New Tech Reviews Just another NEW TECH NEWS

Yes yes we know, home phones are nearly a thing of the past. With more and more of us opting for our mobile phones as our sole means of telecommunications, the home phone has almost gone the way of the VCR. Designer Zinc Chan believes the home phone still has life in it and has concocted this fun and beautiful means to communicate. Forget those pesky numbers usually associated with making a call, with Zinc’s design you simply draw the associated shape of the person you want to call and the phone dials them. Looking a lot like a constellation map, the shapes that you draw are merely points of light with numeric assignments. As if that feature was not interesting enough, Zinc also created a handset that attaches directly onto your thumb and pinky creating the Hawaiian “Shaka” hand gesture. Aloha!

Designer: Zinc Chan [ Via: Core 77 ]

You love plug-and-play, yes? You also enjoy modifying your computer, right? Too much effort? Vas Obeyesekere of Point Innovation says: no way! The Evolve Modular CPU takes the soldering out of CPU enhancement, and makes it green in the process! You love green.

Vas Obeyesekere introduces the Evolve like so: “From an everyday user’s perspective, being green is not enough to justify a change. In this respect, the Evolve can transform between mobile and home computing configurations, can expand or contract its module based components to meet any user’s needs, and has an aesthetic fitting most modern environments, despite it’s subtle green branding.”

Read below for extended details on this conceptual computer model.

And P.S., a bit of a side-note: for those of you who have been putting computers together your entire lives, easy as pie: I bet you feel strong and good. I envy you fully, as that part of my brain does me no good. But I do challenge you to a webpage building contest. We’ll see who is plug-and-play then.

Designer: Vas Obeyesekere of Point Innovation

In a time of moving towards becoming more eco-conscious, and the need for the world to do their part in preserving our earth, we look for new designs that are full of style and functionality. I was made aware of a design concept by Efrain E. Velez – KRANK. With a few cranks of the handle which is quite similar to an old-fashioned hand drill, you can have anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes of bright light using the process of magnetic induction. So basically, as you KRANK, a magnet surrounded by a copper coil and produces enough voltage to light up the lamp. KRANK is made from recyclable aluminum parts which help to make it a better choice in your green home. KRANK should be ready for market in Spring of 2009.

Designer: Efrain E. Velez

Multifunctional furniture is where it’s at. Something that can be used in several different functional ways to simplify or organize our lives and bring out the best in our imagination. Da-Bloom is by Korean designer Jin-Young Lee and imitates the motion of a blooming flower. Made from plywood and plastic, the table can be customized to your liking with just a few simple twists and turns. Use it as a chair and table or for the children to create an imaginary hide-out. Da-Bloom can also be custom made in various colors – you choose your bloom.

Designer: Jin-Young Lee

Remember that whole fad when pagers, mobile phones, and even computers (cough -iMac) were transparent revealing their innards? What if we applied that idea to a car? The Gamma Concept takes advantage of new polycarbonate and composite materials to create lighter, stronger, and more fuel efficient cars. Sounds like the automotive holy grail. What gives?

The Gamma’s visual language features large transparent areas to show the underlying structure and engine parts; to remind how the car works and present a more honest (transparent) design than its contemporary counterparts. All body panels are made from polycarbonate. To keep manufacturing costs to a minimum the panels are shaped using thermoforming, and then glued onto a carbon-kevlar reinforced aluminium chassis.

Designer: Niels Grubak Iversen

I had to make a compost heap for school once and tho the actual experience wasn’t “fun”, the end results proved fruitful to our garden. The Jarst concept does the same thing without all the back breaking work in miniaturized form – tho it could probably be scaled up. There’s a seal drum and cap inside the pot. Thats where you put all your organic waste. In about 5-6 months time, a diaphragm opens to release your rich home made compost soil. Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t composting require heat and pressure?

Designer: Leonardo Fortino & Andrea Bartolucci

We received so many page views and comments about Tsuboi’s Stand Umbrella, we thought high time to review it. 100% was gracious enough to send us one and it’s probably the classiest, cutest umbrella I’ve seen. Class and uber cuteness – is that even possible?

It’s a simple design. Imagine a typical umbrella made with high grade plastic and metal, oh and a little tripod foot too. Like its moniker indicates, the tripod foot stands the umbrella up. You might be thinking, “well that’s easy” but it’s not. And umbrella doesn’t have its weight evenly distributed from its center of gravity. I mean there’s a giant handle leaning to one side! The brilliance is in the engineering. Tsuboi and 100% made countless molds to determine how the support structure could attain perfect balance.

Aside from that, it operates just like any other umbrella. Push up to unfurl the super strong membrane and reverse to close. Standing under a hose to test what I call the “dryness factor – how dry I remain” scored the Stand Umbrella a perfect 10. It opens up to a huge wing-like mass making sure no drop hits you.

What we liked:

• Minimal and clean. Comes in white and black.
• High grade ABS plastic and aluminum construction.
• Super lightweight.
• Affordable – 4,200 Yen or $41 U.S. dollars.

What could be improved:

• Nothing

Designer: Hironao Tsuboi for 100%

I’m a big fan of fisheye distortion, it’s more visually interesting, tells more about the context of a picture, and it’s so very useful 3d rendering. This “Fun” camera by Jian Guan comes equipped with a 16 mm lens, also mirrored for those great shots of yourself while holding the camera as far away as possible. Taking formal cues from a magnifying glass may seem unnecessary, but I think it does a great job of connecting the function to the shape.

Designer: Jian Guan

I don’t know what it is about Apple fanboys, but they can’t stand to see good design without their beloved logo glowing affectionately on the back. The designer, Mac Funamizu, drew on the Nokia Aeon to design a phone he would like to have, complete with Apple’s standard livery. Using a nondescript tactile feedback technology, its surface adapts to different purposes while the e-ink screen envelops the phone in graphics and information.

Designer: Mac Funamizu

Don’t let your bath water take over your life like the monster that it is. Water in the bathtub can be a real slippery mother; own it with the cutest plug ever: Easy Plug. One plug, a connecting plastic wire, and another plug that floats. Simple enough?

Maja Ganszyniec designs a plug on a line on a plug: “A set of two rubber plugs: for a basin and for a bathtub. Both side of a plug are spherical, that allows plugging the basin without placing the plug exactly in the middle of the waterhole. This is an alternative solution for people with fine motor problems, impaired vision, elderly and children. The basin plug is easy to plug in and plug out- instead of ‘pinching’ the tiny knob you just scoop it out. The plug for the bathtub has an element floating on the surface of the water. This not only allows plugging in and out without leaning over the bathtub, but is also an extra safety feature for an overflow.”

Two fun plugs, one goal: stop the classic plug.

And they match your fruit branded mp3 player!
But those don’t work under water.

(Yet)

Designer: Maja Ganszyniec

Sony just barely updated the PSP but designer Tai Chiem is already thinking about the next iteration. His design calls for a flexible OLED display that can be conveniently rolled. An electric charge powering the display stiffens it while providing near bezeless prime real estate for gaming. Stereo speakers on either side double as a jog wheel and camera control. He also envisages Sony finally implementing two joysticks. Pipe dream or not, it’s sexy and lives up to its name; it don’t get any more portable than this.

Designer: Tai Chiem

As the flames get hotter you stumble in panic looking for your way out of the maze of hallways that seem so familiar yet alien at the moment. Smoke stings your eyes as you desperately search for any signs of escape. Follow the Halo, it will guide you.

This may seem like some scene in a movie but in reality this could happen to any of us. In times of crisis, we lose our ability to think coherently and often the simplest task seems daunting.

Halo was designed to aid people in times of crisis such as blackouts and fires directing them to the fastest possible exit route. By using LED lights, halos are cast upon the floor indicating the direction in which the exit is located. This is especially useful in smoke laden fires since people are advised to stick close to the floor. The light also pulsates in the direction of the exit providing a secondary indication upon which direction to head.

Designer: Foo Wei Zen & Chua Wenfong

Is your roommate Elizabeth always using your computer because she didn’t have the decency to buy her own? Does it just grind your gears when your pal Chase decides to play his favorite youtube on your clock? What about when your grandmother Milma uses your CPU for a sled in the wintertime? For two out of every three every-day situations, there’s Tino’s laptop Finger Trap.

Tino Dobra designs the only true clicker-happy jerk deterrent: “The Finger Trap as an analog extension is used for deterrence of unsolicited use of your own Laptop. The trap is applied to a Kensington lock when the laptop is not in use and a simple screensaver is started. Ouch!”

Catch those cheese-eaters cold!

Designed by Tino Dobra

You all remember the ironing board that folds up into the closet, the seat that flattens into a painting, and the bathtub that doubles as an eggchair. Well, little Barry and little Michelle wanted some forward-thinking design ingenuity for themselves! My Deer are the wall herd that double as kid-size stools!

Fun-loving designer of this deer-like stool Jeroen Wesselink reports the following: “[My Deer] are available in a multitude of colours. If you don’t need them, hang them upside down on a wall hook and hey presto, they transform into colourful, sleekly stylized deer heads.”

These could be a new tool for day-care centers and kindergartens: My Deer, adding a strange and excellent element to “clean-up time” for everybody, everywhere! For more furniture that turns into wall decor, click the “Furniture” tag in the upper-left corner of this post. They’re everywhere!

Designer: Jeroen Wesselink

Green People rejoice! Stuart Sharples’ designed the Energy Mate system, making it simple to convert the energy you spent in your home into pounds and pence! Simply clip or screw on the four different energy sensors and read the output on your hand-held screen!

Retro-fitted goodness.

Designer Stuart Sharples makes it irresistible to be green: “The EnergyMate system wirelessly monitors the gas, water and electricity usage within the home in real-time, allowing the user to take control of their energy consumption. An array of sensors around the home collect the usage information and transmit it to the display unit, where it is converted into meaningful figures such as pounds and carbon output. The system has been designed to be retro-fitted with ease in any domestic property.

“The display unit features a large colour touchscreen to display the energy consumption graphically and as figures. The appliance sensor monitors the electricity usage of any product plugged into it, and wirelessly sends the data to the display unit. The lighting sensors fit between the light socket and bulb to track the electricity consumption of a lighting throughout the home. The ultrasonic sensor is designed to monitor gas or water flow inside pipes. The heat sensor fits to radiators using in-built magnets. An infrared sensor monitors the heat and transmits the data to the display.”

Seems almost too simple. You can bet your butt that if this were widely available that not only would they sell to the environmental and energy-saving people, but to everyone wanting to save cash by simply being conscious about the most simple things in the house! Being able to see the actual cost of the energy would be a huge jolt to the pants of penny pinchers everywhere!

Designer: Stuart Sharples

Last month we reviewed the fantastic Flip Mino cam by Pure Digital with very little to improve on for a video camera in that price range. Today Pure Digital is announcing a new service to customize your Mino with professionally designed covers. If one of the designs don’t strike your fancy, create your own have them print it! Not design saavy? Don’t worry, the service includes a pattern generator to help your own create amazing graphics. I’m thinking maybe a few custom Yanko Design inspired Mino’s to give away to our readers?

[ Design and buy it here ]

Emergent’s new Huaxi Urban Center for China (always China or Dubai) is a paradigm shift in architectural design when once upon a time a building’s exterior was designed to hide, shield, and mask its massive network of support beams, duct work, wiring, and HIVAC systems. The Huaxi Urban Center externalizes all its “innards” in a morphology of shifting lights racing up and down its glacial-like hull. With advances in flexible cellular based materials, exoskeletal lattices, and carbon fiber composites; only now is a building like the Huaxi Urban Center possible. Gorgeous!

Designer: Emergent

These RGB glasses just may be the next hated trend. It’s completely hollow to be filled with ink. One day you’ll be channeling The Great Gatsby with dark, thick, black frames, the next you’ll have bright red to show those hipsters how it’s really done. DO WANT!

Designer: Luís Porém

The all knowing, all seeing third eye. An ancient myth no longer thanks to designer Kijin Shin- this Third Eye concept designed is for travelers. See something interesting? Just place the Third Eye up to your eyes like a monocle and the device pulls all relevant historical, travel, shopping, and tourist information. If you really like what you see, take a snapshot for keeps. It’s like an encyclopedia, wikipedia, GPS, and tour guide all in one!

Designer: Kijin Shin

OLO Computer updated their site with a mysterious laptop with what looks like an iPhone as the trackpad and OS X on the screen. Now I’m only thinking out loud but the iPhone, tho powerful, isn’t powerful enough to run a full blown version of OS X. Does OLO know something we don’t know or are they just reaching for pie in the sky? Care to ruminate?

Designer: OLO

Place both elbows to the railing, place hands to skull, hear airplanes, bombs, and air-raid horns fill your eardrums the same as if you were there, Dresden Germany, 1945. Markus K has designed a different kind of memorial, one that allows the person visiting to not only stand in the place where history happened, but to hear and experience it as well.

Markus Kison designs a new kind of memorial: “‘Touched Echo’ is a minimal medial intervention in public space. The visitors of the Brühl’s Terrace (Dresden, Germany) are taken back in time to the night of the terrible air raid on 13th February 1945. In their role as a performer they put themselves into the place of the people who shut their ears away from the noise of the explosions. While leaning on the balustrade the sound of airplanes and explosions is transmitted from the swinging balustrade through their arm directly into into the inner ear (bone conduction).

“The sound is not transmitted in air and throught the middle ear but instead through the skull bone. To send the sound over the arm and hand to the skull bone, the railing of the Brühlsche Terasse is equipped with several custom made sound conductors and set into a vibration.”

Looks (and sounds!) like an extraordinary kind of memorial! Imagine these installed at sites of great marches, addresses by presidents, and first takeoffs! This could be as common as the everyday plaque, and much more meaningful. And then think of the other applications: Touched Echo gravesites and tombs. Oooh…

Designer: Markus Kison

Ahh, the wonders of concrete.  A technology invented by the Romans continues to astound me with what is possible.  In the case of dupli.casa, it is the perfect, seamless material for the whizzy computer shapes coming from the office of Berlin architect Jurgen Mayer H.  What makes this project noteworthy is that it shows a powerful grasp of shapemaking, and it never feels like you’re sitting in a big sculpture that someone grudgingly cut windows in. In addition, the integration of non-swoopy elements like windows is nothing short of masterful.

Designer: Jurgen Mayer H

One of the most important tools in a designer’s arsenal is software. We receive loads of questions about what software to use but like any other tool, it’s only as good as its master. There are a number of industry standards but we want to hear from you – what 3D modeling/rendering solution do you use? I started with Lightwave 3D in the 90’s, then took on the daunting task of learning Maya. Today I use Modo exclusively. Most of these packages have free learning editions students can download. What about free open source solutions like Blender? Any others?

Last week, the Port Authority of New York, New Jersey, and Santiago Calatrava released revised renderings of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. I’ve always been enamored with the grand hubs of Europe so it’s about time we got something new.

As grand as this is, it’s hard to imagine this plan is scaled back, YES SCALED BACK. Gone are the sweeping column-free span, originally envisioned by the Spanish architect known for his expressionistic structures. Tapered columns have been added. The sad thing is the skylights, which were to bring natural light into the mezzanine have also been eliminated. Boo!

A number of reasons contributed to the scaled back plans, namely being cost and timeline. The original plan called for uncalled for amounts of steel and in today’s economy, cost projections sky rocketed. The new hub needs to be completed by 2012; tho that sounds far away, it really is only right around the corner. Even tho Calatrava’s original idea has been revised, I really hope it stands up to New York’s Grand Central. It could be a modern testament to urban mass transportation and give the city new architectural wonders to love.

Designer: Santiago Calatrava

Runners know music can provide that extra oomph to make that last mile. The right music can relax us, put us to sleep, or heal us, so it makes sense it can also energize us. The Yamaha BodiBeat is part DJ, part heart monitor, and part trainer to keep you at your peak performance during workouts. Armed with new running sneakers and a snazzy outfit, I strapped the BodiBeat onto my arm and took to the Los Angeles jungle. My review after the jump.

The Bodibeat comes with reverse earbuds, a clip-on earlobe heart rate monitor, USB cable, velcro arm strap, and software to manage your music. The user-interface is a bit confusing thanks to the non-traditional 2 main buttons. It takes some getting used to but I can see why Yamaha designed them to be pinch style buttons instead of push button. When you have it strapped to your arm, it really is easier to pinch than push. The small monochrome screen is a bit of a cop out since small color screens are becoming the norm but thankfully it’s so bright, reading isn’t a problem.

There are 3 modes to choose from. Free Workout lets you run at whatever pace you want and the Bodibeat will dynamically play a song to match your pace. The Jog and Walk Fitness modes both take your age, weight, and height into account, calculate how fast you should be moving and for how long, then plays a song to keep you on track – literally.

In use, the Free Workout mode was the most enjoyable when doing mundane things like walking to the store or even walking the dog. By constantly monitoring my heart rate, the BodiBeat knew exactly how hard I was working and picked a song accordingly. The only downside is the song will constantly change if your heart rate changes. One minute I’m getting into an upbeat song, the next its switches to a medium up-tempo song. Although you can lock-in the song you’re listening to, it defeats the purpose since I would then just use a regular MP3 player.

The Jog and Walk Fitness modes are unrelenting, but in a good way. I decided to take a quick jog around my neighborhood on Jog mode and it immediately assigned a medium tempo song to get me warmed up and walking. About 5 minutes later it gave me a few audible beeps and a faster song started. The workout seems to be based on the latest fitness science, constantly switching back and forth from a slow jog to an all out run. These burst cycles are much more effective since they shock the muscles, never allowing them to adapt.

The included software is sorta like iTunes but simplified. Just dump your favorite songs into it and they’ll upload to your BodiBeat but be forewarned, there’s only 512 MB so be frugal. It’s also advantageous to choose songs of varying tempos otherwise the BodiBeat will use one of its built-in circa 1990 techno songs to fill in gaps. The software will take both MP3s and AACs but runs on Windows only, sorry Mac users but you probably don’t care anyways with your iTunes and fancy iPods (natch!).

What we liked:

• Compact design. Solid build.
• Arm strap works well, refuses to allow the BodiBeat to slip.
• Earbuds wrap from behind you ear and fit comfortably. They refuse to come out even while running.
• Clip on earlobe heart rate monitor is very comfortable, small, and lightweight.
• Works exactly as promised. Songs changes immediately based on heart rate changes.
• Recharges quickly. Long battery life.

What could be improved:

• Small monochrome screen.
• 512 MB is too small. Should be at least 1 G.
• $299 is too expensive. $149 is more realistic.

My time with the BodiBeat has proven two things to me. One, I can run regularly for exercise and not give up. Two, I can no longer deny how much dance music I listen to. The BodiBeat is meant to be a workout companion; one that offers encouragement with metronome like precision, but at $299 it’s not really affordable. Most people serious about music while working out will probably invest in a Zune or iPod and manage custom playlists themselves. The BodiBeat’s only saving grace is that it does all that for you.

Designer: Yamaha