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Cellphone makers like LG, Moto and Nokia are apparently laboring harder than ever over what we think about their phones (mostly not happy thoughts!). But guess what? Even with this newfound "concern" they still don't get it. Here's a couple of their ridiculous, out-of-touch ideas about how make us happy from a panel at MWC:
WTF?One panelist suggested that cellphone makers tap into consumers' "neural networks", while another said they should understand their subliminal needs.
I actually know what a neural network is. But WTF does it have to do with making a phone that's not crappy? This is all BS business-speak, and talking and thinking like that is why makers put out shitty, unintuitive phones. They should make a phone with how real people use phones in mind.
This "changed world" where "there is more relevance in what other consumers say than what the company is saying" isn't a bad thing, though the article implies that's how the handset makers feel. And as long as they feel that way, they'll keep trying to push crap into people's pockets. [NYT]
Have you been waiting for a Sony Vaio range that will allow custom font selection for keyboard lettering? Well, the new Graphic Splash Expressions Collection is here to answer your prayers. Yes, you can finally choose the font of the keyboard lettering when you order—we're so excited. The lappies are available in various designs, including Leaf and Victorian Lace in either black, blue or pink colors. The entry level configuration includes Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, Windows Vista OS, wireless and Bluetooth, all for $1279. Excuse us whilst we fall asleep. [
Sneakers hanging from telephone lines has long been an iconic image of urban life—which is why it inspired designers Peter Pracilio and Oscar Lopez to develop this Shoe Chandelier. Why they chose to make a light out of it is unclear, but it has a very compelling weirdness about it. The good news is that all signs point to this design becoming a real-world product (in both chandelier and tabletop versions) sometime in the near future. Additional pic after the break.
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I never thought that speakers could give me the same feeling that I get when I see a beautifully designed car, but some of the entries in C4DCafe's speaker rendering challenge have done just that (and some of them are just plain weird). The only problem is that putting one of these designs in my home would make all my other stuff look like crap. Hit the link to check out all of the designs along with the winners. [
If we were handy enough to build our own sinks, we'd build one exactly like this "The Ripple" faucet, designed by Smith Newnam, which equates relative ball movement to the temperature and amount of water flowing out. Hot water makes the LED glow red, while cold makes it glow blue, and the two hot and cold channels mix together in the open air to make for your desired temperature. Awesome? Definitely. Practical? Not so much. Just try moving that ball around without accidentally touching the scorching water. [
Swedish designers Per Emanuelsson and Bastian Bischoff believe that their Surveillance Lamp is "Orwellian" in the sense that it is an "ambiguous reflection of their thoughts about the political future." That's deep and everything, but the bottom line is that a lamp modeled after surveillance cameras looks pretty damn cool. The only question is whether or not it is cool enough to drop over 50,00 EUR ($7,500) on—because that is where the bidding is on eBay right now with about six days left. [
What happens to your intellectual property if you die in some kind of nasty accident? Worried, perhaps, that your life's work would be stifled by 70 years of copyright protection, meant to benefit only your ungrateful dependents? Why not donate it all to the public domain? Affix this (legally binding?) sticker on your driver's license, in the place generally reserved for organ donor information, and you're good to go. After all, who needs your kidney when the world could freely enjoy your crappy poetry instead? [
Stationary biking may be fun and healthy, but unless you're sitting right under an air conditioning vent, you're gonna get hot. Real hot. So why not use the energy generated by all that furious pedaling to power a fan that cools you off at the same time? Sounds brilliant to us as long as you can shut off the fan occasionally so you're not always getting the cooling effect. There's nothing worse than cycling in the wind when it's cold. [
A credit card piggy bank would be no fun at all. Where is the joy in sticking a credit card into pig's back when you can't smash it later on to blow your earnings on some frivolous item? Besides, using a credit card or debit card to wirelessly add money into a savings account does not make sense. However, some greedy child could definitely use this bank to hit their relatives up for a bigger allowance. Excuses like "I don't have any cash on me" won't get you off the hook anymore. Good thing this is only a concept device. [
The "Softphone" concept phone from designer Quian Jiang utilizes a series of discs with electronically wired cotton fabric stretched in between. The benefit to a phone like this would be that one could fold up the keyboard to save space while the bulk of the electronics are housed inside a tiny clip made out of silica—which would also be soft. Another potential benefit is that the phone could be squeezed to engage actions like ending a call.
This Toaster Phone concept by Brazilian designer Renata Quintela is simple, cute, and it will probably make you look like a surrealist moron while using it, which is always a plus. We like the toaster charger and the fact that it comes with two sets, which we want to believe will communicate with each other, allowing Jason and Benny to play Loafman and his sidekick Buttermelter. [
James Watts spends his time putting together fantastic insect-bot sculptures, and the Solar Dragonfly is one of the best. The solar panels running down the body actually power the wings, which are then kicked into motion using a pager motor. Sure, it looks swell, but we can't help but think the Solar Dragonfly would lose its balance whilst flapping its wings feebly, all the while wishing it was a real dragonfly. How would Disney have tackled that one? A solar powered dragonfly that wants to be a real insect—now there's a cartoon we want to see. Pixar, hop to it. Hit the link for some more great shots. [
Leonardo Fioravanti of the awesome vehicle design house Pininfarina has put together a prototype car, called Hidra, which has a windshield that negates the necessity for conventional wipers. The design relies on aerodynamics and surface treatment alone, which will supposedly be enough to keep a fly-away tree branch from obscuring your line of vision. The chemical treatments applied are where the autonomous cleaning action really happens, and they actually sound quite interesting.
Future Retro's Revolution Synthesizer R2 looks amazing; we completely have no use for a synthesizer, but we totally want one. With a complete aluminum construction, perfectly contrasting gun gray and white colors, as well as a smattering of blue LEDs all over, this synthesizer makes us moist in the most clichéd way possible. If that was not enough to get you interested, perhaps the circular sequencer interface, which allows single handed control; the ability to play patterns forwards, backwards, upside down and sideways, as well as remote pattern selection using MIDI program change messages will have you reaching for your anorexic wallet?
Concept gadgets are great because they offer a possible vision of our future while showcasing the potential of outside of the box thinking. The one problem is that many of the designers out there are not even on the same planet as the box. The trick is to come up with an interesting, marketable idea that may actually be possible to build sometime in the not so distant future—ideas like those featured in the gallery below.
There's no better way to annoy your travel companions than to take something like this handheld-computer design wherever you go. Not only can you hold it up to buildings and get the address, history and architectural schematics (you know, for a heist), but it also supposedly hooks up with your personal organizer, a dictionary and Google—for that extra bit of information overload. Good thing that this camera/touchscreen display/GPS/internet 3G device is a design or we'd be forced to actually spend the money to buy one. [
Designer Chris Owens has come up with a fashion phone that's even slicker (and lacking in features) than the 
I'm not quite sure how you would actually play a game of Tetris with ice cubes, but if you put a little food coloring in there and pop them into a glass—you will have yourself a frosty drink that can only be compared to the lego ice cube tray in terms of sheer geekyness. Unfortunately, that wont happen anytime soon—these are only concepts at the moment. [
