italy on technabob...

Co-funded by the European Commission, the $3.9 million (USD) Dustbot project aims to build a moderately-sized robot to navigate the narrow streets that garbage trucks can’t reach. Hey that rhymed! Nice. Anyway the pictures below were taken from Dustbot’s trial run in Peccioli, Italy.

Aside from collecting garbage, the Dustbot can also analyze the quality…

How’d you like to be the very first person in America to own this brand new electric car?

The ZERO from Italy’s Tazzari Electric is getting set to hit U.S. shores by early 2010, and now there’s a chance for you to be the tooling around in this cute subcompact car before anyone else gets…

The neo-modern design of this BrionVega desktop radio harkens back to a sixties’ Italian design aesthetic. Maybe that’s because it’s actually based on a radio the company actually made back in 1965 in Italy.

BrionVega’s RR227 is a modern-day update of Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper’s classic RR127 radio, which they created over 44 years…

Italian pizzerias are outraged at the Let’s Pizza vending machine, due to be released in Italy this summer. Let’s Pizza apparently does to pizza what Nissin did to noodles: make it possible to enjoy one in 3 minutes. The machine doesn’t just heat frozen pizza; it actually serves freshly-made pizza. And at €3.50 ($4.76 USD),…

The Italian police have recently recovered a gun disguised as an ugly, outdated, monochrome-screened phone. That’s right: monochrome. James Bond would rather have his testicles torn off, boiled and then fed to him than be caught using this ancient tech.

The phone was seized in a raid of the Naples-based mafia group Camorra. According to…

I don’t care if this lamp conjures up memories of my colonoscopy. It’s still cool.

The undulating twists and turns of Kundalini’s Abyss table lamp may look a bit like your intestinal tract, but there’s something about the bendy organic form that I find mesmerizing.

The Abyss can be adjusted into a variety of shapes,…

If you’re a Technabob regular, you know I’m a sucker for cool modern watches. I don’t know why – maybe it’s that I got stuck wearing a dorky Casio calculator watch as a kid that makes me want to rebel in my old age.

Created by Italian architect/designer Denis Guidone, these watches work their magic…

Let me set one thing straight here. The guys who designed this furniture clearly had no inspiration from any 1980s dot-munching arcade game. Nor does the name “Pouf-Man” have any similarity to the name “Pac-Man”. It’s all on the up-and-up, you see.

Nope, there’s nothing even remotely reminiscent of Pac-Man going on in QAYOT’s Pouf-Man…

Looking for a really cool lamp to replace that cheap IKEA lighting fixture on your desk? As long as you’re willing to drop a little dough, this Italian designer lamp is sure to impress.

Designed by Iliara Marelli for Nemo Italianaluce, the Chain Lamp is a real thing of beauty. Made from case aluminum and…

A few years back there was an alarming trend of small purse-like accessory bags (also known as “manbags” or “murses”) being carried by metrosexuals in the trendier parts of town. Regardless of how in touch I am with my masculinity, I could never bring myself to point where I would carry one. I eventually ended…

I have a tendency to prefer my sound systems to be heard, not seen. After all, isn’t it all about the audio? But I recently came across a speaker line that even the most ardent of design snobs would be proud to put in their living rooms.

Italy’s Nacsound has created a line of speakers…

When you think of robots, you usually think of lumbering hunks of metal. Not these guys. These funky little ‘bots are made from clay instead of steel.

Created by Italian street artist Enrico Bertorelli — better known as Pixel Pancho — the Boot I series is a limited-edition ceramic art piece that’s a great addition…