Archive for June, 2010
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
SE Bikes and DC Shoes have done an exceptional job over the years at meeting the demands of riders with its collaboration efforts. The two companies first collaborated in 2007 with ‘30 Years of Radness’, a limited edition project to celebrate SE’s 30-year anniversary. Coming to the market in 2009 was the DC x SE PK Ripper Fixed Gear, which received mixed reviews. Today, DC and SE have teamed up once again to bring you a PK Ripper Fixed Gear for 2010.
After 2 months of rigorously testing the 2010 model, we have reached a consensus on the latest PK Ripper:
In 2009 the DC x SE fixed gear collaboration captivated the fixed gear world with its appeal – and this year’s revamp is turning out to be no different. Like its predecessor, the PK Ripper for 2010 is a fixed gear bike with accents of nostalgic BMX influence. Its floval tubing, bear trap style pedals, landing gear fork, and loop tail rear end are some of the hallmarks found on the PK Ripper that were prevalent in the ’70s BMX era, including some of the earlier PK Ripper collections.
(more…)
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Saturday, June 12th, 2010
The Power HotSpot from Solis takes something good (solar power) and makes it easy to use. For $375, you get a portable solar panel and base unit which puts out a 12 Volt supply. Plug in anything with a car cigarette-lighter adapter and you have gadget-power, wherever you are.
Or at least, wherever it is sunny. Some possible uses are suggested on the site: keep the lights burning in a garden shed or den, run a pond fountain, or “maintain a deer feeder & surveillance camera” (and edge case, we suspect). Of course the real uses are far more fun. Blog about gadgets all day long from the beach, for example, or power a beer cooler and stereo whilst picnicking.
We like it, although “portable” in this case clearly just means “fits in a car trunk”. We’re intrigued by one of the possible use-cases, though. The list says that you can “recharge bun warmers”. What is that all about?
source : http://www.simplerocknroll.blogspot.com/
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Friday, June 11th, 2010
You are looking at Apple’s next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. We got it. We disassembled it. It’s the real thing, and here are all the details. Update: click here to see the iPhone 4 definitive guide, with all the features officially announced by Apple.
While Apple may tinker with the final packaging and design of the final phone, it’s clear that the features in this lost-and-found next-generation iPhone are drastically new and drastically different from what came before. Here’s the detailed list of our findings:
What’s new
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
What’s changed
• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery
How it was lost
Here is a detailed account of how the phone was lost. (more…)
Posted in gadget, review | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
A good watch should long outlive its wearer. The great ones are still handmade today by skilled craftsmen who tame metal into precision tools that rival the most complicated machinery in the world. Time may be precious, but is it priceless? With these watches, you’d think so. Here are the 10 most expensive watches in the world, many of which represent more money than a single person can expect to earn in their entire lifetime. We’ve also compiled a list of modern luxury watches and you can also check out our daily coverage of mens expensive luxury watches.
10 – $734,000 – Breguet pocket watch 1907BA/12
Built by the centuries-old watchmaker credited with creating a device to foil gravity, Breguet’s pocket piece is an 18-karat yellow-gold case with a hand-engraved movement and a two-way rotating crown. [pic via]
9 – $800,000 – Blancpain 1735, Grande Complication
Between the crocodile leather strap of the Blancpain 1735 lies 740 watch parts and a year in the live of a dedicated watchmaker. The watch has a platinum case and elements displaying a perpetual calendar, lunar phase and a split-second chronograph. [pic via]
8 – $860,000 – Louis Moinet Magistralis
Inside the Louis Moinet Magistralis rests a piece of a 2,000-year-old lunar meteorite. Outside, the 18-karat gold watch has a movement that displays a minute repeater, perpetual calendar and a push-button chronograph. [pic via]
7 – $1 million – Hublot Black Caviar Bang
Made from an 18-karat white-gold case packed with 322 diamonds, the Hublot Black Caviar is the most unassuming timepiece on our list. Still, diamonds are packed onto every spare square of space, including 179 crammed onto the bezel and 30 encrusted on the clasp. [pic via]
6 – $1.1 million – The Chopard Super Ice Cube
This Chopard has 66 carats worth of diamond-encrusted glory. It’s gaudy, ugly, square-faced and worth more than a million — just like Ice Cube. [pic via]
5 – $1.3 million – Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon
Patek Philippe. Get used to that name, you’ll be seeing it again. This rare timepiece has two faces and a reputation as being the watchmaker’s most complicated model. It has a perpetual calendar, retrograde date and lists the lunar phase. A flip of the watch reveals a celestial view detailing the sidereal time and a skychart that traces the stars and phase and orbit of the moon. [pic via]
4 – $1.5 million – Vacheron Constantin Tour de l’Ile
There are 834 parts inside the Vacheron Constain’s Tour de l’lle, a watch considered “the most complicated watch ever made” by some. The watch lists two time zones, gives the sunset time, has a perpetual calendar and an astronomical indicator of the night sky. [pic via]
3 – $4 million – Patek Philippe’s Platinum World Time
A $4 million auction bid made Patek Philippe’s Platinum World Time the most expensive watch in 2002. The self-winding watch displays each of the 24 time zones and is known for its readability, user friendliness and having separate and switchable night and day tones. [pic via]
2 – $11 million – Patek Phillipe’s Supercomplication
Patek Philippe’s supercomplicated creation is also super expensive. The famed watchmaker finished the timepiece in 1932, a four year-long commission to create a watch for Henry Graves Jr., who had waged watch-war with James Ward Packard. The yellow-gold watch has two faces and 24 complications and was bought at a Sotheby’s auction for a little over $11 million. [pic via]
1 – $25 million – 201-carat Chopard
The watch face is somewhere there in the middle, surrounded by 201 carats. This watch-bracelet comes with a trio of heart-shaped diamonds: A 15-carat pink diamond, 12-carat blue diamond and an 11-carat white diamond, all of which open when a spring-loaded mechanism. More than 600 yellow diamonds are sprinkled alongside 91 or so colorless diamonds. [pic via]
Thanks for reading, StyleCravers, Diggers, Stumblers and more. So what do you think? A little outrageous, huh? Do you feel that some of these fine watches justify their price? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to know your take on this!
Posted in daily, fashion, gadget | No Comments »
Monday, June 7th, 2010
A sick thing happens when you are involved with watches too much. You begin to anthropomorphize them to a degree; at least I do. Or in some instances the effect is less than anthropomorphism, but an animal-pomorphism. So I am treating this watch like a dog in need of a home. Only the watch will live a lot longer! And does not shed.
Credor is Seiko’s ultra high end brand. They even have a $70,000 watch that I will discuss in the next few days. That’s right $70,000 for a Seiko. Seiko’s Spring Drive movement found its way into a few Credor watches, with this ref. GCLL997 Moonphase watch being a prime example. Style is similar but distinctly different than that of the Grand Seiko or Seiko Spring Drive watches that typically contain the movement. Further, Credor watches have never, and will probably never see American soil. At least from an official distribution standpoint. (more…)
Posted in design, gadget | 1 Comment »
Saturday, June 5th, 2010
Cell phone concept designs are often crazy yet cool. When concept phones are also eco-friendly, then their awesomeness rocks the charts. These 15 futuristic green gadgets are creatively cool concept cell phones and accessories that we’d love to see developed and on the mainstream market soon.
Wearable Solar-Powered Leaf Phone Charges on the Go
Designers Seungkyun Woo and Junyi Heo were inspired by photosynthesis. The Leaf cell phone is a wearable bracelet phone that accumulates power from solar cells on its front panel. As a backup, it also can be recharged with electricity. The Leaf offers high-tech fashion and function, however its main objective is to “remind people that they can contribute to energy efficiency.” (more…)
Posted in gadget, green | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
In these days of “fast” and “convenient” I decided to commence a work of “painstaking” and “craftsmanship”, making my own wristwatch. I have had the idea for a certain arrangement of the watch dial, as on the image at the right, for a while now. My investigations into available movements showed that no production movement would give me this layout. After a long period of indecision and wondering what I was really getting myself into I decided to make my own movement, followed by the case and dial.
That is a big jump, but we engineers are used to creating things that didn’t exist before so it was mostly the craftsmanship portion of the work that worried me. Am I able to do this watchmakers work, work at such a small scale? To put the chances on my side I decided to do two things: 1) take the watchmaking correspondence course of the BHI, which gave me a lot of the basic skills, but which I have to admit I haven’t even finished the first of three years, and 2) make a complete CAD model of the movement and watch before starting.
My first attempt at making a movement was to make one with all the pinions in a straight line. A simplified movement with the largest possible expansion, to be able to see and work on everything as easily as possible. Even so that first attempt at a movement was not crowned with success. But one learns fastest through failure and the attempt to fathom why, despite ones best efforts, things did not go right. And learn I did.
(more…)
Posted in art, gadget | 3 Comments »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
Thin laptops-making computer stylish and efficient Good things can come in small packages and that is certainly true in the world of technology. In the present computer world the computers are not only becoming powerful, they are becoming stylish too. People want their computer to be more user-friendly, portable and attractive. So the major companies are involved in producing thinner, light weight laptops. The important among them are given below.
Apple Mac Air
The new Mac Book Air is ultrathin, ultraportable, and ultra unlike anything else. But it is more powerful with a bigger hard drive, a 4x graphics performance boost and more power for everyday tasks. Mobile computing has yet another new standard. MacBook Air is nearly as thin as your index finger. Yet it has a 13.3inch LED backlit display, a full size keyboard, and a large Multi Touch trackpad. (more…)
Posted in gadget, review | No Comments »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
batik are exotic pattern origins from indonesia, almost each tribe in indonesia had their own pattern, ulos in medan, batik in java island and there is many more. but batik are not an old style, look this apple macbook air :
Posted in design, gadget, indonesia | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
The Mentawai Islands are located approximately 100 miles west of the Sumatran port city of Padang, Sumatra. There’s 4 main islands in the chain, with numerous smaller islands surrounding those, many lined up perfectly to snag swells generated by the active Indian Ocean. Things have changed alot since the beginning but there are more options than ever to surfing the Mentawais.
MENTAWAI SURFING INFORMATION
The Mentawai Islands lie roughly 100 km off of the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. They consist of 4 mai
n islands with many smaller islands scattered throughout. From north to south, the main islands are Siberut, Sipora, North Pagi, and South Pagi. These islands block most swells from reaching the mainland on Sumatra, but they offer some of the most perfect surf in the world. Access to the islands is by sea only with regular ferries to the main trading ports, but by far the best way to access the surf is by charter boat.
The Mentawais is the ultimate surf trip. The Mentawais are located some 130 km off the west coast of West Sumatra and the island chain offers some of the best surf to be found anywhere in the world
Selecting 
your surf charter boat may frankly be the most important decision you make while planning your Mentawais trip. The quality and maintenance of the vessel, the charter operation at large, and the experience of the captain and crew will make or break your trip. Wavehunters offers 9 surf charter boats in the Mentawais. We have opted to work with these vessels because each of these boats in our experience offers a competitive or tactical edge over other Mentawais vessels. Each of these vessels and their crews have logged a minimum of 3-10 years experience in the Mentawais islands. Each of these boats and/or their skippers and crews have a positive track record for a minimum of 3-10 seasons which speaks for itself.
read the complete articles here!
Posted in indonesia, travel | 1 Comment »
