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Ex-BlackBerry Designer Is Calling Out Everything That’s Wrong With Modern Phones

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Design Mindset is Yanko Design’s weekly podcast, powered by KeyShot, the 3D rendering and visualization software that helps designers test how products feel, not just how they look. Hosted by Radhika Seth, the show goes deep into the philosophy and process behind world-class products, sitting down with the designers and founders who actually built them. Episode 19, premiering this week, is one of the most thought-provoking conversations the series has produced yet.

Joseph Hofer is the founder of Hofer Studio, where he consults with hardware entrepreneurs on building profitable, world-class product portfolios. Before that, he spent over a decade at BlackBerry as senior industrial designer, establishing the look and feel of the iconic Bold family and shaping devices like the Q10, Z10, and the BlackBerry Passport. His work spans over sixty design and utility patents, touching products that have sold over twenty-one million units and generated upward of $3.1 billion in revenue. More recently, he’s been the design force behind the Clicks Communicator, a physical-keyboard phone that launched at CES and challenges the smartphone status quo from the ground up.

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Designing Within Human Limits and Intentional Use

Joseph opens the conversation with something that sounds almost poetic but lands with the weight of a core design principle, saying that “most of the objects we use every day quietly train us. They teach us how to hold them, how long to focus, how patient we need to be. When design ignores human limits, it drains us. When design respects them, it almost feels like care.” He critiques what he calls “sticky” experiences, the kind that benefit companies at users’ expense, arguing that the real question designers should be asking is whether a product helps people become a better version of themselves, or whether the company simply wins after ten years of draining them.

His case against the modern smartphone is pointed. Everything phones have become reactionary devices, he says, describing the experience of opening one to send an email and somehow finding yourself fifteen minutes deep in a reel, asking yourself how you got there. Big tech, in his view, has deliberately shaped products to increase screen time and sell more through ads. His philosophy runs in the opposite direction: good design should prompt intention before action, not exploit the absence of it.

Integration as Core Design Principle

One of the more revealing details Joseph shares early on is that at BlackBerry, the design team’s official title wasn’t “Industrial Design.” It was Design Integration. That framing stayed with him. “Integration is probably the word, the action that I look to do well in every project I work on,” he says, adding that a product can be really strong in one area but fall flat in others if you’re only focused on a single dimension. Great design, strong UX, and poor profit economics don’t add up to a sustainable company. Economics, manufacturing, cost, and complexity all have to be part of the thinking from the start.

His advice to technical founders reflects the same logic. Many of them start with a breakthrough innovation and then go looking for a market to push it into, which he sees as working in the wrong direction. The better path is to step back, clearly analyze the problem bubbling up from the market, shape an experience that solves it, and then let the technology marry with that. Letting one run too far ahead of the other is how good innovations end up as products nobody uses.

The Clicks Communicator: Intentional Mobile Interaction

The Clicks Communicator is the most direct physical expression of Hofer’s philosophy. It was the first phone he designed in ten years after BlackBerry, and the central idea is a complete inversion of how smartphones currently work. Rather than an app grid that presents notifications and pulls users in reactively, the Communicator prompts users to decide what they want to do first, then acts on it. Physical keys map to intentional shortcuts: pressing K calls a specific contact, pressing I opens Instagram only when the user has consciously chosen to. “It flips it from being reactionary to intentional,” Joseph says simply.

He’s also clear that the product’s appeal isn’t nostalgia. A lot of the customers aren’t even BlackBerry users, he notes; they’re younger people who simply want a different relationship with their mobile device. The Communicator sits within what he sees as a broader 2025 trend of “intentional tech,” products designed to decouple from the everything-phone model and serve one specific purpose well. Adding a 3.5mm headphone jack and a removable SD card wasn’t feature-stacking for its own sake either; those choices are signals to a specific audience that the team is listening and cares about them.

Recognizing Quiet Ideas and Process Discipline

When Radhika points out that the BlackBerry keyboard now feels like it was always inevitable, Hofer pushes back immediately. “Sometimes these quiet ideas that feel obvious or become obvious actually took a lot of effort and iteration to get there,” he says, describing the motto his team lived by: think, build, test. The keyboard’s evolution wasn’t a single stroke of insight; it was a response to real constraints. As iPhones pushed screens larger, BlackBerry faced intense pressure to shrink keypads, which meant switching from oval keys to square ones, losing the tactile separation users relied on. The innovation was subtle: raising a curved edge on each square key to preserve the feeling of the oval, essentially hiding a reference to the old shape inside the new form. Speed tests, accuracy tests, user sentiment on different options, all of that grinding iteration is what produced something that feels natural.

He applies the same thinking to simplicity broadly. Designing for a ten-year-old, he argues, is one of the most useful principles any designer or founder can adopt. If you can’t explain the product to a ten-year-old, it’s too complicated. He tested this literally the night before the recording, sitting down with his eight-year-old daughter to ask about her CD player. Her answer was that it had way too many buttons. Her ideal? Three: power, volume up, volume down. Six identical-feeling buttons with in-mold graphics that disappear in the dark told a clear story about what the designers had gotten wrong.

Restraint as Confidence and Commercial Strategy

The tension between restraint and visibility is something Hofer takes seriously. He doesn’t frame minimalism as a virtue in itself. “Clarity is actually an even stronger word,” he says, arguing that a vanilla product solving a vanilla problem will simply go unnoticed. The goal isn’t to be quiet; it’s to solve a real, specific problem so well that the product becomes the only answer for a particular group of people. A phrase he came up with captures where he’s trying to take the companies he works with: from viral products to vital ones, products that customers genuinely need in their lives because of the difference they’ve made.

That philosophy maps directly onto commercial outcomes. A product that meets the emotional and functional needs of a user, reduces cognitive load, lasts longer, and has lower return rates naturally builds a brand that draws people in without needing to be aggressively sold. “When products are just better,” he notes, “they need to be marketed and sold maybe less. That’s an effect on your bottom line.” His work at Hofer Studio is less about crafting beautiful objects and more about asking founders what commercial success actually means to them and building backwards from that.

When the rapid-fire round asks him to describe restraint in design in a single word, his answer arrives without hesitation: confidence. “What does obviousness create? It creates confidence. I know how to enter this experience. I know how to start this product. I feel more confident with it in my life.” It’s a fitting close to a conversation that consistently returned to the same idea: that the design decisions nobody notices are usually the ones that took the most care to make.

Design Mindset drops every week on Yanko Design. Catch Episode 19 in full wherever you listen to podcasts. For a free trial of KeyShot, visit keyshot.com/mindset.

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The post Ex-BlackBerry Designer Is Calling Out Everything That’s Wrong With Modern Phones first appeared on Yanko Design.

“Stop Treating Designers as Tools”: Ayush Singh on Ownership, Burnout and Speaking Up in Indian Brands

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Yanko Design’s weekly podcast, Design Mindset, continues to bring raw, unfiltered conversations about what it really means to work in design today. Episode 18, Powered by KeyShot, tackles a topic many Indian designers experience but rarely discuss openly: the uncomfortable gap between what brands promise about design investment and what actually happens behind closed doors. Each week, the podcast peels back the layers of design practice, exploring not just the creative work but the professional realities that shape it.

This week’s guest, Ayush Singh Patel, brings a perspective shaped by years at the intersection of ambition and reality. Currently Associate Director of Industrial Design at Noise, where he leads audio and accessories categories, Ayush previously spent time at boAt Lifestyle, leading five sub-brands and contributing to the design of everything from wireless headphones to smartwatches to grooming products. His experience spans the full product lifecycle, from concept to launch, but more importantly, he’s navigated the complex dynamics of being an in-house designer in India’s explosive consumer tech ecosystem. What unfolds in this conversation is a candid examination of derivative design, creative ownership, and what it takes to push for genuine innovation when the system is built for speed and cost efficiency.

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From “Glorified Localization” to Building Design Credibility

The conversation opens with a striking admission from Ayush: “I joined brands that proudly call themselves design driven, expecting to lead innovation. Instead, I found myself in meetings where the brief was literally make it look like this western brand, but make it cheaper. That’s not design leadership, that’s glorified localization. The real question isn’t whether Indian brands invest in design. It’s whether they invest in their own design vision or just outsource the thinking and ask internal teams to clean up the execution.”

Ayush’s own hiring story reveals how this dynamic begins. He wasn’t selected for his industrial design expertise or technical knowledge. “All they liked was the kind of portfolio work that I put out on Instagram and Behance, and they liked those pretty images. So there was no technicality in my interviews. They just wanted that sort of outcome for their products.” It took nearly a year and a half to convince stakeholders of what he could actually contribute beyond aesthetics. His first real opportunity came through rendering. In 2018-2019, e-commerce was entirely image-based, and conceptual renders performed exceptionally well. “Anything that was sold online on platforms like Amazon or Flipkart was truly image-based, right? Everything was about how glorified of a concept you can showcase.” The results were immediate: sales increased because customers were convinced to buy what they perceived in those images, not the reality of the products. This success created the opening for deeper design involvement.

The Strategic Path from CMF to Original R&D

Once sales growth validated design’s commercial impact, Ayush introduced CMF (Color, Material, Finish) as the next frontier. “I came and said there’s a thing called CMF design. So you can start with something as small as color. You don’t have to pay a lot of money, you can talk to the Chinese manufacturers, you can add those colors. And then obviously, it will change the game completely, because now people will have more options to buy from.” The Indian market’s aesthetic inexperience became an advantage. Consumers were looking for cheap technology that looked different, and without established reference points for good or bad aesthetics, bold CMF choices stood out on crowded e-commerce platforms.

The impact was substantial. “Through colors, we crossed over that thing where design can be weighed down, not in terms of aesthetics, but colors. And that’s what made the company grow from almost 90 crore revenue to 200-300 crore revenue.” The next step involved tweaking aesthetics of Chinese-sourced products with small mold modifications. “The reception from the customers was bonkers. It did not lead to as much sales because obviously it drove the costs a little high. But the way people understood that there’s something beyond buying a product from China and launching it, they saw in and out development, right? Someone cared about every bit of visuals that went out. There were specific colorways, people were somehow glorifying luxuriousness.” This gradual proof of concept finally convinced leadership to commit resources. From 2022 onwards, the company began developing its own products, marking a shift from localization to original design.

“Think Inside the Box”: Design Process for Fast-Paced Markets

Ayush’s philosophy directly contradicts traditional design education. “I’ll say something controversial here. Since design school, you’re somehow pushed to think outside the box, which is obviously a place where you can actually drive some sort of innovation. But if you work in a company that’s going for mass production, catering to large audiences at a fast pace, these consumers are not normal consumers. They’re not faithful to you. There are so many brands in the same market, so you have to innovate as fast as possible. And obviously, if you understand the market, innovation comes with time.” The solution challenges design orthodoxy: “The shortest way for you to reach innovation is change the outer aesthetics. If you think outside the box, you incur a lot of R&D costs. That will go through numerous approvals, numerous discussions back and forth from your manufacturing units. And that’s basically a lead time of one and a half to two years. In that time, there’ll be five to ten competitors who will come and go.”

The practical framework becomes clear: “We realized it’s a place where we need to set up our process in which we think inside the box, because an earphone or a speaker will look like an earphone or speaker. That’s the example I give to any person I ever hired. If you’re trying to design a car, it will look like a car. You cannot make it look like a plane.” The design process itself had to be restructured to bypass sketching and go straight to 3D. “There’s no point for us to sit down and make a sketch and me going to a founder who has nothing to do with the design process, who doesn’t care about why it takes you so much time. He only cares about: have you made something for me that I can produce.” Perhaps most revealing is Ayush’s assessment of what the job actually entails: “Design is the easy job. Design is literally five percent of what I actually do. Ninety-five percent is, irrespective of whether it’s a design by me or my team, I have to go and meet so many people from different teams who don’t care about what it took you to make this design. And just go there and be open-ended to receiving any kind of feedback and just sell that design. Being a great designer doesn’t mean you can design something, it’s how well you can sell it to other people.”

The Copy-Paste Reality and Cultivating Real Creativity

The copy-paste culture creates fundamental challenges for original work. “When there’s no good design, there’s no bad design, then there’s only the design that is known. So what you see is what you can weigh. Any person who’s beyond design will never be able to appreciate that as something new. And for a company that’s super price-critical, for a company that wants to innovate every six months, they’ll only want a bet that’s tried and tested.” When given explicit instructions to copy, Ayush developed a strategy of creative resistance: “I’ll be put in a position by a certain CXO or member I’m reporting to, basically laid out saying copy this. And I would come up being smart enough, trying to make a window, and I’d say okay, I’ll copy this, but I’ll give you my understanding of what it should look like. And then I would be basically thrashed, and they would say no, I told you to copy this. So I would end up going as close as it is to the inspiration, but I was still trying to stay away from it. The winning situation for me is how well can I sell that this looks like that, but it’s not the same, but this will work for you.”

The impact on designers working in these environments is profound. “We’re basically finishing up all the resources left for aesthetics, because there’s no innovation to back it up, right? So there will be a time where I’ll end up using all the innovations in terms of CMF at that given price tag. And the next people who take my position will not have anything left to innovate on. The people who I hire as interns or full-timers will come and explore the same thing that we did three years back. You’re following the same pathway that I did ten years back or five years back. So you’re bound to make the same mistakes to reach there.” His advice to his team reflects the only path he’s found to sustained growth: “The only way you can cultivate creativity is by doing something beyond what you’re getting paid for. I would just ask these people working with me to spend more time outside. The real work for a designer begins after the nine to five. Once you go back home, the kind of people you interact with, the kind of platforms you sit on, maybe Yanko Design, maybe Behance, any platforms that can somehow make you ask a question. People used to ask me, how are you able to execute things so fast? I optimized my working by making so many mistakes in my personal projects that I can go to my office next morning and do the same thing in half an hour.”

Speaking Up: From Skill to Creator

For Ayush, the path to changing the industry starts with designers finding their voice. “I think for designers to speak up. In a room, I’ve been the biggest introvert my entire life. But I realized if I don’t speak up, no one will care about design. And it’s on the place of basically shouting design, not just talking about it. Being in a place where you can speak up, and just taking that narrative, just start with being the face of design in the company. Maybe you’re in a junior role or a senior role, start sharing opinions. Even the people working within my team at the moment are very shy in terms of sharing opinions to a founder or to a person from a different team. They’ll slide in my DMs and say, this is what I feel. And I say you should be open about it. If you don’t share it, they will never respect your opinions.”

The fundamental shift needed is in how designers are perceived. “At the moment, designers are seen as skills rather than creators. That’s the one narrative that I’m completely against and I try to push off. People should start seeing you as creators, because if they believe you’re a skill, then they’ll always try to guide you to do a certain thing, maybe copying designs or just following exactly what they’re asking you to do. In that process, you’ll burn out faster than anything because you’re trying to follow someone else’s vision of something. You’re just becoming a tool in between. Better than being a tool, you become a creator when you start speaking out and defending everything you’ve learned.” When challenged to prove an in-house team could outperform an expensive European consultancy, Ayush’s answer centers on empathy and collaboration: “An in-house team can always win through a solution which I call just talking to people. Any person who’s somehow involved in the process, if you truly talk to them and empathize and learn their side of work in the process, then you can create a solution that’s not only good-looking but also satisfying their needs.” His mentoring philosophy distills to a single essential quality: “The cheat sheet is, how much do you love it? That’s the biggest cheat sheet. If you’re not in love with it in India, you will not sustain. And a love beyond boundaries, a love that cannot be sacrificed, a love that you never turn away from.”

The conversation reveals an uncomfortable truth about design investment in India’s fast-growing consumer tech sector. The issue isn’t whether companies use the word “design” in their marketing or mission statements. The question is whether they empower internal teams to think or simply execute, whether they’re building design capabilities or just design departments. Ayush’s journey from rendering specialist to R&D leader demonstrates that change is possible, but it requires designers to be strategists, salespeople, and advocates as much as creatives. It demands proving commercial value repeatedly, speaking up even when it’s uncomfortable, and cultivating skills outside of work hours that will never appear in any job description.

For designers navigating similar environments, Ayush’s experience offers both validation and a roadmap. The constraints are real, the frustrations legitimate, but within those limitations, there’s still room to push boundaries, build trust, and gradually shift the conversation from “make it cheaper” to “make it ours.” You can connect with Ayush on LinkedIn or book a mentoring session with him on ADPList, where he’s been recognized as one of the top ten mentors multiple times.

Design Mindset premieres every week, bringing honest conversations about what it really takes to build a design career in today’s industry. Episode 18 is Powered by KeyShot, the 3D rendering and visualization software helping in-house design teams compete with the visual quality of global agencies.

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The post “Stop Treating Designers as Tools”: Ayush Singh on Ownership, Burnout and Speaking Up in Indian Brands first appeared on Yanko Design.

Infinix NOTE Edge Review: Visible Luxury

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PROS:


  • Distinctive material finishes feel intentional, tactile, and far removed from generic glass phones.

  • Curved AMOLED display integrates seamlessly into the frame with excellent visual balance.

  • Slim profile paired with large battery delivers comfort without sacrificing endurance.

  • Weight distribution feels centered, stable, and comfortable during long daily use.

  • Design language prioritizes subtle luxury over flashy, trend-driven aesthetics.

CONS:


  • Performance prioritizes consistency over raw power for demanding mobile gaming.

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

A design-led smartphone where materials, texture, and restraint create a genuinely premium visual identity.
award-icon

The Infinix NOTE Edge doesn’t announce itself through volume. It doesn’t rely on aggressive angles or oversaturated finishes to command attention. Instead, it arrives with a quieter confidence, the kind that reveals itself slowly as light shifts across its surface and the hand adjusts to its form.

I’ve spent time with devices that prioritize specification lists over tactile experience, and the NOTE Edge represents a deliberate departure from that approach. Infinix has made choices here that suggest an understanding of what makes an object feel considered rather than merely assembled. The 7.2mm profile isn’t thin for the sake of a number on a spec sheet. It’s thin because that dimension allows the curved display to flow into the frame without creating awkward transitions or compromising grip. The fact that a 6,500mAh battery fits inside without adding bulk says something about the internal engineering priorities.

What interests me most about this device isn’t any single feature. It’s how Infinix has leaned into a specific material language, treating the phone less like a piece of consumer electronics and more like a fashion object, with finishes that reference gemstones, textiles, and luxury accessories rather than the gradient glass that dominates this category. The NOTE Edge wants to be noticed, but it doesn’t want to shout. That tension between presence and subtlety defines the entire experience.

Design and Ergonomics

The Silk Green finish on our review unit operates differently than most smartphone surfaces. It’s a leather-like treatment with a texture evocative of luxury handbags, absorbing light rather than bouncing it back indiscriminately. Indoors, the color reads as deep and muted, almost forest-like in its saturation. Move outside, and the green opens up, revealing warmer undertones that shift depending on the angle of observation. This isn’t a static color. It’s a material that responds to its environment, and that responsiveness gives the phone a character that glass-backed devices simply can’t replicate.

The texture matters as much as the color. There’s no cold shock when you pick it up from a table. Fingerprints don’t accumulate the way they do on glossy surfaces. After extended use, the back panel still looks intentional rather than smudged.

Infinix offers alternative finishes that pursue a different aesthetic entirely. The Lunar Titanium, Stellar Blue, and Shadow Black variants use a cat-eye stone inspired treatment that creates visible movement as the phone tilts. Light doesn’t just reflect from these surfaces. It travels across them, producing shifting patterns that never quite settle into a fixed appearance. The finish has enough grip to feel secure without becoming tacky, and it maintains that feel whether your hands are dry or slightly damp. The effect is dramatic without crossing into garish territory, and it demonstrates that Infinix isn’t limiting itself to a single design vocabulary.

The 3D curved 1.5K AMOLED display integrates with the frame through a transition that eliminates the hard edge found on flat-screen devices. The curve is calibrated to reduce perceived width while maintaining usability across the entire display surface. Ultra-narrow bezels, with the bottom edge measuring just 1.87mm at its narrowest point, push content closer to the physical boundary of the device. The 6.78-inch panel feels immersive without forcing the body to expand beyond comfortable one-handed reach. A 120Hz refresh rate keeps motion smooth, 10-bit color depth renders gradients without visible banding, and 4500 nits of peak brightness means outdoor visibility doesn’t require cupped hands or squinting. Gamers benefit from a 2800Hz instant touch sampling rate that registers inputs faster than most users can perceive.

The interaction layer adds functional touches without cluttering the physical design. A dedicated One-Tap button on the frame provides customizable shortcuts to features like the flashlight, camera, or FOLAX AI assistant. The Active Halo Lighting around the rear camera module glows softly in response to notifications, calls, and charging status, with adjustable colors and stepless dimming. Neither element demands attention, but both reward users who engage with them. An integrated IR blaster lets you control TVs, air conditioners, and other appliances directly from the phone. eSIM support, a first for Infinix devices, adds flexibility for travelers and dual-SIM users who’d rather not swap physical cards. Availability varies by region and model, so check the official Infinix website to confirm eSIM support in your market.

Weight distribution deserves specific attention. A 6,500mAh battery creates density that could easily pull the phone off balance, making it feel top-heavy during vertical use or awkward during extended sessions. The NOTE Edge avoids this entirely, with mass centered in the chassis so scrolling, typing, and camera work all feel stable.

The glass-to-frame transition reinforces that sense of cohesion. There’s no lip or ridge where materials meet. Your grip flows uninterrupted around the device, which matters more than it might seem during the first few minutes of handling. Over hours, that seamlessness translates to reduced fatigue. The phone disappears physically while remaining visually present, which is exactly the balance a design-forward device should achieve. Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protects the curved display surface, and IP65 dust and water resistance means the materials can handle exposure to the elements without requiring constant caution.

Software and User Experience (XOS 16)

XOS 16 plays a bigger role in how the NOTE Edge feels than you might expect. Built on Android 16, the interface doesn’t compete with the hardware for attention. It supports it. Transitions stay smooth, layouts feel intentional, and nothing about the experience pulls focus away from what you’re actually doing on the phone.

The Glow Space design language shows up in subtle ways rather than obvious visual tricks. Depth effects, layered wallpapers, and motion cues work especially well with the curved display, giving the interface a sense of dimension without becoming distracting. It pairs naturally with the phone’s physical form, which matters when you’re swiping one handed or shifting between apps quickly. After a few hours, the software fades into the background, which is exactly what good interface design should do.

Haptics feel restrained and precise. Taps register cleanly. Gestures feel confident without being exaggerated. There’s enough feedback to reinforce interaction, but not so much that it becomes noise. Combined with the curved edges and balanced weight, the software contributes directly to how comfortable the device feels over long sessions.

Infinix’s AI layer works best when it stays quiet. System level optimization, background task management, and two-way AI noise reduction operate without demanding attention. The noise cancellation works in both directions, cleaning up background sound on your end while also filtering what you hear from callers. That restraint fits the overall tone of the NOTE Edge.

Longevity is where XOS 16 quietly strengthens the value of the device. Infinix commits to three years of OS updates and five years of security patches, which changes how you think about living with the phone long term. This isn’t software designed to feel fresh for a few months and then age out. It’s built to remain stable, secure, and familiar well beyond the initial ownership window.

Performance and Camera

The MediaTek Dimensity 7100 5G handles daily use without calling attention to itself. Swiping, launching apps, and unlocking all register instantly. It’s the kind of platform that does its job and stays out of the way.

That consistency holds over longer sessions. I kept messaging, maps, and media apps running simultaneously and never felt the system hesitate or dump background processes. The interface stayed responsive after hours of mixed use, which matters more than benchmark numbers when you’re navigating an unfamiliar city or bouncing between work threads and personal messages. Heat management impressed me more than raw speed. Extended navigation, casual gaming, and heavy browsing didn’t produce the kind of warmth that makes you shift your grip or set the phone down. The chassis stayed comfortable against my palm throughout full afternoon sessions. Infinix clearly tuned this device for sustained operation rather than brief bursts of peak performance.

Signal stability reinforces that dependability. Infinix’s UPS 3.0 Super Signal Technology focuses on low-frequency cellular bands, the 615 to 960 MHz range that travels farther and penetrates obstacles better than higher frequencies. These are the signals that actually reach you in elevators, underground parking garages, and concrete-heavy buildings when everything else drops off.

The engineering behind it involves physically larger antenna components. Infinix increased the radiation arm area of the main low-frequency antenna by 50 percent and the auxiliary antenna’s radiation wall by 30 percent. That translates to a 1.5 to 2 dB gain in low-frequency reception, which sounds modest on paper but shows up clearly in practice. Calls held steady in places where I normally expect a brief dropout. Data kept flowing in basement-level parking where other phones tend to stall while searching for signal.

It’s the kind of reliability you only notice when it’s missing.

The camera follows that same practical mindset. It’s built to produce usable results without demanding expertise.

This is a dual camera setup. The 50MP main sensor handles all meaningful imaging work, while the secondary lens exists for depth separation in portrait shots.

The 50MP main sensor handles everyday situations with consistent color accuracy from shot to shot. Outdoor images retain detail without oversaturating, and indoor shots keep skin tones natural under mixed lighting. Low light performance benefits from Infinix’s AI RAW imaging algorithm, which lifts shadow detail without flattening contrast or blowing highlights. Texture stays intact where other processing tends to smooth everything into mush. You don’t need to fight the camera or babysit settings. Point, shoot, and move on works more often than not.

Live Photo Mode captures a three-second window around each shutter press, giving you motion instead of a single frozen frame. It’s useful for candid moments, pets, or scenes where timing matters. Exporting as GIFs, setting captures as live wallpapers, or sharing to iPhones via NFC makes the feature feel integrated rather than bolted on. The implementation suggests Infinix thought about how people actually use these clips rather than just checking a feature box.

Video recording stays predictable and clean. Footage looks solid in good light, motion doesn’t introduce distracting jitter, and audio capture handles casual recording without issues. Nothing here feels experimental or unfinished.

Audio and Sound Performance

Sound is handled by a dual stereo speaker system co-engineered with JBL, and it’s immediately noticeable once you stop defaulting to headphones. Volume comes up without harshness, and the tonal balance stays intact even when you push it higher than you normally would for casual listening. There’s actual separation here, with dialogue staying forward in videos and podcasts while music doesn’t collapse into a single flat plane.

Infinix leans on a five-magnet acoustic system and a high-elasticity silicone rubber diaphragm, which sounds technical until you use it. Bass has presence without rattling, mids stay clean, and highs don’t spike in a way that fatigues your ears over longer sessions. The diaphragm flexibility contributes to that balanced output, absorbing vibrations that would otherwise muddy the low end. The 360-degree symmetrical sound field matters more than I expected, especially when you’re watching something without holding the phone perfectly straight. Audio stays consistent whether the phone is resting on a table, propped up, or held casually in one hand. That positional flexibility makes the speakers feel genuinely usable rather than an afterthought.

Sustainability and Longevity

Battery capacity tells only part of the endurance story. The 6,500mAh cell in our review unit (6,150mAh in certain regional configurations) provides multi-day operational potential under moderate use patterns. This isn’t about chasing screen-on time records. It’s about eliminating the anxiety that comes with uncertainty around whether a device will last through an unpredictable day.

In practice, that translates to roughly 22 hours of continuous video playback or 26 hours of outdoor navigation before you need to reach for a cable. When you do need to refuel, 45W All-Round FastCharge gets you to 50% in about 27 minutes and a full charge in just over an hour. Bypass Charging routes power directly to the system board during gaming or navigation, which keeps the battery out of the thermal loop and reduces heat buildup during extended plugged-in sessions.

Long-term battery health becomes relevant when capacity numbers reach this scale. Infinix claims the battery retains more than 80% capacity after 2,000 full charge cycles, equivalent to over six years of typical daily use. The company also cites self-healing technology that repairs micro-damage through dynamic recrystallization during low-current recovery. These aren’t marketing abstractions. They’re engineering claims with testable outcomes, and they suggest the multi-day endurance you experience initially should hold over the ownership cycle rather than eroding within the first year. The durability framing extends beyond just the battery. Material choices across the device suggest consideration for how surfaces age, how components withstand repeated stress, and how the phone maintains its character over months rather than weeks.

XOS 16, built on Android 16, runs the software side. Infinix commits to three years of OS updates and five years of security patches, which represents the longest support window the NOTE series has offered. That commitment matters for a device positioned around longevity.

Value

The NOTE Edge occupies a market position that doesn’t get enough attention. It’s a design-forward midrange device, which means it competes on material quality and user experience rather than processor benchmarks or camera sensor counts. For users who prioritize how a phone looks and feels over how it performs in synthetic tests, the value proposition here is substantial.

What you receive for the price includes premium-feeling materials, balanced ergonomics, multi-day battery endurance, and a display that rivals more expensive devices in clarity and immersion. The Dimensity 7100 5G provides capable daily performance without generating the heat or power consumption of flagships processors. The camera handles real-world scenarios reliably. None of these elements represents a compromise.

The fashion-led color palette means the NOTE Edge appeals to users who want their technology to reflect personal aesthetic preferences. This isn’t a device that disappears into generic smartphone uniformity. It makes a statement.

Wrap Up

The Infinix NOTE Edge succeeds because it understands what it’s trying to be. It’s a considered object that prioritizes material quality, ergonomic refinement, and visual identity over the metrics that dominate most smartphone conversations.

The Silk Green finish exemplifies the approach. It’s a material choice that affects how the phone looks, how it feels, how it ages, and how it responds to its environment. Nothing about it exists in isolation. Every decision connects to a broader vision of what a design-forward smartphone should offer. That coherence is rare, and it’s what separates the NOTE Edge from devices that feel like committees designed them.

For users who’ve grown tired of phones that feel like interchangeable glass rectangles, the NOTE Edge represents an alternative worth serious consideration. Infinix has demonstrated that visible luxury and practical usability can coexist in the midrange segment. The result is a device that you’ll want to use, want to look at, and want to keep using long after the initial appeal of any new purchase typically fades.

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iF Design Award Makes Sustainability 20% of Your Score: What Designers Need to Know in 2026

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Yanko Design’s podcast, Design Mindset, continues to bring compelling conversations with design leaders who are shaping the future of the industry. Powered by KeyShot, the show premieres weekly, offering listeners deep dives into the minds of innovators, strategists, and visionaries. Episode 15 tackles one of the most critical shifts happening in design today: how sustainability has moved from a nice-to-have checkbox to a core measure of design excellence itself.

This week’s guest is Lisa Gralnek, a brand builder with 25 years of experience who currently serves as U.S. Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability and Impact for iF Design, a respected member of the international design community since 1953 and host of the prestigious iF Design Award. Lisa’s journey spans work with giants like Adidas and the Boston Consulting Group, giving her a unique vantage point on how sustainability has evolved from corporate afterthought to design imperative. In this conversation, she reveals how one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions is fundamentally redefining what “good design” means.

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Embedding Sustainability into iF Design’s Evaluation Framework

When asked about the decision to make sustainability one-fifth of the iF Design evaluation framework, Lisa shared her pride in the initiative. iF Design has been operating since 1954 and now spans nine disciplines across 93 categories, from product and packaging to branding communications, UX, UI, service systems, architecture, and interior architecture. The shift was deliberate and structural: iF Design moved from a general “impact” criterion to explicitly isolating environmental and social sustainability as 20% of the score. Commercial impact was repositioned into differentiation, one of their five criteria, allowing them to “really single out the environmental and social ramifications of a design.” This alignment reflects the iF Design Foundation’s core mission to advance design for a better world.

The design thinking process involved convening a Sustainability Working Group of eight experts from around the world who bring deep, often sector-specific sustainability expertise. “We work together to figure out what is the process, what is the questions, what are the certifications and accreditations we’re acknowledging, as well, most importantly, I would say, of supporting the jurors as they go through this process as well,” Lisa explained. The group co-developed processes, discipline-specific optional questions, recognized certifications and accreditations, and on-site juror support aimed at consistency, rigor, and education for both entrants and jurors. This collaborative approach ensures that sustainability evaluation remains both credible and practical across vastly different design categories.

Distinguishing Authentic Impact from Greenwashing

One of the biggest challenges facing any sustainability evaluation is distinguishing genuine innovation from performative claims. Lisa explained how the first year revealed significant gaps: jurors felt skeptical not about sustainability itself but about making accurate judgments with insufficient information. At that first jury, sustainability experts were on the ground for only the second year, and the feedback was clear. Entrants weren’t providing enough detail in the character-limited impact field for jurors to make informed decisions, whether they were discussing environmental impact, social impact, or business impact.

The solution was to embed three optional questions into every discipline, sometimes tailored at the category level, along with a selectable list of objective global, regional, and industry-led certifications. These questions remain optional because iF’s mandate focuses on rewarding good design rather than punishing inadequate submissions. Lisa gave a concrete example of how this helps identify hollow claims: when a television or computer monitor entry discusses sustainable packaging in the sustainability field, it raises red flags because the entry itself is about the product, not the packaging. In packaging specifically, iF piloted requesting a bill of materials (BOM) or digital product passport (DPP) to quickly validate claims about recycled content, compostability, low-impact inks, and water-saving processes. Interestingly, packaging entries dipped this year, raising the question of whether increased scrutiny discouraged greenwashing or simply affected submission rates.

“Fewer, Better” as a Design and Consumption Ethos

Lisa’s philosophy around sustainable design cuts to the heart of overconsumption. She candidly admitted that if she were being a radical sustainabilityist, “none of us needs anything. None of us needs anything anymore.” She recalled an interview on The Economist after the 2008 financial collapse where experts insisted people needed to buy, that society needed to incentivize consumption. But consuming our way out of financial collapse, she argues, represents the capitalistic model and business operating system of the world without necessarily serving the planet or people. Her first jury experience brought this reality into sharp focus: walking into the warehouse where 50% of the 10,000 to 12,000 annual entries are physically displayed, she burst into tears. The sheer volume of stuff human beings create, all in service of capitalism’s engine, became overwhelming when viewed through a sustainability lens.

So what does “fewer, better” actually mean in practice? Lisa explained it operates on two levels: individual conscious consumption choices and organizational design decisions. At the designer and company level, it means thinking through the circular R ladder: what can we refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, refurbish, or resale? “Fewer, better is like, I think it’s less extractive and more regenerative,” she explained. This approach shifts the entire paradigm from novelty-driven production cycles to necessity-driven design that prioritizes extending product lifecycles and reducing resource pressure. Even digital alternatives and AI, which some propose as solutions, carry their own massive environmental footprints, making the “fewer, better” ethos essential regardless of the medium.

The Shift from “Nice-to-Have” to Imperative

Lisa has been passionate about sustainability since early in her career, leaving fashion after nine years because she’d lost appreciation for the craft amid the luxury sector’s excesses. She attended graduate school intending to return and work on sustainability in luxury, but graduated into the 2008 financial collapse when sustainability wasn’t even a conversation starter. Her time at Boston Consulting Group revealed the depth of corporate resistance: she vividly remembers asking a snack food company CEO about greening their packaging supply chain at a luncheon and being laughed at by both the CEO and a senior partner. Whether the dismissal stemmed from her being a young woman among older men or the sheer absurdity they perceived in the question, she witnessed this pattern repeatedly across retail, travel and tourism, consumer packaged goods, and fashion. The consistent message: sustainability is awesome, so long as it doesn’t cost margin or sales.

Yet Lisa sees a significant shift happening now, driven primarily by consumers. Awareness of climate change, planetary degradation, and social unfairness has grown dramatically, particularly as social media makes information more accessible regardless of which news sources people consume. Most people globally now recognize there’s a problem and understand that action is needed. There’s also a compelling business case, as demonstrated by Walmart’s LED transition 15 to 18 years ago. Despite enormous upfront costs to change every light bulb in every warehouse and retail store, the head of sustainability reported a payback period of just three and a half weeks in energy savings. “So often you just need to make the change and people are so scared and teams are so siloed and you know people are afraid like you can’t be afraid and the business case is almost oh almost always there to do better,” Lisa observed.

Technology’s Double-Edged Sword: E-Waste and Hope

When asked about sustainable design trends she wished would disappear, Lisa pointed to a concerning paradox: our increasing dependence on technology. E-waste is burying us, with most electronic waste filled with rare earths that are extremely difficult to mine and controlled by very few players. This issue increasingly surfaces in geopolitical conversations and international trade negotiations yet remains underrepresented in sustainability discourse. Lisa referenced a presentation at South by Southwest where visuals showed the number of dump trucks filled with e-waste every hour that the world creates and deposits into landfills. These landfills poison water sources and ground soil, creating massive downstream pollution and health impacts. Everything exciting and technological, while representing the direction the world is heading, simultaneously presents this enormous environmental problem.

Yet within this challenge lies genuine hope. Lisa expressed excitement about the increase in repairability, recyclability, upgradability, and upcyclability in electronics, whether discussing car batteries, e-bike batteries, mobile phones, speakers, or computer interfaces. The momentum isn’t moving fast enough and integration remains incomplete, but the trajectory points toward keeping electronics in use longer and reducing waste. This trend represents designers and companies genuinely rethinking product lifecycles and moving away from planned obsolescence. Lisa’s realistic optimism captures the mindset she sees among sustainability leaders across disciplines: they’re very realistic about where we are and where we’ve been, but they’re willing to fight for transformation in the future. They recognize that future transformation only becomes possible when action starts today, with imperfect solutions, uncomfortable conversations, and puzzle pieces that contribute to a larger systemic change.

Design Mindset, Powered by KeyShot, premieres every week with new conversations exploring the minds shaping the future of design. Listen to the full episode with Lisa Gralnek to hear more insights on sustainability and how it plays a pivotal role in shaping iF Design’s outlook.

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The post iF Design Award Makes Sustainability 20% of Your Score: What Designers Need to Know in 2026 first appeared on Yanko Design.

DigiEra OmniCore at CES 2026: NAS That Searches Files Like ChatGPT

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For most designers and filmmakers, storage is the quiet problem that never gets a mood board. Projects start on phones, move through cameras and laptops, and end up scattered across drives and cloud folders that you half remember naming six months ago. CES 2026 is full of AI-driven devices and next-gen connectivity, but DigiEra’s booth is interesting because it treats storage as part of the creative environment, not just a spec to tick off on a spreadsheet.

The lineup tells a single story across four products. OmniCore is the modular, all-flash AI NAS that wants to be the studio’s private brain. Endura is the rugged field drive that can live in a bag without babying. Portable Hub SSD is the tiny block that turns a phone or camera into a serious capture and editing station. The Diamond Magnetic Portable SSD is the piece that lives on the back of an iPhone, turning storage into something closer to jewelry than IT gear.

Designer: DigiEra

OmniCore: AI NAS as a Private Studio Brain

The pain of hunting for assets across old drives and cloud accounts is real. OmniCore is DigiEra’s answer, a modular all-flash AI NAS designed to sit in a studio and quietly index everything. It supports up to 80 TB of SSD storage across eight 2.5-inch SATA bays and two M.2 slots, all hot-swappable, so the box can grow with a studio instead of being replaced every time a project spikes in size or a client asks for all the raw footage from three years ago.

OmniCore is not just a fast box of drives. A Rockchip RK3588 CPU, 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 6 TOPS NPU let it run AI tasks locally, from automatic image tagging and semantic search to transcription, document analysis, conversational chat, and clip generation. That means a designer can type “blue packaging concept with foil logo” and have the NAS surface relevant shots, instead of scrolling through folders named final underscore final underscore v3.

The privacy-first angle matters here. OmniCore is designed to work fully offline, with no cloud dependency, which is important when client work, unreleased campaigns, or personal archives cannot leave the building. Dual LAN ports, including 2.5 GbE, and Wi-Fi 6 support let it serve multiple editors or designers at once without feeling like a bottleneck, and Docker support means it can host custom tools alongside its own AI engine for people who need more than a basic file server.

The physical experience is part of the design. The cube-like form factor with front-loading SSD modules makes storage feel tangible and approachable, more like a card catalog than a server rack. Drives slide in and out on small trays, so expanding from a few terabytes to tens of terabytes is a matter of minutes, not a weekend migration project where everything has to stop. For small studios, that kind of modularity is as much a design decision as a technical one.

Endura Portable SSD: Rugged Speed with a Material Story

Endura is the drive that lives in the camera bag and follows people to shoots. DigiEra bills it as the world’s first portable SSD with an aluminum–carbon-fiber shell, rated IP65 for water, dust, and shock resistance. That combination of materials gives it a technical, motorsport-like feel, while also signaling that it can handle being tossed into a backpack, clipped to a rig, or dropped on a sidewalk without needing a protective case wrapped around a protective case.

Under the shell, Endura uses USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 over USB-C, delivering up to 2,000 MB/s read and 1,800 MB/s write speeds in capacities from 512 GB to 4 TB. For photographers dumping RAW stills between locations or filmmakers backing up cards on set, that means less time watching progress bars and more time shooting, with a drive that looks like it belongs in a design-conscious kit and can survive the environments where most shoots actually happen.

Portable Hub SSD: One Block to Replace the Dongle Pile

The Portable Hub SSD is the antidote to the usual tangle of hubs, drives, and chargers. It wraps the same 20 Gbps SSD core in a compact aluminum block that also acts as a hub, combining high-speed storage, PD fast charging, and extra USB-C connectivity. Plug it into a phone, tablet, or laptop, and it becomes both a scratch disk and an expansion port, turning one cable into a complete mobile workstation.

The fold-out USB-C plug and side ports make it particularly friendly to iPhones and USB-C cameras. Instead of hanging a drive and a hub off a gimbal or handheld rig, one block adds space for ProRes or LOG footage and passes power through to keep the phone or camera alive. For designers who sketch on tablets or edit on ultraportables, it is the kind of object that quietly simplifies the everyday carry, handling data and power from a single point without adding bulk or visual noise.

Diamond Magnetic Portable SSD: Storage as Visible Accessory

The Diamond Magnetic Portable SSD is the piece that never leaves the phone. It snaps magnetically to the back of an iPhone 15 or 16 Pro and records 4K 60 FPS ProRes video directly to external storage, lifting the ceiling on how long you can shoot without cages, rigs, or bulky battery grips. For content creators who rely on their phone as a primary camera, that is a big shift in what is possible with a pocket-sized setup.

The diamond-encrusted, circular design makes the drive look closer to a compact mirror or piece of jewelry than a tech accessory. Underneath, it still runs USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 over USB-C at up to 2,000 MB/s read and 1,800 MB/s write, in capacities up to 4 TB. That mix of performance and visual polish means it can stay on the phone in a meeting, a shoot, or a café without feeling out of place, turning storage into something you actually want to show rather than hide in a pocket until needed.

DigiEra at CES 2026: Turning Storage into a Creative Toolkit

OmniCore anchors the studio as a private, AI-enabled brain that knows where every file lives and can answer questions in natural language. Endura and Portable Hub SSD handle the messy middle, moving data safely and quickly between cameras, phones, and laptops, with materials and form factors that feel deliberate rather than generic. The Diamond Magnetic SSD lives on the phone, turning storage into something you actually want to show. That is DigiEra’s real story at CES 2026: storage treated not as an afterthought or a cloud subscription, but as a set of designed objects that respect the way creative work actually moves through the day, from the pocket to the field to the desk and back.

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Yanko Design’s Best Emerging Technologies at CES 2026: Hints at Tomorrow

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Every January, the Las Vegas Convention Center fills up with ideas that sit somewhere between prototype and inevitability. Some will vanish after a single news cycle, but a few feel like early drafts of how we will actually live with technology, once the spectacle wears off and the hardware shrinks into something you can forget about until you need it. Those are the ones worth bookmarking, the quiet experiments that hint at new categories rather than just new specs.

This year’s crop of emerging tech has a very particular flavor. Robots are edging closer to being housemates instead of stage acts, ambient objects are getting just enough AI to feel expressive rather than chatty, and work gear is evolving into compact appliances that reclaim space instead of stealing it. None of these ideas are mainstream yet, but they are all far enough along that you can imagine them in your home or on your desk, which is exactly what makes them so interesting to watch.

Vbot Companion Robotic Dog

Most quadruped robots people have seen are either industrial, loud, or built for stage demos rather than living rooms. Vbot is a companion robotic dog engineered around a single principle, Made to Be Near, designed for safe, quiet, human-scale proximity. The rounded body has no sharp edges, pinch-free joints maintain 2.5cm safety gaps, and soft-touch mesh covers the mechanical core. Low-noise locomotion using 3D-printed shock-dampening feet and tuned motors makes it quiet enough to watch over a sleeping baby.

Vbot’s social intelligence turns that safe form into something that feels alive and helpful. It interprets natural-language commands through tone, context, and meaning, understanding verbs like bring, follow, lead, show, or find without a remote. Agent intelligence breaks down objectives into steps, guiding visitors, escorting someone along a route, or positioning itself as a camera buddy for hands-free filming. It matches walking pace and repositions for better engagement.

Under the skin, embodied and spatial intelligence allow Vbot to operate as a real physical agent. Its legs use 22cm segments proportioned to match 18-20cm stair standards, giving it leverage to climb steps where wheeled robots struggle. A proprietary N45 motor delivers more torque at 25% less weight, while a 594Wh battery supports more than five hours of outdoor operation. A perception system with 360-degree LiDAR and UWB positioning understands paths and obstacles without cloud latency.

Vbot signals an early consumer-grade physical AI category. Unlike robots adapted from industrial platforms, it is built from scratch around close human proximity, readable motion based on animation principles, reliable battery life, and modular interfaces for cargo baskets, cameras, and tow carts. Its three-layer intelligence, embodied, spatial, and agent, points toward robots that are sociable enough to join you outside, smart enough to anticipate intent, and gentle enough to belong in family spaces.

Airseekers Tron Ultra Robotic Lawn Mower

Robotic mowers have mostly relied on differential steering or front omni-wheels to navigate yards, which works for wide-open lawns but struggles with tight corners and complex obstacles. Airseekers Tron Ultra uses a 4SWD drive system with independent control of each wheel, allowing it to move in ways that feel closer to industrial robotics than consumer lawn care. The mower can rotate in place without a turning radius, shift laterally, horizontally, or even diagonally through narrow gaps between garden beds, and pivot around obstacles up to 2.36 inches tall without backing up. That four-corner independence changes how the mower approaches difficult terrain. Upgraded high-traction wheels give it the grip to climb inclines up to 85% grade and traverse wet grass without spinning out, while intelligent environmental detection adjusts power distribution per wheel to prevent soil compaction and turf damage.

Under the hood, Omni Navigation combines AI vision sensors, LiDAR, and VSLAM mapping with a 300° field of view to feed real-time data to the 4SWD controller, dynamically adjusting wheel speed and direction as terrain changes. A 594Wh swappable battery supports up to 0.49 acres per charge, with the mower autonomously returning to its dock and resuming exactly where it left off. Paired with 360° radar beacons that eliminate dead zones under trees and around structures, the Tron Ultra reduces manual intervention by over 50% compared to earlier models. It signals a shift from mowers that follow preset patterns to machines that move like outdoor robots, treating lawns as navigable environments rather than obstacle courses.

Baseus Spacemate RD1 Pro Desktop Dock

USB-C hubs and flat docks have become standard, but most still sprawl across the desk with cables radiating in every direction. Baseus Spacemate RD1 Pro is a vertical, 15-in-1 docking station that treats the dock as a compact desktop appliance instead of a dongle. A single USB-C cable links a Windows laptop to dual 4K monitors, 10 Gbps USB-C ports, SD and TF slots, and 1 Gbps Ethernet, while the tall, minimalist tower tucks ports on the back and keeps the footprint small.

The Spacemate RD1 Pro merges that connectivity with a serious GaN power stack. An included 180 W GaN adapter feeds up to 160W of total output, with 100W PD reserved for the laptop, dual USB-C 100W-capable fast-charging ports for accessories, and a retractable Qi2.2 25W magnetic wireless pad on top for phones or earbuds. Intelligent power management dynamically allocates power and surfaces status on a front LED display, showing per-port draw and alerts. It feels like an early example of vertical, multifunctional docks becoming central power-and-I/O blocks for increasingly dense, multi-device workspaces.

Switchbot OBBOTO

Desks and living rooms are filling up with smart lights and displays, but most still behave like obedient bulbs or tiny billboards. SwitchBot OBBOTO is a desk-sized pixel globe that tries to be something closer to a companion, using more than 2,900 RGB LEDs, motion sensing, and music visualization to turn light into an expressive presence. It can show time and weather as patterns, react when someone walks by, and sit alongside SwitchBot’s Comfort Tech lineup as the one that gives the room a bit of personality.

OBBOTO leans on AI-driven mood animations and ambiance modes to adjust to what someone is doing, shifting between sleep-friendly scenes, focus-oriented visuals, or relaxed, reactive patterns that move with music. Interactive pixel art and animations can be triggered or customized, making it as much a canvas as a lamp. It hints that tomorrow’s smart home might rely less on flat screens and more on small, characterful devices that quietly broadcast information and vibe at the same time.

OPSODIS 1 Compact 3D Audio Speaker

Surround sound has usually meant either a ring of speakers around the room, a big soundbar that leans on wall reflections, or headphones that lock you into a bubble. OPSODIS 1 is a compact desktop 3D audio speaker that tries a different route, using Kajima’s OPSODIS technology to project a 360-degree sound field from a single box. The 6-channel, 3-way, 6-driver array delivers natural spatial cues without depending on walls or ceilings, making it as at home on a desk as in a small living room.

OPSODIS, developed with the University of Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, uses optimal source distribution, crosstalk cancellation, and a symmetrical layout with high-frequency drivers near the center axis to send precise sound to your ears. Multiple inputs, from Bluetooth and USB-C to optical and 3.5 mm, plus listening modes like Narrow, Wide, and Simulated Stereo, adapt to different setups. It hints at a shift where immersive audio is moving beyond headphones and multi-box systems, toward single, research-driven speakers that create convincing 3D soundstages from one spot on your desk.

ASUS ROG NeoCore WiFi 8 Router

Most routers are still anonymous black slabs you hide behind a monitor or under a TV, even as they quietly run more and more of the home. ASUS ROG NeoCore takes the opposite approach, turning next‑gen Wi‑Fi 8 hardware into an object you actually want on the desk. The faceted polyhedral shell, somewhere between a gaming dice and a sci‑fi artifact, replaces the usual antenna farm with a sculptural form that can sit flat or be wall‑mounted without looking like infrastructure.

That shape is not just for show. A rigid exoskeleton frame wraps a ventilated inner core, giving the router plenty of airflow while keeping ports and heatsinks tucked into one face. The multifaceted body helps distribute antennas in three dimensions, supporting the tri‑band Wi‑Fi 8 radio stack that pushes more data, more efficiently, to many devices at once. NeoCore ends up feeling like an early glimpse of networking gear designed as part of a performance‑focused setup, where the box handling low‑latency gaming, 4K streaming, and dense device loads finally looks as intentional as the hardware it supports.

LEGO SMART Brick

LEGO has flirted with electronics before, but usually in the form of obvious hubs or screen-tethered experiences. LEGO SMART Play shifts that by hiding a custom chip smaller than a stud inside the new SMART Brick, along with sensors, a sound engine, and wireless charging. Paired with SMART Tags and SMART Minifigures, it lets familiar builds react to swoops, crashes, and docking maneuvers with lights, motion-aware sounds, and contextual behaviors, while still feeling like pure, open-ended brick play on the table.

This platform quietly turns the entire LEGO System-in-Play into a canvas for responsive, screen-free interaction. Instead of asking kids to stare at a tablet, the SMART Brick listens through its sound sensor, feels through accelerometers, and responds through an onboard synthesizer, making ships, turrets, and throne rooms hum, fire, and react as they are moved. Because it is fully compatible with existing bricks and anchored in more than 20 patented world-first technologies, it feels like the early layer of a long-term platform that hints at everyday building blocks quietly carrying embedded intelligence.

LG CLOiD Home Robot

Home robots that can actually do chores are finally edging out of concept videos and into real homes. Robot vacuums are now background noise, and companies are quietly testing machines that can sort laundry or help in the kitchen instead of just answering questions from a speaker. LG’s CLOiD feels like the next step in that progression, a full-body home robot that does not just connect to appliances; it moves through the house and physically uses them.

CLOiD can take milk from the fridge, slide a croissant into the oven, start laundry cycles, and fold and stack clothes after drying. A tilting torso, two seven-degree-of-freedom arms, and five-finger hands ride on a wheeled base tuned for stability around kids and pets. LG’s AXIUM actuators give its joints compact, high-torque behavior, while a Vision Language Model and Vision Language Action system trained on tens of thousands of hours of household tasks lets it recognize appliances and coordinate with the ThinQ ecosystem, making housework automation feel less like science fiction.

iPolish Color-changing Press-on Acrylic Nails

Fashion and beauty are quietly becoming the next frontier for consumer tech, from smart fabrics to LED-laced festival fits, but nails have mostly stayed analog. iPolish is a set of smartphone-driven digital press-on acrylics that behave like reprogrammable cosmetics, with wearable electronic nails that can display hundreds of rich colors on demand. You apply them like regular press-ons, then pair the iPolish app with the Magic Wand over Bluetooth to send your chosen palette, turning color changes into a quick gesture instead of a full removal and repaint.

The interaction is simple: you choose colors in the app, the Magic Wand stores them, and each nail cycles through options when inserted, pausing with a green blink at one of your selections so you can stop at the exact shade you want. Colors can last minutes, hours, or days, and if your outfit or mood changes, you just reselect and reinsert rather than soaking off layers of polish. Because the system works with accessories and fashionwear as well as nails, it feels like an early glimpse of where beauty tech is heading, where digital finishes become as swappable as makeup.

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FLIR iXX: An App-Based Thermal Camera for the Deskless Office

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Traditional thermal inspections are messy. Technicians capture images, transfer them from SD cards to laptops, manually enter notes into spreadsheets, and spend hours back at the office generating reports. Around 60% of maintenance teams report a shortage of skilled thermographers, which makes the problem worse. Reporting alone can eat up half a technician’s time, turning straightforward inspections into documentation marathons.

FLIR’s iXX-Series is a response to that reality. It’s a handheld thermal imaging camera that behaves more like an app-enabled platform than a single-purpose tool. Built on FLIR’s ACE operating system, the iXX combines high-performance thermography with smartphone-style connectivity and an open app ecosystem. It’s designed for what FLIR calls the “deskless office,” where technicians need their camera to be rugged and smart.

Designer: FLIR

From Camera to App-Driven Platform

The iXX-Series comes in four models, i34, i35, i64, and i65, with thermal resolutions up to 480 × 640. Sensitivity sits under 40 mK at 30 °C, and accuracy hits ±2 °C or ±2%. Those specs matter as the foundation for structured, cloud-connected workflows that didn’t exist on older cameras.

According to the FLIR team, the focus is on “the importance of the deskless office, making sure data can flow in a seamless and customized way according to our customer needs.” That shift from hardware-first to workflow-first changes what the device is for. It’s about getting usable data into the right systems immediately.

The iXX integrates directly with FLIR Assetlink and Ignite, cloud systems that link thermal images to specific assets. Capture an anomaly on a motor, and it tags to that motor in your system, complete with trend data and inspection history. Reporting time, which traditionally consumes up to 50% of a technician’s day, can drop to nearly zero.

One electrical testing company using the iXX with the Condoit app cut their reporting from eight to 12 hours down to under five minutes for large jobs. That’s the kind of time savings that changes how teams actually work.

Designed for the Deskless Office

The hardware is built to survive. IP54 rating, 2 m drop test, 0.8 kg body, and a 5-inch touchscreen that works with gloves. Operating range runs from -15 °C to 50 °C. The battery lasts around four hours with quick charging. It’s industrial-grade housing with a consumer-grade interface layered on top.

The FLIR team explains that “with ergonomics and usability in focus as always for FLIR, it is a balance to address multiple different customer needs and applications with different levels of expertise.” You can hand this to a senior thermographer or a junior tech, and both will find it usable, just configured differently.

You also get an 8 MP visible camera, MSX image enhancement, a work light, and a laser pointer. These let a technician capture context and document conditions without juggling three devices. The touchscreen and app model make the iXX feel closer to a field computer than a traditional instrument.

Open Apps and Tailored Workflows

Where the iXX really diverges is the app ecosystem. It supports FLIR apps, third-party apps, and private apps built by customers. According to FLIR, “having the open approach is critical… now making sure it is easy for anybody to develop something tailored for their use case is a success factor.”

No two plants or facilities run inspections the same way, so the camera should adapt to the team. Apps can guide inexperienced technicians step by step, auto-link images to asset hierarchies, generate work orders with one tap, or enforce security policies. There’s definitely flexibility built into the platform.

A technician walking through a data center can scan electrical distribution gear, flag temperature anomalies, and sync everything to the cloud before leaving the room. By the time they’re back in the truck, the office team already has the data and dashboards updated automatically.

Always-Connected Inspections

Connectivity is built in via Wi-Fi across the line, and certain models, the i35 and i65, include LTE. The FLIR team notes that “a safer and more stable connection is key for having all the data at hand out in the field for taking correct and quick decisions, which can be time critical where cellular connectivity is crucial.”

Many outdoor or industrial sites don’t have Wi-Fi, making LTE the only option. With LTE, technicians can send images, messages, and video calls directly from the device. A junior tech scanning a substation can loop in a senior engineer via video without leaving the site. Office teams see data appear in dashboards in real time.

Inspections stop being isolated tasks and start looking more like live, collaborative workflows. That’s a pretty significant shift for teams used to working solo in the field.

Growing with the Platform and Closing the Skills Gap

Longevity is baked into the design. FLIR emphasizes that it’s “very important in our design decisions, from material choices to how to assemble and disassemble for service purposes… with the capability of growing with the platform and constantly increasing functionality through software updates and also with the app ecosystem where new functionality and features will be added by FLIR and others.”

The camera you buy today isn’t frozen. It’s a platform that keeps evolving through firmware updates and new apps. That also helps close the skills gap through app-guided workflows, onboarding tools, and configurable interfaces.

“With the ability to tailor for any customer needs, the data collections are made easier… and the fact that you as a user can choose what apps to download or even develop yourself makes it suitable for anyone, no matter the level of experience,” FLIR explains. A senior thermographer can load advanced apps while a junior tech follows a guided workflow.

The iXX-Series represents a shift in how handheld inspection tools are designed. It’s a connected, app-driven platform built for the deskless office, where technicians need their tools to be rugged, smart, and collaborative. If this is the future of inspection devices, hardware and software are finally being designed together from the start.

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Roborock’s New Flagship Line Brings Sculpted Design to Smart Cleaning at CES 2026

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The idea of a smart home has long been defined by individual devices, each designed to solve a single task in isolation. But modern homes no longer operate in clean lines. Multi-level layouts, pets, kids, and yards that stretch from kitchen tile to sloped grass create environments where a single device rarely finishes the job. At CES 2026, Roborock is using that complexity as a design brief, especially for households across North America where scale and texture demand more than one kind of intelligence.

Roborock’s “The Greatest Meeting the Greatest” theme frames this as a meeting between world-class engineering and the realities of everyday living. This year’s lineup is less about one hero product and more about a family of specialists, from a flagship robot that can see and adapt in three dimensions, to a one-pass floor-care robot, a foam-based floor washer, and an AWD mower that treats the yard as part of the home.

Designer: Roborock

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Greatness in Intelligence

Intelligence in a home context means mastering complexity without constant supervision. The Saros 20, the brand’s flagship product for 2026, introduces StarSight Autonomous System 2.0, with dual-transmitter 3D time-of-flight LiDAR and 21,600 sensor points. This innovation allows the Saros 20 to map spaces, recognize over 200 obstacle types, and distinguish cables from socks or pet bowls, making it even smarter than the previous-gen Saros 10R flagship. At 7.98 cm tall, it slides under low furniture while understanding the space in three dimensions, which matters in homes with layered messes and tight clearances.

AdaptiLift Chassis 3.0 is the mechanical side of that intelligence, lifting and adjusting three wheels independently to cross double-layer thresholds up to 8.5 cm tall, climb onto carpets as thick as 3 cm, and free itself when stuck. Layouts where balcony lips, thick rugs, and split-level transitions trap lesser robots become manageable terrain. Saros 20 learns the best way to cross each threshold and remembers it, treating obstacles as solvable puzzles rather than dead ends.

That philosophy extends outdoors with RockMow X1 LiDAR, Roborock’s first-ever lawnmower for the US market, using 360-degree mechanical LiDAR and dual-camera fusion to map properties up to two acres with trees, slopes, and visually sparse patches. Centimeter-level accuracy and AWD traction let it handle uneven terrain and stay oriented in yards where GPS or boundary wires struggle. It understands a yard the way Saros 20 understands a living room, identifying obstacles and terrain changes autonomously.

Greatness in Performance

Performance shows up as power that delivers consistent results when the mess is layered or the surface changes mid-run. Saros 20’s 35,000 Pa HyperForce motor and dual anti-tangle system, the DuoDivide main brush and FlexiArm Arc side brush, pick up hair and debris without wrapping. Dual spinning mops with up to 13 N downward pressure handle dried stains, managing pet hair in thick carpets, kitchen crumbs, and seasonal grit.

Qrevo Curv 2 Flow is positioned as a one-pass floor-care specialist. Its 270 mm extra-wide roller, 15 N downward pressure, and 220 RPM scrubbing cover more ground in a single sweep. The Roller Shield lifts and covers the mop before carpets, preventing damp spots, while the Edge-Adaptive roller mop gets within 10 mm of baseboards and furniture legs, handling mixed flooring without constant re-passes or wet carpets.

F25 Ace Pro brings foam chemistry to wet-dry cleaning. JetFoaming technology turns 1 ml of Foam Cleaning Solution into 167 million microbubbles that cling to grease and dried spills, softening and encapsulating them before 25,000 Pa suction, 30 N pressure, and 430 RPM scrubbing lift them away. This is designed for kitchens with oil splatter, entryways with mud, and pet zones where layered messes need more than just water.

Greatness in Design & Everyday Living

Fitting into daily life means handling hygiene and maintenance without becoming another source of work. Qrevo Curv 2 Flow’s self-cleaning dock separates clean and dirty water, washes the roller at 75 °C, and dries it with warm air. The dock handles sticky spills and pet zones without turning into another thing that needs scrubbing every weekend, keeping the system fresh and ready without manual intervention.

F25 Ace Pro’s ergonomics focus on the moments when you are holding the device. FlatReach 2.0 lets it lie flat at 180 degrees to reach under furniture at 12.5 cm height, while SlideTech 2.0 uses AI-powered wheels to sense push and pull strength and assist movement, making it feel lighter and more responsive. The 0 mm edge cleaning on three sides and 95 °C self-washing and drying keep the roller fresh.

Saros 20’s RockDock and app ecosystem extend that design philosophy. The dock uses 100 °C hot water to wash mops, bi-directional scrubbing and soaking modes, heated air drying, and auto mop removal before carpets. The Roborock app’s SmartPlan 3.0 learns room types and habits, while pet-friendly intelligence, built-in “Hello Rocky” voice control, and Matter support help the system blend into routines rather than adding another app to babysit.

Greatness Beyond the Room

RockMow X1 LiDAR handles the seasonal realities of yard maintenance. AWD traction and 8 cm obstacle clearance manage wet spring grass, summer growth, and autumn leaves, with a 24 cm cutting width and 40-90 mm cutting range tuned for common lawn types. It is built for properties with trees, slopes, and visually sparse patches where GPS alone would struggle, using LiDAR and cameras to stay oriented across terrain that changes throughout the year.

RockMow represents a broader shift from room-by-room cleaning to full-property autonomy. While Saros 20 and Qrevo Curv 2 Flow handle floors and carpets, and F25 Ace Pro tackles kitchens and hard floors, RockMow extends that philosophy to the yard. The result is a set of tools that treat the home as a continuous environment, indoors and out, rather than a collection of disconnected chores that each require their own app, setup, and maintenance schedule.

Roborock’s CES 2026 lineup feels less like a handful of new gadgets and more like a coordinated attempt to match the scale and texture of modern living. Intelligence, performance, and design show up differently in a kitchen, a living room, and a sloped backyard, but the throughline is the same across North America and beyond: systems that adapt to the mess, the layout, and the people, instead of asking households to adapt to them.

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Mudita Minimalist Phone and Alarm Clocks Design a Calmer Day at CES 2026

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The day often begins and ends with a smartphone, from checking notifications before getting out of bed to scrolling in the dark when you should be asleep. Even people who care about design and well-being end up with glowing rectangles on every surface, and that constant presence quietly shapes attention, sleep, and mood more than most of us like to admit. The usual fix is another app that promises to help you use your phone less, which is like asking the problem to solve itself.

Mudita has been quietly building devices meant to step in where traditional smartphones can cause the most trouble. At CES 2026, that takes the form of three products: Mudita Kompakt, a minimalist E Ink phone, Mudita Harmony 2, a mindful alarm clock with an E Ink display, and Mudita Bell 2, an analog-style alarm clock with a few carefully chosen digital tricks. Together, they sketch out a different way to move through a day, keeping connections and routines intact while pushing screens out of the moments where you may choose to be “disconnected.”

Designer: Mudita

Mudita Kompakt: A Phone That Does Less on Purpose

Kompakt looks more like a small e-reader than a slab of glass, built around a 4.3-inch E Ink screen that is paper-like, glare-free, and easy on the eyes. It runs MuditaOS K, a de-Googled operating system based on AOSP, with only essential tools on board: calls, SMS, offline maps, calendar, up-to-date weather forecasts, music, notes, a meditation timer, and an e-reader. There is no app store by design, keeping the interface focused on what you planned to do instead of what a feed wants to show you next. But if you do need some very specific functionality, your favorite apps are just a sideload away.

Offline+ Mode physically disconnects the GSM modem and microphones, while also disabling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the camera, turning Kompakt into a sealed, offline device when needed. That hardware-level privacy goes beyond airplane mode, which matters when you want verifiable disconnection. Long battery life, up to six days on a charge, and both USB-C and wireless charging mean it can live on a desk or in a bag without constant topping up.

A dedicated Mudita Center desktop app handles contact syncing, music, and file transfers from a laptop, keeping the phone itself simple and uncluttered, its user experience reflecting its mission. As a primary phone for someone stepping away from feeds, it keeps communication and navigation intact while stripping away most reasons to pick it up mindlessly. As a secondary focus phone for anyone who wants to disconnect from the hustle of a smartphone, it can handle calls and texts without the usual app notifications to help nurture balance and peace of mind.

Mudita Harmony 2: A Bedroom Without a Smartphone Glow

Harmony 2 is an E Ink alarm clock with three physical knobs on top for light, volume, and alarm settings, designed to live where a phone usually sits on a nightstand. The E Ink display is easy to read and uses an adjustable warm backlight that minimizes blue light, so you can check the time at night without a blast of white light or the temptation to swipe through notifications that make it harder to fall back asleep.

The wake-up experience is built around a gradual, ascending alarm that starts softly and increases in volume, paired with a pre-wake-up light that mimics a sunrise by slowly brightening five to fifteen minutes before the main alarm. Harmony 2 offers seventeen melodies, including real nature sounds, and lets you enhance alarms with light or upload custom audio via the Mudita Center app. The goal is to make waking feel less like an interruption and more like a natural transition.

Extra features support a phone-free bedtime, Relaxation mode with customizable sounds and white noise, a Bedtime Reminder to nudge you into a consistent routine, a Meditation Timer with gong sounds, and a Power Nap Mode. With over forty days of battery life and USB-C charging, Harmony 2 can stay on a nightstand without becoming another device you plug in every night, reinforcing the idea that the bedroom can be a low-tech space.

Mudita Bell 2: Analog Mornings with a Few Smart Tricks

Bell 2 is the more analog-leaning sibling, an alarm clock with a clear, minimalist dial and an internal quartz mechanism, but also an E Ink display and a light-enhanced gradual alarm. It offers nine gentle melodies and a pure-tone alarm that starts quietly and grows to a set volume, plus a warm wake-up light that can be activated before the alarm to mimic sunrise, easing you out of sleep without a harsh jolt.

A built-in meditation timer starts and ends sessions with a gong, and the deliberate absence of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth means Bell 2 does not compete for attention or add to the ambient connectivity load in the room. It runs on a 2,600 mAh rechargeable battery that can last up to six months on a full charge, with USB-C for the rare times it needs topping up. It is designed to be set and then mostly forgotten.

Bell 2 has been awarded a Platinum Calm Technology Certification, recognizing products that respect attention and promote well-being. Available in charcoal black and pebble gray, it is meant to blend into different interiors while still feeling like a considered object. In a home shaped by Kompakt and Harmony 2, Bell 2 completes the picture: a simple, focused object that reflects Mudita’s belief that technology can be present without being intrusive.

Mudita at CES 2026: Technology for Mindful Living

Together, Kompakt, Harmony 2, and Bell 2 create intentional, screen-free moments throughout the day; focused time on the go with Kompakt, a calmer evening and wake-up routine with Harmony 2, and a simple, analog-leaning start to the morning with Bell 2. None of these is meant to replace a smartphone entirely. Instead, they offer a considered alternative for the moments when a screen adds little value. This is an approach that stands out at CES, where innovation is often defined by more features, rather than more thoughtful use.

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Nuon Medical: Why the Future of Skincare Isn’t Another Serum

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The beauty industry has spent decades perfecting what goes inside the bottle. Formulas have become more sophisticated, actives more potent, ingredient lists more transparent. Yet the objects that deliver those formulas have stayed mostly the same. Glass jars, plastic tubes, pump bottles, they’re passive containers designed to hold product, not enhance it. Meanwhile, beauty gadgets promised professional results at home but ended up in drawers, forgotten.

The real opportunity isn’t another breakthrough ingredient or another device. It’s that split second where formula actually meets skin. That’s the insight behind Nuon Medical, a company founded by Alain Dijkstra with roots in medical devices rather than traditional cosmetics. While everyone else obsessed over formulas, Nuon started looking at the packaging itself. We interview Senior Consultant Benny Calderone to get deeper insights into the company’s origins and perspectives.

Designer: Nuon Medical

From Chemical to Physical Innovation

According to Nuon Medical, “For decades, the beauty industry focused on ‘Chemical Innovation’—the juice inside the bottle. Nuon is pioneering the era of ‘Physical Innovation.’ In short: we are solving the ‘Last Inch’ of skincare.” It’s a shift that treats packaging as a performance-critical interface, one that determines whether those actives reach their biological targets or just sit on your skin doing nothing.

Nuon’s journey started with standalone light therapy devices used for hair growth and wrinkle reduction. After nearly two decades making those tools, founder Alain Dijkstra noticed they had a retention problem. They added steps to already crowded routines and mostly ended up unused. For clinical tech to work at scale, it had to disappear into something people already do every day.

By embedding tech into packaging, Nuon eliminated the compliance gap. “We realized that for clinical tech to scale, it must be invisible. By turning the packaging itself into the ‘treatment engine,’ we eliminate the compliance gap.” You’re not being asked to do something new. You’re just upgrading what you already do. From a business angle, this transforms a throwaway bottle into something worth keeping.

Frictionless Intelligence at the Point of Contact

Nuon doesn’t start with sketches or aesthetics. They start with human-factor engineering, figuring out how an applicator should guide contact, path, and speed to deliver the formula correctly every time. The result is what they call frictionless intelligence. “We design for ‘frictionless intelligence.’ If a user has to read a manual, the design has failed,” the company states.

Intelligence gets built into the haptics, the ergonomics, the physical interaction logic itself. The tool quietly guides your motion without you realizing it. The applicator steers where you press, how fast you move, the path you follow, all without instructions. Light therapy, microcurrent, thermal elements, vibration, they’re woven into the interaction, supporting the formula instead of distracting from it.

There’s a tricky balance here. Clinical devices can feel intimidating. Beauty objects need to feel inviting, something you want to pick up every morning. Nuon often prioritizes consistency over intensity. “A tool used daily with proper motion and interaction is far more effective than a high-intensity device left in a drawer,” they note. A lower setting used correctly beats a powerful tool that stays in the drawer.

The Hidden Operating System of Beauty

Nuon isn’t a consumer brand. They’re a B2B partner working behind the scenes with global beauty companies. Their modular tech stack works like an operating system, offering a validated foundation that brands dress up with their own materials. Luxury labels use glass and heavy metals. Mass brands use lighter plastics. The intelligence underneath stays the same.

“Nuon is the ‘Innovation Engine’ behind the world’s leading brands. Our philosophy lives in the UX Framework, not the visual skin,” Calderone explains. Brands can apply their aesthetic identity without messing with the validated technology underneath. “We provide the ‘Intelligence’; they provide the ‘Identity,'” he adds. It’s systems thinking applied to beauty packaging.

Data, Sustainability, and the Death of the Dumb Bottle

Once packaging gets smarter, it starts collecting data. Nuon’s applicators can measure skin hydration, texture, UV exposure, and more. But the company is deliberate about how that information gets used. “Data should be a concierge, not a surveillance tool,” according to their philosophy. Diagnostics should inform care, not flood you with vanity metrics. Nuon provides privacy-by-design infrastructure where consumers stay in control.

Then there’s sustainability, where Nuon takes a blunt stance. “Sustainability only scales if it improves the user experience. ‘Green theater’ is asking consumers to settle for less; True sustainability is ‘Assetization,'” the company states. They design the high-tech applicator as something durable that you want to keep. The formula becomes a refill that plugs into that base, separating Durable Intelligence from the Circular Consumable.

It’s not sustainability through guilt. It’s sustainable because the design makes refills the logical choice. You’ve invested in the smart hardware, so of course you’re going to buy the refill. Nuon’s vision is bold. “We are witnessing the death of the ‘dumb bottle.’ In a decade, a passive plastic cap will feel as obsolete as a rotary phone.”

Packaging will become responsive tools that sense conditions and guide your hand in one motion. “Scalp and hair care is the next great ‘blue ocean.’ It’s a category where wellness meets clinical results, and users can immediately feel the benefits of microcirculation and stimulation,” Nuon notes. The broader idea is that everyday objects on bathroom shelves are about to become quietly intelligent without looking like sci-fi props.

Companies like Nuon are writing that next chapter from behind the scenes, proving that clinically meaningful technology doesn’t need to sacrifice what makes beauty objects appealing. It’s a shift from containers to interfaces, from passive to active. If Nuon’s right, we’ll look back at today’s plain bottles the way we look at rotary phones, functional once but hopelessly outdated now.

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