Hasta La Gadget!

Even for a renowned outlet like Art Lebedev Studios, it’s hard to get quirky, design-centric products out in a commercialized, race-to-the-bottom world. Far too often, dreams die at the production line, and some of the best designed gear in the world stalls on the drawing board. Somehow or another, Sherwood Forlee and Mihoko Ouchi have managed to overcome the traditional production limitations and bring this particular fantasy to life. If you’ll recall, we heard about The.’s Speak-er back in January of this year, and while we knew plans were in place to start shipping ’em to end-users before the dawn of 2011, we maintained a healthy level of skepticism — there’s nothing quite as heart-wrenching as having your bubble burst after ratcheting your hopes up too high, you know? Today, we’re thrilled to say that the Speak-er is now shipping to those with $99.95 to spare, and if you care to hear what we think about the most awesome set of desk speakers this planet has ever known, head right on past the break.

Continue reading Speech bubble-shaped Speak-er now on sale, we take a listen

Speech bubble-shaped Speak-er now on sale, we take a listen originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, Shibuya has its own banana vending machine. How about a banana building?

Ginza’s Sony Building is currently hosting its annual Art Wall event. Every year since 2007 it has hosted the results of a public competition to decorate the side of the showroom with something dramatic and fun.

2010 was won by Yumiko Kanda, whose banana was recently adorning the whole building and injecting some much-needed positivity into these grim retail times. The next of her creations is a roast chicken, which replaced the fruit a few days ago and will be exhibited until Christmas Day. Shame it’s not a turkey.

What do Gizmodo readers photograph when they can photograph anything? Abstracts. Wildlife. Stars. Microscopic particles. In short, a lot of really neat, diverse stuff that’s sheer fun to look at. More »

The Media Computing Group — otherwise known as the dudes and dudettes responsible for making multitouch hip again — is back, and some might say better than ever. The BendDesk is an outlandish new concept workspace for the future, relying heavily on a curved multitouch display to bring the wow. The desk is the Group’s vision of merging multitouch with a common physical area, and it’s probably the best implementation we’ve seen yet. A full ten touch points are supported, but the lower portion is also designed to be used as a standard desk, holding your laptop, paperwork and ink pen collection if you so choose. Shockingly enough, the whole thing looks exceptionally ergonomic, too. Head on past the break for a glimpse of it being used, but don’t hold your breath waiting for a ship date and price — something tells us it’ll be awhile before either of those are published.

Continue reading BendDesk: the curved multitouch workspace of the future (video)

BendDesk: the curved multitouch workspace of the future (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen slick hand-crafted ceramic speakers in the past, but this one millimeter-thick collaboration between potter Mitsuke Masagasu and design firm Nendo is in a different league. An entirely different league. The set is result of the so-called Revalue Nippon Project, created by Japanese footballer Nakata Hidetoshi to revive traditional Japanese art forms. Nakata selected five curators — in this case the director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazaw — who were then tasked with pairing a ceramicist and designer to collaborate on a one of a kind form. Not satisfied with simply being 31 times thinner than the emaciated Mythos XTR series as a sole basis for artistic impact, the speaker’s ravishing circuit design is also made without a human touch. Instead, a computer-controlled process cuts thin slices from a ceramic substrate slab, fixes them with mercury vapor, and then mounts them via a robotic arm. Amazingly, sound quality is still also touted as being top notch. There are no plans however for these speakers to ever be mass produced, so if you were hoping to snag one as the ultimate accessory for your über-modern flat… well, let yourself down easy, alright champ?

Nendo’s ceramic circuit board speaker gives the rest of the audio world body image issues originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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