design

Cat Tunnel Sofa like a giant Habitrail for your furniture

My sofa has seen better days thanks to the hundreds of tiny claw pricks left by three cats. When I finally get around to replacing it, I would sure like to pick up a Cat Tunnel Sofa.

The Cat Tunnel Sofa incorporates a place for humans to sit, but it also features a bending tube for cats to play in. This means you're not likely to get much relaxing done as Toehawks and Ms. Floofer scurry around like hamsters right behind your head.

Korean designer Seungji Mun was inspired by the concept of pets as companions and the growing market for pet products.… Read more

Shipping container is your new disaster-zone home

Forget the zombie apocalypse for a moment. What if a real disaster struck your neighborhood? Where would you, or relief workers, take shelter?

As thousands of Japanese are still coping with the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku quake and tsunami, Osaka-based Daiwa Lease recently showed off this shipping container, a home for disaster zones. … Read more

Apple designer describes company's 'kitchen table' in testimony

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A single button on one of Apple's phones or tablets might have gone through 50 or more iterations before ending up in the final design, one of the company's lead designers said today.

The first expert witness in the jury trial between Apple and Samsung here was Christopher Stringer, who has been an industrial designer at Apple since 1995 and helped design the iPhone along with other Apple products.

In his testimony, Stringer -- who donned an all-white suit to court -- said that the design process for any product typically began with lots … Read more

Designing 007: A look at Bond's luxurious life

When the world first met James Bond on-screen in the 1962 film "Dr. No," it changed the way many people imagined the life of a secret agent.

Six actors and nearly 25 films after Bond's film debut, the Barbican Centre in London is commemorating the dapper life of James Bond with "Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style." The massive exhibit features 400 effects from the Bond movie franchise, ranging from rarely seen conceptual art and on-set photos to original costumes and props. … Read more

Jonathan Ive: For Apple, it's quality, not quantity

Why is Apple successful? It all starts with the quality of its products, according to Jonathan Ive. The company's senior vice president of industrial design waxed eloquent on this theme during a talk about Apple's design focus at the British Embassy's Creative Summit.

"I refute that design is important. Design is a prerequisite. Good design -- innovation -- is really hard," said Ive, according to Wired. "We say no to a lot of things that we want to do and are intrigued by so that we only work on a manageable amount of products … Read more

Early iPhone, iPad designs revealed in court filing

Ever wondered what the thought process must have been like for Apple's designers in coming up with the early iterations of the iPhone and iPad? Or if there were any crazy versions that never made it to the shelf?

Now, thanks to the Apple vs. Samsung patent court case, you can take a look at some of the early sketches and prototypes of these devices by way of public court documents.

According to Ina Fried at All Things D, Apple filed several documents Saturday that include dozens of hand-drawn and computer-generated sketches of early iPhone and iPad designs, along … Read more

See the date and time with LCD Clock

Although Windows has a clock of its own, there are plenty of clock applications that add functionality -- or just decoration -- to the task of displaying the time. LCD Clock is a simple program that's fairly light on features, but isn't a bad choice if you're looking for a simple way to view the date and time.

LCD Clock annoyed us right away by forcing us to install the FunMoods toolbar, a piece of malware masquerading as a tool for adding emoticons to social networking sites and e-mail. Although it's not uncommon for software to … Read more

Fab raises $105 million in funding round

Design-focused shopping site Fab hopes to expand its global footprint and increase its warehouses and inventory with the $105 million its secured in a third round of funding, Fab CEO Jason Goldberg said in the company's blog post today.

The new round of financing was led by investment firm Atomico, which is also helping Fab expand its site globally, starting with London, Tokyo, Beijing, Sao Paulo, and Istanbul. Atomico's other investments include Skype and Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds.

"We believe that we have a special opportunity to create one of the world's next great … Read more

Ideo's prize-winning utility bike debuts via Kickstarter

A clever electric bike, which won a design competition last fall for creating the best urban utility bike, is coming to market via Kickstarter today.

The Faraday, designed by the Palo Alto, Calif., design consultancy Ideo and Santa Cruz, Calif., bike-maker Rock Lobster Custom Cycles, took home top honors in the Oregon Manifest creative collaboration challenge, which CNET followed. The competition paired global design firms with small, handcrafted bike builders to create a bike for city living.

That success generated enough interest that Adam Vollmer, who led the design efforts for Ideo, left the firm to launch a company to … Read more

Evo Design 4G, Evo 3D will receive Android 4.0 shortly

If you own an HTC Evo 3D or Evo Design 4G, here's a bit of good news. An update to Google's modern Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system is just around the corner.

Android ICS certainly isn't Google's freshest mobile software flavor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Frankly I'd rather have the nimbler handling and trove of new abilities JB brings to the table. … Read more