The Laptop Club Keypads

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at these keyboards designed by a bunch of second and third graders who call themselves The Laptop Club. Their keyboards include buttons for 'private code', 'pet shop', 'family', and 'rily werd games'. It's a fascinating view into how children view computers and what a computer could be. It made me step back for a minute and reconsider my own notion of a computer. (Found through Core 77).

Distellmap

Ben Fry is a fabulous designer/artist/computer scientist who focuses on visualizing data. This project, called Distellamap, (a spin-off of Dismap) highlights the beauty of code. The project features the code of 6 different Atari games overlaid with curves to show its 'go to' elements. The visualization emphasizes the flow of the code, showing it off as a complex piece of poetry. (Found most recently through Pica + Pixel).

Custom 52

Custom 52 is kind of like Treadless, but for playing cards. Anyone can submit a graphic design for a card's face. The card number and suit is up to you, but the design you submit has to reflect that choice. Submitted designs are voted on by fellow visitors to the site. The winning designs are made into a purchasable deck.

Sunday Personal Assistants

Got too much to do? Try delegating... to your personal assistant. Sunday provides personal assistants via phone and internet for as low as $29 a month. That entitles you to 30 requests. Sunday says the spend about 20 min on your request and then get back to you. Requests can include travel bookings, setting up appointments, reminders or wake up calls, tracking down products or services, etc. Plus they are available to you 24/7. I might just get this for everyone on my Christmas list.

Guide to Greener Electronics

If you are involved in product development or just a conciencious consumer, you should take the time to read Greenpeace's latest Guide to Greener Electronics. It ranks some of the big electronics manufacturers based on their global policies, use of harmful chemicals, and on taking responsibility for products at the end of their life cycle. (Found through Engadget).

Floor Planner

If you are thinking about redecorating (or just rearranging) your house or apartment, you should definitely check out Floor Planner. It's very easy to use and has better graphics than most floor planning software I've seen. The interface is straight forward. You just drag and drop walls, windows and other architectural elements to represent your room and then add contents from the 300+ furniture elements menu. Double clicking on different aspects of the room allow you to enter or alter dimensions. Oh, and it's free for personal use. (Found through Apartment Therapy).

Campaign Monitor

If you have ever worked on an email campaign, you know that testing your flyer in all the different mail clients can be a time consuming and difficult task. Campaign Monitor has an all in one test which previews how your email will look in 17 of the most popular email clients, as well as testing it against some spam filters and firewall protection programs. Unfortunately it's not free. It's $10/test. Probably still worth it if your are working on high profile email campaigns. Way to see a need and fill it Campaign Monitor creators. (Found through Swissmiss).

Oil and Vinegar Pump

I like the thinking behind this oil and vinegar pump. You push the large silicon button to pump the liquid into the top measuring cup. After you have the right amount (measurable in teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces or milliliters) you just pour the liquid out of the top. It's pretty, neat, and saves you some dishes. Available in the US for $14.95 at Crate and Barrel. (Found through Cooking Gadgets).

Bikefast

Bike+Breakfast=Bikefast... I'm not sure anything else needs to be said. Created by industrial design student Philipp Drexler. (Found through Pan-Dan).

31 Days of Giving Back

The holiday season often reminds us of how fortunate we are and how important it is to give to those less fortunate than ourselves. The current American issue of Glamour magazine features a really interesting list of charities that you might not have thought of, entitled 31 Days of Giving Back. Some of the more interesting causes that caught my attention were: Do Something - To find organizations in your local area that are looking for volunteers; Child's Play - buy a video game for hospital bound children via Amazon wish lists; World Computer Exchange - Donate your old computer to children in developing countries.

Jack Cards

Jack Cards is the greeting card solution for all of us who are thoughtful but forgetful/unorganized. It is a service that allows you to register all the important days in your friends and relatives lives. Then you choose appropriate greeting cards for them. Jack cards will send you the card just in time for you to write your own message in the card and resend it to your loved one. I love sending and receiving cards but I always remember people's birthdays on the day of, not a week prior - so this is perfect for me. (Found through Springwise).

To keep you busy for a couple of days...

I'm taking a couple days off. To keep you entertained, I'm leaving you with a few of my favorite podcasts:

iinnovate: A Podcast about innovation and entrepreneurship by students at Stanford.
Radio Lab: A WNYC podcast that covers scientific and philosophical topics through stories, interviews and thought experiments.
Quirks and Quarks: Weekly CBC science and technology news program
Diggnation: Uber geeky fun with Kevin and Alex as they drink beer and review the top stories on Digg that week.
Car Talk: Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, laugh and answer questions about cars and car repair.

CDX Game

CDX is a interactive video adventure created by the BBC and the always inspiring Preloaded. The game was designed to accompany the BBC mini-series Ancient Rome but it's a fabulous stand alone piece. The game is educational in a very subtle way. It reminds me of a modern, adult version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Preloaded used a combination of Maya Renderings, video, and Flash to create this online adventure. CDX won this year's Flash Forward Game category.

Zach Johnsen

I stumbled across the work of artist Zach Johnsen today. He uses a combination of pen, ink and watercolor to create his illustrations. I really like his drawing style. It's very sketchy but fluid. His compositions are often complex, telling an interesting story with their elements.

Reebok Timetanium Shoes

Check out these crazy limited edition custom Reeboks by artist/programmer/author/MIT professor John Maeda. They are called Timetanium and are designed to represent Maeda's theory on how to simplify time. The interior lining of the shoe shows the handwritten code used to create the graphic on the exterior of the shoe. The graphics starts out very complex and colorful at the heel and gets simpler with more linear lines and minimal color at the toe. If you want a pair of these it is already too late. They only produced 100 which sold out within the first day or so. (Found through Cool Hunting).

Diesel Style Lounge

A new online Diesel store recently launched featuring this mesmerizing Liquid Space Style Lounge. It has the same dark underwater feel as their amazing holographic fashion show did. The clothes are shown on floating models. To add to the effect they have also changed the behavior of the users cursor in the lounge so it feels as though you are pulling it through the water. Great combination of effects. On a side note, this is supposed to be one of the most complete online Diesel stores ever, including items from the runway not available in most stores. (Found through The FWA).

Planet Earth - Directions for Use

'Planet Earth - Directions for Use' was Angie Rattay's entry for the Designboom 'Love Your Earth' graphic design competition. It is a series of four instructional pamphlets designed to resemble medical directions packed into a small prescription style box. Each manual focuses on a different part of the Earth; the atmosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, and the lithosphere/pedosphere. Each set of 'directions' includes information about its relative part of the Earth and instructions on how readers can reduce their impact on that area. I would love a copy of this. It seems incredibly well thought out and executed.

Express Shirt and Tie Guide

Express seems to know their customers well. They have put together this handy little interactive guide for choosing shirts and ties. The guide explains all the important elements of shirts and ties. It also offers some suggested shirt and tie combinations and even shows animations on how to tie different styles of ties. What I really like about this guide is that it is shows a certain amount of respect to the reader by maintaining a level of sophistication, even for basic information. Its information is aimed at people who know nothing, without making them feel like they know nothing.

Charlybox

The Charlybox is a smart and simple lunch box for dogs. It is made up of two haves. One is a 2 liter water canteen and the other is a food and water bowl. I really like the design language on this product. It's very utilitarian, while still maintaining the element of fun necessary in pet products. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

TasteBook

Online recipes have taken over the world of cooking. The problem with them is that they end up as a stack of print outs mixed in with your old recipe cards. TasteBook is slightly time consuming, but brilliant solution to this problem. TasteBook is a customized cookbook that you put together using a combination of online and personal recipes. The cookbook exists as a collection online and as a very professionally printed book. Recipes can be gathered from Gourmet or Bon Appetit websites or entered from your own collection. Then, using an iTunes style interface, you sort the recipes into categories or sections of your cookbook. You can share your recipes online or get others to share their collections with you. For $34.95 you can print out a customized cookbook of up to 100 pages. All 100 pages do not need to be printed at once. They can be printed over time and added to the binder style book later on. A very well thought out idea. (Found through Springwise).

101 Gadgets that Changed the World

The Belfast Telegraph recently published this list of 101 gadgets that changed the world. It is a pretty interesting list. Items on the list range from light bulbs to Gore Tex. Most of them are products that you can't imagine your life without today. (Found through Apartment Therapy).

Verdier

I like the thinking behind this Verdier Westfalia concept. It captures the essence of camping and being just that little bit closer to nature. The Verdier is a hybrid camper with solar panels, giving the modern Hippie the technology to be self sufficient.

American Airlines Remembers Me

Oh thanks goodness, someone is still thinking about automated telephone interfaces! I just got an email from American Airlines informing me that from now (pending some action on my part) they will recognize me when I call. If you are an American Airlines Advantage (reward card) holder you can now register your cell phone number with your account and when you call from that number they will recognize your number pull up your details without you having to enter account numbers, etc. If you call within 23 hours of a scheduled flight they will automatically provide you with details specific to your departure. And here I was thinking that my parents were the last people to get caller ID!

Andrew Kuo

Dear Andrew Kuo, please be my friend. I've seen into your brain and decided that you are awesome.

New York based artist Andrew Kuo has made me once again second guess all of the negative things I've ever said about charts and graphs. Andrew creates the most intriguing editorial charts. They don't display actual quantifiable information, it's more like charting thoughts. For example take this chart commentary on a summer of concerts at McCarren Park Pool. It features graphs entitled 'How upset am I at missing the bands I missed' and 'My summer mood swings'. They display semi-useless information in a gorgeous and fascinating way. For more of Andrew Kuo's work, check out his blog or his contributions the The New York Times online. (Found through Cool Hunting).

Pet Peek

Alright, I'm filing this one under brilliant pet products. It's a super cute window through your fence, meant to give your confined dog (cat/child/whatever) a view of the rest of the world. The Pet Peek is a 9.5" half sphere window designed to give your dog a full view of whatever going on on the other side of the fence, reducing barking and curious digging. I think it would make my day to walk by somebody's house and see their space cadet dog peeking out through this perfectly head shaped window. Love it! (Found most recently through the Sub-Studio Design Blog).

PowerCurser

PowerCurser is an free downloadable Flash Toolkit that allows you to create touchable interfaces. It simulates stickiness, volume, pressure and roughness. What is interesting about it is that it doesn't use any sort of physical feedback. Their approach is to use graphics and alter the way the curser responds to create the illusion of touch. Essentially, your brain is doing all the work by taking in the visual stimuli, filling in the gaps, and creating the perception of touch.