When you’re under the influence of hallucinogens day in and day out, bright colors can make or break your evening. Pulling an all-nighter just wouldn’t be possible without PoiPlay.

“…it’s like a firework show that doesn’t stink, smell bad or explode, and you can do it inside.”

It’s a traditional form of juggling originating in New Zealand that includes a rope or chain swung in a circular motion to display visual patterns. Thanks to the popularization of LEDs and glow sticks, PoiPlay has expanded visually and is reminiscent of the bike peripheral Monkeylectric. The rope has 28 LEDs that make up the visualization and utilizes three Atmel processors, a lithium ion battery, and a charger. The software controlling the PoiPlay was written in Perl and communicates via USB port under Cygwin. Be careful not to smack yourself in the face with it or you’ll be seeing colors that the PoiPlay could never display.

Link (via)

After a long day of Apple announcements, I like to kick back and lounge. Like any sane person, I enjoy my lounging in a chair and this LAMI chair from designer Javier Cristiani is just what the doctor ordered.

Made from 100% “standard metal components” and some cheap fabric, the LAMI screams “Europe” to everyone on the beach. It’s made for both indoor and outdoor use, implying that it’s pretty comfortable.

Link (via)

Japanese network operator Willcom has announced the JRC WX220J this morning. The phone is nothing compared to the 20 phones you saw from AU KDDI and NTT DoCoMo 2 weeks ago, however the WX220J retains a really retro (20th century) design and stripped off everything fancy. The WX220J is targeted towards companies that use the PBX standard for their indoor chordless phone network; that is, when you call the land line, somebody will be picking it up at the other side on the chordless WX220J. The phone itself can hold up to 10 different (fixed line) numbers, so this is excellent for the person left behind when everybody else is out for lunch.

Once that poor employee gets off work, he can bring the WX220J home and expect it to work on the train, because the phone itself cam work just like any other PHS cellphones, and it will run on Willcom’s nation-wide network. The screen is a basic 128×160 65K color TFT, internal memory is only 1.5MB, but PHS roaming to Taiwan and Thailand is supported.

The good thing about using PHS is that the battery life is usually impressive: phone conversations can go up to 7.5 hours per charge and standby is up to 700 hours. To protect commercial secrets, there will be no camera on board; to keep all the employees focused, there will be no MP3 or JAVA program files supported. What’s left would be the Email support which ensures that nobody slacks off and can reply emails within minutes. The WX220J will be on shelves by Jan25, the price will be $110. Just treat this as the Japanese’s Blackberry, but with indoor cordless phone functions. — Sam Chan

JRC WX220J Product Page [JRC Japan]