Combined with a party-keg, Griffin’s recently-outed Party Dock for the iPad should make some great, well, parties. As long as you like quiz games, that is.

Thanks to an FCC filing, the iPad accessory was leaked last week and Griffin quickly took control of the situation. Now you can read preliminary details and sign up for future updates at the site. So just what is the Party Dock? It’s a dock for the iPad which has four wireless controllers (hence the FCC filing) letting up to four people play games at once. Because four heads squeezed around one ten-inch screen is a little crowded, the dock also hooks into a big-screen via composite and component video connections.

Games will have to be custom-designed for the dock, and developers can sign up with Griffin already. The controllers are simple, with four directional buttons, a central buttons and one more back button. In terms of layout, the controllers are identical to Apple’s IR remote. This design clearly lends itself more to trivia games than four-way shoot-em’ups.

The dock also supports regular video, so you can watch movies and YouTube on your big-screen TV, as well as photo slideshows and music. There is no launch date or price available yet, as the leak came a lot earlier than Griffin expected. That early-outing will have one advantage at least: now the developers know about it, there may even be a good game lineup at launch.

Griffin Party Dock 

If you want to know just how fast you can go on your vintage fixed-gear conversion, but can’t bear to put an ugly plastic computer onto your beautifully curated bike, this concept bicycle speedometer could be right up your bike-lane. It comes from Estonian designers Redfish Creative and, despite some flaws, looks pretty gorgeous.

The computer works just like any other wireless bike-computer, with a fork-mounted sensor that detects a spoke-mounted magnet as it thrum-thrums past and beams the info up to the head-unit on the bars. The difference is in the interface which looks more Gran Turismo* than Tour de France, all analog dials and twisting knobs.

The speed is shown with a needle on a dial and the mileage (or, in this case, kilometer-age) reads out on a retro-style odometer that can be switched from trip-distance to total distance at the slide of a switch. The wheel-size, which needs to be input for this kind of rotation-counting setup, is dialed in via a knob on the magnet-sensor unit.

And now the flaw, although not really a big one. The Bicycle Speedometer has a built-in electronic “bell”, triggered by pulling back on that side lever. The sound would be both a drain on batteries and less loud than a proper metal ding-a-ling model, and the holes to let out the sound would also let in the water.

Ditch the bell and I’m sold. The device is mounted with a leather-covered clip. Classy.

Bicycle Speedometer

We know, half of you aren't even going to read past the headline before you start angrily banging away about Apple's admitted antenna gaff and the still-not-totally-fixed proximity sensor, but we're urging you to look deeper. Think harder. Critique your criticisms. In all seriousness, Apple's iPhone 4 garnered more attention (negative or otherwise) than any other phone released this calendar year, and for good reason -- in fact, Apple itself had to hold an emergency press event just to announce what could've been announced in a PR blast: everyone's getting a free case. That said, Cupertino has still managed to move millions of units in just a few months, and that demand doesn't seem to be dropping off at any significant rate. If you're one of the lucky (or unlucky) ones that have managed to procure Apple's latest iPhone, we're overly anxious to hear your thoughts on changing it. How would you have addressed the antenna issue? Would you have preferred a less drastic departure from the 3GS form factor? Would you have offered more colors than white and black? Thrown in Bluetooth 3.0 for kicks? Go ahead, the floor's yours -- just don't abuse it, cool?

The above image is a picture of the iPad's screen, multiplied by 24 times over. Keith Peters at Bit-101 used his new USB microscope to examine a few different e-reader displays up really close, and the results are definitely a fun read. The iPad doesn't do too well, actually -- I think the Kindle looks much cleaner, although there's some debate about that in the comments, so each to his own. At any rate, it's cool to see how these displays "work" -- the actual pixels going into the picture that our eyes just collate into full text. The 400x newspaper, book, and magazine closeups are very interesting as well. With all of the digital display talk going around, you tend to forget what those displays are actually trying to recreate, which is really very organic smears on a thin fabric.

Unfortunately, Keith didn't get his hands on the Retina Display, and you'd assume that's a game changer. With four times the pixels seen in the image above, the iPhone 4's display probably gives the Kindle a nice challenge, and might even start competing with the actual paper printing. Still, until that display makes its way to the tablet, this is the best we've got for now.

A Smart Pad? That's just Toshiba's product category, according to Netbook Italia's latest post on the tablet (it's previously shown off some apparent imagery). The publication has published new renders -- including a dock peripheral -- and some purported specs. Here's what's being said: Android 2.2, NVIDIA Tegra 2 (both of which we've heard in other whispers), a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 screen, 16GB internal memory, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, 3G, SD and MMC card readers, HDMI and USB 2.0 ports, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and a 1020mAh battery with a battery life of up to 7 hours with mixed use (browsing and video playback). Software-wise, it's got Opera mobile browser, Flash 10.1, an e-book reader, and some office applications. The doubting Thomas in us still remains hesitant until Toshi gives the official word, but nothing here seems too crazy for the tablet mania most companies seem to have this year. One thing's for sure, its claimed official name -- Folio 100 -- is a few degrees to close to some bad memories of ours.

You're sitting alone, your house is quiet. You turn your phone off and reach for a novel -- your favorite novel. You run your hand along the book's well-worn spine, then crack open the yellowing pages to the spot you were at last. Suddenly you put the book down. Where are you? You stand up and take off your glasses, looking around frantically at your surroundings. Where are you?

Well, you're not in Berlin, Germany between the dates of September 1st and 7th, attending IFA. ViewSonic just announced, no, threatened an onslaught of 3D product for the upcoming tradeshow, including a 720p 3D camcorder that will pack a built-in 3D display for a mere $300 (we're sure it will be delightful). Details are scarce, but our guess would be that it'll utilize a glasses-free 3D display akin to Nintendo's 3DS or the Fujifilm Finepix Real 3D W3. Other 3D members of the brood will include a 3D handheld TV, 3D stills camera, and a 3D photo frame -- all of which will undoubtedly scream quality. As if that wasn't enough, ViewSonic will also be showing off a 7-inch Android tablet dubbed the ViewPad 7, along with a 10-inch tablet that can dual boot to Android and Windows. PR is after the break, we'll let you get back to your book.

Update: Does that 3D camera (the two images on the left) look familiar? It should, it's almost certainly a rebadge of the Aiptek i2. Poor Viewsonic, what happened to you?

Samsung Electronics announced Monday that its halting production of e-paper due to cost issues. While Samsung has yet to out an actual device boasting e-paper, but did show off a prototype late last year which boasted a color display. The official word from Samsung itself is that it will not actually exit the e-reader market, rather that it will produce a device with an LCD, with plans to launch said reader next year. We wait expectantly.

You may soon get to see a new generation of color and flexible e-paper coming from LG Display. According to a recent SEC filing, the company is expecting to begin mass production of 9.7-inch color and 19-inch flexible e-paper by the end of the year. The 9.7-inch color e-paper could go into future generations of e-readers like the Kindle or even multimedia devices like tablets.

Apparently, the 19-inch display is same one that was unveiled in January this year. We can hope to see it being used for a newspaper-sized device. The new display technology is sure to make a mark in the e-paper world.

Via: Engadget

Variety is the spice of life, so why not add that extra spice with ever changing clothes. Well, this is exactly what an innovative home appliance concept lets its user do. Designed for the Electrolux 2010 Design Competition by Liz McCarter, this futuristic appliance is capable of recycling clothing an unlimited number of times, eliminating the need for washers, dryers and storage.

The Clothing Extruder uses a special base fabric that the user can design personally into any type of clothing. All the user has to do is, feed the desired design using the interactive touch panel and the old material comes out as a fresh new piece from the output slot of the machine. After each individual use, the clothing is inserted into the input slot, where it is recycled back to the original base fabric.

The computer of the Clothing Extruder also notifies the users if they want to add more base fabric to the machine to produce another piece of clothing. It gives the user the freedom to create their own personal style, while preserve energy, water, fabric and of course money.

Via: TheDesignBlog