For people who just can’t decide on an interior color scheme.
This Pantone Printed Leather Chair shows off Sif Technology’s ability to print color onto leather. Unfortunately, these chairs aren’t available for purchase. Come on, why is it always the coolest shit that never sees the light of day? High-production cost.
Entertainment Weekly has become the first print publication to publish video advertisements in the pages of their magazine. Activating similar to a musical greeting card, the video ads start as you turn the page.
The first set of ads features 25 minutes of preview content for CBS and advert pitches for Pepsi Max. The video content, technically, has got to be tough to maintain as it gets thrown around in the mail. Half of these videos must not even work by the time they reach their destination. Print doesn’t have much steam left, even if they are integrating expensive video ads. I don’t see much of a future for in-magazine video advertising when the internet can provide the same content with much more storage space and HD video, all for a fraction of the cost.
Print is seemingly on its death bed. The last rattling breath is barely escaping the industry’s lungs, yet the investors and the journalists continue to hold on for dear life, now only grasping with one slippery and weak finger.
But all of this doesn’t seem to phase Newpaper Man, designed by Mark Jenkins in what I imagine to be a last ditch effort at saving print media. If you want to spy the Newspaper Man yourself, you’ll need to grab an airplane ticket to South Korea.
I’m sort of worried that if I invest so much money in a Kindle, I’m going to have some serious tactile and olfactory withdrawal. And I don’t think I’m along. We need to feel the book in our hands and smell the scent that only a newly cracked-open book can emit.
“Smell of Books” aerosol spray allows you to simulate the scent of a real physical book, even if you’re reading an e-book. “Smell of Books” would be available in an assortment of scent variations, including Classic Musty Smell, Crunchy Bacon Scent, Eau You Have Cats, New Book Smell and Scent of Sensibility. Suggested retail price? Varies between $4.99 and $28.99 depending on the scent. (We’re almost positive this is a joke. But hell, people would buy it!)
I have always wanted a picture of myself on my own belt buckle. It’d have the same effect as Steve-O’s back tattoo except I can take it off whenever I want. Kimbra Studios understands my needs. It knows that I’d rather hang pictures from my waist rather than the walls of my apartment.
It’s easy to do, too! All you do is go to Kimbra Studios’ website, select what you want to put your photo on (an assortment of wearables such as belt buckles and bracelets) and then upload an image. The prices range depending on what you want your picture on. The cheapest is the mobile-phone charm, which only costs $14. Want to go big? The bracelet costs $260.
We aren’t quite sure what robots and doughnuts have to do with one another but these prints of robots by Eric Joyner are very cool. Eric has a book coming out called Robots and Donuts, which is a 175 page collection of his work for $23. Considering his 17″ x 22″ artistical prints of robots can reach prices over half a grand, I’d say the book is fairly priced. I haven’t made up my mind over which one I’d want hanging up in my den, though. Hit the jump to see two of my favorites.
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A relatively unknown company called Plastic Logic today unveiled it’s new technology called E-Newspaper. Designed to mimic the look but not the feel of newspaper, it’s supposed to put current versions of e-ink, such as the Kindle or eReader, to shame. The unnamed device will make it’s official debut come January 2009 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas (we’ll be there), so until then, one can only dream of both functionality and price.
Due out in either Q1 or Q2 of next year, the device is aimed at hardcore daily readers and business users who constantly use documents. No publishing companies are on board yet but that could all change next year. E-Newspaper looks to be the ultimate Kindle-killer but ultimately the price will determine that.
In construction work, it always helps to have a blueprint of your plans before you start building. Well, the same goes for LEGO construction, too. A new updated version of Allen Smith’s LEGO design freeware, Bricksmith was just released. Now, you can generate mini figures and add them to whatever it is you design in this virtual brick builder.
Do you find that you just don’t own enough LEGOs to build that dream scanner of yours? That’ll never happen with Bricksmith 2.0.. Not only will you never run out of LEGOs to utilize, the software also has a drag and drop building procedure. It might as well be real LEGOs. It’s free to download at the link provided but you’ll need a Mac.
If you thought that the nail biting clock and calendar was weird, check out this different take on the calendar altogether. Oscar Diaz came up with this self-printing concept when he discovered he could control ink bleeding onto paper. You could have a wallpaper calendar to write on, schedule appointments and what not, but where is the fun in writing up your own “To do” list? Rather than that, try having the ink leak all over the paper, telling you what to do that day.
This self-printing technique is unfortunately merely a prototype, so no amount of ink in the world is going to plan your weekend for you. Wouldn’t that be convenient to have your whole week scheduled my a pre-embossed page with ink leaking over it? Mine is telling me to never leave the house, ever, so I won’t.
Available in the finest papercraft print-out of course. Just don’t try playing Emerson, Lake & Palmer on it.
