Icon Buzz - Designs & Arts

Silence that keyboard! That clickety-clacking all day long gets annoying, so that’s why these absolutely silent keyboards exist. Not only is the full-sized ReallyCool Keyboard quiet, it’s waterproof, so you can scrub it with soap and water if you’re in an environment where things get too funky to touch. Even more appealing is its backlighting, for, say, typing next to a hospital bed in the middle of the night.

Marketed to medical facilities, these silent keyboards are seeing use in courtrooms, too, where the distracting rat-a-tat-tat of typing tests the temper of judge and jury. According to its maker, the ReallyCool keyboard has tactile keys, giving you a normal-feeling typing experience even though it’s not particularly ergonomic. You’ll have to pay extra for all that ReallyCoolness, though — it’s $199, in your choice of black or cool gray.

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To tide you over until next week, when Apple is rumored to release the new iPhone, we give you the iCooly for the iPod Touch. The iPod holder is designed to look like a mini-iMac for your desktop and the effect, while simple, is a Mac fan’s dream device. Lending to the iMac-like effect is a tiny slot on the side of the unit (where the iMac’s DVD would usually be inserted) accommodating your dock connector and headphones. If you want to know, via miniature scale, what using a touchscreen iMac would be like you can pick your iCooly up for just Â¥4,980 ($47) here.

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Bamboo is showing up in all kinds of new products, and why not? It’s eco-friendly (bamboo grows much faster than typical trees and uses less energy to harvest) and looks damn hot. Claiming to be the world’s first bamboo sink, this round basin takes the trend to the bathroom.

To make it, craftsmen hand-turn each sink on a huge lathe and then rub it for a sateen sheen. The sink is then sealed in waterproof polyurethane that’s said to be “maintenance free” and comes with a 10-year guarantee. Apparently the makers started with a salad bowl and quickly expanded their catalog. The sink’s only drawback is the price: $500. It costs a lot green to be green.

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