Come on, Microsoft marketers. You can surely do better than this. When a company attemps to rebrand a major compenent of its structure the aim is to make things clear not foggy. Windows Mobile is now Windows Phone. I got that. These new phones run only on AT&T? Is the HTC Pure THE Windows phone? Obviously the answer to both of these questions is “no,” but this commercial unfortunately makes it all too confusing for mainstream consumers.
[Via Engadget]
This is the first shot of the forthcoming Dell Adamo XPS laptop. Oh, what’s that you say? You don’t see anything? Look closer, it’s there. That’s what a 9.99mm thin laptop looks like. Catch an additional shot after the break. Will report on more information (specs, prices, release date) as it comes.
[Via Gizmodo]
The HP ProBook and 6545b (15.6-inch) and 6445b (14-inch) have specially-designed keyboards that allow water (or a similar liquid) to drain through them and out the bottom of the laptop. Watch the magic in the video above.
[Via Engadget]
Multitasking?
Springboard exposé?
These concept UIs were created by Ocean Observers. Apple, take note.
[Via Gizmodo]
Simple is the acronym for sustainable and innovative mobility product for low energy consumption, a vehicle concept combining features and advantages of both motorcars and motorcycles. The concept owes its protective passenger compartment to motorcars whereas the streamline shape, the two occupants seated one behind the other and the uniquely driving experience are naturally owed to motorcycles. Whilst researching ideas for futuristic urban mobility combined with the prerequisite of reduced consumption (less than 2l /100 km eqals more than 120mpg) and emission values (50g CO2 /100 km), the BMW Group spawned this concept vehicle featuring the extremely low weight of 450 kg and aerodynamic drag properties (0,18 drag coefficient), which of course also fulfilled all the BMW Group premium brand demands: sheer driving pleasure, innovative vehicle configuration, technology integration and a sense of comfort and spaciousness.
This video goes behind-the-scenes and reveals how all those ads on billboards and in magazines are really created.
It’s all about inner-beauty. That’s what counts most.
[Thanks, Brian J.]
This is one awesome mod. It’s a Nintendo Entertainment System ROM player built into an NES game cartridge. Apparently “it’s just a generic Chinese media player that can play NES, Gameboy, and Gameboy Color ROMs, along with the relevant controller bits, a 2.8-inch LCD, 4GB of storage, and a rechargeable battery.” You can also hook it up to a TV to play that way. Go back in time you nostalgic dreamers with the video above.
[Via Engadget]
A few months ago Intel created an ad campaign highlighting who they deem are “rockstars.” One of these commericals highlighted Ajay Bhatt, the co-inventor of the USB port. After some investigating, the crew at The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien found out that the Bhatt in the Intel commercial was not Bhatt but an look-alike actor. So, Conan decided to sit down with Bhatt in what turns out to be an informative and obviously comical interview. The clip shows the original Intel ad…and at the end of the clip, Conan reveals a new one, this time featuring Bhatt himself. Worth the watch, enjoy!
This is great and all, but I think I’d rather play some “holy water” (physically throwing the water up into the air with my own hands).
Super Mario Sunshine, anyone?
[Via theaquapod]
Photographer Alexx Henry and his team have created this video to show how creating a “living portrait” could be created and designed in a not-so-distant future. Here Henry is photographing triathlete Chris Lieto using the RED One and the Canon 5D Mark II cameras for Outside Magazine. With the newspaper and magazine industries slowly losing the battle against the Internet for providing news, pictures, and other content, animating text and images in these mediums might be the only way to save them from extinction.
[Via Gizmodo]
Photosketch, created by Tao Chen, Ming-Ming Cheng, Ping Tan, Ariel Shamir, and Shi-Min Hu at the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore.
In simplistic terms, here’s how it works. A user draws a sketch and gives a label to each object in it (ie. bike, birds, boat). Then, the sketch is transformed into an actual picture with real object by “seamlessly stiching a background and several foreground items from photographs retrieved from the Internet in accordance with the sketch and text labels.”
Watch the video above to see the magic unfold, then check out samples in the gallery below.
[Via Gizmodo]
The Funktionide by German designer Stefan Ulrich.
Based on an intensive two month research (in cooperation with FESTO and the EMPA) concerning artificial muscles my work reflects upon how new technologies will change future products (and society), and the way we interact with them.
One day active materials such as electroactive polymers will drastically change the way we perceive products. Products will gain new dimensions ranging from changing tactile surfaces over active membranes to morphing shapes. Products of the future will be “alive” in a way.
[The Funkionide] is an amorph object whose intention is to provide the owner with an atmosphere of presence thus counteracting the feeling of loneliness. In the visions future people are lonely and with all the new dimensions products offer, humans will eventually turn to “robots” for emotional satisfaction.
Now if this isn’t one of the strangest things I have ever stumbled upon, I don’t know what is. So according to Ulrich, we will all live in a lonely future where only “robots” can provide the right amount of “emotion satisfaction” to give us a boost for the day. In this case, the “robot” is a giant morphing blob. Oh, how I hope such a bizzare future does not come true!
[Via Gizmodo; vimeo page]
