Author Archives: JC Torres

Observation Pavilion Sends a Camera Up While You Stay on the Ground

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Climbing an observation tower involves a lot of steel and concrete just to stand a few dozen meters higher and take in a view. The ritual is familiar, the ascent, the vertigo, the panorama, but the infrastructure demands are massive for what amounts to a few minutes of elevated looking. Michael Jantzen’s Telepresence Observation Pavilion asks whether we always need to build big vertical structures to get that feeling, especially when most distant experiences already come through screens and networks.

Instead of lifting people into the air, the pavilion lifts a 360-degree camera on a tall telescoping mast, then brings the view down to ground level. Inside a circular room, a ring of high-definition screens shows a live panoramic feed from the camera, synced with sound, so visitors see and hear exactly what they would if they were standing at the top of a traditional tower, without leaving the ground or climbing a long staircase.

Designer: Michael Jantzen

Walking into a round, open space where the walls behave like windows wraps you in a continuous horizon of forest, water, or city. A circular bench sits around the central mast, the floor stays open, and a guardrail keeps you a step back from the screens, so you are aware you are in a room, but your eyes are convinced you are somewhere higher and more exposed.

The camera sits on top of a tall series of telescoping pipes anchored to the pavilion floor, rising far above the roof. The module captures real-time sights and sounds in every direction, then sends that data down to the screens. The only tower you need to build is this slender mast, not a full structure sized for people, which drastically cuts material and engineering demands.

Eight solar panels ring the central skylight on the pavilion roof, feeding the camera, screens, and lighting. This connects to Jantzen’s goal of using information technology to replace or reduce physical building materials. The pavilion becomes an environmental argument, suggesting that if we can satisfy the desire for elevated views with data and light, we might not need to pour as much concrete into the sky.

Jantzen imagines many camera modules installed on existing structures, communication towers, mountain lodges, and skyscrapers. Those feeds could be sent over the internet to any pavilion, letting visitors switch channels between live elevated views from around the world. You could stand in a field and look out over Tokyo, then switch to a mountain ridge in Patagonia or a coastal city, turning a local building into a global observatory.

This changes the idea of an observation tower. You still make a trip to a specific place and share a room with other people, but the view is no longer tied to that exact spot. It can be curated, rotated, or scheduled, and multiple pavilions can share the same remote vantage point without crowding fragile sites. The architecture becomes as much about routing information as it is about shaping space.

The Telepresence Observation Pavilion will not replace every lookout or mountain hike, and there is still value in feeling the wind and height directly. But as a thought experiment, it points toward a future where we build less mass to get more experience, using cameras, networks, and solar-powered rooms to give people elevated perspectives without the environmental and structural cost of traditional towers, or the bottlenecks that come when everyone wants to see the same sunset from the same narrow platform at once.

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BrainBlink Fixes Doom Scrolling With 60-Second Brain Games

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Tiny breaks in the day, waiting for a kettle, standing in a hallway, sitting on the toilet, tend to collapse into the same pattern. Unlock phone, scroll, refresh, repeat. It is not about being distracted so much as not having anything better that fits into sixty seconds. A small, self-contained game console can live in that gap without dragging you into an endless feed, offering something that feels finished instead of endless.

BrainBlink is a pocket-sized brain-training arcade, a nine-button handheld with 60-second games, real tactile switches, and an optional global ladder. It is built around the idea of mental fitness, not in a heavy way, but as a quick hit of focus and challenge that feels satisfying to start and finish. It is designed for those tiny windows of time when a full game or deep work session is unrealistic, but doing nothing leaves you restless.

Designer: Nicolas Aagaard (LastObject) and Joshua Fairbairn (Morpho)

Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $69 (15% off). Hurry, only 4/967 left! Raised over $124,000.

BrainBlink ships with eight on-device games, each a 60-second challenge that targets different skills, working memory, reaction time, pattern recognition, focus, and speed. The games are quick to learn but hard to master, and the device is offline-first, storing scores locally so you can play anywhere without a phone or network. The fixed session length makes it easy to dip in and out without losing track of time or getting sucked into another hour of screen glowing.

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The competitive layer kicks in when you sync to the global ladder and tournaments. When you hit 3-2-1-GO in those modes, you are matched against another human brain somewhere else, both of you trying to out-tap and out-focus each other in the same sixty-second window. The appeal is not just the score, but the sense that someone in Chicago, Berlin, or Tokyo is wide awake and locked in with you for that minute, feeling the same pressure.

The companion app for iOS and Android adds stats, streaks, profiles, leaderboards, and performance charts as an optional layer. It handles Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 sync, over-the-air firmware updates, and ghost races, but you do not need it to enjoy the core games. This keeps the device from becoming another notification source while still letting people who love data and progression dig deeper when they want, without forcing that on everyone who just wants to play.

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The hardware is a 55 × 55 × 17.6 mm square with nine mechanical-style buttons, an RGB LED array, and a rechargeable lithium battery over USB-C. The tactile switch matrix is rated for more than 100,000 presses, the durable ABS housing is wrapped with soft-touch silicone buttons, and the water-resistant shell is built for bags and pockets. An adaptive difficulty engine in the onboard MCU models your performance and adjusts challenge levels to keep sessions engaging as you improve.

BrainBlink is offline-first, storing every score locally until you decide to sync, which makes it usable on planes, in elevators, or anywhere signals are flaky. Over-the-air firmware updates mean new modes and refinements arrive over time, so the device does not feel frozen on day one. That combination of physical durability and evolving software makes it feel more like a tiny console than a novelty gadget that stops being interesting after a week.

The device might live next to a laptop, in a hoodie pocket, or clipped to a bag. Instead of reflexively reaching for a phone during a spare minute, you pick up a small square, press a button, and give your brain a short, focused sprint. For people who like the idea of training attention without turning it into a chore, that kind of playful, sixty-second ritual is where a device like this quietly earns its place, offering something deliberately finite in a world of infinite feeds and tabs that never close.

Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $69 (15% off). Hurry, only 4/967 left! Raised over $124,000.

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Codeebots Brings Physical Coding Blocks from the Classroom to the Maker’s Bench

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Code education has a reputation problem. For a lot of kids, it means more screen time, more syntax errors, and more worksheets that feel nothing like the robots they care about. For many adults, it is too many tools, too much boilerplate, and not enough time to get from idea to working prototype. Codee, from Codeebots, tries to redraw that picture by turning code into something you pick up, snap together, and watch come alive, whether you are six or sixty.

At the heart is a set of magnetic tiles that behave like physical lines of code. Each tile carries a clear label and icon, MOTOR POWER, MOTOR SPEED, LIGHT COLOR, LIGHT BRIGHTNESS, SOUND VOLUME, or PLAY MUSIC, along with small number wheels for setting values. You lay them out on a table in order, snapping them together so the arrows line up. Instead of typing IF, LOOP, or DELAY, you drop in tiles that embody those concepts.

Designer: Codee

For younger learners, that shift is huge. Kids from about four to twelve can create code with their own hands, without staring at a tablet. The base unit sends power and data through the snapped‑on tiles, and LEDs under the surface trace the program’s flow. When something goes wrong, the light trail stops at the problem block, making debugging as simple as seeing where the chain breaks, tangible logic training that feels closer to building with bricks.

There is also an AI layer behind the scenes. Codee talks about GPT tutors that act as a personal guide, explaining what a block does, suggesting what to try next, and celebrating small wins. For a child working through their first conditional or loop, that means there is always a patient voice ready to rephrase or nudge. For parents and teachers, it lowers the barrier to running robotics sessions without being a programmer.

The same hardware becomes different in adult hands. On the Codee for Adults side, the language shifts from classrooms to workshops. The tiles drive 3D‑printed prototypes, finalize complex LEGO builds, or wire up smart lights and sensors. Instead of opening an IDE, you sketch behavior on the table, using the MOTOR, LIGHT, and SENSOR blocks. An AI pair programmer, again powered by ChatGPT, suggests improvements, helps debug, and translates that physical logic into traditional code when needed.

This makes Codee feel like a bridge between toy‑like kits and serious prototyping platforms. A weekend project can start with a handful of tiles and a motor, then grow into a more complex robot with distance sensors, displays, and multiple outputs, without abandoning the snap‑together language. Because the system is LEGO compatible and offers expandable robotics IO, it slots into existing maker habits rather than demanding a clean slate.

For budding makers and veterans alike, the appeal is in that continuity. Codee is not just another coding toy for kids or another dev board for adults. It is a physical grammar for behavior that scales from first experiments to surprisingly capable machines, with AI acting as a gentle translator between intuition and implementation. It is a reminder that sometimes the best interface for code is still the table.

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AtomForm Palette 300 3D Prints in 36 Colors With 12 Dedicated Nozzles

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Desktop 3D printing has always promised “anything you can imagine,” but in practice, that usually means single-color PLA, lots of tinkering, and a trash bin full of purge towers. The gap between colorful renders and what actually comes out of most desktop printers has been wide enough to make many designers quietly give up on FFF for anything beyond simple prototypes. AtomForm’s Palette 300 shows up at CES 2026, trying to close that gap.

AtomForm Palette 300 is a 12-nozzle, enclosed 3D printer built to combine up to 36 colors and 12 materials in a single print. It uses a rotating OmniElement automatic nozzle-swapping system, where each nozzle stays dedicated to one filament. AtomForm claims that the approach cuts filament waste by up to 90% by avoiding constant purging, while still hitting 800 mm/s print speeds and 25,000 mm/s² acceleration in a 300 × 300 × 300 mm enclosed cube.

Designer: AtomForm

Most multi-material printers either swap entire toolheads or force a single nozzle to purge every time you change color, which costs time and plastic. The Palette 300’s turret of 12 filament-dedicated nozzles can jump from one to another without constant reloading, so complex color and material changes do not feel like a penalty. That means a product prototype can have brand-accurate colors and soft-touch grips in one pass.

The 350°C hotend and 300mm cube volume give headroom for engineering filaments and larger pieces, not just small decorative figures. A prototype sneaker with flexible soles and rigid eyelets, or an architectural mock-up that mixes translucent windows with textured facades, can happen in one job instead of several glued-together prints. That kind of integration changes how much iteration fits into a day and how confident you can be that parts will actually fit together.

Reliability is where the AI and sensing layer come in. The Palette 300 uses more than 50 sensors and four AI-powered cameras to watch the print in real time. Those systems automatically calibrate nozzle alignment across all 12 extruders and look for defects before a long job is ruined. For complex, multi-hour prints, that is the difference between trusting the machine to finish and spending the afternoon hovering nearby.

The studio-friendly details matter just as much. The fully enclosed design, ≤48 dB noise rating, and built-in air filtration make it plausible to run the Palette 300 in a shared office or classroom instead of a back room. It can connect to up to six RFD-6 filament boxes that keep 36 spools dry and ready, so a full color and material library can stay loaded instead of living in cardboard boxes.

AtomForm Palette 300 is an attempt to move multi-color FFF from novelty into something designers can rely on. It is a first-generation machine from a new brand, so long-term reliability and software polish still have to be proven. But the combination of 12-nozzle hardware, AI-assisted oversight, and a thought-through filament ecosystem makes it one of the more interesting 3D printers to come out of CES 2026, especially for people tired of choosing between detail, color, material diversity, or speed.

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DuRoBo Krono Brings an AI-Powered Pocket ePaper Focus Hub to the US

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Trying to read or think on a phone never quite works. Notifications interrupt articles halfway through, feeds wait one swipe away from whatever you were concentrating on, and even long reads become just another tab competing for attention. E‑readers tried to solve this, but most stopped at books and stayed locked into one ecosystem. DuRoBo, a Dutch e‑paper specialist, is bringing Krono to CES 2026 in Las Vegas with a different ambition, treating focus, reflection, and idea capture as equally important.

Krono is a pocket‑sized smart ePaper focus hub that has made waves in Europe and is now entering the US market. It wraps a 6.13‑inch E Ink Carta 1200 display with 300 PPI clarity into a minimalist, mechanical‑inspired body that measures 154 × 80 × 9 mm and weighs about 173 g. It is for capturing and shaping thoughts with on‑device AI, ambient audio, and a Smart Dial that feels more tactile than tapping glass.

Designer: DuRoBo

The paper‑like screen, anti‑glare etching, and dual‑tone frontlight make it comfortable for long reads, whether books, saved articles, or PDFs. The compact body feels closer to a large phone than a tablet, which encourages carrying it everywhere as a dedicated space for slower content. The display mimics paper well enough that you can read for hours without the eye strain from backlit screens.

The Smart Dial and Axis bar are the main interaction story. The dial lets you flip pages, adjust brightness or volume, and, with a long‑press, open Spark, Krono’s idea vault. The Axis along the top rear houses eight breathing lights that glow subtly while you read or work, reinforcing the sense of a calm, separate device. The dial and lights give Krono a more analog feel, turning navigation and focus into something you do with your hand.

Spark is where AI enters. Press and hold the dial to dictate a thought, meeting note, or passing idea, and Krono records it, transcribes it with speech‑to‑text, and runs an AI summary that turns it into a structured note. Text Mode lets you refine that note on the e‑paper screen. The whole process happens on‑device, keeping ideas private and the interface calm.

Libby AI is the on‑device assistant that answers prompts and helps with outlines or clarifications without dragging you into a browser. Krono runs Android 15 with full Google Play Store access, powered by an octa‑core processor, 6 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage, so it can run Kindle, Notion, or other tools. DuRoBo’s own interface keeps the experience geometric and minimal.

The built‑in speaker and Bluetooth audio are part of the focus story. You can listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks while reading or writing, turning Krono into a self‑contained environment for commutes or late‑night sessions. The 3,950 mAh battery and tuned refresh algorithms support long stretches of use, not constant app‑hopping, which is what you want from a device that is supposed to be a reprieve from the usual screen.

Krono’s CES 2026 appearance is more than just another e‑reader launch. It is DuRoBo’s attempt to give US readers and thinkers a pocketable device that treats focus, reflection, and idea capture as first‑class design problems. The specs matter, but the real promise is a small, quiet object that can sit between a book and a phone, borrowing the best of both without inheriting their worst habits.

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2026 ROG Zephyrus Duo, ASUS Zenbook DUO: Versatility You Can Use Today

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We have seen quite a number of laptops bearing mind-blowing flexible screens that fold or roll, and while they do help push the envelope of laptop design, they might be the future, but it is definitely not yet here. Foldables still scratch easily and are expensive, rollables are at a concept stage, and both rely on technology that is impressive in a demo booth but nerve-wracking when you actually need to get work done and cannot afford downtime or repair bills.

At CES 2026, ASUS and its gaming brand Republic of Gamers are offering two designs for people who need to get stuff done here and now. Although less spectacular than a screen that folds like paper, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 2026 (GX561) and the ASUS Zenbook DUO 2026 (UX8407) promise a more versatile and more reliable experience, using two rigid OLED panels, conventional hinges, and software layouts that treat dual screens as a workflow multiplier instead of a party trick.

Designer: ASUS

Dual Screens, Multiple Possibilities

With a foldable laptop, you get a large screen that folds down to the size of a normal laptop, or a laptop-sized screen that folds down to half its size. A rollable laptop, on the other hand, starts with a normal size and then expands for more real estate. They both try to offer more screen space with a manageable footprint, but it is still a single panel with a limited set of poses. You can fold it like a book or lay it flat, but you cannot flip one half around into a true tent or dual-monitor arrangement, and the panel itself stays soft and fragile under your fingertips.

The dual-screen design sported by the new Zephyrus Duo and Zenbook DUO uses two independent but connected screens, practically dual monitors connected by a hinge. They are conventional, rigid OLED panels, so none of the soft, scratch-prone flexible displays of foldables. It feels almost like a normal laptop, just one that has a second monitor permanently attached, hinged, and ready to be stood up, laid flat, or folded back into tent mode for sharing across a table.

More importantly, however, this design offers more versatility in terms of how you actually use the machine throughout the day. You can use only a single screen in laptop mode if space is a constraint or if you want to stay focused. You can flip the whole thing into tent mode to share your screen with someone sitting across from you. You can detach the keyboard entirely and stand both panels up as a tiny dual-screen desk, with the keyboard floating wherever your hands are most comfortable. ASUS brings this design to two different kinds of laptops, really just two sides of the same coin, offering the same core idea with the flexibility you can use today.

ROG Zephyrus Duo 2026 (GX561): Not Just a Gaming Laptop

This is not the first Zephyrus Duo, but the first one launched nearly six years ago was more of a one-and-a-half-screen laptop. There was a smaller touchscreen right above the keyboard that offered some space for tool palettes and chat windows, but it was still very much a secondary strip. This 2026 redesign, in contrast, is a bold new direction, going full dual-screen with two large OLED panels and a detachable keyboard like no other gaming laptop has dared to go.

It is a true gaming laptop, of course, and the specs show its pedigree. An Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, paired with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU pushing up to 135W TGP, backed by up to 64GB of LPDDR5X memory and up to 2TB of PCIe Gen5 SSD storage with easy swap access. The 90Wh battery supports fast charging, hitting 50% in 30 minutes.

The main display is ROG Nebula HDR, a 3K OLED panel running at 120Hz with 0.2 ms response time, HDR 1100 nits peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3 coverage, and ΔE below 1 color accuracy, protected by Corning Glass DXC. All of that is cooled by ROG’s Intelligent Cooling system, with liquid metal on the CPU, a vapor chamber, graphite sheets, and 0 dB Ambient Cooling mode for silent operation when you are not rendering or fragging.

At 6.28 lb and just 0.77 inches thin, it is heavy enough to remind you there is serious silicon inside, but still portable enough to live in a backpack. The machine includes Wi-Fi 7, Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, and an SD card slot, plus a six-speaker system with two tweeters and four woofers running Dolby Atmos, so you can actually enjoy game audio without always reaching for headphones.

Where the ROG Zephyrus Duo 2026 really shines is in versatility. Because a laptop that can run AAA games can practically do anything as well, including content creation, programming, video editing, and 3D work. Designers and creatives will definitely love the freedom such a design offers, paired with powerful hardware that does not compromise just to fit two screens. You can keep After Effects timelines on one panel while the preview lives on the other, or split code and output, or run a game on the main screen with Discord and guides on the second, all without alt-tabbing or shrinking windows.

ASUS Zenbook DUO 2026 (UX8407): Dual-Screen Goes Lux

The ASUS Zenbook DUO 2026 shaves off some of the gaming hardware to offer a dual-screen laptop that is slimmer, lighter, and a little more stylish. It is no slouch, though, and carries plenty of muscle to handle any productivity task you might throw at it. That also includes content creation, with a bit of light gaming on the side when you want to unwind between meetings or deadlines and do not need RTX power for every session.

The Zenbook DUO 2026 runs a next-gen Intel Core Ultra processor with up to 50 TOPS NPU for AI workloads, paired with Intel Arc integrated graphics, up to 32GB of memory, and up to 2TB of SSD storage. It supports up to 45W TDP with a dual-fan thermal solution, keeping the machine stable during sustained loads without the heavy cooling overhead of a discrete GPU, which helps keep the chassis thin and light.

The main display is an ASUS Lumina Pro OLED with 1000 nits peak brightness, and both screens are treated with the same level of care, making them equally usable for productivity, media, and light creative work. What differentiates this next-gen dual-screen from its predecessor is the new hinge design that puts the screens closer together. With thinner bezels, they now sit just 8.28mm apart, a 70% reduction, and they almost look like a single continuous piece.

ASUS has adopted its Ceraluminum material for the Zenbook DUO 2026’s laptop lid, bottom case, and kickstand, making it not only look and feel more luxurious but also be a bit more resilient to accidents and daily wear. The Zenbook DUO weighs just 1.65kg and has a 5% smaller footprint than previous generations, which makes it easier to carry and fit on smaller desks or café tables.

It is packed with ports, including two Thunderbolt 4 connections, HDMI 2.1, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, and an audio jack, plus six speakers with two front-firing tweeters and four woofers for surprisingly rich audio from a thin chassis. The keyboard connects via magnetic pogo pins or Bluetooth, and the machine supports ASUS Pen 3.0, turning both screens into writable surfaces for notes, sketches, or annotations during video calls or brainstorming sessions.

Like the Zephyrus Duo, the Zenbook DUO 2026 can be used in multiple orientations. Laptop mode with the keyboard on top of the lower screen for traditional clamshell use. Desktop mode with both screens stacked or side-by-side, the detachable keyboard placed separately, and the built-in kickstand propping the whole thing up like a tiny dual-monitor workstation. Tent mode for presentations or sharing content across a table without needing an external display or awkward screen mirroring. The flexibility is the point, and it works without asking you to trust a flexible panel not to crease or scratch under normal use.

Trade-offs and Potential

Dual-screen laptops are not perfect, of course. You need to keep track of a separate keyboard you hope you will not lose, though that is also the case for some foldable laptops anyway, and the detachable keyboard is also what lets both the Zephyrus Duo and Zenbook DUO behave like tiny dual-monitor desks in tent or desktop modes. These machines are easily heavier than single-screen laptops with equivalent specs, and they will likely be priced firmly in premium territory, though still far below the stratospheric costs of early foldables.

There is also that unavoidable divider between the two screens, though ASUS has gotten it down to 8.28 mm on the Zenbook DUO, and at that point it starts to feel more like a subtle pause than a major interruption. The hinge is still visible, the gap is still there, but it is less about accepting compromise and more about acknowledging that two rigid, high-quality OLED panels with a small gap are more practical than one fragile foldable panel with no gap at all.

Despite those limitations, these designs offer a kind of versatility that neither conventional laptops nor foldable laptops can match. You get to decide how to use the laptop, unrestricted by a single panel or a prescribed set of folds. You can boost your productivity with two screens for timelines and tools, or save space with just one when you are working in a tight spot. You can stand them up for presentations, lay them flat for collaborative work, or use them as a traditional clamshell when muscle memory takes over.

Maybe someday, we will have foldable laptops that can bend both ways, support multiple modes, and will not easily scratch with a fingernail or develop a permanent crease after a few months of daily folding. But if you want to be productive and create content today, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 2026 and ASUS Zenbook DUO 2026 could very well be among the most productive and most versatile laptops of 2026, delivering the dual-screen promise without the fragility, the expense, or the anxiety that comes with carrying a piece of still-experimental tech into the real world.

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AYANEO AM03 Is Designed to Display on Your Desk, Not Hide

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Most mini-PCs are treated like necessary clutter, small black rectangles taped to the back of a monitor or shoved behind a stack of books. That makes sense if you only care about ports and benchmarks, but it feels at odds with the attention people now give to desk setups, where everything else on the surface is chosen to be seen, from the keyboard to the mousepad to the plant in the corner.

The AYANEO Mini PC AM03 is a machine that is not trying to hide. It is pitched as a desktop setup essential and entertainment powerhouse, blending a retro-inspired shell with an Intel Core i9-12900H and AYASpace 3.0. The idea is that it should be both the performance core and the visual anchor of a desk, not just another anonymous box tucked under it or behind cables.

Designer: AYANEO

AYANEO has a habit of treating hardware as design objects, and the AM03 continues that with smooth contours, refined finishes, and two colorways, Sky Blue and Ink Black. One feels airy and bright, the other more serious and moody, both meant to sit comfortably next to a monitor, keyboard, and handhelds without looking like industrial equipment that wandered in from a server rack or a crowded electronics store shelf.

The foldable front panel keeps the face of the machine clean when closed and turns into a port bay when you flip it down. That means you can keep the front visually quiet most of the time, then reveal USB ports and other connectors when you need to plug in a drive, headset, or controller. It respects the difference between everyday viewing and occasional tinkering or heavy expansion.

Under the shell sits an Intel Core i9-12900H running at a 45 W TDP, which gives the AM03 laptop-class flagship performance in a compact body. Support for up to 64 GB of dual-channel memory and PCIe 4.0 SSDs makes it comfortable handling productivity, creative work, and gaming, especially when paired with an external GPU or cloud service for more demanding titles that need extra graphics horsepower.

The large cooling system keeps that 45W chip stable under load, so long renders or game sessions do not trigger throttling. Built-in stereo speakers handle office audio and light entertainment without separate desktop speakers, simplifying a setup for people who want fewer boxes and cables on the desk and more space for the things that actually earn their spot there, like a good lamp or a notebook.

AYASpace 3.0 is the software layer that makes the AM03 feel more like a console-grade device than a barebones PC. Users can switch performance modes, tweak TDP, organize game libraries, and monitor frame rates with FPS Thunder, all from a unified interface. It turns the box into something you tune and monitor as part of the desk experience, not just a Windows machine you forget about once it boots.

The AM03 tries to answer what gaming-grade hardware should look like when it lives in a living room or home office. By combining a fold-front design, Skyline Arc RGB, and serious silicon, it suggests that a mini-PC can be both a tool and a piece of desk art, something you keep in view because you like looking at it as much as you like what it can do.

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Satechi Slim EX Wireless Series Has Replaceable Batteries, Not E-Waste

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Most people no longer live on a single machine. A MacBook for creative work, a Windows desktop for heavier tasks, an iPad for meetings, and a phone for everything in between. The awkward dance of swapping keyboards, re-learning shortcuts, or tolerating cramped laptop layouts becomes daily routine, and most wireless sets still assume you are loyal to one OS and one device at a time, which feels increasingly out of step with how people actually work.

Satechi’s Slim EX Wireless Series, the EX3 and EX1 keyboards, plus the Slim EX Wireless Mouse, is an attempt to make that juggling act feel natural. All three are designed to work across macOS, Windows, Android, and iPadOS, connect to multiple devices, and use USB-C rechargeable, user-replaceable batteries so they do not become e-waste the moment the original cell starts to fade after a few years of daily charging cycles.

Designer: Satechi

A desk-based setup is where the Slim EX3 Wireless Keyboard lives under a monitor, handling most of the day’s typing. Its full-size layout includes a numeric keypad and navigation keys, quiet scissor-switch keys, and automatic OS-specific key mapping that flips modifiers when you jump from a Mac to a Windows machine. Up to four devices can stay paired over Bluetooth or a 2.4 GHz USB-C dongle, so switching does not mean re-pairing every time you close one laptop and open another.

A smaller table, a shared workspace, or a café is where the EX3 feels too wide. The Slim EX1 Wireless Keyboard steps in with a more compact layout that still keeps the same quiet scissor switches and cross-platform brain. It drops the numeric keypad to save space but keeps the ability to talk to four devices, making it easier to travel light or reclaim desk space without giving up a familiar typing feel.

Both keyboards promise up to five weeks of use on a single charge, depending on how hard you hammer them, and when that internal battery eventually loses capacity, you can replace it instead of replacing the whole board. Charging over USB-C fits into the same cable ecosystem as laptops and phones, which keeps the desk cleaner and the routine simpler, with one fewer proprietary cable to remember when packing a bag.

The Slim EX Wireless Mouse is the low-profile aluminum companion that glides between platforms just as easily. It supports Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless, uses quiet click switches, and has a precision-machined scroll wheel that feels more deliberate than generic plastic. Like the keyboards, it runs on a USB-C rechargeable, user-replaceable battery rated for millions of clicks and scrolls, so it is built for the long haul instead of the upgrade cycle.

The Slim EX series quietly pushes back against disposable accessories and single-platform thinking. Instead of buying one set for each machine or tossing a keyboard when the battery gives up, you get a trio that moves with you between devices and years. For hybrid workers and students who live in that in-between space, having peripherals that are as flexible and long-lived as their setups feels like the right kind of upgrade.

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GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming

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Almost every mobile controller assumes you want to play in landscape, snapping your phone into a wide handheld that feels great for modern shooters and racing games. This works for most titles, but when you fire up Game Boy-era platformers or vertical arcade classics, the experience feels slightly off, like forcing old games into a shape they were never meant to inhabit, holding them sideways while your thumbs reach for controls that never land right.

GameSir’s Pocket Taco leans into portrait play instead of fighting it, turning your phone into something closer to a classic handheld. It first appeared as the Pocket 1 at Tokyo Game Show, then resurfaced as Pocket Taco just as 8BitDo teased its own vertical FlipPad, setting up a clash of design philosophies aimed at people who want to hold their phones the way they held Game Boys.

Designer: GameSir

The rebrand to Pocket Taco fits the design; the controller clamps to the bottom of your phone like a taco shell. The foldable front accommodates different phone sizes, and soft silicone pads line the clamp area so you are not grinding plastic against glass every time you snap it on, which matters when you pull it out multiple times a day for quick sessions between meetings or commutes.

The control layout separates Pocket Taco from 8BitDo’s FlipPad. Pocket Taco gives you a traditional D-pad, ABXY face buttons, and actual triggers and bumpers on the back. FlipPad keeps everything on the front in a row of circular buttons, which is clever for compactness but less like the shoulder-button ergonomics many players expect from dedicated handhelds, especially during games with heavy simultaneous inputs.

Pocket Taco uses Bluetooth, so it can talk to Android and iOS phones, tablets, and other devices, and it still works when not clamped. FlipPad plugs in over USB-C, which keeps latency low and removes battery anxiety, but ties it to phones with that port and to a tethered style where the controller must stay attached to function at all.

One practical touch is the large cutout at the bottom that leaves your phone’s charging port accessible while the controller is attached, so you can plug in and keep going during long sessions. FlipPad occupies the USB-C port and does not offer passthrough charging, which is fine for short bursts but less ideal for marathon runs that drain the phone before you finish the dungeon.

Pocket Taco runs on a 600 mAh battery with smart power behavior, open to play, close to rest. The trade-off is one more battery to watch and slightly more bulk. FlipPad stays slimmer and battery-free, but leans on your phone for power, shifting the burden and adding a small drain to your phone’s battery during long play sessions.

Pocket Taco and FlipPad are two paths toward the same fantasy, turning a slab of glass into a dedicated retro handheld. Pocket Taco leans into wireless freedom, proper triggers, and charging-while-playing practicality, while FlipPad bets on wired simplicity and a flatter front. For anyone who grew up holding a Game Boy vertically, it is nice to have options that respect that muscle memory instead of pretending mobile gaming should feel like a miniature Xbox stuck in landscape.

The post GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming first appeared on Yanko Design.

GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming

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Almost every mobile controller assumes you want to play in landscape, snapping your phone into a wide handheld that feels great for modern shooters and racing games. This works for most titles, but when you fire up Game Boy-era platformers or vertical arcade classics, the experience feels slightly off, like forcing old games into a shape they were never meant to inhabit, holding them sideways while your thumbs reach for controls that never land right.

GameSir’s Pocket Taco leans into portrait play instead of fighting it, turning your phone into something closer to a classic handheld. It first appeared as the Pocket 1 at Tokyo Game Show, then resurfaced as Pocket Taco just as 8BitDo teased its own vertical FlipPad, setting up a clash of design philosophies aimed at people who want to hold their phones the way they held Game Boys.

Designer: GameSir

The rebrand to Pocket Taco fits the design; the controller clamps to the bottom of your phone like a taco shell. The foldable front accommodates different phone sizes, and soft silicone pads line the clamp area so you are not grinding plastic against glass every time you snap it on, which matters when you pull it out multiple times a day for quick sessions between meetings or commutes.

The control layout separates Pocket Taco from 8BitDo’s FlipPad. Pocket Taco gives you a traditional D-pad, ABXY face buttons, and actual triggers and bumpers on the back. FlipPad keeps everything on the front in a row of circular buttons, which is clever for compactness but less like the shoulder-button ergonomics many players expect from dedicated handhelds, especially during games with heavy simultaneous inputs.

Pocket Taco uses Bluetooth, so it can talk to Android and iOS phones, tablets, and other devices, and it still works when not clamped. FlipPad plugs in over USB-C, which keeps latency low and removes battery anxiety, but ties it to phones with that port and to a tethered style where the controller must stay attached to function at all.

One practical touch is the large cutout at the bottom that leaves your phone’s charging port accessible while the controller is attached, so you can plug in and keep going during long sessions. FlipPad occupies the USB-C port and does not offer passthrough charging, which is fine for short bursts but less ideal for marathon runs that drain the phone before you finish the dungeon.

Pocket Taco runs on a 600 mAh battery with smart power behavior, open to play, close to rest. The trade-off is one more battery to watch and slightly more bulk. FlipPad stays slimmer and battery-free, but leans on your phone for power, shifting the burden and adding a small drain to your phone’s battery during long play sessions.

Pocket Taco and FlipPad are two paths toward the same fantasy, turning a slab of glass into a dedicated retro handheld. Pocket Taco leans into wireless freedom, proper triggers, and charging-while-playing practicality, while FlipPad bets on wired simplicity and a flatter front. For anyone who grew up holding a Game Boy vertically, it is nice to have options that respect that muscle memory instead of pretending mobile gaming should feel like a miniature Xbox stuck in landscape.

The post GameSir Pocket Taco vs. 8BitDo FlipPad for Game Boy Gaming first appeared on Yanko Design.