Impressive Portable Outdoor Theater with 16.7′ Inflatable Screen

Once known primarily for design piracy, Chinese companies are finally moving towards true innovation and original experimentation. Companies that made smartphones ten years ago are now making electric cars. Anker, which once made phone chargers and power banks, now has an A/V spin-off called Nebula; their latest is this crazy Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro, a portable outdoor theater system.

In its travel configuration, it looks like a rolling piece of luggage or maybe a karaoke machine.

Once on-site, these little rectangular thingies…

…can be deployed from the unit. They’re actually a quartet of wireless speakers that provide 360° sound.

The 16.7′ inflatable screen comes with a battery-powered air pump. The company says it takes about five minutes to inflate or deflate the screen. You do have to anchor the thing down, of course; it comes with ropes, stakes, and ballast bags that you can fill with water.

The projector can be placed at up to a 25° angle from the screen; built-in sensors detect the actual boundaries of the screen and automatically compensate, the company says, to provide a focused and proportional image.

And it actually can be used as a karaoke machine; two wireless microphones are included, while a built-in subwoofer provides the bass.

Obviously the image quality in the renderings is depicted as perfect. Here’s video of an actual unit in operation, which looks pretty impressive:

Demand is high, to say the least; the company’s racked up $4.4 million on Kickstarter and counting, with 43 days left to pledge at press time. With the 16.7′ screen, the units are going for $3,700 and are slated to ship in December.

Handsome 3D Printed Vessels by Succuc

These handsome vessels, 3D printed on Bambu Lab machines, are by European company Succuc.

To my eye they’re a wonderfully restrained application of the technology: Simple, visually arresting, doesn’t wear their 3D-printedness on their sleeve. And they make you want to touch them.

At first blush, you think perhaps they’re ceramic and were made by the world’s most fastidious Japanese artisan. It’s only when you get up really close that the production method reveals itself.

The vessels run in the $30 to $60 range, depending on size, and are available on Etsy.

Smart Design for a Dog Toy: Frank the Dogtopus

As a dog owner, I’m lucky I live in the country. Any excess energy my dogs have is burned off running around outside. Dogs in urban or suburban areas aren’t so lucky, and a $4 billion dog toy market has emerged to create diversions for cooped-up pooches.

This Frank the Dogtopus, designed by dog owner Ian Stack, is a smart design for a dog toy. Being made out of recycled fire hoses, it’s virtually indestructible. Each of its tentacles have three “treat pockets” made out of natural rubber.

You load the thing up with treats, then tie the tentacles into knots.

This creates a compelling “puzzle” for dogs who can smell the treats, but can only get at them by gnawing and tugging to undo the arms. Stack reckons this can tie a dog up for over half an hour.

Some dog owners might be uncomfortable with this fact, but the gnawing and tugging motions required to undo the thing simulate what it’s like to rip a small animal apart. Dogs, being descended from wolves, find these activities compelling. And it’s a lot more acceptable, in a modern household, for your dog to run around with an opened Dogtopus rather than say, an eviscerated groundhog. (I’ve seen it firsthand; it’s pretty gross.)

Frank the Dogtopus is doing gangbusters on Kickstarter, where Stack was seeking a mere $3,000. At press time it was up to nearly $125K, with 29 days left to pledge. Prices start at $50, and the units are slated to ship in December.

An Ultrasonic Chef’s Knife

We’ve seen ultrasonic cutters before, for craft applications. These are basically powered X-Acto knives that use ultrasonic vibrations to do the cutting for you.

Now the technology has been applied to kitchen knives. A startup called Seattle Ultrasonics has developed this C-200 Ultrasonic 8″ Chef’s Knife.

When you hit the button on the handle, the blade vibrates—imperceptibly and inaudibly—and cleanly slices through food. It can even be used as a bread knife.

And yes, the housing is waterproof.

The knife runs $400. It has a USB-C port for charging, you supply the cable. But if you’d like to spend more, for $500 you can get both the knife and this wireless charging tile.

I do all my own cooking, and I’d never buy one of these; learning to properly sharpen a kitchen knife isn’t that difficult. That said, our gadget-crazed culture will probably go nuts for this thing, and I expect it to sell like hotcakes.

The company is taking pre-orders now and expects to ship in January. Here’s the pitch:

Core77 Weekly Roundup (9-22-25 to 9-26-25)

Here’s what we looked at this week:

The Roborock H60 Hub Series is a stick vacuum that automatically empties itself.

This Brazilian invention straightens scrap rebar for reuse.

Industrial designer wins 2025 Ig Nobel Prize for “Smelly Shoes — An Opportunity for Shoe Rack Re-Design.”

Meta unveils new display glasses, with wrist-based gesture control.

Starmork finds Kickstarter success—by knocking off Wyrmwood’s gaming table designs.

A plate designed specifically for Ikea meatballs, by architect/designer Gustaf Westman.

You can now buy a replica McLaren F1 seat for your racing sim. There’s a reason why Peloton tanked and racing sims soared.

The X12 is an innovative all-terrain stair-climbing wheelchair from China.

At Auburn University, Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering students collaborated on the design of a surgical device.

Brian Brocken is building a full-size flying DeLorean.

The V&A’s super cool, massive East Storehouse makes archival storage publicly accessible.

Specialty tool: The Trend Corner Chisel quickly squares hinge mortises.

Innovative toy design: The ZipString Aracna is is a Spider-Man-inspired wrist-mounted “web shooter.”

GoPro’s new Max 2, with 8K 360 video, adds a few physical UX improvements as well.

How the new, radical RLS bike helmet design greatly reduces rotational forces.

This elegant Kinetic Driver, designed by Giacomo Di Muro, features a kinetic flywheel that does the driving for you.

Experimental interactive lighting: Relvãokellermann’s Tangent lamp illuminates when you attach the magnetic ball to the steel structure.

Industrial design case study: Hatch Duo designs a performance-boosting device for athletes and firefighters.

Industrial Design Case Study: A Performance-Boosting Device for Athletes and Firefighters

Palm cooling is a technology developed by researchers at Stanford University. The idea is that due to the unique vascular structures in the palm, artificially cooling the palm lowers the body’s core temperature during bouts of intense physical activity. The technology has been shown to speed recovery, increase strength gains, extend time-to-exhaustion and improve physical output. It’s something like non-pharmacological steroids.

A company called Apex Cool Labs wanted to turn the technology into a product that athletes and firefighters could use. To realize the project, they contacted industrial design and engineering firm Hatch Duo.

The Narwhals: Cools Palms, Accelerate Recovery

Hatch Duo partnered with Apex Cool Labs to create the Next Generation Narwhals, designed for athletes who demand superior performance during training and competition. Heat causes fatigue. Aided with physics, The Narwhals create a Cool-not-Cold™ surface for palm cooling, regulating the heat in your body, allowing for faster recovery and mitigating heat stress. This updated device is lighter, more durable, and features easily swappable Cool-not-Cold™ packs for extended use.

?Key Audiences:

Fire Service

Enhance incident rehab by minimizing heat stress to accelerate recovery and extend work capacity.

Athletics

Boost heart rate recovery and mitigate heat stress during games and training to maintain stamina longer.

Strength & Conditioning

Get stronger faster by accelerating interset recovery to increase high-quality training volume.

Empowering the User

We aimed to reflect Apex Cool Lab’s core brand values in the design of their next-generation Narwhals by focusing on the contexts where the device would be most used. From firetrucks to sports fields to weight rooms, we designed the Narwhals to feel at home in these demanding environments. The rugged form and durable construction were inspired by the intense nature of these tasks. The surface detailing reflects this as well, where textured finishes not only enhance the visual robustness but also provide a secure grip and protection against drops and impact—ensuring the product is as practical as it is reliable.

?Handle Ergonomics

We tested many prototypes to make sure the handle was comfortable for all hand sizes. We also tested different cap shapes to ensure they provided a secure grip and thumb rest for easy usability. Throughout the process, we kept the proportions balanced so the product looks and feels premium. The final design is tough, reliable, and fits perfectly in the hands of people who tackle some of the hardest jobs out there.

Integrating Physics and Design

To ensure The Narwhals effectively reduce heat stress without causing vasoconstriction, we designed around Apex Cool Labs’ proven system of copper heat pipes and Cool-Not-Cold™ packs to maintain an optimal therapeutic temperature range of 50-60°F. The heat pipes use a phase-change mechanism to rapidly transfer heat away from the palms, while the Cool-Not-Cold™ packs stabilize the temperature by absorbing heat through a specialized material. This precise integration ensures consistent cooling, enabling athletes to lower core body temperature, enhance performance, and recover faster in even the most demanding conditions.

The Design

Staying true to the original Narwhal, we refined the design to convey professionalism and quality, seamlessly integrating with an athlete’s performance gear. Through emphasizing form, we developed a design that is bottom heavy and stable, ensuring the Cool-Not-Cold™ handles are always ready and within reach. Every aspect of the design—from its rugged contours to the carefully chosen materials—was crafted to embody the confidence, resilience, and determination of its users. By blending aesthetics with practicality, the Narwhals deliver a reliable, performance-driven solution that athletes can trust in any environment.

You can see more of Hatch Duo’s work here.

The Elegant Kinetic Driver, Designed by Giacomo Di Muro

This elegant Kinetic Driver was designed by Giacomo Di Muro, the YouTube maker and de facto product designer.

It’s produced by Di Muro’s Placed Atoms brand, and they make no bones about the fact that no one needs this tool; the intent was to design something so beautiful and pleasurable to use that it becomes an object of desire.

The key feature of the tool is the kinetic flywheel, shown here in brass:

This has been carefully weighted and rides on a ceramic bearing; giving it a mere spin creates enough momentum that the tool does the driving, or unscrewing, for you.

Upon the tool’s release several years ago, the flywheel was the brass one shown above; in the current version, the flywheel is chromed steel. It’s a pity because the brass really provides visual pop, but I assume shifting supply conditions led to the material change.

The Kinetic Driver runs $120 and comes with the case, as well as 24 bits.

Experimental Interactive Lighting: The Tangent Lamp, by Industrial Design Studio Relvãokellermann

Relvãokellermann is a Munich-based design studio, run by industrial designers Ana Relvão and Gerhardt Kellermann. (They’re the ones who did those handsome, stackable cork storage boxes.) In addition to doing client work, they have an in-house skunkworks called RK Lab. “RK Lab is a space within our practice where we explore new ways of experiencing objects,” they write. “It serves as an independent playground, enabling us to question established typologies and open pathways to new forms of perception and use.”

Out of that playground came this experimental Tangent lamp:

A magnetic sphere. A block of oxidized steel. A light filament.

Now picture this: the moment when the magnetic sphere touches the block of oxidized steel. A single point of contact. In that instant, the circuit wakes up, current flows, and the filament lights up.

It all happens through the tangent. Yet, every time the hand decides differently, and both the light mood and the lamp transform accordingly to the hand’s intentions.

Tangent is a product exploration produced and developed within RK Lab, our in-house platform for experimentation. Conceived as an exercise in questioning conventions, the object investigates the relationship between experience, technology and the purpose of light itself. By focusing on essential elements, the lamp highlights how a simple tangent connection can create both functionality and a new way of experiencing an everyday object.

LDF 2025: Royal College of Art – Tender Revolution

When looking for new ideas from talented young minds, The Royal College of Art exhibition at London Design Festival is always a good start. This year, Tender Revolution showed what RCA design graduates from various disciplines imagined to resist rigid systems. Part of the curated strand A Softer World by Alex Tieghi-Walker, where designers explore empathy, tactility and connection, the exhibition had a strong focus on wearable designs.

RCA Tender Revolution. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Modular snow shoe

Z-TREK, by Zhibo Yang is a terrain-responsive snow-hiker footwear system. Rather than offering one shoe, it is a modular system that lets the user adapt their footwear to different conditions.

Z-TREK by Zhibo Yang. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Z_TREK by Zhibo Yang. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Made for terrains from ice to snow melt, the design is inspired by how animal feet are structurally adapted to winter grounds. It uses principles of surface expansion, grip control and drainage in the natural world to inform parametric modeling and structural design decisions.

Z-TREK by Zhibo Yang. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Z-TREK by Zhibo Yang. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Z-TREK by Zhibo Yang. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Cashmere, merino and linen

With her project Modern Nomads: Heritage in Motion, Lydia Lin visualises the idea of modern nomads through the persona of female aviators. Made for a competition with Loro Piana, the design is made of cashmere, merino and linen, using software that enables the designer to program the knit for a specific shape without cutting the fabric.

Modern Nomads: Heritage in Motion by Lydia Lin. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Modern Nomads: Heritage in Motion by Lydia Lin. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Adaptive fashion

Huili Jin, a fashion designer and creative pattern maker is inspired by the belief that fashion should be accessible to everyone. Her project What Do I Want To Wear? addresses the common challenge of independently putting on pants faced by wheelchair users. The pants can be put on from the top while seated, improving independence and comfort through careful fabric, seam, and pattern choices.

What Do I Want To Wear? by Huili Jin.. Photo by Anki Delfmann

What Do I Want To Wear? by Huili Jin.. Photo by Anki Delfmann

What Do I Want To Wear? by Huili Jin. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Pockets

The Pocketed Body by Audra Grays is a series of garments that reclaim pockets as both function and feminist statement and put them at the center of the design. Made from post-industrial textile waste, the project examines how pockets shape gender roles, while serving the needs of urban commuters.

Photo by Anki Delfmann

The Pocketed Body by Audra Grays. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Banana-waste textile

MUSATEX by Carmen Danae Azor is turning banana and plantain waste into zero-synthetic textiles. Sourced from organic farms and processed by women’s cooperatives, the fibres cut carbon emissions by 94 percent compared to cotton, needing no chemicals or extra irrigation. Using low-impact methods like felting and hand weaving, the project preserves material integrity while opening new design possibilities.

MUSATEX by Carmen Danae Azor. Photo by Anki Delfmann

MUSATEX by Carmen Danae Azor. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Dresses to colour in

Shino Hitosugi softens the border between designer and consumer with her project Brand New Flower by inviting them in to participate in the creation of the garment. Made from paper and featuring black and white patterns, her dress lets visitors leave their mark via coloured pens.

Brand New Flower by Shino Hitosugi. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Brand New Flower by Shino Hitosugi. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Brand New Flower by Shino Hitosugi. Photo by Anki Delfmann

Garments you can smell

Ruwanthi Gajadeera immerses visitors in the underwater world with A Scented Reflection on Ocean Pollution, where pollution is felt through touch and scent rather than statistics. Yarn and textiles evoke coral bleaching and ocean currents, while a crafted fragrance contrasts pure waters with chemical traces of human impact.

A Scented Reflection on Ocean Pollution by Ruwanthi Gajadeera. Photo by Anki Delfmann

A Scented Reflection on Ocean Pollution by Ruwanthi Gajadeera. Photo by Anki Delfmann

See a video of the visit

Watch the RCA Tender Revolution Design Postcard to get a more immersive feeling for the exhibit:

GoPro’s New Max 2, with 8K 360 Video, Adds a Few UX Improvements

The Antigravity AI, which we wrote about here, is a drone that captures video in 360°. It uses software to remove any view of the drone and rotors itself, yielding pure capture.

Antigravity A1

However, for now the A1 needs to be piloted. Surely in the future it will be autonomous. Until that day comes, competitors like GoPro, which require you to be physically attached to the camera during capture, still have a shot. Hence GoPro has just unveiled their Max 2, which like the A1, also offers 8K 360° video.

GoPro Max 2

As with the A1, the 360 tech in the Max 2 means you can choose your angles after the fact, while editing the video.

GoPro’s software also removes the selfie stick from view. The resultant video is still a bit awkward though, as the user is still visibly holding their arm out in space.

The company has introduced a couple of UX improvements. The Max 2 features easily-replaceable lens covers; should they become damaged, you can simply twist it off and twist on a replacement.

They’ve also designed a magnetic mounting system, so the camera doesn’t need to be threaded onto anything.

The $500 camera will be available on September 30th. The A1 is expected to launch next January for around $1,300, so groundedness aside, GoPro’s offering will still have a place in the market.