Gearfuse

Is this a museum? An art installation? Absolutely not. This is an airplane and its destination is Switzerland. Swiss Airlines is offering up gorgeous work cubicles for its fliers who need to get work done in style. Need Internet? No problem. A little TV for you, sir? Of course, of course.

While my boss, Steve Rufer, will gladly visit me in America using Swiss, I’m forced to crawl into an over sized duffel bag. He then sneaks me back in the cargo hatch of the plane and throws me salted peanuts during the 10-hour flight. Oh what a life!

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Nike is no stranger to designing lightweight footwear. An old pair of Air Mercurial Vapor IVs I used to own were the lightest shoes I had ever touched on this planet. Now Nike is telling me that I’m an idiot and that these $400 Mercurial Vapor SL (”Super Lite”) shoes are the next generation of Nike. Designed for soccer, these shoes weigh a total of 190 grams and are made up of some material called Tepex that’s normally used in aerospace engineering, as well as a carbon fiber body. 190 grams! That’s less then the amount of weed you have stashed in your closet!

Unfortunately, coolness comes at a price; Nike only made 2508 pairs of these so you’ll have to do some serious searching or spend over $1000 on eBay. Ouch. After the jump, more sweet pic-age.
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Now, this is interesting. An electric paper plane launcher kit that you put together yourself. Too bad the entire point of crafting a paper airplane is to wing it at someones head. With this launcher, you not only miss out on choosing your targets, but you also waste precious time building it. Time that’s better spent putting together more paper airplanes for your paper air force. Please, don’t spend $16 dollars on this thing. Just look at it and laugh. Revel in the fact that it’s produced by some 3M ripoff company called 4M.

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I don’t understand why I can’t spend three hours in the shower or courtesy flush twice during a massive number two. Why is water such a precious and conserved commodity when we have devices like the WaterMill which extracts the water from air? This glorified dehumidifier is placed on the outside of your house and brings fresh water in to your home all day long. It will draw in up to 12 liters of water each day and distribute the extracted and purified water to your fridge, to a tap on your kitchen sink, to a water cooler or to its own dispenser.

So, the next time you consider getting out of the shower early or you hold off on flushing just so you can save water, think twice because water is easy to find.

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A MacRumors forum member purchased a used Macbook Air off eBay “as-is” and ended up getting a prototype model of the Macbook Air. The bottom is a black material and there’s no “Macbook Air” written on the screen’s bezel. It also features an interim build of Mac OS X 10.5. The buyer found out that the MBA was produced around May 2007, a whole six months before the Macbook Air’s debut. Wild stuff. I’m not sure if I’d want to own a prototype Mac, though. I have enough problems with my Macbook. Imagine the headache this laptop would give me!

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At first, these shoes don’t look much like a classic Nintendo Entertainment System. Look closer. These kicks have D-pads printed around them. Look even closer. See the “Start” button? It’s trying very hard to look like the one on the controller.

Definitely a cool design, but is it cooler than Hennessy’s Cognac Kicks? Absolutely not. Not even close. There is no way Nike shoes modeled after an NES will get you half  the recognition high-tops with a Hennessy logo on it would. Plus, everyone respects high-tops.

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In a world of good-guy smugglers and noble Jedi, one Sith must instill fear any way he can. That’s why Darth Vader built this hot air balloon. Not just because the town fare is approaching and Vader wanted to make sure he’ll be soaring high next to the Yogi bear and Batman inflatables but because Vader wishes to scare away would-be padawan learners with his hot air balloon visage.  Be careful: one collision with a Star Destroyer and it’s all over.

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The practical uses for unmanned aerial vehicles are proving limitless. Once used for espionage and photography, these airborne spy bots just fell victim to a role reversal: they’ve gone from spy to medic. Well, while they don’t exactly heal wounds out on the battlefield, they do provide air transport for supplies needed in dire situations. Think of them as carrier bots.

The South African National Health Laboratory Service has been testing prototype UAVs designed to transport testing materials and medical supplies to communities that are too much of a burden for ground delivery.  These robotic carrier pigeons are pre-programmed using GPS and microelectronic gyroscopes to guide them to their destination and can even handle themselves in windy conditions. After all, a little turbulence never hurt any blood mid-transit.

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Heating issues can take a huge toll on your computer’s hardware. I mean, take a look at this Xbox 360. That thing is FUBAR. The team at Antec are aware of the many heating issues people have with their computers, so they’ve built the world’s first open air PC case.

The Antec Skeleton packs a 92mm fan in the front and a three speed 250mm fan (with multicolor LED customization) on top which ensures that there is no way in hell you’re overheating your computer. If anything, your computer will freeze while sitting in this thing. It’s almost like the Antec Nine Hundred, except it doesn’t keep produce fresh.

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Fancy art? Same here. Whether it be an abandoned gas station gone quilt crazy or a Janis Joplin-looking smug face made up of 7,563 dice, we appreciate the artistic drive and innovative approaches to ideas that designers come up with. That’s why when I saw Dave Umlas’ sculpture I just HAD to write about it because like many idiotic cavemen, I am fascinated by fire.

The possibilities of fire are limitless. You can burn things, char things, sear things, scorch things and so much more. Dave Umlas likes to burn things. More specifically he likes to build sculptures out of stainless steel and burn the shit out of stuff with propane gas and forced-air jets. Or just make hot designs with it.

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