Hasta La Gadget!

Can’t find your Nintendo DS? Try one of the new Adidas sneakers instead.

Adidas has created a virtual 3-D world that can be accessed using an upcoming line of five men’s sneakers in an idea that ties into one of the technology trends of the year: augmented reality.

“The foundation of augmented reality lies in adding a layer to the real world,” says Chris Barbour, head of digital marketing for Adidas Originals. “That’s what we have done. We have taken a real world item and added a fantastic virtual world on top of that”

All users have to do is go to the Adidas site and hold up their sneaker, which has a code embedded in its tongue, in front of their computer webcam. A virtual world then pops out in front of them and they can navigate it using their sneaker as a controller.

“We are not trying to mimic a real-world look, we have a more stylized, pop-up book creative approach,” says Barbour. “The neighborhood is displayed on a two dimensional computer screen, but you can use your shoe to control the angle and depth of view and zoom in and out, giving a 3-D sense of perspective.”

Over the next few months, Adidas plans to introduce three augmented reality games developed by game developer xForm into the virtual neighborhood. The sneakers will then serve not only as the key to get in, but also act as the controller for the games. Among those available will be a skateboard game, where the sneaker acts as the controller to navigate the virtual city’s alleys, a Star Wars-like game with the sneaker and a music-based game.

The shoes with the augmented reality codes will cost between $65 and $95 and will be available starting February.

Sure, a large part of this is a marketing gimmick and Adidas is not the only company to try out augmented reality in its products. But that doesn’t take away from that this is an idea that makes an ordinary physical object fun and injects some technological pizzaz to it.

See Also:

• If You’re Not Seeing Data, You’re Not Seeing
• At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry
• Augmented Reality Ghost Hunting Creeps Into App Store
• John Mayer’s Augmented Reality Video Puts Fans in Picture …

Photo: Adidas

As a connoisseur (read: obsessive collector) of bags, I have discovered the ingredients of the perfect design. The problem is, I have no idea of the recipe with which they should be mixed together. Taken on their rather strong product releases over the past few months, it seems the folks at Booq have been taste-testing bag designs and have come up with some pretty scrumptious results.

The perfect bag should be comfortable to carry (and lightweight), have pockets, nooks and crannies which organize your gear and give easy, fast access, and it should be big enough to squeeze in more than you thought you could. And of course, it should look hot.

The Mamba Shift reminds me more than a little of the Kata 3N1 line, a camera bag that is almost perfect. Like the Kata, the Mamba Shift is a backpack with a combination of cavernous interior and many, many pockets in which to squirrel away your various devices. The Booq bag also has a padded laptop sleeve, a pair of pop-open pockets on the shoulder-straps which hold phones and MP3 players and a removable wallet for, well, anything. And lest you worry about a sweaty back, the Mamba has a breathable mesh layer to let the air in and the perspiration out.

The spec-sheet isn’t the only top-end feature, either. The bag costs a hefty but not over-the-top $150. Available now.

Mamba Shift product page [Booq. Thanks, Brad!]

See Also:

• Rush-Hour: Booq Bag Is an Office in Your Lap
• Taipan Shadow Notebook Bag Slithers Onto Market
• Hands On: Kata 3N1 Camera Backpack
• Hands-On with the Ortlieb Velocity Backpack

Unless you’re a top racer, Shimano Dura-Ace components are on your bike for one reason — showing off. Now you can bring this same over-the-top exhibitionism to your sleeves, with these rather fetching Dura-Ace cufflinks, fashioned from links of the famed chains joined to sterling silver fasteners.

This is an altogether more elegant use for old bike chains than those familiar from my youth. Back in the dark ages of England in the 1970s, a land of corduroy, nylon and warm beer, the bike chain was most likely to be seen swinging dangerously from the tattooed fist of a skin-head football hooligan, a compact weapon which combined portability, light-weight and a good range, along with excellent face-slicing and eye-removal properties. These cufflinks are a reminder that today we live in much more civilized times. Times in which it is considered acceptable to put a $70 chain onto a fixed-gear runaround. £50 ($80).

Cycle Chain Link Cufflink [Shiny Cufflinks via Bike Hugger]

Those of you following along at home may remember that the Lady is fundamentally opposed to wheel-along suitcases, on the grounds that they make men unattractive. So of course I had to call her in for an opinion on what I foolishly thought was an awesome mashup between a suitcase and a scooter, the Trolley Scooter

Me: What do you think of this?

The Lady: No. Oh my god. No.

Me: What’s wrong with it?

The Lady: Everything. Everything is wrong with it.

Me: Like what?

The Lady: You won’t get “desired”* if you use that in an airport.

Me: Maybe traveling in an airport is just about traveling, and not about getting “desired”.

This earns me a withering stare. I feel like a five-year old who just asked to borrow the car keys.

The Lady: Everything is about getting “desired”. You drink Coca-Cola to get “desired”. Tell me, if you saw a girl riding that, that thing in an airport, would you want to “desire” her?

Me: Erm…

The Lady: Would you?

Me: No?

So there you have it. What at first seems like a simple (and carry-on compliant) way to have some fun in the terminal is in fact a highly complex sexual game, like – it is now evident – every product ever sold. Somebody needs to get on the phone with the co-conspirators of this design prototype, Samsonite and Micro Mobility (maker of those yuppy-favorite fold-up scooters), and tell them how things are. And if you want to know what bag you’ll need if you want to get “desired” by the girls, it’s the Ortlieb Velocity backpack, which is the Ldy’s favorite.

*Not the actual word she used.

Trolley Scooter von Samsonite und Micro [Styl.in Rooms via Oh Gizmo!]

See Also:

• Bad Traveler: Suitcases Likely to Attract Attention
• Coffee Tugo: Suitcase Mounted Cup-Holder

Void’s VO2 is a watch that looks much like a cross between an iMac and an old-fashioned car dashboard. And like any watch in this day of ubiquitous cellphone clocks, it is almost impossible to tell the time on it.

I used to own a Void. It was a space-age bracelet with enough strobing, pulsing LCDs and chip-tunes to fill an illegal Berlin drinking-den. I loved it, and I never, ever, knew what the time was.

The VO2 has a slab-like steel case into which is cut the mystery-slot. Long and short hands correspond with hours and minutes, as you would expect. But when the clockwise-moving hands reach the end of the display, the other end of that same hand slides in from the other side. If the first hand is white, the “second” hand will be red. To read the time, you need to decode the colors as well as the numbers and positions. Is your brain hurting yet?

Watch design, at this level at least, seems to be running counter (sorry) to interface design in general. While everyone except Motorola moves to make devices easier to read and use, watch displays become ever more beautifully convoluted. $200.

VOID VO2 Watch New Release [Watchismo Times]

See Also:

• New Watch Takes Electronic Ink Beyond Books
• Casio Spruces Up Nerdy Calculator Watches
• Rock Out With Your Clock Out: We Test Atomic Watches