I’m one of those people that can’t seem to be separated from their phones. Even as I try to lie in bed and relax, when I’m still not sleepy, I find myself reaching for my phone and then scrolling until past midnight. Obviously, it’s not the healthiest thing both physically and mentally. So I need to have an actual routine or even a physical tool to help me break from this habit and have a digital detox to help with sleeping habits and mental health. “Breathe : on,” introduces a novel approach to digital well-being by offering a product concept centered on a natural and unobtrusive digital detox. Rather than imposing stringent limitations, it’s thoughtfully designed to facilitate a gentle disengagement from devices, making the process feel more like a welcome respite than a forced separation. It focuses on cultivating an environment that subtly encourages users to consciously choose to set their phones aside. This might involve creating calming physical spaces, leveraging gentle sensory cues, or integrating with mindful activities, all aimed at making the decision to disconnect feel intuitive and beneficial rather than a deprivation. Designer: Hojun Lee When a user places their smartphone on the device, it initiates a wireless charging process accompanied by a subtle vibration. Simultaneously, ambient lights and gentle steam begin to emanate, signaling that it’s time to unwind. This multi-sensory experience—engaging sight, touch, and hearing—promotes relaxation and helps the user transition away from the digital world. The device’s steam and lighting are synchronized with the 4-2-4 breathing technique: inhaling for four seconds, holding for two, and exhaling for four. This rhythm is visually represented by the rising and pausing of steam and the gradual brightening and dimming of light, encouraging users to align their breathing accordingly. By facilitating a natural disengagement from smartphones, “Breathe : on” addresses the issue of screen-induced sleep disturbances. The calming ritual it offers aims to improve sleep quality and overall well-being without making users feel burdened by the act of disconnecting. By offering a soothing and engaging alternative to the lure of the smartphone screen, it transforms the act of putting the phone down from a chore into a calming ritual. For someone like me, constantly battling the urge to scroll into the late hours, this gentle guidance and sensory experience could be the key to reclaiming peaceful nights and fostering a healthier, more balanced life, one breath at a time. The post Humidifier and wireless charger concept brings gentle approach to digital detox first appeared on Yanko Design.

As Dyson home tech enthusiasts, users—dare we say—experts, we’re keeping a close eye on all the Best Dyson Memorial Day sales popping up ahead of the long weekend. While we hope to be out grilling and getting sunburnt, same as you, we think Dyson deals like $300 off a wishlist-worthy cordless vacuum will be a welcome treat for the holiday. Before shopping, feel free to familiarize yourself with our catalog of tested favorites—from air purifiers to humidifiers to cordless vacuums.We’ve assembled all early bird discounts in advance of the official Memorial Day sale drop, where we’re expecting an even wider spread of deals at all our favorite Dyson retailers, including Amazon. Watch this space—we’ll be updating as more Memorial Day deals on our beloved V8’s and V15’s roll in!Our top picksBest deal overall: Dyson V8 Plus Cordless Vacuum, $470 $350Staff-approved purifier: Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde PH04, $1,000 $800A versatile floor cleaner: Dyson V15s Detect Submarine Wet and Dry Vacuum, $950 $800Dyson V8 Plus Cordless VacuumThis Dyson V8 stick vacuum is a longtime favorite of ambitious cleaners the world over. It’s suited for all your basic nightmares: dust, debris, and pet hair. It offers 40 minutes of cordless cleaning and two power modes, plus a hair-screw tool so it doesn’t overheat, as those of us with many years of vacuuming under our belts have come to normalize. Global editorial operations director Diane Dragan speaks emphatically in favor of her V8: “Before, it was exhausting to see dust and willfully ignore it. Now it’s immensely satisfying to grab the unit, zap the filth, and easily dispense of it. To those who walked with old-timey canisters and uprights so this Dyson could run, I thank you.”Rachel FletcherRachel FletcherDyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde PH04In an age of micro-pollutants, germophobes can rest easy knowing this combo air purifier/humidifier/fan not only performs to the caliber of regular Dyson products, but this model in particular sucks up formaldehyde, a colorless gas which can be emitted by paint, furniture, carpets, household cleaners, fireplaces, and even plywood. Commerce director Rachel Fletcher has owned this model for several years and finds that it still functions up to snuff, humidifying and cooling the air to her liking. Plus, the app (yes, the app) is easy to use. “After lighting a candle or cooking, the purifier went to work straight away on cleaning the air and the air quality returned to its usual after about 10 minutes,” Fletcher says.Photo: Terri WilliamsDyson V15s Detect Submarine​ Wet-Dry VacuumUnlike most vacuums—thanks to its combination of hardwood and carpet cleaning capabilities as well as and mopping functionality—this Dyson technology is what state-of-the art home cleaning dreams are made of. Contributor Terri Williams was beyond impressed with its versatility and efficiency. “The beauty of this design is that all of the water is contained in the separate wet roller head, so I can remove it, attach one of the other roller heads, and dry vacuum in other parts of my home,” she says. The top portion can be removed to use for a handheld vacuum for peskier, smaller corners, and handy attachments for handheld vacuuming are also supplied.Dyson Cool Gen1 TP10 Purifier$130 off this air purifier has a person reconsidering her air-quality needs. If you don’t already know, Dyson’s trademark brag is that their two-stage HEPA H13 filtration captures 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. That means: basically everything. This model includes a purifying fan that also cools you, so you can knock out two purchases with one.Dyson V7 Advanced VacuumIf you’re hoping for a strong and affordable Dyson model, this V7 is $250 and delivers on the basics we love: cordless, long charge time, powerful suction, and detangling technology. This is a great vacuum for those who aren’t looking for the cusp of tech, who might not be off put by older models—anyone with an iPhone 12 or earlier-type people; the corded headphone crowd.Dyson Gen5 Detect Cordless VacuumWhile it’s just 6% off, any discount on this highly coveted vacuum is worthwhile, according to Williams. “This is one of the best Dysons, one of the best vacuum cleaners, and one of the best cordless stick vacuums out there,” she says. Dyson’s most powerful cordless vacuum has 70 minutes of run time off a single charge, and it intelligently adapts its power based on debris and floor type. The LCD screen shows particles sucked up, charge time left, and the amount of power used. Last but not least, the HEPA filtration traps 99.99% of particles as small as 0.1 microns, and it expels clean air in return.Dyson Ball Animal 3 Upright VacuumEverything you love about Dyson’s cordless stick vacuums still comes in this upright vacuum cleaner, down 25% from retail price. This model is designed with pet owners in mind with unrivaled detangling technology and multiple attachments to help you reach every crevice of your home, especially where hair balls like to accumulate. Its whole-machine filtration ensures that particles are trapped inside the machine, not expelled back into the house to force another run-through.Dyson Hot+Cool HP07 Air Purifier, Heater, and FanAnother air purifier high on our list is this HP07 model, which commerce editor Audrey Lee says “works like a dream, and I noticed within a week of use that I felt noticeably less congested.” The purifier uses a 360 degree filtration system that implements a combination of activated carbon, to remove potentially harmful gases and odors from the air, and its HEPA filter, which catches 99.7% of particles. Its auto mode continuously monitors room temperature and indoor air quality while also running the fan or heat to the degree of your choosing. You can control the device with an included remote or from your app.Dyson Solarcycle Morph CF06 Floor LightDyson makes its foray into lighting gear with its Solarcycle Morph line—clean, modern, extended lines give it an ultracontemporary look. Its four-in-one lighting adapts to the atmosphere to create a light that best suits a space, featuring four modes: task, indirect, feature, and ambient. It is formulated with LED lights with glare control and low optical flicker for eye care.

“What. Is. THAT?” At Remedy HQ, me and two other writers getting a first hands-on with the forthcoming FBC: Firebreak have hit a problem. Namely, a strange, ever-changing black-grey mass, aimlessly and unnervingly stuttering around the Quarry we’re currently exploring. We have no idea what it is until we get close enough to recognize it—an Astral Spike from Firebreak’s ‘prequel,’ Control. But by then, it’s too late. Our screams that soon follow confirm it’s still just as deadly as ever. It’s not the only surprise I encountered in my extensive playthrough of the already slick and utterly engaging first-person squad-based shooter, launching June 17 on PlayStation 5. Here’s what I discovered from a fair few rounds of firefighting a paranatural invasion in the Oldest House. Live as a team or die alone repeatedly The focus on creating a team of three for the game’s player vs. environment (PvE) set-up is to hone in on the three classes of the game, known as Crisis Kits. I plumped for the Jump Kit, which specializes in crowd control and power management, while my two teammates went for the Fix Kit (a repair and tech expert) and Splash Kit (a water dealer and status support for other players). These Kits are designed to complement and collaborate in tasks and attacks, so trying to be a maverick only leads to death, likely yours. Communication is absolutely essential – especially as it’s easy to get caught in friendly fire – and taking full advantage of the Kits’ tools is the only way to survive the endless supply of rampaging hordes. And given that you possess a limited number of respawns between your team, reviving each other on the field is the best way to stay in the game, not always easy when dozens of Hiss beasties surround you. Crafting the perfect loadout In addition to the expected rifles, shotguns, and pistols, each Kit consists of three types of equipment: a tool, augment, and item. My Jump Kit’s initial loadout features an Electro-Kinetic Charge Impactor tool for shocking enemies, powering up generators, and even jumping long distances, and a BOOMbox item that distracts enemies once it’s charged. The systemic subtleties of each Kit’s equipment is where the teamwork comes into play. My Splash Kit comrade-in-arms uses his Crank-Operated Fluidic Ejector tool to wet the beasts, which maximizes my electrocution attack on them. At the same time, our Fix Kit buddy utilizes his Swivel Turret item that automatically tracks and unleashes a volley of rounds at any stragglers. Like the best co-op shooters, FBC: Firebreak encourages you to improvise under increasingly difficult odds, while not being afraid of the hilarity that comes with the chaos. There’s a mischievous glee from the Remedy staff when they unlock our Kits’ augments, and I soon see why. Once charged, my augment – named the AI19 Garden Gnome – fired out an unassuming gnome that unleashed a massive electrical storm that was far too close to my entire team and got us all electrocuted. My bad. Playing with piggy banks and paper Of course, it’s not all just fighting (or accidentally maiming your teammates) with things like the enemy igniting AI44 Teapot or the incredibly significant damage of the ‘break on contact but reforming’ AI16 Piggy Bank. FBC’s director and Control’s protagonist, Jesse Faden, has given you specific tasks to ensure the invasion of Hiss is contained. In this build of the game, I have access to three of the five Jobs that will be present at launch. Hot Fix challenges you to repair a number of heat fans and ultimately reseal the Maintenance Sector’s paranatural Furnace. Paper Chase requires the destruction of a set number of sticky notes, as well as surviving the shuffling sticky note monsters. Ground Control drops you into Black Rock Quarry to kill Astral Leeches in order to uncover irradiated pearls that need to be collected into a shuttle and launched into orbit. Each well-designed level offers opportunities to use the Kits’ different abilities, such as the Fix Kit’s wrench providing quick repairs to broken fans that lets you sidestep the button matching sub-game other Kits might need to perform, or the Splash Kit’s Humidifier spraying healing water to wash off radiation. But the Jobs also bring their fair share of downright terrifying moments, such as the confrontation with the literally giant sticky note boss monster, Sticky Ricky, which requires you to power up surrounding generators before you can hurt it. Or the aforementioned nightmare-inducing Astral Spikes that haunt the Quarry. ​​ Customization and corruption keep you guessing With its satisfying gunplay and smooth controls that feel at home on the DualSense wireless controller, there’s a lot to look forward to with FBC: Firebreak. Plenty of extra tantalizing elements will be expanded for launch, too, such as the many unlockable customizable gears and cosmetics for weapons, equipment, armor, or level unlock perks, such as the chance for electrified bullets or the ability to shake off radiation or fire by jumping up and down. There’s even a Corruption Level modifier that introduces Corrupted Items that cause additional hazards, such as low gravity or—the horrifying one I encountered, which led to many deaths—super fast enemies. It’s all designed to make the most of movement and character status-based systems, creating unpredictable results that set up FBC: Firebreak to be a compelling and ever-evolving experience. The doors to the Oldest House reopen when FBC: Firebreak shoots onto PS5 on June 17, with day one availability for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members as part of PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. And for anyone who still has any doubts, don’t worry – Remedy has this all under Control.

Minutes into my mission, I'm having second thoughts. Gunning down a dozen zombie-like enemies is a lot for a lowly office worker in the Federal Bureau of Control. At first, it's hard to have faith in my gear -- a backpack water jug with a cannon for drenching enemies. But then my fellow FBC squad mate (a secretary or middle manager, I forget which) uses his kit to zap all the soaked foes at once. With our third coworker slamming their wrench into anything that moves, we barely manage to fix up some broken fans before sprinting for the elevator as the doors close on the enemy horde.Welcome to FBC Firebreak. Media got a chance to play the game for a few hours in an online preview ahead of its release on June 17. Six in-game years after the events of Remedy Entertainment's seminal 2019 game Control, the FBC headquarters is still partially occupied by the otherworldly Hiss invaders. But the brave workforce of the FBC has stepped up, and as one of the agency's rangers or secretaries or middle managers, it's up to players to drive them out of the offices. FBC Firebeak is a departure for Remedy as its first game built to be multiplayer rather than its decades of single-player adventures. But the studio's newest title is a smaller-scope "AA" game, unlike the flagship AAA releases like Alan Wake II, Control and its other prior hits. However, Firebreak's $40 price tag (or $50 for the deluxe edition) that matches its more modest scope will be welcome to players reeling from the sticker shock of $80 games coming from Nintendo and Microsoft.In my preview, I could see how Remedy is attempting to blend its signature style of weird, funky gunplay into a multiplayer setting, and mostly succeeds. There's a lot of character to the world it's built, and players will likely enjoy taking on the role of supernatural emergency responders as a change of pace from the gunplay-heavy squad shooters they know. But diehard fans of the studio's storytelling-heavy approach will have to adjust to the new game's fast co-op pace.And they'll have to get used to its difficulty, because FBC Firebreak is hard.I'll give you an example: My two squad mates -- one of whom was CNET video editor Sean Booker --  and I dropped into one of the three missions available to us. We each picked a gun and one of three equipment backpacks, each offering unique tools that work best when combined -- a key way the game encourages teamwork. We set the mission to normal difficulty, and out we went. Remedy EntertainmentThe mission (or "job" in Firebreak talk) we chose was Paper Chase, wherein our squad is tasked with cleaning up a plague of supernatural Post-it notes. Like other areas of FBC headquarters, the offices we explored -- faithfully recreated with '60s shag rugs and retro decor from 2019's Control -- had been warped by the invading Hiss, making things even stranger. That meant we weren't just fighting Hiss-possessed FBC workers clawing and shooting at us -- we also had to gun down humanoid golems made of Post-its.Our third squad mate dropped out due to GPU compatibility issues, so our CNET twosome cleared out gobs of Post-its haunting the office floor, all while getting slammed with unending hordes of enemies. We ran out of bullets pretty quickly. My colleague Booker had a mechanic's kit with a mean wrench he could swing around -- it also let him repair gadgets scattered around the level faster. Meanwhile, my backpack water blaster did little more than stagger enemies, relying on a one-two combo with the shock kit carried by our now-dropped-out squad mate.With my weak melee and frequent deaths, Booker and I barely made it back to the elevator to finish the job. For the rest of our preview, we stuck to the easiest difficulty. The equipment kits, called Crisis Kits, come in three varieties (left to right): Jump Kit with shock area attacks, Fix Kit with a wrench and deployable turret and Splash Kit with a water cannon and healing humidifier. Remedy EntertainmentSquad up or die tryingTechnically, you can drop into a "job" all by your lonesome, but I wouldn't recommend it. They're built to be challenging for three people, and I can attest how it's a difficult enough experience with two, even on an easier setting. Four-person squads just weren't balanced, as Remedy developers previously told me, which made sense as I fought tooth-and-nail through narrow hallways, roomy offices and spacious mines that would've felt crowded with more than two other teammates.There are other tools at your disposal to take into jobs, like grenades, deployable equipment to use with your backpack kit and a rechargeable super ability (which we didn't get far enough along to tinker with) -- all gradually unlocked as you level up. Decked out in more gear, we stood a better chance of withstanding hordes of enemies. When I slammed down a jug filled by my water backpack that sprayed healing in a radius around it, we withstood waves of foes that had previously wiped us out.But we still weren't eager to tip the difficulty back up to normal, and how much players struggle may be a make-or-break point for Firebreak's player experience. It's a balance that could be tweaked in many ways before the game comes out in June, from enemy health and behavior to kit effectiveness and ammo availability. Remedy reinforced that the preview we saw was a work in progress, so I'd expect some tinkering to come, but the game walks a tricky line in encouraging (and borderline requiring) cooperation through its unique mechanics and tasks while allowing player flexibility -- after all, the strangers filling your online co-op squad will come in a variety of skill levels and attitudes.In its current state, getting swamped by wave after wave of Hiss while feeling my kit's inadequacy is a bit worrisome. The game shows promise with its unique setting, gameplay and niche in the multiplayer shooter space -- one that favors weirdness and intriguing mechanics over sweaty gunplay. Remedy EntertainmentCo-op in the Alan Wake universeAs the FBC Firebreak developers explained in our briefing before the preview, the game was designed with three core pillars. The most obvious of those was on display when we booted up the game: there should be as little standing between players booting up the game and getting to the action. No cutscenes, plot diversions or dense dialogue to get in the way of jumping into a job.That leads to the game's second pillar: every player gets the same content -- no progression roadblocks or paid DLC to split up a squad. For the $40 entry fee, players will get whatever the Firebreak developers introduce to the game -- which at the moment are two additional jobs coming sometime after the game's launch. This ties into one of my main annoyances during the preview: progression felt too slow to unlock enough items that made me feel effective in the field. It makes sense if Remedy wants a longer progression runway to keep players coming back -- for new equipment, better weapons and more cosmetics to outfit their Firebreak workers.The last pillar was the one I saw the least of -- mainly because we didn't see much of the game: that FBC Firebreak delivers action and moments found "only in Control." From the preview, this bore out in the reliance on kit equipment over guns -- even without my third squad mate following up with an electricity blast, I discovered my water gun could stagger enemies when charged up, leaving my other squad mate to batter them with his wrench. This mixes in a dose of absurdity with the frenetic terror of Hiss hordes. Remedy EntertainmentIn practice, FBC Firebreak feels like a mixture of Left 4 Dead and Ghostbusters, which is a fun and funky blend that shakes up the tired squad shooter genre. But its focus on quickly moving players in and out of jobs leaves little room for the kind of secret-hunting and lore-digging that defined past Remedy games. To that end, it's tough to imagine whether the studio's diehard fans will embrace Firebreak's loops running the same missions without heavy storytelling, let alone standout moments like Control's Ashtray Maze or Alan Wake II's We Sing musical sequence. Firebreak's developers previously told me they don't believe those memorable moments really fit in a multiplayer game, especially if it means forcing players to relive them repeatedly. They're probably right, but it means the new game will need to rely on emergent moments born from unpredictable, often ridiculous situations -- the kind of had-to-be-there memories that help a game stand out.With no more of FBC director Jesse Faden's story until Control 2, and no required story content in Firebreak, the new game seems poised to truly stand on its own. And without any detail on how Firebreak ties into the greater Remedyverse storyline shared across the studio's games, or how much lore it has tucked away waiting for players to discover, Firebreak will sink or swim based on how fun it is to run around as an office drone saving your workplace with wild gadgets and guns. A lot of that remains to be seen.  Watch this: I Attended the Public Nintendo Switch 2 Experience