Tag Archives: Gadgets

ZimaBoard 2 Review: The Home Server You Don’t Have to Hide Anymore

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PROS:


  • Unusually sleek, well-finished aluminum design for a board-style server

  • Effectively silent passive cooling for always-on use

  • 60W adapter (with multiple plug types) provides sufficient 12V/5A power

  • Intuitive ZimaOS web interface, easy to set up without Linux experience

  • PCIe 3.0 x4 slot allows meaningful expansion


CONS:


  • Not suited for heavy compute or multi-VM workloads

  • Onboard eMMC is slow for sustained data storage

  • Memory tops out at 16 GB

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The ZimaBoard 2 offers a compact, always-on server that earns its place on the shelf both functionally and aesthetically.

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Home servers and NAS boxes have long had a visibility problem, and not in the marketing sense. Most are bulky, noisy, and purely functional, which means they usually end up tucked behind desks or buried in closets. The compact options that do exist often sacrifice connectivity, storage support, or OS flexibility, making them useful only on paper rather than in the kind of sustained, always-on role they’re meant to fill.

ZimaBoard 2 from IceWhale is trying to change that. It’s a compact x86 home server built around an industrial aluminum chassis, with enough connectivity and software flexibility to serve as a NAS, media server, smart home hub, or private cloud device. Available in two configurations starting from $279, it sits comfortably between a hobbyist board computer and a proper home server, and that positioning is genuinely worth exploring.

Designer: IceWhale

Aesthetics

Most board-style computers aren’t particularly elegant things. They’re open PCBs with exposed components and color-coded connectors, designed for function over form. ZimaBoard 2 is a notable exception. It comes housed in an all-aluminum enclosure with a clean silver finish and vertical cooling fins running along its length, giving it an almost architectural character that’s genuinely unusual for hardware in this category.

The ribbed fin pattern isn’t purely decorative. It acts as a passive heatsink, keeping things cool while also giving the device a more resolved visual quality than the typical bare-PCB look. It’s compact enough to hold in one hand, and in a workspace context, it reads less like raw server hardware and more like a deliberate industrial object that wouldn’t look out of place on a well-specced desk.

What also sets it apart from other board computers is how the I/O is handled at a design level. The ports are grouped cleanly along one edge, with the dual Ethernet jacks, USB ports, and Mini DisplayPort sitting in a tidy, intentional cluster rather than scattered wherever there was board space. That considered layout keeps the device looking organized even when several cables are plugged in at once.

Ergonomics

Setting up ZimaBoard 2 is refreshingly straightforward for a device in this category. The web-based interface felt clean, well-organized, and intuitive enough that getting started didn’t require much Linux familiarity. ZimaOS comes pre-installed with a browser-based dashboard that handles storage configuration, app deployment, and network settings through a familiar, point-and-click experience. Getting a NAS or media server up takes minutes, not hours.

The board is compact and light enough to tuck almost anywhere. It ships with a 60 W power adapter that comes with interchangeable plug adapters, which is a thoughtful detail for anyone working across different countries or regions. ZimaBoard 2 is designed around passive cooling, so in everyday use, it stays effectively silent, even with the optional mini cooling fan, which matters considerably when the device is meant to operate around the clock.

One practical setup step worth noting is that the onboard eMMC storage is best treated as a system layer rather than a long-term data destination. After initial setup, moving files and apps to the SATA-connected drives is the smarter workflow, since attached storage is faster and better suited to the sustained read and write activity a home server handles daily. It’s a minor but worthwhile habit to build in early.

Performance

Under the aluminum shell sits an Intel N150 processor, a quad-core chip running up to 3.6 GHz with a 6 MB cache and a 10 W TDP. It’s not the most powerful chip in this size class, but it’s the right pick for a device designed to run continuously at low power. For home server tasks, including NAS, media streaming, and containerized workloads, it handles things with comfortable ease.

On the storage side, two SATA 3.0 ports come with integrated power support, making it straightforward to connect a pair of full-size NAS drives without extra adapters. Running two 3.5-inch drives caused no issues, and the 12V, 5A supply proved sufficient in testing to handle the board and drives comfortably. That power budget is a meaningful detail, since not every compact server can make the same claim confidently.

Thermals are worth touching on separately. The N150 runs warm under sustained loads, but for NAS-oriented use, there’s a simple tuning option: disabling Turbo Boost in the BIOS noticeably reduces operating temperatures. The trade-off is a clock speed ceiling of around 1 GHz, but for straightforward file serving, that’s more than sufficient, and the lower heat output makes for a much more comfortable long-term operating condition.

Beyond the hardware, ZimaOS adds real depth to the experience. Its app store advertises 800+ one-click apps, including Plex, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, and Home Assistant. The higher 1664 configuration’s 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM also helps when running virtual machines or heavier container setups. ZimaOS also supports Intel Quick Sync for hardware-accelerated transcoding, which helps reduce CPU load in supported Plex and Jellyfin setups.

Sustainability

The all-aluminum enclosure makes a strong durability argument. Aluminum doesn’t flex, doesn’t yellow, and holds up well over years of continuous operation, which matters a great deal for hardware that never really gets switched off. The thermal design relies primarily on passive conduction through the chassis, keeping internal component complexity low and reducing the number of parts that could wear out over time.

Software longevity is another angle worth considering. Because ZimaBoard 2 runs on x86 architecture, it’s compatible with a wide range of operating systems, meaning the hardware doesn’t become obsolete when a software stack changes or no longer fits your needs. If ZimaOS evolves or you outgrow it, you can simply install something else. That kind of platform openness is a practical form of sustainability that closed appliances rarely offer.

Value

ZimaBoard 2 sits at a price point that demands a bit of context. The base 832 configuration starts at $279, with the 1664 variant at $349. Those figures feel steep when compared to bare-board computers, but the comparison isn’t really fair. What you’re getting is a fully enclosed x86 server module with dual 2.5 GbE networking, dual powered SATA bays, a PCIe 3.0 expansion slot, and ZimaOS pre-installed.

Compact mini PCs at a similar price usually offer stronger raw performance but fewer server-specific ports and no expansion path. Dedicated NAS boxes tend to be locked into proprietary software. ZimaBoard 2 is more flexible than either. Native SATA, dual 2.5 GbE, and a PCIe slot on a single platform is an uncommon combination at this price, and that’s where the value case starts to feel convincing.

The PCIe 3.0 x4 slot adds a dimension of future-proofing that sealed appliances can’t match. You can plug in a 10 GbE network card, an NVMe adapter, a GPU for AI workloads, or an HBA for expanding storage capacity. That expandability means you’re not locked into what the board offers at purchase, which in practical terms allows the device to grow alongside your needs rather than becoming a bottleneck.

It’s fair to say that buyers focused purely on maximum compute per dollar will find stronger options elsewhere. But for those building a quiet, flexible, always-on home server that’s actually pleasant to live with, ZimaBoard 2 feels well-judged. The design, connectivity, software experience, and room to grow all reinforce each other in a way that makes the price feel more grounded the longer you use it.

Verdict

ZimaBoard 2 makes a strong case for what compact home server hardware can look like when design is treated as part of the brief. It’s quiet, well-built, and easier to set up than most things in this category. Running as a NAS, a smart home hub, a media server, or all three at once, it handles each task without calling attention to itself, which is exactly what good infrastructure does.

The platform’s real strength is how many things it can become. Add a pair of NAS drives, and you’ve got a whisper-quiet personal cloud. Plug something into the PCIe slot, and the possibilities multiply further. It isn’t built for users chasing peak benchmarks, but for those who want a compact, always-on server that earns its place on the shelf both functionally and aesthetically, it’s a genuinely well-considered piece of hardware.

The post ZimaBoard 2 Review: The Home Server You Don’t Have to Hide Anymore first appeared on Yanko Design.

5 Coffee Gadgets & Tools Every Pour-Over Obsessive Is Quietly Adding to Their Morning Ritual Right Now

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Pour-over coffee has never been a casual pursuit. It asks attention, patience, and a genuine interest in the variables between a bag of beans and a great cup. That commitment tends to attract a certain kind of person: someone who reads grinder reviews the way others read menus and talks freely about bloom times and water ratios. For that person, the morning ritual isn’t just caffeine. It’s a practice.

What makes that practice worth exploring right now is the quality of tools available to support it. Design and technology have both raised the bar considerably, making it easier to get consistently excellent results at home without sacrificing the ritualistic qualities that make pour-over worth pursuing in the first place. These five gadgets represent the best of what’s quietly finding its way into the routines of pour-over devotees right now.

1. xBloom Coffee Machine

No coffee machine on the market right now does more to close the gap between home brewing and the work of a trained barista than the xBloom. Designed by former Apple employees and dubbed the “Tesla of Coffee Machines,” it identifies, grinds, dispenses, brews, and pours your coffee entirely on its own. It uses RFID-tagged xPods, sourced from top roasters around the world, to recognize each bean’s specific profile and apply the exact grind size, water temperature, and spiral pour pattern required to extract it properly. The nanofilm instant heater brings water to temperature with precision, and the kinematic spout delivers it in a controlled, consistent flow onto the coffee bed. The result is a pour-over calibrated not just to your taste but to the specific character of the bean in your pod, every single time.

The machine operates across three distinct modes: Autopilot, which handles the entire process hands-free from scan to serve; Copilot, which lets you use your own beans and customize every variable through the companion app; and FreeSolo, which gives you complete manual control via the onboard dials. Inside, it packs a 48mm conical burr grinder, an integrated scale with 0.1g resolution, and a 700ml water reservoir alongside direct plumbing support for higher-volume use. The build is metal throughout, with a compact footprint that sits comfortably alongside high-end kitchen equipment. For a pour-over devotee who wants the precision of craft without the daily labor of pulling it off manually, the xBloom doesn’t feel like a shortcut. It feels like the most intelligent version of the ritual available.

What we like:

  • Fully automated pour-over with RFID bean recognition that adjusts grind, water temperature, and spiral pour pattern to the specific coffee in the pod
  • Three distinct brewing modes accommodate everything from total hands-free automation to fully manual pour-over control for when you want to stay involved

What we dislike:

  • The premium price point is a significant investment that will give casual or budget-conscious drinkers pause before committing
  • The Autopilot mode performs best within the proprietary xPod ecosystem, which adds a recurring cost to the overall experience

2. Ceramic Cup

The mug you drink from is part of the experience, and the MUGR Ceramic Cup understands that in a way most drinkware simply doesn’t. Its exterior takes visual cues from cast iron, giving it a quiet, grounded presence on any surface. At closer range, the Japanese ceramic body reveals itself as something far more refined: smooth against the lips, satisfying in the hand, and carrying the kind of material honesty that sets it apart from the ceramic mugs most people have stacked in their cabinets. At 350ml, the capacity is precisely right for a focused pour-over serving. The wooden handle adds warmth without visual noise, and the overall silhouette carries enough restraint to make the coffee it holds the clear focal point of the moment.

There’s something worth considering in the choice of vessel for pour-over coffee. The process itself is intentional: you’re measuring, timing, and pouring with care, so the cup receiving that work should reflect some of that seriousness. Ceramic is the ideal material here. It retains heat at a measured rate, doesn’t absorb or impart flavor, and rewards the kind of slow, present drinking that pour-over tends to inspire. The MUGR occupies a space that generic mugs can’t. It’s an object with enough considered design to elevate the experience without becoming precious or impractical. The earthy tones and Japanese ceramic texture create a visual and tactile language that feels cohesive, unhurried, and completely right when paired with a freshly brewed cup.

Click Here to Buy Now: $60.00

What we like:

  • Japanese ceramic construction delivers a satisfying tactile quality with a cast iron-inspired aesthetic that complements any thoughtfully designed brew station
  • At 350ml, the capacity is ideally sized for a single deliberate pour-over serving, making every cup feel properly portioned

What we dislike:

  • Hand wash only care instructions make it a more demanding choice for anyone who relies on a dishwasher for daily cleanup
  • It cannot be microwaved, which narrows its functional range to its primary role as a dedicated coffee vessel

3. FinalPress V3

The FinalPress V3 proves that great coffee doesn’t require an elaborate setup, just a well-engineered one. It measures 1.3 x 6.5 inches, weighs 3.6 oz, and brews a full-flavored cup in under two minutes. CNC machined from solid 304 stainless steel, it’s plastic-free and built to resist rust, warping, bending, and cracking indefinitely. The brewing process is stripped back to its essentials: add grounds, stir, wait, then press. A patented plunger system pushes water through a 200-micron super-fine filter, extracting flavor with more nuance and clarity than any other portable brewer in its size range. There are no paper filters to buy, no pods to source, and no capsules to discard. What you end up with is a tool that respects your coffee and your time in equal measure.

Where the FinalPress becomes genuinely impressive is in its 3-in-1 brew capability. Hot, iced, and cold brews are all achievable with the same compact tool, making it as relevant at a hotel room desk as it is at a campsite or your home counter between longer brewing sessions. The plastic-free stainless steel construction means no material compromise and no flavor contamination from plastic contact with your brew. For pour-over devotees who travel and refuse to accept substandard coffee as the cost of mobility, the FinalPress compresses a real brewing philosophy into its smallest and most portable form yet, without sacrificing any of the quality that made the practice worth caring about in the first place.

What we like:

  • Ultra-portable at just 3.6 oz and entirely plastic-free, with solid 304 stainless steel construction built to last indefinitely without rust or warping
  • Brews hot, iced, and cold coffee using the same tool with no paper filters, pods, or capsules required

What we dislike:

  • There is a short learning curve in getting the press technique right to avoid over-extraction, especially when starting out
  • The single-serve capacity makes it less practical when you need to brew for more than one person at a time

4. NanoFoamer PRO

The NanoFoamer PRO addresses a very specific problem with a very precise solution: producing genuine microfoam at home without the equipment, training, or noise of a commercial espresso setup. For pour-over drinkers who want to occasionally cross into latte territory without compromising on quality, it removes every barrier to doing it properly. The appliance heats and foams milk simultaneously, timing its process to sync with an espresso pull so that your shot and your foam arrive ready at the same moment. The crema stays intact, the foam is fine and velvety rather than large and airy, and the result looks and tastes like something a trained barista handed you. For a home setup, this is a notable achievement, and it happens without requiring any of the manual skills that professional foaming normally demands.

The distinction between microfoam and standard frothed milk matters more than it may first appear. Conventional frothers create large, unstable bubbles that float above the espresso rather than integrating with it. The NanoFoamer PRO produces the fine-textured, glossy foam that makes latte art achievable and milk-based drinks genuinely enjoyable rather than merely acceptable. For a pour-over obsessive with an espresso machine already sitting on the counter, this is the component that completes the home setup in a way it couldn’t before. The workflow is clean, both elements finish at the same time, and the pour goes exactly as intended. The NanoFoamer PRO earns its counter space not by demanding attention but by quietly doing the most technically demanding part of the job better than anything else available.

What we like:

  • Produces professional-grade microfoam by heating and foaming milk simultaneously, timed to sync perfectly with an espresso pull
  • The streamlined workflow ensures espresso crema and milk foam are ready at the same moment, with no compromise to either element

What we dislike:

  • Designed as a companion to an espresso machine rather than a standalone appliance, which limits its role in a strict pour-over-only setup
  • Pour-over purists who never incorporate milk will find minimal daily utility in adding this to an otherwise black-coffee-focused morning routine

5. Three-Cup Handblown CHEMEX

The handblown CHEMEX occupies a rare category among coffee equipment: it’s a brewing tool that also qualifies as a genuine work of art. Each piece is individually crafted by skilled glassblowers in Croatia using traditional European techniques, meaning no two are exactly alike. The borosilicate glass construction meets laboratory-grade standards, delivering complete flavor neutrality while comfortably withstanding the thermal shock of repeated hot water pours. Paired with CHEMEX Bonded filters, the system removes oils, bitterness, acidity, and sediment to produce a coffee with clarity and cleanliness that neither a French press nor a standard drip machine can approach. The result is a cup that lets the bean speak for itself, completely unobstructed by the residual compounds that other brewing methods leave behind.

Beyond its brewing performance, this CHEMEX invites a different kind of relationship with the ritual. The polished wood collar and leather tie are both functional and beautiful: they insulate the vessel during handling and add a warm material contrast to the cool transparency of the glass. Brewing with it is a slow, deliberate process, and the object rewards that pace. Each pour looks considered, each session takes on a ceremonial quality that machine-made glass simply doesn’t generate. The small-batch production behind each handblown piece adds to that sense: this is not mass-market equipment, and it doesn’t feel like it. For pour-over devotees who want their brew station to reflect the same level of care they bring to every cup, the handblown CHEMEX is the most visually and functionally complete answer available.

What we like:

  • Individually handblown by skilled glassblowers in Croatia, combining borosilicate precision with a one-of-a-kind artisan aesthetic that makes each piece genuinely unique
  • The polished wood collar and leather tie provide practical heat protection while adding a considered, elegant material contrast to the glass body

What we dislike:

  • The glass construction is inherently fragile and requires thoughtful handling and careful storage to avoid breakage over time
  • The three-cup capacity may feel limiting for households where multiple people want coffee from the same vessel at the same time.

The Ritual Is Only as Good as the Tools Behind It

The morning ritual of a pour-over devotee is, at its core, a commitment to paying attention. Every gadget on this list honors that commitment in a different way: some by removing friction, some by elevating the sensory experience, and others by making excellence achievable in the places and moments where it matters most. Pour-over culture has moved beyond a niche. It’s a serious practice, and these are the tools reflecting how seriously people are choosing to take it.

Building a great brew station doesn’t happen in one purchase. It happens gradually, through the accumulation of objects that each serves a real purpose and earn their place. Whether the xBloom’s automated precision speaks to you, or the quiet beauty of a handblown CHEMEX does, the principle is the same: start with what resonates, use it well, and let the ritual build from there. The best cup you’ve ever made is probably still ahead of you.

The post 5 Coffee Gadgets & Tools Every Pour-Over Obsessive Is Quietly Adding to Their Morning Ritual Right Now first appeared on Yanko Design.

World’s Tiniest E-Reader Is The Size Of An AirPods Case – And It Makes You Read More

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There was a period in the early 2000s when having your entire music library in your pocket felt like a miracle. The iPod did not invent portable music, but it made the experience so frictionless and so pleasurable that it genuinely changed how people related to listening. Nobody predicted that a click wheel and a hard drive would rewire an entire generation’s relationship with an art form. Paul Lagier has built something that carries a similar energy, except the art form is reading, and the device is roughly the size of a large stick of gum.

The Pala One is a fully functional e-reader that fits in a closed fist. Lagier 3D-printed the case, built the firmware around an ESP32 microcontroller, and designed the whole interaction model around a single physical button. The screen is small, the library caps out at six to ten books, and the interface is deliberately minimal. What it trades in screen real estate it returns in portability so complete that the device clips to a keychain and disappears into daily life. Lagier rebuilt it from scratch after the first version went viral in maker communities, and version two firmware adds folder support, list-making, faster load times, and a properly printable case. He has read over a thousand pages on it personally, and credits the Pala One’s size for making that possible.

Designer: Paul Lagier

The case snaps together using one sliding piece on one side and screws on the other, a redesign driven entirely by community feedback after builders reported that the original pin system was unreliable on cheaper printers. M2 threaded inserts are optional but give the finished object a product-grade solidity that the first version lacked. A small loop on the chassis lets you run a lanyard or keychain through it, which sounds like a minor detail until you realise it is actually the whole point. A device that lives on your keys or your bag strap is a device that is genuinely always available, and availability is the entire thesis of the Pala One.

Lagier discovered, embarrassingly late by his own admission, that the ESP32’s 8 MB of onboard flash was being allocated so inefficiently that only 1.5 MB was actually available for books. By repartitioning the storage and adding automatic compression on upload, he pushed usable book storage up to around 5.5 MB. A typical 300 to 400 page book compresses down to roughly 0.5 MB, which means the device comfortably holds a small personal library. A storage indicator in the web interface keeps the math visible. Books load instantly even from deep within the text, bookmarks sync reliably, and a new position-jump feature handled through the web viewer means you are never stranded inside a long chapter with no way to navigate.

Lagier added a dedicated list section to version two, letting you create to-do lists, shopping lists, or anything else in the web interface and check items off directly on the device. Combined with folders for organising your library and bulk bookmark export for pulling your annotations out all at once, the Pala One starts to feel less like a gadget and more like a considered companion object. The single button controls everything, cycling through menus and pages with a logic that becomes muscle memory within minutes. There is something almost meditative about an interface with exactly one input.

The Kindle is a genuinely good product. So is the Kobo. Both are vastly more capable than the Pala One in every measurable specification, and neither of them has gotten me to read more. The Pala One’s entire argument is that the best reading device is the one that is physically present when the impulse to read strikes, and a device the size of an AirPods case wins that argument by default. Lagier has made the files available on his Ko-fi page, with a one-time purchase granting access to all future updates. If you own a 3D printer and have an afternoon free, the most compelling reading device of 2025 costs you almost nothing to build.

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Pebblebee’s $60 Keychain Screams 130dB So You Don’t Have To

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Most of us run through the same mental checklist before leaving the house. Phone, wallet, keys. Pebblebee is quietly making a case for adding one more item to that list: a keychain-sized device called the Halo that can track your lost items, light up a dark parking garage, and scream at 130 decibels if things go wrong. That last part is what makes it genuinely interesting.

Personal safety gadgets have had a bit of an awkward adolescence in tech. Standalone alarm keychains, panic button apps, and GPS trackers each do one thing with varying degrees of reliability. The Halo, launched by Seattle-based Pebblebee in April 2026, makes the more ambitious argument that all three functions belong in a single device you already carry everywhere. It clips onto your keychain, weighs just one ounce, and is priced at $59.99 with a 12-month Alert Live subscription included.

Designer: Pebblebee

The activation mechanism is intuitive and, frankly, smart. Pull the device apart and three things happen at once: a 130dB siren activates (roughly the volume of a jackhammer at close range), a 150-lumen strobe light starts flashing, and your real-time location is shared with up to five trusted contacts in what Pebblebee calls your Safety Circle. The pull-apart trigger works in your favor because it’s instinctive. You don’t have to navigate an app or remember a button sequence when your adrenaline is already running.

There’s also a quieter option. Rapid presses of the side button send a silent alert to your Safety Circle without triggering the siren or the lights. That kind of discretion matters more than people give it credit for. Not every unsafe situation benefits from making a scene.

On the tracking side, the Halo works with Google’s Find Hub on Android, tapping into a crowd-sourced network to help locate misplaced items. It’s IP66 water-resistant, handles rain without issue, and the battery lasts up to a year on a full charge. These are specs that feel like they belong to a product that actually thought things through.

The bigger question is whether a product like this can shift how people think about daily carry. I think it might, and I say that as someone who has dismissed this category before. The AirTag normalized putting a small tracker on your keys. The Halo takes that familiar habit and layers in real utility that most people weren’t actively seeking until they actually see it. Pebblebee says the device was built with the late-night campus walker, the solo runner, and the traveler navigating an unfamiliar city in mind. That description covers most adults at some point in any given week.

It would be easy to read a product like this as capitalizing on anxiety. But the Halo doesn’t feel cynical in that way. The pull-apart mechanism, the silent alert, the 150-lumen flashlight that’s actually useful rather than just a line in a spec sheet. These details suggest a team that ran through realistic scenarios before finalizing the design. The way a product handles edge cases usually tells you more about its intentions than the headline features do. The Alert Live subscription becomes a paid plan after the included first year. It’s required for live location sharing and expanding your Safety Circle beyond five contacts. Worth keeping in mind, but as a first-year value proposition, the package holds up well.

Personal safety gadgets have a habit of ending up in the junk drawer after the initial enthusiasm fades. The novelty wears off, the routine doesn’t stick. The Halo’s real advantage is that it gives you no particular reason to leave it behind. It lives on your keys, goes wherever you go, and the flashlight earns its keep on a regular Tuesday night. If you ever need the siren, you’ll be glad the upgrade was a keychain addition and not a drawer item. The most thoughtful design decisions are often the ones that make something so easy to carry, you forget it’s there until the moment you really need it. The Halo seems to understand that.

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A Maker Built a $200 Writing-Only Device Because He Couldn’t Sleep

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Writing on a laptop or phone is convenient, but it rarely stays that way. Notifications, browser tabs, and social media feeds have turned the most basic tasks into exercises in self-discipline. Writers, journalists, and anyone who just needs to put thoughts to paper have been searching for a better solution, and a growing community around dedicated, distraction-free writing devices called writerdecks has quietly been gaining momentum.

The Bee Write Back is one of the more charming entries in that space. Built by a maker named “shmimel”, the device grew out of a deeply personal need: he was having trouble sleeping and found that journaling helped, but couldn’t quite commit to a handwritten journal. So he did what any tinkerer would do and built his own dedicated writing machine from scratch.

Designer: Simon Shimel

The result is compact and immediately recognizable. Its 3D-printed enclosure comes in two tones: a bright yellow base that houses the electronics, and a matte black screen cover adorned with bee emblems. The whole thing has a hand-built charm that no mass-produced gadget can replicate, and it’s the kind of device that tends to make people stop and ask, “wait, what is that?”

At the heart of the typing experience is a YMDK Air40 keyboard PCB loaded with 47 hot-swappable mechanical switches and matching keycaps. For anyone who’s spent years on laptop chiclet keys or membrane keyboards, the tactile feedback of a proper mechanical switch changes everything. The satisfying click or thump of each keystroke becomes almost meditative, which is exactly what you want when words need to keep flowing.

The display is a 5.5-inch AMOLED panel at 1280 x 720 resolution, vivid enough for comfortable reading without the eye strain of a typical laptop screen. Powering it all is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, with a quad-core Cortex-A53 chip, 512 MB of RAM, and built-in Wi-Fi. A Seengreat UPS Hat with an 18650 battery keeps everything running away from any wall outlet.

Boot it up, and you’re in Raspberry Pi OS Lite, a stripped-down Linux environment that loads fast and stays focused. There are no app stores, no notification bubbles, and no algorithms fighting for your attention. It’s the kind of thing you pull out before bed to journal, bring to a coffee shop to draft, or pack on a trip when you need a writing-only companion.

The creator made the entire project open source, with build files and a detailed assembly guide available on GitHub. The total material cost comes to roughly $200, excluding 3D printing costs. That puts it roughly in line with some off-the-shelf writing gadgets, but with the added satisfaction of building it yourself and the freedom to swap out parts, tweak the layout, or change the enclosure color entirely.

What makes the Bee Write Back worth paying attention to is less about its specs and more about what it deliberately leaves out. Most devices pack in as many features as possible, but shmimel’s creation goes the other direction: pare things down until only the writing remains. For anyone looking to reclaim the quiet, focused experience of putting words down without fighting their tools, that restraint speaks for itself.

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Waveshare Built a $149 Handheld That Runs Full Linux Without the Laptop

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The handheld computer has always been a compelling idea that rarely lives up to its promise. Smartphones are too locked down for real development work, and tablets occupy an awkward middle ground between a phone and a laptop. Pocket PCs, mini notebooks, and DIY computer builds have all tried to fill the gap, but each one compromised too heavily on usability or demanded too much assembly.

Waveshare’s PocketTerm35 takes a more deliberate approach, landing somewhere between a purpose-built tool and a proper portable computer. Compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4B and Pi 5, it wraps a complete Linux terminal experience into a handheld unit that’s ready to use right out of the box. Everything from the display and keyboard to the battery and connectivity is already integrated, so there’s nothing left to hunt down or assemble.

Designer: Waveshare

At 93.5mm x 168.5mm x 37mm, the PocketTerm35 fits comfortably in one hand, though it has enough weight to feel substantial rather than cheap. The front panel is CNC-machined aluminum, giving the face a solid, slightly industrial character. The rear is plastic, which helps keep the overall weight manageable. Status LEDs sit above the display, and dedicated boot and reset buttons are tucked on the back.

The 3.5-inch IPS touchscreen sits at a 640 × 480 resolution, which is modest by modern standards but appropriate for a terminal environment where text clarity matters more than pixel density. Optical bonding seals the glass to the panel, reducing reflections and making the screen usable outside without squinting. The 5-point capacitive touch surface sits under toughened glass with 6H hardness, which should hold up well against daily wear.

Below the screen is a 67-key QWERTY silicone keyboard laid out in a standard layout for typing commands, editing code, or navigating menus. A dedicated RP2040 microcontroller manages keyboard input, screen brightness, and volume, offloading those control tasks from the Raspberry Pi itself. The arrangement keeps the main processor free for heavier work, which is the kind of practical engineering detail that makes the difference in a device like this.

Power comes from a 5,000mAh lithium battery with a built-in UPS system that supports seamless switching between battery and external power without losing your session. You can run it plugged in at your desk, then pull the cable and walk away without any disruption to whatever’s running. It’s the kind of reliability that makes a handheld device genuinely trustworthy to use rather than just technically portable on paper.

Connectivity is where the PocketTerm35 avoids the usual compromises. Four USB-A ports and an RJ45 Ethernet jack handle wired needs, alongside a 3.5mm audio jack and a 2W built-in speaker. An I2C expansion header opens things up for custom hardware add-ons. It also supports RetroPie, so the same machine that handles a terminal session during a work trip can become a retro gaming console once the day is done, especially considering it has ABXY buttons.

The PocketTerm35 ships in a few configurations. The Pi5 variant includes a 1GB Raspberry Pi 5, a 64GB microSD card with the system preloaded, and the 5,000mAh battery, all for $148.99. A Pi 4B version is available for $179.99. Developers who’ve been carrying a laptop just to have a real terminal within reach might find the PocketTerm35 a far more sensible answer to that specific problem.

The post Waveshare Built a $149 Handheld That Runs Full Linux Without the Laptop first appeared on Yanko Design.

Polaroid’s Hi-Print 3×3 Was Made for This Analog Moment

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A few years ago, we started noticing the re-emerging popularity of photo printers once again. People wanted to turn photos taken by digital means into physical, printed items that they could use for journaling, decoration, or as a gift or keepsake for loved ones. Some thought it would just be a nostalgic trend that would eventually lose steam. But with 2026 being labeled the “year of analog,” it looks like this printing lifestyle is here to stay for a few more years. And the numbers back it up. Two-thirds of 18–34-year-olds have reportedly turned to analog products to cut down on screen time, a generation that grew up with smartphones now actively choosing to step away from them. It’s not just nostalgia. It’s intention.

Polaroid is one of those brands enjoying renewed popularity, not just with those of us who remember what a Polaroid actually is. Millennials, Gen Z, and even Gen Alpha have been looking at portable photo printers to enjoy this analog craze. The brand has leaned into this cultural moment, and their newest release feels right on time. The new Hi-Print 3×3 is not just a way to print out your digital photos. It also serves as a display frame if you want a particular photo to become part of your everyday space.

Designer: Polaroid

The Hi-Print 3×3 is a compact smartphone photo printer that turns digital images into 3-inch square prints. It’s the newest addition to the Hi-Print family line, sitting between the 2×3 pocket printer and the 4×6 desktop model. It’s ideal for those who prefer square prints rather than the “traditional” size and orientation of Polaroid prints. Each print comes with a peel-and-stick backing, so you can use it in your journals, stick it to walls, or add it to a scrapbook spread. It has a clean, modern look with its borderless, edge-to-edge prints, but if you want to add some personality before you hit print, the free Hi-Print app (available on iOS and Android) lets you layer on templates, stickers, and decorative frames to make each print feel uniquely yours.

The printer also doubles as a display frame, so your current favorite photo can sit on your desk, shelf, or wherever you like to display things. Just print the photo you want, then insert it directly back into the device until you’re ready to swap it out for a new one. The printer has a white, minimalist design, and if you want a pop of color, the photo itself will do all the work. On the technical side, the Hi-Print 3×3 uses Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer technology, prints in under 50 seconds, and runs on a built-in rechargeable battery that charges via USB-C. It’s lightweight at 390 grams and compact enough to slip into a bag without a second thought. It also comes with 10 sheets of paper right out of the box, so you can start printing immediately.

For those thinking about gifting, the Hi-Print 3×3 hits a sweet spot at $119.99 USD, meaningful enough to feel special without breaking the bank. There’s also a Starter Set available at $134.99 that bundles in extra paper cartridges, which is a great option for someone just getting into the physical printing lifestyle. What makes the Hi-Print 3×3 especially appealing for the creative community is how well it fits into an already existing ecosystem of hobbies. Journaling, scrapbooking, and photo wall decorating have all seen massive growth over the past few years, and a compact printer that produces square, peel-and-stick photos feels like it was designed with exactly that in mind. The square format also makes it a natural companion for anyone who has grown up curating their Instagram grid, since the prints feel familiar in proportion and shape.

Whether you’re a seasoned collector of printed memories, a journaling enthusiast, or simply someone who wants their favorite photos to live somewhere beyond a camera roll, the Polaroid Hi-Print 3×3 makes a very compelling case. The analog era isn’t going anywhere, and honestly, we’re here for it. In a world where everything seems to be moving toward the digital, there’s still something deeply satisfying about holding a photo in your hands, or better yet, displaying it somewhere you’ll actually see it every day.

The post Polaroid’s Hi-Print 3×3 Was Made for This Analog Moment first appeared on Yanko Design.

Your Dusty Film Camera Can Shoot 26MP Digital: No Modifications Needed

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Film cameras have had a strange little comeback, and not in the way anyone expected. It’s not that people find waiting days for developed photos convenient. It’s that pulling a mechanical viewfinder to your eye still feels more deliberate, more personal, than tapping a glass screen. Vintage bodies from the 1970s and ’80s have become far more desirable again than they were a decade ago.

The obvious problem is the film itself. Processing costs have climbed, lab turnaround times can stretch into weeks, and there’s always that faint dread of discovering a whole roll came out underexposed. I’m Back Roll tries to address that without asking you to give up the camera you actually love. The idea is to keep the body intact and quietly swap out what goes inside.

Designer: Samuel Mello Medeiros

Click Here to Buy Now: $449 $699 ($250 off). Hurry, only 1/435 left! Raised over $525,000.

What goes inside is a digital roll the size of a standard film cartridge, housing an APS-C sensor positioned in the film gate. Close the camera back, and almost nothing looks different from outside. No rear screen, no clunky attachment bolted to the body. The only visible concession to the digital world is a small Bluetooth remote that clips near the winding lever.

That remote is how you synchronize the digital sensor with the mechanical shutter, pressing it just before you fire. It sounds fiddly at first, but it also reinforces the whole point. There’s no live view to second-guess yourself with, no image to review immediately after. You shoot, move on, and download everything wirelessly later. That’s closer to how film photography actually felt than most digital cameras manage.

At the heart of the roll is Sony’s 26.1 MP APS-C IMX571 sensor, the same sensor family also used in astronomy cameras, where low-noise performance matters. It sits inside a CNC-machined aluminum body designed for heat dissipation, with up to 256GB of internal solid-state storage and both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for transferring images once you’re done shooting.

The battery follows the same logic as a film roll, sitting in the film chamber where a cartridge would normally live. It’s interchangeable, so you can swap in a fresh one mid-session the same way you’d load a new roll. That’s a small but genuinely clever bit of design thinking, because it doesn’t ask the camera to pretend it’s something it was never built to be.

An old Nikon F3 or a Contax G2 becomes a genuinely different camera with the I’m Back Roll inside, without actually looking any different on the outside. From that point, it shoots RAW and JPEG files across an ISO range of 100 to 6400, with presets inspired by classic film stocks and brands, including Fujifilm and Ilford, for anyone who wants some of that analog character in the output.

There’s something appealing about the idea of pulling a camera out of a drawer and actually using it again. The roll works with most 35mm bodies from major brands, including Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Leica, though cameras where the back opens from bottom to top may need a custom rear panel. Many classic 35mm bodies can accommodate it, though some may need the pressure plate removed or a custom rear panel.

Of course, the two-step shooting process, activating the sensor before triggering the shutter within a second or two, is going to feel less natural to some. Someone who relies on live view or reviews every frame would need to adjust expectations considerably. The rhythm here is slower and more committed, which is either the whole point or the main reason to look elsewhere.

What I’m Back Roll is really arguing is that cameras collecting dust on shelves aren’t finished. The lenses are still sharp, the mechanics are still smooth, and the experience of using them is still genuinely different from anything modern. Slipping a digital core inside doesn’t change any of that. It just means those cameras might actually get used again, which feels like the better outcome.

Click Here to Buy Now: $449 $699 ($250 off). Hurry, only 1/435 left! Raised over $525,000.

The post Your Dusty Film Camera Can Shoot 26MP Digital: No Modifications Needed first appeared on Yanko Design.

This minimal AI camera blends into the wild while quietly tracking wildlife

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There’s a quiet shift happening in how we observe wildlife. It’s no longer about being physically present with bulky gear and long lenses, but about placing intelligence into the environment itself. This lets technology do the watching while humans step back. And that’s exactly where this minimal AI camera concept positions itself.

Created as a compact, unobtrusive wildlife tracking device, the design strips away everything that feels traditionally “camera-like.” Instead of buttons, screens, or visible complexity, what you get is a clean, almost monolithic form that feels closer to a sensor than a gadget. The idea here is simple: if you’re trying to observe nature, the device itself shouldn’t interfere with it.

Designer: Nicolas Fred and Thomas Fred

The camera leans heavily into minimalism, not just as an aesthetic choice, but as a functional one. Its small footprint makes it easier to deploy in remote locations, while the lack of visual noise helps it blend into natural surroundings. This is particularly important in wildlife monitoring, where even the slightest disruption can alter animal behavior. By reducing its presence, the device becomes less of an observer and more of a silent participant.

What makes it interesting, however, is the integration of AI as a core feature rather than an add-on. Unlike traditional camera traps that simply record footage for later review, AI-enabled systems are increasingly designed to process data in real time—identifying species, filtering out irrelevant motion, and reducing the need for manual sorting. Similar approaches in modern wildlife tech already show how embedded intelligence can dramatically cut down human effort while improving accuracy.

This concept seems to follow that same philosophy, imagining a camera that doesn’t just capture images, but understands them. That shift from passive recording to active interpretation is where the real value lies. It turns a simple device into a tool for conservation, research, and even anti-poaching efforts. The form factor also suggests modularity and adaptability. Whether mounted on trees, placed near water sources, or integrated into different terrains, the design feels versatile enough to function across environments. Its minimal geometry likely aids in durability too, reducing points of failure while making it easier to weather harsh outdoor conditions.

At the same time, there’s an understated elegance to how the device is presented. It doesn’t try to look rugged in the traditional sense. No exaggerated textures or aggressive styling. Instead, it embraces a softer, more refined visual language that aligns with its purpose: observe without intrusion.

This minimal AI camera for the wild feels less like a tool you use and more like something you place and trust. It quietly works in the background, capturing stories you might never have been able to witness yourself!

The post This minimal AI camera blends into the wild while quietly tracking wildlife first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Kids’ Phone With No Screen, No Apps, and Only $100

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The moment you see the Tin Can, you know exactly what it is and also what it isn’t. It’s a landline phone, complete with a handheld receiver and a curly cord, designed to sit on a countertop or mount on a wall. It isn’t a smartphone. It isn’t a tablet. It doesn’t have a screen. And that’s entirely the point.

Tin Can is the brainchild of three Seattle-based dads: Chet Kittleson, Max Blumen, and Graeme Davies, who created it after hitting the same wall millions of parents run into. Their kids were at that in-between age, old enough to want independence and social connection, but too young to be handed a device with unrestricted internet access. The options available were either too much or not enough. As the founders put it: “Everything out there felt like a compromise, too much tech, too much access, or just another screen to manage.” So they built something else entirely.

Designers: Chet Kittleson, Max Blumen, and Graeme Davies

The Tin Can works through Wi-Fi but without any browsing capability, social media, or texting. Children can only call and receive calls from a parent-approved list of contacts, managed through a companion app that only parents can access. Quiet hours and Do Not Disturb can be scheduled. Voicemails are supported. That’s it. That’s the whole phone. And it turns out, that’s more than enough.

From a design standpoint, the product is refreshingly considered. The cylindrical Tin Can model has a playful, almost cartoonish quality that looks deliberate rather than dated. Its colorful palette, with names like “Answer Me Aquamarine,” signals that this wasn’t designed to collect dust in a hallway. The other model, the Flashback, leans harder into nostalgia, styled after the wall-mounted phones of the 1980s and connecting via ethernet cable rather than Wi-Fi. Both feel like products made by people who actually thought about what a child’s first phone should feel like, not just what it should do.

I’ll be honest, my initial reaction to this was mild skepticism. We’ve seen “screen-free” devices for kids before, and they tend to be clunky, joyless compromises that kids tolerate for about two weeks before losing interest. Tin Can feels genuinely different. Part of that is the design, which doesn’t try to mimic a smartphone and fail. It commits fully to being a phone, a beautiful, strange little object that sits in your home and rings. Part of it is the clarity of the concept. The product makes no attempt to sneak in “just a little” content or add a casual app or two for good measure. That restraint is its biggest strength.

The market response has been telling. Since launching, Tin Can has reached users in all 50 US states and across Canada, raised $3.5 million in funding, and sold through its first batches fast enough to crash at Christmas. The founders have described the reception as overwhelming, and it’s not hard to see why. Parents have been waiting for exactly this, a middle ground between total dependence on mom’s phone and a fully connected smartphone, and no one had bothered to build it yet.

What also makes Tin Can compelling is that it re-centers something communication technologies quietly stripped away: the social ritual of calling someone. You pick up the receiver, you dial, you wait, and you talk. No typing, no video filters, no leaving someone on read. It’s a more focused, more present kind of connection, and kids who grow up with it might just develop a better instinct for actual conversation.

The Luddite movement has spent years arguing that smartphones reached kids too early and too fast. Tin Can doesn’t join that argument. It sidesteps it entirely by offering something genuinely useful, beautifully designed, and completely free of the features that make smartphones so hard to put down. Whether you call it nostalgia or just good design thinking, the result is the same: a phone worth answering.

The post The Kids’ Phone With No Screen, No Apps, and Only $100 first appeared on Yanko Design.