By Evan Ackerman

No word on how many stuffed bears gave their lives to make this coat, or how your children will react if you wear it, or how much it costs. But, damn… Who comes up with this stuff?

The same people who brought you the headless chicken duck lamp, apparently:

Um, can I have some of whatever you guys are on? Please?

[ Sebastian Errazuriz ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While they didn’t come up with the original idea for OLEDs, Eastman Kodak is actually credited with inventing the first diode device in the 80′s which paved the way for the OLED displays we see hitting the market these days. So it makes sense that Kodak would be one of the first companies to produce a consumer-ready OLED display, but unlike Sony, they’ve incorporated the technology into a wireless digital photo frame that puts every other digital frame on the market to shame.

Now I’m not going to bore you by raving about the colors, contrast ratio or thinness of Kodak’s frame, since you’re probably already well aware of the advantages of OLED screens, but I will say that it’s great to see this technology slowly but steadily making its way into consumer’s hands.

The Kodak OLED Wireless Frame comes with your standard features like memory cards slots and support for the most popular photo and video formats in use today, but it also includes wifi (hence the ‘wireless’ part) for streaming your media directly from your PC. The 7.6-inch, 800×480 pixel display wouldn’t turn many heads were it not OLED-based, but I will say I really like the UI Kodak has included which relies on a touch sensitive bezel with illuminated ‘buttons’ for making selections. And while the screen itself isn’t touch-sensitive, it at least helps to keep it fingerprint free. Of course since we’re just seeing OLED technology hitting the market, the Kodak OLED Wireless Frame comes with a $999.95 price tag, but it’s pretty much guaranteed those prices will eventually drop.

[ KODAK OLED Wireless Frame ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Mattel brought a decent collection of high-tech games and toys to CES this year, but it was their Mindflex that seemed to be drawing the biggest crowds. It’s another “mind-control” game where your thoughts are used to move a ball through an obstacle course, or at least that’s how it’s made to appear. Obviously we haven’t quite mastered the subtleties of mind-control just yet, so the Mindflex uses a headset with a couple of earlobe clips to measure the theta-wave activity in your brain, which is related to your level of concentration.

The ball appears to levitate thanks to the clever use of a fan, but the speed of the fan is directly controlled by your brain activity as measured by the aforementioned headgear. Given it was my fifth or sixth day in Vegas, I opted not to try the game since I was already brain dead, but those who did give it a whirl were prompted to concentrate on anything they could think of in order to get the ball to float higher. However, your thoughts only control the vertical movement of the ball, and in order to get it around the obstacle course you also had to use a large dial to adjust the position of the fan.

Overall I’d have to say the game came across as an expensive $80 novelty more than anything, but you’re welcome to try it for yourself and come to your own conclusions when it goes on sale sometime in the Fall of this year.

[ Mindflex ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might seem odd for a company like Victorinox to exhibit at CES, I mean you’d expect to see them at the local Gun n’ Knife show instead, but their line of SwissFlash knives have evolved from simply a flash drive embedded into a pocket knife, to a full-blown office-friendly tool. And their latest model, the Presentation Pro, comes with a flash drive up to 32GB in size that’s now protected by a biometric fingerprint sensor for keeping your confidential documents private.

But it’s also designed to serve as a handy presentation remote, since it comes with bluetooth and a set of emulated left and right mouse buttons. So the knife you probably already carry in your pocket for opening plastic blister packs can now control your exciting PowerPoint slideshows as well. And for pointing out specific items, they’ve even crammed a laser pointer in there too. At the moment the SwissFlash Presentation Pro doesn’t appear to be listed on the Victorinox website, probably because it isn’t for sale just yet, but prices range from $164.95 for the 8GB model up to $329.95 for the 32GB.

[ Victorinox ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Cocoon Innovations was one of the hundreds of companies to email me a pre-CES press release about their new products being unveiled at the show this year. And while the images they sent of the company’s line of cases, briefcases and laptop bags showed off their unique designs on the outside, it really wasn’t enough to pique my curiosity. Thankfully though, I happened to stumble across the Cocoon Innovations booth on the last day of the show, and it turns out it’s what’s on the inside of their cases that truly makes them unique.

Instead of a bunch of random (and restrictive) pockets designed to only fit specific items like pens, cellphones or PDAs, the Cocoon bags feature the company’s ‘Grid’ system which is a proprietary web of elastic fabric designed to securely hold any object in almost any configuration. Basically, it’s the most flexible compact storage system I’ve ever seen.

And the elastic grid isn’t randomly thrown together either. It’s actually strategically designed to accommodate objects of all shapes and sizes while always maintaining sufficient tension so your electronics, cables and other gear doesn’t come loose while in transport. As someone who’s a bit (cough!) obsessed with being organized, I think it’s a brilliant idea, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one. And while they didn’t have any specific pricing info, the company is actually planning to target the Caselogic demographic (for lack of a better description) by keeping their cases extremely affordable.

[ Cocoon Innovations ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you don’t feel you’re getting enough quality cursor time while surfing the web all day, just get yourself a pair of these ‘Clicking’ oven mitts and any time you spend cooking in the kitchen will feel just like using your favorite browser. Even if like me, you’ve never come across an open handed cursor before. Maybe it’s for high-fiving a link or something. Either way, they’re listed as being available “SOON” on the Bazar Design website for the unbelievably low and most likely incorrect placeholder price of $1.00.

[ Clicking Oven Mitts ] VIA [ Apartment Therapy Unplugged ]

By Evan Ackerman

We’ve had a HUGE week this week over on BotJunkie. We kicked things off at CES, getting a first look at the new iRobot Looj 2. While chatting with iRobot, we asked them about how their ConnectR beta testing was going, and were the first to break the news that the iRobot ConnectR robot has been canceled. Meanwhile, we were introduced to iRobot’s new YouTube channel, where they answer all kinds of questions about their robots including one from us: why is Roomba round? As we explored the show floor, we were SO EXCITED to run into Keepon, the little yellow BeatBot, and got some video of his new Wiimote-controlled dancing skills. The cuteness didn’t end there, either, as we got some quality grope time with Paro the robotic therapy seal pup. Anybots was also at CES, demoing their new QA telepresence robot.

We tried not to fall behind the non-CES news either, following up on the latest version of Sega’s “Dream Cat Venus.” Looks like MIT has begun selling a version of their highly expressive Nexi robot, and speaking of MIT, the Media Lab has created TOFU, a sort of squashy stretchy Keepon gone wild. We finished out the week with a heartbreaking story about a homesick Irish UAV lost in Africa, some CGI video of a duel between a robot Mac and PC, a video list of the top 10 combat robots, and a freaky demonic push-up robot.

[ BotJunkie ]

By David Ponce

Zedd Zero, with the comment “Tri-Spec girl”. Congrats Mr. Zero! And also congrats to the Tri-Spec girl. We’re pretty sure she won by what looks like an overwhelming margin. We didn’t actually tally the votes because, to be honest, she doesn’t get anything for winning so… what’s the point? If any of you enterprising lads has an hour to kill, the article is right here.

That said, Tri-Spec girl does have a website, in case you’re curious, and it’s myspace.com/laneisuicide. Why the suicide? Seems she’s also a Suicide Girl (somewhat NSFW-y).

Thank you all for participating, and our apologies on the behalf of the atmospheric noise Gods that it wasn’t you who won. Unless of course you’re Mr. Zero.

By Luke Anderson

Mickey Mouse is one of those icons that will probably never die. You can stick those black ears on just about anything and people will recognize them. Even on a Transformer. It seems that someone over at Disney thought it would be great to cash in on the renewed interest in the Transformers by turning their most beloved character into a robot in disguise.

I’m not sure whether or not Hasbro (or Takara) is in on this, as I don’t see any official Tranformers markings on this toy. Either way, Mikey turns into a red semi that bears a striking resemblance to Optimus Prime. I can’t recall the last time that I owned something with Mikey Mouse on it, but for $40, I might just have to pick one of these up.

[ 1999 ] VIA [ Dvice ]