From the back, you'd think this man was injured and wearing some sort of neck and body brace.
(Credit: Substitute Materials)We've heard of sleep pod facilities in New York for sleep-deprived cubicle dwellers seeking some shut-eye. But here's a way to have your power nap upright while still appearing to keep to the spirit of a city that never sleeps.
This crazy contraption--by the amusing one-man Office for the Development of Substitute Materials--was actually tried and tested during a 40-minute snooze along Broadway as part of the Conflux 2009 festival, a gathering of artists, technologists, and urban adventurers.
Out of the box, you have a vertical bed that attaches conveniently to any subway ventilation grating for prop support; opaque sunglasses; free standing brolly; and noise-canceling headphones. And it all collapses into a totable briefcase.
That said, this isn't as elegantly simple as Japan's chindogu (art of useless idea) solution, the Commuter Chin Stand. Plus, it's always a bad idea to catch 40 winks in the middle of the Big Apple, where you'll be easy pickings for light-fingered pickpockets who'll clean you of everything but the braces you stand in. In short, you snooze, you lose.
A man takes a 40-minute "nap" at Broadway and 33rd St. in New York as part of the Conflux 2009 festival. He must have an incredible talent for tuning out honking horns.
(Credit: Substitute Materials)(Source: Crave Asia via DesignLaunches.com)
iLuv hits the wall with iMM9500 vertical CD/MP3 hi-fi audio aystem
iLuv's wall-mountable iMM9500 Vertical 4CD/MP3 Hi-Fi Audio System is due out in May.
(Credit: ILuv)If you ever wanted a Bang & Olufsen wall-mountable system but couldn't afford one, iLuv will be offering the poor man's version this May when it releases the iMM9500 Vertical 4CD/MP3 Hi-Fi Audio System with Subwoofer. No word yet on its price, but it has a built-in iPod/iPhone dock ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
(Credit:
Crave UK)
Had enough of IFA yet? Not us. We're excited about JVC's offering from the tech show in Berlin. Say "guten tag" to a new MiniDV camcorder, the GR-DA20.
It's quite a wide beast, the reason becoming apparent when you turn it around. The 61mm (2.4-inch) LCD screen doesn't flip out of the side, like on just about every other camcorder ever. Oh no. JVC has thrown out the rulebook and gone crazy with a wacky vertical-sliding screen.
The advantage of this unique arrangement is that you are looking straight at your subject, so it operates more like a viewfinder than the usual side-mounted screen. JVC reckons this gives you a greater range of viewing angles, and we think it may be right.
The GR-DA20 utilises a 1/6-inch 800k-pixel CCD sensor and records to MiniDV tapes, which seems a bit old-school for such a quirky bit of kit. There's a paucity of features, although some JVC goodies with fancy names have been included.
A super-high-band processor boosts the camera's horizontal resolution, and noise reduction combats flicker and heightens colour reproduction. Digital color nightscope, which has a certain Special Forces ring to it, drops shutter speeds for shooting in the dark. Other whistles and bells include picture effects, frames and, perhaps more usefully, scene transitions.
You also get a 34x optical zoom, with a possible digital hike to 800x. Functions are commanded with a four-way joystick controller beneath the LCD screen, next to one-touch buttons that toggle between manual and automatic mode, or check the battery juice. JVC claims the battery will keep tickin' for 115 minutes of continuous filming. Another button switches between standard (4:3) and widescreen (16:9) sizing, for viewing your dailies on larger televisions. There's also a DV output for easy transfer.
The JVC GR-DA20 is currently only available in Italy, of all places. U.K. and U.S. pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed.
(Source: Crave UK)
(Credit:
Neuro Logic Systems)
From our experience with such previous postings as the multiple mutant monitors, we know now that there's no such thing as two many screens for many Cravers out there. And if they're built into a dual touch-screen laptop, all the better.
But what if you want a more conventional keyboard set-up while saving footprint space on your desk? An outfit called Neuro Logic Systems, which has made products primarily for the medical field, has developed what it calls "the the world's first dual 19-inch LCD in a vertical format." It's not exactly portable, as OhGizmo points out, but the configuration does show what dual vertical screens would look like on a laptop, folding up when they're not in use. If you're just looking for dual desktop monitors, you might be better off with a pair of horizontal Siamese monitors.
(Credit:
Fun Shop)
It may be sold at a site called "Fun Shop," but we think this mouse is worth taking seriously, at least in concept. Rather than just flattening out its profile or some other flawed attempt at design, Evoluent made the "Vertical Mouse" with a far more practical ergonomic approach, as Coolest-Gadgets notes. Like the "Wow-Pen," this mouse is constructed to work with the natural movement of our hands. wrists and forearms. What a concept.
- prev
- 1
- next
