Hoxton Hotel’s New iHox Area

boundary-pushing Shoreditch hotel's new Apple area...

Hotels & Travel

Hoxton Hotel’s New iHox Area

August 18th, 2010

It was only last month that we brought you the scandalously stylish new designer rooms at Shoreditch’s unique luxury-budget sensation, the Hoxton Hotel. Owned by Prêt A Manger founder, Sinclair Beecham, the hotel have added free use of iMacs – and most excitingly – iPads to the list of guest freebies that includes Wi-Fi, phone calls and Prêt breakfasts. Located in their new ‘iHox’ area, we believe they’re currently the only London hotel to offer totally free use of Apple’s latest gift from the gods… the others offering them with rates, deposits or executive suite perks. And don’t you just love the accompanying security signage?

Flipboard: iPad’s Social Magazine

the iPad's first game-changing application arrives....

Technology

Flipboard: iPad’s Social Magazine

July 23rd, 2010

Co-founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mike McCue and former iPhone engineer Evan Doll, and with some serious backing – a reported $10.5m from the likes of Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and popular filmstar thoroughly annoying Punk’d presenter turned social media giant, Ashton Kutcher – and the acquisition of real-time web intelligence startup, Ellerdale, Flipboard is evidently no ‘flash-in-the-pan’, bedroom-produced application, and with a genuine buzz being felt amongst those at the forefront of publishing, it’s certainly realistic to utter that this could be the first major player in revealing the iPad for the game-changer it’s earmarked to be…..

Freitag iPad Sleeves

iPad protection from Zurich's champions of recycling cool.....

Accessories

Freitag iPad Sleeves

July 9th, 2010

You may already be aware of Zurich based innovators, Freitag, and their brilliant range of recycled bags and accessories made from “well-travelled truck tarpaulins, unravelled seat belts, bicycle inner tubes beyond repair and recycled airbags”. You may have also seen their brilliant Zurich flagship store – that we visited on our Swiss design trip earlier this year – that follows the company’s ethos, being constructed entirely from rusty, recycled freight-containers – stacked 86ft high. Something you won’t see until early August are these beautiful iPad sleeves, complete with a ‘one-pull’ strap system for easy access, a ‘velvety’ inner lining, and their iconic recycled tarpaulin outers. Interested? Be first in line by writing to bagmypad@freitag.ch……

Desk Phone Dock for iPhone

the humble desk top phone just got seriously desirable...

Technology

Desk Phone Dock for iPhone

April 12th, 2010

Clean, stylish, slick… and, oh so Apple… Seoul based company, Kee Utility Inc. have rewritten the desk top phone handbook, with a little help from everyone’s favourite smartphone. Serving both as a dock for your iPhone, and a fully integrated wired desk phone, the ‘Desk Phone Dock‘ – they’re not as good at naming things as they are designing them – is quite simply the most useful, and certainly one of the most alluringly beautiful, iPhone docks on the market. Currently showing at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong, we can’t get any information on availability, however, if they’re showcasing this product at the exhibition, we can positively guarantee that you’ll have seeing more of this sensationally conceived, and poorly named iPhone accessory….

VIVmag, Interactive iPad Spread Demo

online magazine hints at the future of publishing....

Technology

VIVmag, Interactive iPad Spread Demo

March 24th, 2010

Whoever said that the iPad wouldn’t change things may well like to take a little look at this ridiculously creative approach to magazine publishing, courtesy of all-digital publication, VIVmag. Along with co-directors Cory Strassburger and Ming Hsiung, photographer Alexx Henry has created an interactive motion cover and feature spread for VIVmag, with thoughts of the unmistakable potential of tablet technology foremost in their minds. With the imminent launch of the iPad in mind, Henry’s feature spread perfectly demonstrates the breathtaking potential of next-gen publishing… with moving images and interactive content offering a unique appeal to traditional magazine spreads, the prospect of interactive high fashion is certainly one to whet the appetite of even the most ardent iPad denouncer….

Video demo and making of, right after the jump…..

Min Kyu Choi’s Folding Plug

genius invention wins the Brit Insurance Design Award 2010...

Technology

Min Kyu Choi’s Folding Plug

March 17th, 2010

Congratulations to Min Kyu Choi and his rather brilliant folding plug design…. after we featured the awe-inspiring, yet delightfully simple, concept in July last year, the London based student went on to achieve all sorts of high profile accolades, including picking up a Gold award at September’s International Design Excellence Award, being a finalist in January’s Wallpaper Design Awards and topping it all last night by fending off competition from the likes of Alexander McQueen’s final collection to be presented with this year’s Brit Insurance Design Award by Antony Gormley…. The best news is that Choi’s intelligent slice of remarkable product design will go into production later this year.

Design Hotels™ & Wallpaper* iPhone Apps

travel guides go chic on the app store....

Hotels & Travel

Design Hotels™ & Wallpaper* iPhone Apps

January 14th, 2010

If there’s one thing that’s rather disappointed us with iPhone applications, it’s surely been the undeniable dearth of apps that ooze in vogue sophistication… consequently, the recent news of apps from two of the world’s leading lifestyle brands has gone someway to unfurling our brow. Rather similar in terms of content, Design Hotels™ and Wallpaper* have both released city guides with a difference… the difference, of course, being that the recommended hotels, bars, restaurants and sights are all, reassuringly elegant, stylish and achingly hip. Available for Amsterdam, Miami, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, London, Sao Paulo, Vienna, Shanghai and Barcelona, Design Hotels™ guides are a collaboration with the culture savvy ‘Unlike City Guides’ and include regularly updated information on shops, clubs, bars, eating out, arts and culture, sights and experiences, and of course, hotels. An events calendar promises much, but as yet appears rather desolate…. let’s hope the promise of regular, seamless updates is a genuine one…..

Design Hotels™ & Wallpaper* iPhone Apps

Wallpaper*’s guides are essentially an app version of their hugely successful, and rather brilliant, Phaidon City Guides, with the added benefit of knowing how far the featured shops, bars, hotels and sights are from your current location. Currently available for their top 10 selling guides, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, Rome and Tokyo, Wallpaper*’s guides include a suitably high-brow ‘architour’ along with insiders tips, brilliant boutiques, iconic landmarks, neighbourhood guides and city escapes… at £2.39 a pop, if you’re travelling to one of said cities, they’re an essential purchase.

Design Hotels™ on iTunes
Wallpaper* on iTunes

Moritz Waldemeyer’s “Home Disco”

the most outrageous iPod dock you've ever danced on....

Technology

Moritz Waldemeyer’s “Home Disco”

January 6th, 2010

Having worked with top architects and fashion designers such as Ron Arad, Zaha Hadid and Hussein Chalayan and produced stage-wear for the likes of Bono, Rhianna and (ahem) Mika, German-born, London-based Moritz Waldemeyer is simply one of the most groundbreaking designers of his kind. Fusing his background in engineering with thoughtful, innovative design, his work with LEDs and lasers see him as the first port of call for designers and artists looking for concepts with a digital twist. When Wallpaper* approached him to design an object with the brief ‘Home Disco’, he responded with typical flair, producing this magical, awe-inspiring electro coffee-table. Sleek, retro coffee-table by day, the unit, which accommodates speakers, an iPod dock and…. wait for it…. a ‘Haze Machine’, fires into life when the lights go down, beaming out Waldemeyer’s trademark lasers to form a wonderfully futuristic dancing cage…… if this is the future, we’re sure glad we’re living it!

Design Blog
Culture Label