Archive for: design
Last week we highlighted a post from TechCrunch that foreshadowed a Facebook redesign being rolled out following their keynote. Well, the new design didn’t happen. Instead, Facebook talked about “lockdown” — their sudo code word for long hours — and how new features and a redesign would be slowly launched over the coming weeks and months. Apparently their “weeks to months” means “a few days”. I fired up my Facebook a little bit ago and was greeted with the picture you see here — the chat box is no longer a list of people with tiny thumbnails. Now it’s just a bunch of tiny thumbnails. As far as looks go, I prefer the images to lists of names. But I realize it won’t be everyone’s cup o’ tea. Looks like the fruits of “lockdown” are already starting to trickle out.
What do you guys think? Better or worse?
For skateboarding enthusiasts, it’s all fun and games — until the smooth pavement ends that is. The very nature of the sport requires a well maintained, or at least decently smooth surface. When things get bumpy, rocky, sandy, etc., it becomes less fun and more “chore” as you have to carry your board. But the “Vertrax” (designed by Bryson Lovett) aims to change all of that.
Using a tank-like track and electric motor, the Vertrax aims to go where no skateboard has ever gone before — off-road. It seems pretty clever, though, the small dimensions of the board ultimately mean a relatively small motor and battery pack. Add on a 150-200lb. human and soft terrain and you’ve got an equation for failure.
Even still, I’ll remain optimistic that science can come through yet again. ‘Nother shot after the break…
If you haven’t seen a detailed CAD drawing before, just walk away with the impression that it’s incredibly detailed and the result of months, sometimes years of work. But because CAD is completely within the sphere of your computer, changes aren’t too difficult — edit here, delete there, shorten this length, make that width fatter. Pretty easy, right? How about recreating a CAD drawing/model in real life? Seems next to impossible. But it’s not.
The technique the artist above (Shi Jindian) used consists of “Crocheting steel wire around an object and then extracting or destroying the object, leaving behind the wireframe”. Ok, I’ll accept that. But how exactly do you extract a full-size replica of the Chiangjiang 750 military bike? I’d go with something soft like clay being the base object to “crochet” around. But even then, that is a very delicate frame with as many wires as it has. Oh well, just point and stare folks. Point and stare.
The world of iPod docks and accessories is probably never ending. If there were one brave soul who decided to catalog it all, it would be a monumental undertaking that would more than likely be the death of him. Poor guy. There’s just so much junk out there. In order to keep your own product from not blending in, you have to be different. Is the Snowflake Speaker different enough?
Sadly, this is nothing more than a concept from the head of designer Sylvain Gerber. But if it were real, would you buy it? To my eyes, it looks like a Ferris Wheel at the fair. You?
That’s the latest coming from the Wall Street Journal. According to their reports, Steve Jobs and Co. knew up to a full year back that the external antenna could be detrimental to iPhone 4 reception. But Steve Jobs liked the design of it so much, “they pushed on”. But just like clockwork, Apple PR is hot on the heels of such reports claiming they’re not true, far from it even. With big name journalist outfits such as the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg weighing in negatively, it’s not hard see who’s spewing BS.
That basic principle, form over function, is the Apple standard. Time and time again they’ve chosen pretty aesthetics and pleasing designs over sometimes more “hardcore” (or as Apple has called it, “confusing”) function. There’s been plenty of times Apple’s decisions of form over function have left bad tastes in customers’ mouths. But this seems to be the the most publicly acknowledged incident in Apple’s history. With the mass popularity the iPhone and Apple brand image have garned in recent years, whatever news Apple dishes out tomorrow will be one for the history books — the geek’s history books that is.
The odds of Apple issuing a recall is pretty much zilch. Hell, their pride is so inflated, iPhone 4′s could be exploding, maiming human limbs in the process, and they still wouldn’t issue a recall. They’d simply recommend purchasing the iVest for $99.99 extra if losing a limb is “really that bad”.
Jokes aside, the entire world (literally) will be watching tomorrow to see what Apple has left in their bag of PR responses. They’e already used just about every option when it comes to laying blame on the consumer. Now it’s time to point all the fingers right back at them. Will you?
The Segway may have never hit that hallowed status of “the” human transporter, but it still lives on nonetheless. But where the Segway failed or simply didn’t meet the standards, perhaps the “Treadway Wearable Mobility” can succeed.
The “Treadway” is the brainchild of the Dyson Award contest in which aspiring minds from all over the world are free to submit their futuristic designs. The Treadway, as you see above, definitely contains intriguing and rather resourceful qualities, as it makes use of pretty much any shoe you currently own.
As with all geeky things, a video simply explains things so much better. So jump on in…
Plenty of uproar has been expelled at the expense of iPhone 4 reception issues (among others). While there has been plenty to suggest that it is purely a hardware or software issue, AandTech just published their own review of the iPhone 4, paying special, almost anal attention to the reception topic that’s dominated conversation. The results are rather intriguing, though still leave room for some worry. Specifically, the iPhone 4 signal meter has a solid -40db spread from 5 bars down to 4 bars. But from 4 bars all the way down to 1, a much smaller -25db of signal strength is the sole metric — a considerable difference on either end of the spectrum.
According to AandTech, holding the iPhone 4 in a non-Apple approved manner drops reception by ~-24.5db. So if you’re in a solid 5 bar area, you’re not going to witness any adverse *visual* effects. But travel into more sketchy areas and that -24.5db becomes several bars of loss. That’s precisely why some people are actually seeing bars drop when “holding their iPhone 4 the wrong way” and others are not.
So the dilemma is partially solved, right? Wrong. There’s no question that the exposed antenna was a poor design decision and physically affects iPhone cellular reception. Any software update Apple pushes out will just change the scale at which the signal bars are based off of, not fix any actual issues. In order to do that, a case (such as the Apple-approved bumper cases) or recall/re-design of the antenna is needed. That is something no software patch will be able to fix.
What do you guys think?
There’s something special when geek and art come together. Some would call Apple the master of such things. But in reality, there are many other talented designers out there who have an eye for geeky art. Take for example, the Optimus Keyboard from Art Lebedev.
Some may cringe, point, and laugh at a nearly $1,000 keyboard. But as is common in the world of art, high fashion comes at a high price. But it’s not just all looks.
All of those keys are actually mini LCD’s that are completely user-customizable. Furthermore, the display bar located near the top of the keyboard can act as a home to several different widgets as well as keyboard functions making this keyboard “the” defacto standard for those who like to control it all.
It’s all very sexy. Though past failures at meeting price plans and release dates coupled with the already stratospheric price tag means CES is the only place I and many other geeks will ever be able to coddle one in our loving arms. *sighs* To dream…
Look for the Optimus Popularis keyboard to drop late this year “for less than $1,000 (read: $999 I’d guess). Larger shot after the jump…
- February 23, 2010 7:51 pm
Adobe is rumored to be unveiling a new application to its signature suite of services this April. At least this is what a digital printing conference in Texas is telling us. Amongst all that is listed at their site, you can find under the Design heading a presentation by Adobe. It’s being titled as an “Adobe Technology Review.”
Whatever this new application is supposed to be, they are saying it will surprise even the biggest Adobe fanboy. We can only speculate if this is going to be an addition to the Creative Suite line, and we can’t really say what it’ll feature. Adobe has given us a few peaks into what CS5 might contain, one being a Painter-Style Paint system, and also After Effects-inspired Puppet tool to Photoshop.
Who knows what this new application will be, or even if it is going to fall under the Creative Suite Umbrella. Although, it is about time we see a new CS release, since it has been well over a year since CS4 was debuted.
We’ll definitely be here to let you know what comes about this April.
Macworld
