LaCie Introduces Three “Keys” for Handy Portable Storage
On Monday, LaCie announced three new ways to carry digital content – LaCie itsaKey, iamaKey and PassKey USB key drives, design by 5.5 Designers. LaCie had released CurrenKey last December also designed by 5.5 Desginers. 5.5 Designers had The inventive, compact key-shaped design conveniently fits in a pocket or on a key ring. The itsaKey and iamaKey store up to 8 gigabytes of flash memory. Alternatively, the PassKey has a built-in microSD card reader, which allows you to use your memory cards as stylish and handy USB keys.
The LaCie Keys are available now, starting at $9.90. LaCie products are available through the LaCie Online Store or LaCie resellers.
The design was created exclusively for LaCie by 5.5 designers. LaCie CurrenKeys open with a simple rotation of the coin’s edge; a design that easily reveals and hides the USB connector with a twist. For added data security, the LaCie CurrenKeys are made with a shock-proof, die-cast metal for resilience and safety.
The LaCie CurrenKeys come with two storage capacities: the silver LaCie CurrenKey can pack up to 8 GB (US $30) while the bronze can handle up to 4 GB (US $20).
Test Your Web Design In 73 Browsers With Browsershots
If you have a web site or a weblog and you want to see how it looks like in different browsers and operating systems, then Browsershots is going to save you time and effort.
Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.
I think this one is currently the best, it's free and it generates screenshots of your web design on a wide number of Windows, Mac, and Linux browsers. Enter your address and press submit and after 10-45 minutes (depending on current loads) you'll get screenshots of your site as displayed on a variety of different Windows/Mac/Linux browsers.
It's available on other languages too and the one of the best things here is that you can enable Java, Flash and JavaScript.
Dubai City Tower: Proposal For a 2.4km-High Skyscraper
Dubai City Tower (also called ‘Vertical City’) is an architect’s proposal that began circulating in emails and at a skyscraper forum published in August 25th, but its origins are yet to be determined.
The professional project pitch details 400 habitable stories, topped by a 400m energy-producing spire, making it 2.4km high. The tower is proposed to be sited along the Arabian Gulf where part of the building could push into the ocean creating a marina and a destination for cruise ships and tourism. The proposed tower is organized into four 100 story "neighborhoods" connected via a vertical bullet train that quickly distributes people between Sky Plazas that separate the different vertical neighborhoods.
By comparison, Emaar’s Burj Dubai is largely predicted to be around 800m high and 160 floors.
A “mile-high tower” in Jeddah has been planned by Kingdom Holdings, while Nakheel is building Al Burj, which, according to project sources, will have a final height of 1.28km, although the developer is keeping the details under wraps.
I would not be surprised to see this project under construction. Only Dubai would build such crazy project. It is worth mentioning that there are many amazing architectural projects under planning and construction in Dubai.
The following are the marketing pages of the proposed project:
Sometimes such simple ideas amaze me. This keyboard napkin is a concept design, but I think it should be passed to napkin companies at once! This is the best idea to protect your laptop keyboard from greasy fingers , soft drink spills, and cookies leftovers making its way through your keyboard buttons.
You simply stick the napkin on the surface of your laptop keyboard by pulling off the 2 plastic strips from the sides. Then after you get done typing, you wipe your hands and mouth with it and trash it .... and get another one!
This is so amazing. I wonder how much time and effort has been put into this beautiful piece of art. The picture above is for what is considered the largest city scale model in the world (click here to see more). How come Dubai didn't think of this first?
The model is located in the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, a history museum and a shrine to all things urban, located in People's Square in the heart of downtown. It is a 1:500 scale representation of the city, sprawling over 6,400 square feet -- and even then it all won't fit onto a full floor of the exhibition hall. It is surrounded by walkways, and it can be viewed from a balcony above. With the flick of a switch, artificial night falls, and its thousands of lovingly rendered buildings begin to twinkle. It is surreal, and beautiful, a bit absurd, and it seems to offer, in one comprehensive glance, a sense of the city in its massive, skyscraping, outward-spreading totality. Here, perhaps, one can absorb what it means to build some 10,000 high-rise buildings in a quarter-century. Watch the following short video to get a feel of how big the model is:
Huang Qi Min is a modelmaker, and it is his company that makes and maintains this mini-colossus. Modelmaking is a competitive sport in China, and that's how Huang got his start. But in the early 1990s, when Shanghai was released from the economic and social strictures that kept its potential in check for more than four decades of communist rule, city leaders decided they needed some way to get a handle on it. The model was an early effort to take the measure of the city. And it just keeps growing. Every few months, Huang says, he must swap out the "white" buildings, which represent projects in the planning or drawing-board stage, for finished models, rendered in color. When necessary, he will walk on the Huangpu River to get to the center of the city.
BMW Gina Light Visionary Concept: Lighter, More Flexible, & Cooler
The BMW GINA Light Visionary Model that was seen in the BMW Museum in Munich last week has finally been revealed, and the futuristic design study shows how BMW designers are thinking outside of the box when it comes to the materials that make up a car and also how the car relates to the driver.
GINA stands for "Geometry and Functions in 'N' Adaptations", which basically means that designers from both BMW and BMW Group DesignworksUSA were allowed to throw out the rulebook. This is most evident in the GINA Light Visionary Model's outer skin, which is made entirely out of textile fabric that's pulled taut around a frame of metal and carbon fiber wires. The skeleton of the car is controlled by electro-hydraulic devices and can actually move and change shape beneath the fabric skin. For instance, the headlights of the concept can be exposed or hidden by the car's skin just like blinking eyes, and the hood opens from the center as the fabric parts to expose the engine.
Watch Chris Bangle, head of design for BMW, talking about GINA:
Bangle and is team actually built GINA six years ago, but BMW kept it under wraps until Tuesday. It's built on the Z8 chassis and has a 4.4-liter V8 and six-speed automatic transmission. BMW says the fabric skin - polyurethane-coated Lycra - is resilient, durable and water resistant. It's stretched over an aluminum frame controlled by electric and hydraulic actuators that allow the owner to change the body shape.
BMW says the shape of the body can be changed without slackening or damaging the fabric. The fabric is opaque so the taillights shine through, and small motors pull the fabric back to reveal the headlights. The interior is equally innovative. The steering wheel and gauges swing into place and the headrest rises from the seat once the driver is seated, making it easier to get in and out of the car.
Hmmm, I liked cartouche's comment in Wired when he said, "After seeing the opening in the hood, I see how GINA must be pronounced."
It is so amazing & scary at the same time to look at the "pictures" above! They really look like real pictures ... so real and almost believable.
The images were created by 28-years-old (Pixeloo) from the west coast of the United States. He refuses to tell his real name for some reason and he works daily with Photoshop CS2. It took (Pixeloo) about 6 hours to create the images of Mario and Homer.
Play the following YouTube video to see how Pixeloo created the real Jessica Rabbit (using Angelina Julie picture):
I smiled when I first saw the above picture. I've always thought there should be a better way to benefit from used water coming out from washer machines.
"Washup" is a conceptual design by Sevin Coskun from Turkey integrating washing machine with toilet flush. It suggests a sustainable water consumption by storing the wasted water in toilette-flush tank and reuse it with flushing. Moreover, "Washup" brings a solution for the problem of location of washing machines in small bathrooms, overlapping washing machine usage space with toilette usage space.
"Washup" is fixed on wall upwards toilet, so that loading of clothes would be easier for the user without bending or crouching. A special interface including three semi-sphere control units & two flushing buttons is designed for a practical usage of the product. "Washup" is a green product offering solutions for the problems of standard washing machines.
"Get your coffee fix, fast!" iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows the users to purchase their favorite Starbucks drink without waiting in line. This application also includes QuickPay, a swipe transaction system using semacode technology.
This is just a design concept but it looks so cool and the pictures sure look so real !!!
The original inventors and designers of the exciting Disappearing Car Door technology (Jatech) are now in a position to equip your favorite automobile with cool, sexy, safe and convenient automatic door or design an original vehicle body incorporating this unique technology.
Jatech vehicle architecture offers an attractive rethink for car design and adds greatly to overall vehicle safety including structural integration of the door with the unibody and cruciform door frame technology.
"We work with the finest and most experienced coach builders in the US and Europe, ensuring that your vehicle will be manufactured to the highest quality, reliability and safety standards, including a manual override for door operation.", said their website.
One thing is for sure, you will definitely grab everyone's attention when you drive a car with Disappearing Doors! No matter where you are, whether you are visiting your club, grocery store, gas station, or restaurant, your drivable work of art will be appreciated and admired. When you pull up next to other high end cars, yours will render them boring by comparison!
Tempo: 250GB External Wireless Recycle Bin Hard Drive
It happened to me so many times when as soon as I empty my recycle bin, I discover that I need one or more of the those files I deleted so badly. Could Tempo be the solution for such embarrassing situation?
Designed to mimic the look of a trash can, Tempo is a unique wireless hard drive storage device. Intended to protect the user from accidentally deleting files, it can also be used as an external storage device.
As you delete files, they are automatically copied to the Tempo. As it fills up, led’s light the “can” from the bottom up, informing you of how much space is available.
Tempo is still in the design phase, so don't hold your breath waiting for its release date.
Al Burj (The Tall Tower) project being planned by Nakheel will be 1,050 metres tall, comfortably exceeding the height of the rival Burj Dubai and making it the world’s tallest building.
Nakheel has kept the tower’s height a closely guarded secret as it waits for its more advanced rival, being developed by Emaar Properties, to reach its final height later this year. However, MEED has confirmed that design plans show the tower to be more than 1 kilometre tall, at 1,050 metres.
“At that height, the Tall Tower will definitely be taller than the Burj Dubai,” says a source working on the Burj Dubai. “Emaar has not announced the full height, but the contractors are working to plans for a 700-metre tower, and we expect its final height to be about 800 metres.”
The Burj Dubai became the world’s tallest building on 21 July, at 512 metres, and is due to be completed in 2008.
Designs for the Tall Tower show 228 floors, a four-level basement and one service sub-level – a total built-up area of 1.49 million square metres with 492,000 square metres of useable space. It will house offices, apartments and hotels. The top habitable floor will be at 850 metres, topped by a 200-metre central spire with a three-level function area and three service floors.
However, the location of the tower could change again. It was originally called Al-Burj and destined for Palm Jumeirah, before becoming part of the Dubai Waterfront scheme. Nakheel is still reviewing its options.
“The site has never been fixed and has always been under review in the context of the strategic plan for Dubai,” says a spokesperson for the developer.
According to industry sources, the tower has been forced to move to the Ibn Battuta mall area as it violated Department of Civil Aviation height restrictions because of its proximity to the new Dubai World Central airport at Jebel Ali. Nakheel denies this. “No height restrictions have been placed on Nakheel in the waterfront area by the Department of Civil Aviation,” says the spokesperson.
Tenders for the contract to build the tower are expected early in 2008. Meanwhile, several consultants and contractors are assisting Nakheel with the project. “No pre-construction contract has been awarded or considered at this stage,” says the spokesperson. “We are talking to large-scale contractors, including [Japan’s] Taisei Corporation, to assist with the buildability analysis of the early design of the superstructure.”
Romain Jerome Titanic DNA Watch: Made of Actual Titanic Parts
Romain Jerome, a Swiss watchmaker has created a new timepiece called the Titanic DNA which uses parts of the actual ship in its construction. The watchface has a black dial thanks to a lacquer paint made with coal recovered from the wreck and the housing will be composed of precious metals like platinum in addition to steel procured from what’s left of the ship.
The Titanic DNA will also be limited to a run of 2,012 pieces which is significant since the year 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship.
Ronaldo received the first Titanic-DNA watch, fresh out of the Geneva-based Romain Jerome factory. Mister Yvan Arpa, CEO of the company and big admirer of Ronaldo - all time best top scorer of world cup finals (15 goals) - met him in Milan last weekend.
The rusted steel is created by an extraordinary fusion carried out at the Harland&Wolff shipyards in Belfast, where the Titanic was constructed. This fusion brings together the authentic steel of the shipwreck, which was resting on the ocean floor at a depth of 3’840 meters, and that of the memorial project that will see the light of day in Belfast in 2012. This is how the DNA is captured; a myth is reborn.
The hands are inspired by the anchor of the Titanic and turn on a dial of deep black; a color obtained from the coal collected in the legendary shipwreck. The small second hand at 9 o’clock recalls the meters of the ship’s steam engines.
The "Titanic-DNA" is available in a watchcase of platinum or gold with elements of titanium, ceramic, composite materials or rusted steel made according to the process explained above.
The collection will be available in the best points of sales worldwide starting October 2007. Price range expected to be between $7,800 and $173,000.
Lucifer: For Storing, Dispensing & Igniting Matches
Lucifer, by Feel Addicted, is just a design concept but it might as well be available for sale one day.
Lucifer is a different vision of the domestic matches. A match box is usually used as a tool and not as a product. Lucifer is a match container to refill when empty.
The aim of Lucifer is to reduce the steps to light on a match. Its easier to get fire from a lighter than from a match but a match is more practice (try to light on a candle in a pot with a lighter, you'll burn your nails).
To take a match, you turn upside down Lucifer, and once the match wood is outside, the match's head will be jammed by the grater, pull the match to strike it on the orange grater part. The match is automatically lighted.
The grater is made of a stone and can be used indefinitely. The base of Lucifer is made of glass to control the matches quantity inside, it is screwed on the top part to refill.
