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By Andrew Liszewski

So, does someone want to help me figure out how and why this CD clock radio from Sonoro costs a whopping $550? Let’s see, it’s got a slot loading CD player that’s MP3-friendly, nothing special there. A ‘top-quality’ AM/FM radio, not exactly a bleeding edge innovation either. An iPod dock that will also recharge your player? Hmm… Well I guess if you haven’t set foot in an electronics store in the past 10 years this might seem like a technological breakthrough, but other than that, I’m hard-pressed to find a reason why anyone would drop $550 on this thing. Oh wait, I didn’t notice the shiny black finish and glowing accents! Now I get it!

[ Sonora Eklipse CD Clock Radio With iPod Dock ] VIA [ Better Living Through Design ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

Life’s got you down? Well apparently you can turn things around by simply strapping this unique Ever-Increasing watch to your wrist. It’s part of the SeaHope EleeNo Cyber collection and the time is displayed via a series of always climbing line graphs. So even though you may be feeling down, life will always be looking up! Yeah, I know, it’s a bit of a stretch. But if one of the thing’s that’s been getting you down is the inability to read your watch in direct sunlight, you’ll be happy to hear that the Ever-Increasing watch also features a special coating on the color LCD that makes it easy to see even in bright light! $206 from the Japan Trend Shop.

[ SeaHope Ever-Increasing Watch ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

I’m sorry to say it, but the local panhandlers have just lost the battle for my pocket change. Normally I find sticking it in a bank of some sort a rather boring prospect, since I know one day I’m gonna have to count it all, but the uninspiringly-named Coin Bank by REVOL-DESIGN turns your change into a work of art, inspiring you to fill it up as quickly as possible.

The bank can be emptied once you unlock the padlock securing the bottom, and to make things even cooler there’s a series of clear acrylic spacers on the inside turning it into your own giant Plinko game! Sadly, pricing and availability aren’t known, but you can safely assume it will set you back a fair bit of coin.

[ Coin Bank ] VIA [ DVICE ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

Over the years I’ve amassed quite a collection of cool business cards, but nothing even comes close to being as awesome as Bryce Bell’s calling card. You see, he’s a mechanical engineer with a penchant for cannons (check out his site, gbcannon.com) so he designed a business card that transforms into a working catapult! The cards are about as thick as 5 regular business cards when assembled, but not only does that make it sturdy in the heat of battle, but also facilitates the moving parts (like the retractable legs) that make it possible to stash this thing in your wallet.

The photo alone is impressive enough, but the video I’ve included below shows it being transformed and launching various bits of office refuse.

But the best part is Bryce has actually taken the time to put together an Instructable complete with thorough assembly instructions and downloadable printable templates so you can make your own.

[ gbcannon.com - Cardapult ] VIA [ Wimp.com ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

Turning something as mundane as a vacuum cleaner into an object of techno-lust can be a hard act to follow, but when it comes to the Dysons, it looks like design runs in the family. The Motorlight Wall was created by Jake Dyson, son of James Dyson, the vacuum guy, and it’s a wall mounted light that features an adjustable beam that can be angled between 10 and 120 degrees, creating a wide or narrow shaft depending on your illumination needs. The lights are also remote controlled, and up to 30 of them can be adjusted via a single remote which is handy if you have a series of these installed in a large room.

According to Jake Dyson’s website, the Motorlight Wall was supposed to be available for sale last November for just shy of $400, plus an additional $44 for the remote, but that doesn’t seem to be the case just yet.

[ Jake Dyson Products - Motorlight Wall ] VIA [ designboom ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

The only thing worse than having to carry an umbrella on a rainy day is having to carry one around when it doesn’t end up raining. But you’ll feel less upset about the situation if you carry this Off The Course Umbrella designed by Sebastian Errazuriz. He originally came up with the idea while living in Scotland where he often found himself having to carry his golf clubs and an umbrella at the same time. So to make life easier, he simply combined the two.

The Off The Course Umbrella is made of steel, fiberglass, polyester and rubber, and according to the MoMA Store website it’s more umbrella than golf club and shouldn’t actually be used to play golf. But I’d like to see them try and stop me the next time I’m waiting for the tram and decide to practice my chip shot with a pine cone or a soda can. $65 at the aforementioned MoMA Store.

[ Off The Course Umbrella ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

While it’s not officially listed as a ‘Game Boy’ homage, it’s pretty hard to mistake where the Monochrome iPhone skin, available from Infectious, got its inspiration.

For just $14.99 you get a set of 3 stickers that includes a full piece of ‘Game Boy’ art for the back of your iPhone, complete with a simulated monochrome green and gray display, hence the name, as well as a small front piece designed to cover the iPhone’s Home button that looks like another set of buttons and a 4-way controller. It also comes with an Infectious logo decal, which you can just stick in the drawer along with the stack of Apple logo stickers you’ve accumulated over the years.

[ Infectious - Monochrome ] VIA [ Kotaku ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

While the Rubik’s Cube puzzle is designed to foster frustration, anger and one’s sticker peeling abilities, the Cubicus from Naef Toys is all about design and creativity. It was originally designed by Peer Clahsen in 1968 for Naef Toys, and it consists of a 4-inch wooden block made of up of various shaped pieces that can be disassembled and re-assembled into a myriad of other shapes and structures. This one’s all about design and creativity people, kind of like a stacked zen garden, and it’s available from nova68 Modern Design in red, blue, natural and ash for a mere $138.

[ Naef Cubicus Toy ] VIA [ Cool Hunting ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

Here’s another interesting take on the Rubik’s Cube which turns it from a puzzle into a graphic design tool. It was designed by Jas Bhachu as part of a project at the Liverpool School of Art & Design where students were challenged to produce a visual representation of the word ‘move’. So instead of colored squares, the Rubik’s Font Generator features a set of stamps on 4 sides of the cube allowing the user to create their own basic pixel font by re-arranging the shapes.

[ Jas Bhachu - Rubik's Cube Font Generator ] VIA [ designboom ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

This one’s definitely an oldie (we’re talking the year 2000) but it’s a clever idea that’s new to me. Football Tape was designed by Martí Guixé and it’s basically just a roll of adhesive packing tape with a football or ’soccer’ ball hexagon pattern on it, so when you use it to create a giant tape ball in order to play soccer/football around the office, it will at least look the part.

Sadly it isn’t available for sale, and given the concept was created 9 years ago it seems it’s probably never going to see the light of day. So you’ll just have to be content with your inferior clear or brown-tinted tape balls. Suck it up!

[ Football Tape ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

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