By Chris Scott Barr

If your indoor cat has claws, you need a scratching post, period. Well, unless you enjoy having your couch ripped to shreds. So if you have to buy one of these things, why not buy one that just looks awesome? Now that you have the right frame of mind, let me introduce you to the Cats Attack! Scratching Post.

There’s not much to tell about this cat toy. Instead of just looking like a boring bit of cardboard, it’s been shaped to look like a few skyscrapers, complete with a helicopter. Now when your cat starts clawing at the post, it will look like some gigantic mutant cat, hell-bent on destroying the city! At $30, it’s cheap entertainment, and useful at the same time.

[ Thinkgeek ] VIA [ Awesomer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m not sure it would be so awesome if trees could really talk. I think they’d do a lot of complaining and would be kind of preachy about the environment and stuff. So thankfully this 100-year-old tree, living on the outskirts of Brussels, is the closest we’ve got to that. And it can only say so much. Thanks to EOS Magazine the tree has been outfitted with a large box high up on its trunk that includes a fine dust meter, an ozone meter, a light meter, a weather station, a webcam, a microphone and most importantly, a wireless internet connection.

All of the data coming from that box is translated into human-like thoughts which are posted on the tree’s website at Talking-Tree.com. Recently it lamented that it “miss the days when people were riding horses and the air was clean” (see? I told you!) but it also posts videos, stills and even audio recordings of what it experiences day in and day out. You can even follow it on Twitter, friend it on Facebook or check out its Flickr gallery.

[ Talking Tree ] VIA [ designboom ]

By David Ponce

All-in-ones are popular these days. If you’ll remember, we even gave one away some time ago. And for good reason, as their smaller desktop footprint makes them an attractive option for the design conscious shopper. Today, we’re looking at Dell’s effort in that category, with the Inspiron One 2305, a 23-inch all-in-one. Normally it retails for $788, but today you’re looking at an $89 rebate coupled with a $50 coupon: the machine is yours for $649, shipped. Specwise:

Inspiron One 2305 with an AMD Athlon™ II X2 250U processor(2MB Cache,1.60GHz). ATI Radeon HD 4270 graphics card, 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz – 2 DIMMs and a 500GB – 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache HDD.

[ $139 Off On Dell Inspiron One 2305 23-in All-in-one ] VIA [ LogicBuy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

For once here’s a post about a LaCie enclosure that doesn’t include any specs about gigabytes or capacity. That’s because their new ‘Tank’ case doesn’t come with a drive inside. You’re welcome to stick one in there, but it’ll be just as happy to protect other smaller electronics or valuables from dust, pouring rain, drops, shock and anything else that falls under the U.S. Military’s IP-63 specification.

A customizable foam interior ensures that what’s inside won’t bang around while in transport, which is important because LaCie seems to be positioning this as a safe way to ship or mail hard drives. Since it’s lacking in storage the Tank will only cost you ~$31 (£19.99) and even though it’s currently only listed on the U.K. LaCie website, I’m sure it will eventually make its way over here.

[ LaCie Tank ] VIA [ Professional Photographer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The world of racing isn’t all about fast cars you know. There’s a lot of important stuff that goes on before and after a race, like transporting the vehicles to the next venue. So this RC Racing Team set lets your kid experience both the exciting thrills of race day, and the monotonously boring, long-haul drives that come in-between those events. What’s cool about this set though is that the pistol grip controller includes a toggle switch so that it can be used to either control the transport truck, or the race car. Though I’m pretty sure I know which vehicle is going to rack up the miles on the odometer. $79.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.

[ Remote Controlled Race Team ]

By Chris Scott Barr

It’s rather apparent that the old video rental store model just isn’t working in today’s world. With companies like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster going under (the latter isn’t completely dead just yet, but it is getting there), I wonder how many years we’ll still see this type of business. The three biggest alternatives are discs by mail (Netflix), streaming video (also Netflix, Hulu, etc) and rental kiosks (RedBox, Blockbuster). One company is hoping to get in on the latter, with a twist.

How would you feel about going to a kiosk and renting a movie, loading it up on a USB flash drive and taking it home? Tha’ts what Flix on Stix is aiming for. They want to slap a movie on your USB flash drive (or sell you one) and program it to automatically disable playback after a set amount of time. Their rates certainly aren’t bad with $1 for 3 days, $2 for 6, $3 for 9 days and $4 for 12 days being talked about.

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By Andrew Liszewski

When you’re a kid learning to ride, bike safety is the last thing on your mind. But when you grow up and take your first ride around the big city, all those lectures from your parents start to make sense. When you’re sharing the road with motorists there’s no such thing as being too safe, so you might want to consider these Bicygnals which give your bike a bonafide set of easy-to-install turn signals and high-visibility lighting.

Powered by a set of 4xAA and 4xAAA batteries the Bicygnals come in a pair for mounting on both the front and rear of your bicycle. The turn signal buttons are mounted within easy reach of where you normally grip the handlebars, and the lights are connected via a 2.4GHz wireless signal so the rear turning indicators stay synced to the front without you having to run any wires across your frame. They’re also designed to cleverly stick together, back-to-back, when not in use, and include a handy storage case so you can take them with you when you lock up your bike. In the U.K. you can get them from the Bicygnals online store for £44.95, and in the U.S. and Canada from the Cycle Force Group online store for $69.95.

[ Bicygnals ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might share the same loud, Swatch-esque styling and colors of the recent glut of iPod Nano watch bands, but this sWaP Rebel is another one of those far more capable watch phones that I wouldn’t mind strapping to my wrist. It doesn’t look overly monstrous either, even though it’s packed to the gills with technology. Where to begin?

First and foremost it’s a GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz phone with Bluetooth for receiving/making calls with a headset, but there’s a built-in mic too if you want to use it like Dick Tracy’s wrist communicator. The 1.46-inch touchscreen LCD is probably a bit cramped to use with your finger, but the on-screen icons look big enough that most people won’t require a special dialing wand. There’s also a built-in camera that’s photo and video capable, and while file transfers can be done over Bluetooth, the watch’s strap features a USB port for connecting it directly to a PC. Not surprisingly, that’s how you charge it too. You can expect to get about 130-160 minutes of talk time on a full charge, with 85 hours of standby, presuming you don’t play with the watch too much between calls. ~$300 (£189) unless you can maybe find one subsidized by a carrier.

[ sWaP Rebel Smart Watch And Phone ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Created with the intentions of inspiring people to re-purpose old appliances and gadgets instead of just discarding them, Tyler Held’s Cross-Culture stereo system is cleverly built into an old 4-burner stove. Using components from an Eclipse system designed for cars, each of the burners have been replaced with 6.5-inch speakers with tweeters, while the oven now hides a 12-inch sub-woofer. And the control panel where you’d normally find dials and a clock has been wiped clean of clutter and replaced with a 7-inch pop-up touch screen head unit for accessing your music library or playing DVDs. Up next, hopefully a way to convert my broken microwave into an answering machine, since ‘converting’ it into a sock warmer is what did it in.

[ Tyler Held - Cross-Culture ] VIA [ designboom ]