Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Nooka seems to be heavily promoting the fact that their new Zaz watch allows your own skin tone to show through thanks to a transparent LCD display. But hopefully they’ll realize that the nifty design is more then enough to sell the timepiece, since I don’t think anyone, anywhere at anytime has lamented the fact they couldn’t see their skin through the watch they were wearing.

The time is displayed via your typical pseudo-confusing grid of blocks and a series of dashes, though it doesn’t actually appear to be that hard to decipher, and you’ll have your choice of a black or white leather or silver mesh band to complement the silver face. $380, available for pre-order now from Watchismo.

[ Watchismo - Nooka Zaz ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By David Ponce

We’ve written about Philippe Stark a few times before. He’s an influential French industrial designer who’s gotten involved in the design of an endless stream of consumer products from juicers, to teddy bears and now hard drives. Partnering up with LaCie, he’s helped develop these drives with an interesting design. The desktop drives have a customizable touch-sensitive surface allowing you to launch preselected applications based on how you touch them. They comes in 1TB or 2TB sizes ($129 or $249) , and also feature the Starck Signature LED (a “+” sign, since the man likes to spell his name S+arck) which glows green or orange based on activity. There are also portable versions of these drives in sizes 320-500GB, with prices starting at $99.

[ Desktop Drive Product Page ] AND [ Portable Drive Product Page ] AND [ Interview With Starck ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I wouldn’t exactly consider myself part of Diesel’s target demographic, but they’ve definitely won me over with this set of turntables & analog audio gear print bedding. I mean look at it, the pillow shams even line up to form a mixer between the two turntables. All I have to say is goodbye Hannibal, Murdock, Faceman and B.A. because Andrew has finally found some new bed sheets.

The Turntable bedding is part of the company’s ‘Diesel Lifestyle Home Textile Collection’ and is apparently available from Diesel retail stores, though I have no idea for how much.

[ Diesel Turntable & Audio Gear Bedding ] VIA [ Freshome ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s just another concept at this point, but Jeong-Sun Park’s Knob Light will be appreciated by anyone who tends to wander the house at night. It’s basically a replacement door knob in the shape of a glowing light bulb, making it easier to find your way around when the lights are all off. There’s no specifics on how the bulb is supposed to get power, since doors aren’t usually wired for electricity, but I’m pretty sure it will use LED based bulbs instead of incandescent ones because of the whole hot glass vs. skin issue.

[ Yanko Design - A Knobby Light ] VIA [ Toxel ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It doesn’t look like it gives off that much light, and those sharp, pixelated edges might not be safe for kids, but Marcus Tremonto’s pixel bulb made from electroluminescent paper is certainly unique. You can’t buy one I’m afraid, but if you happen to find yourself passing by The Apartment at Ledbury Road gallery in London between now and October 5th, you can pop in and see it for yourself.

[ yatzer - New arrivals by Marcus Tremonto ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Created by design studio MAEZM (whose website appears to be over its allocated traffic limit) the Sofa-Dress is essentially a foam cover designed to sit atop a horribly uncomfortable wooden or metal chair, making the sitting experience feel slightly less uncomfortable. It’s a clever idea, and with some more substantial foam or padding it could actually bring relief to thousands of school kids or press conference attendees all over the world.

[ yatzer - Studio MAEZM ] VIA [ Freshome ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it takes a whole lot of alarm clock to get me out of bed in the morning. A whimpy electronic beep or even music at full volume just isn’t enough to instantly snap me out of my nightly coma. What I need is something like this.

Designed by Sam Hecht, the Bell Alarm Clock is not unlike the classic double-bell alarms of yesteryear, except that it forgoes the often inaccurate wind-up clock mechanism for a battery-powered electronic version, and it features a single large bell instead of two smaller ones. Simple, but loud and effective. It’s available in your choice of red, black or white finishes from Charles & Marie for $65, but I prefer the white version since the bell on the back has a classy chrome finish.

[ Bell Alarm Clock ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Mike Thompson designed this clever wifi network detector in the shape of a dowsing rod to apparently make it easier for anyone to use. “By basing the design for a wireless internet detector on century’s old technology, the user feels immediately at home with the product, whilst feeling less intimidated by the simple shape and natural materials.”

But I’ll be honest here, I’ve tried using a dowsing rod before and quite frankly, I’m not sold on the technology. My results were less than successful. But wifi detectors? I’ve never had a problem getting them to work. So maybe for his next project Mike could design a dowsing rod that looks and works like a wifi network detector, but for finding sources of water.

[ miket - WiFi Dowsing Rod ] VIA [ Next Nature ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It may not recline like a La-Z-Boy, but the Athena sofa from Switzerland-based Artanova makes up for it with an integrated multimedia PC controlled by a couple of LCD displays that pop out of each armrest. It’s also got an iPod/iPhone dock (but what sofa doesn’t these days?) and will play your music over a set of hidden speakers which includes an 8-inch subwoofer. The best feature though is that the Athena as a sofa actually features a rather nice design, and I don’t think most people would mind having one in their living room. Except that most people probably aren’t willing to drop $15,436 on what essentially becomes a Doritos crumb receptacle.

[ Artanova ] VIA [ Freshome ]