Napkin PC (by @baekdal) #design It is the time of CES and the media is currently filled with a lot of very interesting products - but here is one that you will not see (unfortunately). It's a PC the size of a napkin. The best part is that it is based on passive screen technology (epaper), which means that it only needs power when you change it. The result is that whatever you draw on it will stay on the screen forever (or atleast until you change it) without the need for cables or batteries. This is a brilliant concept by Avery Holleman, and apart from the color epaper, all of it could be done today. The current epaper technology unfortunately only supports black and white (like the Kindle). In any case, I want one - as soon as somebody makes one. Note: I am not really sure that running windows on it is such a good idea - or let me rephrase that, any operating system. (Tip via email) Follow: 42Concepts
Tea-time – Tea Steeper Design by Pengtao Yu Timely Steeping I am in love with the Tea-time tea steeper for its intuitive design and simplistic interaction between tea leaves, water and steeping time! A flipping action, akin to starting the timer, sets the tea making process into action. Loose tealeaves and hot water do their steeping business and the ready tea slowly trickles down to the bottom beaker. The timer/filter hold back the leaves and your cuppa is ready to sip! Designer: Pengtao Yu Tea-time is a 2011 Spark Awards entry. The iQ Alarm Clock by Oliver Sha Morning Brain Teasers Dare to get the iQ Alarm clock only if you’re smarter than a fifth grader. The clock has no snooze button so instead, challenges you with brain teasers to shut the damn thing off! Expect to wake up to questions like “What’s your favorite Design Blog?” Designer: Oliver Sha
Skinny Player - One Album Music Player by Chih-Wei Wang & Shou-Hsi Fu One Album Band Aid The Skinny Player kinda reminds me of the O+ Music Campaign where the promotional kit offers one song in various mediums. The concept here with the Skinny Player is to offer one album space on a portable – Band Aid-esque device. The self-sticking player houses a play/stop button and flexible speakers. Designers: Chih-Wei Wang & Shou-Hsi Fu Men: Pee And Wash In The Same Fixture! Lenny Bruce would have had such fun with this, but this just makes so much sense, a sink built on top of a urinal! And designer Yeongwoo Kim has made it look good, too. The theoretical sequence is that you use the urinal, then wash your hands and the washwater rinses the urinal, saving water. It makes even more sense in multiple units in mens rooms, saving both space and water. The designer writes on his website: To save water, Eco Urinal is designed to use the water that was used for washing hands to flush the urine. This in some ways makes more sense than a waterless toilet and probably saves as much water. More on urinals:No Splash, No Flush Urinals from KohlerWaterless Urinals Introduced for Home UseUrinals Disguised as Trash Cans: Everyday Objects vs Anti-Social BehaviorPee in Style and Save WaterPopup Pissoir Solves Wee Problem
This Awesome Urn Will Turn You into a Tree After You Die | Design for Good You don't find many designers working in the funeral business thinking about more creative ways for you to leave this world (and maybe they should be). However, the product designer Gerard Moline has combined the romantic notion of life after death with an eco solution to the dirty business of the actual, you know, transition. His Bios Urn is a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose and inside it contains the seed of a tree. Once your remains have been placed into the urn, it can be planted and then the seed germinates and begins to grow. You even have the choice to pick the type of plant you would like to become, depending on what kind of planting space you prefer. I, personally, would much rather leave behind a tree than a tombstone.
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. A QR code and geo tagged map can also be printed to link it to a digital version somewhere on the web like Flickr. Clever and simple. Designer: Mac Funamizu
Air Umbrella by Je Sung Park Try Air To Stay Dry Back in May last year I did a roundup of the Most Unconventional Umbrellas seen here on YD. I wish I had stumbled across the Air Umbrella then, because it’s the mother of unconventional designs! Imagine an umbrella with no canopy! The barrier between you and the raindrops is a sheet of steady air that is blown out by this hollow pipe. Physics and a lot of engineering stuff is clogging my brains to accept this design, but if I put these dark clouds of doubt out of the way, we may have something in this concept. You can control the length of the stick and the size of the air canopy. Designers: Je Sung Park & Woo Jung Kwon
Floor Plan Light Switch by Taewon Hwang Know Your Switches When you have a panel full of light switches, it can be challenging to remember which is which. The Floor Plan Light switch offers an easy solve. The switches are modified according to the floor plan of the room and operate accordingly. So in a single glance you know which switch controls what. Continuance – Rechargeable Battery with USB Interface by Haimo Bao, Hailong Piao, Yuancheng Liu & Xiameng Hu The Power Play Continues This is so simple. Continuance is a set of batteries with a USB interface on the side. The batteries are rechargeable plus dole out some juice to stranded gadgets that are starved of power. Handy, compact and a totally do-able concept! Kudos! Designers: Haimo Bao, Hailong Piao, Yuancheng Liu & Xiameng Hu
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. How close is this to reality? Designer: Ilshat Garipov