This minimalist table lamp design was inspired by water droplets and kitchen faucets

Faucet Light is a minimalist light fixture design that mimics the look of water droplets forming beneath a faucet’s spout.

We’ve each suffered through the monotonous drip of a leaky faucet at some point. It’s like clockwork and we can’t do anything about it but stare and wait for the plumber. Industrial designer Jaewan Park must have found some inspiration during the waiting game as his new lamp design resembles a kitchen sink faucet and the bulbous water drop that forms beneath its spout. Aptly dubbed the Faucet Light, Park’s new light design finds practicality and an artful design through subtle details and joyful aesthetics.

Designer: Jaewan Park

Finished in ceramic steel, Faucet Light features a glossy base to emulate the look of ripples on a still pool of water. An exposed, transparent glass reflector hosts the light fixture’s main light bulb and provides both area and focal lighting.

As Park explains, the light dimming mechanism resembles the look of a water spout to be intuitive by design, “By rotating the end tip of the tube 180-degrees, the glass reflector can be moved into the tube to switch the mode from area lighting to focal lighting in order to meet various possibilities.”

Rising to around 16 inches in height, Faucet Light maintains a slim body to fit atop most tabletops, even crowded work desks. The light fixture keeps the same shape as a kitchen sink faucet, giving the lamp an edge of intuitive usability for every user to feel confident when using it. Describing the design in his own words, Park describes, “Faucet Light is a tabletop light design concept that visually inspired from an image that water drop hanging on the faucet to achieve both functionality and joyful aesthetics at the same time.”

The post This minimalist table lamp design was inspired by water droplets and kitchen faucets first appeared on Yanko Design.

Conceptualized for designers, this multifunctional desk adapts to meet your work tasks

The Raak Mai desk is a multifunctional, versatile desk conceptualized for designers.

Finding the right desk to meet our working and creative needs is essential to stay productive. When it comes to our work, our desks must rise to the occasion, sometimes literally. Standing desks tend to help our posture when working from our computers all day.

Angled desks find the ideal tilt for sketching and drawing up plans. Then, different desks carry unique storage options, keeping all of our tools within arm’s reach at all times. The Raak Mai desk from industrial designer Laura Rodríguez combines all of the above to provide a multifunctional, versatile desk for all working needs.

Designer: Laura Rodríguez

Preliminary inspired by the needs of designers, Rodríguez hoped to incorporate analog mechanisms that work to take care of digital tasks. While many of the elements of the Raak Mai desk can be adjusted manually, the overall structure of the desk was fitted to ensure the digital needs of modern technology could be met.

The Raak Mai desk hosts an array of different modes, allowing users to adjust the desk’s height, tilt, and storage capabilities according to their working needs. When designing or sketching, users can angle the desk to their desired tilt for accurate drawing sessions. An integrated winch allows users to manually adjust the desk to a standing height.

Several USB ports let users charge their electrical appliances throughout the workday. Storage drawers can be found throughout the desk’s build, allowing users to organize their stationery as needed. Then, a footrest provides space for users to prop their feet while working.

Propped up on two steel legs, the desk’s table is defined by its wooden build. Relying on modern construction methods like 3D printing and laser cutting, Rodríguez employed precision-based technologies to ensure seamless joinery and connections.

The drawers, chest, and main tabletop would be built using laser cutting technology into individual modules that would connect to the rest of the Raak Mai desk. Then, 3D printing would be used for constructing the desk’s overall frame. Finally, Rodríguez envisions the Raak Mai desk finished with a glossy layer of primer.

The post Conceptualized for designers, this multifunctional desk adapts to meet your work tasks first appeared on Yanko Design.

Windows’ revamped phone sync app puts Android notifications up front

Microsoft realizes it has crammed Your Phone with features as of late, and it's giving the software a rework to help you manage all that content. The company has unveiled a rebranded Windows 11 Your Phone app, now called Phone Link, that includes a redesigned interface. The updated software puts notifications out front to make sure you don't miss an important alert. You'll also have tabbed navigation that should help you better manage apps, calls, messages and photos.

The refresh also brings visuals more in line with Windows 11's look and feel. It will be easier to get started, for that matter. An upcoming Windows 11 update will let you set up Phone Link by scanning a QR code.

The release comes alongside a renaming of the Android app to Link to Windows (formerly Your Phone Companion) to better illustrate its role. Phone Link won't necessarily eliminate the urge to check your device, but it might prevent the flood of information from becoming overwhelming.

Join us on Twitter Spaces tomorrow to chat OnePlus and Dyson

This is not an April Fools' joke. Tomorrow (April 1st) at 12pm ET, UK bureau chief Mat Smith and I will be hosting a Twitter Space on the Engadget account, and we'd love for you to join us. We'll be discussing our experiences with the OnePlus 10 Pro, which Mat reviewed, and the Dyson Zone, which I tried out in person earlier this month. 

If you have a burning question about either of these devices, or anything Engadget covers, bring them to the session! We expect to open up for Q&A after about 30 minutes, and can't wait to hear from you all. If you already follow Engadget on Twitter, you'll be able to join the Space when we're live.  

Many Americans distrust emerging technology, new study finds

For more than a century, popular science fiction has promised us a future filled with robotics and AI technologies. In 2022, many of those dreams are being realized — computers recognize us on sight and cars can drive themselves, we’re building intelligent exoskeletons that multiply our strength and implanting computers in our skulls to augment our intelligence — but that doesn’t mean most of America trusts these breakthrough technologies any further than they can throw them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

A recently published survey from Pew Research sought the opinions of some 10,260 US adults in November 2021 regarding their views on six technologies emerging in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence/machine learning. Specifically, canvassers asked about both more mainstream systems like the use of facial recognition technology by police, the fake news-flagging algorithms used by social media platforms, and autonomous vehicle technology, as well as more cutting-edge ideas like brain-computer interfaces, gene editing and powered exoskeletons. The responses largely topped out at tepid, with minorities of respondents having even heard much about a given technology and even fewer willing to become early adopters once these systems are available to the general public.

The Pew research team found a number of broad trends regarding which demographics were most accepting of these advances. College-educated white male Millennials and Gen Xers versed in the tech’s development were far more willing to ride in a driverless taxi or let Elon Musk rummage around in their heads. Women, Boomers, and folks hearing about BCIs for the first time, much less so. The Pew team also noted correlations between acceptance of a given technology and a person’s religious affinity and level of education.

Pew Overview AI opinions
Pew Research Center

Police Use of Facial Recognition

Computer vision systems and facial recognition technology is already widespread. Amazon uses it in its cashierless Go stores, Facebook uses it to moderate user-posted content, the IRS recently, briefly, considered using it in tax filings, and law enforcement has embraced the technology for criminal investigations and missing persons cases. The survey’s respondents largely believed that continued use in law enforcement would “likely help find missing persons and solve crimes,” but also conceded that “it is likely that police would use this technology to track everyone’s location and surveil Black and Hispanic communities more than others.”

In all, 46 percent of respondents thought widespread facial recognition use by the police would be a “good idea” for society, while 27 percent figured it would be bad and another 27 percent were unsure either way. Both Americans over 50 and those with a high school diploma or less agreed in equal measure (52 percent of respondents) that it would be a net positive, though the researchers note that people who “have heard or read a lot about the use of facial recognition technology by police” are far more likely to say it’s a bad idea.

Whether they think police using facial recognition is net good or bad for society, a majority of the respondents agree that even if the technology were to become ubiquitous, it would have little impact on crime rates. Some 57 percent of those surveyed guess that rates will remain steady while another 8 percent of them are rooting for the maniacs and figure crime will actually increase in response to adoption of this technology.

Partisan divide on AI
Pew Research Center

Social Media Moderation Algorithms

Lying is as fundamental a part of the internet as subnet masks – just ask any dog. But with 70 percent of the American populace online and on social media, the smallest morels of misinformation and biggest lies can become massively amplified as they spread via recommendation algorithms, often blurring the lines between reality and political fantasy. In an effort to prevent people from falling down internet rabbit holes, many social media companies have instituted additional AI systems to monitor and moderate misinformation posted to their platforms. And if you think the American people trust those algorithms, hoo boy, do I have some ivermectin to sell you.

Only 38 percent of those surveyed thought that using algorithms to monitor these digital hellscapes was a good idea for society. That’s 3 points lower than Trump’s average approval rating during his tenure. The remaining 62 percent of respondents were split evenly between ambivalence and thinking it would be bad for society. Overall, a majority believe that these automated moderation efforts “are not helping the social media information environment and at times might be worsening it,” per the report.

Unsurprisingly, opinions on this matter skew heavily depending on the respondent’s political affiliation. Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agree that “political censorship and wrongful removal of information are definitely or probably happening as a result of the widespread use of these algorithms,” it is the latter group who are far more likely to say so.

Republicans and those leaning R were 28 percent more likely to believe in political censorship on the part of algorithms and 26 percent more likely to believe they were wrongly removing information.

Conversely, Democrats and D learners were twice as likely to “say it is getting easier to find trustworthy information on social media sites due to widespread use of algorithms” and those that hold that opinion are 19 percent more likely than Republicans to believe that algorithms are “allowing people to have more meaningful conversations.”

As with facial recognition, the amount of experience one has with the technology impacts their views on it, leaning negative among those with the most exposure and around half of respondents thinking algorithms a bad idea.

A Waymo self-driving car pulls into a parking lot at the Google-owned company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, on May 8, 2019. (Photo by Glenn CHAPMAN / AFP)        (Photo credit should read GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
GLENN CHAPMAN via Getty Images

Autonomous Vehicles

Perhaps the most visible technology that the Pew team inquired about is vehicle automation. We’re already seeing driverless taxis cruise the streets of San Francisco while advanced driver assist systems rapidly evolve, despite the occasional kamikaze strike against nearby emergency response vehicles. The Pew team asked people, “How will this impact people who drive for a living? Are Americans willing to give up control to a machine? And whose safety should be prioritized in a potential life-or-death situation?” The people responded, “Bad, no, and pedestrians, but if we really have to.”

Respondents thought that the widespread use of driverless passenger vehicles is a bad idea for society by an 18-point margin (44 percent bad to 26 percent good), with nearly a third of people unsure. What’s more, the number of people unwilling to even ride in a fully autonomous vehicle is nearly double those who would take the ride (63 percent no to 37 percent yes). Older Americans are far less likely to get behind the wheel of an autonomous vehicle than those under 50, with only 25 percent of 50-plus-year-olds open to the idea compared to 47 percent of younger respondents. Men are more willing to ride in a driverless car than women — 46 percent versus 27 percent — as are people with a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to high school graduates.

Americans’ reticence extends to the other side of the door as well. Forty-five percent of the Pew’s respondents, “say they would not feel comfortable sharing the road with driverless vehicles if use of them became widespread,” including 18 percent who would “not feel comfortable at all.” Only 7 percent said they would be “extremely comfortable” sharing the road.

That’s not to say that Americans are completely against the idea of self-driving vehicles. A whopping 72 percent of people surveyed said that autonomous cars would help the elderly and disabled to live more independent lives while 56 percent figure it will make trips less stressful. But they are widely concerned (as in, 83 percent of them) that widespread adoption of the tech would cause drivers and delivery personnel to lose their jobs and 76 percent think the technology will put vehicles at risk of being hacked.

The Trolley Problem is Solved
Pew Research Center

In terms of safety, 39 percent of people think that traffic deaths and injuries will fall once autonomous vehicles become ubiquitous while 27 percent think they’ll rise. Regardless of which direction folks think these trends will go, they agree at a rate of more than 2 to 1 (40 percent to 18) that “the computer system guiding the driverless car should prioritize the safety of the vehicle’s passengers, rather than those outside of the vehicle” in the event of an unavoidable crash. Turns out the trolley problem wasn’t that tough to solve after all.

Pew’s other three topics — BCIs, gene editing and exoskeletons — are not nearly as commercially available as ADA systems and facial recognition, but that hasn’t stopped Americans from inherently distrusting them even if they’re also kind of intrigued by the possibility.

Two-thirds of respondents would be “at least somewhat excited about the possibility of changing human capabilities to prevent serious diseases or health conditions” including 47 percent excited for cognitive enhancements, 24 percent on board for auditory enhancement, 44 percent in favor of strength augmentations and 41 percent apiece for visual and longevity enhancements. But only half of those surveyed would want these procedures done for themselves or their children.

How these technologies are employed makes a big difference in people’s opinion of them. For example, 79 percent of respondents are in favor of exoskeletons, so long as they are used to help the physically disabled, 77 percent want BCIs if they’ll help paralyzed people motor function and 71 percent are cool with gene editing to fix a person’s current disease or health condition. But at the same time, 74 percent are against using CRISPR to make more attractive babies and 49 percent are against giving exoskeletons to recreational users.

The first Cybathlon will be held in Switzerland in October 2016. It is a competition for athletes equipped with bionic devices (robotized prosthetic legs and arms, motorized wheelchairs, exoskeletons, bikes using electrical muscle stimulation and brain-computer interface races). This competition helps raise public awareness on the evolution of work on robotic assistive technology and strengthens exchanges between research teams. Among the French teams is ENS Lyon. This team will take part in the cycle race, with a bike that has electrical muscle stimulation, as well as the brain-computer interface race during which tetraplegic athletes steer their avatar during virtual races using brain signals. The team leader, Vince, will be one of the pilots. He has been tetraplegic since a bike accident, and is a physics researcher. He changed his research to technology, which can help handicapped people in their daily lives. He is training for the brain computer interface race with Amine, a postdoc researcher in physics. He is wearing an EEG helmet which enables his neuronal activity to be tracked. The team has to determine the signals that are the most perceptible and isolatable on the EEG so that a computer action can be attributed to an ÒorderÓ from the brain. (Photo by: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
BSIP via Getty Images

Brain Computer Interfaces

The days of Johnny Mnemonic are never going to arrive if the study’s average respondent has their way. Fifty-six percent of US adults think the widespread adoption of BCIs will be a bad thing for society (compared to just 13 percent dissenting). Seventy-eight percent are against having one installed, versus 20 percent actively in favor, and yet roughly 60 percent of them say that “people would feel pressure” to get a BCI “should implanted devices of this sort become widespread.”

Men, ever the eager guinea pigs, are far more open to getting chipped than women (20 percent to 6), though at least half of both genders (50 percent of men and 61 percent of women) possess sufficient survival instincts to decline the opportunity. However, people were more receptive to the idea if the option to manually turn the implant on and off (59 percent in favor) were included or if implantation didn’t require surgery (53 percent in favor).

What’s more, only 24 percent of US adults believe that this augmentation would lead to improvements in judgment and decision-making compared to 42 percent who do not. Seventy percent also believe that such implants “would go too far in eliminating natural differences between people.“

Abstract Genetics Disease - 3d rendered image. Hologram view. SEM (TEM) macroscope image. DNA mutations. Vexas disease. Medicine Healthcare research concept. X chromosomes objects.
koto_feja via Getty Images

Editing gene to fight preventable disease

Just like many people think brain implants are cool but not for them personally, nearly half of Americans (49 percent) would decline to have their child’s genome edited to prevent hereditary diseases. Fifty-two percent believe that such edits would be “crossing a line we should not cross” compared to 46 percent who say it is inline with previous efforts at augmenting human capabilities.

While only 39 percent of Americans foresee a future where gene editing is common making people’s lives better (versus 40 percent for no change and 18 percent for worse), some 73 percent believe “most parents would feel pressure to get gene editing for their baby if such techniques became widespread.” More than half say these genomic procedures should be restricted to adults who can give consent, though 49 percent say that allowing people to choose which disease is treated would be more acceptable.

Robotic exoskeletons to augment physical capabilities

Even if we’re not poking electrical leads into your various motor cortices or using atomic shears to play Tetris with your chromosomes, Americans just aren’t into using tech to endow humans with heightened capabilities. Only a third of people think the adoption of exoskeletons like the Cray X from German Bionic would lead to better working conditions while 31 percent of those surveyed thought it would make matters worse. Overall, just 33 percent of people think these systems would be good for society, while nearly a quarter (24 percent) think it will be bad. That said, 57 percent of people also told Pew that they’d heard nothing about exoskeletons with which to inform their opinions compared to 37 percent having heard “a little” and 6 percent “a lot.”

It's Sigourney Weaver in the P-5000 looking badass
20th Century Studios

Estimates of the technology rose with familiarity with 48 percent of those having heard even a little responding that it would be good for society compared to 22 percent from those who’d heard nothing. Men took a moment from fantasizing about the P-5000 to answer in the affirmative at a rate of more than 2 to 1 (46 percent to 19) that exoskeletons are good and cool and how do I get one. Women, meanwhile, believe their widespread adoption would be a detriment to society by a margin of 29 percent to 21.

Respondents were largely concerned with the economic impacts this technology would have on the labor market. Eighty-one percent of Americans fear it would prompt employers to lay off human workers, while 73 percent are worried that “workers would probably or definitely lose strength from relying too much on the exoskeletons.”

A baggage handler wears a Cray X Exoskeleton from German Bionic while handling a baggage.
German Bionic

Still, the respondents did often see the potential benefits of employing exoskeletons in the workplace. Approximately 70 percent said workers would “probably or definitely” be hurt less on the job and 65 percent believe that the tech will open the field of manual labor to people who otherwise wouldn't be physically capable of doing the work. Respondents were also broadly in favor (68 percent) of requiring a license to operate these devices, using them to assist people with physical limitations (79 percent). Those surveyed were also strongly in favor (77 percent) of letting firefighters use the tech to boost their abilities in emergencies.

This stackable desk organizer lets you build a tower for your tools and trinkets

There never seems to be enough space on your desk, so this concept makes use of the underutilized space above it instead.

Desk organizers are a dime a dozen, but they themselves can actually be a source of headaches when they take over your workspace. No one can perfectly predict how much stuff we’ll accumulate over the years, and traditional organizers aren’t designed to grow with you and your clutter. You can buy more of them, in different designs even, but there’s a limit to how much room you have on the table. In contrast, Cyl uses the age-old stacking trick to free up horizontal space by utilizing often unused vertical space.

Designer: Marc Godayol i Hasse

Stackable containers are nothing new, of course, but they almost always have one kind of limitation or another. Some boxes can stack way up, but you’ll have to remove the ones on top first before you can get the items stored in lower tiers. Others are also fixed in their size, offering only short bins for things like paper clips, pads of paper, keys, and other small objects.

This desk organizer concept doesn’t discriminate or put limits on what you can put inside. More importantly, you can easily see what’s inside and quickly get them without having to unstack the ones above. In theory, you can stack the containers as high as you can, presuming gravity doesn’t cause them to topple over.

The organizers come in different sizes, with the tallest having enough room for pens and markers. The topmost container can be a short dish for keys and coins, or it can just be a wooden cover to quickly place objects you need to just as quickly access later. There are no rules on which can go on top of which, and you can have as many combinations or as many containers as you need or like. Gravity and your own height will be the only limits.

Cyl is designed to be made from metal, painted in different colors to make them look visually attractive. They also stack on top of each other, almost like LEGO blocks, except they’re cylindrical rather than blocky. Circles might not be the most space-efficient compared to squares or rectangles, but they are more interesting and more pleasing to the eyes, giving your subconscious brain one less source of stress.

The post This stackable desk organizer lets you build a tower for your tools and trinkets first appeared on Yanko Design.

Disney’s ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ premiere will include two episodes to make up for delayed debut

The tone is almost apologetic. "I have some important news," says Ewan McGregor, star of the upcoming Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi. "Our premiere date is moving just a couple of days." His hands are raised, as if to say "don't be mad!" Indeed, Disney is pushing the show's launch back by two days, from Wednesday, May 25th to Friday, May 27th. 

That's a shame mostly because the 25th would have been exactly 45 years since the original Star Wars opened. But, as McGregor's body language suggests: don't be mad. As penance for the grave inconvenience, Disney will now be releasing the first two episodes that day instead of just one. 

For fans of the franchise, this newest series starring McGregor has been a long time coming. The series was first announced in summer 2019, and Disney has since revealed that other big names are attached, including Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen reprising his trilogy role as Darth Vader.

Google Meet video chats will be available directly in Docs

Google Meet video chats should now be more useful if you need to get work done, or just don't want them monopolizing your screen. Google is rolling multiple Workspace updates that include offering Meet video chats directly in Docs, Sheets and Slides. You can start a virtual meeting and carry it over to the document you're working on to help you collaborate without flipping between tabs. You can also present that content if it's ready to go. This should be available in the "coming weeks," Google said.

You will have the freedom to switch tabs if you want, though. Google is also introducing much-needed picture-in-picture support (at middle) to Meet sometime in April. You'll need to use Chrome, but the feature will let you see up to four video tiles in a separate window while you jump between other tabs and apps. This will be helpful if you need to show different tabs during a presentation, but let's be honest — it will also help you keep a video chat running when you can't (or don't want to) devote your full attention.

Google Meet picture-in-picture video chat
Google

Other upcoming Meet improvements include in-meeting emoji reactions (due in April) and the option to add your own video tile from the interactive Companion Mode and your laptop camera (arriving later this year). Meet hardware is starting to offer automatic noise cancellation, too. The collaborative Spaces environment, meanwhile, will finally offer inline threading to keep your conversations tidy.

The improvements are acknowledgments that remote and hybrid work are here to stay despite return-to-office plans at many companies. At the same time, they appear to be genuinely helpful features that might encourage you to use Workspace... and, of course, skip rivals like Microsoft Teams.

Instagram will let you multitask while you DM

Instagram is making it a little easier to chat while browsing your feed. The app is adding a new multitasking feature that allows users to quickly respond to incoming messages without switching back and forth between their feed and the inbox.

With the change, new chats will appear at the top of your feed while browsing, and you can respond by tapping on the message. The app is also adding a shortcut to make sharing posts a little quicker. Instead of scrolling through a list of contacts, users can designate four friends that will appear as shortcuts when tapping and holding the share button.

The app is also adding a music sharing feature, so users can swap 30 second previews of songs coa Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music

Music sharing and polls are also coming to Instagram's inbox.
Instagram

Ever since Meta began merging Instagram and Messenger, Instagram’s in-app chat has been steadily getting more features — and becoming more like Messenger. Now, those who have opted to link their inboxes, will also see a tray at the top of their DMs indicating which of their friends are currently online, much like the Messenger feature.

Instagram is also adding a Slack-style @Silent shortcut, similar to the update Messenger showed off earlier this week. Adding @silent to messages allows them to be delivered without triggering a notification. (It’s not clear if Instagram plans to adopt more of the “command” shortcuts in the future.) And, finally, group chats are getting a polling feature of their own, so polls will no longer be limited just to Stories.

As is often the case, these updates won’t be available everywhere all at once. The company says the new features “are available in select countries, with plans to expand globally,” but didn’t elaborate on which countries, or how long it would take for the changes to reach everyone.

Samsung and iFixit will launch a self-repair program for Galaxy devices

Apple isn't the only major tech brand introducing a fix-it-yourself program this year. Samsung is teaming up with iFixit to launch a self-repair program for Galaxy devices in the US sometime this summer. Most details won't be available until the program is ready, but you'll have access to official parts and repair tools as you walk through step-by-step repair guides. The early part selection will include back glass, charging ports and display assemblies.

The Samsung self-repair program will initially cover the Galaxy S20 and S21 phone lines as well as the Galaxy Tab S7+. Don't expect to service your new Galaxy S22 Ultra at first. The company will expand its effort to cover more devices and repair categories, though, and you can send the faulty parts to Samsung for recycling.

The company pitches the self-repair option as both a "convenience" and a sustainability move. You can fix your Galaxy hardware on your own terms rather than creating more e-waste. However, this is also likely a response to Right to Repair regulation and advocacy. Samsung can show that it's at least somewhat DIY-friendly before regulators swoop in, even if the products themselves aren't very conducive to repairs at the moment.