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Merach UltraRow R60N review: Built for harder home rowing

At 52, I don’t want every bit of movement to require workout clothes, a drive to the gym, or a scheduled block of time. During two weeks with the Merach UltraRow R60N, I used it every day in two-, 10-, and 15-minute bursts, often when my watch or smart ring told me to get up and move. That became the point of the machine: it was there when I had a few minutes, not waiting for me to commit to a formal workout.

The R60N is a large home rowing machine, measuring 93.9 inches long and weighing 86.6 pounds. It combines air resistance at levels 1 through 7 with added magnetic resistance at levels 8 through 10. At $799.99 when this review was prepared, it asks for real floor space, but it delivers a comfortable, full-body cardio option that I could use without a lot of setup or impact.

Click Here to Buy Now: $699.99 $1099.99 ($400 off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

Aesthetics and Ergonomics

The UltraRow R60N looks like equipment rather than furniture. The smoked-black flywheel grille, matte surfaces, long single rail, exposed handle, and adjustable footrests all emphasize the mechanical path of a rowing stroke. It’s a purposeful, utilitarian design that doesn’t try to disappear into a living room.

Nothing about the R60N feels flimsy. The materials feel good in hand, the assembly feels solid, and the dark color gives it a restrained, masculine look that fits the straightforward mechanical design.

It doesn’t disappear physically, either. The assembled rower measures 2,385 x 500 x 876 mm, or approximately 93.9 x 19.7 x 34.5 inches. Its long, narrow stance demands a dedicated lane for the rowing motion, even though the machine itself isn’t especially wide. In person, it feels like a serious space commitment when it’s expanded and ready to row. At 39.3 kg, or about 86.6 pounds, moving the complete rower requires more than a casual lift or quick relocation.

Merach describes the R60N as foldable in some materials, but its storage system works differently from a conventional upright fold. The rower separates where the long rear rail and seat section meet the front assembly that houses the flywheel, resistance control, and display. There are no screws to remove. Instead, the two sections meet through a tension-held, tool-free connection that comes apart the same way in reverse.

Setup was relatively straightforward, and I was able to install it alone. The unexpected part was bringing those sections together for the first time, because it changes the R60N from two manageable components into one long, substantial machine. Once it’s connected, though, moving it around the room is easier than its overall 86.6-pound weight suggests. Lifting from the rear brings the front transport wheels into play, making it manageable for one person to reposition or fine-tune its location.

Merach lists the stored arrangement at 910 x 700 x 1,335 mm, or approximately 35.8 x 27.6 x 52.6 inches. That makes the machine much shorter in storage, but wider and taller than its assembled footprint. It still needs a committed storage location. The wheels make it easy enough to reposition the assembled rower within one room, but moving it between rooms means detaching the two sections and carrying them separately.

A 410 mm, or 16.1-inch, seat gives the R60N a notably elevated entry point. In use, its broad, shaped surface felt ergonomic and comfortable rather than restrictive. I didn’t experience pain or discomfort during my sessions. Once the foot straps were secured, the setup felt stable and straightforward enough to stop thinking about.

At 6’2″, I had plenty of room to row comfortably. The long rail is listed at 1,250 mm with a 1,200 mm inseam allowance, while the footrests offer seven adjustment positions. Merach publishes a user-height range of 3’11” to 6’10” and a 500-pound maximum weight capacity, so the company intends the R60N to accommodate a wide range of body types. A 510 mm handle and widely spaced pedals round out that accommodating layout.

The 5.3-inch adjustable LCD is small by connected-fitness standards, but that’s part of the R60N’s character. It treats the display as an instrument panel rather than an entertainment screen, with fields for time, distance, calories, strokes, pulse, stroke rate, 500-meter pace, watts, and averages. Merach also calls the display backlit and anti-glare.

Performance

The R60N is built around the transition from air resistance to a combination of air and magnetic resistance. Merach documents levels 1 through 7 as air-only settings and levels 8 through 10 as air-plus-magnetic settings. You change those levels with a large manual resistance control, which Merach describes as a lever adjustment. A 32-blade fan and 3.5 kg flywheel provide the moving mass behind that system.

In use, the resistance adjustment felt good and intuitive. I could move from an easier setting into heavier tension to find the right effort, then use that range differently depending on the session. For short, timed bursts, I turned the resistance up. For longer rows, I eased it back so I wouldn’t tire out too quickly.

At levels 8 through 10, the R60N adds magnetic resistance rather than relying only on a faster pull. Merach’s 900N peak-resistance figure is tied to 25 strokes per minute, so it is a manufacturer rating, not an independently measured result. In my use, the shift into heavier resistance felt smooth and useful for short, harder intervals.

Over two weeks, I used the R60N every day, but not through a conventional workout routine. I lost count of the sessions because they ranged from two minutes to 10 or 15 minutes whenever my watch or smart ring prompted me to get up and move. I could step away from my desk, get on the rower in whatever I was already wearing, and row while listening to a show, watching TV, or talking with someone in the room.

That convenience became the most persuasive part of the experience. I didn’t have to block out an hour, change clothes, or make a formal commitment to exercise. The R60N was simply there, ready for however long I had or until I was tired. It isn’t silent, but the airflow created while rowing is noticeable in a pleasant way, and the overall noise never felt intrusive. For me, it removes much of the friction that turns a workout into something easy to postpone.

The console is meant to complement that training style. The display itself is good in initial use, and it lists workout metrics including pace, watts, strokes, and heart-rate data. Merach’s current product page doesn’t list built-in programs, but it does list Bluetooth connectivity for the MERACH app.

Pairing the rower to the app worked fine in my use. The tradeoff is that, once connected, the onboard display shows only a BT indicator. In other words, the app becomes the active workout display, so you can’t follow the app and read the console’s usual metrics at the same time. That behavior makes sense, but it’s worth knowing before choosing where to place your phone or tablet.

Above the display, an adjustable holder accepts a phone or small tablet. It tilts up and down, so it can keep a workout app, a show, or other content within view while you row. That small detail supports the R60N’s best practical trait: it’s easy to use for a few minutes whenever there’s time, rather than only during a planned workout.

Connected features are a bonus

The R60N doesn’t need an app to work. Its own display handles the essential workout information, and its resistance remains a manual-lever adjustment. That’s the right hierarchy: the machine is the product, while the MERACH app can add structure or variety if it suits the way you train.

What the free MERACH app adds

The MERACH app is free to download. Its no-subscription starting point includes Free Training, timed training, and distance-based goals, along with a dashboard for duration, distance, calories, and workout history. MERACH also lists challenges such as GlobalGo, which uses completed activity to unlock regional badges.

That is enough to make a phone or tablet more useful than a passive screen beside the rower. It gives the R60N owner a place to save sessions, set a simple target, revisit progress, or choose a basic guided workout without turning a straightforward row into a recurring bill.

What a paid service adds

MERACH’s U.S. App Store listing currently shows subscriptions at $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year. The company says that advanced trainer-led on-demand classes may require a paid membership, but it doesn’t publish a clear online feature-by-feature paywall. The practical benefit of paying is likely to be more guided content and a deeper training library, not a change to how the R60N itself creates resistance.

For someone who likes to get on, row hard, and get off, the free MERACH tools and the onboard display may be all they need. A paid MERACH membership matters more for a buyer who wants a steady supply of guided sessions and community-style motivation.

Sustainability and repairability

One understated benefit is that the R60N doesn’t need to live beside an outlet. For day-to-day use, that makes placement simpler and avoids another powered device drawing from the wall. The R60N is otherwise non-motorized, with the workout itself driving the resistance system.

That benefit comes with a small qualification: Merach lists four AA batteries for the display. The company also says rowing motion helps power the console, while its FAQ says batteries remain necessary for the display. In practice, this is a lower-power, outlet-free setup, not a completely battery-free one.

Long-term ownership will come down to ordinary mechanical details. The R60N uses a nickel-plated steel pull rope, a single aluminum rail, PU seat rollers, adjustable footrests, and a manual resistance lever. These are the parts that matter most over repeated sessions, storage cycles, and routine cleaning.

Warranty language deserves equally close attention. Merach’s product page promotes a two-year warranty, while its U.S. warranty page describes one year of standard coverage plus an additional year after registration. Buyers should register the product and confirm the current warranty terms, maintenance guidance, and replacement-part availability before purchasing.

Value

At $799.99 when this review was prepared, the R60N is priced like a serious piece of home fitness equipment. The money goes toward the air-plus-magnetic resistance system, heavy single-rail chassis, elevated seat, long rail, detachable two-piece storage, and backlit performance console. What matters is how those pieces affect daily use, and that is where the R60N earns its place.

The R60N makes the strongest case for someone with enough dedicated space who wants a machine they can use in short, repeatable bursts at home or in an office. At 52, I valued being able to get up, move, and raise my heart rate without the impact or preparation I associate with running. The rowing motion engaged my legs, calves, ankles, core, and arms, making it feel like a full-body cardio option rather than a machine that limits movement to one area.

I wouldn’t buy it solely as a muscle-building tool. Its real value is that it makes regular movement unusually accessible: you can get on for a few minutes or 10 minutes without changing clothes, driving to a gym, or paying for a membership. People without a dedicated storage location, or anyone who needs to move the rower between rooms often, should look for something with a smaller footprint.

Verdict

The Merach UltraRow R60N is at its best when it has a permanent place in your home or office. Its resistance range, comfortable fit, compact display, and adjustable device holder made it easy for me to move more often without treating every session like a workout.

The caveat is space. The R60N is long when assembled, and its two-piece storage design is practical for a dedicated room but not for carrying from room to room. If you can give it a home and want convenient, whole-body cardio on your own schedule, it earns its $799.99 price.

Click Here to Buy Now: $699.99 $1099.99 ($400 off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

The post Merach UltraRow R60N review: Built for harder home rowing first appeared on Yanko Design.

LEGO Batman Returns Batmobile is a striking new build with exclusive minifigure

Batman LEGO sets are particularly popular among pop culture enthusiasts, whether they love the comic books or the movies. Throw in a Batmobile and it’s Christmas. While there have been many recreations of the Cape Crusader’s vehicle in brick form, Tim Burton’s 1992 sequel Batman Returns never saw its Batmobile turned into a set until now.

LEGO has given a brick makeover to 1966 TV show’s vehicle in a 1,822-piece scaled-down replica and the more recent LEGO Technic Batmobile from Robert Pattinson’s The Batman. There is even a fan-created LEGO Batmobile with hyper-realistic details. Adding to this fleet, the new 2,269-piece LEGO DC Batman set recreates the Batmobile from Batman Returns for the first time in LEGO brick form, set to release in September.

Designer: LEGO

Inspired by Michael Keaton’s legendary 1992 film Batman Returns, the new LEGO brick set channels the sleek profile, meticulous details, and innovative transformation function and hidden references from the film. The model celebrates one of cinema’s most recognizable superhero rides. Once put together, the brick set takes an elongated form, similar to the one in the movie, with jet turbine rear engine, an opening canopy, and a detailed cockpit. Each intricate detail is inspired by memorable moments from the movie; it even includes The Penguin’s tracking device. When you are done building, you can rid Gotham City of crime all on your own.

You can slide open the canopy to peek inside. The intricate replica has a detailed cockpit, complete with a steering wheel and control panels to help the morally gray vigilante in a night of crime-fighting. While every detail is appreciated, what catches the attention most is the transformation feature. For the first time in a LEGO Batmobile, you can press a button to release the vehicle’s side panels to reveal an even sleeker Batmissile escape vehicle hidden within. This particular feature calls back to the on-screen sequence when The Penguin takes over the control of the Batmobile with Batman inside and sets out to destruction. To escape capture, Batman rips out wires from within and releases the side panels to slip through a narrow alleyway.

There is an innovative lift-arm mechanism recreating the dramatic transformation from the movie, letting you display the model as either the Batmobile or the Batmissile. This should also help you escape the plotting of villains as you fight crime in Gotham City. If you want to leave this task up to the Caped Crusader, LEGO has included a new Batman Minifigure with a newly molded cape and displayed on a dedicated stand with the Batman Returns logo. The striking Batmobile, probably the best LEGO build ever, measures over 4 inches high, 17 inches long, and 6.5 inches wide.

The LEGO DC Batman: Batman Returns Batmobile (76355) will be available on the LEGO Store, starting September 1 for LEGO Insiders and September 4 for everyone else. If you want to get this iconic set for yourself or for a DC fan, it will cost $300.

The post LEGO Batman Returns Batmobile is a striking new build with exclusive minifigure first appeared on Yanko Design.

Four Tiny Wooden Cabins Trade Wi-Fi for Wilderness

Some buildings announce themselves loudly, and then there are buildings that arrive quietly, as if they’ve always been there. Studzienno 27, a cluster of four wooden cabins tucked beside Poland’s Stołowe Mountains National Park, belongs to the second kind. Designed by architect Kuba Woźniczka of Kameleonlab studio, the project is a rare exercise in restraint — one that chooses silence over spectacle and comes out ahead for it.

The brief started with the land. The site is generous in size, but Agnieszka, the project’s initiator and host, drew a hard line from the beginning: construction would only occupy the areas already cleared of trees and heather. No forest displaced, no heathland touched. That ecological commitment didn’t just shape the footprint of the buildings — it shaped everything about them. Woźniczka proposed CLT, or cross-laminated timber, a material that was still largely unknown in Poland when the concept took shape in 2019. It was a forward-thinking call, and it allowed the wooden forms to read as something more refined than the “modern barn” aesthetic Agnieszka was deliberately steering away from.

Designer: Kuba Woźniczka

Each cabin sits at a slight angle to its neighbor. The rotation isn’t arbitrary — it optimizes natural light, protects the privacy of each guest, and opens sightlines directly toward the trees. Mono-pitched roofs give the volumes a clean, directional silhouette against the skyline. The facades are clad in black wooden boards, with detailing picked out in yellow, burgundy, and deep green — shades pulled straight from the surrounding landscape across seasons.

Inside, each 85-square-meter cabin spans two levels. The ground floor holds a living room with a fireplace and an open kitchen. Upstairs are two bedrooms and a bathroom with a freestanding bathtub — positioned, deliberately, so that soaking in it means looking out at the treetops. The interiors were handled by Madde Studio, whose team made a point of sourcing a significant share of furniture and accessories from second-hand markets and online auctions. Vintage classics sit alongside natural materials — wood, plywood, ceramic, metal, and microcement — to create spaces that feel lived-in on arrival rather than staged.

Despite sharing an identical layout, each of the four cabins carries its own personality. The decision to source furniture without pre-rendered visuals meant Madde Studio’s designers were making calls in real time, trusting instinct over mood boards. That looseness shows in the best possible way. Studzienno 27 offers what is increasingly difficult to find: a place with no mobile signal, no noise, and no pressure to perform rest. The architecture makes that offer quietly, and the landscape makes good on it.

The post Four Tiny Wooden Cabins Trade Wi-Fi for Wilderness first appeared on Yanko Design.

Japan Just Solved the Bulky Dish Rack Problem for $75

Even though I live alone and rarely have anyone over, one problem I still face almost every day is washing and drying dishes and other kitchen things. I also have limited space on my kitchen counter, so the dish rack I have now isn’t that convenient. It isn’t often that I have a lot of dishes to wash anyway, so the space it takes up can be annoying at times. Having a kitchen accessory that I can unfold when needed and then tuck away when not in use would be ideal.

That’s basically what the Slim Fold Dish Rack is all about. Using Japanese minimalism and innovation, this stainless steel kitchen accessory uses a patent-pending spring mechanism that lets you collapse and fold it away when you don’t need it. It also seems to be an effortless process, making it perfect for low-energy housework.

Click Here to Buy Now: $75.00

When unfolded, this rack offers a 14-inch drying surface that can fit full-size dinner plates, bowls (both deep and shallow ones), mugs, cups, glasses, and even lids and flat trays. But once you’ve finished drying everything, you can fold it down to just 1.2 inches, and it takes under a second. One motion and you’re done.

It is made from premium 304 stainless steel, so it is safe for your food, resistant to rust, and built to last. It can handle water, humidity, and outdoor conditions without degrading easily. Plus, it has a simple but sleek, minimalist look that fits most modern kitchens.

And it doesn’t only work in kitchens. You can also bring it with you when camping or doing other outdoor activities. It solves the classic “wet dish towel on the ground” problem that every camper knows too well, and the rack can be rinsed easily in a stream. There’s also an optional carrying case so you can pack it conveniently in your camping gear or travel bag.

What really makes the Slim Fold Dish Rack stand out beyond its clever mechanics is just how thoughtfully the whole thing is designed. Most collapsible or space-saving kitchen tools end up sacrificing either style or function. They look like a cheap plastic afterthought, or they only do half the job. This one manages to be both genuinely beautiful and completely practical. The stainless steel wire construction has an almost sculptural quality to it, especially when it’s fully open and fanned out on your counter. It’s the kind of kitchen tool you wouldn’t mind leaving out even when you don’t have to.

For those of us who are a little particular about how our kitchens look (and I know I’m not alone in this), it really matters that everyday items don’t make the whole space feel cluttered or chaotic. The Slim Fold Dish Rack solves that problem without any compromise. When it’s out, it looks intentional. When it’s folded and tucked away in a drawer or cabinet, it’s practically invisible.

It’s also worth mentioning that this is made in Japan, which says a lot about the level of craftsmanship that went into it. The spring mechanism alone went through enough refinement to earn a patent, and that precision is something you can actually feel when you use it. It doesn’t feel like a gimmick. It feels like something that was genuinely thought through.

Pricewise, the Slim Fold Dish Rack is available at $75 without a carrying case, or $90 with one. Given that it’s made from premium Japanese-engineered stainless steel with a patented folding mechanism, that feels like a fair and reasonable investment, especially for something you’re likely to reach for every single day. Just keep in mind that stock is limited, so if it’s something you’ve been looking for, don’t wait too long.

Whether you’re a small-space dweller who’s tired of a bulky dish rack dominating your counter, a camper looking to upgrade your outdoor kitchen game, or simply someone who appreciates beautifully considered everyday objects, the Slim Fold Dish Rack is one of those rare finds that genuinely lives up to everything it promises.

The post Japan Just Solved the Bulky Dish Rack Problem for $75 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Someone Actually Made a Fully Playable Banjo From a Party Balloon

I’ll be honest: the first time I saw images of Co:Creation Lab’s Balloon Banjo, I laughed. Not in a dismissive way, but in the way you laugh when something is just genuinely delightful. It’s lime green and baby blue, shaped like a proper banjo, and where a wooden drum body should be, there’s a round, inflated party balloon clamped neatly into place. It looks like something that fell out of a toy box, which is exactly the point, and also exactly why it’s brilliant.

The concept is almost absurdly simple. You download 19 3D-printable parts, assemble them into seven components, and thread nylon fishing line as the strings. The balloon slots in underneath the frame and does what balloons do: it holds air. But that air is doing real acoustic work. The taut rubber surface acts as the sounding board, vibrating when you pluck the strings and creating an actual, if quirky, musical tone. Want to change how it resonates? Just add more air or let some out. No tools, no glue, no specialist equipment. The physics are right there in your hands, adjustable in real time.

Designer: Co:Creation Lab

One of the more considered decisions in this design is how it handles assembly. There are no metal screws. Instead, the parts use 3D-printed plastic screws, sized so that a six-year-old can turn them with their fingers without stripping the threads. That small detail says a lot about Co:Creation Lab’s thinking. This wasn’t designed to impress engineers. It was designed with a specific constraint in mind: a parent should be able to build it together with their child. The build is the experience, not just the end result.

I find that kind of intentional constraint genuinely refreshing. Design often gets celebrated for how much it can do, how many features it can pack in, how complex it can become. The Balloon Banjo goes the other direction entirely. Every choice is stripped back to what’s necessary, and what’s necessary turns out to be enough. The design files are available to download, and the materials cost next to nothing beyond the printer and filament. A party balloon, some fishing line, and a little patience. That’s it.

Is it a real musical instrument? Technically, yes. Is it going to replace your ukulele or compete with an actual banjo? Absolutely not. It’s more of a homebrew science toy than a concert-ready instrument. But I don’t think that’s a limitation so much as a reframing. The Balloon Banjo doesn’t ask to be taken seriously as an instrument. It asks you to be curious. It asks you to understand why it makes sound, what changes when you add more air, and what happens if you pull the string tighter. Those are good questions for any age.

The aesthetic is also doing a lot here. That lime green frame and the pastel blue balloon aren’t accidental. The color palette is cheerful and toy-like, which signals immediately that this is meant to be played with, not displayed behind glass. Compared to the earnest seriousness that tends to follow a lot of maker culture projects, the Balloon Banjo has a lightness to it, a sense of humor about itself, that makes it more accessible rather than less.

The broader conversation around 3D printing still tends to lean utilitarian: replacement parts, custom brackets, functional objects. What Co:Creation Lab has made is a reminder that fabrication can also just be fun. That you can hand a kid a finished thing, and the fact that they helped build it is what makes it matter. Good design doesn’t always have to solve a problem. Sometimes it just has to make you want to pick it up and pluck a string. Even if the sound is a little wonky.

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Google’s Pixel 12 Could Get Cheaper as Production Leaves China for India and Vietnam

A phone’s country of assembly used to be a footnote on the back of the box. It now shapes the spec sheet, the retail price, and which storage tier survives the year. Google confirmed the Pixel 11 at $899, up a hundred dollars from the Pixel 10, with the Pro, Pro XL, and Fold each taking the same hundred-dollar step across the board. Component costs got the blame, and the blame is largely earned. Six days after launch, Nikkei Asia reported the other half of the story.

Google has told suppliers it intends to have every Pixel smartphone, watch, and wireless earbud produced outside China starting next year, with production shifting to Vietnam and India. The move follows a Pixel 11 production run in Vietnam that gave Google the confidence to commit to the full transition. The company is targeting Pixel shipments up 8 to 10 percent this year from roughly 12 million units in 2025, using the hardware as the delivery vehicle for Gemini. Manufacturing geography has become a design constraint, not a footnote.

Designer: Google

The mechanism behind the price increase is a supply war Google didn’t start and can’t fully escape. AI accelerators run on high bandwidth memory, and that memory is manufactured on the same production lines as the DRAM that goes into a phone. Mobile LPDDR5X pricing climbed 78 to 83 percent quarter over quarter this spring, according to TrendForce, and memory now accounts for 30 to 40 percent of a phone’s bill of materials, up from 10 to 15 percent in prior years. Gartner projects a 130 percent combined surge in DRAM and SSD pricing by the end of 2026, enough on its own to explain most consumer electronics price movement this year.

Google’s response to that pressure shows up as a storage decision rather than a straightforward price hike. The 128GB tier has been eliminated across the entire Pixel 11 lineup, so every model now starts at 256GB, which absorbs the increase into a spec upgrade rather than a naked price jump. It’s a smarter move than what several budget Android brands have done this year, quietly cutting RAM or downgrading displays to protect a price point. Google chose to hold the line on the experience and let the entry price move instead, which is the correct call for a flagship, even if it doesn’t change what the phone actually costs you at checkout.

Leaving China is a materially easier decision for Google than it is for Apple or Samsung, and that’s what makes the 2027 timeline credible rather than aspirational. Google sells almost no Pixel devices inside China and carries a small domestic user base there, which removes the demand-side complications that would slow down a company like Apple. Vietnam already has a mature phone manufacturing ecosystem built by Samsung, and Google is stepping into infrastructure rather than building it from zero. India, meanwhile, overtook China as the top source of US-bound smartphone shipments in 2025, a shift with obvious tariff logic behind it.

None of that repositioning fixes the underlying cost problem, though, and it’s worth being direct about that. Standing up the Vietnamese line for the Pixel 11 required new testing equipment, new tooling, and a validated production process built from scratch, none of which is free. PhoneArena’s assessment that stable pricing is the realistic outcome, rather than an outright reduction, tracks with how manufacturing transitions actually play out. Relocating a factory reduces exposure to trade policy. It does not negotiate down a DRAM contract.

The report itself carries real gaps that are worth naming rather than smoothing over. Nikkei gave no month within 2027, no sequencing across the phone, watch, and earbud lines, no cost figure, and no named contract manufacturer in either country, and Google has neither confirmed nor denied the plan. The timeline has also moved before, a January report had most of this exit happening during 2026, and Pixel production has been drifting toward Vietnam since 2019. Seven years into an exit, the finish line keeps resetting.

The real tension in this story is structural, not incidental. Google raised Pixel prices in part because AI infrastructure consumed the memory supply chain, in order to sell a phone whose entire pitch rests on AI. Whether a new factory address in Vietnam or India can hold the line at $899 is what the Pixel 12 will actually answer.

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This Foam-Free Eco Packaging Is Made From Compressed Rosemary Waste, And It Carries The Aroma Too

Expanded foam or polystyrene has had a good run as the default packaging filler, mostly because it’s cheap, light, and nobody was really committed to sustainability for the last half century so the industry is pretty set in its ways now. Expanded foam does not decompose, it does not do anything useful once you rip it out of the box, and it has spent decades sitting quietly in landfills being extremely unbothered by the concept of consequences. Designers have been chipping away at its throne for years, swapping in mushroom mycelium, seaweed film, pressed pulp, whatever grows fast and decomposes faster. Scentra joins that lineup with a twist nobody else has really tried. Rosemary.

Instead of growing a material or pulping something into a smooth foam substitute, this one compresses actual rosemary waste, stems and all, into a block held together with a seaweed binder. The result looks rustic rather than manufactured, and it carries the plant’s natural scent right there in the fibers. Crack the box open and rosemary hits you before the product does. Foam never managed that trick, and honestly, it never tried.

Designers: Zhixi Dai, Zhou Yun, Wang Zhan

The rosemary itself comes from an organic farm in Guizhou, China, run under Omni Biotech’s AOLUX line, where trimmings that would normally get swept up and discarded are collected instead. The farm also employs local workers from low income families as part of a rural revitalization push, so the sourcing story has a human angle sitting quietly underneath the material one. Designer Zhixi Dai led the project with Zhou Yun and Wang Zhan rounding out the team, and between them they turned a farming byproduct into something structural enough to actually protect glass.

The block is cut with a cavity shaped exactly like the essential oil bottle it holds, silhouette and all, so the packaging reads almost like a little doorway with the product framed inside it. Pull the bottle out and you are left holding a chunk of compressed herb that still smells like the plant it came from. Set it on a shelf, add a few more drops of oil when the scent fades, and it keeps working as a passive diffuser. No batteries, no wiring, no porcelain filter to keep clean. Just plant matter doing what plant matter does.

We have seen versions of this waste to material pipeline before. Beer mash has been pressed into leather, spent grain has been molded into stools, rice husk has been packed into furniture. What usually happens in those stories is the waste becomes inert once it is shaped, useful for its structure and nothing else. Scentra skips that step. The rosemary does not stop being rosemary just because it got compressed into a block. It keeps its oils, its texture, its smell, all the things that made it worth growing in the first place.

That is really the whole pitch here, and it is a good one. Most eco packaging asks you to feel good about something you cannot see or verify, a recycling percentage or a compostability claim buried in fine print. This one just smells like rosemary. You do not need a certificate for that, though it has one anyway, having picked up the Best Eco Design win at the European Product Design Awards.

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Garmin’s Tacx Neo 2T Turns Your Existing Bike Into a Connected Gym, No Extra Setup

You know that bike sitting in your garage, judged by cobwebs, wondering when you’ll finally take it out again. Garmin just gave it a second career. The Tacx Neo 2T with Zwift Cog and Click, out August 21 for $1,099, clips onto pretty much any bike with 8 to 13 gears and turns it into a full smart trainer, complete with power tracking, cadence data, and a straight line into Zwift and Rouvy. No cassette swap, no calibration ritual, no YouTube tutorial at 11pm trying to figure out why your bike won’t pair.

Basically, Garmin looked at the whole “buy a $2,000 smart bike” trend and said, why not just use the one you already own. You bolt the trainer on, plug in the included remote for virtual shifting, and you’re pedaling through a Zwift climb before your coffee gets cold. It is less a new machine and more a software upgrade for your legs.

Designer: Garmin

The actual hardware here is not new, and Garmin is not pretending otherwise. The NEO 2T shell, that angular black and blue wedge with the vent slots, has been around since 2019. What changed is what sits inside the flywheel. A bright orange Zwift Cog now stands in for your entire cassette, and it is compatible with almost any 8 to 13 speed bike, no tools required beyond whatever it takes to bolt your bike onto the trainer itself. Pair it with the Zwift Click, a small handlebar remote that handles shifting, steering, and menu navigation, and the whole “getting started” phase collapses into about ten minutes.

What you actually get for your money is the boring but important stuff. Power and cadence accuracy within 1 percent, dynamic resistance that adjusts for weight, speed, and incline, and enough quietness that you will not wake up the rest of the house doing intervals at 6am. Buyers who are new to Zwift also get a free membership offer, though Garmin has not said how long that lasts.

For years, the trend was building bikes that look like sculptures, cabinets that hide a Peloton, frames designed to disappear into a living room. Garmin is taking the opposite route. Instead of hiding the machine, it is shrinking the amount of machine you need in the first place. Your actual bike stays your actual bike. The only thing that changes is what happens once you clip it in.

You do not need a second bike, a dedicated smart frame, or a spare room that quietly becomes “the cycling room.” You need the bike you already own and about ten minutes on a Wednesday afternoon.

The post Garmin’s Tacx Neo 2T Turns Your Existing Bike Into a Connected Gym, No Extra Setup first appeared on Yanko Design.

Someone Finally Bent a Desk to Put Your Monitor Higher and Hands Low

Most desk design still treats the flat surface as a given. Monitor, keyboard, notepad, and coffee all land on the same plane, and we adjust our posture around that rather than the other way around. That convention has held even as ergonomic research has consistently noted that the ideal height for viewing a screen and the ideal height for typing with relaxed arms aren’t the same, and that bridging the gap usually falls to accessories rather than to the furniture itself.

The Hollow Desk takes that problem seriously and solves it through the desk’s own structure. A “cut and bend” plywood technique creates two distinct surface levels in a single continuous form. The raised rear section supports the monitor and anything that lives near eye level. The front curves downward into a sunken working zone where the keyboard, mouse, notepad, and sketchbook sit at a lower, more natural arm height, keeping hands in a position the flat desk never quite manages.

Designer: SUNRIU Design

Framing it that way makes the change sound incremental, but the accumulated strain of typing at the wrong height over a full workday is measurable. The usual solutions are accessories: keyboard trays, wrist rests, monitor risers, each one a correction applied after the fact to furniture that wasn’t designed with this in mind. Most get purchased with good intentions and used inconsistently. The Hollow Desk puts the correction into the desk’s own geometry, and it stays there.

The plywood construction makes that organic form possible without complicated joinery. The bent curve that transitions from the raised rear surface down into the working zone exposes the layered plywood edge, and the design doesn’t try to conceal it. Those laminate layers become part of the visual identity, making the structural logic of the form visible at the transition rather than hiding it under a veneer that would smooth over the method entirely.

Storage is woven into the raised rear section without claiming any working surface. Vertical slots cut into the back panel keep pens, pencils, and cards upright within reach. A slim drawer with a finger-pull cutout sits flush under the front face of the raised section, invisible from above and accessible from the front. On the right side panel, a hook holds headphones off the desk, and a small ledge keeps a book at hand level without requiring a separate shelf.

Cable management runs through pass-through holes in the raised rear platform, routing monitor cables out of view rather than leaving them to cross the working surface. A lower shelf at the base runs the full width and handles items that don’t need to stay immediately at hand. Both details are quiet, but on a desk this deliberate about surface hierarchy, leaving cables and secondary storage as afterthoughts would undercut the whole logic of the design.

The Hollow Desk is still a concept rendered in plywood. The raised rear platform works with whatever monitor or tower you already own, and the sunken working zone doesn’t favor any particular keyboard or input device. It isn’t trying to reorganize your workflow. It’s making a more fundamental intervention: changing where your hands sit while you work, which turns out to matter considerably more than any accessory applied on top of a flat surface ever does.

The post Someone Finally Bent a Desk to Put Your Monitor Higher and Hands Low first appeared on Yanko Design.

Unitree launches humanoid robot that’s faster than Usain Bolt, and spot jumps higher than any athlete

If you also think a robot Olympics is on the verge of happening anytime soon. You could just be right. If and when that happens, Unitree’s “Superman” would probably break American swimmer Michael Phelps’ record for the most gold medals in a single Olympic Games.

To give us a glimpse of that future, China’s Unitree – which recently became the first general-purpose robotics company to debut on Shanghai’s stock exchange – unveiled a humanoid robot on August 17, which it says “can outrun and outjump top human athletes.”

Designer: Unitree

In the demo video doing rounds on the internet, the Unitree Superman (as the humanoid robot is called) can be seen pulling off a standing high jump of 2 meters. It also makes a dash at the speed of 12.66 meters per second, which is a tad faster than the 12.4 m/s speed that Usain Bolt achieved when he completed the world-record-setting 100 m run in only 9.58 seconds. This calculation would stand true if the Unitree humanoid runs 100 meters at the same speed that it has clocked in its demo dash.

With the kind of feat the Chinese Superman has pulled off, it has conveniently surpassed human ability by a margin. With this standing high jump and running speed, it has done what no human has ever achieved. And considering the progress companies like Unitree are making on robots in the labs, gyms, and training grounds, we are going to fall behind, and robots will throw us on the sidelines to conduct their own Olympics Games soon.

Hangzhou-based Unitree has been ahead of most robotic companies in China. In fact, it is considered the most influential one, with backing from companies including Tencent, DeepSeek, and Alibaba. Its fanfare can be gauged from the unprecedented IPO it made. The company’s stock, according to Bloomberg, skyrocketed by 629% to a $66 billion valuation on its first day of trading on August 19.

The IPO from the company, which already has a robot dog, humanoid kung fu fighter, and a service robot on the market, has left all financial pundits bewildered. And the new achievement of the Superman humanoid has only substantiated investors’ faith.

According to Unitree, the jumping and speeding robot, which has 0.85-meter-long legs, is a work in progress and is likely to feature improvements to its capabilities in the coming months. Until that news comes in, you can check out some of the more extraordinary Unitree robots, like the transforming Mecha robot or this one that can even do cartwheels.

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