Product packages are often the design equivalent of having a hammer driven into your eyeballs. Buzzword-y text everywhere, disgusting color overload, and corny cartoon mascots. So why not strip it all away and let the thing's name speak for itself?
Design firm A2591 took popular tasty products and gave them a minimalist makeover. All the extraneous crap, scrubbed away. Each item gets two version—one with some of the orignal's elements left over. Beautiful typography. Simple, popping colors. Tasteful. Think Cornflakes, without a big goofy picture of cascading milk into a Grand Canyon-sized pit of cereal. We all know what Cornflakes are—we don't need the helpful illustration.
Of course, companies want their products to be as wackily eye-grabbing as possible so that our hands and wallets will do the grabbing next, but it's nice to imagine a world in which store shelves are visually appealing, instead of it looking like an ad agency projectile vomited.
USB drives have become cheap to the point of disposability. I think there are four lying underneath my bed like dust bunnies. So a drive has to be particularly eye-catching to make anyone care—like these 3D printed "keys.
It's not the smallest, or the highest-capacity, or the fastest. But it's easy on the eyes, and you could put photos of your crush on it and wear it around your neck! Actually, that would be sort of creepy.
The iPhone was stolen from a hospital in Heidelberg, Melbourne, a 16 year old kid who pedalled away furiously on his BMX. It was another successful result for Apple's "Find My iPhone" service though, which allowed the police to track the kid using GPS from a helicopter.
The SHOWWX+ laser projector is 50% brighter than its predecessor, throwing video at 15 lumens with a 5,000:1 contrast ratio for 2 hours with a built-in battery. It's designed specifically for iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches, so it has a dock connector and can project all your Netflix goodies without any DRM hang-ups.
Because it's a laser projector, the SHOWWX+ has "infinite focus," as MicroVision calls it, allowing the image to be projected crisply on curved surfaces, or when the device isn't perfectly perpendicular to the surface it's projecting on. Its native resolution is 848 x 480, not quite HD, and it includes composite cables in the box for non iOS devices. But pair this thing with some AirPlay speakers and your iPad theater just got a lot more compelling. Available now for $450.
Thanks to the 1.11 update for Panasonic's $600 DMC-G2, the camera is now compatible with Panny's $250 3D lens. Now you can get started filming the Avatar sequel too.
Considering I've just polished off half a jar of jam, you could say I'm a fan of all things preserved. But inedible LED jams? JellyLamps' bright hues make me sad I can't slather a knife-full on a bit of crust.
When turned upside down, the LED light inside each jar of JellyLamps jam switches on, and glows neon. When flipped over, rightside-up, it looks just like a normal jar of jam—albeit, one that's made from fruit plucked from the bushes of Chernobyl.
Unfortunately they're very pricey for what they are. Each jar runs off two AAA batteries (which casts 50hrs of light, apparently), and costs $45
Disney has teamed up with Monster to create these official Tron: Legacy T1 headphones, which have lights that glow and move and generally please the eyes.
These noise-isolating cans are designed for gaming, and as such, come with a detachable boom mic so that you can make yourself heard while raiding or rushing in whatever Blizzard game.
Available in White/Silver or Black, the lines and general styling of the headphones certainly aren't lacking in flair, but I would have preferred something a bit more minimal to go with all those nice blue lights.
Some watch manufacturers think adding a sapphire crystal face, compass or having a diving depth of 1,000m is enough. Me? I won't consider strapping something to my wrist unless prehistoric animals have been set in the dial.
Louis Moinet's Jurassic Tourbillon watch has fragments of fossilized dino bones set in the dial, and is encased in 18K white gold with 56 diamonds equating to 3.46 carats. A watch sparkling with diamonds—however ugly it may be—would attract a pretty penny alone, but the addition of dinosaur bones? Well, the one thing I'm certain of is that you won't be able to barter a cave drawing for one of them.
LG pulled the covers off their Android-powered Optimus 2X smartphone, revealing the first handset to pack a Tegra 2 chipset—featuring a 1 GHz dual-core processor—under its hood.
The added processing power apparently allows the Optimus 2X to playback 1080p video with no lag on its 4-inch, 800x480 screen, and can supply visuals to larger displays thanks to HDMI mirroring. And you can even use the HDMI connection to play Android games on a larger screen, still using the phone as a controller. Toss in 8 gigabytes of internal storage, along with front and rear cams (8 megapixels and 1.3 megapixels, respectively), and you have yourself a seemingly solid handset.
The Optimus 2X, slated for a 2011 release in Asia and Europe, will ship with Android 2.2 (Froyo), but of course, a 2.3 (Gingerbread) update will follow. There's been no announcement about a U.S. release yet. Specs below:
Key specifications:
1Ghz Dual-core Processor (NVIDIA Tegra 2)
4-inch WVGA screen
8GB memory (up to 32GB via microSD)
1,500 mAh battery
8 megapixel rear camera and 1.3 megapixel front camera
HDMI mirroring
1080p MPEG-4/H.264 playback and recording
This is a jump-up from the 200,000 sold each day which Eric Schmidt confirmed in August.Andy Rubin, Android's creator, took to Twitter to make his proud boast—only the second time he's ever tweeted. @Arubin @morrildl
What do you have to say in ten characters or less? You'd better think of something clever, because Diesel Watches wants you to have a brand-new LED panel watch, into which you can program anything you like. Ideas include: BrushTeeth, Pay Bills.
Diesel's new watches feature a scrolling LED message display, a silicone strap, and come in black, blue, white, purple, grey, and glow-in-the-dark.
Need some R2-D2 cans to match your bathing-suit and Droid phone? These headphones could be clamped 'round your head for 50 notes. Boba Fett, Stormtrooper, and Darth Vader and models are also available, but you can't go wrong with Artwo.
You can probably guess that Coloud's headphones are going to put style over substance, especially at that price-point. Nonetheless, for people who don't feel the need to spend hundreds, a bit of off audio quality or tinny bass won't be too much of a problem. Surprisingly, they even have an inline-mic on the headphone cable, for receiving phone calls.
Available now, the headphones are 39.90 Euros, which converts roughly to $53.
With most Facebook updates there is, inevitably, backlash against the changes that greet users when they sign in for the first time. Not so with artistAlexandre Oudin. He saw an opportunity.
For anyone who wants to copy his style, all you have to do is block the other photos you're tagged in and upload photos to your profile pictures album that are the exact size (yes, down to the pixel) of the display on Facebook and voilà !
Joining up with Bill Gates, George Lucas, Warren Buffett, and 50 other billionaires, Zuckerberg has agreed to donate the majority of his wealth to charity, as part of the Giving Pledge movement Gates launched back in August.
It's the largest philanthropic work ever done, with over 50 billionaires pledging to give away most of their fortunes to various charities. They're not legally bound to do so, but if they renege then I imagine all hell would break loose. Just imagine having Gates' beady glare on you, wherever you go. *shudder*
15 other billionaires signed up recently, alongside Zuckerberg. AOL's co-founder Steve Case, and investor Carl Icahn are just some of the names you might recognize. The charities on the receiving end of the Giving Pledge's handout haven't been named yet, but considering Gates fascination with green issues, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some funky eco-friendly initiatives start looking or greener.
It's ridiculous all the half-baked solutions we depend on to resuscitate a dead phone. Especially when there's a potent supply of free power just waiting to be tapped, right above our heads. No, not the sun—overhead power lines.
The Bat Hook is as simple as any plug-in charger, but it's great for on-the-go. It's just a weighted hook with a razor blade in it, strung on the end of a cord: you toss it over the nearest power line. Its blade pierces the live wire, neatly and safely conducting electric current down to you, for convenient charging of gadgets, jumpstarting cars, or powering your roadside business. It even works in the rain!
The explanatory video from the Department of Defense says something about how it's only for trained Special Operations soldiers, and "you should never throw something over power lines," but that is clearly just marketing hype, calculated to give the Bat Hook an air of exclusivity.
Ever have those moments where excess spatula handles run wild in your kitchen? Yeah, me neither. Still, you shouldn't deny yourself a snap-together cookware system, if only for the purpose of saying you have a snap-together cookware system.
