Tag Archives: best of 2020

The Top 10 wearable designs of 2020 that showcase the tech trends dominating this new normal

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Wearable tech designs make our lives easier and more efficient in multiple ways! From smartwatches, Fitbits to VR headsets, innovative tech designs can be valuable additions to our daily lifestyles. And, not to mention sometimes they’re really fun to use and trendy to wear. One thing we do know is that masks are not going anywhere – what we can expect to see are more futuristic masks that improve the user experience without affecting the efficiency, tech that makes working from home easy while you juggle the dreaded work-life balance, and finally, tech that keeps your health up front and center. We’ve curated the top ten wearable tech designs of 2020, and I’m sure you’ll be dying to get your hands on them!

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This ultramodern twist on underwater specs, called D-Mask, addresses many of the issues divers currently encounter. Secured around the forehead, jaw, and chin, the design may cover the full face, but the result feels less restrictive than traditional goggles. While it’s usable on its own, by simply connecting the unit to an air tank, users can breathe easily and more naturally without the need for a sealed mouthpiece. It’s also equipped with an innovative bone-conduction radio system that makes it possible to enjoy tunes or communicate with other divers conversationally – something that was impossible and limited to basic sign language before.

A portable, wearable, air conditioner is no more a thing of futuristic TV shows. The Reon Pocket is a smartphone-controlled personal gadget that was designed to be compact and cool. It works using thermoelectric cooling and can cool the user’s body temperature by 13 degrees celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) and raise your temperature by about 8 degrees Celsius (about 14 degrees Fahrenheit). Reon sits on the base of your neck in a special undershirt designed for it. It uses the Peltier effect which means a temperature difference is created by applying a voltage between two electrodes connected to a sample of semiconductor material. The heat is absorbed or emitted when you pass an electrical current across a junction to either lower your temperature or increase it without bulk or noise.

With an undeniably better form factor, and better image quality too, Panasonic’s VR glasses are classier and well, ‘glassier’ (as opposed to the massive ski-goggles that most VR headsets look like). Fitted with micro-OLED panels on the inside, the VR glasses can afford to be made smaller and have much better clarity too. In fact, unlike most VR headsets, you almost don’t notice the pixels in Panasonic’s product, allowing your VR world to be much more immersive because of its higher resolution. Panasonic also claims that they’re the first-ever VR glasses to support HDR, or a high dynamic range, allowing colors, saturation, brightness, and contrast to all be incredibly lifelike.

This wearable fitness tracker-looking ring is actually a mouse designed to be as lightweight as possible so there isn’t excess load on your joints. The ring mouse’s design works intuitively, it reacts to the movements of the fingertips and does not interfere with the natural movement of the wrist since it is a wearable ring. Due to its unique shape for a mouse, it makes the experience smoother while reducing the stress on your wrists as it won’t be awkwardly bent at an angle for hours! The ring has sensors that provide the functionality of a mouse such as ‘click’, ‘sweep’, ‘scroll’ through different gestures that are similar to how we use the trackpads on a laptop.

Embodying Google’s playful-serious aesthetic, the Pixel Smartwatch concept comes in a traditional round format, and in a variety of quirkily named colors. The Android Wear OS logo displays clearly on the always-on display of the watch, transforming into a colorful set of watch hands every time you look at it to read the time. The watch comes with Google’s top-notch voice AI, all of Google’s native apps, and a heart-rate monitor on the back, which ties in well with Google’s plan of acquiring Fitbit and their entire fitness-tech ecosystem.

NASA has designed Pulse, a DIY wearable necklace, that warns you when you are about to touch your face. It works on a simple mechanism – the necklace has a sensor that detects when the user lifts their hands towards their face and it will vibrate to warn them using power from a common button battery. This vibration is a reminder for the user to not touch their face and soon establishes the muscle memory required to turn this into a new behavioral pattern. All the necessary STL files, the list of the parts you’ll need, and the assembly instructions have been made freely available for anyone to make these.

The VOIXATCH made waves on the tech circuits especially after a demonstration at the Mobile World Congress last year. Grabbing eyes as the first smartwatch with a built-in Bluetooth headset, the VOIXATCH helped unveil a world where watch and earphones were part of a tight ecosystem as one single product that did practically everything your phone could, without you needing to take your phone out. The VOIXATCH smartwatch comes equipped with LTE and GPS, has its own SIM card slot, a Google voice assistant, a heartbeat sensor, a gyroscope, and a battery life of 48 hours. That, however, isn’t the most impressive bit about the VOIXATCH, because embedded within its bezel is a detachable ring that turns into a Bluetooth headset.

Halo’s most exclusive feature is the fact that it creates a 3D model of your body and tracks the emotional tone in your voice for an even more personalized wellness journey. Technology with EQ (emotional quotient) capabilities are rare and mostly seen in experimental robots. The existing trackers can probably get an idea about your feeling through heart rate but evaluating your emotions through your voice is new in wearables. Another thing that sets it apart from others in the market is that it doesn’t have a screen which indicates that Amazon wants to focus less on sports and more on lifestyle changes.

Hapbee is the world’s first wearable that lets you feel calm, alert, focused, relaxed, or sleepy on command! Will it be revolutionary or just take us one step closer to becoming androids? While it may seem like a device straight out of a Black Mirror episode, Hapbee (which comes from the word ‘happy’) actually wants to make life easier by giving us the capability to balance and control our emotions. It uses electromagnetic frequencies that are even lower than your phone’s to better your mental health without causing any permanent changes to who you really are.

The GOOVIS Young comes with a cable that connects via USB-C to a wide host of devices, acting as a display for them… much like how you plug a pair of headphones into your device for dedicated audio, the GOOVIS Young does the same, but for dedicated video. By cutting the clutter and not having its own CPU, motherboard, graphics card, and memory, and by purely being a high-definition display, the GOOVIS Young reduces its design footprint and comes in a slick form factor that folds up to be thin enough to slip into your backpack.

The Top 10 cabin designs of 2020 are here to provide the perfect architectural escapism!

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With COVID-19 almost shutting down our world, jet setting away on vacations or even running off on a weekend getaway seems like a far-off dream these days! I miss the days when we could pack up our bags, hop onto our transportation of choice, and rejuvenate ourselves in some remote location. Since we can’t visit any of our favorite holiday destinations, we’ve curated a list of super relaxing and comfortable cabins that will surely give you the holidays blues, but also give you something to look forward to…your next vacation spot (whenever you do get to travel).

 

Cube Two is a 263-square-foot home that is designed for the future and smart living. This modern compact home is a prefabricated structure that already comes fitted with the latest home appliances that can all be controlled by an AI assistant named Canny. The exterior has smooth curved corners that give it a friendly vibe and the interior offers enough space for a family of four to live comfortably with two bedrooms and an open living area. To make it feel roomier, there is a skylight that runs across the ceiling and floods the space with natural light, and also provides a wonderful frame of the night sky.

The Mountain Refuge is a wooden, square, prefabricated cabin with an angular roof. While the geometric cabin is a structural contrast to its natural setting, it still blends in well while showing off its modern design. “The project acts as a contemporary interpretation of old traditional mountain refuges, bringing in architectural character and spatial quality,” say the designers. The wooden cabin comes in different modules and each has the capability to be flexible and expandable. It is made to be compact and optimizes the space while taking up the least in nature.

Kujdane retains the best of the old while blending it with the new – it still has that A-frame silhouette like your traditional cabin in the woods but take a step closer and you’ll see that the structure has been tweaked with modern architectural elements. Wood is of course the element of choice (I told you, cabin in the woods!) to evoke that warm, cozy, cabin vibe and is complimented with cool-toned interior details for balance. The cabin is elevated by the sloping A-frame sides which makes it look like it is effortlessly hovering above ground level without visible stilts or pillars. To keep you immersed within the natural surroundings, the front is all glass for sweeping views of the forest.

It’s actually surprising that IKEA hasn’t ventured into the tiny house market to date. Given their propensity for designing as a space-saving mechanism, when IKEA finally built this house, we knew it was designed to maximize space and comfort only the way IKEA can! Titled the Tiny House Project, this project shows a partnership between IKEA and Escape Homes to create this 187-square foot design that is being offered for $63,350 only!

Dwelling on Wheels is a 220-square-feet cabin on wheels that buyers can bring with them on the road and situate on coastlines or nearby riverbeds for overnight stays and views. Built to withstand varying climates and temperatures, a steel rib cage and standing seam metal siding wraps around the exterior of DW for a durable and weather-tight finish. Complementing the industrial cottage design, red cedar wood accents warm up the walls, eaves, and even the tiny home’s awning that hangs overhead a durable, ironwood deck, accessible through the dwelling’s double-pane glazed gable door.

Today, in honor of Vilgerdsson’s expedition, a trail of five timber cabins called Flokehyttene, designed by Holon Arkitektur, punctuate Norway’s coastline, offering panoramic views of the gusty North Sea and the 19th-century Ryvarden lighthouse. Careful not to disrupt the landscape of Sveio, the five cabins were gently integrated into the rocky, seaside mass of land by drilling four holes for all the corners of each cabin where steel columns anchor the structures in place, providing guests with an up, close, and personal experience with the changing waters of North Sea.

Finnish designer Robin Falck created an A-frame mirrored holiday house, Nolla. Literally meaning zero in Finnish, Nolla was designed by Falck for Finnish renewable energy company Neste’s Journey to Zero campaign, in an effort to build a world with minimal emissions. Functioning entirely on renewable energy, the cabin is located on the Vallisaari island, near Helsinki.

Meet the Birdbox, a prefabricated shipping container-like cabin by Livit that offers one-of-a-kind escapes to lush destinations surrounded by nature. The cabins are simple, rectangular structures with huge circular and oval windows to give you a larger than life view of nature. Just like the exterior, the interior also has minimal decor which makes for a cozy space with a queen bed and a handful of chairs. The Birdboxes come in two sizes currently – the “Mini” at 10.5’ x 7.2’ x 7.2’ “Mini” and the “Medi” at 16.7’ x 7.87’ x 7.87’.” There’s also a separate “Birdbox Bathroom” which features a black tint one-way glass floor-to-ceiling window.

Designed by Caspar Schols, the ANNA Cabin is a beautiful wooden cabin placed upon an open platform, which allows the cabin to either be expanded or closed. The users can modify the configurations, closing up the cabin and keeping themselves warm and comfy, or opening up the cabin, and letting in a bit of nature! The glass roof in the center provides the users with an under the stars experience!

The False Bay Writer’s Cabin by Olson Kundig is the perfect work from home office! The glasshouse is placed in the middle of three wooden decks. The decks can be raised, making sure they cover the entire home and in turn, serving as shutters!  When laid open, the decks function as little porches, where you can sit and soak up some sun. I wouldn’t mind working from here for sure!

The 15 best face mask designs of 2020 to keep you safe and healthy in the new normal of 2021!

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With COVID-19 shaking the world apart, wearing a face mask anywhere and everywhere, and at all times has become a way of life. Leaving our homes without a mask or shield puts not only our lives but the lives of those around us at risk as well, not to mention it is now considered a social taboo. So, the design industry has been creating innovative, functional, and not to mention super trendy face mask designs, and we cannot wait to get our hands (or faces) on them!

The LEAF Mask is the world’s first FDA-registered, clear mask to have N99-standard air filtering abilities as well as a self-purifying feature, thanks to a built-in UV-C light. The LEAF wants you to be able to reconnect with your loved ones by staying safe behind the LEAF Transparent Face Mask. In short, you stay safe and you keep others safe, while still understanding their expressions. It enables us to be as close to “normal” as we can be right now. The LEAF’s most defining feature has to be its transparent construction.

Designed in France, the Civility mask sports a design that embraces safety without compromising on aesthetics. Its defining feature is its transparent shield on the front, made from a lightweight, resistant glass that provides a crystal-clear view of your face. Air filters on each side help deliver 98% pure air directly to your mouth and nose, while also allowing exhaled air to pass through so that your mask doesn’t fog up. An innovative TPE ring around the mask ensures an air-tight seal that works universally across multiple face-shapes and even on people with beards.

Designer Fulden Dehneli calls the mask Gādo (ガード) and the sanitizer Ken (剣) because she views these as complementary products that will become necessities in a post-pandemic world. Gādo means ‘guard’ and Ken means ‘sword’ in Japanese which is such a poetic way to describe tools – they guard us and kill the germs! Gādo and Ken were specifically designed for seamless integration into our lives. Gādo combines the benefits of a mask and a face shield with a simple sliding mechanism- a folded textile structure hidden under the shield which enlarges when the shield is slid up. This way you don’t have to constantly wear the traditionally obtrusive face shield but can ‘guard up’ if you’re among people and can’t maintain distance.

The UV Mask comes with a dual filtration system that delivers the cleanest air quality of any existing face-mask. A preliminary replaceable N95 filter blocks 95% of particles like dust, dirt, debris, up to 0.3 microns. Microorganisms smaller than 0.3 microns then enter the UV-C Sterile Vortex, a helix-shaped filter that blasts microorganisms with UV-C light to destroy 99.9% of the remaining 5% on a DNA level, to give you air that isn’t just clean, it’s medical-grade, sterile-clean, bringing total filtration efficiency to 99.99%.

Have you touched your face yet? I almost did… twice, and while that habit is a difficult one to break, the Blocc makes it easier to do so while being able to go about your day. Think of the Blocc as a helmet visor sans the helmet. Made from scratch-resistant fog-resistant clear polycarbonate, the Blocc is as easy (and as comfortable) as wearing a pair of specs. Two temple-stems suspend the Blocc by your ears while a nose-bridge allows the visor to rest comfortably against your nose and roughly an inch away from your face. The Blocc’s material choice makes it practically perfect for a face shield. Made from the same polymer as actual helmet visors (even the ones found in riot gear use PolyCarbonate), the Blocc is perfectly clear, allowing you to see through it with ease, while its resilient physical property prevents it from getting any scratches or scuffs by accident.

The BioVYZR is cutting-edge PPE made accessible to common folk like us. The unit comes with an anti-fog visor that extends from your face all the way down, to give you unmatched visibility on the front that doesn’t mist up with your breath. A neoprene vest lets you strap the visor in place, creating a literal safe-space around you, while a fan and air-filter at the back route fresh air to the inside of the space, kind of like a space-suit. The air-filter built into the BioVYZR gives you the purification of an N95 mask, without the suffocating feeling of a cloth strapped to your mouth, and creates positive air pressure within the visor, enabling easy breathing and pushing old air out to let fresh air in.

NASA has designed Pulse, a DIY wearable necklace that warns you when you are about to touch your face. NASA isn’t selling these directly, but Jet Propulsion Laboratory has made the 3D-printed concept available as an open-source project so anyone can make this smart wearable for their own health and safety. It works on a simple mechanism – the necklace has a sensor that detects when the user lifts their hands towards their face and it will vibrate to warn them using power from a common button battery. This vibration is a reminder for the user to not touch their face and soon establishes the muscle memory required to turn this into a new behavioral pattern.

Debuted at CES2020, the Atmōs face-mask from Aō Air is a wearable that provides 50x better air quality than even the best pollution masks. Rather than just being a HEPA filter that sits loosely in front of your nose and mouth, the Atmōs is a miniature air purifier, with multiple stages of air filtration powered by fans within the device that adapt to your breathing to provide as many as 240 liters of clean air per minute. In short, the faster you breathe, the faster the Atmōs delivers clean air to you. The D’fend air purifying system even targets nanoparticles, trapping dust, pollen, or even very fine ash, giving you air that’s 50 times purer than what you’d get with a cloth mask.

The Blanc provides a protective, full-face cover, giving you a tinted visor to look through, and specifically designed air-channels to breathe through. Two high-efficiency SGS-tested HEPA filters make sure the air you breathe is 99.97% pure, trapping any microparticles, microorganisms, and VOCs in the process. The mask itself offers an air-tight seal, while carefully calibrated pathways ensure the air you breathe always passes through a filter, giving you pure air with each breath. Air that you exhale passes out through outlets located at the base of the mask, ensuring your visor never gets fogged up.

Meet the NE-1, an experimental face-helmet that looks like something a bee-keeper would wear but is in-fact protective headgear that’s both safe and comfortable to wear in the pandemic. Developed by Texas-based ValhallaMED, the NE-1 helmet combines the face-shield and mask into a singular device you wear on your head. Fitted with a powered air system and a patent-pending filtration mechanism, the NE-1 routes air-flow to make sure the air you breathe is 95% pure, but without needing an air-tight seal like most conventional masks. Not only does the mask filter the air you inhale AND exhale, but it also comes fitted with coolers that keep you breezy and comfortable outdoors. The cool air, aside from giving you overall comfort, also helps the NE-1’s wide visor from misting or fogging up.

Rolon, an architect, designer, and CEO of his own 3D printing company, realized what a big problem it was breathing polluted air in China, where he had set up his studio. The best mask needed to be comfortable, and effectively circulate purified air so that you could breathe with ease, and your glasses wouldn’t get fogged up. The solution required scaling down an air purifier to something that was small enough to fit on your face. Calling it the ATMOBLUE, Leandro and his team developed an entirely new category of wearables that could actively purify the air of 99.9% of particles, pioneering a technology that made them sort of the Tesla of face-masks, as opposed to the N95 which only filtered 95% of the air. The mask featured “positive air pressure” which helped keep out germs and contaminants by making the air pressure inside the mask greater than the air pressure outside. Built-in fans pushed purified air right into the insides of the mask, allowing you to breathe normally, and one-way outlets got rid of the humid air, so your mouth never felt wet and sweaty. ATMOBLUE was designed as an upgrade to the N95, which almost every Asian wore outdoors. Its fan-operated purification system allowed people to breathe clean air easily (a feature that really helped people with inherent respiratory issues), and a comfortable silicone rim around the mask created a proper airtight seal, so air didn’t leak out – which ensured that you were breathing pure air at all times, and that if you wore glasses, they never fogged up.

Inspired by the AIRPOP masks, designer Oliver Perretta created a multifunctional mask. With usability being the keystone of any design, the mask not only filters the air but also acts as an air quality monitor! The quality monitor accurately transmits data to your smartphone, helping you be aware and keep yourself safe.

Ex Apple designer

The idea for a DIY hack came to Paseman around the time when the country was facing a severe shortage of N95 masks, forcing doctors and nurses to wear readily available loosely-fitted surgical masks. Paseman first tried scouting her area for N95 masks, hoping to donate them to medical facilities, and when she couldn’t find any N95 masks available in her vicinity, she decided to create a life-saving lifehack to make standard surgical masks more functional by ensuring a tighter seal/fit. The solution? A simple DIY seal that closes all air gaps around your nose and mouth so there’s no air leakage anywhere caused by a loosely fitted mask. Paseman and Duong’s first iteration of the Fix The Mask solution involved the MacGyverian use of a handful of rubber bands that could be strung together to create a tight brace to secure the mask’s fit. A few iterations later, the two developed a more robust solution by cutting into rubber sheets to create a better, more effective harness. The harness design is available on the Fix The Mask website as a free resource, to allow health professionals and regular citizens to get the most out of their face-gear while remaining safe from the virus.

Speaking of multi-functional designs, we are totally geeking out over this design by Zack Massos and Eitan Adika that merges a reusable face mask with headphones! How do you ask? The answer is bone conduction tech! Dystopian as it may sound, but in a future where wearing masks is the norm, this face mask-headphones hybrid could help you commute and stay connected all while staying safe!

Have we considered how this normalization in the usage of masks will affect the kids? Coming from the complete freedom and joy they are accustomed to being in, this new world with masks and instructions to not touch anything is a scary change. Oliver Perretta wants to make this process more comfortable for the kids by creating this child-friendly mask that lets the kid dress up as their favorite animals and have fun while staying safe!

The top 15 gadgets of 2020 to equip yourself for any unexpected challenges 2021 throws your way!

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2020 has been a tumultuous year, we’ve all gone through our fair share of ups and downs, with COVID-19 completely shaking our world apart. However, we’ve also seen immense creativity and innovation in the design industry. Designers have become coming up with inventive and groundbreaking designs that have been taking our breath away. These tech accessories are a few instances of designers leveling up their design game. So, dive in, and explore the best of what 2020 had to offer in the field of tech accessories!

A portable, wearable, air conditioner is no more a thing of futuristic TV shows. The Reon Pocket is a smartphone-controlled personal gadget that was designed to be compact and cool. It works using thermoelectric cooling and can cool the user’s body temperature by 13 degrees celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) and raise your temperature by about 8 degrees Celsius (about 14 degrees Fahrenheit). Reon sits on the base of your neck in a special undershirt designed for it. It uses the Peltier effect which means a temperature difference is created by applying a voltage between two electrodes connected to a sample of semiconductor material.

Embodying Google’s playful-serious aesthetic, the Pixel Smartwatch concept comes in a traditional round format, and in a variety of quirkily named colors. The Android Wear OS logo displays clearly on the always-on display of the watch, transforming into a colorful set of watch hands every time you look at it to read the time. The watch comes with Google’s top-notch voice AI, all of Google’s native apps, and a heart-rate monitor on the back, which ties in well with Google’s plan of acquiring Fitbit and their entire fitness-tech ecosystem.

Not convinced by the design of the new PS5 like many out there, Alexandre Touguet took it upon himself to take one for the team and do the gamers a quick favor by redesigning and creating a new console concept! “I wanted to bring an organic touch by following the artistic direction initiated by the controller revealed a few months earlier but I wanted to keep the DNA of PlayStation with a much more rational overall shape and directed towards its function,” says Touget.

The Desklab helps make that world a better place to live in. Think of everything you wish your laptop had and put it in a laptop accessory, and you get something quite like the Desklab. A combination of a 15-inch 4K touchscreen display, a hub with ports galore, and an external pair of speakers with hi-fi audio, this slim, lightweight computing accessory is cross-compatible across all platforms. It plugs right into your machine, drawing power from it while giving it much more in return.

Meet the Pixel Vector, a smartphone concept that challenges the notion that phones need to have thick bezels, hole-punches, or notches to have front-facing cameras. The Pixel Vector cleverly uses the negative space between the phone and the screen’s corner to throw in not one, but two front-facing cameras. The phone’s sharp edges and display’s rounded corners provide the perfect triangular negative spacing for cameras, spacing them out too, so they can perform 3D scanning required for facial recognition.

The Magic Mouse Mini looks and feels like your regular pop-socket. It attaches to the back of your phone, giving you a pop-out grip that you can firmly hold onto between your index and middle finger as you use your phone or click selfies. Given how large and slippery smartphones are nowadays (further factoring in the iPhone’s curved edges). However, a switch on the side turns the pop-out grip into something vastly more functional. Switch the device on, and the optical sensor above the Apple logo powers on, turning your iPhone into a magic mouse!

The iPhone 12 retains the dreaded notch that was established with the iPhone X – and while we look for changes in the screen of the phone, Furkan’s concept makes us look at the camera notch in a whole new way and how! Firstly, the camera bump comes with 4 lenses now (maybe the macro lens is finally coming to the iPhone!) and doubles up as an instant notification panel. The UI of this notification panel borrows heavily from the well established and tested UI that the Apple Watch carries – showing everything from app notifications, widgets, and even your health statistics.

VOIXATCH is basically a pretty sensible amalgamation of the three products that we got duped into paying truckloads of money for. It’s a smartwatch that does practically everything your phone does… and guess what. It has a Bluetooth headset docked right into it that you can detach and use to make calls and possibly even listen to music. VOIXATCH is basically what happens when good technology meets good intentions.

Amazon Halo’s most exclusive feature is the fact that it creates a 3D model of your body and tracks the emotional tone in your voice for an even more personalized wellness journey. Technology with EQ (emotional quotient) capabilities are rare and mostly seen in experimental robots. The existing trackers can probably get an idea about your feeling through heart rate but evaluating your emotions through your voice is new in wearables

LG Wing’s form is undeniably unique when opened, but what’s great about it is that it’s still a regular smartphone when closed. It doesn’t come with a thick body or an unusual gap (like the Galaxy Fold). When closed, you’ve got all the benefits of a regular smartphone, but open it up and the swiveling format really reveals a new side of smartphone computing to you. With two screens (or one and a half screens, if you compare the surface area), the Wing feels refreshing, and in a good way.

The Lenovo Awan is a conceptual hard-drive that basically lets you carry your dedicated cloud server along with you. Rather than being an external hard-disk or SSD, the Lenovo Awan is basically a plug-and-use device that connects you to a cloud-drive. Buy the Awan and you get access to cloud storage with a one-time payment. When you connect the Awan to a machine like a laptop or a computer, you’re actually connecting it to the cloud. Lenovo’s Awan, in theory, brings cloud storage into something that’s a piece of hardware that you can carry around with you and plug into devices

The AirBolt tracker was built as a successor to the AirBolt TSA Smart Lock from 2015. Designed to track practically anything, from your personal belongings to your pets, the AirBolt builds on technology that allows it to work with a combination of incredible range and battery life, packed into a device that’s small enough to literally be confused for a guitar pick. The AirBolt tracker can secure around your keys, sit in the folds of your wallet, slip into your backpack or luggage, or even on your pet collar or in your child’s pocket. The AirBolt smartphone app lets you locate the tracker no matter where it is on the planet (allowing you to access its location history too) and even share the location with others in realtime.

The Pixel 5, based on rumors, comes with a design that’s almost like the 4, with the exception of that camera (which I’ll get to, obviously). Its front still has that slight forehead to accommodate the earpiece and front-facing camera, and the phone still has its colorful glass back, a USB-C port, and no headphone jack. A few articles on tech websites have delved deeper into the phone’s insides, and by far the most noteworthy difference between the Pixel 4 and Pixel 5, at least as far as its strategy is concerned, is that the Pixel 5 isn’t going to be Google’s top-of-the-line phone.

Designed in two parts, a transmitter, and a receiver, MOKiN lets you connect a device to a display without running a clunky, ugly, entangled cable between the two. The transmitter and receiver let you extend your screen wirelessly and seamlessly, offering high-definition images with zero latency. It’s basically an HDMI cable without the cable… or even the HDMI, because the MOKiN’s transmitter runs on a USB-C port! This means you can easily connect your laptop, tablet, or smartphone to an external display or a projector in a jiffy without worrying about dongles and such.

Lune, a holistic training and monitoring system for people with sleep apnea trouble, encourages a sound sleep by stimulating oral muscles around the throat by means of pulsating electrodes. Inspired by the male frog’s mate calling technique, which is when the male frog lifts his head upwards in order to produce mighty ribbits, Lune incorporates an integrated airbag into the sleeping assistive device in order to maintain an upright position for their head, which in turn promotes steady, open airflow.

The Top 10 bike designs of 2020!

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2020 has been a year no one is bound to forget anytime soon. And while we have seen plenty of hardships this year, this year has also been one where we have seen humanity reveal their myriad shades – from healthcare workers who risk their lives to treat you, designers who have risen splendidly to solve the COVID-19 crisis to the average joe who is doing his bit by staying at home – we look up to all of you who have played their part in this year. While we are down to the final 8 days of this year, Yanko Design is here to brighten your spirits by showcasing the best of the designs we featured this year – the bike designs that we curated and you love. Take a walk through memory lane and save this post – this list is sure to keep you inspired for a long time!

Meet the BMW R9T, a one-off customized version of BMW’s new R18 cruiser, by the guys at Moscow-based Zillers Garage. It retains the R18’s internal build but comes with a redesigned outer body, made entirely from fabricated aluminum parts. The bike comes with a relatively closed design that integrates all its elements, from the headlight, all the way till the tail-light into a single unified mass with a naked metal finish that gives it its raw, post-apocalyptic appeal. It comes with a menacing HID lamp at the front, and a taillight mounted on a sliding rear that you can open to access the bike’s electricals.

Switch Motorcycles is a new electric bike company and they have just unveiled the eScrambler which is their very first product and we have to say, it’s quite impressive! To share some context, we expect nothing short of this from custom motorcycle veteran Matthew Waddick who teamed up with designer Michel Riis (former Yamaha Japan Advanced Labs Industrial Designer and past Danish Flat Track champion!) The first thing you’ll notice is that it has a sturdy, angular build, almost like the flat trackers and classic bikes of the ’70s or even the Tesla Cybertruck, making it stand apart from the usual slimmer electric bikes. To complete its big-guy aesthetic, it has 18-inch wheels wrapped in chunky tires, KTM forks, and a central mono-shock. Being a vehicle in 2020, it has all the tech you’d want in a bike – a digital display, cruise control, a battery level indicator, integrated GPS tracking, three power modes, and in-built Wi-Fi which truly sets it apart.

If it were up to King T’Challa, the MIMIC e-bike would be fitted with vibranium tech, but we’re going to stick to an electric power-train for now. This crouching-jungle-cat of a bike is a concept designed by Roman Dolzhenko. Outfitted with what looks less like a body and more like armor, the MIMIC e-bike comes with a rounded, Tron Light Cycle-inspired form with rounded elements and just an overall absence of straight lines or sharp edges.

Designer Tanner Van De Veer in collaboration with DAAPworks has proposed a mid-weight Harley Davidson electric motorcycle, destined to revive the brand. The project goal is to bring a motorcycle to the streets which preserves the historical essence of the Harley design language while infusing contemporary trends. He calls it the “Harley Davidson Revival” and lends the bike an eco-conscious touch with the swappable electric battery pack. The electric powertrain of Revival will embody lightweight aesthetics, and yes, it will come sans any clutch or gears. Revival borrows its basic body structure design from the early designs of the motorcycle which shaped its destiny in the early years of development.

Created as a commissioned piece for the Haas Moto Museum and Sculpture Gallery, the bike incorporates design-trends and technologies that are indicative of the future of automotive design. The stunning 2029 comes with an electric drivetrain, fully enclosed aluminum body, hub-centric steering, transparent PolyCarbonate wheels, and 3D printed bike parts, furnished out of Titanium. If the bike looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before, that’s purely out of intention. Designer Bryan Fuller says, “There are few times in my career that we have built something so gratifying. The 2029 combines both my drive to innovate and my love of metal.”

Designer Shane Baxley from Hollywood has a profound affinity for automotive designs and has mustered up yet another concept that shouts out loud for rightful attention. Shane foresees the future where hubless electric bikes will ride the tarmac, radiating a sense of authority on the road. His idea of this electric bike is known as the Baxley Moto (of course we get where the naming originates from) and it carries an ultra-futuristic street-legal vibe with the spokeless wheels. The hunched-forward riding position, big treaded tires, suspended tail section (sans any pillion seat), and the protruding sliders, all point towards a ride meant for daredevils who don’t mind the odd detour on the dirt trails.

The PUNCH is an e-bike that reinterprets the motorcycle template with its less-organic-more-geometric sensibilities. Owing to its battery and electric drivetrain setup, the PUNCH can afford to do away with the curvilinear, sinewy bike design and just lay the inner components out in a way that’s straightforward and yet comfortable. This renewed approach is what makes the PUNCH such a radically different two wheeler. It comes with a double-cylindrical body that seamlessly goes from headlight to seat to taillight, highly reminiscent of the Pocket Rocket from Sol Motors.

Tesla has dabbled in most sections of the four-wheeler industry, from sedans, to pickup trucks, roadsters, semi-trailer trucks, and even quad-bikes. There’s an obvious lack of two-wheelers in Tesla’s product portfolio, and James Gawley took it upon himself to fill that void, at least with a concept. Meet the Tesla Model M… designed to make electric bikes more of the status quo, the Model M comes with a unique aesthetic that deliberately chooses to create a negative space in its design where the fuel-tank would be, almost poking fun at its fuel-guzzling ancestors.

Mehmet Doruk Erdem’s “Khan” is an eclectic mix of unbelievable, dangerous, and beautiful. Erdem’s “Khan” concept takes a BMW R 1100 R twin-cylinder boxer engine and giving them an absolutely new lease of life, with a front-heavy wasp-inspired exterior and an almost naked frame at the rear, much like Erdem’s Alpha concept, and dominated by an extremely large rear wheel, and a seat in the middle, resting on a twin-suspension. There isn’t much method to Erdem’s madness, or maybe I don’t spot it, but the Khan is surely a beautiful beast.

The Dyson Bike started as a mere warmup sketching exercise for Rashid Tagirov in 2019. Seeing how the aesthetic began taking shape, and finding himself with extra time on his hands in 2020, Tagirov decided to take his sketch to the next level and flesh it out in 3D. The Dyson Bike champions the British appliance company’s design language, turning mundane geometric forms into a well-balanced thing of beauty.

Apple’s top apps of 2020 highlight quarantine life

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Along with its top podcasts and books of the year, Apple has revealed the winners of its App Store Best of 2020 awards. The company named an app and game for each for its core devices, along with an Apple Arcade title and a few apps that best exempli...