By David Ponce

The thing about Bluetooth headsets is that they require you to spend an extra three or four seconds putting them on. And they’re yet another item to carry around in your pockets or in the car. The Angle Bluetooth headset pictured here solves those two admittedly non-problems. Designed by Antoinne Coubronne, Michael Harboun and Thomas Chabrier in the context of a design competition at Orange (the telco), The Angle is a detachable part of a specially made case that places the headset in the exact spot it needs to be so that when you simply lower your hand, a hook keeps it attached to your ear. Describing the process doesn’t do its elegance justice; you have to watch the video below. It’s all so natural and effortless, the way that you bring the phone up to your ear, lower it back down and keep talking.

Sadly this seems to be nothing more than a concept at the moment, although Orange’s involvement gives hope that it can one day see the light of day.

Angle from Michaël Harboun on Vimeo.

[ Product Page VIA [ TrendHunter ]

By David Ponce

Concepts are a love/hate sort of thing at OhGizmo. Mostly hate because we rarely get to buy and own them, although there have been exceptions. We wish the Digimo Camera becomes one such exception as it looks like a really cool way to take pictures. The device would essentially be two cameras joined together. When used in this way, you can capture pictures in 3D. The fun really begins when you split them. You can then position one camera somewhere and control it remotely via the other one. This can create picture taking opportunities that traditional cameras can’t give you, as people and animals tend to behave differently when they know they’re about to be shot. It goes without saying that the LCD on the remote camera would display what the picture-taking cam is seeing.

Check out the rest of the post for a bunch more pictures showing you the different types of scenarios the Digimo could enable. Again, this is just a concept right now, but here’s hoping that it somehow makes its way into a real product.

[ YankoDesign ] VIA [ TrendHunter ]

By David Ponce

The iTar is not a real product yet, it’s a conceptual accessory for the iPad that will make it easier to turn it into a guitar. Which is where we imagine the iTar name came from: “i” and “guiTAR”. Still, at first glance, iTar looks like something nefarious, something oily and perhaps cigarette related. Or perhaps that’s all in this author’s mind and in reality it couldn’t be anything further from that. We actually do like what it will do if its Kickstarter campaign takes off. It combines a button-based guitar fretboard (Starr Labs patented fingerboard) with your iPad to create a multi-talented instrument. Dock the iPad in and you’ll be able to play, quasi-virtually, a number of instruments, not just the guitar. It can be a keyboard, a drum set, a synthesizer; everything hinges on the related application and its bevvy of instruments that are at your fingertips.

Of course, the iTar will only exist if the Kickstarter campaign gains steam. As of writing, they’ve raised $4k of their $50k goal, but there are a little over 50 days left. If this is your sort of thing, the smallest contribution that will net you an iTar is $200, although you can pitch in at any level.

[ Kickstarter Campaign For iTar ] VIA [ DVice ]

If you like your gadget main dishes served cute with a heaping side of commentary, Art Lebedev’s latest concept design will certainly whet your appetite. Called the Svintus, it’s a novel take on the boring power strip that takes its inspiration from the farm’s most delicious animal. The design seems a bit localized though. While the spiral cord that plugs into the wall certainly looks like a pig’s tail, the repeated snouts, or snoutlets, that cover its body only work as a visual gag in a country that uses that specific plug format. Here in North America, most of the novelty would be lost.

On the functional side of things the Svintus does provide a whopping seventeen outlets for charging the vast majority of your devices. And they even look like they’re adequately spaced to accommodate a good number of oversized wall warts. On a deeper level, though, I can’t help but feel the use of the pig is commentary on our ever increasing power needs… But I’m just not ready to feel guilty about it this early in the morning.

[ Art Lebedev - Power strip Svintus (concept) ] VIA [ Fancy ]

By David Ponce

With the advent of Kickstarter, a lot of previously unfeasible ideas(due to lack of capital) are now hitting the marketplace. Kickstarter is a distributed funding platform, and if a product gains enough momentum usually it can get reach its funding goals. Today we look at something that has only a rough prototype in the pipeline (call it a proof-of-concept device) but could have a lot of potential if funded: self-inflating bicycle tires made by a nascent company called Pumptire. This is my understanding of how they’d work. On the outer edge of the tire, there’s a hollow tube called a lumen. As you roll, this tube is compressed, like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. Ahead of the point of contact with the ground, in the lumen, is compressed air which goes into the tire through a special valve. Behind the point of contact is a vacuum, which draws more air in through another part of this special valve. It is this valve which also senses when the correct inner pressure has been reached and stops drawing in more air. You’ll never need to “top-up” your tires with air again!

There are two versions planned: a casual cyclist version which will top out at 65psi and a Pro version which will be adjustable and be able to reach 100psi. If it makes it to market, target price will be $129 for the casual tire, and $149 for the Pro version.

Here are what I see as the potential hurdles. 1) If this valve, which you can see in the picture, is too heavy, it’ll throw off the balance of the wheel. 2) The collapsible lumen will eventually erode and make the whole system useless, possibly faster than a regular tire. 3) The project needs… wait for it… $250,000!! As of this writing, there’s $2,718 pledged, which is a little more than 1%. But here’s hoping that talking about it will do a little to help.

[ PumpTire Kickstarter ] AND [ Pumptire Website ]

Besides world peace, free energy and a “fat-free fudge cake that doesn’t let you down in the flavor department like so many others”, mankind’s greatest pursuit has been a solution to the problem of dirty laundry. And it turns out it’s been sitting right under our butts the whole time. It just took the designers at elementodiseño to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

What they’ve come up with is a brilliant way to ignore and avoid the issue of washing soiled garments, by turning them into the stuffing for a padded stool. Now I know what you’re probably thinking: “Andrew, I’ve been wallowing in a mountain of dirty laundry for months now, this isn’t new!” And I can’t argue with that. But, have you been wallowing in it while it’s stuffed inside a stylish blue canvas bag with reinforced seams? I didn’t think so. So let’s give the credit where the credit is due ok?

[ elementodiseño - Nexus Stool ] VIA [ Stilsucht ]

They say a watched pot never boils, and at least while in school the same theory applied to all the clocks on the walls. Staring at the second hand seemed to slow down its progress to the point where I was convinced that everyone outside the school had aged 10 years in the time it took to finish one class. It also had the effect of causing me to not pay attention to the teacher, which wouldn’t have been a problem had this Vague Clock, designed by Sejoon Kim, been on the walls instead.

The hands of the clock are hidden behind a layer of stretchy fabric, and remain invisible as the time ticks away. So if you actually want to see the time you have to get up and press your hand into the fabric so that it stretches over the hands, making them visible. The clock’s also equipped with GPS hardware so that the time is always accurate, and so that there’s no buttons or dials allowing it to be manually adjusted.

[ Yanko Design - Vague Clock ] VIA [ Dezeen ]

I really like the design of Younes Duret’s Ransa sofa which makes it look like the sitting area is floating over a floor-level bookshelf, but I have to question its practicality. I mean it’s nice to have a small library of reading material within arm’s reach when you’re lounging about, but as one of those guys who hates cracking the spine on his books and magazines, I’d be constantly worried about guests swinging their legs, constantly banging into my collection. But as I’ve discovered time and time again, maybe that’s just me…

As far as I can tell this is just a design concept, but I’m sure you can DIY one with an old futon and a collection of milk crates once you remove all the vinyl hippy.

[ Younes Duret - Ransa Sofa ] VIA [ DigsDigs ]

By Chris Scott Barr

There are many of us who are rather fond of bar soap. One of the biggest problems with this form of soap is that there is always a tiny piece of it when you’re almost finished. That piece is also almost impossible to use. Can you imagine if bar soap were just as easy to use as liquid soap? Not to mention that this would also be more eco-friendly than liquid soap as well as it would use every bit of it.  Natalie Staempfil has designed a hand-pumped soap grater that has the soap sitting upright and will gradually sink down as you use it.

How awesome that you not only get to use all you’re bar soap to the last shred, but you’re actually saving money because of it? This thing needs to be on the market right now! Whoever is out there reading this, and has the power to do something about it, make sure this thing happens.

[ Nathalie Stampfli ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Rescuing someone that is at risk of drowning is serious business. It’s not at all as glamorous as Baywatch would have us think, especially if the person has fallen overboard from a large vessel. So what happens when someone does fall into the water? Usually someone throws out some sort of floatation device. Unfortunately if the person is too far away, they’ll never reach the lifesaver. This is where the Buoyancy Bazooka comes into play.

This conceptual device recently won the James Dyson Award for design. What does it do, exactly? It launches a life ring up to 150 meters away. The ring comes in the form of a very large bullet, and expands to a semi-circle upon hitting the water. Just be sure not to actually hit the person you’re trying to save. They can’t latch onto it if they’ve been knocked out cold.

[ JamesDysonAward ] VIA [ Dvice ]