AH - New ELECTRONIC and GADGETS

A new wall clock concept has just come from Seattle-based product development consultancy CarbonDesign Group. The Domino Clock is as simple as it is ingenious, using three king-size domino game pieces. The dots on the pieces change to tell the hour and the minutes. To add some visual interest they also alternate between black and white. The time-telling dominoes is just one of ideas selected for a Carbon Passion Project launched by CarbonDesign Group intended, as Google’s 20% Time does, to encourage creative imagination.

This alarm clock , or, to give it its proper name, the Aphelion clock concept , does not simply snooze you awake – this bright gadget knows that chances are you go down again – but gets you out of your bed and on your feet playing ball . How does the Aphelion bedside friend achieve this feat? It catapults a ball at the pre-set time, and there is no peace for you until you retrieve the ball and replace it into the holder to kill the snooze. Other features are hardly worth mentioning – a built-in MP3 player and radio, a digital display with the time read clearly – but the ball thing can bring out an inventor in you, placing the alarm-clock to aim the ball at your prone self, towards a far corner of the room where you will have to search for it waking completely in the process, or at a glass of water that will topple and treat you to a small shower to ensure your waking up properly. With all those terrifying possibilities the Aphelion concept may not find a manufacturer ...

In an attempt to strip away all the superfluous quazi-artistic stuff from clocks and give us pure unadulterated basics The Wrong Objects , working out the concept of the Front & Back Clock , came up with a clear white disk. It certainly looks fine, but what about telling the time? And, by the way, since it’s so old-fashioned that it is powered by AA batteries , where do we make the battery compartment? The Wrong Objects put two and two together, making two clock hands out of two batteries. By choosing the battery brand you can change the color palette of your new clock. If it will make it into production. For the time being it was only displayed at the 2010 DMY International Design Festival in Berlin.

Now that the number of gadgets is growing, we stand in need of gadgets to look after gadgets… Oh, you’ll understand it better taking a look at that one. This is Belkin Conserve Insight , a power-outlet adapter with a digital display that you can get for $30 to keep tabs on your electric appliances. You connect it to your wall outlet and plug in a device, and the Belkin Conserve Insight tells you how much power it is pumping out, whether in watts, dollars or carbon dioxide. Isn’t it a good idea to know just how much each of your consumer devices is consuming off your bank account? Get in control and get a little richer with this little fellow sticking in your socket.

What is it you do the first thing in the morning? If you prefer to wake up to an aroma of your first cup of tea (or coffee, for that matter), then this gadget is for you. From now on you will be waking up into a new day with a pleasant beep and the warming feeling that a cup of your favorite beverage is waiting for you to stretch your hand. Teasmade – the first gadget that will take care of your mornings – can be obtained for £59.99 or about $88. Every evening you’ll have to see about charging the teapot with whatever will pick you up better – two teabags, a mix of your own, or instant coffee – and make sure that Teasmade is filled up with cold water. Next morning it will spring to life several minutes before the alarm , get your drink ready and let you know as soon as it has arranged for your comfort.

My love of watches has made me buy so many watches that I have no count of them now. I love each one of them so much so that I have actually kept my small collection at home safely locked in my cupboard out of reach of kids because I lovingly care for watches and such gadgets. Right now, I am interested in vintage Seiko’s from the 60s and 70s but I am trying to upgrade and improve my collection by including some digital watches, analog sports watches that I have grown to love because of their versatility. But if I can, what I would love to add to my collection is this funky fingernail timepiece is a new concept of a watch from both Timex and Core77. The new funky fingernail timepiece concept was evolved by designers Napoleon Merena, Steffen Schubert, and David Takacs. The cool design of funky fingernail timepiece was the winner of the recently held design competition 2154 The Future of Time. The cool looking conceptual funky fingernail timepiece is actually a miniature...

All the necessary information from Internet sites may soon take its place all over your wall or desk, like the Arduino Weather Clock designed by Sean Carney . What Carney did was take an old, venerable-looking clock, make some alterations to its face, throw away all those gears and replace them with a mechanism built around an Arduino chipset. The chipset gets in touch with the Environment Canada website (Carney is a Winnipeg man), collects the weather information every fifteen minutes and adjusts the hands of the weather clock. ( Time is the thing you won’t get, though!) So this new gadget is actually a little customized computer dressed like a retro piece out of the past. Make your choice between opening a weather site on your terminal and taking a look at Carney’s Arduino Weather Clock.

Seiko once again reinforced the assumption that fashion repeats itself. First pyramid-shaped clock was originally created in 1984. 15 years have passed since, and today Seiko is relaunching this gadget , electronically upgraded. New old pyramid-shaped clock is stylish-looking and can tell the current time and outside temperature. New gadget is available in gold and silver colors.

Mo Eden made a creditable attempt at creating a watch embedded into a finger ring that will be memorable. The watch ’s movement can be chosen from a number of options including Rolex , Patek Philippe, Blancpain, Breitling. The ring part impresses with a scattering of 142 diamonds over an 18k white gold. An aquamarine view finder completes the bejeweled wonder. Mo Eden’s luxurious beauty costs £8,000 and will suit men and women alike.

When you are traveling you may have your hands too busy to bother about even important things… even about time. It’s understandable. Therefore you can do worse than buying a clock that will understand when you talk to it. How do you like the idea? The Moshi Voice Control Travel Alarm Clock will look after your time schedule in accordance with your commands given by voice. After you press the Voice Command button the clock will recognize nine commands for setting the time, alarm and snooze. Address it to learn the temperature or ask how to manipulate it. Isn’t it convenient? Too convenient to enjoy it only when traveling. And its being compact will help you find a place for it even on a very cluttered table. So choose out of four colors and grab it for $24.99. Only take care not to teach it bad words!

Probably contemplating clocks ’ faces while trying to figure out what can be done with them, designer Mike Mak stumbled on the idea to give eyes to the face. Instead of staring at you steadily, his clock makes funny faces moving the eyes with the running of time: the left eye changes its position to show the hour, the right eye the minute. Luckily there is no third eye to show the seconds! So what about putting a pair of living eyes upon your wall for your friends to ask you what it can be?

Ora Watch , which has not proceeded into a manufacturing stage yet, is a concept that does away with classical clock design with faces and hands. Called “ haute horlogerie ” by its creator, it involves the use of a pseudo-measuring tape. It focuses on the display of time via an unconventional mode, by replacing the expected dial arrangement found in the vast majority of the mechanical watches with a set of three interwoven tapes—one to indicate the hour(s), one to indicate the minute(s), and one to indicate the day,” he explains. This dramatic and unique concept is meant to accentuate the flow of time and imprint its inevitability on people’s minds. A similarly unique case done along the “inside-out” lines has a distinguishable shape as well.

The idea of the producers Biegert & Funk was not to show you the time, but actually tell it! Looking at the Qlocktwo clock you see a colored slab with words saying something like “It’s half past three”. Maybe that’s why it is called “two”, meaning the other way to show time? The design is quite simple, to fit in with most interiors, and Qlocktwo is available in quite a number of colors , including black, silver, purple, and yellow. Also it comes in different languages, all the main European languages are provided. The Biegert & Funk store is ready to supply you with Qlocktwo for $1,565. Those who are loath to dish out so much for a clock but would like to give it a try can get an iPhone App version for $0.99.

The grand idea which may well turn out to be the most ingenious one of the year belongs to Mile Project. The Japanese guys came up with a clock called Good Afternoon . It’s a wall affair with three white rays of light for the hour, minute and second hands. The bezel-produced light is reflected onto a glass surface. You may like to enjoy the clock-lit afternoon or meditate on the ephemeral qualities of time , but regretfully it’s not out yet.

Yes, it’s true that children toy clocks may look a bit more stylish than this, but then again, little children are not given things of brand-new design . And this clock is modern art, although you may not know it from just giving it a casual look. Conceiving the idea of Unfinished Clock , its creators Yve Thelermont and David Hupton took a simple geometric figure, imagined it was a face and stuck on it – seemingly in a haphazard fashion – а couple of hands. What if the long hand is protruding beyond the face? Everyone can see that it is in keeping with the style .

For those who want a break from a heap of feature-crammed gadgets lying around or eager to move in every direction at once, there’s the simplest thing in clocks from Kibardindesign , and it’s up to you to decide whether Vadim Kibardin ’s black and white digital clock is a bit insipid or a pleasantly fresh concept for you. This is no clock at all but a set of four translucent figures made of polycarbonate material. They can show the numerals, and each one has its own controls and a built-in power supply. You can stick them on just anywhere you fancy, align them or make up an alignment pattern of your own. The figures are black during the day and white at night (the luminosity provided by an organic light-emitting diode, OLED). Elegant in their simple fashion, they can clearly seen from a distance from almost any place in your room.

Fred & Friends are always trying to wed the funny and the useful, overstepping the line sometimes on one side or the other – which side have they found themselves on now with their latest idea called the SHAPE UP ? This cheerful name is given to an alarm clock with a healthy twist to it. Maybe they decided to seriously lend a hand to the cause of fighting with swelling stomachs? Anyhow, you set the alarm for the time you want to be up and about and hit the pillow. When the time is ripe for awakening, the alarm goes off. But it’s no use trying to try and shut it off hitting a button – there isn’t one! The alarm isn’t turned off until you have done 30 reps with it using it in its other capacity – a free weight ! And it’s no joke, there is no getting round it… exercise !

Probably the most unique alarm clock this side of paradise has been designed by Steffen Schmelling for Bang & Olufsen. Combining a modern-style exterior with the unmistakable shape of a flute, it is not only a BeoTime alarm clock . The Bang & Olufsen touch lies in the fact that apart from standard functions the Mozart -inspired BeoTime alarm clock can control all the Bang & Olufsen systems that may be in your place. Due to its uncommon shape you can keep it on the table, on the wall, on a stand or just hold it in your hand – there’s a tilt sensor and a motion sensor that will provide its comfortable use in any position. A backlit display and button controls make it perfectly user-friendly. The built-in sleep timer allows you to pre-set the time – within a two-hour interval – when all your Bang & Olufsen multimedia systems and electronic devices will switch onto a standby mode in case you dozed off or just don’t want to bother. You will find it extremely convenient wh...

Few digital wristwatches feature a cutting-edge e-paper display technology . This technology uses e-paper , designed to simulate the appearance of ink on a conventional paper, and provided only black and white colors so far. This has changed as Filmatic II entered the gadget scene. With this watch you are getting first ever gold on grey e-paper display, along with classic black and white options. Like with all digital paper watches , Filmatic II needs less energy and stays bright even in daylight. The design is also something to marvel at. The bracelet-like gadget looks beautifully streamlined with a thickness of unbelievable 6.5 mm! While O.M.D. is not specifically promoting Filmatic II as a gadget for women , hi-tech fashionistas are obviously going to love it. What’s more, the watch seems to come in only one size, and you can bet it fits a female wrist just right.

If what you prefer is an energizing wake-up call, here is the alarm clock you need. Its cuteness will make you smile every time you look at it and you will love its buoyant “good morning”, provided with the help of an iPod docking station and 2.5” speakers. Having placed your iPod in the dock every evening, you will get it ready and charged for the day. And at the time you set for awakening , it will start playing your very special song. Have a refreshing morning with beautiful music and a cool gadget for $130!