Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Brooklyn Nets’ high-tech arena, the new Myspace, Google Field Trip and more in our look at the web this week
1. Form 1
MIT Media Lab alumni have launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Form 1, a low-cost, high-resolution 3-D printer. Formlabs boasts that the stereolithographic printer produces much sharper, faster and quieter results than comparably priced FDM printers at the touch of a button. A few short days following the launch, the Form 1 has already exceeded its $100,000 goal by tenfold, making it a million-dollar startup.
2. The New Myspace
British designer Aled Lewis called it: Myspace is back. The social networking site recently received a highly anticipated redesign, sporting a cleaner, more user-friendly interface. With no specific launch date set yet, interested parties can browse the promotional videos and tools to learn more of what’s to come.
3. Google Field Trip
Recently announced by Google, the new location-based Field Trip app suggests relevant information about your current surroundings—unprompted. Aside from offering a host of Google-specific services, the app shares information culled from reliable partners such as Curbed, Eater and your very own Cool Hunting.
4. $1 iPhone 5 Dock
Filmmaker and handyman Casey Neistat shows what to do with all of your now obsolete iPhone accessories in a humorous video on how to construct a $1 iPhone 5 dock. His Tom Sachs-like approach may not gain you the most beautiful of docks, but it sure will be fun making it.
5. Underwater Street View
While their API may have been dropped from iOS 6, Google’s mapping team is continuing to innovate with new features. This week, the company introduced a new Street View experience that lets couch surfers explore the Great Barrier Reef. Schools of fish, tortoises and miles of choral shine in the panoramic images.
6. The Water We Eat
Angela Morelli’s sleek, interactive infographic breaks down the notion of “virtual water,” or the water needed to produce goods we use and food we eat. By scrolling down the screen, the infographic brings up data and demonstrative visuals, all of which are used to give advice on how to use less of the key resource. The conclusion? Eat less meat.
7. An Instrument for the Sonification of Everyday Things
Getting creative with contour data, designer Dennis P. Paul presents an electronic system that can make music out of anything. Random materials are skewered to a teched-out rotisserie, and the spinning objects are then read by a “precision rangefinding laser” that converts silhouettes into sounds.
8. Smack A Candidate
Smack A Candidate is taking the political race to Twitter in a clever way, allowing people to voice opinions, show support and ask questions. Prompted to either #smackromney or #smackobama, with each Tweet written a “punch” is delivered to the desired candidate. The Smack A Candidate website keeps full track of punches received, and sets matches on specific days, all leading up to the 6 November 2012 election.
9. Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy
In an interesting attempt to commemorate the death and legacy of John F. Kennedy, The Dallas Museum of Art is exhibiting works that graced the walls of Kennedy’s Texas hotel suite in Forth Worth just before his assassination. The specially-selected works hung for his visit span paintings by Van Gogh to a sculpture by Picasso.
10. Day Zero
Set to culminate at 6:11pm on 21 December 2012, the exact time the oft-mentioned Mayan calendar calls an end to the current “World Age,” the 24 hour Day Zero party in Mexico’s Playa Del Carmen looks to be one for the ages. With a stacked lineup of musicians and mind-melting visuals, the party will likely take on a Burning Man-esque vibe, so get prepared.
11. Hear Heres
Listening to the sounds of nature in a way that allows for the experimentation and freedom of play is the premise for “Hear Heres,” an installation created by the architects at Studio Weave. Four massive trumpets turn the grounds of Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, England into an interactive soundscape.
12. Brooklyn Nets’ Barclays Center
The recent unveiling of the much-anticipated Brooklyn Nets’ Barclays Center finally gives Brooklynites something to talk about other than Jay-Z. Laying claim as the most technologically advanced stadium in the world, the venue features free Wi-Fi supporting LTE and 3G, as well as 8,000 square feet of LED signage and a three-story 1080p HD megaton TV suspended at center court.
