Japanese toilet manufacturer Inax has begun soft launching a toilet in shopping centers that will analyze stool for bacteria counts, blood, fat content, and more, then beam the results to the web with a unique URL for later viewing. If I’m parsing this correctly, you can also subscribe to an RSS feed for a particular toilet, making it possible to see how the neighbors are doing. [ Digital World Tokyo via CrunchGear ]

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Data Dump: Japanese toilet outputs statistics via RSS

Furniture maker Herman Miller has 1,600 different materials available for its chairs and such. Browse through each on its Materials Program Index . [via Core77 ]

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Herman Miller’s swatches

Rob and I are both under the weather today, so pardon if we’re not up to our usual military-grade precision. Swiss watches we are, of normal. But today our clockworks are busy churning up phlegm. Gross! Why am I… So anyway, what do you guys know about Royal Enfield motorcycles ? I have been toying with the idea of getting a motorcycle for a while, and I’ll probably just try to pick up an old Honda or BMW or Yamaha or Suzuki or whatever since I haven’t ridden since I was a kid on the farm, and even then not much. But then I saw this Bullet 500 and it’s a real looker, plus it’s MSRP is only $5,500, which may be about $4k more than I intended to spend, but it’s certainly not wildly expensive. And it’s apparently got a modern engine, too, and isn’t just a cast-for-cast recreation like those Russian BMW clones—Urals, right?—so you don’t have to deal with weird stuff like paper air filters and the like. [via Uncrate ] Probably a stupid idea. Parts are probably a bear to get. I really should just get an old Magna or something and call it a day.

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Royal Enfield Military 500 motorcycle

The Nyko Metal Pedal , an aftermarket upgrade for your Rock Band or Guitar Hero drums with metal plating and “hard rock design”, is now hitting stores for $20. I’ve finally upgraded fully to Rock Band 2 gear, but I’m more concerned with my drums sliding all around my hardwood floors than I am breaking the kick pedal. I think I need to add some rubber—and get a proper drum throne.

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Nyko Metal Pedal can handle your videogame rocking

Behold! Dell’s new Inspirons come in a range of colors, again reminding the world that its days of gray ‘n’ beige are slipping into history for good. But are they the right colors? To my eye, almost all of them are a shade too clever by far, reminding me of odd names seen on paint swatches at Home Depot . Dell at least gave them relatively plain names (Piano Black, Pure White, True Blue, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Spring Green, Plum Purple and Promise Pink), sparing us the likes of “cognac” and “palm frond.” I would have picked these for my summer correction: Dell’s press release, with specs, is after the jump. Dells new Inspiron desktop lets people express themselves through choices of color (eight options), size (slim or mini-tower) and configuration. Vivid color palette to express your personal style: Piano Black, Pure White, True Blue, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Spring Green, Plum Purple and Promise Pink. Dell becomes the only major consumer desktop manufacturer to offer color options for the entire front of the machine. Customizable options to meet individuals budget, lifestyle and usage needs. Ideal for common tasks including email, Internet, blogging, entertainment (movies, music and casual gaming) and productivity. Features available on the new Inspiron desktops include: o Intel Celeron, Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad options or AMD Sempron, Athlon X2 and Phenom X4 processor options o Integrated Intel or ATI Radeon graphics* on select systems with discrete graphics options available o Up to 8GB* memory on select systems o Up to 750GB* storage (slim tower) or up to 1TB* storage (mini-tower) o Optional 19-in-1 media card reader and optional HDMI connectivity o 6 USB ports (2 front, 4 back) o Dual optical options (mini-tower only) including Blu-ray Disc drive o Small form factor with its versatile horizontal or vertical placement is designed to easily fit into your home media center (slim tower only)

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Dell splashes color onto the Inspiron desktops

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Engadget’s recession antidote: win a Razer Arctosa gaming keyboard!

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Nokia E71x arriving at AT&T stores, due out next Tuesday

Ostensibly this essay by Bruce “Is Loose (The)” Sterling in Metropolis is advice to industrial designers on what to design in the whirlwind markets of 2009, but I don’t actually understand what he’s saying. I tried Googling some of the products he used as examples and I can’t even find them. Except for cheap cell phones, which the global poor truly dote on, the lowest billion rarely buy appropriate objects designed for them by soft-hearted liberals. But formerly rich guys buying up-market peasant products? Man, that market should boom! Its high time for designers to plunder and upgrade the vernacular technologies of the Third World: wheelbarrows, bicycle rickshaws, rainwater barrels, window boxes, awnings, and mosquito nets; or weird and whimsical wind toys, bamboo-and-Mylar windup shortwave radios. If theyre cheap and blithe, you cant go wrong here. You want to vividly display a host of eye-catching solar gizmos, while quietly installing some humble weather stripping, which has a terrific ROI.

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Bruce Sterling gets high on industrial design

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JAKKS Pacific, of all firms, nabs Walmart’s Vendor of the Year

It’s the golden jubilee of Fisher-Price’s Little People toys, even though they’ve been around in some form since 1950. They didn’t become the little peg-bodied Little People we know today until 1959, however, with the launch of the “Safety School Bus”, which included six figures that could removed from the bus, although the driver stayed inside. (His head was attached to a mechanism that caused it to move back and forth as the bus was pulled. Despite being a child of the ’80s, I recall playing with this bus. I had no idea it was so old!) The two Little People sets I recall playing with the most as a kid, the “Play Family Farm” and the “Play Family House” were introduced in the late ’60s. I’d always presumed mine were new—and perhaps they were, as the line wasn’t redesigned until 1991 (and again in ‘97), with the Farm in production until ‘85—but it’s possible that I could have inherited them. Looking at the little chickens and dogs and farmers now in Fisher-Price’s faux vintage photographs makes me wistful; I remember the personality I had imbued in every one of those little pegs. After the jump, some vintage commercials for Little People, as well as some trivia about the line that I cut-and-pasted from a Word doc. Video: Play Family Farm commercial (1960s) Video: Play Family Farm System commercial (1971) Q: Of what material were the first Little People figures made? A: Wood. The first plastic figures were introduced in 1968 they had plastic bodies, with wooden heads. Q: How many different types of Little People animals have there been? A: Since 1959, Little People has created over 80 different animals, from alligators to zebras! Q: What was the first playset for Little People? A: The Little People Farm in 1968. It was one of the hottest toys in the industry that year. Q: For how much did the first Little People playset retail? A: $9.99. Q: In what year did a Little People playset feature its first licensed characters? What were they? A: 1975. Sesame Street. Q: How many Little People products have been sold between 1959 and today? A: More than 1.5 billion. Q: When were Little People figures redesigned with more real-life features? A: 1997. Q: What are the names of the most popular Little People figures? A: Sara Lynn and Eddie. Q: What Little People figures were the first to be based on fairy tales? A: Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood. Q: When was the first Little People seasonal toy introduced? What was it? A: 1997. Santa & His Sleigh.

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Happy 50th Birthday, Fisher-Price Little People