Apple’s iOS 26.4 represents a significant step forward, introducing a variety of new features, performance upgrades, and minor trade-offs. Currently in its second beta phase, the update is expected to roll out publicly by the end of March 2026, with weekly beta releases leading up to the launch. This detailed overview explores the key updates, […]
The post iOS 26.4 Release Date: When to Expect Apple’s Big Spring Update appeared first on Geeky Gadgets.
MetMo has a very particular way of working. The Leeds-based engineering team finds a mechanical concept from history that was ahead of its time, studies it carefully, then rebuilds it with the materials and precision manufacturing the original inventor could never have accessed. The MetMo Pen went back to an 1892 dual-thread screw. The Fractal Vise revived a gripping technology too complex for most workshops. Both became substantial hits, and if you follow our work, you know we covered them. Their next one follows the same formula, and it might be the most satisfying yet.
Patent no. 1,070,656, filed by J. Anderson in 1912 and granted in 1913, described a double-ended parallel wrench that never quite found its moment. MetMo took that silhouette and used it as a chassis, assigning a specific function to every surface: a hex drive zone at the centre, adaptive parallel jaws drawing directly from their Fractal Vise technology, plier teeth, a V-groove for square drive tools, and an edge nipping point. It’s five tools in one slim body, after a 113-year wait for the right team to come along and finally build it properly.
Designers: Sean Sykes & James Whitfield
Click Here to Buy Now: $134 $167 (20% off). Hurry, only 4/600 left! Raised over $438,000.
The original Anderson patent was a ghost, a clever idea that lacked the context to thrive. You can picture it being made from rough-cast metal with loose tolerances, a tool that worked in theory but was probably clunky in practice. What MetMo does is take that core mechanical logic and run it through a modern filter of CNC machining and advanced metallurgy. The result is a tool that fulfills the original’s promise in a way Anderson himself likely couldn’t have imagined. It’s the same double-ended, central-pivot concept, but executed with a precision that makes it feel entirely new. Coupled with tiny tools and details stuffed into every empty spot MetMo could find.
What’s really clever is how they packed in so much function without making it a brick. A typical multi-tool suffers from compromise, with each function feeling a bit clumsy to accommodate the others. The Pocket Grip avoids this by making existing geometry do double duty. The central pivot, a structural necessity in the 1913 design, is now a perfectly machined 1/4-inch hex drive for standard bits. The jaws aren’t just serrated; they’re divided into a ‘chomping zone’ for aggressive grip, dedicated points for round or flat objects, and even an edge nipping point. Every surface has a purpose, a level of design efficiency that makes the final object feel intentional and integrated.
That’s especially true of the adaptive parallel jaw, which is a direct technological inheritance from their own Fractal Vise. We wrote about that vise when it came out, admiring how its interlocking jaws could conform to almost any irregular shape. MetMo has miniaturized that same logic and engineered it into the Pocket Grip. One jaw remains fixed while the other adjusts, staying perfectly parallel up to a 20mm opening distance. This gives you a clamping stability that a simple pair of pliers could never match. It’s proof that MetMo isn’t just reviving old ideas; they’re building a cohesive design language and iterating on their own innovations.
All of this engineering is packed into a form that is genuinely pocket-friendly. The tool measures just 95.5mm long by 45.5mm wide, and a remarkably slim 10mm thick. The aerospace-grade aluminum version weighs a scant 83.6 grams. These numbers are key to its success as an everyday carry item. But the specs only tell half the story. The other half is the tactile experience, the so-called ‘desk toy’ factor. The smooth action of the TR6x2 drive screw, the satisfying resistance of the knurled brass adjuster, and the balanced weight in your hand make it something you instinctively want to pick up and fiddle with.
The jaws on all versions are machined from 17-4 PH hardened stainless steel, heat-treated to a Rockwell C hardness of 45, with an ultimate tensile strength of 1448 MPa. In simple terms, they are incredibly tough and designed to retain their edge. The body itself comes in three flavors: hard-anodized 7075-T651 aluminum for lightweight durability, Grade 5 titanium for the ultimate strength-to-weight ratio, or a solid stainless steel build for those who prefer a bit of heft. This isn’t a disposable product; the jaws are removable and serviceable, a direct counter-statement to the throwaway culture common in tool manufacturing.
In practice, the Pocket Grip finds its place everywhere. For a model maker or miniatures painter, it’s a precise third hand, clamping onto a base to hold a project steady. For a cyclist, it’s a compact wrench and driver for quick adjustments on the go. Around the house, it’s the tool you grab for that one awkward fitting that nothing else can quite get a handle on. The V-groove is a subtle but brilliant touch, perfect for holding 3-6mm square drive tools like taps and drill bits, adding another layer of utility for detailed work. With the ability to apply over 21kg of clamping force with just finger pressure, it has more than enough power for most daily tasks.
The Pocket Grip is available in three primary configurations based on the body material. The lightweight choice is the hard-anodized aluminum at 83.6g. For those wanting a balance of weight and extreme durability, the titanium version comes in at 103.6g. Finally, the stainless steel model offers the most substantial feel at 141g and includes an upgraded ‘Snip Grip’ with hardened cutting jaws. Pricing starts at £99, positioning it as a premium, investment-grade tool. And MetMo backs that up with what they call a 200-year guarantee, a confident statement that this is a tool built not just for you, but for the person who finds it in your workshop generations from now.
Click Here to Buy Now: $134 $167 (20% off). Hurry, only 4/600 left! Raised over $438,000.
The post A 113-Year-Old Patent Just Became the Most Creative EDC Pocket Multi-Tool of 2026 first appeared on Yanko Design.
Sony’s next console is on the horizon, but a growing number of gamers are looking backward instead. The PS6 will almost certainly launch north of $500, and for that price, entire libraries of PlayStation classics remain locked behind aging hardware, digital storefronts, or subscription tiers that rotate titles in and out on a whim. Meanwhile, a parallel market of pocket-sized emulation handhelds has quietly exploded over the past two years, putting decades of retro gaming into devices that cost less than a single DualSense controller.
These handhelds won’t run God of War Ragnarök, and nobody is pretending they will. What they can do is play through Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Crash Bandicoot, and thousands of other PS1 titles at full speed, often with save states, fast-forward, and display filters that the original hardware never offered. Search interest in retro gaming handhelds has grown 173% year over year, and the devices fueling that demand sit at a price under $130. Five of them stand out from the flood.
The device that started the modern budget handheld craze still holds its own, even two years after launch. The Miyoo Mini Plus runs on a Sigmastar SSD202D processor with just 128MB of RAM, specs that sound laughable on paper but prove more than sufficient for everything up to and including PS1. Its 3.5-inch IPS display at 640×480 fills a vertical body small enough to disappear into a jacket pocket, and the 3000mAh battery stretches to seven hours with the right custom firmware installed.
Designer: Miyoo
That firmware, OnionOS, is the real reason this device remains so widely recommended. Built and maintained by a dedicated community of developers, OnionOS transforms the Miyoo Mini Plus from a competent emulator into one of the most polished retro gaming experiences available at any price. Features like automatic save-on-shutdown, RetroAchievements integration, and a game switcher that lets you hop between titles without returning to the menu give it a level of software refinement that devices costing three times as much still struggle to match.
Anbernic’s answer to the Miyoo Mini Plus arrived with a meaningful hardware advantage and a familiar form factor. The RG35XX Plus swaps in an Allwinner H700 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor with 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM, a substantial leap over the Miyoo. That additional horsepower translates directly into smoother PS1 emulation and opens the door to Dreamcast and Nintendo DS titles that the Miyoo simply cannot handle, all wrapped in a horizontal Game Boy-inspired shell.
Designer: ANBERNIC
Connectivity is where the RG35XX Plus pulls further ahead. Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2, and a mini HDMI port come standard, which means this handheld can double as a TV-connected retro console when paired with a wireless controller. Dual microSD card slots support up to 512GB each, and the 3300mAh battery delivers around eight hours of play. The trade-off is software: the stock firmware is rough enough that most owners immediately replace it with GarlicOS, a community-built alternative that requires sideloading via SD card.
Most handhelds in this price bracket borrow their proportions from the Game Boy or the PS Vita, but the Powkiddy RGB30 charts its own course with a 4.0-inch square IPS display running at 720×720. That 1:1 aspect ratio is a deliberate choice, not a gimmick. Retro games from the NES through the PS1 era were designed for 4:3 screens, and a square panel accommodates that ratio with minimal letterboxing while giving Game Boy titles a perfect native fit. The taller body this requires also gives the D-pad and dual analog sticks room to breathe.
Designer: POWKIDDY
Under the hood, a Rockchip RK3566 quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz, and 1GB of LPDDR4 RAM keep things moving. PS1 games run without issue, and the device extends into Dreamcast, some N64, and limited PSP territory. The 4100mAh battery is the largest on this list, rated for eight hours. Stereo speakers and Wi-Fi round out a feature set that punches above its $70 price point. Build quality, though, remains a step behind Anbernic’s hardware, with a plastic shell that feels lighter and less refined than the competition.
The Trimui Smart Pro S occupies the top of the sub-$100 bracket and makes a strong case for spending the extra money. It packs an Allwinner A133P processor and a Mali-G57 GPU that Trimui claims delivers 2.5 times the graphics performance of the original Smart Pro. In practice, this means PS1 runs flawlessly, Dreamcast and N64 titles play at full speed, and most PSP games are smooth enough to enjoy without constant tweaking. A 4.96-inch IPS display at 1280×720 presents all of it on the largest screen in this roundup.
Designer: Trimui
The hardware refinements extend beyond the processor. TMR hall-effect analog sticks eliminate drift concerns and support L3/R3 clicks, larger trigger buttons improve ergonomics over the predecessor, and an active cooling fan prevents thermal throttling during extended sessions. A 5000mAh battery provides around five hours of play, and stereo speakers with a vibration motor round out a surprisingly complete package. The PS Vita-inspired form factor is comfortable for long stretches but makes the device less pocketable than smaller alternatives, and the 16:9 widescreen wastes real estate when displaying 4:3 retro content.
The Retroid Pocket Classic pushes past the $100 mark at $129 for the current available model, but it earns its place on this list by being the only device here running Android and the only one with an AMOLED screen. That 3.92-inch panel at 1240×1080 delivers deeper blacks and more saturated colors than any IPS display in this bracket, and the Snapdragon G1 Gen 2 processor paired with up to 6GB of RAM puts it in a different performance class entirely. PS1 is effortless here. GameCube, PS2, and Saturn emulation become viable options.
Designer: Retroid
Running Android 14 with Google Play Store access means the Retroid Pocket Classic can function as more than a dedicated emulator. Streaming apps, cloud gaming services, and native Android titles all run alongside the retro emulation suite. A 5000mAh battery with 27W fast charging, active cooling, and Bluetooth 5.1 complete the picture. The vertical Game Boy-inspired body lacks analog sticks, which limits comfort with 3D-heavy titles from later console generations. Unlike the Linux devices on this list, the Retroid Pocket Classic ships without any pre-loaded games, requiring users to supply their own ROMs from the start.
The post 5 Best Retro Handhelds That Play PS1 Classics for Under $130 first appeared on Yanko Design.
There’s a quiet arrogance built into most tools. Someone in a design studio somewhere decided how your hand should hold a screwdriver, how long the shaft should be, how thick the grip ought to feel. They tested it on a handful of people, ran the ergonomic studies, picked a shape, and shipped it to millions. The assumption is always the same: one form, optimized for an average that doesn’t actually exist, should work for everyone.
Siddhant Rai Garg’s final-year project at Central Saint Martins, titled Not Just Another Screwdriver, starts from a different place entirely. It asks a question that most product designers avoid because the answer is inconvenient: what if the person holding the tool is actually the best person to decide what it should feel like?
Designer: Siddhant Rai Garg
The system is deceptively simple in concept. A permanent titanium spine handles all the structural work, the torque, the load, the mechanical reality of driving a screw. Everything else around it, the grip, the length, the feel, is modular and replaceable. Segments can be added or removed to change the tool’s reach. Grip files are open-source, meaning anyone with access to a 3D printer or a block of wood and some patience can shape their own handle. The titanium core stays. Everything around it is yours to define.
What makes this interesting isn’t really the engineering, though the material separation between structural and non-structural components is genuinely clever. It’s the philosophical shift. Most product design operates on a model of authority: the designer knows best, the user receives the finished object, and any modification is either warranty-voiding or just plain weird. Garg’s project flips that relationship. The designer provides a skeleton and a set of rules. The user provides the identity.
I find this compelling because it confronts something the design world talks about constantly but rarely acts on: sustainability through longevity. We’ve all heard the pitch about buying fewer, better things. But “better” almost always means “more expensive and more permanent,” which assumes the first version of a product will remain the right version forever. That’s not how people work. Our hands change, our tasks change, our preferences change. A tool that can’t change with us eventually becomes waste, no matter how well it was made.
Not Just Another Screwdriver sidesteps this by making the most resource-intensive part, the titanium spine, the permanent element, while letting the lightweight, low-cost components around it evolve freely. It’s not asking you to commit to one perfect screwdriver for life. It’s asking you to keep the bones and swap the skin whenever you need to.
There’s also something worth noting about the open-source dimension. Releasing grip designs as downloadable, modifiable files is a deliberate act of giving up control. In an industry that guards intellectual property fiercely, choosing to let users become co-designers is a statement about where value actually lives. It suggests that a tool’s worth isn’t locked into its factory finish but grows through use and adaptation.
Of course, a final-year project isn’t a product on shelves. There are real questions about whether most people want this level of involvement with their screwdriver, whether the modularity holds up under years of heavy use, and whether open-source grip files would actually build a community or just sit on a server somewhere. These are fair challenges.
But the idea itself feels like it belongs to a larger shift happening across design, one that treats users less like consumers of finished objects and more like participants in an ongoing process. We’re seeing it in modular electronics, in open-source furniture, in customizable prosthetics. Garg’s contribution is taking that thinking and applying it to something so ordinary, so taken-for-granted, that most of us never think to question it.
A screwdriver is a solved problem. Except it isn’t, not if you believe that the person using it deserves a say in how it feels in their hand. That’s what makes this project worth paying attention to. Not because it reinvents the screwdriver, but because it reconsiders who gets to decide what a screwdriver is.
The post The First Screwdriver With an Open-Source Handle You Redesign Yourself first appeared on Yanko Design.
Contemporary artist Daniel Arsham’s studio just received a custom drafting table from Madrid-based CALIPER, and it looks less like furniture and more like a precision instrument from a machine shop. The entire structure is CNC-machined aluminum with exposed brass gears, machined hand cranks, and yes, two built-in cup holders, because even meticulous charcoal drawings require coffee.
The table was commissioned as a functional workstation for Arsham’s small-scale charcoal and graphite drawings on paper. If you know Arsham primarily through his large eroded sculptures or his high-profile collaborations with Dior, Adidas, and Porsche, the drawings might surprise you. They’re intimate, quiet things: detailed studies of the same classical and pop-cultural forms he renders in volcanic ash and crystal at monumental scale. Making work like that demands precision, sustained focus, and the right light. So this isn’t a vanity object. It’s a production tool with a very specific brief.
Designer: CALIPER
CALIPER’s design addresses that brief with an almost obsessive level of care. The table surface is backlit, providing even illumination through a frosted glass top for tracing and examining fine mark-making. A magnifying lamp on an articulated arm lets Arsham inspect the surface of the paper up close, which matters enormously when you’re working with the kinds of tonal subtlety that charcoal and graphite demand. The whole thing tilts on a worm-gear mechanism with a machined hand crank and those beautiful brass gears, allowing the drawing surface to be angled from flat to near-vertical. The hardware looks like it belongs in a machine shop, and that’s entirely the point.
What elevates this beyond a well-made table is the integrated storage panel on the right side of the surface. CNC-machined from aluminum, it features recessed compartments for paper, charcoal sticks, and other tools, plus those two cup holders (the unsung hero of any studio setup) and what appear to be surface-mounted charging ports and controls for the light sources. Everything is contained within the footprint of the work surface, so there’s no reaching over to a side table or hunting through drawers. It’s the kind of considered, artist-specific workflow thinking that separates a custom commission from something you’d buy off a catalog page.
The material choice is worth noting too. The entire structure is CNC-machined aluminum with a clear anodized and bead-blasted finish, giving it a uniform matte silver tone that reads as both industrial and refined. It’s not trying to be warm or domestic. It’s not pretending to be anything other than a machine for drawing. The base structure uses a pair of splayed trestle legs connected by horizontal stainless steel rods, with beautiful machined junction pieces where the rods intersect. Even the feet, with their leveling pads, look purposeful.
CALIPER assembled the table entirely in-house at their Madrid studio before shipping it to New York, where Arsham is based. For a studio whose work spans from trivets for Madrid restaurants to homeware collaborations, this kind of one-off commission represents the more ambitious end of their capabilities, and they’ve clearly relished the challenge.
What makes this project compelling beyond the obvious craft is what it says about the relationship between tools and creative practice. Arsham’s drawings exist in deliberate contrast to his larger, more commercially visible work. They’re analog, slow, and physically demanding in a way that eroded crystal sculptures are not. Building a bespoke instrument for that practice is a statement about its value. It says: this part of the work matters enough to warrant its own architecture.
There’s also something appealing about the visible mechanics of the thing. In an era where most studio equipment tries to disappear into sleek minimalism, CALIPER has left the gears exposed, the crank handles proud, the engineering legible. You can see how it works, and that transparency feels right for a tool that supports handmade work. It’s a machine that respects the hand.
The post Daniel Arsham’s New Drafting Table Has Brass Gears and Cup Holders Built In first appeared on Yanko Design.
Who would've guessed we'd get to play the original Banjo-Kazooie on a handheld with just a D-pad in 2026. HyperMegaTech!'s latest release is a collaboration with Rare Ltd., the legendary game developer known for the Banjo-Kazooie franchise and, more recently, Sea of Thieves, called the Super Pocket Rare Edition.
The vertical handheld features 14 classics from the British developer, including two Battletoads titles, Conker's Pocket Tales and many more. While most of the games were released on 8- or 16-bit consoles, Banjo-Kazooie will be the headliner since it was originally released on the Nintendo 64. It may sound weird to control Banjo and Kazooie with a D-pad, but HyperMegaTech! assured that the game has been enhanced and optimized specifically for the Super Pocket handheld.
Since HyperMegaTech! and Evercade share Blaze Entertainment as a parent company, that means the Rare Edition handheld will be compatible with Evercade cartridges. Once you're done with the 14 included games, you can expand your Super Pocket's library with cartridges that feature collections from Taito, NeoGeo or Atari. HyperMegaTech! said the Rare Edition handheld will be available for $69.99 in June 2026, but has already opened preorders.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/this-retro-inspired-handheld-comes-with-banjo-kazooie-and-battletoads-built-in-203111135.html?src=rss
Most lamps want to disappear into a room, but every now and then, one shows up that demands the room reorganize itself around it. The ML15 Helios, designed by Berlin-based artist Frank Buchwald in collaboration with MB&F’s M.A.D.Gallery, is one of those objects. It’s a lamp, technically. It gives off light, it has a switch, it plugs into a wall. But calling it a lamp feels reductive in the same way calling a Porsche 911 a commuter car technically isn’t wrong but misses the entire point.
The ML15 Helios was created to mark the 15th anniversary of the M.A.D.Gallery, MB&F’s network of spaces dedicated to what they call Mechanical Art Devices. The gallery itself was born out of a kind of beautiful stubbornness. Back in 2011, MB&F founder Maximilian Büsser couldn’t get traditional retailers to properly display his three-dimensional watches, and art galleries told him his creations weren’t really art. So he opened his own space in Geneva’s Old Town and started curating the kind of work that lived between disciplines. Frank Buchwald was one of the very first artists to join.
Designer: Frank Buchwald
The origin story between the two is almost too good. Büsser discovered Buchwald’s retro-futuristic Machine Lights online, visited his scarred industrial workshop in Berlin, and left having committed to buying the next ten lights for a gallery that didn’t even exist yet. That kind of instinct, that willingness to bet on something before the infrastructure is in place, is rare. Fifteen years later, the ML15 Helios feels like the natural product of a creative relationship built on that kind of trust.
The piece itself is a 9-kilogram sculpture made from stainless steel and brass, standing on three legs that give it an almost biological quality, like something that evolved rather than was engineered. At its center sits a 120mm spherical globe bulb surrounded by a dimmable LED ring that replicates a solar corona. Two blue diffuser rings frame the sphere, and this is where the design gets interesting. Depending on your angle and your mood, the Helios can look like a celestial body, a precision scientific instrument, or a human eye staring back at you. That ambiguity is intentional, and it’s what separates Buchwald’s work from decorative lighting that simply tries to look expensive.
Every one of the 120 individual components is handcrafted in Buchwald’s Berlin workshop. The electrical wiring runs through flexible stainless steel tubes, kept visible rather than hidden, because Buchwald believes in showing the inner workings of his machines. Even the laser-cut parts get extensive manual reworking, and each piece takes several weeks to complete. The head rotates 90 degrees, which means the Helios isn’t just a static sculpture but something you physically interact with to direct light across a room.
What I find most compelling about the ML15 Helios is how it occupies a space that most designers avoid entirely. It’s not minimalist, it’s not maximalist, it’s not mid-century modern, and it doesn’t reference any trend you could pin to a specific decade. Buchwald was a science fiction illustrator before he started working with metal, and that background shows. There’s a narrative embedded in the object, a sense that it belongs to a fictional world where machines are revered for their beauty as much as their function.
Limited to just 15 pieces and exclusive to M.A.D.Gallery locations in Geneva, Dubai, and the MB&F Labs network, the Helios is priced on request, which in this world means it’s not for the casually curious. But I think the limitation is part of what makes it meaningful. In an era where everything scales, where even luxury brands chase volume, there’s something quietly radical about a handmade object that exists in a quantity of 15 because that’s all one artist can responsibly make.
The ML15 Helios isn’t trying to be the future of lighting design. It’s trying to be a singular object that earns its place in a room not through branding or spectacle, but through the sheer quality of its craft and the clarity of its vision. In that sense, Buchwald and Büsser have made something that the M.A.D.Gallery was always meant to celebrate: a machine that gives light, and in doing so, becomes art.
The post A 9-Kilogram Lamp Built From 120 Handmade Parts (Only 15 Exist) first appeared on Yanko Design.
Alaska's House of Representatives unanimously passed HB47, a bill that imposes sweeping limits on when and how minors use social media apps, along with bans on generating or distributing harmful deepfakes of children.
The bill's original form was focused on prohibiting the possession and distribution of sexually explicit images of children using AI, but Alaska lawmakers decided to add amendments that would impose social media restrictions. The proposed limitations include a statewide curfew on using social media between 10:30 PM and 6:30 AM, banning "addictive design features" and requiring social media platforms to verify user ages and get parental consent if they are minors.
While the House bill saw 39 votes in favor and zero against, the amendments offered some hints at potential upcoming revisions. Before the bill went to a vote, some of the House representatives expressed concern about adding such broad rules on social media without consulting the companies behind them first.
The bill still has to make its way through the Alaska State Senate, which already has presented a companion bill, and the governor. Alaska is following the footsteps of many other states, and the House even modeled its social media amendments in the HB47 bill after Utah. While Utah was the first to propose social media restrictions for kids, it was later met with a preliminary injunction.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/alaska-could-be-the-next-state-to-crack-down-on-ai-generated-csam-and-restrict-kids-social-media-use-190506366.html?src=rss
Redmi Buds 8 Pro arrives as Redmi’s more ambitious take on everyday wireless earbuds. They aim to combine punchy sound, serious noise cancellation, and gaming-friendly latency in a package that still feels relatively affordable. This is not a basic budget pair built only for casual background listening, and it clearly wants to feel like a step up the moment you start using it.
What makes them interesting is how they chase premium style features without making the experience feel intimidating. The triple driver setup is the headline, but the real promise is a well-rounded daily companion that can handle commuting, workouts, and long listening sessions with minimal fuss. At 399 CNY in China, the value story is hard to ignore, and the key question is whether the real-world experience matches that strong first impression.
Designer: Xiaomi
Redmi Buds 8 Pro follows a familiar stem style layout, but the visual language leans clean and modern rather than flashy. The earbuds have smooth, flowing lines, with a compact in-ear body that blends into a slim, rounded stem. Most of the earbud surface is finished in a soft matte texture that hides fingerprints and keeps the look understated. On the outside-facing side of each stem, Redmi adds a shiny strip that catches the light, with a small Redmi logo at the bottom as a neat visual anchor. This contrast between matte and gloss gives the buds a touch of sophistication while still keeping them low-key.
The charging case continues that restrained approach with a compact, pebble-like shape that slips easily into a pocket or bag. Its semi-matte shell feels smooth and resists smudges, while a subtle Redmi logo and “triple driver sound” text on the back quietly nod to the hardware inside. On the front, a slim bar of LEDs offers at a glance battery and pairing information but remains discreet when off, so the case still looks clean.
Color options and small accents may vary by region, yet the overall design clearly targets a wide audience. These are earbuds you can wear at the office, on public transport, or at the gym without drawing much attention. If you like bold, statement-making designs, they may feel a bit too reserved, but if you prefer tech that looks tidy and well finished, Redmi Buds 8 Pro sit in a very comfortable sweet spot.
While the design focuses on clean lines and visual calm, the build of Redmi Buds 8 Pro focuses on comfort and practicality. Each earbud weighs about five point three grams, which helps them feel light enough for long listening sessions without that dragging sensation some heavier buds can cause. Of course, fit and comfort are different from person to person, but Redmi Buds 8 Pro fit my ears very well and never felt like they were about to fall out.
The medium-sized silicone tips come preinstalled, and Redmi also includes small and large tips in the box so you can fine-tune the seal. I usually go with medium-sized tips and sometimes switch to small tips on certain earbuds, but with Redmi Buds 8 Pro, the medium size worked best for me. Some earbuds struggle to stay put even when I am not moving or talking, yet here I had no problem with fit or comfort, even when I talked, ate, did yoga, or went for a jog with the earbuds in.
The charging case weighs about 47 grams, which keeps the full kit small and light enough to disappear into a jeans pocket or a slim sling bag. The rounded shape and smooth finish make it easy to grip and open, and the lid snaps shut with a reassuring click. Magnets inside guide the earbuds into place so they line up with the charging contacts without much effort. In everyday use, that means you can carry the case all day and quickly pop the buds in or out whenever you need them, without really noticing the extra bulk.
Redmi Buds 8 Pro pack impressive specifications for their price range, and the audio hardware is the main reason why. They use a coaxial triple driver configuration that combines an 11 mm driver with a titanium diaphragm and twin 6.7 mm PZT ceramic tweeters. In listening, the sound comes across as clear and nicely balanced, with bass that feels full and satisfying without overpowering vocals or detail.
Redmi Buds 8 Pro carry Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification and support codecs such as LDAC, but in day-to-day use, the bigger story is simply that the tuning feels well judged. Dolby Audio and Xiaomi Dimensional Audio are also supported, giving you extra options to change the sense of space and presentation, especially for movies and shows.
Active Noise Cancellation works great overall, especially considering the price. It does not completely block out train noise or airplane engine rumble, but it comes close, which makes music and podcasts easier to enjoy at lower volumes. With higher-pitched sounds like a baby crying, it still does not fully cancel everything out, yet it reduces the sharpness enough that you are less likely to get distracted from what you are doing.
One comfort note is heat. I felt the earbuds get slightly warm at first when ANC was on, but it did not seem to build up over time. It is also possible I simply got used to the sensation after wearing them for a while, so I would not call it a major issue, but it is worth mentioning if you are sensitive to heat on hot days.
Battery life is solid on paper and practical in daily use. Each earbud houses a 54 mAh battery, with rated playback of up to about eight hours on a single charge when ANC is off. Turn ANC on and use higher volumes, and actual listening time will drop somewhat, which is typical for this type of product, while the 480 mAh charging case extends total listening time up to roughly 33 hours across multiple top-ups.
Touch controls on the stems worked great in my use, and the biggest usability upgrade is that volume control is supported via sliding on the stem. The controls support single tap, double tap, triple tap, press and hold, and swipe, which gives you a lot of flexibility without needing to reach for your phone. You can customize these gestures in the Xiaomi Earbuds app, so the controls can match your habits instead of forcing you into a fixed layout.
The app also gives you practical sound tuning options without making things feel overly technical. You can pick from preset audio profiles like Balanced sound, Enhanced bass, Enhanced treble, and Enhanced voice, depending on what you are listening to. If you want more control, there is also a custom EQ option that lets you adjust eight separate bands, with each slider running from plus six to minus six, so you can fine-tune the sound without guessing too much.
For a product category like true wireless earbuds, sustainability is rarely a strong point, and Redmi Buds 8 Pro are no exception. The compact, sealed design means the internal batteries are not user-replaceable, so once overall battery health drops, most people will end up replacing the whole set rather than repairing it. That pattern is common across almost all TWS earbuds today, but it still makes this a product that is easier to discard than to keep alive for many years.
The IP54 rating does offer a small positive by protecting against dust and splashes, which can reduce early failures from sweat, light rain, or accidental spills. One small feature that nudges in a better direction is the “find your earphones” function, which lets you play a tone from the left, right, or both earbuds via the app to help you track them down when they go missing. It is not a full integration with Google Find My Device, yet anything that helps you avoid losing a bud and replacing the whole set still counts as a quiet step toward better longevity.
Redmi Buds 8 Pro is priced at 69.90 Euros, which works out to roughly $83. That puts them in the affordable end of the true wireless market. They still cost more than the absolute cheapest buds, but remain very accessible for anyone looking to step up from basic or bundled earphones.
From a value perspective, they make the most sense if you care about sound quality and noise cancellation more than simply paying the lowest possible price. Cheaper options can handle calls and casual listening, but usually lack the triple driver setup, stronger ANC, and more polished overall experience you get here. For many buyers, Redmi Buds 8 Pro will feel like a worthwhile upgrade that adds clear benefits without demanding a luxury-level budget.
Redmi Buds 8 Pro is an easy recommendation if you want strong everyday performance without paying flagship prices. The triple driver setup delivers clear, balanced sound with bass that feels full but controlled, and the ANC is effective enough to make commutes and busy spaces noticeably calmer. Touch controls are reliable, and the volume slide gesture is a genuinely useful upgrade that makes daily listening feel smoother.
They are not perfect, with ANC that cannot fully erase the loudest train or plane noise and weaker results on some high-pitched sounds, plus the usual sealed battery limitations for sustainability. Still, the fit was excellent in my ears, the case is easy to carry, and the “find your earphones” tone feature helps prevent frustrating losses. If you care most about sound quality, noise cancelling, and a polished experience at a very competitive price, Redmi Buds 8 Pro hit a sweet spot.
The post Redmi Buds 8 Pro Review: This €69.90 Earbud Punches Way Above Its Weight first appeared on Yanko Design.
Bloodborne fans may not be happy to hear that a remake was reportedly rejected, but that doesn't mean it's completely off the table. Bluepoint Games, Sony's closed-down studio behind many PlayStation remakes, pitched remaking the classic Gothic horror RPG in early 2025, but was blocked by the game's developer, FromSoftware, according to a Bloomberg report.
As Bloomberg reported, Bluepoint pitched a Bloodborne remake after several years of working towards a live-service title in the God of War franchise that was ultimately canceled. Looking for the next project, a modern-day version of Bloodborne made a lot of sense, considering the title came out in 2015 and Bluepoint was responsible for the successful Demon's Souls remake in 2020. However, Bloomberg's sources said that FromSoftware was against it, but didn't offer a concrete reason why. With some digging, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier pointed to an interview from Kinda Funny Games with PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida, which aired last year. In the video, Yoshida mentioned that FromSoftware's president, Hidetaka Miyazaki, wanted to pursue a Bloodborne remake, but was too busy to do it himself and "doesn't want anyone else to touch it."
After failing to get the Bloodborne remake greenlit, Bluepoint wasn't able to secure another project for more than a year, according to the Bloomberg report. Now that Bluepoint has been shut down, we're likely even further away from a remake. That's not to say a remake will never happen, but when it does, it'll have to get a stamp of approval and likely a lot of oversight from FromSoftware.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/shuttered-studio-bluepoint-reportedly-pitched-a-bloodborne-remake-but-it-got-shot-down-by-fromsoftware-173744228.html?src=rss