By David Ponce

The madness begins.

This here is Nicole Lapin from CNN, on the showfloor of CES Unveiled (a pre-CES event where manufacturers show you their stuff before the actual show). She’s here along with what looks like the entire planet: throngs of sweaty reporters with ginormous DSLRs sticking out their chests, elbowing their way to overcrowded booths; slick reps trying their best to convince you that the new coat of paint they’ve put on their product somehow repositions them favorably in a dismally competitive market. While this is going on, an endless stream of waiters constantly refills tables with food fit for a king. Booze is plentiful, and before you know it, like Jason Alexander and Britney Spears, the world’s press has been seduced.

That’s not to say there aren’t any cool things here. Innovation is alive, somewhere, and we’re going to try and dig it up for you. Stay tuned!

By Andrew Liszewski

Oh wait… that’s why.. I keep forgetting about the whole profit thing. By now you’d think I’d have gotten to used to the great lengths that Lucasfilm will go to license the Star Wars brand, but I’m afraid these misters have left me shaking my head. They come in your choice of a Darth Vader, Yoda or Boba Fett theme, and feature color schemes that match the individual characters. (Though Yoda’s lime green tint looks way off to me.) They each require 2 x AA batteries to power the fan, and are available from the Wireless Catalog for $18.95 a piece. Though how they’re all sold out is beyond me.

[ Star Wars Misters ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It may not be the electric car you were dreaming about, but the USurfers from Urbanmover provide another environmentally-friendly way to get around a crowded urban city center. While they both feature a skateboard deck, the UM71sx (pictured top left) has a set of nylon wheels while the UM70sx (pictured top right) has a set of larger rubber wheels that look suitable for off-road terrain.

They both take advantage of a 36V, 800W rare earth magnet electric motor that will run for about 4 to 6 hours on a single charge (with a top speed of about 20mph) with stepless acceleration provided by a wireless, pistol-grip style throttle. The USurfers even come with an electronic ABS regenerative braking system to harness the power from stopping and slowing to recharge the battery. Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be any pricing info for either model on the Urbanmover website, and the “Launch date May 2008″ message isn’t that encouraging either.

[ Urbanmover UM70sx & UM71sx USurfers ] VIA [ LikeCool ]

By Luke Anderson

The Back to the Future movies gave us many tech goodies to wish for. You’ve got hoverboards, self-tying shoes, flux capacitors and even a Mr. Fusion. Sure, I’d probably kill myself on a hoverboard, I’m perfectly capable of tying my own shoes and I know that with even just a quick trip to the past I’d manage to blink us all out of existence somehow. Now that Mr. Fusion would come in handy. Just think if you could dump some trash in it and power your car for a good while (yes, I know that the DeLorean’s engine wasn’t powered by Mr. Fusion, but work with me here). Well apparently such a contraption is real.

It’s not called the Mr. Fusion, probably because of trademarks rights, plus the fact that it isn’t actually performing fusion. The Gasifier uses heat to transform solid biomass into a synthetic “gas-like” fuel. They claim that through this process the device can transform almost any dry organic material into clean burning fuel. So how does one acquire such an interesting device? You build it yourself. Don’t worry, a full set of instructions is provided.

[ Instructables ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Luke Anderson

There’s nothing quite like a hot dog roasted over an open fire. Sure, you can cook them on an outdoor grill, but it’s still not the same. When you set the hot dogs down on the grill, it cooks them differently. What you need is something to hold them up away from the metal rack and allow them to cook suspended in mid-air. You need the Weenie Wing Commander.

What’s that you say? The Weenie Wing Commander looks just like an X-Wing? Yeah, it looks an awful lot like one, which makes it even cooler. Sure, Mr. Lucas doesn’t get his buck from these, but I think he’s made enough from far worse products. Speaking of money, one of these will set you back around $20.

[ RoastMyWeenie ] VIA [ UberReview ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The Waring Pro Xtreme Hi-Power Blender is one serious piece of kitchen hardware. How serious you might ask? Well when naming it, Waring decided to forgo the first ‘E’ in the word ‘extreme’ and go straight to the ‘X’. Kind of blows your mind doesn’t it? But xtreme naming aside, this blender features a 3.5 peak horsepower motor that can reach speeds up to 45,000 RPM. Couple that with a pair of sharp blades and the answer to “Will it blend?” will always be yes. Unfortunately though, they refer to that awesome looking blast shield as an “unbreakable polycarbonate sound enclosure” which apparently allows you to carry on conversations even while this thing is running full out. But we all know what it’s really there for. Of course great power always comes with a great price tag, and the Waring Pro Xtreme will set you back $699.99.

[ CHEFS - Waring Pro Xtreme Hi-Power Blender ] VIA [ Appliancist ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The corporation might be long gone, but Pan Am’s blue and white globe logo continues to enjoy a life of its own. Not only is it an iconic example of great graphic design, but the airline has also become the poster child for large corporations that went belly up. This Pan Am watch, however, tries to remember the better times, and prominently features the company’s signature blue and white color scheme, and the aforementioned globe logo.

Its 2-inch face includes digital and analog date displays, dual-time zone indicators and even a day-of-the-week display marked with a tiny circling airplane and curved jet stream. How cute, it almost makes you forget about those thousands of lost jobs. The watch also has luminescent accents on the face for those overnight red-eye flights, a matching blue and white leather band and is 3 ATM water-resistant. And if the $395 price tag from the Wireless Catalog seems a bit steep for you, just remember the watch does come with the mini Pan Am travel bag pictured above.

[ Pan Am Departure Dual-Time Watch ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even if it only gave you a couple of months worth of entertainment before it crapped out, I’d still be tempted to pick up one of these cheap, $46-47 PMPs from Chinavasion for the simple fact that they’ve gone the extra couple of yards to include an NES emulator. On the audio/video side of things it supports MP3, WAV, WMA, 3GP and AVI files which are displayed on a 2.4-inch, 320×240 TFT LCD, or on an external monitor with the included set of AV cables. And I assume the same functionality exists for the built-in NES emulator. There’s also a 1.3 megapixel camera which can be used for capturing stills or 3GP videos, an FM radio, a standard sized headphone jack and a miniSD card slot. (Up to 2GB sizes supported.)

[ MP4 Handheld NES Emulator 2.4 Inch Screen + AV Out - 2GB ] VIA [ PMP Today ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Tokyo Times has a small collection of photos of Japanese bikes that are used to deliver soups and other sloshy/spillable food items. On the back of the bikes there’s a counterweighted tray contraption that ensures the food containers always remain perfectly horizontal no matter how haphazardly the driver is navigating the streets. Seems like a simple but clever hack, as long as you like your food shaken, but not stirred.

[ Tokyo Times - Dangerously delivered dinner ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]