This Nixie tube tabletop clock adds a retro-punk flavor to your otherwise boring smart home appliances

Posted on 06/09/2021 by Sarang Sheth

If you’re the kind of person to simultaneously live in the 80s as well as the 2020s, the Nextube may be just the perfect little desktop accessory for you.

While I love what Apple, Google, and Amazon have done to uplift the home and bring it into the 21st century, one could posit that their devices were designed more to blend in than to stand out. A Nest door camera doesn’t scream for attention, the doorbell itself looks decently sophisticated, and the smart speaker inside your house is almost always a neutral color and form, so it ‘becomes a part of your home’… just as intended. These accessories add features and functionality, but rarely do they add character. That’s a school of thought that eludes most design/tech companies, because they want to build a product that fits beautifully into all sorts of homes – but predominantly Euro-American homes which are increasingly moving towards adopting minimalism. The Nextube, however, was designed for the flashy, retro-loving maverick.

Designer: James Wong of Rotrics

Click Here to Buy Now: $149 ~~$189~~ ($40 off). Hurry, for a limited time only.

The 70-80s were the farthest thing from minimalism. The music was loud, the fashion was colorful, cyber-synthwave was all the rage, and it was arguably the birth of modern tech, with video-games and computers becoming household objects, and the Nixie Tube increasingly becoming a signature element in sci-fi pop culture. Nixie tubes gradually died out in the 90s-2000s as the technology around cathode-ray tubes, and then LCD and LED displays began developing. However, unlike tech (which progresses linearly), culture is cyclical, and retro-tech is making a comeback. The Nextube is a product of that cultural throwback but relies on today’s tech. It mimics the raw, retro appeal of nixie tubes, but given how rare these tubes are (since they stopped production in the 90s), the Nextube uses a clever set of mini LED displays encased in vacuum glass tubes. Complete with a neat walnut wood base and brass trims, the Nextube looks like something from an 80s laboratory on your desk. The steampunk gadget comes with 6 individual displays that tell the time as well as the weather, in that gloriously vintage nixie-inspired glowing font.

A clever play on the words Next and Nixie-tube, the Nextube is a little retro and modern mashed into one gloriously steampunk device. Its primary function is that of a tabletop clock and alarm, however, the 6 mini displays can be programmed to display practically anything, from the weather to your YouTube subscriber count, the price of your favorite cryptocurrency, or even a countdown clock for a pre-set date/time. The Nextube’s mini displays aren’t limited to the Nixie-tube font either. Outfitted with LED panels, the Nixtube’s mini displays come with an array of retro-inspired fonts, including dot-matrix, seven-segment display, flip-clock, and a variety of cyberpunk-inspired fonts and themes.

Your reliable time manager.

Monitor your sub counts in real-time.

Know the weather at a glance.

Dance with your favorite music.

Track your primary tasks.

The digital IPS screens can bring endless possibilities.

Armed with open-source firmware, you can practically program the Nextube’s mini-screens to display anything, from motivational messages to calendar alerts, email notifications, or even tiny pictures from your camera roll. Small buttons in front of the tubes allow you to toggle between the Nextube’s various functions, and a spectral analyzer built into the Nextube’s body even lets you turn it into a music visualizer, with dancing bars that respond to any music that’s playing.

While it does look exactly like the kind of product you’d see in the background of a YouTuber’s setup (we’re thinking on the set of MKBHD’s Retro Tech web-series), its versatility means you can place the Nextube anywhere, from your work-desk to your bedside table, kitchen counter, or even living room coffee table. Wherever you put it, the Nextube’s commanding presence and wonderfully nostalgic retro-vibe instantly make it an eye-catching centerpiece – which easily sets it apart from the other ‘boring-looking’ smart-home appliances you may have lying around your place. The IPS displays ensure incredible visibility no matter what angle you view the Nextube from, and all you really need is a power source to connect the device to. The Nextube is available on Kickstarter for $149 – it comes bundled with a USB-C cable, charging brick, and Nextube’s open-source software; and ships globally with a one-year warranty.

Click Here to Buy Now: $149 ~~$189~~ ($40 off). Hurry, raised over $425,000.

Hyundai’s latest EV looks like retro dynamite! (And it has a real nixie-tube dashboard)

Posted on 21/04/2021 by Sarang Sheth

In popular mythology it’s usually the phoenix that’s reborn from the ashes of its past self… but it looks like Hyundai is carrying that metaphor over to the Pony. By reimagining its first-ever mass-produced car as a new, electric-powered hatchback, the Hyundai Pony Heritage Series electric concept feels a lot like a rebirth of sorts, with a more contemporary yet equally retro-punkish design that’s difficult to ignore!

The Pony was Hyundai’s first-ever production vehicle, making a grand debut in 1975 and being available all the way till 1990. Paying a fitting tribute to the very car that put Hyundai on the map, the Pony Heritage Series EV is a modern reinterpretation of the classic affordable hatchback, with an electric beating heart. There’s something undeniably retro about the Pony Heritage Series EV, and it wears that distinction proudly on its sleeve. The car’s design, proportions, and even details are wonderfully vintage, albeit with a few modern upgrades on the outside as well as the inside. On the outside, the EV’s headlights and taillights feature a pixel LED pattern that can also be seen on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the 45 EV. The rims sport a machined finish that has a retrofuturistic vibe, while the car’s side-view mirrors, located all the way on the front fenders, sport cameras instead.

The insides feel like a modern time machine, with concealed LED lighting on both the doors, leather-wrapped bucket seats, and a brushed-metal dashboard. Within the dashboard sits an all-new steering wheel, featuring a three-spoke design with PONY script in the center and a physical voice control button on the left. However, its spotlight is stolen by the incredibly impressive nixie-tube setup in front of it. Designed mainly for the appeal (since this is just a one-off concept), the dashboard acts as a numeric speedometer, lighting up with the different numbers to show what speed your car is traveling at.

The one-off retrofuturistic Pony Heritage Series electric concept was unveiled as a part of Hyundai’s ‘Reflections in Motion’ exhibition, being held from April 8th till June 27th, 2021. The Heritage Series Pony is on display at Hyundai’s Motorstudio in Busan, South Korea.

Designer: Hyundai

The Best Nixie Tube Watch Ever

Posted on 23/10/2017 by Paul Strauss

The first time I saw a nixie tube watch was more than a decade ago. I thought the idea was pretty rad, but to be honest, I don’t think the design of the watch lived up to the nixie tubes themselves. I also thought the two digit display was a bit difficult to use as a practical timepiece. While it’s much more expensive, this nixie watch solves both of those problems.

Designed and created by Trento, Italy based Nixie Horizonte, this gorgeous timepiece features a body milled from a block of aluminum and brass. It’s got four mini nixie tubes, so it can display the complete time in either 12- or 24-hour format. It also has a built in accelerometer which it uses to detect when you turn your wrist, as well as a temperature sensor.

Those LED accent lights can be configured into any of 512 different colors (or deactivated entirely), and the tubes offer 7 brightness level settings. It’s charged by placing it on the included wooden docking station, and can run for 2 to 3 weeks between charges in accelerometer mode, or about a month if you don’t mind manually activating it.

It’s a truly stunning piece of design and engineering, and I’d absolutely throw my Apple Watch out tomorrow if I could have one of these instead. Each Nixie Horizonte watch is custom built to order, and sells for about $850 over on Etsy.

These Steampunk Flash Drives are Insanely Awesome

Posted on 23/08/2017 by Paul Strauss

Flash drives used to have some value, but these days, I’ve got boxes full of them – mostly handed to me by vendors presenting their products. To garner attention, companies have handed me USB drives that look like everything from a metal horse, to a twig, to a key fob from a $100,000 car. But all of those designs pale in comparison to these beautiful handcrafted flash drives from artist Magen Kening.

These one-of-a-kind steampunk flash drives are crafted from materials like copper, brass, and glass. They look kind of what Doctor Who’s Sonic Screwdriver would look like if he lived in Victorian times.

Most of the drives have LED lighting built in, but the coolest one has to be the one with the spinning DNA double helix inside.

You can see the spinning helix in action in the video below…

Is that not the coolest flash drive you’ve ever seen? Incredible work, Magen. And check out this motorized gatling gun flash drive:

Amazing! They’ve also got one with a nixie tube that lights up:

If you’re interested in getting your hands on one of these amazing pocket-sized works of art, you can find them all over on Etsy. Prices start around $199 and go up to as much as $499 (USD).

Luminous Electronic Bar Graph Clock: Telling Time with Charts & Graphs

Posted on 15/07/2016 by Shane McGlaun

The Luminous Electronic Bar Graph Clock looks pretty cool. This isn’t some lame digital clock or a common round analog clock. This clock is a bar graph. Just like the ones, you made back in fifth grade. It displays hours on the top bar, and minutes on the bottom bar.

Above the quarter hour marks are icons that indicate phases that might teach your kids what fifteen till means. I think my dad always told me that just to troll me. This clock has no hands mind you, it has IN-9 old stock gas discharge tubes inside that have amber color inside and get longer or shorter to tell you the time. It’s fancy. That’s the sort of Cold War tech that broke the Russians.

The clock comes with a natural wood or black wood case. It can be used horizontally or vertically, and displays a pendulum animation, and works as a countdown timer when placed on one end. Flip it to the other end, and it becomes a sound level meter. Like anything cool and worth having, it’s not cheap at $229.99(USD). You can get one for yourself at ThinkGeek.

CKIE Product of the week – Nixie Clock

Posted on 31/03/2016 by Sarang Sheth

I’ve seen a lot of cool watches and clocks, but nothing quite as cool as the Nixie Clock. The Nixie clock literally uses multiple filaments to display the time, and in a way that will make steampunk lovers’ jaws hit the tarmac. The Nixie clock, in its mad-scientist grandeur, is actually quite a simple and smart device. It comes with a 9V adapter to power it, and it consumes such negligible amounts of power, it can apparently run for a month on the same amount of power used to run a 40W bulb for a day. Aside from that, it also comes with dimmable lights, making it the ideal clock for both regular and low light settings.

Have I not already given you a reason to buy yourself one of these beauties?! I know I’m booking my own. Head down to CKIE and grab yourself this mad-scientist timepiece!

Available at: CKIE [Buy it here]

What goes down at a Vegas drone rodeo?

Posted on 07/01/2016 by James Trew

The Mandalay Bay hotel and conference center sits toward the south end of the Las Vegas strip. Inside it, past all the smokey slot machines and brightly lit restaurants, you'll find sharks rubbing shoulders with Michael Jackson. It is the very essenc...

Nixie Radian Analog Tube Clock: Time is a Spiked Circle

Posted on 21/09/2015 by Lambert Varias

Most nixie tube clocks are based on tubes that show numerals. Tungsten Customs is no stranger to such clocks, but its latest product uses nixie tubes to create an analog-style digital clock. The Nixie Radian’s IN-9 bargraph tubes serve as the clock’s hour and minute hand.

You can set the Nixie Radian to simply indicate the hour and minute like a normal clock, or you can pick from a handful of animations to add to its style.

Pledge at least $345 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a Nixie Radian clock as a reward. That’s a significant discount from its final price of $495.

[via Hack A Day]

Blub Uno Clock Displays Time with One Nixie Tube

Posted on 18/02/2015 by Conner Flynn

We’ve seen our share of Nixie tube clocks, but the Blub Uno is different. This is a clock that displays time with just a single Nixie tube. One tube, many possibilities.

It will display the time as a sequence of numbers, but that’s not all it can do. This clock can show the temperature and date too, and it can be used as an alarm. I’m not sure if I prefer one tube or four. They are both pretty cool, but this one takes up less space. If you like this one-tube wonder, it is being funded on Kickstarter. You can get one starting with a $299(USD) pledge.

It’s not how many tubes you have, it’s how you use them.

[via Laughing Squid]

First Wearable Flying Selfie Camera Nixie is Highlight at CES 2015

Posted on 07/01/2015 by sumayah

As the CES 2015 was in its heyday, the CEO of Intel, Brian Krzanich introduced the Nixie wearable camera to the audience. A range of cameras were displayed including one the size of a small button....

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