This is the fifth part of the series about the “red dot design award” (click here to read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4). In this post we will cover 3 product designs that won the award under the Productivity category:

Bathroom: this set of bathroom fixtures is really elegant, I was just puzzled about the reason to place a bathroom design under the productivity category… not that I am not productive when I take a nice book to the bathroom but anyway! The bathroom set was created by the Italian Vincenzo Catoio and apparently it was inspired by a lily flower: “The calla lily was the inspiration for the design of these bathroom fixtures, which are intended to create an environment of relaxation. The emphasis is upon the idea of the bathroom as a magical place for the care of the body – a space of soft, enveloping shapes.” Read the rest of this entry »

This is the third part of the “red dot design award” series (you can read part 1 here and part 2 here). In this part we will cover two winners of the Interaction & Communication category of the award.

ROEM: this electronic book reader was created using a rollable electronic paper to ensure portability when closed and a comfortable reading when opened. The device was developed by Ben Lai Kin Mun and it uses wireless connections (Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) to download text documents, photos or other documents. Another very innovative feature is the power backup: “ROEM also offers an on the move back-up power charging feature. The screen’s flexibility allows piezoelectric material to be integrated with a variety of polymer, synthetic adhesive, advanced microprocessor, flat size battery, silicon-based integrated circuits and flex circuits, all within the device. This enables it with self-charging capability by converting mechanical stress to electrical power – simply by fanning the screen.” Read the rest of this entry »

Ever did the dishes in the kitchen, looking out the window while wondering what was Mrs. Jones talking about to Mrs. Potts next door over the fence? Of course you don’t have super sensitive hearing like Daredevil or Superman, but you definitely know you want in on their hush-hush conversation. Is it something juicy about Mr. Jones and his supposed friendship with his secretary? Could she be gossiping about how you let Rover run free, performing his business on your neighbor’s lawn instead? Put all those speculative thoughts to rest with the Spion Orbitor Electronic Listening Device. This unique device is capable of zooming in on conversations within a range of 300 feet without any obstacles in between, of course.

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On top of the other seven digital frames we already mentioned there is a new one that really grabbed my attention, just like a fireman grabs a person when he/she is about to fall off a building – both situations are similar and have the same feeling.

Anyway, enough with gibberish talk and moving on to the digital frame of the day – the PictureBook Digital Photo Album:

All the other digi frames we previously talked about had one similar feature which is the lack of big storage capacity, therefore consumers could only put like 60 or 80 photos on a frame, sometimes less. The scenario changes when using the PictureBook, since it is suppose to work as an album it has a hard-drive with 40GB, can you imagine the number of photos you can insert in it? I can’t, but the producers/designers (read Brookstone) talk about storing over 20,000 photos.
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Sure, you mountain bike, snowboard, rock climb, fish, play chess, and drive formula 1, (this means you Coulthard!)

I’m sure you always wanted to bring back those living images of greatness when you jumped, landed, caught, or checkmated all your opponents in living color.

Now it’s possible for a reasonable sum of money! (that’s different than paying for the lipstick cameras that adorn F1 cars that cost a tad more than $100). Thanks to the ATC-2000 Action Camera from Oregon Scientific. A special thanks to the big guy over at Fat Cyclist, (his words not mine) for letting me in on the secret.

The Action camera is just what the typical adrenaline (and bbq salmon teriyaki) fiend is looking for.  Durability. Did I mention durability?  Yeah, cause I break stuff and I know you do too! As far as frame rate, you only get 15fps, which is more than fast enough to capture sports that require you to see what you’re doing.  Just don’t go play that Tron-lightcycles game, man that is hard to follow on video!
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Although the Zune isn’t exactly the hottest property on the planet at this point of time, it is the perfect example of what a different shade of color can do to boost its image. Head honchos at Microsoft has been feeling extra generous, making only a hundred of special pink colored Zunes to be given to the members of the Microsoft Zune team. Unfortunately, this gesture of kindness is not appreciated by some as auctions on eBay featuring this extremely limited edition Zune has already been up for some time.

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This is a cool and simple idea, user connectible neon letters: Neon-Click.

So once Christmas is over instead of putting that festive neon sign in the loft for the next 11 months, put your anagram solving head on and make a relevant sign for every holiday. If you bought enough to could even have a massive gamee of neon scrabble. (Thanks Robert of International Robotics for the info).

So, just because you live in that swanky apartment right smack in the middle of town, you think you’re cool right? Apparently, having boatloads of money does not automatically translate to being the best, as artistic flair and taste are things that even Bill Gates cannot buy. Just take a look around your pad and see if it is actually done up tastefully, or did you just tack on tons of different decorative items without giving second thought to an overall theme? Thankfully, there are some household decorative items that will definitely go along with the flow, and the Cereal Bowl Light is one of them.

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