The Little Printer is nifty little device that connects to the internet and prints out social media feeds to-do lists, and news. It is capable of curating the material and funneling it down to what you really want to read.

British design studio BERG Cloud is the mind behind this device.

I can appreciate the intention behind it; it’s a product that delights, and it’s very friendly-looking and unintimidating, which means it’s perfect for early adopters and the early majority of users.

If you want to stay posted on its release, join their mailing list.

The Sketch Lamp is a desk lampt hat can transform into a light box.

Swedith Stockholm based designer Hung-Ming Chen of Hommin Studio collaborated with Ninna Kapadia to create the sketch lamp, suitable for A4 (letter) paper.

I wish I had one of these way back when I was taking design classes, it would certainly make sketching a lot easier (and funner).

M.E. Design Magazine ::: Hommin

What do you think of when you think of pills and medication? Illness, sickness, and weakness. The designers at fuseproject wanted to remove this connotation; there are many joyful and ordinary reasons for taking pills, such as pregnancy or for vitamins.

Vitality ::: Folio ::: fuseproject

As a designer and entrepreneur, I have long had a simple question no one has been able to answer: why is there no functional brand that speaks to the boomers while taking care of their everyday needs?

- Yves Behar, founder of fuseproject

The Sabi Vitality line brings the ability to crush and store pills, and enables you to travel with them anywhere and have a water bottle handy.

What fascinates me is how the aesthetic was designed to be “happy”. In a way, they’ve succeeded very well; the branding, the visual appearance, and the vibe of the name scream vibrant and happy, where most pill dispensers appear cheap and direct from the dollar store.

fuseproject tried a variety of designs, and one particularly portable one (dubbed the “folio”) happens to resemble a Moleskine notebook. Who thought pill-taking could be such a cool activity?

 

The Scalado Remove tool captures a series of images after you press the shutter button to analyze the actual background of your photograph. It then highlights the objects not part of the photograph, which you can choose to remove. This could include stuff like strangers, mascots, or cars.

This will be of great use to people wanting to capture those peaceful landscape shots, or shots of beloved landmarks.

Photobombing photos just got a hell of a lot more difficult. Scalado Remove allows you to load up any old tweaks and images you removed, in the case you do want to have a closer look at a stranger or you prefer the photograph with the good ol’ prank.

Scalado certainly isn’t lacking in ambition. The organization is set on creating an image cloud, where you can do a ton of things with your pictures. It has a great start with the Remove tool, and I’m definitely curious to see where they can take this.

The Philips Lighting HealWell synthesizes sunlight to support and compliment the healing process. Phillips’ application for this lighting innovation was towards healing and hospitals, but this kind of technology can be adapted almost anywhere.

[Images via: designboom]

For example, it can be used wherever people work night shifts. Apparently, depression is a problem due to lack of sunlight; if the HealWell can replicate sunlight and its effects, then factories can employ this in order to lower workforce turnover (which helps their own bottom line) and increase employee morale.

I wake up relatively early in Canada, where it’s depressingly dark in our lengthy winters. If you run into the same problem wherever you’re living, Philips has a more affordable version to help you out. Get the sunlight you want!

In the sleep-deprived world we live in, SleepBoxes are a great innovation to satisfy the need for more sleep in our downtime. Basically, these SleepBoxes create a clean, quiet environment where people can go to catch an extra forty winks. Caspar Lohner’s design of a SleepBox serves as seating as well as a mattress for weary travellers.

[Images via: Contemporist]

Users can choose to sit on the exterior, or crawl right onto the leather mattress inside the SleepBox and catch an extra forty winks.

This SleepBox was designed for airports, but can definitely be very useful at universities and more forward-thinking and creative offices. (Or perhaps your home office as well?)

A concern for Lohner’s SleepBox was its exposure to so many different people and a lack of change in sheets, which original SleepBoxes had. Lohner’s SleepBox will likely have to be constantly maintained or infused with some sort of bedbug repulse.

I hope to be seeing a bunch of these in North America soon! A little sleep would make everyone happier.

There have been a rise in the amount of devices looking to fill the desire for health improvement. We recently looked at the Jawbone UP, the pioneer in the field. However, the UP is no longer the only force taking over the market.

Image Source: NIKE+ FuelBand

The NIKE+ FuelBand is particularly interesting because it starts quantifying the physical activities users do. Basically, it analyzes the oxygen your body requires to perform a task, and runs it through the proprietary Fuel point system, to calculate the number of points that you’re generating throughout daily physical activity.

Image Source: Pop Culture Geek

The NIKE+ FuelBand’s abilities extend to tracking users’ progresses over an extended amount of time. Users can have a look in the past to see how far they’ve come, and measure their progress. This software can be accessed through traditional computers, or through mobile devices.

Users of the FuelBand will get a good idea of how much physical activity they are partaking in everyday, not just when they are at the gym. The FuelBand is handsomely designed to allow for subtle everyday usage.

Image Source: Pop Culture Geek

The Fuel point system allows users to start competing with each other, and uses the competitive human spirit to really make fitness social in its own way.

Traditionally, social games have also made effective use of competing with others’ scores, through leaderboards and other such forms of measurement.

What’s this competitive element mean for everyone? It could lead us to work harder to stay fit, which is great. On the other end of the spectrum, Martha Beck from the O Magazine has her own opinion on this:

Moving from shoulder stand to triangle pose, I was hit by two things: a back spasm and the realization that though I was ready to quit, I didn’t know how. I’d never practiced quitting. I didn’t know the right path out of the room, the right facial expression, the right way to give up.

So there I stood, befuddled, trying to touch my right foot with my right hand while bending sideways, when I heard a complicated thumping from the other side of the studio. By rolling my eyes far back into my skull, I saw what had made the sound. Besty had toppled from triangle pose directly into corpse pose.

She seemed too tired to speak, but from her feeble movements, she might have been trying to signal something—perhaps that she wished to be rinsed. But I took my own message from her example. In that moment, I saw with great clarity that (to paraphrase poet Elizabeth Bishop) the art of quitting isn’t hard to master. We can always just go limp.

Will the FuelBand also serve as a catalyst for overdoing it? There are tons of people who suffer from injuries due to over-working (like over-stretching in yoga exercises, or not performing the stretches properly), or people who burn out from doing too much too fast.

Keep an eye on how the FuelBand affects the sport of real life.

Watch: FuelBand by Nike+ from Dezeen on Vimeo.

Read: Nike+ FuelBand Review on TheVerge.

When the iPad was first announced in 2009, it was met with an onslaught of ridicule and skepticism. What does it do that a desktop can’t? Why was the name synonymous with the slang for a tampon? Why was it so expensive? I was worried at the time; Apple had come pretty far, making the transition from near-death to a very successful launch of the iPhone. Was it going to blow itself up with this?

Apple knew exactly what it was doing. It had already tested the waters with the iPhone and won big with the iPad. This move to iOS allowed them to sell more iOS devices than they did Macs in 28 years. Plus Apple had its legions of diehard fans, still waiting outside Apple stores for the release of the iPad. (Don’t get it twisted, people showed Microsoft some love too. Like 17 years ago.)

Apple was probably the first to take this app approach to programs and software. Android and RIM are doing well at emulating it as well, and now Microsoft jumps into the fray with Windows 8. Prepare your eyes for some nice screenshots.

The App Approach (as made famous by iOS)

Windows 8 has a store now. Sound familiar? Anyway, I’ve actually always liked the idea of having a central repository for apps. It’s just cool to know that the stuff I’m downloading is certified spyware-free and has been (somewhat) approved.

So far into the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, every app I have gotten was through the Windows Store. These apps are certified to blend in naturally with the Metro interface (although scroll didn’t work). I love how Microsoft finally integrates Windows ID’s (like @live.com or @hotmail.com accounts) with their operating system. It definitely makes things a lot more social. For example, the Music app could potentially allow you to connect with your friends and see what they’re recommending or listening to. Same for the Videos app.

Even with the Consumer Preview, there are quite a few interesting apps already. (Microsoft’s store doesn’t begin to hold anything to Apple’s yet, but it’s definitely a lot cooler than RIM’s last time I checked. Then again, I gotta update my Playbook to OS 2.0.) The ones that jumped out at me were:

The WordPress.com app, which aggregates the best content from around WordPress.com, arranged in cool Flipboard-like tiles.

The Vimeo app. Does something similar to WordPress.com’s app, but with video.

The Condé Nast Collection app. Aggregates magazine material and that sort of thing. Alright, I’m big into art and I didn’t download any games…but for your sake I downloaded some.

Pirates Loves Daisies was ported and is downloadable on the Microsoft store. Was actually a pretty interesting game, I’m a huge fan of Tower Defense.

On a side note, now that accounts are fully integrated with Windows: it freaks me out how much information Microsoft can collect. That said, there’s no shortage of information collection these days. Google, Facebook, and Twitter have databanks of information just waiting for someone to analyze.

The Metro Interface

So what’s all this about the Metro interface? It’s been slowly ushered into the Windows ecosystem, beginning with the Zune (from a long time ago). The Metro interface is the framework that is around the Start Page, the Start menu’s replacement.

That’s right! This is your new Start menu. When you press the Windows key, this screen will come up, and you will go through your apps and software through this screen. From what I’ve seen in comments around the blogosphere, the most difficult part is going to be getting power users and office users to tolerate this “dumbing down” of the user interface. Andrew Orlowski comments:

At the end of the day Metro is like one of those funky widget layers like Dashboard or Yahoo! Widgets or like a lockdown launcher, like At Ease. But the Maoists have dictated that this ephemeral layer must become the new shell.

There’s some truth to this observation (from the perspective of an office worker). Microsoft loses if they try pleasing everyone, and the office workers get the short end of the stick here. I’d be slightly concerned at this reaction, given how Macs are starting to find their way into the corporate world (a world Microsoft once stood unrivaled). I’m not even sure many corporations will decide to upgrade to Windows 8; however, Windows 8 does give Microsoft a reason to lower the pricing on Windows 7, which may be more appealing to companies now given the bug fixes and the fact that Windows 7 is proven to be reliable and much more loved than Vista.

Windows 8 does cater very well to post-PC devices, such as touchscreen tablets and touchscreen monitors. The whole Metro UI is very touchscreen friendly; I would totally love using it, as the grids are just so press-able and don’t require much careful aim. Similarly, it can do pretty well on larger TV screens (where navigating Start menus suck) and in a media centre environment.

That said, there’s the issue of all those desktops and laptop computers. The Start page does offer some novelty, but not much productive innovation for mouse users; in fact, there’s no search in the Start page, which means there’s more work manually searching for a program instead of instantly calling it up (like we can on Windows 7).

There have been quite a few comments around the blogosphere about Windows looking too kiddish. I’ll say this: My cousin totally hates the beach ball in OS X, and doesn’t like the UI. However, his opinion clearly doesn’t reflect that of the Apple diehards and people who switch because of the user interface.

Although I would love some better colors for selection.

Simplicity

Formatting and defragmenting are now a lot easier. For one thing, Microsoft removed the jargon. You can refresh your PC without having it affect your files, and you can reset your PC (reformat) and remove everything. Get Started at the click of a button.

Similarly, as I’d mentioned earlier, Microsoft has integrated Windows Live into Windows 8. I think this is a natural evolution, and nicely integrates less exposed services like Skydrive and Live Mesh right into Windows. It helps make these two apps more well known.

The Future

If you want to make money, find a way to sell affordable, high-grade tablets or touchscreen monitors to companies that are thinking of converting to Windows 8. I’m not sure that the artist-types will turn away from Mac yet, but they’ll definitely be intrigued. Get your touchscreen monitors in with families, libraries, shopping centres, etc. It’ll be a beautiful thing.

No credit taken from Microsoft; the apps and the social integration, and finally connecting to the cloud by default, are great steps ahead. I’m predicting that this will nicely seal the Windows ecosystem together, just like Apple stitched theirs starting from the iPod and working their way up to the cloud.

The hulking giant is transitioning to the post-PC age. We can’t be stuck with that old Start menu forever; I certainly like the Start page a heck of a lot more. While it may not be like going from black and white TVs to color, Windows 8 does seem like it could be a TiVo and will change the way a lot of people think of computers. That said, hopping between Metro and the Windows desktop can be a bit incongruent, or as Engadget puts it:

Jumping back-and-forth between Metro and desktop is hugely disorienting and, at least in the early days of Windows 8, you’ll be doing a lot of that.

Microsoft is making a bold step. I was considering likening this to a RIM situation, where the company tried to expand into the mainstream market and neglected to keep their core business users happy. Microsoft does still have quite a healthy share of the mainstream consumer market already, so I don’t think it will be as risky; still, it could be a dangerous move and an opening for another operating system to snipe corporate users. (Ubuntu, I’m looking at you.)

Download: Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Do you own IKEA furniture? Have you Built a Bear? Do you own any of those lovely mugs with family photos on them?

photo credit: calmenda

I’m no handyman, so when I look at my IKEA furniture, I look at it with pride. Similarly, I know my parents absolutely love those mugs they have of me as a kid. Both these goods are  examples of participatory commerce; we had a part in building them.

Slowly, but surely, participatory commerce has been making its mark in our lives ubiquitously. It’s an alternative business model, where you can actually save money on labor and consulting research. It’s a method of creating value which is almost entirely foolproof. Most importantly, it has already dawned on us without us making a big fuss about it. I’m talking about participatory commerce (“p-commerce”).

Research conducted with my colleagues Daniel Mochon, of Yale University, and Dan Ariely, of Duke University, shows that labor enhances affection for its results. When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their (often poorly made) creations. We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect,in honor of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly required.

In one of our studies we asked people to fold origami and then to bid on their own creations along with other people’s. They were consistently willing to pay more for their own origami. In fact, they were so enamored of their amateurish creations that they valued them as highly as origami made by experts.

- Michael Norton, Harvard Business Review

There certainly is some sentimental value in the things we create. The IKEA effect basically is a name for the idea that we value things more if we’ve taken part in building it. This effort we put in naturally increases the perceived value of the good that we’d purchased.

While e-commerce was all about convenience and security, p-commerce is about community empowerment and discovery. It’s a broader movement that goes beyond ‘crowdsourcing’ which in the past has been quite a niche concept.

- Daniel Gulati, The Next Web Interview

We are operating in a time where companies are looking for new ways to engage their clients and customers (hm, maybe you should ditch that social media “expert”). What better way to engage customers than allowing them to tailor the product that they paid money for to their liking?

But what can you do? You’re no IKEA or Build a Bear. You don’t have the financial muscle that these organizations do to set up a complex commerce system and all that. I can feel your pain. Let’s talk smaller-scale.

Gulati’s company Fashionstake connects professional designers with a community of fashion lovers. They set up a virtual Voting Booth where the community is able to vote on what designs they like best and decide on which designers Fashionstake will feature in their marketplace.

So, let’s say you have a blog. You’ve even started building a community around it. You want to start building your mailing list and monetizing now: so you’re writing an eBook that you can sell or give away. You’re brainstorming ideas to fill up your book with. Which ones should you put in and which ones should you exclude?

Perhaps you can set up a poll where your readers tell you which themes they want to hear most about. Or which ideas are most appealing to them. Or which sample chapters are their favourites. The possibilities are actually almost endless. Leo Babauta from Zen Habits wrote his Focus Manifesto with input from his readers; we’d have the ability to post comments and he’d upload his latest drafts and iterations to the book website.

You’ll start seeing a noticeable improvement in community engagement, and quite possibly in reaction to your work as well. Integrate p-commerce into your creations. You will be pleasantly surprised!

Further Reading:

• Empowered Involvement
• 8th Bridge Blog

End of the world or not, 2012 promises to usher in a number of breathtaking games for avid enthusiasts. Here’s a list of the top 20 games that are expected to set off gamers’ adrenaline and blow their minds.

1. Final Fantasy XIII-2

photo credit: katclay

To be released on January 31, this is the sequel of the Final Fantasy XIII. The game provides a darker mood than its predecessor. It involves some interesting elements like time travel in it. Initial reports suggest that the storyline would be a brain bending one.

2. Mass Effect 3

Check out Commander Amanda Shepard fight against aliens, trying to ruin their plans of world invasion. This futuristic game is the last chapter of the story. The game is supposed to release in March 2012.

3. Uncharted: Golden Abyss

photo credit: PopCultureGeek.com

Like the previous games of this series, it’s anticipated that this game too will deal with the adventures similar to Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones. Gamers should look forward for the new touch pad motion sensor of the game console PlayStation Vita. Set to release on 22 Feb.

4. Twisted Metal

Scheduled to be released on the 14th of Feb, the latest version of the game allows four users on the console or 15 players on the internet to wipe out larger number of vehicles than the previous versions.

5. Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D

This is the ported version of the PS2 version of Metal Gear series. The release date of the game has been decided for February.

6. Syndicate

The cyberpunk game is an improved version of the game that was first launched in the year 1993. The release date of this game, a cross between Deus Ex and Crysis, has been fixed on February 21.

7. Halo 4

photo credit: felixtsao

If rumors are to be believed then this game is going to be the first game of a trilogy named Reclaim. The game will be launched in 2012, sometime in its second quarter.

8. Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

photo credit: My Blue Van

The second of the three series odyssey offers exciting changes, including differences in the multiplayer gaming experience. Around 20 additional singleplayer missions are included in the game. The game will be released in the second quarter of 2012. [Editor's note: Really stoked for this one!]

9. Xcom

Earlier known as X-com, this game is a mix of a tactics game and X-files. Expected date of release is March 6.

10. Minecraft

The game considered one of the best games witnessed is now coming to the Xbox and will support Kinetic too. The second quarter of 2012 has been decided for the release of the game.

11. Far Cry 3

photo credit: shanewarne_60000

The third in the series is set back again in the tropical jungle just like the first game of the series. There is no more specific release date of the game, but it’s promised to be out in 2012.

12. Diablo III

Ending the long wait of gamers, the next sequel of Diablo will be released during 2012. This version is supposed to bring a lot many changes and possibilities in terms of online gaming and game tactics.

13. Metal Gear Solid Rising

To be released sometime during 2012, MGS Rising has been developed with more attention on action and fighting techniques.

14. The Last Guardian

The game was first shown in E3 in 2009 and since then the release of the game has been postponed many times. The developer team now has declared the release of the game in 2012.

15. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

The fourth expansion pack of the game World of Warcraft is expected to release in 2012 though there is no confirmation of the date of release yet.

16. Max Payne 3

The sequel to Max Payne 2 will be launched in 2012 after almost 10 years of gap in between. [Hope it's better than the movie!]

17. Hitman: Absolution

photo credit: Symic

The game that came with puzzles and penalties is ready with its new version with a lot of changes and modifications. There is no confirmed news on its date of release so far.

18. Grand Theft Auto V

photo credit: Joe Fakih Gomez Photography

A new version of the controversial game has been developed by Rockstar and is ready for release in 2012.

19. Borderlands 2

With four new heroes and new weapons in a brand new story, the sequel of the hit game of 2009 is ready to be released in 2012.

20. Bioshock Infinite

photo credit: zampano1212

Though it shares the name with Bioshock, it’s not entirely a sequel to the game or its second version. This fresh shooting game set in a dream-like backdrop will be ready to be released sometime in 2012.

With all these games on offer, there’s no doubt that the year 2012 will be exciting and thrilling for gamers. Whether you like to twitch your mind with puzzles or be the savior of the world, all varieties of games will be on your palate to choose from in the coming year. Enjoy!

This post was written by Alia Haley. Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology, home designing, luxury and environment. Besides this she is very fond of games. Recently an article on PCI Graphics Card attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on Android games.