Hasta La Gadget!

We’d love nothing more than to extol the merits of Sony’s Alpha ultra-compact concept with an interchangeable lens — which bears a striking resemblance at face value to Olympus and Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds standard — but alas, the little device is hidden behind glass. Furthermore, all the Sony reps we managed to corner wouldn’t answer our questions. Will the lenses be interchangeable with Sony’s current Alpha DSLR line, or any of the MFT lenses? What’s been cut from traditional Four Thirds models to accommodate for the drop in size? Radio silence, save for a repeat of this morning’s information and a finger point to the adjacent ”
Exmor APS HD CMOS” sign — which, as we know from this morning, is larger than a Four Thirds sensor, but we’re not sure how much. Still, enjoy the pics we managed to take from behind the glass — and also be sure to enjoy the shots of this morning’s other Sony announcements, the
Super Telephoto Lens (500mm F4 G) and the prototype Distagon T 24mm F2 ZA SSM.

Sony Alpha ultra-compact concept hands-off: leaves much to the imagination originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If, like us, you’ve spent a fair amount of time in a kitchen cooking up a storm, then you’re probably aware of one of the major drawbacks of major home-cooking… it generates a ton of waste. That’s right — up to 85 or 90 percent of a family’s trash can be generated within the vicinity of the kitchen. Faltazi’s concept kitchen should be interesting for just that reason — Ekokook is designed to generate essentially zero waste. The solid waste — things like glass — are ground down using a hand-activated steel ball, and there’s also a manual paper shredder which compacts the leftovers into small bricks. Water is stored, filtered, and reused, with waste water being used to water plants. Oh, and there’s also an eco-friendly earthworm compactor in a drawer! Does it get any better? Well, there’s a video after the break to check out.

Continue reading Ekokook concept kitchen’s mantra: waste not, want not

Ekokook concept kitchen’s mantra: waste not, want not originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These days, the Peugeot brand is associated more with fixed-gear conversion of old road bikes (those old Peugeot racing frames are well made and good looking) than with modern design. But this hot concept design, the B1K, could mark either a return from Peugeot. Or they could just be the dreams of a fevered employee.

The info is limited to these pictures, and as ever with a bike concept they have some clever features sprinkled onto a fundamentally flawed design: It’s hard to improve on the classic double-triangle frame for holding the essentials – seat, wheels, pedals and handlebars – where they need to be.

What we like here is the handlebar, which puts you in the same position as you would ride a Tron light cycle. On the other, uh, hand it has no bar on which to rest your hands whilst riding more upright. Otherwise, it looks all wrong. The seat could just as easily sit atop a post, and the hubless wheel at the back seems to do nothing but put a strain on one edge while requiring beefy brackets to hold it there.

The chain-less drive might work, but again, why bother when the chain-driven bike is such an efficient vehicle already? Finally, what’s going on with those tires? Are they really held on with string, or do performance bikes need little cozies to keep their poor feet warm these days?

Gorgeous Peugeot B1K Concept Bicycle [Bike Rumor]

A portable freezer would be a wonderful thing for camping trips and days at the beach. Or would it? This portable freezer, designed by Ruben Iglesias, is a concept design for a product nobody needs. Except for ice-cream, we freeze food for long-term storage. So a battery powered freezer, even if it could actually get cold enough to hold food below zero, is pointless, unless the batteries last for weeks at a time.

But let’s say that Ruben’s design was actually a useful contraption. Here’s how it works: It is powered by a pair of batteries that also house LED lamps (for reasons unknown). “The lamps produce the energy for the freezer to work and they send it by magnetic induction.”

Really? What’s wrong with a wire, or a metal contact? After all, there must already be tubes running through the box to carry the refrigerant, right? That should leave mean you could easily route a cable. But no, this is little more than a cooler with a pair of lights in the lid. Where, for example, is the compressor?

We’re all for concept designs, but only if they have a root in reality. Whipping up a nice CAD illustration and saying it is an “Ecofreezer” doesn’t cut it. It’s like drawing a couple of circles and a square and saying I have made a car.

Still, as a beer cooler it certainly looks nice. And those LED lamps would be great for all-night beach parties.

Ecofreezer [Rubcn via Yanko]

The traditional fast food business model just never had a chance, now did it? Marcelo Coelho and Amit Zoran, a pair of whiz kids doing their thang over at MIT, have developed what very well may be the next major revolution in food preparation. It may also be the only machine that keeps you alive when the Robot Apocalypse goes down, but we’ll try to stuff that to the rear of our minds for now. Essentially, the Cornucopia concept is a 3D printer that precisely mixes foods and flavors from a number of canisters in order to produce something that’s edible (and supposedly close to what you ordered). Able to deliver “elaborate combinations of food,” the machine also has a rapid heating and cooling chamber that purportedly allows for “the creation of flavors and textures that would be completely unimaginable through other cooking techniques.” Color us skeptical, but we’re guessing these government-issued MREs probably taste just as good — guess we’ll find out for sure if the project ever gets its date with reality.

The Cornucopia: MIT’s 3D food printer patiently awaits ‘the future’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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