The pillow is a very tricky product that isn’t given much thought. Some people prefer hard pillows, some soft. Others find their heads become sweaty because of a lack of ventilation. Besides, the pillow sees so much of head movement, where we transition from sleeping on our backs to our sides, that it’s impossible to believe that one small cushion of cotton or foam can fulfill all those aforementioned needs.
The Cubes however takes on that challenge. For one, it isn’t one single pillow, but a series of connected foam cubes that together form the pillow. The air-gaps between the cubes allow for ventilation, making sure you don’t wake up with sweaty ears or neck in the middle of the night. Besides, each individual cube compresses when you rest your head against it, allowing you to sleep comfortably in any position as the pillow takes the shape of your head with ease. The Cubes also comes with two sides, a softer pink side and a stiffer grey side. You can easily swap pillow stiffnesses by simply flipping it over. What’s more, aside from the ventilation aspect, the Cubes is probably the first pillow to integrate graphene into the foam, allowing it to have anti-bacterial and anti-odor properties. Like I said earlier. The pillow is a tricky product… it shouldn’t just be a rectangular piece of cotton or foam. It should be much more!
Designer: F1F2
Sony's made some endearingly offbeat electronic toys over the years -- looking at you people who gave your Aibos funerals. The company's newest addition to its crowdfunding site, First Flight, is likely to evoke the same response. Say hello to the To...
Turn your food into perfect cube shapes with the Rice Cube
Put your food in, then place the two parts of the Rice Cube together. Remove the Rice Cube and you have a perfect food cube. Stack ‘em up! It’s made of a dishwasher safe, FDA food approved material. Have fun with your food. Minecraft party! Brick wall of sushi! Brownie pyramid!
Rice Cuber: It’s Hip to be Square (Food)
No need to play Minecraft in the dark any more, light your way with a Minecraft Light-Up Redstone Ore. It’s like a little pixel night light. It’s actually a touch-light, tap it once for low light, again for medium, then bright and off (in case you’re unfamiliar with three way touch lamps, in which case where have you been living?). Animated gif demo? Yuuuuuuuuup (don’t sue me Dave Hester, thx):
It’s lit up with internal LEDs and the power of construction, crafting, and logic. Also a pair of AA batteries. This cube of power measures 3″ on each side. So if you like Minecraft and you like being able to see when it’s dark out, this is right up your alley.
Minecraft Light-Up Redstone Ore
It's hard to believe, but Sifteo's interactive gaming Cubes first went on sale just over a year ago. Fast forward to the present, and the company has unveiled version two of the MIT-born blocks. If you'll recall, the 1.7-inch squares let you play interactive table-top games, each featuring a 1.5-inch LCD screen, motion sensing and wireless connectivity. With this next-gen variant, Sifteo's improved the graphics, added capacitive touch to the screen (the original acted like a physical button) and doubled the amount of Cubes that can interact at once to 12. The V2 Cubes also come packed with a dedicated, AAA-powered, wireless base station / speaker that stores your titles, sparing the need for a computer to play as was the case with the originals -- an onboard USB allows downloaded files to be transferred from your computers. Developers looking to create content for the device will also pleased to know that Sifteo's releasing its next SDK on October 1st.
Ready for some tangibly-cute Cube gameplay? Pre-orders begin today at Sifteo's website, priced at $130 for 3 Cubes with a base station and five games, and $30 for each additional cube. They're set to ship in November, so in the meantime you'll find details in the video demo and press release after the break.
Update: For those curious, we've learned that the original Cubes are not compatible with the new ones, but Sifteo has emailed owners with a $50 voucher that they can use toward upgrading.
Continue reading Sifteo Cubes go next-generation, square gaming gets more portable (update)
Sifteo Cubes go next-generation, square gaming gets more portable (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |
Sifteo | Email this | Comments 
How do you develop an OLED display that gives a 360-degree perspective? Toss six 1.25-inch panels into a plastic cube, then turn it as you see fit. That's an overly simplistic explanation for the six-sided display on hand at the MIT Media Lab today, which is quite limited in its current form, but could eventually serve an enormous variety of applications. Fluid Interfaces Group Research Assistant Pol Pla i Conesa presented several such scenarios for his Display Blocks, which consist of 128 x 128-pixel OLED panels. Take, for example, the 2004 film Crash, which tells interweaving stories that could be presented simultaneously with such a display -- simply rotate the cube until you land on a narrative you'd like to follow, and the soundtrack will adjust to match. It could also go a long way when it comes to visualizing data, especially when in groups -- instead of virtually constructing profiles of individuals who applied for a slot at MIT, for example, or segments of a business that need to be organized based on different parameters, you could have each assigned to a cube, which can be tossed into an accepted or rejected pile, and repositioned as necessary.
Imagine having a group of display cubes when it comes time to plan the seating chart for a reception -- each cube could represent one individual, with a color-coded background and a name or photo up top, with different descriptive elements on each side. The same could apply to products at monstrous companies like Samsung or Sony, where executives need to make planning decisions based on product performance, and could benefit greatly from having all of the necessary information for a single gadget listed around each cube. On a larger scale, the cubes could be used to replace walls and floors in a building -- want to change the color of your wallpaper? Just push a new image to the display, and dedicate a portion of the wall for watching television, or displaying artwork. You could accomplish this with networked single-sided panels as well, but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun. The Media Lab had a working prototype on display today, which demonstrated the size and basic functionality, but didn't have an adjustable picture. Still, it's easy to imagine the potential of such a device, if, of course, it ever becomes a reality. As always, you'll find our hands-on demo just past the break.
Continue reading OLED Display Blocks pack six 128 x 128 panels, we go hands-on at MIT (video)
OLED Display Blocks pack six 128 x 128 panels, we go hands-on at MIT (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments
