Hasta La Gadget!

There aren’t that many maglev trains in operation yet (one is currently operating in Shanghai, China and another is in Japan). There have been skytrains and monorails before, but this is the world’s first magnetically levitating system of mass transit, which will be built in Tel Aviv, Israel. Previous maglev trains were for intercity journeys, not urban mass transit.

Skytran was designed to reduce urban traffic congestion. It’s supposed to be less expensive to use, faster, and more comfortable than cars or buses. The two-seater pods allow for personal transit between stations.

Vehicles will be requested through a mobile app and are supposed to arrive almost instantly on demand.

The system was designed by engineers from NASA and Skytran. I wonder how this will scale up when tens of thousands of people try to use it every day. It kind of reminds me of the pods in Minority Report.

[via designboom]

This summer, ten small libraries mysteriously appeared throughout New York City’s Lower East Side and East Village. But who paid for them? Who designed them? And what was the point? In a short film published today, the creators finally answer our many questions about how the Little Free Library came to be.

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Photography has come a long way since its beginnings, but there are still some amazing things to be discovered by looking at how things worked back then. Inspired by the early days of photography, this lens has been re-engineered from one that was invented in the 19th century.

The team of Lomography have released their Petzval lens, which is supposed to replicate the lens that was originally invented by Joseph Petzval in Vienna, Austria, in 1840. It will work with Nikon F-mount and Canon EF-mount DSLRs.

The original Petzval lens was used to create beautiful portrait shots, and the new lens keeps the same strong color saturation, depth of field, bokeh elements, etc for which the lens was lauded.

Lomography launched their project as a Kickstarter campaign, and it’s been wildly successful so far. They’ve already amassed over $833,000 versus their goal of $100,000 – so this lens will definitely be made. There are 25 days left of funding, but you’ll have to pledge $400(USD) to get yours.

You may not interact with ink as much as you used to, but you have to give it credit for powering millions of pens and a crap ton of printing. We still consume a lot of media that exists because of ink. And a good way to celebrate it might be to just let it flow and see what happens. Ruslan Khasanov, a Russian graphic designer, felt the same way so he mixed ink, oil and soap to make this trippy and awesome video called Pacific Light. Khasanov was inspired when he watched black beads of soy sauce form in oil while he was cooking. There are great stills and gifs on his Behance. Kind of makes me long for a tie die comeback. [Colossal]

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If you find yourself lying in bed trying to read emails or get some work done, you know it can be tricky to hold your laptop in the right position if you want to lie down. Now, thanks to this gadget, you can use your laptop while lying flat on your back.

It’s unclear how the stand holds onto your laptop when lying upside-down, but the image above suggests that you might need a bungee or rubber band of some sort to hold it in place. There’s definitely a lip that holds the front edge in place.

In addition to the configuration shown above, Uncaged Ergonomics‘ highly-adjustable WorkEZ Executive stand can be used in a wide variety of positions, as a standing desk or even as a tray table in bed. The aluminum stand can hold items up to 22 inches-wide, and can stand up to 2 feet-tall. it’s also got ventilation holes built into the bottom to help keep your computer cool.

Best of all, the WorkEZ Executive laptop stand sells for just $65(USD). It’s available over on Amazon, where it’s available in black, blue, silver or even pink.

[via CRNCHY]