Worried about looking silly when smoking a cigar that’s roughly the size of your forearm? Nub Cigars ($5-$8) offer all the flavor in a more sensible size. Created by the Oliva Family, these Nicaraguan smokes are available in a variety of blends and shapes, giving you the very essence of a great cigar without the cumbersome length. Hey guys, this can’t be a woman’s idea right?
The latest release from the Vans OTW Fall 2011 collection is the Alomar sneaker, now in a range of new materials and finishes. The updated Alomar style is available in full-grain leather, canvas, wool and oiled suede, and comes in a range of fresh colorways for the new season.
Had some doubts that Apple was heading skyward? Those lingering concerns can now be put to rest. Apple has confirmed that it will be announcing iCloud on June 6th, what it’s calling an “upcoming cloud services offering.” That will be part of the keynote for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, known to the cool kids as WWDC. This is, of course, where everyone has come to expect new iPhones to come to light, but this year we’re thinking the focus will be more on software, and indeed Apple’s event notice indicates that the big highlights will be Mac OS X Lion and the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5. This is a decidedly non-Apple way to announce something big like iCloud, making us wonder what other surprises Steve Jobs will have for us at the event — yes, he’ll be kicking things off.
Merriam-Webster already offers their Collegiate Dictionary as a $25 app in the iTunes app store. This free iPad app gives you access to the complete Collegiate Dictionary, and it gives you functions that the paid app doesn’t have. I’m not the best speller in the world, and it’s sometimes hard to look up a word I don’t know how to spell, but the free app has Voice Lookup so I just say the word I need. The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary HD also has synonyms and antonyms, audio pronunciations, and example sentences. There’s also a Word of the Day and a scrolling index that lets you browse and a history of words you’ve looked up previously. The catch is that your Universal Device ID may be used by advertisers and ad networks to serve ads to you. You can get more information about their privacy policy on the app page in iTunes.
I enjoy a relaxing bath but a Jacuzzi is only enjoyable in good weather, I would prefer something that spacious indoors instead. And the i-Sopod floatation tank fits the bill perfectly. Moreover, the extra-spacious tank comes with power-packed features like programmable lighting style and music choice for complete enjoyment. You can also pick colors to match your bathroom’s décor. Plus it also sports an “innovative filtration system” making it more hygienic.
Shanghai’s shiny new Museum of Glass opened last week as part of Shanghai’s campaign of becoming a globally important cultural and creative centre by launching 100 museums in a decade.
Shanghai-based German architectural firm Logon handled the architecture and exterior of the museum. Germany’s Glashütte Lambets supplied the enameled glass used for the museum’s façade inscribed with glass-industry terms in ten languages.
COORDINATION ASIA, also based in Shanghai, was in charge of the overall museum concept, art direction, design and supervision of the museum interior. It was also the chief consultant for curation, marketing and operation, as well as coordination of an international team of architects, artists, designers, filmmakers and multimedia specialists.
COORDINATION’s Tilman Thürmer tells TCH that they used black lacquered glass for the interior (cases, floor, furniture, walls), but left the existing structure untouched. The museum building is a former glassmaking workshop, one of 30 former bottling-plant structures that the Shanghai Glass Co. still owns.
The black, sleek glass of the interior reflects the LED lights and screens positioned throughout the space, creating a shiny and glittering multi-dimensional feel. This emphasizes the interaction, interdependence and influences of periods, continents, materials and peoples involved in the art, craft and industry of glass.
The design of the space and exhibits and the use of various media help create an interactive and participatory museum experience where the visitor is directed through the story of glass.
“Designwise, we wanted to create a piece of black crystal glass. Sparkling, reflecting, sleek and deep,” Thürmer says.
Thanks Coolhunter
Hasselblad’s new H4D-200MS takes 200 megapixel images, which result in massive 600MB files. So big are these images that Hasselblad recommends you hook the camera up to a hard drive instead of using a memory card. The camera itself “only” has a 50MB sensor, though, so how does it do this magic?
To record these ultra hi-res images, the H4D-200MS actually moves its sensor, taking six individual shots and combining the results. It’s like making a panorama, only the photos line up way better because neither the camera nor the lens moves.
When taking the shot, the camera snaps six different exposures, moving the sensor 1.5 pixels at a time. This not only allows big images, it also gives better color information. Normally a camera has different colored pixels next to each other and it kind of averages out the various brightnesses of these pixels to guess both color and brightness. But because the Hasselblad moves its pixels around, each pixel site is recorded by a red, a green and a blue pixel. This should give great color accuracy, just like Sigma’s Foveon chips.
The downside is that this process takes 30 seconds to complete, so you’ll not only have to lock the thing down on a tripod, you’ll have to tell all your assistants to hold their breath.
You can also shift down a gear and shoot single 50MP images, as well as a four-shot version combo.
Care to take a guess at the price? Nope, try doubling that. That’s closer. The H4D-200MS will cost you $45,000.
With fuel prices hitting the roof, hitting the road on a bike is not just economically, eco-friendly and healthy as well. But if you want to do it with class, Douglas Rosin Decorative Arts & Antiques has put Piero Fornasetti’s Personal Bicycle up for grabs. The silkscreened in the grecca style bike would need a bit of paint to bring it back to its original glory. The 40-inch tall and 5-feet 10-inch wide 22 metal-made viontage bike dated to 1984, Italy is priced at $12,000.
Argue all you want about whether or not it was actually meant to sync up so well with The Wizard of Oz — it’s undeniably one of the most influential albums of the last 40 years. The Dark Side Of The Moon Immersion Box Set ($130) gives Pink Floyd’s ground-breaking album the attention it deserves — and then some — by offering up a digitally remastered version of the classic on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray, in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound, as well as various other mixes of the album, live versions of all the songs, concert screen films, a documentary, a 40-page booklet, a book or original photos, and plenty of other trinkets and baubles. All that’s missing is tickets to a Dark Side laser light show at the local planetarium.
Complete your naval roleplaying accessory set with these Mid-Century Naval Binoculars ($TBA). Brilliantly polished to showroom-like condition, each of these best-in-class pieces is sure to catch the eye of any passerby, their sleek, sublime condition betraying their war-time roots, and comes mounted on a fully adjustable tripod, just in case you actually want to — gasp! — use them.