OpenAI has introduced GPT 5.6, a release featuring three specialized models, Soul, Terra and Luna, tailored for different use cases. Soul uses its “Soul Ultra” mode to handle complex reasoning tasks, Terra offers a versatile option for general-purpose applications and Luna is optimized for high-speed, large-scale operations. According to AI Grid, these models not only […]
With the iPhone 18 series set to launch in September, a significant price increase is expected to accompany the new lineup. If you’re considering upgrading your device, now might be the perfect time to invest in the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Rising production costs and shifting market dynamics suggest that future models may offer less […]
The Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra is set to redefine the boundaries of smartphone technology, offering a glimpse into the future of mobile innovation. However, this leap forward comes with a potential trade-off: a significant increase in cost. As flagship devices continue to evolve, you may find yourself weighing the benefits of innovative features against their […]
Samsung continues to lead the foldable smartphone market with its Galaxy Z Fold 8 series, spearheaded by the highly anticipated Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. This flagship device is designed to combine innovative technology, a sleek design, and advanced features, setting a new benchmark for foldable smartphones. Leaks and early insights into its specifications suggest […]
The XREAL Aura has captured attention in the XR space with its lightweight design, advanced features and integration of technologies like Google’s Gemini AI and the Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite platform. Weighing under 95 grams, these glasses promise portability and versatility, offering a 70-degree field of view and the ability to function as a portable […]
Your iPhone is more than just a communication device; it’s a powerful tool packed with features designed to make your life easier. While you may already know the basics, there are hidden gems within iOS that can boost your productivity, simplify everyday tasks and even enhance your creativity. These often-overlooked features can save you time […]
Remote work has fundamentally changed how often people need access to devices they aren’t sitting in front of. The tools built for this, however, haven’t kept up. Software-based remote access drops the moment a device sleeps or the screen locks, traditional KVMs demand a tangle of HDMI, USB, power, and Ethernet cables, and phones and tablets have been left out of the picture entirely.
GL.iNet, the Hong Kong-based networking company behind a range of popular OpenWrt routers, has built the Comet Q to tackle all three of those problems at once. Officially designated the GL-RMQ1, it’s described as the world’s first browser-based, pocket-sized remote-control device built specifically for USB-C devices, covering laptops, phones, tablets, and Mac minis. You plug it in, open a browser, and you’re in.
What sets the Comet Q apart is that it operates at the hardware level, not through software installed on the target device. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Traditional remote desktop software relies on the operating system and an active network connection, failing the moment a device sleeps, locks, or loses Wi-Fi. The Comet Q keeps working through all of that, as long as the device stays powered on and hasn’t entered a hibernation state that cuts off its HDMI/USB output.
That control comes through a single USB-C cable that simultaneously carries video, data, and power, doing away with the HDMI dongle and USB hub that traditional KVMs require. Video output reaches up to 2K at 60 fps with two-way audio, and a built-in USB-C passthrough port means the device being controlled stays charged throughout the session. It’s a genuinely pocket-sized setup that actually earns that description.
Where the Comet Q breaks new ground is with mobile devices. No KVM was ever built for them, and if something went wrong remotely, there was no clean solution short of being physically present. It connects directly through the USB-C port, working with iPhones from the iPhone 15 onward (excluding the iPhone 16e and later budget models), iPads, and a wide range of Android phones and tablets, provided the port supports DisplayPort Alt Mode.
All of that also means the OS combination no longer matters. Users can control an iPhone from a Windows PC, a MacBook from an Android tablet, or an iPad from a Linux machine. Developers can manage test devices without being at their desks, IT teams can monitor a fleet of phones from one interface, and content creators can run a dedicated recording device from anywhere in the same room.
There’s a surprisingly personal side to this. If you’ve ever tried walking a parent through a tech problem over the phone, knowing you could take over their screen remotely would have saved everyone a lot of stress. The Comet Q makes that possible, and since Wi-Fi credentials can be preset before shipping the device, the person receiving it doesn’t need to set it up.
Accessing the Comet Q doesn’t require any downloads. From a laptop or desktop, any browser pointed to glkvm.com is enough to take full control, with no account creation needed. When controlling from a phone or tablet, the GLKVM app, available on Windows, macOS, App Store, and Google Play, handles touch gestures more precisely. A 1.8-inch circular touchscreen on the device also makes initial setup possible without opening a laptop.
Security runs through every layer of the design. Each session ends the moment the Comet Q is physically disconnected, leaving no residual access or background processes behind. Built-in support for Tailscale, ZeroTier, and WireGuard VPN keeps remote connections encrypted and firewall-friendly, while two-factor authentication adds yet another layer on top. Remote access that works through hardware rather than software has been a long time coming for phones and tablets.
Some grill pans spend their days at the back of a cabinet, too heavy to bother with and too uneven to trust. Then there are the ones that earn a place on the stove every single time. The Compact Modular Grill Plate belongs to the second category. Built with a three-layer steel construction that spreads heat evenly across its entire surface, it closes the gap between a proper kitchen sear and a campfire meal, without making you choose between the two.
What makes it worth owning is the adaptability. Handles swap out depending on the situation. The plate runs on campfires, gas burners, and induction stoves without modification. When cooking is done, the whole setup packs flat, small enough to fit in a bag without reorganizing everything around it. That level of flexibility does not happen by accident. It is the result of a design that actually solves the problem rather than merely describing it.
The three-layer steel plate is where the performance begins. Single-layer pans burn where the flame sits and fade everywhere else, which is how a good cut of meat ends up patchy and dry in the wrong places. The layered construction here distributes heat uniformly from the edge to the center, keeping the temperature consistent across the entire cooking surface. The result is a better sear, better moisture retention, and food that actually tastes the way it should. Compatible with campfires, gas burners, and induction stoves, it performs just as well in a small apartment kitchen as it does over an open fire on uneven ground.
Modular, Compact, Actually Practical
Most portable cookware treats portability as a footnote. The Compact Modular Grill Plate starts there. The handle system swaps out depending on the setting, so the plate adjusts to whatever the cook needs rather than the other way around. Remove the handles for cleaning, and pack everything flat for travel. There is a specific kind of satisfaction in gear designed to disappear when you are done with it, and this plate earns that cleanly. It comes in a Basic set and a Special set for those who want more to work with from the start.
What We Like
Three-layer heat distribution: a properly engineered cooking surface that keeps temperature uniform for consistent sears and better moisture retention from edge to center
Multiple heat source compatibility: campfire, gas, and induction in one plate with no adapters and no compromise between settings
Swappable handle design: takes seconds to change and genuinely adapts the plate to whatever situation the cook is working in
Compact pack-down: flat storage with handles removed; the kind of practical detail that determines whether gear actually makes the trip
What We Dislike
No surface treatment specified: the product does not clarify whether the cooking surface has a non-stick finish, which matters for cooking delicate proteins and for cleanup expectations
Limited set configuration: Basic and Special cover the range well, but there is no option to add a single accessory without committing to a full set upgrade
The Cookware That Goes Where You Go
The Compact Modular Grill Plate was built for cooking that happens outside the ideal. An unpredictable campfire. A countertop induction burner in a small space. A situation where the cookware needs to adapt before you do. It handles all three without changing what it is, which is a rarer quality in portable cookware than it should be.
If what you are currently cooking with makes the meal harder than it needs to be, this is the straightforward fix. Pick upthe Basic or Special set and take the guesswork out of the next meal.
The Soviet Union had a complicated relationship with spectacle. Everything about Soviet ideology pointed toward collective purpose, practical function, and the rejection of excess. And then they went and built circus arenas shaped like flying saucers, out of raw concrete, in capital cities across Central Asia and Eastern Europe. If that is not a contradiction worth paying attention to, I do not know what is.
Cirk, a new book from David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka of Zupagrafika, makes that contradiction its entire subject. The Poznań-based design duo have spent over a decade documenting the brutalist and modernist architecture of the former Eastern Bloc, and Cirk is their latest, most playful entry in that ongoing project. The book surveys the permanent circus arenas built across the former USSR from the 1960s through the 1980s, buildings that, as Zupagrafika puts it, combined “socialist modernism, experimental engineering, and choreographed spectacle.” It is an architectural typology most people have never thought about, and yet once you see these buildings, you cannot stop looking.
But the part of Cirk that has people talking is not the photography, gorgeous as it is. It is the second half of the book: five press-out paper models of actual circus buildings, designed for readers to punch out and assemble with nothing but glue. The five models represent the Kyrgyz State Circus in Bishkek, the Chișinău State Circus in Moldova, the Dnipro State Circus in Ukraine, the Great Moscow State Circus, and the Tashkent State Circus in Uzbekistan. Five buildings. Five cities. Five strikingly different pieces of architecture, each one reduced to a miniature you can hold in your hands.
I have a genuine soft spot for paper models, and I think their reputation as a “children’s activity” has always undersold what they actually are. A well-designed paper model is an act of translation. Someone has to study a real building, understand its geometry from every angle, figure out how to collapse it into a flat sheet, and do it in a way that holds together when you fold it back up. That is not trivial when the buildings in question are full of curves, cantilevers, and circular geometry. The circus arenas in Cirk are not simple boxes. Many have sweeping domed roofs and wide cylindrical bases, and the kind of sculptural confidence that makes them look like props from a science fiction film. Getting that geometry to behave on paper requires real design skill, and Zupagrafika clearly has it.
The studio has been producing paper model kits alongside their books for years, so this is familiar territory. But tucking five models into the back of a hardcover book feels like a deliberate choice, not an afterthought. The models are not a gimmick. They are an argument. You can look at photographs of the Great Moscow State Circus for a long time, and it will remain something abstract and distant. When you press out those perforated shapes and fold them into a miniature version of that building, something shifts. The scale changes. The building becomes tactile and personal. You start to understand its proportions in a way that a photograph simply cannot deliver.
There is also something quietly political about the whole exercise. These arenas were built as monuments to Soviet power, intended to be overwhelming and permanent. Reducing one to a paper model is almost cheeky. It takes these grand gestures of ideological architecture and makes them domestic, approachable, collectible. The Soviet state is long gone. Someone is now folding the Great Moscow State Circus on their kitchen table. History has a strange sense of humor.
Cirk is a hardcover running 88 pages, sized generously at 30 by 24 centimeters, giving the models room to breathe on the page. The first half carries photography and historical essays, with a foreword from writer Jelena Prokopljević. It is a complete package: context, visual archive, and the hands-on satisfaction of making something. For anyone drawn to architecture, Cold War history, or just the very specific pleasure of a perforated page coming apart cleanly, Cirk is a book that earns its shelf space. The flying-saucer buildings are absolutely worth it.
Most lighting does one thing: it illuminates. If it’s beautiful, that’s a bonus. If it fits the space, you’re winning. But every once in a while, a design comes along and quietly expands the definition of what an object is supposed to be, and Fiore by Jimmy Rojas is doing exactly that.
Fiore is a wall-mounted sconce, but to call it only that would be selling it short. At its core, it’s a multisensory piece that combines light, living flowers, and fragrance into a single wall-mounted object. The concept is elegantly simple: a built-in vase holds real blooms, and a signature scent designed to complement their natural aroma diffuses into the room. You’re not just looking at a beautiful light fixture; you’re experiencing it. You smell it. You watch the flowers change as the week goes on.
Designer: Jimmy Rojas
The design came out of Jimmy Rojas’ time at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and it’s been collecting recognition ever since. Fiore earned a Silver at the International Design Awards in the Conceptual Products category, was a People’s Choice honoree at the 2025 NYCxDESIGN Awards, and made its way to Salone Satellite in Milan, one of the most competitive stages for emerging designers in the world. These aren’t small accolades. They signal that the design community is paying attention, and for good reason.
What makes Fiore feel particularly relevant right now is the way it taps into something a lot of us are quietly craving: interiors that actually engage more than just our eyes. Biophilic design, the idea of bringing natural elements into our living spaces, has been a conversation in design circles for years. But Fiore takes that concept and makes it literal in the most delicate way possible. A real flower in your wall, radiating fragrance into the room. No screen, no app, no complicated setup. Just nature, light, and scent.
I’ll be honest, I have a slight bias here. I’ve always believed that the best design doesn’t announce itself loudly. It earns its place in a room by making life feel slightly better, slightly richer, in ways you notice over time rather than all at once. Fiore operates on that frequency. It’s the kind of object you come home to and slowly appreciate more as the days pass.
It’s also worth looking at how Fiore fits into the current interior design moment. Maximalism is back with force, from statement furniture to bold wallpapers to gallery walls stacked floor to ceiling. Within that landscape, Fiore manages to feel both bold and restrained. It’s wall-mounted, so it doesn’t compete for floor or shelf space. But it holds living flowers and diffuses scent, so it commands presence in a way that a standard sconce never could. Balancing those two qualities is genuinely difficult to pull off.
Rojas clearly understands that fragrance is one of the most underused tools in interior design. Candles and reed diffusers have long dominated the home fragrance space, and while they work well, they’re objects that sit on a surface and do their thing passively. Fiore integrates scent into the architecture of the room itself, into the wall, which feels like a genuinely new idea. The fact that the fragrance is designed to pair specifically with the real flowers in the vase adds another layer of intentionality that sets this apart from a concept piece that’s merely clever.
If Fiore moves into full production, there are real-world questions worth asking: how often do the flowers need replacing, what happens in winter when fresh blooms are harder to source, and whether the fragrance component can be made refillable and sustainable. Those aren’t dealbreakers, just the details that turn a great concept into a great product. But as a concept, Fiore is one of the more complete design ideas in recent memory. It knows what it wants to be, and it commits fully. Lighting has always been foundational to how a space feels. Fiore is simply asking whether it couldn’t also shape how a space smells, and how alive it feels. The answer, apparently, is yes.