Found these just growing out of my lawn one morning..

Ah, SmartRider - my nemesis. I found this one on the ground and in the spirit of scientific enquiry, cracked that sucker open.

Actually, I plan to try and embed this into a nifty resin bangle - or ring? - and I didn’t really ‘crack’ it open, I used acetone to dissolve the plastic card (and most of the chip too - see last photo).

Click the More tag to see some more pics (click to enlarge). (more…)

Apple have always had their computers and peripherals manufactured in China and Taiwan - ASUS (nasty PC manufacturer) and Foxconn actually produce a lot of gear for them, but presumably Apple has a lot of control over the process.

9to5mac released a story on Saturday saying that Apple have now developed their own manufacturing plant/prococesses - “One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade.” The innovation bit you’re wondering about is that they are using lasers to carve macbooks out of solid blocks of Aircraft grade Aluminium. Macbooks are currently made of polycarbonate plastic (and this morning I noticed a crack in mine!) while Macbook Pro’s are currently made of, I think, a magnesium-aluminium(-titanium?) alloy, probably machined and pressed into shape.

This is cool news for apple fans, because aluminium is damn nice. This is cool news for product designers, because they’ve invented a new manufacturing process, which doesn’t happen everyday (it has apparently taken Apple years to develop). I’m now interested in seeing which material - polycarbonate or aluminium - is more sustainable. Aluminium is a bitch to mine but lasts way longer and is recyclable.
9to5mac presents an interesting list of the advantages of this 3D manufacturing :

• - Carving out of aluminum eliminates the need to bend the metal and create weak spots or microfolds and rifts.
• - There are no seams in the final product, so it is smooth.
• - Screws aren’t needed to tie the products together.
• - The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap.
• - You can be a whole lot more creative with the design if you don’t have to machine it.

Again, this puts apple a few years ahead of the competition. Like the Macbook Air, the company is pushing products at consumers that competitors won’t be able to match until sometime around 2010. If this rumour about the Aluminium is true (it probably is) then these macbooks will be available to buy in 8 days. This is why I like Apple.

This afternoon, I made a USB thumb drive on a whim, while waiting for something to dry in the workshop. It’s a bit rough - I’ll try again soon and make a more refined version :)
Click more to see some other photos and a little bit of words.
(more…)

I don’t have any useful updates about Perth and stuff, so here are two three things I got recently. (more…)

A friend pointed this out to me. I’m very into lightbulbs.. (Clicky Enlargey)

They are, apparently, repurposed lightbulbs, salvaged from bins (whatever…) and the set above costs in the order of US$650. I asked how they’re fixed to the base - apparently, using neodymium magnets (’scary’ magnets) which is quite clever. He might try and make one, so we thought about perhaps using a dense liquid (or even pouring in a molten metal like lead) to keep them stable - because you don’t really want them rolling away from you…
While the concept is great (though I’m not sure where I’d put it..) I’m not sure if I like the execution - I know from experience (pulling apart lightbulbs myself, okay?) how fragile and thin the glass is, and how difficult it is to separate from the base. I also can’t see any mechanism to pull the wick through. Should it be classified as art? Do you like it?
By the way, there’s 64 left (out of 70) so get buying.

Edit : Oh look :) (They don’t seem to realise I’m being gently critical)

I’ve never really paid any attention to luggage design until stumbling across these.  how cool do they look?  Said to be styled on the rugged fuel cans locked to the back of old army jeeps.  They somehow also remind me of boxes you’d see lying around the levels of shoot-em-ups like Quake or Doom or something.

Bree - Fall 2008 Collection -

Apple make this incredible device, called the Airport Express. It’s small, looks cool and costs about AU$130. It acts as a really good wireless router, print server, and - when plugged into an amp and speakers - allows you to play music from any computer on the network. Unfortunately, the one thing they do suck at is staying alive beyond their 12 month warranty. Thus, if you are Apple, you end up with a lot of angry apple fans (the worst kind) on your ass. Apple only employs graduates from the ‘fuck you school of business’ so it’s only appropriate that they refuse to admit to their customers that there is a problem. It doesn’t matter anyway, they’ll still buy apple computers, both they and apple know this ;)

Turns out that the only thing that’s actually died in the airport express is an innocuous chip in the power supply that can’t be identified and so is impossible to replace. Built-in obsolescence is a bitch.

Following the good work done by this guy, here’s my own 802.11g airport express - which I bought dead and then repaired. I think mine is a little bit neater, too :) (or not?)

Click more to see the 6 more photos. (Click to enlarge)
(more…)

Holy crap!

About Shapeways

Curious about 3D printing? This video explains how it works.

Have you ever wanted to turn your 3D designs into reality? Enter Shapeways! Just upload your design, we print it and ship it to you - it’s easy. Within ten working days you’ll hold your own design in your hands.

We’re using a technique called ‘3D Printing’ which has proven itself as a high-quality production technique, but up to now has always been very expensive. By creating a large community we are able to produce much cheaper, meaning better prices for you.

I emailed them, got this back :

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the compliments!

And yes we do ship to Australia. Actually we ship worldwide in 10 days!

Best regards,

Robert

Well. I. Never.

Quinno’s spotted these skullcandy earphones :

Obviously, I like them (I’m posting ‘em aint I?), but also I’m intrigued by these in a few ways. The first is the $100. That’s the same price I paid for my Etymotic ER6I canalphones, which are pretty good. You can assume you’re paying a premium here for the wood - infact, I think with a product like this, it’s almost assumed. The brand name (Skullcandy) also sort of suggests that form might (!) be taking precedence over function here, but it’ll be interesting to tell. The reason I’m intrigued is because if you realise all this and buy the headphones, and they don’t sound quite that good - yet, as we’ve established, you may not expect them to - they certainly do look good, and so satisfy the purchaser’s main requirement. I do love the look of them though, and - if they were a bit cheaper - would probably buy them just for that reason.

The manufacturing process must be interesting - if we’re to assume it’s made of real wood, not some tricky composite or something. By the way, do you think they deliberately shaped them like nuts or acorns? Personally I might have experimented with a cylindrical or truncated conical shape, to counterpoint the ‘organicness’ of the material with a geometric form.

Actually, I’m thinking of a shape very similar to these, which I bought for Amanda. I didn’t tell her how much they cost (well, would you?) and it was actually very interesting - from a product designer’s point of view, of course - to see her reaction. They look and feel quite expensive (way better in real life, actually) and so she experienced an ‘expensive’ sound from them - although it’s also possible they sound like rubbish and she doesn’t want to hurt my feelings.

I don’t want to crap on about headphones all night but I do want to suggest that anyone looking for canalphones try these - they’re cheaper than the skullcandy or etymotics and by all reports sound fantastic (for the price). And the ears testing these ones actually can tell a difference..

I’ve lusted after this for years, and it fuelled the beginnings of my swatch swiss watch collection.
I was just recently reminded of it, and thought I’d put it up here so, well, you know.

The watchface is modelleled after a 1944 Swiss railway clock design by engineer Hans Hilfiker, which is still in use today (in Switzerland, obviously). Buy it for me here or here for only, like, $150.

A few months ago a hip flask was given to me which I unfortunately and unbelievably lost minutes later. I hit up ebay and in a predictable fashion ended up bidding on about 20 hip flasks, two of which I won. The tallest one I bought today, at the Claremont craft and antiques fair, for $12.
Observe (click to enlarge) :

Quin’s been clever and has stuck woodgrain contact paper to his laptop and camera!
“$3.50 roll of woodgrain contact from kmart gives my lomo cam a woody! hehe. considering doing my mac’s lid.”

Click each image to enlarge!
Edit : Here’s a pic of the back of the camera..

I bought some of these for a 21st recently (they were a hit). I got them at Test Tube Objects (Mt. Lawley) but you can also get them at Pigeonhole (Perth City).

They’re ceramic; each one personally crushed by the artiste’s own hand. You can see Rob Brandt’s other work here (click ‘5′ for the cups).

Pajda was kind enough to point this out :

It’s some kind of concept - or probably more like prototype - of a pretty neato ’skin’ that organically follows the shape of the car, and even allows for apertures and stuff to open up. It’s a big deal for me to see, because i’ve always been silently puzzled why cars produced today are 99.9% the same - all made of metal using the same processes, and just generally not seeming to justify the $100,000 difference between a hyundai and a porsche. Not that i’ve driven a porsche..

Oh, I thought this youtube comment was pretty good too :

The obsession with ROBOTS continues! The guy in the middle is made by the crafty Perth gal calling herself Stuff a Duck    The other two are some paper-craft creations I allowed myself to be distracted by during exam period. All you need is Officeworks, glue, scissors and someone who reads japanese to decipher the pdf file. Ro-bo-tu!

My robot collection

(Click to enlarge!)

Edit: On a speeding inter-city bus I saw that Stuffaduck is now supplying to the great retail experience that is William Topp. Their page is currently dismal, but their goods are rad-tastic. Gotta go check out the new flavours. Of robot.

Lewis picked me up yesterday and we went and did what I can only describe as rummaging around in a large bin urban scrummaging at our old high school looking for things to remove. They really cleaned the place out .. If the rain/little bastard hooligans hadn’t got to the bin contents first, I think there would have been a lot of stuff they could actually have donated (like PCs and g3 powermacs and imacs, even a few emacs, and about 5 electric pottery wheels..)
Score : 1 x analogue mixing board, 1 x analogue lighting controller :
Click to enlarge : (yup, cameraphone pictures)

Holy shit weburbanist, go, go! Another piece on unusual and clever living room furniture.

Via Digg

SUPERCAPACITORS!!
Electric Mini: 0-60 in 4 Seconds: It Has Motors In Its Wheels : TreeHugger

There’s some lovely concept cars here, similar to the lot I last posted. Inhabitat » RCA Unveils Sleek Sustainable Concept Cars

Via Notcot

There’s a blog and a link to some lovely photos of transistor radios on The Cosmonaut blog - The Cosmonaut: Transistor Radios

Everyone loves these oldschool slash moderne aesthetics, particularly me.

Thanks Quin..

Weburbanist comes through with the goods again :

8 Highly Unconventional Modern Bedroom Furniture Sets

The Bristlebot is another Evil Mad Scientist creation, though it’s quite cute and non-threatening.
I have one of these motors somewhere - I will try and dig it out! Edit : Found!

Check out the linked page for a video of it in action (and a lot of boring instructions)

This is something that I remember from waaaay back when this were all fields - it’s the biggest subwoofer in the world (?). It’s so Italians can listen to Jazz apparently!

Honestly, have a look at the page - the horn is big enough for some Italians to stand around in, and 16 woofers are required to displace such a huge volume.

Click these pictures to enlarge (below) or just go straight to the page.

Via MakeZine.

Quin found this on eBay - It’s a Ducati Camera.. Ducati as in the motorbike. Ahh, those Italians. Pretty crazy no?

Can’t beat 1950s metal manufacture and finish though.

VINTAGE DUCATI SOGNO HALF-FRAME 35MM RANGEFINDER CAMERA - eBay

Click the more tag to, you know, read more.
(more…)

Weburbanist has this cool feature on Transforming Furniture!

Basically too cool for me to find myself, Sally showed me.
It freaking erases itself then draws the time every minute.

Credit

OK - Lewis showed me this today..
It’s (obviously!) a skeleton made out of cassette tapes.
The artist is Brian Dettmer and the skeleton the beast is/was on display at the Museum of Surgical Science. Apparently it was made by heating the tapes and - I imagine - pressing them into molds. Pretty similar to making Vinyl Record bowls.. which Lewis also made..

(Via IconicResult.com)

More stuff from Etsy..

This is over at Etsy from the user tinyminds :

This is actually a BEAM robot (Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, Mechanics) - I got interested in BEAM about 4 years ago and have been collecting (and losing, mostly) tiny bits and pieces since then!

They’re traditionally made using recycled/scrap parts (from a VCR for example) - This is a ‘photopopper’, where a solar panel charges a small capacitor (slowly), and a pair of photoresistors or phototransistors (for each eye) control the ‘pulsing’ of two tiny pager motors. Really cute analogue electronics! Sometimes they’ll cleverly use the LED as a photosensor too.

Ha. Hahaha. Hahahahaha.

Zombie of Montclaire Moors Sculpture

From BoingBoing..

This is my ‘wish list’ on my cart at DX. It’s sort of like a ‘best of’ collection!

(Click to Enlarge)

Oh, I like very much. Wonder if the scrolling/animated digit would get annoying, though..?

Via DX