Design Awards - vote now

It’s that time of year again. As the evenings draw in earlier every day, here at Wallpaper* HQ, we’ve been busily preparing for the biggest event in our calendar: the Wallpaper* Design Awards – our annual round-up of the most exciting, stylish, functional and clever designs of the last 12 months. All the usual categories will feature, as well as our International Judges’ Awards, for which we’d like to thank our prestigious panel of judges: Matteo Cordero di Montezemolo, Ron Arad, Jane Birkin, Ian Schrager, Naoto Fukasawa, and Viktor & Rolf. The shortlist for the ten categories is listed to the right.

Of course, being familiar with our design awards, you will also be aware of our reader-judged category: Best Gadget-on-the-Go, and will be itching to give us your opinion on the contenders in our shortlist. Take a look at the list below, and register your choice by visiting Competitions. By doing so, you’ll also be in with a chance to win one of 10 year-long subscriptions to the magazine. But be quick: our original shortlist of six has now been cut to three as the Blackberry Pearl, Elgato EyeTV and Ricoh Caplio all bite the dust, while Apple still looks strong with both products left in the running. Can the Nokia 8800 bring them to their knees? You have one week left to influence the results. Check out the February issue for the results.

The final shortlist

Apple MacBook, in black

This year’s MacBook not only looks flash but with an Intel Core Duo processor at its heart it’s four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook. As with its predecessors, the MacBook manages to marry style and substance: up-to-the-minute technology will make those-in-the-know nod appreciatively, while aesthetes will love the sleek design and the glossy widescreen display. We think the black one’s a beauty (although we don’t quite see why it has to cost more than the other finishes!).

[url=http://www.apple.com] www.apple.com [/url]

Apple iPod Shuffle

The second contender in the list by Apple and only slightly more sizeable than a postage stamp, the new iPod shuffle is proof that bigger does not always mean better. 1GB of memory serves up 12 continuous hours of sounds, pretty impressive when you consider that this digital music player is a mere 1.62 inches long. It looks great clipped inside your Miu Miu jacket.

[url=http://www.apple.com] www.apple.com [/url]

Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition

For all modern fashion icons, reinvention is the key to lasting success. The Nokia 8800 is no exception. The new all-black Sirocco Edition, with its tactile dent for your thumb, features all that we loved about the original, plus a two megapixel camera, a large colour display, improved battery life (much needed), and ringtones by Brian Eno. It’s sitting on most of the desks in the Wallpaper office.

[url=http://www.nokia.co.uk] www.nokia.co.uk [/url]

10 November 2006 | Technology