Panasonic has announced the market introduction of the DMR-BS850 and DMR-BS750 Blu-ray Disc™ Recorders and the DMR-XS350 High-Definition Recorder / DVD Recorder (Standard Def Archiving). All three new models are compatible with freesat+, making it easy to view and capture high-image-quality digital satellite broadcasts.

In addition to storing all films and shows, they can be used to preserve your family films and photos on a Blu-Ray disc.  Therefore, in a bit of a fun twist, they’ve released some research that puts a definitive monetary value on the sort of family memories the recorders store. You are invited to calculate this value at the Panasonic HD Everything site at hdeverything.co.uk/mymemories.

www.hdeverything.co.uk

With festival season upon us and the summer set to be a scorcher, why not plan to party in style with the new range of festival gear from British fashion and textile designer Celia Birtwell.

Having designed sell out ranges for Topshop in the past, Celia first turned her hand to camping gear in the 2008 collaboration for outdoors retailer Millets. Her new collection for 2009 includes the full festival product checklist from tens and wash bags through to sunnies and wellies (yes the weather is meant to be better this year, but it is Britain after all so best to be prepared!).

The neon-bright prints on the gazebo and tent will help ensure you never find yourself scanning the canvas city thinking “now where the hell did I put my house?”

Available from Millets

Teo Jasmin are a Parisian company that specialise in digital printing on canvas, cushions and furniture. When you think “French”, the word chic automatically springs to mind, but now you can add “kitsch” to the list. With images ranging from iconic film stars and city scapes through to the quintessentially British, their fabulous prints really make for some eye catching, tongue-in-cheek furnishings.

 I particularly love the “Doggy Queen” from their 2009 collection. I was going to say that’s because I am the doggy queen, but at the risk of inviting innuendo style misinterpretations, I will elaborate that to “I like the doggy queen prints as the puppy pictured reminds me very much of my own pug-faced pooch!”

For more information and to view the full product range visit Teo Jasmin

With Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on its way to cinema's soon, the multi product franchise is as hot as ever. This Transforming USB Flash Memory is aimed more at those (probably 30 somethings) who remember the 80's toy range with misty eyed fondness. In terms of technical spec its not the best flash drive at just 2 gigabytes, but thats not really why you want it anyway.

Available to pre-order from www.bigbadtoystore.com

Via www.techfresh.net

Switched On Set posted a stunning Misty Tree photo mural from Bespoke Interior print firm Surface View.

The company allows you to "create stunning murals, blinds or prints all digitally printed with an image of your choice. Choose from an incredibly varied library of over 1000 images of artwork and photography, from sources as diverse as the V&A, Marvel Comics and Ella Doran."

Prices start at £75 per sq metre plus VAT and its well worth browsing their website www.surfaceview.co.uk. I've picked out "Dreams Are Made Of This" (Blind) from Wayne Hemingway and Stella Mitchell's Land Of Lost Content Collection. Le Pouple Colossal (Print) from teh Natural History Museums collection of Illustrations and etchings. And "The Invincible Hammer Of Thor" (mural), a classic panel illustration from teh "Marvel" collection.

Whether you're looking for creative inspiration, to purchase or simply to kill time, these aesthetics driven websites are a great places to visit.

NOTCOT.org

NOTCOT.org is populated by user generated content, anyone can register and submit content. However submited items are not guarenteed to appear on the page as the site is "curated" to maintain it's aesthetic vibe. Part of the NOTCOT Design Network of sites reaching over 4 million pageviews monthly. Along with sister curated sites NOTCUTURE, liqurious and Leading design blog NOTCOT.com

www.notcot.org

picocool

PicoCool is a global community dedicated to uncovering the cool, whether in art, design, environment, culture, architecture, fashion, travel or technology. Currently to post to the site you need to get an invite from an existing member.

www.picocool.com

freshbump

Freshbump is a daily visual inspiration source for industries including, but not limited to: Advertising, Architecture, Computer Arts, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Design, and Photography. Freshbump is a social news media site that facilitates community driven content promotion and prioritizes posts based on the collective view of the userbase.

www.freshbump.com

cribcandy

Cribcandy is a visual news gallery of household & interior design by Curations.com. Items are hand picked by the curators daily with pictures and links to the best finds from all the world’s household design sites and blogs. Items are picked from those submitted to the social shopping site wists.com.

www.cribcandy.com

oobject

Oobject is a another curations.com website like cribacandy this time concentrating on unusual or interesting gadgets . Items are hand picked by users and filtered by curators who have a background in design.

www.oobject.com

.KOMPOUND.

We've mentioned the tumblr based site .kompound. before on LateMag. Its a great site this and shows how you can easily create your own design inspiration gallery with the popular tumblelog software. The site uses the Museum theme for tumblr.

www.kvnh.tumblr.com

materialicious

Formally a design blog in the classic sense of the word a recent redesign has seen it adopt the curated gallery approach. Its packed with great design finds, but it might be better if the images linked straight to the sites in question rather than going to a second page with the same 250*250 image. Definitely a great site though and well worth bookmarking.

www.materialicious.com

NOTCOUTURE

Sister site of NOTCOT.org and runs along the same lines, however as the name suggests the focus is apparel and fashion releted.

www.notcouture.com

popgloss

Another of Curations.com's sites this one, like NOTCOUTURE, is for the fashionista's out there.

www.popgloss.com

When I was a little kid I liked watching reruns of The Saint, which starred Roger Moore as Simon Templar. Like most cool 60's and 70's cult TV heroes he drove a dam cool car, the Volvo P1800. Now Swedish designer Mattias Vöcks, who works hand assembling supercars for Koenigsegg by day, has decided to update the classic Volvo.

With help from Bo Zolland from Swedish design firm Vizualtech, Vöcks has added a few modifications to bring the shapely Swedish beauty to modern standards. Aerodynamics are improved by a rear diffuser, flat underbody tray and a front fascia that's been smoothed out and lengthened by 70mm. Powering the beast is a 4.4-liter V8 borrowed from a Volvo XC90 SUV that's been force-fed by a turbocharger and routes its 600 horses through a six-speed manual transmission to the rear wheels.

Currently existing only in the form of rather swish looking renders, Vöcks is intending to put the car into small scale production. While I'm not a massive car person and don't think its a great idea to drive round in 4 litre plus cars everyday, for obvious reasons. I would love to be able to afford one of these as an occasional toy for summer motoring (though I am unlikely to ever find myself in that kind of tax bracket).

It would certainly complement my other 60's / 70's Bond villain / suave spy dream possession The Razor Residence by Wallace E. Cunningham

autoblog.com has more details and images and you can check out the work of design firm Vizualtech at www.viztech.se

I just love these chunky retro-styled watches from Void. If you head over to Dezeen, they have teamed up with the designer, David Ericsson, and are offering five lucky readers the chance to win one in a colour their choice. Colours available are black, gold, silver and copper. The competition closes on 18th May (and yes I have entered myself!).

This exciting and much anticipated series of 8 new art prints has explored landscapes in a more graphic, pattern-like style than ever before.  These 'patternscapes' have come together over several months and within the series there is sure to be a new adventure for everyone! 

Currently, Wish You Were Here is a wonderful collection of 25 eye-popping, optimistic and inspiring A3+ art prints. By the end of April 2009 WYWH will be launching the much anticipated super range of 100% cotton drill, 46cm x 46cm cushions in 3 patternscape designs! Alongside the cushions there will also be available a superb range of 9 high-colour, high-quality fabrics also derived from the patternscapes.

WYWH is an exciting venture created by UK based husband and wife team, Fiona and Ben O'Brien (aka Ben the Illustrator). Ben is the illustrator extraordinaire and Fiona, with her background in Advertising and a penchant for ideas, design and interiors, conceptualises and manages their business and products. Together they create illustrations for commissioned advertising campaigns, editorial, interiors and of course their own art prints and products under the brand 'Wish You Were Here'.

The concept behind "Wish You Were Here!" was to create a brand of illustrated functional items that the house proud, design conscious could enjoy in their home "We wanted a way for people to enjoy the optimism and vibrancy of Ben's illustrations in the comfort of their own home, and better still be able to use the items everyday!. Our aim is to produce beautifully conceived prints and products that retain our eco and humanitarian ethics, envelope them in Ben’s awe-inspiring, colourful illustrations creating the perfect combination of function and beauty".

"We understand that times are a little more difficult out there at the moment so we wanted to create uplifting artwork that offered people affordable escapism from their everyday grind. In a time where expensive, luxury escapes are not as possible, the aim of WYWH is to bring those beautiful, far away, idyllic places directly to you, beautifying your home in the process!"

Visit www.wywh.co.uk and make sure you stop by Ben's Flickr page

kraftwerk is a cardboard chair, designed by Tom de Vrieze. The name  arises from the use of cardboard and kraftpaper-tape in its construction. The polygon, surfaced chair which can not be seen as an origami chair is very light (1,8 kg or 3.97 lb) and strong.

kraftwerk is constructed from only 4 mm or 0.16 in. thick cardboard.  The chair is filled with polyurethane expansion foam. Originally Tom tried to support the chair using only internal structures, without using foam, but the unfolding patterns became to complex for DIY-builders. While this means teh chair is not as environment friendly as he would have liked. It does meanthe cair is more durable and stronger than some other cardboard chairs. most cardboard chairs are using larger thick nesses (and/)or are layered which are using a lot of cardboard-surface. kraftwerk is built with CFC-free polyurethane low expansions foam bottles. (CFC = chlorofluorocarbons, harmful chemicals that eat away at the ozone. they were most commonly found in aerosol cans, but have since been linked to the degradation of the atmosphere). Foam filling is not actually new in the furniture industry, some well known designs are riccardo blumer's lalegerra for alias and françois azambourg's mr. bugatti for cappellini. Foam filling is probably most know in the automotive industry for dashboards, seats, but also in other industries such as plumbing (water heating), construction and building.

kraftwerk is available at the tovdesign webshop as a DIY plan for 7 euro.

www.tovdesign.com