Tag Archives: Technology

The $179 iPhone Speaker That Never Needs Charging

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You’ve been waiting for your favorite artist to release their latest album, counting down the hours until it finally drops on your streaming service of choice. You open your phone and press play… and you’re a little disappointed. It’s not that the album isn’t great, it’s that your phone’s speaker doesn’t do it justice. You want something to amplify that sound right now, but your external Bluetooth speaker hasn’t been charged in weeks.

The Battery-free Amplifying iSpeakers can solve that problem for you, and you won’t need a single cable or Bluetooth connection to make it happen. This “dumb” speaker is actually smart enough to rely purely on acoustic engineering, channeling and amplifying the sound waves coming out of your phone so your music, podcast, or call sounds noticeably fuller than it would through your built-in speaker alone.

Click Here to Buy Now: $179.00

Designed by Ooi Masato and made in Japan, this battery-free device lives up to its name: it uses a precision-machined metal slot that cradles whatever phone you own, instantly amplifying whatever you’re playing. There’s no pairing process, no cord to plug in, and no anxious glance at a battery icon wondering if your speaker will cut out mid-song. You set your phone down, and it just works.

Design-wise, the iSpeakers follow a clean, minimalist aesthetic that looks just as at home on a cluttered work desk as it does on a nightstand or a bookshelf. The body is shaped around the golden ratio, giving it a visual balance that feels intentional rather than accidental (the kind of object you’d leave out on display rather than tuck into a drawer). It’s compact enough to toss in a bag, so you can bring your amplified sound with you to a picnic, a hotel room, or a friend’s backyard without hunting for an outlet. And because there’s no port, connector, or wireless protocol involved, it works with virtually any phone you own, including Apple’s freshly announced iPhone 18 Pro lineup and its first ever foldable, the iPhone Ultra, unveiled at today’s “Surprise and Shine” event. All you have to do is let the speaker slot cradle your phone’s speaker grille; there’s no compatibility chart to check and no software update to wait on.

The speaker itself is milled from Duralumin, the same lightweight, vibration resistant alloy used in aircraft construction. That means you’re getting a premium feel along with genuine durability. This isn’t a flimsy accessory that’ll crack after a few drops in your bag. The Japanese craftsmanship and golden ratio proportions give it a quiet sophistication that fits in seamlessly next to your laptop or coffee mug. If you want to get more out of it, you can also pick up the +Bloom and +Jet attachments, which let you customize how the sound projects, whether that means directing it upward for a fuller room fill or downward for a more intimate listening experience.

So how does this stack up against the Bluetooth speakers already crowding your shelf? Take a brand like JBL, whose Flip series has become a go-to for portable audio. Those speakers sound great and pump out serious volume, but they still ask you to charge them, remember to pair them, and eventually deal with a battery that won’t hold a charge like it used to. The iSpeakers skip all of that by design. You’re trading a bit of raw volume and bass depth for something Bluetooth speakers simply can’t offer: a device that will sound exactly the same in ten years as it does today, with zero maintenance and zero electronic waste. At $179, it’s priced closer to a premium Bluetooth speaker than a budget one, but you’re paying for a very different kind of value: permanence, craftsmanship, and simplicity over specs and app connectivity.

At the end of the day, the Battery-free Amplifying iSpeakers isn’t trying to replace your Bluetooth speaker for a backyard party. It’s solving a much smaller, more common frustration: the moment when you just want your phone to sound better, right now, without any setup. For anyone tired of charging cords, pairing screens, and speakers that die at the worst possible moment, this is a refreshingly simple fix, and a genuinely beautiful object to boot. Sometimes the smartest tech is the kind that doesn’t need power at all.

The post The $179 iPhone Speaker That Never Needs Charging first appeared on Yanko Design.

Laptops Sealed Computers Shut, ARTISAN ALTO Snaps Them Back Open

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Home computers used to snap open like toolboxes, cartridges sliding in for a new game or a new skill. That idea mostly disappeared once sealed laptops took over, but the ARTISAN ALTO AT-101 brings it back with a vermilion shell that looks like it walked straight out of 1984 and a system built for how people actually tinker today. It’s a machine designed to grow alongside whatever you’re currently obsessed with.

The trapezoidal red housing wastes no time signaling its intentions. Sculpted, concave ivory keycaps sit beside red cooling louvres, and a keyboard opening cuts diagonally through the sloping side, turning what could’ve been a flat slab into something with genuine presence on a desk. This is a machine built to be looked at, not tucked behind a monitor.

Designer: Leo Botinelly

That vintage-inspired shell hides a distinctly modern expansion idea. Upright cartridges slot into place to add graphics power, sound capability, retrocomputing modes, or an AI companion, while smaller side modules handle specialist interfaces and individual projects. Recording a demo, building out a more ambitious scene, or reviving an old favorite game all become a matter of swapping in the right module rather than replacing the whole machine.

The standout pairing puts VECTOR, a compute cartridge, alongside COMPANION, an AI agent module with its own ivory-crowned housing. Together they form what the concept calls a personal cyberdeck, one where your context and your processing power both live in the same two bays. Everything from your conversation history to your working files stays local, an intentional counterpoint to how most AI tools currently function.

Five multifunction keys handle creative shortcuts without forcing a trip through a menu, while a dedicated PAUSE rocker lets you freeze, rewind, or speed through whatever’s running, treating time itself as something you can grab and adjust mid-task. A touchpad and four flush cursor keys merge into a single continuous surface on the right side, keeping navigation under the same hand that’s already resting there.

Flip the machine over and the same philosophy continues. Memory access sits in the open rather than buried under layers of casing, rear supports adjust to match your desk setup, and a single screw releases the service clamp entirely. Every one of these choices treats a computer’s insides as something worth respecting, not hiding behind warranty stickers and proprietary screws.

Around back, a compact connector panel handles the practical side of daily use. USB-C power sits alongside labeled ports for two cartridges, additional USB-C connections, LAN, HDMI, USB-A, and audio, all routed cleanly to keep cables from tangling across the front of a desk. Even the exhaust vents get a considered shape, flanking the connector panel like a pair of small turbines venting heat from all that cartridge-driven ambition.

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Clear-Shell Game Boys Never Made the Screen Transparent, Arduview Did

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Every gadget on a desk is built to hide what makes it work. Phones, consoles, controllers, they’re all sealed slabs designed to keep the copper and silicon out of sight. Arduview refuses that logic entirely. Its shell is clear, its circuit board is clear, and its OLED display lets you watch pixels light up while seeing straight through to the components producing them.

Retro handhelds have flirted with transparency before. Clear-shell Game Boys and modded Miyoo units let you glimpse a shadow of the board through tinted plastic, but the display itself stayed opaque, a black rectangle sitting in an otherwise see-through frame. Arduview closes that gap by making the screen itself transparent, so nothing on the device breaks the illusion of looking clean through it.

Designer: Louis Huang

Peer through the front and the internals aren’t just visible; they’re the entire visual identity. The board, the chip, an orange copper flex cable, the button domes, and the USB-C port all sit in plain view, arranged the way a watchmaker might arrange gears behind sapphire crystal. Nothing here was designed to be hidden later. It was designed to be looked at from day one.

That philosophy extends to how the thing works, not just how it looks. Built on Arduboy, an open-source handheld platform, Arduview skips the layers that usually complicate small electronics. There’s no app store hunting, no Wi-Fi pairing, no account setup standing between you and 400 preloaded games. Power it on and it plays, the same instant gratification that made simple handhelds addictive in the first place.

At 50 grams and roughly the footprint of a credit card, the size does real work here. A device this small and this light stops being a dedicated gaming session and starts being something you carry the way you’d carry a keychain or a pocketknife, small enough to disappear until the moment you want it. Pull it out on a train platform or set it on a desk between meetings, and it reads less like a toy and more like a curiosity someone can’t resist picking up.

That reaction seems to be the entire point. A transparent gadget invites touching in a way an opaque one never does, because there’s an implicit dare in showing your internals: come look closer. Arduview leans into that dare completely, treating the space usually reserved for a case as prime real estate for the very thing most companies spend their design budgets concealing.

Retro gaming has always had a strong current of nostalgia running through it: chunky buttons, pixel art, low-resolution charm. Arduview borrows all of that while adding something genuinely new to the mix: a device that looks like it belongs in a display case at a design museum as much as it belongs in a pocket.

The post Clear-Shell Game Boys Never Made the Screen Transparent, Arduview Did first appeared on Yanko Design.

Your Second Screen Can Finally Work With No Cables and No Outlet

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Desks are overrated. So are the cables that come with them. The 4URPC is a 15.6-inch wireless touchscreen monitor built for people who’d rather not be chained to an outlet just to get a bigger screen. It’s slim, self-powered, and ready to mirror whatever’s on your phone, tablet, or laptop the moment you need more room to work, watch, or play.

Cutting the cord doesn’t mean cutting functionality. The monitor mirrors an iPhone or Android device through a peer-to-peer wireless connection, no home Wi-Fi or app required. For streaming platforms like YouTube, Netflix, or Hulu, connecting to Wi-Fi and tapping the built-in TV Cast icon sends video to the screen. Either way, there’s no dongle to lose or cable to untangle before the movie starts.

Designer: 4URPC

Click Here to Buy Now: $219 $399 (45% off). Hurry, only 451/600 left! Raised over $181,000.

The more interesting trick happens after mirroring starts. The 10-point touchscreen can send input back to the connected phone, turning the monitor into a larger, shared control surface. Flip through photos with a friend, walk a colleague through a presentation, or hand someone the reins without handing over your phone. It’s a shift that makes shared screen time less awkward.

None of this would matter much if the monitor were bulky. At half an inch thick and just over 2 pounds, it’s built to disappear into a backpack rather than dominate it. The matte, textured shell keeps fingerprints and glare to a minimum, and a fold-out kickstand on the back means setup takes seconds on a desk, a kitchen counter, or the arm of a couch.

A built-in 4,000 mAh battery backs up that portability by taking the wall outlet out of the equation. Setting up on a train, in a hotel room, or on a patio doesn’t mean scouting for the nearest plug first. That same battery can lend a charge to a connected phone, turning the monitor into a backup power bank when the moment calls for it.

Plug it into a laptop with a USB-C cable, and the 4URPC switches roles, becoming an extended display rather than a wireless mirror. Dragging a browser tab, a chat window, or a reference document onto the second screen takes a second, and the touchscreen works over the wired connection. The laptop stays focused on the main task while the extra display handles everything else.

The screen also rotates between landscape and portrait without any fuss, which sounds minor until it changes how you use it day to day. Landscape suits video calls, games, and spreadsheets, while portrait mode fits scrolling through documents, reading long articles, or checking social feeds. Switching between the two takes a twist of the stand, not a trip through a settings menu.

Compatibility runs wide enough that most people won’t need to think twice before connecting. Wireless mirroring covers iPhones, Android phones running version 10 or later, MacBooks, and most Windows laptops, while the wired USB-C or HDMI input works with game consoles, streaming boxes, and the Nintendo Switch. There’s no software to install and nothing to configure; connecting the device and turning it on is the entire setup process.

Under the glass sits a 1920×1080 matte IPS panel running at 60 Hz, built more for comfortable, glare-free sessions than eye-popping color numbers. Dual USB-C ports split power delivery and video duties, small stereo speakers cover casual audio, and a VESA mount plus a standard camera screw thread add mounting options beyond the built-in stand. It’s a practical set of choices rather than a flashy one.

There’s something telling about a monitor that assumes you won’t always be sitting at the same desk tomorrow. Work has scattered across kitchen tables, coffee shops, and airport gates for a while now, and screens are only starting to catch up. The 4URPC doesn’t try to be the sharpest or brightest display around; it just tries to be wherever you happen to land next.

Click Here to Buy Now: $219 $399 (45% off). Hurry, only 451/600 left! Raised over $181,000.

The post Your Second Screen Can Finally Work With No Cables and No Outlet first appeared on Yanko Design.

This CO2-powered cooling jacket could keep you comfortable in extreme heat without a battery

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Most wearable cooling devices add more hardware to what you are already wearing. Hissy, developed by five designers as part of Samsung Design Membership, is different though. the concept puts a CO₂-powered cooling system inside a lightweight technical jacket, turning the garment itself into an air-delivery system.

The idea comes from a fairly simple problem. Portable fans can struggle when the surrounding air is already extremely hot, while battery-powered cooling systems bring their own compromises in weight, runtime, and heat management. Hissy replaces the usual fan-and-battery setup with a small CO₂ cartridge mounted at the wrist. When the cartridge is connected, high-pressure liquid carbon dioxide vaporizes inside the cooling hardware, producing airflow at around -30 Degree Celsius.

Designer: Dongheon Kang, Minseo Jung, Yuha Ko, Juhyeon Jeon, Woohi Park

What makes the jacket interesting, however, is what happens after the cold air is generated. Rather than dumping it into the garment and hoping it reaches the right places, Hissy routes it through a tubular Air Path built into the jacket. The path follows a spiral around the body, and the jacket is cut and stitched around this structure. Its shape also helps prevent the tube from sharply bending or kinking as the wearer moves.

Small perforations along the Air Path release the cold air at selected points. The designers determined their positioning and size using thermal mapping and heat-distribution tests, concentrating the airflow around areas where the body produces more heat. That explains the unusual construction of the jacket. The visible pattern isn’t simply there for visual effect; it traces the route the cooling system needs to take through the garment.

The CO₂ cartridge itself sits in a surprisingly neat docking system. Instead of being screwed into place, it attaches magnetically. Locking protrusions keep it from being pulled straight out while the system is operating, and rotating the cartridge changes the magnetic interaction so it can be released. An internal strap and sleeve zipper keep the hardware secure around the wrist, while a chest pocket provides somewhere to carry additional cartridges.

There is also an effort to make the disposable-looking cartridge system less wasteful. Hissy proposes using CO₂ captured from industrial processes as the cooling medium. Once a cartridge is empty, it can be collected, inspected, refilled, and returned to circulation. The designers see this as a way of keeping both the cartridge and the captured gas within a reuse cycle rather than treating them as single-use components.

For now, Hissy is a design concept rather than a product you can buy, but the team isn’t limiting the idea to jackets. Its proposed roadmap includes applying the same cooling technology to footwear, followed by products such as outdoor can coolers. A later version could even become a thermal-management system for machines working outdoors in high temperatures, including delivery robots and drones.

 

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Huawei Finally Fixed the One Flaw That Followed Its Tri-Fold Phone

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Huawei’s original tri-fold phone made headlines for unfolding into a tablet, but closing it back down left one part of the flexible screen exposed to scratches and pocket grit. The Mate XT 2 Ultimate Design fixes that flaw at the architecture level, not with a case. Instead of the old zigzag fold, a new wing-style hinge tucks both sides of the screen inward, so every part of the display faces itself once it’s closed.

That trick rests on a second-generation hinge system built around a dual-axis wing structure and an industry-first connecting-rod synchronization mechanism, keeping both folding axes moving in perfect step. The load-bearing core uses 2,400 MPa steel arranged in a five-arm arc, an upgrade that pushes overall impact resistance up 100 percent and drop resistance up 90 percent compared to the outgoing model.

Designer: Huawei

Unfold it fully, and a 10.2-inch 3K OLED panel spreads out at a 90Hz refresh rate, easily the largest screen tri-fold owners have gotten yet. Keep it folded and a 6.5-inch cover display takes over instead, running at 120Hz with peak brightness reaching 6,500 nits. Switching between the two feels less like opening a phone and more like choosing between a notebook and a full tablet.

A hardware privacy mode sits at the center of that inner display too, using an independent dual-pixel design that narrows the viewing cone from the sides while keeping the view sharp head-on. A double tap on the cover screen or a dedicated shortcut key switches it on, so a crowded train seat or an open-plan desk doesn’t turn into a screen-sharing session anyone asked for.

Protection extends to the materials themselves. The cover glass gets a Kunlun treatment that survives 30 times more drops and 16 times more scratches than ordinary glass, while the inner screen layers ultra-thin aerospace-grade steel and carbon fiber beneath the display for 200 percent better impact resistance. Over 120 sealing points across the body also make this the first tri-fold rated IP58 and IP59 for dust and water.

The rear camera module carries the distinctive octagon shape that Huawei’s flagships have been sporting for quite some time now. Underneath sit a 50MP main sensor with a variable aperture, a 40MP ultra-wide lens, and a 50MP periscope telephoto capable of 100x digital zoom. A third-generation color engine tunes the results for tones that hold up without heavy editing.

Powering all of it is the Kirin 9050 Pro, built on Huawei’s LogicFolding architecture rather than a conventional layout, which the company says raises transistor density by 53.5 percent and clock speeds by 12.7 percent. HarmonyOS 7 takes advantage of the extra room by running three apps side by side on the unfolded display, treating the tri-fold shape as a genuine workspace instead of a novelty.

None of this bulks up the phone the way its spec sheet suggests. A 5,600mAh battery charges at 66W over a cable or 50W wirelessly, and the whole device still folds down to 12.3mm while weighing 299 grams. Pricing starts at CNY 19,999 (approximately $2,800) in China, climbing to CNY 29,999 (approximately $4,200) for the privacy-screen version bundled with a stylus.

The post Huawei Finally Fixed the One Flaw That Followed Its Tri-Fold Phone first appeared on Yanko Design.

The $100 Keypad That Puts Each AI Coding Tool Behind Its Own Button

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Every developer juggling AI agents right now knows the feeling of context switching until the whole workflow blurs together. Copilot suggests something in one window, Claude Code runs a task in another, and a dozen prompts live scattered across notes and muscle memory. The Logitech MX Keypad exists to collapse all of that into nine small screens sitting next to the keyboard, each one a physical shortcut into a specific piece of that chaos.

Every key on the keypad carries its own full-color LCD display, so instead of memorizing which function key does what, you glance down and see an icon that actually represents the command underneath it. Press one, and it can refactor a function, trigger a prompt macro, or hand off a task to an AI agent entirely. That small visual feedback loop turns an abstract keyboard shortcut into something closer to a labeled button on a control panel.

Designer: Logitech

What makes the hardware worth paying attention to is where Logitech chose to draw the compatibility line. Instead of building this around one coding environment, the MX Keypad works across GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, VS Code, and IntelliJ IDEA at once. A developer bouncing between an IDE and a terminal-based AI agent doesn’t need separate tools for each, just a different page of keys pulled up on the same nine buttons.

That pattern of paging matters more than it sounds. The keypad can hold multiple profiles, so switching from a Python project running through Copilot to a JavaScript refactor handled by Claude Code becomes a single tap rather than a mental reset. Anyone who has lost a train of thought hunting through browser tabs for the right prompt will recognize the value in never breaking eye contact with the code itself.

Underneath the surface, the MX Keypad ships with prebuilt plugins that Logitech had developers test directly against real coding platforms, rather than shipping generic templates and hoping they fit. An SDK opens the door further, letting teams build their own tools around internal workflows, while a community marketplace means the plugin library keeps growing without waiting on Logitech’s own release schedule.

None of that ambition comes wrapped in bulky, wasteful materials either. The body is made with recycled plastics, keeping the hardware in line with the sustainability commitments Logitech has built into its broader MX ecosystem. It is a small detail, but for a device meant to live permanently on a desk, it matters that the object itself doesn’t feel disposable.

At $99.99, the MX Keypad occupies a strange but clarifying position in a developer’s setup. It doesn’t replace a keyboard, and it doesn’t try to be an AI tool in its own right. Instead, it works like a translator between fast-moving human intent and the growing swarm of coding agents developers now manage daily, one labeled key at a time.

The post The $100 Keypad That Puts Each AI Coding Tool Behind Its Own Button first appeared on Yanko Design.

An Android Drawing Tablet With 127 Layers That Still Feels Like Paper

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Most Android drawing tablets make you choose between a screen that feels like paper and hardware fast enough to keep up with a real workflow. The Kamvas Pad 12 refuses that trade-off. Huion built a 12.2-inch standalone tablet around a textured, paper-like display and paired it with enough processing power to hold 127 layers open without stuttering, treating the screen as a genuine canvas rather than a stylus afterthought.

That screen runs a 3:2 aspect ratio instead of the usual 16:9, and the difference shows up the moment you start sketching. A wider canvas means fewer awkward crops when composing a portrait or a page layout, and it doubles as a better shape for reading documents or comics without letterboxing. Combined with a 90Hz refresh rate, linework tracks the pen smoothly instead of lagging a beat behind your hand.

Designer: Huion

Canvas Glass 3.0 does the quieter work here. The surface is nano-etched for texture, so the pen tip grips the way it would on actual paper, while a soft-light treatment and anti-glare coating keep long sessions from turning into eye strain. Setting up near a window or working outdoors doesn’t wash out the display, which matters more than most spec sheets give it credit for.

The PW600C pen leans into that same philosophy of getting out of the way. It’s battery-free, weighs just 12 grams, and snaps magnetically onto the tablet body instead of needing a separate case or loop. Someone sketching on a train can toss the pen against the tablet’s edge between stops and trust it’ll still be there, without fishing through a bag for a charging cable or a lost cap.

Underneath, an eight-core MediaTek Genio 720 chip and 8GB of RAM handle the kind of multitasking that used to choke budget Android tablets, running multiple layers and apps without the frame drops that make digital painting frustrating. At 16,384 pressure levels and 60-degree tilt support, the stylus itself translates a feather-light highlight or a bold ink stroke with the kind of nuance that used to be reserved for pricier displays.

Storage tops out at 256GB onboard with room to expand to 1TB, so a growing library of finished pieces, reference photos, and half-done sketches doesn’t force anyone into constant cleanup. Android 16 and full Google Play access mean the tablet isn’t locked into a single app either. Clip Studio Paint, ibisPaint X, MediBang Paint, and Huion’s own HiPaint all come preloaded, ready for whichever workflow fits the project at hand.

Battery life rounds out the case for treating this as a genuine mobile setup instead of a tethered accessory. An 8,000mAh cell inside a 7.8mm metal body keeps the Kamvas Pad 12 running for roughly eight hours, long enough for a full day of sketching at a café or a cross-country flight without hunting for an outlet. That kind of stamina turns a drawing tablet into something closer to a sketchbook you never outgrow.

The post An Android Drawing Tablet With 127 Layers That Still Feels Like Paper first appeared on Yanko Design.

Xiaomi 18 Fold Hands-On: Got Here Before Apple, Can It Beat Samsung?

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Xiaomi has chosen an interesting moment to return to foldables. The company has not released a book-style foldable since the Mix Fold 4, which launched in 2024, and now it is back with the Xiaomi 18 Fold just as compact foldables are starting to get more attention. Samsung has also added a foldable in this compact format to its lineup, and Apple is widely expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone at its September 9 event with a similar form factor in mind.

That puts the Xiaomi 18 Fold in an interesting spot. It is not just Xiaomi coming back to foldables after a break. It is also arriving just as this smaller book-style format looks like it could become the next big thing.

Designer: Xiaomi

Xiaomi is positioning the 18 Fold as its first mid-size flagship foldable. It weighs 7.73 ounces (219g), measures 0.42 inches thick when folded (10.68mm), and opens out to just 0.20 inches thick (5.02mm), with a folded footprint of 4.64 x 3.29 inches (117.8 x 83.6mm). In person, it feels thin, though not unusually thin by the standards of today’s premium foldables. More importantly, it feels expensive in a good way. The matte texture on the back and frame gives it a softer, understated finish, while the rounded corners and flat frame help the phone look clean and modern.

The unit I handled was the deep red version, and it is a bold color in person. It stands out more than the usual black or silver foldable palette without feeling too loud. It also happens to echo the deep red finish rumored for Apple’s first foldable, which makes the comparison hard to miss. The 18 Fold comes in Black, White, Red, and a Ceramic Version.

In practice, though, this is still a two-handed phone whether it is folded or unfolded. Even closed, the body is compact in one sense but still broad enough that I did not think of it as something built for easy one-handed use. That is not really a criticism. It just comes with the territory.

The outer display is a 5.38-inch panel, while the inside opens up to a 7.58-inch main screen. Xiaomi says both displays share the same aspect ratio, which is meant to make the transition from one to the other feel more natural. I could not fully judge how well that works in daily use from a short demo, but one benefit stood out right away. Video felt more immersive than on squarer foldables because there was less black bar space above and below the image.

The software also looked well suited to the shape. Animations felt smooth in my brief demo, and I did see split-screen and floating window support in action. The unfolded UI felt more like a small tablet than a stretched phone, which is what you want on a device like this. Xiaomi has also placed one speaker on the top edge and another on the bottom edge on the opposite side, which should help give the phone a more balanced stereo effect when it is open.

The hinge left a good first impression too. I cannot really say whether it felt especially firm or especially smooth, because my time with the device was limited, but it did feel sturdy. The crease was handled well too. Looking straight at the display, I only really noticed it from certain angles rather than all the time. More importantly, I could barely feel it when running a finger across the center, which was better than I expected.

Left: Xiaomi 18 Fold, Right: Galaxy Z Fold 8

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

I also compared the Xiaomi 18 Fold side by side with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8. Samsung’s device measures 4.88 x 3.22 x 0.38 inches when folded (123.9 x 81.9 x 9.7mm), 6.35 x 4.88 x 0.18 inches when unfolded (161.4 x 123.9 x 4.5cm), and weighs 7.09 ounces (201g), so it is a little lighter and a bit thinner than Xiaomi’s foldable in some areas. But the difference was not just about dimensions. Samsung’s inner screen was noticeably brighter to my eyes. At the same time, the Xiaomi 18 Fold had one practical advantage that stood out immediately. When placed on a desk, it did not wobble, while the Samsung did.

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

Left: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Right: Xiaomi 18 Fold

Top: Xiaomi 18 Fold, Bottom: Galaxy Z Fold 8

The biggest surprise for me was the camera. Xiaomi is using a 200MP Leica triple-camera system, led by a 200MP main camera and backed by a 50MP Leica periscope telephoto with an 80mm equivalent focal length. In my short time with the phone, the telephoto camera was the part that stuck with me most. I tried zoom, and the 3.5x telephoto setup immediately felt like one of the most interesting parts of the device. Stability also felt good even at higher magnification, which made the zoom feel more usable, not just more dramatic. The camera bump also did not seem overly large, and its oval-shaped, two-step raised design gives it some presence without taking over the whole back.

My time with the Xiaomi 18 Fold was brief, and this hands-on really only scratched the surface. Even so, the phone already feels like a polished return to book-style foldables. Pricing starts at RMB 10,999, or roughly $1,640, for the 12GB/256GB model, and Xiaomi said it will be available in China only for now.

The post Xiaomi 18 Fold Hands-On: Got Here Before Apple, Can It Beat Samsung? first appeared on Yanko Design.

Max Space Thunderbird is an expandable space station module that could eventually replace ISS

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Space is the final frontier as NASA plans to go deeper into the dark space with improved technology and lessons from past and current missions. The International Space Station is going to reach the end of its operational life by the end of the decade, and NASA plans to employ services from commercially owned space stations, rather than putting its time and efforts into building another one.

The idea is to reserve its brilliant minds and the vast resource pool for deep space exploration beyond the Earth’s orbit. This has opened up doors for next-generation private companies to get in the race to build the most efficient space station to replace NASA’s outgoing ISS. Florida-based startup Max Space, which operates in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center, is testing the prospect of expanding space habitats, as NASA concentrates more on outer space missions.

Designer: Max Space and OMI

Their prime concept for the next-generation space station is Thunderbird, which can launch compactly and expand in low Earth orbit for a far more practical pressurized environment than current-generation modules. Just imagine a single-launch commercial habitat, compared to the ISS, which took years of on-orbit assembly, and rocket flights. The space station concept proposes the use of an expandable fabric-based structure to maximize the volume, while staying well within the volume and mass threshold of transporting it into orbit. NASA themselves have been experimenting with inflatable modules, and Max Space builds on that knowledge to craft one of the most complex habitat structures known to man.

The aeronautical start-up co-founded by CEO Saleem Miyan, Chairman Aaron Kemmer, and Chief Technology Officer Maxim de Jong, is working in close association with NASA under the Space Act Agreements for technical collaboration. If all goes to plan, Thunderbird will launch into Earth’s orbit by the end of the decade on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.  Before the final launch, there will be extensive test flights and demonstrations to make the mission a 100 percent success.

What we see in the pictures is a concept iteration of the space module designed by OMI (Of My Imagination) Studio for Max Space. Thunderbird is the orbital component of the proposed expandable habitat, which is envisioned to go well beyond the low-orbit International Space Station modules. It is going to be the basis for the more serious Lunar or Martian missions planned for the next decade. OMI is the brainchild of visionary minds who have worked in close quarters with former NASA astronauts to reimagine “space station as a human-centred environment rather than a purely functional spacecraft.”

The circular structure of the module is deliberate to employ the microgravity shifts to aid navigation. The highly functional compact module can expand into a 350-cubic-meter habitat for four crew members, each having their dedicated sleeping pods and facilities, including a gym, scientific laboratories, community living space, and eight functional areas. The module has to go through the extreme temperatures of the orbit, so the agency has designed the external surfaces from multi-layered Kevlar with triple safety redundancy. This far exceeds NASA’s requirements to guard against micrometeoroids.

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