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Motorola’s Edge 50 phone series includes a wood option
Motorola has announced its next generation Edge smartphones.
Nintendo unveils a coral-colored Switch Lite
Nintendo has unveiled a new color for the Switch Lite, and it's just fine. You'd be mistaken for calling it pink, but it's actually considered coral -- "Living Coral" was Pantone's color of 2019, so that may well be the inspiration behind it. Like the rose gold craze a while back, this hue is proving pretty popular on electronics at the moment -- we've already seen this shade on the Pixel 4, for example. In any case, it's the first new color for the Switch Lite since it was released in September last year, and joins a line-up of turquoise, gray and yellow models. The pink coral version will be available in Japan on March 20th and the US on April 3rd.
Watch LG's G6 wallpaper get assembled by hand
During my visit to LG's headquarters in South Korea a few weeks ago, one surprising thing I learned was that the G6's hero wallpaper -- the one with a subtle "6" in it -- was not a digital render, but was in fact a combination of paper, acrylic, paint and two months of patience.
This swatch book from 1692 puts modern Pantone guides to shame
We're pretty tricky nowadays with our billions of colors, but Dutch masters weren't exactly chopped liver. As spotted by blogger Erik Kwakkel, a certain "A. Boogert" even created a volume with individually painted watercolor swatches showing nearly every conceivable hue. Housed at the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence, France, the sheer level of detail in its 800-plus pages is on par with modern Pantone guides. We can imagine how useful that would've been to fledgeling Rembrandts, though we doubt very many actually saw it. Since printing color was a big challenge back then, only a single copy exists, and it likely cost more than a painter's wage to crack it. For a closer look, check the full version at the E-Corpus digital library. Update: Blogger Erik Kwakkel has pointed out that it was him that first espied the ancient Dutch swatch book. The post has been updated to reflect that.
Case Scenario lets you get a jump on the 2013 Pantone Universe Color of the Year
All you fans of Pantone 17-5641 (aka "Emerald") should be happy -- that particular color has been selected as the Pantone Universe color of the year for 2013. Case Scenario, an accessory manufacturer, is celebrating with the release of their US$35 2013 Color of the Year Pantone Universe iPhone Case (there's a mouthful!). The case faithfully reproduces Pantone 17-5641 while protecting your iPhone 5, so you can use it to color match your hair, nails, car, house paint, clothing and tattoos to the 2013 Color of the Year. You'll be able to pick up the case at Bloomingdales and Urban Outfitters. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to dye my cat Pantone 17-5641.
Sharp Pantone 5 ICS phone has 8 color choices, 3.7-inch screen -- oh, and a radiation detector
Color us shocked and jealous at the new Android 4.0 phone from Sharp -- strange and wonderful even by Japan's highly elevated standards. The eight colors of the 3.7-inch Pantone branded phone from carrier Softbank are nice for sure, but the ability to sense between .005 and 9.99 μSv/h of radiation is in a new category altogether. Though Sharp has hedged a bit by describing the detector as "non-compliant" with Japan standards at this point, the possibilities seem endless for such a feature -- the ability to constantly report your location and radiation level to Facebook comes to mind, for instance. It will be offered -- in Japan only, we presume -- with a 4-megapixel rear camera, eight Pantone colors, 0.3-megapixel front camera, 854 x 480 resolution, and will be dust-proof and waterproof. The price hasn't been discussed yet, but we can't imagine too much quibbling whatever it is, for a phone that could keep you gamma-ray safe. Update: We have an image after the break showing how Sharp reduced the radiation circuits into a tiny package needed for the Pantone 5. The phone even has a dedicated button for the feature.
Pantone iPhone and iPad cases thumb their noses at Apple's grayscale aesthetic
Considering the affection the design community has for Apple products and the Pantone Matching System, combining these passions seems ripe for success. At least that's Case Scenario's theory with this new line of licensed cases: they're Pantone approved, so you know the hues and ridiculous code names are legit. In total, nine different versions are available for the iPhone and four for the iPad, providing plenty of style leeway should the colorware route be out of your budget. No word on pricing or availability just yet, so for now it looks like our Capsure color identifier will have to remain holstered until more details surface. %Gallery-109303%
Pantone's CAPSURE tells you what color anything is, easily separates salmon from rose
For web designers, tools that give instant color codes from anywhere on their display are invaluable. How much, then, would a tool that can do that in the real world be worth? Hopefully you said $649, because that's what Pantone is charging for its new CAPSURE. It's the latest in a long line of tools and utilities designed to help graphics-minded people get accurate color information, a sort of handheld scanner -- just place it on anything and it'll ID your hue in CMYK and good 'ol RGB. Think of it as a physical eye dropper that won't get your subjects wet, a device that just about anyone who's ever created a webpage would love to have. Sadly, at that price, it's bound for only the most well appointed of utility belts.
Pantone offers color libraries for iPhone, mostly
While it's been in the App Store for the last few days, Pantone is officially launching its color discovery and management app for iPhone today, called myPANTONE. The Pantone Matching System, among other Pantone products, is the indispensable color system for printers and graphic designers, and it offers a wider gamut of color than traditional process color printing. myPANTONE lets iPhone and iPod touch users discover new and interesting Pantone color combinations, share them, and create palette files suitable for importing in desktop applications. You can start one of two ways: You can scrub through one of Pantone's color sets, including PMS coated, uncoated and matte colors, Goe, Pastels, and Fashion + Home. You can then drag individual chips into an area below the fanbook display, and build a palette of five colors. You can view each color full-screen, and add tags to colors, too. Alternatively, you can take a picture with your iPhone (or select an image from Pictures on your iPod touch) and build a palette from the colors in that image. myPANTONE exports HTML colors and .ase files (suitable for importing in Adobe CS products). You can also share palettes directly with other myPANTONE users nearby, and also upload them to the mypantone.com website (annoying sound warning), which is very similar to Adobe's Kuler (though it uses Pantone swatches, naturally). This is all well and good, of course, but for the technical color professional? Meh.
