I haven’t seen anything this cool since the Pac-Man Christmas tree in Madrid. Unlike the Pac-Man tree, this Pac-Man-inspired modular block lighting system can stay up year round.

This wall mural is on display at the Maison & Objet 2008 show in Paris. One thing you’ll notice right away is how outnumbered our yellow friend is. That’s a ton of ghosts for an 8-bit hero to gobble. They could have put some fruit in or more dots. The second thing you’ll notice is that the woman’s rear has been blocked from our view. Oh well, you can’t have it all right? We’ll always have Paris my secretive Pac-Man loving geek goddess.

Today in an unexpected announcement Garmin, makers of all types of GPS devices, threw their hat into the cell phone market ring with the Garmin nuvifone. The nuvifone’s cornerstone is still as a GPS device but it is also a full-on GSM HDSPA smartphone with a large 3.5-inch touchscreen and modes for calling, searching and viewing maps. It even sports an internet browser with Google local search built in.

Like other Garmin GPS devices the nuvifone carries pre-loaded maps of North America or Europe, a media player, millions of points of interest and voice promted turn-by-turn directions. But with this one there is much more. Ever forget where you parked your car in the parking lot? When you take the nuvifone out of its mount it will take note of where its at and help you find it later.

A “Where am I?” feature gives you quick access to the nearest address, intersection, closest hospital or just your latitude and longitude coordinates whenever you need it. Hey, you never know when you’ll need them to properly set up your telescope. A built in camera comes standard and of course it will geo-tag your photos, and Garmin Online brings real-time traffic, stock info, sports action and news right to the device. And of course don’t forget email, text and instant messaging.

Gateway is making some noise today in the PC world as it unveils two new desktop PC computers – one of which includes an option for a SuperMulti drive for next generation disc support. Pricing is set at around $750 for the GT5662, while the GM5664 prices at around $1,150.

Both new Gateway PCs are powered off of AMD Phenom processors,3GB of RAM and ATI Radeon HD 2400XT graphics. Hard drive storage is offered at 1TB for the GM5664 and 500GB for the GT5662, with the former also sporting a Hybrid-SuperMulti drive that lets customers watch both Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs as well as offering burning capability on any type of DVD or CD disc.

One iRiver itemed we regrettably missed covering from CES earlier this month is the hot looking Unit2. We weren’t sure about when it might be released but word from TWICE is the Unit2 will have a “late-year delivery,” with pricing between $800 and $1,000.

The iRiver Unit2 pulls together a bunch of features into one device, according to a recent iRiver press release. These functions include “Audio, Video, DVD player, DiVX player, CD player, FM Tuner, VoIP phone, VoIP Video Phone, SMS/MMS, Web Browsing, Web Mail.” It sports a seven-inch touch screen interface and has built-in stereo speakers to act as a desktop audio system.

Dell is getting out of the “we own a brand name location” business, the computer company announced today. It said it plans to close its 140 kiosks in the United States.

Dell began its “Direct Store” model in 2002, but has since expanded to a retail model which puts its laptop and desktop computers in more than 10,000 retail outlets worldwide. The company feels its retail shifts fit “with how our broad global retail strategy is evolving.”

“And then the skies parted, the angels sang, the birds twittered and down from Apple Heaven floated the MacBook Air.”

Yes…if you hadn’t guessed it…Apple just announced the MacBook Air is now shipping. It also put out word that the expected Apple TV update to let you rent HD movies is “not quite finished.” It should be available in another week or so.

“And all were happy in the Apple World.”

Now you can feel like those suckers putting in a full day at the Springfield power plant. That is, you’ll be under the watchful eye of C. Montgomery Burns with this webcam. You’ll know exactly how Karl and Lenny feel, not to mention Homer. Don’t fall asleep with a donut in your mouth.

The webcam includes a large clip that allows it to be attached to your flat-panel monitor or laptop screen. Specs: 30 fps @ 640 x 480 with built-in microphone, supports USB enabled machines running Windows 98, 2000, XP and Vista, runs with Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and AOL messenger. You can pick up this little tyrant for $49.99.

I’ve seen a ton of screwed up knock off consoles, but this one has to be the strangest. Is it an Xbox, PlayStation 2, 3, or something else? What can you say about a modern console that sports the classic 9-pin controller ports of an Atari 2600 or Vic-20? I can only surmise that crackheads are now included in the design process.

Notice the Bat-wing controllers. It’s made by Cheer-Tech Industries of Hong Kong and includes visual elements from several modern consoles, tweaking them just enough to keep them safe from copyright infringements. It will play a handful of built-in games and comes with two controllers, only one with a rumble feature. Right now, no one seems to know if it plays games from recent consoles, but I doubt it.

The Eco Button connects via USB and puts your PC into sleep mode, thus saving precious Watts and making Al Gore smile, despite the fact that he has become portly in a William Shatner kind of way. It will even wake the PC up, when it’s time to get back to work. The bundled software records the carbon units saved.

As Ubergizmo pointed it, it probably takes a lot of carbon units to build the button and then when it hits the trash one day, it will pollute anyway. Plus it looks like a Frisbee. This somewhat pointless green gadget will cost you $18.

WD launched the new My Passport Essential USB hard drive today with a new glossy look created to go along with the design of the company’s popular My Book hard drives. Like the My Book, the small new Essential drives have that “book” look to them with a bull-nose “binding” on one side.

But, aside from the new glossy digs this drive is still pretty much the same small pocket-sized portable drive that’s powered solely from its USB connection. It comes in sizes of 160GB, 250GB and 320GB with the largest capacity launching with a price tag of a penny under $200. They also come with some software to automatically sync up and store data from your computer along with some Google tools.

Have you had enough digital camera announcements yet? Sorry – got another one for you. This time around we have a compact shooter called the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3 and pricing is set at around $200.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3 offers up 8.1 megapixels and a a f2.8 Leica DC VARIO-ELMARIT lens with 3x optical zoom. Panasonic has also outfitted this camera with a new image processing engine, a 2.5-inch LCD screen which automatically adjusts its brightness level and your choice of five body colors.

Panasonic expects the DMC-FS3 in stores in February. For more details check after the jump.

What’s with the trend lately towards pizza going high tech? First we have Pizza Hut letting you text message your orders and now we have Domino’s getting into it by announcing its recently released pizza ordering tracking service. What’s next – flying pies landing on your front door step?

The Domino’s Pizza Tracker, much to the annoyance of its pizza delivery drivers, will let customers “follow the progress of their order online from the time they click the ‘Place Order’ button or hang up the telephone until the Domino’s delivery expert is knocking on their door.” To keep their drivers though from feeling like job performance is a huge issue (30 minutes or less?) you won’t find GPS trackers in the pizzas – management stated drive times will vary due to several factors, but you’ll at least know the pizza is on the way.

Earlier this month during CES 2008 Nyko announced a wireless Nunchuck controller for the Wii. The Nunchuck had the wireless built in and a small adapter attached to the bottom of the Wiimote to connect them, giving you cord-free gaming action for about $30.

Now Nyko has taken into account the fact that many Wii owners already have the Nunchuck controller and really don’t need another. For this Nyko is now launching the Wireless Adapter for the Wii Nunchuck. This adapter runs on two AA’s and connects to the bottom of the Nunchuck remote, wrapping up the cord around it. A wireless adapter connects to the bottom of the Wiimote and lets you now use your existing Nunchuck and rid yourself of the cord in between. You can now completely perfect your arm-flailing windmill style of boxing without the risk of choking yourself or others, but of course there is still the risk of hitting them.

We’ve been checking daily for that next firmware update we told you about earlier this month that is to include Skype VoIP calling, and looks like it hit today. Version 3.90 is available for download from the Network Update menu on the PSP and will bring support for more PlayStation Network titles to the PSP along with the ability to make and receive free Skype calls on your Playstation Portable. The announcement comes today from Sony Europe but the update appears to be available for download here in the U.S. as well.

Unfortunately this feature is available only on the newer, slim PSP 2000 models and will require you to get a PSP headset and PSP remote control or Go! Cam to operate the Skype features. The 3.90 firmware with Skype lets you make free internet calls through the PSP Wi-Fi connection much like you would from a computer and will even let you setup a new Skype account on the PSP. If you have some Skype credit you can also make SkypeOut calls to landlines for a fee.

It was only a matter of time. After the initial success of any Nintendo product there follows a plethora of neat and nauseating colors upchucked onto the market. That time is at hand once again. There’s still no official word from Nintendo on anything but white Wii-motes, but now there is a third-party option for those of you bored with the standard white.

One of the first companies to offer a third-party substitute for the Wii-mote is Snakebyte. They are calling them Riimotes. They appear to look very close to the authentic Wii-motes, with the button design styles a bit different. The first models will be available either in a glossy black or a bright purple. Bright purple? Yuck! Maybe if you are playing a My Little Pony game…They should assault your senses in early February.