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.

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 -

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..

BBC - Asian Network - Frictions Blog

Oooo aaah. I’m looking forward to Nitin Sawhney’s next album. His last one Philtre was so so good. Keep an ear out ppl!

Double - Edit : Well, there was an impressive comment on this post, but it has mysteriously disappeared… click the MORE link to see it! - Jeremy

(more…)

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.

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).

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

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..

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)

Sativa are a (UK?) producer of hemp products including lovely soft bags :

I was looking at a nice padded laptop messenger bag in a shop in Lake St with Zoe but can’t seem to identify it on the site. Pretty pricey bags but really nice - much better than in the photos..

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)