Dezeen
Spoot: Spotted Early keeps Dezeen in one place: 3 stories so far. The section currently leads with “Meta's Muse Charm is too cute to trust”, “Phones with robot arms and keyboard cravings: five designs worth the pocket space”, and “The electric Ferrari got booed, but Jony Ive's fingerprints explain the real story”. Meta's Muse Charm is a tiny, adorable AI pendant that hangs around your neck and listens, ready to whisper reminders, translations, or answers into your ear. A phone with a literal robot arm. Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns,… The list below is every Dezeen story on Spoot: Spotted Early, newest first.
Meta's Muse Charm is too cute to trust
Meta's Muse Charm is a tiny, adorable AI pendant that hangs around your neck and listens, ready to whisper reminders, translations, or answers into your ear. It's pink, it's soft, it's got big round eyes, and it is absolutely too cute to trust. Why are AI companies suddenly obsessed with making their surveillance-adjacent devices look like they belong in a Ghibli film? Dezeen's editors Nat Barker, Jennifer Hahn, and Tom Ravenscroft dig into that exact discomfort on the latest episode of Dezeen Weekly, alongside a discussion of New York City's so-called "jailscrapers", skyscrapers designed to hold people, not offices. If you want more on why we're all side-eyeing wearable tech, our earlier piece on Kylie Jenner's side-eye review of Meta's new glasses is worth circling back to. Stay spooty.
Phones with robot arms and keyboard cravings: five designs worth the pocket space
A phone with a literal robot arm. Not a concept render, not a crowdfunding fever dream, but a design someone actually put together and said, yes, this belongs in a pocket. That's the kind of specific weirdness we live for. This roundup gathers five handsets that put design first, from that mechanical appendage to a keyboard phone clearly built for people who type faster than they talk. It's a refreshing break from the endless glass slabs. The honest take? Some of these will feel like solutions looking for problems. Others might just make you question why every phone looks the same. If you're already circling back for the details, our piece on Dyson's camera-toting toothbrush suggests we're equally intrigued by tech that refuses to play it safe. Stay spooty.
The electric Ferrari got booed, but Jony Ive's fingerprints explain the real story
A crowd booed a Ferrari. That alone should tell you something strange is happening, because people do not usually boo Ferraris. They boo football referees and reality TV villains. But this was the unveiling of the marque's first all-electric car, designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson, and the room in Rome let it have it. I love that. The launch video skipped the part where the faithful get restless. Ive's fingerprints explain the real story, and they are all over the reaction. This is a car that looks like a product, not a prancing horse. It is a fascinating collision of two design religions, and the worshippers are confused. If you want a palate cleanser, read our piece on six tiny EVs that dare to be small, sharp, and actually cool.