Cool Hunting

Name Voyager
The Name Voyager, from Baby Name Wizard, is a fascinating visualization of the US Social Security Administration's historical database of names. Enter part or all of any name and this little Java application will dynamically plot how many babies were given that name during each decade, instantly giving you a sense of when (if ever) that name was popular. I already knew Josh was...

MusicPlasma: Look at the Pretty Bubbles
Looking for new music based on your current tastes? MusicPlasma lets you search on any band or artist and it returns a family tree-like display with other bands or musicians closely related to the original search term. For instance, put in Coldplay and artists like Radiohead, Travis, White Stripes and the Strokes pop up. Enter Madonna and the obvious come up: J.Lo, Britney, Justin,...

Mappr
Mappr, developed by Stamen Design, is a place based interface to the Flickr photo database that enables a new slant on photo viewing and provides some relatively fascinating ethnographic research. You can search for images by keyword, date or region. For now it only shows the images in the Mappr Flickr group, but in the Spring it should be up and running with all...

Monome
Since the multi-use controller Monome first came out a few years back, it's slowly gained a cult following thanks to its attractive and flexible design. If you're unfamiliar with the device, the Monome is an ultra-tactile, interactive and adaptable MIDI interface that takes advantage of open-source software to manipulate any number of musical parameters. With a pleasing grid-based design, the programmable buttons function as...

mStation Orb
I swear I'm not that big of a nerd, but anything that kind of reminds me of Star Wars is just totally awesome, especially when it happens to look like the Death Star. The Orb from mStation is just that, a sleek and stylish "Made for iPod" desktop docking station/speaker system that, just like the name suggest, is an orb that packs a powerful...