Vollebak Made a $3,995 Jacket for the End of the World

Vollebak has never been the kind of brand that plays it safe. Since launching in 2016, the British label has built a reputation for making gear that reads more like science fiction than seasonal fashion. Their products come with essays instead of product descriptions, and their material choices lean toward graphene, solar-charged fibres, and military-grade composites. So when their latest release landed with an acronym for a name and a price tag that could cover a month’s rent in most cities, most of us weren’t entirely surprised. Just a little stunned.

FWAHBL stands for “For When All Hell Breaks Loose.” That’s the actual name. Not a placeholder, not a working title, not a wink-and-nod provocation. The brand looked at the current state of the world and decided the most honest thing they could do was name a jacket after it.

Designer: Vollebak

Only 10 of these exist. They’re priced at $3,995. They arrive in retro video game packaging alongside a comic book and a trailer for an upcoming game. The whole thing reads like a fever dream, and yet, once you look at what’s actually inside it, the jacket starts making a strange kind of sense.

The material comes from Fothergill, a British manufacturer that has been producing protective gear for the military since 1847. The fabric is double-faced polychloroprene rubber coated over a woven polyester core, built to resist oils, chemicals, flame, and extreme weather. This isn’t performance wear with a dramatic name slapped on it. The engineering is real, even if Vollebak is quick to clarify that it isn’t certified safety equipment. What it is, they say, is clothing designed for extreme weather and existential dread. I appreciate the specificity.

A jacket that could theoretically withstand a chemical spill but comes dressed for a gallery opening is a very particular kind of product. The hazard yellow finish makes it look like something you’d find on a nuclear site inspector who also happens to have excellent taste. It’s alarming and considered at the same time, which feels very intentional. Vollebak’s whole design language leans into that tension, the idea that what we wear should be able to meet us at our worst, not just our most polished.

The narrative wrapped around the jacket is what separates it from a typical limited-edition fashion drop. Vollebak didn’t just make a jacket and photograph it on a rooftop. They built a universe: the comic book, the video game, the worldbuilding. The jacket becomes almost secondary to the story it’s trying to tell, which is either a genius move or a complete overreach, depending on how you feel about brands constructing mythology around outerwear. Personally, I find it more compelling than a seasonal lookbook ever manages to be. At least it commits to a point of view.

The collectible angle is also hard to ignore. Ten pieces worldwide isn’t a production run. It’s closer to an art edition, which raises the question of who actually buys this. Probably not someone planning to commute in it. Most likely it’s the kind of person who understands that certain objects carry cultural weight beyond their function, the same kind of person who collects a Helmut Lang archive piece or a first-edition sneaker that never touches the ground. Whether we call that fashion, collecting, or very expensive storytelling, the outcome is the same.

Objects that sit at the intersection of design, utility, and narrative have always existed, from limited-run furniture to bespoke motorcycles to museum-acquired concept cars. The FWAHBL Jacket fits that lineage more comfortably than it fits any fashion calendar.

Whether or not you’d wear it, or could, the jacket asks a useful question. How much are we expecting from the things we put on our bodies? Vollebak’s answer has always been: more. More protection, more engineering, more intention. The FWAHBL Jacket takes that philosophy to its logical, slightly unhinged conclusion. A trench coat for the end of things, made by people who clearly hope you never actually need it.

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First Chinese SUV with built-in rooftop tent is co-developed by Huawei and is all set for preorder

Chinese automotive and technology stalwarts are combining to give the off-road camping industry a new twist. It’s for the first time that a flagship SUV is gearing up to hit the Chinese market with a rooftop tent pre-installed. The tent would deploy into a fully-fledged habitat on top of the off-road vehicle at the push of a button from its cockpit.

So, when the Stelato G9, built in a joint effort by Huawei and Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC Group), goes on preorder starting August 5, according to Chinese sources, the luxury SUV will include an optional tent built into its roof and sunroof assembly. This would be completely different from aftermarket rooftop tents that have to be bolted on the roof of the vehicle.

Designer: HIMA

Rooftop tents are common in North America. So, they are in China as well. But this is the first time that a vehicle is entering the market pre-fitted with a rooftop tent from the factory. At the time of writing, not much is available in the public domain about the Stelato G9, except for the fact that it will come with the optional choice of a camping solution on its roof.

Other than that, from information collected through Chinese regulatory filings, we can confirm that the vehicle will be available in a fully electric option and an extended-range electric model comprising a gas engine to generate charge for the battery. The G9 measures 5.2 m (17 ft) long and has a wheelbase of 3.16 m (10.4 ft). Its interior will come in either a 5- or 6-seater layout and would be certified to tow 2,000 kg. For its off-road capability, the vehicle will offer a wading depth of 900 mm. It will feature a side-opening tailgate, an external storage box, roof rack, and tow hook.

Stelato, according to the information shared on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo, will begin accepting preorders for the G9 starting at 2:30 pm Beijing Time on August 5. The SUV – with an optional rooftop camping tent – is expected to officially launch in the third quarter of 2026. Stelato G9, in addition to being the first with an integrated push-button rooftop tent, is also the brand’s first foray into the rugged off-road segment.

Stelato, an electric vehicle brand, operates under Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA), a collaboration between BAIC and Huawei. The latter provides a HarmonyOS-assisted autonomous driving system and LiDAR tech to manage the technology within the vehicle. The tent, which is also activated through the Huawei system onboard, is part of the sunroof assembly. When it’s not in use, the tent appears sitting flush against the roofline of the G9.

When the tent is deployed, the roof lifts from one side and extends into a two-part tent. The main triangular portion has a low front and tall back. A built-in lighting pole separates it from the smaller auxiliary tent that extends from the other side of the main structure. Reportedly, the roof tent also unlocks a side awning. It is also deployed using the same single button press as the tent itself. We do not have the exact pricing details at the moment, but reports suggest the Stelato G9 could start somewhere around $74,000. It is currently planned for the Chinese market only.

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Smart Rings Finally Got a Reason to Exist Beyond Sleep Tracking

The smart ring market has had a good run on heart rate and sleep tracking. Oura, Samsung Galaxy Ring, and their growing circle of competitors have made it genuinely useful to wear a small device on your finger all day. But if you’ve been waiting for wearable health tech to go deeper than pulse and REM cycles, engineers at UC San Diego may have just drawn the roadmap.

Their prototype, called CHARM (Continuous Health Analyzing Ring Module), doesn’t check your heart. It reads your sweat. Specifically, the microscopic amount of sweat that your fingers naturally produce throughout the day, no gym session required. Through a built-in osmotic hydrogel that draws moisture out passively, the ring collects and analyzes up to four chemical biomarkers at a time: glucose, ketones, vitamin C, uric acid, lactate, and alcohol. It then sends that data wirelessly to a smartphone.

Designer: UC San Diego engineers

That list of biomarkers is worth sitting with for a moment. Glucose and ketones tell you about your metabolic state and how your body is processing energy. Lactate relates to physical exertion and muscle activity. Uric acid is linked to inflammation and conditions like gout. Vitamin C reflects dietary intake. Alcohol levels speak for themselves. Getting any one of these readings from a non-invasive wearable is already impressive. Getting all of them simultaneously, continuously, and without drawing a single drop of blood, is something else entirely.

The research, published in Nature Communications and led by postdoctoral researcher Tamoghna Saha in the lab of Joseph Wang at UC San Diego, has already passed some important early tests. In trials with participants both with and without Type 1 diabetes, CHARM’s sweat-based glucose readings closely matched results from a standard continuous glucose monitor. Its ketone data similarly aligned with readings from a traditional blood meter. For a prototype, that’s a meaningful validation and a strong signal that the underlying science holds up outside of a lab setting.

What makes this feel like a genuine step forward, rather than just another research headline, is how clearly it names the gap in current wearable technology. As Saha put it, commercial rings only provide biophysical information but lack the molecular data that offers deeper insights into an individual’s health. That is a polite way of saying that knowing your resting heart rate is useful, but it doesn’t tell you whether you’re running low on vitamin C or how your body actually responded to what you ate for lunch.

The design challenge here is real, and I think it deserves more credit than the flashier headline about sweat gets it. Cramming accurate chemical sensors, a hydrogel layer, data processing, and wireless connectivity into a ring-shaped form factor is not a small engineering problem. The current prototype, which clamps around a finger, is still a long way from the slim, polished bands we’ve grown used to slipping on without thinking. Getting it there, while keeping the sensor accuracy intact and the battery life practical, will be the hard part. But that is exactly the kind of design and miniaturization problem that tends to get solved once the underlying science is proven. The history of consumer health tech is basically a series of “we figured out the science, now let’s make it wearable” moments.

The smart ring category has felt a little flat lately, if I’m being direct. The differences between most devices come down to software features and companion app design, not any fundamental leap in what they can actually detect. CHARM points toward a version of the smart ring that is genuinely measuring your body’s chemistry in real time, the kind of data that has historically required a clinic visit or a prescription-grade device. Putting that on a finger, passively, all day, changes what personal health monitoring can realistically mean.

It’s still early. CHARM is a prototype, the paper is fresh, and a consumer version is nowhere near announced. But the direction is right, and the science backs it up. If biochemical monitoring eventually becomes a standard feature of smart rings rather than a research novelty, this prototype will be one of the moments worth pointing back to.

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Chuwi Just Put a Real Performance Chip in a $469 Tote-Bag Laptop

Mini laptops have never quite shaken the reputation of being underpowered novelties. The appeal is undeniable: a real Windows laptop that slips into a small bag is genuinely useful for anyone who spends their days moving between locations. But the processors that typically power these tiny machines have struggled to keep up with even moderate workloads, which turns the form factor’s biggest selling point into a quiet disappointment.

The Chuwi MiniBook X U300 addresses that by pairing the same compact, 360-degree convertible format with Intel’s U300 processor, a 13th-generation Raptor Lake chip with five cores and a dedicated performance core at its center. That shift from the pure efficiency cores found in N100 and N150 machines delivers stronger single-core speed and better multitasking headroom, without meaningfully adding to the machine’s size, weight, or thermal footprint.

Designer: Chuwi

The 10.51-inch WUXGA display packs a 1920×1200 resolution into the compact chassis, with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 100% sRGB coverage. At 300 nits, it handles well-lit rooms comfortably and stays readable during extended sessions. The in-cell IPS touchscreen sits behind ultra-thin bezels, and the 360-degree hinge lets it shift between laptop, tablet, tent, and stand modes to suit whatever task is on the table.

That four-mode flexibility is where the touchscreen earns its keep most convincingly. In tablet mode, the screen becomes the only interface you need, making it natural for note-taking on the go. Flip it back partway for tent or stand mode during a presentation, and it becomes a display you can position toward an audience without spinning a full laptop around.

16GB of LPDDR4X memory and a 512GB PCIe SSD handle everyday tasks without hesitation, and the M.2 slot accepts PCIe 4.0 and SATA III drives if you decide to upgrade later. The Intel UHD Graphics runs 48 execution units, double the count found in earlier MiniBook X versions, which makes a noticeable difference for smooth 4K video playback and lighter creative workloads without switching to a dedicated card, or at least on paper.

Both USB-C ports are full-featured, handling charging, data transfer, and external display output from the same two connections. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of Thunderbolt compliance. A 3.5mm audio jack covers wired headphones, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 take care of wireless, and an active cooling system keeps temperatures under sustained loads without causing distracting fan noise. A 2MP front-facing webcam handles video calls, which is about what you’d expect from a machine this compact.

Unlike earlier MiniBook X models that shipped with Windows 11 Home, the U300 version comes pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro. That’s not a minor footnote: it means BitLocker encryption, remote desktop access, and other tools that the Home edition locks away are available right out of the box. For anyone who travels with sensitive documents or manages devices remotely, it’s a practical upgrade that earlier models didn’t include.

The whole package measures 244mm x 166.4mm x 17.2mm and tapers to 11mm at its thinnest, all wrapped in an aerospace-grade aluminum alloy unibody shell. At 920 grams, it disappears into a tote bag or slides under a seat without much thought. The 28.88 Wh battery charges at up to 36 W via USB-C, and the full-layout keyboard completes a package priced at $469.

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Khadas Just Made a $199 Amp That Snaps to Your iPhone Like a Wallet

Portable audio has long been a game of compromise. DAC dongles give you a modest step up from your phone’s built-in output, but connect anything more demanding than a pair of featherweight earbuds, and they start to run out of steam. Desktop amplifiers solve the power problem but chain you to a desk, a power outlet, and a bag heavy enough to make you think twice about bringing them anywhere.

The Khadas Tea Pro sits firmly in the space between those two options, offering enough amplification for serious headphones without the bulk or the cable tangle. At 7.85 mm thin and 96 grams, it genuinely disappears into a pocket, and its magnetic back panel snaps directly onto any iPhone 12 or later, turning your phone and DAC into a single, tidy unit that doesn’t need a pouch of its own.

Designer: Khadas

The connection is handled by 19 N56SH magnets, holding the Tea Pro against the back of the phone without straps or brackets. Android users and those with older iPhones can attach a magnetic ring to their case and get the same result. A premium wear-resistant leather panel covers the back, giving the device a tactile quality that’s a step removed from the usual plastic-and-aluminum DAC dongle aesthetic.

Inside, an ESS ES9039Q2M DAC chip works alongside an XMOS XU316 USB bridge for wired playback, delivering PCM up to 768kHz at 32-bit and DSD up to 512 native. The signal chain runs through TI OPA1612 op-amps and Ricore RT6863 amplifier chips, achieving a total harmonic distortion of -118 dB, a specification more at home in a studio rack than a 96-gram device that slips into a shirt pocket.

Both a 4.4mm balanced and a 3.5mm unbalanced output are on board, with the balanced jack putting out 165mW into 33 ohms and the unbalanced delivering 120mW. The Tea Pro also manages 41.67mW into 600 ohms, meaning even demanding full-size headphones with high impedance get a fully powered signal rather than an underpowered afterthought by a device that’s trying too hard to be small.

Wireless connectivity comes via a Qualcomm QCC5181 Bluetooth 5.4 chip that covers SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, and LDAC, keeping the Tea Pro compatible with virtually any device. The Khadas app adds a feature-rich equalizer that works over Bluetooth, letting you shape the sound to your taste without touching the hardware. There’s also a built-in microphone, so taking a call doesn’t require unplugging anything.

A 2100mAh battery supports up to 11 hours of wireless playback or just over eight hours wired, enough to outlast a full day of commuting without reaching for a charger. A 0.95-inch AMOLED color display on the front keeps output format, volume, and battery status visible at a glance, while independent power management keeps the battery from draining your phone when you aren’t connected to a power source.

Volume control runs through a dedicated analog chip rather than a software slider, keeping noise out of the signal path. The Tea Pro is priced at $199, which puts it well above the typical dongle but far below a battery-powered desktop DAC/amp that requires its own carrying case. For a device that fits in a jacket pocket and holds itself to the back of your phone, that’s a narrowing of the gap that’s hard to argue with.

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A BB Pod-Shaped CD Player Straight Out of Death Stranding

When Kojima Productions does something, it rarely feels like a simple product release. It feels like a statement. The new Instant Disc Audio Cp1 DEATH STRANDING 2 Model, a limited-edition wireless CD player made in official collaboration with Japanese audio brand km5, is proof of exactly that. It dropped on August 1, 2026, and it may be the most thoughtfully designed piece of gaming merchandise I’ve seen in years.

If you’ve played Death Stranding, you already know what a BB Pod is. If you haven’t, here’s the short version. BB stands for Bridge Baby, a term for an unborn infant kept alive inside a transparent life-support unit called a Pod, which serves as a supernatural navigation tool in the game’s hauntingly quiet, post-apocalyptic world. The Pod is one of Death Stranding’s most memorable visual symbols: eerie, delicate, and somehow deeply moving, a small glowing capsule that you cradle, protect, and come to care about over the course of the game. Turning that object into a CD player is either a stroke of genius or complete madness. I’m going with genius.

Designer: Kojima Productions x km5

The design is where this whole thing earns its price tag. The Cp1 features a translucent orange shell, and that’s not just for aesthetics. It lets you actually watch the disc spin and the internal mechanics move in real time. As someone who grew up watching cassette tapes wind through their spools, that level of visible mechanical action hits a very specific nostalgic nerve. The translucency echoes the BB Pod’s gel-filled, see-through casing, and it works so well that it almost feels like the CD player was always meant to look this way. It didn’t need Death Stranding to be beautiful, but the collaboration gave it a context that makes it feel intentional rather than just decorative.

The base Cp1 by km5 isn’t a new product. It’s been around for a while as a compact, Bluetooth-enabled CD player with a Nixie tube-style LED display and a wall-mount option that honestly makes it look more like modern furniture than consumer electronics. The Death Stranding 2 model takes that foundation and pushes it into collector territory. Priced at 25,300 yen, around $160, it connects via Bluetooth 5.3, runs for approximately 7 to 8 hours on a single charge, and notably doesn’t come with a built-in speaker. You’re meant to pair it with your own headphones or external audio setup, which keeps the device compact, sculptural, and true to its aesthetic. It’s not trying to be a Bluetooth boombox. It’s something much quieter and more considered than that.

The fact that this exists at all says something interesting about where we are with physical media right now. CD sales have been quietly climbing again, especially among younger audiences who want a more intentional, tactile way to listen to music. Vinyl gets most of the headlines, but CDs are genuinely having their own moment, and a device like this taps right into that energy. It gives you a reason to care about the format all over again, not just as a nostalgia trip, but as an object worth owning and displaying on a shelf next to your records.

The timing works in its favor, too. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launched earlier this year and carries forward everything the first game did best: gorgeous world-building, deeply strange storytelling, and a visual identity unlike anything else in gaming. Releasing this CD player alongside that cultural wave makes it feel like part of something larger, not a cash grab bolted onto a recognizable franchise. km5 and Kojima Productions clearly put thought into this, and the result reflects that. This isn’t just a piece of merch. It’s a collaboration that understood its source material well enough to let the design carry the story.

The Instant Disc Audio Cp1 DEATH STRANDING 2 Model is available directly through km5’s official website and at the KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS × PARCO GAMES STRAND STORE in Shibuya PARCO. Stock is limited, and if history tells us anything about Kojima collaborations, waiting around is usually the fastest way to miss out entirely.

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The 5 Best Tech Gifts for the Guy Who Thinks He’s Already Seen Everything in 2026

There’s a specific kind of person who is genuinely difficult to shop for. He already owns the good headphones, already upgraded the keyboard, already knows the spec sheet of whatever you’re about to suggest before you finish the sentence. The products that actually land with him aren’t better versions of things he already has. They’re objects that make him stop, turn it over in his hands, and ask a question he hasn’t thought to ask before. That’s the bar this list is built around.

Every pick here does something the category wasn’t supposed to do. A power bank thinner than a phone. A mouse that folds flat enough to slip into an envelope. A speaker you can see straight through while it plays. A notebook that records the room while you write in it. A handheld Linux computer that doubles as a keyboard for any machine on earth. Five gifts, five moments of genuine surprise, and a price range wide enough that none of them feel like settling.

1. piBrick Pocket-CM5

The piBrick Pocket-CM5 is the size of a smartphone and runs a full Linux desktop. Built from a custom PCB, a 3D-printed shell, and an open-source parts list that totals $172, it arrives at 80mm × 145mm × 19.6mm with a 3.92-inch AMOLED display running at 1080×1240 pixels, 90Hz, and 560 nits of brightness. A BBQ20 BlackBerry-style keyboard sits on the face, complete with an integrated trackpad, rotary encoders on the sides, and five user-programmable buttons. Asahi Tempered Glass covers the display, and a 5,000mAh battery keeps everything running without a desk.

The feature that makes it genuinely surprising lives in the USB stack. Plugging the piBrick into any external computer or server activates USB-HID mode, turning its keyboard and trackpad into a fully standalone input device, independent of the Linux system running underneath. A sysadmin arrives at a server rack without a spare keyboard. The piBrick already is one. Full-size and micro-HDMI outputs let the same device drive an external display. NVMe SSD support in 2230 and 2242 formats adds real storage headroom.

What we like

A full Linux machine that moonlights as a USB keyboard for any device on earth — two completely distinct, genuinely useful capabilities in smartphone dimensions
Built for significantly less than a budget phone, with an open-source design that belongs to anyone who wants to build on it

What we dislike

Building the piBrick requires sourcing parts and assembling the hardware yourself, which puts it out of reach for anyone not comfortable with a soldering iron
The $172 figure is the parts cost floor, not a retail price — the full build investment in time and effort needs to be factored in

2. OrigamiSwift Mouse

Horace Lam designed the OrigamiSwift around a single constraint: a Bluetooth mouse that collapses small enough to carry without thinking about it. Folded, it measures 0.18 inches thick and weighs 40 grams, lighter than most pens. Open, it becomes a full-sized working mouse in under half a second. The origami-inspired triangular structure gives the folded form real rigidity, so it holds its shape through actual work sessions rather than shifting on the desk after the first hour. The soft-click buttons keep things quiet in shared spaces, which turns out to be something you notice immediately.

The internals match the ambition of the form. A 4,000 CPI HD infrared sensor tracks at up to 4,000 frames per second, Bluetooth 5.2 pairs across Mac, Windows, Android, and iPadOS within a 32.8-foot wireless range, and a single USB-C charge delivers up to three months of use. That last figure is the one worth sitting with. Most wireless mice need charging every few weeks. The OrigamiSwift needs it roughly once a season.

Click Here to Buy Now: $85.00

What we like

Folds to 0.18 inches thick and weighs 40 grams — small enough to forget it’s in a bag until you actually need it
Three months of battery life on a single USB-C charge, which makes every other wireless mouse feel like a maintenance obligation

What we dislike

Stock is limited at the time of writing, so availability may not line up with gift timing
The 4,000 CPI ceiling may feel restrictive for anyone whose work involves precision-heavy creative or illustration workflows

3. Xiaomi UltraThin Magnetic Power Bank

The power bank category has been stuck in the same design rut for a decade. Bigger capacities, same uninspired bricks. Xiaomi broke that logic at MWC 2026 in Barcelona with a magnetic power bank measuring 6mm thick, thinner than any current smartphone on the market, including the iPhone 17. The 5,000mAh capacity is made possible by silicon-carbon battery chemistry with 16% silicon content, the same material science pushing next-generation electric vehicle batteries into smaller form factors. It weighs 98 grams. The aluminum alloy shell has a photolithographically etched logo on the back, and the phone-facing surface uses fire-resistant fiberglass with an excimer coating for heat management.

Wireless charging tops out at 15W when paired with the Xiaomi 17 series and 7.5W for iPhones via MagSafe. A USB-C port pushes 22.5W wired, and the bank charges two devices simultaneously. Ten layers of protection cover overvoltage, overcurrent, overheating, and short circuits, with dual NTC temperature sensors monitoring heat in real time.

What we like

At 6mm and 98 grams, it snaps magnetically to the back of a phone and disappears there — the first power bank in the category to make you genuinely forget you’re carrying one
Silicon-carbon battery chemistry packs 5,000mAh into a profile that has no business fitting that much capacity

What we dislike

The 7.5W cap on iPhones is an Apple MagSafe restriction rather than a Xiaomi design choice, but it still stings
US buyers will need to source it internationally for now, as domestic availability is unconfirmed at the time of writing

4. Huion Note E

Huion built the Note E to pass as a paper notebook from any angle. The sides are rigid to mimic the page block of a bound journal. The cover is PU leather with a felt lining on the inside. At exactly A5 proportions and 348 grams without the cover, it is the size and weight of an 80-page notebook. The 8.4-inch laminated LCD screen uses anti-glare nano-etching that Huion’s own reviewer describes as writing on smooth Japanese paper, with DC dimming over PWM to reduce the eye strain that builds across a long writing session. Turning it to the side, nothing about it reads as electronic.

What genuinely separates it from every other stylus tablet is a feature buried in the note-taking app. The Note E records audio while you write. Play it back later and the recording advances in sync with your handwriting reappearing on screen, line by line, exactly as it was written. Every word is anchored to the sound in the room at the moment it landed on the page. The included PW510 stylus is battery-free, offers 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity with tilt support, and attaches magnetically to the side of the device.

What we like

The audio-sync playback turns any page of notes into a timestamped recording — you can replay exactly what was being said in the room at the moment each line was written
The battery-free PW510 stylus with 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity is included, alongside a cover that genuinely looks like a premium leather journal

What we dislike

No microSD expansion means 128GB is the ceiling, which fills up faster than expected once drawing files enter the picture
The cover attachment mechanism feels less robust than a product at this price point should, with prongs that require a specific sliding motion to engage

5. MorningBlues SonicGlass A1

The MorningBlues SonicGlass A1 is a speaker most home audio brands would not have the confidence to make. The front face is a 21.5-inch TFT panel with over 90% light transmission, framed in black with the driver sitting fully visible behind the glass. When a song plays, licensed lyrics appear across the transparent surface in motion styles tuned to the track’s emotional character, a feature called MoodLyric, trained on hundreds of millions of playbacks with all lyrics licensed through LyricFind to properly credit the artists. The driver is not hidden. The mechanics are not disguised. The whole object is designed to be looked at.

A second layer called SceneSync generates AI visuals in real time matched to the genre playing, with pop, hip-hop, R&B, and rock each triggering distinct visual aesthetics on the glass. When the music stops, it shifts to ambient room mode: rotating backgrounds, a dynamic clock face, or an ASMR sleep display for winding down. A microphone turns it into a karaoke setup with live scrolling lyrics. The MorningBlues Music Hub 1 controller handles playback without involving a phone.

What we like

A transparent 21.5-inch display that animates licensed lyrics while the music plays and becomes ambient room art when it stops — the speaker category has needed something this committed to its own idea for a long time
SceneSync and MoodLyric together mean the visual experience is never the same twice, tuned in real time to the genre and emotional character of whatever is playing

What we dislike

At $646, the price is a meaningful ask for a product that hasn’t shipped yet

The Best Gifts Don’t Improve on What He Already Has – They Make Him Rethink the Category

What makes each of these worth picking is that none of them are better versions of something he already owns. The piBrick isn’t a better mini PC. The OrigamiSwift isn’t a better travel mouse. The Xiaomi power bank isn’t a higher-capacity brick. Each one rethinks the category assumption from the ground up, which is the only kind of product that genuinely surprises someone who already knows the market well and has largely stopped being surprised by it.

The price range runs from $85 to $646, which means there’s a real pick at every budget with no filler option anywhere in the list. Whether it’s the SonicGlass as the room’s defining object or the piBrick as the most interesting thing in a bag, each earns its place the way the best gifts do — by being something the person would never have bought for himself, but won’t want to give back.

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This $400 Tablet Comes With a Stylus, a Case, and Eyes That Don’t Hurt

Screen time on tablets has never been higher, but comfort hasn’t kept pace. Most tablet displays are still optimized for brightness and color gamut, with eye protection largely an afterthought or a toggle buried in settings. Reading long documents, annotating notes, or watching videos for hours on a typical panel can leave your eyes feeling the aftermath in ways that aren’t exactly encouraging.

TCL’s TAB A1 Plus NXTPAPER approaches that problem with something more deliberate than a simple blue-light filter. Built around the brand’s fourth-generation NXTPAPER display technology, it brings a large 12.2-inch 2.4K panel that combines seven integrated eye-comfort technologies, including Nano Crystal Shield Glass and an OmniSoft Light System, to more closely replicate the gentler, less fatiguing qualities of reading on paper.

Designer: TCL

The aspect ratio is worth noting too. At 3:2, the screen is taller than typical tablets, which means more of a document or webpage fits on screen without endless scrolling. That might sound like a minor detail until you’re cross-referencing notes during a study session or keeping track of multiple open documents across a long work afternoon. The adaptive 120Hz refresh rate keeps every interaction smooth throughout.

Switching between display modes is handled by the dedicated NXTPAPER Key, which cycles through paper-like and standard color modes without digging into settings menus. The 3-in-1 VersaView feature goes a step further, letting you pin specific apps to stay in full color while the rest of the interface remains in the easier-on-the-eyes paper mode. It’s a level of personalization that’s genuinely thoughtful.

NXTPAPER isn’t attempting to replicate E Ink or compete with dedicated e-readers on texture alone. It preserves the advantages of a conventional color display, including smooth video playback and vivid visuals, while adding the glare reduction and light softening that make extended reading sessions less punishing. The result is a screen that can move from a video stream to a study session without demanding any trade-off.

A suite of built-in AI tools handles the more tedious parts of daily work. Google Gemini and Circle to Search are onboard, alongside Writing Assist, Text Assist, a Smart Translator, and Smart Voice Memo. The tablet also runs Android 16 with Split Screen, Floating Windows, and Sidebar features built in, which means going from writing a draft to pulling research doesn’t require closing anything.

Under the hood, the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chip pairs with up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, expandable to 2TB via microSD. The 10,000mAh battery is large enough to carry through extended sessions without anxiety, and the 33W fast charging means a dead tablet doesn’t stay that way for long. The metal unibody keeps the whole package under 6.70mm thick.

The IP54-rated splash and dust resistance is a practical safeguard for a device that moves with you, and the build weighs in at 556 g. It comes in Aerolite Grey, and the box includes the tablet, a stylus, and a flip case, making the $399.99 asking price a fairly well-rounded deal for a package that doesn’t require additional accessories just to get started.

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KONKR Pocket Advance handheld is AYANEO’s modern take on the Game boy Advance

AYANEO leans towards Nintendo nostalgia more often than not for its handhelds, as we’ve seen in the past. The Flip DS and Pocket DS were their previous handhelds popular with the gaming community. Now they’re back at it with a Game Boy Advance-inspired device that’s released under the KONKR moniker as a part of the new REMAKE series. Some of the previous releases from the sub-brand include the KONKR Pocket Block AI  and the KONKR Fit.

Even the naming convention is a whole lot similar to the 32-bit horizontal handheld from 25 years ago, as the new gadget revealed by CEO Arthur Zhang at a livestream event is called the KONKR Pocket Advance. At the event, Zhang said, “The familiar silhouettes, unique button layouts, and exceptional control experiences together form the most precious memories of the golden age of gaming for a generation of players.”

Designer: AYANEO

It has a similar wide-body design language to the GBA for nostalgia and playing retro games in a 3:2 aspect ratio. However, the LCD display on this one is a little bigger, measuring 3.5 inches (compared to the 2.9-inch on the GBA) with an upgraded resolution of 960 x 640 (240×160) on the original. This means the original titles meant for the Game Boy Advance can be played with 4x pixel scaling, sans any distortion or artifacts during gameplay. The Shell of the handheld also gets a slight bump up to 5.96 x 3.24 x 0.87 inches, and weighs 224 grams as compared to the 140-gram GBA.

Pretty obviously, the handheld debuting decades after the Game Boy Advance is destined to have other upgrades as well. The KONKR Pocket Advance gets a full spectrum of ABXY buttons, extra shoulder clickers, and Menu buttons for better navigation. Other hardware additions come in the form of Wi-Fi 5.0, Bluetooth compatibility, a USB-C port, and a microSD card expansion slot. The retro nostalgia flows into the volume adjustment wheel and the inclusion of a 3.5 mm headphone jack. According to AYANEO, the handheld  isn’t just a replica from the past; rather, it “integrates modern product concepts and manufacturing techniques to breathe new life into retro aesthetics.”

There is no word yet about the other specifications like the processor or the battery configuration, nor the pricing and availability. That said, we should hear soon regarding those details from the maker. The only thing revealed so far is the two-color options: navy blue and coral orange, which look similar to the classic indigo and the spice orange version, respectively. We just hope that AYANEO produces a substantial number of the devices, as the Pocket Micro 2 released a couple of months ago sold out in mere minutes.

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Every single curve on this coffee dripper has a job, from preserving heat to guiding flow

Most coffee nerds can tell you the difference between a bean from Colombia and one from Ghana, or even one from Brazil, without hesitation. Some are arabica, some robusta, some carry caramel notes while others lean fruity, some taste gentler thanks to high-altitude growing conditions, while others pick up the character of the soil they’re grown in. Most coffee nerds can taste the difference between two cups brewed with two different beans. What they usually can’t do at a glance is look at two pour-over drippers and instantly tell how each design shapes the brewing process and, ultimately, the flavor in the cup. They obsess over coffee, and sometimes maybe even the device they brew the coffee in, but not everyone can identify the hidden engineering details that make your coffee maker do its job consistently.

The fun part is that JUNE wears all that engineering incredibly well. It has the clean, almost gallery-like silhouette of a countertop design object you’d actually want to leave out, but every part of that shape is secretly working double duty. The dual-wall vacuum body is there to stop heat from escaping mid-brew, the ceramic-coated interior keeps your coffee tasting like coffee instead of metal, and the 12 internal ribs are designed to manage filter contact and airflow with a surprising amount of precision. It’s the kind of thoughtful design that makes you realize some drippers are basically just bowls with ambition, hoping for the best. JUNE, on the other hand, tries to account for every unknown variable, make it known, and then control it obsessively to ensure that your brew is consistent to the point where it feels like science meets art meets coffee.

Designer: Shelbru

Click Here to Buy Now: $63 $99 (37% off). Hurry, only a few left!

Temperature is the variable most pour-over gear quietly ignores. Glass, ceramic, and single-wall steel drippers all absorb heat from brewing water rapidly, sometimes dropping the temperature by as much as 15-20°C in the first thirty seconds of a brew, which changes how compounds extract from the grounds and ultimately changes what ends up in the cup. Most people never realize it’s happening because the result is just a slightly flatter, slightly less interesting version of what the coffee could have been. JUNE’s double-wall vacuum structure builds a thermal barrier directly into the dripper itself, maintaining a more stable brewing environment from bloom to drawdown. Shelbru’s own testing showed JUNE holding within roughly 1-2°C of its starting brew temperature over four minutes, while glass and metal competitors dropped far more aggressively. The practical payoff is straightforward: you can dial in a recipe and actually repeat it, which sounds obvious but is genuinely harder than it should be with conventional gear.

The 12 concave ribs inside JUNE are doing more brewing work than they look like. Their primary job is holding the paper filter flush against the dripper wall, which reduces the gap through which water can slip around the coffee bed instead of through it, a problem that quietly leads to under-extracted, uneven cups. Between each rib, recessed air channels let pressure escape smoothly as water flows down, helping maintain a steadier, more controlled drawdown from start to finish. Then there’s the Aroma Flow outlet at the base, which centers and stabilizes the coffee stream as it exits the dripper, pointing it precisely where it needs to land. For people using a standard server, that’s a nice quality-of-life detail. For people pairing JUNE with ICOSA’s Avensi Cyclone, it becomes the entire point.

JUNE’s Aroma Flow outlet was designed with a specific destination in mind, and the Shelbru x ICOSA Avensi Cyclone is it. The Cyclone is a borosilicate glass sensory carafe featuring a raised Aroma Peak at its center, a form inspired by high-end wine decanters, which coffee cascades over as it drips from JUNE’s outlet, diffusing and magnifying aromatics into the air as it does. The Avensi Alto tasting cup extends that philosophy further, with an hourglass form and Aeration Waves geometry that amplify the aromatic complexity of each sip. Both pieces are handcrafted from borosilicate glass and designed to stack cleanly for storage. Together they push the serving and tasting half of the pour-over ritual well past what a standard mug typically offers.

The Shelbru Smart Canister handles everything that happens before the kettle even comes out. It’s a vacuum-sealed bean storage container with an automated pressure sensor that monitors internal conditions and reactivates vacuuming whenever pressure drops below -20 kPa, keeping beans in a stable, low-oxygen environment without any manual effort on your part. Press once to seal, press again to open, and the canister takes care of the rest. It holds 250 to 300 grams of roasted coffee, runs on a 1,500 mAh battery rated for around 4,000 hours of standby, and charges fully in three hours. For anyone who has bought genuinely excellent beans and then watched them go stale in a poorly sealed bag, this is the container that fixes that specific, recurring regret.

Swapping JUNE’s silicone base for a Hario Switch converts the entire setup to immersion brewing in seconds, giving you a different extraction profile from the same dripper body without buying a second piece of equipment. Pairing JUNE with Nucleus Paragon opens up rapid cooling and temperature-controlled experiments for brewers who want to get more technical about what’s in the cup. The detachable base makes JUNE feel like a platform rather than a fixed tool, one that grows with how seriously you decide to take this whole thing. For casual daily brewers, this is context they may never need. For the kind of person who already owns a precision kettle and a gram scale, this is where JUNE gets very interesting very fast.

JUNE starts at $63 for the single dripper, with the Fresh Brew Bundle pairing JUNE with the Smart Canister at $103. The Complete Aroma System, which brings together JUNE, the Avensi Cyclone, the Avensi Alto, and the Smart Canister, covers the full pour-over journey from bean storage to brewing to serving to tasting, and is priced at $137. Yanko Design readers get an exclusive deal on that Complete Aroma System at $135, against an MSRP of $235. The Cold Brew Bundle, which includes the Shelbru Brewer, Carafe, and Smart Canister, comes in at $83. Mass production is already underway with delivery expected in September 2026, and full details are available on the Kickstarter page below

Click Here to Buy Now: $63 $99 (37% off). Hurry, only a few left!

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