This week’s episode of Cool Tools of Doom n’ Stuff is live! Wrap yourself in your Snuggie with a mug of warm yak milk and have yourself a dandy listen! We love our SolidSmack readers! Do you have something cool you’ve come across and want to share it on SolidSmack? Don’t hide it in your neck skin! Send it on in to smoth@www.solidsmack.com. Ready?…..Kick IT!
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The SolidSmack Cool Tools of Doom n’ Stuff is GO. This video is a sub-5 minute feature of the coolest finds we’ve discovered on the web.
This week we look at:
DESIGN
Everyone sketches out a bad idea at some point, but do they have a stylish bin to throw that wadded-up idea into? They do if it’s the Essey Bin Bin Waste Basket by John Brauer. The wastebin’s crinkled polyethelene form resembles a piece of crumpled paper, available in black, white, or red, and can be yours for $52 on Amazon.
The New Black is a Kickstarter Project with a goal of creating a new, worldwide, custom black color. Yes, the project by Graphic Design student Nick Black and Pantone is the first crowd-sourced/ crowd-funded custom color project. Lots of rewards including a bucket of your own black. New Black. Head on over to Kickstarter to see more of this unique project. Nice.
APPS
And speaking of Kickstarter, those crowd-funding fellas just launched their very first app on the iTunes app store. Yes! As if impulse buys couldn’t get any easier…..they just did. The ease of scrolling through various project categories is great news for those looking for funding. Yes the endless-scroll interface allows you to quickly see what’s up in any given category and see what the peeps are up to on Kickstarter, while waiting in line for your latte.
Are you sick of all the toolbars and menu items when it comes time to writing and just need a simple interface to think? Writer is a Chrome Extension that mimics having a typewriter in your browser. Yes, this free extension from Google offers everything you need to work in peace and features multiple export options from PDF to .txt to sharing through email. Word up Jack Torrance!
DIY
Alright, EVERYBODY could use a cool new portable speaker, ammaright? Josh you are right and then some. With this wool-tastic, back-slappin’, thing-a-ma-speaker project you can be the most stylish son-of-a-gun this side of Prospect Park. Yep, this modern craft-style speaker project from Instructable user ‘Helseth’ breaks down how YOU can build a speaker from simple components and customize your exterior finishes—in this case, a clean modern wool wrap. Oh I want one already. Check it out at Instructables under the project title ‘Small Portable Speaker’.
Now I love me a good latte. But when I drink my good latte I need me some good latte art floating in my milk froth—-and up until now I’ve had a heaping mess of ugliness staring up at me from my latte mug. Not anymore my good friend. With this tutorial from SeriousEats, the art of ‘latte art’ is broken down into ten easy steps so that YOU can be a Rosetta-Drawing mastermind in no time with your steamed milk. Now that is how to impress a lady.
ROCK AWESOMENESS
Who here doesn’t like gestural controls? Gesture this! Leap Motion is set to release their gestural interface system here in early May which will support Windows 7 and 8 as well as Mac OS 10.7 and 8 operating systems. According to Leap Motion it is 200 times more accurate than anything else on the market, and is capable of imaging all ten of your stubby digits, with over a 150-degree field of view, at 290 frames per second. $80. Rock.
And finally, for all those Oreo cookie lovers out there who prefer the cookie to the cream WHAAT! WHAAT! Shut the front door. Everybody likes cream more than the cookie, right? Well, physicist David Neevel of Portland, has invented a machine that separates the cookie from the cream… leaving those with a desire for dry, cardboardy taste experiences in a euphoric Oreo bliss. Yes! Be sure to check out the hilarious Maker-parody video on YouTube and get a behind the scenes look at ‘how it’s made’.
What’s on cadjunkie?
We just finished our Remote Control Series and still have our modo Studio Photography series running strong. Keep an eye out for new videos next week! cadjunkie.com.
What’s on Engineer vs Designer?
What’s on EngineerVsDesigner? Loads of cool interviews. Coming up we talk with Chuck Cage of ToolMonger.Com! Listen on iTunes or at EngineervsDesigner.com.
Ask SolidSmack
And there you have it! Send your cool tool finds to smoth@www.solidsmack.com, sign up for our newsletter there in the sidebar or ask us a question in the comments or via email about diy, design, tech or anything else. Smoth would love to help.
