Never one to pass up the opportunity to be all preachy about environmental *ishoos*, I thought I'd alert you to these Jimi iPod nano cases from Nigel's Eco Store The 100% recycled cases are available in six translucent colours, with interchangable face plates, so you can mix and match the colours. Includes a belt clip and access to all the
ports and controls and costs £14.99.
The Play & Freeze is a plastic ball with a ball in it. You pack the outer ball with rock salt and ice; you fill the inner ball with ice cream ingredients; you roll the ball around for ten minutes or so (gently but firmly, as the warranty doesn't cover breakage from dropping or kicking) and voila, you have ice cream. Okay, so it's just a twist (so to speak) on the old-school ice cream churn, but it's probably easier to convince your kids to use it.
Here's the latest from some of the other Shiny blogs:
Bridalwave: Zero gravity wedding dress.
Catwalk Queen: Going Green
TV Scoop: It's not easy being beautiful
Corrie Blog: Reviewed: An Audience With Coronation Street
Trashionista: Movie Magic: Shopaholic
Happy surfing!
I know, I know, that's a terrible, terrible pun. I apologise.
Antec's nifty little desk fan is powered by USB and looks all pretty and lit-up-like while blowing the sweat away from your hard-working forehead. Alternatively it might be good for drying nail-varnish. Or doing that sexy windblown effect for the benefit of that guy you really fancy on the other side of your cube.
I've found it for just over a tenner at ebuyer.
Erm, not much more to say on this one!
It's cute, it keeps up to 250 entries (in 8KB), it's red and spotty (hey, isn't polka-dot back in fashion?), and I daresay those mis-matched LED eyes flash at you and tell you things in a secret morse-ladybird hybrid code. Available for $7.34 Stateside or £7.99 in Blighty.
I just hope it doesn't open up. I love ladybirds but I get all freaked out when they get their wings out. Eeerrrggghhh. [Sara Wallen]
Read/Buy (US) Read/Buy(UK) (via Red Ferret)
More
Review: SIM Key
There's all sorts of fun and games going on over at the Nike Lasarium. It seems to be some sort of cusomisation chamber over in Oregon, USA where they do all their laser work. Sadly, it's not a service that's open to the public, but here's hoping that some enterprising type sets up something similar for us plebs. On the left is Justin from Dime Magazine's Blackberry 8700, while the the RAZR and the Sony Cybershot T1 belong to Jamie from Juxtapoz Magazine. "Lucky buggers" is, I think, the appropriate response.
Anyone who happens to be looking out of the window when I leave the house will almost without fail see me running back towards the front door minutes later. That's usually how long it takes me to realise I've forgotten my phone/money/makeup (so I can do it on the train like a hussy)/insert other important item here. A team of six lady researchers in Canada has created this handbag/purse/whatever you like to call it, which reminds you when you've forgotten to pick up your most important bits by flashing up a picture in red LEDs.
My Roomba died on me the other day. It was a sad, sad moment and I wept bitter tears. Those of you still enjoying the benefits of a robotic hoover, however, may feel the need to further your anthropomorphic tendencies by buying little Roombie a special skin. The plastic skins come in a variety of colours and patterns, and you can even create custom numbers. Maybe have one made up to look like a dearly departed pet - a marginally less creepy option than a visit to the taxidermist's. The skins cost about $20.
iRobotSkins [via Gizmodo]
Are you ready to exercise the fashionable and competitive geek in you? Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency are holding a starry eyed fashion competition - Space Couture Design. To launch it, chairperson Eri Matsui, has designed the wedding dress you see here.
On the left of the picture you see the dress as it would look on Earth. The right version shows how the dress would appear in zero gravity. [Camilla Chafer]
[Via Bridalwave]
Is it a coffee table? Is it a multimedia device with digital TV, music, photos and video? Or is it all of the above? Yes, the Stealth coffee table doubles up as a multimedia machine capable of storing and displaying all forms of electronic media including digital TV, music, video, photos with PC functions such as Internet and email and what it terms as 'retro' gaming. They predict two uses - home use ('get that coffee cup/those feet off my multimedia table!') or in a corporate reception to deliver media content. From Design Concepts (UK) Ltd. [Camilla Chafer]
Two more artists have been given a go at creating characters for mimoco's line of unnecessarily (yet undeniably) adorable USB keys. This month, TADO's piratey HERO hits the market. Next month, there's the cheekily named Corrupted_Data by Jon Burgerman (not sure I'd plug anything with that name into my PC, no matter how cute it was). Corrupted_Data comes with an animated video by Burgerman, featuring the music of Penfold Plum.
I'm actually quite pleased to see they've come out with a pirate-themed mimobot, because I felt a bit put out when, earlier this year, they released a ninja mimobot. After all, everyone knows pirates and much cooler than ninjas.
Aeon, makers of sculptural radiators, have come up with this curvaceous pair of cones with handy knobs on to heat up your life.
If you feel reminded of something and faintly guilty for having a dirty mind - fear not, this hot specimen is called the Madonna radiator, for obvious conical-type reasons. Currently retailing for a buxom £1,339.97.
Here's what's happening with the other Shiny Media blogs today:
Star Trip: Skinny Nicole: "I Still Work Out"
Bridalwave: Frock Horror #8 - Bumper Edition!
Corrie Blog: Play Pub Quiz In Rovers Return
TV Scoop: Church Chats
Catwalk Queen: Super Kawaii!
Happy surfing, and have a good weekend!
It's nice to see a new novelty mouse on the market like this Tam creation dubbed the pill bottle. Utilising two buttons and a wheel mouse, you are supposed to hold it as though you would a wine glass, meaning less strain on the wrist and great if you have little desk space. It is wireless although there is the option of connecting via a USB port. The charge lasts for up to 5 hours but it can apparently be charged whilst in operation too.
Compatible with iMac, iBook and PowerBook G5/G4/G3 series plus Windows XP and 2000. And of course it comes in pink too. Retails around 4,600 Yen/ £22/ US$40 [Camilla Chafer]
[Via Knowledge Design (in Japanese) and Uber Review]
The rise of personal attacks has seen a fall in the amount of both women and men enjoying exercise in the park. Taking this into account, Sportline have included a safety alarm on their pedometer. It tracks your steps, distance and calories and ignores 'false' steps (whatever they may be). The alarm produces a 100dB pulsing signal which presumably bystanders will mutter about being just as bad as a car alarm without offering to help anyway. The signal is 20db quieter than the one we've previously mentioned but it is also a couple of quid cheaper. Sportline 344 Safety pedometer £16.95 John Lewis [Camilla Chafer]
A room made of chocolate may sounds like a crazy, wonderful, tasty fantasy - but for £2500+, Food Is Art will turn it into a crazy, wonderful, tasty reality. Their life-sized chocolate rooms - inspired by the tale of Hansel and Gretel - can be transported to your venues, and are said to feed up to 500 people. 500 people who, I imagine, prize the taste of chocolate over architectural integrity. (How do they know they're not eating a load bearing wall, I wonder?)
Included in the room's accouterments are: a chocolate fireplace & hearth, chocolate logs, chocolate decorations and lick-able sugar wall paper. I bet the snozberries even taste like snozzberries. - [Star C. Foster]
Life Sized Chocolate Rooms (via Boing Boing)
Related:
Chocolate Fountain
I'm not sure I want to attend any dinner party where the culinary piece de resistance requires a "safety guard" to protect the designers from tasty shrapnel. If you're a bit braver, the Explosive Chocolate Bomb might appeal to you. Available for £75 from the Chocolate Trading Company (and to UK customers only), the Explosive Chocolate Bomb advises diners to light the wick and then stand well back for dark-chocolatey goodness. There are even safety instructions on what to do if the bomb fails to explode.
I think I may have discovered the one chocolate item on Earth I'm not anxious to try. Chocolate should be delicious, not dangerous. - [Star C. Foster]
It's truly puzzling just how rubbish most can openers are - in fact, usually the fancier they look, the more useless they are. This puzzles me for two reasons: 1) surely with all these complex design concepts out there ONE of these damn things will actually do what it's created to do? and 2) which idiot came up with such a hard to open tin in the first place? Fortunately, such is the wonder of modern science, most tins now come with those ring pull thingies, which are designed to make it far easier for you to bend your nail right back to the pink fleshy part. You know, so you're left wailing in pain and saying "I broke a nail!" while everyone else in the room silently condemns you for being a pathetic, girly wimp who only cares about her nails.
For those times when a ring pull isn't included (stop buying your food from Lidl you cheapass) this Cordless OneTouch Can Opener by Daka Designs Ltd may possibly do the job for you.
MobiBLU, Q Be, call it what you will, but the little player is proving hard to get hold of in the UK right now (possibly in no small part down to the fact that it was being flogged in Dixons for just £25 at one point). This new version may soon be ready and willing to fill the 2.4cm cubed shaped hole in your heart. Not much different from the original, from what I can tell, but this time it's called the Cube 2.
[via DAP Review]
I'm guessing you all probably know what a Playstation 2 is by now and you are probably wondering why I'm posting about it now. With the launch of the playstation 3 due in November, Sony has cut the cost of the PS2 by $20 to around $130 across the US. Hoorah for those of you across the pond. It's a 'boo' for UK readers however as Sony has no plans to slash the retail price here which currently stands at slightly over £100.
And in case you wanted to know how many PS2's are out there, here's a quick quiz for you.
How many PS2's have sold since it's launch in 2000? a) 50 million b)77.5million c)101 million. Answer after the turn. [Camilla Chafer]
From: Adobe launches Creative Cloud with 20GB of added online storage and web apps