Panasonic gets all green with its RISAIKURA MS-N53 recycler device. The device relies on a special platinum-palladium catalyst to break down up to 2kg of organic garbage into compost with the help of some heat. It’s great for those with gardens as you’ll be able to use the compost in your garden.

Panasonic is making some big claims as to the quality of their compost. According to them, the created compost is superior to store-bought fertilizer. The Panasonic RISAIKURA MS-N53 recycler has a few settings to choose from, depending on how dried out your garbage is, ranging from three to six hours. The shorter option will give the compost more protein, while the longer option is more suitable for long-term fertilization of trees.

We hear about the saving and the wasting of energy all the time. It seems like we don’t actually pay attention until it affects us in the real world. Which is how this light switch helps. Peter Russo and Brendan Wypich of Stanford University developed the SmartSwitch, a light control with tactile feedback that helps you “see” how much energy is already being used, whenever you try to flick the switch.

If the total energy consumption in the house is low, the SmartSwitch is easy to flip. But if the consumption is higher, the SmartSwitch is physically harder to flip, thanks to a brake pad within the mechanism. The idea is that people will use this tactile feedback to decide if they really really need that light on or not. And it gives users a physical interaction with how much they are using.

D-Link’s D-Life Web-Based Home Surveillance Cameras are making the rounds again. We first told you about them way back in July. Monitor any room in your house from anywhere over the Internet with these D-Life Web-based home surveillance cameras.

The D-Life is actually three products, the DHA-390 Surveillance Camera Starter Kit, an internet camera that connects to home network, the DHA-310 Expansion Kit and the DHA-330 video player, which is an internet camera viewer for monitoring all D-Life cameras connected to the network.

These Revio programmable light switches by FirstHand Design are simply awesome. They allow light switches to finally show a sexy side. The panel boasts eight program buttons, power button, dim/bright control, infrared receiver, program from iCAN network, flash memory, panel ‘clean’ switch and more.

It’s possible to have all kinds of configurations and re-programming for light settings. You could also have your choice of icons and text languages included in the design. Plus it’s easy to clean. It’s a great design whose time has come.

Best known for their gaming machines and workstations CyberPower has jumped into the Windows Home Server market. The Windows Home Server 100 is packaged in a compact Mini-ITX enclosure, offers 500GB of storage for $399, and is designed to be quiet and energy-efficient.

The hardware specs aren’t bad either featuring a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom processor, 2GB of DDR2 Memory, 7200 RPM SATA-II HDD, Gigabit Ethernet, and S-Video & Audio output support via its Intel GMA 950 mainboard. Full press release below.

The iron is one of the few gadgets that has remained largely the same over time. Even this Steam Iron with LED concept doesn’t change it all that much. It features LED lighting that lets you know the temperature, with red presumably meaning that it’s hot and ready.

There’s also a soft silicone lining to prevent you from burning yourself accidentally, which is of course a big plus for you and the emergency room staff. Sure, it won’t iron your clothes all by itself while you play Xbox, but it’s an improvement. I mean, what else are you going to do to upgrade the old iron?

The Lorex LNE 3003 Remote Surveillance Camera is Lorex’s most affordable connected camera at only $300. Obviously it’s WiFi enabled (802.11 b/g), and the LNE 3003 can stream VGA video in real time to your iPhone as well as other internet enabled mobile devices.

But is it worth it? Gearlog was kind enough to offer up a review, where they found the mobile phone interface difficult to use and hard to configure, due to the fact that the company does not provide a user friendly iPhone specific application. Other then that they seemed to like it on the desktop where it ran exceptionally well.

Doesn’t it make sense to cook food in the same place you eat it from? The plate? If you could cook your food right on your plate, think of all the dishes you would no longer have to clean. We already can make a plate that keeps our food warm. But just imagine the water you would save from not having to wash extra pots and pans. You would just be washing plates.

Conductive plates are just concepts right now, but the technology needed to make them work in the real world is available. Right now a big drawback is the cord. Cords at the table are likely to spill wine and just plain get in the way. Despite this minor drawback, I think we are nearly ready for this concept to become a reality.

This Baguni washing machine concept saves a single step in the laundry process, the step where you empty your clothes basket into the washing machine. I’ll be honest, I never realized what a huge problem this was. Apparently it’s a serious issue to actually transfer clothes from the basket to the washer.

You still have to unload the washing machine when the cycle’s done and put your wet clothes into the dryer after, but hey this washer will probably save you a whole 30 seconds, while keeping the clothes capacity of the machine very small. So, this concept is good in theory, not in practice.

Scales come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes they are on your mouse. Sometimes they are on a chair. And sometimes they can be found on a toilet seat.

Which makes sense. Losing weight is hard. It might help motivate you, if you can see visually just how much you lose on the old John. Because we all know we lose some weight on the throne. Now it’s time to see just how much. Judging by that rabbit-thing’s reaction, it seems that he/she has just pinched a weighty loaf.

Using the Wii-Fit’s balance board is great for some sports simulations, but it can only go so far. The Ski Home Simulator is another option for those with large bank accounts and too much time on their hands at $2285. It has features for the ski beginner, as well as more advanced users.

Apparently it’s for the PC only, meaning that you need to plug it to your PC or laptop. With 32 different courses from 18 real life venues including Beaver Lake, Lake Louise and Chamonix, these are still pretty expensive courses when you take the price into account.

The X-Touch Mixer faucet does away with antiquated analog knobs or levers and replaces them with buttons so you can regulate exactly what temperature the water is. It even has a digital readout to show you exactly what temp it is. I don’t know about you, but when I wash my hands or take a shower, I don’t put that much thought into it. You know when it feels warm enough after all. Do we really need to be so anal about water temp? Apparently so.

The X-Touch is a product of Newform Italy, and appears to be a sink faucet or a bath faucet. Either way, obsessive compulsives will love it as they can gauge when it is exactly the right temp.

Winter is here. And so, it’s time to fix those cold air leaks. That’s where Black and Decker’s Thermal Leak Detector comes in. Your current method of sliding your fingers down window seams until you feel cold air works okay, but the leak detector takes a high tech approach.

It detects temperature changes as small as a single degree. When it finds a trouble area where cold air is leaking in, a blue spotlight points you towards the problem. Pretty handy little tool for $40. Once it starts detecting leaks and you start sealing them, it will pay for itself in no time.

Some doorbells can be downright jarring when a visitor presses the button. Just plain loud and offensive. It can really suck if you’re having a quiet night and you’ve had way to much caffeine. Why not put a little soothing nature into the whole doorbell thing? The Wireless Lark Doorbell will do just that. It’s a fake Lark that will cost you £7.33. The lark has a built in 2W speaker that will sound off with bird noise when guests arrive. The sound of birds chirping can be soothing instead of alarming. Good idea.

This innovative router design by Franco Marino Cagnina, developed for Saudi Telecom, will have your router sitting pretty, literally. The STC Livebox doubles as an elegant tech-flower vase.

The device features Wireless internet, Voice over IP, land line telephone and wired DSL. With it’s unique design, the STC Router bridges the gap between lifestyle and technology. Martha Stewart would call it a good thing. Women especially will appreciate the decor aspect of what otherwise would be just another piece of tech that clashes with the furniture.