Jan 10
This week, MoMA confirmed its plans to raze a neighboring museum, creating a continuous connection to the luxury supertall going up next door.
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Jan 10
Almost a full year ago, Nike introduced its first shoe ever built with the help of 3D printing technology. The thing was, that cleat, the Vapor Laser Talon (seen below), was built for an absurdly specific purpose and market—just the 40 yard dash, just for NFL players. Now, though, Nike is bringing what it’s learned from the VLT to the consumer market—innovations that, without 3D printing, we might not have seen for years to come.
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Jan 10
A bulb is a bulb is a bulb. Wait, no, not—not when it looks like this it isn’t. These energy-efficient bulbs make low power consumption a form of high art.
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Jan 09
I am a dope when it comes to constellations; identifying Orion’s Belt and the Dippers (Big and Little) is about as deep as my skills go when it comes to eyeballing the heavens. This Crumpled Sky Map by Palomar seems like it would be an awesome tool to help me and my fellow heavens-blind folk educate ourselves in the ways of the cosmos.
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Jan 09
For architecture nerds, the best part about Star Trek: Into Darkness
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Jan 08
Would you ever walk into a stranger’s home and ask to buy the necklace draped on their side table? Or offer to give them cash for some of their cutlery? No? Well, meet Mira Schröder. She lives in an apartment that functions as a part-time showroom, where everything—including the amazing flippable bed above—is available for purchase on-site.
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Jan 08
While the singularity may still be a ways off, mankind has long marveled at analogies between the inner workings of the human body and the industrial processes of the modern world. The most famous of these design-minded biologists, German doctor, illustrator, and author Fritz Kahn, not only revealed startling similarities between the two, he invented the medium of infographics to do so.
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Jan 08
As the polar vortex puts an unprecedented deep freeze on America, it’s business as usual at Sweden’s
Posted in: Today's Chili
As the polar vortex puts an unprecedented deep freeze on America, it’s business as usual at Sweden’s Icehotel, where people have been paying to experience a night in the cold for 24 seasons. This year, French architects Les Ateliers des Germains carved out a Parisian skyline in one suite—the perfect setting for visitors to act out any sub-zero Amélie fantasies. [Design Taxi]
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Jan 08
Now I know what you’re thinking. Most personal computers available today are already modular. That’s true, but what Razer wants to do is to make swapping computer components as easy as replacing the batteries on your remote control.
Project Christine has a base station with a number of slots with proprietary connectors. To build your PC, you just plug in the components to the base. But instead of dealing with fragile chips and odd-looking doodads, Project Christine’s CPU, RAM, GPU, storage drives and other parts will each have its own container.
Each container will be labeled and it will be able to connect to any slot or slots on the base station. No cables, no fragile connectors and no need to figure out which part goes where. In other words, the modules work like USB devices. Project Christine will also have an LED touchscreen that shows the status of its modules.
This means even non-techies can assemble, maintain and customize their own rigs. If you want more storage, then fill the slots with storage drives. Project Christine can have up to five storage drives, one SSD and four HDDs, with the latter configurable to a RAID 5 setup. If you want multiple GPUs, by all means slot them in. The computer can have up to a quad-SLI setup for its graphics cards. Same goes for repairs. Busted power supply? Swap it out. No need to open a dusty case.
The tradeoff here is probably going to be the price of the components, especially if Razer monopolizes the distribution of the modules. But even though it has not released any estimates, the company has a proposal to make upgrading Project Christine easy on the wallet: a subscription service. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan mentioned this idea in his interview with Gamespot. Skip to 4:00 in the video below to him talk about it.
Subscription-based hardware? I can’t decide if that’s brilliant or stupid. Will it also cover repairs? How fast will Razer release module versions of computer parts? Do upgrades to computer parts even come at a steady pace? What if you subscribe and nothing awesome comes out in a year?
I do however love the idea of a foolproof yet infinitely upgradeable computer, and I get what Razer is doing here. It’s taking a page from Apple’s books: make beautiful and easy to use hardware, then charge a premium for it and control the upgrade path.
Upgrade your browser and head to Razer for more on Project Christine.
[via Gamespot]
Jan 08
How many times have you found your phone running low on battery when you need it the most? If you think that it has already been one too many times, then it’s time you got a portable battery pack, or maybe an Everpurse.
The Everpurse is basically a power bank of sorts. The big (and obvious) difference is it comes in the form of a purse. It has a charging pocket inside where you’re supposed to put your phone. There’s a dock connector at the bottom that connects directly to your phone, so you won’t have to deal with any cords or wires anymore.
Charging the Everpurse itself is convenient, too. It charges by induction, so all you have to do is put it on its charging mat and leave it while it powers up.
The Everpurse comes in iPhone 5/5s/5c, iPhone 4/4S, and Samsung Galaxy S3/S4 variants, and is available online with prices ranging from $189 to $329 (USD) depending on the fabric you choose.
[via Laughing Squid]
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