A series of job postings have been put up by Apple and these seem to indicate that Jony Ive and his team are preparing to completely overhaul both iOS and OSX. It’s hard to say when the final products will be ready, but it’s quite possible that this is when we’ll start to see a deeper marriage between the two Apple operating systems. I don’t think it’ll be a merger of the two, per se, but they’ll likely have much more interplay.

First, Apple has a listing for senior software engineers to revamp the iLife software suite. Shipping with every new Mac, iLife has such staples as iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand. The listing calls for an engineer to “help us re-imagine how user interfaces should be built and work.” Similarly, there’s a listing for someone to overhaul Siri and develop more of a “distinct personality” for the digital assistant. Sticking with iOS, there’s another listing looking for new APIs and frameworks. This certainly sounds like big changes are ahead.

And I think they’re due. For a company that’s supposed to be slick, shiny and on the cutting edge, Apple has remained a little stagnant recently. It’s time to change everything… again.

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I don’t need to tell you that the African economy, in general, isn’t as strong as some other parts of the world. VMK is trying to change that, turning itself into the Congolese equivalent of a Samsung in South Korea or an Apple in the United States. VMK has revealed two of its initial designs for public scrutiny.

The first, shown above, is a smartphone called the VMK Elikia. Meaning “hope,” the Elikia is only running on Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread and a 600MHz processor, so it’s clearly targeting emerging markets (like Congo). Taking on a gentled curved back reminiscent of the Palm Pre, the Elikia features a 3.5-inch display, 512MB RAM, 123MB internal storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 1300mAh battery. Expect this smartphone to sell for $170 outright.

The other product is the VMK Way-C tablet, which is similarly targeting emerging markets. Meaning “light of the stars” in the local Lingala language, the Way-C has a 1.2GHz processor, 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal storage. It is powered by Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread and has a 4200mAh battery. The Way-C is expected to retail for $300.

Neither device is groundbreaking in terms of design or performance, but it’s good to see a locally-designed family of products priced appropriately for the local African market.

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“The main design concept was to reflect nature. We wanted a more emotional, and stronger connection with our customers.”

That’s how Samsung engineers and designers describe how they eventually got the final product that we call the Samsung Galaxy S III. The SGS was built around the design framework of “Minimal Organic,” and they say that they wanted the phone to feel like you’re having a pleasant, calming stroll through the woods. It’s also very clear that they borrowed a lot of inspiration from water, as evidenced by the water droplet home screen and the pervasive “liquid” sound effects throughout the TouchWiz UI.

But even in terms of physical design, they say they were inspired by nature. They saw the rocks in the river and then they “spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to capture the flow of water and the reflection of the light into the design of the phone.” If you look at the battery cover on the back, for instance, you’ll notice that it reflects and has these fine grooves in it. “We used three layers of coating on top of the polycarbonate base. And then, a total of five layers of multi-coating were applied to the surface. So even the slightest change in angle creates a reflection that accentuates the graceful design.”

It’s clear that Samsung is very proud of the SGS3 and they should be. They’ve sold over ten million units to date and counting, making it the most successful Samsung smartphone of all-time. Watch the video below to see just how proud they are and how they got to where they got. I wonder if Apple has a patent on these kinds of videos.

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Instead of having the standard set of four wheels–two in the front and two in the back–like a regular skateboard, the STAIR ROVER has a total of eight wheels (earlier designs had as many as 12). The idea is that the pairs of wheels on either side can teeter-totter their way down the flight of stairs while the flexible deck keeps you reasonably balanced and in control.

The STAIR ROVER is the creation of London designer Po-Chih Lai. The current version is the eighth iteration and it seems to be the best one yet. Yes, it’s going to take some practice, but this means that you don’t have to get off your board to get down those stairs… going up a flight of stairs, however, is a different matter altogether.

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Yes, the name has risen to the surface once more in the form of an unofficial concept. This is not at all endorsed by Cupertino, but it could speak to the future of what Apple has in store. Basically, the designer has created what looks like a MacBook Pro (or even a MacBook Air), but has outfitted it with a touchscreen display and one crazy hinge.

The hinge can work like normal, allowing you to have the regular laptop experience, but the whole thing can fold over onto itself to give you just the straight tablet experience. The weird thing is that would mean your keyboard is now pressed up against the surface of your desk. That’s probably not such a good thing. The hinge can also go half-way, effectively turning your keyboard into a kickstand for the iPad-esque touchscreen.

It’s a neat idea and you have to give credit to the Apple-level polish of the faux ad video below, but I don’t think Apple is going to release something like this any time soon. We might just have to settle for Retina Displays in the meantime.

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Instead of latching a traditional Bluetooth headset onto your ear, you wear a pair of rings on your hands. One ring goes on your pinky finger and this acts as the microphone. The other ring goes on your thumb and it acts as the earpiece. Yes, this is the same universal hand signal among surfers for being gnarly.

To make the functionality even more whimsical (and possibly very usable), the way that you answer an incoming call is to make that characteristic “phone” sign with your hand. The two rings detect the increased distance between them and then they pick up the call. To hang up, close your hand back into a fist.

If we were to continue with this line of thinking, wouldn’t it make more sense to have accelerometers placed in the rings that would detect when you were hanging up your make-believe phone on a make-believe base station? You know, like pointing your hand downward with the phone-hand configuration intact?

Either way, this is very weird and still just a design concept. I wonder if anyone at Nokia, Motorola, or Apple is paying attention.

Source: TheDesignBlog

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