Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Besides being the ‘perfect gift’ for the chocoholic in your life, this chocolate bar themed mouse doesn’t have much else going for it. The sharp corners and hi-larious bite taken out of the corner make it about as ergonomic and comfortable to hold as the original NES controllers, and it’s actually made of plastic, not chocolate, so you can’t eat it! It is at least wireless, though with a price of about $36 I can’t imagine the receiver is going to be as tiny as the ones you’d get from MS or Logitech hardware.

[ Chocolate Mouse ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Not only is this Fan Pen the perfect writing instrument to keep you calm, cool and collected during stressful situations like writing a final exam or lying your way through your taxes, but the small electric fan on the end (powered by a single AAA battery) should also serve as a great deterrent for anyone with the nasty habit of chewing on their pens. $12 from the MoMAstore obviously, but I’d be willing to pay up to $50 if the thing could actually fly.

[ Fan Pen ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With a name like ‘Broomba’ you might think this is a clever take on the popular robotic vacuum, but you’d be wrong. Instead of autonomously sweeping and cleaning your hard wood floors, it’s designed to scare guests at your next Hallowe’en party by moving around the room while blaring “spooky” music and “frightful” cackling sounds. But in reality, it will probably end up being nothing more than an inverted empty cup holder.

And even though October 31 isn’t exactly ‘just around the corner’ you can already scare one of these up for $39 from Grandin Road.

[ Broomba Self-Propelled Broom ] VIA [ The Green Head ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Before Rock Band, banging on pots and pans was the closest thing wanna-be drummers got to being a rock star. So these MIX STIX from Fred seem like such a logical synergy that you have to wonder why no one made the connection before. It’s a simple set of wooden spoons, perfect for whipping up your world-famous pasta sauce, but flip them around and you’ve got a bona-fide set of drumsticks for Gene Krupa-ing your way through the cupboards. Designed by Ignacio Pilotto & Jason Amendolara, the MIX STIX should be hitting the shelves of your local Urban Outfitters sometime this Fall.

[ MIX STIX ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The thing I enjoy most about camping is the sounds of birds and other wildlife at the crack of dawn. Conversely, the thing I hate most about camping is the quiet drone of a single mosquito in your tent while you’re trying to fall asleep. It’s almost impossible to figure out where the little bugger is, and when the sound stops, you know they’re up to no good. And that’s why I think this Mosquito Sound Alarm Clock is cruel and unusual punishment. It would definitely get me out of bed in the morning, though at the cost of emotionally crippling camping flashbacks. $25.95 from Danna Bananas.

[ Animal Sound Alarm Clocks ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Designed by the Netherlands based studio Trapped in Suburbia the ‘Play More’ notepad ended up being a finalist at the European Design Awards according to Top Cultured. And rightfully so! The clever notepad features standard lined paper on one side, but on the other is a series of patterned prints that makes the page end up looking like everything from a soccer ball to a baseball to even a golf ball when crumpled up.

Sadly it’s not available for sale, but I hope Trapped in Suburbia realizes they could probably make a small mint if they managed to produce these and sell them to stores like Urban Outfitters.

[ Top Cultured - Wish There Was A Notebook Like This When I Was A Kid ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I don’t know about you, but I find this kind of sad. I think at some point everyone daydreams about catching the winning touchdown at the Superbowl, or accepting the Oscar for best performance, but in reality that’s just not going to happen for most of us.

But something tells me this Box of Applause just doesn’t provide the same thrill you’d get from an audience full of your jealous appreciative peers, or a stadium full of rabid fans. Even though opening the lid on this handsome wooden box does greet you with the sounds of cheering and clapping from an enthusiastic crowd, it probably comes across as a really depressing consolation prize for life.

$24.95 from SkyMall.

[ Box of Applause ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Yep, another day, another novelty alarm clock. This time it’s a miniature version of DDR that requires you to follow the pattern of the light-up dance pads with your fingers! So if finding the snooze button is a monumental task for you every morning, there’s probably no chance you’ll be able to turn this thing off. But at just $16 from ThumpsUp! it’s not that expensive to replace should it accidentally have a fatal run-in with the wall.

[ Finger Dance Alarm Clock ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We originally brought you the Phantom Keystroker back in March of 2008, and at that time it was a rather homebrew-looking device that even my grandmother would find suspicious if she found it attached to the back of a computer. Well ThinkGeek’s now selling the Phantom Keystroker V2, and while the latest model actually looks like a professional product, it’s still far from what I’d consider ‘phantom.’

Like the original, the Keystroker V2 will emulate a keyboard and mouse attached to the victim’s computer, and will periodically make random mouse movements, toggle the caps-lock and throw out random bits of text. The new version’s also got a set of switches on the side allowing you to choose what events will actually plague the PC it’s attached to, as well as how often they occur. Convenient, but once again they make the device look rather suspicious were someone to discover it. $12.99 from ThinkGeek.

[ Phantom Keystroker V2 ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]