Core77
e
Microsoft debuts their new phones: Kin they do it?
By Rain Noe - Apr 13, 2010
Microsoft has just taken the wraps off of their Kin line of cell phones and the barbs have already started to fly. Perhaps the most savage critique we read was by Conceivably Tech's Daniel Bailey, who wrote
...I have had this uncomfortable suspicion that Microsoft's product design team is target of deliberate sabotage. Kin One and Two, Microsoft's new social Zune phones announced today leave no doubt - one of the company's rivals must have product designers in key positions that are able to come up with eye sores that are pushed into the market to destroy Microsoft's credibility in industrial design.
I am actually not so offended, or surprised, by the industrial design; the derivative Kin One looks like someone crossbred a Pebl and a Blackberry and got something right in the middle, as dog breeders can do, and the Kin Two just looks like an iPhone with rounder corners. I'd be more apprehensive about the functionality, specifically the functionality as executed by Microsoft: They say they "designed Kin to communicate as naturally as you," a bold claim for a company not known for ease of use. We'll see if they pull this one off.
Rain Noe
Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.
Continued Reading
-
By Rain Noe - Apr 12, 2010
Cork competency: Ryan Frank's cell phone pouches
At a quick glance I thought those were slices of toast. But no, designer Ryan Frank's cell phone pouches are made from cork, which any wine drinker knows is a good material for keeping liquid on one side of it and not letting it get to the other, so you've...
-
By Rain Noe - Apr 12, 2010
Lindstrom & Stromgren's amazing folding-map-inspired table
Swedish designers Sanna Lindstrom and Sigrid Stromgren have collaborated to bring you the Grand Central table, an expandable piece of furniture inspired by a pop-up map of New York. Twenty-two different pieces unfurl to make the tabletop as the legs open from an L to an X, so the user...
-
By Mark Vanderbeeken - Apr 11, 2010
Does the world need another chair?
There is one question that everyone should sensibly ask before designing or making something to show at the Milan Furniture Fair. That's the opening paragraph of a New York Times preview article of the Milan Furniture Fair by Alice Rawsthorn. Then it goes on:"A knottier problem is that (and there's...
-
By Mark Vanderbeeken - Apr 11, 2010
Bicycles help green Ireland's capital
A free bicycle scheme in this rainy metropolis of narrow roads, potholes and, it has to be said, bicycle thieves, has been a spectacular triumph. Indeed Dublin City Council boasts that the program is "the most successful in the world by any measure."The Dublin bicycle program is part of an...
K
{Welcome
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
K
Reset Password
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.
