E-Ink for Time Telling

E-Ink for Time Telling

Let’s have a glance at a watch that employs the now-famous and awesome E-Ink technology made famous by, if I’m not mistaken, the Amazon Kindle eReader. This watch is a double-down in that it uses E-ink to for both form and function, allowing the bold and radical lines to make the watch beautiful and very readily visible. This watch is made of glossy black metal, embellished with small chrome parts.
The display is adjusted with two buttons along the left side of the watch. The bottom display is the lighter gray of the background being used as the numbers display with the black merging with the black of the watch metal. Blasting off into hard bold, bold space with a metal stone.

Pimp my QWERTY

With the tech blogs getting all hot and bothered over Art Lebedev’s Optimus Maximus keyboard and it’s customizable OLED keys, we thought we would show off a slightly more analog version of the same concept. At no where near the Optimus Maximus price of nearly $2,000 USDs, this $30 version called “Keyboard Shortcut Skins” by Photojojo serves essentially the exact same function. Custom key stickers can turn your standard Mac keyboard into a professional grade single purpose keyboard, perfect for running any number of creative tools like Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, and Pro Tools.

A Very Relaxed Radio

You will never find a more chilled out radio than this. “Radio Valerie.” No buttons, no switches. At least none that are immediately apparent. Reveal to yourself the simplicity. To tune the radio, pull the antenna back and forth along the station markers. The speaker face turns the radio on, the speaker face turns it off, and the speaker face controls the volume. And of course the antenna increases the signal reception. Super chill.
I wonder, should I have such a device in my possession, were I to listen to metal music, would the radio move itself into a more metal position? Perhaps with the adult contemporary… a swaying relaxation?
Any way you tease it, this radio has personality.

Shoes for Weightlessness

Nay, these are not Air Jordans. They do not make you fly. They help you when you’re already flying. This project is a footwear design made for NASA airmen flying around in zero gravity. What would they do with specialized footwear? Why, attach to things, of course! They’d have an extra appendage to pick things up (of course, if they had big toes like your humble narrator, they’d need no such thing,) and a sassy design across the whole!
Atop the foot there is padding since quite often a floating fellow holds himself in place with the top part, hooking the whole foot under a guide pole. The artificial opposable thumb could help offer a new way of hanging on to poles, but why not have protection for both?
The most interesting thing about this project (believe it or not) is the description provided by the designer. I am totally suspicious about it, since it lists things that aren’t supposed to be happening yet – is he a space traveler? My guess is yes! Check out this excerpt from the project description:

The revolutionary design, which began with consideration of an existing ergonomic and health problem in space travelers, results in reduced foot discomfort and injury, and will improve a spacefarer’s ability to compensate for the loss of gravity. They could be manufactured with many existing fabrics and materials, and can be shipped to orbit, to a growing population of space tourists and workers.

Totally futuristic!

USB Drive Has Another Electrifying Side

USB Drive Has Another Electrifying Side

So you have a USB drive that you use quite often, so often that you keep it hooked to your computer most of the time. What added value can we give to that USB stick drive? How about doubling as a AA battery! Yes, the kind that recharges in USB mode and turns into a functional AA when the need arises; rightly calling it the AA USB.

Story Of Needles And Thread

Story Of Needles And Thread

Call it the aging process or lack of dexterity, but there will come a time when threading the needle will become a difficult task! That’s the time “Little Helper” will be the real help in getting the job done. No automatics or robotics here, but simply a magnifying glass that fits neatly into the center of the thread spool so that you can magnify the eye of the needle and thread it conveniently.

Condom Protects You From Viruses!

Ding ding, yes it’s true. Condoms can significantly reduce the likelihood of you catching some nasty virus except this condom is designed for the digital kind. Computer viruses are just as virulent as the biological variety, just as insidious, and just as detrimental. The Condom USB is a device that acts as a stopgap between any USB enabled device and your computer.
As soon as the Condom USB detects a virus, built-in software shuts off USB access, verifies the problem, removes the nasty bug, then reopens the communication bridge to your computer. Snazzy but would this really.

Ironing with Ceramic.

Ironing with Ceramic.

The precepts of ironing hasn’t changed much. Take a hot flat surface and apply it to textiles to relax the fibers. Sometimes you use steam to crease and set them but if you step back, there’s still room for improvement. The “Easy Ironing” concept lets you define how much ironing you want to do and in turns tells you how much water to use; no waste. It also uses a ceramic glass panel which has superior thermal stability and makes it easier to clean. One of the top 25 finalists in this year’s Philips Award.

 

Sms and Email pen

Sms and Email pen.

D:Scribe is a digital fountain pen that allows users to send SMS and email messages from paper. Just write out the message and circle the person’s name to send. This does away with a keypad and allows you to focus on communicating in a more personal way from anywhere as long as you have a bluetooth enabled phone and a surface to write on. The pen also records everything you write which can be accessed on a computer. Of course for the creative peeps, if writing doesn’t suit your fancy, the D:Scribe also works with genius and not so genius drawings of brilliance.
The design is loosely based on a quill and inkwell where by the quill is the writing apparatus and the inkwell is an electromagnetic induction charger.
Once a message is sent, the status is displayed on the built-in OLED screen. The designers have also expanded its capabilities beyond that of messaging. Should your home electronics and appliances be bluetooth enabled, you could potentially program the pen to input commands by writing in the air. A little abstract but lets pretend this idea is more a patent for possibilities.

A Phone That Really Hangs up.

This cordless hanger phone enables new ways and new spaces to place your phone when not in use. “Hanging up” your phone takes on a whole new meaning as phone calls are ended by simply the hanging action. Letting it stand on a table also turns it off. Comes with an induction charger and transmitter in the form of a hook. It looks a little uncomfortable to hold and I assume it’ll using some sort of motion sensing technology ala iPhone. If only it were more playful, like linking them together like a barrel of monkeys to create a conference call. Now that would be cool.

For The Blind Who Don’t Know Braille

For The Blind Who Don’t Know Braille

You are lucky my friend that you can read this post. Being sight-impaired is not a situation you want to be in. It gets even more complicated if you are blind and can’t even read Braille. Luckily there is some though process being invested in the Braille Interpreter, a single-finger glove that features a tactile sensor, a Bluetooth headphone and interpreting software.

The index finger portion of the glove hosts the said tactile sensor. Skim it over the Braille surface and it sends a feed to the main device housed on the back of the glove. Over here the feeds are interpreted and beamed to the headphone via Bluetooth as voice data.
Skim-Interpret-Hear Voice; nifty enough solution for those who can’t cope with Braille.

Shave with a flick of a finger

Shave with a Flick of a Finger

Ring-shaver is a small, tube-shaped shaver that slips over the finger. In comparison to traditional shaving, Ring-shaver allows a more flexible shaving action. A toggle switch activates the flywheel to provide the necessary driving force. Ring-shaver does not require charging. It saves energy and is easy to carry. Great for sparse facial hair.

Ring-shaver is a 2010 Red Dot Concept Award winning entry.

Plug it and Read it, Your Memory of Course!

Plug it and Read it, Your Memory of Course!

I don’t own many memory cards and have just one functional card reader for my Kodak’s memory chip. However, I know people who carry plenty of memory cards in their cute little card storage boxes…. show offs! Yea I know you own many gadgets, click many pictures, store loads of data! Anyways, as I was saying; just having cards is not enough, you need to compliment it with a Card Reader. To cut the entire process by one step, Peng Qixuan has designed a multi cardholder that incorporates a USB stick. What a functional idea!

A Phone made from trash?

A Phone made from trash?

You’ll find no iPhone touchscreen or 10 megapixel camera here. Nor will you find mirror finishes or a graphic interface spec’d for stunning video. What you WILL find is car tires, old PET bottles and pre loved soda cans.

Ok, so here’s the deal, apparently a typical mobile phone contains approximately 44 of the 112 elements known to mankind. Now I’m no chemist but apart from the environmental issues this would create, I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t want to be holding a large chunk of the periodic table 2 inches from my brain on a day to day basis. The folks over at Nokia have been looking at ways to create a sustainable mobile that reduces the number and toxicity of materials goes into manufacture. If that wasn’t noble enough, the skin and bones are created entirely through Upcycling. The result is the Remade.

The numeric keypad backing and all the gaskets are made from car tires, plastic components are from recycled PET bottles and the shell is made from old metal cans (lick one and see if you can taste the Pepsi).

As Nokia has eloquently stated, many small actions when multiplied by large numbers, can indeed change the world. We can see the result of the many small actions here. Now all the remains are the large numbers. I’ll be on the waiting list.

Trackball Player

Trackball Player

Who needs buttons when you have a trackball? Yes the good ole’ trackball, often dismissed as yesterday’s technology but perhaps we can find a place for it in today’s touchscreen crazed devices. The Ball Player works like every other MP3 player except for one minor, or not so minor, difference. In lieu of buttons, you simply roll the trackball towards the direction of control you wish to execute. It may seem pointless but the trackball also works another way. Place it on any flat surface and you can control your tunes by moving it up, down, and side to side.

Another Power Saver Plug, Maybe

Another Power Saver Plug, Maybe

We have covered many power saving plugs in the past, but for once I think we have quite an amicable solution with the Sticord. The plug itself houses the on-off switch, and when pushed on, the internal pins connect to complete the circuitry and start the power flow. The main-plug also helps identify which device it belongs to. This aspect may come in handy at offices, where many gadgets/devices coexist.

Those dependent on remote controls will have to move their butts and “SWITCH OFF” the mains! So it really is the question of being aware and doing the right things!