It's fast approaching that time of year when you want to think about buying weird trinkety gadgets for your loved ones. No, not Hallowe'en or October the 8th, but Christmas. Yes, sorry we've mentioned the C-word already... but hey that's what we do..ahem.

On the site Crazy about Gadgets - there is a wide selection of the down-right weird, wonderful and battery consuming. A quick selection of this month's finest offerings.

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How many times have you opened a great gift, been desperate to get playing with it but discovered it requires eight AAA batteries - which of course are not included and you can't find in your junk drawer.

And how many other times has your gadget run out of batteries at the crucial moment.

Over 5 billion batteries are used and thrown away every year at great ecological cost so we've decided to put together a gallery of eco friendly gadgets to ease your conscience and battery frustration.

Click on the picture below to begin the gallery.

If there's anything that would improve your living room surely it's some large pieces of green plastic from the games accessories manufacturer Thrustmaster.

Though they may look like pieces of a nu-rave S&M bondage kit, these are muscle and fitness enhancing accessories which can combine with your Ninentdo Wii. As the days get chillier, exercising outside gets less appealing and staying in the sitting room with your Wii becomes a more pleasant option... so Thrustmaster has designed their products to maximise the exercise benefits you get from a Wii game.

There are weighted wrist and ankle bands, devices which make you burn that much more energy when you move those particular parts of your body, and a step aerobic riser that makes stepping up and down that much more strenuous.

Follow on after the jump

You may have noticed that we cover vibrators in ShinyShiny, i just thought we'd take a slightly different look at that wonderful world today by putting the ergonomic rubbery offerings of today in a little historical perspective.

I knew Ann Summers hadn't been around for ever, but the sort of pleasure toys that ladies of the nineteenth century had to put up with are in a league of their own. Mechanical delights like the "Pulsocon" or "Vigor's horse action saddler" look like a cross between heavy-duty kitchen implements and the kind of tools dentists have in your nightmares.

Vintage gadgets are usually pretty funny. Vintage vibrators are also terrifying.

It seems the whole vibrator market kicked off around the 1880s, back when women didn't have sex drives, according to the (male) authorities of the time. What women did have though was 'hysteria' - a strange 'womb disease' that was relieved by "pelvic massage" or by one of the delightful contraptions below. Lucky ladies.

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LG has officially announced its first Android based phone.

The GW620 has a 3-inch full touchscreen and slide out QWERTY keypad for those of us who use our phones for email and social networking. There is also a 5.0-megapixel camera.

We don't know much else about this phone as LG has been a little bit stingy with its details. However, we have a look at the other Android based phones on the market.

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After we told you about the Cuisinart Soup Maker from John Lewis, we promised we would be bringing you the top five of these.

However, why should we just stick to these when there are so many kitchen gadgets out there to help make your cooking life easier?

Therefore, we've decided to give you a treat and round up the gadgets to give you a hand in the kitchen.

By the time we're finished we think you may be able to be a strong contender on Come Dine with Me, after all it's not really cheating, is it?

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Pixel art used to be how designers made computer and video game graphics, building pictures up block by block like some kind of graphic lego. Tools have changed, but the old pixel-by-pixel style lives on in small format screens like some mobile phones and in the hearts and minds of anyone with an affection for nineties computer games.

Digital nostalgia is partly why pixel art has taken off as an art-form, but it's not just retro - it's also an interesting way of stylising images.

Why it's pretty cool
Check out picture three in the gallery for Rubik Cubism - I find the mental powers needed to create a pixellated version of the Mona Lisa out of Rubik Cubes kind of mind-boggling. The fact that your eye can decode all these odd blocks of colour is pretty impressive as well.

How-to
How do you do it? Draw an outline with a line tool, choose a colour, zoom in and start placing pixels. Purists say you can only use the paint or pencil tools. We say, whatever works. 'Dithering' is the name for the chequerboard effect where colours blend into each other.

Click on the first picture to start the gallery. We show four forms of pixel art and two little pixel-inspired products for sale.

I do love my Geek Chic, and the latest collection from Punky Pins ticks every box in my heart. Gorgeous designs? Absolutely! Quirky takes on robots? Oh yeah. Personalization? All the way baby! And everything costs under £20 as well!

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Last week I talked you through the easy peasy process of creating your very own blog or website, and today I'm going to focus on design. There loads of different system you may have used to host your blog on, and a zillion of free themes out there to wade through-as I'm sure you've discovered!. If you chose Wordpress however, you might find that there are some rather ugly themes lurking on the web, so I've searched and found the top ten loveliest ones for you to utilize- for FREE! Enjoy.

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It wasn't so long ago I told you about the Raymond Chandler novel being turned into a computer game. It's a common trend to create a game off the back of successful book/movie mashups, but for every creation that's an astounding success there are those that flop heavier than Oprah in a fat suit. There's no perfect key to creating a winning game, but I think it would be great if companies started using some lesser known books for plot inspiration. Here's my guide to the top ten fantasy books that deserve to get the multi-player treatment- and I'm only including those that HAVEN'T ever had this, before you start moaning that I didn't mention Neil Gaiman's Coraline or Pratchett's Discworld.

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Twitter is uber popular nowadays. Everyone is doing it, talking about it, learning it, and you can even define what type of Tweeter you are with this handy guide. But how about showing the humble site some love? I'm, talking advertising you love it, combined with a little bit of shameless self promotion.

Here's our round up of the best Twitter related accessories around, so go on, share the love.

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You either love her or you hate her, but whatever the verdict, Hello Kitty is here to stay... indefinitely. She's become one of the most popular and sought out brands to have ever graced the world of cutesy Japanese cartoon characters (some might even say she's been around the block) and she's earned Sanrio a packet. Hello Kitty has adorned all manner of consumer electronics, from netbooks and mobile phones to washing machines and digital cameras. After scouring the net for a while I've come across a selection of Hello Kitty gadgetry ready to take 2009 by storm. Please, take a look.

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I've shown you what gifts would constitute the ending of a relationship, well here are gifts that would have me smiling and potentially putting out. Get this right, and you'll suddenly be allowed to watch Match of the Day without complaint (OK, she'll probably still complain, but at least she' won't change the channel).

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So the dreaded day looms forebodingly close, hanging a heavy shadow over your forthcoming Saturday night, Hopefully your festivities will go with a bang, but who knows? If any of these gifts make it onto your evening radar you should have a serious think about whether you're in the right relationship, or if you've accidentally turned into his mother sister daughter mate.

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Valentine's Day is almost upon us, which for some means spending ludicrous amounts of money on weekend trips to Paris or making your partner sick by bestowing upon them an abnormally sized box of choccies. Why not put your money to better use this year (who needs a trip to Paris, right?) and invest in some love-inspired gadgetry as opposed to the old cliché that is a dozen red roses.

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Who doesn't love a good USB stick? They're one of the essentials of every day life, but how many people opt for dull mundane versions when they could have seriously geek chic versions? Welcome to the five best USB sticks currently available.

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