By Andrew Liszewski

Nintendo continue its celebrations of Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary with this Japan-only (for the time being at least) ‘Mario red’ Wii console that also includes one of their new all-in-one motion plus Wiimotes.

Of course the blinding red hue of this Wii console isn’t that exciting to be honest, but what it comes with is. The Mario edition Wiis will include a pre-installed special copy of Super Mario Bros. on the Virtual Console where all of the coin blocks now bear the number 25 instead of a question mark. They’ll go on sale on November 11 in Japan for ~$240 (¥20,000) and I’m going to assume will be available in limited quantities.

[ Kotaku - There Is A New Wii Color, And It Is Red ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Herman Miller continues their dominance of office ergonomics with their new SAYL chair designed by Yves Béhar, who if you’re not familiar, also designed the Jawbone BT headset and the first generation OLPC. Inspired by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bride, the frameless back of the SAYL features a Y-tower structure that supports a stretched flexible elastomer material (like the cables on a suspension bridge) allowing it to contour to anyone’s shape, while still providing support and keeping users cool and comfortable.

On the eco front the chairs are made from 21% recycled content materials, and it itself is 93% recyclable. I can’t seem to dig up pricing info at the moment though, and even though Herman Miller claims it will have a “very attainable price” let’s assume that’s relative to their other premium seating options.

[ Herman Miller SAYL Chair ] VIA [ Freshome ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I understand that proper traction is important when it comes to shoes designed for running or hiking, but when it comes to casual footwear I’ve often wondered why more companies don’t treat the soles like a blank canvas for something truly creative. So kudos to Merrell for stepping up to the plate with their new line of shoes featuring ‘ukiyo-e‘ or Japanese woodblock print inspired soles that look freaking fantastic. Seriously, if I had a pair of these I’d purposely try to step in every single puddle I could find just to leave footprints behind, and I’d have a hell of a time trying to decide between the ‘Great Wave’, ‘Swami’ or ‘Surfing Penguin’ design were it not for the fact that these appear to be Japan-only for the time being. ~$120 (¥10,290) a pair.

[ Walkerplus - "Ukiyo-e pattern" leave footprints "MERRELL" focus on casual shoes! (translated) ] VIA [ InventorSpot ]

By David Ponce

This one is not going to last long, but if you happen to be in the market for a 40+ inch flat panel, now’s your chance to get one at almost half a grand. Discounted from $629.99 fown to $529.99, the VISIO E420VA is a 42 inch LCD TV that features 1080p HD, SRS TruVolume, 4-HDMI inputs, 500 cd/m2 and a 5ms response time. It comes of course with free shipping and this happens to be the lowest price, by far, that I found amongst others from a comparison shopping site.

[ VISIO E420VA 42-Inch 1080p LCD For $529.99 Shipped ] VIA [ LogiucBuy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When I wrote about the Samson Zoom Q3 last year I was happy to have found a compact camcorder that also cared about capturing high-quality audio, but bemoaned the fact that I couldn’t have my cake and eat it too since it only captured video at PAL or NTSC resolutions. Not even 720P fake-HD! But a year later Samson has righted those wrongs with their new Zoom Q3HD which most importantly now captures full 1080P video. (Or 720P if you need 60fps.)

It’s also still got those built-in stereo condenser microphones in their 120° X/Y configuration which will definitely appeal to musicians or concert bootleggers, particularly that latter group since the Q3HD also has a special ‘Concert Lighting’ setting which automatically adjusts for rapid stage lighting changes. Other features include support for SDHC cards up to 32GB in capacity, a built-in USB cable which is pretty much required these days, and it’s actually powered by 2xAA batteries instead of a non-removable rechargeable one. No pricing or availability info just yet though.

[ Samson Zoom Q3HD ] VIA [ GadgetReview ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Wall clocks are pretty much just a decorative item these days, and these ‘Time Paper’ poster clocks make frequent redecorating easy and guilt-free. They’re quite literally just composed of a poster printed with a clock face design and a simple clock mechanism hidden behind it. When you get sick of the design you just rip down the poster and recycle it, and then throw up a new poster with a handful of thumb tacks. It’s just too bad they range in price from ~$63 (¥5,250) up to ~$88 (¥7,350) from Boo-Hoo-Woo.com.

[ Time Paper Clock Posters ] VIA [ Design Blog :: SPGRA ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Neiman Marcus just unveiled their 2010 Christmas Book, and besides the array of expensive clothing, jewelry, trips, automobiles and other luxury items, there’s this gem which pretty much sums up all my hopes and dreams for the Christmas season this year. While not quite a full-size home, this completely edible gingerbread house stands 6.6 feet tall making it large enough for even a giant like myself to walk around inside, and is made from 381 lbs of gourmet gingerbread and 517 lbs of royal icing. It also comes with giant cookies, lollipops, gummies, mints, gumdrops and enough to sucrose to give you a sugar high for the rest of your life.

Not surprisingly it comes with a $15,000 price tag, but that also includes free diabetes and a lifetime supply of dental issues if you manage to polish it off.

PS: iPad users can download and view the Christmas Book via the NM Editions app.

[ Edible Gingerbread Playhouse ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Rescuing someone that is at risk of drowning is serious business. It’s not at all as glamorous as Baywatch would have us think, especially if the person has fallen overboard from a large vessel. So what happens when someone does fall into the water? Usually someone throws out some sort of floatation device. Unfortunately if the person is too far away, they’ll never reach the lifesaver. This is where the Buoyancy Bazooka comes into play.

This conceptual device recently won the James Dyson Award for design. What does it do, exactly? It launches a life ring up to 150 meters away. The ring comes in the form of a very large bullet, and expands to a semi-circle upon hitting the water. Just be sure not to actually hit the person you’re trying to save. They can’t latch onto it if they’ve been knocked out cold.

[ JamesDysonAward ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By David Ponce

Back to the land of laptops we go, although this time we’re looking at a totally respectable 38% discount on the Lenovo Thinkpad X201. The normally $2,064 laptop has had $565 lobbed off its price by Lenovo, with a further 15% stackable coupon being offered by LogicBuy, bringing the total down by $790, or 38%. The X201 comes in two configurations of either the Core i5 or i7, though they share some base specs as follows: 12.1″ WXGA LED Panel, 250GB Hard Drive, Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (2X2 AGN) WiFi, Windows 7 Professional 32-bit, 2GB DDR3 ram.

[ Lenovo ThinkPad X201 Tablet For $1,274 ] VIA [ LogicBuy ]