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Figure out which direction this thing drives yet? In the image above, the Honda Zeppelin would zip off to the left. At glance, you might be tempted to say that designer Myung Jin Jung's creation's most interesting quality is its...
POSTED Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The D-roll, or "digital roll," is what designer Hao Hua considers to be a "next generation laptop design," as it does away with the book-like form factor in favor of one mimicking an artist's scroll. Whether or not something like...
POSTED Monday, April 6, 2009
A fellow by the name of Joe Carver did what probably should have been done in the first place — he turned the Pip-Boy 3000 clock that came with the Amazon Survival Edition of Fallout 3 into a something closer...
POSTED Monday, April 6, 2009
Samsung Motors recently unveiled its concept car called the eMX (eco-Motoring Experience) at the Seoul Motor Show. The specific body shape and interior lines of the car were designed to be evocative of the organic lines occurring in nature. According...
POSTED Monday, April 6, 2009
Pianos haven't changed much in the last century or two, and while we have seen a few wacky concepts, no piano has ever looked as speedy as the Schimmel Pegasus Guoqin. This German company did make a few of...
POSTED Sunday, April 5, 2009
Tokyoflash, known of its mind-bending wristwatches, is now looking into how to crazy-up your desk as well. The company has nine designs, each one wilder than the last, and Tokyoflash wants your help picking out which one should be real....
POSTED Friday, April 3, 2009
Swedish architecture firm Visiondivision and Markus Wagner designed this gravity-defying building called the Tornado Tower for a recent design competition in Taiwan. The organic shape may appeal to naturalists, but if you look closely you'll notice that the structure bears...
POSTED Friday, April 3, 2009
I'm almost a little embarrassed to admit that I first thought this was a photo of a real space shuttle. Two Japanese LEGOsmiths used a whopping 65,000 bricks and 1,590 man hours to complete the stunning diorama, which even simulates...
POSTED Thursday, April 2, 2009
The KOZO series of lamps by the DEMO / design clinic studio out of Tel Aviv uses assorted pipes and plumbing parts to make simple but attractive light fixtures. The most charming detail? The on/off switch stays with the theme...
POSTED Tuesday, March 31, 2009
This extraordinary clock from Ulysse Nardin is more an astrological masterpiece than a mere timepiece. The transparent crystal globe has outlines of the continents, so you can see exactly where you are. This sphere is fixed. However, the inner sphere...
POSTED Tuesday, March 31, 2009
There's hardly anything you can't build with LEGO. This construction by Ricardo Oliviera beats even the LEGO Taj Mahal — it's a mini-theater that can actually project film on its minuscule screen. Check out the gallery below and you'll...
POSTED Tuesday, March 31, 2009
A team of industrial design students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette have put together a railway that wouldn't need stations to pick up passengers. Instead, system features driverless pods that are mounted to an elevated rail on an...
POSTED Monday, March 30, 2009
Though it reminds us of the ill-fated enormously expensive V-22 Osprey, we'll give the Hotelicopter a fair shake and file it under "Believe It When We See It." Set to make its maiden voyage this summer, the Hotelicopter is an...
POSTED Monday, March 30, 2009
Take a look at Creativi*tea, a design concept for a clever tea kettle that changes color as the water heats within, thanks to thermochromic paint. The two-quart kettle has a ceramic base to retain heat, a stainless steel body to...
POSTED Monday, March 30, 2009
Earlier this month we featured top-end watchmaker Ulysse Nardin's self-winding cellphone. As intriguing and steampunky as the phone may have looked from the one promo picture featured, the full set of photos barely do the phone — expected to put...
POSTED Monday, March 30, 2009
Moneual is joining the ranks of recession-defying companies by releasing what is perhaps the most expensive computer in Korea called the 701 Jewelry. Retailing at roughly $30,000, the device is covered in 3,554 Swarovski jewels, and housed in gold and...
POSTED Monday, March 30, 2009
There are bathrooms, and then there are bathrooms. This design by Dornbracht is really for a bath floor — what the super-rich can afford to install in their homes that just bubble over with square footage. Unlike most bathrooms, where...
POSTED Friday, March 27, 2009
Called the "Blink and Support Radio," the collaborative project between Joe Malia and Daniel Goddemeyer creates a space for people who feel too caught up with Internet social networking, but find it hard to just drop it all. "The decision...
POSTED Thursday, March 26, 2009
Here at DVICE we've seen portable fireplaces before — even one that should have been called Flame-in-a-Jar. We've never, however, clapped eyes on one that looks like a cross between a magazine rack, a toaster (albeit a swanky design one)...
POSTED Thursday, March 26, 2009
Lamborbiker. Yeah, type that five times, fast. Still, you'd be hard pressed to find a motorcycle with as much attitude as the Lamborbiker — well, unless it had, y'know, a minigun on it — which designer Flavio Adriani bills as...
POSTED Thursday, March 26, 2009
As far as making something feel homemade, you really can't beat crafting it out of Tupperware. That's exactly what this arcade stick uses as its body, and it's compatible with the Playstation 2 and most sandwich sizes. The demand for...
POSTED Wednesday, March 25, 2009
When Barack Obama made the clarion call to his fellow Americans, exhorting them to pull together and breathe hope back into the nation, he probably didn't expect his words to become inspiration for a design exhibition. Students from the Design...
POSTED Wednesday, March 25, 2009
It may not be the best prosthetic limb out there, but it beats a peg leg — and certainly no leg at all. Designed by Tillmann Beuscher, this artificial limb takes the opposite approach to the more technically impressive ones...
POSTED Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I cling resolutely to my decade-old Hermes agenda. A tad longer and wider than an iPhone, it comes with a little stick-like pencil that acts as a fastener. It goes everywhere with me, and I'm convinced I'm faster on the...
POSTED Tuesday, March 24, 2009
It looks a bit like the memory eraser used in Men in Black, but the Sign Language Interpreter is nothing to fear. It's a concept by designer Mac Funamizu, and the locket-sized device would, in a perfect world, be able...
POSTED Tuesday, March 24, 2009
With the BMW Snug, Hungarian designer David Raffai has created what he considers a social space with wheels. On the inside, staggered seating gives the car's interior a more open feel, much like you'd enjoy in a living room. On...
POSTED Monday, March 23, 2009
Look at this lovely, clever idea. Why not just make a vase into a faucet? Or would that be making a faucet into a vase? Either way, Hego Waterdesign's Flower Glass faucet furnishes a steady supply of water for the...
POSTED Monday, March 23, 2009
This is simply unbelievable. The Miniatur Wunderland model railroad in Hamburg, Germany is the largest in the world, covering 16,146 square feet of space with more than 10,000 train cars running around its 6.8 miles of HO scale track....
POSTED Monday, March 23, 2009
When we think of lighting, we tend to think of fixtures in the ceiling, wall sconces and lamps. That's why we love John Niero's Zipper Silicone Luminaire, a light that shatters our expectations of what an illuminating device should look...
POSTED Monday, March 23, 2009
Sometimes I buy a soda and notice a little gunk on the rim. So what do I do? I wipe it off or grab a straw. I hear some folks even run 'em under hot water thinking it'll disinfect it....
POSTED Friday, March 20, 2009
How do you grab attention for your upcoming straight-to-DVD animated film? Say stuff like "1,500-foot-long armored zeppelins" and "steam-powered battle tripods." Oh, and "sex in the cockpit" probably didn't hurt, either. War of the Worlds: Goliath promises all of that...
POSTED Friday, March 20, 2009
What would a Steampunk Cylon look like? That's what we asked you a few months ago, when DVICE kicked off its Steampunk Cylon design contest as Battlestar Galactica began its final run (ending tonight, by the way). And did you...
POSTED Friday, March 20, 2009
Oh, to be a kid again. Back in my day, a Nerf gun consisted simply of a foam rocket and a pump-action tube. Rhode Island-based Weston Boeges' weapons are on the other end of the spectrum, taking on the shape...
POSTED Thursday, March 19, 2009
What would Microsoft's multitouch Surface table look like if a bunch of artists designed it? Well, if the Struktable is any indication, it'd have a lot less of the functionality — you know, being able to surf the web and...
POSTED Thursday, March 19, 2009
If I wanted to grow some plants or herbs in my small New York apartment, I'd probably have to do it out on the fire escape — which is rather unwieldy. The Lightpot, designed by Studio Shalub, would be perfect...
POSTED Thursday, March 19, 2009
The first day of Spring's only a day away and it's time to start thinking about ... in-line roller skating! But we're weary of all that vibration, enough to rattle our fillings loose on all these pothole-pocked roadways here on...
POSTED Thursday, March 19, 2009
Now that the 3.0 software updates for the iPhone have been confirmed, Apple fan boys are now panting about a larger tablet version of the device, or even a netbook that might employ some next-gen Apple software. While the jury...
POSTED Thursday, March 19, 2009
Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka and the Schemata Architecture Office have come up with a home design that rethinks just how much space one person needs. 6,000 square feet? 600? Well, try 30 square feet. The Paco home has a hammock...
POSTED Wednesday, March 18, 2009
What do Mercedes-Benz designers do when they're fed up with drawing cars? Why, create insane cockeyed plumbing fixtures, that's what. Former head of Mercedes design Bruno Sacco makes a big splash with Hansa Latrava, a water faucet that you may...
POSTED Wednesday, March 18, 2009
From Polish product designer Maja Ganszyniec comes a boon for late workers: "Pillows for working late." The three-piece set includes a tie, sleeve and and collar, so matter how you fall asleep at your desk you're covered. On top of...
POSTED Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Dell's been teasing us with its beautiful Adamo laptop for the past two months, and finally the thin and stylish laptop is revealed in all its glory. This 13-inch notebook rolls out in the U.S. and 24 other countries on...
POSTED Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I'm rather partial to cases that do away with your average big box form factor — take a look at the Antec Skeleton, for instance — and the Level 10 by BMW DesignworksUSA does so with an alluring panache. We...
POSTED Monday, March 16, 2009
Sometimes a clever idea comes along that makes you wonder why nobody's thought of it yet. These P-Hook Bookmarks fit into that category, serving as placeholders in your reading materials, and providing small handles to pull those books and mags...
POSTED Monday, March 16, 2009
Matches meet cubism in this fiery design by Fitzsu, a result of carving 100 matches out of a solid block of wood. Why? For your aesthetic enjoyment, of course. Just break one off when it's time to light that candle,...
POSTED Monday, March 16, 2009
Tokyoflash, the Japanese destination for cool and borderline incomprehensible watches, recently asked designers to come up with renderings of Bluetooth necklaces. Ranging from dog tag-inspired chains to chocolate-shaped squares, the results are pretty interesting. But what is a Bluetooth necklace,...
POSTED Monday, March 16, 2009
Sometimes, you just need a little recognition for your hard work. And a round of applause is a great way to get said recognition. But unless you're an actor or a musician or a performer of some kind, applause isn't...
POSTED Monday, March 16, 2009
High-end fashion brand Prada has teamed up with design master Rem Koolhaas to create the Prada Transformer. The tetrahedron-shaped structure is essentially a piece of living architecture that transforms by rotating on its side and changing into one of four...
POSTED Monday, March 16, 2009
If you've got a lot of gear plugged in at your entertainment center — your TV or Blu-ray player or game consoles — you know that you need a big power strip and a way to organize your cables. Designer...
POSTED Friday, March 13, 2009
Now you can count down to your own demise twice each day with this Doomsday Clock, exactly like the one seen in the Watchmen movie. It's so realistic, it's licensed by Warner Brothers and DC Comics. Make that 8 tech...
POSTED Friday, March 13, 2009
Dr. Manhattan might disagree, but all things must end, including our fun Steampunk Cylon Design Contest. We're entering the last few days where we'll accept entries, so if you're planning to enter, you'd best fire up Photoshop soon. Just hearing...
POSTED Friday, March 13, 2009
While I was checking out KRAZY!, the anime/manga/gaming exhibition at the Japan Society in New York City last night, someone pointed out to me these awesome Pac-Man stools in the gaming display. Visitors are invited to sit on Blinky, Pinky,...
POSTED Friday, March 13, 2009
Instead of imagining future cities dominated by stalker-esque interactive advertisements blaring from every corner a la Minority Report, imagine if cities formed artistically symbiotic relationships with their human populace. That is the vision proffered by design group Urban Alliance from...
POSTED Friday, March 13, 2009
We're all for a future where robots deliver us packages quickly and efficiently, and that's exactly what the Cargonaut is programmed to do. Thought up by German-based industrial designer Matthias Schmiedbauer, an army of the robo-copters would be able to...
POSTED Thursday, March 12, 2009
Bowel evacuation is about to head down a slippery slope in this specially adorned toilet stall. Step inside, have a seat, and you're surrounded by a realistic view of a ski jump. Place your feet onto the "skis" painted onto...
POSTED Thursday, March 12, 2009
Originally conceived as an entry for the competition to build the new Performing Arts Center in Taipei, Taiwan, this multi-UFO bloom of buildings is the closest we've seen to a real-world "Jetsons" style building. Designed by the Abalos Sentkiewicz group,...
POSTED Thursday, March 12, 2009
This is not your grandpappy's rocking chair. In fact, he'd wonder if "Ruby" wasn't some kind of weird torture device, but we know better than that, and so does designer Pouyan Mokhtarani. He has his Ruby design concept all figured...
POSTED Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Your guests will be perplexed when they see this Areaware light switch encased in a Lucite box — is the switch protected for some reason? Will the house explode if the switch is flipped? Should they attempt to break the...
POSTED Wednesday, March 11, 2009
If Fred Flintstone had a really cool turntable, it was probably designed by Audiowood's Joel Scilley. This California woodworker creates custom unique turntables out of wood. He can also build new platforms for vintage turntables from burlwood and other types....
POSTED Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Inspired by disabled children in Jerusalem, designer Shabatai Hirshberg concocted an ultra-cool tricycle for special needs children that never-the-less inspires a bit of geek envy. The A2B Trike is designed to allow a child to walk right into a mounted...
POSTED Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Norwegian designer Anders Gloslie decided that Eskimos should be able to enjoy awesome roadsters like the rest of us. He's created the TH!NK FROST, an oddly named super snowmobile for two. It's got treads instead of wheels and a body...
POSTED Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Okay everybody, it's time to get up and start moving around, because that's what keeps your metabolism revved up and your weight down. Designers at Muve are making that easier with "Gruve," a device you wear that measures movement like...
POSTED Monday, March 9, 2009
Far less practical than the neon tube umbrellas of Blade Runner, but just as futuristic, the Cloud Umbrella is a concept design straight from a sci-fi megalopolis. Created by Dutch designer Joonsoo Kim, the Cloud Umbrella is carried around in...
POSTED Monday, March 9, 2009
Tensegrity is a word coined by Buckminster Fuller to describe structures where strength and integrity are achieved by balancing members under compression, with other that are in tension. In creating a bike frame where most of the members are...
POSTED Sunday, March 8, 2009
Thought up by Italian architecture firm Studiomobile, vertical seawater farms sticking up out of the water could covert the salt-laden liquid into freshwater for crops. It's all about producing humidity. A series of vents would gather humidity from the seawater...
POSTED Friday, March 6, 2009
It may not look like much, but what you see up above is what a team of Malaysian students hope would be a solution for robotic trash collection. We're not talking about an automated garbage truck, but rather a rover...
POSTED Friday, March 6, 2009
Totally Rad: Karim Rashid Does Radiators, an exhibit that opened this week in New York City, features radiators that you'd be forgiven for mistaking for contemporary sculpture. It's curated by Karim Rashid, the mad designer behind this Kone vacuum and...
POSTED Friday, March 6, 2009
In this corner, a (disqualified) entry for DVICE's Steampunk Cylon Contest, a badass 'bot that's ready to throw down with anyone, despite the fact it looks kind of like a water heater with treads. And in this corner, the Dark...
POSTED Friday, March 6, 2009
You might think you're looking at the PC of the future, but this prototype by BMW, DesignworksUSA, and computer case and fanmaker Thermaltake exists now. "Level 10" is on display at CeBIT, the world's largest computer expo going on...
POSTED Friday, March 6, 2009
For a comic without all that much fighting in it, Watchmen sure has some awesome gadgets kicking around. We already know of a few things we can expect to see on the big screen from the trailers — the Owlship,...
POSTED Friday, March 6, 2009
At 8:00 p.m. last night, Dr. Manhattan's 100-foot-tall ghostly visage was hovering over the River Thames to herald the release of Watchmen. Can you think of a better way? As you'd expect from someone as indifferent as the good Doctor,...
POSTED Thursday, March 5, 2009
Like a life-size Tonka Toy, the chunky Qazana is the latest plaything from Nissan Europe's R&D department. It's Nissan's "all-wheel drive crossover" car, to be built in the U.K. Despite the playful proportions, it's a serious stab at a modern-day...
POSTED Thursday, March 5, 2009
For both hobbyists and designers, there's an appeal in reappropriating salvage and scrap and turning them into things such as furniture or, in Rich Muller's case, sculptures of robots. He runs the website Guy Robot, which details his hobby:I work...
POSTED Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Tilt-shift lenses are among the priciest and most specialized lenses in the world of photography, and Canon has given birth to a brand new wide-angle version. Intended primarily for architectural use due to the ability of the lens to keep...
POSTED Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Asus and Intel run a site called WePC.com, which the companies pitch as a place where you can dump all of your awesome computer-related ideas for the duo's engineers to capitalize on. Pretty handy, if you're not married to your...
POSTED Tuesday, March 3, 2009
With the scarcity of arcades here in the US, pinball enthusiasts have had to take matters into their own hands to get their fix. One such enthusiast is BadBoyBill, the admin of the HyperSpin forums, who used an HDTV, an...
POSTED Monday, March 2, 2009
This stunning tub from designer Marco Tallarida was a finalist in the 2008 Bathroom Innovation Awards, and you can see why. Designed to conform better to the shape of a human body than a standard tub while using less...
POSTED Sunday, March 1, 2009
Most Bluetooth headsets make you look like some kind of super geek, but not this ultra suave earring like number for the ladies from Russian designer Ilshat Garipov. This isn't the first time someone has tried to make a...
POSTED Saturday, February 28, 2009
I had to completely rewrite this post. It first came out as a bunch of rambling nonsense equating to: "Whoa! Dude! Hover car! Look! WHOA!" Really, though, I guess that's all that needs to be said here. The Audi Shark...
POSTED Friday, February 27, 2009
Forget cleaning up after yourself after slicing up a loaf of bread — that's for the birds. Turkish Spanish designer Curro Claret built this cutting board himself, drilling a few holes in some butcherblock, and then installing a tube that...
POSTED Friday, February 27, 2009
Astronaut Donald Pettit loves his morning coffee, but it just wasn't the same drinking it out of an aluminum bag as he soared above the earth on Space Shuttle mission STS-126. That's when he invented the On-Orbit Coffee Cup,...
POSTED Thursday, February 26, 2009
The whole world has been noodling on how to green up everything we do, and the clever designers behind your favorite gadgets are no different. But like your last brainstorming session at work, you know that some ideas really work...
POSTED Thursday, February 26, 2009
For a whopping $495,000, you can buy a barn — a turbo-charged one that looks like a jet fighter without wings and comes packed with 760 horses. It's the Tramontana Group's Tramontana R Edition, and it's a lot of speed...
POSTED Thursday, February 26, 2009
Let's say you've just watched your fifth gated-community neighbor succumb to foreclosure and you need the perfect chariot of opulence from which to count your rapidly dwindling fortunes, Chanel has just the vehicle for you. Designed by fashion legend Karl...
POSTED Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Want a different way to take a shot? Try the Alcohol Shot Gun — "pour in an ounce of your favorite drink into the cartridge, cock the trigger, point and shoot." Just look how much fun the guy in the...
POSTED Tuesday, February 24, 2009
At last, technology has evolved enough to accommodate our dream costume. Evan Booth built this Gaping Hole sweatshirt in late 2006, using a portable DVD player's LCD in front, connected to the camera in back by shoulder straps. Brilliant! Now...
POSTED Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Air. You never know when you're going to find yourself without it, and you do need a steady supply to keep going. Especially if you're underwater, or in a dangerous environment with noxious fumes. That's why Ricardo Baiao designed the...
POSTED Monday, February 23, 2009
Thelermont Hupton's playful light bulbs, called Blown Up lamps, are just plain fun. Made to resemble balloon animals and a handful of other eye-catching designs, the glass-blown bulbs aren't bendable, though you might think so after looking at them. For...
POSTED Monday, February 23, 2009
The Phoenix is like the buffet of car concepts. Like trucks? Well, it's a bit like a pickup. How about muscle cars? Yeah, it's got that going on, too. Just to further sweeten the pot, it's also a bit of...
POSTED Friday, February 20, 2009
Take a gander with me into our DVICE crystal ball — and what do we see? Artist and entrepreneur Michael Marcovicia's UNITX, or united networks international transport exchange, which shoots package-bearing "logibots" through a series of electrified tunnels to deliver...
POSTED Friday, February 20, 2009
The legendary Fender Stratocaster electric guitar has now been reduced to an 11-inch-high USB mini-lamp. Plug it into a USB port and its six ultra-bright LEDs will light up your stairway to heaven. We're wondering about the level of detail...
POSTED Friday, February 20, 2009
At first glance, you might think this is some kind of cake knife, but this design concept by Kim Been is actually a handheld toaster. The idea is to run the portable toaster over the bread until it's done to...
POSTED Friday, February 20, 2009
Bet you didn't know that bras need their own dryers, did you? This BraDryer is pitched as a device that can "dry bras fast, maintain their shape and protect wiring and padding, and not take your own time (as when...
POSTED Friday, February 20, 2009
After you're done cobbling together that mega-successful Virtual Cat Hairball iPhone app, and you've sold it off to Facebook for millions, you'll need someone to construct your new sci-fi-style geek lair. If you have the cash, and the taste, Japan's...
POSTED Friday, February 20, 2009
Your average cubed-shaped anything isn't normally all that special — that is, until you find out that the name behind it is Borg. Roger Borg, in this case, who isn't a robotic construct at all. Rather, he's an awesome designer...
POSTED Thursday, February 19, 2009
The designers at PoshTots were mild-mannered furniture makers for years, but then one of them had a friend who had a kid, and all hell broke loose. The result is this crazy collection of cabinets he designed with this child...
POSTED Thursday, February 19, 2009
Rinspeed sure has a few odd vehicles in its stable — just look at the company's transparent car, or its underwater convertible. Now Rinspeed is rolling out the diminutive iChange in time for the Geneva Motor Show, which the company...
POSTED Thursday, February 19, 2009
These Revio programmable light switches by FirstHand Design go beyond high tech. There's a simple rubberized knob up front to turn on and dim the lights, but there's a lot more tech underneath. The capacitive touch panel controls four zones...
POSTED Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The reaction bookcase by Olivier Peyricot looks like something you'd find in the Arthur C. Clarke 2001 catalog. The circular design is pretty brilliant, letting you read comfortably while surrounded by books, although the $3,000 cost might not leave you...
POSTED Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I don't think it's a stretch to say that this planned Huaxi city center for Guiyang, China is just bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S! It's an architectural fever dream created by 11 different firms, invited and overseen by Beijing-based MAD architects. It's supposed...
POSTED Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Might as well put those ugly wall sockets to work with these "Plug and Play" tables, drawing power and also physically supported by them. Designed by Sung-Pil Hwang and the Nothing Design Group, each table has an integrated power strip...
POSTED Tuesday, February 17, 2009
We used to joke about Smell-o-Vision, but now Portuguese designer Nuno Teixeira shows us how it might work in this design concept. His idea is called SMELLIT, and it brings contextual fragrances to viewers' noses via 118 aroma cartridges, each...
POSTED Thursday, February 12, 2009
How many hours are wasted each day by people searching for the switch to turn off a lamp? Is it on the base, up by the bulb — ouch! — or on the wall? Israeli design studio Reddish has a...
POSTED Thursday, February 12, 2009
From the Maker Faire in Austin, Texas comes this robotic monstrosity known as the Ponginator, a 3-story-tall turret that fires Ping Pong balls. It's mounted on a bucket lift and its soft-shelled ordnance leaves its pressurized air cannons at a...
POSTED Thursday, February 12, 2009
What does a company do when it's having trouble selling cell phones? I know, let's make a LEGO phone! This Alcatel cell phone, destined to hit the market this year, has snap-on pieces that let you change the color of...
POSTED Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Director Michael Bay is putting the finishing touches on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, on track for its Summer, 2009 debut. A newcomer to the Transformers franchise will be this Corvette Stingray concept vehicle, playing the part of transforming vehicle...
POSTED Wednesday, February 11, 2009
At first, this polished object looks like an ordinary ring. But it's much more than that. This is a model of the universe, which, according to one increasingly popular theory, is not flat, circular, spherical or saddle-shaped, but more like...
POSTED Wednesday, February 11, 2009
No, it isn't some XXL origami project — the Neo Gramaphone (sic) is a modern take on the classic phonograph. Discarding wood and brass for simple lines and "high-quality materials" (plastic, probably), the minimalist design looks more like a plant...
POSTED Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Conduit is a mobile workstation and phone all rolled up into one gorgeous package. Pan-pipe jokes aside, this concept was designed for SKY/Pantech, a Korean cellphone company. Let's all beg them to make this a reality. The Conduit is...
POSTED Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Designer Harry Allen has come up with a pair of beeswax light-bulb candles to set the perfect mood at your next eco-party. Each set includes one old-school incandescent bulb and one trendier compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb. Made of cast-molded natural...
POSTED Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Come along with us, dear readers, and wallow in luxury on an airplane built for a zillionaire. Lufthansa Technik, the luxo-sport decorating and customization arm of the fabled German airline, gives us a peek, with a gorgeous group of unreal...
POSTED Monday, February 9, 2009
Designing duo James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have a radical concept for you ponder. I'll just let them have the floor:The Isophone is essentially a telecommunications device providing a service that can be described simply as a meeting of the...
POSTED Friday, February 6, 2009
Netbooks are going to be hot this year, with both Dell and Sony — among others — trying to get in on the Asus Eee PC and its success as a cheap, functional laptop for light computer use. So how...
POSTED Friday, February 6, 2009
With no fanfare that we can detect, a company named ACME is about to release what is possibly the most gorgeous pen designed to look like a ray gun that's ever been made. The aptly named "Ray Gun" is a...
POSTED Friday, February 6, 2009
Just outside of Tokyo, there's a company called Little Island, run by Hiroaki Koike, that specializes in fashioning robotic dolls after the likenesses of real people. These dolls are surprisingly complex, with the ability to talk, react to touch and...
POSTED Thursday, February 5, 2009
Did your dad build you a treehouse when you were a kid? Obviously, he didn't love you enough. If he did, he would have built you one that looked like this new tree hotel designed by Sweden's Tham & Videgard...
POSTED Thursday, February 5, 2009
At the TED2009 conference yesterday, Pattie Maes from the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab showed off a new way of getting info anywhere. Calling it a "Sixth Sense," she wore and demonstrated a $350 system consisting of...
POSTED Thursday, February 5, 2009
Phillip Dean, a graduate of the Coventry University specializing in transportation design, designed the C-XC as part of a job placement assignment with Jaguar. With sleek stylings like that, we hope he got the job. On paper, the C-XC is...
POSTED Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Attention guitar heroes: your path to becoming a real guitar player may be on the way. Strap this Maestro contraption onto any guitar, load a music file of the song you'd like to learn into it, and using laser lights,...
POSTED Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid knows how to design some magnificently crazy-looking buildings, and now she shows off her design chops on this kooky faucet, created for Brit plumbing company Triflow. Nobody's talking about the price of this sculptural beauty...
POSTED Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Take some Venetian blinds, put solar panels on them, store their energy with modern batteries, and later apply that power to electroluminescent foil, and you get yourself some ... Blight? Okay, Belgian designer Vincent Gerkens may not have known what...
POSTED Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Everything old is new again. The classic Matryoshka dolls that decorated thousands of Russian mantles are now iPod-ready. (Isn't everything?) Russian designer Alex Mamontoff set out to "bring this instantly familiar and archaic form closer to the younger audience." The...
POSTED Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Robots are an undeniably cool way to get around. A giant robot? Even better — and that's exactly what Jaimie Mantzel of Vermont wants to build. When all is said and done, he's hoping to have a 12-foot-high, 18-foot-wide giant...
POSTED Monday, February 2, 2009
While the 3D commercials were a drag, there were still quite a few spots during the Super Bowl that left us feeling all warm and tingly inside (the new Star Trek trailer and PepSuber come to mind). My favorite was...
POSTED Monday, February 2, 2009
It seems like every day we get another reminder to read the nutritional labels on food packaging whenever we shop for groceries. Thanks, Self, but sometimes those labels are printed so tiny, they're hard to read — especially for farsighted...
POSTED Monday, February 2, 2009
Fire safety and prevention is some pretty serious business - something small can turn into something big rather quickly. Along those lines designer Sigrun Vik, a student at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, is operating under an interesting...
POSTED Friday, January 30, 2009
Everyone knows that your voice just sounds better in the shower. Instead of singing a cappella, a savvy Italian designer took an iPod dock to the bathroom. Antonio Lupi built the dock into the mirror, so no messy (and shockingly...
POSTED Friday, January 30, 2009
Don't feel like talking to your housemates? Send them a message with Messenger Light, an art piece by Jaeboem Jeong. Simply write your note on a sheet of transparent plastic, and put it in the special holder. Focus up, and...
POSTED Friday, January 30, 2009
As phone booths continue down their inexorable path to extinction, artists think of other, more aesthetically pleasing ways to use the endangered glass cubicles. "Why not just install a soothing, blood-pressure-lowering aquarium inside that ugly old phone booth," French artists...
POSTED Friday, January 30, 2009
From Japan comes this curious cube-shaped MP3 player, which is entirely motion-controlled. It's actually very clever, even if it does seem to do away with the portable aspects of an MP3 player. Tip it and tap it to advance or...
POSTED Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Fiber optics are, well, fiber. Makes sense to weave those fibers into haute couture fashion clothing. Not exactly designed for shrinking violets, the Lumitop clothing line will make a statement on any dancefloor or red carpet. Check out the gallery...
POSTED Wednesday, January 28, 2009
What's surprising about the mobiBlu UFO portable music player isn't its flying-saucer shape — it's that mobiBlu is still making portable music players. Previous products from the creatively capitalized manufacturer have boasted some impressive specs, but the UFO (Model A10)...
POSTED Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Japanese photographer Isamu Sanada has put out quite a few mock-ups of Apple products, and now he's taking a crack at what an Apple netbook might look like. His design? Something long and thin like we saw with the Vaio...
POSTED Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Put this conversation piece on your coffee table, and everyone will be focusing on what day it is. Even if you're not a photographer, this Camera Lens Calendar has a certain fun factor, letting you spin the focus, f-stop,...
POSTED Tuesday, January 27, 2009
We'll always have a soft spot for (and be a little let down by) the Tesla Roadster, which applied the kind of sleek sportscar aesthetic that the electric car world needed. Along the same lines, British car developer JJAD is...
POSTED Monday, January 26, 2009
"What is architect Zaha Hadid smoking?," asks the oldest Antwerp Port Authority board member. "We don't know," say the rest of the Belgian board members, "but give whatever it is to all the other architects." Apologies to Abe Lincoln...
POSTED Monday, January 26, 2009
Here's a dream come true for those of us lazybones who find ourselves unexpectedly snowbound more often than we care to admit. Dubbed "the world's smartest snow shovel," i-Shovel is so intelligently automatic, it's able to sense when there's...
POSTED Monday, January 26, 2009
Who says Star Wars gets to have all the LEGO-fun? At BrickCon (a gathering for adults who still play with LEGO) in Seattle last October, LEGO maven Ryan Wood organized the first Battlestar Galactica (BSG) Viper fly-in, and look...
POSTED Monday, January 26, 2009
Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have created a solar photovoltaic (PV) cell in the lab that's more than 41.4% efficient. That bests the old record set by the US' National Renewable Energy Laboratory last summer...
POSTED Monday, January 26, 2009
Look at what happens when ace photographer David Bergman stiches together 220 images, taken with the help of a Gigapan robotic camera mount. It's a 1,474-megapixel shot of the presidential inauguration, and if you're willing to wait a few...
POSTED Friday, January 23, 2009
Here's a great idea: a way to dispense one ice cube at a time. Quicksnap, invented by Graeme Davies, is a finalist in the Royal College of the Arts design contest, and will be available later this year. Just...
POSTED Friday, January 23, 2009
The Big Three promised to go green as part of their bailout deal. But Ford is starting in small ways, like with a new dashboard for their popular Fusion designed to encourage drivers to become more fuel-efficient by turning...
POSTED Friday, January 23, 2009
Nothing says "I love you" on Valentine's Day like a flash drive, right? Well, maybe an expensive-but-beautiful drive would do the trick. Mimoco is rolling out another one of its popular MIMOBOTs, worked over by famed Tokidoki artist Simone Legno....
POSTED Friday, January 23, 2009
In an age of sleek white Apple everythings, ad nauseam, a keyboard made from real Scrabble playing pieces is a true standout. Who doesn't love Scrabble? This Scrabble Keyboard really works, too — it's basically a regular USB keyboard with...
POSTED Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Parrot founder and CEO Henri Seydoux joined forces with industrial designing heavyweight Philippe Starck, pictured above, to give birth to the "Zikmu" — which, surprising given its looks, the pair of French gentlemen consider a step forward for speaker functionality...
POSTED Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Fine, expensive watches can be divisive objects, as proven by one of our previous posts which ignited a firestorm of comments for some reason. But this Quantum Concord C Lab QuantumGravity watch goes beyond mere class war, claiming to...
POSTED Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wireless speakers are all the craze — who needs unsightly wires running to speakers throughout the home? While we're at it, who needs unsightly speakers at all? Here's a novel solution: Build speakers right into your light bulbs. That's exactly...
POSTED Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Watch for famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma during President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration and you may get a glimpse of his carbon fiber cello. Considering carbon fiber also goes into such high tech marvels as fighter jets and spacecraft (and Sony's laptops),...
POSTED Monday, January 19, 2009
We're intrigued by the way British design student Thomas Thomassen blends retro styling with modern technology in this brilliant case mod. His Mini Media Centre looks like its mother was a avocado-colored vintage mixer and its dad was a...
POSTED Monday, January 19, 2009
You thought Obama's new Cadillac presidential limo/tank was outrageous? This crazy open-wheel Formula 1-style vehicle carries six white-knuckled passengers to their destinations, pronto. Its designer-builder Michael Pettipas hopes it'll zip along at an astonishing 300mph. It had to happen....
POSTED Monday, January 19, 2009
The Cirrus MVR is a full bathroom — with a sink, toilet and tub — that's designed to be completely enclosed and portable. Designed by Michael Trudgeon for the Australian outback where water isn't always readily available, the Cirrus...
POSTED Friday, January 16, 2009
This new concept city — to be called Gwanggyo, about 20 miles south of Seoul, South Korea — will feature slender, tapered buildings containing housing, offices, and retail space for its 77,000 potential residents. It looks a little sci-fi,...
POSTED Friday, January 16, 2009
One of those boring facts about speakers known only to audio wonks is that many, if not most, have enclosures made of medium-density fiberboard (MDF). The reasons are many: It's a rigid substance that doesn't warp, and it makes the...
POSTED Friday, January 16, 2009
The 18,000 pound, two-seater Screaming Eagle is the work of a fellow named Jack Holt, who evidently needed a truck that could not only drive through brick walls, but block light arms fire, too. We're so down. The battering ram's...
POSTED Thursday, January 15, 2009
Some people want chandeliers worked over with precious metals, ornate carvings or layers of stained glass. Artist YaYa Chou, whose inner child is wholly intact, went for a chandelier covered by strings of Gummi Bears instead. Amazingly, the whole setup...
POSTED Thursday, January 15, 2009
Despite it's intimidating shape, the Jet Spray is all about saving people. It's a conceptual tool to help firefighters put out flames in hard-to-reach places. Say, they really, really want to shoot some water on a fire just inside a...
POSTED Thursday, January 15, 2009
Meet Nigel, a "solar-powered bugbut" by Etsy craftswoman Jenny, a.k.a. Tinyminds. Nigel is a bunch of electronics wrapped in black rubber and what looks like tape. Its one and only purpose is to seek out the sun's rays and...
POSTED Wednesday, January 14, 2009
With the Baguni washing machine, you could put your basket of clothes right into the machine — easy in, easy out. After that, I guess you still have to dump your wet clothes into a dryer, but at least you...
POSTED Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A Chinese farmer by the name of Wu Yulu travels around his hometown exclusively by rickshaw — and one pulled by a robot, no less. It's his own creation that he calls the "30 Second Son" for its operating time....
POSTED Monday, January 12, 2009
The Legno Turntable, made of bamboo and steel, is one of the hottest record players we've ever seen. It had better be, since it costs $13,240. Made by German-based company Montegiro, the design isn't just elegant — the wood...
POSTED Monday, January 12, 2009
Major props to LEGOsmith Michael Z., who spent a considerable chunk of his time crafting a replica of the Asgard flagship, Beliskner, as seen in Stargate SG-1. With all the LEGOs he used to build it, it's really got...
POSTED Monday, January 12, 2009
Having a cellphone necessarily brings with it the tough decision of where to carry the damn thing. That typically means bulging up a pocket, though at least women can often opt for tossing it in a handbag (but even...
POSTED Monday, January 12, 2009
We're back from a week of non-stop gadget craziness with this purty flight of fancy: the Aeolus airship by designer Christopher Ottersbach. It's billed by the artist as an entirely eco-friendly way to fly, which, really, is one of...
POSTED Monday, January 12, 2009
New York eco-boutique Areaware trotted out their line of sustainably harvested Magno wooden radios at this year's CES. Everything except the electronics themselves is made entirely of new growth wood by artisans in a small fishing village in Java....
POSTED Sunday, January 11, 2009
The future of touch- and gesture-interface technology is moving forward rapidly, but there are still innovations happening in area of traditional hardware interface devices. Hitachi recently unveiled a new kind of television remote control specifically designed to benefit the...
POSTED Wednesday, January 7, 2009
What's white and orange, can get you anywhere in the city in a jiffy and folds up like a Swiss Army Knife? It's the new Capella backpack electric bicycle developed by Vietnamese industrial design student Truong Minh Nhat. The vehicle...
POSTED Monday, January 5, 2009
Attention Star Wars devotees: here's yet another opportunity for you to finance George Lucas's next vacation home. Either that or Etsy seller "YOUgNeek" is in a heap of trouble from unauthorized use of that valuable and ubiquitous Star Wars...
POSTED Friday, January 2, 2009
Happy New Year! Time to turn over a new leaf, folks. Keeping track of what day it is can sometimes be inexplicably daunting, so you'll be needing a 2009 calendar. Who knew there were so many crazy, weird, downright...
POSTED Thursday, January 1, 2009
Hi, I'm Kevin Hall and I'm bad at math. (Boy, does it feel great to finally get that off my chest.) That's why this nifty little solar-powered Credit Card Calculator actually has quite a bit of appeal for me...
POSTED Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Last year, the Times Square Ball got an LED makeover for its 100th anniversary. This year that tradition continues, all 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDs of it (and don't forget the 2,668 Waterford crystals). The 12-foot-wide, 11,875-pound ball is...
POSTED Tuesday, December 30, 2008
If you haven't heard of Eazo, a Chinese purveyor of luxury computers, then you probably enjoy keeping your money where it is. That's because a custom, top-of-the-line PC from the company can cost $10,000, and supposedly upwards of $50,000....
POSTED Tuesday, December 30, 2008
As the year draws to a close, it's time to reflect on the 12 months that have sped by with remarkable haste. That's easy for photographer Eirik Solheim, who set up his Canon 400D (a relatively low-cost digital SLR,...
POSTED Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Big Green Apple will join an ever-growing list of cities with its plan to take advantage of long-lasting LED street lighting — Ann Arbor, Michigan was the first US city to go 100% LED — but NYC is going...
POSTED Monday, December 29, 2008
No, you're not hallucinating. These faucets are modeled after wine bottles, delivering your water from a familiar form factor that looks like Italian techno-plumbing purveyor iB Rubinetterie ran through the Disney cartoon factory. The Batlo faucet by designer Giulio...
POSTED Monday, December 29, 2008
Finally, there's over-the-top, realistic weaponry for fans of (the short list of) shooters for the Nintendo Wii. You always wanted to play Chicken Shoot and the leftovers from the other consoles with a submachine-gun-turned-Wiimote, right? The WeeP5, by Instructables user...
POSTED Monday, December 29, 2008
We like architect Matthew Heywood's entry for "A New Bus For London" just as much as the previous entry we showcased, despite it's odd shape and curves. Sure, it looks quite a bit like the Oscar Meyer wiener truck,...
POSTED Friday, December 26, 2008
So, hey, let's talk finances. I know, I know, it's Christmas Eve and you'd rather not look at your pocket book right now. With a gadget like the Supervision, however, you'd really never have to think too hard about...
POSTED Wednesday, December 24, 2008
We revere Santa Claus as our mysterious giver of gifts, but the rest of the world may reserve that spot for Josh Silver. Professor Joshua Silver, to be specific — a retired physics teacher at Oxford University who has...
POSTED Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Students at the Royal College of Art in London were tasked with dreaming up what shape light, economical cars could take in this day and age. What did they come up with? Vehicles that are quirky and awesome —...
POSTED Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Rumblings of an iPhone nano have been percolating for weeks now, and here are the first pics of the thus-far fantasy phone. It looks to be a 3/4 size iPhone, slimmer but every bit as attractive as its existing...
POSTED Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Meet Eddy, an industrial vehicle designed by Puzon Maciej. This remote-controlled suction excavator is designed to do a big job despite its small form factor — as a suction excavator, it'll suck up all of the dirt and debris...
POSTED Monday, December 22, 2008
Bonfires sure are pretty, but they can be dangerous, too. The Bonfire, by designer Kang Kyung Lee, is an LED lamp that loosely simulates a pile of sticks set ablaze, though the low-heat LEDs won't keep your hands warm....
POSTED Monday, December 22, 2008
In the wake of the White House's Detroit bailout, we needed a reminder of why we should have any good thoughts about American automakers. Well, we got it in the form of these awesome kitchen appliances by Radi Design,...
POSTED Friday, December 19, 2008
Honda is celebrating its 50th anniversary of doing business in the U.S. and the automaker is doing it in a major way: with a 49-foot-tall replica of its famous Asimo robot. The bipedal giant will serve as the company's...
POSTED Friday, December 19, 2008
Although Japan had its Great Recession in the 90s devices like the blingtastic, shiny new USB U-22 Jewelry drives from Magnetic Laboratories prove that the country refuses to acknowledge the current economic tumult. The good news is that the "bling"...
POSTED Friday, December 19, 2008
The idea of being able to carry around a portable, renewable energy source is an attractive one — especially if you're lugging around a laptop, iPod and a cell phone. You've already seen solar-panel-laden backpacks — and I've spotted...
POSTED Thursday, December 18, 2008
Porsche, what the heck are you designing now? A sled? You're whoring out that storied name to clock radios, pocket knives, toasters, pipes, cell phones, and now this aluminum sled? But look at its clean lines, its sparse design,...
POSTED Thursday, December 18, 2008
Coming in just a bit too late for our roundup of the craziest decorations of the year, this Dalek Christmas tree has finally arrived to invade the holidays. Made by Minnesotan Lindsey Testolin, this Dalek probably has more flashing...
POSTED Thursday, December 18, 2008
When Philippe Starck designs anything — even a lowly iPod and iPhone dock — we take notice. Zikmu is another winner, a pair of wireless speakers the famed industrial designer created for Parrot. The 2.5-footers radiate sound from 360...
POSTED Thursday, December 18, 2008
Designer Frederic Sofia put together his 35H Relaxation Armchair with cast aluminum, adding high-tech pneumatic springs to coordinate the seat, back and headrest for ultimate comfort. Somehow, all these fine adjustments are controlled from the arms. Choose leather or...
POSTED Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Tima Watch, by French designer Julien Bergignat, is just another example of why more things should be made utilizing e-paper. It's a simple, sleek watch that tells you what you need to know about the date and time...
POSTED Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The design teams taking part in the LA Auto Show's Design Challenge: Motorsports 2025 weren't just creating cool looking future cars, they also cranked out some pretty great science fiction. Take the Honda Great Racer we showed you, for...
POSTED Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The LED-embedded sidewalk of the future is here. These steel Catwalk modules have sparkling arrays of LEDs lighting your path, giving your sidewalk that glamorous look that might remind you of a disco floor. The panels come in three...
POSTED Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Artist Reuben Margolin just installed his Magic Wave at the Swiss Center of Technorama near Zurich. The sculpture is made of 450 aluminum rods hung by 256 wires connected to 3,000 pulleys and sliding bars. The whole thing is controlled...
POSTED Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Never mind that this baton-on-a-stick is a clock. Just think of Chronochrome as an odd and colorful object that only looks exactly the same twice a day. But if you want to go to the trouble of deciphering its...
POSTED Monday, December 15, 2008
The other day Charlie White offered up some car technologies that could save Detroit, and on that list was "build a tiny car like the Smart." Well, I've got a provision to that motion: make those tiny cars look...
POSTED Friday, December 12, 2008
If the only thing keeping you from getting a tried-and-true skateboard is portability, and if scooters are too nerdy, then the Pumpboard may appeal to you. A concept by designer Maciej Puzon, the Pumpboard can deflate down into a...
POSTED Friday, December 12, 2008
Those iconic double-decker Routemaster busses are disappearing from London streets, now running on only a few "heritage routes" in the city. Industrial Designer Hugh Frost wants to bring back a similar bus with this radical idea he calls Freight*BUS,...
POSTED Friday, December 12, 2008
What's the problem with floor lamps? Right, exactly — they're made so that "one size fits all." Not so much if you're over six feet, and you end up staring into the white-hot bulb every time you stand up....
POSTED Friday, December 12, 2008
Finally, a fair speed bump. Its smart sensors flatten it when a car driving slowly approaches, but stays tall and obnoxious if a car's flying along at more than around 19mph. This could be a suspension saver for those...
POSTED Thursday, December 11, 2008
Flickr user Kickinthehead says that these artful Japanese-style bento boxes are "cute lunches made for me by my girlfriend!" Cute they are, but if I opened up my lunch to find such an arrangement inside, I'd be torn between...
POSTED Thursday, December 11, 2008
Here's an idea: instead of throwing away a product's packaging, make it suitable for re-use as another product of even greater beauty and usefulness. That's the idea behind this Cava wine bottle packaging by Spanish design firm Ciclus. After...
POSTED Wednesday, December 10, 2008
As someone who uses multiple screens when I'm working (or playing games) the idea of having a laptop with some extra screen space as portable as the unit itself is really exciting. Sure, that extra space would come in...
POSTED Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Even those of us who don't have pools can appreciate the Ecolight, the pool light that's a microcosm of a hydroelectric plant. This design concept is super-easy to use — mount it on the water jet from the filter...
POSTED Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Artist Antoinette J. Citizen has put together a room making me wish I could be a kid all over again. Called "Landscape," it's a pretty faithful recreation of what a level from Nintendo's iconic Mario series of video games...
POSTED Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Clock radios don't get any greener than this. Minute Glass is a clock radio powered by magnetic induction so there's no need for batteries or electricity at all. It wakes you up in the morning with music, and its...
POSTED Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Embed a high-efficiency LED underneath a coathook, and you have "Alone," shedding light on the darkest areas of your home. Available in red, black or white, the hooks have a cool white "illuminated circular outline" underneath, and are powered...
POSTED Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Do you ever get bored with the way your lights look? The ZiPP Light Shade, by designers Arash and Kelly, have a simple polypropylene covering that you can adjust depending on how you feel. All zipped up, the covering...
POSTED Monday, December 8, 2008
The motorcycle nuts at ICON Motorsports make an interesting observation about their Warthog bike, inspired by the USAF's A-10 ground-attack fighter that shares the same nickname: "Obviously the first thing that grabs one's attention is the 800-watt MTX audio...
POSTED Friday, December 5, 2008
The British are known for pushing the boundaries of underground art, but somehow they always manage to offer new surprises. The latest is a troop of pole dancing robots (yes, as in stripper) equipped with CCTV heads. The full-motion robots...
POSTED Friday, December 5, 2008
Finn Stone's Phone Booth Lamp should appeal to any Anglophile out there as it's fashioned after the classic red metal phone box, the kind which are found all over London. Finn Stone's booth is made from fiberglass and, while it'll...
POSTED Thursday, December 4, 2008
Probably now more than ever with the global economy the way it is, designer E. Kevin Schöpfer's "Oculus" yacht is the stuff of dreams. Yet dreamy it is. At 250 feet long and featuring 12-foot ceilings, it's one roomy...
POSTED Thursday, December 4, 2008
Marcus Tremento is has an original lighting idea here. He's created LD Sconces, intriguing lighting fixtures that conjure up uncanny 3D effects with glowing wire. Bending neon-like pieces of cool-running electroluminescent wire into familiar shapes and then combining them...
POSTED Thursday, December 4, 2008
In a city full of steel and glass, a green tower like the 54-story skyscraper proposed by architect Daniel Libeskind — who won a bid to be the overseeing architect for the World Trade Center reconstruction — would certainly...
POSTED Wednesday, December 3, 2008
When we first saw this picture of three Microsoft Arc Mice all painted up like so much oriental pottery and interspersed with same, we thought someone had smashed an expensive bowlful of ginger roots. Not so. It's a beautiful...
POSTED Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Simple and useful — the CI Rack epitomizes what we like about good design. Folded up, the rack is merely a piece of wood with leather patches oddly placed on its surface. But unfold it and the leather's purpose...
POSTED Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The cellphone industry's obsession with ever-thinner handsets has been a boon for gadget packrats, but has mostly failed to keep delivering "fun" designs. Taiwanese industrial designer Joseph Liang offers hope for the future of interesting phone design with his...
POSTED Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Young London artists looking for cheap studio space in an expensive city are turning their eyes toward subway cars — though those eyes would be looking up, not down. That's because these retired subway cars are actually on top...
POSTED Monday, December 1, 2008
A skilled portrait photographer can capture the inner soul of their subject via the camera lens, but nothing can show your true inner workings quite like an actual image of your own DNA. A small company called DNA11 will...
POSTED Friday, November 28, 2008
Always wanted to do a do-it-yourself tech project? This holiday weekend is the perfect time. Besides, 60 Minutes recently weighed in on e-waste, so now it's official: where and how we recycle our used and useless gadgets has hit...
POSTED Thursday, November 27, 2008
We like the idea of fancy light switches, the cheapest, easiest way to modernize a room with eye-catching tech. Now here's a design concept that takes light switches into the next dimension, giving you trackpad-like control in a touch-sensitive...
POSTED Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Putting your money in a bank isn't looking like the best idea these days, at least not a real one. What other kinds are there? Well, there's the pig-shaped variety, though that's probably a little too obvious. This Bunker...
POSTED Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Everyone knows that food eaten over the sink has less calories. Now you can bring that slimming phenomenon to the table with this Sink Plate. Its depth and shape is just like a plate, but what's that? There's a...
POSTED Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Check out these kooky replicas of HAL 9000, that malevolent computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Can't you just seem him dancing in slow motion to his rousing rendition of "Daisy"? The little critter is so intricately detailed, his...
POSTED Monday, November 24, 2008
Why are traffic lights round? Because they're products of their time — when they were invented a spherical bulb was the only thing that would light the glass evenly. Now that there are a host of lighting technologies (like...
POSTED Monday, November 24, 2008
Gone is the dark and sultry seduction of the catwalk, and in its place are bright pastels, clouds, and clothes fashioned after LEGO playsets. Fashion designer Jean Charles de Castelbajac tossed hats made from LEGO bricks onto models who...
POSTED Friday, November 21, 2008
We all have a lot of stuff cluttering our homes. You know, stuff that serves a purpose but doesn't look too nice doing so. Like your router. It's essentially a little plastic box with blinking lights. Sure, it's very useful...
POSTED Friday, November 21, 2008
We've seen so many innovative radiator designs lately, there must be a space heater renaissance underway. This Radiafleur starts out shaped like a piece of pie, and as you spread its seven ceramic petals, you get more heat. There's...
POSTED Friday, November 21, 2008
The ROMP, or Remotely Operated Mobile Platform, is a remote-controlled unit designed to be cheap and versatile. Designer Chris Rogers built it to be able to carry out reconnaissance, bomb investigation and remote detonation, and combat missions — and...
POSTED Friday, November 21, 2008
Are you looking for that perfect gift for the smoker in your life? Something that says, "hey, your shortsightedness is going to come to a point sooner or later." Or, "hey, in the future, you'll die slowly thanks to your...
POSTED Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Because watching cool models perform robot dances in giant Japanese vending machines while giving away free underwear never gets old, we revisit the Uniqlo promotion we told you about last week. This time we have actual images of the fashion...
POSTED Wednesday, November 19, 2008
A buildup of snow can be dangerous for large, flat-roofed structures like super markets and office buildings. All of that snow is usually removed by freezing hands and snow shovels, but, if designer Michal Glogowski's dreams ever come true,...
POSTED Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Most of us have a pretty boring daily routine, so designer Andy Kurovets decided to make fun of that fact with a watch that leads us through the six stages of an average person's day. Starting with Wake Up!,...
POSTED Saturday, November 15, 2008
We already know that there are new killing machines on the way from Terminator Salvation's trailers, and it looks like one has just surfaced: the Moto-Terminator. Red eyes? Check. Guns? Check — and they're mini-guns at that. Fan-boyish excitement?...
POSTED Thursday, November 13, 2008
From holes in rooftops to flickering torches to glowing light bulbs — the world of household lighting has come a long way. Nowadays artists and designers alike are stretching the boundaries of form and function when it comes to...
POSTED Tuesday, November 11, 2008
You may not mind buying a clock from a place called "Suck UK" — we don't, especially when it's as well-designed as this $39 Solar Clock. Save your batteries, because this baby's internal battery is charged by the sun,...
POSTED Tuesday, November 11, 2008
LA-based artisan Giancarlo De Astis turns all kinds of aircraft parts from retired planes into industrial, retro-chic furniture. He gets the aeronautical leftovers from junkyards and plane graveyards in Arizona, and fashions tables, chairs, lamps and other furnishings out...
POSTED Monday, November 10, 2008
Instead of dipping a dainty toe into your bath to see if it's too hot or too cold like some kind of bathwater Goldilocks, just check out what color it is. At least, that's what we'd all be doing...
POSTED Friday, November 7, 2008
Whale song and the odd noises other underwater creatures make are alluring and interesting, but how about a fish-controlled MP3 player? Submerged Songs is a sound installation by Vivian Caccuri, with the help of Alex Tyson and André Perrotta....
POSTED Thursday, November 6, 2008
Do those modern plasma TVs look too clinical and sterile for your old-fashioned taste? Check out the M21 flat TV console from Wilkerson Furniture. The company's craftsmen have built an elegant and retro cabinet around a 42-inch plasma HDTV...
POSTED Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Mazda "KAAN" is an electric race car for the futuristic tracks of 2025, and part of the LA Auto Show's Motorsports 2025 Design Challenge. Like all of the crazy submissions, the KAAN has its own little back story:...
POSTED Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Gadzooks! A steampunk keyboard with modern sensibility? That's a whole fistful of Splenda in my Darjeeling tea. Dubbed as the Ergo, a mysterious fellow known as Datamancer cobbled this clacking wonder together from an old IBM M-15 ergonomic split...
POSTED Wednesday, November 5, 2008
It's hard to write about a ton of different hobby robots and not want one yourself. The biggest barriers to those interested in hobby robots are usually price and complexity. The MSR-H01, pictured above, is both of those things,...
POSTED Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Core77's timely voting-booth-themed 1 Hour Design Challenge (where, as you may have guessed, folks have an hour to toss together their ideas) set its designers on the quest for the perfect voting machine. Apparently, that means portable. The collapsible voting...
POSTED Tuesday, November 4, 2008
In what might be seen as one of the boldest moves a cell phone company has ever made, Softbank has decided to release its diamond-studded Tiffany phone in the middle of the worst global financial meltdown in history. Retailing for...
POSTED Monday, November 3, 2008
It's easy to scare kids, but when you're older it's hard to think of a Halloween gag that could actually give you chills. Well, it was. This pumpkin is making the scariest face imaginable this Halloween: one that displays...
POSTED Thursday, October 30, 2008
In a rush to build the maximum number of gigantic and magnificent skyscrapers before the oil runs out, Dubai is at it again. Just look at this 2150-foot monster, the Anara Tower, scheduled to be built next year. The...
POSTED Thursday, October 30, 2008
In this day and age when dogs and cats regularly eat and dress better than many humans, yet another new device has been designed to serve our furry masters. Freelance industrial designer Andrew Au offers the Maitre D'og concept device...
POSTED Thursday, October 30, 2008
Curiously dubbed "YO," this attractive iPod and MP3 stereo speaker dock is a concept by American-born designer Victor Vetterlein. The speakers are detachable and wireless (as well as waterproof), and charge at the dock just like an MP3 player...
POSTED Wednesday, October 29, 2008
HauntedProps.com's Vortex Tunnel is designed to jazz up a hallway in a haunted house, but really you could just use it as a wacky walkway in any abode. If you don't mind shelling out quite a bit, that is....
POSTED Wednesday, October 29, 2008
As the icecaps melt, polar bears are having problems. They've now got to swim further than they ever have to hunt for food, which can tire out the suckers long before they find an ice sheet to rest on....
POSTED Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Hawaii resident Won Park's origami first got our attention with his One Dollar Camera. Then we started browsing through his work online, and we discovered a treasure trove of pictures of his origami projects, including paper versions of the...
POSTED Monday, October 27, 2008
The Lancer (modeled above by Epic Games' Gears of War 2 design lead Cliff "Don't Call Me Cliffy B" Bleszinski) is a Cog soldier's most trusted weapon when fighting off swarms of the brutal Locust troopers. Now it can...
POSTED Friday, October 24, 2008
Dyson makes a mighty fine vacuum, but an even finer defender of humanity. The amateur (but by no means unskilled) artists contributing to Worth1000.com's "Rejected Transformers 6" contest have cobbled together Transformer-like creations out of unlikely bits, including shopping...
POSTED Friday, October 24, 2008
When you set designers loose with a theme like "the world of motorsport in the year 2025" you're bound to get some absolutely insane designs. Looking at the sleek, versatile Honda Great Racer, that's exactly what came out of...
POSTED Thursday, October 23, 2008
Motorola is going upscale. Check out Aura, a $2000 jewel of a cell phone aimed at the luxury market. It's the first to have a circular display. Notice how that 1.55-inch sapphire crystal-protected screen is positioned as the hub...
POSTED Wednesday, October 22, 2008
There's nothing quite like a beautiful sunrise or sunset. It completely changes the way the world looks, if but for a few minutes, and is one of those things that just makes you take pause and appreciate everything around you....
POSTED Tuesday, October 21, 2008
It might take a few years (or decades) for this iBangle design concept to end up on your wrist, but for the time being, we can stare in astonishment at its ambitious design. You see that blue inner band?...
POSTED Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The conceptual City Rack by designers Ilya Tkach and Nikita Gutsalenko has a lock built-in so your can secure your bike — rather than having to chain it up to whatever fence or post you find. It looks like...
POSTED Friday, October 17, 2008
Leave it to an awesome country such as Japan to celebrate robots, and Robo Japan 2008 is the place to do it. That's where this robotic spider chair — or is it more like a horse? — was spotted,...
POSTED Thursday, October 16, 2008
Here's how you know you've done pretty well for yourself in life: you can afford to hire famed industrial designer Ross Lovegrove to design you a futuristic capsule bed. That you then place on top of your private mountain in...
POSTED Thursday, October 16, 2008
Is it us, or isn't it a bit ironic that the same week Sony's newest Playstation Portable (PSP-3000) becomes available, a fantastic design for a future model bursts on the scene? While the PSP-3000 has scant few innovations, this...
POSTED Thursday, October 16, 2008
It wouldn't be a convention without people in costumes, most of which are some variation of cleavage and bare midriffs. Here's a video of some of the contestants for the BlizzCon 2008 Costume Contest, and below is the winner,...
POSTED Wednesday, October 15, 2008
A gas-powered bike? We've got those. They're called motorcycles. Start slapping combustion engines onto your average pedal bicycle and you're taking one step backward for nature, and one giant backflip for mankind. It can reportedly hit speeds of up...
POSTED Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Straight out of Weta Workshop, the New Zealand prop-and-costumer Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson depends on, comes a steampunk rifle so well crafted and awesome that we can't help but wonder if a steampunk movie isn't in...
POSTED Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Take a glimpse into the future: This is the World Trade Center's transportation hub, revealed a few days ago after numerous redesigns. Created by one of our favorite architects, Santiago Calatrava, the soaring organic architecture features a glass and...
POSTED Monday, October 13, 2008
Here's a PC case mod that's worthy of the name Battlestar Galactica. This liquid-cooled work of art has a numerous video screens, a side window hidden by a servo-controlled door, and a slot-loading DVD drive that lets you see...
POSTED Monday, October 13, 2008
Alabama-based designer Peter Azzouni has a futuristic truck concept called the Atropos that will certainly make a few long-haul truckers feel better: the front seat spreads out flat like a bed. It's got plenty of room to unfurl thanks...
POSTED Friday, October 10, 2008
That battery you're throwing away may not have enough energy left to power your gadgetry, but it does have enough juice to light up a low-energy LED. That's the driving idea behind South Korean designer Sung Woo Park's conceptual...
POSTED Friday, October 10, 2008
Either Aussie singer/guitarist Josh Pyke shrunk to a tenth his size, or somebody built a scaled-up replica of his Maton acoustic guitar. Indie rocker Pyke takes a ride on the seaworthy mega-guitar in an upcoming music video of his...
POSTED Friday, October 10, 2008
Industrial designers Christopher Bauder and Christian Perstl have designed a kinetic façade called FLARE that dynamically controls how much light a building lets in — and how much heat. Architects frequently design their buildings around these principles, but suffer...
POSTED Thursday, October 9, 2008
Would you want to live in a house with no privacy whatsoever? Because this stack of window-walled blocks is exactly that. Its designers over at Julien De Smedt Architects worked with a guiding concept that would give George Orwell...
POSTED Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Here's a DIY project for you this Halloween — a pumpkin with glowing LED eyes that will light up automatically when it gets dark. The idea of rigging some circuit board inside of a pumpkin may be a little...
POSTED Wednesday, October 8, 2008
When those Russians have a bathroom design contest, they hold nothing back. This toilet, affectionately named "Mrs. Hudson" for some reason, was one of the big winners. This must be what Sarah Palin was talking about when she said...
POSTED Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Now that you've seen that $10 million dollar train set that looks like the real deal, think of this: What if it was invaded by zombies? LEGO zombies? That's what the Zombie Apocafest 2008 in Seattle, Washington was all...
POSTED Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Now you can wander around the house in the middle of the night with confidence, assisted by Two Lamps. This creation by design firm LifeGoods serves as a bedside lamp in its stationary mode, and then you can pluck...
POSTED Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Just looking at pictures of the Miniatur Wunderland — a $10 million, 9,600-square-foot train set in Hamburg, Germany — you may mistake it for a living, breathing place. Several places, in fact, including its native Hamburg, and America (complete...
POSTED Tuesday, October 7, 2008
See something funny? Yeah, that's a 2,000-pound armored vehicle and, yep, it's pink — but laugh at it for too long and you're going to get a hot dog upside the head. Say hello to Vin Marshall's pedal-powered panzer...
POSTED Monday, October 6, 2008
Sometimes, it seems like high fashion is all about putting something silly on your head — take designer Giles Deacon's Spring/Summer 2009 collection, for instance. He's got his models wearing Pacman-inspired headgear. There's the iconic yellow Mr. Pacman helmet,...
POSTED Friday, October 3, 2008
Meet RoboVox, a giant robot with a giant voice. Standing over 25 feet tall, RoboVox will take messages you text it from your cell phone and say them aloud (this all seems ready for Anchorman-style train wrecks, doesn't it?)....
POSTED Thursday, October 2, 2008
When Dell commissioned a design contest for green computers, Mexican industrial designer Luis Luna took the term "green" literally. He created O Project, a design concept featuring a couple of round PCs that take Dell's bamboo-clad Studio Hybrid idea...
POSTED Thursday, October 2, 2008
Looks like if Baywatch ever airs again, it'll be filled with less rippling bodies and more autonomous underwater rescue vehicles — AUVs that would look pretty darn scary circling around you in the water. The Mantra is a concept...
POSTED Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The X Sting Wish: stupid name, drool-worthy design. UK-based designer Adam Scott bills this monster as an extinguisher of fires, but we'd readily believe it as an exterminator of aliens in an action-packed sci-fi flick. Scott designed the X...
POSTED Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Egads. It's bulky. It's inefficient. In today's modern world, it would be a colossal hassle. I love it. This steampunk phone is a conceptual prototype by Londoner Arthur Schmitt, and it tickles all the right spots from a design...
POSTED Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Whether you have a full head of hair or you're an indie sci-fi movie maker who can't afford to build his own set, this Israeli barber shop is definitely a place you should visit. It's got a steamlined interior...
POSTED Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A lot of our readers like the idea of easing the process of scarfing down beaucoups de hors doeuvres, quaff liquor and socialize at the same time. They reacted favorably to those FingerFood plates that you wear like a...
POSTED Tuesday, September 30, 2008
What's that red streak zipping across the waves at 110mph? It's the R8,8 Biocat Catamaran, and its Ferrari-like looks are complimented by a super-green biodiesel engine. Don't let its treehugging name fool you, though — it's a fire-breathing 29-footer...
POSTED Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Remember that six-PCs-in-one-sweet-glowing-box setup we showed you? Well, designer Fredrik Perman isn't all about raw processing power. He also has a softer, sweeter-smelling side: flower-shaped USB fragrance oil warmers. The units are designed to burn all kinds of fragrant...
POSTED Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Fans of the Icon A5 personal aircraft will be excited to know that the future of personal flight will likely include vehicles like the Igarashi single-person helicopter. The concept vehicle, designed by Japan's Yutaka Igarashi, looks like a cross between...
POSTED Tuesday, September 30, 2008
This awesome sculpture was created by Korean artist Jean Shin. Dubbed the "Sound Wave," it's made from a large number of melted vinyl records. It was created to show "the inevitable waves of technology that render each successive generation of...
POSTED Monday, September 29, 2008
Rejecting the old notion which says that children should be seen but not heard, British designer Alex Underwood's Speaker Buddies turn your hi-fi into a vision of child like innocence. While they lack the soft feminine curves of Ross...
POSTED Saturday, September 27, 2008
You won't have your grandparents over to your posh, colorful apartment in Tokyo while living at the Reversible Destiny Lofts. Designed by NY-based architects Arakawa & Gins (who, between you and me, need to pick some different colors for...
POSTED Friday, September 26, 2008
It's about time the whole restaurant menu/payment ritual was streamlined. To the rescue comes EPOS-lite, a design concept for a tablet that serves as both a menu and wireless payment device. It even wirelessly recharges itself as you place...
POSTED Friday, September 26, 2008
Although this chair looks like it's made from LEGO, designer Matthew Plummer Fernandez actually used a much more geeky material in building it: sound waves. The Sound/Chair has contours that precisely match sound waves mapped on a 3D graph...
POSTED Friday, September 26, 2008
The first thing I did when I saw this setup was look at my own wall and see where I could fit one, too. Then I grabbed a napkin to clean up all the drool. Up above is exactly...
POSTED Friday, September 26, 2008
The man to the right may look like he's just leisurely waiting around (with an umbrella attached to his back), but he's actually taking advantage of artist Jamie O'Shea's Vertical Bed to have himself a power nap in the middle...
POSTED Thursday, September 25, 2008
We're big fans of the designers at Art.Lebedev studios. For their next trick, the creators of that hyper-ambitious keyboard with a video screen behind every key are trying their hands at a touchscreen cell phone. Its simple yet functional...
POSTED Thursday, September 25, 2008
Take one look at this idea and you know it's a good one. You've been there: you're at a cocktail party, hungry enough to eat a horse, but you don't have enough hands to hold your drink, a heaping...
POSTED Thursday, September 25, 2008
Having a few Smart Coasters to jazz up your tabletop is sure to get the conversation going when you have folks over. That's because the coaster can sense whether the drink on top of it is hot or cold,...
POSTED Thursday, September 25, 2008
If Rick Deckard had a versatile 18-wheeler to hunt down replicants with, his life probably would have been a lot easier. At least, that's what the Blade Runner, a bus concept by British firm Silvertip Design, promises to be....
POSTED Tuesday, September 23, 2008
I'm no expert, but as I understand it most jewelry such as necklaces are designed to be pretty, sparkling things, usually made from fancy, expensive materials like gold and diamonds. That's why they're so expensive. But I guess that's not...
POSTED Monday, September 22, 2008
LED wizard Moritz Waldemeyer has snapped some lights onto a bike that illuminates the spokes with a smiling face, the universal sign for happiness. Each wheel only uses one LED that's set to strobe, with a microchip built into...
POSTED Friday, September 19, 2008
Some industrial designers create products that people must adapt to, but we think they have it all wrong. These two entries in the 100% Design show in London, billed as the UK's leading contemporary interiors event, are onto something....
POSTED Friday, September 19, 2008
Well, it's about time somebody redesigned the lowly coat hanger. This Swan coat hanger prototype was dreamed up by industrial design student Asaf Yogev, who created a deceptively simple pattern that's a whole lot more versatile than those old-fashioned...
POSTED Thursday, September 18, 2008
Despite being named after an amazingly lethal fish, industrial designer Matt Bassett's H1 "Fugu" rescue helicopter is designed to save lives, and do it better than the 'copters that came before. He's worked it out so that the Fugu...
POSTED Thursday, September 18, 2008
The task of being Big Brother has become increasingly difficult, what with all those huddled masses peering up at your ever watchful CCTV eyes. To lighten the load and offer the overseers a bit more cover a Japanese firm called...
POSTED Thursday, September 18, 2008
Do you know someone who is constantly worrying about what other people are doing? Someone whose main purpose in life seems to be trying to be as normal and mainstream as possible? The Average Day Watch was made for...
POSTED Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The "Growing Jewelry" collection by Icelandic designer Hafsteinn Júlíusson features beds of real Icelandic moss fixed to rings. There's also a pair of knuckle dusters in case you want to add some lettuce to your knuckle sandwich. Be forewarned,...
POSTED Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Famed vacuum-cleaner maker Electrolux shows it doesn't suck as much as you think by putting on a design competition every year. This year's nine Design Lab '08 finalists have outdone those from the past, with students inventing and designing...
POSTED Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The genius of these iPhone cupcakes cannot be overestimated. Nor can their tastiness, I suspect. The set of 12 cupcakes, each decorated to look like a familiar iPhone app, is so geekilicious that we're torn between admiring the artwork...
POSTED Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Saving money is cool, but puzzle solving — hey, that's where the real fun begins. If only there were some way to combine the two… oh, hold on, what's this? The Kässeli Piggy Bank is sold disassembled, so you...
POSTED Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The line between the grown up and kiddie tables blur with Netherlands-based designer Tineke Beunders' Marbelous. It has grooves cut into the tabletop, legs and supports that'll have marbles rolling all the way down to the floor. The best...
POSTED Monday, September 15, 2008
56 Leonard Street is a new skyscraper going up in New York City designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. Situated in posh Tribeca, the tower cuts an odd silhouette with its jagged edges and apartments that...
POSTED Monday, September 15, 2008
Since we have plenty of solid, watch-wearing Republicans trolling DVICE, we figured we'd make them scratch their heads, nonplussed by this phantasmagoric Crystal Clear watch created by obviously left-wing designer Philippe Starck. Since everyone's for change, this watch should...
POSTED Friday, September 12, 2008
How would you turn a thermometer into a timepiece? For designer Davide Tonizzo, it meant turning the "tube" part into a series of LEDs — 12 of them, in fact — to represent the hour. Then, for the bulb...
POSTED Friday, September 12, 2008
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Webstar! Actually, none of those are far from the truth. It's a Superstar. A floating, self-powered, self-regulated, self-contained metropolis. Think that sounds nuts? Even when Beijing-based MAD designs something grounded in...
POSTED Friday, September 12, 2008
Interested in spicing up your home with a piece of quality art? No? How about a piece of insane and sort of creepy art? Yes? Great! Have I got the item for you. This sculpture by Steve Bishop is called...
POSTED Thursday, September 11, 2008
Porsche Design apparently wants to get its talented fingers into everything. Next is a line of yachts it's designing for high-end Singaporean yacht builder Royal Falcon Fleet, starting with this model RFF135, for which Porsche will create the exterior...
POSTED Thursday, September 11, 2008
We attended the opening of Chicago-based artist Dzine's new show at the Deitch gallery in Long Island City, New York on Sunday night to see some of the sparkliest vehicles in town. Dzine's new sculptures include a bright orange...
POSTED Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Di-Cycle, by GBO Design, bills itself as an amphibious bike for the city of Helmond in the Netherlands, as the city has as many watery channels as it does roads. Riders would be able to skim over the...
POSTED Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Pipe smokers have thus far missed out on much of the techno-fun, but now designer Hakan Bogazpinar comes to their rescue with Eolos. Never mind that it looks like some kind of sophisticated weapon — it has a built-in...
POSTED Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A concept like the Touch-Hear is something we're probably a while off from realizing, but it represents a very attractive technology: putting a world of knowledge at your fingertips. The advent of the Internet, especially in its current form,...
POSTED Monday, September 8, 2008
Now you can really freak out your guests by whipping out this Wine Carafe with Glass. Wait until they've had quite a few drinks and then reveal this work of art by Claudio Colucci, and we'd suggest carefully filling...
POSTED Monday, September 8, 2008
Having a panel of nozzles blasting you against the shower door isn't enough. No, you need wacky designs as a backdrop for your showertime hijinks, and these Colacril Linea Shower Creativity panels are here to help. Take your pick...
POSTED Monday, September 8, 2008
I guess we'll have scrunching or modular cars in the year 2030. It wasn't too long ago that we showed you this French car concept for the year 2030, and now here's Mihai Stamati of Chisinau, Moldova with a...
POSTED Friday, September 5, 2008
Here's a design concept that shows some unusual thinking on the part of its creator, Chris Natt: What if you fitted a smart lamp with petals that open and close like a flower? The result is Stimuli 3.0, a...
POSTED Thursday, September 4, 2008
Find someone isn't agreeing with you? Or saying yes when they should say no? Grab a Yes No Wrench and adjust the offending head accordingly. Gently, now — DVICE doesn't take any responsibility for twisted necks. The Yes No...
POSTED Thursday, September 4, 2008
What you're cringing looking at is a piece of jewelry for your eyeball. Aptly titled "The Eye Jewellery Project," artist Eric Klarenbeek threaded some medical wire through some crystals and attached it to a contact lens. I don't know...
POSTED Thursday, September 4, 2008
Never mind renting a tent with faux Palladian-style arched windows for that chic outdoor soirée — make your guests think a UFO has landed in your yard with the solar-powered Art Rainbow. Providing shade and psychedelic colors akin to...
POSTED Thursday, September 4, 2008
Designer Ashley Payne decided to add some colorful lighting to the Zune scene with a Zune-branded, MP3-playing nightlight. The Zune Bug works in any outlet and will stream music from your Zune over your home's network when it detects...
POSTED Thursday, September 4, 2008
Leave it to those sophisticated creators at legendary firm Frog Design to re-invent the light bulb. The same masters who designed some of the first Apple computers, Sony TVs, and lots of other neat stuff tackled the LED bulb,...
POSTED Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Peugeot design competition has yielded a lot of clever designs, from cars that can shape-shift, to one-seater personal transports, and cars with spheres for wheels. Now here's the Peugeot Stylight by Ognyan Bozhilov of Bulgaria: a three-seater hybrid,...
POSTED Tuesday, September 2, 2008
"Un Sui" is a heavily stylized home in Yamato Kanagawa, Japan built by architect Norisada Maeda and his studio N Maeda Atelier. "Un Sui" translates into "mass of soil," though on the inside it looks a lot more like...
POSTED Monday, September 1, 2008
We all do it. We pick up random objects and pretend that they're phones: shoes, stuffed animals, cutlery, bananas. Well, when you pick up this teddy, it'll actually be a phone. Debuting at the 2008 Good Design Expo, cellular...
POSTED Monday, September 1, 2008
Finally, one man will be able to rock a "My Other Car is A Landspeeder" bumper sticker and mean it. Daniel Deutsch spent six weeks building a replica of Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder featured in Star Wars: A New Hope,...
POSTED Monday, September 1, 2008
In São Paulo, Brazil, there's an office building called Harmonia 57 that has a façade covered by plants. They got there because of pores built into the concrete, where foliage can be planted and grow out until it covers...
POSTED Monday, September 1, 2008
The Experience Recorder is a high tech glove that will actively and passively archive everything about your day. On its automatic setting, it'll record sounds around you, touch sensations and even take pictures of things that may interest you...
POSTED Friday, August 29, 2008
At the NVIDIA’s NVISION '08 event, Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage demonstrated the difference between the graphical power of a CPU-based unit and a dedicated graphics processing unit, which NVIDIA makes. The GPU stole the show, of course,...
POSTED Friday, August 29, 2008
We’re nuts about the open-wheel design of this GYM electric car, but might be too lazy to get it to go anywhere. That’s because inside this far-fetched design concept of a rowdy-looking roadster is also a gym full of...
POSTED Friday, August 29, 2008
Designer Vivien Muller's Solar Cell Tree Charger takes a page from nature, using solar panels as leaves that'll allow it to soak up energy from the sun. Leave it by your window and you have a renewable solution for...
POSTED Friday, August 29, 2008
We like our sinks weird, spooky and magic, and now here’s a faucet to match. High-end plumber Graff designed this gorgeous work of art it calls Luna, appearing to be more ski jump than faucet. Its hot and cold...
POSTED Friday, August 29, 2008
The Seat Brisa is a sports car, but not the kind that'll burn rubber down the road with a gas-guzzling roar. Instead, its hood is covered with photo-voltaic cells that power an electric engine tied to the rear motor....
POSTED Thursday, August 28, 2008
Christened the Signterior by its creator, Shanghai-based architect Nobuhiro Nakamura of A-Asterisk, the name is a blend of the words "signage" and "interior." All of the floors, walls and ceilings on every level within the Chinese structure are painted...
POSTED Wednesday, August 27, 2008
What happened to the drain on this sink from Italian company Axolute? The water either magically disappears, or it slips away via patented “Horizontal Integrated Siphon” technology. You decide. Okay, all you party poopers, if you lean forward and...
POSTED Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Now that broadband Internet access is almost ubiquitous in most top tier nations, the race is on to offer the perfect VOIP phone for those ultra-cheap international Skype sessions. The latest entry into the race is the award winning Tatung...
POSTED Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Shooter is a conceptual fire extinguisher thought up by designers Eunjung Kim, Yangwoo Kim and Junyi Heo. It makes putting out a fire as easy as aiming and pulling the trigger, which will send a cannon round full...
POSTED Tuesday, August 26, 2008
When you buy a Falter 2D Pen, don't expect to start writing with it immediately. That flat sheet of iron you see pictured above is what you'll start with. The pen under it is the goal. You'll have to...
POSTED Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Peugeot 888 is billed as the "personal vehicle for the future Metropolis." For designer Oskar Johansen from Norway, that means a car with space for two with room for luggage, as well as a nifty shape-shifting body. On...
POSTED Tuesday, August 26, 2008
This paper AK-47 has good intentions. According to the item description at the A+R Store, its raison d'être is to remove the gun's function by making it completely nonlethal. Since it's made of just $42 of construction paper, the...
POSTED Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Pyramids and ziggurats represent an oddly survivable form of architecture. Built by civilizations such as the Egyptians, Mayans and Babylonians, several of these testaments to ancient ingenuity are still standing after thousands of years. Timelinks, a design firm based...
POSTED Monday, August 25, 2008
We have to applaud the ambitious Art. Lebedev Studio. The forward-thinking designers of those futuristic Optimus keyboards with a video screen on each key have created Folderix Drives, simple flash storage devices that look like cute little folders. Pick...
POSTED Monday, August 25, 2008
Internet game company NHN Japan thought of an absurd way to get people to talk about HanGame, its mobile phone gaming website: Place half-submerged statues of video game characters all over Shibuya, Tokyo. The statues, such as the wrestler...
POSTED Monday, August 25, 2008
Never mind strapping a flashlight to your head like an old miner, or around your ear like a Borg — this fiber optic light glove brings the light literally to your fingertips. Powered by a battery pack embedded in...
POSTED Monday, August 25, 2008
As we say goodbye to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, let's take a look back at the glories of Olympic architecture from the past, and look forward to even more innovation to come. The competition for the honor of...
POSTED Monday, August 25, 2008
Samsung gave Olympic fans an alternative way to see the games in Beijing: with their very own monitor, enclosed in a periscope-like apparatus. Details are scarce, but the picture says enough. If you saw one of these weird fixtures,...
POSTED Friday, August 22, 2008
When superdesigner Philippe Starck creates a household object like a lamp, he doesn’t mess around. His Miss K table lamp, designed for fancy-schmancy Italian lighting company Flos, plays peekaboo with the diffuser that only shows up when the light...
POSTED Friday, August 22, 2008
Designer John Paul Rishea has a gallery of wild and outlandish clothing, if you've got the balls to wear them. He's created futuristic-looking collars, sets of wings and robotic gauntlets that would make robo-rockers Daft Punk drool, all sold...
POSTED Thursday, August 21, 2008
Next time you're gone, your friends may end up replacing you with a robot. At least, that's what happened to Steve Ganz. The Ganzbot may not look like much, but it's the most expressive block of cardboard you're likely...
POSTED Thursday, August 21, 2008
Want to make Sunday morning chores fun? Or fool your kids into thinking mowing the lawn is a game? If a mower like the Muwi existed, you'd find your yard trimmings transformed from garbage-bag-filler into different, usable shapes such...
POSTED Thursday, August 21, 2008
Looking at the Sonance Kayak speaker, my first thought isn't "personal watercraft" but "museum pedestal from 2567." But that could be just me. Whatever you think the speaker looks like (the comment field awaits), here's what it does: stereo...
POSTED Wednesday, August 20, 2008
You can’t be too rich, too thin or have too many USB ports, so this positively architectural USB hub is bound to be a welcome site on any desk. The Boynq Swing suspends four USB receptacles underneath its graceful...
POSTED Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The NASA concept car (which, as far as we can tell, has nothing to do with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, though it looks like astronauts are driving it) has some pretty radical features that are immediately appealing....
POSTED Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Here’s a extraordinary concept: a car without wheels, instead using three spheres to move in any direction. Designer Andrei França created the Peugeot 360 with an electric motor driving each sphere, using a system of pulleys coordinated by an...
POSTED Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Achieve total geekitude with this very special window, called Fenêtres 3.1, French for, you guessed it, Windows 3.1. This design concept for a Windows window might take some serious construction to install, but maybe it could also be offered...
POSTED Tuesday, August 19, 2008
There's not a lot of info on this Yang Ying digital camera — just a few pictures of it on the designer's website. Still, that was enough to pique our interest, mainly because the idea is so damn cool:...
POSTED Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday morning is often a rude awakening, especially with an obnoxious alarm jarring you out of sleepy-time paradise. That must be why designers keep flirting with the idea of a silent vibrating alarm clock for two, complete with twin...
POSTED Monday, August 18, 2008
Feeling powerless? Escape to the captain’s chair from the Star Trek original series, and start barking out orders and making dramatic pronouncements as your family rolls their eyes. Just don’t let the missus see that credit card bill when...
POSTED Monday, August 18, 2008
We like to see small objects writ large, and this watch table fits right into that category. Cleverly named Big Time, it’s a coffee table for big shots, made of 24k gold plated steel with a $43,150 price to...
POSTED Friday, August 15, 2008
Feeding our fascination for typography and clocks at the same time is Word Clock by Simon Heys, a screen saver that shows you the time of day in your favorite typeface. Take your pick of rotary or linear mode,...
POSTED Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Here's a deliciously brilliant solution to a common problem — what to do with your extra chairs when you don't need them. When you have friends over, a couple of Pick Chairs will beef up your sitting space. Then,...
POSTED Wednesday, August 13, 2008
When a ‘50s-style nixie clock isn’t going to cut it, get even more retro-techno with this Scope Clock. Made by nixie wristwatch maker David Forbes in his Cathode Corner laboratories, this gorgeous creation mixes up the old and the...
POSTED Monday, August 11, 2008
Take a trip with us down into uncanny valley, where animated human faces look almost real. Studio Pendulum's AlterEgo division pasted tiny sensors on actors’ faces and ran that data through their latest facial performance software, and this is...
POSTED Monday, August 11, 2008
For the Olympics-obsessed, here’s an official replica of the torch that was carried 85,127 miles on its way to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This 11.4-inch model isn’t quite half the height of the 28.3-inch real thing, but this...
POSTED Monday, August 11, 2008
Something about this Sun Fold Bike concept really bugs me. Sure, as design concepts go, it's pretty benign — conceived as a green and relatively portable form of commuter transport, it's a fold-up bike that runs on solar power...
POSTED Monday, August 11, 2008
There’s no shortage of ways to be jarred out of bed in the morning, but we like the idea of a scent waking us up rather than obnoxious noises or absurd tests. Sure, the Wake n’ Bacon alarm clock...
POSTED Friday, August 8, 2008
Quick, somebody call an exorcist, because I could swear this candle is hovering above the table. Oh, wait. If you keep it dark enough in the room, maybe nobody will notice that nine-foot line suspending it from the ceiling....
POSTED Friday, August 8, 2008
Known as the Nike 6.0 Ill Mobile, the monstrous fun wagon you see pictured above came from ad/design firm Hub Strategy, which the shoe company tasked with making something that would make people stop and say, "Holy crap!" The...
POSTED Friday, August 8, 2008
The Museum of Modern Art's current show, Home Delivery: Prefabricating the Modern Dwelling (through October 20) surveys the history of prefab homes in the U.S. It shows old ideas that never caught on as well as the latest in...
POSTED Thursday, August 7, 2008
Have you noticed how giddy, weird and excited people act when it’s time to dole out dessert? Behaving as if they are in the presence of a powerful aphrodisiac or explosive weapon, they cautiously back away, ask for assistance...
POSTED Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Clock Delay is the name of this unusual timepiece, perhaps because you can blame it if you’re late, saying you were trying to decipher what time it really was. But it’s not that hard to figure out — just...
POSTED Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Here’s a treat for all those clever science-y types that flock to DVICE: a coffee table featuring a periodic table of the elements. The trick here? This table contains actual samples of each of the 92 naturally-occurring elements. The...
POSTED Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Electracity is a city car concept by Piers Prendergast out of London, and it has something a lot of small car designs lack: some serious trunk space. The electric vehicle has an extending rear section of its chassis...
POSTED Monday, August 4, 2008
Wired has a gallery up of sculptor Michael Rea's science fiction designs made out of wood. He has everything from crazy transports to wacky guns and — as you can see above — a massive and menacing mech designed...
POSTED Monday, August 4, 2008
Steve Norris's house must be full of robotic marvels. He's got that RoboStool we showed you, and also this creative clock that uses a robotic arm and a series of 14 numbered cards. He's coupled a CrustCrawler Smart Arm...
POSTED Monday, August 4, 2008
There's nothing more metal than having shooting flames or arcs of electricity on stage, and this guitarist is keenly aware. That's why he's got a Tesla coil for a guitar amp. He plays; it spits out lightning. It's a...
POSTED Monday, August 4, 2008
If you send Netherlands-startup Shapeways a 3D rendering or design, they can send you back a fully three dimension representation for your work rather cheaply — fees usually range from $50 to $150. Considering that 3D printing units typically...
POSTED Friday, August 1, 2008
Unlike your average foot stool which sits just out of range, insolently expecting you to move it so that you can put your feet up, the RoboStool will come to you. It's got three modes: remote control, a mode...
POSTED Friday, August 1, 2008
Here's a train with only one car, and room for only a dozen or so passengers. It seats folks in a series of individual, side-facing capsules, as well as a small room for four at either end of the...
POSTED Friday, August 1, 2008
The time of day shouts at you from the edges of this Giant Digital Clock/CD holder. It’s a designer’s nod to the ‘80s when things like digital clocks and CDs were so fresh and new. If this not-really-giant 29x14-inch...
POSTED Friday, August 1, 2008
Artist and engineer Lee Rowland see things a bit differently from you and me. Using sophisticated 3D milling processes and a variety of materials such as polished aluminum, clear polyester resin and a dash of aerospace engineering, he’s created...
POSTED Friday, August 1, 2008
Is this a cell phone, or a magic wand? This design concept for a Nokia 9900 cell phone shows what the future may hold for flexible E-Ink screens, hidden inside a pen-shaped device. Beyond being rolled up like a...
POSTED Friday, August 1, 2008
Let’s just leapfrog all those other ideas for energy-saving car tech and hop into this magnetically-driven ride, shall we? While Slovak designer Matúš Procháczka’s concept is prettier than sexy four-inch spike heels, it’ll definitely take some major infrastructure modification...
POSTED Thursday, July 31, 2008
Telemegaphone lets anyone call and should over the mountaintops
POSTED Thursday, July 31, 2008
You already know about bicycles and tricycles, so how about the curiously named Bricycle? We're thinking its designer, only known to us as Brian (he wasn't available for comment in time for this post), is naming his creation after...
POSTED Thursday, July 31, 2008
Belgian artist Wim Delvoye's gothic construction vehicle sculptures show what a world after the industrial revolution could have looked like if it was shaped by the same minds that put gargoyles atop imposing spires and buttresses in European architecture....
POSTED Wednesday, July 30, 2008
It's no surprise that NuVa is a Japanese company, because its pneumatic elevator is one of the most stylish and compact ones we've ever seen. It offers its occupant 360° of vision on the journey up and down, and,...
POSTED Wednesday, July 30, 2008
This is one crazy-looking building. Currently under construction in Tinajin, China and to be completed in 2012, the 1175-foot Sinosteel International Plaza and the 288-foot hotel next to it have hexagonal windows that make them look like the inside...
POSTED Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A Japanese "circuit bender" who goes by Kaseo loves to turn everyday and out-of-date electronics into noise-producing instruments. He's rewired Casio and Yamaha keyboards, retooled Fisher Price playsets and video game consoles, and even turned Japan's iconic rabbit-beast —...
POSTED Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Calling the Valtra RoboTrac a tractor is a bit deceptive. That's because it's also a robot, and it's much smaller than its industrious cousins. It's a fully programmable, automated farmhand that is designed to round out a farm team...
POSTED Monday, July 28, 2008
We’ve heard of eyeball lights before, those swiveling recessed lights that shine onto fireplaces all over suburban America, but now the term “eyeball lighting” is taken a whole lot more literally. Give glassblower Livio Serena from 5.5 Designers a...
POSTED Monday, July 28, 2008
The V1 CPU Cooler by Taiwanese computer parts manufacturer Thermaltake Technologies is so gosh darn beautiful it won an award for being just that. Just look at those sweeping ridges and graceful tubing. It's like Thermaltake designed a metal...
POSTED Monday, July 28, 2008
We’re looking for a nearby dead tree branch where we can hang this $60 Melting Clock, but even placing it on the mantelpiece will remind everyone of Salvadore Dali’s famous painting, The Persistence of Memory. Plop it on the...
POSTED Friday, July 25, 2008
Sort of like a laser pointer with super powers, the Flowlight is a design concept that lets you write in midair with streams of light. Sounds like pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen, though it has one...
POSTED Friday, July 25, 2008
Here’s a clever idea for those who like to go around unplugging everything. Hang On Outlet gives you a place to dangle those plugs after you’ve disconnected them, keeping things neat and tidy and maybe encouraging you to vanquish...
POSTED Friday, July 25, 2008
If you have carpal tunnel syndrome (also known as repetitive stress injury, or RSI), are you going to trust Microsoft to ease your pain? Heck no. It’s time to call for some otherworldly assistance with the Alien Mouse. Everybody’s...
POSTED Thursday, July 24, 2008
Called "Sharewear" by creator Di Mainstone, this pair of dresses light the area around them in different ways depending on how they're linked up. Both costumes feature a floating, halo-on-a-stick-style lamp above the wearer's head, as well as a...
POSTED Thursday, July 24, 2008
No need to hang a Wet Paint sign on this table, because it's just an illusion. Designer John Nouanesing must have thought up this design concept while having fever dreams about painting his house. What's next? Space-saving chairs that...
POSTED Thursday, July 24, 2008
Any way you slice it, they just don't make arcade games like they did in the '80s. The variety, creativity and value (25 cents!) of that golden age have never been matched. So if you were going to immortalize...
POSTED Thursday, July 24, 2008
Sure, you could drink your wine out of a normal-looking carafe, but isn't that boring? You're edgy. You need to impress everyone with how out of the box you're always thinking. And for people like you, there's the Droppa carafe....
POSTED Wednesday, July 23, 2008
So you've got a pile of old cassettes sitting around that you can't get yourself to throw away. The memories, man! But you don't want them cluttering up your closet anymore, as you, understandably, never listen to cassettes anymore. What...
POSTED Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Atmos clocks have been running on thin air since 1928, but never have they looked like this. Now its storied maker, Jaeger-LeCoultre, has teamed up with famed Aussie designer Marc Newson to make this newest clock in the collection,...
POSTED Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Who says a PC has to be rectangular, or even square? Designer Apostol Tnokovski thinks the PC world is round, and conceived this 6-inch orb-shaped number as his proof. Not only is E-Ball oddball shaped, it’s called “the smallest...
POSTED Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Visitors attending Santa Monica's GLOW festival found a stunning surprise in artist Shih Chieh Huang's Recycled Robots, simple sculptures made from odds and ends including plastic bags and bottles, computer fans, portable DVD players hooked up to screens, and...
POSTED Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Conceived by design firm Architecture and Vision, the Moon Base Two is an inflatable lunar habitat that'll keep up to four astronauts safe and sound as they work for six months. While an inflatable base probably isn't what most...
POSTED Tuesday, July 22, 2008
A boon to welders and solar-eclipse fans, the Speedglas SL helmet has an auto-darkening filter on the shield and four selectable levels of light filtering. The helmet's strong, non-absorbent material also happens to be very lightweight, making the SL...
POSTED Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Looking like something from the next Transformers movie, this slick motorcycle concept toggles between two and three wheels at (presumably) the touch of a button. For highway driving it uses all three wheels, but when things get a little...
POSTED Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tired of waiting for an affordable and simple touch screen tablet to surf the web, Michael Arrington, the Silicon Valley maven of influential blog TechCrunch, decided to take matters into his own hands. He wants to create a $200...
POSTED Tuesday, July 22, 2008
This collapsing Foldoub caravan concept by Dutch designer Niels Caris gives you a lot more space with a lot less to tow. While the frame of the camper is made of lightweight, flexible materials, it all folds into a...
POSTED Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Korean designers Sungchul Yang and Woonghee Han think we’re going to be living in waterworld some day soon, so that’s why they put together Aqua. It’s a design concept for a versatile little one-person runabout, equally at home skimming...
POSTED Monday, July 21, 2008
We’ve gotten so used to beer cans, why not put wine in pop-top cans, too? Swedish designers Jens Andersson and Jonas Forsman tried to make their recyclable wine cans slightly resemble a wine bottle, and now these prototypes are...
POSTED Friday, July 18, 2008
Never mind that this solar-powered car looks like a streamlined humpback whale covered with high-tech barnacles. The SolarWorld No.1 can hit a top speed of 75mph, and averaged 45mph over an 1864-mile race course without once stopping at a...
POSTED Friday, July 18, 2008
Out of ideas? Sounds like you need to get to your nearest Fun-O-Meter. Feed it 50 cents, and you'll get a vending machine ball filled with a fun suggestion. Example: "Write 'B' and 'R' on opposite ends the back...
POSTED Friday, July 18, 2008
There’s something fascinating about unusually-designed staircases, and we’ve shown you a few. We’ve even displayed one that goes nowhere at all. But this one at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia goes somewhere, alright, making you navigate 6.5 revs...
POSTED Friday, July 18, 2008
You'd probably think the Proxima is a car if you saw it from the front, or a motorcycle — albeit an odd-looking one — from the rear. You'd be right, both times. A concept by Alvino Design, the Proxima...
POSTED Thursday, July 17, 2008
Besides being in tip-top shape and having a detective's intuition that rivals Sherlock Holmes, billionaire Bruce Wayne has an arsenal of high-tech toys and vehicles that would make even James Bond's Q drool. It's part of the Caped Crusader's...
POSTED Thursday, July 17, 2008
Meet the curious "M.01," otherwise known as the Car for Paris 2030. It's described by its designer Ashley Chichocki as exploring "what is really necessary in a vehicle," and as such it addresses a major issue that cities are...
POSTED Thursday, July 17, 2008
Here's a concept fish owners (or fish who are owned by children) wish was real: a robotic fish feeder. A unit like the Fifer would probably serve a pond better than a fish tank as it's designed to deliver...
POSTED Thursday, July 17, 2008
We've seen some huge shower configurations before, but this must be the most enormous shower head in the world. Charade World by Italian designers Fornara & Maulini is the centerpiece of a crazy idea, turning a humble shower stall...
POSTED Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Just when Japanese watch purveyor TokyoFlash had gone completely off the deep end, determined to never sell a watch that could be easily deciphered by earthlings, the company adds this Nekura Tumbler to its eclectic collection. Even grandma could...
POSTED Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Nat-2 is a fashion label from Germany, and the group is doing some funky things with footwear. The 2in1 Sneaker can be worn as a sandal or a sneaker, depending on how you zip it up. By adding more...
POSTED Friday, July 11, 2008
Here's a robot sculpture that would spark a lot of debate between fans of the Autobots or Decepticons. Autobots' leader Optimus Prime is looking a little thin in all his junky glory, but the sculpture is still really impressive. It's...
POSTED Friday, July 11, 2008
With a big movie like Hellboy II: The Golden Army hitting theaters today, you're bound to get hit by toys and games and other related merchandise promoting the film — most of it a bunch of crap. Sideshow Collectibles...
POSTED Friday, July 11, 2008
When Vancouver hosts thousands of athletes and personnel during the upcoming 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Canada, the city plans to do so in a sustainable, eco-friendly manner. Vancouver wants its Athlete's Village — which is actually two villages...
POSTED Thursday, July 10, 2008
If you're looking for a classy, subtle decoration for your home that'll blend nicely with all of your other décor, I don't think you can go wrong with the "Merciless" gargoyle wall sculpture and light fixture. It's classy. It says...
POSTED Thursday, July 10, 2008
Meet Gonzo, the solar-powered wing-flapping robot. Put it anywhere where there's sun and its solar cell will charge a battery, and its wings will start flapping furiously. There's also Lilly the robot that, like Gonzo, will flap its wings...
POSTED Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Magnetic fields are all around us, but they're usually invisible. Not when British filmmakers Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt get a hold of them. Their film group, called Semiconductor, created "Magnetic Movie," where they've turned audio recordings of magnetic...
POSTED Tuesday, July 8, 2008
As summer lurches forward, suburbia becomes a beauty contest of lawns, each aspiring to be the best shade of green. But who's the greenest one of all? The Grass Scanner can tell you. Designed by Alice Wang, this conceptual...
POSTED Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The idea of LED-embedded bathroom tiles has useful written all over it. But unless you’re completely remodeling, they’re going to give you some installation challenges. This Tile + Light concept created by Korean designer Hyomi Kim makes it easier,...
POSTED Monday, July 7, 2008
We can sometimes be pretty hard on ill-conceived mergers between fashion and technology. That's why we're so happy this LED dress bucks the trend, standing out as a wearable success in a closet full of tech-fashion disasters. The soft...
POSTED Monday, July 7, 2008
Now you’ll be able to rest easy in that skyscraper with The Wizard, a design concept for an emergency escape system that lowers you safely to earth if all hell breaks loose. Strap on its all-encompassing belt system, firmly...
POSTED Monday, July 7, 2008
The Seascout aquatic rescue robot would be a welcome addition for professionals and wayward tourists in open waters. If someone was in trouble, all they would need to do is activate a GPS tracker and the 'bot would glide...
POSTED Monday, July 7, 2008
The Blue-Me portable vacation home lets you enjoy a pleasant siesta with all the amenities wherever you please. Designed by artist Anton Markus Pasing, it's like a full living room and kitchen anywhere you go with an oven, a...
POSTED Monday, July 7, 2008
The idea of a dedicated room just for washers and dryers may be an alien idea for our future brethren. Designed by Harsha Vardhan from New Delhi, India, the Alternative Clothes Cleaner is a conceptual washing machine that doubles...
POSTED Saturday, July 5, 2008
What would it be like to stand right next to a team of pyrotechnicians as they blow up a gigantic hoard of high explosives? See what it feels like to burn $400,000 in 45 minutes in this spectacular July...
POSTED Friday, July 4, 2008
Crazy plumbing aficionados rejoice! Now a slot in the wall can automagically dispense water, sensing the presence and position of your hands and acting accordingly. Not only does the Hidden Tap's water begin to flow as your hands draw...
POSTED Thursday, July 3, 2008
Let's face it: Tic Tac Toe is pretty lame. As definitively explained in WarGames, given a competent opponent, the game will always end in a tie. That kind of sucks, but at least if we played on this mirror...
POSTED Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Michael Salter is something of a pack rat. Instead of letting all that clutter go to waste as some might, however, he puts it to good use — or into making robot sculptures. You may remember these adorable Styrobots...
POSTED Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Here’s a variation on that tiny VW bus that rolls around and around a vinyl record, playing a scratchy tune as it navigates it circuitous route. But this Sound Chaser record player can go places, set free on a...
POSTED Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Inspired by Through the Looking Glass — and that would be the Lewis Carroll classic, not the Lost episode — the pieces of this chess set are each contained in a cylinder that turns opaque when they're removed from...
POSTED Tuesday, July 1, 2008
If these amazingly cool salt and pepper shakers are any indication, Henk Stallinga is one creative cat. Called Taste of Talking, the shakers are made from ear and mouth pieces of old-skool telephone receivers. He didn't stop there, though...
POSTED Monday, June 30, 2008
Does that silver-toothed grimace look familiar? That there is an alien, but not just any alien — the queen of them all from James Cameron's 1986 science fiction classic Aliens. The fancy car is the work of youths from...
POSTED Friday, June 27, 2008
We're pretty sure it isn't practical, but Jorge Cross's amphibious vehicle design for the year 2030 fills us with warm fuzzies with its retro sci-fi feel. The three-wheeler tapers to a single ball at its front, which rotates 90°...
POSTED Friday, June 27, 2008
Let’s take a step back from conventional automobile design for a minute and take a look at Ozone. This rolling cylinder created by Istanbul designer Özkan Koral is a design concept for a Peugeot hydrogen-powered car, where each of...
POSTED Friday, June 27, 2008
Kyle Cherry's "Superior" timepiece adds a touch of Wonder Woman style to the wristwatch. Made from solid tungsten carbide, the band is extremely durable, but it makes one wonder how you get the sucker on your wrist. Cherry actually...
POSTED Friday, June 27, 2008
If this conceptual race car was a reality, you'd find me at the racetrack a lot more often. Sponsored by Honda and the Indy Racing League, the objective of designer Tyler Mars's project was to create a new, eye-catching...
POSTED Friday, June 27, 2008
At first glance, Andrei França Noah high performance vehicle may fool you into thinking it's a unicycle, but look close: it's got two tires, mounted in tandem. The Noah is designed to use the human driver as the control...
POSTED Wednesday, June 25, 2008
As technology merges ever more seamlessly with our everyday life, the intersection between art and technology has become increasingly more common. Bleeding-edge Japanese artist Mutoh Tsutomu takes this art approach into new realms with his Optical Tone installation that uses...
POSTED Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Just when you’ve thought plumbing fixtures have gotten as crazy as possible, along comes this ceiling-mounted faucet. Part of the Rettangolo collection from Gessi, this daring piece of Italian design brings the water straight down from the ceiling inside...
POSTED Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Antro Solo gas-electric hybrid is an interesting blend of space age chic and primitive technologies. It's got an array of solar panels along the top of the vehicle to power it's electric motor, and yet both passengers in...
POSTED Tuesday, June 24, 2008
What if there was a camera out there that was always with you, and cataloged your life experiences in picture form based on how you were feeling at the time? That's what the Camoria does, an over-the-ear digital camera...
POSTED Monday, June 23, 2008
Whatever your feelings are about Comcast, you'll be helpless but to fall in love with the media giant's 10 million pixel display at the new Comcast Center in Philadelphia. The media wall covers an area of over 2100 square...
POSTED Friday, June 20, 2008
Those kooky designers. Now they’ve gone and bent a really long piece of metal and created a living room full of wall accessories. Aykut Erol’s Line Furniture System takes the concept of drawing a complete image without lifting the...
POSTED Friday, June 20, 2008
Everyone likes a cheery snow globe to brighten their day, right? Well, you’ll need a martini after you see this gallery of very special snow globes by artists Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz, experts at using a naïve medium...
POSTED Friday, June 20, 2008
How do you board a constantly moving train? Well, you could leap off a bridge and land on top of it like in the movies, hop off a horse and grab a rail like in a Western, or you...
POSTED Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Here's the scenario: The survivors from the Twelve Colonies finally find Earth and are invited into your living room, only to find a hulking Centurion model proudly displayed. Awkward. Still, if toy designer Fred Barton had entered our "Make A...
POSTED Tuesday, June 17, 2008
What kind of phone would a blind person use? I'll give you a hint: It's not an iPhone 3G. No, such a phone would have to eschew any fancy touchscreen for something more tactile, certainly — something like the...
POSTED Monday, June 16, 2008
Lego kits such as the Mindstorm NXT line help prove the point that the toy bricks aren't just for kids. The kit sells for an impressive $250, and includes all manner of goodies, from programmable software to ultrasonic sensors....
POSTED Monday, June 16, 2008
The old incandescent light bulb has had a rough time of late — what with being pushed aside in these energy-efficient times by greener technologies like compact fluorescents, LEDs and even halogens. Nevertheless, nothing is more iconic of lighting...
POSTED Monday, June 16, 2008
Belgian designer Vincent Callebaut, the Lilypad's creator, describes the city as a "floating ecopolis for climate refugees," but it looks more like a resort than a shelter. Inspired by nature, it's designed to house 50,000 people displaced from the...
POSTED Monday, June 16, 2008
Bikes with bubble blowing machines are not new ideas--they've been in children's toys for a while. But what if the bubbles were made using "green" biodegradable vegetable-based soap, and what if they were filled with seeds? Then bubbles would...
POSTED Friday, June 13, 2008
As complex a device as it is, the Beer Bottle Organ is actually a very old invention. When Gary Rickert decided to make an organ that used bottles to create notes, he had no idea that someone had tried...
POSTED Friday, June 13, 2008
When technology and fashion merge, the results are often eye-catching, occasionally provoking and sometimes totally mental. Such high-tech fashion is a regular occurrence at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center in New York City, which recently invited designers to create some upgraded wearables we've never seen before.
POSTED Thursday, June 12, 2008
The No-key Keyboard is a design concept by Kong Fanwen, whose graphical artwork is so compelling that we couldn’t resist showcasing his dubious idea. The keyboard’s edge-lit glass has the keys etched into it, and a small camera and...
POSTED Thursday, June 12, 2008
At only eight feet long and less than three feet wide, the Lumeneo Smera two-seater is incredibly compact. But its real draw are its two electric engines, one for each axle, that manage to propel the vehicle at 80...
POSTED Tuesday, June 10, 2008
You don't have to be a PC fan to appreciate this piece of sushi art: a roll flattened out and decorated to resemble a Windows laptop. I sure hope the fish isn't running Vista. It would feel like a...
POSTED Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Regardless of who you are, you’re going to come in contact with plumbing fixtures every day. Where a simple outhouse festooned with a half-moon might have sufficed in days of yore, now there’s a 21st-century renaissance going on with...
POSTED Thursday, June 5, 2008
What if those popular monsters from Doctor Who, the Daleks, had been created in the 19th century? In that case, they might have looked something like this model from Alex Holden. The U.K. native did a hell of a...
POSTED Thursday, June 5, 2008
Know someone who really likes the soda? Here's the perfect gift for fans of carbonated beverages: an ersatz soda can that lights up, called the Tin Lamp. Hold on… I mean the Lamp Tin. Putting "tin" in the name...
POSTED Thursday, June 5, 2008
We've sent the Phoenix lander to Mars, now it's time to send the Moonstream bus-sized rover. Anthony Sims, a student at the Art Center College of Design, conceptualized the Moonstream rover after forms found in nature, such as turtles...
POSTED Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Lego as furniture? Dude, you'd need, like, a million bricks for that… unless the bricks were gigantic, of course. That's the whole idea behind LunaBlocks — created by Thierry Nahon and Philippe Landecker of Lunatic Construction, the biggie bricks...
POSTED Wednesday, June 4, 2008
If you think movie theaters have uncomfortable seats, then maybe the M.A.S.T. art installation is for you. A design by Italian artist Joe Velluto, the Transitive Sensory Living Module (or Modulo Abilitativo Sensoriale Transitivo in Italian) has several different...
POSTED Monday, June 2, 2008
RobotGrrl, also known as high school junior Erin, received some great news. She's been accepted to go to Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence course, part of the school's Education Program for Gifted Youth. Sure, it sounds awesome, but her quest...
POSTED Monday, June 2, 2008
It'd be interesting to try out this "Hand Tool" wrench — see if it works just as well as a regular one, though the fingers in the grip look a little too accurately sculpted to really twist some bolts....
POSTED Friday, May 30, 2008
We're not sure the Chessmobile would actually work, but here's the idea driving it: the cabin rests atop a platform that can move it around in the event of a crash, keeping the passengers out of the deformation zone...
POSTED Friday, May 30, 2008
The Ubicycle public bicycle service system by design firm Continuum (who worked on the Hundred Dollar Laptop project) will give commuters a new way to get around town. The unmanned bike rental kiosks are topped with solar panels for...
POSTED Thursday, May 29, 2008
One of these days, we’re going to get us a trusty intern here at DVICE. But we’re going to make it easy for that pup to get us some fresh hot java with this Coffee Carrier, transporting multiple doses...
POSTED Thursday, May 29, 2008
Rickshaws are a standard fixture in big cities. We have carts pulled by bikes here in New York City, London has similar vehicles, and places such as Bangkok, Thailand have zippy little carts powered by noisy motors. For the...
POSTED Wednesday, May 28, 2008
There was so much coolness at the Museum of Modern Art’s Elastic Mind exhibit, it was hard to absorb it all in one shot, but look what else was there: It’s a Pong table, updated to incorporate the physical...
POSTED Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The Long Chair, created by Schemata Architecture in Tokyo, is devilishly simple: take a single tube of stainless steel and bend it into a chair profile over and over. Stack enough of these chair outlines side by side, and...
POSTED Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Put on this outfit, and your whole body turns into a musical instrument. That’s the promise of the Pacer Suit, a design concept that measures electrical impulses of your muscles and turns them into music or sound effects. Akin...
POSTED Tuesday, May 27, 2008
German industrial designer Luigi Colani has been rethinking the future since the '40s, and over the course of those many decades he has applied a rounded, streamlined look to cars and trucks, kitchens, spacecraft, furniture, and whatever else he...
POSTED Tuesday, May 27, 2008
The Smartchair Biofeedback Computer Chair looks like an ejection seat, but this ergonomic design concept keeps track of your muscle tension and adjusts itself for maximum comfort. It has dozens of embedded sensors, raising and lowering springs built into...
POSTED Tuesday, May 27, 2008
If you've been waiting for emoticons to fall out of favor and be dismissed as a fad, it's time for a reality check. They've become a permanent fixture of online communication, so you may as well surrender and embrace...
POSTED Tuesday, May 27, 2008
As technologies like Google Earth and the experimental iPhone Earth application change the way we view our reality, it's time for a ground breaking device to match all the data at our disposal. Japanese concept designer Mac Funamizu has come...
POSTED Tuesday, May 27, 2008
I like designs that are so simple and clever, that they make you slap your head in one of those V-8 moments. This sofa design from South Africa's XYZ Design is a perfect example. By simply rotating the center...
POSTED Saturday, May 24, 2008
You don’t want your lamps to look like everyone else’s, do you? That’s why you might feel like folding your own with this Fold Your Lamp design concept by Thomas Hick. It’s made of a thin sheet of stainless...
POSTED Friday, May 23, 2008
We liked these light orbs, but have less positive feelings towards the conceptually-similar outdoor lamps above— instead of being ethereal and round, they're shaped like the sort of tree that sometimes lines paths or a road. The lamp's name...
POSTED Friday, May 23, 2008
Got a spare rec room you're not using? And over $250,000 to burn through? Awesome, maybe you could pay someone to set you up an entertainment center as nice as the LED Home Theater. In a stunning display of...
POSTED Friday, May 23, 2008
How would you tell time if you were blind? I mean, aside from implanting cybernetic eyes so you could look at a clock. Right, exactly — you'd get yourself a Braille watch. Conceived by David Chavez, the Haptica Braille...
POSTED Friday, May 23, 2008
In a contemporary tale of two cities, it all began with 19th century English inventor Alexander Stanhope St. George's obsession with the marvelous. Surrounded by the wonders of his age, such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Eastern, he set...
POSTED Friday, May 23, 2008
Got a custom vinyl doll you love? Ed Lewis, also know as Fungus Amungus over at Instructables, certainly does. Here's where your love and his love are probably different: he melted its face off and put a speaker there....
POSTED Thursday, May 22, 2008
Okay, fellow firebugs, here’s the epitome of fireplace tech. Digifire uses continuously-fed ethanol for a clean-burning fireplace, and these babies are so steeped in forward design, they could be right at home on the set of a science fiction...
POSTED Thursday, May 22, 2008
For its 75th anniversary, sporting goods purveyor Lacoste decided to peek another 75 years into the future, imagining what the face of tennis would look like in 2083. And, what'd'ya know? It's covered by a sweet visor. The envisioned...
POSTED Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Electrical outlets are a necessity but they can sure add to that cluttered look on your walls. Now you can clean up that mess with Bocci 22, the minimalist wall outlet with no faceplate at all — it’s all...
POSTED Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Touching your music sounds interesting, but sitting on it? That's the idea behind the Lodge Chair, a small, rather uncomfortable-looking chair with an iPod built in. Sounds like kind of an OK concept… until you realize the subwoofer and...
POSTED Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Tandem Car dreamed up by Volvo's Monitoring & Concept Center (or VMCC) looks like something you'd see in a science fiction movie, yet the team insists that a lot of what they're trying to do is grounded in...
POSTED Monday, May 19, 2008
Desk fans are often painfully functional in their appearance — something you regretfully pull out when the weather gets warm, but are all too happy to put away come fall if only to get rid of the eyesore of...
POSTED Monday, May 19, 2008
Someone at famed design firm Frog Design must have been having a bad day when this Digital Escape design was conceived. Don’t like your world? Strap on this “lifestyle product of the future” and transport yourself to a different...
POSTED Monday, May 19, 2008
Daniel Shankland II loves him some giant robots, and his amazing Disaster Relief Robot may just be a model, but, oh, do we ever wish it was real. Part of an independent study during Shankland's senior year at the...
POSTED Friday, May 16, 2008
For most non-designers, the first time they work with a page-layout program, the font list is a playground to them, so their documents tend to be loaded with a painfully high number of fonts. We like to think that...
POSTED Friday, May 16, 2008
We see our share of crazy ideas 'round these parts. How about a toilet made of meat? Or a lamp fashioned from a duck? This helmet may not be made from poultry, but what it does is still rather...
POSTED Thursday, May 15, 2008
What's not to love about a BristleBot, the motor-run toothbrush head recently invented by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories? The tiny invention was such a big hit that the design has caught on all over the world. The latest addition...
POSTED Thursday, May 15, 2008
Outside of cool lamps, the idea of light-up furniture sounds pretty lame on paper. But then we saw Stardust, a product from Italian furniture company Meritalia, and got convinced. The glow of the low-voltage LEDs built into these sofas,...
POSTED Thursday, May 15, 2008
We think that Daniel Rozen's Wooden Mirror should be classified as Steampunk, but frankly, we're not cool enough to be sure. Rozen is an adjunct professor at NYU, so his creation was on display earlier this week at the...
POSTED Thursday, May 15, 2008
Houseplants not your thing? You still might want to take a look at the work of Ryan Wolfe, which merges technology and plants in ways that are both thought-provoking and… well, pretty cool-looking. One project, called "Study for Lit...
POSTED Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Kristin O'Friel, another NYU ITP student, invented the CO2RSET, a corset that tightens or loosens around your body depending on the amount of CO2 in the air around you. She says that she was influenced in part by this...
POSTED Wednesday, May 14, 2008
If the Jettsons were a little more terrestrial, they might have lived in something that looks like Victor Vetterlein's "Reboot," a conceptual house. The Reboot is designed to be entirely self-sufficient, with energy collecting solar paint, wind turbines and...
POSTED Tuesday, May 13, 2008
When looked at straight on, this "Mirage Lamp" looks to have the shape of your standard lamp, complete with a shade and a base. But when you look at it from any other angle you realize that it's actually made...
POSTED Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Hamburger enthusiast Harry Sperl of Daytona Beach, Florida took a look at his Harley-Davidson and his collection of burger odds and ends — over 1,000 pieces strong — and wondered how he could merge the two. Well, you're looking...
POSTED Tuesday, May 13, 2008
While we're not mathematicians enough here to know if the name "Fractal Furniture" really applies to this poly-drawer cube, we are space-craving urbanites enough to desire one. The art project, conceived by Takeshi Miyakawa, turns a big wooden block...
POSTED Monday, May 12, 2008
We've seen plenty of designs for computer mice — from the innovative the ridiculous — but never one so… contoured as the City Mouse (or is that the Village Mouse). Designed by d-Vision, the City Mouse has a shape...
POSTED Monday, May 12, 2008
Surprisingly this isn't a picture of Cobra headquarters in the new G.I. Joe movie — the Veil Solar Shade might one day grace the schoolyards of some Australian elementary schools. A concept from design firm Büro North, the Veil...
POSTED Monday, May 12, 2008
New York State is home to some impressive waterfalls. New York City, not so much. The city is planning on changing that this summer with the New York City Waterfalls project. It's a big, expensive undertaking: $9 to $10...
POSTED Friday, May 9, 2008
What do you want from a lamp? Light, right? Maybe good looks? With Ralf Zoontjes's Luxalive lamp, you've got all that, but also a friend — one that's maybe a little needy. The Luxalive reacts to your position to...
POSTED Friday, May 9, 2008
What if you could control everything in your home with a little handheld gadget? That's what this universal remote by David Chacon got us thinking about, with its roomy screen — a nerve center right in your pocket. Called...
POSTED Friday, May 9, 2008
There's certainly no shortage of odd, annoying, beautiful and unusual places to store books, but we’re betting you never thought a bookshelf could also function as a internet-connected, live-updated display. Prepare for enlightenment, because WaSnake has four panels on...
POSTED Thursday, May 8, 2008
This Multimedia Coffee Table reminds me of that spoof video mocking Microsoft Surface, the table-size PC you can now find at AT&T stores. In that vid, a narrator describes how amazing it would be to look at maps —...
POSTED Thursday, May 8, 2008
Though it's called the Egg phone, this design concept better resembles the fried variety than a shell-covered ovoid. Designer Roman Tubl set out to conceive a cellphone that's easy to use and a pleasure to hold. Throw in a...
POSTED Wednesday, May 7, 2008
We already showed you how to stay fashionable in urban combat situations. Along the same lines, Peter Gronquist has jazzed up retired rifles, chainsaws, machine guns and artillery shells and slapped big names on them: Louis Vuitton, Coach, Gucci...
POSTED Tuesday, May 6, 2008
The Brits are once more taking Singapore by storm, but this time with their snazzy, sustainable architecture. Firm Foster + Partners has plans for an over-1,600,000-square-foot (filling an entire city block), mixed-use structure that's completely decked out with green-friendly...
POSTED Monday, May 5, 2008
Typically, a Do Not Enter sign or symbol is enough to deter folks from trying to enter a room. But what about people who don’t read English? Or who grew up in the wilds of Alaska and don't understand...
POSTED Monday, May 5, 2008
Outdoor showers are just better than indoor ones. Of course, the best kinds are attached to your house so that they can provide heated water. But that doesn't work for everyone, especially if you're not going to use it...
POSTED Monday, May 5, 2008
The BBC commissioned this novel idea that combines social networking with a digital radio, and the result is Olinda. It’s a normal digital radio until you remove its translucent orange cap, exposing a plug-in interface. You can add modules...
POSTED Monday, May 5, 2008
The latest creation from steampunk artisan par excellence Jake von Slatt, is this combination PC and monitor designed to recreate the look of a Victorian era theater stage. Using a genuine Victorian knick-knack shelf as a frame, Jake managed...
POSTED Friday, May 2, 2008
Would you trust a robot to do the dishes? Is a dishwasher technically already a robot? Would artificial intelligence make it better at its job, or just annoying? While these questions aren't addressed in Battlestar Galactica, the show, they...
POSTED Friday, May 2, 2008
We like the Orbit clock. By using circular hands, it emphasizes that time isn't just a linear progression of events — more of a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, a point of view shared by our favorite Time...
POSTED Friday, May 2, 2008
Music and sculpture are rarely blended so beautifully, as with this boombox built into the body of a double bass by artist David Ellis. Incorporating a four-way stereo speaker system, two vaccum tube preamps, a Crown power amp, and...
POSTED Thursday, May 1, 2008
With its functional and utilitarian design, most people banish their exercise equipment to the garage or basement. I myself have a rowing machine that I need to hide away somewhere whenever I'm expecting company. If all exercise equipment were...
POSTED Wednesday, April 30, 2008
With most lamps, we try to hide the cabling away somewhere out of sight to let the design of the lamp be the center of attention. But what if the cabling is the lamp? What then, smart guy? That's just...
POSTED Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Coffin Couches is a California-based company that sells sofas made out of "used" coffins. From the website, it would seem that the company doesn't get its coffins by disinterring grandmothers, but from coffins that are discovered to be slightly...
POSTED Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Not enough music in your life? Specifically, piano? Then you'll love Yamaha's design exhibition in Milan, "Key for You." The company was showing off some concept designs integrating piano keyboards into objects you wouldn't expect — from countertops to...
POSTED Wednesday, April 30, 2008
What better way to decorate your arty abode during wartime than hanging up this Cuckoo Bunker Wall Clock by Joseph Barakat for Diamantini Domeniconi? That little bird out front is one brave soldier, wearing only the flimsiest of helmets...
POSTED Wednesday, April 30, 2008
We got a kick out of this crazy-looking machine when we saw it recently at a street fair in Providence, RI. RISD Industrial Design student Mike Hahn has created what he calls a Re-Blowmolding machine. The name refers to...
POSTED Monday, April 28, 2008
Looking stylish would probably be the least of your worries during a terrorist attack, but then again you're not Paris Hilton. Trendsetters like her might eschew duct tape and Cipro for the Urban Security Suit. Designed by Tim Smit,...
POSTED Monday, April 28, 2008
Designer Alex Naboko of Minsk, Belarus is on the right track to bringing back the glory of air travel. It's easy to imagine crisply uniformed attendants wandering the spacious aisles, serving better-than-expected trays of food on the large tables...
POSTED Friday, April 25, 2008
The New York no-parking space in this picture has been re-purposed by artist Natalie Jeremijenko into a "NoPark," a mini-public green space in the middle of the city. Most of the concrete in the space has been ripped up...
POSTED Thursday, April 24, 2008
With this being Earth Week and all, Dell decided to get in on all the eco-fun with its smallest PC yet. This one’s wrapped up in a renewable bamboo case that looks stylish, rounded, and smooth. Its innards are...
POSTED Wednesday, April 23, 2008
This vortex-like sun canopy is more than just an eye-catching piece of design. Composed of several polypropylene elements that are photoreactive, the canopy changes color based on the ambient light. If it's sunlight, the elements turn blue-green; if it's...
POSTED Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Does your air freshener look too conventional? Just sitting there on the wall, slowly dispensing its fragrance, never getting noticed? That's not what a fun-loving rebel like you wants. No, you want Noseroma "exhaler" — a powerful wall-mounted scent emitter...
POSTED Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Bigshot Toyworks, a design studio known for its ridiculously high quality action figures, is giving one of Ashley Wood's distinct robots a real world presence. Meet Bertie, one of Wood's pipebomb 'bots from his upcoming World War Robot comic...
POSTED Tuesday, April 22, 2008
If you’ve spent the past decades pruning and cultivating those spectacularly small bonsai trees, here’s the perfect finishing touch: CrashBonsai, a tiny smashed car, wrapped around that tree, just like in real life! Artist John Rooney painstakingly crushes, melts...
POSTED Friday, April 18, 2008
Who's the target customer for the Abyss Light? I'm guessing anyone obsessed with pearls, seeing as the circular strip of LEDs looks just like a strand of 'em. And fans of sculpting might get a thrill out of the...
POSTED Friday, April 18, 2008
Remember the glory days of the scientific calculator wristwatch? Dave Jones does: "Back in 1987 or so I got a Casio CFX-400 scientific calculator watch, and I wore that watch to death for 10 years until the band support...
POSTED Friday, April 18, 2008
We the Brits were crazy about tea, but some French aficionados are giving them a run for their money. Two young French designers have created a self-stirring teacup. It's a glass, actually, and it has a ceramic ball at...
POSTED Thursday, April 17, 2008
If you like glowing outdoor decorations but can't quite afford these balls, consider the Glowpot. It's a white plastic pot with a light inside it that runs on triple-A batteries. When you turn it on, the pot doesn't just...
POSTED Thursday, April 17, 2008
Viso is an interactive art installation by the Bartproject design bureau centering around a computerized woman's face. Lean in, and Viso will lean in, too; her eyes will follow your movements around the room. Poke her in the eye...
POSTED Wednesday, April 16, 2008
As anyone who sits at a desk all day knows, keeping good posture can be a challenge. Short of getting your mom to stand by your desk and yell at you to "Sit up!" all day, you could instead put...
POSTED Wednesday, April 16, 2008
There’s something appealing about seeing objects from your operating system's desktop appearing here in the real world. Take advantage of that two-worlds-collide irony with the Icon Clock, a 3.5-inch wall clock made of plastic resin and available in the...
POSTED Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Who knew a New York City “Walk/Don’t Walk” sign could function as a chair in your living room? Like some other chairs we’ve seen lately, this one doesn’t look too comfortable, but it’s unquestionably unique. Its stern lit-up admonitions...
POSTED Tuesday, April 15, 2008
This chair, by Brazilian artists Fernando and Humberto Campana, is pretty much the opposite of the Outlaw Chair. It's cute as can be and looks like one of those DIY projects that you probably wouldn't want to bother making...
POSTED Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Are you a badass? A real badass? Then you probably have no need for the Outlaw chair. I mean, anyone who would get himself a Victorian chair tricked out with jewels, studded leather, and what looks like a puma skull...
POSTED Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Now this is just weird. The “How High the Moon” chair, named after that classic Duke Ellington song, is made of expanded nickel-plated steel mesh and covered with epoxy (hopefully to make it more comfy than it looks). The...
POSTED Monday, April 14, 2008
Moonlight is a German company that makes these beautiful glowing orbs. The polyethylene spheres range from 13-30 inches across and can survive in temperatures from -40 to 170 Fahrenheit. Though they've been around in Europe for a while (they...
POSTED Friday, April 11, 2008
Is this an extra long coffin? No! It's a SofaBOX— unlock the metal crate and open its latches to reveal a full-sized comfortable couch. It's a brand-new invention by Swiss designer John Hofgartner. No word on pricing, but sturdy...
POSTED Friday, April 11, 2008
The Guggenheim Museum has established a tradition of building structures to house and display art that are themselves works of art. Following the lead of the original Guggenheim in New York designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and the stunning...
POSTED Friday, April 11, 2008
Ever wanted to see how it feels to go through one of those transporters on Star Trek? Stepping into the Illumination Shower might be as close as you can get right now. With a doughnut-shaped light above you emitting...
POSTED Friday, April 11, 2008
If you’ve ever had an aquarium in your bedroom, you know there must be some truth to the research that shows your blood pressure is lowered by the sight of fish swimming by. The $199 Sega Private Ocean Interactive...
POSTED Thursday, April 10, 2008
Ikea is converting the Kobe Portliner Monorail in Japan into an innovative showroom in preparation for the launch of its store location at Port Island. Lucky for the display, it's beauty will be fleeting - Ikea will only run...
POSTED Thursday, April 10, 2008
Whenever David Bue Pedersen looks over at the pictures of his loved ones, he'll know exactly which of them are online. That's because his picture frame is no ordinary frame. Known as the "DIY instant messenger online contact signalizer...
POSTED Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The Rainpod, by designer David L'Hôte of France, takes a cue from ol' Momma Nature on how to water lawns: with rainwater. Working like a rain barrel, the conceptual Rainpod collects water in a large tank and, standing taller...
POSTED Tuesday, April 8, 2008
In Mad Max, Lord Humongous and his men rolled around wearing whatever they could find, from paintball masks to leather jackets and next to nothing. We won't have to worry about scavenging when the mushroom clouds start blooming —...
POSTED Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Those kooky scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have gone overboard with this programmable tattoo concept. It uses hair-sized nanotubes embedded in the skin to display an image of your choice, which persists even after you turn off the...
POSTED Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The Symposium RFID wine reader is a conceptual design by Giuseppe Russo that brings a bit of technology to the age-old task of wine drinking. The Symposium Wine Reader is both an RFID wine reader and a temperature regulator....
POSTED Tuesday, April 8, 2008
When I stumbled upon the Revolve Water Timer — a garden-watering timer that's solar powered — I thought it was a cool idea. I naturally expected the solar panels to detect sunlight and therefore not water the garden there...
POSTED Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The I/O Brush is a conceptual design brewed up from the students at the MIT Media Lab. The idea behind the I/O brush is to turn the world into a palette. You can use the brush to pick up...
POSTED Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Think your dog is happy when he comes up to you and wags his tail? Think again. He could be beseeching you for love, or asking for some nosh or to get out of the house. You'd know what...
POSTED Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Half Johnny Appleseed, half doomsday machine, the colorful CV08 "suburb eating" robot is a massive hexapod that'll crawl across the urban landscape, destroying the houses and everything within them in order to replant trees. Each leg fulfills different functions,...
POSTED Monday, April 7, 2008
Parasols are good for more than just decorating those fruity tropical cocktails. For example, Parasolar, a design concept by Oded Shorer, has an easily carried case that opens up to reveal a cloth canopy with integrated photovoltaic panels. Neat....
POSTED Monday, April 7, 2008
Of all the ways to pay homage to Earth's savior in Bungie's Halo series, turning the Master Chief into a pony is by far one of the oddest. Cobbled together by a lass known as AnimeAmy, the Chief won...
POSTED Monday, April 7, 2008
Ever wish you could live in the world presented by a good book? With the Space Book by designer Jin-Hui Kim, you could. Each page of the oversized pop-up book is a different room of a make believe house,...
POSTED Monday, April 7, 2008
There's nothing quite like taking a beautifully simple piece of technology and making it incredibly complicated, and few devices are quite as simple as a sundial. The problem is that sundials only work when it's sunny out, and their...
POSTED Saturday, April 5, 2008
The NE apartment building is a stylish approach to a motorcycle-centric living solution by Japanese architects Yuji Nakae, Akiyoshi Takagi and Hirofumi Ohno. It features eight apartments separated by seven concrete walls, all of which are accessed by adjacent...
POSTED Friday, April 4, 2008
No, this is not some new supersonic aircraft or UFO. It’s a house designed by Jérôme Olivet, who learned his stuff from the great Philippe Starck. Jet House is designed to look like it’s moving fast even though its...
POSTED Friday, April 4, 2008
How tall is too tall? I guess we'll know once one of these crazy building concepts ends up getting built — if it subsequently falls down, that is. The Ultima Tower is a conceptualization by designer Eugene Tsui and...
POSTED Thursday, April 3, 2008
Finally, somebody designs a coffee cup that takes into account that human beings will actually be drinking from it. Most mugs have a rim that’s so fat, even a horse’s lips couldn’t keep the coffee from spilling, but designer...
POSTED Thursday, April 3, 2008
Putting a twist on the conventional drawbridge, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge over the River Tyne in England tilts to let ships pass under it instead of parting at the middle. The bridge's crazy design is the result of a...
POSTED Thursday, April 3, 2008
Try as it may, it seems the Zune just can't match up to the iPod. Why not? Well, A.J. Kandy, creative director and prez of King Marketing, posits that Microsoft needs to stop simply following in Apple's footsteps with...
POSTED Thursday, April 3, 2008
NASA posted up some harrowing news to go along with their daily photo: In a surprising and potentially troubling request, the new space station robot known as Dextre demanded that astronauts refer to it in the future as "Dextre...
POSTED Tuesday, April 1, 2008
I know the feeling — you're taking a shower and you feel the need to whip up some stir-fry. Or you're watering the plants outside and you suddenly get the craving for an omelet. How about when you're vacuuming...
POSTED Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Having more than one monitor is undoubtedly cool, but, if you play video games or watch movies, then you know that the gap between displays — formed by the casing that borders each monitor — can really take you out...
POSTED Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Siafu (curiously named after terrifying army ants) is a concept laptop by designer Jonathan Lucas of Long Beach, California that would give people with impaired vision the tactile input they need to fully use a computer — from writing...
POSTED Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Reactive Sparks art installation is a display by designer Markus Lerner that reacts to the volume of passing vehicles, turning those readings into wave-like visualizations that undulate across the face of the towers. It's positioned outside of light manufacturer...
POSTED Tuesday, April 1, 2008
We’ve heard of MotionPortrait before, that software that animates still photos, turning them into moving, smiling and talking 3D models. But we haven’t seen an example of it used like this, where a nearly lifelike model is animated in...
POSTED Monday, March 31, 2008
The PowerCube 6000 is a standalone power generator powerful enough to offset your home's power needs with green energy. It's also portable enough to keep things running like food carts or temporary kiosks — provided you've got a forklift...
POSTED Monday, March 31, 2008
Have a seat on the Pixel Couch, the perfect place to plant your posterior if you’re wearing a pixel tie. Decorate your walls in a pixel pattern using a few Post-it notes, get yourself a suit to match and...
POSTED Monday, March 31, 2008
Despite being inspired by a snail, this keyboard concept, named the Caracol, would be great for amputees and just regular keyboarders alike. It looks a bit like a snail and uses a rotating keywheel. The keywheel has a 5:1...
POSTED Monday, March 31, 2008
Pantech, maker of some pretty innovative phones, recently challenged students at a variety of universities across Korea to design a phone for 2010. Pantech asked and they received, but some of the winning designs look like phones better suited...
POSTED Monday, March 31, 2008
Touch The Light is an interactive work of art in Osaka, Japan. At the top of the KEPCO building is a large circular lighting fixture. Stationed one kilometer away is a 1/100 scale model of the KEPCO lighting fixture....
POSTED Friday, March 28, 2008
This funny-looking machine is a small battery powered vehicle that motors its way around a New York art gallery. Its course is directed and steered entirely by flies. Yes, that plastic bubble is filled with large houseflies, along with...
POSTED Friday, March 28, 2008
This Luna Watch design concept by John Pszeniczny is as luminous as it is beautiful. As the story goes, such a bauble would be somehow made of Spessartite Garnet with stainless steel and crystal in there somewhere. Embedded within...
POSTED Friday, March 28, 2008
Here’s a design concept that old-school artists who wear berets and paint with palettes will like. The gorgeous Palette-Digital Artist is an entry into the Microsoft NextGen PC Design Competition for 2008. It's a handheld touchscreen PC, and looky...
POSTED Thursday, March 27, 2008
The HDTV is usually the center of attention in a home theater, but a speaker set like Paul Scarfe's Aura could upstage it. Aura is cone speaker made with molded glass that produces exceptional sound. The glass is supposed...
POSTED Thursday, March 27, 2008
Your surge protector is probably tucked behind the sofa. You know, out of the way. But what if your surge protector were instead ten times larger, red, and in the center of the room? You'd never be able to...
POSTED Wednesday, March 26, 2008
There's no doubt why this design concept for a garish USB hub is called “Asterisko,” is there? The asterisk-shaped peripheral keeps that spaghetti-bowl of wires separated while making itself useful, offering a male USB plug along with its four...
POSTED Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The green building movement has come a long way in the last few years, with features such as solar panels, green roofs, and wind turbines being integrated into residential and commercial building designs. But Daekwon Park apparently thinks it's time...
POSTED Wednesday, March 26, 2008
We’re sold on cardboard. We’ve seen it used to build sturdy cribs, an iPod boombox amplifier, and someone even made cardboard blocks that look like building materials for a castle. We just never envisioned a future where we’d all...
POSTED Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Footlume is a new idea that looks to revolutionize floor fashion from a team at London's South Bank University. I didn't think floor fashion needed to be changed, but this isn't a bad idea. Footlume is electroluminescent flooring that...
POSTED Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Korean phone purveyor Pantech (also known as Sky Premium) is teaming up with universities there to design the "Phone of 2010." We dig it, and what they came up with so far look mostly like units for the home, though...
POSTED Wednesday, March 26, 2008
If you're looking to show off your amazing brain power to anyone who comes into your apartment, you should follow the lead of designer Alexander Lervik. He went and made his brain into a lamp. Yep, the MYBrain lamp is...
POSTED Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sure, we're all about the futuristic designs around these parts, but the Cup PC concept take futuristic design to a completely new level. This idea takes the average PC and tries to make it as simple as drinking a...
POSTED Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The pedal boat is a staple of any lake outing. Whether it be with your class or as a company picnic, the pedal boat is a great way to get out on the lake, and for cheap. Now a...
POSTED Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Some design projects make you think, "Who would want that?" while others get you to shout "Me!" if someone would dare ask that question. The Do Swing is one of the latter. Combining a light fixture with a swing,...
POSTED Tuesday, March 25, 2008
This is what the future looked like in 1973. Funny thing is, this LIP Mach 2000 Dark Master watch is still eye-catching today, with its primary-colored controls and intricately detailed face. The design stays nearly true to the original,...
POSTED Monday, March 24, 2008
In the name of Fine Art, we present to you a stairway to nowhere. Start walking up this winding, twisting stainless steel staircase and you end up right back where you started. Sculptor Olafur Eliasson thought this artwork, which...
POSTED Monday, March 24, 2008
The Transformer phone is a new concept that won a Tancher Design Award. This phone has nothing to do with Optimus Prime and his crew, but is capable of performing a whole bunch of different tasks. This phone can...
POSTED Monday, March 24, 2008
Here’s the kind of crazy kitchen range that finds itself on the Short List of the Australian International Design Awards: The Fisher & Paykel Izona CookSurface lines up three spooky-looking burners in a row, eliminating that back burner that...
POSTED Friday, March 21, 2008
Jeez, we use a lot of energy we’re not even aware of. Here’s a design concept by Shane Ellis and Terry Brown that’ll lay on the guilt, glowing red when those wall warts are sucking power. The more energy...
POSTED Friday, March 21, 2008
The Power Cart, designed by Mouna Andraos, is an energy generator on wheels. Little more than a few boxes lashed together and strapped to a handcart, the Power Cart has a battery pack on the inside of it which is...
POSTED Friday, March 21, 2008
The AIR, or the Area's Immediate Reading, is designed by Preemptive Media and is on display at Eyebeam's exhibition space in New York City. It's a GPS-equipped handheld device that'll let you know everything you didn't want to about where...
POSTED Friday, March 21, 2008
The Pufferfish PufferSphere is a digital display that offers a 360° surface for anything to be projected on, and its inflatable nature makes it easy to set up anywhere at all. The PufferSphere is designed to be viewable at a...
POSTED Friday, March 21, 2008
Planning a road trip? The Microjoule can make the journey between New York and Los Angeles over three times on just one gallon of gas. Amazingly the Microjoule doesn't have any fancy tricks — it's just an aerodynamic, lightweight one-seater...
POSTED Thursday, March 20, 2008
Look, I'm all for crazy conceptual products that are relatively high-minded, but I feel like designers need to make sure their products stay functional above all else. If their idea trumps the actual functionality of it, no one will want...
POSTED Thursday, March 20, 2008
This Beautiful Times clock is unique for two reasons. First of all, it's got a pretty cool design, what with the faux-LCD numbers floating above a wooden block. It certainly stands out from other timepieces, tipping its hat to...
POSTED Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Designer Jean Hong has a vision for the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC), and it’s taken the form of Pix-L, a device that serves as both alarm clock and bedside browser. Notice how you can prop up the mini-screen for reclined...
POSTED Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Suzuki S-Ride features the kind of seating arrangement you'd see in a fighter jet: one person up front, one person in back. Who knows if this concept will ever be a reality, but the S-Ride is aimed at...
POSTED Tuesday, March 18, 2008
While some lights are designed to help you read a book, this Butterfly Lamp by Japanese design studio Vinta takes a page from a book's shape instead. It easily allows you to adjust how much light is in an area...
POSTED Monday, March 17, 2008
Imagine looking at an entire wall built of these LED Glass Bricks, with the square shapes of LED light stretching into infinity and colors changing in countless computerized configurations and patterns. The possibilities are mind-boggling. The Red Dot Design...
POSTED Monday, March 17, 2008
There’s something powerfully appealing about a wall-mounted fireplace, and this one has a subtlety we haven’t seen before. The Safretti Gaya fireplace places a billowing torch-like flame on your wall, adding a dramatic decorative flourish to your pad while...
POSTED Monday, March 17, 2008
The latest idea to come from the big-brains at MIT is Siftables, a modular interactive computing system. Each Siftable is a 20MHz computer that includes a full-color OLED screen, infrared, 3-axis accelerometer, Bluetooth, flash memory, rechargeable battery and more....
POSTED Monday, March 17, 2008
"Could I have some artwork with that cappuccino?" Not exactly something you hear at Starbucks a lot, but if this coffee-printer technology goes mainstream, who knows? Wait, a coffee printer? Yep, Oleskiy Pikalo woke up one day with a...
POSTED Monday, March 17, 2008
The Maplemap is a particularly snazzy lamp that was created by Frederic Guibrunet. Guibrunet doesn't sound like a Canadian name, but there is a good chance he is from the northern tundra as his lamp is constructed of maple...
POSTED Friday, March 14, 2008
Okay, gentlemen, this USB flash data storage device designed by Joel Escalona is for your desktop, not your suitcase. Our Transportation Safety Administration officers won’t think this iconic trinket is very funny, no matter how many “all your base”...
POSTED Friday, March 14, 2008
This Motorola cellphone concept is the work of Lysandre Follet, a designer from Paris. At first look the cellphone is pretty standard and it includes a multimedia player, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc., but after further investigation it's revealed that the...
POSTED Friday, March 14, 2008
What will San Francisco be like 100 years from now? The History Channel sponsored a City of the Future contest for architects to show us their vision of Utopian metropolises from 2108, and the winner for the San Francisco...
POSTED Friday, March 14, 2008
Keep this Thomson Symbio phone next to your bed, and it’ll play you music and wake you up in addition to making Internet phone calls. The VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone wirelessly connects to a service such as...
POSTED Friday, March 14, 2008
While we're usually the first to point out how dorky it is the wear clothes that light up, this LED jacket, designed by Leah Buechley, qualifies as the exception. The lights on the back of it are arranged in...
POSTED Friday, March 14, 2008
Designer Alvin Aronson, a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, created a unique clock that we’d really like to see right here in our own abode. Made of wood and Dupont Corian (a material usually used for...
POSTED Thursday, March 13, 2008
The DNA personal computer is one of those concepts that, like the almighty Voltron, becomes more powerful the more pieces of it you connect together. It starts out as a bare-bones computer-in-a-cube, with a low-powered processor and graphics card for...
POSTED Wednesday, March 12, 2008
So you have a fancy HDTV, killer speaker system and plenty of game consoles? Think your home-entertainment center is pretty top-notch? Well, then there's not much left to do but slap a big, beautiful frame around your gear to...
POSTED Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Is your closet looking a little… static? Your clothes just hanging there, never moving, no excitement? The Plane Hanger adds a taste of motion to your storage. Shaped like a silhouette of a 747, the black-painted wood hanger shows...
POSTED Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Shoe purveyor Nike dipping into the auto industry may sound disastrous, but the Nike ONE is an undeniably sexy single seater. The Nike ONE design team was led by legendary car designer Phil Frank, who designed classics such as the...
POSTED Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The same firm that brought us the Waxpod has another, perhaps more practical design, the Façade vase. The designers ask of consumers: "Do we really need a beautiful vase, or do we only need a beautiful facade for the...
POSTED Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Meet the Waxpod, a new concept design from an exhibit called "UseLess" that encourages people to do just that. It's a hair wax container that comes with "refill pods." Additionally, it has room at the bottom to hold refillable...
POSTED Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The age-old conundrum of deciding between something that's highly functional or highly stylish is back again, but this time it's in the speaker department. This is kind of like deciding between the classic supercar and something a little more...
POSTED Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The Single Person Cooker is is portable kitchen — everything about its design helps you cook on the go or in a tight space. It's lid is actually a cutting board, and the unit has a space for cooking...
POSTED Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The Okids Phone is a conceptual phone that will truly show your kids how much you love them. How do I know that? It's obvious—the phone can be turned into a heart and everyone knows hearts mean love, or...
POSTED Monday, March 10, 2008
Microsoft knows art. It also knows that humans are weak creatures that need machines to create perfect things. So its new MySong software only makes sense: it takes the human error out of making art. How's it work, you...
POSTED Monday, March 10, 2008
Finally, here’s an alarm clock smart enough to sense your reaction to its plaintive and intrusive morning cry. Designer Joel Escalona put together Seven, a concept deemed clever enough to win a Volvo for Life Design Award. It wakes...
POSTED Monday, March 10, 2008
Here's a novel idea that we don't quite understand: a nightlight that holds your glasses, bedside reading, and cell phone. It even has a hole in back so that you can wire your cell phone or iPod charger right...
POSTED Monday, March 10, 2008
One of best parts of Will Smith's first slapstick-sci-fi "Men In Black" film is the part when an entire galaxy is found living inside a tiny marble. The scene was a mind-blowing moment in sci-fi history and now you can...
POSTED Saturday, March 8, 2008
Let’s get away to the lake house for the weekend. If you don’t mind a long plane flight, imagine taking off to your own 2153-square-foot villa at the Hingarae Residences and Resort on Lake Taupo in northern New Zealand,...
POSTED Friday, March 7, 2008
Here’s a design concept that uses nanotech teamed up with photovoltaics to make windows that light the night using organic LEDs (OLED). Winner of a Dyson Student Award, Lightway uses panels shaped in a style that harkens back to...
POSTED Friday, March 7, 2008
There's about a hundred different options when it comes to finding a nice, touchscreen-style smartphone and the Mooon+ concept may appear just like another one. Don't look away yet, there is one shining feature about the Mooon+ that makes...
POSTED Friday, March 7, 2008
The But-On Koncept is the microwave design of the future. It's an overly simple and colorful microwave. The entire design come from fancy artist talk about simplicity, but in all reality I just like how the microwave is top-loading....
POSTED Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Kinetic Energy concept is a stylish, yet efficient way to always ensure that your gadgets are always juiced up. It's a small device worn on the ankle that will generate energy by your movement. Think of it as...
POSTED Thursday, March 6, 2008
If Big Brother had a chandelier, this would be it. "End of an Era" is an art project created by Ian Burns that attaches 16 small black-and-white TVs to a chandelier-ish frame. Each screen displays a live video feed...
POSTED Thursday, March 6, 2008
The C-Bot, by designer Niklas Galler, is a clever way to check a building's structural integrity and perform other vertical tasks. Taking a page from geckos and other wall-climbing lizards, the C-Bot's footpads are covered by tiny nano-hairs that act...
POSTED Thursday, March 6, 2008
You too can be an energy star with this illuminated concept designed by Efrain E. Velez for the Core 77 2008 Greener Gadgets Design Competition. Of course, as with any earth-saving measure, the Krank Lamp’s energy has to come...
POSTED Wednesday, March 5, 2008
The Backpacker's Diary is meant to allow travelers an easy way to log and share their experiences, and takes the idea of a notebook-inspired personal computer to the next level. Portable just like a laptop, the Diary's functions change depending...
POSTED Wednesday, March 5, 2008
What is this woman doing? Why is her head half-submerged in a bubble filled with bees? The bubble is a prototype of an invention that The Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) is currently exhibiting called Design...
POSTED Tuesday, March 4, 2008
When fancy-pants champagne purveyor Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin ordered up an arty vase from the London Institute of Contemporary Art, creator Oscar Diaz took a roundabout route toward showing off the French company’s signature yellow color of its booze bottles....
POSTED Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The works of Kenji Yanobe are renowned in the Japanese art world for their nightmarish takes on the future. But peeling through Yanobe's portfolio of work reveals a particular obsession with man-meets-machine contraptions. From the fire breathing Giant Torayan (created...
POSTED Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Is your furniture pissing you off? Have an old couch that stands out too much? Some retro table that thinks it's the center of attention? Put all your furnishings in their place with the Brass Knuckle Chair. Nothing says,...
POSTED Monday, March 3, 2008
Despite what is going on in the minds of wacky designers, the fact of the matter is that dogs can't speak, period. Sure, they can bark and they can listen to your baby voice all day, but no viable...
POSTED Monday, March 3, 2008
OK, the Cyberdesk isn't really a desk — that's clear enough. The misleading name aside, it's a pretty wild piece of concept bling from the minds at Krohn Design, who asked, "Why not overlap the real and the virtual?" The...
POSTED Monday, March 3, 2008
You know those crazy flashing necklaces that people sometimes wear at raves or on the fourth of July? We're betting that you miss those necklaces, and that you've been waiting for a classier and more culturally acceptable version to...
POSTED Friday, February 29, 2008
You’ll be murmuring erstwhile hipster phrases such as “oh, wow” when you fire up your RelaxStyle Room Palette Effect lamp, projecting images of undulating waves onto your ceiling for your relaxation and entertainment. Harried stockbrokers might like the feeling...
POSTED Friday, February 29, 2008
Someday, when curved organic LEDs (OLED) are cheap enough, an arc-shaped iMac will actually be possible (to give you an idea, a 11-inch non-curved OLED screen costs $2500 today). Until then, we’ll have to settle for iView, a design...
POSTED Friday, February 29, 2008
No room for your big, beautiful Victorian floor lamp at home or work? No worries, now there is a solution for your studio apartment or tiny cubicle or office with the Tall & Tiny sticker. This isn't so much...
POSTED Friday, February 29, 2008
No, this isn't a set piece from J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek movie. It's actually a sculpture set deep in the woods by French artist Michel de Broin. Dubbed Superficial, it looks like a giant boulder covered in mirrors. Reflecting...
POSTED Friday, February 29, 2008
A while back we showed you an old water tower converted into a living space. Well, the residents of Thorpeness in Suffolk, England enjoy their own five bedroom, three bathroom home resting 70 feet above the ground as well. Known...
POSTED Thursday, February 28, 2008
We've seen some pretty spectacular alarm clocks around these parts, but the Minimal Dual Digital Analog Alarm Clock concept by Daniel Jarr has to take the cake. Sure, it may not tell you the weather or other goods, but...
POSTED Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sculptures don't get much creepier than these skull and robot hybrids created by artist Christopher Conte. And these aren't designed solely from the standpoint of an artist: Conte also works making artificial limbs for amputees, so he knows a thing...
POSTED Thursday, February 28, 2008
There's no question that we like to go fast. Even when we're just sitting still, we prefer to do it with some speed. Sound like a contradiction? Not if you have yourself an Accelerate sofa, crafted to mimic the...
POSTED Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Ex-Pò is a concept vacuum that designer Alice Rosignoli came up with back in 2005 and, in this day and age where some vacuums look like locomotives, we appreciate how compact it is. Looking a bit like a yo-yo,...
POSTED Thursday, February 28, 2008
We've seen some crazy high-tech clothes in our day. But the 3-D outfit above may be the weirdest and most creative we've seen, without the need for wires, LEDS, or Wi-Fi. Yes, to show the world that they are...
POSTED Thursday, February 28, 2008
Zu Zu's Petals is a collection of consumer electronics concepts by Bluemap Design that are meant to inject a little natural goodness into the unnaturally-shaped technology world. The various devices of Zu Zu's Petals are presented as if they are...
POSTED Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Q, the letter, confounds you in Scrabble. Q, the character, amuses you in James Bond. And Q, the subway line, frustrates you in Brooklyn. Now, Q, the fan, can keep you cool in the summer. Swiss designer Carlo Borer...
POSTED Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Designers appliances are a unique breed. Would you rather have something that looks better in your home or is more functional? This Wall Ceramic Heater design from Andrey Vostrikov tries to accomplish both form and function. Not only does...
POSTED Tuesday, February 26, 2008
We love vases that look like tanks and lamps that looks like potted plants. Why live in a household filled with ordinary-looking objects? That seems to be the question posed by Pylones, a store that sells everyday objects that...
POSTED Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Next time you find yourself with too many guests and too few chairs just combine the two. The Strap-On Chair by designer Annika Schmidt affixes easily to the human body by way of leather straps, and the two working models...
POSTED Monday, February 25, 2008
We've seen our fair share of steampunk around these parts. The light saber, laptop, eye glasses and scanner are all the same—a device decked out in wood, copper, pipes and other industrial bits to be given a steampunk look....
POSTED Monday, February 25, 2008
Despite the fact that mobile phones are carried by everyone at all times, designers like Chris Owens continue to push the limits of design with cellphones just begging to be broken. We saw the whole debacle as people began...
POSTED Monday, February 25, 2008
Those who love toast will probably be disappointed by the Toaster Phone. After all, if you want to express your reverence for baked bread through your telecommunications (and there's nothing weird about that, bro), then you'd probably want to...
POSTED Monday, February 25, 2008
The latest creation from Italian designers ITlab is the Drop lamp available from Andromeda Murano. Created to resemble falling drops of water caught in space, each bulb contains a tiny point light source, while the hand blown Venetian Murano...
POSTED Saturday, February 23, 2008
Any one of these couches from the Tête-à-tête (or "head-to-head") collection by Soma Sofa will have your company scratching their heads about just how to sit on them. Just take a look at the Flamenco above, which looks like someone...
POSTED Friday, February 22, 2008
Welcome to life on other planets, as designed by Romanian architects at A.A. Studio. This is how some lucky people live in Bucharest, in The Big White, a magnificent apartment that takes organic shapes and teams them up with...
POSTED Friday, February 22, 2008
Take one part MacBook Air, one part Microsoft Surface and some 3D "z-axis" interaction and you have the Zen PC concept. The Zen PC is being labeled a sandbox PC. The unique nature of the tablet-like PC allows for...
POSTED Friday, February 22, 2008
Kohler, the sink company that designs classy shower speakers, the perfect urinal, and incredible faucets, runs a program called Arts/Industry that lets artists tool around in its factory. The latest piece of art/innovation to come out of the program...
POSTED Friday, February 22, 2008
What's the matter with these chairs and that table? Designer Benjamin Hopf has somehow frozen them in time, falling apart before your very eyes. Not to worry — their construction is still sturdy enough to hold you up either...
POSTED Thursday, February 21, 2008
Would attractive design make you go green? Constructed to look like a flower, the Ravi solar generator has photovoltaic arrays attached to petal-like extensions. And, like a flower, it absorbs energy from the sun during the day, storing it in...
POSTED Thursday, February 21, 2008
Ross McBride calls his line of watches and clocks "normal," but we call them minimalist. We mean that in only the best way, because look at this thing! It's just so clean and simple, and it's tricky at the...
POSTED Thursday, February 21, 2008
Usually changing the shape of a bookshelf means getting out the hammer and plywood. Not so the Elastic Bookshelf — this simple idea loops a stretchable belt around two pegs, providing plenty of possible configurations. Pop in a piece...
POSTED Thursday, February 21, 2008
Attention Sudoku lovers. If you believe that there's nothing more beautiful than a correctly filled Sudoku grid, with its unique columns, rows, and squares, then how much better is the same concept executed with nine unique images instead of...
POSTED Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Those inventive Italians have dreamed up another unusual design, this time in illuminated flowerpots to light up your life. Biosfera is ready to accommodate any plant, and if you put cool-running compact fluorescent bulbs inside, your plants might like...
POSTED Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Designer Yuta Watanabe has a thing about pencils— his seem simpler and more complex than the ones we're used to. Above is the Peg Pencil, his take on the mechanical pencil. It's made from a modified spring-loaded clothespin. You...
POSTED Wednesday, February 20, 2008
After Arquitectura Organica's Javier Senosiain created his organically-inspired Nautilus House, he's done it again, this time with a wild design that looks like a serpent in repose. Quetzalcoatl Nest, named after the Aztec snake/bird god of learning and knowledge,...
POSTED Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Don't be confused by the artistic nature of the 2 Light, a design by Noel Zeller and Wei Young. It's really functional as a light and lamp. On one hand the 2 Light can operate as a standard flashlight,...
POSTED Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Are you constantly at war with time? Is keeping to a schedule for you not unlike a neverending struggle between mythical beasts, forever locked in combat over the passing moments? We have just the timepiece for your violent metaphors...
POSTED Monday, February 18, 2008
Not going to be able to get out to New York City's Toy Fair 2008 this year? Don't worry, DVICE has your back — whether you're browsing the Toy Fair halls for the first time or simply clicking back to...
POSTED Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Wireless Impact Guardian, or WIG, is a project by Brycen Spencer from UMass Amherst and it aims at taking the traditional motorcycle helmet one technological step further. Integrated into the helmet is a GPS receiver, accelerometer and communication...
POSTED Friday, February 15, 2008
You know how you whittle and whittle away at a bar of soap until it's so small it eventually slides out of your hands and down the drain? If you had a Soap Bank, you'd save all of those slivers...
POSTED Friday, February 15, 2008
Who cares what the neighbors think? Let's build a house that looks like a snail shell! That's just what a Mexico City couple did, with the help of the astonishing imagination of those wild and wooly architects at Senosiain...
POSTED Thursday, February 14, 2008
Yet again Dyson is involved in the process of integrating technology into a pre-existing process that seemed destined for retirement. Hanging clothes out to dry on a clothes line is an Al Gore-friendly way to dry clothes, but not...
POSTED Thursday, February 14, 2008
Like most weekend handymen know, the drill can be one hell of a device to master and it really all comes down to being able to drill straight. The conceptual SmartGuide is a small device that can turn that...
POSTED Thursday, February 14, 2008
Looking for a fine piece of art to class up your apartment or home? Are you also looking for a way to let all of your guests know that you're a pretty morbid person and quite proud of that fact?...
POSTED Thursday, February 14, 2008
The future will soon arrive. The House of the Future is coming back to Disneyland, and this time around, Microsoft, HP and LifeWare will be paying the bills instead of Monsanto, which originally sponsored the first House of the...
POSTED Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Forget all those tacky TV stands you've seen at Best Buy. This simple and adjustable TV Easel by Swedish designer Axel Bjurström, on display at the Stockholm Furniture Fair last week, takes a familiar form and applies it to...
POSTED Wednesday, February 13, 2008
It may not be as fun as some of the mechanical dragonflies we've featured in the past, but the Anax Imperator Machina, or The Emperor Dragonfly Machine, is a heck of a lot prettier. This to-scale dragonfly includes hand-crafted...
POSTED Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Use-Thing is designed to make the presence of a crowd a little more easier to bear for the horribly anti-social, and we're betting it'll do just that one way or another. Its designer, Guido Mamczur of Germany, intended it...
POSTED Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The tin-can style submarines made famous in The Hunt for Red October just aren't aesthetically pleasing and designer Taizo Doi agrees. This futuristic submarine design is Doi's work and is inspired by the jellyfish. Doi said he wanted the...
POSTED Tuesday, February 12, 2008
These awesome Stirling "hot air" engines are crafted by a designer from the Netherlands who goes by the mob-worthy nickname "Jos the Finch." They run entirely off of the heat generated by waxinelichtjes, or squat tea light candles, and, depending...
POSTED Tuesday, February 12, 2008
This week may be Valentine's Day, but isn't it about time that you started planning for Mother's Day (May 11!)? And what better way can a husband and children show their love than through this collaborative purse? It's easy—...
POSTED Monday, February 11, 2008
Artists Golan Levin and Greg Baltus decided to make a work of art that would "invert the condition of spectatorship." The result is the Opto-Isolator, a wall-mounted sculpture with one eyeball that interacts with the person standing in front...
POSTED Monday, February 11, 2008
If you're worried that your cat is walking around with just too much dignity, perhaps its time to force it to wear some sure-to-be-uncomfortable armor to make it look like a medieval knight. Of course! These crazy cat armor suits...
POSTED Monday, February 11, 2008
Vie is a conceptual design by Du Tran Nguyen at Monash University. It is a glove designed with the runner or athlete in mind. It turns your hand into a GPS receiver and displays the current location on an...
POSTED Monday, February 11, 2008
Why do I know that these amazing lamps are not gadgets? It's because the creator, Maurizio Lamponi Leopardi, is so adamant about saying that they are not gadgets. The Lamponi lamps are constructed out of vintage materials. These lamps...
POSTED Monday, February 11, 2008
Previously, digital photo frames were pretty happy-go-lucky gadgets. A digital photo frame is a framed LCD screen that can cycle images of birthday parties, vacations, kids, pets and more. The Telepresence Frame takes the happy nature of digital photo...
POSTED Monday, February 11, 2008
Meet Bloom's Daylight "table lamp." Like this sun jar it collects energy during the day so that it can illuminate your room at night. In the morning the lamp looks like a potted plant— that flat "flower" on top...
POSTED Monday, February 11, 2008
I enjoy a lot of the modern art I encounter, although I really can't claim that I understand it on a very deep level. To be honest, when I listen to some critic spewing away about the artist's motivation...
POSTED Saturday, February 9, 2008
I'll admit it: I just can't get enough of ridiculous fish tanks. There's just something about putting water and a bunch of fish where neither of those things were ever supposed to go that just fills my heart with glee....
POSTED Friday, February 8, 2008
You know those type of alarm clocks that displays the digital clock on a transparent and somehow conductive piece of glass? This concept takes that idea to the next level by taking it out of the bedroom and onto...
POSTED Friday, February 8, 2008
What if New York City were totally trashed in a disaster? That was the premise for a design competition that spawned this Cloud City idea by Studio Lindfors. It was one the Selected Entries in the "What if New...
POSTED Friday, February 8, 2008
Ever since gadgets became style statements, unsightly scratches went from annoying inconvenience to deal-breaker (remember the armored iPod nano?). The idea behind the Gon portable game console is to ensure your handheld's precious screen never gets defaced. No plastic...
POSTED Friday, February 8, 2008
Remember that awesome dump truck we showed you? Well, here's the Chameleon Truck, once again by concept designer Haishan Deng. Like his Super Tipper Truck, the Chameleon Truck makes up for the shortcomings of its modern trucking cousins. Where you...
POSTED Friday, February 8, 2008
Wouldn't it be a shame if climate change engulfed the Netherlands with rising sea levels? Where would we go to smoke legal dope? Fortunately the world's most humane nation is also one of the more ingenious ones. Architects there...
POSTED Friday, February 8, 2008
Designer Fred De Garilhe was apparently thinking more about makeup packaging and jewelry than cell phones when he designed this Chanel Choco phone concept. The slim slider collapses into a square piece of shiny glass, festooned with a latticework...
POSTED Thursday, February 7, 2008
When I was a kid, the coolest toys on the block were Rock'em Sock'em Robots and Battleship. The toy scene has gotten a little more, uh, sophisticated since then, and look no further than the Kidsonroof Totem for proof....
POSTED Thursday, February 7, 2008
You can't get a lot simpler than the One line clamp lamp by Ora Ito unless you just hang a lightbulb by a string. Even the Inch Lamp is overly complicated compared to this design. The One Line clamp...
POSTED Thursday, February 7, 2008
Master craftsman and PC case builder Jeffrey Stephenson just rolled out his latest design called Pico Bayard, a combination mini PC and digital photo frame that mimics the art deco design of classic French Bayard clocks. The gorgeous design...
POSTED Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Florian Krautli's magnetic curtains design is something that makes interior designers queasy. The idea behind these curtains is to allow the owner to shape the curtains however desired, thus providing the perfect amount of light, separation and such. Then...
POSTED Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The TicketTime concept's purpose is to address the issue of time zones when flying, but more so I see this idea as just a downright convenience. Attached to the boarding pass is a digital watch that syncs with and...
POSTED Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Here's the desk you need if you're going for an aircraft theme in your fancy office: It's made from the front of an actual jet engine plucked from a Boeing 747. We had no idea that engine was so...
POSTED Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Ever think a dump truck could be sexy? Enter the Super Tipper Truck, designed by Haishan Deng. It's got eight wheels, an overhead cockpit and allows its driver more than one way to dump the payload. Typical dump trucks...
POSTED Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Remember your first hamster? I do—his name was bullet. He died, but that's a different story. He had this amazing modular hamster cage that allowed him to go all over the place for fun and entertainment. Now Octopus Studios,...
POSTED Friday, February 1, 2008
Are you looking for a way to see exactly how often you use certain web services while also making a perfectly good table pretty much unusable? Of course you are! Why else would the Physical Bar Graph Table have...
POSTED Friday, February 1, 2008
The rolling bench is a surprisingly simple and very efficient conceptual design. The rolling bench does essentially that—rolls. Let's say it just finished raining. Nobody wants to sit on a wet bench, so on the side a crank allows...
POSTED Friday, February 1, 2008
French artist and designer Elise Fouin believes strongly in recycling paper, so much so that she's reused old paper to make a lamp, an object that is occasionally used to destroy paper. She's made a chair out of paper...
POSTED Thursday, January 31, 2008
Let's re-consider the light bulb for a moment. Instead of a disposable, soulless compact florescent fixture, why not embrace a re-usable work of art like these dazzling bulbs hand-created by sculptor Dylan Kehde Roelofs? Depending on design, each limited-edition...
POSTED Thursday, January 31, 2008
Most manufacturers have a pretty good grasp on the line between design and functionality. You can make a pretty gadget as long as it is still functional, and vice versa. Podera, on the other hand, hasn't grasped that concept...
POSTED Thursday, January 31, 2008
If you loved the Pac-Man Christmas tree, but want something that can stay up year-round, take a gander at this Pac-Man-inspired modular block lighting system. One of the best aspects of classic video games is the fact that most...
POSTED Wednesday, January 30, 2008
It's no news that thin is in, whether we're talking about computers or televisions. Shouldn't you be able to accessorize your supermodel-sized TV and computer with similarly thin lighting? To that end Think/Thing has come up with the Slenda...
POSTED Wednesday, January 30, 2008
You've seen the MacBook Air — are you ready for the MacBook Earth, Water and Fire? We weren't either, but then we got our hands on these images of a new generation of notebooks. Ever wanted your computer to...
POSTED Wednesday, January 30, 2008
I'm somewhat of a gadget fiend, but what really grinds my gears is when an artist creates a seemingly useful gadget, take this MP3 player and lamp concept for example, and slaps some kind of artsy-fartsy labeling with it....
POSTED Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Great ergonomic strides have been made in the past few years in the field of pointing devices, but this Moldable Mouse design concept by Lite-On takes user-friendliness to its limit. The mouse is made of lightweight modeling clay with...
POSTED Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Like toasters? We really do, but the despite how it looks, Bratespiel is definitely not a toaster. Rather, Bratespiel is a work of art by Katharina Holzer. Bratespiel is an electric campfire, more or less. You can skewer any...
POSTED Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Adding to the ever-expanding multitude of USB-powered thingamajigs is this Smartech USB Aroma Radio + Speaker. It lights up your abode with seven soothing colors while playing music from its internal AM-FM radio, or lets you plug in your...
POSTED Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Woo Seok Park is the designer behind Capsule, a different type of fire extinguisher. Initial impressions would suggest that Capsule is a pretty good idea. It's a fire extinguisher that includes small capsules that are tossed into fires, allowing...
POSTED Monday, January 28, 2008
If you had to stare at the back of a rack of blade servers and find just one wire, which of these examples would you rather deal with every day? Thought so. In what might not be a bad...
POSTED Monday, January 28, 2008
Wait, what happened to wireless gadget charging, period? I'm not sure, but design firm, Frog Design, is already working on a clothing concept that is capable of sustainable charging without the need for batteries or plugging into a wall...
POSTED Friday, January 25, 2008
The Museum of Wisconsin Art is currently displaying this set of motorcycle-inspired pizza cutters. Even though the pizza cutter names suggest otherwise (Mantis, Psycho Pizza Cadillac, Easy Rider, Pizza for Life, Phatboy), these works of art were indeed designed...
POSTED Friday, January 25, 2008
Sure, real music is great and all, but do you ever take the time to listen to the natural music of the world around you? Everything has its own sound, and when you really listen to it it's its own...
POSTED Friday, January 25, 2008
The Day-for-Night solar dress is made up of 448 white circuit boards that can be swapped out for all kinds of goodies — kinda like Batman's utility belt, but a hell of a lot sexier. The tiles can be solar...
POSTED Thursday, January 24, 2008
We've heard lots of guff about the kitchen of the future, but French designer Antoine Lebrun takes the concept to the next level with Aion. His fanciful concept for the Fagor Brandt group works the way the earth does;...
POSTED Wednesday, January 23, 2008
So, on one hand, grass is pretty lame. Yet, on the other, it's a low stress form of vegetation that won't demand too much from you and, when arrayed as artfully as it is with the Sensory Lamp, it...
POSTED Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The design of the Globus Artifort work station helps enforce the view that the worker is insignificant by giving them all they need in a tiny space, and then folding said tiny space into an even more compact ball....
POSTED Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Son Mocci designed this set of salt and pepper shakers. They look kind of like idea bubble clouds and kind of like bathroom doorknobs, but they're special because their Neodymium magnet bottoms let them hover above a matching base....
POSTED Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Plans are underway to build what is being called the "first sustainable city" in the United Arab Emirates. Masdar, which means "the source" in Arabic, will be nearly three square miles large, be walled in, house 50,000 residents and...
POSTED Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Here's a pretty sweet gift idea for the Wii owner in your life: a cast-in-chocolate likeness of two Miis, with heart-shaped Red Hots on their shirts. You can pick any combination of Miis that you want, from two boys,...
POSTED Monday, January 21, 2008
Tokyoflash, the company that makes watches so difficult to read that one even confounded a theoretical physicist, introduced a new model today, the Tibida. That means if you've already learned how to tell time on an older Tokyoflash model,...
POSTED Monday, January 21, 2008
Sure, the idea for the Eco-cook may be based around energy consumption. By using one pot and convenient dividers, less energy is requires to cook food and less water is needed as well, which in turn saves the earth...
POSTED Monday, January 21, 2008
It would seem that designer Erohina Yulia has a bit of a paranoia problem, as apparent with this chair design. First and foremost, the chair looks like something that inmates wouldn’t even want to sit on. The smooth surface...
POSTED Monday, January 21, 2008
You know that feeling when you gaze into the eyes of your iPod or iPhone and imagine spending the rest of your life with that device? Who wouldn't want to lock into a endless bond with a gadget from...
POSTED Sunday, January 20, 2008
You know the old tale about how talking to plants is supposed to help them grow? I've always thought of that as a lot of rubbish, but a project named Cantaro has flipping the tables and enabled the plants...
POSTED Friday, January 18, 2008
From Freedom of Creation, a design firm, comes this meter-long light-up shoe for Onitsuka Tiger, a Japanese shoe manufacturer. It's more than just a funky shoe — all aspects of it are meant to symbolize Onitsuka Tiger's history in...
POSTED Thursday, January 17, 2008
In Korea, a game show called Idea - How Much? pits budding inventors against nearly two dozen CEOs of real businesses. The contestants try to secure support for their idea and win a payout based on how good it...
POSTED Thursday, January 17, 2008
Do you have a passion for fine art? Do you also have a passion for weapons and violence? Weird combo, but who am I to judge? These sculptures made out of military weapons should be right up your alley, don't...
POSTED Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The BeatBearing tangible user interface, designed by Peter Bennett, is probably the most accessible music sequencer we've ever seen. All you have to do is place a ball bearing in one of the cups and, when the BeatBearing scans...
POSTED Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Ceramic is a great material for sound amplification. Does it follow that if you wrap your earbuds in ceramic that you'll have instant loudspeakers? Maybe. The "loudspeakers" pictured here were made from clay and discarded musical scores by designer...
POSTED Monday, January 14, 2008
If your plant lost all its leaves, turned itself upside down and started emitting a glow from its pot, it might look like J.C. Karich's Plant lamp. I'll let J.C. explain: "As we all know plants get energy from...
POSTED Sunday, January 13, 2008
I doubt you're going to save the environment by buying SWEDX's LCD TV that's "embedded in natural wood," but damn it sure looks nice, doesn't it? And that's all that really matters. The TV's themselves have 1920x1080 resolution, come...
POSTED Saturday, January 12, 2008
McDonald's decided that promoting its disgustingly large Big 'N' Juicy burger with equally giant napkin dispensers would be a good idea. After all, who wouldn't want to follow up eating a massive artery clogging hunk of meat by killing...
POSTED Saturday, January 12, 2008
The Spinn from iRiver is taking a unique approach to the MP3 player in what one would assume to be an attempt to topple the mighty kong. The Spinn is a new design that combines the hot and sleek...
POSTED Saturday, January 12, 2008
Designers from all over the world gathered to take part in the Platform21 = Joyriding exhibition in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to rethink the shape of the automobile. And rethink it they did. The exhibition includes animations, scale models and...
POSTED Friday, January 11, 2008
When the word Hyundai comes up, we Americans think of cheap rental cars. But the Korean company is capable of making much more expensive high-end products — art, even — whose price could buy you several American Hyundai vehicles....
POSTED Friday, January 11, 2008
The Noisy Instrument by Jun Murakoshi won't play any beautiful music, but instead uses its distinct shape to produce a unique sound. Taking a page from seashells on the beach, those perpetual-noise machines, all you have to do is...
POSTED Friday, January 11, 2008
For a lamp that looks like a book, The Enlightenment sure has some lofty goals. Sure, one of them is to, you know, light stuff up. But another is to get you thinking without actually telling you what to...
POSTED Friday, January 11, 2008
Fluidform's Earth bowl is like a little section of a topographic map carved out of laminated beachwood and designed to hold fruit. I'm guessing the fruit connection here is either a) fruit trees grow in the earth so it...
POSTED Friday, January 11, 2008
Next time you find yourself crumpled at the bottom of a staircase after trying to turn a 360 pivot into an ollie kickflip or what have you, wait for the ambulance in style, awash with the soothing glow of...
POSTED Thursday, January 10, 2008
In response to France's new ban on smoking in public buildings, Paris architect Florian Brillet created the Smoker Bell. It's an adjustable hood that protects smokers from the elements when they venture outside to light up. And because it's...
POSTED Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Powerblock organizes your cables right at the source: your surge protector. Ordinarily, a cable organizer simply bundles your cables into a tube and, while there's nothing wrong with that, at either end of the tube things can still...
POSTED Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Tired of the painstaking process of reading a tag when washing clothes for the first time? Yeah, it can be a drag reading a one-inch square tag to ensure the clothes aren't ruined, but a new concept will relieve...
POSTED Wednesday, January 9, 2008
This amazing cityscape is made completely of polished pieces of junk metal by Japanese artist Enoki Chu. Dubbed RPM-1200, the humungous skyline stands a whopping 11 feet tall and has a diameter of 15 feet. All those buildings that look...
POSTED Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Bloog is a machine that scrambles blog posts by pulling them in from an RSS feed and then filtering them down into little haiku-like packages. The machine's creator, Andrew Haarsager, is a student of industrial design and says...
POSTED Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Natural Wave is a ceramic tray that works a lot like a hot plate when it's placed atop an active radiator — no need to plug it in. Just pile on any goodies you want warm — coffee,...
POSTED Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Floating lights are so trippy, man. And now medical assistance won't be needed to achieve the effect of floating lights thanks to the SCHOTT LightPoints. SCHOTT LightPoint is essentially two panes of glass sandwiched around LED lights. I know...
POSTED Tuesday, January 8, 2008
We know that Philppe Starck has been putting his handiwork into watches as of late, but how about this gem of a clock that was designed way back in 1989? Now he puts his namesake on watches for Fossil...
POSTED Tuesday, January 8, 2008
I often look at my lamp with a frown on my face wishing it did just a little more. Sure, it brings me light when the sun's gone, but that's it. If only it also had the functionality of...
POSTED Monday, January 7, 2008
With CES currently going on, I can't help but reflect on technology overall. Why is it that CES can show off umpteen different new technologies, while the business card still relatively remains the same? Designer and electronics wizard Tom...
POSTED Monday, January 7, 2008
If sleek geek chic isn’t your thing, and your home décor is more Martha Stewart than high tech, the Pico Bayard PC might be more your speed. That’s good a thing… we think. Designed and built by Jeffrey Stephenson,...
POSTED Monday, January 7, 2008
The Freedom Phone is a concept by designer Vadim Kibardin for travelers looking for a pre-paid phone to use while abroad. It's lightweight and sleek and has all of the information you need to know about it, such as...
POSTED Friday, January 4, 2008
At what point is going green a bit too far? Maybe when you are swapping out your traditional and efficient lamps in favor of something a little more ridiculous like this tiny lamp. I start to wonder how much...
POSTED Thursday, January 3, 2008
Remember that Meat Toilet? Well, here's a lamp to go with all of those furnishings cobbled together out of meat and muscle: the Duck Lamp. As you can see, it looks like an ordinary desk lamp with one exception:...
POSTED Wednesday, January 2, 2008
When the lights go out I can never find my flashlight, but I'm always pretty sure where my giant, heavy candle holders are. Ironically, I only want my flashlight and could care less about lighting candles. Someone over at...
POSTED Wednesday, January 2, 2008
These tables and benches might look like they're covered in water, something that you wouldn't want to sit down at to eat a meal due to the obvious soggy nature of the meal. Well, you'd be wrong, as you could...
POSTED Monday, December 31, 2007
Japanese photographers are known for their attention to detail and sense of community--go to Tokyo's Yoyogi Park on any particularly sunny day and you'll see teams of photographer hobbyists lugging around huge bags of expensive camera equipment. That same...
POSTED Saturday, December 29, 2007
Here's the next forward-thinking keyboard idea from the Art.Lebedev Studio—this Optimus Tactus is a keyboard that has no keys. Along with its touchscreen substituting for physical keys comes flexibility, giving you choices of how big those graphic keys can...
POSTED Friday, December 28, 2007
With the holidays wrapping up, there is no doubt that more and more gadgets have invaded your life. With more gadgets comes more cords and chargers, and with more cords and chargers comes an even bigger of a rat's...
POSTED Friday, December 28, 2007
Two years ago laser-etched laptops were all over the Internet, mainly because of the famous tarsier and Magritte Powerbooks. But since then people have been busily etching all kinds of things into their laptop lids, from the Mona Lisa to...
POSTED Friday, December 28, 2007
Radiators are ugly. Harps are pretty. If you want to make a radiator that's pretty, make it look like a harp. That must have been the inspiration behind the Adagio radiator. (Either that or the person who designed it...
POSTED Friday, December 28, 2007
The Tokyo landscape offers unique opportunities to create art and the latest is the coin locker exhibit at Shimbashi station in Tokyo, Japan. Each locker is programmed with a number that will allow anyone with the digits to open...
POSTED Friday, December 28, 2007
The train makers on the Odakyu Line in Japan are pretty smart. When they wanted to make their trains more kid friendly, they simply went out and got kids to redesign them. The result is a big yellow train...
POSTED Thursday, December 27, 2007
Fed up with the boring storage ideas all us land dwellers have come up with over the years, John Paul Plauche turned to the sea for some new ideas. The lowly barnacle seems to have caught his eye (apparently...
POSTED Thursday, December 27, 2007
We show you a lot of cool and wild bikes around here, but what would you do with your old bicycle if you got one? If you are the folks over at Bike Furniture Design from Michigan, you fashion...
POSTED Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Japanese production house Yujin just released the ultimate embodiment of Tokyo urban culture: Japanese cell phone emoticon toys! Don't worry about the fact that most of the Japan-only keitai (cell phone) iconography is foreign to you. The point is...
POSTED Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Some people just don't like seeing fan blades hang from their ceilings. If even one blade hanging from the ceiling is too many, then you may want to switch out your current ceiling fans with Fanimation's retractable blade fan,...
POSTED Monday, December 24, 2007
Just because you traverse a road using a crosswalk, that doesn't mean you aren't in harms way. The School Zone crosswalk system tries to improve on the way we walk out into traffic. It sports a raised surface so...
POSTED Friday, December 21, 2007
Find that your workers are a little dopey? Maybe a power nap would work wonders for team efficiency. The NapShell is pretty much everything anyone needs to get away from the world for a little bit. It has an...
POSTED Friday, December 21, 2007
Here's a design for people who refuse to accept the tyranny of the shoe. Sure, footwear is often considered one of the great milestones of civilization, but the Disposable Sole boils it down to the basics. It's a sole-shaped...
POSTED Thursday, December 20, 2007
Bandages for the Heart are Band-Aids made from jewelry-grade materials. You probably won't want to use one to staunch just any wound (unless you make a habit of throwing away 18 karat gold) — instead, Bandages for the Heart...
POSTED Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Taking a page out of NASA's book, Nicole Schmiedel has designed the COR Insulin Wristwatch. This watch is designed for those with type 1 diabetes. Using piezo-electric technology, similar to what is used on satellites, the watch will power...
POSTED Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Peak Bath helps you conserve water in the most simple way: by using less of it. It's still a full tub, but has a section in the middle cut out of the bottom that is supposed to allow...
POSTED Wednesday, December 19, 2007
What's a strandbeest? If the skeletons of animals from another dimension were to walk along a beach, they'd probably look pretty similar. Strandbeests are kinetic sculptures designed by Dutch artist Theo Jansen made from lemonade bottles and plastic tubes...
POSTED Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Sony Little TV manages to exude quite a bit of character despite being small enough to comfortably fit in your hand. The set has a silicone body covered by highly elastic "super-knit" fabric. The television is able to...
POSTED Tuesday, December 18, 2007
The Barcode Clock is pretty much exactly what you think it is — a clock that looks like a barcode. You can tell the time by looking at the little LEDs above the numbers along the bottom, which are...
POSTED Tuesday, December 18, 2007
The Digital Veil is an art piece by Soomi Park that combines black and white flash animations with a wearable LCD screen. The wearer's face is visible through the white parts of the animations and obscured by the black...
POSTED Tuesday, December 18, 2007
A huge underground art installation in Vienna will show you your reflection against a backdrop of real-time sociological statistics, like the number of days until Chernobyl will be safe for human habitation (hint: don't plan on moving there anytime...
POSTED Monday, December 17, 2007
For some neat-freaks out there, being clean could be treated as a matter of life or death. That must be the inspiration behind the design of the BigGun Brush. Either that, or the daily frustrations of the cubicle warrior...
POSTED Monday, December 17, 2007
Just because cats don't have eyes or ears for vintage audio equipment doesn't give you the right to hog all of the ghetto blaster fun for yourself. This ghetto blaster cat condo is the work of some individuals with...
POSTED Monday, December 17, 2007
Don't know what you are looking at? Think it is a hot plate or other kitchen gadget? Think again. This is a conceptual design of an MP3 player designed for the kiddos. Designer Sung-kyu Nam is the brainchild of...
POSTED Saturday, December 15, 2007
The Pisa clock is inspired after the Italian leaning tower, which is pretty apparent from the slanted backing to the clock. While keeping with the Italian design, this clock includes swappable numbers in the traditional and roman numeral style....
POSTED Saturday, December 15, 2007
Nicholas Tavlas has spent a lot of time developing a keyboard that perfects keyboard ergonomics. The unfortunate fact is through the creation process he never took a step back to see what an ugly duckling has been created. A...
POSTED Saturday, December 15, 2007
We've seen musical toilets, stealthy toilets, waterless toilets, pimped-out toilets and even toilets that'll improve your upper body strength. You know what's missing from that list? Take a guess. Peek to the right and then come back over here....
POSTED Friday, December 14, 2007
The Portable PC Theater probably won't replace your PC, even if you do use it as a media center. It will come in handy, though, if you want a computer that you can tote around and take to show...
POSTED Friday, December 14, 2007
Etsy is an amazingly useful site that gives people a chance to sell DIY crafts that you often can't find anywhere. There are some truly great things to buy on Etsy, but you won't find any of them on...
POSTED Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Chocolate Portable HDD is made up of modular flash memory blocks that you plug into the central unit as you need more space. The hub features a touchscreen display so you can manage whatever files you have loaded...
POSTED Thursday, December 13, 2007
Not every gadget under the sun needs to have a 50-function list of amazing capabilities. Sometimes marrying cool technology with attractive visuals is enough. Such is the case with the RGBy, a gadget that captures any color it’s placed...
POSTED Thursday, December 13, 2007
So here's a business card that's not as disposable as your average one. The M++CARD combines USB storage with your printed contact info — keep your portfolio, blueprints, schematics, what have you all on your business card — and...
POSTED Tuesday, December 11, 2007
This may be one of those alarm clocks that would be better to leave at home while traveling. This alarm clock is shaped like a bundled stick of very cartoon-esque dynamite. Based on the size of the electronic components...
POSTED Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Nothing says luxury like gold and glass. Or, rather, nothing makes something look luxurious like a healthy sampling of those two materials. I assume that's where Perfect8 gets off charging $40,000 for a single center-channel speaker made of mostly...
POSTED Monday, December 10, 2007
Depending on whether you have carpeted or hardwood floors, you may prefer vacuums over a simple broom and dustpan, or the other way around. But what if you have both? Sure, you could buy a vacuum and a broom...
POSTED Monday, December 10, 2007
One of the most common factors surrounding all of the amazing steampunk mods we have seen in the past is the fact that they are all custom built. Now a Chinese company by the name of ChinaVision has produced...
POSTED Monday, December 10, 2007
The next time your sweetie tells you that she's tired of tripping over all of those speakers in your home theater, perhaps you should propose a switch to some hanging speakers. The latest launch from Bulgaria's oh-so-cutely named Everything...
POSTED Monday, December 10, 2007
If anyone is bundling up for the blistering cold winter season it is this tea maker. It includes a nice neoprene cover that zips up and keeps the little guy nice and toasty and helps it not catch a...
POSTED Saturday, December 8, 2007
Personal computers get a lot of love, what with all the crazy case modifications we've seen. So why not CD towers? Designer Kwang Hoo Lee out of the United Kingdom made the Light CD Tower and it's half lamp,...
POSTED Friday, December 7, 2007
The folks at Sentilla are quite the lazy alcoholics (even though they claim to really just want to teach people how to make any object smarter). After all they did invent a computerized drink coaster than can sense when...
POSTED Friday, December 7, 2007
Spion means "spy" in German, and in English sounds a lot like "spy on," so it's no surprise that there are plenty of crappy spy gadgets named Spion out there. But what about this lamp that looks like a...
POSTED Thursday, December 6, 2007
Can't live with buying a $1,000 painted canvas declared "contemporary art" just to look trendy? Yeah, us neither, and luckily an Italian manufacturer also agrees. Tubes has manufactured and created hanging square radiators. These radiators appear to be pieces...
POSTED Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Remember when it was important for adults to teach children about drugs and sex early? I hate to say it, but those were the golden years. Now, drugs and sex has been replaced by a color, the color green....
POSTED Tuesday, December 4, 2007
No one will have to wonder where the refreshments are at Hannes Broecker's art exhibit — drinks are the main attraction. Reminiscent of something chocolateer Willy Wonka might dream up, the display is made up of nine panels of...
POSTED Monday, December 3, 2007
Monty the robot wants to do your dishes. Really, it does. But Monty can't do them on its own yet — its controlled by remote. What Monty can do, however, is look pretty at the Float Center and Gallery art...
POSTED Monday, December 3, 2007
This is further proof that not just high-tech consumer electronics can have a unique and unusual designs. This kettle &8212; yes, is is just a water kettle &8212; is cordless, electric and looks like something found in a Picasso...
POSTED Sunday, December 2, 2007
If you're still stuck in that Halloween mindset and looking to let that drift into the holiday season, the Etree may be the perfect replacement for the plain old Christmas tree this holiday season. This floor standing lamp has...
POSTED Saturday, December 1, 2007
This clock design by the alternating caps friendly YOnoBI takes the simple idea of mirrors to create a unique effect. The actual clock lays flat on a base painted with Vermillion lacquer. An angled, upper layer is coated with...
POSTED Saturday, December 1, 2007
It's only taken the history of the earth, but someone has finally found a way to innovate the bookshelf. This magnetic bookshelf is the work of Swen Krause and was designed for Nils Holger Moorman, a German furniture outfit....
POSTED Friday, November 30, 2007
Ever feel like the only difference between a general gadget and a gadget marketed toward women is a coat of pink? Thankfully, Syntes Studio approached the topic differently. They've got two phones: an "urban" design that is functionally interesting,...
POSTED Friday, November 30, 2007
Living in a big city like New York, you learn that space is a premium. You pay by the square foot, so anything you buy that takes up a lot of room becomes doubly expensive in the long run....
POSTED Thursday, November 29, 2007
This flower lamp is more than just a pretty piece of décor for your home. It actually reflects a little green in your household. The lamp is capable of "blooming," therefore allowing more or less light out, and changing...
POSTED Wednesday, November 28, 2007
I'm told the good folks over at the Electrolux Design Lab competition set out to design household appliances from the future, but their entries are so good I'm starting to suspect they really are time travelers trying to pull...
POSTED Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Is alcohol consumption good or bad for your heart? Scientists will probably argue this issue for decades to come. In the meantime, to remind you that wine probably affects your arteries in one way or another, you can ponder...
POSTED Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Luxo L-1 has been the world's iconic desk lamp since 1937. It's not a form you ever really think about, except maybe when you're watching this early Pixar short. This year, to celebrate the Luxo's 70th birthday, you...
POSTED Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sure we'd all love to be immortalized in bronze, marble, or other expensive medium, but with the fame and recognition the celebs of the world have gained from being cast in wax, Madame Tussauds might be the option for...
POSTED Tuesday, November 27, 2007
One bottle of champagne equals six glasses. And now you can pour all six of them in one fell swoop with the Fair Share Fountain. It's a set of six glasses, each with a shorter stem than the next...
POSTED Tuesday, November 27, 2007
What's the quickest way to ruin a beautiful 1904 Chickering Upright Grand Piano? That's an easy one, demolish stick a computer in it. That's what Ebay user compianos did. This 1904 Chickering includes a ridiculously powerful (and debatably real)...
POSTED Monday, November 26, 2007
I am more than happy with my windowless existence in a dark basement that may or may not belong to my parents, but for those that are having a harder time convincing themselves that not leaving the house isn't...
POSTED Sunday, November 25, 2007
The long-lasting and outdated age of neon beer signs have officially come to an end as a more affordable solution has hit the table. Thinkgeek's DIY Neon Sign Kit allow for even the shiest of bachelors to retrofit their...
POSTED Saturday, November 24, 2007
Misplacing keys and cellphones is a far to common occurrence than it should be, especially with the level of technology available to solve a problem like this. I Call Me is an idea for a two-way calling system to...
POSTED Wednesday, November 21, 2007
I am blaming the design trends currently happening, and made apparent by this watch, on companies like Nintendo and Apple. Simplicity and interactivity is the new norm in cool designs and I'm a little sick of it. Maybe I...
POSTED Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Forget garden gnomes or gazing balls, your terrace needs a touch of class and technology with the Porter Garden Telescope. Designed in the 1920s by Russell Porter — the brains behind the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory,...
POSTED Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The geniuses that make up the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are busy not using their brain-power to solve some of the world's biggest problems, like the need to have a voice-controlled blender. This blender includes a voice sensor that...
POSTED Tuesday, November 20, 2007
University of South Australia researchers Bruce Thomas is solving an age old problem with a high-tech solution. For example, always wearing a particular suit to one specific client meeting, or a favorite shirt and necklace on every date. This...
POSTED Monday, November 19, 2007
It's good to know that designers out there like Kristine Bruckner still care about the old school gadgets that have been pushed to the wayside as of late. Bruckner designed this sewing machine, oddly named the belOga, as a design-centric...
POSTED Monday, November 19, 2007
In an time when flip flops double as flasks and nearly any gadget can be covered with bling, it's a relief to find a company whose goal is the "careful elimination and subtraction of gratuitous features and design unrelated...
POSTED Friday, November 16, 2007
It's always a bummer to run out of Cold Ones and have to switch over to the Lukewarm Ones or even Rather Disgustingly Hot Ones that have been sitting in the garage for a while. New Zealander and 22...
POSTED Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Whether you love or hate the Zune, there's no denying that Microsoft is doing something really cool with the ZuneOriginals line. Starting today, November 13th, Microsoft will sell 4 GB, 8GB and 80 GB variants of its portable media...
POSTED Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Wondering what the Japanese imagination has in store for us Westerners when it comes to man-meets-machine aesthetics? Look no further than the work of futurist/artist Hiroki Tsukuda. Trained at the Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art...
POSTED Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Those crazy European designers keep making Sofabeds better and better. First we had the Sofa bunk bed, now comes a bed that transforms into not one but two sofas. The Scoop bed comes in both round and square versions....
POSTED Friday, November 9, 2007
I remember when a pen was considered fancy if it had more than one tube of ink in it. Y'know, the kind with all the different click nubs on top so you can write in black or blue or...
POSTED Thursday, November 8, 2007
In the supermarkets of tomorrow (or The Future), you may be able to find out everything you want to about a food by placing it on a platform like the one pictured above. The hiREC Product Recorder will display...
POSTED Thursday, November 8, 2007
Going deaf and blind? That is unfortunate, but there is a solution to both of those problems with the Varibel "hearing glasses" that are being developed by scholars at the Delft University of Technology and Philips. The arms of the...
POSTED Thursday, November