Cool Products from Macworld/iWorld 2013: Part 2 – TidBITS Cool Products from Macworld/iWorld 2013: Part 2 | Polycarbonate Embossed Sheet

The middle-floor galleries end up feeling the nicest, proportion-wise. But the whole building is one narrative. As Federico Pompignoli, OMA’s project manager, has said, the tower is “an attempt at the white cube defying its own boringness.”

Pad & Quill’s snap-on cases are just 0.9 mm thick, claiming to be the “thinnest wood iPhone cases in the world.” and have a Kevlar core to add strength and protection. Made of scratch-resistant, polished wood envelops a Kevlar core for strength and protection. Gorgeous-looking and supposedly tougher than similarly thick steel. Despite that, though, they are supposedly tougher than similarly thick steel.

The LED taillights echo the sophistication of the headlights with an eye-catching 3D appearance. They are complemented by a full-length high-level stop-lamp: hidden-until-lit and with a clear lens, it uses light-guide technology with integrated micro-optics to create smooth, homogeneous light. The LED rear fog lights blend into the sweeping black contrast design as it reaches the rear of the vehicle.

As people stood to leave, Harper Alexander handed Ive an Apple Watch: it was the larger of two sizes, in rose gold, with a band of white rubbery plastic. Ive tied it to his wrist loosely, and it suited him. A few minutes later, he walked outside to a large white shed that had been built as a temporary showroom. There seemed to be an exaggerated heaviness—a miming of responsibility—in Ive’s rolling gait. Referring to three years of work on the watch, he said, “It took a long time and it was very hard.” But the ovations had pleased him. The room was full of reporters and fashion-industry guests—including Lily Cole, the model, wearing a gold Rolex Oyster that her friend Olivier Zahm, the studiedly louche editor of the magazine Purple, Instagrammed before the event was over. (“Sorry Apple,” someone commented.)

In terms of protection, the DualPro would rank near the top of this roundup. It looks unassuming, but all four corners are covered by two layers, and the front lip is beefy. That also helps means it can clear a glass screen protector without issue when put facedown. The buttons are awesome, being tactile and easy to push down. Cutouts are all accurate, and I’m a fan of the subtle black accent around the camera. The only branding is some "INCIPIO" text raised over the silicone layer that sits flush with the hard plastic piece.

These photos, which as an archive go by the nickname “the house tour,” were collected from the websites of practicing Swiss architects and then collated by Alessandro Bosshard, Li Tavor, Matthew van der Ploeg, and Ani Vihervaara, the curators of this year’s Swiss Pavilion, Svizzera 240: House Tour, at the Venice Biennale, before being sequenced into a visual essay by the graphic designer Martin Stoecklin.1 The name of the sequence is based on a skit from the comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which Larry refuses to go on Susie’s house tour, because he thinks they’re predictable (“bedrooms, bathrooms, I get it”), and in the process, just as predictably upsets his host. The pictures presented a research problem, or perhaps rather a puzzle: the more that the pictures were examined, the stranger they seemed. Why did they all look so similar? Who are they for? And what purpose do they serve? The images presented a genre without a manifesto, or even a name. There exist no explicit rules for how they should look, and yet they conform to unspoken norms so closely that they could all have been taken by the same photographer.

If you can live with the rainbow effect (I personally think it makes for an interesting look), this is a great case. If not, just keep in mind that it’ll be pretty difficult to find a clear case at this price point that doesn’t do that. $10.99 (or $11.99 for the Pixel 2′s) is not much money at all for an otherwise great case. Take it easy on the branding, though, Spigen.

“‘Summer Wind’” is the ultimate beach house in the prime location of the Fairfield Beach Road peninsula,” listing agent Edie Baum said. “The location on the peninsula provides magical views and a private sandy beach on the Sound side and a private dock on the picturesque Pine Creek waterway on the other. Surrounded by multi-million dollar beachfront homes, the quality of this home surpasses most.”

Slimline LED fog lights further enhance the Velar’s technology-enabled design and are seamlessly integrated into the lower black feature line that wraps round the vehicle.

Installation is simultaneously straightforward and tedious. It’s straightforward in that you should simply be able to line the camera and the flash up, then fold the edges down to surround the sides of the phone, but it’s a lot more difficult in practice to get these all lined up and centered. This was not helped by the adhesive’s backing having tons of little circles stuck on the adhesive, meaning that I had to painstakingly remove each one (first-world problems, I know). After finally somewhat centering the skin around the USB Type-C port and having all the corners line up, which took about 20 minutes, then applying the little wooden buttons included on a separate sheet (which was pretty easy), I was finished.

Republican members voted 5-3 to pass the proposal. In addition to those voting "present," two Democrats supported the measure; two opposed it.

At first, the designers put little on paper. After years of collaboration, “we just get it,” Ive said. “We know exactly what somebody means.” They first discussed the watch’s over-all architecture, rather than its shape. Ive’s position was that people were “O.K., or O.K. to a degree,” with carrying a phone that is identical to hundreds of millions of others, but they would not accept this in something that’s worn. The question, then, was “How do we create a huge range of products and still have a clear and singular opinion?”