Haven’t you always dreamed of a microwaveable teddy bear? Alright, neither have I. Frankly, it’s kind of creepy. All you need to do is place the entire bear in the microwave and heat it for just 2 minutes to "provide hours of soothing warmth and comfort" while you sleep. It can also be frozen and used as an ice-pack for sprains, and bruisings, etc. I guess some of us need an extra bed companion (or two). Better yet, get all five – the bear comes in light brown, dark brown, light blue, purple, and cerise pink. It retails for the Beddy Bear is £9.95 (about $18 USD). -Natalie Mayslich

As if the iPod was growing short of useful things that you can do with it, the folks over at iTRAIN have created ten core workouts to download to your iPod or mp3 player. The workouts include iTread, iClimb, iCycle, iSculpt and iStretch. You can sign up for a yearly package of iTrain workouts for $49.99, a monthly package for $9.99, or a la carte starting at $0.99. iTrain does seem pretty similar to iWorkout’s offerrings, except that iWorkout also offers workout videos for your iPod. However, we can’t imagine how you could successfully follow a workout video on a 2 inch screen. (Source: Laptop Magazine, August 2006)

Text messages have become a staple of modern day life, unfortunately staples like everything else, cost money. Txtdrop.com allows you to send text messages for free, and there are no catches involved. There are many other web sites that claim to let you send messages for free, but they usually have a limit and charge you after after a certain amount of messages have been sent. Txtdrop.com is also great because it doesn’t require user registration, just log on to the site and you’re ready to go. They even have a widget to add to your Myspace.com profile so that you can have friends text message you directly from Myspace.

So it’s late at night and these strange informercials advertising a weird pet product that is "Made in Eureka" keep airing. Since my laptop is always a few inches away from me, I decided to check out the madeineureka.com web site that keeps flashing on the screen. As I suspected, the site and the infomercials are just an advertisement for the upcoming new Sci Fi Channel series "Eureka". The site is made to look like a real online shop with unusual futuristic products  such as their eyePod Spy Satellite Tracker, and their DV Hologram projector. Each of the products even have their own product description page. Try adding one of these to your cart, and you’re directed to a Eureka Sweepstakes page. It’s amazing how they went all out to make a point. Is this a really clever marketing scheme or just really confusing? I’m not sure. But I am kind of disappointed that the Cell Phone Activated Excercise Automator turned out to be fiction.

The Twilight Turtle from Cloud b transforms a child’s room in to the outdoors. The adorable doll is also a  nightlight that also projects constellations and stars on the walls. Relaxing and tranquil, the Twilight Turtle will help kids fall asleep in no time at all. It’s on sale now for $34. -Leah Cheng

This generic cube-shaped MP3 Alarm clock is a no-frills machine that will do the job if you are looking for something relatively inexpensive. It comes with 64mb, an LCD display, iconographic backlit controls that look kinda cool, and speakers. It also has a USB port for uploading music directly from your computer. We can’t help but wonder why they culdn’t include a radio in there, if they had, then maybe we’d be sold. The alarm clock willl last for up to 10 hours by running on 4 AA batterries and it retails for $64.38 at Iwantoneofthose.com.

Creative’s LiveI Motion WebCam uses motion detection to follow you around as you move. The web cam is capable of automatically panning and tilting to 200° horizontally and 105° vertically, and it will even zoom in on you or sweep out for a wide shot. It’s kind of like having a little camera-man inside o for your YouTube projects, but without having to give him a salary. The Live! Motion Web Cam retails for about $140.00 at Amazon UK.

"Cuddle Party is a playful social event designed for adults to explore communication, boundaries and affection. Facilitated by a "Cuddle Lifeguard on Duty," who creates a comfortable, non-threatening environment, it’s a great place to make new friends and to learn about yourself."
In other words, CuddleParty’s goal is to promote healthy forms of communication, intimacy and affection between people by bringing strangers together to cuddle together in their PJs. It’s soo true that you can find ANYTHING on the internet.

We’re getting really tired of new Ipod docking stations being announced all the time, but the IPort FS-2 Free-Standing Music System does seem pretty cool. This dock has spring loaded arms that will hold any ipod model. And aside from doing the standard stuff such as syncing your ipod with your computer and charging its battery, the FS-2 can stream music. While streaming music, the button in the center of the dock glows white and glows red while transferring files. The other buttons light up as well, these ones control the volume and track selection. To top it all off, you can connect the dock to your TV for watching videos. Maximum PC Magazine, who tends to have some tough critics on their staff, reviewed the Iport FS-2 and rated it a 9 out of 10. Their only disappointment was that it is somewhat pricey at $200 – and that doesn’t even include the remote control which costs an extra $50.00. The IPort FS-2 is available in black or white.

Leave it to the geniuses at MIT to create a sort of web-based Operating System. YouOS has a bunch of applications fthat are free to use, including an e-mail client, RSS reader, text editor, chat program and almost 200 other programs. We predict that ome time in the not too distant future, Windows will be an OS that you can log on to from any web browser – you heard it here first! (Source: CNet)

One reason Mac Addicts are addicts is because Macs are esthetically beautiful. Take for instance the PowerMac’s with their perforated high-grade aluminum enclosure. There is no other computer like it available today (except for a few PC enclosure imitations). Aluma Design has taken the perforated high-grade aluminum from the Powermac and used it to create an art framing system, a table, a wall panel system, and a mirror. Because what better way to frame art, than with art itself? (Please don’t send me hate mail – I love PC’s to!) (Source: MacAddict Magazine, August 2006)

For only $99.99 you can afford yourself a Pink Digital Pocket Photo Album to go with that pink iPod, pink Razr and, if you’re lucky enough to snag one from Japan, pink DS Lite. Forget fumbling with your digital camera to show off your pictures, transfer them to this pocket sized photo album from MagPix. With just 2AAA batteries, and I assume you’ll want to add a SD card, you’ll be having the time of your life showing off your picture taking "skills" via its 1.5 inch LCD. And if it turns out that you are sick of the color pink, then there is also a version that comes in silver. -Natalie Mayslich

It carves, snips, files, plucks, prods, uncorks, illuminates, writes – and even tells you the time digitally, and can wake you up with its alarm function. At just 3.5 inches high, the Swiss Army Voyager Lite Ruby is a compact MultiTool that aims to do it all. It retails for $65.00 at Amazon and is available in either black or red. – Kevin Geter

Here is a pretty good bargain for Disney Lovers; Disney Shopping has 2 Mickey Mouse laptops bags in the colors blue and khaki on sale for $9.99. They also have a black classic mickey laptop briefcase on sale for $6.99. (Source: FatWallet)

If you tend to call internationally a lot to a specific country, then you know how expensive the bill can add up even if you manage to find the lowest rate possible – whether it’s via Skype, a calling card, or some other method. Voyze, a VOIP service, is off erring an "Unlimited Country" plan which included unlimited calls to the country of your choose plus 500 free minutes in the USA for just $39.99 a month. This sounds like a pretty good deal for some people, unfortunately we can’t find any reviews for Voyze’s services. Has anyone had experience with them?

If you thought the Cam Buddy Plush Animal Web Cams were adorable, then you might like this web cam as well. This PC web camera is shaped like a bird and it comes in three different colors including silver, red, blue and gold. The BC801M PC Camera is available from BirdyGift.com. No word on pricing yet but if we discover any of that info, we’ll update this post.

Forget boot camp, and forget all of those emulation programs that require installing Windows. Codeweavers has plans to release CrossOver Mac this summer. For just $60, CrossOver will enable Intel Macs to run Windows applications without having to actually install Windows. Some games such as Half-Life 2 and prey will even be playable via CrossOver Mac. We can hardly wait to try this out! (Source: Yahoo News)

July 4th has just passed and the thought of going back to school is the farthest from most students’ minds. However, we feel that it is our civic duty to continue in our efforts in bringing useful and cool study aids to your attention. We think that you will find the Belkin Tune Talk Stereo for the iPod very useful because it turns your iPod into a digital voice recorder for capturing lectures, interviews, and memos. Belkin’s latest Tune Talk Stereo features one-touch stereo recording via a built-in microphone. The $69 add-on also has a line-in jack for attaching a more powerful mic. Presently, this device is only availabe for 5G iPods that have video capabilities. – Kevin Geter

Planon hits on all cylinders with this sleek portable DocuPen RC800 scanner. And although it’s price is a bit steep at $299.99, this device should be at the top of your list for several reasons.  The folks at Planon were able to address a few issues that was associated with their previous model, the R700, that was riddled with problems such as failed scans and overall bulkiness (it’s nice when a company actually learns from their mistakes and really listens to their customers). The oblong wand is available in several colors and measures 8.9×0.5 inches and weighs just 2 ounces.  It can scan either black-and-white or color (12-bit and 24-bit) and supports resolutions from 100 to 400 dots per inch.  You can change settings via two buttons on top; one switches the resolution, the other runs through color modes. I like the portability and overall cool and performance of this scanner and I can easily see alot of college students using this. It might set them back half a year of lattes but it’s well worth the investment! Scan on! – Kevin Geter