Got wood? Yamaha does. Yamaha Japan announced the TSX-120 and TSX-130 iPod docks, both with a soft wood finish. The TSX-130 seen above comes with USB connectors and a CD-drive which supports playback and recording. Shared features on these units include an amplifier output of 15W × 2ch, 2 x eight cms speakers, frequency response of 60Hz ~ 20kHz, FM tuner and remote control.

Sure, nothing new here, but look, wood! They may match your style and even if they don’t, they’re bound to match that Atari you have lying around.These should hit Japanese stores in early December if you want one for X-mas. The TSX-120 will sell for about$ 300, while the TSX-130 will be about $ 400.

Could we really not come up with a better way to violate these animals via USB? Apparently not, and I have no better suggestions to offer as far as the placement of their uh, receptacle. Poor guys get no respect at all. Just living out USB life day after horrible day, like a having perpetual proctology exam as time slides toward infinity.

You can thank Japanese company Marubeni InfoTech. This is their line of wooden USB drives. Each features a 1GB storage capacity and you get five animals to choose from: dog, pig, elephant, hippopotamus and a swan, available in maple or walnut. They’ll cost you $73. Is there an organization for the ethical treatment of wood animals?

German manufacturer Singulum, has some new luxury notebooks with cases made of high quality wood. The sort of high-end wood that you would normally find on violins. They’re available with ivory and 24 carat solid gold keyboards. The whole Richie Rich luxury design is nice sure, but they also have some advanced tech specs like a core 2 duo processor, Windows Vista, Ehternet, DVD recordable (dual layer) with a 15.4inch screen.

It’s all hand made from one block of wood, and every piece is apparently processed with a special production tool, making each notebook unique. I don’t know. I think the violin probably looks better in this particular wood. But if you have money to blow and really need to show off, you don’t care what I think, so go ahead and buy your tacky overpriced notebook.

I’m not going to make any wood jokes. No jokes about having your tubes tied either. I promise. We have a soft spot for these wood Nixie clocks. They just blend the modern with the old so nicely, you can’t help but fall in love with them. They just have style and they fit in anywhere you can think to put one.

You have to buy it as a kit and put it together yourself, but hey, that just gives you something to brag and be proud about when it’s finished. If you aren’t that handy and don’t think you can handle putting together it’s 115 parts, I guess you’ll just have to admire it from afar.

JVC has some new ear buds set to launch sometime early in February that employ a little more natural materials than most with the housing made out of real wood. Birch wood, to be exact, was the material of choice for the designers of these $130+ ear buds. After all, real wood wood works well to encase larger speakers so why not use it for really tiny ones too?

The HP-FX500 ear buds don’t skimp on performance either, according to JVC. The buds use hybrid drivers, a damping gel inside to reduce jittering and help with noise cancellation, and they have a sound range from 8Hz up to 25kHz. Also, like most ear buds, they come packaged with a carrying case and multiple sized rubber tips to fit different sized ears.

It would appear that someone was paying more attention in their high school shop class than myself. Captain Odegard of the anything but ipod forums has managed to create a zen stone… out of a felled tree. Made out of pine, the good captain shaped and molded the Zen and then Burned the lettering and control buttons in with a hot knife.

Coming in at 8.25 X 5.5 X 2 inches the device most certainly won’t fit in your pocket, but i would imagine it attracts more attention than its little brother. …