Digital Living

The Most Beautiful Cappucino (Ever)

It was told that by Martha Stewart that somewhere in New York City, in a place called Bottega del Vino at 7 East 59th Street, we could find the most beautiful (yet tasteful) Cappucino ever.

Barista artist Sammy Lin, excercise his craft there, pleasing and "wowing" everybody that happen to stop by.

This is how his beautiful cappucino looks like:

And this is how he made it:

 

Interesting! Now we learn that not only computers can be beautiful (aka Mac) or bags could be wonderful (aka LV) .... infact, even the most "mundane object" on planet earth (e.g. coffee) could be beautiful, inspiring and wonderful too ... if being done innovatively, systematically and excitingly being crafted, executed (and "designed") well done too!

Awesome.

ps: BTW, Happy Puasa everyone. Enjoy your next greatest "zip" of cappucino, or tea, or coffee, during your break time. :-)

Is The Apple "iTablet" Coming Soon?

It was told that Apple was filing patent for new methods of inputing data through touch interface; onto a "touch-screen-device" that is larger than an iPod or an iPhone.

Would this marks the emergence of Apple iTablet? An early indication that "something" is really being worked on at Apple. An "early clue" that indeed "soon" Apple might introduce an "iTablet" to the market?

We'll see how the future goes.

Space Cube -- World's Smallest Linux PC!

Have you ever seen computer that is as small as this? It's called space cube, it is based on Redhat Linux, and it is about the same size as Sony Play Station Portable, or your handphone!

The only "troubling" fact about this machine is its limited RAM (64Mb) and lack of harddisk space. Also the price becomes increasingly "mindboggling". ($2,700 for such "experimentation" is definitely not a good price).

Once that can be solved, this machine perhaps could have the potential to become everybody's favourite presentation "cube" (which you can carry around in your pocket), or every net surfer's "think client" PC, with CPU that quitely and nicely hiding behind their big-size computer screen. :-)

This "iPhone" Has A Built In Projector Inside!!!

The hassle of bringing projector to accompany our laptop (for presentation and meetings) may soon gone, as recently a new handphone is revealed. Such phone can project images through its own built in projector, and it can stay on doing so for a magnificent 2 hours!

I imagine, with this new "type of phone", we also may be don't need to bring any brochure nor paper document anymore. Instead, we simply "display" the document on screen, discuss, jotdown, annotate our points around it, and once it all done, send the "jotted down" brochure and discussion material to  customer.

Now imagine if such "device" also could browse the net, and enable touch interface (and "soft keyboard") as well! Imagine how "simple" and "practical" the future would be ... and how "ubiquitous" the internet increasingly would become!

With that, productivity soars!

Blackberry Bold Revealed!

See how the new Blackberry-Bold looks like; and feel how its hardware and menu system stand against the groundbreaking iPhone.

The Ken Burns Effect

Two geeky guys waited inside the room, and introduced Ken Burns to a new features that soon would be introduced in all brand new Mac system. Such new "effect" (that was introduced that day) later on being known as the "Ken Burns" effect. It is a magnificent technique where a piece of photograph could be turned into a fascinating story. It is a method of revealing segments of a picture, in ways that create a drama that sticks a long memory in the viewer's mind -- about what the picture's story is all about.

Here's Ken Burn's own story about how he "discovered" the effect, and how people can use it to create dramatic stories out of their pictures.

And here's a silent-movie that showcase how such effect could create "narrating story" and "self spoken dramatics" out of a "silent" picture.

This is how Ken Burns himself is using it to create dramatics in his documentary movie "Jazz"

Magnificent!

Treo Pro Would Come Out Soon?

Rumors said that Palm might  soon release a brand great new looking smart-phone named the "Treo Pro".

Sleek looking, stylish design, touch-ready, phone+internet combined, and form factor that is easy to handle yet still comfortable to the eyes, if this is as good as it look like, it might turn some tide back to Palm.

I wonder whether eventually Palm would come up with an Android version of it. The windows mobile menu and navigation system still overly cluttered, organizingly complicated, scaleably complicated and ignorantly "ballmeristic" by nature. It feel totally different from the Palm OS's simple, obvious, intuitive, easy to use, comfortable, sleek, simplicistic design.

One day Android OS might come to the "rescue". We'll see how the future goes. ;-)

Is This The Smart-Phone's Future Form-Factor ... ??

While today the iPhone indeed looks cute, some people say that the future handphone-form-factor might significantly change and resemble something that looks like this:

Such form factor takes the advantage of thinner size that latest handphone has, yet at the same time creatively expand its width, dimension and size.

We don't know whether this will successfully happen, or not. Although at a glance the tilted screen concept looks interesting, such form-factor also has one major weaknesses: the keyboard size is too crampy to allow easy typing.

But in the laptop world, the next OLCP seem will surely adopt such concept forward:

Of course, since the laptop size and dimension is larger, typing convenience would not become a big problem. Hence the idea might work.

We'll see how the future goes, then. ;-)

The Latest In Human-Transport Design

An Australian designer recently come up with a better idea how human can be transported more efficiently, while at the same time providing them with better privacy, yet also the  out-most convenience while riding.

This is how they setup the seating arrangement:

 

My quick observation, this design:

• Eliminate the needs for "isle". (Who need an "isle" if everybody could just step in and out out of their individual capsule to the ground?).
• Provide people with privacy they need, yet still enable people to take the "lounge setting" if they need to socialize further.
• Keep everybody comfortable and more safe too, as everybody is given an individual seat (Hence noone ever needed to stand-up in the isle, etc, which is of course less safe compared to if they can just sitdown in their seat and have their seat-belt buckled in).
• In the future, a connected compartment probably could also be created, so people could decide whether they want to open their compartment/capsule to be connected with other people, or whether they prefer it private.

Pretty innovative, very creative, ground breaking and quite inspiring design indeed. It is amazing to see how much can be accomplished by simply "turning around the seat 90 degrees, and give people their own view an perspective of privacy and convenience.

This I think becomes possible, because -- after all -- in the modern digital world of today, small space is can be as convenient and as "expansive" as large space.

While the "physical space" is small, modern "small space" can always be made "larger" and "convenient" through the addition of airconditioner, great sofa design, the addition of flatscreen computer, and through the expansive viewing of the world that is provided by the connected internet.This way, someone could just sit in one of these "tiny capsules", yet at the same time vastly exploring the great world, through their seat infront of the "net". No hassle with the space layout, no disconnectivity from people around the globe, and no discomfort with the space's size.

With some modification, who knows one day it might also influence how airplane and bus seating arrangement, and cargo placement also being designed.

Pretty awesome.

Would You Like To Try An "iBeer" Sir ? ... :-D

Human creativity sometimes took "a creative juncture" that you could never predict.

This surprising application for iPhone for example. It simulates the process of drinking beer. Embracing the "tilt sensor" that iPhone had, this application let your friends experience the process of seeing you "drinking beer" ... while actually you don't. :-D

I am not exactly sure what this application is really useful for [in real life] :-) but as a "cute", fun idea, it's quite OK lah. We respect the spark of creativity that surround it. :-)

Does anyone have an idea of creating and "selling" an "iCola" ?? I probably buy one. :-) *hahahaha*