On November 9, 2006 Jonathan Glancey started a blog at the Guardian Unlimited's Arts blog dedicated to the Classics of everyday design. The almost weekly articles keep going updated, and now there are 40 (and counting) Classics of everyday design.

Forget about icons, design of a kind that doesn't swank around in style magazines is all around us. Jonathan Glancey dedicates his blog to the finest examples - and he needs your help to point them out.

Among the classics listed, until now, many of them can be found on almost everywhere, and some are very British. My favourites would be: paperclip, the Swiss Army Knife, the Biro, or Bic Crystal ballpoint pen, Daleks, Lego, the Slinky and one of the greatest inventions of humanity, the anti-stressing Bubble Wrap. (Merci Bertrand!)

Posted by Bibi on January 23, 2008 10:17 AM in Blogs, Design, Gadgets, LEGO ||

The perfect kitty for geeks allergic to cat hair: Computer Cat Wall Clock.

He is made out of mostly recycled computer parts, ranging from recycled hard drive platters and floppy disks, to memory ears and a wire tail.

He also uses one of the finest quartz clock motors to keep accurate time.

The charming clock cat can go to your home, if you live in the United States, for $24.99 plus mail. That means no kitty for me. (via GeekAlerts)

Related posts:
Top 20 Strangest Gadgets and Accessories
Flip Clock

Posted by Bibi on October 1, 2007 05:16 PM in Cats, Gadgets, Geek ||

Nerd Watch Museum: Our collection spans hundreds of models, dozens of manufacturers and infinite gadgetry. I had some watches with cool "high-tech" features, like date, alarm and chronometer. But I never had a watch with a calculator. I think I wasn't nerd enough.

Posted by Bibi on September 21, 2007 01:07 AM in Gadgets, Geek ||

Tapedeck is a project of neckcns.com, built to showcase the amazing beauty and (sometimes) weirdness found in the designs of common audio tape cassettes.

There's an amazing range of designs, starting from the early 60's functional cassette designs, moving through the colorful playfulness of the 70's audio tapes to amazing shape variations during the 80's and 90's.

It's called a "nostalgia" site, and I hope it is nostalgia for all my readers. I don't believe I have readers to young to have ever used them. (Thanks Damien!)

Curiously, in the last years emerged a whole cassette tape culture transforming the audio tapes in icons. Vintage Japanese cassettes from 1980's are now been used to create transformer toys. The Italian designer Marcella Foschi transformed them in charming retro wallets, while in the U.S., Alyce Santoro used recycled audio cassette tapes and cotton to make pretty dresses. Those were some examples.

Etsy has tons of products made with cassete tapes or images of them, from T-shirts to cassette belt buckles, passing through necklaces, ipod cases, earrings and card holders. Using the iconic image of the cassette, the design site FRED life created a neat cassette tote bag. (via Smidigt)

I still have hundreds of those audio tapes on my closet. I should give them a proper funeral and take some pictures of them before I do it. However, I saw many great ideas about what I can do with them at Design Boom. One of them is to do a USB Flash Cassette Mod. The BBC, they also link to an article with 10 uses for audio cassettes. Another good idea is to make a cassette tape evening bag with that tutorial. That is, after I learn to crochet.

Posted by Bibi on July 28, 2007 02:21 AM in Design, Fashion, Gadgets, Toys ||

What I most appreciate in designers nowadays is that they learnt a lesson: design don't need to be pretty and unusual only; they have to have something else. like looking funny, and they have to be functional. The neat Moppel LED Lights have those things. Shaped as dinosaurs, aliens and other funny creatures, those flexible lights are powered by USB or 3 x AA batteries, a perfect company for your (my) computer. (via Smidigt)

PS.: ei Manuel, acho que você vai gostar desse daqui.

Update: more about Moppels at The Gadgeteer post Moppel LED Bendable Light Figures.

Posted by Bibi on April 2, 2007 01:31 PM in Design, Gadgets ||

The fantastic on-line geek store ThinkGeek has a tradition to release their most incredible products at April 1st. I remember when they showed for the first time the PC EZ-Bake Oven to make tiny cakes while you are using the computer, the Fundue, a desktop USB Fondue Set and Buzzaire - Metered Dose Caffeine Inhaler, that would be perfect now.

This year they highlighted seven new products: The ThinkGeek WiiHelm to fit your Wii control and let you hands free to eat cereal while you play - with a very illustrative video-; The ThinkGeek 8-bit Tie, to all the guys that miss the 8-Bit video games; a set of Piranhaz - R/C Battle Fish, with two battle fish, equipped with their own laser cannon; SurgeStix - Inhalable Caffeine Stix, a kind of cigarette with coffee in the tobacco's place; and the damn useful The Lonely Guy Dream Vacation Digital Photo Frame, all you need to make your friends stop to encouraging you to take a vacation.

My honourable mention goes to two of them. The first is the SnūzNLūz, a Wifi Donation Alarm Clock, is brilliant. It connects via WiFi to your online bank account, and donates YOUR real money to an organization you HATE when you decide to snooze! That's what I call a very efficient alarm clock, that deeply motivates you to wake up. The tagline says everything: Wake up to the smell of...Animosity...

And the second honourable gadget is the Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter, which allows anyone to quickly and easily test the working condition of any wall socket. Really useful and it's much easy than try the kids technique - search for things that could fit at the wall socket. This ingenious product was developed by the Russian design studio Art Lebedev specially to ThinkGeek customers enjoy the health benefits of finger contact with high-voltage electricity.

Check also the other amazing products announced by Think Geek through the years. BTW, I made a screenshot of their main page in the case of some of you miss it at April Fool's Day.

Posted by Bibi on April 1, 2007 07:27 AM in April Fools, Fun, Fun, Gadgets, Geek ||

I have a blender, not a powerful one, but it works fine. It doesn't blend magnets, or nutcrackers, or marbles, not even Cassette Tapes, but I'm fine. Blendtec sells blenders that do those things and much more.

Blendtec says its blenders are not our average blenders, so its sales method isn't your regular one too. They created a site to demonstrate all the power of those blenders through videos: Will It Blend?. Ok, until you start checking the links to the videos above, including my favourite session: Don't Try This At Home. I didn't get it: the coolest videos, those that made me wish the blender, are just examples of what it can do, but there is a warning not try that at home. So why do they show them at all? Just to make me want to do that at home?

There are also videos with safe suggestions, at the Try This At Home page. Coffee, credit cards and Ice Into Snow ans some of them. Nice... but how about the "barbies" blended? I'm not the only one that wants to destroy things with a blender: their most popular videos are the not safe at home, destroying all kinds of stuff. And you can always suggest new stuff to be blended and follow their last videos by Will It Blog? blog of RSS feed.

Since the things I wanted to do if I had that blender aren't advisable, I would like to see videos of some normal stuff, as smoothie recipes, or how to recycle paper using a blender. Of course, this kind of stuff won't be popular, however, they will let me do that at home. BTW, I found this craziness at YouTube a while ago.

Posted by Bibi on February 5, 2007 11:37 AM in Gadgets, Video ||

I already knew that I have my CD cases aren't the coolest of the world: they have no images, no funny stuff on it, they just black and very simple. However, know that I know about those cool Huggable Hedgehog CD Case, it's clearly that I must change mine. (via i-pets)

More Hedgehogs: Funny Spontex TV Ads and Amigurumi.

Posted by Bibi on February 5, 2007 01:45 AM in Animals, Gadgets ||

SparkMuseum displays the collection of vintage radio and scientific apparatus of John Jenkins. Early wireless, radio, scientific and other electrical items up to about 1920 (including books and other publications). His collection of 1910's and 1920's horn Loudspeakers is beautiful. The site is a kind of delightful walk through physics history of XIX and beginning of XX century with pictures of pretty inventions. (via All about nothing)

Posted by Bibi on January 29, 2007 01:58 AM in Gadgets, Science, Science ||

Jaren Goh, a designer from Singapore, developed the toaster of my dreams (it wasn't, but now it is): ROLLERtoaster - A brand new way to toast your bread. The sleek, compact and modern toaster won the 2006 Red Dot Design Award for innovation at the domestic aid category. Pretty cool, where I find it? (via Slashfood)

Posted by Bibi on January 4, 2007 08:08 PM in Design, Food, Food, Gadgets ||

The 10 Gadgets That Changed the World is a Wired article that talks of some models of gadgets that we loved (or loved): TV, telephone, mobile, camera, microwave, videocassette recorder, video computer system, walkman, computer and a movie camera.

I would have chose other models for camera and telephone, but their choice for a 8-mm movie camera was right on the mark for me. Actually, thanks to the 8mm models and the Super 8mm the number of documentaries increase a lot at the 1960's and 1970's, specially the ethnographic area.

And you, do you think they should have chosen other gadgets? I'm just curious about it.

Posted by Bibi on January 3, 2007 04:27 AM in Gadgets, Technology ||

One more list, now made by TechEBlog about the Top 10 Strangest Gadgets of the Future. There is an Origami DVD Player, an EyeMove PC, a Citizen’s Memory LCD, an “On Target” Video Game Urinal and an Intelligent Spoon, Heliodisplay M2i, among others, including 3 honourable mentions. They are weird, but I really liked the transparent toaster.

Related post: Gadgets for the Lazy.

Posted by Bibi on May 29, 2006 04:44 AM in Gadgets, Weird, Weird ||

Are you a lazy person? If the answer is yes, you are going to love some of the weird products selected by Wired in the photo gallery Gadgets for the Lazy. I'm not a lazy person, but in some cold days I would love to have my computer in my bed.

Related post: Motorized Ice Cream Cone.

Posted by Bibi on May 16, 2006 01:35 AM in Gadgets, Technology, Weird, Weird ||

Paul Mutton has nice gallery of photos, including cat photos - I had to say that, sorry. But his most interesting work of photography is under the Experimental album, that has three very cool photo essays of nude and gadgets and hardware. Check out the sub-albums Geek Pr0n, Geek Pr0n 2.0 and Geek Pr0n 3.0. Probably NSFW. (via Sexe, love 'n gaudriole)

Posted by Bibi on April 18, 2006 05:03 PM in Gadgets, Geek, Photography, Photography ||

Take a look at this special post of TechEBlog: Top 20 Strangest Gadgets and Accessories. It's incredible of how many weird and not so useful things people create. Some of them are freaky too, per example the SkinBag, others are just too kitsch, like the "The Talking Lips". I just know that none of them will be find on my wish list, not even the Radio Toaster with a vintage style.

Posted by Bibi on April 7, 2006 07:40 PM in Design, Gadgets, Technology, Weird, Weird ||

Bike Furniture Design is a design and manufacturing studio specializing in contemporary, modern furniture made primarily from recycled steel and aluminum bicycle rims, handlebars, and frames. They have tables, chairs, barstools, accessories, benches and other more seating furniture. (via Por fin es viernesss)

Posted by Bibi on April 4, 2006 04:26 PM in Design, Gadgets ||

Bubble Rings are like smoke rings, except they exist under water, and they are made of pure, clean air instead of smoke. Neat , but it ins't available for sell (the creator are still looking for investors).

Posted by Bibi on March 3, 2006 04:27 PM in Gadgets, Video ||

After the success of idog the Japanese company Sega Toys has a new I-pet: iFish. It moves the body as as "real fish" with deep sea sound or music - you can hook i-Fish with music player or your computer. With Sensors in the iFish Head, the iFish will response to your movement interactively. It also has light effects, one more reason that made me felt in love for it.

But it wasn't for a long time. The videos of iFish moving according to the rhythm of music at Toys Brando (where it is available to selling) scared me. (via Odiopod)

Posted by Bibi on February 7, 2006 05:04 AM in Gadgets ||

Too geek to not to post: Engadget 1985. A fantastic Engadget post, or as a reader said Best...Engadget...post...evar!. (via Waxy)

Posted by Bibi on August 22, 2005 06:56 PM in Gadgets, Geek, Technology ||

I can't resist to cute silly stuff: Cubees. They are very cute singing boxes: a pig, cow, chick, duck cat and dog make up the chorus of the Cubees. Each one sings 3 different "songs": not special songs and a little annoying I have to say, but the cool part is if you interconnect additional Cubees, the one on top of the singing pyramid will belt out the lead while the others "sing" back-up. To see them singing watch the video. (via Gizmodo)

Posted by Bibi on May 10, 2005 03:56 AM in Gadgets, Toys ||