MIMOBOT and Infectious are both DYH favorites, so when the two team up for a design contest (featured previously on DYH) you know the results are going to be impressive.
In the end, 666 entries were submitted (seriously!) but it was Hila Rosenberg Arazi and her GiddyUp design that took home the grand prize of an Infectious Prize Pack and $1000 cash.
Look for her design to show up in MIMOBOT form in early 2010.
[MIMOBOT X Infectious Design Challenge]
Joey Roth’s Sorapot defined how stylish a teapot could be, and now he’s hoping to bring that style to the speaker world as well, with a set of ceramic speakers that are “designed to leave music untouched”.
These warm, dry and detailed speakers feature 4: full-range drivers and a T-class amplifier, encased in acoustically dead porcelain and cork, creating a remarkably simple path from source to ear.
If you like the looks and want a set of your own, then keep an eye on Joey’s site for the pre-order, or follow him on Twitter for more constant updates.
[Joey Roth - Ceramic Speakers]
Frankie Flood makes pizza cutters that are unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
As Frankie says,
My work investigates one of a kind objects and their role in a world based on mechanical reproduction. Industry has removed the aura from objects and stripped them of their individuality. My pizza cutters seek to demolish the sterile conformity of mass produced objects and represent the stylistic and flamboyant embellishment of groups who live on the fringe of popular culture. The outlaw biker image is a break from the conformity that has taken over America since industrialization. My machined pizza cutters draw inspiration from chopper motorcycles and attempt to reclaim the mythology and economic usefulness of the American worker as patriarch; translating machine or functional object into flesh and blood. The outlaw as defiant nonconformist, as well as social outcast, parallels being an artist who makes functional objects and being an individual who takes pride in the power of invention and skill.
Be sure to check out Frankie’s site for other objects that he has given his special touch to.
[Via: Book Of Joe]
SureFire is a company that’s known for making blindingly bright flashlights, but they also make a line of equally tough pens to survive even the most destructive of disasters.
The SureFire Pen II features a rugged hard-annodized aerospace-grade aluminum body, easyFLOW ink cartridges and a ‘virtually indestructible’ pocket clip.
Plus, you can kill a bear with it if you really need to.
DigiDudes are “funky, portable camera tripod and keychains with attitude”.
To use, simply screw off the dude’s head and pull out the retractable legs. The keychain allows you to attach the dude to your camera bag or backpack, making it the perfect on-the-go camera mount for when you just need something that’s a little more stable.
The five dudes are Pinky Scorsese, Snot Buster, 1iChomp, BoltBot, and G-bling-Money-Son, and each comes with its own personality and attitude.
Two of the coolest companies on the planet, Infectious and Mimobot, have teamed up to create a custom Mimobot flash drive that features the art from one lucky member of the Infectious community.
The winner will be selected through a combination of community voting and input from the guest judges, and will take home $1,000, an Infectious prize pack, and a custom Mimobot prize pack that includes ten of the winning design in various sizes.
Field Notes are “honest memo books, worth fillin’ up with good information”.
They were inspired by
the vanishing subgenre of agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers and the simple, unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list.
Though normally available with a brown cover, Field Notes offers a ‘Colors’ subscription service for those that want to add some variety, and want to make sure they always have a fresh Fields Notes book on hand.
The subscription service includes 24 very-limited-edition memo books (only 100 subscriptions are available) spread out over the year in four different colors/styles. For summer, the color is “Grass Stain Green”, while Fall, Winter and Spring of 2009 still remain gigantically top secret.
If you’re the type of person that likes to write everything down, but you like to do it with style, sophistication and exclusivity, then check out Field Notes and pick up a subscription.
With the Monochrome skin that Michael Sison designed for Infectious, you can turn your iPhone or iPod into a retro-themed masterpiece of ‘80s gaming.
GamesByEmail.com needed a way to create thousands of dice rolls each day that would be equally random, so it created the Dice-O-Matic, a machine that is able to randomly roll up to 1.3 million die per day!
The machine is surprisingly simple, and uses a central conveyor belt that runs up a column to lift the dice past a camera, which records the numbers, and then down a chute where they roll and tumble to ensure complete randomness:
And you thought your 20-sided D&D dice were difficult to handle!
[Via: Gizmodo]
Blackbird’s line of carbon fiber guitars are known for bringing big sound out of a small body, and with their newest guitar, simply called the Blackbird, you can now have a full size guitar that looks like it came from the 22nd century.
[Via: Acquire]
Photojojo’s Wrap-Around-The-Corner-Frame is a new way to display your photos that will definitely force you to think outside the box when behind the lens.
By taking your photos into a third dimension, the Wrap-Around-The-Corner-Frame allows you to get creative with what will wrap and how it will add extra depth to your ideas, and you can put photos where photos have never belonged before.
The frame itself holds up to 12 different photos, and is made of espresso stained and lacquered wood for a strong and durable finish that will look good on just about any corner.
[Photojojo - Wrap-Around-The-Corner-Frame]
Brodmann Blades are the first major innovation in the sport of table tennis since… ever?
The ‘Blades’ have no handle, and are instead worn like a glove on either hand, which is supposed to give players improved comfort, ergonomics and sensory feedback as the ball is played right on the hand, giving you greater ball control, a faster and more intuitive game, more spin, and a superior backhand.
Since those all sound like things you’d want to have while playing table tennis, the Brodmann Blades are definitely something that any serious table tennis aficionado should check out.
[Via: Acquire]
The Livio radio is a rather neat little music device that is designed to work well with Pandora’s internet radio service, and includes features like Wi-Fi for wireless listening and built in Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down buttons for full personal DJ support.
[Livio]
The TASER XREP, or eXtended Range Electronic Projectile, is the future of taser technology.
Designed to stun from up to 100 feet away, the SREP is a self-contained, wireless taser that fits inside of a single 12-gauge projectile, yet delivers the same ‘bio-effect’ as the standard TASER X26 stun gun.
Features include a transparent shell for easy identification, torsion spring fins for extra rotational stability, and reflex engagement electrodes that prevent the SREP from being removed once contact has been made.
Looking at the thing would be enough to stop me in my tracks, so just hope you’re not on the business end of the XREP any time soon!
[Via: Like Cool]
Any pen can write, and some pens can also serve stylus duty, but only the KZ Xtreme Defense Pen can write, serve stylus duty, and kill a man.
That’s because the KZ Xtreme Defense Pen is designed to serve as a defense tool in times of need, with a CNC Machined, Type II Class 3 Hard Anodized, 6061 Aircraft Grade Aluminum body and a threaded cap and slip free, knurled center that ensure you can get the job done when your pen needs to do a little more than just jot down a list of groceries that you need to pick up at the store.
Sure, you’ll probably never need to use the pen for actual self-defense, but wouldn’t it be nice to know that you could if you needed to?
[Via: Boing Boing]
Theory11, the ‘underground magic & cardistry epicenter’ has created a line of playing cards that are simply unparalleled.
Lines include Propaganda (Playing cards uniquely engineered to military precision, with original, iconic style and unsurpassed quality. A refreshing, industrial spin on modern playing card design with a best in class feel and finish.) Bicycle Centurions (the next standard in playing card design) Bicycle Guardians (The traditional Bicycle back design has been reborn.) and a collaboration with David Blaine called Split Spades, and each is more stunning than the next.
If you’re a poker player, magician, or just someone that wants a little extra design in everything you touch, then definitely check out what Theory11 has to offer, but do it soon, because these cards just might vanish before your very own eyes.
When TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington put out a call for the creation of a sub-$200 net tablet that took the netbook idea, threw out the keyboard, and added a little Kindle flavor for good measure, I was excited by the idea, but humbled by the slim chance that this thing had to actually make it to market.
Well, six months and two prototypes later, there’s apparently a working model of what this device might become:
Using a Via Nano processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash memory, a touchscreen for onscreen keyboarding and Ubuntu, the unit boots, connects, and surfs just like you would want it to.
Unfortunately, it looks like the sub-$200 price point may have been too ambitious for the first go-round, but with a realistic target of $299 now set, it looks like this might actually see the light of day.
They did however add that:
The real question for us is whether this project has legs and should go forward towards production units, which is a very big step from a working prototype. That would require spinning the company off from the blog and building a team around Louis. It’s a decision we haven’t made yet.
Despite the challenges that this device still faces, I hope that someone picks it up and runs with it, because I wouldn’t mind kicking back on the couch with the Internet at my fingertips for a hair under $300.
[TechCrunch - Tablet Update: Prototype B]
Amazon’s Kindle brought the eBook to the masses, and with the Kindle 2, they’re hoping an evolution of the design will help even more people discover the convenience of digital reading.
At just over 1/3 of an inch thick, and weighing in at just 10.2 ounces, it’s much smaller and lighter than you would expect, and with free 3G wireless connectivity, you can enjoy a book whenever and wherever you happen to be.
The Kindle 2 also features a new display that can show up to 16 shades of gray, 25% longer battery life, enough storage for 1,500 books, 20% faster page turns, and even a new text-to-speech feature that reads your content to you if you’re feeling particularly lazy.
Since just about every blog in existence has already profiled and reviewed the Kindle 2, I thought I’d just gather together a few of their thoughts so that you can see what everyone thinks of this device:
Engadget: “It really does feel great in hand. The brushed metal back is great, the device is incredibly light and comfortable to hold, and the keyboard is fairly usable. We’re not convinced the five-way joystick is the best they possible could’ve worked into this space- a d-pad seems much more logical – but it’s responsive and comfortable enough to twiddle with for what it is.”
Gizmodo: “The overall handfeel is a lot nicer. While part of me loves the snowspeeder original, this just feels better in your hand, and it obviously looks a lot slicker. Though at the same time, that iPod-like slickness is a bit less daring than the original.”
CrunchGear: “The difference in size is absolutely the most striking aspect of the new Kindle. Text-to-Speech is cool, but this is day and night when it comes to size.”
Ars Technica: “Overall, I have to say that the Kindle 2 is a far superior device to the first iteration, and really shows an attention to detail that, based on the earlier device, it wasn’t clear that Amazon had in it. More significantly, perhaps, is the fact that the company has clearly made sensible fixes to many of the problems, which demonstrates a clear commitment to listening to its customers. The changes give me hope that, when the hardware’s ready, the remaining issues (primarily the keyboard and the small screen) will be fixed. It makes me anxious to see what’s in store for Kindle 3.”
The Pocket Shark is as much a self-defense weapon as it is a pen!
Designed to be “the biggest, baddest permanent marker around”, it’s made from glass-reinforced plastic, and features walls that are four times thicker than similar markers.
What this means is that it’s designed for impact, and in an emergency can become an efficient Yawara stick for driving off an attacker. Plus, the screw-top cap won’t pop off like other caps in the heat of battle.
It’s definitely more than just a regular pen, but then again, who wants just a regular pen anyways?
[Via: Gizmodo]
Etymotic Research’s ety8 Bluetooth Wireless Earphones are “the world’s first in-ear high fidelity, noise-isolating earphones”.
By using the optional 8•Mate adapter for your iPod, you can send music wirelessly to your earphones, and enjoy the crystal clear sound that Etymotic Research is known for. (They don’t call themselves the “World Leader of In-Ear Technology for nothing!)
The full kit includes a leather case, various eartips, a USB charging cable, and a filter changing tool and filters. Plus, if you’re using these on a device that already has Bluetooth built in, you can skip the iPod adapter and save a few bucks as well.
