Gizmodo: next-gen pc design competition

Microsoft's Next-Gen PC Design Competition Winners Announced

Sean Fallon — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT

Over the last six months or so, we have been keeping up with the entries in this year's Next-Gen PC Design competition, posting here and there on some of the unique ideas that came down the pipeline. Finally, Microsoft has announced the winners and, not surprisingly, there are a few familiar designs on the list. First place went to the Napkin PC, a concept that I mocked for being way too far out there. Nonetheless, Bill Gates must have like it, because he handpicked it as the winner of the $20,000 prize.

Second place went to a concept called WITHUS. The device is intended to "help preschool children shape the right values and human relationships by driving them into playing and learning with multi-human interactions." Children are encouraged to break away from traditional computing and make genuine connections with other human beings using an interactive, collaborative display.

Third place went to The Backpacker's Diary—a PC that focuses on travelers using a "book" with "pages" that offer different functions like GPS, media recording and solar charging.

Rounding out the list in the finalist category we find a number of familiar gadgets like the Alphagrip HC (which I thought was too ergonomic for its own good), Siafu (a computer for the blind that is made from a material that does not exist) and the Illusion PC (cool but not really next-gen). Hit the following link for the complete list. [Next-Gen PC via CNET]

Next-Gen PC Competition Results in Some Wild, Beautiful Designs

Charlie White — Wed, 16 May 2007 09:42:01 EDT

Microsoft announced the winners of its 2007 Next-Gen PC Design Competition, and this year's champs gave new meaning to that old cliché, "outside the box." These PCs won't be available anytime soon, but their industrial designers pick up some serious recognition along with a substantial wad of cash for their efforts. This year's competition had entries from 35 countries, and the 349 submissions were judged on their innovation, user experience, aesthetics, technology integration and ecology.

Taking home a cool $25,000 for the Chairman's Award is John Leung from Melbourne, Australia with his design you see here, called "MADE in China." The acronym MADE stands for Massively Administered Digital Entities, incorporating a design that has all of its applications and data stored on remote servers. It looks like an Asian dining platter, and its chopstick-like input device, called a CHOPstylus, allows for input on the PC's touchscreen. Take a look at the gallery for the other winners. – Charlie White

Brave New World of Computing [Microsoft]

Yummy Kitchen Connect is Web 2.0 for the Kitchen

Charlie White — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 11:30:00 EST

Microsoft and the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) are in the middle of the Next-Gen PC Design Competition, and one of the entries is Yummy Kitchen Connect, a design concept for a wall-mounted touchscreen PC that keeps track of food you have in the house using a barcode scanner on the bottom that's connected to a community database.

You tell the device your diet and your favorite recipes, and it hooks up to the blogosphere to help recommend what might like for dinner according to your likes and dislikes. Since it keeps track of what food you have your pantry, it can also recommend a shopping list. Once you have all your ingredients together, it can show you recipes and tutorials right there in the kitchen while you're preparing your meals. Chek ou the details in the gallery below.

More info about the design competition:

Voting for the Next-Gen PC Design Competition's Public Choice Award is underway until March 23, with the winner receiving $10,000. You can vote for one entry in each category, and the winner will be announced in May. – Charlie White

Next-Gen PC Design Competition [Microsoft]