DataDot Personal DNA Kit

The next time your office buddy swipes your stationary again, there's a way to prove it. DataDog's Personal DNA Kit lets you DNA your valuables by painting microdots on just about anything, from cell phones to jewelry, making your possessions too hot too handle for thieves. Each DataDot is the size of a salt grain, and comes permanently laser-etched with 50 characters of information. Registering on DataDots' secure Web site establishes ownership quickly, and makes your tagged items traceable by police and insurers. You'll need ultraviolet or black light to scan for the microdot, and a scope with 50x magnification to read the data. Small hassle when your colleague doesn't know what hit him. Love the spy tech.

Via CNET News.com Blogs

Price: US$19.95
Availability: At Data Dot USA Home Kit
Device: DNA kit
Basic specs: One foam brush for easy and quick application, four DataDot decals to warn thieves this asset(s) has been protected, application and registration instructions, bulletproof

egrips

If you have a PDA-phone, portable gaming console or MP3 player, chances are US-based egrips has the skin for you. It's actually a silicone-based film adhesive dimpled to produce a grippy effect. Slap it on your device, and voila. Rather useful especially when you've chucked your mobile on your car's dashboard and made a sudden swerve to avoid a jaywalker. Your mobile will probably still be in place; your heart and hair likely not. Which was what convinced long-time user Gerard Wee to rope in buddy Billy Chow to set up a Singapore distribution channel for egrips in Asia.

Chow assured the material is easily removable anytime you want to take it off or switch designs, without leaving a sticky residue. Given that these little "appliqués" are a rather low-cost way to save your costly electronics from gravitational disasters/ accidents, we reckon it's one accessory well worth investing in.

See packaging 1 | 2

Price: S$4.90 to S$24.90 (from US$1.95), depending on size
Availability: At Bugis, Shell stations, Challenger and Apple stores in Singapore, plans to distribute in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand
Device: Non-slip skin for mobile devices
Basic specs: Variety of colors including see-through, custom skins available for certain products, good for six months to a year, alcohol wipes provided to ensure clean surface before installation

UltraCell UC25

Fuel cells have been on the edge of commercialization ever so long. Now, finally, close to the finishing line is fuel cell developer UltracCell. Its UC25 deploys readily available, low-cost methanol fuel in a compact package, and features twice the energy density of Lithium batteries at 25 watts of continuous power. In short, that means you can get nearly two days of juice for your laptop. What's excellent is that spent fuel canisters can be instantly hotswapped as needed, while the UC25 doubles as a portable recharging power hub anytime, anywhere. Happily, commercial rollout is happening end of this year.

Get close up

Price: N.A.
Availability: End 2006
Device: Methanol rechargeable battery
Basic specs: Up to 25 watts of continuous power, 40oz, about size of paperback novel

Lithium Sulfur rechargeable battery

Your next power source might well come with the acronym Li-S. Sion Power reckons its new Lithium-Sulfur batteries will deliver better batteries for tomorrow's tech devices. It's shown that a single charge of Li-S can keep an HP TC1000 tablet PC going an entire day. No mean feat there considering even the most hardy notebook battery konks out after a marathon 6 hours. The good news: Intel is apparently working with Sion Power to incorporate Li-S as a key ingredient in notebook PC batteries. The not-so-good news: It's much heavier than Lithium-ion and lasts up to only 60 recharge cycles. Hopefully, by the time commerical production revs up in early 2008, these shortfalls will be addressed.

See big image | size relative to coin

Price: N.A.
Availability: H1 2008
Device: Rechargeable battery
Basic specs: 11 x 35 x 55mm, 2.2Ah cell, specific energy of 350 watt hours per kg

FlashDisc

Looks like a floppy. Behaves like flash. Presumably, this one's called FlashDisc since FlopDisc sounds rather dire. This strange amalgamation of flash, USB interface and floppy offers anywhere from 16MB to 32MB of storage, which sounds rather measly given today's 2GB media cards. However, its genesis arose from a response to market research identifying what could be an unmet consumer need "for small, easy-to-use, rewritable media with storage density higher than floppy diskettes, but lower than that of personal USB flash drives". Only time will tell if market research holds true when the FlashDisc launches some time in the next two months.

See it closed | lid off

Via gizmag

Price: N.A.
Availability: msystems, just launched in BestBuy stores in the US
Device: Flash memory
Basic specs: N.A.

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