A YouTuber built his own PS5 Slim that’s less than an inch thick

Sony typically follows up its PlayStation consoles with a slim version a few years later, but that time hasn’t come for the PS5 yet. While we all wait for a slimmer PS5 that would fit in small spaces better, a YouTuber called DIY Perks already built one for himself. He took apart a standard PlayStation 5 and replaced everything that needed to be replaced to get rid of the console’s bulk. He substituted components with similar parts and his own home-made creations, including the console’s rather voluminous casing, to come up with a device that’s just 1.9 centimeters thick.

Putting the current device’s power supply and cooling system with the rest of the console’s components wouldn’t yield a “slim” version of the PS5, though. So, what Perks did was build his own water-cooling system and put the power supply in a long, slim external case that can be placed behind the TV, where it won’t be noticeable. While he did run into some issues that took time to solve, he was able to make the console work in the end. His cooling system was even more efficient than the the standard PS5’s, based on the temperatures he took when he tested it out using Horizon Forbidden West. 

Unfortunately, Perks’ PS5 Slim is one of a kind and not easy to replicate. You can check out his process in the video below if you need ideas or just want to be awed.

Canada is banning the sale, production and import of some single-use plastics

Canada is banning companies from producing and importing a handful of single-use plastics by the end of the year, Reuters reports. Among the items the country won’t allow the production of include plastic shopping bags, takeout containers and six-pack rings for holding cans and bottles together.

The federal government will subsequently prohibit the sale of those same items in 2023, with an export ban to follow in 2025. The one-year gap between the initial ban and the one that follows is designed to give businesses in Canada enough time to transition their stock of the listed items. Over the next ten years, the federal government estimates the new regulation will eliminate approximately 1.3 million tonnes of plastic waste, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter.

Not targeted by Canada’s new regulations are plastic fishing nets and lines, which can be far more problematic than single-use plastics like straws and shopping bags. Discarded fishing gear leads to ghost fishing, a phenomenon where those tools continue to trap and kill marine life. With more than 640,000 tons worth of fishing nets discarded every year, it’s a problem that’s only getting worse and one Canada’s plastics ban doesn’t address.

“It’s a drop in the bucket,” Sarah King, the head of Greenpeace Canada’s oceans and plastics campaign, told the CBC. “Until the government gets serious about overall reductions of plastic production, we’re not going to see the impact we need to see in the environment or in our waste streams.”

The ban follows a similar one enacted by France last year and is part of a broader move by governments across the world to curb the production of single-use plastics. In March, the United Nations agreed to begin work on a first-ever global plastic pollution treaty. While the agreement won’t be complete until 2024 at the earliest, it could be among the most significant efforts to curb climate change since the Paris agreement in 2015.

Fitbit will fix frequent disconnections for Charge 5 owners

If your Fitbit Charge 5 has had flaky performance lately, you’ll be glad to hear that a solution is on the horizon. 9to5Google has learned Fitbit is promising a fix for frequent disconnections between the activity tracker and its host phone. If you’re affected, the Bluetooth connection will spontaneously drop and prevent your wearable from syncing fitness data, whether you’re using an Android phone or iPhone.

Reports of the problem first surfaced in January. Common solutions like rebooting the Charge 5 have little effect. Fitbit also hasn’t offered a stopgap solution or indicated the likely culprit.

There’s no timeline for the expected patch, and it’s not clear how many users have the issue. This certainly isn’t what Fitbit would hope for, though. The Charge 5 sits next to the Luxe at the top of Fitbit’s activity tracker lineup, and is competing as much with some lower-end smartwatches as it is fitness devices. The disconnections won’t help the Charge fare well against rivals in a market that still has fierce competition from the likes of Amazfit and Garmin.

Android users can now add Google Password Manager to their home screen

While Google has long included a password manager among its account perks, accessing a native version of that tool on your Android phone or tablet hasn’t been straightforward. Before a recent Google Play Services update, you had to navigate to the “Pri…