DESIGN

How many famous designers would ever bother to turn up on a children's TV show?

Especially when they're supposed to be working at Apple night and day.

Yet here is footage, posted by journalist and recording engineer Tom Davenport, of a recent appearance by Apple's Jony Ive on the BBC's "Blue Peter."

This is not an ordinary TV show. It's very much an institution in British television.

It's also the show where kids first get a sense of what can be made out of apparently useless objects -- like an old empty … Read more

Many smartphones look the same from afar. I bet most of you own one that's thin, rectangular, and features a big screen. Boooring!

A fully transparent conceptual smartphone, developed by Taiwanese company Polytron Technologies, gives me hope for a future full of fancy smartphones far different from the common designs seen today.… Read more

When Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger met Steve Jobs in 1982, it sparked a chain of events that monumentally changed Apple's design philosophy forever. It wasn't just a change in how future products would look -- Esslinger ushered in a change of mindset and a unified design language across products.

Esslinger's new book, "Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change," available today in the U.S., delivers some fascinating insights into those crucial early years at Apple.… Read more

Kitchen appliances for generations have been sleek, shiny things not designed to particularly appeal to our senses as much as to convey a sense of almost clinical utility. The hearth of the home, being what it is -- a place of warmth and sustenance -- has in recent years seen a growing trend of kitchen gear and gadgets being more colorful than shiny. Bright splashes of color appeal to a broad range of consumers, but sometimes it is the complete lack of color that offers something more.

The Bodum Bistro 5-Quart Capacity Electric Stand Mixer ($400) updates a kitchen classic … Read more

Pools aren't just for swimming, you know. Brooklyn art studio Red Paper Heart made some pretty nifty art with a swimming hole and 65,000 ping-pong balls. Before you dismiss that as an exercise in lunacy, take a look at a clever interactive pool party experience for yourself in the video below.

Red Paper Heart created the mesmerizing show in conjunction with city guide Web site UrbanDaddy, all for a tequila promotional event in Hamptons, N.Y.. The art studio programmed some software (using C++) to control the projector-driven light show that reacts to music. To enhance the visuals, the group enlisted a team of synchronized swimmers and some tuxedo-clad scuba divers to class up the joint.… Read more

People sometimes joke about pouring blood, sweat, and tears into their work. Iceland-based designer Sruli Recht put some actual skin into his.

The Forget Me Knot ring is mainly made of 24-carat gold, but instead of sporting a diamond or an emerald, it has a bit of human skin for embellishment. That skin came from a willing donor, the designer himself.

Recht had a 4 inch by 0.4 inch piece removed from his abdomen. The skin was tanned, complete with hair intact, and mounted to the ring. I think even Sauron would think twice about wearing it.… Read more

Nokia Lumia 820 owners will be able to create their own cases for the handset.

Nokia today announced that it's now releasing 3D templates, case specs, and recommended material guidance to help Lumia 820 owners produce their own shell to replace the removable case on the back of the handset. Nokia has offered several cases for customers to choose from, but didn't allow owners to develop their own.

In order to actually create the cases, however, users will need to have access to a 3D printer. With 3D printing, users can input material and churn out their creation.… Read more

Tech startup Coleridge Design Associates is trying to raise $45,000 on Kickstarter to manufacture a sleek-looking and transparent-sounding desktop speaker system, the aCube BMR. I've covered Kickstarter projects before, but this time I had a chance to listen to the product, and the sound definitely piqued my interest.

The aCube uses an advanced 4.5-inch BMR (Balanced Mode Radiator) driver mounted in handmade clear-cast acrylic 6.5-inch cube enclosures. The $180 speaker houses a stereo 20-watt Class-D amplifier, but if you want stereo sound, you have to buy a second speaker (without the amp) for $120. Optional at … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We may never be able to replace the splendor of painting on a real canvas with store-bought pigments, but the supreme accuracy of a modern touch-screen computer can offer an artistic experience that would even make Dali's head spin.

Deep within the maze-like setup of Sony's booth at CES 2013, I sat down with artist April Wong as she painted a woman using the ArtRage drawing program on a Sony Vaio Duo 11 hybrid tablet. Stroke by stroke, a realistic image emerged from Wong's stylus, and I couldn't help but find myself surprised that the visage appearing on the tablet looked as good, if not better, than a real painting. No mess, either!… Read more