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.

This Heart Lamp design by Lígia Carteiro is not the heart shape we would normally expect to see, but uses a more realistic and a little less appealing likeness of the human heart. According to Carteiro, the lamp was inspired by the proverb “cold hand, warm heart” and the lamp is warm to the touch due to a 15w light bulb. It doesn’t look like it would do a great job as a lamp, however. By looking at it I think the concept would do just as well as a mouse, or a maybe a USB powered lamp?

Volkswagen has developed its latest vehicle concept for an electric car of the future. Designed in collaboration with German design student Marc Kirsch for his diploma project, the Volkswagen Viseo is a three-seater that produces zero carbon emissions. Created to show that being environmentally friendly doesn’t mean that you don’t look sexy, the Viseo has that streamlined look that screams sports car sex appeal. Unfortunately we don’t know what kind of miles per charge the electric cars in the future will get so while the Viseo looks great it’s still an unknown performer.

One novel new feature about the Viseo is that the back-end of the car can detach and becomes a suitcase that you can wheel around. Something like this sounds great if you need to fly a lot and park your car longterm at the airport but as an everyday idea, it’s not so hot.

When the iShoes first rolled out, they looked fairly clunky, with 4 large wheels. But in no time at all, they have had an upgrade. They lost a wheel and look a lot sleeker now. These “shoes” are powered by electric motors and controlled by a wired remote. They can also hit speeds of up to 15 mph. Presumably more with their new sleeker upgrade and they come in men’s and women’s sizes.

Right now it is in the prototype phase still, but they hope that they will go 5 to 7 miles without having to recharge the batteries. Can you say Skinned knees? How about broken limbs?

This stylish new phone concept comes from a company that normally makes surf clothes. Apparently, that was getting boring, so they are branching out. And their first attempt is fairly neat looking to say the least. In it’s closed state, it resembles a Pac-Man hibernating. Opened up, it kinda looks like a crescent moon with a screen.

No one seems to be sure if this has actually passed the concept phase at the moment. While it gets points for looks alone, it certainly doesn’t look easy to use.

Some things are meant to be. Peanut Butter and Jelly, Ben and Jerry, Brad and Angelina. And now apparently, biking while surfing the web. I’m talking about the Bobby prototype electric bike from Yamaha motors. Pedestrians will never know what hit them, while you read your favorite blog. Aside from distracting you with the wonders of the web, the bike can be easily turned on and off using specific cell phones.

Some other features you can use when you are no longer impressed with having the web on 2 wheels are: a collapsible seat, fold-in rear wheel, handlebars and footrests making the bike a breeze to store.

Mobile devices equipped with touch screens, such as the iPhone, are without a doubt a stellar forward progression in device interface that is very intuitive to users, but still have their faults. The technology behind the screens fault due to occlusion and the way in which the touch is mapped to cursor position making it sometimes difficult to make a selection, especially if you have large fingers. Enter LucidTouch, a technology in the works from Microsoft and Mitsubishi Electric lab research.

LucidTouch employs a pseudo transparency that displays the fingers as shadows from behind the screen but not other objects behind it. The shadow effect is essentially a feature designed to make the user experience more natural than simply displaying touch points coming from the back of the screen which might confuse a user as to which finger is associated with which dot, with the shadow transparency the user needn’t think making the UX more intuitive. A passive touch feature allows the user to utilize their thumbs in making direct touch selections from the front of the device which may be used simultaneously with other fingers at the back using the multi-touch ability of the device.