Multitasking is impossible to escape in today’s world. As humans, we’ve always had the desire to stay connected to the people around us. Now that technology has made this easier than ever, we’ve developed a fear of urgency that any given phone call, email, or text might be really important. Multitasking is necessary but it can be dangerous in some situations.

Designer: Michael Roller

The Natural Radio concept is a bit convoluted in its approach changing volume and frequency. Instead of dials or buttons, it uses a scale. By placing stones on either sides of the scale, you have organic control over radio. Functionality isn’t really the idea here. This is clearly an attempt to humanize a device that pretty much revolutionized communication. Can you image how many stones you’d have to pack on to get the right volume.

Designer: Cheol-Ki Jo

One of the biggest issues with USB peripherals is the protruding nature of any design. From a Bluetooth adaptor to the tiniest of Flash Memory Drives, they all stick out like a sore thumb(drive). This issue with these protrusions is not just aesthetics, but function. USB peripherals are constantly being accidentally ripped out, knocked off or jammed into your computer causing not only damage to the external item but the computer’s USB plug itself.

Designer: Damjan Stankovic

Mommie’s breast milk is still the best solution for a baby’s health but dang it those rascals hurt mommies sometimes with their teething. Breast pumps have been around for awhile but this one take the cake in terms of design and even function. Besides looking slick, the nozzle pivots since nipples are in (eh hem) different places. What’s really interesting (kinda scary too) are the 3 suction settings. Am I the only one thinking what the highest setting feelings like?

Designer: Miji Rhoe

Who needs fingerprints, retinal scanners, and other biometric do-dads? When it comes to security a rubik’s cube is all you need (not really). This Color Cube allows the user to create their own color combination in lieu of the usual text based password. Whenever you need to verify your identity, just solve your rubik’s cube.

Designer: Cheng-Li Hung

Snap! It’s a USB flash drive that looks like a domino but the disguise serves a purpose. Each white dot denotes 1 gig of memory used. Not sure how useful that is but at least you’ll be ready for an impromptu street corner game of dominos.

Designer: Marcos Breder

Oh look, another use for RFID tags! The WineTeller is a fancy wine opener smart enough to read RFID enabled corks! The embedded LCD display translates “wine language” into laymen terms because not everybody knows what a coulure or vignoble means.

Designer: Samgmin Bae

Having the latest in technology is great-every gadget you can think of all the better. Yet with those tech pieces comes a wired mess. Studio Manzano has designed a couple of new products to help out with the messy tangled wires that may be on display in your home. The Powerblock, is a shield that hides all of the tangled mess of wires connected to all of your gadgets.

Designer: Studio Manzano

Sometimes nails are too short and small for our fingers to hold and we end up with swollen thumbs. The Nail Cushion is a rubberized plate that holds various nail diameters to allow an easy and safe strike. By default the plate also helps drive the nail straight in. No more swollen thumbs and safe enough for Tim Allen to use.

Designer: Arthur Se

I suck at rolling dice. If the game requires it, I know I’ll come in last. It’s like some celestial power is inhibiting any positive chance I have in what’s supposed to be a random result. Although maybe it’s because I’m a person of the computer age and numeric dice are just so yesterday to me. That’s where Jaehyung Hong’s keyboard dice come in.

Designer: Jaehyung Hong