Systems and gadgets meant to charge mobile devices via movement are pretty common (at least as concepts) these days, but this one is one of the most brilliant we’ve seen. The iRock uses a rocking chair’s natural motion to charge an attached iPad or iPhone. Conceived by Zurich-based Micasa Lab, the chair is a smart way to harness a relaxing motion that you might already be doing anyway.

The rocking chair is of a classic design, constructed of sturdy Swedish pine and available in five colors. But unlike classic rocking chairs, one of the rockers includes a small generator on the back side. The generator captures the energy from the chair’s regular back-and-forth motion and sends it to an integrated battery. That energy can power the integrated speakers in the back of the chair, charge an iDevice, or both.

Thanks to the iPad dock built into the chair’s right arm, you can use your iPad as you rock while keeping your hands free. This, coupled with the built-in speakers, makes the iRock the perfect accessory for new parents. It would make it possible to rock baby to sleep while listening to some quiet music and, if you can take your eyes off of baby for a while, even catching up on some reading – all while your iPad charges. The $1300 chair only works with Apple products at the moment, but the folks at Micasa Lab say that a variety of connectors are likely to be released for the chair in the future.

The post This Chair Rocks: Kinetic iPad Charger Disguised as Furniture first appeared on Gajitz.

Having relatively large egos and short tempers, we tend to get very annoyed when sitting in any shared-armrest kind of situation. Airplanes, movie theaters, waiting rooms…they’re all enough to cause conniption fits.

The Paperclip Armrest concept from designer James Lee is a surprisingly simple answer to the widespread problem of who gets the armrest. The clever design has two levels, letting one person put their arm on top and the other on the bottom.

Of course, you still have to be uncomfortably close to the other person in order for this concept to work. Like, high likelihood that your arms will touch kind of close. But if you’re desperate for a place to put your arm or just don’t care about the possibility of literally bumping elbows with your chair neighbor, this is maybe the best advancement to hit chairs since padded seats.

The post Double-Decker Chair Armrest Heads off Waiting Room Misery first appeared on Gajitz.