Make Beats by Bouncing the Oddball Drum Machine

Funding on Kickstarter now, a product that's part musical toy and part tech device

Currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, the Oddball is many clever entities, crammed into a palm-sized sphere. Part toy, part musical instrument and part tech device, this invention is a drum machine that can be bounced to make different sounds. Almost any surface can be used—simply bounce the Oddball (the lighter you bounce, the more delicate the sound) and sensors inside translate noise via Bluetooth to a …

The Architecture + Color Palette of North Korea

Pyongyang, North Korea “stretches out beneath you as a pastel-colored panorama,” Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright observed from the 70th floor of the 500-foot-high Tower of the Juche Idea. This, and many other surprising discoveries are revealed in Wainwright’s new book, “Inside North Korea,” published by Taschen. In addition to his analytical text, the book includes photography taken by Wainwright. It all helps to build …

Designer Oscar Viñals Imagines the Future of Flight

A wildly ambitious visual and technical exploration, Barcelona-based designer Oscar Viñals (whose background is graphic design for competitive motor racing teams) has proposed a series of concept aircraft for the future. Perhaps surprisingly, his lack of formal education in aerospace engineering grants unfettered imagination. And beyond the triple-decker structures or blended wings that simply don’t exist yet, he’s also touched upon everything from portable nuclear …