Business partners Karen Coombes and Karen O’Neill came up with the idea and took the concept to Dragon’s Den in 2009. As the product drew more attention it won new fans in the form of British figure skating champion Mathew Parr together with the Dan Whiston, the winner of ITV’s Dancing On Ice program.

As well as being enjoyable to use, the skates offer a great way to keep fit, burning an estimated 500 calories per hour.

The launch of Off Ice Skating took place in Broadgate Circle near London’s Liverpool Street Station, where a performance by Dan Whiston and Hayley Tamaddon was enjoyed by a large crowd. A free public off-ice skating fitness session was then given by Dan Whiston.

Applied Product Design has brought a great deal of concepts to market. The combination of technical skill and experience in a variety of markets has uniquely equipped our team to develop a range of products. We are also able to carry out high end manufacturing – both here in the UK or by using our manufacturing connections in China.

If you are looking for a partner with whom to bring your concept to market, get in touch with us today.

LONDON– Evolve Media, the industry’s most exciting and stylish custom media server manufacturer from the United Kingdom, announced today the launch of their all new embedded software media servers designed for integration into the connected home. The new software platform, dubbed ‘PRIME’, brings advancement through Windows Embedded Standard 7 technologies to its award winning products, including the lifeStation, lifeStream and lifeStream mini.

Building upon the award winning ‘life’ range of media server products, the new Evolve PRIME platform is one of the world’s first range of media server products based upon the Windows Embedded Standard 7 platform. Windows Embedded Standard 7 delivers the power, familiarity and reliability of the Windows 7 operating system in a highly customizable and componentized form for embedded devices.

David Simpson, Managing Director at Evolve, comments

“With the release of PRIME powered products, Evolve has furthered its commitment to providing all encompassing media servers with class leading ease of use, performance, reliability, specifically designed for the specialised custom installation and quality hi-fi markets.”

“We are excited to have a strategic relationship with the Microsoft Windows Embedded team. The investment and commitment Microsoft has made in the Windows Media Center functionality within Windows Embedded Standard 7 is outstanding.”

The Evolve ‘life’ range of products deliver an unrivalled AV experience for today’s connected home, not only ensuring interaction and compatibility with consumable media and associated devices, but also promoting the use of new technologies and control surfaces through simple upgrade paths to existing base equipment.

“As well as being delighted with the tremendous experience we’ve had and continue to have working with the Microsoft Windows Embedded team, we at Evolve understand how important the ‘back-end’ is to providing high quality products that meet the demands and needs of today’s consumers,”

stated Charlie Mertz, Commercial Director at Evolve.

“The incredible flexibility of the Windows Embedded Standard 7 platform has allowed us to create PRIME, an essential suite of services and applications that work in perfect harmony with established, robust features, such as Windows Media Center, enabling us to deliver the highest quality media experience in the connected home.”

The Windows Embedded Standard 7 platform has allowed Evolve to take advantage of key development and commercial drives such as the Shared Source program, embedded tools allowing a faster time to market, minimising development costs, and pay as you go licensing, all key to successes in higher end markets where volume is lower than mass retail, but where the experience from initial purchase, to installation and after sales support, is paramount.

Mertz continues:

“The PRIME platform allows us to integrate the very best that the AV world has to offer. Our products are primarily aimed at a high end market where quality and performance are givens. The experience our customers receive should continue for many many years to come, and with PRIME we can easily employ shared source techniques to bring upgrades to our products quickly and efficiently. Our customers currently enjoy the highest possible level of home entertainment performance, with control options and features that ensure that their investment into Evolve technology is a solid one. We’re delighted to go to market with a high-end Windows Embedded Standard 7 AV platform, and look forward to a bright future with the Evolve products. I’m sure all who see the product at CES 2011 will be suitably impressed!”

“Microsoft is pleased to work alongside Evolve Media in providing reliable, high performance AV servers, such as the PRIME platform, to create a seamless, integrated and connected media device,” said Mark Pendergrast, senior product manager for Microsoft’s Windows Embedded business. “Our collaboration with Evolve Media leverages the Windows Embedded Standard 7 platform to present consumers with a rich and engaging home entertainment experience, and furthers our commitment in helping manufacturers build innovative devices of all types.”

The Evolve ‘life’ range of products consists of the lifeStation, the lifeStream, the lifeStream mini, and the lifeStore home server. Control options are vast thanks to the lifeControl software that runs on all the products, and interfaces are readily available for major home control systems as well as popular consumer handheld devices. Whether the need or desire is a single room media server system, or a large multiroom AV solution, Evolve media have the products to fit.

The lifeStation has recently been awarded ‘Best Buy 2011’ What HiFi magazine December 2010, for media servers up to a value of £5,000 thanks to class leading performance with all media such as Blu-ray, DVD, CD, digital music and video formats, as well as comprehensive online content capabilities and support for multiple languages. Using only the very best hardware components and advanced software techniques, the Evolve ‘life’ products bring media to life, reaffirming their living appliance status, and ultimately becoming a trusted member of the family at home.

As far as entertainment hubs go, the new Evolve LifeStation has to be the pick of the bunch. We found the project challenging as the end product speaks for itself; the LifeStation is a media server the likes of which few living rooms have seen before.

The new high-end device brings together the various elements of your digital world; playing and ripping Blu-rays, storing your digital music and images and slotting into a multi-room set up with ease. The striking design and top-notch build quality only hint at the cutting-edge technology contained within. The Evolve LifeStation has the ability to record 4 channels simultaneously (2 free view and 2 digital satellite), boasts support for Dolby True HD and DTS HD audio codecs (therefore connectable to a 7.1 channel speaker system), allows you to transfer all the major audio file types, and enables users to store CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays on its hard drive – for instant access.

If the generous 750Gb of storage isn’t enough, owners have the option to expand by a further 4TB or even 20TB, by adding one if the LifeStore add-ons. But the excitement doesn’t stop there. A free app means this can all be controlled by iPhone, Touch and iPad, and later this year a software update will enable Evolve LifeStore owners to watch 3D movies in their full stereoscopic splendour.

The Evolve LifeStore has been developed with the expertise of Applied Product Design, and has been manufactured in high end facilities in the UK. The Evolve LifeStore is one of the latest products that has benefitted from Applied Product Design’s long standing experience in bringing products to market, drawing on a wealth of in-house expertise and manufacturing contacts.

Summary of Project:

David Simpson from Passive Technologies approached Applied Product Design to assist in the design and launch of a new brand of media equipment called Evolve. The aim was to launch several different models, each with a unique set of features, enabling their customers to create their own multi-room, multi-media system. System capabilities had to include the recording, storing and playing of Blu-rays, DVDs, images and CDs, together with the ability to watch and record satellite TV and radio. The result was four Evolve products, the LifeStation, the LifeStream, the LifeStream Mini and the LifeStore server.

If you would like to know how Applied Product Design can help bring your idea to market in the same way, get in touch today.

The shiny, flashy nature of the Surviva Jak – due to the fact it is made of aluminium covered PET – raised a few eyebrows among festival goers at this year’s Rockness Festival, where the BBC took the Jak. The fashion conscious were a little wary of the jacket’s cyber-feel, but ultimately warmed to the product’s heat keeping qualities.

Anyone who’s ever found themselves lost or caught short without enough warm layers, is likely to see how beneficial this item might be. If you missed the Roadtests, you can watch it at bbc.co.uk/dragonsden.

Products such as this are what make Applied Product Design tick; we love to see a new item that addresses a very real problem. In many instances products combine both visual appeal and functionality – the Surviva Jak may not tick everyone’s boxes on the visual count, but it certainly is highly effective at warming up a cold body. If you believe you have the next game changing piece of product design, get in touch with Applied Product design today, and discover how we can help make it a reality.

Despite the economic challenges that face all business people, the Dragons know that the best way to keep ahead of the competition is to continually find new ideas that help to address specific problems –and make lots of money along the way. For any developed nation, it is of course paramount that it’s resident are as inventive as possible – and the new Dragon’s Den series looks set to demonstrate just how inventive the UK still is.

Last year Applied Product Design was lucky enough to help develop the Dry Ice product with Karen Coombes and Karen O’Neil. The invention aims to replicate the experience of ice skating – on dry land. The pair won £100,000 of funding from Theo Paphitis – who loved the concept. APD were involved with everything from the screws and fittings to protecting the intellectual property.

The success of the Dry Ice Blades demonstrates Applied Product Design’s consummate approach to design – as well as our long standing experience in developing ideas that people want to buy. Our strong connections with manufacturing facilities in China also mean we are able to help with long-term mass production, when ideas really take off.

If you have an innovative idea you think has the potential to fill a gap in the market, get in touch with us today, and see how we can bring your concept to life.

Apple’s latest invention went on sale recently in the United Kingdom and just like the iPod and iPhone before it, customers queued up for hours before on the streets outside the shops in order to get their hands on one of these devices. The tablet, which basically presents users with a scaled up version of the iPhone, allows the consumer to browse internet pages and construct emails in near A4 size perfection.

Although the product doesn’t feature a physical keyboard, an external USB keyboard can be plugged in to assist with the construction of emails or when entering website addresses. Alternatively there is an electronic touch screen version of a keyboard on the product that is extremely easy to utilise.

Apple has certainly become world renowned for their innovative product development and design and if the iPad goes on to be the commercial success that everyone assumes that it will be, then there will be a number of their competitors anxiously looking over their shoulders at the brand as it continues to advance on its journey towards market domination.

You can now purchase handheld camcorders, some that are even as small as mobile phones that can amazingly record and store HD video on HD/SD cards for upwards of £100. It is staggering at the rate of electronic product design and it doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. You have to wonder how long it will be before these companies start developing cameras that can record images that can later be projected as 3D images on our screens.

Apple has always been class leading at innovative design and with their latest version of the Apple iPod Nano they have scored another huge success, with the massively powerful video camera, which allows people to store tiny snippets of video. What makes it so amazing is the fact that they have been able to fit any sort of camera into the Nano. The device is so small that it seems impossible that you could fit a camera all the wiring and everything required into the case.

Who knows where technology will be in ten years time, maybe we will all be shooting video footage in HD and 3D on cameras the size of iPod Nano’s. Whatever it is, it is bound to be beyond our wildest imaginations.

It certainly looks as though this could be a potentially successful avenue for the car manufacturer after looking at the initial product design briefs that have been set out. The only thing I could possibly link it to would be the futuristic boat from the film the Island starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It is sleek and styled and unlike any boat you are likely to see on the water at the moment.

Mercedes Benz has a reputation for being innovators within the car market, but it is nice to see that they are also carrying that design brief across to the their potential new markets. Obviously Mercedes Benz don’t have the skills at present to perform all of the aspects of designing and building these boats or helicopters at present, but that in itself is the exciting part of working on a new product design project. It is all about information sharing and utilising the best ideas from the joint resource.

Will we see one of these Mercedes Benz boats on the water at some stage over the next few years? Who knows, but as a design concept it is truly stunning.

600cc in capacity, all the motorbikes will be running specially manufactured Honda engines and will have electronic control units to manage the amount of rider aids that the riders can use. It really should be back down to racing at it purist, when it is the team that has made the best use of their product design opportunities to design and construct the perfect chassis and the rider, who muscles the motorcycle around the tight and twisty tracks.

The teams have been frantically working away over the winter to perfect their chassis setup and manufacture new aerodynamic fairing casings to assist the rider with obtaining a greater top speed when tucked in during qualifying and the race.

Of course all of this work is good news for the motorcycle industry. In effect all of these teams are performing live testing for the manufacturers like Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki. I’m sure with a little bit of persuasion and a little bit of money, some of the designs that we see competing on the track this year, could be featuring on the roads in 2011 or 2012.

Speed is of the essence in the mobile phone sector, with new products coming off the production line all the time. The Molex facility will support connector concept and antenna design – a crucial element of success in this highly competitive market.

Here at Applied Product Design we are mindful of the fantastic opportunities that are present in China at the moment – particularly in manufacture. We have fostered some strong relationships with facilities and factories out in China, which enables us to provide some exciting manufacturing opportunities for our clients – opportunities that are not present in manufacturing options closer to home.

If you have a concept you think the market will like, why not give us a call and see how we can develop it into a profitable product.