Gizmodo Australia » urban

SCAD Urban Camper for the Homeless (Or, Um, Campers)

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:40:00 +0000

At NY Design Week 2008, Savannah College of Art and Design students showed off a couple of cool concepts they developed with the Growing Hope of Union Mission for homeless people. The neatest (and most practical) one is the Urban Camper, designed for homeless living on the street. It’s basically a cheap fold-out lounge chair with a built-in mini tent that easily folds up into a backpack—sort of like an upgraded sleeping bag. Since you’re up off the ground it’d be great for camping trips or anywhere you have your back dig into the ground would suck balls. [core77]

Urban Miners in Japan Find Precious Metals in Discarded Gadgets

Jason Chen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:00:00 +0000

China isn’t the only nation dismantling used electronics to get at the gold, copper and silver inside. This trend, called “urban mining”, is even more profitable in the current market where precious metals are trading close to their all-time high. For example, a ton of ore from a gold mine gives about 5 grams of gold, but a ton of mobile phones gives 150 grams of gold. Why would Japan be into this trend? Because their country has few natural resources outside of perverted old dudes, but if they stack up all the mobile phones owned by their citizens, they could probably make a pile as big as Mt. Fuji. [Yahoo News]

GRL Documentary Switches Us Onto Electronic Street Art

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:00:38 +0000

Never heard of the Graffiti Research Lab? Well, if we tell you they were wrongly suspected of being involved in the Boston LED Mooninite mess, and their self-declared mission statement is to be “dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers, pranksters, artists and protestors with open source tools for urban communication” do you have more of a clue? A documentary is due out soon on the work of these technology-mad urban artists, and the video shows a few snippets from it. It’s pretty fascinating. We’re tempted to strap some magnets, batteries and LEDs together and start decorating boring urban steel things with glowing throwies right away. The film premieres at MoMA in New York on May 4th. [BoingBoingTV]

Is It A GirlPurse? Is It A ManBag? No, Silly, It’s an Urban Performer Unit

Addy Dugdale — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:32:00 +0000

Hello, I’m a sexy lady who has been Swarovski-encrusted by my PR people in order to publicise something called the Urban Performer Unit. It’s basically a handbag with a little pocket for your iPod which enables you to control your music from the outside of your bag. Nice idea, don’t you think? There is, however, one slightly disturbing thing about this Austrian-designed purse:

It’s unisex. Yes, all you rugged and slightly dishevelled types (NutBastard, I mean you) fear no more about being an outmoded man in a metrosexual world, for you too can pick up the Urban Performer Unit. Pick It Up, I said, and you will be transformed into a rhinestone cowboy in an instant.

This is my favourite picture. Look! He’s using his ManBag to play a geetar riff for RockBand, with nary a bead of sweat to disturb the Swarovski swoosh on his face. I think I’d like to see him use his mascara wand as a drumstick, and tackle Doncha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me.

This is what the Urban Performer Unit looks like from the inside. There’s also room for your other gadgets, like PDA, mobile phone, Hadron Collider and so on and so forth. Available in time for Christmas, the black leather purse is priced at just under US$520. And perhaps you should know that it’s made by a company called Urban Tools. For tools, presumably. [UrbanTool via Talk2MyShirt]

Urban Skiff Portable Boat Makes Sense to Someone, But Not Me

Benny Goldman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:10:00 +0000

City dwellers who can’t shake their love for the Great Outdoors will find excitement in the “Urban Skiff”. It’s a portable boat that goes from duffle bag to sad, wilted-looking dinghy in just eight ~~impossible~~ easy steps. Now all you need is a space in your cramped apartment to store a boat-sized bag, means to transport it, and water to set sail in. Personally, you’d have a better chance of finding my body at the bottom of the East River before you found me carrying this thing over there. A shot of the setup process, after the jump.

Look how tired that guy is! Sorry urbanites, this is only a concept. For actual run-ins with nature you will still have you leave the city. [Yanko Design]

Stackable Cars Solve Urban Transportation Problems By Sharing

Jason Chen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:50:00 +0000

The City Car, a design from the MIT Media Lab, is a stackable, foldable car concept that hopes to alleviate the urban traffic jams we waste so much of our lives in. These cars—which are supposed to be rentable near major transportation hubs such as airports and train stations—solve the last mile of public transportation by giving folks a small, low-cost way to drop their vehicles altogether. The cars themselves are supposed to be incredibly agile, being able to turn on the spot and drive sideways to parallel park. Only time can tell whether this will be more or less successful than the Segway. [Technology Review via CarLounge]

Car Tent Makes Willful Homelessness Seem Like Some Creative Choice

Seamus Byrne — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:00:00 +0000

Hotels are really expensive, especially in dense metropolitan areas such as Manhattan. If you’re looking to crash in a city but don’t feel like dropping bills on a closet-sized hotel room, just go camping in your Car Tent.

Sure, camping on the side of the road is illegal and dangerous, but no one will know you’re there. That’s because the Car Tent looks like a car with a cover on it, keeping you hidden from sight while you live the dream of being so cheap that you’re willing to literally sleep in the gutter to save a buck.

Car Tent [Geekologie]