mental_floss Blog » Gifts for the Geek Home A home should be an expression of who you are. Sure, when you're young and broke, your room or apartment might be an expression of who your parents or the people who donate to Goodwill are, but gradually you collect items that express your personality, whether you receive them as gifts or purchase them yourself. If you are a technologically oriented geek, there are plenty of manufacturers and vendors catering to your tastes in home decor. Interactive LED Dining Table Windell Oksay of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories built a dining room table with 448 LEDs inside. Motherboard Picture Frame Recycling is not only environmentally-friendly, it can make a statement. Geek Clock This geeky clock was posted all over as "the clock only geeks can read." A Clock that Spells Here's a clock that is easy for anyone to read, but the mechanism that displays it is something else. Watch how the clock face changes here. Galactic Hitchhiker's Towel Never be caught without your towel! CRT Light Fixture Icon Pillows
Sophie - iPhone Dock with Photograph Printer by Mac Funamizu iPhone Case is a Polaroid Printer The Sophie is another concept from the venerable Mac Funamizu. The iPhone dock/case prints photos just like a Polaroid. Designer: Mac Funamizu The 25 most awesome mugs ever created « Blog of Francesco Mugnai
Engrain Tactile Keyboard by Michael A. Roopenian Wood and Waves Look at your keyboard. Now look at the Engrain. S03 Shelving System by Zhaolei DIY Custom Shelving I wuvvv the practical design of this shelving system. The shelves of the S03 can be assembled to any size or combination to adapt to the desired space. Designer: Zhaolei 木智工坊作品：S03 木架 [S03 Shelf / Shelving system] from smartwoodhouse on Vimeo . Smartphone Booklet by Ilshat Garipov Not a Pamphlet, It’s a Smartphone Clutch your pearls because I’m about to say something amazing – nanoparticles! Yes these tiny, near invisible objects can revolutionize the bio medical, optical and electronic fields so designer Ilshat Garipov put pen to paper and came up with the Smartphone Booklet – a disposable phone as thin as a cardboard made possible by switching from traditional silicon to nanoparticles. The Booklet unfolds like a pamphlet with each side representing a commonly used application or function. Manufacturers can cut it to any size and once it’s worn out, just recycle it. How close is this to reality? Designer: Ilshat Garipov
Soap Flakes : Nathalie Stämpfli Soap Flakes Soap Blocks instead of liquid Soaps Today, most of the soap we use is liquid soap, which contains a lot of water. Block soap instead is more concentrated and therefore has some ecological benefits: You don’t transport unnecessary water around. In place of plastic bottles you can simply use paper for packaging. But what about the usage of soap bars? Bottle Cap Sharpener by Yuchen Liu Bottle O’ Shavings Designers, parents and anyone with a creative mind will love this Bottle Cap Sharpener. It’s a simple contraption, a sharpener fixed into a bottle cap so that it screws on top of an empty bottle. Sharpen your pencils and collect the shavings. Great way to reuse a plastic bottle. Designers and creative minds will love for the artistic value this raw material will create.
Magic Spoon by Ivan Erkic The Magical Bend I have seen tons of elegant flatware but none of them as ingenious as this! The Magic Spoon is a delightful set of spoons, knives and forks that have built-in clasps at the end. Yes, exactly the hairpin kind! You can cleverly cling it to your plate while clearing out the dishes, seal pouches or simply be this show-off with cool cutlery! Magic Spoon is a 2010 Kitchen Tools Winner! Designer: Ivan Erkic HTC HDD Cell Phone With Multi OS by Antoine Brieux The Surreal HTC! Sometimes it may be wise to live in the surreal world, where gadgets and gizmos do you biding, doesn’t matter if tech support is available or not. This theory applies mainly to cell phones, and here is this HDD Cell Phone with Multi OS, just for your fancy! It supports more than one operating systems through the unique “smart software” platform. This means you can choose your OS, get bored with and then hook up to the software and choose another! Designer: Antoine Brieux
Bento Laptop Tablet Hybrid by René Woo-Ram Lee Bento is quite an exceptional and forward thinking concept by René Woo-Ram Lee. It’s quite a plausible scenario that most of use/own a tablet, a PC, external hard drives and a smartphone. Now combine the power of these to have fully customizable Bento Laptop! Laptop with 15″ OLED screen11″ tablet and 4″ phone sit in shallow depressionsSolar powered lithium-ion battery1TB SSD drive Designer: René Woo-Ram Lee The Fujitsu branding is evident and rightly so, the concept is a part of the Fujitsu Design Award that is organized by Designboom. Optimus Tactus keyboard Optimus Tactus does not have physical keys, which means there are no restrictions on their shape and size. Any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or to display any images.
Voronoi - Yacht by Hyun-Seok Kim Yacht for Entertaining Yet another intriguing concept from yacht enthusiast Hyun-Seok Kim. The Voronoi mega-yacht is named after the voronoi pattern of the irregular honeycomb lattice structure that encases it’s upper levels. This yacht was made to entertain. Hot tubs and golfing green occupy the upper deck and within the lattice on the bridge deck lies an indoor garden and luxurious pool area. The interior has all the creature comforts of home and then some. Designer: Hyun-Seok Kim Alto Sewing Machine by Sarah Dickins Making ‘Make Do and Mend’ Fashionable I have my moments of fighting the needle and thread, trying to mend some ripped clothes, but they always seem to get the better of me. Simply put, I HATE mending clothes and much rather replace them with new than pick an odd stitch. I know its wasteful, but unless someone makes it easy for me…simple as the Alto Sewing Machine, I ain’t fixing another ripped stitch! As the designer explains, “to simplify threading, a metal guide runs from reel to needle for the user to follow. Designer: Sarah Dickins