Aug 07
Screw comfort. At least, that’s Stefan Zwicky‘s take on furniture design if his concrete chair is anything to go by: five pieces of concrete held together by steel rebar make for a striking, if numbing, piece of design. More »
Aug 06
Seinfeld excelled at criticism of the everyday. A few months ago, in a fine essay in the NY Times, Sam Anderson suggested that Roland Barthes was the father of pop cultural criticism and that we are all now cultural critics in the Barthian vein, “decoding everything.” Perhaps. But if Barthes gave us serious criticism of popular culture, Seinfeld taught us to be ironic critics of the utterly mundane. Case in point: toilet paper. More »
Aug 06
We reamed the Sony SmartWatch in a recent review. It was almost mean of us; it was definitely emotional. And while we stand by our opinion, another new Sony product perfectly illustrates why we got all pissed off: The gorgeous, awesome RX100. More »
Aug 06
I’m not sure how the TSA will deal with the grenade-like looks of this USB flash drive, but it definitely looks interesting. While I prefer something more minimal, the fact of the matter is that some USB flash drives get lost so quickly that it makes sense to make them more visible. The RuggedKey uses a protective orange bumper to keep the flash drive secure, and so you probably won’t lose track of it either.
The RuggedKey was designed by the Scottish designer Neil Poulton, and has similar looks to LaCie’s rugged orange hard drive. When the RuggedKey flash drive is stowed in the bumper, your data is supposed to be safe from heat, cold, and 330 feet drops, as is evidenced by this video:
It’s made to be unbreakable, but I’m sure we’ll see a YouTube video where someone finally manages to break it – with a steamroller or by dropping it in a tub of thermite.
It comes in sizes of 16 and 32 GB and is USB 3.0 compatible. The 16 GB RuggedKey sells for $39.99(USD) while the 32 GB version costs $69.99.
[via designboom]
Aug 06
As Apple and Samsung continue to battle over product design, a possible new HP tablet has popped up in their marketing fluff with an intriguing look (see those tapered edges?! SEE?!). But considering that a successful tablet design is one with as little weight and volume around the screen as possible, is there still room for a design that’s not only original, but visually exciting? More »
Aug 06
If people still can’t get it right after you’ve color coded and labeled your trash cans to death, then what’s a designer supposed to do? Come up with an even better trash can in the form of GO Recycle.
The lid of each bin actually has a molded sample of what you’re supposed to throw in them. Of course, it would help if they still had their labels (or were actually made out of glass, paper and metal,) so the lids would only serve as an additional guide to help out trash throwers who aren’t sure which bin their garbage is supposed to go in.
The GO Recycle bin was designed by GOODSSPASSION, who “intends to revolutionize the recycling industry and make it consumer-friendly” as “the idea of the GO bin is [to] make recycling fun and convenient.”
[via Yanko Design]
Aug 05
If you have a Bruce Wayne sized bank account, you may want to turn your man cave into a bat cave like this Dark Knight home theater. You see that bookcase on the left? It slides out to reveal a Tumbler behind it. How cool is that?
There’s also a spare bat-suit or two for that imminent change into character, several seats for all of your bat friends and all of the controls are in back. The stalagmites on the ceiling are a nice touch. This setup is so good that you expect to see some actual bats flying around inside.
Those seats look mighty comfy too. Just sit down, set up the movie, have Alfred bring you some popcorn and watch your favorite Batman flick.
[via Geekologie]
Aug 05
Whenever I check the weather on my phone, I open up a couple of different apps, I always find it funny that none of them give exactly the same information. That being said, I don’t currently use an app like Partly Cloudy, which definitely looks like an interesting way to check the weather forecast.
Designed by Raureif, the Partly Cloudy app runs on iOS devices, and has a unique, compelling visual infographic based on the face of a clock. Time is shown on the outer ring of the display. The second ring represents the temperature for that time. As you turn the clock’s hand, the app will show you the weather for that hour. It will also display highs and lows, wind force, the amount of precipitation and the weather situation, and includes numeric indicators as well.
While there are a ton of weather apps out there, Partly Cloudy definitely has a unique and visually compelling way of displaying forecast information. You can get the Partly Cloudy app for $0.99 at the App Store.
[via MOCO LoCo]
Aug 05
There’s nothing quite like the joy of making company ever-so-slightly uneasy, and these deceptive chairs with a faux-slant would probably do the trick. More »
Aug 05
I have nothing against touchpads on laptops, but they aren’t exactly the easiest things to use, especially when you’re editing or cropping images. Now portable mice do fine, but they’re not the most convenient things to use if you’re left to work without a surface. I’ve tried using my regular mouse on my leg while my laptop was propped on my lap when I was rushing to meet a deadline. Let me just say the mouse slipped a couple of times and the people around me weren’t very impressed with my random yelps, gasps, and occasional curses.
In situations like this when you have to use your laptop and your mouse on a curved surface, then the Arc Mouse would be perfect.
The mouse is curved in form, so you can use it on your leg or the padded armrest of an arm chair with ease. It doesn’t look like it would be very useful if you’re using it on a normal flat surface, so it’s probably best to use and take along when you’re working out of the office.
The Arc Mouse is a concept design by Seunghoon Shin and Chang Seok Kim, which also happens to be a 2012 IDEA Awards entry. And yes, I know that Microsoft already has a mouse with the same name, but that’s where the similarities end.
[via Yanko Design]
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