Skip to main content

Check out this all-in-one ‘pop up’ desk that helps you maximize your space

The Edge - All-in-one desk solution for modern life and work
A desk has been causing a bit of a stir on Kickstarter this month.

Launched on the crowdfunding site a couple of weeks ago, the Edge Desk soon smashed through its $165,000 funding goal and over the weekend reached $200,000 in pledges from excited backers.

So what is it about this particular workspace that’s winning it so much attention? Aimed primarily at students, artists, freelancers, and anyone who uses a desk but is tight for space, the Edge Desk features a portable, foldable design that includes not only the top but the seat, too.edge desk 1

Edge Desk founder Marc Rosenberg – once the marketing chief of Furby firm Tiger Electronics as well as toy giant Hasbro – says his four-man team has created an ergonomic solution that can be set up or stored “in less than 10 seconds.”

The 20-pound desk features an aluminum frame and a padded, adjustable seat that resembles one of those kneeling-chairs that were all the rage a few years back. The angle of the worktop is also adjustable, and while the space isn’t huge, it can comfortably take something like a laptop.

Of course, the relatively small surface means you wouldn’t want to risk your coffee (or more to the point, risk whatever you’re working on) by placing it on the top. But that’s not a problem for this particular desk as it comes with a grooved edge that lets you snap in a variety of attachments, which, at a later date, will include a cup holder (yay!), a speaker, and an LED light, to name a few.

“We know the best desk is a clean desk that doesn’t promote clutter, so we’ve made it easy to keep the things you need out of the way, but still close at hand,” the team explains on its Kickstarter page.

Aware that millions of workdays are lost every year in the U.S. alone because of back pain, the desk’s designers have focused on creating a sturdy piece of equipment that’s kind to your body by encouraging good posture. While standing desks are getting increasing attention in recent years, they’re not for everyone and don’t fit everywhere, and besides, the Edge Desk could provide a solution for standing-desk users who prefer to mix things up a bit.

The Edge Desk’s small size and seat design won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s clear that its compact and ergonomic construction, and ability to easily fold and store is, so far, proving a strong enough selling point for backers.

The desk is expected to launch in October with a $499 price tag, though at the time of writing it’s still possible to secure your own unit with a $299 pledge.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
AI turned Breaking Bad into an anime — and it’s terrifying
Split image of Breaking Bad anime characters.

These days, it seems like there's nothing AI programs can't do. Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, deepfakes have done digital "face-offs" with Hollywood celebrities in films and TV shows, VFX artists can de-age actors almost instantly, and ChatGPT has learned how to write big-budget screenplays in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, AI will probably decide who wins at the Oscars.

Within the past year, AI has also been used to generate beautiful works of art in seconds, creating a viral new trend and causing a boon for fan artists everywhere. TikTok user @cyborgism recently broke the internet by posting a clip featuring many AI-generated pictures of Breaking Bad. The theme here is that the characters are depicted as anime characters straight out of the 1980s, and the result is concerning to say the least. Depending on your viewpoint, Breaking Bad AI (my unofficial name for it) shows how technology can either threaten the integrity of original works of art or nurture artistic expression.
What if AI created Breaking Bad as a 1980s anime?
Playing over Metro Boomin's rap remix of the famous "I am the one who knocks" monologue, the video features images of the cast that range from shockingly realistic to full-on exaggerated. The clip currently has over 65,000 likes on TikTok alone, and many other users have shared their thoughts on the art. One user wrote, "Regardless of the repercussions on the entertainment industry, I can't wait for AI to be advanced enough to animate the whole show like this."

Read more