design

After an investigation, Denmark's Consumer Complaints Board says it has found evidence that a design flaw in Apple's iBook G4 caused the notebooks to stop working after about a year of use.

The board's investigation found that turning the laptop on or off over time causes a solder joint to loosen and eventually separate, preventing current from flowing through the joint. Owners of Apple's iBook G4s had complained about system problems, and even filed a class-action suit to advance their claims, but Apple has not admitted to any sort of design flaw with the systems. The … Read more

To me, the Illupillow looks kind of like a stingray, or maybe a flattened squishy submarine with a periscope. However, it's actually quite a cool piece of furniture, in my opinion. The giant pillow is designed to accommodate comfy floor-sprawling, with the cordless light attached so that you can read in the dark. I'm assuming it's battery-powered. Also--I'm not positive, because the product page is in Italian--it looks like the light is flexible, so you can move it out of the way if you want to use the Illupillow for non-reading laziness.

It's a creation … Read more

So we've seen copycats and similarities floating around the internets before. Missing vowels in site names (understandable, domain names are getting pricey), reflections, gradient backgrounds, rounded corners. You name it we've seen it. What we haven't seen in a while is a copycat page design on this scale. AOL's new Beta page looks mighty familiar. So familiar, one of our readers sent us a tip, pointing out that it looks dangerously like Yahoo's home page. The real question here, is how does a company with so much money to throw around skimp on something as … Read more

We all need these in our lives--colorful, squishy light bulbs. These are the sexy little Tykho fluorescent lights, designed by Marc Berthier for Lexon; they come in a variety of colors, and have a flexible silicon rubber exterior that...squishes. Aren't they adorable? Tykho lights can be powered by either four AA batteries or an AC adapter.

Unfortunately, they're about $60 per bulb. A tad much, if you ask me. I'll stick to plain old boring lighting for now. Booooo.

(Via Technabob)

Guess what's bringing sexy back these days? Trailers! Well, kind of--these are actually campers, since you hook them up to the back of your car or SUV. But I'm sure that with this precedent, we'll be seeing full-out trailers done up in luxe style before long. Apparently, some people really just can't make their cross-country excursions without high design:

Deseo Caravan. Hailing from the Netherlands, this is marketed as a lightweight, compact, well-designed camper that's sold at an affordable cost. They are pretty reasonably priced, starting at 6,677 euros, which is slightly over $9,… Read more

Can a computer company design a torch? Yes, according to the committee behind the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, which has selected a design by China-headquartered PC manufacturer Lenovo as the model for the games' iconic torch. According to a press conference on Thursday morning hosted by Lenovo, which is also a worldwide sponsor of the Olympics, the design was chosen from over 300 contenders.

According to Lenovo, the torch design took ten months and was the product of more than 30 engineers and design specialists. The end result, called "The Cloud of Promise," incorporates elements of both … Read more

What is it with clocks these days? It seems like every day my RSS reader has at least one wacky clock--usually more--showcased on a few of the gadget blogs I read. They're typically not as awful as the watches that we come across, but still...the bird call clock? The unreadable Tetris-esque clock? And don't forget that freaking orrery. I prefer to keep my clocks simple, thankyouverymuch.

Which is why this projector clock, hailing from Japan, is also a "thanks, but no thanks." It's a translucent little box that can sit on your table of … Read more

I don't think you want to light up your house with this--but decorators in charge of restaurants, nightclubs, and hotel lobbies might want to take note. This is called theANEMIX, and it's a freaking 3D lighting-effect system. Yes. Wow. theANIMEX is the product of Chilean designers Ximena Munoz and Paulina Villalobos, who used the uber-efficient OSRAM LED technology to create panels that use dual layers (one luminescent, one reflective) to give off a lovely, bioluminescence-inspired 3D glow.

Really, really cool-looking stuff. It's far classier than the glowy stuff we typically post about here.

(Via CubeMe)

Intel announced today the winners of its Intel Core Processor Challenge, a competition with a total of $1 million in prize money that encouraged computer manufacturers to use its Viiv processor technology to create a high-performance, media-savvy machine. The winners, well, aren't particularly earth-shattering.

You do have to keep in mind that these are legitimate working PCs, not trippy concept designs created under the influence of what-have-you. So when Intel talks about the "best mix of style, acoustics, functionality and features for digital home entertainment," you have to take that with a grain of (pragmatic) salt.

The … Read more