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Samsung's Serif TV is designed to blend in with your furniture
Other than size difference, most televisions on the market today look practically the same. With Serif TV, a sleek set that's designed to blend in with your furniture at home or office, Samsung wanted to take a different approach. Earlier this month, the company announced that Serif TV would be coming to the US in August, after making its debut in Europe last year. We had the chance to see it ourselves at a launch event in New York City's Museum of Modern Art, and walked away rather impressed.
Change up your space with robotic furniture from Ori
Need a way to dramatically improve your living space? How about robotic furniture? No, it's not some far-off dream for the future. It's a collaboration between MIT Media Lab spin-off Ori with designer Yves Béhar.
The Edge Desk transforms so you can get work done anywhere
Who still uses a desk? Better question: Who still needs a desk, given that so much of our work today takes place on laptops, phones and tablets? Those devices don't need to be put on a flat surface, so a lot of people don't bother. Instead, they work from the comfort of a couch, bed or maybe even the floor. And yet, many still insist on keeping a desk around "just in case." We've come to accept that a desk is something you should have, even if you don't actually use it.
This is the desk lamp of your (robotic) dreams
It's back-to-school season. For some of you, this means needing a fancy new lamp for your home or dorm room desk. Unfortunately whatever Walmart, Amazon or IKEA may have in stock won't come anywhere close, both in terms of looks or functionality, to Anodos' RAL 9000 desk lamp. The Japan-based firm, which was behind one of the first connected set-top displays, decided to create a crazy, sleek lamp with an LED display, six cameras, a motorized arm and sensors that help it determine its positioning. There are no pricing or availability details right now, but we sure hope it goes on sale at some point. Because who wouldn't want one of these on their desk? Doesn't matter if you want it for school, work or simply for fun.
IKEA's wireless charging collection heads to the US this spring
If you're looking to install some wireless charging tech at home, and you fancy IKEA's home furnishing aesthetics, you'll soon be in luck. The Scandinavian company will begin selling its wireless charging collection that's already on shelves in Europe here in the US by "late spring." This means you'll soon be able to purchase nightstands, lamps and standalone pads that can juice up your device just by laying it down -- if it's compatible with the Qi wireless charging standard, of course. If not, IKEA has compatible cases for iPhone (4, 5, 5s, and 6) and Samsung Galaxy (S3, S4 and S5) phones, too. When you stop in to purchase that new lamp, table or pad, be sure to nab the accessory for an additional $15-$25, depending on the model of your phone.
IKEA will start selling wireless charging lamps and tables
After lots of perseverance from smartphone makers, wireless charging is finally starting to make an impact. Many big name phones now support the technology and companies like Starbucks are helping to bring it a wider audience. Now, it's set to receive another big boost, after IKEA, the world's largest furniture retailer, announced the introduction of a new range of furniture that features integrated charging.
MIT's self-assembling chair is cool, but you can't sit on it yet
Screw meals in pill form. We'll know we're living in the future when our furniture can assemble itself at will. It's something that MIT and others are working on, and the most recent work from the university's self-assembly lab shows how far the process has come. Before you chuck that IKEA catalog, however, you should probably be aware of one small thing: the self-assembling chair you see before you is just 15cm tall. Also, it's clearly submerged in water, so it's not very practical unless you're furnishing a new condo in Atlantica.
Your polystyrene dreams can come true with an industrial robot arm
If you've been waiting to command a giant robot arm to do your artistic bidding, Robochop is here and it'll let you hack (or delicately sculpt) your own custom design from a 50-centimeter cube of "durable foam". You (or people visiting the robot arms in person) will be able to design and create a piece of furniture through a web app that will go live online at Code-n.org from March 15. More than the polystyrene creations themselves, the appeal lies in the spectacle of seeing a giant industrial robot cut away with a hot wire cutting tool: four arms will be slicing their way through 2,000 yellow blocks at Hanover's CeBIT tech show next month.
Two Mac Pro cases + woodworking skill = unique bench
With the advent of the new, smaller "trashcan" Mac Pro, we're going to start seeing a lot more of the all-aluminum PowerMac G5 / Mac Pro cases going to the recyclers or - even worse - the dump. Gary Katz of Mac M.D. is a longtime Apple Consultant who saw a really impressive bench designed by a German Mac user that used two of the aluminum cases as stands as "legs". Katz was having his kitchen remodeled and decided to ask the contractors if they'd use their expertise to convert two gutted Mac Pro cases into a similar bench. The bench, which uses African mahogany, Wenge, and Padouk woods in addition to the Mac Pros, is beautiful on its own. Once he had it delivered, Katz added a string of LED rope lights inside the cabinets as well as a backrest to lean against. There are more photos detailing the work done by the contractor and Katz's additions on his personal blog. Have you upcycled a Mac or two into something as functional and beautiful as this? Let us know about it in the comments and please leave a link to some photos.
Color-changing E Ink lets walls come alive
Do you think that the walls at your school or office just aren't sprightly enough? E Ink may have a way to liven things up. Its new Prism material lets buildings subtly change colors and patterns on the spot, without having to rely on banks of expensive digital displays that stick out like a sore thumb. It's more than just animated wallpaper, though. It can respond to input, such as a person walking by, and even works for furniture -- imagine a bench that changes its look every day. Prism sips only a tiny amount of power, too, so you don't need to keep things plugged in.
Who'd have thought the Power Mac G5 made a good bench?
Like it or loathe it, you have to admit that the design of the Power Mac G5 was a very clever way of getting around the system's legendary thermal issues. It was no surprise that the ol' cheesegrater was kept around for the Mac Pro, at least until last year's solid-state revolution. But what of the numerous G5 chassis that are now lingering in attics, skips and warehouses? If you don't want to gut one to use for your own high-end PC, then Klaus Geiger is more than happy to turn them into furniture. As part of his Benchma[®]c project, two G5 cases and a plank of Walnut is all you need to make a pretty nifty park bench. There's more images down at the source, but you'll have to excuse us, as we're just off to put our collection of Rodrigo Alonso furniture on eBay.
Portable cardboard desk keeps you standing while you type
Many will tell you that it's unhealthy to sit in front of your computer for hours at a time, but you can't usually bring a standing desk with you to a remote studio or the park. However, you won't have to make do with chairs and laps now that Refold's cardboard standing desk is on the way. Think of it as origami office furniture -- so long as you're willing to lug about 14 pounds with you, you can set up a leg-friendly workstation in about two minutes. It's sturdy enough to handle the weight of many desktop PCs, and there are different sizes to accommodate both kids and taller adults. Like the concept of computing anywhere? You can pledge $160 NZD (about $125 US) to Refold's already-funded Kickstarter to get the American-made desk, which should arrive sometime in June.
VizeraLabs reupholsters furniture with the power of light
Looking for the perfect chaise longue? That's no easy feat even on the best days, but the process is made even trickier since stores rarely seem to have their full collections on display. That's precisely the problem a San Francisco startup called VizeraLabs is trying to tackle, and its team has built a curious little projector to help. You see, instead of displaying reruns of Doctor Who on your wall, it's used to project different fabrics and finishes onto whatever surface it's pointed at, be it a wall or an armchair.
Lian Li's new desk is a computer, no, wait, it's a desk, no, wait...
We've seen plenty of modders build gaming PCs into their desks, but what about those of us without any DIY skills? Lian-Li has stepped in, offering the DK-01 and DK-02, a pair of Table PC chassis that straddle the intersection between high-end technology and furniture. The big difference between the 01 and its bigger brother is the 02 can house a pair of PCs instead of just one, so where the former has a quartet of USB 3.0 ports and an audio jack up front, the latter doubles it. Inside, there's room for a HPTX motherboard, as well as a secondary mini-ITX board if you go for the 02, as well as 10 expansion slots for HDD or SSDs. Unfortunately, this technology does come at a price, since the DK-01 will set you back $990, and the larger variant marked up at $1,200 -- even before you start buying components.
Roombots: Lego-like robotic blocks that transform into furniture (video)
Imagine if you can just snap your fingers or issue a verbal command for a table, a chair or any other furniture to assemble right in front of you. That's what a team of researchers from the Swiss Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob) at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) hopes to achieve by developing Lego-like robotic blocks called Roombots that can stick to each other and form different structures. Each Roombot is made up of two blocks with wireless connection and a battery that powers motors, which the robot uses to rotate into place. These blocks also have retractable claws so anything you conjure up can climb walls and ceilings or stay attached to floors. The researchers believe that Roombots could be very useful to the elderly and people with disabilities, as they could eventually tell the machines to move closer to them or move out of the way.
Philippe Starck wants you to make 3D-printed custom furniture
Philippe Starck is no longer satisfied with crafting exotic-looking products that don't change -- he wants to give you control over the design process. He tells the Wall Street Journal that his newly opened custom furniture venture, TOG, will eventually become an open source community that lets you create your own 3D-printed furniture and share designs with others. He'd also like to see kiosks that make it easy for anyone to produce their own furniture, even if they can't justify a 3D printer of their own.
CSTM uses augmented reality to help you create the perfect custom furniture
If you've ever tried to find a bookcase of your own, you'll know that finding the perfect set of shelves for all your stuff can pose quite the challenge. One new startup, CSTM, is looking to change that, putting furniture customization in the hands of anyone with an iPad. The startup launched today during a tech conference in San Francisco, and is currently on the hunt for its first 1000 customers to try the app out. With CSTM, you point your iPad at the wall where your bookcase will go to measure everything up, and then drag and drop template shelves into the perfect array to fit your vinyl collection and oddly-sized camera equipment. Once your done, a printout from your PC can be used to create an augmented-reality version of the bookcase. After making any needed adjustments, you can then order your creation and have it shipped to your home. Based on the demo we saw, the whole process from start to finish can be done in just a few minutes -- that's faster than it took us to build our soon-to-be-extinct Expedit unit.
BigRep's ONE can 3D print full-sized pieces of furniture
While consumer 3D printers are cheaper and more efficient than ever before, their small size often means designers are limited to creating hand-sized models and figurines. With the launch of its open-source ONE printer, German studio BigRep is looking to expand things quite significantly, by letting you print your own full-sized pieces of furniture. With a build volume of 45 x 39 x 47 inches (that's 46 cubic feet), BigRep's machine can fashion things out of the usual plastics, but can also be tweaked to print using a mixture of wood fibers and polymers, as well as Laybrick, a sandstone-type filament. If you fancy crafting a new side table for your home or office, the ONE will set you back a hefty $39,000 -- just make sure you have plenty of spare room in your garage.
Mew-Genics wants you to hoard attribute-boosting furniture
Team Meat recently unveiled another aspect of Mew-Genics' gameplay: furniture collecting. Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen discussed the game's furniture system in a blog post on the game's site, drawing comparisons to Nintendo's Animal Crossing series. In Mew-Genics, players acquire furniture through Baby Jack's store then place it in a room in their house. Each piece of furniture, which belongs to one of five "types," influences a variety of stats in the game, from disease rates to each cat's life span. The five types of furniture are large, medium, small, wall furniture and those belonging to item sets. Team Meat says Mew-Genics will include 750 pieces of furniture in total, not including rare alternates for each one. The cat genetics and breeding game will launch in 2014 for Steam, iOS and Android.
Lenovo's IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC finds a home in Treehouse workstation, other funky furniture
Looking for a place to stick that super-sized slate? You might opt to mount it in a wooden table modeled after a treehouse, or a piece of furniture designed to accommodate a digital "family game night." Of course, you'd clearly be drawing some inspiration from two such concepts that feature Lenovo's Horizon Table PC as the star of the show -- both, along with a third project that employs a more traditional bar-stool concept, will debut at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair next week in New York City. (You're going, right?) It's certainly not the first time we've witnessed a non-traditional marriage of form and function, but considering that we have yet to see these gigantic 1080p tablets on the street, it's a bit of a curiosity at the moment.
