design

There's one complaint that often crops up with the Galaxy S III: it feels "plastic-y."

At a time when competitors are using glass, aluminum, and even higher quality plastics such as polycarbonate, Samsung has stuck to its guns with a thin, bendable plastic body.

Which is why the Galaxy S4 won't stray too far from that design philosophy.

CNET sat down with Y.H. Lee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business, to discuss the company's thoughts on design. When Samsung looks at what materials to use, it isn't just taking into consideration … Read more

Many software bundles come with a bit of buyer's remorse: you get a couple things you wanted, and a bunch of stuff you didn't. Maybe it wasn't such a good deal after all?

No chance of that here. StackSocial is offering the Premium Designer Freebie Bundle, well, free. (The price is right there in the name.)

This Mac-only collection includes nine items with a combined value of $257. It's intended primarily for people who do app and/or Web design, but no doubt some of the elements could be used in other occupations.

Update: According to … Read more

Often, basic templates available in office suite software don't meet the needs of professionals. Avery Design Pro for Mac purports to solve this problem and allow use of its templates, but it isn't recognized or supported for newer versions of Mac OS X.

Available as freeware, Avery DesignPro has no features requiring upgrades or payment to a full version. The file is a sizable download for a freeware program. However, installation failed despite multiple attempts to redownload Avery Design Pro for Mac. The version of Mac OS X used for testing failed to even recognize the program's … Read more

How many famous designers would ever bother to turn up on a children's TV show?

Especially when they're supposed to be working at Apple night and day.

Yet here is footage, posted by journalist and recording engineer Tom Davenport, of a recent appearance by Apple's Jony Ive on the BBC's "Blue Peter."

This is not an ordinary TV show. It's very much an institution in British television.

It's also the show where kids first get a sense of what can be made out of apparently useless objects -- like an old empty … Read more

Many smartphones look the same from afar. I bet most of you own one that's thin, rectangular, and features a big screen. Boooring!

A fully transparent conceptual smartphone, developed by Taiwanese company Polytron Technologies, gives me hope for a future full of fancy smartphones far different from the common designs seen today.… Read more

When Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger met Steve Jobs in 1982, it sparked a chain of events that monumentally changed Apple's design philosophy forever. It wasn't just a change in how future products would look -- Esslinger ushered in a change of mindset and a unified design language across products.

Esslinger's new book, "Design Forward: Creative Strategies for Sustainable Change," available today in the U.S., delivers some fascinating insights into those crucial early years at Apple.… Read more

Kitchen appliances for generations have been sleek, shiny things not designed to particularly appeal to our senses as much as to convey a sense of almost clinical utility. The hearth of the home, being what it is -- a place of warmth and sustenance -- has in recent years seen a growing trend of kitchen gear and gadgets being more colorful than shiny. Bright splashes of color appeal to a broad range of consumers, but sometimes it is the complete lack of color that offers something more.

The Bodum Bistro 5-Quart Capacity Electric Stand Mixer ($400) updates a kitchen classic … Read more

Pools aren't just for swimming, you know. Brooklyn art studio Red Paper Heart made some pretty nifty art with a swimming hole and 65,000 ping-pong balls. Before you dismiss that as an exercise in lunacy, take a look at a clever interactive pool party experience for yourself in the video below.

Red Paper Heart created the mesmerizing show in conjunction with city guide Web site UrbanDaddy, all for a tequila promotional event in Hamptons, N.Y.. The art studio programmed some software (using C++) to control the projector-driven light show that reacts to music. To enhance the visuals, the group enlisted a team of synchronized swimmers and some tuxedo-clad scuba divers to class up the joint.… Read more

People sometimes joke about pouring blood, sweat, and tears into their work. Iceland-based designer Sruli Recht put some actual skin into his.

The Forget Me Knot ring is mainly made of 24-carat gold, but instead of sporting a diamond or an emerald, it has a bit of human skin for embellishment. That skin came from a willing donor, the designer himself.

Recht had a 4 inch by 0.4 inch piece removed from his abdomen. The skin was tanned, complete with hair intact, and mounted to the ring. I think even Sauron would think twice about wearing it.… Read more