Design

Toyota is hoping to tap into the creative juices that will be flowing at this year's Maker Faire by sponsoring an "interactive art car build." The auto maker is providing a Toyota Matrix to attendees at the Austin, Texas, event, who are invited to transform the car into a "music-themed piece of art celebrating musical heroes." As well as being a thinly veiled marketing stunt, the art car will give music fans a chance to deck out the Matrix with their music memorabilia. Some of Toyota's suggestions for car decorations include wigs, 8-track tapes, … Read more

As part of the LA Auto Show this November, leading automakers were asked to submit ideas for a design challenge.

This year's theme was the "RoboCar of 2057" and the submissions are as far out as that date.

The concepts take into consideration environmental concerns and safety as well as imagination. General Motors based its car on the ant; Mazda has you thinking like a samurai; and Nissan wants to give you a pet that does the grocery shopping.

Check out CNET News.com's gallery that includes photos and concepts from Audi, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, … Read more

A comment in my article about Amazon.com's MP3 download store took me to task for picking nits about aspects of the service, especially about the quality of the usage experience. Fair enough--one man's nit is another person's show-stopper. But when it comes to convergence--hardware, software and services all coming together as they do in digital music, for example--it's taking care of those nits that are crucial to delivering satisfying music. Good enough is just not good enough unless you are happy being an also-ran.

Why? Because convergent systems are tremendously complex--both to create and potentially … Read more

Someone at Ford Motor company seems to have a sense of humor.

This $69 branding iron from Ford will imprint the "Ford tough" logo on your steaks, hamburgers or anything else you choose. I'm not sure why anyone would want "tough" meat, but it could be one way to mark the well-done from the medium-rare steaks at your next barbecue.

Kudos to the Truckblog for finding this gem on the Ford Collection Web site.

In between jobs, I'm lucky to have a few weeks off for vacation. My first destination was Iowa City, Iowa, m hometown. Iowa has been great for fiber optic connections and is not as rural as one would expect. That said, my parents don't have a broadband connection instead opting for a quaint dial-up connection. Lucky for me, EDGE network as actually faster than my parent's desktop computer.

But, the iPhone proved a lifesaver when it came to a very Iowa pastime - a presidential election event, i.e., an appearance by Sen. Barrack Obama. Somehow I … Read more

David Armano from Critical Mass will moderate a panel on "Always in Beta: How Big Business Can Benefit from 'Little' Innovation" at the Forrester Consumer Forum (October 10 to 13). Here's a quick synopsis: "Innovation isn't limited to R & rooms anymore. The Web 2.0 movement--powered by start-ups such as Twitter, Malhalo and even YouTube, has proven that innovation often happens in iterations. Build, launch, tweak, measure, repeat. Digital experiences seem to be 'always in beta'--learning and evolving along the way."

The fact that the Forrester Consumer Forum dedicates a panel to … Read more

Who needs the ocean anyway? This artificial lagoon and swimming pool in the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile is eight hectares in size and contains 250,000 cubic meters of water, equivalent in size to 6,000 standard domestic pools.

Via Spluch

Over at Micropersuasion, Steve Rubel is making a bold prediction: The portals will be big winners in the social-networking wars.

"Social networking is certainly rising and there seems to be no end in sight to the phenomenon. However, what I do know is that people will jump around from one Myfaceborkutspace to another and not all of them will win," Rubel wrote.

He is referring to Long Tail author Chris Anderson, who points out that all good web sites should have elements of social networking and therefore suggests that social networking is a "feature, not a destination.&… Read more

So you just picked up a new Enzo at the friendly neighborhood Ferrari dealer and are bringing it home for the first time. As the garage door rises, it hits you: How can you possibly park a world-class sportscar here with all this mess?

If you're like many American homeowners and suffer from Ugly Garage Syndrome, this may well be of interest--with or without a multimillion-dollar car collection. An Arizona-based outfit called GarageMahals will design and construct a luxury garage to your custom specifications for prices ranging from $50 to $125 per square foot, offering such amenities as steel … Read more