Punk Smurf pens a bilingual blog

Heh-heh-heh… This design has been screen printed in teal onto a lovely soft cotton tea towel, the perfect message for your lazy loved ones! Price: $14.73 … the look on their face … priceless!

I’m a sucker for designer stuff, and I like ogling them. OutNext.com is one of the sites I ogle at from time to time.

The following are two from the things that appealed to me:

5 Franklin Place is located in the heart of Tribeca.

With prices ranging from $959.000 to $16.000.000 for a triplex with rooftop terrace, you will have to add a nice $6.371 monthly common charges! All pricing detail here and all floor-plans here.

The 20 stories building will contain 55, one, two, three and four bedroom units that will be set up as duplex lofts on the lower floors, single-level city residents above plus three triplex penthouses each with a rooftop terrace and serviced by private internal elevators.

The building designed by Dutch architect Ben van Berkell of UNStudio, will be wrapped in a series of horizontal black metallic bands each of which ungulates as it curves around and hugs the frame of the structure. The façade is apparently a direct tribute to the original 19th century built form of cast iron that shaped lower Manhattan and the metallic surface will reflect light while highlighting the magnificence of the neighboring buildings. The master bathrooms of the upper units will feature a circular sliding wall that allows the bathroom to become part of the bedroom and share its spectacular city views.

If you decide to buy one the triplex penthouses please feel free to contact me, I am your new best friend

Blue Earth is the first solar powered full touch screen cell phone which beautifully designed by Samsung. By charging with the solar panel located on the back of the phone, users can generate enough electronic power to call anytime anywhere.

This cell phone is made from recycled plastic called PCM, which is extracted from water bottles, helping to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions in the manufacturing process. Samsung Blue Earth mobile phone and the charger are free from harmful substances such as Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate.

+ Samsung Mobile

Earlier this week I saw a report in the Globe and Mail on flip phones by Blackberry. I admit that even though I liked the possibilities a Blackberry has, I never really considered getting one. I’m one of those people who carries their cell in a pocket of their jeans/pants. So, yes, I prefer a flip phone over any other model. However, the report on the new Blackberry phone made me very glad:

The BlackBerry is getting a new look as a flip phone, a design that its maker Research In Motion Ltd. hopes will appeal to the North American consumer market that seems to prefer the shape.

Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said the new BlackBerry Pearl Flip is the company’s first smartphone to deviate from the familiar rectangle shape.

“I am not aware of another flip phone in the smartphone category,” Mr. Balsillie told The Canadian Press in an interview. “I would expect, and that’s just a personal expectation, that it would go more to the consumer market.”

The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip

Mr. Balsillie said about 70 per cent of cellphone users in the United States use flip phones, a market he said is underserved by RIM in the smartphone category.

“The flip is traditionally more of a consumer-preferred form factor. We will see soon enough. We have no doubt that it’s an underserved market.”

While he didn’t have any figures available for flip phone use in Canada, Mr. Balsillie expects its use would parallel the U.S. situation. In Canada, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip will run exclusively on the Rogers Wireless GSM network.

Photos and details of the BlackBerry flip phone were revealed on the Internet at the beginning of May with the Boy Genius Report website reporting at the time the design and functions of the new flip phone and that it would be out in the fall.

Mr. Balsillie said the phone could also appeal to business users, but it will be a choice because “form factor is a personal thing.”

The new clamshell smartphone has the familiar BlackBerry function of secure push email. It can be used to make calls, browse the Internet, take a picture, watch a video or listen to music. It’s also Wi-Fi enabled and has all functions of a smartphone.

It has a hinge that separates the keyboard from the screen to maximize space for the Suretype keyboard and trackball.

The new phone is the successor to the BlackBerry Pearl, which launched two years ago. Both models have 20 keys and double up some letters on each key, in contrast to the wider, more professionally oriented models that have more keys and assign only one letter to each key.

But Mr. Balsillie, who was speaking on his BlackBerry Bold, said the “guts are the same. It’s still a BlackBerry.”

BlackBerry and competitor Apple, maker of the iPhone, are often compared and it’s generally noted they are each trying to compete in the consumer and business markets. But, Mr. Balsillie said RIM has more than 50 per cent of the smartphone market in the United States.

“The one consistency is that they always get defined vis a vis BlackBerry,” Mr. Balsillie said of his competitors.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky wrote a research note on the flip phone last May when it was only a rumour.

“It shows RIM is unafraid of reinventing itself to target competitive opportunities,” Mr. Abramsky wrote at the time. “In our view, RIM is positioning itself for significantly larger market opportunities beyond its traditional base,” he wrote.

Mr. Abramsky had said the flip phone would be aimed at North American consumers and go head-to-head with mass market phone vendors such as Motorola or Samsung.

“The clamshell BlackBerry is likely aimed at expanding Blackberry’s addressable consumer market opportunity.”

I only hope that the Blackberry flip phone is not a humongous thing like the “regular” one (and not ridiculously expensive). If so, I would seriously consider getting that one - if the time’s come to replace my current cell with a new one.