I like a nice concept product because it lets us have a glimpse at what the gadgets of the future might look like. I have no doubt that at some future date solar power will be the main means of powering all manner of electronic devices. Today isn’t that day though with solar panels that are generally unable to power much of anything quickly or for a long time without room for a very large solar panel.

A new concept media player has surfaced that has the Sony brand. It’s not an official Sony concept apparently and it is called the Eclipse. The Eclipse has a solar panel on the back that gathers all the power the thing needs to operate. It has integrated speakers and a touchscreen for viewing video content.

We have seen our share of strange clocks around there and typically, when we are talking timepieces they are wristwatches from Tokyoflash or some similar purveyor of odd watches. This wall clock is from a designer that was looking to make a statement about the order in chaos.

The clock has the numbers you expect to see around the clock face, but those numbers are broken into bits. As the hour gets closer, the numbers slowly take more from until you can read them. The single hand in the center of the clock is for minutes.

I have seen my chare of concept products before and many of them have been furniture items. Typically, a concept is a cool product with a unique design. A new concept chair has surfaced, and I use the term chair loosely here.

The chair is called the OOoo chair and isn’t a chair, it’s a couple holes in the floor. You sit on the floor and stick your legs into the holes rather than sitting pretzel style. You can hardly call this a chair.

Here in the sprawled out state of Texas most of us can’t use a bike to get around unless we are in one of the big cities. It’s also hot enough to melt the tires off your bike in the summer so you have that to deal with in additional to worrying about your bike being stolen.

A designer has designed a new concept mountain bike that has a bendable frame to eliminate the fear of theft. That frame is designed to allow the bike to wrap around a pole to prevent theft.

Back when Swatches were popular, I had a bunch of them in bright 80′s colors. The things looked good for a few weeks, and then they were too scratched up to even tell the time on. A new concept carrying the Swatch brand has a design that resists scratches.

The watch has a face made from plastic and coated in rubber with the time markings on it. Around the edge of that face is a glass bezel positioned where scratches won’t be an issue that covers the bright green hands.

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?

You know most iPod docks tend to look the same. You can pretty much count on them being boxy and black no matter what the brand is. Sure, you can find some in other colors but the majority are rather bland looking. A cool design concept for an iPod dock called Moshimy has been unveiled that looks cool.

The dock is aimed at the iPod or iPhone user and was designed by Michael Young for Native Union. The device has a brushed aluminum cover and an olive green body. The dock slides in and out of the base of the device for a sleeker profile when not in use.

Nikita Buyanov made a bunch of concept laptops for HP-Intel, custom made specifically for women. The laptops come with a range of interesting features, aimed at the fairer sex. There’s some crazy stuff. Like laptops that double as weighing machines, some that carry makeup, with features like mirror mode and a built-in on-nail printing device. The Chameleon, for instance, changes color to blend with its surroundings.

The one that would likely be most offensive to women is pictured above, HP Makeup. It’s obscenely pink and if you press the big button, the screen will change to mirror mode so they can apply makeup. It also has an on-nail printing device.

Tomorrow is the big election and we will soon find out whether Obama or McCain will become president. And while we are waiting to vote, Core77 just held a contest that featured redesigned voting booths for the future. Some were serious, while others are more playful. The winner was “Voting Tree” shown above, by vinishree. Voting tree makes voting a more organic, less rushed, grounded experience. After you vote, you stick a leaf on the tree, which adds a feeling of community participation. Interesting concept. Hit the link to see the rest. There are some very interesting ideas.

Here’s a cool high tech furniture concept idea which works well if you like the extreme minimalist look in your urban crash pad. It is called, simply enough, the Digitable.

The Digitable, as envisioned by designer Peter Lea, looks simply at first like a contemporary glass coffee table. Closer inspection shows though the center circular part opens up to reveal itself as a CD/DVD player. The underside as well also plays into the geek factor, serving as a disc storage carousel.

The above cube is a concept design inspired to let you concentrate on whatever element of life you are engaged in without being harassed by one of the many different ways people can get in touch with you in a near real time way. This concept is called, simply enough, Tame.

The idea of Tame is create a central status message which is “synced with all of your devices and applications. If you’re driving or need some privacy, you can tell Tame to handle auto-responses to your phone, IM, text, Facebook, and more.” Each face stores a specific message and you can rotate the cube to the desired face for the message you want all to see (i.e. I’m busy right now butthead, try again later or I’m currently having sex…take a hike).

Envision, if you will, a home where your electronics look more like art than traditional rectangular boxes. You might on your desk have this above concept design – a hybrid DVD player & display unit – as your distraction during the home work day. Since it is just a concept though, there is no word on this ever being available at retail. At least not right now.

This DVD player/display unit, designed by Touch Interactive, is focused on “regenerating the look and feel of a home entertainment system through the design of a new generation DVD system.” The unit is described as having a metallic look with blue edge. The attached widescreen display offers a width of 19-inches.

There certainly seems to be no shortage of power strip products lately as just about everyone seems to have found a way to build a better set of outlets. The Eject Powerstrip is designed to conserve electricity by making it easier for people to unplug their unused devices and lessen the electricity “leakage” when they are not being used.

The powerstrip has a foot pedal next to each outlet that will eject the electrical cord plug when pressed with your foot. According to the designers of the Eject Powerstrip, they’ve eliminated some of the biggest excuses why people don’t unplug their unused devices. Laziness, inconvenient access and open outlets accessible to small children topped the list. This “green” powerstrip would not only make it easy and convenient to unplug, but when the pedal is pressed it also cuts off access to the electricity through the outlet so that the little tikes can’t get hurt.

Now here is something you don’t see every day. This Siftables prototype designed by David Merrill and Jeevan Kalanithi at MIT was created to give some physical interaction between you and your information and media. These guys jumped right past moving things around on the screen “Minority Report” style, and provided these little independent devices each with their own display that interact with each other and you computer.

Each device also contains a 3-axis accelerometer to sense movement and it’s current position, Bluetooth, Flash memory, its own processor, infrared, a touch sensitivity and a little battery battery. According to the designers, the Siftables take advantage of the humans ability to sift and sort through a number of small items with their hands, while at the same time keeping their mind on the larger goal.

Walletex, the makers of the credit card sized MP3 players now have some neat Christmas versions available. Both Christmas and Hanukkah. The Hanukkah version features a dreidel and candles, while the Christmas version has classic scenes. Just store the MP3 player in your wallet. You could even give them out as expensive greeting cards, by putting photos and music on them.

Get them in 4GB,2GB,1GB,512mb and 128mb versions. The 4GB sells for $106. Needless to say, these make perfect stocking stuffers.