I love Smashing Magazine’s Web site (www.smashingmagazine.com). I especially love the article showcasing “Innovative Design and Devices” for 2008.
A few of my faves:
The Sony “apple” remote control. I put apple in quotes because I was confused at first – is the remote made by Sony or Apple? It’s made by Sony and just looks like a fresh green apple. Green apples are my fave, by the way. The remote is different from other remotes in that instead of pushing buttons to change the channel and volume, you just wave the remote around in the air. It’s quite weird and intriguing. Wave it to the left to turn the volume down; wave it to the right to turn the volume up. For coach potatoes, it could be just that little amount of exercise they can tolerate. You wave your remote in the air…wave it ’round like you just don’t care. Okay, channeling some 90s hip hop there. But that’s seriously what the illustrating photo looks like. Check it out.
The Toast Messenger is another fave of mine. It’s totally a want and not a need. It’s really a waste of money, but no more so than lottery tickets, in my opinion. You write a message on the top of this one-slice toaster and badaboom: your toast comes out with your message lightly burned into the top of it. This would be very sweet for your sweetie in the morning, leaving love messages in his or her toast. Yeah, okay, blech – too sweet! On another note, it might help parents get their kids to eat toast, that is, if their kids don’t like toast. I’ve never known a kid that didn’t like toast, but then again, I don’t know many kids.
I’m also digging the Eclipse Partitioning System, which is a non-cubicle cubicle. It’s a desk in a pod. The pod’s hood opens and closes and the coolest part is that that hood can change colors. It can also change scenery. That’s right, scenery, people. So when you’re sitting in your pod and you want to be outside, just push a button and the pod’s hood changes the scene so you’re watching a golden field sway in the wind. You can also gaze at a sunset sky filled with oranges, yellows and blues. The whole pod is on wheels, which makes it super portable, which I believe was the main point, but I was too taken with the scenery changes to care about moving it. Why move it when the scenery can change without you moving? Channeling all coach potatoes….
Last but not least I’d like to mention the Vaio Zoom notebook. This is an awesome laptop that doubles as a piece of art, almost. It uses holographic technology to make the laptop screen clear (the whole screen is clear, no plastic or other material holds the screen) and the keyboard goes opaque when the computer is turned off. When it’s on, you can see the keyboard, and the screen looks like a normal computer screen. It sounds quite distracting – perfect for work!
