~Paracelsus

I’ve just been emailed a link to this wonderfully ingenious clock by Dutch designer Christiaan Postma. He explains “The starting point with this project was a personal study about form & time. I put together more than 150 individual clockworks and made them work together to become one clock. I show the progress of time by letting the numbers be written in words by the clockworks.”

The clock was on show as part of the annual Design Academy Eindhoven student show at Spazio Rossana Orlandi. It’s a very engaging clock, one I could happily watch for quite sometime, which I suppose is the point - this clock makes you think about time and it’s passing, rather than just remember you’re running late for that meeting.

Speaking of which…

The past few weeks have been a real test of my willpower - first, Di at Designers’ Block introduced me to Michael Michaud’s amazing nature inspired jewelry.

Water Lilies brooch, inspired by the painting of the same name by Claude Monet.

Then Register Hardware brought the Mobile Watch - complete with camera, Wi-Fi, 512MB memory card and GPS satnav - to my attention too:

As a result I had to spend a few minutes quietly repeating to myself ‘there is a big difference between wanting and affording’ before I could be trusted near the computer (or my purse!)
I think the major problem was that with these items combined my latest desires would have allowed me to feel like a bond girl and the agent himself simultaneously - a very tempting combination!

Fortunately Susie over at Style Bubble has bought a more affordable temptation to me - the East End Thrift Shop - and Dezeen have given me another affordable distraction by bringing the Rolf Sachs ‘ Take2′ exhibition to my attention and, thanks to the clever Mr Clayton, I have The Cans Festival to check out too!

So much to see but not to buy…

Here’s a bit of an LG Blog exclusive - Jeremy Newing, LG Mobile’s UK Marketing Manager, talking about the Secret and his ideas for the future of LG Mobile, at the bloggers’ event we held to launch the LG Secret last week:

We also managed to collar John Barton, UK Sales and Marketing manager, as he spoke with Helen at the official press conference for the Secret’s release:

These videos and more (such as an interview with Simon Perry of Digital Lifestyles) on our brand new LG Blog UK YouTube channel, which succeeds the LG Viewty one we had last year.

Of course, we’re not the only ones who’ve been on about the Secret, or indeed videoed about it. Over at Tech Digest Susi has a video review (showing off the tempered glass front). Simon at Zath, Stephen at Gadgeteer and Al at Coolest Reviews both previews the phone - Al especially highlights the m-toy aspects, which I remember a lot of people enjoying at the event. In fact that’s one of the best things about it - was seeing how everyone enjoyed themselves in using the phone, something that I hope we’ll see as more detailed reviews come out in the coming weeks…

Last Friday we had the pleasure of some of the UK’s top tech and style bloggers at an exclusive event at London’s May Fair Hotel to have a look at the new LG Secret (KF750). A good crowd turned up, and as well as meeting us in the flesh, they got a chance to hear from Jeremy Newing, UK head of marketing for LG Mobile.

Jeremy first went through the phone’s features with a presentation, and then he fielded a really engaging Q&A with the audience, talking about the progress LG Mobile have made, LG’s plans for the future, including more open development for our phones, collaborating with users more, and designing phones with “Web 2.0″ in mind. After that our guests got a chance to try the phones hands-on.

I won’t go into to too much detail, as I think it’s best to read what the bloggers there thought instead, so why not check them out - from SMS Text News, Gaj-It and one part truth. There’ll be more to come (including video of the event) over the coming week, so keep an eye out for more…

Today in London, we revealed the name of the third in the LG Black Label line of phones - the LG Secret. The Secret (KF750) is a slender & stylish handset with a slew of enriched technological features, including a 5MP ISO 800 camera, a 120fps QVGA video camera and DivX-certified recording and playback. The camera also boasts a range of filters and modes, as well as on-camera photo editing.

The phone has a touchscreen and an accelerometer motion sensor. It also has auto luminance control, adjusting the screen brightness automatically, saving both battery life and making it more comfortable for your eyes. Inside, the phone boasts an MP3 player and FM radio, a reader for Word, Excel and Powerpoint and is loaded with a specialised Google Package that with a dedicated interface for Google services such as GMail, Google Maps, YouTube and Blogger. It also has Bluetooth AutoSync to synchronise data seamlessly with your PC, and on the fun side a range of games that hook into the motion sensor.

With the philosophy of “style that lasts”, it’s been made out of some of toughest materials around, including carbon fibre and tempered glass, with neon touch navigation buttons that gently light up the interface.

For more information, you can download the press release or the feature list. More photos and coverage can be found in our sneak peak post from a couple of weeks ago, or on the dedicated microsite at secret.lgmobile.com

Update: We have some video of the phone too. Enjoy:

Over at TechDigest comes this nice laptop pillow, to not only stop your laptop digging into your legs but help keeping it cooler and not burning your legs. TechDigest raves about the log one (pictured below) which I like a lot for its colour and playfulness. However it’s not the only one - check out the whole range - the variety is what I like, something for those who prefer the functional as well as design lovers.

Laptop pillows are nothing new - PCWorld blogs about a nice design for those laden with accessories - you can pop your mouse or external drives & cables into the pocket beneath. Of course you don’t have to splash the cash - you can go with a DIY approach instead - the comments section on this Lifehacker post is a great selection of homebrew laptop rest solutions. So whatever you want, if you’re suffering from a hot or heavy laptop on your knees, there’s no reason to put up with it at all.

Thanks to Product Reviews for the news that Ricky Gervais is to appear in Grand Theft Auto IV:

The comedian will play himself in the game as he is a stand up act performing in the comedy club in Liberty City. Going into this comedy club might just be a welcome break while you hang out and have a rest, and you will also be able to watch Gervais as he performs some new material that he has written especially for Grand Theft Auto 4.

Although the thought of Rick Gervais in a latex suit for the 3D modelling process is a little distracting, the bit about performing new material is what really got me interested. Games have been incorporating other form of entertainment for some time - for example GTA is famous for the range of radio stations you cam ‘tune in’ to while playing & slaying, both classics and exclusive music. But comedy’s a new one for me, and to go to the effort of accurately modelling Ricky Gervais and asking him to write new material for it, sets a new standard for the future. Will the comedy stage tour soon be thing of the past as comedians go entirely virtual and tour different games and 3D worlds?

Speaking of video game music, and seeing it’s the weekend, courtesy of BB Gadgets here’s a wonderful video of a remote control car playing the Mario theme on wine bottles. Trust me, it makes sense once you see it:

37 years ago today the Apollo 13 splash landed in the Pacific Ocean four days after an oxygen tank explosion in space which spawned on of the most endlessly misquoted quotes: “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”

Apollo 13 was supposed to land in the Fra Mauro area but the explosion 3 days into the mission forced Apollo 13 to circle the moon without landing. In case you aren’t familiar with the plight of Apollo 13, everyone survived.

It’s safe to say they didn’t enjoy the ride though - there was a lack of food, water and power, making sleep almost impossible because of the cold, it was also calculated that the crew would run out of water - needed both for them and for the cooling systems - before reentry. As a result the crew had to be very strict in their conservation of their resources and became severely dehydrated, they also set a record among all the Apollo missions: the crew lost a total of 31.5 pounds, nearly 50 percent more than any other crew. Probably not the kind of fame they had hoped for!

On the subject of technological failures, I’m sure we’ve all had our share of nightmare gadgets. Wired’s readership certainly have and they’ve decided they’re not going to take it lying down! Check out Wired’s Top 10 Gadget Revenge killings if you’re brave enough… I’m not sure it’s safe viewing for the technologically squeamish - I feel a bit more protective of my gadgets now!

Matthew at Gadget review bought this to my attention yesterday, the new USB Mirror Card Reader:

Yes, for the woman on the go who needs to know she looks good and can read that card anywhere… It’s an interesting choice of pairing and it certainly hasn’t been done before but I’m not sure there’s really a market for this, is there?

The mirror is able to read different types of memory cards, including MicroSD, T-Flash, SD, Memory Stick Duo, and can be yours for just $15.

Personally I think I’ll stick with the mirror I already own and get the slightly cheaper Pocket-sized Memory Card reader ($10) instead. Although perhaps the attraction is in knowing you can do a sly teeth/lippy check while looking like you’re doing something with the card reader, which could be handy at lunch meetings.

Blast.. I think I’m talking myself into wanting one now!

Last week LG announced the ‘Viewtyful World’ online photo contest, which runs until 11th June. The eight-week contest is running in association with Yahoo, Flickr, Kelkoo, and National Geographic magazine which features some of the highest-quality photojournalism in the world.

The competition was devised to provide opportunities to explore the spaces surrounding our lives and rediscover the wonders and attractions of these worlds through photography.

You can enter the contest through the Viewty site on Flickr, you can also see others entries and vote for your favourites!

There are three Viewty phones on offer as weekly prizes - two of which will be decided by the online votes and the best photo will be selected by a renowned National Geographic photographer.

The grand winner - chosen from eight candidates selected through evaluation by National Geographic magazine - will have the honour of seeing his/her prize-winning work featured in a Viewty advertorial in National Geographic magazine and receive a copyright fee of US $10,000 for his or her work. Kerching!

For more information visit the Microsite.