By Andrew Liszewski

Wrapping your headphones tightly around your iPod or other MP3 player is never recommended because it usually results in extra tension on the cord where it connects to the headphone jack. Over time that can result in a loose connection and eventually a trip to the store for new headphones. But that’s where the BudTrap is particularly clever. It’s designed to slide onto your headphone’s jack and provide a set of clips to hold the cable in place once it’s been wrapped.

When used properly (see the extra loop of cable sticking out the top) it also alleviates any undo stress on the headphone’s jack, prolonging their life. From the looks of it though the BudTrap appears to be only compatible with certain headphone jack designs, namely Apple’s less than stellar white bundled pair, so you might want to give your own set a once-over before ordering. By themselves the BudTraps sell for $5.95 each, but buying them in twin packs or 5-packs brings the per-unit price down.

[ BudTrap ] VIA [ Design Milk ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While we get emails all day long about new product announcements, the majority of them are for cases designed for the iPhone or other iDevices. Like by a longshot. Occasionally a clever or useful design will come along, but most of the time our eyes will just glaze over at the monotony of seeing the same thing again and again. But every once in a while there’s a rare gem that gets us really excited, or leaves us scratching our heads. The iBlackBoard, which is thankfully just a design concept by KALOMIX LIMITED, falls into that latter category.

Now I can see the benefit of being able to quickly jot down notes without even having to unlock the iPhone, or even being able to sketch your own custom case design, but with chalk?! Really? Not only does it mean you have to carry a piece of chalk around, but that dust is going to inevitably find it’s way inside every nook and cranny of your phone. And when that happens please let me know because I’d like to be there the day you try and explain your situation to the Genius at the Apple Store.

[ KALOMIX LIMITED - iBlackBoard iPhone Case Concept ] VIA [ GadgetReview ]

By David Ponce

The goal behind the Deal Of The Day column is to try and bring you the better deals on consumer electronics that are out there The LogicBuy team goes out and looks for these and brings them to you, but often you can find them yourselves if you look hard enough. Every now and then though, they’ll offer an exclusive coupon that you can only get through them and that’s the case today. The Lenovo IdeaPad is…

powered by 1.33GHz Core i5-470UM or Core i3-380UM CPU, has up to 4GB DDR3 memory and an optional external DVD+/-RW optical drive. It also includes 802.11n WiFi, Dolby Advanced Audio, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, 2 USB 2.0 Ports, integrated webcam, multi-finger touchpad, chiclet keyboard, 4 hours battery life (on default 4-cell battery) and Windows 7 Home Premium OS.

And today you can get 15% off on any configuration you’d like. The cheapest one, with the Core i3 CPU will set you back $934.

[ 15% Off On IdeaPad U260 ] VIA [ LogicBuy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We may still be sorely lacking in flying cars and hoverboards here in the 21st century, but I’m pretty sure our 20th century ancestors would be impressed that we’ve managed to harness the power of levitation when it comes to designer lighting! These LOS!Series lamps, creatively named the LOS #1 and LOS #2, use magnetic technology developed by Crealev (Creative Levitation Design) for a unique hovering effect.

Each of the designs use energy-efficient LED lighting and the floaty bits hover about 3-4cm above the base. Personally I prefer the LOS #1 (pictured on the left) since the LOS #2 is a bit too sci-fi for my tastes, but unfortunately it’s currently sold out. However, LOS #2 is still available for ~$1,630 (€1,199) if you want it in white, or ~$1,700 (€1,249) if you prefer black.

[ LOS!Series Levitating Lamps ] VIA [ Freshome ]

By Andrew Liszewski

ViewSonic is the latest company to cave into 3D peer pressure with their new 3DV5 pocket camcorder. It features side-by-side 5MP sensors to capture 720P video or stills in full 3D, and using what I assume is a lenticular 2.4-inch LCD display (like what the 3DS will use) you can see your 3D content right on the camera without the need for 3D glasses. But for the full 3D effect the 3DV5 is compatible with NVIDIA’s Vision shutter glasses system for viewing on your PC, or you can pipe them through the 3D TV I’m sure very few of us have.

But if you’re completely lacking in any proper 3D shutter glasses technology, the 3DV5 also comes bundled with ArcSoft software that will convert your videos or stills to the old-timey 3D red/cyan glasses format of yesteryear, which is a more cost-effective solution. Surprisingly the 3DV5 is available now for just $180 which actually makes it cheaper than the 2-hour Flip UltraHD I wrote about earlier, though since it only comes with 10MB of built-in memory compared to the Flip’s 8GB, it’s kind of understandable. So you’ll also need to factor in the cost of an SD/SDHC memory card before you can ever really use it.

[ ViewSonic 3DV5 ] VIA [ Electronista ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Ever dreamed of going through all the training and workouts of an NFL player without the glory of ever actually playing in an NFL game? EA SPORT’s new Active NFL Training Camp game for the Nintendo Wii was developed with the assistance of genuine NFL strength and conditioning coaches so that the 70+ drills designed to improve your strength, balance and agility are as realistic as possible. The game includes a heart rate monitor and a wireless motion tracker that can be strapped to your person to track your progress and your technique, and you can either compete with friends, virtual representations of real NFL stars or other players around the world via EA’s Active online hub where you can post your stats. $99.95 available from EA.

[ EA SPORTS Active NFL Training Camp ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By Andrew Liszewski

So you’ll have to forgive me on this one. Even though I’ve done my due diligence and scoured the web for answers, I’m just not entirely sure how one actually plays this new Yoomi Duo game which uses your iPad as the game board. From what I can tell the included accessory attaches to the iPad’s dock port and partly rests on the screen, but how the game plays out and interacts with the iPad is a mystery to me. I’ve only found the game available on the Toys “R” Us ($39.99) website and their product description doesn’t help much either:

Play Yoomi and take turns guessing what each other would choose in this fun-filled family game. DUO reveals your choice on the iPad and collects all winning tokens. To win, guess correctly and be the first player to bank all your tokens!

In fact I can’t even find a Yoomi Duo app in the App Store at the moment, and the makers of the game, Discovery Bay Games, don’t even have it listed on their website. Perhaps this is a case of a peripheral maker jumping the gun before their accompanying app was even approved? I’m not sure, but I’d definitely like to learn more.

[ Toys "R" Us - Yoomi Duo ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

My hats off to Elecom who’ve found a way to create a wireless pair of headphones without the need for clunky batteries or Bluetooth hardware. Their Actrail (derived from ‘Trail Access’ so far as I can tell) headphones feature a handy mount for the latest generation iPod Shuffle. For whatever reason they’re only compatible with the latest generation shuffle, which is fine, but to be honest for ~$48 (¥4,000) I wouldn’t mind having a removable cord so I could use these with other devices as well.

[ Elecom Actrail (Trail Access) Headphones ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By David Ponce

It was just yesterday that we were looking at a deal on the XPS 14, and now we have its bigger brother on special (the XPS 17) with up to $235 off. Of course, to get this much off, your configuration exceeds $1,615, netting you a pretty beefed up laptop for $1,379 shipped. “A base configuration includes Core i5-460M 2.53GHz CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M 1GB Optimus graphics, 4GB DDR3, 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, 17.3″ HD+ 900p WLED LCD.” However this bad boy kicks it up a couple notches:

Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz Quad-core, 6GB DDR3, 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, Blu-ray DVD+/-RW, 802.11n + WiMAX, 900p WLED LCD, 9-cell battery, GeForce GT 445M 3GB, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

[ $235 Off Dell XPS 17 Core i7 ] VIA [ LogicBuy ]