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Electrolux kitchen laptop concept disregards grease, common sense
Nothing about this Electrolux concept screams practicality. It's basically an induction powered hotplate attached to a laptop, with a removable cutting board sandwiched between the screen and burner. Designer Dragan Trenchevski envisions this portable cook top as a boon to travelers and campers who can pull up recipes while whipping up meals miles from home, thanks to its 3G connection and battery pack. Of course, grease splatters, CPUs overheat, and an induction cook top will chew threw a battery in no time. But, like we said, the Mobile Kitchen Concept is all about flash -- not feasibility. We've got one more pic after the break, but you'll find tons more at the source.
iPhone turntable concept brings dropped calls to your record collection
Any audiophile worth their weight in 180 gram vinyl will gladly tell you that nothing sounds quite as good as a record. Unfortunately, the format has a few major drawbacks, like a lack of portability and the fact that it really sucks at making phone calls. The iPhone, on the other hand, is light years ahead of those fronts -- well, one of out two ain't bad. This new concept from designer Olivier Meynard offers the best of both worlds, embedding a horizontal iPhone dock next to a wheel of steel, so you can play back your favorite LP through the built-in speakers and encode those tracks as MP3s, which are uploaded to your handset as it charges. Finally, a way to turn your long out of print prog rock albums into ringtones, as they were meant to be heard.
Conceptual 'Fujitsu Lifebook X2' folds into quarters, makes regular notebooks look lame
Being that doomsday and the robot apocalypse are nearing quickly, now seems an appropriate time to gaze into the future of laptop design, right? Well, maybe those anomalies aren't actually around the corner, but you know us -- we always fancy a warm cup of concept tea. Designer Park Hyun Jin over at Yanko recently posted some renders of the Fujitsu Lifebook X2, a laptop-like invention of his fervent imagination that allows for two orientations thanks to its four folds. The design features a full QWERTY keyboard that can be used when the notebook is folded out in full, as well as a half-folded option with an onscreen keyboard. Naturally, we'd love for this concept design to become a reality, but we can't wrap our brains around the seam between the two screens. Well actually, we could probably get used to it. Update: We got a request from the designer to pull this prototype, which was submitted to a competition and leaked. To be nice, we're complying.
Fiskar's '88' headphone amplifier concept touts bombastic knobs, oodles of style
There are headphone amplifiers, and then there's Fiskar's 88. Designer Edouard Urcadez took the liberty of utilizing the Fiskar brand on this here concoction, which features an unorthodox form factor, larger-than-life volume / tone knobs, an array of rear outputs and a Made in Finland badge. There's no theoretical specifications to simmer on, but the inclusion of speaker outputs leads us to believe that we're looking at a dual-stage amp or one with far more power than most headphone pushers. We've never actually seen an inanimate object cry for production, but we're going to stare at the image above a bit longer just in case. There's a first time for everything, right?
In & Out Door concept keeps you from pushing when you should pull, vice-versa
Door handles are a simple concept, but not so simple that they don't require instructions. Lovely, minimalist doors worldwide are made less strikingly beautiful by the application of crude "PUSH" and "PULL" stickers, distractions that could be done away with if we all used the In & Out Door, a concept by Korean student Jeon Hwan Soo. On one side it has a handle for pulling. On the other? A pad for pushing. Either activates the latch as shown below, making it reasonably simple to figure out what you're supposed to do. It's just a concept now so it's only capable of opening up theoretical portals, but we expect to see these showing up at the Midvale School for the Gifted very soon.
No Comment: iPhone ear cushion
I remember the first time I made a call on my iPhone all the way back in 2007; I was truly smitten with Apple's revolution. However, during the second call, I realized that the sharp edge really was uncomfortable to my delicate, mirror-encrusted earlobes. Fast-forward to 2010, and the problem has only been exacerbated by the folks at Cupertino. Sure, iPhone 4 is a beauty to behold, but while it's easy on the eyes, it's certainly hard on the ears. Enter Yanko Design. The Earos ear cushion is truly one of the most elegant and striking solutions to the ear pain woes of the masses. Finally, we can answer a call on our beloved iPhones without wincing in pain as we bring it near our noggins. YD points out that ear discomfort is not the only symptom that they're curing. The Earos doubles as protection from ambient device heat as well as an ear shield for use in colder climates. As a no-charge bonus, the Earos can be flipped around and used as a display stand on flat surfaces. There is currently no word on pricing or availability, but you can guarantee that this will be in my stocking if they can release this in time for Christmas delivery -- even if it does qualify as a No Comment. [via AppAdvice]
Stamp.y Digital Camera concept doesn't look particularly pocket-friendly
We're sometimes a little sad that the joy of gathering with family and friends 'round the photo album has been reduced to the shallow act of pasting a link into a text field, so we're always intrigued when some gadget designer finds an interesting way to bring us back to something physical. The Stamp.y from designer Jinhee Kim certainly does that in an interesting way -- but perhaps not an entirely practical one. It's a digital camera with a very unusual shape and design allowing it to act as a rubber stamp. Take your picture through the proboscis-shaped lens, pop off the back, dab it on the handy ink pad, and then stamp that picture onto whatever you like. We think this would be huge in schools as a great way for kids to decorate their book covers, but physical textbooks will surely be a thing of the past before this becomes a reality.
Electrolux Bio Robot Refrigerator: because you want to store your food in ectoplasm
Well, what do we have here? Oh, just an insane fridge concept that we can really get behind... because we want to store our food in green goo without using any electricity. The Bio Robot refrigerator works by cooling a biopolymer gel via luminescence. Food gets loaded into the gel, and the surface tension of the gel creates an individual pod for each piece added, meaning that nothing is touching anything else, and no odors transfer. The refrigerator itself would take up a lot less space than current models, and could apparently be stored horizontally, vertically, or in zero gravity conditions! So how close to reality is this thing? Sadly, probably not very. Hit up the source for more images of this kitchen beauty.
3 Pin British Plug: go ahead and yank it
Yanking cords out of sockets is a terrifically satisfying way to take out your aggression on electronics, but it's not very safe. This British-only concept solution seeks to change all that, with some internal fortification and an external ball attachment to show you where to grip. Why not make a ritual out of rebellion?
Solar Pebble lamp doubles as a gadget charger, world changer
It might not change the world, but it won't be for lack of trying. Plus Minus Solar has designed what it's calling the LED Solar Pebble, a multifaceted device that requires just a pinch of sunlight (or maybe gobs of it, actually) in order to generate artificial light. And charge your arsenal of gizmos. It's engineered to be built at a low cost and used in developing nations, but unfortunately there's no confirmation on what exactly it'd charge. 'Course, it's just a concept as of now, so we're guessing a micro-USB and mini-USB socket could be tossed on by whatever manufacturer would be kind enough to get this to a production line. Right, prospective manufacturers? %Gallery-89647%
Head-mounted webcam gets, records funny looks
We've all been there before -- you're an investigative journalist and you need some hidden camera footage of a rave or male model convention. Of course, we've seen plenty of wearable camcorders in the past, but none with that special something -- until now. This unnamed concept design by William Gerwin (and sponsored by Kodak) puts a 10.1 megapixel webcam, pico projector, and WiFi right where you never knew you needed 'em -- on your head. The designer envisions wireless connectivity and P2P support for the thing, but as of right now it looks like little more than a couple pieces of hardware super-glued to a nicer than most pair of headphones. If this thing ever becomes real, we'll let you know -- in the meantime, hit the source link to get a closer look.
Origami-like Play MP3 Player concept makes tunes, not cranes
We're going to go ahead and admit up front that this is not the most practical concept we've seen come out of Yanko Design before, but it is quite intriguing -- even if its name is not. Called the Play MP3 Player it's inspired by origami and to control it you fold it to create the shape of what you want to do. A triangle to play, a square to stop, and overlapping triangles to go forward or backward (another pic after the break explains it). You can see where the lack of practicality comes in, as it'd be a chore to fold and refold this thing every time you wanted to skip that Miley album your little sister wanted you to hear, but it is rather more intuitive than certain other screenless MP3 players.
Yanko Design opens store, oodles of concepts now on the market
Yanko Design is well known for digging up some of the most amazing, most commercializable concepts on the world wide web, and today the site has finally taken the next logical step. With every awesome mockup comes the inevitable question: "Yo, holmes -- where can I buy this?" With the grand opening of the YD Store, you can now exchange your currency for such luxuries as the d°light Huggable Pillow, Magnetic Spice Stand, Sorapot and Cloud Chair. We couldn't be happier to see some of these incredible designs ushered into the market place, and if you're feeling the same, you can give that read link a tap to enter a deep, dark world that's bound to drain your wallet dry. Have fun!Update: Seems the site is getting battered at the moment, though we're sure they're buying more bandwidth as we speak. Right?
New-fangled digital measuring cup actually improves upon the original
Now, there may not be a whole lot to this one -- it's simply a measuring cup with a backlit LCD on the handle that tells you the exact volume of the liquid you're measuring -- but it's a step forward in the culinary world, where it still feels like it's 1917 a lot of the time. The Smart Measure -- which started out as a concept on Yanko Design and has been picked up for distribution by kitchen giant Taylor -- boasts a bunch of preset measurements for ingredients in common recipes, and it can also do conversions for you, as well. There's no word on pricing, but we're expecting to see it hit shelves this fall.
USB finger drive concept attempts to keep up with reality
Yanko Design is certainly home to many far-fetched, never-to-be-realized gadgets, but this so-called You-SB finger drive isn't one of them. In fact, it's already a bit behind the curve. Apparently, after losing a finger in a motorcycle accident last year, Jerry Jalava took advantage of the situation to get a 2GB USB drive installed in his new prosthetic finger, which he's happy to inform us stores the Billy Linux distribution and the movie Freddy Got Fingered. The drive is even removable to allow for upgrades or different drives for different tasks. Can a pico-projector finger be far behind?Read - Yanko Design, "You-SB"Read - Jerry Jalava's Flickr page[Via Grinding.be]
Colorsonic concept MP3 player turns your tunes into groovy colors, man
MP3 players with screens that show pretty colors are certainly nothing new, but Rhea Jeong's Colorsonic concept is something rather different. It's a little donut-shaped device that lacks a proper display, instead lighting its sections up to represent different types of music tagged using software at home -- think Shuffle meets mood ring. You could drop all your Sabbath and miscellaneous metal on black, Green Day and various faux-punk on green, and your Clannad and other soothing tunes on a nice dreamy blue. Then, just touch that section of the player and let the music flow. The thing even has storage for two impossibly small Bluetooth earbuds (shown below) that can nestle within the center (aka the Munchkin/Timbit zone). While we generally hate being teased by fanciful concepts as much as you, but this one was developed as part of an internship at Samsung, meaning there might just be a chance it could come to fruition. Sorry, colorblind folks, you'll have to stick with other oddly shaped ways to play your tunes.
