By David Ponce

People still read paper books and it’s likely to stay that way for a while. Nostalgia and all that. So until then, why not store and display them in a visually (and organizationally) appealing manner?

“REK is a bookcase that grows with your book collection,” writes Reinier De Jong Design on its official website. “The more books the bigger the bookcase gets. The zigzag shaped parts slide in and out to accomodate books in the resulting voids. REK will always be full, regardless of the quantity of books. Also the books can be arranged according to their sizes. The narrow spaces are excellent for magazines.”

Sadly the REK bookcase is one of those items for which you have to ask the price. And we all know what this means.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ BoingBoing ]

By David Ponce

These stainless steel paperclips are bookmarks that look like little people stuck between the pages of whatever you’re reading.

They’re cute.

They’re also expensive at $19 for a set of 5. Still, could make a cool gift for someone.

[ Product Page ]

By David Ponce

The Overade cycling helmet was designed back in 2010, but it’s going to be made this year. Envisioned by Agency 360, this helmet simply folds into what appears to be half its size when not in use. Easier to store and allegedly has the same protective attributes as the regular non-folding stuff. Strangely, it looks more like a construction hat when unfolded…

Anyway, there’s no word on price or details of its construction.

[ Agency 360 ] VIA [ PC Authority ]

By David Ponce

We’re big fans of simple elegant design, whether its in consumer electronics or mundane everyday household items. Like the good old whisk. There’s nothing wrong with it, really, other than the fact that it takes up a bit of room in storage. So if you can keep things cheap and simple, why not improve on that? The preposterously named “Joseph Joseph Twist™ 2-in-1 Silicone Whisk” lays flat for easy storage, but becomes a regular balloon whisk when you turn the base of its handle. And it’s $10.

Ships in March 2012.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By David Ponce

The above watch is a concept over at Tokyoflash, and like some previous such concepts, it might one day make it to market. This one however seems to one-up all of the Japanese company’s designs in terms of unreadability. See, to tell the time, you actually have to solve a Sudoku puzzle: each missing digit is the time. So by the time you’ve solved it, it won’t even be the time it was when you started trying. We’re not sure at this point how they plan to deal with this, or even how long it can take to solve a Sudoku puzzle because numbers scare us. But you can head over to their design blog and give you input as it might actually affect whether and how the watch is developed.

[ Sudoku Watch Design Blog ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By David Ponce

There may be occasions where you want to see what’s going on on both sides of the iPhone 4/4S’s camera. Say you’re filming a dialogue. One way you can accomplish this is with a simple device like the one you see above. Some plywood, strategic grooves, and a mirror and suddenly you have “the world’s first handmade video mixer.” This is about as low-tech a solution as you can get, though the result is elegant if not professional looking. Sadly, the asking price is $90 for something that really looks like it could have been made in shop class. There’s some kind of attempt at justifying the it, what with it being a limited edition of 100 units and also the fact that it was “Conceived in Paris whilst recording a documentary about love and love after love.” So yeah, cute little product there. $90.

For love. *

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

* Pardon me while I vomit, a little.

By David Ponce

Lexon’s MINITOTEM is meant for the office. In one efficient stack, you get a pen cup, storage for paper clips, a clock, tape dispenser (tape included), and a 4 USB plug hub. All these objects nestle into one another more efficiently than even your best game of Tetris and make for a cleaner, neater work environment.

Price unfortunately is not available, though the item appears to be in production. It looks like one of those things that should probably not cost a whole bunch, but you can contact them at contact at lexon-design dot com (trying to fool them spam scrapers) to find out, if you’re interested.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By David Ponce

Back in September on 2010, our favorite watchmaker put a concept up on their design blog. Fast forward 16 months and here it is in the market. It’s called the Optical Illusion watch and is inspired of course by any of these illusions that you see in print or online from time to time. You can train your eyes to see the time in puzzle mode (I tried, it works, but it’s hard) or you can press one of the four hotzones on the touchscreen display to reveal what the time is. There’s also a mode that cycles between puzzle and time mode every 20 seconds. This is meant to attract attention and get conversations started; this has sort of always been the point of a Tokyoflash watch. This one, like the others, doesn’t disappoint.

It’s $179 and for the next 33 hours, shipping is free.

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By David Ponce

I guess you’d call this art, as the melting glasses themselves look like how you’re going to feel once you’ve drunk enough of what they contain. They’re all different and made to order, since they’re not cast in a mold but rather deformed by gravity while still hot enough to be pliable. And this uniqueness translates into a unique price: a set of 6 will cost you £65, or about $100US. You have to email them to find out if they’re even available, because everything is in limited quantity.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ The Fancy ]

By David Ponce

The “I’m” folks are at it again. “I’m” as in that’s the name of their products. First it was the I’m Watch. Now it’s an entire line of related products called I’m Circle. And what they’re proposing is quite revolutionary, if only too good to be possible. The idea is to eliminate overlapping technology in various devices by simply removing that particular tech from them and putting it in one central hub that would then act as a processing server. For example, there’s a microprocessor in your phone. There’s also one in your tablet. Why do you need two, when you could just share one?

The center of this new proposed ecosystem of tethered devices would be the I’m Core, the keychain-sized hub that would contain a quad-core processor, a GPS chip, a WiFi chip and a SIM card. Then, there are plans for a smartphone, a tablet, a flatscreen TV and what looks like a media server, all of which would connect to the I’m Core. They’d all be named something starting with “I’m”, with a stated time to market of late 2012. And I’m ready to bet good money this will never happen. Here’s why.

In principle this is a good idea. But there are tremendous hurdles that a virtually unknown company, with unknown funding and expertise, can’t overcome. And there are so many loose ends… Like how to fit a SIM, a GPS chip, a Wifi chip and a quad-core processor, as well as a battery and some charging apparatus in something that’s supposed to be the size of a matchbook? And how can a simple quad-core processor be expected to keep up if a user decides to simultaneously watch an HD movie, get on his phone, while someone else in the house uses the tablet? And how can a company who’s only brought a touchscreen wattch to market suddenly be expected to crank out four or five revolutionary devices at once? Within a year and without a prototype or even proof of concept? This… just can’t be done without huge sums of money and well oiled R&D departments. Maybe this company can put their money where their mouth is and I’ll be proven wrong. In the meantime, I’m calling BS.

[ Product Page ]