TED: Philippe Starck – Why design?

Legendary designer Philippe Starck — with no pretty slides behind him — spends 18 minutes reaching for the very roots of the question “Why design?” Along the way he drops brilliant insights into the human condition; listen carefully for one perfectly crystallized mantra for all of us, genius or not. Yet all this deep thought, he cheerfully admits, is to aid in the design of a better toothbrush.

Take A Seat – Chair Follows You

The Take-A-Seat concept by Jelte van Geest is about chairs that follow you wherever you go. For instance if you’re in a library and you are a member of that library. You hold your membership-card in front of the chair and from then on you have a seat that follows you around. (via fresh creation)

Gisele’s Water Dress!

UPDATE: This article has been moved to 1over100.com

Do I still have write anything for this? Its just awesome and sexy!
Anyway its aimed at protecting the Xingu river from pollution…

Content Aware Image Resizing = Awesome!

Now imagine having this in Photoshop!

UPDATE: Adobe Hires Co-Inventer of Image Resizer Technology
ANOTHER UPDATE: Some Patrick Swieskowski builds his own prototype of this scaling technology that you can try with your own picures.

The Celestron SkyScout – Planetarium-on-Demand

This little item is not yet available in stores, but has garnered universal attention from all corners of the web.

Astronomics.com points out that it was chosen as Best of Innovations at CES 2006, Editor’s Choice by Popular Mechanics and Last Gadget Standing by PC Magazine.

Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s Chief Humanising Officer and cult-status blogger, played with the SkyScout at CES and had this to say:

It wins my award for the single coolest thing I saw at the show. By far. I’m not alone, either.

So what is it? The Amazon Product Description reads like a piece of modern sci-fi:

SkyScout utilizes patented technology that combines measurements of both the magnetic and gravitational fields of the Earth, along with data from an internal GPS and a substantial celestial database. A “locate” feature allows you to select any object you wish to view–Mars, for instance–and with the help of illuminated arrows in the viewfinder, the SkyScout will actually point to the object. And when you point to an object and click the “Target” button, SkyScout instantly displays the name of the object along with a treasure trove of fascinating scientific and historical information about the object. Another feature includes SkyScout’s unique “Tonight’s Must-See List.” When the SkyScout is turned on, it will tell you the 10 coolest things to look at in the sky and will even use it’s internal GPS to tell you where each object is located. But that’s not all. Once you identify or locate an object, you can add an optional SkyTour SD card (sold separately), plug the included earbuds into SkyScout, and listen to an interactive audio presentation that describes the history and mythology of what you’re observing.

Did I mention it connects to your computer via USB, for firmware upgrades and updating new discoveries? I’m still jaded from promises of flying cars and robot maids, but I’d be willing to set all of that aside if they just had a better demo. I know this thing costs less than a video ipod, but I’m going to wait and see if it can truly live up to all this hype before making a commitment.