Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Why this crypto-heater should cost much less than $3500

Posted: 16 Mar 2018 12:00 PM PDT

My facebook feed, prior to Fb’s shift to personal updates and friend posts, was filled with two things. Gadgets, and cryptocurrency. So it isn’t surprising that this Crypto Heater video popped up in my news feed a while back. I refrained from jumping onto the bandwagon and talking about it until now… because only recently, something struck me. Something rather clever, I’ll admit.

This is the Qarnot QC-1. It’s a heater, but it’s different. It doesn’t just generate heat, it mines cryptocurrency. In fact, the very fact that it mines cryptocurrency is what makes it produce heat. Here we struggle with heated CPUs after opening 15 tabs on Google Chrome, and on the flipside, you have a heater that relies on this very phenomenon. Basically, the QC-1 generates heat for your room as a by-product, but what it really does is mine crypto-coins without having you bother understanding the complicated process of currency mining.

The heater costs $3500 and lets you select your coin of choice and mines it (sending it to your wallet) while heating your room. Here’s where my brain begins working. Why does it cost $3500? For the guys at Qarnot, here’s something I thought you should know. I’m no expert here, but hear me out. You charge people $3500 for a machine that makes money for them. Why not charge them the bare minimum? Enough to cover material, production, and shipping costs… and then give them just 10% of all the currency the QC-1 mines while 90% of it goes to your company as profits.

Yes, there will be a handful of people who will bypass your system and hack the QC-1 to mine coins for them… but a large part of your population probably won’t. In fact, you’re more likely to sell more units at a lower price point… and mint a good 90% of profits from all those heaters. You’re offsetting the risk on the average consumer too, who probably knows how much values fluctuate. They’ll just be happy they got a reasonably priced heater that generates them some cash for them every now and then.

This entire premise is, however, heavily dependent on crypto-coins holding their value. Which they aren’t at the moment. I know. I’ve got a few hundreds lying about. Let’s hope they pick up in the future? And as for my brilliant billion-bitcoin idea… any investors out there interested??

Designer: Qarnot Computing

You’ll love the F out of this keyboard!

Posted: 16 Mar 2018 09:00 AM PDT

The Fucktron Glass Keyboard doesn’t just have a funky name. It’s also quite functional! The latest in a trend of stretched display devices, it can be used as a keyboard, shared/full display, or even as a game console itself! Thanks to its transparent OLED display with a touchscreen surface, users can change the keyboard layout, background and color schemes with the click of a button. Not only usable as an input device, it also transforms the keyboard into a vibrant aesthetic element that adds flair to your desk top!

Designer: Sputnik Goods

Gamers Going Green!

Posted: 16 Mar 2018 07:05 AM PDT

Whether you grew up gaming, chances are your parents use the line “why don’t you do something with your life!” at least once. With the D’Or gaming drone system, now you can tell them you are!

It explores the concept of gamification to rid the air of harmful pollutants so we can all breath cleaner, healthier air. The drone itself is equipped with the latest filtration and ion purification as directed by the European Space Agency. Viewing through an app on their smartphone, users can control the drone in a sort of augmented reality space, playing a variety of integrated games solo and versus other players. The more air they clean, the more points are awarded. Leaderboard and ranking features also encourage more cleaning!

Designers: Kavithasan Patkunam & Samay Sigamani

The concept was also developed as part of the KTH Innovation startup incubator in Sweden.

Designed and engineered to purify the air around us by using high-efficiency filter systems that are used in the International Space Station or ISS, which is currently orbiting around the earth.

The filter systems are integrated seamlessly into the propulsion units of the drone.

Computational Fluid Dynamics tools such as Ansys CFX and Fluent were used to understand the fluid motion/flow through the filters and the propellers.

Forget the Glue Gun, Meet the Hot Glue Pen

Posted: 16 Mar 2018 02:00 AM PDT

A winner of the 2018 iF Gold Award, the Gluey pen from Bosch brings all new ease to adhesive crafting! Like a jumbo Sharpie pen, it fits comfortably in the hand thanks to its tactile, oversized grip. This comes in handy when you’re looking for precision placement of any of the 5 distinct color options that transform your glue from a construction material into decor itself!

It breathes new life into your crafting creations with vibrant huge of Evergreen, Lagoon Blue, Smoky Grey, Cupcake Pink and Marshmallow or other variations like glitter glue! This sticky solution sable on a variety of materials like paper, plastic, wood, glass, leather and more. Best of all, the wireless design is compact enough to throw in any bag, backpack or craft kit and heats up in just 60 seconds so you can get to gluing!

Designer: Bosch

Low Poly + High Power

Posted: 15 Mar 2018 04:00 PM PDT

Designed with an aesthetic that’s instantly memorable, the Karlmann King SUV is a “Ground Stealth Fighter” with a design that one could characteristically and literally describe as edgy. It ditches the organic, aerodynamic design that most cars go for, and opts for something polygonal and frankly, beastly.

Created by a worldwide team of nearly 2000 designers, developers, and engineers, the Karlmann King SUV is based on the Ford F-550 chassis and packs a 6.8-Liter V10 gasoline engine. Each automobile is hand-made, requiring 30,000 painstaking man hours to piece together. Made to look like an absolute monster, the exterior is crafted from carbon fiber and sheet steel, with an optional bulletproof coating. With that sort of armor and aesthetic, the Karlmann King is the kind of vehicle you’ll look at with feelings of awe coupled with a hint of fear. The price of that feeling?? Close to $4 million.

Designer: Karlmann King

Chess is now a “card” game!

Posted: 15 Mar 2018 02:00 PM PDT

Never thought you could put a chess set in your back-pocket, right? I mean, sure you could download a chess app, but where’s the fun in tapping at a screen as opposed to actually moving chess pieces? Innovo’s card chess set was literally designed to fit a game of tactile chess into your wallet! The 3D printed card-shaped, card-sized design comes with everything you need, from a board to all 32 chess pieces. Just snap the pieces right off their support structures (you differentiate the black and white players by the holed and non-holed pieces) and plug them right into the board. The board doesn’t come with the checkered pattern but it does have a grid made on it, so your gameplay won’t really get affected. It even comes with additional slots outside the board to dock pieces that have been eliminated from the game.

The Card Chess Set is great for carrying around and using in what I can only assume is an unexpected chess-based-emergency… or just showing off, to be honest! My only gripe is that you don’t really have any place to keep the chess pieces after your first game, since you’ve snapped them off their support structures. Anyone got any solutions?? Let us know!

Designer: Kiriakos Christodoulou (Innovo Design)