In today’s trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond and Nora Young tell Nora’s colleague he’s got to watch some Preston Sturges movies.

More importantly, Nora talks about Puma’s collaboration with Yves Béhar on the Clever Little Bag. (Via Contagious)

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond thinks things have progressed a little since the Office in a Bucket.  She brings you the fabulous OfficePOD.  Check it out via Inhabitat and let us know what you think.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this podcast for trendwatchers, Nora Young talks about Design for Disassembly (via Core77). She also thinks that Cathi Bond should get a vintage car like this. Meanwhile, Cathi has found this great site for upcycling, superuse (via the always fabulous, Flavorwire)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this first podcast of the new year, Nora Young mentions this article in Technology Review, proposing a possible solution to an intriguing, if chilling, potential problem: once implanted devices are wirelessly enabled, could they be susceptible to hacking?

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond has a great looking product for anyone tired of fighting with an umbrella on a windy day: the Blunt Umbrella.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In today’s trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond talks about this cool innovation: Philips Research is looking at developing e-skin.  Instead of just using this type of ’skin’ for reading newspapers, magazines and books electronically, why not make it cover the whole device, so that you could potentially change its colour? It reminded Nora of something Raphael Grignani has talked about.

Meanwhile, Nora mentions the work of Matt Jones, and his runaway hit, Get Excited and Make Things, a goof on the old, and newly fashionable, Keep Calm and Carry On poster.  You can even buy it for a good cause (via Core 77)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond, lover of all things robotic, reports on an interview with roboticist, Noel Sharkey, about why he thinks robots will never have enough of a nuanced response to fight wars or take care of elderly or ill people (via New Scientist)

Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions QlockTwo, one of a growing number of clocks that display time in unusual ways.  She wonders whether it’s just that we have so many embedded, functional clocks, that we know crave clocks as art. (Via Michael Surtees’ DesignNotes blog)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond says she’s finally over the ’small furniture for small spaces’ trend, with this example. The Paket table is designed to fold out, kind of like furniture origami.  Cathi thinks it looks like treehouse furniture, but Nora likes it.  What do you think?

Meanwhile, Nora revisits a story she talked about in her column, and has talked about on Spark in the past: hyperlocal journalism, and whether it can make a go of it.  She was inspired by this New York Times story on the demise of The Washington Post’s experiment in hyperlocal news.  She wants Cathi’s opinion, and yours! What would you do to fix local newspapers?

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young talks about Jeff Bezos’ vision for the Kindle.  If they can sell you the device, great, but the real game is in selling the books themselves. (Via The New York Times).  Cathi Bond thinks opening up e-books so they are interoperable could create great opportunities for literary mash-ups, a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond found this beautiful concept for a kitchen table, The Rendez-Vous, from Electrolux.  Cook right on the table! Never be banished to the kitchen again! (Via Ubergizmo)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young talks about the blog, Unconsumption, as an example of the broader trend towards making your stuff last longer, hacking it to suit your needs.  Cathi Bond calls it 21st century dumpster diving.  (via Core 77).  It reminded Nora of an interview she did on Spark, with Anil Dash and Gina Trapani, about geeks holding onto their gear longer.

Cathi Bond notes that at the recent International Contemporary Furniture Fair, wood was featured prominently; sort of a dukied-up minimalist meets 70s rec room look. (via Flavorwire)  Nora says it reminds her a lot of the aesthetic you find in contemporary Canadian furniture design, such as what you see at MADE. (Note milk crate!)

How about you? Are you seeing the ‘reduce, reuse’ hack your stuff aesthetic? Are you doing it yourself? Tell us your stories!

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond talks about this very cool solar “power tower” in Spain.  Nora Young mentions that the folks at Dyson applied for a patent on a modular system for kitchen gadgets (via New Scientist).  Will design/gadget hounds resist, or is it part of the simple, elegant solutions we see for small spaces, like Muji?

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young talks about an intriguing research project from the University of Tokyo. Yoichiro Kowaguchi and his team are exploring artificial life by creating organic robot designs that might mimic, say, centipedes, rather than mammals. (via Pink Tentacle).

Plus, Cathi Bond is very jazzed about the AeroCivic, a hacked Honda Civic designed to reduce drag. The designer/hacker is Mike Turner. We’d love to know what car/design savvy listeners think about this project!

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download