Tag Archives: Gadgets

Canyon’s Hexagon Charger Makes Wireless Charging Actually Cool

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When you think about wireless chargers, your mind probably goes straight to flat discs or boring black rectangles scattered across your desk. But VLND Studio just flipped that script with their Wireless Charging Station for Canyon, and the design world took notice. This isn’t just another tech accessory pretending to be minimal. It’s a genuine rethinking of how charging stations can look and function.

The Hexagon 310, as it’s officially called, is part of Canyon’s newly introduced Hexagon series. What makes it stand out? That distinctive hexagonal smartphone charging pad that gives the whole station its name and personality. While most charging stations try to disappear into your space, this one demands to be seen, but in the best possible way. It’s sculptural without being pretentious, technical without feeling cold.

Designer: VLND Studio

VLND Studio’s approach here is refreshingly practical. The 3-in-1 station delivers 15 watts of rapid charging power, which means your devices actually charge quickly instead of just sitting there looking pretty. The hexagonal shape isn’t just about aesthetics either. It creates structured storage areas that guide where you place your devices, reducing that annoying fumbling around trying to find the sweet spot for wireless charging. The geometry actually helps with alignment and optimizes the limited real estate on your desk or nightstand.

Let’s talk about what you’re getting functionally. The station charges three devices simultaneously using a Qi magnetic connection that’s compatible with Apple devices. Canyon includes a 20W adapter with changeable EU and UK plugs, so you’re covered whether you’re in London or Lisbon. There are LED indicators and backlighting, plus four types of protection (over-current, over-voltage, over-temperature, and foreign object detection) built in, because nobody wants their phone turning into a hand warmer.

The Red Dot jury was particularly impressed by how the symmetrical geometry unites functional organization with what they called “distinctly futuristic aesthetics.” That’s design-speak for saying it looks like it belongs in a tech enthusiast’s setup without trying too hard. The compact design ensures stability on any surface, and those rounded edges and soft curves give it an approachable, almost friendly presence.

What’s interesting about this collaboration is that Canyon, typically known for more budget-conscious tech accessories, partnered with VLND Studio to create something that punches way above its weight class design-wise. The in-house team at Canyon (including designers Vladlens Zabelskis, Elena Alekseeva, Dmitry Romanenko, Ilya Koloskov, Vladislav Olinov, and Igor Volkov) brought their engineering expertise, while VLND Studio clearly pushed the aesthetic boundaries.

The color options show restraint in the best way. You can choose from light grey with an orange accent, cool grey with blue, or an all-black version with green. That pop of color in the vertical support column adds just enough visual interest without overwhelming the minimalist vibe. It’s the kind of detail that makes you smile when you notice it but doesn’t scream for attention.

Canyon describes the Hexagon 310 as exemplifying their core vision: designing tech products that are as intelligent as they are visually compelling. That might sound like marketing fluff, but when you look at the actual product, it tracks. This charging station does more than organize your devices. It brings a little bit of joy to the mundane task of keeping your gadgets powered up.

For design enthusiasts and tech lovers alike, the Hexagon 310 represents something we don’t see enough of: everyday objects that work brilliantly while also being genuinely interesting to look at. VLND Studio and Canyon proved that wireless chargers don’t have to be afterthoughts in your space. Sometimes, they can be conversation starters.

The post Canyon’s Hexagon Charger Makes Wireless Charging Actually Cool first appeared on Yanko Design.

These Fallout Nuka-Cola artisan keycaps are ridiculous, beautiful, and exactly what your keyboard deserves

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Fallout never lets go of Nuka-Cola. You can be ankle deep in irradiated sludge, low on ammo, and still your brain pings when you see that red script on a rusted machine. The games trained everyone to read those machines as little probability engines. Maybe caps, maybe chems, maybe a ghoul behind the door. That association sticks. You see Nuka-Cola now and your fingers almost reach for the VATS key out of habit.

So when Drop and Dwarf Factory freeze that whole relationship inside a 1U keycap, it feels weirdly logical. Four tiny scenes, all Nuka flavored. Vending machine, bottle crate, Power Armor helmet, Thirst Zapper. Each one parked on an SA R1 profile shell, roughly 18 millimeters across, tall enough to tower over your number row. They are desk jewelry that behaves like keyboard hardware, and that crossover is where this stuff gets interesting.

Designer: Dwarf Factory for Drop

The sheer density of the diorama in each cap is something you have to respect. We are talking about a standard 1U footprint, roughly 18 millimeters square, that contains a fully realized scene with foliage, weathering, and legible micro-branding. The clear resin shell acts as a magnifier, giving the internal sculpture a sense of depth that tricks the eye. You can see the undercuts on the vending machine and the individual ropes on the bottle crate. Achieving that kind of fidelity in a multi-stage casting process, for a part that needs to meet the mechanical tolerances of a keyboard stem, is no small feat.

They were smart about the four designs they chose, too. It feels like a curated set that covers the core pillars of the Nuka-Cola experience: the vending machine for environmental storytelling, the bottle crate for loot, the Thirst Zapper for that weird corporate goofiness, and the Power Armor helmet for combat. It tells a more complete story than just slapping a Vault Boy face on a key. Together, they create a tiny narrative across your function row, a silent testament to the wasteland’s most persistent brand.

These things are tall, sitting at a full SA R1 profile height of around 16 millimeters. On a low-profile board they would look like monoliths, but that verticality feels right for Fallout’s chunky, retro-futuristic hardware. Dwarf Factory is using its standard multi-part resin casting and hand-painting process, all sealed in a polished acrylic shell. They fit standard Cherry MX stems, so compatibility is wide, but anyone running Kailh Box switches is out of luck due to the wider housing. It’s a niche product for a niche within a niche, and the specs reflect that.

Of course, that kind of hand-painted, multi-stage resin work is why these things have a seventy-dollar question mark attached to each key. That price point immediately pushes them out of the realm of simple accessories and into the category of functional jewelry for your desk. You are not just buying a keycap, you are commissioning a tiny sculpture that happens to be keyboard-compatible. It is an absurd purchase by any rational metric, but the entire custom keyboard hobby abandoned rationality several years ago. This is for the person who sees their keyboard as a gallery, not just a tool.

The way they interact with backlighting is another clever touch. The glow-in-the-dark pigment and internal geometry create this irradiated halo effect at night, with light bouncing around inside the resin instead of just shining through a legend. It looks like your keyboard has been sitting a little too close to a glowing sea. Drop one of these on a retro-themed beige board and it looks like canonical hardware from the Fallout universe. Put it on a modern RGB rig and it becomes a preserved relic, a piece of the old world trapped in a futuristic frame.

Given their handmade nature, these keycaps don’t come cheap. Each individual cap starts at $69 from Drop’s website (unless they get sold out and sell on the aftermarket for even higher). I assume the handcrafting cost is high, but the licensing fees with Fallout are even higher. Drop’s even debuted Fallout-themed mechanical keyboards/keycaps/mats that are more mass-produced which sell for a lot cheaper (you can see them in the images above and below)… although if you’re a bit of a collector, you’d want to spring for the artisan stuff, whether it’s to mount on a keyboard or showcase on a platform behind a glass cover.

The post These Fallout Nuka-Cola artisan keycaps are ridiculous, beautiful, and exactly what your keyboard deserves first appeared on Yanko Design.

Seestar S30 Pro Captures Deep-Sky Photos While You Sleep

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The romance of stargazing usually hits the reality of traditional astrophotography pretty hard. Heavy mounts, polar alignment, cables running from telescope to laptop, and software that can turn a clear night into troubleshooting instead of wonder. Phone cameras and basic star apps have helped, but they still leave a gap between pointing at the sky and capturing something worth keeping.

Seestar S30 Pro is a smart telescope that weighs about 1.65kg and folds a telescope, auto-focuser, camera, Alt-Az mount, filter wheel, and controller into one compact body. You power it on, tap your phone to connect, and the system is ready. The idea is to replace a trunk full of gear with a palm-sized observatory that lives in a backpack but still feels like a serious instrument.

Designer: ZWO ASTRO

Setting it up under a clear sky, you open the app and choose from more than 80,000 deep-sky objects and 600,000 stars. With one-tap GOTO, the S30 Pro slews to the target, locks on, and starts tracking. You pick a mode, Stargazing, Milky Way, Solar System, or Scenery, and let the dual-lens 4K system with its IMX585 telephoto and IMX586 wide-angle sensors stack and refine frames.

Milky Way and star trails modes let you watch the sky drift across the frame or trace arcs over time-lapse. Built-in 8K stitching automatically mosaics horizontal or vertical panoramas, expanding the field far beyond a single frame. A freeze-the-ground feature separates foreground from sky, keeping the landscape sharp while the Milky Way stays crisp and trail-free, all from a single tap that would normally require separate exposures.

The 4-element apochromatic lens with extra-low dispersion glass minimizes chromatic aberration so stars stay round, and blacks stay neutral. A built-in triple filter system, dark field, UV/IR cut, and light pollution filter tuned for OIII and Hα, adapts to different conditions. Active anti-dew control gently warms the optics to prevent condensation, so long sessions do not end with a fogged-over lens and hours of wasted time.

Plan mode lets you schedule a target and let Seestar handle locating, tracking, capturing, and processing while you sleep, so you wake up to finished data instead of staying up all night monitoring exposures. For longer exposures, an equatorial mode with additional accessories counters Earth’s rotation. During the day, the same device becomes an ultra-telephoto camera for birds, distant landscapes, or rocket launches, with smart tracking to keep subjects centered.

The S30 Pro sits inside a broader ecosystem, from the telescope network that lets you control Seestar units across regions to the AI assistant that responds to voice commands, and ASCOM Alpaca support that opens it up to software like NINA for advanced workflows. It is framed less as a gadget and more as a platform for exploring the sky, making the first steps effortless while leaving room to grow.

The post Seestar S30 Pro Captures Deep-Sky Photos While You Sleep first appeared on Yanko Design.

OBSBOT Tiny 3 4K PTZ Webcam Review: Audio As a First-Class Citizen

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PROS:


  • Triple MEMS mic array with five specialized audio modes

  • Strong imaging quality with 1/1.28-inch 4K Dual All-Pixel PDAF sensor

  • AI Tracking 2.0 with intelligent framing and PTZ control

  • Extreme compactness with flagship-level specs

CONS:


  • Premium pricing

  • Feature depth may overwhelm casual users

  • Non-serviceable, integrated design

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

OBSBOT Tiny 3 treats audio and video as one design problem instead of forcing users to stack separate gear, creating a genuinely tiny studio that replaces an entire desk setup with one very capable box.

Most people who take video calls seriously have ended up stacking gear on their desks. A clip-on webcam, a clamped USB mic, software filters layered on top of each other, and a constant ritual of adjusting angles and leaning into microphones just to sound decent. Laptop webcams were never meant to carry this much weight, but the usual upgrade path still treats audio as something you solve separately, which means juggling two devices and hoping they play nicely together.

OBSBOT Tiny 3 approaches that problem differently. The 4K PTZ webcam wraps a triple MEMS microphone array, a 1/1.28-inch sensor, and a 2-axis gimbal into a compact, lightweight aluminum body. OBSBOT calls it a Tiny Titan, and claims it delivers studio-grade spatial audio, flagship imaging, and AI tracking in one very small package. Whether that actually holds up during everyday streaming, client meetings, and the occasional podcast is the question worth answering.

Designer: OBSBOT

Aesthetics

Walking into a room where the Tiny 3 sits on a desk, it reads less like a webcam and more like a miniature broadcast camera someone scaled down and parked on a tripod. The aircraft-grade aluminum alloy shell gives it an equipment-grade presence without being loud about it, landing somewhere between compact cameras and audio interfaces rather than the glossy plastic most peripherals use these days.

The proportions feel deliberately compact. At 37mm x 37mm x 49mm and 63g, it occupies roughly the same footprint as a large dice, but the dual-axis gimbal makes it clear this is meant to move and track rather than stare at one fixed angle. The satin metallic finish catches light softly without harsh reflections, and the minimal branding keeps it neutral enough to blend into creative or corporate setups without clashing with the rest of the gear.

The included storage case and adjustable mount feel like extensions of the same design language rather than afterthoughts tossed into the box. The case is compact and rigid, protecting the camera in transit without eating up bag space, while the mount uses clean lines and a friction hinge that feels considered. These details matter to people who care about how tools look both during use and while packed away, which describes exactly the kind of person likely to spend more on a webcam in the first place.

Ergonomics

Setup is quick enough that you can join a meeting within minutes of opening the box. Plug the OBSBOT Tiny 3 into a USB-C port, wait a few seconds for automatic driver installation, and the camera appears as a standard UVC device ready for Zoom or Teams. Downloading OBSBOT Center later unlocks deeper controls, but the basics work immediately without forcing you into a setup wizard when you are already five minutes late to a call.

Mounting options give flexibility without requiring proprietary hardware. The adjustable clip grabs laptop lids or monitor bezels securely, while the built-in 1/4-inch thread accepts any standard desk tripod or arm. This means the Tiny 3 can shift from a quick laptop travel setup to a permanent studio fixture without needing different stands, which keeps things simpler when your workspace changes or you move between home and office regularly.

The 2-axis gimbal handles tracking smoothly once it starts moving. Pan range reaches ±130 degrees controllable, tilt goes from 32 degrees up to 60 degrees down, and the gimbal moves at up to 120 degrees per second. In practice, the camera can follow you across a room, reframe when you stand up or sit down, or snap to preset positions without feeling sluggish or overeager, more like a quiet camera operator than a webcam you nudge by hand every few minutes.

Voice commands and gesture control keep your hands free when it counts. Saying “Hi Tiny” wakes the camera, and from there you can trigger tracking, zoom in or out, or park the gimbal in preset positions by voice. Gestures work similarly: a raised hand or quick motion toggles tracking or zoom without leaning forward to click software buttons. This feels genuinely practical once you are mid-presentation and do not want to break flow by reaching for a mouse or keyboard.

Performance

At the imaging core sits a 1/1.28-inch CMOS sensor with 50MP effective pixels behind an f/1.8 lens at a 24mm equivalent focal length. That sensor size is closer to what you would find in a decent smartphone camera than in most webcams, which immediately changes expectations for low-light noise, dynamic range, and how camera-like the footage feels compared to typical USB peripherals.

The OBSBOT Tiny 3 outputs 4K at 30 fps for sharp video, or drops to 1080p at up to 120 fps for ultra-smooth motion or slow-motion clips. That 120 fps mode is rare on webcams and genuinely useful for product demos, movement capture, or just making gesture-heavy content feel more cinematic. DCG HDR balances bright windows and dim rooms without the ghosting that makes some HDR modes unusable, which helps when you are stuck with mixed lighting.

Autofocus and exposure behave like a capable point-and-shoot rather than guesswork. Dual All-Pixel PDAF pulls focus quickly, whether you are showing a product, writing on a whiteboard, or pacing during a stream. ISO 100 to 12,800, capped at 6,400 in HDR mode, gives flexibility to stay clean in low light without the image collapsing into noise. Shutter speeds from 1/12,800 to 1/30 second handle fast motion or dim environments without aggressive software smoothing.

Audio is where the Tiny 3 genuinely stands apart from the field. The triple silicon MEMS microphone array includes one omnidirectional and two directional mics, operating at 24-bit sampling with 130dB SPL handling and a 69dB signal-to-noise ratio. In plain terms, the system captures quiet nuance and loud environments without clipping or filling the track with hiss, and noise reduction is strong enough to keep voices clear even in noisy spaces.

Five dedicated audio modes cover different scenarios without needing external hardware. Pure Audio delivers unprocessed stereo for music or ASMR. Spatial Audio enhances stereo separation for vlogs. Smart Omni balances voices and environmental sound for meetings. Directional focuses pickup in front while suppressing surrounding noise, ideal for solo podcasts. Dual-Directional captures front and rear while rejecting sides, built for interviews. Having all five built in lets you tune the mic to your environment instead of buying another device.

AI Tracking 2.0 brings framing intelligence you would usually need a camera operator to achieve. Human tracking offers Single, Group, and Only Me modes, the latter locking onto one person and ignoring distractions. Object tracking lets you box items in software and have the gimbal follow. Zone Tracking sets custom areas where tracking starts or stops. Auto Zoom adjusts framing from close-up to full body, while Face Framing detects which direction you are looking and shifts composition accordingly.

Sustainability

The aircraft-grade aluminum alloy body does more than look polished. Aluminum dissipates heat better than plastic, which keeps the camera cooler during long streams and reduces the risk of thermal issues or early component wear. The material also resists scratches and minor bumps better than glossy finishes, which matters when you are moving the camera between desk, bag, and tripod regularly without babying it.

The OBSBOT Tiny 3 is not user-serviceable in the traditional sense, but that trade-off buys integration and compactness. The non-removable gimbal, sensor, and mic array work as a single tuned system, eliminating external adapters, separate audio devices, and multiple mounting solutions. Over time, that reduces the number of peripherals cluttering your workspace and, eventually, the pile of obsolete gear heading toward e-waste when you simplify or upgrade.

Consolidation itself is a quieter sustainability angle. By combining high-quality video, spatial audio, and intelligent tracking in one device, the Tiny 3 can replace the typical webcam-plus-mic-plus-software stack many creators rely on. Fewer separate products to manufacture, package, ship, and discard adds up over the lifecycle of a setup, even if it is not the kind of sustainability story that comes with certification badges or bold recycled-material claims.

Value

With a $349 full price tag, the OBSBOT Tiny 3 sits in premium webcam territory. This is not an impulse replacement for a blurry laptop camera. It is aimed at people who make a living on video or spend enough time on calls and streams that a camera setup feels like professional infrastructure rather than just another peripheral. The price is higher than most consumer webcams, but it is also attempting significantly more than a fixed lens with a basic mic.

Value shows up through consolidation. At that price point, you get a 4K PTZ camera, triple-mic spatial audio system, and deep AI tracking in one device. Building something similar from separate pieces, a good standalone webcam, a quality USB microphone, plus software for tracking, can match or exceed that total when you add it up. The bigger benefit is simplicity: one cable instead of three, one piece of software, and one object on the desk instead of gear fighting for USB ports.

Comparing what $349 typically gets you elsewhere helps frame where Tiny 3 sits. At similar prices, you might find webcams with strong video but mediocre mics that still need separate audio solutions, or you might approach entry-level camera kits that require capture cards and external mics. Tiny 3’s combination of audio-first design, motorized PTZ tracking, and real-time AI framing is rare enough in this bracket that direct comparisons feel unfair in either direction.

The broader OBSBOT ecosystem adds value for people who grow into complex setups. Pairing the Tiny 3 with OBSBOT’s own Vox SE wireless mics, a physical OBSBOT Tiny Smart Remote 2, or adapters for HDMI and NDI output means the camera scales from simple desk calls to multi-camera streams without needing replacement. That spreads the initial investment over more scenarios and extends useful life, which looks more reasonable when you consider many people outgrow basic webcams within a year anyway.

Verdict

The OBSBOT Tiny 3 feels like a carefully engineered answer to the messy reality of modern video communication, where clear sound, smart framing, and reliable focus matter as much as raw resolution. The combination of a 1/1.28-inch 4K sensor, triple MEMS spatial audio, and a nimble PTZ gimbal packed into a, pardon the pun, tiny aluminum body makes it feel less like a webcam upgrade and more like a miniaturized studio camera that works over USB-C.

It is hardly the cheapest way to appear on screen, but it is one of the few that treats audio, video, and intelligence as a single design problem. For creators, educators, podcasters, and remote workers tired of juggling separate cameras and mics just to sound and look decent, the OBSBOT Tiny 3 makes a strong case for consolidating that setup into one very small, very capable box that disappears into the background while you get on with the work.

The post OBSBOT Tiny 3 4K PTZ Webcam Review: Audio As a First-Class Citizen first appeared on Yanko Design.

Apple unveils Gen 2 AirTag with louder speaker and 50% more tracking range

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Apple has just launched a new AirTag, an update to its item-tracking accessory that has been around since 2021. The second-generation device is, as you would expect, better and bolder. It carries two primary distinctions: a better speaker and a wider range, which we will (in addition to other new features) discuss in detail below.

Apple AirTag has been on the market for five years now. It is still the most reliable and go-to device for most people looking to secure their belongings, including, but not limited to, luggage, keys, wallets, and bags. Dubbed the second-generation AirTag, the new item-tracker is powered by the same second-generation Ultra Wideband Chip that Apple has previously outfitted the iPhone 17 and the Watch Ultra 3 with.

Designer: Apple

Courtesy of an upgraded Bluetooth chip, the Gen 2 AirTag expands its range of Precision Finding by a good 50 percent and adds more reliable directional guidance to it, which means users will now be able to track their lost items from a much further distance. In addition to the range, the new AirTag features a much louder speaker. Users can get audio cues up to almost 50 percent louder than the original AirTag. The device also delivers haptic feedback and features directional arrows to lead you more conveniently to your lost but tagged item.

According to the reports released in the run-up to the launch of the second-gen AirTag, it was mulled that Apple would introduce a new design for its device. Apple has, however, stayed true to its original design and has instead focused on improving the features of the item tracker.

The Cupertino tech giant has put user privacy at the core of the development of its new AirTag. Within the associated Find My network, the device protects against unwanted tracking, and it comes with end-to-end encryption. A new feature within the Find My network is Share My Location. The feature allows users to temporarily share the location of any accessory tagged with the AirTag with a select group of people of their choosing. This can be particularly beneficial in case of misplaced luggage, for instance, a person can share the location of their tagged item with the airline staff and help recover faster.

Even though the look and feel, as well as the battery size of the AirTag haven’t changed, the device is now made from recycled materials. The casing comprises 85 percent recycled plastic, and it features 100 percent recycled rare-earth magnets and 100 percent recycled gold-plated circuits. Apple informs that the second-generation AirTag will require iPhones running iOS 26 or later, while the Precision Finding will be usable on Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later. Despite the upgrades, the second-gen AirTag, like its predecessor, costs $29 in the U.S. A pack of four will retail for $99.

The post Apple unveils Gen 2 AirTag with louder speaker and 50% more tracking range first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Smart Charging Adapter Finally Flexes So Your Cables Don’t Have To

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Charging phones and portable devices has become one of the most routine actions of modern life. From the moment we wake up to the time we go to sleep, our devices depend on reliable power. We charge at home, in offices, cafés, airports, hotels, libraries, and public transportation spaces. Despite how frequently charging occurs, the physical environments designed to support it often feel like an afterthought. Wall sockets are commonly placed low to the ground, behind furniture, under desks, or in narrow corners that were never designed with daily device use in mind.

As a result, charging cables are routinely forced into uncomfortable positions. They are bent sharply against walls, twisted sideways, or compressed between furniture and outlets. Over time, this repeated stress causes visible wear. The outer insulation begins to tear, internal wiring weakens, and charging reliability declines. Many users replace cables not because they stop working suddenly, but because gradual damage makes them unsafe or frustrating to use. This cycle creates unnecessary waste, financial cost, and ongoing inconvenience.

Designer: Berkan Sunayol

Beyond annoyance, damaged charging accessories raise genuine safety concerns. Continuous pressure on the adapter and cable can degrade electrical contact points, increasing the risk of overheating, inconsistent power delivery, or short circuits. In public and shared environments, where users may not notice early signs of damage, this becomes an overlooked safety issue.

Charging cables are intentionally designed to be flexible. They allow users to route them around objects, across surfaces, and through tight gaps. Charging adapters, however, remain rigid and stiff. This mismatch creates a critical point of failure. When a rigid adapter is plugged into an awkwardly placed socket, it locks the cable into a fixed angle. The cable is forced to bend sharply at the connector, which is often the weakest part of the entire system.

Over time, this rigidity undermines the durability of both the cable and the adapter. Despite widespread awareness of cable damage, most existing solutions focus on reinforcing the cable itself rather than addressing the adapter that causes the stress.

The Flexible Charge Adapter addresses this issue by rethinking the adapter as an adaptive component rather than a static block. A stretchable silicone structure is integrated into a specific section of the adapter, allowing controlled flexibility where it matters most. This design introduces a small but meaningful bend that aligns naturally with the direction of the cable.

In tight or awkward spaces, this flexibility reduces sharp angles, minimizes pressure at the connection point, and allows the cable to rest in a safer, more natural position. The adapter responds to real-world conditions instead of resisting them, helping preserve the integrity of the cable and the safety of the charging process.

In addition to improving durability and safety, the adapter also supports modern usage patterns. With two charging ports, users can charge multiple devices at the same time, even in confined environments. Phones, earbuds, power banks, and other accessories can be powered simultaneously without crowding the socket or straining cables.

The Flexible Charge Adapter demonstrates how thoughtful design can address everyday frustrations that are often overlooked. By introducing flexibility into a traditionally rigid object, it extends the life of charging accessories, reduces safety risks, and improves the overall charging experience. In a world where charging is constant and unavoidable, this design makes a simple act safer, smarter, and more sustainable.

The post This Smart Charging Adapter Finally Flexes So Your Cables Don’t Have To first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Smart Charging Adapter Finally Flexes So Your Cables Don’t Have To

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Charging phones and portable devices has become one of the most routine actions of modern life. From the moment we wake up to the time we go to sleep, our devices depend on reliable power. We charge at home, in offices, cafés, airports, hotels, libraries, and public transportation spaces. Despite how frequently charging occurs, the physical environments designed to support it often feel like an afterthought. Wall sockets are commonly placed low to the ground, behind furniture, under desks, or in narrow corners that were never designed with daily device use in mind.

As a result, charging cables are routinely forced into uncomfortable positions. They are bent sharply against walls, twisted sideways, or compressed between furniture and outlets. Over time, this repeated stress causes visible wear. The outer insulation begins to tear, internal wiring weakens, and charging reliability declines. Many users replace cables not because they stop working suddenly, but because gradual damage makes them unsafe or frustrating to use. This cycle creates unnecessary waste, financial cost, and ongoing inconvenience.

Designer: Berkan Sunayol

Beyond annoyance, damaged charging accessories raise genuine safety concerns. Continuous pressure on the adapter and cable can degrade electrical contact points, increasing the risk of overheating, inconsistent power delivery, or short circuits. In public and shared environments, where users may not notice early signs of damage, this becomes an overlooked safety issue.

Charging cables are intentionally designed to be flexible. They allow users to route them around objects, across surfaces, and through tight gaps. Charging adapters, however, remain rigid and stiff. This mismatch creates a critical point of failure. When a rigid adapter is plugged into an awkwardly placed socket, it locks the cable into a fixed angle. The cable is forced to bend sharply at the connector, which is often the weakest part of the entire system.

Over time, this rigidity undermines the durability of both the cable and the adapter. Despite widespread awareness of cable damage, most existing solutions focus on reinforcing the cable itself rather than addressing the adapter that causes the stress.

The Flexible Charge Adapter addresses this issue by rethinking the adapter as an adaptive component rather than a static block. A stretchable silicone structure is integrated into a specific section of the adapter, allowing controlled flexibility where it matters most. This design introduces a small but meaningful bend that aligns naturally with the direction of the cable.

In tight or awkward spaces, this flexibility reduces sharp angles, minimizes pressure at the connection point, and allows the cable to rest in a safer, more natural position. The adapter responds to real-world conditions instead of resisting them, helping preserve the integrity of the cable and the safety of the charging process.

In addition to improving durability and safety, the adapter also supports modern usage patterns. With two charging ports, users can charge multiple devices at the same time, even in confined environments. Phones, earbuds, power banks, and other accessories can be powered simultaneously without crowding the socket or straining cables.

The Flexible Charge Adapter demonstrates how thoughtful design can address everyday frustrations that are often overlooked. By introducing flexibility into a traditionally rigid object, it extends the life of charging accessories, reduces safety risks, and improves the overall charging experience. In a world where charging is constant and unavoidable, this design makes a simple act safer, smarter, and more sustainable.

The post This Smart Charging Adapter Finally Flexes So Your Cables Don’t Have To first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Smart Charging Adapter Finally Flexes So Your Cables Don’t Have To

Posted on by

Charging phones and portable devices has become one of the most routine actions of modern life. From the moment we wake up to the time we go to sleep, our devices depend on reliable power. We charge at home, in offices, cafés, airports, hotels, libraries, and public transportation spaces. Despite how frequently charging occurs, the physical environments designed to support it often feel like an afterthought. Wall sockets are commonly placed low to the ground, behind furniture, under desks, or in narrow corners that were never designed with daily device use in mind.

As a result, charging cables are routinely forced into uncomfortable positions. They are bent sharply against walls, twisted sideways, or compressed between furniture and outlets. Over time, this repeated stress causes visible wear. The outer insulation begins to tear, internal wiring weakens, and charging reliability declines. Many users replace cables not because they stop working suddenly, but because gradual damage makes them unsafe or frustrating to use. This cycle creates unnecessary waste, financial cost, and ongoing inconvenience.

Designer: Berkan Sunayol

Beyond annoyance, damaged charging accessories raise genuine safety concerns. Continuous pressure on the adapter and cable can degrade electrical contact points, increasing the risk of overheating, inconsistent power delivery, or short circuits. In public and shared environments, where users may not notice early signs of damage, this becomes an overlooked safety issue.

Charging cables are intentionally designed to be flexible. They allow users to route them around objects, across surfaces, and through tight gaps. Charging adapters, however, remain rigid and stiff. This mismatch creates a critical point of failure. When a rigid adapter is plugged into an awkwardly placed socket, it locks the cable into a fixed angle. The cable is forced to bend sharply at the connector, which is often the weakest part of the entire system.

Over time, this rigidity undermines the durability of both the cable and the adapter. Despite widespread awareness of cable damage, most existing solutions focus on reinforcing the cable itself rather than addressing the adapter that causes the stress.

The Flexible Charge Adapter addresses this issue by rethinking the adapter as an adaptive component rather than a static block. A stretchable silicone structure is integrated into a specific section of the adapter, allowing controlled flexibility where it matters most. This design introduces a small but meaningful bend that aligns naturally with the direction of the cable.

In tight or awkward spaces, this flexibility reduces sharp angles, minimizes pressure at the connection point, and allows the cable to rest in a safer, more natural position. The adapter responds to real-world conditions instead of resisting them, helping preserve the integrity of the cable and the safety of the charging process.

In addition to improving durability and safety, the adapter also supports modern usage patterns. With two charging ports, users can charge multiple devices at the same time, even in confined environments. Phones, earbuds, power banks, and other accessories can be powered simultaneously without crowding the socket or straining cables.

The Flexible Charge Adapter demonstrates how thoughtful design can address everyday frustrations that are often overlooked. By introducing flexibility into a traditionally rigid object, it extends the life of charging accessories, reduces safety risks, and improves the overall charging experience. In a world where charging is constant and unavoidable, this design makes a simple act safer, smarter, and more sustainable.

The post This Smart Charging Adapter Finally Flexes So Your Cables Don’t Have To first appeared on Yanko Design.

These 5 AI Modules Listen When You Hum, Tap, or Strum, Not Type

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AI music tools usually start on a laptop where you type a prompt and wait for a track. That workflow feels distant from how bands write songs, trading groove and chemistry for text boxes and genre presets. MUSE asks what AI music looks like if it starts from playing instead of typing, treating the machine as a bandmate that listens and responds rather than a generator you feed instructions.

MUSE is a next-generation AI music module system designed for band musicians. It is not one box but a family of modules, vocal, drum, bass, synthesizer, and electric guitar, each tuned to a specific role. You feed each one ideas the way you would feed a bandmate, and the AI responds in real time, filling out parts and suggesting directions that match what you just played.

Designers: Hyeyoung Shin, Dayoung Chang

A band rehearsal where each member has their own module means the drummer taps patterns into the drum unit, the bassist works with the bass module to explore grooves, and the singer hums into the vocal module to spin melodies out of half-formed ideas. Instead of staring at a screen, everyone is still moving and reacting, but there is an extra layer of AI quietly proposing fills, variations, and harmonies.

MUSE is built around the idea that timing, touch, and phrasing carry information that text prompts miss. Tapping rhythms, humming lines, or strumming chords lets the system pick up on groove and style, not just genre labels. Those nuances feed the AI’s creative process, so what comes back feels more like an extension of your playing than a generic backing track cobbled together from preset patterns.

The modules can be scattered around a home rather than living in a studio. One unit near the bed for late-night vocal ideas, another by the desk for quick guitar riffs between emails, a drum module on the coffee table for couch jams. Because they look like small colorful objects rather than studio gear, they can stay out, ready to catch ideas without turning the house into a control room.

Each module’s color and texture match its role: a plush vocal unit, punchy drum block, bright synth puck, making them easy to grab and easy to live with. They read more like playful home objects than intimidating equipment, which lowers the barrier to experimenting. Picking one up becomes a small ritual, a way to nudge yourself into making sound instead of scrolling or staring at blank sessions.

MUSE began with the question of how creators can embrace AI without losing their identity. The answer it proposes is to keep the musician’s body and timing at the center, letting AI listen and respond rather than dictate. It treats AI as a bandmate that learns your groove over time, not a replacement, and that shift might be what keeps humans in the loop as the tools get smarter.

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This Battery Charger Shows Which AAs Are Dead on an E-Ink Display

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The drawer full of half-used AA and AAA batteries, some new, some dead, some leaking, is familiar. The last-minute scramble for batteries when a remote dies usually means digging through the pile, testing them one by one, and feeling uneasy about throwing spent alkalines into the trash. The problem is not just waste, it is the lack of a clear system for how we power small devices scattered around a home.

Linogy is a rechargeable battery ecosystem built around 1.5 V Li-ion AA and AAA cells plus an all-in-one smart station. The station lives on a desk or shelf, acting as a battery tester, fast charger, and organizer case that holds up to 40 cells. The goal is to replace the random drawer with a single, visible place where all your batteries live and get managed.

Designer: Linogy

Disposable alkalines are convenient but add up to billions of cells tossed each year, along with tens of thousands of tons of waste and CO₂. Ni-MH rechargeables solve part of that but bring their own quirks: 1.2V output that some devices dislike, high self-discharge, lower energy density, and slow charging that makes topping them up feel like a chore you keep postponing.

Linogy’s cells pack around 3,600mWh and deliver stable 1.5V, closer to what devices expect from alkalines, so performance and battery indicators behave more predictably. The cells are rated for up to 1,200 cycles, meaning one rechargeable can stand in for roughly 1,200 disposables over its life, and built-in protection layers handle overcharge, short circuit, and drop impacts without leaks or smoke.

Dropping a mix of AA and AAA cells into the station, it automatically detects type, health, and charge level. The e-ink display shows which batteries are full, which are charging, and which are ready to retire, without bright LEDs or guesswork. A full charge takes around three hours, and once topped up, the station stops charging and simply holds the cells until something needs power.

The station is compatible with Linogy’s Li-ion cells, Ni-MH, and Ni-Cd AA and AAA batteries. You do not have to throw out existing rechargeables; the same box can test and charge them while you gradually swap in higher-capacity 1.5V cells. Over time, the random mix becomes a more coherent set of batteries you actually trust instead of avoiding.

A simple change in how you handle AA and AAA power can reduce waste and friction. One Linogy cell replacing up to 1,200 alkalines, recyclable packaging, and a charger that looks like a small appliance rather than a tangle of cables all add up. It turns the humble battery from something you forget about until it fails into a part of the home that is designed, visible, and surprisingly satisfying to keep in order.

The post This Battery Charger Shows Which AAs Are Dead on an E-Ink Display first appeared on Yanko Design.