Designer Qian Jiang has come up with a cool and innovative concept for batteries. When your batteries are flat, simply wind them up and you’re gadgets are good to go agin.

Head over to the Yanko Design website for more photos of the Wind-Up Battery.

Designer Ju-Wei Chen has come up with the Inbi-Out concept – a GPS coin to make all your decisions. Kind of like a futuristic version of these two existing decision makers.

The Inbi-Out coin tosses a 50/50 chance of where you should eat, drink, hang out, etc.., and displays the final decision on a tiny embedded screen complete with GPS coordinates and directions.

More photos and information about the Inbi-Out GPS Coin at Yanko Design.

Via a bunch of great blogs that you should check out:

• Gizmodo
• Slippery Brick
• TechEBlog
• TechFresh
• Ubergizmo

The CD might be dead when it comes to listening to music, but I would be more than happy to purchase a few of those old pieces of plastic to be able to enjoy the iShelf.

This CD stand concept, inspired by the famous “cover flow” user interface in Apple’s digital iTunes media player application, is created by the Chinese designer Li Jianye.

Check out more photos of the iShelf over at Labexp blog.

(Via Yanko Design)

What could possibly be better than a nice, big, tasty chunk from the Swiss Army Knife Chocolate? Well, if you’re a computer geek, maybe a piece of this chocolate keyboard.

The idea is created by Michael Sholk, a designer based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Check out the chocolate keyboard and other fun and cool concepts at his personal website.

(Via Gizmodiva)

Santiago Cantera, a designer from Cordoba, Argentina, has come up with the idea for this cool and geeky looking keyboard inspired digital alarm clock.

The timepiece – which is just a concept at the moment – is called Escape Clock and features a black finish and big red digits. When you want to go back to sleep for a while, simply give it a good hit with your fist.

Head over to Santiago Cantera’s personal blog for larger photos of the Escape Clock.

(Coroflot via Designlaunches and Engadget)

The Polish design team Poor has come up with a fun and cool concept for a computer accessory – a wooden clothespin that features a built-in USB flash drive.

The USB pendrive memory in the form of typical wooden clamp. It can be easily fastened to clothes, thus forming an amusing decoration both for women and men.

This item combines both tradition and modernity and such combination was an important consideration during design phase.

Head over to the poor.pl website for more photos of the Clothespin USB Drive.

(Via Yanko Design)

The YO concept, created by the New York City based designer Victor Vetterlein, is a portable, wireless and waterproof stereo speaker docking station for audio players.

Inside the dock base are lithium-ion (rechargeable) batteries capable of powering the stereo system for hours when the unit is disconnected from a power source. The design intention is that a renewable energy source such as solar power, wind power, or hydroelectricity charges the battery packs when the stereo is not in use.

The speakers also contain lithium-ion batteries in their base, and recharge when placed in the stereo base portals. The batteries also provide high-density ballast enabling the speakers to stand upright when removed from the charging ports.

The speaker enclosure is designed to amplify sound. The speakers are mounted in the rear of the speaker housing. Similar to a megaphone, the front portion of the speaker enclosure is extruded to increase and direct sound. Two removable rods are mounted between the stereo speakers to stabilize the stereo assembly and provide a lifting handle when the unit is transported.

Head over to Dezeen design blog to view more photos of the YO speaker.

Via a bunch of wonderful websites:

• Designboom
• Dvice
• Hemfeber
• Ubergizmo
• Unplggd
• Yanko Design

iSleep is the name of this fun concept by the German designer Ivonne Dippmann. The idea is to provide you and your laptop with a useful analog multi-function extension.

i -sleep, a comfortable soft pillow which can be attached on the top of each leptop and functiones like a rescue west in an airplane – with the difference…it really saves us. If we tend to fall asleep, we just close our laptop, a pillow gets filled with warm air, music is being played and after 10 minutes the alarm clock rings.

Heating up
By closing the laptop an air cushion blows itself up, which is connected by a valve with the fan of the computer. The computer is in the “sleep mode” and warm exhaust air is blown into the pillow. The material is coated with Latex at the inside, so the supplied warm air can be kept for a longer time. The heat supply is interrupted by opening the laptop again.

Making music
By closing the computer a playlist is activated by a music program. This playlist can be individually created or is automatically generated by the program. The titles being played correspond to the duration of the desired sleeping time.

Waking up
After the last music title being played, the possibility exists to be waken up. The waking time, the waking tone and the distances of the repeating waking noise are individually adjustable.

Read more about Ivonne Dippmann’s iSleep project over at digital.udk-berlin.de.

(Likecool via OhGizmo)

Hopefully, one day we will all be able to charge our precious gadgets using a beautiful bonsai tree inspired USB solar-cell charger like this one. The concept is created by Vivien Muller, a 22 year old designer from Paris, France.

The cords are hidden under the electronic tray and 54 tiny photovoltaic panels work together to store energy, so that you later can recharge your cell phone, MP3 player, PDA and any other handheld devices you might have.

See more photos of the Bonsai Tree Gadget Charger at Vivien Muller’s blog.

Via a bunch of great places around the web:

• Behance Network
• Dvice
• Everything USB
• Gadget Venue
• GetUSB
• Gizmodo
• Method Shop
• Notcot
• OhGizmo
• TechChee
• TechFresh
• Pocket-lint
• Yanko Design

Greg Blonder, an inventor with over 70 patents, has created the “Slide Rule” – a wall clock that displays the current time with something that looks like two large rulers.

The video clip below shows a mockup of the Greg’s concept, constructed using foamcore and powered by the LEGO Mindstorms programmable bricks:

The base of the clock was constructed from standard LEGOs, encasing two mindstorm servo motors. At the corners of the base are four switches, used to support the “slider”. By pressing the corners of the slider its possible to set the hours and minutes.

More about Greg Blonder’s Slide Rule Wall Clock over at talusfurniture.com.

(Via The Watchismo Times)

Gélule, French for capsule, is the name of this pill-shaped radio clock concept by Pascal Barde from the design company Sequoia Studio.

The smooth looking capsule radio features a backlit LCD display and an omni-directional speaker, which also functions as a huge volume knob.

Here’s a video demonstration of Pascal’s radio clock concept:

Visit sequoia-studio.com to see more of the Gélule and other products.

(Tuvie via SlipperyBrick)

The INFO Live bracelet concept is one of the entries for the Next-Gen PC Design competition. The touch-controlled device acts both as a fashion accessory and a data organizer with internet connection capabilities.

INFO Live is an data organizer for connected internet world. It is able to transfer data information to any hardware and person any moment in time of need. In addition, it has a powerful information update system that alerts user of incoming information, e.g. email, documents, photos , video & etc in terms of ionic representation.

More photos and info about the INFO Live at Next-Gen PC Design website.

(TechPin via Gearfuse)

Last week we wrote about this cell phone watch, and now LG Electronics has displayed their ‘Watch Phone’ concept during the Mobile World Congress 2008.

According to Aving, it “supports voice recognition function by adopting Bluetooth, enabling users to make a phone call or send a text message without keypad”. Here’s a video of LG’s watch phone concept:

And another video from Shiny Shiny / Tech Digest:

This cool interactive coffee table displays a users activity on some of the top social websites by using bars in various colors as indicators.

The personal feeds from webapplications like Plazes, Flickr, and Last.fm tell much about the activity of an individual on the internet. In this project we aim to explore how you can visualize the changes of your web identity over time and create a physical link between your virtual and real identity. The interface consists of both a physical table and a web application. This direct feedback from your web identity is customizable and can be connected to any RSS feed.

Here’s a demonstration video of the Wable table:

More about the Wable project over at Physical Interaction Lab.

(Via Core77 & Prylfeber)

We’ve covered quite a few travel-friendly computer mice here at GeekAlerts, but it doesn’t get more portable than the Jellyclick mouse from Designodoubt.

‘Jelly click’ is a flat type portable mouse that can be used by being inflated satisfying both portability and usability of a laptop mouse. When deflated the user can fold it up for a convenient portability and when inflated and in use a feeling as if you were touching a soft jelly or even a balloon can be felt.

Visit the Designodoubt webiste for more photos of the Jellyclick concept.

(Via Yanko Design)

PostlerFerguson, a design consultancy located in London, UK, has created the “Life Machines” concept – a look at a possible future society in which humans and robots coexist.

Life Machines engages with the question of how an ageing population’s needs can be met through technology. It investigates a possible future society in which humans and robots coexist in domestic spaces and asks what issues arise in a symbiotic relationship between humans and technology.

Questions about what kind of compromises and adjustments will have to be made are explored through scenarios of everyday routines in the relationship of an ageing individual and a robot. The design of domestic objects that reflect the needs of both machines and humans becomes a tool for exploring the human condition and our fascination with using technology to recreate ourselves.

Visit postlerferguson.com for more photos and other interesting work.

(Via Likecool)

The Cambridge Consultants has come up with the Iona Cube concept, a Wi-Fi enabled internet radio with a simple and intuitive new design.

By simply turning the Cube onto one of its four available sides, it will change to the desired radio station. A fifth side is dedicated to the speaker and the final remaining side is dedicated to switching the radio to the ‘off’ position. The Cube can be quickly and easily customised to play a listener’s top four stations.

The designers involved in this new concept wanted to keep simplicity to the maximum. Accordingly, even the volume button has been removed. Instead, the listener just twists the Cube to the right to increase the volume and twists to the left to decrease it.

Check out the press release for more information about the Iona Cube.

(Via SlashGear)

Art. Lebedev Studio, the team behind the Optimus Maximus OLED Keyboard, has come up with a very cool concept for yet another keyboard.

Optimus Tactus does not have physical keys, which means there are no restrictions on their shape and size. Any part of the keyboard surface can be programmed to perform any function or to display any images.

This is what the Optimus Tactus look like in video mode:

Via a bunch of great blogs:

• Digital Drops
• Engadget
• Geek and Hype
• Gizmología
• Gizmodo
• Ubergizmo
• SlashGear

This beautiful piece of jewelry is a concept by Charles Windlin, an industrial, interaction and 3D modeling designer from Winterthur, Switzerland.

The device holds 1400 spheres which consist of magnetic and decorative material one half each. By that every sphere could be turned in every direction and results in a display.

The display on the ring will show you the current time, your personal calendar and can “act as jewelry with morphing patterns that reacts to your input.”

Visit Coroflot to read more about the Digitus watch ring concept.

(Geek&Hype via Geekologie)

Someone has come up with a brilliant idea on how to make a boring duty into something you actually look forward to.

You might not move the lawn faster with an F1 Lawn Mover, but you will definitely do it with a bigger smile on your face.

The concept is a CG mockup by Kadeg Boucher from France. The design is inspired by the vintage Lotus 79, a formula one car driven by the Swedish racing driver Ronnie Peterson and others.

Head over to the CGTalk forums for more pictures of the F1 Lawn Mover.

(Autoblog via Gearfuse)