Are the Days of Vertu and Luxury Phones Over?

Do ultra high-end cellphones have a place in our future market? Phones and products like these have given the average consumer a glimpse of the ultimate in materials, fabrication, design, and opulence. Will the next generation of cell phones have these multi-thousand dollar devices? Wired.com has something to say about it.

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More Beautiful Photography and Art

All of these are worth seeing

Prophecy
Longing
As Loud as a Whisper
Still
Robots Inc.
The Water Boy
Apocalypse Please
City of an Angel

'The World Through My Eyes' Concept

"How would images look if we captured them on a camera that was based on the Human Eye? Taking into consideration our field of vision, optical sensory and the brain’s perception of images, George Milde has developed the Human Eye Camera. This device combines modern technology with digital postproduction."


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Boston.com Solar Eclipse Set

I hope to feature a handful of photography on this site. Boston.com will probably be featured weekly. These are some shots of the beautiful solar eclipse.

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Samsung Surround Sound and Bluray

Samsung is releasing an entire 5.1 Surround Sound system with 1000 watt receiver and Blu-Ray player for under $800. The speakers look like a clean design, 1000 watts will definitely provide enough sound, and with the addition of the Blu-Ray player this package is a really decent deal.

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Apple Designed Surfboards, kind of

A former designer for Apple has taken on a project of designing better surfboards. I approve of the transition.

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Dell's Adamo Drops in Price

And is still WAY too expensive. It's gorgeous, material use is fantastic, profile and overall design are superb. But the specs on this computer are equal to $300 netbooks. It's even too expensive when you compare it to an Apple Air...and that's saying a lot. I still don't think its $1499 gorgeous, but gorgeous none-the-less.

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New Canon Image Stabilization

Canon is going to start using an accelerometer to aid in their image stabilization. I've got two IS lenses and they work well, but the further the zoom the more unlikely I'm going to get a crisp shot without my handy tripod. Throw this in the L-Series lenses and cut the price in half and I'll be sold.


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Shake Your Battery, Get More Power

A very smart concept and approach to charging your batteries. Sometimes it's not an option to go throw them in the charger at home, especially in emergency situations. If this actually works, and provides enough power, then I'm sure Duracell/Energizer will buy it up real quickly and make sure it never sees the light of day.


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Kensington iPhone Alarm Clock

If you've got an iPhone then chances are it doubles as your alarm clock (among other things). This smart simple concept turns your phone into a self standing clock for your room and turns it into a real alarm clock. Not sure it's worth $40, but it's still a nice idea. It would have been nice to see a little more refinement on the stand.

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Another Phone Watch, By Samsung

They've been done, many, many times. Even Prada has made one. I'm pretty sure every phone watch carries the same flaws: too small to have a comfortable user experience and too annoying to be practical. But if you really want one, and you think Samsung's will do the job, then this might be for you.

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Devotec Solar Sound Bluetooth Stereo System

Portable speaker system that connects to your PMP through stereo bluetooth (or hardwired) that keeps itself charged when outside or will stay charged for 8 hours inside. It also comes with a simple and clean form, nice touch panel control display, even a built in mic for phone calls, and only costs $79.

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New Sony Walkman

Leaked shots of the new Sony S-Series Walkman have come out and it seems they've received the new gadget checklist. Big vertical format screen, circular scroll wheel, as thin as possible, and a Micky Mouse face on the front...wait, what?

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MIT Works on Rapid Recharge Electric Vehicles

There are a few major problems with electric vehicles. Currently they are pricey, the batteries weigh a ton because we need to put so many of them in since they don't hold much power, they take too long to recharge, eventually the batteries die and it costs too much to replace them, and even if you get past all that they still in general can't compete with the power or distance a gasoline vehicle provides. I'm sure there are more problems but they aren't coming to the top of my mind right now. Regardless, we will eventually all be driving EV's, so all of these problems need to be solved one way or another. That being said, some incredibly smart people over at MIT are working on the recharge issue.

""He said it's like "a chicken or the egg scenario" and wondered whether a charging infrastructure or the rapid recharge car should be built first. "We feel that right now it's easier to build a car that can do it rather than set up an infrastructure," he said.""

Their goal is to be able to completely recharge the car in 10 mins. Still a bit slower than filling up your gas tank, but that's a huge leap from the 2-12 hour time it takes with the existing technology. Now they just need to figure out how to do it with less than 7000 batteries!

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What Type of Art Student Are You?

Thought these comics were well done. I feel like if you're in ID at AC then there's a 99% chance you're the stressed one. Nice work Chuck Dillon.


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Nike T-Shirt Gun

A Nike T-Shirt Gun. I don't need to say much. There are few things I have less of a need for than a t-shirt gun, but I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who would love to have one. If only it wasn't a limited production and $1500.

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Herman Miller Setu Chair

Herman Miller has released a new chair called the Setu Chair. It seems they've taken what they've learned from the Aeron office chair and created a more versatile chair that requires no adjustment and can be used from office seating to around the dinner table. On the backside of the chair is a ribbed exoskeleton they refer to as the kinetic spine which is inspired from natural nautilus shape. I'm sure this, along with their material technology, and overly extensive design refinement, will provide an incredibly comfortable chair. For me, the looks of the chair are too aggressive to be as adaptable as they preach it is. I do enjoy the styling and seeing the functional form, but I can see people finding these chairs a little hard on the eyes in an elegant home or minimalistic space.

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Using Light to Control Power

Check out this article at ECNmag.com which discusses a new technology of controlling circuits with light. In 2005 scientists had theorized that a light could use repulsive and attractive forces to control a switch, but at that time they had only proven the repulsive power. On July 13th they announced that they had solved the problem.

"This completes the picture," Tang said. "We've shown that this is indeed a bipolar light force with both an attractive and repulsive component."

So what does this mean? The article mentions two important uses. There's little to no resistance in this technology, so the loss of power to use devices practically disappears. This could mean devices like your TV or computer will take up less power and people will leave less of a carbon footprint without changing their lives. The second use that was mentions was the telecommunication companies won't need nearly as much cable to move information. Maybe this means AT&T can make a working 3G network and possibly provide some customer service here and there.

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Urwerk UR-CC1

We'll start this blog off with a watch you can't even buy yet, and with a limited run of 25 to be built, it's unlikely you ever will.

"The UR-CC1: the world's first production wristwatch with true retrograde linear displays.
Linear time is displayed by two large cylinders: one for the jumping hours, the other, a retrograde cylinder for the minutes. In another a world premiere, an ultra-light disk on the dial indicates the seconds, both digitally and linearly."

The styling is unique to say the least, but it's always nice to see a fresh approach and I'm sure there are geeks out there salivating at how it works. It probably won't be long until the guys at Toykoflash (check out this site for incredibly interesting watches) see this concept and make a version far cheaper and more difficult to read.

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Welcome to this blog.

This blog will be dedicated to design, technology, their possible use in the future, new products, and other fascinating trinkets that help shape this wold in front of us. But mostly its a place for me to keep track of all the stuff I find online everyday.