Sometimes solar panels don't have to look all ugly... This radio uses an eco-friendly colorful solar panels to get the electricity.

The Grätzel technology:
"The source of this revolution is EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), where Professor Michael Graetzel, inspired by plant photosynthesis, began to use molecules from colorants to transform the sun’s light into electricity."

Design by: http://bold-design.org/

Stephen P. Anderson on the importance of aesthetics in design.

After a long time in development, BumpTop, a 3D Desktop environment, has finally launched.

I always considered BumpTop to be a bit of a gimmick, but it's wonderful to see some innovation that tries to improve the aging Desktop metaphor.

Two usabilitynews.com articles on the importance of aesthetics in design:

Fashion: A useful Usability Placebo
What does Aesthetics have to do with Usability?

Aza Raskin explains a concept for new tabs in Mozilla's web browsers.