GeekSugar

Eco-Friendly Outlet Banishes Power Vampires For Good

GeekSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:50:52 -0800

Vampire power month may be over (how appropriate that it was in October, no?), but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to find ways to reduce our electric bills! We are living in a digital world, which means nearly everything needs to be juiced up to work. I've already got my laptop working overtime at the office and at home, so you can imagine that I'm a pretty powerful energy vampire on my own. But I wouldn't be if I had this outlet.

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A concept design I found while cruising Yanko, the Switch outlet allows you to keep your appliances plugged in (no more unplugging your power strip), but with a simple rotation, it cuts off all power to your gadgets, so you aren't draining electricity when it's not needed. Way to be eco-friendly and efficient! Power vampires, be gone.

Office Space: Take a Deep Breath With the Breathing Partition

GeekSugar — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:05:29 -0700

At times, I feel the need to take my laptop and head down to the park to work in the grass. You know, be a little closer to nature in this high-tech world. But with deadlines looming, I can't always make the trek and leave without a power source. But this genius Breathing Partition I saw on Yanko, could bring my two worlds together after all.

Thick slots in the attractive cube dividers make for a green home for your plants and grass, to turn your office from dull to alive. A self-watering system ensures that grass will never be greener on the other side of the office (cause you neglected to do your gardening duties), and I'm especially in love with the patch of grass that acts as a foot rest - how cool is that?

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Tyrant Clock: Your Friends Will Hate You If You Hit Snooze

GeekSugar — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:30:00 -0700

Although it would be totally satisfying to shoot your alarm clock with a laser gun to get it to turn off (like the one I featured a while back), I don't think it will actually get me out of bed. What will? Angry, angry friends, relatives and co-workers.

This Tyrant Clock from Alice Wang (still in a concept stage from the looks of it) isn't just an alarm clock that threatens you with another beep in nine minutes. No, this clock is smart - it will sync up with your phone and call a random person from your contact list every three minutes after your scheduled wake-up time has passed, ensuring a large number of angry emails and nasty voicemails if you don't get the heck outta bed. What's worse - getting up at the first sound of an alarm, or having your boss call you into his office and asking about why you prank called his house this morning? You be the judge.

Concept iPod Slide Is Tiny, Kind of Awesome

GeekSugar — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:44:33 -0700

Although the iPod Slide is just a concept item that I found while cruising Tuvie, I would love to see this sleek MP3 player in production.

I like the tiny size of the iPod shuffle, but the thing I dislike is the lack of control. Sure, you can stuff all your favorite tunes into it, but you can't get to a song you may really want to hear when you want to hear it. So the iPod slide is the perfect mix of control in a similar ultra compact body. Sadly, I know Apple well enough to know that this will never become a reality - they just don't "do" sliders.

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Solar Forest Juices Your Car, Looks Cool in the Process

GeekSugar — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:33:06 -0700

If I had an electric car, this is where I'd want to charge it up. Better than hooking up to a charger that gets its energy from a power plant, charging up at this solar forest lets you save a (real) plant or two. A concept design brought to you by Neville Mars, the solar forest would find a home at your nearest urban concrete parking structure (taking up the entire top open-air level, perhaps?), would create its own energy from the sun, and would shade your car while it's juicing up. I can't think of a better and cleaner way to get around, and seriously - this design is pretty freaking cool. What do you think?

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The Future Is Now: i-Beam's Bubble Barrier Comes to Life

GeekSugar — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:50:31 -0700

I was cleaning up my iPhoto library the other day and came across a photo I took at E3 that features a familiar-looking contraption. The bubble on the right isolates sound so you can hear music (or in this case, games) in a noisy room. Look familiar? It's a look-alike to the i-Beam Bubble Sound Barrier that I featured a few months back, except instead of keeping sounds in like the i-Beam does, this one amplifies whatever is underneath it for better hearing.

I love it when I see concept items in the real world. It makes me realize how quickly we're moving forward in technology and innovation. I gotta be honest with you, though, there are a few more concept items on my hot list that I'd like to see made into real working products. I suppose it's only a matter of time.

Concept Cameras I Wish I Could Get My Hands On

GeekSugar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:39:34 -0700

I never shy away from concept products, because if there's one thing that is constantly changing and evolving, it's gadgets. For instance, don't be surprised if you see these prototype cameras - which both serve a handy purpose - on the market one day soon. The first is the Triops Digital Camera by Franziska Faoro which features three fish-eye lens cameras that will conveniently capture every memorable moment - panoramic style, of course. The second is the Canon Snap by David Münscher that is so teeny and tiny, Twitter and Facebook junkies will be able to keep their profiles constantly updated with one single click! What are your thoughts on them?

Heal Your PC From Viruses With the Dr. Hard Drive Bag

GeekSugar — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:02:09 -0700

I can give you multiple reasons why I love this concept piece I found on Coroflot. Not only is this hanging hard drive packed with virus-scanning software to help you track down any bugs that may have attacked your computer, but it can also recover any corrupted files, so it's actually a useful piece of equipment.

Plus, it's kinda cute in a totally out-of-left-field kind of way, and it flashes and glows in the dark while it's doing its thing. I'm hoping the concept artist releases these soon, cause I can really see myself picking one up, even if it's just for the fun of it!

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The New Cube Farm: I-Beam's Bubble Sound Barrier

GeekSugar — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:08:46 -0700

Here at Sugar HQ, we don't have the typical cube farm that you'd find in other office buildings, but we do get a lot of noise. Not only from the traffic in downtown San Francisco, but from the various street musicians that play outside. So these Bubble Sound Barriers from design firm I-Beam - which provide not only a barrier from outside noise, but keep your music inside your own parameter - would be really, really awesome. I can only take so many hours of bagpipes and jazz flutes in the afternoon.

Of course, the Bubble Sound Barrier may not be completely practical - they hang from the ceiling or attach to a wall with a movable arm - but they are totally retro-chic, and seem like they are straight from a designer in the late '50s trying to predict what offices would look like in the future. The only things missing are the robots.

Daily Tech: Nikon Debuts 8 New COOLPIX Digicams

GeekSugar — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:35:43 -0800

Coming this Spring to the Nikon COOLPIX line of cameras are eight digicams, which range from compact point-and-shoot to larger cams featuring optical zoom up to 24x. - Switched
Amazon has just launched a beta version of their Game Downloads section, which offers 600 titles for digital download and all of them are priced under $10. - Kotaku
There are still one in four Americans who don't use the Internet, and a majority of them really don't care about emailing or surfing the Web. - USA Today
Check out this creative iPhone 4G concept phone, which features a front camera for iChat and is made out of titanium and glass. - Gizmodo
TheColor is an awesome online coloring book that will keep kids entertained for hours. - Lifehacker