With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from a Ferro Fluid-based clock and a cookie cutter that doubles as a hairstyle tool to a couple of apps from Google’s new Android Experiments platform, how to shave with an axe and more… Ready? Let’s go! This week we look at: DESIGN Ferrolic “Ferrolic was designed from a strong fascination for the magical material Ferro Fluid. The natural dynamics of this fluid makes that this display bridges the gap between everyday digital screens and tangible…

When you already have Tim Cook as an investor before heading into a Kickstarter campaign, chances are you’ve already got a winner on your hands. At least, this has been the case for a group of enthusiastic shower aficionados who are already making a splash on Kickstarter with their Nebia Shower. Led by CEO Philip Winter, whose prior experience at a startup building waterless toilets for the developing world provided a foundation for spearheading water-saving products, the Nebia Shower team have created a shower system that atomizes water into millions of tiny droplets that creates a far more efficient blast of water than existing systems – ten times greater to…

Time for another round of apps that cover the spectrum of your beloved mobile device, be it iPhone, Android or Windows! The Weekly App Smack is the best of design and productivity apps (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list sure to make you more efficient. This week we have an impressive ‘virtual beaker’ for mixing a variety of chemicals (hey, it could come in handy), a new video recorder app for gaining full control over your device’s filming capabilities, an update to the popular CARROT robotic weather app, the release of Onshape on Android…

Back in February of this year, we reported that the new $35 Raspberry Pi 2 would include a copy of Windows 10 for free – we just didn’t know when. Well, today is that day. In a new post on the Windows Blog, Steve Teixeira, Microsoft’s Director of Management for Microsoft’s IoT Team, announced that the company has officially released the pubic version of Windows IoT Core, their pared-down version of Windows 10 which was engineered to be used with the Raspberry Pi 2 and the Minnowboard Max. Windows 10 IoT Core is a new edition of the popular operating system that is specifically targeted towards the growing amount of…

This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week we’ll start off with “Next to You” from Poolside and work our way through some Com Truise, El Ten Eleven, Depeche Mode, Caribou and others before wrapping up with “It Is What It Is” from Blood Orange. As always – do you have any suggestions for next week’s…

For most of us, a dropped ceramic mug or plate might mean a one-way ticket for the broken vessel to the trash bin. For Tokyo-based designer Yusuke Seki however, they would likely be added to his collection of ‘shinikiji’ – the Japanese term for flawed pieces. Recently, the Japanese designer – who has worked with everybody from AU to Sony – was commissioned by the Japanese ceramics brand Maruhiro Inc to develop the interior design for the company’s flagship store in Nagasaki – an area that has strong roots in artisanal ceramic craft and industry. Aiming to highlight the area’s industrial history, Seki sourced over 25,000 pieces of shinikiji from…