Inside a Google data center

A train that lays it's own tracks

Kin: the new social mobile phone from Microsoft

Holy crap, I think Msoft just hit a homerun. Damn if they haven't made a phone that makes my iPhone look quaint. Seriously well done folks!!

Crappy product design if you ask me, but man o man did they nail the UI. I think this will really resonate with their intended users, i.e. younger people who rely on social media like the rest of us rely on oxygen.
Even the name has me jacked. Kin, like in family or even extended family in a sort of non-touchy-feely way. Connecting people... that's so 20th century. Kin, that not only sounds more social it feels more social.

Now if they just had made a little effort with the product design. The Kin One looks like that creepy Sony thing that nobody bought and the Kin Two looks like your middle of the road HTC offering from 5 years ago.

Sure hope they drop the slider keyboards or at least reinvent them. It kinda ruins the whole experience for me.

The new services on the other hand look awesome. I want to be 20 again!! They make up for the ugly packaging and as such raise the product experience into a 5 star thumbs up!! Can't wait to get my hands on one.

Now as a postscript we will have to wait and see if Microsoft has actually changed it's ways and are really going to go head to head with Apple. Can they launch a global product experience? When will one of these little critters, ahem, Kin be available in Denmark?

Litl: a webbook for everyone

Not just a new netbook with Linux or Windows installed, but a complete overhaul of the product category. Built from the bottom up, complete with their own web based operating system this little gem is a game changer.

This is the computer that's not trying to be a computer. Designed with the non-business user in mind. They looked at what people were using their computers for and came up with litl.

Check out the litl review at Fast Company.

Ceramic Speakers designed by Joey Roth

These speakers are so cool. I love the thought that has gone into them. Put a couple of Lowther PM6s in these ceramic cabinets and you have some serious speakers. Maybe there’s a larger model in the works?

Have a look at the bread-toaster-like-amplifier. The slider in the front is the volume control. Nice detailing.

Seen more at JoeyRoth.com

open source make it yourself gadget

They have the hardware, the crowd supplies the application software. Snap-on modularity meets plug-in functionality.

Buglabs's new build-your-own-gadget device has seen the light of day. By snapping on modules you can add functionality to your own gadget. You can download open source software applications or make your own to get your gadget to do whatever you want. Kind of like a mash-up for hardware.

At the moment they are sell the following modules: camera, motion detector, LCD screen, and GPS. In Q2 these will be followed up by: touch-sensitive color LCD, mini-QWERTY keyboard, barcode scanner, audio speaker with in/our mini jacks and last but not least a teleporter! All in all 20 modules will be added to the mix with 80 more in the pipeline.

and I thought my Xbox 360 controller was complicated!

Check out this article which compares 16 F1 racing wheels. No these aren't the cheezy plastic ones sold by Logitec and Creative, these are the real deal.

My favorite is the 2007 McLaren Mercedes wheel with a little arrow showing the famous button that Hamilton pushed by mistake. It should be labeled "2nd place" on it. I suppose that might be hard to read pulling 5 g's at 300 kph, but hej, isn't that what they get paid for?

seen on oobject via Gizmodo

The device that put the pride back into selling shoes

This everyday product changed the act of selling shoes into a science. The Brannock device, as it's called, is the sole invention of Charles F. Brannock back in 1926. Even though they last about 20 years, The Brannock Device Co., Inc. has sold over a million of them. They sell for 68$ a pop and they even have a pro model that sells on their website for 96$.

Hint: the pro model can measure sizes up to US size 25! I wear size 12 shoes and that converts to size 45 in the continental shoe size. Feet size 25, those aren't feet those are flippers! Shaquille O'Neal's feet are huge, but they only measure a measly size 22.

Seen on Boing Boing