Archive for the ‘Cool concepts’ Category
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
(7 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)
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One of the most useful concepts I’ve seen lately is Jukka Roitto’s Seek, a portable search engine that’s basically a GPS with a major upgrade. It gives the user tons of info about the town he’s visiting, plus offers the usual GPS navigation and can be personalized while worn on the wrist.
The Seek GPS/search engine features a touchscreen display and a music player, just like most modern navigational devices nowadays.
[via Tuvie]
Posted in Cool concepts | No Comments »
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
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Well, in case you don’t know Alanis Morisette’s song, you won’t dig the pun above, but that’s OK, as we’re here to talk phones. And what a concept beauty I’ve found! It’s the
KDDI Ply that includes all the features you’d want to find in a “Swiss army knife”-style device. Confused? Check out the pics!
Designed by Hideo Kanbara, this handset is made out of many layers, just like a technological sandwich with many sliding parts. Some of these layers include a printer, a projector, a gamepad, an analog clock and God knows what else.
Still wondering how thick the Ply might be getting if it turns out to be real…
[via Cell Phone Beat, Gizmodo and KDDI]
Posted in Cool concepts, News | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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We’ve seen a bunch of flexible LCD phones and handsets featuring such rotating screens as the one below. There must be some major manufacturer cooking such a device right now, unless it’s already “big in Japan”.
Well, Serdar Ozsumer designed such an impressive flexible phone, that comes with 3G connectivity and a great center touchpad navigation tool. Before you even try to compare this handset to the any new technology, keep in mind that this is a 2005 project, when stuff like flexible OLEDs was only seen in movies.
[via Coroflot]
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Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
(1 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)
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“Yo, pick up the phone…”. Eh, well you know the rest, but when has this catch phrase seemed more familiar than when you’re holding two fingers near your face while pretending you’re using a phone? That’s half of the charm of the Icono concept phone, designed by Zinc Chan.
We’re dealing with a concept design that relies on human emotions and the iconic gestures we use to dial phone numbers. This handset is a two-piece device and features a microphone and an earphone. In case you want to make a call, you’ll just have to dial an unique animated path via the handset’s touchscreen.
After that, all you have to do is put the two accessories of the Icono phone on your fingers and start calling friends to say “Wazaaaa!”.
[via Coroflot]
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Friday, August 8th, 2008
(7 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)
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We’ve seen dual sliders, even triple sliders, but we’ve never seen a handset that’s based on the definition of sliding components. The Bend Mobile was created by Andy Kurovets, who also has a couple of other neat gadgets on
his site, in case you’re interesting in cool-looking futuristic design.
What we’ve got on our hands is a device that features a screen which can double its size by sliding another screen next to it. The camera of the handset also pops up (slides) and if I’m not mistaking I can see a “7.0 megapixels” etched in there, so it comes with a decent sensor.
Also, the Bend Mobile features a touch keyboard, a touchscreen, camera zoom buttons, camera flash and a sound system.
[via Yanko Design]
Posted in Cool concepts | 1 Comment »
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
(1 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)
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Count this one as an ugly concept phone, as the “Switchblade” only manages to impress through its original approach when it comes to display integration. One might expect to see the screen upfront or at the back as it was on the
Maple Phone, but this handset took a different route.
It’s not much of a gadget, with its numeric rubber keys and retro speaker at the front, but the surprise is the swinging display that reminds me of Sweeney Todd’s blades rather than your average phone.
This Switchblade phone also comes with a user-removable battery, in case it matters to you minimalistic phone lovers.
[via Unwired View and JAMP Blog]
Posted in Cool concepts | No Comments »
Friday, August 1st, 2008
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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We’ve seen iPhone rivals, but never so hot looking and promising. The Plica concept phone was designed by James Piatt and comes with 2 touchscreens that manage to offer the user a bigger and more comfortable interface, compared to the one on the iPhone.
It might remind you of the Nintendo DS, but you should notice that the screens are able to work together as a single display, adding up to the browsing experience. Also, you can choose to set up one display as the virtual keyboard and the other as the standard screen.
The neat thing is that Plica dual touchscreen phone works great even when half of it is used, as a phone and Internet device. We can even start calling this thing a mini-laptop and in the end it’s maybe worth mentioning that its USB and headphone jack are placed in the double hinge.
[via Tuvie]
Posted in Cool concepts | 3 Comments »
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Searching for concept phones on Flickr I stumbled upon these superb devices, which can be seen at the KDDI Design Center exhibition. Most of the concepts were designed by Marianne Bailey, but enough talking and let’s feast our eyes with these musical instruments/phones.
Don’t quite get the musicality of the device above, but the one below seems to turn into some sort of portable piano with pretty large keys. Sweet!
The phone below can be used as a blowing instrument and it seems to be accompanied by a couple of accessories that turn it into a real musical instrument.
Last but not least comes this cube-shaped handset, yet another puzzling device with musical functions I can’t figure out. Right now, I’m looking forward to seeing a band using such neat “instruments”.
Update: Here’s what Marianne Bailey said about the concepts:
“Please note “Sticks in the air” (drums) “Box to Play” (sampler) “Band in your pocket” (musical instrument attachments) and “Key to touch” (Piano were designed by Marianne Bailey. “Trio in your hand” (Sampler) and “Strings for your fingers” were designed by Yves Plattard. Both in-house designers for Yamaha Product Design Laboratory.
Btw. Band in your pocket (mobile with different musical attachment hardware effectors) you sing into the top and it changes your voice into the instrument of your choice. So expression in your singing voice already good expression with the hardware effector to add that extra touch of realism. The working prototype changes your voice to a trumpet! 
The “stick mobile” joins together to make one mobile phone and can be split to play “air drums” while you wait for that bus 
Also useful for checking a number, diary while chatting.”
[found on Flickr]
Posted in Cool concepts | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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At first I thought that this was yet another Nokia Morph wannabe handset, but as soon as I realized that the actual phone is a hologram I was like “what the?”. Check out the picture below to figure out the mystery for yourself.
As you can see, we need to attach a couple of small projectors to our fingers in order to “create” the screen of the device. This concept phone also comes with a camera, but don’t ask me where that is, because I haven’t figured it out yet. It must be on one of the user’s fingers, as is the receiver, but what about that touchscreen?
Do the small accessories sense when you touch the screen? The problem with this device is that you’ll have limited finger mobility, but the idea is great and surely original. Congrats Ronnie Ishii for such a brave and crazy (in a good way) design!
[via Coroflot]
Posted in Cool concepts | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
(4 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
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Meet FuChat, the cordless phone designed by D-Link, that can make normal calls and Internet ones if needed. It’s an eco-friendly device, made out of biodegradable plastic plus corn starch, sugarcane and some light aluminium. The phone can “sense” the user’s emotions and act accordingly, as you’ll find out if you keep on reading.
If the handset senses a change of tone or body temperature, it will react to the user’s emotions displaying texts, changing its display, playing sounds and even changing color. Sounds like a good way to work out some anger management or “read the mind” of business partners using the device in front of you.
Plus, if you’re really really busy and want to inform everyone about it, you can use the FuChat phone as a “Do not disturb” sign and hang it on the door-handle. The back of the device displays, aside from the emotional info, weather images, the time and the above-mentioned sign. FuChat also comes with a wall-mounted base station that can also show you the weather, temperature, time and caller ID.
[via Tuvie]
Posted in Cool concepts, Eco Friendly | No Comments »
