http://www.mooch.info/ Bringing the best closer en Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:37:17 GMT Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:37:17 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.mooch.info/ There was a period when Iraq born, Zaha Hadid, was well known for adventurous designs that never got off the ground. Today there is virtually no high profile capital that doesn't boast a building by the architect. What's remarkable about the firm is the huge diversity of work - from the BMW factory in Leipzig, to the Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck, the Phaeno Science Centre in Germany to future schemes on the drawing board for Dubai. Her latest is even more innovative; a mobile art gallery, commissioned by Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, and designed to tour the world's capitals. First stop Hong Kong, then USA and Europe.]]> Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:37:17 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ The computer games industry is a harsh business to survive in. The key predators, Sony with the newly released Playstation 3 and Microsoft with the X Box, are vast enterprises with hundreds of millions to throw at development, production and marketing. Against such numbers it's hard to compete. But it's not to say you can't be more ingenious about your product. Nintendo's Wii has taken the incumbents by surprise. It's not the incredible graphics and computer generated sequences that's on everyone's lips; it's the sheer fun of it. And it's all down to the Wii remote. Motion sensing technology that puts you at the centre of the game - be that battling titans, tennis players or ninja swordfighters.]]> Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:10:16 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ First established in 1984 to engineer light weight sports cars, Venturi has come to prominence lately by heading electric. Its first production model, the Venturi Fetish, unveiled in 2004, is already some years ahead of the US, Silicon Valley venture, Tesla Motors. Since then Venturi have powered ahead with the first "autonomous car", the Venturi Eclectic, which uses both sun and wind power, and the Venturi Astrolab - ultra lean on energy use, and highly efficient with it. They might not be an immediate solution to our climate woes, but as prototypes, they are certainly a viable vision of how the future of the car might develop.]]> Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:09:44 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ It's 2007, and already Apple, now Apple Inc, is making a dent on the technology world. After more than two years the Apple iPhone has arrived on the scene. It looks the business with everything the fans could have asked for; phone, PDA, camera, internet connection, SMS, e-mail and a great widescreen image. And that’s before the additions start rolling in.. The iPhone joins the ever impressive iPod to add to Apple’s dominance, causing further gnashing of teeth from the opposition. Many have attempted to analyse the success of the companies’ products. Is there a formula that can be copied? What makes the iPod so distinctive? Is it the wheel, the colour?, the shape?, its feel? – or a combination of all of the above. In reality Apple’s appeal is down to its completeness. It is total commitment; from first concept , to quality of design, investment, and build, engineering, online clarity and use (the itunes site), to packaging and marketing. A dedicated team locked into a single powerful vision. ]]> Thu, 11 Jan 2007 17:07:52 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ Philips Design in the Netherlands have developed a series of synthetic fashions as part of their Skin research programme that respond to the emotions and personality of the wearer. Described as 'emotional sensing', prototypes such as Bubelle and Frison can change their appearance or illuminate depending on skin contact or by being blown on. Tiny LED's woven into the fabric provide the light. Senior designer Clive van Heerden sees such applications as having a much wider influence on our environment as media becomes more virtual; "it is quite possible in the long term future that we will no longer have objects like DVD players, or music contained in disks, or books that are actually printed".]]> Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:09:15 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ What’s wrong with cars today? They’re overweight, over specified and over teched. Though engines today are twice as efficient as they were twenty years ago, the cars they move weigh twice as much – hence no improvement in petrol consumption. Which is where the Loremo comes in (standing for low resistance automobile). Initiated by a consortium of German engineers led by Uli Sommer and designed by Tobias Hoffritz, the car is built for frugality as opposed to opulence and luxury . This means real improvements in petrol use – 186 mpg is promised. This is achieved by designing an incredibly slippery shape, a drag co-efficient of 0.20, and a drastic reduction in weight. The Loremo is intended to move people from A to B as efficiently as possible. Ok, it won’t have fourteen programmable seat positions, sat nav, a heated steering wheel and LCD tv’s in the back of the seats. But with the climate going the way they say it is, these shouldn’t be our priorities either.]]> Fri, 3 Mar 2006 18:08:59 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ Since 1925, a Danish factory in rural Struer has been quietly perfecting the world's most aesthetically desirable electronics. It's a look, that for the past 25 years, has come from the hand of industrial designer, David Lewis and his team at Idealand. Consistency has been the key to Bang & Olufsen's appeal. It's a style that has evolved from an obsession with functionality and materials. A working process that starts with cardboard and plastic before hitting the drawing board; an old school approach that blends well with their reputation for state of the art acoustics and build quality. Recent releases from Bang & Olufsen step closer to the digital age; the BeoVision 7-40, the BeoVision 6, now with the added convenience of a hard disc recorder, the HDR 1, the 160 GB hard drive BeoMedia 1 and its latest audio system the BeoSound 4, which also comes with the ability to export music direct to SD cards for playing on portable digital players.]]> Tue, 3 Jan 2006 13:58:27 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ From bridges to Opera Houses and museums, Santiago Calatrava has been quietly transforming Europe. Structures such as the transparent Campo Volantin in Bilbao, to Lyon Airport, the Opera Houses in Valencia and Tenerife, and the Milwaukee Art Museum in the US, reveal the architects skills in combining sculptural free flowing forms with the practical demands of engineering. 80 South Street will be Calatrava's first residential building in the US. Planned for the centre of New York, the unusual design for the tower block consists of 12 cubes, measuring 45 ft, each containing four floors of residential space, cantilevered in a step-like design up the centre of the building. The whole tower will stand higher than 800 ft. So if you want to book into New York, this is it.]]> Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:50:01 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ When on October 4th 2004, Space Ship One claimed the ten million dollar Ansari X-prize, to become the first private manned space craft to reach space (328,000 ft), the story embodied all the virtues of a classic ‘young techno upstart’ against large cumbersome, government funded, Nasa. Space Ship One, financed by Paul Allen of Microsoft, was designed by aviation supreme, Burt Rutan, and built by his company, Scaled Composites. In an age where invention is more incremental, a perfection of existing technologies, like the computer, the telephone and the car, Space Ship One is ground breaking, standing up there with the great pioneers; the Wright Brothers, Alexander Bell, and Lambie Baird. Naturally Sir Richard Branson has been the first to exploit this achievement. His new company, Virgin Galactic hopes to be starting first flights into space from 2007.]]> Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:31:29 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ New Energy will be the central challenge facing the next generation. If recent conflict in Iraq won’t stir us into action, 2 billion new consumers in China and India certainly will, highlighting the impending crisis with oil dependence. Stirling Energy System’s Stirling Engine is one source of future power. Using the power of the sun to heat a compressed gas, a Stirling Engine produces power as the gas is transferred between a ‘cold’ and a ‘hot’ cylinder. Currently teamed up with Boeing to commercially produce the product, the Stirling Solar dish holds the record for the most efficient conversion of solar energy into electricity. Clear your roof space now.]]> Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:31:12 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ Almost a year since its release, Grand Theft Auto still tops the reviews. It’s the first product of its kind to truly blur the line between the goal orientated directiveness of the game world with the more complex and in some ways ambiguous nature of a film. Rockstar Games have produced a world that has both realistic environments, mirrors of LA and San Francisco, which are populated with characters that are something more believable than pixelated bit parts, that, though tv tough guys, can also seem human, dare we say it, even lovable. But it’s the game play of San Andreas that others will find hard to follow. How Rockstar Games managed to squeeze so much complexity and variety into this product is astounding. No wonder the youth of today are deserting broadcast tv in droves.]]> Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:30:44 GMT http://www.mooch.info/ Someone had to break the hegemony of European design. Two Brazilian designers, the brothers, Fernando and Humberto Campana, inspired by distinctly South American influences, have been developing furniture that blend the found, the commonplace and the everyday, with industrial materials, even waste products. Breaking with the austerity of most contemporary design, Campana brothers’ designs embody a mischievousness, even playful disregard for convention and the mundane. Working with a range of materials, from wood chips and bamboo to synthetic plastics and steel, they are driven by an obsession to continually explore and innovate. (shown: Vermelha chair for Edra)]]> Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:30:13 GMT