Sexing up power strips is a little industry all to itself: the sexiest being the Power Squid. The latest design rests on the waves, not beneath them: it's modeled on the container tankers that deliver to our shores the very gadgets it powers.

Designed to accommodate the many power adapters cluttering our living space, this ship powers our electronic devices with their cords in its wake. It also makes apparent the infrastructure behind all those power cords.

Most electronic devices in use everyday are manufactured in one province in China and are delivered to us by containership. What people often do not realize is the extreme scale of the infrastructure needed when a single geographic area becomes a primary manufacturing source; even for things that most people see as insignificant. The largest of these ships hold up to 9,000 40ft containers and are too massive for the Panama Canal. They frequently return to China empty. There is nothing to bring back.

The Containership Powersupply (Prototype shown) measures 20"x3.5"x5" and is made from a cast rubber body over a metal chassis. Prototyping by ModelSource, Avon, CT

Product Page (Click the "I" in the top row) [Giffintermeer VIA SlipperyBrick and Oh Gizmo!]

It starts with a good, if precious, idea: wouldn't it be cool if we made an external hard drive that looked like a classic hardcover book?

The idea is greenlit by the powers that be, and begins its journey through the colon of product development. One by one, committees, jobsworths and other executive polyps strip it of moisture and add in "must have" features like giant, blinking LED lights, until we get to the end result:

It's like those plastic kitchens they sell to little girls. Someone should buy a bulk lot of hard drive enclosures and orphaned Britannica Great Books, find a very sharp knife, and get cutting. Restore the sense of wonder!

Product Page [Hardbox via Gizmodo]

E-Ink's newest segmented display cells are 40 percent thinner and may be cut to any desired shape. The first device to feature them is a wireless key fob from Delphi.

The SDC products are simple digit, icon and alpha-numeric displays, offering exceptional readability in a paper-thin form factor that uses minimal battery power. The new SDCs are 40% thinner with a wider operational temperature range and increased flexibility for repetitive 3-D bends or 2-D conformable solutions. Applications include consumer electronics, PC-accessory, display smartcards, capacity indicators, electronic shelf labels, signage and communications applications. The SDC displays use the same E Ink Vizplex™ technology that is shipping in popular electronic book devices such as the Amazon Kindle, SONY Reader and iRex iLiad.

This sounded radical until I remembered all those old-skool LCD watches, and those handheld games where the crystal elements were shaped like a race car or a karate man.

Press Release [E-Ink via Electronista via Gizmodo]

Sandio's crazy 3D mouse, which augments the standard layout with three analog thumb-joysticks, has new drivers which add support for modeling applications. AutoCAD, Maya and 3DStudio Max now map Cartesian mojo to the mouse's profusion of hats.

"Users of CAD and rendering software; such as AutoDesk’s 3D Studio Max, and Maya can now move along and rotate around X, Y and Z axes in Screen and Camera modes without switching between 3D objects and operation menus.For PC gamers, the Sandio 3D Game O2 is the only mouse of its kind designed for RTS and RPG games. It improves 3D game navigation, makes it possible to effortlessly and intuitively manipulate camera views, and even provides a competitive edge with 16 programmable keys."

I requested a review unit ages ago, but ever since it arrived it's just sat there on the shelf, looking far too intimidating to actually break out the blisterpack and make a fool of myself with.

Product Page [Sandio]

Many people want their Bluetooth headsets to be as subtle as possible. I am not one of them. In Berlin, there are only two sorts of people who stand in the middle of the streets, loudly talking to themselves, and the sort with whom I would avoid being mistakenly associated tends to wildly jactitate with the DTs when not complaining about the invisible insects crawling all over them. That vibrant, colorful Bluetooth headset, nuzzled in my ear canal? Irrefutable proof that I am not a lunatic. Or at least not by dint of loudly talking to no one.

So I approve of Bluetrek's limited edition Bizz and UFO Bluetooth headsets. Each one is decorated by artist Manuel Angot, and they come in all sorts of lurid patterns and colorful, chromatic swirlings. True, they aren't suitable for any professionals short of the most flamboyant of businessmen, but for the sort of hipsters who like colorful glasses and tech, these are pretty neat. At £79 a pop, though, I think I'll stick with my glitter, feathers and sparkles.

Bluetrek Bluetooth Earpieces [Techdigest]

Monica Hesse of the Washington Post has written a weird little piece about the Nubrella, an over-the-shoulders plastic dome which is marketing itself as the Umbrella 2.0, despite the fact that it features a five-step opening process and you need to put on a harness to keep it on. It's being described by its creator — who claims he's invested $400,000 into the Nubrella's creation — as the perfect umbrella for the on-the-go cell phone jockey who must always be charging down the street, thumbs a T9 blur as he texts, no matter what the weather. This prompts Monica to inexplicably note that...

Think of the 21st-century possibilities [of the Nubrella]. No more one-handed texting. No more rummaging for the ringing PDA while trying to keep the groceries off of wet pavement. Chatting, waving, toting, umbrella-holding: four tasks that were never before simultaneously possible.

The whole article's clearly a spoon-fed adverstory with some quirky umbrella history thrown in, but that's okay. The tone's hysterical: "Oh, sure, you might think the umbrella's pretty much perfect, but if you're so smart, why don't you tell me something, champ? Ever tried juggling while holding an umbrella? What about taking your contacts out, or defribillating a newborn, or walking on your hands? Who thinks the umbrella's perfect now, Mr. Weisenheimer? You need a Nubrella!" It's like declaring the shopping bag a failed accessory because it can't hover, open up into a dimensional wormhole or travel back in time.

If you would, for any reason, like a Nubrella, though, it's not too dear at $49.95. Think of all the antediluvian pedestrians you'll be able to stupefy into quadruple heart attacks, waving and using an umbrella at the same time like some sort of 39th Century Moon Man.

Need to text in the rain? They've got it covered. [Washington Post]

One from the random convergence device generator: a 16-foot tape measure with a voice recorder and one of those ineffectual LED lights, so "you'll be able to see exactly what you're measuring." I can record only 20 seconds of audio, and costs $20.

Why stop there? What would it have cost to add, say, an FM radio? Or a rape alarm?

Product Page [X-tremegeek via Gizmodiva]

This is a simple, elegant idea. Belkin's Mouse Trap mouse pads allow you to quickly zip up all the flotsam, jetsam and detritus scattered across your mouse pad and take it on the road with you like a little pocketbook. For $8.79, it seems rather useful. The only question is whether or not it could possibly hold everything littering my mousepad, which seems to function as a gravity well for my junk. Currently stacked atop my mousepad: one smoldering Meerschaum pipe, one jumble of indeterminate origin keys, a cheap lighter I bought for fifty cents at the local convenience store (this lighter declares its owner to be an "Islam O.G."), two depressingly empty beer bottles, a novelty bottle opener, a stack of coverless CDs, a fork, my syncing iPod, a paperback copy of Naked Came The Stranger and, finally, my laser mouse, which will only function within its allotted millimeters of free space by cranking the sensitivity up to the point of sub-atomic mapping.

Belkin Mouse Trap [Geek Bro via Book of Joe]

Novatel's U727 EVDO Rev. A USB cellular modem is small, fast and works seamlessly with Windows PCs and Macs.

Though an improvement over earlier models like the U720, it's still larger than most thumbdrives and those looking for something super-tiny will be disappointed. Joel bought one and sent it back, disappointed by its size, but I have no problem with it at all. It's one of the few things of its type that even fits in a MacBook Air.

Setup is easier on Windows: plug it in, and the software autoruns and configures it automagically. On OS X 10.4, instructions are provided, but they didn't quite match up to reality, and you have to find your way to Internet Connect and punch some stuff in manually. Not a major problem — especially for anyone who has ever hacked a WiFi or WWAN stick to work on OSX — but this flashback to the dial-up era may give delicate Mac fans the vapors.

Throughput was excellent in my location: 1.3 Mbps down and 500 kbps up on either platform, though it seems quite sensitive to location: moving a laptop just a few yards halved that.

The stick's antenna is attractive enough, flush with its geometry when closed and not unattractive when up. There's also a tiny connector for connecting an external antenna.

One untested bonus is the MicroSD card slot; it works as a card reader for cards up to 4GB.

I've been using this all week as my iMac's sole internet connection, and haven't noticed much difference at all between it and Comcast cable internet for everyday browsing. Sprint's EVDO service is fine, assuming you get a decent connection: the iMac's web server is not accessible with the stick's global IP address, however, so perhaps there's some sanitization of connections going on. There's no noticeable degradation of images or other suggestions of "speed-boosting" proxies.

The U727 costs $280 outright or is $80 with a 2-year contract subsidy with Sprint, on whose network it was tested. You'll need the $60 unlimited plan, as EVDO will eat the $40 40Mb plan in a few minutes.

"Mind-reading" video game controllers are nothing new. The Atari Mindlink introduced the concept to gaming in 1983. Trephining and plunging electrodes through spurting skull holes was not the prerequisite: the Mindlink was a crock, actually controlled by a series of forehead waggles and facial tics. Then, last year, there was the Neurosky... Mindlink Mach II. Now Gizmodo's spotted a new one: the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator.

To begin with, you probably only want to map a single event to your games, but as your confidence improves you'll be able to do more and give your hands a break. And as the NIA can speed up response times (200ms to click fire, 100ms to think it), it means you'll be more efficient at shooting before getting shot.

We got to use the device for an extended play in the wonderfully frenetic Unreal Tournament 3, and the buzz you get when you knock up your first frag is every bit as stunning as it is scary.

It seems to be getting mostly positive reviews, but it's just another Mindlink: it basically just monitors your forehead muscles. When are people going to learn?

I think, ultimately, the idea that neurologically commanded video game controllers will somehow be more intuitive than their digitally handled counterparts is a phlegmatic huff on the magic jaybone of wishful thinking. People seem to assume that if such a controller comes along, looking around in a video game will be as easy as turning your head in real life. Obviously, it can't be that simple: if you send the same mental signal to look around in a game as you do to move your head, you'll quickly find yourself looking away from the screen. You'll need to train your brain to send a message to the controller to make you look around in the game. But I already know how to send that message: I tell my thumb to wiggle on the D-Pad. Simple. Direct brain controllers, even in theory, simply convolute the remarkable elegance of moving a mouse or thumbing a trigger button.

OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator [Buy]

Image: Atari Museum

Cost Controller convinces you to pay $100 for an LCD display-equipped power strip which informs you how much power is being used by the eight appliances it can accommodate. If it doesn't add up to at least $100 a year, a sample of The Simpsons' Nelson laughing at you is played at random intervals throughout the day.

Product Page [Computer Gear via Red Ferret]

Top ten things to copy with Virtua Console's USB Flash Drive Duplicator:

• Malware, so that the drives may be scattered in a corporate car lot, from whence the inevitable occurs.

• Porn, same ruse but more amusing results.

O.K., so I've already run out of ideas. Drat. Anyway, the box can do its job quickly, finishing up a rack of 1GB drives in 2 minutes. It can even discretely encrypt each one with its own unique key. It costs $8,000, and they're developing a system to link up hundreds of these units, so that one may copy data to arbitrarily-large numbers of USB drives at once.

Product Page [Virtual Console via Crave]

The less said about Phantom Entertainment née Infinium Labs the better: a huckster company so unrepentant in their attempts to bilk investors of their money in the pursuit of a console so illusory and ill-defined that it's very name evoked the ephemeral, imaginary and ectoplasmic. The whole debacle is better summed up snorting all the phlegm out of your throat then contemptuously expectorating it in a men's room toilet than it is with words.

Needless to say, after six years, Phantom Entertainment hasn't released anything: not its Phantom Console, which has been canceled, nor the Phantom Lapboard, which was due out in late 2006. But perhaps the Lapboard — a keyboard/mouse combination designed to be used playing FPS games for the PC while lounging on the couch — isn't entirely a pipe dream. Maximum PC just managed to get their hands on one, and while Phantom's history indicates this doesn't make the Lapboard any closer to production, it does at least mean it's within the realm of possibility.

So what did Maximum PC think of the Lapboard? They really liked the keyboard aspect of the Lapboard, which they thought worked really well for supine Team Fortress 2 matches. But the mouse? Utter garbage.

Unfortunately, the mouse that Phantom ships with the Lapboard leaves much to be desired. While a bit smaller than we prefer, it isn't uncomfortable. The problem is worse than a lack of comfort; we experienced signal dropouts at a distance of about 24 inches from the sensor, not acceptable. The mouse and keyboard would both be working fine, then the mouse would drop out while the keyboard continued to operate. We tested several other wireless mice with the same configuration, and had no problems with them. A wireless mouse that drops connections is an unforgivable sin, in our eyes.

Phantom's claiming the Lapboard will be available in June in limited quantities for $130. Considering the fact that publications have been previewing this thing for years, don't bother putting in a pre-order.

First Look: The Phantom Lapboard [Maximum PC]

Now here's a simple and useful concept: a USB hub sold with a Y-cable. This makes it possible to run power-hungry gadgets that usually don't play well with unpowered hubs—think optical drives, scanners and 2.5" SATA drives—without mains power.

Product Page [Brando via Gizmodo]

To nerdilettantes, Century's triple CF card SATA adapter is Manna from Heaven, which is to say, from Asia. Jam three compact flash cards in, and there you go—an instant solid state disk drive. The problem is that it's $200, which is pure comedy, especially given the 20 MB/s throughput it'll provide.

On the other hand, real SSDs have even greater markups over CF, so if you're after size instead of speed, why not? Just don't think of those increasingly-cheap terabyte hard drives; remember, this is a holy war.

Product Page [GeekStuff4U via Gizmodo and Engadget]

I bought LG's GSA-E50l external DVD drive. It was inoperable out of the box: a circumstance so baffling I briefly wondered if it required drivers or some such, heralding a new era of basic in-out hardware that doesn't work until after an OS is loaded. Ah, but no! It's just a lemon.

I tried it on four computers, including a desktop, a laptop, a Zonbox and an iMac. Not one machine could see it. The power light came on, but the disk tray wouldn't eject and it is not detected as a USB device.

Staring at the little 5"-square slab on the desk, I realized that I was in a pickle. I wanted a slimline bus-powered optical drive, and this was the only one that the local brick 'n' mortars carried. Suspicion was strong from the beginning: whereas most such things are plain, sleek rectangles, LG's GSA-E50L is overdesigned, resembling a giant squashed suppository. It is what Charlie Sorrel at Gadget Lab would describe as "plastic tat."

Alas, it is therefore unrated and unreviewed, but can hardly be recommended. I shall endeavor to find out if this is a common problem with bus-powered optical drives: most such models require external power, even with dual-USB Y cords.

Puck, our elderly german shepherd, went missing. Some local kid reached though the gate, unlocked it and let our dogs out for his or her own amusement. After a morning spent searching, one question kept returning to me over and over again: "Why do GPS dog collars cost six hundred dollars?"

Times have changed, and Zoombak now offers a GPS-based dog locator for a much cheaper $200 — definitely worth it, as you will discover if a beloved pup ever goes off for a dangerous jaunt around the block. The flip side is that you need a subscription, costing $15 a month, with cancellation fees if you want out.

This is perhaps because it uses assisted GPS, which adds a cellular transceiver to improve performance, and because the service includes a web-based tracker you can access whenever you want, notification via SMS if the wearer leaves designated "safe" zones, and 24/7 emergency support.

From pics, it looks about the size of an MP3 player or pager; it's likely just marketing that has it as an animal tracker, and I see no reason it couldn't be used to track youngsters, cars, or anything else you might slip it into. Its battery life is OK: about 5 days on standby, with alerts sent to cellphone or email when it needs juice. A full week would have been nice, but it would then probably weigh too much for small dogs; as it is, Zoombak already recommends it for animals 15 lbs or larger.

By the way, Puck was found safe and well, having managed to travel more than three miles in just a few hours. A kindly person saw her wandering, braved a look at her tags, and gave us a call. Even now, though, I'd love to know how she got from one side of the city to the other.

Product Page [Zoomback]

Computer speakers are like icebergs. Look at the ad shots (example to your right), and you mostly see delicate spires dressed in fine fabrics, flanking iMacs, pointing to the heavens just like Plato did right before he pushed Aristotle down the School of Athens' stairs.

But it is below the desk that their true presence is felt: giant, unweildy subwoofers spilling wires and cords like a dreadlocked Hutt. The MM226 from Boston Acoustics is no exception. In fact, it seems to revel in it: there's no attempt to conceal its bulk with clever design. Instead just sits like a giant melting block of grey ice, woofing away happily, content with its corpulent state.

Of course, the topside speakers are very pretty, with exchangeable faceplates in Glacier, Rosebud, Onyx, Pearl Gray, Caramel, Chocolat, Silver and Chili Pepper. They're lovely, though they do cost a little extra (and actually live up to the silly names, inasmuch as they're mostly odd colors that might be hard to match to existing decor)

Anyway, all such things fade to irrelevance before the quality of the sound, and the MM226 was pleasant enough. The big woofer throws out plenty of bass, but the stereo pair is good enough to stay afloat on it. It belts out lots of volume without too much effort, and that's all it really needs to do. I couldn't imagine that music lovers would even look at something like this, so didn't worry about how danceable the cables were.

The wiring is simple, with a desktop volume module making physical control a snap—it also has microphone and headphone sockets, too. At $150, it's not too expensive, but pricier than cheapie models in its class.

Only one flaw really got on my nerves: the desktop volume control unit was sensitive to interference from my cordless phone, a Dect 6.0 model from Panasonic.

Although the iPhone handles just wonderfully without a stylus, there is a small but vocal contingent of people who want one.

Perhaps these people do a lot of text entry on their iPhones and require an instrument of heightened dexterity. Maybe they are old Palm Pilot or Pocket PC users who just miss the feel of a stylus in their hands. Or maybe they are people who regularly need to hand their iPhones over to friends who cover the sleek touchscreen with their foul drippings... the sort of friends who don't wash their hands or wipe properly, yet are always touching your stuff, covering your pretty things in their fecal encrustations, until you just can't STAND it anymore and you just want to put your hands around their gobbling thoraxes and squeeze, squeeze, SQUEEZE until their faces go purple and their protruded eyeballs flop around their bloated cheeks and you NEVER have to worry about them touching your stuff EVER again.... for ever and ever and ever FOREVER.

For people like that, enter the iPhone Soft-Touch Stylus. It's an aluminum stylus with a soft rubber tip guaranteed not to scratch or damage your iPhone. I like the picture of it in action: it looks delightfully smooshy to use. $12.99 will get you one, although without a little stylus holster drilled into the iPhone itself, you're just going to lose it.

Soft-Touch Stylus [Daydeal.com]

This otherwise generic flash memory card reader includes a small mirror, the better to give your makeup a little touch-up before you load your self-portraits into your laptop. Or if you're a girl, to adjust the fit of your engineer coveralls.

It's $15, plus shipping. And unbelievably, it doesn't come in pink. I would never buy this unless it came in pink.

Catalog Page [Gadget4all.com via Oh Gizmo via Pocket Lint]

Brando's "Mulit [sic] Purpose Solar Charger" is hard to criticize. It's a 15% efficient solar panel on top of a 1,350 mAh battery, capable of outputting power via a set of cell phone adapters or good ol' USB. It appears you can also charge via USB, then keep it topped off during the day via solar. Best of all, it's just $25 plus shipping.

It has a strange, clear plastic clip on the back that Gizmodo implied was to hold batteries for charging, but I don't see any electrical leads in the plastic, so I'm guessing it's just some strange Chinese design affectation.

Solar + batteries is where it's at. You could leave this thing in the window of your workplace all day, then plug in your phone on the way home and never hit an outlet for months. There are the production and environmental costs of the unit itself, of course — especially the battery — but it's great to see something like this showing up so inexpensively.

I ordered one. It won't be around by the time I'm ready to go out into the woods — next week! — but it still looks like a worthwhile thing to have on hand. I've got some more solar projects coming throughout the summer, too.

Product Page [Mobile.Brando.com.hk via Gizmodo]

There are several questions that need to be addressed by designed Iohanna Pani before the "Cycle" bicycle-seat-into-backpack concept could be put into production. What materials would be comfortable but still allow for a light, crush-proof bag? Would the fixture for the seat post rub into the wearer's back? Is my ass really that big?

But size it down a little and make it capable of holding a phone and a few trinkets and there might just be a winner here. Nothing is more annoying than hauling around a useless bike seat with you all day.

Project Page [Coroflot.com via Yanko]

Just yesterday a friend and I were mentioning how often we find ourselves without a reusable bag when shopping, leaving us little choice but to bring home more plastic bags from the grocery store. These new scruntch-up bags from Flip & Tumble can be stashed inside the integrated stretchy pouch, smooshing the whole thing into something only about 3-inches in diameter. Not quite pocketable, but if you already carry around a backpack or purse — don't say it; sometimes you need more carrying capacity — then these could do the trick.

Each bag is $12 plus shipping and are available in five colors.

What tricks do you use to stash bags? You could do something similar with a light bag and a sock. I've got several of those reusable Ikea bags, but they're too big, even folded, to carry around.

Product Page [Flip & Tumble]

What a clever idea: digitizing the common, canary-yellow Post-It note to help people with Alzheimer's.

The Ixp-Note, 1mm thick, enables the user to enter the time and date of a future event by touching the paper with their finger. Using a normal pen, the user can then write the event they need to remember on a glowing strip, which can be programmed to flash or beep at the chosen time.

The memo note uses thermo-chromic ink - like that used in thermometer strips - that changes colour in response to temperature.

Better yet, they're cheapish and reusable: a pack of ten costs £10.

Clever stick-on note could replace alarm clock [Telegraph] (via Gizmodo)

Boy, I've been traveling. It's not likely to ease up this year. I've got the short trip down to an art, if I may be so bold: I'm regularly doing two-three night stays, with full-sized laptop and often cameras, in just a standard-sized backpack. (Protip: Always wearing jeans is your new fashion.)

As well as this nylon Gravis backpack has served me over the last three years, it's starting to have some problems. Small tears — my fault, mostly — and not quite enough capacity to really meet my needs for longer trips. I think I can do a full 7-day trip with a single carry-on bag — if it's the right one.

Buying a bag would be too easy, and my new philosphy when it comes to clothing and accessories is that I'd rather spend the money to get exactly what I want, something I'll treasure. That means bespoke. Fortunately, I am also a skinflint, so bespoke means "hope to heck I can find a talented crafter on Etsy." (If you know of a crafter who could do the job, though, I'd love a recommendation.)

Here are my tentative requirements for your criticism and elucidation:

• Solar power – It should probably be hard panels, which are more effecient. I may actually sacrifice my old Voltaic solar bag for parts. (it's a great bag, but mine was a pre-production prototype that use a cloth on the back that made it majorly sweaty, since fixed.) Provided the Voltaic's storage battery still holds a charge, I'll probably incorporate that, too, although something able to store slightly more power might be worth the encubrence penalty. If I use the Voltaic battery, output to whatever voltages I need is simple — and nearly everything I use now uses vanilla 5-volt USB.

• A separate laptop section – For the forseeable future, I'll be toting a full-sized laptop around on trips. (Although, damn it, the Air is starting to call to me.) Most backpacks put the computer next to the spine, using it as a way to add stability to the frame. I like this fine. I also spend a lot of time whipping it out — as well as removing my computer from my bag — so single-zipper access is a must.

Or not. I'm easy if there's a good reason to do something different.

• Durable materials – At first I was thinking leather. That limits the number of crafters who could actually make the bag, as well as greatly increasing the price, but as a "lifetime bag" it seemed like the most durable choice. Leather backpacks, on the other hand, are kind of corny, so it would have to be restrained in design.

But perhaps there are better materials to work with. Something less expensive to purchase (and regenerate). Something with a little more appeal visually. Something with some pink. Reclaimed materials would be hot.

Metal fasteners are prefered, I think, if there is a way to make them not squeak. I'm seeing lots of metal on this thing.

• A backpack with stowable shoulder strap – It has to be a backpack, because sometimes I wear my bag for hours at a time. Messenger bags just don't cut it, although a stowable, clip-on should strap option would be nice. Even more difficult, more desirable: a bag design small enough to be slipped under an airline seat, so I don't have to pack another bag with all my in-flight toys and books or keep my computer on the floor. (I'm also just a little bit paranoid about ever letting my bag out of my sight.)

• Special features – This is where you guys come in. I've had a few ideas, like a smart selection of quick-access pockets and fairly predictable stuff like that. But if you were making the perfect bag for you, what would you add? A small pocket with a viewport for a hidden camera, maybe? A place for a water bottle? A programmable display? Speakers? A telescoping antenna tuned for 3G?