“Getting things done” isn’t just matter of taking care of business, but it’s a mindset. Meet Things by Cultured Code, an application that is so simple and well designed that it is genuinely beneficial to any designer’s / creative’s / professionals workflow. Available for Mac OSX for $49, iPad ($20), and iPhone ($10).
Scandyna Retro Modern Speakers
Speakers tend to be ugly black boxes with cloth fronts, so we featured Joey Roth’s beautiful ceramic speakers before, but let’s get a little more crazy. Scandyna Speakers produces some of the most unique looking speakers available—while still providing high quality sound. Driven by the in-speaker acoustics, the organic shape of speakers is as striking as it is functional. Prices for their most popular speakers range from $100 to $700.
FitBit
Everyone knows they should exercise – in fact, some don’t even need to but want to track their activity anyways. Meet FitBit. FitBit completely stays out of your life by being as unobtrusive as possible – just a little bit bigger than a stick of gum. Powered by the same tools found in your Wii Remote and with an amazingly beautiful set of data visualizations to check-in on your activity online, FitBit is a steal for $99.
Vita Audio R4
There’s a lot of iPod docks out there. In an early discussion about starting Needs/Wants, there were jokes made about posting iPhone docks. Here we are, posting an iPod dock. The one and only (hopefully), because this is a beauty. A bit pricy at £599 (about $900 US), the Vita Audio R4 is a beautiful combination of mid-century design merged with high quality sound. The R4 is available in a walnut or white finish and is under 18 inches wide. Putting out 80 watts of clear sound, this is the iPod dock for those who need something as nice to look at as it is to listen to.
Square
Running a small store? Freelance business? Pushing your wares on the streets? Accepting credit cards tends to be something out of reach of most tiny business owners. But if you have an iPhone, Square is here to change that. With a small device that plugs in to your phone you can accept credit card transactions anywhere, email or text a receipt to your customer, and all with no monthly fees. This is what technology should be doing, making our lives easier, and this most certainly alleviates some heavy costs and hardware.
Panasonic GF-1
Feel limited by your compact digital cameras, but also intimidated by larger, professional DSLRs? Look no further than the Panasonic GF-1. A hybrid of sorts, the GF-1 uses the Micro Four-Thirds lens system, which allows the camera to retain a small, compact body, while also utilizing professional grade, interchangeable lenses—in lay man terms, it’s small but you can still use great lenses like the pros. In addition to shooting amazing 12 megapixel photos, it even shoots 720p HD video. You can pick up the Panasonic GF1 with an accompanying 20mm lens for $900, and while we’d love to rave further about the quality, we think this review says it better than we ever could.
LaCie iamakey Thumb-Drive
Thumb drives are ubiquitous these days—if you work with a computer daily, odds are you have one, or two, or three. Odds are, you’ve probably lost a few over your career. LaCie is here to change that by putting our thumb-drives on something we can’t live without—our keychains. When you think about it, that’s really what a thumb-drive is after all, your digital key. The LaCie iamakey is available in sizes from 4GB to 32GB, which range in price from $21 to $103 at Amazon, we’re sure this is a thumb-drive that you’ll only lose between the couch cushions for an evening. We recommend the 8GB model at $28 as the best value.
LG Retro Classic TV
What’s old is new again. LG is creating this stylish little 14″ CRT tv despite them being on the way out of public consciousness. A bit of a risk, but we think LG could be on to something here. The LG Retro Classic TV has modern inputs in the back to hook up today’s devices, and even features a switch to change the tv’s display between color, sepia, and black and white outputs. Unfortunately this little gem is only available in Korea at the moment, although we suspect if you’re enthralled enough you could get it shipped to the States or the UK somehow. We expect this to get released in more countries as time rolls on, priced at 249,000 KRW, which is about $216.
Apple iPad
Hot off the lips of Steve Jobs, Apple has just announced their new tablet computer—the iPad. Rumors have swirled for months prior to its release and now that it’s here, well, it looks a lot like we expected. With a modified iPhone OS, optimized for the larger screen, the iPad is capable of handling the typical tasks that are easier on a computer than a phone, but lack the need for a full computer’s bulk—the iPad is only a 1/2″ thin, weighs only 1.5 pounds and sports a 9.7″ screen. With up to 10 hours of battery life, and from 16gb to 64gb of storage, we’re drooling. iPad pricing ranges start at $499 to $699 with unlimited 3G for $30 a month and an extra $130 on the base models. Available in 60 days!
Twelvesouth BookBook
Twelvesouth makes their second appearance on Needs/Wants with their newly released BookBook ($80), a new take on a laptop sleeve. Playing off Apple’s MacBook moniker, they’ve created a brilliant pun by making the sleeve, well, a book itself. No two sleeves are identical, down to a myriad of different visual treatments. To boot, a thief won’t expect the book laid out on your table while you’re away to be your laptop. Stealthy.