*notcot - 08.17.09 , 11:55 -

Rickenbacker 350 - Liverpool

rickenbacker0.jpgBeauty in Technology post series sponsored by Samsung’s new LED TVs! Post #4 of 6 in this series exploring random beauty in technology, NOTCOT style.

It’s been such a fun challenge finding things to share for this Samsung sponsored post series ~ running around my life finding unexpected inspiring beautiful tech details i may not have normally noticed or thought about that are in my every day life… today i’m excited to share the Rickenbacker 350/12V63 Liverpool 12 string electric guitar with you! (Also awesome? The color is called “Jet Glow”) John Lennon, The Byrds, and Tom Petty were all known to play Rickenbacker… and really what grabbed me was the way the tuning machines are attached to the head without looking too crammed, even when there are twice as many as usual! And really it’s just such a stunningly gorgeous machine ~ check out the pics on the next page!

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*notcot - 08.12.09 , 00:51 -

Incase uniform experiment Sleeve

incasepin1.jpg Does this laptop sleeve not scream NotCouture to you? I was so excited when i saw it! Incase teamed up with Honeyee and japanese uniform experiment…. to create this beautifully simple monochromatic uniform experiment sleeve… and you regulars definitely know how we love our safety pins over at NotCouture ~ especially clean vectorized ones! Honestly, i only wish they took it a little too far and made the zipper pulls safety pins with the majority of it dipped in clear rubber, so it looked like you had safety pin pulls! Or at least safety pin graphic on the pull? Also… love that it is lined with the awesome feeling, yet distracting named “faux fur” ~ which really feels far better than it sounds. Take a look at more pics on the next page!

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*notcot - 07.21.09 , 20:14 -

Samsung Pebble Remote

samsung2a.jpg Beauty in Technology post series sponsored by Samsung’s new LED TVs! Post #2 of 6 in this series exploring random beauty in technology, NOTCOT style.

Remote controls - they come in so many shapes and sizes, yet i’d never seen one quite like the extra mini pebble one that came with my Samsung LED TV. (For full disclosure - Samsung’s LED TV campaign is sponsoring this post series, but they in no way knew that their ads got me looking at the new TVs enough to love it and buy one… and make the pebble remote the subject of this post! So perhaps this is less a conflict of interest, and more of a convergence of interest?)

This tiny pebble remote has a jeweled center piece which for the 7 series is blue, and the 6 series is red. It is mesmerizing how it subtly sparkles in the light… and the weirdest thing is how nice the small indented pebble shape feels in your hand, it actually reminds me a lot of those Worry Stones that originated in Ancient Greece - thin oval pieces of stone that are held between the thumb and forefinger with the thumb in the indentation… and the rubbing is said to help take your worries away. Basically its hard not to rub this remote as odd as that sounds? Now as far as practicality, it only does power, volume, and channel, so its the opposite of the huge remote that also came with the tv, but nice when you just want the basics. Unfortunately the channels don’t work for my DVR, so its a bit useless, but i just love the what the design looks and feels! Isn’t it about time we take more steps away from the traditional grid layouts of remotes? Take a look at more images of the pebble remote on the next page!

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*notcot - 07.17.09 , 15:55 -

HTC Hero Hands On!

htchero0.jpg It’s a bold move naming something/someone HERO. That’s a big label to live up to! And i must say, the HTC Hero is living up to it so far… i’m kind of loving how it feels in my hand, and how beautifully they’ve skinned Android into HTC Sense! This was going to be an unboxing post, but it came in a white box, no real paperwork to walk me through (and it didn’t really need any!)… it is totally the white label version of a mobile? (Yes, i’m completely giddy that this showed up today!)… so unboxing aside, and without getting too far into the UI side of it… this is a beautiful object to handle! And the details are just awesome! So see lots of close ups on the next page…

So, Justine checked out the launch of the HTC Hero and HTC Sense in London a few weeks back, and i’ve been curiously lusting since… And for those paying close attention to the differences between the original design Mike and Maaike made for the G1 and the actual G1… you’ll notice the Hero is actually a little closer. So far i’m already loving the 5mgp camera, the BUTTONS, and the awesome integration of twitter/facebook/flickr… the HTC Hero just feels amazing in my hand! Only curiosity not put to rest… what’s that magical white dupont coating like? They sent over this rubbery soft touch metallic pewter like color. (UPDATE: sources tell me “FYI the white non-stick coating feels exactly the same as the brown. the additive is simply there to keep the white, white. no need for it on the brown one.”) I can already tell, the HTC Hero is going to be a hard one to send back at the end of testing! Anyhow, take a peek at pics on the next page!

P.s.
for physical comparisons, you can also see it stacked with the G1 and iPhone 3GS. As for what i’m currently using these days… Primary is BB 8900 Secondary is iPhone 3GS… but the iPhone sim just went into the Hero for play time…

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*notcot - 07.08.09 , 13:06 -

Warehouse 13: Steampunk Keyboard + Tablet

warehouse131.jpg Ok, i LOVE the design details in science fiction. This morning i was so half awake, i started things off catching up on the new Syfy show Warehouse 13 to ease into things… and couldn’t help but fixate on the STEAMPUNK WACOM TABLET! I mean i love all the bizarre archaic gadgetry (Wired has a nice look at them)… but its the tablet and keyboard that got me first. Also… i love how small the internet is, while looking up past steampunk keyboard, found out that the keyboard was made by Datamancer - “prestidigital datamancery & paraphrenalic technofetishism” ~ and the exact keyboard in the show is “the Sojourner keyboard I built for my girlfriend 2 Christmases ago” - and he “hope[s] the show becomes very popular so they commission me to build them some more elaborate contraptions for future seasons (I’m actually designing a Version 2.0 of my old Computational Engine PC right now with them in mind)”… So fun to hear how these shows pull in awesome design for even the tiniest details… see more pics on the next page!

p.s.
it was driving me a little nuts when they made it look like the wacom was a giant touch sensitive tablet though…

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*notcot - 07.05.09 , 02:12 -

Drink Up Rock Out - MWM Rock Band Guitar

rockband1.jpg Just got home and ended up playing way too much Rock Band tonight ~ so as tired as my body might be, my mind was inspired to show you this awesome limited edition MWM Graphics Rock Band Guitar that i’ve been meaning to post! Before we get into looking at how sweet this guitar is… lets get all the complicated collaborations and brands out of the way ~ this Geometric Funk XBOX 360 Rock Band Guitar was created by MWM Graphics, which is Matt W. Moore, for Pepsi Rock Band 2009 to promote the Pepsi/Yahoo/Harmonix/MTV Drink Up, Rock Out promotion! Basically, gamers can submit their own Rock Band music videos for a chance to win a MTV Video Music Award Moonman, as well as other great Rock Band prizes under the caps of Pepsi bottles everywhere! I just got distracted midway through post writing while watching a bunch of the videos, some are pretty hilarious - here, check this one out.

ANYHOW, beyond the pretty fun campaign going on (i think you have till Sept to rock out and make a fun music video!) ~ stepping back and checking it out ~ i just love that this is art + video games + music + UGC + ad campaign. It’s so fun to see the graphic stylings of favorites like MWM Graphics on a Rock Band fender guitar! I must say the number of brands you can tie into this whole endeavor is hurting my head slightly ~ but that aside ~ could the rock band guitar be the new tshirt/skateboard to customize for artists? Check out more pics of this gorgeous collaboration on the next page ~ as well as some screenshots of the campaign (i’m liking the site design!).

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*notcot - 06.24.09 , 11:20 -

HTC Hero + HTC Sense London Launch

htcmain.jpg Phone Lust! Crunching to get this post sorted out before i run to LAX to pick friends up… and because of that i wasn’t able to make it out to London today for the HTC Hero and HTC Sense launch! Fortunately Dr. Justine (yes! my little sis is all done!!!) was able to spare a few hours, hop out of oxford, and out of the academic world to go see what all this mobile fuss was about. And get pics to show me what i was missing. As usual, you can get all the technical details on any site, but she got us those key moments and details i love seeing… like the expressions the C-level presenters have, and the presentation graphics they used… and quotes about things like Drunken Thumb and Teflon fingerprintlessness and how ‘fun people make fun phones, nerdy people make nerdy phones’ (yes, this is a “fun” phone). So on the next page you’ll see a bunch of hands on pics of the new phone, as well as my favorite snippets of her press event experience.

As for the phone lusting ~ the new HTC Hero is like a super thin keyboardless version of the G1 (in shape!) ~ and it is running Android, with their new HTC Sense experience that takes it to a whole new level (keep in mind HTC are the guys who even skinned windows mobile to a point where i loved looking at it, and the UX, until you realize its still win mobile under there, too bad they couldn’t hide everything?) ~ Its most appealing feature is that it is truly PEOPLE centered, in that instead of looking for your friends on twitter, facebook, flickr, address book, email (of various accounts)… it sorts the content by PEOPLE! So you can see all of a person’s feeds/interactions with you in one place. And it sounds like it does it pretty easily too ~ get your account info in and the phone does the rest and updates it regularly and syncs people up. Now if that meant all those people i’m bad at officially putting in my address book can have their info sucked in from facebook/linkedin etc ~ that’d be awesome. (p.s. while it does apparently magically sync matching names on its own, you can decide which get paired or manually sync for people who like pseudonyms on various accounts.)

OK ~ go see the pics!

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*notcot - 06.15.09 , 11:09 -

Retro Transistor Radios

samsungradio.jpg Beauty in Technology post series sponsored by Samsung’s new LED TVs! Post #1 of 6 in this new weekly series exploring random beauty in technology, NOTCOT style.

While back in Singapore i happened across some tiny transistor radios tucked away in my dad and grandmother’s various drawers… the first one was exciting enough… then it was like an easter egg hunt, i just kept finding more! Luckily he was amused enough by my fascination to let me bring them home and photograph them to share with you! The tiniest details are so cool ~ from the fonts to the patterns to the pendants dangling off some of the smaller ones. For reference, that little sony is like 2” wide! I have yet to get them working yet ~ actually while writing this, just got distracted and managed to get a few open (so pics of the insides on the next page too!) ~ and looks like i’d need some interestingly sized batteries… SO, visual research on the next page, and my question to you ~ do you know more about these? Any fun stories of having these as a kid, etc? See the gallery of close ups and insides on the next page!

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*notcot - 06.03.09 , 10:01 -

Aston Martin in Half

cutaston0.jpg Have you ever seen the inside of an Aston Martin? Like REALLY seen the inside? Well i stopped by the NY presentation of the new DBS Volante at the Cooper Square Hotel last night, and out front was an aston martin literally cut in half… well stripped down and with half its shell? It was fascinating! Take a peek at the pics on the next page!

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*notcot - 05.27.09 , 22:11 -

Rolls Royce 200EX Auto-adjusting Purse Holder

rollsroyceA0.jpg A Rolls Royce engineer’s wife mentions that she doesn’t know where to put her purse when she’s in the car. Solution? A purse pop out section of the back seat complete with wings to support the width of the purse, and as soon as it senses your purse, it automatically has a piece that slides up to give it a little squeeze and hold it in place. Yes! I’m serious. There’s a video on the next page to show you. And in case you are wondering, their design team is a tiny 10 person team in the UK, and the only woman is their color & trim specialist.

Ok so to backtrack a bit ~ this morning i was invited to the Rolls Royce 200EX preview in Beverly Hills. This concept car launched in Geneva and is currently making its worldwide debut city by city ~ and will go into production in 2010. While i’ve never quite been a Rolls kind of girl, i was impressed with the details, and it was fascinating to see and hear the design stories. So for this post, we’ll focus on the details, and work out to the car and event itself through pictures on the next page…

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*notcot - 05.04.09 , 18:33 -

Characters - Reincarnated

alpha1.jpg Where bad letters go when they die? Ok so they aren’t bad ~ but the awesome photography of finnish company, Characters, certainly makes it seem like these are the ones that fell off Sesame Street’s letters of the day… only to end up drunk and in an alley all alone? Basically these are recycled - “saved” letters - orphaned when old signage is neglected or discarded… when i saw these over at designboom, i couldn’t resist seeing if they had NOTCOT available ~ and then debating whether to get some… it’d look pretty crazy to have your own ex-neon sign graveyard… mis matched reincarnated letters all LED’d out?

So what happens? “When company signs and logos are taken down, they get demolished. We recycle the characters into individual design objects. We dismantle the letters, clean them up, add a new transformer, LED lights and the power cord, and put them back together.” See some of the stunning photography on the next page!

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*notcot - 05.01.09 , 01:16 -

511 Tactical Light for Life Flashlight

lightforlife00.jpg OMG, tactical flashlight that will supposedly out live it’s owners… just arrived today ~ meet the 511 Tactical Light For Life - charges in 90 seconds… uses 3 LEDs and is super bright with 3 modes (including “a 270 lumen tactical strobe used to instantly illuminate objects in a dark space, signal others or disorient a perpetrator, giving you valuable time to assess a situation”)… and uses “FlashPoint that merges state of the art ultracapacitors with advanced solid state programming to efficiently load, unload, and manage energy.” - in otherwords it recharges in 90 seconds in the car charger (a/c adapter coming soon) and then outputs “60 minutes in standard mode (90 lumens) and gradually reduce intensity to the 25 lumen standby mode for an additional 60 minutes.” or “a full 15 minutes of the 270 lumen peak mode, followed by 60 minutes of 25 lumen standby light.”

Also ~ how eco-friendly is it? Well if its the only flashlight you’ll ever need (as in it will supposedly last more recharge cycles than you can pull off in a lifetime), uses LEDs, has no batteries… and just imagine hooking it up to a solar charger? Details wise, it’s pretty sleek, ans super light weight, and incredibly bright! To fully appreciate it, check out the VIDEO i made to show you the modes on the next page ~ as well as lots of close up shots and unboxing!

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*notcot - 04.23.09 , 11:34 -

Jawbone Earcandy + Prime

jawbone1.jpg More Jawbones ~ already! And i’ve barely used my other ones (they live in my car ~ i tend to use speakerphone as my handsfree when driving alone…) I must say the starburst color palette is pretty fun, particularly the photography they with this new Ear Candy line ~ there is also the new Prime line, which is the usual black, silver, bronzey palette as well… So for what’s new and more pics ~ check out the next page!

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*notcot - 04.19.09 , 17:40 -

Designed For Dell

designedfordell00.jpg Finding a nice laptop sleeve or bag has usually been no easy feat (granted, i’m extremely picky too!) ~ and there has certainly been a major trend towards designers making more and more gorgeous accessories as these devices have become core aspects of our everyday… but i must admit i’m a bit blown away to find Tumi, Mandarina Duck, Acme Made, Timbuk2, Built NY, Kenneth Cole, and more at DELL… and to have them have some really sweet exclusive
Designed For Dell products just kind of floored me tonight. How long has this been going on? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Is it bad i feel weird to have Dell becoming a possible go to for slick bags? And even worse, because of some of these bags i’m getting more and more tempted to indulge in a little necessary black netbook as a new toy? (Justification? Ummm… cross browser checking machine?)

I think its safe to safe that Dell has definitely embraced the “lifestyle” of mobile computing with all of this. And honestly, all these exclusive accessories are just making my late night shopaholic come out in full force wanting not only accessories, but perfectly sized laptops to stick in them as well. And as much as my hardware may say i love apple, Dell just earned major points in my book with these offerings. See my selection of the best of the Designed For Dell collection on the next page ~

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*notcot - 04.12.09 , 00:56 -

In LA with the 2010 Prius

prius0.jpg Ooooooh car lust. Was giddily surprised when i was picked up by one of the 2010 Prius Prototypes tonight to go check out the Scion/GR Papershapers show tonight ~ more on that later ~ but the car… in person… SO cute. SO quiet. And so many little details to gush over ~ but really, maybe part of me just really wants a car with a solar roof?!?!?! The displays and iconography are beautifully mesmerizing… The shifter is strangely small and toy like… almost like a travel mouse? (really thin and easily to wrap your fingers right over) It’s also tauntingly placed where even as a passenger i was so tempted to shift it (but i didn’t!). The toyota logo has a blue outline to it (it was a coincidence that this car was blue, the logo colors do not always match the paint colors) ~ apparently these will be on all of the upcoming hybrids (and the Lexus ones in red). And the angularity of the rear and sharper lines on the sides made me far more drawn to this latest design… so tempting! For more real info on the new Prius, take a peek at their site and for more real world pics, see the next page!

Ok i’m a bit deliriously tired at the moment ~ but wanted to get something up to show you! And for a sneak peek at the truly epic Scion/GR Papershapers show, see the images here ~ i’ll make more logical posts out of those tomorrow!

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