Neoreader

Many Eyes

The 21th USB

The Dark Design Sites

IDEA Design Awards Winners 2008

The Digital Orb Solution

Too Small To Good

[ Smart may not a smart idea for all ]

There is a part of me that wants to compare the early Smart phenomenon to either the early days of the Volks­wagen Beetle or Mini. But the comparison doesn't hold up very well. The early buyers of the Beetle were World War II veterans who had seen firsthand in the war how tough and durable the German army's Volkswagen military vehicles were. After the war, when actual Beetles were being made, word spread fast how reliable and durable the bubble-shaped cars were. In the case of Mini's comeback in 2001 under the direction and engineering of BMW , the car, despite its small size, was fast, stylish, and extremely well engineered. And, the Mini Cooper's fuel economy is nearly as good as the Fortwo's, though a well-equipped model costs thousands more than the Smart.

The fact that Smart is manufactured by Mercedes-Benz also pushes up my expectations. For years, Mercedes lost money on Smart. Currently, the company says it is making profit after a significant cost-cutting program that eliminated other Smart vehicles. But it feels a bit like the costs of manufacturing the cars in France and selling them in the U.S. when the dollar is so weak against the euro has driven the German automaker to cut too many costs, to the point where, but for the wacky design that appeals to some, it's simply not worth the money.

Innovation from Old Non-Innovation

[Licensed Goods]

Makers of licensed merchandise used to pitch their ideas to Coca-Cola. No more. Now a small team of graphic and industrial designers develops ideas internally, which the company then pitches to the manufacturers. This new process gives Coca-Cola greater control over licensed merchandise.

iPodtravel

[ Never Too Late To Make Your Own Map ]

VOIP Minilism

The JP

The Sea

Apple's Seeds of Innovation

Vegetable scales with a mind of their own

For now, this common shopping irritant of having to remember the number tag for your groceries at the supermarket is out of the lives of some lucky folks in Europe. And that's attributed to the smart self-service weighing scale, which promises to give these shoppers a unique “weighing experience.”

Developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Information and Data Processing IITB in Karlsruhe, this device can automatically recognize the fruit or vegetable that is placed on it and brings up the most appropriate icons on its touch screen interface for you to print out the price label.

TrailRunner

Digital B&W

National Design Awards 2008

35 HDR Fantastic Works

A Silent Alarm Clock

background-conscious iPhone apps

New software would let iPhones access iTunes libraries from anywhere

EyeClops Night Vision / 2008

Insence Art

ADs Awards May 2008

Don’t Put Too Much Faith in High-Tech Passports

[Hackers know what’s inside this]
Two European researchers have found a way to defeat the chips being placed in passports to eliminate fraud. It’s another reminder never to place blind faith in technology.

8 More iPhone Tricks You Might Not Have Known

Apple's Secret/Window Mobile

DIY Batman Tumber

Wrong and Run/ NDA and Mobile Me

Team,

The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour. There are several things we could have done better:

– MobileMe was simply not up to Apple's standards – it clearly needed more time and testing.

– Rather than launch MobileMe as a monolithic service, we could have launched over-the-air syncing with iPhone to begin with, followed by the web applications one by one – Mail first, followed 30 days later (if things went well with Mail) by Calendar, then 30 days later by Contacts.

– It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence....more

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