Hey here's a nice phone by the legendary Naoto Fukasawa, you might know him as the designer of some of Muji's nicest stuff, like the cd player that looks like a kitchen fan. He used to work for IDEO in San Francisco, then became IDEO's head in Tokyo, starting his own business in 2003. There a really good article about him here
I like that this phone has a form all of its own, nothing like any other phone out there that I've seen. Why aren't there phones like this out there that have such a soft form? It looks really comfortable to hold and it has nice big keys and will sit nicely in your pocket. Anyone else out there like it? I don't think we're going to ever get this in the UK which is a shame cos I'd like an excuse to ditch my Nokia brick.
Globalism died today (at least as a design concept) as Nike unveiled a shoe specifically targetted at American Indians (how many of them are there?). Nike designers and researchers looked at the feet of more than 200 people from more than 70 tribes nationwide and found that in general, American Indians have a much wider and taller foot than the average shoe accommodates. As a result, the Air Native is wider with a larger toe box. The shoe has fewer seams for irritation and a thicker sock liner for comfort.
The Nike product manager used the cringeworthy phrase 'heritage callouts' to describe features such as a sunrise to sunset to sunrise pattern on the tongue and heel of the shoe, feather designs adorning the inside and stars on the sole to represent the night sky. If there are any American Indian readers of TGLP out there please let us know if that strikes you as patronising in any way...
The TGLP LEGO homage continues apace with these colourful i-pod docks. The holes on the front face allow sound out via some (presumably) super-puny speakers. I'm not sure if these will fit the new Nano but I guess they will. If you wanna buy them you need to import them from 10x10 in Korea. Good luck.
source_technabob
Now that George Lucas has wrung out every obvious bit of Star Wars franchising possible, we are starting to see slightly more unusual/intersting items appearing. Witness, the R2-D2 salt and pepper pots. Just twist R2’s head, and out comes fresh-ground pepper. The mills come in both R2-D2 (white/blue) and RD-Q5 (black) versions and can be purchased from the good people at NCSX.
source_technabob
Check out this new use for the tape, quiet literrally a tape dispenser, a nice and simple idea to keep the cassette alive. Only available at J-me.
Like everyone else in the world you love vinyl toys, Playlounge is great, Kidrobot is better. Maybe you could try TokyoCube for that even more limited, limited edition. According to its designers at Unkl Brand, this little stubbly stone shaped critter, called UniPo, grew from a tiny egg shell discovered in a bird's nest which was taken to their studios where it indulged in fortune cookies and green tea before multiplying into a multitude of funky colourful forms. Nice.
I like this car. The write up said that this is Volkswagens attempt to challenge the Smart. I'm not sure its that good, but its nice. As good as the new Fiat 500??
Sorry about the controversial heading up there, I wanted to get your attention. I found this link off http://www.notcot.org/ Some guy decided to shoot some stuff and take pictures. I can't tell you more than that really but it looks great.
Check out http://picsyard.com/Crayon_Assassin_Photo
The much publicised (and much poked-fun-at) project one-laptop-per-child project finally reaches it's resolution on November 12th when the XO laptop goes on sale in the US for $399. At this price the XO is not cheap considering that other people are starting to see laptops as free giveaways. The price is largely explained by the fact that your money actually buys two machines - one for yourself and one for an unknown child in the third-world. Neverless, it is a truly freaky machine and doubtless of interest to tech-geeks and collectors of white-elephants everywhere.
Kitting out children in developing countries with a laptop each is a nice idea, but it may not be the most pressing problem they face. It is interesting to consider whether Maslow would have been forced to find room for 'Wi-Fi' access in his hierarchy of needs today. Still, young male students Nigeria have proved that there are some human constants when they were found using their XO's to surf for porn (don't worry reader, the kind folks at XO have now installed prudish blocking filters to prevent such 'mis-use').
Here are some nice adverts for BBC World. The UK is fairly mediocre at a lot of things but the BBC is still some thing to be proud of, Andy Rosie was right. Can you see the hidden pictures relating to news stories in the border lines?
Here are some really nice LEGO print adverts I saw on http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/
Simply communicating what LEGO is about; your imagination.
These mirrors are something I would love to witness firsthand, they look amazing on the videos. They are a combination of digital imaging and physical motion. The two mirrors use tiny cameras which transfer real time images pixel by pixel into physical motion. On show at the bitforms gallery in New York they are the work of Daniel Rozin.
Peg Mirror displays the images by rotating the 650 angled wooded rods between shadow and reflexion. The viewers reflection is displayed in what looks like rustling sequins.
Weave Mirror works by rotation 768 C shaped components printed with a gradual grey scale to display its viewer.
I've got a USB hub at home and its a complete pig and i felt i'd bought one of the better ones on the market for the price. I don't know whether this by Belkin is new or old, but its nice, way more practical and a bargain at $29.99 with a lifetime guarantee!
