Hasta La Ideas

The latest version of the affordable XO tablet, designed by Yves Behar for the One Laptop Per Child Association, goes on sale this week (+ movie).

The seven-inch touchscreen Android tablet will be available for $150 at Walmart stores across the USA this week, marking a move away from the product’s initial focus on the developing world.

The new version features a rubber exterior and a carrying hook, while the bilingual English/Spanish software comes with a suite of pre-loaded apps, games and books.

The XO tablet is the fourth iteration of the One Laptop Per Child concept, all of which have been designed by One Laptop Per Child’s chief designer, Yves Behar of San Francisco design studio fuseproject.

The first, nicknamed the “$100 laptop”, was a clamshell design with a keyboard that could be charged by hand-crank and was intended for children in remote villages without power.

The product was one of five winners of the Index Awards for sustainable design in 2007 and won the Design Museum’s inaugural Design of the Year award in 2008.

Its successor, the XOXO laptop, was unveiled in 2008 and featured two hinged touch-screens.

The third version, called the XO-3, was launched last year. This was a tablet with a removable rubber cover that could also house solar panels to recharge the battery.

“The new tablet is an evolution of all the things we have learned with the original XO Laptop,” says Yves Behar. “The new user interface is colourful and easy to use, while the protective rubber exterior features a carrying loop similar to the original XO finger hooks.”

See more stories about One Laptop Per Child »
See more design by Fuseproject »

Here’s some text from One Laptop Per Child:

FUSEPROJECT AND ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD ANNOUNCE NEW XO TABLET DESIGNED TO SPARK THE CHILD’S IMAGINATION

The fuseproject-designed XO Tablet arrives in Walmart stores across the country this week. Developed in collaboration with the One Laptop Per Child Association, the tablet harnesses the power of a touchscreen device to create new ways for children to learn. The powerful Android tablet has a new user interface and protective cover that delivers the continuity of the design language of the original One Laptop Per Child with a new learning experience.

Centered around the idea of aspirational “dreams”, the main screen is organized by topics rather than applications. A clear hierarchy of information makes tiers of learning within each dream easy to follow and access, a key element of the new child-centric XO Learning System Interface. A simple sentence “I want to be an…” is the opener to a myriad of software, games, and applications grouped around each of the subjects of interest.

“The new tablet is an evolution of all the things we have learned with the original XO Laptop,” says Yves Behar, fuseproject founder and Chief Designer of OLPC since 2006. “The new user interface is colorful and easy to use, while the protective rubber exterior features a carrying loop similar to the original XO finger hooks. What is unique about this version is how we crafted the user interface and the industrial design simultaneously. We wanted to make sure that together they would deliver a cohesive experience while stimulating discovery and offering a few surprises.”

The seven-inch tablet, made by Vivitar, is running Android OS, and is the only multilingual (English/Spanish) and Google-certified tablet for kids on the market. It includes content curated and selected for age-appropriateness by OLPC in collaboration with Common Sense Media, a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents and teachers make informed decisions about media.

The pre-loaded software includes 100 free pre-loaded apps, games, and books. Special parental controls such as the XO Journal tool, allow parents to track how much time children spend on each app and can provide insight into where children’s interests lie.

The One Laptop Per Child Association has distributed 2.5 million of the original XO Laptop in 60 countries, and is now launching the new $150 tablet in the US starting at Walmart, as well as in developing countries such as Uruguay, Cambodia, and Barbados.

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for One Laptop Per Child appeared first on Dezeen.

In this movie we filmed in New York, French designer Philippe Starck explains how his Organic tap for bathroom brand Axor dramatically reduces water consumption by combining it with air.

“We have created a new type of water, which we call ’empty water'”, says Philippe Starck. “You have the feeling of having a lot of water, but you have a lot less. That is a new standard that uses less than half [as much water as] before.”

Unlike most taps, the water temperature can also be preset at the top so there’s no need to adjust it once the water is running. “[Normally] when we change temperature, we lose a lot of water,” Starck explains.

“That’s why this product is not a new faucet, it’s a new philosophy,” he continues. “It’s a big revolution because it fits with what we need for today and tomorrow.”

Starck cites his inspiration for the form of the tap as a childhood memory of a farmyard water pump. “We have to find the bone, the essence, the centre, the spirit,” he says. “I dug into my memory of childhood, and the first time I saw water was in a farm.”

He also wanted the form to mirror nature. “All the lines come from our body, all the lines come from vegetation,” he says. “I tried to [capture] the organic energy.”

Find out more about the Organic tap in our earlier story, or see all our stories about design by Philippe Starck.

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of water” – Philippe Starck appeared first on Dezeen.

This plastic maternity vest by design graduate Alice Kim allows people to carry young plants like babies (+ movie).

Alice Kim, who recently graduated from Kingston University, designed the PVC maternity vest with a compartment on the front to carry seedlings and young plants.

Kim hopes the project will remind people of the care and attention that plants require to grow. “Plants share very similar birth and growth process to humans,” she said, “but we do not appreciate much of what they give us.”

After the seedling has grown into a small plant the owner can use Kim’s Plant Stroller to take it for a walk.

Kim exhibited the project at London’s graduate showcase New Designers 2013 last week.

Our highlights from this year’s graduate shows include a concept to transform London’s BT Tower into a pollution-harvesting high rise and cycle helmets made from mulched newspapers.

See more 2013 graduate projects »
See more stories about plants »

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by Alice Kim appeared first on Dezeen.

We spotted this stair-negotiating skateboard at ShowRCA 2012 and the accompanying movie became one of our most watched. One year on, its designer Po-Chih Lai has made a new film, updated the design and launched it on Kickstarter (+ movie).

The Stair-Rover features an eight-wheel mechanism that allows it to ride up curbs and descend flights of steps.

Po-Chih Lai‘s original model featured a maple deck, customised aluminium trucks, and flexible V-frames that connected over the ends of the board.

Since the initial design, the frames have been shifted beneath the board and connected by a plastic chassis to allow a full longboard deck to sit on top.

Lai has also created an upgraded Pro version that sports a fibreglass deck and black components.

This new movie shows longboarders navigating urban obstacles around London, at locations including the Emirates Stadium, the Royal Albert Hall and the Millenium Bridge.

Lai designed the prototype for the board while studying at the Royal College of Art and we first published the project last year as part of our 2012 graduate show coverage.

He recently launched the design on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter so backers can pre-order their own board, and the project is around halfway toward it’s £50,000 target.

If the product makes it into production, both the Stair-Rover and Stair-Rover Pro will be available.

We’ve featured a few skate parks on Dezeen in the past, including one that covers every surface inside and out of a Californian house and another in a former peanut factory in Calais.

See more design for skateboarding »
See more architecture and design movies »

Read on for more information sent by the designer:

Stair-Rover launches innovative longboard – creators target £50,000 investment

The creators of Stair-Rover have launched a Kickstarter project that hopes to raise the £50,000 investment needed to manufacture the first run of boards. The longboard features a distinctive eight-wheeled design with a unique mechanism that allows it to scuttle crab-like down flights of stairs.

Beginning life as inventor PoChih Lai’s final year project at the Royal College of Art, the Stair-Rover has evolved through no fewer than fourteen different prototypes and is now ready for manufacture. The Stair-Rover team hope that the new sport will combine aspects of longboarding and surfing, and prompt riders to look at their cities in a new way.

The Kickstarter project offers rewards to backer for investments of £8 – £600, including branded stickers and clothing and limited edition Stair-Rovers. Both the standard Stair-Rover and the upgraded Stair-Rover Pro are available via the Kickstarter project. The Kickstarter campaign will run until 31st July 2013.

“Stair-Rover really isn’t like anything we’ve seen before,” says PoChih Lai. “It’s about daring people to explore their cities in a brand new way. Stair-Rover is very distinctive looking, but people that have tried it tell us it feels natural – on flat ground, it performs a lot like a conventional longboard. The real difference is the amount of freedom you have on the Stair-Rover. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what our community of riders can do with that freedom.”

Stair-Rover has attracted the attention of skateboarders and longboarders alike, as well as that of design-aware individuals and publications. Stair-Rover videos have attracted over 500,000 views online and received coverage from CNET, Fast Company and the Huffington Post among others. Renowned TV shows like The Gadget Show, Discovery Daily Planet and Manoto 1 have also featured the Stair-Rover’s evolution.

The Stair-Rover Kickstarter project will only be funded if at least £50,000 is invested by 31st July, 2013. Please support the project at Kickstarter.

To find out more about Stair-Rover, or to see videos of it in action, please visit www.stair-rover.com.

The post Stair-Rover by
Po-Chih Lai update appeared first on Dezeen.

In this movie filmed at Clerkenwell Design Week last month, BarberOsgerby’s Jay Osgerby tells Dezeen that he wanted to design comfortable, understated sofas rather than statement pieces for their new collection for American furniture brand Knoll.

“The way that we started the project was to think about what we would really, really want in our home,” says Osgerby, one half of London studio BarberOsgerby, who was recently awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for the design of the London 2012 Olympic Torch.

“You don’t want to live with something that is a huge statement. So we decided that we should try to make something that was super comfortable, something that sat back,” he continues.

The furniture collection includes a range of different sizes, from an armchair to a three-seater sofa, which feature prominent cast aluminium legs that can be finished in red, white or black paint.

“We looked at developing a series of cushions as individual objects that seem to be held together by a detail,” says Osgerby. “The foot detail is like a clip holding the pieces together. Because the sofa is really understated – it’s quite quiet – we felt [the foot detail] should be something recognisably BarberOsgerby.”

See all our stories from Clerkenwell Design Week 2013 »
Watch our interview with BarberOsgerby about the Olympic Torch »

The music featured in this movie is a track called Octave by Junior Size, released by French record label Atelier du Sample . You can listen to more Junior Size tracks on Dezeen Music Project.

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want in our own home” appeared first on Dezeen.