technology :: a house that tweets

This quaint antique cottage is anything but antique technologically speaking. It has it's own twitter account and tweets when someone leaves the water running, dinner is ready and even when a mouse has been caught in a trap (there are a lot of those out in the English countryside). The houses Master,  Dr Andy Stanford-Clark - who has the job title of distinguished engineer and master inventor for IBM computers (no wonder!) has rigged the 16th century dwelling with hundreds of sensors linked to the popular social networking website so it can tweet it's updates regularly.The house can also be monitored and controlled from his cell phone when he's  away .

Read more details about this home tweet home here. I't JUST COOL!

technology :: blue tooth blings it

I always swore I would never wear one of those hideous looking blue tooth headsets on my ear. Ears are meant for prettier things - diamonds, gold, bling. Enter the Orb, probably the coolest looking blue tooth around! This transformer type headset morphs from a useful little ring you wear on your finger into a sleek and stylish appliance hanging from your ear. While in its ring form, its flexible organic light emitting diode (FOLED) displays caller ID, calendar items and voice-to-text info, and if you want to answer a call, simply take the ring off your finger, twist it into its headset shape, and hang it on your ear for hands-free talking.

Orb will go on sale in January 2010, with the base model selling for $129, and the Deluxe Edition (the one with that FOLED display) following in April for $175. JUST COOL of course!

via dvice

technology:: shoe phone get's smart

Maxwell Smart had one, Shaq had one, so why can't we have one? We can. What is it? A shoe phone. What started out as just a prop for a church camp drama presentation that had a "Get Smart" theme, has mushroomed into a popular "make it yourself" project for DIY geeks, since 32 year old Australian inventor, Paul Gardner-Stephen posted instructions on how to make it online. In a world filled with IPhones ,blackberries and blue tooth technology, a primitive novelty like Maxwell Smart's shoe phone may seem out of place, but the inventor emphasizes that it has it's practical applications too, like helping the elderly.Gardner-Stephen says the shoes could hold sensors to detect if a wearer falls, making them particularly useful in nursing homes and aging-care facilities.

via stuff

technology :: watch of the future

Sleek. Cool. The M1Watch by Michael Viscione.

What a great concept! MV's watch has a plethera of "gotta have" functions! The M1 is a blue tooth ready watch that displays the time, date, email updates, wifi access, the weather, directions, and even your heart rate. With its four button design paired with wireless BT headphones, it can skip through play lists , bring up detailed weather forecasts, and even answer a call with out ever reaching into your pocket. I guess kind of like an IPhone on a wrist band... only cooler...and cooler looking!

MV's solution creates one universal device that consolidates all the other devices into one tiny package , easily accessible and easy to use. JUST COOL I think!

-MAV

technology :: movies that smell good

Everyone jokes about it, but Smellovision may be closer than we think! Smelling your movies via a clever concept called SMELLIT, from Portuguese designer Nuno Teixeira, brings contextual smells to the viewers schnoz  via 118 aroma cartridges, each triggered by reading "smell information" embedded in a DVD.

SMELLIT works like your printer, using smell cartridges instead of ink cartridges. While your DVD player reads the video and sound information from your DVD , SMELLIT processes the same DVD with the ”smell CARD” decoding all the smell information from 10 to 20 seconds ahead of the actual scene so that the aromas (pleasant and not so pleasant!) have time to reach the viewers. After decoding the smell information, the cartridge vaporizes a very small amount of concentrated “smell gel”, and the central fan difuses the smell throughout the space. It can be loaded with 118 cartridges, each one with a different concentrated “smell gel”. All the cartridges can be easily changed and last 3 times more than a regular ink cartridge.

When and if this will be hitting the market anytime soon is unknown but the concept is JUST COOL!

via behance

cars ::dimple technology

Sharks have them, Shirley Temple has them, so do golf balls. So why not cars? What are they? Dimples. You've heard about how the dimples on a golf ball actually make it go farther and Shark skin is the same way.(I don't know about Shirley Temple though;) ) So why not add dimples to a cars exterior surface and increase mileage and efficiency? That's what SkinzWraps, a company known for making mostly commercial vehicle wraps, has gone and done - they've wrapped a car in dimples. The company claims an 18-20% improvement in MPG and it's been confirmed too! This new technology is a product called MPG-Plus™. MPG-Plus™ significantly reduces a vehicle’s drag by altering the distribution of air pressure surrounding the vehicle. Although I'm not a wiz at physics by any means, it all sounds good to me. Read more about cars with dimples at the Skinzwraps Blog. 

via treehugger

telephone call :: who was that??

Ever needed to find out who belonged to, or where a telephone number came from? It happens a lot to me. I'll see a call on my caller ID that I missed while I was out, with no name and wonder who it was that called. Or I'll be going through old scraps of paper on my desk or in my purse, with just a telephone number scratched on them. Its frustrating, not knowing who these numbers belong to.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and the internet, help has arrived. I found an excellent resource on the web that, when you type in the telephone number, it will provide the first and last name, street address, city, and state of the owner. It's called Reverse Phone Book Lookup.

The website, called 50statephonebook.org, also has additional reverse phone book services like tracer reports, background checks, an article library and more. It has lots of information that you're sure to find handy. So check it out!

technology :: ban the calls!

Telemarketers are annoying! I sometimes think they call us just to annoy us ! I'll be making dinner and who calls? You guessed it - the dreaded telemarketer. Thats why I screen all my calls with caller ID. But even then it sometimes doesn't work. It comes up on the caller ID as " anonymous caller", "private caller" or "New York Call". Now there's a place on the web that you can register your phone number, and it will remove your number from any database telemarketers and best of all, it's free. It's called "National No Call Registry" . This nifty website also has a service that will identify the anonymous caller. So Now, People, You Can Find Out Who Called You. It does all the detective work for you, all you do is type in the annoying telephone number! JUST COOL, huh?
It's about time someone took care of those annoying callers!

technology :: metro napping and the energy pod

It never fails. Everyday around 3PM your eyes start to droop and the urge to kick up your feet and get a little shut eye kicks in. Enter MetroNaps.com and the latest trend in power napping via their geeky looking pod chair that looks part beauty salon hairdryer and part space age cool. Workers around the world have been caught snoozing away in these Energy Pods that recline and enclose the snoozer in a privacy shield of comfort, then twenty minutes later gently wake them with a soft alarm and vibration. For a mere $8,000 + per chair, MetroNap promises to refresh and rejuvinate and will actually improve ones productivity. Australia has just okayed these Energy Pods for use in hospitals, not for the patients but for the doctors that need a reprieve from their long tiring work hours. A smart idea that will probably cut down on missing sponges and surgical instruments.

Hey, I want one of these. Their JUST COOL!

TECHNology :: multi-faceted sound

It looks peculiar. But that's because its inspired design enables the MONO SPEAKER to play surround sound as it is meant to be heard.

Simon Denzel, a UK-based designer, came up with this modern idea of how surround loudspeakers could look, behave and integrate in various settings. The result is the very special Mono speaker, a piece of audio tech made to be wall-mounted in the corners of your room and whose purpose is to rid the listening experience of undesirable interferences that usually plague traditional systems and get straight to that memorable JURASIC PARK sound that surround sound is supposed to be all about.

via yanko design

Sounds JUST COOL to me!

Technology :: answers through the looking glass

If only searching for information was this easy! The Looking Glass is a design concept by Tokyo resident Mac Funamizu that would provide all the answers you're looking for via a see through tablet. The user of the device essentially "frames" his question by using the device to frame a picture. The device takes a picture of what the user sees through the glass, analyzes the image, and then outlines key parts of the image, adding information from internet sites. Not only would it work from internet pictures but it would be used in real life applications as well (such as the apple)

A concept that I hope becomes reality soon. It's JUST COOL!

via petitinvention

furniture :: sleeping in an egg

Feeling a little sleep deprived? Here's an uncommon bed that will lull you to sleep in no time! Lomme presents a new sleeping experience in it's Lomme Bed that focuses on inducing quality sleep. This JUST COOL hip and modern egg-shaped bed combines minimalist design with sophisticated, high tech features to create a protected, relaxing space ideal for rest and rejuvenation. Don't we all need this?

The Lomme is the ultimate combination between nature, art and design and the result of two years of research into common sleep problems and natural therapies. The challenge therefore, was not just a design one, it was a combination of multiple elements that once achieved, resulted in the Lomme - Light over Matter Mind Evolution.

The naturally shaped sleeping pods mix state of the art sleep-enhancing technology with one of the oldest organic shapes in nature, the egg.

Lovin' this design but it's a bit much for my interior. Maybe it will fit yours?
Read more about it at www.Lomme.com

via geekandhype

technology :: get an ear full

Holeder Earphones - a design concept from Yoonsang Kim. The attractive shape is multipurposed, fitting snugly in your ear, and hooking together around your neck when not in use. Heck it even looks good! Plus it prevents bacterial growth which is 700 times more concentrated in regular ear buds. Ya gotta love that!

These things are JUST COOL ! Now when and where can I get them?

from yankodesign

Macally Retractable earphones for iPod

technology :: OLED - light of the future

It's the light of our future and it's called ELOD.

Very soon, we will be illuminating whole walls of our homes with OLED wallpaper that will turn them into ambient lighting and even massive whole wall televisions. OLED will illuminate an office cube or a bike, even the veneer of your countertops, cupboard doors, and appliances making them light sources for your home! Just what is OLED?

Short for organic light-emitting diode, OLED is a display device that sandwiches carbon-based films between two charged electrodes, one a metallic cathode and one a transparent anode, usually being glass. The organic films consist of a hole-injection layer, a hole-transport layer, an emissive layer and an electron-transport layer. When voltage is applied to the OLED cell, the injected positive and negative charges recombine in the emissive layer and create electro luminescent light. Unlike LCDs, which require backlighting, OLED displays are emissive devices - they emit light rather than modulate transmitted or reflected light. OLED was invented by Eastman Kodak in the early 1980s. It is beginning to replace LCD technology in handheld devices such as PDAs and cellular phones because the technology is brighter, thinner, faster and lighter than LCDs, uses less power, offers higher contrast and is cheaper to manufacture.

General Electric is a leader in OLED technology and the quest to push efficiency in lighting applications to the next level. The glimpses we’ve been seeing are an exciting taste of what’s to come. Check out this video by GE that explains this mercury free and green technology and how it will change the way we think about lighting.

WOW! OLED is JUST COOL!

fashion - time on our hands...

Just cool is this conceptual design of a watch worn on your thumbnail! To celebrate its 150th Anniversary and demonstrate an ongoing commitment to design and innovation, international watch brand Timex collaborated with Core77 to carry out a global design competition: Timex2154: THE FUTURE OF TIME that could highlight the state-of-the-art timekeeping pioneered by the company. This was just one of the runner ups.

The TX54 is a disposable timepiece worn on the user’s thumbnail. While its translucency makes it blend seamlessly with the hand, a selection of text color options and a glow feature that activates on command make it easy to read.

Friend says: Timekeeping goes off the wrist and onto the fingernail. Let’s see, when I fly to Europe, I can keep New York time on my left hand and London on the right!

I want it!

fashion - instant makeup artist...

Like press on nails for eyes, ColorOn takes the guess work out of applying makeup. With one easy "apply,press and peel" application, you can have perfectly made up eyes in a matter of seconds and in a range of beautiful shades and designs. Look at these wild ones below! Invented by makeup artist, Irina Iosilevich,exclusively for Sephora.
Now this is something I gotta have ;)

ColorOn - Instant Eyes!

So easy and JUST COOL!

architecture - reserve your rotating apartment now...

It looks like something from out of a science fiction movie but Dynamic Tower, the World's First Building in Motion is happening now. Rotating Tower Technology Company, headed by the Dynamic Architecture Group, recently revealed the design and master plan of the the first Dynamic Tower in Dubai, a rotating building, which will have 80 floors and be 420 meters (1,380 feet) tall. Apartments will range in size from 124 square meters (1,330 square feet), to Villas of 1,200 square meters (12,900 square feet) complete with a parking space inside the apartment. As of June 24th they are taking reservations for the apartments which start at a pricey $3000 per sq foot.

The mastermind behind the plan is Italian visionary Dr. David Fisher.
"The Dynamic Tower is environmentally friendly and the first building designed to be self-powered, with the ability to generate electricity for itself, as well as for other nearby buildings. It achieves this feat with wind turbines fitted between each rotating floor. An 80-story building will have up to 79 wind turbines, making it a true green power plant," Dr. Fisher says.

watch the movie and then read more here>>>>