Design

For the last 18 months or so, the collection of design concepts featured on the website of Korean portable media player maker Mintpass has been steadily growing in number. The company says it will continue to push the idea envelope until a "concept is developed into a hot product that sweeps the market." With its retro styling, analog displays and tactile control interface - will the Mintcube concept be the next big thing? Read More

The Nissan V2G concept was has taken out the Los Angeles Auto Show's 2009 Design Challenge. Entitled "Youthmobile 2030", this year's Challenge asked designers to encapsulate what tech-savvy young Gen Z drivers will be looking to take to the freeway 21 years from now. The result was six fascinating design concepts from the Californian studios of major companies, with the Nissan entry given the nod for its "holistic approach in answering the future's design questions." Read More

Anyone who thinks speakers should be heard and not seen will want to steer clear of these unique speakers from Ciresa. Designed by the NTY Line studio in Lyons, the Sogno speakers are part of Ciresa’a Opera Sonora line. While they would look right at home in Dali’s living room, they're not just intended to freak out any house guests. Their design is also meant to reproduce vibrations similar to that of famous Stradivarius violins. Read More

A towering collection of giant bubbles dubbed “The Cloud” is an ambitious design proposed by a team of leading architects and engineers as a spectacular landmark to commemorate London's role as host of the 2012 Olympics. Sitting atop a number of 400ft lightweight transparent towers, a "cloud" of inflatable, light-emitting spheres is intended to create a three-dimensional “floating” display in the skies over London, fed by real time information from all over the world and viewable from most parts of the three-time Olympics city. The Cloud was shortlisted in a competition set up by London Mayor Boris Johnson who has committed to build a tourist attraction in the Olympic Park. Read More

Spica is the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo and also the inspiration for this visual loudspeaker lamp system where sound vibrations force illuminated liquid within a transparent tube to dance to the music and makes the spectrum analyzer on my hi-fi appear somewhat dull by comparison. Read More

Repetitive strain injury caused by prolonged use of a computer is an ongoing problem, however we are continuing to see innovative ideas designed to alleviate the issue. Among these is the simple yet sensible Pad N’Click. A trio of adhesive gel pads stick to a user’s mouse, promoting more natural hand and finger positioning, in turn increasing comfort and reducing stress on joints. Read More

After a lengthy wait, Taiwan’s OCZ Technology has finally released its new Solid State Drive that is Colossus in name and certainly colossal in nature, being the first SSD to offer up to one terabyte of storage. Aimed primarily at the desktop user, the Colossus SSD promises extremely fast read and write speeds of 260MB/s – but it comes at a cost. Read More

Each year as part of the Design Los Angeles Conference held at the LA Auto Show, creative types from major car companies get to stare into their crystal balls and let their imaginations run wild in designing the car of the future. In 2007 the theme was the car 50 years from today, last year the challenge was to envision how motor-racing will look in 2025 and this time around, the brief is to look at what young people will be driving in the year 2030. Read More

Ah, the humble mouse. Enabler of functions, the bridge between human and machine, and, evidently, the cause of much discomfort for millions of users the world over. With repetitive strain injury a major health problem linked to PC use, the long awaited Smartfish ErgoMotion Mouse is hoping to alleviate the pain. It features a tilting base that swivels in unison with a user’s natural hand and wrist movements, promoting circulation and comfort with the aim of reducing injury. Read More