It’s always nice to get a peak behind the scenes of a new application before it hits the market, because you can see some of the decisions that the designers made to get to the final product, and you can imagine what decisions you yourself would have made in their shoes.
Sebastiaan de With of Cocoia recently worked with Phill Ryu and Andrew Kaz to create Classics, a new book reading app for the iPhone, and Sebastiaan shares the steps involved in creating the app design, creating the logo, and creating the overall look and feel of the app on his blog.
Novitec Rosso kept the body modifications to a minimum, but when your bi-kompressor (twin supercharged) Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano makes 808 horsepower and gets to 60 in just 3.5 seconds, you don’t need flashy wings and carbon fiber, because your brake lights will gladly do all the necessary talking.
The exterior of the Ferrari didn’t exactly remain stock however, as an aerodynamic-enhancement kit developed in the wind tunnel keeps the car planted while three-piece, 21-inch wheels, a correspondingly calibrated sports suspension and high-performance brake system do their part to keep the rubber on the road.
Exclusive interior options round out the package, and at just $60,500, it’s practically a steal once you factor in the cost of the car and the price to performance ratio of the upgrade.
Every year, SEMA serves as the debut for some of the most outrageous cars and stunning concepts from tuners around the world, and this year, Mercedes-Benz decided to get in on the action with the debut of their new GLK.
One of those GLKs that stormed the SEMA show is this Pikes Peak Rally Racer from RENNtech, and with its inspiration coming from the winged, unlimited-class rally cars of the famed Pikes Peak Hill Climb, it’s no surprise that the styling needed to be kicked up a few notches.
However, beneath the menacing exterior lies a powertrain that might surprise a few people: a hybrid, designed to make the GLK a formidable performer while at work and at play.
By combining an electric motor in parallel with the 3.5 liter V6 petrol engine, RENNtech has been able to capture the impressive torque that characterizes electric motor drives, adding 54 Nm to enhance the GLK’s performance off-the-line and out of corners.
In addition, internal combustion engines can start to wheeze as the ambient air thins at the higher altitudes that a hill climb takes place in, but with a hybrid drive, thrust is maintained at any altitude with help from the electric motor, allowing the GLK to remain strong during every part of the race.
The 3.5-liter V6 engine that comes stock in the GLK received a special intake manifold, cams and cylinder heads directly from MB, and then RENNtech added their own long-tube headers, composite air intake, and RENNtech ECU software to make the engine put out approximately 350 horsepower on gas power alone.
To help with speed, RENNtech cut weight by removing most of the sound insulation and replacing the Mercedes-Benz seats with lightweight carbon-fiber buckets. With the addition of a full roll cage and the movement of several components towards the rear of the GLK, weight distribution almost reached the perfect 50/50, which helps handling on tight, demanding rally stages.
Custom coil-over suspension was created by KW for RENNtech, allowing for adjustments in height, rake, damping rate, camber and toe-in, and 412mm, 2-piece rotors with 8-piston callipers from RENNtech handle stopping power in the front, while 4-pot callipers grab 356mm discs in the rear.
Not so subtle exterior modifications include a front splitter, rear diffuser, and lower side skirts all designed to help direct airflow underneath the GLK to reduce drag and produce added downforce, while improving high speed stability at the rear. The rear wing elements also serve an important aerodynamic purpose, and flared wheel arches and other bodyshell modifications “create a powerful side line that highlights the dynamic thrust of the Rally Racer”.
It’s definitely not the subtlest Mercedes-Benz on the road, but if you want cutting edge, rally ready technology that’s designed to get you where you want to go at a very high rate of speed, then look no further than the RENNtech Pikes Peak Rally Racer.
Creating the ultimate Jell-O shot might not be the dream of every scientist, but for a few determined drunkards, the thought of a shot that doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled the amount of alcohol found in a typical Jell-O shot was too tempting to resist.
The purpose of this experiment was to determine the highest possible concentration of alcohol attainable in a Jell-O shot, while still maintaining the structural integrity (i.e., the gelling properties) of the gelatin.
Through rigorous scientific testing, two dozen batches of Jell-O shots, and nearly five 1.75 liter bottles of vodka, they discovered that “too much is much, much more than we would have guessed”.
Read on to discover the secret behind the ultimate Jell-O shot:
In case you missed it, this ad for Photoshop, called “As Real As It Gets”, is a fantastically creative interpretation of what the program would look like if it existed in real life.
Also, be sure to check out the Flickr set for some behind the scenes shots, because the size of this ad is almost unbelievable!
It’s no secret that Apple has mastered the art of design, and with every iteration of their product line, they continue to wow with small and often subtle changes that contribute to an overall feeling of amazement when interacting with their computers. Each and every piece and part has its own place in the end result, and everything feels like it should be there, rather than needed to be there.
With the latest MacBook and MacBook Pro, Apple “Redesigned. Reengineered. Re-everythinged.” their way into one of the most stunning laptops ever built thanks to a new unibody construction that begins life as a single piece of aluminum, and ends as a computer that has been machined down to the micron, thus reducing size, weight, complexity, and opportunity for failure.
Even things like the thickness of the display don’t escape the watchful eye of Apple’s designers, as they opted to use LED backlight technology across their entire notebook line, rather than the CCFLs that are standard for the industry. In addition to the fact that they take less space to create the same amount of light, LEDs reach maximum brightness instantly, unlike CCFLs, which take time to warm up.
It’s also no secret that Steve Jobs has a thing for buttons, and specifically the removal of as many buttons as possible, so for the latest version of Apple’s trackpad, they’ve removed the buttons entirely and replaced them with a trackpad that is itself the button. Users can click anywhere on the trackpad and it will register as a click, allowing for new ways of interacting with the computer through Multi-Touch gestures that had never before been possible.
Think no part is too small to escape revision? According to Apple, designers worked on hundreds of versions of the thumbscoop (the indentation that allows you to open the display) before they got it right.
If the scoop is too deep, you put too much pressure on the display to open it. If it’s too shallow, you struggle to open the display. It may seem incidental, but if the thumbscoop is well designed, it makes the difference between a bad experience and a good one.
How important was it for Apple to get the thumbscoop right? They examined their options under an electron microscope until they were happy that they had gotten it just right.
The sleep indicator light?
During the CNC process, a machine first thins out the aluminum. Then a laser drill creates small perforations for the LED light to shine through. These holes are so tiny that the aluminum appears seamless when the light is off.
A light when you need it and nothing when you don’t?
That’s what I call attention to detail.
And don’t think that just because Apple is obsessed with perfection that they’re willing to let the environment take a hit as a result of their designs.
In addition to being brighter and thinner, LED backlighting is also mercury and arsenic free, and uses 30 percent less power than a CCFL display. The circuit board? Now polyvinyl chloride (PVC), brominated flame retardant (BFRs), bromine and chlorine free.
Even the packaging has been optimized, with a reduction of 37 percent when compared to previous generations. Fewer trees used for boxes and less fuel used for transportation means a healthier environment, and when all is said and done and it’s time to upgrade to the latest and greatest, almost every part of the new MacBook line can be recycled.
Is it perfection?
Probably not, since I’m sure they’ll find ways to improve their products and their processes in the future, but until then, Apple’s laptop line is a design force to be reckoned with.
As America heads towards a change it can believe in, real issues effecting real people become more important than ever. To see what’s on the minds of young Americans all across the ‘flyover states’, Current put Lauren Cerre on a bus from Los Angeles to New York, and created The Great American Detour.
The result is a collection of the actual issues that will determine the future of America, told in a voice that is very different from the pundits and the polls that dominate most on-air time screen time:
Fly on the Wall created this amazingly fantastic “Circular Painting” for the Discovery Channel, and it’s awe-inspiring to watch the artists bring the painting to life through movement and motion alone.
Artists include Bryan Devlin, Luis Tolosana, Warren Lewis, Ree Treweek, Daniel Ting Chong, Mike Morocco, Toyah Moon Humphreys, Paul Ressel and Josh Ginsburg, and you can actually see one artist’s style evolve into the next, which just adds another level of awesome onto this already impressive project.
Matt Gemmell created Favorites for the iPhone, a ‘Speed-dial with style’ application that lets you dial your contacts by face instead of name, and created a very thorough and lengthy blog post about UI design decisions he made along the way, as well as some of the lessons learned during the development process with regard to creating software interfaces for the iPhone.
If you’re the type of person that enjoys knowing the decisions behind the design, then this post is for you, as it leaves no stone unturned in the quest to build the perfect app.
Where’s An Egg? has Russian instructions, 1970s graphics, and is surprisingly fun considering those two don’t often combine for much good.
In this hard-boiled adventure game, you must help the Boise police find a missing egg. Not in Mancuso’s garage? Try Brodermaker’s gymbag. Everyone’s a suspect when “Where’s an Egg?” is the game that you are playing. And that’s the game!!
NOTCOT called it her favorite Flash game ever, and it’s definitely one of the most unique, so give it a shot and see how you do.
