If you’re as worried about the looks of your audio system as how it sounds, you should probably have your head examined, and you might just be in the market for some pieces from the Mark Levinson 40th Anniversary Collection ($6,000-$25,000). Created to celebrate the legendary audio brand’s 40th anniversary — surprise! — the lineup includes the No. 52 Reference Dual-Monaural Preamplifier, the No. 585 Integrated Amplifier, the No. 519 SACD Disc Player and the No. 560 Digital Audio Processor, all of which arrive with gorgeous, minimalist designs that would look as normal in a museum as they will in your home theater cabinet.
Converse announces the debut of its Spring 2012 skateboarding footwear collection, including the new Form + Function Collection, and the latest collaborative shoes from Team Converse Skate Ambassadors, including the CONS Trapasso Pro, CONS Pappalardo Pro, and the KA-ONE. Available starting February 1, 2012.
Plan on being away from power for more than just the afternoon? The Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation Pro ($100) packs enough USB-ready juice — 6,000mAh — to keep your gadgets running for days without needing a “real” recharge, and thanks to its rugged aluminum and steel construction, you won’t need to baby it when you’re out on the trail.
Last year Volkswagen won The Super Bowl commercial battle with their little kid dressed like Darth Vader ad. This year they’re returning to the Star Wars theme as teased in this super cute commercial with a pup who appears to be Bones the AT-AT Dog we first showed you in October.
All we know about this ad, other than what we can ascertain by watching it, is the note saying it’ll somehow “all make sense” when you see the commercial.
Ok, you just had your share of bad taste with the Fiat 500 limo now will make up with some style.
Wine tasting is passé and the English have already perfected the High Tea, and nothing surpasses the Japanese tea ceremony. So what’s next? The creative minds at L’Hôtel de Vendôme in Paris set their eyes on “High Coffee.” They don’t call it that, but it certainly looks and feels like it.
Every afternoon, superior gourmet coffee varieties are served according to the expertise of France’s Best Roaster of 2011, Antoine Netien, and Tom Clark, owners of Paris’s high-profile Coutume Café, and importers and roasters of vintage coffees.
his culinary extravagance is served in the hotel’s deliciously prissy first-floor restaurant, 1 Place Vendôme with its magnificent views of the Place Vendôme. When the restaurant opened in 2009, it was Florence-based architect Michele Bönan’s first restaurant and hotel project in France.
Bönan created a completely customized, elegant setting in a couture-style theme with silver-studded black-and-white hounds’ tooth chairs, plush silk and velvet sofas, silver satin curtains, and cushions of pink silk satin with black and white ribbed motifs.
And to amplify the luxurious effect, all this is contained in a space with virgin-white walls, floors and ceilings. All furniture and fittings, including curtains, cushions and carpeting were custom-designed by Bönan and manufactured in Florence from fabrics by the Italian fabric house Dedar.
Though it is the same company that has the Ferrari brand attached with it, Fiat have been in the memory of people for many of its smaller city cars, like the Fiat 500. Despite the initial warm response during the introduction phase, the more recent times have actually shown a decline in sales volumes. Hence after producing special editions like the Gucci for Paris and the Pepita Gold, Fiat has decided to take it on the long way, by producing 3 special edition stretch limousines of the Fiat 500 car; LimoSun, LimoCity, LimoCity Presidential. The enterprise behind this idea is Castagna Milano, who has targeted the American audience mainly, for their knack of owning limos. Other than the apparent change in length from 3.5 meters to 5.32 meters, the height has seen an increment from 149 cm to 158 cm, while the wheelbase goes from 2.3 meters to 4.1 meters. Three versions are planned, The limo Sun, The Limo City and yes you wish Fiat The LimoCity President. Ahhh get real guys!
Despite its recent strategy of “sue everybody for everything,” Kodak has succumb to its financial pressures and filed for Chapter 11 business reorganization in New York. The iconic photography company isn’t dead yet, however, just very broke.
Kodak has already shuttered 13 manufacturing plants, 130 processing labs, and sheared 47,000 worked from its payroll since 2003 in an effort to offload its unprofitable divisions. Moving forward, Kodak hopes to leverage its existing “digital capture” patents and printing products to create “a lean, world-class, digital imaging and materials science company,” said CEO Antonio Perez in a press release. The business restructuring should be completed by 2013.
I’m being overly enthusiastic here. I mean, lets face it: who still has paper?… Well, ok, maybe a couple of you still do, and I guess that’s why the iConvert exists. I guess my point is that no one is excited about paper; it’s just one of those figments of a distant past we still have to live with. And for as long as this is the case, and people are still buying iPads, there might be a place for this portable scanning machine. Simply dock your tablet, launch the app and scan. The feeder tray accommodates paper between 2 and 8.5 inches so letters down to small photos can be scanned with ease. It’s done at 300dpi and the images are saved in your photo gallery, in JPEG format.
With a traditional baby monitor, you have a camera for the child’s room and a monitor that you carry around with you so you can see what’s happening with the baby. You’ll need a power source for the monitor, and that means finding an outlet in the room you’re in or keeping the monitor supplied with batteries. With the BabyPing monitoring system (from a newly-created division of Y-cam Solutions Ltd), you won’t have to worry about lugging around a separate monitor. Place the BabyPing camera in the baby’s room, connect it to your home WiFi network, and use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as your monitor. The free app “offers a wealth of security and safety features which include double-layer security and alerts to inform the user if the baby cries, if the Wi-Fi connection has been broken or if the monitoring iOS device is out of range. Using specially developed technology, the Smart Filter™ cuts out the background noise and static normally associated with baby monitors, while Constant-Connect™ acts as a permanent tether between the app and monitor, instantly notifying the user when the baby is upset or if the connection is broken at any point, ensuring parents can put their trust in this new technology.” The BabyPing will be available in the UK starting in February for £149.99 (about $230). You can sign up at the BabyPing website to be notified of availability.
