desk
Latest
Wood computer workstation takes up space, looks great, does little else
Dear Diary 1.0 is a computer workstation / desk made entirely of wood. Designed by Marlies Romberg, a recent grad of the Utrecht School of Arts, this bad boy features a laser-cut keyboard, a display, mouse, and a porcelain and silicone USB thumb drive with a signet (one of those wax seals they always put on letters in old-timey movies). We're guessing that none of this stuff is functional (save maybe the thumb drive), but if you're in the mood for a good artist's statement, try this one on for size: "Dear Diary 1.0 is ... both the literal and the figurative manifestation of the worlds colliding. A physical reminder that increasingly, the real and the digital are becoming indistinguishable." Not bad, eh? Just slap your Amazon Kindling on the thing and your anachronistic office will be just about complete. More pics after the break.[Via Unplggd]
Liquid-cooled desk contains full-fledged PC, won't be sold at Ikea
We've heard of productive work spaces, but this thing has feng shui written all over it. The geeks and gurus over at Popular Mechanics were able to mix their construction and PC building skills in order to create the rather astounding desk that you see above. Aside from serving a purpose as a desk, looking fantastic and being next to impossible to keep clean, it's also a full-fledged computer. Packed within is a half-gallon of glycol, twin 300GB VelociRaptor hard drives, a GeForce GTX 280 GPU, seven fans, a Sony Blu-ray drive, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 3GHz Core 2 Quad processor and copious amounts of "win." Check the read link for a how-to guide... if you dare. [Thanks, Jay]
Mac + desk = Match made in heaven?
This article is old, but is still full of inspiration. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago when I was turning my dining room into a home office, and it's always neat to see how other people set up their work spaces. The News in Print selected these in 2008, but the advice in here in still relevant and you can see how people tackle different issues -- everything from small spaces to multiple monitors and how to use your Mac Mini in conjunction with two 50-inch plasma screens. My favorite? Check out the one featuring a MacBook Pro, four Apple Displays and several digital SLR cameras with zoom lenses.Unplggd also did an article back in 2008 on desk/computer combos, including pairing a MacBook Pro with a SOLo Lounge, a side table that uses solar power to charge your laptop if you have a spare $9,900 in Canadian dollars lying about. TUAW also had a Rig of the Day feature showcasing reader's setups. How have you dealt with the issue of finding a desk that's worthy enough for your Mac? Please share your thoughts (and photos) in the comments!
EasyChair WorkStation solves that whole "get out of bed" dilemma
It's time to take a long, hard look at where we're headed as a society. No, really -- we've got office chairs coming to kill comradeship, specially designed lapboards made to keep you sedentary for as long as humanly possible, and now we're looking at the perfect device for keeping Earthlings in bed for days on end. The EasyChair WorkStation line of products essentially puts your laptop on wheels, and the adjustable boom arm ensures that you can reach the keys / trackpad regardless of which side you wake up on. We're hearing a bedpan attachment is in the works as well, but we're feeling entirely too lazy to actually check.[Via TechDigest]
LapWorks Gamers Desk enables couch-based PC gaming
Or you could say it enables you to keep your fundament firmly planted for, oh, ever. Yes friends, LapWorks' Gamers Desk essentially eliminates the need to get up and move over to the family PC where a mouse / keyboard combo can guide you to victory in yet another deathmatch. This lapboard (no, not that Lapboard) keeps a keyboard and mouse within reach of couch-based gamers, enabling them to fire up WoW on their HTPC and still maintain the edge afforded to them by using the aforementioned KB / critter tandem. The unit itself measures 11-inches wide by 26.75-inches across, is made from ABS plastic and includes non-skid rubber pads on the underside to keep it from slipping around in that pile of Doritos. It's available now in gun-metal gray for $39.95, but a few more hues should be ready to roll later this year for those patient enough to wait around.
Vanguard team struts their nerdy stuff
Ever wonder what kind of work environment it takes to crank out your favorite MMOs? Personally, I conjur up an image of a pristine high-tech underground bunker, perhaps built under a volcano, with rows of computers facing a large screen showing the current state of the game. All the developers are busy yammering on headsets while reading from indistinguishable printouts. But that's just in my head.The Vanguard team recently made the move to SOE's San Diego offices, and they thought it would be fun to engage in a bit of a nerd-off with their fans, give fans an inside look at the life of a developer, and to see whose desk is littered with nerdstalgia in the greatest density and splendor. The Vanguard boys put up a pretty good fight, but we'd say their fans give them a run for their money.
Eclipse Office Partitioning System concept adds privacy to the workspace
Let's face it, not everyone can get relocated to the corner office, but if designer Marcus Ward Curran has anything to do with it, even the newbies can look forward to a certain level of privacy in the office. The Eclipse Office Partitioning System enables desk dwellers to cover up their space with panels in varying degrees, and it even touts the ability to change colors throughout the day to liven up the mood. Furthermore, the unit includes an RFID sensor (hey, The Man has to hold you down somehow, right?), a wireless charging mat, pillar-based speakers, an internal projection system and a built-in lighting system to boot. Throw in a teleportation feature to get us home on the double and we'd be sold. Check out the video after the break.[Via YankoDesign]
Reader WoWspace of the week: Crumbs
This week's Reader WoWspace was sent in by Crumbs, who has managed to fit twice the geeky goodness and a whole lot of desk space into one nifty corner of his office. As Crumbs told us here at WoW Insider, he had been playing a Hunter "forever" but when Burning Crusade came out, he decided to make the jump to a new character. He has since switched to a L70 Draenei Priest named Chilee of the guild <Epitome> on the Thrall server that he's been enjoying raiding with.For more cool pictures and details of Crumbs' WoWspace, check out the information after the jump!
DESK EOS rids your workspace of evil electromagnetic waves
Sure, you may have already been suckered into buying one of those cutesy USB air purifiers before, but Pure Air is hoping to fill up yet another one of your connectors as its DESK EOS fends off evil electromagnetic waves. Of course, this is bound to spark up another one of those "dangerous / not dangerous" debates, but this looks to be the device for you if you're not keen on taking chances. The debatably stylish unit can be had in red, silver, or blue color schemes (shown after the break), and the blue LEDs that glow once plugged in are an admittedly nice touch. Still, you'd probably be better off just holding onto that ???60,900 ($65) and donning a tin foil cap instead.[Via AVing]
Belkin's USB / iPod hubs neatly plug excess desk holes
Belkin's no stranger to innovative USB hubs, and the outfit seems to have struck gold again with its latest lineup of hole clogging USB / iPod hubs. In an attempt to plug those often unused desk holes which always seem to fall just out of reach when trying to route your myriad of cabling, Belkin's two- and three-inch In-Desk USB Hubs provide a nifty excuse to decorate your aging computer desk whilst adding some much needed (or wanted) functionality. Available in a slanted front-access edition or a flush-mounted version, each of the four-port USB hubs will run users $39.99 whenever Belkin decides to unleash 'em, and for the iPod owners in the house who've somehow avoided another docking solution, the $39.99 In-Desk Dock for iPod provides the obvious connection for syncing / charging while still neatly covering that gaping spot.[Via SciFi]
RFID staples, omnipotent pens to grace offices of the future?
We already know just how snazzy your office's bizhub will be in a decade or so, and we think we've even got your desk and kitchen nailed down too, but a recent brainstorming in Popular Science brushed a few less sensational, albeit quite intriguing, office mainstays for 2017. Although we've got a few years yet before we can definitively say whether or not these folks will pull a psychic-AT&T on us, but if Swingline has its way, the traditional red stapler that continually jams and collects more dust than it does anything else will be quite controversial. Sure to enrage pro-privacy employees who've already been unknowingly chipped with an RFID tag upon agreement to come on board, the staples of the future could actually contain micro-RFID tags; these chips could then be traced to find out just how long it really sits in one's "to do" stack, or if "inexplicably missing" really means "intentionally destroyed." As cruel as we know that sounds, at least you can pen all the curses you wish on even the most ink-resistant material in your manager's suite, as the future-generation Staedtler pen is being designed to "write on almost anything by optimizing molecular bonds with a surface" in order to produce the right mixtures needed to adhere to a given medium. Of course, the transparent monitors that will come with your 2015 upgrade kit will effectively kill your ability to surf Engadget while being guarded by the plastic backing of your current LCD, but the face recognizing desk locks should at least keep Gary from snagging your chocolate when you're out on break. Click on through for a few more mockups of tomorrow's office gizmos.
Hang Your Mac - Sonnet MacCuff Pro
It's common knowledge that Mac Pro is one of the most powerful pre-configured desktop computers out there, but who knew it was hung? With a little help from Sonnet Technologies, your Mac Pro or PowerMac G5 can hang elegantly from under your desk instead of taking up valuable floor real estate. The MacCuff Pro is made of solid steel and retails for a pricey $129. While the idea of hanging a tower is cute, I'd be cautious to try it on anything but the sturdiest desks, and definitely only those made of solid wood instead of particle board. [via CrunchGear]
Herman Miller planning "desk of the future"
High-end furniture maker Herman Miller looks to be doing its best to cut down on the ever-increasing nuisance of gadget clutter, with Reuters reporting that the company has licensed Fulton Innovation's eCoupled technology to let you recharge various electronic devices simply plopping them down on your (presumably pricey) desk. The technology (shown here in decidedly Herman Miller-form) works by transferring power through a magnetic field that'll charge anything that comes in contact with it; we assume it also involves some sort of adapter for your respective devices. Of course, cordless charging isn't an entirely new concept, with HP recently showing off some of its own ideas for juiced-up furniture, and Splashpower talking up its charge-on-contact system for a few years now. We guess we'll just have to wait and see if this new power-happy desk becomes the same status symbol for the Web 2.0 crowd that Herman Miller's Aeron chair was back in Web 1.0 days -- assuming we haven't moved on to Web 3.0 by the time the desk actually comes out, that is.[Via textually.org]
Speakers + lamp = the iLamp
Like it or not, one of the biggest gadget trends is towards "convergence" (whatever that means), so it's hardly a surprise to see home furnishing company Adesso attempt to combine a couple of speakers with a desk lamp: no prizes for guessing the product's name either -- the iLamp. The speakers connect to sound sources via a standard 3.5mm jack so non-iPod owners aren't excluded, although the built-in stand seems rather conveniently suited to the iPod's dimensions. Available in six different designs each with unique bulbs and wacky names (pictured is the "Rock On!" Architect lamp), the iLamp will set you back $89 -- a fair price to pay for convenience, or yet another iGimmick? You decide.[Via SciFi Tech]
The $500 GSM rotary phone
Sure, we're guessing the belt holster is a bit unwieldy, but the decades-old chassis on Spark Fun's "portable" rotary phone is probably every bit as sturdy as the Symbol MC70's for one-quarter the cash. We'll take ours in beige, please.[Via The Raw Feed]
Rig of the Day: Typical desk
I love this shot because it looks a lot like my own desk: Mac, Coke, iPod, external hard drive, books, random junk...ahh. I'm feeling productive already. I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only one who has powered speakers sitting around and doing nothing."iBook at Work" posted by migroveruk.If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We'll select an image every day to highlight.
