Author Archives: JC Torres

Giant Sculptures Look Like Machines but, Nobody Knows What They Do

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Most public sculptures ask you to stand in front of them and feel something, usually reverence, awe, or a vague sense of civic pride. They represent people, events, or abstract ideals, but they rarely suggest function. A figure cast in bronze doesn’t appear to be doing anything, and that’s largely the point. The statue commemorates; it doesn’t operate. The relationship between viewer and object is, by design, entirely passive.

Michael Jantzen had a different idea. The Santa Fe-based designer set out to create public sculptures that look like they’re built to do something, even if no one, including Jantzen himself, can say what that something is. The result is the Monumental Engines of Creation, a concept series drawing from the visual language of high-technology hardware, assembled into objects that feel purposeful, alien, and oddly believable all at once.

Designer: Michael Jantzen

The design process is telling. Jantzen didn’t start with a function and work backward to a form, as industrial designers typically do. He built the pieces intuitively, combining various components into composites that simply suggest some kind of high-level intelligence at work. The question of what they might actually be for was deliberately left unanswered, and that open-endedness is precisely what gives the series its strange pull.

Standing near one of these sculptures, you’d spend a while trying to decode it. Jantzen’s hope is that viewers engage with the objects and find themselves genuinely wondering about their origin, their creators, and their purpose. That kind of sustained curiosity is harder to provoke than it sounds. Most public sculptures deliver their meaning almost immediately; these deliberately withhold it, rewarding prolonged attention with more questions rather than answers.

Part of why that works is scale. Each piece in the series is intentionally gigantic, dwarfing any person nearby to the point of near insignificance. That proportion isn’t accidental; Jantzen designed the scale to convey the symbolic weight of each object relative to its imagined function. A machine built to scatter the seeds of creativity throughout the universe, the thinking goes, should probably look the part.

There’s something worth sitting with in the idea that creativity itself deserves monuments. Most of what we commemorate in public space is history, politics, or governance. Jantzen’s machines point somewhere else, toward imagination, invention, and the strange optimism embedded in building. They don’t ask to be understood. They ask to be wondered at, which turns out to be a different, and arguably more honest, kind of public art.

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This Side Table Tricks You Into Thinking Books Are Holding It Up

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Side tables have always been one of the harder pieces of furniture to make genuinely interesting. They’re functional by nature, meant to hold a drink, a remote, or that ever-growing stack of books. Most designs take the easy route: a flat surface, four legs, and nothing more. A few try to add storage or visual flair, but the table and whatever sits on it rarely share anything deeper than proximity.

Deniz Aktay’s Delusion Table turns that relationship on its head. The Stuttgart-based designer has crafted a side table concept where books aren’t just accessories resting on the surface; they become part of the table itself, or at least appear to. The idea is simple but arresting: a purpose-built metal framework connects the tabletop to the base, and once books are loaded onto it, the metal structure all but disappears.

Designer: Deniz Aktay (dezinobjects)

The trick borrows from a principle already used in certain bookmarks and floating wall shelves, where a thin metal channel slides between a book’s pages and disappears behind the covers. Aktay applies the same logic vertically: the table’s central stem has integrated clips that hold books upright against the structure. Slot a few thick art or design volumes in, and the metal seems to dissolve quietly into the spines.

What results is a table that looks as if a small stack of books has somehow defied physics to hold an entire surface aloft. It’s a visual gag, but an elegant one. The books aren’t floating or leaning on something concealed behind them. They’re gripping the structure, pages pressed against the clips, covers facing outward, spines reading clearly, creating something that looks accidental but is actually very deliberate.

That deliberateness extends to the books themselves. The volumes you choose to insert don’t just support the illusion; they become part of the design statement. A stack of oversized architecture monographs communicates something entirely different from a row of photography books or a handful of paperbacks. The table changes with whoever assembles it, which is a quiet but genuinely meaningful layer of personalization built right into the concept.

It’s also worth considering where a table like this fits most naturally. A reading nook, a home office corner, or a bedside setup for someone who always has a few books in rotation: in any of these settings, the Delusion Table doesn’t need anything extra to feel complete. The books it needs to function are probably already nearby, waiting to serve a purpose they weren’t originally designed for.

Aktay has made a habit of designing furniture that asks questions as much as it answers them, and the Delusion Table is no exception. It’s a concept that works on two levels: as a functional object that holds books and a tabletop, and as something that quietly unsettles your perception. You look at it, pause a moment, and find yourself genuinely unsure of what’s doing what. That’s exactly the point.

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After Losing His Arm in a Crash, He Built the Controller No One Made

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Gaming peripherals have come a long way in terms of specialization, from mechanical keyboards tuned for competitive play to mice with adjustable DPI profiles and ergonomic grips. What hasn’t kept pace is hardware designed for players who can only use one hand. Existing options like gaming keypads only get so far, and none of them truly replace the keyboard and mouse combination that PC gaming has relied on for decades.

Joe Tomasulo found that out the hard way. After losing his right arm in a motorcycle accident, he’d tried everything to get back to PC gaming as he knew it. He adapted a Razer Tartarus, strapped a wireless mouse to it, and tweaked the software bindings endlessly, but nothing ever felt right. Rather than keep settling for workarounds, he eventually built something purpose-made, and the result is the Ercham MK1.

Designer: Joe Tomasulo (Adventurous_Tie_9031)

The core idea is to put the keyboard and the mouse into the same device so that one hand handles everything at once. The Ercham MK1 sits flat on a surface, and an optical sensor on its underside lets the entire unit glide like a conventional mouse. The hand resting on top can simultaneously press keys, scroll, and execute game commands without ever having to reach for a second peripheral.

The key section features more than 30 programmable inputs arranged in a compact grid within natural finger reach. A strap system runs across the top of the device, keeping the hand firmly in place during longer sessions without requiring a tight grip. That matters for players with limited hand strength or residual limb use, where maintaining position on a mouse-like surface for extended periods would otherwise be exhausting and imprecise.

One of the more considered design decisions is that the Ercham MK1 works for either hand. Most gaming keypads aren’t built for both; they default almost universally to left-hand use, leaving right-handed amputees and players with right-side impairments without a natural fit. The fully ambidextrous layout, combined with angled control modules on both sides of the device, means the setup adapts to the user rather than the other way around.

Joe built the Ercham MK1 with amputees and stroke survivors specifically in mind, but its potential reach extends well beyond those two groups. Players dealing with RSI, brachial plexus injuries, and chronic pain face the same frustrations with two-device setups that don’t accommodate them, and so do power users and content creators. The programmable layout and macro support make it a genuinely useful tool for productivity work, not just gaming.

It’s come a long way from the hacked-together prototype he started with, and that origin gives it a kind of credibility that polished gaming accessories rarely have. It wasn’t designed in a studio; it was built by someone who genuinely needed it and couldn’t wait for anyone else to.

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Lofree Hyzen: A High-End Custom Mechanical-Magnetic Keyboard for Every Scenario

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The keyboard market often feels split into two very different camps. Mechanical boards have long been the preferred choice for people who care about typing feel, delivering consistent keystrokes and a tactile quality that makes long sessions more enjoyable. Magnetic keyboards, meanwhile, have become the go-to for gamers needing precise, adjustable input and rapid trigger performance. Both are capable, but each comes with its own trade-offs.

That split is exactly what Lofree is trying to bridge with the Hyzen, a compact 67-key keyboard that approaches the category with a slightly different proposition. Working with Kailh, Lofree developed the Nexus switch, combining a mechanical structure with magnetic sensing in a single unit. The idea, of course, is that you shouldn’t have to choose between how a keyboard feels and how quickly it responds.

Designer: Matt (Lofree)

Click Here to Buy Now: $189 $279 (32% off). Hurry, only 464/500 left! Raised over $884,000.

Beyond the technology inside, the Hyzen is clearly built to belong on a thoughtfully put-together desk. The CNC-machined aluminum body, clean geometry, and balanced proportions give it a composed presence that doesn’t lean into the visual language typical of gaming hardware. Available in Space Gray and Silver, it carries far more of the character of a premium desk accessory than a performance peripheral.

The lighting follows the same restrained approach. Rather than making RGB the main event, Hyzen uses subtle front ambient lighting and a light strip along its front edge that adds atmosphere without taking over. High-transparency PC keycaps with a matte UV coating and front-printed legends keep the visual detail quiet. It’s the kind of setup that works best in calmer, low-light arrangements where you want mood without the theatrics.

The Nexus switch is where the Hyzen’s concept actually becomes tangible. A single shortcut toggles between mechanical mode, which uses traditional contact-based actuation, and magnetic mode, which unlocks the performance features. According to Lofree, the physical typing feel stays consistent across both. What changes is how the input gets detected, which is Lofree’s answer to a problem many users know well.

Close-up of a gray audio receiver front panel showing a large round volume knob and a smaller mode switch with a red indicator.

On the productivity side, Hyzen carries a 10,000 mAh battery for solid wireless runtime, whether you’re writing documents or hopping between devices. Connectivity covers wired USB, 2.4 GHz, and Bluetooth, so switching between a work machine and a personal setup doesn’t take much effort. The PCB gasket construction and FR4 fiberglass plate also contribute to a more considered typing feel that holds up well over longer sessions.

Switch to gaming, though, and things get considerably more interesting. Magnetic mode unlocks adjustable actuation with 0.01 mm precision, rapid trigger with 0.01 mm accuracy, and a dual 8K polling rate at 8,000 Hz on both keyboard and receiver. Wired latency sits at 0.36 ms, with 2.4 GHz at 0.65 ms. Those are numbers competitive setups look for, in hardware that, for once, doesn’t look aggressive doing it.

There’s also a multi-function key window that lets you toggle between the F-row and number row, with a visual indicator showing the active mode at a glance. It’s a small detail, but a genuinely useful one on a compact layout where function layers can get confusing fast. Hot-swap support, macro functionality, and web-based key mapping round out a package that covers more ground than you might expect.

Keyboards that try to balance aesthetics and performance this explicitly still feel relatively uncommon. Most still ask you to pick a lane, whether that means living with something that looks aggressive on a clean desk or one that feels clinical when you’d prefer more character. Hyzen is trying to sit in between, which is either the smartest place to be or the most difficult one, depending on who you ask.

Click Here to Buy Now: $189 $279 (32% off). Hurry, only 464/500 left! Raised over $884,000.

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moto g stylus 2026 Review: Accessible Pocket Productivity and Creativity

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PROS:


  • Stylus with pressure and tilt sensitivity

  • Beautiful, minimalist design

  • Bright and vibrant screen

  • Headphone jack and microSD card slot

CONS:


  • Short software support period

  • Relatively higher price compared to peers

  • Not much hardware upgrades from last-gen

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The moto g stylus - 2026 analog handwriting and digital freedom in a striking minimalist design that you can finally afford.

Despite and in spite of the growing number of screens and disembodied artificial voices around us, there remains a strong culture and argument for handwritten words. But while there might be plenty of benefits to putting ink to paper, there’s no denying that paper doesn’t provide the benefits of digital artifacts such as files, photos, and videos. For years, the stylus has been trying to bridge the best of both worlds, but it has so far been only within the reach of those who can afford it.

Since 2020, Motorola has been working to provide that kind of experience to more people through its Moto G Stylus line, but there have always been compromises. Ironically, most of those revolved around the very feature that gave the product line its name. With the moto g stylus – 2026, however, the brand is making its most daring leap forward yet, aiming for a title held only by the most luxurious of Samsung’s (non-foldable) handsets. So does it fly or does it fall? Read on to find out.

Designer: Motorola

Aesthetics

The moment you pull the moto g stylus – 2026 out of the box, you are immediately struck by how different it is from most phones of this generation. It doesn’t scream for attention with a ridiculously large camera module, nor does it attempt to dazzle your eyes with tricks of color and light. It is, in a nutshell, a minimalist lover’s dream.

The back of the phone, which is always the most expressive side of the design, is covered with a vegan leather-inspired material that gives the phone both visual and tactile texture. Continuing its partnership with PANTONE, those covers are available in subtle Coal Smoke (our review unit) and Lavender Mist colors, with the flat edges matching the hue. Other than the iconic “Batwing” logo and minuscule markings around the LED flash, the design is bare and plain, a refreshing change from the active and noisy rears of most smartphones these days.

The camera bump follows that same pattern, rising from the back plate with a gentle slope. There’s no separate structure caging the lenses, creating a seamless and unbroken surface that almost has a calming effect, especially when your finger starts to glide over the textured surface. There’s almost a sense of Zen, so to speak, which is almost how many pen and paper lovers describe their favorite notebooks.

Of course, the front is the polar opposite, but only because of its bright and vibrant screen. The thin and almost symmetrical bezels and the flat glass, however, serve to provide balance that keeps that liveliness in check. All in all, the moto g stylus – 2026 is both simple and sublime. It doesn’t call attention to itself with some fancy visual or material gimmick, but you can’t help but pay close attention to its minimalism just the same.

The stylus is cut from the same cloth, with a design that might be familiar to those who have held a Samsung “Ultra” flagship. It’s basically a somewhat flat stick, with a spring-loaded rear that easily resembles the (addictive) clicky ends of retractable pens. But unlike the small but stubby nibs of its predecessors, there is now a proper tapered, conical tip. Of course, it’s not just an aesthetic change, as we’ll get to in a bit.

Ergonomics

Another thing you’ll notice the moment you lift the moto g stylus – 2026 out of the box is how light it is. At only 192.3g, even with the 4.7g stylus inside, it’s easily one of the lightest phones in the market today. Given that it has a 6.7-inch screen and a large 5,200mAh battery, that’s even more surprising.

That lightness, however, is a double-edged blade. On the one hand, it might make the phone feel a little flimsy, almost like it could easily fly out of your hand. It almost makes the vibration haptics feel hollow, as if there’s not enough substance in there.

On the other hand, it strains your hand less when holding it for a long time, especially as you might find yourself constantly scribbling or doodling on it. The phone’s textured back and flat edges also help deliver a more confident hold. It just won’t accidentally slip from your hand that easily. A protective case almost feels redundant if grip is your only reason for putting one on.

One thing to note about the camera module is that although it is thin and subtle, it still lifts a single corner of the phone when you put it on a flat surface. That means it will wobble, which can be pretty annoying when you’re writing with a stylus. Funnily enough, that might actually be a more pressing reason to put a case on, just to create a balance. Unfortunately, you do lose out on feeling the phone’s textured surface.

Performance

The Specs

The moto g stylus – 2026 makes no qualms about its specs, clearly marking it for the mid-range smartphone market. There’s only 8GB of RAM, which can be expanded up to 24GB with RAM Boost, which basically eats up some of the already modest 128GB or 256GB of storage. Thankfully, you can also expand that storage with a microSD card of up to 1TB capacity, definitely a rare sight these days, even among phones on the same tier.

The biggest disappointment is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor, which is a holdover from last year’s moto g stylus. In fact, if you look closer, you’ll see plenty of similarities between the 2025 and 2026 models, from processor to cameras. It’s not always a bad thing, but given the price hike, you’d be forgiven for expecting a bit more.

Make no mistake, though, the moto g stylus – 2026 is plenty capable. It won’t win trophies on benchmarks, but it does get the job done without breaking too much of a sweat. It’s even surprising how it can handle a game like Warframe on high settings. It doesn’t get too warm, either, and the vegan leather material probably helps make it feel a little less warm as well.

And that’s perfect because the moto g stylus – 2026 has such a gorgeous screen to play and watch on. The 6.7-inch 2712 x 1220 AMOLED display boasts a peak brightness of 5000 nits, definitely one of the brightest in the market, making it easily usable under sunlight. The rounded corners are also less curved, so UI elements are not obstructed, especially in games. Plus, the 3.5mm headphone jack, another rare sighting, can perfectly complement the visuals with hi-def wired audio.

The moto g stylus – 2026 runs the latest Android 16, and given Motorola’s history, the skin is pretty minimal and non-invasive. It’s probably the closest you can get to a Pixel experience outside of Google Pixel phones, which is light, fast, and probably barebones if you’re coming from other brands like Samsung and Xiaomi. There’s almost no bloatware, unless you count the dozen or so pre-installed Google apps, which would be the same situation on a Google Pixel phone anyway.

The Pen

There’s no beating around the bush: the only reason you’d even give the moto g stylus – 2026 is because of its stylus. For the first time, that stylus is no longer just a very thin stub standing in for your finger tip. For the first time, it is supporting pressure and tilt sensitivity, features that only Samsung offers at nearly three times the price.

The older stylus designs were practical and usable, but this new pen opens the door to even more possibilities, especially when it comes to creative activities like drawing, designing, and editing photos. It gives you much better control and precision, while also offering more styles in terms of pen width, brushes, and the like.

The stylus is also crucial in some productivity workflows, like when dragging images to a note in split-screen mode, highlighting and copying text to a note, or for sketching a crude representation of a cat and using AI to turn it into a photorealistic masterpiece. Part of this upgraded experience is made possible with the Moto Notes app, which supports drawing on an infinite canvas that can then be embedded into notes.

The new stylus also has a button that can be mapped to some actions depending on whether you press or long-press it, though the actions are not that varied. The pen now also has to be charged, which is how it’s able to pull off that pressure sensitivity stunt, and you can only charge it when it’s inside its silo.

The Cameras

The moto g stylus – 2026’s camera story is rather underwhelming. On the hardware side, it doesn’t exactly differ from last year’s cameras, which include a 50MP Sony LYTIA 700C sensor and a 13MP Ultra-wide shooter that doubles as the Macro camera. In a nutshell, these are serviceable and decent, but they wouldn’t be something you’d want to rely on if you were planning on being a professional shutter bug.

The main shooter does a pretty good job of capturing detail, but its dynamic range seems to be on the narrower side, making subjects look a little flat. The AI-enhanced Signature Style can try to compensate, but it also oversaturates the output.

Normal

Signature Style

Normal

Night Vision

Nighttime photography is what you’d expect, as there wouldn’t be enough light information to work with. Night Vision Mode definitely kicks things up a notch, brightening things up enough to make out the details. This is one of those moments where the difference is, pardon the pun, night and day.

Ultrawide (0.5x)

Wide (1x)

Zoom (2x)

Given the hardware, ultra-wide shots are naturally less impressive but still get the job done for a quick panoramic picture. There’s no dedicated telephoto lens, so it does double duty as the macro camera. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Portrait shots are pleasant and accurate, though, and you can select from 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm focal lengths.

Macro

Macro

The Battery

One of the few upgrades this year is the moto g stylus – 2026’s larger 5200mAh battery. It still supports 68W wire Turbo Charging and 15W wireless charging, the latter with no magnetic tricks. With the right power brick, you’re promised a full charge in just 44 minutes, but even a 65W charger managed to top the phone off in just a little over an hour.

That charging won’t happen frequently though, as the phone can last more than a day with normal use, including browsing the web, social media, and even watching videos on that bright, large screen. With less frequent use, it can actually extend to two days, though you’ll want to be on Wi-Fi rather than cellular to pull that off. Needless to say, it’s a reliable daily partner that won’t have you scrambling for a charger before you head home.

Sustainability

Motorola has been pretty vocal about its sustainability efforts, but the moto g stylus – 2026 is a bit of a hit and a little miss. The compact, plastic-free packaging is superb in that regard, ditching the redundant charging brick as well. Motorola also boasts about longevity, given the IP68, IP69, and MIL-STD-810H certifications.

Where the story takes a sad turn, however, is in the software upgrades. Only two years of Android upgrades and three years of security updates, figures that would have sounded generous almost a decade ago. This lags way behind the likes of Xiaomi, notorious for its short software support cycles, and is quite disappointing for an Android user experience that is almost as pure and unencumbered as the Google Pixel.

Value

There’s no going around the fact that the moto g stylus – 2026 has a price tag that’s a little difficult to swallow. It’s more than a $100 jump from last year’s model, and at $500 or $600, for 128GB and 256GB storage, respectively, other brands might give you better specs for the same price. Granted, Motorola often throws in bundles and discounts to sweeten the deal, but the initial price shock is unavoidable.

That said, that price could be a bit justifiable, especially if you factor in how electronics prices are going up these days anyway. For that amount, you get a solid, reliable, and beautiful phone that is almost literally a digital Field Notes notebook in your pocket. Considering that the closest competition is actually a $1,300 Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, then there’s almost no contest. Sure, it doesn’t have the glamorous bells and whistles, but neither would a trusty notebook.

Verdict

More than any mainstream smartphone in the market today, the moto g stylus – 2026 is clearly aimed at a particular audience: people who don’t want their productivity and creativity to be hampered by not having their notebook or their computer around. They say the best tool is the one that you have with you, and almost everyone has their smartphone in their pocket. And what better way to capture fleeting inspiration or sketch inspiring vistas than by whipping out your phone and pulling out the stylus?

By no means is the moto g stylus – 2026 perfect. In fact, you might even call it dated if you judged it by its specs alone. But with a talented stylus, a gorgeous screen, a reliable battery, and a beautiful minimalist design, it is definitely worth every penny. There is no perfect productivity tool or notebook, but the moto g stylus – 2026 comes pretty darn close.

The post moto g stylus 2026 Review: Accessible Pocket Productivity and Creativity first appeared on Yanko Design.

Joseph Joseph finally solves the grossest part of mopping

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Most people mop their floors, thinking they’re getting them clean. The uncomfortable truth, though, is that the moment you dunk the mop head back into the bucket, you’re no longer cleaning with fresh water. You’re spreading a diluted mix of soap and grime across the same surface you just wiped down. It’s a problem as old as the mop itself, and nobody has done much about it.

Joseph Joseph spent four years trying to solve it. The result is the UltraClean Microfibre Floor Mop Cleaning System, a complete rethink of what mopping should actually achieve. The goal was to design something that genuinely removes dirt rather than just diluting it and spreading it around. The solution required a patented mechanism and six prototypes before the team arrived at a final design.

Designer: Joseph Joseph

At the heart of the design is SprayClean technology, a patented mechanism built into the bucket’s slot. Each time you insert the mop head, a built-in scraper squeezes the dirty water into a sealed collection chamber while six nozzles spray fresh water onto the pad. The mop comes out clean and damp, not soaked, which means your floors dry faster, too.

The bucket is divided into two completely separate chambers. The upper reservoir holds up to 1.4 litres of clean water, enough to cover up to 70 m² on a single fill. That’s most of a typical home in one go. The bottom chamber is translucent, so you can watch the dirty water accumulate as you clean, which is simultaneously gross and oddly satisfying.

The mop head is designed with the same care. It rotates to access tight corners and lies flat to get under furniture, where dust and grime tend to hide. The telescopic handle adjusts to suit whoever’s doing the cleaning. The microfibre pad is machine-washable, and the system comes with three of them, so you’re not stuck waiting for one to dry between rooms.

For large open-plan spaces with a mix of hard flooring and tiles, the UltraClean removes the need to stop and change the water halfway through, a chore that most people skip anyway. And for kitchens, where floors tend to accumulate grease and food residue, mopping with genuinely fresh water each pass makes a noticeable difference in how clean the floor actually feels underfoot.

The UltraClean Microfibre Floor Mop Cleaning System retails for $90. It took four years and six prototypes to get here, which, given how long the classic mop and bucket pairing has gone essentially unchanged, seems like a reasonable investment. Cofounder Antony Joseph calls this the product’s delight factor, and given how satisfying it is to actually clean your floors properly, it’s hard to argue.

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Turtle Beach’s Command Series puts touchscreens right where your hands already are

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Touchscreens have been quietly making their way into almost everything around us. From car dashboards to kitchen appliances, the tap-and-swipe interface that once defined smartphones has spread into nearly every product category imaginable. It’s reached a point where finding a device without a screen feels more unusual than finding one with it. Designers just keep finding new surfaces to embed them on.

Turtle Beach’s all-new Command Series is the latest proof of that. The lineup includes, among other things, two keyboards, the KB7 and the KB5, plus a wireless mouse, the MC7, each with an embedded Command Touch Display. For gamers, streamers, and multitaskers who are constantly juggling tasks at once, having a dedicated control surface right where your hands already rest makes for a genuinely practical setup.

Designer: Turtle Beach

The KB7 is the flagship, a tenkeyless board with a 4.3-inch Command Touch Display built into it. Think of it as a Stream Deck fused onto your keyboard, letting you swap profiles, trigger macros, manage audio, or push OBS scene changes with a tap. For streamers bouncing between a game and broadcast software, it removes a good chunk of extra hardware and window-switching.

Its Titan low-profile Hall Effect switches have adjustable actuation down to 0.1mm with Rapid Trigger support, and the keyboard runs at an 8K polling rate with 0.125ms latency. The slim 29mm chassis is aluminum-reinforced, with double-shot PBT keycaps, textured WASD keys, and an illuminated detachable wrist rest. Dual modular rails let you dock the KP7 add-on keypad for an expanded layout. The KB7 is priced at $199.99.

The KB5 is the full-size option at $149.99, offering the numpad that the KB7 leaves out. Its touchscreen shrinks to 2.4 inches but still handles OBS integration, profile switching, and macro control. Titan low-profile mechanical switches actuate at 1.2mm, backed by ReacTap technology for faster resets. Five dedicated macro keys, a detachable wrist rest, and 8K polling round it all out.

Then there’s the MC7, the device that makes you look twice. It’s a wireless gaming mouse with its own 2.25-inch touchscreen, and it works much the same as the keyboard displays. On the fly, you can adjust DPI, switch between five onboard profiles, mute your mic, or trigger OBS scene changes without breaking your grip or pulling your attention away from whatever’s on your screen.

Under the hood, the MC7 has the Owl-Eye 30K DPI optical sensor, Titan Optical switches, and tri-mode connectivity across 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and USB wired. Two hot-swappable 1000mAh batteries with a charging dock keep it running indefinitely, with each cell lasting up to 10 hours. It’s priced at $159.99 and launches globally on July 19, 2026, two months after the keyboards.

All three are already up for pre-order at turtlebeach.com. Together, the KB7, KB5, and MC7 form an ecosystem built on the idea that the peripherals you hold every day can surface controls without making you reach for anything else. Touchscreens have ended up in some strange places over the years, but a mouse grip might actually be one of the more intuitive ones.

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This Inflatable Sofa Packs Into a Bag and Still Sits Like Real Furniture

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There’s a quiet tension in how most furniture is still designed. Sofas are built to stay put, claiming floor space indefinitely, whether you need them there or not. Meanwhile, the way people actually use their homes has shifted considerably, moving between indoors and outdoors, hosting spontaneously, clearing space for workouts or kids, and treating balconies and terraces as proper extensions of their living areas.

That’s the gap Airmaan’s M Sofa is designed to fill. Rather than asking you to choose between comfort, portability, and design, the M Sofa brings all three together in an inflatable sofa that looks and sits like proper furniture. It can serve as your primary home setup year-round and then disappear into a bag the moment you need the space cleared or want to take it somewhere else entirely.

Designer: Airmaan

Click Here to Buy Now: $233 $466 (50% off). Hurry, only 38/50 left! Raised over $118,000.

One of the more underrated things it does is give space back. Fixed furniture occupies a room all the time, even when you’d rather use that area for something else. With M Sofa, a terrace can be a lounge one afternoon and completely open the next morning. The same goes for living rooms and balconies. You can deflate it, pack it away, and reset the space in minutes.

Of course, an innovative sofa would be pointless if it didn’t offer comfort, and thankfully, the M Sofa delivers. The seat and backrest are set at a natural resting angle, with smooth, rounded edges and no pressure points, giving you enough support for extended stretches. There’s a subtle firmness to the inflated structure that feels more like a well-tuned mattress than a balloon, and you can adjust it simply by changing the air pressure.

Man carrying a white sofa with beige cushions past a glass storefront at sunset.

Despite preconceived notions about inflatable sofas, the M Sofar is at home indoors and outdoors. In fact, it thrives on moving between spaces. It can sit on a garden terrace for a lazy morning, get moved poolside for the afternoon, and come back indoors for the evening without any real effort. That kind of fluidity isn’t something traditional outdoor furniture can offer, especially not without the weight, bulk, and maintenance that come with most permanent garden setups.

With inflatable furniture, durability is naturally a major cause for concern. To that end, the M Sofa was designed around a high-strength inflatable structure rooted in dropstitch technology, the same kind used in marine and aerospace applications. Its outer shell is fully waterproof, resistant to UV exposure, salt, sand, and temperature extremes, and the bonded, airtight construction keeps the air in for weeks at a time rather than days.

M Sofa’s portability also goes beyond deflating and rolling up some heavy and cumbersome material. It packs down into a bag compact enough to carry by hand or throw in a car trunk, which means it can go to the beach, a mountain setting, or a camping spot just as easily as it moves from your garden to your living room.

The M Sofa is part of a broader collection that includes the N Club Chair and a matching side table, so you can put together a proper lounge arrangement rather than a single seat. That modular nature means you can expand for a gathering or pare things down for a quieter setup, without having to own separate furniture for separate occasions.

What makes the M Sofa worth paying attention to has less to do with the inflation angle and more with what it says about furniture design broadly. The more interesting question isn’t whether an inflatable sofa can look good; it’s whether furniture should still be the heaviest, most permanent object in a room. For a growing number of people, the honest answer is that it probably doesn’t need to be, and the M Sofa proves it.

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A Burned-Out Xiaomi Phone Now Runs Gemini AI Inside a Retro TV Case

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The smart home speaker market has settled into a familiar aesthetic. Smooth cylinders, matte finishes, and understated designs meant to disappear into a room are the default for most voice assistants. It’s a reasonable approach, but it also means most of them look exactly the same, and the hardware driving them tends to get replaced every couple of years, whether it actually needs to be or not.

HANDMAX Workshop took a different approach entirely. Rather than buying new hardware, the build starts with a Xiaomi Mi 8 already well past its prime, complete with a burned-in display, degraded speakers, and a failing battery. The processor and software capabilities were still perfectly usable, though, and that turned out to be all this kind of project actually needs.

Designer: HANDMAX Workshop

The case is where things get interesting. Instead of a sleek enclosure meant to blend in, the HANDMAX design goes full retro television, with a front grille, physical control buttons, and decorative legs completing the picture. Carefully modeled 3D-printed parts handle the practical side of things, accommodating the phone’s sensors and camera while keeping the vintage illusion intact from every angle you look at it.

Put it on a desk, and you have a smart speaker that looks like something rescued from a garage sale, in the best possible way. Ask it a question, and Google Gemini handles the conversational side, pulling in responses without needing a dedicated microprocessor or a new development board. It’s the same AI model powering higher-end commercial devices, running on hardware that would otherwise be sitting in a drawer.

The smart home integration is what makes it genuinely useful beyond being a conversation piece. Through Google Home, the device can control smart home accessories directly, and custom routines let voice commands trigger specific actions around the house. Turning lights on, adjusting a thermostat, or running a sequence of automations becomes a spoken instruction directed at what looks like a miniature television set.

Getting there wasn’t entirely straightforward. The phone’s Bluetooth module had a habit of shutting itself down after 20 minutes of silence, which would quietly cripple the whole setup. The fix was characteristically clever, though; an inaudible 6 Hz tone runs constantly in the background, imperceptible to human ears but enough to convince the firmware that the system is still in use and shouldn’t shut down.

Beyond voice interaction, the finished device also functions as a wireless charger and a desktop display, which means it earns its counter space even when no one is talking to it. The final hardware list doesn’t include a single new component, just old parts that most people would have discarded without a second thought. That’s the more interesting design challenge of the two.

There’s an argument to be made that the best AI hardware isn’t always the most expensive, and this project makes it quietly. Commercial smart speakers are bought, used for a few years, and eventually replaced. A device built from broken hardware doesn’t follow that lifecycle, and the retro TV case that holds it together makes sure it doesn’t look like it’s trying to.

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These Stickers Turn Crumbling City Walls Into Tiny Living Ecosystems

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Cities are built almost exclusively for people. Every surface, every wall, every façade is designed, maintained, and repaired with human use in mind. But cities aren’t just inhabited by humans, and the idea that urban decay, those crumbling plaster patches and cracked brick faces, is purely a problem to be fixed ignores the potential it quietly holds for other species.

That’s the provocation at the heart of Green Anarchy, a project by Yasemin Keyif of Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, presented as part of the UNFOLD 2026 exhibition at BASE Milano during Milan Design Week. Rather than treating a cracked or crumbling façade as something to be patched over, Keyif asks what happens when designers choose to work with decay instead of against it.

Designer: Yasemin Keyif (Bahçeşehir University)

The answer takes the form of a small, biodegradable sticker pressed directly onto damaged building surfaces. Each unit is made from a blend of paper pulp, coco peat, perlite, and seeds in its main body, with an adhesive system of gum arabic, methyl cellulose, and glycerin that lets it bond to roughened or degraded masonry without any synthetic materials.

The process is surprisingly simple: the stickers are soaked, mixed, shaped, and applied by hand directly onto the wall. Over time, the seeds embedded in the substrate germinate and take root in the existing cracks and recesses, gradually turning neglected building surfaces into small, self-sustaining ecosystems. The name for this sequence, decay, attach, grow, also doubles as the project’s driving logic.

Keyif developed the concept with Karaköy, a dense historic neighborhood in Istanbul, as the pilot context. The project maps four escalating stages of urban decay, from minor surface cracks to severe structural collapse, and identifies each stage as a viable entry point for the stickers. The greater the damage, the more surface area becomes available for attachment and growth, turning the most deteriorated walls into the most fertile ground.

The deeper idea is a repositioning of architecture itself. Buildings, in this framework, aren’t just infrastructure for human activity but potential interfaces between human and non-human life. Cities already host birds, insects, mosses, and small animals that quietly inhabit the spaces we overlook, and Green Anarchy asks whether design can actively make room for that, rather than continually squeezing it out.

Presented as part of UNFOLD 2026, Domus Academy’s annual international design showcase held under the theme “Engage Friction: Designing Through Conflict,” Green Anarchy fits the brief almost too well. It doesn’t try to resolve the tension between the built city and the natural world so much as give them a way to grow into each other, slowly, without asking anyone’s permission.

The post These Stickers Turn Crumbling City Walls Into Tiny Living Ecosystems first appeared on Yanko Design.