Design

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield recently joked about getting a gold watch for his retirement. But this hunk of spacetime would be far more appropriate.

RJ-Romain Jerome's deluxe Moon Orbiter is a tribute to "the conquest of space," just in case you were confused about who's in charge of the cosmos (not Canadians, I can assure you).

Previewed at Baselworld 2013, the Orbiter is a massive, three-quarter-inch-thick chunk of steel that looks as though it will either fire missiles or jump off your wrist and transform into an angry robot. … Read more

The 2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid goes on sale for $99,000 later this year. Or you could save $98,100 and go even greener with a human-powered Porsche Go-Kart. Not satisfied with just tackling the adult sports car market, the automaker is trying to corner the kids' market too.

The go-kart comes in a spiffy combination of black and orange. It's missing some of the luxuries normally associated with Porsche vehicles, like a windshield, headlights, and an engine. It can only hold up to 110 pounds, meaning you need to be a very small adult or one of the kids the kart is actually aimed at to take it for a spin.… Read more

When everything is going pear-shaped and you want to escape to Mars, just imagine you had this quirky piece of furniture.

The Massaud Canopy is like a personal refuge in your office or living room. Just jump into the recliner, yank the hood down, and poof! The world is gone.

Recently shown off at NeoCon 2013 in Chicago, the chair seems like a mix between an old-school hooded hair dryer and this disaster escape pod from Japan. … Read more

What's in a look? For some, design can mean the difference between embracing or rejecting a product. Earlier this week Apple unveiled iOS 7, prompting plenty of opinions about the dramatically refreshed look of one of the most-used mobile operating systems in the world.

One of the loudest -- well, visually loudest -- opinions can be found at Jony Ive Redesigns Things, a Tumblr run by designer Sasha Agapov. The visual blog hosts submissions of funny Ive-inspired products and logos from wisecrackers around the world, ranging from a seriously simplified dollar bill to a new look for the Apple logo. Browse through our brief gallery to see more.… Read more

Apple's new Mac Pro features a striking and quite innovative design -- instead of multiple heat sinks, there's a shared thermal core in the center that helps cool the CPU and twin GPUs at the same time.

As the fan is located right at the top of the thermal core, the Mac Pro features a large hole in its circular frame that's quite unheard of, especially when compared with your normal PC cases.

The unique design has prompted amusing comparisons to trash cans and Darth Vader, and spurred the creative Photoshopping crowd from around the world to innovate further on Apple's new machine. Click on our gallery for some of the funniest mockups we've seen. … Read more

With its six Thunderbolt ports and a "unified thermal core," Apple's new Mac Pro doesn't just sound like a futuristic piece of alien machinery, it also looks like something out of science fiction.

Far from the boxy designs of early personal computers, the new Mac Pro is compact, sleek, and nearly edgeless. The resemblance of the Mac Pro, which is aimed squarely at creative pros, to a tiny nuclear reactor is in part due to that heat sucking "thermal core" design. Heat generated from the Intel Xeon CPU and new solid-state drive (SSD) storage dissipates out through the core as the hot air rises -- a change from the typical front-to-back system of air flow in most consumer desktops.… Read more

Isn't it strange that we still use household power outlets that were popularized about a century ago? How much longer do we have to put up with this antiquated, multi-prong mess of spaghetti wires?

Well, 120-volt AC power outlets aren't going away anytime soon, but here's an idea that can make them less ugly -- and less dangerous for young children.

Inlet by LivingPlug is a sleek, customizable cover for the standard duplex electrical outlet. It's part of a $25,000 Kickstarter campaign that winds up next week. … Read more

Animals can do amazing things, and their behaviors and physical properties have inspired some groundbreaking tech. But what if we could do more with what animals make? Spider silk, for instance, has a tensile strength similar to that of alloyed steel -- and some fascinating potential uses.

But the silkworm is by far one of the most productive animals we rely upon. The silk it produces is strong, lightweight, soft, and beautiful -- and perhaps there are ways to use the creatures in new ways.

To explore the potential relationship between digital and biological fabrication, MIT Media Lab's Mediated Matter research group has created the Silk Pavilion -- a 12-foot-diameter dome that's a collaboration between human designers, machines, and grubs. … Read more

You're sitting in the living room. You're wondering if the Mother-in-Law's Tongue growing in a pot in the back room needs to be watered. You could get up and stick your finger in the dirt, or you could check your smartphone and see what the plant's personal sensor says.

The Motes Indiegogo project offers several different flavors of remote sensors that work with iOS devices (Android and Surface coming soon). Each sensor costs $39. That price point and the variety of sensors available has attracted plenty of interest. The Motes project has already doubled its $22,000 goal with 35 days of fundraising left.… Read more