Fighting back against "Vertical Videos"

Count me among the many who have a pet peeve for vertical videos - those taken in portrait orientation with mobile phones. It's not users' fault: they're innocently holding their phones in the most natural and comfortable way! Nope, it's the design of the software, which doesn't have to allow this travesty in devices with high-res cameras and orientation sensors. Horizn is an app that smartly keeps the video always landscape and level, but this problem won't be truly abolished until it's the default functionality of the camera!
[via Engadget]

Flip Cup, a double-duty bathroom accessory

You need a rinsing cup in your bathroom, you need a toothbrush stand in your bathroom, so why not combine them? Flip Cup does just that, while cleverly allowing the cup to dry with its curved lip exposing the interior while upside down. The minty-green color is a nice thematic cue to fresh breath (the whole thing looks like a freeze-frame of sloshing mouthwash), but any grime that accumulates inside the toothbrush holder may compromise that clean feeling!
[via Gizmodo]

Ultra vs Super vs Micro

A recent project needed some sanding with 3M Sanding Sponges, and I discovered a flaw in their system. You can see the three grades: Microfine, Ultrafine, and Superfine. Okay... so which is roughest and which is finest? Those three words have no default relation to each other, so the labels become useless. Adding a number to the label would help, which I did later with a Sharpie - and for the record, from roughest to finest (according to their website) it's Super, then Ultra, then Micro. Now I'm just waiting for them to develop an even finer grade - which they'll call Super-Micro? Ultra-Micro? Super-Duper-Ultra-Micro??

Blind Minder: Green home automation

Home thermostats usually control temperature only by turning on power-consuming furnaces or air conditioners. But there are other power-free ways to heat or cool a house: opening and closing windows, curtains, and blinds. Despite being greener and lower-cost, these methods are used less simply because they're not automated - it takes conscious effort to apply them. So, Make published a DIY project that controls mini blinds automatically based on temperature - it's simple, effective, has the potential to save money and energy. I sincerely hope that soon it'll lower the barrier even further by becoming a ready-to-install home product!
[Make via Lifehacker]

21st-Century Bedside Clock

I'm staying in a hotel as I write this, and I'll tell you one thing: I'm not using my room's alarm clock. It's some feature-packed beast that I don't know how to use, and I don't want to learn - my phone will work just fine, thank you. Of course, that means I had to dig behind the bedside table to find an outlet to plug in my phone charger.  It's people like me who must be target users for this bedside clock, which swaps out the alarm (de-emphasized or perhaps not even present) for two gloriously convenient USB charging ports. Add a simple LED clock for midnight time checks, and leave all the other features behind - I don't need them. Welcome to the 21st century!
[via Gizmodo]

Design for Digital Mortality

One interesting aspect of the newness of digital services and accounts is that not much thought has been put into former users who are... no longer alive. Eventually, users and companies should should consider the inevitable: who will inherit your iTunes and Kindle libraries? What will happen to your Facebook page and Twitter feed? I'm not sure about those companies, but Google's got a plan with its Inactive Account Manager. Without ever mentioning death explicitly, the system offers the steps you'd want to consider, enabling you to automatically notify contacts, share data, and delete the account entirely.  It's good forward thinking - because in this case, a little late is definitely too late!
[via Engadget]

Situation-Specific Design: Sony's Prison Radio

Most of the attention in gadget design goes to the latest and greatest high-tech toys for first-world consumers - but that's not the only customer who can benefit from thoughtful design. The audio player of choice in prisons isn't cloud-based, streaming, MP3, or even CDs: it's the simple Sony SRF-39FP AM/FM radio. It features a clear housing so it won't be broken open to check for contraband; it eschews anything fancy, like digital reception, to conserve power and deliver more listening time for the prisoner's battery purchase.  And of course, as a radio it comes with a built-in range of never-ending free content. The right design choices for the situation are what makes it, as the New Yorker's Joshua Hunt writes, The iPod of Prison.
[via Gizmodo]