Hasta La Gadget!

Freescale Semiconductor is helping to kick this year’s CES off with a bang, as its latest reference smartbook design actually has somewhat of a sexy flair to it. Currently, the model is little more than a great idea, but the company is hoping to have it available for partner evaluation starting next month. In theory, at least, this “smartbook tablet” would boast an ultrathin form factor, weigh around 0.8 pounds and get powered by a 1GHz i.MX515 processor. Other specs would include 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 1,024 x 600 touch panel, 4GB to 64GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, optional 3G WWAN module, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, a USB 2.0 socket, audio in / out, 3 megapixel camera, inbuilt 3-axis accelerometer, an ambient light sensor and a 1,900mAh battery. We aren’t quite sure what kind of bulk discounts Freescale is counting on, but it’s hoping that this design will “enable a second generation of smartbook products with prices less than $200.” We dig the ambition and all, but we’re guessing OEMs will actually want to turn a profit should they sign on to sell something like this.

Continue reading Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Babygadget: Think this little crib on wheels looks like a hospital incubator? There’s a reason for that! Castor & Chouca, French designers, take inspiration from the best design in the medical field, reinterpreting it for the home. Looks like there’s a little more room to be playful in the domestic arena.

Castor & Chouca crib cart [Babygadget]

Phaidon, publisher of the best-looking books on the planet, just released Pioneers, Mass Production, and New Technologies, three volumes each containing 333 of the most impressively designed objects of the last century. Here are 12 gadgets that made the cut.

The books move loosely through the 20th century—though they also contain some objects that were devised in the 19th century, and others that a certain Mr. Ive and Mr. Jobs cooked up since the year 2000. We skipped over all the Apple stuff, and much of the classic Braun and Bang & Olufsen objets de tech that you commonly encounter in gadget retrospectives. We looked deeper into the list, to find unexpectedly wondrous objects of great design. (We also skipped about a million different chairs—according to these books, designers spend more time thinking about where to park their keisters than any other dilemma in human history.)

Needless to say, the books are unbelievably gorgeous and informative, and the juxtaposition of so many varied products gives you new insight into what designers think about.

All three books are published this year by Phaidon as a series. They list for $40 each, but thankfully Amazon is selling them for a lot less (see below). While it makes sense to maybe buy just one, it’s tough to pick just one, and not just because the products are numbered from 1 to 999, with each volume covering one third. To simplify things perhaps too much, Pioneers covers archetypal designs we now take for granted, Mass Production includes all of the smartly conceived products we grew up with, and New Technologies brings design up to date with contributions from the consumer electronics and computer businesses. As much as the third volume best fits our readership, it’s almost more exciting to see how the legacies of the earlier product design movements informed the new tech.

• Pioneers on Amazon for $26.37

• Mass Production on Amazon for $26.37

• New Technologies on Amazon for $29.16

James Cameron‘s Avatar required many technical miracles, including next-gen 3-D cameras and motion-capture, but it also needed years of sketching and brainstorming from a platoon of concept-artists and designers. We talked to five designers, and learned Avatar‘s secret design history.

We interviewed creature designers Wayne Barlowe and Neville Page, plus concept artists James Clyne, Ryan Church and Daphne Yap, about creating a whole new universe from scratch. Plus we’ve got some stunning concept art, from the new book The Art Of Avatar. In a year that’s seen some amazing books of movie concept art, The Art Of Avatar features 106 pages of lush full-color paintings, interspersed with the industry’s greatest design minds geeking out about every little aspect of Avatar‘s creation.

So here are a few things you didn’t know about the design of James Cameron’s Avatar:

Avatar Started As A Four-Month, Late-Night Jam Session At James Cameron’s House

“[We’d be] working late at Jim’s house, and having him come back after a three week spell of being down at the freaking Titanic, and having him tell us a story [about being on the ocean floor].” Read the rest of the story.

Pandora’s creatures were partly based on cars

Early on in the process, James Cameron “mentioned the core idea” of having Pandora’s creatures be “superslick and aerodynamic, and be like a race car with racing stripes,” says creature designer Neville Page. Read the rest of the story.

Those crazy color schemes are from the ocean floor — and Art Nouveau

“In the real world, we didn’t invent these colors. They exist on animals today. We didn’t invent a whole new palette. I think the problem is — the challenge is — you don’t often see large creatures with this much color on them.” Read the rest of the story.

The human hardware, including those crazy battlesuits, is all based on real stuff

“One thing I worked on big interior for the mech suits, and the whole interior had to have a reason and function for why the suits were lined up the way they were, and how they could work on them like a pit-stop at an F1 race. It had to have that functionality.” Read the rest of the story.

Avatar concept art from The Art Of Avatar (Abrams 2009)

Not that we haven’t seen turntable capabilities shoved into production and concept devices alike before, but there’s something curiously seductive about this one. Dreamed up by Sir Thomas Mascall, the Touchtable is a pocket-sized PMP that boasts a digit-friendly surface meant for scratching, mixing and all manners of interacting. Aside from playing back your favorite MP3s, this bugger can (in theory, anyway) also mix jams on the fly, cue outputs and even connect with a second Touchtable wirelessly in order to establish a more traditional DJ setup (at 1:8 scale). Plug it into a PC, and now you’ve got a MIDI controller. Pop that source link if you’re looking for a few more images and details, and feel free to contact your local VC if interested in seeing this fast-tracked to the commercial realm.

Touchtable mixer takes conventional PMP design for a wiki-wiki-twist originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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