Sounds of the Sea

oyster_01

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a grand piano… now, take that image and completely forget about it! That’s the idea behind Oyster. This conceptual instrument ditches the monotonous form of the piano for the natural, curvaceous shape of the sea life by the same name. Because its shape is quite similar to that of the standard piano, there’s no sacrifice in tone, quality or performance. It’s a beautiful merging of something manmade with nature in perfect harmony!

Designer: Kim Hyunsoec

oyster_02

oyster_03

oyster_04

oyster_05

oyster_06

oyster_08

oyster_09

oyster_10

oyster_11

oyster_12

oyster_13

Oyster for iPhone offers all-you-can-read e-books for $10 per month

Oyster beta for iPhone offers allyoucanread books for $10 per month

All-you-can-eat subscriptions work well for digital magazines, music and videos; why shouldn't they work for e-books? Oyster certainly thinks they should, as it just launched a flat-rate book service for iPhone users. Members pay $10 per month for unfettered access to about 100,000 books from HarperCollins, Hougton Mifflin Harcourt and smaller publishers. The unlimited-use model also facilitates a Goodreads-like social component that shows what friends are reading at any given moment. Bookworms can request an invitation today. Oyster hasn't said if or when the service will go without invitations, but it hopes to release an iPad app in the near future.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: Pando Daily

Source: Oyster

London Underground: NFC mobile payment technology ‘too slow’ for the tube

London Underground NFC technology 'too slow'While it's tested the idea several times in the past, London's Tube system won't be getting mobile-based payment technology any time soon. Customer Experience Director Shashi Verma told GigaOM that existing NFC technology wasn't able to drop below the 500 millisecond barrier -- something which Transport for London demands from its high-churn Oyster card-based turnstiles. Verma added, "The concerns are only around NFC technology and not EMV. We are keen to see any progress the industry can make in this area." At least for the near-future, it looks like Brits will have to glue their NFC cards to their phones if they want that contactless payment look while journeying around London.

Filed under: ,

London Underground: NFC mobile payment technology 'too slow' for the tube originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 07:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceGigaOM  | Email this | Comments