Gizmodo: pininfarina

Gateway's Pininfarina Designed ID Notebook

matt buchanan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:12:40 EDT

Gateway's ID series are the first computers designed by Pininfarina (of Ferrari fame). The signature aesthetic seems to be the swoop at the bottom of the monitor—not mind-blowing, but better than BMW's HP effort.

Spec-wise, it's a 15.6-inch notebook with a 16:9 aspect ratio LED-backlit screen, Dolby speakers and multi-touch gesture trackpad (like much else Acer's rolling out tonight).

Pininfarina Xten Ergonomic Office Chair Makes Sedentary Look Speedy

Jack Loftus — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Believe it or not, this Pininfarina Xten office chair is only three degrees of separation away from failed Gizmondo exec Stefan Eriksson. But before we begin that game, let's delve deep into this $3,000 office chair, shall we? The seat cups your nether region with "Technogel," which the designers claim reduces spreadsheet and coding fatigue by 60% (fatigue? from sitting down?). The gel is coated with Dynatec fabric, an Olympic games staple that wicks away sweat from the bodies of today's athletes. No swamp ass for you! The chair also comes in a range of colors. Feisty. I like that. But what of Eriksson? Here's a hint: Ferrari.

The degrees of separation go thusly:

The xten chair is the spawn of Pininfarina, an Italian design firm. Pininfarina designs many things, like cell phones and alarm clocks, but chief among them is the ultra-rare Ferrari Enzo. Eriksson is probably best known for wrecking his Enzo on a highway, sawing it in half, and walking away relatively OK so he could continue to make shitty portable gaming devices. And scene.

We have no idea whether or not Eriksson has an xten in his office, but if he does, we're certain its days, like Gizmondo's, are numbered.

[xten via DVICE]

Wiperless Windshield Concept Brings Minimalism to Your Vehicle

Haroon Malik — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:00:00 EST

Leonardo Fioravanti of the awesome vehicle design house Pininfarina has put together a prototype car, called Hidra, which has a windshield that negates the necessity for conventional wipers. The design relies on aerodynamics and surface treatment alone, which will supposedly be enough to keep a fly-away tree branch from obscuring your line of vision. The chemical treatments applied are where the autonomous cleaning action really happens, and they actually sound quite interesting.

The first layer deals with the sun and water; it prevents harmful rays from entering and has hydrophobic properties, ensuring water is repelled away. The second layer incorporates nano dust, and the treatment gives the screen the ability to "push" dirt away to the edges of the glass surface, which in turn relies on the third layer; a receptor surface that alerts the nano-dusted glass to do its self-cleaning business when grime is detected. Finally, an electrically conductive material is applied, which passes on electricity to power the entire mechanism.

Apparently, this could be mainstream in five years, but for us it makes more problems than it appears to solve; e.g. would it really remove our aforementioned fly-away tree branch? Would we receive an electric shock if we touched it whilst it was cleaning? What does it do with the dirt at the edges of the windshield? Why doesn't someone make a fully functioning Millennium Falcon? So many questions, so few physical windscreen wipers on the Hidra concept car. [Sparking Tech; la Repubblica]

Pininfarina-Designed Fabrik SimpleTech Drive Now Comes in 250GB 2-5-inch Portable

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:59:19 EDT

Just when you were coming down from the thrill of Fabrik's Pininfarina-designed 3.5" SimpleTech SimpleDrives, the company unveils a similar Ferrari-inspired line in a more portable 2.5" USB-powered form. The drives range from the 80GB sapphire ($99) up to the 250GB charcoal gray ($199), with onyx and red in between. When you buy, Fabrik also throws in 2GB of in-the-cloud storage free. Not enough for your music collection, surely, but good for the most important docs and photos.
Press Release [Fabrik]

Motorola Signs Design Firm Pininfarina

Charlie White — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 11:51:11 EST

Pininfarina, the design firm behind such gorgeous automobiles as Ferrari, Maserati (pictured above) and Alfa, in addition to that whacked-looking Olympic Torch, has now been signed up by Motorola for the next three years to design cellphones. Fact is, Motorola and Pininfarina had a short agreement a couple of years ago, and it seemed like suddenly there were some really nice-looking cellphone designs coming out of Motorola after that.

Pininfarina has assigned ten of its world-class designers to the project, and if that Maserati above is any indication, we re in for some spectacular cellphonage in the years to come. Can't wait.

Pininfarina to Design Handsets for Motorola [Mobileburn]