Bluetooth Penelope Phone by Hulger is a complete anachronism, combining an old-fashion bakelite handset with a bluetooth mobile phone headset. I can't really imagine myself using this on the street, but this would be the perfect Skype phone for the house.

If you have access to an old phone, you can also go DYI and either make a wired retro phone adaptor for your cellphone if it has a regular sized plug, or you could even think about hiding a real BT headset inside, and wire it yourself.

Ooh I want those! These little speakers from MusicStudio pivot on their angled hinge and are controlled by a big round button that changes color.

This has all the techo-lust elements. minimalist design, brushed metal, glowing LED lights... and it's a set of portable speakers perfect for an ipod or computer.

I've temporarely traded the Tablet PC for a little black Moleskine Notebook, and a beautiful black mechanical pencil from Monteverde. There is something to be said about the simple user interface of a notebook.

Of course if you want to be name-dropping, enough to say that Vincent Van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, Henri Matisse, and many other artists, writers, and travellers used the little black notebooks to capture their ideas.

I also love the pencil because it has a really large lead (5.6mm) which is great for doodling as well as taking notes, and the tip hides a clever little sharpener.

I'm mostly using the pencil to cover my little notebook with little sketches of penguins during long meetings, but also various schemes and designs to teach them how to dance, and to figure out how to fit hundreds of thousands of them inside the computers, without using too much ram or taking too long to render, or look too different from the initial creative vision to the actual technical execution.

Designed in collaboration with Porsche Engineering, the sexy but petite brazilian car, Obvio 012 is coming to North-America. After Daimler-Chrysler pretty much ruined ZAP's plans to bring the little Smart ForTwo to the US (well, why would it want to? it's already selling direct to Canada), ZAP turned around and invested in this little brazilian company, and signed an exclusive distribution deal.

Roughly the same size as the diminutive smart, but a hell of a lot sexier, the Obvio 012 should be available in late 2007. I'm hoping that the translation from the prototype image above to the production models will not destroy the look.

I bought the first generation SliMP3 network audio player from Slim Devices about four years ago, and I still use it everyday, because it just works. This was at the time the only mp3 player that you connected and used as piece of stereo equipment, and not a computing device. The latest model keeps that same simplicity and ease of use but grows up to be a serious piece of hi-fi equipment.

The new Squeezebox uses a completely re-designed audio sub-system, using an isolated powerpath to reduce noise and a Burr-Brown high quality and ultra-low distortion and noise ratio DAC, as well as both coaxial and optical digital outputs, which should make the audiophiles very happy (as long as they use either a low compression ratio for their music)

For the rest of us, the Squeezebox features a bigger screen, which can be read from across the room, and finally allows for realtime cross-fading between songs. With Christmas approaching, I think it might be time for an upgrade...

With the world's richest person at one end of the scale, and the world poorest at the other, most of us like to think of ourself somewhere in the middle....

Go to the Global Rich List calculator, discover where you really stand. Then read this great blog on the Economics of being poor, after that, before you start your mad quest to find just the perfect christmas present for your friends and family, make a quick detour by your favorite charity and give something.

Natasha and I have this silly agreement that any "disposable income" that I wish to apply toward the purchase of technology, gives her an equal amount to spend on fashion accessories. This christmas, I'm planning to apply the same rule to our christmas shopping. I'd like to match any amount spent on christmas gifts for her with an equal amount to be donated to charity.

Being a big fan of pastis from many summers spent in Marseilles and Corsica with my family, I was very curious to read about Jade Absinthe and Ted Breaux's adventures in chemistry in Wired. I actually received a bottle of "absinthe" as a gift recently, but unfortunately this was the very bad kind, which was nothing more than bad mouthmash (it was the same color, about the same concentration of alcool, but replace the minty-freshness by a very bitter taste). I kept the (now empty) bottle, because it was very pretty, but completely dismissed the whole absinthe thing, until I came across that article.

Ted Breaux , working as a chemical engineer in New Orleans, but personally fascinated by "La Fee Verte" and its mysteries, started researching  the composition of absinthe as a hobby about 10 years ago, first using old french recipe books and trying to distillate his own, then managed to get hold of a perfectly preserved bottle of pre-ban absinthe.

Taking advantage of his access to GCMS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometer) machines he was able to reverse engineer famous pre-ban absynte brands, and is now working with Jade Absinthe who bought the original pre-bans distillery and are selling these reproductions of antique absinthe.

It looks like the exposure of the Wired article has done the company good, because the Absinthe Nouvelle-Orleans is completely sold out right now, despite being fairly pricy (around $100 USD per bottle). I'm tempted to order the Absinthe Edouard which is apparently a faithful reproduction of the original absinthe from Edouard Pernod since I really like their pastis.

I'm surprised I haven't seen these at Kid Robot or any of the other urban toy designers. Granted, the iPod shuffle was all but forgotten in the wake of back to back releases of the iPod nano and the iPod with video. But I still think there is a design opportunity to personalise the shuffle that hasn't been completely explored.

Chao-Hsien Kuo and Eero Hintsanen jewelry designs have a great sense of humor and very clean lines. Smiley Face and Pierced Eyebrow Lady are just two of their designs that caught my eye. Other include Think and Talk cufflinks and Spiced Lady and Tattooed Lady rings. You can find these and the rest of the Chao & Eero Jewel collections on iluren.com.

[via mocoloco]

After years of TV brainwashing from the likes of CSI:Albuquerque, New Mexico and other criminal sciences shows, everyone will recognise a DNA printout, so why not turn it into a piece of vanity art?

You send your DNA using the tried and true technique of the little cotton swap to collect the saliva and save it in a (patent pending?!?) collection tube, and the people at dna11 return it to you in the form of a full color, guaranteed to be unique, DNA poster, available in 3 sizes, and multiple color schemes, suitable for any living space.

In the era of mass customization, everyone is unique, just like everyone else.

[seen on generate ]

We probably can't afford this particular one, but the idea of finding a little plot of land in LA or wherever we end up living when we go back to California and building one of these modern prefab houses has its appeals. I've asked friends in Santa-Monica, where this particular company is building its model home to keep an eye on the development.

Living Homes seems to be a good mix of modern design and eco-friendly sensibilities. Designed by Ray Kappe the house maximizes natural light and indoor space thanks to it's steel structure and liberal use of glass panels. I also like the fact that the roof is also part of the living space, and has both some solar panels and a little rooftop garden.

[via inhabitat]

Every country has its iconic cookie, and for Australia it's the Tim Tam. Made by Arnott's this rectangular chocolate cookie has both a chocolate fudge filling and is dipped in milk chocolate. I tasted one for the first time at a friends barbie, where they casually offered me "you want a frozen tim tam, mate?" I guess they freeze it because the Aussie summer would quickly transform them into a gooey mess.

As if I don't have enough problems finding my favorite Canadian, American and French cookies while I'm here. Now, when I  eventually leave Sydney, I'm going to find ways to keep my freezer stocked with Tim Tams.

My Favorite Cookies

1. France: LU La Paille D'Or
2. Australia: Arnott's Tim Tam
3. Canada: Dare Maple Leaf
4. United States: Nabisco's Oreo