I have a bad shopping habit, REALLY BAD. I buy heaps (Aussie word of the day) of video games, toys, clothes, and the most costly - electronics. My shopping addiction is enabled by my refusal to use cash since cash is a very tangible and visible way to gauge what you can and can’t afford. Thats why I’m an ATM/credit card swipin’ fool.

Enter Jacob Palmborg’s, “Card” concept. The RFID enabled card links to all of your money accounts and displays them on a screen. The whole thing is biometrically secured so no worries about someone else getting your info. You can even use it to shop like an ATM card but here’s the catch. It tells you how much money you have left and forecasts what kind of situation you’ll be in if you buy “said item”. OMG, it’s like having a pocket sized conscience! Since it’s just a web enabled screen, the card can also double as ID, any ID.

So lets see, this “card” basically consolidates a lot of what I carry in my wallet. Now if it were a phone too, I’d be set. Speaking of phones, where was this when I contemplated on throwing down $600 for an iPhone. I think my checking account went from a disconcerting smile to an all out sad face.

Hit the jump to see more pictures.

[Via Yanko Design] (more…)

If I ever become an old lady, I’m totally getting this. Dubbed “VITAL”, you wear it around your wrist like a watch. It monitors your vitals and syncs up information with medical staff or your physician’s office. You can measure blood pressure and temperature by swiping it across your forehead. That’s way better than a stick under your tongue or even worse, a stick up your arse!

The cool thing is all the information transmits wirelessly. Your vital readings could also indicate how your daily life affects your health. Imagine receiving customized reports on how to relax. It could tell you you’re not getting enough sleep. Most importantly if can notify someone if you’ve fallen and can’t get up.

It does all this but doesn’t tell time. Go figure. Mo’ pictures after the jump.

[Via Yanko Design] (more…)

No, not the beer. Corona is a solar powered outdoor lighting system. It can be staked to the ground, attached to a wall or simply placed on a table top.

The Corona’s solar voltaic cell transforms sunlight into energy during the day and its LEDs automatically start to glow when the sun sets. It uses no glues or fasteners, making it simple to disassemble for recycling. It’s the 2007 ICFF winner so may see production very soon. More pictures after the jump.

[Via Yanko Design]
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Wow that’s a really bad attempt at making a good title that succinctly describes this Nokia concept. It’s called the Scentsory and the whole premise revolves around, you guessed it - smells. The design is made from a flexible paper LCD material that unfolds like a paper airplane. Each contact is assigned a unique smell. The whole concept attempts to bridge the technological coldness of cell phones by using odor as an emotional conduit. It sounds cool and all but I’d hate to be in a room full of people with smell phones.

Apparently Intel isn’t the only one with a crystal ball into the future. At an event in Mumbai, HP showed off their “Always Connected” concepts - a section of their HP Mobile Innovations Tour. The concepts show the company’s vision of 2012 with devices like watches, tablets, computers and wallets all connected to a central hub. Many of the concepts take today’s experimental technologies like paper thin LCD screens and ultra-slim portables and make them fashionable. HP believes in the future, high-tech electronics must depart from their current “techy” look and embrace a more friendly approach to design. More of it after the jump.

[Via Tech Ticker]

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It’s an inevitable fact. Once you move in with your significant other, control over the remote will be one of the first issues to come up. That’s why I whole heartedly endorse Didier and Nickolas’ Cushion Control pillows. Volume, channel and power buttons are split up between 3 pillows. The designers aim to provoke users to argue over “who has the remote”, ultimately resulting in a pillow fight.

[Via Core77]

The future of tech products is built upon today’s imagination, design, and inspiration. Concepts that allow consumers and manufacturers to see creative, novel, or utterly breathtaking products drive technology style and engineering forward. These are some of those concepts:
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