While the original Sputnik burnt out after only 3 months in orbit, here's an homage that promises to be rather more resilient. IDEA, Japan's answer to you know who, is offering a 30cm tall (11.8-inches) self-sufficient ambient light that pretty much does its own thing. Integrated sensors detect when the light should be on, while inconveniences like power cords and on/off switches are completely done away with. The light's batteries are recharged by the sun at a rate of 2 to 5 hours sunlight for 8 hours operation, while its waterproof design means it can be dumped outside to collect rays during the day and even provide garden lighting at night. It's quirky, to be sure, but the obvious design cues taken from the Russian satellite should make true geeks smile with glee. You can find a gallery of the various color choices courtesy of Engadget Japanese below, and if you're passing by the land of the rising sun later this month you can snap up your very own solar light ball for ¥1575 ($16).

[Via Engadget Japanese]

We've been fans of Sanyo's rechargeable Eneloop batteries since they first entered the market in the lazy NiMH and NiCd days of 2005. We remember this because we, like Eneloops, don't suffer from the memory effect of our predecessors. Ok, ok, that date's in the press release but that doesn't change the fact that Eneloops will maintain their charge over time even when stored, ununsed in a drawer now does it? Anywho, Sanyo just announced its rechargeable Eneloop Lamp that serves to light your home when upright or your path when held like a flashlight -- automatically, just as soon as it passes the 90-degree mark. It also features a healing function that waxes a cool blue light into the tragic abyss of your misery and despair. The internal AAs recharge in about 12-hours when set atop the included induction charger. Fully charged, you can expect between 3- and 45-hours of white light, 12- to 16-hours of the blue stuff, and about 6 hours in flashlight mode. No price was given but it'll be on sale in Japan starting September 11th.

[Via Akihabara News]

Sir James Dyson is on a mission to tick as many boxes as possible with the hetero male demographic. He starts out well, bolting the "world's fastest motor" to a gun-shaped instrument of cleanliness. The product pages advertise 10 minutes of "high constant suction," and the top model is named the Animal, but the fact is it's still a vacuum cleaner. The motor is a direct descendant of the one found in the Airblade, with rotational speed jumping from 88K to 104K RPM. Dyson has said he hopes to harness the technology in other devices, including electric cars, giving credence to previously discredited rumors to that effect. Beyond the read link you will find a picture of the tiny speed demon in the loving hands of its inventor.

[Via Tech Digest]

Home automation industry folks, heads up: the ZigBee Alliance has announced the development of a Green Power feature set, which is the first step in creating a global standard technology for energy harvesting devices. When it becomes available sometime at the end of 2009, you and your fellow ZigBee Alliance members will finally be able to create and market self-powered whatsits that communicate on ZigBee and ZigBee PRO networks. Here's hoping that NEC takes full advantage of this for the next iteration of its award-winning Carbon Ball game! Full PR after the break.

It's not enough that humans gave robots a place to congregate to plan our demise, now we've adapted them with the ability to extract fuel from the very nectar of life. All that innocent experimentation with fuel cells that run on blood has led to this, a flesh-eating clock. This prototype time-piece from UK-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau traps insects on flypaper stretched across its roller system before depositing them into a vat of bacteria. The ensuing chemical reaction, or "digestion," is transformed into power that keeps the rollers rollin' and the LCD clock ablaze. The pair offers an alternative design fueled by mice, another contraption whose robotic arm plucks insect-fuel from spider webs with the help of a video camera, and a lamp powered by insects lured to their deaths with ultraviolet LEDs. Man, this is so wrong it has to be right.

[Via Hack a Day, thanks Isaac]

What's creepier than automatically informing Twitter every time your unborn child kicks his mother's womb? Giving all your Twitter followers a live feed of your heartbeat, including canned messages to announce your death in case you cease pumping Cheeto-infused blood through your goth-nerdy veins. This Japanese DIY project has open source schematics and is designed to bypass a PC and send the news of your heart hiccups directly the internet. Check out the appropriately dramatic video after the break.

Designer Rhea Jeong's Void LP player seems devoid of reality, but it was inspired by the very real and very cute "Vinyl Killer," a little VW Bus that can propel itself around a record and play the tunes with its tinny speaker, naturally wearing out the precious LP in the process. The Void LP takes the concept of a self-sufficient speaker, amp and needle (the red ball), and then tosses them all into the air with a magnetic saucer. We're sure it sounds terrible, and it seems a little fantastical, but one thing's for certain: we want.

[Via The Rock and Roll Star]

Since Google can't be the only multibillion-dollar technology company having all the home energy monitoring fun, Microsoft's jumping in with "Hohm" -- like a portmanteau of "Home" and "Ohm," get it? We're not entirely sure just how it works yet, but according to the company, using both user input / feedback and analytics licensed from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the US Department of Energy, the program provides suggestions for energy conservation. However, it's the future uses we're more excited about -- eventually, you'll be able to upload energy usage data into the system automatically, provided you're getting voltage from one of the partner companies. First West Coast utilities to join up include Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy, and nope, none of those overlap with PowerMeter's first enlistees. The sign-up page for the beta is now live, so hit up the read link if you want a chance to participate.

[Via Yahoo! Tech]

Sonos has been sitting pretty at the top of the wireless audio distribution space for quite awhile now. Today Yamaha is fighting back with a totally refreshed (and very Sonos-like) Musiccast2 system that supports up to 32 rooms of WiFi-based distributed audio from sources such as Rhapsody, Internet radio, or tracks stored on your Mac, PC, USB sticks, Bluetooth devices, or networked shares. iTunes support is enabled via a bundled TwonkyMedia Server in the $500 MCX-RC100 Network Music Commander remote control (above) with 3.5-inch LCD, touch-sensitive trackpad, and GUI that displays details such as album art and song information from all your MP3, WMA (no lossless or PRO), AAC (no Apple lossless or FairPlay DRM), FLAC and WAV audio files. To distribute the audio, you'll need a $400 MCX-A300 (amplified, just add speakers) or $400 MCX-P200 (non-amplified for AV connection) Network Music Player placed in each room where audio is desired. The MCX-P200 can also function as a universal IR remote with multiple IR outs to control other devices in the AV rack via IR flashers or the MCX-RC100 remote control. So yeah, it gets expensive, but it's easy and quick and won't require a sledgehammer, wiring, or sheetrocking skills. Our only reservation is with Yamaha's choice of straight-up 2.4GHz 802.11b/g to link the audio compared to the rock-solid, customized-802.11n mesh created by Sonos -- nobody wants a microwave to harsh their mellow, dig? More component pics after the break.

David Friedman's Ironic Sans blog is full of great ideas, but never have we been in such desperate need of rapid implementation as this Outlet Wall. We'd say the idea is pretty self-explanatory, making an art out of plugging in devices instead of fussing with a hidden tangle of cords and powerstrips on the floor -- we've lost many a friend and family member to the wilds behind our entertainment center. As David points out: "Of course you don't have to actually wire all the outlets on the whole wall for electricity, but you'd better come up with a good way to remember which ones are live."

[Via Gadget Venue]

Are you fully prepared to live in one company's most likely inaccurate and yet still totally awesome vision of the future? If not, check out the video after the break. ASUS tossed together its ideas into a "Seamless Experience" showing at its Computex 2009 booth. Apparently the future involves a lot of interactive countertops -- a sort of pervasive Surface-lite, which presents interactive, relevant info for objects placed on it. The tech also facilitates interaction between devices placed near each other, and can even capture data from a plain ol' piece of paper and integrate it into the system. Sure, it's been shown before, but we're sure once enough companies come up with this idea independently they'll be able to form two warring factions and fend off consumer adoption with a format war for years to come.

Read - ASUS PR
Read - Video from NewGadgets.de

Concept cars are a dime a dozen around these parts -- but concept lawnmowers? A little more rare, and the latest from Husqvarna looks to be about as closely related to that rusty John Deere in your shed as Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes McLaren F1 car is to your boss's E-Class. It has paddles on the wheel for adjusting three independent mowing blades, a "sophisticated" LCD display that displays speed and obstacle proximity, and a rechargeable lithium-phosphate battery with enough staying power to trim your yard for two hours straight, all shown in a soothing and thoroughly rendered promo video after the break. The one thing it can't do, apparently, is tame the wild locks of Swedish male models.

While you're replacing your household incandescent light-bulbs with LEDs in a bid to save energy and possibly cash (over the 40,000-hour lifespan) you might want to consider these remote-controlled lamps from Sharp. The DL-L60AV gives you on/off and dimming functions as well as the ability to adjust the light in seven shades of white to warm up or cool down the glow. Best of all, they screw into a standard E26 socket for a one-to-one exchange with your existing ocean warmers. The features of the remote control are still unclear (lighting zone support, range of operation, etc.) but it appears to work with multiple-lamps in parallel which is a nice touch. However, we'd like to see Sharp integrate a Z-Wave or ZigBee chipset so we could link these directly (without special wall-switches) into a tricked-out home automation and power managment system. The DL-series start at ¥3880 (about $40) for simple LED lights before hitting ¥7980 (about $82) for the fully-equipped DL-L60AV and begin shipping July 15th in Japan.