Design

Sean Connery first rocked the iconic James Bond Aston Martin DB5 in 1964's "Goldfinger." That vehicle made a reappearance in this year's blockbuster "Skyfall" with Daniel Craig at the wheel.

Spoiler alert: Craig's DB5 meets an untimely end involving flames. You can't just take a priceless real DB5 and blow it up on film, so the filmmakers turned to a high-tech prop solution: 3D printing.… Read more

When New Jersey tattoo artist Joe Pagani decided to propose to his girlfriend, Emily, the fellow hit hyperspace past the jewelry store and instead chose to design an engagement ring inspired by R2-D2 from "Star Wars."

Pagani tapped CustomMade -- a Web site that matches dreamers with people who can turn those ideas into real, tangible things -- to find the artist who could create the sci-fi stunner.… Read more

With most speakers or headphones, you're stuck with the designer's sound, but with the Logitech UE Personal Reference Monitors (PRM) you get to play headphone designer and dial in exactly the sound you want.

Each pair is totally unique; they're built with the individually designed equalization curves you selected. My PRMs sound absolutely amazing, but I'm a little biased, I designed them to please my ears! Every PRM buyer will do the same, and if they totally screw up and hate the result, Ultimate Ears will give them another try. Each PRM set is handmade in UE's facilities in California.

The price for this level of customization doesn't come cheap, though; the Personal Reference Monitors sell for $1,999. That's extreme, but so are $285,000 luxury cars. I cover the full gamut of audio, from affordable to the craziest expensive gear. … Read more

You know that Microsoft is all about the noise now, don't you? Oh, and the color.

So here is a delightful stunt the company pulled in Oslo, Norway, in order to, well, blow the side of a building off with the sheer excitement of the new operating system.

I am grateful to PSFK for alerting me to this very alive tile experience.

It consisted of hiring a famous Norwegian band, Datarock, building a fake wall, and then placing a live tile in the street.… Read more

Imagine yourself as a little fish swimming far below the surface of the sea, just trying to make it in a big blue world. Suddenly, a horizon-encompassing net grabs you and takes you away from everything you once knew. Things go from bad to worse as the commercial fishing net rises and the pressure change kills you.

This fate, which often befalls millions of smaller non-target fish around the world every year, could change with the invention of the sustainable SafetyNet, which today was named winner of the prestigious 2012 James Dyson Award for design. … Read more

Sometimes, it's nice to just sit back and enjoy yourself as a mind-bending light show and distorted ambient music collide in the name of digital expression.

Throughout October, Belgian artist Romain Tardy displayed a mesmerizing art installation titled "Pagan" on an exterior wall of the Museum of National Antiquities in Toulouse, France.

The light show -- somehow inspired by a bacchanalian head from the third century -- consists of stars, lines, and abstract figures breaking apart and merging back together. Musician Squeaky Lobster provided the eerily calming music for the event, ensuring a total transformation of the senses for most observers. … Read more

Meet the nanoblock camera, one of the smallest shooters ever shown on Crave.

Japanese company Fuuvi yesterday debuted the tiny toy camera with a shell made of nanoblocks -- a smaller alternative to the traditional Lego brick. However, connoisseurs of quality might bite their lip as the ultrasimple controls and lack of viewfinder make this device a not-so-serious option for picture taking. The measly 2-megapixel resolution doesn't help matters much either. … Read more

We may have to wait awhile for true 3D-printed meat, but in the meantime, we can take solace in a 3D-printed Mobius bacon strip. This bacon strip simultaneously evokes deep feelings of bacon-past and challenges our perception of what bacon is.

If M.C. Escher were to design breakfast products, this is the bacon he would come up with. It's a never-ending circle of pork that owes its existence to advances in 3D printing.… Read more

Some readers experienced a bit of claustrophobia a couple of months back upon reading that construction had started on what may be the world's narrowest house. If you're one of them, you might want to hold your breath. Construction on Keret House is complete, and we're going inside.

The dwelling -- located in a passageway in Warsaw, Poland's Wola district -- measures 4 feet at its widest point and 27 inches at its narrowest. The exterior looks like a 30-foot-tall rectangle lodged between two buildings, but amazingly, inhabitants will find all the amenities inside. … Read more