Nokia goes green this CES with their Nokia 3110 Evolve, and to show it off they gave it a special corner of their large booth space. The most eyecatching things there? The Toyota Hybrid COVERED in green vinyl sticker trees (YES, i am so dreaming up things to do to my car) ~ the beautifully simple compressed wood layered displays ~ the bold typographic 60% recycled packaging. If there was one common trend between my favorite design centric booth displays this year it would definitely be silhouettes in vinyl…

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One of the first booths i encountered that i actually loved wandering around in was the one for Eton ~ which is re_inventing radio, but more to come on those later! I started from their darker Porsche design collaboration space (i’ve always been a sucker for those Porsche design radio), and working into their strangely spacious feeling (not an easy task at such a large trade show) main space that used many illuminated white geometric forms for both displays as well as overhead ambiance and projection spaces. the result was a multifaceted cloud like environment. Their main bar showed all their latest products in a range of colors, and surrounded by playful orange stools were very inviting and their colorful, rugged radios displayed on nicely layered pieces of plexi with info on the various models, as well as simple layers of shapes and colors on the main surface. Apparently Eton is Palo Alto based, which was a pleasant surprised ~ seeing as their booth looked far more european and heavily design influenced than the majority of silicon valley companies represented at CES! I also found out from their VP, John Smith, that the booth was the brain child of Jesse Kearney. Take a quick tour of the booth in pictures after the jump!

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This is not your usual list of Top 10 CES picks ~ here are 10 products that are actually relatively attainable (either out now, or soon, and aren’t concepts), that made my wishlist far too quickly - and don’t fall under the cliche mobile, tv, pc launches you’ve probably been reading about and seeing everywhere.

Freshly back from CES, and i can barely feel my feet. As can be expected - it was one insane 36 hour vegas trip filled with more gadgetry than you can imagine, taxi lines longer than those at amusement parks, bright lights, tacky hotel rooms, the drone of slot machines pinging away, camera crews/bloggers/businessmen everywhere, booth babes galore, 150” tvs, robots, giant dancing/singing frogs with waterfall projections at the wynn, etc… But before i get into all of that, i need some sleep! ~ So, see below for the full list, and rest assured i’ll have some up close and personal pics/posts to show you some design details of these products and more probably in the next few days!

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It’s that time of year again. What other way to kick off a new year than the annual CES Vegas madness? I’m sure you feel the buzz of all the tech launches every 5 seconds burning up your RSS readers… Well i’m off at the crack of dawn for two days to wander through the mayhem, and this year dan is coming along as well! Seeing as you have all the tech sites live blogging the latest announcements, just like last year, i’ll be showing you what is actually worthwhile in person, who has the most innovative and well designed booths and displays (the big companies don’t hold back for this one, and last year Belkin blew me away), and which products we’re dying to BUY. So please be patient if my blogging and editing is a bit slow while i’m caught up in the whirlwind for two days, you know i’ll catch you up when i have time to process it all and clean up the pics!

*fingers crossed* its a good show this year ~ hopefully the front page of the CES page saying “Experience the Art of Technology” with their super colorful gadget paintings are a good sign!

Oh, and if you’re there and/or have something we can’t afford to miss, leave us a note!

I gave in the day after xmas and finally went over to the Red Monkey store/workshop in West Hollywood, played with all their beautiful leather goods, and ordered one of their camera straps (i wrote about them before and featured them in the photography gift guide!)… what i didn’t know was how sweet the packaging was, with the strap in bubble pack, with sticker and warranty, in a black matte plastic chinese take out container with the logo pressed into it! Also the store itself is pretty sweet as well, if you’re anxious, jump ahead to the store pics here, with guitars hanging from the walls, chandeliers, mirrors, motorcycles and more. The quality of their workmanship is really high, and their service and really fast turnaround for custom jobs was quite impressive (they got this one ready for me in half the expected time)… Anyhow, browse the many pics below!

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On upcoming things to look forward to at CES ~ Liquid Image ~ the ultimate underwater third eye cam? A new level of strap-on waterproof wearable tech? But this really would be pretty fun for everything from diving to playing in the pool, bathtub, hot tub, fish tank? And the images aren’t bad with the camera coming in a 3 and 5 megapixel option for pictures and videos! See examples below!

Another option? How about they have strap on bluetooth camera/headset in my mask/regulator? and then my phone can just come with in a drysack? With voice activated “email image to…”? And while we’re at it might as well add a heads up display in the mask? and google maps with gps and instead of traffic it could have current tracking? with a dot for where i am and where my boat is? Ok ok, so maybe getting a bit out of control here, since my favorite part of scuba diving was always that serene relatively tech/internet free peacefulness of the vast unknown under the surface.

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For pen lovers, I just received this new alternative to space pens and INKA pens ~ that can write upside down, under water, in space, etc due to the pressurized ink cartridges! Tombow (whose markers and glues i’ve loved since childhood) have their own version, the Object XL that we found over at adorable Tortoise Life on Abbot Kinney last night. The although a little larger than my INKA Titanium that has been on my keychain for some time, i love that with one action you can extend the top which makes the pen tip appear, and makes it the perfect length to comfortably write with… no caps or little pieces to lose, or clickers to accidentally help a pen scribble in the innards of your purse/wallet. Apparently you can even put a Fischer PDA Stylus in. Full unboxing images below ~ it makes a gorgeous gift!

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Gift Guide Day 1 ~ wow. can you believe we’ve made it through 31 one days of gift guides? Since it seems like those of you still shopping can’t be getting THAT much out of online shopping (not with completely certainty that your gifts will make it on time for xmas anyhow ~ some of my amazon gifts just got *lost* having somehow fallen off the back of a UPS truck)… and i’m sure you already know where you can go for gift certificates if you’re doing the last minute thing… lets start looking ahead… to the exciting new things to covet in 2008! So the final day of the gift guide is dedicated to some goodies we know about, and some rumors we’re hopeful for… and please share with us, what else are you dying to see in 2008?

A box full of RayD8s just showed up ~ they are the stocking stuffer of choice for my NOTCOT team this year… and i can’t stop playing with it… and watching the videos (great interviews with suckloard and poykpac right now!) in Mimozine 1 that comes loaded on him! Also really cool screensavers, icons packs, music, wallpapers… these little guys really are TOYS with some digital depth to them… and you can use them as the 4gig USB keys they are too. And more reasons why i’m obsessing on RayD8… he GLOWS in the dark and has a split personality… and he actually has FEET on the bottom! You can see all my favorite parts in his photoshoot below… the kids over at Mimobots even sent them over ready for this cold weather with their furry jump suits (different colors so we can keep track of who’s who).

As you know, i’ve played with Mimobots before (remember my ramona?) ~ and they were one of our gift guide sponsors (had SO much fun making that guide) ~ but somehow i hadn’t gotten the chance to fully explore the Mimozine till now… i wish all usb devices came with fun content/magazines to enjoy! It’s been an honor to have them as such strong supporters of NOTCOT!

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Gift Guide Day 2 ~ the second to last of our 31 Days of Gift Guides! So today’s is all about Photography! Unexpected mounts, tripods, suction cups, lens distorters, look around corner adapters, sd-usb sd cards, rockstar guitar straps…. you know, the fun stuff your camera needs! Afterall, what fun are the holidays without lots of pictures to document it with?

Gift Guide Day 3 is all about some musical gadgetry that can accompany the mp3 players/ipods that we all have… as well as a fun mini guitar amp, portable mp3 dj device launching in feb, and more! As usual ~ you can view all the gift guides to date on one page!

Pleo’s two week stint here at NOTCOT is up, so just packaged him back up to ship him home… its been an interesting experience having a baby robodino wandering around as i work. So what’s my final conclusion about the user experience of having him around? Honestly, its a really cool robot. An extremely unique experience for people of all ages, but i’m not sure that he has what it takes to hold your attention after he captures it with his inexplicably adorable sounds and behaviors that tug on your heartstrings. I found he’s most amusing when treated like a lap cat… he sits and whines and basically purrs and howls happily if you just pet him constantly, tickle his feet, etc. When left to his own devices he kept wandering *very very slowly* around the room, finding objects, rubbing up against them, eating the air, calling out for more attention or else falling asleep. The hardest part about any robotics right now, is throughout your playtime with him, it is impossible to forget that he’s a robot. As cute as he is batting his deep blue eyes at you, the sounds of the gears grind on constantly ~ although more quiet than most, its still hard to ignore. Also impressive is that he really is one robust little guy, he can probably survive some of the worst of kids and still keep doing his thing (with the exception of his skin perhaps which doesn’t seem to be on quite the same level as his robotics). I wasn’t able to yet play with programming my own behaviors and personalities for him, but when that happens i can certainly see the amount of time you’d spend futzing with him increase dramatically, but for now i did check out his *guard dog* mode which was pretty hilarious… pop the personality on an SD card and into his slot… and suddenly he barks at anything that moves!

Bottom line? I’m glad he’s wandered through my life for these few weeks, and i’ve had friends and family all amused by playing with him, its fascinating to see how far the tech has come for this… and with a $350 price tag, he’s certainly an *it* toy worth owning for the kids and gadget lovers who have it all… especially when the ability to really hack him up and give him personalities and behaviors of your choosing is ready! And are you curious about seeing what’s beneath Pleo’s rubbery exterior? More below…

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Guitar + Vox + OhMiBod = Vibrator responding to the sounds of the guitar. Ever have those days where it you’re holding two objects and it suddenly *clicks* that they’re meant to be put together? Well a box of toys showed up from OhMiBod and the VOX AmPlug came on the same day, and it suddenly dawned on me that together they could be the perfect combo gift and only ~$100! [There’s a quick video if below if you don’t know what i mean.]

Ok ok, hear me out. The VOX AmPlug is perfect for electric guitarists who want to hear that beautiful full bodied sound through headphones. The OhMiBod and the more attractive and enticing new Gspot vibrate to the music connected through a headphone cable… Connect the two together ~ and its an interesting way to seriously touch someone through the music you PLAY.

We all know girls can’t resist a musician (yes, yes, protest if you must, but we all know its pretty hard?) ~ this would take that love of musician and his music to a whole new level. Also, if he is the worst guitar player ever maybe this would be a nice gift for his poor girlfriend. And for all those groupies you can even plug in more than one… Come to think of it… this *could* work out nicely for those gamer guys too, hook it up to the output of your XBOX/PC/etc and every shot you take (or when you get shot) in a shooter game will have a whole new effect?

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“Digital meets analog” is the tagline for 45 iPod Cases and it carries through even to their posters (which you can earn rebates on their cases by postering for them) ~ which are very cool illustrated posters! We’ve been seeing a lot of USB/Cassette Tape integrations this season, and records and record sleeves as purses, notebook covers, fruit bowls, ash trays, etc are inevitable at every crafty/recycled/found goods store these days… but i haven’t seen the records cut and remolded for musical reasons before this! (and i do hope that the music on those records was digitized to go with the ipod before they folded and cut them up!) ~ also instead of adding the usb factor to the mix tape, its a cute idea to make it into a nano case… of course it’d be even more fun if i could somehow just stick that in my cassette player in my car? Fun designs, fun cases ~ see more images below!

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UPDATE: Hey Kotaku people - these ARE 5 min doodles that got scanned and vectorized and printed just to see what the vinyl cutter could do… the wiimote was next to me, so just stuck them on there ~ (and our resident engineer made the tree) ~ this whole post is really just about a girl playing with her new toy.

Sorry i’ve been pretty quiet… big proposals, meetings, and i’ve been happily forced to take a little breather the last two days… and today i’m old. Quarter of a century old. It just doesn’t feel right quite yet… but i must say, its far easier to deal with when i have the best present ever in front of me…

Funny thing is, the more i write about products and review and critique, the less i had on the wishlist this year… in fact i have actually been more obsessed with what to gift others! When some of the other bloggers hit me up for the “what’s on YOUR wishlist?” i came up BLANK (sorry josh spear and design*sponge! I tried!). But Dan apparently managed to go beyond reading my mind, and found me the perfect gift ~ an industrial 24” vinyl cutter, with all the tools, a few rolls of vinyl stickering (enough to cover every wall i can find at the moment), and some transfer paper… it hooks up via usb, and illustrator just prints right to it… combine it with the magic of Live Trace and… WOW. This truly is the most fun i’ve had in a long time… we’ve been printing so many random illustrator files all night, and a few of the crazy experiments shown below (jeez this thing can print super thin lines!) - from some wiimote decorating, pirate brontos on the mac apple, and just crazy stickering… expect some more amusing projects/art installations/street art/event signage/stickers…. soon. But for now, i’m taking a little break! Gift guide update for the day coming later on after i get some shut eye!

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