Designed in the spirit of demonstration marketing for products like Tupperware and Avon, Spanish firm Andrés Jaque Architects’ Tupper Home is a modular project and the first in the company’s catalog of architectural merchandise. Want a new porthole-style window? It’ll cost you €72; alternatively a room divider comes in at €103.
Tokyoflash, better known for their bizarre, frustrating and alluring watches, have announced a design competition, the first stage of which calls for critique on twelve different Bluetooth necklace designs. Intended to link wirelessly to a cellphone and offer, at least, hands-free communication (either via an earpiece or speakerphone), the twelve concepts range from a Terrahawks-style sphere to a male/female design meant for couples.
All twelve concepts in the gallery after the cut
As multifunctional furniture goes, designer Michiel van de Kley’s intent with Globus – to create a swivel chair and desk when open, and something that “evokes curiosity” when closed – certainly isn’t in keeping with the must-do-everything convergence ethos. However we’ll forgive it because it’s so darned lovely. A moulded plastic globe with a cast aluminum base on casters, the portable workstation automatically locks its wheels when opened, revealing a swivel chair and height-adjustable desk.
Japan has gotten another odd yet stylish device, this time it’s in the form of an interesting watch. This watch does not use numbers or clock hands to tell what time it is, instead it uses a tiny electrocardiogram machine that doesn’t appear to be readable at just a quick glance.
Why do we want to be able to play music from everything? From pillows and pants to personal massagers, we seem to have just about everything. But what would all these devices be without a MP3 playing belt buckle? After all cowboys don’t have much to play with in terms of listening to music.
Shapeways.com has just launched a new service that allows users to create their own 3D items. Online you can create unique and personal items from 3D images to test sculptures.
We all have to face it, sometimes elderly people have slips and falls, but what about when they are in the bathroom trying to have a little privacy? How are you to alert anyone from behind closed doors? The Help Lock door handle provides a very simple solution to alert people when there is trouble afoot.
The entrants to Intel’s MID design contest, held in the Czech Republic, have gone on show, and there are some interesting form-factors to be seen. Concepts varied between basic handhelds, through modular designs and then to folding, sliding devices such as Peter Kubík’s entry, seen below. If anything, it’s Kubík that perhaps best grasps what most people would like to see from a MID: a way of accessing the internet, when mobile, in a number of different ways from the same device.
Normally a switch in speaker grill color wouldn’t be enough to make something news-worthy, but when it’s Bang & Olufsen making the changes then you know it’s not just a case of a ordering up a new bolt of material. Intended to accompany the firm’s existing white A/V equipment, the new white speaker-covers have been put through the paces for longevity and sound performance, with B&O even traipsing to Milan fashion fairs to see what fabrics are on offer.
HTC have bought out design firm One & Co, which helped the handset maker design both the Touch Diamond smartphone and the TouchFLO 3D interface which has graced the company’s Windows Mobile devices since. While the acquisition obviously spells closer interaction with One & Co designers and future HTC devices, the design firm will also continue as a standalone consultancy.
Chrome OS: Waiting Is The Hardest Part…Though Necessary
Apple is no longer the Nordstrom of Tech, they’re the “New Nordstrom”
Can Anything Replace Windows XP As the Best Netbook Operating System?
Hey, Premium Notebooks or Netbooks, Get the Basics Right!
SlashGear Japan
