By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it takes a whole lot of alarm clock to get me out of bed in the morning. A whimpy electronic beep or even music at full volume just isn’t enough to instantly snap me out of my nightly coma. What I need is something like this.

Designed by Sam Hecht, the Bell Alarm Clock is not unlike the classic double-bell alarms of yesteryear, except that it forgoes the often inaccurate wind-up clock mechanism for a battery-powered electronic version, and it features a single large bell instead of two smaller ones. Simple, but loud and effective. It’s available in your choice of red, black or white finishes from Charles & Marie for $65, but I prefer the white version since the bell on the back has a classy chrome finish.

[ Bell Alarm Clock ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might not be quite as complicated as the Petaminx dodecahedral puzzle we brought you back in March, but if you don’t have the plastic casting skills of Jason Smith to make your own, this twelve sided IQ Pentagon puzzle from Brando is probably your best alternative. It’s just $49.90 and if you do order one I suggest snapping a few photos when it arrives because once you mess it up I’m pretty sure you’re never going to get it back to its original state.

[ Twelve Surface IQ Pentagon Puzzle ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We’re in-between Iron Man movies this year, which means there’s probably not going to be a lot of demand for Iron Man or Tony Stark costumes this October. So logically it’s the perfect time to go out as the crime-fighting billionaire industrialist, since you won’t run into those awkward ‘same costume’ incidents.

And thanks to this arc reactor prop replica, dressing up like Tony Stark is as easy as ever. It’s made from machined aluminum, stainless steel and custom molded plastic with real-working LEDs and was modeled after the actual prop made by Stan Winston Studios for the first film. It comes in a Plexiglas display case, but is easily removable, and should be available from Entertainment Earth sometime in September for $149.99.

[ Iron Man Movie Arc Reactor Prop Replica ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The WMF1 is another one of those compact coffee machines that uses “coffee pads” to brew a single cup at a time, pretty much anywhere you’re willing to take it. But it manages to stand out from the crowd by oozing with style. While the machine itself is made of plastic, the included mug is made of porcelain and from what I can tell, given the shape of the cutout, that’s the only mug you’ll be able to use it with.

The water reservoir only holds enough H2O for a single cup of joe, which is a good thing since it means you’ll have to use fresh water each time, and the machine is only heating as much water as it needs to. Now I’m not entirely sure of the pricing details, but the WMF1 comes in a variety of different color schemes including the Kiwi model pictured above.

[ WMF1 Coffee Pad Machine ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It looks like Ambient Lounge has managed to do the impossible by making a bean bag chair that wouldn’t look out of place even in the most hoity-toity of living rooms. Usually reserved for dorm rooms or tech startups trying to look hip, bean bag chairs don’t exactly exude class, but it turns out all you have to do is make them out of real leather (in mahogany, black or cream color) with stitched paneling, offer an optional matching ottoman (an extra $242) and charge in the neighborhood of $570.

[ Fiorenze Sofa ] VIA [ Luxury Housing Trends ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m quite fond of my parent’s dog who’s basically another member of the family, but I’m not entirely sure if I’d be willing to spend $475 on this evacuation jacket that’s supposed to make him easier to handle in the event of an emergency. Firstly, he’s almost 100 pounds and these look like they’re designed for little yap dogs, and secondly, in the event of an emergency like a fire or earthquake, I don’t want to waste valuable time trying to wrestle him into this thing.

Now granted, the jacket is made from the same flame-retardant material that firefighters in Japan wear, and it comes with pockets stuffed with everything from sealed water packs, to nutrition bars, to first-aid materials, to rubber booties and even a water bowl. So in the event of a worst-case-scenario it does seem that your pet will be prepared, but $500 (including shipping) from the Japan Trend Shop still seems like an awful lot.

[ Pet Emergency Evacuation Jacket ]

By David Ponce

Kenny Irwin is an interesting artist who likes to use a microwave to create. In this case, he took an OLPC and straight out melted it. He then added some “mixed media” (looks like parrafin if you ask me) and turned it into a slug. It’s called the OLPCSlug. We’re not sure what it means, as art, or whether he’s trying to make some kind of statement, but there you have it. Kenny then decided to put it up on eBay to raise money for the OLPC Foundation. Thing is, he’s asking $26,001 for this, 80% of which will be given away. I’d like to point out that this is still a 5 figure number for a melted laptop. Is it worth it? Keep reading for a gallery and pictures, and a VERY trippy video of the making of the OLPCSlug.

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By David Ponce

At 0.5cm, or 5 milimeters, or better yet for y’all non-metric readers, 0.2inches, the CZC 09 from ShenZhen Zichuang Technology claims to be the world’s thinnest. It also happens to be really light, at 750 grams. Feature-wise, you get “an ARM11 based CPU, 8.9 inch 1024*600 display, 1G RAM, 8G flash storage, 2 usb ports, an AVG port, a Li-ion battery with 6-9 hours working time”. It’ll be running a customized version of Linux and should retail for 1499 Yuan (about $220 ).

Now the thing is, the 0.2inch claim, as you’ll see in the pictures after the jump, is made at the very thinnest point of the device. It does get chunkier in the back. Still thin… but world’s thinnest?

Whether the CZC 09 ever makes out of China is something we don’t quite know yet. We’ll update you if we find something out.

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By David Ponce

Albeit slowly, things are starting to shake up a little bit for SupoerSpeed USB 3.0. The technology we talked about twice before is a vast improvement over USB 2.0 in terms of speed, which increases tenfold to a theoretical 4.8Gbit/s. While there aren’t many consumer electronics around that take advantage of the new specification, Point Grey will be showing off at IDF next week a webcam with a 3MP Sony IMX036 CMOS sensor that will allow it to unload 1080p uncompressed video footage at 60fps. This transfers processing duties to the PC and allows for better facial recognition capabilities, among other presumably good things to come out of the use of this higher bandwidth.

No idea on price or availability on this yet, but like all things new, it’s probably better to not even ask.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Xataka ]