MIYA Customizable Headphones

I love these super customizable headphones by MIYA. For about $63, you can come up with a million combinations with the number of pieces that you can customize. Oh, and if you are lazy like me, you can hit the shuffle button to create random customizations (all of the headphones above were created that way). Fun!

Review: Sony Ericsson MS430 Speaker Stand

Sony Ericsson recently came out with the Sony Ericsson MS430 Speaker Stand. Based purely on it as an object, it's beautiful - sleek and portable, with a brushed aluminum exterior. It's battery operated, which in my book is a plus and a minus - there are no cords to muddy up the aesthetic or get in the way of its portability, but the batteries only last about 12 hours, so you will be replacing them fairly often.



Functionally, it's super simple to use and works with any device that has a 3.5mm connector, and at $30 (found it available for pre-order here, or through Sony Ericsson's website for £28.99), it's affordable. I usually find that inexpensive portable speakers sound tinny, but the MS430 actually sounds very good. We attempted to demonstrate the difference between the iPhone playing by itself (which does have that tinny sound), and the iPhone playing through the MS430 speaker. Finally - as an added bonus - the speaker doubles as a stand, which is handy for watching movies.


[Review] Sony Ericsson MS430 Speaker Stand from Sub-Studio on Vimeo.

DISCLOSURE: We were given the Sony Ericsson MS430 Speaker Stand for review purposes. We were not paid to review this product, and all thoughts and opinions are ours alone.

3D Print Your Dinner

Evil geniuses/scientists at our alma mater strike again - this time pairing up with the FCI to use 3D printers to print edible forms too complex or small for regular humans to make. This particular ship is made of scallops and cheese. Mmmmm tiny spaceships.

via CBC

OWI - Moonwalker II

Everybody loves robots! I love the Moonwalker II

Azorian : The Raising of The K-129

We just started watching Azorian: The Raising of The K-129 on Netflix instant. I had read about the CIA's project before, but this documentary is bananas! It's like Hunt for Red October but for real - stealing a Russian ballistic missle sub without the Russians knowing about it. I love the 3d models and animations of how the Glomar Explorer and Capture Vehicle. If you don't know anything about the story, go watch the film!

Sub-Studio 2010 Gift Guide: Gold

Sub-Studio 2010 Gift Guide: Silver

Sub-Studio 2010 Gift Guide: Brown

Sub-Studio 2010 Gift Guide: Purple

Sub-Studio 2010 Gift Guide: Blue

Jawbone - Jambox

Jawbone's new Jambox speaker looks pretty awesome, but what I really like about it is the packaging. Simple and clever - it gets the point across! The Jambox is a wireless speaker and speakerphone, designed by fuseproject. You can order the Jambox here.

BlockDock

I am totally digging the BlockDock for the iPad - we've started using an Epicurious app when cooking, and this would be a handy way to get the iPad off of the counter top and someplace safer and more visible. The BlockDock is hand crafted from wood locally harvested in the Pacific Northwest (and it's affordable, which means I might actually buy one!).

Via Swissmiss.

The Big Picture - National Ignition Facility

Back in July, I posted about the NIF. It got the Big Picture Treatment last week.

This time you can see the change in scale - 1st one of the laser bays where electricity is converted to photons. 2nd the target chamber, where 192 lasers all focus their beams. 3rd - inside the target chamber. 4th - the target hohlraum, which itself holds a miniscule 2mm diameter capsule where the focused laser energy can recreate conditions of the sun to start a small fusion event.

It's pretty incredible that all that equipment to nuke something the size of a mustard seed. Makes you appreciate how much energy the sun actually generates: The NIF generates about 1,000,000 joules. In one second, the sun generates 380,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules.

Chad Person - RECESS Bunker

This is a pretty incredible diy project by artist Chad Person. Drawing on paranoia and too many post-apocalyptic movies, Chad decided to build a real-deal shelter, tools, traps, filtration, and energy supplies. According to the article, he could probably survive a zombie apocalypse. Tools like an automated sentry, homemade shotgun, solar panels, daylight filters for plant growth, and maps of nearby resources enable Chad to live pretty comfortably.

See more at Chad's site.

The video below shows his shotgun design. It could use some refinements, but it's got a Tom Sachs sort of feel, except that it works and isn't made out of foam core.




via Asylum

Magic Trackpad

I have to say, the Magic Trackpad is pretty cool looking. It's got a seamless, confusing appearance that has a "I'm not sure what it does, but I like it" quality. Maybe that's what makes it so 'magical'. It's not quite Arthur C. Clark's brand of magical yet, but it's a step closer I guess.

National Ignition Facility

That's no moon...



The National Ignition Facility (NIF) was dedicated on 5/29/2009 and is the world's largest and highest-energy laser. The sphere above is the final chamber where the laser beams converge to a single point, recreating a sun's core (on a very small scale). NIF's mission is to learn the secrets of the sun and pursue fusion research to one day provide abundant clean energy. Tech that will someday be a mr. fusion. Check out the NIF Home to see more videos and info on the project.

POLLI-BRICK by MINIWIZ

Arthur Huang, an old classmate of ours, founded a company called MINIWIZ that deals with energy consumer goods and recently invented POLLI-BRICK, a recycled polymer architectural brick. They used it in the curtainwall of an expo pavillion in Taiwan. It's pretty cool - the system is both self-structuring and light transmitting. With a companies trying to make glass bricks or transparent concrete, why not try this instead?

NASA - SPHERES program

The NASA project SPHERES caught my eye at today. Instead of something out of Star Trek (nerds), this one actually comes from... Star Wars! From the NASA site itself:

You won’t find any light sabers on the International Space Station, but you will find a trio of “droids” that look a lot like what any self-respecting science fiction fan remembers as a Star Wars “remote.”

That’s the tricky little device that Luke Skywalker used to hone his light-saber skills before he went up against Darth Vader and the rest of the evil empire.

But instead of being used for light-saber practice, the droids on the space station are being used to test automated rendezvous and formation flying in zero-gravity. And soon, there may be a host of other things the droids will be used to test as their capabilities and uses are expanded and made available for National Laboratory and other uses.

Known officially as Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, the droids have been on the station since 2006. Astronauts have conducted more than 20 experiment sessions with them, and are on tap to conduct many more. Each SPHERES droid is self-contained with power, propulsion, computing and navigation equipment. Together, they are testing techniques that could lead to advancements in automated dockings, satellite servicing, spacecraft assembly and emergency repairs.




NASA even paired it up with a HS development program called Zero Robotics in which students across the US develop code for the robots to solve real world problems. They got to send their code to MIT to test on the actual hardware. Pretty cool.

Google Patent Search - Drawings

Patent drawings are the funniest things ever. Take, for example, a patent search for 'skateboard'. It turns up some interesting finds. Like the manually steerable skateboard (left) or the power accessory for skateboard (right). I wonder if these two dudes turned out to be millionaires...

Audio Technica AT-SPF30 Bijoué Portable Speakers

Audio Technica (in Japan) makes these nice faceted AT-SPF30 Bijoué portable speakers. More likely to be seen as a jewelry box than a piece of technology, the speaker blends into a desk much better than something with blinking lights and knobs all over it. I just wish they came in more colors.

via Audiocubes