Now that the world is well on its way towards a period of intensive, eco-efficient design, here are two great products introduced this past year that we hope to see more of in over the next 365 days.
A new accessory for the iPhone that will be released shortly acts as a speaker for amplifying music… without using any power.
(I admit it. I recently purchased an iPhone. And except for some so-so battery lifespan, I’m very happy with my purchase. It allows me to be connected in a way that I’ve never been before.)
One of the interesting things that happens every time Apple makes your brand new iPod obsolete is that each new generation of iPod or iPhone creates an enormous array of accessories. As unsustainable as this enormous number of accessories might be, this recent item stood out due to its simple, yet highly innovative design.
By using the existing sound from the iPhone’s built-in speakers, the AirCurve amplifies music outwards into the surrounding space, like speaking into a rolled piece of paper. Take a look at the design here:
The device is not yet available for purchase, but it’s a testament to the power of Design Outside-of-the-Box. I can’t wait to try it out (at the store) and see if it sounds any good.
The venerable BBC has just begun an experiment to track a shipping container as receives and delivers goods around the world for a year.
Globally, shipping containers come in a certain number of standard sizes so that they can fit equally on trucks, trains, boats and planes. The British broadcaster hopes to visit the container as it makes various stops around the world in order to tell the individual stories interlinked by this single transportation item.
You can track the BBC Box here. You can bet that I look forward to calculating the carbon footprint of this trip.
#9: Venetian blinds
If you throwing junk mail into the recycling is a bit too dull, Proquo has a good list of creative things that we can do with all the excess paper ads that we receive on a weekly bases. Most of the ten come complete with step-by-step instructions.
I particularly enjoyed #7. ;)
Mark Dykeman makes an interesting analogy on how broadband internet service drives today’s economy in the same way how cheap oil powered the industrial economy
Cheap oil was a hallmark of recent economic boom periods, permitting stable, continued economic development. Today, more expensive oil (not withstanding any recent price fluctuations) is leading to price increases in many sectors of the global economy, slowing growth by making it more expensive to travel, manufacture goods, heat our homes, and so on…
Cheap broadband Internet access has worked the same as cheap oil, powering the expansion of e-commerce, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. At one time people were limited to dial up access for either Internet or other private online services (e.g. the original America Online, CompuServe, the Well, etc.) As telecos and other technology companies gradually built a high speed communications infrastructure –- first in major centers across the world and then expanding to wider areas of coverage -– applications gradually began appearing that could take advantage of increasing communications bandwidth. Images, audio, and video applications grew tremendously as broadband Internet access became available.
It reminds me of a talk given by ZipCar founder Robin Chase on (the excellent site) TED.com, where she notes that the explosion of car sharing services around the world would not be possible without the leaps we’ve made in communications technology over the past 15-20 years (video here).