With this in mind, René Lee set off to work on designing a revolutionary printer with the busy office in mind. After spending a lot of time doing research and drawing up initial designs, Lee came up with the Arc Printer.

It’s basically a round printer that stacks printouts from different documents accordingly in a circle. Users can just walk up to the printer, find their stack, have a quick chat or say hello to the others who are also grabbing their documents, and go.

With this design, Lee has managed to transform the printer “from a heavy utilitarian equipment into something more elegant and emotional.”

I’d definitely love to see one of these at my office.

[via Utilitarian Things]

As a result, residential units are also getting smaller and smaller. I think that’s one of the things designers Adriano Conti, Corrado Galzio and Alex Innamorati considered when they designed the Minikitchen, which is roughly the size of a washing machine.

The Minikitchen concept has everything that you’d need to cook, prepare, and store your food. Specifically, it has a vegetable washer, dishwasher, refrigerator, prep surface, small pantry, oven, and two other cooking systems so you can cook up most of your food without taking a lot of space at all. It’s perfect for a bachelor pad and would fit into tiny apartments with ease so you could have more space for all of your other stuff.

It’s a very neat idea, although I think the hard part lies in implementation, of course. It’s hard to imagine how the plumbing, refrigeration, food storage and heating systems could possibly fit into such a small container.

[via Yanko Design]

One of Giha’s main motivations included the fact that most chargers for MP3 players can be as large or larger than the actual MP3 player. The overall design is pretty minimal and should work for people who don’t need a screen to check out what’s currently playing. I have to say that I like doing that though, especially with a large music collection, but if you’re used to working with an iPod Shuffle, you’d be just fine with one of these.

Granted, you’ll need a country-specific version plug for it to work in your particular country, but honestly I like the overall shape of the bi-pin version shown here, but the prongs could poke you if you’re not careful when you’re wearing it.

It’s also not clear if  it’s technically feasible to cram a transformer into a package this small -but it’s not much smaller than the cube Apple gives you with the iPhone these days.

[via Dezeen]

Designer Hern Kim’s WALdok is a compact speaker dock that perfectly complements the design of the latest iPod Nano, giving it a warm and cozy place to live when it’s not in your pocket or on your wrist. The tiny dock hangs neatly from a spare wall outlet, so it’s perfect over your kitchen countertop or in your bathroom.

The curvaceous design of the WALdok provides a nice contrast to, but complements the Nano well, and certainly looks way better than any old wall charger and cord. Inside the WALdok is a 40mm audio driver surrounded by a custom-designed bass chamber to provide the best low-end possible given the small size of the enclosure.

In addition to the white design, he also plans on producing a limited-edition black version (although I personally like the see-through variant that’s being made for the prototypes.)

At this point Hern is raising funds to produce the WALdok via Kickstarter, and if you’re interested in getting in on the action, you can bid as little as $10 bucks to show your support, or those who pledge at least $59 will get a WALdok when released, and pledges $99 and up get a pair. Higher pledges qualify you for the limited-edition models and other perks.

The problem with most external hard drives is that they just sit there and get in the way. They have no point other than to store your data. LaCie has all sorts of external storage products and a designer named André Silva has come up with a design concept for LaCie called the Float.

This HDD is all kinds of cool because it has a point other than to just store data. The drive has a top that can be used as a multi-touch track pad that recognizes gestures. As an added bonus, the unit “floats” atop your desktop on a glass base, which has cool LED lighting underneath.

This thing looks like something Apple would sell to me. It’s a really cool idea and I hope that the product comes to market.

[via Yanko Design]

The project is by a dude named Scott Wilson and they are epic. The bands are called the TikTok and Lunatik multi-touch Watch Kits. The bands are made from premium materials with the Tiktok using a snap in design where you just sit the iPod nano into the face of the band. It looks like a digital watch more than any other nano case like this I have seen. All the controls and ports are left uncovered.

The LunaTik is more complex and is a conversion kit that encloses the nano inside the band where it’s not easily removed. It is mostly for the user that wants to make their nano into a watch permanently. It’s made from machined aluminum with straps made from silicon rubber. It will be offered in red and the plain silver designs. It seems that Scott  has raised enough money for the project to move on so we should see this hit the market in the near future.

See more details over on Kickstarter.

The coolest flip phone that I have seen in a long time has tuned up from a company called iida and the phone is the X-Ray. The phone has translucent cases in red, blue, or black colors. No matter the color, you can see through the case with the parts inside being part of the design of the phone.

The phone has a small 7 x 102 dot-matrix LCD you can see on the front that shows time and caller ID info. Inside the phone is a larger 3-inch screen and the devices measures 49 x 110 x 15.7mm overall. Other features include an 8.08MP camera phone that can record video and has flash and image stabilization. Storage is 925MB onboard with expansion using microSD cards.

Pricing and availability are unknown at this time, but you might be able to find out more over at the iida website.

His MacBook (aka “MagicBook”) replaces the standard keyboard with a touch surface that works like a giant Magic Trackpad. But with a push of the button on the top left corner, a full QWERTY keyboard is revealed, concealed beneath a glass protective layer and backlit with LEDs.

As for Lieto’s Mac Mini, he envisions a pancake-thin form factor. At just 10mm thick, it’s a hair slimmer than an iPad. This scale could only be achieved through elimination of the rarely used DVD-rom drive. And the top surface would provide a wireless sync and induction-based charging for your iPod or iPhone. The Mini would also sport glowing green edge lighting to give the system a really dramatic look when the lights go down.

Check out more images of Antonio’s design concepts in the gallery below:

While I question the idea of a keyboard without tactile feedback, the overall look of Lieto’s designs is totally slick, and I’d love to see Apple take at least a few cues from Antonio’s concepts – especially the Mac Mini charge-and-sync – I love that one.

[Thanks for the pics, Antonio!]

From everything I can tell, the Snowflake Speaker is just a concept design, but if it actually existed, it would work as a dock for your iPhone or iPod. The Snowflake would feature colorful illumination that changes to the beat of the music incorporated into the geometry of the snowflake. And smack dab in the middle, a JBL radial driver, seamlessly integrated into the design.

While I’m not sure I’d ever put one of these in my living room, the Snowflake Speaker definitely be a conversation piece if it ever were to be produced. The conversation would go something like this: “Did you steal the headdress off of a Vegas showgirl?”

[via Tuvie]

Designed by Italy’s ADR Studio, the iWatch would feature a gorgeous aluminum body reminiscent of Apple’s other “i” devices. The wristwatch would not only tell time on a sleek full-color LCD screen, it would have integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, run apps, and could connect with either the iPhone or iPad (presumably to interact with remote apps and data). Oh yeah, and it would have a built-in Pico projector. Check out the gallery below for more pics:

I don’t care that I already have existing devices that do all of this and more. Apple, you need to get working on this right away so I can round out my gadget collection.

[via iPhoniPad]

Conceptualized by China’s Tao Ma, the MEN2014 watch would replace the hour, minute and second hands with screw heads which have a small red mark at the end to indicate the current position on the dial. I have to say there’s something that I really like about the whole post-modern minimalism of the design.

At this point, the design is just a concept, but I sure hope that somebody decided to make these for real. I’m just glad that Tao chose to use flat-head screws, as I think that Phillips, Torx or Hex screws would be really hard to read.

This new device charger concept by designer Zheng Weixi called the Magic Charger uses the Rubik’s Cube concept with rotating cubes of green and white. As the faces of the puzzle are moved, the motion is captured and turned into electricity.

The power can then be sent to your gadgets via a USB port hidden in the core of the Magic Charger. This is one concept I never see coming to market. You would have to play the thing for a long time to generate any usable power and if you cheated, no juice for you.

[via Yanko Design]

But USB hubs are a pain if you need to travel and your notebook doesn’t offer enough USB ports. This new concept for USB cables has turned up on Yanko Design and it’s very cool. The plugs for the cables are like Christmas lights where you can plug them in end-to-end.

This way you can plug several things into a single USB port without having to carry a hub with you. The obvious drawback were the concept to become reality is that the number you can nest would be limited by how much power each USB thingy draws.

The E Clock can tell the time using normal numbers, or through patterns of dashes and lines that you have to decipher. That’s not all. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and will alert you via vibration to tell you when you’ve got incoming calls or text messages.

The band is made from flexible stainless steel, which forms a neat-looking bracelet. This is the part I really like. If this design gets enough votes, TokyoFlash will actually produce this thing. Now that’s cool. So head on over there to vote for it!

[TokyoFlash via DVice]

Called simply “THE AUDIO,” this newfangled contraption houses all of its audio circuitry inside the central tower, and then includes a pair for super-slim satellite speakers to flank the main unit. What’s really unusual about the design of this uber-modern stereo is the control bars that stick out of the sides of the main tower.

Depending on mode, each of the metal rods controls a different feature. For instance, in radio mode, the bars control the band, station and volume. But in MP3 playback mode, the top bar controls the track, the middle bar controls the playback mode, and the bottom remains as volume. Controls are boldly displayed on a bright dot-matrix display embedded into the control tower.

THE AUDIO system has built in AM, FM and DMB/DAB tuners, as well as a 3.5mm stereo jack for connecting your media player to the back. You’ll also notice a strategically placed SD card slot at the front bottom of the control bar, so you can play back all of your digital tunes without additional hardware.

At this point, it looks like THE AUDIO is still in the prototype stage, and it’s doubtful we’ll ever see it outside of Korea. Perhaps the EarlyAdopter folks will realize they have a following around the globe and will indulge us with these in other countries. For now, you’ll just have to look and drool from afar.

The Asspeaker is a 2.1 speaker system shaped like… your butt. Well maybe not your butt, but somebody’s butt. The speaker features a subwoofer with what could only be described as a “strategically-placed” tuned bass port (between the cheeks). And if one butt isn’t enough for you, the two wireless satellites can be stored together to form a smaller pair of buttocks.

To turn on the Asspeaker, you tap the right cheek, and to adjust the volume, you rub the left one. Did I happen to mention that everything is wrong about this concept?

The asspeaker is the brainchild of designers Javad Yazdani, Mohsen Tafazzoly, and Younes Daneshvar. While the design is still just a concept, Javad, Mohsen and Younes should get their asses on a plane to Vegas next week where both the Consumer Electronics Show and a porn convention are going on at the same time.

Surely, somebody has got to give them a business deal there.

[via Behance]

Designed by Sweden’s Industri Repro, the XBEE (XB Elegant Edition) offers a complete retrofit for the look of the Xbox 360, putting its guts inside a streamlined rectangular box that would look great in any media room equipment rack alongside your schmancy A/V components.

Each case can have up to three 120mm fans to ensure your 360 always shows off its green ring of life. And if any of you are still doubting that this is a real thing…

Sure, it’s not quite as cool looking in the real world as in the carefully staged product photo, but is anything ever? Also, it’s a bit larger than I would prefer. The builders claim they built it that way so they could fit the full-size DVD player, while still centering it in the case. The extra space inside should help with cooling too.

There’s no word if and when you’ll be able to buy an XB Elegant Edition case for yourself, but Industri Repro says it started production back in August 2009. More pics and a details can be found over at xbox-scene.  In the mean time, if you want to build your own, here’s what they have to say:

“If you want to build your own XBEE u need: Aluminum plates 25mm x 598mm x 100mm and 2mm x 568mm x 300mm and a working xbox360. Buy a press brake, laser punch machine and a CNC-Milling machine and a Anodization plant. Hire a bunch of efficient guys that know how to use the machines and it’s done!”

Simple enough, eh? For more info on the XB Elegant Edition, you can e-mail the Industri Repro guys here.

Currently a concept design from Korean design firm mintpass, this portable storage device is called the “Mint Hard”, which, as it turns out is supposed to be quite funny in Korea, as the word “hard” is also used to refer to an ice cream bar. Perfect – if you live in Korea, that is. Otherwise, not so funny.

Still, the design is pretty clever, in that the main hard drive body looks like the delicious ice cream part of the popsicle, and the stick is actually a removable USB flash drive. And since it’s not made out of wood, there’s an added bonus – no tongue splinters!

The Mint Hard will come in three flavors: Chocolate (120GB HD / 8GB flash), Strawberry (80GB HD / 4GB flash) and Vanilla (60GB HD / 2GB flash). There’s no word if or when you’ll be able to get your hands on one of these outside of Korea, but hopefully we’ll see them turn up sooner or later. In the mean time, you’ll just have to stick with your Good Humor bars.

[via curiosite]

Users just press and hold the corresponding buttons located at the side of the remote while shaking the controller. The power button is located on one side of the remote, and miscellaneous controls are on the other side.

To make it blatantly obvious that it was inspired by the Wii-mote, channel and volume changing is gesture based, i.e. by shaking the remote in a specific direction.

No doubt, the Shake Control is aesthetically pleasing, and the fact that it doesn’t need batteries is a big plus. But shaking the thing every time you want to change the channel? I think I’ll just wait for Flick Control.

[via Gadget Grid]

Man Works Design’s K-95 waterproof USB flash storage device is a concept design in search of an actual need. Still, there’s something I kind of like about the clever submarine-shaped design of these flash drives.

Now all I need is that waterproof laptop to go with these, and I’ll be all set.

[via designeast]