We all remember the Smart car right? The company that brought that little tiny car that so many craved to own. Well how about owning a pedal-powered bicycle with electric assistance named ebike. The ebike is powered by a 36-volt/9.6Ah Lithium-ion battery pack which is concealed within the frame paneling above the crankcase. It can be charged from a household mains socket and is said to take just two to three hours to fully charge.
Unlike some other pedelec (pedal electric cycle) vehicles available at the moment, the electric drive on smart's e-bike is not activated via a throttle grip on the handlebars. The 250W brushless direct current wheel hub motor activates as soon as the rider starts to pedal and provides four levels of electric support, controlled by a button on the handlebar. Depending on the motorized support level chosen, smart says that the ebike has an effective range of between 30 and 90 km (18.6 and 55.9 miles) per charge.
The ebike also has a spot for your smartphone. Not a selling point for you. How about if I told you this bike will integrate with your smartphones via a smart drive kit app. When placed in a special mount, the phone automatically activates the electric drive and becomes an information and control center for the vehicle. A trip computer interface advises the rider of battery status, current and average speed and also includes a heart-rate monitor and navigation system. There's even a GPS tracking function to help users locate a parked e-bike. This ebike not only has some great features but this bike has a stunning design which I would feel pretty slick riding around town. How about you?
Thorsten Schmidtkord has a new series called Head on Top. You can see from the images below that Schmidtkord must have had a fun time working these images. It's definitely an interesting series where he reverses your head picture with surprising results. It also makes you wonder how he went about manipulating these images. Check out more of his projects.
The Laboratory of Living was originally a garage or a storage space. It was located in the 19th district of Utrecht, Netherlands. The Dutch designer Rolf Bruggink, founder of Studio Rolf.fr transformed this garage into a living space for two occupants. The designer chose to make it a relaxing and urban type atmosphere by his choice of room lighting and a convincing mix of materials and his use of available space. The warehouse originally featured two story's, with a garage door on the ground floor, which is now completely glazed and a window on the top floor, which is executed as a zinc-clad bay. In order to make optimal use of the two floors, all new additions such as the bathroom, kitchen block and wall units were accommodated on the three closed wall faces. The dominant materials were rough wood, zinc, plaster and re-exposed brick masonry. The color scheme is essentially restricted to white, black, and shades of gray.
Mehmet Gozetlik has made a poster set about the old school 3.5 inch floppy disks. Higher density drives are built to read, write and even format lower density media without problems, provided the correct media are used for the density selected. Below is how many floppies it would take to run these current software's.
If your interested in buying these posters then head on over to Antreposhop.com
Result (Approximate) 46 disk for iTunes 8.02 358 disk for Adobe Photoshop CS4 1760 disk for the Sims 3 12 disk for Firefox 3, 36 disk for Firefox Add-ons
I guess this must be animal week. First with the Ant Thriller and now Between Bears video. This video was made by Eran Hilleli as his graduation film at Bezale Academy of Art and Design. This video won the best animation award at the first vimeo's film festival. The vision for film was a debt to his childhood and other lives he hoped he lived. It was inspired by words of songs that he admires. This video is moving and the choice in color palettes was done nicely. If you want to check out more of his work. Then check out his site.
Oleg Zhukov did a great job in his Ant Thriller macro story about the travels of an ant. The colors and the tones in these photos are moving and mysterious. It was also interesting to find out that he did his macros without a macro-optic lens. He used manual-focus to capture these bright insects. You can check out more of his photography at Photoawards.ru
Jawbone the leader in Bluetooth headsets with their tiny earpieces that not only work the way they should but also have a beautiful style to them as well. So it's only ideal that they took the same approach with their new product the JAMBOX ($199). The JAMBOX weighs less than a pound and looks like an over-sized LEGO, however don't let that fool you. It packs some serious sound in this over-sized and underweight speaker system.
The JAMBOX can be connected via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm stereo jack and it comes in 4 different colors to match your style. It's one of the only speakers in the world that gets smarter every time you plug it in. Jawbone has incorporated its MyTALK online platform to download apps, software upgrades and latest features to your JAMBOX. Its part technical wonder, part modernist artwork, JAMBOX looks and feels as striking as it sounds. Whether placed on a desk, coffee table, or shelf, JAMBOX not only declutters jumbles of wires and clumsy computer speakers, but adds a distinct touch of style. This would be a great gift for the holidays to someone who loves music. (hint, hint).
This gorgeous home was built by American architect Chris Cobb. It was built in Austin, Texas in an urban infill lot. One of the challenges of building this home was the 150+ year old oak tree that was located in the center of the build-able section of the property. So Chris used the tree in his design and built the home around the tree. He created a taut multi-storied volume that features a dynamic interplay of different heights that engage and interact with the tree, tucking under and within the canopies that are defined by its outreaching branches.
The house is clad in Brazilian Redwood siding and corrugated weathering steel, which adds scale, texture, and a melding of the house with its surrounding landscape while at the same time softening the sharp, crisp geometry of the structure. The wood cladding extends into the interior of the house, which is also defined by dark chocolate bamboo floors, crisp white walls, meticulous custom made cabinets, and clean detailing.
Pauline Bastard who is a French artist has created a series called "Beautiful Landscapes". In this series she creates collages of imagery using torn-up pages from textbooks and photo albums. Pauline was then able to take these recycled images and turn them into eye catching pieces of art. If you want to check out more of her works then check out her website.
