Gizmodo Australia » art lebedev

Art Lebedev Takes Wall Sockets 3D

Mark Wilson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:08:43 +0000

Your typical wall socket just sits there defeated by life, making no decent effort to prevent the inevitable pwning by a 10-socket surge protector. Art Lebedev’s Rozetkus socket, however, transforms from 2D to 3D.

When you need room for just one appliance, the Rozetkus wall socket sits flat against the wall. But when you want to make room for four more items to plug in, the socket pops out, dramatically increasing its surface area.

And while some of you will be eagerly awaiting the pricing/availability of this product, knowing the power draw of my home-theatre system, I’m holding out for the 1m-long, 40-plug XXL edition.

[YankoDesign via Engadget]

Art Lebedev Navigarius GPS Concept Really Belongs In A Spaceship

Dan Nosowitz — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Art Lebedev’s concepts don’t always come to fruition, but they’re great eye candy even if they’ll never actually exist. This round-screened Navigarius GPS concept is one of their prettiest.

The Navigarius would have the round touchscreen, USB, microSD, and a cigarette lighter adaptor, provided spaceships have those. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a round screen in real life before, but it actually looks great for a GPS unit. There doesn’t seem to be any immediate plan for this thing to ever go into production, but we can still gaze and hope. [Art Lebedev via Engadget]

OCZ Sabre OLED Keyboard (Unofficial Codename: Optimus Budgetus) Priced At $135

John Herrman — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:40:46 +0000

The OCZ Sabre asked us to compromise, featuring a sharply limited number of display-integrated keys, so we asked it to do the same: dip below $US200, or else. Today, ZipZoomFly is listing the Sabre at a reasonable $US135.00.

For comparison, ThinkGeek sells the Optimus Maximus, the great grandpappy of the OLED-in-a-key concept, for a staggering $US1600. Obviously, the OCZ doesn’t match up to Art Lebedev’s Cheeto-resistant masterpeice—fewer keys, limited colours, plainer styling—but come on, is it really 8.5% the keyboard the Optimus is?

The item isn’t listed as shipping yet, though OCZ says they’re on their way to retailers. [ZipZoomFly—Thanks, Justin!]

Swissarmius: Organise Your Kitchen Utensils Swiss Army Style

Sean Fallon — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Art Lebedev’s Swissarmius is the Swiss Army Knife of storage containers. As you can see, it organises your utensils in a way that mimics the classic Victorinox design.

It’s another brilliant concept from the Art Lebedev studio, but like many of their products the “when” and “how much” part of the equation may take some time to figure out. [Art Lebedev via Gizmodiva via Likecool]

Gridus BBQ Grill Finds The Best Peace Of Meat With Excel Spreadsheets

Sean Fallon — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:20:00 +0000

The design team at Art Lebedev has something for number crunchers who are compelled to incorporate math into every aspect of their lives. Enter the Gridus Barbecue Grid.

Who has the biggest sausage? Who is getting the plumpest wiener? These burning, juicy, flame broiled questions and more can be answered through the mathematical magic of the spreadsheet. [Art. Lebedev via Craziest Gadgets]

Even a Simple USB Hub Requires Meticulous Planning

Mark Wilson — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:40:00 +0000

It’s easy to not appreciate the engineering that goes into the most simple of devices, like this Art Lebedev Spectrus USB hub. A few ports, a few rainbow stickers—easy, right? Err…wrong.

Granted, Art Lebedev was trying to design a USB hub with a somewhat high concept—to resemble a prism. And granted, Art Lebedev isn’t known for making things simple.

But still, that gallery of sketches and CGI makes my brain want to down a carton of Ben and Jerry’s before curling up under a cold shower and weeping itself to sleep. [Art Lebedev via Craziest Gadgets]

Art Lebedev Verbarius Word Clock Lightning Review

Jason Chen — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:00:00 +0000

The Gadget: The Verbarius electronic clock by Art Lebedev, a design firm that’s also given us fancy gadgets like the OLED Optimus Maximus keyboard, icon fridge magnets, folder flash drives and the upcoming Optimus Aux keypad. The Verbarius displays time not by numbers, but solely by phrases like “Twenty-nine past eleven a.m.” or “Half past ten”.

The Price: $US190

The Verdict: Amazing, but pricey. The clock works just as described, displaying phrases instead of times. You can have up to ten different variations on a single “minute”, so 10:10 could be “ten ten”, “ten past ten”, “ten minutes past ten”, “fifty til eleven”, or whatever other weird notation you can think of. To make your own language packs (it already comes with English, French, Russian and Spanish), just make an .xls file and send it to Art Lebedev. They’ll convert it to Verbarius’ proprietary format.

There are a few quirks to the clock though. First, it’s not battery-operated, so you’ll have to plug it using the included USB AC adaptor or any USB source. Second, the internal CPU is slow (as you’d expect in a clock), so adjusting the time is actually incredibly sluggish. It takes more than a second to change the hour or minute, and you can only change it one tick at a time—no holding it down.

The biggest oddity is how the default English language pack sometimes displays minutes. Ten three? Ten two? Nobody says this. It’s easily fixed in a software update, so we’re not going to dock off too many points for this.

After having actually used the clock for a while, we have to agree with our first instincts. It’s definitely a very, very cool time-telling device, but $US190 is a bit steep. If it were somewhere down in the $US120 to $US140 range, we’d be all over it. [Art Lebedev]

Art Lebedev Tackles the Traffic Light: Square is the New Circle

Gizmodo US Edition — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 19:45:00 +0000

Ol’ Art Lebedev is a favourite around here. The guy is a brilliant designer, even if his ideas usually seem to get sidetracked or delayed somehow. His studio just introduced its Luxofor prototype, a traffic light replacement that uses very bright diodes for increased visibility. The new square design makes more efficient use of the available space, and can display more detailed signals. Just a concept for now, but the Luxofor is pretty, practical, and logical, so it has just as much of a chance as any of Art’s designs to become real. [Electronista]

Art Lebedev’s Optimus Aux Keypad Finalised, Priced at Around $US650

Sean Fallon — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:25:00 +0000

Art Lebedev has been teasing us with details about their upcoming Optimus Aux keypad (previously known as the Pultius) for some time now, but two pieces of evidence have us thinking that a production version will be on its way shortly. Exhibit #1: A final pre-production photo of the keypad in its aluminium case (Verbarius is in the background). Exhibit #2: The Aux has been priced at around $US650. [livejournal]

Optimus Aux Keypad Body Photographed, Doesn’t Surprise Anyone

John Herrman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:15:05 +0000

From the haze of renders, name changes and unflatteringly exposed prototypes emerges the best evidence that a real-life Art Lebedev Optimus Aux keypad is nigh. The sexy, CNCed body doesn’t look to have deviated at all from the proposed design, and the guts shouldn’t pose any challenges that haven’t already been overcome in the larger Optimus products. In other words, the Aux might be showing up on rich peoples’ desks sooner rather than later. [Optimus Project]