I love the look of this Flipboard iPad application. I don't have an iPad, so am going purely by the demonstration video you see here, but it appears to achieve a simple utility where others have failed - namely in collecting and displaying articles shared amongst your online contacts (friends/followers) in a user-friendly format.

I gave up on Google Reader and Bloglines. They are clunky to use and strip away the pleasure we would normally feel at discovering and reading about new and interesting things. Twitter and Facebook interfaces are little better, and the same goes for most clients (Tweetdeck et al). Part of the problem might be that 'lists' of information feel like tasks that you have to plough through.

Its creators describe Flipboard as a personal magazine. If it has indeed succeeded in simplifying how we receive and view content shared through our online networks then I for one will be delighted. If I ever get an iPad that is.

Where wine lovers can take pleasure in using beautifully designed, high-end corkscrews, for beer drinkers utility still rules the roost. Bottle openers tend towards the functional and are more likely to be found on a key ring than stored carefully in a drinks cabinet.

The Erik Bagger bottle opener, available at ScandinavianDesignCenter, goes a long way towards redressing the balance. It's still utilitarian, but with a flourish. A pleasingly long handle is clearly designed to improve leverage and reduce effort. The stainless steel finish is understated and there's not a groove or engraving in site.

Strangely, the sophisticated beer drinker sounds like a contradiction in terms - they add the oxy to the traditionally moronic. But if this sounds like you then the Erik Bagger bottle opener is the perfect partner for your organic, local micro brewery, limited edition pale ale.

Posterous (where you might well be reading this) is worthy of a place on any list of simple things. What it does - namely, simplify the experience of publishing content to the web - it does beautifully. Much like Apple's products, using Posterous doesn't feel like you are dealing with something that is technical, even though you are.

In this video interview with Robert Scoble and its founders, Garry Tan and Sachin Agarwal, it soon becomes clear that the design philosophy behind Posterous is what makes it so successful, and that the similarity to Apple is no coincidence.

At one point they make a series of comparisons with the iPhone:
- You can use Posterous right out of the box
- Greate things don't have to be complete from the off.
- Start simple and build on it

I also completely agree with their point that great design comes through decisions about what to remove, not what to add. Pared down beats padded out every time.

The Mañana lamp by Marie-Louise Gustafsson for Design House Stockholm is one of the most laid back-looking pieces of product design I've seen. It's a floorlamp that makes itself comfortable in its surroundings by leaning louchely against the wall. So much so that it might as well be smoking a cigar and regaling you with stories of past escapades and adventures in exotic locations.

Inspired by a sketched portrait Gustaffson found herself doing, it's beautifully simple in form, consisting of an uncluttered steel frame and free from head to toe of any unnecessary detail. I also like the relationship between the size of the shade and the slender body which, for me, too many lamp designs fail to achieve.

I love the raw simplicity of these beautifully designed speakers from Joey Roth. The speakers themselves are made from porcelain, cork and Baltic birch all left in their natural state. This gives them a sense of warmth and personality and establishes a reassuring connection between technology and the natural world.

The amp in the middle of the picture is incredibly utilitarian in form, but all the better for it. I find the exposed phono plugs particularly pleasing; rather than being hidden away, they have been made an integral part of the design.

Plastic has been kept to a minimum throughout, appearing only in the electronic components.

Home audio is getting sleeker. For a while, I've been weighing up whether to dispense with hefty separates and speakers, which are great for sound but not so great spatially or aesthetically. Trouble is, whilst I listen to an increasing amount of MP3 these days, I still want to listen to CDs too. Which means that beautiful looking iPod-only docks like the Bose SoundDock and the B&W Zeppelin are out of the running.

This little beauty from Vita has been out for a while now and covers both bases, as well as adding DAB and FM radio into the mix. And it's a bit of a showstopper in the looks department too. I love the walnut veneer casing (it looks like it's a single mould, or certainly close to it) and the almost perfect symetry of the front display. An inset space on the top for the detachable remote control maintains its clean form.

If I finally decide to make the move from separates to an all-in-one system, then the Vita R4 would be my choice.

A great example of literal design. It doesn't offer a new solution to a problem, but it does its job elegantly, with grace and good humour.

If you too are impressed, you can buy them here.

Each year, for one week our attentions are drawn towards the night. It starts with Halloween and ends with Bonfire night (tonight). Illuminated pumpkins and fireworks are activities that demand the night. Once, before we created 24-hour light, the night was our natural antidote to the day, every day. It offered reflection after action. It was the unknown that interrupted the known.

The night is elemental. Living according to day and night gives us a natural rhythm, which we now interrupt. It also has a simplicity that the day does not. We should all give more of ourselves to the night because it balances us.