Hasta La Ideas

While not usually fans of loud or flashy cases for our mobile devices, we were impressed by the vibrant, playful appeal of Athens, GA-based artist Britt Bass Turner’s iPad and iPhone…

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Like many of you, I was all ears during today’s Apple announcement—and by ears, I mean eyes, by which I mean busily scanning liveblogs from the folks in attendance in Cupertino. In any case, I will likely be acquiring a new black rectangle in a week and a half, and although the initial reactions are mixed, the ‘-S’ denotes enough new features to justify the purchase. Yes, the A7 chip and 64-bit architecture are potential gamechangers. Extended battery life, check; LTE is a plus. The new iSight camera and its myriad features look promising, and who knows what the future holds for TouchID?

However, I couldn’t help but note (wait for it) the glaring omission of a certain feature that smartphones have long been lacking. Tim Cook & Co. have come so close: the size and shape of the iPhone are ideal, striking the perfect balance between usable real estate and hand-holdability. But why confine the interface to the screen? Why not liberate ideas from the glass barrier and put them in eye-pleasing, handwritten print?

Enter the Paperback, a new product by iLoveHandles that is essentially an iPhone-shaped Post-It pad (camera port and all). “Use them one at a time, or put a small stack on the back of your phone to use later. Paperback’s pages have a removable adhesive on most of their surface, keeping the note flat on your iPhone.”

At worst, it’s a neat way to design your own novelty case. All they need to do is make it in four other colors and they’ll sell millions.

(Yep, EOP. Sorry if you were led to believe that this would be meaningful commentary on the new iPhone; you can find that over at your favorite tech blog. For what it’s worth, I did find this analysis of fingerprint scanning technology to be pretty interesting. In any case [yes, pun intended], feel free to sound off in the comments.)

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We’ve seen plenty of examples of feature creep over the years—an inevitable consequence, perhaps, of an increasingly saturated marketplace and a broad lack of differentiation between the majority of options in any given consumer product category. However, a new bag concept might be a rare exception: although EVENaBAG is described as “chameleon on your back,” the tried-and-true Swiss Army Knife metaphor is perhaps more appropriate: several auxiliary functions are concealed in the panels of what looks like a run-of-the-mill messenger bag.

Inspired by a work hard/play hard mentality, EVENaBAG is designed to bring simplicity to your unpredictable schedule. How often have you & your friends met up after work for a concert or picnic in the park, an afternoon on the beach or an evening ballgame? What if your bag unfolded into a comfortable chair or a padded mat? How many times have you found yourself sitting on the floor by the only electrical outlet in the airport or train station wishing for some back support? What happens if there is a cancellation and you are stranded for the night? EVENaBAG has you covered as a sleeping mat.

The packable camping chair has been around for a while now, but designers Rocco Kruse and Adam Bauerband (of Berlin and Chicago, respectively) had the insight to integrate the packable fabric seating solution into a messenger bag. The mat is essentially an extension of the chair—something like a more versatile version of the previously-seen Whaletale—while it also serves as a light-duty hanging ‘closet.’

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As an individual with the good fortune of being born and raised in the United States of America, I can’t say that I’ve ever witnessed a bombing or any other kind of terror-related attack, much less lived with the potential threat of such as a facet of day-to-day existence. Politics aside, many major conurbations in Israel are hotbeds of guerilla activity, and civilians are trained to heed air raid sirens with Pavlovian efficacy. Yet simply taking cover doesn’t guarantee one’s safety, an issue that designer Hila Raam tackled with her recent graduation project, the Rhinoskin.

Raam won the Best Final Project award for the backpack, which incorporates kevlar panels—discreetly integrated into an otherwise unassuming bag design—to protect one’s head and torso in dangerous situations. Thus, it is an unobtrusive solution for residents of “countries or areas that are under daily attacks, protecting against debris and impact created from missile and rocket attacks.”

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As our society seems to grow more tech-enhanced by the minute, so too are we burdened with more gadgets that represent extensions of our bodies (not to mention a host of newfangled gestures and body language). Citing water and impact as the major weaknesses of electronic devices, Luke Mastrangelo recently designed a backpack that offers protection from both, based on a distinctive form factor that follows from its polycarbonate skeleton. “What we carry, why we carry and how we carry has changed dramatically. Prism is a personal project, reflecting on this notion; seeking to answer both a digital and analog challenge.”

The 1000D cordura nylon and embedded solar panels aren’t breakthroughs by any means, but combined with the internal polycarbonate frame and thoughtful details, the Prism represents a nicely executed personal project, largely unconstrained by manufacturing considerations. Regarding the construction, Mastrangelo told us

The polycarbonate frame was CNC cut out of a sheet of 1/4″ thick Lexan, and bent into shape on a cold-steel bender. It’s entirely removable, which was a manufacturing decision to simplify the sewing process. Basically the fabric skin is stretched taught over the frame, and then zipped up around it, which keeps the whole system in tension, providing a tesseract of sorts for your laptop/tablet on the inside (think old school egg-drop style). The backpack is 100% functional, the lights, solar charger, rain-proofing, etc.

As we saw with Crumpler’s laptop bag, the laptop compartment can be accessed from the side for the sake of expediency.

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