Fashion

Milk Desk does a body good

We've been logging some long work days of late--deadlines, you know--and the experience has given us the opportunity to make a few observations. First, most desks are just no good for geeks. In addition to the normal paper detritus, a mess of peripherals, accessories, and their attendant cords can quickly turn a desk into a disaster zone. Second, when you sit for a long time in the same desk chair, no matter how ergonomic your setup, your hip joints will threaten to fuse together in a permanent L shape.

The Milk Desk, though, looks to solve both those problems … Read more

A purse that can charge up your phone

Regardless of what you think of its design, this is no ordinary handbag. The "Power Purse's" name refers not just to its importance as a fashion accessory but also to its functionality--as a portable source of solar energy.

The bag is covered with small solar panels that can power cell phones or any other gadgets through a USB port built into its interior. MobileWhack says the ingenius purse was designed by a student at Iowa State University and marketed through Solarjo, "a company that produces unlikely items from something that looks quite ordinary."

The price … Read more

Microwaves not pigment-challenged

The way manufacturers are splattering color all over home appliances, you'd think they'd seen Pleasantville one too many times. We've seen transformations in everything from stoves and refrigerators to washing machines and even personal safes.

So we're curious why it's taken so long for them to get around to that staple of every house, apartment, condo and dorm room: the microwave. But Whirlpool is trying to make up for lost time with its "Max" ovens, which Popgadget says are available in black, silver, baby blue and raspberry red. They also sport a non-traditional … Read more

More fake diamonds, just because

We never thought we'd see competition for the diamond-studded "TrekStor i.Beat Organix Gold" but, unfortunately, we've been proven wrong once again. The "KVA P30" is another media player lined with diamonds, though in this case fake ones. So even though its cost and availability are unknown, we seriously doubt it will approach its rival's $20,000 price tag. It won't make up for its ersatz stones with higher-end features either: The player may have a 2.4-inch screen but can only store 1GB of video and audio, as BornRich says. But … Read more

LCD monitors for the sake of art

With monitors breaking the 30-inch mark, a 20.1-inch LCD seems downright puny--which may be one reason Europe's Formac is taking a distinctly aesthetic route to market its new displays. It makes good sense regardless of size because the "Gallery 2010 Xtreme-5" is aimed at professional designers and photographers, with a "unique controller board" for color rendering, according to PCLaunches.

As companies continue to expand their thinking on monitors, we've seen designs that look appropriate for settings ranging from architect's offices to museums. As long as they don't take the form of … Read more

Red charity not seeing tons of green

Remember Bono's (RED) campaign, the charity project that launched the red iPod? (And eventually a torrent of other crimson gadgets.)

Given all the publicity, we assumed that the initiative would have brought in truckloads of money for its stated purpose of helping fight AIDS in Africa. But according to marketing firm PSFK, the charity reported raising only $11.3 million as of the end of December, "a tiny fraction of the $6.6 billion funds the Global Fund has committed to 460 programs in 136 countries."

The campaign is still less than five months old, so it'… Read more

Rivets: Extreme cell phone security

We understand people's attachments to their cell phones--functionally and even emotionally--but literally?

The somewhat-distubingly named "Rivet Attachment System" aims to do everything in its power to keep you and your beloved handset from parting ways, short of surgery. Just as important, as Shiny Shiny points out, it does so in style.

But if you're truly serious about securing your digital loved one, we suggest the old-school method: handcuffs.

Samsung beats Levi to the runway

It's no secret that Levi Strauss has had its problems with competition, but the last company we would have suspected of eclipsing it is Samsung.

No, the electronics giant isn't going to make jeans. But it did come out with a denim-clad phone as part of its SGH-E490 line, along with several other jackets, according to Tech Fresh and Aving.net.

Back in October, Levi announced that it had contracted with ModeLabs to make a branded Levi Strauss mobile phone. The handset and accessories were supposed to come out in Europe this year but have yet to make … Read more

Dumpster diving to create fashion

Some design trends should be left alone--especially in fashion accessories. Just as Crave dismissed an unfortunate floppy disk purse from Fractal some months ago, we are similarly unimpressed with what appears to be a floppy disk messenger bag of the DIY variety. (Who can tell?)

It actually could have been worse. As Gearfuse says, the bag's creator had originally planned to make plate mail armor out of the dumpster-disgarded floppies.

We hope that for his sake--and ours--that this amateur Gucci doesn't try to sell his homemade wares. As fellow Craver Erica Ogg noted in her earlier item on … Read more

Protect your valuables in living color

Why should safes always be the same boring, battleship-gray fixtures seen in the movies? After all, we've seen color applied with abandon to appliances ranging from stoves and refrigerators to red and flowered washing machines.

You can't unlock these home models with voice commands as with others we've seen recently, but they sure look a lot nicer. Japan's Nakabayashi sells these simply designed personal safes in your choice of primary colors, operated electronically with your personal numeric code.

At first we thought the bright hues might attract would-be thieves, but Tokyomango suggests the perfect place for … Read more