Eleksen Bluetooth portable fabric keyboard

Personally, with handhelds now sporting QWERTY pull-out trays and subnotebooks getting even tinier, portable keyboards are finding it harder to justify their existence. The last one this writer owned collected dust until it was finally tossed onto the trash heap. For the last of the road Mohicans still relying on PDAs to input their data, Eleksen's Bluetooth fabric keyboard is probably the most practical and portable option out there. It's so flexible, you can roll it up and never know it's in your pocket. Just don't mistakenly blow your nose with it.

More images of the keyboard (courtesy of our US site): Picture 1 | picture 2 | picture 3

Price: US$99
Availability: End Q2, Elecksen
Device: Portable Bluetooth-enabled keyboard
Basic specs: 0.6mm thick, raised and flat keys, water-resistant fabric, Bluetooth, USB and proprietary connections, drivers to support Win Mobile Smartphone, Symbian Series 60 and Palm 5.0 Bluetooth-enabled devices

Star Wars Rain Lightsaber

For sheer exploitation, Japanese manufacturer Happinet gets the saber, er, cake. Riding on the current Star Wars hype, this savvy vendor has rolled out the Rain Lightsaber, essentially an umbrella given the Darth Vaderoid silkscreened treatment on the underside, complete with lightsaber handle based on Master Replica's .45 scale Darth Vader lightsaber hilt. When closed, the umbrella comes sheathed in a red sleeve to look like Vader's saber blade. (In fact, is this even legal and licensed?) Whatever the deal, what would be ultra-cool is if the handle has an option to light up at night or if there are prerecorded sound effects of sabers sizzling in rain. That would assuredly make you the coolest dude out there on a rainy day.

Via Wonderland

The Force up large | Star Wars Force FX Lightsabers | Episode III Darth Vader Voice Changer

Price: US$85, preorders now taken
Availability: Mid to late June, Happinet
Device: Star Wars collectible
Basic specs: Durable vinyl material, opens out to 100cm, choice of artwork featuring Darth Vader wielding a saber or a diamond-shaped Vader logo

Hugging Pillow

You can't take current bikini idol Misako Yasuda to bed, but her merchandise folks are giving you the next best thing--a hugging pillow that features a life-size, front-and-back print of the kittenish siren--in thongs, no less. And if you still have a yen to snuggle up close with the Japanese celeb, matching bed sheets can be gotten at a bundled price as well. Talk about strange bedfellows.

For frontal and back view of the Yasuda pillow, click here

Via TokyoTimes

Price: 16,000 yen (US$142.95)
Availability: cdJapan.com
Device: Pillow
Basic specs: About 170 x 50cm, 300g

Special edition camera by Gwen Stefani

No Doubt about it. Celebs are cottoning onto putting their name on electronic products, the latest being pop star Gwen Stefani. This lady clearly has sufficient business pizzazz to know that cutesy digicam offerings endorsed by stars do best in the land of the rising sun. Targeted at the Harajuku tribe of rich fashionable Japanese youngsters, HP's Photosmart R607 has been jazzed up in an odd copper green under her new clothing line Harajuku Lovers, and comes with the requisite designer-matching accessories. This includes matching bag, wrist strap, charms, and shoulder strap designed by the No Doubt frontwoman, a DVD of Stefani goodies and, most importantly for eBay peddlers, a certificate to prove authenticity. We've heard that hats, mobile phone charms, handbags and t-shirts will be up next under the label come summer.

Click to see: large image | back | sides | top | accessories

Price: US$249
Availability: HP
Device: Digital camera
Basic specs: 4.1 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, 1.5-inch color LCD display (120k pixels), optical viewfinder, Lithium-ion rechargeable, 128g

Scooba

Scooba, dooba doo! Remember the Roomba? Well, our friendly robotic vacuum is about to rumba with the Scooba, a kitchen companion that will mop hard floors made of materials like tile, wood and linoleum. Clorox, better known to Singaporeans as a household bleach compound, has teamed up with Roomba makers iRobot for this latest outing to take the scrub out of your kitchen chores. Besides developing a cleaning fluid that won't send Scooba's steering systems into a spin, they've created a machine capable of sucking up loose particles, cleaning the floor and drying it, all in five stages. Wonder who gets to clean up Scooba after all that dirty, hard work.

See Scooba in action

Other robotic assistants: Bosch's shirt-ironing robot | Motoman's Robobar | Desktop Sushi Robot

Price: N.A.
Availability: Christmas
Device: Robotic kitchen helper
Basic specs: N.A.

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