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The Multipot is a multifunctional object made by Rotaliana. It serves as a charging station, electronic device storage/placement unit as well as a rather pretty lamp. I chug along an iPod, handphone, wallet and keys when I go out and fumble for them whenever I do, not to mention the fact that I constantly forget to charge the electronic stuff. This idea isn't supremely revolutionary but it takes into account real user habits that are entirely new in today's world. It's sort of like a shrine to yourself and you're forced to focus attention upon it because its a vase that lights up and would take somewhat centrestage on your table or shelf. Plus, it manages the cables reasonably.

Tech devices are the new flowers.

Linked off Gizmodo, although I think they and the site they linked to got it wrong with stating its by Magis. Can't confirm that but Magis has never made lamps and have no mention of it on their site.

Apple has come up with a new patent which embeds many many tiny cameras within the pixels on the screen. Which basically translates into a minimalist camera interface. Perfect for the eogtripping camwhore/bauhaus enthusiast. Of course, I suppose you could apply the entire thing to handphones and other communication devices, which answers all designers' worries about where to place the damn cam. And since, the cam is the screen, you probably don't have to adjust it at all!

Oh wonder of wonders! Does that mean we won't be seeing any more horribly shot sex videos ala Tammy NYP?

Not unlike Tonia Welter's keyboard I mentioned before, this new virtual keyboard doesn't give a hoot about typing ergonomics and carpal tunnel syndrome. Instead, it eschews the need for an actual physical keyboard by just having a projector display the entire full size qwerty keyboard on a flat surface. Apparently, it even reaches typing speeds with a real keyboard. Now, whilst I find that this sounds like a great idea for a travel keyboard at first, I realise how wrong I am. Since you'lll most probably be travelling with a laptop. this keyboard will probably only come into use if you either hate laptop keyboards and much prefer flat projected ones or you hate real life keyboards and would much rather plug in a glowing red virtual one to your desktop instead. Sounds to me like this keyboard is more virtual than it thinks.

The best suggested use for this baby is with PDAs. But surely the non laptop toting PDA evangelists with zero access to desktops but full access to flat surfaces in areas with low lighting must be a rare breed. 

Still, its promising to note that we can do away with physical objects in this manner and perhaps developments along this line could lead to new interfaces that might actually be more useful.

What's in a name? Nintendo has renamed their next gen console, formerly known as the Revolution. I don't even know why they renamed it. Its not like Revolution was specifically awful. Anyway, the new name reflects how the new console "will break down that wall that separates game players from everybody else. (the console) will put people more in touch with their games...and each other."

And the new name? Wii! Pronounced we. Which gives new meaning to the phrase there is no I in we. Gamespot's weekly show, On The Spot had the regular poll asking the staff about what they thought. The general consensus was it sucked balls. I think it sucks balls, ass, whatever. I mean, other companies don't give shitty names to their next gen consoles! PlayStation 3! Xbox360! You know from the names that they're gaming consoles. Wii? Sounds like someone's taking the piss. One of the Gamespot staff put it best when he said, "Hey, you wanna come to my place and play with my Wii?".

I can't even be bothered with the half assed explanation and how it was even worth mentioning that "ii" is good in Japanese. Its good to note that the first search result on Wii from Google is for the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

I hope this new name permeates throughout society and becomes engrained within the collective consciousness of humanity. Long may the Wii live in the annals of the Wikipedia, champion of all things vile that it is. New born babies will be christened "Notwii" in the hope that they won't fall to such depths. This has got to be the benchmark for shitty product names. Viva La Wii.

Pia Wallen is from Sweden and she loves to use felt in her stuff. Seen above is her bracelet which I remember catching a fleeting glimpse of once somewhere. I was so caught by the strong contrast in materials. I loved how the dark dark wool and the shiny metal gave off this rather futuristic, industrial look. The design itself is ultra simple and its down to the finishing and details that make this stand out.

I feel like quite the plagiarist since I actually made a felt lined silver ring recently. I trawled the entire interweb to find her site because I remembered the existence of the bracelet above after I made the ring and I feel kinda bad. I just thought it'd be lovely to have a "comfy" ring that was stark and masculine and somewhat had that flashback. I made mine different in some ways by having diagonal slants at the ends of the metal and I embellished the gap with another material. So I suppose, its like taking her concept and changing it a bit, which makes me feel better but not much. I didn't even know she made a ring the same way. Boohoohoo.

Anyway, I still like my ring, although I feel there's a lot of room for improvement. Maybe I'll post up my collection and refined pieces in future. 

Tjep or Frank Tjepkema, creator of the bling bling pendant/necklace that won the Dutch Design Award for fashion design in 2004 and a whole lotta other stuff, also made these lovely rings which are bent cutouts of the space invader icons back in 1998. Pop culture certainly invades a lot of the work you'll find on the website.

Wow I didn't realise I was 4 months late on this. I think Gizmodo reported on this back in Dec '05. Anyway, the makers of the Final Fantasy series of games and movies and stuff have finally decided to cash in (some more) on their fans by launching this drink with Suntory. I actually got this off Gamespot. The Final Fantasy XII POTION is set to tie in with their latest game obviously. Gamespot has this live show you can watch called On The Spot, where they had a sampling of the blue pot. The verdict? No HP increase, no buffs, no special whoomph. The taste? It ranged from "flowers... medicine" to "tastes like turtle". Also available in limited edition collector's bottles, which kinda look like embellished chemistry equip, this is one blue drink that I think I'll pass on. I used to be totally obsessed with blue foods. Check out the ad. Still the idea OUGHT to have been great. Wonder why they didn't execute better on the actual product. I suppose they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger or the best medicine is the most bitter. Blah blah blah. Someone should really market mana pots for real and make them taste good. That or put coffee into blue glass perfume bottles.

Traipsing around the interweb as usual, I bumped into Uncrate, where i saw this ring you see above. Sorry bout the blurry pic. I'm just obsessed with making all the pics 320pixels in length and I didn't bother finding a more high res one. Anyway, at first I thought its was some feline obsession thing cos it had like a cat head cutout. Obviously, I didn't realise that the Ring Thing is really a bottle opener you can get off here. Pardon my stupidity!

By the way, there's lots more to see on Uncrate.

MoCo Loco suggests that you check out Tokujin Yoshioka's latest chair. On his site (click on news), you can read up on his thought process and ideas behind the chair concept as well as how the chair was made. I love the photo sequence and how it tells the story, from the story at the beginning to the first chunk of fiber/foam to the detail shot of the fiber upclose. Anyway, his concept is about making a chair outta fibers so the weight is spread out throughout the entire structure, rather than the traditional say, wooden chair. The major difference is you end up with a chair which one can presume to be pretty lightweight, soft, yet firm enough to provide support. The final form probably doesnt look amazing but it is a tribute to the process and a statement of the technology and new method of manufacture, hence the rawness. Its also named after bread, for one its baked in a kiln and also how a bread is firm yet soft inside. The way the chair is made is kinda like bread. You introduce air into a structure to make it softer. Check out the pics of them "kneading" the chair into shape. I'm pretty certain each piece will not be entirely identical to another, which is all down to the handmade finish of the concept.

But please don't let me stop you from checking out more of his work like the Media Skin for au by KDDI or Stardust, the projector chandelier for Swarovski, just to mention a couple.

Giving new meaning to the word, Wiedenmann & Averdiek's Turntable appears to be an ordinary table until you flip it over! Great for messy people who can instantly make the place look a whole lot better with a quick flip. I'm somewhat suspicious of how often you actually do that but you can't deny the brilliance behind the idea.

Linked off MoCo Loco.