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SKINN GADGETS
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SKINN MAGAZINE
XSMG speedboat
Powerboat builders XSMG think there's a big gap in the market; a vessel for those keen to translate their passion for fast cars onto the water. The answer is their new XSR48, a speedboat that takes styling cues from supercars and performance tips from superboat champions.
The XSR48 might not have a snappy name, but there's nothing slack about the stats; two twin-turbo diesel engines giving at least 1600 hp, enough to propel the craft through the water at nearly 95 knots. The makers optimistically suggest that the boat is the closest thing to an ocean-going Bugatti Veyron (and at £1.2m each, it's in a comparable price bracket), with just 100 of the dart-like 48 foot craft due to be built to order.
Feet first
Tecnica’s Vento series is designed for advanced skiers – people who need a strong boot that won’t feel like a cinderblock. US ski-boot maker Tecnica uses soft and hard injections in its shell design, so the Vento closes tightly around the foot without sacrificing comfort. The boot will also help you utilise shaped skis more effectively.
Le Cube TV receiver box
In the increasingly design-savvy world of home entertainment technology, the humble television receiver box can be easily overlooked. Hardly surprising that manufacturers would rather spend their time refining the big-ticket items, but annoying for consumers forced to endure the ugly and cumbersome (but essential) bit of gear in their otherwise immaculate living rooms.
Most life-enhancing item
The race is on and the results are nearly in. This very evening we will be hosting our fourth ever annual Wallpaper* Design Awards, celebrating the past year's movers and shakers from a multitude of design disciplines. In the run-up to the event itself, we are taking a look at the ten shortlists for the Judges' Awards, and without further ado bring you this year's nominees for the coveted most life-enhancing item award.
Nokia N85: Milan Salone Coverage
Hailed as a ‘multimedia computer’, the latest offering from the Finnish wunderkinds at Nokia is a rather special mobile phone. With a spec-range to outsell even its fiercest competitors, it was our first choice of travel companion for the annual trawl around Milan’s design-decked streets.
Gramophone Speakers by Aesthesis
Whilst even we’d baulk at the price tag of a €60,000 pair of speakers, when it comes to Swedish company Aesthesis’s latest sound system addition, we’d probably be prepared to make an exception.
Produced in collaboration with Swedish teams Ergonomidesign, Eker Design and Carbocomp – the design brains behind Swedish supercar company Koenigsegg – the Gramophone speaker units are on the brink of sound barrier breaking innovation.
Standing at 1.2 meters and built in high gloss black steel and carbon fiber the Gramophone speakers sit somewhere between a high-design orchid and upturned 1940’s sound system.
Olympus EP-1
It’s the perpetual photographic dilemma, to D-SLR or not to D-SLR. When it comes to cameras, budding snappers have long struggled with the impracticality of the big guns, whilst grinding their teeth at the less-than-perfect picture quality of a compact. That is, until now.
CES Technology Fair, Las Vegas
Judging by the rows of punters in dark glasses staring at the TV screens at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the future has finally arrived. And it’s in 3D. All the big players from Panasonic to LG, Samsung to Sony have been in a sharp-elbowed race for the past five years to get 3D TVs into our living rooms - and this year, after much hype, they have finally got there, bringing a new wave of 3D movies, sports and nature programmes with them.
AMVOX2 DBS Transponder
Most car owners like their gadgets, and as one ascends the ladder of automotive excellence, the technological trickery becomes more and more intense. A particular predilection we've noted is for high profile partnerships between the upper echelons of the automotive world and their horological equivalents - Breitling for Bentley, Parmigiani for Bugatti, Audemars Piguet for Maserati, etc., etc
Second Solar spaceship, Germany
The small German city of Böblingen is now home to what might be the world’s biggest and most elaborate children’s toy. The Second Solar spaceship, designed by Different Futures and constructed for the Sensapolis fun park earlier this year, is a three-level, 850 sq m interactive replica of a real shuttle, albeit one better suited to exploration of the cognitive rather than the galactic variety.