I had several Rubik’s Cube puzzles when I was a kid and typically I would end up pulling the stickers off and sticking them in the correct pattern to win. A new concept charger reminds me of the frustrating times playing the Rubik’s Cube.

The concept is called the Magic Charger and it is a cube of white and green squares with symbols on them. As you work the puzzle, the motion is harnessed somehow and turned into electricity.

Manga Farming is an interesting art project from Koshi Kawachi that takes old manga (Japanese comic books) and turns them into potted plants. Because if you didn’t know, old, wet paper helps radish sprouts to grow.

He has several book-plants on display at the Matsuzakaya department store in Nagoya, if you want to drop by and have a look. Hopefully he didn’t use any super-valuable comics by accident.

The “YeZ” takes solar-powered car design one step further, by acting like a tree. Just like a tree, it sucks in carbon dioxide and releases it as oxygen. Plus there’s the whole tree design to really drive it home. The canopy over the driver and passenger looks like a big leaf.

The energy created by this process, small wind turbines fixed to the wheels and solar panels on the vehicle’s canopy are what will keep it rolling. Right now it’s just a concept, but who knows, you may be riding in one soon.

I really like the svelte profile of that Microsoft Arc mouse that turned up a while back. Thin peripherals are cool to look at and often more comfortable to use as well. A new mouse design concept over at Yanko Design makes that Arc mouse look fat.

The concept is called the Bendy M. It reminds me of one of those slap bracelets my daughter plays with. The flexible mouse is a long thin strip when not in use. When it comes time to work, you wrap it into a curved 3D shape you can mouse with.

A cellphone made of marble is bound to be heavy. It’s what your rich caveman dude would be making deals on if cavemen had such devices. There are some advantages to stone cellphones. It can be used as a weapon should you be attacked, it will survive drops from super high and you can carve pretty primitive pictures on it even.

Sadly this is just a concept. The Mobiado CPT001 is not available. The shipments would weigh too much for trucks to haul anyway. Sorry Fred and Barney.

When it comes to computer peripherals like your mouse, most of us go for the traditional design that sits on the desk and moves the cursor on screen and stuff. Gamers look for the other things in a mouse like lots of sensitivity and buttons.

A new concept mouse has turned up on Yanko Design that is completely different. As you might guess from the name Toe Mouse, the input device is designed to be operated with your feet. Am I weird for being grossed out a bit by that?

Other than playing games on my iPhone, I have never had a real desire for mobile gaming. My son has a PSP (which he never plays) and a Nintendo DS, which gets player a lot. I just stick with the iPhone.

The announcement of the coming Nintendo 3DS has me intrigued though. I especially like that you don’t need glasses for 3D games. We aren’t sure what screens the device will use at this point or even what it will look like, but I hope it looks like this concept.

It happens to the best of us. There’s always something in the back of the fridge that should have been eaten a long time ago. But now, whatever it used to be, is furry, moldy and putrid. That’s an easy call. Just toss it out. But what about something you are unsure of. It might be safe, might not be.

Designer Yeom Ha-na has come up with the Foodmer, which is basically a custom programmed expiration date reminder for all your fresh food. Not many details about how it works, but apparently you can program each strip with a freshness duration, and the red line will slowly get longer until its throw away time.

This hat won’t allow you to pull an Easter rabbit out of it, but it does contain a USB hub. As the image shows, you can create your own rabbit ears using wires.

At long last struggling magicians have their own USB hub. Which is good news for them, because up until now their greatest trick has been making their own careers disappear. This might get them back in the game now that they have office jobs, allowing them to turn their cubicle into an office magic show. The cables magically plug into the hat.

An astounding amount of energy is wasted each year by folks who leave their computers running all the time. The problem for many of us is that we simply forget to turn the devices off. A new concept plug over at Yanko Design will do the remembering for you.

The Energy Lock is a power outlet that you plug your cords into. Once connected you can rotate the plug like a kitchen timer to set how long the power will last in case you forget to turn the device off.

Milk cartons or the plastics they come in won’t tell you if it’s fresh or not. They simply hold the liquid and that’s it. But this jug is different, It uses a pH sensor to detect if the milk inside is sour. That way, your cereal won’t be ruined in the morning.

So you won’t have to worry about sour milk ever again. You can instead go back to only worrying about spilled milk. Don’t cry over it though.

Here’s an interesting concept for you if you really love a full-sized keyboard when using a netbook. It comes from designer Yang Yongchang and offers a sturdy yet small design.

It could do with a large touchpad, but it’s still a very cool idea. Hopefully it won’t turn into an Autobot or Decepticon and kick your butt. If you combine this design with an extra pull-out display, you might just have a winner.

Spiders are icky, creepy and nasty. You have to get them out of your home at all costs. But maybe you don’t want to kill them. After all, it isn’t their fault that they are nasty creepy bugs. So normally you would use a glass to trap them on the wall and escort them outside. But that isn’t possible when they are on the corners of your wall.

This Cornered Glass trap was designed by James Laurie for just such occasions. This way you can still catch it and put it outside.

Everyone else is going 3D, so why not take a look at what a MacBook 3D would be like? That’s what designer Tai Chiem has done here with this glimpse into what it could be like. This concept MacBook has stereoscopic iSight cameras, 3D glasses and a hingeless spine design.

We don’t have any info on how it all works, it’s just a dream for all of you apple fans to drool over. Somehow, I don’t think Apple will be making anything 3D like this anytime soon.

I know exactly what my wife would say if I were to bring home the Gearboard concept and try to hang it in the living room. She would say, “You’re not putting that ugly thing in my living room.” Apparently, having ovaries entitles you to ownership of the living room unless a picture needs to be hung or a spider squished.

The Gearboard is sort of cool with groves cut in it that accepts the little hooks of various shapes and sizes for hanging up your controllers. I think the concept would work well in a kid’s room or a game room where controllers are ok in the open.