Know somebody that enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, our latest gift guide should have a gadget especially for them.

Ultra Stomp Rocket

I got one of these as a gift earlier in the year and they are great fun to play with down the park, the Stomp Rocket

Stomp® on the Launch Pad and a blast of air propels the Stomp Rocket® over 200 feet in the air! The kit contains 4 rockets with the OG-1 Nosecone. The Ultra is designed for ages 8 and up.

Cost : $10.75

LED Umbrella

Umbrellas are normally boring, but when the shaft looks like a light sabre then they are pretty cool, here is the LED Umbrella.

Even if you don’t live in a quasi-futuristic Los Angeles, and aren’t a Blade Runner, you can still have the coolest umbrella on the street. With a push of a button, the shaft lights up, illuminating you and your path. Now, even in the darkest of nights, you’re a lot more visible to the cars on the street, making your long walk home through the rain a lot safer.

Cost : $24.99

Gallery of Gadgets up to 08-20-2007

Gadget thumbnails part 60

The ultimate in ridiculous relaxation. A hammock slung between two realistic palm trees with palm fronds, coconuts, and a cooling mechanism. The Tropical Island from Bim Bam Banana comes as close to being there as… well… being there. This getup would look great by any pool, or on any city roof-deck. Place one of these babies in the middle of your patio, grab a reflector screen, and your neighbors will scramble as you’ve certainly one-upped them.

So everyone has one, some call it a purse, some call it a satchel, just just call it, “My darn bag.”

Either way, you’ve got one. You use your bag on the go. Most of all, you’ve got a bag filled with stuff you think is useful enough that if it all went down, you’d be the one swinging from the trees, able to make fire, and live high off the hog while the rest of us can barely remember how to talk.

To add a layer of transparency to this, I’ve started with my own daily dragger. Here is the list of what I keep in there and why. I can’t wait to hear what everyone else is lugging around, it’s always been a mystery to me.

First off, I’ve got a bag I’ve had for years here from Dana Gleason the former owner/creator of Dana Design bags from Bozeman Montana. Now he’s got a new company Mystery Ranch. It’s the best bag you’ll ever own, (I’ve got a Dana Backpack still as well, they’re bulletproof man!) Plus Dana himself is one heck of a guy, irrepressible and will always stand out in a crowd, (he’s about 6′5″ with a flaming red beard) you can’t miss him! They just make the best bags, period.

Now on to the internal goodies!

The Los Angeles Auto Show is kicking off this Friday, and it will run through December 10th. A very interesting part of the show is the Design challenge which features innovative car concepts from the largest auto companies. The cars will be judged based on four parameters: design creativity, safety, environmental compatibility and reflection of the Southern California eco-friendly lifestyle (don’t ask me what the last one is supposed to mean…). Below you will find the nine cars that are participating on this year’s contest:

1) Acura FCX 2020 Le Mans: made completely with recyclable parts this Acura used molecular nanotechnology to make the car more compact and efficient. The car was obviously tested on the endurance race “The 24 hours of Le Mans”.

2) Audi Dynamic Space Frame: Audi tried to innovate with the usage of the materials. The car features fluid and electrical channels both going within the frame and it includes a hydraulic fluid drive instead of the traditional driveshaft.

3) Hummer O2: one of the most creative designs. “Powered by a fuel cell, the Hummer breathes through a revolutionary phototropic body shell that produces pure oxygen throughout the lifespan of the vehicle.”

When a single-engine plane crashed into an Upper East Side apartment building on Wednesday, Fox News Channel delivered early video to its viewers from the crash site using a hand-held mobile phone with live streaming video.

Scott Wilder, a Fox cameraman, had been about 20 blocks away on another assignment when the crash occurred. Wilder ran uptown and reported live from the scene using a hand-held Palm Treo Smartphone that uses the existing mobile network to transmit video to the Fox News control room. From there, Fox News sent it out live on TV to supplement other video being shot by local traffic helicopters.

The picture quality from the crash site wasn’t spectacular, but it was live. Wilder was also able to talk to “Studio B” anchor Shepard Smith on the same phone and give a live “man on the street” report to Fox viewers.

As these advanced video phones become more and more popular, we can probably expect a surge of citizen journalism. If YouTube can make anyone an Internet celebrity, a video phone can make anyone a reporter. Right?

digg story | methodshop

This is another alarm clock and weather gadget; but with a little bit extra.

Do you ever wake up in the morning not sure if you can face the day ahead? I mean those days when you could be swung either way by the weather, but don’t want to get out of bed to check the curtains. Well this graphical weather forecaster is just what you need.