I know I’ve been posting some really cool conceptual items for the pieces of fabulous, but this week I’m going to come back down to earth and feature something that you can actually go out and buy right now.  This week’s piece of fabulous is – the iPhone 4 Bumper.  I was inspired to write about this wonderful overpriced piece of plastic when I dropped my iPhone 4 for the first time today.  Having heard about the reception issues the day before, on launch day I picked up a Bumper with my new iPhone 4.  Since then the Bumper has hardly left the phone’s side, save for a couple of times I took it off to show people the beauty of the design of the phone itself.  Now the only time I take the bumper off is when I’m in the car and I want to put my phone in my TomTom car kit.  While it’s a pain to pop it on and off, I’ve gotten into the habit of taking off and putting on the Bumper whenever I get in and out of my car.  Well I was in a hurry today and decided to skip putting the bumper back on when i got out of my car to run some errands.  I was walking back to my car when I decided to whip out my phone to look something up, I guess I whipped it out too fast and, in slow motion, the phone began to slip from my fingers, it bobbled around in my hands as I tried to get a grip on it but alas, it dropped to the cement (causing a surprising sound of plastic hitting the ground – I was expecting a glass or metal-on-cement sound). After getting over my initial shock I picked up the phone and inspected it carefully.  The damage was much less than I was expecting, the only areas that were scuffed where the edges of the hard plastic on the back corners of the phone.  ”Hmm”, I thought, “right about where my bumper would have been”.  And that, my friends is how the iPhone 4 Bumper became the Piece of Fabulous for the week.  Yes, it’s overpriced but it provides the most crucial protection – to the sides and corners of the phone.  Add in the fact that it mitigates the antenna issues and you have yourself a fabulous case.  If you recently bought an iPhone 4 and don’t have a Bumper, don’t forget to order by September 30th and you’ll get it for free – thanks Steve!

Do you have an Bumper?  What do you think about it?  What’s your favorite case? Let us know in the comments.

Yanko Design is fast becoming a favorite site of mine for finding unique design concepts, I found this week’s piece of fabulous after perusing their site.  A word of warning before you get too excited about this, it’s just a concept but what a concept it is.  So here’s the deal, Electrolux, (the maker of household appliances that Kelly Ripa dances around in those commercials reminiscent of the fifties) created a contest for industrial design students.  The challenge was to come up with efficient space saving household appliances that could be used in urban dwellings in the year 2050.  After receiving hundreds of submissions they picked the top 8.  While all of the designs are innovative and downright cool, the one that caught my (and Yanko Design’s) eye was the Dismount Washer.

Designed by an industrial design student from China - Lichen Guo, the dismount washer is  a portable, personal clothes washer.  The design is such that it can be hung on a wall or easily transported.  Here’s the idea, instead of using a bulky space consuming washing machine, use the Dismount Washer to clean your clothes anywhere there is an “energy stick”.  What’s an energy stick?  Well it is the attachment that provides the steam to wash your clothes.  With a touch screen control panel at the end, the energy stick is installed on a wall.  To actually get your clothes clean you would attach the Dismount Washer to the ”energy stick”, use the touch screen display to adjust the wash settings and voila! you’re washing clothes.

The two things I really like about this design?  First and foremost the amount of space that’s saved (although one thing that’s not mentioned is how many clothes the washer can clean in one cycle), it would be great if I could make some more room in my laundry area.  Second, I don’t know much about water and energy consumption but I do know that usually when the appliance is smaller it requires less energy to run.  That being said, and considering this machine was designed with the future in mind, this seems to be an economical and energy efficient piece of equipment.

Special thanks to Yanko Design for writing about this design and good luck to Lichen Guo!  To see the top 8 designs from the contest check out the video below.

What do you think about the design?  Would you buy one if they were being manufactured today?  Let us know in the comments.

This week’s piece of fabulous is brought to you by Heininger Automotive.  The CommuteMate Instacloth is a small, pill sized (about the size of an Altoids mint) compact piece of cloth that, when wet, expands to a 9″ x 9″ cloth perfect for cleaning up minor spills.  These micro-cleaning devices are perfect for people on the go, throw them in your purse, your emergency kit or your car and you’ll be ready for any spill.  These are advertised to be used in your car to clean up any spills on the road but it can be used for so many other purposes, how many times have you spilled coffee in your cubicle?  I’ve found myself needing to clean up quickly after a spill many times (this could be purely due to my lack of coordination).  The fact that these are are so compact makes them the ideal accessory for traveling, camping, your car, your office, or an emergency kit.  You can find these nifty cloths on Amazon for $9 for a pack of 32 however I’ve heard that you can find very similar products for much cheaper so shop around if you don’t want to shell out the $9.

Have you used these?  What do you think?  Let us know in the comments.

So, without further ado, today’s piece of fabulous is: the armrest mousepad.  This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” products.  The armrest is exactly as the name describes, an armrest with a mousepad at the end of it.  With your mouse pad attached directly to your armrest on your work chair prevents you from having to reach to maneuver your mouse, and, I’m not an expert but I can only imagine it’s more ergonomic than using the mouse on the desktop in front of you.  For someone who’s on a computer as much as I am, I’m always interested in finding ways to remain comfortable while working for long stretches.  This armrest seems to be something that would be great for me (and anyone else who spends the majority of their day in front of their computers).  The armrest attaches to almost any office chair, you can even attach it to a desk if you like.  Throw in the removable and washable mousepad and for about $43 you’ve got yourself a great addition to a more comfortable, ergonomically designed work area.

iOS4

This week’s piece of fabulous is brought to you by Jabra. They have recently released a new bluetooth headphone set, the Jabra Halo. I was first introduced to the product through CrunchGear. The headset seems to be thin, lightweight and portable, the qualities necessary for a usable bluetooth headset. It is compatible with iPhones which, for me, is always a plus. Some other great features:
Touch sensitive controls – Control all the functions of the device with only two touch sensitive buttons
Portable – the headphones fold to become more compact and portable
Pairability – can pair with up to two devices
Superior sound – top notch sound quality as well as 2 noise canceling microphones for better communication
Overall the device looks not only sleek, but functional. While it’s retailing for $130, I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this new device in my quest to replace my horrible in-ear wired headphones.

What’s your favorite type of headphone?  Let us know in the comments.

We’re starting a new segment here at Geekulous. Every friday I will be sharing my favorite piece of fabulous from the week. These posts will be brief and can include a number of different interesting things. My favorite piece of fabulous could be an event, a news story, a gadget, basically anything that I found to be interesting (that I think you would too) and exciting from the week. You never know what interesting piece of fabulous you’ll see on Fabulous Friday! So enjoy this post and look forward to seeing cool new posts filled with fabulousness every Friday!

This week’s Piece of Fabulous is Nokia’s vision of mixed reality. I’ve posted about augmented reality and, as the possibility of a tablet grows ever closer, augmented reality software is quickly taking over as my new favorite that I’m looking forward to seeing more of.  While the Nokia video isn’t technically augmented reality (the overlayed images aren’t really “augmenting” reality) it is still pretty cool.

Nokia made a short concept video depicting how we may see augmented reality technology used in the future. The thought of taking augmented reality out of the smartphones and expanding it to other devices is very exciting. While I love the concept, it’s just that right now, a concept – so there are some kinks that obviously need to be worked out (like when using eye gaze navigation, what happens when you move your eyes to look at something else beyond the glasses?) and physical devices actually produced but nonetheless it is a great video. Enjoy.



What do you think of how augmented reality will be used in the future? Tell us in the comments.