Gadget firms are having to dig deep to come up with more gadgets that they can latch onto the mobile phone market but this may be the most extreme that we’ve seen to date: a Japanese company is selling a pocket lighter that looks like a mobile phone. With a press of a button the “phone” will blurt out a small jet of open flame so you can light up and puff away. Trying to conceal your habit just got a little bit easier since you won’t have any lighters lying around the house, just cheap phones.

The flip phone lighter comes in five colors (red, white, black, green and blue). This novelty phone goes for 399 yen which works out to be a little over $3 in U.S. currency.

via Gizmodo

While doing projects around the house, grilling outside and even at social events I’ll often find myself asking where I put my beer, but my problem ends with this beer holster.

Made of the same type of rugged leather of tool belts, pliers and gun holsters, this will snap onto your belt and has a strap to go around your leg to keep the holster upright at all times and is the perfect size for a 12 ounce can or bottle. Imagine the convenience of never losing track of your beer while having both hands free to keep things going on the grill in your backyard.

Maybe this wouldn’t be appropriate for all social events, but it would be a hit at most of them that I attend. Combine this beer holster with your bottle opener sandals you’re all set.

Red Envelope has these beer holsters …

To show off some interactive web experiences, you can perform some life-saving events on a bunny by trying to shock it back to life and then perform surgery, all under 60 seconds. Good luck.

link via Boing Boing

The retro video game era lives on with this must-have item for anyone old enough to remember spending hours (and your allowance) blasting away outer space bugs lined up in rows.

La Tête Au Cube brings to you the Space Invaders doormat, and that’s right kids, it has a built-in LED screen that features the same pixel-shaped alien attackers from the classic arcade game marching left and right above the spot where your guests wipe their feet. The mat measures 24” by 16” and is made from rubberized plastic. The LED screen is powered by a pair of AA batteries so you can always rest assured that the extraterrestrials will return once you slot in a pair of fresh Duracells.

While the novelty of having this doormat may be overwhelming, the high price tag ($110) and the simple fact that it’s …

The number of products coming into the market attaching themselves to the Apple trend have been staggering, and SlipperyBrick has listed quite a number of them, most of which start with ‘i’.

Throwing the letter ‘i’ in front of the product name seems to instantly bring a hint of ‘trendiness’ to an otherwise mundane product, such as a lamp or a shower radio. Of course to retailers this equates to dollars, and Apple has certainly continued to run with it. The iPod, iMac, iTunes and now iPhone. Apple has even infringed upon legal trademarks just to keep the trend going. It almost seems as if Apple could come out with just about any product and as long as they put their signature letter in front of it, it will catch on like gangbusters.

Well, …

European scientists think they may have an answer to the nurse shortage: build robot nurses to replace the puny hu-mon nurses. The robots would perform basic tasks and free up the real nurses to do the important stuff like look hot and give naughty boys shots in the bum or something like that.

Actually, the robots would be performing more of a janitorial function than actual nursing activities. The robots would clean up spills, deliver messages and guide visitors to their beds. Wouldn’t a Roomba, a telephone and some old people be a lot better at this and a lot cheaper? No wonder Europe is such an economic disaster. Their brilliant minds are busy re-inventing stuff Americans can buy on late night TV.

In all seriousness, it appears that …

Well, it didn’t take long for the satirists out there to come up with some funny bits regarding the iPhone.

Here is the Colbert Report’s take on technology with some especially funny bits about the iPhone.

In one of the latest “Don’t Try This at Home” categories of the ‘Will It Blend?’ saga, a golf driver is noted as successfully blended.

I don’t know if I agree with this one in particular because they only blended the shaft and not the actual driver head, but it was still pretty cool. Some of our other favorite episodes including blending a pile of toy cars, a crow bar, hockey pucks, tilapia and marbles (turned them to dust).

Check out the golf driver video:

Will It Blend

If you’re into electronic gadgets, practical jokes and for some reason still don’t think you’re already annoying enough, getting this Annoy-A-Tron would probably put you over the top.

My boss had something in his office that would periodically emit a tiny beep and it drove him crazy for weeks trying to figure out what it was. I’m not sure what the source ended up being, but it was proof enough for me that this gadget would do the trick.

The Annoy-A-Tron runs on a small watch battery, is slightly larger than a quarter and emits a beep and two different sound levels and random intervals from 2 to 8 minutes. For $10 you can get your own and hide it in the vicinity of some deserving soul, but rest assured that if found this small device will be subject to some blunt force trauma.

Catalog Page …

Pictured here is the “On Target” urinal from Marcel Neundorfer.
In an effort to improve male customers aim and subsequently the overall hygiene in the restroom this high tech interactive urinal was developed. It has a screen inside that responds interactively to the pressure of a liquid stream, displaying different sounds and pictures depending on how accurate the user is.
This is a definite improvement from the normal made up peeing games you might have had while using a public urinal, but in my mind still does not beat the Great American High Wiz my neighbors would perform from their rooftop when we were all kids.