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Tag Archives: Consumer electronics

13 February 8
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Keeping it real simple: NoteSlate

Under - Industrial Design, Technology

It might be rather disappointing for those who have been looking for a product gap between eReaders and iPad-like devices to market something new. If such a gap ever existed, it now has been filled by NoteSlate! Just wait till June this year and you could be a proud owner of a $99 grayscale tablet.

NoteSlate is low cost tablet device with true one color display, real paper look design, long life battery (180h !), together with very handy usage and very simple and helpful interface for pen and paper. This easy, compact and portable gadget is used anywhere you want to make any notes, drafts, sketches, any ideas for future reference. Paper for everyone! Write a note and check it later, save it, or delete it. Maybe send it after. Just one color is enough to express the basics. Keep your life simple.

Contrary to ‘… Just one color is enough to express the basics’, NoteSlate is going to be available in a variety of colors and even a multicolor version going to be released at some point in future. The A4 size tablet going to have simple three button interface to save, delete and view. Any ordinary pen/pencil would work just fine besides its own.

So, what’s the concept behind this low cost gadget?

The NoteSlate is trying to define the product itself, archetype, electronic paper. We are trying to define this archetype for general public, bit against their today`s usual network expectations. It`s active, creative, you cannot browse the web, networks, read, watch, play… the Internet, social networks, connecting everywhere are just beginning, part of the contemporary future. Although with NoteSlate, you will have always something, what you can be in. We don`t want to be overwhelmed with technology. The biggest simplicity is enough to express the basics, to explain the idea.

Am I impressed? Hmmmmmm … yes, may be. A notebook for $99 is a bit expensive but we like to buy gadgets like these often. I might not be that interested in this tablet as I already have one with all the bells and whistles, however, I do see a great potential for this 13 inch matte monochrome eInk display tablet within education industry.




14 April Share your
thoughts

PUMA Fuseproject Packaging

Under - Industrial Design, Inspiration

PUMA and Yves Béhar developed over 21 months a more sustainable packaging and distribution system in keeping with PUMA’s ongoing commitment to sustainability.

PUMA setting a great example here by giving up wasteful packaging. It would be unjust not to appreciate the efforts behind it. I wish all those super market giants come forward and stop packaging and labelling grapes, bananas and sliced apples and spend that money for something meaningful such as determining realistic ‘sell by’ and ‘best before’ dates. And, on ideas to extend the life of on-the-shelves and purchased food.

The same applies to all electronic manufacturers. Have you ever noticed how ridiculously those SD cards are packed? From cell phones to headphones, things are so superfluously packaged that I literally get annoyed when my rubbish bin is full of stuff that can easily be avoided.

29 January 1
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iPad – actually it is an e-book reader …

Under - Industrial Design, My Musings, Technology

… disguised as a netbook or may be a formidable hybrid of both! But, with iPad Apple has defined a new category of products that many going to follow in coming days. With the revelation of iBookstore, it is foreseeable where the whole game plan is leading to.

Apple iPad

iPad is an amplified version of iPhone but without a phone that is going to run all iPhone apps. It is an excellent alternate to netbooks and thin enough to be used as e-reader. As an e-reader, iPad is way advanced than what we are currently familiar with in the form of Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader. As mentioned earlier in a different context, this device has the potential of becoming an ultimate e-reader and PMP.

Apple iPad

Smartphones are excellent but still small enough to be used as practical devices for everyday use. With iPad, Apple has successfully combined several products in one. Many would struggle to fit this product into the current hierarchy of consumer electronics but I see it clearly replacing conventional laptops, tablets and netbooks.

What future holds from Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader – I don’t know but I’m sure for one thing that iPad, when wrapped in leather, is a clear invitation to Microsoft Courier to enter into the ring with caution.

28 December 2
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Bonnier and BERG – redefining reading experience for our time

Under - Industrial Design, Media, My Musings, Technology

Mag+

It is interesting to see how quickly technology and our needs are converging into new products and concepts – refining or redefining our habits and experiences. I’ve been quite happily reading digital magazines such as Bak, FF3300, Destructed and Proteus on my computer monitor for quite some time now. Issue took online publishing to another level by providing a platform to deliver exceptional reading experiences. All of this is enough to indicate where things are heading in near future.

Mag+

Mag+

Amazon’s Kindle, Sony Reader, and Fujitsu’s FLEPia have already added new dimension to this. Earlier this year Amzon brought Kindle to mobile platform, extending its reach but at the same time pushing competition into a new direction … I’m not talking about business here rather prospects of combining advance interaction, normally seen on advance mobile phone devices such as iPhone, HTC HD2, Palm Pre, Else Intuition etc with conventional reading experience. In other words, refining and redefining reading experience on handheld digital devices.

Bonnier and BERG collaborated to illustrate such a concept in Mag+, aiming to capture the essence of magazine reading, they compiled a video demo of a digital magazine on a touch tablet. The video demos how magazines like Bonnier’s Popular Science can be adopted for a handheld multi-touch screen device with gesture based browsing and non-obtrusive interface that you only see when you actually want to.

With publishers collaborating and preparing for digital future and technology advancements, any such product is not a dream anymore. I can hope to see it alive within a year or two.