Interesting Lighting Materials!

I have not found any reviews yet (glowing or otherwise! hahaha) but this site looks like a good source for interesting lighting materials-- especially phosphorescents and electro-luminescents!

http://www.phosphortech.com/services.html

Another Snot-Related Product

Baby Nasal Aspirator (AKA Nosefrida)

Of course, invented by Swedes. The snot doesn't actually reach your mouth, there's a stopper in the end.

But still, EW!

http://nosefrida.com/

More Crazy / Cool Wine Containers

It's a drinking glass this time, from the sculptor who brought us the cool decanters, Etienne Meneau! (see previous post)

**************
more info from Etienne Meneau:
Blog The Strange Carafes : http://the-strange-decanter.blogspot.com/
Album photo Little Heart : http://verren1.blogspot.com/
Information & orders : etiennemeneau@free.fr

iceOrb: Make Your Ice Cubes do More For You!

Can you have a "crush" on a product? I think I do!

With this brilliant invention, the ice cubes you make double as a cooler for wine, dips, or whatever you want to put in the container.

Check out the video and more info >

Pleo the robot pet dinosaur is really cute

A new product from the inventor of Furby (Ugobe). I met Pleo last night at a bar. It's not like it sounds: his owner Sarah brought him with her and he hung out on the table being cute -- managing never to fall off, thanks to his 36 built-in sensors. Today there's an unfavorable review in the NY Times about him but I totally disagree-- this toy is AMAZING!! It was like a real pet without the pooping! The way it moved, the way its skin was done, the interactivity and responsiveness were like nothing I've seen before in a consumer product. I hated the Sony dog. We had one for a while and got rid of it, it was irritating and terrorized my cat with its annoying mechanical barking. Pleo's sounds were much quieter, though if you look at the videos on http://www.pleoworld.com/ you would indeed think they were rather alarming Jurassic squeals-- they're not that bad, and this is coming from someone who is philosophically opposed to toys with sound. So turn your sound off, and look at how it moves--in real life, it's even better, more subtle. Its eyelids are very expressive. I guess you just need to see it in real life before you judge for yourself.

photo from the NYT article

Cool wine decanter

A cool decanter from Etienne Meneau. There is something vaguely disturbing about it...maybe the vein-like shape? or something slightly medical about the glass tubes?



check it out >

via designmilk

Funky Toaster!

via designboom

Incredibly cute toy (japanese, of course)

This Magic Vegetables Set (misnamed because one of them seems to be...a hotdog?) lets you cut and re-cut vegetables endlessly on a mini cutting board.

Chop-chop, Masta Onion!

check it out on Modcloth.com >

Magnetic Web Widgets!!

Magnetic checkboxes, dropdowns, generic logos, etc-- great for prototyping
...or just sticking on the fridge. OK, maybe not sticking on the fridge.

Too bad it comes with a book and all that, because the $200 price tag for the whole Usability Kit it comes with is a bit heavy if you just want the magnets.

I just think having website elements in magnet form so you can move them around and draw around them on a whiteboard is brilliant!

check them out (they are mace by sitepoint)

MOSS IS HAVING A SALE

more christmas present ideas...some cool products on sale on moss.com this week: a ring, a radio, and...an ice-stopper glass!


check them out >

cool photo hanger

need a Christmas present idea?

This cute photo hanger designed by +d's Juuta Kan is really versatile. Use more than one to hang large prints!

check out the site: http://www.plus-d.com/photo_hanger/

from Core77 via mocoloco

Recycled Cardboard "Log" Cabin

My friend Stephan von Muehlen built this rad little log cabin out of recyclable materials from Build It Green NYC -- a nice and cosy bedroom, no?

He was inspired by a 2005 show at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan featuring refugee housing...

Sarah Cox from Dwell Magazine blogged about it here :
"He constructed the cabin in five days by building a deck with storage underneath and attaching vertical plywood fasteners to hold the tubes at each corner. The cabin features a corrugated plastic ceiling and, like any good winter enclosure, the walls are insulated–in this case with a layer of felt window gasketing between each tube."

$100 Laptop: Not Enough User Testing?

There's a good Business Week article with a slideshow that's worth checking out. It talks about the Graphical User Interface (called Sugar) on the famous laptops (XO and the "one laptop per child" program is an idea that arose out of the "failure of standard attempts to use computers in education to improve the lives of underprivileged children")

To quote the article, "Typically, a handful of computers, designed for business applications, are installed in schools; students only use them in special computer classes and are forced to share. Negroponte's idea was to give a laptop to each student that he or she could take to every class and bring home at the end of the day. "OLPC is child-centric, designed to be a seamless part of their lives at home, at school, and in play," he says."

What is shocking to me is that they apparently did not do any user testing. This goes for both the hardware and the software. The article quotes John Maeda as saying,"They're backed up by John Maeda, a user-interface design guru from the Media Lab who has been watching the XO development process from its beginnings. 'They're using the Steve Jobs method,' he says, referring to Apple's famous chief executive and design whiz. 'You don't use focus groups. You just do it right.'"

Will they have guessed what underprivileged kids want and how they behave on a computer correctly? We'll find out in the next few months...

Kids' Tetris Furniture

Play+Soft 3-D Forms:







from their site:
"
PLAY+SOFT is a line of sort furnishings for children, consisting of 250 new products, developed from an idea by Maurizio Fontanilli, with the pedagogical consultancy of Reggio Children, a team of twenty-eight innovative international designers, and the art direction of ZPZ Partners.

The products are the result of a four-year research project and are manufactured in Italy by PLAY+

The dialogue between pedagogy and design and the theoretical reflections that were developed have created a unique range of soft play furnishings and play equipment that is open to interpretations, but is founded in a celebration of imaginative play and the idea that furnishings can be a protagonist in the construction of identity and ideas. PLAY+SOFT provides a foundation for creative environments that are multisensory, enjoyable and beautiful.

The PLAY+SOFT furnishings comprise a wide range of product types including soft three-dimenional "landscapes", micro-places, transformable seating, play structures, mats, modular forms, burrows and shelters. They are made of eco-friendly materials, fire-resistant but soft to the touch, in a broad range of colors and textures. They are designed for use in any place inhabited by children, not only infant-toddler centers and preschools but also shopping centres, restaurants, airports, waiting areas, and other public places.
"

Play+Soft is distributed by studiouk.net

here's a link to designer Harri Koskinen

found on daddytypes.com
go there for a ton of more info and photos

Cute Products

http://stores.ebay.com/Zakkabox