If you’re looking to get into the knockoff leather game, there could be pools of cold, hard cash in your future just waiting for you to go diving on in. All it takes is a little half-assery, a more-than-questionable moral compass, and the knowledge of where to actually cut those corners—which can be harder than it seems. Fortunately for you, Saddleback Leather CEO David Munson is here to show you how to fake his bags the right way—tongue, of course, planted firmly in cheek.
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At last week’s CES 2014, Audi showed off its new Smart City Traffic Light Assistance, a system that gives you a countdown until the next stoplight on your route will turn green. So you can speed up to catch it on time, or slow down and relax because you have an extra few seconds. It’s magic!
The Smart City Traffic Light Assistance system uses local data sources about traffic light patterns and timing. This info is beamed to your vehicle over Wi-Fi. The system uses this data and the speed and heading of your vehicle, to determine how long you have and gives you a countdown timer for when the next traffic light will turn green.
Okay, it is more math than magic, but it is a thing to celebrate. Now we will know the future. At least as far as traffic lights are concerned.
[via Geekologie]
Photovoltaic panels aren’t the most glamorous technology: They’re usually tucked away on a roof, and when you can see them, they’re ugly. And inefficient. But what if they made architecture more beautiful? And what if they were more efficient, working even at night? Say hi to Rawlemon, a solar ball lens that is quickly making its way to market.
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Mother Nature is lovely, but relentless; more and more, it seems like recovery-mode is standard operating procedure for large swathes of the world. On a small scale, some designers are finding ways to give new life to the damage left behind by natural disasters. Following a 5.9 earthquake that shook northern Italy in 2012, prolific designer Patricia Urquiola teamed up with inlay brand Budri to utilize their extensive archive of marble and stones that were damaged in the trembler.
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Attention all sophisticated super freaks: this one’s for you. Say hello to the Disco Dish, a flashy light fixture from the off-kilter creative mind of Dutch designer Bertjan Pot.
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Fifty years ago today, in 1964, the US Surgeon General released one of the most progressive documents on smoking of its time, stating definitively that, yes, smoking tobacco can indeed be fatal. And with it, the Untied States’ cigarette culture began its (often frustratingly, grudgingly slow) overhaul from one of hipness and health to shame and decrepitude.
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You may heard of Switzerland’s Giger Bar. They were put together by H.R. Giger, the artist best known for the incredible, but creepy designs for Ridley Scott’s Alien flicks. The bars mimic the style of those movies, but with alcohol. Too bad we don’t have something similar in the U.S. However, a Giger Bar could be coming our way.
Graphic designer Andy Davies wants to open a sci-fi themed hotel called… The Sci-Fi Hotel. It would combine a variety of classic sci-fi designs, but he wants a bar in it too of course. The property is being developed with the full permission and partnership of H.R. Giger, so it should be awesome.
As of now there is no definitive location that they have in mind, but apparently Seattle is near the top of the list, as well as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans. Anywhere is good. Just build one here already!
[via Nerd Bastards]
Some say that the future of data storage lies in cloud computing. But until high-speed Internet access is available on a global scale, we’ll still need ways to store data locally. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of bulky external hard drives and USB sticks we had paper-thin flash devices instead? Industrial designers Aditi Singh and Parag Anand think so, which is why they came up with dataSTICKIES.
Singh and Anand dream of dataSTICKIES as paper-thin flash memory devices. They based their concept on graphene, a carbon allotrope that exists in layers that are only one atom thick. Aside from being insanely thin, graphene is also durable and conducts electricity well. In theory at least, it can be used to make electronic devices that are way better than the ones that we have today, including data storage devices.
Singh and Anand imagine dataSTICKIES would be like sticky notes. You could write on them and stick them to practically any object. They even thought of a foolproof way to connect the concept device to computers. Instead of traditional connectors, dataSTICKIES would simply stick to a transparent data transfer surface located in a practical position, such as along the perimeter a monitor or on the back of a mobile device. You won’t even have to worry about running out of “ports” because you can stick multiple units on one data transfer surface.
Like sticky notes, dataSTICKIES would also make it easier to associate data with the physical world. For example, you could use posters with tear-off strips of dataSTICKIES to distribute vast amounts of information. Or spam. Or malware. Okay I’m starting to hate that poster idea.
Singh and Anand’s concept was honored at the 2013 Red Dot Design Award. It’s certainly a great idea, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything like it soon. Stick a browser on your computer and head to the dataSTICKIES website for more on the concept.
[via Gadgetify]
Navigating a city with a child in a stroller is hard enough, but imagine doing the same with a set of twins. Those double strollers are like driving a miniature bus, and you’ll always be on the hunt for ramps, elevators, or a long way around a set of stairs. It’s a problem that designer Jade Olsson may have just created a solution for—thanks to her six-wheeled T(w)o Go stroller concept, which can keep rolling right on up a flight of stairs.
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We recently saw Razer’s concept for their newbie-friendly modular desktop computer. ZTE is also mulling taking a similar approach to mobile phones. The company presented its idea at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). ZTE calls its concept device the Eco-Mobius, a smartphone with swappable core components.
Eco-Mobius is almost exactly the same as Dave Hakkens’ Phonebloks concept as well as Motorola’s Project Ara prototype, two ideas that went viral late last year. The goal is to separate a phone’s major parts – CPU, RAM, GPU etc. – into modules that users can remove and replace on their own. In ZTE’s design, the modules will be held in place by magnets. As with Razer’s Project Christine, ZTE also thinks they can enable users to install multiple units of the same hardware, such as multiple storage devices or even multiple cameras.
Macmixing spoke with a ZTE spokesperson at CES about the Eco-Mobius:
I’d love for all of my gadgets to be modular and customizable. I wish I was modular. My eyes and back badly need an upgrade.
[via ZTE, Red Dot Design & Macmixing via CNET]
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