Just a reminder, you can see what we're up to on a day-to-day basis on our Flickr account. If the photo above doesn't intrigue you, I don't know what will!

See more (daily) photos of the catalyst peeps

tags: catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design,

It's been a while since we've posted anything here on our "cool" blog, but it's for good reason - we've been busy! Busy with what you ask? Making a little game for Best Buy that we've called Orbit.

I could go into all the details about the game, but you can find those in other places. While the game itself is great, the "cool" part about it is that it's being noticed. Bukola Ekundayo, probably better known as Ms. Pixel, just posted about the game today. It's a great article about "How Best Buy Uses Social Media & Gaming" – you can read it here.

We just wanted to say thanks, Ms. Pixel.


tags: catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design, Best Buy, orbit, social media, game development design,

A lot of people have a hard time waking up and getting out of bed in the morning, and there is a slew of alarm clocks on the market that "encourage" these tough cookies. How about this? Normally, if you don't wake up when you are supposed to, it's usually just you who has to suffer the consequences of an obnoxious alarm or potentially being late for something. In an interesting twist, Alice Wang of Taiwan came up with the "Tyrant" alarm clock. The Tyrant shuffles through your cell phone's contact list and calls someone from it every three minutes you let your alarm go and don't disable it. I suppose it is a form of "waking up accountability," or something along those lines.

Alice Wang - Tyrant
Tyrant Alarm keeps you up with an iron fist of humiliation

tags: tyrant alarm clock, alice wang, catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design,

One of our favorites has finally launched an online store with all of his goods. While Catalyst has had the privilege of owning some of Undoboy's "super-bastards" for quite some time now, you too can now have them!


Walls decals, designer flash drives, and of course the super-bastards can be found at: Undoboy.com/goodies


tags: catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design, undoboy,

I know it's just a video game demo that was just released, and nothing more yet, but it is a cool one at that! The same guy who created The Sims is working with EA to make a game that has invented its own genre, being referred to as a "massively single-player online game".

The idea is that you can create your own beings, and nurture them through various stages of evolution; from a cell to creature to civilization and beyond. The cool thing about the game is the sheer degree of control you have over the environment and creatures; it really pushes the envelope of what has been done before.

In the recent trial pre-release of the Spore Creature Creator, it is amazing what you can create and play around with, even in the limited demo mode. Check it out, it's pretty fun.

Official Spore Site

tags: spore, catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design,

An Endangered Sign?

There are those who may find it to be a fun use of a broomstick, notifying the upstairs neighbour that you're fed up with their noisy shenanigans. However, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to make communal peace between those of varying decibel interests.
Behold, such an olive branch may be on the horizon! Clever scientists have revealed plans for an "acoustic cloak," a material that deflects sound waves, thus creating the possibility of a completely soundproof environment. While there are many nerdy details you can read about here, the practical applications are endless.
So parents, you may eventually have to find a different reason why your kid can't have his band practice in the basement.

tags: acoustic cloak, sonic crystals, silent cloak, catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design

I find myself at least once a week wanting to go back to a website to find an image or some bit of information, but I ALWAYS forget where I was (not too mention, Andrew always has me clearing my cache/history for development testing), so I never have a away of getting back to these things. So when I found Evernote I got real excited.

Simple put, "Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere."

Unfortunately Evernote doesn't have an application for OSX 10.4, only 10.5+, but the browser bookmark works for me. So now i'm constantly saving little bits of information, links, images, etc. just in case. And the greatness doesn't stop there – one of my favorite parts about Evernote is its ability to search text/words within images. Being able to search anywhere, anytime is great too. The online interface gives you all the same options as the applications. It's only in beta right now, and limits "free" users to 100 mb, but hopefully Evernote will remain free, and in the future allow for more space.

Check it out: http://www.evernote.com

It only takes a couple days to get an invite, but worth the wait.


tags: catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design, evernote,

I stumbled upon this sweet little black and white apple laptop earlier this morning while jumping around in flickr. At first I thought there was a screen-print on the latop, but after looking a wee-bit closer I noticed it was engraved. Who would of thunk you could get such clean engraved lines on a laptop!?

For $150 you can have just about anything engraved into your laptop. And it doesn't stop there. Engrave Your Tech does iPhones, iPods, and notebooks as well.



engraveyourtech.com


tags: catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design,

I thought this was an interesting idea. nvohk, is a surf-inspired clothing company, but what they're doing is a bit different. They're looking for 5,000 people to sign up, pay $50/year to develop and manage and eco-friendly clothing company. Members make major decisions (design/advertising), 10% of net profits go to environmental charities and members get a portion of profits as reward points. Looks like they're half way to their goal of 5,000 people.

Here's a bit about their mission:

build a responsible clothing company that truly puts consumers and the environment in the forefront

make high-quality products using ecologically advanced materials and processes

provide an ongoing fund raising and support engine for environmental organizations

visit projectnvohk.com

tags: catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, catalyst, interactive, graphic design,

American Airlines is getting ever closer to providing wireless internet with select flights, and they just announced their prices. When they (supposedly) launch this service in the summer, the cost will be $10 for flights under three hours, and $13 for longer ones. Wow, one less place we can go to hide from the internet. The sky.

American Announces In-Flight Internet Pricing, Schedule

tags: in-flight wi-fi, american airlines, catalyst studios, minneapolis, minnesota, design, graphic design, interactive, catalyst