Trend Spotter | Trend Squad

Meet Nathan Sawaya: The Professional LEGO Artist

We were so enthralled with Lindsb’s pictures from LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya’s recent exhibit, that we had to learn more about him. At the age of 30, Nathan quit his day job of being an attorney and decided to turn his attention to sculpting LEGO full-time. Three years later, Coolest Gadgets notes how Sawaya’s Manhattan studio is now covered with plastic boxes full of LEGO bricks and LEGO creations including huge celeb portraits (like this Lindsay Lohan one) as well as various animals, flower arrangements, gadgets, still objects, the Statue of Liberty and many many more unique sculptures.

When CNN interviewed Sawaya, this is what he had to say about making the switch from attorney to LEGO artist: “I worked with great people at the law firm, but my passion was always for my art. As more and more people were commissioning pieces and collecting my artwork, it became clear to me that I should focus on my art full time.”

To see the rest of this gallery,

Written by Trend Spotter on June 3, 2007 | No Comments

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Have You Google ‘Street Viewed’ Your House Yet?

Google’s new “Street View” feature, which allows users to click on maps in major cities and get real images of the street, has been causing a real ruckus this week, with people reporting strange and even scandalous images – such as a man leaving a strip joint and Stanford girls sunbathing – caught on the map’s “street views.” While my house doesn’t show anything particularly creepy or invasive, one woman from Oakland, California shared her story of finding her cat on the map to the New York Times and even admitted she and her family feel like they are being “peeped on.”

While the Street View feature currently only works around major cities like San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver, there are literally millions of people whose homes, cars, cats and even bodies could have been caught on camera. What do you think about this?

Written by Trend Spotter on June 2, 2007 | No Comments

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Japanese Robot Gets Giggy With iPod Music

A new Japanese robot combines iPod with the joy of robots by getting giggy and dancing in sync with songs streamed from an iPod.

According to Wired, the robot uses a series of algorithms to calculate movements in response to music, which the company says could be the basis for a new breed of semi-intelligent, semi-autonomous virtual pets.

I am just getting over the iFish, iDog and iCat series, which are small little interactive speaker critter toys that hook up to your iPod or MP3 player and swish their tails with glee. Not sure I’m ready for iPod robotics.

Source

Written by Trend Spotter on June 2, 2007 | No Comments

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Top 10 luxury speakers everyone can’t afford

grand-enigma321_48

I have always loved to own those gorgeous Grand Enigma speakers but I think I need to earn some more bucks to make that possible and I doubt those ?small bucks? might not take whole of my life…Lolz. We’ve been playing a little game lately to see how high speaker prices would go. Hats off to those crazy uber-rich audiophiles out there who don?t even think once to spend all their hard-earned money on a single set of speakers! Luxury speakers are not just a means of listening to music but a style statement too. Come, check out some of the most innovatively designed, glossy, alluring, and yes, heftily-priced speakers.

10. The Ivy Reference

ivy_48

Manufacturer: Eggleston Works

Price: US $100,000

The Ivy speakers are an upshot of tremendous research at Eggleston Works. The 358kg speakers are made specifically to generate almost unlimited dynamics and SPL’s through the most neutral and transparent technique feasible. The speakers come equipped with nine 12-inch woofers loaded in three parallel chambers and there are a total of 23 drivers per channel (aka “an Andra on steroids”). Black Italian granite has been used in the making and the base of the speakers feature specially designed castors.

9. KEF?s Ross Lovegrove-designed MUON speakers

nuon1_48

Manufacturer: KEF

Price: US $130,000

Another treat for the uber-rich audiophiles! The MUON has been carved from super-formed aluminum and malleable sheets of heated aluminum that bless it with an inimitable shape. The 7-feet tall beautifully crafted four-way speaker system are technically quite sound with the powerful bass drivers, upper mid-range and treble. They have managed to double the available volume proficiently by adsorbing air molecules by activated carbon, thanks to the Acoustic Compliance Enhancement (ACE) technology. Hey, you know very well that such high quality, such a beautifully designed set of speakers won?t come cheap.

8. Cabesse La Sphere Speakers

lasphere1_48

Manufacturer: Cabesse

Price: US $150,000

If you think that the pictured above is some kind of colossal eyeball webcam, you are mistaken. It?s in actual the ?La Sphere?speaker from Cabesse that is designed to create unique ambiences for interior spaces and enhance acoustics of the spaces like theater rooms. The spherical corral is intended to help eliminate standing waves and create a more rounded sound. The four-way co-axial speaker claims to offer unrivalled technical and musical specifications in a compacter volume than all other ultimate systems. I am not sure whether this inimitable design really throws out good sound but the price tag would optimistically do full justice with the sound quality too.

7. Grand Exquisite

grand-exquisite_48

Manufacturer: Kharma

Price: US $220,000

Kharma is now a pioneer in luxury speakers with its Grand Enigma. Earlier, they had Grand Exquisite, which included two 30 mm and one 20 mm Kharma/Thiel diamond tweeters, two ceramic midrange-units and two Nomex-Kevlar subwoofer units within a gigantic multilayer wooden cabinet. To achieve the perfect acoustics, the top-notch Kharma technologies have been used along with the pure silver-gold wiring and materials like high pressure laminate and aluminum.

6. Ultimate

magico-ultimate_48

Manufacturer: Magico

Price: $229,000

The MAGICO Ultimate loudspeaker is no doubt progression in the state-of-the-art in music reproduction. The 5-way four horn speaker system comprises four Japanese ALE compression drivers and a 15″ Aura monster woofer. The engineering work of art for the Ultimate marks new standards in contemporary loudspeaker design. The nominal; independence for compression drivers is 8 ohms while its is 4 ohms for the woofer. The Ultimate speakers weigh approximately 800 lbs.

5. GAUDI MK II

gaudi-mk-ii_48

Manufacturer: German Physik

Price: $250,000

Wow! So dazzling! They look to be something out of the gaming world. The Gaudi MK II speakers come with either a Titanium DDD driver or a Carbon DDD driver. The performance delivered by the speakers compensate quite well for that hefty price tag. Each breakfront features company?s own four DDD drivers complemented by eight 6-inch metal cones for the mid bass and four 12-inch honeycomb flat cone drivers for sub woofers. The most notable features of the Gaudi is the inclusion of DDD driver, which offers true listening experience no matter where you are seated in the room. The Gaudi can also be ordered in a range of hand matched, delicately figured hardwood veneers, hand finished to a high gloss.

4. Epilogue Full System

epilogue-full-system_48

Manufacturer: Goldmund

Price: $268,000

Pretty interesting! Goldmund claims that the modularity will allow the users to upgrade the Epilogue up to the latest state of the art without the usually costly process of trading-in the precedent version. The Epilogue Full System touts a metallic enclosure that allows unparalleled rigidity to the audio device. Seals in neoprene between all adjacent parts account for the air tightness without aging degradation. The Epilogue 3, which is the Sub-Bass unit of the Epilogue system, features a built-in amplifier of the Mimesis range with a maximum of 650 watts power. The tremendous speed of the Epilogue woofers make for the much tighter, airy sound to grave frequencies, even at intense levels.

3. Sphaeron Excalibur

sphaeron-excalibur_48

Manufacturer: Acapella Audio Arts

Price: $325,000

ACAPELLA products are unique combinations of design, function and engineering. The ACAPELLA Sphaeron Excalibur speakers are the speakers with horns. Made of the established Sphaeron, the Exacalibur fits into a room boasting a minimum size of 40m². The system comes with two pillars, with each featuring four huge 15 inches woofers. The music thrown out will be three-dimensional so you will fell like listening to some orchestra. These speakers have the capability to handle 1000 watts power at 10 ms with no distortion. The company hand crafts all the parts of its products.

2. Infinite Grande

infinite-grande11_48

Manufacturer: Wisdom Audio

Price: US $600,000

They are gigantic. The made-for-superrich Infinite Wisdom Grande boasts a mounded three section planar-magnetic arrays over 13 feet tall, low frequency assemblies over 8 feet tall and a total weight of almost two tons. Based on company?s transducer technology and innovative design values, the monumental sports high sound pressure levels in excess of 120 dB. The exceptional number of transducers delivers high-quality sound and minimizes all sorts of transient distortion. The system comes with twelve 12-inch, underhung 3-inch voice coil low frequency regenerators per channel. The Infinite Wisdom Grande is perfect for those uber-rich audiophiles who have a plenty of space that doesn?t suit the lesser systems. No doubt, the company?s flagship model flouts categorization.

1. Grand Enigma

grand-enigma12_48

Manufacturer: Kharma

Price: US $1 million

Now, what about a pair of speakers for a whopping one million dollars? Sounds crazy! Come; meet Grand Enigma that tops the long list of the world?s most expensive speakers. The luxury speakers have been designed by Netherlands-based Kharma in a huge cellar in Belgium. I don?t think that the features even matter at such a stocky price. I wish I had lots and pots of money to own this cool $1 million set of speakers.

NOTE: Although proper care has been taken while mentioning the price of all the products but you are requested to contact the particular company for the packages.

Thanks: HigherFi

Written by Trend Spotter on June 1, 2007 | No Comments

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Damien Hirst unveils $98M diamond skull ‘For the Love of God’

diamond-skull_18
There is art in smoke and even in those filthy granules of the soil you never pay heed to; however, you need to have the eyes of the bad boy Damien Hirst to perceive the glitter. Yes, he?s back again with his most daring effort yet showcasing his intrinsic beauty in the shape of a $98M diamond skull named ?For the Love of God?.

diamond-skull1_18
The latest piece is Damien?s most expensive diamond encrusted skull decked with 8,601 sparkling diamonds (worth £12 million), eye and nose sockets filled with hundreds of jewels and a 52-carat pear-shaped stone fixed on the forehead, which is further bordered with 14 diamonds. Critics may view it with a slant eye, as usual, however, we know the artist doesn?t need to prove his hunger for the extraordinary yet awe-inspiring art.

Currently displayed in the White Cube gallery in East London, the breathtaking skull, as Hirst says, is ‘a celebration against death’ and is a platinum replica of a human skull he introduced a couple of years back.

Image Curtsey: Whitecube

Via: CNN

Written by Trend Spotter on June 1, 2007 | No Comments

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Keychain Sized Mini Digital Photo Album

Soban Mini Digital Photo Frame (Images courtesy AVING USA)
By Andrew Liszewski

Korean company Narae has just launched this miniature digital photo album called the ‘Soban.’ A slightly larger screen sets it apart from other keychain albums already on the market and with the 128 MB of internal memory you can expect to store a whopping 7,000 images. Of course that number most likely refers to photos that have already been reduced to the native resolution of the small screen. The other innovation here is a unique design that looks like an actual miniature photo album when the cover is closed. Clearly millions of dollars of R&D money went into perfecting that feature.

The Soban is currently available in Korea but there’s no word on if it will ever make its way to North America.

[ Narae to launch its mini electronic photo album ‘Soban’ ] VIA [ Newlaunches.com ]

Written by Trend Spotter on June 1, 2007 | No Comments

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.