OpenAI on Tuesday announced the launch of ChatGPT for government agencies in the U.S.

With its powerful camera, the French Navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters belowcloser, closer, and closer still until the camera operator could make out details on the vessels front deck and smoke pouring from its chimney.The long-range Atlantique 2 aircraft on a new mission for NATO then shifted its high-tech gaze onto another target, and another after that until, after more than five hours on patrol, the planes array of sensors had scoped out the bulk of the Balticfrom Germany in the west to Estonia in the northeast, bordering Russia.The flights mere presence in the skies above the strategic sea last week, combined with military ships patrolling on the waters, also sent an unmistakable message: The NATO alliance is ratcheting up its guard against suspected attempts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic, prompted by a growing catalogue of incidents that have damaged them.We will do everything in our power to make sure that we fight back, that we are able to see what is happening and then take the next steps to make sure that it doesnt happen again. And our adversaries should know this, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said this month in announcing a new alliance mission, dubbed Baltic Sentry, to protect the underwater infrastructure vital to the economic well-being of Baltic-region nations.Whats under the Baltic?Power and communications cables and gas pipelines stitch together the nine countries with shores on the Baltic, a relatively shallow and nearly landlocked sea. A few examples are the 152-kilometer (94-mile) Balticconnector pipeline that carries gas between Finland and Estonia, the high-voltage Baltic Cable connecting the power grids of Sweden and Germany, and the 1,173-kilometer (729-mile) C-Lion1 telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany.Why are cables important?Undersea pipes and cables help power economies, keep houses warm, and connect billions of people. More than 1.3 million kilometers (807,800 miles) of fiber optic cablesmore than enough to stretch to the moon and backspan the worlds oceans and seas, according to TeleGeography, which tracks and maps the vital communication networks. The cables are typically the width of a garden hose. But 97% of the worlds communications, including trillions of dollars of financial transactions, pass through them each day.In the last two months alone, we have seen damage to a cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden, another connecting Germany and Finland, and most recently, a number of cables linking Estonia and Finland. Investigations of all of these cases are still ongoing. But there is reason for grave concern, Rutte said on January 14.Whats causing alarm?At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023the most recent being a fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland, reported to have ruptured on Sunday. Although cable operators note that subsea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic heightened suspicions that damage might have been deliberate.There also are fears that Russia could target cables as part of a wider campaign of so-called hybrid warfare to destabilize European nations helping Ukraine defend itself against the full-scale invasion that Moscow has been pursuing since 2022.Without specifically blaming Russia, Rutte said: Hybrid means sabotage. Hybrid means cyberattacks. Hybrid means sometimes even assassination attacks, attempts, and in this case, it means hitting on our critical undersea infrastructure.Finnish police suspect that the Eagle S, an oil tanker that damaged the Estlink 2 power cable and two other communications cables linking Finland and Estonia on Dec. 25th, is part of Moscows shadow fleet used to avoid war-related sanctions on Russian oil exports.Finnish authorities seized the tanker shortly after it left a Russian port and apparently cut the cables by dragging its anchor. Finnish investigators allege the ship left an almost 100-kilometer (62-mile) long anchor trail on the seabed.Intelligence agencies doubtsSeveral Western intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of their work, told the Associated Press that recent damage was most likely accidental, seemingly caused by anchors being dragged by ships that were poorly maintained and poorly crewed.One senior intelligence official told AP that ships logs and mechanical failures with ships anchors were among multiple indications pointing away from Russian sabotage. The official said Russian cables were also severed. Another Western official, also speaking anonymously to discuss intelligence matters, said Russia sent an intelligence-gathering vessel to the site of one cable rupture to investigate the damage.The Washington Post first reported on the emerging consensus among U.S. and European security services that maritime accidents likely caused recent damage.Cable operators advise cautionThe European Subsea Cables Association, representing cable owners and operators, noted in November after faults were reported on two Baltic links that, on average, a subsea cable is damaged somewhere in the world every three days. In northern European waters, the main causes of damage are commercial fishing or ship anchors, it said.In the fiber-optic cable rupture on Sunday connecting Latvia and Sweden, Swedish authorities detained a Maltese-flagged ship bound for South America with a cargo of fertilizer.Navibulgar, a Bulgarian company that owns the Vezhen, said any damage was unintentional and that the ships crew discovered while navigating in extremely bad weather that its left anchor appeared to have dragged on the seabed.NATOs Baltic Sentry missionThe alliance is deploying warships, maritime patrol aircraft and naval drones for the mission to provide enhanced surveillance and deterrence.Aboard the French Navy surveillance flight, the 14-member crew cross-checked ships they spotted from the air against lists of vessels they had been ordered to watch for.If we witness some suspicious activities from ships as seafor example, ships at very low speed or at anchorage in a position that they shouldnt be at this timeso this is something we can see, said the flight commander, Lt. Alban, whose surname was withheld by the French military for security reasons.We can have a very close look with our sensors to see what is happening.Burrows reported from London. AP journalists Jill Lawless in London, David Klepper in Washington and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed to this report.John Leicester and Emma Burrows, Associated Press

If youre an egg lover, you know that the cost of a dozen has skyrocketed in recent months. As Fast Company previously reported, depending on where youre located in America, you could be paying anywhere from around $5 per carton to nearly $9. Gone are the days of cheap eggs.But just how bad have things gotten, and where will egg prices likely go in the coming year? Two online egg price tracking tools help crack those answers.Egg price tracking toolsThe first online egg price tracking tool comes from TradingEconomics.com. Its Eggs US tracker is updated daily and shows how the price of eggs has changed from 2012 to today. Its prices represent the price of futures contracts for eggs. As the site states, Prices for Eggs displayed in Trading Economics are based on over-the-counter (OTC) and contract for difference (CFD) financial instruments.The trackers most recent update shows that the price of a dozen eggs reached $7.09 in January 2025. Thats an increase of over 22%, or $1.28 per dozen, since the beginning of the year.But the chart also reveals some good newsand bad news. If you click on its forecast tab, it will reveal that it expects the price of a dozen eggs to drop to $6.28 by the end of this quarter.However, by the end of 2025, it expects a dozen eggs to surpass even todays high pricetopping out at $7.95 per dozen by the end of December.A second online tool that tracks the price of eggs is from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The tool tracks the average cost of a dozen large Grade A eggs in U.S. cities.While this egg tracking tool will reveal egg prices going back to 1980, the tool is also only updated monthly, so its egg prices are only current until December 2024, when, it reveals, the average cost of a dozen eggs was just $4.146.But those who miss the heyday of cheap eggs might want to avoid this tool, lest they are reminded that, with a few exceptions, up until 2021, the price of a dozen eggs rarely broke the $2 barrier.Why are egg prices skyrocketing?Both charts reveal that egg prices have skyrocketed since around September 2023. But why? As Fast Company previously reported, three main factors are affecting the cost of eggs.The first is inflation: Since 2023, the cost of nearly everything has been going up for American consumers.The second reason is supply chain issues that are partially a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The egg industry continues to suffer from a labor shortage, which hurts production.The third reason is the ongoing bird flu outbreak, which has led to the demise of tens of millions of the creatures we rely on to lay our eggs.President Trump has previously promised on the campaign trail to bring down the prices of eggs, but given the challenges the industry faces, it seems like that is easier said than done.

Nightmare bosses, public shamings, racist pay policies and even being forced to eat lunch in a cupboard. Here are some of the troubling experiences shared in response to Dezeen's working-conditions survey.Collected below are 13 experiencesshared by people who filled in our survey, which found that a worrying number of people working in architecture and design are suffering from low pay, long working hours and high stress levels.It's important to note that these only represent a small proportion of the total responses and are among the most extreme cases. Most people that responded to our survey indicated that they enjoy their jobs overall.Read: Dezeen survey points to "broken" architecture and design industryHowever, they demonstrate that the very worst types of professional conditions in the field are more than isolated incidents.There were several other similar stories that we could have included here, with many people particularly women eager to share their experiences of poor treatment in the architecture and design workplace.Read on forindividual stories from people who responded to our survey, some of which have been edited for clarity and brevity:"I'm left feeling broken, bitter and lost" senior associate at a small architecture firm in the US"I entered the profession with a lot of enthusiasm, ambition and hopes to somehow be involved in relevant development or change."After 30 years of working, I feel I'm left feeling broken, bitter and lost regarding how my achievements have left any registrable mark anywhere in the profession."I feel no ownership nor pride in the products of my time spent; no sense of being mentored or having positively mentored anyone else. I feel as if I fell into a professional vacuum for the sake of economically viable work, while not feeling as if it stood for anything enduring, worthwhile, or ultimately meaningful.""My boss openly discussed his sexual adventures with his teenage students" architectural lighting designer at a small design studio in the UK"I have worked in lighting design in Germany and then in London. In Germany, my boss openly discussed his sexual adventures with his teenage students during the Monday morning meeting, in detail. Once we travelled to France together and in the train he was trying to touch my foot with his foot looking at my eyes intensely. Horrible!"In the UK, I felt like I was considered a second category person, as a woman and then as a mum (a third category then). During the meetings, bosses always talked to men and didn't look at us women in the eyes. When we talked, it was ignored."Promotion always happened to men and very rarely to women. We were all employed as assistants when we already had five years experience at least in the field, and stayed assistants for the following five years, with more or less the same pay. When we addressed problems during the annual assessment, they were ignored.""I feel very sad to have studied well and for a long time, worked so hard, for such little reward.""It feels like a bit of a lost cause" former director at a small architecture firm in the UK"The profession is broken on so many levels. For starters, the view of the architect from the rest of the construction industry is one of a frustrated artist, coming to site to nitpick and talk about the frills. It's belittling and unfair given the amount of pressure we often have to endure throughout the process of planning/tender/construction."The hours of work are often unsociable and workers exploited. Professional bodies don't do anything to help. Working in a small practice I felt exploited and undervalued, but running a small practice I found it was very difficult to get the work done and make any money!"It feels like a bit of a lost cause, when at the same time, it feels like the world/country needs architects to be creatively thinking up solutions to our challenging societal problems."I have now left the profession after much soul-searching. I have now moved into urban design for a local authority as I found the pay to be much better, the workload reasonable and the outcomes so much more valuable/worthwhile.""I am still owed about five paycheques" architect at a small architecture firm in the US"In a firm that I worked for it was discovered that minority women were paid the least amongst their peers, and sometimes even less than those with less experience. Nothing came of it until legal action was threatened."Another firm I worked for stopped paying employees in a timely manner but still expected everyone to work as if nothing had changed. I am still owed about five paycheques' worth of salary.""I was made redundant when pregnant" project architect at a large architecture firm in Sweden"I worked at another office in London where the associate on the project kept harassing the other architect on the team right about my desk every day, not only causing her distress, but also distracting me while working. Very unprofessional. The directors didn't do anything about it. At another office in London, my director, who was also the founder, bullied me everyday. I developed anxiety and panic attacks and had to quit the job."My last job in Sweden I was made redundant when pregnant and no one did anything about it, including the union, telling me it was 'fair'. I still have not recovered from the experience and can't get a job as my CV is out of date, and no company is keen on accepting me part-time since I have a young child. I may never professionally or emotionally recover."My entire career I jumped from one job to another hoping for a healthy work environment where I could focus on being creative and productive, but the industry is run by mostly insecure men or individuals who will do anything to survive and hide their insecurity by crushing others. Combine that with low salaries and it's a recipe for anxiety and depression, which is very common in the profession.""I've found it extremely unrewarding" project architect at a small architecture firm in the UK"So far I've found it extremely unrewarding being an architect. You toil your life away, put everything you have into a project whilst alienating friends and family for the sake of your work, meanwhile your mental health is in in the gutter and for what gain exactly? To pay ever-increasing Architects Registration Board fees? To deal with ever-increasing responsibility? To deal with ever-increasing risk? To deal with ever-increasing fingers pointing at you?""If personal overtime was lower than average, staff members were accused of not being a team player" architect at a small architecture firm in the UK"We are often given unrealistic deadlines, taking on large projects which are too big for the practice, or require much more resource."Staff were presented with a 'dashboard' detailing our remuneration (including additional items such as Part Three contribution and tea/coffee/biscuits) and overtime as a table, comparing us to the company 'average'. If personal overtime was lower than average, staff members were accused of not being a team player, or not contributing enough to your team."This was said to junior members of staff, including Part One and Two architectural assistants in reviews. I was personally asked why I thought it was okay that someone more senior in my team did more overtime than me, despite having completed Part Three during the same time.Read: "Working yourself to the point of exhaustion is no longer a badge of honour""When I qualified as an architect, I was told there would be no pay increase as part of my promotion. One director openly joked in the studio that I wasn't going to get a pay rise as part of completing the course, 'It's not like we're going to be paying you any more'. They later apologised, however to date I have not received a pay rise since before I qualified in October 2023."I have handed in my notice as I don't feel like I was valued for the three years I worked at the company, despite working 60-hour weeks on multiple occasions."Unless the industry responds in a positive way to recent news about the collapse of major contractors, salary disparity, poor working culture and treatment of staff, there will be a mass exodus of young, junior and mid level architects/architectural designers who will look away from the profession to more rewarding and fulfilling opportunities. I have not decided whether that applies to me.""One of my colleagues touched my breast 'for a laugh'" architect at a small architecture firm in Luxembourg"As women we are less taken seriously by some of our colleagues, clients or even manager. I started very young (24) in this company and for a long time I was treated like an ignorant kid because of my age. I also witnessed trivialised racism towards one of my Tunisian colleagues. I also know that it was very bad form to express homosexuality or anything else."As a small office, we didn't have HR. If you had any problems, you had to complain to one of our two bosses, although harassment could sometimes come from one of them. In general, you don't say anything because you know that no action will be taken."One of my colleagues touched my breast 'for a laugh'. I pushed him away violently and reported the incident, but nothing was done afterwards.""Even my partner had to sign a non-disclosure agreement" architect at a small architecture firm in the UK"I had a terrible employer in a studio with six directors. After bullying and belittling for over a year I began a grievance process and three out of the five other directors sided with him."My complaint seemed to be handled with care in the first instance; a grievance meeting took place and I felt supported. As I was in touch with a labour union I was told to ask for a write up of the meeting. That's when things changed. The tone and messaging was completely different to the conversation we had. When I asked for amendments to the write up to reflect the reality, I was called into the office and asked to agree to a financial settlement to leave without the ability to take legal action."I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement too. Even my partner had to sign one as he was a construction developer.""She regularly criticised junior staff in front the whole office, humiliating them" urban designer at a small multidisciplinary firm in the US"I worked in a female-led practice. It was the most sexist, misogynistic place I have ever worked, regularly asking working mums to work on non-contracted days when they had no childcare."One director openly discussed a male employee's irritating decision to take paternity leave across the office, speaking on the phone to a client. Said it showed his lack of commitment and was inconvenient."This particular director was also a bully. She regularly criticised junior staff in front the whole office, humiliating them. She ran the office like a 'mean girls' clique. She encouraged people to ostracise others who didn't 'fit', including me."Worst of all, the women who run it sit on all these 'women in planning/architecture' boards. They couldn't be less suited. They believe the way to succeed is to have one interest, and that's work!""Weeks of work being thrown in the trash because the partner changed his mind" computational designer at a small architecture firm in Brazil"I've seen a white partner explicitly saying that he felt a victim of racism in a project that was focused on black communities when the client's diversity and inclusion team gave bad feedback of the project."I've seen my direct manager spending most of his time trying to make out with a fellow (female) worker during work hours while delegating all of his management work (the work that he was supposed to do) to interns and junior staff."I've seen demeaning behaviour from partners towards the staff, including making fun of staff for being from poorer backgrounds, not having travelled internationally or not having any kind of experience that explicitly says that you're from a privileged background."I've seen partners making fun of the queer staff during happy hours to the straight staff. I've seen weeks of work being thrown in the trash because the partner changed his mind a day before the deadline, and putting the blame on the team for not understanding what he wanted (even though he had weeks to convey that message). The list could go on, and on, and on.""Not even buying a car would be possible" senior interior architect at a small architecture firm in Italy"I work and live in Milano. With my salary I am not able to even think of having a kid, not even buying a car would be possible."This is very frustrating lots of responsibilities but at the age of 37 I cannot plan or think of my future, and I am not able to have a kid without being scared of the future, or asking my family for money.""I hid in a cupboard and ate my lunch" former assistant designer at a small interior design studio in the UK"I worked as a teacher with management responsibilities before entering the design world. I re-trained, going to university again as a mature student. Working in a design studio was nothing like I expected. It was worse than I could have ever imagined."Meetings at ridiculous times, five-hour long meetings with no break, food or water. It was inhumane.The unrealistic expectations of work being paid 23,000 a year to work until 9pm every day. I stayed up until midnight the day before my wedding, during leave, to finish off site plans, didn't even get a thank you and they were not urgent, because I felt guilt-tripped and obliged."The bullying that went on with those lower down was awful, and as a person who had already had a career, I was more aware of this than my peers. Bullying came from the clients, who bullied my bosses. They then passed this down to us, through their stress."I only realised it was bullying after I had a mental health crisis during my last week of working there. My last day there, I had a client meeting at 8:30am. I got a cab (not reimbursed) with two large suitcases of samples from south London to a site in north London. Because of these samples, I had to wait for a cab (otherwise I would have got the tube) and arrived at 8:35am, and the meeting had already started. My boss did not wait for me to arrive before beginning, not even five minutes. There was no chair for me to sit on. I was ignored all meeting, my boss did not look at me. I assumed this is because I was five minutes late, and I was apologetic and kicked myself for not booking the cab at 6am instead of 6:45am."At 2:00pm, we had not had any food or water. This was six hours after the meeting had started. I hid in a cupboard and ate my lunch. That was a low moment in my career! I then started having a migraine attack. During these attacks, I go blind and have hallucinations. It was the third one of the week. As a teacher, I used to get them twice a year. Working in design, I started having them weekly, sometimes more. My body also went numb on one side a new symptom."I had to go home. My boss did not arrange for a cab. I had to ring my dad, who works and lives nearby. He came and picked me up and was shocked at how much weight I'd lost since he'd seen me a few months ago."I then spent the next month off work, recovering from the shock and stress of the last year. I suffered from derealisation and panic attacks daily, going from a confident woman in her 30s to a shell of my former self. I eventually recovered and left the industry to work in tech. I have never been happier in my job now great bosses, no bullying and realistic hours!"The illustration is by Marie Mohanna.The post Shocking personal stories from Dezeen's working-conditions survey appeared first on Dezeen.

A fifth of people working in architecture and design expect to leave their field soon amid discontent over high workloads and low pay, Dezeen's working-conditions survey has found.Dezeen's survey gathering information about the wellbeing and job satisfaction of the global design and architecture workforce received more than 450 responses from people in 64 different countries.Among them, only a quarter (26 per cent) said they "definitely want to stay working in the field for the long term".Read: Dezeen survey points to "broken" architecture and design industryMeanwhile, 11 per cent expect to leave within the next five years, and a further nine per cent are already actively seeking to leave one in five of the total respondents.Twenty-four per cent indicated they have no current plans to leave but do not rule it out, while only 29 per cent said they currently intend to stay working in the field for the foreseeable future.This uncertainty over the prospect of a future working in architecture and design appears to stem from frustrations about certain aspects of the job particularly pay and overtime.Workplace culture issuesDespite most respondents to the survey (73 per cent) saying they either "definitely" or "mostly" enjoy their job, these emerged as key issues for the majority of people.Nearly half (45 per cent) said they feel "somewhat underpaid" and an additional one in four (25 per cent) reporting feeling "severely underpaid". Just 29 per cent indicated they are satisfied with their remuneration.Around two-thirds (66 per cent) of respondents reported regularly having to do unpaid overtime. Among these, nine per cent said they do unpaid overtime every day, and 15 per cent said they do so most days. The rest of the 66 per cent said they do so between twice a week and once a month.Four in five (80 per cent) said they have experienced unrealistic expectations of work in the last five years.Read: Shocking personal stories from Dezeen's working-conditions surveyOur survey also pointed to widespread cultural issues within architecture and design workplaces.For example, 61 per cent of respondents reported witnessing or experiencing rude, belittling or demeaning behaviour in the last five years.More than half (52 per cent) reported unnecessarily harsh criticism of work and 30 per cent have witnessed or experienced bullying.Sexism and misogyny emerged as a major concern, with 107 (49 per cent) of 217 women respondents to the survey saying they have witnessed instances of these at work in the last five years.Read: "Working yourself to the point of exhaustion is no longer a badge of honour"Among 97 respondents who consider themselves to be part of an ethnic minority in the country they work in, 19 (20 per cent) reported witnessing or experiencing racism.Around three-quarters of respondents to our survey worked for architecture studios, but plenty were at engineering firms, design studios, interior design studios, property developers and brands.Answers came from an even spread ranging from those just starting out in their careers to top-level members of staff. Responses were gathered over a six-week period from 14 October to 24 November 2024.For a more detailed discussion of the survey findings including charts, click here.Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to our survey. The illustration is byMarie Mohanna.The post One in five architecture and design workers planning to leave industry appeared first on Dezeen.

This Combat All-Terrain Dirt E-bike is by Avvenire, a Canadian manufacturer of light EVs. It takes the all-terrain part seriouslyit comes with a Snow Kit that lets you convert the bike into a snowmobile. The company says the conversion process is easy and takes less than an hour. The tiny bike weighs 242 lbs, is street-legal and has a 43-mile range. Top speed is 37 mph. Power comes from a removable 72V lithium-ion battery that delivers 5,000 watts. They're taking pre-orders for $8,000 USD, knocking $2,000 off of the $10,000 price tag. They expect to deliver by the end of next month. There's no video of the conversion process, but they do have this (oddly silent) reel of the bike in action:

The Core77 Design Awards Speculative Design category features future-oriented projects, whether physically or digitally produced, designed for the purpose of cultural commentary, intervention, or exploration, or created as speculative design for a client or educational institution. Examples include alternative structures, device prototypes for social needs, hypothetical wearable implants.Jury lead Wang and designer Huang's process for the 2024 DataWagashi Speculative Category winner.Tiange Wang is a dreamer grounded in reality. The Senior Software Designer with IDEO calls herself a "designer-developer hybrid who enjoys designing novel experiential futures as much as bringing them to life." She is motivated by building creative and playful solutions to life's inconveniences that also "push the boundaries" of how humans connect with technology and nature. Her work integrates interaction design, software prototyping, storytelling, and system thinking into a cohesive design process that has addressed topics ranging from emerging technologies to climate change and holistic wellbeing.At IDEO, Tiange and her teams guide clients across the technology, health, climate, media, and consumer products industries, striving to create product experiences that are "human-centered, planet-conscious, data-informed, and GenAI-enabled" across web, mobile, and spatial computing platforms. The award-winning designer's work has been featured at SXSW, SIGGRAPH, CHI, and the MIT Museum, in addition to several prominent universities and in Fast Company, Dezeen, and more. Tiange holds a Master of Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with High Honors from the University of California, Berkeley.In the world of design, Tiange cautions against "the tendency to invent problems that don't truly exist or to over-invest in use cases detached from reality." She pushes for design that is grounded in real problems, user needs, or societal value. "In other words, [not] designing for the sake of design." She also encourages designers to focus on creating "timeless" work that resonates today but will also remain "relevant and impactful as the world evolves." 2024 Speculative Category winner, DataWagashi from VLab.The 2024 winner in the Core77 Design Awards Speculative Design category was VLab (Tiange Wang and I-yang Huang) for DataWagashi. This creation aimed to make climate data tangible, accessible, and entertaining by using a medium inspired by the traditional Japanese confectionary art of Wagashi. DataWagashi enhanced the vocabulary of data communication by employing the senses of taste, smell, touch, texture, and physical interaction. If you've been dreaming of experiential futures, the Core77 Design Awards might be in your future share your Speculative Design visions with our jurors and explore the possibilities.Enter your work in the Core77 Design Awards today.

Whether youre a cat lover or not, you have probably noticed or heard about how cats are just drawn to boxes. The usual reason given is one of security and comfort, a place where they can observe their prey, often anything that moves, without being obvious. Its also just fun to play in it, like how human kids seem to have a knack for jumping on bouncy beds, much to their parents stress.Despite their utilitarian design and spartan appearance, those same cardboard boxes spark different emotions in humans. They are often associated with opening packages, which sometimes bring joy and create memories. So why preserve those moments for posterity with a piece of furniture that evokes such emotions as well? After all, no one said that enjoying boxes is for felines only.Designers: Julia Kononenko, Artem Kravchenko (Kononenko ID)Perhaps the last thing youd expect to serve as inspiration for a comfy chair would be a box. Truth be told, the rough surface and sometimes sharp edges are hardly enjoyable unless youre a cat. But what if you only needed to mimic the appearance of that stereotypical box and inject the things that give humans comfort and joy?Thats what the BOX Armchair conceptual design tries to accomplish, embracing the form of a cardboard box and wrapping it with comfy cushions. In addition to its rather unconventional shape for a chair, its design quickly reminds one of those large packing boxes, even if using a different hue. It immediately brings up memories perhaps of opening surprise gifts or maybe unpacking in a new home, almost always a joyful experience worth remembering.Theres also a touch of unexpected functionality located in those side and back flaps. Open them out to have more room inside the chair, or fold them in to have a snugger sitting experience. The front flap, on the other hand, can be a footrest when reclining backward for a relaxing moment.BOX doesnt have advanced functions or hidden features; what you see is what you get. Its whimsical design, however, is enough to capture anyones attention, and its soft cushions provide a tempting haven for any weary body. You might end up just wanting to sink in or curl up inside this box-like armchair, just like your feline friend.The post Cushy box-inspired armchair concept could bring out your inner cat first appeared on Yanko Design.

Electric power has become more critical to modern life considering how many devices we carry with us all the time. In addition to smartphones that sometimes need to be charged even before we get home, some of us also carry laptops that may need to be plugged in after just an hour or two of work. That often means carrying different power sources for different devices or one gigantic power bank to cover all use cases.Sometimes, the answer can actually be as simple as one plus one, which in this case yields 3-in-1 like RedMagic is trying to say. With a rather futuristic flair, its newest power bank pulls double duty as a regular charger that can power many thin laptops. It even has a built-in cable so you wont have to scramble for a tangle when you need to juice up your phone in a pinch.Designer: RedMagic (nubia)As part of its DAO line of accessories, the RedMagic Go Power Bank looks nothing like your typical portable battery. It has a clean, sci-fi aesthetic that makes use of geometric shapes to create visual interest. Instead of a simple rectangular block, one section breaks away to form a cylinder reminiscent of a traditional dry-cell battery. To some extent, its form gives the suggestion that this isnt a one-trick pony.On the one hand, it is a power bank, one that can charge two devices at the same time. The built-in 5,000mAh battery might not be enough, but it can help get your phone through the day if needed. When charging a single device, it puts out 20W of power, but plugging in two at the same time reduces that to 15W each.Push the two-prong plug out, on the other hand, and you begin to realize that this isnt your normal power bank. It is, in fact, a GaN charger that dishes out 65W of power from its USB-C port, enough to power some laptops. Curiously, if you use the built-in USB-C cable, it only reaches 60W.The third mode of this gadget, if you can really call it that, is the aforementioned USB-C cable that saves you time and effort when you only need a quick recharge. The cable also acts as a handle or carrying loop, and its nylon-braided material gives it enough durability to serve that purpose. For only $79, this multifunctional power bank can cover your basic charging needs, presuming you dont have more power-hungry phones or laptops in your arsenal.The post RedMagic Go Power Bank is also a 65W charger for your laptop first appeared on Yanko Design.

Apple is rolling out iOS 18.3 with a few minor enhancements. Here are all the top new features and how to download it.