Oooo shiny. Of course they’re not portable, but who cares right? Nothing says you’re a millionaire like porcelain hanging flashlight lamps! They’re just $42 (USD) a piece at Fred Flare, whether you want the small, medium or large version. So what are you waiting for? You gotta get yourself some porcelain flashlights!

[via holycool]

These Rubik’s pixel portraits by Irish artist John Quigley are truly mind-boggling. Not only did he have to map out the precise pixel positions for each cube in these creations, he had to rotate the sides of each cube into exactly the correct color scheme to make it all work. To put it all in perspective, the Space Invaders scene above required a whopping 1,330 cubes.

And while Sonic only took 784 cubes to get his spiky blue hairdo, he’s still cool in my book. Not all of John’s creations require hundreds or even thousands of cubes either. Check out this Pac-Man scene, created from just 102 cubes – it still gets the point across just fine.

And Mario is no less fun, even though he only consumed 24 Rubik’s Cubes.

For obvious reasons, I’m drawn to his retro video game pixel creations, but I couldn’t leave you guys without showing you John’s unbelievable 2,622 cube portrait of Barack Obama.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Be sure to check out all of John’s amazing Rubik’s Cube creations over at the Neo-literal Cubist’s flickr page. He can also solve a Rubik’s Cube in 44 seconds.

The Galactic Suite will look more or less like these artist renditions. Before customers can get to these glorified pods, they’ll have to undergo an eight-week training course, which will be conducted on a freaking tropical island. Then they’re off to the shuttle for the day and a half trip to the pods. Galactic Suites Ltd. Xavier Claramunt compares the pods to a mountain retreat, because there’s no staff there. But the shuttle will be docked with the pods the whole time, meaning the astronaut-pilots will be staying with the visitors, who by the way will wear velcro suits that stick to the walls of the Suite. Stay in a space hotel and be like Spiderman in one go. Damn you rich people.

Claramunt et al claim that a “billionaire space enthusiast” has invested $3 billion in their project, and that they already have 43 people on the reserved list. I hope these customers donate millions to charity too. I mean I know it’s their money, but come on. Whether the hotel will be operational in 2 years or in 5, space tourism will eventually take off and there will be takers, but these outrageous prices just makes me think how misplaced our priorities can be sometimes. But as I always say, it’s your money, so do what you want with it. If you’re interested, you should check out the company’s website for more info.

[via Yahoo! News via DVICE]

All your old favorites are there, including AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. But if you look carefully, there are directories for WINDOWS and a HIBERFIL.SYS file, so this pillow must actually be running Windows XP or a newer version. And watch out for the PRON directory – you never know what’s hiding in there. The pillow also appears to have been infected with a trojan, so you might not want to actually sit your butt on this pillow.

The Dosogus 2.0 is actually an upgrade of Lebedev’s earlier Dosogus pillow, and I have to say the new model crashes a little less frequently than the original. Want one? Head on over to Lebedev’s online shop.

Macally’s wooden ECOFAN and ECOFANPRO stands keep your laptop nice and cool, and look good doing it . Each stand has a built-in USB powered cooling fan, and can support any laptop up to 17″. They’re made from Bamboo wood, which not only has a warm natural style, it’s eco-friendly.

While the ECOFAN features a fixed-position stand, I greatly prefer the adjustable height stand on the ECOFANPRO (pictured above). Here’s a snapshot of the simpler model:

Both stands are available over on Amazon, with prices around $32 to 33 (USD) for either model. With virtually no price difference, there’s no reason not to go PRO.

Now all I need is one of those Bamboo laptops to go with this, and I’ll be set.

The Mac version has a metal case and a 2-liner LCD screen like its software counterpart, while the Windows calculator sports the classic XP color scheme, and even has menu headers. I know that these are just concepts, but what would the window buttons (maximize, minimize, close) be for in a real calculator? It would be awesome if you could actually maximize a real calculator though.

The designer is aware of the fact that it would be unlikely for either Apple or Microsoft to let any third party get away with making these calculators, so is leaving it up to the two computer makers to make real-life versions of their OS calculators, if only to give away as gifts or for marketing gimmicks. And if they decide to go ahead with it, maybe they should contact Mintpass.

Designed by Minneapolis textile artist Angie Davis of Byrd & Belle, these unique iPhone cases protect your precious digital cargo inside a thick and cushy blanket of Merino wool felt and a soft Egyptian cotton interior lining. The grey and orange fabric is set off nicely by a simple leather strap, which not only serves to secure your iPhone, but also provides a convenient cord wrap for your headphones. No more wire tangles – hoorah!

Best of all, the Byrd & Belle iPhone case is reasonably priced. Each handmade case sells for just $19 (USD) and can be found over at their Etsy shop. Be sure to check out their nifty felt and leather laptop sleeves while you’re over there.

A watch battery powers the light, which provides a more or less even brightness. The lamp itself tucks inside its wallet-sized card frame. I can probably fit a couple in my wallet.

There are lots of situations when a flashlight would come in handy, but the big ones are bulky; small flashlights on the other hand usually emit weak ass light. Something like the Pocket Light would be a much better – and sexier -  portable light source.

Check out Harc’s website and have a look at his other projects. My favorite is the XY Bag, a luggage that transforms into a cart so you can put more bags on top of it.

[via likecool]

Organic Light Emitting Diodes are starting to emerge not only in flat-panel displays, but numerous prototypes of OLED lighting fixtures are starting to rear their heads. The great thing about OLED is not only that it is self-illuminating and eco-friendly, but that it’s not a point-source of light. Instead, OLED can be built into flexible panels and produced in specialized shapes, sizes and colors – providing a wonderful ambient glow. There are even transparent oled panels that you can see through, but that can still generate bright ambient lighting. Philips has even made some amazing interactive lighting fixtures using their new Lumiblade OLED technology.

Check out the gallery below to see a variety of prototype fixtures that use OLEDs to generate light.

In addition to Philips, there are many companies working on OLED lighting concepts, including GE, OSRAM, Siemens, Visionox, Samsung, and others – and it’s only a matter of time before we start to see mass-produced commercial lighting fixtures that use the technology. I see a bright future ahead of us.

[via OLED Info]

And geeks like me.

Unfortunately, the Tetris Chair remains Gabriel’s baby for the moment, and is not readily available for purchase. According to the description on his Coroflot portfolio, the chair is comprised of five of the seven tetrominoes pieces from Tetris. Each three-dimensional block is a fiber glass unit that, loosely translated, “results in a light, showy, and resistant product.”

As I type this post, my arse is firmly planted on an exceedingly comfortable (and equally expensive) desk chair that I’ve grown quite accustomed to. I’m not sure I could go back to slummin’ it on hard surfaces, which is what blocks of fiber glass sound like, to me. Still, there would be a certain appropriateness to having my designated gaming chair be made up of Tetris blocks. It would be almost poetic.

[via Geeky Gadgets]

The innovative Table of Sound (ToS) coffee table was created by designers Wout Fierens and Miquell van Meelen of Wondering Boys for a recent competition over on designboom. The ToS provides a new way to enjoy your music right in the middle of your living room. Instead of pushing speakers out to the corners of your room, they’re mounted conveniently in the legs of the table.

Just plug your iPod into the table’s built-in dock, and crank up the tunes while you sip your coffee and read the morning paper.

The Table of Sound appears to be just a one-of-a-kind concept design, but I’d definitely buy one if I were in the market for a new coffee table… and a new stereo at the same time.

[via Hemfeber]

Unfortunately, when the Union disbanded into independent states, one of the free amenities that disappeared was free natural gas. Apparently it became expensive for the local government to maintain the flame. As the article in English Russia puts it, “the memories don’t cost much in wild capitalistic realities!”

Unfortunately I don’t know when exactly the awesome turn of events occurred, but the important thing is that officials found a way to keep the fire burning by installing a cellphone transmitter with what I think are LED panels, which displayed the pixelated flames.

I don’t know how much utilities cost in Ukraine, but we’ll just have to assume that the cost of the powering the new torch is much cheaper than the old one.

[via The Presurfer]

The machine takes advantage of the fact that patents often refer to other (or earlier) patents to connect the words that it got from the book. I’m not 100% sure but I think this is how it works: if for example the first two words that the machine got from a book are “fox” and then “dog”, the machine will first look for a patent with a drawing of a fox. But before looking for a drawing of a dog, it looks for a third patent drawing that will connect the fox-patent to the dog-patent. Then it draws the fox, then the connection between the fox and the dog – a patent for a foxdog? – and then the dog.

In essence, it turns a text-based story into a technological history of sorts. Here’s the Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Honestly I found it to be a bit boring. Maybe if I knew exactly which “recent best-selling book” it started from I could appreciate the drawings more. Or maybe I should see it live. As it is, I don’t have context, and the drawings make little to no sense to me. Definitely weird though.

[via likecool]

d*light can be plugged in via a 6-volt AC adapter, but it makes more sense to power it with 4 AA batteries, in which case it will bring endless joy and eternal hope for up to 4 hours. As proof of the messianic love power of the pillow, 5 d*lights were placed next to the remains of Stalin and Hitler. Here’s what happened to the two genocidal tyrants after a few minutes:

That’s right: they came back to life as a couple of peaceful, harmless, small talk-loving women. The holy pillow is available in Original White, Hot Sun Pink and Sunset Gold, and can be yours for $160 (USD) at the newly-opened Yanko Design Store. Praise d*light!

Lasse Klein’s whimsical lamp design first showed its face on Technabob all the way back in June 2007, and it’s taken over 2 years for a final production version of the lamp to find its way to our humble M-Class planet. That sure was a long extraterrestrial journey.

The final version of the lamp features LED that light up the alien cockpit, and a shiny steel retro alien spacecraft hovering atop an illuminated acrylic tractor beam, which itself rests on a fake grass base. With a touch of the antenna, you can flip between an always on or pulse lighting effect behind the windows. And when the lights are off, the aliens glow in the dark. Plus, it comes with a plastic cow – perfect for alien experimentation. Just don’t expect to read by this lamp – it’s really just an accent piece.

While the final version of the lamp isn’t identical to Klein’s original prototype, I still think it’s really cool. The Alien Abduction lamp is available in a an initial limited edition run of just 2000 spacecraft. You can order one here for $100 (USD).