Author Archives: Gabriel Moss

This tiny Micro SD card organizer is a blast from the 90s

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Before CDs and DVDs revolutionized physical media in the 1990s, people mostly used floppy disks — little square pucks containing less than 2.8 megabytes of storage. If you collected a lot of floppy disks, for instance, the original release of DOOM (which released across four 3.5 inch floppy disks), you needed a place to put them. Back then, that meant keeping your disk collection in a whole bunch of beige boxes with tinted plastic coverings, locked shut with a simple mechanism.

Apparently, that design — despite its relative clunkiness and odd fit for modern offices — is nostalgic to collectors of modern physical media devices like Micro SD cards and Nintendo Switch cartridges, and, as a result, independent artist Trevor Flowers has designed his own tributes to the classic floppy disk holder design. Calling it the “Smol Floppy Disk Organizer for Micro SD Cards” on his Gumroad page, this adorable replica of days gone by can fit on any desk surface thanks to its near-microscopic size.

Designer: Trevor Flowers

“Back when floppies were new we kept them safe in somewhat terrible plastic bins,” says Flowers in the description of his Micro SD card holder.

“Now that micro SD cards can hold thousands of times more data they’re what we use and what we lose! Because, smol. So, here’s a little throwback to the floppy organizer but sized for micro SD cards. I used double-sided tape to stick mine to the top of my PC monitor because I’d lose it on my messy desk.”

The Smol Floppy Disk Organizer for Micro SD Cards is available to purchase on Flowers’ official Gumroad page for $22, though it seems like supplies are limited as only 37 units remain. The same is true of his Smol Floppy Disk Organizer for Switch Cartridges, of which only 8 remain as I write this article. It’s unclear whether more will be constructed, though it’s worth noting the build is quite cute and may even have mass-market appeal for collectors.

Smol Floppy Disk Organizers aren’t the only unique retro design Flowers has come up with. On his page, you can find other bespoke (and somewhat larger) tributes to the TRS-80 Model III and the Osborne One.

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J.Laverack’s Limited-Edition Aston Martin .1R Bicycle Uses the Same Process as an Actual Aston Martin

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What happens when one of the most luxurious automotive brands in the world teams up with one of the most luxurious bicycle brands in the world? That would be the J.Laverick Aston Martin .1R — the direct offspring of a fruitful partnership between the two high-flying British luxury brands, who are jointly calling it the “world’s most bespoke, advanced and meticulously engineered road bicycle”. This design is definitely bespoke, considering that no two Aston Martin .1R bikes will be created the same —and it isn’t exactly clear how many will be constructed in total — seeing as how every purchaser who orders from Aston Martin’s “multi-award-winning” online configurator will receive a personal invitation to get their own unique Aston Martin .1R fitted at Aston Martin’s HQ in Gaydon, UK.

Designer: J.Laverack x Aston Martin

Evidently, Aston Martin’s Gaydon HQ is where a new owner can individually select and install their bells and whistles (literally) after mixing and matching Aston Martin’s signature color schemes — which mirror those of the prestige British auto designer’s most popular luxury vehicles — on the tubes, lugs, forks, stem, seat post, and handlebar drops via the aforementioned configurator. For what it’s worth, yes, you can also choose between saddle and handlebar type. Right now, it’s not clear how much this will all cost, but it makes sense to expect a higher price than most other J.Laverack bicycles, which start at around $5,000.

This advanced titanium road bike design uses a mixture of 3D-printed titanium lugs and sculpted carbon fiber tubes for a lightweight yet sturdy build without any exposed bolts on the outer body. Aston Martin’s designers call this a world first, and I can’t deny it looks like a cross between a bike and a sports car. Though, calling it a “sports bike” would be redundant. That said, Aston Martin’s Executive VP and Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman, dug into this idea even further in an official press release, calling the Aston Martin .1R a “titanium hypercar on two wheels.”

Its max speed probably doesn’t equal that of a shiny new Aston Martin supercar, but it’s likely the speediest (and sturdiest) bicycle we’ve ever seen. Several elements of the ($3 million) Aston Martin Valkyrie’s engineering and design process made their way over to the .1R, including the bicycle’s 40-micron badges. The wheels themselves, plus the stem, also use similar processes. According to Aston Martin, “The hypercar’s wheel design can be glimpsed in miniature in the titanium piston caps of the brakes on the bike, while if you inspect the beautifully machined cups on the threaded bottom bracket of the .1R and you will notice parallels with the central wheel nuts on an Aston Martin Valkyrie.”

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Native Union’s Sleek (Re)Classic Apple Watch Bands Are Made of Plant-Based Leather

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If you’re an iPhone user with a taste for leather cases, you might already know all about Native Union’s knack for designing high-quality accessories, like their leather MagSafe iPhone 14 case, made in collaboration with Maison Kitsuné. Now there’s a similar cruelty-free Italian leather-inspired band for your Apple Watch. It’s made of Yatay, a leather-like compound that makes up the construction of Native Union’s gorgeous (Re)Classic Apple Watch Band design, and you can get your own for $59.99.

Designer: Native Union

Buy it now on Amazon

If you told me the (Re)Classic Band for Apple Watch in its light brown Kraft colorway was made of repurposed mycelium — fungal threads spanning long distances underground, which mushrooms blossom out of — I absolutely would not believe you. And yet, that’s one of the many all-natural resources used in the synthesis of Yatay by Coronet.

It sounds like everything from Native Union’s stainless steel clasp to its comfortable, soft-lined backing is made of recycled materials. (Re)Classic style is finely textured, giving it a sophisticated look that does quite a bit to distract from the fact it… isn’t made of genuine leather. Still, the high level of craftsmanship lent to these intricately-designed plant-based leather wristbands is difficult to deny.

All of Native Union’s straps come with integrated lugs, which connect directly to the Apple Watch — specifically, the little cutouts on the top and bottom of the Apple Watch where a wristband is locked in place. That means they blend naturally with any color configuration, and Native Union really wants to emphasize how important that is, citing the integrated lugs as a central focal point of (Re)Classic design ethos on its official product page:

“We designed (Re)Classic Band to match the textured elegance of (Re)Classic Case for iPhone and AirPods, now for your Apple Watch. Made to be a refined complement to your digital timepiece, we went one step further with fully wrapped integrated lugs so that the straps becomes a seamless extension of your Apple Watch without any visible hardware. A leather-like strap with wrapped lugs is something we’ve been searching for for a while now, so we made it ourselves.”

If you own one of the older Apple Watch Series, don’t worry: these bands come in two sizes that are compatible with every main-line Apple Watch model, depending on the size you wear. Though, you’ll want to specifically order the 38/40/41mm configuration if you’re rocking an Apple Watch SE or SE 2. And likewise, you’ll want to go for the 42/44/45mm measurement if you’re planning to attach one of these fine wristbands to an Apple Watch Ultra or Ultra 4.

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Belkin’s Newest 15W 2-in-1 BoostCharge Pro MagSafe Stand Has a Contemporary Look

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The iPhone 15-era refresh of Belkin’s 2-in-1 BoostCharge Pro MagSafe charger stand is arriving next week, and (right off the bat) it’s a smooth, stylish mix of contemporary sand (or charcoal) elements complemented by a sort of organic minimalism. In a departure from previous Belkin MagSafe chargers, this compact silicone charging stand incorporates soft, round shapes on both the charger base as well as a new flip-up 15W MagSafe pad. That means it can fit in any modern space, like a living room or a bedroom with a lot of similar organic elements, like stone walls and wooden furniture.

Designer: Belkin (via Apple)

The flip-up design on the top pad allows the Belkin charger to show off the iPhone 15’s screen while StandBy mode is engaged, turning your new iPhone into a piece of room decor like a stationary clock. That same design even lets you adjust the angle of the top pad between 0 and 70 degrees, and of course, you can rotate your iPhone to lay vertically or horizontally on the pad itself while the phone charges.

You can stick your Apple Watch Series 9 (or any other fast-charging Apple Watch, like the Ultra 2) on the second fast-charging pad behind the base, and together the whole thing ends up looking like a really elegant piece of art, adding ambiance rather than sitting around like a high-tech paperweight. Its non-slip base can also help keep it rooted firmly in place during an event such as an earthquake — or an accidental collision between the BoostCharge Pro and a household pet.

Belkin’s new BoostCharge Pro MagSafe chargers for Apple’s newest lineup of iPhone 15s (though iPhone 14s also work with it!) are officially set to release on November 7, alongside the all-new Apple M3 computers announced on October 30. In the box, you’ll find an included 5 ft USB-C cable and 30W USB-C power supply to plug the charger into. You can currently view the new chargers on Apple’s web store, where their $129.95 MSRP is already displayed. It doesn’t seem like either the charcoal or sand colorways are pre-orderable at the moment, though more retail options will become available — including, presumably, from the Belkin store — once the charger officially releases on November 7.

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Logitech G Yeti Orb Is a Plug-and-Play LIGHTSYNC-Compatible Condenser Mic

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Adorning your home office/PC gaming setup with Logitech’s lineup of LIGHTSYNC RGB products is an honorable goal on its own. But if you already own a LIGHTSYNC keyboard, mouse, headphones, and computer speakers (to be fair, I really love those G560s!), you’re probably dedicated to the bit by this point. Good news: it’s time to expand your RGB setup yet again. Even if you already have those aforementioned accessories — which work remarkably well together, producing quite the lightshow when synced with in-game visuals via the Logitech G Hub software — you’re still going to need a microphone for your desk. And that’s where Logitech’s newest array of LIGHTSYNC-equipped Yeti microphones comes in.

The Logitech G Yeti Orb — and, separately, the Yeti GX — are Logitech’s newest desktop mics, ditching the old Blue brand in favor of Logitech G. Both use cardioid pickup patterns, which is optimal for recording a single speaker, but the Orb is a condenser mic whereas the GX is a fancier dynamic mic, and the latter is a bit more expensive as a result. That said, it sounds like no matter which of the two you get, Logitech’s newest microphones are gorgeous thanks to their LIGHTSYNC RGB integration, and both are easy to install and set up thanks to their reliance on a single USB-C cable.

Designer: Logitech

The Yeti Orb condenser mic is the lower-priced of the two new Logitech mics, and… it’s quite cute. The rather small, orb-shaped microphone stands upright on its packed-in mini tripod, making it perfect to stick on top of a desk alongside a laptop. The mic design itself is cut in two by a matte ring, which features the RGB-backlit “G” letter candidly positioned on top. According to Logitech, this is a carbon neutral design, made with “a minimum of 74% certified post-consumer recycled plastic by weight.” Moreover, Logitech claims the packaging itself is sustainably sourced from FSC-certified forests.

Several reviews of the Yeti Orb condenser mic indicate the audio quality on it is notably clear for the price, with Tom’s Hardware calling out its budget-friendliness at an MSRP of $59.99. The software itself sounds easy to use, especially if you’re already familiar with Logitech G Hub. All you need to do is plug it in, and then you can get started customizing your lighting and audio preferences. It even comes with several voice presets through the integrated BLUE VO!CE mode, which gives you control over the Yeti Orb’s acoustic calibration — even allowing you to do silly things, like apply special effects to make your voice sound extra deep or ethereal.

The post Logitech G Yeti Orb Is a Plug-and-Play LIGHTSYNC-Compatible Condenser Mic first appeared on Yanko Design.

The limited-edition Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Retro is inspired by the classic SGH-E700 flip phone

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The clamshell-like Galaxy Z Flip5 is an interesting device, combining modern smartphone specs and features with a holistic design approach that heavily borrows elements of flip phones from the early 2000s. It’s also the best of its class, thanks in part to very little competition from Apple — but also because of its robust internals, like a primary 1080×2640 AMOLED display (collapsing into a 720×748 front display when closed), a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a 3700 mAh battery.

As of October 30, Samsung announced a limited-edition version of the Galaxy Z Flip5, called the Galaxy Z Flip5 Retro, and it looks peculiarly like 20-year-old SGH-E700, which launched around the same time as (and was ultimately overshadowed by) the behemoth Nokia 1100. Still, as Samsung’s first mobile phone containing an antenna, the SGH-E700 was a triumph in cellphone design for its time, and it’s celebrated in the stylized Galaxy Z Flip5 Retro, which sports the original SGH-E700’s indigo blue and silver color scheme.

Designer: Samsung

The tributary Flip5 Retro also comes with an interface makeover which itself is a throwback to the SGH-E700’s stock interface, complete with the blue lettering on the Flex Window that you can even show off alongside a pixel-art animation of a city skyline punctuated by shooting stars streaming across the night sky. It’s awfully pretty looking, and it’s certainly reminiscent of 16-bit screen savers and mobile games that were playable on cell phones in the early 2000s.

It sounds like the Flip5 Retro is shipped in a package containing several extra goodies, including: “three Flipsuit cards featuring logos from different eras of Samsung’s history, a Flipsuit case and a collector card engraved with a unique serial number that will add to the product’s collectible value for purchasing customers.”

Unfortunately for those of us in the United States, there is no planned launch window for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Retro over here. It’s also not exactly clear how “limited” the limited edition release will be, as Samsung has yet to disclose how many will be produced. You may still be lucky enough to nab one for yourself from the Samsung online store at the Flip5 Retro’s MSRP (roughly $1,240) if you’re in the UK or Australia, where shipments are set to go out on November 1 — or, if you’re in Spain, Germany, or Korea, where shipments are set to go out on November 2.

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The New Apple M3 Chip Enables Workflows Previously Unavailable on a Laptop

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The next generation of silicon is coming to Apple computers. Announced in an uncharacteristically late-afternoon Apple Event on October 30, the three newest Apple chips (M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max) are packed with the tiniest transistors Apple has ever stuck into its laptop and desktop computers. The newest chips, which use Apple’s groundbreaking 3nm process, are first launching with the new M3 iMac and M3 MacBook Pro, and, boy howdy, Apple is certainly giving other laptop manufacturers a run for their money in the final quarter of 2023.

Designer: Apple

Apple makes a big deal over the fact its base 10-core M3 GPU can render graphics up to 2.5x faster than a comparable M1 GPU, while the base 8-core M3 CPU gets a 50% relative boost in performance to its M1 counterpart. In terms of raw performance alone, those two figures represent a massive upgrade over a chip that released alongside new Apple computers only three years ago. That’s just the tip of the iceberg; thanks to a bevy of new capabilities unlocked by M3’s ultra-compact transistor size, the upper performance limits of the M3 family are higher than ever — meaning, if you’re an AI developer, a game designer, or a visual designer of some sort, your next primary workstation may be a new Mac running on a hyper-powerful M3 Max, armed to the teeth with a 40-core GPU, 16-core CPU, 128 gigs of high-speed RAM, and a 8 TB SSD.

On a basic level, the standard 10-core M3 GPU is an impressive component, fitted with all-new features like hardware-accelerated ray-tracing, mesh shading, and Dynamic Caching to deliver, at a minimum, “65 percent more performance” over M1-based Macs when performing rendering-heavy tasks such as gaming and 3D imaging. It’s facilitated by the M3 chip’s new unified memory architecture (which is supposed to vastly speed up RAM while boosting power efficiency) and support for up to 24 gigs of RAM by default (or up to 36 gigs for the M3 Pro, or up to 128 for the M3 Max), which all make use of the aforementioned new unified architecture. Apple says this “unlocks workflows previously not possible on a laptop, such as AI developers working with even larger transformer models with billions of parameters.”

For the average user, that’s not a huge deal on its own. Sure, games are capable of running smoother and looking prettier as a result of the new hardware, and it sounds like macOS 14 is equipped to make use of the M3 chip design to enable things like Game Mode, which deprioritizes background tasks while a game window is active. But, another big draw of the new M3 architecture is the addition of integrated AV1 decoding. Built-in AV1 support means a new M3-powered iMac or MacBook Pro can smoothly stream 4k60 video from digital streaming services without a noticeable drop in quality if the connection starts to waver.

This also has work applications. For instance, two or more M3-powered Macs communicating with one another via Screen Share should have a buttery-smooth experience, even when both Macs are working on resource-heavy tasks.

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M3 MacBook Pro Boasts 11x Better Performance Than an Actual Intel Desktop

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The October 30 Apple Event was exactly as “scary fast” as it was deemed to be, clocking in at no more than 30 minutes in total. That was more than enough time for Apple to show up and hammer out the most important details about its M3-powered next-gen upgrades for the MacBook Pro and the iMac, and admittedly there’s a lot to love. It’s worth noting the 2020-era M1 chip was the sole point of reflection for the company; Apple specifically noted a 60% upgrade in performance between the 14-inch M3 Pro-powered MacBook Pro and the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pros featuring the M2 Pro and M2 Max launched in January, and so it’s probably too soon for an upgrade from those. But Apple’s point is clear: if you own anything earlier than an M1-powered MacBook Pro, or if you own even the most powerful Intel-based Mac on the market, you’re tailing behind the pack.

Designer: Apple

It’s hard to argue against the swath of powerful new features included in the late-2023 MacBook Pro lineup — equipped with the full array of hyper-powerful Apple M3 chips, which use a 3-nanometer process much like the A17 Pro chip included in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. These new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max-powered MacBook Pros are the current flagship of the macOS fleet, and all models benefit from the vastly increased base performance, which Apple claims is “11x faster than the most powerful Intel-based MacBook Pro”.

If you’re a designer or a creator who needs all the horsepower you can get, the MacBook Pro M3 Max model is probably your best bet thanks to its 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU with Dynamic Caching, a feature that can evidently boost performance by dynamically allocating memory in real time. For even just the base M3 model, however, macOS Sonoma’s new features (like Screen Sharing between M3-powered Macs and Game Mode, which prioritizes framerates in games like Baldur’s Gate 3) make great use of all that computing power.

The new MacBook Pro color scheme, Space Black, is a gorgeous, metallic black chassis that marks a MacBook first since 2006. Apple considers it a “Pro” color, so it’s less likely we’ll see a similarly-colored M3-powered MacBook Air any time soon, and that’s a real shame because it does look quite sleek.

Both the 14-inch and 16-inch M3 MacBook Pro are now available to pre-order from Apple’s online store. The base M3-powered 14-inch MacBook Pro will begin at $1,599 while the M3-powered 16-inch is set to start at $2,499. Of course, you’ll need to shell out a bit more for the M3 Pro and M3 Max versions. Orders will begin shipping out on November 7.

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These recyclable, paper RFID tags look like a work of magic

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Passive RFID tags, like the ones attached to products in stores for easy checkout, are generally manufactured using a mixture of metal and circuitry to form the tag’s primary parts: a microchip and an equally microscopic antenna. These bits work together to store and communicate information to a nearby RFID reader, and they’re decently cheap to mass-produce, only costing around $0.10 in materials per tag (according to the IAITAM in 2021).

Still, the gross cost of mining and producing large quantities of metal and circuitry components adds up over time, and due to the nature of those materials, regular passive RFID tags have nowhere to go — well, other than the trash bin — once they’re pulled off of the products they’re designed to protect.

According to PulpaTronics, the developer of a revolutionary all-upcycled paper RFID tag design, over 12 billion RFID tags are manufactured per year, often for single-use purposes, after which they end up in landfills. Founded by a group of four students at the Imperial College London’s Dyson School of Design Engineering, the PulpaTronics team is already making waves (and winning multiple awards in sustainable design) for their ingenious paper RFID tag design, which eliminates metal from the manufacturing process entirely.

Designer: Chloe So, Barna Soma Biro, Rui Ma, Jingyan Chen (via PulpaTronics)

PulpaTronics’ all-paper RFID tags store information geometrically, using a laser to imprint a “conductive layer of carbon material” directly onto paper materials upcycled from the recycling bin and from the trash. According to the James Dyson Award organization, the team also experimented with other materials, like wood and cork, before ultimately landing on paper. The result: an RFID tag design that is twice as cheap to mass-produce as other RFID tags, while contributing 70% less CO2 emissions.

What’s interesting about this design is how the team was able to create each part of the RFID tag, including antennae, without any metal whatsoever — once again, it’s all just paper with a little bit of carbon sketched on top — and the geometric shape of the carbon layer is what gives the RFID tag design its conductivity and its ability to transmit information to a nearby reader.

If PulpaTronics’ new tag design goes into mass-production, that could apparently save “20,000,000 kilograms of CO2 annually” per 100,000 items using the design. In any case, this is a sizable win for sustainable engineering — further proving that it’s possible to replace metal and other scarce and non-degradable materials with easily-sourced alternatives.

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This is the Transparent Turntable, a high-end modular turntable with minimalist style

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Stockholm-based Transparent makes a lot of minimalist audio tech. For the first time, they’ve released their very own turntable, and it’s mouthwateringly gorgeous. The transparent tempered glass cover lays atop an aluminum body (“meticulously crafted” in either black or white), and it looks like it comfortably fits right along with Transparent’s lineup of high-end speakers — which use similarly minimalistic design elements.

From a technical standpoint, it’s also just a really nice, modern turntable with plenty of gadgetry for today’s hi-fi enthusiast. The preinstalled Elliptical Diamond Ortofon OM Stylus 5E provides warm and rich sound quality, though it can also be swapped out for fancier stylus models or replaced once it wears out. In fact, the entire build is designed for modularity, including its SME-compatible headshell mount.

Designer: Per Brickstad (via Transparent)

The tech specs are pretty impressive on the performance front as well. Its low speed variance means it should play vinyl records more accurately for a smoother sound. It’s geared up with digital optical and analog inputs as well as Bluetooth 5.0 support via its Qualcomm CSR8670C chip, which basically translates to high-fidelity audio output at a low latency even when playing MP3 files directly from your phone.

The built-in 20-25,000Hz +3 / -3 frequency range is also reasonably wide for a hi-fi audio component of the Transparent Turntable’s caliber, meaning it can process rich, deep bass and bring out the crispness of higher frequencies. For instance, when playing a song containing a mixture of low bass, high woodwinds, and additional sounds placed further out to the edges of the soundstage, the Transparent Turntable should be able to accurately reproduce all of that detail without crunching the mid-range.

It looks like everything from its groovy (literally) tonearm right down to its gold-plated contacts are built with high-quality materials and peculiar attention to detail. The unit is also relatively low-profile, weighing only 14 lbs and using a maximum of 15W of electricity per hour. That makes it easy to stick into an eco-friendly household, or even take with you on the road in a minimalistic tiny home.

The Transparent Turntable costs $1,300 on the Transparent website, and you can order it now — ahead of its estimated shipment window in mid-November.

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