Musical Tea Cup

The Musical Teacup - Brew & Music in a Single Gadget -

What could be better than taking a sip from your favorite brew of coffee in the coziness of your comforting home and listening to your fav music on a Sunday morning? Well, there are some things people could indicate as better than this particular one, but for now let's stick to brewing (coffee or tea) and music. It seems like designer Jongmin Kim stopped here as well... but unlike us, he has come up with a stunning prototype gadget that is truly nifty: the Musical Teacup.

The whole concept behind it is solving the problem of having your cup and your music in one single place, together as one, as they say. And since an MP3 cup was a bit too much, Jongmin Kim went outside the box and came with this one.

Tea and coffee are served in cups coming on a small plate. Well, it's that very plate Mr. Kim thought of changing first, and changes it has suffered. The plate grew thicker so that it could house the inner mechanism of a CD player, a DiscMan-like one. Of course, some of the things inside the CD player had to be modified in order to achieve the desired level of functionality: intuitive and handy controls have been designed for a pleasant musical experience.

The cup itself comes in a special shape, pretty much looking like a medieval beer mug, with its conic aspect. As you place the cup on its special-design support and rotate it to the left or to the right, the volume will vary accordingly; even more, as the handle has a red line painted on it, and the supporting structure has a small scale, you'll also have a very visual representation of the volume level.

Built-in speakers will fill the room with the sound of your favorite CD and the world will seem a better place: now, be careful with the amounts of coffee you plan to drink. First of all, you don't want to get sick; on the other hand, too much coffee could make your hands shake like hell and you'll spill the brew on the Musical Teacup and wreck it. Now, this nifty drinking gadget is still in its prototype phase so there's no serious danger lurking around. Great idea, Mr. Kim!

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Sony PSP 2 with Flexible OLED Display

Dreamy Design Sony PSP 2 with flexible OLED Display Concept -- Designer Tai Chiem mixed the potential of flexible OLED displays with the Sony PSP gaming console. The result is a stunning design of a roll-up Sony PSP 2. Roll-up displays are nothing new for gadgets though. Polymere Vision developed the Readius pocket eReader that is also supposed to be available as a mobile phone. Roll-up or folding displays are going to be the next big thing for portable devices in the years to come. At some point in the future we will hopefully get to the point that we do not have to kill trees anymore for newspapers and magazines. For that to happen ePaper gadgets need to become as convinient to use as paper magazines are today.

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Butterfly Inspired Car - The Nissan Teana Birdwing Concept

Butterfly Inspired Car - The Nissan Teana Birdwing Concept -
This Nissan Teana concept is freakishly cool. Everything about the car is supposed to remind you of a butterfly. Why the butterfly was used to model a car, I have no idea, but I can’t argue with the results.

Everything from the exterior sheet metal to the heavily overworked interior is supposed to invoke one of nature’s most beautiful insects. The sensibility isn’t for everyone but there’s something original about all the detailing. It’s ornate but in a modern way. Get past the design quirks and you’ll find a car full of tech wizardry like a heads up HUD display and auto-driver mode. So how about it, would you drive one?

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