Amazon has another shot at making home robots useful enough to justify their price and wants to apply what it learned from Astro.

The post Amazon’s Next Home Robot: A Second Chance After Astro’s Rocky Start appeared first on TechRepublic.

Most clocks give their hands somewhere obvious to stand, usually a solid face hiding the mechanism behind it. Hollow Clock V leaves that space empty, making its hands appear to hover inside a slender ring. This working DIY project uses 3D-printed parts, hidden gears, and magnets to pull off a trick that doesn’t require a transparent panel to work.

The minute hand provides the first clue, since its outer end connects to a rotating ring concealed within the frame. Its center supports the hour hand on a small pivot, so the pair isn’t actually levitating. The hour hand’s position is controlled magnetically by another rotating ring, allowing it to keep pointing at the right hour while the longer hand travels around.

Designer: Shinsaku Hiura

That second ring carries two neodymium magnets, which interact with a third tucked into the hour hand. Their T-shaped arrangement helps keep the hand aligned without adding a connection across the opening. Down in the base, a stepper motor and a combination of worm and bevel gears drive the minute ring 12 times faster than the hour ring, without a bulky central hub.

All that machinery makes the spare appearance deceptive. The ring has a border only about 0.28 inches wide, with hour markers replacing a conventional numbered dial. Screws are kept out of sight when the clock is assembled, apart from the central hand fastener. A rear USB-C connection sends the cable away from the front, leaving the open center to do the distracting.

The finish is also shaped by the way the parts are printed, rather than treated as an afterthought. Front surfaces sit against the printer’s build plate, picking up its texture instead of exposing filament paths across the face. Changing filament during printing gives the markers a contrasting color. It’s a small manufacturing decision that makes the homemade object look a little more deliberate.

Setting the time stays physical, too. You lift the display ring out of the base, freeing it from the drive gears, move the hands to the desired time, and slot it back in. There’s no tiny adjustment knob to hunt for behind the housing. For a clock that hides so much of its mechanism, this particular interaction is refreshingly easy to understand.

Getting to that point takes more effort than the finished clock lets on. The project involves printing, soldering, loading firmware, and assembling the moving parts, although the supplied print orientations don’t require supports. Smooth gear surfaces matter, and the guide includes lubrication and tuning advice. The uncluttered desk ornament is also a small mechanical project, with patience required before it starts keeping time.

The ratchet is designed to compensate for missed motor steps, though it also introduces a reason to think twice about bedside placement. The guide describes removing its hook for quiet operation only when the mechanism runs smoothly enough. On a desk or shelf, that choice comes down to how much of the clock’s engineering you’re prepared to hear as well as admire.

The post Hollow Clock V Trades a Solid Dial for a Ring of Hidden Gears first appeared on Yanko Design.

Vital Lyfe’s Access promises up to 22.7 liters of drinking water per hour from seawater. Explore its estimated $749 price, battery limits, and business uses.

The post Vital Lyfe’s Portable Desalination Device Promises 23 Liters an Hour appeared first on TechRepublic.

Samsung is reportedly testing a $4.99 monthly Galaxy AI Premium subscription. Here's what could become paid, which features stay free, and when it may launch.

The post Samsung’s Galaxy AI Could Get a Paid Tier: What Stays Free and What Costs Extra appeared first on TechRepublic.

Taking someone’s photograph often means hiding your own face behind a camera or phone. That’s a rather strange way to capture a shared moment, especially when you’re trying to keep a conversation going. HOA’s upcoming A1 camera takes a different approach, using a large, open frame as its viewfinder so you can look directly at the person you’re photographing with both eyes open.

The shape is almost comically simple, leaving a rectangular border, a solid lower section, and a circular lens assembly that overlaps the opening. Rather than squeezing a tiny viewfinder into one corner, the body gives you a generous space to look through. The lens still occupies part of that view, of course, but there’s considerably less camera standing between you and your subject.

Designer: Lutra

That could make photographing friends feel a little less like asking them to perform for a gadget. You can keep talking, watch their expressions, and press the shutter without switching your attention to a live preview. Accurate composition is another matter, however. How closely that opening matches the final photograph, particularly as you move it away from your face, still needs testing.

Inside that unusual outline is a Sony 16MP sensor paired with an autofocus lens offering a 26mm-equivalent field of view. That’s a wide-angle perspective suited to keeping some surroundings in the picture, rather than concentrating on a distant face. HOA lists a weight of about 4.9 ounces and a battery rated for up to 90 minutes of continuous shooting on a single charge.

Your phone returns to the process when it’s time to see what you’ve captured. HOA says tapping a smartphone against the camera’s back will let you view photographs, although detailed instructions are still pending. You can shoot without Wi-Fi, so a walk with your camera doesn’t require finding an internet connection first. Getting authentication certificates through the companion app requires going online, however.

Those certificates belong to ShootProof, HOA’s proposed system for checking whether a photograph has changed since capture. The company says a secure chip signs each image’s digital fingerprint, with that record entered into a blockchain registry. That’s a record of the file’s integrity, not a guarantee that the scene was truthful. Photographing something staged doesn’t make it honest, certificate or no certificate.

There’s a more personal kind of signature as well, and this one actually appears in the photograph. An optional Signature mode places your chosen mark in a corner of each shot, much like signing a print. You can leave a little trace of yourself on photographs of friends or familiar places, rather than adding your signature to every individual photograph by hand afterward.

The planned December 21 release is limited to 100 numbered First Edition cameras, priced at $289. That makes the A1 an unusual purchase before its image quality and phone workflow are fully demonstrated. Its open frame offers an appealing way to keep looking at people while photographing them, but the photographs still have to justify carrying another device alongside your phone.

The post HOA A1 Camera Lets You Stay Face-to-Face While Taking Photos first appeared on Yanko Design.

Caviar’s Zodiac Duo may be on your wish list this year. Well, at least if you’re an Apple fan drawn to the idea of a foldable iPhone with a rather extravagant finish. Caviar presents the customization for the iPhone Duo, itself already a sort of luxury item. If you want to make your phone a bit different from all the others, this may just be the one you’d want to spend your money on. And I mean a lot of money.

The Zodiac Duo isn’t simply a specially designed case featuring one of the 12 astrological signs. It’s a made-to-order customization offering with 12 zodiac-themed starting designs. There are eight steps to customize and personalize your phone, including changing things like the constellation, metal finish, decorative elements, and back-plate materials. Caviar says its jewelers will assemble the finished piece according to your specifications. So don’t expect this to be a simple or affordable kind of customization.

Designer: Caviar

The personalization aspect changes the decorative composition of your phone, rather than just its color or a generic zodiac symbol tacked onto it. You can configure several visually separate components, including the zodiac circle, medallion, frame, and decorative panel. The zodiac circle gives the design a visual structure, with the constellation and sign symbol guiding the rest of your choices. This way, you won’t just have various luxury materials scattered around a surface. There’s a recognizable theme holding everything together, even if your material choices are on the extravagant side.

Caviar lists silver, yellow and rose gold, and natural or black titanium among its metal options, although the exact construction depends on your configuration. Some components are specified as gold-plated rather than solid gold. For decoration, the choices include jewelry enamel, diamonds, sapphires, rubies, Swarovski crystals, and meteorite. The back plate can use crocodile, python, calfskin, or forged carbon. That’s quite a different set of decisions from choosing between a clear case and a silicone one. It also leaves room to decide how much sparkle you actually want.

The surface treatments deserve some attention, too. Caviar offers guilloché and clous de Paris hobnail patterns, adding intricate repeating details to the metal surfaces. These give you something else to consider beyond color and shine. A textured metal surface paired with leather suggests a different visual character from one surrounded by bright stones, even when both designs begin with the same zodiac sign.

For someone who follows astrology, the appeal is having a daily object connected to something personally meaningful. It could also make a very specific gift, assuming you know the recipient’s sign and taste well enough. The benefit here is self-expression. There’s no reason to expect a jeweled constellation to make your apps run faster or your photos look better.

The online configurator lets you see an estimated price as you make your selections. You can then save the design as a link or send it to a Caviar manager. That makes the process more manageable than trying to describe your preferred combination from scratch. Still, Caviar says the configurator image is illustrative, with the final appearance agreed upon with a manager. Those selections are the beginning of a conversation about the finished phone.

One configuration carries an estimated price of $16,629, but that isn’t a confirmed price for every possible combination. Buyers should request a configuration-specific quote and delivery information from Caviar. Before committing, I’d also want answers about the finished phone’s weight, charging compatibility, warranty, and repair options. Those practical details matter when the object you’re decorating still needs to function as your everyday phone.

The more interesting long-term question is what happens when that phone needs replacing. A zodiac sign won’t become outdated, but the device carrying it eventually will. At this price, knowing whether the decorative work can be repaired or reused would matter almost as much as choosing the right constellation.

The post Caviar’s Zodiac Duo Phone Refuses to Keep Your Star Sign Subtle first appeared on Yanko Design.

Chargers have become smaller and more capable, but their cables still have a habit of becoming a tangled mess in our bags. Even remembering to pack one doesn’t guarantee you’ve brought the other. Twelve South’s Cablesnap 65W charger tackles that familiar problem with a retractable USB-C cable, keeping the wire tucked inside its body until you actually need to plug something in.

The idea is pretty straightforward, although it addresses a chore that’s easy to overlook. Pull out the USB-C connector and the flat cable extends up to 29 inches, giving you some freedom to position your device. When you’re done, a small tug sends it back into the housing. There’s no need to wrap the cord around the charger and hope it stays put.

Designer: Twelve South

The connector has its own recessed resting place beside the extra ports, so there isn’t a loose tip dangling outside after the cable disappears. That leaves a rounded rectangular body with relatively little visual clutter and a contrasting end section. Coastal blue, Dune, and Slate finishes give it some personality, especially if you’ve grown tired of the usual anonymous black or white chargers.

That disappearing trick does come with a catch, of course. A 29-inch cable works best when the outlet is already reasonably close to where you want your device. A desk socket is one thing; an outlet hidden behind a hotel bed is another matter. You can avoid having extra wire spread across the table, but you can’t pull out length that isn’t there.

Fortunately, the built-in cable isn’t your only connection. An additional USB-C port and a USB-A port let you charge up to three devices together, which could cover a laptop, phone, and wireless earbuds at the end of the day. You’ll still need separate cables for those extra ports, though, so this particular arrangement hasn’t made your entire cable collection obsolete just yet.

The advertised 65W, however, needs a little explanation. That’s the charger’s total available output, rather than what each device receives when everything is plugged in. The USB-A port tops out at 18W, while the overall power budget is shared. Charging a compatible laptop alongside your other gadgets is convenient, but you shouldn’t expect it to receive the full 65W in that particular arrangement.

The US plug folds into the body as well, keeping its prongs from sticking out while the charger is packed away. Included Type G and Type C adapters accommodate compatible UK and European outlets, saving you from sourcing those pieces separately. Between the folding plug and retractable cable, there’s less to arrange before slipping the charger back into your crowded travel bag.

At $49.99, the Cablesnap 65W puts a price on not having to coil a cable every time you move between desks or pack for a trip. The integrated design does raise a question about replacing that cable, something Twelve South doesn’t explain. You still have the spare USB-C port if needed, but using it brings a loose cord back into your bag.

The post Twelve South’s Cablesnap 65W Charger Packs Its Cable So You Don’t Have To first appeared on Yanko Design.

Taking photographs has become almost effortless, but getting them off our phones is another matter. There’s always a favorite vacation snapshot that deserves better than being buried between screenshots and receipts. Inkanva is developing a color E Ink canvas that gives those pictures a more permanent place at home, with a paper-like display and indoor-light charging on its two smaller models.

The difference starts with what the display doesn’t do. There’s no backlight turning a family portrait into another glowing rectangle in the living room. Instead, E Ink Spectra 6 reflects ambient light and uses six physical pigments to create color. Like a printed photograph, it needs light to be seen, which makes its relationship with the room quite different from a backlit tablet’s.

Designer: Inkanva

Click Here to Buy Now: $159 $239 (34% off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $358,000

Light also has another job here. The 7.09-inch and 13.3-inch editions include a perovskite photovoltaic component that harvests indoor light to replenish the battery. That’s a rather technical way of addressing a familiar decorating problem: finding somewhere for an electronic object without planning around a nearby power outlet. The component attaches magnetically and can be removed without opening the display housing.

Of course, the room still has a say in how that works. Charging depends on available light and how often you change the picture, so a dim corner isn’t the same as a well-lit shelf. E Ink helps by retaining a static image without continuous display power. The aim is fewer charging interruptions, rather than a promise of unlimited activity.

Changing the picture follows a routine that should feel familiar to anyone who’s edited a photo on a phone. Choose an image in the Inkanva app, adjust the crop, and send it over Wi-Fi. A trip to the coast could replace last year’s family portrait without another print order, leaving the physical frame where it is while the memory inside changes.

There’s room for less conventional contributions, too. The app offers AI tools that turn spoken ideas or doodles into artwork, giving a quick sketch another direction to explore. A child’s drawing could become the starting point for something new, although there’s no obligation to involve AI at all. Your own photograph can take the same place without being reinterpreted by software.

Those who’d rather manage their pictures closer to home have a separate local mode with a browser interface and its own image library. It’s an alternative to app-based management, rather than another remote control running alongside it. Home Assistant support also leaves room for custom routines, such as putting a different artwork on display for the start of the week.

The surrounding frame matters almost as much as the image, especially when it shares a room with furniture you’ve chosen carefully. On the 13.3-inch edition, a separate decorative wood surround can be swapped without replacing the display. Moving it from a study to a living room doesn’t have to mean keeping the same finish, even if the photograph stays exactly as it was.

Scale changes that relationship as well. The 7.09-inch canvas suggests a personal photograph beside a desk, while the 13.3-inch version gives an image more presence on a shelf or wall. There’s also a 28.5-inch edition for a larger wall composition, although it doesn’t include the light-harvesting panel.

A photograph doesn’t need to change every morning to deserve a place on the wall. It might stay there for months, gathering the sort of familiarity that makes a room feel like yours. Inkanva leaves that decision with the person living beside it. When another picture finally earns the spot, you can change what’s inside without taking down the frame.

Click Here to Buy Now: $159 $239 (34% off). Hurry, only a few left! Raised over $358,000

The post This Light-Charging E Ink Frame Gives Your Photos a Home Beyond Your Phone first appeared on Yanko Design.

Opening a laptop to write a paragraph can quickly turn into checking messages, rearranging windows, and forgetting the sentence you had in mind. The Micro Journal Rev.2.1.MINI, nicknamed Baby Shark, puts writing at the center of a small, folding computer instead. Its wide screen and compact mechanical keyboard give your words their own space, while Linux supplies the editing tools beneath that colorful clamshell.

The chunky enclosure doesn’t try to resemble a slim aluminum laptop. A bright red shell, dark panels, exposed screws, and ridged side knobs give it the character of a little workshop instrument. Its hinged display folds down over the keyboard when you’re finished. The 3D-printed construction makes color part of the customization, rather than limiting everyone to another black rectangle in their bag.

Designer: Un Kyu Lee

The 8-inch LCD is unusually wide and shallow, with a 1280×400 resolution that stretches a document across the device. It leaves space for your passage without offering the vertical expanse of a conventional laptop screen. That’s a useful distinction for drafting: there’s room to work through a sentence, but reviewing several pages still means scrolling rather than shrinking everything into an overview.

The keyboard makes a similar trade. Its 48 keys form a four-row, 12-column grid, rather than the staggered rows most typists know. Numbers and additional symbols live on layers accessed by holding another key, which keeps the footprint small while asking your fingers to learn new combinations. Vial software lets you remap assignments, and hot-swappable switches let you change the feel without soldering.

A Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W runs Linux inside, with WordGrinder and nano available for drafting and editing. That gives you somewhere to revise yesterday’s work as well as start today’s entry. Files can leave through a USB flash drive or a browser-based interface on your local network, so a writing session doesn’t have to end with retyping everything on your main computer.

Portability also depends on what you put inside. Baby Shark takes up to four replaceable 18650 cells, sold separately, or runs directly from USB power. The connector is USB-C, but the documented setup requires a USB-A charger and a USB-A-to-USB-C cable, not USB Power Delivery. That means the charger already serving your laptop may not be the one this little writing machine needs.

Linux brings a pause before the writing starts: the seller estimates about 30 seconds to boot. This isn’t an instant-on notebook, and closing the screen isn’t a substitute for shutting the system down properly. On the other hand, published enclosure files, circuit-board designs, and firmware give owners ways to repair or modify it, instead of treating the device as a sealed appliance.

Baby Shark is sold as a DIY project even when ordered assembled, with no seller warranty. Later batches are planned without the Raspberry Pi, leaving buyers to supply it themselves. There’s considerable room to make both the hardware and software your own, provided that adjusting the keyboard doesn’t become another way to postpone the paragraph you originally sat down to write. There’s also a Purple Black Mint Green, nicknamed Witch, version inspired by the EVA-01 from the famed anime, Evangelion.

The post Micro Journal Rev.2.1.MINI Writing Laptop Pairs a Wide Screen With Just 48 Keys first appeared on Yanko Design.

Reaching for your phone to pause a song can easily turn into reading messages you weren’t planning to open. Aina Ring proposes keeping those small decisions on your hand instead, with a display and thumb-operated control built into a substantial titanium band. The upcoming wearable is designed to handle quick commands and AI suggestions while your iPhone stays tucked away in your pocket.

The design doesn’t pretend to be an ordinary piece of jewelry. A rectangular OLED display sits above the index finger, with glass covering its face and rounded edges easing the transition to the band. Four titanium body parts enclose 140 components. Eclipse Black, Amber Gold, Mercury Silver, and Slate Titanium offer different finishes, although none makes that raised screen disappear into a conventional ring.

Designer: Aina

The more interesting detail sits beside your thumb. A joystick-like button on the band accepts seven gesture types, including directional flicks, presses, and holds. Depending on the current task, flicking upward can approve a suggestion, answer a call, or pause music. Displayed hints explain the next action, giving that tiny screen a role beyond repeating notifications from a device you already carry.

Aina calls its suggestions Cues and says its software learns from your routines and calendar. A regular departure time might bring up a ride suggestion; an approaching meeting could offer a shortcut to join. The important design choice is that approval remains yours. Ignore the suggestion and nothing happens, rather than letting a guessed preference quietly become a booking you didn’t request.

Voice provides another route when a flick isn’t enough. Hold the button to dictate a note or set a reminder through the built-in microphone, while a speaker enables calls from the ring. On a Mac, that same control can dictate into applications. It’s a way to catch a thought during a walk, without stopping to compose it on a phone keyboard.

The ring remains an accessory to Apple’s ecosystem, not an independent phone. It requires an iPhone running iOS 18 or later, with macOS 15 or later for Mac features; Android and Windows aren’t supported. Meeting controls depend on the nearby Mac and Aina’s app, so muting from your finger doesn’t mean you can leave the computer behind and keep every function.

Aina claims up to 18 hours per charge, with a cube-shaped dock included for overnight charging. Sizes run from 7 through 13, but only the band changes; the display stays the same. A smaller finger therefore doesn’t get a less conspicuous screen. The IP65 rating allows everyday splashes, although the company says to remove the ring before swimming or showering.

Starting at $399 for early-access preorders, against a $499 list price, Aina is scheduled to ship in early 2027. That leaves the usefulness of its predictions and the comfort of its substantial shape to be established beyond launch demonstrations. A thumb-sized shortcut might save a trip into an app, but wearing it all day needs a better reason than simply having somewhere else to check incoming notifications.

The post Aina’s AI Ring Puts an OLED Screen and Joystick on Your Finger first appeared on Yanko Design.

A welding tool is only useful if you can get it to the seam. Inside a ship’s steel structure, that can mean bringing a worker, equipment, and a platform into position before the actual welding begins. It’s the less glamorous side of industrial work, and arguably one of the more compelling reasons to build a climbing robot.

South Korea’s Diden Robotics approaches that problem with four widely spread legs and magnetic feet. Its Diden Spider is designed to carry welding equipment onto steel walls and ceilings, taking the tool to places that are awkward for people to reach. I like how directly its strange-looking body answers the task. The low stance and broad footprint aren’t there to give it personality. They help it stay attached while carrying equipment that has a job to do.

Designer: Diden Robotics

That spider shape also came from a practical failure. In a company interview, co-founder and COO Youngha Shin explains that early, dog-shaped configurations struggled when turning sideways on walls. The arrangement left fewer joint actuators supporting the body, and feet that failed to sit flat could cause the robot to flip. Spreading the legs outward kept the body closer to the wall and improved how the feet met the surface. The silhouette follows the problem.

The feet use electropermanent magnets, which deserve a little attention because they make the whole idea possible. An electrical pulse switches their magnetic state on or off. Once attached, they don’t need a continuous supply of electricity to maintain that magnetic hold, according to Diden. That doesn’t make the entire robot power-free. Its joints, sensors, and computing still have work to do. It means staying attached doesn’t require constantly feeding electricity into the magnets.

Diden rates the Spider 30 configuration for a payload of 30 kilograms, roughly 66 pounds. That capacity is important because climbing alone doesn’t accomplish much welding. The platform needs to carry useful equipment once it gets there. Diden describes interchangeable task modules, including robotic manipulators and inspection equipment. I find the traveling-tool-platform idea more compelling than treating the machine as a single-purpose mechanical welder. Its mobility could serve different jobs along the same steel structure.

One of my favorite details is much smaller than the legs. Shin says feedback from people using the robot led Diden to add LEDs to its feet, allowing them to see whether each foot had attached. That’s a sensible concession to human nerves. A control system may know its magnetic foot is holding, but someone watching expensive equipment hang from steel deserves a readable signal, too.

Finding the work is another challenge. Diden describes a navigation system that compares live, three-dimensional sensor data with a ship’s CAD model to estimate position and orientation. Its mapping system also reconstructs nearby obstacles from depth-camera data. In practical terms, the robot needs to understand where it is and what blocks its next step. A magnetic grip provides attachment; navigating a cluttered structure requires a separate layer of perception and control.

This is a physical machine with reported industrial use, rather than a speculative rendering. Diden says Spider 30 has completed field deployment at major Korean shipyards and that its welding results have been applied to vessels in production. Separately, Maeil Business Newspaper reported in May 2026 that Diden had completed sales to some major Korean shipbuilders. Those are meaningful signs of progress, although neither establishes dependable performance over every production shift.

I’d judge it by the less photogenic parts of the job: repeatable weld quality, maintenance demands, setup time, and how often somebody needs to intervene. Still, the design makes a persuasive starting argument. It gives an awkwardly placed tool a way to reach its work. If that removes even some occasions when a person has to climb into position with welding gear, the unusual body has earned its place.

The post Diden Spider Robot Climbs Steel Walls and Actually Welds Them first appeared on Yanko Design.

Since I live alone, listening to music or podcasts before I sleep is not really an issue, as there’s no one to complain about the sound. But when I share a hotel room or someone sleeps over, this may become a problem. Sure, there are earbuds, but I have this irrational fear that they may get buried deep in my ears when I fall asleep and move around. One possible solution would be speakers that can sit under the pillow and play close to my ears, with the aim of keeping the sound from bothering other people in the room.

The Baseus Sleep SK1 is one such speaker. It uses what Baseus calls micro-vibration conduction to carry audio through the pillow to your ears. Basically, your pillow becomes part of the audio system, while two sound-producing units are intended to direct the music, audiobook, or podcast toward the sleeper’s head. The idea is to keep the listening area small rather than fill the bedroom with sound.

Designer: Baseus

The Sleep SK1 looks like a Bluetooth speaker, with two circular pods joined by a narrow, curved bridge. It looks more like connected pucks than a bedside speaker. Its reported dimensions are about 6.5 by 1.8 by 0.55 inches, and it weighs roughly 1.55 ounces. The low profile is designed to minimize intrusion, although that doesn’t mean you won’t feel it through a compressed pillow. Comfort would still need to be tested.

The device has three physical buttons around the edge of one pod for operating the speaker. There’s also a digital display integrated into one circular face, showing the time, operating mode, and remaining battery level. That gives you another way to check the time when you wake up in the middle of the night instead of automatically reaching for your phone. Of course, you’d still have to uncover the display if it’s underneath your pillow.

For people who prefer background sounds to music or conversation, Baseus says its companion app offers more than 100 sound options, including rain, ocean waves, campfire sounds, and ASMR. You can also set up to 10 alarms for different schedules. The alarms use the same pillow-directed approach, which could be useful if you need to get up before the person sleeping beside you.

Baseus claims more than 10 hours of playback from the built-in 300 mAh battery, which would cover an overnight listening session if it holds up in practice. Charging is via USB-C, with a full charge reportedly taking about two hours. For something intended to stay beneath a pillow, the useful part is having enough battery life to use it without leaving a charging cable attached.

Your pillow is an important part of the setup, though. The Gadgeteer reports that Baseus recommends pillows up to about 3.1 inches thick and suggests increasing the volume for thicker pillows or when sleeping on your back. That makes pillow thickness and sleeping position things to consider before buying. Turning the volume up may help you hear, but whether it stays quiet enough for someone nearby is another question.

The SK1 is listed on JD.com in China, with a reported price of 184 yuan. That shouldn’t be mistaken for a confirmed US retail price, and an official US release hasn’t been established in the available sources. It’s worth checking regional availability and app support rather than assuming an imported unit will offer the same experience everywhere.

For me, the appeal is being able to listen without putting anything in my ears. But I’d want to know how clearly a podcast comes through my own pillow and how much of it someone else can hear. Those would be the deciding factors for me. If the SK1 can keep a familiar voice close to my pillow without sharing the whole conversation with the room, that would be a good enough reason to consider it.

The post Baseus Sleep SK1 Brings Bedtime Audio Without Earbuds first appeared on Yanko Design.

Aina’s $399 AI ring lets users approve tasks with a thumb flick. Check iPhone and Mac compatibility, shipping plans, and key considerations for IT teams.

The post Aina’s $399 AI Ring Turns Your Thumb Into an AI Approval Button appeared first on TechRepublic.

Anthropic launches Claude Personal Finance for bank account analysis. Explore its features, privacy considerations, availability and comparison with ChatGPT.

The post Claude Personal Finance: Features, Privacy and ChatGPT Comparison appeared first on TechRepublic.

Nothing CEO Carl Pei has confirmed a December launch for the company's first AI-native device. Here's what we know about its design, features, and availability.

The post Nothing’s First AI Device Is Coming in December: What We Know appeared first on TechRepublic.

Motorola Signature 27 vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Compare price, cameras, battery, charging, software, and features to see which flagship offers better value.

The post Motorola Signature 27 vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: Which Flagship Is Worth $1,600? appeared first on TechRepublic.

Checking a recipe with flour on your fingers is a good reminder that a touchscreen isn’t always the most convenient interface. Raven Resonance’s Prism glasses propose keeping those instructions in the corner of your vision instead, with eye controls leaving your hands free. The reservation-stage wearable puts a Linux computer inside familiar-looking frames, rather than simply supplying another screen tethered to your phone.

The frames make some concessions to everything packed inside. Thick temples run back from a dark brow, while clearer lower rims soften the outline around the lenses. Pale end pieces add a contrasting finish without covering the front in conspicuous branding. There’s still more hardware beside your head than ordinary glasses would carry, so familiar styling shouldn’t be confused with proven comfort.

Designer: Raven Resonance

The display occupies the right eye’s periphery, using a full-color waveguide with a 30-degree diagonal field of view. Its position is meant to make a recipe or reference image available when you glance over, rather than filling your central view. That arrangement suits checking the next instruction while cooking, although looking away from your hands still requires choosing a sensible moment to pause.

Eye control gives that arrangement its practical purpose. Raven’s software framework includes buttons you activate by holding your gaze on them, along with gaze-based navigation. You wouldn’t need to tap a temple every time your hands were occupied. The challenge is distinguishing a deliberate selection from an ordinary glance, something the developer guidance acknowledges by recommending large targets and avoiding crowded layouts.

Privacy gets a physical control rather than just a settings menu. A cover must be moved manually before the 13-megapixel camera can operate, and lights in the rims signal when it’s active. Raven also says speech recognition runs locally and cloud sharing requires consent. Those choices make the intended boundaries clearer, but they don’t amount to an independent security audit of the system.

Keeping prescription glasses usable while their electronics recharge takes another physical solution. Raven Wings are removable battery modules, designed to swap without shutting down your apps. Two pairs and a charging case are included, letting one set recharge while you wear the other. That makes the all-day ambition about exchanging batteries, not a published promise of uninterrupted runtime from a single pair.

Underneath that eyewear is Raven OS, running on a quad-core ARM processor with up to 4GB of memory. Developers can connect remotely and build compatible applications, but Linux underneath doesn’t mean every desktop program fits a tiny wearable display. Navigation directions and other phone-supplied information also remain part of the pitch, so standalone computing shouldn’t be mistaken for making your phone redundant.

Prism is priced at $1,499, including supported prescription lenses, with initial US shipments planned for January 2027. New reservations currently fall into a summer 2027 batch, not that first delivery window. Its usefulness will depend on whether these small interactions feel easier than reaching for a phone, and whether you’re comfortable keeping the screen, batteries, and computer on your face all day.

The post Raven Prism Smart Glasses Put a Linux Computer in the Corner of Your Eye first appeared on Yanko Design.

Remember the Walkman headphones from more than four decades ago? Well, the nostalgia is revived as Sony has brought back over-ear headphones for a generation obsessed with wired audio gear. The new pair of earphones draws inspiration from the originals that debuted in 1981, with the original design drawings referenced in crafting this pair.

The inspiration doesn’t stop at the looks alone, as the earphones come with the same 23mm dynamic driver, so that the same sound signature can be replicated in these. All the modern conveniences are included, though, like a microphone for taking calls and the in-line remote control to toggle calls, music, and podcast streaming. This falls straight in line with the trend that brands like Final with AirWire and StillFrame are following.

Designer: Sony

For audiophiles who are constantly juggling their expensive gear, chasing that perfect sound, this is a subtle reminder of how it all started back then. The nostalgia of a balanced, warm sound signature that emphasized natural vocals and emotional richness. The earphones come with the iconic blue and orange earpads to customize the look. Hitting the rewind button, the OG earphones shipped with the Walkman TPS-L2 in 1979 and played cassettes.

You can barely distinguish the MDR-3R from the original one, and millennials will instantly feel the nostalgia. The small design details, like the metal headband and the holes on the outer casing of the drivers. Sony doesn’t stop there, as the packaging and the instruction manual also take you back to the golden era. Practicality of use is also taken care of, as the earphones weigh just 38 grams, bettering the original ones by 2 grams.

Since modern phones are rarely seen with a 3.5mm headphone jack, the pair comes with a USB-C connector to plug in easily with modern devices. I would have liked the headphones to come with a swappable option to plug in a 3.5mm or 4.4mm jack for high-quality playback with services like Tidal or Apple Music. That said, you’ll have to buy a USB-C to 3.5mm or 4.4mm jack so that you can plug it into DAPs like the HiBy W4 HiFi Amplifier.

Along with the OG classic version, the earphones also come in a Stranger Things Edition that has a black headband and the themed red and black foam pads to match the ones worn by Max. The standard MDR-3R over-ear earphones are priced at $59.99, while the Stranger Things Edition comes for $79.99.

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Working with an AI coding assistant can mean repeating the same handful of commands while your fingers hunt across a keyboard full of other possibilities. Keychron’s F4 HE 8K Vibe Coding Keypad gives those repeated decisions their own little patch of desk. Four programmable keys put prompting, dictation, approval, and rejection within reach, without asking you to replace the keyboard you already use.

The square body measures just 1.77 inches on each side, although its tall keycaps bring the height to 1.35 inches. Available in black or white, it looks like someone neatly cut a corner from a mechanical keyboard. An ABS plastic enclosure surrounds an aluminum plate, leaving the switch housings visible beneath the caps instead of hiding them behind a broad decorative surround.

Designer: Keychron

Those caps do more than supply a place to press. Keychron provides 15 icon options in dye-sublimated PBT, so a microphone, check mark, or cross can identify what you’ve assigned underneath. Per-key RGB adds another cue, letting you color an approval key green and a rejection key red. These are physical labels and configured colors, not screens that update when you switch applications.

The intended routine is familiar if you’ve spent time reviewing generated code. Start a conversation, dictate a change, then accept or reject what comes back, using mappings suited to your software. Keychron supplies Codex and Claude presets through its browser-based Launcher. The microphone icon needs particular attention, though: there’s no microphone inside this little box, so voice input still needs one elsewhere.

Launcher also handles ordinary shortcuts and recorded macros, giving the keypad something to do when you’re finished negotiating with an AI. A meeting mute button or a window-snapping shortcut might earn its place just as easily. Settings save to the device, but the relevant shortcuts still need to work on the next computer. Onboard memory carries your assignments, not the applications they control.

The magnetic switches add a less obvious kind of customization. You can choose how far a key travels before registering, making a shallow press sufficient or requiring a more deliberate movement. Dynamic Keystrokes can assign up to four actions across pressing and releasing one key. That’s extra flexibility, although remembering several hidden actions might undermine the simplicity of having four clearly labeled buttons.

Keychron advertises 8,000 reports per second over USB-C with a suitable cable, a gaming-oriented specification rather than evidence that AI will answer faster. More immediately relevant is another wire trailing from such a small accessory. The listed box contents include the keypad, 11 extra caps, and a manual, but no cable, so you’ll need to provide that part of the setup yourself.

The F4 costs $34.99, but the featured Launcher version remains in beta ahead of its planned November 9, 2026 release. That caveat aside, the question is how often you’re repeating the same commands. Four dedicated buttons are appealing when they remove a daily nuisance, less so when they’re another thing to remember beside your perfectly functional keyboard.

The post Keychron’s $35 Keypad Turns AI Shortcuts Into Four Physical Buttons first appeared on Yanko Design.

Wireless earbuds can make a short gaming break depend on whether you remembered to charge their case the night before. Razer’s Hammerhead V3 Chroma takes that worry off the list with a cable that carries audio and power through USB-C. There’s no headphone jack involved in this return to wired listening, and the angled plug has been shaped around the hands holding your phone.

The connector has a 90-degree bend, letting the cable run alongside a compatible device rather than sticking straight into your palm. That matters when you rotate a phone for a game and wrap both hands around its ends. It’s a small adjustment to an unglamorous component, but one that addresses one immediate objection to putting a wire back into a handheld setup.

Designer: Razer

The wire also gives Razer somewhere to put controls that don’t have to share space with an ear tip. An in-line remote handles volume, playback, and active noise cancellation (ANC), with raised controls you can locate by touch rather than tapping an earbud. Its omnidirectional microphone supports calls and team chat, keeping the interactions on the cable instead of behind another phone menu.

Of course, subtlety isn’t really the point of a bright green cable hanging from black earbuds. Circular outer caps carry illuminated Razer logos, with Chroma RGB offering 16.8 million color options. The glossy housings and short stems aren’t particularly dramatic by themselves, but the color makes the whole arrangement unmistakably gaming hardware, even when you’re simply listening to music on the bus.

Inside each earbud, a dynamic driver works alongside a dedicated tweeter, dividing the work between lower and higher frequencies. Razer includes feed-forward ANC, intended to reduce surrounding noise during a commute or a match in a shared room. Noise cancellation brings a familiar wireless-earbud convenience to a wired pair, although neither the driver arrangement nor the connection guarantees great sound on its own.

Four presets cover Gaming, Music, Movies, and Call, alongside a custom equalizer profile for anyone who prefers adjusting the balance themselves. Moving to a PC adds THX Surround Sound 7.1 through Razer Synapse 4. That’s a software-dependent extra, not something the earbuds automatically deliver on every phone, so the same connection doesn’t mean an identical feature set everywhere you plug them in.

The IPX4 rating allows for splashes and sweat, which makes sense for earbuds that might move from a desk to a drizzly commute. It doesn’t turn them into waterproof gear. The cable needs managing: it can catch on clothing or pull against the phone when you reach too far. A bent connector changes its direction, not the distance you’re able to move.

Launched on November 5, 2026, the Hammerhead V3 Chroma costs $79.99 in the US. The trade is straightforward: fewer batteries to remember, but a cable and an occupied USB-C port in return. If that’s your phone’s only charging connection, you’ll need another way to top it up while listening. The earbuds need no charging, but your phone doesn’t get the same night off.

The post Razer’s New Hammerhead Earbuds Bring Back the Cable, Not the Headphone Jack first appeared on Yanko Design.