Sunday, November 15, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
This Story is Amazing!
The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.
Before disease took his ability to move, Tony Quan was an amazing graffiti artist. Now he is completely paralyzed, save for his eyes, and still an amazing artist. Seeing how he works left me with tear-streaked cheeks.
Beautiful, isn't it? Art, whether in the form of graffiti or coffee, is an individual's contribution to humanity. And the incredible people behind the EyeWriter Initiativeare making sure that not even paralysis, like Tony's, stops someone from making such a creative contribution.The project is an open-source collaboration which seeks to continue building on their low-cost eye-tracking system and they've even got instructions for a DIY version of the EyeWriter. [Eyewriter via Infosthetics]
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Digital Tattoo Interface Turns Your Skin Into a Display
There are implants which are purely aesthetic, and then there's the Digital Tattoo Interface concept. It's a blood-powered electronic interface which is embedded under skin to mimic a tattoo, display videos, or act as a phone or computer.
As great as it seems, this concept is seriously creepy because it powers itself by converting the glucose and oxygen found in blood into electricity. Though somehow getting your blood sucked by a gadget is worth it for the endless potential applications. I'd probably just end up using it to moderate comments, but what would you do first with your implant? [Core77 via Geekologie]
New Apple Store on the Upper West Side
Apple has taken the wraps off the company's newUpper West Side retail store in New York City in advance of the public opening scheduled for Saturday morning.• Apple's total sales in 2001 were $5.4 billion. Apple Stores this year: $6.6 billion. (Apple's total sales this year were $36.5 billion.)
• They hit 170 million visitors this year. 10 million people hit Genius Bars or personal training.
• Sales per store—$26 million, which is just below what Macy's, Target and Best Buy make per store. But, if you look at the real estate, it's a slightly different picture. Apple Stores do sales of $4,300 per square foot which is 5x the $872 per square foot Best Buy does.
• Wow—over 100,000 applicants on file for jobs at the Apple Store worldwide. 10,000 people submitted applications for the new Upper West Side store. Just over 200 got a job.
• Apple realized they were going too small with their stores, so now all of their stores will be at least "three tables wide." In other words, they're going to be bigger. They're also going to be opening more stores next year, more like 50. More of them will be "significant stores," iconic ones like the Fifth Ave. store with the Apple Cube. And they'll be going more international, adding stores all over Europe, like the UK, Paris and two in Shanghai getting those "significant stores."
• All checkouts are done using an iPod touch now with a new EasyPay system, if you care about the purity of the Apple Store and the old Windows Mobile system offended you.
Sony MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch
SPL Teams to Join EPL?
EPL teams just voted to not let Celtic and Rangers join the EPL. Good choice?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Bozeman Snowmaster Telemetric
Absolutely stunning watch from American watchmaker, Bozeman of Montana. The SnowMaster Telemetric was designed for the U.S. Ski Team with portions of the sales of the watch going to the support the Olympic effors of the US Ski & Snowboard team. The watch features speed and distance timing functions, chronograph, GMT function, and a telemetric scale. The SnowMaster can be pre-ordered from Bozeman’s website and is priced at $5,900.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
American Closer to Arsenal Takeover?
Stan Kroenke has increased his stake in Arsenal once again. The American businessman now owns 29.6 per cent of the shares in the north London club. Kroenke is now just 0.3 per cent - 209 shares - away from owning enough of the club to be obliged to make a formal takeover bid.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Nixon Metal Dork
I love this watch. It is the Nixon Metal Dork. It reminds me of those walkie talkie watches they used to have back in the day. I love how Nixon has now made that cool again. Click here to check it out.
John Mayer's Gravity Live in LA
NYC Gets LCD Screens that Show Trains in Real Time
As a New Yorker, this gets me very excited: the Bedford Ave L station just got an LCD screen that shows exactly where all the cars on the line are, so you know how long you'll have to wait.
It's part of a test program on the L line, where they installed boards telling people when the next train would arrive last year. This is just the next step. If it goes well, presumably, they'll expand it to other lines as well. Like the Q! Bring it to the Q, MTA! Please! [Gothamist; pic via Kate Heffernan]
Blanco Leaving the Fire for Veracruz
Mexico star Cuauhtemoc Blanco will leave the Chicago Fire and return home to rejoin second-division Veracruz. In a statement on his Web site, Blanco said Thursday he will start playing again for Veracruz in January. About time. The Fire will be better off.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Google PowerMeter to Debut in UK
Google's PowerMeter product is to debut in the UK from first:utility, a small, independent electricity and gas supplier, based in Warwick.
Google PowerMeter is a software tool that allows users to see a near-real-time display of their energy usage through their iGoogle account on their computer or mobile phone.
Enabled by first:utility's policy to supply smart meters to 30,000 of its customers the PowerMeter service is free to Smart Tariff customers, and is due to go live in early November.
"We share a vision with first:utility of providing consumers with access to information about their own home electricity use that will help them save energy and money", Ed Lu, Google PowerMeter's lead engineer, says.
"We need the help of innovative utility companies like first:utility to get Google PowerMeter into the hands of consumers, and we are delighted about this very first UK utility partnership".
Voice Mac, an Alternative to Google Voice?
Mac OS X only: While the Google Voice AIR App will do in a pinch for Windows and Linux, Mac users have the option of Voice Mac, a native Voice client that integrates with OS X, including Address Book and Growl support.
Voice Mac has a pretty basic set-up—you have a filterable list of all your contacts (which can either be populated by Google, which includes your contacts and numbers from your sent and received call list that aren't in your contacts), or just your local Address Book on your Mac. You can call any of your contacts, choose which phone to ring, and even bring up a separate window for SMS, like an IM—complete with dock icon badges and Growl notifications.
In addition, you can also bring up a separate window to view your call history, SMS history, and voicemails. It even has it's own reverse lookup function, complete with Google Maps integration, to show you where that unknown number is calling from(and possibly who it is).
Voice Mac is a free download, Mac only. Thanks, Jamie!
Dynamo vs. Sounders
Today marks the start of the 2009 MLS Playoffs. My boys, the Houston Dynamo, are taking on Seattle up in the North West. This game is going to be a great one but ultimately I think that Houston will come through. Perhaps not in this first game, but the Dynamo are tough to beat at home. Keep an eye out for Stewie Holden. His is in top form right now and is playing some of the best football I have ever seen him play. GO DYNAMO!!!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Ferrari 550GTZ
Ferrari's agreed to one last Zagato Ferrari swansong before bringing branded customization in house, giving the green light for five Ferrari 550 GTZ. Each gets a greater-than-$1.65 million price tag. Below, CarsUK's gallery of the final Zagato Ferrari. The original Ferrari 550 Barchetta's 5.5-liter V12 engine had 485 bhp, giving it a 0-to-60 time of just 4.2 seconds with a top speed of 199 MPH.This Seems Appropriate
So you found the perfect design to adorn your soon to be jack-o-lantern, but as soon as you take the first plunge with your knife, your pumpkin starts to lose precious moisture. Keep it from rotting before this weekend with petroleum jelly. Coat all cut surfaces of the pumpkin with petroleum jelly immediately after they have been carved. This includes a light coating of the entire inside of the pumpkin. If you can't do the whole inside, at least try to coat the design that you've cut into the pumpkin. The petroleum jelly acts as a barrier to seal in the pumpkins internal moisture to help slow down the dehydration process of the pumpkin.
Check Out The Gentleman Scholar Brewing Company
This is my friend Martin's Beer company and they are getting ready to drop their first mass produced beer. Click here to check out all that The Gentleman Scholar has to offer.
Check Out This Tree House
The 27ft. Nimbus E-Power Boat
Our quest for green energy has taken to the high seas with the Nimbus E-Power. Despite being fueled by electricity, it manages a respectable top speed of 27 knots and a range of 20 nautical miles on a 4-hour charge.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Adesso "Doves" Tee
This is one of Adesso's classic designs. Designed by Casey Gray it is 100% cotton and super comfortable. To get yours today click here.
San Diego's Floating Airport?
San Diego is in desperate need of an new airport, but no one wants it near their land. The so-obvious-that-you'll-slap-your-forehead solution? Don't build it on land, the ocean's right there. There's even a plan, but it's more than an airport.
The basic concept has been done in other places, but the idea for San Diego's solution comes from a guy named Adam Englund, and it's definitely not just afloating airport. It's an entire $20 billion business plan. He's dreamed up an airport on an "oil rig -style floating platform" with four stories of space, a total of 200 million square feet of it, which could be used for hotels, restaurants, even universities. An entire floating city.
It sounds insane, but apparently in initial reviews, Englund's plan lacks any "fatal flaws." I'd consider the absence of $20 billion a fatal flaw, but the man's a bigger optimist than I. [Infrastructurist via Stoke Report]
VMWare's Fusion 3 Fuses Snow Leopard and Window 7
VMWare's Fusion 3—with full support for Snow Leopard and Windows 7—is out today. Besides being natively 64-bit in Snow Leopard, it lets you migrate a PC to your virtual machine, launches Windows apps like native apps, and more.
It now supports OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9 Shader Model 3.0, giving you some more graphics powah in Windows, so you can run Windows' Aero interface with Flip3D (and play games, if you're daring). The more integrated Windows apps respond to commands like cmd+q and yes, work with Dock Expose. It's $80 for a fresh copy or $40 for an upgrade. [VMWare via AppleInsider]
Xerox Develop Printable Circuits
Wearable electronics aren't news, but being able to make them cheaply and easily is. Xerox has developed an ink with which you can print circuits onto plastic, film, fabric, and nearly anything you can think of.
From more durable, flexible electronics to nifty, wearable gear to cheap, throw away gadgets, the possible applications will be endless the day Xerox's "silver bullet" ink hits the market. Despite the lack of details on when that'll actually happen or what sort of equipment will be required for the actual printing process, I'm already daydreaming about pants with all sorts of gadgetry built in. [Venture Beat]
Apple to Renovate Chicago's North/Clybourn "EL" Stop
Apple has agreed to spend nearly $4 million to refurbish a run-down subway station adjacent to its future retail store on Halsted Street in Chicago. In exchange, Apple will receive from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) a free long-term lease on an unused bus turnaround dividing the subway station from the Apple store that will allow the company to turn the space into a landscaped public park.Panerai Radiomir PAM336
Panerai is bucking the oversized watch trend with a new Radiomir that is perfectly sized at 42mm, not too big, not too small. The watch will tout a pink gold case and their newest P.999 inhouse movement which features a 60 hour power reserve.
It's Playoff Time
Now that the playoffs are officially on I think it is time to talk a little bit about the matchups. Personally I am most excited to see the Galaxy take on Chivas. The Galaxy have ben playing some great football this season and are coming off of a win against my Quakes in their final regular season game, while Chivas were beat by Houston in theirs. Monday, October 26, 2009
The Perfect Ride to Work
I cam across this site as I was reading through a GQ magazine. I was pleasantly surprised as I checked out the site and am definitely going to get one of these bikes. I love riding around town and this is the perfect bike for it. Most exciting though is the ability to create your own color scheme and individualize the entire thing. Click here to check it out.
This is Hilarious!
Stuff White People Like is a hilarious blog about exactly what it sounds like. Click here to check it out.
Beckham to Milan Almost Complete
Hopefully all goes through without a hitch. I think it would be great to see Becks suit up for England in the World Cup and if the only way Capello will give him a shot is to play European football, then have at it man. This will only help spread the word about MLS.
The Calle Trip
With winter right around the corner what better way to stay warm than with this incredible hoodie from my boys over at Calle. To get it click here.New Toyota Electric Car Interior
This interior looks like a spaceship. I think it looks like something that George Jetson would drive. Pretty sweet though. The actual car is being shown at the Tokyo Auto Show right now.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Nice Wheels
As many of you may know I am a huge fan of cars. Here are 2 new cars by 2 very prestigious carmakers. Above is the Lamborghini Estoque and below is the Aston Martin Rapide. I like the 4 door trend that is happening.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Closed Down Water Pump Station to Elegant Home?
If turning an abandoned nuclear missile silo into a home was impressive, then I don't know what to call this. All I know is that Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragsetturned an old water pumping station into a stylish home.
It wasn't a cheap project as the property alone cost $700,000, but Elmgreen and Dragset approached it as an art project and enlisted the help of architects Wenk und Wiese to start renovations. A year later the old building still had most of its character, but was now outfitted with a fireplace, embedded bathtub, private workspaces, and all the essentials of a home in a stunning layout. [Inhabitat]
Vans Chukka Low
This shoe is sweet. The Chukka Low was designed by our skate team. The inspiration was based on shoes like the Authentic and the Chukka Boot, using Syndicate features and technology. Every season we'll mix it up with different riders to showcase the creativity and diversity of the team. The shoe is bound to be a classic and spotlights the timeless style of Vans.
The Nixon 51-30 Chrono
Nixon has some of the best watches at affordable prices. To get your hands on this one go to http://www.nixonnow.com/mens-watches/.
