Medalists at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will celebrate with circuit boards hanging from their necks.
That's right. Gold, silver, and bronze medals for the upcoming games will contain metal from recycled TVs, computers, and keyboards that might have otherwise ended up as e-waste. Vancouver metals giant Teck Resources is producing and supplying the medals along with the Royal Canadian Mint.
The 2010 medals are undulating rather than flat.
(Credit: Vancouver2010.com)To acquire the metal for the medals (with great mettle, no doubt), Teck is recovering materials from cathode ray tube glass, computer parts, and circuit boards through smelting. The process involves shredding, separating, and heating electronic components, then combining the byproducts with metals from other sources.
More than 1,000 medals are currently being produced for the 2010 games. But geekiness isn't the only thing that makes them distinct.
They feature contemporary Aboriginal artwork by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage. Also, the medals are wavy rather than flat, a form inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow, and mountainous landscapes found in the Games region and throughout Canada.
This Olympic USB flash drive bears the same design as the Olympic torch.
(Credit: Lenovo)Computer maker Lenovo threw down some dough to become a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, not only designing the Olympic torch but sponsoring athletes and supplying computers for the games' data and media teams. But the Chinese company may make some money back by hawking items like Olympic-themed USB flash drives that sport hefty price tags.
While America got stuck with boring flash drives bearing only the Olympic rings, visitors to Lenovo's Chinese Web site fared better with five types of interestingly designed USB flash drives (site in Chinese).
Lenovo announced the Olympic torch design, also featured on a Lenovo laptop, in early 2008, though the design didn't impress first reviewers.The 4GB flash drive sells for the equivalent of around $142.
Other patterns from Lenovo feature the adorable cartoon mascots of the Beijing Olympics: Beibei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing, and NiNi. A medallion style is currently sold out on Lenovo's Chinese site, while a $29 4GB stick, and a $58 256MB oval-shaped drive, are for sale, with inexplicable price differences. The last of Lenovo's designs is a $58, 1GB oval flash-drive sporting the Olympic rings.
The five cartoon mascots from the Beijing Olympics adorn several types of flash drives, including this style.
(Credit: Lenovo)But perhaps the coolest, and most unnecessarily over-designed Olympics-related flash drives can be found on Everything USB.
According to that site, Lenovo also makes a set of titanium Olympic flash drives engraved with the Olympic mascots and sold in a mahogany box. However, we could not find those drives on Lenovo's Chinese site, nor could we locate the price. But if one Olympic flash drive is $142, imagine the cost of five metal ones with wooden box.
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Haier's bubble-shaped Experience Center in Beijing also serves as a giant screen where evening light shows will highlight the company's history and environmental-protection efforts.
(Credit: Haier )In between attending track-and-field events and trying to locate uncensored Web sites, visitors to the Beijing Olympic Games will be able to experience a day in the life of a futuristic-home dweller.
China-based appliance manufacturer Haier on Wednesday opened the doors to its "Making the World a Home" Experience Center in Chaoyang Park, Beijing. The center, which will be open to the public for the duration of the Summer Games, will take visitors through 16 hours in the life of a consumer using Haier's U-Home (Ubiquitous Home) technology, which relies on the Internet, mobile communication, and fixed telephone networks to let users communicate with their home appliances anytime, anywhere.
Haier's vision of such a day will look something like this: In the morning, while the consumer is exercising, the jogging machine will monitor his pulse rate or energy consumed. When he leaves home, U-Home technology will automatically shut down the lights and rev up the security system. Back home in the evening, the intelligent bed will recognize when the consumer is ready to turn in, and it will shut down the lights and the television, and close the curtains.
The bubble-shaped Experience Center also serves as a giant screen where evening light shows will introduce Haier's history, Olympic sponsorship, and environmental-protection efforts. The entertainment area of the center will offer virtual sport games that let visitors test technology by Haier, which is also an official white-goods sponsor for the Beijing Olympic Games.
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(Credit:
De Vere's of London )
It looks like the Apple iPhone is getting a piece of the Olympic action. In commemoration of the upcoming Beijing summer games, diamond jeweler De Vere's of London has unveiled its latest creation, the diamond-encrusted Beijing Olympic iPhone.
Made up of 88 diamonds set on the front metal bezel, the Diamond iPhone is designed to coincide with the opening day of the Olympics on August 8, a date that reads 08/08. More importantly, the number 88 also symbolizes wealth for the Chinese.
Ironically, wealth is probably what you'll need to own one of these exclusive diamond-studded iPhones. De Vere's charges a hefty $8,219 for setting the white F/VS diamonds on the iPhone. Believe it or not, customers will still have to provide their own iPhone.
For those who have a bit more spare change in their pockets, De Vere's also offers a 168-diamond version of the Diamond iPhone for about $15,440. Alternatively, you can opt for a 28-diamond version that will set you back, oh, a mere $3,365. (For the Chinese, 168 symbolizes "always prosperous," while the number 28 is usually seen as a sign of "easy wealth").
(Via Crave Asia)
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