Close your eyes a moment - and imagine a soft, Italian, suede-lined, calf leather jacket. Mmm...lovely to touch, and terribly stylish.  Well, before your imagination takes off down the catwalk with you, I have to tell you, this jacket isn't for you; it's for your iPod.

(Sigh.  I suppose it's just as well. It's summer here, and it'd be a pity to let a jacket like that pine away in the back of the closet.)

Available in black, cherry and aquamarine, the Marc Jacobs Collection Soft Calf Music Holder has the ever important square and circle openings to allow you navigate your songlist while leaving your iPod ensconced in its little lap of luxury.  -[Star C. Foster]

Marc Jacobs Collection Soft Calf Music Holder - $175.00 from eLuxury

I'm a Gemini.  This means my birthstone is the moonstone; my birth flower, lavender; and my ideal MP3 player colour is mustard.   The latter being the designation of the aigo F850 MP3 player, which is being offered in 12 fashion colours - one for each sign in the Zodiac: lemon yellow (Aries), bright green (Taurus), mustard (Gemini), powder blue (Cancer), red (Leo), Cream (Virgo), lime green (Libra), lilac (Scorpio), Pink (Sagittarius), Orange (Capricorn), canary yellow (Aquarius) and pale blue (Pisces).

In addition to cosmic coordination, the F850 offers MP3, WMA and WAV support; FM radio, 10 hours battery life; a voice recorder and a line-in function, which will let you transfer music from cassette, CD or other archaic sources you might have gathering dust in the closet.

The 512MB aigo F850 is available for £79.99 (inc VAT) and the 1G for only £99.99. No word on whether you're better off ordering the player that matches your star sign - or the one for the sign you're most compatible with.  Universal harmony is a tricky thing. - [Star C. Foster]

Could it be possible that Siemens might have finally come up with a phone that would convince me to throw away my low-tech but lovely SL55? Well, until I get my hands on the new SL75 I couldn't possibly comment, but the photos are looking pretty promising. It's certainly got a lot more features than my poor old mobile, including a 1.3-megapixel digital camera with LED flash, MP3 music player and Bluetooth. The last one's a bit of a minor miracle since Siemens people have always insisted that fashion phone users don't want Bluetooth. Slightly disappointed that it's only coming in silver and black (though no doubt there will be an Escada version at some point) and not the dark red colour. It'll be out in the UK later this year.

Siemens

Katie is off on a jolly again and has unwittingly left me in charge until this afternoon, which means only one thing...it's laptop bag time! While the Business Bag from Japanese streetwear label Fire First wasn't intentionally made to hold notebooks, it is one of the only bags I've seen for under £50 that will hold a widescreen model. It comes in black only (though it looks more like grey to me) with a waterproof coating and loads of pockets for your junk important documents. Buy it for £49.95 at the grammar-shy No Flys On Us. [Gemma Cartwright]

NoFlysOnUs.com

Need a breast exam (and if you're a woman, like it or not, you know you do), but live in an area that makes getting high-tech healthcare a trial?  The  physicians at
Michigan State University are looking to help folks like you.

A special glove, the Internet, and a robotic arm may soon allow physicians in a distant hospital to recieve and analyze tactile and ultrasound data from a patient at any other location in the world.

On the plus side, this sort of technology will help provide an increase in quality of care all over the world.  On the downside, it might mean the occassional robotic hand up your shirt, and I'll bet their fingers are always cold. [Star C. Foster]

Press Release [via we make money not art]

I'm rather partial to my Targus Kaleidoscope Mouse, but this range of Saitek Notebook Optical Mice has the added advantage of only costing £9.99 a pop. They're available in a wide array of colours, including orange, pink, yellow, light green, turquoise, olive green, yellow green, black, metallic red, metallic blue and cream. Unlike the Targus mouse they don't come with retractable cables or with ever-changing flashing bottoms, but they're rather fetching nonetheless.

Saitek

I haven't quite got round to ditching my TV and going the projector-white wall route. And I'm sure I won't be doing that anytime soon either (partly because some idiot thought it would be clever to artex all the walls in my flat). Still, I know a few people who have binned the box and they seem pretty happy with their decision. Those thinking of making the move to a data projector should probably take a look at this appealing new object from LG Electronics. The AN110 is the world's first wall mounted projector that you can hang on your wall like a picture frame. If you prefer you can sit it on a stand instead, much like a flat screen monitor. Either way, it's a compact and good-looking solution, and if I do ever get round to chucking the TV out the window, this is the kind of thing I'll be after. The set is expected to be available in the UK from September. No word on pricing yet, but as Tech Digest points out, 'not cheap' would probably be a good guess.

LG Electronics [via Tech Digest]

Those of you who dress-up like Marilyn Monroe each Halloween just to sate your desire to swathe yourself  in diamonds and red satin at long last have another option - the Diamond Fiction watch from TAG Heurer.   

And if strapping 879 diamonds to your wrist isn't enough of an attention-grabber, simply press a button to allow the LED time display to show underneath. 

The nice thing about diamonds is their sparkle - which one can only hope will be enough to blind folks to the fact that you've just laid out an astonishing amount of cash for a digital watch ... and one you can't even wear with everything.
  - [Star C. Foster]

The Diamond Fiction from TAG Heurer [via Oh!Gizmo]

You've got to admire a company that releases a bean bag and calls it a camera accessory. Fujifilm has done just that, launching the Camcushion camera pillow onto the unsuspecting camera market. The idea is that if you need to steady your pictures for long shutter speeds, or maybe if you don't have a reliably flat surface to hand for taking a group shot on timer, you can pop your camera onto the Camcushion and provide instant steady hold. It's also supposed to save you the hassle of carrying round and setting up a tripod at every photo op. It's only £9.99 and probably more usable than those low-end bendy tripods you can get for the same price, so Fujifilm may well have managed to pull this one off.

Fujifilm (although there's nothing on the site about the Camcushion yet.)

After a lifetime being jealous and guarded when it came to my personal belongings (having siblings can do that to you), I finally found a reason to be excited about sharing - The FlashPoint ShareDrive.

The Sharedrive is a USB flash drive (available with storage capacity ranging from 128MB to 2Gigs) with both a male and female USB ports, allowing it exchange data with any other USB device without the need of a pesky computer intermediary.  -[Star C. Foster]

FlashPoint ShareDrives [via Gizmodo]

Tech Digest just got their hands on the new low-end slider phone from Nokia. The 6111 is a basic fashion handset that looks similar to Nokia's new 3G slider, the 6280. Here's what Tech Digest had to say about it.

Phone buyers who feel that Siemens has yet to properly replace its SL55 slider will love this phone. It's very small with just the five buttons and the screen on the facia, neatly compact and not too chunky. The buttons that slide out from underneath the screen are ok, though nowhere near as responsive as the 6280. Like that model it can be used horizontally to take pictures courtesy of its on-board 1-megapixel snapper. Once again Nokia has delivered a really strong phone that is sure to be a hit with those who think modern mobile are just too large and complicated. It goes on sale in autumn

Helena Christensen has teamed up with Sony Ericsson to promote its phones before, and now she's at it again, this time with the K750i 2MP cameraphone. Although she can be seen here doing her model bit, she'll actually be doing a spot of snapping herself, putting on her "photographer" hat to show everyone what the camera on the K750i is capable of. Apparently, SE will also be giving away trips to Helena's New York photo studio as well.

Read

Well, it's Monday, and what better time for yet another Hello Kitty story than this? Some of you may recall the Che-ez! v:u 2 camcorder from NHJ that had Kitty's mug emblazoned across it. Well, not only is that heading to the UK, along with plain silver HK-free version, you'll also soon be able to get your hands on this Hello Kitty D'zign DZ-520 that we inexpertly shot at the recent NHJ UK launch.

Again, this one can be had in silver without Kitty on it, and the 18mm thick camera offers 5 megapixels and a 1.5-inch colour display. It's also got 32MB of internal memory, an SD card slot and can capture MPEG4 video at 640 x 480 pixels. Both the Che-ez! v:u 2 camcorder and the D'zign DZ-520 will cost £99 - although it's not clear if the Hello Kitty-branded stuff will carry an extra premium. (More pics after the turn).

Here's what's going on at some of our other blogs this weekend.

Tech Digest: iRiver launches U10, T20 and T30, VoIP in a flash, It's Ok, Sony Won't Hurt You

Bayraider (eBay blog): Watergate lock, Barry Manilow badges, Johnny Depp's Coat

Shoewawa (Shoe blog): 10% off at House of Fraser, Crochet Queen, The Wedge of Doom.

The Bag Lady (bags & accessories): Grace Glorieux, Cameron Diaz's Ani Bag, Chloe Saddle Paddington

Now, I'm all for carrying around bits of tacky Hello Kitty tech, but if I was in a burning building and someone tottered over armed with one of these Hello Kitty fire extinguishers, I'd think fling myself into the flames. I mean, a pink extinguisher with a picture of a mute kitten in a red bow on it doesn't really inspire much confidence does it?

Read

Having to pull extra-hours on the weekends (although depressing) no longer means having to miss out on the sparkle of the nightlife.  Now you can take a disco break anytime with the USB Mini Lava Light from ThinkGeek.  Just plug the lava-tastic, glittery  light-source into your USB port, fire up your favorite MP3 player, and croon away to Dancing Queen at the top of your lungs while you battle those pesky deadlines.  -[Star C. Foster]

The USB Mini Lava Light, $9.99 from ThinkGeek [via Gizmodo]

There's not much to say about these that you can't already glean yourself from the pictures. Julius the Monkey has been joined by two other Paul Frank designs to create this trio of iPod cases. If you can find these creations on the website you're a better man than me.

Paul Frank [via Chip Chick]

OK, OK, I take it all back. Having endured both of the Rivers of Mud Glastos I suddenly find myself feeling quite happy to be sat on dry land here in the sweltering heat of London. And while there may well be storms brewing here, there's no way it can ever be as bad as this. This makes those previous wet mudfests look postively Saharan. In fact, it's making a laughing stock of Coldplay's Solio gadget/iPod charger. Yes, the country's most inoffensive tune crooners have got together with Solio and created a special Coldplay-branded eco-friendly portable charger. Ideal for taking to one of the many fabulous UK festivals... if all the UK festivals were moved to the south of France that is.

Coldplay store [via Techie Diva]

These teensy c@ndi players from NHJ are being billed as the smallest players in the world. Whether that's strictly true or not is open to debate, but there's no doubt that they're mighty minute. Available in a selection of colours, you can also customise the casing yourself using the c@ndi sticker paper and some free software. There's also various accessories you can get, including the soft Jelly Bean skin coating and a key chain. They're available in 128, 256, 512MB and 1GB sizes, with prices starting from £29. You don't get a screen, so it works on the same principle as the iPod shuffle, but sadly you only get 5 hours of battery life. Cute though - and great for those of you that like to match everything.

Going to Glastonbury this year? Me neither. And what with this fantastic weather we're getting at the moment I'm having a bit of a sense of humour failure about it. But I suppose I should be grateful that I will at least be able to follow the live action on digital, and also now on Orange 3G TV. The kind people at Orange have just added a Glasto channel to the TV service (which currently only works on Nokia 6680 handsets). Apparently the coverage includes artist interviews, festival life, and "music experiences", which I'm assuming means actual proper acts playing rather than Old Uncle Tom Cobley and All's impromptu stick tapping ensemble and suchlike that can be witnessed all around the Greenfields, Tipi Field and the Stone Circle during the early hours of the morning.

Orange