VIU Contact Lens – Photoshop Your Vision

The VIU Contact Lens blurs out the stark realities of life that you don’t want to see. Transforming your vision to suit your preferences, it can obscure and twist the realities of a stinky dumpster down your alley or block out that offensive Ad on the billboard.

View the video clips that explain the concept in totality.

Designer: Christofer Kümmerer

Leaf – Wearable Phone

Inspired by photosynthesis, the Leaf is a wearable bracelet phone that incorporates solar cells on its front panel for juicing it up. If that’s not good enough, the cradle into which it docks also hosts the cells on the back. Alternatively, on a dark dingy day you can use the trusty electricity to recharge the phone. A pretty basic phone with calls and messages functions only, it’s main objective is to “remind people that they can contribute to energy efficiency.”

Designers: Seungkyun Woo & Junyi Heo

Botta-Design – ARGOS Automatic Watch

Botta-Design exclaims that, “the design focus of ARGOS is to combine optimum ergonomics with elegance and refinement.” As evident in its simplicity, the ARGOS does not need all the bells and whistles of some of today’s watch designs just to tell time. For starters, the ARGOS model’s 38.5mm diameter display allows for an easy viewing of the face. It’s high contrast enhances readability in poor light conditions and for those with impaired sight. There are also separate sections for hours and minutes, with the hands pointing to their own levels with individual scaling and numbers. The watch is also a comfortable fit with its easy adjusting leather strap. For more information visit the Botta-Design site.

VIA: SwipeLife

Ibex Speedboat by Peter Carrasquillo

Ibex is a concept speedboat that allows the user to determine the attributes of the wake with adjustable trim planes sited at the base of the tower. The user can adjust the planes from the driver’s seat to increase the water displacement which will lead to a more defined wake. Or to have smooth driving, user can adjust the planes for decreased drag, enhanced fuel efficiency and quality ride while not disrupting other boaters. The tower, below dash consoles and lower swim deck area is featured with ultra-thin OLED lighting which is completely unnoticeable during the day, but can produce any number of colors at night to offer a unique boating experience.

Ibex comprises high-end multimedia system including video, audio, wireless network connectivity and on-board memory storage, controlled through touch-screens located at the passenger console and swim deck. Moreover, the tower of this boat is equipped with rear facing cameras that will offer the rear-views to the driver for better driving. Within the front hatch, there is a color-matched and flush-mounted hard top that can be removed to reveal a luxurious foredeck bench. This boat features direct drive propulsion mechanism that eliminates the probability of injury or unexpected situations on an exposed prop while lessening the boat’s draft also.

Designer : Peter Carrasquillo

VIA: TUVIE

Google Ads Get Shifted to the Left

Does Google’s search results page feel a little more crowded to you? The ads which used to run down along the right-hand edge of the page are now shifted over to the left, as if to declare, “Hey, look at us!” Maybe this will increase the number of times ads are clicked on. They are certainly more noticeable.

The ads now seem like they are now grouped together with the organic results, whereas before they were shunted off to the side (a legacy of the early days of Google when the purity of organic results was protected as much as possible from being sullied by dirty ads). In fact, on my screen the ads take center stage, with a thin line down the middle forming the slimmest barrier separating them from the natural results. I wonder if this design change has something to do with the popularity of wider screens. But the line and central placement of the ads also conveniently draw the eye.

Is that what is most important now to Google? Don’t bother your mind with such silly questions. Google needs more clicks, and it shall have them.

Update A Google spokesperson confirms that it is always “experimenting with new visual representations” and that it “shifted the ads to the left on the page as a way to help users find what they are looking for on the Internet.” See, it’s for your own good. You were looking for the ads the whole time.

VIA: TECHCRUNCH

The New Media School: Learning About The Digtal Economy

By now, most businesses and self-employed individuals know that they can use social media services like Twitter and Facebook to help themselves grow their customer base and (hopefully) make some money. But for most people, actually using these services presents a challenge. Granted, there is no shortage of social media ‘gurus’ who have blogged their tips, but when it comes to finding ongoing instruction from genuine experts, the pickings have been slim.

Nick O’Neill , founder of the The Social Times, is looking to help. O’Neill is launching an educational program called the New Media School, which is setting out to help both companies and individuals most effectively take advantage of the businesses opportunities afforded by the web.

The school’s first course is the Social Media Marketing Program, which entitles participants to a number of text guides as well as a series of video lectures led by a solid roster of industry veterans. Each lecture will be streamed live via Livestream, and students in the program will be able to submit questions live via an integrated chat box. The course will begin in about a week and a half.

The school is charging $147 per month, and plans to offer new content on a rolling basis. For now, O’Neill is restricting the class size to 125. He explains that while the video lectures will be held via video stream (which presumably would have a much higher limit), he will be personally advising each participating company and indivdual through the course’s forums. There will also be virtual ‘office hours’ conducted through Livestream. O’Neill mentioned that he may consider offering alternative formats in the future (perhaps a video-only option without the one-on-one support), but the school is still in early stages so he’s eager to first see what people are interested in.

Here’s a full list of the program’s instructors:

Brad Feld – Co-Founder of Foundry Group and author of widely read venture capital blog
Chris Bucchere – Founder of Social Collective
Clara Shih – Author of “The Facebook Era”
Craig Stoltz – Author of “Web 2.Oh…Really?”, one of Time.com’s Top 25 Blogs
Dan Schawbel – Author of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”
David Berkowitz – Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy for 360i, author of the blog Inside the Marketer’s Studio
Debbie Weil – Author of “The Corporate Blogging Book”
Don Steele – Vice President of Digital Marketing, MTV Networks
Frank Gruber – AOL Product Strategist & Evangelist
Harper Reed – CTO at skinnyCorp, Co-Founder of Threadless
Hiten Shah – Co-Founder of KISSmetrics
Jake Brewer – Engagement Director of Sunlight Foundation
Jesse Thomas – Founder of JESS3
Jared Goralnick – Founder of Set Consulting
Joe Suh – Founder and CEO of myChurch
John Bell – Managing Director of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and President of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association)
Leslie Bradshaw – Director of Engagement, New Media Strategies
Mike Lazerow – CEO and Founder, Buddy Media
Mike Volpe – VP of Inbound Marketing, HubSpot
Neil Patel – Co-Founder of KISSmetrics
Shashi Bellamkonda – Head of Social Media Strategy, Network Solutions
Tamar Weinberg – Author of “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web”
Ted Leonsis – Owner, Washington Capitals, Chairman of Revolution Money, and Vice Chairman Emritus of AOL
Tim O’Shaughnessy – Co-Founder & CEO, LivingSocial
Victoria Ransom – Founder, Wildfire Interactive

VIA: TECHCRUNCH

P-Rod – Nike SB – Today Was a Good Day – Extended Version

VIA: NIKE SB