One person’s trash is another visionary person’s community art project. In this clever and beautiful repurposing of old CDs, Ignatov Architects has created Mirror Culture, a shimmery entrance to the public park in Varna, Bulgaria. A bunch of used CDs never looked so good.
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It’s hard to have a decent meal when you’re traveling or are spending extended periods of time outdoors, where you might not have access to tableware and basic utensils like a spoon and a fork.
The designer behind Pop-up Tableware aims to change that with this relatively simple but ingenious concept. In its unfolded version, the Pop-up Tableware looks just like an A4-sized folder.
Once it is opened, a hexagonal bowl pops up. A spoon and fork can be removed from the folder, which also serves as a place mat. With a few quick folds, the spoon and fork are transformed into three-dimensional utensils.
Pop-up Tableware is a 2013 Red Dot Design Award winner. It was designed by See Yew Siang.
[via Red Dot]
Some people put out pails and bins to collect rainwater when it rains. Others, like the folks of MARS architects, put out benches. They’re very different objects, but they serve the same purpose: to collect rainwater which will be used to water plants, wash cars, hose down driveways, and so on and so forth.
So you might be wondering, how does a bench collect rainwater? Well, it’s all in the cushions. The bench MARS came up with features grooves and seams that direct the water into inlet buttons. The collected water is stored in an underground tank and in the aboveground tank (which is, essentially, the bench.)
The benches are available in three capacities: 500 liters, 1,000 liters, and 1,800 liters, each of which is recommended for certain locations to maximize their usefulness.
The smallest unit does not even require any ground work, and is best equipped for roadside installation; the medium size includes an underground tank and is well-suited for gardens and greenhouses; and the largest one is appropriate for public parks and playgrounds.
The bench came to be after MARS was commissioned by the BMW guggenheim lab to join in on the think tank’s vision to come up with innovations that would benefit cities and urban environments.
[via designboom via Likecool]
Music is befitting for a variety of activities, not the least of which are outdoor sports that require a helmet. While earbuds can work in such a situation, they’re not entirely ideal, and that is where Outdoor Technology’s new Chips Bluetooth headphones come in. Unlike traditional headphones, the Chips setup features two speakers connected by […]
Keeping your USB-powered gear powered up while camping in the woods or hiking the Appalachian Trail can prove quite a challenge. Solar chargers and backup batteries can help, sure, but when you’re already hauling dozens of pounds of gear, an integrated solution is where it’s at. Goal Zero has a pair of new products to help streamline things a bit. First up, the Lighthouse250 Lantern can provide 48 hours of 250-lumen LED output with a full charge, and it can charge up a gadget via a built-in USB port. If you don’t have a solar panel handy, you can use the hand crank to juice up the lantern in the field. The company’s also teaming up with Eddie Bauer on a solar panel-equipped tent, the 36-square-foot Katabatic 2 — you’ll need to add your own battery pack to store the energy collected from the 18-watt roof-mounted panel. Eddie Bauer has yet to announce pricing for the tent, which should ship next spring, but you can expect the lantern to retail for about 80 bucks in Q4.
Filed under: Household, Peripherals
We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is from John, who is so baller that he wants a TV for his pool and doesn’t end his emails with thank you. If you’re looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
“I’m getting ready to have a pool installed and I need a TV for the back porch. I’m looking for something in the 50-inch range that works outdoors, has good viewing angles and backlighting (for the sun) and can handle whatever the weather throws at it. Any suggestions?”
We can imagine it now, you, kicking back watching the Superbowl American Idol finals while submerged in a few feet of water as the sun goes down. So, what device should you go for? For starters, there’s SunBrite’s 46-inch outdoor TV, which’ll set you back $2,795, or a 55-inch model, which costs $5,595. You could also paint a wall white and get set up with an outdoor projector, like Panasonic’s PT-AE7000U, which we’re informed will work outside perfectly well. But that’s just our scratching the surface, what about you all chip in with a suggestion or two of your own?
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Clean water can be hard to come by, especially when you’re in the great outdoors or traveling in areas that don’t have sufficient facilities. While you might come by a water source, the water is probably unsafe for drinking and might contain contaminants or pollutants that might make you sick.
Small, portable water filtration systems are already available, but Vapur goes one step further by including an actual water bottle with their system.
Vapur already manufactures a line of foldable and collapsible water bottles that are widely used by travelers and those who want a convenient way to store and transport water.
Vapur calls their portable water purification system MicroFilter. It’s packaged and sold with the 1-L Eclipse Anti-Bottle, and both weigh just 2.7 oz (77 g) when empty. The 0.2-micron filter can remove 99.9999 percent of waterborne bacteria and 99.9 percent of protozoa, although it can’t remove viruses like most other filters.
Vapur’s new portable filtration system has received recognition from publications like Outside and National Geographic. The MicroFilter system was launched this week and can be purchased for $69.99(USD).
[via Gizmag]
Hand-cranked emergency chargers are nothing new, but the folks behind Voltmaker managed to come up with something novel based on the same concept. Instead of having to turn the crank laboriously, you’ll only have to hold the gadget and spin it round and round to generate energy.
In effect, you’ll be spinning the part of the charger that’s usually supposed to be turned manually.
Spinning should cause less strain since it’s a more passive action. Spinning the Voltmaker for two minutes will give you enough juice to make a quick emergency call. If you want to fully charge up the Voltmaker 2,000-mAh battery, then you’ll need to spin the device for two to three hours. So really, we just recommend using this nifty gadget during emergencies only – unless you don’t mind looking like a fool spinning this thing around for three hours.
The Voltmaker is currently up for funding on Indiegogo, where a minimum pledge of $69(USD) will get you one of your very own if you’re one of the first 3,000 early bird backers.
[via C|NET]
Although there’s no dearth of rugged tablets, most are still built on the assumption that civilization is close at hand. Sqigle, however, suggests that its upcoming Earl tablet could work even if there’s no civilization left. The new, crowdfunded Android 4.1 slate centers on a light-up, 6-inch e-paper screen that both extends the battery life to 20 hours and makes the 5 hours of solar-powered recharging sound reasonable — theoretically, Earl never needs to see a wall outlet. It’s also built to do as much as possible without leaning on either WiFi or a PC. Along with both analog and digital radio, the design should incorporate ANT+ sensor support and preloaded topographical maps. The project isn’t ideally timed for outdoorsy types when it’s expected to reach backers in the late summer, but the $249 advance price is low enough that it might justify a camping trip in the fall.
Filed under: Tablets
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Earl
Sure, it’s easy to whip yourself up a old-school backyard fire-pit with a ring of rocks and whole lot of ugly. But wouldn’t you rather have a portable, modular fireplace that looks ready to blast off to the stars? Who wouldn’t? More »
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