Now that I’m learning to cook more, I’m pretty excited to experiment with dishes I see online. The results aren’t always ready for other people to try. I still have a lot to figure out. On some days, though, I keep it simple and fry something. That brings up a familiar problem: getting rid of excess oil before the food reaches my plate. Usually, I move it from the pan to a rack or paper towel, then transfer it again when I’m ready to eat. What if I could skip one of those transfers?

The Half-Moon Plate is more than a nicer way to serve food for a photo. It pairs a ceramic plate with a half-moon-shaped rack that sits over one side. You can place fried food on the rack to let excess oil and moisture drain away while leaving the other side available for a salad, vegetables, rice, or another side dish. Instead of draining food in one place and serving it in another, the plate brings those steps together.

Click Here to Buy Now: Starting at $70

That arrangement matters when timing is everything. If you’ve made tempura, fried chicken, or crispy potatoes, you probably don’t want them sitting in a puddle of oil while you finish getting dinner ready. Elevating the food gives the oil somewhere to go and may help it stay crisp until you eat. You still need to give freshly fried food time to drain; the plate simply gives you a way to do it at the table or as part of your final plating.

I also like that the design doesn’t make the rack the whole story. The open half of the plate leaves room for the rest of the meal, so the fried food doesn’t have to take over. You can see everything together before you sit down, rather than juggling a cooling rack, paper towels, and a separate serving dish. For someone cooking in a small kitchen, or someone who just wants fewer things on the counter, that’s an appealing idea.

The half-moon shape gives the plate its visual identity, but it also creates a natural division between the main dish and its sides. If you’re trying to be more mindful of portions, that division may be a useful visual cue. It won’t measure a balanced meal for you, and draining surface oil doesn’t make fried food automatically healthy. What it can do is encourage you to think about what else belongs on the plate alongside your crispy favorite.

Compared with an everyday dinner plate from a big brand such as IKEA, the Half-Moon Plate asks a little more of its design. A conventional plate gives you one uninterrupted surface and works with almost any meal. This one is more specialized: the rack makes the most sense when food needs to drain or when you want to keep it elevated before eating. That makes it less of an all-purpose replacement for your existing dishes and more of an addition for meals where its distinctive layout earns its place. The plate is listed starting at $70.

Of course, a plate like this won’t eliminate every step. You’ll still need to handle hot food carefully, wait for it to drain, and wash the rack afterward. Those are worth considering if you’re looking for the quickest possible cleanup. But if you already make fried food regularly, combining a draining surface and a serving plate could make the trip from pan to table feel more organized. When you don’t need the rack, you can lift it off and use the ceramic plate on its own. That flexibility is important: a design meant for one kind of meal is easier to justify when it can still be useful on other days. I’d reach for the rack when I’m making something crisp and use the plate by itself when dinner calls for a simpler presentation.

The Half-Moon Plate won’t make me a better cook overnight. I’ll still have to get the timing, seasoning, and frying right. But it does address one small frustration I know well: watching something come out of the pan beautifully crisp, only to wonder where to put it while I finish the meal. If it helps me serve dinner with fewer transfers and a little less fuss, that’s a design choice I can appreciate.

The post This $70 Plate Is for People Who Refuse to Let Fried Food Sit in Its Own Oil first appeared on Yanko Design.

Pickleball has officially escaped the court. At some point in the last two years, it stopped being ironic and became a lifestyle: parking lots of suburban rec centers filled up, TikTok feeds followed, then came the celebrity investors, the professional leagues, the branded paddle drops, and the kind of mainstream saturation that tells you a sport has officially graduated from niche to undeniable. Getting turned into a Wii-style digital pastime is, at this point, a rite of passage for any sport that has truly made it. Tennis got there. Golf got there. Boxing, baseball, bowling. MegaShot Pickl+ is the moment pickleball collects that particular badge, and it does so with an actual sensor-embedded pickleball racket for authentic gameplay, not some generic rectangular controller.

The smart paddle pairs with your phone, tablet, or laptop over Bluetooth and sends the game to your TV (via an included cable) for big-screen play, mimicking your real swing movements on screen and firing haptic feedback through the handle on every hit. A split-screen mode lets you play multiplayer on the same screen too, making it a great family entertainer. No court reservation, no weather to negotiate with. The Wii taught an entire generation that swinging something in your living room could feel surprisingly real. Pickl+ is betting that a generation raised on that premise is ready to do it again, this time for the sport that has genuinely taken over the world, and without an extra console to add to the mix. The Starter Edition is on Kickstarter now for $175, down from a planned retail price of $249 and the campaign has been backed 500% in just 24 hours! Pickl+ will be compatible with sports like tennis, ping pong, and badminton with more racket sports planned for the same smart-paddle platform.

Designer: MegaShot

Click Here to Buy Now: $175 $249 (30% off). Hurry, only a few left!

Under the hood, Pickl+ is built around a 9-axis sensor that reads the angle, speed, and arc of every swing for precise motion tracking. The haptic feedback responds distinctly to different kinds of hits, making the on-screen action feel genuinely tied to what your arm is actually doing. The paddle weighs around 300 grams, carries a 2000 mAh battery rated for up to five hours of continuous play, and charges over USB-C. Bluetooth 5.2 handles the wireless pairing, while an MHL cable connects your phone to the TV when the living room demands a proper screen. The app runs on Android 14+, iOS 18+, Windows, and macOS. Setup is as minimal as it sounds: download, charge, pair, connect, play. Unlike the Wii, Switch, or the Meta Quest, no extra console or hardware needed.

Most gaming hardware asks you to adapt to the machine: learn the buttons, the gestures, the control scheme. Pickl+ goes the other direction. You know how to hold a paddle, and you know what a swing feels like. Rather than turning a conventional controller into a sports accessory, Pickl+ turns the sports object itself into the controller. The technology is essentially trying to disappear into the physical experience, which is part of what makes it a more interesting object than just a clever game controller.

Ten-plus game modes ship at launch, including Streak, Practice, Split Mode, Career, Local Multiplayer, Target, and Beach Mode, with more already in the pipeline. VIP unlocks exclusive virtual courts, daily bonus challenges, glowing paddle effects, custom ball trails, and profile cosmetics.

Before the Kickstarter campaign went live, the beta version of the paddle was showcased at New York Toy Fair, where people across different age groups, including gaming enthusiasts and industry experts, got hands-on time with the motion tracking, gameplay, etc. It gave MegaShot an early real-world read on how quickly people understood and enjoyed the experience. Motion gaming can look impressive in a controlled demo; the real test is whether someone can pick up the paddle, understand what to do, and immediately have fun. New York Toy Fair gave MegaShot that read before asking anyone to back the campaign.

MegaShot arrived at this with receipts. Before Pickl+, the company built a smart bat, which sounds hyperlocal until the numbers land: 100,000+ units sold worldwide, 2,700+ Amazon reviews, and ratings above 4.5 across Google, Amazon, the Play Store, and iOS. The Smart Bat earned the team a spot on Shark Tank India, coverage across major publications, and placement on Walmart shelves. Cricket was a demanding proving ground, the kind of sport where precision hardware lives or dies by real player feedback. That foundation gave MegaShot a validated tech stack, a battle-tested supply chain, and the track record that earns trust going into a bigger, more globally ambitious launch.

Pickleball is the entry point for something larger. The same paddle hardware is designed to eventually support tennis, badminton, table tennis, and squash, with the VIP Pass carrying across sports as they are added. That roadmap turns Pickl+ from a single-sport product into a platform for multiple racket-sport experiences, which changes the value calculation considerably. The most globally accessible racket sport of this decade is also, as it turns out, the perfect vehicle for a company that built its credibility in one market and is now ready to find out how far a smart paddle can travel.

The Starter Edition, one smart paddle and an MHL cable, is available at its $175 Kickstarter launch price, versus a planned $249 retail price. Duo packs start at $275 for two paddles with a cable, while the Starter VIP Duo Pack, which throws in a VIP Pass, runs $315.

The Signature Edition, the premium single-paddle option, comes in at $349. The Signature Duo Edition bundles two premium paddles with cables, a VIP Pass, and protective sleeves for $499. Worldwide shipping begins in early 2027, covering the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, and India.

Click Here to Buy Now: $175 $249 (30% off). Hurry, only a few left!

The post This $175 Wii-style Smart paddle turns your TV into a pickleball court first appeared on Yanko Design.

Giving out thank-you cards after a wedding or another event is not automatic anymore. Plenty of people still keep the custom alive, but others send a group email, post a message on social media, or simply move on to the next thing. I, for one, like receiving thank-you notes, whether they are personalized or not. They give me something to remember the occasion by, and I might even tuck one into my journal. When a note comes with a small gift, it feels all the more thoughtful. It tells me the sender wanted to give me something I could enjoy after the event was over.

That is the idea behind the AromaCandle Thank You Card. It pairs a greeting card with a scented candle, turning a familiar gesture into something the recipient can read, display, and light. The written message delivers the thank-you, while the candle gives that message a little more time to linger. Even if someone eventually parts with the card because they do not like keeping paper around, they can still enjoy the candle. Well, until it burns out, of course.

Click Here to Buy Now: $20. Hurry, only 2 left!

At its heart, the design brings together two things people already give separately: a card with a personal message and a small gift. That combination is what makes it useful. You do not have to hunt for a candle that suits the occasion and then find a card to go with it. You still have room to write something specific, whether you are thanking a guest for attending your wedding or a friend for helping you move. The product is made in Japan, but its most appealing design choice is simple: it makes the card and candle feel like parts of the same gesture.

You have three options when it comes to the star, or rather, the flame of the show, which is the candle: Sakura (pink), Yuzu (yellow), and Green Tea (green). All three scents are associated with Japanese culture, even though the scents themselves were developed by artisans in Paris and New York. The smells and the colors as well can evoke the feeling of calm, freshness, and serenity once the receiver lights it up. It comes in a minimalist and elegant form and is shaped like a mini bottle with the actual words “Thank You” etched onto it directly.

For comparison, you could buy a Hallmark thank-you card and pair it with a Yankee Candle. That approach gives you more freedom to choose the exact card and candle you want, which might matter if you know your recipient’s favorite fragrance. The AromaCandle Thank You Card offers a different kind of convenience: the two elements are already designed to go together. At its $20 price tag, it is an option for someone who wants to give more than a card without shopping for a separate present. It is not a replacement for a larger candle, but it does make a small thank-you feel more complete.

That makes it especially appealing for occasions when a gift feels appropriate but a large one would feel excessive. You could give it to someone who hosted dinner, looked after your pet, or helped make an event run smoothly. It also offers an alternative to sending a quick text when you want to acknowledge someone’s effort more personally. The candle is a pleasant extra, but it does not have to carry the sentiment on its own. A few sincere, handwritten lines are what will make the gift feel like it came from you.

The AromaCandle Thank You Card solves a small but familiar problem: wanting to say more than “thanks” without making the gesture complicated. Its card gives you space to put your gratitude into words, and its candle gives the recipient something to enjoy afterward. Neither needs to be grand to be meaningful. Sometimes the most memorable part of a gift is simply knowing that someone took a moment to choose it, write a note, and hand it to you.

The post This $20 Thank-You Card Just Solved Saying Thanks Without Overcomplicating It first appeared on Yanko Design.