by LinYee Yuan Since establishing her own studio in 2009, New York-based lighting designer Bec Brittain has established herself with stripped down, crystalline forms in brass and glass. During this year's New York design week,... Continue Reading...

If your natural reaction to the alarm going off is to cause your phone physical harm, Tiny Hearts' Wake Alarm could be perfect for you. Released today, Wake Alarm was created in an attempt to... Continue Reading...

Version 1.5 was officially called ‘Cupcake’ and when introduced in May of 2009 it was a time when Android was desperate to catch up with the iPhone and this release did just that. It featured an onscreen keyboard, smoother transitions, accelerometer based application rotation between landscape and portrait mode, a better web browser, widgets, and a tighter integration with Google services. Its amazing to see how Android Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich have evolved from the Cupcake.

While many brands looking for a new audience during NYC Design Week take the traditional route of exhibiting at one of the many group showcases, contemporary design store and manufacturer Matter chose to do both—showing... Continue Reading...

The use of copper in functional industrial design has been on the rise for some time now, especially since seeing it all over London Design Festival last September. We spotted six new products during this year's NYC Design Week that prove even more designers are embracing the multifaceted,... Continue Reading...

The second of our videos to premiere at this year's 99u will definitely get you in the mood for lunch. We spoke to the founder of the famous ... Continue Reading...

If you're exploring London's Kensington area this week to check out what's on offer at Chelsea Fringe—the alternative garden show that will be sprouting up all over the posh neighborhood from 18 May to 9 June—be... Continue Reading...

Camille Paillard's Tri-Folds sofa design plays with the folds in the armrests, "practical for slipping in magazines and books or hiding items."

Continuing his curious exploration of alternative uses for animal bones, Portland's Stephan Alexandr recently released his latest artistic creation—the Fangblade. Carved from alligator jawbones, the handy letter-openers still sport vestigial teeth to remind its user... Continue Reading...

iPhone accessories were dwindling in number until recently. The Takara Tomy Dacing Face-Stand comes in to offer you some light hearted moments and fun on your favorite device. In a robotic build is provisioned a little chamber that nestles your iPhone. You snap your most crazed expression, download the ‘Face Sing’ app to your phone and have them dance around. The stand comes in white, blue and red colors. It was previously seen in toy shows and created as much a stir then as it is expected to create with its launch. The stand is powered through batteries and also works accommodates an iPhone that has a charging cord attached to it. For now it only dances. But then again, you can snap that annoying little brat from your neighborhood and make him do things you like. Of course, it takes getting into a fair bit of programming, building and eventual development to get your hands as dirty as can be. But why not just have your granna do a little jig. The Takara Tomy Dacing Face-Stand is expected to arrive by June 27, when it will retail for 3465 Yen ($33). A couple of AA batteries are enough to do the trick. [Via - Akihabaranews ]

How useful could a mere video of your pretty face really be? Well, besides the inevitable swooning of the opposite sex, it finds its use in a very unique scenario. Fujitsu have developed a cool technology that can measure your pulse by analyzing a video of your face. Justifying the deed, the company stated, “As blood circulates through the body, the amount of light absorbed by the face varies, depending on how much blood there is in it. The first point about this technology is, it identifies minute changes in light intensity on the face, and converts them to a pulse. Also, it accurately detects people’s movements, to distinguish noise. Consequently, it can make a measurement in as little as five seconds.”. The system studies a still subject and detects changes in light intensity on their faces thus drawing a conclusion with an accuracy that is within three beats per minute! Detecting ones pulse in real time has its uses. Various entities such as thieves, patients and other such cases can be smartly recognized and predefined. However, the need for the subject to be still for an accurate reading may betray the purpose. [Via - Diginfo ]

Everyone’s abuzz about Xbox One. Now Microsoft have also shed light on their all-new motion-tracking system that will be arriving on Windows PC, just as the previous version did. It is said that the new Kinect will feature a host of new improvements, which will extend to identifying the players’ heart rate! The new integration helps PC loyalists (who have not invested in an Xbox) to experience the joys of a controller-free motion tracking system that can do so much more. Kinect was first introduced to the Windows PC platform in early 2012. The company also has plans for devices such as cameras to incorporate the Kinect platform. There’s no date attached to the prediction of the new Kinect’s arrival. But we are hopeful that its not more than a couple of quarters away. [Via - The-Verge ]

There was a fair bit of anticipation surrounding the new gen Xbox which was finally unveiled by Microsoft yesterday. Some of the pre-event chatter included guessing the name for the console, some thought it’ll be named 720 and few rumoured it to be infinity. But interestingly Microsoft went with “Xbox One”, apparently because the company says this console is everything packaged into one. A lot was expected out of the new Xbox, maybe because the current Xbox 360 was launched almost two thirds of a decade back and a lot has changed since then. Surprisingly or rather disappointingly Microsoft messed it up this time. The event focused on the device being a centre piece of the living room and touting it as the start to a new generation of entertainment. Microsoft’s officials paid a little too much attention on the seamless integration of home entertainment with this gaming device and completely missed the area of gaming. Xbox is fundamentally a gaming console and gaming should have taken the centre stage but rather very little information on it was divulged which left many gamers confused and angry. A little cameo appearance was made by EA officials on the stage who restated the already known. Extremely disappointing! As far as the hardware goes, under the hood there has been a huge upgrade in the specs, the new console has a 8 core CPU along with 8 GB RAM, it has been given a 500GB HDD and a Blue Ray drive, HDMI in/out and USB 3.0. Xbox One isn’t online-only, but developers can choose to release online-only games using Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service. The games have to be installed first that’ll connect to Live account, and a second account can only be added to it by paying a fee, so no used games, that’s a bummer! And Xbox One isn’t backwards compatible either so don’t think of disposing your 360 just yet. The Kinect 2.0 has been massively improved, the new 1080P camera has an increased the depth of field, so now you won’t have to move you furniture around. It can now track the smallest of the movements and even sense the heart rate of the user. A lot of gesture controls were also demonstrated which brings us to its entertainment integration. Not only will you be able to operate your TV with Kinect 2.0 but check for TV guide, video chat on Skype, check fantasy league, see what’s trending which will be updated to the very minute, see what your friends’ prefer and all that on a split screen while watching a movie or playing a game thanks to its new Snap view. The brilliant voice and gesture controls will now make remote controls absolutely redundant. But Microsoft somehow forgot to answer a few key questions including its price and a lot of it features. It’ll definitely have to come up with another event to give all the answers and hopefully that’ll not be as boring as this one. Already a huge chunk of the online gamers community has started ridiculing the new console, so Microsoft has a lot at its hands to fix before the December launch. [Via - Wired ]

by Emily Millett Inside the stark walls of Penindaplinena Gallery in Cyprus, beautiful people flit from one exhibit to another, while outside on the damp pavement, others balance cigarettes and glasses of wine. Standing confidently between... Continue Reading...

Always a high point of our NYC Design Week, Noho Design District has fast become a destination for up and coming and established designers looking to introduce their latest work outside the conventional confines of... Continue Reading...

The relationship between photography and fashion is very strong today, in particular when it comes to T-shirts. Sometimes the link is purely opportunistic and instrumental, but other times it’s an authentic and deep bond. This is... Continue Reading...

Floating colour and reinterpreting traditional quilting patterns, Echo Coffee Table by Debra Folz effects multiple hues with four layers of overlapping colour film tinted glass, in a welded steel frame, plated in zinc or brass.

In the past few weeks, NYC-based readers may have noticed clusters of grey columns popping up left and right in nearly every neighborhood in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Those familiar with bike share programs in numerous metropolises around the world will recognize the... Continue Reading...

As technology continues to give us the freedom to experience everything we love in almost any environment, we've seen countless portable speaker designs pass by our eyes—and ears. While some pack substantial power, and others boast the ability to withstand a drop or... Continue Reading...

It’s good to be tempted. But its even better to conquer the surge by satisfying your needs. That’s just the thing we have to share with you through this awesomely delicious post. Domino’s Pizza went all bold and rolled out a DVDs that were made to look like little pizzas. That’s not all. They also worked out a smart idea with Artplan Sao Paolo in Brazil where a message was etched on the pizza that read, “Did you enjoy the movie? The next one will be even better with a hot and delicious Domino’s Pizza.” The pizza joint ran this campaign in partnership with 10 video rental stores in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. They used 10 discs, each of different new release titles including Argo, 007, Dread And Dark Knight and stamped them with thermal ink and flavored varnish, both sensitive to the heat. When the DVD heated up in the player, the irresistible aroma of pizza was let out and behold, everyone worked up an appetite. I wonder how many people this thing must have scared silly, given that not many take kindly to a DVD player that smells baked. But then the eventual message did go out and many have gone on to indulge in a pizza, just to satisfactions’ sake. [Via - Adage ]

Yes. The design did hint of a Finnish phone maker’s attempt at a really cool smartphone called Lumia. But then it’s not so. What you see here is the first Jolla phone, revealed by Founder Marc Dillon. It will run the company’s Sailfish OS. This cool new phone will offer back plates in a variety of colors. The operating system is so smart that it adjusts its color shade to match that of the back plate. This magic is worked out by a small NFC tag that makes it all possible. Or may be it’s our guess to the yet-kept-secret mechanism. The cover can also offer value such as free content. This means that you could receive a cover for the phone that efficiently manages free content. In addition to this magical back panel thingy, the regular features include a 4.5-inch display, an 8-megapixel camera at the rear, a front-facing camera, an HD display panel and the ability to run Android apps (not directly from Google Play). Do make sure that when you go ranting about the knowledge of this cool new phone, you pronounce it as ‘yolla’. The Jolla phone for will cost €399 (US$512) when it goes on sale but is up for pre-order now. [Via - Geek ]

Oh Zelda, how I drowned my adolescence in your entrancing embrace. And now you’re back to be a lot more tangible to us all. The Legend of Zelda has been rooted deep into many personalities and lives and one such has gone on to create the most wonderful merchandise concepts, we’ve seen in a while. The fan in question has gone on to explore how Zelda gear would really look like and feel like by 3D printing the most significant elements from the game and posting the collage at Hyrule Founder. Of course, there’s not a lot of 8-bit coarseness to these lovelies but they surely make showcase material. This was made possible with the creation of 3D models of the initially low-resolution 8-bit objects. It goes without saying that the effort must have taken days to reach completion. The good news is that the maker is now offering these objects for sale! It’s one thing that it costs a whopping $320 to touch the world of Zelda. It’s another altogether than you now have the realization of the cool Pac-Man coins, Super Mario mushrooms and Castle Wolfenstein bricks that can be 3D printed in a snap! [Via - Rocketnews24 ]

Sharp Japan has announced two new models to its Aquos UD1 range of LCD TV’s. The mammoth 70 and 60 inch TV’s will come with a 4K panel supporting a resolution of (3,840 x 2,160 pixels). Sharp will be making use of Moth eye panels which significantly improve the viewing experience by reducing reflections from ambient lighting. Also included are optical control systems which suppress luminance unevenness to deliver uniform screen brightness. Sound is delivered using a 2.1 channel sound system which makes use of a low vibration woofer. The televisions come with 400 mb of onboard memory for storing audio / video media. The 70 inch LC-70UD1 and the 60 incher LC-60UD1 will go on sale in June 15 and August 10th in Japan for 850,000 Yen ($ 8500) and 750,000 Yen ($ 7500) respectively. [Via - Impress Watch ]

The iOS 6 Maps fiasco has been swept under the rug with Apple approving Google Maps for iOS. But this has not stopped the users of 9Gag.com to poke at the situation. [Via - 9Gag ]

As one of the more exciting seating designs to be introduced to Herman Miller's already near-comprehensive offering of home and office furnishings, the Wireframe Sofa Group blends a comfortably minimal aesthetic with a visual and... Continue Reading...