Hot deal: Amazing floating house for US$4 mil to US$5 mil

With housing prices what they are in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of our readers may be looking for other options. Don't move out of town--stay in the bay...literally...in this awesome floating house.

Underwater Vehicles, maker of commercial subs, portable decompression chambers, and the like, has a series of beautiful, highly impractical, semi-submarine dwellings by Italian naval architect Giancarlo Zema. They all feature space-age design and submerged underwater viewing platforms. The Trilobis floating home, in particular, is also geared for greenness, with hydrogen fuels, solar panels, and photovoltaic windows to keep down fuel costs. Your new abode can reach 7 knots of speed. It's not suitable for ocean crossings but is instead intended for exploring coves and inlets. This whimsical/practical lodging solution seems particularly well-suited for luxury seaside tourist destinations, marine scientists, and fans of The Life Aquatic.

What: Trilobis 65 Habitat
How much: US$4 million to US$5 million
Shipping: Unknown
Where: Sub-find

Via Crave CNET

It's Love Bug on three wheels

Harrods London is something of a legend, a store that can provide absolutely anything you wish to buy. There's the famous example of a customer who asked a store assistant if he could buy an elephant, to which the latter responded: "African or Indian, sir." The mode of "transportation" may have changed, but online stores like Hammacher Schlemmer are turning into little Harrods. We spotted this hip, retro chic two-person three-wheel scooter coupe on its shopfront which, amazingly ships to Asian cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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Universal USB charger

Even the humble USB charger has gone universal. Makes sense when consumer electronics from music players to portable gaming consoles are getting increasingly portable, but the chargers/adapters remain bricks.

Enter the way of the road warrior--a UBS charger with multi-regional outlet adapters. Distributor Planex says the voltage of the PL-UC20-TR corresponds up to 240V, which makes it possible to jack into most cities' mains to juice up your device via its USB port. Unfortunately, at 1,000mA, this still isn't good enough to ditch that laptop charger.

Via Japan Today

Flashlight doubles as camcorder, night or day

This flashlight may cost US$1,500, but there's a potential for 15 minutes of fame every time you turn it on.

The MII Flashcam is both flashlight and video camera rolled into one matte-black aircraft-grade aluminum body. And there's nothing tacky about it: It features a high-resolution Sony system, a 1.5-inch color LCD, and 1GB of RAM while storing up to 60 minutes of your favorite takes and audio, according to Northland Security Products. The uber-light won a Cygnus Public Safety Group Innovation Award at the annual conference of International Association of Chiefs of Police in Boston this year.

It boasts a blinding 85,000-candlepower beam from its Hi-Flux LEDs. Too bright? Hit the button and switch to night-vision mode with 880-nanometer infrared illumination and patented Tiger Vision technology. Perfect for covertly recording a field-sobriety test, according to the company.

It's also water resistant and, at 2.2 pounds and 17 inches, you should have no problem cracking an intruder upside his parietal plate right after you videotape him going through the lingerie drawer.

Via Crave CNET

An espresso maker you might actually use

Let's have a show of hands of all the people who have an espresso maker (probably from their wedding registry) that's still sitting in its box or is stowed away in some unreachable cupboard. Machines that make espresso drinks are one of those kitchen gadgets that seem like a great idea but never seem to get used.

This is probably due to a variety of reasons: They're complicated to use; the espresso's cool by the time the milk is hot; or they just don't make good espresso.

But here's one I dare say I might actually use. It's Bialetti's Mukka Express, an all-in-one stovetop cappuccino and latte maker. You simply put water in the base, espresso grounds in the filter, and milk in the top carafe. Then put it on the stove over medium-high heat and voila! You've got two hot lattes ready for drinking.

Sounds simple enough. User reviews on Amazon.com say it is, but warn that if you don't heed the instructions to a letter, you'll have a big, milky mess on your hands. Maybe that's why Bialetti ships it with an instructional DVD.

If the metallic look isn't your thing, it also comes in a black-and-white cow print, or a pink and black version.

Via Crave CNET

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