IBM are an innovative company but they seem to of been out of the limelight in recent years. I’ve just read about an interesting new product they have in development called the IBM Magic Block. The name Magic Block didn’t fill me with confidence however what it does sounds pretty cool.
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This one’s definitely on my wish list. It’s a fully functional PC running under a choice of Linux or Windows CE.

OK, weighing in at 7 ounces (200g), you’d need a forearm like Arnold Schwarzenegger to pass it off as a watch. On me it would look like I was taking part in some government programme for tagging offenders; but I wouldn’t mind the stares.

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I class myself as a technical sort of person (though some may argue with that) yet whenever I’m designing software or websites I always resort to pen and paper. This does mean I have A3 pads and flip charts all over the place and finding my original designs can be a real pain. Today I came across the Adesso CyberPad which seems to offer both the benefit of paper and digital storage at the same time.

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Here’s a gadget for people who love shopping for clothes, but don’t have time to swap and change to find something in their size.

Unveiled at the CeBit Technology show in Germany, the virtual changing room will scan your measurements and read an ID chip embedded in the clothing to show you on a projector screen how the apparel would look. It can even suggest other items that might suit you.

My partner, who eats like Liz Taylor, but wants a figure like Claudia Schiffer, would like this device even more if it could make her fit into a size 10 dress.

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Add a bit of color to your drab white bathroom with the help of colored water. The Blue LED Faucet Light gives water a blue neon like glow whenever the tap is turned on.

The faucet light fits on the nozzle of most standard US faucet fittings (taps to us UK folk) and works by detecting when water passes through the attachment. This then turns on an array of blue LEDs giving your water an electric blue hue.

It’s a novel idea and a bit more tasteful than those neon blue lights you see under some boy racer’s car. What would be really cool is if it changed color depending on the temperature of the water, with a red water flow to warn of scolding heat. Who knows, maybe version 2. The Blue LED Faucet Light is available from Think Geek for $14.99.

Looks like our cool clocks section will fill up quite quickly with the second entry this week being a levitating clock from Think Geek.

The levitating clock uses the force* to float an LCD clock inside a funny looking base. It also features an auto-rotate mechanism to spin objects clockwise, or counter-clockwise (as well as the clock you can buy an optional floating space shuttle).

I think this is probably best used as a cool executive desk toy rather than an alarm clock, as I can imagine sleepy fingers moving the clock a bit too much when going for that snooze button (then again the crashing noise may really wake you up).

Available from Think Geek.

*magnetic force not THE force

It’s rumoured that Sony will reveal details of its Playstation 3 console on Wednesday and, in particular, announce a launch date.

Reporters have unexpectedly been invited to a meeting in Tokyo, originally scheduled as a routine gathering for Playstation developers. This suprise move has naturally led to speculation that Sony have a big news story concerning the PS 3.

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If there was a league table of truly pointless gadgets this would be somewhere near the top, probably just below the ice oven. As we know most software has the odd bug (even Microsoft testers aren’t perfect :)) well now you can pretend to fix them with the computer Bug Zapper.

The computer bug zapper, hangs from a hook and looks a bit like a normal bug (as in flying) extermination system, with it’s glowing yellow core of insect death. However the yellow light is just for show though it does make ZZZzzap sounds whenever a software bug is detected and destroyed.

I so nearly believed that this was the long awaited silver bullet of software development until I found that it runs on batteries and not USB! How low tech is that! I might try to get one of these on expenses from Think Geek, it’s probably more successful than 99% of the promised silver bullet books I’ve read :D.