|
BMW Group Designworks USA built this "Level 10" concept gaming PC in partnership with Thermaltake, a fine pairing, since it would be a challenge to keep the wwhole thing cool without air being ducted through a case from front to back. Still, it's undoubtedly attractive. I'd go through the trouble to find compatible hardware free from pesky (and at the moment necessary) wiring across the entire chassis. [via Core77]
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
BMW Group Designworks USA x Thermaltake concept gaming PC
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Moto Major 350 by Salvatore Majorca
|From Bike EXIF:
Torinese engineer Salvatore Majorca created the revolutionary Moto Major straight after WWII. Apparently it was an engineering rather than styling exercise, but 60 years on, its shape is still breathtaking.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Salvador Dali's rotary dial cosmetics compact
|Up for auction on eBay is this fantastic cosmetics compact that Salvador Dali designed in 1935 for fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Over the years, Dali worked with Schiaparelli several times. From Dali Planet:
He inspired printed fabrics for her collections, in which the pattern represents the torn flesh of animals, and made her a skeleton dress, a pink belt with lips for a buckle, a hat like an upside-down shoe, another hat shaped like a giant lamb chop and a lobster-print frock that was worn by the Duchess of Windsor for a pre-wedding portrait for Vogue by photographer Cecil Beaton.
The Duchess seemed unaware that the lobster was positioned almost as a fig leaf or a long arm reaching up to the precise part of her anatomy that had caused the abdication crisis.
SCHIAPARELLI DALI COMPACT POWDER BOX ROTARY PHONE DIAL (Thanks, Richard Metzger!)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Recompute: A Sustainable Desktop Computer
by Bridgette Steffen
Computers are hard on the environment - from their materials and manufacture to their energy use and ultimate disposal. There are definitely some more energy efficient and eco-friendly models out there, but in order to make computers more sustainable, we need to completely rethink them. For this year’s Greener Gadget Design Competition, Brenden Macaluso decided to redesign the computer to make it’s whole lifecycle more sustainable. Featuring a slick cardboard case, his Recompute focuses on sustainability throughout the computer’s manufacturing, use and disposal, offering a fully functioning PC with off-the-shelf components.
The only materials required to manufacture Macaluso’s Recompute desktop computer are cardboard, non-toxic white glue and the computer components themselves. Standard computers on the other hand require numerous materials such as ABS plastic, aluminum, and steel, in addition to many energy-intensive manufacturing processes. This simple cardboard computer only requires die-cutting, printing, gluing and finally electronic assembly of three parts - the motherboard with processor and memory, a power supply, and a hard drive.
To use the computer, simply hook it up to your existing monitor, keyboard and mouse. You don’t need any special new hardware to run it, and for even more flexibility, there are 8 USB ports for external hardware customization. To dispose of the computer, you still need to send the electronic parts to be recycled properly as they contain heavy metals, but the cardboard is easy to remove and recycle. Recompute does not require any special tools to dismantle.
As for the specs of the computer, all of the components are off-the-shelf technology, including an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, and 2GB of RAM. While there could be some concern about heat, air flow, and possible ignition due to it being made of cardboard, the designer has taken this into consideration. Plastics begin to melt at 120°, whereas cardboard won’t burn until 258°. The goal of this new computer design is to minimize the use of processed materials, reduce labor and parts to manufacture it, and finally be able to more completely recycle a computer at the end of its useful life.
If you’re a fan of Recompute be sure to vote for it today in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition! We’ll be using your votes to decide the top ten gadgets that will proceed to an exciting round of live judging at the Greener Gadgets Conference for $5000 in prizes.
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE GREEN GADGET >
+ Greener Gadget Design Competition
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The Phonophone Il iPhone: powerless iPod speakers, classic design and horn acoustics
|
The speaker system that uses no power is usually a travesty of audiphonics: the tinny sound of Bach reverberating through the fillings of a cavity-ridden back molar plucked from the inside of a skull and spread out across the room.
But Tristan Zimmerman, the designer of this wonderfully shaped iPod speaker systems, claims that his Phonophone Il iPhone is different: it exploits the science of horn acoustics to maintain rich sound while boosting the audio output of the standard earphone jack to 55 decibels... which is equivalent to the volume coming from a pair of laptop speakers.
That's respectable for a powerless solution, but not the kind of output that can be clearly heard over the screams and ululations of a night out at Club Rectum. But that's okay, because what the Phonophone really is is a wonderful throwback to the horn-and-conch of classical acoustic amplification. Visually, it's beautiful: a perfect shape captured in ebony and onyx. It looks Grecian, while at the same time conjuring a fondness for the living room aesthetics of the early jazz era with its geometry. It would just never fit in with Club Rectum's decor.
I love the look. But $600 is way too much to pay for any powerless speakers when I could be paying that for oscillating LEDs and bowel-evacuating bass.
Phonophone Il iPhone [Charles and Marie via Cult of Mac]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
