YouTube has announced that it will offer video rentals through its site. They will be offering the rentals in sync with the Sundance Film Festival and they plan to rent movies from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance festivals as well as “other U.S. partners.”

The festival films will be available through January 31st, while other movies and videos should be available soon after. The expansion into rentals is part of a strategy to get away from ad-only revenue and is said to give content providers much more control over how video content is shown. Providers signed up to the YouTube system will have the option of setting the price, rental period and where it can be found.

We love unique clocks around here. This one is unique and then some. It looks like its from the future and may harness the power of a dying star inside. It’s from Jaeager-LeCoultre, designed by Marc Newson. Surely this clock can only be used by a Time-Lord, within a ship that’s larger on the inside.

There are only 76 of the Atmos 566s available, so its not just beautiful, it’s also outrageously expensive. Made from clear or blue Baccarat crystal, it tells the time and also displays a current sky map. It will cost you between $2,600 and $70,600.

That’s right. Lockheed Martin, the aircraft guys. The company ventures into unfamiliar territory with the Lockheed Martin flash drive, but the name alone assures you that this drive is quality all around. It can carry all of your computer data and allows you to use it on any external PC.

Some other features include 8GB of storage, 256 bit encryption, built-in virus protection and even some networking technology. Nothing on price yet, but soon government employees everywhere will be using them.

Two cute girls with an Alphascan monitor in the middle. These gadgets get more play than us humans. If only these girls would leave smudge marks all over me. Such is life. Alphascan’s latest LCD monitor is the Touch Smart W7-220.

The 22-inch LCD monitor features multi-touch technology, a high-gloss black bezel and a crystal stand. Some other features of the Alphascan Touch Smart W7-220 include a 60,000:1 contrast ratio, a 5ms response time, integrated stereo speakers, a HDCP port and eco mode to lower power consumption by up to 65%.

Gigabyte has boldly ventured into Android phone territory with this unnamed GSmart series phone. Until now, the series included only Windows Mobile devices. The features include Wi-fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, 3.5 mm jack, a 2MP camera with autofocus and a Trackball.

It’s powered by a Qualcomm ESM 7225 528 MHz processor with 256 MB RAM and has 512 MB of memory with microSD card expansion. You’ll be enjoying the Android OS on its 2.8 inch QVGA touch display. The phone should be released in Russia next month for $300.

The Eolic is a foldable, portable wind-powered generator for the masses. The idea is that you just set it up where a breeze is, and start turning that wind into energy for your TV, Xbox 360, whatever.

It’s certainly an idea whose time has come, but to be practical, it would need to generate a large amount of energy. You would also need windy days on a regular basis. But we like it and would love to give something like this a try.

When you were a kid, your mother would tell you to slow down when you were eating too fast. Thankfully, as an adult you no longer have to put up with that. Let me introduce you to your mother, the plate. A plate that will nag you and tell you to slow down.

It’s called a Mandometer and it weighs the food on your plate, and times you, even verbally reprimanding you when you eat too quickly. A study claims that the Mandometer reduced the Body Mass Index (BMI) of test subjects by 2.1% over 18 months.

TruTouch Technologies has been hard at work on non-invasive ways to detect drunk humans. The TruTouch Guardian pictured above is one of these ways. Now they are taking it a step further with the new TruTouch 2000 device.

The TruTouch 2000 uses near infrared light to detect possible intoxication and it apparently does this by just scanning your finger. It seems impossible, but according to the company it will ‘produce accurate results in less than 15 seconds,”. The Device features a built-in biometric identification system to make sure the test results are authentic.

If you want to get the attention of some giant ass robots, then do what this guy did. Turn your XBox 360 into the All Spark. Just don’t be surprised when Optimus Prime shows up at your door and reaches through your house to get it.

Oh and the All Spark is supposed to turn all of your other stuff into robots, so this probably isn’t a good idea. Unless you like your XBox suddenly walking around and shooting at you. It’s a pretty sweet mod though. I just hope this guy is still in one piece.

I see peripherals and gadgets every now and then that are weird and make me wonder what the point is. Such is the case today with the odd Space Bar. The device was developed by the quirky community and is available to purchase now.

The thing is designed to hide your keyboard and add six USB ports to your computer. The Space Bar is long enough to hide keyboards measuring 18″ long and up to 1.5″ thick. You can get three of the things for $42 right now.

Sony has announced that its motion control peripheral for the PS3 will not be shipping in Spring 2010 as originally planned. Instead it will arrive in the fall, when they will have “an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users,”.

No big deal. We’d rather have a delay of the device with more quality games to play when it does arrive. It is a bit scary that this controller somewhat resembles a vibrator though.

Some info about the Toshiba E205 surfaced at CES earlier this month. The notebook is a Best Buy exclusive and is among the first notebooks to take advantage of Intel Wireless Display technology. When the machine was first heard of the retail price was pegged at nearly $1000.

Best Buy is now shipping the E205-S1904 notebook for $899.99. For the money, you get the Intel Wireless Display tech and a Netgear Push2TV adapter to allow you to send video and other content wirelessly to your HDTV in the living room.

Sony unveiled its Transfer Jet technology at CES. The tech promises to let users send images and video wirelessly between cameras, computers, and TVs at speeds over 500Mbps. Sony has announced its first memory card sporting the tech and it is up for pre-order.

The memory card is called the 8GB Memory Stick with Transfer Jet. The memory card reminds me a lot of the Eye-Fi SD cards that have been around for a while. The main difference is the Sony Transfer Jet tech doesn’t upload to photo and video sharing sites automatically.

I confess that I am not a big fan of the dynamic contrast ratios that many manufacturers quote for LCD TVs and monitors today. The whole thing is merely an attempt to get consumers to think a billion to one contrast ratio is better than the next guys 1000:1 ratio.

Samsung has unveiled a new set of LCDs including the F2370H and the F2380MX that both claim the world’s highest contrast ratio with a firm 3000:1. Samsung does say that the screens have a 150,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for those of you who prefer the big numbers.

YouTube gets the rights to stream sports, but don’t get too excited just yet. That doesn’t include the NBA, NFL or anything else Western viewers really want to watch. It starts with Indian Premier League cricket… And I hear those crickets chirping.

Anyway, just because you don’t want to watch it, doesn’t mean that it’s a bad idea. That sport is huge in the Eastern hemisphere. YouTube will start broadcasting live matches in March of this year. The interesting thing is that if this is successful, it could bring more live streaming content.