Ultimate Mobile Office
As the global business world is becoming increasingly dependent on electronics and internet, business travelling can often be difficult when trying to run a fully mobile office in remote places. This is one of the difficulties this cool concept mobile office aims to solve. This custom mobile power station was designed and built by DIY-er Vin Marshall, who assembled it from a few photovoltaic cells, a Sun Xtender PVX-560T battery, and several other easy to access off-the-shelf parts.
According to the creators, the setup will give your laptop about five additional hours of battery life and full internet access, allowing you to be truly mobile with your office. The idea seems great, not least because it solves a real need and is relatively cheap and easy to build. That said, aesthetically I think the concept needs a bit more work!
The Media:Scape by Steelcase
The media:scape was developed to improve the sharing of ideas within a group of people working collaboratively, allowing them to access and share information quickly and efficiently. As most collaborative work spaces support a leader-led presentation of information, Steelcase attempts to break these barriers down and make co-working more seamless and natural. This is done by merging furniture and technology, requiring one only to connect a laptop to the integrated touch pad. From then on you can display information on any of the displays set up with the simple touch of a button.
media:scape also has the capacity to include HD videoconferencing, further boosting collaboration ‘by transforming meeting rooms, connecting distributed teams, and sharing information seamlessly in dynamic new ways’.
To see how it works in action, check out this short video:
The iPad Pillow
The iPad pillow was created by the Dutch designer Stein Bakker in an attempt to make tablets more ergonomically friendly. Though tablets allow us the freedom to work and play on the go, offering the ultimate in portability, they are often difficult to use for long periods of time. Therefore the iPad pillow seeks to solve this problem by allowing you to view your iPad in various different angles without having to hold onto it continuously. The pillow also has a slot to place your iPad into, allowing for the upright placement of the device – perfect for presentations or movie watching. The iPad pillow costs around £30.
Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750
Logitech recently released its new wireless K750 Solar Keyboard, which as the name suggests is powered by integrated solar panels. Intergration of the panels is a huge plus, in that it means that there are no bulky power bricks or charging cables required. What’s more, the keyboard can be powered by indoor light, which means it is still a viable option for office use. It can also stay charged for at least three months in total darkness, this coupled with a built in power-meter means that you will always know exactly how much power the keyboard has, and can ensure you will never run out. The K750 retails at £69.99 on the Logitech website.
The New MacBook Air
Apple released its new Macbook Air on the 20 October. At its thickest point it is .68-inch and weighs just 2.9lbs. It uses a complete unibody aluminum construction, has a full sized keyboard, full sized glass trackpad which is touch enabled, 13.3-inch LED display (1440×900), Core 2 Duo processor (1.86GHz or 2.13GHz ) , NVIDIA GeForce 320m and Facetime camera. Apple is also releasing a 11.6-inch version which weighs just 2.3lbs – the specifications are comparable yet the screen has a 1366×768 resolution.
The old MacBook Air was 0.76-inches thick and weighed 3lbs. Battery life on the new machine is 5 hours for the 11.6-inch model, and around 7 on the 13.3-inch model. There is no hard drive or optical drive – Apple has moved to flash storage – solid state. This means “instant on”.
The release of this new product reaffirms the importance of the Macbook to Apple. It was disclosed today that Macbook sales account for around 33% of Apples profits, at around $22 billion per year. To put this into perspective, if the Macbook was a standalone company of its own it would be 110 on the Fortune 500 list!
Check out this video for more information:
AQ Amigo USB Speakers
Notebook speakers generally tend to be flat, lifeless, and just plain bad, but then portable speaker sets aren’t exactly portable. The USB-powered AQ Amigo seems to be a nice solution though.
It’s somewhat flat so it can probably ride in your notebook bag without any problems. The speakers seem to have some volume to them and it’s USB powered, which everyone loves. And chances are even though they are going to cost you about $60, they probably sound better than your notebook’s stock speakers.
[ Article Source: TechCrunch ]
Rollup Laptops with OLED
Yet another example of gadgets squeezing to the needs of modern users. Much like the D-roll laptop, earlier covered in the blog, the Rolltop from Orkin Design is a highly portable laptop that gives access to your mailbox and other digital media on the go with minimum clutter. Featuring a flexible OLED display capable of multitouch, the laptop concept also includes a detachable stand to accumulate the tablet’s stylus, power adapter and USB ports. The OLED display when unrolled becomes a 17-inch flat screen that rolls into a 13-inch tablet. Check out this awesome video showcasing the product:
[ Article source : the Design Blog ]
Laptop Steering Wheel Table
Using your laptop in the car is not really the easiest thing in the world to do. While many car manufacturers are including iPod and mobile phone docks in their new vehicles, nobody’s really putting laptop stands in cars. But for the traveling businessperson, using a laptop in your car is essential part of today’s business environment. The Laptop Steering Wheel Desk Laptop Steering Wheel Table can help to facilitate using your notebook computer in the car.
source: amazon
The SpaceStation
Is your desk a hot trannie mess of tangled wires and gadgets galore? Do you even remember what color your desk is under all that crap highly important business tools? The Bluelounge Design SpaceStation The SpaceStation is a Space Saving…Station will not only get the clutter off the desk, it will cool off your laptop. Hidden beneath the stylish exterior is an internal 4-port USB 2.0 hub and cable management pins to keep all your gadgets plugged in neatly. Look at this before and after:
Your laptop can rest right on top of the SpaceStation which allows your laptop to cool off and sit at a more ergonomic angle for more comfortable typing. You can also place your phone and other gadgets neatly on top of the bar. A rear accessory rail acts as a great business card holder or page holder for sheets of paper.
The effect is of a much neater and more organized appearance for your desk as well as a cooler laptop (which can extend the life of your computer’s parts).
2UNFOLD Laptop Bag Folds 8 Ways
Road warriors know that toting a laptop bag can be a tedious game of switching shoulders to prevent fatigue. Depending on how you look at it, Hard Graft’s 2UNFOLD laptop bag, with its eight possible configurations, is either a blessing or a curse. The Italian leather bag has a strap for slinging 17-inch laptops over one or both shoulders and a fastener to hold that strap down when using handles instead. For laptops 13 inches and smaller, part of the bag can be folded over to a courier style, with either leather or canvas exposed. With the strap tucked away, this smaller configuration becomes a clutch that tucks under the forearm. The 2UNFOLD costs 349 Euros (roughly $483) direct from Hard Graft.