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Technology

AltoVolo is a New Sleek eVTOL Aircraft

May 7, 2025 Technology

Sigma Takes Flight: A Sleek Leap Toward the Skies

London startup AltoVolo just unveiled the Sigma, a hybrid-electric eVTOL that looks part spacecraft, part sculpture. With tilting jet propulsion, it uses batteries for lift-off, liquid fuel for range, and ambition for everything in between.

Projected to fly 510 miles, cruise at 220 mph, and hit 290 mph at full tilt, it does all this while weighing just 2,160 lbs—with three passengers on board. At only 15.7 feet wide, it’s compact, clean, and seriously fast.

A futuristic hybrid vehicle designed with sleek lines, featuring a transparent cockpit and four turbine-like propellers for flight.

A scaled prototype has already flown; now comes the full-size demonstrator. No production date yet, but Sigma’s message is clear: the sky isn’t the limit, it’s the beginning.

A futuristic flying vehicle with sleek design and three rounded propulsion units on each side, resting on a smooth surface.

A futuristic hovercar design showcasing sleek lines and advanced aerodynamic features, with prominent circular rotors on each side.

A top-down view of a futuristic vehicle with a sleek design, featuring an open canopy that reveals a luxurious interior with brown seating and modern controls.

Adventure

Hypershell’s Exoskeleton Brings the Wild Within Reach

April 13, 2025 Adventure

Mechanical Muscle for the Modern Explorer

For those who dream of epic treks but are limited by stamina or strength, the Hypershell X Series might just be a game-changer.

Designed to support and empower, this sleek exoskeleton uses an 800W motor system to boost lower limb strength by 40% and reduce effort by 30% — meaning steeper climbs and longer days become more accessible than ever.

Powered by an AI-driven MotionEngine, the device intuitively syncs with your movement, offering personalized support that adapts and improves over time.

With a range of up to 10.8 miles per charge and a flexible, body-inclusive design, the Hypershell assists, and it invites more people to explore farther, climb higher, and experience the outdoors in new, exciting ways.

Hypershell’s exoskeletons start at $799.

Billed as the world’s first outdoor exoskeleton.

This device pledges to take you further and farther into nature than you might otherwise go.

Craft

Motorola Unveils Flexible Phone Concept That Doubles as a Wristband

October 25, 2023 Craft

As mobile phones continue to evolve, the form factors have mostly stayed the same, thin slabs of glass and metal or plastic that feature large screens.

Yes, there are a number of companies making foldable phones, ones that open up like a book. But promises of more flexible displays have been promised for years, and now we’re starting to see the fruits of those explorations.

Motorola just showed off a concept phone that takes the folding concept further, with a phone that bends to create a bracelet, a ‘tent’, or even its own stand.

We love the flexibility of the device, literally, which feels futuristic yet easy to understand and use.

We’re confident more personal devices will take on this type of form factor, which isn’t just fun and high-tech, but also brings an element of personalization and tactility that also takes some of the formality away from current smartphones.

“Unveiled at its Tech World conference, Motorola’s “adaptive display” concept employs a 6.9-inch flexible pOLED screen that can be used flat, in a “tent” mode, bent back in self-standing mode, or twisted back on itself and fitted on your wrist like an oversized smartwatch.”

Whether or not you’d wear the phone as a bracelet or not, it gives the form factor that we’ve seen in science fiction for years.

The phone can be its own stand for video calls, and more.

This ‘tent mode’ is a unique one, curious to see how software takes advantage of this form.

This Motorola concept isn’t on sale, but we can imagine you’ll see it in stores within the next year or so.

3D

Adidas Grit Concept Creates The Feeling Of Running On Sand

July 23, 2019 3D

Inspired by the sinking feeling and difficulty of running on sand, these striking resistance trainers are the brainchild of Aarish Netarwala. Called the Adidas Grit, the futuristic shoe has a latticed, 3D printed sole, meant to make the user work harder to do their workouts. It’s a fascinating idea, using 3D printing to make a user work harder, versus continually adding ease-of-use benefits. Via Dezeen:

Future

Boeing’s Hypersonic Concept Promises New York to Tokyo in Two Hours

June 27, 2018 Future

15 years since the last Concorde plane flew, and we still don’t have supersonic jets back in the skies. If Boeing has it’s way, they’ll eventually leapfrog supersonic with their own hypersonic technology, which reaches speeds of over Mach 5. The incredible speeds, along with flights at over 95,000 feet elevation, make for very swift travel, indeed. Though the first commercial operations are at least 20 years away, Boeing’s rendering has excited aviation fans around the world, possibly harkening a new age of remarkably fast travel. Via Popular Mechanics:

Automotive

Jag’s First Electric Car is a Sleek Crossover

March 2, 2018 Automotive

The road to an electric future has been paved by a number of fits and starts. Companies that put out timid, meager efforts, and then abandon them. Changing political landscapes, and slow moving battery technology seemed to put the electric dream on the proverbial highway shoulder. But finally, it seems as though the momentum toward electrification is picking up speed. The latest example is Jaguar’s all-new I-Pace, a sleek crossover aimed at the Tesla Model X, and those wanting a fast, premium car that has a high seating position, and ample seating. With a 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds, it’s a super quick car, if not as wildly fast as Tesla’s offerings. Expect starting prices to be form $80,000 and up. Via The Verge:

The production model basically matches the specs Jaguar originally set out to achieve with the I-Pace concept. A 90 kWh battery will give it an estimated 240 miles of range, which is more than enough for day-to-day driving. If and when you wind up running low on charge, Jaguar says the batteries can go from zero to 80 percent in just 40 minutes at 100kW DC fast charging stations. (A similar charge on a Level 2 home charger will take about 10 hours, according to Jaguar.)

With regards to performance, the dual motors — one on each axle — combine to give the I-Pace 394 horsepower, which gets it from 0–60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds, Jaguar says. The company is promising a smooth ride, too, as active air suspension comes standard. Jaguar’s driver assistance features will be included as well.

Design

Stunning Projection Mapping on The Bucharest Parliament

January 29, 2018 Design

Projection mapping has been around for several years, but when done well, it still has an impact that is hard to deny. This video from 2016 shows an incredible display that was directly projected onto the Bucharest Parliament buildings. The story follows the entire human timeline, from the Stone Age to the Information Age. Each chapter showcases dramatic visuals that completely transform the traditional architecture of the parliament into a canvas for expression. Romera Diseño e Infografia is responsible for this projection mapping, and their expertise in this medium is obvious. Make sure to watch the video with sound on, to get the full effect of this technology in action. It’s pretty remarkable how projections can so fully transform a building, or other structure, into something entirely new. Via Fubiz:

Art

Digital Paintings Made With Oculus Rift VR

January 12, 2018 Art

We’ve still never experienced the top-of-the-line virtual reality experience that comes with Oculus Rift. Aside from some hilarious Google Cardboard trials, VR is still somewhat a mystery to us.

But some artists are already using the medium to create new forms of art. Indeed, the painting and modeling program made for Oculus is itself called Medium. German artist and designer Vincent Schwenk has some fascinating digital art that he calls ‘blobs’. They are certainly abstract and expressionist in manner, but show the incredible potential of using a virtual world to create three dimensional paintings. Moving around a canvas, inspecting things from a variety of angles, this virtual painting can then be modeled and textured with more traditional 3D software. The result is beautifully detailed and entirely unique. We imagine the software is quite tricky to master, and it’s unclear what type of new masterpieces might still be realized with this new format. But Schwenk’s work is interesting from a technical and artistic perspective. Via Behance:

oculus rift vr art // moss and fog — Interesting blobs and forms created in virtual reality.

Documentary Film

NASA’s New Blue Marble

December 25, 2017 Documentary Film

For those that say NASA doesn’t serve a community purpose, just glance at this stunning new photo composite of our earth. Amazing.

Via Colossal:

NASA has just published what it calls the “most amazing highest resolution image of Earth ever”, dubbed Blue Marble. The 64-megapixel image weighing in at 8000×8000 pixels is actually a composite photograph taken on January 4th of this year using a number of captures stitched together from NASA’s Earth-observing satellite Suomi NPP. Make sure to see this sucker full size to really appreciate the details. (via gizmodo via nick ulivieri)

Architecture

3D Printed Tiny House in Amsterdam

November 21, 2017 Architecture

Your retreat home of the future might be small, and printable. At least, that’s the concept behind this Urban Cabin by DUS Architects. Created entirely with 3D printing, this miniature dwelling was set up in a former industrial part of Amsterdam to showcase the ability to quickly bring a structure (and accompanying property) to life. The mini cabin is made from recycled bio-plastic, and at the end of it’s life, it can be entirely recycled and repurposed into something else.

The tiny property includes some lovely poplar trees, a plot of grass, and even an outdoor bathtub, making it a serene little setting, despite being surrounded by the clamor of a large city. A fascinating proof-of-concept, and DUS Architects plan to 3D print a classic Amsterdam canal house in the near future. We’re impressed, and eager to see where this technology will lead. Photography by Ossip. Via Arch Daily:

Architecture

Apple Park: Inside the $5 Billion Campus That Steve Jobs Designed as His Final Project

November 16, 2017 Architecture

Quick Facts: Name: Apple Park. Location: One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, California. Architect: Foster + Partners (Norman Foster). Area: 2.8 million square feet. Employees: ~12,000. Opened: April 2017. Construction cost: Approximately $5 billion. Centerpiece: The Ring — a circular main building 1.6km in circumference. Also on campus: Steve Jobs Theater, 9,000 trees, a 100,000 sq ft fitness center, and underground R&D labs.

Steve Jobs spent some of his last working months personally overseeing the design of Apple Park. He died in October 2011. The campus opened in April 2017. What was completed is one of the most ambitious corporate headquarters ever built: a single circular building 1.6 kilometers in circumference, set inside 175 acres of landscaped grounds, housing 12,000 employees under one continuous roof of curved glass.

What Norman Foster Designed

Foster + Partners’ design centers on “The Ring” — a four-story circular structure with no straight lines and no conventional entrance. The building wraps around a central courtyard of gardens, orchards, and meadows. The exterior walls are almost entirely glass, using the largest curved glass panels ever manufactured at the time of construction. Natural ventilation handles the climate for nine months of the year without mechanical systems.

Steve Jobs Theater

The campus’s most architecturally dramatic building is the Steve Jobs Theater, a 1,000-seat underground auditorium whose only visible structure above ground is a cylindrical glass pavilion. The roof — a carbon fiber disc 20 meters in diameter — appears to float above the glass walls. It’s where Apple announces its major products, and it manages to feel appropriately monumental without being ostentatious.

The Environmental Ambition

Apple Park is powered by 100% renewable energy, drawing on 17 megawatts of rooftop solar — the largest onsite solar installation of any corporate campus in the world at opening. The 9,000 trees planted on the grounds include many native California species that were in danger of disappearing from the region. The landscape itself is designed to require minimal irrigation once established.

A Campus That Earns Its Ambition

Corporate campuses often promise more than they deliver architecturally. Apple Park is genuinely exceptional: a building that treats its scale as an opportunity rather than a challenge, that makes sustainability central rather than cosmetic, and that will likely still be considered one of the finest examples of 21st-century corporate architecture decades from now.

Architecture

MULTI Elevator One Step Closer to Willy Wonka’s Great Glass Version

July 31, 2017 Architecture

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka risks guests around in a magical elevator that can travel in any direction. Well, consider that magical device one step closer to reality, thanks to Thyssenkrupp’s new MULTI rope-free elevator, being installed in Berlin’s East Side Tower. This incredible feat of engineering uses maglev train technology to allow for sideways and vertical travel, opening up an incredible number of possibilities for building design. The entire mechanical mechanism behind the elevator can rotate 180 degrees, allowing for seamless direction changes. Expect skyscrapers all over the world to adopt this technology, to allow for quick, efficient, and smart travel. Check out the video below, and prepare to be amazed by the buildings of the future. Via Uncrate:

Buildings are becoming like vertical cities, and they need a FLEXIBLE TRANSPORT SYSTEM similar to a metro. SPEED alone does not solve the challenges posed by tall buildings.

Bicycles

Michelin’s Bikesphere Projects a Ring of Light for Safety

June 12, 2017 Bicycles

The French Tire company Michelin has recently been experimenting with bicycle technology, and their latest gadget is called the Bikesphere. Projecting a circular ring of red light around the moving bicycle, the Bikesphere highlights the safe distance cars should keep around cyclists using laser projection. According to Michelin: 1 in 5 drivers don’t respect a basic distance around cyclists, causing more that 5000 avoidable accidents every year.

When cars approach, the laser projection gets brighter, and a second ring is projected. Sensing daylight, the Bikesphere turns off the laser and acts like a normal headlight. And when darkness falls, the device fires up it’s protective halo. A very smart and potentially life saving addition to your nightly bicycle commute. Via DesignBoom:

Michelin Bikesphere — When a car is near, the Bikesphere projects a double red ring.

michelin bikesphere moss and fog 2 — A single ring is projected during normal riding

Architecture

Tesla’s New Truck

May 2, 2017 Architecture

Tesla’s stock is on a tear right now. It is market fever? Or is the company’s exciting pipeline of products spurring the rise? Well, a tease from Elon Musk at last Friday’s TED talk is sure to ruffle electric feathers further. With a dramatic teaser image of the upcoming Tesla semi truck, we can begin to imagine the electric future of the big rig. And it’s coming none too early, with problems of efficiency and emissions. We can picture an all-electric semi truck driving down our roads in a much quieter, cleaner, and more efficient fashion. The semi truck’s cargo capacity would be perfect for battery storage, and the long-haul nature of trucking is great for Tesla’s autonomous future. Via Electrek:

Animals

Interactive and Immersive Dinner Table

April 16, 2017 Animals

Projection mapping, the art and science of precise projected artwork, is coming into it’s own. Take the newly opened Sagaya restaurant in the Ginza neighborhood of Tokyo. It’s diners are greeted to a table that reacts to the plates set on it, so each course is a new and beautiful experience. Butterflies flit and fly around a plate of delicate vegetables. Leave your hand still on the tabletop, and a digital bird may land on it, just to take flight when you move it. Created by art collective Teamlab, the restaurant looks delicious and an experience not to miss. Via DesignBoom:

Art

Bang & Olufsen BeoSound Shape

April 6, 2017 Art

Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen started their company 92 years ago, and it’s grown into one of the most respected (and expensive) names in sound. The company makes high-end audio devices and speakers, with incredible design that sets it apart from everyone else. The BeoSound Shape is definitely pushing that envelope, with it’s modular, wall-mounted speakers that group together to form a literal wall of sound. The wireless speakers come in a huge array of colors, and look good even with the sound turned off. Design Milk has a deeper look at these sweet little hexagons.