Tag Archives: Lifestyle

McDonald’s-inspired Nike Book 2 bring Arizona Desert colors to your next everyday basketball sneaker

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Signature sneakers rarely manage to feel personal anymore. Most arrive overloaded with athlete branding and colorways engineered more for resale culture than everyday wear. Devin Booker’s Nike Book 2 collaboration with McDonald’s takes a surprisingly different route. Instead of leaning into fries-and-burgers nostalgia, the sneaker pulls inspiration from one of Arizona’s oddest landmarks — the turquoise-arched McDonald’s in Sedona — and turns it into a basketball shoe that feels more rooted in place than corporate crossover hype.

At first glance, the Nike Book 2 “Sedona” barely resembles a McDonald’s collaboration at all. The sneaker trades loud fast-food colors for sandy beige uppers, dusty earth tones, and soft turquoise accents inspired by the famous Sedona McDonald’s location, which swapped its golden arches for turquoise ones to better blend with the city’s iconic red rock surroundings. It’s the kind of hyper-specific regional detail that could have easily become gimmicky, but Booker’s growing signature line has consistently worked best when it stays connected to Arizona culture rather than chasing trends.

Designer: Nike x McDonald’s

The design itself continues the Book series’ understated approach to basketball footwear. Where many modern performance sneakers rely on exaggerated shapes and futuristic layering, the Book 2 keeps things clean and wearable. The low-cut silhouette looks closer to a lifestyle sneaker than a traditional on-court model, borrowing cues from retro Nike runners and skate shoes while still packing modern basketball tech underneath. Nike equips the sneaker with a forefoot Air Zoom unit, Cushlon 3.0 cushioning, and a lightweight molded upper designed around Booker’s preference for responsive movement and minimal bulk.

That balance between performance and casual wearability is what gives the Book line its identity. Booker has never approached his signature shoes like loud statement pieces; they feel more like sneakers designed by someone who genuinely cares how they look off the court. The “Sedona” colorway pushes that idea even further. The cracked leather details, aged textures, and muted desert palette make the sneaker feel intentionally lived-in, almost like something discovered on a road trip through Arizona rather than a highly manufactured sports collaboration.

McDonald’s also seems aware that the appeal here extends beyond basketball fans. Instead of limiting the partnership to standard product placement, the company built a broader campaign around Booker’s connection to the Southwest. Promotional visuals lean heavily into desert imagery, road-trip aesthetics, and surreal humor, including a campaign video featuring Booker wandering through Sedona alongside a silent Ronald McDonald appearance that somehow feels strange and perfectly on-brand at the same time.

The collaboration also arrives with a Friends & Family sweepstakes through the McDonald’s app, giving select customers access to an exclusive variation of the sneaker with the purchase of specialty beverages. A dedicated pop-up event tied to the release is also expected ahead of launch, reinforcing how brands increasingly treat sneaker drops more like cultural events than product launches. The McDonald’s x Nike Book 2 “Sedona” sneaker is scheduled to release on June 2 through Nike SNKRS and select retailers for $155.

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This €235 Rippling Stone Valet Tray Has a Candle Holder Built In

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Most entryway surfaces tell a familiar story, and it’s rarely a flattering one. Keys get tossed wherever there’s space, coins scatter to the edges, and a watch ends up next to a forgotten receipt by morning. The valet tray was supposed to solve this, but most of them look clinical, forgettable, or like they belong in a hotel room rather than a thoughtfully arranged home.

The Delicato Tray takes a different approach, and the solution comes from a direction you might not expect: ripples. Sold through Oftwise, it merges a valet tray and a candle holder into a single disc-shaped object cast from Jesmonite AC730, a sustainable stone composite. The result reads less like a utilitarian catchall and more like something a sculptor quietly left on your nightstand.

Designer: Joao Teixeira for Oftwise

The ripple pattern isn’t purely decorative. The concentric waves are asymmetrical, with the outer rings wider at the front for bulkier items like keys or glasses, and the inner curves sitting closer toward the back for smaller things like rings or coins. It’s a hierarchy built into the shape itself, making organization almost unconscious rather than something you have to think about.

At the center of those ripples sits a recessed pocket sized for a tealight candle, turning the tray into a mood-setter as much as a catchall. Lighting a candle while dropping your watch and keys into the right grooves transforms a mundane habit into something closer to a ritual. It’s a lot to ask of a disc of stone, but Delicato manages it without breaking a sweat.

The material is what makes that balance possible. Jesmonite AC730 is a water-based, VOC-free stone composite that reproduces the look and texture of natural stone without concrete’s weight. It’s independently fire-rated and impact-resistant, which matters for something that routinely sits next to an open flame. A matte acrylic sealer and a cork anti-slip pad on the base round out the practical details.

Because the tray is hand-cast, no two are identical. Small air bubbles, subtle texture variations, and minor color shifts are natural byproducts of the process, and Oftwise is upfront about that. The available color, Bath Stone, is a warm sandy beige neutral enough for almost any interior. At 2kg, it has a quiet weight that makes a surface look deliberately arranged.

The Delicato Tray measures 24.5cm x 24.5cm with a height of just 2.8cm, low enough to sit under a bedside lamp without stealing vertical space. The candle pocket measures 3.9cm across and 1.5cm deep, a snug fit for a standard tealight. It retails for €235 on Oftwise, which places it firmly in the premium tier for an object of this category.

What Delicato gets right is something many design objects miss: it doesn’t try too hard to be either thing. It’s not decorative at the expense of being useful, and it’s not useful at the expense of looking good. A tray that doubles as a candle holder and a sculptural object sounds like a confused brief, but the ripple form settles all of that quietly.

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Ducati Barista M3 1926 gives new meaning to caffeinated motorhead passion

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What’s common between thunderous sports bikes and espresso machines? Both deliver a high-adrenaline rush, right? Yes, but there’s more to it: both are precision-engineered, and both rely on immense (bar) pressure and thermal control for peak performance. This shared DNA traces back to the 1960s when British riders modified their stripped-down motorcycles to race from one roadside café to another, giving birth to the term “Café Racer.”

This historical buildup is important for the latest creation by Ducati, which stamps its track image, craftsmanship, and aesthetics onto a flagship espresso machine, which will be released in 1,926 units only. It is touted as the world’s first and only carbon fiber capsule machine with a composite carbon fiber build, and is called the Ducati Barista M3 1926 Limited Edition Carbon Fiber.

Designer: Ducati and Cuisine Barista

The motorbike-inspired coffee machine hits different in its aesthetic appeal and hopefully the espresso it brews. Even if it doesn’t, it is a collector’s item – ground up – for everyone with a passion for superbikes and love for coffee brewing.

The front and rear panels of the Ducati Barista are crafted from twill-weave carbon fiber material, the same as that seen on the performance track bikes from the brand. The rest of the body is made from stainless steel, overlayed with a PVC coating to bring forth the perfect chrome look that would entice anyone who appreciates craftsmanship at the highest level, irrespective of their allegiance to Ducati.

Barista M3 1926 by Ducati is “only capsule machine in the world” to feature three precision-laid layers of carbon fiber, just 1.5 mm thick, on its front and back. Advanced brewing technology is, of course, a given but for me, having such a beautiful machine take pods, is such a waste of time and effort. The fans wouldn’t align with my thoughts, so here is some information you’d like anyway.

The machine employs a proprietary heating element to deliver an adjustable temperature that’s ready for a good brew in seven seconds flat. If this achieved temperature is not to your preference, you can use onboard controls to set it to your brewing temperature between 70°C to 99°C. Besides the temperature, you can toggle between light, standard, and strong extraction modes, so that what you get from the capsule is brewed perfectly as you prefer.

The Barista M3 1926 machine can pump high-pressure up to 19 bar. It comes with the world’s first in-cup frother to elevate your in-home lattes and cappuccinos in café-esque perfection. It’s possible with frothed milk right in the cup provided with your Barista M3 1926. The machine can deliver up to 12 preset drinks at the touch of its integrated control panel.

Maintaining this sculptural coffee machine on your countertop is simplified by an accompanying mobile app. The app receives various stats and alerts for descaling and your caffeine consumption, so that you know when to slow down because you’ve already had a few espresso shots in the build-up to the MotoGP!

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This Tissue Box Sinks With Every Pull Like a Quiet Hourglass

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Most tissue boxes are designed to be used, emptied, and thrown away. They sit quietly on tables, counters, bedside units, office desks, and bathroom shelves, becoming part of daily life for a short period before adding to another cycle of packaging waste. The cardboard box, printed surface, plastic slit, and disposable structure may seem insignificant on their own, but repeated across homes, hotels, offices, cafés, and public spaces, they create a steady stream of unnecessary material waste.

Reusable tissue boxes offer a more thoughtful alternative. They allow people to refill tissues without discarding the entire outer container each time. They also give the object a more permanent place within the interior environment. Instead of relying on whatever printed packaging comes with a tissue brand, a reusable holder can be chosen to match the mood, material palette, and aesthetic of a space. It can blend into a calm bedroom, add warmth to a living room, or sit neatly within a carefully designed hospitality setting.

Designer: NAATO studio and The oom

Yet many reusable tissue holders still carry the same structural limitation as disposable boxes. They are made for a fixed size and fixed volume. When the tissue stack is full, the object works well. As the stack reduces, the tissues begin to sink lower inside the container. The user has to reach further in; the sheets may fold or get caught, and the holder often needs to be refilled before the tissues are truly finished. The object remains static even though the contents inside are constantly changing.

OOM-04 responds to this small but familiar frustration with a quieter, more sensitive design language. Created as the (OOM).04_TISSUE CLAMP by Naato Studio, the product changes with the tissue stack rather than forcing the tissues to fit inside a rigid box. As the tissues are used, the lid gradually sinks with them. The two parenthesis-like shells shift around the remaining stack, allowing the form to visually and physically register the passage of use.

This simple movement turns an ordinary household action into something more poetic. Reaching for a tissue becomes a small moment of awareness. The object behaves almost like an hourglass, softly marking time through depletion rather than through numbers or mechanisms. Each tissue taken changes the object slightly. The holder becomes a visible record of use, care, and routine.

There is a quiet emotional quality in that gesture. Tissues are often used in moments that are intimate or human: wiping a tear, cleaning a spill, caring for someone who is unwell, preparing for the day, removing makeup, or managing a small mess. OOM-04 gives dignity to this everyday object by making it responsive instead of invisible. It does not hide use. It lets us become part of the design.

The product belongs to Naato Studio’s “Changing Entity” collection, which explores objects that can evolve over time. The Tissue Clamp is made from two modular shells that can be repaired, reused, and reconfigured. This extends its life beyond a single function. The same parts can eventually be transformed into other objects, such as stools, shelving, or even a lamp. The design is built around the idea that an object should not become waste once its first purpose is complete.

This approach makes sustainability feel less like a sacrifice and more like continuity. OOM-04 does not ask the user to give up beauty, tactility, or interior harmony in order to make a better environmental choice. It offers a sculptural, material-led object that can sit comfortably in a designed space while also reducing reliance on disposable packaging. Its form feels calm, intentional, and adaptable.

OOM-04 feels like the kind of object that earns its place in a room. It is useful, beautiful, and just unusual enough to make someone pause. The design fixes the practical frustration of tissues getting stuck while also giving the object a quiet sense of movement. It turns a disposable household habit into something slower, smarter, and worth keeping.

The post This Tissue Box Sinks With Every Pull Like a Quiet Hourglass first appeared on Yanko Design.

Someone Built a Clock With 60 Water Pumps and Zero Regrets

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When I first saw the Water Tower Clock by Strange Inventions, I genuinely had to watch it twice. Not because I didn’t understand it, but because I couldn’t quite believe that someone looked at a pile of 10-cent glass bottles and thought: yes, this is how I’m going to display the time.

The concept is deceptively simple. Each digit on the clock is made up of a fifteen-segment display, except instead of LEDs, each segment is a small glass bottle. When a bottle is filled with dyed water, the segment is active. Empty it, and it disappears. Put enough bottles together in the right configuration and you get numbers. Numbers that tell you it’s 4:37 in the afternoon, rendered entirely in colored water. It’s the kind of idea that sounds ridiculous until you see it running, and then it seems almost obvious.

Designer: Strange Inventions

I love this for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that Strange Inventions didn’t try to make something efficient. He made something worth looking at. That’s a design philosophy I respect more than I can easily put into words. There’s an entire industry dedicated to optimizing displays, making them thinner, brighter, more power-efficient. And then someone comes along and asks, what if we pumped water into tiny bottles instead? And somehow, it works.

Behind the scenes, the build is genuinely complex. The clock uses 60 pumps in total, a stepper-driven peristaltic pump paired with membrane-pump boosters, to route dyed water into the precise bottles needed for each digit. The water isn’t doing any actual timekeeping here. It’s purely the display medium. The electronics handle the time; the water handles the theater.

The mechanism for emptying the bottles is particularly clever. Rather than individually draining each one with a separate pump, Strange Inventions engineered a servo-driven linkage that flips all nine bottles in a single digit at once. It’s one motion, one satisfying dump, and the digit resets. Getting that 3D-printed mechanism to work took significant troubleshooting, but watching the finished result operate, you’d never guess it was anything other than effortless.

The tiny bottles, by the way, were found in a random shop for 10 cents apiece. Sounds affordable, right? Until you scale it up to a full clock and the total project cost lands somewhere around $580. That gap between cheap materials and expensive obsession is actually one of my favorite things about independent makers. The individual components are humble. The vision is not.

Visually, the Water Tower Clock sits in a category I struggle to name. It’s not exactly art, though it absolutely qualifies. It’s not just a gadget, though it functions as one. It has the patience of a kinetic sculpture and the practicality of something that actually tells you what time it is. The dyed water catching the light, the slow fill of each segment, the deliberate dump when a digit changes: all of it has a rhythm that most digital objects simply don’t have.

I think what makes projects like this matter to the broader design conversation is that they challenge our assumptions about what a display should look like. We’ve become so accustomed to LEDs and screens that we’ve stopped asking whether there might be a more interesting material to work with. Strange Inventions answered that question with dyed water and glass bottles from a random shop, and the result is one of the more memorable pieces of functional design I’ve come across this year.

It’s also, for what it’s worth, completely impractical in the best possible way. The water will need maintenance, the pumps add complexity, and the whole thing would be thoroughly confused by a power outage. None of that matters. The point isn’t that this is the future of clock displays. The point is that it makes you feel something when you look at it, which is more than most technology ever manages to do. Strange Inventions earns the name.

The post Someone Built a Clock With 60 Water Pumps and Zero Regrets first appeared on Yanko Design.

Japan Just Built a Pokémon Footbath and It’s Genuinely Moving

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When you hear “Pokémon footbath,” your brain probably goes one of two places: either immediate delight or mild confusion. Both reactions are fair. But when you actually see what just opened in the small coastal town of Wakura Onsen in Nanao City, Japan, the response tends to land somewhere more unexpected than either. It lands in quiet, genuine warmth.

The Wakura Pokémon Footbath officially opened on May 12 inside Yuttari Park in Ishikawa Prefecture, and it is exactly what it sounds like: a public footbath surrounded by beloved Water-type Pokémon. Gyarados towers over the soaking pool, appearing to blast water in with its Hydro Pump. Psyduck perches nearby, looking stressed as always. Vaporeon, Pikachu, Poliwag, Poliwhirl, and Quaxly are scattered throughout the wooden structure, each one in character, each one impossibly charming. The facility is free to use and open daily from 7 AM to 7 PM, though it may close depending on weather conditions.

Designer: Wakura Onsen

From a pure design standpoint, it works. The Pokémon figures feel integrated into the space rather than slapped onto it as an afterthought. The Gyarados placement especially is clever: positioning a creature historically associated with destruction as the one filling a community wellness space with warm water is a quietly subversive design choice. It takes a familiar icon and gives it a new job, and the whole thing is better for it. Good character-led design usually does this. It finds the emotional logic of the IP and builds something genuinely functional around it, instead of just stamping a logo on a wall and calling it a day. The wooden structure keeping everything together also helps ground the Pokémon elements in something tactile and traditionally Japanese, which keeps it from reading as pure merchandise and more as a genuine place to be.

But the design story here is only part of the picture. What elevates the Wakura Pokémon Footbath beyond a cute novelty is the context surrounding it. Wakura Onsen is still recovering from the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, which caused major damage to local tourism infrastructure. The footbath was renovated and developed through a collaboration between Nanao City and the Pokémon With You Foundation, an organization that has long used Pokémon’s reach to support communities facing hardship. Local officials are hoping the new attraction will draw visitors back to a region that urgently needs them. On opening day, a dedication ceremony was held, and children from a local nursery school were among the first to try it out.

That detail matters. It reframes the entire project. A giant Gyarados shooting water into a hot spring pool is fun in isolation. A giant Gyarados shooting water into a hot spring pool in a community rebuilding after a disaster, inaugurated by children experiencing something joyful, is a different kind of story. It is design as care. It is pop culture as infrastructure.

I think we underestimate how much deliberate playfulness can do for a place in recovery. A footbath is not a hospital. It is not a new road or a rebuilt building. But public spaces designed to give people a reason to show up, to sit down, to stay a while, do real work. They signal that a place is worth visiting again. That it has something to offer. That life, in some form, is continuing. And sometimes the difference between a place that comes back and one that does not comes down to whether people believe it is worth returning to.

The footbath also ties into the newly installed Pokémon manhole covers placed around Nanao City, part of Japan’s Pokéfuta initiative, which uses collectible Pokémon-themed covers to encourage visitors to explore lesser-known regions. It is a broader ecosystem of soft infrastructure pointing in the same direction: come here, look around, stay awhile.

Wakura Onsen may not be the first destination that comes to mind for a travel itinerary. But a free footbath where a reformed Gyarados keeps your feet warm while Psyduck quietly spirals next to you? That is a genuinely compelling reason to make the trip. And right now, Nanao City could use a few more of those.

The post Japan Just Built a Pokémon Footbath and It’s Genuinely Moving first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Sculptural Glass Object Makes Flowers Feel Like a Van Gogh Painting

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There is something instantly familiar about patterned glass. We have seen it in old windows, cabinet doors, bathroom partitions, and quiet corners of homes where privacy and light needed to exist together. It is a material that usually stays in the background, doing its job quietly. With Violet Frosted, designer Marius Boekhorst brings that overlooked material forward and turns it into something sculptural, expressive, and quietly poetic.

At its heart, Violet Frosted is a geometric glass object that plays with flowers, light, color, and texture. What makes it interesting is the way it changes how we see what is placed behind it. The frosted, patterned glass softens the flowers, turning bright petals and stems into blurred fields of color. A flower becomes a shadow, a brushstroke, a violet glow, or a faded green line depending on where you stand.

Designer: Marius Boekhorst

That is where the charm of the piece begins. Instead of presenting flowers directly, Violet Frosted filters them. It creates a gentle distance between the viewer and the arrangement. That distance makes you look closer. It asks you to slow down and notice how color shifts through glass, how a shape becomes unclear, and how something ordinary can feel painterly when it is partly hidden.

In many ways, Violet Frosted feels like a still life painting brought into the real world. Traditional still lifes capture flowers in one fixed composition, frozen in paint and time. This piece lets the still life move. The flowers change as they bloom and fade. The light changes throughout the day. The view changes as you move around it. From one angle, the arrangement may feel bold and graphic. From another, it becomes soft, quiet, and almost dreamlike.

The design feels especially beautiful because it does not try too hard. It avoids excess decoration. The form is clean and almost architectural, while the patterned glass gives it warmth and character. It feels contemporary without losing the memory of where the material comes from. That balance between old and new gives the piece its quiet confidence.

Violet Frosted also carries a museum-like feeling, though it never feels precious or untouchable. It brings the mood of a gallery into everyday space. A table, shelf, or windowsill suddenly feels more considered. A simple floral arrangement becomes an experience. You are looking at flowers through atmosphere, texture, and light.

Violet Frosted reminds us that design does not need to shout to stay with us. Sometimes, the most memorable objects are the ones that shift how we see familiar things. By turning patterned glass into a living frame, Marius Boekhorst creates a piece that sits between a vase, a sculpture, and a painting. It is functional, emotional, and deeply visual. It holds flowers, and it holds a moment.

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UNO and Vrbo Are Renting Vacation Homes for $4 a Night

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Brand collaborations are everywhere these days, but every once in a while, one lands so perfectly that you have to stop and appreciate the logic behind it. The UNO x Vrbo partnership is exactly that kind of collab. Not because it’s flashy or trying to be something it’s not, but because it genuinely makes sense.

Starting May 15, Mattel and Vrbo are opening bookings for six limited-time vacation home stays built entirely around the spirit of game night. Six properties across the U.S., two tiers of experience, and one very clever price point: $4 per night. That last part is a deliberate nod to UNO’s iconic Draw 4 card (which can make or break relationships), and it’s the kind of detail that makes you smile whether you’re a brand person or not.

Designers: UNO x Vrbo

The stays are divided into two experiences. At the top end sit the two “Wild Card” homes, located in the Hollywood Hills and Texas Hill Country. These are the full production: UNO-themed décor, organized game nights, and an in-home dining experience. They’re designed for groups of up to 10 guests who want the whole immersive package, the kind of weekend that’s more curated getaway than casual vacation. Then there are the four “Play It Your Way” stays in Winter Park, Colorado; Palm Desert, California; Panama City Beach, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia. These are a little more relaxed, but still come with a co-branded UNO x Vrbo Welcome Kit, a game room, and either a pool or hot tub. Essentially, they’re the version for people who want the fun without the fuss. All six properties are bookable for one three-night stay, Friday to Monday, on a first-come, first-served basis. Bookings open May 15 at 1 PM ET. I’ll be honest: at $4 a night, they are going to go fast.

What makes this collaboration genuinely interesting, beyond the price tag, is the attention that went into the actual product. A custom UNO deck was commissioned for this collab, illustrated by Pietari Posti, with artwork inspired by travel destinations and vacation themes. It also comes with an exclusive rule called the “Vacation Rental Swap,” which lets players swap hands with anyone at the table. It’s a small thing, but it shows that the two brands weren’t just slapping logos on a vacation home and calling it a day. They put real creative thought into what the collaboration could actually feel like to experience.

That’s the part that tends to separate a genuinely good brand collab from a lazy one. Anyone can license a logo and stick it on merchandise. Fewer brands take the time to ask what the experience should feel like from the inside, and build something around that answer. UNO, at its core, is a game about chaos and connection. You play it with people you like and you inevitably end up yelling at them. It’s social in the most fundamental way. Vrbo, meanwhile, is about giving groups a private space to actually be together without the interruptions of a hotel. Put those two things in the same room and you get something that doesn’t need to be explained.

It also helps that this collab is part of a growing relationship between Mattel and Expedia Group, Vrbo’s parent company. Mattel already appeared in an Expedia Super Bowl commercial earlier this year through the Barbie universe. So this isn’t a one-off stunt; it reads more like two brands actively figuring out how to build something together over time. For anyone who grew up playing UNO at a kitchen table, there’s an undeniable nostalgia pull here. But the campaign doesn’t lean into nostalgia as a crutch. It uses the game’s identity as a starting point and builds forward from it, which is ultimately why it works. The best collaborations don’t just remind you of something you loved. They give you a new reason to love it again.

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Bose Just Revived Its Lifestyle Speaker for $299, Minus the Wires

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For most people, getting serious audio at home eventually turns into a tradeoff. Multi-speaker surround setups demand wiring, dedicated gear, and more floor space than a typical room can spare. Smart speakers simplified things, but the best-sounding options tend to carry steep price tags, and the more affordable ones rarely fill a room with the kind of sound that actually does the music justice. That gap has stayed stubbornly open.

Bose thinks it has the answer, and it’s reviving a celebrated name to prove it. The Lifestyle brand, first introduced in 1990 and discontinued in 2022, is back with a collection that treats audio quality and refined design as inseparable. Leading that return is the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, a compact wireless unit wrapped in knit fabric that sits unobtrusively on any shelf while delivering sound that’s anything but understated.

Designer: Bose

The secret to that sound lies in the speaker’s three-driver configuration. Two front-facing drivers handle the direct output, while a third fires upward, bouncing sound off the ceiling to create a sense of height and space that a single forward-pointing speaker simply can’t achieve. Bose calls this TrueSpatial Technology, and it works alongside CleanBass, which uses QuietPort acoustics to produce bass that’s deep, controlled, and free of distortion.

That flexibility extends to how the speaker fits into different setups. On its own, it works as a capable standalone smart speaker. Pair two of them together, and you’ve got a genuine stereo setup. Add the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer, also part of the new collection, and it takes on rear-channel duties in what becomes a full 7.1.4 surround system, no wires snaking across the floor required.

Getting music onto it isn’t complicated. The speaker supports Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, and Spotify Connect, so you can stick with whatever app you already use without adapting to a proprietary system. Bluetooth 5.3 is also on board, and a 3.5mm aux input handles wired sources like a turntable. Alexa+ serves as the built-in voice assistant, with on-device touch controls and a radial volume slider for quick adjustments.

One of the more practical touches is CustomTune, a calibration feature that uses your phone’s microphone to listen to the acoustics of whichever room the speaker is in. It accounts for furniture placement and room size, automatically adjusting the output without requiring any manual tweaking on your end. For even more placement options, an optional wall bracket priced at $69 and a floor stand at $149 are both available separately.

The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker starts at $299 in Black or White Smoke, with the limited-edition Driftwood Sand colorway priced at $349. The full Lifestyle Collection, including the Ultra Soundbar at $1,099 and Ultra Subwoofer at $899, is available to preorder now and ships on May 15. It can start small on a single shelf and gradually take over your entire home audio setup without ever looking like it doesn’t belong.

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This Tiny Sunrise Alarm Clock Replaced My Phone, My Lamp, and My White Noise Machine

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Imagine a small coastal diorama sitting on your nightstand, a sculpted seascape of rocky shores and a lone sailboat frozen in miniature, and then imagine it coming to life every morning as warm amber light builds from nothing inside it, flooding the scene like a real sun cresting the horizon. That single image is enough to explain why the sunrise alarm clock category has been waiting for something like the SOLUME Sunrise Wake Light for a long time. The science behind it has been settled for decades: circadian rhythm research consistently shows that graduated light exposure at dawn regulates cortisol and melatonin in a way that leaves you alert without the cortisol spike of an acoustic alarm, the kind evolution wired us to associate with immediate physical threat. SOLUME takes that research and builds a product around it that you actually want on your nightstand.

The enclosure uses a wood-grain finish with a wedge-shaped profile, housing that sculpted coastal scene behind an angled opening that glows through warm amber and orange during the sunrise sequence. A fabric-wrapped base below carries a clean LED clock display, a Bluetooth speaker, and controls for 12 built-in nature sounds and programmable sunset timers at 45 or 90 minutes, handling both ends of the sleep equation in a single object. Designed in the United States and grounded in over 35 years of phototherapy research, the SOLUME packages serious sleep science into something that reads, at a glance, more like a piece of tabletop art than a wellness gadget. The Philips Wake-Up Light held this category for two decades on function alone; SOLUME is making the same argument with considerably better aesthetics.

Designer: Solume

Traditional sunrise clocks solve the light therapy problem with a bare bulb behind a diffuser panel, which works but leaves nothing interesting to look at during the wind-down phase. SOLUME’s sculpted seascape gives the light somewhere to live, so as the sunset timer counts down in the evening, the amber glow retreating across those miniature rock formations actually mimics the quality of late golden-hour light in a way a flat panel never could. It turns a passive light source into something with depth, shadow, and a bit of theatre, which matters more than it sounds when you’re staring at it from a pillow for 45 minutes waiting to fall asleep.

Pairing your phone over Bluetooth means your usual sleep playlist or podcast winds down alongside the fading light, both cues working together rather than competing. The 12 built-in nature sounds cover the expected ground, rain, ocean, forest, and serve well enough for nights when reaching for your phone feels like too much friction. The fabric grille housing the speaker also does quiet acoustic work, softening the clock display’s LED glow so it reads cleanly without punching through a dark room at 3am.

Most sleep gadgets optimize for one end of the night or the other, a sunrise clock wakes you up, a sound machine helps you fall asleep, and never quite reckon with the fact that these are two halves of the same problem. SOLUME treats the full cycle as a single design brief, which is the right call, and the hardware reflects that clarity. The Classic and Pro versions sit at $68 and $75 respectively, with the Pro adding a handful of premium features for the small premium. For a device that credibly replaces your alarm clock, your bedside lamp, and your white noise machine simultaneously, that math works out fairly cleanly.

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