iPhone and iPod Touch users looking for something extra in the way of wallpapers to suit their style, personality and profession should find this useful. Smashing Magazine has compiled 100 beautiful iPhone wallpapers designed by some of the finest and most creative artists around.

The wallpapers are 320×480 pixels in resolution and cover typography, nature, retro and vintage, illustrations and artwork, Apple wallpapers, abstract and space. All are clickable and linked to their source.

Some of us are deskbound or lead otherwise sedentary lives. Regular exercise gets left at the gate when we’re scheduling our week, month, quarter. There are priorities, things that must be completed on time. Urgent things. So we don’t get enough exercise and our physical wellbeing suffers, right? “Secretary spread” some call it. (Shame on them!) Details, a Steelcase Company, offers a possible solution:

“The Walkstation is the fully integrated combination of an electric height-adjustable worksurface with an exclusively engineered, low speed commercial grade treadmill. And it’s the first product in the entirely new FitWork™ category of products from Details designed to bring healthy habits to sedentary workers while they are actually working.”

Seems a novel idea, doesn’t it? But I wonder how productive it would be in the workplace. I know from personal experience, for example, how difficult it is to run, or even walk at a pace sufficient for a descent cardiovascular workout, while reading. I can’t imagine doing it while performing routine office tasks like keying or taking notes while talking on the phone. Unless, of course, the pace is so slow, as the literature suggests, that you don’t even breathe heavily. In which case, what’s the point?

Well, it turns out there is one. Experts say any amount of exercise is better than none at all. And Sean McCance, a co-director of orthopedic spine surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, points out that sitting still all day is bad for your spine. “When you remain in one position for too long,” says McCance, “your muscles get stiff, putting pressure on the discs of the spine.” By getting up and moving around every 30-45 minutes or so, your back gets to change position, your blood flow increases, and fluid flows back into the area to rehydrate the discs that cushion the spine.

So, if a Walkstation would fit in your cubicle — and your boss will allow it — check it out. It could be just what the doctor ordered.

Aviary is a suite of web-based applications for people who create. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, there’s a tool for artists of all genres. It’s an image editor, similar to Photoshop, but different.

The latest addition to the already popular suite is Dodo, a web-based time machine. Still in Beta, it does some amazing things sure to impress creative professionals.

According to the Web site, the application will allow you to age and de-age people, places and things from any browser with Flash 9 enabled, and is incredibly simple to use: Just upload an input picture, choose between different settings that might affect the aging process (i.e. amounts of alcohol and tobacco consumed), set a year and hit “generate”.

Aviary sees a market opportunity across several mediums beyond graphic design, from tracking down long missing children, to determining if a girlfriend will end up looking like her mother.

To access Dodo, sign up for an Aviary account at http://a.viary.com. If you already have an account, log out and back in to see it appear in your tool list.

To see Dodo in action, watch the video demo below.

Aviary won’t disclose the technology that makes all this possible, but we believe it’s akin to magic considering the timing of the launch.

Here’s a first look at the Quaranta solar-assisted hybrid supercar concept that Italdesign Giugiaro will be taking to the Geneva Motor Show. In an article for Wired, Chuck Squatriglia writes, “Cover it back up, please.”

Personally, I kind of like it. I see it as futuristic and suspect that, like most edgy automobile designs, it will take some getting used to if, in fact, it ever makes it into production. More important, I think, are the performance specs: a mid-engined all-wheel-drive hybrid that accelerates from zero to 62 mph (100 kph) in 4.05 seconds and tops out at 155 mph. As Squatriglia is quick to acknowledge, “That’s Tesla Roadster and Porsche 911 GT3 kind of acceleration…”

“The Quaranta borrows its hybrid powertrain from the Toyota Highlander Hybrid and the Lexus RX400h: a 3.3-liter V-6 and the Hybrid Synergy Drive system with a combined output of 268 horsepower and 213 pound-feet of torque. Italdesign claims the car will return a city/highway average of 33 mpg, and a pair of fuel tanks that together hold about sixteen gallons of gasoline provide a 620-mile range. ‘E-Four’ is, in fact, a fancy name for Toyota’s part-time all-wheel drive system (called ‘4WD-i’ in the Highlander Hybrid), which uses a separate, 68-horsepower electric motor at the rear wheels that kicks in during acceleration or when slippage is detected.”

Suddenly hybrids are looking a lot more attractive, yes?

Movie audiences gasped when Roger Moore’s 007 took his white Lotus Esprit for a surprise dip to evade the enemy in the film The Spy Who Loved Me. The famous scene, shot using a model, triggered the imagination of countless gadget-lovers, who wondered if such a car could be made.

Well, it can and it has been. Rinspeed will present its new sQuba, the worlds first diving car, at the Geneva Motor Show March 6-16. The car is not only able to drive on roads autonomously (without a driver, passenger or further assistance) with a push of a button, it can also transform into an amphibious vehicle which can be submerged in water up to 33 feet (10 meters). An electric motor with powerful torque drives the rear wheels, while the propulsion on the water is ensured by two propellers in the stern and two powerful jet drives in the bow propelling the vehicle under water while diving. When underwater, the driver and passenger are enclosed in the vehicle thanks to light weight body components made of futuristic Carbon Nano Tubes and are supplied with fresh breathing air by the self-contained on-board system.

Q would have been proud - 30 years after James Bond disappeared under the waves in his specially adapted Lotus, car designers have done it for real! More…

Measuring almost 3,500 feet long, covering 20 acres and holding 66 million gallons of water, the San Alfonso del Mar Resort’s seawater pool in Algarrobo on Chile’s southern coast was just named the world’s largest outdoor swimming pool by the Guiness Book of World Records. Story and more photos.

The Lexus LF-A Roadster concept, unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show, is a stunner! Mid-front mounted 500 hp V10, speed adaptive rear wing and a carbon fiber and aluminum body add up to a top speed over 200 mph. Photos

At the nexus of MacWorld and the Detoit Auto Show is the iPhone dock for the Land Rover LRX concept car. When docked, the iPhone would upload your music, seat settings, steering wheel settings, and all the information for the car’s “transfigurable displays,” even provide a secure “start” button. The dock (iPhone or otherwise) could be offered as a “premium pack” in near-term cars…

Via engadget

These incredible looking tree houses, called “Free Spirit Spheres,” are designed by Tom Chudleigh and represent an eco-friendly living quarters created to unobtrusively co-exist with its forest environment. Continue reading…

Steve, a systems engineer, sent me this humorous illustration dealing with the elements of project design and installation from the different perspectives of everyone involved…