Between Apple, HP and others, you have your choice of cylindrical shaped desktop PCs. Samsung now has a round PC of its own. It’s called the ArtPC Pulse, and as you may have noticed, it looks a bit like the current-generation Mac Pro, albeit not quite as minimal.
The ArtPC is different though, since it is intended for everyday home use – and it runs Windows 10. That thing sticking out of the top is a 360-degree Harman Kardon speaker with ambient lighting. Specs include a 256GB solid-state drive, a 2.7GHz Core i5, 8GB of RAM and Radeon RX 460 graphics. Samsung will offer some expansion modules to beef things up a bit.
In base configuration, the system sells for $1,200(USD), largely thanks to the design and that speaker on top, otherwise this would have come in much cheaper. This desktop ships on October 28th if you are interested.
This Wheel of Time is one of my all time favorite series of books. And this shelf is awesome. It’s a… wheel of books. Because let’s face it, a regular bookshelf just won’t do for these books. This series is so epic it deserves an epic place of honor on the wall.
[via Tor via Nerd Approved]
Earlier this year, Pebble released two new smartwatches: The Time and the Time Steel. Both feature color e-ink displays, an updated "Timeline" interface, support for voice replies, and a new accessory port that promises to increase the watch's func...
This Ping Pong table makes your game go round and round. Forget rectangular Ping Pong games, which are far too straightforward and balanced. Play a game in the round. This fun take on table tennis was created by Singaporean artist Lee Wen. It’s called Ping-Pong Go Round. Obviously.
Lee Wen must be on a mission to make this the new way that the game is played, because he’s taken it across southeast Asia and Australia, where he invites people to play. It was also recently exhibited in Hong Kong. Pretty cool.
Audiophiles, here’s a cool new gadget on its way that you’ll definitely want to check out. It’s called the Olive ONE, and it’s a digital home music player system designed to provide top-notch sound and a myriad of other features.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Olive ONE is its unusual, but elegant circular form factor. This makes the 9-inch diameter, hand-built aluminum and glass player stand out from the crowd visually, but also makes it one of those gadgets you’ll want to leave out on a table or shelf instead of hiding it inside of a media cabinet.
For starters, the Olive ONE is an all-in-one music player that can handle just about any format you throw at it. It can play MP3, FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF and iTunes tracks. It also supports streaming music from Spotify, Pandora, YouTube and other services. And you can also store files locally if you add on a 2.5″ SSD or hard drive. The device can be controlled via its own 7-inch touchscreen interface, your iOS or Android device, or even via your TV via Miracast Wi-Fi (a list of Miracast display devices can be found here.) You can connect multiple Olive ONEs in a network, so you can play the same or different tracks in each room of your house.
Audio is processed by a 32-bit/384kHz DAC by Burr-Brown and dual HD amplifiers, so audio snobs should have nothing to complain about when they hook the Olive ONE up to their speakers. And speaking of speakers, down the road Olive plans on launching the ONE Box, a speaker accessory that sits underneath the player, with a similar circular design. For now, you’ll have to provide your own.
Olive is also launching the Olive ONE with an open architecture, which means that you’ll be able to create your own custom applications for the device. They plan on releasing an SDK for developers in May 2013, in advance of the player’s July 2013 release date.
Instead of launching the ONE through traditional channels, Olive is raising funds for its launch through IndieGoGo now through February 1, 2013. This allows them to ramp up production faster and sell the units at a much lower cost than they normally would. A pledge of at least $399(USD) will guarantee you one of the first units, and $100 more adds in a 1TB A/V grade hard drive. You can also buy a $50 or $100 gift card you can apply to a later purchase – in case you want to put something under the tree this holiday season.
Every once in a while, I feel like being alone and that’s one of the times I feel extremely lucky and fortunate that we have a spare room in the house. Not that I’m a loner or anything, but I just like being able to get away from everyone and everything sometimes.
If I didn’t have a spare room to go to, then I’m sure something like the plastic-shelled Cocoon 1 would be totally up my alley. Although the price, not so much.
The Cocoon 1 is a piece of furniture that you can actually live in. It’s like the Cocoon Tent we saw earlier, only it’s made with a tough and clear material–and, well, it’s not a tent.
Designed by Swiss design group Micasa Lab, the Cocoon is cushy and roomy enough to let people sleep, eat, relax, and do whatever they want by their lonesome while they’re in it. The inside of the Cocoon is modular, so it can be configured as a living, working or even a cooking space. You can even get a Wi-Fi module for surfing the web inside of it.
The Cocoon 1 seems like a concept, but it’s actually an actual product that will be arriving sometime in Fall of 2013.
The only downside? The base model is priced at $2,990(USD), and goes up from there.
[Cocoon 1 via Yanko Design]