Hasta La Ideas

Whether you choose an Apple AirTag or a Google Find My Device compatible Bluetooth item tracker, one thing is common, it will work with a dedicated network. If you want a tracking device that can work across both platforms – because you are someone who regularly switches between an iPhone or Android device – the choices are limited: Tile may be one, but I cannot think of any other at the moment.

Now that we are at it, an ideal cross-platform solution on the horizon is the Chipolo Pop. Launched recently, the item tracker is a compact coin-sized device, with a built-in key ring hole, that can work with both the Apple Find My and Google Find My Device networks out of the box. Available in several colors and a choice of matching key ring color, the Chipolo Pop is precisely the colorful tracking device that you would want.

Designer: Chipolo

Designed like the other tracking devices, to keep track of your keys, bag, luggage, and more, the Chipolo Pop is a round tracking device. The little thing measures only 38.8 millimeters in diameter and comes in blue, yellow, red, green, black, and white color options to choose from. Despite the petite size, it has a key ring hole – to attach the device to a range of items – which can be matched to the color of the tracker for more symmetry and vibrance.

The tracker along with dual network compatibility also receives an improved 120dB speaker, for very loud alerts, and a companion app to provide you with more finding superpowers. Chipolo has some interesting trackers already in its range, but all are dedicated to either network, Pop is the company’s first attempt at a universal solution, but it comes with a catch. The device can either be set up with the Find My app on iOS or it can connect with the Google’s Find My Device app on Android; at no point can the Pop work with both the ecosystem at the same time. Choose one network at a time is the mantra.

For more versatility, however, the Chipolo Pop comes paired to a dedicated companion app, which allows the device to be used as a remote camera shutter for your connected smartphone. In addition, it offers Call Your Phone feature that triggers by pressing the tracker twice and rings your misplaced phone even if it’s set on silent mode. When you’re feeling playful, you can use the app to customize the alert tone on the Pop.

Powered by a replaceable CR2032 coin cell battery, the Chipolo Pop with a Bluetooth range of up to 300 feet, comes in an IP55 rated body for water and dust resistance. It is currently available at $29 for a single unit. You can opt for a pack of four, which would cost you $89. The Pop is available through Amazon and is also selling on the company website where a pack of six of these trackers is going for $121 at the time of writing.

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A web of wooden joinery designed to mimic the rafters of a boat frames the Bahrain Pavilion, designed by Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh for the Expo 2025 Osaka.

Named Connecting Seas, the 17-metre-tall pavilion draws on Bahrain’s coastal heritage, taking cues from the region’s traditional dhow boats that were once used to transport heavy goods.

“The Bahrain Pavilion is conceived as an anatomy of a dhow, a contemporary evocation of the traditional Bahraini dhow – a vessel deeply embedded in the kingdom’s maritime heritage,” Ghotmeh told Dezeen.

“Rather than directly replicating the vessel, the architecture captures its essence – its rhythm, timber construction and sense of voyage,” she added.

Ghotmeh, who is founder of Paris-based studio Lina Ghotmeh Architecture, designed the pavilion with a curving roof that dips at its middle and rises at each end.

The structure encompasses 995 square metres and is built from 3,000 pieces of Japanese cedar. The framework protrudes in a patterned formation from the pavilion’s side elevations to “evoke the movement of rafters in the sea”.

In contrast to the wood, a translucent membrane envelops the front facade as a nod to the sails typically found on a dhow boat.

Beyond its gridded facade, the pavilion opens up to an atrium that traverses the structure’s four floors and is crowned by a roof opening.

This central area serves as the main exhibition space and is divided from the adjacent spaces by expansive membrane walls chosen to create an “ethereal presence” within the pavilion.

“These materials give the structure a soft, sail-like appearance, evoking the fabric of a traditional dhow and gently filtering daylight into the space,” Ghotmeh said.

“The choice of membrane not only enhances the pavilion’s lightness and permeability but also supports passive climate control.”

Flanking the atrium is a cafe on one side and a gift shop on the other, where openings draw light and ventilation into the interior.

A wide central staircase leads to the upper levels, with the first and second floors containing additional exhibition spaces that wind around the central void. The exhibits are dedicated to “trade, crafts, manufacture, pearling and ecology” in Bahrain.

The pavilion’s third floor operates as a business area, complete with seating and meeting spaces. Additional services, including an elevator and second staircase, are held at the building’s rear.

Sustainable strategies integrated into the design include the use of reusable materials, minimal foundations and passive cooling techniques.

“The Bahrain Pavilion integrates sustainability holistically through its design, materials, and construction methods,” Ghotmeh said.

“These strategies aim at making the Bahrain Pavilion a model of circular, low-impact architecture.”

Other national pavilions at Osaka Expo include the Saudi Arabia Pavilion designed by Foster + Partners to mimic traditional villages in the Kingdom and the UK Pavilion by Woo Architects which has been cloaked in a “tessellated veil”.

These two structures were featured in our roundup of 10 stand-out pavilions at the event, along with the Bahrain Pavilion.

The photography is by Iwan Baan unless otherwise stated.

Expo 2025 Osaka takes place in Osaka until 13 October 2025. For more fairs, events and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

The post Lina Ghotmeh brings “sense of voyage” to Osaka Expo with boat-like Bahrain Pavilion appeared first on Dezeen.

The humble tape measure is easy to take for granted, but it’s a marvel of modern engineering. A 25-foot-long piece of spring steel, far less than 1mm thick, can be coiled into something that clips to a pocket. Unfurled, a curve is induced across its width, giving it a beam-like strength that allows it to hold a rigid, straight shape.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego found another application for tape measures beyond measuring: Being used as robot hands. Those companies currently developing humanoid robots will tell you that developing artificial human-like hands is expensive. The UCSD researchers reckon tape measures can accomplish a lot of gripping and conveying tasks at a fraction of the cost.

“We like to look for non-traditional, non-intuitive robot mechanisms,” says Nick Gravish, an Assistant Professor at UCSD’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “The tape measure is such a wonderful structure because of its combined softness and stiffness together.”

The gripper has two “fingers,” made of two spools–each made of two rolls of measuring tape bound together. Each spool is rolled up, in a compact configuration, with only a small part extending out in a triangle shape to form a finger. These triangle sections are controlled by four motors each that control the finger’s motion. Each finger can move independently. The triangle sections can lengthen to reach objects that are farther away. They can also retract to bring objects closer to the robot arm the gripper is mounted on.

The dual-conveyor-belt configuration means their invention, called GRIP-tape (Grasping and Rolling In-Plane), can rotate objects in place:

In a fruit-picking application pursued by the team, the two fingers can rotate a lemon to break it off at the stem:

For now, the invention requires remote control. The team’s next steps will be to add sensors and AI, in hopes of achieving autonomous function.

The most extreme version of a sleeping bag is probably the mummy bag, so named for its sarcophagus-like shape. Designed for cold climates, the tapered form minimizes the interior volume, allowing your body’s heat to more easily fill every cubic inch.

The mummy bag is fine for those who can sleep in a position like the bag’s namesake, all night. More casual campers, and those who toss and turn because they haven’t spent the entire day scaling an icy peak, can find even ordinary zip-sided sleeping bags restricting. Thus Rumpl, the Oregon-based camping gear company that pioneered the technical blanket, has adapted their signature product into a wrap-style sleeping bag that offers more freedom of sleeping positions.

Called the Wrap Sack, it is slightly tapered at 20° (the mummy bag shown above is tapered at 15°) but is structured more like a trapezoidal tortilla than a book. The center of the wrap is what you lie on, before folding the side wings over you, turning you into a human burrito.

You can go wild-style and leave the wings unfastened, or clip them shut at intervals to prevent shifting.

A two-way zipper is also incorporated, and rounds the corner at the bottom, so you can free sweaty feet if need be.

A hood-like “pillow pocket” up top holds one of the company’s Camp Pillows in place.

The company says having both wings folded over you will get you through a 20°-30° night, while just one wing can handle a 35°-45° night. It will fit campers up to 6’2″ in height.

Rumpl is a B Corp that offsets 100% of their carbon footprint each year. The Wrap Bag’s 100% post-consumer recycled shell, liner, and insulation is made from 155 plastic bottles.

The Wrap Sack runs $200.

Why blend into the masses with your boring white Apple Pencil when you could opt for something vastly cooler? Meet the Apple Crayon Pro, a custom version of the Pencil Pro built by the folks at ColorWare. Designed to look exactly like a Crayola crayon (while functioning seamlessly as Apple’s cutting-edge iPad Pro stylus), the Crayon Pro comes in 7 color options, and looks perfectly gorgeous when docked to the side of your iPad.

ColorWare’s built its reputation on building unique colored alternatives to regular tech products, from colorful mice to earbuds to even speakers – although the Apple Crayon Pro might just be their cutest little invention yet, paying tribute to the first ever creative tool most of us grew up using.

Designer: ColorWare

As its name suggests, the Crayon Pro is a customized version of the Pencil Pro, which debuted in 2024 along with the latest iPad Pro model running the M4 chip. On the inside, it’s every bit the Apple peripheral, but it gets a customized exterior, available in as many as 7 different colors – ranging from white and black, to more eye-catching options like mint green, red, and my favorite yellow. No, Space Grey and Rose Gold aren’t available yet!

The Crayon Pro is undoubtedly creative, but the price of this creativity is a whopping $215, or $86 more than the original $129 Pencil Pro. For that surcharge, you do get a unique stylus like no other, and the bragging rights of being a true creative. Just don’t accidentally give your Crayon Pro to your toddler, lest they brake it while scribbling on paper, or worse, try to sharpen it!

The Crayon Pro ships 2 weeks from now (so sometime in May 2025), and is compatible with the M4 iPad Pro models, the M2/M3 iPad Air models, as well as the A17 Pro iPad Mini.

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