I say it’s about time somebody called the pool table on it’s BS. It barely qualifies as a table, and it sure isn’t a pool. I know, I sound like Seinfeld, but how about a little trurh in advertising? Really a pool table is a ball table. Well, the design team at Freshwest have created a true literal pool table.

It’s actually a coffee table made with 50mm acrylic that reflects light so that it looks like a shimmering swimming pool. A pool suspended in the air, like somebody dug the ground out from beneath it. The miniature diving board on one end is a nice touch. Obviously, we want it, but who knows if it will ever be available to us regular folk. Then again, that’s gotta be a heavy table. And you’d need inflatable pool toy coasters.

This IBM concept laptop looks like something from an alternate dimension. It’s the kind of laptop we might be using had the cold war never ended and spies were everywhere and issued these laptops by Q.

It’s a concept by Nicolas Lehotzky. The most interesting thing about it is the giant security “knob” which is fingerprint activated and allows the laptop to respond only to the owner’s touch, acting as a physical lock. It also has hidden USB ports and a trusty built-in paper shredder. It goes well with the watches depicting the Bond villains.

Throwing away batteries is a serious crime against nature. At least that’s what some hippies told me once in a dream, when I drank too much cough syrup. So what are we expected to do with batteries if we can’t throw them out? That’s always been our conundrum. Well, the Energy Seed concept by Sungwoo Park is the answer.

You collect all the batteries that no longer power all of your gadgets and you deposit them in the base of this lamp. The lamp then glows, because even a “dead” battery will be able to power an ultra-efficient light source. What we need are battery recycling programs where people can drop their batteries, so that they can power certain lights used around any given city. Pretty cool.

So some Russians had a bathroom design contest and they came up with this toilet, named “Mrs. Hudson” for some reason. I have no idea why. Maybe Mrs. Hudson is known for huge steaming BMs and affectionately called the pisser behind closed doors. It’s as good a guess as any. Design firm 2-B-2 Architecture claims that this winning toilet was “inspired by a water drop,”. Aren’t they all? The Russkies are crazy. I’m thinking some guy appears and shouts Riiicolllla and blows in this thing creating a huge mess.

Your laptop probably didn’t come with enough hard disk space, so chances are you buy an external hard drive, but that takes up desk space, and suddenly your laptop feels more like a desktop. Plus there’s the wires to get in your way. That’s where this Hang it On hard drive enclosure comes in handy. Just throw a 500GB drive inside and attach it to the back of your laptop and problem solved. Sure, it doesn’t do much for your laptop’s looks, but it keeps the drive out of your way and keeps it all portable.

This is one sweet looking single seat vehicle designed by Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar, who obviously channels the future like some crazy modern techno-shaman. I don’t know whether to drive it or just drool over it for an hour.

The idea is that the car works mainly through articulation meaning that this vehicle remains low at high speeds and it will also display helpful information during long trips through voice command by the driver. RD is convenient on busy roads as well as on long distance drives. Looks comfy too. It’s definitely a cool one to drive, but one problem. No room for a girl beside you. Check out a video below.

The X Sting Wish not only has a clever name, but an even more clever design. You can easily see it fragging cyborgs and aliens. It’s from UK designer Adam Scott and according to him it’s for extinguishing fires, not fragging aliens. I don’t care what he says, I want to see it make something ugly or robotic into something dead. Not that Scott cares about my fantasies.

The idea is that the X Sting Wish is much easier to understand and operate than your average extinguisher, while still being recognizable. It sports a huge trigger and many firing options, like powder, CO², and water. Plus it’s ultra durable. This is one concept I really want to see become reality.

EPOS-lite is a cash register with a touch interface that also has a built-in menu. It was showcased at the University of Wolverhampton degree show 08 and at New Designers 08, London. It’s good for the environment because it eliminates the need for a separate menu that holds the pricing details. Not only that, but it makes it easy to update the menu.

It’s light, it’s convenient, it’s on every table. This is the sort of innovation that makes life easier. It’s the little things after all. The concept device also features a wireless charging option for on-table recharging. Designer Stephen Allport knows what he’s doing and he obviously has an eye for what is needed to make life easier on both sides of the table. Awesome concept and we’d love to see this one in the future.

The iSound, designed by Seohyun Baek, is a set of headphones that lets you to listen to your mp3 player while still hearing the background noise around you. That’s a pretty handy thing, especially when that background noise is oncoming traffic. Old headphones=death, these=you live to get hit on another day. They use a semi-circular design that doesn’t cover your whole ear, that way some background noise is still heard. The unit is wireless with a bluetooth module that connects to the headphone jack in your mp3 player. Excellent concept that will surely find a market.

Art Lebedev’s design shop is at it again, this time trying its hand at handset design. We like the results. Art is teaming up with Scartel, a Russian carrier in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The conceptual stage is looking good.

In addition to a WiMax radio, the device has WiFi, tri-band GSM, microSD, dual cameras, 3.5mm audio, an A/V plug and a huge 850 x 480 screen. The buttons are kept minimal at the base: five-way joystick and call/end, and no keypad, so it must sport a touchscreen. There’s a lot to like already. Android maybe? No word yet if it will go from concept to actual product.

Named Blade Runner, this concept has nothing to do with chasing replicants. It’s a bus/train concept from British firm Silvertip Design. It will drive on roads just like other normal wheeled vehicles, but it also sports a set of retractable train-wheels that it can deploy to ride the rail lines. It looks like something that should be dueling with KITT on the open road. It’s supposed to carry 105 standing and sitting people and could well be a nice solution to long commutes. The fact that it straddles both the rails and the streets makes it very promising.

The conventional shape of luggage isn’t exactly ideal. It isn’t easy lugging around square and rectangular bags that are filled to bursting, even when they have small wheels. So why not make the entire thing a rolling wheel?

The Samsonite OBAG was designed by Rooz Mousavi, and it’s a roll-on bag that…rolls. It’s got a rugged exterior that will stand up to the most brutal treatment and foul weather, but the main point is that it will allow you to effortlessly roll your luggage in just about any condition, even through snow. And a large wheel requires much less energy to move it around then a rectangle. It even sports a few compartments on the sides so you can carry around more stuff. The handle collapses for easy storage.

There’s always a solution for charging gadgets when your batteries crap out, but the problem is most of them aren’t any fun at all. Why can’t gadget charging be fun? In fact, I demand fun! Fun in the form of the iYo from Swedish designer Peter Thuvander. The iYo makes charging up your devices into a game, by way of a small induction generator to charge a battery inside the iYo. Just play with it for awhile and when you’ve given the battery a charge, then connect your gadget to the iYo’s USB port and the power will be transferred.

Play is fun and all, but can you imagine all of the Geico caveman types that will break it. The same people who broke wiimotes because they don’t have the cognitive capacity to hold something and apply pressure so it doesn’t leave one’s grip. This could be fun. I can’t wait until we get Kerbanger hard drives and ball/paddle chargers that put people’s eyes out. As far as I’m concerned the world just got more interesting, because it got more dangerous with this concept.

The bend in lamp will make you feel like a cartoon character using one of those old horseshoe magnets, though it’s not branded ACME or anything. It’s a lamp that will stick onto most metallic surfaces, and obviously inspired by the magnet. The whole thing is comprised of two sections, the rubber tips and the lamp.

The magnets are in the rubber end so that when you place the tips on a metal surface, the magnets grab on, which triggers the internal switch, turning on the lamp. To switch off the lamp, just pull it away from the surface. It’s an interesting concept, but I’m not sure it does anything that normal lamps and flashlights can’t do. Might be good for workers that need portable lighting on the go, assuming they have metal surfaces nearby.

When it comes right down to it, entertainment is all about the sensory experience. It’s about feeling like we are there, even if we aren’t. The Wii has probably come the closest, but like other consoles, it leaves alot to be desired as far as fully immersing users. The Cocoon is a new VR system developed by NAU, which is a human-sized pod that you enter and it’s actually designed with videogames in mind.

The immersion and interactivity will take it light years beyond the Wii. It includes full 3D surround sound, and graphics as well as Internet connectivity, and could be the ultimate gaming environment to challenge friends from around the world. It may not show up in the home anytime soon, but when it does one future day, everything will change. Game graphics and audio are ready for it right now, but it’s the interactivity, interface, and total immersion that will set it apart. Most of Nintendo’s competitor’s were caught off guard with the Wii, but you can bet they are taking some serious looks at this future technology.