The Credit Card Of The Future

I prefer using my bank card over physical cash and here’s why. With a card, I can’t view real-time data on my account usage. In a way I feel I can keep shopping all willy nilly without a care in the world and not feel guilty since I can’t see what it’s doing to my checking account – no doubt bleeding from my frivolous shopping trips.
Designer Jacob Palmborg’s solve for shopaholics like me is an RFID card linked to every account you have. A small interface indicates your own economic situation and forecasts what effects your purchases might have on your future economic status. The whole thing works wirelessly so no actual date is stored on the card. The card also has biometric security so only you can access it. This opens up the possibility of it being your driver’s license, student ID, passport, etc. Now if it only had customizable wallpapers, I’m sold!

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Porsche Design Smartphone For Your Cellphone Wet Dreams!

Conceptual plans are awesome especially if they promise you the moon! Here is what André luring you with, a Porsche Design Smartphone that is in slick aluminum, and a huge clean multi touch screen. The speaker is hidden out of sight between the glass and the aluminum body, to increase its aesthetic appeal and sound enhancement. The line at the bottom is the home and navigation button and the aluminum volume controls are housed to the left side.

A Quick video access button is hosted at the right side of the phone, giving you easy access to making great home videos. The back sports a dual camera system. You can use only one of the cams to take 5Mp photos and shoot 720p HD video with stereo sound quality, plus use the dual camera system to record 3D video and pictures. And of course, for low light situations there is a LED flash included!
Other specs include Android based system with custom apps developed by André. A 3,5mm audio jack and a sleep button on the top, and on the bottom there’s the battery charger and USB connecter as well.
All good on paper…like I said, a wet dream for the techie-lover in you!

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Second Life Mobile Phone

I Can See Through Your Juice

The Second Life Mobile Phone Concept works on the premise that we often forget about the battery life of our mobile phones, hence run out of juice, just at the wrong time. As a remedy (rather power-saver-option) the phone incorporates a double display. When in active use the AMOLED screen powers up in all glory and in standby mode the E-ink display gets active. This essentially means that the E-ink uses very little energy and the degree of transparency of the display shows how much battery is remaining. The more transparent the display, the less battery remaining.

So besides ultra-low power consumption, the transparent screen offers an intuitive expression: “You’re low on juice so better recharge the phone soon!” Apparently the E-ink uses power to change the degree of transparency and doesn’t add to the battery load.
I like the idea behind the concept and its transparent vibe, but I guess its more aimed at a niche set of people who keep forgetting to put their phone on charge.

 

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Skinny Player- One Album Music Player

The Skinny Player kinda reminds me of the O+ Music Campaign where the promotional kit offers one song in various mediums. The concept here with the Skinny Player is to offer one album space on a portable – Band Aid-esque device. The self-sticking player houses a play/stop button and flexible speakers. Although I am not so sure about the sound quality for the output, but the idea is worth exploring. The user-scenario is for exercise or such places where you want to keep your hands free, but still carry your music with you.

The unique angle to the player is that hopes to use your body heat for powering the device. Now if this is possible or utopian , is left to be seen.

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Wristband Design Hearing Impaired

A view of the ambient noise is what this device hopes to give people with less than a perfect sense of hearing. The fashionable bit of the Danger Alert Enabler, is the wristband, but it also comes with a “micro device.” The way these two bits work together is: sound goes in one, comes out the other. But as the micro device, which sits on your belt, hears sound, it interprets it and translates it to a corresponding pictogram and in some cases, a vibration for warning.
Fancy, yes?
In nature, the device can show you a bird, a sheep, an oncoming thunder or rainstorm, the sound of water, and more. In the way of ambient sounds, the device can show you the telephone, some music, some chattering voices, and more! Then there’s DANGER!
In the way of DANGEROUS sounds, you can hear a siren, some construction working people, a clown…
I need one of these.

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P-Per Mobile Phone Could Challenge iPhone

Those sweet lads over at the Chocolate Agency have come up with yet another delectable concept dubbed P-Per; a concept mobile phone that would satisfy both environmentalists and tech nerds. The design consists of just 4 layers, a printed circuit board, extruded polycarbonate, recycled titanium, and a wrap around flexible haptic LED touchscreen. By minimizing materials, the design is highly sustainable.
The wrap around screen allows for endless user interface possibilities not to mention bezeless picture/movie taking and watching. If that weren’t enough to challenge the iPhone, how about a 7mm wafer thin form factor, 3 megapixel camera, and a 2 minute recharge time!

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Envy 4G Phone

There was a time when ID “imagineers” would concoct fabulous concepts using new fangled tech that hadn’t been invented yet and I miss those days. Heaven forbid you do that now, you’d get your a** handed to you. I’m fond of the Envy 4G with its SUPER AMOLED screen and MasterMobile OS. So what if it looks like Windows Phone 7 and iOS 4 had a baby? It’s got a Carbon chip! That’s a CPU and GPU on one silicon. It’s the future people, have fun with it.

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Trypoxy Phone

My generation (I’m 30′ish if you must know) will not understand the need to have a cool looking phone that allows you to browse the internet intuitively, but the millennial generation do and I suspect they would love the Trypoxy Phone. Looks like a smooth pebble but for the ultimate web browsing experience, the rear has a soft-gel-like grab extension that can pulled out. It fits snuggly in one hand and has built-in controls to pinch and squeeze your way through the internet with simulated buttons for scrolling and moving back/forth thru pages.

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OLED Blackberry

Working with Aza Raskin of Mozilla Labs as part of their Concept Series, yours truly is helming the open source project to design the Mozilla Phone.  The lovely BlackBerry you see here is the first throw-away concept to come out of the project blog at MozPhone.com. While only a crude mashup of a Blackberry 7130 and the Optimus Keyboard, its serves to illustrate how much more we need phones to communicate with us.

Mixing channels of communication like with the Storm’s clickable screen or this concept’s OLED buttons allow the phone to create more information rich experiences that help break down barriers created by size limitations.  If you’re technically inclined Industrial or Interface design, or just like talking about phones, leave some comments or contribute over at the development blog.

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Gabler Folding Phone

A Cellphone for Women and Men with Manbags

I agree with designer Paz Brouk that women who tend to keep their cellphones in their purse find it a nightmare to retrieve before a call goes to voicemail. To overcome this little problem, she’s designed the Gabler, a folding phone that can be hung over the edge of a purse. The phone folds in a diagonal line in the middle thanks to the flexible screen and flexible outer shell and includes all standard features found in modern-day phones. My only problem with having it all exposed is the invitation for would be kleptos.

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All In One Computer

The InOne is truly an all-in-one computer. 22″ screen, keyboard, touchpad, speakers and a digital tablet are all built into one TRONtastic package. Everything is wirelessly connected and the tablet displays what your write and draw so you don’t have to look up at the screen. Interesting design, especially the keyboard.

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