Hasta La Gadget!

The world of concepts is quite the wonderful place to behold, it’s filled with electric supercars, cameras that only ever need one lens, beautiful BlackBerrys, and now… a self-cleaning door handle. The product of one Choi Bomi’s hyperactive imagination, this gatekeeper continuously sterilizes itself with a UV light, only taking a break when you actually use it. A clandestine switch in the handle’s frame is what toggles the sanitizing illumination on and off, a spark of cleverness that’s earned the design a Red Dot award. That’s great, now who hands out the awards for making economically viable, mass producible devices?

Self-sterilizing door handle looks perfect for hypochondriacs, is as real as their ailments originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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London would do well to dispense with the Concept label right now and just turn these into its next fleet of people carriers. Volkswagen has unveiled the latest in a series of World Taxis it’s doing, prettying up London’s admittedly iconic black cabs with a sheen of new paint, an all-electric drive, and an infusion of tablet-based infotainment. Based on the Up! city car, the London Taxi Concept has an estimated range of 186 miles and takes an hour to go from zero to an 80 percent charge. It also has a grayscale version of the Union Jack emblazoned on its roof, guess that’s just how VW rolls. Sadly, we doubt anyone will be in a hurry to heed our sage advice and start using this concept any time soon, particularly since it doesn’t pass London’s taxi regulations at present, but it’s a harbinger of a future we’d like to see become real.

Continue reading Volkswagen’s London Taxi Concept: smaller, prettier, more electric than the real thing

Volkswagen’s London Taxi Concept: smaller, prettier, more electric than the real thing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iconic Stand is seemingly still a concept, but an interesting one for sure. Korean-designed iPhone stands, they’re made of birch and have a serious natural feel to them. The makers have seen fit to design the stands with various famous logos for properties such as Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger built right into them. And while a nice little iPhone stand (which will apparently hold your phone whether it’s nude or Bumper-wearing) with an iconic logo on it sounds pretty neat to us, we can’t imagine these are actually… you know… licensed. Another example is after the break, hit up the source for a plethora of images.

Continue reading Iconic Stand for your iPhone can put any logo to good, unauthorized use

Iconic Stand for your iPhone can put any logo to good, unauthorized use originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even for a renowned outlet like Art Lebedev Studios, it’s hard to get quirky, design-centric products out in a commercialized, race-to-the-bottom world. Far too often, dreams die at the production line, and some of the best designed gear in the world stalls on the drawing board. Somehow or another, Sherwood Forlee and Mihoko Ouchi have managed to overcome the traditional production limitations and bring this particular fantasy to life. If you’ll recall, we heard about The.’s Speak-er back in January of this year, and while we knew plans were in place to start shipping ’em to end-users before the dawn of 2011, we maintained a healthy level of skepticism — there’s nothing quite as heart-wrenching as having your bubble burst after ratcheting your hopes up too high, you know? Today, we’re thrilled to say that the Speak-er is now shipping to those with $99.95 to spare, and if you care to hear what we think about the most awesome set of desk speakers this planet has ever known, head right on past the break.

Continue reading Speech bubble-shaped Speak-er now on sale, we take a listen

Speech bubble-shaped Speak-er now on sale, we take a listen originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, so there’s no actual way to phone up Sad Keanu Reeves and confirm that the Mercedes-Benz BIOME is indeed on sale in the “real world,” but it should be. Revealed in The Matrix’s own LA Auto Show, this here vehicle has a theoretical weight of just 875.5 pounds, but it’s likely far too wide to cruise on this planet’s existing roadway system. The vehicle was imagined by designers from the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studios in Carlsbad, California, and it’s said to be “fully integrated into the ecosystem, from the moment of its creation right through to the end of its service life.” How so? It’s grown “in a completely organic environment from seeds sown in a nursery,” and just being totally frank here, we’ve no idea what that means. But hey, if M-B can figure out how to grow cars in Morpheus’ backyard, who are we to question the reality of it?

Continue reading Mercedes-Benz BIOME concept car grows in a nursery, on sale now in Zion

Mercedes-Benz BIOME concept car grows in a nursery, on sale now in Zion originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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