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PlayStation designer explains what the controller symbols mean, dishes a bit of history
Teiyu Goto, the man responsible for saving us from that kidney-shaped disaster above and delivering us the splendid original PlayStation's controller, has sat down for a little chat with Famitsu over in Japan. Involved in the PlayStation project almost from its inception, the designer played a pivotal role in shifting Sony away from its Nintendo copycat ways and into the world of handle-equipped button pads. Moreover, his brainbox is the one responsible for coming up with the now legendary geometric button icons adorning the PS controller's buttons. Here's how Goto explains their meaning: the circle and x represent yes and no, respectively, the triangle symbolizes a point of view, and the square is equated to a sheet of paper, there to be used to access menus. Frankly, given the backlog of memories we have built up with those keys, this explanation leaves us a little high and dry, couldn't he have made up some dragon-slaying stories? Hit the source below for the whole interview, it's well worth the read.
Yves Behar-designed GE WattStation electric vehicle charger spruces streets, juices cars
We've dug deep within the mind of Yves Béhar, and when that man designs something, we take notice. Particularly when the object of reference is an all-new electric vehicle charger that looks good enough for the sparkling streets of Minneapolis. Introduced today, the GE WattStation is a beautifully engineered EV charger designed to "accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles," and furthermore, allow "utility companies to manage the impact of electric vehicles on the local and regional grids." We're also told that it's capable of handling Level 2 (240V) charging, and if all goes to plan, it'll be available globally next year. Oh, and if you're considering a move to the inner city just to be near one, hold your horses -- a specialized home version will be available later in 2010. Hop on past the break for a little showboating from Yves himself. %Gallery-97435%
Palm loses webOS notifications architect to Apple
Rich Dellinger might not be a name you instantly recognize, but he is the dude credited with bringing about the unintrusive banner notification system that forms part of webOS' widespread appeal. And, as of today, he's also in the employ of one Steve Jobs. The new Senior UI Designer at Apple, Inc looks to have made his way through Palm's exit doors in the immediate aftermath of the HP takeover announcement, and joins Matias Duarte on the list of significant talent departures from the webOS design team. We expect Rich will be getting his teeth stuck into the iPhone's admittedly tired and obtrusive notifications, and hopefully sprinkling some of that webOS fairy dust into the next iteration of Apple's iOS. Let's be honest, who here hasn't dreamt of an iPre? [Thanks, Tal]
The Console Font sits at the crossroads of your typographic and gaming passions
Sometimes a story is best told with images -- and that's certainly the case with the Console Font. Put simply, designer Varun Vachhar has created a font based on the shapes of classic and current gaming gear, including but not limited to the PlayStation Move, the classic Atari 2600 controller, and yes, there's even a Nokia N-gage device in there. It's striking, for certain, but don't take our word for it -- hit the source link and see how it came to life.
Versace Unique launched, Vertu put on notice
And here it is, the Versace phone. Teaming up with the ModeLabs outfit that's already quite familiar with building lush phone-like pieces of handheld jewelry, Versace has just announced its first foray into the world of touchscreen communicators. It's quite the striking debut, too, coming with a sapphire crystal screen that is apparently the largest single piece ever offered in a consumer device, as well as gold plating and "high-tech ceramic" construction options. Hand assembly is an obvious standard feature, as is the Medusa-embossed leather back. LG is responsible for putting together the innards, including the 3-inch display and 5 megapixel camera, and worry not, we understand a black version will be available too. Look for the Unique in the usual places you find wildly overpriced gear starting next month.
Sky+HD issues limited edition 1TB set-top boxes for World Cup watching
Sky just can't quit with the limited edition set-top boxes, issuing its latest edition in honor of the 2010 World Cup. these Sky+HD boxes feature a 1TB hard drive inside and prints from fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, illustrator Gerald Scarfe and actor Phil Daniels on the outside. The pricetag is £249, plus installation fee, but we guess the real question is you can afford not to have a box celebrating 1966 when the games kick off June 11. Think about it. %Gallery-93210%
AlessiTAB Android touchscreen for fancy European kitchens announced for fall
Alessi, the Italian firm responsible for bringing the high-minded designs of folks like Philippe Starck to the kitchens of yuppies the world o'er, has recently announced the AlessiTAB, an all-in-one touchscreen device sportin' WiFi, a digital TV tuner, base station, up to six hours battery life, and of course that world famous Android OS. Designed by Stefano Giovannoni (you know the guy), this is made by Promelit, a prominent Italian device manufacturer. Of course, we live like hobos, blogging from crowded bus stations and beer halls, but maybe you live in an actual house -- in Europe? In that case, keep an eye out: it should make the scene this September for about €300 ($400). Video after the break.
With 'Ping' clothing, status updates literally tap you on the shoulder
Arduino-powered clothing is nothing new; we've seen CO2-detecting dresses, compass belts and inbox-checking T-shirts all within the last six months. But this Ping social networking garment concept is not quite the same thing. Where those were DIY projects with a single-function, Ping is the brainchild of a professional UI designer... and the fabric itself is a social network UI that registers your movements as attempts to communicate. Woven with flexible sensors and conductive threads connected to an Arduino Lilypad and Xbee, clothing made from the fabric can detect when you lift a hood or tie a ribbon and wirelessly send Facebook status updates accordingly -- or tap you on the shoulder in a number of different rhythms so you know not only when, but who might be trying to get in touch. Designer Jennifer Darmour imagines a future in which clothing offers full-body 3D gesture recognition and senses our environment. When we can reliably use it to control our computers, we hope she'll get in touch.
Noby Noby Boy out now on iPhone, and it's awesome
Keita Takahashi is a strange guy. He's most known for delivering the brilliant Katamari Damacy to us on the Playstation 2, a game in which you rolled around a ball that stuck to everything in the world, growing bigger and bigger as more and more stuff collected on it. But after that early success, he's gotten weirder, at one point saying that he didn't want to make games at all, and then releasing Noby Noby Boy for the PS3, an "experience" in which you stretch a tubelike creature named BOY, which in turn stretches another creature named GIRL, out into the solar system with all of other players in the world. It's the kind of thing that has to be played to be understood, and even then, you don't understand it so much as experience it. Noby Noby Boy on the iPhone is a similar release: while it's an app that comes from a game platform, it's actually in the Productivity section of the App Store. Even though the goal seems to again be to stretch the BOY out as far as you can, while in turn stretching GIRL along with PS3 players ("cross-platform compatibility!" exclaims the ingame Fairy, the most charming and weird help system you've ever seen), it's really just a chance for Takahashi's brilliance to run wild on the iPhone platform. There's more to explore, do and experience in this app than any other $1.99 app I've seen, and while some of it is wacky, and strange, and just plain crazy, Noby Noby Boy is a product of imagination -- both his and ours.
Jill Stuart's Sweet Limited Package PSP makes its own innuendos, coming in March
¥21,000 ($232), Japan, March 4. All of the foregoing should be irrelevant information because we're absolutely, positively, definitely sure you're not going to actually buy one. Right? Look, even if you genuinely don't object to Blossom Pink as your color scheme, and if you quite rightly find yourself attracted by the handy soft pouch for ensconcing your new PSP-3000 in, don't you care about what other people might think? And that's entirely aside from the generic and lazy expectation that women will buy anything so long as it bears a hue from the pink portion of the spectrum. Either way, this bundle of corporate greed and malevolence is coming in about a month's time, if you're weird enough to care. %Gallery-84471%
Keepin' it real fake, part CCXLVI: MP3/AVI/MP4 Player has 'stylish designer style' courtesy of Apple
It doesn't get much better than this, folks. If KIRF is an art form this right here is your Mona Lisa, your Starry Night, your... painting with that dude screaming on a wharf. You know the one. Anyway, this is about the best iPod Nano knockoff we've ever seen, cloning that flat, proprietary connector and sporting a UI that would make the most ardent of Apple fanboys look twice. It has a camera on the back like the 5G, but trumps the Nano with support for a predictably wide suite of file formats and a price of just $33.25. A bargain, so long as you don't mind the measly 2GB of storage and the nagging sense of guilt that comes with buying a fake -- even if it is a spectacularly good one. [Thanks, Larry]
Lenovo's ThinkPad doyen Arimasa Naitoh speaks about life, liberty and the T400s
First thing's first: the video beyond the break is certainly not up to our usually stellar standards. That said, the voice recording is clear enough, so you may consider it an audio presentation with the bonus of a shadowy figure making occasional hand gestures in time with what's being said (lighting also improves as you go along). Arimasa Naitoh is the man behind the ThinkPad line, having joined the product engineering team at IBM during the 1970s and shifting with the ThinkPad brand on to Lenovo in 2005. Currently the VP for Notebook Development and the head of the Yamato Development Labs, Naitoh-san was kind enough to do a presentation in London yesterday, in which he touched on the history of the fabled laptop line and was also not shy about trumpeting the key advantages of the latest T400s flagship model. So click past the break, turn your speakers up, and get educated by one of the true founding fathers of mobile computing as we know it today.
Need a Mac or iPhone developer? TUAW job boards are here!
Notice anything new at TUAW? We've had our job boards up for a week now, making sure all the tape would stick when new jobs were posted, and I'm proud to say that the doors are wide open for job seekers and for those looking to fill positions. We've got a button up top that'll take you straight to the boards, and on every post there's a handy button (see below) which will start populating with relevant job searches based on the content of our posts. Still not convinced? Did I mention that those looking for hires will see their jobs on our boards, on the boards at Download Squad, plus those jobs are sent over to Juju, Simply Hired, Indeed and other job aggregation services. TUAW and Download Squad together serve up over ten million views a month, and serve over a million visitors each month. If you don't think your job posting will get seen, think again. We'll also write up interesting and amazing people and positions right here on the main page of TUAW from time to time, further extending your hiring reach. If you're looking for developers, designers, Mac sysadmins or just about anything else, stop by the TUAW job boards and give it a try.
HTC gets fancy with designer Tattoo covers
We knew the Tattoo would be just a little funkier than the rest of the devices in HTC's Android line (though you've got to admit that the pink Hero is pretty freakin' funky), and that vision's now coming to fruition under a whole line of designer covers. Under the clever-but-obvious "Tattoo My HTC" and "Tattoo You" catchphrases, the company is now offering a selection of 15 replacement covers to spice up your sidearm for €11.99 (about $18) each -- and if you're not feeling any of them, you can design your own right from the comfort of HTC's site for €14.99 (about $22). That might seem outrageous for a battery cover, but the good news is that these aren't just pretty rear ends -- the covers replace both the front and back of the Tattoo for a whole-body makeover that's sure to impress your fashion-conscious friends. [Via Pocket-lint]
Ralph Lauren launches Make Your Own Rugby app
During the existence of the iPhone, shopping has always been the domain of Safari. Browsing web-based stores could be extremely awkward, thanks to bitty drop-down menus and inadvertent "quick views" of garments that you can't seem to click out of. No longer, my fellow clotheshorses. Today, Ralph Lauren launched a unique iPhone application integrating social media with fashion design and online shopping, called Make Your Own Rugby [iTunes link]. The app centers around Ralph Lauren's Rugby line, launched in 2004, that is inspired by the Ivy League atmosphere circa 1940 and that targets preppy college students. The company describes Rugby as "preppy meets urban," though you will only qualify for street cred through a few light touches such as embroidered skulls. The fact that the skull is embroidered on a varsity sweater probably won't do you much good in the back alleys, but you can hope.The MYO Rugby app allows the user to select a blank rugby shirt, polo, sweater, or jacket from a set of stock designs and customize it with as many distinguished crests, football-themed patches and letters as they want. You can use it to design and purchase clothing for yourself, or you can be a little more creative (and financially devil-may-care) and make designs to be displayed for browsing in the application or to share with friends.
Samsung's Armani alliance soldiers on with W820 / W8200 slider
So far, "understated" isn't a word we've been comfortable associating with Giorgio Armani's telephonic ventures with Samsung -- particularly the flashy Night Effect, featuring a glowing Armani logo on the side. We'll go out on a limb and say the latest effort out of South Korea isn't quite as insane as the Night Effect, but a gold finish is always a step in the right direction if attracting as much attention as humanly possible with a piece of electronic equipment stuck to your face is your goal. It looks like the slider will find a home on domestic carriers KTF and SKT, and as far as we can tell, it's not the rumored WinMo-based Armani 2 -- but it does have a 5 megapixel cam, WVGA AMOLED touchscreen, T-DMB tuner, and the adoration of... well, someone, we're sure. Let us know when you find 'em. No word on pricing or a release date, but take this as a sign that the Armani lovers out there have nothing to fear if they're looking to replace that tweaked F480. [Via Samsung Hub]
Palm Pre designers sit down to talk, reminisce and revel
By now, you know precisely what the Palm Pre is capable of. You know the ins and outs of the user experience, and you've probably got a solid idea of whether or not you'll be lined up come June 6th to claim one as your own. But here's a side you probably haven't heard: the voice of the design team. At long last, the masterminds behind Palm's comeback phone have finally sat down to talk about the build process and what drove them to create both the Pre and webOS. Not surprisingly, most of it came from the desire to truly revolutionize the mobile experience, one that's been generally poor for far too long. In separate (but equally awesome) interviews, Michelle Koh and a gaggle of design engineers (including Matias Duarte, Mike Bell, Peter Skillman and Michael Abbott) have opened up to spill their soul on rejuvenating the company with a single product. We won't issue any spoilers here, but we'd argue that the read links below are required reading if you're even remotely interested in this handset.Read - Michelle Koh interviewRead - Design team interview
Engadget is looking for a lead designer / developer!
You guys may not know this, but we have some really, really cool stuff coming up in the world of Engadget -- and not just on the editorial front. In fact, we're currently looking for a salaried, full-time designer with backend / developer chops to join us in the creation and maintenance of said cool stuff. If you're an incredibly smart, talented, hard-working human that loves Engadget, happens to have killer design sense, and knows their way around a screen full of code -- we'd like to speak to you. Keep in mind that we'll only be looking at candidates with a portfolio, and we're going to be seriously scrutinizing the work that we see. Read on for a list of our requirements.
More designer WinMo 6.5 themes get pictured
Not into that Mizrahi theme that Microsoft showed off for Windows Mobile 6.5 a few days ago? No worries -- there are others in the pipeline, too, and odds are you'll be able to find something you like in here (either that, or your tastes are badly misaligned with the world's designerati, apparently). istartedsomething reports that Microsoft has roped in Ron Arad, Vera Wang, Rock and Republic, and Diane von Furstenberg among others to beef up WinMo's fashion cred, and judging from the leaked wallpapers, they're moving in the right direction. 'Course, no number of pretty backgrounds can counter an aging kernel, but let's take this thing one step at a time, shall we? [Via wmpoweruser.com]
Rob Janoff and how he made the Apple logo
ZLOK has re-posted an article (originally meant for the defunct Sync Magazine) about Rob Janoff, a designer who's credited with coming up with the iconic-as-they-come Apple logo. It's actually a really short piece, but he does talk pretty candidly about where he got the idea: by buying a bag of apples and slicing them up in different ways.And the original design was just a single color Apple (which, of course, Apple has used versions of since), but Jobs thought the design should be more colorful, so the logo got its familiar colored bands. Janoff says he just threw the colors in where he thought they might fit, which makes sense -- they don't match up with the physical spectrum at all, they're just sort of in there.Cool to see that something now so well known started off so simply. Janoff did the work for a design firm, and says that nowadays, he gets "not even a holiday card" for his invention. Apple does take their time recognizing inventors, though -- maybe the card's in the mail.[via Cult of Mac]
