design

You know, we track some wacky trends here on Crave. There are the Color-Changey Things, and the Stupid USB Devices, and of course Anthropomorphic Audio. And recently I've been spotting another one: things shaped like UFOs. There's that bug-killing gadget that flies, and a cute little saucer to manage hands-free electronic activity in cars. The latest in this emerging trend is the Neues Licht UFO Light, a German lighting concept that is shaped like something that might have appeared in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The Neues Licht UFO is made mostly out of glass fibers, … Read more

Here at Crave, our specialty might be digital gadgetry (which you're undoubtedly seeing a lot of this week) but sometimes there's some less conventional tech that attracts our attention: for example, the wide array of luxury toys designed to turn bathrooms into high-end epicenters of relaxation. There was that nature shower designed in Kuala Lumpur, and the "Hydro Massage Bathtub" with a built-in TV. But personally, I think this one takes the cake. It's called the Oasis, and according to BornRich, it's supposed to "bring the feel of nature right into your bathroom&… Read more

As fellow Craver Erica Ogg noted while wearing another of her many hats recently, domestic appliances are getting hipper than ever. And one of the more popular household items to get a makeover is the lowly vacuum cleaner. (No, we're not talking about the Wiimote-controlled Roomba.)

Industrial designer Karim Rashid has applied his considerable talents to transform the "Dirt Devil," of all things, into a cone-shaped functional sculpture, according to Popgadget. The tarted-up cordless appliance, which comes in six colors, has a vertical design to save space as well. If nothing else, it proves that a vacuum … Read more

We all know that feeling of frustration when a Web page is painfully slow to load, an ad pops up that we can't make go away, or the site we're looking for is unavailable. Sometimes our heart rate speeds up and we vent by clicking away at (or bashing) our mouse, as if it's the problem. (I personally am apt to let out a loud sigh or even a grunt.)

Now, thanks to researchers at the U.K.-based Social Issues Research Centre, we have an official name for this ailment affecting cardio functions and the immune … Read more

This may look like a shiny alarm clock with a shiny ball on top--and, well, it is. But not just any ball. The silver orb is actually part of the apparatus, determining the radio station depending on where it's positioned.

Rather than a simple dial or buttons, the magnetized ball moves along a tick-tack-toe-style grid until it rests in one of nine niches that changes the programmable channels, according to Coolest-Gadgets. Just don't lose that ball, or you could end up listening to Paul Harvey for the rest of your life.

What? What's this you say? You don't have a private jet? Well, then. If you did, you'd probably be interested in knowing that TAG Aircraft Interiors ("Your Palazzo in the Sky") has teamed up with Italian design house Versace to create custom interiors for the private plans of the uber-rich. This way, you don't have to worry about whether or not the colors of the seat cushions go well with the paint job on the interior of your in-flight hot tub. You'll have Versace's experts to do all that dirty work for … Read more

Laptops aren't the most serious of energy hogs. (Oink, oink.) But LG Electronics, the Korean company that's made everything from the Chocolate phone to the Swarovski-studded fridge, is hoping to make them even more power-efficient. Treehugger posted recently about the e-Book, which is powered by a biofuel cell and uses organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) instead of an LCD screen. Oh, and it's pretty enough that it was nominated for a Red Dot Award this year.

But if this thing ever hits the market, I bet it'll have one biohazard of a price tag.

Leave it to the Brits to make tea stains fashionable.

British designer Laura Bethan Wood has designed a tea cup that patterns over time from tea stains. The bone china cups with saucer are about $69 and can be ordered directly from the designer on her Web site.

Cool Hunting says that the tea cup is meant to challenge the assumption that old is bad, as the pattern reveals itself only over prolonged use as the porous areas absorb tea.

Web site traffic statistics are usually pretty dull. Pie charts. Bar graphs. Line charts. Maybe, if you're lucky, there's a colorful gradient fill in there somewhere. But it doesn't have to be that way anymore, as digital designer James Spahr has figured out a creative way to turn Web traffic data into pretty patterns.

Here's how it works, in simplistic terms: Traffic spirals clockwise. A thick line represents more traffic than a thin line. The colors represent categories of Web sites, like generic pages as opposed to "hubs" or random links (like a shopping … Read more