Large-format 3D printing has been stuck in a frustrating paradox for years. You could have massive build volumes or you could have speed, but rarely both without spending industrial-level money. Consider the Prusa XL with its respectable 360×360×360mm build volume crawling along at conservative speeds, or the Bambu X1 Carbon screaming at 500mm/s but confined to a 256×256×256mm cube. The few machines that attempted to bridge this gap either crawled along at glacial speeds or delivered questionable reliability when pushed to their limits. Enter Sovol’s SV08 Max, a Kickstarter-backed beast that promises to shatter this compromise with a 500×500×500mm build volume running at speeds up to 700mm/s.

The timing feels deliberate. As makers increasingly tackle larger projects and small-scale manufacturing becomes more accessible, the demand for capable large-format machines has intensified. Sovol appears to have recognized that the sweet spot lies somewhere between hobbyist printers that max out at 300mm cubed and industrial machines that cost more than most people’s cars. The SV08 Max positions itself as the democratization of serious large-format printing, for the same price as an iPhone Pro.

Designer: Sovol

Click Here to Buy Now: $999 $1299 ($300 off). Hurry, only 94/200 left! Raised over $590,000.

The specs on the SV08 Max read like a wish list from someone who’s tired of the traditional limitations of large-format printing. Beyond the headline-grabbing 500×500×500mm build volume, this printer boasts 40,000mm/s² acceleration and a high-flow hotend capable of pushing 50mm³ of filament per second. These numbers matter tremendously for large prints. I’ve watched enough massive prints crawl along to know that doubling the size of an object can quadruple the print time. The ability to maintain high speeds throughout massive prints could genuinely transform workflows for prop makers, prototype developers, and small-batch manufacturers who currently wait days for large parts to complete.

CoreXY kinematics form the mechanical foundation here, and this choice reveals Sovol’s understanding of the physics involved. Moving a 500mm bed back and forth at high speeds would create enough momentum to shake the entire machine apart, a lesson painfully learned by anyone who’s watched a bed-slinger printer vibrate itself into oblivion during fast prints. Instead, the SV08 Max keeps the bed stationary while lightweight belts move the printhead across both X and Y axes simultaneously. This approach enables the claimed 40,000 mm/s² acceleration without turning your print surface into a vibrating mess, but it also demands frame rigidity that separates serious machines from weekend projects.

The eddy current bed leveling system deserves particular attention because it addresses one of large-format printing’s most soul-crushing challenges. Traditional probe-based leveling on a 500mm bed would take forever and still miss subtle variations that could ruin first-layer adhesion hours into a print. Eddy current sensing uses electromagnetic induction to detect distance without physical contact, scanning the entire bed surface in just 80 seconds compared to the 10+ minutes required by conventional probing systems. This technology typically appears in high-end industrial machines, but Sovol brings it to their $999 printer. The physics are elegant: generate a magnetic field near the conductive bed surface, measure the induced eddy currents, and calculate precise distance variations across the entire plane instantly. The result is a perfect first layer, every damn time.

That 8mm thick aluminum bed paired with 1300W of heating power tells a story about thermal management priorities that most consumer printer manufacturers ignore. Most desktop machines use 3-6mm beds with 500-800W heaters, which struggle to maintain even temperatures across large surfaces and create the thermal gradients that cause corner lifting on big prints. The SV08 Max’s thicker bed distributes heat more evenly while the powerful heater brings it up to temperature quickly, addressing the thermal lag that makes large-bed printers frustrating to use.

Add the optional heated enclosure, and you’re looking at a machine capable of handling engineering plastics that demand stable thermal environments, moving beyond PLA into materials that actually matter for functional parts. ABS, nylon, and polycarbonate prints become viable at this scale, territories usually reserved for machines costing five times as much.

The smart auxiliary feeder system tackles another large-format pain point that separates weekend hobbyists from serious makers. Running out of filament or dealing with tangles 30 hours into a massive print represents both wasted time and material, the kind of failure that makes people abandon ambitious projects. Active monitoring for clogs and tangles means the machine can pause or alert you before disasters occur, a feature that should be standard but remains rare outside premium machines. Combined with the 50mm³/s flow rate capability, this setup should handle the volume demands of high-speed large-format printing without choking on material feed issues that plague machines pushed beyond their thermal limits.

Klipper firmware integration signals Sovol’s commitment to the enthusiast community rather than the plug-and-play crowd served by Bambu’s proprietary ecosystem. Unlike closed firmware that locks users into specific workflows, Klipper enables advanced features like input shaping for vibration control, pressure advance for better extrusion, and extensive customization options that let users squeeze every bit of performance from their hardware. The open-source approach means community-driven improvements and troubleshooting resources, crucial for early adopters who will inevitably encounter edge cases with such an ambitious machine pushing multiple boundaries simultaneously.

This isn’t Sovol’s first rodeo with large-format CoreXY machines. The original SV08 launched with a respectable 350×350×345mm build volume, positioning itself as an affordable alternative to Voron 2.4 builds while proving Sovol could execute CoreXY kinematics at consumer price points. The Max represents meaningful evolution beyond simple scaling, upgrading from 30mm³/s to 50mm³/s flow rates, swapping basic inductive probing for eddy current scanning, and boosting bed power to 1300W for thermal stability across that massive 500mm surface. The SV08 Max isn’t just a bigger printer; it innovates on an existing design to be faster, more feature-packed, and qualitatively better.

The Kickstarter campaign prices the SV08 Max at $999 for early bird backers without enclosure, jumping to $1,198 with the heated chamber included, before hitting $1,299 at retail. The printers ship globally starting August 2025, with a 1-year warranty backing the device.

Click Here to Buy Now: $999 $1299 ($300 off). Hurry, only 94/200 left! Raised over $590,000.

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Romanian audio wizards Meze have done it again. Their latest creation, the 105 AER open-back headphones, manages that rare balancing act of looking like industrial art while delivering sound that makes your favorite tracks feel brand new. Having spent years establishing themselves as the audiophile’s secret weapon with models like the Empyrean and 109 Pro, Meze’s more accessible $399 offering proves they understand something fundamental: great sound doesn’t need to come wrapped in mortgage-payment pricing.

The 105 AER sits in that sweet spot where serious audio enthusiasts and casual listeners converge. These aren’t your average commuter cans (open-back designs rarely are), but rather stay-at-home companions designed for those moments when you want to disappear into your music collection. Meze has crafted these with the clear intention of delivering an experience rather than just a product, and it shows in every aspect from unboxing to extended listening sessions.

Designer: Meze Audio

Let’s talk design, because these things are gorgeous. The name “AER” itself comes from the Romanian word for “air,” perfectly capturing the essence of these open-back headphones. This linguistic nod to Meze’s Romanian heritage isn’t just clever branding; it genuinely reflects what these headphones are all about: openness, spaciousness, and transparency in both physical form and sonic character. The 105 AERs feature a distinctive webbed pattern on their polymer earcups that gives them an almost architectural quality. Unlike their pricier sibling, the 109 Pro with its walnut wood cups, the 105 AER goes for an all-black aesthetic that feels simultaneously understated and premium.

The velour earpads aren’t just there for comfort (though they excel at that during marathon listening sessions); they’re part of a carefully considered approach to how these headphones interact with your ears both physically and sonically. The entire assembly weighs in at a neck-friendly level that makes you forget you’re wearing them after a few minutes.

Connectivity comes via a detachable Kevlar-reinforced OFC cable that terminates in a standard 3.5mm connector, with a 6.3mm adapter included for those with more serious amplification setups. This single-cable approach keeps things simple compared to the multiple cable options that come with Meze’s flagship models. The package includes a hard EVA carrying case that protects your investment without taking up half your backpack. These practical considerations reflect Meze’s understanding that even “serious” audio gear needs to integrate into real-world usage scenarios.

The 105 AERs deliver what many reviewers have described as a “fun tuning” with emphasized bass that never drowns out the mids. This isn’t the clinical flatness some audiophile brands pursue; instead, Meze has opted for a more engaging presentation that makes everything from jazz to electronic music sound lively and immersive. The midrange reproduction is particularly noteworthy, with vocals and acoustic instruments presented with a natural timbre that avoids the artificial coloration cheaper headphones often introduce. Treble response is crisp and detailed without becoming fatiguing during longer sessions, striking that delicate balance between revealing detail and remaining pleasant to listen to.

While many manufacturers chase either ultra-analytical sound or bass-heavy consumer profiles, Meze has carved out their own space with a presentation that prioritizes musical enjoyment over technical showboating. The open-back design creates a soundstage that extends beyond the physical confines of the headphones, giving music room to breathe in a way that closed-back models simply cannot match. This spatial quality makes them particularly well-suited for genres like classical, jazz, and well-recorded rock where instrument placement and room acoustics are integral to the experience.

The 105 AER is priced at $399, positioning it as an accessible option for those seeking audiophile-grade sound without the premium price tag of higher-end models. Compared to Meze’s 109 Pro, the 105 AER offers a brighter treble and a more energetic sound signature, making it an excellent choice for listeners who prefer a lively and engaging audio experience. While the 109 Pro might offer richer bass and a more luxurious design, the 105 AER holds its own with its clear mids and non-fatiguing treble.

The post Can $399 Meze 105 AER Audiophile Headphones make your playlist sound brand new? first appeared on Yanko Design.

Remember when slapping a case on your phone felt like admitting defeat; a bulky, rubbery admission that you valued function over form? Thankfully, times have changed. Now, cases are as much about expressing yourself as they are about surviving that dreaded butter-fingers moment. And in the world of gaming, especially with the newly debuted Nintendo Switch 2, that need for protection and personality becomes even more crucial, SUPCASE is redefining how gamers think about protection – not as an afterthought, but as part of the gaming ritual.

Let’s be real, the Nintendo Switch is basically a handheld shrine to our favorite digital worlds; a device we’ll clutch on commutes, huddle with on couches, and maybe, just maybe, rage-quit less when it’s wrapped in something that can take a beating. Now in its second avatar, the Switch 2 even more capable, even more powerful, and arguably, deserving of an even more design-driven approach when it comes to accessories. Enter Jet Weng, Design Director at SUPCASE, and the mastermind behind the company’s philosophy of fusing robust protection with thoughtful design. His approach isn’t about slapping armor on tech, it’s about creating a symbiotic relationship between the device and the user.

Designer: Jet Weng of SUPCASE

Click Here to Buy Now: $22.94$26.99 (15% off, use coupon code “YANKO615”). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

Weng’s journey began, unsurprisingly, with a childhood steeped in tinkering with the most vivid memory being that of disassembling his uncle’s Walkman at the age of 10. “Every day of my childhood was surrounded by the process of taking devices apart, diagnosing problems, repairing, and reassembling,” he recalls. This hands-on education fostered a deep understanding of how things work; a foundation upon which he would later build his design ethos. It’s this innate curiosity that sets his work apart, first with his Behance portfolio that prioritized “feasible concepts that are fused with a poetic touch”, followed by his journey to turn protective cases into engineered solutions rather than mere accessories.

The SUPCASE UB Pro for the Switch 2 is a prime example of Weng’s vision. The UB Pro is a meticulously crafted exoskeleton designed to enhance the Switch 2 experience, not hinder it. It boasts military-grade protection, meeting MIL-STD-810G standards; meaning it can withstand some serious drops and bumps. A 2.5mm raised bezel shields the screen from scratches, while the ergonomic grip and anti-slip texture ensure a secure, comfortable hold, even during marathon gaming sessions.

But the UB Pro is more than a fortress; it’s a testament to Weng’s belief in blending “feasibility” with a “poetic touch.” The case’s design is streamlined, hugging the console and Joy-Cons without adding unnecessary bulk. Constructed from German Bayer polycarbonate, the material resists yellowing, dust, and fingerprints, maintaining its clarity and premium feel over time. It’s a case that looks good, feels good, and performs even better.

Anyone who owned the original Switch knows the frustration of removing a case every time you wanted to dock and play on the big screen. The first-ever person to attempt solving this problem, Weng addressed this pain point head-on with SUPCASE’s original dockable Switch case; a product that was a first of its kind and quickly became a gamer favorite. He recalls, “The biggest challenge was making sure the case didn’t interfere with the Switch’s connection to the dock.” The team went through countless prototypes, tweaking dimensions and internal structures until they achieved a perfect fit. This dedication to solving real-world problems is what elevates SUPCASE’s designs above the competition.

Jet Weng

Weng doesn’t just design cases; he designs experiences. He starts by analyzing user pain points, then collaborates with his team to brainstorm creative, yet feasible solutions. He understands that good design is subjective, depending on the product’s purpose. “For example, with a repair tool, function is always the top priority; but for something like a lipstick case, form may take precedence,” he explains. For the UB Pro, function and form are in perfect harmony; protection and ergonomics blend seamlessly with aesthetics.

Click Here to Buy Now: $22.94$26.99 (15% off, use coupon code “YANKO615”). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

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The Kia Elan was never a chart-topping icon, but for those who remember it, it carried a certain charm. A compact roadster borrowed from Lotus DNA, it was Kia’s unlikely flirtation with sportiness in the mid-’90s. Fast forward to today, and designer JinTae Tak is revisiting that lineage, not by replicating the original, but by extracting its essence and reshaping it for the electric era.

The Kia Elan EV concept doesn’t just hint at a new design language, it commits to one. You won’t find soft curves or classic sports car proportions here. Instead, the Elan EV cuts through convention with brutal, origami-like surfaces and a stance that hugs the ground like it’s part of the architecture. There’s no pretense of retro styling, just deliberate, sculpted form driven by the freedoms afforded by EV platforms.

Designer: JinTae Tak

JinTae Tak’s main objective was to use electrification as a design opportunity, not just an engineering shift. With no bulky combustion engine to accommodate, the Elan EV lowers its nose dramatically, resulting in a pronounced wedge silhouette. It’s sharp and aggressive, but not impractical. The side profile is where this decision is most apparent. The car hunkers forward, creating a visual tension that draws your eye from the subtle peak of the roofline down into the low-slung nose. This isn’t just for drama. It’s a studied way of reinterpreting the low center of gravity look of the original Elan, now translated into a closed-top GT form.

Look closely and you’ll notice how many times the same narrow, angular motif repeats across the body. From the pinch at the A-pillar to the fender transitions and the flush door seams, it’s a consistent language of compression and expansion. There’s a kind of visual rhythm in how these angles play with the light, almost architectural.

From the front, the EV’s lighting treatment makes an immediate statement. A series of segmented LEDs span the nose, mirroring the rear lighting in layout and attitude. It gives the car a clear identity, especially in low light. The hood, with its severe wedge, risks looking overly narrow, but JinTae solves this with a visual trick. The wide fender volumes spill out toward the ground, offsetting the narrowness of the centerline and pulling the car visually wider.

Swing around to the rear and the fenders become the main event. Unlike the original Elan’s simple surfacing, the Elan EV revels in volume here. The horizontal gesture is emphasized with precision, letting the taillights slice across cleanly. It’s one of the more direct nods to the roadster roots of the original car, though executed with today’s taste for muscular silhouettes and precise geometry.

Even the wheels are worth a second look. They’re huge, visually enclosed, and likely designed to aid aerodynamics, typical EV priorities. But their styling doubles down on the overall theme, angular, directional, and aggressive.

Given the conceptual nature, there’s no spec sheet, no drivetrain details, and no promises of production. That’s not really the point. The Kia Elan EV is a design study that explores how brands can revisit the past without repeating it. It’s not a tribute to the old Elan. It’s a conversation with it.

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The Akairo Kozane-Oudoubyou-Hainou Gusoku has swagger that could make a manga protagonist jealous. No, it isn’t a specially crafted Katana by an ancient artisan, it’s a backpack. Conceived by Nagoya bag stalwart Murase Kabanko with leather artisan Noriki Okada, the backpack copies the tiered lamellae of sixteenth-century tosei-gusoku armor. Each slab of crimson leather is punched, lacquered, and stitched into position, then locked down with bulbous brass rivets that gleam like a rank of tsuba ready for battle. The result is sculpture masquerading as storage, equal parts museum piece and childhood power-up.

Empty, the pack tips the scale at roughly 2.1 kilograms, hefty yet believable given its steel-shod lineage. Price lands at ¥ 500,000, about $3,457 USD today, which feels almost fair considering the man-hours involved and the fact that every unit is built to order by a single craftsperson. Place the deposit, wait six months while Okada layers leather like a bonsai master prunes pine, then receive a tracking number that reads less like shipping info and more like an initiation scroll.

Designers: Murase Kabanko & Noriki Okada

Look closer, the “plates” are cut from off-cuts that would normally hit the scrap bin, a thrifty move that lets the studio indulge in outrageous detailing without guillotining entire hides. Those plates overlap along the lid and walls to build a scale-like shell, an echo of the laced kozane that once shrugged off arrows. Rivet heads keep the rhythm tight and provide useful contrast to the matte red topcoat. Down on the gusset, two snarling oni faces, embroidered in pitch-black silk, glare sideways as though daring anyone to steal your homework. It is maximalist, theatrical, even slightly ridiculous, and that is why it rules.

Functionally, it is sized like a classic ‘randoseru’ (or a traditional Japanese backpack), meaning an A4 notebook slides in squarely, though the brand goes out of its way to warn that this ornate variant prefers display shelves to playgrounds. Rivets can snag uniforms, the weight may outclass small shoulders, and there is no six-year repair guarantee. Still, if I could rewind to sixth grade, I would risk the detention slips. Imagine clomping into class with this crimson cuirass on your back, swapping shoes at the genkan while brass rivets twinkle under fluorescent lights. The class jock hugging his polyester duffel suddenly discovers humility, the art kid scribbles concept art of you as a rising shogun, even the homeroom teacher stops mid-roll-call to ask where you park your horse.

Beyond the schoolyard fantasy lies clever commentary on modern bag culture. Minimalism remains the default aesthetic, especially in high-end EDC, where designers chase blank facades and hidden seams. Murase Kabanko rejects that orthodoxy by shouting through form and texture. The backpack glorifies detail, turning every stitch into narrative texture and every rivet into punctuation. It reminds us that utility can coexist with theatrical presence and that heritage techniques never went out of style.

Material honesty plays a supporting role. Brass is chosen because that is exactly what battlefield fittings used, its density creating reassuring heft and a warm patina over time. Full-grain cowhide carries natural grain that breaks in like a well-oiled kote and, unlike synthetic composites, will survive decades if kept nourished. Even the decision to leave the edge paint slightly exposed mirrors the raw hems on historical sode panels. These small purist touches keep the bag from slipping into costume territory; it is cosplay with academic footnotes.

Cultural potency matters too. Japanese schoolchildren already treat the randoseru as rite of passage, a leather shell that sees them through six formative years. Grafting samurai iconography onto that symbol folds two powerful narratives together: scholastic journey and martial valor. Tourists may see an edgy souvenir, parents may worry about playground practicality, and gaming enthusiasts like me see glimpses of Gosaku’s Armor from hit PlayStation game The Ghost Of Tsushima.

Will it increase your GPA? Probably not. Will it convince the vice-principal to overlook your untucked shirt? Unlikely. But throw this backpack on your shoulders and every corridor becomes an Edo castle hallway, every chime of the period bell becomes the clang of a temple gong summoning retainers. If backpacks earn social XP, this one is a legendary drop, proof that sometimes character counts more than payload capacity.

The post This Samurai Armor-inspired Backpack might just make you the Coolest Kid in School first appeared on Yanko Design.

Anime merchandise has a reputation problem. Too often, it’s cheap plastic garbage that screams “I live in my parents’ basement” from across the room. But when artisan keycap makers get their hands on beloved properties, something magical happens: functional art that bridges the gap between fandom and craftsmanship.

Dwarf Factory’s Attack on Titan Series 1 keycaps represent everything right about this intersection. Licensed through Eminent Crafts and molded in high-quality resin, these SA profile caps transform your mechanical keyboard into a battlefield where every keystroke feels like humanity’s last stand. The level of detail packed into each 1U cap is frankly absurd. We’re talking museum-quality miniature sculptures that happen to be Cherry MX compatible.

Designer: Dwarf Factory

Bertholdt’s 60-meter nightmare dominates the frame with the kind of presence that made Shiganshina’s walls meaningless. The resin work captures that horrifying moment of emergence, with steam wisping around the titan’s massive form as it breaches Wall Maria. Dwarf Factory nailed the color gradient from the titan’s characteristic red musculature to the pale, almost translucent skin tones.

What sets this keycap apart is the environmental storytelling. The base depicts crumbling architecture in meticulous detail, complete with scattered debris and structural damage that tells the story without words. The SA R1 profile gives the Colossal Titan proper scale dominance over your other keys, making it perfect for that Escape key placement. Because let’s face it, when this thing shows up, escape is exactly what you’re thinking about.

Eren’s titan form gets the full berserker treatment here, and the result is pure kinetic energy frozen in resin. The sculptors captured that signature wild-eyed fury that made the Attack Titan such a devastating force. Hair flowing, jaw agape in an eternal roar, every muscle fiber rendered with anatomical precision that would make medical textbooks jealous.

The color work deserves special mention. Those green eyes burn with an intensity that seems to follow you across the room, while the flesh tones shift between human and something altogether more primal. The base continues the environmental narrative with Wall Rose’s distinctive stonework, but here it’s mid-destruction, caught in the moment of titans clashing. This cap practically vibrates with contained violence, perfect for your WASD cluster if you want your gaming sessions to feel properly apocalyptic.

Reiner’s titan form presents a different challenge for sculptors. How do you capture armor that’s actually hardened skin? Dwarf Factory’s solution is brilliant: a subtle interplay of textures that distinguishes the armored plates from exposed flesh without sacrificing visual coherence. The result reads as genuinely armored while maintaining that organic, unsettling titan aesthetic.

The positioning is pure tactical genius. The Armored Titan in mid-charge, shoulder dropped for maximum impact. You can almost hear the thunderous footsteps through the resin. The base artwork shows Wall Rose from a different angle, emphasizing the titan’s role as both siege engine and battering ram. This cap commands respect on any keyboard layout, though it feels most at home on the spacebar position if you’re running a 60% build.

At $45-65 per cap depending on the drop, these aren’t impulse purchases. But for the intersection of Attack on Titan devotees and mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, they represent something rare: licensed merchandise that enhances rather than cheapens the source material. The SA profile ensures compatibility with most enthusiast builds, while the Cherry MX stem fitting means no adapter nonsense.

These keycaps prove that anime merchandise can be both authentic to the source and genuinely premium. In a world of questionable figurines and bootleg prints, Dwarf Factory delivers the real deal: functional art that makes every typing session feel like humanity’s final battle.

The post Hand-painted Attack on Titan Keycaps are the Ultimate Anime-Lover’s Collectible first appeared on Yanko Design.

Liquid Glass – the tech world’s abuzz with this new term from Apple’s design playbook following their reveal of the new slew of operating systems at WWDC 2025. What is liquid glass? Well, it’s a multi-tier strategy on Apple’s part to redefine interfaces, moving away from the minimalist elements to introduce gorgeously refractive glass-like modules instead. These glass elements interact with screen elements by bending light like real glass would. Think of holding a magnifying glass to a newspaper to watch the text around the edges warp while the center stays clear.

There’s speculation that this move towards glass-based interfaces was a conscious effort to further Apple’s spatial interface goals… but to be honest, we were in love with Liquid Glass back as early as 2021. What do I mean? Well, I’m talking about the NightWatch, an Apple Watch dock from 4 years ago that did exactly what Liquid Glass did, amplify the watch’s screen into a gorgeous liquid orb while your watch was charging!

Designer: NightWatch

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The NightWatch, as its name so succinctly implies, is a dock for your watch while it charges overnight. Shaped like a massive orb, this dock turns your watch’s night-time charging face into a massive, magnified alarm clock that’s easier to see. Moreover, the dock amplifies the watch’s audio too (through clever design details), transforming your Watch into a makeshift alarm clock that works remarkably well.

There’s no hidden components, no inner trickery – the entire NightWatch is a cleverly designed, solid piece of lucite that does three things remarkably well. First, it docks the Apple Watch and charger inside it, magnifying the watch screen so the numbers are clearly legible even from a couple of feet away. Secondly, channels located strategically under the Watch’s speaker units amplify the sound (sort of like how your voice is louder when you cup your hands around your mouth) so your alarm rings louder. Thirdly (and this might be the best feature yet), the lucite orb is touch-sensitive. Which means a mere tap on the surface causes your Watch screen to wake so you can see the time!

The dock may have been designed in 2021, but its design philosophies align with Apple’s Liquid Glass push brilliantly. Liquid Glass is all about mimicking real-world materials, bringing physicality to the digital world while still maintaining a pristine aesthetic that boosts focus and highlights important elements. That’s exactly what the NightWatch does too – it takes the Watch’s flat digital interface and brings real-world physicality to it through the refraction and magnification of the clear lucite. It also helps easily highlight important elements by enlarging your watch face for clearer timekeeping. The NightWatch is compatible with all Apple Watch series (as long as your watch doesn’t have a case on it).

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The post ‘Liquid Glass’ Apple Watch Dock might be the Coolest Smartwatch Accessory of the Season first appeared on Yanko Design.

I didn’t know how much I needed Kim Possible back until I scrolled on the internet to stumble across this build staring back at me in glorious LEGO form – cargo pants, sassy side-eye, Rufus casually perched on her shoulder. For anyone who raced home from school to catch Kim flipping through air ducts and dodging laser beams, seeing her back (albeit in LEGO) feels somewhat cathartic – like the world really needs her to fight all the supervillains destabilizing the earth right now.

Crafted meticulously from 1,165 LEGO bricks, this build by teljesnegyzet captures every bit of Kim’s swagger in a statue standing 21 inches tall. That fiery orange hair, constructed from carefully layered wedge plates, is practically a sculpture on its own. You can almost see it waving dramatically after a perfectly executed backflip. The attention to detail is peak LEGO nerd territory, down to the perfectly recreated cargo pants using sand green tiles layered sideways. Pure genius.

Designer: teljesnegyzet

Rufus, the tiny naked mole-rat sidekick, hasn’t been overlooked either. He’s neatly built from just about 40 bricks, perched on Kim’s shoulder, looking a bit skeptical, just as he should. Cleverly, his position is adjustable with a hidden Technic pin, giving collectors that extra bit of fun when deciding exactly how judgmental Rufus should look today.

What’s impressive here is how the build stays authentic without relying on printed details. Kim’s iconic black crop top and even the eyebrow arch are entirely brick-built, letting simple shapes and smart brick choices do all the work. It’s classic LEGO magic, turning basic geometry into instantly recognizable characters. No shortcuts, no stickers, just genuine creativity.

With just over 130 days to reach the 5,000 supporter milestone on LEGO Ideas (currently around 1,831 supporters and counting), this feels doable. The comments section is buzzing with fans rediscovering Kim, others impressed by the design itself, even those who had to Google “who’s Kim Possible” first. This blend of spot-on nostalgia and clever building technique is exactly the kind of project that LEGO Ideas thrives on.

Whether this hits the shelves officially or stays a stunning fan-made concept, it’s proof of how strongly early 2000s Disney Channel nostalgia resonates. And to be honest, with the current state of global affairs, I really could do with some positive affirmation… even if it stands at 21 inches tall and reminds me of a time when life was so much better. If you share the same belief, you can head down to the LEGO Ideas website to cast your vote for this fan-made build.

The post Remember Kim Possible? This Epic 1,165-brick LEGO Statue Is The Ultimate Throwback first appeared on Yanko Design.

Every tech enthusiast has felt this particular sting: you’ve got the latest laptop, the best wireless earbuds, and a phone that practically runs AI models locally – but the charger in your backpack is a mess of tangled cords and mismatched power bricks. Universal charging promised salvation years ago, but the clutter persists, hidden behind claims of fast charging speeds and vague wattage labels. Enter Voltix, the charger that’s bringing both clarity and serious wattage to the tech landscape.

If you’ve heard tech bloggers nerding out about gallium nitride (GaN) lately, there’s good reason. GaN isn’t merely marketing hype; it’s a legit leap forward from traditional silicon, allowing chargers to be smaller, cooler, and massively more efficient. By swapping silicon transistors for GaN, devices can handle higher wattage in tighter spaces without overheating. The practical upshot? Chargers that are less than half the size while being nearly 5x as powerful.

Designer: Voltix

Click Here to Buy Now: $79 $119 (34% off)  Hurry! Only 14 days left.

Voltix capitalizes brilliantly on GaN’s potential, packing a hefty 180 watts into a surprisingly compact form factor. To put that number into perspective, that’s more than enough juice to simultaneously fast-charge two high-powered laptops, a smartphone, earbuds, and still have energy left over for a drone battery.

The Voltix lets you charge a staggering 7 devices simultaneously. Six USB ports on the front let you juice everything from your laptop to your smartwatch to even that Nintendo Switch 2 you just bought. Meanwhile, the real-estate on the top of the Voltix gets turned into a Qi2 wireless charger, allowing you to snap your phone in place and have it charge at a cool 15W.

The beauty of GaN chargers is that they take the guesswork out of charging. There’s enough power to charge all your devices, and there’s enough brains inside the charger to know which device gets how much power. The Voltix intuitively knows that your laptop needs more power than your tablet. And your phone needs more power than your TWS earbuds. It manages the power deliver intuitively, distributing the 180W equitably to all your devices.

But what genuinely makes Voltix stand apart is its integrated OLED display. For once, you aren’t left guessing whether your MacBook’s slower charge is due to cable or device – it tells you directly. Each of Voltix’s six ports has its own real-time readout, displaying exactly how many watts flow to your connected gadgets. This is transparency we rarely see in power adapters, giving users control and insight into how each device charges. It’s almost addictive to watch how power dynamically reallocates as new devices are connected and disconnected.

On top, literally, Voltix adds another convenience: a 15-watt Qi2 wireless charging pad. Relying on the new Qi2 standard, this allows you to magnetically snap any Qi2-compatible phone to the top of the Voltix and have it click in place like MagSafe. Yes, it works with MagSafe too, allowing you to snap your phone without worrying about alignment… and sure, it works with Qi1 phones too – just without that magnetic snapping feature. Just because this is the future of charging doesn’t mean it alienates yesterday’s tech.

The GaN internals mean it can consistently deliver high wattage without excessive heat buildup. Voltix smartly balances load distribution in real-time, protecting your devices by throttling power only when necessary, and never blindly cutting power altogether. It’s intelligent enough to identify faulty cables and questionable connections, helping you diagnose charging issues at a glance.

Meanwhile, Voltix’s design pays attention to detail in a way that makes the industrial designer in me super happy. Its column-like form comes with a vacuum-pad base that locks it in place so it doesn’t shift around while plugging/unplugging cables, or docking/undocking your phone. A circular OLED display on the front clearly gives you the information you need, with a simple two-button interface allowing you to cycle between power output display and a 12/24-hour clock (which felt like a surprising easter egg, to be honest). Between those two buttons sits the Voltix’s power button – press to switch on, press again to switch off. Easy-peasy.

However, here’s the broader takeaway: Voltix isn’t reinventing chargers; it’s perfecting them. The idea of “one charger to rule them all” has floated around for years, but Voltix makes good on that concept by actually doing it in practice. I personally use a 160W GaN charger while traveling, and I can’t begin to tell you how great it is to not have to carry that disgustingly bulky laptop charger around with me. My 160W charger packs 4 ports, and can charge all my devices just fine… but the Voltix does what all products do – improve on existing designs. The ability to charge 7 devices (as opposed to 4) and monitor the power delivery for each one of them feels nothing short of magic.

At $119 retail (with early Kickstarter pricing starting at $79), Voltix isn’t the cheapest charger on the market. But considering it replaces 5-7 separate chargers while providing features none of them offer, the value proposition becomes clear. For anyone juggling multiple devices or who simply appreciates thoughtful design and transparency in their tech, this is the charger you’ve been waiting for.

Click Here to Buy Now: $79 $119 (34% off)  Hurry! Only 14 days left.

The post This 180W GaN Charger lets you Charge 7 Devices At Once… And Measure Real-time Power Output first appeared on Yanko Design.

Mid-June, lights off, ceiling fan swirling lazily, you pat the bedside table in a blind hunt for the AC remote, pressing every shape your fingers meet until a coaster clatters to the floor. Sighted users grumble when that ritual lasts ten seconds. However, for someone with limited or zero vision, the dance can steal entire minutes, each one stretching patience while the room swells with stale heat.

An industrial design trio from Seoul decided the remote should quit playing hide and seek altogether. Their answer is a remote control that does two things fundamentally differently – it starts with a wall-mounted design so there’s really no frantic hand-waving to find the remote (or upturning the sofa to check if the remote slipped through the cushions). The second design deviation is the use of a Braille display and a sliding temperature input – two features that make the remote control an instant hit for people who can’t easily navigate rows of buttons, and LCD screens.

Designer: Zhejiang Zhongguang Electrical Co., Ltd.

The beauty of that slider sits in its analog honesty. A linear potentiometer pipes position data straight into a split-core microcontroller, letting the user drag temperature in one fluid sweep rather than jabbing plus and minus claws. Each millimeter equals roughly 0.16 degrees, so nudging two ridges cooler truly means two degrees cooler, no abstraction, no laggy delay, no pixel-guessing hidden behind glass.

Temperature feedback arrives via a three-character braille display tucked above the track. Twelve piezo pins rise for dots, sink for blanks, refreshing every 400 milliseconds to mirror slider position. Sixteen through thirty read cleanly, one cell for the tens, one for the units, while the third cell provides haptic confirmation whenever the remote shifts between cool, heat, and fan modes.

Power comes from an 800 mAh lithium-ion pouch good for roughly fourteen months of daily tweaks, helped by a dozing Bluetooth Low Energy radio that wakes only when the slider moves. During setup, the unit memorizes your split-type’s IR codes, then retires its antenna, leaving the final user experience purely tactile and local, immune to spotty Wi-Fi or another app begging for location permission.

What fascinates me is the philosophical slap this product gives to decades of screen-centric interaction. Designers keep cramming OLEDs into remotes under the banner of smart living, forgetting that information transmitted visually vanishes for anyone outside the favored bell curve. Here, sight becomes optional. Orientation relies on rails and braille that physically change, the way thermostats once dialed before progress equated buttons with progress.

It also solves that recurring universal-design dilemma where accessible add-ons feel tacked on. The slider is the primary interface for everyone, not a secondary braille sticker pack. Sighted guests can glance at the inked scale, yet the haptic cue is still quicker in the dark. Equality by default, novelty through restraint, very Dieter Rams if Rams had prototyped for Perkins School rather than Braun.

Products that quietly rearrange everyday rituals often become the tools we refuse to live without. This wall-hugging controller trades the cold glow of digits for the warmth of touch, proving empathy can be machined, injection-molded, and mounted at shoulder height, waiting patiently for any hand that reaches its way.

The post Blind-friendly AC Remote swaps Buttons for one Smooth Slider + Braille Display first appeared on Yanko Design.