By Andrew Liszewski

One of the more intriguing iPhone accessories we discovered at last year’s CES is finally available, an entire year later. Tiffen, who own Steadicam, those carryable/wearable camera-stabilization systems you see on-stage at award shows, concerts or in DVD behind-the-scenes extras, are finally shipping their Smoothee stabilizer designed for the iPhone, camera-equipped iPod Touches or the Flip. At the moment the iPhone 3GS ‘kit’ is available, which includes the handheld stabilizer and an adapter to hold the phone in place, for $179.95. While swappable adapters for holding the Flip and iPhone 4 will be available soon for $24.95 each.

[ Steadicam Smoothee ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As cool as it looked (and trust me, it looked a LOT cooler in person than in the photos we posted) Fulton Innovation’s concept glowing packaging for cereal boxes and other products is probably not going to see the light of day for a while. I have no doubt the concept would boost sales, but I can’t see stores replacing or upgrading their shelving with induction chargers anytime soon. However, thanks to the recent boon of electric cars, the country is slowly being populated with electric charging stations. And Fulton Innovation felt they should remind everyone that their convenient wireless charging solutions are not just limited to cereal boxes or gadgets.

As a proof of concept, at their booth this year they had a Tesla which is actually charged via the company’s induction charging technology. The vehicle is simply parked over a charging pad which is highlighted with a glowing blue ring around it, and thanks to a retro-fitted adapter on the underside of the Tesla, it will start charging once they’re in the general range of each other. And since you can’t see under your car, they’re powerful enough that you don’t necessarily have to be parked directly on top of it for the charging to start. At the moment there are no electric vehicles on the market that are able to charge via a system like this, but reps from Fulton Innovation did mention they were definitely in talks with several manufacturers.

By Andrew Liszewski

PlanOn’s raison d’être seems to be the continued pursuit of shrinking the world’s office equipment. They already sell printers and scanners that slip easily into a briefcase, or even a deep jacket pocket, but they’ve really gone above and beyond the call of duty with their new SlimScan scanner.

Not only is it designed to scan smaller documents like business cards and receipts, but it also happens to be roughly the same size as them. Scanning is accomplished by dragging the bottom edge of the SlimScan across your document, which then stores the image in the scanner until you sync it with your PC via its miniUSB port. From there you can either leave it as an image, or use the included OCR software to convert it to copyable/importable text. According to the company the SlimScan is already in production and will be available by the end of January for $119.99.

[ PlanOn ]

By Andrew Liszewski

SONY might have already started pushing their compact camcorders into the great 3D beyond, but there’s still plenty of room for old-fashioned 2D models. In fact there’s even more room now that KODAK has introduced their PLAYFULL which is one of the smallest zoomless camcorders I’ve ever held. But at the same time KODAK didn’t shave off features to shrink it down. It still shoots full 1080P video or 5MP stills, has built-in image stabilization, a pop-out USB port, a micro HDMI port from the looks of it and an SDXC card slot so you can store up to 32GB of footage.

You can even trim clips on the camera, though the downside is that there’s not a lot of room for an LCD display on the back, so expect to do some squinting. Still, for just $149.95 available sometime in the Spring it’s a nice, compact option if your smartphone hasn’t already taken over your video capture duties.

[ KODAK PLAYFULL ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Does anyone remember those French toast sticks that were not only delicious, but mighty convenient? Well, here is a way to turn your toast into toast sticks!

Yes, I will admit this is not the most technologically-advanced or life-changing product, but if I have the option for crust-free strips of toast, you better believe I will take it. Toast is one of the most awesome foods ever, but sometimes, changing up the way you eat it is important. All you have to do is use the toast strips stamper on untoasted bread, and when it’s toasted, they will come apart easy-peasy. Though it was designed for toast, it has a myriad of other uses as well. Crust-less peanut bitter and jelly mini-sandwiches and even French toast sticks to name a few. Definitely a good buy for parents with kids, as we all know how much kids love the crust. If you’re skeptical about a buy like this, keep in mind it’s only $3.99, so you won’t get shot for making this purchase.

[ PerpetualKid ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sony held their official CES press conference today, and one of the things they announced was a new addition to their Bloggie camcorder line called the MHS-FS3, or more affectionately known as the Bloggie 3D. As you’ve probably guessed it’s basically a Bloggie blessed with the powers of capturing full 1080P video in 3D thanks to a set of two lenses, two image sensors and even two mics for recording glorious stereo sound. It’s also got a lenticular 2.4-inch LCD screen on the back for enjoying your 3D content without the need for those stylish shutter glasses, though it doesn’t have as high quality a 3D display as some of Sony’s higher-end 3D camcorders. So to be perfectly honest, the 3D effect wasn’t really that amazing I’m sad to report.

However, since it does capture genuine 3D footage when viewed on a full-sized 3D TV the effect should be as impressive as it is with Hollywood blockbusters. And when you get tired of capturing things in 3D after the first 15 minutes the Bloggie 3D can also capture footage in primitive 2D you lameo. It comes with 8GB of non-expandable internal storage, and is expected to be available in April for ~$250.

[ Sony Bloggie 3D ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re a crafty type with a penchant for gadgets you’re probably already familiar with the Cricut. It’s kind of like a printer, but instead of printing your design on paper or other materials, it cuts them out. However, it can be a pain to use since it requires everything you want to cut be attached to a stiff matte before passing through the machine, and designs are limited to what’s already available on expensive cartridges you have to buy in addition to the cutter. (Should you choose not to use an unapproved SVG-friendly third-party program.)

But the eCraft Cutter does everything the Cricut does better, and even a little more. It can cut on any thin material up to 12-inches wide in a continuous roll without the need for a matte underneath it, and the included eCraftshop software allows you to either design your own patterns and graphics, or import an SVG file exported from your favorite ‘illustrating’ application. It’s also able to draw thanks to a marker tip integrated into the cutting head, and from what we saw the cut results were as crisp and smooth as if someone had used a fresh hobby knife. Available some time in the next couple of months for ~$300.

[ eCraft Electronic Paper Cutter ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Realizing that not everyone likes to jog or run with an iPod strapped to their arm, Nike has created a new watch that works in tandem with their in-shoe Nike+ Sensor and provides the same functionality already built-into the iPods and their iPhone app. The advantage to using this watch though is that it’s not only waterproof, but it also features TomTom GPS hardware built-in. So while it’s keeping track of your steps via the in-shoe sensor, it’s also tracking where they’ve been taken, allowing your route to be analyzed on the Nikeplus.com website. And in order to keep things simple and battery life as lengthy as possible, the watch syncs to your PC, and the Nike+ website, via a USB connector integrated into the watch strap.

The watch sports an inverted monochrome LCD display and a robust UI that’s easy to navigate via a couple of buttons on the side of the case. And besides just keeping track of how far you’ve run and where you’ve been, the watch will also compare your performance against past results to let you know if you’ve improved, and of course will even nag you when you haven’t gotten out for a bit of exercise in a while. The Nike+ SportWatch GPS will be available on April 1, and while not specified, we were told that pricing should be comparable to other GPS-equipped watches already on the market.

[ Nike+ SportWatch GPS ]

By Andrew Liszewski

At this year’s Pepcom Digital Experience, Fulton Innovation, makers of the fine eCoupled wireless induction charging solutions, were showing off unique applications for the technology. The one that caught our eyes? Glowing electroluminescent cereal boxes! Hey General Mills, you be the first one to actually get something like this on store shelves and I guarantee your Honey Nut Cheerios sales will go through the roof. If only because we’ll buy them all up.