-source tech that mainstream sites overlook.

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Oct 9, 2026

Maker of the Month: OpenMote Puts an ESP32-S3 Inside Your Old Wii Remote

A drop-in board from Hat & Hammer turns a junk-drawer controller into a programmable remote for your smart home, your TV, and your next robot.

Oct 3, 2026

New Hardware: A DIY ESP32 Phone, Linux Comes to Snapdragon X2, and a $1 Computer

A build-it-yourself ESP32 phone, official Linux support for Snapdragon X2, and an ultra-low-cost BeagleBoard explore three ways to make hardware more accessible.

Sep 25, 2026

New Hardware: An RP2350 Drives 1080p, RISC-V Meets AMD ROCm, and Xen Runs on Real Silicon

From 1080p microcontroller graphics to GPU acceleration and virtualization on RISC-V, software is pushing hardware further.

Sep 18, 2026

New Hardware: Lunar Lake Shrinks Down, a $39 RISC-V KVM, and a Handheld Electronics Lab

Three new hardware releases this week take very different paths toward the same goal: packing more capability into smaller devices.

Sep 14, 2026

WireClaw Turns a Cheap ESP32 Into a Tiny AI Hardware Agent

AI agents are usually something you run on a PC, a server, or at least a reasonably capable edge board. WireClaw takes the idea somewhere smaller: it puts the agent interface directly on a $5 ESP32.

Sep 12, 2026

New Hardware: Tiny RISC-V Linux, 192GB of Unified Memory, and Blackwell in a Mini PC

This week's new hardware covers just about every end of the computing spectrum.

Sep 1, 2026

Orange Pi Zero 4 Packs an A733, 3 TOPS NPU, and PCIe 3.0 Into a $26.50 SBC

Orange Pi’s tiny Zero series gets an eight-core CPU, Wi-Fi 6, dual 4K display support, PCIe, faster storage options and a dedicated AI accelerator.

Aug 26, 2026

New Linux & RISC-V: PINE64 Puts Hardware on Hold, StarFive Goes Server-Class, and Linux 7.2 Arrives

PINE64's memory shortage is putting future Linux devices on ice, StarFive is pushing RISC-V into the server market, and Linux 7.2 brings new support for RISC-V and Arm hardware.

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