The Obsidian is the most gorgeous-looking Alexa-enabled smart speaker your eyes will ever see

Looking like it was chiseled out of rock, the Obsidian speaker is what you get when art and audio collide. With an aesthetic that would put most smart speakers to shame, the Obsidian is the second speaker from Australian design firm Pantheone Audio. The speaker’s design is directly inspired by its namesake, a glass-like rock formed when lava cools down. With its shard-shaped design and chiseled edges, the Obsidian sits on countertops like a statement piece, but delivers exceptional audio thanks to its high-density resin cabinet with a powerful internal woofer and two silk dome tweeters under the hood. The elegant device also comes with Amazon’s Alexa built-in, responding to voice commands and letting you control music playback as well as smart home appliances.

Designer: Pantheone Audio

With its sharp, sculpted appearance, the Obsidian looks less like a speaker and more like a minimalist art piece that you can place on any tabletop or mantelpiece. Unlike most smart speakers, it comes with a front-firing speaker array as opposed to a 360° one and comes with a built-in battery that averages 15 hours of play-time on a full charge. The speaker’s designed to sound as incredible as it looks, with a 40W woofer and two 20W tweeters that give the Obsidian a stunning frequency range of 55–22000 Hz. The speaker connects to all leading streaming services and also supports popular file formats including lossless audio formats.

“With its unique shape and style, Obsidian calls out to be touched, sensed, and heard by everyone in the room,” say the folks at Pantheone Audio. “Its perfect sculpturing harmonizes with its surrounding environment using its natural design to discreetly sync into a room’s Feng Shui. Taking its design cues from nature, it is a stunning addition to any home.”

Although named Obsidian, the speaker comes in black as well as white variants with a hand-made polished resin outer shell. The front has an ABS plastic grill that’s clad with high-quality acoustic fabric, and four backlit buttons at the bottom let you switch on/off and manually navigate the speaker’s functions like controlling its volume and switching between WiFi (with support for AirPlay 2), Bluetooth, or Aux modes. The Obsidian also Amazon’s Alexa built-in, allowing for voice-based controls, and even ships with an accompanying Pantheone app (iOS and Android) that enables users to control the system through their phones or tablets, and access functions like a sleep-mode or even the ability to pair multiple Obsidian speakers together in a multi-room mode.

The Obsidian is Pantheone Audio’s sophomore speaker, following the release of the Pantheone I, the world’s largest and most elegantly designed Alexa speaker, and a winner of the Red Dot Design Award. Available in white and black variants, the Obsidian is priced at $1,399.

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This minimalist wooden board offers a interior-friendly way to control your home with Alexa




The last thing you probably expected is for a beautiful piece of wood to be your control dashboard for your smart home.

The Internet of Things has slowly but surely invaded our homes in the guise of smart lighting, dynamic photo frames, and, of course, smart speakers. While many of these are designed to look stylish and handsome, most of them carry an aesthetic that often clashes with minimalist rooms or decor. Smart speakers are perhaps the biggest culprits in this regard, but a Japanese company has found a solution that lets you put Alexa-powered smart speakers out of sight.

Designer: mui Lab

mui looks like an unassuming block of wood, but it’s actually just as talented as a smart speaker. Actually, it can do more than what most voice-only speakers can, like the Amazon Echo, because it has a touch panel on its front surface. Unlike a busy and overwhelming touch screen, however, the mui board presents visual feedback as monochromatic icons and text in a dot-matrix style that matches the board’s minimalist aesthetic.

More than just being a novel way to present a smart home hub, mui offers an equally unique approach to mixing nature and technology. Rather than the usual cold elements of a tablet, a phone, or even a smart speaker, the wooden board adds a warm and almost human touch to interact with devices and appliances. Its designers want to evoke joy and calm, feelings that should be associated with the home in the first place.

Despite its minimalist appearance, the mui is by no means minimal in features. In addition to its own mobile app, mui Lab is introducing a new “calm” interface that turns the board into a visual interface for connected Amazon Alexa speakers. That’s in addition to the original mui Platform’s compatibility with the new Matter smart home platform.




Inspired by Taoist philosophy, the mui board offers a refreshing spin on how we interact with our smart homes, basically by doing or showing almost nothing. It’s not going to appeal to people who prefer seeing everything in one go, but this design will definitely go well with rooms and furniture that try to hide the tech behind soothing organic materials.

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This cabinet on wheels can fetch you things like a loyal canine




There’s finally a robot for the home that’s not just for sucking up dirt on the floor.

Robots are coming, whether we like it or not. They may not be the kind that’s negatively portrayed in movies, at least not yet, but few of them can be considered “friendly,” even in appearance. Today’s robots also seem to stand on two opposite ends of a spectrum, with sophisticated but nightmarish Spots on one end and simplistic but single-purpose Roombas on the other. Few other robots are designed for home use, but a company backed by Roomba maker iRobot and the Amazon Alexa Fund is aiming to change that in the simplest but most useful way possible.

Designer: Labrador Systems

At first glance, this robot looks nothing like the typical robots you see both in homes (on the floor) and in factories. When it isn’t active, it looks more like a tall shelf with an open box compartment. In fact, the faux wooden sides of that compartment, available in Light Maple and Warm Teak colors, seem to be designed to blend with your furniture and masquerade as a simple shelf.

It’s anything but simple, of course, and this shelf on wheels can move around your house on its own at your beck and call. You can tell it to bring you your medicine or the plates for setting the table, or you can tell it to accompany you to the laundry room while it carries the washing load for you. Appropriately, this robot is named the Labrador Retriever.

In some cases, this robot is powered by some of the same technologies that robot vacuum cleaners use to navigate your house. After learning the lay of the land, it uses 3D vision to drive itself to or away from you, avoiding obstacles along its path. It can be controlled manually, through an app, or by voice, specifically through Amazon Alexa. It also has some special tricks of its own, like sliding a specially-designed Labrador-branded tray of food or medicine onto its shelf without any human intervention.

Unlike robot vacuum cleaners, the Labrador Retriever and its smaller sibling, the Labrador Caddie, aren’t just designed to make life easier. In fact, they were primarily envisioned to empower those with physical difficulties or handicaps to be productive and live normal lives. Of course, that means that these robots need to have designs that won’t haunt your dreams, and thankfully, the Labrador Retriever is as inconspicuous as a modern minimalist cabinet, contrary to what its name might suggest.

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Amazon Products designed to revolutionize + establish trends in the tech world!

Amazon has revolutionized the tech world with its ingenious releases! They’ve pioneered major change right from their designs to the way they work and consumer behavior. And today in an ode to the tech giant, we’ve curated a collection of its best products. From a bi-directional robotaxi that brings autonomous ridesharing to even a 3-in-1 humidifier – these innovative products have unlimited scope and possibilities. Amazon has dipped its toes in almost every category possible, and this list celebrates the best of those explorations. Enjoy!

Amazon-owned Zoox (acquired last year by Amazon) has been working relentlessly for six years towards its goal of bringing fully autonomous robotaxi to the crowded urban landscape, which has finally been revealed. Zoox is a conventional cube-shaped with a unique bi-directional ride sans any steering wheel – having the capability to smoothly navigate tight spaces without much fuzz since it comes with a 4 wheel independent suspension system. The fact that it can move in any direction (independent turning wheels) and does not need to reverse (remember it is bi-directional) gives it an advantage on urban roads as it measures just 3.63 meters.

I’m not entirely sure whether the resemblance to the Harman Kardon Aura Studio is intentional or not, but it definitely gives the Amazon Humidifier a certain visual appeal. The humidifier is powered by ultrasonic tech that helps create a uniformly distributed mist of vapor in the air. An auto-sensing mechanism allows it to switch on when the air gets exceptionally dry, and turn off after a while.

The Always Home Cam (as it’s called) expands on Ring’s home security line-up (an Amazon company), giving you a camera that sits INSIDE your house rather than at the entrance of it, like the Ring’s more popular video doorbells. When it detects a break-in, the flying camera un-docks from its station and travels to the intruder, capturing their face on video, which is beamed to the owner’s phone (and possibly even the police, considering Ring’s partnerships with local police forces). It’s designed to activate only when the owners aren’t at home and come with a completely enclosed propeller system so that it doesn’t harm anyone or any pets as it flies around the house to surveil intrusions.

Labeled as the ‘best-dressed Echo yet’, the speakers look less like a mysterious black orb and more colorful, fitting with your home’s decor. Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg introduced the three patterns that are very much evergreen styles, with palettes that add a fresh zing to your living space. Titled Midnight Kiss, Ikat, and Twigs, the Echo Dots turn the boring black sphere into an instant point-of-interest in the room.

Health and wellness are one of the few industries still thriving in unprecedented times because physical and mental well-being is of utmost priority for everyone right now. Amazon’s Halo’s most exclusive feature is the fact that it creates a 3D model of your body and tracks the emotional tone in your voice for an even more personalized wellness journey. Technology with EQ (emotional quotient) capabilities are rare and mostly seen in experimental robots. The existing trackers can probably get an idea about your feeling through heart rate but evaluating your emotions through your voice is new in wearables.


Called Echo Show 10, it’s roughly 20 bucks costlier than the previous 10.1-inch brick but is more life-like and productive. This smart assistant comes with a similar 10.1-inch full-HD screen (two tweeters and a woofer) that’s capable of rotating as you move around in front of it. The movement is only kicked off when you interact with it – whether by saying “Alexa” – to trigger the voice assistant – or by touching the screen. You can be confident you’re not being followed around the room when you’ve not authorized the device to do so. Echo Show 10 employs audio beamforming technology and computer vision to know where you are in the room and then silently face the screen toward you.

Amazon’s musical instrument isn’t for musicians… it’s for developers. This is the AWS DeepComposer, a machine learning-driven keyboard aimed at coders and developers, giving them a creative, hands-on way to approach machine learning, and probably knock out a few jams while they’re at it. “AWS DeepComposer is a 32-key, 2-octave keyboard designed for developers to get hands-on with Generative AI, with either pre-trained models or your own”, says Julien Simon from Amazon Web Services.

The drone (there’s no codename yet) is the culmination of over 50,000 iterations and computer tests, and Amazon hopes to use it for delivering smaller items like groceries and supplies over distances of 7-8 miles, helping the company achieve same-day instant deliveries without the hassle of moving parts of trucks, delivery agents, and traffic. The drone’s design comes with an integrated squarish pod that can carry a parcel at a time, delivering items in under 30 minutes to customers. Its design comes equipped with 6 rotor units sporting unique S-shaped propellers that provide the thrust without making excess noise, allowing the drone to fly over neighborhoods without causing much of a disturbance (an issue most citizens expressed their concern over during multiple tests runs).


Amazon’s Echo Sub unit can be used alongside the Echo and Echo Dot. Its purpose? To bring the bass! Colliding head-on with companies like Sonos (or even Apple’s exorbitant Home Pod), the Echo Sub is a 100W down-firing woofer that can pair with existing Echo devices to bring a rich low-end to the music you listen to. The Sub can connect with as many as two Echo devices too, to give you a rather nifty stereo 2.1 setup. The Echo Sub’s up for pre-orders, with shipping beginning as soon as the end of this month!

Amazon also unleashed some interesting releases for its own workspaces! AmaZen brings employees into interactive kiosks that are dotted throughout Amazon’s factories to guide them through meditation and mindfulness practices, and Wellness Zones “provide employees with voluntary stretching and muscle recovery via easily accessible, dedicated spaces within Amazon’s operations buildings”.

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Amazon Releasing an Alexa-Enabled Sticky Note Printer

As one of its first Amazon Day 1 Edition products (an initiative where Amazon introduces new conceptual products and if they meet their pre-order goal by a certain date, Amazon will manufacture them), the company is releasing the $90 Smart Sticky Note Printer (affiliate link). The unit is an Alexa-compatible inkless printer that can print sticky note to-do lists, reminders, recipes, shopping lists, and even sudoku puzzles.

That’s cool, but do you know what turns any piece of printed paper into a sticky note? A little wad of chewing gum. That’s what I’ve been doing for years and it’s been working out just – wait, where’s my grocery list? Oh please don’t be on my shoe again.

Do you think 3M is worried about their Post-It Note brand now that Amazon is trying to get into the sticky note market? Because I would be. I’d also send a spy to infiltrate the company and learn their secrets, and that’s why I’m not allowed to run businesses anymore.

My wife informed me she’s added the printer to her Amazon cart, so I guess we’re getting one. And when I catch her telling Alexa to add ‘sticky note printer paper’ to her sticky note shopping list, I’ll know this technology has finally reached its logical conclusion.

Your Amazon Echo Dot transforms into a Mandalorian Helmet with this 3D printed stand!

Smart Speakers are seldom designed to be trophy elements. With their unassuming design and fabric clad, they’re BUILT to blend into your home decor, being useful only when wanted. This 3D printed stand, on the other hand, turns your smart speaker into a pop-culture collectible worth showing off!

Say hello to the Mandalorian smart speaker holder for the 4th Generation Amazon Echo Dot. Inspired by the Star Wars spin-off series, the smart-speaker holder comes 3D printed by Etsy shop Slic3DArt, quite perfectly resembling the Mandalorian helmet. Place your spherical Amazon Echo Dot within its head cavity and you’ve officially got yourself a trophy-head worth showcasing on your mantelpiece or coffee table!

The purpose of the Mandalorian smart-speaker holder is purely aesthetic. It doesn’t enhance the speaker’s functions but doesn’t impair them either (it does, however, block the light ring at the base). I just wish Alexa came with a Mandalorian voice option!

Designer: Slic3DArt

YD Also Recommends: The Baby Yoda Smart Speaker Holder for your 3rd Gen Amazon Echo Dot!