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Your Entire Steam Library Now Fits in a Game Boy-Sized Handheld

The Steam Deck modding community has taken Valve’s handheld gaming PC to some unexpected places. Modders have swapped in more RAM, loaded the hardware with terabytes of storage, and reshaped it in ways Valve never intended. Most of those efforts stay close to the original form factor, tweaking what’s already there without fundamentally changing what the device looks like or how compact it is.

The SteamBoy goes much further. Someone took the actual working internals of a Steam Deck LCD, pulled them out of the original shell, and rebuilt everything inside a 3D-printed chassis roughly the size of an original Game Boy. The form factor shifts from the Steam Deck’s wide, horizontal layout to a tall, vertical one, running entirely on genuine Steam Deck hardware without any custom-made components.

Designer: PhyFawkes

The parts at the heart of the build include the Steam Deck’s motherboard, battery, speakers, and all of the original button hardware. Getting these into a much smaller enclosure without custom-designed circuit boards is the notable achievement here. No bespoke PCBs were needed for the core assembly, which means everything is essentially the same Steam Deck hardware, just rearranged to fit a dramatically different shell.

The display is where things get more involved. Rather than reusing the original Steam Deck screen, the planned replacement is a 1200×1080 AMOLED panel at 90 Hz, originally made for VR headsets. Making it work requires a custom adapter PCB between the panel and the motherboard, which is still in progress. In the meantime, the current demo routes output through a television rather than displaying on the device itself.

What the demo does confirm is that the hardware runs. Plug it into a display and the Steam Deck’s full library is available, complete with its familiar interface, game compatibility, and controls. The face buttons, D-pad, and thumbsticks carry over from the original hardware, giving it the full input range of a Steam Deck inside a body that fits the silhouette and spirit of a Game Boy.

The tighter enclosure does come with trade-offs. Cramming full Steam Deck internals into a chassis this compact raises real concerns about thermal management, since the original design already runs warm under load. The shell is noticeably thicker than a vintage Game Boy as a result, a reasonable concession given what’s packed inside. Cooling and battery longevity under sustained use remain open questions for the build to address.

The SteamBoy is still a work in progress, somewhere between a proof of concept and a finished handheld. The screen situation alone involves a custom PCB that hasn’t been built yet, and getting it to a polished state requires further refinement of the enclosure and its internal arrangement. A teardown video documenting how everything fits together has since followed the original reveal, showing that the assembly is at least replicable.

There’s something telling about why a project like this resonates with people beyond the usual modding community. The Steam Deck is already a capable handheld gaming PC, but the idea of that same power in a Game Boy-sized body carries a different kind of appeal. It’s the same feeling that made the Game Boy endure for decades, distilled into something that can run a modern PC library.

The post Your Entire Steam Library Now Fits in a Game Boy-Sized Handheld first appeared on Yanko Design.

This solar-powered ambulance brings medical care to remote communities without relying on the grid

Stella Juva has the proportions of a futuristic ambulance, but its most interesting feature is what happens when it stops. Instead of simply waiting to transport a patient, this solar-powered vehicle can turn into a self-sufficient medical facility wherever it arrives.

Developed by 23 students from Eindhoven University of Technology as part of Solar Team Eindhoven, Stella Juva is designed for communities where hospitals can be hours away and access to reliable electricity and fuel can be limited. Its role is not only to get medical workers from one place to another, but to bring the equipment and energy needed to provide care with them.

Designer: Solar Team Eindhoven

The vehicle’s body is covered with 542 solar cells, turning much of its exterior into an energy-generating surface. Electricity from the panels is stored in a 50-kWh battery, which powers both the vehicle and the medical equipment inside. Under favorable sunny conditions, Stella Juva can travel up to 444 miles on paved roads, with a top speed of 74 mph. The battery also gives the ambulance a degree of independence from immediate sunlight. When the vehicle is parked at a remote location, stored energy can keep its medical systems running after sunset or when solar generation drops. That is particularly useful for a vehicle intended to operate in places where plugging into a dependable electrical grid may not be an option.

Inside, Stella Juva is equipped more like a compact mobile clinic than a conventional ambulance. Its equipment includes a defibrillator, portable X-ray and ultrasound systems, blood-testing equipment, and a refrigerator for vaccines. This allows healthcare workers to carry out examinations and provide medical assistance on location instead of relying entirely on a long trip to a hospital. The idea builds on Solar Team Eindhoven’s previous experiments with solar-powered mobility. The team created Stella Vita, a solar-powered motorhome designed to combine travel and off-grid living, followed by Stella Terra, an off-road solar vehicle developed to handle rough terrain. Stella Juva takes the same focus on energy efficiency and pushes it toward a more practical application, where every watt generated by the vehicle can support both mobility and healthcare.

Its next stage will take the prototype out of controlled testing and into the real world. Solar Team Eindhoven plans to test Stella Juva in Kenya in collaboration with Amref Health Africa. The trials will put its solar-electric system, medical equipment, range, and ability to cope with local road and operating conditions to the test. Stella Juva is not intended to replace every conventional ambulance. Instead, it explores what an emergency vehicle could become when it is designed around places where infrastructure cannot always be relied upon.

The post This solar-powered ambulance brings medical care to remote communities without relying on the grid first appeared on Yanko Design.

People Are Putting This $3,000 Toilet on Their Wedding Registry

The toilet is one of those objects we use every single day, and yet it has somehow remained completely untouched by the design revolution sweeping through every other corner of our homes. We’ll spend hours agonizing over sofa fabrics and kitchen tiles, losing sleep over the perfect pendant light, and debating grout colours as if our lives depend on it. But the toilet? That’s just functional. It’s white. It flushes. It hides in a corner and we try not to think about it too much. At least, that used to be the prevailing attitude.

Hugo Volpei had a very different idea. The French entrepreneur founded Trone in 2018 after a visit to Sketch, the legendary London restaurant known for its surreal, egg-pod bathroom interiors. Despite the theatrical setting, Volpei noticed the toilets themselves were still the same generic white fixtures you’d find in any ordinary home. It struck him immediately as a missed opportunity, and from that moment, he became fixated on a question most people had never thought to ask: why hasn’t anyone actually designed the toilet?

Designer: Hugo Volpei

Eight years later, Trone operates in around 30 countries, sells close to 3,000 toilets annually, and has done something that feels genuinely rare in consumer goods: created an entirely new product category. These aren’t toilets with a fresh coat of paint or a few extra features bolted on. They’re sculptural objects, made with the same intentionality you’d give to fine furniture, and offered in bold colours, unexpected finishes, and silhouettes that feel closer to art installations than to anything you’d typically find in a bathroom catalogue.

The models themselves are worth lingering on. Icone01 features a striking transparent water tank that stands tall behind the bowl like a glass column, using just three litres per flush. Callipyge has a beautifully rounded, almost architectural form that completely shifts the mood of any bathroom it occupies. Altesse, the smart toilet, has lines so refined it barely registers as a toilet at all. The most recent addition, simply called The Throne, replaces the traditional boxy shape with a tear-drop silhouette and a sliding door that makes the whole thing feel like a piece of furniture. Each piece is produced alongside French and Italian craftsmen, which explains both the remarkable level of finish and the premium price point, and gives Trone a coherent design identity that feels genuinely earned rather than simply claimed.

I appreciate that Volpei never tried to rebrand the toilet as something more palatable. He didn’t call it a “wellness station” or bury the product under layers of vague lifestyle marketing. He simply looked at a deeply neglected object and asked why it couldn’t also be beautiful. There’s a refreshing directness to that logic, and it’s one that resonates well beyond the design community. The idea that a toilet could hold its own in a design conversation, let alone lead it, should have seemed like a stretch. With Trone, it doesn’t.

Perhaps the strongest evidence that Trone has genuinely shifted how people think is this: some customers are now adding Trone toilets to their wedding registries and Christmas wish lists. Volpei describes this as “probably the greatest achievement of all,” and it’s hard to argue. Getting people to genuinely want a toilet as a gift requires a fundamental shift in cultural perception, and building that shift from scratch, with no existing market to reference, takes real conviction.

Trone’s clientele now spans restaurants, hotels, and hospitality groups across Europe, including names like Big Mamma and Paris Society. This makes complete sense. A beautifully designed toilet in a well-considered restaurant bathroom is exactly the kind of unexpected detail people photograph and talk about later. Volpei calls the product “an experience,” which sounds almost absurd in this context, until you remember that people are genuinely requesting these for birthdays and anniversaries. The toilet was always going to have its design moment. It just took someone stubborn enough to believe that no object is too humble to be worth caring about.

The post People Are Putting This $3,000 Toilet on Their Wedding Registry first appeared on Yanko Design.

Why London’s 2025 Campus Design Was Built for Hedgehogs

Most of us move through cities without thinking too hard about who else lives there. We navigate subway systems, dodge scooters, queue for coffee, and rarely stop to consider that the concrete corridors we’ve built are, for many species, an impassable wall. Designer and landscape architect Fengyi Wu is thinking about that wall, and her project, Urban Living Library: Reclaiming the Hedgehog Habitat, is one of the more quietly radical ideas to come out of landscape architecture in a while.

The project started as a design research thesis at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and was developed for the UCL Bloomsbury Campus in London. It went on to win First Prize at the IFLA Europe 2025 Student and Young Professionals Awards, which is notable, but the idea itself is what deserves the spotlight.

Designer: Fengyi Wu

Wu chose the hedgehog as a “flagship species” to guide the entire design strategy. That choice is deliberate and clever. Hedgehogs are not particularly glamorous animals, but they are a useful ecological indicator. They need connected green corridors to move, forage, and survive in cities. When the hedgehog population thrives, it generally means the broader urban ecosystem is in better shape. So instead of designing for the most charismatic species or the most aesthetically pleasing outcome, Wu anchored her vision in something humble, specific, and measurable.

The result is a masterplan that reimagines a university campus as a living ecological library, an environment where biodiversity is not tucked away in a corner garden but woven into the actual spatial experience of the place. Dense planting, wildlife shelters, rainwater landscapes, and sheltered community gathering spaces are arranged into a sequence that creates ecological corridors across the campus. The idea is that people and wildlife move through the same landscape in overlapping but coexisting rhythms.

What strikes me about this is that it reframes what a university campus is for. Classrooms generate knowledge, but they keep it contained. This project argues that the landscape itself can be a form of pedagogy, one you absorb just by sitting outside, watching water collect in a moss garden, or noticing which insects show up after a redesigned planting scheme. Outdoor learning, community observation, and direct encounters with nature become part of campus life without requiring any formal instruction. The library metaphor works because the information is there, available to everyone. You just have to look.

Urban biodiversity is often framed as a luxury problem, something cities will address once they’ve sorted housing, transport, and economic inequality. I understand that framing, but I think it undersells the point. Green corridors and habitat connectivity are infrastructure. They manage rainwater, regulate temperature, support pollinators that urban food systems quietly depend on, and improve the mental health of the people who live near them. Building them now, thoughtfully, is cheaper and more effective than retrofitting a city that has been built in complete indifference to them. Wu’s project is a proof of concept for that kind of thinking at a campus scale.

It’s also worth noting that the hedgehog is in actual trouble. British hedgehog populations have declined sharply over the past few decades, and fragmented urban habitats are a significant part of the problem. Roads, walls, and manicured lawns create dead ends for animals that need to travel several kilometers each night to feed. The Urban Living Library doesn’t treat the hedgehog as a mascot. It treats it as a co-resident of the city whose needs are legitimate, even when they conflict with our instinct to pave, mow, and tidy.

The most meaningful design ideas tend to be the ones that shift how you see something you thought you already understood. After spending time with Wu’s project, I haven’t been able to look at an empty patch of campus lawn the same way. Every manicured strip between buildings starts to read as a missed opportunity, a corridor that could be doing something, supporting something, connecting something. That’s the kind of design thinking that deserves to travel beyond architecture school walls.

The post Why London’s 2025 Campus Design Was Built for Hedgehogs first appeared on Yanko Design.

The World’s Slimmest Power Station (2.6″) Was Built for Your Fridge

Backup power is one of those things most people don’t think about until they absolutely have to. You lose electricity during a storm, open the fridge out of habit, and then spend the next few days doing an anxious mental calculus on whether the leftovers are still safe to eat. It’s a frustratingly universal experience, and for all the innovation happening in home tech right now, it’s remarkable how little of it was pointed directly at the refrigerator. Jackery apparently noticed that gap too.

The FridgeGuard is a dedicated refrigerator backup battery, and the first thing that sets it apart is how thoroughly it was designed for the space it actually occupies. At just 2.6 inches thick and weighing around 23 pounds, Jackery calls it the world’s slimmest power station. Visually, you believe it. It looks less like industrial equipment and more like something an architect might quietly approve for a kitchen renovation. You can mount it on the wall behind your fridge, prop it vertically beside it, or lay it flat on top. That flexibility isn’t a minor feature; it’s a design decision that understands most people are not trying to add a bulky, yellow generator to their kitchen aesthetic.

Designer: Jackery

The technical side is where it gets genuinely interesting. The FridgeGuard runs on a 1,024Wh battery capacity and delivers power through a single 110V outlet, which sounds limiting until you remember this thing exists for one appliance and one appliance only. It delivers up to 1,600 watts of compressor-ready power, which is exactly what you need for a refrigerator’s startup surge. Jackery calls their system FridgeSafe Technology, and it covers the practical details: a switchover time of under 10 milliseconds so your fridge doesn’t even notice the grid went down, a Delay Start to protect the compressor, and surge protection built right in. Standard runtime is estimated at around 15 hours on a full charge, which doubles to roughly 30 hours if you pair it with the optional expansion battery that brings total capacity to 2,048Wh.

The lifespan claim is the detail that sticks with me. The battery cells are rated for 6,000 cycles, which Jackery projects translates to up to 16 years of use while retaining 70% of capacity. For context, most portable power stations don’t come close to that kind of longevity. It reframes the FridgeGuard from being a reactionary purchase after a bad storm to a genuine long-term home investment. That shift in positioning matters, and it’s the kind of thinking that tends to change who buys into a product category.

Cold weather performance deserves a mention too, especially for people in northern climates, remote cabin owners, RV users, or anyone planning to store the unit in an unheated garage. The FridgeGuard can both charge and discharge at temperatures as low as -20°C, a spec that puts it well ahead of many competitors that restrict operation in colder conditions. For a product meant to function year-round in unpredictable situations, that’s a more meaningful detail than it might initially seem.

Is it perfect? Not entirely. The single AC outlet means if you need to run anything else alongside your fridge during an outage, you’re out of luck. And since an average full-sized refrigerator draws roughly 1,300Wh per day, the standard battery alone won’t cover a full 24 hours without the expansion add-on. These are real constraints worth knowing before you buy.

But the bigger picture here is that Jackery figured out something the home backup industry has been surprisingly slow to grasp: people want solutions that fit their lives, not ones they have to build their lives around. The FridgeGuard doesn’t just solve a problem; it does it in a way that respects the space it lives in. That combination of smart form, solid function, and genuine forward-thinking is exactly the kind of product design worth paying attention to, whether you’re in the market for one or not.

The post The World’s Slimmest Power Station (2.6″) Was Built for Your Fridge first appeared on Yanko Design.

5 Japanese Pens & Notebooks So Beautifully Made You’ll Never Want to Type Again

There is a specific quality to well-made Japanese stationery that is difficult to name and easy to recognize. It is not about price or brand recognition. It is the sense that the object was designed by someone who used a pen every single day and got quietly frustrated with everything that did not work right about existing options. That frustration, refined into object form, is what separates Japanese stationery from what fills the rest of the market.

The five pieces here cover different parts of a writing practice: what you write in, what you write with, how your tools sit on your desk, and the one object that turns the act of putting a pen down into something worth watching. None are flashy. None announce themselves with features. What they share is a commitment to getting one specific thing exactly right, which is the design logic Japan has always understood better than anyone else producing stationery today.

1. Inseparable Notebook Pen

The Inseparable Notebook Pen begins with a problem every notebook user has encountered and simply accepted: the pen is never where the notebook is. These two are designed as a single unit. A magnetic clip system holds the pen flush against the cover with a precise, silent click, leaving no visual noise on the notebook’s exterior. When you reach for your notebook, the pen arrives with it, and the act of writing becomes one motion instead of two.

Beyond the mechanism, the design restraint throughout is the thing worth paying attention to. The pen body sits at a diameter that feels balanced in the hand without being engineered for drama. The attachment is strong enough to remain secure across a full day of carrying while remaining easy to retrieve mid-thought. For anyone who writes by hand regularly, this pairing restructures the small rhythms of the day without ever announcing itself. Tools that work this quietly are, by a significant margin, the ones worth keeping.

Click Here to Buy Now: $19.95

What we like

The magnetic attachment sits completely flush with the cover, adding nothing visible to the notebook’s exterior
One-motion retrieval removes the small interruption between thinking and writing

What we dislike

The pen works best paired with specific notebook covers, so testing compatibility with a preferred journal before committing is worthwhile
Cartridge replacement requires sourcing a compatible format rather than any standard refill

2. Stalogy Editor’s Series 365 Days Notebook A6

The Stalogy 365 Days Notebook carries no branding on its exterior. Just a clean cover and a precisely placed spine. Inside, 368 pages of cream-toned dot grid paper sit light enough that the notebook does not feel precious, yet substantial enough to last a full year of daily use. At A6, it fits a coat pocket without folding or flexing. That combination, nothing decorative on the outside and nothing wasted inside, is the brief Japanese stationery executes better than anyone.

The dot grid is subtle enough to disappear under handwriting but present enough to keep lines honest across a full page of notes. Minimal page markings give the notebook equal footing for structured planning, freeform writing, and quick sketches without any of those uses feeling like a compromise. For anyone carrying a notebook every day, the Stalogy provides the space and steps aside, which turns out to be the more useful and respectful approach any planner could take.

What we like

The bare cover carries no visual identity, making it entirely the user’s object rather than a brand’s
368 pages at A6 gives a full year of writing without adding meaningful bulk to a carry

What we dislike

Date and time markings are printed small, making them difficult to read in low light or at a glance
Heavier fountain pen inks will ghost through the thin paper, limiting compatibility for dedicated nib users

3. Sailor 1911 Casual L Stable Fountain Pen

Sailor has been producing fountain pens in Japan since 1911, and the 1911 Casual L Stable, winner of the 2026 Japan Stationery Awards Fountain Pen category, represents what 115 years of that practice produces when the brief is balance over spectacle. The metal grip section sits low on the body, shifting the center of gravity toward the nib end. The result is a pen that writes with less deliberate effort, where the hand guides rather than grips across a page.

The 14k gold nib is the argument. Gold nibs flex slightly under the pressure of each stroke, returning to their original position in a way that steel nibs do not, and that quality is what writing enthusiasts describe as the nib feeling alive. For anyone who writes regularly by hand, a quality fountain pen changes the experience in a way that is difficult to reverse. The 1911 Casual L Stable is the specific pen that makes returning to anything else feel like a visible step backward.

What we like

The metal grip section lowers the center of gravity toward the nib, making sustained writing sessions measurably less tiring
The 14k gold nib’s flex produces a writing experience that steel nibs at any price point cannot replicate

What we dislike

Fountain pen ownership requires maintenance, including regular cleaning and occasional nib adjustment, which first-time users should factor into the decision
The pen performs best with Sailor inks for optimal flow, which means an additional purchase for those starting out

4. Levitating Pen 3.0

Most pens are designed to disappear into the background of your workday. The Levitating Pen 3.0 operates from an entirely different premise. Built from aerospace-grade aluminum, titanium, and brass, it hovers one inch above its base at a 60-degree angle, bobbing gently and spinning for up to 30 seconds when twisted. That behavior changes the ritual of writing before you have even picked it up. Reaching for a pen that genuinely rewards the act of reaching for it is something else entirely.

It still writes. A rollerball with a Schmidt cartridge, a fountain pen with a fine 0.5mm nib, or a 2-in-1 that lets you swap between both. The floating posture gets your attention. The ink earns it over time. The original design took its angle from Earth’s axial tilt at 23.5 degrees, a philosophical decision into a physical object. The 3.0 revises that to 60 degrees with a taller pedestal, giving the levitation the visual room it was always building toward.

Click Here to Buy Now: $129.00

What we like

The magnetic levitation base holds the pen visibly above the desk, making it a display object worth having when it is not being used
Available as a rollerball, fountain pen, or 2-in-1, so the writing experience can match personal preference without changing the design

What we dislike

At $129, the value sits in the full object and its desk presence rather than the writing instrument alone
The levitating base requires a charged surface to function, adding a power dependency that standard pen stands do not have

5. Midori MD Notebook A5

Midori developed MD Paper for one specific purpose: to write on it. The result handles fountain pen ink without feathering into surrounding fibers. Gel pens do not bleed through to the reverse side. Fine-liners hold their edge rather than spreading at the tip. That consistency across pen types removes the constraint of choosing your tools around your paper, which is a trade-off most notebook users have been making without realizing it was ever a trade-off to begin with.

Thread binding holds the quires together and allows the notebook to open completely flat from the first page to the last, with no resistance pulling the spread closed mid-writing. The same paper runs across the cover, endpapers, and text block, a material consistency most notebooks do not consider worth pursuing. A glassine wrapper protects the exterior.

What we like

MD Paper’s compatibility across fountain pens, gel pens, and fine-liners removes the need to choose tools around paper constraints
Thread binding allows 180-degree flat opening from the first to the last page, eliminating the resistance glue-bound notebooks create mid-spread

What we dislike

The cream-toned paper suits most writing but does not work for illustrators who need a bright white surface for accurate color reference
The glassine cover wrapper shows handling wear with heavy daily use and offers less protection than synthetic or hardcover alternatives

Once You Write With the Right Tools, Going Back Isn’t Really an Option

Japanese stationery earns its reputation not through marketing but through the accumulated weight of small decisions made correctly. Paper that accepts ink without complaint. A pen that arrives with your notebook without asking. A tool that makes picking it up feel like choosing something. None of these are dramatic accomplishments. Together they remove the friction between a thought and its written form, which turns out to be the only friction worth engineering against.

The best reason to write by hand is that the right objects make it feel worth doing. These five make that case without effort. A desk set up with tools this considered starts to function differently, not because the objects are precious, but because they remove the small interruptions that accumulate across a working day. Once you are used to that standard, returning to tools that merely function becomes a visible and permanent downgrade.

The post 5 Japanese Pens & Notebooks So Beautifully Made You’ll Never Want to Type Again first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ex-McLaren Designers Just Built a $130,000 Carbon Fiber Chair

Luxury furniture has long borrowed the language of high-performance design without much of the substance behind it. Carbon fiber panels get applied as surface decoration, automotive references appear in product copy as shorthand for precision, and racing-inspired silhouettes turn up on lounge chairs. The materials may occasionally be genuine, but the engineering thinking behind them rarely makes the trip from one industry to the other.

Ennua’s Element 01 takes a different position. The people behind it didn’t simply borrow from the automotive world. They came from it directly, having spent years shaping supercars including the McLaren Speedtail, Elva, and W1. The Element 01 isn’t furniture dressed up in engineering language. It’s the result of applying actual supercar design methodology to a seating object, starting from materials and working outward.

Designers: João Dias and Patrick Carton

The first thing Element 01 does well is refuse to announce itself. Walk into a room with it, and it doesn’t immediately read as a chair, a sculpture, or a piece of furniture. That ambiguity is deliberate. The design prioritizes silhouette and proportion the way a supercar does, making the form something to encounter before it’s understood. It takes a second look before the seating function even registers.

The structure is built from carbon fiber, the same material used on high-performance cars for its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio. The carbon frame can reportedly withstand loads equivalent to around 2,000 kg, more structural assurance than any home seating has any practical need for. Layered over it are automotive-grade leathers chosen for texture and durability, and precision-machined metal components that bring a jeweler’s precision to every connection.

Several named configurations are available, each built around a specific combination of carbon finish, leather tone, and metallic accent. Options like Abyss, Aurora, and Ruler’s Solace suggest a naming sensibility closer to bespoke watchmaking than furniture retail. Each variant is treated as a distinct piece rather than a colorway, making the Element 01 more akin to a collector’s commission than an item that ships from a warehouse.

Ennua positions the Element 01 for private residences and architectural landmarks rather than conventional retail environments, which says something about its intended context. Sit in one, and it functions as a chair. Stand across the room, and it reads as something else entirely, a deliberate quality shared by the cars that influenced it. Most objects are content to be one thing, while this one insists on being at least two.

Element 01 is described as only the opening move for the brand, which already has the next five years of products planned, hinting at everything from audio equipment to fitness gear and a possible return to automotive design. The ambition is to never become known simply as a furniture brand. Every future object is expected to carry the same logic of function and sculptural presence as the chair.

The Element 01 is priced at around $130,000, placing it in the territory of bespoke timepieces and limited-edition automotive commissions rather than furniture purchases. It costs as much as a well-optioned sports car, and that comparison isn’t accidental. It’s built like one, designed with the same tools, and asks to be treated with the same regard that most people reserve for things with four wheels and not four legs.

The post Ex-McLaren Designers Just Built a $130,000 Carbon Fiber Chair first appeared on Yanko Design.

Dental Floss Finally Got the Premium EDC Upgrade It Always Deserved

Everyday carry culture has done something interesting to the way we think about the small objects in our pockets. Lighters, pens, and multi-tools have long been redesigned with premium materials, tighter tolerances, and better finishes. Oral care, however, hasn’t really gotten the same treatment. Most dental accessories are still disposable, plastic, and designed to be forgotten the moment they’ve served their purpose.

That’s what makes TiFloss from TIKZER feel like a timely idea. Rather than treating flossing as something that happens strictly over a bathroom sink, it takes the whole experience outdoors, into pockets, bags, and keychains. It’s a compact, all-metal floss tool built for daily carry and repeated use, and it makes a decent case that oral care doesn’t have to be tied to one room of the house.

Designer: TIKZER

Click Here to Buy Now: $48 $67 (29% off). Hurry, 41/200 left! Raised over $73,000.

The construction is deliberately premium. The folding frame is made from Grade 5 titanium, the body from aluminum alloy, and the floss spool from stainless steel. Each material has a purpose: the titanium resists corrosion, the aluminum keeps weight manageable, and the stainless steel spool holds tension reliably across multiple refills. At 59.3g and 62mm long when closed, it fits comfortably alongside a set of keys.

The value becomes clearest after a meal away from home. Getting food stuck between your teeth at lunch, on a flight, or during a long commute is a small frustration that usually goes unresolved because the right tool isn’t nearby. TiFloss is designed specifically for those moments. Its enclosed folding design keeps the floss head protected while it sits in a pocket or bag.

Refilling it is straightforward once you get the hang of it. The magnetic spool detaches from the body, letting you wind on a fresh length of floss and snap it back in place. A retention groove keeps everything taut during use, and it works with a range of floss types, including PTFE, flat, and expanding varieties, so there’s no need to hunt for proprietary refills.

What this also means is that the tool itself doesn’t get thrown away after a single use. Most disposable floss picks last a few minutes before ending up in a bin, but TiFloss is built to stay in rotation for years. A quick rinse is enough to keep it clean between uses, and its all-metal construction handles water and everyday wear without any special care required.

There’s also something to be said for how it feels to use it. The frame pivots on a precision ball-bearing system, and a magnetic detent mechanism creates a satisfying click at the end of each rotation. It’s the kind of tactile feedback that makes an unremarkable task feel slightly more considered, and it’s part of what gives TiFloss a natural crossover appeal among EDC enthusiasts.

That crossover makes sense given how the product is sized and carried. At just 12.4mm thick and shorter than most key fobs, it attaches to a keyring, drops into a jacket pocket, or disappears into a bag without adding bulk. TIKZER offers it in orange, black, and green, which keeps the aesthetic grounded without feeling sterile, and gives it enough personality to feel like a deliberate choice.

There’s something quietly satisfying about an object that does exactly what it promises without making a fuss about it. TiFloss doesn’t ask you to change your flossing method or adopt a new routine. It simply makes the tool smaller, better built, and easier to have nearby whenever a meal ends somewhere other than home. For something as mundane as oral care, that’s a genuinely useful shift.

Click Here to Buy Now: $48 $67 (29% off). Hurry, 41/200 left! Raised over $73,000.

The post Dental Floss Finally Got the Premium EDC Upgrade It Always Deserved first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Rooftop Tent Has a Skylight, a Ladder, LED Lighting, and deploys with a button.

Most rooftop tents still act like tents. You climb in, you’re surrounded by fabric, you sleep, you leave. The Sky Cruiser is going for something a little different, it wants to feel like a room you happen to be sleeping in above your truck, complete with a skylight and windows doing the job curtains and walls usually do back home.

That shift in identity starts the moment you arrive at camp, honestly, because you barely have to lift a finger to get there. The X-frame construction pops open and locks in place in seconds, no wrestling with poles or praying the wind cooperates. Once it’s up, the GlowRail lighting kicks in after dark like a little mood setting feature, and the SkyHold storage keeps your gear from turning the place into chaos. It’s less “put up a tent” and more “open a room with a very good view.”

Designer: Cinch Outdoors

The skylight is doing most of the emotional labor here, and it earns the attention. Instead of a fabric ceiling that separates you from the sky, Cinch swapped in a clear panel that turns your bedtime routine into a low-key planetarium show. Pair that with the panoramic side windows and you’ve basically got a tent with no bad seats. It’s a small architectural decision with a big payoff, since most rooftop tents treat the view as a bonus you get through a mesh door, not the whole point of the design.

Getting up there is handled by the WideTrak ladder, which telescopes out in one motion and locks with a click, so you’re not fumbling with separate rungs at 9pm with a headlamp between your teeth. Once you’re inside, ThermaSoft flooring and a high-density foam mattress do the unglamorous but essential work of keeping the whole setup comfortable regardless of season. None of this is flashy on its own. What’s smart is how Cinch bundled it together so the tent doesn’t just look good in photos, it actually holds up once you’re lying in it at 2am wondering why you forgot a blanket.

Cinch isn’t new to the instant setup game, which is worth mentioning briefly before we move on. Their Air Cruiser leaned on an inflatable Air Frame to get you from flat pack to full tent in minutes, no poles required. The Sky Cruiser swaps that approach for a mechanical X-frame instead, trading the pump for a fold and lock system that holds its shape in rough weather without needing air pressure to stay rigid. Different mechanism, same obsession with cutting the setup time down to almost nothing.

At $4,999, the Sky Cruiser is planting itself firmly in premium territory, right alongside tents like the Thule Widesky that treat rooftop camping as a lifestyle upgrade rather than a budget workaround. That price buys you a hardshell that survives rough weather, a skylight that makes stargazing effortless, and enough small conveniences (the ladder, the lighting, the storage) that the whole experience feels considered rather than cobbled together. Whether it’s worth it depends entirely on how much you value showing up at a campsite and doing almost nothing before the best part of the night starts. For a certain kind of camper, that’s not a luxury. That’s the entire pitch.

The post This Rooftop Tent Has a Skylight, a Ladder, LED Lighting, and deploys with a button. first appeared on Yanko Design.

iPhone Ultra Leak Confirms the $2,000 Device Might Ship Without a Zoom Lens

Apple’s foldable iPhone is shaping up to be the most expensive iPhone in the company’s history, and possibly the first flagship in years to skip a lens. Fresh leaks point to camera covers in silver and a blue so dark it practically photographs as black, plus a module with four cutouts crammed into a space that thin. Two lenses, a flash, and a LiDAR scanner, all fighting for room on a phone that’s supposedly under 5mm thick when unfolded.

Squeeze a foldable hinge, a huge inner screen, and a battery big enough to survive the day into that body, and something has to give. Rumor has it the telephoto lens is the sacrifice. Meanwhile, the volume buttons got exiled to the top edge because apparently there was nowhere left on the sides to put them. For two grand, Apple’s asking you to zoom with your feet.

Image Credits: Sonny Dickson

The camera cover leak traces back to serial leaker Sonny Dickson, who posted photos this week of two protective covers made for the phone’s pill-shaped camera housing. Silver on one, a near-black midnight blue on the other, both hinting at a two-tone finish similar to what the iPhone 17 Pro already does with metal and glass. Worth noting these are third-party accessories, so the exact shades could shift once Apple reveals the real thing, but the design language tracks with everything else we’ve seen leak out of the supply chain this year.

The missing telephoto lens has actually been floating around since a leak from Jukanlosreve earlier this year, which described the rear camera setup as just a main and an ultra-wide, no zoom lens included. That’s a real gut punch for a device expected to start north of $1,999. Every other Pro-tier iPhone has shipped with three rear cameras for years, so watching Apple’s most expensive model potentially step backward on optics is the kind of contradiction that makes leak season fun.

The button situation is its own small mystery. Weibo leaker Instant Digital called the top-edge, right-aligned volume buttons back in February (similar to the iPad mini), and case cutouts from third-party manufacturer iFunSmart later lined up with that placement. No Action Button either, which has been a Pro lineup staple since the iPhone 15. Small details, but they paint a picture of a phone where every millimeter of internal real estate got fought over.

I’ve been tracking this device for a while, and the specs keep circling the same core tension. Concept work based on leaks pegged the battery at a massive 5,700mAh and the hinge at a liquid metal build engineered to erase the usual foldable crease entirely. Add a titanium frame and an A20 Pro chip on a 2nm process, and you’ve got a phone that’s clearly engineered within an inch of its life. It’s just wild that with all that effort going into thinness and battery life, the zoom lens ended up on the cutting room floor.

Apple’s expected to make everything official in mid-September (I can’t believe we’re exactly a month away), and if Dickson’s photos are accurate, we already know what the colorway conversation is going to look like. Safe, metallic, a little moody. The bigger story might not be the color at all. It might be everything Apple had to leave out to build this phone.

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