design

A little over 36 years ago, Apple launched the Apple I, a hobbyist 1MHz computer often remembered for the classic picture of it housed in a humble wooden computer case with a carved "Apple Computer" logo.

Apple's designs slowly evolved from bulky plastic towers to rounded and colorful products, then solidified themselves in a place where ultrathin components and catchy colors co-exist.

In the below gallery by our friends at CBSNews.com highlighting Apple designs over the years, you may be able to spot when the collaboration between Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive really kicked off. … Read more

Is there anything more blissful than escaping gravity's grip by jumping on a trampoline? What if you could do that while going from point A to point B?

Paris architecture firm AZC has come up with a crazy way to cross the Seine River -- huge inflatable trampolines. Just hop from bank to bank. … Read more

Tal Avitzur is obsessed with collecting what he calls "retro junk." The California artist spends hours sifting through scrapyards to find parts for the whimsical robots he dreams up.

At his Talbotics studio in Santa Barbara, Avitzur has created dozens of bots that are creepy, cute, alien, or just plain bizarre. Many are more than just ornamental -- they work as night lights, illuminating dark rooms with their otherworldly LED eyes.

Some of his "Talbots" feature unexpected parts like vacuum cleaner motor housings, dolls, winches, clutches, floor polishers, meat grinder blades, taxidermy animal eyes, and old boat fittings. … Read more

The Princess Compact4All kitchen appliances (available this month) come together to form a "breakfast cube." Designed by Jan des Bouvrie for the Dutch firm Princess Household Appliances, the four countertop appliances each measures 20 centimeters cubed. (To American countertops, that would be 7.87 inches all around.) Composed of a juicer, a kettle, a toaster, and a coffeemaker, the modular set can be stacked together or moved about the kitchen just like any other appliance.

Sometimes finding the unexpected in a collection of appliances only involves putting them all together. In this case, the juicer hides a secret. … Read more

Over the last few decades, refrigerators haven't changed all that much in one key area -- shape. Sure, the hulking mass of steel keeps our perishables fresh while boasting improved efficiency and other bells and whistles, but it's still just a big block that takes up a considerable amount of space in the kitchen.

Concept products such as the Impress refrigerator by Massey University industrial design student Ben de la Roche of New Zealand could influence the way future iceboxes keep food and drinks cool. … Read more

For many, kitchen decor is a work in progress. Nothing wrong with that; in fact, it makes sense considering the room in question. Tastes change, recipes evolve, and something that tasted amazing the first time is not going to hold the same impact the next time. That being said, what goes around comes around, and sometimes an old classic compares to nothing -- especially when it comes in an updated version.

Once upon a time, wood-grain finish was popular with everything. Heavy earth tones and splashes of orange, yellow, and brown adorned every room including the kitchen and everything in … Read more

Certain descriptive words tend to get overused. Do an eBay search for vintage or retro and that becomes all too clear. Another label that gets applied all over the place is steampunk. Sometimes one can even see it applied to things that plug into the wall. For those who fancy technology from the Victorian or Edwardian eras, that is probably not what they have in mind.

Ancient tech comes at a price, and in this case that price is $699.95. Inspired by a coffee-brewing process invented by Loeff of Berlin in the 1830s, the Genuine Balancing Siphon Coffee Maker … Read more

As the good and the bad gets hashed out over blogs and on news sources in the aftermath of Apple's highly-anticipated debut of the iPhone 5 today, it's interesting to take a look and see what was the public's reaction on social media when the device was released.

The start-up Taykey produced this data-rich infographic on iPhone 5 reactions from around the Web today. In gathering the data, Taykey monitored 50,000 user-generated online sources, like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and blogs. With this data, it analyzed trends and conversations to create the graphic that measures both … Read more