Hasta La Gadget!

What were some of the best moments for you in 2013?

For some, it was the N’Sync reunion at the VMAs and the invention of cronuts, which gained traction so fast and quickly became one of the most popular snack-slash-breakfast foods, with people lining up for hours to get a bite of one.

Then there was Ylvis’s crazy popular hit single, The Fox, that came with an equally fun and crazy video to boot. Some of the year’s biggest moments (most of which went viral) are immortalized in clay by Play-Doh for everyone’s amusement. Check out the gallery below for Play-Doh’s 2013 Year in Review.

You can find more fun creations on Play-Doh’s  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Just don’t try eating the Play-Doh cronut. It’s not nearly as tasty as the real thing.

[via Laughing Squid]

The relationship might be over. But the memories (or scars) from it will live on. If not in your heart, then in your mind.

I think that can be said in Sebastian Errazuriz’s case, as he drew inspiration from past relationships and ex-lovers for his new series called 12 Shoes for 12 Lovers.

As the title implies, each pair in the collection was inspired by an ex-girlfriend. Her personality, their relationship, and vivid memories are all brought to light and to life with each pair.

From the Rock (which is inspired by what seems to be Sebastian’s most painful relationship) to the Cry Baby, each pair of shoes tells a story. Sebastian is only too happy to fill in the blanks and clue you in on the woman behind the designs with the commentaries that accompany each pair.

12 Shoes for 12 Lovers is currently on display from December 6th, 2013 to January 6th, 2014 at the Melissa Pop-Up shop in Miami.

[via designboom via Laughing Squid]

Waterloo-based startup Palette is building a moddable hardware controller for your computer that can turn into a complete mixing board, should you need one. It’s a hand accessory that fits the description of something I’ve actually been looking around for based on the fact that editing video without some sliders for fine-tune scrubbing is a pain, and it’s on Kickstarter now.

Co-founders Calvin Chu and Ashish Bidadi are seeking $100,000 in funding to make it a reality, and he already has over $60,000 pledged. Each starter kit unit includes one power module, one dial, one slider and one button, but you can add on more after the fact if you find you need more. They start at $99 for a basic kit, and should ship by June according to Chu if the project meets its schedule.

Modules simply snap together, requiring no advanced hardware hacking on the user’s part, and making for a completely customizable hardware interface. The usefulness for sound/video/photo editors is huge, as you could potentially assign commonly used keyboard commands to specific palette modules via the companion desktop app that ships free with any kit. It’s also handy for gamers, who want a number of commands within easy reach, and perfectly suitable for DJ work, as well as a handy accessory just for making things like using Skype easy, as in the example controller Chu built for his grandmother.

Some issues include the fact that support has to be created specifically for each application that wants to use the Palette controls, but Chu and his team are looking to offer Adobe Creative Suite support out of the box, as well as plug-ins and scripts for DJ software like Traktor and Ableton. They anticipate a community will emerge to help support the full range of available software.

Chu is a mechatronics alumni from Waterloo, the same program that brought us the MYO armband and Thalmic labs, and he’s worked for Apple, Toyota and others in the past, so he definitely seems to have the skills to back up this grand vision. One thing’s for sure: I want these, and I want them now, before I have to edit my next video the old-fashioned way.

Designers are constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to the materials they’re using for their designs. Artist Jolan Van der Wiel and designer Iris Van Herpen certainly did when they collaborated to create a collection of dresses made using iron and magnets.

The duo designed the pieces by using the material’s magnetic property, moving and shaping a composite of iron filings and molten plastic using a tool with very strong magnets embedded within.

The entire process is a lot more complicated than it sounds, and that fact is certainly backed by the results. The dresses don’t look that comfortable to wear, but each one is probably the only one of its kind in the entire world.

The dresses were unveiled recently at Dutch Design Week. What do you think?

[via designboom via Dvice]

Living spaces are getting smaller and smaller unless you can afford to pay the premium for a larger apartment. It makes sense to only have essential furniture at home, since they’re bulky and will give your flat a cramped feeling if you’ve got too much of them.

Cue the Bloc’d Sofa, which turns into a whole host of furniture options, depending on what you need at the moment.

First and foremost, it’s a sofa with cube cushions. If you want a flatter sofa or a bed of sorts for a quick nap, then all you need to do is rearrange the cushions this way and that to form the final arrangement of your choice.

Bloc’d Sofa was designed by Scott Jones, who explains that his goal behind the piece was “to try to understand why we hold on to some objects, while we discard others.”

Scott adds that Bloc’d started out as “a pile of discarded furniture I [Jones] walked past on an NYC sidewalk.” He is currently looking for a manufacturer for Bloc’d but is currently accepting individual orders on his site.

[via Gizmag]