Normally information that a company is doing nothing with their products price is hardly newsworthy, but when the company is game console giant Nintendo and it’s two major competitors are slashing prices for the upcoming holidays it something to take note of. At least that’s what Nintendo would like as the companies U.S. marketing head George Harrison continues to add onto CEO Reggie Fils-Amie’s talk of Wii game console shortages through the holidays.

According to Harrison, the company is currently making decisions in the nick of time on how many consoles Nintendo is going to make available for the U.S. market. With 10 days of shipping involved and the holiday season right around the corner the company still feels they won’t have enough to meet demand. Nintendo has consistently been the current-generation game console to beat leading sales against rivals Microsoft with the Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3.

i-mate has unveiled a couple of new additions to their lineup of smartphones with the JAMA 101 and JAMA 201, both running Windows mobile and sporting similar features targeting a slightly different audiences.

The JAMA 101 pictured below runs on Windows Mobile 6 Professional and has a 2.4-inch touchscreen, a 2 megapixel camera with flash and Bluetooth connectivity. It houses a measly 128MB of memory but you can expand it to your needs with a microSD card slot. The connectivity consists of just tri-band GSM/EDGE and unfortunately it doesn’t have any Wi-Fi or UMTS. It also houses an unimpressive 300MHz Samsung processor which doesn’t exactly make this smart device a power house but is well within the range of being usable, hopefully with a price to reflect it. The JAMA 101 measures 113mm(L) x 63mm(W) x 14mm(T).

For those who have iPhones unlocked by third party software hacks and were foiled by Apple’s 1.1.1 firmware release, it looks like the game is back on. SimFree version 1.6, from the same company that created the original hack to unlock Apple’s iPhone outside of the exclusive and required AT&T service plan, is a new countermeasure hack that gets around the new firmware update and will once again unlock those iPhones “bricked” by the 1.1.1 update.

According to iphoneSimFree, this new iPhone “jailbreak” will let anyone who has rightly been a little leery to update after Apple’s warning to safely go ahead and apply the 1.1.1 update and SimFree will keep the phone usable, at least until Apple comes out with another update.

Early in the morning for a lot of people is the time they like to talk the least. Of course right away in the morning if someone is going to fill your drink or you bring your own mug to the coffee shop you’re forced to announce out exactly what you’d like and how you’d like it, probably more than once. While this probably isn’t a problem for some, for the many that would just rather not have to make their order with a smile every morning we have the Selector Mug.

This mug has three metal selector rings around it that let you make the visible selection of exactly what you would like without saying a word. The top ring has the common selections of hot chocolate, coffee, tea or herb tea. The second ring you can choose from milk, no milk, lemon or cream and the third ring has a selection from zero to 3 sugars.

We just can’t help but smile every time we look at this picture. What looks like a scene out of Jackass, the WildSling is a giant, three-person slingshot (or waterbomb catapult as the company calls it). The design calls for two people standing a safe distance apart to hold the WildSling handles while a third person pulls back the business end of the huge slingshot and aims for launch.

You probably wouldn’t want to launch anything more dangerous than a water balloon, and 50 balloons come with this package. The company says it can launch a balloon as far as 300 feet but I’m sure other things could go farther.

Looking like a great big over-stuffed snowmobile suit, the Lippi Selk’bag is a “sleep wear system” solution to the restrictions of conventional sleeping bags. Named from the Chilean nomads, the Selk’nam, who had a great resilience for the cold the Selk’bag has a hood, arms and legs giving you the ability to move around freely while staying warm inside your bag. On those cold mornings of camping simply standing up without getting out of your bag is hard enough not to mention trying to shuffle or hop around.

The Selk’bag is made with a Nylon shell and a Polyester hollow fiber bonded filling giving it an “extreme temp” rating of -8.4 degrees celcius. It also appears to have zippers to close up at the end of the arms and vent your legs and sides if you get too hot. But, unlike our full-body underwear we’re not seeing an opening to let us pee without taking it all off, which is the primary reason we’re usually getting up when it’s still cold outside in the first place.

This potentially devious lawn sprinkler is configured with an inline valve that has a motion sensitive trigger which goes off and sends a quick stream of water without warning whenever it sees movement in its 105 degree field of view. It comes with a stake to mount it in the ground and can connect to a standard garden hose, running off a single 9-volt battery which gives it from four to six months of water-armed sentry activity.

The supposed purpose of the motion activated sprinkler is to chase off pesky rodents and birds from the area scaring them with a sudden spray of water. It would also work well to keep unwanted wandering pets out of your yard, but my first thought with this was the fun you could have with neighborhood kids passing by.

The rCard is about the size of a thick business card at 3.6″ wide, 2.04″ tall and 4.3mm thick, but does a lot more than any business card we’ve ever seen. Companies have used credit card-shaped CD’s or branded thumb drives with data on them in the past to promote products and distribute marketing media but the rCard takes it a step further; probably a couple steps further.

It’s actually a little media player with a 2″ wide display and two buttons beside it for easy, intuitive navigation. Data consisting of digital text, photos, slideshows and even video can be uploaded to show off just about anything you would like, and can be added or updated straight from your computer through a USB connection right on the card. The internal battery is also recharged through the same cable and gives up to 2 hours of continuous use. Information can even be stored and time-released to allow companies to distribute information that won’t display until a pre-determined date in the future. Companies can also have the case shipped with a custom branded design for colors and logo.

This interesting bandage design by Donn Koh uses a weak electric charge contained within the bandage itself to help heal wounds. The concept is targeted to diabetic patients who are often plagued with ulcers and pressure sores, but could possible be used for anyone with dermal injuries where infection would be especially bad. Once the bandage is applied and activated the light electrical charge doesn’t actually heal the wound but helps to prevent the growth of any infection in order to allow the body to more quickly heal itself.

You may remember back in early July when Universal Music Group (UMG) head Doug Morris decided not to renew a 2-year contract with iTunes, and instead provides content month-to-month on an “at will” basis. Reason particulars were not initially cited but generally revolved around how Jobs and iTunes put restrictions on how UMG could market their music.

It sounds like Jobs is far from hearing the last of Morris and Universal Music. According to a report today in BusinessWeek, the company is gearing up to launch an iTunes competing service of their own to be named “Total Music”. Morris and company isn’t looking into this venture lightly either. Aside from his own company Morris has also convinced BMG Music to join in, and is already having talks with Warner Music Group. Together the three companies music giants would have control of over 70% of all the music sold in the U.S., with Apple iTunes currently holding control of over 70% of the music sold online in the U.S.

Samsung has actually developed a water powered cellphone. A micro fuel cell and hydrogen generator make it possible. They will be capable of powering all kinds of small electronics, in this case cellphones, for 10 hours on nothing but old fashioned H2O.

When the phone powers on, metal and water in the phone react and produce hydrogen gas. They envision beginning with hydrogen cartridges that would have to be changed roughly every four days, if you use the phone for four hours a day. After that, their plan is to improve on the design until all you need to do is squirt some water in your phone and you are ready.

Nothing wrong with mixing a little bling with your espresso. These Mini Verticale Elektra espresso makers are pure eye candy, and sport a beautiful steampunk design. The shiny caffeine demons will literally smack down every other appliance in your kitchen, and make them worship at their metal feet, just by their mere presence.

They are actually a scaled down version of the very large machines used in coffee houses and cafes in Europe. And though they might not be the most practical espresso maker you could have in your kitchen, they certainly make a statement. The Mini Verticale comes in metal, copper and brass finish.

Teenie-boppers aside, I don’t know anyone who would sacrifice utility for aesthetic gimmicks. I suppose there are people who want a wine bottle shaped thumbdrive, or a Darth Vader shaped flashlight but I don’t know these people and I’m very glad I don’t. But that won’t stop companies from coming out with cheap devices, the sole selling point of which is a gimmick like the following Lipstick shaped MP3 player I have to dub the most ridiculous item of the day.

Mobile devices equipped with touch screens, such as the iPhone, are without a doubt a stellar forward progression in device interface that is very intuitive to users, but still have their faults. The technology behind the screens fault due to occlusion and the way in which the touch is mapped to cursor position making it sometimes difficult to make a selection, especially if you have large fingers. Enter LucidTouch, a technology in the works from Microsoft and Mitsubishi Electric lab research.

LucidTouch employs a pseudo transparency that displays the fingers as shadows from behind the screen but not other objects behind it. The shadow effect is essentially a feature designed to make the user experience more natural than simply displaying touch points coming from the back of the screen which might confuse a user as to which finger is associated with which dot, with the shadow transparency the user needn’t think making the UX more intuitive. A passive touch feature allows the user to utilize their thumbs in making direct touch selections from the front of the device which may be used simultaneously with other fingers at the back using the multi-touch ability of the device.

Take an advanced music management system. Throw it into a traditional jukebox design. What do you get? The new Qsonix QJB110 Nostalgic Digital Jukebox, which at this point seems not to have any pricing or release information available, though we have to imagine it’s going to be pricey.

The Qsonix QJB110 takes the form of a 1940s-era jukebox handcrafted with solid walnut and a die cast metal authentic exterior. It is capable of storing upwards of 9,000 CDs and can operate as a stand-alone music system with a built-in 360W amp, speakers and subwoofer. It is also designed to act in a multi-zone capacity for those wishing to hear music throughout the home. It includes iPod transfer, CD burning, web browsing and automatic Internet updates as well.