The once mighty pay phone is now going the way of the dodo as mobile phones are the way of today. AT&T sees the writing on the wall and is getting off the sinking ship, announcing today it plans to exit the pay phone business by the end of 2008.

AT&T said pay phones in the United States have declined over the last 10 years from around 2.6 million phones to a measly 1 million today. The company sees no reason to remain in this business any longer and “plans to phase out both public pay phones and phones provided under contracts at government correctional facilities through the end of next year.”

The Thodio iBox is a very nice and somewhat retro looking iPod amplifier that is handcrafted from wood which is finished with quality high gloss lacquer. It will make your desk look much classier. The rechargeable battery provides 15 hours of juice, and the two speakers deliver 25 watts of power each.

It’s been a trend lately to recapture that look of old 1950′s Television sets with their woodgrain cabinets, and translate the look to these new devices. Anything looks at least a bit neater in wood, but with the Thodio, I think they got the design just right. Each case is handcrafted from 15mm of beech, oak, teak, zebrano or mahogany.

These Coffin It Up coffin speakers would have been great for Halloween. Maybe you’re feeling Goth or just a tad emo, in which case they are perfect for year round use. Each coffin is made with melamine and houses 2 sets of speakers: 5″ 2 way and 6″ x 9″ three way speakers. Vibration dampening material inside helps create crystal clear sound that that will travel through your entire Addams Family mansion.

Each coffin speaker is 25.5″ long X 13″ wide X 8″ deep and comes complete with hand grips on the side for your poll-bearers to “carry that weight”. I suppose the only way these would be better for your music crypt, would be if a skeleton actually popped out with a guitar.

The makers of the Mini MOB mobile phone apparently feel that a little nostalgia might help spur some mobile phone sales, letting the cutting edge business man of the 80′s relive the days of carrying a brick-style phone around (unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be a super-sized charging cradle to match).

Like the Brick Phone we saw earlier this year, the Mini MOB does bring some modern features into their neo-brick including a camera, MP3/MP4 player and a miniSD memory card slot and an included 128 MB card. The phone is also slightly smaller than those heavy solid models of 20 years ago measuring 11cm tall by 3.5cm wide (and an estimated 4cm deep). It comes with two batteries that are charged through a USB cable and take advantage of the extra size with 30 days of standby and 3 days of continuous talk time.

Video game website discussion forums are melting down after Gamespot senior editor Jeff Gerstmann was fired yetserday from his job of ten years over what the site’s editorial is calling a problem with the “tone” of a video game review. Gerstmann gave the Eidos game “Kane & Lynch” an average Gamespot score of 6.0 and shortly thereafter his employment with Gamespot, one of the largest and most influential game news websites as well as owned by CNET Networks, was terminated immediately. News of Gerstmann’s dismissal quickly spread across the web thanks to blogs like Kotaku and other gaming websites such as Penny Arcade. Calls for clarification to Gamespot was met with no comment and so far Gertsmann hasn’t decided to go public with his side of the story. That hasn’t stopped one blog from publishing what they claim is an account given by an insider working at Gamespot why Gertsmann was fired. The alleged insider spills that it was pressure from Eidos to Gamespot senior management that led to Gerstmann’s dismissal. “This management team has shown what they’re willing to do,” writes the blog’s source. “Jeff had ten years in and was f***ing locked out of his office and told to leave the building.”

No, this is not some sort of stainless-steel cigarette or controlled substance paraphernalia. This little reusable Tea Stick constructed of stainless steal and plastic and can replace the need for messy and wasteful tea bags. It has a spring-loaded tray which pops out and doubles as a little shovel to scoop up loose-leaf tea, which many say makes a better cup of tea than most tea bags, anyway.

The tea leaves are kept inside the stick while its dunked into water and makes a modern, nice looking tea-drinker gadget for an affordable $20.

Twinbird has another splash-proof, portable music player available giving you more options to bring you tunes into the bathroom This one has an internal USB port to connect your thumb drive loaded with MP3 or WMA files to play in the bathroom or other damp areas that would otherwise brick a normal media player. One the drive is plugged in the case can be closed and the music can be selected from the outside.

In addition to playing digital music from a portable drive the Twinbird CD ZABADY AV-J189S also houses a CD player and an FM radio. It runs on internal batteries that can bring up to 7 hours of radio, 5.5 hours of MP3 playing or 4 hours of CD playback. It also has built-in speakers and a convenient handle on top to port it around. Internal picture of the player after the jump.

This Heart Lamp design by Lígia Carteiro is not the heart shape we would normally expect to see, but uses a more realistic and a little less appealing likeness of the human heart. According to Carteiro, the lamp was inspired by the proverb “cold hand, warm heart” and the lamp is warm to the touch due to a 15w light bulb. It doesn’t look like it would do a great job as a lamp, however. By looking at it I think the concept would do just as well as a mouse, or a maybe a USB powered lamp?